Improving flood risk analysis for effectively supporting the implementation of flood risk management plans: The case study of “Serio” Valley

The EU Flood Directive 2007/60 requires the assessment and delineation of flood risk maps. The latter should provide the required knowledge for the development of flood risk management plans (FRMPs), that should deal with all features of risk management: e.g. preparation, protection and prevention, comprising also the phase of the flood forecasting and warning systems, in addition to the emergency management. The risk maps, delineated through the expert-drive qualitative (EDQ) approach currently adopted in several European countries, such as Italy, fail to represent the information base that needed by stakeholders for selecting the suitable objectives and designing the appropriate mitigation actions for flood risk management. In the EDQ approach, the flood hazard and the potential damage degree maps are combined by means of a matrix to obtain a qualitative flood risk map. However, the performance of the risk matrix is not usually rigorous validated and, therefore, presents limits, such as subjective and not careful explained interpretation of rating and poor resolution, (due to range compression), that can produce errors in comparative ranking of risk areas. In this context, this paper proposes the FloodRisk approach that aims to improve the efficacy of flood risk map overcoming the limits of EDQ approach in supplying the knowledge base that allow to analyze costs and benefits of potential mitigation measures. However, the proposed approach is also able to involve the citizens in the flood management process, enhancing their awareness. An application of FloodRisk procedure is showed on a pilot case in “Serio” Valley, (North Italy), and its strengths and limits, in terms of additional efforts required in its application compared with EDQ procedure, have been discussed focusing on the efficacy of the outcomes provided for the fulfillment of FRMPs. The results have demonstrated the ability of FloodRisk, respect to EDQ approach, to distinguish successfully different levels of vulnerability of exposure elements, thanks to the use of asset value and depth-damage curves, that allows a suitably evaluation of the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies. In this light, a successfully application of a cost-benefit analysis of FloodRisk approach on a portfolio of alternative mitigation actions, (i.e. structural and non-structural measurements), has been demonstrated on the proposed study case. However, FloodRisk requires additional information, e.g. water depths assessment and assets values, and it needs a proper analysis and communication of the uncertainty in its results. Although they still exist limitations that impede, at present, the FloodRisk application without an adequate understanding and a critical consideration of the hazard, exposure and vulnerability characteristics of the study area, considerations are supplied on how the utilization of this approach can be maximized in the light of the next flood risk maps revision due by December 2019.     

水上溢油环境风险源确定研究

依据泄漏进水域的最大油品量、水域环境敏感性等两个主要因素,研究确定了江苏油田水上(临水)设施环境风险源等级,并针对不同的风险源阐述了降低风险等级的技术方法和预防措施,为加强江苏油田环境风险防患、提高应急处理能力提供了依据。     

科尔沁沙地生态系统服务价值变化研究

研究土地利用变化引起的区域生态系统服务价值的改变。可定量评价土地利用活动对区域生态环境的影响。基于1995年和2000年的土地利用数据．应用谢高地等人制定的中国陆地生态系统单位面积服务价值表．估算了科尔沁沙地土地利用变化引起的生态系统服务价值的改变。结果表明。从1995—2000年5年间。科尔沁沙地的耕地增加4．87％。林地减少2．25％。草地减少0．03％．水域减少1．32％．湿地增加0．54％，城乡工矿居民用地减少3．21％。未利用地减少8．83％；研究区内土地利用变化的区域差异性很大．表现为大部分旗县仍维持着毁林毁草开荒的不合理土地利用活动。科尔沁沙地生态系统服务价值从1995年的1463．67亿元增加到2000年的1467．36亿元。净增加值为3．69亿元，增幅为0．25％；其增加值并非因耕地面积增大所产生．而是个别旗县的大面积沙荒地得到有效治理所致。     

建立内蒙古生态环境恢复补偿机制若干问题探讨

生态环境恢复补偿机制的建立是科学利用生态资源和保持良好生存环境的必然途径,内蒙古自治区是全国天然植被分布面积最广地区之一,天然植被在保持流域、区域生态平衡,防止和减轻自然灾害,确保地区生态安全方面的重要作用毋庸置疑,然而由于原因,长期困绕我区的生态环境问题,如:森林生态系统的水源涵养、土壤保持、生物多样性保护功能衰退,水土流失的加剧、沙地活化;草场退化等级愈来愈高;湿地面积缩小,河道断流问题依然存在。近年随着矿业经济的兴起,又出现了矿山用水与农业生产争水、污染地下水等问题。因此,继矿产资源开发热潮之后,迅速做出制度安排尤为重要,本文通过对生态恢复补偿机制建立背景、重点、难点若干的探讨,旨在提出一些结合实际的可操作的补偿措施建议和意见,为制定内蒙古生态恢复补偿管理办法提供参考、并为该领域制度的完善提出技术层面的支持。     

Estimating Watershed Level Nonagricultural Pesticide Use From Golf Courses Using Geospatial Methods1

Abstract: Limited information exists on pesticide use for nonagricultural purposes, making it difficult to estimate pesticide loadings from nonagricultural sources to surface water and to conduct environmental risk assessments. A method was developed to estimate the amount of pesticide use on recreational turf grasses, specifically golf course turf grasses, for watersheds located throughout the conterminous United States (U.S.). The approach estimates pesticide use: (1) based on the area of recreational turf grasses (used as a surrogate for turf associated with golf courses) within the watershed, which was derived from maps of land cover, and (2) from data on the location and average treatable area of golf courses. The area of golf course turf grasses determined from these two methods was used to calculate the percentage of each watershed planted in golf course turf grass (percent crop area, or PCA). Turf‐grass PCAs derived from the two methods were used with recommended application rates provided on pesticide labels to estimate total pesticide use on recreational turf within 1,606 watersheds associated with surface‐water sources of drinking water. These pesticide use estimates made from label rates and PCAs were compared to use estimates from industry sales data on the amount of each pesticide sold for use within the watershed. The PCAs derived from the land‐cover data had an average value of 0.4% of a watershed with minimum of 0.01% and a maximum of 9.8%, whereas the PCA values that are based on the number of golf courses in a watershed had an average of 0.3% of a watershed with a minimum of <0.01% and a maximum of 14.2%. Both the land‐cover method and the number of golf courses method produced similar PCA distributions, suggesting that either technique may be used to provide a PCA estimate for recreational turf. The average and maximum PCAs generally correlated to watershed size, with the highest PCAs estimated for small watersheds. Using watershed specific PCAs, combined with label rates, resulted in greater than two orders of magnitude over‐estimation of the pesticide use compared to estimates from sales data.     

三峡库区次级河流流域生态脆弱性评价——以重庆市小安溪流域为例

文章以重庆市小安溪流域为例，根据流域的生态环境特点，对导致流域生态环境脆弱程度恶化的主要因素——地质、资源、经济等因素进行统计分析并做出综合评价，最后再根据综合评价指数进行结果分析与讨论，为缓解小安溪流域生态环境脆弱程度的进一步恶化提出合理化建议。     

Organizational embeddedness,turnover intentions,and voluntary turnover: The moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics and value orientations

To explain why some employees who experience high embeddedness contemplate leaving their organizations and others do not, we examined the moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics (age and gender) and value orientations (individualism and risk aversion) between organizational embeddedness and turnover intentions. Turnover intentions were further expected to increase voluntary turnover. Data were collected from 643 full‐time employees at three points in time over a 12‐month time period in a wide range of organizations in Japan, a relatively low turnover context with little prior embeddedness research. Findings show that gender and risk aversion moderate the relationship between organizational embeddedness and turnover intentions, which in turn predict voluntary turnover. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.