Housing Policy Regime in Lithuania: towards liberalization and marketization

This paper reviews housing policy development in Lithuania in the light of previous literature which reinterprets Esping-Andersen’s work on welfare regimes and adopts it to study housing policy. It seeks to highlight the major features of the Lithuanian housing policy. The findings of this paper reveal that the Lithuanian housing regime exhibits many features which are common under the liberal one. Most significant of these are low de-commodification for those who have to buy or rent a home for the market price, increasing stratification based on income and the dominant position of the market in housing production, allocation and price determination. However, a detailed examination of the Lithuanian housing policy reveals that the housing policy system, despite having many features similar to the liberal one, has been operating in different social and economic settings as a result of unique historical experience of the communist housing policy (massive production of low quality apartment blocks during the communist era, which currently need substantial renovation) and consequently drastic changes in the housing field since 1990s (massive privatization of the housing stock and decentralization of the housing management system). The Lithuanian housing policy regime could be characterized as a regime with the higher owner-occupation compared to other welfare state regimes, but the lower economic power of the owners to take care of their property maintenance, repair and renovation.     

Exploring the asylum-migration nexus in the context of health professional migration

The current global migration regime is extremely complex and characterised by a polarisation of flows. Increasing numbers of individuals fleeing conflict regimes and seeking asylum are faced with restrictive immigration regimes whilst at the same time, highly skilled migrants are welcomed and encouraged to contribute to developed economies. This paper explores the asylum-migration nexus that has emerged as a result of restrictive immigration policy by drawing upon a survey of 300 health professionals in the UK. First, the empirical lens of health professionals fleeing conflict regions is employed to map the contours of the asylum-migration nexus. Second, the implications of highly selective asylum flows to Europe, in terms of economic and social characteristics, are considered. The paper concludes by highlighting concerns that Western refugee policy regimes are worryingly failing to fully meet moral obligations to protect individuals seeking asylum whilst also inadvertently supporting brain drain flows.     

Dispossessing irrigators: Water grabbing,supply-side growth and farmer resistance in India

This paper examines, first, the conditions under which irrigating farmers are being alienated from their water through a state-led process of dispossession, and then, second, details the dialectical process of farmers’ resistance to these efforts. The paper advances recent scholarship on water grabbing and ‘accumulation by dispossession’ by drawing on a case from northwestern India to explore the connections between non-agrarian economic growth, irrigated agriculture and farmer livelihoods. Specifically, it examines an urban water infrastructure development project that aims to provide water to Jaipur, the Indian state of Rajasthan’s capital city, through the appropriation of an existing rural dam/reservoir complex built for irrigation and redirecting it to domestic, commercial and industrial uses. Drawing on an examination of policy documents and interviews with farmers and state planners, this paper argues that these transfers must be understood as a supply-side solution to support economic growth, where the lack of stable water supplies is a barrier to capital accumulation. The paper contributes to critical scholarship by showing that the processes underpinning water’s reallocation are specific acts of ongoing ‘dispossession’ through extra-economic means under advanced neoliberal capitalism, which alienates water away from peasant producers towards new centers of capital accumulation, dialectically creating peasant resistance to these efforts.     

21世纪长春市城市供水水源问题

长春市是一个水资源比较贫乏的大城市,水资源一直是困扰该市社会经济发展的主要问题。本文概述了长春市半个多世纪以来城市供水水源随着城市需水量增长而变化的历史过程,预测了21世纪前期城市的需水量,提出了解决城市供水水源的方向,对新世纪城市的供水水源与区域供水规划间的关系、水资源管理政策与法规、水资源分配原则、供水水源投资与经营等问题提出了新的思路和见解。     

需水管理的定义与内涵

水资源是基础性的自然资源和战略性的经济资源,是生态与环境的控制性要素.中国人均占有水资源量少,不足2200m3,不足世界人均占有量的1/3.水资源时空分布极为不均,特别是在全球气候变化和大规模经济开发双重因素的交织作用下,中国水资源情势正在发生新的变化.在水资源管理理念上,要加快从供水管理向需水管理转变.为使人们对需水管理有比较全面和深刻的认识,部分专家和学者从各种角度论述了"需水管理"的定义和内涵,认为,需水管理是面向包括人类与自然在内所有用水户的水资源供需平衡的全方位而有序的管理系统工程,对各方面的需水,采取行政、经济、法律和技术等手段和措施,对水资源供需进行平衡与协调,遏制不合理用水需求,提高用水效率和效益,减少水资源短缺对人类社会的威胁,确保水资源可持续利用.简言之,需水管理意为以供定需,供需协调,人水和谐,持续利用.     

