Assessment of Flood Losses with Household Responses: Agent-Based Simulation in an Urban Catchment Area

Densely populated coastal urban areas are often exposed to multiple hazards, in particular floods and storms. Flood defenses and other engineering measures contribute to the mitigation of flood hazards, but a holistic approach to flood risk management should consider other interventions from the human side, including warning information, adaptive behavior, people/property evacuation, and the multilateral relief in local communities. There are few simulation approaches to consider these factors, and these typically focus on collective human actions. This paper presents an agent-based model that simulates flood response preferences and actions taken within individual households to reduce flood losses. The model implements a human response framework in which agents assess different flood scenarios according to warning information and decide whether and how much they invest in response measures to reduce potential inundation damages. A case study has been carried out in the Ng Tung River basin, an urbanized watershed in northern Hong Kong. Adopting a digital elevation model (DEM) as the modeling environment and a building map of household locations in the case area, the model considers the characteristics of households and the flood response behavior of their occupants. We found that property value, warning information, and storm conditions all influence household losses, with downstream and high density areas being particularly vulnerable. Results further indicate (i) that a flood warning system, which provides timely, accurate, and broad coverage rainstorm warning, can reduce flood losses by 30–40%; and (ii) to reduce losses, it is more effective and cheaper to invest early in response measures than late actions. This dynamic agent-based modeling approach is an innovative attempt to quantify and model the role of human responses in flood loss assessments. The model is demonstrated being useful for analyzing household scale flood losses and responses and it has the potential to contribute to flood emergency planning resource allocation in pluvial flood incidents.     

Development of a Pollination Service Measurement (PSM) method using potted plant phytometry

The value of pollination to human society is not limited to agricultural production, but also in the sustainability of ecosystems and the services that they provide. Seed set can be used as a comparative measure of pollination effectiveness, with minimum variability expected when other resources are not limiting. Six species of self-incompatible fall asters (Symphyotrichum) were used to evaluate pollination service at 12 sites across a spectrum of expected levels of pollination. Seed set per inflorescence was generally lower at sites with lower pollinator numbers and diversity, although as expected pollinator assemblage characteristics were highly variable within and between sites. However, rankings of sites showed consistency of response across phytometer species and between years; the summed ranks across multiple species appears to have as the greatest value in Pollination Service Measurement (PSM). Abundance, richness, and Shannon diversity of pollinator assemblages were highly autocorrelated and showed variable relationships with seed set depending on plant species and temporal scale of pollinator assemblage assessment. Use of seed set to directly measure pollination service at a site was consistent and cost effective when compared to less certain and more labour-intensive methods of pollinator collection and identification, and shows promise for implementation in pollination monitoring and bioassessment practices.     

Speciation of Heavy Metals in Floodplain and Flood Sediments: a Reconnaissance Survey of the Aire Valley, West Yorkshire, Great Britain

A five-step sequential extraction technique was used to determine the chemical association of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu and Cd), with major sedimentary phases (exchangeable, surface oxide and carbonate, Fe and Mn oxides, organic and residual metal ions), in samples from floodplain and recent flood sediments of the River Aire, West Yorkshire. Analysis indicates that metals Pb and Zn are primarily associated with the Fe and Mn oxides, Cu with the organic fraction and Cd with exchangeable and surface oxide and carbonate metal ions. Knowledge of the chemical speciation of heavy metals in river sediment, despite the procedure's inherent limitations, facilitates an understanding of their bioavailability, storage and remobilisation in floodplain and river channel environments.     

Biomarker responses associated with halogenated organic contaminants in northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) breeding in the Canadian Arctic

We examined relationships between hepatic concentrations of halogenated organic contaminants and ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) activity and retinoid (vitamin A) concentrations in livers, as well as retinol and thyroid hormone (TT₃, TT₄) levels in blood plasma, of northern fulmars at two breeding colonies in the Canadian High Arctic. Biomarker levels or responses did not differ significantly between males and females at either colony, nor was there any significant difference between colonies. No significant relationships were found between thyroid hormone or hepatic retinoid concentrations and any of the dioxin-like compounds or their Toxic Equivalents (TEQs) although significant positive correlations were found with plasma retinol (p < 0.03). EROD activity was significantly correlated with hepatic dioxin-like compounds and their TEQs (p < 0.001) as well as total PCBs (p < 0.01), which suggests that EROD induction occurs in northern fulmars at environmentally-relevant concentrations.     

