From highly polluted inland city of China to"Lanzhou Blue":The air-pollution characteristics

Air quality was improved considerably and the so-called"Lanzhou Blue"appeared frequently in Lanzhou due to implementation of some strict emission-control measures in recent years.To better understand whether the concentration of each air pollutant had decreased significantly and then give some suggestions as to urban air-quality improvement in the near future,the variations of the Air Quality Index(AQI)and six criterion air pollutants(PM_(2.5),PM_(10),CO,SO_2,NO_2,and O_3)at five state-controlled monitoring sites of Lanzhou were studied from 2013 to 2016.The AQI,PM_(2.5),PM_(10),and SO_2 gradually decreased from 2013 to 2016,while CO and NO_2 concentrations had slightly increasing trends,especially in urban areas,due to the large number of motor vehicles,which had an annual growth rate of 30.87%.The variations of the air pollutants in the no-domestic-heating season were more significant than those in the domestic-heating season.The increase of ozone concentration for the domestic-heating season at a background station was the most significant among the five monitoring sites.The vehicle-exhaust and ozone pollution was increasingly severe with the rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles.The particulate-matter pollution became slight in the formerly highly polluted Lanzhou City.Some synergetic measures in urban and rural areas of Lanzhou should be taken by the local government in the near future to control fine particulate-matter(PM_(2.5))and ozone pollution.

An Analysis of the Influence of Chinese Agriculture on National Economy and the Macroeconomic Effects

As a basic industry,agriculture has a far-reaching impact on national economy. Based on input-output tables of China in 2005 and2010,this paper gives a deep insight into the relationship between agriculture and national economy and its macroeconomic effects by the methods of input-output analysis,industrial correlation and macroeconomic effect analysis. The results show that the agricultural development is highly dependent on the national economy,but makes low contribution; agriculture contributes to promoting employment and improving the structure of national income distribution; despite the government's tax incentive,the agricultural equipments are updated slowly,and the corporate profits are at low level; agricultural export effect is far below the average industry level,but the import effect increases over the years,and final products are often used for domestic consumption. Finally,we set forth recommendations for improving the development of agriculture and national economy.

Multi-site observation of large-scale eddies in the surface layer of the Loess Plateau

This article aims to build a theory of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence under complex conditions. To achieve this goal, we constructed a multi-site observation and analysis method of atmospheric turbulence based on related principles.This method first requires verification for the ergodicity of the full-scale observation of surface-layer turbulence, which proves that eddies within a scale of 60 min during a four-site observation can easily meet ergodicity. Meanwhile, by applying the second-order structure function for the horizontal wind speed turbulence of a single site and upstream and downstream points, we verified the ergodicity of the turbulence observation. Comparing the turbulence spectrum to the second-order structure function for the horizontal wind speed from the four-site observation, a relatively high accordance was observed, proving the reasonability of the multi-site observation. Moreover, compared to the single-site observation, the four-site observation can improve the estimation accuracy of the surface-layer turbulence spectrum and vertical turbulent flux. As a result, we can describe the threedimensional structure of turbulence more accurately and comprehensively by combining analytical data from single-site and four-site observations. In summary, the multi-site turbulence observation method shows that the horizontal and vertical wind turbulence of the Baimiao plateau has a typical structure of a turbulence spectrum with clear spectral gaps. The result is in accordance with the scale of the turbulence spectral gaps obtained from the 6 h data. The horizontal wind speed is under the influence of the terrain, so its spectrum of large-scale eddies has higher fluctuations, but its spectral gaps can still be clearly distinguished. Although the spectral gaps of the temperature spectrum are not distinguishable, they still have the same scale as the spectral gap of the vertical and horizontal turbulence spectrum. Moreover, the temperature spectrum possesses typical structure characteristics of the boundary-layer turbulence spectrum.

Coalbed methane desorption characteristics controlled by coalification and its implication on gas co-production from multiple coal seams

In this work,CH4 isothermal adsorption measurements were carried out on 64 coal samples collected from western Guizhou Province of China,and the coalbed methane(CBM)desorption processes were quantitatively analyzed.The results show that the Langmuir volume and the Langmuir pressure are controlled by coalification,and tend to increase as the vitrinite reflectance changes from 0.98% to 4.3%.Based on a division method of CBM desorption stages,the CBM desorption process were divided into four stages(inefficient,slow,fast and sensitive desorption stages)by three key pressure nodes(the initial,turning and sensitive pressures).The fast and sensitive desorption stages with high desorption efficiency are the key for achieving high gas production.A theoretical chart of the critical desorption pressure(P_(cd))and its relationship with different pressure nodes was established.The higher-rank coals have the higher initial,turning and sensitive pressures,with larger difference between pressure nodes.Most CBM wells only undergo partial desorption stages due to the differences in P_(cd) caused by the present-gas content.Under the same gas content conditions,the higher the coal rank,the less desorption stages that CBM needs to go through.During coalbed methane co-production from multiple coal seams within vertically superposed pressure systems,the reservoir pressure,the P_(cd),the initial working liquid level(WLL)height,and coal depth are key factors for evaluating whether coal seams can produce CBM simultaneously.It must be ensured that each production layer enters at least the fast desorption stage prior to that the WLL was lower than the depth of each layer.Only on this basis can all layers achieve the maximum gas production.

