PART I: METHODOLOGY AND PROBLEMS IN AN URBANIZED ARID ENVIRONMENT1

The methodology of operations research is judged in relation to its utility to water resource management in an urbanized arid environment and to the study of worth of data for such management. Conditions for existence of a managerial problem are reviewed as is the multilevel structure of the decision process, including decisions on social goals for Western water use. Worth of data can only be judged in relation to a particular use to meet a social or managerial objective. The role of data uncertainty on the decision process is reviewed in the light of past water decisions and present and future problems.     

浅谈小型油轮橡胶软管的监督检查

就水上油类作业过程中 ,由于小型油轮橡胶输油软管的质量等问题造成水域污染的严峻形势 ,从法律、技术规范入手 ,强调重视对输油软管的质量、使用、管理三个方面进行监督检查 ,无疑是对安全和防污染管理的深化 ,对现场监管具有一定的指导作用。     

Of timelines and timeliness: lessons from Typhoon Haiyan in early disaster response

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013 with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometres per hour, adversely affecting at least 11 million people and displacing some 673,000 in the central regions of the country. The disaster clearly overwhelmed the Philippine government despite its seemingly well‐crafted disaster management plan. Using timelines of different organisations, this paper identifies gaps in the government's response, mainly due to its failure in coordinating and managing relief operations, which adversely affected its effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of critical goods and services following the disaster. The paper also demonstrates how non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations, foreign governments and other organisations provided assistance, mainly through aid niching, to cover the government's shortcomings. The paper recommends a paradigm shift in the government's disaster response by integrating collaborative arrangements between government agencies and NGOs, and giving local governments the lead role, with the national government as support, in disaster planning and response.     

Analysis of Daily Peaking and Run‐of‐River Operations with Flow Variability Metrics,Considering Subdaily to Seasonal Time Scales

Environmental flows are an important consideration in licensing hydropower projects as operational flow releases can result in adverse conditions for downstream ecological communities. Flow variability assessments have typically focused on pre‐ and post‐dam conditions using metrics based on daily averaged flow values. This study used subdaily and daily flow data to assess environmental flow response to changes in hydropower operations from daily peaking to run‐of‐river. An analysis tool was developed to quantify flow variability metrics and was applied to four hydropower projects. Significant differences were observed between operations at the 99% confidence level in the median flow values using hourly averaged flow datasets. Median daily rise and fall rates decreased on average 34.5 and 27.9%, respectively, whereas median hourly rise and fall rates decreased on average 50.1 and 50.6%, respectively. Differences in operational flow regimes were more pronounced in the hourly averaged flow datasets and less pronounced or nonexistent in the daily averaged flow datasets. These outcomes have implications for the development of ecology‐flow relationships that quantify effects of flow on processes such as fish stranding and displacement, along with habitat stability. Results indicate that flow variability statistics should be quantified using subdaily datasets to accurately represent the nature of hydropower operations, especially for daily peaking facilities.     

基于Petri网的进近操作管理模型研究

据世界民航所发生的飞行事故情况看,进近着陆阶段时间短、任务重、环境复杂,是飞行事故多发阶段,占很大的比重,因此进近着陆是保证飞行安全的重要阶段。大多数事故是发生在仪表着陆系统出现故障的非精密进近方式。以机组非精密进近的主要飞行操作为基础建立基于Petri网的事故致因模型,统计分析相关的致因因素,计算相关风险值,通过对数据的分析反馈,形成对相应飞行员的针对性学习及训练的系统性管理模式。     

Safety issues related to the maintenance operations in a vegetable oil refinery: A case study

The present work was focused on maintenance hazards related to vegetable oil refining. An incident occurred in an Italian vegetable oil refinery was presented to evidence this safety criticality. The incident took place during a maintenance shut down, and was associated to the ignition of the solid residual in a packed column. No fatalities or injuries were reported, but the column was strongly damaged and removed from the plant. A specific experimental characterization of the solid residues accumulated in the column, sampled both from the damaged and undamaged parts of the column, was carried out in order to determine the conditions leading to unwanted combustion of the residues. At the same time, samples taken from the damaged column steelwork were subjected to metallurgical analysis aimed at the thermal and mechanical characterization of the steel, obtaining information about the incident duration and temperature reached during the combustion phenomenon. The study evidenced the need of adequate maintenance procedures and safety management in the generic framework of food industry, identified as key lessons learned.     

秦山核电厂换料大修高风险作业控制应用及优化

根据秦山核电厂三十万千瓦机组换料大修高风险作业控制实践经验,介绍一种基于安全许可管理的大修高风险作业控制模式,将高风险作业控制流程嵌入电站生产管理系统,与工单直接关联,实现了高危作业活动识别、风险分析及安全防护措施制定电子流程化。通过对电厂最近六次机组换料大修高风险作业控制相关数据统计、比较,评价高风险作业控制模式在电厂大修中应用效果的稳定性与有效性;根据核电厂大修类作业项目特点,提出机组换料大修期间大纲作业项目高风险作业控制改进方向。     

Potential nitrogen enrichment of soil and surface water by atmospheric ammonia sorption in intensive livestock production areas

Elevated atmospheric NH₃ levels near intensive livestock operations can add significant N to local agroecosystems. In this study, the potential atmospheric NH₃ sorbed by soil and water was assessed over a 2-year period starting October 2000 in an intensive livestock production area in southern Alberta, Canada. Fifty-two uneven grid sampling sites were selected in the 53,905 ha study area. The sorption rate of atmospheric NH₃ was estimated weekly by exposing distilled water and air-dried soil samples to the atmosphere at the sampling sites. The increases in NH₄–N content in the samples after 1-week exposure was regarded as an index of the atmospheric NH₃ sorbed for that week. The NH₃ sorption rates were highly variable across the 52 sites, with water ranging from 4 to 125 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ with a mean of 22 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ and soil from 5 to 84 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ with a mean of 20 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. Considerable variation in NH₃–N sorption across the study area reflects the effects of size, direction (upwind or downwind) and proximity of nearby livestock operations or other NH₃ sources and operators’ activities around the sampling sites. The NH₃ sorption rate at each site also varied considerably in response to weather conditions. The high rate of NH₃ input poses a direct risk of surface water eutrophication in intensive livestock operation areas. If fertilizer recommendations are not reduced to account for NH₃ sorption by soil, excess N may also contribute to eutrophication through runoff and leaching.     

A comparison of fixed-site and non-fixed-site approaches for species protection

The efficacy of simultaneously advancing two distinct conceptual designs (referred to here as fixed-site and non-fixed-site) for species conservation and protection is addressed. In the literature, numerous models can be found that typically stem from a particular design, but rarely are comparisons made between approaches. This paper presents a more integrated optimization framework that models landowner behavior and species viabilities at a landscape scale. Regional demand for resource extraction is used as the economic driver, a variant of simulated annealing is used to solve the model under different species protection approaches, and a detailed species population simulator is utilized to measure biological responses. When directly comparing the outcomes of different species protection strategies from a case study in Oregon (USA), it was found that neither approach was universally superior in terms of financial value or degree of protection for two late seral forest dependent species.