The role of environmental statisticians in environmental policy: the case of performance measurement

Environmental statisticians often experience the difficult task to provide clear results for environmental policy objectives on the basis of complex science, limited data, and many sources of uncertainty. This paper highlights the particularly challenging situation of environmental statistics in developing countries before focusing on the role of statisticians working at the nexus of environmental statistics and policy within the context of measuring environmental performance. Three issues create particular tension at the environmental science-policy junction: (1) the general complexity of environmental problems (including scientific uncertainty and insufficient data) and the often negative perceptions associated with their solution, (2) the comparatively recent introduction of quantitative methods and information to the environmental policy process and continued skepticism and ideologically motivated resistance to their routine integration, and (3) the language barriers between policymakers and statisticians as well as between statisticians and other scientists engaged in environmental research. Based on the case study of the 2006 Pilot Environmental Performance Index (EPI) developed by an interdisciplinary team at the universities Yale and Columbia the paper examines how the EPI tackles these tensions while aiming to be a fact-based, statistically sound policy tool that helps countries achieve environmental objectives by tracking progress, identifying environmental “best practices”, and providing strategic peer-group analyses. In conclusion, the paper suggests some remedies for the deficiencies in the co-operation between policymakers and environmental statisticians.     

陆海统筹视角下茂名市海岸带生态安全格局规划研究

作为国土空间规划的三大战略格局之一,生态安全格局是海岸带地区生态安全的重要保障。本研究遵循“陆海统筹、生态优先”的理念,基于“本底分析-要素识别-格局构建”的总体思路,采用陆海生态敏感性评价、最小累积阻力模型、“源地-廊道-节点”模型等分析方法,规划构建了茂名市海岸带的生态安全格局。结果表明：(1)研究区的海岸侵蚀和特殊生境以不敏感为主,一般生境以轻度敏感为主,水土流失、风暴潮、赤潮、海岸带利用以中度敏感为主,社会经济以高度敏感为主;(2)研究区生态敏感性总体较高,陆海复合系统的综合敏感性指数由陆地向海洋呈现“减小-增加-减小”的空间变化规律;(3)本研究共提取出生态源地21块,面积116.78 km²;识别出生态廊道35条、生态节点24个,分别呈“一横五纵三环”“陆多海少、南多北少”的空间分布格局;(4)本研究构建出“一带、三湾、五廊、多点”的区域生态安全格局,在此基础上提出规划指引,以期为茂名市海岸带的生态文明建设提供科学指导。     

西部大开发中的生态安全问题

正确处理区域发展与生态安全是西部开发战略的关键。以可持续发展为目标的区域空间结构理论 ,分析了在新一轮科技革命和产业革命的新形势下推动区域发展和区域空间结构演变的决定性因素 ,以及实行效益原则与社会公平原则相统一的必要性 ,从中引出西部大开发中确保生态安全的极端重要性。并就实现区域发展与生态安全的双赢目标所必须建立的能力体系和制度体系提出了建议。      

Constructing collaborative communities of researchers in the environmental domain. A case study of interdisciplinary research between legal scholars and policy analysts

The article offers an analysis of the interactions between legal and policy science researchers within a European project on flood risk management using a “Policy Arrangement Approach” (PAA). While interdisciplinary research is increasingly becoming a ‘must’ in environmental governance, under what conditions is cooperation possible and desirable? Our analysis shows that the PAA is not mobilized as an interdisciplinary method, but offers a framework for researchers from different disciplines to learn to work together on a subject such as flooding, requiring interdisciplinary insights. The paper shows the steps that are progressively put in place to reach a common language and reformulate issues by benefitting from each other’s view and approaches. The article concludes by drawing attention to new means of knowledge production relating to so-called “messy” or “wicked” problems, such as environmental issues. Within this framework, interdisciplinary work is not considered to be a pre-condition for the study, but rather the result of the research process itself. The analysis draws attention to the actual (working) conditions established to create an interdisciplinary community of flooding practices by challenging disciplinary borders.     

