E-participation for environmental sustainability in transitional urban China

Using information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-participation is a tool that promotes the inclusion of the public in participative and deliberative decision-making processes, thus contributing to a transformation of the interaction between government and citizens in environmental governance and sustainable development. In a number of Chinese cities, citizens increasingly draw on ICTs to promote environmental sustainability and to encourage community-based actions aimed to address various environmental concerns. The potential success of e-participation and the role of ICTs in China has, however, not been well explored. The objective of this study is to understand the role that ICTs can play in promoting public participation about environmental sustainability issues in urban China. Based on an online survey with 630 respondents, the study aims to: (1) analyze what public motivations, perception/attitudes and actions drive environmental e-participation; (2) identify barriers to e-participation, and (3) assess the different applications and functions of ICT for citizen participation in environmental sustainability. The analysis illustrates how ICTs have helped the public to obtain sensitive information about sustainability issues, to mobilize people and to gain media coverage for their actions. The central finding is that new technologies have taken citizen engagement to new heights online. More specifically, the age of ICTs has unleashed a stronger public voice on environmental governance and sustainability issues in urban China, which does not go unnoticed by the Chinese state authorities.     

基于组合模型的能源消费预测研究

能源作为社会发展的重要物质基础,其消费影响着人类赖以生存和发展的自然环境,也是经济和社会可持续发展的关键问题。通过建立能源消费量模型,准确预测中国能源消费总量,做好未来能源消费预测分析,从而为制定合理的能源生产计划、外供能、节能计划及制定相关的政策等提供科学的依据,这对于保持中国社会经济健康、持续、稳定的发展都具有重要的理论与现实意义。而运用组合模型进行预测不仅预测结果准确性高,而且稳定性好。本文借助组合模型对能源消费所做的预测研究表明,随着社会、经济的发展,中国能源需求不断增长。尤其是2000年以来,中国能源消费稳步增长,未来几年仍将继续保持此增长势头及速度。组合模型集结了更多的有用信息,使得预测结果更加可靠,可以作为中国"十二五"期间的能源消费量预测的有效工具,为能源决策提供更为可靠的依据及建议。     

Contribution of small-scale mining to employment,development and sustainability – an Indian scenario

Small-scale mining is more prevalent in India. The maximum production capacity of 50,000 tonnes/year has been accepted as a criterion to Indian small-scale mine. Such mines constitute about 90% of total number of mines, 42% of the total non-fuel minerals and metals, 5% of the fuel minerals. Some 3000 small scale mines account for a work force of about 0.5 million people. Yet this sector is a neglected sector in Indian economy and still considered as an unorganized sector. This paper examines the contribution of small-scale mines to employment and national mineral production, practices, and Indian policy on small-scale mining. It identifies the drawbacks in the existing Government policy and discusses the role of Government for up gradation in this sector. It focuses the need for technical up gradation and to ensure the economic and social infrastructure. It also discusses how the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods, poverty alleviation and indigenous peoples right in artisanal and small-scale mining be more effective when these communities are disadvantaged or neglected by Government policies. This paper concludes that this sector can make significant contribution to Indian economy and employment generation. It recommends that by establishing mining centre consist of shared mining and processing facilities, educating and training related initiatives it can be achieved.     

The Clean Development Mechanism and Sustainable Development in China's Electricity Sector

Abstract

The Clean Development Mechanism, a flexibility mechanism contained in the Kyoto Protocol, offers China an important tool to attract investment in clean energy technology and processes into its electricity sector. The Chinese electricity sector places centrally in the country's economy and environment, being a significant contributor to the acid rain and air pollution problems that plague many of China's cities and regions, and therefore a focus of many related energy and environmental policies. China's electricity sector has also been the subject of a number of economic analyses that have showed that it contains the highest potential for clean energy investment through the Clean Development Mechanism of any economic sector in China. This mechanism, through the active participation from investors in more industrialized countries, can help alleviate the environmental problems attributable to electricity generation in China through advancing such technology as wind electricity generation, clean coal technology, high efficient natural gas electricity generation, or utilization of coal mine methane. In this context, the Clean Development Mechanism also compliments a range of environmental and energy policies which are strategizing to encourage the sustainable development of China's economy.     

