Microtargeting for conservation

Widespread human action and behavior change is needed to achieve many conservation goals. Doing so at the requisite scale and pace will require the efficient delivery of outreach campaigns. Conservation gains will be greatest when efforts are directed toward places of high conservation value (or need) and tailored to critical actors. Recent strategic conservation planning has relied primarily on spatial assessments of biophysical attributes, largely ignoring the human dimensions. Elsewhere, marketers, political campaigns, and others use microtargeting—predictive analytics of big data—to identify people most likely to respond positively to particular messages or interventions. Conservationists have not yet widely capitalized on these techniques. To investigate the effectiveness of microtargeting to improve conservation, we developed a propensity model to predict restoration behavior among 203,645 private landowners in a 5,200,000 ha study area in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (U.S.A.). To isolate the additional value microtargeting may offer beyond geospatial prioritization, we analyzed a new high-resolution land-cover data set and cadastral data to identify private owners of riparian areas needing restoration. Subsequently, we developed and evaluated a restoration propensity model based on a database of landowners who had conducted restoration in the past and those who had not (n = 4978). Model validation in a parallel database (n = 4989) showed owners with the highest scorers for propensity to conduct restoration (i.e., top decile) were over twice as likely as average landowners to have conducted restoration (135%). These results demonstrate that microtargeting techniques can dramatically increase the efficiency and efficacy of conservation programs, above and beyond the advances offered by biophysical prioritizations alone, as well as facilitate more robust research of many social–ecological systems.     

Risk assessment and risk reduction of an acrylonitrile production plant

Reducing accident occurrence in petrochemical plants is crucial, thus appropriately allocating management resources to safety investment is a vital issue for corporate management as international competition intensifies. Understanding the priority of safety investment in a rational way helps achieve this objective.In this study, we targeted an acrylonitrile plant. First, Dow Chemical's Fire and Explosion Index (F&EI) identified the reaction process as having the greatest physical risk. We evaluated the severity of accidents in the reaction process using the Process Safety Metrics advocated by the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS); however, this index does not express damages a company actually experience. To solve this problem, we proposed a new metric that adds indirect cost to CCPS metrics. We adopted fault tree analysis (FTA) as a risk assessment method. In identifying top events and basic events, we attempted to improve the completeness of risk identification by considering accidents from the past, actual plant operation and equipment characteristics, natural disasters, and cyber-attacks and terrorist attacks. Consequently, we identified the top events with high priority in handling because of serious accidents as fire/explosion outside the reactor, fire/explosion inside the reactor, and reactor destruction. The new CCPS evaluation index proposed in this study found that fire and explosion outside the reactor has the highest severity. We considered the creation of the fault tree (FT) diagram of the top event, estimating the occurrence probability, and identifying the risk reduction part and capital investment aimed at risk reduction. As an economically feasible selection method for risk reduction investment, using the difference in loss amounts before and after safety investments indicated investment priority.     

模糊综合评价法在钢铁企业安全投资合理性评价中的应用

为了对钢铁企业安全投资进行模糊综合评价,建立了钢铁企业安全投资的评价体系,确定各因素的权重。得出模糊综合评价矩阵,可对各因素进行评价分析;得出某钢铁企业安全投资现状分数为83.9分,等级为较好,需着重加强安全培训、劳保品、工业卫生等人因素方面的投资;在环境方面的投资较合理。     

我国对大湄公河次区域国家投资与贸易环境影响的估算研究

本文运用改进的IPCC延伸法,将资源环境要素引入投资与贸易核算,将经济价值量引入排放因子,将CO2排放量作为环境影响的一个指标,从国家层面估算投资贸易的环境影响。结果表明:我国对大湄公河次区域国家投资与贸易带来的环境影响,总体利好,各国有差异。     

滇池流域水污染防治财政投资政策绩效评估

滇池流域水污染防治巨额的治理投资尚未带来根本性的水质改善,因此,开展滇池流域水污染防治财政投资政策绩效评估研究,对提高投资资金的效益和效率具有重要意义.为此,本文利用数据包络分析(DEA)的方法,应用数据包络C2R模型和BC2模型,对2001—2012年滇池流域水污染防治财政投资政策绩效进行了评估.结果表明,2001—2012年滇池流域水污染防治投资综合效率值均值为0.708,总体效率水平不是很高,且只有2001年、2006年和2010年DEA有效,DEA无效年份中2011年效率值最低为0.441;影响滇池流域水污染防治投资综合效率的主要因素为城镇污水处理率和滇池综合营养状态指数(外海),同时,工程治理投资和面源污染治理投资存在较多冗余.因此,未来滇池治理可适当调整工程治理和面源污染投资金额,进一步提高城市污水的收集和处理率,以减少污水的排放和降低入湖污染负荷.     

