Community forests and regeneration in post-industrial landscapes

Through a critique of existing regeneration literatures the paper points to the close relationship between regeneration and sustainable development. It suggests that the economic aspects of sustainable development have tended to dominate: leading to the neglect of nature in both regeneration and sustainable development, with regeneration having a principal focus on socio-economic issues in urban settings. To address these lacunae we suggest the need for a more environmentally sensitive regeneration theory. Using this approach the paper draws on recent in-depth research in three post-industrial coalfield areas where regeneration processes operate in the form of community forest projects. It provides a critical perspective on these regeneration processes, integrating theory with empirical data and highlighting how nature is drawn into broader economic and social processes of regeneration. In conclusion, using forestry initiatives as examples, we reflect on the conceptual dissonance apparent in regeneration theory and practice, and point to theoretical insights that could enable a more critical regeneration theory; more beneficial outcomes to regeneration processes; and an improved understanding of the relations between nature, capital and community in regeneration processes and sustainable development.     

新疆的干旱环境与滑坡,泥石流及其防治对策

新疆的干旱气候环境,导致荒漠广布.受温差悬殊制约,风化作用强烈.不论山地或平原,松散物均较发育,由于降水时空分布不均,崩,滑,流具有明显的时空分布特征,大雨、暴雨往往集中在夏季。暴雨洪流,融雪洪流成了引发泥石流的动力。特殊的内陆环境条件,决定新疆降水量有限。受水动力条件不足制约,新疆的滑坡多系小型土滑,且往往与泥石流共生。换句话说,滑坡为泥石流提供了物源。因此,对新疆滑坡,泥石流的治理,应本着近期治标,长期治本的原则,以土木系统工程治表、生物系统工程治本。与此同时,还要强调社会系统工程,作为实施各项防护举措的保证。通过综合治理,以促进改善生态环境。     

History and regional development. A controversy over the ‘right’ interpretation of the role of history in the development of the Polish regions

There is currently a lively discussion on the role of historic memories and the re-visiting of historic legacies in post-communist countries. Using the example of Poland and its legacy of the tripartite division of the 19th century, this paper aims to illustrate how symbolic conflicts over identity politics and the interpretation of history may critically influence discourses on the debates on, and portrayals of, variations in regional development. The paper thus discusses the post-war history of Poland in the context of the so-called left-right political cleavage, and the varying related debates on the ‘quality’ of regional development as part of Poland’s post-communist restructuring. These discussions include varying projections of the nature and role of social capital and its relative ‘usefulness’ for a successful development Poland’s after communism. And there are clear political overtones to these contrasting portrayals of Poland’s history and its regionally varying legacy. Drawing on different definitions of the notion of social capital, the paper then discusses how different legacies, such as an introspective and extrovert outlook of population and institutions, and the degree of cohesion among them, circumscribes a region’s economic development prospects.     

Urban social vulnerability assessment with physical proxies and spatial metrics derived from air- and spaceborne imagery and GIS data

Risk management in urban planning is of increasing importance to mitigate the growing amount of damage and the increasing number of casualties caused by natural disasters. Risk assessment to support management requires knowledge about present and future hazards, elements at risk and different types of vulnerability. This article deals with the assessment of social vulnerability (SV). In the past this has frequently been neglected due to lack of data and assessment difficulties. Existing approaches for SV assessment, primarily based on community-based methods or on census data, have limited efficiency and transferability. In this article a new method based on contextual analysis of image and GIS data is presented. An approach based on proxy variables that were derived from high-resolution optical and laser scanning data was applied, in combination with elevation information and existing hazard data. Object-oriented image analysis was applied for the definition and estimation of those variables, focusing on SV indicators with physical characteristics. A reference Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was created from census data available for the study area on a neighbourhood level and tested for parts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. For the evaluation of the proxy-variables, a stepwise regression model to select the best explanatory variables for changes in the SVI was applied. Eight out of 47 variables explained almost 60% of the variance, whereby the slope position and the proportion of built-up area in a neighbourhood were found to be the most valuable proxies. This work shows that contextual segmentation-based analysis of geospatial data can substantially aid in SV assessment and, when combined with field-based information, leads to optimization in terms of assessment frequency and cost.     

