黑龙江省土地利用与生态环境协调度评价

土地利用与生态环境协调度评价是衡量区域可持续发展的重要内容.在构建土地利用与生态环境协调发展评价指标体系的基础上,运用协调度模型,对黑龙江省1999-2008年土地利用与生态环境协调度进行评价.结果表明:黑龙江省土地利用与生态环境协调度和协调发展度均呈现出逐渐上升的态势,但整体发展水平不高,土地生态环境建设压力仍然很大.在此基础上,提出构建生态环境友好型土地利用模式,提高科技投入水平,大力发展生态农业,有效防治工业污染,提高土地生态环境治理投入等对策与建议.     

城市土地地质经济评价的理论与方法

城市土地地质经济评价是根据城市建设中存在着土地利用与地质环境不协调的矛盾，以及制定土地价格时忽略地质环境因素而提出的新概念。文章论述了该评价的基本思路、类型、指标体系、模型和方法．并以厦门海沧开发区土地利用适宜性地质经济评价为例，简述了该评价理论和方法的重大实践意义。     

重庆市都市区城市土地集约利用评价

从土地投入强度、土地利用效益、土地利用强度和土地利用可持续性方面构建了城市土地集约利用宏观评价指标体系.采用多因素综合评价法对重庆市都市区建设用地集约利用水平进行了评价,并根据土地利用集约度差异对其进行了聚类分析,指出土地利用投入强度、产出效益水平仍需进一步提高,揭示了城市土地集约利用程度与经济发展之间存在明显的相关性,针对性地提出了相关对策.     

基于BP神经网络模型的城市土地集约利用中观评价研究

中观层次的城市土地集约利用评价是以城市功能区为研究对象,通过建立各功能区的评价单元,对城市土地的投入产出效益进行定量分析研究的过程。从土地利用、土地投入、土地产出三个方面构建评价指标体系,借助BP神经网络模型从中观层次对淮安市清河区城市土地进行集约利用评价。结果显示,清河区土地集约利用水平总体较高,仍需加强土地的投入产出效益。研究表明,BP神经网络模型是一种较客观的评价方法,中观评价则能更详细地了解城市内部各个区域的土地利用情况,为政府决策提供更好的依据。     

山东省城市土地集约利用区域差异分析

以山东省为例,从土地利用的经济效益、可持续水平、利用强度、投入水平4个方面构建城市土地集约利用评价体系,利用SPSS软件对山东省17地市土地集约利用进行综合评价,并运用Arcgis自然断裂点将17地市划分为4个等级。研究结果表明:青岛、威海为高度集约化;济南、德州、淄博、烟台为中度集约化;滨州、东营、潍坊、菏泽、济宁、临沂为低度集约化;聊城、泰安、莱芜、日照、枣庄为粗放集约化。并就土地利用过程中存在的问题提出山东省土地集约化利用优化策略。     

东北地区资源型城市土地集约利用空间分异及成因分析

基于资源型城市土地集约利用内涵,从土地使用强度、土地利用效益、土地利用程度和土地利用可持续性4个方面构建城市土地集约利用评价指标体系,建立评价模型,并对我国东北地区15个地级资源型城市土地集约利用水平及空间分异特征进行分析.结果表明:我国东北地区资源型城市土地集约利用总体水平不高;省际间空间格局呈现出“南高北低”的特征,东中西地区呈现由东向西依次递增的趋势;单个城市间集约利用水平差异显著;不同类型资源型城市土地集约利用水平具有石油城市＞冶金城市＞煤炭城市＞森工城市的特征.资源型城市土地集约利用水平与城市规模、产业结构高级化程度和经济发展水平等呈正相关,针对如何提高资源型城市土地集约利用水平提出建议.     

基于经济效益的成都市土地集约利用评价研究

在立足供需角度分析影响城市土地集约利用因素的基础上,使用因子分析和聚类分析法对成都近年分区县城市土地集约利用的经济效益进行评价.结果表明,人口规模、经济水平和产业结构成为影响到成都城市土地集约利用的关键因素;成都市区县土地利用集约化程度逐年改善,距离中心城区的空间距离大小直接影响到成都市土地集约利用程度,人口密度是促使土地集约利用的最重要驱力.     

土地可持续利用的动态度量

完善土地持续利用的定量评价指标体系和评价方法乃是今后土地持续利用的重要课题,度量土地利用的可持续性应该遵循动态延续、面向区域、显示过程和突出目标的原则,据此建立一个动态地度量土地利用可持续性的指标体系,包括生产性、结构性、效率性、公平性、稳定性、协调性、恢复性和可控性8个准则层,每一个准则层选择一个综合指标.     

基于信息熵的武汉城市土地利用空间结构变动分析

借助城市土地利用空间结构的信息熵和均衡度概念,揭示了武汉城市在20世纪90年代土地利用结构的空间变化规律,得出土地利用职能类型收缩、城市用地趋向不均衡发展态势的结论.利用主成分与灰色关联相结合的方法找出影响武汉城市土地利用空间结构变动的主要动力因子,它们分别是城市福利和城市社会结构变化推动因子、城市产业结构变化拉动因子和城市建设与改造压力因子,其中后两个因子是驱动城市土地利用空间发生变化的最显著性因子.     

衡阳市城市土地集约利用研究

随着衡阳市工业化、城市化和现代化的迅速发展,土地问题已成为制约衡阳市经济发展的关键因素.对城市土地集约利用进行了研究,不断提高城市土地利用效率,有利于城市土地资源的优化配置和合理利用.在介绍衡阳市土地概况的基础上,采用层次分析法,从影响城市土地利用的因素出发,选择土地投入水平、土地利用程度、土地经济产出、社会生态效益四个准则层建立了适合衡阳市城市土地集约利用的评价指标体系.对衡阳市2000-2006年的土地集约利用分值进行了计算,结果表明衡阳市处于基本集约利用的状态,集约利用水平呈曲线上升趋势,并在分析评价结果的基础上提出了实现衡阳市城市土地集约利用的建议.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.