Resilienz vs. Effizienz – ein kritischer Blick auf die Umweltökonomie

Background, aim, and scope Economists assess politics (also concerning energy supply) due to the efficiency criterion. Thus, economic instruments for environmental protection shall contribute to achieve ecological goals in an (cost-)efficient way. We show that the overemphasis of efficiency is an alien in the way (ecological) systems are working. Mostly, ecological systems are not high-grade efficient. Hence, economic instruments of environmental protection introduce an inappropriate logic to ecological systems that may have severe impacts on their resilience. We illustrate this with the example of emission trading. Time efficiency is considered to be a powerful criterion due to the interest yield requirements of investors, also for ecological investments. We show how the concentration on time efficiency destroys diversity and has negative impacts on the resilience of (eco-)systems. Main features The economic system is embedded in society and natural environment (as self-organizing, living systems). The economy as an ‘instrumental system’ should serve these systems. The guiding value approach (a system theory approach) gives indication that overemphasizing certain guiding values (such as efficiency, as the economic science does) may weaken the functional capability of systems and finally may lead to a collapse of the systems. Results and discussion The article tries to change the focus of the discussion. An altered focus probably has to be implemented by scientists of other subject areas. Contemporary environmental economics (with its focus on efficiency) is unable to give satisfying answers on the pestering problems. Conclusions Criticising the primacy of efficiency is not the same as generally to disclaim considering efficiency needs. Instead, based on the guiding value theory, we want to be contrary to the one-sided and dominating stressing of the of the efficiency criterion. Perspectives Not following the efficiency guide any more means to think over some ‘sacred cows’ such as emission trading or shareholder value. Instead we have to think over alternative designs to reach the ecological targets.     

GIS与环境模拟在环境地学研究中的作用和意义

21世纪全球环境问题将更加突出，环境地学应为研究、解决环境问题做出更多的贡献。但是，环境地学研究所采用的方法和手段还不能满足客观的需要。文章着重讨论了环境模拟系统(EnvironmentalImitationSystem,EIS)的建立及EIS与地理信息系统(GeographicalInformationSystem,GIS)的耦合等问题。作者通过研究，认为上述问题已基本得到解决．从而可以弥补GIS中环境模拟功能的不足，可使EIS纳入GIS的信息空间管理系统，进行信息空间管理、应用分析和信息叠加，并使信息可视化。文章最后指出．目前，可建立GIS-EIS联合系统，以实现信息互换和信息资源的二次开发、利用。     

Teil I: Braucht die Landwirtschaft Umweltmanagementsysteme?

The farming community is today faced with requests by various interest groups to implement environmental management systems (EMS). The series of items shows principle theoretical questions of the method and the advantages of EMS (part I and II), presents the practical outcome (part III) and give a recommendation for potential users of EMS in agricultural systems (part IV). The study conducted outlines the method of the implementing an EMS according to the Environmental Management and Audit System (EMAS) and ISO 14001. Further advantages and disadvantages for the agricultural industry are addressed. Even though terms such as site can not easily be defined or problems with open material cycles and structural particularity of agricultural farms there appears to be a benefit to implement. The transparency and documentation of the material flow as well as the economical benefits of an optimized organization count towards the EMS. Further EMS can be a means to strengthen the argumentative position for example with the public, authorities, banks or insurance. This concurs with minimizing company liabilities and obtaining governmental privileges (deregulation).     

企业循环经济发展的探讨

阐述了循环经济的概念;认为现代企业管理应当由原来的企业经济系统管理向企业生态与经济的复合系统管理转变,实行企业循环经济管理;企业应当把资源循环利用和环境保护纳入企业总体的创新、开发和经营的战略中去,建立“绿色技术”体系和“绿色营销”体系,实行全过程控制。     

试论环境保护的科学技术支持系统

本文从环境保护的科学技术支持系统分析入手,以环境科学研究对象和内容为核心,依据系统结构的内在规定性、环境科技的横断性、综合性和环境科学活动的组织规律,提出了支持系统的结构模型和科技队伍合理配置方案,可为环保科技结构调整、分流重组和能力建设所参考.     

