Integrating scientific knowledge into large-scale restoration programs: the CALFED Bay-Delta Program experience

Integrating science into resource management activities is a goal of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, a multi-agency effort to address water supply reliability, ecological condition, drinking water quality, and levees in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta of northern California. Under CALFED, many different strategies were used to integrate science, including interaction between the research and management communities, public dialogues about scientific work, and peer review. This paper explores ways science was (and was not) integrated into CALFED's management actions and decision systems through three narratives describing different patterns of scientific integration and application in CALFED. Though a collaborative process and certain organizational conditions may be necessary for developing new understandings of the system of interest, we find that those factors are not sufficient for translating that knowledge into management actions and decision systems. We suggest that the application of knowledge may be facilitated or hindered by (1) differences in the objectives, approaches, and cultures of scientists operating in the research community and those operating in the management community and (2) other factors external to the collaborative process and organization.     

国内外在线环境保护信息资源的获取与检索利用策略

通过访问国内外环境资源保护与相关法律方面的约200余家主要网站,根据最新在线环境保护信息资源的来源、内容、特点以及资源的权威性、可靠性及功用,对国内外环保管理部门、法律与法规、可持续发展、环境监测与监理中心、科研机构、生态保护、环境宣传等方面信息资源进行了收集、分析、筛选、整合、分类整理,将其分为十大类,选择有代表性的在线资源做一浅析,在重要网站的介绍上略有侧重,最后提供一些本人在实践中积累的关于在线环境保护信息资源检索利用策略与技巧,以供与环境保护打交道的各界专业人士以及广大公众朋友获取与利用.     

Collectively engaging complex socio-ecological systems: re-envisioning science, governance, and the California Delta

We address the future of science and governance for the California Delta, focusing on the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, an interagency, multi-stakeholder effort to understand and manage the Delta for multiple purposes. We portray a Delta history as a coevolutionary process between science, governance and ecosystems. Global integrated environmental assessments (IEA) provide insights into understanding complex, dynamic socio-ecological systems. Many of the discursive stakeholder and scientific activities that have arisen under CALFED are similar to IEA and remain essential to the shared learning needed to effectively interact with a dynamic Delta. More deliberately enmeshing environmental monitoring, analysis, and collective learning into Delta governance will improve outcomes.     

Surprising cooperation despite apparently irreconcilable differences: Agricultural water use efficiency and CALFED

Much has been said about the need and benefits of consensus building for resolving disagreements about water and environmental management. Less has been said about how to better convene and facilitate those processes. This paper focuses on the latter, examining the challenges and breakthroughs encountered when decision-makers convene consensus building processes that seek an agreement among stakeholders who believe they have “apparently irreconcilable differences.” The research described here analyzes two multi-stakeholder, collaborative processes convened by the CALFED Bay-Delta Program (CALFED) on the issue of agricultural water use efficiency in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river watersheds of California. The first process made very little progress; however, stakeholder representatives in the second were able to forge an agreement that included significant innovation and surprising risk taking by all sides. Analyzing the two processes, this paper shows that the stakeholders, conveners, and facilitators in these processes had to do much more than make the discrete trades across interests envisioned in consensus building theory or reframing as described in theories about conflict and frames. Looking at the data, this paper shows how several concepts from outside consensus building—including boundary objects and interlanguage—along with less well-known concepts and issues within the consensus building literature—bricolage and representation—can provide insights into how the Steering Committee accomplished what it did. This paper introduces these additional concepts, how they mattered in this CALFED process, and suggests a complex set of interrelated insights into how future collaborative and integrative environmental programs can approach the most difficult environmental policy and management conflicts.     

The means do not justify the ends: A comment on CALFED

The state-federal CALFED process was more successful in transforming the means of thinking about decisions regarding California Bay-Delta resource management than in achieving the desired policy ends. Case studies in this special issue document how CALFED helped change the dynamics between stakeholders and agency managers; between scientists and implementers; and between endangered species managers and water project operators. In most cases, however, the new relationships and agreements failed to achieve the desired policy outcomes. The new tools and approaches that CALFED fostered can complement and support – but not substitute for – the obligation of policy makers to honestly confront and resolve fundamental oppositions of interest over resource management issues.     

