Urban Heat and Climate Justice: A Landscape of Thermal Inequity in Pinellas County,Florida

The combined effects of two global trends, urbanization and climate change, have generated considerable concern regarding their adverse and disproportionate impacts on the health of urban populations. This study contributes to climate‐justice research by determining whether elevated levels of urban heat, indicated by land surface temperature (LST), are distributed inequitably with respect to race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status in Pinellas County, Florida. Our study utilizes 2010 MODIS and Landsat medium‐resolution, remotely sensed thermal data, census socio‐demographic information, and both conventional and spatial statistical methods. Results indicate that LST is significantly greater in census tracts characterized by higher percentages of certain racial/ethnic minorities and higher poverty rates, even after controlling for contextual factors and the effects of spatial autocorrelation. This reveals the presence of a landscape of thermal inequity: uneven distribution of heat within the built urban environment and a community structure with varying vulnerability.     

Decentralization and the cultural politics of natural resource management in Kerala,India

The state of Kerala in India is known for its active civil society and the massive decentralization campaign launched in 1996. However marginalization of tribal communities hampers the state's decentralized environmental management strategies. The proposed construction of a dam along the Chalakkudy River will displace two colonies of the Kadar tribe in Chalakkudy and Athirapilly towns, destroy habitats of local wildlife and devastate unique riverine vegetation endemic to the region. This brings to light issues of social and environmental justice as well as a wider responsibility to protect and preserve unique flora and fauna. The state's decentralization strategies, as they relate to tribal communities, lack consideration of local power distribution and cultural conditioning. This raises questions about the state's role in social justice as well as biodiversity conservation. In 2010 and 2011, the author's interviews in Chalakkudy and Athirapilly towns reveal that tribal communities perceive that their place in society restricts their contribution regarding natural resource management and use. The paper suggests that unless the culture of planning and decision making in the state are changed, decentralized strategies will be ineffective, resulting in a predominately top‐down approach towards natural resource management, and will negate Kerala's goal of democratic decentralization.     

环境公正视角下广州市污染企业分布与区域人口社会特征的时空关系研究

环境公正研究关注人民生活质量的空间公正问题。从环境经济地理学的角度,本研究以广州市为研究对象,采用1995年、2004年、2013 年的工业企业数据和1990年、2000 年、2010 年的人口普查数据,运用空间可视化工具和多尺度地理加权回归模型等方法,分析了广州市污染企业的分布及其与区域人口社会特征关系的时空变化,然后探讨转型背景下中国城市污染企业分布的环境公正问题。研究发现,广州市污染企业空间分布经历由中心城区集聚向近郊区和边界地带集聚的过程,在城市产业空间重构与社会空间分异的共同作用下,污染企业空间分布的环境不公正问题由最初表现不明显转变为全市范围的阶层差异与企业污染负担之间关系,具有不同于西方环境不公正现象的特征和成因。     

基于适应性循环模型的重庆市国土空间生态修复分区

明确国土空间生态修复分区是有序实施国土整治与生态修复的前提与基础。重庆市是长江上游生态屏障的最后一道关口,在国家生态安全格局中的战略地位突出。本文以重庆市为例,探讨基于适应性循环模型的国土空间生态修复分区研究框架,构建评价指标体系诊断国土空间系统潜力、连通度和韧性3维属性的时空演变趋势,识别县域单元所处适应性循环阶段,划定国土空间生态修复分区,并明确基于分区的生态修复策略。结果表明：① 2000—2020年重庆市国土空间系统3维属性整体呈现东高西低的空间特征。当前各县域单元大多处于重组阶段、开发阶段和协调开发阶段,少部分处于保护阶段,尚未进入释放阶段。② 重庆市国土空间生态修复分区包含4个大区和9个亚区。总体而言,生态修复区应关注建成区的系统性生态修复工程,加强环境综合改良与治理力度;生态提升区应逐步提高生态保护修复工程的实施标准,优化各类生态要素的协调度,提升综合生态效益;生态控制区应限制国土空间开发强度,降低人类活动干扰的负面影响;生态保育区应优化自然生态系统功能,加强生态保护区管理与生态问题治理。     

基于资源效率的国土空间布局及支撑体系框架

形成国土空间开发保护新格局是生态文明建设的首要任务之一,关键在于城镇、农业和生态空间的合理配置,重点是以较小的资源损耗支撑社会经济可持续发展,而深入理解资源效率的作用成效是科学优化国土空间布局的前提。本文框架以城镇利用、农业生产和生态转换效率测算为逻辑起点,构建以上述效率为核心的国土空间开发保护情景方案和评价指标体系,引入体现决策偏好差异模型评价国土空间发展潜力,定量刻画不同情景方案下的国土空间布局蓝图,最后通过综合性分析范式对不同决策导向的国土空间政策工具（布局蓝图）进行模拟和优选。本文通过揭示资源效率对国土空间开发保护的作用成效,提炼国土空间布局蓝图定量刻画的具体规律,构建权衡多方利弊的全局优化策略,为国家生态文明建设和自然资源统筹管理提供理论参考。     

