Albania is located on the eastern shore of the Adriatic and Jon Sea, south of former Yugoslavia, north of Greece, and west of Macedonia. It is divided into three agro-ecological zones based on climate, soils and veget...Albania is located on the eastern shore of the Adriatic and Jon Sea, south of former Yugoslavia, north of Greece, and west of Macedonia. It is divided into three agro-ecological zones based on climate, soils and vegetation： the fertile coastal plains, the intermediate hilly region, and the non-arable mountain zones. Annual rainfall varies from 800 to 2,000 mm in coastal areas to 1,600 to 2,000 mm in the hilly regions and up to 3,000 mm in the mountains. Rainfall is concentrated mainly in the winter, and less than 20 percent of annual rainfall occurs in the six-month period between April and September. Studies indicate that available sources of supply could provide more than enough to satisfy the country＇s overall water demand. In many cities, water availability at the source is about 500-700 litres per capita per day, but leaks and waste mean that only a small fraction of water produced is consumed. The paper research concludes that the Albanian government should： （1） Introduce and implement new anti-corruption laws to increase the market transparency; （2） Continue the ongoing institutional and economical reform to deliver better legal institutions and market efficiency; （3） Reduce anti-competitive practices such as government monopoly in some sectors and privatize all the strategic sectors; and （4） Urgently develop with the help of International Monetary Fund, new projects regarding infrastructure with clear the National Investment Promotion Agency from the bureaucratic procedures and further increase the budget to improve the whole internal infrastructure.展开更多
The ring-width chronology of a Juniperus przewalskii tree from the middle of the Qilian Mountain was constructed to estimate the annual precipitation (from previous August to current July) since AD 1480.The reconstruc...The ring-width chronology of a Juniperus przewalskii tree from the middle of the Qilian Mountain was constructed to estimate the annual precipitation (from previous August to current July) since AD 1480.The reconstruction showed four major alternations of drying and wetting over the past 521 years.The rainy 16th century was followed by persistent drought in the 17th century.Moreover,relatively wet conditions persisted from the 18th to the beginning of 20th century until the recurrence of a drought during the 1920s and 1930s.Based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition method,eight Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) were extracted,each representing unique fluctuations of the reconstructed precipitation in the time-frequency domain.The high amplitudes of IMFs on different timescales were often consistent with the high amount of precipitation,and vice versa.The IMF of the lowest frequency indicated that the precipitation has undergone a slow increasing trend over the past 521 years.The 2-3 year and 5-8 year time-scales reflected the characteristics of inter-annual variability in precipitation relevant to regional atmospheric circulation and the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),respectively.The 10-13 year scale of IMF may be associated with changing solar activity.Specifically,an amalgamation of previous and present data showed that droughts were likely to be a historically persistent feature of the Earth's climate,whereas the probability of intensified rainfall events seemed to increase during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.These changing characteristics in precipitation indicate an unprecedented alteration of the hydrological cycle,with unknown future amplitude.Our reconstruction complements existing information on past precipitation changes in the Qilian Mountain,and provides additional low-frequency information not previously available.展开更多
文摘Albania is located on the eastern shore of the Adriatic and Jon Sea, south of former Yugoslavia, north of Greece, and west of Macedonia. It is divided into three agro-ecological zones based on climate, soils and vegetation： the fertile coastal plains, the intermediate hilly region, and the non-arable mountain zones. Annual rainfall varies from 800 to 2,000 mm in coastal areas to 1,600 to 2,000 mm in the hilly regions and up to 3,000 mm in the mountains. Rainfall is concentrated mainly in the winter, and less than 20 percent of annual rainfall occurs in the six-month period between April and September. Studies indicate that available sources of supply could provide more than enough to satisfy the country＇s overall water demand. In many cities, water availability at the source is about 500-700 litres per capita per day, but leaks and waste mean that only a small fraction of water produced is consumed. The paper research concludes that the Albanian government should： （1） Introduce and implement new anti-corruption laws to increase the market transparency; （2） Continue the ongoing institutional and economical reform to deliver better legal institutions and market efficiency; （3） Reduce anti-competitive practices such as government monopoly in some sectors and privatize all the strategic sectors; and （4） Urgently develop with the help of International Monetary Fund, new projects regarding infrastructure with clear the National Investment Promotion Agency from the bureaucratic procedures and further increase the budget to improve the whole internal infrastructure.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41001058, 41001009, 40971119 and 40890052)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 201003194)
文摘The ring-width chronology of a Juniperus przewalskii tree from the middle of the Qilian Mountain was constructed to estimate the annual precipitation (from previous August to current July) since AD 1480.The reconstruction showed four major alternations of drying and wetting over the past 521 years.The rainy 16th century was followed by persistent drought in the 17th century.Moreover,relatively wet conditions persisted from the 18th to the beginning of 20th century until the recurrence of a drought during the 1920s and 1930s.Based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition method,eight Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) were extracted,each representing unique fluctuations of the reconstructed precipitation in the time-frequency domain.The high amplitudes of IMFs on different timescales were often consistent with the high amount of precipitation,and vice versa.The IMF of the lowest frequency indicated that the precipitation has undergone a slow increasing trend over the past 521 years.The 2-3 year and 5-8 year time-scales reflected the characteristics of inter-annual variability in precipitation relevant to regional atmospheric circulation and the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),respectively.The 10-13 year scale of IMF may be associated with changing solar activity.Specifically,an amalgamation of previous and present data showed that droughts were likely to be a historically persistent feature of the Earth's climate,whereas the probability of intensified rainfall events seemed to increase during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.These changing characteristics in precipitation indicate an unprecedented alteration of the hydrological cycle,with unknown future amplitude.Our reconstruction complements existing information on past precipitation changes in the Qilian Mountain,and provides additional low-frequency information not previously available.
