Major environmental challenges for Norwegian offshore and shipping activities     

Brre Pettersen 《Marine pollution bulletin》1994,29(6-12):345-347

This paper presents the Norwegian governmental view of the challenges for the petroleum exploration and exploitation industries and shipping companies. The relationship between governmental and regional initiatives and the responsibilities of the industries are discussed. Examples are given which identify recent developments and progress and which illustrate the future direction. This is against a background of environmental awareness and increasing environmental regulation. The latter is, and requires to be, on a national and international basis.  相似文献   

关于推进防灾减灾与提高城市可持续发展能力的思考   总被引：9，自引：0，他引：9  

王绍玉  郝春新 《国际地震动态》2002,(3):4-7

探讨了城市化导致灾害加剧对城市可持续发展构成的危害，分析了城市防灾减灾能力的现状，从发挥政府主导作用、推进科技减灾、加大防灾减灾投入等方面，提出了强化城市防灾减灾能力、实现城市可持续发展的对策和建议。  相似文献   

Uk perspectives of the environmental impact of water resource developments     

A. T. Newman 《Surveys in Geophysics》1994,15(3):289-297

Differing arrangements exist for water resources regulation in the four nations of the UK. This account is largely concerned with England and Wales where a unitary regulation of water resources permits a coherent view of developments, although some reference is made to Scotland and Northern Ireland.Following a review in 1987 of compensation flows from UK reservoirs attention has more recently been focused on a broader range of water resource developments. The more obscured impacts of groundwater developments is now attracting the greater attention. Measures of environmental impact are confused by a wide number of environmental variables and the lack of consistent observation of these through the period of disturbance. Uncertainties have been compounded during studies by the coincidence of a major drought period with consequent accentuation of seasons with prolonged river lowflows.Historically water resource developments have been aimed by Engineers to maximise the production of usable water. The value of the resource in situ to the natural or previous managed environment will have had its defenders but that value could be degraded in pursuit of the primary goal. Recent convention and now statutory requirement for environmental impact assessment demands the involvement of inter-disciplinary study teams. This welcome practice remains bedeviled by the lack of sound quantitative criteria for water resource engineering design.There is no absence of general scientific understanding of environmental impacts but the need remains for the establishment of criteria and regular analytical procedures with which to link hydrological regimes with ecological success. Much work is being done in the UK to address this matter and there is increasing collaboration between Hydrologists and Biologists to seek constructive remedies.  相似文献   

Is irrigation water price an effective leverage for water management? An empirical study in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin     

《Physics and Chemistry of the Earth》2015

Serious water scarcity, low water-use efficiency, and over-exploitation of underground water have hindered socio-economic development and led to environmental degradation in the Heihe River basin, northwestern China. Price leveraging is an important tool in water demand management, and it is considered to be effective in promoting water conservation and improving water use efficiency on the premise that water demand is elastic. In the present study, we examine whether price is an effective and applicable instrument for restraining the increasing demand for agricultural irrigation water in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin and how will it affect farmers’ decisions on irrigation and crop structure. Specifically, the price elasticity of agricultural water demand was estimated based on the irrigation water demand function. The results show that the agricultural irrigation water price is statistically significant, but its elasticity is very low under current low water price. Price leverage cannot play a significant role in the context of the current pricing regime and farmers’ response to price increase is intrinsically weak. To create incentives for conserving water and improving irrigation efficiency, price mechanism should be accompanied with clearly defined and legally enforceable water rights, restricted water quota measures, and reform of water authorities and water-user associations. Furthermore, increases of surface irrigation water price may lead to the over-withdrawal of groundwater, consequently, effective groundwater licensing and levying must take place to limit the total volume of groundwater withdrawal. In all, improving irrigation efficiency through better management and the adoption of water-saving technologies is the ultimate way to deal with the challenges facing irrigated agriculture in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin.  相似文献   

Integrated water resources management: Concepts and issues   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

H.H.G. Savenije  P. Van der Zaag 《Physics and Chemistry of the Earth》2008,33(5):290-297

