Populating digital earth: improving access to Chinese remote sensing data for terrestrial applications

Global change has a significant impact on the lives of humankind. Earth observation can help to better understand our earth and cope with global change. With the availability of more reliable environmental data sets, digital earth is becoming a popular way to monitor the Earth and provide information to researchers and decision makers on environment protection, disaster mitigation, and social benefits. Therefore, accessing data with lowering costs is essential for digital earth. Nevertheless, there are big challenges in ensuring the feasibility of access to Chinese remote sensing data. This paper outlines some of the main challenges in realizing data sharing, provides an analysis of the core reasons leading to these challenges, and proposes recommendations to overcome the challenges. Amongst the main challenges are differences in data policy to gain access to satellite data, diverse data formats, and delivery mechanisms. The major challenge for the decision makers is to define a more open policy and for the scientist the challenge is to implement these polices for the benefit of all. This paper proposes that governments should adopt policies encouraging more open distribution and access to their data, in order to generate an improved digital earth with increased benefits to human society.     

The price for subway access: spatial econometric modelling of office rental rates in London

ABSTRACT

The relative location of commercial properties as the distance to the metro station as well as its absolute location as the address in the Central Business District (CBD) is expected to influence its valuation. We apply the advanced spatial econometric methodology, based on micro geo-located data, to the office rental transaction data from London in 2015. We use different spatial information on the local and global neighbourhood in order to estimate the spatial hedonic valuation model and test the strength of spatial spillovers and location effects on office fees. For offices in London in 2015, geographical factors may raise the price by 50%, as every next 100 m to the metro cost an additional 0.7 ? per ft² per year and the CBD location raises the cost for ca. 20 ? per ft² per year.     

Local Labor Market Restructuring and the Employment of Welfare Recipients in Los Angeles County

Although welfare rolls have dropped considerably in recent years, most welfare recipients who find work are employed in low-wage, insecure jobs. The problem of "working poverty" is especially acute in large city-regions such as Los Angeles, where local labor market restructuring has created an expanding, low-wage economy, increasingly dependent on immigrant labor. This paper analyzes the employment outcomes of 6,931 women who completed the county's welfare-to-work program in 1996. I evaluate their earnings, labor market segmentation, and job stability. The results show that women were highly concentrated in low-wage service jobs and experienced high levels of turnover and unemployment. Many were unable to obtain employment in the formal labor market. I argue that the struggles of the working poor in a growing regional economy are explained not solely by human capital limitations, but by processes of local labor market restructuring that have contributed to widespread economic insecurity in Los Angeles County.     

基于移动GIS的土地执法动态巡查系统建设

目前土地执法巡查工作存在着作业方式落后、信息化程度低、巡查效率低和巡查人员不易监督的问题。针对这些问题,通过分析土地执法巡查的业务需求和移动GIS技术的特点提出构建基于移动GIS的土地执法动态巡查系统,在此基础上完成系统总体架构设计和功能设计,分析系统实现的移动GIS技术、数据库引擎技术、Web Services技术和基于时间维的GIS管理技术,重点阐述移动GIS技术在系统中的应用,最后完成系统开发。系统的使用改善了执法巡查现状,提高了巡查效率。     

It starts at home? Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures

Through their consumption behavior, households are responsible for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, they are key actors in reaching the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. However, the possible contribution and position of households in climate policies is neither well understood, nor do households receive sufficiently high priority in current climate policy strategies. This paper investigates how behavioral change can achieve a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in European high-income countries. It uses theoretical thinking and some core results from the HOPE research project, which investigated household preferences for reducing emissions in four European cities in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The paper makes five major points: First, car and plane mobility, meat and dairy consumption, as well as heating are the most dominant components of household footprints. Second, household living situations (demographics, size of home) greatly influence the household potential to reduce their footprint, even more than country or city location. Third, household decisions can be sequential and temporally dynamic, shifting through different phases such as childhood, adulthood, and illness. Fourth, short term voluntary efforts will not be sufficient by themselves to reach the drastic reductions needed to achieve the 1.5 °C goal; instead, households need a regulatory framework supporting their behavioral changes. Fifth, there is a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities conveyed by current climate policies and household perceptions of responsibility. We then conclude with further recommendations for research and policy.     

