Better than their reputation: enhancing the validity of contingent valuation mail survey results through citizen expert groups

Although contingent valuation is the dominant technique for the valuation of public projects, especially in the environmental sector, the high costs of contingent valuation surveys prevent the use of this method for the assessment of relatively small projects. The reason for this cost problem is that typically only contingent valuation studies which are based on face-to-face interviews are accepted as leading to valid results. Particularly in countries with high wages, face-to-face surveys are extremely costly considering that for a valid contingent valuation study a minimum of 1000 completed face-to-face interviews is required. This paper tries a rehabilitation of mail surveys as low-budget substitutes for costly face-to-face surveys. Based on an empirical contingent valuation study in Northern Thailand, it is shown that the validity of mail surveys can be improved significantly if so-called Citizen Expert Groups are employed for a thorough survey design.     

Water Governance and Water Use Efficiency: The Five Principles of WUA Management and Performance in China1

Wang, Jinxia, Jikun Huang, Lijuan Zhang, Qiuqiong Huang, and Scott Rozelle, 2010. Water Governance and Water Use Efficiency: The Five Principles of WUA Management and Performance in China. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 665-685. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00439.x Abstract: In recent years China has attempted to reform water management by decentralizing water management responsibilities. The overall goal of our paper is to better understand the emergence of water user associations (WUAs) in China and assess if they are adhering to the practices spelled out by the Five Principles, a set of recommended practices that are supposed to lead to successful WUA operation. Using four sets of different types of villages to examine implementation and performance, we find that World Bank-supported WUA villages (“Bank villages”) can be thought of as operating mostly according to the Five Principles. For example, the Bank villages were endowed with a more reliable water supply; were set up and were operating with a relatively high degree of farmer participation; and leaders were more consultative and the process more formal. When WUAs are run according to the Five Principals, we show that WUAs increase water use efficiency. The study also provides evidence that there is a perception in the Bank villages that water management is improving in general and that there is less conflict both within the village and among villages. Perhaps more importantly, we find that the Bank’s effort to promote WUAs extended beyond their own project villages. The openness, consultative nature, and transparency found in the Bank WUAs are also found (albeit at a somewhat lower level) in the non-Bank WUA villages.     

Building the role of local government authorities towards the achievement of the human right to water in rural Tanzania

In recent decades, many changes have occurred in the approach to financing and operating water services in developing countries. The demand‐responsive approach is now adopted in many countries in a context of donor‐supported decentralization processes, which gives more responsibility to end users. However, the government's responsibility at different levels is enforced by the international recognition of the human right to water. This paper examines specific actions that build the role of local government authorities in this scenario. A collaboration between an international NGO and a rural district in Tanzania from 2006 to 2009 is used as an action research case study that is representative of local capacity‐building needs in decentralized contexts and rural areas. Three main challenges were detected: i) lack of reliable information; ii) poor allocation of resources in terms of equity; and iii) lack of long‐term community management support from the district. Two mechanisms were established: i) water point mapping as a tool for information and planning; and ii) a District Water and Sanitation Unit Support (DWUS) for community management. The results show how the framework provided by the goal of human right to water helps to define useful strategies for equity‐oriented planning and post‐project support at the local level.     

The importance of context for effective public engagement: learning from the governance of waste

This paper takes a new look at the importance of context – institutional and political – in effective public engagement processes. It does so through a rare comparative opportunity to examine the effectiveness of processes of public engagement in two UK waste authorities, where the same waste company was involved as both the primary contractor for the delivery of the waste management service (including new energy-from-waste facilities) and, furthermore, the same staff delivered the public engagement. Interrogating these cases affords the opportunity to place flesh on the bones of the sometimes ‘abstract’ skeleton of context. While engagement processes support effective local governance in an era of partnerships and deliberative democracy, the paper identifies that the methods adopted cannot be played out devoid of detailed understanding and response to local context, including the strength of partnership working between the public and private sector, the degree of political support for engagement, and the extent to which a traditional institutional paternalism still dominates.     

