Thirteen plus one: a comparison of global climate policy architectures

We critically review the Kyoto Protocol and thirteen alternative policy architectures for addressing the threat of global climate change. We employ six criteria to evaluate the policy proposals: environmental outcome, dynamic efficiency, cost-effectiveness, equity, flexibility in the presence of new information, and incentives for participation and compliance. The Kyoto Protocol does not fare well on a number of criteria, but none of the alternative proposals fare well along all six dimensions. We identify several major themes among the alternative proposals: Kyoto is “too little, too fast”; developing countries (DCs) should play a more substantial role and receive incentives to participate; implementation should focus on market-based approaches, especially those with price mechanisms; and participation and compliance incentives are inadequately addressed by most proposals. Our investigation reveals tensions among several of the evaluative criteria, such as between environmental outcome and efficiency, and between cost-effectiveness and incentives for participation and compliance.     

Action targets: a new approach to international greenhouse gas controls

Abstract

This article introduces and explores a new form of international commitment to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, called an action target. Action targets differ from other forms of targets, such as the Kyoto Protocol's fixed targets, in that they define a quantity of GHG abatement to be achieved, rather than a future emission level to be reached. This article explains the basic mechanics of how action targets might operate, and analyses the approach across a range of criteria, including uncertainty management and contributions to sustainable development in non-Annex I (developing) countries. The analysis suggests that action targets might improve the prospects of widening and deepening developing country participation in the international climate regime.     

电磁波透视法在大龙洞水库查漏中的应用

文章介绍了跨孔电磁波透视法探测岩溶水库渗漏位置的基本原理和方法技术，并阐述了该法在国内较典型的且渗漏特别严重的岩溶水库──广西上林大龙洞水库查漏堵漏工程中的应用，效果非常显著。     

Activities to Develop a Spatial Perspective Among Students in Introductory Geography Courses

Abstract

Teaching students to gain a spatial perspective is one of the most difficult yet important components of geographic education. This paper presents a series of activities designed to develop a more comprehensive understanding of spatial concepts among students in introductory geography courses. The activities and content are most appropriate for high school or university undergraduate students. An evaluation of these activities demonstrates that they enhance the student's spatial perspective and their understanding of the role of spatial concepts in geography.     

Towards a theory of targeting

A representative economic model is used to analyze local policies to reestablish full employment. It addresses three types of barriers: 1. Rigid wages, 2. Occupational (or industrial) immobility, and 3. Geographic immobility. These factors are considered in the framework of three types of policies: 1. Laissez-faire, 2. Narrowly targeted employment incentives, and 3. Broadly targeted incentives. The paper concludes that the usefulness of the abstract model will depends upon the ability of local development officials to combine the implications of the model with information about the local economic development narrative. In turn, the narrative depends upon an in-depth local knowledge of history, institutions, practices and personalities.     

Does public policy support or undermine climate change adaptation? Exploring policy interplay across different scales of governance

Policy makers have now recognised the need to integrate thinking about climate change into all areas of public policy making. However, the discussion of ‘climate policy integration’ has tended to focus on mitigation decisions mostly taken at international and national levels. Clearly, there is also a more locally focused adaptation dimension to climate policy integration, which has not been adequately explored by academics or policy makers. Drawing on a case study of the UK, this paper adopts both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective to explore how far different sub-elements of policies within the agriculture, nature conservation and water sectors support or undermine potential adaptive responses. The top-down approach, which assumes that policies set explicit aims and objectives that are directly translated into action on the ground, combines a content analysis of policy documents with interviews with policy makers. The bottom-up approach recognises the importance of other actors in shaping policy implementation and involves interviews with actors in organisations within the three sectors. This paper reveals that neither approach offers a complete picture of the potentially enabling or constraining effects of different policies on future adaptive planning, but together they offer new perspectives on climate policy integration. These findings inform a discussion on how to implement climate policy integration, including auditing existing policies and ‘climate proofing’ new ones so they support rather than hinder adaptive planning.     

Contested H2O: Science, policy and politics in water resources management in Chile

This paper critically explores the politics that mediate the use of environmental science assessments as the basis of resource management policy. Drawing on recent literature in the political ecology tradition that has emphasised the politicised nature of the production and use of scientific knowledge in environmental management, the paper analyses a hydrological assessment in a small river basin in Chile, undertaken in response to concerns over the possible overexploitation of groundwater resources. The case study illustrates the limitations of an approach based predominantly on hydrogeological modelling to ascertain the effects of increased groundwater abstraction. In particular, it identifies the subjective ways in which the assessment was interpreted and used by the state water resources agency to underpin water allocation decisions in accordance with its own interests, and the role that a desocialised assessment played in reproducing unequal patterns of resource use and configuring uneven waterscapes. Nevertheless, as Chile’s ‘neoliberal’ political-economic framework privileges the role of science and technocracy, producing other forms of environmental knowledge to complement environmental science is likely to be contentious. In conclusion, the paper considers the potential of mobilising the concept of the hydrosocial cycle to further critically engage with environmental science.     

多维视角下京津冀地区人口集疏时空变化

城镇化过程中,人口集疏是区域空间结构演化的根本动力。基于四普、五普、六普及2015年人口抽样数据,从多维视角分析京津冀地区近25年人口空间分布特征与集疏态势,研究发现：①京津冀地区人口总体分布仍呈西南稠密而东北稀疏格局,交通干线沿线人口地理集中度高;1990—2015年区县尺度上数量差异加剧,且在空间上存在强相关性：人口热点分布呈现以京、津和沿海区域为轴的“T”形结构,冷点区域则小幅扩张呈“C”形结构;②1990—2015年,京、津两市人口集疏空间表现出明显圈层特性,且人口扩散表现“核心-边缘”特性;河北各市人口集中在市辖区,且其周边区县人口流失程度呈阶段性加重。③综合城市规模等级与行政等级视角,城市规模与行政等级挂钩,城市行政等级越高其人口规模越大,人口集聚能力越强;主体功能分区视角下,开发区人口份额在提高,生态功能区人口份额在下降;京津冀地区人口集疏空间在2010年后发生转变,向沿海地区集聚趋势突出,表现出显著临海性。     

Forty-year multi-scale land cover change and political ecology data reveal a dynamic and regenerative process of forests in Peruvian Indigenous Territories

This article explores deforestation and reforestation dynamics over 415,749 hectares of 25 titled Indigenous Community Lands (ICLs) in the Peruvian Amazon over forty years at three scales: total area, regions, and communities. We focus on ICLs as the territorial unit of analysis, as they are increasingly discussed regarding their importance for conservation. Additionally indigenous communities (ICs) are a too-marginalized group in the Amazon that merit more attention. Analyses of this kind are often short-term and use only large-scale Earth Observation methodologies. We use a multi-method approach linking remote sensing with ground verification, and qualitative historical political ecology work with ICs. We find that overall accumulated deforestation was low at 5%, but that when reforestation is considered, net deforestation was only 3.5%. At the community level deforestation and afforestation dynamics are complex, except for one period that indicates a macro state driver in the region. Results suggest inadequate accounting for forest regeneration in deforestation analyses and challenge the notion that presenting stakeholders with accumulated forest loss values is helpful in tropical areas where forests and people are dynamic. Furthermore, our work with communities highlights that categorizing them and their lands as pro-environment or not in general terms is unhelpful for determining fund flows to ICLs for environmental or development purposes.