Collectively engaging complex socio-ecological systems: re-envisioning science, governance, and the California Delta

We address the future of science and governance for the California Delta, focusing on the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, an interagency, multi-stakeholder effort to understand and manage the Delta for multiple purposes. We portray a Delta history as a coevolutionary process between science, governance and ecosystems. Global integrated environmental assessments (IEA) provide insights into understanding complex, dynamic socio-ecological systems. Many of the discursive stakeholder and scientific activities that have arisen under CALFED are similar to IEA and remain essential to the shared learning needed to effectively interact with a dynamic Delta. More deliberately enmeshing environmental monitoring, analysis, and collective learning into Delta governance will improve outcomes.     

水生野生动物自然保护区河流生态系统服务功能价值评价——以长江湖北宜昌中华鲟自然保护区为例

论文根据长江湖北宜昌中华鲟自然保护区的特点,尝试对保护区所在江段河流生态系统服务价值建立了评价体系,主要对该保护区河流生态系统服务价值中的直接使用价值和间接使用价值进行了评估。结果表明:保护区生态功能服务年总价值为59 920×104元,以间接使用价值为主要体现,占总价值的66.4%。间接价值中以珍稀水生野生动物(中华鲟、胭脂鱼)的保护价值最高,为27 290×104元/年,占总价值的45.54%,远远超过了其科研价值(410×104元/年)。表明保护区的建立对珍稀水生野生动物保护及其特有生境的保存、产卵栖息地保留方面具有重要意义,但政府应加强科研投入。     

中国水土保持生态服务功能价值估算及其空间分布

水土资源是人类赖以生存的重要的物质基础,水土保持作为人类对生态系统干预的有效手段,其生态服务功能价值也受到越来越多的重视。论文选取土壤保持价值和涵养水源价值两项指标,结合遥感数据、气象数据以及地面数据,对原有的基于遥感的水土保持生态服务功能价值估算模型进行改进,以期更好地体现水土保持生态服务功能应有的价值。论文运用改进后的模型估算2001年全国水土保持生态服务功能价值达16 760.55×108元,基本呈自东南向西北递减趋势。     

基于生态足迹改进模型的生态安全及其预测研究

由William Rees提出的生态足迹模型已经成为近年来生态可持续发展的重要的度量工具,但是该模型仅考虑了土地的基本生产功能,忽视了土地生态系统的服务功能。文章借鉴生态系统服务功能理论改进了传统的生态足迹模型,将生态系统服务功能价值当量因子引入生态足迹模型均衡因子和产量因子的计算中,改进后的模型体现了生态系统功能的完整性;同时,文章以江苏省2010年的统计数据为基础,应用改进模型计算了其2010年生态压力指数,结果表明,江苏省生态压力指数达到1.495,其安全状况已经超过了极不安全边界,处于极不安全状态;最后利用灰色理论GM(1,1)模型对其2011-2015年的生态安全状况进行了预测,发现江苏省未来5年生态压力指数快速增大,年平均增长速度为6.89%,表明江苏省未来5年生态安全状况将继续恶化,这将严重影响其生态可持续发展和经济可持续发展。     

Study on evaluation and optimization of ecological service efficiency of urban greenbelt system： A case study of Huai＇an ecological new town

通过运用生态服务效能指数的概念,选择5种指标因子（吸收二氧化硫量、吸收热量、蒸腾水量、涵养水源量、滞尘降尘量）构建了淮安生态新城绿地系统生态服务效能评估模型,并运用全排列多边形图示指标法,针对“现状条件”、“概念规划”、“控制性详细规划”、“理想状态”4种情景下的绿地系统进行了生态服务效能评价与预测．结果表明,4种不同的土地利用方式下,绿地系统生态服务效能综合指数分别为0．24、0．56、0．70和0．89,生态服务效能逐步改善．研究结果进一步表明,在“概念规划”和“控制性详细规划”两种情景下,应使城市绿地系统面积大于1200hm^2,采用复合式绿地结构并调整林地与草地面积的比例达到7：3,同时应保证本地植物指数大于70％,研究结果可为生态城市建设提供一定的参考．     

Integrating ecosystem services evaluation and landscape pattern analysis into urban planning based on scenario prediction and regression model

ABSTRACT

Urban planning has become a widely concern for minimizing the negative effects of urban expansion on terrestrial ecosystems. We developed an interdisciplinary modeling framework to evaluate the effectiveness and shortcomings of urban expansion management strategies. A three-step method was applied to Yinchuan Plain in the northwestern of China, including (1) analyzing the relationship between landscape pattern and ecosystem service values through mathematical statistics; (2) predicting landscape pattern and ecosystem services change under different scenarios based on cellular automaton model (SLEUTH-3r model); and (3) designing and validating optimized scenario through integrating historical analysis experiments and future multi-comparison suggestions. Results have suggested that landscape composition and configuration can significantly affect regional ecosystem service values, especially the connectivity and shape of landscape. Compact urban growth policy and medium environment protection policy are the appropriate setting for urban expansion plan. Optimization validation of the combined designed scenario implied the reliability of this method. Our results highlighted the significance of integrating application of landscape pattern analysis, ecosystem service value evaluation, model simulation and multi-scenario prediction in urban planning.     

