Capacity Building for Integrated Coastal Management in Asia-Pacific: The Case for Case Studies

Development of awareness and capacity is a central component to the delivery of ICM and spans from local communities to national-level politicians. Education and training activities associated with ICM must be extremely varied to match both the existing capacity and role that the stakeholders play within the process of ICM. Consequently, there cannot be considered any effective “generic” ICM training; training must be tailored to match the requirements of target groups. The transfer and uptake of good-practice thus becomes an important aspect of quality enhancement in ICM capacity development. Six case studies from the Asia-Pacific region are presented that show diverse and innovative examples of good practice. A comparative analysis of these case studies is carried out in terms of institutional level of impact. In addition a generic systems-based evaluation framework is used to determine the extent to which the training impacts upon ICM implementation indicators. It is concluded that the exchange, transfer, and translation to local conditions of appropriate good practice in ICM capacity development can be an important element in enhancing the impact of ICM programs on the coastal environments and societies. Furthermore, there appears to be a positive link between the involvement of national/state/regional stakeholders in capacity-building initiatives and impacting a wider variety of indicators of ICM delivery.     

Remote Sensing for Coastal Area Management in China

Satellite remote sensing technique has been used to observe the coastal area. This article reviews applications of remote sensing to coastal area management (CAM) in China. These applications include the coastal resource and island mapping, coastal environmental change and coastal hazard monitoring, oceanographic parameter measurement, and coastal process restudy. Future applications are also discussed.     

庐山西海高速公路植被护坡技术应用研究

文章结合庐山西海高速公路边坡坡面防护工程实例,介绍了客土喷播植生技术、液压喷播＋人工栽植苗木技术这两种近自然型边坡保护技术的特点与施工方法,并评述了近自然型边坡保护技术应用的效果。     

黄土地区道路陡边坡植被多样性生态防护措施

针对黄土地区路堑陡边坡的坡体形式,以锚杆护坡和植被根系保水固土机理为基础,结合植被多样性原理,统计分析黄土地区道路生态防护的植物种类及其植被群落组合,研究设计了适用于黄土地区陡边坡的新型土工柔性格框生态防护措施.以定西至平凉高速公路为试验依托项目,模拟分析黄土地区降雨对无防护边坡、普通植物纤维防护边坡和新型土工柔性格框植被防护边坡的冲刷,结果表明:在降雨量分别为2.4 m3/h和3.2 m3/h的60 min冲刷条件下,随着试验历时的增加,新型生态防护技术的边坡水流含沙率与累计边坡冲蚀量较其他2种边坡形式小30％以上;降雨冲刷试验结束后,前2种边坡的坡面均有不同程度的破坏,而新型生态防护技术防护的坡面比较稳定.     

Evolving the subspace of the three-dimensional multiscale ocean variability: Massachusetts Bay

A data and dynamics driven approach to estimate, decompose, organize and analyze the evolving three-dimensional variability of ocean fields is outlined. Variability refers here to the statistics of the differences between ocean states and a reference state. In general, these statistics evolve in time and space. For a first endeavor, the variability subspace defined by the dominant eigendecomposition of a normalized form of the variability covariance is evolved. A multiscale methodology for its initialization and forecast is outlined. It combines data and primitive equation dynamics within a Monte-Carlo approach.The methodology is applied to part of a multidisciplinary experiment that occurred in Massachusetts Bay in late summer and early fall of 1998. For a 4-day time period, the three-dimensional and multivariate properties of the variability standard deviations and dominant eigenvectors are studied. Two variability patterns are discussed in detail. One relates to a displacement of the Gulf of Maine coastal current offshore from Cape Ann, with the creation of adjacent mesoscale recirculation cells. The other relates to a Bay-wide coastal upwelling mode from Barnstable Harbor to Gloucester in response to strong southerly winds. Snapshots and tendencies of physical fields and trajectories of simulated Lagrangian drifters are employed to diagnose and illustrate the use of the dominant variability covariance. The variability subspace is shown to guide the dynamical analysis of the physical fields. For the stratified conditions, it is found that strong wind events can alter the structures of the buoyancy flow and that circulation features are more variable than previously described, on multiple scales. In several locations, the factors estimated to be important include some or all of the atmospheric and surface pressure forcings, and associated Ekman transports and downwelling/upwelling processes, the Coriolis force, the pressure force, inertia and mixing.     

