Floristics, performance and prognosis of historical trees in the urban forest of Guangzhou City (China)

Outstanding historical trees embedded in cities constitute pertinent environmental assets, yet they are widely threatened in third-world cities. Inadequate understanding of this valuable natural-cum-cultural heritage hinders proper conservation. A case study of Guangzhou in south China evaluated floristic composition, age profile and biomass structure of historical trees, assessed their performance in major habitats (institutional, park and roadside), and established a prognosis for future growth and management. The 348 historical trees examined belonged to only 25 species, vis-à -vis 254 trees in the entire urban forest, dominated by five species and native members. Roadside had more trees, followed by institutional and park, with merely the most common four species shared by all habitats. The limited commonality reflected tree-performance differentiation by habitats exerting selection pressure on species. The institutional growth-regime was more conducive to nurturing high-caliber specimens, whereas park is less capable. Individual species achievement by habitats, derived from tree-count ranking and relative-abundance indices, could inform species choice and tree conservation. Few trees exceeded 300 years of age in the millennium-old city, echoing a history of intense tree—city conflicts. Potential life-span, trunk and crown diameters indicated ample opportunities for further expansion of biomass and landscape impacts, which would be straitjacketed by the tightening urban fabric.     

Seasonal characteristics of haze observed by continuous visibility monitoring in the urban atmosphere of Kwangju, Korea

Continuous visibility monitoring has been carried out inKwangju, Korea since May 1999. The total light extinctioncoefficient b _ext measured by a transmissometer andreveals seasonal trends in urban visual air quality,especially under hazy conditions with a visual range of lessthan 15 km. Seasonal atmospheric visibility under lowrelative humidity during the winter was observed to be betterthan during any other seasons. Summertime visibility wasseverely degraded due to highly increased light scattering byhygroscopic particles under high humidity atmosphericconditions. Visibility during spring and fall was alsomoderate. However, yellow sand in spring caused the lowestvisibility conditions over the measurement area for a fewdays. With continuous monitoring using the transmissometer,the daily average seasonal visual range was measured to be13.1, 9.2, 11.0, and 13.9 km in spring, summer, falland winter, respectively. Under the atmospheric humiditycondition less than 60%, visual range was observed tobe 16.1, 13.9, 15.1, and 16.6 km in spring, summer,fall, and winter, respectively. The mean light extinctionbudget by sulfate and nitrate aerosols was determined to bethe highest value of 63.71% during the summer and thelowest value of 27.08% during spring. During the `yellow sand dust' period, a mean light extinction budget by soil particles was estimated to be at an unusually high value of 44.22%.     

Study of Meteorological Aspects and Urban Concentration of SO2 in Atmospheric Environment of La Plata, Argentina

This article presents and discusses SO₂ (ppbv) concentration measurements combined with meteorological data (mainly wind speed and direction) for a five-year campaign (1996 to 2000), in a site near an oil refinery plant close to the city of La Plata and surroundings (aprox. 740.000 inh.), considered one of the six most affected cities by air pollution in the country. Since there is no monitoring network in the area, the obtained results should be considered as medium term accumulated data that enables to determine trends by analyzing together gas concentrations and meteorological parameters. Preliminary characterization of the behaviour of the predominant winds of the region in relation with potential atmospheric gas pollutants from seasonal wind roses is possible to carry out from the data. These results are complemented with monthly averaged SO₂ measurements. In particular, for year 2000, pollutant roses were determined which enable predictions about contamination emission sources. As a general result we can state that there is a clear increase in annual SO₂ concentration and that the selected site should be considered as a key site for future survey monitoring network deployment. Annual SO₂ average concentration and prevailing seasonal winds determined in this work, together with the potential health impact of SO₂ reveals the need for a comprehensive and systematic study involving particulate matter an other basic pollutant gases.     