Priority areas for conservation of and research focused on terrestrial vertebrates

Effective conservation policies require comprehensive knowledge of biodiversity. However, knowledge shortfalls still remain, hindering possibilities to improve decision making and built such policies. During the last 2 decades, conservationists have made great efforts to allocate resources as efficiently as possible but have rarely considered the idea that if research investments are also strategically allocated, it would likely fill knowledge gaps while simultaneously improving conservation actions. Therefore, prioritizing areas where both conservation and research actions could be conducted becomes a critical endeavor that can further maximize return on investment. We used Zonation, a conservation planning tool and geographical distributions of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles to suggest and compare priority areas for conservation and research of terrestrial vertebrates worldwide. We also evaluated the degree of human disturbance in both types of priority areas by describing the value of the human footprint index within such areas. The spatial concordance between priority conservation and research areas was low: 0.36% of the world's land area. In these areas, we found it would be possible to protect almost half of the currently threatened species and to gather information on nearly 42% of data-deficient (DD) species. We also found that 6199 protected areas worldwide are located in such places, although only 35% of them have strict conservation purposes. Areas of consensus between conservation and research areas represent an opportunity for simultaneously conserving and acquiring knowledge of threatened and DD species of vertebrates. Although the picture is not the most encouraging, joint conservation and research efforts are possible and should be fostered to save vertebrate species from our own ignorance and extinction.     

Bridging the financial gap in climate adaptation: Dutch planning and land development through a new institutional lens

Based on a case study of the Stadshaven port redevelopment in Rotterdam, this paper explores whether existing spatial planning mechanisms and processes can be used to facilitate local-level investment in climate-resilient public infrastructure and/or whether new processes and mechanisms are required to encourage investment in climate adaptation. The study reveals several key findings. First, a lack of conventional funding sources or formalised regulatory framework allowed room for experimentation with existing mechanisms and flexible strategies. Second, project planners are currently ambivalent towards introducing new mechanisms as a means to overcome implementation challenges. The case provides evidence about the role of the governance process, not simply as a means of system coordination that exists in isolation from institutional norms and values, but rather as a space for innovation, which can contribute towards reducing the financial gap associated with climate adaptation.     

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.     

农村居民点整理对农户土地投入影响研究

近年来,农村居民点整理被作为城乡统筹发展的重要措施,在各地广泛开展。其在改善农民居住环境、为工业化和城镇化发展置换建设用地空间的同时,也对区域农地资源可持续利用产生了巨大冲击,其中,土地投入变化是农户响应这些冲击的重要表现。本研究沿着"农村居民点整理-区域土地利用条件变化-农户土地利用行为响应"的逻辑思路,形成了农村居民点整理对农户土地投入影响的分析框架,并在此基础上,从总体效应和不同政策影响两个层次,构建了农村居民点整理对农户土地投入影响的两个模型。依据江苏省调研数据,从资金和劳动力两个方面,实证分析农村居民点整理项目对农户土地投入的净效应,以及不同居民点整理政策对农户土地投入的影响方向和大小。结果表明,农村居民点整理促进了农户的土地资金投入,但对农户的土地劳动力投入具有负向影响。不同居民点整理政策对农户土地投入的影响具有显著差异,其中,置换住房的宅基地补偿政策和农地产权稳定政策对农户的土地资金投入具有较好的积极作用,而安置公寓房政策则更可能带来农户土地资金投入减少;农地产权稳定政策和安置公寓房政策显著负向影响农户土地劳动投入,但宅基地补偿政策对农户土地劳动投入影响不显著。本研究对这些结果进行了合理解释,同时也估算了户主年龄、户主受教育程度、农业收入比例、非农就业水平、农业补贴收入、耕作距离和土地经营面积等控制变量对农户土地投入的影响情况。最后从强化规划引导、内涵拓展、宅基地补偿策略优化、土地流转制度完善等方面,提出农村居民点整理政策调整和合理引导农户土地投入行为的对策建议。