计算机技术在环境保护信息系统中的应用

结合国内外实际环境系统信息的调研成果和客户需求分析以及环境领域自身的科学规律，论述了7种计算机技术(3S技术、在线监测技术、模型技术、多媒体和可视化技术、人工智能技术、仿真技术和互联网技术)在环境保护信息系统中的应用前景。具有辅助决策功能的综合环境保护信息系统的主要功能包括：(1)信息获取与显示；(2)信息查询；(3)环境信息的分析；(4)环境信息的表达。用计算机技术实现环境保护信息系统的主要功能关键问题在于：(1)系统的有效管理；(2)3S技术与环境模型的融合和集成；(3)专家系统(ES)与3S技术的融合；(4)仿真系统与3S技术的融合：(5)在线监测技术与3S技术的融合；(6)环境系统与Intranet/Internet的融合。     

Why telecoupling research needs to account for environmental justice

ABSTRACT

Engaging with normative questions in land system science is a key challenge. This debate paper highlights the potential of incorporating elements of environmental justice scholarship into the evolving telecoupling framework that focuses on distant interactions in land systems. We first expose the reasons why environmental justice matters in understanding telecoupled systems, and the relevant approaches suited to mainstream environmental justice into telecoupled contexts. We then explore which specific elements of environmental justice need to be incorporated into telecoupling research. We focus on 1) the distribution of social-ecological burdens and benefits across distances, 2) power and justice issues in governing distantly tied systems, and 3) recognition issues in information flows, framings and discourses across distances. We conclude our paper highlighting key mechanisms to address injustices in telecoupled land systems.     

Ecological network analysis for water use systems—A case study of the Yellow River Basin

Ecological network analysis (ENA) is introduced in this paper as a promising approach to study water use systems. Information indices from ENA involving total system throughput (TST), ascendency and overhead are calculated here. Two related aspects including organization inherent in system structures and synthesized water use intensity related with sustainable development of water use systems are analyzed. The indices of ascendency and overhead are applied for analyzing and characterizing water use network organization. For comparison of sustainability of water use systems from integrated aspects of environment, society and economy and based on TST, a new indicator termed as total system throughput intensity (TSTI) is constructed incorporating parameters of land, precipitation, population, GDP and environmental flow, which can be used as a measure of sustainability in terms of synthesized water use intensity. The Yellow River Basin in China during 1998–2006 is chosen as the case study and divided into subsystems according to the six river sections as from source to Lanzhou (S1-L1), Lanzhou to Toudaoguai (L1-T), Toudaoguai to Longmen (T-L2), Longmen to Sanmenxia (L2-S2), Sanmenxia to Huayuankou (S2-H) and Huayuankou to the mouth of Bo Sea (H-B). The results show that (i) the organization levels of L1-T and H-B are better than those of S1-L1 and T-L2, with those of L2-S2 and S2-H the worst; (ii) the synthesized water use intensity has been improving, of which T-L2, L2-S2 and S2-H are at the highest levels while H-B the lowest. In addition, the comparison between TSTI and other metrics and the relationship between ascendency and TSTI are discussed, from which the importance of TSTI is reflected and the optimization criterions for sustainable development of six subsystems are derived. It can be concluded that the application of ENA in water use systems can provide new angles for water resource management to address the challenges of assessing and optimizing options to obtain more sustainable water use.     

Reducing environmental impacts through socioeconomic transitions: critical review and prospects

● Reducing environmental impacts through socioeconomic structural transitions. ● Simulation of looping the dynamic material cycle should be concerned. ● Transboundary effects of socioeconomic transitions need to be analyzed. ● Facilitating interregional cooperation and synergetic control mechanisms. Rapid socioeconomic development has caused numerous environmental impacts. Human production and consumption activities are the underlying drivers of resource uses, environmental emissions, and associated environmental impacts (e.g., ecosystem quality and human health). Reducing environmental impacts requires an understanding of the complex interactions between socioeconomic system and environmental system. Existing studies have explored the relationships among human society, economic system, and environmental system. However, it is unclear about the research progress in the effects of socioeconomic activities on environmental impacts and the potential directions of future research. This critical review finds that existing studies have identified critical regions, sectors, and transmission pathways for resource uses, environmental emissions, and environmental impacts from supply chain perspectives. Moreover, scholars have characterized the impacts of socioeconomic transitions on resource uses and environmental emissions. However, existing studies overlook the dynamic nature of the interconnections among human society, economic system, and environmental system. In addition, the effects of socioeconomic structural transitions on environmental impacts remain unknown. This review proposes four prospects and possible solutions that will contribute to a better understanding of the complex interactions among human society, economic system, and environmental system. They can help identify more effective solutions to reduce environmental impacts through socioeconomic transitions.     

