Ecosystem services assessments in local municipal decision making in South Africa: justification for the use of a business-based approach

The ecosystem services (ES) concept is being increasingly incorporated into environmental policy formulation and management approaches. The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) is a framework used to assess the dependence and impact that a business has on ES. The success of the corporate experience of ES assessment provides an opportunity for adaption for local authority decision making. In this paper, the ESR tool was adapted to the South African setting at a local government level, and tested at two sites in the Msunduzi Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. In testing the tool and gathering feedback from key stakeholders, it was found that there are both opportunities and challenges to this approach. Overall, however, it provides an opportunity for the systematic inclusion of ES assessment into existing regulatory frameworks for land-use planning and Integrated Environmental Management, whether in a strategic application, at a broader spatial (municipal) scale or in a specific locale within the municipality.     

区域主体功能实现与自然资源利用的定量关系研究

主体功能区划通过主体功能划分的方式将开发和保护结合,自然资源开发利用复杂化过程中资源利用与目标实现之间亟需实现基本的定量核算关系。本文从自然资源可持续利用角度,试图探讨建立初步的主体功能核算关系,通过核算框架进行生产、生活、生态主体功能概算与比较。以京津冀主体功能区与水资源为例,对所设立的核算关系进行了验证与应用,并构造绝对与相对量指标量化京津冀主体功能量、功能水资源投入量与效率,进行了异空间尺度与异质性功能的比较,为以主体功能实现最大化为目标的资源优化配置提供量化工具。结果显示:①利用生态服务价值测算的当量因子法与水足迹测算的投入产出法,刻画了水资源对于地区主体功能的支撑作用。②利用功能总量与单位功能水资源投入量指标完成了异质性功能在异质性空间上规模、结构、相应水资源效率的比较。基于算例结果得到以下结论:①本文构建的自然资源-主体功能核算关系框架能够有效衔接主体功能规划,定量核算能有效反映与评价资源对区域功能目标、经济开发活动的支撑作用。②区域资源配置存在相对功能实现的效率差异,可根据资源投入与功能产出之间的关系引导实现功能最大化目标的资源配置。合理、有效的量化手段能够推进主体功能制度的落实,也有助于当前中国空间规划体系编制与落实的实际指导效果。     

Investigating the key indicators for evaluating post‐disaster shelter

This study sought to identify the primary indicators for evaluating shelter assistance following natural disasters and then to develop a shelter evaluation instrument based on these indicators. Electronic databases and the ‘grey’ literature were scoured for publications with a relation to post‐disaster shelter assistance. Indicators for evaluating such assistance were extracted from these publications. In total, 1,525 indicators were extracted from 181 publications. A preliminary evaluation instrument was designed from these 1,525 indicators. Shelter experts checked the instrument for face and content validity, and it was revised subsequently based on their input. The revised instrument comprises a version for use by shelter agencies (48 questions that assess 23 indicators) and a version for use by beneficiaries (52 questions that assess 22 indicators). The instrument can serve as a standardised tool to enable groups to gauge whether or not the shelter assistance that they supply meets the needs of disaster‐affected populations.     

Fine‐resolution conservation planning with limited climate‐change information

Climate‐change induced uncertainties in future spatial patterns of conservation‐related outcomes make it difficult to implement standard conservation‐planning paradigms. A recent study translates Markowitz's risk‐diversification strategy from finance to conservation settings, enabling conservation agents to use this diversification strategy for allocating conservation and restoration investments across space to minimize the risk associated with such uncertainty. However, this method is information intensive and requires a large number of forecasts of ecological outcomes associated with possible climate‐change scenarios for carrying out fine‐resolution conservation planning. We developed a technique for iterative, spatial portfolio analysis that can be used to allocate scarce conservation resources across a desired level of subregions in a planning landscape in the absence of a sufficient number of ecological forecasts. We applied our technique to the Prairie Pothole Region in central North America. A lack of sufficient future climate information prevented attainment of the most efficient risk‐return conservation outcomes in the Prairie Pothole Region. The difference in expected conservation returns between conservation planning with limited climate‐change information and full climate‐change information was as large as 30% for the Prairie Pothole Region even when the most efficient iterative approach was used. However, our iterative approach allowed finer resolution portfolio allocation with limited climate‐change forecasts such that the best possible risk‐return combinations were obtained. With our most efficient iterative approach, the expected loss in conservation outcomes owing to limited climate‐change information could be reduced by 17% relative to other iterative approaches.     

Dynamics of local governance in natural resource conservation in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

There has been a shift in natural resource management worldwide. This paper describes how modern institutions and policies influence management and shape access to and utilization of resources by rural communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. It is rooted in the framework of adaptive co‐governance within social‐ecological systems, and employs a critical literature review to analyse access to and use of natural resources in rural Botswana. Prior to the establishment of community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) in Botswana in 1989, resource governance was dominated by strong traditional institutions that were responsible for natural resource management and decision‐making. Contemporary natural resource governance is characterized by a bureaucratic system that invariably undermines the role of traditional institutions in natural resource governance. Findings indicate that policies and regulatory instruments deny rural communities adequate access to and utilization of resources available within their immediate environment. In spite of an orientation towards an anthropocentric approach to natural resource management (as in the case of CBNRM), the current governance system continues to undermine the inclusion of local resource users as legitimate stakeholders in the decision‐making process.     

