Linking rights and standards: the process of developing "rights-based" minimum standards on food security, nutrition and food aid

This article examines the recent revision of the Sphere Minimum Standards in disaster response relating to food security, nutrition and food aid. It describes how the revision attempted to incorporate the principles of the Humanitarian Charter, as well as relevant human rights principles and values into the Sphere Minimum Standards. The initial aim of the revision was to ensure that the Sphere Minimum Standards better reflected the principles embodied in the Humanitarian Charter. This was later broadened to ensure that key legal standards and principles from human rights and humanitarian law were considered and also incorporated, in part to fill the "protection gap" within the existing standards. In relation to the food security, nutrition and food aid standards, it was agreed by participants in the process that the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger should be incorporated. In relation to more general principles underlying the Humanitarian Charter, itself drawn largely from human rights and humanitarian law, it was agreed that there was a need to strengthen "protection" elements within the standards and a need to incorporate the basic principles of the right to life with dignity, non-discrimination, impartiality and participation, as well as to explore the relevance of the concept of the progressive realisation of the right to food. The questions raised in linking rights to operational standards required thought, on the one hand, about whether the technical standards reflected a deep understanding of the values expressed within the legal instruments, and whether the existing standards were adequate in relation to those legal rights. On the other hand, it also required reflection on how operational standards like Sphere could give concrete content to human rights, such as the right to food and the right to be free from hunger. However, there remain challenges in examining what a rights-based approach will mean in terms of the role of humanitarian agencies as duty-bearers of rights, given that the primary responsibility rests with state governments. It will also require reflection on the modes and mechanisms of accountability that are brought to bear in ensuring the implementation of the Minimum Standards.     

The Cost of Developing Site-Specific Environmental Regulations: Evidence from EPA's Project XL

The flagship of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory reinvention initiative, Project XL has been touted as a regulatory blueprint for a site-specific, performance-based pollution-control system, but widespread complaints about the costs of the program beg the question of whether the costs of tailoring regulations to individual facilities are manageable. To address this question, this paper presents original survey data on a sample of 11 XL projects. We find that the fixed costs of putting in place XL agreements are substantial, averaging over $450,000 per firm. While stakeholder negotiations are widely cited as the principal source for these costs, we find that they actually arise mainly from interaction between participating facilities and the EPA. Moreover, EPA management problems are perceived by our survey respondents as having inflated project development costs. Finally, we find that the key factors that explains differences in costs across XL projects are the scope and complexity of the project proposal. These findings suggest that Project XL favors large firms that can afford to pay significant project development costs, that EPA management problems must be resolved to reduce costs, and that there may be a significant economic bias against complex and innovative proposals—precisely the type of proposals that Project XL was designed to foster in order to improve the efficiency of the regulatory system.     

FARMERS’ATTITUDES TOWARD GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN PREVENTING AGRICULTURAL NONPOINT SOURCE WATER POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Concern over the pollution of our lakes and streams has become a major issue in the United States. Sedimentation from sigricultural lands has been identified as a significant factor in water pollution. Some citizens suggest that government should force compliance with soil loss standards, while others suggest that we ask farmers to voluntarily comply. Related questions are “DO farmers think government should be involved in controlling erosion and protecting water quality?”“To what extent should government be involved?” What level of government should be involved? Federal? State? Local?“Why should pay for water quality projects?” Farmers from a small watershed in northeastern Indiana were interviewed before and after a major demonstration project. Their responses suggest that farmers feel that individual landowners should be responsible for controlling erosion and agricultural nonpoint source water pollution. However, over 60 percent of the study fanners indicated that the federal government should play an important role, in terms of both technical and financial assistance.     

