Asian Urban Environment and Climate Change: Preface

The Asian Network on Climate Science and Technology (www.ancst.org), in collaboration with Tsinghua University, held a conference on environmental and climate science, air pollution, urban planning and transportation in July 2015, with over 40 Asian experts participating and presentation. This was followed by a meeting with local government and community experts on the practical conclusions of the conference. Of the papers presented at the conference a selection are included in this special issue of Journal of Environmental Science, which also reflects the conclusions of the Paris Climate meeting in Dec 2015, when the major nations of the world agreed about the compelling need to reduce the upward trend of adverse impacts associated with global climate change. Now is the time for urban areas to work out the serious consequences for their populations, but also how they should work together to take action to reduce global warming to benefit their own communities and also the whole planet!     

云南省社会环境监测发展思考

随着事业单位分类改革的不断推进,现有各级环境监测站将成为从事公益服务的事业单位。目前其承担的社会委托性监测工作必将逐步分离出来,并交由社会环境监测机构完成。当前在云南省应运而生的社会环境监测机构在区域分布、人才、技术及监督管理上存在许多困难和问题。应积极引导和支持他们不断发展,使其成为各级环境监测能力的有效补充,成为为社会和环境管理提供服务的可靠力量。     

跨流域环境污染联合处置机制初探——以苏鲁边界环保联席治污为例

随着经济的发展,流域水环境污染已成为制约区域经济和社会发展的关键性因素,流域跨界污染对上下游城市的水资源配置、社会稳定、经济可持续性等都提出严峻挑战.苏鲁边界九县（市）创造性地开展区域环境保护联席会议联防联治机制,为解决跨流域污染问题探索出了一条新路.     

跨流域环境污染联合处置机制初探——以苏鲁边界环保联席治污为例

随着经济的发展,流域水环境污染已成为制约区域经济和社会发展的关键性因素,流域跨界污染对上下游城市的水资源配置、社会稳定、经济可持续性等都提出严峻挑战。苏鲁边界九县（市）创造性地开展区域环境保护联席会议联防联治机制,为解决跨流域污染问题探索出了一条新路。     

农业院校环境科学专业学科群建设及课程体系设置

文章以环境科学学科群的带头学科及其内涵、外延分析为基础,对环境科学专业学科群进行了系统分析;并以青岛农业大学环境科学专业课程组织为例,对农业院校环境科学专业学科群建设进行了探讨,为高等学校环境科学专业建设提供一种新范式。     

环境安全与可持续发展

本文已经提出了如果将环境安全作为人类安全被实现。那就需要较好的环境治理。环境安全可以被理解为一系列的价值观、原则、政策、技术、体制和程序,由此,社区与社会管理环境和自然资源以透明、负责任的参与和公平的方式克服可持续发展的障碍。可持续发展与环境安全是否相互依存、相互促进还需要进一步论证。环境安全和可持续发展之间的关系也常常解释为实际的产出。社会性学习对于应对有关的不安全环境,并导致不可持续发展的挑战至关重要。社会必须利用信息共享、传播和共同的理解改进决策而发展适应改变的能力。这只有通过发展学习型社会才能成为可能。环境安全和可持续发展是社会性学习的产出,而且所有相关方利用创新方法的环境友好政策,是基于环境安全和环境治理的原则为基础的,大大地推动了生态系统的管理、性别公平、尊重人权、解决冲突、建立社区信任为应对未来的意外或潜在风险和新的挑战需要适应性管理,建立社会和生态系统恢复。应集中努力改进人们的生活质量,不要使用超过环境所能承受的自然资源能力。     

寒地黑土生态环境监测预警体系的构建

上个世纪八十年代以来,一些国际组织和国际合作项目都纷纷建立了生态环境监测和研究体系,例如美国的LTERN、英国的ECN、IGBP、联合国环境署（UNEP）在全球范围内建立的“全球环境监测系统”（GEMS）以及联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）和国际科联（ICSU）建立的全球陆地生态系统观测体系（GTOS）等等。目前中国还没有一个能够有效覆盖寒地黑土全区域生态与环境动态监测体系,这不符合可持续发展的要求。论文阐述了构建寒地黑土生态环境监测预警指标体系的原则及思路,认为寒地黑土区域内生态环境治理监测预警体系应包括生态环境治理动态监测体系、诊断分析监测体系和对策措施体系,重点对诊断分析监测体系的指标构成进行了介绍。     

