Spatially Characterizing Visitor Use and Its Association with Informal Trails in Yosemite Valley Meadows

Ecological impacts associated with nature-based recreation and tourism can compromise park and protected area goals if left unrestricted. Protected area agencies are increasingly incorporating indicator-based management frameworks into their management plans to address visitor impacts. Development of indicators requires empirical evaluation of indicator measures and examining their ecological and social relevance. This study addresses the development of the informal trail indicator in Yosemite National Park by spatially characterizing visitor use in open landscapes and integrating use patterns with informal trail condition data to examine their spatial association. Informal trail and visitor use data were collected concurrently during July and August of 2011 in three, high-use meadows of Yosemite Valley. Visitor use was clustered at statistically significant levels in all three study meadows. Spatial data integration found no statistically significant differences between use patterns and trail condition class. However, statistically significant differences were found between the distance visitors were observed from informal trails and visitor activity type with active activities occurring closer to trail corridors. Gender was also found to be significant with male visitors observed further from trail corridors. Results highlight the utility of integrated spatial analysis in supporting indicator-based monitoring and informing management of open landscapes. Additional variables for future analysis and methodological improvements are discussed.     

Wetland Degradation: Its Driving Forces and Environmental Impacts in the Sanjiang Plain,China

This study investigated human-induced long-term wetland degradation that occurred in the Sanjiang Plain. Results from analyzing land-use/land-cover data sets derived from remotely sensed Landsat Multispectral Scanner/Thematic Mapper imagery for four time points showed that wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain have been severely transformed, and the area of wetlands decreased by 38 % from 1976 to 1986, by 16 % from 1986 to 1995, and by 31 % from 1995 to 2005. This study showed that transition to agricultural cultivation accounted for 91 % of wetland losses, whereas transition to grassland and forest accounted for 7 % of the wetlands losses. Institutional strategies and market policies probably exerted great impacts on agricultural practice that directly or indirectly influenced the decrease in wetlands. This study also indicated that an increased population likely led to wetland conversion to cropland by showing a high correlation between population and cropland (R ² = 0.92, P < 0.001). Wetland loss occurred during later time intervals at a low rate. This study suggests that the existing wetland-protection measures in the Sanjiang Plain should be reinforced further because of possible environmental consequences of wetland loss, such as enhanced soil carbon emission, changed hydrological cycling, and regional temperature increase.     

我国农业非点源污染成因及解决对策

农业非点源污染目前已成为全球水污染的主要来源。对我国农业非点源污染成因的分析表明:农药、化肥的大量使用,不同灌溉方式、生产生活废弃物和规模化畜禽养殖等与农业非点源污染的形成之间均有密切的关系,应从农田径流控制、小流域综合治理、发展生态农业等方面开展农业非点源污染防治。实施农田养分最佳管理技术、开发农业非点源污染管理应用软件、完善农业生态补偿机制将成为我国农业非点源污染研究的发展趋势。     

地震的生态破坏及其恢复重建研究进展

本文从地震对生态系统的主要影响、地震破坏的生态系统恢复重建的政策及技术措施等方面,系统分析了目前国内外在地震灾害对生态系统危害方面的研究进展,以及治理中采取的政策和技术措施。在此基础上,提出了震后生态恢复重建的策略和建议,以及今后对震后生态系统快速重建和生态系统服务功能恢复中需要加强的基础研究工作。     

新疆土地资源的开发利用及对环境的影响

新疆土地面积占国土面积1/6，幅员辽阔的地域决定了土地资源自然类型和可利用类型的多样性，近几十年来，新疆土地的开发仍是以农业土地开发为主，其包括开荒扩大耕地面积和广度开发和集约化生产提高单位产量的深度开发，随着西部大开发战略逐渐实施，新疆城市规模不断扩大，工业加速发展，用地需求与日俱增，本文在总结以往的土地开发利用对环境产生的利与弊基础上，为未来土地利用提出了一些趋利避害的建议。     

秦皇岛市土壤侵蚀的特点、原因及保护对策

土壤侵蚀是一种危害严重、分布范围广的生态环境问题,影响人与自然的和谐共存,以及各业生产的可持续发展。通过分析秦皇岛市土壤侵蚀特点、原因,提出综合治理土壤侵蚀的对策和措施,以期为今后该区土壤侵蚀防治与治理提供科学依据。     

水电工程建设对生态环境的影响及生态补偿机制研究

水电资源开发不仅能满足经济社会发展和人民生活需要,同时对于调整我国的能源消费结构及布局,实现可持续发展战略,具有十分重要的作用.但是,水电工程建设的过程中会破坏生态环境,其主要影响表现在对陆生和永生生态环境的影响上.为防止和缓解水利工程建设对该区域的经济及生态平衡的破坏,应尽快建立和实施生态补偿机制.在研究补偿主体、补偿对象、补偿标准和补偿方式基础上,提出了建立水电开发生态补偿机制的框架和思路.     