Public Participation as Participatory Communication in Environmental Policy Decision-Making: From Concepts to Structured Conversations

This essay attempts to distinguish between traditional notions of public participation and participatory communication, particularly as currently practiced in non-US settings. In addition, specific tools for facilitating participatory communication are identified and discussed. The essay is based on the author's extensive experience as a conflict mediator and public participation consultant and scholar. For the past 15 years, the author has served as a consultant on matters of environmental conflict resolution, public participation, and community-based collaboration for federal and state agencies and NGOs, including the USDA Forest Service, the USDI Bureau of Land Management, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and the Nature Conservancy.     

The value of urban ecosystem services in New York City: A spatially explicit multicriteria analysis of landscape scale valuation scenarios

Mapping, modeling, and valuing urban ecosystem services are important for integrating the ecosystem services concept in urban planning and decision-making. However, decision-support tools able to consider multiple ecosystem services in the urban setting using complex and heterogeneous data are still in early development. Here, we use New York City (NYC) as a case study to evaluate and analyze how the value of multiple ecosystem services of urban green infrastructure shifts with shifting governance priorities. We first examined the spatial distribution of five ecosystem services – storm water absorption, carbon storage, air pollution removal, local climate regulation, and recreation – to create the first multiple ecosystem services evaluation of all green infrastructure in NYC. Then, combining an urban ecosystem services landscape approach with spatial multicriteria analysis weighting scenarios, we examine the distribution of these ecosystem services in the city. We contrast the current NYC policy preference – which is focused on heavy investment in stormwater absorption – with a valuation approach that also accounts for other ecosystem services. We find substantial differences in the spatial distribution of priority areas for green infrastructure for the valuation scenarios. Among the scenarios we examined for NYC, we find that a scenario in which only stormwater absorption is prioritized leads to the most unevenly distributed ES values. By contrast, we find least variation in ES values where stormwater absorption, local climate regulation, carbon storage, air pollution removal, and recreational potential are all weighted equally.We suggest that green infrastructure planning strategies should include all landscape components that contribute to the production of ecosystem services and consider how planning priority alternatives generate different ecosystem services values.     

Spatial assessment of ecosystem functions and services for air purification of forests in South Korea

Ecosystem functions can be understood as the quantified amount of an ecosystem’s role in a natural process, while ecosystem services are the requantification of the ecosystem functions by factoring in environmental conditions and human needs based on social perspectives. In this study, differences between ecosystem functions and services were presented in terms of air purification of a forest ecosystem. Forest volume growth was employed to quantify the pollutant absorption capacity of a forest and was indicated by the natural functions (NF) for air purification by a forest ecosystem. Forest ecosystem services can be requantified from the forest functions by adding the air pollutant and population densities. Air pollutant density was applied to the assessment of the environmental services (ES) of forest ecosystems. Furthermore, the environmental social services (ESS) of forest ecosystems were assessed by including population density considerations. We simulated differences in NF, ES, and ESS in relation to pollutant and population density; while NF was spatially quantified without a close relationship to air pollutant and population density, ES and ESS reacted to environmental and social condition more sensitively. These results imply that the ecosystem services of forest resources for air purification are high where the pollutant and population densities are high, while the ecosystem functions of forest resources for air purification depend solely on forest conditions and not on the density changes of air pollutants and population. This study suggests that the differences in NF, ES, and ESS are important factors to be understood and considered in the decision-making process for ecosystem services. When considering human needs and surrounding environmental conditions, the results suggest that decision makers should utilize the ES and ESS concepts, which reflect both population and pollutant density along with additional human-related factors.     

Ecosystem mapping for the implementation of the European Biodiversity Strategy at the national level: The case of Italy

Several international initiatives, including the European Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, promote the identification and mapping of ecosystems as basic tools for the conservation of biodiversity and related services. On coarse scales, the spatial representation of ecosystems is usually based on broad land cover categories that largely overlook important ecological and biogeographic features of the biotic communities they are meant to exemplify. This paper presents a nationwide ecosystem mapping approach that promotes a degree of thematic detail, which is more suited than that found in the continental maps to meeting biodiversity conservation targets in Italy. The approach is based on the rationale that current and potential vegetation cover are valuable proxies for outlining ecosystems. The resulting Ecosystem Map of Italy includes 43 types of forest ecosystems instead of the 5 woodland, forest and other wooded land types recognized at the European level. We outline the expected advantages of this enhanced thematic detail for a number of conservation purposes and highlight how the resulting maps may help to meet biodiversity conservation targets at the national level. In particular, we refer to the assessment of conservation status, the definition of restoration priorities, the planning of green infrastructure and the identification of collapse risks for the ecosystems identified. Comprehensively, the definition, characterization and assessment of ecosystem types represent the carrying structure of the recently launched national system of natural capital accounting.