The Water Poverty Index: Development and application at the community scale

The article details the development and uses of the water poverty index (WPI). The index was developed as a holistic tool to measure water stress at the household and community levels, designed to aid national decision makers, at community and central government level, as well as donor agencies, to determine priority needs for interventions in the water sector. The index combines into a single number a cluster of data directly and indirectly relevant to water stress. Subcomponents of the index include measures of: access to water; water quantity, quality and variability; water uses (domestic, food, productive purposes); capacity for water management; and environmental aspects.
The WPI methodology was developed through pilot projects in South Africa, Tanzania and Sri Lanka and involved intensive participation and consultation with all stakeholders, including water users, politicians, water sector professionals, aid agency personnel and others. The article discusses approaches for the further implementation of the water poverty index, including the possibilities of acquiring the necessary data through existing national surveys or by establishing interdisciplinary water modules in school curricula. The article argues that the WPI fills the need for a simple, open and transparent tool, one that will appeal to politicians and decision makers, and at the same time can empower poor people to participate in the better targeting of water sector interventions and development budgets in general.     

关于环评中的景观影响评价问题

环境影响评价制度对控制环境污染和防止生态破坏取得明显的成效。随着社会的进步和人们对环境质量的高要求,景观环境影响评价已成为旅游资源、森林资源、矿产资源开发以及交通运输等建设项目环境影响报告书中的重要内容。但由于目前尚缺乏评价规范和评价标准,在开展景观影响评价中存在着不少的困难,评价标准和评价等级的缺乏,使评价的深度和广度以及景观污染的界定上难以满足评价结果的要求;评价方法的不确定,又使评价过程难以统一,难以预测项目建设对景观的影响程度,而人才的缺乏则是困扰持证单位的主要问题。所以目前急切需要解决问题的办法是尽快制定景观评价的标准和规范,研究评价的方法,以加速人才的培养,使景观影响评价真正能达到保护景观的目的。     

池州国家级生态经济示范区生态系统价值的计算

利用Mark·T·Brown的自然资本能值法和Costanza的生态系统效益价值法,从经济角度分别计算了池州生态经济示范区的生态系统的资本价值和效益价值,得出该示范区生态资本可达7899亿美元,其中缓慢可更新生态资本和不可更新资本分别占24 8%和75 2%,是2001年本地区GDP值的1000倍;生态效益价值达192 3亿元人民币,是2001年本地区GDP的3 1倍,生态系统对环境贡献率大。通过价值计算进一步论证了池州生态经济示范区的生态示范作用,为充分合理地发挥生态系统效益促进经济与自然协调发展提供科学依据。     

秦皇岛市农业和农村生态环境保护对策

秦皇岛市乡镇工业污染长期居高不下,农业生态保护形势面临严峻挑战,治 理乡镇工业污染和加强农业生态保护应是今后工作的重点。     

秦皇岛市生态状况及资源开发利用水平分析综述

秦皇岛市区内生态类型多样,各类生态系统功能突出,自然资源丰富,尤其是海、旅游资源优势突出,为区域经济发展提供了良好的基础条件。该文对秦皇岛市生态系统平衡及资源开发利用水平进行了定量分析。     

关于制定连云港市水土保持生态建设规划的思考

连云港市地处欧亚大陆桥的东桥头堡,是沿海十四个开放城市之一,国家定位是将其建设成为连接太平洋沿岸与中亚地区的国际商贸中心和全国性的旅游城市。而目前的山丘区水土流失严重,植被稀少,生态环境恶化,与国家定位目标和连云港市发展目标相差甚远。因此在制定水土保持生态环境建设规划时,必须紧紧围绕改善生态环境这条主线,以增加农民收入和改善生存条件为突破口,因地制宜,坚持长期综合治理,方能实现“山川秀美”之目标。     

ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING: An Approach for Characterizing Tropospheric Ozone Risk to Forests

/ The risk tropospheric ozone poses to forests in the United States is dependent on the variation in ozone exposure across the distribution of the forests in question and the various environmental and climate factors predominant in the region. All these factors have a spatial nature, and consequently an approach to characterization of ozone risk is presented that places ozone exposure-response functions for species as seedlings and model-simulated tree and stand responses in a spatial context using a geographical information systems (GIS). The GIS is used to aggregate factors considered important in a risk characterization, including: (1) estimated ozone exposures over forested regions, (2) measures of ozone effects on species' and stand growth, and (3) spatially distributed environmental, genetic, and exposure influences on species' response to ozone. The GIS-based risk characterization provides an estimation of the extent and magnitude of the potential ozone impact on forests. A preliminary risk characterization demonstrating this approach considered only the eastern United States and only the limited empirical data quantifying the effect of ozone exposures on forest tree species as seedlings. The area-weighted response of the annual seedling biomass loss formed the basis for a sensitivity ranking: sensitive-aspen and black cherry (14%-33% biomass loss over 50% of their distribution); moderately sensitive-tulip popular, loblolly pine, eastern white pine, and sugar maple (5%-13% biomass loss); insensitive-Virginia pine and red maple (0%-1% loss). In the future, the GIS-based risk characterization will include process-based model simulations of the three- to 5-year growth response of individual species as large trees with relevant environmental interactions and model simulated response of mixed stands. The interactive nature of GIS provides a tool to explore consequences of the range of climate conditions across a species' distribution, forest management practices, changing ozone precursors, regulatory control strategies, and other factors influencing the spatial distribution of ozone over time as more information becomes available.KEY WORDS: Ecological risk assessment; GIS; Ozone; Risk characterization; Forests; Trees     

中国煤矿灾害现状与减灾对策分析

以大量的数据资料，全面系统地分析了煤矿灾害的现状与致灾特点，提出了煤矿防灾减灾对策。     

人类的行为与地质灾害

全面科学地分析了人类的行为与地质灾害后，针对我国当前的实际情况，提出了几个值得深思的问题，试图提醒人们如何规范自己的行为，以达到保护环境，预防和减轻地质灾害之目的。     

生态经济论

本文按生态发展历史进程，论述了，论述了生态经济发展的必然性。