Perceptions of climate change in China: The research and policy connection

Global climate change has evolved from a scientific problem into an economic and political problem oI worlOwloe rater- est. National perspectives play a crucial role in addressing climate change. Mutual understanding of perspectives is nec- essary to result in rational policies and a consensus among stakeholders with divergent interests. Conceptual frameworks for understanding the problem of climate change in China, the largest developing country and the largest greenhouse gas emitter, are of great significance to national and international efforts to address the problems of climate change. Chinese perceptions of climate change as a sustainable development problem have recently been in tension with an emerging Western perspective that frames climate change as a security issue. This paper explores Chinese perceptions of climate change as expressed in recent governmental policy statements, public opinion surveys, and academic scholarship with a focus on publications in Chinese-language journals, often unfamiliar in the West. It looks at the relationship between Chinese research and policy and finds that the Chinese policy frame of climate change as a sustainable development problem draws from the body of domestic research and is reflective of the perspectives and multidisciplinary approach of Chinese researchers in areas of climate change.     

1953—2011年信江流域径流量变化特征及归因分析

利用信江流域梅港水文控制站1953—2011年径流量观测资料和11个气象站同期气象观测资料,采用统计方法、Mann-Kendall非参数检验方法、Morlet小波分析法,对信江流域径流量年内、年际变化的不均匀性、长期趋势、周期变化,及其与气候因素的相关性等进行分析。结果显示,信江流域多年平均径流量呈缓慢增大趋势,但具有显著的年际和年代际变化特征,振荡周期明显,年际变化的主要周期为6—8 a,年代际变化的主要周期为准22 a,在20世纪70—90年代最明显。年流量以主汛期(4—6月)为最多,春、夏季(3—8月)径流变差系数小,水量稳定,冬季变差系数大,水量不稳定。流域径流量与气候因素中的降水、蒸发具有显著的相关性,而人类活动中的城镇化、经济、人口等因素对径流变化起到了一定的辅助作用。     

开平市1960—2012年灰霾的气候变化特征

根据开平气象观测站1960—2012年观测资料,采用滑动平均、线性趋势分析等统计方法,分析了开平市近53年灰霾的气候变化特征。结果表明,开平市年平均灰霾日数为21.1 d,年最多132 d,年最少0 d,总体呈上升趋势,上升速率为1.72 d/年,特别是2000年以来年灰霾日上升趋势最为显著,上升速率达10.01 d/年。其中,20世纪80年代中后期、90年代中期和21世纪初是3个明显的上升阶段,21世纪以来,年平均灰霾日数58.4 d,是20世纪80年代平均值的近17倍。开平市灰霾以轻微为主,比例达57.6%,其次是轻度,比例为22.6%。另外,采用日均值、14：00实测值判别法得到的开平市灰霾日整体变化趋势与人工记录较一致,但3种方法统计的多年平均灰霾日相差较大,其中,日均值法计算的多年平均霾日数较14：00实测值法多13.8 d。     

The economics of boldness: equity,action, and hope

Equity is usually interpreted in terms of the concept of justice, such that an equitable share of the atmospheric space is understood in terms of past emissions. This emphasizes the collective nature of sharing the burden of mitigation and the duty to act for those who have emitted the most. An alternative is considered: the aggregate costs and benefits to all Parties that could result from both increasing the level of collective ambition and implementing a climate regime that supports bold actions across all Parties. The regional impacts and carbon flow costs across differentiated scenarios are assessed and it is argued that the majority of developing-country Parties would be better off if a high ambition outcome to which all contributed, but some more than others. Moreover, those with middle or low emissions would have proportionally more to gain (or lose) relative to the level of ambition compared to those that have had higher emissions. The climate regime should be built on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities (CBDR&RC), in which all act early even if some do much more; one that accounts for justice but does not forget hope.

Policy relevance

Differing interpretations of equity and the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are discussed, with a focus on how these can enhance or hinder collective action. Whilst the climate change negotiations are usually taken as games in which one party gains and another loses, and interactions are dogged by continuous conflict, it is explored instead how negotiation responses can be framed in terms of cooperation. This would emphasize the gains that could be achieved by common but differentiated collective action, which could result in a collective avoidance of impacts. The possibilities that this shift of perspective could bring are explored by comparing costs under global cooperation (or lack of it). It is found that cooperation reduces the total costs for these regions. Thus, thinking in terms of cooperation focuses the options for negotiation on the means and interpretations of the UNFCCC principles that spur action and avoid climate impacts through collective action.     

