Environmental preference and restoration: (How) are they related?

Does the widely documented tendency to prefer natural over built environments owe to the perception of greater restorative potential in natural environments? In the present experimental study we tested the mediating role of restoration in environmental preferences. Participants viewed a frightening movie, and then were shown a video of either a natural or a built environment. We used two examples of each type of environment. Participants’ mood ratings were assessed before and after they viewed the frightening movie, and again after viewing the environmental video. Participants also rated the beauty of the environment shown (to indicate preference) and performed a test of concentration after viewing the environmental video. The results indicate that participants perceived the natural environments as more beautiful than the built environments. In addition, viewing natural environments elicited greater improvement in mood and marginally better concentration than viewing built environments. Mediational analyses revealed that affective restoration accounted for a substantial proportion of the preference for the natural over the built environments. Together, these results help substantiate the adaptive function of people's environmental preferences.     

当代中国环境治理的权利观

当代中国环境治理的权利观是指从权利的角度去考察、理解当代中国的环境治理,推进当代中国的生态文明建设事业。从这一角度来看,环境相关权利是当代中国环境治理的基本价值目标,也是重要的治理工具。所谓环境相关权利,是指环境治理有助于保障的环境权、生存权和发展权、生命权和健康权,以及在环境治理中可以运用到的知情、表达、参与、监督等权利。当代中国环境治理的权利观,在理论上符合生态文明建设的以人为本原则,符合国家治理体系和能力现代化的方针和取向,在实践上也能够揭示当代中国生态文明建设和环境治理的基本特征、精神实质和发展方向,既具有阐释性,也具有建构性。     

Towards sustainable development? The evolution of environmental policy in Malaysia

Over the last five decades, Malaysia has undergone rapid economic, social and environmental change, a process which is still continuing. The pursuit of socio‐economic progress has been accompanied by an unprecedented rate of change in the natural environment. In parallel to this development, governmental responses have also adapted over time to address emerging environmental situations. This article views the recent history of Malaysia's evolving policy response to development needs and environmental change as consisting of four distinct stages. Despite an impressive array of policy statements and strategies to implement sustainable development, many challenges remain today. A clear articulation of normative principles of sustainable development is of paramount importance, as is the monumental task of policy implementation. The article argues that the trajectory of Malaysia's policy on natural resources and environmental issues bears the characteristics of path‐dependent evolution.     

生态环境对我国居民幸福感的影响机制与实证研究

深入揭示生态环境与居民幸福感的内在关系对创造人民美好生活具有重要的理论与现实意义。本研究基于幸福感产生机制对生态环境影响居民幸福感的机制进行了深入的理论探讨,利用2013-2014年我国居民大样本调查数据,定量分析了水、大气,绿化三个关键生态环境要素对我国居民幸福感的影响。研究认为,生态环境对居民幸福感的影响受制于经济发展与居民收入水平及居民对环境价值的认知与重视程度;尽管研究期居民对生态环境质量满意度不高,但生态环境对我国居民幸福感的并没造成显著影响;比较而言,水环境对居民幸福感的影响小于空气环境,而空气环境的影响又小于绿化环境。为提升我国居民生态幸福感并激励居民亲环境行为,应通过科普教育切实提高居民对环境及其价值的认知度,努力营建人地和谐的文化氛围;应在普遍提高居民收入和物质生活水平的基础上,引导和促进居民向环境审美消费需求的升级;当前应重视生态补偿等经济手段的运用,通过影响居民经济利益激发居民环保行为;应优先解决居民直观感知明显且反映强烈的环境问题。     

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。     

Interdependence with the environment: Commitment,interconnectedness, and environmental behavior

Do individuals’ perceptions of their interdependence with the natural environment affect their environmental behaviors? From the perspective of interdependence theory, we introduce a scale to measure commitment to the natural environment. In Study 1, higher levels of commitment to the environment and greater inclusion of nature in the self separately predicted higher levels of pro-environmental behavior, even when controlling for social desirability and ecological worldview. In Study 2, participants primed to experience high commitment to the environment reported greater levels of pro-environmental behavioral intentions as well as pro-environmental behavior relative to participants primed to experience low commitment to the environment. Commitment to the natural environment is a new theoretical construct that predicts environmental behavior.     

Early Development of Systems Analysis in Natural Resources Management from Man and Nature to the Miami Conservancy District

Contemporary approaches to natural resources and environmental decision-making typically draw on a “systems” perspective to assess and improve management strategies. This paper describes the early genesis of the systems analysis approach. It concentrates on a period between the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. During the early part of this period, George Marsh's Man and Nature and related works laid out an approach to problem-solving that recognized the relationship among physically disperse elements in the environment, the need to balance benefits against costs, the potential for using quantitative modeling to understand management options, and the importance of integrating human and natural components into solutions. In the early 20th century, the Miami Conservancy District project brought this approach to fruition with its use of complex simulation and optimization modeling, detailed cost–benefit analysis, and its linking of economics, engineering, science, and law into a far-reaching solution to a complex water resources problem. The objective of this paper is to describe the early development and application of this conceptual approach to problem-solving. An examination of the origins of natural resources systems analysis can broaden one's perspective of the contemporary field to understand its roots as a philosophy for environmental problem-solving.     

