The influence of karst features on environmental studies in Turkey

 The carbonate rocks of Turkey, which underlie about one third of the country, possess major water resources with great potential for electricity generation and water supplies. The ongoing development of karst features, especially in the southern part of Turkey, demonstrates specific environmental problems that occur in many karst water supply projects. Karst aquifers, springs, sinkholes, dolines, poljes and other karst features are of great importance from the standpoint of karst water resources and environmental research studies. In karst regions, conservation and protection of groundwater resources for both qualitative and quantitative evaluations is possible only when the catchment area is determined accurately. Since the catchment area in karst terrains is not limited by the surface drainage boundaries and the groundwater flows through well-developed coduits or fissures, the equations used in non-karstic areas cannot be applied to such karstic regions. Studies on the development of karst features and its environmental impacts in Turkey are of recent origin. Therefore, many unreliable methods are being applied in karstic areas. For example, the use of "shallow holes or sinkholes and fault zones" for septic water waste disposal or as sewage by those who are not familiar with karst, sometimes causes very serious problems of extensive groundwater pollution. This paper discusses the development of different karstic features in Turkey and case studies on its environmental impacts. Received: 27 December 1995 · Accepted: 10 July 1996     

甘肃黑河中游湿地保护利用现状及对策初探

在对甘肃黑河中游湿地保护利用现状进行全面分析评价的基础上,针对湿地保护利用中存在的问题,提出了保护恢复黑河中游湿地及可持续开发利用的对策。     

新《环境保护法》下湿地保护的立法思考——基于江苏省湿地保护立法现状的分析

江苏省湿地资源丰富,湿地种类多样,分布广泛,但面临着严重的污染和破坏,且湿地立法相对分散,没有形成完整的湿地保护法律体系。《环境保护法》的修订,特别是生态红线、按日计罚、生态补偿、公益诉讼等制度设计,为江苏省湿地保护立法提供了强有力的制度支撑。在此情形下,制定"江苏省湿地保护条例"显得十分必要。     

Titling land to conserve forests: The case of Cuyabeno Reserve in Ecuador

We used a mixed-methods approach to assess the impact of a ‘forest-friendly’ titling program on previously untitled lands surrounding the Cuyabeno Reserve in Ecuador. Such programs are part of an increasing trend in tenure formalization intended to simultaneously strengthen tenure security, reduce deforestation, and open the door for more incentive-based conservation programs. We use quasi-experimental methods to estimate and compare the impact of titling on forest outcomes for lands that are titled with certain limitations on the ownership bundle of rights, alongside lands titled but without these restrictions. This quantitative analysis is paired with results from a series of focus group interviews with landowners to understand their experiences with the titling effort, particularly tied to the restrictions. Our results point to a statistically significant impact of titling with restrictions on reducing deforestation by 34%, whereas titling without such restrictions resulted in no significant effect. When we explore impacts according to annual deforestation rates, the results suggest that titled lands are buffered from the surges in deforestation that otherwise occurred on untitled lands and more broadly across the region. While ‘forest-friendly’ restrictions had more of an effect on forest outcomes than titled lands without, the insights shared by landowners suggest important concerns about equity and unjust burdens on current households that could risk livelihood options for future generations.     

Contractual solution to the tragedy of property right in coastal fisheries

This article aims to analyze how private property regimes can co-exist with common property regimes in a coastal area. The case study shows how the dynamics of private property and common property right holders is in creating commitment to make symbiosis in resource use. This is based on a case study in two villages in West Lombok, Indonesia, where pearl-culture as a private property resource exists in a common property regime. This is a successful story in dealing with the tragedy of property rights in the country wherein established institutional arrangement is still absent. Nevertheless, this may be site specific, and fragile if there is no institutional arrangement combining formal and informal rules and involving both formal and informal authorities. To make a robust solution, multilevel solution must be considered: national, local, and community level, with reference to Japan case.     

