Spatial Data Infrastructures for environmental e-government services: The case of water abstractions authorisations

Environment-related authorisations are a relevant issue for environmental management. They require a considerable effort by the authorities, and this might result in substantial delays for the citizens. Implementing those authorisation processes by means of e-government services would improve efficiency and, consequently, citizen satisfaction. Environment-related authorisations usually require a variety of geospatial information, and have to deal with administrative areas which do not match physical and ecological ones. They also have to integrate heterogeneous information in different formats, data models and languages, and provided by distinct organisations, even from different countries. This paper discusses how Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) can deal with these problems in the environmental domain, while improving the level of service provision in terms of e-government applications. This is even more relevant within the European Union where there is a legal mandate to establish an SDI to support environmental policies and activities with an impact on the environment. As a proof-of-concept, an application to request and manage water abstraction authorisations, based on an SDI, is demonstrated. This application is part of SDIGER, a cross-border inter-administration SDI to support the water framework directive information access for the Adour–Garonne and Ebro River basins, that was a pilot project for the EU INSPIRE Directive. The introduction of this transactional e-government service modifies the administrative process of granting authorisations: it allows to re-use the effort in data capture made by the applicants in their requests, facilitates the submission of more feasible applications and reduces the workload of the office staff.     

利用数据库技术开发水文资料管理系统初探

随着经济发展和人民生活水平不断提高,对水文资料应用服务的要求也相应提高,传统的水文资料管理模式很难适应形势。滁州水文局资料管理系统,以先进的计算机技术,用ACCESS2000开发与修改数据库,用VB6.0实现各功能模块,界面友好、操作简单。文中阐述了软件系统的开发背景、设计思想、功能结构及优点。     

A downscaling method for distributing surface soil moisture within a microwave pixel: Application to the Monsoon '90 data

A downscaling method for the near-surface soil moisture retrieved from passive microwave sensors is applied to the PBMR data collected during the Monsoon '90 experiment. The downscaling method requires (1) the coarse resolution microwave observations, (2) the fine-scale distribution of soil temperature and (3) the fine-scale distribution of surface conditions composed of atmospheric forcing and the parameters involved in the modeling of land surface-atmosphere interactions. During the Monsoon '90 experiment, eight ground-based meteorological and flux stations were operating over the 150 km² study area simultaneously with the acquisition of the aircraft-based L-band PBMR data. The heterogeneous scene is hence composed of eight subpixels and the microwave pixel is generated by aggregating the microwave emission of all sites. The results indicate a good agreement between the downscaled and ground-based soil moisture as long as the intensity of solar radiation is sufficiently high to use the soil temperature as a tracer of the spatial variability of near-surface soil moisture.     

Variations of Time of Concentration Estimates Using NRCS Velocity Method

Time of concentration (Tc) is the time required for runoff to travel from the hydraulically most distant point to the outlet of a watershed. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) velocity method commonly is used to estimate Tc for hydrologic analysis and design. The NRCS velocity method applies the physical concept that travel time is a function of runoff flow length and flow velocity. Time of concentration for 96 Texas watersheds is independently estimated by three research teams using the NRCS velocity method. Drainage areas of the 96 watersheds considered in the study are approximately 0.8–440.3?km2 (0.3–170?mi2). Digital elevation models having a grid size of 30?m were used to derive watershed physical characteristics using ArcGIS or HEC-GeoHMS. Average channel width was estimated from 1?m or 1?ft digital orthoimagery quarter quadrangle or aerial photography. Each team made independent decisions to estimate parameters needed for different flow segments for the NRCS velocity method. Estimates of time of concentration made by three research teams are compared, and both graphic comparison and statistical summary demonstrate that time of concentration estimated using the NRCS velocity method is subject to large variation, dependent on the analyst-derived parameters used to estimate flow velocity. Because of the propensity for different analysts to arrive at different results, caution is required in application of the NRCS velocity method to estimate Tc.     

