Adaptive co-management and the paradox of learning

Much emphasis has been placed on the importance of learning to support collaborative environmental management and achieve sustainability under conditions of social–ecological change. Yet, on-going struggles to learn from experience and respond to complex social–ecological conditions reflect an emerging paradox. Despite widespread support of learning as a normative goal and process, core concepts, assumptions and approaches to learning have been applied in vague and sometimes uncritical ways. Greater specificity with respect to learning goals, approaches and outcomes is required. In response to this gap, we examine five dimensions of the learning paradox in the context of adaptive co-management, where the learning and linking functions of governance are stressed: (i) definitions of learning; (ii) learning goals and expectations; (iii) mechanisms by which learning takes place; (iv) questions regarding who is involved in the process of learning; and (v) the risks and ethical ambiguities faced by different actors expected to willingly participate in a learning process, whether formal or informal. Lessons from experience with a series of cases from the global North and South illustrate the implications of these dimensions. Resolving the dimensions of this learning paradox will require greater attention to capacity-building, recognition of the role of risk, and consideration of how incentives could be used to encourage learning. Further consideration of the role of power and marginality among groups participating in the learning process is also needed, as is more systematic evaluation to monitor and measure learning outcomes.     

Seeing the local in the global: Political ecologies, world-systems, and the question of scale

Scale, as concept, has featured prominently in political ecology and remains, even if implicitly, a crucial point of analytical reference. Recent studies, drawing from both human geography and ecology, have sought to demonstrate how scales, rather than pre-existing ontologically, are both socially and environmentally produced. Given the different scales through which social and environmental processes occur, the study of society-environment relations can be improved by analysing varying scalar configurations of interaction. This recent and promising methodological corrective would greatly benefit from a dialogue with world-systems approaches, which integrate diverse scale-producing processes and to some extent overlap in scope with political ecology. World-systems perspectives, by focusing on the long-term systemic character of people-environment relations, effectively connect micro- to macro-scale social and ecological processes and explain long-term internal dynamics and interrelations of systems at different scales. Conversely, world-systems approaches could learn much from political ecologists’ consideration of nonhuman processes into understandings of scale and society-environment relations, which has a long tradition in geography, as well as from the more context-sensitive analytical framework brought to those understandings. Case studies are discussed to demonstrate not only how these two perspectives could be integrated, but also how explanations of environmental change can be thereby improved. Combining the two approaches provides the basis for a more ecologically oriented world-systems paradigm and, in political ecology, for greater sensitivity to socially large-scale systemic processes and, given the originally anti-capitalist underpinnings of both paradigms, for more political coherence.     

Private sector involvement in urban governance: The case of Business Improvement Districts and Town Centre Management partnerships in England

Although it has many merits, the voluminous literature on urban governance gives scant attention to the actual involvement and positioning of business elites and businesses within Public-Private Partnerships. There is also little consensus among academics as to why the private sector become involved in such schemes. This paper begins to address these issues through a critical empirical examination of how and why the private sector is involved with three English Town Centre Management (TCM) partnerships and the Business Improvement District (BID) subsidiaries all three partnerships have recently developed. In order to do this, the empirical study is guided by a conceptual framework that foregrounds the relationship between (a) the opening up and monitoring of ‘institutional space’ by partnerships and the state, and (b) the motivations and ‘constrained agency’ of the business elites. The paper demonstrates that the positioning of the private sector is more multifarious and fractured than previous studies of urban governance have suggested. It also reveals that business elites and businesses view their participation as an ‘investment’ that needs to accrue significant financial returns and that partnership and state officials are highly selective in their choice of ‘who governs’.     

Brazilian vs. Paraguayan streams: Differences in water quality in a cross-border subtropical region

Monitoring programs are among the first steps to develop robust management strategies, especially in international transboundary waters. Understanding how water quality parameters are impacted by different types of land use promotes a baseline for stakeholders to define the best governance for the management of water resources. Seeking to provide this type of information, we sampled 24 streams – 12 in Brazil and 12 in Paraguay – in February, April, July, September, and November 2019. We determined water quality parameters, grouped into three categories: morphometric, physical and chemical, and nutrients. We explored differences in water quality parameters between countries, and over a one-year sampling. We also tested whether Brazilian and Paraguayan streams are impacted by agriculture, urbanization, and forest cover. Finally, we performed a partial RDA to test the influence of land use on water quality parameters and controlled spatial autocorrelation by including spatial variables (dbMEM) as a condition. Most of the water quality parameters showed significant differences between countries; only turbidity, and pH, presented significant differences between countries and sampling periods, and only water temperature varied significantly along the year. We did not find evidence that different types of land use are causing physical and chemical variance in Brazilian and Paraguayan streams (R² = 0.06, p = 0.68). In conclusion, the results evidenced that the main differences in the water quality parameters occur between countries. Based on the results, transboundary governance can use these data to implement integrated water resources management cooperation.     

