Study on the System of Aquatic Environmental Monitoring Methods in China

The development of Chinese system of aquatic environmental monitoring methods was summarized. The existing problem of the system of aquatic environmental monitoring methods was analyzed. At last, some suggestions were made on setting and implementing the system of aquat- ic environmental monitoring methods in China.

Prediction of Long-Term Extreme Response of Fish Cage Using Environmental Contour Method

The fish cage design requires accurate predictions of long-term extreme loads and responses.Compared with the time-consuming full long-term analysis method integrating all the probability distribution of the short-term extremes,the environmental contour method gains much attention in predicting the long-term extreme values due to the less computational effort.This paper investigates the long-term extreme response of a fish cage using the environmental contour method.The fish cage is numerically simulated based on the lumped-mass method and the curved beam theory.Based on the one-dimensional(1D)and two-dimensional(2D)environmental contour,the extreme responses,including the surge and heave motions,mooring force,and vertical bending of the floater,are predicted for different return periods and compared with the full long-term analysis results.Results indicate that the 1D method greatly underestimates the extreme values.The 2D environmental contour method with a higher percentile level,namely90%,provides reasonable estimations and seems to be suitable for the long-term value analysis.Sensitivity studies show that the mooring arrangement and the bending stiffness have great effects on the bending moment and the mooring force and the mooring line pre-tension has minor effects on the fish cage response.

Development an Adaptive Environmental Assessment Method for Buildings

The idea behind this work is developing an adaptive method for the environmental assessment of buildings, to configure different versions according to the variables affecting them (spatial, temporal and associated with building characteristics) to suit different evaluated projects. This method may be applied using an electronic tool, which is in a development stage. Amending different assessment versions of the adaptive method is done by including the variables effect, according to set of steps, such as modifying the formulation of the assessment items, adjusting their estimation weights, and amending their achievement evaluation levels and their returned scores. When using the adaptive method, the assessment result of a building using a certain version differs from the results using other versions, even in the same country, so configuring an appropriate version due to the variables affecting the assessment helps getting more accurate results than the ones currently provided. The main goal of that research is to introduce the adaptive method that is proposed to ensure a fairer assessment results from the perspective of Green Architecture, and allow a more credible and accuracy of results comparison according to the environmental performance of buildings. The researcher analyzed the different main features she used in developing the adaptive method, the Comparative aspects between it and the current assessment methods, and the expected reached advantages from its usage. The paper arrived to the importance of adapting the environmental assessment of buildings according to the different affecting variables, and recommended developing the adaptive method and its tool to the stage of application to benefit its advantages.

Estimating Design Loads with Environmental Contour Approach Using Copulas for an Offshore Jacket Platform

Jacket-type offshore platforms are widely used for oil, gas field, and energy development in shallow water. The design of a jacket structure is highly dependent on target environmental variables. This study focuses on a strategy to estimate design loads for offshore jacket structures based on an environmental contour approach. In addition to the popular conditional distribution model, various classes of bivariate copulas are adopted to construct joint distributions of environmental variables. Analytical formulations of environmental contours based on various models are presented and discussed in this study. The design loads are examined by dynamic response analysis of jacket platform. Results suggest that the conditional model is not recommended for use in estimating design loads in sampling locations due to poor fitting results. Independent copula produces conservative design loads and the extreme response obtained using the conditional model are smaller than those determined by copulas. The suitability of a model for contour construction varies with the origin of wave data. This study provides a reference for the design load estimation of jacket structures and offers an alternative procedure to determine the design criteria for offshore structures.

Study on Atmospheric Environmental Capacity of Shennongjia

Through analysis and evaluation on status quo of atmospheric environment in Shennongjia,atmospheric environment capacity in ClassII functional area of Shennongjia was counted by A value method. The results showed that atmospheric environment capacities of SO2,NO2 and PM10in Shennongjia Forest District were respectively 6 268. 8,17 666. 2 and 2 279. 5 t / a,much larger than emissions of air pollutants in Shennongjia in 2012.

