A numerical modeling approach to support decision-making on design of integrated multitrophic aquaculture for efficiently mitigating aquatic waste

As a bio-mitigation strategy of aquafarming pollutants, the integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) system has been proposed and developed to mitigate the waste produced during co-cultivation. Although there have been considerable implementations of IMTA worldwide, its optimal design needs a further study. Through a numerical modeling approach, this study aims to facilitate decision-making when designing IMTA to more efficiently mitigate the negative change caused by aquaculture. An improved three-dimensional numerical model is adopted to simulate the dynamics of water current and organic waste in Gokasho Bay, Japan. Results show that (1) the maximum main surface water current velocity in Hazama-ura area is less than 10 cm s^?1, where nutrient absorbers and/or suspended feeders can easily attach to a substratum; (2) southern-eastern direction water flow is dominant through the year suggesting that seaweeds (e.g., Laminaria japonica, Ulva ohnoi) or mussels (e.g., Mytilus edulis) are better arranged in the same direction; (3) horizontal distribution of organic waste on sea bottom indicates that when releasing sea cucumbers (e.g., Apostichopus japonicus), priority is given to the areas where the accumulated amount of particulate organic waste is high. Our case study provides a general idea on the optimal design of IMTA and can be scaled to the globe, especially regarding decision-making on locations for the extractive organisms. In conclusion, to improve the bio-mitigation efficiency of IMTA, location for nutrient absorbers and/or suspended feeders can be selected based on local water flow, and sea cucumbers need to be placed with a careful consideration of the waste distribution in local area.     

青岛市公众家电消费观及废弃家电循环利用态度

为全面了解青岛市公众家电消费观及对废弃家电循环利用的认知和态度,采用问卷调查和随机采访的方法分析研究了大量调研数据和系统信息。结果表明,消费者家电消费观比较理性;对绿色家电产品和废弃家电循环利用的了解和认识比较有限,但对废弃家电分类处置却持有积极的态度和行为。大多数居民能主动将其简单分为几类:直接销售给家电回收二手市场或走街串巷的流动商贩、在线网站交易和拍卖、以旧换新交给生产厂家或销售店面、闲置于家中和赠送亲朋好友或农村希望工程。此外,消费者对废弃家电循环利用的认知度与其教育水平直接相关,而对环境和资源保护的行为与其年龄直接相关。     

A survey and analysis on public awareness and performance for promoting circular economy in China: A case study from Tianjin

The main objective of this study is to create a better understanding of public awareness and performance in the promotion of a Circular Economy (CE) in Tianjin, China. The data and information used in this paper were collected by distributing questionnaires randomly in 6 urban districts and interviewing 600 respondents. The results indicate that the residents have limited awareness and a poor understanding about the CE program. However, they hold a positive attitude toward garbage sorting while most of the residents simply classify the garbage into categories that can be sold, reused or exchanged for new ones. People's awareness of the CE program has a positive correlation to their educational level, whereas their pro-environmental and resource conservation behavior has a positive correlation to the age of the respondents.     

海水鱼类网箱养殖的环境效应及多营养层次的综合养殖

海水鱼类网箱养殖是世界主要渔业国家(如挪威、日本等)广泛开展的一种高密度、集约化的养鱼方式,这种养殖方式在给广大从业者带来巨大经济、社会效益的同时,对环境也造成了不可忽视的负面影响。开展多营养层次的综合养殖(IMTA)是缓解这一环境压力的有效途径,鱼类养殖过程中释放出的二氧化碳、氮、磷等物质,由无机提取单元(大型藻类)来吸收,粪便和残饵等微小颗粒则成为有机提取单元(滤食性贝类)的饵料,较大的颗粒物质沉到海底后,可以为腐食性单元(海参等)提供食物,通过这种养殖模式,最大限度地实现系统内营养物质的高效利用,在减轻养殖对环境压力的同时,使系统具有较高的容纳量和食物产出能力。     

Adaptation of Russian agriculture to climatic variability: The role of federal and provincial policies

This paper draws on the example of Tyumen Province, a federal subject of the Russian Federation, to explore the role that policies play in hindering agricultural producers’ adaptation to climate change. Its objective is to contribute to a better understanding of maladaptation at the policy level. The discourse analysis method is used to explain perceptions of climate variability in Tyumen Province and its impact on agriculture. The document analysis method is used to assess agricultural policy in Tyumen Province and its implications for producers’ adaptation to climate change. The results suggest that although agricultural producers and policymakers are acutely aware both of climate variability and the resulting loss of agricultural output, provincial agricultural policy generally fails to encourage better adaptation by agricultural producers or to support their greater economic security. Instead, it primarily focuses on meeting food production targets and thus limits the producers’ own independent moves towards adaptation. The phenomenon of maladaptation at the policy level is discussed in consideration of the general public’s and the authorities’ awareness of climate change and climate variability, and the role of science in shaping this awareness.     

