Community-Based Monitoring Frameworks: Increasing the Effectiveness of Environmental Stewardship

This article presents an adaptable community-based monitoring (CBM) framework. The investigators used a well-tested conceptual CBM framework developed by the Canadian Community Monitoring Network (CCMN) as a basis from which to work. With the use of feedback from various types of CBM groups in the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada, obtained through surveys and interviews, the CCMN framework was modified into a document that attempts to address current disparities and inefficiencies within most CBM systems. The need for such a framework was underscored by the lack of stewardship groups’ use of standardized monitoring protocols and inability to effectively provide information to decision makers. From the information collected through the survey, it was concluded that the proposed framework must be a functional, multiparty form of CBM that addresses the key concerns of a standardized monitoring and communication program and must be able to be fed into the environmental-management system.     

Environmental Justice,Local Knowledge,and Risk: The Discourse of a Community-Based Cumulative Exposure Assessment

While risk assessment continues to drive most environmental management decision-making, its methods and assumptions have been criticized for, among other things, perpetuating environmental injustice. The justice challenges to risk assessment claim that the process ignores the unique and multiple hazards facing low-income and people of color communities and simultaneously excludes the local, non-expert knowledge which could help capture these unique hazards from the assessment discourse. This paper highlights some of these challenges to conventional risk assessment and suggests that traditional models of risk characterization will continue to ignore the environmental justice challenges until cumulative hazards and local knowledge are meaningfully brought into the assessment process. We ask whether a shift from risk to exposure assessment might enable environmental managers to respond to the environmental justice critiques. We review the US EPA's first community-based Cumulative Exposure Project, piloted in Brooklyn, NY, and highlight to what extent this process addressed the risk assessment critiques raised by environmental justice advocates. We suggest that a shift from risk to exposure assessment can provide an opportunity for local knowledge to both improve the technical assessment and its democratic nature and may ultimately allow environmental managers to better address environmental justice concerns in decision-making.     

The Maine Vernal Pool Mapping and Assessment Program: Engaging Municipal Officials and Private Landowners in Community-Based Citizen Science

The Vernal Pool Mapping and Assessment Program (VPMAP) was initiated in 2007 to create a vernal pool database as a planning tool to foster local compliance with new state vernal pool regulations. In the northeastern United States, vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that provide critical breeding habitat for a number of amphibians and invertebrates and provide important resting and foraging habitat for some rare and endangered state-listed species. Using participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, we examined the engagement of municipal officials and private landowners in VPMAP. Important outcomes of municipal and landowner engagement included mobilization of town support for proactive planning, improved awareness and understanding of vernal pools, and increased interactions between program coordinators, municipal officials, and private landowners. Challenges to municipal and landowner engagement included an inconsistency in expectations between coordinators and municipal officials and a lack of time and sufficient information for follow-up with landowners participating in VPMAP. Our study highlights the importance of developing relationships among coordinators, municipal officials, and private landowners in facilitating positive outcomes for all stakeholders and for effective resource management. We suggest an expanded citizen science model that focuses on improving two-way communication among project coordinators, municipal officials, and local citizens and places communication with private landowners on par with volunteer citizen scientist recruitment and field training. Lessons learned from this research can inform the design and implementation of citizen science projects on private land.     

环境负效应的生态补偿模式

在社会发展进程中，人类的一些行为对环境产生了负面影响。寻求有效的生态补偿模式，建立生态补偿制度，减少或缓解环境的负效应是体现社会公平的重要途径，也是实现可持续发展的必由之路。在资源、环境与生态经济学的理论指导下，构建保障国家生态安全的全方位生态补偿机制，制定中国生态补偿机制的财政对策，完善生态补偿的生态税费制度，建立中国生态补偿政策评估体系，是实施环境管理新模式的必然要求。     

Curriculum Development in Environmental Science: A Case Study on Paradigm and Institutions