Climate change action as a project of identity: Eight meta-analyses

Identity can improve our understanding of personal climate action, particularly when climate action becomes an expression of a person’s self. However, it is unclear which kind of self or identity is most relevant. Building on a comprehensive series of eight meta-analyses (using data from 188 published articles, N = 414,282 participants) this research systematically compares how strongly climate-friendly intentions and behaviors are associated with place identity, personal connectedness to nature, environmental self-identity (i.e., personal self-definition as a pro-environmentally acting person), and social identity (i.e., identification with social groups). Results suggest robust, medium-sized to strong links of both pro-environmental intentions and behaviors to people’s nature connectedness (r = 0.44/0.52), environmental self-identity (r = 0.62/0.56), and identification with groups considered to support climate-friendly behavior (r = 0.48/0.51), but markedly weaker effects for identification with groups which are unrelated to environmental topics (r = 0.30/0.15) and for place identity (r = 0.18/0.32). Implications for policy interventions and psychological theory are discussed.     

Development and assessment of damage‐to‐loss models for moment‐frame reinforced concrete buildings

The assessment of earthquake loss often requires the definition of a relation between a measure of damage and a quantity of loss, usually achieved through the employment of a damage‐to‐loss model. These models are frequently characterized by a large variability, which inevitably increases the uncertainty in the vulnerability assessment and earthquake loss estimation. This study provides an insight on the development of damage‐to‐loss functions for moment‐frame reinforced concrete buildings through an analytical methodology. Tri‐dimensional finite element models of existing reinforced concrete buildings were subjected to a number of ground motion records compatible with the seismicity in the region of interest, through nonlinear dynamic analysis. These results were used to assess, for a number of damage states, the probability distribution of loss ratio, taking into consideration member damage and different repair techniques, as well as to derive sets of fragility functions. Then, a vulnerability model (in terms of the ratio of cost of repair to cost of replacement, conditional on the level of ground shaking intensity) was derived and compared with the vulnerability functions obtained through the combination of various damage‐to‐loss models with the set of fragility functions developed herein. In order to provide realistic estimates of economic losses due to seismic action, a comprehensive study on repair costs using current Portuguese market values was also carried out. The results of this study highlight important issues in the derivation of vulnerability functions, which are a fundamental component for an adequate seismic risk assessment. © 2015 The Authors. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

2003年民乐-山丹6.1、5.8级地震社会影响调查分析

通过对2003年民乐-山丹6.1、5.8级地震的现场调查,从地震宏观异常、人的感觉和行为反应、人员伤亡、政府决策能力、公众防震减灾意识、地震的社会救助、应急预案执行情况、地震谣传等各方面进行了调查和分析,总结了防震减灾的经验教训,揭示了社会因素在灾区抗震救灾工作中的重要作用,给今后的地震应急救援工作以启迪。     

Discussion on Earthquake Forecasting and Early Warning

Through analysis of natural and social attributes of earthquake forecasting, the relationship between the natural and social attributes of earthquake forecasting （early warning） has been discussed. Regarding the natural attributes of earthquake forecasting, it only attempts to forecast the magnitude, location and occurrence time of future earthquake based on the analysis of observational data and relevant theories and taking into consideration the present understanding of seismogeny and earthquake generation. It need not consider the consequences an earthquake forecast involves, and its purpose is to check out the level of scientific understanding of earthquakes. In respect of the social aspect of earthquake forecasting, people also focus on the consequence that the forecasting involves, in addition to its natural aspect, such as the uncertainty of earthquake prediction itself, the impact of earthquake prediction, and the earthquake resistant capability of structures （buildings）, lifeline works, etc. In a word, it highlights the risk of earthquake forecasting and tries to mitigate the earthquake hazard as much as possible. In this paper, the authors also discuss the scientific and social challenges faced in earthquake prediction and analyze preliminarily the meanings and content of earthquake early warning.     

Conflicted transitions: Exploring the actors,tactics, and outcomes of social opposition against energy infrastructure

Given the growing frequency, severity, and salience of social mobilization and community action on energy and climate issues, in this study we systematically explore the configurations of types of infrastructure, actors, tactics, and outcomes of recent opposition to energy transitions across seven carbon-intensive regions in Asia, Europe, and North America. Based on both a literature review and an original dataset of 130 case studies spanning the past decade, we track opposition to a wide range of energy infrastructure in these regions, including low-carbon options such as renewable energy and nuclear power; provide network analyses of the actors and coalitions involved in such events; and develop a typology and frequency analysis of tactics (such as litigation or protest), and outcomes (such as remuneration, policy change, concessions, or labor protections). We show that the politics of energy transitions in carbon-intensive regions varies significantly from country to country and across types of energy, and we discuss how the configurations of infrastructure, actors, tactics, and outcomes can be explained by differences in national institutions and their responses to global or supranational pressures. By bringing both a sociotechnical and comparative perspective to the global analysis of social movements and energy transitions, we suggest how goals of energy transition are refracted through national and subnational institutions and through local mobilizations both in support of and opposed to those transitions.