Geoconservation versus legislation and resources policy: New achievements,new questions—Comment on Cairncross (Resources Policy, 2011) The National Heritage Resource Act (1999): Can legislation protect South Africa's rare geoheritage resources?

In his recent article, Cairncross identified problems with legislation relevant to the conservation of national geological heritage. This permits us to pose some more general questions, which are not addressed in the noted contribution. The example given by Cairncross indicates some pitfalls linked with the “all-inclusive” nature of legislation in which geological heritage is mixed with cultural heritage. Are such laws really helpful? Even if they are inevitable, they should be prepared with great caution. Moreover, it appears sensible to discuss whether particular geological objects or geodiversity as a whole should be legally conserved. Cairncross also proposes the interesting idea of a special fund/agency for purchasing rare mineral specimens for museums. This raises a set of questions about selection criteria for minerals to be purchased, types of market to be dealt with, number of fund/agency staff, necessary financial resources, and the administration of such purchasing schemes. Broad multi-stakeholder debates are necessary in order to establish the proposed fund/agency and to facilitate its efficient work.     

新时期下地质环境灾害防治现状与防治对策

新时期的背景下,地质灾害是危害人民群众生命财产安全、国家社会和谐稳定的重要因素。本文对地质灾害防治现状进行分析,从政府、技术两个层面提出解决策略,以期为我国地质灾害的防治工作提供有利参考。     

水工环地质灾害危险性评估的策略研究

随着我国各方面持续的发展,工程建设中的基础建设也不断深入,在后续的使用过程中,因水利工程、矿山开采等对地质环境造成了极其严重的影响,如果不及时改变这些不良的地质环境问题,很有可能对我们以后的生活产生影响。所以,我们要在施工前对工程建设的水利地质灾害进行危险评估,通过科学并且合理的评估,分析当前我国水工环地质灾害的危险性,希望可以对改善我国不良环境提出一些针对性的解决方案。     

地质环境评价方法应用比较研究——以小秦岭金矿区为例

针对不同的环境评价方法在特定领域获得广泛的应用,但是在其他领域却又存在一定局限性的状况。本文选取了目前常用的四种环境评价方法：主分量分析法、物元评价法、模糊数学评价法、灰色聚类评价法,对各自评价机理进行了介绍,然后以小秦岭金矿区为例,将其应用于地质评价领域,根据得到的结果从四个方面对评价方法作了比较分析,得出了这四种方法在地质评价领域的优点和不足。     

Turning the Tide: How Blue Carbon and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) Might Help Save Mangrove Forests

In this review paper, we aim to describe the potential for, and the key challenges to, applying PES projects to mangroves. By adopting a “carbocentric approach,” we show that mangrove forests are strong candidates for PES projects. They are particularly well suited to the generation of carbon credits because of their unrivaled potential as carbon sinks, their resistance and resilience to natural hazards, and their extensive provision of Ecosystem Services other than carbon sequestration, primarily nursery areas for fish, water purification and coastal protection, to the benefit of local communities as well as to the global population. The voluntary carbon market provides opportunities for the development of appropriate protocols and good practice case studies for mangroves at a small scale, and these may influence larger compliance schemes in the future. Mangrove habitats are mostly located in developing countries on communally or state-owned land. This means that issues of national and local governance, land ownership and management, and environmental justice are the main challenges that require careful planning at the early stages of mangrove PES projects to ensure successful outcomes and equitable benefit sharing within local communities.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0530-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

基岩面形状时堆积层滑坡复活的影响

堆积层滑坡沿基岩面再次滑动是一种常见的地质灾害。本文着重阐述了基岩面形状对堆积层滑坡剧滑后堆积特征、复活过程中的坡形重塑及其变形特征的影响。     

Study of dry ice formation during blowdown of CO₂-CH₄ from cryogenic distillation column

Cryogenic distillation columns are generally subjected to high-pressure loadings during the natural gas purification process. The high-pressure conditions inside the column cause safety risk e.g. rupture. When an emergency arises, blowdown is a typical way of minimizing the failure hazard. However, blowdown at the cryogenic conditions involves dry ice formation due to the rapid decrease in temperature driven by the Joule-Thomson effect. The dry ice formation intensifies the failure hazard due to the orifice blockage. Therefore, optimization of blowdown parameters is necessary to avoid the dry ice formation. So far, very limited studies are available in the literature for the blowdown of CO₂-CH₄ mixture, especially at the cryogenic conditions. In this study, a computational investigation followed by the experimental validation is accomplished to analyze the dry ice formation during blowdown of CO₂-CH₄ binary mixture from the cryogenic distillation column. The composition of mixture, orifice size, and initial conditions inside vessel have a high impact on blowdown path. A 3.00 mm orifice is the most suitable size for the blowdown at cryogenic conditions as it doesn't promote solidification and discharges the inventory quickly. Based on the experimental observation, an empirical correlation is also developed to instantly find out the optimum blowdown parameters.     

Drying of combustible powders – Risk & mitigation

This paper provides an overview of the various processes for drying combustible powders with particular emphasis on spray, fluid bed and ring dryers. Clients of FM Global, an industrial property insurance company, have experienced numerous explosion and fire losses in dryers and the primary causes and equipment involved in recent events are reviewed. Several case examples are provided. Key operating parameters that can impact the hazard created by processing combustible dusts are highlighted. For each dryer type the key controls, alarms and interlocks are addressed as well as the protection and mitigation features that can be installed. This will emphasize FM Global loss prevention guidelines but will also point out differences with NFPA and EU codes.     

岩溶浸没内涝灾害风险评价

岩溶浸没内涝灾害是岩溶区特有的,并且是一种与人类社会经济密切相关的灾害类型。减轻并控制其所造成的危害和影响,对岩溶区的经济持续发展具有重要的意义。岩溶浸没内涝灾害风险评价是指对灾害全过程的综合分析与研究。评价的目的:一是对灾害造成的经济损失作出评估;二是不断提高人类抗御灾害的认识能力和技术能力。岩溶浸没内涝灾害风险评价的理论与方法是本文讨论的重点。     

地质灾害危险性评估工作中存在的问题与解决途径探讨

地质灾害危险性评估作为工程建设与规划的一项重要前期工作,成为工程建设必不可少的组成部分,本文分析研究了目前地质灾害危险性评估中存在的问题,并在此基础上,提出了几点有针对性的解决途径与对策。