Integrating decision-making preferences into ecosystem service conservation area identification: A case study of water-related ecosystem services in the Dawen River watershed, China.

The degradation of ecosystems and their services is threatening human wellbeing, making ecosystem service (ES) conservation an urgent necessity. In ES conservation planning, conservation area identification is crucial for the success of conservation initiatives. However, different decision-making preferences have not been fully considered and integrated in ES conservation area identification.

Urban stormwater management at the meso-level: A review of trends, challenges and approaches.

Cities worldwide are facing a significant threat of stormwater hazards caused by the increase in extreme downpours and urbanization. Meso-level urban stormwater management focuses on alleviating the detrimental impacts of urban flooding and enhancing water resource utilization at the block or community scale, typically through 1) specific policies and management rules; 2) catchment-scale scenario simulation, optimization and evaluation; 3) the group of stormwater control measures implementation. It may effectively coordinate macro-level urban stormwater management planning and micro-level distributed stormwater control facilities.

Effect of rainfall characteristics on the sewer sediment, hydrograph, and pollutant discharge of combined sewer overflow.

Significant management needs raised in urban sewer system to facilitate urban resilience to rainstorm. The work investigated the effects of temporal evolution of rainfall on hydrograph and pollutant discharge of CSO over an intensive observation period of 12 months, with special attention to differences in temporal scale for supporting management decision making. The characteristics of rainfall in different temporal scales helped overflow-risk identification and assessment.

Evaluating Sponge City volume capture ratio at the catchment scale using SWMM.

China has begun a rapid move towards Sponge City implementation, which will include widespread installation of various Low Impact Development (LID) stormwater infrastructure. Ambitious goals have been set for all Sponge Cities, including a target capture rate of 80-85% of annual precipitation in Beijing. However, there has so far been limited investigation into whether these goals are obtainable at the catchment scale given the physical restrictions of the existing urban landscape.

Post-stroke dysphagia: A review and design considerations for future trials.

Post-stroke dysphagia (a difficulty in swallowing after a stroke) is a common and expensive complication of acute stroke and is associated with increased mortality, morbidity, and institutionalization due in part to aspiration, pneumonia, and malnutrition. Although most patients recover swallowing spontaneously, a significant minority still have dysphagia at six months. Although multiple advances have been made in the hyperacute treatment of stroke and secondary prevention, the management of dysphagia post-stroke remains a neglected area of research, and its optimal management, including diagnosis, investigation and treatment, have still to be defined.