Public concerns about transboundary haze: A comparison of Indonesia,Singapore, and Malaysia

Public concerns about environmental problems create narrative structures that influence policy by allocating roles of blame, responsibility, and appropriate behavior. This paper presents an analysis of public concerns about transboundary haze resulting from forest fires in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia for crises experienced in 1997, 2005 and 2013. The source of the information is content analysis of 2231 articles from representative newspapers in each country. The study shows that newspaper reporting about haze has changed from a discussion of the potential health and economic impacts of fires resulting partly naturally from El Niño-induced droughts, toward an increasing vilification of Indonesia for not ratifying the 2002 Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution; plus criticism of Singaporean and Malaysian companies investing in palm oil plantations, and ASEAN. Attention to climate change and potential biodiversity loss linked to haze, however, remains low. The paper argues that newspaper analysis of public concerns, despite political influences on the press, offers insights into how public criticism is voiced in these countries, and how perceived responsibility for action is changing.     

公众为何对气候变化的科学结论信任不充分

通过系统分析世界各国气候传播领域近年来的进展,以解释为何公众对气候变化的科学结论缺乏信任这一复杂问题.文中首先概述了各国公众对气候变化的态度以及影响公众态度的社会、政治与经济因素,再分析了各国媒体对气候变化的报道及其媒体效果,并重点探究了社会心理因素如何影响人们对气候变化的认知与态度.此外国际气候传播研究对我国气候传播...     

An overview of climate change impacts on the society in China

Society could sustain the impact of climate change by adapting to the change and mitigating risks from adverse effects of increasing changes, so that it can continue maintaining its prospect and improving wellbeing. Nevertheless, climate change is more or less affecting society's functions at different scales, including both individuals and communities. In this review, we discuss the relationship between society and climate change in China from the aspects of the needs at different socioeconomic developing stages. The relationship as well as the current spatial pattern and future risks of the climate change impacts on societies are summarized. The complexity of social and climatic systems leads to the spatial heterogeneity of climate impacts and risks in China. To more effectively leverage increasing knowledge about the past, we advocate greater cross-disciplinary collaboration between climate adaption, poverty alleviation and Nature-based Solutions (Nbs). That could provide decision makers with more comprehensive train of thoughts for climate policy making.     

Deconstructing public artopia: Situating public-art claims within practice

This paper problematises public artopia, in other words the collection of claims in academic literature concerning the allegedly physical-aesthetic, economic, social, and cultural-symbolic roles of art in urban public space. On the basis of interviews with public-art producers (artists, public officials, investors, and participating residents) in a flagship and a community-art project in Amsterdam, we analyse the situatedness of their public-art claims according to actors’ roles, geographical context, and time. The research suggests that public-art theory and policy suffer from three deficiencies. Theoretical claims about public-art and policy discourse feature, first, a failure to recognise different actors’ perspectives: claims fail to locate situated knowledges that are intrinsically (re)constituted by actors’ roles articulating with one another in time and space. Second is the lack of geographical contextuality: claims do not elaborate appropriately on distinct discourses about art projects’ spatial settings. Third is the lack of temporal perspective. Claims neglect the practice of public-art realisation: that is, the evolution of claims and claim coalitions over the time horizon of the art projects: preparation, implementation, and evaluation.     

A GIS-based method to identify spatiotemporal gaps in public service delivery

The focus of methodological approaches to identify (public) service deprivation has been predominantly on the shortcomings in the spatial coverage of the transportation system and the urban opportunity landscape. Accessibility is thereby generally modeled as a static concept with little - if any - account for temporal variations in services and transportation provision across the diurnal cycle and week, such as those resulting from opening hours and congestion effects. This paper suggests the use of time-specific measures of service accessibility and demand. The measures are integrated in a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis with the aim to detect spatiotemporal variations in service deprivation. The applicability of the method has been illustrated in a case study about the planning of a mobile government office bus in the city of Ghent (Belgium). It has been shown that the suitability of alternative stop locations for the bus depends on the time interval during which it will be operated.     

Prosperity and the Suburban Dream: Quality of life and affordability in western Sydney

Over the past 10 years Sydney has experienced a remarkable wave of economic prosperity and growth, partly due to its developing role as a regionally significant global city. Through this period, maintaining the quality of life in the city has been regarded as particularly important. Yet traditional accounts of the global city have stressed quality-of-life features of the inner city. In this paper I examine the implications of the prosperity of global Sydney for the quality of life of western Sydney, paying particular attention to environmental amenity and the affordability of housing. The paper argues, first, that growth in the Sydney region has depended upon continued growth in western Sydney. It highlights key instances in which residents have resisted developments associated with this growth and regarded as major threats to the environmental amenity of the region. Second, the paper argues that the prosperity of Sydney, combined with changes to government policy, have impacted upon the supply of affordable rental housing in western Sydney. This is particularly significant in the case of public housing. Managing growth in the city will require attention to managing quality-of-life issues in the metropolis as a whole.     

展望地震监测台网的发展与应用

随着国民经济的快速发展，我国地震监测台网的发展也日新月异，设备性能、技术系统、台网密度正逐步接近发达国家的水平，同时积累了大量的观测数据。如何利用这些监测资源，更好地为经济建设和社会公共安全服务，是值得研究的重要问题。本文认为提取有用的地震前兆信息、提升地震速报能力、扩展烈度速报功能是地震监测台网为地震预报和地震应急服务的重点；整合台网资源，构筑统一标准、多用途的地震监测网络是建设公共安全服务技术平台的前提；工程、海洋、气象、环保等是地震监测资源的主要服务领域。因此，开发监测资源，加强自主创新，构筑技术平台，拓展服务领域是未来地震监测台网为社会和公共安全服务的重要发展方向。     

Trends in Extremes of Surface Humidity, Temperature, and Summertime Heat Stress in China

l. IntroductionPrevious studies have shown climatological and seasonal surface temperature and humld-ity dlstributlons over China (Wang and Gaffen, 200l ) and evaluated trends in seasonal meansof several surface humidity variables, rainfall, temperatures, and apparent temPerature for thelast half century (Easterling et al., 2000, Zhai et al., 1999, Zhai and Eskridge, l997, Zhai andRen, l997, Wang and Gaffen, 200l). However, trends in local temperatures, and particularlytrends in extreme he…     

Implementing the WSSD decision of restoring marine ecosystems by 2015—scientific information support in the public domain

Among the relatively few decisions taken by heads of States and government at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, was the time-bound objective to restore degraded stocks to productive levels in its Plan of Implementation. The paper examines the evidence leading to this decision and the broadening of cognitive maps it implies. In particular, it documents how public archiving of research results and other knowledge sources particularly those accessible through the FishBase (www.fishbase.org) and Sea Around Us (www.seaaroundus.org) websites has been effective in enabling citizens in addition to specialist publics to counteract shifting baselines and monitor progress against the WSSD plan. The increased targeting and cost-effectiveness of research efforts and the social benefits of public research spending this implies militates for the extension of such approaches to other groups as an enabling mechanism for WSSD decisions on restoring marine ecosystems by 2015.     

2005-2020年中国气象事业发展战略

依据《中国气象事业发展战略研究总论卷》[1]的概述,在深入分析了中国气象事业的现状、国家需求和世界科技发展趋势的基础上,提出了“坚持公共气象的发展方向,大力提升气象信息对国家安全的保障能力,大力提升气象资源为可持续发展的支撑能力”的战略思想,明确了战略目标和战略任务,凝炼了重点工程和战略措施。