Sewage sludge ditch for recovering heavy metals can improve crop yield and soil environmental quality

• Indirect use of sludge in ditches alongside plants was tested in field experiments. • The dried and stabilized sludge in ditches was recovered with heavy metals. • Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn in the planted soil were all in a safe range. • The indirect use of sludge increased plant yield, soil N content and C storage. The treatment and disposal of municipal sewage sludge (MSS) is an urgent problem to be resolved in many countries. Safely using the nutrients within MSS to increase crop yield and enhance the fertility of poor soil could contribute to achieving sustainable development. An indirect use of MSS in ditches alongside Pennisetum hybridum plants was studied in field plots for 30 months and the contents of heavy metals and macronutrients were monitored in soil, sludge and plant samples. We found that the yield of P. hybridum was significantly increased by 2.39 to 2.80 times and the treated plants had higher N content compared with no sludge. In addition, the organic matter (OM) and N contents in the planted soil increased significantly compared with the initial soil. The OM content in the planted soil of the MSS treatment was 2.9 to 5.2 times higher than that with no sludge, and N increased by 2.0 to 3.8 times. However, MSS had no significant effect on the N, P and K contents in the soil at the bottom of the MSS ditch, and the content of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn) were also within the safe range. Moreover, the moisture content and phytotoxicity of MSS after this indirect use were reduced and the heavy metal contents changed little, which is favorable to the further disposal of recovered MSS. Therefore, this indirect use of MSS is beneficial to agricultural production, soil quality and environmental sustainability.     

Exploring the administrative mechanism of China's Paired Assistance to Disaster Affected Areas programme

The Paired Assistance to Disaster Affected Areas (PADAA) programme is a mutual aid initiative with Chinese characteristics, which speeded up the process of restoring and reconstructing regions affected by the Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May 2008. 1 The PADAA is an efficient instrument for catastrophe recovery, yet it remains a mysterious mechanism to many members of disaster management communities. This paper aims to lift the veil on it by assessing its origins and evolution. It draws on the multi‐level moderated competition model to explain how the PADAA functions within the Chinese administrative system. The country's top‐down political system allows the central authority to mandate provincial and local governments from more economically developed regions to assist devastated areas with post‐disaster reconstruction. The practices of local accountability complement vertical control by giving leaders from donor regions strong incentives to accomplish assigned reconstruction tasks, resulting in intense competition between them.     

宜兴市环保产业供给侧改革的启示与建议

当前我国环保产业普遍存在着企业规模较小、缺乏核心技术、中低端供给过剩、优质供给不足等现象,环保产业的供给侧水平明显无法满足日益提高的环境治理需求。以全国最大的环保产业基地宜兴市为例,分析上述问题特质及产生原因,总结政府及企业改革创新中的经验和不足,提出环保产业供给侧改革的参考对策与建议。     

The impact of government subsidy and tax policy on the competitive decision-making of remanufacturing supply chains

In this paper, we consider a two-period competition model of a remanufacturing supply chain consisting of three members: a new product manufacturer, a recycler and a remanufacturer. The manufacturer supplies new products in the first period and the remanufacturer participates in the competition in the second period. We consider three scenarios in the second period: (1) there is no government subsidy in the competition; (2) there is only government subsidy in the competition; (3) there are both government subsidy and tax in the competition. First, we give the optimal decision-making of the manufacturer, the remanufacturer and the government in the three scenarios; second, we analyse changes in the decision-making of the manufacturer and remanufacturer in the three scenarios and compare their results. We analyse the effects of government subsidy and tax and their asymmetric use on manufacturers’ and remanufacturers’ decision-making variables and competitive performance. We also take consumer awareness of environmental protection into account and examine its impact on subjects’ decisions. Lastly, we operate a numerical example to show the results.     

Minimizing disruptions caused by damming and ensuring the health of downstream ecosystems

In view of the Brazilian Ten‐Year Energy Expansion Plan 2021, this article presents a discussion on environmental flow (e‐flow). The authors analyze the literature to show the evolution of publications concerning e‐flow releases from the perspective of ecosystems services preservation considering results from different case studies from throughout the world. Finally, two main recommendations are drawn regarding e‐flow are: (1) performing a holistic approach to e‐flow planning, including hydrological, hydraulic, water quality, habitat, and riparian zone considerations; and (2) installing in new structures adequate bottom outlets to allow a range of adjustable e‐flow from reservoir dams to reproduce natural flow variations.     

