Spatial distribution prediction and benefits assessment of green manure in the Pinggu District,Beijing,based on the CLUE-S model

Green manure use in China has declined rapidly since the 1980 s with the extensive use of chemical fertilizers.The deterioration of field environments and the demand for green agricultural products have resulted in more attention to green manure.Human intervention and policy-oriented behaviors likely have large impacts on promoting green manure planting.However,little information is available regarding on where,at what rates,and in which ways（i.e.,intercropping green manure in orchards or rotating green manure in cropland） to develop green manure and what benefits could be gained by incorporating green manure in fields at the county scale.This paper presents the conversion of land use and its effects at small region extent（CLUE-S） model,which is specifically developed for the simulation of land use changes originally,to predict spatial distribution of green manure in cropland and orchards in 2020 in Pinggu District located in Beijing,China.Four types of land use for planting or not planting green manure were classified and the future land use dynamics（mainly croplands and orchards） were considered in the prediction.Two scenarios were used to predict the spatial distribution of green manure based on data from 2011：The promotion of green manure planting in orchards（scenario 1） and the promotion of simultaneous green manure planting in orchards and croplands（scenario 2）.The predictions were generally accurate based on the receiver operating characteristic（ROC） and Kappa indices,which validated the effectiveness of the CLUE-S model in the prediction.In addition,the spatial distribution of the green manure was acquired,which indicated that green manure mainly located in the orchards of the middle and southern regions of Dahuashan,the western and southern regions of Wangxinzhuang,the middle region of Shandongzhuang,the eastern region of Pinggu and the middle region of Xiagezhuang under scenario 1.Green manure planting under scenario 2 occurred in orchards in the middle region of Wangxinzhuang,and croplands in most regions of Daxingzhuang,southern Pinggu,northern Xiagezhuang and most of Mafang.The spatially explicit results allowed for the assessment of the benefits of these changes based on different economic and ecological indicators.The economic and ecological gains of scenarios 1 and 2 were 175691 900 and143000 300 CNY,respectively,which indicated that the first scenario was more beneficial for promoting the same area of green manure.These results can facilitate policies of promoting green manure and guide the extensive use of green manure in local agricultural production in suitable ways.

Component Analysis and Calculation for Social Benefits of UHV Assessment

With the rapid development of the UHV power grid, evaluation of the economic and social benefits of the UHV power grid is conducive to guiding the planning and construction of UHV power grid. At present economic benefit evaluation system of the UHV power grid is driving to maturity stage on the whole at home and abroad, but it invariably tends to regard social benefits as part of economic benefits, without evaluating social benefit separately. The social benefit evaluation model of UHV power grid is built in case of sufficient investigation. The differentials between social benefit and social cost are calculated respectively by three kinds of solutions according to the constructed social cost evaluation index system and social benefits evaluation index system, conclusion that UHV power grid transmission has better social benefits can be reached by contrastively analyzing the social three kinds of solutions corresponding to benefits. At last, the evaluation model and method are verified and analyzed through the analysis of engineering projects.

Comprehensive benefits assessment of the ecological management model in Hobq Desert of China

The Hobq Desert is the seventh largest desert in China. Since 1988, the effects of ecological management in Hobq Desert have been obvious and a typical desertification control model developed gradually, which is well known as the ＂Hobq model＂. It is important to evaluate the comprehensive benefits of the ＂Hobq model＂, but this has not been addressed in previous studies. Thus, we established an index system to comprehensively evaluate the benefits of the ＂Hobq model＂, using an analytic hierarchy process method from 1988 to 2013. The results show the following： ecological benefits of the ＂Hobq model＂ had a positive trend, but with fluctuations during 2008 and 2009; economic benefits increased by 74% and the maximum value occurred in 2013; and social benefits increased steadily, but with fluctuations in 2010 and 2011. The social benefits were higher than ecological and economic benefits in the same period. Trends in overall benefits of the ＂Hobq model＂ were similar to changes in ecological benefits, which increased each year.

