Risk attitudes and mitigation among gold miners and others in the Suriname rainforest

This article analyses the question: do attitudes towards risk influence participation in small‐scale gold mining, a hazardous activity that generates uncertain income? This question is examined by measuring and comparing the risk attitudes of gold miners and non‐mining community members in the rainforest of Suriname, South America. The author presents a multivariate model to predict the duration of work in mining areas as a function of risk tolerance, age, education, and household demographics. The results suggest that a greater tolerance to risk increases the duration of a person's mining career. However, attitudes explain only a fraction of the variation in occupational choices. Qualitative data suggest that these choices are primarily shaped by local barriers to human capital development and by national economic volatility. Given their marginal position in society and the multitude of mining risk mitigation strategies, it is questionable whether gold mining exposes Suriname forest peoples to greater risks than other subsistence alternatives. The author argues that sensitivity to local historical and cultural conditions would improve the efficiency of policies aimed at developing a more sustainable mining industry. By zooming in on the daily lives of miners, anthropology can complement macro‐scale analyses and contribute to policy interventions in the small‐scale mining sector.     

仪化热电厂提高循环水浓缩倍率的措施

针对仪化热电厂将循环水用作冲灰水，导致浓缩倍率只有1.6，以及凝汽器铜管腐蚀结垢严重等问题，提出了隔断循环水与冲灰水的直接联系，实现闲路循环，对凝汽器铜管进行酸洗，并对循环水实施加缓蚀阻垢荆、杀菌剂和旁流过滤等办法，全部实施后产生了很好的效益，值得借鉴。     

台风湍流积分尺度与脉动风速谱——基于实测数据的分析

基于4个台风过程中的长时间序列风速、风方向观测数据，分析研究了近地台风的湍流积分尺度和脉动风速谱等脉动特性。介绍了湍流积分尺度的几种常见的计算方法，基于实测台风数据，分析研究了台风过程中湍流积分尺度的变化以及不同计算方法的稳定性。根据实测数据计算了纵向脉动风速谱，并与Von-Karman谱、Davenport谱、Simiu谱和Harris谱等经验谱进行了比较，给出了最适合描述台风纵向脉动风速谱的经验谱。还计算了横向脉动风速功率谱，并与基于各向同性湍流理论推导出的水平横向脉动风速谱进行了对比。     

EFFECTS OF WATERSHED REPRESENTATION ON RUNOFF AND SEDIMENT YIELD MODELING1

ABSTRACT: This paper evaluates the effects of watershed geometric representation (i.e., plane and channel representation) on runoff and sediment yield simulations in a semiarid rangeland watershed. A process based, spatially distributed runoff erosion model (KINEROS2) was used to explore four spatial representations of a 4.4 ha experimental watershed. The most complex representation included all 96 channel elements identifiable in the field. The least complex representation contained only five channel elements. It was concluded that oversimplified watershed representations greatly influence runoff and sediment yield simulations by inducing excessive infiltration on hillslopes and distorting runoff patterns and sediment fluxes. Runoff and sediment yield decrease systematically with decreasing complexity in watershed representation. However, less complex representations had less impact on runoff and sediment‐yield simulations for small rainfall events. This study concludes that the selection of the appropriate level of watershed representation can have important theoretical and practical implications on runoff and sediment yield modeling in semiarid environments.     

BASIN SCALE WATER MANAGEMENT AND FORECASTING USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS1

ABSTRACT: Water scarcity in the Sevier River Basin in south‐central Utah has led water managers to seek advanced techniques for identifying optimal forecasting and management measures. To more efficiently use the limited quantity of water in the basin, better methods for control and forecasting are imperative. Basin scale management requires advanced forecasts of the availability of water. Information about long term water availability is important for decision making in terms of how much land to plant and what crops to grow; advanced daily predictions of streamflows and hydraulic characteristics of irrigation canals are of importance for managing water delivery and reservoir releases; and hourly forecasts of flows in tributary streams to account for diurnal fluctuations are vital to more precisely meet the day‐to‐day expectations of downstream farmers. A priori streamflow information and exogenous climate data have been used to predict future streamflows and required reservoir releases at different timescales. Data on snow water equivalent, sea surface temperatures, temperature, total solar radiation, and precipitation are fused by applying artificial neural networks to enhance long term and real time basin scale water management information. This approach has not previously been used in water resources management at the basin‐scale and could be valuable to water users in semi‐arid areas to more efficiently utilize and manage scarce water resources.     

