Motivations for organic farming in tourist regions: a case study in Nepal

An increasing number of individuals and businesses involved in the tourism industry have begun activities related to organic farming and organic agro-products not only in Europe and North America but also in developing countries in Asia. Both organic farming and rural tourism are considered important to socially and economically sustainable rural development. The influences on the establishment of or conversion to organic farming have been much discussed in Europe but not in developing countries. This study focuses on Nepal, where small-scale organic farming occurs in tourism areas, and qualitatively reveals the motivations for organic farming and other factors related to its adoption. It was found that the reasons for introducing organic farming practices varied with the timing of their adoption. Additionally, the kinds of organic-related activities adopted varied depending on how the individual adopter first encountered the term “organic farming.” However, all individuals involved in organic farming shared some common motivations, such as desires for personal health, quality produce and rural development.     

基于村域的乡村多功能类型划分及评价研究——以江苏省金坛市为例

随着城镇化的快速推进,我国经济社会发展进入转型期,乡村地域向多元方向发展和演变。近年来,乡村多功能发展成为地理学研究的重要课题,成为指导乡村转型发展的新理论和新范式。在系统梳理乡村多功能发展概念及其内涵基础上,探索村域尺度下我国乡村地域多功能的类型划分及其评价方法,并开展了江苏省金坛市乡村地域生态功能、农业功能、工业功能、生活功能及其综合功能的分级评价与空间分异研究,进而识别出全市分村域的地域主导功能类型。结果表明:生态功能高值区主要分布在环长荡湖、直溪镇和薛埠镇等水网密集、林地资源丰富的地区;农业功能高值区主要分布在金坛市中部和南部等河网平原地区;工业功能高值区主要集中在中心城区周边和尧塘镇等城市集聚发展区域;生活功能高值区主要集中在中心城区周边等地;乡村地域多功能指数呈现出以城区为中心、向外围逐渐递减的空间分异特征;全市乡村地域主导功能可划分为6种类型,并揭示其空间分布特征、分别总结其所对应的乡村发展策略。研究结果可为明确乡村功能定位、优化主体功能区划、完善乡村管理政策以及促进乡村可持续发展提供科学依据。     

基于推拉理论的“农二代”耕作意愿研究——以河南省为例

"农二代"耕作意愿关系到农业经营主体的发展、新型职业农民的培养和国家粮食安全。基于河南省597份问卷调查数据,运用推拉理论并采用二元Logistic回归分析模型,探索了"农二代"分别在近期和远期的耕作意愿及其影响因素。结果表明:与近期相比,"农二代"的耕作意愿在远期将会下降。"农二代"耕作意愿在近期和远期的影响因素有同有异。种地经历、家庭类型和农村生活压力等对"农二代"近期、远期的耕作意愿均影响显著且方向相同;种地技能要求、日常家庭开支对近期、远期的耕作意愿均有影响,但前后方向相反。而有些因素仅对"农二代"近期耕作意愿或远期耕作意愿单方面有影响。农户特征和农村推力等方面的因素在"农二代"近远期耕作意愿中均发挥重要作用。农村拉力在近期耕作意愿中作用明显,而城镇拉力在远期耕作意愿中影响显著。最后,根据"农二代"的耕作意愿影响因素,提出了具体的政策建议以期为地方政府制定相关政策提供支撑。     

The responses of agriculture in Europe to climate change

Human activities are projected to lead to substantial increases in temperature that will impact northern Europe during winter and southern Europe during summer. Moreover, it is expected that these changes will cause increasing water shortages along the Mediterranean and in the south-west Balkans and in the south of European Russia. The consequences on the European agricultural ecosystems are likely to vary widely depending on the cropping system being investigated (i.e. cereals vs. forage crops vs. perennial horticulture), the region and the likely climate changes. In northern Europe, increases in yield and expansion of climatically suitable areas are expected to dominate, whereas disadvantages from increases in water shortage and extreme weather events (heat, drought, storms) will dominate in southern Europe. These effects may reinforce the current trends of intensification of agriculture in northern and western Europe and extensification and abandonment in the Mediterranean and south-eastern parts of Europe. Among the adaptation options (i.e. autonomous or planned adaptation strategies) that may be explored to minimize the negative impacts of climate changes and to take advantage of positive impacts, changes in crop species, cultivar, sowing date, fertilization, irrigation, drainage, land allocation and farming system seem to be the most appropriate. In adopting these options, however, it is necessary to consider the multifunctional role of agriculture and to strike a variable balance between economic, environmental and economic functions in different European regions.     

