GIScience research challenges for emergency management in Southeast Asia

Natural Hazards - The study examines the current application of geospatial information technologies and highlights the challenges of and constraints on GIScience research for emergency management...     

矿山可持续发展综合物探技术方法研究

论述矿山可持续发展综合物探技术研究和推广应用的必要性、应用领域及主要技术特点 ,介绍了新的数据处理方法即非线性地球物理联合反演方法。通过实例说明该技术具有投资少、见效快等优点 ,有良好的应用前景。     

Community strategies to promote sustainable wetland-based food security in rural areas of Zimbabwe

This article explores the various strategies rural households employ to sustain wetland use and conservation in the context of the restrictions imposed by the existing legal framework in Zimbabwe. Wetland cultivation is a common feature of the rural landscape and is mainly triggered by subsistence households endeavouring to stabilize their food security, especially in semi-arid and arid environments of the developing countries. Data was collected through a household questionnaire survey, key informant interviews, document review and direct observations. Quantitative data was analysed using ANOVA, Spearman Correlation Coefficient and Wilcoxon in Statistical Package for Social Scientists, whereas qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. The results revealed that most households adjacent to wetlands were food secure as wetland conditions enable the provision of a wide range of crops and natural products, contributing almost half of the food directly consumed and 48.2 % of average annual household total cash income. It was also observed that various soil and water conservation practices were adopted and local institutional arrangements were put in place to oversee their effective implementation. Thus, the general result has been increased wetland productivity, improved livelihoods and ecosystem protection. This has largely rendered the impact of legislation restricting wetland cultivation subtle in the local context. The study concluded that there is a need to promote participatory wetland management based on low-cost approaches sensitive to local conditions and the needs and practices of the local communities.     

Towards developing a geoscientific approach to sustainable agricultural and rural development

 Conventional practices employed to achieve sustainable agricultural and rural development (SARD) tend to be subjective, focus on effects rather than causes, and have little diagnostic or predictive value. Consequently, many of the management options and solutions adopted to restore degraded natural resources are, often, economically unviable and environmentally unsustainable. These shortcomings are believed to be caused, partly, by overlooking or insufficiently recognizing the role and importance of geology to SARD. This paper demonstrates that geology is the most critical factor in the genesis of biophysical resources and in determining sustainability of agricultural and rural development. A case study from Australia shows how geological principles can be employed to obtain goals of ecological sustainability. A geologically-based model for cold temperate regions is provided to assist resource users and managers in understanding and predicting the genetic influence of geology on the inherent potential, constraint and resilience of the biophysical resources. Received: 7 January 2000 · Accepted: 23 May 2000     

我国农业生态旅游可持续发展探讨

从生态旅游的角度阐述了我国农业生态旅游发展状况和特征,综合分析了影响我国农业生态旅游可持续发展的一系列问题,并针对这些问题提出了发展农业生态旅游的建议和措施.     

Environmental diplomacy in South Asia: Considering the environmental security,conflict and development nexus

Environmental security concerns have broadened the national security agenda and discourse of international relations. Yet environmental insecurity issues have endured impacts on livelihood, human security, social equity, human rights, internal security, political stability, economic growth and development of the state. Environmental challenges, such as climate change, water scarcity and energy security are shaping development and consumption patterns, which are possible causes of inter-state conflict in South Asia. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the nexus of climate change, energy and water security with conflict and development. Furthermore, we argue for the need for environmental diplomacy in Pakistan within the South Asian context. The argument is that integration of development with environmental factors and peacemaking has potential to achieve sustainable development in South Asia.     

Ecological entrepreneurship: sustainable development in local communities through quality food production and local branding

The paper explores the importance of specialised networks in shaping local/regional responses to the deepening crisis of conventional agriculture in the EU, as well as potentially creating a more sustainable platform for rural development. The emphasis will be on the problem-solving aspects of network creation and maintenance within a broader and not necessarily supportive competitive and regulatory environment. This involves examining, both over time and space, how networks function to shape knowledge and create a competitive willingness to innovate to achieve mutually beneficial goals. Through a process which we call ecological entrepreneurship, key actors facilitate sustainable development in the countryside by a combination of fragmentation, specialisation and quality building strategies. We empirically explore these evolutionary and spatial factors through two farming-centred networks—an organic farming network in the UK: the Graig Farm Producer Group; and a regional quality brand in the Netherlands: the Waddengroup Foundation.The analysis of these two networks is used to examine in-depth the significance and construction of the social and spatial milieu for providing the individual and collective capabilities to establish viable problem-solving responses. This raises questions of: (i) how such networks are and can be sustained over time; (ii) the extent to which there are common evolutionary pathways which reproduce and embed problem-solving network building; (iii) how different spatial relations are engendered and (iv) whether such ‘local’ projects can advance to wider counter-movements in the context of the prevailing political economy.     

