Re-conceptualizing the Anthropocene: A call for collaboration

Since it was first proposed in 2000, the concept of the Anthropocene has evolved in breadth and diversely. The concept encapsulates the new and unprecedented planetary-scale changes resulting from societal transformations and has brought to the fore the social drivers of global change. The concept has revealed tensions between generalized interpretations of humanity’s contribution to global change, and interpretations that are historically, politically and culturally situated. It motivates deep ethical questions about the politics and economics of global change, including diverse interpretations of past causes and future possibilities. As such, more than other concepts, the Anthropocene concept has brought front-and-center epistemological divides between and within the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. It has also brought new opportunities for collaboration. Here we explore the potential and challenges of the concept to encourage integrative understandings of global change and sustainability. Based on bibliometric analysis and literature review, we discuss the now wide acceptance of the term, its interpretive flexibility, the emerging narratives as well as the debates the concept has inspired. We argue that without truly collaborative and integrative research, many of the critical exchanges around the concept are likely to perpetuate fragmented research agendas and to reinforce disciplinary boundaries. This means appreciating the strengths and limitations of different knowledge domains, approaches and perspectives, with the concept of the Anthropocene serving as a bridge, which we encourage researchers and others to cross. This calls for institutional arrangements that facilitate collaborative research, training, and action, yet also depends on more robust and sustained funding for such activities. To illustrate, we briefly discuss three overarching global change problems where novel types of collaborative research could make a difference: (1) Emergent properties of socioecological systems; (2) Urbanization and resource nexus; and (3) Systemic risks and tipping points. Creative tensions around the Anthropocene concept can help the research community to move toward new conceptual syntheses and integrative action-oriented approaches that are needed to producing useful knowledge commensurable with the challenges of global change and sustainability.     

Down to Earth: Contextualizing the Anthropocene

The ‘Anthropocene’ is now being used as a conceptual frame by different communities and in a variety of contexts to understand the evolving human–environment relationship. However, as we argue in this paper, the notion of an Anthropos, or ‘humanity’, as global, unified ‘geological force’ threatens to mask the diversity and differences in the actual conditions and impacts of humankind, and does not do justice to the diversity of local and regional contexts. For this reason, we interpret in this article the notion of an Anthropocene in a more context-dependent, localized and social understanding. We do this through illustrating examples from four issue domains, selected for their variation in terms of spatial and temporal scale, systems of governance and functional interdependencies: nitrogen cycle distortion (in particular as it relates to food security); ocean acidification; urbanization; and wildfires. Based on this analysis, we systematically address the consequences of the lens of the Anthropocene for the governance of social-ecological systems, focusing on the multi-level, functional and sectoral organization of governance, and possible redefinitions of governance systems and policy domains. We conclude that the notion of the Anthropocene, once seen in light of social inequalities and regional differences, allows for novel analysis of issue-based problems in the context of a global understanding, in both academic and political terms. This makes it a useful concept to help leverage and (re-)focus our efforts in a more innovative and effective way to transition towards sustainability.     

江苏一次锢囚状MCS和相关中涡旋MCV的观测分析

利用常规地面和高空气象观测资料,结合气象卫星云图和雷达回波,分析了2009年6月14日15—23时(北京时,下同),造成江苏强对流天气的一个中尺度对流系统(MCS)的锢囚状特征的形成过程及其垂直结构。地面中尺度分析表明,雷暴高压东侧在飑前倒槽北端发展的闭合低压环流的东南气流将暖湿空气输送到冷性雷暴高压的北侧形成东南一西北向的暖舌,从而形成锢囚状的结构。长三角探空网资料的垂直结构分析表明,在对流层下部地面到850 hPa为冷性的雷暴高压,在对流层中部700 hPa为冷性的α中尺度涡旋(MCV),而500 hPa已转变为暖性的MCV。静力学关系可以说明MCV仅仅存在于700~500 hPa的原因和MCS下冷上暖的热力结构密切相关。     

Application of ICTs in Airspace Management and Collaborative Decision-Making—Analyzing the Risk Avoidance in the Condition of Risky Weather as an Example

The application of ICTs makes structural change of the development and effective utilization of airspace. Next generation air transportation system (NextGen) includes new automation concepts with automated information to support the traffic control decision-making. As a result, in the field of academia and industry, air traffic controllers integrate information automatically while making decisions to change the previous manually integrated and decided pattern. The safety ability of airspace is reduced and airspace system is endangered under risky weather conditions of airspace. So there is an urgent demand for new information and communication technologies. The paper is an overview of the information constitution and support of NextGen and provides the study of the development of technique of airspace collaborative decision-makings to confirm the new features based on ICTs. It contains basic application-the input of data and output of the routes of airspace management and collaborative decision-making, and general application-the choose of probability nets of avoiding risky weather, and special application-the affection in the management of the air routes, which are made up of position and direction. The research shows the accurate schedule characteristics of airspace management and collaborative decision-making based on ICTs, which made the space accurate by time accurate. Second, the visualization of airspace management and collaborative decision-making based on ICTs made the maps of flight path under mobile data quickly generated. This could make the fully development and utilization of national airspace, ensure safety, and reduce air traffic controllers’ workload and the costs in delaying and operating in risky weather.     

