城市空气质量监测网络评估方法

通过研究借鉴多个国家/城市的研究实践,提出了城市空气治理监测网络（UAAMNA）评估管理的方法,包括评估思路与流程,评估关键指标,针对不同污染物的评估方法等.以沈阳市及周边6个城市共46个国控监测站点的监测网络为背景,基于2013~2018年日尺度空气质量数据,考虑监测成本,对沈阳市PM_2.5监测网络进行评估,结果表明,沈河区增加1个最高浓度站点,大东区增加1个高人口密度区站点,皇姑区增加1个跨界传输点;在沈阳-铁岭,沈阳-本溪,沈阳-辽阳方向增设跨区域站点.未来建立空气质量监测网络定期评估制度、加强跨区域边界站点布设、实施区分监测点位类型评估、区分污染物类型评估是UAAMN的发展方向.     

CO2泄漏对稻田水基础水质指标的影响研究

碳捕集与封存（CCS）技术是当前抑制大气中CO₂过快增长的有效方法,但在CCS项目实施过程中仍存在CO₂泄漏而影响地表环境及生态的风险.本研究以龙粳31号和龙稻18号为实验对象,模拟研究地质封存CO₂以不同速率泄漏对稻田水环境基础水质指标D_CO2、pH、DO和ORP的影响,探讨稻田水对地质封存CO₂泄漏的响应规律.结果表明：CO₂泄漏对稻田水的D_CO2、pH、DO和ORP长期影响显著,不同CO₂泄漏速率对稻田水质指标的影响差异显著.在各指标平衡后,稻田水各水质指标均呈现明显的日变化规律,其中D_CO2呈早晚高、午间低的先减后增规律,而pH、DO和ORP均呈早晚低、午间高的先增后减规律.根据各指标差异性分析,建议将稻田水D_CO2作为稻田系统CO₂泄漏监测的主要指标,将pH、DO、ORP作为CO₂泄漏监测的辅助指标.     

基于距离-密度关系的典型垃圾处理设施布局指数研究

基于较高空间分辨率的人口分布(LandScan)和人口活动(Weibo)数据,结合全国垃圾处理设施信息,构建了距离-密度关系曲线,并据此提出了垃圾处理设施布局指数。通过距离-密度关系曲线可分析处理设施潜在环境影响暴露水平的分布情况,而布局指数则从空间覆盖的角度定量测定其影响水平的大小,形成了一种可开展跨地区、跨类型设施布局影响对比研究的手段。基于此方法,以北京、上海为例,对两市共计32座垃圾处理设施的影响水平进行分析和比较。     

Past and Present Effectiveness of Protected Areas for Conservation of Naturally and Anthropogenically Rare Plant Species

Abstract:  The Global Strategy of Plant Conservation states that at least 60% of threatened plant species should be within protected areas. This goal has been met in some regions with long traditions of plant protection. We used gap analysis to explore how particular groups of species of conservation interest, representing different types of natural or anthropogenic rarity, have been covered by protected areas on a national scale in Estonia during the last 100 years. Species-accumulation curves indicated that plant species that are naturally rare (restricted global or local distribution, always small populations, or very rare habitat requirements) needed almost twice as many protected areas to reach the 60% target as plant species that are rare owing to lack of suitable management (species depending on grassland management, moderate forest disturbances, extensive traditional agriculture, or species potentially threatened by collecting). Temporal analysis of the establishment of protected areas suggested that grouping plant species according to the predominant cause of rarity accurately reflected the history of conservation decision making. Species found in very rare habitats have previously received special conservation attention; species dependent on traditional extensive agriculture have been largely ignored until recently. Legislative initiative and new nature-protection schemes (e.g., Natura 2000, network of protected areas in the European Union) have had a positive influence on all species groups. Consequently, the species groups needing similar action for their conservation are sensitive indicators of the effectiveness of protected-area networks. Different species groups, however, may not be uniformly conserved within protected areas, and all species groups should fulfill the target of 60% coverage within protected areas.     

Effectiveness of terrestrial protected areas for conservation of lake fish communities

Freshwater protected areas are rare even though freshwater ecosystems are among the most imperiled in the world. Conservation actions within terrestrial protected areas (TPAs) such as development or resource extraction regulations may spill over to benefit freshwater ecosystems within their boundaries. Using data from 175 lakes across Ontario, Canada, we compared common indicators of fish‐assemblage status (i.e., species richness, Shannon diversity index, catch per unit effort, and normalized‐length size spectrum slopes) to evaluate whether TPAs benefit lake fish assemblages. Nearest neighbor cluster analysis was used to generate pairs of lakes: inside versus outside, inside versus bordering, and bordering versus outside TPAs based on lake characteristics. The diversity and abundance indicators did not differ significantly across comparisons, but normalized‐length size spectrum slopes (NLSS) were significantly steeper in lakes outside parks. The latter indicated assemblage differences (greater abundances of small‐bodied species) and less‐efficient energy transfer through the trophic levels of assemblages outside parks. Although not significantly different, pollution‐ and turbidity‐tolerant species were more abundant outside parks, whereas 3 of the 4 pollution‐intolerant species were more abundant within parks. Twenty‐one percent of the difference in slopes was related to higher total dissolved solids concentrations and angling pressure. Our results support the hypothesis that TPAs benefit lake fish assemblages and suggest that NLSS slopes are informative indicators for aquatic protected area evaluations because they represent compositional and functional aspects of communities.     