华北平原水资源紧缺情势与因源

基于水资源可持续利用理念,从水资源承载能力演化周期性、经济社会需用水规模难变性和未来水资源供需关系入手,介绍近60年以来华北平原水资源情势,特别是该平原水资源量、实际用水量和地下水开采量变化特征,并结合未来10到30年区域经济社会发展需用水量趋势,识别和诊断华北平原水资源紧缺因源。结果表明：由于降水量减少导致华北平原缺水（自然资源性缺水）占该平原总缺水量的15.1%~16.4%;因管理缺陷导致水资源浪费的缺水（管理性缺水）占22.1%~24.2%;人口数量和经济社会发展规模过大导致用水量超过区域水资源承载力的缺水（政策性缺水）占59.3%~62.5%。自然资源性、管理性以及政策性缺水的解决对策不同：自然资源性缺水是不依人的意志为转移的,惟有从外域适量调水才能解决;管理性缺水可通过社会文明进步和科技进步不断修正;政策性缺水宜因势利导进行经济社会布局和产业结构调整,特别是限制高耗低效用水产业。即使南水北调工程70.3×108m3/a水进入华北平原,该平原地下水超采情势也难以得到根本性扭转。有新增水源调入或华北平原严控生活和工业用水量,同时大幅压减农业用水量,因势利导优化和逐步调整经济社会布局和产业结构,特别是灌溉农业进行规模化减蒸、降耗、节水的改造,将是缓解华北平原地下水超采和水资源紧缺的根本所在。     

石家庄市投资方向与水资源的关系

通过对石家庄市水资源利用现状分析和预测,提出节水的新概念,就投资方向与水资源的关系,从战略和战术两个方面进行了综合论述。在战略上对生产力布局与水资源进行优化配置,重点以转变观念、生态经济原则,调整工业布局、产业政策、产业结构、生态农业、强化节水投资等方面分析论证;在战术上兼顾节约用水与防止水质污染,从节水产品、节水工艺、节水农艺、节水管理等方面进行了探讨。     

River basin approach and integrated water management: Governance pitfalls for the Dutch Space-Water-Adjustment Management Principle

This article describes the turn to new integrative water management strategies in the Netherlands. It illustrates that some of the new and the general objectives and principles are not easily applied in practice. First, the article focuses on the development of integrative management of water and spatial development. A main policy line, the ‘Room for the River’ directive, was originally an ad hoc reaction to unexpected floods, but accompanied by other policy reforms it grew into an application of the river basin approach with an emphasis on its spatial consequences. The resulting Space-Water-Adjustment Management Principle (SWAMP) emphasizes the mutual adjustments in policy that must be made in both water policy and spatial development. Officially, water is proclaimed as an ordering element, yet actual spatial developments still follow lines of economic and social priorities as executed by institutional powers. Three case studies are presented to illustrate the emergence of new principles and governance issues linked to these management approaches. In practice, the paper concludes, spatial planning and land use decisions show a centralization tendency that is not in line with the proclaimed prevalence of local identity, resilience and open decentralized and deliberative governance in the SWAMP-based integrated river basin management.     

Spatial form of urbanization,sustainability and fragmented landownership: the example of Ilan in Taiwan’s urbanization

As a part of the inevitable process of industrialization, urbanization and its associated spatial forms generally have a substantial effect on sustainability. This paper considers the spatial form and sustainability of urbanization by evaluating the interaction between land-use planning, urban regimes and the fragmented structure of land ownership. This paper conceptualizes the structure of landownership as an institution that affects the form of spatial development and thereby determines the spatial implications of urban sprawl on sustainability. With reference to the Ilan experience of urbanizing Taiwan, it shows that the development of spatial form and sustainability is the product of planning institution and urban regime mobilization, and it reflects the institutional impact of a fragmented landownership structure. The conclusion also discusses policy implications.     

Public participation in China’s green communities: Mobilizing memories and structuring incentives

In recent years, there has been heightened interest in creating more environmentally sustainable forms of urban development in China. Central in these greening initiatives has been increased attention on promoting public participation in community-based environmental activities. Focusing on China’s green community initiatives, we examine the production and effects of participation in a state-led development program. Our analysis considers how incentives for program organizers and participants are structured by broader political and economic imperatives facing Chinese cities. We also consider what influence China’s history of neighborhood-based mobilization campaigns had on the meanings and methods of participation in green communities. To understand how urban development processes and memories of mobilization influence participation at the local level, we present two examples of the community greening process from the city of Guangzhou, comparing policy outcomes between a new and older neighborhood. This article seeks to demonstrate that the participatory processes associated with such an urban environmental initiative cannot be adequately understood without reference to earlier participatory practices and broader policy priorities guiding development in Chinese cities.     

