A social assessment of urban parkland: Analyzing park use and meaning to inform management and resilience planning

Globally, municipalities are tackling climate adaptation and resilience planning. Urban green space has crucial biophysical buffering capacities, but also affects social interactions and human well-being. This paper considers the social dimension of urban green space, through an assessment focused on park use, function, and meanings, and compares results to categories of cultural ecosystem services. We develop a mixed-method approach for assessment of uses and social meanings of parkland and pilot this method in 2140 acres of parkland in waterfront neighborhoods surrounding New York City’s Jamaica Bay, an area heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy. This method combines observation of human activities and signs of prior human use with structured interviews of park users. We find that urban parkland is a crucial form of ‘nearby nature’ that provides space for recreation, activities, socialization, and environmental engagement and supports place attachment and social ties. We show that parks, through their use by and interactions with humans, are producing vital cultural ecosystem services that may help to strengthen social resilience. Certain services were more easily detectable than others via our assessment technique, including recreation, social relations, and sense of place. The assessment method was designed to be spatially explicit, scalable, and replicable; natural resource managers engaged in park management and/or resilience planning could apply this method across individual sites, in particular districts—such as vulnerable waterfront areas, and citywide. This study demonstrates a way in which cultural ecosystem services and an understanding of social meaning could be incorporated into park management and resilience planning.     

渤海区域生态补偿机制的研究

生态系统方法是保护和管理自然资源的新理念，得到世界各海洋大国的普遍关注和认可。生态系统方法要求运用生态补偿机制。构建海洋生态补偿机制的基本思路是：①根据海洋生态系统服务功能变化及其对利益相关者的影响界定补偿主体和补偿对象：②补偿途径以财政转移支付和环境资源税费为主；③遵循理论计算值与现有实践相结合的原则制定补偿标准。围绕影响渤海生态系统健康的关键是人类活动．提出了构建渤海区域生态补偿机制的初步设想。主要包括：改革现有“排污收费制度”。提高收费标准，增强制度的生态补偿效力。以减少陆源污染物排海；建立流域和海域之间的用水生态补偿机制。以增加入海淡水量；推广“退渔还湿”的生态补偿政策；加大资金投入．强化现有渔业生态补偿政策；以同区域内的土地价格为参照。对围海造地收取生态补偿金。     

基于灰色层次分析法的城市复合产业生态系统综合评价

城市复合产韭生态系统是以人为主体而构成的复杂系统.在人类社会发展的过程中,城市扮演了极其重要的角色,体现了人类社会发展的最新成就.然而工业革命以后,伴随着城市经济飞速发展的是越来越严重的社会、环境问题,造成城市的经济发展与社会、环境不协调.为解决这一问题,需要从学术上对城市复合产业生态系统的经济、社会、环境子系统的发展水平做出正确的分析评价,以有助于制定正确的发展政策.现有评价多采用模糊数学的方法,但是存在无法科学确立隶属函数的问题.针对这一特点,本文提出了基于灰色层次分析的城市复合产业生态系统综合效率评价方法,并以大连市为案例研究区,从产业经济、社会和生态环境三方面做了综合评价.从结果来看,大连市城市复合产业生态系统的综合绩效评价结果为二级,即良好.为实现城市的可持续发展,需要大力发展循环经济和推行节能减排,以提高系统的总体绩效,实现经济、环境和社会发展的三赢.     

Spatial uncoupling of biodegradation, soil respiration, and PAH concentration in a creosote contaminated soil

Hotspots and coldspots of concentration and biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) marginally overlapped at the 0.5-100 m scale in a creosote contaminated soil in southern Sweden, suggesting that concentration and biodegradation had little spatial co-variation. Biodegradation was substantial and its spatial variability considerable and highly irregular, but it had no spatial autocorrelation. The soil concentration of PAHs explained only 20-30% of the variance of their biodegradation. Soil respiration was spatially autocorrelated. The spatial uncoupling between biodegradation and soil respiration seemed to be governed by the aging of PAHs in the soil, since biodegradation of added ¹³C phenanthrene covaried with both soil respiration and microbial biomass. The latter two were also correlated with high concentrations of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) that are common in gram-negative bacteria. However, several of the hotspots of biodegradation coincided with hotspots for the distribution of a PLFA indicative of fungal biomass.     

Conceptualizing Discourses on Ecological City and Its Planning

Abstract

Ecological city (eco-city) and its planning approach are emerging concepts in urban study, urban planning, ecological economics, environmental policy and corporate environmental management. However, opinions remain divided over the connotation and denotation of the term “ecological city”, what key issues ecocity planning can solve, and its specific contents. In this study, we present 10 basic propositions that define the eco-city and clarify its key parameters, thereby providing the basis for discussing the assumptions and principles underlying different approaches to sustainable urban development. We then summarize the concept and principles of an eco-city, and define the main requirements for ecocity planning. We conclude that an eco-city is a city in which the urban population, scale of land use and intensity of human activities are limited to the regional resource and environmental carrying capacity, which does not cause increasing or irreversible damage to the regional ecosystem’s structure, functions and processes.     

