黟县乡村旅游深度开发研究

黟县乡村旅游资源丰富,旅游经济地位突出,但与打造"现代国际乡村旅游综合示范区"的目标尚有距离.在分析黟县乡村旅游发展现状的基础上,剖析了其存在的问题,并进一步从产品体系设计、基础设施建设、旅游环境保护和旅游管理水平等方面提出了相关建议,以期为黟县乡村旅游的深度开发提供有益参考.     

乡村旅游形象系统策划——以黟县深冲村为例

乡村旅游是新农村建设的重要模式。以黟县深冲村为例，首先基于地脉、文脉、市场感应以及竞争替代4个要素分析进行旅游形象总体定位，然后从理念识别系统、行为识别系统和视觉识别系统3个层次进行旅游形象系统策划，这是乡村旅游可持续发展的内在要求。     

基于类型的乡村旅游竞争力研究

如何打造、评价和提升乡村旅游竞争力是现阶段乡村旅游发展的核心问题之一。纵观国内外旅游竞争力和乡村旅游研究的相关文献发现，乡村旅游竞争力研究十分薄弱。以乡村旅游地为对象，提出城市、交通、风景区、资源型乡村旅游地4种不同类型的划分方法，在分析4种不同类型乡村旅游地特点的基础上，构建了城市依托型和交通依托型较宜适用的层次分析法（AHP）模型，景区依托型和资源依托型则较宜适用的“资源-市场”组合矩阵评价模型，以期为乡村旅游竞争力的打造和提升，为乡村旅游竞争力的理论研究和实践发展提供依据。     

乡村旅游市场调查与市场分析

在乡村旅游课题研究的基础上，提出了“三重型”乡村旅游市场调查方法，并对乡村旅游市场特点进行了分析。以福建省永春县乡村旅游案例进行实证研究，旨在指导和促进我国日益火热的乡村旅游发展。     

重庆乡村旅游发展的实证分析

在我国提出大力发展乡村旅游的背景下，乡村旅游已成为社会主义新农村建设和城乡统筹发展的主要内容，并成为解决“三农”问题的一条重要途径。由于乡村旅游良好的“城乡联动”机制和广阔发展前景，将成为重庆城市带农村发展的重要举措。但从旅游学的角度看，乡村旅游产品具有一般旅游产品的特征，其发展历史较短而速度过快，已出现了众多棘手的问题。通过对重庆市乡村旅游资源及其发展现状分析，对发展中存在的问题进行了重点分析，从规划编制、精品培育、设施完善、资源保护、市场拓展、人才培养、示范带动等方面对乡村旅游发展对策进行了探讨。     

皖南乡村旅游可持续发展中的问题与对策

乡村旅游是新世纪我国农村发展和旅游产业发展的重要组成部分，是推动农村经济发展的重要动力。分析了皖南乡村旅游可持续发展的条件和发展中存在的问题，在此基础上提出了促进皖南乡村旅游可持续发展的对策：加强引导，普查资源，科学规划；突出个性，塑造品牌，加强乡村旅游的宣传促销工作；提升旅游产品功能，扩大旅游收益渠道；建章立制，加强对乡村旅游的规范化管理，提高服务质量。     

成都市乡村旅游的发展特色--休闲度假与文化旅游

介绍了成都近郊乡村旅游发展概况和目前存在的问题，分析了成都市乡村旅游发展自身具有的丰富资源和依靠蜀文化背景的优势，并结合目前旅游业的市场需求，提出了大力开发休闲旅游产品和突出文化特色的建议，以及具体的旅游产品类型。     

乡村旅游发展探讨——以湖北百宝寨为例

乡村旅游是我国旅游业的重要组成部分，肩负着以旅助农、以城带乡的重任。湖北省百宝寨拥有良好的山水风光和乡土特色。分析了百宝寨发展乡村旅游的实例，总结出成功的主要原因，并在此基础上提出了促进乡村旅游可持续发展的建议。     

游客乡村旅游意愿及其影响因素分析——以甘肃省会宁县为例

当前我国乡村旅游处于快速发展阶段但同质化发展问题明显。以甘肃会宁县乡村旅游为例,在对乡村旅游发展情况调查的基础上,运用Logistic多元回归分析,对游客的乡村旅游意愿及其影响因素进行分析。结果表明:有67. 4%的游客愿意去会宁县乡村旅游。教育程度、旅游频率、可支配收入、网络信息、亲朋好友、企业宣传、餐饮服务、住宿服务、交通条件、卫生条件和景点环境与游客乡村旅游意愿呈正相关;旅游经验、产品价格与游客乡村旅游意愿呈负相关。在问卷调查和相关统计分析的基础上,提出了促进乡村旅游差异化发展的建议。     

生态脆弱区乡村旅游开发模式研究——以沂蒙山区为例

乡村旅游在实践中正从边缘化向系列化发展。沂蒙山区是全国水土流失重点治理区,针对沂蒙山区乡村旅游资源状况,分析了沂蒙山区发展乡村旅游的市场条件,认为生态脆弱区发展乡村旅游应遵循经济多元复合化发展与内源发展的原则,建构纵向深化与横向附加开发模式,具体提出乡村旅游开发途径,即旅游内容特色化、耦合化,旅游服务网络化、规范化的深化途径与附加旅游教育和旅游养生内容等途径。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.     

