玉龙雪山冰川公园的旅游资源特色及其保护

本文总结了云南省玉龙雪山以现代冰川和古冰川遗迹为主的旅游资源特色,探讨了现代冰川和古冰川遗迹的旅游观赏价值,并结合全球气候变化的趋势,提出了保护冰雪旅游资源和建立国家冰川公园的建议     

The Impotence of Cumulative Effects Assessment in Canada: Ailments and Ideas for Redeployment

Cumulative effects assessment (CEA) in Canada is in dire straits. Despite a huge amount of talk and a flurry of developmental activity associated with CEA concepts, it has not lived up to its glowing promise of helping to achieve sustainability of diverse valued ecosystem components. This article aims to articulate that failure, to examine it in terms of six major problems with CEA, and to propose solutions. The six problem areas include (1) application of CEA in project-level environmental impact assessments (EIAs), (2) an EIA focus on project approval instead of environmental sustainability, (3) a general lack of understanding of ecologic impact thresholds, (4) separation of cumulative effects from project-specific impacts, (5) weak interpretations of cumulative effects by practitioners and analysts, and (6) inappropriate handling of potential future developments. We advocate improvements not only within the purview of project-specific EIAs, but also mainly in the domain of region-scale CEAs and regional environmental effects frameworks (or perhaps land use planning). Only then will the CEA begin to approach the promise of securing sustainability of valued ecosystem components.     

Environmental movement in Lebanon

The paper reviews and assesses the evolution of the environmental movement in both the public and the private sector in Lebanon. It studies the public sector involvement in the environmental movement by reviewing the commitments made by the government to the local, regional and international communities. The paper presents a summary of all the decisions, decrees, and laws pertaining to environmental protection that the Lebanese government has instituted over time, as well as all the conventions and agreements that the country has ratified and/or signed. Compared to the Arab world in the Middle East and North Africa, Lebanon is relatively more active and integrated in the world community. Using the total number of established environmental organizations and the level of reported activities aimed at spreading environmental awareness and educating people as indicators of private sector involvement in the environmental movement, the paper concludes that the post war era is characterized by a significant increase in the number of established organizations. It also concludes that there is a co-movement between economic and environmental variables. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

The Indian perspective of utilizing fly ash in phytoremediation, phytomanagement and biomass production

Coal-based power generation is a principal source of electricity in India and many other countries. About 15–30% of the total amount of residue generated during coal combustion is fly ash (FA). FA is generally alkaline in nature and contains many toxic metals like Cr, Pb, Hg, As and Cd along with many essential elements like S, B, Ca, Na, Fe, Zn, Mn and P. Dumped FA contaminates the biosphere by mobilization of its fine particles and hazardous metals. Despite the negative environmental impact of FA, coal continues to be a major source of power production in India and therefore FA disposal is a major environmental issue. To overcome this problem, FA dumping sites have been started as a potential resource for biomass production of tree species. Phytoremediation is a strategy that uses plants to degrade, stabilize, and remove contaminants from soils, water and waste FA. Phytomanagement of FA is based on the plants' root systems, high biomass, woody nature, native nature, and resistance to pH, salinity, and toxic metals. Recently Indian researchers mostly from the National Botanical Research Institute have been working on phytoremediation and revegetation of FA dykes, inoculation of bacterial strains for reducing FA stress and biomass production from FA dykes. Many international researchers have worked on reclamation, revegetation and utilization of FA. FA utilization saves resources, mainly land (topsoil), water, coal, limestone and chemical fertilizer. Safe utilization of FA is a major concern around the world and regulatory bodies are enforcing stringent rules for the proper management of FA. This article summarizes various viable avenues in India for FA utilization and environmental management.     

中国入境旅游流国内流向偏好特征分析——以主要客源国为例

以入境客流空间流动为研究对象,构建客流流向偏好指数模型。基于2010年《中国旅游统计年鉴》的入境旅游数据,分析中国主要客源国对31个省区的流动选择偏好。结果表明,中国主要客源国的流向偏好差异很大,等级鲜明,且表现出很强的距离衰减规律和地域相关性,中国大陆地区各省区应将海外市场进行合理分级,区分自己的核心市场、潜力市场和机会市场,有针对性地开展海外营销。各省区的偏好客源国各不相同,这也为错位竞争与市场细分提供了理论依据。     