输美轮胎特保案对中国贸易的影响及对策

分析了2009年9月26日美国对中国轮胎进口实施的特别保护措施,运用国际贸易和国际经济学的相关理论,对美国轮胎特保法案进行了剖析。在目前中美轮胎贸易情况下,从宏观和微观的角度探讨了轮胎贸易顺差形成的原因,以及长期和短期内对中国经济的影响,并对中国轮胎出口贸易提出了几点政策建议。     

工业污染治理投资完成状况分析研究——以我国沿海省市为例

运用多元统计中的主成分分析法和系统聚类法对我国东部地区工业污染的治理投资完成情况进行了分析。根据主成分分析结果,对选取的11个省市进行分类,并在此基础上提出加强各区域环境污染治理的几点建议。     

“电改袋”技术在130t／h煤粉炉烟气除尘系统改造中的应用

介绍了“电改袋”除尘系统的工艺特征，分析了130t／h煤粉炉烟气除尘器系统改造为长袋低压脉冲袋式除尘器的技术方案。改造后，除尘器已经稳定运行1年多，各项技术指标均达到设计要求，环境效益与经济效益显著。     

Governing the Borderlands: Decoding the Power of Aid

This article examines aid practice, that is, the public-private contractual networks that link donor governments, UN agencies, military establishments, NGOs, private companies and others, as a relation of global liberal governance. In order to fulfil this function, such networks embody what could be called the 'securitisation' of international assistance. Based upon ideas of human security and ameliorating the effects of poverty and vulnerability reduction, aid is now seen as playing a direct security role. Rather than being concerned with relations between states, the primary aim of this security paradigm is to modulate and change the behaviour of populations within them. In doing so, it is able to exploit the opportunities afforded by privatisation. At the same time, however, aid as security is confronted by its own particular problem of 'governing at a distance'; how can calculations made by leading states be transformed into actions at the global edge when a multitude of private and non-government implementors now intervene? The article concludes by examining the contribution of risk analysis to solving this problem and, especially, the development of new contractual regimes based around technical standardisation, benchmarking and performance auditing. Through such technologies, metropolitan states are learning how to manage the public-private networks of aid practice and, as a result, to govern the borderlands in new ways.     

施肥与秸秆还田对太湖稻-油复种系统春季杂草群落特征的影响

掌握不同管理模式下稻田杂草群落特征，可以为杂草综合防治及农田生物多样性的保持提供理论依据和技术途径。借助稻-油复种系统长期定位施肥试验（江苏吴江，始于1987年），于2007年春季监测长期不同施肥和秸秆还田对农田杂草群落的影响。施肥与秸秆还田对春季稻田杂草群落结构特征存在显著作用。长期有机无机肥配合施用下（化肥+猪粪+秸秆）杂草生物多样性和生物量均下降；长期不施氮肥下杂草总密度显著增高，达1 810 ind./m2；长期不施肥时，田间野老鹳草成为优势种群，其相对密度达879%；全年秸秆还田（化肥+油菜秸秆+水稻秸秆）下，田间优势杂草种群为禾本科的看麦娘，其相对密度达697%；秋熟水稻秸秆还田下杂草生物量下降，而生物多样性显著提高。上述结果表明，通过合理施肥和秸秆还田措施，可以对稻油复种模式中春季杂草群落进行有效调控。     

新区域主义视角下的管治尺度构建——以南京都市圈建设为例

在新区域主义的理论视角下，对南京都市圈的新区域实体和区域管治进行研究，指出南京都市圈是新区域主义在我国的一种表现形式。研究表明：①南京都市圈建设是从政府到管治过程，因为在决策中引入了非政府部门和私营部门的参与者；②南京都市圈建设也涉及到区域身份与发展愿景的构建，这是区域协调的起点；③在旅游和引资促销，以及交通网络建设上，南京都市圈内的城市合作不断加强。此外，南京都市圈的新区域主义不同于西方的市场主导的新区域主义。南京都市圈的新区域主义是由政府主导的，并有企业和非政府机构参与的新区域主义。研究指出，南京都市圈是在既有区域制度和政治地理上出现的新管治尺度，是一种新的区域管治模式。南京都市圈建设的有益经验将为和谐规划提供一些启迪。