Environmental Evaluation Method Research Articles

Evaluation of energy performance and environmental benefits for transcritical CO2 thermal system in high-speed trains

The conventional air conditioning system used in high-speed railways has limitations in heating performance and environmental impact, necessitating the exploration of alternative refrigerants. The transcritical CO2 system has gained popularity due to its exceptional heating efficiency and environmental benefits. This study aims to evaluate the energy and environmental potentials for transcritical CO2 systems in high-speed trains based on four-vertical-and-four-horizontal railway lines within different climatic regions of China. A high-fidelity transcritical CO2 system model was first developed and validated through experiments. Then, a comprehensive energy and environmental evaluation method was proposed and applied to the four-vertical-and-four-horizontal railway lines. The results indicated that the transcritical CO2 system had a superior heating performance and competitive cooling performance based on daily and annual operations. Furthermore, the transcritical CO2 system exhibited significant environmental advantages with lower total life cycle climate performance for all lines, with an average emissions reduction ratio of 17.6% and a maximum emissions reduction ratio of 26.98%. These findings highlight the competitive energy performance and outstanding environmental benefits offered by transcritical CO2 systems as promising alternatives to air conditioning systems in railway transportation.

Environmental test and evaluation technology of control and protection device for flexible DC converter valve

Environmental suitability is particularly important for the safe and reliable operation of the product. The environmental test and evaluation method are studied to target the reliability requirements for the control and protection device of the flexible DC converter valve. According to the characteristics of the secondary board card of the control and protection device, a study is carried out on the mechanism of salt spray corrosion, and specific methods for implementing and evaluating the salt spray test are proposed. Using this method, a salt spray test is conducted on a secondary board card of a relay control and protection device under the finalization of the design. The test results show that this method can effectively reveal the salt spray corrosion weakness of the product. Besides, salt spray test results are also evaluated according to the corrosion conditions of the product after the test. The application of environmental test and evaluation technology of the control and protection device of the flexible DC converter valve has a significant meaning in improving the reliability of relevant products.

Compiling and applying atmospheric resource balance sheet in off-office auditing of leading cadres in China.

Atmospheric resources provide important support for human economic and social systems through their unique ecosystem service functions. Implementing the off-office auditing of atmospheric resources for leading cadres holds great strategic significance for fundamentally solve air pollution problems. Exploring the compilation of an atmospheric resource balance sheet is a necessary pre-step in the implementation of outgoing audits. In this paper, atmospheric resources are innovatively divided into atmospheric capacity resources and atmospheric quality resources from the perspective of the ecosystem service functions of atmospheric resources. The value of atmospheric resource assets is calculated by combining the environmental capacity value method and the environmental loss evaluation method. This study evaluates atmospheric ecological achievements based on the atmospheric resources balance sheet and related accounts as the data carrier and opens up the key "blocking point" of the off-office auditing of atmospheric resources. This paper takes Anhui Province as an example and applies the accounting results of the prepared atmospheric resource balance sheet to evaluate the atmospheric resource ecological achievements of leading cadres from 2016 to 2020. The results clearly reflect the ecological achievements and shortcomings of local leading cadres during their tenure.

Environmental Evaluation and Regulation Method of Ancient Buildings Based on Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Network

Ancient buildings are precious historical and cultural heritage. Environmental evaluation and regulation can effectively protect ancient buildings. In view of this, a health monitoring network framework for ancient buildings based on wireless rechargeable sensor network is proposed. In this network, the battery capacity of these sensors used for data collection is limited. Therefore, to maximize the network lifetime, a heuristic algorithm based on dominating set is proposed. The algorithm can collect data through a minimum number of sensors and find an anchor set with a known set of all sensors deployed in the sensing domain. Then, the mobile devices accessing the anchor point are scheduled by the minimum dominating set (MDS) method and the proposed device scheduling algorithm (DSA). Meanwhile, the environmental evaluation and regulation method of ancient building is proposed. Finally, the simulation results show that the method can adjust and control the environmental data around the ancient buildings, and has better performance.

A Review of Research on Enterprise Environmental Performance Evaluation

The long-term extensive economic growth model has led to increasingly serious environmental problems in China, and enterprise environmental performance evaluation is one of the effective ways to solve environmental problems. This article systematically reviews and sorts out the research achievements on enterprise environmental performance evaluation both domestically and internationally, and analyzes them from three aspects: the definition of enterprise environmental performance, the construction of environmental performance indicators, and the methods of enterprise environmental performance evaluation. It summarizes the current research status of environmental performance evaluation in China, prospects its future research trend, and provides reference for further development.

