National policies for biosphere greenhouse gas management: issues and opportunities

Biosphere greenhouse gas (GHG) management consists of preserving and enhancing terrestrial carbon pools and producing biomass as a fossil fuel substitute. The discussion of this topic has focused primarily on carbon-accounting and project-level issues, particularly relating to carbon sequestration as a source of emissions credits under the Kyoto Protocol. While international consensus on these matters is needed, this paper argues that an important domestic policy agenda also deserves attention. National policies for biosphere GHG management are necessary to bring about large-scale changes in land-use, forestry, and agricultural practices and can address some of the technical and policy issues that have proven to be particularly problematic from carbon-accounting and project-level perspectives. These policies should minimize land-use and resource-management conflicts, account for collateral benefits, and ensure institutional compatibility with existing resource-management regimes. Issues relating to project permanence, leakage, and transaction costs should also be addressed. A range of policy instruments should be used and biosphere GHG management should be one component of an integrated approach to environmental and resource management. Countries promoting biosphere GHG management as an important element of their climate change strategies should be developing these domestic policies to complement international negotiations and to demonstrate that carbon sequestration and biomass production can make an effective contribution to the stabilization of atmospheric GHG concentrations.     

A dynamic model for intertemporal allocation of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest

Across the globe, continued policy debates regarding the management of old-growth forests center around the difficult task of balancing economic and ecological considerations. Though the forests of the Pacific Northwest United States are among the most studied old-growth ecosystems, ecological and economic analyses have yielded public land management directives that remain controversial. Specifically, the recently adopted Northwest Forest Plan lacks explicit goals for maintaining intergenerational equity for the use of forest resources and the diversity of old-growth ecosystems. Unlike previous studies which rely on monetary quantification of costs and benefits, this study develops and applies a conceptual framework for evaluating socially optimal Pacific Northwest old-growth forest utilization strategies. Conditions for the optimal management of old-growth forests are derived using dynamic programming. The objective function synthesizes relevant biological and economic attributes of the old-growth allocation problem. Results in the form of extraction paths are compared given social pressure for consumptive and non-consumptive benefits, as well as different planning horizons, rates of social time preference, and environmental variance. Lengthening the planning horizon results in a vast divergence of optimal policies in the absence of discounting. Extraction rates appear to approach zero as the planning horizon approaches infinity. While higher rates of social time preference increase the rate of extraction, forest stocks remaining at the terminal time period equal levels remaining with a lower discount rate. Increasing environmental variance results in a higher level of stock remaining at the terminal time period. This analysis, while specific to the old-growth controversy of the Pacific Northwest, does provide general guidelines for addressing similar problems of multiple uses of natural areas, particularly where such uses are mutually incompatible, or where one use may be irreversibly destructive to another.     

Energy and carbon balances of wood cascade chains

In this study we analyze the energy and carbon balances of various cascade chains for recovered wood lumber. Post-recovery options include reuse as lumber, reprocessing as particleboard, pulping to form paper products, and burning for energy recovery. We compare energy and carbon balances of chains of cascaded products to the balances of products obtained from virgin wood fiber or from non-wood material. We describe and quantify several mechanisms through which cascading can affect the energy and carbon balances: direct cascade effects due to different properties and logistics of virgin and recovered materials, substitution effects due to the reduced demand for non-wood materials when wood is cascaded, and land use effects due to alternative possible land uses when less timber harvest is needed because of wood cascading. In some analyses we assume the forest is a limiting resource, and in others we include a fixed amount of forest land from which biomass can be harvested for use as material or biofuel. Energy and carbon balances take into account manufacturing processes, recovery and transportation energy, material recovery losses, and forest processes. We find that land use effects have the greatest impact on energy and carbon balances, followed by substitution effects, while direct cascade effects are relatively minor.     