Regional GHG reduction targets based on effort sharing: a comparison of studies

Over 40 studies that analyse future GHG emissions allowances or reduction targets for different regions based on a wide range of effort-sharing approaches and long-term concentration stabilization levels are compared. This updates previous work undertaken for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Regional reduction targets differ significantly for each effort-sharing approach. For example, in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 1990 region, new proposals that emphasize the equity principles of responsibility, capability, and need, and those based on equal cumulative per capita emissions (carbon budgets), lead to relatively stringent emissions reduction targets. In order to reach a low concentration stabilization level of 450?ppm CO₂e, the allowances under all effort sharing approaches in OECD1990 for 2030 would be approximately half of the emissions of 2010 with a large range, roughly two-thirds in the Economies in Transition (EIT), roughly at the 2010 emissions level or slightly below in Asia, slightly above the 2010 level in the Middle East and Africa and well below the 2010 level in Latin America. For 2050, allowances in OECD1990 and EIT would be a fraction of today's emissions, approximately half of 2010 emission levels in Asia, and possibly less than half of the 2010 level in Latin America.

Policy relevance

The concept of equity and the stringency of future national GHG reduction targets are at the heart of the current debate on the new international climate change agreement to be adopted in 2015. Policy insights gained from an analysis of over 40 studies, which have quantitatively analysed the proposed GHG reduction targets, are presented. It is found that the outcome of effort-sharing approaches is often largely determined by the way the equity principle is implemented and that the distributional impacts of such approaches can be significantly different depending on the criteria used, the stabilization level and shape of the global emissions pathway. However, the current literature only covers a small proportion of the possible allocation approaches. There should thus be an in-depth modelling comparison to ensure consistency and comparability of results and inform decision making regarding the reduction of GHG emissions.     

浅基础地基荷载-变形特性的分析研究

在土体主应力方向的旋转过程中,主应力方向与塑性主应变增量方向之间存在着非共轴现象,非共轴现象对应力-应变关系具有显著的影响。通过有限元二次开发,将角点结构非共轴理论应用到有限元程序ABAQUS中;对密砂单剪试验进行数值模拟,研究了非共轴现象及其对应力-应变关系的影响;采用离心模型试验方法,对圆形浅基础作用下饱和密砂地基荷载-变形特性进行试验研究;对离心模型试验进行数值模拟,将试验结果与数值计算结果进行对比,对非共轴模型的计算结果的合理性进行验证。研究结果表明:非共轴现象对浅基础地基荷载-变形特性具有显著的影响;当选取合理的非共轴塑性模量时,非共轴模型的计算结果与离心模型试验结果比较接近。     

Water discharge variability of Changjiang （Yangtze） and Huanghe （Yellow） Rivers and its response to climatic changes

Influences of large-scale climatic phenomena, such as the E1Nifio/La Nifia-Southem Oscillation （ENSO） and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation （PDO）, on the temporal variations of the annual water discharge at the Lijin station in the Huanghe （Yellow） River and at the Datong station in the Changjiang （Yangtze） River were examined. Using the empirical mode decomposition-maximum entropy spectral analysis （EMD- MESA） method, the 2- to 3-year, 8- to 14-year, and 23-year cyclical variations of the annual water discharge at the two stations were discovered. Based on the analysis results, the hydrological time series on the inter- annual to interdecadal scales were constructed. The results indicate that from 1950 to 2011, a significant downward trend occurred in the natural annual water discharge in Huanghe River. However, the changes in water discharge in Changjiang River basin exhibited a slightly upward trend. It indicated that the changes in the river discharge in the Huanghe basin were driven primarily by precipitation. Other factors, such as the precipitation over the Changjiang River tributaries, ice melt and evaporation contributed much more to the increase in the Changjiang River basin. Especially, the impacts of the inter-annual and inter-decadal climate oscillations such as ENSO and PDO could change the long-term patterns of precipitation over the basins of the two major rivers. Generally, low amounts of basin-wide precipitation on interannual to interdecadal scales over the two rivers corresponded to most of the warm ENSO events and the warm phases of the PDO, and vice versa. The positive phases of the PDO and ENSO could lead to reduced precipitation and consequently affect the long-term scale water discharges at the two rivers.     