System comprehensive risk assessment of urban rainstorm–induced flood-water pollution disasters

The urban rainstorm-induced flood-water pollution disaster is a kind of systematic risk, which may induce secondary disasters that can lead to more serious damage, so this paper first adopts the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to determine the flood risk by combining with the submergence depth derived from the risk field and other factors data, and then the grid environmental risk evaluation method, which is improved by increasing the induced possibility based on Bayesian theory, is used to evaluate the flood-induced water pollution risk, and the system comprehensive risk of rainstorm-induced flood-water pollution disasters is finally obtained by constructing risk level matrix, which can well depict the coupling superposition effect. Shenzhen City is selected as the study area, and the results showed that the area with high-risk of both flood and water pollution only accounts for about 0.14% of the total area, mainly distributed in the eastern junction of Longgang district and Pingshan district, where the rainstorms occur frequently and the enterprise risk sources are dense. The system comprehensive risk is mostly very low-low and very high-low, accounting for more than 76% of the total area. It is always necessary to pay attention not only to the areas with high risk level of both disasters, but also to the areas with high risk level of one disaster. The method proposed in this study can not only quantitatively reveal the formation of the induced risk, but also provide reference for early warning.

A review of the effect of the light environment of the VDT workspace on the "learning to learn" effect of video game training.

In recent years, the role of video games in enhancing brain plasticity and learning ability has been verified, and this learning transfer is known as the "learning to learn" effect of video game training. At the same time, against the background of healthy lighting, the influence of non-visual effects of light environment on the human rhythmic system has been gradually confirmed. As a special operation form of Visual Display Terminal (VDT) operation, video game training has a high dependence on VDT equipment and the VDT screen, and the background usually has a huge difference in brightness. Compared with the light environment of ordinary operation space, the light environment of VDT operation space is more complex. This complex light environment's non-visual effects cause human emotions, alertness, fatigue, cognitive ability, and other changes, which may affect the efficiency of the "learning to learn" effect of video game training. This article focuses on the impact of the light environment in the VDT workspace on the "learning to learn" effect of video game training. It first traces the factors that trigger the "learning to learn" effect of video game training, that is, the improvement of people's attention, perception, and cognitive ability. Then, the influencing mechanism and the evaluation method of the VDT workspace space light environment on the human rhythm system are discussed based on the basic theory of photobiological effect. In addition, the VDT display lighting light time pattern, photophysical properties, regulation, and protection mechanism on the human rhythm system are studied to demonstrate the VDT workspace light environment's special characteristics. Finally, combined with the progress of artificial lighting technology and the research results of health lighting, given the "learning to learn" effect of video game training, some thoughts on the design of the light environment of the workplace and future research directions are presented.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Agricultural Residues (Cocoa Cortex, Sugarcane Bagasse and Oil Palm Fiber) for Power Generation in Boilers through Fuel Combustion

Abstract Among the renewable energy resources available is biomass from agricultural waste. Herein, we propose 3 agricultural waste products (cocoa cortex, oil palm fiber and sugarcane bagasse. The environmental and energy performance of agr icultural waste used as fuel to produce 1 kWh of electr icity each in Ivory Coast was studied using the Life Cycle Assessment method. LAM is a method of environmental evaluation. It evaluates the environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle, the life cycle of each of these 3 agricultural wastes is made up of collection, transport to the electricity production site and combustion of these biomasses hi the boilers of the cogeneration units. The results are as follows: In terms of global wanning impacts, for these 3 waste products (cocoa cortex, oil palm fiber and sugarcane bagasse) respectively (0.12; 0.16 and 0.19) kg CO2 eq. / kWh. hi terms of impacts on the depletion of non-renewable resources for these 3 wastes (cocoa cortex, oil palm fiber and sugarcane bagasse) respectively (0.007; 0.010 and 0.012) MJ / kWh. hi terms of eutrophication-related impacts on global warming for these 3 wastes (cocoa cortex, oil palm fiber and sugarcane bagasse) respectively (0.38; 0.4 and 0.91) g PO43-/ kWh. According to the results of the 3 impacts taken into account hi tins LCA study, it is desirable to use these 3 agricultural wastes to produce electricity with very good energy and environmental performance, instead of fossil fuels (diesel, oil and coal). Finally, the objective of this research will be to provide credible information to decision-makers (governments, private and public companies, national and international organizations and the general public) in order to promote the installation of energy production units (heat and/or electricity) based on the combustion of these 3 agricultural residues hi rural and industrial areas.