Toward policy integration: Assessing carbon capture and storage policies in Japan and Norway

The objective of this paper is to develop independent and systematic criteria for assessing CCS policy in terms of its level of policy integration. We believe that we should assess CCS policy in terms of the distance to an ideal integrated CCS policy in order to keep track of its trajectory toward sustainable development. After reviewing the existing literature of environmental policy integration, an assessment framework for integrated CCS policy is developed based on Arild Underdal's notion of ‘integrated policy’ then, its usefulness is demonstrated by applying it to CCS policies in Japan and Norway. In the final part, we summarize the findings of the cases and conclude with some observations regarding explanatory factors of the difference in terms of the achieved level of policy integration between Japan and Norway's CCS policies, and some policy implications derived from the analysis based on the framework.     

Is irrigated agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin well prepared to deal with reductions in water availability?

The “Big Dry”, a prolonged dry period in Australia from 1997 to 2009, dried out much of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and resulted in large agricultural losses and degraded river ecosystems. Climate projections are that dry conditions in the MDB are likely to be more regular and severe than ever before, and recent policy initiatives are likely to reduce consumptive water use and redirect water to ecosystem management. This paper aims to develop an understanding of the interactions between water policy and irrigation practices by deriving lessons from drought management in irrigated agriculture of the MDB during the Big Dry, and furthermore, to draw out lessons to enhance the preparedness of irrigated agriculture for a future drier climate and reduced water availability. Reviews of irrigation farmers’ practices, attitudes and capacity to manage during prolonged droughts in the MDB, and the evolution of agricultural water policy in Australia since 1990 were made. It is clear that farmers could be better prepared to deal with a drier climate if their water management practices, e.g. irrigation methods and soil moisture measuring tools are improved, if the impediments to the uncertainty of water allocation and low water availability could be overcome, and if well-targeted research and extension could assist farmers to use water more wisely. It is also clear that Australian water policy could be better prepared in terms of assisting irrigated agriculture to deal with a drier climate. Key areas are reduction of barriers and distortions to water trading, optimizing the environmental water allocation, and seeking mutual benefits between environmental water allocation and irrigated agriculture, improvement of the cost-effectiveness of investments in water supply infrastructure, facilitating carryover and capacity sharing at larger scales, and provision of accurate, accessible and useful water information at different scales. An approach to irrigation practice and water policy is proposed based on past experience and potential opportunities. The approach is a set of linked strategies for more robust agricultural production and a more sustainable environment under a drier climate and reduced water availability.     

结构地震反应性态的物理随机最优控制

本研究发展了结构地震反应性态的随机最优控制理论和方法。这一研究建立在物理随机系统思想的新理论框架下,突破了以I^to随机微分方程描述动力系统的经典随机最优控制的藩篱。提出了基于系统二阶统计量评价、单目标超越概率和多目标能量均衡的控制器参数设计准则,以及基于概率可控指标的控制器位置设计准则,并将它们统一为物理随机最优控制的广义最优控制律。数值算例分析表明,本文发展的物理随机最优控制方法能够实现结构地震反应性态的精细化控制。     

中国沿海地区农户对新农村建设响应的区域差异(英文)

To tackle the issues concerning agriculture,farmers,and rural areas,the central government of China initiated a new strategy called ’new countryside construction’ in 2005.For better understanding its actual effect,this paper analyzes the regional diversity of peasant household response to this new countryside construction strategy based on Kruskal-Wallis H test and sampling survey data from 586 households in the Bohai Rim Region (BRR),Yangtze River Delta Region (YDR),and Pan Pearl River Delta Region (PPR).The result indicates that regional diversity in eastern coastal China (ECC) does exist in the form of recognized priority sequence,policy requirements,expected policy effects,and behavior response.As a result of the deviation between local policy practice and households’ inherent demand,peasants fulfill their de facto demand via individual effort instead of government aid,and therefore the new countryside construction fails to carry out the expected target.It thus needs to shift the current policy priority,ensure the peasants’ mainstay role,and formulate scientific ’Rules for new countryside construction’.