Impact of the blockage ratio on the transport of sediment in the presence of a hydrokinetic turbine: Numerical modeling of the interaction sediment and turbine

Interactions between hydrokinetic turbines and near scale and far scale bed sediment particles are considered a critical area of assessment; however, a limited number of research studies have been published to address this issue. The current paper explores the influence of the blockage ratio on the morphology evolution downstream from a hydrokinetic turbine. A modeling framework is derived to predict the significant transport induced by a turbine installed on the erodible fluvial sandy bed surface, such as the Eulerian multi-phase model for the sediment and the Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT) for the turbine, using the open source platform OpenFOAM. Two configurations of different blockage ratios are considered. The configurations show differences in the bed morphology and the sediment transport. It has been shown for both configurations that the scour capabilities are enhanced below the turbine due to the acceleration of the flow and increasing local shear stress on the sediment.     

关于发展中国城市群GIS的探讨

城群GIS是适应城市群区域管治的需要,透过跨政府部门、跨行政区域的政府、企业、学术团体和公众之间的协作,共建和共享地理、人口、经济、资源等空间信息基础设施,发展多种多样的地理信息应用系统,服务于城市区域规划、环境保护、资源利用、大型基础设施建设、灾害防护方面的决策与行动。该文提出了城市群GIS概念,并探讨其功能和架构、关键技术、项目组织、系统实施问题,以期推动学术界对于跨组织、协作型城市群GIS的研究。     

Progress of Long-Chain Alkyl Diols in Marine Environmental Reconstruction

Long-chain alkyl diols contain an alkyl chain with alcohol groups at C1 and at the middle position of carbon chain, which exist widely in seas, rivers and lakes. It has been proven that these compounds are relatively resistant to degradation and have an extended occurrence in the geological record. In addition, they are relatively easy to identify. Therefore, long-chain alkyl diols can be used as potential biomarkers to trace the past change in paleoenvironment and paleoclimate. Although the sources of long-chain alkyl diols are still uncertain, the studies indicate that 1, 13 and 1, 15-diols are mainly produced by eustigmatophytes, while 14-diols are mainly from diatom Proboscia. So far, some proxies based on long-chain alkyl diols have been established to indicate the change in diatom productivity, upwelling intensity, salinity, sea surface temperature, riverine organic matter input and surface seawater nutrient concentration, which are significant for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Current research and application of long-chain alkyl diols proxies were summarized, which would be helpful for further studying the source of long-chain alkyl diols and the application of relevant proxies in China’s marginal sea.     

矿山环境治理过程中资金运作模式探索与实践

矿山环境治理恢复基金制度之所以取代矿山地质环境治理恢复保证金制度,目的之一是通过基金的合理运营,为矿山环境治理提供长效稳定的资金保障。通过对矿山地质环境治理恢复保证金制度中的资金问题进行剖析,从基金来源、基金运营、基金投入三个方面提出矿山环境治理过程中新的商业运作模式,并从市场化角度对社会资本进入矿山复绿和综合利用进行了探索,以期对矿山环境治理恢复基金制度的建立提供一定的指导和参考。     

Collaborative Governance and Conflict Management: Lessons Learned and Good Practices from a Case Study in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

Given the linkages between natural resources and social conflicts, evidence increasingly shows that successful natural resource management requires conflict mitigation and prevention. However, there may be a gap in practice between knowing what processes and tools need to be used to manage conservation conflicts and how to actually implement them. We present learning from a practice-based case study of conflict management in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon that aimed to develop natural resource governance institutions and build stakeholder capacity, including of indigenous groups, to navigate existing conflict resolution mechanisms. Through applying good practices in conservation conflict management and collaborative governance, we generated important lessons on the practical considerations involved in collaborative conservation. These lessons, while specific to our case, could be applied to a variety of protected areas facing complex social-ecological systems dynamics and wicked problems.     

城市情感地理与空间治理：广州市区宣传类户外广告案例

受人文地理“情感转向”思潮的影响,城市公共空间研究开始关注情感对空间的构建作用,情感空间的营造与城市空间的治理存在一定的耦合关联。本文以广州市区的宣传类户外广告为例,援引情感地理与空间治理的相关理论,采用访谈、文本分析等方法,探讨宣传类户外广告在营造情感氛围过程中与城市空间的内在关联,进而讨论情感氛围与城市空间治理的联系。研究发现,户外广告尤其是宣传类户外广告通过视觉表征生产情感空间,由身体-街区-城市三个尺度构成情感化的公共空间,置身城市公共空间的个体在宣传类户外广告的话语作用下重构对城市空间的想象,产生“归属感”“认同感”和“安全感”等情感,并通过视觉、情感等非表征形式使居民在自我审视中加深群体文化认同,使空间治理内化。研究将情感地理的研究放置在城市这一中观尺度,通过广州市区宣传类户外广告的讨论丰富了情感地理的实证研究,同时对拓展情感地理研究的尺度与视角进行了有益探索。