Creating and using objectives for ecological risk assessment and management

This paper provides guidance for ecological risk assessors and managers about how to structure objectives for these efforts. It first outlines why objectives are crucial for ecological risk assessment and management. Then, it draws on the writing within applied decision analysis to outline a process for structuring objectives for ecological risk-management efforts involving one or several decision-makers. The characteristics of a good set of objectives are outlined, and the various uses for a set of objectives within ecological risk-management efforts are summarized. The paper concludes with practical advice for managers and facilitators charged with developing objectives to guide these complex processes.     

Approaches to developing risk management objectives: an analysis of international strategies

Risk assessment/management frameworks employed around the world to guide environmental decision-making were analyzed for their approaches to developing risk management objectives and the decision criteria necessary for environmental policy implementation. Frameworks from the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, and the USA were considered. Progress in refining the scientific basis for risk assessment/management has been made, but there has been little parallel development in defining the mechanisms by which available scientific information may be used to define risk management goals or identify and select between management options using a priori decision criteria. The lack of detailed guidance on the setting and achievement of risk management goals that appropriately balance technical information and public input remains an important challenge to the use and practice of all risk assessment/management frameworks.     

‘Tolerable’ hillslope soil erosion rates in Australia: Linking science and policy

This paper reviews water-borne soil erosion in Australia in the context of current environmental policy needs. Sustainability has emerged as a central tenet of environmental policy in Australia and water-borne hillslope soil erosion rates are used as one of the indicators of agricultural sustainability in State of the Environment reporting. We review attempts to quantify hillslope erosion rates over Australia and we identify areas at risk of exceeding natural baseline rates. We also review historical definitions of sustainable, or ‘tolerable’ erosion rates, and how to set these rates. There are many ways to estimate hillslope erosion and these can create confusing results. Moreover their application for land management purposes requires nuanced interpretations that ultimately depend on the desired objective of decision-makers. Soil is the earth surficial material that serves as a medium for plant growth and the notion of tolerable soil erosion arose historically to assess the impact of soil loss on agricultural uses. However now that the impact of erosion on aquatic ecosystems been recognized as a major concern for Australia, the concept of tolerable erosion needs to be revised. Here we discuss three definitions of tolerable soil erosion, following recent literature. We derive estimates of long-term agricultural sustainability based on natural soil production rates and discuss this in relation to other defined land-management objectives such as aquatic ecosystem health. We conclude that the desired objectives of land managers must be clearly articulated before questions of ‘where to invest to control erosion’ and ‘how to assess return-on-investment’ can be answered.     

Fuzzy modelling to identify key drivers of ecological water quality to support decision and policy making

Water quality modelling is an effective tool to investigate, describe and predict the ecological state of an aquatic ecosystem. Various environmental variables may simultaneously affect water quality. Appropriate selection of a limited number of key-variables facilitates cost-effective management of water resources. This paper aims to determine (and analyse the effect of) the major environmental variables predicting ecological water quality through the application of fuzzy models. In this study, a fuzzy logic methodology, previously applied to predict species distributions, was extended to model environmental effects on a whole community. In a second step, the developed models were applied in a more general water management context to support decision and policy making. A hill-climbing optimisation algorithm was applied to relate ecological water quality and environmental variables to the community indicator. The optimal model was selected based on the predictive performance (Cohen’s Kappa), ecological relevance and model’s interpretability. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed as an extra element to analyse and evaluate the optimal model. The optimal model included the variables land use, chlorophyll and flow velocity. The variable selection method and sensitivity analysis indicated that land use influences ecological water quality the most and that it affects the effect of other variables on water quality to a high extent. The model outcome can support spatial planning related to land use in river basins and policy making related to flows and water quality standards. Fuzzy models are transparent to a wide range of users and therefore may stimulate communication between modellers, river managers, policy makers and stakeholders.     