Towards to a system analytical and modelling approach for integration of ecological, hydrological, economical and social components of disturbed regions

As a consequence of surface coal mining, past landscapes within the Lusatian coal mining region were disturbed (land cover, forest, agro- and other ecosystems, geological material, hydrology), paralleled by strongly changed economic and socio-economic conditions (unemployment, emigration due to slowing down of mining activity in the region). The task is to restore the landscape and to improve the present state of the economic and socio-economic conditions, as well. Consented goal states for both the ecological and economic system in the region and consistent planning and management options (PMO) for such economic sectors, which are linked to natural resources (terrestrial, hydrological), are to be designed. They must be ecologically and economically evaluated, assessed and selected for real implementation.In order to handle such a complex problem, a comprehensive analysis of the whole system with subsequent multiscaled modelling efforts is needed. The final aim is to establish an interactive, effective, sufficiently simple decision support system for the actors in the disturbed region.The future responses of the landscape variables and the economical and social characteristics as an answer to economic sector PMO (e.g. PMO for control in agriculture, forestry, hydrology a.o.) can be approximately calculated, and subsequently evaluated and assessed by such an appropriately tailored simulation and decision support tool.In this study, the complex problem and the ecologic and economic system with its components are analysed and structured. Based on this, principles of stepwise model building and its usage (e.g. in if-than-simulation experiments as scenario analyses of the effects under changing non-modelled political and economical boundary conditions) toward an integrated approach are proposed.In this study, the present state of the disturbed region is described briefly (Section 1), and a rough scheme of the ecological and socio-economic structure of the region ( Section 2) as well as of the structure of the problem, which must be solved ( Section 3) and the role of the models in decision support ( Section 4) is outlined. In Section 5, the tasks of analysing and modelling of the components in the Lusatian coal mining region are derived, and in Section 6, the main steps in module building and its usage are briefly described. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.     

Macrozoobenthos of floodplain waters of the rivers rhine and meuse in the Netherlands: A structural and functional analysis in relation to hydrology

The river systems of the Rhine and Meuse include a large number of floodplain waters showing differences in hydrology and geomorphology. A classification of 100 water bodies based on their macroinvertebrate communities has been worked out as a tool for ecological management. Analyses were performed on structural (species composition) and functional (trophic relations) aspects of macrozoobenthos in relation to hydrological, vegetational, and physicochemical parameters. Based on the classification of macroinvertebrate communities, three major groups of water bodies can be distinguished, which are related to the frequency of inundation. The flood frequency constitutes the major environmental gradient which structures the zoobenthos communities in the Dutch floodplain waters. Faunal composition is mediated by substrate availability, water chemistry, and the availability of nutritional resources. This typology serves as a basis for the prediction of the impact of hydrology changes on the macrozoobenthic communities of floodplain waters of highly eutrophic and polluted rivers.     

Symbiosis between systems engineering and hydrology

The system concepts of importance to hydrological sciences are reviewed. The epochs of the development of systems sciences are discussed and their links with hydrological and water resources research are illustrated. Potentials and limitations of the system approach are discussed and the perspectives of further applications are sketched.     

Hydrological Modeling of Zarqa River Basin – Jordan Using the Hydrological Simulation Program – FORTRAN (HSPF) Model

Jordan is an arid country with limited water resources, so there is a chronic need to study and understand its hydrology at the watershed scale which will eventually help in achieving good management for the existing scarce water resources. The studied watershed was the Zarqa River Basin which is considered as the largest watershed in Jordan. The objective of this study was to calibrate the hydrological component of the Hydrological Simulation Program – FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Zarqa River Basin. The calibrated model could be used in a later stage to examine the impact of different management practices and climate change scenarios on the water resources in the basin. The calibration of the HSPF water quantity parameters was aided by GIS and by the automatic calibration model (PEST). The automatic calibration was done for the years 1988–1991 and the validation was done for the years 1996–1998. The coefficient of determination, R ² for the calibration and verification years of the monthly flows was 0.81 and 0.76, respectively.     

A new ‘momentum method’ for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of Polish rivers

There is a tendency in water management to identify the resources of surface waters with river discharge expressed by the intensity of the flow. However, such an evaluation is insufficient because of the difficulties in the water-economic balancing of the basin resources, since it does not take into account the volume of water contained in the river channel. With heavy pollution of the water flowing in the river channel, this fact may have a considerable influence on the representativity of the balance.The above reasons have become a basis for the introduction of a new measure for the evaluation of pollution resources of flowing water. The quantity of water in motion in a river channel is expressed by the momentum equation.Evaluation of water resources has been carried out for 83 rivers in the Vistula Basin and 52 rivers in the Odra Basin by means of the stream momentum method.     

论政策法规建设与水文事业发展的辩证关系

简述水文政策法规建设的现状,指出水文政策法规滞后将影响水文事业的发展;概述广西水文政策法规建设所取得的成就和突破;结合广西的特点,提出水文政策法规建设的任务.