Sexual segregation in distribution,diet and trophic level of seabirds: insights from stable isotope analysis

Considerable attention has focused on inter- and intraspecific variation in trophic niches of marine predators. Although this has revealed evidence for sexual segregation in distribution in some species, few studies have been able to address sex-related dietary specialisation. Stable isotope analysis of blood cells collected from albatrosses and petrels at South Georgia during chick-rearing indicated a difference in δ¹³C, suggesting that females fed to the north of males, only in two species with male-biased sexual size dimorphism; in no species did sexes differ in trophic level (δ¹⁵N). Based on a wider review, significant differences between sexes in isotope signatures were much more common in seabirds during the pre-laying or breeding than the nonbreeding period, presumably reflecting greater between-sex partitioning of resources when foraging ranges are more constrained and competition is greater. Sex differences, or their absence, were usually consistent across successive stages during the pre-laying and breeding periods, but not necessarily year-round nor between populations. Significant differences in isotope signatures between males and females were extremely rare in monomorphic species, suggesting a link between sexual size dimorphism and segregation in diet or distribution. Among the Southern Ocean albatrosses, sex differences in δ¹³C suggested the underlying mechanism was related to habitat specialisation, whereas in other size-dimorphic taxa (both male- and female-biased), sex differences were more common in δ¹⁵N than δ¹³C and therefore more consistent with size-mediated competitive exclusion or dietary specialisation.     

Emotional labor threatens decent work: A proposal to eradicate emotional display rules

Emotional labor—the management of emotional displays as part of one's work role—has emerged as a growth area of study within organizational behavior and customer service research. In this article, we call attention to the human costs of “service with a smile” requirements with little benefits. We first review the evidence showing that requiring positive emotions from employees induces dissonance and depleted resources, which hinders task performance and threatens well‐being. We articulate how formalized emotion display requirements limit self‐determination by threatening the autonomy, competence, and belongingness needs of employees. Further, via an organizational justice lens, we argue that emotional labor is an unfair labor practice because employees in such circumstances are (1) undervalued by the organization (constituting distributive injustice); (2) disrespected by customers (constituting interactional injustice); and (3) self‐undermined by organizational policies (constituting procedural injustice). We then argue for bringing light to the dark side of emotional labor with a “modest proposal”: Organizations and customers should abandon formalized emotion display expectations and replace such efforts with more humanistic practices that support and value employees, engendering positive climates and an authentically positive workforce. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of environmental factors on organochlorine pesticide residues in soils of the Guanting Reservoir area, China

Topsoil samples from 56 sites around the Guanting Reservoir, China, were measured for HCH and DDT concentrations. The total soil HCH content (including alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-isomers) in these soil samples ranged from 0 to 7.33 ng x g(-1), with a mean of 0.69 ng x g(-1). These levels were considerably lower than those of the total DDT soil contents (including pp'-DDE, pp'-DDD, op'-DDT, and pp'-DDT), which ranged from 0 to 76.01 ng x g(-1), with a mean of 9.46 ng x g(-1). DDT was also found to be the major pollutant in the soil samples, accounting for approximately 93% of the total organochlorine pesticide (OCP) contents. Several environmental factors including land use, soil texture, soil taxonomy, and microbial biomass were considered to be responsible for the OCP levels observed. The data provide some insight into the effects of environmental conditions such as soil formation, agricultural cultivation, nutrient enrichment, and other anthropogenic activities on the degradation of OCPs in soils. Although the OCP residues currently are below the maximum limits set for use on agricultural land in China, and only rarely would such levels pose significant ecological concern, OCPs are highly persistent in soil and bioaccumulative. The data provided in this study are considered crucial for reservoir remediation, especially since the Guanting Reservoir will serve as one of the main drinking water sources for Beijing in the foreseeable future.     

Soil suspension/dispersion modeling methods for estimating health-based soil cleanup levels of hexavalent chromium at chromite ore processing residue sites

The primary health concern associated with exposures to chromite ore processing residue (COPR)-affected soils is inhalation of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] particulates. Site-specific soil alternative remediation standards (ARSs) are set using soil suspension and dispersion models to be protective of the theoretical excess cancer risk associated with inhalation of soil suspended by vehicle traffic and wind. The purpose of this study was to update a previous model comparison study that identified the 1995 AP-42 particulate emission model for vehicle traffic over unpaved roads and the Fugitive Dust Model (FDM) as the most appropriate model combination for estimating site-specific ARSs. Because the AP-42 model has been revised, we have updated our past evaluation. Specifically, the 2006 AP-42 particulate emissions model; the Industrial Source Complex-Short Term model, version 3 (ISCST3); and the American Meteorological Society/Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD) air dispersion models were evaluated, and the results were compared with those from the previously used modeling approaches. Two sites with and two sites without vehicle traffic were evaluated to determine if wind erosion is a significant source of emissions. For the two sites with vehicle traffic, both FDM and ISCST3 produced total suspended particulate (TSP) estimates that were, on average, within a factor of 2 of measured; whereas AERMOD produced estimates that were as much as 5-fold higher than measured. In general, the estimated TSP concentrations for FDM were higher than those for ISCST3. For airborne Cr(VI), the ISCST3 model produced estimates that were only 2- to 8-fold of the measured concentrations, and both FDM and AERMOD estimated airborne Cr(VI) concentrations that were approximately 4- to 14-fold higher than measured. Results using the 1995 AP-42 model were closer to measured than those from the 2006 AP-42 model. Wind erosion was an insignificant contributor to particulate emissions at COPR sites.