The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: wetland mitigation banking and problems in environmental governance

Wetland mitigation banking is an American neoliberal environmental policy that has created a functioning market in `ecosystem services', commodities defined using the holistic measures of ecological science. The development of this market is discussed as a project of environmental governance, defined as the nation-state's regulation of ecological relations within its territory towards stabilizing capitalist relations of power and accumulation. I argue that the wetland banking industry serves as a bellwether that presages problems that other strategies of neoliberal environmental governance will experience. Ethnographic, economic and ecological data from the Chicago-area wetland banking industry inform a discussion of two major obstacles to neoliberal strategy: the problem of relying on ecological science to define the unit of trade, and the problem of aligning the somewhat independent relations of law, politics, markets and ecosystems across an array of spatial scales. Theoretical guidance is sought from recent work on `social natures' and from the Regulationist approach to institutional political economics.     

高坪-吉心段公路喀斯特工程地质综合勘察

以沪蓉国道主干线湖北省高坪-吉心段的喀斯特地质勘察工作为例，探讨喀斯特地区公路工程地质综合勘察的基本方法。在喀斯特地区运用遥感和地理信息技术技术、地质测绘、综合物探以及地质钻探等勘察手段，通过综合分析各种勘探成果，能够较准确地查明可溶岩的分布、喀斯特形态类型、分布规律、控制因素以及喀斯特水的赋存、分布和运移规律等，并根据不同的喀斯特地貌提出了有针对性的处理对策。通过不断的实践和经验总结。针对喀斯特工程地质问题合理运用综合工程勘察方法，能做出科学的分析评价，可以适应喀斯特区公路建设的需要，并且供今后在喀斯特地区修建公路时参考和借鉴。     

金沙江流域(云南境内)山地灾害危险性评价

云南境内的金沙江流域是斜坡不稳定的敏感区,根据1988-2000年的区域调查和统计,区内发育山地灾害点1697处,其中流域面积大于1km2的泥石流沟808条,体积大于1×104m3的滑坡580处,体积大于1000m3的崩塌309处。用于山地灾害危险性评价的主要敏感因子包括岩土体类型、山坡坡度、降雨、土地利用、地震烈度和人类活动。在对这些因子进行了敏感性评价的基础上,应用GIS对敏感因子集成评价而产生了云南金沙江流域山地灾害危险性评价图。评价结果表明:高危险区面积占全区面积6464km2的8 77%,中危险区占全区总面积的41 51%,低危险区占41 12%,无危险区占8 60%。山地灾害危险性评价图可以帮助规划者或工程师在土地发展规划中选择最佳建设场所,以减轻灾害的影响。     

攀西地区特色生物资源综合开发与示范意义

在首次对特色生物资源的内涵科学界定的基础上,探讨了特色生物资源开发的理论基础及战略意义,重点介绍了国家“十五”重大科技攻关项目——“攀西地区特色生物资源综合开发与示范”项目的设计思路、研究内容及实施路线,对项目实施的社会、生态与经济效益进行分析,认为该项目为我国特色生物资源开发提供了一些可借鉴的经验。     

A knowledge base model for evaluation of bio-physical tendency of dryland

The present study aims the evaluation of bio-physical characteristics towards soil-water-vegetation stress and a rule is envisaged to assess the degree of temporal changes. The digital rule for assessment is initialized through the index of land Instability (ILI) where the variance indicates the temporal instability of the pixel i.e., smallest land unit. It is assumed that the biophysical characteristic of land is in command of land-dynamics where there is no change in Land Use/Land Cover (LU&LC). The intensity map on tendency of albedo (IALB) assesses the intensity of soil erosion and water stress whereas intensity map on tendency of NDVI (INDVI) appraises the stress on vegetation. The carry-out study covers a part of semiarid Western India. Primarily remote sensing technique, which carries the digital information of land temporally and spatially, is adopted in this paper. A part of the study area is represented using two sets of IRS 1A/1B LISS-I data of March with a decadal time domain (1989-1998) as a test area. It is assumed that the soil-water-vegetation stress is maximum during summer(March-April-May) in any tropical belt and decadal data will stretch the possibility of climate as well as man-made activity over the land.     