Asia: a frontier for a future supercontinent Amasia

Asia is the world’s largest but youngest continent, in which Pacific-type (P-type) and collision-type (C-type) orogenic belts coexist with numerous amalgamated continental blocks. P-type orogens represent major sites of continental growth through tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite type (TTG-type) juvenile granitoid magmatism and accretion of oceanic crust and intra-oceanic arcs. The Asian continent includes several P-type orogenic belts, of which the largest are the Central Asian and Western Pacific. The Central Asian Orogenic Belt is dominated by P-type fossil orogens arranged with a regular northward subduction polarity. The Western Pacific is characterized by ongoing P-type orogeny related to the westward subduction of the Pacific plate. Asia has a multi-cratonic structure and its post-Palaeozoic history has witnessed amalgamation of the Laurasia composite continent and Pangaea supercontinent. Nowadays, Asia is surrounded by double-sided subduction zones, which generate new TTG-type crust and supply oceanic crust and microcontinents to its active margins. The TTG-crust can be tectonically eroded and subducted down to the mantle transition zone to form a ‘second’ continent, which may generate mantle upwelling, plumes, and extensive intra-plate volcanism. Moreover, recent plate movements around Asia are dominated by northward directions, which resulted in the India–Eurasia and Arabia–Eurasia collisions beginning at 50–45 and 23–20 Ma, respectively, and will result in Africa–Eurasia collision in the near future. Therefore, Asia is the best candidate to serve as the nucleus for a future supercontinent ‘Amasia’, likely to form 200–250 Ma in the future. In this paper we unravel a puzzle of continental growth in Asia through P-type orogeny by discussing its tectonic history and geological structure, subduction polarity in P-type orogens, tectonic erosion of TTG-type crust and arc subduction at convergent margins, generation of mantle plumes, and prospects of Asia growth and overgrowth.     

西南岩溶小流域农业可持续发展优化模式研究

以贵州为代表的西南岩溶地区,农业人口众多,水土资源匹配程度低,人地矛盾突出,农业发展环境先天不足,农业发展缓慢。文章通过野外实地考察并结合相关理论分析认为,水土资源匹配问题并不是限制农业发展的关键,其关键在于现行农业发展模式收益普遍较低,农业生产要素外流,导致农业生产模式缺乏创新。现行传统农业发展模式下农户收益低,且农业生产机会成本高,导致农户对农业投入减少,农业生产要素外流严重。而提高农业生产收益就成为促进农业可持续发展的关键。因此,根据因地制宜突出特色、农户生计与环境保护兼顾和“外驱”与“内生”农业创新模式相结合的农业建设和发展原则,发展以商品化有机生态农业的发展模式、乡村旅游及农业生产复合发展模式和区域标准化农业联合生产模式为代表的,以保障提高农户收益为核心的新农业发展模式,从根本上促进生产要素回流农业生产,是实现农业生产创新和持续发展的根本所在。      

中国含油气盆地沉积研究主要科学问题与发展分析

沉积相研究发展与人类的生存和矿产资源勘探开发密切相关.该文在简单回顾了近200年的沉积学发展历史的基础上,分析了国际和中国沉积学关注的学科热点问题.国际沉积学会重点关注的问题主要包括国际大洋钻探计划、深-时气候变化与全球海平面变化、源-汇系统、碳酸盐岩沉积环境、混合沉积、微生物岩、陆架边缘三角洲、重力流、细粒沉积、构造...     