China’s Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy:2006-2010

China achieved major progress in low-carbon development during the period of the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010). The increasing trend of energy intensity and carbon intensity of the economy as seen prior to 2005 was reversed to a sharp decreasing trend, leading to a 19% decrease in energy intensity and 21% decrease in carbon intensity in five years. The enhanced energy efficiency, mostly due to efficiency improvement in power and manufacturing sector, is the major driver of the decrease in carbon intensity of the economy. The development of renewable energy, despite its impressive growth rate, played a minor role because of its small share in the energy mix of the country. Energy con-sumption and energy-related carbon emissions per unit of area in building continued to grow at a lesser rate, which, combined with the fast growth of total building volume, led to fast growth in total energy consumption and carbon emissions in the sector. Similar trend is observed in the transportation sector whose total energy use and carbon emissions continued to grow fast despite slight improvement in energy efficiency. Agricultural energy use experienced a slight change and forestry made a major contribution to carbon sinks. Policy and institutional innovations helped build a solid system of rules for low-carbon development. Improving cost effectiveness of the system remains a major challenge for the next five year plan period.     

三阶段论：人类社会演化规律初探

本文在剖析人与自然界中的生命力系统的双螺旋进化过程及其相关主形态演化趋势的基础上，提出人类社会由生存、发展到可持续发展的“三阶段”演化学说，并依据“三种生产论”分析和评价了生存与发展阶段的特征和规律，探讨了可持续发展的内涵及其演化阶段的基本特征与行为准则     

Sustainable Development and the Basic Value of Natural Environment

Abstract

Contrast with artificial environment, the multi-level self-organizational system of nature has great gain. Sustainable material environment should respect nature: non-rubbish and super-cycle quality of natural ecosystem offers the material source of human development, fractal structure of nature offers new field of space and information source to this high-density and information-based society, dissipative structure of nature links the new system of energy with whole ecosystem organically, and life-chain regulation is the base of sustainable life environment. Nature guarantees the physical healthy environment by its all-dimension healthy factor, constructs the mental healthy environment by its quality of co-ordinate and chaos, so that guarantees the whole emergence of sustainable development on the ‘super-science’ level. In the view of sustainable development, construction, green economy and human health are basic fields. With the concept of ecosystem regulation, we can relate these fields organically and fulfill the task of human health, welfare and sustainable development. Ecosystem regulation is the base of sustainable development’s new paradigm.     

A context-inclusive approach to support energy policy formulation and evaluation

Observing the many and varied reactions to the Kyoto Protocol, it becomes clear that different governments find themselves in different contexts that eventually direct them toward taking dissimilar positions on energy issues. This paper, through five integrated studies, investigates whether contextualizing energy issues is (are) relevant to support energy policy formulation and evaluation and provides insights into how to operationalize the contextualization. Instead of considering the most widely accepted tools currently used to assess and evaluate energy policy, this research proposes the utilization of a holistic framework that incorporates social, economic and environmental factors as well as their relations to the energy sector to better contextualize global, regional and national energy issues. This framework, which accounts for feedback loops, delays and non-linearity, is applied to case studies to investigate the longer-term performance of selected energy policies. Results of the study indicate the likely emergence of various unexpected side effects and elements of policy resistance over the medium and longer term due to the interrelations existing between energy and society, economy and environment. Furthermore, while side effects and unintended consequences may arise both within the energy sector and in the other sectors, they simultaneously influence society, economy and environment.     

Digital sustainability: basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystems

The modern age has heralded a shift from the industrial society, in which natural resources are crucial input factors for the economy, towards a knowledge society. To date, sustainability literature has treated knowledge—and in particular digital artifacts—mainly as a means to the end of achieving sustainable development. In this conceptual paper, we argue that digital artifacts themselves ought also to be considered as resources, which also need to be sustainable. While over-consumption is a problem facing natural resources, with sustainable digital artifacts, underproduction, and underuse are the biggest challenges. In our view, the sustainability of digital artifacts improves their potential impact on sustainable development. A theoretical foundation for digital artifacts and their ecosystem allows us to present the relevant research on digital information, knowledge management, digital goods, and innovation literature. Based on these insights, we propose ten basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystem to ensure that they provide the greatest possible benefit for sustainable development. We then apply those characteristics to four exemplary cases: Linux kernel development, Bitcoin cryptocurrency, the Wikipedia project, and the Linking Open Drug Data repositories. The paper concludes with a research agenda identifying topics for sustainability scholars and information systems academics, as well as practitioners. A number of suggestions for future studies on digital sustainability are also put forward.     

