政府行政权力调整对城市绿色全要素生产率的影响——来自“撤县设区”和“省直管县”改革的经验证据

本研究利用“撤县设区”和“省直管县”改革来刻画行政权力向市级政府的集中和分散，构建双重差分模型，基于地级市面板数据，检验了行政权力调整对城市绿色全要素生产率的影响。研究结果表明，行政权力集中加强了市级政府的资源统筹调配能力，通过提高技术创新水平、增加环保支出规模、降低工业产值比重等渠道，显著提升了城市绿色全要素生产率。而行政权力分散的影响效应相反，并不利于城市绿色高质量发展。相较而言，行政权力集中的正效应在政府行为规范度较高、市辖区经济较强的城市表现更突出，行政权力分散的负效应在政府行为规范度较低、县区经济相对较强的城市有着充分体现。对于高行政级别的城市，行政权力调整的影响并不显著。据此，从优化各级政府职能体系，分阶段、分类型，渐进式推进行政管理体制改革等方面提出对策建议。     

供给侧改革视域下企业环保投入与企业价值的关系研究

选取2012—2017年沪深A股披露环保投入额的上市公司作为研究对象,探究企业环保投入与企业价值之间的关系。研究表明:环保投资对企业价值具有提升作用且具有一定时间的延续效应;按产权性质、行业性质差异分组研究发现,相较于非国有企业,国有企业环保投资对企业价值的提升效果更明显;环保投入对企业价值的提升作用仅在重污染行业显著。从政府、企业双角度给出对策建议,推动企业在供给侧改革下的发展。     

生产环保并举 综合治理获益

杭州电化厂是浙江省命名的“清洁文明工厂,”又荣获了省“六好企业”的称号,在企业的污染治理的方面取得了不小的成绩,但是,他们在成绩面前不停步,治理污染不放松。为使“三废”排放都达到国家规定的排放标准,争创“无公害工厂”,     

石化企业VOCs排放管控现状及减排措施

对石化行业VOCs排放源项、管控现状进行梳理,分析了目前石化行业VOCs综合整治中存在的问题,提出了管理部门强化“人员保障”“设施保障”和“技术保障”,企业现场实施技术研发、末端治理设施“三率”（投用效率、收集效率、处理效率）提升、风险管控、LDAR过程规范性管理、智能化信息化建设的建议和措施,可为石化企业VOCs污染防治和减排提供参考。     

污染物特别排放限值对石油石化企业的影响

介绍了污染物特别排放限值出台的背景。回顾了2008年以来水、大气污染物特别排放限值制定的一系列法律依据,分析了其执行时间和涉及的主要石油石化企业。指出执行特别排放限值后,重点控制区将有80%被调查炼化企业的发电锅炉不能达标,大部分在用锅炉需要进行改造或配套污染治理设施,绝大多数炼化企业的硫磺尾气二氧化硫和加热炉烟气氮氧化物将难以稳定达标。从行业或区域限批、治污技术与装置的结合度、治污设施建设周期等方面分析了特别排放限值对企业的综合影响,并从对企业影响的调研、加强与重点区域内政府沟通协调、制定重点控制区石油石化企业污染治理设施运行规范三方面提出了相应的对策建议。     

全面治理环境污染重塑企业清洁文明形象

湖南省常德市汉寿县氮肥厂是一家年产4万吨合成氨的化工企业．该企业过去是常德市的环境污染大户。年排放工业废水556．5万吨．废气1330万立方米，固体废物1．4万吨。近几年来，他们坚持走环境与经济协调发展之路、在治理污染．综合利用“三废”上大作文章‘先后投资535．3万元．完成重点环境污染治理项目8个．逐步甩掉了污染大户的帽子，步入清洁文明工厂之列。连续6年被评为市环保先进企业。作为一个化工企业．他们是如何甩掉污染大户帽子的呢？其成功的做法是；管住源头，花大力气开展“三废’除合利用；舍得投入，全面治理环境污染‘重…     

农村地区散煤的使用与治理

正改革开放以来,我国工业化、城镇化快速推进,人口数量激增,来自工业、交通、电力等众多污染源的污染物大量排放使大气环境容量早已不堪重负。2013年国务院颁布《大气污染防治行动计划》,之后我国在大气污染防治工作中全力以赴,工业、电力等污染物排放集中量大的重点行业的治理取得了瞩目效果。但每年秋冬季节众多城市的重污染天气还是会频频出现,这是多种原因共同作用的结果,但居民燃烧散煤取暖是冬季污染发生的一个重要原因。本文分析了其原因、现     

经济增长目标、融资约束与污染企业绿色技术创新

经济增长目标作为中国政府宏观经济管理的一个重要手段,不仅会影响宏观经济绩效,还会显著影响微观经济主体的行为和绩效。本研究借助中国2004—2019年沪深A股上市污染企业数据,采用固定效应模型,从绿色技术创新视角考察了经济增长目标对微观企业的影响效应,并检验了融资约束在经济增长目标与污染企业绿色技术创新活动之间的中介效应。结果显示,经济增长目标会加剧融资约束,进而抑制企业绿色技术创新。同时,在“硬约束”情形、重污染企业和非国有企业中,经济增长目标对企业绿色技术创新的抑制效应更显著,而环境目标会弱化这种负向作用。本文丰富了经济增长目标影响微观企业绩效的相关研究,并为地方政府科学设定经济增长目标、更好平衡经济增长目标与环境目标之间关系以及促进污染企业绿色转型升级提供了理论依据和政策参考。     

