Impacts of artisanal gold mining systems on soil and woody vegetation in the semi‐arid environment of northern Ethiopia

Gold mining is a tremendously important economic activity in rural districts of Ethiopia. We assessed the impacts of artisanal gold mining on soil and woody vegetation in northern Ethiopia. Estimation of soil loss, plant inventory, group discussions and transect studies were used to address the research questions. We employed t‐test to compare woody species and soil loss between mined and unmined sites. Moreover, we ran one‐way ANOVA to compare the average volume of soil loss among the mining sites. The study shows that gold mining removed colossal volumes of soil from the mining landscape with a significant difference among gold mining sites (P ≤ 0.05). Soil loss between the mined and unmined sites was also significant (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, gold mining destroyed massive tracts of vegetation. Woody species encountered at plot level decreased from artisanal gold mined to unmined sites (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, dead trees and exposed tree roots were higher in mined than the unmined areas (P ≤ 0.05). This discouraged regeneration and recruitment of woody vegetation. To conclude, gold mining system converted vegetated sites and farmlands into dysfunctional landscape. Therefore, we suggest that combined rehabilitation efforts are required to overcome the challenges of artisanal gold mining on sustainable land management in northern Ethiopia.     

2005~2014年中国农村水贫困与农业现代化的时空耦合研究

水贫困与农业现代化问题是影响国家安全与经济发展的两大重要问题,研究二者的耦合关系有助于促进中国资源环境与经济可持续发展。以中国30个省（市、自治区）为研究单元（不含西藏和港澳台）,建立农村水贫困和农业现代化水平评价指标体系,采用耦合协调度模型,评估农村水贫困与农业现代化的耦合协调性,并利用空间自相关方法分析2005~2014年农村水贫困、农业现代化及二者耦合协调关系的时空变化。研究结果表明：① 2005~2014年中国农村水贫困程度降低14.68%,西部降幅高于东、中部,且农村水贫困程度一直保持“中-西-东”递减态势;② 农业现代化水平提高5.50%,西部地区增幅高达26.88%,但始终保持着“东-中-西”阶梯式递减态势;③ 农村水贫困与农业现代化水平协调度的区域差异趋于减小,基尼系数降低31.62%,但协调度一直保持着“东-中-西”阶梯式递减趋势;④ 农村水贫困与农业现代化水平协调度的冷点区呈收缩态势,热点区呈扩张态势。最后,提出了降低农村水贫困、提高农业现代化水平及二者协调性的建议。     

Lost siblings of the Sun: Revisiting the FGK potential candidates

The main goal of this paper is to revisit the lost siblings of the Sun candidates within 100 pc. The solar siblings should have some similar characteristics as their ages, chemical compositions and kinematics properties. Considering their chemical compositions, age and kinematics properties only three potential candidates have been found in the literature: HD28676, HD83423 and HD175740. The first two stars are mentioned by [Brown et al., 2010] and [Bobylev et al., 2011], respectively. HD175740 is, to our knowledge, the first giant to be proposed as potential candidate.     

新形势下的中国农村翻新整治理论框架和案例分析

借鉴欧盟农村翻新整治理念和方法,尝试有别于整体拆迁的农村整治方法和理论,探讨了中国农村翻新整治的理论框架。运用农村翻新整治理论,土牛张村实现了整体脱贫,村容村貌得到了全面改善,村庄特色和传统文化得以保存,村庄环境得以保护,实现了资源可持续利用和产业可持续发展,为新形势下我国农村扶贫开发和整治提供可以借鉴的模式。     

新疆绿洲城镇对称图谱及其生态经济模式分析

天山南北的绿洲城镇以天山为轴对称,分布图案似一副向西张开的弓箭。在局部区域绿洲分布呈线形、弧形、扇形和放射形模式。绿洲经济以水土资源和矿产资源为依赖,中心城市的形成不以城市配位数和平均距离的大小为关键条件。县级中心城镇人口低于10万,平均配位数为3.50,平均距离144km;地市级中心城市人口10～60万,平均配位数4.25,平均距离450km;西部地区百万人口大城市的平均距离约2000km。绿洲人口持续增长,人口密度233人/km²,超过德国人口密度230人/km²。受控于景观带谱对称格局,生态保护政策将使绿洲转向岛国经济模式,发展经济必须跨越自然空间。工业化和城市化是绿洲发展的必然途径,以发展中小城市为主线。距离省府乌鲁木齐2000km以内的配位经济中心难以带动新疆经济跨越式发展,经济跨越式发展的动力模式,不是城市等级配位分布网络的稳定模式,而是经济差级配位模式。乌鲁木齐处于欧亚大陆新丝绸之路欧亚大陆桥中点处经济地理线形谷地位置。欧亚大陆东部与西部沿海经济中心可以作为与新疆经济合作的优先目标。     