Laboratory Studies on Property Changes in Surrounding Clays Due to Installation of Deep Mixing Columns

This paper has identified six major factors causing property changes in surrounding soils during and after installation of deep mixing columns: soil thixotropy, soil fracturing, cement penetration and diffusion, cementation, consolidation, and heating. Laboratory tests were performed to investigate the effects of soil thixotropy, soil fracturing, and cementation in a soft marine clay, Ariake clay. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate property changes in surrounding clays due to installation of deep mixing columns. Test results showed that an influential zone of property changes existed in surrounding clay ranging from the edge of the columns to the distance of about twice the radius of the columns. Within this influential zone, water content decreased as samples neared the columns, while pH values and electric conductivity increased. Test results also showed that undrained shear strengths of the surrounding clays decreased during mixing but regained after a 7-day curing period and continued increasing during 28 days in this study.     

Human mobility intentions in response to heat in urban South East Asia

Climate change and associated weather extremes and natural hazards have large impacts on the urban population of the Global South where population growth will rapidly increase the already large number of people who will be affected. Using Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), we investigate how hot temperatures, manifested as heat stress, is affecting the intentions of moving among the urban population in three Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines). We conducted an online survey with 2219 respondents. Almost all respondents (98%) had experienced heat stress, albeit at different levels. When asked whether respondents would be likely to move away from their current locations because of heat, nearly a quarter (23%) reported that they were very likely to do so, and 50% that they probably would. Stronger moving intentions because of heat were associated with women and older people. Concerns about increases from damage from heat (threat appraisal) were more strongly associated with moving intentions than an understanding of the costs and benefits (coping appraisal). Among the threat appraisal, heat stress levels and risk perception were the strongest predictors of moving intentions because of heat. The results contrast with the findings of migration studies in response to sudden onset hazards and underpin the differences in adaptation behaviour in response to different climate change impacts. Moving away to cooler places as an adaptation strategy to heat may be challenging to foresee in terms of timing, capabilities, destination and potential costs because it may not happen soon. We strongly recommend further research on climate change migration of the urban population, including within urban and urban-to-urban movements. While many people move back after sudden onset disasters, heat potentially leads to permanent movements given it is likely to be better planned, and as the habitability of some places is increasingly compromised. Overall the effects of slow onset environmental hazards such as pollution and heat on migration warrant more research attention given the rapidity of urban population growth, particularly in the global south.     

Enclosing the land: Cotton,population growth and tenure in Mali

On-going tenure changes in the cotton zone in southern Mali are discussed. Land tenure in the area is changing and adapting to the rapid agricultural development taking place. This adaptation supports the main tenets of Property Rights Theory (PRT). The driving forces behind enclosure of land rights as described by PRT, such as population pressure and increased market access, are acknowledged. Enclosure takes two forms in the study area. First, some customary authorities in villages where population pressure is relatively high attempt to restrict access to pastures and woods on village land to create exclusive village commons. Second, holdings are being subdivided and farmers are increasingly confining their fields through tree planting. Except around the towns, where semi-formal land sales are becoming increasingly frequent, this individualisation does not imply exclusive and absolute private property to land. Bundles of overlapping rights still exist where various individuals or groups control access to different resources on the same piece of land.     

山东大学齐鲁医院综合楼工程对济南泉水的影响分析

通过对山东大学齐鲁医院门诊保健综合楼工程建设对泉水是否影响的论证,认为场区内第四系碎屑岩孔隙裂隙水与奥陶系裂隙岩溶水为2个不同的含水系统。拟建工程在开挖深度内未揭穿第四系砾岩层,保留部分砾岩层作为基底持力层,并保持了下伏黏土的天然隔水性能,不会阻挡地下水径流补给通道,对泉水不会造成影响。     

Intellectual property rights and low carbon technology transfer: Conflicting discourses of diffusion and development

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the transfer of low carbon technologies to developing countries have been the focus of sustained disagreement between many developed and developing country Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We argue that this disagreement stems from two conflicting political discourses of economic development and low carbon technology diffusion which tend to underpin developing and developed countries’ respective motivations for becoming party to the Convention. We illustrate the policy implications of these discourses by examining empirical evidence on IPRs and low carbon technology transfer and highlight how the two discourses are based on an incomplete understanding of the role of technological capacity in either economic development or technology diffusion. This has important implication for the success of post-2012 international climate agreements.