Radiological maps for Trabzon, Turkey

The activity concentrations and absorbed gamma dose rates due to primordial radionuclides and ¹³⁷Cs have been ascertained in 222 soil samples in 18 counties of the Trabzon province of Turkey using a HPGe detector. The mean activity concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs in soil samples were 41, 35, 437 and 21 Bq kg⁻¹, respectively. Based on the measured concentrations of these radionuclides, the mean absorbed gamma dose in air was calculated as 59 nGy h⁻¹ and hence, the mean annual effective dose due to terrestrial gamma radiation was calculated as 72 μSv y⁻¹. In addition, outdoor in situ gamma dose rate (D) measurements were performed in the same 222 locations using a portable NaI detector and the annual effective dose was calculated to be 66 μSv y⁻¹ from these results. The results presented in this study are compared with other parts of Turkey. Radiological maps of the Trabzon province were composed using the results obtained from the study.     

Exploring the spatial dimension of community-level flood risk perception: a cognitive mapping approach

Environmental perceptions are central to individuals’ behavioural interactions with the environment. Cognitive maps, portraying a spatial representation of an individual’s environmental perception, can be aggregated to gain insight into the collective environmental perception of groups and populations. This paper uses cognitive mapping techniques to examine one aspect of environmental perception, flood risk perception, within a residential population (n?=?305). Flood risk perception was examined for the whole sample and six subgroup pairs. Using subgroups allowed examination of how factors previously shown to influence flood risk perception influence the cognitive map production in this population. We use a novel technique (slope analysis) to examine how the population’s perception of flood risk compares with expert assessments of flood risk, and compare the results of this novel technique with a commonly used cognitive map analysis technique (majority threshold method). Both methods identify areas where there is consensus within the population as to which areas are at risk of flooding. However, slope analysis usefully identifies areas where the population’s perception of flood risk lacks consensus, and is at odds with expert assessments of flood risk, without the loss of information inherent in the majority threshold method. Thus, this technique provides a novel approach to studies of environmental perception that can be widely applied within many fields.     

Developing the interaction matrix technique as a tool assessing the impact of traffic on air quality

This paper develops a technique which can be used as a preliminary tool for assessing air quality related to urban traffic. It combines a Geographic Information System (GIS) with an interaction matrix-type methodology based on a system analysis approach. The matrix identifies and quantifies interactions between all selected variables involved in a system as well as their interaction with the system as a whole. This matrix is used to determine the weightings to apply to spatial datasets within a GIS to develop a pollution vulnerability map. The focus of the paper is to introduce and assess a more versatile coding of the interaction matrix with respect to previously used coding. A case study is presented in which the modified interaction methodology is applied to data for a busy urban location. The resulting vulnerability map, in terms of pollution vulnerable hot spots, was compared to a pollution map derived from an advanced dispersion model. The interaction matrix technique with GIS can be used as a tool complementary to sophisticated numerical modelling and has potential as an analytical tool to evaluate multidisciplinary systems.     

基于SOM和多元分析的滇池沉积物污染特征空间模式研究

联合运用层次聚类分析(HCA)、判别分析(DA)和自组织映射神经网络(SOM)3种数值方法,对滇池2008—2010年17个底泥监测点位(10个常规点位及7个新增点位)9种污染物进行空间差异性和相似性分析,并评价各指标在空间的分布特征及监测点代表性.结果表明:滇池沉积物整体污染程度为草海>外海中部及南部>外海北部.As、Hg、Pb、Cd、Cu和Zn污染最严重的点位是断桥;草海中心的凯氏氮污染最严重,其他指标污染水平仅次于断桥;Cr和TP污染最严重的点位是新增点位盘龙江2;海埂是全局污染最轻的点位.现有的常规监测点位对整体污染特征的代表性较弱,建议取消异质性最低的白鱼口、观音山西、观音山东和罗家营站点;考虑污染特征和监测点位空间分布的均匀性,建议将盘龙江2、海埂和马料河设为常规监测点位.     

山东省不同地形区降雨侵蚀力时空变化特征

掌握降水及降雨侵蚀力的时空分布和演变特征对于揭示区域气候变化规律,有效预防和科学评估水土流失等环境问题具有重要意义。基于34个气象站点1961—2015年的降水日值数据,采用降雨侵蚀力计算模型、Mann-Kendall检验、小波分析和Kriging空间插值等研究方法,分析研究了山东省内山地、丘陵和平原等不同地形区的降水和降雨侵蚀力时空变化特征。结果显示：近55年间,全省及各地形区的降水量和降雨侵蚀力均呈波动下降趋势,年内分配均集中在夏季,降雨侵蚀力在时间尺度上存在25年左右的变化周期。空间上,降水和降雨侵蚀力均呈现鲁中南山区＞胶东半岛丘陵区＞鲁西北平原区;分界线由东北至西南沿福山—莱阳—淄博—定陶等站呈“S”型贯穿山东省,界线东南侧降雨侵蚀力高,西北侧降雨侵蚀力较低。其原因主要是受海拔和地形的影响,东南季风携带湿润气流受胶东半岛丘陵及鲁中南山地的阻挡抬升,致使“S”型分界线东南侧迎风面降水及降雨强度相对较高;西北侧背风面形成焚风效应,降水及降雨侵蚀强度较低。该结果可为山东省水土流失空间特征分析奠定数据基础,同时为区域水土资源利用与调控及生态环境保护与改善提供决策支撑。     

