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The Rural human settlements environment (RHSE) is an important guarantee for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and may be affected by many factors such as water quality, economy and environmental protection. This article focuses on the temporal and spatial variability of RHSE to explore a method of dynamic successive assessment. Firstly, a systematic and causal indicator system is developed from four aspects of agricultural origin environment, sanitary conditions, ecological protection, and economic development. Then, The Variable Fuzzy Pattern Evaluation (VFPE) model and an analytic hierarchy process-entropy (AHP-E) model are combined to successively and dynamically assess RHSE. The proposed method is applied to the dynamic successive assessment of RHSE in China, including inter-province comparisons.The results show that China's RHSE has improved significantly over time, which reflects that the government has achieved remarkable results in rural environmental governance for a long time. In spatial distribution characteristics, the RHSE of Beijing, Tianjin and the southeastern coastal regions maintained the highest, followed by the northeast, north and central regions, and the western region was the lowest. Finally, countermeasures are put forward for the development of RHSE in different regions considering the differences in economic development, geographical environment and infrastructure construction.

The water resource carrying capacity (WRCC) system comprises multiple complex and non-linear interactions related to society, economy, water resources, and the water environment. A comprehensive comprehension of its internal mechanisms is essential for the continual enhancement of the regional WRCC. This study concentrates on the temporal and spatial variability of the WRCC to investigate a method for dynamic successive assessment. Firstly, the pressure–state–response (PSR) framework is used to develop a systematic and causal indicator system. Then, the variable fuzzy pattern recognition (VFPR) model and an analytic hierarchy process—entropy (AHP-E) model are combined to successively and dynamically assess WRCC. The proposed method is applied to the dynamic successive assessment of WRCC in Hebei Province, and it is obtained that the poor water resource carrying capacity in Hebei Province is mainly due to the basic attribute of the decision on the water resource shortage, but Hebei Province actively adopts a variety of measures to save water and pressurize mining, which has made the province’s water resource carrying capacity tend to become better gradually. Simultaneously, a system dynamics model (SD) for water resource carrying capacity was established based on an analysis of the model structure. Moreover, three scenarios were designed, including existing continuation, high-efficiency water saving, and cross-regional water transfer. Subsequently, each scenario is further categorized into high- and low-speed economic development and population growth schemes. Afterward, simulations and predictions were conducted for a total of six schemes spanning from 2023 to 2030. The results indicate that if the current development model is adopted, the water resource carrying capacity will continue to maintain low levels. It was concluded that the high-speed development of the economy and population, the efficient water conservation, and the interbasin transfer scenario (scenario 2 with high speed) are the best choices for the sustainable development of water resources and social economy in Hebei.

As the main means of energy transportation, pipelines have the characteristics of 24 h uninterrupted transportation, low cost, strong transmission capacity, and low risk, and they have become an important device for natural gas transportation. However, due to defects caused by the pipeline itself and external forces, it is easy for natural gas leakage to cause major accidents, serious environmental pollution, and huge losses of life and property. Traditional pipeline defect detection technology can be interfered with by a large number of noise signals when collecting defect signals, and the noise reduction method is simple but has poor accuracy, so it cannot directly obtain effective pipeline defect information from the signal and cannot effectively improve the emergency intensity and emergency level of pipeline operation and maintenance management. Therefore, a new noise reduction method, ICEEMDAN-LMS, for natural gas pipelines is proposed in this paper, and the method is calculated and tested in detail. The effectiveness of the new method is verified through the analysis of a pipeline defect signal and normal signal. Moreover, the proposed method can reduce noise more effectively than conventional methods, which has clear value in engineering applications. Importantly, this noise reduction method not only provides a reliable basis for the intelligent diagnosis of pipeline defect signals, but can also be an important reference for helping management departments to make decisions and emergency plans and formulate on-site treatment programs.

This study focuses on a risk assessment method for oil and gas pipelines. Oil and gas pipelines are usually constructed in a complex geological environment and are potentially dangerous. Risk assessment is a key step for their safety management. Therefore, the present paper establishes a risk indicator system as the risk assessment foundation, and we propose a risk assessment method to obtain a quantitative assessment result for the pipeline based on set pair analysis (SPA) theory. For the weight values of each indicator in the assessment process, this paper presents a calculation method based on vague sets theory. Then, a pipeline in the Yanchang oilfield was taken as a case study to verify the feasibility of the method, and the final assessment result was 2.911, which meant the pipeline was relatively safe. The method could also obtain the risk level of each indicator, showing that geological conditions, extreme weather, and public safety awareness were particularly unsafe, and service time, pipeline deformation, ground activity, and operation training were relatively unsafe. It is expected that the risk assessment result could provide a reference for pipeline safety management.

This study focuses on a safety evaluation method for underground gas storage. Gas storage is usually constructed underground in complex environments, and the service life of such facilities is limited. To ensure the secure and long-term operation of gas storage facilities, safety evaluation has become the focus of management. The present paper provides an effective method for safety evaluation. An index system was established as the foundation of the analysis for this evaluation, and the matter-element extension method was applied to obtain a quantitative evaluation result. For the weight values of each index in the matter-element extension method, this paper presents a comprehensive weight computation method based on vague sets and entropy. By application of this method, the safety level of a gas storage facility in the Jintan salt mines (in Jiangsu, China) was calculated, and the evaluation result was 4.6433, which meant the safety level was V and the underground gas storage was slightly at risk. It indicated that the influence on the overall safety and tightness of this gas storage could be ignored in the operation process, but the frequency of regular monitoring should be increased. The defective indexes were also obtained, such as salt rock cohesion, the roof thickness, the volume contraction ratio, the interlayer content, the height of the casing shoe and the adjacent cavity pressure difference, which need to be monitored and modified. This paper evaluated the safety of the underground gas storage from a unique perspective. It is expected that the results of this research will contribute to the maintenance and operational decisions, and provide a reference for management in the energy industry.