After the describing the historical developments that led the development of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), the paper defines this important concept. It subsequently deals with the thorny issue of water security as well as water conflict, after which the major issues over which thus far no consensus has been achieved are briefly reviewed. The paper concludes with an analysis of the role of the IAHS International Commission on Water Resources Systems (ICWRS) in promoting IWRM.  相似文献   

经济发展与减灾     

马宗晋  高庆华 《国际地震动态》2003,(4):1-4

指出在经济建设中必须增产与减灾防灾并重。经济建设在创造财富的同时，如不加以防范也有影响环境，导致灾害的负面作用。因此，需要将减灾贯穿经济建设的全过程，把减灾纳入国民经济和社会发展的总体规划，努力推动减灾产业化，使减灾成为发展的新增长点。  相似文献   

崇明岛"闸控型"河网水体富营养化特征及其影响因素   总被引：3，自引：1，他引：2  

张颖纯  姜德刚  李建华 《湖泊科学》2013,25(3):366-372

为研究崇明岛"闸控型"河网水体富营养化特征及其与环境因子的相互作用,以2010年各季节崇明岛河网水质数据为基础,探讨了环境因子与藻类的变化规律及其相互作用机制.结果表明:崇明岛河网水环境中营养盐水平较高,氮污染尤为严重.长江引水进入岛内河网水环境后,营养盐(除SiO₃-Si)、Chl.a含量和营养状态都出现了明显的升高.与长江引水相比,河网内藻类群落Chl.a贡献比例的变化主要表现为硅藻比例的下降以及蓝藻和绿藻比例的上升.尽管水温、pH、浊度以及营养盐中的TN、TP、NO₃^--N、DOC的变化均与Chl.a含量显著相关,但藻类群落对环境因子的响应关系存在较大差异.蓝藻的增加主要与水温和TP含量的升高有关;绿藻与TN、NO₃^--N的关系最为密切;硅藻的变化只与浊度存在明显正相关,营养盐并不是硅藻生长的促进因子.  相似文献   

Environmental crisis management: The role of a scientific organization in relation to the North Sea from 1987 to 1993     

J.P. Ducrotoy   《Marine pollution bulletin》1994,29(6-12):589-592

The North Sea is a relatively shallow body of water in an enclosed area with limited exchanges with the Atlantic Ocean. The impact of humans has become a threat to the continued welfare of this very important sea. The role in policy-making of the North Sea Task Force (NSTF), which operated from 1988–1993, are reviewed and its main results as a scientific body presented. Further developments to improve the scientific knowledge of environmental problems in the North Sea are suggested.  相似文献   

Understanding,management and modelling of urban hydrology and its consequences for receiving waters: A state of the art     

《Advances in water resources》2013

Urban hydrology has evolved to improve the way urban runoff is managed for flood protection, public health and environmental protection. There have been significant recent advances in the measurement and prediction of urban rainfall, with technologies such as radar and microwave networks showing promise. The ability to predict urban hydrology has also evolved, to deliver models suited to the small temporal and spatial scales typical of urban and peri-urban applications. Urban stormwater management increasingly consider the needs of receiving environments as well as those of humans. There is a clear trend towards approaches that attempt to restore pre-development flow-regimes and water quality, with an increasing recognition that restoring a more natural water balance benefits not only the environment, but enhances the liveability of the urban landscape. Once regarded only as a nuisance, stormwater is now increasingly regarded as a resource. Despite the advances, many important challenges in urban hydrology remain. Further research into the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban rainfall is required to improve short-term rainfall prediction. The performance of stormwater technologies in restoring the water balance and in removing emerging priority pollutants remain poorly quantified. All of these challenges are overlaid by the uncertainty of climate change, which imposes a requirement to ensure that stormwater management systems are adaptable and resilient to changes. Urban hydrology will play a critical role in addressing these challenges.  相似文献   

Optimizing the Environmental Performance of In Situ Thermal Remediation Technologies Using Life Cycle Assessment   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Gitte Lemming  Steffen G. Nielsen  Klaus Weber  Gorm Heron  Ralph S. Baker  Jacqueline A. Falkenberg  Mads Terkelsen  Carsten B. Jensen  Poul L. Bjerg 《Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation》2013,33(3):38-51

