Suchergebnisse

Using pillars and sub-index from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (T & TCI) to measure a destination's competitiveness is popular. Still, its methodology underlying the calculation has been criticized. So the T&TCI Index has not been regarded as a reliable measure of a destination's competitiveness. In this regard, this paper sought to set out a country-based tourism competitiveness evaluation model with various statistical methods to indicate how important tourism policy development has to design. We used data from an expert survey to examine the attributes and sub-attributes and shape the decision-making. We addressed a theoretical six-step procedure to ensure the evaluation model's rigor in the model development context. The first was to do data collection. The second was to examine construct underrepresentation. The third was to examine common method bias. The fourth was to examine construct-irrelevant variances. The fifth was to evaluate intergroup consistency. And the sixth was to develop attribute weight. Our study showed that a country-based tourism competitiveness evaluation model encompassed 8 attributes and 28 sub-attributes. We identified cultural uniqueness, ecology and the environment as the two most important attributes. In the end, we addressed the practical contributions of this study and methods to policy-makers and researchers.

Abstract
Background
Most particulate organic matter (POM) cannot be directly degraded in the conventional wastewater treatment, which should be transformed into dissolved organic matter (DOM) through a hydrolysis process. However, non-hydrolyzed POM in the biological treatment can limit treated efficiencies for the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) facilities. Hence an operational tool is indispensable for insight into removals of DOM and POM factions in the WWTP. In this study, excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy (EEM) combined parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), two-dimensional correlation (2D-COS) and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to evaluate removals of DOM and POM in a wastewater treatment plant.

Results
Four fluorescence components were identified in DOM and POM substances from the WWTP by EEM combined with PARAFAC, i.e., tyrosine-like (TYLF), tryptophan-like (TRLF), microbial byproduct-like (MBLF), and fulvic acid-like (FALF). In A2/O process, the TYLF and TRLF of DOM were removed to a larger extent than those of MBLF and FALF in anaerobic tank, while TYLF and MBLF of POM were removed to a great extent than those of TRLF and FALF in primary sedimentation and aerobic tanks. By the 2D-COS, a decreasing variation order of DOM fractions in the wastewater treatment process was UV-FALF → MBLF2 → Vis-FALF → TRLF → TYLF, while the decreasing order of POM fractions was Vis-FALF → UV-FALF → MBLF2 → TYLF → MBLF1 → TRLF. SEM revealed that TRLF and TYLF of DOM were degraded by anaerobic microorganism, and TRLF could be transformed partially into FALF. However, TRFL and TYLF of POM were discomposed by aerobic microorganism.

Conclusions
The 2D-COS and SEM can be practicable tools as EEM-PARAFAC for monitoring DOM and POM in the WWTP. The study could present a theoretical support to improving the retrofit of WWTP and formulating emission standards for organic pollutants.

Abstract
Background
Heavy metal pollution of aquatic systems is a global issue that has received considerable attention. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and potential ecological risk index (PERI) have been applied to heavy metal data to trace potential factors, identify regional differences, and evaluate ecological risks. Sediment cores of 200 cm in depth were taken using a drilling platform at 10 sampling sites along the Xihe River, an urban river located in western Shenyang City, China. Then they were divided into 10 layers (20 cm each layer). The concentrations of the As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn were measured for each layer. Eight heavy metals, namely Pb, Zn, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Hg, were measured for each layer in this study.

Results
The average concentrations of the As, Cd, Cu, Hg, and Zn were significantly higher than their background values in soils in the region, and mainly gathered at 0–120 cm in depth in the upstream, 0–60 cm in the midstream, and 0–20 cm downstream. This indicated that these heavy metals were derived from the upstream areas where a large quantity of effluents from the wastewater treatment plants enter the river. Ni, Pb, and Cr were close or slightly higher than their background values. The decreasing order of the average concentration of Cd was upstream > midstream > downstream, so were Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn. The highest concentration of As was midstream, followed by upstream and then downstream, which was different to Cd. The potential factors of heavy metal pollution were Cd, Cu, Hg, Zn, and As, especially Cd and Hg with the high ecological risks. The ecological risk levels of all heavy metals were much higher in the upstream than the midstream and downstream.

Conclusions
Industrial discharge was the dominant source for eight heavy metals in the surveyed area, and rural domestic sewage has a stronger influence on the Hg pollution than industrial pollutants. These findings indicate that effective management strategies for sewage discharge should be developed to protect the environmental quality of urban rivers.

Abstract
Background
Spatio-temporal variations of structural components of the POM–DOM fractions exhibit in urban rivers, which is valuable information to reveal dynamic migration and transformation within and between the organic matter pools, also provide important support for river water quality improvement and management measures. Second derivative UV–visible spectroscopy (SDUVS) was applied to simultaneously characterize structural components and spatial variations of dissolved (DOM: Diameter < 0.2 μm) and particulate (POM1: 0.2 < diameter < 0.7 μm; POM2: diameter > 0.7 μm) organic matters in an urbanized river of northeast China.

Results
Thirty-six water samples were collected from mainstream and tributaries along a human impact gradient, i.e., rural, town and urban regions. The DOM was a representative fraction for the natural organic matter pool, which was mostly derived from allochthonous and terrestrial sources. Four components C1 to C4 were identified from the POM–DOM fractions by the SDUVS. The C1 associated with phenolic groups and the C2 related to carboxylic groups were dominant for the organic matter pool. The C3 was composed of the primary humificated materials, and the %C3 was kept relatively consistent in the organic matter pool. The C4 presented deeply humificated organic matter with the increase of aromatic and alkyl structures. The average %C4 of the POM pool was higher than that of the DOM pool, indicating that the humification degree of the POM fractions was higher than that of the DOM fraction.

Conclusions
Moreover, the tributaries had a higher average %C4 within the DOM than the mainstream, and trends of the POM pool were similar to the DOM pool. The trophic level of the river water decreased in the order of urban region > town region > rural region, while the molecular sizes of the POM–DOM decreased in the order of rural region > town region > urban region.

Graphical Abstract