Soviet resources policy: Foreign investment,resources and the tenth five-year plan

The author examines the plans for natural resources embodied in the USSR's 10th five year plan, 1975–1980. Problems of capital and manpower have forced the USSR to curtail the very ambitious resources programmes which were mooted in the early 1960s. Foreign investment is seen as one possible means of raising production and agreements have been signed with Western companies for over 50 development projects. More important still, the countries of Comecon have invested heavily in Soviet natural resources.     

Soviet non-fuel mineral resources : Surplus or scarcity?

The USSR has long been regarded as a resource-rich country with no need for external sources of non-fuel mineral resources. Increasingly, however, it is beginning to appear that such an assessment of the Soviet non-fuel mineral resource picture is overly optimistic. The Soviet mineral industry is beset by a variety of problems which complicate the extraction and utilization of needed minerals. The USSR remains a resource-rich country, but the difficulties it encounters exploiting its resources are multiplying. This article examines the Soviet aluminium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, platinum, titanium and zinc industries, and offers views of the Soviet resource future in each area.     

GRADUATE EDUCATION IN WATER RESOURCES: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH1

ABSTRACT: The production of videotape as a product of a water resources seminar is an innovative approach to graduate education. The research effort required builds upon the traditional graduate seminar approach. The videotape production requires research effort to be focused into a coherent body of information which may be widely disseminated and effectively communicates information to the public. The use of outside speakers and field trips blends very well into the preparation of a videotape. The requriement to present the many sides of a complex water resource issue in a fair and equitable manner requires maturity and professional capability on the part of the students. The research effort requires the students to meet their professional obligation to present an objective, factual, and accurate statement of the issues studies.     

Surface iron ore mining in eastern India and local level sustainability

Mining often brings certain irreversible changes to the surrounding environment. Different types of natural resources mostly surround the mines. Degradation of natural resources around the active mining zone may adversely affect the local economy. After cessation of mining operations local people may no longer be able to sustain their livelihood from the surrounding degraded natural resource; there are chances that the economy of the region will be shattered. The paper deals with this problem of local level sustainability of iron ore mining in eastern India. This problem is examined in the light of different theories of sustainability and national policies. By using household survey data, sustainability of iron ore mining in this region is tested. Substitution of depleting natural capital with other forms of capital can promote long-term sustainability of the local economy. This necessitates certain policy interventions to induce the mine operators to reinvest some part of their resource rent in the natural capital of the region.     

Efficient management of marine resources in conflict: An empirical study of marine sand mining, Korea

This article develops a dynamic model of efficient use of exhaustible marine sand resources in the context of marine mining externalities. The classical Hotelling extraction model is applied to sand mining in Ongjin, Korea and extended to include the estimated marginal external costs that mining imposes on marine fisheries. The socially efficient sand extraction plan is compared with the extraction paths suggested by scientific research. If marginal environmental costs are correctly estimated, the developed efficient extraction plan considering the resource rent may increase the social welfare and reduce the conflicts among the marine sand resource users. The empirical results are interpreted with an emphasis on guidelines for coastal resource management policy.     

长江经济带经济增长进程中的水资源阻尼效应研究

为量化2000-2016年长江经济带水资源消耗量对经济增长的约束程度，本文在科布道格拉斯生产函数中加入水资源要素，构建改进的Romer增长阻尼模型进行实证分析。结果显示：①研究期内长江经济带水资源增长阻尼系数总体稳定，水资源对经济增长的约束作用程度经历了明显的强弱变化；②研究期内水资源增长阻尼显著降低并趋向平稳，说明水资源对长江经济带经济增长的约束作用减弱并逐渐稳定；③浙江、上海、江西等7个省份存在明显的水资源增长阻尼，区域差异显著。由此，本文建议：长江经济带各省市应提升水资源利用效率，同时加大资本投入、优化劳动力结构，在区域协调发展方面可构建水权交易机制，以期使长江经济带在水资源"大保护"约束下实现经济的持续发展。     

Pollution Control Policies and Natural Resource Dynamics: A Theoretical Analysis

Policies for the management of natural resources and the resources themselves interact to form complex systems. In this paper, we present a highly simplified model that can be used to study the general features of those systems. The model has three state variables, the abundance of the resource, environmental pollution, and the capital devoted to pollution control. We analyse it graphically using the singular perturbation approach. Two modes of behavior are possible; stationary and cyclic. When the abundance of the resources varies cyclically, the length of the period of resource scarcity depends on population size, economic activity, pollution per unit of output, and policy constraints. We distinguish between two classes of policies, one in which decision-makers base their investments in pollution control capital on the abundance of the resource, and another in which those decisions depend on the amount of pollution. We show that policies based on the observation of pollution are safer than those based on resource abundance, because in the latter case, small changes in policy variables can lead much more easily to a collapse of the resource. Increases in population size, even when accompanied by an equiproportional increase in the pollution control budget can lead to a change from stationary to cyclic behavior, especially where policies are based on resource abundance.     

