中国地质工作转型升级中的资金投入特征

通过对当前地质工作转型升级时期的资金投入分析,梳理了财政投入和社会资金的现状特征和问题,进而提出了对策建议。研究结果显示,中国的地质工作正处于转型升级期,在资金投入上主要表现出资金投下滑总体趋势放缓、矿产勘查资金供需矛盾突出、新旧动能转换引领投资分化、科技和信息化投入仍需提升、投入空间格局正发生转变五大特征。研究认为,为进一步优化资金投入以适应新的发展形势,应该以中长期战略引领投资布局,强化两级财政的协同配合,多措并举吸引社会资本注入,完善财政投入评估调整机制。     

Assessing the need for evacuation assistance in the 100 year floodplain of South Florida

The main objective of this study is to assess evacuation assistance need in the 100 year floodplain of South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties) by examining select population characteristics of the floodplain inhabitants. Dasymetric mapping is used to redistribute block group level census data to homogeneous inhabited zones of 30 m × 30 m. Because the 100 year floodplain does not correspond to block group boundaries, this data redistribution increases the resolution and accuracy of the floodplain population and their social characteristics. Data on poverty, age, vehicle ownership and mobile housing units are obtained for each 30 m × 30 m zone in the floodplain and is aggregated to the block group level. It is then used to assess evacuation assistance need (based on volume of need as well as concentration of need) for the floodplain in each block group. Results reveal variations in evacuation need across the floodplain. “Age” is the main driver of evacuation need along the coast. “Poverty” is a factor inland, in both urban and rural areas. “Lack of vehicle ownership” contributes to assistance need in coastal and inland urban areas, but not so much in rural areas. “Mobile housing” is a factor in rural areas. Miami-Dade County has higher volume and concentration of poor households lacking vehicular ownership. Palm Beach and Broward counties, on the other hand, have a more dominant presence of elderly and of mobile housing. These results have important implications for local and regional evacuation planning in the event of a 100 year flood.     

Understanding water pollution management: Evidence and insights from incorporating cultural theory in social network analysis

Social network analysis gives a rigid assessment of network structure while cultural theory helps explain management outcomes in more detail. The combination of these methods provides significant and alternative insights about the complexity of water pollution management. Applied in the case study of the Calumpang Watershed in the Philippines, two types of relations were evaluated, namely, resource sharing and cooperative activities. Factors affecting cooperation and the creation of bridges were assessed in social network analysis, while cultural theory was used to reveal the underlying views of key actors on the nature of the river and its management. Evidence showed that cooperation was significantly influenced by resource sharing regardless of institutional affiliation, while bridges were created by becoming the pools of information and resources in the network. Using cultural theory, this study found out that local government officials dominantly have a mixture of hierarchist and egalitarian views characterizing belief in both rule-bound and group-motivated actions to solve the water pollution problem. However, their egalitarian views on management did not manifest in the current network. The study concludes that collaborative partnerships for water pollution management can be facilitated by promoting resource flow, utilizing influential bridges in the network, and understanding the unconventional values of government actors. Combining social network analysis and cultural theory is recommended to generate a more critical assessment of the institutional complexity of pollution and other water issues in watersheds.     

The norms associated with climate change: Understanding social norms through acts of interpersonal activism

A growing body of research points to the role social norms may play in both maintaining carbon intensive lifestyles and soliciting changes towards more sustainable ways of living. However, despite highlighting the importance of pro-environmental social norms, such literature has said far less about the processes by which such norms might develop. We present a new approach to conceptualising social norms that focuses on understanding their dynamics within social interaction, by positioning interpersonal confrontation as a potential mechanism of change. We examine the normative dynamics of environmentalism by comparing the costs of interpersonally confronting climate change disregard with those associated with confronting racism. In two experimental studies, we presented participants with scenarios describing a person confronting (versus not confronting) contentious comments in each domain. We identified social costs to interpersonal confrontation of climate change disregard but not racism, as indicated by reduced ratings of perceived warmth of and closeness to the confronter (Study 1), and this effect was mediated by the perceived morality of the issue in question (Study 2). Our findings highlight how wider social constructions of (im)morality around climate change impact upon social interactions in ways that have important implications for processes of social (and ultimately environmental) change.     

Learning from Lancashire: Exploring the contours of the shale gas conflict in England

This paper explores the conflict over shale gas exploration in Lancashire where the company Cuadrilla is preparing to horizontally drill and hydraulically fracture the first shale gas wells in England. At present, this is the only location in Europe where new commercial exploration for shale gas is underway, thus the outcome has wider significance. The initial planning applications were refused by Lancashire County Council in June 2015. The decisions were then appealed by Cuadrilla and there was a public enquiry in February and March of 2016. On 6 October 2016, the central Government over-turned the initial decisions at one site and gave Cuadrilla more time to address traffic concerns at the other. The paper uses the public enquiry to map the contours of the shale gas conflict. It is divided into three sections. The first explores public attitudes towards shale gas development in the UK and reveals growing public awareness and increasing opposition. The second presents the conceptual frame for the analysis, which includes both a critical assessment of the social licence to operate (SLO) and an introduction to a social, actuarial, and political risk and licensing model (SAP Model). The third deploys the SAP model to analyse the public enquiry. The model explains how Cuadrilla is able drill despite the absence of both a local political and social licence to operate. It is concluded that unless the industry and the government can address growing public concerns about shale gas development, continuing conflict could constrain commercial development.     

