Changes in labour productivity feed through directly to national income. An external shock, like climate change, which may substantially reduce the productivity of workers is therefore a macroeconomic concern. The biophysical impact of higher temperatures on human performance is well documented. Less well understood are the wider effects of higher temperatures on the aggregate productivity of modern, diversified economies, where economic output is produced in contexts ranging from outdoor agriculture to work in air-conditioned buildings. Working conditions are at least to some extent the result of societal choices, which means that the labour productivity effects of heat can be alleviated through careful adaptation. A range of technical, regulatory/infrastructural and behavioural options are available to individuals, businesses and governments. The importance of local contexts prevents a general ranking of the available measures, but many appear cost-effective. Promising options include the optimization of working hours and passive cooling mechanisms. Climate-smart urban planning and adjustments to building design are most suitable to respond to high base temperature, while air conditioning can respond flexibly to short temperature peaks if there is sufficient cheap, reliable and clean electricity.
Key policy insights
The effect of heat stress on labour productivity is a key economic impact of climate change, which could affect national output and workers’ income.
Effective adaptation options exist, such as shifting working hours and cool roofs, but they require policy intervention and forward planning.
Strategic interventions, such as climate-smart municipal design, are as important as reactive or project-level adaptations.
Adaptation solutions to heat stress are highly context specific and need to be assessed accordingly. For example, shifting working hours could be an effective way of reducing the effect of peak temperatures, but only if there is sufficient flexibility in working patterns.
When fugitive methane migrates upward along boreholes of oil and gas wells, it may migrate into shallow ground water or pass through overlying soil to the atmosphere. Prior to this study, there was little information on the fate of fugitive methane that migrates into ground water. In a field study near Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada, we found hydrogeochemical evidence that fugitive methane from an oil well migrated into a shallow aquifer but has been attenuated by dissimilatory bacterial sulfate reduction at low temperature ( approximately 5 degrees C) under anaerobic conditions. Evidence includes spatial and temporal trends in concentrations of methane and sulfate in ground water and associated trends in concentrations of bicarbonate and sulfide. Within 10 m of the oil well, sulfate concentrations were low, and sulfate was enriched in both 34S and 18O. Sulfate concentrations had a strong positive correlation with delta13C values of bicarbonate, and sulfide was depleted in 34S compared to sulfate. These data indicate that bacterial sulfate reduction occurred near the production well. Near the oil well, elevated concentrations of bicarbonate were observed, and the bicarbonate was depleted in 13C. Modeling indicates that the main source of this excess 13C-depleted bicarbonate is oxidized methane. In concert with the sulfate concentration and isotope data, these results support an interpretation that in situ bacterial oxidation of methane has occurred, linked to bacterial sulfate reduction. Bacterial sulfate reduction may play a major role in bioattenuation of fugitive natural gas in ground water in western Canada. 相似文献
Fluid-flow measuring devices intended for full scale use were designed and tested. One device consisted of a rake supporting different types of pitot tubes. This will be used to obtain a velocity profile of the boundary layer of a test ship. The other device was a five-hole pitot tube that was used in a wake survey. The pressure transport medium (i.e. the medium that carried the pressure signal from the pitot tube to the pressure transducer) was air instead of water. This proved to be successful, as the results indicate. 相似文献
Since 1993 it is known that there is a good correlation between the scintillation in the solar irradiance and solar image quality (Seykora, 1993). This effect is now being used in a number of experiments to evaluate solar image quality and to measure site seeing. In this paper we explore further the calibration of this scintillation (I) in terms of the Fried parameter (r0) taking into account variations in the refractive index structure constant C
N2
with height (h), zenith distance () dependence and the effects of wind velocities. A variant in the scintillometer setup is proposed which decreases sharply the dependance on C
N2
, , and the wind velocities. It uses an array of scintillometers. The same array can be used to measure theC
N2
profile with height. Some preliminary results of the calibration of current NSO site survey measurements are presented. 相似文献
Residual displacement, as a significant measure of structural inelasticity, is effectively used in post-earthquake seismic assessment of structures. This demand can be considered for seismic evaluation of structures under multiple earthquakes. This study introduces a simple and novel index to predict the residual displacement of mainshock-damaged structures against subsequent aftershock. The proposed index is defined as a ratio between residual displacement of damaged structures against aftershock and peak inelastic displacement of intact structures under mainshock. In this study, constantstrength spectra based on the index are developed considering the effects of important structural characteristics and also significant seismic parameters. Moreover, analytical equations are presented to predict the proposed index for bi-linear single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF) systems considering both the effects of positive and negative polarities of aftershock. Furthermore, an equation is suggested to estimate the peak inelastic displacement of intact systems under mainshock, which is required to compute the index. 相似文献
A small‐diameter nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging tool has been developed and field tested at various sites in the United States and Australia. A novel design approach has produced relatively inexpensive, small‐diameter probes that can be run in open or PVC‐cased boreholes as small as 2 inches in diameter. The complete system, including surface electronics and various downhole probes, has been successfully tested in small‐diameter monitoring wells in a range of hydrogeological settings. A variant of the probe that can be deployed by a direct‐push machine has also been developed and tested in the field. The new NMR logging tool provides reliable, direct, and high‐resolution information that is of importance for groundwater studies. Specifically, the technology provides direct measurement of total water content (total porosity in the saturated zone or moisture content in the unsaturated zone), and estimates of relative pore‐size distribution (bound vs. mobile water content) and hydraulic conductivity. The NMR measurements show good agreement with ancillary data from lithologic logs, geophysical logs, and hydrogeologic measurements, and provide valuable information for groundwater investigations. 相似文献
A simplified empirical equation is developed for widespread prediction of dynamic catchment response time. This model allows for time-to-peak prediction to evolve from static, lumped models, thereby providing a single value for any storm within a given catchment, using a single set of input parameters, that can be applied to a dynamic model, thus accounting for the variability between storm sizes and catchment moisture conditions. These dynamic prediction methods are translated to North America for the first time. This allows the concepts and prediction methods for catchment response time prediction previously established for the United Kingdom (UK), to be translated to a simple empirical equation for use in North America, through the use of selected study areas in Canada and the United States. This reconfigured model is statistically successful in both the UK and North America and allows for a straightforward implementation of dynamic time-to-peak prediction. Further, the reconfigured model introduces the use of a runoff coefficient (Rc) to encompass historical catchment wetness, increasing the ease of incorporating antecedent moisture condition into predictions. 相似文献