Considering agro-ecosystems as ecological funds for collective design: New perspectives for environmental policy

Enhancing agro-ecosystem sustainability raises difficult challenges for environmental policy: it requires both increasing knowledge on these complex systems to design effective solutions and coordinating stakeholders with diverging interests. However, most existing environmental policies consider ecosystems’ desirable properties as given, leading ecosystem managers to favor “turnkey” solutions. How could public policy better support local collective initiatives aiming at reconciling agriculture and the environment? This paper presents an empirical case study from western France, in which a partnership between an agricultural cooperative and an ecological research center resulted in a collective design initiative. We conceptually model this initiative drawing upon recent design theories and Georgescu-Roegen’s ‘fund-flow’ model, defining ‘ecological funds’ as the starting point of a collective design process. The results highlight the importance of developing policy instruments that can better support local innovation processes through greater democratization. Adopting a design approach to sustainable agricultural landscape management could be particularly fruitful in situations where collective action is necessary but where there is no common good recognized as such, and no existing community identified.     

Ecological modernisation: new perspectives

“Ecological modernisation” – understood as systematic eco-innovation and its diffusion – has by far the largest potential to achieve environmental improvements. In general, the market logic of modernisation and competition for innovation combined with the market potential of global environmental needs serve as important driving forces behind “ecological modernisation”. In recent times, however, additional factors like rising energy prices or fears from climate change have favoured the rise of this innovation-based approach to environmental policy. The article deals with two special driving forces: first, there is growing evidence for the importance of “smart” environmental regulation. Secondly, the increasingly complex actor constellation of global environmental governance leads to mounting business risks for polluters and thereby exerts pressure for eco-innovation.Despite these favourable framework conditions, the strategy of “ecological modernisation” nonetheless faces a number of inherent limitations. These include the unavailability of marketable technological solutions for relevant environmental problems like the loss of species, the rebound effect neutralising the incremental environmental improvements through economic growth (the dilemma of the “N-curve”) as well as resistance by “modernisation losers”. Against this background, structural solutions seem indispensable. Here, eco-innovations should be supported by transition management or ecological structural policy.     

A tradition of change: the dynamic relationship between biodiversity and society in sector Muyuy,Peru

The theme of biodiversity and society provides an opportunity to look beyond skewed environmental ideologies that impel biodiversity researchers to ignore land “tarnished” by humans in search of “pristine” ecosystems. Data reported and analyzed in this paper test and draw conclusions based on a non-partisan stance that recognizes biodiversity as a product of complex natural and anthropogenic interactions. The data in this paper describes this process in the Amazon floodplain of sector Muyuy, Peru. A smallholder tradition of adaptive change in this highly precarious and unstable landscape provides a dynamic foundation upon which biodiversity is produced, managed and conserved. To examine this tradition of appropriate response to change, data was collected on land-cover dynamics using Landsat images and biodiversity inventories and household surveys of resource use technologies and conservation practices were carried out. Through complex agricultural technologies, sector Muyuy smallholders, known as ribereños, use a highly differentiated and dynamic environment to produce a great diversity of crops while creating habitats for endangered and over-exploited species of fish and river turtles, plants, and other species. Ribereños are smallholder farmers, fishermen and forest managers. They are the descendents of several indigenous groups as well as migrants from Europe, Asia and Africa. Most of the rural inhabitants of Peruvian Amazonia are ribereños. In Muyuy, we found that ribereños manage an average of 76 tree species per ha, including tropical cedar and other over-exploited timber species. We conclude that meaningful attempts at biodiversity conservation must begin at the interface between ecological and social processes and incorporate locally developed knowledge and practice.     

Creating and managing a virtual inter-organizational learning network for greener production: a conceptual model and case study

The utility of applying a virtual learning network model for illustrating successful triple bottom line transitions—one that integrates the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of cleaner production—is illustrated by a successful approach to promote “green chemistry” in the North Carolina textile wet-processing industry. This case is unique in demonstrating the quality of this process to develop cleaner production methods; it shows how reducing aquatic toxicity and harmful environmental effects in a “real world” situation depends on successful efforts to build, manage, and maintain an inter-organizational network of multiple stakeholders. This network included industries in the textile production chain, their local and provincial communities, regulators and policy makers. The utilization of cases such as this in the business school pedagogy expands understanding of the role of sustainable practices in enterprise management. The value of this specific case in promoting the understanding of such networks was demonstrated in a recent MBA experience when students trained in these areas linked diverse stakeholders and applied the triple bottom line perspective in traditional business simulation exercises in an MBA capstone course. Such cases can also effectively prepare students for actual challenges facing managers in the rapidly changing business environment.     

