Bordeaux: urban renovation,conservation and rehabilitation

Over the past thirty years Bordeaux's politicians and planners have played critical roles in both changing and conserving the inner environments of one of France's most attractive provincial cities. A succession of urban policies has been implemented to attempt to halt depopulation, economic decline and environmental degradation in the inner city. These policies reflect changing emphasis in national planning for urban areas and have ranged from slum clearance and total renovation in the Mériadeck district, to a recent more socially aware set of approaches that attempt to rehabilitate inner‐city housing and promote neighbourhood well‐being in the district of Saint Michel. Investment in architectural conservation continues apace and both private and public capital is being directed to improving housing stock in the inner city. Attempts to revitalise economic activities have achieved modest success but more socially orientated policies prove difficult to implement.     

A case study of urban heat islands in the Carolinas

Urbanization tends to aggravate the negative effects of climate. The objective of this research is to aid in the understanding of the spatial variation of urban heat islands within selected cities in North and South Carolina. This understanding will help guide efforts to cool cities in order to increase human comfort, conserve energy and resources, and reduce air pollution in both of these states.     

OPTIMUM USE OF PADDY FIELDS FOR FLOOD MITIGATION1

In Taiwan, the continuously increasing levels of rice imports are likely to result in surplus paddy fields. Hence, the surplus paddy fields may be developed into wetlands to increase ground water recharge, provide appropriate environments for wildlife, and most importantly, store flood water. This study developed a hydrological model incorporating the distributed rainfall‐runoff model based on the kinematics wave approach and the distributed tank model for simulation, respectively, in mountainous and flat areas. The hydrological model was found to simulate the rainfall‐runoff behavior well in the study area. Furthermore, a decision method based on the genetic algorithm concepts was proposed to give policy makers the optimal location and area size of paddy fields to construct wetlands for flood mitigation.     

城市污水处理厂能耗优化数学模型研究

随着城市污水生物处理技术的不断完善,好氧生物处理技术逐渐成为城市污水处理的主导技术。好氧生物处理需要提供足够的氧气以满足微生物的正常生长,而维持供氧设备的正常运行需要消耗大量的电力,电量消耗已成为影响城市污水处理厂费用的主要因素。本文总结了现有的污水处理厂运行费用数学模型,通过实际运行费用和处理效率数据,建立了以处理量Q,BOD5削减量,NH3-N削减量为变量的运行费用数学模型,并分析了影响污水处理厂能耗的主要因素,服务污染物去除效率不断提高的城市污水节能减排目标、需求不断增大的城镇污水减排目标。     

我国城市污水处理

我国城市污水处理的现状以及当前全国城市污水厂普遍应用的污水处理工艺,在选择城市污水处理工艺时应考虑资金及土地资源方面的问题,通过开发新型高效污水处理工艺提高污水净化率和污水处理量.同时通过建立和完善城市污水处理制度,提高城市居民环保意识,污水处理走向市场化,实现社会与政府的共赢.     

城镇环境规划

文章主要探讨了编制小城镇环境规划的理论基础、指标体系、主要内容、城镇环境专题规划及其技术方法,重点对空气污染防治规划、水环境专题规划、噪声污染控制规划和城镇固体废物处理及处置专题规划作了具体分析,论证了正确处理城镇发展与环境保护之间的关系,改善城镇环境质量,促进城镇生态系统的良性循环,实现城镇的可持续发展,已成为各国政府环境保护工作的重点.     

都市农业区域村级果园土壤氮素的空间分布特征——以上海南汇新场镇果园村为例

以上海都市农业区域南汇新场镇果园村为例,运用传统统计学和地统计学方法研究了该村主要土地利用类型--桃园耕作层土壤氮素的空间变异特征.结果表明,桃园土壤中总氮(TN)和铵态氮(NH4+-N)的变异程度较大,属强变异性;硝态氮(NO3--N)的变异程度较小,属中等变异性.TN、NO3-N和NH4+-N的变异函数的最佳拟合模...     

Analysis and assessment of the Qingdao crude oil vapor explosion accident: Lessons learnt

A devastating crude oil vapor explosion accident, which killed 62 people and injured 136, occurred on November 22, 2013. It was one of the most disastrous vapor cloud explosion accidents that happened in Qingdao's storm drains in China. It was noted that blast overpressure and flying debris were the main causes of human deaths, personal injuries and structure damages. Two months after the accident, it was reported that there were three contentious issues in the investigation report. First issue was the discrepancy between the temperature of the crude oil vapor explosive limits which were measured by the investigation panel and the temperature reported by the local fire department. Second issue was the contradiction between the upper explosive limit and vapor pressure of the crude oil vapor. The last issue was the location of the ignition source which led to the explosion.In the present study some specific features of this accident and various causes led to the explosion, high casualties and severe damages were analyzed. Three contentious issues in the official investigation report were investigated and tested in detail. The first element tested was the explosive limits and limiting oxygen concentration of the crude oil vapor at different temperatures. Based on theoretical analysis and field investigations, the last two elements in the report were analyzed from multiple perspectives. Based on the TNO Multi-Energy model and PROBIT equations, damage probability of affected people at the leaking site was also estimated. The investigation concluded with a result that precautions need to be taken to prevent flammable gas explosions in the drainage systems. Key steps were explicitly discussed for improving the hazard identification and risk assessment of similar accidents in the future.     

Trace metal concentrations in hairs of three bat species from an urbanized area in Germany

Metal-contaminated soils and sediments are widespread in urbanized areas due to atmospheric deposition close to emission sources. These metals are bio-available for organisms, e.g., insects, and accumulate in food chains of insectivorous mammals. Especially bats, which live in urban regions and ingest large amounts of food relative to their body mass, are at risk of being poisoned due to the accumulation of trace metals. To determine species-specific trace metal contents in bats from urban environments, hair samples were analyzed by ICP-OES. Observed trace metal concentrations were related to species-specific foraging habitat, prey spectrum and degree of synanthropy. The species studied were Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Myotis daubentonii and Nyctalus noctula. P. pipistrellus showed the highest concentrations of lead and zinc and slightly higher concentrations of cadmium than the other two species, which was related to its high degree of synanthropy with foraging habitat mostly located in cities. In contrast, N. noctula displayed the highest contents of manganese and copper. The reason might be found in its prey spectrum, as N. noctula feeds mainly on beetles that are caught in cultured areas. Trace metal concentrations determined in hair samples of M. daubentonii ranged between the values of P. pipistrellus and N. noctula, probably reflecting an intermediate level of synanthropy. Positive correlations were observed between the concentrations of cadmium and lead and those of manganese and copper. Hair samples from bats are suitable monitoring tools to study trace metal exposure and can be used to determine differences in trace metal levels between species.     

Application of game theory in risk management of urban natural gas pipelines

This paper presents a game theory methodology for risk management of urban natural gas pipelines, which is a collaborative participation mechanism of the stakeholders, including government, pipeline companies, and the public. Firstly, the involvement proportion of stakeholders in risk management under rational conditions is estimated by the static game theory. Subsequently, the system dynamics (SD) simulation is used to establish an evolution game model of stakeholders in risk management under the irrational conditions, in which the stability of the evolution game process is analyzed. The stakeholders’ involvement proportions from the static game model are utilized as the inputs for the evolution game model to simulate the dynamic evolution behavior of risk management strategies with different involvement proportions of stakeholders. Eventually, the dynamic evaluation game can extract an optimal strategy for risk management of urban natural gas pipelines. A case study is used to illustrate the methodology. In essence, this methodology can be extended for implementing risk management of urban infrastructure.