The Benefit Risk Assessment of Consumption of Marine Species Based on Benefit-Risk Analysis for Foods(BRAFO)-tiered Approach

Objective To assess the net health effect caused by the consumption of specific marine species based on Benefit-Risk Analysis for Foods （BRAFO）-tiered approach. Methods Twenty species were collected from the Zhoushan Archipelago, China. Concentrations of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, methyl mercury （MeHg）, and dioxin-like compounds （DLCs） in the samples were analyzed for benefit risk assessment based on BRAFO-tiered approach. Results Based on the BRAFO-tiered approach, reference scenario （no intake） and alternative scenario （intake of specific species of 200 g/week） were determined. The exposure to MeHg/DLCs via alternative scenario of all studied species did not exceed provisional tolerable weekly/monthly intake. However, the adult population with high DLCs exposure in China would significantly exceed the upper limit of DLCs via an additional alternative scenario of some species such as Auxis thazard. The results of deterministic computation showed that alternative scenario of all studied species generated clear net beneficial effects on death prevention and child IQ gain. Conclusion The alternative scenario of all studied species could be recommended to population with average DLCs exposure, and the reference scenario of species with relatively high DLCs concentration could be recommended to population exposed to high DLCs.

Study on Assessment of the Disastrous Weather Warning Service Benefit

Assessment of the disastrous weather warning service benefit has important guidance significance for improving meteorological forecast capability and meteorological service level. Meanwhile, it is also weak link of the current meteorological work. Took Beibei District of Chongqing as an example, by analyzing issuance of the rainstorm warning signal from 2008 to now, its disastrous weather warning service benefit was evaluated. Result showed that assessment of the disastrous weather warning service benefit should be studied from forecast accuracy, forecast timeliness, forecast coverage and disaster prevention capability.

Ecological Restoration Technology and Benefit Assessment of Karst Rocky Desertification Mountains in Xixiu District of Anshun City

Ecological restoration refers to the containment of soil erosion,restoration of water conservation,climate regulation,maintenance of ecological functions of biodiversity,and improvement of ecological environment and landscape pattern based on self-repairing capacity of the nature and combined with appropriate artificial measures. Since the natural restoration process of karst desertification mountain is very long,it needs to be supplemented by artificial vegetation restoration. This paper introduced the ecological restoration technologies implemented in karst rocky desertification mountains in Xixiu District,Anshun City of Guizhou Province,and also introduced the afforestation tending management measures. It assessed the ecological benefits of the ecological restoration project from five aspects: mountain community characteristics,vegetation coverage,species diversity,afforestation survival rate and landscape effect.

Benefit evaluation of the Three-Gorges Reservoir migration by an assessment index model based on analytic hierarchy process

An assessment index model was established to evaulate the benefit of the Three-Gorges Reservoir migration through the analytical hierarchy process. Totally 43 indicators were selected to assess the impact of migration on the economic, social and ecological environmental aspects of the migration communities, with the data of the indicators of the years 1992, 1998, 2002 which represented the period of premigration, the end of the first phase migration and the end of the second phase migration, respectively. The evaluation matrix is sufficiently consistent, with a consistency ratio CR equal to 0.086 3. The assessment turned out a benefit value for the economic subsystem in the year 2004 larger than triple the value in the year 1992, indicating a remarkable economic growth in the Reservoir area. The constantly increasing value for the social subsystem reflects the stable social situations. There is a slight decline in the assessment outcome of the ecological subsystem for the year 1998, which implies enviromental conservation was given insufficient importance during that period. On the whole, the implementation of the migration project is favorable to the Reservoir region, as confirmed by the stably increasing overall evaluation value from 42.22% in 1992 to 68.81% in 2002. However, there is still much room to improve from the status quo to the target criteria.

Benefits, Difficulties, and Success Factors of Three Different Quality Assessment Processes in Estonia

Quality assessment systems for business organisations and also for vocational schools were established in Estonia at the beginning of 2000s. Almost ten years later, corresponding systems were introduced also for higher education institutions （HEIs）. All these assessment systems are based on the European Foundation of Quality Management （EFQM） excellence model. The aim of this paper is to analyse benefits, difficulties, and success factors of quality assessment processes in Estonian business organisations, vocational schools, and HEIs. The study is based on the analysis of feedback questionnaire of 404 representatives from participating organisations （HEIs, vocational schools, and business enterprises） and assessors. Our analysis revealed that quality assessment processes including self-assessment reporting had a positive effect on organisation development and it has given the participants certain benefits and new challenges. As a consequence, knowledge about quality management as well as the self-assessment skills has been improved. The main difficulties were connected to limited time resources and with problems to recognize direct benefits of quality assessment. As substantial difficulties, limitations of analytical and report-writing skills were considered. As the biggest success factor, an involvement of managers on different levels decision making was recognized. The analysis revealed that there are a number of similar benefits and difficulties in the quality assessment systems of different organizations.