Exploration and discovery of Australia's copper,nickel, lead and zinc resources 1976–2005

Examination of copper, nickel, lead and zinc (base metals) exploration expenditure and discovery in Australia over the period 1976–2005 reveals some significant trends. Australia's base metal resource inventory grew substantially as a consequence of successful exploration over the period, both through addition of resources at known deposits and new discoveries, notably a small number of very large deposits that underpin the resource base. In 2005, Australia had the world's largest economic demonstrated resources (EDR) of nickel, lead and zinc, and the second largest EDR of copper. Growth in nickel resources has been especially strong owing to discovery of large laterite resources in the late 1990s. Resource life, in average terms based on current EDR and production, is approximately 30 years for lead and zinc, 40 years for nickel sulphide (120 years for all nickel EDR) and 50 years for copper. Despite this success, major increases in production over the period (copper, nickel and zinc output increasing 3–4 fold, lead output doubling) and a fall in discovery rates during much of the 1990s means that resource life for lead and zinc is lower and nickel sulphide comparable now to that in 1976; only the resource life of copper has grown substantially over the period. Current published ore reserves are sufficient for at least 15 years operations at current production levels, but only a small number of the largest deposits currently being mined are likely to still be in production in 20 years. However, several mines have substantial inferred resources that may allow production beyond current mine reserves and there is a substantial number of undeveloped deposits that may provide the foundation for extended or new mining operations. The discovery record is strongly cyclical with resource growth for all the base metals punctuated by the discovery of giant (world-class) deposits each decade: these underpin current and future production. Recent higher metal prices and renewed interest in base metals, especially nickel, has reversed a 10 year decline in base metal exploration attended by reduced rates of discovery and resulted in record expenditure, new nickel, copper and zinc discoveries, and increased resources at a number of existing deposits, notably the Olympic Dam copper–uranium–gold deposit. With the exception of the Prominent Hill copper–gold and West Musgrave nickel–copper deposits, most of the recent discoveries, especially zinc (-lead) deposits, are of small tonnage (some of high grade). Nevertheless, these new discoveries have helped stimulate further exploration and also highlight the potential for further discoveries in little-explored provinces, especially those under regolith and shallow sedimentary cover.     

Reducing Nonpoint Source Pollution Through Collaboration: Policies and Programs Across the U.S. States

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution has emerged as the largest threat to water quality in the United States, influencing policy makers and resource managers to direct more attention toward NPS prevention and remediation. In response, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) spent more than $204 million in fiscal year (FY) 2006 on the Clean Water Act’s Section 319 program to combat NPS pollution, much of it on the development and implementation of watershed-based plans. State governments have also increasingly allocated financial and technical resources to collaborative watershed efforts within their own borders to fight NPS pollution. With increased collaboration among the federal government, states, and citizens to combat NPS pollution, more information is needed to understand how public resources are being used, by whom, and for what, and what policy changes might improve effectiveness. Analysis from a 50-state study suggests that, in addition to the average 35% of all Section 319 funds per state that are passed on to collaborative watershed groups, 35 states have provided financial assistance beyond Section 319 funding to support collaborative watershed initiatives. State programs frequently provide technical assistance and training, in addition to financial resources, to encourage collaborative partnerships. Such assistance is typically granted in exchange for requirements to generate a watershed action plan and/or follow a mutually agreed upon work plan to address NPS pollution. Program managers indicated a need for greater fiscal resources and flexibility to achieve water quality goals.     

Economic Failures in French Recreational Fishing Management

In France, freshwater recreational fishing management does not sufficiently satisfy anglers. Fishing effort is too high creating congestion costs and environmental quality is low while there is a positive willingness-to-pay for improvements. These inefficiencies are explained by three phenomena. First, private property rights are attenuated under institutional pressure. Second, recreational fishing is managed as an open access resource over the whole territory. Finally, halieutic policies focus on the protection of environmental resources and are inefficient at maximizing the social rent provided by recreational fisheries. Fishing effort regulation and environmental services provision following the beneficiary-pays principle could improve collective welfare. Social pricing could ensure equity in access to the resource.     

Cultivating collaboration: Lessons from initiatives to understand and manage cumulative impacts in Australian resource regions

Australia has experienced rapid development within its resource regions, with traditional mining sectors like coal, iron-ore and natural gas expanding and new industries such as coal seam gas emerging. As a result, there is an increasing prevalence and awareness of the cumulative impacts of the extractive resource industries on the society, environment and economy of these regions. Collaborative governance is emerging as a means of addressing cumulative impacts. This article undertakes an analysis of 30 case studies of collaborative governance in the resources sector of Australia. The initiatives analysed range from those focussed on information exchange and coordination to higher degrees of collaboration that involve shared resources and shared risks. The study demonstrates that there are challenges in using collaborative approaches to tackle cumulative impacts, but that significant benefits can be realised. The study highlights the need to nurture and cultivate collaborative relationships in order to provide the foundation for long-term solutions.     