SPACSYS: Integration of a 3D root architecture component to carbon, nitrogen and water cycling—Model description

It is an ongoing challenge to develop and demonstrate management practices that increase the sustainability of agricultural systems. Soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics directly affect soil quality, crop productivity and environmental impacts. Root systems are central to the acquisition of water and nutrients by plants, but are also a major pathway for the inputs of carbon and nutrients to soil. The complexity of both biotic and abiotic interactions, combined with stochastic changes in root architecture, makes it difficult to understand below-ground dynamics on the basis of experimentation alone. The integration of dynamic models of above-ground growth, three-dimensional root system demography, and interactions between plants and the environment, into one single model is a major challenge because of the complexity of the systems.In order to understand the interaction between a plant and the environment, it is advantageous to develop a model framework to integrate submodels that simulate various plant and environmental components. The objective of this paper is to outline a mechanistic and process-based model, which is capable of simulating interactions among environmental conditions around plants, plant growth and development, nitrogen and carbon cycles, with a three-dimensional root system submodel as an interface.The model presented in this paper is a mixed dimensional, multi-layer, field scale, weather-driven and daily time-step dynamic simulation model. The current version includes a plant growth and development component, a nitrogen cycling component, a carbon cycling component, plus a soil water component that includes representation of water flow to field drains as well as downwards through the soil layers, together with a heat transfer component. The components themselves and linkage among components are designed using object-oriented techniques, which makes the model robust, understandable and reusable. The components are implemented in the C++ programming language, and inputs and outputs of all components are organised as a database in either Microsoft^® SQL Server 2000, Access 2000 or MySQL5.0. Root architecture is visualised by using the OpenGL graphics system. Preliminary validation with two separate experimental datasets shows that the model can reasonably simulate root systems, nitrogen cycling, water movement and plant growth.     

An overview of the environmental finance policies in China: retrofitting an integrated mechanism for environmental management

Considering the significant roles of the policies in developing environmental finance, an overview is conducted on the environmental finance policies （EFPs） in China. This paper analyzed the definition, scope, evolution and main instruments of EFPs. The implementation progress of financial activities on each instrument are investigated respectively. Then the experiences learned from and failures discovered in the development of the EFPs are discussed well recommendations for further improvement of the EFPs and their implementation are provided. Our study found that the EFPs have been established in China after a four-phase evolution since the early 1980s. The policies have played a critical role in leading to a rapid development in environmental finance by involving more financial instruments to accomplish the objective-led environmental plans. Driven by the policies, the new green credit （GC）, green security （GS）, and green insurance （GI） instruments have been phased in as supplements to the conventional command and control approaches to improve the environmental governance of financial activities and pollution sources. However, the market mechanism of financial institution is limited due to their defensive and incapable performance on implementation some of EFP instruments. To further strengthen the effectiveness of EFPs in facilitating environmental man- agement, recommendations are made mainly on the aspects including developing more specific policy guidelines, enhancing information sharing and disclosure, providing sufficient economic incentives, establishing environmental liabilities with financial activities, and involving issues related to climate change, and biodiversity and ecosystem service.     

Exergetic assessment for ecological economic system: Chinese agriculture

Based on the thermodynamic concept of exergy as a unified measure for environmental resources and economic products, a framework for systems assessment is presented for ecological economies. With a typical systems diagram devised for a general ecological economy with four arm fluxes for free local natural resources, purchased economic investment, environmental impact and economic yield, system indices of the renewability index, exergy yield ratio, exergy investment ratio, environmental resource to yield ratio, system transformity and environmental stress index are defined for a congregated systems ecological assessment with essential implications to sustainability. As a detailed case study to the Chinese agriculture from 1980 to 2000 with cropping, forestry, stockbreeding and fishery sectors, extensive exergy account and systems assessment are carried out with emphasis on annual and structural variations against social political transitions. For the overall agriculture as a congregated ecological stage, the value of the system transformity is found around 10, the typical value for the general ecological hierarchy as well devised by Odum associated with Lindeman's Tenth Law.     

Interaction networks in coastal soft-sediments highlight the potential for change in ecological resilience

Recent studies emphasize the role of indirect relationships and feedback loops in maintaining ecosystem resilience. Environmental changes that impact on the organisms involved in these processes have the potential to initiate threshold responses and fundamentally shift the interactions within an ecosystem. However, empirical studies are hindered by the difficulty of designing appropriate manipulative experiments to capture this complexity. Here we employ structural equation modeling to define and test the architecture of ecosystem interaction networks. Using survey data from 19 estuaries we investigate the interactions between biological (abundance of large bioturbating macrofauna, microphytobenthos, and detrital matter) and physical (sediment grain size) processes. We assess the potential for abrupt changes in the architecture of the network and the strength of interactions to occur across environmental gradients. Our analysis identified a potential threshold in the relationship between sediment mud content and benthic chlorophyll a, at -12 microg/g, using quantile regression. Below this threshold, the interaction network involved different variables and fewer feedbacks than above. This approach has potential to improve our empirical understanding of thresholds in ecological systems and our ability to design manipulative experiments that test how and when a threshold will be passed. It can also be used to indicate to resource managers that a particular system has the potential to exhibit threshold responses to environmental change, emphasizing precautionary management and facilitating a better understanding of how persistent multiple stressors threaten the resilience and long-term use of natural ecosystems.     