A conceptual framework for environmental protection

The environmental and economic components of a region or a nation are inextricably linked. Moreover, environmental protection technology must deal specifically with the linkages between the economy and the environment—that is, with by-products of the economy as they move from the economy to the environment or with natural resources as they move from the environment to the economy. Yet, environmental policy analyses are rarely able to focus on these linkages. A conceptual framework aimed at mitigating that inadequacy is developed here. The framework is tied to its theoretical basis in thermodynamics and is utilized to identify generic categories of environmental protection strategies, to identify some disadvantages of current strategies, and to suggest alternatives.     

Allowing for sustainable growth under drastic immigration stress in Israel

Between 1990 and 1992 Israel's population grew by almost 10%, as a result of a sudden immigration influx. A national plan was prepared to accommodate this population growth in a sustainable manner. This paper reviews how the national plan set to accommodate such population growth without imposing undue environmental hardships on either current or future generations. Using a comprehensive environmental guidelines map and adjunct measures, the plan was able to point a way by which the population increase could be accommodated without damaging sensitive natural resources, increasing pollution to unacceptable levels or aggravating population exposure to hazards or nuisances. This plan thus provides a real‐world illustration of how, with adequate institutional structure, organization, scientific base and political resolve, a large population increase can be accommodated in a manner that does not preclude sustainability notions, even in a highly vulnerable environment.     

论政府生态环境损害赔偿责任的承担

政府承担生态环境损害赔偿责任的理论基础是政府对环境质量负责,政府对环境质量负责的实质是政府作为公共环境的管理者和控制者对维护公共环境利益所负担的安全保障义务。根据政府的环境安全保障义务,政府承担生态环境损害赔偿责任应以过错推定为归责原则,责任构成的核心是政府负有其职责范围内特定的环境安全保障义务,因未尽环境安全保障义务间接引发生态环境损害。由于政府未尽环境安全保障义务的行为并非直接也并不必然导致生态环境损害,所以政府一般仅根据自身行为的可责性及其程度对生态环境损害承担补充性的赔偿责任,只有在特殊情况下才承担连带赔偿责任,在政府不负有特定环境安全保障义务的情况下政府不承担赔偿责任。     

Building a model of commitment to the natural environment to predict ecological behavior and willingness to sacrifice

We examined the connection between individuals’ relationships with the natural environment and their environmental behaviors with a focus on commitment to the environment, defined as psychological attachment and long-term orientation to the natural world. Commitment is theorized to emerge from structural interdependence with the environment and to lead to pro-environmental behaviors. Close relationships research has identified three key antecedents to commitment (satisfaction, alternatives, and investments). We developed environment-specific measures of these constructs, and factor analysis verified three distinct factors. A path analysis revealed that satisfaction with the environment and investments in the environment, but not alternatives to the environment, predicted commitment to the environment. Moreover, commitment mediated the effects of satisfaction and investments on general ecological behavior and willingness to sacrifice for the environment. In regression analyses, commitment predicted general ecological behavior and willingness to sacrifice for the environment, even when controlling for ecological worldview, inclusion of nature in the self, connectedness to nature, and environmental identity. Individuals who are satisfied with and invested in the natural world are likely to be committed to the environment and act with the well-being of the environment in mind.     

环境审计体系多纬度架构与职业化——《领导干部自然资源资产离任审计试点方案》对环境审计的启动

中央两办于2015年11月印发《开展领导干部自然资源资产离任审计试点方案》,标志着环境责任追究试点工作正式展开,并且启动了环境审计帷幕。环境保护和环境管理问题在我国当前经济社会发展中日益凸显,推动着环境审计主题被提出并列入重要议事日程。鉴于环境审计并不是一个历史长久的成熟概念,在世界上尚且没有统一的内涵外延界定,本文基于中国的审计体系现状,提出环境审计多纬度架构模型,并针对政府环境审计机关、企业内部环境审计机构、社会独立环境审计机构这三类环境审计主体,阐释环境审计功效、环境审计职业化,以及职业化中的知识基础、胜任能力、后续教育培训问题,提出加快推进环境审计职业化的实现策略。     

Enhancing Environmental Decision-making Using Citizens' Juries

Survey techniques such as contingent valuation and opinion polls are used to develop an understanding of consumer preferences for the environment in the context of environmental decision-making. However, the exposure of weaknesses in such methods has led researchers to look to other information-gathering approaches which might enhance, complement or replace survey-based approaches. One such approach is that of the citizens' jury. A citizens' jury consists of a small group of people, selected to represent the general public rather than any interest-group or sector, which meets to deliberate upon a policy question. The paper critically evaluates the role that the citizens' jury might play in aiding environmental decision-making. Two case studies are reported where the citizens' jury process is used: first, to make recommendations on rural environmental projects in the Borders Region of Scotland; and, secondly, on meeting air quality targets in Edinburgh, Scotland. The paper concludes with recommendations on how the citizens' jury might complement other methods of environmental decision support and indicates the role that citizens' juries may play in future environmental and rural decision-making.     

