Urban–agricultural water appropriation: the Hyderabad, India case

With the urbanisation drive comes steady growth in urban water demand. Although in the past this new demand could often be met by tapping unclaimed water sources, this option is increasingly untenable in many regions where little if any unclaimed water remains. The result is that urban water capture, and the appropriation of associated physical and institutional infrastructure, now often implies conflict with other existing uses and users. While the urbanisation process has been studied in great depth, the processes and, critically, impacts of urban water capture and appropriation are not well researched or understood. This paper undertakes a critical examination of the specific case of Hyderabad, one of India's fastest growing cities, to shed light more generally on the process of water capture by cities and the resultant impacts on pre-existing claims, particularly agriculture. It does this by examining the history and institutional response to Hyderabad's urban–rural water contest; how the results of that contest are reflected in surface and groundwater hydrology; and the eventual impacts on agriculture. The findings show that the magnitude, and sometimes even direction, of impact from urban water transfer vary in space and time and depend on location-specific rainfall patterns, the nature of existing water infrastructure and institutions, and farmers' adaptive capacities and options, notably recourse to groundwater. Broader consideration of the specific findings provides insights into policy mechanisms to reduce the possible negative impacts from the global, and seemingly inexorable, flow of water to the world's growing cities.     

基于GIS的福州市医疗机构空间分布研究

利用GIS技术,计算医疗机构的质量指数、距离指数以及频率指数,同时构建福州市市区医疗机构的优势度模型,并实现了GIS空间分析可视化．研究结果显示：1）福州市主要的综合性医疗中心大部分分布在鼓楼区、台江区,晋安区、仓山区数量较少．2）随着福州城市化进程加快,医疗机构的发展跟不上人口分布的变化,在金山地区表现尤为明显．建议有关部门给予重视,为区域可持续发展,合理配置医疗站点．     

Institutional dimensions of climate change adaptation: insights from the Philippines

Understanding the institutional dimensions of climate change adaptation (CCA) is critical to the adaptation process. The institutional changes that follow the introduction of a CCA measure affect certain areas of governance, including social, political, policy, and other domains that are already exposed to prevailing institutions. Thus, understanding CCA necessitates analysis of the interplays between and among institutions that exist within a hierarchical structure, as well as the examination of how institutions across different scales define the challenges in CCA implementation. This article contributes to this discussion by investigating the challenges in mainstreaming CCA into local land use planning in Albay, Philippines. It applies a four-stage mixed methodology and uses a modified Institutional Analysis and Development framework as its primary analytical guide. Its findings imply that: (1) mainstreaming CCA is a multi-scale, multi-setting endeavour; (2) mainstreaming CCA operationalization involves networks of interacting institutions and institutional arrangements; and (3) addressing the challenges in mainstreaming needs extensive institutional transformations that reach across the various institutional settings within these networks.

POLICY RELEVANCE

This article advocates that, in designing strategies to address the challenges in mainstreaming CCA, analysts, planners, and policy makers must understand that the challenges exist within a network of institutional settings, and that these challenges encompass a chain of institutional interactions or interplays within this network. Accordingly, overcoming these challenges necessitates broad institutional reforms that go beyond the institutional setting where CCA is to be mainstreamed. Moreover, this article suggests that CCA policy making and analysis must focus on the vertical, horizontal, and network linkages and relationships created by institutional arrangements, as well as on the interplays facilitated by these arrangements. More importantly, there is a need to determine whether the institutional interplays between and among existing and planned institutions are complementary, counterproductive, conflicting, overlapping, neutral, or coexisting. Such knowledge will assist policy makers and analysts to understand the existing and potential barriers to, as well as identify opportunities for, adaptation. Consequently, the solutions to address the barriers, and the strategies that can take advantage of the opportunities, can be formulated effectively.     

Actor-Based Design of a Management System for the Elephant Marsh Fishery in Malawi

In Malawi, fishing community user groups known as beach village committees, traditional chiefs, government officers, and fishers are the key players in fisheries management. Fish catch trends at the Elephant Marsh Fishery in southern Malawi are declining. Based on interviews and participant observation, this article uses an actor-based framework (known as Action-in-Context) to unveil the issues that are crucial in devising a sustainable governance system for the fishery. We establish and propose that the key social variables for the design of a three-pillared (locally based, weak, and amorphous) resilient institution for sustainability of the Elephant Marsh Fishery are (i) the social reputation of the leaders of local fishery institutions (beach village committee leaders), and (ii) the power dynamics between traditional chiefs and these local fishery leaders. We end the article by exploring the implications of the findings on the sustainability of the fishery under rising resource pressure.     