Interdisciplinary production of knowledge with participation of stakeholders: A case study of a collaborative project on climate variability,human decisions and agricultural ecosystems in the Argentine Pampas

There is a growing perception that science is not responding adequately to the global challenges of the 21st century. Addressing complicated, “wicked” current and future environmental issues requires insights and methods from many disciplines. Furthermore, to reach social robustness in a context of uncertainty and multiple values and objectives, participation of relevant social actors is required. As a consequence, interdisciplinary research teams with stakeholder or practitioner involvement are becoming an emerging pattern for the organization of integrative scientific research or integrated assessments. Nevertheless, still there is need to learn from actual experiences that bring together decision makers and scholars from different disciplines. This paper draws lessons from a self-reflective study of the collaborative process in two interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, multinational research teams addressing linkages between climate variability, human decisions and agricultural ecosystems in the Argentine Pampas. During project design, attention must be placed on team composition, ensuring not only that the needed talents are included, but also recruiting investigators with an open attitude toward interdisciplinary interaction. As the project begins, considerable effort must be dedicated to shared problem definition and development of a common language. Simple conceptual models and considerable redundancy in communication are helpful. As a project evolves, diverging institutional incentives, tensions between academic publication and outreach or policy-relevant outputs, disciplinary biases, and personality issues play increasingly important roles. Finally, toward a project's end the challenge arises of assessing interdisciplinary, integrative work. The lack of consensus on criteria for assessment of results is often ranked as a major practical difficulty of this kind of research. Despite many efforts to describe and characterize collaborative research on complex problems, conditions for success (including the very definition of “success”) remain to be rigorously grounded on actual cases. Toward this goal, we argue that a self-reflective process to identify and intervene on factors that foster or impede cooperative production of knowledge should be an essential component of integrated assessments involving scientists, practitioners and stakeholders.     

Higher education for sustainability by means of transdisciplinary case studies: an innovative approach for solving complex,real-world problems

Sustainable development and the interplay between its ecological, social, and economic dimensions can be regarded as a highly complex task. As a logical consequence, educating for sustainable development also has a complex character. Traditional unidirectional educational processes are only of very limited use when educating for sustainable development: Firstly, the initial state of the considered system (case) cannot be described precisely; secondly, the target state of the system is also not sufficiently known; and thirdly, the process between initial state and target state and potential barriers that might have to be passed are also not exactly known. Pure analytically based solutions are therefore, not available; a dynamic mutual learning process is required instead.Mutual learning based on real-world cases requires an interdisciplinary point of view, transdisciplinary problem-solving processes, and self-regulated and self-responsible learning. Consequently, besides analytical capabilities and deterministic process planning, dealing with the complex problem of sustainable development requires creativity, social competencies and specific communication skills in order to cope with the dynamic change that characterizes the developments in most facets of society and nature.A “vassal” that puts together all these requirements towards an educational process for sustainable development can be a transdisciplinary case study approach: In Austria this was first applied by the University of Graz within the “Erzherzog Johann case study”. In order to educate for sustainable development, the students had to work on a “real-world problem”, the development of possible ways to achieve ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development of the abandoned iron ore mining region of Eisenerz in the middle of Austria. As a core characteristic of this “real-world” case study, besides the cooperation among students, teachers and researchers of the university, the interaction with stakeholders of the region was of outstanding importance.Within transdisciplinary case studies students, teachers and researchers have to abandon the role paradigm of the teacher as provider of information and the students as “consumers” of the provided information. Knowledge and competences imparted in university classes need to be applied simultaneously within the real-world case to allow a demand-driven process of mutual learning in which students are self-responsible and decide which tools to apply in the process of attaining sustainable development. Because of the dynamics of this process, students experience the process of sustainable development instead of purely memorizing its characteristics. The process of educating for sustainable development and practical applied sustainability therefore, becomes sustainable.     

University research for sustainable development: definition and characteristics explored

University research is pivotal for sustainable development, but to succeed, new ways of conducting research are needed. Only recently has the field of “sustainability and higher education” (SHE) started to deal with the issue. In this paper we define “university research for sustainable development” comprehensively as “all research conducted within the institutional context of a university that contributes to sustainable development”, and propose a set of twenty two preliminary characteristics of this concept. We provide foundational information in particular for various university stakeholders, and those of higher education in general, considering the (re)orientation of research towards sustainable development and offer a beginning of dialogue on the subject, within SHE.     