流域水生态功能区概念、特点与实施策略

我国正处在从传统的水质管理向水生态管理转变的关键阶段,水生态功能区是实施流域水生态系统管理的基本单元. 结合区划理论的发展,对国内外区划研究进展进行了系统总结,界定了水生态功能区的基本概念,提出了水生态功能区的基本特点及其在环境管理中的主要作用,辨析了水生态功能区与水功能区、生态功能区和主体功能区的关系,提出了水生态功能区实施的政策保障体系. 结果表明,水生态功能区是开展水生态系统健康评估、识别水生态功能和确定水生态保护目标的基本单元,具有基于流域单元进行划分、以水生态系统等级结构为主线、区域区划与类型区划相统一、陆地与水体保持一致性等特点;不同功能区在基本概念、法律和政策依据、分区目的、分区体系、分区指标和方法及其在管理中的作用等方面差异显著,水生态功能区是对上述功能区的发展、补充和完善;作为一个崭新概念,水生态功能区的实施需要从法律、机构、政策和技术等方面全面保障,在此基础上构建流域水环境综合管理技术体系,支撑流域生态文明建设.      

Evolving paradigms for landscape-scale renewable resource management in the United States

Patterns of selection and evolution of renewable resource management paradigms appear when strategies are considered across a temporal scale. The roles of renewable resource managers were established during the early twentieth century and have since evolved. Autocratic natural-science-based management (ANM) of renewable resources was institutionalized in the early twentieth century following the principle of management based on science with administrative decisions by professional agency employees. A more recent form of management paradigm is interactive natural-science-based management (INM) which provides for limited stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process. These historic paradigms often inadequately addressed social and political aspects of renewable resource management leading managers to adopt new management paradigms involving communications and negotiations among stakeholders, not just science and administrative decisions. The inability of either ANM or INM paradigms to win uncontested agency and public acceptance, coupled with demands to increase spatial scales of management and public (stakeholder) involvement, is providing impetus for emergence of a new paradigm. The evolving paradigm can be defined as collaborative natural- and social-science-based management (CNSM) and provides a framework for approaching and finding solutions to landscape-scale problems. Successful evolution of this paradigm will require removing barriers to societal involvement in management decision-making institutionalized over the past century.     

基于GIS的流域水质目标管理TMYL构架研究——以赣江流域为例

以赣江流域为例,提出了基于GIS的TMYL计划技术框架,构建了以保持水生态系统健康为目标的流域水质目标管理技术体系.在ARCGIS9.3的环境中,利用GIS的叠置技术,建立基于控制单元为管理核心、污染源在线监控为配套建设的三级监控体系.结合流域水污染防治绩效评估体系的建立及评估分析,为流域水污染控制的总量控制方案和对策...     

我国水生态系统完整性研究的重大意义、现状、挑战与主要任务

水生态系统完整性研究是当今国际热点,维护水生态系统健康与稳定已成为世界各国水生态系统保护的目标、方向和管理策略. “十三五”以来,我国地表水环境质量改善效果显著,但部分流域或局部水生态退化问题成为突出短板,强调水生态系统整体保护、促进水生态环境质量全面改善、提高生态系统自我修复能力将是未来我国水生态环境保护的重点任务. 本文详细剖析了典型流域水生态系统保护现状和需求,阐述了我国开展水生态系统完整性研究的重大意义,系统总结了完整性研究国际进展和应用实践,深入分析了当前我国完整性研究面临的主要挑战,提出了未来发展思路与重点任务. 加快研发完整性监测与评价新技术,建立物理、化学和水生生物多要素统筹的完整性评价指标体系,创新发展多尺度完整性评价理论,持续开展典型流域完整性状况评估,摸清水生态家底及演变趋势;突破完整性退化诊断与修复调控新技术,厘清退化机制及驱动因子,阐明气候变化与人类活动复杂压力下退化水生态系统修复路径和调控策略,提升水生态系统保护修复的科学性,加快推动我国水生态环境管理制度迈上新台阶,为恢复和维持重点流域水生态系统原真性和完整性提供科技支撑.      

Adaptation policies to increase terrestrial ecosystem resilience: potential utility of a multicriteria approach

Climate change is rapidly undermining terrestrial ecosystem resilience and capacity to continue providing their services to the benefit of humanity and nature. Because of the importance of terrestrial ecosystems to human well-being and supporting services, decision makers throughout the world are busy creating policy responses that secure multiple development and conservation objectives— including that of supporting terrestrial ecosystem resilience in the context of climate change. This article aims to advance analyses on climate policy evaluation and planning in the area of terrestrial ecosystem resilience by discussing adaptation policy options within the ecology-economy-social nexus. The paper evaluates these decisions in the realm of terrestrial ecosystem resilience and evaluates the utility of a set of criteria, indicators, and assessment methods, proposed by a new conceptual multi-criteria framework for pro-development climate policy and planning developed by the United Nations Environment Programme. Potential applications of a multicriteria approach to climate policy vis-à-vis terrestrial ecosystems are then explored through two hypothetical case study examples. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the utility of the multi-criteria approach in the context of other climate policy evaluation approaches, considers lessons learned as a result efforts to evaluate climate policy in the realm of terrestrial ecosystems, and reiterates the role of ecosystem resilience in creating sound policies and actions that support the integration of climate change and development goals.     