The European perspective on nitrogen emission and deposition

Europe has been successful in reducing the emissions of several nitrogenous pollutants over recent decades. This is reflected in concentrations and deposition rates that have decreased for several components. Emissions of nitrogen containing gases are estimated to have decreased in Europe by 10%, 21% and 14% for N(2)O, NO(x) and NH(3), respectively, between 1990 and 1998. The main reductions are the result of a decrease in industrial and agricultural activities in the east of Europe. The reductions are a result of the economic situation, measures in the transport sector, industry, and the agricultural sector, with only a small part of the reduction due to specific measures designed to reduce emissions. The reduction is significant but far from the end goal for large areas in Europe, in relation to different environmental problems. The Gothenburg Protocol will lead to reductions of 50% and 12% in 2010 relative to 1990 for NO(x) and NH(3), respectively. The N(2)O emissions are expected to grow by 9% between 1998 and 2010. Further reductions are necessary to reach critical limits for ecosystem protection, air quality standards, and climate change. Emissions of nitrogen compounds result from an overload of reactive nitrogen that is produced by combustion processes, by synthesis of ammonia, or by import from other areas as concentrated animal feeds. Some improvements can be made in the efficiency of combustion processes and agricultural systems. However, measures to reduce emissions substantially need to focus on decreasing the production or import of reactive N. Reactive N ceilings for regions, based on critical limits for all N-related effects, can help to focus such measures. An integrated approach might have advantages over the pollutant-specific approach, to combat nitrogen pollution. This could provide the future direction for European policy to reduce the impacts of excess nitrogen.     

Grain, meat and vegetables to feed Paris: where did and do they come from? Localising Paris food supply areas from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century

The food supply to a large metropolis such as Paris involves huge fluxes of goods, which considerably impact the surrounding rural territories. Here, we present an attempt to localise Paris food supply areas, over a period of two centuries (1786, 1886, 2006), based on the analysis of data from transportation and production statistics for cereals, animal products, and fruits and vegetables, all three categories being expressed in terms of their nitrogen (i.e. protein) content. The results show contrasting trends for the three types of agricultural products. As for cereals, the Paris supply area remained for the most part restricted to the central area of the Paris basin, a region which gradually became specialised in intensive cereal production. Conversely, as animal farming had been progressively excluded from this area, regions located west and north of Paris (Brittany, Normandy, Nord-Pas-de-Calais) gradually dominated the supply of animal products to the metropolis. In addition, imported feed from South America today contributes as much as one-third of the total ration of feed in the livestock raised in these regions. For fruits and vegetables, about one-half of the Paris supply currently comes from long-distance imports, the other half coming from areas less than 200 km from Paris. As a whole, the Paris food supply area, although it has obviously enlarged in recent periods, is still anchored to an unexpected extent (about 50%) in its traditional nearby hinterland roughly coinciding with the Seine watershed, and in the regions specialised in animal farming located west and north. On the other hand, the agricultural system of the main food supply areas has considerably opened to global markets.     

