水生生物水质基准研究中轮虫、水螅、涡虫类受试生物的筛选

轮虫、水螅、涡虫是水生生态系统的重要生物类群。因其对水体污染较敏感,所以对水生生物基准研究有重要意义。依据我国生物区系资料及毒性数据丰度,筛选出8种代表性本土轮虫、水螅、涡虫类生物。参照美国水生生物基准技术指南,搜集、筛选了这8种代表性生物的急性毒性数据,通过数据分析,筛选出对各物种毒性最大的污染物,主要包括重金属、农药、有机锡化物、表面活性剂、吡啶胺类杀菌剂。分析污染物的物种敏感度分布,依据累积概率对代表性生物的物种敏感性进行分类,结果为:萼花臂尾轮虫(Brachionus calyciflorus)、绿水螅(Hydra viridissima)、普通水螅(Hydra vulgaris)对重金属铜的累积概率为6.5%、8.5%和10.4%,普通水螅(Hydra vulgaris)对重金属汞的累积概率为6.3%;龟甲轮虫(Keratella cochlearis)和四齿腔轮虫(Lecane quadridentata)对五氯酚钠的累积概率为5.1%和7.6%;褐水螅(Hydra oligactis)和绿水螅(Hydra viridissima)对三丁基氧化锡的累积概率为6.9%和13.8%,萼花臂尾轮虫(Brachionus calyciflorus)对氟啶胺的累积概率为6.7%,日本三角涡虫(Dugesia japonica)对四氯化碳、十二烷基苯磺酸钠的累积概率分别为6.7%和7.1%。上述结果表明:萼花臂尾轮虫、绿水螅对重金属铜敏感;普通水螅对重金属铜和汞敏感;龟甲轮虫和四齿腔轮虫对农药敏感;褐水螅和绿水螅对有机锡化物敏感;萼花臂尾轮虫对吡啶胺类杀菌剂敏感;日本三角涡虫对四氯化碳、表面活性剂敏感。这7种代表性生物可作为相关污染物的水生生物基准受试物种。     

组织残留法在水生生物基准中的应用概述

水生生物基准已成为生态风险评价和水环境管理的主要参考依据,在水污染治理、控制和管理以及水生生物保护方面发挥着重要作用。环境和生物学参数对基于水体或沉积物等外暴露浓度的毒性阈值和环境基准存在影响,使其具有变异性和不确定性。而基于组织残留的毒性剂量指标可以减少毒性值的变异性以及不确定性,特别是对于生物累积性物质而言,在毒性效应及环境基准研究中存在显著优势。针对组织残留法在水生生物基准研究中的应用,对组织残留法的概念、优势、应用,以及组织残留基准的推导方法等几个方面进行了综述,并提出了组织残留法在应用中存在的关键问题及建议,旨在推动环境基准、生态风险评价理论和方法的研究,以及为水环境管理和污染防治提供技术支持。     

平衡分配法在土壤环境质量基准推导中的相关问题研究

为了促进土壤环境质量标准的修订进程,势必要全面系统地开展土壤环境质量基准的研究工作。理论上,水、土之间是一个相互联系、互相依赖和关系密切的系统;同时,水生态毒理及其质量基准研究起步早,研究方法相对成熟。因此,从水质基准来推导土壤环境质量基准具有一定的科学依据与实践意义。本文首先从土-水系统中污染物分布的影响因素及其环境行为两方面简要阐述污染物在土-水系统中的分布规律;然后,扼要介绍了平衡分配(Eq P)理论及其在环境质量基准研究中的应用;之后,从Eq P方法的不确定性、毒理数据选用的争议性、Koc的局限性和分配系数的确定方法选择性等方面,探讨了平衡分配法在土壤环境质量基准研究中应用的瓶颈问题;最后,对此项研究进行了总结与展望。     

Impacts of a participatory approach to developing national level sustainable development indicators in Finland

The paper explores the role of a participatory approach in the outcome of the Finnish sustainable development indicator (SDI) exercise in 1998-2002. The process is analysed through three main objectives: to achieve stronger democracy, better quality of the end product and a more effective process. The analysis is further structured by a set of criteria needed for successful participation and differentiation of types of participants. The criteria comprise three main aspects: fairness, competence and social learning. In addition to the normally mentioned stakeholders (e.g. citizens and interest groups) participants also include experts and civil servants. Using the set of criteria above the participatory approach of the Finnish SDI process is then evaluated, and in the light of this evaluation the paper also discusses the specifications needed as evaluation criteria for national level policy programme processes like developing the SDIs. The results are based on documentation of the indicator task force meetings, written comments and a study of the putative end-users conducted after the publication of the indicators. The results show that the intense and broad participation of experts and civil servants increased the competence of the outcome and led to greater efficiency in working methods. However, this led to technocratic participation, absence of democratic participation and absence of social learning. Thus the ultimate goal of SDIs to contribute to achieving sustainability was not reached.     

