Accelerating the sustainability transition: Exploring synergies between adaptation and mitigation in British Columbian communities

While the focus of government climate change policy in many regions is on mitigation, research shows that integrated approaches, focusing equally on mitigation and adaptation, seen in the context of more general sustainability goals, may ultimately yield more productive outcomes. Since 2008, the province of British Columbia has mandated that local governments be carbon neutral in their own operations and has used a suite of policies, outreach and incentive tools to enable them to do so. The Meeting the Climate Change Challenge project explored eleven leading communities in B.C. to empirically examine how climate change policies and innovations are being framed and considered at the local scale.In this paper, we examine the synergies and trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability. Our findings suggest that, among leading communities, pursuing an integrated sustainability strategy (rather than a narrow focus on climate change) has the potential to yield benefits for both adaptation and mitigation in the majority of cases. The findings suggest that communities leading on climate innovation in the province have moved beyond a siloed approach in considering mitigation and adaptation. These findings have implications on integrated decision making at the municipal scale and multi-level governance, identifying both the challenges and the benefits inherent in pursuing multiple priorities simultaneously.     

A global ocean observing system framework for sustainable development

Sustainable development depends on maintaining ecosystem services which are concentrated in coastal marine and estuarine ecosystems. Analyses of the science needed to manage human uses of ecosystem services have concentrated on terrestrial ecosystems. Our focus is on the provision of multidisciplinary data needed to inform adaptive, ecosystem-based approaches (EBAs) for maintaining coastal ecosystem services based on comparative ecosystem analyses. Key indicators of pressures on coastal ecosystems, ecosystem states and the impacts of changes in states on services are identified for monitoring and analysis at a global coastal network of sentinel sites nested in the ocean-climate observing system. Biodiversity is targeted as the “master” indicator because of its importance to a broad spectrum of services. Ultimately, successful implementation of EBAs will depend on establishing integrated, holistic approaches to ocean governance that oversee the development of integrated, operational ocean observing systems based on the data and information requirements specified by a broad spectrum of stakeholders for sustainable development. Sustained engagement of such a spectrum of stakeholders on a global scale is not feasible. The global coastal network will need to be customized locally and regionally based on priorities established by stakeholders in their respective regions. The E.U. Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the U.S. Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force are important examples of emerging regional scale approaches. The effectiveness of these policies will depend on the co-evolution of ocean policy and the observing system under the auspices of integrated ocean governance.     

Setting conservation priorities in Fiji: Decision science versus additive scoring systems

There is a well-established scientific field – decision science – that can be used to rigorously set conservation priorities. Despite well-documented shortcomings, additive scoring approaches to conservation prioritization are still prevalent. This paper discusses the shortcomings and advantages of both approaches applied in Fiji to identify priorities for terrestrial protected areas. The two main shortcomings of using a scoring approach (discussed in Keppel (2014) [1]) that are resolved with decision science approaches (presented in Klein et al. (2014) [2]) in Fiji were (1) priorities did not achieve one of the most important stated conservation goals of representing ~40% of Fiji׳s major vegetation types and (2) the weighting of different selection criteria used was arbitrary. Both approaches considered expert knowledge and land–sea connections important to decision makers in Fiji, but only decision science can logically integrate both, in addition to other important considerations. Thus, decision makers are urged to use decision science and avoid additive scoring systems when prioritizing places for conservation. Fiji has the opportunity to be a global leader in using decision science to support integrated land–sea planning decisions.     

最佳数值预报模式选取与订正系统设计——温度集成预报系统

本文依据国家指导预报产品,山西省MOS预报以及MM5数值预报产品,对山西省的温度预报进行集成,通过3种客观预报方法的前期准确率对比,建立数学模型,从而产生一种新的客观预报方法。系统对3种数值预报产品进行了集成,建立了一个统一的预报指导产品分析、对比平台,为省台预报员提供一种客观的温度预报参考手段。     

Wetland conservation and sustainable coastal governance in Japan and England

Coastal wetlands present particular challenges for coastal governance and for the implementation of the Ramsar Convention, not least because coastal areas are focal points of human activity and of governance ambiguity. Through the evaluation of Ramsar delivery at both national and local levels in Japan and England, the relationship between Ramsar implementation and coastal governance was examined. In England, Ramsar status is primarily treated as a nature conservation designation which limits the wider opportunities inherent in the designation. In contrast, in Japan, the Ramsar Convention is used as a policy driver at the national level and as a leverage to encourage citizen engagement, economic benefit, and wetland conservation at the local level. It was concluded that through the implementation of the Ramsar Convention in important coastal wetland areas, significant steps can be taken towards delivering integrated approaches to coastal governance.     

