Integrated environmental assessment: an urban perspective

A broadening of the strategic approach to environmental issues coupled with changes in the mechanisms of environmental governance and management has generated demands for new kinds of environmental knowledge and for new ways of using it. In particular there is now a strong demand for information about the environment to be linked to information about the impacts of human activities so that the unsustainable aspects of economic development can be anticipated and controlled. The scope of environmental assessment has enlarged to provide information that will help a wide range of stakeholders, including business and publics to make decisions, choosing between alternatives on the basis of sound environmental information set in a social and economic context. This paper provides a discussion of these developments and illustrates how integrated environmental assessment of a specific urban environmental problem, the reduction of health impacts of air borne particles, can deliver broad strategic information for participants in the solution.

A human－ecology approach to environmental design──An integrative human－ecology design derived from Chinese agricultural cultur eexperiences

Based on fundamental principles of ecology ,the ecological philosophy connotation of Feng-Shui(Wind and Water) concept from experiences of Chinese agricultural culture was first discussed , and then hu-man-ecological implications of Feng-Shui environment architecture is analyzed. As a theoretical integrationbetween human ecology and Feng-Shui theory ,“environment” and “environmental design” concepts were re-examined and given new definitions. With holistic principles of human ecological design in the context ofFeng-Shui , essential technical ways of integrative human ecological design were explored in the presentationof a case study of an urban environmental design in east China.

Multi-agent-based Approach for Determination of Time-quota in Integrated Environment

Time-quota is one of important factors in producti on system. It is affected by various factors. time-quota is studied in CAPP and p roduction schedule integration environment in this paper. An agent-based time- quota method is put forward and the structure model is established by means of i ntelligent agent in integrated environment. The method can map the influencing t ime-quota factors into part agent related to process state and machine method a gent, resorting to the function of agent rule-based reasoning, the agents can t ransform these factors into data mode that artificial neural network (ANN) can a ccept and recognize. As a tool, ANN agent can calculate time-quota quickly. A b lackboard method is used as the means of communication and collaborative control between agents. The experiments show that precise process time-quota can be obtained rapidly with proper samples selected, continuous self-study and self -organization in system, and multi-agent approach is an effective method for d etermination of time-quota.

Environmental Integration of Small Hydropower Development

On the basis of cooperative research with European professionals, problems relating to environmental and ecological protection were discussed while small hydropower development in China currently was introduced in this paper. Guidelines of small hydropower development dealing with environmental protection were sug- gested hereby. Various specific technical environmental solutions focusing on small hydropower development applied in European and other developed countries were also introduced in this paper. Main environmental solutions are discussed as follows： integrated design should be advocated during plan/design stage,＂ ecohydraulic engineering and its utilization in SHP design and construction; effective technical approaches to relieve and eliminate the impact of river interception and fix the reasonable minimum biological flow; environment-friendly mitigation and compensation measures for high/low-head hydropower schemes applied in diversion works, intake, nature-like fish-passes, penstock and powerhouse design; study and application of the new technology, material and equipments; launching renovation of environmental protection in existing stations; emphasiz- ing public participation and their acceptability for the SHP environment; coordinated inter-disciplinary study at national level, etc. Two case studies in Sweden and Australia are given here.

Integrated bioremediation techniques in a shrimp farming environment under controlled conditions

This study investigated the integrated bioremediation techniques for a shrimp culture system to reduce unconsumed feed and the contents of suspended solids（SS）, nutrients and organic pollutants using barracuda,clamworm, scallop, large algae and a biofilter. A multi-pool internal circulation system was designed to test the effectiveness of the techniques in the laboratory. The experimental result has shown that Argopecten irradians,Gracilaria lemaneiformis and the biofilter efficiently reduced the contents of SS, dissolved inorganic carbon（DIC）and dissolved organic carbon（DOC） in the breeding wastewater. The amount of unconsumed feed was significantly reduced by barracuda and clamworm, but there was an increase in the contents of SS, DIC and DOC in the water due to disturbance by the barracuda and clamworm. The capacity of macroalgae to extract inorganic nitrogen was insufficient. However, the balance of the nitrogen fixation rate of macroalgae and the biological exhaust nitrogen rate within the system should be fully considered. The use of the biofilter alone was not optimal for the remediation of organic matter in shrimp effluent so that auxiliary foam separation technology is needed to improve the ability of the system to remove macromolecules. This study provides a basis for the further development of remediation techniques to reduce the environmental impact of shrimp aquaculture.