Tsunami deposits: Present knowledge and future challenges

Tsunami deposits are the primary source of information on (past) large tsunami events and thereby are crucial for accurate hazard assessments. Tsunami deposits studies have developed over the last three decades, but this is still a young geoscience discipline. Following the 5^th International Tsunami Field Symposium in 2017 an opportunity arose to publish a Special Issue focusing on present knowledge and future research challenges. This paper aims to briefly review current state-of-the-art research, summarizing major findings and gathering relevant works that describe the progress achieved over the last three decades. In this paper the relevance of tsunami deposits, their peculiar sedimentary characteristics and their differentiation from other high energy events are presented. Especially over the last decade an incredibly high number of studies have been published on tsunami deposits, many of which are of a high quality and provide detailed literature reviews. Some of these studies represent the current progress discussed here. Challenges are also introduced, to spur a discussion on future scientific questions that can and should be addressed by tsunami geoscientists. Coupling onshore–offshore records is an area where tsunami geoscience faces some of its major challenges. Moreover, the application of non-destructive high-resolution techniques to study the internal structure and composition of tsunami deposits can also provide an opportunity to further examine deposits, and from this derive physical parameters of the forcing mechanism. Another topic is better understanding of the erosional signature of tsunami events and a continuation of the effort to better incorporate age-estimation methods by developing more accurate dating methodology. Finally, there is also the need for the improvement of empirical, forward and regressive numerical models to better contribute to the characterization of tsunami events.     

The development, present significance and future prospects of socialist agricultural enterprises in Slovenia

An important state sector developed in Slovenian agriculture under communism and although it accounted for a less than a tenth of the agricultural area it assumed a major role in supplying food to the urban markets; also in providing raw material to the food processing industry and for exporting. In the context of the transition to a market economy legislation has been enacted that provides for denationalisation and the restructuring of enterprises. This threatens the survival of the state sector and creates problems for the food market because the private farmers are not yet well-organised to provide an alternative supply. The government is committed by the legislation already passed but is anxious to avoid marketing problems.     

Renewable energy in Iran: Challenges and opportunities for sustainable development

Around the globe, developing countries have reported different cases of successfully implemented Renewable Energy (RE) program supported by bilateral or multilateral funding. In developing countries subsidy has played a big role in RE program marketing and whether this will lead to sustainable development is yet to be determined. The adoption of implementation strategies that will support sustainable development and overcoming barriers that hinder expansion of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) still remains as a big challenge to stakeholders involved in promotion of RE resources in developing countries. In this respect, developing countries need to re-examine their environmental policy for promotion of RETs in order to define its role in revitalization of their economies. This paper reviews the policy incentives for promotion of RETs in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Setting-up international collaborative business ventures between local industry in Iran and RE companies in developed countries is proposed as an implementation strategy that will appropriate diffusion of RETs in the country. An organizational framework that may help to attain this objective is discussed and a structural model for RE business partnership is presented. It is concluded that with appropriate policy formulations and strategies, RETs can bring about the required socio-economic development in Iran.     

Problematising justice definitions in public food security debates: Towards global and participative food justices

In the current environment of austerity, social justice concerns are increasingly permeating the food security agenda. However, there is a need to clarify what it means to create socially just food systems conceptually and practically. To address this gap, this paper proposes an analytical framework to embed a more complex conceptualisation of justice in food security debates that also serves as a bridging device across competing narratives. This framework is mobilised to analyse the framing process of the UK media, which plays a key role in developing narratives that provide audiences with schemas for interpreting events. Results show the emergence of eleven frames which highlight different solutions to deliver food security. The application of the justice analytical framework evidences the contingent relationship between food security and justice claims and discusses how these food security frames address differently what counts as a matter of justice (including economic, socio-cultural and political dimensions) and who counts as a subject of justice, tackling issues around delimitation of scales and sites of justice. The analysis reveals polarised positions between whether the sites subject to justice should be individuals or structures and uncovers how political and global elements of justice are largely by-passed in food security debates. These conceptualisations of justice and associated policy recommendations neglect the potential for people to participate fully in the conditions and decisions that give rise to particular distributions of goods and bads in the first place; limiting the construction of shared responsibilities to deliver global and participative food justices.     

Rice research: Food for 4 billion people

Rice is the staple food for about 2.4 billion people and provides more than 20% of their daily calorie intake. This number will increase to 4.6 billion people by 2050. Just to meet the projected demand for rice in the 21st Century, the world's annual rough rice production must increase from 520 million tons today to at least 880 million tons by 2025, an increase of almost 70%. That requirement may rise to one billion tons by the year 2050.To produce such an increase, on decreasing arable land, with reduced water resources, with less rural labor input, and with fewer agrochemical inputs, will require major contributions from research to increase yields and reduce inputs, costs and losses. And, more important, it will require coordinated national and international scientific efforts and, above all, strong political will, determined governments and major investments in food research in the rice-consuming countries of the world.