National indicators for observing ecosystem service change

Earth’s life-support systems are in rapid decline, yet we have few metrics or indicators with which to track these changes. The world’s governments are calling for biodiversity and ecosystem-service monitoring to guide and evaluate international conservation policy as well as to incorporate natural capital into their national accounts. The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has been tasked with setting up this monitoring system. Here we explore the immediate feasibility of creating a global ecosystem-service monitoring platform under the GEO BON framework through combining data from national statistics, global vegetation models, and production function models. We found that nine ecosystem services could be annually reported at a national scale in the short term: carbon sequestration, water supply for hydropower, and non-fisheries marine products, crop, livestock, game meat, fisheries, mariculture, and timber production. Reported changes in service delivery over time reflected ecological shocks (e.g., droughts and disease outbreaks), highlighting the immediate utility of this monitoring system. Our work also identified three opportunities for creating a more comprehensive monitoring system. First, investing in input data for ecological process models (e.g., global land-use maps) would allow many more regulating services to be monitored. Currently, only 1 of 9 services that can be reported is a regulating service. Second, household surveys and censuses could help evaluate how nature affects people and provides non-monetary benefits. Finally, to forecast the sustainability of service delivery, research efforts could focus on calculating the total remaining biophysical stocks of provisioning services. Regardless, we demonstrated that a preliminary ecosystem-service monitoring platform is immediately feasible. With sufficient international investment, the platform could evolve further into a much-needed system to track changes in our planet's life-support systems.     

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers.     

面向地理信息服务链的工作流技术应用研究

通过分析借鉴当今服务链技术与工作流技术研究成果,充分考虑地理信息数据量大、数据源异构性的特点,对适于地理信息服务链的过程建模方法、过程定义语言、建模工具以及工作流引擎的体系结构、调度算法、应用框架进行重新设计,实现了地理信息服务的可视化组合建模和服务链的自动执行。     

莱芜市张家洼国土资源所便民服务初探

张家洼国土资源所建立便民服务平台,强化便民服务管理模式,丰富便民服务方式,完善便民服务监督机制,拓宽便民服务渠道,结合辖区不同特点区别服务,在保护资源、保障发展的基础上更好地服务群众。     

Multi-scale coupling analysis of urbanization and ecosystem services supply-demand budget in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,China

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Rapid economic development and human activities have severely affected ecosystem function. Analysis of the spatial distribution of areas of rapid urbanization is...     

Research on Ecosystem Service Consumption in Guilin City

Research on ecosystem service consumption not only helps to reveal the utilization intensity and management level of the ecosystem in Guilin, but it also provides a scientific basis for ecosystem investment, trade, subsidies and taxation by the Guilin government departments. Based on household survey data of urban and rural ecological consumption, the physical quantity accounting method is adopted for multivariate statistical analyses, such as analysis of variance and multiple comparison. This analysis reveals the differences and changes in the consumption level, consumption structure and consumption pattern of the main ecological products in Guilin among the various counties. The results fit into four main themes. (1) The annual per capita consumption of the main ecological products in Guilin varies either extremely significantly or significantly among the counties, but the consumption level of ecological products varies according to the type of products. There are significant or extremely significant differences in the annual per capita consumption of cereals, melons and fruits, pork, poultry, beef and mutton, fresh eggs and milk between urban and rural residents. (2) There are extremely significant differences in the annual per capita consumption of fruits, pork, poultry, beef and mutton, fish, fresh milk and vegetable oil among urban residents in different counties. There are also extremely significant differences in the annual per capita consumption of cereals, pork, poultry and alcohol among rural residents in different counties, and significant differences in the annual per capita consumption of fresh eggs and milk. The consumption level of ecological products by urban and rural resident varies with the type of products. (3) The ecological consumption patterns of all counties in Guilin mainly follow the “cereal + vegetable + fruit + meat” pattern for urban residents and the “cereal + vegetable + meat” pattern for rural residents (except for the rural residents in Pingle, which show the “cereal + vegetable” pattern). The consumption structure of urban residents is better than that of rural residents. (4) There is a large gap between the ecological consumption of urban and rural residents in Guilin and China's recommended standards, except for cereals and meat. The main problems are excessive meat intake, and insufficient intake of dark vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk and fish. Therefore, we should make full use of forestland, grassland, water and other resources in the area, and vigorously develop fishery, fruit and vegetable production and herbivorous animal husbandry to meet people's ecological needs for dark fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk and fish in Guilin City.     

