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.
This paper examines the relationship between psychological contract breach and insomnia among older workers (aged 40 years and up). Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we conceptualize breach as a stressful event characterized by a perceived threat, failure to gain, or actual loss of valued resources, which increases psychological distress and insomnia. Moreover, we hypothesized that older workers' generativity concerns would act as a personal resource that would buffer the negative impact of breach. We tested our proposed model in 2 studies (Study 1 = 123; Study 2 = 168) of employee–spouse dyads. Results revealed that psychological distress mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and insomnia. These mediated relationships were significant for those with low, but not for those with high levels of generativity concerns. These effects remained significant even after controlling for perceived organizational support (i.e., a social exchange mechanism). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. 相似文献
Abstract: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is charged with establishing standards and criteria for assessing lake water quality. It is, however, increasingly evident that a single set of national water quality standards that do not take into account regional hydrogeologic and ecological differences will not be viable as lakes clearly have different inherent capacities to meet such standards. We demonstrate a GIS‐based watershed classification strategy for identifying groups of Nebraska reservoirs that have similar potential capacity to attain a certain level of water quality standard. A preliminary cluster analysis of 78 reservoirs was performed to determine the potential number of Nebraska reservoir groups. Subsequently, a Classification Trees method was used to refine number of classes, describe the structure of reservoir watershed classes, and to develop a predictive model that relates watershed conditions to reservoir classes. Results suggest that Nebraska reservoirs can be represented by nine classes and that soil organic matter content in the watershed is the most important single variable for segregating the reservoirs. The cross‐validation prediction error rate of the Classification Tree model was 26.3%. Because all geospatial data used in this work are available nationally, the method could be adopted throughout the U.S. Hence, this GIS‐based watershed classification approach could provide water resources managers an effective decision‐support tool in managing reservoir water quality. 相似文献
This paper focuses on the ethical justifiability of patents on Genetically Modified (GM) crops. I argue that there are three
distinguishing features of GM crops that make it unethical to grant patents on GM crops, even if we assume that the patent
system is in general justified. The first half of the paper critiques David Resnik’s recent arguments in favor of patents
on GM crops. Resnik argues that we should take a consequentialist approach to the issue, and that the best way to do so is
to apply the Precautionary Principle, and that the Precautionary Principle, in this case, supports patents on GM crops. I
argue that his argument in favor of a consequentialist treatment is invalid; his Precautionary Principle in any case appears
to be incompatible with consequentialism; and his conception of reasonable precautions is too ill-defined to have any argumentative
purchase. In the second half of the paper, I argue against GM crop patents, on three grounds. First, there is insufficient
evidence to say whether allowing patents on GM crops will make research go faster than not having patents, whilst there is
a good reason to think that, other things being equal, a society that allows patents on GM crops will be less just than one
that does not. Second, even assuming that patents on GM crops will increase the pace of GM crop research, there is no social
need to do so. Third, patents on GM crops will frequently have ethically unacceptable side effects. 相似文献
The traditional vision of the role science should play in policy making is of a two stage process of scientists first finding
out the facts, and then policy makers making a decision about what to do about them. We argue that this two stage process
is a fiction and that a distinction must be drawn between pure science and science in the service of public policy. When science
is transferred into the policy realm, its claims to truth get undermined because we must abandon the open-ended nature of
scientific inquiry. When we move from the sphere of science to the sphere of policy, we pick an arbitrary point in the open-ended
scientific process, and ask our experts to give us the answer. The choice of the endpoint, however, must always be arbitrary
and determined by non-scientific factors. Thus, the two stages in the model of first finding the facts, and then making a
decision about what to do, cannot be clearly separated. The second stage clearly affects the first. This conclusion will have
implications about existing scientific policy institutions. For example, we advocate that the environmental assessment process
be radically overhauled, or perhaps even let go. It will be our position that ultimately a better model for the involvement
of scientists in public policy debates is that of being participants in particular interest groups (“hired guns”), rather
than as supposedly unbiased consultants to decision-makers. 相似文献
Modeling houses as two coupled chambers, namely, the living area and basement, predicts more accurately the total indoor radon source flux from building materials and geology than a one-chamber model in houses with disparate radon concentrations. Three regional surveys found mean radon concentration ratios between basement and living area to range from 1.4 to 4.2, implying weak interchamber coupling in most cases. The invariability of second-order system parameters under steady infiltration but different initial conditions confirms the adequacy of the two-chamber model. The presence of a characteristic radon source flux was detected within the basements of two houses, in one case across different infiltration, coupling, and initial conditions. One-chamber models fit to two-chamber tracer gas data in one house show a source flux variation of a factor of 6 across changing coupling, while the two-chamber source flux variation was only a factor of 1.5. A substantial fraction of the apparent one-chamber living area source flux in these cases is the variable convective radon flux from the basement. The technique is not sensitive enough to detect living area source fluxes if either the interchamber coupling is strong or if the basement source flux is substantially larger. 相似文献