Measuring Urban Sustainability: the potential and pitfalls of city rankings

Measuring the sustainability of a city, and ranking the city against other cities, is increasingly seen as a way to achieve urban sustainability. A number of studies have highlighted how Sydney is unsustainable, with two recent ranking exercises appearing to confirm these findings by placing Sydney below many other Australian cities for urban sustainability. These two exercises are situated within international moves towards ranking cities. The article explores the assumptions and criteria used by Mercer in its Eco-City Index and the Australian Conservation Foundation in its Sustainable Cities Index. The conclusion discusses how Sydney could become more sustainable, and identifies why normative urban sustainability rankings should be recognised for their potential while simultaneously being treated with caution.     

科尔沁沙地2000-2008年农业生产技术效率研究——以通辽市各旗县为例

 基于数据包络分析方法对通辽市各旗县2000—2008年农业生产技术效率进行综合评价。结果表明:①通辽市农业生产技术效率整体上较低,但呈逐年上升的趋势。②通辽市各旗县农业生产技术效率的时空差异明显,霍林郭勒和开鲁县的农业生产技术效率表现为先降低后上升;库伦旗和科尔沁左翼中旗农业生产技术效率表现为持续上升;科尔沁左翼后旗、扎鲁特旗和奈曼旗的农业生产技术效率表现为随时间呈现一定波动性;各旗县中奈曼旗年均效率最高。③通辽市农业生产技术效率主要受投入冗余影响,各旗县均存在降水冗余,反映出当地农业生产投入的盲目性。降水的波动性和不确定性导致灌溉用水、耕地面积投入过多,进而影响了各旗县农业生产技术效率。不同旗县在不同年份的投入冗余有所差异,显示农民应对降水变动的措施也具有一定盲目性。建议针对气候的不确定性对农业生产的干扰展开研究,改进农业生产技术。     

西南地区某岩溶水库渗漏分析

西南地区某水库位于云贵高原中北部,库区可溶盐岩分布较广且岩溶较发育,中部有一条近南北走向的区域性断裂（F1）穿过两岸,为论证此水库成库的可能性,通过地表调查及物探,结果表明:此水库向低邻谷渗漏的可能性小,沿F1断裂带向南部或向下游渗漏的可能性问题不大,存在沿灰岩溶蚀通道向下游和向库外渗漏的可能性,沿左岸大理岩与灰绿岩接触带或大理岩向坝下游绕坝渗漏的可能性不大;水库正常蓄水位在Kc1底板高程以下有成库的可能。      

The Influence of Community Size and Location on Different Dimensions of Vulnerability: a case study of Australian coastal communities

ABSTRACT

Coastal communities are part of the Australian identity but little is known about their characteristics and their long-term prosperity prospects. Increased migration to coastal areas and increased exposure to extreme climatic events indicates a need for social and economic data to inform socio-ecological systems planning. Here, we undertake a geo-spatial analysis to develop a typology of Australian coastal communities and assess relative vulnerability to climate-driven environmental change for a range of social and economic indicators. The aim of this study is to understand how the vulnerability of Australian coastal communities varies with geographic location or community size, and in comparison to other community types. Results show that both the population size and location of a coastal community matter and that coastal communities overall are more vulnerable on some socio-economic dimensions to climate-driven environmental change than their rural equivalents. However, results also demonstrate that the smallest coastal communities are strong in some important aspects of the human, social and financial domains, putting them in a good position to deal with some changes. Scale-appropriate and context-specific social policies are needed to address identified socio-economic vulnerabilities, supported by a range of formal and informal institutional structures, such as strategies to improve education and female workforce participation, and encourage participation in volunteering to increase human and social capital.     

The Greening of Baltimore's Asphalt Schoolyards

Asphalt was becoming an integral part of the urban American landscape by the end of the nineteenth century. Not only was it emerging as the preferred alternative for street paving, its promoters were endorsing it for other purposes as well. Although Baltimore was not in the vanguard when it came to adopting asphalt for road surfaces, it soon followed the trend. Like other cities, it too found other applications for this versatile petroleum product, including the paving of playgrounds and schoolyards. Despite low maintenance costs, widespread use of asphalt as a recreational surface started to meet resistance in Baltimore during the 1960s. Fifty years later, stringent storm‐water runoff requirements are causing city officials to rethink how they deploy asphalt in an urban setting. In an effort to meet these new requirements, while at the same time improve recreational opportunities for school children, an alliance of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private developers has developed a strategy to remove asphalt from schoolyards—one that may serve as a model for other cities facing financial and sustainability challenges similar to those of Baltimore.     