On measuring wealth: a case study on the state of Queensland

In order for policy makers to plan effectively for sustainable development, there is a need for measures of welfare that consider changes in the natural capital stock. Current measures based on conventional national accounting are flawed because they are based solely on flow measures and do not account for environmental effects. In this paper, we use an expanded measure of wealth to estimate the value of natural capital for Queensland. The state's stock of natural capital is valued at A dollar 355.6 billion, of which non-timber forest resources account for 45.3%, ecosystem services 20.0%, and mineral resources 17.6%. This figure is a conservative estimate of the true value since some significant components such as the ecological and life-support functions of the environment are excluded. The estimates highlight the relative importance of different forms of natural capital and can be used to draw the attention of policymakers to the need to give adequate weight to the value of such services in decision-making processes.     

Methodology of industry scale analysis under the constraint of regional resource capacity using HSY algorithm

This paper develops a methodology of proper scale analysis for regional industry development, which can be used in industry planning with the consideration of regional resource capacities. In the face of different data sources and even data scarcity, alternative methods based on linear programming and quadratic programming algorithms for calculating the resource intensity factors are designed. Based on the empirical study of industrialization, initial scenarios of industry development were set. Using HSY algorithm, sensitive industries that may cause exceeding regional resource capacity can be identified, and the risk of exceeding can be predicted and expressed in probability. Furthermore, a proper scale range can be designed for these sensitive industries according to resource capacity. Taking the case of Dalian city in China, this paper estimated the regional urban development plan, various resources capacities were studied, and land resources were estimated to be the most critical resource for the city. The land resource depletion intensities of different industries are calculated by quadratic programming algorithm. Under the constraint of 427.56 km² available industrial land resources, the electronic and power industries have the most significant impact on total land use, if the scale of power industry exceeds 1.27 billion USD, the probability of land resource capacity breakthrough will be 50%.     

遥感在荒地资源调查及开发利用中的应用

利用先进的遥感技术对荒地资源进行调查,可以直接、准确地圈定荒地的范围;确定荒地的土壤性质,这一手段不仅精度高,而且省时省力。另外,本文根据遥感解译,还提出了荒地资源开发利用的构想,并针对性地提出了相应的生产模式。     

The common property resource problem and the fisheries of Barbados and Jamaica

Common property resources (CPR) tend to be particularly susceptible to depletion and degredation. This creates problems for sustainable development and for resource stewardship in general since many of the key global resources are common property. The article explores the different definitions of CPR and the traps associated with the harvesting of CPR without understanding the social, economic, and environmental costs related to their exploitation. The commons problem may be approached in terms of a private property solution, the allocation of individual quotas to fishermen, or a communal property solution in which communities of fishermen basically manage their own fisheries. The offshore fishery of Barbados lends itself to the private property solution, and the inshore fishery of Jamaica, to the communal property solution.Drawing from case studies of Jamaica and Barbados fisheries, four principles of CPR use are proposed: (a) the solution of the CPR problem starts with the control of access to the resource, (b) increasing production from a CPR depends on the conservation of the resource base, (c) the sustainable utilization of a CPR is closely connected to the use of technology appropriate for the harvest, and (d) local-level management improves prospects for the sustainable use of a CPR. The case studies illustrate that there may be local, national, and international levels of interest over the resource. Hence, the successful management of such resources as Barbados and Jamaica fisheries requires that conflicting demands for the resources be taken into account, perhaps using a cooperative management approach.     

Raw material problems of the Soviet aluminium industry

The Soviet Union possesses a huge hydro-electric power potential in southern Siberia, providing attractive sites for aluminium reduction capacity, but is poorly supplied with high-grade domestic bauxite resources. An early enthusiasm for the use of non-bauxitic domestic materials, notably nepheline and alunite, has waned in recent years, and Soviet aluminium planners have shown an increasing preference for imports of bauxite and alumina. By 1975 as much as 40% of Soviet aluminium production was derived from imported raw materials, indicating an unusual willingness to become dependent on foreign ore sources for this strategic metal. Future intentions are demonstrated by the abandonment of earlier plans for an expansion of non-bauxite based production, the construction of a large alumina plant on the Black Sea coast and proposals for a second seaboard plant on the Pacific coast, both using imported bauxite.     