长三角区域一体化的环境治理效应评估——基于DID模型的实证研究

随着长三角一体化的范围不断扩大,融入区域一体化的城市不断增加,对区域城市环境协同治理提出了更高要求。本文采用2003—2019年中国225个地级以上城市面板数据,利用双重差分法评估长三角区域一体化对地区环境治理的影响和作用机制。研究发现长三角区域一体化能显著促进整体城市和原位城市的污染排放强度下降,但对新进城市的环境治理影响并不显著。长三角区域一体化对不同规模城市的环境治理效应没有显著差异;对非资源型城市和高行政等级城市的环境改善作用则优于资源型城市和低行政等级城市。进一步机制分析表明,长三角区域一体化带来污染排放强度整体下降,这一结果主要来自经济集聚效应和技术进步效应,来自产业结构升级的环境治理效应并不显著;同时,长三角区域一体化对环境治理具有显著的反向空间溢出效应,即在降低本地污染排放强度的同时,加大了周边城市污染排放强度。     

基于信号博弈的大气污染防治机制研究

建立大气污染防治过程中政府与企业之间的信号博弈模型,考虑国内不同区域的发展特色各异,治污水平不同、涉及污染排放的企业规模和数量不同,以及政府与企业之间的信息不对称,分别探讨大气污染治理过程中可能存在的三种不同治污效率的贝叶斯均衡状态。结果表明,处于不同均衡状态下的政府对企业的污染气体排放的声明会采用不同策略,其治污效率有所不同。     

AN APPLICATION RUNOFF MODEL STRATEGY FOR UNGAGED WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: Mathematical models for predicting watershed surface flow responses are available, most of which are elaborate nonlinear numerical surface and channel flow models linked with infiltration models. Such models may be used to make predictions for ungaged areas, assuming an acceptable fitting of the model to the topography and roughness of the real system. For some application purposes, these models are impractical because of their complexity and expensive computer solutions. A procedure is developed that uses a complex model of an ungaged area to derive a simpler parametric nonlinear system model for repetitious simulation with input sequences. The predicted flow outputs are obtained with the simpler model at significant savings of money and time. The procedures for constructing a complex kinematic model of a 40 acre (161,880 m²) reference watershed and deriving the simpler system model are outlined. The results of predictions from both models are compared with a selected set of measured events, all having essentially the same initial conditions. Peak discharges ranged from 3 to 118 ft³/sec (0.085 to 3.34 m³/sec), which includes the largest event of record. The inherent limitations of lumped systems models are demonstrated, including the bias caused by their inability to model infiltration losses after rainfall ceases. Computer costs and times for the models were compared. The derived simple model has a cost advantage when repeated use of a model is required. Such an applications hydrologic model has an engineering tradeoff of reduced accuracy, and lumping bias, but is more economical for certain design purposes.     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

Using Paleo Reconstructions to Improve Streamflow Forecast Lead Time in the Western United States

In water stressed regions, water managers are exploring new horizons that would help in long‐range streamflow forecasts. Oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations have been shown to influence streamflow variability. In this study, long‐lead time streamflow forecasts are made using a multiclass kernel‐based data‐driven support vector machine (SVM) model. The extended streamflow records based on tree ring reconstructions were used to provide a longer time series data. Reconstructed data were used from 1658 to 1952 and the instrumental record was used from 1953 to 2007. Reconstructions for oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations included the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and North Atlantic Oscillation. Streamflow forecasts using all four oscillations were made with one‐year to five‐year lead times for 21 gages in the western United States. This is the first study that uses both instrumental and reconstructed data of oscillations in SVM model to improve streamflow forecast lead time. SVM model was able to provide “satisfactory” to “very good” forecasts with one‐ to five‐year lead time for the selected gages. The use of all the oscillation indices helped in achieving better predictability compared to using individual oscillations. The SVM modeling results are better when compared with multiple linear regression model forecasts. The findings are statistical in nature and are expected to be useful for long‐term water resources planning and management.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Biodiversity and biotechnology

The maintenance of biodiversity is urged from many quarters and on grounds ranging from aesthetic considerations to its usefulness, particularly for biotechnology. But regardless of the grounds for preserving biodiversity, writers are generally in agreement that it should be preserved. But, in examining the various references biodiversity, such as species diversity, genetic diversity, and habitat diversity, it is apparent that we cannot aim to preserve biodiversityas such, since there are a number of conflicts in any such undertaking. In preserving one aspect of biodiversity, we damage another aspect. Five arguments which attempt to ground our moral concern for biodiversity are reviewed and critiqued, not only for their consistency but also for their power to move us to action. The final section of the paper shows how conflicts in the values of personal and environmental health can impair ethical action and especially policy formation.An earlier version of this paper was read at the conference on Agriculture, Food, and Human Values: Tradition and Change, Orlando, Florida, October 7–9, 1987.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.