A cost–benefit appraisal of coastal managed realignment policy

European coasts are coming under increasing threat as a result of climate change from erosion and flooding. While coastal defences such as sea walls have been constructed since Roman times to protect human settlements from the sea, it is now increasingly recognised that these defences are unsustainable. The security provided by ‘hard’ engineered defences has encouraged development on the coast, and the defences themselves have led to the loss of intertidal habitat and the natural protection it provides.An alternative to maintaining ‘hard’ defences (hold-the-line) to protect land from increasing sea levels is managed realignment, where the engineered defences are deliberately breached. By allowing the coastline to recede to a new line of defence further inland, intertidal habitat is created providing natural protection from flooding and erosion.The study evaluates the economic efficiency—using cost–benefit analysis—of various managed realignment scenarios compared to a strategy of holding-the-line within the Humber estuary in North-east England. The results of this analysis show that managed realignment can be more economically efficient than holding-the-line over a sufficiently long time period—generally greater than 25 years. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that results are more sensitive to the amount and value of intertidal habitat generated than they are to the amount and value of carbon stored by this habitat. Cost–benefit analysis is viewed as one component of a wider policy appraisal process within integrated coastal management.     

意愿价值法评估生态服务价值的有效性与可靠性及实例设计研究

意愿价值评估法(CVM)以新古典经济学需求理论为基础,通过构造假想市场使生态服务价值的评估成为可能.但是,经验研究中出现了与新古典经济理论及其预期不一致的异常现象,致使CVM的有效性与可靠性受到广泛质疑,而成为目前国际CVM研究的主要方向.对国际、国内CVM有效性与可靠性的研究进展进行了综述,重点梳理了国际上对WTP的内容依赖性、WTP与WTA的显著差异及可靠性与效益转移等方面的经验研究;而国内由于缺乏该方面的系统研究,制约了CVM在我国生态价值评估及环境公共政策制定中的应用.为此,在前期开展的实例研究基础上,设计了适合我国社会经济特征和生态环境特点的CVM有效性与可靠性研究的技术路线和多重调查方案,以期推动CVM在我国的进一步发展与应用.     

基于NB-IoT技术的地震预警信息发布终端设备研制

天津市地震局于2015年通过首都圈预警示范工程项目建设，完成地震预警信息服务网络建设，并选取6所学校安装地震预警信息发布装置，提供地震预警信息示范服务，但由于信息发布装置安装复杂且价格偏高，在一定程度上影响终端设备的普及，制约地震预警信息社会化服务进程。同时，已有终端设备如同黑箱，不利于二次开发应用，存在安全隐患，影响服务质量。因此，天津市地震局积极推进基于NB-IoT技术的地震预警信息发布终端设备研制，实现低成本、低功耗、低延时目标及地震预警信息社会化服务。     

First international payment for marine ecosystem services: The case of the Banc d’Arguin National Park,Mauritania

This article investigates whether the European Union-Mauritania fisheries agreement, which allocates part of the Europe's financial contribution to the conservation of marine ecosystems located within the Banc d’Arguin National Park, can be regarded as a payment for ecosystem service. A framework for qualification as such payment scheme was established based on an extensive literature review. The criteria identified for the qualification as a payment to ecosystem service pertain to: (1) the definition of the ecosystem service(s) involved; (2) the mechanism involved by the payment; and (3) the nature of the transaction. Interviews with local beneficiaries and subsequent data analysis led to the conclusion that this mechanism could be regarded as a payment to ecosystem service and so, through the European Union-Mauritania Fisheries agreement, the European Union were investing to protect local fish resources that could be exploited by its fishing fleet. This agreement, involving the first International Payment to Ecosystem Service of this kind, marks an important step towards better consideration of marine conservation in international public policy and foreign fishing policy in particular. However, this payment is small when compared to revenues generated through the exploitation of developing countries’ fishing grounds by fishing countries. Nevertheless it opens the door for more detailed applications of payment to ecosystem service schemes to other ecosystems contexts, and can provide a useful alternative source of financing of marine biodiversity conservation.     

基于生态系统服务的海洋健康评估与调控:以莱州湾为例

近岸海域的生态系统管理,要求对海洋健康进行综合的评估以及对人工调控进行科学的指导,进而促进可持续发展。本文构建了定量化方法,用于评估当前的和近期的基于生态系统服务的海洋健康。以莱州湾为例的研究结果表明,当前的海洋健康指数分值为0.7856(总分为1.0);通过对负面压力进行不同强度的人工调控,得到近期海洋健康预计的变化范围为0.5551到0.8041。具体地说,本文评估得到当前的海洋健康主要表现为文化服务和供给服务基本优秀,而支持服务和调节服务不够良好。若不对持续增长的压力采取有效的调控措施,该近岸海域生态系统会在近期丧失部分支持服务和调节服务;若负面压力被完全控制,该近岸海域生态系统服务的分类等级会得到小幅提升。另外,应进一步加强对生态系统服务尤其是文化服务和调节服务的宣传教育。本文的分析过程和量化结果,为进一步指导人工调控提供了灵活的工具,有助于海岸带区域的生态系统管理。     