Coupling hydrologic and economic modeling for wetland management multi-optimization in Tram Chim National Park,Vietnam

We developed a comprehensive coupling framework with a multi-objective optimization that bridges a water balance model (WBM) and a wetland service model (WSM) to supporting wetland management. The framework was tested for management in Tram Chim National Park (with four wetland zones) where hydro-economic optimization was needed. The framework used (1) a model coupling process bridging WBM and WSM to create a modular hydro-economic model (MHEM), (2) a multi-objective optimization, and (3) an anneal scheduling for scenario optimization. The framework demonstrated its competency in identifying cause–effect/interaction flows (bridges) between WBM and WSM to design MHEM to simulate optimized scenarios; for the case study, the multi-objective optimization was met for all wetland zones. Results suggested a flexible consideration of management scales for optimization, i.e. hydrologic optimization at a zone level and net benefit optimization at a Park level. Our framework is applicable to supporting complex wetland decisions considering multiple objectives.     

Copula-Based Bivariate Return Period Analysis and Its Implication to Hydrological Design Event

In univariate frequency analysis, the return period of an event has a one-to-one correspondence with its characteristic value, and the response of the hydraulic structure to hydrological load expressed by the hydrological event is monotonic. Thus, the design criteria of the hydraulic structure can be equivalently represented by the return period of the hydrological event, and consequently, design event-based design parameters evaluated have been widely used in practical engineering. However, the monotonic correspondence between the return period of the hydrological event and the response of the hydraulic structure does not exist in the multivariate context, and hydrological load with a larger joint return period does not always produce a more unsafe response. Misunderstandings of concepts of return periods of hydrological event, and estimation of hydrological design events usually take place in multivariate frequency analysis. This study theoretically derives the relations between different types of joint return periods, joint return period and its marginal return periods, the occurrence of bivariate extreme events and their return periods, and then the theoretical framework is tested. Results from the case contribute to the understanding of bivariate return periods of hydrological event, and the results demonstrate that design criteria cannot be equivalently represented by joint return periods of hydrological load, and design parameters of the hydraulic structure should not be determined by multivariate hydrological design events.     

Environmental strategies: A case study of systematic evaluation

A major problem facing environmental managers is the necessity to effectively evaluate management alternatives. Traditional environmental assessments have emphasized the use of economic analyses. These approaches are often deficient due to difficulty in assigning dollar values to environmental systems and to social amenities. A more flexible decisionmaking model has been developed to analyze management options for coping with beach erosion problems at the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey. This model is comprised of decision-making variables which are formulated from a combination of environmental and management criteria, and it has an accept-reject format in which the management options are analyzed in terms of the variables. Through logical ordering of the insertion of the variables into the model, stepwise elimination of alternatives is possible. A hierarchy of variables is determined through estimating work required to complete an assessment of the alternatives for each variable. The assessment requiring the least work is performed first so that the more difficult evaluation will be limited to fewer alternatives. The application of this approach is illustrated with a case study in which beach protection alternatives were evaluated for the United States National Park Service.Portions of this paper have been excerpted from Sherman and Garès (1978).     

AN OVERVIEW OF POROUS PAVEMENT RESEARCH1

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the economics, advantages, potential applications, and status and future research needs of porous pavements. Porous pavements are an available storm water management technique which can be used on parking lots and low volume roadways in order to reduce both storm water runoff volume and pollution. In addition, ground water recharge is enhanced. Also, cost reductions result due to elimination of curbs, drains, and small sized storm sewers. Porous asphalt pavements consist of a relatively thin course of open graded asphalt mix over a deep base of large size crushed stones. Water can be stored in the crushed stone base until it can percolate into the subbase or drain laterally. Other porous pavement types include concrete lattice blocks and a porous concrete mix.     

THEORY AND REALITY IN ALLOCATING FEDERAL RESOURCES TO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT: Federal spending on water resource development projects exceeds $10 billion annually. This paper examines the economic theory and practice on which the Federal water resource development plans are based. Existing theoretical and applied problems result in overinvestment. These include 1) no standard of value for the tradeoff of environmental objectives with economic objectives; 2) benefits based on “willingness to pay,” but beneficiaries pay only a fraction of a project's costs; 3) beneficiaries “shop around” among program purposes in order to reduce their commitments; and 4) benefit/cost (B/C) analyses are based on a discount rate, which is consistently below the Federal borrowing rate. Furthermore, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) frequently finds that the agency regulations are inadequate and result in inconsistent and questionable benefit computations. The President has proposed a series of water policy reforms, to reduce some of the apparent overinvestment in water resource development, but fundmental corrective action rests with the members of Congress.     

PREDICTING INSTANTANEOUS PEAK DEMAND IN RURAL DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT: Many rural areas of the United States still have no public domestic water systems. Typical land use patterns in these areas may require 1/2 mile or more of pipe per farm connection. Public systems serving these areas are economically feasible only if realistic short-term peak demand standards are available for their design. The lack of reliable data upon which to establish such criteria has resulted in a large variation in criteria among state and federal agencies involved in financing and in approving construction of these systems. During the summer of 1975 three distribution laterals of a rural system in Utah were master metered and instantaneous peak flows were recorded for 4 months. The metered lines served 4, 12, and 22 farm houses each. The frequency distribution of peak flows has been analyzed and compared with that developed during similar research in Mississippi and with the existing design standards of the Farmers Home Administration and the State of Utah.