城市生态系统复合下垫面碳通量特征——以上海市奉贤大学城为例

随着城市化进程的加速和城市人口规模的增加,城市已成为最大的碳源,研究城市生态系统对大气二氧化碳的贡献成为碳循环研究的焦点问题之一。基于研究区域内土地利用现状和一年的涡动观测系统观测数据,结合地理信息技术(Arc GIS)和通量计算工具(Eddypro及ART Footprint Tool)以及碳通量足迹模型分析了上海奉贤大学城碳通量足迹特征,基于此探讨不同下垫面类型,包括以草本和木本等透水层为主的下垫面(称为自然系统),以建筑物、道路等不透水层为主的下垫面(称为社会系统)碳通量的变化特征。研究结果表明:1)在不同风向上,碳通量贡献区范围随着大气稳定度的增加而扩大。大气处于稳定条件下,非主风向上的碳通量贡献区范围(最大范围1 100 m)比主风向上的碳通量贡献区范围(最大范围780m)要大;当大气处于不稳定条件下时主风向和非主风向下的碳通量贡献区范围相差不大(最大范围分别为321和351m)。2)不同下垫面其源汇特征不同,以绿色植物为主的自然系统年碳通量均值为–4.1μmol/m~2/s,表现为碳汇;社会系统的年碳通量均值为8.6μmol/m~2/s,表现为碳源。3)自然系统的碳通量日变化具有较明显的季节分异,变化特征大致呈"U"型;社会系统的碳通量日变化没有明显的季节分异,变化特征大致呈"M"型。绿色植物对城市生态系统的大气二氧化碳有降低作用,结合自然和社会系统的碳通量变化特征可以为以后合理规划城市布局,建立低碳城市提供服务。     

Efficacy of created and restored nesting sites for the conservation of colonial Laridae in the South of France

By rapidly modifying key habitat components, habitat restoration is at risk of producing attractive cues for animals without providing habitats of sufficient quality. As such, individual fitness components, such as reproduction, could be reduced and restored habitats could become ecological traps. This risk notably appears by using artificial constructions in restoration projects, yet few studies have evaluated their efficacy in a robust way. We investigated this by analyzing 154 islets that were created or restored to improve the conservation status of 7 colonial Laridae species in the South of France. From 2007 to 2016, we compared occupancy dynamics and breeding parameters of these species between the restored sites and 846 unmanaged nesting sites. We also explored species’ preference for different nesting site characteristics and their respective effect on breeding parameters. Restored nesting sites were 2–9 times as attractive as unmanaged sites for all species except the Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus). Colonization probability was up to 100 times higher in sites already used by other species the previous year and increased with distance to the shore until >0.2 when distance was over 250 m. Abandonment probability was 29–70% lower when breeding was successful the previous year in all species except the Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis). Productivity and breeding success probability were 2 times higher on managed sites. Distance from the shore was an important attractive characteristic of artificial nesting sites in all species. Other nesting site characteristics had species-specific effects on colonization, abandonment, and breeding success. Our results indicate that managed nesting sites are successful conservation tools for colonial Laridae in the Mediterranean and do not act as ecological traps. Our study showed that testing the ecological trap hypothesis is a robust way to evaluate the success of restoration projects of breeding habitats.     

自然资源资产及其负债表编制与审计

自然资源资产仍然是一个新概念,还需要在理论和方法层面进行系统的研究。就当今及今后一个时期看,自然资源资产负债表的编制和自然资源资产审计,是亟需研究的理论和现实问题。在此,重点对自然资源资产的概念、属性、分类进行探讨,并就自然资源资产负债表及编制的重点与基础,自然资源资产审计及其重点与方式等,进行系统讨论。     

陕西省2000年天气气候异常变化与自然灾害

分析陕西省2000年天气气候变化发现，隆冬降雪明显增多，春旱异常严重，秋霖明显，沙尘暴天气明显增加，这是多年来未曾见到的现象。异常的天气气候使得多种自然灾害并发。     

夏、冬季降雨中溶解性有机质(DOM)光谱特征及来源辨析

利用紫外-可见光谱与三维荧光光谱,结合拉格朗日混合单粒子轨道模型及火点图,研究了重庆2013年夏、冬两季雨水DOM光谱特征,并对其来源进行解析.结果表明,雨水DOM与水体、土壤DOM具有类似性质光谱特征,证明降雨DOM也是陆地及水环境中DOM地化特征的重要贡献者.雨水DOM中DOC含量为0.88~12.80 mg·L-1,CDOM含量在3.17~21.11m-1之间,夏、冬两季降雨DOM差异明显(P0.05).与夏季相比,冬季降雨DOM分子量较小,芳香性程度较低,腐殖化程度也更低,输入主要以本地和短距离输送为主;而夏季DOM来源较分散.尽管吸收和荧光光谱可用于解析雨水DOM组成和来源,但在光谱特征的解析和来源识别上与其他来源DOM有所区别,传统"内、外源区分"并不适用于雨水DOM.