Informal mining in Mongolia: livelihood change and continuity in the rangelands

Change has been the leitmotif of Mongolia in recent years as the country rides on the back of a mining boom, but enormous upheavals tear apart Mongolian economic, political and social fabrics. Yet, Mongolian imagination continues to be imbued with the idea of nomadic herders, the quintessential pasture and rangeland dwellers of the steppes. The conflicting visions raise the question: “How is the livelihood of Mongolia’s nomadic herders responding to the diverse changes ushered in by the post-socialist economic reforms?” This paper investigates this question in the context of the growing artisanal and small-scale mining, which is described as informal mining, and argues that the Mongolian nomads are continually (re)adjusting their livelihoods through informal mining to cope with the variety of transitions triggered off by processes put in place by state policies. It argues that the nomadic herders are not only responding to climate change or poverty, but are also stepping up to seek a share of the mineral resource wealth that the state is promising to the international investors. The aim of the paper is to offer an alternative interpretation of the commodity rush by erstwhile rural-based nomadic herders of Mongolia, and to link their involvement in informal mining with global debates of political economy.     

河北生态环境恶化类型,成因与调控对策

本文论述了河北省生态环境恶化类型,分析了造成其恶化的主要原因,并提出了改善河北省生态环境的调控对策。     

Bioenergy Sustainability in China: Potential and Impacts

The sustainability implications of bioenergy development strategies are large and complex. Unlike conventional agriculture, bioenergy production provides an opportunity to design systems for improving eco-environmental services. Different places have different goals and solutions for bioenergy development, but they all should adhere to the sustainability requirements of the environment, economy, and society. This article serves as a brief overview of China’s bioenergy development and as an introduction to this special issue on the impacts of bioenergy development in China. The eleven articles in this special issue present a range of perspectives and scenario analyses on bioenergy production and its impacts as well as potential barriers to its development. Five general themes are covered: status and goals, biomass resources, energy plants, environmental impacts, and economic and social impacts. The potential for bioenergy production in China is huge, particularly in the central north and northwest. China plans to develop a bioenergy capacity of 30GW by 2020. However, realization of this goal will require breakthroughs in bioenergy landscape design, energy plant biotechnology, legislation, incentive policy, and conversion facilities. Our analyses suggest that (1) the linkage between bioenergy, environment, and economy are often circular rather than linear in nature; (2) sustainability is a core concept in bioenergy design and the ultimate goal of bioenergy development; and (3) each bioenergy development scheme must be region-specific and designed to solve local environmental and agricultural problems.     

Informal privatisation of community taps: issues of access and equity

On the basis of a detailed case study this paper questions the equity of centralised piped drinking water supply systems installed by the government of Nepal in rural areas. The study shows how processes of socio-technical interaction and change alter the physical water supply infrastructure of the installed public water supply system, simultaneously altering patterns of access to taps and water. The analysis suggests that this happens through a process of “informal privatisation”, with community taps becoming appropriated by individuals over time, cutting off some families from their access to community tap water while reinforcing the water security of others. This process is deeply shaped by prevailing relations of power and cultural difference along axes of gender, caste and wealth.     

Informal coal mining in Eastern India: Evidence from the Raniganj Coalbelt

Unauthorized mines are not uncommon in mineral-rich regions of poorer countries, and India is no exception. Whether they constitute merely a law and order problem including safety issues, or there are important social and economic questions involved has yet to be thrashed out. The mining industry, at regional, national and international levels, is ambivalent towards such mining, tending to draw attention away from their informal nature to the size factor.
This article looks into the problem of such informal mining in the light of empirical surveys in eastern Indian collieries. These are called peoples' mines and they serve a significant purpose in local economies. The article's thesis is that peasant communities are trying to claim back a portion of the local resources lost to them through appropriation by mining companies thus re-asserting their traditional rights to local mineral resources. In conclusion, the need for a new moral economy for mining regions is stressed: an economy in which local communities will play a powerful role.     

Arctic Climate Impacts: Environmental Injustice in Canada and the United States

The current and projected future physical impacts of climate change are most extreme in the northern latitudes. The indigenous peoples in the North American arctic and sub-arctic rely on the availability of natural resources in mixed subsistence economies for nutritional and cultural survival and thus experience disproportionate burdens with respect to our changing climate. Arctic climate impacts exemplify how global phenomena and activities can significantly affect people locally in remote regions. These impacts are largely consistent throughout the region, irrespective of national boarders; however, indigenous peoples in Canada are better positioned than those in the United States to shape policy in a way that would ensure their adaptation to climate change. Political and industrial activity on national and global scales can have significant environmental, social and cultural repercussions on the local scale in remote areas. Remedies for environmental injustice will thus require strong cross-scale political and institutional linkages.     

