Identifying management opportunities to combat climate,land, and marine threats across less climate exposed coral reefs

Conserving coral reefs is critical for maintaining marine biodiversity, protecting coastlines, and supporting livelihoods in many coastal communities. Climate change threatens coral reefs globally, but researchers have identified a portfolio of coral reefs (bioclimatic units [BCUs]) that are relatively less exposed to climate impacts and strongly connected to other coral reef systems. These reefs provide a proactive opportunity to secure a long-term future for coral reefs under climate change. To help guide local management efforts, we quantified marine cumulative human impact (CHI) from climate, marine, and land pressures (2013 and from 2008 to 2013) in BCUs and across countries tasked with BCU management. Additionally, we created a management index based on common management measures and policies for each pressure source (climate, marine, and land) to identify a country's intent and commitment to effectively manage these pressures. Twenty-two countries (79%) had increases in CHI from 2008 to 2013. Climate change pressures had the highest proportional contribution to CHI across all reefs and in all but one country (Singapore), but 18 BCUs (35%) and nine countries containing BCUs (32%) had relatively high land and marine impacts. There was a significant positive relationship between climate impact and the climate management index across countries (R² = 0.43, p = 0.02), potentially signifying that countries with greater climate impacts are more committed to managing them. However, this trend was driven by climate management intent in Fiji and Bangladesh. Our results can be used to guide future fine-scale analyses, national policies, and local management decisions, and our management indices reveal areas where management components can be improved. Cost-effectively managing local pressures (e.g., fishing and nutrients) in BCUs is essential for building a climate-ready future that benefits coral reefs and people.     

Water resource conservation promotes synergy between economy and environment in China’s northern drylands

•Considering evenness provides a more accurate assessment of sustainable development. •Water resource conservation drives industrial transformation. •Synergy between economic development and environmental protection is achieved. •Regional collaboration over water could promote sustainable development in drylands. Water resource availability is the major limiting factor for sustainable development in drylands. Climate change intensifies the conflicting water demands between people and the environment and highlights the importance of effective water resource management for achieving a balance between economic development and environmental protection. In 2008, Inner Mongolia, typical dryland in northern China, proposed strict regulations on water exploitation and utilization aimed at achieving sustainable development. Our study is the first to investigate the effectiveness and performance of these long-standing water conservation regulations. Our analyses found that the regulations drove industrial transformation, evidenced by the decreasing proportion of environmentally harmful industries such as coal and steel, and the increasing proportion of tertiary industries (especially tourism). Following industrial transformation, economic development decoupled from industrial water consumption and subsequently led to reduced negative environmental impacts. Based on these results, adaptive strategies were developed for 12 cities by revealing and integrating their development pathways and relative status in achieving sustainable development. Integration and cooperation between cities were proposed, e.g., a water trade agreement between eastern Inner Mongolia (an economically underdeveloped region with relatively abundant water resources) and central Inner Mongolia (an economically developed region with high water stress). Such an agreement may enable the holistic achievement of sustainable development across regions. By integrating the findings of our research, our study presents a reproducible framework for water-management-based sustainable development strategies in drylands.     

余热锅炉在绿色油田建设中的应用

余热锅炉的运用使得不同品级的能源可以得到充分合理的利用。中国石油塔里木油田公司在生产实践中,采用燃气发电机组—余热锅炉联合循环技术,用不能再发电的燃气尾气生产蒸汽,对天然气中蕴含的能量进行分级利用,实现了发电、供热双重效益,也降低了对周边环境的热污染。文章对该热电联合循环的工艺流程进行介绍,通过对燃气发电机组尾气的能量传递进行计算,用热力学原理进行分析,以期实现对使用余热锅炉后的热电联产经济性进行综合评价的目的。     

滇池流域水资源的开发与保护

本文介绍了滇池流域的自然条件和社会经济发展,分析了水资源特点,对其开发现状和供需预测作了评述,并提出了进一步开发和保护水资源的建议。     

A historical perspective of river basin management in the Pearl River Delta of China

Three innovations in water and soil conservancy technology in the Pearl River Delta of South China, i.e., dike building, land reclamation, and dike-pond systems, were examined from a historical perspective. They were found to best reflect local farmers' efforts to cope with the challenges of various water disasters and to build a harmonious relationship with the changed environment. These technologies were critical to the agricultural success and sustainability over the past 2000 years, and reflected local farmers' wisdom in balancing land use and environmental conservation. Imprudent use of a new agricultural technology could damage the environment, and could disturb the human-environment relationship, as evidenced by the more frequent flooding that followed inappropriate dike building and premature reclamation. It is suggested that as the urbanization and industrialization process in the delta region continues, the kind of thinking that made the water and soil conservancy sustainable needs to be incorporated into the design of similar technologies for water use and river basin management today.     