政府调控、市场机制与城市发展

深入探究政府调控和市场机制对城市规模的影响有利于解决目前中国大城市人口快速膨胀,城市病频发,而中小城市发展潜力不足,对人口吸纳能力有限,城市发展规模存在两极分化的问题。从探究影响城市发展的因素入手,通过对不同地区和不同规模城市的面板数据回归分析,发现中国属于典型的"自上而下"的城市发展模式,尤其是城市科层制的层级结构直接决定了城市规模大小,政府财政分权行为更加剧了城市规模两极分化趋势。市场机制对城市规模具有一定的影响,但其作用方向和效果明显依赖于政府调控水平,且科层制的城市等级结构弱化了市场机制对城市规模影响效果的发挥。政府和市场机制对不同区域、不同规模城市的影响效应不同。市场机制在东部城市产生涓流效应,而在中西部则发挥着聚集极化作用。市场机制在特大和大城市已产生涓流效应,加之政府"抑大崇小"的城市发展战略使得这种效应愈加明显,中等城市则处于极化效应和涓流效应更替中,小城市则表现为更多的聚集极化效应。为形成大中小城市合理分工的城市体系,其关键在于正确处理政府调控和市场机制的关系。政府应指导城市发展方向,为其创造良好的宏观环境,市场则应在微观资源配置中起决定性作用。建议根据城市发展和市场经济需要,对现有的行政区划进行适时调整和变动。调整公共资源在特大及大中小城市传统分配政策,实现公共资源由按行政级别配置向按照人口规模配置转变。同时,建立跨区域的相应的协调机制,以市场力量突破行政界限探索城市健康发展。     

A study on the factor market distortion and the carbon emission scale effect of two-way FDI

Based on the data of 30 Chinese provinces for the period from 2004 to 2015, this paper expounds the carbon emissions effect of two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) from the perspective of scale effect and factor market distortions. This study uses Kaya identity to decompose carbon emission and construct simultaneous equations model to empirically examine the factor market distortion and the carbon emission scale effect of two-way FDI. The results show that the inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) increase regional carbon emission through scale effect and also exacerbates factor market distortion in China, whereas the outward FDI trends reduce carbon emission and reduces factor market distortions in China. The study also shows that human capital, research and development (R&D), trade openness, and capital accumulation are important determinants of two-way FDI. Therefore, the study proposes that IFDI policies should focus on acquiring green technologies. In addition, the domestic enterprises should be encouraged to participate in global business.     

Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China

In the global campaign against biodiversity loss in forest ecosystems, land managers need to know the status of forest biodiversity, but practical guidelines for conserving biodiversity in forest management are lacking. A major obstacle is the incomplete understanding of the relationship between site primary productivity and plant diversity, due to insufficient ecosystem‐wide data, especially for taxonomically and structurally diverse forest ecosystems. We investigated the effects of site productivity (the site's inherent capacity to grow timber) on tree species richness across 19 types of forest ecosystems in North America and China through 3 ground‐sourced forest inventory data sets (U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis, Cooperative Alaska Forest Inventory, and Chinese Forest Management Planning Inventory). All forest types conformed to a consistent and highly significant (P < 0.001) hump‐shaped unimodal relationship, of which the generalized coefficients of determination averaged 20.5% over all the forest types. That is, tree species richness first increased as productivity increased at a progressively slower rate, and, after reaching a maximum, richness started to decline. Our consistent findings suggest that forests of high productivity would sustain few species because they consist mostly of flat homogeneous areas lacking an environmental gradient along which a diversity of species with different habitats can coexist. The consistency of the productivity–biodiversity relationship among the 3 data sets we examined makes it possible to quantify the expected tree species richness that a forest stand is capable of sustaining, and a comparison between the actual species richness and the sustainable values can be useful in prioritizing conservation efforts.     

基于生态—经济协调发展的乡镇空间功能分区

按提供产品的类别,乡镇尺度空间由生态空间、农业空间和建设空间组成,这3部分空间共同承载着乡镇社会经济发展的重任。坚持生态保护对发展的约束与支撑功能并存的理念,建立以生态约束为前提,并与开发建设协同推进的分区指标体系、技术方法及应用模式,是生态文明战略下空间功能分区的有益探讨。以南京市六合区雄州街道为案例,借助Arc GIS空间分析工具,采用互斥性矩阵分类法,通过对生态约束、农业发展、工业发展与人居环境等建设开发适宜性的单项与综合评价的集成,构建生态、农业和建设空间布局的总体架构,实现了街镇空间功能的整合与科学定位;划分禁止建设区、限制建设区、适宜建设区和已建设区等四大类功能区,并提出各功能区的生态环境保护措施与产业发展导向,为实施区域发展与生态保护的协同推进提供了依据。     

Thinking inside the basin: scale in transboundary water management

While transboundary waters are widely advocated to be best managed at the basin level, practical experience in transboundary waters at the basin vis‐à‐vis other scales has not been systematically examined. To understand past experiences in transboundary water management at alternate scales, this paper: (i) determines the relative abundance of water treaties at different scales and (ii) elucidates how transboundary water law varies according to the scale to which it applies. The paper developed a scale typology with six groups, and systematically applied it to stratify transboundary water treaties. Treaty contents were then compared across scales according to the following set of parameters: primary issue area, temporal development, and important water management attributes. Results of this work reveal: (i) treaties tend to focus on hydropower and flood control at smaller scales, and organizations and policies at larger scales; (ii) a temporal trend toward treaties concluded at larger scales; and (iii) a higher proportion of treaties is at larger scales in Africa and Asia than in Europe and the Americas. These findings suggest that smaller scale cooperation may constitute a more constructive scale in which to achieve development‐oriented cooperation. Further, scope may exist to complement basin scale cooperation with cooperation at smaller scales, in order to optimize transboundary water management. In the context of basin‐wide management frameworks, Africa and Asia may benefit from greater emphasis on small‐scale transboundary water cooperation.