A data-oriented strategy to support water resource managers and researchers

Given the wide diversity of data services provided to national water management agencies, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) in collaboration with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) developed the approach described in the report, Implementing the GEOSS Water Strategy—From Observations to Decisions to develop more coherent and equitable data services for water management through the use of Earth observations. Among other water resource issues, it recognized the need to enhance data-enriched water management services to support decision making related to drought monitoring, flood warning, tracking and improving sustainable development and monitoring and ameliorating the impacts of climate change. Needs associated with the Strategy's four themes: improved data acquisition for essential water variables, research and product development, interoperability and coordination, and capacity development and decision support, are reviewed. Responses to the recommendations have been undertaken by GEO, led by its Global Water Sustainability (GEOGloWS) initiative which includes NASA contributions, CEOS, and the Global Terrestrial Network for Hydrology (GTN-H). Progress on the themes is reviewed and benefits of these developments for international and US water management are identified. The commentary concludes with a summary of what has been achieved, what remains to be done, and the priority focus areas for implementation in the final year of the Strategy.     

Improving multi-site benefit functions via Bayesian model averaging: A new approach to benefit transfer

A benefit function transfer obtains estimates of willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the evaluation of a given policy at a site by combining existing information from different study sites. This has the advantage that more efficient estimates are obtained, but it relies on the assumption that the heterogeneity between sites is appropriately captured in the benefit transfer model. A more expensive alternative to estimate WTP is to analyze only data from the policy site in question while ignoring information from other sites. We make use of the fact that these two choices can be viewed as a model selection problem and extend the set of models to allow for the hypothesis that the benefit function is only applicable to a subset of sites. We show how Bayesian model averaging (BMA) techniques can be used to optimally combine information from all models.The Bayesian algorithm searches for the set of sites that can form the basis for estimating a benefit function and reveals whether such information can be transferred to new sites for which only a small data set is available. We illustrate the method with a sample of 42 forests from U.K. and Ireland. We find that BMA benefit function transfer produces reliable estimates and can increase about 8 times the information content of a small sample when the forest is ‘poolable’.     

中国陆地生态信息空间化技术研究(Ⅰ)——气象/气候信息的空间化技术途径

论文提出了构建中国陆地生态系统空间化信息系统的基本设想,并且在回顾国内外气象/气候信息空间化研究的现状基础上,评价了已有的气象/气候信息要素空间化技术的发展,探讨了中国陆地生态系统气象/气候信息空间化的技术途径,概要地介绍了研究小组在近年来的工作中所取得的阶段性研究成果,展望了这些成果的应用前景。我国陆地生态信息空间化技术研究和数据产品的开发是生态学、资源科学和环境科学发展的迫切需求。但建立一个适应于不同科学研究的精度、时空分辨率要求的陆地生态信息空间数据库需要较长期的努力和多学科领域的合作,也需要大量的作为科学研究基础数据平台建设的国家投资。     

基于人口分布与土地利用关系的人口数据空间化研究——以西藏自治区为例

土地是人与自然相互作用的产物,人口分布与土地利用具有非常密切的关系。根据1999年全国市县统计人口数据与各市县土地利用类型指数的相关性分析,发现各市县平均人口密度与各市县各类土地利用指数的复相关系数为0.82,在西藏、青海和海南3省区,复相关系数均达到0.99。以西藏自治区为例,根据市县人口密度与土地利用指数及数字高程的相关关系建立了人口数据空间化模型,并计算出西藏自治区1km×1km分辨率的栅格人口数据。在被选作验证区的3县37个乡镇中,用模型计算出的各乡镇人口密度与各乡镇的实际人口密度的相关系数为0.88。因此,土地利用信息是进行市县级人口统计数据空间化的重要参数,利用土地利用与人口分布之间客观存在的关系可以进行市县级人口统计数据的空间化。     

环境空间决策支持集成系统的设计原理与应用

空间决策支持系统(SDSS)是地理信息系统(GIS)和决策支持系统(DSS)的有机结合.笔者在已有研究成果基础上,以厦门市环境管理空间决策支持集成系统(XME-SDSS)为例,介绍了空间信息集成系统的设计原理和实现方法,包括数据分析模型、系统的数据流、数据库结构以及系统的集成方式.      