Global water resources modeling with an integrated model of the social-economic-environmental system

Awareness of increasing water scarcity has driven efforts to model global water resources for improved insight into water resources infrastructure and management strategies. Most water resources models focus explicitly on water systems and represent socio-economic and environmental change as external drivers. In contrast, the system dynamics-based integrated assessment model employed here, ANEMI, incorporates dynamic representations of these systems, so that their broader changes affect and are affected by water resources systems through feedbacks. Sectors in ANEMI therefore include the global climate system, carbon cycle, economy, population, land use and agriculture, and novel versions of the hydrological cycle, global water use and water quality. Since the model focus is on their interconnections through explicit nonlinear feedbacks, simulations with ANEMI provide insight into the nature and structure of connections between water resources and socio-economic and environmental change. Of particular interest to water resources researchers and modelers will be the simulated effects of a new water stress definition that incorporates both water quality and water quantity effects into the measurement of water scarcity. Five simulation runs demonstrate the value of wastewater treatment and reuse programs and the feedback-effects of irrigated agriculture and greater consumption of animal products.     

基于综合数据库的安徽省地震应急分类响应辅助决策系统

建立了由基础地理数据库、地震地质数据库、地震监测数据库、地震预报数据库、地震应急数据库组成的安徽省防震减灾综合数据库,收集并整理了安徽省地震局自建局以来的各类业务资料.实现了信息化管理.在防震减灾综合数据库的基础上,利用GIS技术研制了具有安徽特色的地震应急分类响应辅助决策系统,在有感地震应急、地震模拟演练以及地震技术...     

Importance of volcanic glass alteration to sediment stabilization: offshore Japan

A minor amount (ca 1 wt%) of amorphous silica cement sourced from volcanic glass inhibits consolidation of hemipelagic sediment approaching the Nankai Trough subduction zone throughout the Shikoku Basin. The distribution and nature of the cement were examined via secondary and backscattered electron imaging. The amorphous silica occurs as altered material in contact with volcanic glass, coating grains (including grain contacts) and filling pores. Based on chemical and petrographic evidence, the cement is probably sourced from volcanic glass; this is in contrast to a previous suggestion that this silica cement is sourced dominantly from biogenic silica. Amorphous silica sourced from disseminated volcanic glass shards has the ability to form a thin coating on clay‐dominated sediment throughout the Shikoku Basin. Measured amorphous silica content in hemipelagic sediments suggests that the cementing process is active throughout the Shikoku Basin (at sites separated by >500 km). The cementation process may occur in other locations where sediment containing hydrated disseminated volcanic glass is buried sufficiently for heat to facilitate alteration (i.e. Central America, Cascadia and the Gulf of Alaska).     

杭州市城市三维地质信息管理与服务系统的构建

分析了城市地质信息化的必要性、发展历史及现状。提出了城市地质信息系统的总体结构,系统划分为数据层、应用层和服务层3个层次。在功能上则由信息数据录入与管理子系统、地质数据分析评价子系统、数据共享与社会化服务子系统构成。然后分数据库和业务应用系统两个部分阐述了系统的开发方案,并说明了三维地质结构建模、多元数据一体化显示和专业分析评价这3个关键技术的解决方案。最后给出了所述思想在杭州城市地质信息管理与服务系统开发中的应用情况。     

Source-rock maturation characteristics of symmetric and asymmetric grabens inferred from integrated analogue and numerical modeling: The southern Viking Graben (North Sea)

We present the results of an integrated analogue and numerical modeling study with a focus on structural, stratigraphic and thermal differences between symmetric and asymmetric grabens. These models enable fault interpretation and subsidence analyses in studies of active rifting and graben migration. We imported the surface topography and crustal thinning factors from the analogue models into tectono-stratigraphic forward models which allowed an assessment of the relative importance of sediment stacking in the generation of symmetric and asymmetric grabens. Effects on source-rock maturation zones were calculated through 1D-thermal modeling for different graben types. Combined analogue-numerical modeling appears to be a useful method to simulate natural examples, as shown in this study of the southern Viking Graben in the northern North Sea. This area was formed by Early Permian-Late Jurassic extension, with rifting most intense during the Late Jurassic. The thermal structure of the model, constrained by lithospheric and sedimentary parameters for this region, compares well with actual source-rock maturation data on the southern Viking Graben.