Effect of traffic restriction on atmospheric particle concentrations and their size distributions in urban Lanzhou, Northwestern China

During the 2012 Lanzhou International Marathon, the local government made a significant effort to improve traffic conditions and air quality by implementing traffic restriction measures. To evaluate the direct effect of these measures on urban air quality, especially particle concentrations and their size distributions, atmospheric particle size distributions （0.5-20μm） obtained using an aerodynamic particle sizer （model 3321, TSI, USA） in June 2012 were analyzed. It was found that the particle number, surface area and volume concentrations for size range 0.5-10 μm were （15.0±2.1） cm-3, （11.8±2.6） μm2/cm3 and （1.9±0.6） μm2/cm3, respectively, on the traffic-restricted day （Sunday）, which is 63.2%, 53.0% and 47.2% lower than those on a normal Sunday. For number and surface area concentrations, the most affected size range was 0.5-0.7 and 0.5-0.8 μm, respectively, while for volume concentration, the most affected size ranges were 0.5-0.8, 1.7-2.0 and 5.0-5.4 μm. Number and volume concentrations of particles in size range 0.5-1.0μm correlated well with the number of non-CNG （Compressed Natural Gas） powered vehicles, while their correlation with the number of CNG-powered vehicles was very low, suggesting that reasonable urban traffic controls along with vehicle technology improvements could play an important role in improving urban air quality.

Ergodicity of turbulence measurements upon complex terrain in Loess Plateau

To display the distribution characteristics of turbulence eddy under condition of complex terrain in Loess Plateau,and to enhance the precision of turbulence measurements,the research of turbulence ergodicity is considered to be the prior section of the experiment.With the statistics of single-site turbulence measurements obtained in Baimiao Tableland,Ping Liang,Gan Su,analysis result shows that not only the turbulence with scale less than 10 min,which can easily satisfy the ergodicity,the tableland terrain can also be a major cause of the coherent structure of periodic,large-scale turbulence;compared to which for the turbulence above the flat underlying surface,the distribution of 10–40 min,large-scale turbulence in the tableland region tends to be more steady and,thus,can also satisfy the ergodicity easily.Under the condition of extremely unstable stratification,the wind is comparatively low in speed and features distinctly large-scale,periodical fluctuation,and with the trend of smooth increase in temperature,large-scale wind turbulence and temperature turbulence both tend to satisfy ergodicity.In comparison,under the condition of extremely stable stratification,the aperiodicity of large-scale wind turbulence and temperature turbulence caused by intermittency is comparatively strong,and the turbulence cannot satisfy ergodicity easily.

Influences of Meteorological Conditions on Interannual Variations of Particulate Matter Pollution during Winter in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Area

To investigate the interannual variations of particulate matter （PM） pollution in winter, this paper examines the pollution characteristics of PM with aerodynamic diameters of less than 2.5 and 10 μm （i.e., PM2.5 and PM10）, and their relationship to meteorological conditions over the Beijing municipality, Tianjin municipality, and Hebei Province--an area called Jing-Jin-Ji （JJJ, hereinafter）-in December 2013-16. The meteorological conditions during this period are also analyzed. The regional average concentrations of PM2.5 （PM10） over the JJJ area during this period were 148.6 （236.4）, 100.1 （166.4）, 140.5 （204.5）, and 141.7 （203.1） μg m^-3, respectively. The high occurrence frequencies of cold air outbreaks, a strong Siberian high, high wind speeds and boundary layer height, and low temperature and relative humidity, were direct meteorological causes of the low PM concentration in December 2014. A combined analysis of PM pollution and meteorological conditions implied that control measures have resulted in an effective improvement in air quality. Using the same emissions inventory in December 2013-16, a modeling analysis showed emissions of PM2.5 to decrease by 12.7%, 8.6%, and 8.3% in December 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, each compared with the previous year, over the JJJ area.

Effect of short-term regional traffic restriction on urban submicron particulate pollution

During the 2013 and 2015 Lanzhou International Marathon Events （LIME1 and LIME2）, the local government made a significant effort to improve traffic conditions and air quality by implementing traffic restriction measures. To fill the gap in information on the effect of short-period {several hours） traffic control on urban air quality, submicron particle size distributions and meteorological data were measured simultaneously during June 2013 and June 2015 in urban Lanzhou. The number and surface area concentrations of particles in the 100-200 nm range declined by 67.2% and 6B.0% for LIME1 due to traffic control, while they decreased by 39.2% and 37.1% for LIME2. The impact of traffic restriction on air pollution near the sampling site lagged behind the traffic control period for LIME2. In addition, the effect of traffic restriction on air pollution near the sampling site was dependent on the distance between the relative orientation of the sampling site and traffic-restricted zones, as well as meteorological conditions such as wind direction. The influence of traffic restrictions on the particle concentrations differed for different particle sizes. The size range most affected by traffic restriction was 60-200 and 60-300 nm for number and surface area concentrations in the urban environment, respectively, while for the particle volume concentration it was the 100-600 nm range. This study will provide a basis for implementation of future urban traffic-induced particulate pollution control measures.