The Adaptive Capacity Wheel: a method to assess the inherent characteristics of institutions to enable the adaptive capacity of society

Climate change potentially brings continuous and unpredictable changes in weather patterns. Consequently, it calls for institutions that promote the adaptive capacity of society and allow society to modify its institutions at a rate commensurate with the rate of environmental change. Institutions, traditionally conservative and reactive, will now have to support social actors to proactively respond through planned processes and deliberate steps, but also through cherishing and encouraging spontaneous and autonomous change, as well as allowing for institutional redesign. This paper addresses the question: How can the inherent characteristics of institutions to stimulate the capacity of society to adapt to climate change from local through to national level be assessed? On the basis of a literature review and several brainstorm sessions, this paper presents six dimensions: Variety, learning capacity, room for autonomous change, leadership, availability of resources and fair governance. These dimensions and their 22 criteria form the Adaptive Capacity Wheel. This wheel can help academics and social actors to assess if institutions stimulate the adaptive capacity of society to respond to climate change; and to focus on whether and how institutions need to be redesigned. This paper also briefly demonstrates the application of this Adaptive Capacity Wheel to different institutions.     

Evaluation of British Columbia Ministry of Forests aboriginal rights and title-consultation guidelines — the Ditidaht case study

The British Columbia Ministry of Forests’ “Aboriginal Rights and Title — Consultation Guidelines”, prepared in response to a Supreme Court of Canada decision on aboriginal rights and title, presents an interesting example of how common law influences provincial environmental policy. The policy addresses the British Columbia government’s fiduciary duty to First Nations and requires staff to consult with aboriginals during operational forestry planning. Adequate understanding of the policy is essential for lawful forest management. The Consultation Guidelines have become a key environmental policy in British Columbia.This evaluation will increase understanding of the Consultation Guidelines and aboriginal title for forest practitioners and policy makers. Within the context of a Vancouver Island case study, the policy is analyzed in view of the following criteria: effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and effort. Even though the policy is over 2 years old and the government is actively managing forests in an area under negotiation for treaty, the policy has yet to be implemented. As a result, aboriginal concerns about the long-term environmental and economic sustainability of current forest practices go unheeded. This situation potentially jeopardizes the government’s ability to address its fiduciary responsibilities to aboriginals, as defined in case law and the Canadian Constitution.     

Collaboration mobilises institutions with scale-dependent comparative advantage in landscape-scale biodiversity conservation

Landscape-scale approaches are emerging as central to ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation globally, triggering the requirement for collaboration between multiple actors and associated risks including knowledge asymmetries; institutional fragmentation; uncertainty; power imbalances; “invisible” slow-changing variables; and entrenched socio-economic inequities. While social science has elucidated some dimensions required for effective collaboration, little is known about how collaboration manages these risks, or of its effects on associated social-ecological linkages. Our analysis of four different Australian contexts of collaboration shows they mobilised institutions matched to addressing environmental threats, at diverse scales across regulatory and non-regulatory domains. The institutions mobilised included national regulatory controls on development that threatened habitat, incentives to farmers for practice-change, and mechanisms that increased resources for on-ground fire and pest management. Knowledge-sharing underpinned effective risk management and was facilitated through the use of boundary objects, enhanced multi-stakeholder peer review processes, interactive spatial platforms, and Aboriginal-driven planning. Institutions mobilised in these collaborations show scale-dependent comparative advantage for addressing environmental threats. The findings confirm the need to shift scientific attention away from theorising about the ideal-scale for governance. We argue instead for a focus on understanding how knowledge-sharing activities across multiple scales can more effectively connect environmental threats with the most capable institution to address these threats.     