集水型生态农业：西北半干旱区可持续农业发展的模式

西北地区是中国的主要农牧业区之一,中国农业、农村、农民问题,在很大程度上也是西北地区问题,西北地区的生态环境问题不是工业的污染,而农业生产活动的破坏,因此,在西部大开发过程中,必须将生态环境的重建与当地农民的脱贫、与农业和农村经济发展紧密结合起来,采适应地区特点的集水型生态农业发展模式,实现西北地区农业的可持续发展和生态环境的逐步恢复和重建。     

Sketching sustainable land use in Europe by 2040: a multi-stakeholder participatory approach to elicit cross-sectoral visions

The continuously growing global demands on a finite land resource will require better strategic policies and management of trade-offs to avoid conflicts between different land-use sectors. Visions of the future can support strategic planning by stimulating dialogue, building a consensus on shared priorities and providing long-term targets. We present a novel approach to elicit stakeholder visions of future desired land use, which was applied with a broad range of experts to develop cross-sectoral visions in Europe. The approach is based on (i) combination of software tools and facilitation techniques to stimulate engagement and creativity; (ii) methodical selection of stakeholders; (iii) use of land attributes to deconstruct the multifaceted sectoral visions into land-use changes that can be clustered into few cross-sectoral visions, and (iv) a rigorous iterative process. Three cross-sectoral visions of sustainable land use in Europe in 2040 emerged from applying the approach in participatory workshops involving experts in nature conservation, recreation, agriculture, forestry, settlements, energy, and water. The three visions—Best Land in Europe, Regional Connected and Local Multifunctional—shared a wish to achieve a land use that is sustainable through multifunctionality, resource use efficiency, controlled urban growth, rural renewal and widespread nature. However, they differ on the scale at which land services are provided—EU-wide, regional or local—reflecting the land-sparing versus land-sharing debate. We discuss the usefulness of the approach, as well as the challenges posed and solutions offered by the visions to support strategic land-use planning.

     

武汉市城郊乡村旅游地的类型划分及时空分布特征研究

在对武汉市城郊534个乡村旅游地进行类型划分的基础上，运用数理统计和空间分析法，对其时空分布特征和影响因素进行研究，得出以下结论：(1）武汉市城郊乡村旅游地在发展过程中，呈现出四个明显的发展时段，旅游极化发展形成的空间冷热点区随时间而发生变化，现已在武汉市西北、西部和南部形成三大旅游集聚区。（2）武汉市城郊乡村旅游地类型日益多元化，从发展初期的休闲观光和乡村文化两种类型逐步增加至休闲观光、乡村文化、农事体验、农业科技、特色村镇等五种类型；不同类型的乡村旅游地发展速度、规模、极化趋势各异。(3）与中心城区距离、相关政策、道路交通条件、水文因素、旅游资源禀赋等均对乡村旅游地的时空分布特征产生影响，各个因素对不同类型旅游地时空分布的影响存在一定差别。     

The challenges of water,waste and climate change in cities

Cities play a prominent role in our economic development as more than 80 % of the gross world product (GWP) comes from cities. Only 600 urban areas with just 20 % of the world population generate 60 % of the GWP. Rapid urbanization, climate change, inadequate maintenance of water and wastewater infrastructures and poor solid waste management may lead to flooding, water scarcity, water pollution, adverse health effects and rehabilitation costs that may overwhelm the resilience of cities. These megatrends pose urgent challenges in cities as the cost of inaction is high. We present an overview about population growth, urbanization, water, waste, climate change, water governance and transitions. Against this background, we discuss the categorization of cities based on our baseline assessments, i.e. our City Blueprint research on 45 municipalities and regions predominantly in Europe. With this bias towards Europe in mind, the challenges can be discussed globally by clustering cities into distinct categories of sustainability and by providing additional data and information from global regions. We distinguish five categories of sustainability: (1) cities lacking basic water services, (2) wasteful cities, (3) water-efficient cities, (4) resource-efficient and adaptive cities and (5) water-wise cities. Many cities in Western Europe belong to categories 3 and 4. Some cities in Eastern Europe and the few cities we have assessed in Latin America, Asia and Africa can be categorized as cities lacking basic water services. Lack of water infrastructures or obsolete infrastructures, solid waste management and climate adaptation are priorities. It is concluded that cities require a long-term framing of their sectoral challenges into a proactive and coherent Urban Agenda to maximize the co-benefits of adaptation and to minimize the cost. Furthermore, regional platforms of cities are needed to enhance city-to-city learning and to improve governance capacities necessary to accelerate effective and efficient transitions towards water-wise cities. These learning alliances are needed as the time window to solve the global water governance crisis is narrow and rapidly closing. The water sector can play an important role but needs to reframe and refocus radically.     