/ The case of "Environment and Development" at Leiden University, the Netherlands, offers an example of developing a new environmental science curriculum in a conservative, disciplines-oriented university context. The core of this history is the long-term struggle of environmental science to evolve from the level of doing applied interdisciplinary studies and establish itself as a distinct body of knowledge with its own theory level, i.e., a discipline of its own. The struggle itself as well as its final outcome, a "bidisciplinary" curriculum in which both environmental science and one social science are expressed as disciplines (hence not environmental science as a mere "field of application") may be of value in other "classical" universities, too. KEY WORDS: Environmental science; Curriculum; Interdisciplinarity; Universities     

A Generic Bio-Economic Farm Model for Environmental and Economic Assessment of Agricultural Systems

Bio-economic farm models are tools to evaluate ex-post or to assess ex-ante the impact of policy and technology change on agriculture, economics and environment. Recently, various BEFMs have been developed, often for one purpose or location, but hardly any of these models are re-used later for other purposes or locations. The Farm System Simulator (FSSIM) provides a generic framework enabling the application of BEFMs under various situations and for different purposes (generating supply response functions and detailed regional or farm type assessments). FSSIM is set up as a component-based framework with components representing farmer objectives, risk, calibration, policies, current activities, alternative activities and different types of activities (e.g., annual and perennial cropping and livestock). The generic nature of FSSIM is evaluated using five criteria by examining its applications. FSSIM has been applied for different climate zones and soil types (criterion 1) and to a range of different farm types (criterion 2) with different specializations, intensities and sizes. In most applications FSSIM has been used to assess the effects of policy changes and in two applications to assess the impact of technological innovations (criterion 3). In the various applications, different data sources, level of detail (e.g., criterion 4) and model configurations have been used. FSSIM has been linked to an economic and several biophysical models (criterion 5). The model is available for applications to other conditions and research issues, and it is open to be further tested and to be extended with new components, indicators or linkages to other models.     

环境质量评价模糊集理论与模式研究

探讨了模糊集理论方法对环境质量评价的可行性，以大气环境质量评价为例，叙述了这种方法的研究程序及计算步骤。研究表明，采用模糊集理论方法对大气环境质量进行评价，结果结果合理，方法可行，有一定的参考价值。     

The Precautionary Principle for Environmental Management: A Defensive-expenditure Application

The Precautionary Principle has emerged in response to the need for an effective method for dealing with risks and uncertainties in environmental management. In essence, the Principle requires action to prevent serious and irreversible damage even before harm can be scientifically demonstrated or economically assessed. Proponents argue that the Principle should be applied in situations where both the probability and value of irreversible damage are unknown. The lack of these particular data prevent a full cost–benefit analysis, but permit application of the Principle through the defensive-expenditure approach. How much would the community be required to pay to fund alternatives to maintain the environment and so defend existing levels of utility? Through the application of risk analysis and the stochastic dominance technique, a range of options and outcomes can be examined incorporating the using available information within a framework consistent with economic rationality. An extended risk simulation is applied to an environmental issue where there is a risk of serious and irreversible damage to the environment, namely, protection of the Barmah-Millewa forest-wetland in Australia.     

Environmental Ethics and Science: Resilience as a Moral Boundary

Science has always been tightly associated with environmental ethics in a way traditional ethics has not. However, despite this proximity, science has had a merely informational role, where it must inform ethics but not intervene in ethical judgment. Science is seen as an amoral enterprise, requiring an ethics rather than recommending one. In this paper I try to go against this common view. First, I give a critique of the naturalistic fallacy following the lines of Frankena. Then I go on to describe the two possible roles science can have in ethical though, and in environmental ethics in particular. As it turns out, science does not only inform ethics, but can actually have moral import and intervene in moral judgment. Finally, from an ecocentric point of view, I try to illustrate this last point by construing the ecological notion of resilience as a moral boundary—a scientifically determined boundary between right and wrong.     