Nano-Electronic Simulation Software (NESS): A Novel Open-Source TCAD Simulation Environment

This paper presents the latest status of the open source advanced TCAD simulator called Nano-Electronic Simulation Software(NESS)which is currently under development at the Device Modeling Group of the University of Glasgow.NESS is designed with the main aim to provide an open,flexible,and easy to use simulation environment where users are able not only to perform numerical simulations but also to develop and implement new simulation methods and models.Currently,NESS is organized into two main components:the structure generator and a collection of different numerical solvers;which are linked to supporting components such as an effective mass extractor and materials database.This paper gives a brief overview of each of the components by describing their main capabilities,structure,and theory behind each one of them.Moreover,to illustrate the capabilities of each component,here we have given examples considering various device structures,architectures,materials,etc.at multiple simulation conditions.We expect that NESS will prove to be a great tool for both conventional as well as exploratory device research programs and projects.

Integrated Assessment of Mineral Resources and Environmentin Mid-South of Shandong Province

On the bases of the field survey and a large number of testing data, we process the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the mine environment in the mid south of Shandong Province using the following grade Ⅰ factors:the surface subsidence in mining area, the three wastes of mine industries, the pollution sources, the surface water pollution, the underground water pollution and the air pollution. By means of emitting factor judgment and water quality indexes, we locate pollution sources, main pollutants, pollution type and pollution grade in the study area. Using the MAPGIS, we draw a zonality map of the mine environment. This paper attempts to offer a concrete example, including valuable assessment method, data and conclusion, for the assessment of mine environment from the integrated assessment of mineral resources and mine environment. This research is oriented towards the sustainable development and the ecological environment optimization.

Mentoring as an Interaction System, Providing Teachers＇ Readiness to Integrate Into the School Environment

The sustainable development of today＇s society can be promoted by providing the educational sustainability. The education of prospective teachers should be based on ecological approach, which ensures the ecological perspective and an opportunity for students to develop their readiness to integrate into the school environment. The main aim of the author＇s research is to substantiate mentoring as an interaction system for the facilitation of the prospective teachers＇ readiness to integrate into the school environment. The author of this paper offers the results of her theoretical research： substantiation of mentoring＇s importance in teachers＇ education, substantiation of mentors＇ roles and functions, and substantiation of ecological approach in teachers＇ education. Ecological approach in teachers＇ education facilitates the formation of friendly attitude toward a school as an educational environment. Mentoring provides the prospective teachers＇ readiness to the professional activity and ability to successful integration in various types of school environment, considering their specificity. The author applied the following research methods： experience reflection, studying, analysing, and evaluating of scientific literature.

Real Time Speech Based Integrated Development Environment for C Program

This Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is the process which converts an acoustic signal captured by the microphone to written text. The motivation of the paper is to create a speech based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for C program. This paper proposes a technique to facilitate the visually impaired people or the person with arm injuries with excellent programming skills that can code the C program through voice input. The proposed system accepts the C program as voice input and produces compiled C program as output. The user should utter each line of the C program through voice input. First the voice input is recognized as text. The recognized text will be converted into C program by using syntactic constructs of the C language. After conversion, C program will be fetched as input to the IDE. Furthermore, the IDE commands like open, save, close, compile, run are also given through voice input only. If any error occurs during the compilation process, the error is corrected through voice input only. The errors can be corrected by specifying the line number through voice input. Performance of the speech recognition system is analyzed by varying the vocabulary size as well as number of mixture components in HMM.

CONSTRUCTION OF INTEGRATED CAD TOOLS ENVIRONMENT TO SUPPORT CONCURRENT COLLABORATIVE DESIGN

A CAD tools environment is described to support concurrent collaborative design. The environment has four components: shared design representation, design process control, CAD tools, designer interface. Some related issues for the construction, such as form feature handling, constraint satisfaction, design process control, STEP based information integration, are discussed in more detail.