居民旅游影响感知态度及其动力因子研究——以周庄为例

旅游发展对旅游地居民生活产生经济、社会文化、环境等方面的影响。首先分析了居民对旅游影响和旅游发展的感知态度,发现居民对旅游影响的正面感知较强烈,对旅游发展也持理性支持的态度,其中居民对环境影响的正面感知最为强烈。结合居民态度随旅游发展而发生相应变化的相关理论与周庄现阶段旅游发展特征,对居民感知态度的动力因子进行了探讨。     

Flooding in Texas: Examination of Temporal Changes and Impacts of Tropical Cyclones

Annual maximum peak discharge measurements from 62 stations with a record of at least 70 years are used to assess extreme flooding in Texas at the regional scale. This work focuses on examination of the validity of the stationarity assumption and on the impact of tropical cyclones (TCs) on the upper tail of the flood peak distribution. We assess the validity of the stationarity assumption by testing the records for abrupt and gradual changes. The presence of abrupt changes in the first two moments of the flood peak distribution is assessed using the Lombard test. We use the Mann‐Kendall test to examine the presence of monotonic trends. Results indicate that violations of the stationarity assumption are most commonly caused by abrupt changes, which are often associated with river regulation. We fit the time series of stationary flood records with the generalized extreme value distribution to investigate whether TCs control the upper tail of the flood peak distribution. Our results indicate that TCs play a diminished role in shaping the upper tail of the flood peak distribution compared with areas of the eastern United States subject to frequent TCs.     

大麻茎腐病菌的分离及其对土壤环境影响的研究

从病变部位分离出两株病原真菌DN1和DN2,通过茵丝及孢子形态的观察,初步确定其分别为半知菌亚门链格孢属（Altemaria altemata）及轮枝孢属（M．Verticillium）。在pH值4～14之间,两株菌都能正常生长,对环境的适应能力较强。通过盆栽试验确定大麻对土壤pH的影响,结果表明大麻能修复弱碱性土壤。     

Business environmental initiatives: Beyond waste reduction and recycling

Xerox was one of the first U.S. companies to discover that environmentally sound practices not only result in good community relations, but also often more than pay for themselves. This article presents ideas and guidelines companies can use in their waste reduction and recycling programs. Implementing a waste reduction and recycling program is an important step toward improved environmental performance. Given the numerous ways businesses affect the environment—through purchasing, manufacturing, and resource consumption—waste reduction and recycling are just two of many potential environmental measures. This article will highlight further initiatives your business can take toward sustainable development, defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.     

RESEARCH: Triage Law Enforcement: Societal Impacts on National Forests in the West

/ Uses of outdoor natural areas, like National Forests in the United States, have been undergoing change. Some changes, including criminal activities and domestic terrorism, may have quite important impacts to outdoor enthusiasts and managers. Activities include some relatively traditional management challenges, like arson and thefts, and newer challenges, such as domestic violence and murder. To better understand the prevalence and impacts of these activities, selected managers in the western United States were interviewed in summer and fall 1998. Results indicate criminal activities and domestic terrorism are found in both urban-interface and rural sites. The most prevalent challenges were arson, criminal damage, domestic violence, dumping of household trash and landscape materials, marijuana cultivation, satanic cult activity, and thefts. Not as prevalent but found in almost all study sites were body dumping, extremist group activity, gang activity, murders, and suicides. Managers felt that most outdoor recreationists were unaffected by the activities. Most managers noted the increasing prevalence and the costs to management in time, personnel, and in other ways. They noted that their job had ceased being one of natural resources law enforcement and became one of "city" law enforcement. The findings of the study raise serious issues that require additional research.     

Informal network utilisation and water distribution in two districts in the Khorezm Province,Uzbekistan

This paper analyses informal networks and their utilisation during a period of water scarcity in an upstream and a downstream district in the Khorezm Province, Uzbekistan. The evaluation is based on an organisational theory approach on informal networks. Communication patterns between farm managers, district water departments and district governors in a year with a sufficient amount of water and in a year of water scarcity are compared with informal network structures. The analysis shows that in the year of water scarcity an informal network was utilised to receive water. The importance of the informal network increased with increasing experience and individual perception of water scarcity. The findings confirm the assumption that informal networks are utilised more frequently when formal networks fail or are not functional. The case study therefore confirms the importance of an informal network during a crisis.