Public perception, knowledge and policy support for mitigation and adaption to Climate Change in Costa Rica: Comparisons with North American and European studies

Over the past 20 years considerable efforts have been invested in exploring how the public understands climate change. However, the bulk of this research has been conducted in Europe and North America and little is known about public perceptions of climate change in developing countries. This article presents the results of the first nationally representative study (n?=?1473) of public perceptions of climate change in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, a large proportion of interviewees (i.e. over 85%) are highly concerned about climate change in general and feel, as noted in European and North American studies, that its impacts are more worrisome for people farthest away (e.g. in the developed countries or among future generations). At the local level, people feel that food (10.5%) and water (16.1%) shortages as well as poverty (11.3%) and heat waves (11.7%) are the most expected impacts of climate change. Analysis of adaptation behaviour responses suggest that individuals have a relatively lower grasp of emergency and prevention disaster plans but are relatively more proactive in preventing hydro-meteorological extremes related to water scarcity or excess. A majority of respondents engage in mitigation behaviours largely for financial or contextual reasons. Finally, support for adaptation and mitigation policy responses is generally high (i.e. above 70% of interviewee supports them) except for the case of internalizing the cost of watershed protection increasing the water tariffs (52.5%). As discussions about mitigation and adaptation become increasingly common within developing countries, questions about public perceptions in that context are more pressing than ever. Work on climate perceptions needs to be carried out in specific countries to better understand which policies are most likely to resonate with public support, and which might be most difficult to implement.     

国外环境保护公众参与和社会监督法规现状、特征及其作用研究

对国外环保体系发达国家（包括欧盟、日本、美国）现行的环境保护公众参与和社会监督法规制度建设情况予以阐述和介绍,以期为中国环境保护公众参与和社会监督法规的完善提供借鉴.同时提出该体系的主要框架性特征,即充分保障公众环境知情权、落实环境参与权、完善诉讼权和补偿权,提出公众参与和社会监督的政策依据受到政府部门的高度重视,以法规形式固定下来,对公众参与积极性的提高具有较强的促进作用.     

Psychosocial origins of conflict over pest control strategies

The achievement of consensus on strategies of pest control continues to be an elusive goal, one that is hindered by continuing, and often acrimonious, conflict. Psychosocial factors, such as personal biases, play an important, often hidden role, in maintaining mutual misunderstanding and hostility. One result of personal biases, such as intellectual preferences or styles, is that radically different perceptions of the “problem” are held by antagonists. As a consequence, there is little chance of developing common ground upon which to discuss solutions. In this paper, the role of intellectual style in the spruce budworm controversy is outlined, together with a discussion of the more general problems that personal biases create in the development of integrated pest management strategies.     

Non-market values of forest biodiversity and the impact of informing the general public: Insights from generalized multinomial logit estimations

Apart from the ethical argument around trade-off that individuals have to make between monetary and non-monetary value, application of stated preference method was exposed to another criticism related to the complexity of biodiversity issue and the capacity of the general public to provide accurate responses to willingness to pay elicitation survey. This paper tests how providing information about the ecological processes underlying forest management scenarios affects public preferences and their valuation of biodiversity in publicly owned forest land in France. The generalized multinomial logit models applied to choice experiment data suggests that all respondents adopt the same heuristics based on easily visible aspects of forest landscape, to reveal their use and nonuse values of biodiversity. However, when they receive additional ecological information, only those who are familiar with the biodiversity concept, have awareness of issues at stake, and have a regular use of forest tend to attach higher values to less known biodiversity component (fallen deadwood in this case). The paper concludes that “mass media campaign” has to be completed by environmental literacy programs, to improve people’s awareness and understanding of what biodiversity means from ecological functioning, then making economic valuation a useful tool from a conservation perspective.     