济南市高校大学生环境意识调查研究

环境意识已经成为国民素质的一个重要标志,大学生的环境意识状况对社会的和谐发展有重要的影响。本文采用问卷调查法,从环境意识、环境态度、环境行为、环境知识和环境教育等方面,从济南市八所本科院校中随机抽取了300名大学生,进行环境意识状况的调查、分析和总结。结果表明：济南市大学生的环境意识总体水平较好,但环保行为滞后;大学生作为一个有知识的特殊群体,环保意识有待提高,环保行为极待加强。针对这些问题。提出了提高大学生环境意识的主要措施。     

中国环境影响评价机构现状评价及优化调整思路

根据环境保护部环境工程评估中心公布的数据,中国环境影响评价机构现状特点是：环评机构的主要类型以科研院所占比例最大,其次是公司,最少的是高等院校;区域分布特点是东部多,西部少,经济发达地区多。经济欠发达地区少;评价范围特点是从事社会区域类别的环评机构最多,其次是化工石化医药类。同时,结合中国地区经济数据和市场化的要求,指出中国环评机构的数量与区域经济状况不对称,部分环评机构的评价范围与区域产业结构不匹配,环评机构市场化程度不高。最后,提出优化中国环境影响评价机构的建议。     

减污降碳协同多元共治体系需求及构建探析

碳达峰、碳中和目标的提出标志着我国生态环境保护进入减污降碳协同治理新阶段,减污降碳协同增效成为促进经济社会发展全面低碳绿色转型的重要抓手. 面对经济社会高质量发展、空气质量改善与碳达峰、碳中和的多目标需求,仅依靠命令控制型手段为主的大气污染物治理措施将不足以实现减污降碳协同目标. 结果表明:构建“政府-科研机构-市场-社会组织”多元共治模式,通过命令控制与非命令控制的协同实现治理方式转变,从而提高减污降碳协同治理水平. 在顶层设计层面,综合考虑城市经济发展水平、空气污染程度及各行业污染控制措施的不同,因地制宜的制定差异化减污降碳政策;在科学研究方面,开展学科融合、部门协作的减污降碳协同治理科技研究,解决减污降碳协同增效措施评估以及科技数据、资源共享和研究成果落地等问题;在市场方面,将自愿减排交易和更多高排放行业配额交易纳入碳排放交易市场,加强与排污权、用能权、绿色电力等环境权益交易之间的协同,强化市场手段的减污降碳协同增效;在治理机制和手段方面,充分发挥社会组织纽带作用,利用数字化信息系统构建第三方环境信用平台,促进政府、企业、金融机构和公众等关键利益方形成有效沟通和良性互动. 研究表明,“政府-科研机构-市场-社会组织”多元共治模式能有效构建减污降碳协同增效的多元共治体系,充分发挥政府、科研机构、市场与社会组织的作用,解决碳达峰、碳中和目标下的减污降碳协同治理新需求.      

基层卫生医疗机构财务管理战略对环境污染的影响分析研究

基层卫生医疗机构财务的优化管理能降低环境污染,定量分析基层卫生医疗机构财务管理战略对环境污染的影响,优化基层医疗机构的财务管理水平,从而抑制环境污染,提出基于关联规则统计分析模型的基层卫生医疗机构财务管理模型。结合定量回归分析方法进行环境污染的影响因素分析,采用解释变量的相关性分析方法进行统计平均检验,构建检测统计量和判决统计量进行环境污染影响及医疗卫生结构财务管理的关联规则分析评估,提高基层医疗结构财务管理的智能化水平。     

Sustainability in Mexican Higher Education: towards a new academic and professional culture

This article focuses on institutions of higher education and the introduction of sustainability in the curricula of these institutions. It states that a very important part of developing new curricula is the focus on a new academic and professional culture. The key argument is as follows. Normally institutions of higher education build upon the training that students received in previous phases of education. That is why institutions of higher education can focus on education in highly specific and specialized knowledge and skills. Education for sustainability, however, cannot follow this ‘normal’ pathway because much of what students learned in their previous education does not fit into the paradigm of sustainability. That is why sustainability education should include a partial ‘re-education’ and ‘re-programming’ of students. The article presents a framework for such a new academic and professional culture focussing on sustainability. It shows how this framework is developed within the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Azcapotzalco (UAM-A) in Mexico. The article also shows how the development of this framework is embedded in various initiatives on a national and international level. First of all the framework is developed as part of the design and implementation of an environmental plan for the whole university. The making of this plan is encouraged by the Mexican National Association of Universities and Higher Educations Institutions. Since the year 2002 this Association stimulates all major universities in Mexico to develop and implement such an environmental plan. These activities on their turn fit very well into the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” that started in January 2005. Finally the article presents the first promising results of the new course “The environmental challenges” that is based on many elements of the framework. It was started in 2005 in the Division of Basic Sciences and Engineering of UAM-Azcapotzalco, Mexico.     