Environmental Effectiveness of Swine Sewage Management: A Multicriteria AHP-Based Model for a Reliable Quick Assessment

Environmental issues related to swine production are still a major concern for the general public and represent a key challenge for the swine industry. The environmental impact of higher livestock concentration is particularly significant where it coincides with weaker policy standards and poor manure management. Effective tools for environmental monitoring of the swine sewage management process become essential for verifying the environmental compatibility of farming facilities and for defining suitable policies aimed at increasing swine production sustainability. This research aims at the development and application of a model for a quick assessment of the environmental effectiveness of the pig farming sewage management process. In order to define the model, multicriteria techniques, and in particular, Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process, were used to develop an iterative process in which the various key factors influencing the process under investigation were analyzed. The model, named EASE (Environmental Assessment of Sewages management Effectiveness), was optimized and applied to the Lake Trasimeno basin (Umbria, Italy), an area of high natural, environmental and aesthetic value. In this context, inadequate disposal of pig sewage represents a potential source of very considerable pollution. The results have demonstrated how the multicriteria model can represent a very effective and adaptable tool also in those decision-making processes aimed at the sustainable management of livestock production.     

Environmental issues in Sweden 1973–1989: Science and policy

The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental agenda in Sweden during the last two decades. A content analysis was made of all articles in a Swedish journal,Miljö-Aktuellt. Further, to elucidate the evolutionary process of problem formulation and reformulation, two cases were investigated, dealing with the impact of plant nutrients and mercury on surface water quality. The transport of heavy metals is an essential component of the ecological process and problem of acidification, and similarly, plant nutrients are part of the concept of eutrophication. Two concepts, the research cycle and the policy cycle, are tentatively applied to the conceptualizations of acidification and eutrophication. Additional data for the latter part of the study is supplied from parliamentary motions during 1973–1989. The substance/media focus of the 1970s was connected to a point-source abatement strategy, which mainly aimed at removing negative effects at a local level. The development of a national preventive strategy is traced in problem formulations related to “processes” going on in the technosphere: wastes, noise, energy production, traffic, and toxic substances. This period lasted from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and the need for improved resource management as a means to control environmental problems has been a generally accepted idea. However, this does not mean that measures actually taken are sufficient in a material balance perspective. Further, in the 1980s there was a strong emphasis upon processes in the ecosphere. This focus also implies source-related policies. To a certain extent, the remedies are within the scope of national capabilities, but the international dimension is becoming increasingly important. Scientific proofs of resource and environment degradation are essential to induce political action and to stimulate international cooperation. From this study, however, it is not possible to assess the existence of any particular policy-triggering information.     

On the Design of Computer-Based Models for Integrated Environmental Science

The current research agenda in environmental science is dominated by calls to integrate science and policy to better understand and manage links between social (human) and natural (nonhuman) processes. Freshwater resource management is one area where such calls can be heard. Designing computer-based models for integrated environmental science poses special challenges to the research community. At present it is not clear whether such tools, or their outputs, receive much practical policy or planning application. It is argued that this is a result of (1) a lack of appreciation within the research modeling community of the characteristics of different decision-making processes including policy, planning, and (2) participation, (3) a lack of appreciation of the characteristics of different decision-making contexts, (4) the technical difficulties in implementing the necessary support tool functionality, and (5) the socio-technical demands of designing tools to be of practical use. This article presents a critical synthesis of ideas from each of these areas and interprets them in terms of design requirements for computer-based models being developed to provide scientific information support for policy and planning. Illustrative examples are given from the field of freshwater resources management. Although computer-based diagramming and modeling tools can facilitate processes of dialogue, they lack adequate simulation capabilities. Component-based models and modeling frameworks provide such functionality and may be suited to supporting problematic or messy decision contexts. However, significant technical (implementation) and socio-technical (use) challenges need to be addressed before such ambition can be realized.     

