River flooding impacts human life and infrastructure, yet provides habitat and ecosystem services. Traditional flood control (e.g., levees, dams) reduces habitat and ecosystem services, and exacerbates flooding elsewhere. Floodplain restoration (i.e., bankfull floodplain reconnection and Stage 0) can also provide flood management, but has not been sufficiently evaluated for small frequent storms. We used 1D unsteady Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System to simulate small storms in a 5 km-long, second-order generic stream from the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and varied % channel restored (starting at the upstream end), restoration location, restoration bank height (distinguishes bankfull from Stage 0 restoration), and floodplain width/Manning's n. Stream restoration decreased (attenuated) peak flow up to 37% and increased floodplain exchange by up to 46%. Floodplain width and % channel restored had the largest impact on flood attenuation. The incremental effects of new restoration projects on flood attenuation were greatest when little prior restoration had occurred. By contrast, incremental effects on floodplain exchange were greatest in the presence of substantial prior restoration, setting up a tradeoff. A similar tradeoff was revealed between attenuation and exchange for project location, but not bank height or floodplain width. In particular, attenuation and exchange were always greater for Stage 0 than for bankfull floodplain restoration. Stage 0 thus may counteract human impacts such as urbanization. 相似文献
Community-based approaches are pursued in recognition of the need for place-based responses to environmental change that integrate local understandings of risk and vulnerability. Yet the potential for fair adaptation is intimately linked to how variations in perceptions of environmental change and risk are treated. There is, however, little empirical evidence of the extent and nature of variations in risk perception in and between multiple community settings. Here, we rely on data from 231 semi-structured interviews conducted in nine communities in Western Province, Solomon Islands, to statistically model different perceptions of risk and change within and between communities. Overall, people were found to be less likely to perceive environmental changes in the marine environment than they were for terrestrial systems. The distance to the nearest market town (which may be a proxy for exposure to commercial logging and degree of involvement with the market economy), and gender had the greatest overall statistical effects on perceptions of risk. Yet, we also find that significant environmental change is underreported in communities, while variations in perception are not always easily related to commonly assumed fault lines of vulnerability. The findings suggest that there is an urgent need for methods that engage with the drivers of perceptions as part of community-based approaches. In particular, it is important to explicitly account for place, complexity and diversity of environmental risk perceptions, and we reinforce calls to engage seriously with underlying questions of power, culture, identity and practice that influence adaptive capacity and risk perception.
To comply with EU recycling targets for packaging waste, the UK relies on an industry run and market based eco-tax levied by reprocessors on obligated businesses. After examining the details of this approach, the use of Packaging Waste Recovery Notes is assessed in terms of its allocative impact and the contribution made to eco-efficiency. The evidence indicates the UK system has minimized the cost of delivering current EU targets, but has not been able to deliver allocative efficiency or to demonstrate dynamic improvements in resource use. Its effectiveness in meeting impending higher targets remains open to question. 相似文献
Studies of future management and policy options based on different assumptions provide a mechanism to examine possible outcomes and especially their likely benefits and consequences. The San Pedro River in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico is an area that has undergone rapid changes in land use and cover, and subsequently is facing keen environmental crises related to water resources. It is the location of a number of studies that have dealt with change analysis, watershed condition, and most recently, alternative futures analysis. The previous work has dealt primarily with resources of habitat, visual quality, and groundwater related to urban development patterns and preferences. In the present study, previously defined future scenarios, in the form of land-use/land-cover grids, were examined relative to their impact on surface-water conditions (e.g., surface runoff and sediment yield). These hydrological outputs were estimated for the baseline year of 2000 and predicted twenty years in the future as a demonstration of how new geographic information system-based hydrologic modeling tools can be used to evaluate the spatial impacts of urban growth patterns on surface-water hydrology. 相似文献
In 1991, a collaborative project to revise the terrestrial component of a national ecological framework was undertaken with a wide range of stakeholders. This spatial framework consists of multiple, nested levels of ecological generalization with linkages to existing federal and provincial scientific databases. The broadest level of generalization is the ecozone. Macroclimate, major vegetation types and subcontinental scale physiographic formations constitute the definitive components of these major ecosystems. Ecozones are subdivided into approximately 200 ecoregions which are based on properties like regional physiography, surficial geology, climate, vegetation, soil, water and fauna. The ecozone and ecoregion levels of the framework have been depicted on a national map coverage at 1:7 500 000 scale. Ecoregions have been subdivided into ecodistricts based primarily on landform, parent material, topography, soils, waterbodies and vegetation at a scale (1:2 000 000) useful for environmental resource management, monitoring and modelling activities. Nested within the ecodistricts are the polygons that make up the Soil Landscapes of Canada series of 1:1 000 000 scale soil maps. The framework is supported by an ARC-INFO GIS at Agriculture Canada. The data model allows linkage to associated databases on climate, land use and socio-economic attributes. 相似文献
