Estimating Potential Climate Change Effects on the Upper Neuse Watershed Water Balance Using the SWAT Model

Climate change poses water resource challenges for many already water stressed watersheds throughout the world. One such watershed is the Upper Neuse Watershed in North Carolina, which serves as a water source for the large and growing Research Triangle Park region. The aim of this study was to quantify possible changes in the watershed’s water balance due to climate change. To do this, we used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model forced with different climate scenarios for baseline, mid‐century, and end‐century time periods using five different downscaled General Circulation Models. Before running these scenarios, the SWAT model was calibrated and validated using daily streamflow records within the watershed. The study results suggest that, even under a mitigation scenario, precipitation will increase by 7.7% from the baseline to mid‐century time period and by 9.8% between the baseline and end‐century time period. Over the same periods, evapotranspiration (ET) would decrease by 5.5 and 7.6%, water yield would increase by 25.1% and 33.2%, and soil water would increase by 1.4% and 1.9%. Perhaps most importantly, the model results show, under a high emission scenario, large seasonal differences with ET estimated to decrease by up to 42% and water yield to increase by up to 157% in late summer and fall. Planning for the wetter predicted future and corresponding seasonal changes will be critical for mitigating the impacts of climate change on water resources.     

Hybrid governance tensions fuelling self-reflexivity in Alternative Food Networks: the case of the Brussels GASAP (solidarity purchasing groups for peasant agriculture)

This paper applies the concept of Hybrid Governance to the analysis of the GASAP (Groupe d’Achats Solidaires de l’Agriculture Paysanne), a solidarity-based producers–consumers network established in Brussels in 2006. The Hybrid Governance concept allows to capture the role of key governance tensions in driving the self-organisation, scaling out and self-reflexive dynamics of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). The approach provides a multifaceted and sound socio-political account of the ways AFNs arise, self-organise, associate and build networks in the pursuit of their food allocation objectives, often facing a contradictory socio-institutional environment. Three types of governance tensions, i.e. organisational, resource, and institutional, as well as the interactions among them, are analysed throughout the life-course of the GASAP network. The analysis identifies three phases in the GASAP’s life-course, showing how governance tensions and their interrelations arise and play a critical role in conditioning the overall development of the organisation through time. The paper concludes with highlighting prospective values of the hybrid governance approach for the analysis of AFNs in general. These values relate to: the role of the hybrid approach in illuminating on key drivers behind the scaling out of AFNs; the hybrid governance as a tool to conceptualise and sustain the self-reflexive capacity of local food initiatives and the ways by which this approach unravels challenges to build cooperative alliances and networks among a diversity of agents in the food arena.     

How does eliminating mercury from artisanal and small-scale gold mining lead to achieving sustainable development goals?

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the principal anthropogenic activity that globally contributes to overloading our environment with mercury. Although the Minamata Convention, led by the United Nations, is a crucial instrument to eliminate its use progressively, novel approaches to accelerate this difficult transition are welcome. This article proposes a framework for policy-making or improvement, fostering the enforcement of mercury elimination through the lens of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the excluded artisanal and small-scale gold miners and their dependents. We move forward with a literature review of the Artisanal and Small Mining topic, taking each SDG as a unit of analysis. Understanding the problem as a puzzle of four sets of pieces, namely: (1) social, (2) environmental, (3) economic, and (4) institutional, the paper offers potential opportunities for the decision-makers and practitioners to accelerate the substitution of this heavy metal and develop sustainable futures for the ASGM communities. We conclude by proposing a pragmatic framework that synthesizes the means, actions, and ends to accelerate a sustainable transition.     

What matters for work engagement? A diary study on resources and the benefits of selective optimization with compensation for state work engagement

This diary study addresses the benefits of employees' daily use of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) for state work engagement. We hypothesized that day‐level SOC not only directly fosters work engagement but that SOC also reveals its beneficial effects for work engagement in interaction with both external and internal resources. Specifically, we proposed SOC substitutes for job control, role clarity, and state of being recovered, thus helping employees manage low daily levels of these resources. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 138 employees who completed two daily surveys over a total of 545 workdays. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that SOC benefits work engagement in both proposed ways. First, day‐level SOC was positively related to state work engagement. Additionally, day‐level role clarity and state of being recovered predicted state work engagement, but day‐level job control did not. Second, SOC benefitted state work engagement by offsetting low levels of role clarity and being recovered, and by boosting job control in their respective relationships with work engagement. The results suggest that by using SOC at work, employees can actively enhance their own work engagement on a given workday. This knowledge provides promising starting points for the development of interventions.     