Insights into fundamental problems of rockburst under the modern structure stress field

Rockbursts are some of the most severe dynamic disasters in coal mines. In this paper, the discrimination method of the tectonic stress field is proposed by analyzing the modern stress field in China. The tectonic stress field formed by modern tectonic movement guides in situ stress measurements. According to the stress state classification, most rockbursts in coal mines in China are closely associated with tectonic stress. For tectonic stress-driven rockbursts, modern tectonic movement and modern tectonic stress fields must be considered. The stress change and energy transfer caused by tectonic movement affect the geological structure where coal mines are located. Energy accumulation under rockburst conditions is mainly formed by natural geo-dynamic movement and the mining configuration, and energy accumulation is the basis for rockbursts. The application of the geo-dynamic environmental evaluation method to determine the coalfield geo-dynamic process and the influence of modern tectonic movement is proposed. Accordingly, the classification method of rockbursts in coal mines is established. Based on the distribution characteristics of modern tectonic conditions in China, it is revealed that these dynamic disasters follow a “110” distribution. Finally, a “three condition” criteria of rockbursts is proposed: the geo-dynamic environment is a necessary condition for rockbursts, mining disturbance is a sufficient condition for rockbursts, and risk-releasing measures are a condition controlling rockburst risk mitigation.

A Comprehensive Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment Model: Considering Temporally and Spatially Dependent Variations.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely-used international environmental evaluation and management method. However, the conventional LCA is in a static context without temporal and spatial variations considered, which fails to bring accurate evaluation values and hinders practical applications. Dynamic LCA research has developed vigorously in the past decade and become a hot topic. However, systematical analysis of spatiotemporal dynamic variations and comprehensive operable dynamic models are still lacking. This study follows LCA paradigm and incorporates time- and space-dependent variations to establish a spatiotemporal dynamic LCA model. The dynamic changes are classified into four types: dynamic foreground elementary flows, dynamic background system, dynamic characterization factors, and dynamic weighting factors. Their potential dynamics and possible quantification methods are analyzed. The dynamic LCA model is applied to a residential building, and significant differences can be observed between dynamic and static assessment results from both temporal and spatial perspectives. This study makes a theoretical contribution by establishing a comprehensive dynamic model with both temporal and spatial variations involved. It is expected to provide practical values for LCA practitioners and help with decision-making and environmental management.

Deep Learning Model for Soil Environment Quality Classification of Pu-erh Tea

Pu-erh tea, Camellia sinensis is a traditional Chinese tea, one of the black teas, originally produced in China’s Yunnan Province, named after its origin and distribution center in Pu-erh, Yunnan. Yunnan Pu-erh tea is protected by geographical Indication and has unique quality characteristics. It is made from Yunnan large-leaf sun-green tea with specific processing techniques. The quality formation of Pu-erh tea is closely related to the soil’s environmental conditions. In this paper, time-by-time data of the soil environment of tea plantations during the autumn tea harvesting period in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China, in 2021 were analyzed. Spearman’s correlation analysis was conducted between the inner components of Pu’er tea and the soil environmental factor. The analysis showed that three soil environmental indicators, soil temperature, soil moisture, and soil pH, were highly significantly correlated. The soil environmental quality evaluation method was proposed based on the selected soil environmental characteristics. Meanwhile, a deep learning model of Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Network for the soil environmental quality of tea plantation was established according to the proposed method, and the soil environmental quality of tea was classified into four classes. In addition, the paper also compares the constructed models based on BP neural network and random forest to evaluate the coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the indicators for comparative analysis. This paper innovatively proposes to introduce the main inclusions of Pu’er tea into the classification and discrimination model of the soil environment in tea plantations, while using machine learning-related algorithms to classify and predict the categories of soil environmental quality, instead of relying solely on statistical data for analysis. This research work makes it possible to quickly and accurately determines the physiological status of tea leaves based on the establishment of a soil environment quality prediction model, which provides effective data for the intelligent management of tea plantations and has the advantage of rapid and low-cost assessment compared with the need to measure the intrinsic quality of Pu-erh tea after harvesting is completed.

Characterization of hydrogen assisted corrosion cracking of a high strength aluminum alloy

Abstract Environmentally and hydrogen assisted cracking can occur during application of high-strength aluminum alloys. However, there are only few suitable laboratory procedures to characterize and evaluate the environmentally and hydrogen assisted cracking behavior of materials. By optimizing the hydrogen charging parameters and slow strain rate, a multidimensional test procedure was established, which could simulate the actual working environment and could realize the test and evaluation of hydrogen assisted cracking susceptibility in the laboratory. Moreover, it provides a new environmental adaptability evaluation method for the high-strength aluminum alloy materials.