Spatial spillover and the socio-ecological determinants of diabetes-related mortality across US counties

The spatial structure of diabetes-related mortality in US counties is evident from previous studies. However, it is not clear if spatial variation in diabetes-related mortality is associated with spatial variation in socioecological factors. We analyze the spatial spillover effect of changes in socioeconomic gradients (education, employment, household income), retail food environments, and access to health care, on diabetes-related mortality rates across the United States. Seven-year aggregates of multiple cause mortality data from the CDC WONDER compressed mortality database were merged with several sources of county-level data to examine mortality clusters, factors associated with the clusters, and spatial spillover effects in 3109 continuous US counties. The results suggest that high diabetes-related mortality cluster counties are located throughout the Southern Plains, Southeastern, and Appalachian regions. Lower socioeconomic status, a high density of fast food restaurants, a lack of access to grocery stores, a high proportion of Blacks, and low physical activity characterize high diabetes-related mortality rates clusters. The impacts from improvements in socioeconomic gradients and the retail food environment in neighboring counties spill over, and reduce the diabetes-related mortality rate in a particular county. This result implies that improvements in socioeconomic status and access to healthy food would significantly reduce diabetes-related mortality rates in contiguous US counties.     

The exploitation of off-shore mineral resources

The exploitation of offshore mineral wealth is generally higher cost than from land based developments. Given the availability of adequate resources relative to expected demand, interest in the exploitation of most offshore minerals seems likely to remain minimal. There are two exceptions, viz. first, sands and gravels and second, hydrocarbons. Offshore exploitation of the former is restricted to shallow sea floor deposits close to nearby onshore areas of high demand. Their extraction is a highly localised phenomenon. Offshore hydrocarbons production had similar locational characteristics as extensions of pre-existing onshore developments. Recently, however, offshore hydrocarbons have been increasingly exploited in their own right: in areas where market opportunities made such higher-cost operations economically and/or geo-politically attractive. The North Sea stands out in significance. Here, development has been highly pro-active, in terms of political, technological and entrepreneurial considerations. This has produced a unique geographical phenomenon in the maritime environment which will continue to be important for two more decades, and be extended to other north-west European offshore locations. What remains to emerge is the strength of its demonstration effect elsewhere, where the combination of the highly favourable circumstances of Western Europe for such intensive offshore hydrocarbons activities may not reoccur.     

A GIS-based approach to identify the spatial variability of social vulnerability to seismic hazard in Italy

This paper argues for a multidisciplinary framework to assess the relationship between environmental processes and social sciences that can be adapted to any geographic location. This includes both physical (earthquake hazard) and human (social vulnerability) dimensions in the context of disaster risk reduction. Disasters varies drastically depending on the local context. Indeed, the probability of a natural disaster having more devastating effects in one place than in another depends on the local vulnerability components of the affected society (cultural, social and economic). Therefore, there is an important correlation between the potential risk and the social resistance and resilience of a specific place, thus the disaster response varies according to the social fabric. In this context, the evaluation of social vulnerability is a crucial point in order to understand the ability of a society (studied at individual, household or community level) to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of natural disaster events. Within this framework, the paper discusses how it is possible to integrate social vulnerability into the seismic risk analysis in Italy. Specifically, socioeconomic indicators were used to assess and mapping social vulnerability index. Afterwards, a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach was applied to identify the spatial variability of social vulnerability to seismic hazard. Through the use of a risk matrix, the classes of a social vulnerability index map were combined with those of a seismic hazard map proposed by INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology). Finally, a qualitative social vulnerability exposure map to an earthquake hazard was produced, highlighting areas with high seismic and social vulnerability levels. Results suggest the importance of the integration of social vulnerability studies into seismic risk mitigation policies, emergency management and territorial planning to reduce the impact of disasters.     

Beyond techno-science: Transgenic maize in the fight over Mexico’s future

Disputes about genetically engineered crops are linked to wider debates about the globalization of agro-food systems and its consequences for food security, social equity, and rural life. Biotechnology expert discourse rarely addresses these wider issues. An exception is the assessment of transgenic maize by the NAFTA Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC), which recommended a moratorium on Mexican imports of US-grown maize. Controversy about “contamination” of indigenous maize varieties by US-grown transgenic corn has been intensified by rising Mexican discontent with the terms of regional economic integration. In this context, scientists and officials were pressured to consider not only risks to maize biodiversity but also the ecological, and cultural characteristics of maize in its Mexican settings and the implications of asymmetric power in North American agricultural trade. In contrast to most narrowly-framed biotechnology risk assessments, the review took account of interventions by rural social movements. While the new moratorium was not adopted by the state, continuing conflicts over GMOs in Mexico have blocked introduction of transgenic maize and have enlarged the political space for debate over Mexico’s development direction. These conflicts reflect the differing interests of various state actors and economic sectors with regard to trade liberalization. They also reveal contrasting food-system paradigms: further agricultural modernization, export competition, and food-import dependence versus an alternative vision of revitalized rural life, farmers’ rights, and national food sovereignty.