Bioremediation of Soils by Plant–Microbe Systems

Abstract

Sustainable ecosystems can be designed to eliminate environmental toxins and reduce pathogen loads through the direct and indirect consequences of plant and microbial activities. We present an approach to the bioremediation of disturbed environments, focusing on petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contaminants. Treatment consists of incorporating a plant-based amendment to enhance ecosystem productivity and physiochemical degradation followed by the establishment of plants to serve as oxidizers and foundations for microbial communities. Promising amendments for widespread use are entire plants of the water fern Azolla and seed meal of Brassica napus (rapeseed). An inexpensive byproduct from the manufacture of biodiesel and lubricants, rapeseed meal is high in nitrogen (6% wt/wt), stimulates >100-fold increases in populations of resident Streptomyces species, and suppresses fungal infection of roots subsequently cultivated in the amended soil. Synergistic enzymatic and chemical activities of plant and microbial metabolism in root zones transform and degrade soil contaminants. Emphasis is given to mechanisms that enable PHC functionalization via reactive molecular species.     

National minerals policies and stakeholder participation for broad-based development in the southern African development community (SADC)

This paper explains how the well-accepted concept of improved stakeholder participation during mineral policy development leads to a national mineral policy that accommodates the diverging views and interests that allows wide acceptance of decisions, enhancing the success of implementation and, ultimately, national benefits. This process is based on lessons learnt during the South African experience and has been successfully applied in the development of the Namibian and Malawian national minerals policies. An effective policy in the SADC will engineer the delicate balance between poverty reduction and an internationally competitive minerals sector. This balance enhances the possibility of long-term economic growth and development in the SADC region. The overriding advantage of this strategy is that it generates ‘home-grown’ policy instruments and implementation of mineral law with which stakeholders can identify. This process presents a new challenge to traditional policy formulation strategies in emerging economies and the bottom-up approach, linked to wide political support, allows the potential realisation of national objectives.     

Energetics and environmental costs of agriculture in a dry tropical region of India

The present article, based on a study of five village ecosystems, assesses the energy efficiency of rain-fed agriculture in a dry tropical environment and the impact of agricultural activity on the surrounding natural ecosystems. Agronomic yield is insufficient to meet the food requirement of the human population, hence 11.5%–49.7% of the required amount of food grains are imported from the market. Energy requirements of five studied agroecosystems are subsidized considerably by the surrounding forest in the form of fodder and firewood. Natural ecosystems supply about 80%–95% of fodder needs and 81%–100% of fuelwood needs. The output-input ratio of agriculture indicated that, on average, 4.1 units of energy are expended to obtain one unit of agronomic energy. Of this, 3.9 units are supplied by the natural ecosystem. In addition, 38% of the extracted firewood is marketed. The illegal felling and lopping of trees result in ever-increasing concentric circles of forest destruction around the villages and together with excessive grazing results in savannization. The forests can be conserved by encouraging fuelwood plantations (0.7 ha/ha cultivated land) and developing village pastures (1.6 ha/ha cultivated land) and reducing the livestock numbers. Agricultural production in the region can be stabilized by introducing improved dry farming techniques such as intercropping, planned rainwater management, and adequate use of fertilizers.     

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “METROPOLITAN WATER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONS?”1

ABSTRACT The term “institution” and several variants are used frequently in the literature on metropolitan water management. The state-of-the art investigation on which this paper is based revealed that 1) many uses of the term do not include careful definitions; 2) many users of the term seemed unaware of the general, theoretical literature on the subject of institutions; 3) there was little consistency among uses, either in the practical literature dealing with water or in the conceptual literature dealing with theories of institutions or institutionalization; 4) some usages were without significant meaning; 5) in many cases the term was used as a kind of “black box” to account for behavioral, societal, or managerial factors; 6) the term was often used as a synonym for “organization”. This latter use is frequently found in federal reports, including National Water Commission studies, and is most unfortunate because it tends to slight significant social-psychological factors. A suggested definition is: “An institution is the structured result or outcome of a process by which values are articulated, arranged, and communicated, having continuity over time, and influencing behavior of persons who did not necessarily participate in formulating those values (norms).”     

Waste minimisation in practice

One of the major hindrances to waste minimisation on a construction site is the difficulty in establishing a methodology and using this methodology to benchmark future construction projects. This paper introduces SMARTWaste, a software tool that has been used to audit, reduce and target waste arisings on a construction site. This tool tries to link the construction process and the waste hierarchy. That is reducing waste on a construction site rather than landfilling it. Three applications of the SMARTWaste software will be discussed using case studies from three different types of construction. An evaluation of these case studies shows that, by implementing a waste minimisation scheme on-site, you can improve material recovery for reuse. Also, by using the waste arisings as a benchmark you can reduce your waste arisings on future sites. Application of SMARTWaste or a similar waste minimisation tool on a wider basis could reduce waste arisings and could result in a built environment that consumed less natural resources and energy, and also produced less pollution and waste. Such a built environment would be environmentally and socially more responsive and responsible.