论生态补偿法律制度的现状与完善

生态补偿在我国有一定的发展历史,但在法律规制方面一直没有形成完整体系.文章认为完善我国生态补偿法律机制首先应厘清其法律内涵,在此基础上通过梳理目前生态补偿法律机制运行的现状,揭示其还存在法律制度方面的缺失、补偿资金来源单一、公民环境意识淡漠等问题,近而提出应从立法方面规范生态补偿法律行为、实施多元化的融资渠道,普及环境意识,推进公共参与制度等方面来完善生态补偿法律机制,达到环境、经济、社会的可持续发展.     

水产养殖与有毒有害污染物残留及其环境影响

文章介绍传统养殖模式虽然有着良好的环境效益,但养殖产量比较低下,不能满足市场需求;现有水产养殖模式养殖结构简单,过度依赖化学农用品的调控,饲料添加剂、生长促进剂、杀虫剂、抗生素等各种化学品的频繁而广泛使用,极大地阻碍了水产养殖业的可持续发展,要降低水产养殖对环境的负面影响,减少水产品中有毒有害物质的污染,必须调整现有的养殖模式,吸收传统水产养殖业中多元化、多层次特点和现代养殖模式中的集约化、规模化特点,摈弃高消耗、高污染的发展模式,合理使用农用化学品,控制养殖水体的污染,发展绿色水产品生产,走可持续发展的道路,这是未来水产养殖业发展的必然方向。     

提高环境意识转变公众行为应对气候变化

全球气候变化是人类面临的最为严峻的挑战之一,如何有效地提高公众环境意识,发挥公众在应对气候变化中的积极作用,是目前面临的重要课题。本文在研究环境意识、环境宣传教育的国内外理论基础上,结合成功的公众气候变化宣传教育典型案例,探讨提高公众意识,切实参与应对气候变化的机制和途径。     

Applying integrated assessment methodologies to air quality plans: Two European cases

Air pollution Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) can be used for determining how emissions should be reduced to improve air quality and to protect human health in a cost-efficient way. The application of IAM is also useful to spread information to the general public and to explain the effectiveness of proposed Air Quality Plans. In this paper, the application of the RIAT+ system to determine suitable abatement measures to improve the air quality at a regional/local level is presented for two European cases: the Brussels Capital Region (Belgium) and the Porto Urban Area (Portugal). Both regions are affected with PM10 or NO₂ concentrations that exceed the limit values specified by the European Union legislation. To properly assess air quality abatement measures a surrogate model was used, allowing the implementation of an efficient optimization procedure. This model is derived in both cases through a set of simulations performed using a Chemistry Transport Model fed with different emission reduction scenarios. In addition, internal costs (due to the implementation of emission reduction measures) and external costs (due to population exposure to air pollutant concentrations) of policy options were considered. The application of this integrated assessment modelling system in scenario (Brussels case) and optimization (Porto) modes contributes to identifying some advantages and limitations of these two approaches and also provides some guidance when urban air quality has to be assessed.     

纸品中"100%原生木浆"标记对消费者决策影响的调查与分析

目前我国纸张的用量越来越大,因而探讨纸的再生利用就显得尤为重要。采取了随机调查的方法,主要考察了纸品上标明的“100%原生木浆”给消费者决策带来的影响。调查发现:普通消费者比较关注纸的质量和舒适度,而对于对环境的影响并不很了解,大部分人在一定条件下愿意选择更加有利于环境的产品。因此应该加强宣传,使普通消费者更加了解再生产品,增强环境保护意识,从而能够做出更加合理的和对环境更加有利的选择。     

秦淮河流域沿岸居民环境责任意识研究调查

环境意识作为一种社会意识和价值观念,引导着人类在生产生活中对待环境的态度和行为。本文对秦淮河流域沿岸居民关于环境意识的调查,运用SPSS软件分析,结果表明:居民环境责任意识与利益关注对环境态度和环境保护行为显著正向影响,居民环境态度对环境行为显著正向影响;居民的环境意识与环境行为存在明显不一致性;居民在日常生活上是浅层次的环境保护型环境意识,环保行为上为政府依赖型,居民对环境问题认识的基本驱动力是利益关系;人口统计特征变量在不同假设路径中均存在显著性差异。     

