Port administration and coastal zone management in Vancouver,British Columbia: A comparison with Seattle,Washington

Large North American ports are encountering serious management challenges. Surrounding communities, environmental interest groups, and government policy are focusing on protection and enhancement of public coastal amenities. In Vancouver, the federal port management system historically enabled national trade interests to override local and regional objectives at the discretion of port decison makers. In contrast, the Port of Seattle is administered at the local level, and legislation and policy require that local publics are involved in decision‐making. Recently, VPC established itself as the vanguard among Canada's major ports in the advancement of progressive management. Nevertheless, the adoption of new policies would ensure that Vancouver, and Canada's other ports, continue to be responsible leaders in Canadian coastal management. These policies include: federal, municipal, and provincial government representation on the local board of directors; strengthening community involvement; creation of a standing planning advisory committee; subjecting Canadian ports to the federal environmental assessment law; and adoption of explicit land and water use regulations.     

Affordable housing in California's Coastal Zone: A tale of state authority vs. local autonomy

Abstract

This article examines the efforts of the California Coastal Commission to pursue simultaneously goals of environmental quality and affordable housing in the same state‐imposed regulatory program. The authors conclude that the Commission made substantial progress toward realizing both ends. However, the coastal body fell victim to its own successes, and housing was removed from its jurisdiction. As the Coastal Commission exercised its authority, opposition grew in strength and numbers. Key opponents included local government, which lost land‐use regulatory power to the Commission, the building industry, whose relationships with coastal localities were disrupted, and local property owners, whose land was restricted to uses other than the most profitable one.     

One-dimensional modelling of the plankton ecosystem of the north-western Corsican coastal area in relation to meteorological constraints

In order to study the influence of wind mixing on the spring variability of the plankton production of the north western Corsican coastal area, a one-dimensional (1D), vertical, coupled hydrodynamic/biological model (ECOHYDROMV) is used. A hydrodynamic 1D model of the water column with a k–l turbulent closure is applied. The biological model comprises six state variables, representing the plankton ecosystem in the spring period: phytoplankton, copepods, nitrate, ammonium, particulate organic matter of phytoplanktonic origin and particulate organic matter of zooplanktonic origin. The system is influenced by turbulence (expressed by the vertical eddy diffusivity), temperature and irradiance. The model takes into account momentum and heat surface fluxes computed from meteorological data in order to simulate a typical spring atmospheric forcing for the considered area. Results show that primary production vertical structure is characterised by a subsurface maximum which deepens with time and is regulated by the opposite gradients of nitrate concentration and irradiance. Surface plankton productivity is mainly controlled by turbulent vertical transport of nutrients into the mixed layer. The short time scale variability of turbulent mixing generated by the wind appears to be responsible for the plurimodal shape of plankton blooms, observed in the considered area. Furthermore, the model is applied to the study of the spring evolution of the plankton communities off the bay of Calvi (Corsica) for the years 1986 and 1988. In order to initiate and validate the model, time series of hydrological, chemical and biological data have been used. The model reproduces accurately the spring evolution of the phytoplankton biomass measured in situ and illustrates that its strong variability in those years was in close relation to the variability of the wind intensity.     

Almost disturbance decoupling control of mimo nonlinear system subject to feedback linearization and a feedforward neural network: Application to half-car active suspension system

A novel tracking and almost disturbance decoupling problem of multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems based on feedback linearization and a multi-layered feedforward neural network approach has been proposed. The feedback linearization and neural network controller guarantees exponentially global uniform ultimate bounded stability and almost disturbance decoupling performance without using any learning or adaptive algorithms. The new approach renders the system to be stable with the almost disturbance decoupling property at each step when selecting weights to enhance the performance if the proposed sufficient conditions are maintained. One example, which cannot be solved by the existing approach of the almost disturbance decoupling problem because it requires the sufficient conditions that the nonlinearities that multiply the disturbances satisfy structural triangular conditions, is proposed to exploit the fact that the tracking and the almost disturbance decoupling performances are easily achieved by the proposed approach. In order to demonstrate the practical applicability, a famous half-car active suspension system is investigated.     

展望中国Telematics业务发展

中国汽车生产商们首先必须了解,哪些是消费者愿意花钱购买的Telematics服务,一味地模仿西方市场,是不够的。     

Experiments on knocking and abnormal combustion through optical diagnostics in a boosted spark ignition port fuel injection engine

In this paper, flame front propagation during normal and abnormal combustion was investigated. Cycle-resolved flame emission imaging was applied in the combustion chamber of a port fuel injection-boosted spark ignition engine. The engine was fueled with a mixture of 90% iso-octane and 10% n-heptane by volume (Primary Reference Fuel 90: PRF90) and commercial gasoline. The combustion process was monitored from the flame kernel formation until the exhaust valves opened. Different phenomena associated with abnormal combustion were analyzed, including the fuel deposition burning. Moreover, the ignition surfaces and end-gas auto-ignitions were investigated in terms of timing, location and frequency of occurrence. The analysis was performed by considering different knocking intensities for both the selected fuels.     

Communication innovations,urban form and travel demand: Some hypotheses and a bibliography

Hypotheses are developed about the effects of telecommunication advances on urban growth patterns and urban travel demands. It is suggested that CBD (central business district) office employment might decentralize if telecommunications could effectively substitute for short inter-office business trips and that job decentralization would alter journey-to-work patterns and the viability of certain public transit systems. Major research questions are raised and keyed to an extensive bibliography.     

Study of the Impact of Single-and Double-tube Tunnel Systems on Rockburst in Deep-buried Extra-long Tunnelling北大核心CSCD

Rockburst is one of the main disasters for tunnelling under high ground stress. Taking the rockburst section of Ping'an Tunnel with high ground stress, which is located on Chengdu-Lanzhou Railway, as the study object, this paper adopts combined methods of filed measurement, numerical analysis, and laboratory test, and with respect to rockburst development mechanism, energy density change and rockburst strength it comprehensively analyzes the impact of two construction schemes (single-tube double-track tunnel system and double-tube single-track tunnel system) on the rockburst in deep-buried extra-long tunnels with high ground stress. The study results show that the order relation of maximum energy density at various locations of the tunnel is Uside wall >Uhance >Utunnel face >Uvault, and rockburst easily occurs at the working face of the tunnel section to be excavated and both side walls of excavated and supported section; compared with vault, hance, side wall and other locations, more energy would be released at the tunnel face, and the stress release holes shall be reasonably installed in the process of excavation; the doubletube single-track tunnel system scheme can effectively reduce the rockburst intensity and the rockburst hazards, so as to better avoid the occurrence of rockburst. © 2022, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Valuing road noise for residents in Hong Kong

This study estimates the willingness-to-pay value for a one dB(A) change over a range of initial noise levels for a sample population in Hong Kong. It establishes a protocol for estimating the willingness-to-pay values by first establishing an annoyance–dB relationship. The protocol takes into account the characteristics that the probability of being annoyed at a particular level varied with the initial objective noise level, and the annoyance–dB relationship varied for a range of initial annoyance level. The study shows that household income level and initial annoyance levels exert considerable influences on the individual’s willingness-to-pay values. However, age and educational level were found not to exert any significant influence on individual’s willingness-to-pay values.