气候变化对江苏省经济的影响研究

利用经济学上的“投入－产出”分析方法,结合气候变化对农业产量影响的计算机模拟系统,研究了当气候变化影响农业生产和产量时,江苏省农业产值的变化及与农业部门相联系的国民经济各个部门产出量的变化。考虑江苏省的经济发展速度和产业结构,预测了未来不同的气候变化情景下,为使经济发展达到预期目标,社会需对各经济部门追加的资金投入量及各经济部门之间相互投入量的变化,提出了适应气候变化的相应对策。研究结果反映了国民经济各部门之间及部门与整体的相互联系,从而对制定区域经济平衡发展规划提供了理论依据和建议。     

西北地区能源-环境-经济可持续发展预警研究——以陕西省为例

能源、环境与经济是人类社会生存与发展的物质基础,能源经济发展在带来区域经济快速繁荣的同时,往往造成当地社会生活质量的下降和生态环境的破坏。陕西作为我国21世纪重要的能源接续地,在能源开发利用的同时也受到脆弱生态环境的约束,本文以此为例进行可持续发展预警实证研究具有一定的代表性和现实意义。通过设计能源-环境-经济可持续发展预警指标体系,构建出可持续发展预警模型,采用人工神经网络预警方法和层次分析法,编写出计算运行程序,运用Matlab7.1软件中人工神经网络工具箱,将有关数据信息和预警模型有机结合,探讨能源-环境-经济可持续发展理论构建与应用问题。研究结果表明:陕西能源-环境-经济的可持续发展趋势在2000-2014年间分别处于重警、中警、轻警和无警四种状态,基本符合陕西能源产业发展现状;所设计的预警指标能较好地反映出能源-环境-经济可持续发展的特征;基于BP人工神经网络的预警方法具有较强的仿真能力,能提高可持续发展预警的准确性,在能源产业可持续发展预警研究中具有一定的应用价值。     

Farmers’ perception of sustainable agriculture and its determinants: a case study in Kahramanmaras province of Turkey

The primary purpose of this study was to assess in quantitative terms farmers’ perceptions of sustainable agriculture and to determine how those are influenced by different socio-economic characteristics and information-seeking behavior of the farmers. The study was conducted in Kahramanmaras province of Turkey and comprised a stratified sample of 208 farmers from four districts of the province. The farmers rated each of the 21 selected sustainable agricultural practices for importance on a 5-point scale, and the total of these ratings formed the sustainable agriculture perception index. The index score was calculated for each farmer and was treated as the dependent variable in the stepwise regression analysis procedure. The independent variables were such socio-economic characteristics as the farming system, the total and irrigated area of the farm, membership of a cooperative society and participation in village administration, and age, education, and income of the farmer; components of information-seeking behavior included use of the mass media (newspapers, radio, and television), use of the Internet, travel, and participation in farming events. The results of the study showed that the higher the socio-economic status (more frequent contact with extension services, higher education, ownership of land, etc.) and the greater the access to information, the greater the perceived importance of sustainable agricultural practices. It is concluded that if policy-makers and extension organizations concentrate on these factors, they are more likely to succeed in making farmers more favorably disposed toward sustainable agriculture.     

论可持续发展中的循环经济

未来经济发展模式应当是知识经济和循环经济。循环经济是一种以资源的循环利用为内核 ,以环境生产为前提 ,以自然资源、经济、社会协调发展为目的的新型经济发展模式     

气候变化对江苏省经济的影响研究

利用经济学上的“投入—产出”分析方法 ,结合气候变化对农业产量影响的计算机模拟系统 ,研究了当气候变化影响农业生产和产量时 ,江苏省农业产值的变化及与农业部门相联系的国民经济各个部门产出量的变化。考虑江苏省的经济发展速度和产业结构 ,预测了未来不同气候变化情景下 ,为使经济发展达到预期目标 ,社会需对各经济部门追加的资金投入量及各经济部门之间相互投入量的变化 ,提出了适应气候变化的相应对策。研究结果反映了国民经济各部门之间及部门与整体的相互联系 ,从而对制定区域经济平衡发展规划提供了理论依据和建议。     