环境监测数据管理系统的开发

在论述开发环境监测数据管理系统重要性的基础上,根据环境监测站的主要工作职能,确定了环境监测数据管理系统的功能,进行了系统总体设计和程序设计,开发出了操作方便、灵活实用的环境监测数据管理系统。     

飞机铝合金结构腐蚀损伤预测方法对比性研究

依据飞机LD2结构材料的加速腐蚀试验数据,提出了数据拟合、神经网络、时间序列3种腐蚀损伤预测方法,并对3种预测方法的基本原理、预测精度及预测外延性进行了对比分析。研究发现神经网络和时间序列方法预测精度较高;时间序列方法的预测外延性较好,能够以较高精度预测未来一段时期腐蚀损伤的发展趋势及损伤程度。因此,应根据研究需要选用合适的方法进行腐蚀损伤预测。     

Temporal trends in opportunistic citizen science reports across multiple taxa

Opportunistic reporting of species observations to online platforms provide one of the most extensive sources of information about the distribution and status of organisms in the wild. The lack of a clear sampling design, and changes in reporting over time, leads to challenges when analysing these data for temporal change in organisms. To better understand temporal changes in reporting, we use records submitted to an online platform in Sweden (Artportalen), currently containing 80 million records. Focussing on five taxonomic groups, fungi, plants, beetles, butterflies and birds, we decompose change in reporting into long-term and seasonal trends, and effects of weekdays, holidays and weather variables. The large surge in number of records since the launch of the, initially taxa-specific, portals is accompanied by non-trivial long-term and seasonal changes that differ between the taxonomic groups and are likely due to changes in, and differences between, the user communities and observer behaviour. Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01550-w.     

Sustainable development in East Africa: impact evaluation of regional agricultural development projects in Burundi,Kenya, Rwanda,Tanzania, and Uganda

Investments in agricultural technologies, capacity building and policy harmonization are needed to support sustainable development across Africa. Regional development projects can facilitate the adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations across nation-state borders and generate benefits for shared prosperity. This paper uses panel data from 1,160 smallholder households including beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries from five countries in East Africa - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. From a pool of over 90 projects implemented over a span of 15 years, 23 regional projects are included in this study. The major economic benefits to smallholder participants are higher crop productivity and income, access to adaptable technologies, access to markets, higher livestock and milk production, gender equality, enhanced food security, resilience and capacity building for uptake and scaling up of future innovation platforms. For example, the adoption of low-cost tissue culture banana by the beneficiaries increased their incomes by 15% in Rwanda while the adoption of appropriate land and water management technologies increased the potato yields from 2.8 tons (USD 2,840/ha) to over 7.5 tons (USD 7,410/ha) in Kenya. The beneficiaries ensured value added to commodities like bananas (for export) and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (a nutrition-sensitive intervention for enhancing domestic intake of vitamin A) in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Additionally, milk production increased from 6 to 11 L per cow per day in Uganda and from 6 to 8 L per cow per day in Tanzania, with increases in sales generating USD 115 per cow per month above the non-beneficiaries. These results are supported by previous studies on technology adoption, investments in agriculture and well-being outcomes. Our findings with the higher farm income Difference-in-Differences (DiD) estimator for the female beneficiaries compared to male beneficiaries might have important implications for investing in regional development projects that will close the gender gap in agricultural productivity in Africa. Regional projects can also support post-conflict development efforts for food security and peace in fragile contexts such as in Burundi. Our findings might serve as an input to the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, localization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to food security and agriculture in Africa and an input to monitoring, evaluation and learning.     

建筑业省域安全生产目标设置和政策优化路径研究*

为科学、合理地设置省域建筑业安全生产目标，运用目标设置理论，基于参照系法，考虑省域间建筑业技术水平差异，通过耦合动态聚类和双层前沿DEA方法构建建筑业省域安全生产目标设置模型，并结合2018年相关数据开展实证研究。结果表明:运用该模型计算得到的我国整体建筑业安全生产死亡人数控制目标为541人，较2018年实际死亡人数减少约36%，其中江苏、广东、四川降幅最显著，分别为50，50，27人；促进目标实现的政策优化路径因省而异，优先改善管理（H型）和侧重提高技术（L型）的省域数量比为15∶11；空间上不同类型的省域具有明显的集聚特征，H型省域集中分布于西部及东北地区，L型省域则多位于中部地区，国家可据此制定差异化的区域建筑业安全生产管理战略。