演化视角下跨国公司海外研发机构与东道国区域创新体系的互动关系分析

区域创新体系建设是区域创新能力提升的重要途径。在开放条件下,区域创新体系的建设既得益于本土创新主体的驱动,也离不开区域外部创新资源的参与。在跨国公司大规模海外研发投资的推动下,跨国公司海外研发机构与东道国区域创新体系之间相互影响、相互作用并逐步形成了互动关系。文章通过对相关文献的梳理和总结,基于研发全球化的背景,首先从演化视角出发,探讨跨国公司海外研发机构和区域创新体系的发展演化,分析不同演化阶段跨国公司海外研发机构与东道国区域创新体系的互动关系;其次根据二者的互动意图和要素,研究跨国公司海外研发机构与东道国区域创新体系互动的形成机制;最后以微软为典型案例,剖析跨国公司在华研发机构与我国本土创新主体的互动关系。     

20世纪50年代初地质机构变革的考证和思考

原中央地质调查所、中央研究院地质研究所和资源委员会矿产测勘处都曾为中国地质事业的发展作出过重要贡献。但是,在1949年以前总体地质人员少、部门分散。为解决解放初期矿产资源紧缺和地质人员短缺的矛盾,1950年8月经政务院批准成立了中国地质工作计划指导委员会,及其领导下的矿产地质勘探局、中国科学院地质研究所和古生物研究所,开始了地质界一元化的机构改革。1951年5月7日新成立的三个机构开始运行,在运行初期实行地质研究人员的双重身份制度,即在矿产地质勘探局为技正,在研究所为研究员。1952年6月初步确定了各单位内设机构和人员,同时各专业地质队陆续成立,开始了人员的再次分配。1952年8月地质部成立,矿产地质勘探局,逐步转变为地质部的不同部门,地质研究所和古生物研究所全面接受地质部的领导。原中央地质调查所在这次变革中人员被分散到新成立的三个部门和有关单位,原来的内设机构被彻底分解,事实上被撤销。原中央地质调查所在长期实践中形成了以调查为本、调查与研究紧密相结合的研究风格和特色,在解放初期,不论是矿产地质勘探局还是中科院地质研究所和古生物研究所都围绕国家急需的矿产资源开展工作,都谈不上与中央地质调查所的机构传承关系。     

International economic institutions: Formal mechanisms for dealing with resource conflict

States employ international economic institutions as formal mechanisms in resource related conflict management. It is little known that states incorporate water resource management treaties in regional trade agreements (REIs) to jointly manage (1) the multifaceted use of rivers and (2) the territorial implications of rivers as borders. Both can lead to political tensions. I evaluate institutional effectiveness, through REI institutional design, in militarized interstate conflict. The role of trade institutions in geo-politics is a broad theme addressed. African dyads, REIs and conflict from 1950 to 1996 are the focus. I test the liberal hypothesis that institutions diminish the likelihood of militarized interstate conflict. Findings suggest allies that share memberships in REI water treaties with provisions for territorial boundary issues are more likely to fight than are other states. This relationship is weak, however, lending support to realist claims.     

Fluid Institutions: Commons in Transition in the Periurban Interface

Amidst growing concern about the decline of the commons, this case underscores the importance of understanding how the commons are refashioned and remade to address emerging challenges in periurban spaces. This article describes how institutions surrounding the use of common property resources get transformed and evolve in periurban contexts. What were once johads – common property village ponds – undergo a change in their usage from storing rainwater to storing waste water of the city for irrigation. This emerges as a collective response to the uncertainty attached to the availability of waste water. New institutions evolve with regard to contributions to waste water infrastructure, as well as the appropriation of waste water. Further research should document the changing use of village commons and the emergence of new institutions governing them.     

Evolution of transitional institutions for urban land redevelopment in China—Case in Guangzhou

Building effective institutions for markets is a great challenge to China's transitional economy. China's ex-perience in establishing urban land markets is characterized by trial and error and the gradual evolution of transitional institutions. Based on archive data and interviews in a neighborhood (Jinhuajie) of Guangzhou, this research reveals that China's land redevelopment in the past two decades has followed an approach of partial and gradual reform, which was structured by the gradual evolution of transitional institutions to speed up local land redevelopment within the ex-isting property fights system. Transitional institutions, including highly compensated residents' land use rights, in-kind land lease payment, flexible control on development rights of developers and short-term actual ownership of work units, are generated by the local government sequentially to dispel existing land use rights of different land users and make further development be able to follow market mechanisms.