Water resource management in Kabul river basin, eastern Afghanistan

Severe drinking water shortage affects all resident of the Kabul river basin. Two and a half decades of civil war in Afghanistan (it began in late 1978) have resulted in widespread environmental degradation and water resource development throughout the country. The war has already finished and, therefore, water resource management for supplying water is one of the most important tasks for Afghanistan’s government. The Kabul river basin which is the most populated area in the country is located in the eastern part of Afghanistan. This article deals with the water resource properties of the Kabul river basin and also water demand in the important cities of the basin, such as Kabul, the capital and the largest city in the country. Also a few suggestions for providing water for domestic and agriculture purposes in short term, medium time and long term have been discussed.     

Making Capacity Building Meaningful: A Framework for Strategic Action

This paper aims to give practical meaning to ‘capacity building’ through (a) identifying a suite of practical measures, such as mentoring or best practice guidelines, that have been shown to or are considered to build human, social, institutional, and economic capital; (b) placing these measures within a broader systems framework; and (c) exploring stakeholder feedback on specific measures to inform framework implementation. The 29 measures described provide actors, whether government or nongovernment, with a suite of practical investment choices for building capacity. These measures are then clustered into eight groups according to their primary purpose and placed within a systems framework. The framework provides a tool for actors with responsibilities for or an interest in capacity building to inform more holistic and strategic targeting of effort and investment. Stakeholder feedback gathered through surveys and workshops is subsequently reported to further inform implementation of specific measures within the framework’s eight groupings. The framework presented may be built upon through the identification and inclusion of further capacity building measures. The research is conducted within the context of decentralized governance arrangements for natural resource management (NRM), with specific focus on Australia’s recently formalized 56 NRM regions and their community-based governing boards as an informative arena of learning. Application of the framework is explored in the Australian setting through the identification and comparison of measures supported and most preferred by four major stakeholder groups, namely board members, regional NRM organization staff, policy/research interests, and Indigenous interests. The research also examines stakeholder perceptions of capacity issues, and whether these issues are likely to be addressed through implementing their preferred measures.

最优环境税:庇古法则与税制协调

从经济学的角度对国外关于最优环境税的经典理论——庇古法则及近十年来研究的前沿内容——一般均衡模型等作出阐释，并在外部性理论的基础上通过一个一般均衡模型考察环境税的效率特性和在次优情形下最优环境税的决定因素。随后是对我国开征环境税的几点思考：环境税的课征范围应暂定为排放各种废水、废气（烟尘）和固体废弃物的行为。环境税税率的确定可以采用“反复迭代”的方法，即“环境效益优先，兼顾税收协调和收入分配等效应。”其他相关问题的处理，如环境税和其它政策手段的配合使用，环境税税收的使用等。     

Eutrophication conditions and ecological status in typical bays of Lake Taihu in China

Sampling was conducted at three site groups, group E (in East Taihu Bay), G (in Gonghu Bay) and M (in Meiliang Bay) in Lake Taihu. TN and TP concentrations among site groups was in the increasing order of E < G < M. TP level at G sites is at the critical threshold for loss of submersed macrophytes. Mean values of DO and Transparence showed different trend, i.e., E > G > M. The mean phytoplankton fresh-weight biomass at M sites was 5.81 mg/l, higher than that at E sites (4.96 mg/l) and G sites (5.18 mg/l). Mean zooplankton fresh-weight biomass was in the decreasing order of M (6.4 mg/l) > G (4.9 mg/l) > E (2.7 mg/l). However, Rotifera density was in the sequence of E > G > M. Both zooplankton biomass and phytoplankton biomass increased with the rise of TN and TP concentrations. Relationships between zooplankton biomass and phytoplankton biomass showed that zooplankton played a limited role in the control of algae in eutrophic lakes. Nutrient availability is much more important than zooplankton grazing pressure in controlling phytoplankton growth in lakes. For most sites in Lake Taihu, reduction of nutrient loading, as well as macrophyte conservation, zappears to be especially important in maintaining high water quality and regulating lake biological structure, but for M sites, it’s urgent to control nutrient inputs rather than to restore macrophyte community.     