In situ thermal remediation technologies provide efficient and reliable cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater, but at a high cost of environmental impacts and resource depletion due to the large amounts of energy and materials consumed. This study provides a detailed investigation of four in situ thermal remediation technologies (steam enhanced extraction, thermal conduction heating, electrical resistance heating, and radio frequency heating) in order to (1) compare the life‐cycle environmental impacts and resource consumption associated with each thermal technology, and (2) identify options to reduce these adverse effects. The study identifies a number of options for environmental optimization of in situ thermal remediation. In general, environmental optimization can be achieved by increasing the percentage of heating supplied in off peak electricity demand periods as this reduces the pressure on coal‐based electricity and thereby reduces the environmental impacts due to electricity production by up to 10%. Furthermore, reducing the amount of concrete in the vapor cap by using a concrete sandwich construction can potentially reduce the environmental impacts due to the vapor cap by up to 75%. Moreover, a number of technology‐specific improvements were identified, for instance by the substitution of stainless steel types in wells, heaters, and liners used in thermal conduction heating, thus reducing the nickel consumption by 45%. The combined effect of introducing all the suggested improvements is a 10 to 21% decrease in environmental impacts and an 8 to 20% decrease in resource depletion depending on the thermal remediation technology considered. The energy consumption was found to be the main contributor to most types of environmental impacts; this will, however, depend on the electricity production mix in the studied region. The combined improvement potential is therefore to a large extent controlled by the reduction/improvement of energy consumption.  相似文献   

Market transfers of water for environmental protection in the western United States     

《Water Policy》1998,1(5):457-469

Buying and leasing water rights for environmental protection is becoming an important method for protecting river and stream flows in the western United States. The region has experienced an increasing number of market transfers of water to protect water quality and fish and wildlife habitat. From 1990 to 1997, more than US$37 million was spent to lease 2 million acre-feet of water and US$23.8 was spent to purchase 132,000 acre-feet of water for environmental protection. State and federal agencies are responsible for most of these market transfers, but there is increasing activity on the part of private organizations to acquire water for instream needs. This paper examines recent developments of instream flow marketing in the western United States. The paper reviews recent transfers and acquisitions programs and discusses the growing entrepreneurial efforts by private organizations to acquire water rights for instream use. Market information including price and quantity of water traded was collected from market participants. The average purchase and lease prices for the region are US$397 and US$30 per acre-foot, respectively.  相似文献   

The changing role of ecohydrological science in guiding environmental flows     

M.C. Acreman  I.C. Overton  J. King  P.J. Wood  I.G. Cowx  M.J. Dunbar 《水文科学杂志》2014,59(3-4):433-450

Abstract

The term “environmental flows” is now widely used to reflect the hydrological regime required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems, and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on them. The definition suggests a central role for ecohydrological science to help determine a required flow regime for a target ecosystem condition. Indeed, many countries have established laws and policies to implement environmental flows with the expectation that science can deliver the answers. This article provides an overview of recent developments and applications of environmental flows on six continents to explore the changing role of ecohydrological sciences, recognizing its limitations and the emerging needs of society, water resource managers and policy makers. Science has responded with new methods to link hydrology to ecosystem status, but these have also raised fundamental questions that go beyond ecohydrology, such as who decides on the target condition of the ecosystem? Some environmental flow methods are based on the natural flow paradigm, which assumes the desired regime is the natural “unmodified” condition. However, this may be unrealistic where flow regimes have been altered for many centuries and are likely to change with future climate change. Ecosystems are dynamic, so the adoption of environmental flows needs to have a similar dynamic basis. Furthermore, methodological developments have been made in two directions: first, broad-scale hydrological analysis of flow regimes (assuming ecological relevance of hydrograph components) and, second, analysis of ecological impacts of more than one stressor (e.g. flow, morphology, water quality). All methods retain a degree of uncertainty, which translates into risks, and raises questions regarding trust between scientists and the public. Communication between scientists, social scientists, practitioners, policy makers and the public is thus becoming as important as the quality of the science.