Evaluating soundscape intentions in landscape architecture: a study of competition entries for a new cemetery in Järva,Stockholm

While soundscape is increasingly acknowledged within landscape planning and design discourse, there is little research that clarifies how soundscapes are actually dealt with in landscape architecture practice – partly owing to methodological insufficiencies. This paper, therefore, describes a model for evaluating soundscape treatment in landscape design proposals, focusing on three key aspects. With the dual aim of testing the model, and learning more about how soundscape is approached in practice, the paper spotlights a major design competition for a new cemetery in Sweden. The model proved fruitful and easy to apply. It showed that only limited attention was paid to soundscape in the competition as a whole, and was a useful means of pinpointing proposals where soundscape was fully considered as a design feature; one competition entry that did so is described in the paper. Discussions cover design practice, trends in the competition and model application.     

Reservoir‐host amplification of disease impact in an endangered amphibian

Emerging wildlife pathogens are an increasing threat to biodiversity. One of the most serious wildlife diseases is chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which has been documented in over 500 amphibian species. Amphibians vary greatly in their susceptibility to Bd; some species tolerate infection, whereas others experience rapid mortality. Reservoir hosts—species that carry infection while maintaining high abundance but are rarely killed by disease—can increase extinction risk in highly susceptible, sympatric species. However, whether reservoir hosts amplify Bd in declining amphibian species has not been examined. We investigated the role of reservoir hosts in the decline of the threatened northern corroboree frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi) in an amphibian community in southeastern Australia. In the laboratory, we characterized the response of a potential reservoir host, the (nondeclining) common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera), to Bd infection. In the field, we conducted frog abundance surveys and Bd sampling for both P. pengilleyi and C. signifera. We built multinomial logistic regression models to test whether Crinia signifera and environmental factors were associated with P. pengilleyi decline. C. signifera was a reservoir host for Bd. In the laboratory, many individuals maintained intense infections (>1000 zoospore equivalents) over 12 weeks without mortality, and 79% of individuals sampled in the wild also carried infections. The presence of C. signifera at a site was strongly associated with increased Bd prevalence in sympatric P. pengilleyi. Consistent with disease amplification by a reservoir host, P. pengilleyi declined at sites with high C. signifera abundance. Our results suggest that when reservoir hosts are present, population declines of susceptible species may continue long after the initial emergence of Bd, highlighting an urgent need to assess extinction risk in remnant populations of other declined amphibian species.     

不完全竞争行业中的环境工具有效性研究:一个理论框架

各级政府贯彻落实绿色发展的理念,实现经济增长与环境保护的共赢,才能真正实现"绿水青山就是金山银山"。在经济"新常态"背景下,防治环境污染是个复杂而系统性的工程,需要进行经济追因与综合治理,其中,制定实施有效的环境政策工具尤为关键。本文把微观经济学中的双寡头产量竞争模型作为基准模型拓展用于环境经济分析,并把环境税、环境规制、排污权交易这三类主要环境工具对企业生产决策的影响纳入基准模型,旨在对比研究不完全竞争行业中环境工具的有效性问题。结果表明:主要基于市场机制的环境经济政策比行政色彩浓厚的环境规制更有效率。提高环境税率或排污权价格均能显著削减行业污染物排放量,如果环境税率恰好等于排污权价格,则环境税与排污权交易这两类环境工具的效力相等。这对进一步建立和完善我国尚处于探索或初始实施阶段的环境工具,促进石化、电力、钢铁等不完全竞争行业的主要污染物减排,具有一定参考价值和借鉴意义。     

基于亲景度和竞争态的京沪陕入境旅游市场研究

依据1999-2008年相关统计数据,选取我国入境旅游市场份额前13位的客源国,以北京、上海、陕西等三大入境旅游热点地区为研究对象,利用亲景度指标,分析总结了其入境旅游市场的时空动态变化规律及深层原因,并引入竞争态模型,重点选取日本、韩国、美国三大客源市场进行京沪陕三地的比较研究.