Analysis and Evaluation of Ecological Environment Monitoring Based on PIE Remote Sensing Image Processing Software

With the continuous improvement of people’s demand for ecological environment quality, the research on ecological environment monitoring, analysis and evaluation had been paid more and more attention by relevant departments and personnel. Because the images collected by remote sensing technology were many and multi-source, the features extracted from remote sensing images using traditional methods had been difficult to meet the needs of related industry applications. Therefore, this paper made use of the advantages of PIE remote sensing image processing software in data analysis and processing, and put forward the research on ecological environment monitoring, analysis and evaluation methods. Firstly, on the basis of summarizing the concepts and related problems of ecological environment, this paper analyzed the processing methods of remote sensing data sources of ecological environment, and explained the evaluation standards and common methods of ecological environment. Secondly, the composition of PIE remote sensing image processing technology system and its application advantages were described, the common indicators and analysis methods of ecological environment monitoring were given, and the index system and model of ecological environment comprehensive evaluation were established. Finally, through the analysis of experimental cases, the results showed that the ecological environment monitoring analysis and evaluation method proposed in this paper was feasible. Compared with the traditional methods, the method proposed in this paper could objectively evaluate the ecological environment. This paper can not only provide support for the analysis and processing of remote sensing image data, but also provide an important reference for the application of remote sensing technology in the field of ecological environment.

The renew plans of urban thermal environment optimization for traditional districts in Xi'an, China.

During the process of the high-speed urbanization in Chinese cities, the social, economic, and political status and the interaction between each factor have been more focused on urban traditional district renewal. However, the effects on urban microclimate and the residential living conditions in traditional districts are not well discussed, which is strongly related to the living comfort and citizens' well-being. In this study, two typical traditional districts in Xi'an are selected. According to the original situation of building functions and the community characteristics, two renewal plans are proposed by adding vegetation in open spaces (V), and adding vegetation combined with building redevelopment (V&B), in order to balance the living convenience and thermal environment. Via ENVI-met simulation, the effects of the district renewal plans on thermal environment including wind speed, air temperature, and mean radiant temperature are evaluated. This study provides method of environmental evaluation for traditional district renewal, which contributes to sustainable urban planning in historical districts, and provides recommendations for related policy development.

CFD를 이용한 보행자 풍환경 평가 기법의 적합성 분석

Recently, due to increased urbanization with high-rise buildings, there are growing concerns about the wind environment that threatens the safety of pedestrians as well as facility damage caused by the building wind. In order to reduce building wind damage, it is important to improve the wind environment of the urban environment by applying preemptive measures through the evaluation of the wind environment around buildings. Besides conventional wind tunnel tests, CFD has recently been accepted an alternative or a supplementary tool for the assessment of wind environment on the pedestrian level. As one of the practice in the field, MOLIT recently proposed Wind Environment Evaluation Guidelines Using CFD Analysis Techniques. This paper presents a computational study to confirm the feasibility of the pedestrian wind environment evaluation method using CFD based on the guideline. To verify the results of CFD, models and wind tunnel experiment data by provided by Architectual Institute of Japan were employed. Various grid configurations and numerical methods as well as varied wind directions were applied. The comparison between experimental data and the present results show that the grid refinement improves the accuracy and the pedestrian wind can be assessed by using CFD in spite of some deficit and room for improvements. More importantly, the gusts caused by the upwind and downwind in upwind region of the building, and vortex around the building were well simulated.

Evaluation and Application of Environmental Value of Rural Land Resources Based on Improved GIS System

As the basis and material source of human production and life, land is an important part of natural resources. With the deepening of the concept of sustainable development, more and more attention has been paid to the sustainable development of land use. Reasonable assessment of land resources and environment is the premise of accelerating agricultural infrastructure construction, optimizing ecological environment construction, and rationally disposing land use structure. This paper proposes an evaluation method of rural land resources and environment based on the improved GIS system and takes Lingshan County as an example, based on the powerful spatial processing and rich spatial query and analysis capabilities of GIS, to analyze the current situation and sustainable development of its land use. It has established a representative and operable evaluation index system, which has certain reference significance for rural land and environmental evaluation.

