Visitor Preferences for Public Beach Amenities and Beach Restoration in South Florida

Coastal erosion threatens many sandy beaches and the ecological, economic, social and cultural amenities they provide. The problem is especially chronic in South Florida. A frequent solution for beach restoration involves sand replacement, or nourishment, but is temporary, expensive, and has usually been funded by governmental sources. However, as such agencies reduce their share and require more local funding, beach nourishment must rely on other funding sources, including beach recreationists. Our study characterized three South Florida beaches and probed visitor willingness-to-pay for beach nourishment. We found that even beaches within close proximity attract different user types. Users are amenable to higher fees if they lead to greater resource protection.     

The North Norfolk Coastline: A Complex Legacy

The North Norfolk coast is a naturally eroding coastline that has been subject to various management strategies over time, many of which have impeded its natural evolution. The Kelling to Lowestoft-Ness Shoreline Management Plan underpins management of the North Norfolk coast, advocating policies of managed realignment and no active intervention for much of this coastline. Implementation of these policies would give rise to significant loss of housing in North Norfolk during the course of this century. This has caused intense conflict between local communities and coastal planners, with the former feeling abandoned to the vagaries of natural coastal processes. Coastal planners need to work closely with local communities to implement a long-term vision for a sustainable coast. The issues of conflicting land-use planning policies and compensation for affected communities must be addressed. The wider implications of current management strategies are not fully understood and may, in some cases, be unsustainable.     

东中国海波浪分布特征研究

以美国国家环境预报中心(NCEP)再分析气象资料作为驱动风场条件,运用第三代海浪模式WAM的第四版本(WAMC4)在西北太平洋海域建立二级嵌套波浪模型,利用连云港、冷家沙现场观测波浪资料对模型进行了验证,检验了该模型在东中国海波浪研究中的适用性针对东中国海进行了连续60年(1950—2909)的波浪后报模拟,在此基础上开展了东中国海波浪时空分布特征研究.结果表明:四季的平均有效波高等值线与岸线形状基本保持一致,且由南向北逐渐递减;有效波高分布的季节差异显著,冬季浪高最大,其次为秋季,春季、夏季最小。通过对比分析平均波浪要素和5%累积频率波浪要素的定量关系发现,在渤海范围内,5%累积频率有效波高与平均有效波高之比约为2.75,黄海与东海大部该比值则分别约为2.50和2.35,而5%累积频率平均周期与平均周期的比值在整个东中国海范围内约为1.45。     

南海超大型组块浮托安装的关键技术

该论文通过南海荔湾项目的超大型组块浮托安装的研发与设计,向海洋工程界介绍在南中国海进行的水深为190m左右、浮托重量达3.2万多吨组块的浮托安装关键技术.由于该技术的攻关与成功设计,使浮托安装技术由浅水向深水发展、浮托重量由万吨级向几万吨级发展,本项目的设计成果极大地推动了大型组块海上安装的进程.     

Hydrodynamic comparison of a semi-submersible, TLP, and Spar: Numerical study in the South China Sea environment

The South China Sea contains tremendous oil and gas resources in deepwater areas. However, one of the keys for deepwater exploration, the investigation of deepwater floating platforms, is very inadequate. In this paper, the authors studied and compared the hydrodynamics and global motion behaviors of typical deepwater platforms in the South China Sea environment. The hydrodynamic models of three main types of floating platforms, e.g. the Semi-submersible, tension leg platform (TLP), and Truss Spar, which could potentially be utilized in the South China Sea, were established by using the 3-D potential theory. Additionally, some important considerations which significantly influence the hydrodynamics were given. The RAOs in frequency domains as well as global motions in time domains under time-varying wind, random waves, and current in 100-y, 10-y, and 1-y return period environment conditions were predicted, compared, and analyzed. The results indicate that the heave and especially the pitch motion of the TLP are favorable. The heave response of the Truss Spar is perfect and comparable with that of the TLP when the peak period of random waves is low. However, the pitch motion of Truss Spar is extraordinarily larger than that of Semi-submersible and TLP.     

