Mineral resources appraisal and policy: Controversies,issues and the future

Political-economic events of the 1970s brought mineral resource appraisal to the focus of national policy. Estimates of and methodologies for mineral resources appraisal were scrutinized, revealing deficiencies in method and data and fostering considerable debate about the credibility of estimates and about preferred methodology. Since credibility can be increased through the acquisition of additional geoscience information, questions regarding methodology have more than one formulation and therefore more than one correct solution, depending upon the expected value of additional information and the conditional losses of relevant policy options. When existing information is meagre and the expected value of information is high, the optimum decision may be to defer all policy options until after the acquisition and analysis of- additional information. Decision theory offers an analytical framework that is sufficiently generalized to provide answers for highly varied circumstances of geoscience and resource information and policy issues. Our ability to perform any such analysis is limited by inaccuracies in both geologists' estimates of undiscovered mineral resources, and in economists' calculations of conditional losses of policy options for each of the relevant states of mineral resources.     

SEARCHING THE WATER RESOURCES LITERATURE: INDEXING/ABSTRACTING COVERAGE FOR LEADING WATER RESOURCES JOURNALS1

ABSTRACT: The Water Resources Scientific Information Center (WRSIC) provides comprehensive indexing/abstracting for the water resources literature. To determine in one objective way the coverage of this information service from a user's point of view, an extensive sampling of the journal literature was used to determine extent to which 10 leading water resources journals are indexed and abstracted by the system. Coverage is so high that some users will want to change toward greater use of the system.     

External threats and internal management: the hydrologic regulation of the Everglades,Florida, USA

The ecological character of seasonal marshes is determined in large part by the pattern of water level fluctuation. As a result, the ecological health of a wetland reserve can be controlled by hydrologic regulation external to its boundaries. As an example, the Everglades marsh of Everglades National Park in Florida, USA, has been severely effected by management of the inflow of surface water. The Everglades occupies most of the interior of southern Florida, but only the lower 6% of the original marsh is contained in Everglades National Park. Shallow surface water reservoirs north of the park enclose 3600 km² of Everglades. Their levee system confines surface water flow into the park to several structures. Historically this water flowed across the entire core of the natural drainage. Flows into the park have been on a congressionally mandated schedule of minimum deliveries that is supplemented by additional water released into the park in amounts determined solely by upstream water management needs. My research, aimed at evaluating the effects of water conditions, has shown that this regulatory system has adversely affected reproductive success, community structure, and population sizes of sensitive species whose population stability is tied to natural water level fluctuations. These adverse effects were caused by water levels that for over a decade have been maintained at unseasonably high levels. Mathematically deterministic models of water level effects can provide management options based on biologial criteria. Park managers must incorporate understanding gained from such models into internal management decisions. Modifications of water control structures and alternative policies for managing the distribution and amount of surface water flow into the park appear attainable, can improve biological conditions in the park, and need not be adverse to neighboring external interests. Thus far biological changes are severe, and to a large extent irreversible. Ecologically sensitive management of an external threat under constraints imposed by history and setting can better maintain some semblance of ecological processes in the Everglades. If management decisions do not reflect such understanding of ecological processes, further ecological deterioration will result.     

昆山市资源环境对城市化与经济发展的制约因素分析

经济的快速发展促进了城市化进程，同时也带来了资源与环境问题。在此，针对城镇化进程中的环境变化特点，以昆山市为例，分析制定了符合生态经济规律的小城镇规划。以加强土地管理和环境管理，加快乡村城镇化进程，实施乡镇工业经济增长方式的转变。     

水资源立法浅探

水资源是基础性的自然资源和战略性的经济资源。因此,世界上不少国家和国际组织采用法律手段对水资源实施保护和管理。随着经济和社会的不断发展,合理开发利用水资源,特别是依法保护和管理水资源已经成为我国可持续发展中的一个重大课题。鉴于我国新水法的颁布与实施,结合我国水资源管理现状,进一步研究建立水资源的物权法律体系,从而在水资源领域以水权为价值取向,健全和完善水资源保护的法律制度,以实现我国水资源开发利用的法律调整之目的。     

厦门市城市污水资源化的探讨

讨论了厦门市污水再生利用的模式，提出民营化的实施策略并分析其特点和政府的角色定位。     

东北地区地下水资源可持续利用与发展战略决策研究

建立东北地区水资源优化配置模型,得出东北地区地下水可持续开发利用方案,提出适合东北地区地下水可持续发展的战略决策。     

上海燃煤电厂烟气脱硫石膏利用前景分析

根据上海市新一轮环保三年行动计划（2006～2008年）要求，上海将在未来3年中完成全市11家电厂的35台约6508MW燃煤发电机组的烟气脱硫工程，这同时将产生大量的烟气脱硫副产品——脱硫石膏，处置和利用好脱硫石膏，对上海市的生态环境保护有着重要的意义。阐述了燃煤电厂烟气脱硫石膏的特性和国内外脱硫石膏的利用现状。结合上海实际，对烟气脱硫石膏在建筑建材业．农业等领域的应用前景进行了分析。指出烟气脱硫石膏的资源化利用符合循环经济理念，并能产生良好的环境、社会和经济效益。提出了烟气脱硫石膏的利用建议。     

Vertical profiles of biogenic volatile organic compounds as observed online at a tower in Beijing

Vertical profiles of isoprene and monoterpenes were measured by a proton transfer reaction-time of flight-mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) at heights of 3, 15, 32, 64, and 102 m above the ground on the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) tower in central Beijing during the winter of 2016 and the summer of 2017. Isoprene mixing ratios were larger in summer due to much stronger local emissions whereas monoterpenes were lower in summer due largely to their consumption by much higher levels of ozone. Isoprene mixing ratios were the highest at the 32 m in summer (1.64 ± 0.66 ppbV) and at 15 m in winter (1.41 ± 0.64 ppbV) with decreasing concentrations to the ground and to the 102 m, indicating emission from the tree canopy of the surrounding parks. Monoterpene mixing ratios were the highest at the 3 m height in both the winter (0.71 ± 0.42 ppbV) and summer (0.16 ± 0.10 ppbV) with a gradual decreasing trend to 102 m, indicting an emission from near the ground level. The lowest isoprene and monoterpene mixing ratios all occurred at 102 m, which were 0.71 ± 0.42 ppbV (winter) and 1.35 ± 0.51 ppbV (summer) for isoprene, and 0.42 ± 0.22 ppbV (winter) and 0.07 ± 0.06 ppbV (summer) for monoterpenes. Isoprene in the summer and monoterpenes in the winter, as observed at the five heights, showed significant mutual correlations. In the winter monoterpenes were positively correlated with combustion tracers CO and acetonitrile at 3 m, suggesting possible anthropogenic sources.