Fishery Resources, Ecological Environment Carrying Capacity Evaluation and Coupling Coordination Analysis: The Case of the Dachen Islands, East China Sea

Impacts of human activity on the sustainable development of marine fisheries have been greatly concerned, and the carrying capacity with theoretic and practical meanings has become a focused area over the past two decades. More importantly, there are few studies on the fishery resources and environment compound system. In this study, based on the investigation data in Dachen Islands during 2019–2021, we proposed the evaluation method of fishery resources and ecological environment carrying capacity (FRCC & MEECC) and analyzed the coupling coordination degree between the fishery resources and environment. The results showed that (1) the MEECC of Dachen Islands was in the critical overload state and fluctuated significantly among seasons and the winter voyage of 2021 was the worst. (2) The nekton index of Dachen Islands was basically stable, the fish eggs and juvenile index dropped markedly, and the FRCC was also critically overloaded. (3) The fishery resources and marine environment were moderately balanced. Further, the development was relatively synchronized in autumn of 2019 and 2020, while the fishery resources in spring of 2021 lagged behind the marine environment.

Impact of Urban Park Design on Microclimate in Cold Regions using newly developped prediction method

• The temperature distribution in the park was analyzed in different periods. • The temperature distribution in park was correlated with various morphology parameters. • The vegetation coverage and the average building height are the key factors. • Environmental evaluation and prediction method was developed and verified. With the acceleration of urbanization, the urban heat island phenomenon has attracted increasing attention. Urban parks play an important role for urban heat island mitigation. However, few studies were focusing on the impact of urban parks design on the urban microclimate. This research is based on the largest comprehensive park in Xi'an - Xingqing Palace Park. Measurement points in 20 locations with different urban morphological characteristics were selected to obtain typical summer weather characters (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction). The value of the urban morphology parameters within different radii from the measuring points are measured to establish the relationship between urban planning and urban meteorology, and construct the prediction model using correlation analyses and regression analyses. The results showing that green coverage rate is an important factor affecting the urban microclimate. Meanwhile, building density and mean building height are affecting microclimate changes during nights, with a wide radius around the buildings. This research established a practical and feasible urban planning evaluation method by analyzing and selecting the urban morphology parameters that affecting urban microclimate for providing insights for mitigating the urban heat island effects and improving the urban microclimate.

Life cycle assessment of methanol vehicles from energy, environmental and economic perspectives

As a new alternative fuel vehicle for energy reserve strategy, the development of methanol vehicles in China has been at the forefront. Completed pilot projects have demonstrated that methanol vehicles can effectively reduce fuel costs and pollutant emissions during driving. In addition to methanol vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles such as electric vehicles and compressed natural gas vehicles also maintain a sound development momentum in China. It is essential to understand which one has more advantages from sustainable development. This paper uses the Energy, Environment, and Economy (3E) evaluation method to analyze the energy consumption, environmental emission, and economy of methanol, electric, gas, and gasoline vehicles from the whole life cycle perspective. A comprehensive index evaluation model was constructed, and the development potential of the three alternative fuel vehicles was ranked under four different scenarios (energy-oriented, environment-oriented, economic-oriented, and equilibrium scenarios). This research shows that methanol vehicles have higher total energy consumption than gasoline vehicles in the whole life cycle. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, compared with gasoline vehicles, methanol, and compressed natural gas vehicles decreased by 8.79 tons and 12.45 tons, respectively. At the same time, methanol vehicles have a better economic benefit than gasoline vehicles (37%), which is the same as the completed pilot projects. In addition, results also show that due to the advantages of low renovation cost and fuel price, the user’s cost of methanol vehicles is more down than blade electric vehicles, which makes them have better development potential compared with electric and compressed natural gas vehicles in the economic-oriented and equilibrium scenario. Therefore, methanol vehicles can be used as alternative fuel vehicles for long-term development in China.

Extreme Flood Disasters: Comprehensive Impact and Assessment

Evaluating extreme flood disasters is a prerequisite for decision making in flood management. Existing extreme flood disaster assessments fail to either consider or evaluate comprehensive impacts from social, economic, and environmental aspects. This study first analyzes the causes of extreme flood disasters and subsequently the potential flood consequences in depth. On the basis of this comprehensive analysis, an extreme flood disaster indicator system is developed by taking into account social, economic, and environmental consequences. To assess the comprehensive impacts, we propose a refined social and economic impact evaluation method and a semi-quantitative environmental impact evaluation method, which are applied to Jingjiang Flood Diversion District (JFDD) located in the Yangtze River Basin, and analyze two extreme flood scenarios. The results show that almost all of the JFDD area is flooded with inundation areas of 901.36 km2 and 879.49 km2, respectively. The corresponding affected populations are 0.51 million and 0.5 million. The direct economic losses are 18.83 billion and 14.33 billion, respectively. Moreover, 5 potential pollutant sources and 11 protected areas are inundated under two scenarios. Extreme floods have relatively serious impacts on local ecology and the environment. The proposed methodology can provide effective support for decision makers.