Widening the Panama Canal and U.S. ports: historical and economic impact analyses

ABSTRACT

The economic history of the U.S. illustrates how the role of many cities has been changed by being seaports or located on navigable rivers or lakes. Based on the widening of the Panama Canal in 2016, the West Coast ports that include the west coast seaports of California, Oregon, and Washington were expected to become less important, while the freight shares of the East Coast and Gulf ports would increase. By how much it has been not easy to measure or predict so far, but this study attempted to define some of the key parameters in the measurement. As well as several relevant background topics, both the demand- and supply-side versions of the National Interstate Economic Model, have been applied for the measurement of economic impacts. U.S. port authorities and policy makers at the local and national levels who respond and develop plans for coping with the new realities of the Panama Canal are able to understand the extent to which changes in shippers’ and land-mode transporters’ behaviors would undermine the logistics and the costs of their activities. Therefore, this study is important for a diverse spectrum of port development strategies in the U.S. to respond to the Canal expansion.     

Distribution of suspended sediment in the coastal sea off the Ganges–Brahmaputra River mouth: observation from TM data

Remote sensing technique was applied to estimate suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and to understand transportation, distribution and deposition of suspended sediment in the estuary and throughout the coastal sea, off the Ganges–Brahmaputra River mouth. During low river discharge period, zone of turbidity maximum is inferred in the estuary near the shore. SSC map shows that maximum SSC reaches 1050 mg/l in this period. Magnitude of SSC is mainly owing to resuspension of the bottom surface sediments induced by tidal currents flowing over shallow water depths. The influence of depth on resuspension is farther revealed from the distribution and magnitude of SSC along the head of Swatch of No Ground (SNG) submarine canyon. During high river discharge period, huge river outflow pushed the salt wedge and flashes away the suspended sediments in the coastal sea off the river mouth. Zone of turbidity maximum is inferred in the coastal water approximately within 5–10 m depth of water, where the maximum SSC reaches 1700 mg/l. In this period, huge fluvial input of the suspended sediments including the resuspended bottom sediments and the particles remaining in suspension for longer period of time since their initial entry control mainly the magnitude of SSC. In the estuary near the shore, seasonal variation in the magnitude of SSC is not evident. In the coastal sea (>5 m water depth), seasonal influence in the magnitude of SSC could be concluded from the discrepancy between SSC values of two different seasons. Transportation and deposition of suspended sediments also experiences seasonal variations. At present, suspended sediments are being accumulated on the shallow shelf (between 5 and 10 m water depth) in low discharge period and on the mid-shelf (between 10 and 75 m water depth) during high discharge period. An empirical (exponential) relationship was found between gradual settle down of suspended sediments in the coastal sea and its lateral distance from the turbidity maximum.     

南昌西站综合交通枢纽环境振动试验分析

现代大型综合交通枢纽综合了多种交通工具,实现了航空、高铁、普铁、轨道交通、公交和磁悬浮列车等多种交通方式的零换乘或短距离换乘。站房结构中包含高架桥梁、隧道和大跨度空间等复杂结构体系。由复杂结构形式而引发的环境振动,往往对人和精密仪器的使用造成极大的伤害。对南昌西站综合交通枢纽环境振动实测分析的结果表明,振动响应满足环境测评标准和舒适度要求。     

Identifying tourists and analyzing spatial patterns of their destinations from location-based social media data

Reliable travel behavior data is a prerequisite for transportation planning process. In large tourism dependent cities, tourists are the most dynamic population group whose size and travel choices remain unknown to planners. Traditional travel surveys generally observe resident travel behavior and rarely target tourists. Ubiquitous uses of social media platforms in smartphones have created a tremendous opportunity to gather digital traces of tourists at a large scale. In this paper, we present a framework on how to use location-based data from social media to gather and analyze travel behavior of tourists. We have collected data of about 67,000 users from Twitter using its search interface for Florida. We first propose several filtering steps to create a reliable sample from the collected Twitter data. An ensemble classification technique is proposed to classify tourists and residents from user coordinates. The accuracy of the proposed classifier has been compared against the state-of-the-art classification methods. Finally, different clustering methods have been used to find the spatial patterns of destination choices of tourists. Promising results have been found from the output clusters as they reveal most popular tourist spots as well as some of the emerging tourist attractions in Florida. Performance of the proposed clustering techniques has been assessed using internal clustering validation indices. We have analyzed temporal patterns of tourist and resident activities to validate the classification of the users in two separate groups of tourists and residents. Proposed filtering, identification, and clustering techniques will be significantly useful for building individual-level tourist travel demand models from social media data.     

Circulation on the Armorican shelf (Bay of Biscay) in autumn

Three drifters drogued at 65 m were launched on a transect on the Armorican shelf of the Bay of Biscay for 4 years. The experiments were conducted in autumn. They revealed a north-westward, poleward current over the 100 m isobath and a very weak eastward current over depths comprised between 120 and 150 m. A model was used to assess the role of residual tidal currents and wind-induced circulation. The results show that the former are quite weak and the latter do not explain the average velocity of over 10 cm s^− 1. It is thought that this current is mainly driven by the density gradient induced by the breakdown of stratification. Hydrological data and satellite images from the period are discussed, in the light of this hypothesis.     

The Necessity of Establishing a Regional Marine Research Program for the U.S. West Coast

The welfare of the marine environment of the U.S. West Coast of California, Oregon, and Washington is hindered by insufficient understanding of ecosystem dynamics and human pressures. Greater coordination, integration, and support of mutually identified research priorities across research organizations on the West Coast are necessary. This level of collaboration is essential to responding to regional ecosystem threats, such as the impacts of human occupation of coastal areas, over-harvesting of marine resources, and climate change. To address this need for collaboration and build on the accomplishments of existing research organizations, this article advocates the establishment of a West Coast regional marine research program (RMRP).     

浅谈香港西铁项目计划管理

香港西铁项目投资规模巨大，工程复杂。为确保工程能按时完工，投入运营，参与各方秉承科学计划管理理念、采用先进技术精心组织实施，业主在招标阶段制定了一套完善的计划管理体系，承包商能够利用先进技术编制了全面、详细、形象的施工计划并加以实施，咨询工程师能够严格把关，协调各方关系，确保了项目顺利完工。     

PPS导向系统在西秦岭隧道TBM施工中的应用

为了保证PPS向TBM掘进提供持续、有效、精确的参考数据,以西秦岭隧道为例,介绍PPS工作原理与安装过程,提出减小测量误差的措施,总结系统常见故障及排除方案,并进一步对硬件损坏时的应急工作方法提出见解。     

西秦岭隧道连续皮带机出碴下的同步衬砌施工组织管理

为减小衬砌施工与掘进施工的相互干扰,提高衬砌施工进度、缩短工期、降低工程安全风险,从设备管理、施工管理、劳动组织管理3方面介绍了TBM正常掘进时连续皮带机在出碴情况下的同步衬砌情况。通过合理的协调组织,实现了TBM掘进与衬砌施工的同步,有效缓解了本工程工期压力。     

西秦岭TBM铁路单线隧道信息化辅助有轨运输安全管理

TBM施工相对常规的钻爆法施工安全性较高,但在TBM施工的安全管理中,有轨运输经常发生安全事故。为有效减少和规避隧道有轨运输安全事故的发生,在施工中采用了信息化辅助措施。以西秦岭单洞双线铁路隧道TBM施工有轨运输为例,通过加强有轨运输相关人员技能培训、引入5套信息化通信手段并加强机车日常维护和保养工作,有效地控制了有轨运输安全风险,可为类似工程施工提供借鉴和参考。