Development of an integrated policy making tool for assessing air quality and human health benefits of air pollution control

Efficient air quality management is critical to protect public health from the adverse impacts of air pollution. To evaluate the effectiveness of air pollution control strategies, the US Environmental Protection Agency （US EPA） has developed the Software for Model Attainment Test-Community Edition （SMAT-CE） to assess the air quality attainment of emission reductions, and the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program- Community Edition （BenMAP-CE） to evaluate the health and economic benefits of air quality improvement respectively. Since scientific decision-making requires timely and coherent information, developing the linkage between SMAT-CE and BenMAP-CE into an integrated assessment platform is desirable. To address this need, a new module linking SMAT-CE to BenMAP-CE has been developed and tested. The new module streamlines the assessment of air quality and human health benefits for a proposed air pollution control strategy. It also implements an optimized data gridding algorithm which significantly enhances the computational efficiency without compro- mising accuracy. The performance of the integrated software package is demonstrated through a case study that evaluates the air quality and associated economic benefits of a national-level control strategy of PM2.5. The results of the case study show that the proposed emission reduction reduces the number of nonattainment sites from 379 to 25 based on the US National Ambient Air Quality Standards, leading to more than USS334billion ofeconomic benefits annually from improved public health. The integration of the science-based software tools in this study enhances the efficiency of developing effective and optimized emission control strategies for policy makers.

Benefits of Environmental Site Assessment Standards in China

1.Preface As the fast paced Chinese economy brings more and more direct and indirect affects into ourlives,environmental protection has become one ofthe most popular subjects of recent times.

Benefit Assessment of Forest Function in Reducing Soil Erosion and Nutrient Loss in Anji County of Taihu Lake Basin

The non-point source pollution arising from soil erosion is one of the main reasons for the deterioration of the water quality of the Taihu Lake Basin. Forest plays an important role in controlling soil erosion and reducing nutrient loss. Based on the survey data on forest resources in Anji County, we estimate the amount of soil erosion and nutrient loss of nitrogen and phosphorus reduced by forest, using soil erosion modulus method and soil nutrient content. In accordance with the degradation coefficient of pollutant and regional compensation standards of environmental resources, we assess the ecological benefits of forest function in reducing nutrient loss of nitrogen and phosphorus in Anji County. The results show that the forest in Anji County can reduce the soil erosion amount at 1.51 million t annually on the average, so as to control the nutrient loss of 1 409 t of total nitrogen and 577 t of total phosphorus in soil, equivalent to annually avoiding the flow of 824 t of total nitrogen and 410 t of total phosphorus into river water; this ecological service function can make forests in Anji County get 92.55 million yuan of ecological compensation funds (about 688 yuan/hm2·a), equivalent to 15 times of the current ecological compensation standard (47 yuan/hm2). The study reveals the importance of forest function in controlling soil erosion and nutrient loss in the upper reaches of Taihu Lake Basin to water environment protection in the basin, conducive to carrying out pollution control and protection work of the water environment in the basin.

GMOs in animal agriculture: time to consider both costs and benefits in regulatory evaluations

In 2012, genetically engineered （GE） crops were grown by 17.3 million farmers on over 170 million hectares. Over 70% of harvested GE biomass is fed to food producing animals, making them the major consumers of GE crops for the past 15 plus years. Prior to commercialization, GE crops go through an extensive regulatory evaluation. Over one hundred regulatory submissions have shown compositional equivalence, and comparable levels of safety, between GE crops and their conventional counterparts. One component of regulatory compliance is whole GE food/feed animal feeding studies. Both regulatory studies and independent peer-reviewed studies have shown that GE crops can be safely used in animal feed, and rDNA fragments have never been detected in products （e.g. milk, meat, eggs） derived from animals that consumed GE feed. Despite the fact that the scientific weight of evidence from these hundreds of studies have not revealed unique risks associated with GE feed, some groups are calling for more animal feeding studies, including long-term rodent studies and studies in target livestock species for the approval of GE crops. It is an opportune time to review the results of such studies as have been done to date to evaluate the value of the additional information obtained. Requiring long-term and target animal feeding studies would sharply increase regulatory compliance costs and prolong the regulatory process associated with the commercialization of GE crops. Such costs may impede the development of feed crops with enhanced nutritional characteristics and durability, particularly in the local varieties in small and poor developing countries. More generally it is time for regulatory evaluations to more explicitly consider both the reasonable and unique risks and benefits associated with the use of both GE plants and animals in agricultural systems, and weigh them against those associated with existing systems, and those of regulatory inaction. This would represent a shift away from a GE evaluation process that currently focuses only on risk assessment and identifying ever diminishing marginal hazards, to a regulatory approach that more objectively evaluates and communicates the likely impact of approving a new GE plant or animal on agricultural production systems.