基于水生态功能分区的流域水环境监测与评价研究

中国现行的监测与管理模式多将流域管理机构按照地方部门条块分割,特别是从行政上将一个完整的流域人为分开,从而造成责权交叉多,难以统一规划和协调管理.为了提高每一个生态区域及系统特点得到相应保护,合理开发和利用水生态资源,进而可持续地发展经济和规划生态资源.基于水生态功能分区要求、国省控水质手动、自动监测系统和评价指标体系的特点和经验,开展了基于水生态功能分区的流域水监测与评价研究,编制了《基于水生态功能分区的流域水环境监测与评价》指南.构建重点流域内水环境质量评价指标和评价方法,形成以水污染防治和水质改善为目标、基于水生态功能分区的水环境质量评价模型,为中国其它流域水环境评价提供借鉴及参考.     

土地利用生态风险评价研究进展

土地利用生态风险评价是对生态系统在土地利用直接或间接作用下可能产生的不利影响的评价。在梳理已有研究工作的基础上,从评价模型、生态风险空间表达和不确定性分析三个方面,总结土地利用生态风险评价研究方法的进展,阐述土地利用生态风险管理在土地利用生态风险评价中的地位和作用。目前该领域存在的主要问题是:（1）评价指标和评价标准不统一;（2）评价过程和评价结果的不确定性较大;（3）生态风险管理环节研究薄弱。未来的发展趋势包括:（1）关注全球变化条件下的土地利用生态风险;（2）重视土地利用生态风险评价在国土空间规划与生态修复中的作用;（3）加强土地利用生态风险管理研究;（4）建立并完善土地利用生态风险评价的数据管理平台。     

Salmon policy: science,society, restoration,and reality

Salmon policy in the Pacific Northwest illustrates a class of contentious, socially wrenching issues that are becoming increasingly common in the western United States as demands increase for limited ecological resources. Many Pacific salmon “stocks” (a term used in fisheries management for a group of interbreeding individuals that is roughly equivalent to “population”) have declined and some have been extirpated. The salmon “problem” is one of the most vexing public policy challenges in natural resource management. Even with complete scientific knowledge — and scientific knowledge is far from complete or certain — it would be a challenging policy problem. The salmon decline issue is often defined simplistically as a watershed management problem, in part because changes in watersheds are highly visible and often occur on public or corporate lands where individuals and organizations often have direct input to decision making. Yet, changes in climate and ocean conditions, for example, occur frequently and such changes have a major influence on salmon abundance. The scientific challenges are great, but the more difficult — and critical — aspect of the debate concerns policies and decisions affecting everyone, including those involved in rural enterprises (especially farming and logging); manufacturing and construction; electricity generation (including hydro, fossil fuel, and nuclear); national defense; urban development; transportation (including road, rail, air, and water). The debate also involves competing personal rights and freedoms; the prerogatives and roles of local, state, and federal government and Indian tribes; policies on human population level, reproduction, emigration, and immigration; and the future of fishing (commercial, recreational, and Indian). The salmon policy conundrum is characterized by: (1) nearly everyone claims to support maintaining wild salmon runs; (2) many competing societal priorities exist, many of which are partially or wholly mutually exclusive; (3) the region’s rapidly growing human population creates increasing pressures on all natural resources (including salmon and their habitats); (4) policy stances in the salmon debate are solidly entrenched; (5) society expects salmon experts to help solve the salmon problem; (6) each of the many sides of the political debate over the future of salmon use salmon experts and scientific “facts” to bolster its argument; (7) it has proved to be nearly impossible for salmon scientists to avoid being categorized as supporting a particular policy position; and (8) many advocates of policy positions couch their positions in scientific terms rather than value-based preferences. Although far from indisputable, I conclude that over the next century and allowing for considerable year-to-year and decade-to-decade variation, many, perhaps most, stocks of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest likely will remain at their current low levels or continue to decline in spite of costly protection and restoration efforts.     