The reliability of experts' opinions in constructing a composite environmental index: The case of ESI 2005

The complexity of the environment demands a well-constructed composite environmental index (CEI) to provide a useful tool to draw attention to environmental conditions and trends for policy purposes. Among the common difficulties in constructing a proper CEI are uncertainties due to the selection of the most representative underlying variables or indicators. A degree of uncertainty accompanies experts' judgments, and to deal with vague, subjective or inconsistent information, logic other than classic is required. This study analyzes a procedure that uses different experts' opinions in constructing a CEI, with the use of paraconsistent annotated logic. For this, a sensitivity analysis of the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI 2005) was used as an example to assess the reliability of experts' opinions. The uncertainty due to the disagreement in experts' opinions clearly indicates that the forms we presently use to measure and monitor the actual environment are insufficient, that is, there is a lack of a “science of sustainability”.     

Designing a sustainable facility to improve energy and environmental performance at the women's humane society

Susan Maxman Architects was selected to design a new facility for the Women's Humane Society. The project, located on a disturbed site in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, presented an environmental challenge as a large part of the site is wetlands and the site is home to a large PECO power line. This case study describes the process of designing a facility that incorporates the concerns of environmental responsibility. It will show how the decisions in the design of the built environment can very much influence the well-being of the natural environment. It describes the ways in which the client was convinced that it was of great benefit to create a facility that was energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive. The article also explores the successes and failures of this process. It discusses barriers that exist in comprehensively incorporating sustainable design principles in these facilities and shows how it is applicable for the development of other facilities.     

Does planning deregulation threaten the environment? The effect of ‘permitted development’ on the natural heritage of Scotland

This paper reports research into the effect on the UK environment of the deregulation of land development controls. One form of deregulation is granting advance approval to specified classes of small-scale development because they are considered inconsequential. Previous research has indicated that such ‘permitted development’ may adversely affect the natural heritage. This study systematically investigated its impact on the natural heritage of Scotland. The study canvassed the opinions of agents best placed to comment: natural heritage authority field staff, local government planners and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The results revealed concern about permitted development as a whole, and about specified classes. Despite professed concerns about sustainable development, UK planning modernization has failed to grasp the opportunity for a radical and fundamental reform of the scope of UK planning control in the context of contemporary environmental issues. Accordingly, there remains an unresolved tension between the desire to remove unnecessary state regulation of land development and the protection of the natural heritage.     

企业环境管理中政府和企业作用分析

我国的经济发展伴随着日益严重的环境问题。在引起环境问题的诸多因素中,来自企业方面的因素对环境的影响最为深远,因此改善环境首先就需要加强企业的环境管理。在推动企业进行环境管理的各种因素中,既有如政府的管制等外部因素,也有如减少成本、产品差异化等企业自身内部因素。外部因素和内部因素对推动企业环境管理都具有重要作用,但也有其局限性。本文通过政府管制及企业自身因素对驱动企业进行环境管理的作用机制的研究,分析各个驱动因素优缺点,寻求各驱动因素的最佳的组合,促使企业更好地加强环境管理。     

Polyphonic environmental planning processes: establishing conceptual connections between procedural and recognition justice

By drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of polyphony, this paper theorises polyphonic environmental planning processes. It argues that Bakhtin's vision of polyphony reveals new insights about the nature of inclusive and transformative environmental planning processes that align and contrast with existing traditions of participatory planning. The polyphonic environmental planning processes are theorised as having two criteria: difference and relationship. The conditions needed to satisfy these criteria are explained through procedural and recognition justice accounts. The paper intervenes in the ongoing scholarly discussion about the ethical base of contemporary planning theories by suggesting that the polyphonic construction of environmental planning processes will have implications on the form and content of these processes. In terms of the form, the polyphonic environmental planning processes imply the creation of an inclusive, dialogical space. In terms of the content, recognising the intrinsic value of otherness will alter the self–other relationship.     

How to foster agroecological innovations? A comparison of participatory design methods

Facing contemporary environmental crisis implies fostering agroecological innovations that take into account local ecological regulations and rely on multiple stakeholders' innovation capacities. This paper draws on two fields of literature that remain unconnected so far: participatory approaches and design sciences. It proposes an analysis grid to support a reflexive analysis of cases of implementation of three participatory design methods: ComMod (Companion Modelling for concerted management of natural resources), Forage Rummy (simulation-based board game for designing farming systems) and KCP (collective design workshops to foster innovation). This analysis highlights key features of the methods in view of agroecological innovation challenges, focusing on knowledge management and organisation for exploration.