New science for global sustainability? The institutionalisation of knowledge co-production in Future Earth

In the context of complex and unprecedented issues of global change, calls for new modes of knowledge production that are better equipped to address urgent challenges of global sustainability are increasingly frequent. This paper presents a case study of the new major research programme “Future Earth”, which aims to bring ‘research for global sustainability’ to the mainstream of global change research. A core principle of Future Earth is the co-production of knowledge with extra-scientific actors. In studying how the principle of co-production becomes institutionalised in the emerging structure of Future Earth, this paper points to the existence of three distinct rationales (logics) on the purpose and practice of co-production. Co-production is understood as a way to enhance scientific accountability to society (‘logic of accountability’), to ensure the implementation of scientific knowledge in society (‘logic of impact’), and to include the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of extra-scientific actors in scientific knowledge production (‘logic of humility’). This heterogeneous conception of knowledge co-production provides helpful ambiguity allowing actors with different perspectives on science and its role in society to engage in Future Earth. However, in the process of designing an institutional structure for Future Earth tensions between the different logics of co-production become apparent. This research shows how logics of accountability and impact are prominent in shaping the development of Future Earth. The paper concludes by pointing to an essential tension between being inclusive and transformative when it comes to institutionalising new modes of knowledge production in large research programmes.     

The neglected heart of science policy: reconciling supply of and demand for science

The funding of scientific research is almost always justified in terms of the potential for achieving beneficial societal outcomes. In pursuing a particular societal outcome, how can we know if one research portfolio is better than another? In this paper we conceptualize: (1) science in terms of a “supply” of knowledge and information, (2) societal outcomes in terms of a “demand” function that seeks to apply knowledge and information to achieve specific societal goals, and (3) science policy decision-making as a process aimed at “reconciling” the dynamic relationship between “supply” and “demand.” The core of our argument is that “better” science portfolios (that is, portfolios viewed as more likely to advance desired societal outcomes, however defined) would be achieved if science policy decisions reflected knowledge about the supply of science, the demand for science, and the relationship between the two. We provide a general method for pursuing such knowledge, using the specific example of climate change science to illustrate how research on science policy could be organized to support improved decisions about the organization of science itself.     

“The Good Life”: Engaging the public with community-based carbon reduction strategies

In recent years the UK has positioned itself to become a global leader in addressing climate change. Along with this positioning, there has been an increasing emphasis on the role of communities to facilitate, increase and sustain carbon reduction practices. Previous research into community-based carbon reduction projects has highlighted the difficulty of engaging the public in community initiatives and sustaining pro-environmental behaviours. The importance placed on addressing climate change necessitates an understanding of how individuals respond to, and engage with, (or even ignore) community-based carbon reduction strategies. The paper presents findings from focus groups in three urban communities and investigates individual engagements with community-based carbon reduction strategies. Focusing on the three dimensions of engagement: cognitive; affective and; behavioural, the paper discusses what people know, feel and do about addressing climate change at the community level. An “information-vacuum” is reported that leads to an “awareness-involvement gap” that inhibits sustained engagement with community projects. Drawing on these findings, the paper advances a new theoretical framework and a “what works” approach for community-based initiatives attempting to meaningfully engage the public with addressing climate change and sustainable living.     

基于“源-流-汇”的非常规水源补给河流水质改善与水生态修复专刊序言

北运河是北京市重要的绿色生态走廊，贯穿联络京津冀协同发展多个关键节点.北运河主要由来自于城市污水处理厂排水等非常规水源补给，其水环境治理和水生态修复不仅是支撑京津冀生态文明建设的核心，而且是支撑北京城市副中心等重点区域水生态环境改善的重要环节.本专刊是国家水专项"北运河项目"团队近年来科研成果的总结，从"源-流-汇"全过程污染防控的角度出发，在"源削减"-多源污染防控、"流改善"-河流水质改善与生态修复、"汇景观"-库区水质改善与生态修复三个方面对研究和实践进行了梳理总结，以期为北运河流域绿色生态廊道构建提供科技支撑.     

Going beyond the rhetoric: system-wide changes in universities for sustainable societies

In October 2008, the 5th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) international conference was held in Barcelona, Spain. It dealt with the need to rethink how our higher educational institutions are facing sustainability. This special issue has been primarily derived from contributions to that conference. This issue builds upon related academic international publications, which have analysed how to use the critical position of universities to accelerate their pace of working to help to make the transition to truly SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES!This issue focus is on the ‘softer’ issues, such as changes in values, attitudes, motivations, as well as in curricula, societal interactions and assessments of the impacts of research. Insights derived from the interplay of the ‘softer’ issues with the ‘harder’ issues are empowering academic leaders to effectively use leverage points to make changes in operations, courses, curricula, and research. Those changes are being designed to help their students and faculty build resilient and sustainable societies within the context of climate change, the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The overall systems approach presented by Stephens and Graham provides a structured framework to systematize change for sustainability in higher education, by stressing on the one hand the need for “learning to learn” and on the other hand by integrating leadership and cultural aspects. The “niche” level they propose for innovative interactions between practitioners such as EMSU is exemplary developed by all of the other documents in this special issue. To highlight some of the key elements of the articles in this issue, there are proposals for new educational methods based in sustainability science, a set of inspirational criteria for SD research activities, new course ranking and assessment methods and results of psychological studies that provide evidence that participatory approaches are the most effective way to change values within university members in order to facilitate the development and sharing of new sustainability norms.     