Superplastic flow in finegrained limestone

Creep of Solnhofen limestone at temperatures between 600° and 900° C was found to fall into three different flow regimes: regime 1 with an exponential stress-dependence of strain rate, regime 2 with power-law creep and n ~ 4.7 and finally a superplastic regime 3 with n ~ 1.7. Within the superplastic regime the creep behaviour is strongly grain-size dependent, the strain rate increasing markedly with decrease in grain size at a given stress. Microstructural observations indicate that in regimes 1 and 2 intracrystalline plasticity is dominant whereas the superplastic regime is characterized by grain-boundary sliding. The crystallographic preferred orientation within the superplastic regime is weaker and of different geometry when compared with that in flow regimes 1 and 2. In a discussion on the deformation mechanisms it is suggested that flow regimes 1 and 2 are regimes of dis location creep in which the rate controlling step is diffusion assisted; for the superplastic regime existing models of grain-boundary sliding are compared with the observations Finally, the tectonophysical importance of superplasticity is discussed and by extra polating the observed creep behaviour to geological strain rates it is found that super plasticity in rocks is to be expected under a wide range of conditions, particularly at smal grain sizes.     

Political transformation,urban policy and the state in London's Docklands

The contemporary restructuring of urban space in the United Kingdom can be understood in terms of much broader social, political, and economic changes. This paper provides an analysis of this experience in London's Docklands, as a way of highlighting the connections between these social relations. We can best understand these changes by drawing upon regulation theory, which posits a firm, but dynamic, link between economic and political processes. Through an analysis of urban policy changes, political struggles, and economic shifts in London's Docklands, I argue for a more central role for the state and social movements in the understanding of social regulation and urban change. Finally, the paper considers the establishment of an Urban Development Corporation in the area in 1981, which represents an attempt by the central government to establish a new regime of economic and political life in the area. This has produced important conflicts at a local level, which typify the conflictual nature of attempts to restructure the economic and political relations of urban locales.     

Finite element simulations of 3D planar hydraulic fracture propagation using a coupled hydro-mechanical interface element

Two-dimensional hydraulic fracturing simulations using the cohesive zone model (CZM) can be readily found in the literature; however, to our knowledge, verified 3D cohesive zone modeling is not available. We present the development of a 3D fully coupled hydro-mechanical finite element method (FEM) model (with parallel computation framework) and its application to hydraulic fracturing. A special zero-thickness interface element based on the CZM is developed for modeling fracture propagation and fluid flow. A local traction-separation law with strain softening is used to capture tensile cracking. The model is verified by considering penny-shaped hydraulic fracture and plain strain Kristianovich‑Geertsma‑de Klerk hydraulic fracture (in 3D) in the viscosity- and toughness-dominated regimes. Good agreement between numerical results and analytical solutions has been achieved. The model is used to investigate the influence of rock and fluid properties on hydraulic fracturing. Lower stiffness tip cohesive elements tend to yield a larger elastic deformation around the fracture tips before the tensile strength is reached, generating a larger fracture length and lower fracture pressure compared with higher stiffness elements. It is found that the energy release rate has almost no influence on hydraulic fracturing in the viscosity-dominated regime because the energy spent in creating new fractures is too small when compared with the total input energy. For the toughness-dominated regime, the released energy during fracturing should be accurately captured; relatively large tensile strength should be used in order to match numerical results to the asymptotic analytical solutions. It requires smaller elements when compared with those used in the viscosity-dominated regime.     

Groundwater-related thallium transfer processes and their impacts on the ecosystem: southwest Guizhou Province,China

The small karstic watershed of Lanmuchang, in a Hg–Tl mineralized area in SW Guizhou Province, China, exhibits an enrichment of toxic Tl in groundwater and related stream water. This affords an excellent demonstration of the natural processes of Tl dispersion, and the resultant impact on the local ecosystem. The distribution of Tl in the water system follows a decreasing concentration pattern from deep groundwater to stream water to shallow groundwater. Tl shows high levels (13–1100 μg/L) in deep groundwater within the Tl-mineralized area, decreasing with distance away from the mineralized area to background levels (0.005 μg/L). The distribution of Tl in the water system is constrained by Tl mineralization, water–rock interactions and hydrogeological conditions. Tl concentrations in waters generally correlate with concentrations of total dissolved solids, sulphate, Ca and pH values, suggesting the contribution of water-rock interactions to water geochemistry. Water–rock interactions are driven by weathering of Tl-bearing sulfides which decreases pH values in groundwater, and by dissolution of limestone enhanced by acid fluids. Tl in stream water in both the base-flow and flood-flow regimes shows higher concentrations than it does in shallow groundwater that serves as the stream's source (mainly springs, dug-well flows and karstic cave waters). Concentrations of Tl in stream water in the flood-flow regime are generally lower than in the base-flow regime due to dilution effects, but those in the waters of mid-stream are almost the same as in the base-flow regime, probably due to contribution from Tl-rich soil water seepage or from acid mine drainage (AMD). Unexpectedly, Tl concentrations in stream water in both regimes are remarkably higher (2–30 fold) downstream than up- and mid-stream. These pronounced increases of Tl concentration are likely caused by unidentified discharges of deep groundwater through fractured zones to the downstream trace. The groundwater-related Tl transfer processes affect the ecosystem through contamination of water supply and arable soil and ultimately the food chain with undoubted risks to human health. Therefore, the results of this study are important for environmental planning and regulations, and will also serve as baseline data for future research on Tl natural dispersion processes.     