Characterizing landscape spatial heterogeneity in multisensor images with variogram models

Most evaluation of the consistency of multisensor images have focused on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index （NDVI） products for natural landscapes, often neglecting less vegetated urban landscapes. This gap has been filled through quantifying and evaluating spatial heterogeneity of urban and natural landscapes from QuickBird, Satellite pour l＇observation de la Terre （SPOT）, Ad- vanced Spacebome Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer （ASTER） and Landsat Thematic Mapper （TM） images with variogram analysis. Instead of a logarithmic relationship with pixel size observed in the corresponding aggregated images, the spatial variability decayed and the spatial structures decomposed more slowly and complexly with spatial resolution for real multisensor im- ages. As the spatial resolution increased, the proportion of spatial variability of the smaller spatial structure decreased quickly and only a larger spatial structure was observed at very coarse scales. Compared with visible band, greater spatial variability was observed in near infrared band for both densely and less densely vegetated landscapes. The influence of image size on spatial heterogeneity was highly dependent on whether the empirical sernivariogram reached its sill within the original image size. When the empirical semivariogram did not reach its sill at the original observation scale, spatial variability and mean characteristic length scale would increase with image size; otherwise they might decrease. This study could provide new insights into the knowledge of spatial heterogeneity in real multisen- sor images with consideration of their nominal spatial resolution, image size and spectral bands.     

基于模型流的资源环境模型复合语言与应用

资源环境领域的研究对象常被抽象为若干子模型复合而成的复杂模型,如何有效地集成这些子模型成为资源环境模型集成的主要内容。随着各种地学相关问题的日益复杂和多样化,传统的建模语言与友好易用的图形建模等集成建模方式已无法满足大规模高复杂的模型构建需求。本文在已有的相关理论基础上,针对复合模型构建的灵活性和复杂性之间的矛盾,将模型复合模式的本质抽象化,提出资源环境"模型流"的形式化语言描述,实现了模型流建模环境。应用实例表明,基于模型流的模型构建方式采用简洁的符号表示,避免了繁琐的图形构建环节,可快速灵活地构建高复杂度模型。模型流的提出为模型复合的调度性能优化和智能自动化集成等进一步的研究奠定了基础。     

Modeling seasonal variations of subsurface chlorophyll maximum in South China Sea

In the South China Sea(SCS), the subsurface chlorophyll maximum(SCM) is frequently observed while the mechanisms of SCM occurrence have not been well understood. In this study, a 1-D physical-biochemical coupled model was used to study the seasonal variations of vertical profiles of chlorophyll-a(Chl-a) in the SCS. Three parameters(i.e., SCM layer(SCML) depth, thickness, and intensity) were defined to characterize the vertical distribution of Chl-a in SCML and were obtained by fitting the vertical profile of Chl-a in the subsurface layer using a Gaussian function. The seasonal variations of SCMs are reproduced reasonably well compared to the observations. The annual averages of SCML depth, thickness, and intensity are 75 ± 10 m, 31 ± 6.7 m, and 0.37 ± 0.11 mg m-3, respectively. A thick, close to surface SCML together with a higher intensity occurs during the northeastern monsoon. Both the SCML thickness and intensity are sensitive to the changes of surface wind speed in winter and summer, but the surface wind speed exerts a minor influence on the SCML depth; for example, double strengthening of the southwestern monsoon in summer can lead to the thickening of SCML by 46%, the intensity decreasing by 30%, and the shoaling by 6%. This is because part of nutrients are pumped from the upper nutricline to the surface mixed layer by strong vertical mixing. Increasing initial nutrient concentrations by two times will increase the intensity of SCML by over 80% in winter and spring. The sensitivity analysis indicates that light attenuation is critical to the three parameters of SCM. Decreasing background light attenuation by 20% extends the euphotic zone, makes SCML deeper(~20%) and thicker(12% – 41%), and increases the intensity by over 16%. Overall, the depth of SCML is mainly controlled by light attenuation, and the SCML thickness and intensity are closely associated with wind and initial nitrate concentration in the SCS.