应急管理地理信息系统设计及实现

介绍了面向石油化工企业的应急管理地理信息系统的功能设计及实现,利用遥感影像配合矢量图实现地理信息支撑平台,满足企业日常安全管理和应急响应过程中地图浏览、查询定位、空间分析、事故影响范围模拟计算及可视化展示、专题图及属性浏览、动态信息集成等功能需要。     

Developing shared qualitative models for complex systems

Understanding complex systems is essential to ensure their conservation and effective management. Models commonly support understanding of complex ecological systems and, by extension, their conservation. Modeling, however, is largely a social process constrained by individuals’ mental models (i.e., a small-scale internal model of how a part of the world works based on knowledge, experience, values, beliefs, and assumptions) and system complexity. To account for both system complexity and the diversity of knowledge of complex systems, we devised a novel way to develop a shared qualitative complex system model. We disaggregated a system (carbonate coral reefs) into smaller subsystem modules that each represented a functioning unit, about which an individual is likely to have more comprehensive knowledge. This modular approach allowed us to elicit an individual mental model of a defined subsystem for which the individuals had a higher level of confidence in their knowledge of the relationships between variables. The challenge then was to bring these subsystem models together to form a complete, shared model of the entire system, which we attempted through 4 phases: develop the system framework and subsystem modules; develop the individual mental model elicitation methods; elicit the mental models; and identify and isolate differences for exploration and identify similarities to cocreate a shared qualitative model. The shared qualitative model provides opportunities to develop a quantitative model to understand and predict complex system change.     

Distance-based eigenvector maps (DBEM) to analyse metapopulation structure with irregular sampling

Characterizing spatial patterns due to ecological processes is a major issue for analysing and predicting species distributions. Grasping the non-linear nature of population dynamics over networks of discrete suitable sites is here central, as very specific signatures are expected. In the line of promising results from Fourier analysis of metapopulation maps, we found distance-based eigenvector maps (DBEM) to help disentangle the respective signatures of habitat and metapopulation structuring, with the great advantage of being applicable to irregular sampling schemes, a common feature of ecological surveys. A smoothing procedure was required to obtain the distinguishable signatures, and this may be a critical issue for investigating non-contingent and reliable patterns in spatial ecology.     

Characterization of biological responses under different environmental conditions: A hierarchical modeling approach

A natural river system is organized as a nested hierarchy of interconnected habitats with specific environmental conditions to which the biological community has adapted. Due to this hierarchical structure, identifying the role of different stressors on the biological community is a formidable task. Efforts trying to link stressors to biological integrity have always been bound to the geographic scale of the selected study area, leading to scale-specific results. In this research, an attempt is made to lift this limitation and develop a hierarchical, scale-sensitive methodology that can identify the significant environmental stressors to the biological community at different scales. Sites with similar background environmental conditions are clustered using self-organizing maps (SOM). This is used to identify stressors which affect the biological community throughout the area of study - called environmental gradients or large-scale stressors. Subsequently, these clusters of similar observations (sampling sites) are progressively sub-divided using environmental variables with a significant but localized effect on the biological community - called small-scale stressors. A parent group of sites is split only when the resulting sub-groups have significantly different biological responses. At the end of this recursive sites decomposition procedure, the original set of observations is organized as a tree of environmentally homogeneous groups of observations characterized by unique biological responses to multiple stressors with different geographic extents. The developed hierarchical analysis methodology has been validated using a large-size dataset of environmental observations from the State of Ohio. Our results show that habitat degradation and increased nutrient loading are the large-scale stressors with a widespread impact in Ohio. Other stressors, such as heavy metals, pH or nitrate concentrations have significant albeit localized effects on biological integrity.     

基于PS-InSAR技术探测地表形变的实验研究

常规合成孔径雷达差分干涉测量技术在区域地表形变探测中存在时空失相关和大气延迟的影响,为了克服或减弱它们的影响,分离和提取线性、非线性形变时间序列以及地形数据误差与大气信号,以西安市沉降场为研究对象,用17景Envisat数据进行了实验研究,并与常规D-InSAR结果比较,证实了PS-InSAR技术用于地表形变监测的有效性.