The 2011 flood event in the Mekong Delta: preparedness,response, damage and recovery of private households and small businesses

Floods frequently cause substantial economic and human losses, particularly in developing countries. For the development of sound flood risk management schemes that reduce flood consequences, detailed insights into the different components of the flood risk management cycle, such as preparedness, response, flood impact analyses and recovery, are needed. However, such detailed insights are often lacking: commonly, only (aggregated) data on direct flood damage are available. Other damage categories such as losses owing to the disruption of production processes are usually not considered, resulting in incomplete risk assessments and possibly inappropriate recommendations for risk management. In this paper, data from 858 face‐to‐face interviews among flood‐prone households and small businesses in Can Tho city in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta are presented to gain better insights into the damage caused by the 2011 flood event and its management by households and businesses.     

Spatio-temporal dissolved oxygen dynamics in the Orbetello lagoon by fuzzy pattern recognition

This paper models the dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics in the Orbetello lagoon as a function of the physico-chemical and ecological system variables, including the submerged vegetation, nutrients, and hydrodynamics. It should be viewed as the concluding sequel to a previous paper describing the dynamics of the lagoon ecosystem [Giusti, E., Marsili-Libelli, S., 2006. An integrated model for the Orbetello lagoon ecosystem, Ecol. Model. 196, 379–394] by introducing the missing DO dynamics. The model considers the oxygen demand originating from the decay of carbonaceous and nitrogenous compounds, as well as photosynthesis and natural reaeration by winds and currents as the oxygen producing processes. With a fixed-parameter set the model could accurately reproduce each single circadian DO cycle, but in the long run it failed to extend this fit and could not accommodate the large DO fluctuations induced by the seasonal variability. In order to enhance the model flexibility, a fuzzy pattern recognition algorithm was designed to classify the circadian DO patterns into four typical behaviours, related to the season, and estimate the corresponding parameters, with the overall model output being a fuzzy combination of these sets. The paper discusses several methods to patch the parameter sets and compares their performance in tracking long-term DO variations. A final assessment of the model validity is obtained by incorporating the whole DO dynamics (model, fuzzy pattern recognition and parameter combination) into the general lagoon model and producing a consistently correct series of DO daily distributions over a yearly cycle. Thus the paper contains both a practical and a methodological aspect. The practical one is the linking of all the lagoon dynamics to the dissolved oxygen kinetics in order to clarify to what extent macroalgae and macrophytes influence the oxygen balance. The methodological aspect consists of extending the validity of short-term models to long time-horizons through a patching technique supported by fuzzy pattern recognition.     

SPATIAL VARIATIONS OF WATER LOSS DURING DROUGH A CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: A regional water conservation system for drought management involves many uncertain factors. Water received from precipitation may stay on the ground surface, evaporate back into the atmosphere, or infiltrate into the ground. Reliable estimates of the amount of evapotranspiration and infiltration are not available for a large basin, especially during periods of drought. By applying a geographic information system, this study develops procedures to investigate spatial variations of unavailable water for given levels of drought severity. Levels of drought severity are defined by truncated values of monthly precipitation and daily streamflow to reflect levels of water availability. The greater the truncation level, the lower the precipitation or streamflow. Truncation levels of monthly precipitation are recorded in depth of water while those of daily streamflow are converted into monthly equivalent water depths. Truncation levels of precipitation and streamflow treated as regionalized variables are spatially interpolated by the unbiased minimum variance estimation. The interpolated results are vector values of precipitation and streamflow at a grid of points covering the studied basin. They are then converted into raster‐based values and expressed graphically. The image subtraction operation is used to subtract the image of streamflow from that of precipitation at their corresponding level of drought severity. It is done on a cell‐by‐cell basis resulting in new attribute values to form the spatial image representing a spatial distribution of potential water loss at a given level of drought severity.     

Integrating Nonindigenous Aquatic Plant Control with Protection of Snail Kite Nests in Florida

The endangered snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis) feeds primarily on the freshwater apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) in Florida. The nonindigenous, floating water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) impede kites from finding snails. Effective control of these aquatic plants in the littoral zone of central and south Florida lakes benefits kites by maintaining open foraging habitat. However, incidental herbicide spraying of nesting substrates result in nest collapse when kites breed in nonwoody, emergent plants [cattail (Typha spp.) and giant bulrush (Scirpus validus)] in the outer littoral zone during lower lake levels. Many endangered species recovery plans and their implementation have experienced problems due to inaction and/or noncooperation by various governmental agencies and their personnel. Herein, we describe the development and implementation of a buffer zone strategy to prevent secondary impacts from an aquatic plant control program to snail kites nesting on lakes in central and south Florida. A strategy was jointly developed by personnel of five state and federal agencies to control herbicide application near kite nesting areas during the normal breeding season. Although requiring various modifications during its implementation, this cooperative effort successfully integrated aquatic plant control objectives with snail kite conservation on Lake Okeechobee during 1988. The program was expanded the following year to lakes Kissimmee and Tohopekaliga. Since the implementation of the snail kite impact preclusion program, no nest loss was attributed to incidental herbicide applications on lakes Okeechobee, Kissimmee, and Tohopekaliga.     