Implementing remote sensing strategies to support environmental compliance assessment: A neural network application

Environmental compliance assessment and enforcement are complex, labor intensive tasks that would benefit from some form of decision support. Despite the well-documented application of remote sensing in environmental analysis and assessment, the operational use of this technology for environmental compliance enforcement remains in its infancy. Because the majority of environmental laws and regulations in the United States were enacted prior to the emergence of a mature science of remote sensing, there exists a degree of skepticism regarding the operational utility and reliability of remotely sensed data as an environmental compliance tool. This paper provides a review of the role of remote sensing in environmental compliance assessment and introduces a framework to guide the application of this technology based on the use of artificial neural networks. The customized neural networks developed in this study serve as a simplifying strategy to assist the process of compliance monitoring. Functioning as “intelligent” classifiers, the network models provide a spatial characterization of activities likely to cause damage; achieving mapping accuracies that ranged from 68 to 90% for the test case samples selected for investigation.     

An emergy evaluation of complexity,information and technology,towards maximum power and zero emissions

This paper mostly deals with the role of energy, matter and information flows within both environmental and human-dominated systems. Sustainable growth and development of both kinds of systems require optimum use of available resources for maximum power output, as suggested by Lotka's Maximum Power Principle [Lotka AJ. Contribution to the energetics of evolution. In: Proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the United States of America, vol. 8. 1922, p. 147–50; Lotka AJ. Natural selection as a physical principle. In: Proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the United States of America, vol. 8. 1922, p. 151–5.], recently restated by Odum [Odum HT. Maximum power and efficiency: a rebuttal. Ecol Model 1983;20:71–82; Odum HT. Environmental accounting. Emergy and environmental decision making. N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons; 1996.] as Maximum Em-Power Principle within the framework of his Emergy Synthesis approach. In times of declining resources, this principle translates into increased efficiency and optimum use of any kind of waste and co-products. Ecosystems and any self-organizing systems always apply this strategy and their selection–evolution mechanisms are based on their ability of growing on any untapped resource available. In order to do so, they increase the number of components and patterns for resource degradation in order to optimize the resource throughput and power output. Such a strategy also applies to human-dominated, economic systems, where the ability of dealing with co-products and wastes by means of appropriate designs as well as reuse and recycling processes may lead to “zero-emission” patterns (increased complexity, optimal resource throughput, minimization of emissions, resource exchange among system's components) and be the key for successful and sustainable development. In this paper Life Cycle Assessment and Emergy Synthesis approaches are suggested as joint tools for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of progresses towards industrial symbiosis and more sustainable production and consumption patterns within a zero emission framework.     

Availability,addiction and alternatives: three criteria for assessing the impact of peak minerals on society

The concept of ‘peaks’ in the production of natural resources has attracted attention in the area of energy production, with concerns about ‘peak oil’ driving recent research and investment in alternative sources of energy. There are fundamental and important differences between a peak in the production of oil and peaks in the production of metalliferous minerals, but in both cases production changes from ‘easier and less expensive’ early in a resource’s life to ‘difficult and expensive’ as time progresses. The impacts of this change in production circumstances require critical consideration in the governance of national and sub-national mineral endowments.This paper develops a framework for evaluating the impacts of changing patterns of mineral production. The framework considers three criteria: availability of a resource (considering its geological characteristics and geographical distribution); society’s addiction to the resource (its centrality and criticality to economic, social and environmental systems); and the possibility of finding alternatives (whether the resource can be substituted or recovered). An initial assessment against these criteria provides an overview of how a production peak might affect the production of minerals in Australia and the impacts that this might have on the Australian economy.Assessing important resources against these three criteria will be imperative in future considerations regarding the roles minerals and metals play as service providers in our economic, social and environmental systems. Additionally, this analysis should prompt a reassessment of the value of minerals beyond economic measures. Indicators derived from these criteria will inform strategies that can address future changes in production characteristics – meeting challenges with strong governance, and realising opportunities with proactive policy.     

Alternative future environmental regulatory approaches for petroleum refineries

Recently, many industrial, regulatory, and community leaders have expressed concern that the current environmental regulatory structure disregards multimedia environmental impacts, provides few incentives to develop and use new technologies, and fails to consider site-specific conditions. For the US petroleum refining industry, faced with the need to produce higher-quality fuels from poorer-quality feedstocks, such criticisms are expected to increase. This article offers two alternative environmental regulatory approaches for existing petroleum refineries to use in the future. These alternative approaches are multimedia in scope, provide for new technology development and use, and allow flexibility in the means for meeting environmental goals. They have been reviewed and critiqued by various stakeholders, including industry representatives, regulators, and local and national community and environmental organizations. The integration of stakeholder comments and findings of ongoing national and international regulatory reinvention efforts in the development of these approaches positions them for potential use by other industries in addition to petroleum refineries.     