An effective Building Neighborhood Green Index model for measuring urban green space

Urban green space forms an integral part of urban ecosystems. Quantifying urban green space is of substantial importance for urban planning and development. Considering the drawbacks of previous urban green space index models, which established either through a grid method or green distribution, and the difficulty of the validation process of earlier urban green space index models, this study exploits the advantages of multisource high-resolution remote sensing data to establish a Building Neighborhood Green Index (BNGI) model. The model which analyzes the spatial configuration of built-up areas and the vegetation is based on the building-oriented method and considers four parameters – Green Index (GI), proximity to green, building sparsity, and building height. Comparing BNGI with GI in different types of characteristic building regions, it was found that BNGI evaluates urban green space more sensitively. It was also found that high-rise low-sparsity area has a lower mean value of BNGI (0.56) as compared with that of low-rise low-sparsity neighborhood (0.62), whereas mean GI (0.24) is equal for both neighborhoods. Taking characteristics of urban building and green types into consideration, BNGI model can be effectively used in many fields such as land suitability analysis and urban planning.     

论临海社会转型背景下的临海家庭贫困现象——基于湛江临海村落的研究

临海社会转型性家庭贫困现象在临海社会转型过程中出现,主要表现为因海洋资源枯竭及海洋市场洗牌所导致的家庭贫困、因临海经济开发而衍生的家庭贫困等类型。临海社会转型性家庭贫困是临海家庭的社会适应能力与临海社会急剧变迁之间的矛盾产物,富有浓郁的社会公平性问题色彩,它制约了临海社会的顺利转型。在消除临海社会转型性家庭贫困生成的某些宏观社会原因的前提下,发展临海地区文化教育与职业教育,进而提高临海家庭社会适应能力,是消除临海社会转型性家庭贫困现象的关键。     

Neighborhood Activism among Homeowners as a Politics of Space

Most approaches to neighborhood activism among homeowners explain it in terms of a single social variable, such as class or race or gender. This article argues that, by focusing on one social category, these approaches fail to examine the range of variables that influence homeowner activism. The paper argues that, instead of understanding homeowner activism as a politics of class or race or gender, it should be understood as a politics of space. Such an approach allows us to understand how social variables interrelate in homeowners’ political project and provides a more effective explanation for why this agenda is translated into action.     

Geographical patterns and anti-poverty targeting post-2020 in China

Poverty has been a focus of Chinese government for a long time. It is therefore of great significance to investigate both the mechanisms and spatial patterns of regional impoverishment in order to adequately target Chinese anti-poverty goals. Based on the human-environment relationship and multidimensional poverty theory, this study initially develops a three-dimensional model encompassing human, society, and environmental factors to investigate the mechanisms of rural impoverishment as well as to construct an indicator system to evaluate the comprehensive poverty level (CPL) in rural areas. A back propagation neural network model was then applied to measure CPL, and standard deviation classification was used to identify counties that still require national policy-support (CRNPSs) subsequent to 2020. The results of this study suggest that CPL values conform to a decreasing trend from the southeast coast towards the inland northwest of China. Data also show that 716 CRNPSs will be present after 2020, mainly distributed in high-arid areas of the Tibetan Plateau, the transitional zones of the three-gradient terrain, as well as karst areas of southwest China. Furthermore, CRNPSs can be divided into four types, that is, key aiding counties restricted by multidimensional factors, aiding counties restricted by human development ability, aiding counties restricted by both natural resource endowment and socioeconomic development level, and aiding counties restricted by both human development ability and socioeconomic development level. We therefore propose that China should develop and adopt scientific and targeted strategies to relieve the relative poverty that still exist subsequent to 2020.     

气候变化与生计和贫困研究的认知

本文介绍了IPCC第五次评估报告中关于气候变化、生计和贫困研究的认知。研究者采用生计透镜的方法,评估气候变化与多维角度的贫困之间的相互作用。气候变化作为“威胁放大器”,对于贫困人口及其生计增加了额外的负担。同时强调了气候变化可能产生新的贫困人口类群。通过对气候变化政策响应的综述,得出气候变化政策响应通常并不能使贫困人口受益的结论。