Wave Processes in Forest Ant Communities

Mechanisms of interspecific territorial interactions have been studied in multispecific communities of forest ants. These interactions occur through the superposition of high-activity waves traveling over the foraging areas of the influents on the intervals between the waves of dominant species. This allows the foraging ants of both species to search their territory in turn. The role of wave processes in communities is discussed.     

Humble Opinions on the Relationship between the Percentage of Urban Residents in an Urban Region and the Economic Status in This Region in China

It is a fact that in U.S. the immigration between rural areas and city areas is free, but in China this type of immigration is restricted by HUKOU system （Hukou, namely the household registration system, was designed to control rural-urban in China）. All of those national policies in city areas are much better than those in rural areas, so those corresponding differences bring about great discrepancy of the economic status （mainly including GDP per person and income per resident） between rural and city areas in the same urban region, especially in different urban re- gions because the percentage of urban residents in those urban regions is in-equable. The present paper mainly researches the topic of relationship between the percentage of urban residents and the economic status in an urban region in China, including the relationship between the economic and the political functions of a settlement in China during the process of urbanization.     

Eco-efficiency in Portuguese companies of marble sector

The activities developed within an eco-efficiency project in mineral industries located in the largest area for marble extraction in Portugal, in Alentejo region, in the Estremoz – Borba and Vila Viçosa anticline are presented in this paper. The project was designed to apply the sustainability concept in seven companies of marble extraction and transformation. The adopted strategy used new cleaner production models together with sustainable value (SV) improvement, leading to the rationalization of the industrial process, the involvement of economic agents and the orientation of the management of production processes towards eco-efficiency. The challenge was to have the mineral industry managing efficiently the resources on which the business depends, according to sustainability principles. Different opportunities for improvement, related to the minimization of materials, water and energy use, were identified in the companies. Some proposals mainly related to social improvement and small and medium-sized enterprise competitiveness benefits were also selected and discussed. This approach allows the integration of sustainability at company's and region's levels by combining in the entrepreneurial activity the creation of wealth together with the environment protection and the achieving of social benefits. Highlights: The involvement of different stakeholders in the project (Eco-efficiency in Portuguese companies of marble sector) was positive in the discussion and search of solutions for companies. It is possible to involve marble extraction and processing companies in eco-efficiency improvement towards sustainability. Companies from the marble sector improved environmental and social performance and reduced the costs of their production processes by applying SV methodology.     

农村聚落功能评价研究——以启东市为例

随着工业化和城镇化的快速发展，农村聚落功能多元化趋势明显，空间异质性深化，但针对农村聚落功能的专门研究并不多见。从效用价值理论和供需分析视角出发，剖析了农村聚落功能的服务内涵和时空动态特征，提出农村聚落生产、生活和生态功能分类体系，构建了功能评价指标和基于信息熵的综合评价模型，以村为单元进行了实证分析。分析表明：农村聚落功能空间分异特征显著，案例区西部和北部远离城镇、交通干线地区农业生产功能较强，城镇周边以及沿江地区工、商、文化教育等功能集聚，东北部吕四港地区休闲娱乐和自然人文景观保护功能较强；农村聚落功能多元化发展在空间上呈现“多中心”的格局特征，从“中心”向外围地区，随着距离增加，聚落功能多元化程度逐步衰减，且不同“中心”的功能构成存在明显的空间差异     