Effects of Oil‐Palm Plantations on Diversity of Tropical Anurans

Agriculturally altered vegetation, especially oil‐palm plantations, is rapidly increasing in Southeast Asia. Low species diversity is associated with this commodity, but data on anuran diversity in oil‐palm plantations are lacking. We investigated how anuran biological diversity differs between forest and oil‐palm plantation, and whether observed differences in biological diversity of these areas is linked to specific environmental factors. We hypothesized that biological diversity is lower in plantations and that plantations support a larger proportion of disturbance‐tolerant species than forest. We compared species richness, abundance, and community composition between plantation and forest areas and between site types within plantation and forest (forest stream vs. plantation stream, forest riparian vs. plantation riparian, forest terrestrial vs. plantation terrestrial). Not all measures of biological diversity differed between oil‐palm plantations and secondary forest sites. Anuran community composition, however, differed greatly between forest and plantation, and communities of anurans in plantations contained species that prosper in disturbed areas. Although plantations supported large numbers of breeding anurans, we concluded the community consisted of common species that were of little conservation concern (commonly found species include Fejervarya limnocharis, Microhyla heymonsi, and Hylarana erythrea). We believe that with a number of management interventions, oil‐palm plantations can provide habitat for species that dwell in secondary forests. Efectos de las Plantaciones de Palma de Aceite sobre la Diversidad de Anuros Tropicales Faruk et al.     

A rising tide raises all boats: Regional promotion of process safety through joint government/industry management

With the development of increasingly complex processes and technologies in chemical and manufacturing industries, Process Safety Management (PSM) has been globally recognized as the primary tool for operating companies to reduce process accidents on their industrial sites and the risks posed to their employees and surrounding communities. Yet, industrial facilities are often interdependent and collocated with others. Recognizing this, regional authorities are also applying PSM principles to reduce the cumulative incidents associated with high density industrial areas and the multiplicative risks posed to broader communities. This paper compares Strathcona County Emergency Service (SCES) in Alberta, Contra Costa County Health Service Hazard Material Programs (CCCHSHMP) in California, and Technical Standards & Safety Authority (TSSA) in Ontario and their PSM systems to provide practical recommendations to improve SCES's system. Four aspects of PSM are considered: regulation and guidance, auditing and inspection, annual performance indicators, and public participation. Based on the results of this comparison, we recommend that SCES develop comprehensive PSM regulations based on CSA Z767-17 PSM including clear instructions for assessing technologies and methodologies for consequence analysis. Both worst-case scenarios and alternative scenarios need to be considered as well as the domino effect of primary accidents. Furthermore, regular audits and inspections will ensure compliance with PSM regulations while helping the design of planning, performing, and following-up strategies to ensure effectiveness. In addition, we suggest the use of lagging and leading performance indicators to evaluate the performance of the PSM program. Finally, we recommend using advisory councils or commissions to increase public participation and ensure the representation of stakeholders' perspectives with the PSM system.     

The Northwest U.S. Dam Breaching Decision: Factors, Costs and Benefits

Northwestern United States' salmon populations have fallen precipitously. Attempts at salmon restoration are going on and dam breaching is being considered. Costs associated with the continued restoration attempts including hatchery stocking, barging and trucking salmon around the dams are high while benefits are unclear. Those costs may be greater than dam breaching. An additional impetus for dam removal is the revival of the commercial salmon fishing industry. This may not occur for both ecological and economic reasons. Ecologically complete restoration may not be feasible. Economically, the rise of competitively priced salmon aquaculture will reduce the value of any future commercial catch. A statistical relationship between falling prices for wild salmon and rising salmon aquaculture output is shown.     

A non-parametric distance-based method using all available indicators for integrated environmental assessment – a case study of the Mid-Atlantic Region,USA

The paper presents a multivariate measure useful for integrated environmental assessments. It is a weighted distance measure applied to metric data but based on nonparametric statistical procedures. The proposed measure allows all environmental indicators to be used directly without any reduction in dimension (e.g. as in principal component analysis) nor losing variance while being able to tolerate possible non-normality of the indicators, as well as non-linear relationships among them. Results of the hypothetical example and the Mid-Atlantic case study show that the proposed measure is suitable and valuable for integrating multiple indicators into a single index, an important task in integrated environmental assessment.     

Analysis of landscape pattern: towards a ‘top down’ indicator for evaluation of landuse

Landscapes as highly complex systems are subject to many different assessment procedures despite the fact that their development is not really predictable. Every synthetic model of landscape functioning will probably fail in demonstrating the landscape behaviour due to the decreasing precision and relevance of its output with increasing complexity. Two approaches are presented here which use deductive methods to describe landscape behaviour as indicated by its spatial structure. The one is a correlative concept which is characterized by all the advantages and disadvantages of statistical regression methods. It is strongly dependent on data quality. In the second study an expert knowledge system is developed. Fuzzy set theory is applied to transfer rules of landscape ecological experience to image parameters derived from satellite data. Both approaches are compared regarding the problems faced in the work during implication. Theoretical restrictions and the applicability in landscape assessment is discussed.