European trade of forest products in the presence of EU policy

Increasing the share of renewable energy is of principal concern for the EU energy policy. A number of policies have been adopted, and, in part, been implemented by the EU member countries. An increasing share of renewable energy implies an increasing utilisation of biofuels in general and of forest-based biomass in particular. However, in the EU, the endowment and uses of forest-base biomass are diverse suggesting that an increasing trade would become necessary in order to cost effectively increase the utilisation of forest-based biomass. The purpose of this study is to, in the presence of EU energy policy, quantify and analyse possible trade levels for forest fuels in the EU. Particularly, the consequences on trade after implementing the White Paper and the RES-E Directive are analysed. Investigating the European trade in forest fuels is important for understanding how industry sectors in the EU will be affected by the policies. The results suggest that the implementation of the White Paper and the RES-E Directive will increase the trade in forest fuels, resulting in total trade increases of up to 67 percent. Furthermore, the national net trading levels are possible to derive. Depending on policy implementation the results differ – a country that was net importing given the White Paper implementation can instead be net exporting when applying the RES-E Directive. The fact that the policy implementations will increase the trade may mitigate potential industry problems to secure the needed inputs. On the other hand, the integration of countries increases the possibility for some industries to increase their production even more, possibly strengthening any input scarcity problems. It is therefore not possible to generally conclude if a more integrated European forest fuel market, and hence an increased European forest fuel trade, will mitigate industry problems to secure their needed inputs or not.     

Perception of people for the risk of Tianwan nuclear power plant

A questionnaire survey of residents’ risk perceptions related to Taiwan nuclear power plant in China was carried out to explore the determining factors that affect individual risk perception. This study proposed to pursue a more comprehensive understanding of factors that affected individual risk perception to nuclear power plants. Covariance structure analysis was conducted using risk perceptions of nuclear power as dependent variable and including interest and knowledge levels of nuclear power, acceptability, benefit perception, trust in nuclear power operation, and trust in government as independent variables. The use of the hypothesis of Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) was also proposed. The results showed that persons with higher levels of interest and knowledge of nuclear power had their own perceptions of risk closely associated with acceptability and potential benefits of nuclear power. In contrast, persons with no interest in and knowledge of nuclear power would have risk perceptions related to their trust in nuclear operation and the government, which partially supported the ELM hypothesis. All these results indicated that the government in China plays an important role in rational risk perceptions, and well-designed communication of risks will help the public to be involved in risk management and improve people’s rational acceptance of risk.     

Product-related environmental information to guide consumer purchases – a review and analysis of research on perceptions,understanding and use among Nordic consumers

Informed product choices are a prerequisite for the greening of consumption. Nordic consumers are subject to an ever-growing amount of product-related environmental information that is available in a number of formats. The degree to which they use information is disputed. This paper reviews Nordic research on consumer perceptions, understanding and use of product-related environmental information. The majority of the publications point to a great number of consumers, who recognise, know and possess sufficient confidence in the main eco-labels and should therefore, be able to use them. However, this is not always the case. How the product-related environmental information works in the market place is dependent upon many determinants related to the purchasing moment. Therefore, in contrast to the majority of research on the topic, studies of the use of product-related environmental information suggests that the focus should be on the purchasing decision and take into account the dynamic context of the diverse purchasing situations.     

A decision framework for Integrated Assessment Modelling of air quality at regional and local scale

Decision making in the field of air quality and greenhouses gases reductions can nowadays be supported by a clear overall framework and by computer tools that integrate the most relevant aspects of the problem. This approach is particularly important at local scale since new general rules on emission abatement at European level can only marginally modify the most critical hotspots and may be very costly. This paper adapts the general Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses (DPSIR) scheme proposed by the European Environment Agency to the specific case of local air quality policies and shows how the most recent scientific developments in impact evaluation and social acceptance can be integrated. The proposed decision framework represents a general methodology to design Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM) systems aimed at the implementation of effective Air Quality Plans (AQP). An extensive survey across European countries shows the current degree of adoption of these approaches.     

新建核电站风险信息沟通实证研究

随着我国近年核电产业的迅速扩张,核风险管理已成为社会各界关注甚至争议的热点.核风险沟通是核突发事件预防、应对及恢复的关键要素,对核风险管理具有重要的影响.然而,对如何与核电站周边风险群体进行有效沟通还知之甚少.为弥补这个缺憾,作者走访了山东海阳在建核电站相关管理人员并对周边常住居民进行问卷调查,以了解他们对核电发展的态度.文章描述了风险沟通的基本框架,意识到公众信任和信息公开的重要性.结果发现我国核能发展决策是由政府部门、核能企业和科研院所组成的"铁三角"主导的,受访者获取核信息的最主要途径是媒体,相对于其它渠道,超过51%的公众更相信政府发布的信息,更多受访者不愿意接受核风险和反对在当地建设核电站.最后提出了有效风险沟通的基本原则.研究结论对未来核电风险管理具有重要指导意义,也对利益相关方具有参考价值.