“马坝人”与“石峡文化”──纪念“马坝人”头骨化石发现40周年

本文以科普形式介绍在广东曲江马坝镇发现的“马坝人”古人类头骨化石和附近新石器时代“石峡文化”情况。并探讨二者承前启后关系。     

Socially robust knowledge in coastal projects

Interactive modes of knowledge production offer a strategy for seeking solutions to complex environmental problems. The outcome of such knowledge production is socially robust knowledge. Social robustness refers to knowledge that is relevant and accepted by actors in the context of its application. This is achieved when knowledge is credible, salient and produced in a legitimate way. To date, only limited research has focused on how social robustness is achieved. As coastal problems are characterised by conflicting interests and major uncertainties, the coastal zone represents a relevant domain for studying socially robust knowledge. This paper analyses and presents three conditions that need to be in place if one is to achieve socially robust knowledge in coastal projects. The conditions are based on theories related to socially robust knowledge, boundary spanning, project arrangements and knowledge arrangements. The conditions specify how social robustness can be achieved through knowledge testing by boundary spanners, the involvement of diverse actors and a close connection between knowledge production and the evolving project. In a case study, these conditions are compared to developments in a Dutch coastal project involving spatial developments near the Ems estuary. The comparison highlights the relevance of the three conditions in achieving socially robust knowledge. In addition, a fourth aspect is empirically uncovered: the role of boundary spanning among project partners prior to producing knowledge. These four conditions clarify how social robustness may be achieved in coastal solutions. As such, this paper contributes to the theoretical and empirical understanding of socially robust knowledge.     

基于百度指数的长江中游城市群城市网络特征研究

随着地理研究迈入大数据时代,运用互联网展开城市网络结构研究逐渐成为经理地理研究的新思路。以长江中游城市群为研究对象,借助百度指数,获取2011年~2014年百度用户关注度,构建百度指数城市信息流网络,从大城市群视角和所辖三大子城市群视角,分别探讨城市网络格局的时空变化。研究发现:长江中游城市群在一体化进程中城市等级日益明晰,差距拉大。三大子城市群表现出极化效应与扩散效应并存,区域非均衡性突显;互联网的普及在一定程度上重塑和改造着城市群,但非完全颠覆传统城市网络格局,地理区位对城市网络格局和城市影响力的影响仍不容忽视。     

江苏苏中3市的沿江岸线资源开发利用变化及驱动因素

长江是我国重要的黄金水道,其岸线资源有着丰富的开发利用价值。近年来,苏中地区长江岸线资源利用发展迅速。因此,选取苏中扬州、泰州、南通3市为研究对象,基于2002年和2008年的长江岸线利用状况数据,对比分析了3市岸线发展变化的规律。研究表明:2002年以来,苏中3市的岸线利用率大幅提高;新增岸线中工业岸线占比最大,港口岸线和生活服务岸线次之;工业岸线和生活服务岸线的增幅最为显著;各类型岸线的增加主要来源于未利用岸线,已有岸线类型的转换主要流向工业岸线和未利用岸线。港口建设需求、沿江基础工业化进程加快、港产城融合发展、规划和政策引导等是岸线利用变化的重要驱动力。     

Multi-objective transportation route optimization for hazardous materials based on GIS

Safety and security are of paramount importance, it is important to optimize and improve the routes of trucks that carry hazardous materials. In this study, we not only ensure the risk in the network, but also consider the transportation cost and the factors such as buildings and emergency facilities around the routes. The Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to quantify the factors on each section in the network. We present an epsilon constrained multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming optimization model to find the robust and stable transportation optimization solutions. At the end, we complete a case analysis of the proposed methodology to determine the motorway segments in Jiangsu province, China and test the above algorithm on the network, which has 144 nodes and 388 sections. The results we get show that the factors of buildings play a very important role in the model, and the multi-objective mixed-integer linear optimization model is reasonable and performs good quality.     

Evidence on the causes of the rising levels of CODMn along the middle route of the South-to-North Diversion Project in China: The role of algal dissolved organic matter

As the biggest inter-basin water transfer scheme in the world,the South-to-North Water Diversion Project（SNWD） was designed to alleviate the water crisis in North China.The main channel of the middle route of the SNWD is of great concern in terms of the drinking water quality.In this study,we tested the hypothesis that the dissolved organic matter（DOM） derived from the planktonic algae causes the rising levels of COD_Mn along the middle route by monitoring data on water quality（2015-20...