基于三维生态足迹的京津冀城市群自然资本可持续利用分析

生态足迹是区域可持续评估的重要方法,三维生态足迹模型能区分并追踪自然资本存量的消耗与流量的占用。目前三维足迹与自然资本利用研究主要集中在全球和国家尺度。本文以京津冀城市群为例开展区域尺度研究,核算并分析了2010年研究区13个城市的人均区域足迹深度、足迹广度及其组成差异与影响因素,揭示了京津冀城市群自然资本利用格局及生态可持续现状。结果表明：13个城市普遍生态赤字,足迹深度差异受能源消费数量和结构的突出影响,与城市经济发展水平呈“倒N型”库兹涅茨曲线关系。京津冀城市群内4种自然资本利用类型分别为存量资本消耗水平相对于流量资本占用水平严重超前(北京、天津、唐山)、显著超前(石家庄、邯郸)、一般超前(沧州、廊坊、衡水、邢台、保定)及基本一致(秦皇岛、张家口、承德)。上述4种类型地域的区域生态持续性依次从最弱转向较弱、较强、最强。本文在城市群自然资本持续利用的刻画和表达方面取得了较优于传统二维足迹模型的评价结果。     

The poverty dynamics in rural China during 2000–2014: A multi-scale analysis based on the poverty gap index

As the largest developing country in the world, China’s rural areas face many poverty- related issues. It is imperative to assess poverty dynamics in a timely and effective manner in China’s rural areas. Therefore, we used the poverty gap index to investigate the poverty dynamics in China’s rural areas during 2000–2014 at the national, contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties and county scales. We found that China made significant achievements in poverty alleviation during 2000–2014. At the national scale, the number of impoverished counties decreased by 1428, a reduction of 97.28%. The rural population in impoverished counties decreased by 493.94 million people or 98.76%. Poverty alleviation was closely associated with economic development, especially with industrial development. Among all 15 socioeconomic indicators, the industrial added value had the highest correlation coefficient with the poverty gap index (r = –0.458, p<0.01). Meanwhile, the inequality of income distribution in the out-of-poverty counties has been aggravated. The urban-rural income gap among the out-of-poverty counties increased by 1.67-fold, and the coefficient of variation in rural per-capita income among the out-of-poverty counties also increased by 9.09%. Thus, we argued that special attention should be paid to reducing income inequality for sustainable development in China’s rural areas.     

Assessing green gentrification in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods: a longitudinal and spatial analysis of Barcelona

To date, little is known about the extent to which the creation of municipal green spaces over an entire city addresses social or racial inequalities in the distribution of environmental amenities – or whether such an agenda creates contributes to green gentrification. In this study, we evaluate the effects of creating 18 green spaces in socially vulnerable neighborhoods of Barcelona during the 1990s and early 2000s. We examined the evolution over time of six socio-demographic gentrification indicators in the areas close to green spaces in comparison with the entire districts. Our results indicate that new parks in the old town and formerly industrialized neighborhoods seem to have experienced green gentrification. In contrast, most economically depressed areas and working-class neighborhoods with less desirable housing stock and more isolated from the city center gained vulnerable residents as they became greener, indicating a possible redistribution and greater concentration of vulnerable residents through the city.     

The Matter of Matter: Making Property in the Holland Marsh

This paper explores how characteristics of biophysical nature—specifically the unique properties of the Organic Order of soil—have shaped the conditions of property in what is currently protected agricultural land, in the Holland Marsh, Ontario. Drawing on political ecology and critical property scholarship, I investigate how “nature” conjoins, complicates, and structures property in the Marsh. I start from the premise, as others have, that “things” matter to the dynamics of property, and add to this by demonstrating that matter matters as well. Property in the Holland Marsh—and elsewhere—is a socionatural arrangement. I develop this argument by highlighting three periods in the history of the Marsh; (1) the preagricultural period, (2) the agricultural intensification period, and (3) the conservationist period. I demonstrate how biophysical conditions codetermine parameters of property in the Marsh and show how the dynamics of property change along with the biophysical character of landscapes.     

Human–Wildlife Conflicts and their Associated Livelihood Impacts in and Around Chebera-Churchura National Park,Ethiopia

Human–wildlife conflict is one of the major challenges in conservation biology. Here, we investigated the human–wildlife conflicts and their impacts in and around Chebera-Churchura National Park, Ethiopia. We conducted semistructured interview for 300 people and five focus group discussions from November 2010 to January 2011. In addition, scats of 60 spotted hyenas were collected and analyzed. Totally, 12 carnivores, 6 herbivores, and 2 primate species posing a significant problem were identified. Intensive human–wildlife conflict was observed in Churchura, Sere, and Chebera villages which were very close to the park. The carnivore’s attacks during 2007–2011 had caused about 30.49% of livestock losses. The overall economic loss by wildlife attacks was estimated to be US$ 75,234 (US$ 83/household/year). Scat analysis confirmed a substantial contribution (59%) of livestock to spotted hyena’s diet. Thus, combined strategies like improving livestock husbandries and strengthen the capacity of managers are imperative to mitigate the problems.     