山东省滨海湿地生态价值评估

本文依据Google Earth近2年的遥感影像以及2013年的资源3号卫星影像数据,并结合他人前期研究资料,对山东省滨海湿地的分布和类型进行了研究,使用ArcGIS软件测算出滨海湿地总面积约为5 124km2,其中自然湿地占35.23%,人工湿地占64.77%。根据山东省湿地实际状况,以及湿地的地理位置、成因、水文、生物等要素的差异,将山东省滨海湿地划分为十种类型,并在此基础上,针对滨海湿地不同的生态服务功能类型,采取了不同的方法进行初步价值评估。结果表明,山东省滨海湿地生态服务总价值约3 303亿元,约占山东省2013年GDP的6.04%。其中物质生产价值约占总价值的50.70%,其次为环境调节价值,约占48.24%,社会服务价值只占1.06%。这表明,山东省滨海湿地蕴含较高的经济和生态潜力,能带来较高的经济效益和生态效益,但是社会服务功能价值量相对偏低,有待于进一步重视和开发。     

延安市自然资源监管“一张图”应用实践

自然资源监管是自然资源管理工作的重要内容。本文以延安市自然资源监管“一张图”系统为例,阐述了该系统的建设内容、应用情况及存在问题。系统梳理并建立了延安市自然资源数据目录体系,集成了土地利用监测分析、水源涵养评估等专题监管分析模型,搭建了云环境,以满足潜在的计算和存储性能扩展需求。系统为延安市自然资源监管提供了信息化支撑,也为今后开展更为深入的监管服务奠定了基础。     

National indicators for observing ecosystem service change

Earth’s life-support systems are in rapid decline, yet we have few metrics or indicators with which to track these changes. The world’s governments are calling for biodiversity and ecosystem-service monitoring to guide and evaluate international conservation policy as well as to incorporate natural capital into their national accounts. The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has been tasked with setting up this monitoring system. Here we explore the immediate feasibility of creating a global ecosystem-service monitoring platform under the GEO BON framework through combining data from national statistics, global vegetation models, and production function models. We found that nine ecosystem services could be annually reported at a national scale in the short term: carbon sequestration, water supply for hydropower, and non-fisheries marine products, crop, livestock, game meat, fisheries, mariculture, and timber production. Reported changes in service delivery over time reflected ecological shocks (e.g., droughts and disease outbreaks), highlighting the immediate utility of this monitoring system. Our work also identified three opportunities for creating a more comprehensive monitoring system. First, investing in input data for ecological process models (e.g., global land-use maps) would allow many more regulating services to be monitored. Currently, only 1 of 9 services that can be reported is a regulating service. Second, household surveys and censuses could help evaluate how nature affects people and provides non-monetary benefits. Finally, to forecast the sustainability of service delivery, research efforts could focus on calculating the total remaining biophysical stocks of provisioning services. Regardless, we demonstrated that a preliminary ecosystem-service monitoring platform is immediately feasible. With sufficient international investment, the platform could evolve further into a much-needed system to track changes in our planet's life-support systems.     

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the face of external biophysical stressors

Economic instruments such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes are increasingly promoted to protect ecosystems (and their associated ecosystem services) that are threatened by processes of local and global change. Biophysical stressors external to a PES site, such as forest fires, pollution, sea level rise, and ocean acidification, may undermine ecosystem stability and sustained ecosystem service provision, yet their threats and impacts are difficult to account for within PES scheme design. We present a typology of external biophysical stressors, characterizing them in terms of stressor origin, spatial domain and temporal scale. We further analyse how external stressors can potentially impinge on key PES parameters, as they (1) threaten ecosystem service provision, additionality and permanence, (2) add challenges to the identification of PES providers and beneficiaries, and (3) add complexity and costs to PES mechanism design. Effective PES implementation under external stressors requires greater emphasis on the evaluation and mitigation of external stressors, and further instruments that can accommodate associated risks and uncertainties. A greater understanding of external stressors will increase our capacity to design multi-scale instruments to conserve important ecosystems in times of environmental change.     

Medium-term responses of rocky bottoms to sewage discharges from a deepwater outfall in the NE Atlantic

An investigation on the effects of deepwater outfall discharges on the status of rocky reef communities was carried out. The sanitation system was found to be an environmentally suitable option for the protection of those habitats situated in high energy coastal environments. Sediments occurring between the predominating rocky substrates showed low values of the fine fraction (<63microm) and organic matter content. In addition, high average concentrations of Cd, Hg and Zn were found in these sediments, though these values were similar to those registered in non-affected sites, far away from the outfall. On the other hand, those assemblages typical of hard substrates that settled near the outfall showed an increase in total richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates. Moreover, the average number of species of each taxonomic group, a good indicator of the maintenance of the previous trophic structure, only varied considerably over time at the rip-rap protection. In a global context, those changes were not directly related to the discharge disturbances, but to the natural variability or the successional processes occurring within those communities. Only communities dwelling in the rip-rap protection area were affected by the proximity of the discharges.