Performance of data acceptance criteria over 50 months from an automatic real-time environmental radiation surveillance network

The automatic real-time environmental radiation surveillance network of Catalonia (Spain) comprises two subnetworks; one with 9 aerosol monitors and the other with 8 Geiger monitors together with 2 water monitors located in the Ebre river. Since September 2006, several improvements were implemented in order to get better quality and quantity of data, allowing a more accurate data analysis. However, several causes (natural causes, equipment failure, artificial external causes and incidents in nuclear power plants) may produce radiological measured values mismatched with the own station background, whether spurious without significance or true radiological values. Thus, data analysis for a 50-month period was made and allowed to establish an easily implementable statistical criterion to find those values that require special attention. This criterion proved a very useful tool for creating a properly debugged database and to give a quick response to equipment failures or possible radiological incidents. This paper presents the results obtained from the criterion application, including the figures for the expected, raw and debugged data, percentages of missing data grouped by causes and radiological measurements from the networks. Finally, based on the discussed information, recommendations for the improvement of the network are identified to obtain better radiological information and analysis capabilities.     

Traditional pastoralist decision-making processes: lessons for reforms to water resources management in Kenya

The purpose of this paper is to consider the vision for public participation in water resources management embedded in Kenya's 2002 Water Act, as it relates to pastoralists. The Act envisions that responsibility for management of water resources at the local level will be devolved to community-level bodies. Our approach was qualitative and included interviews with government officials and Gabra pastoralists, observation of and participation in traditional Gabra korra meetings and focus group discussions. We conclude that the ‘institutional model’ of participation being pursued through the creation of Water Resource User Associations is particularly problematic for mobile pastoralists such as the Gabra, and we suggest an alternative strategy that would focus on the fostering of deliberation processes.     

The future of sustainability in the context of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis emanating both from a virus (SARS-CoV-2) and from the drastic actions to contain it. Here, we reflect on the immediate responses of most world powers amid the pandemic chaos: totalitarian surveillance and nationalist isolation. Drawing on published literature, we consider measures such as wildlife-use bans, lockdowns and travel restrictions, along with their reverberations for people, economies and the planet. Our synthesis highlights significant shortfalls of applying command-and-control tactics in emergencies. For one, heavy-handed bans risk enormous unintended consequences and tend to fail if they lack legitimacy or clash with people’s values. Furthermore, reactive and myopic strategies typically view the pandemic as a stand-alone crisis, rather than unravelling the complex interplay of nature-society interactions through which zoonotic diseases originate. A return to adaptive management approaches that recognise root causes and foster socio-ecological resilience will be essential to improve human and planetary health and mitigate future pandemics.     

航空承运人审定监察系统研究

阐述了建设民用航空承运人审定监察系统的必要性,探讨了航空承运人审定监察系统的概念和特征,指出航空承运人审定监察系统是国家民用航空监管部门使用的,利用系统构型模型和数据收集工具完成对航空承运人系统设计评估和系统运行绩效的评估,进而对航空承运人依据规章提出改进系统设计和运行的要求,对航空承运人开展风险管理的流程、工具、信息系统的集合。此系统具有管理性、系统性、自动化三个特征。文中研究并提出了该系统的框架结构、主要功能模块设置,分析了该系统与不同组织机构间的协调关系。其中系统以＂两个闭环流程＂,＂六个的功能模块＂实现了审定监察工作的闭环管理,实现了正式的风险管理与安全保证功能在局方审定监察工作中的强化与落实。     

Sprawl,Smart Growth and Sustainability

This paper examines the role of community-based management (CBM) in dealing with the problem of mine water pollution (MWP) in four ex-pit sites in northeast England. The outcomes of CBM can be divided into two categories: ecological (environmental improvement) and social (community improvement). The ecological outcomes range from problem recognition to investigation and remediation; the social outcomes range from community awareness to participation and enhanced cooperation. Both kinds of outcome were completely achieved in only one site (Quaking Houses). In the other three sites, varying degrees of success were achieved in each category. The main lessons learned are two-fold: first, even if CBM does not achieve its ecological aims, it may nonetheless be valuable in achieving social outcomes; second, its chances of achieving either ecological or social outcomes are linked to the resources (human, technical, financial, experiential, structural, legitimacy and network) that the community possesses.     