Forest resources and household welfare: Empirical evidence from North Central Vietnam

Using secondary data from a socio-economic quantitative household survey of the North Central region of Vietnam, the main aim of our study is to analyze the causal effect of forest resources on household income and poverty. Based on the observed characteristics of a forest-based livelihood and forest-related activities, we use a propensity score matching (PSM) method to control for potential bias arising from self-selection. The PSM results indicate that households with a forest-based livelihood had a higher level of income and lower poverty rates than did those without. Interestingly, our findings confirm that a forest-based livelihood offers much higher income than any other type of livelihood adopted by local households. Also, the poverty rate among households with a forest-based livelihood is lower than those earning non-labor income or engaged in wage/crop and crop livelihoods. Among households and provinces, we find varying opportunities deriving from forest resources, suggesting that there are potential barriers hindering local households from pursuing a forest livelihood or participating in some forest activities. Therefore, government policy and regulations on forest management should focus on improving the access of households to forest resources, while enhancing the sustainability of these resources.     

生态环境损害赔偿诉讼：定义与定位矫正

面对生态环境损害赔偿诉讼这一新型诉讼形式,准确把握其定义和定位至关重要。现有生态环境损害赔偿诉讼按国家自然资源所有权私权化路径进行制度构建,其现行定义为特殊私益诉讼,现行定位为环境行政替代工具。这种定义与定位导致其与环境公益诉讼割裂,运行序位上优先于环境民事公益诉讼,引起国家机关角色错位。生态环境损害赔偿诉讼与环境民事公益诉讼的诉讼标的相同,救济和保护的利益均为环境公益,其定义应回归公益诉讼本位;政府在环境公益保护上有着广泛的职权和手段,是环境公共治理的优先主体,仅在少数行政不能的情形下才有借助司法的必要性和合理性,其在定位上应作为环境行政执法的补充机制在有限范围内发挥作用。据此,生态环境损害赔偿诉讼在制度体系上应与既有环境民事公益诉讼置于同一诉讼系属统筹立法,在诉讼序位上应让位于社会组织提起的环境民事公益诉讼。     

基于复式记账的土地资源资产核算与报表编制研究

借鉴会计学复式记账核算的优点,在国际资源核算体系的基础上,根据我国自然资源资产核算需求,提出土地资源资产核算的复式记账体系和报表编制框架。研究认为,基于复式记账的土地资源资产核算和报表编制要以“摸清家底、反映自然资源负债、提供土地资源审计和绩效考核信息”为目标,明确区、县级自然资源局为土地资源资产受托管理和进行土地资源资产核算与报表编制的核算单位。在界定土地资源资产、负债和权益相关概念的基础上,提出土地资源资产属性变化的核算内容和每次土地资源资产实物量变化必须遵循占补平衡的基本原则,进行过程核算。以YC县土地资源资产变化为例,对土地资源资产变化进行了基于复式记账的土地资源资产核算与报表编制实证研究,确定核算的事项类型和特征及其借贷核算流程,编制出土地资源资产负债表,并同时进行实物量核算和价值量核算的报表编制,结果表明:YC县土地资源资产实物量1485 km^2,2018年末价值量5639874.22万元、经济权益5271874.22万元、生态权益367991.6万元,土地资源负债8.40万元,通过土地资源资产用途调整,土地资源资产价值量增加21319.42万元,但在调整过程中,形成了土地资源负债0.07 km^2(8.4万元),在以后土地整治中需要增加园地。     

以Hartwick准则破解“资源的诅咒”

一些资源禀赋较高的国家或地区,一直以来经济社会发展未充分享受自然资源带来的红利,甚至陷入贫困和动荡,这一现象被称作"资源的诅咒";在我国,也有不少资源型城市在发展过程中由于资源的耗竭而陷入困境。经济学家Hartwick对资源枯竭区域发展进行了深入研究,并提出"Hartwick准则"对这一类区域的发展进行了理论指导。本文对Hartwick准则进行简要介绍,以这一准则在非洲国家博茨瓦纳的钻石开发中的应用进行分析,并依据理论和经验,对我国一些资源型区域的发展提出建议。     

柄海鞘中矿物元素含量分析

采用微波消解—火焰原子吸收分光光度法对烟台海域柄海鞘中Mg,Fe,Ca,Mn,Zn,Co,Cu,Ni,Pb,Cr,Cd共11种矿物元素的含量进行了测定。方法的相对标准偏差为0.07%～2.85%,回收率95%～103%。柄海鞘的外背囊和内囊中含有人体必需的矿物元素Cu,Zn,Fe,Mn,Co,Ni,Cr,Ca,Mg和少量的有害元素Cd和Pb,它们的含量顺序依次为:Mg>Mn>Fe>Ni>Ca>Zn>Cu>Cr>Pb>Co>Cd。大规格的海鞘中的各种矿物元素含量均高于中、小规格的海鞘。各种元素在外被囊中的含量要高于内囊。