国外生态阈值研究进展及启示

生态阈值是促使生态系统属性发生突变的环境变量的值,20世纪70年代以来在国外生态学界掀起研究热潮.通过详细总结国外生态阈值研究内容、研究方法与成果实践应用状况,反映出生态阈值研究对于理解生态系统转变过程、制定生态标准以及实施环境管理决策具有重要支撑意义;强调生态阈值研究应以正确把握时间和空间尺度、理解系统要素相互作用机制及阈值检测数学模型的生态学意义为前提;由于背景干扰和人为压力增加了物种及其生态系统的敏感性,迄今只有少量的带有阈值的标准和制度尝试性应用于国外资源环境管理实践领域.结合当前国内生态环境管理标准制定的科技支撑需求,建议谨慎将国内外阈值研究成果应用于国内管理实践,同时针对国内重点地区突出的生态环境问题开展生态阈值研究,以夯实"三线一单"资源环境管理制度科学基石,提升生态学研究实践应用价值.      

土地生态安全二维预警模型构建及应用——以临湘市为例

引入生态可持续性指数,在风险矩阵的框架下与土地生态安全指数相结合,构建了土地生态安全二维预警模型,并应用于临湘市土地生态安全预警.研究表明:土地生态安全指数逐年上升,土地生态系统自身稳定性及其对社会经济发展的支撑能力不断提高;生态可持续性指数逐年下降,土地生态系统对社会经济发展的支撑能力的可持续性逐渐减弱,如不采取相应措施,未来将难以避免跌入不可持续状态;2005~2019年土地生态安全警情呈“中警-轻警-中警-轻警”的波折变化,最终稳定为轻警,预测2020~2025年将延续轻警,跌入重警的可能性较小,但仍存在跌回中警的风险.临湘市应通过发展生态友好型产业､加大环保投入､有序扩张第二产业和建设用地､节制消费和应用新技术提高生产力等措施,综合改善土地生态安全状况.研究认为二维预警模型可有效避免传统模型预警失真的问题,有利于提高土地生态安全预警结果的全面性､前瞻性和合理性.     

From pattern to process: landscape fragmentation and the analysis of land use/land cover change

The incorporation of landscape ecological and fragmentation analyses within remote sensing science has expanded the inferential capabilities of such research. This issue presents a series of papers on the use of landscape ecological techniques to explore the relationship between land cover and land use spatial pattern and process in an international, comparative context. Methodologically, researchers seek to link spatial pattern to land use process by integrating geographic information systems (GIS), socio-economic, and remote sensing techniques with landscape ecological approaches. This issue brings together papers at the forefront of this research effort, and illustrates the diversity of methods necessary to evaluate the complex linkages between pattern and process in landscapes across the world. The analyses focus on major forces interacting at the earth’s surface, such as the interface of agricultural and urban land, agriculture and forestry, and other pertinent topics dealing with environmental policy and management. Empirical analyses stem from many different ecological, social and institutional contexts within the Americas, Africa, and Asia.     

A methodology for CSR reporting: assuring a representative diversity of indicators across stakeholders,scales, sites and performance issues

This paper presents a framework called the CSR Deliberation Matrix for the structuring of CSR issue identification, stakeholder dialogues, indicator selection and reporting, with an overarching goal to achieve an appropriate balance between sensitivity to individual situations and the benefits of “generic” indicators applicable to a large spectrum of reporting contexts.We suggest guidelines to (1) define the full spectrum of sustainability concerns and of relevant stakeholder dialogue contexts; (2) mobilise a relevant “data bank” which provides a profile of candidate CSR indicators; (3) obtain a parsimonious selection of indicators in a site-level CSR reporting process through a stakeholder dialogue; and (4) obtain a “representative diversity” of indicators at the interface of site-level and higher-level CSR reporting contexts.