Genotypic variation of nitrogen use efficiency in Indian mustard

This experiment was conducted to investigate the variation of nitrogen efficiency (NE), nitrogen uptake efficiency (UE), physiological nitrogen use efficiency (PUE) among Indian mustard genotypes, grown under N-insufficient and N-sufficient conditions. Nitrogen efficiency varied from 52.7 to 92.8. Seed yield varied from 1.14 t ha(-1) to 3.21 t ha(-1) under N-insufficient condition, while 2.14 t ha(-1)-3.33 t ha(-1) under N-sufficient condition. Physiological basis of this difference was explained in terms of nitrogen uptake efficiency and physiological nitrogen use efficiency, and their relationship with the growth and yield characteristics. While nitrogen uptake efficiency was positively correlated with plant biomass (0.793**), leaf area index (0.664*), and leaf nitrogen content (0.783**), physiological nitrogen use efficiency is positively correlated with photosynthetic rate (0.689**) and yield (0.814**). This study suggests that genotype having high nitrogen uptake efficiency and high physiological nitrogen use efficiency might help in reducing the nitrogen load on soil without any penalty on the yield.     

Simulation of Indian summer monsoon rainfall and its intraseasonal variability in the NCAR climate system model

The broad climatological features associated with the Asian monsoon circulation, including its mean state and intraseasonal and interannual variability over the Indian subcontinent as simulated in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) global coupled climate system model (CSM) in its control reference experiment, are presented in this paper. The CSM reproduces the seasonal cycle as well as basic observed patterns of key climatic parameters reasonably well in spite of some limitations in simulation of the monsoon rainfall. However, while the seasonality in rainfall over the region is simulated well, the simulated area-averaged monsoon rainfall is underestimated to only about 60% of the observed rainfall. The centers of maxima in simulated monsoon rainfall are slightly displaced southward as compared to the climatological patterns. The cross-equatorial flow in simulated surface wind patterns during summer is also stronger than observed with an easterly bias. The transient experiment with a 1% per year compound increase in CO₂ with CSM suggests an annual mean area-averaged surface warming of about 1.73 °C over the region at the time of CO₂ doubling. This warming is more pronounced in winter than during the monsoon season. A net increase in area-averaged monsoon rainfall of about 1.4 mm day^–1, largely due to increased moisture convergence and associated convective activity over the land, is obtained. The enhanced intraseasonal variability in the monsoon rainfall in a warmer atmosphere is confined to the early part of the monsoon season which suggests the possibility of the date of onset of summer monsoon over India becoming more variable in future. The enhanced interannual and intraseasonal variability in the summer monsoon activity over India could also contribute to more intense rainfall spells over the land regions of the Indian subcontinent, thus increasing the probability of extreme rainfall events in a warmer atmosphere. Electronic Publication     

Post-tsunami changes in the littoral environment along the southeast coast of India

The 26th December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, coastal stretches of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala were the most affected regions of India. Changes in the beach profiles, long shore currents, breaking wave characteristics in the surf zone at selected locations along the Tamil Nadu coast were studied during January, April, October 2005 and January 2006. Long shore sediment transport rates were estimated from the observed parameters. Studies were carried out earlier (1995-1996 and 1998) to understand the coastal environment over a one-year cycle in the study region. The post-tsunami observations were compared with the earlier studies to establish the variations in the littoral environment and to ascertain the normalcy of the littoral environment in the post-tsunami scenario. From the changes in the beach profiles, the shoreline was observed to recede by about 20m and built-up of backshore by about 0.5m at most locations. Observations from the field investigations and comparisons with earlier studies along this stretch of the coastline indicate that the coastline is yet to return completely to normalcy.     

Devastating earthquakes facilitating civil societies in developing countries: across-national analysis

ABSTRACT

Developing countries, which often have emerging or fledgling civil societies, are vulnerable to disasters, and especially devastating earthquakes. The long-term influence of devastating earthquakes on civil societies in developing countries is a critical research topic while receives relatively little attention. From a comprehensive literature review, this study identified four key areas of the civil society: civic participation, voluntary organizations, social capital, and democratic governance, and then examined four devastating earthquakes in India, Iran, Pakistan and China in the first decade of the twenty-first century as case studies, to identify the effects these earthquakes had on these four areas. It was found that from a long-term perspective, while the earthquakes strengthened the civil society, they had beneficial but limited effects. We argue that by promoting local community participation, facilitating extensive non-government organization (NGO) cooperation, and streamlining state-civil society relationships, an enabling environment can be developed to further sustain the advances made by a civil society after a disaster.     

英武山村旅游可持续发展研究

运用可持续发展的思想和理论,对乡村旅游可持续发展的内涵和意义进行了探讨。针对英武山村旅游资源品位不高、定位模糊、乡村文化和生态环境脆弱、旅游市场竞争的威胁等问题,提出了英武山村旅游可持续发展应处理好的资源开发与生态保护,政府主导与社区参与,经济效益与生态效益、社会效益,整体统筹与乡村特色的关系,同时,应坚持科学发展、可操作性、多产品并举、协调发展的原则,充分利用资源优势,打造特色品牌乡村旅游产品。