Characteristics and potential impacts of under-ice river plumes in the seasonally ice-covered Bothnian Bay (Baltic Sea)

The northernmost basin of the Baltic Sea, the Bothnian Bay, is ice-covered for about half the year. During this time, distinct under-ice river plumes develop, even seaward of the smallest rivers, that are substantially thicker and larger in extent than during the summer months. Wind mixing is negligible, and during late spring in April or May, the highest annual discharge occur while the sea is ice covered, thus providing conditions for the formation of extensive under-ice plumes. These plumes are characterised by high levels of trace elements (e.g., Al, Fe and Zn), organic matter (TOC and dissolved organic carbon [DOC]), nutrients and also optically active substances (colored dissolved organic matter, CDOM). The under-ice plumes provide an important pathway for undiluted transport of land-derived substances to the pelagic waters of the basin, affecting the salinity, chemistry and optical properties of coastal waters. Freshwater ice growth on the underside of an existing sea ice sheet also restricts the buildup of sea ice and under-ice algal communities, potentially in large areas along the coasts. Plume water influences the optical characteristics of coastal waters for a period of time after ice break-up, potentially affecting primary production in these areas. Furthermore, the formation of under-ice plumes potentially has a positive feedback on the ice season length due to freshening of the coastal waters (earlier freeze-up) and restricted oceanic heat flux (slower melting).     

Bayesian calibration of mechanistic aquatic biogeochemical models and benefits for environmental management

Aquatic biogeochemical models have been an indispensable tool for addressing pressing environmental issues, e.g., understanding oceanic response to climate change, elucidation of the interplay between plankton dynamics and atmospheric CO₂ levels, and examination of alternative management schemes for eutrophication control. Their ability to form the scientific basis for environmental management decisions can be undermined by the underlying structural and parametric uncertainty. In this study, we outline how we can attain realistic predictive links between management actions and ecosystem response through a probabilistic framework that accommodates rigorous uncertainty analysis of a variety of error sources, i.e., measurement error, parameter uncertainty, discrepancy between model and natural system. Because model uncertainty analysis essentially aims to quantify the joint probability distribution of model parameters and to make inference about this distribution, we believe that the iterative nature of Bayes' Theorem is a logical means to incorporate existing knowledge and update the joint distribution as new information becomes available. The statistical methodology begins with the characterization of parameter uncertainty in the form of probability distributions, then water quality data are used to update the distributions, and yield posterior parameter estimates along with predictive uncertainty bounds. Our illustration is based on a six state variable (nitrate, ammonium, dissolved organic nitrogen, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and bacteria) ecological model developed for gaining insight into the mechanisms that drive plankton dynamics in a coastal embayment; the Gulf of Gera, Island of Lesvos, Greece. The lack of analytical expressions for the posterior parameter distributions was overcome using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations; a convenient way to obtain representative samples of parameter values. The Bayesian calibration resulted in realistic reproduction of the key temporal patterns of the system, offered insights into the degree of information the data contain about model inputs, and also allowed the quantification of the dependence structure among the parameter estimates. Finally, our study uses two synthetic datasets to examine the ability of the updated model to provide estimates of predictive uncertainty for water quality variables of environmental management interest.     