Agroecosystem functional assessment and its difficulties

Agroecosystem functional assessment indicators provide a necessary bridge between decision makers and scientists. The development of acceptable indicators, however, remains a difficult task because the current knowledge and understanding of ecosystems is not sufficient to allow an objective assessment of all ecosystem functions. These difficulties were summarized from three perspectives. First, there are difficulties in individual function assessment. Of the four functions associated with agroecosystems energy flow, materials cycling, information flow and value flow data on material cycling and information flow remain difficult to obtain and the indicators relatively immature. Secondly, there are difficulties of integration. During the assessment process, the integration of the agroecosystem functions remains the biggest obstacle. Until now, there has been no practical or effective methodology established to resolve the problem. At present, the makeshift approach has been to weight the various indicators and then add them together. Thirdly, there is the problem of obscure concepts and concept confusion. When assessments of agroecosystems are conducted, concepts such as structure, function, benefit, and resource utilization are used extensively. To date, no logical relationship(either real or implied) has been developed between any of these concepts. Are they causes and results such that the relationship between them is linear, or are they independent from one another such that the relationship is parallel? Thus far, the essence of this question is yet to be explored.

An Assessment of Potential Economic Gain from Weather Forecast Based Irrigation Scheduling for Marginal Farmers in Karnataka, Southern State in India

This study is aimed to assess the usefulness of weather forecasts for irrigation scheduling in crops to economize water use. The short-term gains for the farmers come from reducing costs of irrigation with the help of advisory for when not to irrigate because rain is predicted (risk-free because the wrong forecast only delays irrigation within tolerance). Here, a quantitative assessment of saving (indirect income) if irrigation is avoided as rain is imminent (as per forecast), using a five-year archived forecast data over Karnataka state at hobli (a cluster of small villages) level is presented. Estimates showed that the economic benefits to the farmers from such advisories were significant. The potential gain in annual income from such forecast-based irrigation scheduling was of the order of 10% - 15%. Our analysis also indicated that the use of advisory by a small percentage of more than 10 million marginal farmers (landholding < 3 acres) in Karnataka could lead to huge cumulative savings of the order of many crores.

Research on the Transfer Benefit of Railway Investment Projects

Though an additional railway investment will result in very complex uifluenceon the whole economic-socinl system, an assessing system comes to be set up inthis thesis. It not only shows the seope and direction of the assessment ofrailway investment projects, but indicates a new assessment theory coming intobeins. lii view of the transfer benefit of railway investinent projects being themain part of their external benefit for our national economy, we paid specialattention to calculating the transfer benefit. Finally, a series of matheniaticalmodels throush which we can accurately figure out the transfer benefit of arailway investment project are presented.

Efficiency Assessment of Land Use Types in Tan Binh Commune,Dak Doa District,Gia Lai Province,Vietnam

Land resource depletion causes a range of consequences,such as threats to food security,increasing poverty,and social unrest.Therefore,reasonable and effective land use has become a crucial issue of the nation and localities nationwide.Research results in Tan Binh commune,Dak Doa district,Gia Lai Province in Vietnam showed that long-term industrial and agricultural land occupies most of the commune's agroforestry land.The study also had shown that there are six common land use types(LUTs)in the commune.In particular,the LUT of pepper cultivation had the highest economic benefit,whereas the LUT of coffee brought the highest social benefit.However,the LUT of chayote was the highest in overall benefits with Ect of 0.93;thus,this LUT should be widely applied throughout Tan Binh commune.The research results were a crucial scientific basis for proposing a group of suitable plants to local natural conditions to bring effective and sustainable efficiency in land-use types.