EMPIRICAL MODELING OF HYDROLOGIC AND NFS POLLUTANT FLUX IN AN URBANIZING BASIN1

ABSTRACT: Long term effects of precipitation and land use/land cover on basin outflow and nonpoint source (NFS) pollutant flux are presented for up to 24 years for a rapidly developing headwater basin and three adjacent headwater basins on the urban fringe of Washington, D.C. Regression models are developed to describe the annual and seasonal responses of basin outflow and IMPS pollutant flux to precipitation, mean impervious surface (IS), and land use. To quantify annual change in mean IS, a variable called delta IS is created as a temporal indicator of urban soil disturbance. Hydrologic models indicate that total annual surface outflow is significantly associated with precipitation and mean IS (r²= 0.65). Seasonal hydrologic models reveal that basin outflow is positively associated with IS during the summer and fall growing season (June to November). NPS pollutant flux models indicate that total and storm total suspended solids (TSS) flux are significantly associated with precipitation and urban soil disturbance in all seasons. Annual NPS total nitrogen flux is significantly associated with both urban and agricultural soil disturbance (r²= 0.51). Seasonal models of phosphorus flux indicate a significant association of total phosphorus flux with urban soil disturbance during the growing season. Total soluble phosphorus (TSP) flux is significantly associated with IS (r²= 0.34) and urban and agricultural soil disturbance (r²= 0.58). In urbanizing Cub Run basin, annual TSP concentrations are significantly associated with IS and cultivated agriculture (r²= 0.51).     

河冰对桥墩作用的冰荷载计算方法(Ⅰ)——河冰的力学性能试验

通过对松花江河冰的物理力学性能试验和松花江公路大桥桥墩的流冰动压力测量、桥面的脉动测量 ,依据国内外对冰 -结构相互作用的分析 ,提出了适合我国黑龙江冰情特点的春季流冰冰荷载的计算方法。     

四川省科技人力资源潜力与结构变化

通过对四川省科技人力资源的潜力、结构变化的分析,提出建立统一规范的科技人才培养经费投入政策,加强科技人才资源的再开发,不拘一格引进科技人才,建立四川省科技人力资源监测系统等对策。     

从月球般的荒凉到加拿大最适合人类居住的十大城市之一--加拿大萨德伯雷市的环境治理经验

本文简要介绍了加拿大萨德伯雷市的环境治理工程，并从中总结了值得我们借鉴的几条经验。     

静电除尘在烧结机头烟尘治理中的应用

通过对安钢烧结机一、二期工程中烧结机头电除尘器结构性能和运行效果对比，结合安钢实际运行情况，分析了一期工程中电除尘器的运行存在的问题，重点对电除尘器的结构特点进行阐述，以提供一种适用于烧结机头烟尘治理的电除尘技术。     

红外探测巷道围岩地质构造的理论与应用

利用红外技术探测地质构造是预防巷道作业重大安全事故的有效途径。笔者根据红外辐射原理 ,分析了地质构造引起的岩石密度变化和巷道围岩辐射功率之间的相关性 ,提出了红外探测巷道地质构造的理论、方法及适用条件。应用结果表明 :红外探测技术不仅可简便、直观地分析和预测采掘巷道围岩地质的变化趋势 ,而且可用于巷道围岩瓦斯涌出异常地段的原因探测 ,指导安全防范措施的有效实施     

基于小波包分析的爆破振动危害评价初探

结合振动主频的质点振速判据是对单一质点振速判据的补充和完善.但该判据的振动主频是通过FFT变换的频谱分析的方法获得的,不能体现爆破振动波形的多主振频带特征,而且由于方法本身的局限性使得主振频率发生的时间段不能确定.小波包分析法则克服了FFT频谱分析的局限,有效地分解和重构原始信号中的细节信号,并将其作为评价不同频率细节信号的爆破振动危害效果的基础.本文针对爆破振动的小波包分析法进行了研究,对各小波包细节信号加载条件下的不同危害效果进行了讨论,得到了相应的质点振速判据,并将该方法所得到的判据与FFT变换的频谱分析方法所得到的判据进行了对比.结果表明,基于小波包分析法的质点振速判据更加符合爆破振动危害的真实情况.