scholarly journals Conversion of Natural Wetland to Farmland in the Tumen River Basin: Human and Environmental Factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 3498
Author(s):  
Yuyan Liu ◽  
Ri Jin ◽  
Weihong Zhu

Wetlands play an important role in the terrestrial ecosystem. However, agricultural activities have resulted in a significant decrease in natural wetlands around the world. In the Tumen River Basin (TRB), a border area between China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Russia, natural wetlands have been reclaimed and converted into farmland, primarily due to the migration practices of Korean-Chinese. To understand the spatial and temporal patterns of this conversion from wetlands to farmland, Landsat remote sensing images from four time periods were analyzed. Almost 30 years of data were extracted using the object-oriented classification method combined with random forest classification. In addition, statistical analysis was conducted on the conversion from natural wetland to farmland and from farmland to wetland, as well as on the relationship between the driving factors. The results revealed that a loss of 49.2% (12,540.1 ha) of natural wetlands in the Chinese portion of the TRB was due to agricultural encroachment for grain production. At the sub-basin scale, the largest area of natural wetland converted into farmland in the past 30 years was in the Hunchun River Basin (HCH), which accounts for 22.0% (2761.2 ha) of the total. Meanwhile, 6571.4 ha of natural wetlands, mainly in the Gaya River Basin (GYH), have been restored from farmland. These changes are closely related to the migration of the agricultural populations.

Epigenomes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kelsey Dawes ◽  
Luke Sampson ◽  
Rachel Reimer ◽  
Shelly Miller ◽  
Robert Philibert ◽  
...  

Alcohol and tobacco use are highly comorbid and exacerbate the associated morbidity and mortality of either substance alone. However, the relationship of alcohol consumption to the various forms of nicotine-containing products is not well understood. To improve this understanding, we examined the relationship of alcohol consumption to nicotine product use using self-report, cotinine, and two epigenetic biomarkers specific for smoking (cg05575921) and drinking (Alcohol T Scores (ATS)) in n = 424 subjects. Cigarette users had significantly higher ATS values than the other groups (p < 2.2 × 10−16). Using the objective biomarkers, the intensity of nicotine and alcohol consumption was correlated in both the cigarette and smokeless users (R = −0.66, p = 3.1 × 10−14; R2 = 0.61, p = 1.97 × 10−4). Building upon this idea, we used the objective nicotine biomarkers and age to build and test a Balanced Random Forest classification model for heavy alcohol consumption (ATS > 2.35). The model performed well with an AUC of 0.962, 89.3% sensitivity, and 85% specificity. We conclude that those who use non-combustible nicotine products drink significantly less than smokers, and cigarette and smokeless users drink more with heavier nicotine use. These findings further highlight the lack of informativeness of self-reported alcohol consumption and suggest given the public and private health burden of alcoholism, further research into whether using non-combustible nicotine products as a mode of treatment for dual users should be considered.


1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 103-110
Author(s):  
Carlo De Marchi ◽  
Pavel Ivanov ◽  
Ari Jolma ◽  
Ilia Masliev ◽  
Mark Griffin Smith ◽  
...  

This paper presents the major features of two decision support systems (DSS) for river water quality modeling and policy analysis recently developed at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), DESERT and STREAMPLAN. DESERT integrates in a single package data management, model calibration, simulation, optimization and presentation of results. DESERT has the flexibility to allow the specification of both alternative water quality models and flow hydraulics for different branches of the same river basin. Specification of these models can be done interactively through Microsoft® Windows commands and menus and an easy to use interpreted language. Detailed analysis of the effects of parameter uncertainty on water quality results is integrated into DESERT. STREAMPLAN, on the other hand, is an integrated, easy-to-use software system for analyzing alternative water quality management policies on a river basin level. These policies include uniform emission reduction and effluent standard based strategies, ambient water quality and least-cost strategies, total emission reduction under minimized costs, mixed strategies, local and regional policies, and strategies with economic instruments. A distinctive feature of STREAMPLAN is the integration of a detailed model of municipal wastewater generation with a water quality model and policy analysis tools on a river basin scale.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Marcos D. Robles ◽  
John C. Hammond ◽  
Stephanie K. Kampf ◽  
Joel A. Biederman ◽  
Eleonora M. C. Demaria