Valuation of lake and marsh wetlands ecosystem services in China

Wetlands are highly productive natural ecosystems, providing valuable goods and services. There is growing interest in transferring ecosystem service value from the existing wetlands studied to other wetlands ecosystems at a large geographic scale. The benefit transfer method uses the known values from wetlands to predict the value of other wetland sites. This methodology requires only limited time and resources. The present study calculated the value of the ecological services provided by lake and marsh wetlands in China in terms of biodiversity indices, water quality indices and economic indices. Basic data on wetlands were obtained through remote sensing images. The results show that: 1) The total ecosystem service value of the lake and marsh wetlands in 2008 was calculated to be 8.1841 × 1010 United States Dollars(USD), with the marsh and lake wetlands contributing 5.6329 × 1010 and 2.5512 × 1010 USD, respectively. Values of marsh ecosystem service were concentrated in Heilongjiang Province(2.5516 × 1010 USD), Qinghai Province(1.2014 × 1010 USD), and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(1.1884 × 1010 USD). The value of the lakes were concentrated in Tibet Autonomous Region(6.223 × 109 USD), Heilongjiang(5.810 × 109 USD), and Qinghai(5.500 × 109 USD). 2) Waste treatment and climate regulation services contributed to 26.29% and 24.74% respectively, of the total ecosystem service value of the marsh wetlands. Hydrological regulation and waste treatment contributed to 41.39% and 32.75%, respectively, of the total ecosystem service value of the lake wetlands. 3) The total ecological service value of the lake and marsh wetlands was 54.64% of the total service value of natural grassland ecosystems and 30.34% of the total service value of forests ecosystems in China.     

新型城镇化背景下基层气象部门为农服务对策研究

就当前新型城镇化进程中,基层气象部门如何做好为农服务进行分析和讨论,并着重从加强气象为农服务的组织体系建设,提升气象为农服务的特色、能力和水平,进一步增强农村气象灾害的防御能力,促进气象为农服务的保障机制建设等方面进行论述,提出了相应的对策及建议.将气象为农服务“两个体系”建设和“均等化”、“一体化”的公共气象服务与新型城镇化有机结合、共同推进,是基层气象部门当前及今后为农服务的重要任务.     

Outstanding challenges for urban conservation research and action

Researchers, advocates and policymakers have proposed urban conservation as an emerging, integrative discipline that can contribute to sustainable cities by delivering co-benefits to human and non-human components of biodiversity. Given the recent growth in biodiversity-friendly designs and management schemes, there is an urgent need for a synthesis of this fragmented research base to inform planners and decision-makers. We conducted a systematic multidisciplinary literature review (787 papers) and found that the importance of urban areas for general conservation is not convincingly supported by empirical research. Only few studies demonstrated that cities can directly contribute to conservation efforts, by hosting viable populations of rare or endangered species, or by providing green corridors for the passage of natural populations. From a social perspective, while several studies demonstrated that green infrastructure could provide services for people (notably cultural services), only few studies explored the role of species diversity per se. Our review also shows strong geographical, location and taxonomic biases in urban biodiversity conservation research that make generalisations difficult. It is a disturbing paradox that while research in urban biodiversity conservation is rising exponentially, the main motivations for conserving urban biodiversity remain largely untested and unproven. We thus propose a framework for promoting integrative urban conservation research to bridge those gaps. Together, these findings warn against expanding cities under green planning and call for enhancing biodiversity experience by improving the quality of existing green spaces throughout the entire urban matrix. We provide a set of recommendations for practitioners and decision-makers to continue action.     

空天地一体化智慧农业服务与管理平台

空天地一体化智慧农业服务与管理平台融合北斗定位技术和高分遥感技术,通过实时接收北斗定位数据和定时接收卫星遥感数据,实现农作物的长势监测、病虫害和气象灾害监测、农业旱情监测和灌溉用水管理等应用,从而为农作物估产、病虫害预防、水肥药的变量喷施提供决策。