CMIP5地球系统模式溶解氧模拟结果分析

本文基于常用的统计方法,通过与WOA09观测的海洋溶解氧浓度数据进行比较,定量地评估了9个CMIP5地球系统模式在历史排放试验中海洋溶解氧气候态特征的模拟能力。在海表,由于地球系统模式均能很好地模拟海表温度（SST）,模式模拟的海表溶解氧浓度分布与观测一致,模拟结果无论是全球平均浓度偏差还是均方根误差均接近0,空间相关系数与标准偏差接近1。在海洋中层以及深层这些重要水团所在的区域,各模式的模拟能力则差异较大,尤其在溶解氧低值区（OMZs）所在的500m到1000m,各模式均出现全球平均偏差、均方根误差的极大值以及空间相关系数的极小值。在海洋内部,模式偏差的原因比较复杂。经向翻转环流和颗粒有机碳通量均对模式的偏差有贡献。分析结果表明物理场偏差对溶解氧偏差的贡献较大。一些重要水团,比如北大西洋深水,南极底层水以及北太平洋中层水在极大程度上影响了溶解氧在这些海区的分布。需要指出的是,虽然在海洋内部各模式模拟的溶解氧浓度偏差较大,但是多模式平均结果却能表现出与观测较好的一致性。     

Implications of structural inheritance in oblique rift zones for basin compartmentalization: Nkhata Basin,Malawi Rift (EARS)

The Cenozoic East African Rift System (EARS) is an exceptional example of active continental extension, providing opportunities for furthering our understanding of hydrocarbon plays within rifts. It is divided into structurally distinct western and eastern branches. The western branch comprises deep rift basins separated by transfer zones, commonly localised onto pre-existing structures, offering good regional scale hydrocarbon traps. At a basin-scale, local discrete inherited structures might also play an important role on fault localisation and hydrocarbon distribution. Here, we consider the evolution of the Central basin of the Malawi Rift, in particular the influence of pre-existing structural fabrics.Integrating basin-scale multichannel 2D, and high resolution seismic datasets we constrain the border, Mlowe-Nkhata, fault system (MNF) to the west of the basin and smaller Mbamba fault (MF) to the east and document their evolution. Intra basin structures define a series of horsts, which initiated as convergent transfers, along the basin axis. The horsts are offset along a NE–SW striking transfer fault parallel to and along strike of the onshore Karoo (Permo-Triassic) Ruhuhu graben. Discrete pre-existing structures probably determined its location and, oriented obliquely to the extension orientation it accommodated predominantly strike-slip deformation, with more slowly accrued dip-slip.To the north of this transfer fault, the overall basin architecture is asymmetric, thickening to the west throughout; while to the south, an initially symmetric graben architecture became increasingly asymmetric in sediment distribution as strain localised onto the western MNF. The presence of the axial horst increasingly focussed sediment supply to the west. As the transfer fault increased its displacement, so this axial supply was interrupted, effectively starving the south-east while ponding sediments between the western horst margin and the transfer fault. This asymmetric bathymetry and partitioned sedimentation continues to the present-day, overprinting the early basin symmetry and configuration. Sediments deposited earlier become increasingly dissected and fault juxtapositions changed at a small (10–100 m) scale. The observed influence of basin-scale transfer faults on sediment dispersal and fault compartmentalization due to pre-existing structures oblique to the extension orientation is relevant to analogous exploration settings.     

基于ComGIS的校园导航系统

分析了ComGIS的特点,并结合其特点,利用VisualBasic6.0,SuperMap和SQLServer2000等软件实现了校园导航系统的空间数据和属性数据的存储、可视化查询、测量地图等,同时介绍了系统空间数据库和空间地理模型的建立,以及在系统的设计中所涉及到的多媒体等技术。     

福建省域工业空间结构研究——以福建省销售额前300家工业企业为例

依据地域经济系统理论,一个地域经济单元状态,可以从时序特征和空间结构特征进行表达,其存在状态受制于时空关联性。一定地域在特定时序发展阶段,必有与之相对应的空间结构特征;反之,一定的空间结构特征必然反映其特定的时序阶段。据此,诊断了福建省域工业系统的时空关联性特征,并提出了该省工业阶段性跃迁的对策与建议。     

当代中国城镇体系地域空间结构类型定量研究

当代中国城市的地域空间分布并不具有随机性分布特征,过去运用泊松方程规定的随机分布模型对城镇体系地域空间结构定量划分存在一定的局限性。借助牛顿引力学方程对随机分布模型进行改进,构建城市空间分布的引力模型,利用2002年数据,以省级行政区为基本空间单元,对中国城镇体系地域空间结构类型进行定量研究,得出6个块状组团式城市聚集区、10个条状组团式城市聚集区和8个以大城市为核心的城市群的结构特征,其中东部省区以多核心多组团式的城市块状聚集区为主,中部省区以单中心单组团式的条状聚集区为主,西部省区以大城市为核心的城市群为主。东、中、西三大地带城市发育水平差别较大,梯度现象较为明显。