钢铅组合防屈曲支撑的滞回性能与参数研究

为简化防屈曲支撑的加工工艺,提高防屈曲支撑的初始刚度和在小变形下的耗能能力,基于现有防屈曲支撑在截面形式与构造方式上的特点,提出了一种新型钢铅组合防屈曲支撑并进行了构造设计。通过有限元数值模拟,分析了钢铅组合防屈曲支撑的耗能特性与效果,建立了恢复力简化模型,并根据理想弹塑性材料本构关系推导出滞回规则。通过对不同设计参数的理论分析和数值模拟,分析了钢铅屈服力比、铅剪切面长宽比、核心段宽厚比和耗能段长度等参数对防屈曲支撑滞回性能的影响。研究结果表明,钢铅组合防屈曲支撑能够提供较大的抗侧刚度,耗能效果良好,加工工艺简单,适合工程应用。     

Australian local government action on climate change adaptation: some critical reflections to assist decision-making

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss the limitations of risk management as a strategy for Australian local government climate change adaptation and explore the advantages of complementary approaches, including a social-ecological resilience framework, adaptive and transition management, and vulnerability assessment. Some federal and local government initiatives addressing the limitations of risk-based approaches are introduced. We argue that conventional risk-based approaches to adaptation, largely focused on hazard identification and quantitative modelling, will be inadequate on their own for dealing with the challenges of climate change. We suggest that responses to climate change adaptation should move beyond conventional risk-based strategies to more realistically account for complex and dynamically evolving social-ecological systems.     

Stabilised Coal Ash Studies in Italy

The ENEL Ash Research Centre - (Brindisi, Italy) - has started a research programme on the use of coal ash derived from its thermoelectric power plants as a component of blocks for artificial habitats. After preliminary laboratory tests, systematic physical, chemical, and biological tests were carried out in an experimental installation constructed in the area of the Torrevaldaliga power plant (80 km NW of Rome).

Two reef models - each made by assembling pyramids of 225 20 × 20 × 20 cm blocks - were submerged in two tanks (10 × 2 × 1.5 m) with running sea water (water flow: 3-5 cm s-1). the ash blocks were composed of fly ash (52.1%), bottom ash (26.1%), hydrated lime (5.2%) and water 16.6%, while concrete blocks were made of pozzolanic cement, sand and gravel. After two years, ash based blocks showed no weathering, volume variation or swelling; marked compressive strength and sonic velocity increases have, on the contrary, been recorded. No significant leaching of chemical elements of environmental concern was found. the biotic settlement on the ash blocks proved greater in quantity and better in quality than that on the concrete blocks; on ash blocks 62 species were found, compared to 54 on concrete. Ash-based materials seem to be more suitable for the settlement of the macrobenthos.     

Climate Change in Southern and Eastern Africa During the Past Millennium and its Implications for Societal Development

Climatic records from equatorial eastern Africa and subtropical southern Africa have shown that both temperature and the amount of rainfall have varied over the past millennium. Moreover, the rainfall pattern in these regions varied inversely over long periods of time. Droughts started abruptly, were of multi-decadal to multi-centennial length and the changes in the hydrological budget were of large amplitude. Changing water resources in semi-arid regions clearly must have regional influences on both ecological and socio-economic processes. Through a detailed analysis of the historical and paleoclimatic evidence from southern and eastern Africa covering the past millennium it is shown that, depending on the vulnerability of a society, climatic variability can have an immense impact on societies, sometimes positive and sometimes disastrous. Therefore, the interconnected issue of world ecosystem and social resilience is the challenge for decision-makers if sustainable development is to be reached on global and local levels.     

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety management in Italian Seveso industries

The paper discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Italian chemical and process industries, where Directive 2012/18/EU Seveso III, for the control of Major Accident Hazard (MAH), is enforced. The Safety Management System (SMS) for the control of MAH, which has been mandatory for 20 years in Italian Seveso Establishments, has been highly stressed by the external pressure, related in some way to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fairly, most companies, in particular in oil and gas sectors, have demonstrated an adequate capability to reconcile operation continuity and health requirements. This experience is providing the establishment operators and the regulators with valuable suggestions for the improvements of the SMS-MAH. Within this framework, an innovative organisational resilience model is proposed, aiming at the development of a higher capability to face future new crisis. The current SMS-MAH already includes some basic pillars to enhance resilience, which were valuable during the pandemic crisis, but a full and rationale development is still needed. Starting from the first pandemic phase experience, this paper presents a novel tool to assess the degree of “resilience” of a SMS-MAH. It is based on a questionnaire, featuring 25 questions grouped into eight items, according to the typical SMS-MAH structure. A two level AHP model has been developed in order to define the weights to be assigned to each point. The AHP panel included industrial practitioners, regulators, authorities and researchers. The results are based on the COVID-19 experience and consequently the developed model is tailored to face health emergencies, but the approach may be easily transferred to other external crises.     