STUDY ON TYPHOON DISASTER LOSS AND RISK PREDICTION AND BENEFIT ASSESSMENT OF DISASTER PREVENTION AND MITIGATION

Based on the meteorological monitoring data of Typhoon Nesat and Haitang in Fujian Province in 2017, the data of the typhoon disaster situation and third-party evaluation of typhoon disaster prevention and mitigation benefit were investigated. By using the mean value anomaly estimation method in the similarity analysis method, it is estimated that typhoon Nesat and Haitang will cause direct economic losses of 0.8 ～ 1.8 billion yuan, and the typhoon disaster risk index evaluation model is used. The disaster risk pre-assessment of Typhoon Nesat and Haitang is carried out. The results of the study and analysis show that the pre-assessment results of Typhoon Nesat and Haitang are basically consistent with the actual disaster situation. The disaster loss was reduced to the minimum. According to the third party evaluation and investigation, it was concluded that the contribution rate of reducing economic benefits was 75% in Fujian Province for preventing and landing double typhoons Nesat and Haitang. Mainly reflected in the ship return to the port to avoid the wind, geological hazards prone to the site construction and cage culture danger removal reinforcement and other links; The contribution rate of reducing casualties is 86, mainly reflected in fishermen disembarkation and personnel transfer to safety emergency shelter and other links. The benefit of this double typhoon disaster prevention and mitigation in Fujian Province is about 0.6 billion yuan to reduce the direct economic loss. According to the investigation, the overall satisfaction of the double typhoon meteorological service is 91.0 points. Typhoon early warning information service convenience satisfaction is 91.4 points, early warning information accuracy satisfaction is 87.2 points, government departments strong anti-Taiwan disaster reduction organization, linkage departments participate in disaster prevention and mitigation high. However, there is a gap between public awareness and participation in typhoon disasters.

On the Application of Portfolio Assessment to English Teaching

The traditional exam-oriented assessment fails to measure students' English communicative abilities and facilitate students' learning autonomy. Portfolio assessment is believed to be a good way to complement the traditional assessment. This articles points out the necessity and benefits of portfolio assessment as a form of formative assessment. At the same time, the drawbacks of portfolio assessment are mentioned in the hope that it can provide some insights to English teaching in the near future.

The significance of resource recycling for coking wastewater treatment:based on environmental and economic life cycle assessment

The sustainability of the coking industry is supported by reasonable production profit and environmental quality requirements.The traditional measures substantially increased the related costs for enterprises to reach standards.This paper aims to develop a comprehensive cost combined environmental impact assessment method that is necessary for the analysis of wastewater treatment systems.Typical three coking wastewater treatment processes in China were evaluated.Results showed that eutrophication dominantly contributed to the overall environmental effect.Improving effluent quality could significantly reduce the total environmental impact.In terms of an economic perspective,the price of raw materials was the main factor that affected the operating cost of comprehensive treatment.Based on subsystem analysis,the pretreatment stage accounted for the majority of environmental and cost burdens,respectively reaching 64%-78%and 64%-86%.Optimizing the pretreatment process by enhancing the efficiency of high concentration raw material recovery and substituting toxic raw materials for extractant could reduce the environmental impact and economic cost by 43.8%and 57%,respectively,which was an effective way to improve the potential performance of coking wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs).

Cyberattack Ramifications, The Hidden Cost of a Security Breach

In this in-depth exploration, I delve into the complex implications and costs of cybersecurity breaches. Venturing beyond just the immediate repercussions, the research unearths both the overt and concealed long-term consequences that businesses encounter. This study integrates findings from various research, including quantitative reports, drawing upon real-world incidents faced by both small and large enterprises. This investigation emphasizes the profound intangible costs, such as trade name devaluation and potential damage to brand reputation, which can persist long after the breach. By collating insights from industry experts and a myriad of research, the study provides a comprehensive perspective on the profound, multi-dimensional impacts of cybersecurity incidents. The overarching aim is to underscore the often-underestimated scope and depth of these breaches, emphasizing the entire timeline post-incident and the urgent need for fortified preventative and reactive measures in the digital domain.