Conjoint analysis for environmental evaluation

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: Conjoint analysis and the related choice-modelling methods have been used for many years in marketing research to evaluate consumer behaviour and preferences for different kinds of product attributes. Recently, the number of applications in environmental science and management has started to grow. Conjoint analysis is found in many different forms, and the environmental studies evaluated in this review display the same range of methods as in other fields. The key characteristic of all these methods is that trade-offs are evaluated by jointly considering a number of important attributes. MAIN FEATURES: This paper is a review of the literature on environmental applications of conjoint analysis and assesses in which environmental area conjoint analysis has been most successful. The method and the design of the studies are reviewed as well. RESULTS: A total of 84 studies were found, dealing with environmental issues that were evaluated by conjoint analysis. The studies concern agriculture, ecosystem management, energy, environmental evaluation, forestry, land management, pollution, products, recreation, environmental risk analysis and waste management. DISCUSSION: Choice experiments seem to have a comparatively stronger position in environmental studies than elsewhere. Most of the environmental applications are related to natural resource management. This is somewhat surprising, but a number of reports have appeared also on product evaluation, which could be a key application area in the future. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to marketing and transportation, the number of environmental conjoint studies is rather small but increasing, and the method has proven to work effectively in eliciting preferences on environmental issues. In environmental issues, experimenters often use choice experiments, especially concerning ecosystem management and environmental evaluations. When it comes to evaluating preferences concerning agriculture, forestry, energy and products, a more traditional approach of conjoint analysis is favoured. RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: Two new areas of application are identified in this review--environmental communication and expert elicitation. Conjoint analysis can thus be developed into a useful instrument for environmental risk analysis and communication, both of which are necessary for an efficient approach to risk governance.     

试论生态文明建设中的环境保护

随着经济的发展，人们越来越清醒地认识到，以污染环境和破坏生态来换取一时经济繁荣的危害日益突出。正是这种清醒，推动人类文明进行着一场深刻的反思和变革，把追求人与自然的和谐相处，推上当今社会发展主旋律的位置，它预示着人类进入一个生态文明的新时代。生态文明是协调发展物质文明的保障者，是与时俱进的精神文明的塑造者，是日益完善的政治文明的体现者。因此，建设生态文明既是实现全面建设小康社会奋斗目标的内在需要，又是深入贯彻落实科学发展观的重要内容；建设生态文明，必须强化政策支撑，增加生态文明建设的内生动力；必须强化执法监督，增加生态文明建设的环保执行力；必须强化生态补偿能力，构建最具活力的绿色发展模式。     

SUSTAINABILITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND MUNICIPAL TAX INCENTIVE MODEL

The implementation of sustainable development may seem a simple concept when written on paper. However to carry-out long term actions put forward by the Agenda 21 (AG21) at the local level represents one of the main challenges as municipal governments in general do not have the capacity to effectively implement the process. Regional environmental assessment (REA) has shown to be effective in supporting decision-making not only to correct environmental problems due to past unsustainable social-economic developments but also help local governments to implement sustainable actions. However this requires long-term investments of AG21 plans and projects. The allocation of regular and consistent financial resources is one of the main ingredients for the sustainable development process. But traditional plans and projects financed by national and/or international funds may not be sustainable in the long-term because they become dependent on external funding. Research demonstrate that innovative economic instruments such as ecotaxes represent a feasible alternative to sponsor local sustainability because taxes are collected permanently by the government and could be invested in continuous actions. Ecotaxes experiences have provided important reference to structure a municipal incentive model (MIM) to sponsor AG21’s environmental plans and projects on a long-term (permanent) basis. However sustainable development cannot be solely through economic investments. A comprehensive municipal environmental management scheme (MEMS) has been established to support the incentive model. The scheme seeks not only to improve local institutional framework but also incentive continuous participation of local stakeholders at all levels of society. Participatory events and the provision of incentives (educational and financial) are key to motivate society to protect the environment and support actively the sustainable development process as emphasised in the RIO-92 Conference.     

DESIGN OF AN INDEX OF WATER QUALITY1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the formulation of an Index of Water Quality to evaluate the level of pollution in fresh water. A Four-Round Delphi equation, using a panel of seven nationally recognized water scientists, was performed to ascertain the pollutants to be included in the index, the relationship between the quantity of these pollutants in the water and the resulting quality of the water, and the importance of each pollution variable to each water use as well as to overall pollution. A multiplicative index was used to bring the pollutants together into one system.     

Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

Towards a smallholder hydrology for equitable and sustainable water management

Situations of water scarcity challenge sustainability and threaten small users' access to water. In response to this problem, there has been a search for a method of hydrological analysis that can better represent the needs of small water users. While this search is rooted in the debate favouring a more participatory and inclusive allocation of the resource, it also requires a new focus on smallholder hydrology that can confront the gaps and biases found in current hydrological practices in many countries. This article looks at past hydrological practices and also at results of recent studies, highlighting the perspective of smallholder irrigators in surface water planning in Zimbabwe, and groundwater planning in India. These case studies show that wider social forces, not always best science, drive hydrological practices. However, new frameworks focusing on the water user can emerge for more equitable and sustainable water management.