地震灾害下城市供水网络韧性评估及优化研究

为提升城市供水网络应对地震灾害的能力,基于性能响应函数(PRF)方法,引入基础设施网络均衡理论,设计综合考虑城市供水网络物理状态和输送能力的性能时程响应函数,构建贯穿结构和功能双维度的地震灾害下城市供水网络韧性评估方法;从灾害概率、灾害后果、恢复速度、恢复程度等4个关键因素出发,提出城市供水网络网状扩张、管道延性改造、增加恢复资源和提升恢复储备等韧性优化策略;以我国华东某市供水网络为例,定量评估不同优化策略下的韧性提升效果,提出不同决策场景下恢复资源r和恢复储备b的优化配置方法。结果表明:管网延性改造是提升供水网络韧性的有效措施,网状扩张能提升供水网络性能,但对韧性提升无明显作用,网状扩张后要注意增加网络恢复资源和恢复储备。     

FloodProBE: technologies for improved safety of the built environment in relation to flood events

The FloodProBE project started as a FP7 research project in November 2009.Floods, together with wind related storms, are considered the major natural hazard in the EU in terms of risk to people and assets. In order to adapt urban areas (in river and coastal zones) to prevent flooding or to be better prepared for floods, decision makers need to determine how to upgrade flood defences and increasing flood resilience of protected buildings and critical infrastructure (power supplies, communications, water, transport, etc.) and assess the expected risk reduction from these measures.The aim of the FloodProBE-project is to improve knowledge on flood resilience and flood protection performance for balancing investments in flood risk management in urban areas. To this end, technologies, methods and tools for assessment purposes and for the adaptation of new and existing buildings and critical infrastructure are developed, tested and disseminated.Three priority areas are addressed by FloodProBE. These are: (i) vulnerability of critical infrastructure and high-density value assets including direct and indirect damage, (ii) the assessment and reliability of urban flood defences including the use of geophysical methods and remote sensing techniques and (iii) concepts and technologies for upgrading weak links in flood defences as well as construction technologies for flood proofing buildings and infrastructure networks to increase the flood resilience of the urban system.The primary impact of FloodProBE in advancing knowledge in these areas is an increase in the cost-effectiveness (i.e. performance) of new and existing flood protection structures and flood resilience measures.     

经济韧性与经济高质量发展的关系研究——以长三角地区26个地级市为例

基于熵值法测算得到经济韧性指数和经济高质量发展指数,运用耦合协调模型和多种面板回归模型探究我国长三角城市群经济韧性与经济高质量发展之间的协同关系和影响效应。结果表明:①长三角城市经济韧性和经济高质量发展水平不断提升,表现出"核心—边缘"的空间格局。②二者协同关系呈现稳中有升态势,但核心城市和边缘城市的相对差异逐渐扩大。③经济韧性显著促进经济高质量发展,边缘地区经济韧性对经济质量的作用效果更强。因此,长三角地区要充分发挥中心城市的辐射作用,加强城市内外产业联动发展,以推动经济稳定持续的高质量发展。     

From disaster management to adaptive governance? Governance challenges to achieving resilient food systems in Australia

Building resilient food systems in the context of climate change and increased natural disasters depends on governance being more ‘adaptive’. Through a case study of events surrounding the extensive flooding that occurred in Queensland, Australia, in 2011, this paper examines how governance settings and processes affected food system actors’ engagement with three aspects of adaptive governance – responsibility, participation and collaboration – as those actors sought to ensure food availability and access during the crisis. We found that, despite the existence of formal governance instruments committed to disaster management, food security and resilience at local, state and national levels, responsibilities for ensuring food supply during a disaster were not clearly articulated. Responsibility was largely assumed by supermarkets, who in turn increased the influence of retailer–government coalitions. The participation of non-supermarket food system actors in governance was low, and there was limited collaboration between local, and other, levels of governance. The policy challenge is to ensure that responsibility, participation and collaboration become a stronger foci for adaptive governance during and after a disaster such as flooding.