可持续发展能力“资产负债表”理论解析

论述了制订区域可持续发展能力“资产负债表”的意义。从可持续发展系统学研究方向,对区域可持续发展能力作了系统解析。提出了制订区域可持续发展能力“资产负债表”的基本原理与基本方法,进一步设计了区域可持续发展能力“资产”与“负债”的计量方法。“资产负债表”的制定为开展区域“发展质量”精确评判奠定了坚实的理论基础。     

走向21世纪的矿产资源开发工作需引入绿色伦理观念

面对种种严重的全球性危机,世纪之交的人类正经历一场人地关系观念的变革,绿色伦理就是在这场变革中提出的一种崭新观念。本文试图对绿色伦理做深一步的探讨和阐述,并将人类社会的这一全新观念引入矿产资源开发工作,提出以绿色伦理为基础的矿产开发的新价值观、新考评标准以及目前矿产资源管理方面急需解决的问题。     

中国林业可持续发展及其关键科学问题

在扼要介绍和分析中国森林资源的状况、演变和存在问题的基础上,着重探讨了中国林业可持续发展的战略和为实现林业可持续发展所必需研究解决的关键科学问题。在林业可持续发展战略部分全面论述了它的前提、目标、方针和六项对策措施。在关键科学问题部分则分别从森林的环境功能、森林的生产功能、林木遗传改良、森林保护和森林资源管理等五个方面列出所需要研究解决的关键科学问题,为制订今后的科学研究规划提供参考。     

Responding to change: Using scenarios to understand how socioeconomic factors may influence amplifying or dampening exploitation feedbacks among Tanzanian fishers

Environmental change often requires societies to adapt. In some instances, these adaptations can create feedbacks that amplify the change. Alternatively, other adaptations may dampen the change. We used semi-structured interviews with 240 fishers from nine Tanzanian coastal communities to explore responses to four hypothetical scenarios of increasingly severe declines in their average catch (10%, 20%, 30% and 50%). Overall, a higher proportion of fishers said they would respond to decline using amplifying adaptations (such as fishing harder) than dampening adaptations (such as reducing effort), particularly in the scenarios with lower levels of decline. We used a redundancy analysis to explore whether certain types of responses were related to the fishers’ socioeconomic characteristics. Fishers that would employ amplifying responses had greater economic wealth but lacked options. Fishers who would adopt dampening responses possessed characteristics associated with having livelihood options. Fishers who would adopt neither amplifying nor dampening responses were less likely to belong to community groups and sold the largest proportion of their catch. This study provides novel contributions by differentiating aspects of adaptive capacity that will amplify versus dampen environmental change and by highlighting what the resource users’ themselves say regarding responding to environmental change. Although direct policy application is limited by the study's hypothetical scenario nature, it provides a good beginning to incorporating resource users’ voices into such policy discussions.     

Differentiating capacities as a means to sustainable climate change adaptation

There are two forms of capacity to adapt to global change: those associated with fundamental human development goals (generic capacity), and those necessary for managing and reducing specific climatic threats (specific). We argue that these two domains of capacity must be addressed explicitly, simultaneously and iteratively if climate change adaptation and sustainable development goals are to be attained. We propose a simple heuristic to understand the four main ways these two capacities interact, leading to more or less desirable outcomes. Drawing from three case studies of agricultural adaptation to climatic risk (Phoenix, AZ; Northeast Brazil; Chiapas, Mexico) we argue that the institutional context of adaptation can implicitly or explicitly undermine one form of capacity with repercussions for the development of the other. A better and more strategic balance of generic and specific capacities is needed if the promised synergies between sustainable development and adaptation are to be achieved.     

Rethinking urban water management: Experimentation as a way forward?

There is widespread acceptance regarding the need to transition towards more sustainable urban water practices. Supporting such a transition requires new governance frameworks that can accommodate complexity and uncertainty, and organisational cultures that embrace experimentation and learning. This empirically focused research paper examines how eleven, alternative local-scale experiments were initiated while operating in an unsympathetic regime. Furthermore, the perceptions of more than 150 urban water practitioners across Australia are presented, regarding the importance of and difficulty in undertaking experimentation in the urban water sector, and the necessary mechanisms for influencing a step change to sustainable urban water management practices. Interviewees revealed perceived limitations in experimenting with new technologies and practices when operating within a hierarchical and market-based governance paradigm. Also, industry conservatism and the dominant risk-based management approach both operate as significant constraints to promoting an experimentation culture, and are closely related to concerns about public health and financial implications. Overall, the research highlights the Australian urban water sector is willing to embrace learning-by-doing; however, a stronger emphasis on promoting an organisational and industry-wide culture of experimentation and learning is required. Policy implications for future water governance are discussed.     

Harvest patterns and effort dynamics of indigenous and non-indigenous commercial sectors of the eastern Torres Strait reef line fishery

The reef line fishery (RLF) in eastern Torres Strait (ETS) is unique in that it has both a commercial indigenous sector and a commercial non-indigenous sector. Recently, concerns have been expressed by all stakeholders about the long-term sustainability of the fishery. These concerns have been exacerbated by the lack of detailed catch and effort information from both sectors, which has precluded any formal assessment of the fishery. In this paper, we characterise the harvest patterns and effort dynamics of the indigenous and non-indigenous commercial sectors of the ETS RLF using a range of data sources including commercial logbooks, community freezer records, voluntary logbooks and observer surveys. We demonstrate that bycatch is a significant component of the catch for both sectors and identify substantial differences in harvest patterns and effort dynamics between the sectors. Differences between sectors were observed in species composition and spatial and temporal patterns in catch, effort and catch per unit effort. These results highlight the inherent variation in catch and effort dynamics between the two commercial sectors of the ETS RLF and provide valuable information for the development of future assessments and appropriate management strategies for the fishery. The more reliable estimates of harvest patterns and effort dynamics for both sectors obtained from observer surveys will also assist in resolving issues relating to allocation of reef fish resources in Torres Strait.     

A critical review of groundwater budget myth, safe yield and sustainability

The principle of water balance is well known, but its application often causes controversy. One recent debate is the use of the water balance equation to determine the safe yield and sustainable yield. Two extreme opinions exist on natural groundwater recharge. One misconception is that the development of groundwater is considered to be safe if the pumping rate does not exceed the rate of natural recharge. Another is that the sustainable pumping rate has nothing to do with natural recharge, but depends on the increased recharge and decreased discharge (called capture) induced by pumping. The truth is that both the natural recharge and dynamic development of the capture determine the safe yield or sustainable yield of a groundwater basin. This paper clarifies the water budget controversy and uses the water balance equation to critically analyse the concepts of safe yield and sustainable yield. Numerical simulation of a hypothetical case was used to demonstrate the natural groundwater balance, effects of pumping and the dynamic development of the capture.     

宁夏水资源现状、问题及对策

宁夏地处西北内陆干旱地区,水资源极为匮乏,属于重度缺水区,从城市发展和水资源危机的角度出发对宁夏省水资源现状进行研究,以期为宁夏城市可持续发展提供依据.宁夏在开发利用中,主要存在水资源供需矛盾突出、防洪抗灾体系不完善、农村水利基础设施薄弱、水土流失、水污染等水环境问题严重、制约水利发展的体制性和机制性障碍问题还比较突出...