西南地区岩溶水源地类型及开发技术条件

明确了岩溶水源地的定义,并提出了新的岩溶水源地分类方案。首先按岩溶含水层的埋藏分布、岩溶水出露状态,将岩溶水源地划分为天然出露的岩溶水源地及隐伏的岩溶水源地两大类。然后再根据岩溶水源地的岩溶含水介质特征（导水和赋水空间形态、结构及水动力特征）进一步将天然出露的岩溶水源地划分为暗河、泉、表层泉三个亚类,将隐伏的岩溶水源地划分为饱水带富水块段、表层带富水块段两个亚类。并研究评价了各个类型的岩溶水富集规律、动态特征、岩溶水资源、开发技术条件。      

Textural trend analysis of coastal barrier sediments along the Middle Atlantic Bight,North Carolina

Comparative polynomial trend analyses of textural parameters were conducted on adjacent foreshore, berm, and dune sediment populations along a coastal barrier chain of the Middle Atlantic Bight. The analyses indicate that systematic textural patterns exhibited by the barrier sediments consist of both regional trends and local cyclicity.The regional trends appear to reflect progressive variability of both the hydraulic and aeolian regimes. Variability of the hydraulic regime consists of a progressive southward increase in average wave energy, with a concomitant decrease in energy consistency; this is attributed to the coastal wave refraction pattern, and to a progressive southward decrease in shelf width. The aeolian regime is characterized by a constant average energy level along the barrier chain, but exhibits a progressive northward decrease in wind energy consistency, and a corresponding increase in winnowing efficiency. Local cyclicity along the barrier appears to reflect textural variations in the barrier source materials excavated from a heterogeneous Pleistocene substrate. The cyclic patterns suggest the presence of a buried ancestral Albemarle fluvial channel near the present mouth of Albemarle Sound.In developing systematic textural variations along the barrier, size characteristics of the source material appear to be the most influential factor, while the influences of both the hydraulic and aeolian regimes are subordinate. The berm and dune field environments are most amenable to the development of systematic variation, while the foreshore is most susceptible to random component variation.     

How “Water for All!” policy became hegemonic: The power of the World Bank and its transnational policy networks

As recently as 1990, few people in the global South received their water from US or European water firms. But just 10 years later, more than 400 million people did, with that number predicted to increase to 1.2 billion people by 2015, transforming water in Africa, Asia, and Latin America into capitalized markets as precious, and war-provoking, as oil. This article explains how this new global water policy became constituted so quickly, dispersed so widely, with such profound institutional effects. It highlights the prominent role of transnational policy networks in linking environment and development NGOs and the so-called global water policy experts with Northern high-end service sectors, and the ways in which the World Bank facilitates their growth, authority, and efficacy. This phenomenon reflects the World Bank’s latest and perhaps most vulnerable development regime, which I call “green neoliberalism.”     

Institutions, cultural politics and the destabilizing Malaysian pig industry

Rising demand for meat has led to changing modes of production in the livestock industry and prompted varied institutional and regulatory changes. For the most part, the latter are enabling measures not fundamentally aimed at restraining the overall growth of the industry. In other words, specific institutional changes are meant to reduce uncertainty by providing a structure to everyday life although at a broader spatial scale, an institutional approach suggests that (a region’s) social infrastructure can help or hinder economic growth. In tracing recent developments in the Malaysian pig industry, this paper highlights an institutional regime that is stable on the surface but is in actuality prone to destabilization. Specifically, the role of cultural politics in shaping, sustaining and destabilizing institutional behavior and regimes will be examined, using the case study of the Malaccan pig industry. In explicating how institutional regimes and development are stabilized and destabilized, the paper argues that cultural politics might be an intractable stumbling block to the future growth and development of the industry.