A Modified Certainty Coefficient Method(M-CF) for Debris Flow Susceptibility Assessment:A Case Study for the Wenchuan Earthquake Meizoseismal Areas

In the meizoseismal areas hit by the China Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, the disasterprone environment has changed dramatically, making the susceptibility assessment of debris flow more complex and uncertain. After the earthquake, debris flow hazards occurred frequently and effective susceptibility assessment of debris flow has become extremely important. Shenxi gully in Du Jiangyan city, located in the meizoseismal areas, was selected as the study area. Based on the research of disaster-prone environment and the main factors controlling debris flow, the susceptibility zonations of debris flow were mapped using factor weight method(FW), certainty coefficient method(CF) and geomorphic information entropy method(GI). Through comparative analysis, the study showed that these three methods underestimated susceptible degree of debris flow when used in the meizoseismal areas of Wenchuan earthquake. In order to solve this problem, this paper developed a modified certainty coefficient method(M-CF) to reflect the impact of rich loose materials on the susceptible degree of debris flow. In the modified method, the distribution and area of loose materials were obtained by field investigations and postearthquake remote sensing image, and four data sets, namely, lithology, elevation, slop and aspect, wereused to calculate the CF values. The result of M-CF method is in agreement with field investigations and the accuracy of the method is satisfied. The method has a wide application to the susceptibility assessment of debris flow in the earthquake stricken areas.

Assessment of Minimizing the Environmental Functions Conflict in Buildings

Some building components are responsible for achieving more than one environmental function, these functions are usually of different requirements that can never be done by the same actions, and they are usually connected to changeable internal and external environment characteristics that vary among them. Minimizing the conflict of achieving the different environmental functions is an important challenge for all designers. Achieving a continuous thermal and optical comfort in an internal building space using the same window is an example of this challenge, as they have different requirements that may be sometimes contrary. It should be notable that there are a lot of recent technologies that may be used to find solutions for such a conflict. The Environmental Assessment Methods of Buildings appeared to set the principles of the optimum relation between buildings and their environment, they also could be used to encourage designers to reach the best environmental relations, and award them by main or additional assessment points. The research paper proposes to use the Environmental Assessment Methods of Buildings to assess the building ability of minimizing its environmental functions achievement conflict. This proposal depends on determining the inconsistency assessment items that depend on common building components to be achieved, and then determining the time periods that these items are achieved together within, to indicate the time periods without conflicting. Thus, the paper aims to raise the building environmental value in the assessment when the designer succeeds to minimize the expected conflict of the building environmental functions.

Yield Stability of Maize Hybrids Evaluated in Maize Regional Trials in Southwestern China Using Nonparametric Methods

Analysis of multi-environment trials （METs） of crops for the evaluation and recommendation of varieties is an important issue in plant breeding research. Evaluating on the both stability of performance and high yield is essential in MET analyses. The objective of the present investigation was to compare 11 nonparametric stability statistics and apply nonparametric tests for genotype-by-environment interaction （GEI） to 14 maize （Zea mays L.） genotypes grown at 25 locations in southwestern China during 2005. Results of nonparametric tests of GEl and a combined ANOVA across locations showed that both crossover and noncrossover GEI, and genotypes varied highly significantly for yield. The results of principal component analysis, correlation analysis of nonparametric statistics, and yield indicated the nonparametric statistics grouped as four distinct classes that corresponded to different agronomic and biological concepts of stability. Furthermore, high values of TOP and low values of rank-sum were associated with high mean yield, but the other nonparametric statistics were not positively correlated with mean yield. Therefore, only rank-sum and TOP methods would be useful for simultaneously selection for high yield and stability. These two statistics recommended JY686 and HX168 as desirable and ND108, CM12, CN36, and NK6661 as undesirable genotypes.

