User:Ncollins129/sandbox

Editing “Eastern China flood of 1991” article

• Article had only one sentence – searched it for plagiarism.

- Sentence seemed to appear multiple times over various sites on Google, so I decided to rewrite the introduction to the article.

• Removed the citation for the article’s original sentence.

- Since the sentence seemed to pop up other places on Google that didn’t credit the same citation, it seemed more unlikely that the citation was correct. Upon searching for the book that the other editor cited, I couldn’t find much information about it that would lead me to believe that the sentence was from that book.

• Added specific details to article about event

- I added more background information about the event to help build the article

• Added additional citations to articles, from Wikipedia and external webpages

- After adding more specific details to the article, I credited them to their sources.

My contributions to the article are as follows:

In the summer of 1991, continuous, heavy rainfall in Eastern China caused rivers and water loggings to overflow and flood the area, leading to the Chinese government requesting international aid.

Background

Large amounts of rainfall beginning on the 18th of May quickly led areas of eastern China to begin overflowing with water; however, flooding reports in the area had begun to be officially addressed around late June. Specifically, the Huai, Chu, and Yangtze rivers are credited with the main flooding that resulted in the Anhui, Jiangsu, and Henan provinces taking the most damage . The Chinese government initially sent out soldiers and troops to help with evacuation and flood relief efforts, but with the number of homes and acres of crops destroyed increasing steadily, the Chinese government turned to other countries, requesting for aid in flood relief .

On September 3, 1991, the UN Department of Human Affairs (now known as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) announced that the death toll was 556 in the Anhui province, 260 in the Jiangsu province, and 94 in the Henan province . In late January of the next year, the New York Times reported that the death toll was approximately 3,000 .

References

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Editing "2010 Guangxi wildfire" article

• Searched article’s original three (3) sentences for plagiarism.

- Sentences seemed to appear verbatim multiple times over various sites on Google, so I decided to rewrite the introduction to the article.

• Improved wording from one citation and removed another citation for the article’s original sentences.

- Since the original sentences seemed to pop up other places on Google that didn’t credit the same citations, it seemed more unlikely that the citations were correct. Upon clicking on one of the news articles that the other editor cited, I saw that key parts of the sentences from the Wikipedia article seemed to match up with sentences in the news article. I decided to keep this news article in the references, due to its worthy information, but reworded the sentences in the WP article that accredited it. Unfortunately, most of the information in the article now comes from that one source due to severe lack of coverage and information available. I removed the other citation from the original WP article—another news article—due to how it was from an untranslated Chinese website, and upon translating the article using Google’s automatic translator, the article was still unclear on facts that could be garnered to construct the WP article.

• Added specific details to article about event

- I added more background information about the event to help build the article.

• Added additional citations to articles, from Wikipedia and external webpages

- After adding more specific details to the article, I credited them to their sources.

My contributions to the article are as follows:

The 2010 Guangxi wildfire occurred in western Guangxi, China during that year’s spring season.

Background

On Thursday, March 3, 2010, a wildfire ignited in the mountainous county of Longlin in Guangxi, China. Drought had already begun to impact the area previously, and the dry weather and lack of water contributed to the fire’s success . The wildfire burned large volumes of forests and brush until it was finally put out six days and twenty-two hours later .

Effects

According to Longlin County’s fire control headquarters, a day after its ignition the fire had already burned 1,400 Mu (or about 93 hectares or 229 acres) of forestland, with a front spanning 5.3 kilometers.

Along with the area’s locals, over one hundred firefighters and a Mi-26 helicopter were employed to suppress the fire.

After the fire was suppressed, the drought continued to worsen in the southern China region, especially in Guangxi . Two months after the fire, torrential rain caused flash floods and landslides in the same area .

References

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Editing "Triadica sebifera" article

• Added new content

- Previous article was missing specific information on where else the plant was introduced besides the U.S. as well as details on how it is an invasive species, so I added information to both the “Range and Habitat” and “Invasive Species” sections.