循环经济立法研究--模式选择与范围限制

发展循环经济是我国未来社会可持续发展的最佳模式选择，法律应该保障和促进循环的形成和发展。本文分析了循环经济的内涵、特征及其法治化，并对国外循环经济立法作了系统分类，在分析了我国循环经济立法应考量的因素、指导思想和限制条件的基础上，提出我国应选择的循环经济立法模式以及立法范围的限制。     

ICT applications in the research into environmental sustainability: a user preferences approach

Whether information and communication technology (ICT) constitutes a threat or a cure to environment??s deterioration is controversially discussed. Empirical evidence on the impacts of ICT is rare, so that generalizable lessons can hardly be drawn. This study provides empirical results on the role of ICT in research for environmental sustainability, but instead of ascertaining the impact of ICT on environmental protection, we conduct an analysis of the use of ICT in sustainability research. We assess the preferences of experts in different thematic sustainability fields for applying ICT tools, and we investigate ways to improve the application of these tools in order to augment their returns with respect to environmental protection research. This analysis is based on a set of surveys that were administered to international experts to evaluate the importance of ICT in environmental sustainability research and the research demands in key environmental sectors, such as climate change, natural resources, energy and biodiversity. The methodological framework is built on the analysis of users?? preferences for future developments in ICT tools using stated preferences techniques. Overall results suggest that ICT tools need to be developed in specific contexts, taking into account users?? needs and expectations. Our analysis shows that the use of ICT in environmental research is of great importance in the scientific community, but it can also play a crucial role in the policy context.     

A perspective on community and state interests in small-scale mining in India including the role of women

To achieve 8% growth of the Indian economy, the industrial sector must grow at 10% rate. The vision statements of various core sectors of the country show that the mining sector will have to expand greatly. India is among the top ten mineral producing nations in the world and the Indian mining industry indicates almost the full range of extractive mineral products. Small-scale mining is quite prevalent in India. Such mines constitute about 90% of total number of mines, 42% of the total non-fuel minerals and metals, 5% of the fuel minerals. Some 3,000 small-scale mines account for a work force of about 0.5 million people. Yet this sector is a neglected sector in Indian economy and still considered as an unorganized sector. This article examines the community and state interests in small-scale mining and the contribution of small-scale mines to employment, national mineral production, practices, and Indian policy on small-scale mining. It identifies drawbacks in the existing Government policy and discusses a possible role for the Government to upgrade the sector. This paper highlights the impacts of mining on women community, the socioeconomic characteristics of women as miners and on the productive roles that women play in mining. It also discusses how the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods, poverty alleviation, indigenous peoples right and gender equity in artesianal and small-scale mining be more effective when these communities are disadvantaged or neglected by government policies. The respective roles of the indigenous people and migrant workers in the social organization of ASM sectors in different parts of the country are discussed. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

中国绿色建材发展研究

绿色建材是一种不破坏环境，不能保护环境，节约能源和资源，满足社会发展的新型建筑材料。本文扼要介绍了我国绿色建材的发展现状，着重从三个方面分析了绿色建材评价标准，加强和完善绿色建材认证制度等建议以促进我国绿色建材的发展，从而保证环境、社会、经济可持续发展。     

Towards a Closed-Loop Materials Economy

Abstract

This paper introduces the recent appearance of a circular economy in such industrialized countries as Germany and Japan and outlines its concept and principles. The author emphasizes that a circular economy should become the breakthrough point for sustainable development and will enable a shift to a sustainable society of “doing less with less” away from the current high-consumption society of “doing more with more”     

玉溪市未来人口预测三种模型的分析

人口问题是一个国家或地区可持续发展的前提。人口规模是否合理,对一个国家或地区未来的经济、社会和生态环境可持续发展影响深远。运用马尔萨斯人口模型、Logistic增长模型和线性函数三种理论模型,利用《玉溪市统计年鉴》统计数据对玉溪市2010—2020年的人口发展规模做出预测,预测结果显示3种模型均取得了较好的模拟效果。Logistic增长模型的预测值最小,故采用其预测值作为预测结果。