乌鲁木齐市汽车尾气污染状况调查

对乌鲁木齐市主要街道受汽车尾气污染的调查和综合分析得到CO、NOx、HC的污染规律,主要街道路中心空气中CO、NOx日均值已超出国家大气环境质量二级标准,市区主要街道的人行道空气中NOx含量已超出二级标准,Ⅱ、Ⅲ类道路人行道空气中CO含量已超标;在三类街道中,Ⅰ类街道车流量最大,Ⅱ类次之,Ⅲ类最少,而汽车排放尾气对街道空气污染状况为Ⅲ类最重、Ⅱ类次之、Ⅰ类最轻。     

Using environmental stressor information to predict the ecological status of Maryland non-tidal streams as measured by biological indicators

In Maryland, U.S., an interim framework has recentlybeen developed for using biologically based thresholds, or `biocriteria', to assess the health of nontidal streams statewide at watershed scales. The evaluation of impairment is based on indices of biological integrity from the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS). We applied logistic regression to quantify how the biotic integrity of streams at a local scale is affected by cumulative effects resulting from catchment land uses, point sources, and nearby transmission line rights-of-way. Indicators for land use were developed from the remote sensing National Land Cover Data and applied at different scales. We determined that the risk of local impairment in nontidal streams rapidly increases with increased urban land use in the catchment area. The average likelihood of failing biocriteria doubled with every 10% points increment in urban land, thus an increase in urban land use from 0 to 20% quadruples the risk of impairment. For the basins evaluated in this study, catchments with more than 40–50% urban land use had greater than 80% probability of failing biocriteria, on average. Inclusion of rights-of-way and point sources in the model did not significantly improve the fit for this data set, most likely because of their low numbers. The overall results indicate that our predictive modeling approach can help pinpoint stream ecosystems experiencing or vulnerable to degradation.     

国外城市自然保护与生态重建及其对我国的启示

论文对当前国外的城市自然保护与生态重建活动作了介绍。城市自然保护包括野生生物生境保护、城市地区湿地及自然景观保护等内容。城市生态重建则主要有生态公园建设、废弃地生态重建、城市扩散廊道体系建设等方面。城市自然保护与生态重建具有以生态学为基础,多学科交叉;注重生态过程的恢复;多目标、多层次规划设计的特点。在此基础上,论文给出了4点对于我国城市生态建设的启示。     

城市水业投资模式及BOT模式操作要点

水务行业特许经营在今后一定时间内是解决城市基础设施建设的主要手段之一.它能够解决城市基础设施投资资金短缺的问题;实现基础设施行业投资结构多元化,促进体制改革;引入竞争机制,提高服务质量;引入先进技术与科学的管理手段,提高经营管理效率.本文主要介绍了城市水业投资的模式及其适用条件,并以案例分析的方式讨论了BOT模式的操作要点.     

加强城市灾害应急管理能力建设确保城市的可持续发展

本文通过对我国城市化与经济发展的关系,分析了我国城市面临的灾害形势及城市应急管理中存在的问题,提出了加强城市应急能力建设的途径,可供国内各大中城市参考和借鉴.     

城市生活垃圾处理技术探讨

针对城市垃圾的迅速增长．垃圾污染问题异常尖锐的问题．介绍了中国城市生活垃圾的处理技术应用现状．分析了垃圾处理存在的一些问题．对目前常用的城市生活垃圾处理方法的优缺点进行对比分析，并提出了在未来一段时间里生活垃圾处理技术的研究方向，要彻底解决垃圾问题，仅靠各种处理技术是不够的．必须完善法律、法规；改进管理方法．加强环境监测；加大科技投入，提高技术装备水平；增加资金投入；加强宣传等。     

改进型EGSB处理配置污水的小试研究

通过对不同上升流速下改进型EGSB和EGSB处理人工配置城市污水效果的比较研究,提出了一种更为有效的处理城市污水的反应器--改进型EGSB反应器,在上升流速为5.41m/h时,其出水的COD值稳定在60mg/L左右,出水SS明显要低于未改进的EGSB。同时还考察了运行期间改进型EGSB反应器内颗粒污泥的胞外多聚物、辅酶变化等,在高的上升流速下,改进型EGSB反应器中颗粒污泥的胞外多聚物含量和辅酶F420含量比未改进EGSB中的要高。