化工石化集中区规划环评指标体系研究

本文提出了构建化工石化集中区规划环评指标体系的基本思路与程序。基本思路是从目标导向、影响识别、问题约束三个层面分析与筛选指标。基本程序包括三个步骤，首先以园区的规划功能定位分析为导向，从国内外化工石化集中区相关标准中筛选出基础指标；其次通过影响识别法和规划内容分析进行二次筛选指标；最后通过专家咨询和公众参与对指标进行最终筛选，形成一套适合集中区的规划环评指标体系。以某化工石化集中区应用了该方法，从规划合理性、规划相容性、规划实施环境影响、规划实施资源影响以及规划实施社会经济构建了五大类37项指标。     

城市规划环境影响评价指标体系综述

城市规划是实施城市可持续发展战略的重要载体。城市规划环境影响评价的内容应集中体现在评价指标体系上。本文首先将城市规划环评指标分为总体规划和下位规划(专业规划、详细规划)两个层面,再分别系统论述城市总体规划和专业规划环评指标体系主要内容和结构,指出当前城市规划环评指标体系建立、内容、实施、总体与下位规划协调等方面的问题,奠定城市规划环评指标体系研究基础并为未来研究指明方向。     

鄂尔多斯盆地油田开发规划环评指标体系构建

鄂尔多斯盆地油田开发规划环评处于探索起步阶段,还未形成一套普遍认可的评价指标体系,2008年对延安市某采油厂油田开发进行了区域开发规划环评。在环境调查、相关方走访及规划方案分析、环境影响识别的基础上,结合当地自然环境、社会环境特征,构建该规划环评的三级指标体系。从多方面对本指标体系结构进行剖析,归纳出鄂尔多斯盆地油田开发规划环评指标体系构建应满足的原则和基本要求。     

化工园区规划环评中应重点关注的问题分析——以新疆吐鲁番市沈宏化工园区为例

化工园区开发建设项目具有建设内容复杂、建设范围大、建设周期长等特点,且不确定性强,产生污染物种类多、数量大,对周边区域的环境影响复杂,其规划环境影响评价应主要依据《开发区区域环境影响评价技术导则》编制。根据化工园区开发项目的环境影响特点,选址、功能区布局、产业规划及可持续发展能力分析作为化工园区规划环评中重点关注的问题,并给予重点评价。     

低碳理念在工业园区规划环评中的应用

工业园区是温室气体排放的重要源头之一,工业园区规划环评应在规划的基础上,探讨如何在评价过程中通过制定合理的对策措施,促进园区低碳发展。本文分析了低碳发展理念纳入工业园区规划环评的工作重点,建议规划环评完善评价内容,在原有评价体系中融入园区温室气体排放特征、设定低碳发展评价指标、优化设计能源结构、构建低碳产业体系、低碳发展替代方案以及碳排放跟踪评价等内容,以达到规划环评指导工业园区按低碳路径发展的目的。     

低碳理念在工业园区规划环评中的应用低碳理念在工业园区规划环评中的应用

工业园区是温室气体排放的重要源头之一，工业园区规划环评应在规划的基础上，探讨如何在评价过程中通过制定合理的对策措施，促进园区低碳发展。本文分析了低碳发展理念纳入工业园区规划环评的工作重点，建议规划环评完善评价内容，在原有评价体系中融入园区温室气体排放特征、设定低碳发展评价指标、优化设计能源结构、构建低碳产业体系、低碳发展替代方案以及碳排放跟踪评价等内容，以达到规划环评指导工业园区按低碳路径发展的目的。     

现代农业科技园区环境影响评价研究

介绍了农业科技园区开展环境影响评价的必要性，对其环境影响评价的类别进行对比分析，确定了农业科技园区应按照规划环评的方式进行；指出现阶段农业科技园区规划环评的局限性和存在的问题；并从规划环评环境保护目标、总体技术路线和程序、规划环评指标体系构建的思路与框架、评价内容与重要专题设置4个方面对农业科技园区规划环评共性问题作了探讨。     

规划环评与建设项目环评之比较

文章对规划环评和建设项目环评在评价目的、决策作用、评价方法、评价指标、评价内容等方面进行较为全面的比较和探讨，分析寻求建设项目环评和规划环评目前所存在的问题，以此来探求未来环评工作开展的思路，提出想法和建议。     

青海省开展规划环评初探

文章在阐述我国规划环评发展以及规划环评作用和意义的基础上，通过分析青海省规划环评现状、及存在的主要问题，提出了青海省开展规划环评需注意的几个问题和建议。     

循环经济工业园区规划环评研究

概括了循环经济工业园区规划环境影响评价的框架思路,归纳总结了规划环评的主要内容,并以山西省长治市襄垣富阳循环经济工业园区为例,对规划环评指标体系的构建进行探讨。     

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.     

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.     

MANGANESE CYCLE IN IMPOUNDMENT WATER

Manganese entering impounded water will undergo a cyclic transformation. Oxidation precipitates manganese from top waters. At the bottom of the lake, biological activity will render manganese soluble by both intracellular as well as extracellular activity. The study was made to demonstrate that biological reduction and transformation, organometallic complexation, together with the presence of carbon dioxide and the lowering of pH all have some effect on the solubility of manganese. Dissolved manganese may be brought back to top waters during the lake overturn and therefore deteriorates the water quality.     

Provincial development plans in Zimbabwe: an analysis of their content,structure and methodology

Zimbabwean provincial plans were instituted to help in the achievement of the national goal of the creation of an egalitarian, socialist and integrated society. The national goal itself was adopted as an antithesis to the dualist society characterised by spatial, economic, social, politican and technological inequalities that Zimbabwe inherited from colonialism. This meant that provincial plans had to play both a functional (or growth allocating/distribution) and a territorial (or redistribution) role.

This paper reviews their role in achieving the national goal by examining their functions, content, structure and methodology. The paper concludes that because of their nature, provincial plans are not suitable tools for the achievement of the national goal.