Conceptualizing and incorporating social sustainability in the business world

One of the most important challenges faced by business managers today is the integration of sustainability into their core functions. The contemporary enterprise is forced to leap forward from the mere adoption of green practices toward rethinking, redesigning, and redeveloping business practices in a more sustainable way. Most of the initiatives in this attempt have so far emphasized primarily the economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development and overlooked the social dimension of sustainability. As more organizations commit to sustainability, there is an increasing concern to incorporate social sustainability throughout their business operations. To conceptualize and integrate the notion, some organizations use preexisting indicators to demonstrate the value and impact of sustainability, while others look beyond the measurement of impacts by constructing their own system of indicators. This paper draws on a comprehensive literature review to determine a broadly acceptable framework of social sustainability indicators to be conceptualized and integrated into the business world. Findings suggest that economic and environmental sustainability can be driven together with core social factors including fairness and equality, poverty, health, education, delinquencies, demography, culture, and employee engagement within an organization. These results offer insight into the emerging phenomenon of formulating sustainable business strategies for organizations based on social indicators to attain the ultimate sustainable outcomes. This study is among the first to identify social sustainability indicators from societal and corporate perspectives. It offers a comprehensive social sustainability framework that may be adopted by organizations in the business world.     

Markets and the crowding out of conservation-relevant behavior

Markets are increasingly being incorporated into many aspects of daily life and are becoming an important part of the conservation solution space. Although market-based solutions to environmental problems can result in improvements to conservation, a body of social science research highlights how markets may also have unforeseen consequences by crowding out or displacing 3 key types of behaviors potentially relevant to conservation, including people's willingness to engage in collective action and civic duty; tolerance for inflicting harm on others (third-party externalities); and desire for equity. Better understanding of the contexts and mechanisms through which this crowding out occurs and whether specific market-based instruments are more prone to different types of crowding out will be crucial to developing novel conservation initiatives that can reduce or prevent crowding out.     

Integrated Monitoring and Information Systems for Managing Aquatic Invasive Species in a Changing Climate

Abstract:  Changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climatic drivers and sea-level rise will affect populations of existing native and non-native aquatic species and the vulnerability of aquatic environments to new invasions. Monitoring surveys provide the foundation for assessing the combined effects of climate change and invasions by providing baseline biotic and environmental conditions, although the utility of a survey depends on whether the results are quantitative or qualitative, and other design considerations. The results from a variety of monitoring programs in the United States are available in integrated biological information systems, although many include only non-native species, not native species. Besides including natives, we suggest these systems could be improved through the development of standardized methods that capture habitat and physiological requirements and link regional and national biological databases into distributed Web portals that allow drawing information from multiple sources. Combining the outputs from these biological information systems with environmental data would allow the development of ecological-niche models that predict the potential distribution or abundance of native and non-native species on the basis of current environmental conditions. Environmental projections from climate models can be used in these niche models to project changes in species distributions or abundances under altered climatic conditions and to identify potential high-risk invaders. There are, however, a number of challenges, such as uncertainties associated with projections from climate and niche models and difficulty in integrating data with different temporal and spatial granularity. Even with these uncertainties, integration of biological and environmental information systems, niche models, and climate projections would improve management of aquatic ecosystems under the dual threats of biotic invasions and climate change.     

环境分析化学发展战略研究

环境分析化学是环境化学的一个重要分支.本文报导环境分析化学的研究领域,对象,国内外研究工作的发展趋势以及环境分析方法和环境监测仪器等。近年来,在污染物的超痕量分析、环境标准参考物的制备以及环境分析监测技术自动化方面都有较大的进展,对推动研究污染物的来源、毒性和含量,为最终控制和改造环境起到了推动作用,环境科学的发展在一定程度上依赖于环境分析化学所取得的成就。 在研究国内外工作动向的基础上,我们提出了环境分析化学的中近期研究方向,其中包括有机污染物和元素化学形态定值的环境标准参考物质、无机毒物的形态分析、分析技术的联用,有毒污染物的系统分析、我国优先监测污染物名单的制定、新型采样器,以及监测技术自动化研究等方面,以供从事这方面工作的领导和科研人员参考。