Climate change and extreme weather events: can developing countries adapt?

Developing countries are vulnerable to extremes of normal climatic variability, and climate change is likely to increase the frequency and magnitude of some extreme weather events and disasters. Adaptation to climate change is dependent on current adaptive capacity and the development models that are being pursued by developing countries. Various frameworks are available for vulnerability and adaptation (V&A) assessments, and they have both advantages and limitations. Investments in developing countries are more focused on recovery from a disaster than on the creation of adaptive capacity. Extreme climatic events create a spiral of debt burden on developing countries. Increased capacity to manage extreme weather events can reduce the magnitude of economic, social and human damage and eventually, investments, in terms of borrowing money from the lending agencies. Vulnerability to extreme weather events, disaster management and adaptation must be part of long-term sustainable development planning in developing countries. Lending agencies and donors need to reform their investment policies in developing countries to focus more on capacity building instead of just investing in recovery operations and infrastructure development.     

中亚五国跨界水资源开发利用与合作及其问题分析

中亚五国跨界河流众多,水资源开发利用问题十分复杂,大规模无序的水土资源开发利用引发的生态问题相当突出,回顾其开发利用中的冲突与合作,对找寻中亚水资源问题的解决之道具有重要的理论意义和实践价值。简要介绍了中亚五国之间主要跨界河流流域河流水系、径流量,阐述主要跨界河流域水资源开发利用,重点分析了各跨界河流取用水量与农业灌溉的演变关系以及中亚五国跨界河流开发利用的水资源危机与生态危机、冲突与合作。在深入揭示中亚五国跨界河流危机主要原因的基础上,对中亚五国跨界河流水资源纠纷和生态危机未来发展趋势进行了分析,探析了中亚五国跨界河流开发利用主要对策。     

“一带一路”倡议下中国与重要节点地区的贸易格局及影响因素--以外高加索国家为例

外高加索国家地处欧亚十字路口,是古丝绸之路上的重要国家,也是“一带一路”的核心节点,区位战略意义重大。该文分析了外高加索三国自1991年独立以来中国与其贸易发展历程,借助HM指数和贸易互补性指数,从贸易总体格局和贸易商品特征两个角度分析双向贸易关系,并探究了影响其贸易发展的因素。结果表明:1)中国与外高加索三国长期保持贸易往来,贸易总额呈波动攀升趋势,阶段性特征明显;贸易差额起伏变化,整体长期维持贸易顺差状态;外高加索三国对中国的贸易依赖性显著大于中国对其依赖性。2)中国对外高加索三国出口商品互补性显著高于进口互补性,说明与作为中国进口商品来源国相比,外高加索三国作为中国商品的消费市场更具优势;中国对外高加索三国出口商品类型较为相似,结构呈集中与多元并存态势,主要出口商品逐步由资源、劳动密集型的低附加值商品向技术密集型等高附加值商品转变,而中国自外高加索三国进口的商品类型虽有所扩展,但主要类型仍较为单一,高度集中于未加工或半加工类资源型商品。3)地理距离、政局稳定性、产业结构、地缘关系、贸易环境及便利性是影响中国与外高加索三国贸易发展的主要因素。     