• Added Wikipedia and scientific article to reference new content

- The new content I added in those sections also have links to other Wikipedia articles as well as two scientific articles I found in researching

• Reworded previous article for improved readability and fluidity

- I reworded some of the previous sentences so they would blend better with my added information and read well.

• Looked for plagiarism - didn't find any

My contributions to the article are as follows:

Range and habitat

Range in the United States

Although native to China and Japan, the plant is also found where it has been introduced in the southeastern United States, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Taiwan, India, Martinique, Sudan, and southern France. Incorrectly thought to have been introduced in colonial times by Benjamin Franklin, the tree has become naturalized from North Carolina southward along the Atlantic and the entire Gulf coast, where it grows profusely along ditchbanks and dikes. It grows especially well in open fields and abandoned farmland coastal prairie regions featuring disturbed ground—such as abandoned farmland, spoil banks, roadsides, and storm-damaged forests—and along the edges of the Western Gulf coastal grasslands biome, sometimes forming pure stands.

...

Invasive species

As aforementioned, the tallow tree is a non-native species to many places around the world. Its introduced status in North America along with the harm it causes to ecosystems makes the tree considered an invasive species there. Tallow trees present a danger of expansion that can hurt local ecosystems by out-competing native vegetation and creating a monoculture. The monoculture would then lower the species diversity and overall resilience of the area. The tree’s tenacious nature, high growth rates, and high reproductive ability contribute to its invasive success. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, tallow trees begin producing viable seed in as soon as three years. They can spread by root sprouts and cuttings and are quick to invade after a disturbance occurs in an area, due to the clearing out of land. A single tallow tree can produce nearly 100,000 viable seeds annually that can remain in the soil for several years before sprouting. A mature stand can produce 4,500 kilograms of seeds per hectare per year. These seeds are easily carried to different places by birds and water. Tallow trees can remain productive for 100 years. It is also extremely hard to kill—its poisonous features in its leaves and berries leave it with few to no predators, and its short generation time means even freshly cut trees can quickly regrow. Currently, herbicides and prescribed fire are the only effective treatments available to contain and control Chinese tallow.

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Editing "2015 Pakistan cyclone"

• Article had only one sentence – checked it for plagiarism.

- The article’s original sentence had a reference to go with it, and the sentence was not taken directly from this reference. However, upon entering the sentence into Google, the sentence appeared on many sites, most likely due to the sentence’s vagueness, so I decided to rewrite the introduction to the article.

• Added specific details to article about event

- I added more background information about the event to help build the article

• Added additional citations to articles, from Wikipedia and external webpages

- After adding more specific details to the article, I credited them to their sources

• Added a “External Links” section

- I added a section in the article to provide links with extra information about the event

• Fixed "bare link"

- I kept the original article's source, but rewrote its entry in the reference section so that it would not appear as just a bare link

My contributions to the article are as follows:

On the night of Sunday, April 26, 2015, a sudden, severe storm hit areas of northwest Pakistan, causing considerable damage in the cities of Peshawar, Nowshera, and Charsadda. Informally dubbed a “mini-cyclone”, the storm featured heavy rains accompanied by hail and high-speed winds of over 120 kilometers per hour (or 75 miles per hour). As a result of the storm’s damaging effects, 45 people were killed and over 200 were wounded.

The storm occurred after parts of Pakistan were already affected by early rainfall in February 2015, contributing to already partially flooded areas by leaving flood waters approximately a meter (or three feet) deep in some places. The storm also collapsed many buildings’ walls and roofs, took down many electricity poles, and killed livestock and damaged many crops in rural Peshawar and Charsadda (including wheat crops and orchards).

After the storm, many people remained injured or without drinkable water, food, and shelter. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government organized and sent members of the Provincial Disaster Manage­ment Authority (PMDA) and the military to aid with rescue and recovery efforts in the areas affected.

External Links

• New York Times video coverage of storm
• OCHA's Flood Impact Update map of Pakistan, as of September 2015
• Balochistan Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA)
• Ongoing world disasters monitored by ReliefWeb