浅谈视频监控在石化安全领域的运用与探索

以天然气净化厂安全视频监控运用为实例,充分阐述了视频监控的分类、特点以及运用实效,对各类风险场景视频监控的应用配置进行了探讨,并针对问题和不足提出了措施建议,为视频监控在石化安全领域中的开发、运用、管理提供参考。     

A community-based approach to low-income residential energy efficiency participation barriers

Financial barriers are often cited as the principle impediment to the adoption of energy efficiency measures. Since 1976, the US Department of Energy's Weatherisation Assistance Programme (WAP) has provided state block grants for no-cost, low-income energy efficiency retrofits. Yet, millions of low-income American households lack affordable, reliable, and efficient energy access. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 boosted WAP's annual appropriation from $230 million to $5 billion, requiring states to explore innovate approaches to quickly increasing programme participation. Community-based energy programmes have shown success for overcoming various barriers and increasing participation in the adoption of energy technologies. This case study explores a community-based approach to scaling WAP-funded energy efficiency retrofits in a cluster of five urban, low-income, majority African-American neighbourhoods, known as the Green Impact Zone (GIZ), in Kansas City, Missouri. Findings from interviews with GIZ stakeholders suggest that local context is important to how energy efficiency participation barriers manifest. The targeted, community-based approach to WAP created institutional capabilities for increased recognition of participation challenges and facilitated opportunities for alternative solutions that may otherwise have been overlooked under the standard self-referral implementation of WAP. Lastly, effective implementation of WAP required policy workarounds that recognised the unique characteristics and needs of the target community.     

The role of learning in sustainable communities of practice

This paper adds to the literature on skills for sustainable communities by examining the role and processes of learning in “communities of practice” that exist within a “grassroots association”. Interviews were conducted with participants in the communities of practice of a student group called Green Action, which engages with environmental issues in practical ways. The findings demonstrate how learning occurred in the communities of practice, how participants gained skills and knowledge for sustainable consumption, and how learning in the communities of practice appeared to help Green Action to sustain itself in the long-term. This paper could serve as a useful demonstration to others as to how to apply the theories and concepts from the literature on communities of practice when researching skills and knowledge for sustainable communities. It also has some value for grassroots associations themselves in understanding their own activities.     

Reconciling local control with appropriate scale in Norwegian moose management

In a landscape of fragmented private ownership, the need to coordinate game management across large areas presents challenges for landowners and public agencies alike. This paper describes how a recent reorganization of moose management in Norway achieves landscape-level planning while maintaining a tradition of local management by hunting teams. These two seemingly contradictory imperatives – coordinating wildlife management across large areas while keeping benefits and control in the hands of local resource users – are resolved through a nesting of management institutions, wherein the state serves a regulatory function and mid-level government (the county) serves to facilitate inter-local cooperation. This paper documents how the system is structured and describes the balance of incentives that enable the system to work. Information was gathered via interviews with staff at the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management (now called the Norwegian Environment Agency), with wildlife management officials at the municipal level, with hunters, and from the most recent regulatory documents.     

矿用产品安全标志的监督管理探讨

为有效加强矿用产品安全标志发放后的监督管理力度,进一步提高安全标志的有效性及公信力,应积极探索、合理借鉴其他产品认证的成功经验与做法。对比分析我国矿用产品安全标志监督管理与UL认证跟踪检验在监督频次、监督重点、实施方式等诸多方面的异同,提出完善矿用产品安全标志监督管理的措施和建议:紧密结合我国安全生产工作,认真贯彻落实关于矿用产品安全标志管理的文件精神,有效利用监督管理资源,对获得矿用产品安全标志的生产单位实行科学、动态的管理,建立畅通的信息反馈渠道等。