AN ANALYSIS OF LEED AND BREEAM ASSESSMENT METHODS FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

This study examines the differences between two environmental assessment methods for the K-12 education sector:the United States Green Building Council’s(USGBC)LEED Schools Version 3.0 and the British Research Estab-lishment’s(BRE)BREEAM Education issue 2.0.Credit requirements are compared side-by-side and against recom-mendations from researchers in areas such as acoustics,lighting and indoor environment quality.Strengths in the two schemes and areas for improvement are highlighted,with acknowledgement that each scheme offers components and techniques from which the other could benefit.

Benchmarking of energy efficiency standards for residential buildings in China

In order to benchmark the energy efficiency standards for residential buildings in China,the Hong Kong building environment assessment method（HK-BEAM）is chosen as the compliance criteria for assessment.The annual energy consumption and the overall thermal transfer value（OTTV）of a baseline residential building prescribed in the Chinese codes and the HK-BEAM are evaluated and compared by the energy budget approach.The results show that in the Chinese codes,the OTTV of the residential building is lower,but the annual energy consumption and the cooling load are higher than those in the HK-BEAM.The annual energy use difference amounts to 13.4%.All the compliance criteria except the ventilation rate and the equipment power in the Chinese codes are set higher than those in the HK-BEAM.However,the compliance criteria of the ventilation rate and the equipment power,especially the ventilation rate,result in much energy consumption,which ultimately induces a high energy budget for residential buildings.

Biocompatible Multifunctional E-Skins with Excellent Self-Healing Ability Enabled by Clean and Scalable Fabrication

Electronic skins(e-skins) with an excellent sensing performance have been widely developed over the last few decades.However,wearability,biocompatibility,environmental friendliness and scalability have become new limitations. Self-healing ability can improve the long-term robustness and reliability of e-skins. However,self-healing ability and integration are hardly balanced in classical structures of self-healable devices. Here,cellulose nanofiber/poly(vinyl alcohol)(CNF/PVA),a biocompatible moisture-inspired self-healable composite,was applied both as the binder in functional layers and the substrate. Various functional layers comprising particular carbon materials and CNF/PVA were patterned on the substrate. A planar structure was beneficial for integration,and the active self-healing ability of the functional layers endowed self-healed e-skins with a higher toughness. Water served as both the only solvent throughout the fabrication process and the trigger of the self-healing process,which avoids the pollution and bioincompatibility caused by the application of noxious additives. Our e-skins could achieve real-time monitoring of whole-body physiological signals and environmental temperature and humidity. Cross-interference between di erent external stimuli was suppressed through reasonable material selection and structural design. Combined with conventional electronics,data could be transmitted to a nearby smartphone for post-processing. This work provides a previously unexplored strategy for multifunctional e-skins with an excellent practicality.

The Spatio-temporal Pattern of Regional Land Use Change and Eco-environmental Responses in Jiangsu, China

Land use change and its eco-environmental responses are foci in geographical research. As a region with uneven economic development, land use change and eco-environmental responses across Jiangsu Province are relevant to China＇s overall development pattern. The external function of regional land use changes during different stages of economic development. In this study, we proposed a novel classification system based on the dominant function of land use according to ＂production-ecology-life＂, and then analyzed land use change and regional eco-environmental responses from a functional perspective of regional development. The results showed that from 1985 to 2008, land use change features in Jiangsu were that productive land area decreased and eco- logical and living land areas increased. Land use changes in southern Jiangsu were the most dramatic. In southern and central parts of Jiangsu the agricultural production function weakened and urban life service function strengthened; in northern Jiangsu, the mining production function＇s comparative advantage highlighted that the rural life service function was weakening. Ecological environmental quality decreased slightly in Jiangsu and its three regions. The maximum contribution rate to ecological environmental change occurred in southern Jiangsu and the minimum rate was located in the north. Eco-environmental quality deteriorated in southern and central Jiangsu, related to expanding construction land in urban and rural areas. Ecological environmental quality deterioration in northern Jiangsu is probably due to land development and consolidation. The main reason for improvements in regional ecological environments is that agricultural production land was converted to water ecological land across Jiangsu.