流域水生态风险评价及管理对策

流域水生态风险评价是流域水环境管理急需解决的难题和研究热点,与传统风险管理的主要不同点在于流域的异质性和复合污染问题.依靠单一污染物研究不足以提供全面风险信息,无法适应我国流域水环境改善和生态恢复的管理需求.本文通过对复合污染的联合毒性效应及其研究方法的分析,综述和比较了生态风险评价方法的实用性和不足,探讨适合于建立流域不同生态单元质量和复合污染效应间关系的方法,发展和构建反映流域时空尺度变化规律的生态风险评价模型.并就流域水生态毒理机理、水环境的生态响应时空异质性变化规律和流域多目标优化管理提出研究展望及管理对策.     

海洋微塑料污染状况及其应对措施建议

海洋塑料垃圾污染是人类面临的最为急迫的全球海洋环境问题之一,已引起各国政府、公众、科学界、媒体及非政府组织等的广泛关注,并成为当前海洋生态与环境研究的热点问题之一,亟待应对和解决.从水体、沉积物及生物体内海洋塑料垃圾及微塑料污染特征、来源及归趋角度,阐述了海洋微塑料垃圾的分布特征、潜在生态风险和应对措施,以及国内外应对海洋塑料及微塑料污染所采取的管控措施,介绍了各国政府和非政府组织所提出的法律法规和公约倡议.鉴于当前鲜见典型区域塑料污染管控和生态风险评估体系研究,从科学研究和管理控制两个方面,进一步指出现阶段在海洋塑料垃圾及微塑料研究和管控方面存在的诸多问题,如方法学（采集、预处理和分析）的差异性,来源、输运与归趋尚不明确,生态风险评估体系未建立及相关管控的法律法规待健全等.在此基础上对我国海洋塑料和微塑料研究提出建议:①深入研究与国际接轨的标准化塑料及微塑料研究方法学（样本采集、预处理和分析）问题、准确估算入海通量、环境归趋及环境浓度下潜在的生态风险等;②支持开展海洋塑料垃圾和微塑料研究专题的大洋航次（太平洋和印度洋等）,系统地开展河流系统-深海海盆-极地等的海洋微塑料综合研究;③研发水环境中塑料和微塑料垃圾的拦截和处理技术,制定和强化塑料及微塑料管控的法律法规和政策措施;④建立完善的海洋塑料垃圾污染公共环境意识教育体系,以唤起公众对海洋污染的关注.      

Aquatic ecosystem protection and restoration: advances in methods for assessment and evaluation

Many methods and criteria are available to assess aquatic ecosystems, and this review focuses on a set that demonstrates advancements from community analyses to methods spanning large spatial and temporal scales. Basic methods have been extended by incorporating taxa sensitivity to different forms of stress, adding measures linked to system function, synthesizing multiple faunal groups, integrating biological and physical attributes, spanning large spatial scales, and enabling simulations through time. These tools can be customized to meet the needs of a particular assessment and ecosystem. Two case studies are presented to show how new methods were applied at the ecosystem scale for achieving practical management goals. One case used an assessment of biotic structure to demonstrate how enhanced river flows can improve habitat conditions and restore a diverse fish fauna reflective of a healthy riverine ecosystem. In the second case, multitaxonomic integrity indicators were successful in distinguishing lake ecosystems that were disturbed, healthy, and in the process of restoration. Most methods strive to address the concept of biological integrity and assessment effectiveness often can be impeded by the lack of more specific ecosystem management objectives. Scientific and policy explorations are needed to define new ways for designating a healthy system so as to allow specification of precise quality criteria that will promote further development of ecosystem analysis tools.     

Getting stakeholder participation ‘right’: a discussion of participatory processes and possible pitfalls

The planning step of an ecological risk assessment includes the largest role for public participation in the entire assessment, for it is here that the risk manager must ensure that the assessment will yield the information he needs to make a decision. This essay discusses some general characteristics of public participation in ecological risk assessments, including the ways in which different lifestyles may lead to the establishment of community specific management goals and hence of different endpoints; the type and nature of the input provided by the public to the risk assessment and the ways in which input from the public differs from input from the scientific community; and a discussion of definitions of stakeholders and participatory processes which emphasizes their contextual nature. The essay concludes with a review of some of the challenges facing a risk manager as he designs a participatory process. Six major areas are discussed, each incorporating suggestions that should reduce difficulties in implementation of such a process and increase the likelihood of acceptance of its outcome, and hence the overall quality of the risk assessment.     