四川省环境科技研究方向与任务

本文通过对四川省环境特点的分析与环境科技工作的回顾,提出四川省环境科技研究方向与任务的建议,与环境科技管理及研究人员共同研讨。     

Improving Community-Based Conservation Near Protected Areas: The Importance of Development Variables

Community-based conservation projects implemented in conjunction with protected area management often struggle to meet expectations. This article argues that outcomes will improve if project leaders pay closer attention to four development indicators—rights, capacity, governance, and revenue—that are often taken for granted or considered beyond the scope of local conservation projects. I make the case for focusing on these variables in four steps. First, I distinguish community-based conservation linked to protected area management from community-based institutions studied by scholars of the commons. Second, I draw on the theory and practice of international development to highlight the central relevance of the variables highlighted in this article to development projects at all levels. Third, I discuss the four variables in some detail, considering problems of definition and measurement and reviewing possible interactions among them. Fourth, to illustrate the influence of the variables in particular cases, I review outcomes from community-based conservation projects implemented near protected areas in El Salvador and Zimbabwe.     

蛋白质组学及其在环境科学中的应用

在后基因组时代，蛋白质组学是最新的生物体内蛋白质表达的分析工具，将对环境科学产生直接和间接的影响。蛋白质组学包括采用高分辨率2D技术的蛋白质提取、分离，结合高效率的蛋白质鉴定和生物信息学技术对蛋白质的分析与鉴定。简要介绍了蛋白质组学的内涵、研究方法、国内外研究进展以及在环境科学中的应用与展望。     

探索中国环保新道路要着力构建强大坚实的科技支撑体系

道路问题至关重要,事关全局。无论是革命时期还是和平建设时期,选择什么道路,坚持什么道路,从来都是党和国家事业成败得失的决定性因素。＂十一五＂以来,环保部门围绕着党中央、国务院提出的建设生态文明、推进环境保护历史性转变、让江河湖泊休养生息、节能减排是转方式调结构的重要抓手、环境保护是     

The Ecological Component of Environmental Impact Assessment: A Critical Review of British Environmental Statements

Environmental assessment (EA) of the impacts of development is required under the 1985 European Directive 85/337/EEC, which is implemented in Britain primarily through the 1988 Town and Country Planning (Assessmentof Environmental Effects) Regulations. Ecology provides analytical procedures for studying relationships between organisms and their environment and therefore has an obvious role in EA. The status of ecology within the British EA process was investigated by analysing 179 environmental statements (ESs) produced between 1988 and 1993. In many cases, the ecological information provided was so limited in quantity, or of such poor quality, that it was not possible to assess the ecological implications of proposed schemes. Many ESs failed to provide the data necessary to predict ecological impacts. Potential ecological impacts were reported in 93% of statements, but only 9% made any attempt to quantify them. Of those ESs which made references to ecological effects, only 45% based their findings on new ecological survey information. Consultation with statutory consultees for nature conservation was reported in 48% of ESs. Although 78% of ESs mentioned mitigation measures, only 23% described them in detail. A major shortcoming was the universal failure to make any commitment to monitoring of development impacts. In addition to the lack of formal requirements for monitoring, the lack of guidance for ecologists and developers involved in EA is concluded to be a major factor behind some of the shortcomings summarized in this paper.     

Key Principles of Community-Based Natural Resource Management: A Synthesis and Interpretation of Identified Effective Approaches for Managing the Commons

This article examines recent research on approaches to community-based environmental and natural resource management and reviews the commonalities and differences between these interdisciplinary and multistakeholder initiatives. To identify the most effective characteristics of Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), I collected a multiplicity of perspectives from research teams and then grouped findings into a matrix of organizational principles and key characteristics. The matrix was initially vetted (or “field tested”) by applying numerous case studies that were previously submitted to the World Bank International Workshop on CBNRM. These practitioner case studies were then compared and contrasted with the findings of the research teams. It is hoped that the developed matrix may be useful to researchers in further focusing research, understanding core characteristics of effective and sustainable CBNRM, providing practitioners with a framework for developing new CBNRM initiatives for managing the commons, and providing a potential resource for academic institutions during their evaluation of their practitioner-focused environmental management and leadership curriculum.     

环境基础设施推广BOT模式的可行性及风险

提出了在城市环境基础设施建设运行中，推广BOT模式具有可操作性和现实意义，但要注意防范风险。