Shaping sustainable technology development in the coatings chain Defining boundaries,environmental problems and main players

To meet the requirements of sustainable technology development, innovation processes should go beyond optimization, retroffitting and redesign based on incremental innovation, to focus particularly on breakthrough innovations. The aim of current research looks forward to building insights in the field of environment, technology and innovation to design and test a methodology for medium-, long-term innovation planning of future technological options towards sustainability in the paint and coatings chain, and to draw conclusions under which conditions this methodology is feasible. This paper describes the conceptual and theoretical framework as well as the integrated chain, the main environmental problems and the main actors in the network under research.     

基于“三线一单”流域开发规划替代方案环评研究

针对我国流域规划环评中替代方案不足的问题,提出基于“三线一单”环境管理要求建立评价指标体系,并采用快速影响评价矩阵（RIAM）实施规划替代方案综合评估.针对福建晋江流域开发规划环评的研究结果显示,采用研究建立的评价指标和方法可以有效地对6个规划替代方案的主要生态环境影响进行综合评价,其中方案Ⅱ在优化水资源配置、保障下游生态用水、严控小水电开发等方面更具优势,可作为推荐方案并进入详评阶段.本研究建立的替代方案评价指标和方法,对于在流域开发规划环评中落实“三线一单”管理要求、促进规划编制与环评过程互动和提高评价效率具有有利作用.     

建筑废弃物资源化环境效益分析:以重庆为例

为了向政府提供可以提升建筑废弃物资源化环境效益的有利政策,以促进建筑废弃物资源化的可持续发展,本文从系统角度,应用系统动力学通过文献分析、实地调研、调查问卷等方法对建筑废弃物资源化的环境效益进行建模和模拟仿真.通过对环境效益模型进行情景分析,得出当非法排放单位罚款在50~60元/t,单位填埋收费取30元/t左右,建筑废弃物到资源化处置中心距离在15~25km左右,资源化的单位补贴额为25元/t左右时,可以使环境效益处于较优状态.同时政府应提高建筑废弃物相关法律的完善程度、培养相关人员的现场回收意识、促进相关科研研发,以期促进建筑废弃物资源化的环境效益.     

不确定性下区域规划环评方案优化方法框架研究

为了弥补以往规划环评方案中存在的两个缺陷,构建了不确定性条件下融合型和调整型区域规划环评方案优化方法框架,从而消除规划方案本身潜在的环境影响,且实现了规划方案和环境保护补救措施的系统优化及其不确定性风险决策.同时,从方法学上,基于强化区间优化模型建立了不确定性条件下规划方案和补救措施的双层优化方法.最后,针对郑州市土地利用总体规划(1997～2010年)的规划环评,以生态系统服务功能价值的最大化为目标,以郑州市土地资源、经济发展(GDP)和环境指标(土地承载COD排放总量)为约束条件,得到不同风险水平下土地利用规划优化方案.结果表明:①优化后的规划方案的生态系统服务功能价值高于原规划方案,约为原规划方案的1.45～1.52倍,且完全能满足郑州市2010年GDP目标;②有必要在未来融合型或调整型规划环评融入不确定性优化思想,且需要为决策者提供不同环境风险水平下的决策方案.     

城市总体规划环境影响评价方法

开发不同类型规划的环境影响评价技术和方法是当前国内的热点研究领域之一.围绕城市总体规划特点,在分析识别规划经济增长和用地布局方案中存在的多种不确定性的基础上,以产业和用地为基本评估单元,综合运用蒙特卡罗随机采样技术和HSY算法,并将其与地理信息系统进行整合,建立了基于结构与空间不确定性分析的城市规划环评方法和系统评估模型.     