面向规划的三维地理实体数据模型与生产技术

三维地理信息为新一轮的国土空间规划提供了新动能,三维空间数据模型是三维地理信息发展和应用的基础和关键,面向实体的三维模型是三维空间数据模型的一种重要表达方式。本文提出了一种面向规划的三维地理实体数据模型,并以浙江省嘉善县的生产应用实践为例,详细阐述了实体生产的关键技术和应用效果,对三维地理信息更好地服务于国土空间规划、提升空间治理能力、实现治理体系现代化具有重要意义。     

Forty-three years of Ramsar and urban wetlands

The Ramsar Convention is unquestionably the backbone of modern wetland management theory and practice. In the last four decades, it has mainstreamed wetlands in the environmental discourse and fostered the development of a comprehensive institutional framework for wetland governance. However, many of the wetlands that occur in human-dominated landscapes remain acutely threatened. The problem is most alarming in urban areas, especially in the fast expanding cities of the developing world, where unprecedented wetland destruction is leading to recurring environmental disasters. This triggers the question: are these failures in wetland governance purely induced by factors exogenous to Ramsar-based institutions or are they manifestations of conceptual drawbacks within Ramsar conceptual framework. Here, we investigate the success and failures of the application of the Ramsar framework's policy directives and management guidelines for urban wetlands using two rapidly expanding cities in South Asia as case studies – Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Kolkata (India). We conclude that despite its remarkable achievements over the past four decades, the Ramsar framework has several conceptual drawbacks that weaken its effectiveness in complex urban contexts. An inadequate recognition of the complex dynamics of urban social-ecological systems, an inadequate recognition of the political complexity of the policy processes, and a lack of an environmental justice perspective are the main shortcomings contributing to failures in urban wetlands governance. While we acknowledge that some solutions are contingent upon national and transnational level socio-political processes and reforms, we offer a set of technical and strategic modifications to the Ramsar framework that can significantly improve its effectiveness in urban wetlands governance.     

From ‘criminals of the earth’ to ‘stewards of the environment’: The social and environmental justice of Fair Trade gold

The recent emergence of the Fairtrade certification of gold in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa promises a radical new direction for the environmental governance of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). In doing so, it aims to tackle the longstanding environment and development challenges of the sector which mainstream policy has failed to alleviate. The move towards more responsible ASM practices is premised on the strategic deployment of a Fair Trade discourse that argues for its operators to be recognized not as criminals, but as valued and formalized parts of their broader economies. It is argued in this paper that this development intervention should be read within a social and environmental justice framework, one which directly answers the call from political geography for ‘compelling accounts’ of positive representations of the sector.Through a discourse analysis of 10 years of media reports, interviews and recorded life histories of key ASM and Fair Trade stakeholders in Tanzania, it shows how three strands of justice (conceptualized in terms of fairer distribution, procedure and recognition) are articulated by the Fair Trade gold movement and critically assesses the politics behind such a deliberate strategy. In particular, it argues that recognition is a key part of justice that has been underplayed by erstwhile analyses of Fair Trade. Through a case study of Tanzania, it is concluded that although significant progress has been made in terms of arguing for greater recognition for ASM operators, there remains a need to better link discourse with practice in establishing greater distributional justice.     

当代边界与领土争端升级激化的原因分析

边界与领土争端是引发国际冲突的重要因素之一。边界与领土争端处理不当,会成为武装冲突与战争的导火线。边界与领土争端是世界存在的一种普遍现象,由此引发的冲突构成国际政治冲突的重要内容之一。边界与领土问题虽然普遍存在。但并不是每时每刻都处于激化状态,而导致边界与领土争端升级的原因有时并不单单是边界与领土问题本身。领土争端往往与政治争端同时演变和作用才会导致为冲突。当两国因政治、经济、军事、外交等问题关系恶化时,边界与领土问题就成了体现双方交恶程度的温度计．成为向对方表达不满与敌对情绪的途径,施加压力的手段和斗争的工具。边界与领土争端。极易引发强烈的民族主义情绪,使当事国之间的关系严重恶化,人民之间产生敌对情绪。和平解决国家之间的领土与边界争端是当代国际关系面临的重要课题。     

中国新一轮国土规划试点述评

自从2001年国土资源部开展国土规划试点以来,试点地区努力克服困难推进工作,并在规划性质和功能定位、规划目标和主要任务、空间范围与时间期限、指导思想与工作思路、编制主体和工作模式、规划主题及纲要内容、研究专题及规划成果、国土规划的区域划分等方面进行了探索。虽然试点中仍然存在不容忽视的缺憾,如一些关键问题未达成一致、规划实施未受到足够重视、大多未按计划来开展工作、社会影响有待进一步扩大等,但也取得了部门特色得到彰显、基础扎实总体较好、不少尝试具有创新、试点不乏重大贡献等显著成效。随着中国政府日益重视国土规划,文章建议今后开展国土规划时要立足部门特色紧扣时代主题、加强问题研讨制定指导办法、健全协调机制减少工作阻力、增强试点的典型性和代表性,以及注重试点经验的提高和推广等。