城市新区开发的理论与实践

近年来,随着我国城市郊区化的日益明显,城市新区作为郊区化的主要载体日益受到关注。文章分析了城市新区的概念,认为城市新区是城市郊区化过程中各种新城市地区的高级形式。从经济、社会、环境三种驱动力量的角度分析总结了城市新区开发的理论体系。并比较了中西方城市新区开发的异同,认为西方国家城市新区开发更注重社会因素,而我国城市新区开发更注重经济因素。最后指出我国城市新区开发中的问题及对策。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: The Rice Economy of Asia . Randolph Barker and Robert W. Herdt with Beth Rose. Using Microcomputers: A Guidebook for Writers, Teachers, and Researchers in the Social Sciences . Blaine A. Erie—the Lake that Survived . Noel M. Burns. Geology and Society . Donald R. Coates. Caves and Karst of Kentucky . Percy H. Dougherty, ed. Altered Harvest: Agriculture, Genetics, and the Fate of the World's Food Supply . Jack Doyle. The Middle East and North Africa, A Political Geography . Alasdair Drysdale and Gerald H. Blake. Clamor at the Gates. The New American Immigration . Nathan Glazer, ed. Development and the Landowner: An analysis of the British experience . Robin Goodchild and Richard Munton. Discovering Landscape in England and Wales . Andrew Goudie and Rita Gardner. The Modern Plantation in the Third World . Edgar Graham and Ingrid Floering. Social Relations and Spatial Structures . Derek Gregory and John Urry, eds. The World Food Problem 1950–1980 . David Grigg. Costa Rica: A Geographical Interpretation in Historical Perspective . Carolyn Hall. The Urbanization of Capital: Studies in the History and Theory of Capitalist Urbanization . David Harvey Consciousness and the Urban Experience: Studies in the History and Theory of Capitalist Urbanization . David Harvey. Reviving Main Street . Deryck Holdsworth, ed. Rural Roads and Poverty Alleviation . John Howe and Peter Richards, eds. Uneven Development in Southern Europe: Studies of Accumulation, Class, Migration and the State . Ray Hudson and Jim Lewis, eds. Karst Geomorphology . J. N. Jennings. The Geomorphology of North-west England . R. H. Johnson, ed. Climate Impact Assessment: Studies of the Interaction of Climate and Society . Robert Kates, Jesse Ausubel, Mimi Berberian, eds. Public Service Provision and Urban Development . Andrew Kirby, Paul Knox, and Steven Pinch, ed. State and Market: The Politics of the Public and the Private . Jan-Erik Lane, ed. Living Cities . Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Urban Preservation Policies. World Climatic Systems . John G. Lockwood. Urban Ethnicity in the United States. New Immigrants and Old Minorities . Lionel Maldonaldo and Joan Moore, eds. Culture and Conservation: The Human Dimension in Environmental Planning . Jeffrey A. McNeely and David Pitt, eds. The Andean Past. Land, Societies, and Conflicts . Magnus Mörner. Gaia: An Atlas of Planet Management . Norman Myers, ed. Progress in Industrial Geography . Michael Pacione, ed. Progress in Political Geography . Michael Pacione, ed. Rivers and Landscape . Geoff Petts and Ian Foster. Urbanization and Planning in the 3rd World: Spatial Perceptions and Public Participation . Robert B. Potter. One Island, Two Nations? A Political Geographical Analysis of the National Conflict in Ireland . D. G. Pringle. Circulation in Third World Countries . R. Mansell Prothero and Murray Chapman. The Ozarks Outdoors: A Guide for Fishermen, Hunters, and Tourists . Milton D. Rafferty. Suburban Burglary: A Time and a Place for Everything . George Rengert and John Wasilchick. Geomorphology and Soils . K.S. Richards, R.R. Arnett, and S. Ellis, eds. The Homes and Homeless of Post-War Britain . Frederick Shaw. Indochinese Refugees in America . Paul J. Strand and Woodrow Jones, Jr. Wild Horses and Sacred Cows . Richard Symanski. Forever Wild: Environmental Aesthetics and the Adirondack Forest Preserve . Philip G. Terrie. The Regional Economic Impact of Technological Change . A.T. Thwaites and R.P. Oakey, eds. The Good Life . Yi-Fu Tuan.     

国外土地整治管理的经验与借鉴

采用文献参阅法,分析了开展土地整治较早的德国、荷兰和日本等国家土地整治管理的基本情况和经验,并由此得出对我国土地整治的启示:建立完善的法律法规保障体系、进一步完善行政保障措施、拓宽土地整治资金渠道、规范土地整治权属管理、加强信息技术应用、强化土地生态环境保护和注重提升乡村生态景观。     

中国地方产业集群及其对发展中国家的意义

我国出口导向的生产和国内生产之间分离,以及国有企业和私营企业之间分离的双重结构,对我国地方产业网络造成了障碍。从国有研究院所中涌现的企业家身上,从乡村企业家身上,从海外归来的华人身上,我们看到了不同背景下的不同道路。随着中国的试验性改革的继续,不同区域的产业集群会在工业化的道路上不断升级,这种过程很难简化成任何简单的发展模式。文章指出,应重视嵌入地方社会网络的集群的力量,而不是把所有赌注下到一些不植入国土的大公司之上。此外,由于发展背景很不相同的区域的发展轨迹可能彼此相似,我国一些已经采用的策略和措施对于发展中国家是有意义的。     

从人口低估角度看:发展中国家大城市规划为什么很难成功?（英文）

在发展中国家,多种多样的规划被用来控制大城市的扩展和城市人口增长,然而,这些规划的界线屡屡被突破。当前,已有很多国内外文献对规划失败的原因展开了研究,本文对这些原因进行了梳理,可以归纳为以下几个方面:城市规划不系统、不科学;政府执行不到位;城市化或经济发展过快等。本研究对主要发展中国家大城市规划人口和现实人口进行了归纳和对比,认为城市人口的低估是大城市规划难以实现的一个关键因素。最后,利用世界上110个国家60年(1950–2010年)的数据,分析了各个国家首位城市人口和各国城市化水平及国土面积之间的关系,基于此,一个简要的预测模型被用来预测世界主要国家大城市的人口;为了更好地预测各国首位城市人口的数量,本文还设立了4个哑变量。预测结果与现实人口的对比显示:模型具有较高的预测精度。     

Stages in the emergence of a participatory tourism development approach in the Developing World

This study has attempted to examine and explain the stages in the emergence of the participatory tourism development approach under prevailing socio-economic, cultural and political conditions in developing countries without ignoring rural, peripheral areas of the developed world. It identifies three stages. These are: (1) the emergence of the pressures from external and internal factors on the central government to accept, support and facilitate the implementation of a participatory development approach, (2) the emergence of political will at central level, and (3) enacting legal measurements, re-structuring administrative systems at operational level and the actual community consultation or participation process. These stages are explored and elaborated under the guidance of three propositions. It concludes that political will at central level, enacting relevant legal measurements, empowering local communities and cooperation of dominant elite groups are sine qua non for the emergence and operationalization of the participatory tourism development approach as a pro-active tourism development strategy in a given developing country.