浦东国际机场北通道(申江路—主进场路)新建工程主线高架桥梁现浇连续箱梁施工

浦东国际机场北通道作为中环线向东延伸线,是连接中环线和上海浦东国际机场间的快速通道。着重阐述北通道14标主线高架桥梁现浇连续箱梁的施工方法及技术保证措施,可为同类工程提供参考。     

Concentration of floating biogenic material in convergence zones

Some organisms that live just below the sea surface (the neuston) are known more as a matter of curiosity than as critical players in biogeochemical cycles. The hypothesis of this work is that their existence implies that they receive some food from an upward flux of organic matter. The behaviour of these organisms and of the associated organic matter, hereafter mentioned as floating biogenic material (FBM) is explored using a global physical–biogeochemical coupled model, in which its generation is fixed to 1% of primary production, and decay rate is of the order of 1 month. The model shows that the distribution of FBM should depart rapidly from that of primary production, and be more sensitive to circulation patterns than to the distribution of primary production. It is trapped in convergence areas, where it reaches concentrations larger by a factor 10 than in divergences, thus enhancing and inverting the contrast between high and low primary productivity areas. Attention is called on the need to better understand the biogeochemical processes in the first meter of the ocean, as they may impact the distribution of food for fishes, as well as the conditions for air–sea exchange and for the interpretation of sea color.     

Numerical simulation of the barotropic tides in the Tunisian Shelf and the Strait of Sicily

We have investigated the barotropic tides in the Tunisian shelf and the Strait of Sicily using the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) with very high-resolution. Model performance was evaluated with respect to tide gauge, satellite data, and current meter measurements. The model fields faithfully reproduced the major feature of the barotropic tidal currents and agreed well with existing tidal elevation and phase observations. General features for the various semidiurnal constituents are nearly similar to each other with maximum amplitude in the Gulf of Gabes. The larger tidal currents occur over the continental shelves. In the Adventure Bank, the current is essentially of diurnal type whereas in the Gulf of Gabes it is of semidiurnal type.Tidal energy lost, which is primarily due to bottom stress dissipation, is predominantly in the Gulf of Gabes ( 61%), the Strait of Sicily, and the Strait of Messina. The forcing function for internal tides shows for both M₂ and K₁ constituents, significant spatial variability in the Strait of Sicily. This suggests that some internal tides will be generated in these regions and could thus explain the observed strong diurnal internal waves in the Adventure Bank.     

港口布局规划决策中的海运运价测定方法的研究

本文在对港口布局规划决策中所使用的推测海运运价的传统推测方法作一评述的基础上,提出：从分析多种因素影响下的市场运价入手,利用数理统计理论,来测定海运运价并揭示海运运价的内在规律。文章以矿石进口为例,利用该方法对船型和运距对运价的影响进行了分析。     

Annual uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the Weddell Sea derived from a surface layer balance, including estimations of entrainment and new production

Data from two cruises, one in April/May 1996 and one in December/January 1993, covering the same wide area in the offshore Weddell Sea, were used to derive the annual extent of entrainment and the capacity of the biological pump. The former property was obtained with the help of dissolved oxygen data, whereas the latter was approximated with nutrients. Especially the data from April/May, representing the initial state of the winter surface layer, were crucial to assess the annual extent of these processes. The results were applied to our carbon dioxide data. The annual increase of the Total CO₂ (TCO₂) concentration in the surface layer due to vertical transport amounts to 16.3 μmol kg⁻¹. An entrainment rate of deep water in the surface layer amounting to 35±10 m yr⁻¹ was deduced. The compensating, biologically mediated TCO₂ reduction was calculated to be larger than the TCO₂ increase due to vertical transport. Since the balance of these two processes determines whether the Weddell Sea is a source or a sink of CO₂, this indicates that the Weddell Sea, albeit upwelling area, is definitely a sink for atmospheric CO₂ on an annual basis. This conclusion is further supported by contemplations that the biological drawdown of CO₂ in the Weddell Sea as a whole is probably underestimated by our calculations. The new production for the Weddell Sea on a per unit area basis was found to be much higher than that for the Antarctic Ocean, when the latter value is being obtained by traditional biological methods. On the other hand, the CO₂ uptake by the Weddell Sea on a per unit area basis is somewhat smaller than the CO₂ uptake by the world ocean.