甘南牧区劳动力转移背景下留守农户生计策略选择

劳动力转移的行为和经历对贫困农（牧）户的生计产生了并继续产生着复杂而深远的影响,并构成了留守家庭成员进行新的生计选择的背景和前提条件。在资本变动和要素约束下,西部民族地区农（牧）户进行着不同的生产决策,并形成不同类型的生计策略。以甘南牧区为例,通过解析劳动力转移的特征变量,总结典型的劳动力转移农（牧）户家庭主要的生计策略模式,揭示了甘南牧区劳动力转移对留守农（牧）户生计策略选择的作用关系,并得出相应的结论。结果表明：转移劳动力文化水平、劳动力转移的外出时间、务工去向与转移劳动力工种类型在一定程度上影响了留守农（牧）户生计策略的选择。这可为西部民族地区政府部门制定科学、合理、可持续的劳动力资源利用政策,促进当地农（牧）户生计的可持续发展提供参考依据。     

Green growth machines? Competing discourses of urban development in Playa Vista,California

Playa Vista is a massive mixed-use development built on coastal wetlands in west Los Angeles. Its land use story illustrates how strategically constructed discourses shape contested urban spaces. Through an analysis of newspaper reporting and government documents, this paper traces how pro-Playa Vista interests changed their growth discourses rationalizing the development between 1979 and 2015. Findings suggest that pro-growth coalitions are resilient when they modify their discourses to negotiate new regulatory and political contexts, specifically pursuing sustainability fixes. They are not dogmatic in their adherence to orthodoxies of private property rights and “highest and best use” of land but rather continually reconstruct growth discourses incorporating enough of the values of their opponents (i.e. “green” values such as growth management and smart growth) that some environmental and homeowner citizens’ groups join the growth coalition, forming a “green growth machine” that not only profitably builds on the land but finances ecological restoration.     

Research on the Sustainability of Afghanistan Based on the Emergy Analysis

Afghanistan is an important country for the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (the Belt and Road) proposed by China. Due to years of war, Afghanistan is not well-developed economically. However, Afghanistan has abundant mineral resources and unique geographical advantages that are of far-reaching significance for Chinese economic strategic development. To investigate the sustainability of the eco-economic system of Afghanistan, we completed a quantitative evaluation of the emergy of Afghanistan during the period 2008 to 2015 by establishing an indicator system based on an emergy analysis. Results showed that from 2008 to 2015, the total emergy used of Afghanistan increased from 5.56×10²² sej to 9.75×10²² sej, among which the proportion of non-renewable emergy was less than 25.7%. This indicates that local resources in Afghanistan have yet to be exploited and utilized effectively and that its economic development relied heavily on the input of external resources. Meanwhile, the Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI) of Afghanistan from 2008 to 2015 dropped from 3.00 to 0.72, the Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR) increased from 0.77 to 2.06, and the Emergy Yield Ratio (EYR) dropped from 2.31 to 1.49, reflecting the imbalanced utilization of resources and the low level of economic development in Afghanistan. As a result, the potential for sustainable development of Afghanistan is relatively great. Basic infrastructure construction and reasonable exploitation of natural resources are the urgent needs.     

Combating Desertification and Improving Local Livelihoods through the GGWI in the Sahel Region: The Example of Senegal

The Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) has an overall objective of fighting desert encroachment through proven practices of sustainable management of land, and the reinforcement and protection of natural resources and systems of production and transformation, while also ensuring socio-economic development of local communities through multi-purpose activity platforms. The activities described in the present study are designed to accomplish several goals: (1) generate wealth, (2) strengthen access to basic social services, (3) manage the transition to a green economy as a means of creating suitable conditions for the emergence of rural production centers, (4) integrate sustainable development in order to eradicate poverty and food insecurity, and (5) strengthen adaptation and resilience capacities of local populations. The present study was undertaken on the basis of a wide variety of available publications and documentation, including articles and scientific papers, thesis, meeting summaries and reports, concerning the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative/GGWI in Senegal.     

Urban agriculture and the sustainability fix in Vancouver and Detroit

Both Vancouver, British Columbia, and Detroit, Michigan, have significant and growing urban agriculture movements. In this article, I follow recent work investigating the connection between urban agriculture and neoliberalization to determine how these local governments have used urban agriculture in narratives of economic development to selectively pursue a sustainability fix. I analyze how different regimes of local governance have influenced the urban agriculture movements, leading to local, hybridized fixes that adapt to different material and discursive contexts in each place. I argue that in both cities, urban agriculture has radical potential as a grassroots response to economic and environmental injustice, but has also been enrolled as a device by the local state in which the primary goal of sustainability planning becomes enhanced economic competitiveness. Pursuing an agenda of food justice requires examining the larger context and effects of municipal involvement with food movements.