浙北水稻主产区田间土-水磷素流失潜能

选取嘉善、余姚、德清、余杭 4个具有代表性浙北水稻主产区 ,研究了水田土 水磷素流失潜能及环境意义 .4稻区高水平磷肥投入促进了土壤富磷化 ,土壤Olsen-P积累的同时 ,相应地提高了土壤生物性有效磷、水浸提磷 ,并提高了土壤磷素的流失潜能 .稻区土壤在富磷化过程中 ,存在着土壤磷素的农学意义向环境意义方向演变的趋势 .在非植稻期 ,稻区农田水体 ,包括沟渠水、田表水、排渠水、暗管排水等总磷 (TP)平均超过了易诱发水体富营养化临界值 ,其中溶解磷 (DRP)占总磷 40% ;主要是源于绿肥田表水及部分排渠中的溶解磷对稻区外水体构成了直接危害 .在非植稻期 ,因稻区间农耕措施的差异导致了土壤富磷水平与对应田表水磷素水平不具相关性 ;在植稻期 ,施磷措施促进水田土壤富磷 ,相应地提高了田表水磷素水平 .     

稳定企业安监队伍遏制安监人员流失

指出了近几年全国安全生产的严峻形势与安监队伍力量削弱有关,分析了造成企业安监人员流失的原因,提出了稳定安监队伍的措施和建议.     

我国职业伤害经济损失研究

结合国情 ,在全面、系统地研究了我国工业企业职业伤害的经济损失的基础上 ,对需要明确的若干问题进行了阐述。主要内容有 :国内外职业伤害的经济损失研究现状 ;职业伤害的经济损失的调查、统计与分析技术 ;工伤事故的经济损失估算方法及其主要规律等。     

氧和氮等离子体改性细旦涤纶的清洁工艺比较

该文对氧、氮低温等离子体改性细旦涤纶进行了研究,分别探讨了氧、氮等离子体放电参数对提高细旦涤纶上染率的影响,得出了2种工艺的最佳放电参数。实验结果表明:经氧、氮等离子体改性后,细旦涤纶的上染率分别提高了17%和5%,说明氧等离子体改性可显著减少印染废水中的污染物排放量,有利于环境治理,氮等离子体改性效果次之。      

皂素工业废水CODCr排放限值的研究

皂素工业是近几年来迅速发展的一个重要生物医药化工行业,我国皂素主产区位于南水北调中线工程水源汉江上游,其排放的大量高浓度含酸有机废水给水源保护带来严重威胁,急需制定我国的皂素工业水污染物排放标准.采用三段式两相厌氧为核心的二级生化组合工艺技术从实验室试验、现场工业性试验和示范工程三方面对皂素工业废水COD_Cr排放限值进行了研究,皂素废水二级生化处理出水中残留COD_Cr总量(以质量浓度计)约为400～500 mg/L,其中溶解性微生物代谢产物(SMP)质量浓度约为240～280 mg/L.综合考虑技术可达性和经济可行性,将现有企业COD_Cr排放限值规定为400 mg/L;为引导企业对废液综合利用,推进皂素行业清洁生产,规定新建企业和现有企业的第二时段的限值为300 mg/L.提出了丹江库区相应的COD_Cr总量指标及皂素规模限额.执行该标准后,全国每年可削减COD_Cr 71　400 t,其中南水北调中线工程水源汉江上游至少可削减60　690 t,可以满足中线调水水源区的环境保护要求.      

山西省煤炭开采环境损失的经济核算

以环境经济学的经济外部性理论为依据,识别采煤过程中生态环境的外部不经济因素,应用环境价值评价法,对这些不经济因素进行量化和货币化,初步建立了省域煤炭开采环境污染和生态破坏经济损失核算体系.以2003年为基准年,核算了山西省煤炭开采环境污染和生态破坏的经济损失量.结果表明:2003年山西省煤炭开采环境污染与生态破坏造成的损失约为286.746 8×108元,折合每t煤损失63.79元.其中环境污染年损失61.979 4×108元,折合每t煤损失13.78元;生态破坏损失224.767 4×108元,折合每t煤损失50.00元.依据该核算结果,1978─2003年山西省累计采煤约65×108 t,所造成的环境损失约为4　100×108元.