Assessing Ecological Resources for Remediation and Future Land Uses on Contaminated Lands

Increasingly, the public and governmental agencies are concerned about remediating and reclaiming contaminated sites. Understanding the ecological resources on-site and valuing those resources in terms of future uses is important for determining suitable future land uses. In this article, we suggest the major categories of natural resource information required by managers, policy makers, and the general public for making initial future land-use determinations. We then use a dataset of 25 Department of Energy (DOE) sites slated for remediation to explore whether such data are readily available and whether the data can be used to assess natural resource value. Although information is available for almost all sites on federally endangered and threatened species, this information is less available for state-listed species. Biodiversity information is available only for some sites for birds (N = 17), mammals (N = 15), reptiles (N = 14), amphibians (N = 13), and plants (N = 11) and is almost nonexistent for invertebrates (N = 2). Some information is available for invasive species (N = 9). The number of available habitats is directly related to total acres and nonindustrial acres. Biodiversity of birds, mammals, and reptiles (but not amphibians) is directly related to both total acres and total nonindustrial acres of sites. These data suggest that even over a wide geographical area (from eastern to western United States), biodiversity relates to habitat size and number of habitats available. This information will be useful not only to DOE managers but also to natural resource trustees, ecologists, state and federal regulators, and the general public in the discourse over future uses of these lands.*Published online Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; Joanna Burger     

Estimating Current and Future Groundwater Resources of the Maldives

The water resources of the atolls of the Republic of Maldives are under continual threat from climatic and anthropogenic stresses, including land surface pollution, increasing population, drought, and sea‐level rise (SLR). These threats are particularly acute for groundwater resources due to the small land surface area and low elevation of each island. In this study, the groundwater resources, in terms of freshwater lens thickness, total volume of fresh groundwater, and safe yield are estimated for the 52 most populous islands of the Maldives for current conditions and for the year 2030, with the latter accounting for projected SLR and associated shoreline recession. An algebraic model, designed in previous studies to estimate the lens thickness of atoll islands, is expanded in this study to also estimate volume of groundwater. Results indicate that average current lens thickness, groundwater volume, and per capita safe yield are approximately 4.6 m, 1,300 million liters, and 300 l/day, and that these values will decrease by approximately 10, 11, and 34%, respectively, by the year 2030. Based on results, it is demonstrated that groundwater, in terms of quantity, is a viable source of water for the islands of the Maldives both now and in coming decades, particularly for islands with large surface area and low population. Study results can provide water resource managers and government officials with valuable data for consideration in water security measures.     

论土地资源的永续利用

土地资源是最重要的自然资源,而土地资源的永续利用是实现社会、经济和生态可持续发展的基础。本文分析了土地资源永续利用的重要性,讨论了土地永续利用的概念、内涵、判据、利用方向和模式等内容,并在此基础上提出了实现我国土地资源永续利用的生态经济措施。     

太湖水土资源保护和经济发展研究

本文对江苏省太湖地区水土资源利用现状及其与经济发展之间的协调性进行了系统分析，提出了该区今后在保护水土资源的同时促进社会经济发展的对策．     

宜兴市土地资源的可持续利用

土地资源是人类赖以生存的基本物质基础和十分宝贵的资源，寻求土地资源的可持续发展已成为当今世界土地科学研究的一个重要课题。宜兴市地处长江三角洲经济区，快速的经济发展已对有限的土地资源产生了较大的影响。文章通过对宜兴市土地资源进行可持续利用的初步研究，分析了土地资源的基本特征和可持续利用中存在的制约因素，提出了可持续利用土地资源的对策。     

烟台市土地资源开发利用对策

根据烟台市土地资源利用现状,中文分析了烟台市土地资源在开发利用中存在的主要问题,提出了开发利用对策。