Facilitating Co-Production of Transdisciplinary Knowledge for Sustainability: Working with Canadian Biosphere Reserve Practitioners

Sustainability scientists argue that diverse knowledge holders should work together in social learning processes to co-produce knowledge in support of sustainability. Yet, how to co-produce such knowledge remains unexplored. A multi-year, national knowledge sharing partnership among Canadian biosphere reserve practitioners, academic researchers and policy advisors revealed that a skilled facilitator was necessary for successful knowledge co-production. We draw attention to the multiple barriers to learning and knowledge co-production, and to the skills required of the facilitator to address them. The facilitator helped draw together local and formalized western knowledge systems (weaving) and diffuse innovations across local sites (out-scaling) and between local sites and the broader program network (up-scaling). Our experience reveals that simply bringing parties together will not generate transformative change for sustainability. Rather, multi-lateral facilitators are needed to ensure deliberate and managed interventions and to institutionalize learning across a diverse collective.     

生计安全研究的可视化分析

以Web of science 核心库中1991~2016年间收录主题为“livelihood security”的文献为基础,应用CiteSpace软件,采取突现词分析、关键词共现分析、文献共被引分析等方法对生计安全研究进行可视化分析。研究发现,干旱、健康、妇女、艾滋病、粮食安全、难民等是生计安全研究的前沿领域;生计安全研究热点主要包括生计结果类、生态环境类、生计策略类和重点地区类;生计安全研究的知识基础主要包括粮食安全、海洋资源、气候变化适应性等研究领域;从研究内容来看,中国生计安全研究主要包括自然资源与粮食安全、自然灾害与生计安全、快速城镇化与生计安全、气候变化与生计安全等4个方面。     

Panarchy of an indigenous agroecosystem in the globalized market: The quinoa production in the Bolivian Altiplano

Agricultural globalization is blamed for destructive impacts on small farms in developing countries. Yet, many local societies are proactive in the face of these changes and show high adaptive capacity. Investigating their transformations with an integrative perspective and enough hindsight may reveal some of the bases of their resilience and adaptive capacity. Using field data and the panarchy concept of resilience theory, we analyzed the territorial and social dynamics of quinoa growers’ communities in southern Bolivia over the last four decades, a case study of regime shift in a poverty-stricken rural society which deliberately entered the global food market. Linking the dynamics of the household economy to the territorial and social subsystems over several decades, we gained insights into the interactions that shaped the rise of quinoa production in the region. We found that a vivid tradition of mobility allowing for pluriactivity on- and off-farm, combined with community self-governance, explains how local populations succeeded in articulating individual agency with collective control over their commons of land, seed resources, and social rules. Our vulnerability analysis points to landscape homogenization, social inequity, and increased dependence on external factors as potential sources of unsustainability. We conclude that, to cope with the changes of unprecedented magnitude they are facing, local producers should retain social cohesion and autonomous governance, without giving up on their heritage of mobility and economic redundancy. As regards theory, we identified cross-scale subsystem configurations critical for regime shifts, and confirm the value of panarchy in capturing complex socioecological dynamics.     

Challenge of vegetation greening on water resources sustainability: Insights from a modeling‐based analysis in Northwest China

Forest restoration policies are often implemented without the assessment of their full environmental impact. In this study, we investigated the challenges of vegetation greening resulted from forest restoration on water resource sustainability, using a model‐based simulation in northwestern China. Four different vegetation scenarios and 25 future climate scenarios were employed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model. Results suggest that (a) the mean annual evapotranspiration changes from only 7.2% in the barren case to 100% in the forest case; however, it produced a 35.2% reduction in average annual streamflow and a 157% increase in soil water storage. The upstream vegetation greening caused the enhancement of water retention, while also creating great challenges for future downstream water resource sustainability; (b) seasonal effect was significant in that 100% forest case increased evapotranspiration (+40%) but it also reduced the streamflow (?73%) compared to the barren case in growing season, which may exacerbate spring and summer drought; (c) changes of evapotranspiration and streamflow were only 0.3% and ?0.9% at T + 3.9 °C when compared to the historic scenario in barren cases, while for all forest cases, variations were 3% and ?21.8%, respectively; (d) vegetation greening induced more remarkable changes in hydrological components than those resulting from climate change. Our “what if” research provides new insights for promoting sustainable management of water resources and ecosystems in mountainous water source areas.     

An evidential reasoning-based sustainability index for water resources management

ABSTRACT

Evidential reasoning (ER) is introduced as a new basis for developing and implementing sustainability indices (SI). The ER-based evaluations keep the merits of previous well-known sustainability indices and provide added values such as more accurate grade-based assessment and aggregation of performance criteria. The proposed modifications significantly improve the capability of the SI to scrutinize and differentiate various water-supply conditions. Available data from Gorganrud-Qaresou basin, northern Iran, are used to evaluate the applicability and efficiency of the sustainability index. The results of the proposed method are compared with two water resources sustainability indices with similar concepts but different bases. It is shown that the ER-based SI can better distinguish undesirable water-supply scenarios.