The degradation and corresponding product manifold for the pesticide fipronil was determined in three replicate estuarine mesocosms. Aqueous fipronil concentrations rapidly decreased over the 672 h timescale of the experiment (95% removal). Loss was apparently first-order in fipronil, although there appeared to be a change in the removal mechanism after 96 h that corresponded to a dramatic slowdown in its disappearance. The reduction product of fipronil, fipronil sulfide, was not detected in the water column; however, it formed rapidly in sediments and was identified as the major product of fipronil degradation in the system (20% yield at 672 h, with respect to initial fipronil concentration). Fipronil sulfone is thought to form primarily via biological oxidation; and, although it was generated rapidly in the water column (10% yield), only trace amounts were detected in the sediment (1% yield). The direct photolysis product of fipronil, fipronil desulfinyl, was present in all samples; it formed rapidly in the water column (4% yield) and partitioned into the sediment phase (7% yield) over the course of the experiment. The mass balance on fipronil and associated products was 42% at 672 h. 相似文献
The Chesapeake Bay benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) was developed to assess benthic community health and environmental quality in Chesapeake Bay. The B-IBI provides Chesapeake Bay monitoring programs with a uniform tool with which to characterize bay-wide benthic community condition and assess the health of the Bay. A probability-based design permits unbiased annual estimates of areal degradation within the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries with quantifiable precision. However, of greatest interest to managers is the identification of problem areas most in need of restoration. Here we apply the B-IBI to benthic data collected in the Bay since 1994 to assess benthic community degradation by Chesapeake Bay Program segment and water depth. We used a new B-IBI classification system that improves the reliability of the estimates of degradation. Estimates were produced for 67 Chesapeake Bay Program segments. Greatest degradation was found in areas that are known to experience hypoxia or show toxic contamination, such as the mesohaline portion of the Potomac River, the Patapsco River, and the Maryland mainstem. Logistic regression models revealed increased probability of degraded benthos with depth for the lower Potomac River, Patapsco River, Nanticoke River, lower York River, and the Maryland mainstem. Our assessment of degradation by segment and water depth provided greater resolution of relative condition than previously available, and helped define the extent of degradation in Chesapeake Bay. 相似文献
To assess the concern over declining base cation levels in forest soils caused by acid deposition, input-output budgets (1990s
average) for sulphate (SO4), inorganic nitrogen (NO3-N; NH4-N), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K) were synthesised for 21 forested catchments from 17 regions in Canada,
the United States and Europe. Trend analysis was conducted on monthly ion concentrations in deposition and runoff when more
than 9 years of data were available (14 regions, 17 sites). Annual average SO4 deposition during the 1990s ranged between 7.3 and 28.4 kg ha−1 per year, and inorganic nitrogen (N) deposition was between 2.8 and 13.8 kg ha−1 per year, of which 41–67% was nitrate (NO3-N). Over the period of record, SO4 concentration in deposition decreased in 13/14 (13 out of 14 total) regions and SO4 in runoff decreased at 14/17 catchments. In contrast, NO3-N concentrations in deposition decreased in only 1/14 regions, while NH4-N concentration patterns varied; increasing at 3/14 regions and decreasing at 2/14 regions. Nitrate concentrations in runoff
decreased at 4/17 catchments and increased at only 1 site, whereas runoff levels of NH4-N increased at 5/17 catchments. Decreasing trends in deposition were also recorded for Ca, Mg, and K at many of the catchments
and on an equivalent basis, accounted for up to 131% (median 22%) of the decrease in acid anion deposition. Base cation concentrations
in streams generally declined over time, with significant decreases in Ca, Mg and K occurring at 8, 9 and 7 of 17 sites respectively,
which accounted for up to 133% (median 48%) of the decrease in acid anion concentration. Sulphate export exceeded input at
18/21 catchments, likely due to dry deposition and/or internal sources. The majority of N in deposition (31–100%; median 94%)
was retained in the catchments, although there was a tendency for greater NO3-N leaching at sites receiving higher (<7 kg ha-1 per year) bulk inorganic N deposition. Mass balance calculations show that export of Ca and Mg in runoff exceeds input at
all 21 catchments, but K export only exceeds input at 16/21 sites. Estimates of base cation weathering were available for
18 sites. When included in the mass balance calculation, Ca, Mg and K exports exceeded inputs at 14, 10 and 2 sites respectively.
Annual Ca and Mg losses represent appreciable proportions of the current exchangeable soil Ca and Mg pools, although losses
at some of the sites likely occur from weathering reactions beneath the rooting zone and there is considerable uncertainty
associated with mineral weathering estimates. Critical loads for sulphur (S) and N, using a critical base cation to aluminium
ratio of 10 in soil solution, are currently exceeded at 7 of the 18 sites with base cation weathering estimates. Despite reductions
in SO4 and H+ deposition, mass balance estimates indicate that acid deposition continues to acidify soils in many regions with losses of
Ca and Mg of primary concern.
The U.S. Government's right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.
The Canadian Crown reserves the right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright. 相似文献