Recent streamflow declines in the Upper Colorado River Basin raise concerns about the sensitivity of water supply for 40 million people to rising temperatures. Yet, other studies in western US river basins present a paradox: streamflow has not consistently declined with warming and snow loss. A potential explanation for this lack of consistency is warming-induced production of winter runoff when potential evaporative losses are low. This mechanism is more likely in basins at lower elevations or latitudes with relatively warm winter temperatures and intermittent snowpacks. We test whether this accounts for streamflow patterns in nine gaged basins of the Salt River and its tributaries, which is a sub-basin in the Lower Colorado River Basin (LCRB). We develop a basin-scale model that separates snow and rainfall inputs and simulates snow accumulation and melt using temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity. Despite significant warming from 1968–2011 and snow loss in many of the basins, annual and seasonal streamflow did not decline. Between 25% and 50% of annual streamflow is generated in winter (NDJF) when runoff ratios are generally higher and potential evapotranspiration losses are one-third of potential losses in spring (MAMJ). Sub-annual streamflow responses to winter inputs were larger and more efficient than spring and summer responses and their frequencies and magnitudes increased in 1968–2011 compared to 1929–1967. In total, 75% of the largest winter events were associated with atmospheric rivers, which can produce large cool-season streamflow peaks. We conclude that temperature-induced snow loss in this LCRB sub-basin was moderated by enhanced winter hydrological inputs and streamflow production.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Nitsch ◽  
Jordan Sack ◽  
Michael W. Halle ◽  
Jan H. Moltz ◽  
April Wall ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose We aimed to develop a predictive model of disease severity for cirrhosis using MRI-derived radiomic features of the liver and spleen and compared it to the existing disease severity metrics of MELD score and clinical decompensation. The MELD score is compiled solely by blood parameters, and so far, it was not investigated if extracted image-based features have the potential to reflect severity to potentially complement the calculated score. Methods This was a retrospective study of eligible patients with cirrhosis ($$n=90$$ n = 90 ) who underwent a contrast-enhanced MR screening protocol for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) screening at a tertiary academic center from 2015 to 2018. Radiomic feature analyses were used to train four prediction models for assessing the patient’s condition at time of scan: MELD score, MELD score $$\ge $$ ≥ 9 (median score of the cohort), MELD score $$\ge $$ ≥ 15 (the inflection between the risk and benefit of transplant), and clinical decompensation. Liver and spleen segmentations were used for feature extraction, followed by cross-validated random forest classification. Results Radiomic features of the liver and spleen were most predictive of clinical decompensation (AUC 0.84), which the MELD score could predict with an AUC of 0.78. Using liver or spleen features alone had slightly lower discrimination ability (AUC of 0.82 for liver and AUC of 0.78 for spleen features only), although this was not statistically significant on our cohort. When radiomic prediction models were trained to predict continuous MELD scores, there was poor correlation. When stratifying risk by splitting our cohort at the median MELD 9 or at MELD 15, our models achieved AUCs of 0.78 or 0.66, respectively. Conclusions We demonstrated that MRI-based radiomic features of the liver and spleen have the potential to predict the severity of liver cirrhosis, using decompensation or MELD status as imperfect surrogate measures for disease severity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3023
Author(s):  
Jinghua Xiong ◽  
Shenglian Guo ◽  
Jiabo Yin ◽  
Lei Gu ◽  
Feng Xiong

Flooding is one of the most widespread and frequent weather-related hazards that has devastating impacts on the society and ecosystem. Monitoring flooding is a vital issue for water resources management, socioeconomic sustainable development, and maintaining life safety. By integrating multiple precipitation, evapotranspiration, and GRACE-Follow On (GRAFO) terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) datasets, this study uses the water balance principle coupled with the CaMa-Flood hydrodynamic model to access the spatiotemporal discharge variations in the Yangtze River basin during the 2020 catastrophic flood. The results show that: (1) TWSA bias dominates the overall uncertainty in runoff at the basin scale, which is spatially governed by uncertainty in TWSA and precipitation; (2) spatially, a field significance at the 5% level is discovered for the correlations between GRAFO-based runoff and GLDAS results. The GRAFO-derived discharge series has a high correlation coefficient with either in situ observations and hydrological simulations for the Yangtze River basin, at the 0.01 significance level; (3) the GRAFO-derived discharge observes the flood peaks in July and August and the recession process in October 2020. Our developed approach provides an alternative way of monitoring large-scale extreme hydrological events with the latest GRAFO release and CaMa-Flood model.


Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 768-788
Author(s):  
Nitin Bassi ◽  
Guido Schmidt ◽  
Lucia De Stefano

Abstract The main objective of this research paper is to assess the extent to which the concept of water accounting has been applied for water management at the river basin scale in India. For this, the study first assesses the importance given to the use of water accounting for water management in India's national water policy. It then analyses the evolution of water accounting approaches in India through a systematic review of the past research studies on the theme. Further, it looks at their contribution to decision-making concerning allocation of water resources and resolving conflicts over water sharing. Finally, it identifies the existing gaps in the methodologies for water accounting so far used in India.


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