Ask Me Any Type:Type Inference Plugin for Partial Code on the Web and in the Integrated Development Environment

Inferring the fully qualified names(FQNs)of undeclared receiving objects and non-fully-qualified type names(non-FQNs)in partial code is critical for effectively searching,understanding,and reusing partial code.Existing type inference tools,such as COSTER and SNR,rely on a symbolic knowledge base and adopt a dictionary-lookup strategy to map simple names of undeclared receiving objects and non-FQNs to FQNs.However,building a symbolic knowledge base requires parsing compilable code files,which limits the collection of APIs and code contexts,resulting in out-of-vocabulary(OOV)failures.To overcome the limitations of a symbolic knowledge base for FQN inference,we implemented Ask Me Any Type(AMAT),a type of inference plugin embedded in web browsers and integrated development environment(IDE).Unlike the dictionary-lookup strategy,AMAT uses a cloze-style fill-in-the-blank strategy for type inference.By treating code as text,AMAT leverages a fine-tuned large language model(LLM)as a neural knowledge base,thereby preventing the need for code compilation.Experimental results show that AMAT outperforms state-of-the-art tools such as COSTER and SNR.In practice,developers can directly reuse partial code by inferring the FQNs of unresolved type names in real time.

Study on Sustainable Utilization of Resources of the Damp-heat Karst Mountainous Areas in China

Damp-heat karst mountainous areas are unique areas in terms of socialeconomic development, resource endowment and eco-environment in China, where natural resources are abundant,unique and diverse. However, fragile eco-environment, undeveloped economy and culture, and conflict of human and environment should not be ignored. In the research, a framework of integration of resource-development and environment-protection in damp-heat karst was designed on basis of resource and environment integration, which was applied to Daxin County in Guangxi Province. Furthermore, some integration models were proposed, including integration of development of characteristic agricultural resources and protection of eco-environment, integration of development of manganese ore resources and protection of eco-environment, integration of development of tourism resources and protection of ecoenvironment and integration of development of clean energy and protection of eco-environment.

IRP/DSM and Sustainable Development

This paper introduces the energy consumption status in China, elaborate the affects of the unreasonable energy consumption structure on energy environment and sustainable development of economy. Simultaneously, it points out the solution, i.e., to implement integrated resources planning (IRP)/demand side management (DSM), and gives some recommendations on the way of implementing IRP/DSM.

Monitoring and simulation of water,heat,and CO_2 fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems based on the APEIS-FLUX system

The Integrated Environmental Monitoring (IEM) project, part of the Asia-Pacific Environmental Innovation Strategy (APEIS) project, developed an integrated environmental monitoring system that can be used to detect, monitor, and assess environmental disasters, degradation, and their impacts in the Asia-Pacific region. The system primarily employs data from the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) sensor on the Earth Observation System-(EOS-) Terra/Aqua satellite, as well as those from ground observations at five sites in different ecological systems in China. From the preliminary data analysis on both annual and daily variations of water, heat and CO2 fluxes, we can confirm that this system basically has been working well. The results show that both latent flux and CO2 flux are much greater in the crop field than those in the grassland and the saline desert, whereas the sensible heat flux shows the opposite trend. Different data products from MODIS have very different correspondence, e.g. MODIS-derived land surface temperature has a close correlation with measured ones, but LAI and NPP are quite different from ground measurements, which suggests that the algorithms used to process MODIS data need to be revised by using the local dataset. We are now using the APEIS-FLUX data to develop an integrated model, which can simulate the regional water, heat, and carbon fluxes. Finally, we are expected to use this model to develop more precise high-order MODIS products in Asia-Pacific region.