Long-term dynamics in land resource use and the driving forces in the Beressa watershed, highlands of Ethiopia

Land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands is considered to be one of the major problems threatening agricultural development and food security in the country. However, knowledge about the forces driving the long-term dynamics in land resources use is limited. This research integrates biophysical information with socio-economic processes and policy changes to examine the dynamics of land resource use and farmers' livelihoods in the Beressa watershed for over 40 years during the second half of the 20th century. It was found that there have been substantial dynamics in land resource use in the area. The natural vegetation cover has been extensively cleared, although most of the cleared areas have since been replaced with plantations. Grazing land has expanded remarkably at the expense of cropland and bare land. However, the expansion of cropland was minimal over the 43-year period despite a quadrupling of the population density. Yields have not increased to compensate for the reduction in per capita cropland, and the soil quality appears to be not that good. Though the farmers perceived it otherwise, the long-term rainfall pattern has improved. In response to soil degradation, water shortage, socio-economic and policy changes, farmers have tended to gradually change from annual cropping to tree planting and livestock production to cope with the problems of soil degradation, water scarcity and smaller farms. Income diversification through the sale of wood and cattle dung is becoming a major livelihood strategy. Apparently, however, little attention has been paid to investments in soil and water conservation (SWC) and local soil fertility amendments. In particular, increased erosion and related high nutrient losses in sediments, as well as the removal of potentially available soil nutrients through the sale of manure threatens to damage agricultural sustainability in the area.     

Study on Residential Water Use in North China:Analysis of Nationwide Statistical Data and Case Study of Taiyuan City

Residential water use is gradually becoming the focus in China‘s municipal water supply planning and management in recent years. Little is known, however, about the residential water use in modem China due to the transition of economy and enhancement of management on water conservation. In order to better understand the characteristics of residential water use in North China, a model for identifying the determinants of residential water use was established and analyzed by using panel data and cross-section data methodologies. Then Taiyuan city, the capital city of Shanxi Province in Northern China was selected as a case study. Both the analyses and field investigation indicate that the relatively slow increase of residential water use in recent years may result from the implementation of strict laws and regulations on water conservation. And through the investigation,first-hand information about water consumption pattern, water reuse/conservation, people‘s attitude toward water quantity and quality, etc. have been obtained.     

Evaluating Biodiversity Conservation around a Large Sumatran Protected Area

Abstract:  Many of the large, donor-funded community-based conservation projects that seek to reduce biodiversity loss in the tropics have been unsuccessful. There is, therefore, a need for empirical evaluations to identify the driving factors and to provide evidence that supports the development of context-specific conservation projects. We used a quantitative approach to measure, post hoc, the effectiveness of a US$19 million Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP) that sought to reduce biodiversity loss through the development of villages bordering Kerinci Seblat National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Indonesia. We focused on the success of the ICDP component that disbursed a total of US$1.5 million through development grants to 66 villages in return for their commitment to stop illegally clearing the forest. To investigate whether the ICDP lowered deforestation rates in focal villages, we selected a subset of non-ICDP villages that had similar physical and socioeconomic features and compared their respective deforestation rates. Village participation in the ICDP and its development schemes had no effect on deforestation. Instead, accessible areas where village land-tenure had been undermined by the designation of selective-logging concessions tended to have the highest deforestation rates. Our results indicate that the goal of the ICDP was not met and, furthermore, suggest that both law enforcement inside the park and local property rights outside the park need to be strengthened. Our results also emphasize the importance of quantitative approaches in helping to inform successful and cost-effective strategies for tropical biodiversity conservation.     

Conservation of Deep Pelagic Biodiversity

Abstract:  The deep ocean is home to the largest ecosystems on our planet. This vast realm contains what may be the greatest number of animal species, the greatest biomass, and the greatest number of individual organisms in the living world. Humans have explored the deep ocean for about 150 years, and most of what is known is based on studies of the deep seafloor. In contrast, the water column above the deep seabed comprises more than 90% of the living space, yet less than 1% of this biome has been explored. The deep pelagic biota is the largest and least-known major faunal group on Earth despite its obvious importance at the global scale. Pelagic species represent an incomparable reservoir of biodiversity. Although we have yet to discover and describe the majority of these species, the threats to their continued existence are numerous and growing. Conserving deep pelagic biodiversity is a problem of global proportions that has never been addressed comprehensively. The potential effects of these threats include the extensive restructuring of entire ecosystems, changes in the geographical ranges of many species, large-scale elimination of taxa, and a decline in biodiversity at all scales. This review provides an initial framework of threat assessment for confronting the challenge of conserving deep pelagic biodiversity; and it outlines the need for baseline surveys and protected areas as preliminary policy goals.     

A Conceptual Analysis of the Application of Tradable Permits to Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract: Tradable permits have been applied in many areas of environmental policy and may be a response to increasing calls for flexible conservation instruments that successfully conserve biodiversity while allowing for economic development. The idea behind applying tradable permits to conservation is that developers wishing to turn land to economic purposes, thereby destroying valuable habitat, may only do so if they submit a permit to the conservation agency showing that habitat of at least the equivalent ecological value is restored elsewhere. The developer himself does not need to carry out the restoration, but may buy a permit from a third party, thus allowing a market to emerge. Nevertheless, the application of tradable permits to biodiversity conservation is a complex issue because destroyed and restored habitats are likely to differ. There may be various trade‐offs between the ecological requirements that destroyed and restored habitats be as similar as possible, and the need for a certain level of market activity to have a functioning trading system. The success of tradable permits as an instrument for reconciling the conflicts between economic development and conservation depends on the existence of certain economic, institutional, and ecological preconditions, for example, a functioning institutional framework, sufficient expert knowledge, and adequate monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.