Emergy Evaluation of a Village Ecosystem in Wolong Nature Reserve in China

Abstract

Due to historic reasons, there are several human settlements in nature reserves and national parks, which may constitute a threat to biodiversity. Establishment of nature reserves may however generate constraints for development of local communities residing in these reserves. The village ecosystem of Zhuanjinglou Village in Wolong Nature Reserve includes population, farming and livestock (domestic and alpine) and forest ecosystem. An emergy analysis of agro-ecosystem (including the farming and livestock ecosystem) and energy consumption in Zhuanjinglou Village indicates that livestock ecosystem plays an important role in village ecosystem, which may be the source of great pressure on the state of the local environment. The increasing ratio of electricity in energy consumption may play a positive role for environmental conservation. Despite some successful experiences, there are some remaining issues that need to be addressed in the ecological rehabilitation of the village ecosystem.     

庞泉沟自然保护区土壤呼吸空间分异性影响因素探测

土壤呼吸是维持全球碳平衡的重要过程.以庞泉沟自然保护区为研究区域,基于实地测量的土壤呼吸（R_s）数据,结合海拔（ELE）、土壤温度（T）、土壤水分（SWC）、归一化植被指数（NDVI）、坡度（slope）、土壤全碳（C）、总氮（N）和土壤容重（BD）,运用地理探测器模型分析了R_s空间分异的主要驱动力及其交互作用.结果表明：①研究区R_s及其影响因子的空间变异均为中等变异.R_s与NDVI、T和土壤N呈极显著正相关（P<0.01）,与ELE、slope和SWC呈极显著负相关（P<0.01）,R_s与BD显著负相关（P<0.05）,与C相关性不显著（P>0.05）.②NDVI和T构成的多元线性模型可以解释R_s空间分异的64.3%.③ELE、T和NDVI为研究区R_s空间分异性的主导驱动力,可以解释64%、59%和48%的空间变异.④双因子的交互作用均能增强对R_s空间分异性的解释力,最大交互因子分别为ELE∩BD （q=0.73）和T ∩ slope （q=0.74）.因此,在R_s的估算过程中,结合地形及环境条件,应考虑多种因子之间的交互作用.     

Meta-analysis of landowner participation in voluntary incentive programs for provision of forest ecosystem services

Many voluntary incentive programs for provision of forest ecosystem services (ES) have low participation rates, insufficient enrollment areas, and inefficient ecological outcomes. Understanding participation behavior in such programs has therefore become a crucial part of policy success. We synthesized a large body of literature on the behavior of nonindustrial private forest owners based on surveys of stated (intended) participation or data on actual participation in existing or hypothetical programs. Using metaregression analysis, we examined how methodological, program-characteristic, and economic-incentive variables affected participation rate estimates. Participation rates tended to be overestimated when landowner participation was elicited in hypothetical choice situations (compared with real situations) and when dichotomous choice surveys (compared with census data) were used. The marginal effect sizes were quite large, for example, a 31% increase with use of stated choices in hypothetical scenarios, and practitioners should therefore be aware of them. However, use of choice experiment surveys in a modified scenario based on existing programs had no effect on participation when all other determinants were controlled for. Participation rates decreased significantly as length of the contract increased and when there was no withdrawal option. These results suggest that perpetual contracts have a lower negative impact on participation than time-limited contracts with a duration of over 50 years. We confirmed that as compensation amounts increased, participation increased. One-time up-front payments were more effective in increasing initial participation than annual payments for contracts of over 5 years. We identified the robust determinants and the effect sizes of those determinants on landowner participation rate estimates, thereby contributing to a better understanding of forest owner behavior and offering useful insights to enable researchers and resource managers to improve the design and efficiency of new and existing forest ES programs.     

北京市北沙河上游典型小流域水环境治理措施的生态效益分析

北京市属于资源型重度缺水地区,水资源紧缺严重制约其可持续发展,加之水质恶化,造成了全市水资源和水环境形势严峻的局面.为此,北京市布设相应措施对小流域水环境问题进行治理,分析治理措施的生态效益能够为小流域水环境治理措施的合理布设提供科学依据.以北京市昌平区北沙河上游8条小流域为研究区,基于In VEST(Integrat...     

土壤微生物呼吸热适应性与微生物群落及多样性对全球气候变化响应研究

土壤微生物呼吸热适应性被认为是决定陆地生态系统对全球变暖反馈作用的潜在重要机制,可能显著改变未来的气候变化趋势,然而,土壤微生物群落结构变化如何引起土壤微生物呼吸热适应性的研究目前尚存争议.该文针对气候变化对土壤微生物呼吸的影响研究,梳理了当前对土壤微生物呼吸的热适应性是否存在的争议和不同观点与结论,综述了气候变化对土...