Establishment and Application of Urbanization Strategic Environ-mental Assessment Integration Technology System

Urbanization strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is an effective instrument to enhance the harmo-nious development of urban complex system, integrating of environment and development in decision-making. Ur-banization strategic environmental assessment integration technology system (SEA-ITS) is composed of "3S" (RS, GIS and GPS), environmental expert system and environmental model system, coupling with appropriate SEA working process closely. In this paper, the structure and components of SEA-ITS are analyzed based on Chinese characteristics, meanwhile methods to fulfill the following system functions are discussed: urbanization SEA in-quiring, analysis, discrimination, assessment, prediction, decision-making and output. Moreover, methods and tech-nologies employed in different urbanization SEA hierarchies are summarized. As a case study, urbanization SEA-ITS is applied in Changchun City to solving complex real problems. Methods such as system dynamics and grey cluster are adopted to achieve the environmental impact assessment on the eco-industrial system planning. It is revealed that the system designed is capable of reflecting the dynamic behavior of eco-industrial system under different sce-narios, meanwhile accomplishing strategy optimization and supplying scientific reference. The 4th strategy, namely concerning on economy increase and its interaction with science, technology and environment progress, would have the best efficiency. Further, more attention should be paid to the secondary development of integration techniques and function modification system of urbanization SEA-ITS.

Simulation of Hail and Soil Type Effects on Crop Yield Losses in Kansas,USA

Computer simulation was used for predictive analysis of the effects of weather and soil type on crop yield in the U.S. crop insurance program. The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate （EPIC） model was modified to include hail weather events, which completed the modifications necessary to simulate the four most frequent causes of crop yield loss （hail, excessive wet, excessive cold, and excessive dry） associated with soil type in Kansas, USA. At the region level, per hectare yields were simulated for corn, wheat, soybean, and sorghum. We concluded that it was possible to predict crop yields through computer simulation with greater than 93% accuracy. The hail damage model test indicated EPIC could predict hail-soil-induced yield losses reasonably well （R^2 〉 0.6）. The investigation of soil type influence on dryland sorghum and wheat production indicated that Wymore silty clay loam soil and Kenorna silt loam produced the highest sorghum yields statistically; Kuma silt loam, Roxbury silt loam, Crete silty clay loam, and Woodson silt soils produced the second highest sorghum yields statistically; and Richfiled silt loam, Wells loam, and Canadian sandy loam produced the lowest sorghum yields. By contrast, wheat production showed less sensitivity to soil type variation. The less sensitive response of wheat yields to the soil type could be largely due to the unconsidered small-scale variability of soil features.

Design and Simulation of Ring Network-on-Chip for Different Configured Nodes

The network-on-chip(NoC)technology is frequently referred to as a front-end solution to a back-end problem.The physical substructure that transfers data on the chip and ensures the quality of service begins to collapse when the size of semiconductor transistor dimensions shrinks and growing numbers of intellectual property(IP)blocks working together are integrated into a chip.The system on chip(SoC)architecture of today is so complex that not utilizing the crossbar and traditional hierarchical bus architecture.NoC connectivity reduces the amount of hardware required for routing and functions,allowing SoCs with NoC interconnect fabrics to operate at higher frequencies.Ring(Octagons)is a direct NoC that is specifically used to solve the scalability problem by expanding each node in the shape of an octagon.This paper discusses the ring NoC design concept and its simulation in Xilinx ISE 14.7,as well as the communication of functional nodes.For the field-programmable gate array(FPGA)synthesis,the performance of NoC is evaluated in terms of hardware and timing parameters.The design allows 64 to 256 node communication in a single chip with‘N’bit data transfer in the ring NoC.The performance of the NoC is evaluated with variable nodes from 2 to 256 in Digilent manufactured Virtex-5 FPGA hardware.

Simulation Operating System and Integrated Simulation Software

In this paper, a new concept of simulation operating system (SIMOS) is described. A detailed definition of SIMOS is given, and two integrated simulation software (IPSOS and IMSS) are introduced based on SIMOS.

Ontology-Based Semantic Multi-agent Framework for Micro-grids with Cyber Physical Concept

The distributed hierarchical control based on multi-agent system(MAS) is the main control method of micro-grids.By allowing more flexible interactions between computing components and their physical environments,cyber physical system(CPS) presents a new approach for the distributed hierarchical engineering system,with micro-grids included.The object of this paper is to integrate the CPS concept with MAS technology and propose a new control framework for micro-grids.With the analysis of the operating mode and control method of micro-grids,the cyber physical control concepts of ontologybased semantic agent are discussed.Then an MAS-based architecture of cyber physical micro-grid system and an intelligent electronic device(IED) function structure are proposed.Finally,in order to operate and test the cyber physical micro-grid concept,an integrated simulation model is presented.