Behavioral externalities in natural resource production possibility frontiers: integrating biology and economics to model human-wildlife interactions

Production possibility modeling has been applied to a variety of wildlife management issues. Although it has seen only limited employment in modeling human-wildlife output decisions, it can be expected that the theory's use in this area will increase as human interactions with and impacts on wildlife become more frequent. At present, most models applying production possibility theory to wildlife production can be characterized in that wildlife output quantities are determined by physically quantifiable functions representing rivalrous resources. When the theory is applied to human-wildlife interactions, it may not be sufficient to model the production tradeoffs using only physical constraints. As wildlife are known to respond to human presence, it could be expected that human activity may appear in wildlife production functions as an externality. Behavioral externalities are revealed by an output's response to the presence of another output and can result in a loss of concavity of the production possibilities frontier. Ignoring the potential of a behavioral externality can result in an unexpected and inefficient output allocation that may compromise a wildlife population's well-being. Behavioral externalities can be included in PPF models in a number of ways, including the use of data or cumulative effects modeling. While identifying that behavioral externalities exist and incorporating them into a model is important, correctly interpreting their implications will be critical to improve the efficiency of natural resource management. Behavioral externalities may cause a loss of concavity anywhere along a PPF that may compel managerial decisions that are inconsistent with multiple use doctrines. Convex PPFs may result when wildlife species are extremely sensitive to any level of human activity. It may be possible to improve the PPF's concavity by reducing the strength of the behavioral effect. Any change in the PPF that increases the convexity of the production set could offer natural resource managers additional opportunities to optimally provide multiple natural resource outputs. Techniques that minimize the effect could focus on either the human or wildlife outputs, or both. Methods could focus on reducing the externality itself through changing the production of the offending output or to reduce the impact of the externality through a change in the production of the affected output. Managers unfamiliar with PPF modeling can employ PPF thinking by recognizing that every decision involves tradeoffs and that sometimes these tradeoffs are unnecessary negative impacts that could be mitigated without compromising the resource.     

A theoretical overview of the relationship between the resource curse and genuine savings as an indicator for “weak” sustainability

This paper shows the strong relation between the factors that lead to the resource curse (RC) and factors that lead to a decline of genuine savings (GS). There is substantial empirical evidence that economies that rely predominantly on their natural resources are also characterized by slower economic growth. This so‐called RC is commonly traced back to the fact that natural resources' generate rents that are independent of a country's economic performance, which can lead to suboptimal reinvestments of this consumed natural capital. We argue that the factors responsible for the RC also have a negative effect on GS, a concept that measures “weak” sustainable development by considering reinvestment of natural capital rents in physical and human capital. We discuss whether the RC hampers possibilities for resource abundant countries to obtain sufficiently high rates of GS, and find indeed many reasons why resource‐dependent countries have problems achieving positive GS rates. We survey both areas of research, emphasizing the influence of the exogenous and endogenous determinants of economic growth, which are usually used to theoretically and empirically explain the RC on the three different forms of capital considered by GS. We specify why most countries suffering from the RC have negative GS rates and explain in detail where the linkages are. This overview could help with potential advancements in the explanation of GS through the inclusion of RC effects.     

The Worldwide Availability of Gold

This paper summarizes Bureau of Mines research relating to the state of the world gold industry. The authors discuss the world gold industry structure, demonstrated gold resources, current production, and the long-term cost and availability of potential future gold production.
The long-term cost and availability of primary gold production from 111 significant producing mines and developing deposits in 13 market economy countries (MECs) is evaluated. Total recoverable gold available (as of January 1984) from the evaluated mines and deposits is estimated at 819 million troy ounces. The Republic of South Africa is estimated to account for 87% of total recoverable gold. The USA and Canada account for 4% and 4.5% of the total, respectively. Eighty-three per cent of total recoverable gold is available at a constant 1984 break-even price of $400 per ounce, and 70% is available at $300 per ounce. South Africa accounts for 90% of the gold available at $400 per ounce or less. Gold resources in the Soviet Union and China are discussed but not evaluated for costs of production. Some conclusions of the analyses are that South Africa should remain the largest world producer until the year 2000 and annual MEC output in the year 2000 should not be significantly different from current output, given constant 1984 gold prices of more than $300 per ounce.     

CREATIVITY AND RATIONALITY IN PLAN FORMULATION1

ABSTRACT: It is the thesis of this paper that plan formulation is both art and science, and that to improve formulation, to develop better alternatives, the planner needs to both improve his creative capability and to think more systematically. Research into creativity by psychologist and social scientist has identified four aspects of creativity: the creative process, the creative product, the creative person, the creative situation. A review of research results on each aspect suggests several ways in which planners can improve the creative dimension of plan formulation. To improve the rational aspects of plan formulation a way of thinking is presented in the form of a conceptual model to assist the planner in systematically developing a broader range of plans. The major components are inventory, forecast and synthesis. The model utilizes the concept of a production function to provide information about the resource, management practices and its use.