China''s environmental scientific research and technology development: review and envisage

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Sustainable development and the water–energy–food nexus: A perspective on livelihoods

The water–energy–food nexus is being promoted as a conceptual tool for achieving sustainable development. Frameworks for implementing nexus thinking, however, have failed to explicitly or adequately incorporate sustainable livelihoods perspectives. This is counterintuitive given that livelihoods are key to achieving sustainable development. In this paper we present a critical review of nexus approaches and identify potential linkages with sustainable livelihoods theory and practice, to deepen our understanding of the interrelated dynamics between human populations and the natural environment. Building upon this review, we explore the concept of ‘environmental livelihood security’ – which encompasses a balance between natural resource supply and human demand on the environment to promote sustainability – and develop an integrated nexus-livelihoods framework for examining the environmental livelihood security of a system. The outcome is an integrated framework with the capacity to measure and monitor environmental livelihood security of whole systems by accounting for the water, energy and food requisites for livelihoods at multiple spatial scales and institutional levels. We anticipate this holistic approach will not only provide a significant contribution to achieving national and regional sustainable development targets, but will also be effective for promoting equity amongst individuals and communities in local and global development agendas.     

Collaborative governance and adaptive management: Lessons from California's CALFED Water Program

Both for its technological and institutional innovations and for its history of conflicts, California's water system has been one of the most observed in the world. This article and this Special Issue on the CALFED Bay-Delta Program continue in this tradition. CALFED is likely the most ambitious experiment in collaborative environmental policy and adaptive management the world has seen to date. This Issue moves beyond the celebratory tone of other analyses of collaborative, adaptive management and looks closer into how collaborative networks work to produce innovation, and more importantly to reflect also on their inherent contradictions, limitations and “dark sides”. While collaborative governance enhances mutual understandings and can be a source of innovation, it appears ill-suited to resolve alone the distributive dilemmas at the core of many water – and other environmental – conflicts. A lacuna in existing research concerns the institutional design of effective boundaries and linkages between democratic politics, legitimate authority, and adaptive governance, i.e. the mix of institutions that can provide sufficient responsibility, accountability and democratic legitimacy, without choking off the self-organizing interaction, shared learning, and communication that is at the heart of collaboration. A painful realization in the Delta is that environmental conservation and further growth may be fundamentally at odds; efficient win–win solutions, institutional or technological, seem insufficient to satisfy the competing demands posed upon the system. Radical decisions and changes might be necessary, but they seem unlikely under current institutional arrangements and political conditions.     

快速城市化对区域生态环境影响的时空过程及评价

综合景观生态学与地统计学方法,尝试构建基于"遥感(RS)数据分类→土地利用变化制图→景观格局分析→GIS地统计分析"的区域环境影响评价方法,定量研究了区域环境变化的时空变化特征.案例研究采用2000、2004和2006年遥感数据,监测快速城市化背景下连云港港湾地区城市用地扩张特征、盐田湿地损失、填海造地(港口扩建等)以及耕地退化等关键的区域环境变化,分析评价了区域景观格局特征和生态环境效应,进而评价了快速城市化背景下区域环境影响强度的时空分异.在城市规划和区域发展战略驱动下,整个区域环境影响强度分布及变化规律与城市扩张强度与方向基本一致,高环境影响强度区是受人类干扰最大、生态系统最脆弱以及环境被破坏程度最深的部分,也是当前和未来进行环境调控重点地区.     

Every product casts a shadow: but can we see it,and can we act on it?

This article presents a conceptual exploration of the use of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) in environmental product policy. Environmental LCA is a scientific technique for evaluating the potential environmental impacts of a product, process or activity along its physical life cycle, i.e. from raw materials extraction to the disposal of released materials to nature. The utilization of LCA in environmental policy is evaluated here with the use of concepts from the research tradition of social studies of science and technology (SST). Three different ways of using LCA are identified: a definitive approach, a conceptual approach and a facilitative approach. Examples of each approach are presented and discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are analyzed, leading to the tentative conclusion that LCA works better as a conceptual or facilitative instrument than as a tool for gaining definitive support for specific policies. Finally, LCA is discussed as an illustration of the problems inherent in the current cause-oriented, integrative trend in environmental policy.     

完善环境审计法律对策

为监督中国环境政策的执行、环境保护管理体系的运行情况、环保资金的投入与效益以及资源的合理开发利用、大气污染、水污染、有害废物控制与治理情况及自然资源保护状况等,需要审计机关通过环境审计进行监督,因此开展环境审计势在必行.文章从论证开展环境审计的必要性入手,就完善环境审计的法律法规提出了意见.