Regional comprehensive assessment on environment-health of China

The aim of the study was to assess the environment-health development in different regions of China. 175 indicators, such as average life expectancy at birth, emission intensity of waste gas, GDP etc. were chosen to describe various aspects of the environment, health and development of China. Of all the indicators, life expectancy can sufficiently reflect health situation of population. Consequently, life expectancy was identified as key indicator, and 42 out of 175 indicators were selected for establishing the environment-health indicator framework with three grades of integrative indices to assess the development of environment-health of China. Based on the hierarchical relation between various grades of indices, the comprehensive environment-health index was calculated and contributed to classify the environment-health situation of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China which were divided into five grades by four predefined limits. Comprehensive assessment indicates that the environment-health situation of the eastern and coastal areas is superior to that of inland which is the western regions with underdeveloped economy and rigorous natural condition. Especially, the Qinghai-Tibet and Yunnan-Guizhou plateaus in southwestern China are most vulnerable in the environment and population health. These fit in with the pattern of national socio-economic development, which fully shows that socio-economic context plays a dominant role in the improvement of environment-health in China.     

东北地区矿业开发态势与矿山环境地质问题综合研究

在论述东北地区矿业开发态势的同时,阐述了区内能源矿产、金属矿产及非金属矿产开采引发的主要环境地质问题,针对区内复杂的矿山环境地质问题现状,提出了开展东北地区矿山环境地质综合研究问题的工作思路.     

Representing and communicating deep uncertainty in climate-change assessments

IPCC reports provide a synthesis of the state of the science in order to inform the international policy process. This task is made difficult by the presence of deep uncertainty in the climate problem that results from long time scales and complexity. This paper focuses on how deep uncertainty can be effectively communicated. We argue that existing schemes do an inadequate job of communicating deep uncertainty and propose a simple approach that distinguishes between various levels of subjective understanding in a systematic manner. We illustrate our approach with two examples. To cite this article: M. Kandlikar et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

云南沿边境地带生态环境3S监测、 评价与调控研究

本文利用全球新千年整体生态系统评估的理论，以云南省沿边境地带生态系统变化跨境生态安全为研究对象，探寻并揭示我国陆疆系统的跨境生态系统变化监测、评价和生态安全综合调控的基础理论与信息机理；进而研究基于“3S”云南沿边境地带的生态环境监测、评价与综合调控的方法和关键技术，包括方法和技术体系的建立、指标体系的建立、多尺度效应和尺度转换、数学模型的建立、综合调控模式和决策方案的建立等；在案例研究部分，建立了背景数据库，然后选择大、中、小尺度进行了全区生态环境现状评价，重点河道、典型路段和重点口岸的影响评价和预测预报研究，最后进行了综合调控模式和方案的探讨，并对研究结果进行了动态仿真和虚拟表达研究。     

Snow model sensitivity analysis to understand spatial and temporal snow dynamics in a high‐elevation catchment

In this paper, we addressed a sensitivity analysis of the snow module of the GEOtop2.0 model at point and catchment scale in a small high‐elevation catchment in the Eastern Italian Alps (catchment size: 61 km²). Simulated snow depth and snow water equivalent at the point scale were compared with measured data at four locations from 2009 to 2013. At the catchment scale, simulated snow‐covered area (SCA) was compared with binary snow cover maps derived from moderate‐resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat satellite imagery. Sensitivity analyses were used to assess the effect of different model parameterizations on model performance at both scales and the effect of different thresholds of simulated snow depth on the agreement with MODIS data. Our results at point scale indicated that modifying only the “snow correction factor” resulted in substantial improvements of the snow model and effectively compensated inaccurate winter precipitation by enhancing snow accumulation. SCA inaccuracies at catchment scale during accumulation and melt period were affected little by different snow depth thresholds when using calibrated winter precipitation from point scale. However, inaccuracies were strongly controlled by topographic characteristics and model parameterizations driving snow albedo (“snow ageing coefficient” and “extinction of snow albedo”) during accumulation and melt period. Although highest accuracies (overall accuracy = 1 in 86% of the catchment area) were observed during winter, lower accuracies (overall accuracy < 0.7) occurred during the early accumulation and melt period (in 29% and 23%, respectively), mostly present in areas with grassland and forest, slopes of 20–40°, areas exposed NW or areas with a topographic roughness index of ?0.25 to 0 m. These findings may give recommendations for defining more effective model parameterization strategies and guide future work, in which simulated and MODIS SCA may be combined to generate improved products for SCA monitoring in Alpine catchments.