电子废物排放持久性有毒污染物的控制政策分析

近年来持久性有毒污染物(PTS)的环境污染和风险问题引起国内外广泛关注,电子废物是其重要的排放源.本研究针对电子废物的排放路径,基于生命周期管理,把电子废物管理分为源头削减、过程控制、末端管理和应急管理四大环节,分析我国电子废物PTS控制相关的法规政策.从管理目标、法规可得性、详细规定、法规协调性和法规政策执行效果五大方面构建法规政策评估体系,采用专家意见法对每个环节涉及的法规政策进行全面评估.源头削减环节的PTS法规政策管理较为完善,有明确的管理目标和较好的法规可得性,而应急管理环节的PTS法规政策管理最不完善,缺乏明确的管理目标和详细规定,法规协调性和执行效果差.根据评估结果针对不同环节提出相应的控制政策建议.     

我国海岸带综合管理政策目标初探

在海岸带可持续发展中,综合管理政策起着极为重要的作用。本文把海岸带政策作为海岸带开发与保护协调发展的主因,旨在从制定全国性权威的海岸带管理法,优化海岸带综合管理机构的设置并合理分配其职责,完善三大产业协调发展的海岸带管理经济政策,规划双目标体系的海岸带的生态系统综合管理政策,完善科学有序的海岸带地质灾害预防,提升有效的公众参与,完善海岸带管理的科技政策,优化海岸带资源的开发与保护政策等方面,探讨其深层原由并提出海岸带发展的政策性目标。     

湖泊缓冲带功能、建设与管理

湖泊缓冲带在湖泊保护和流域管理中的作用日益受到重视. 湖泊缓冲带是保护湖泊的隔离生境,是缓解或减轻湖泊水生态系统受流域内各种人类活动或自然过程的破坏、干扰和污染的空间. 湖泊缓冲带应具备缓冲隔离、促进生态环境改善、实施特殊的环境经济政策与生态补偿等3个主要功能,其宽度需考虑生态环境目标和环境准入标准、生态环境现状、技术经济约束和社会与管理制度制约等4个影响因素. 湖泊缓冲带的生态环境建设一般遵循控源与生态修复相结合、自然恢复与人工强化相结合、生态建设与管理相结合的原则,主要技术体系包括湖泊缓冲带内的农村面源污染控制技术和湖泊缓冲带缓冲体系改善技术. 湖泊缓冲带的管理主要涉及通过环境管理优化经济发展、生态工程长效运行管理和环境经济政策与生态补偿等3个方面. 未来湖泊缓冲带的研究方应包湖泊缓冲带范围的合理设置、相关生态学模型的引入、缓冲带建设的长效运行和管理机制的建立.      

Climate change mitigation policy paradigms—national objectives and alignments

The aim of this paper is to assess how policy goals in relation to the promotion of green growth, energy security, pollution control and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions have been aligned in policies that have been implemented in selected countries during the last decades as a basis for discussing how a multi objective policy paradigm can contribute to future climate change mitigation. The paper includes country case studies from Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea and the United States covering renewable energy options, industry, transportation, the residential sector and cross-sectoral policies. These countries and regions together contribute more than two thirds of global GHG emissions. The paper finds that policies that are nationally driven and that have multiple objectives, including climate-change mitigation, have been widely applied for decades in both developing countries and industrialised countries. Many of these policies have a long history, and adjustments have taken place based on experience and cost effectiveness concerns. Various energy and climate-change policy goals have worked together in these countries, and in practice a mix of policies reflecting specific priorities and contexts have been pursued. In this way, climate-change mitigation has been aligned with other policy objectives and integrated into broader policy packages, though in many cases specific attention has not been given to the achievement of large GHG emission reductions. Based on these experiences with policy implementation, the paper highlights a number of key coordination and design issues that are pertinent to the successful joint implementation of several energy and climate-change policy goals.