Mortality through ontogeny of soft-bottom marine invertebrates with planktonic larvae

The present survey covers one spawning season of marine benthic invertebrates in a large geographical area, the inner Danish waters, and includes a wide range of habitats with steep salinity and nutrient load gradients. The loss ratios of soft-bottom marine invertebrates from one development stage to the next is calculated based on average abundances of pelagic larvae, benthic post-larvae and adults of Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Polychaeta and Echinodermata, with planktonic development. This gives a rough estimate of the larval and post-larval mortality. Loss ratios between post-larvae stage and adult stage (post-larval mortality) varies from 3:1 to 7:1 (71.2–84.9%) and loss ratios between larvae and post-larvae (larval mortality) and between larvae and adult, ranging from 7:1 to 42:1 (85.2–97.6%) and from 45:1 to 210:1 (97.8–99.5%), respectively. The results show a remarkable unity in loss ratios (mortality) between the mollusc taxa (Bivalvia and Gastropoda) at the phylum/class level. This similarity in loss ratios among the mollusc taxa exhibiting the same developmental pathways suggests that the mortality is governed by the same biotic and abiotic factors. Larval mortality is estimated to range from 0.10 d^− 1 to 0.32 d^− 1 for Bivalvia and ranging from 0.09 d^− 1 to 0.23 d^− 1 for Polychaeta. The species loss ratios combined with specific knowledge of the reproduction cycles give estimated loss ratios (mortality) between the post-larvae and the adult stage of 25:1 and 14:1 for the bivalves Abra spp. and Mysella bidentata. For the polychaete Pygospio elegans the loss ratio (larval mortality) between the larvae and the post-larval stage is 154:1 and between the post-larvae and the adult stage 41:1. For Pholoe inornata the loss ratio between post-larvae and adults is 7:1. The present results confirm that the larval stage, metamorphosis and settlement are the critical phase in terms of mortality in the life cycle for Bivalvia. Assuming steady state based on actual measurements of pelagic larval densities an estimated input to the water column of pelagic bivalve larvae is ranging from 10,930 to 17,157 larvae m^− 2 d^− 1 and for Polychaeta between 2544 and 3994 larvae m^− 2 d^− 1. These estimates seem to correspond to the reproductive capacity of the observed adult densities using life-table values from the literature.The potential settlement of post-larvae is 43 post-larvae m^− 2 d^− 1 for Bivalvia and 56 post-larvae m^− 2 d^− 1 for Polychaeta. The adult turnover time for Bivalvia is estimated to be 1.5 years and 2.1 years for Polychaeta. This exemplifies that species with short generation times may dominate in very dynamic transitional zones with a high frequency of catastrophic events like the frequent incidents of hypoxia in the inner Danish waters.     

Variability of river plumes off Northwest Iberia in response to wind events

The Western Iberian Buoyant Plume (WIBP) is a low-salinity lens formed by river discharge and continental run-off extending along the shelf off Northwest Iberia. The variability of this structure is evaluated with a numerical model forced by real meteorological data and climatologic river discharge during late 2002, when conditions were those of a typical autumn. The direction and intensity of the wind-induced Ekman transport, but also the previous conditions and the duration of the event are found to determine plume behavior. We have identified three characteristic situations: a) confinement of the plume to the coast during downwelling — southerly-winds, b) expansion of the plume during the declining phase of the downwelling event by relaxation of the wind, and c) expansion of the plume by upwelling — northerly-winds. The short time scale of the response of the plume (1–3 h) adds timing between wind events and the phase of the tide as an additional source of variability. In all cases the Iberian Poleward Current (IPC), a saltier and warmer poleward current flowing over the slope, responds as well to wind changes. Furthermore, our simulations illustrate how topography and differences in the river discharge induce local differences in dynamics. Comparisons to available observations show a reasonable model skill. Differences between wind measurements and wind forcing applied to the model appear to be a major source of uncertainty in model results.     

草原公路路基高度变化对其水土保持功能的影响

通过对典型草原公路工程开展调查观测,选择边坡土壤含水量、土壤流失量和植被覆盖度为指标,探讨不同路基填筑高度对边坡水土保持功能的影响。结果表明,考虑土壤含水量状况和植物固土功能的最优性,草原公路路基设计高度取值建议在1．0～2．5m之间。采用一定防护措施的低路基设计方案,能够有效降低草原公路边坡土壤流失,保存水分,提高植被恢复状况。