基于耕作半径分析的县域农村居民点空间布局优化——以安徽省埇桥区为例

分析了安徽省埇桥区农村居民点与耕地的空间邻接特征和数量结构关系,通过“均等”和“耕聚比”的方法分别求算耕作半径并构造缓冲区,得出两种耕作压力系数的分布,对其进行比较并提出了农村居民点布局优化策略。结果表明：耕地是皖北平原地区影响农村居民点布局的主要因子,基于各乡（镇）统计的耕地与农村居民点面积存在较好的线性相关;基于“耕聚比”的计算模型较好地解决了农村居民点规模因素对耕作半径计算造成的影响;基于“耕聚比”的方法计算的耕作压力分布在评价耕地与农村居民点的分布合理性上更为实用;耕作压力系数分布对农村居民点合理布局具有一定的指导意义,布局调整中应将压力系数高的地区的拆旧和压力系数低的地区的建新相挂钩     

基于网络信息的江西省乡村旅游地吸引力评价及空间分析

旅游吸引力是目的地旅游发展的动力源泉，基于需求侧的旅游吸引力评价对于乡村旅游地的经营管理和市场营销具有重要的指导意义。以江西省为例，在乡村旅游地类型划分的基础上，构建了基于网络信息的乡村旅游地吸引力评价体系，同时采用空间自相关和核密度分析方法分析了乡村旅游地吸引力的空间分布格局，研究发现：（1）江西省乡村旅游地可以划分为生态观光类、休闲度假类、农事体验类、农业科技类、乡土文化类和特色村镇类六个大类和24个基本类型;（2）江西省乡村旅游地单体吸引力指数相差较大，不同类型乡村旅游地吸引力指数差别显著，生态观光类吸引力指数最高，农业科技类最低;（3）江西省乡村旅游地为旅游者带来了良好的游憩体验，旅游者整体满意度较高，但网络关注度与分享程度相对较低;（4）江西省乡村旅游地吸引力集聚特征显著，且主要集中在“南昌-九江-宜春”、“萍乡-宜春”、“上饶-景德镇”三大片区，各类型乡村旅游地吸引力集聚状况空间差异较大。基于研究结论，文章为江西乡村旅游吸引力的提升及未来乡村旅游的发展提出了针对性的意见与建议。     

江苏沿江地区农业产业化地域类型与发展研究

农业产业化经营是新形势下我国农业生产发展的必然趋势。20世纪90年代江苏沿江地区开始了农业产业化经营,现已产生了良好的效果,形成了加工企业带动型、流通企业牵引型、专业市场辐射型、新型合作经济组织依托型、主导产品推进型和外向型农业导入型等多种农业产业化地域类型,对促进江苏沿江地区农业增效、农民增收和农村经济发展产生了重要作用。实现江苏沿江地区农业产业化进一步发展的途径是：构筑农业创新体系,包括完善农村市场组织体制和农业运行机制、建立新型的农业投资机制、创新农业土地流转机制和转变行政、农业科研部门的服务职能;进一步调整与优化农村经济、农业和农产品结构,加快建设区域专门化农业生产基地;加强农业技术革新和农业科技示范园的建设,提高农业科技进步贡献率;建设适应现代市场竞争条件下的农业经营理念,实现传统农业向现代农业的跨越。     

农村城镇化进程中非农用地结构变化研究——以江苏省江阴市为例

如何协调经济发达区农村城镇化发展过程中土地占用需求的不断增长与土地占用供给的相对有限性之间的矛盾是关系到经济发达地区社会经济能否实现可持续发展的关键，以经济发达区江苏省江阴市为例，系统描述了苏南地区江阴市经济发展阶段农村城镇化过程中用地结构转换的动态变化过程，伴随着这一过程区域经济产业结构明显升级，土地利用效率也相应提高，但是，从目前江阴市城镇建设与土地资源利用管理现状来看，仍然存在着城镇用地结构与规模不合理，城镇发展与经济发展水平不相适应等问题，必须从这几方面着手，即进一步完善城镇发展规划，合理协调城镇发展与村庄建设的关系；深化城镇土地使用制度改革，提高城镇土地使用效率，调整工业用地布局，促进工业用地的集约利用，制定城镇生产环境发展规划，改善城镇人居环境。