Restructuring teacher education for sustainability: student involvement through a “strengths model”

In responding to the demand for major review of teacher education to meet the needs and challenges of the twenty-first century, the Faculty of Education at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia is in the throes of a major review of its primary teacher education program. This review is taking place in the midst of University wide debate on the nature and scope of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). While consensus exists of the importance of ESD, debate continues regarding programs, policies, and practices.Education staff members feel strongly that new programs should encompass knowledge, issues, perspectives, skills, and values central to ESD, but remain uncertain about how this could best be achieved. The “strengths model” where every discipline and every staff member and student can contribute is being utilised by the working parties and is likely to be adopted as a means of ESD.To determine a benchmark for inclusion of components of ESD, and as one stage of including students in the decision-making process, a survey was conducted in February 2004 that sought to determine general environmental attitudes, specific practices and perceptions of a need to change.The survey indicated that a large portion of the students enrolled in preservice teacher education at this University were very concerned about environmental issues and felt that their preparation as teachers should include aspects of teaching about sustainability. The survey also indicated however, that the knowledge base regarding environmental issues was minimal and insight into the social, cultural and economic complexities of ESD was quite superficial. Students openly expressed a lack of confidence in their ability to make wise decisions or take appropriate action.This paper describes the context and strategies of the current restructure/reorientation of the preservice teacher program, highlighting the current and potential impacts of student involvement in the process.     

Small-scale mining and cleaner production issues in Zambia

Small-scale mining (SSM) has had unprecedented growth in Zambia during the past decade. The sector now produces a variety of commodities, especially gemstones, building and industrial minerals. From a structural and technical perspective, SSM is conducted on a very rudimentary level using basic tools such as picks and shovel, and occasionally, mechanized equipment. The environmental degradation caused by SSM is also growing with the intensification of activities in the country. Meanwhile, institutions responsible for managing the environment are unable to effectively carry out regulatory and monitoring mandates due to inadequate resources. Although current legislation appears to be adequate in many respects, time has now come to amend the Mines and Minerals Act (1995) so that it becomes mandatory for all mining activities, including small-scale mines, to submit environmental impact assessment reports before a license to mine or explore can be granted. Strategies to eliminate illegal mining, enhancement of miners’ technical skills, and mine responsibly must also be placed high on the agenda. This paper focuses on the major issues affecting cleaner production in the Zambian SSM sector including, environmental complications, pertinent mining environmental legislation, and the institutions involved. It concludes by suggesting possible interventions to minimize environmental impacts in the sector.     

Implementation-oriented and transformative research—Lessons from a project on conservation and sustainable use of forest resources in Ethiopia

This article draws lessons from a seven-year project on conservation and use of remaining coffee forests in the highlands of South-west Ethiopia. The project investigated the genetic diversity of Coffea arabica in its place of origin as well as economic perspectives of quality coffee marketing. With initially broad multidisciplinary natural and social sciences research a basis was laid for a second phase of praxis and implementation-oriented research in the same region.As a key innovative approach an NGO was established to take over all project management and implementation-oriented work in Ethiopia at the beginning of the second phase. This initiative helped decisively to solve the kind of problems identified in RESCUE (2012): ownership of results developed within R&D, the often missing mandate for science to actively contribute to solutions ‘on the ground’, and problems of cultural and social unsuitability and misunderstanding, which often are at the core of the problem when solutions from scientists are expected.The NGO operated as an intermediary between the involved scientists and other stakeholders from the coffee industry as well as from public administration and the Ethiopian polity. Its overall target was to contribute toward establishment of a biosphere reserve following the UNESCO MAB scheme and to use this scheme for the conservation and use of the remaining Ethiopian coffee forests. This target was achieved: the biosphere reserve has been accepted and accredited by UNESCO and is in operation. In addition, quality coffee from the development zones of the biosphere reserve is being sold on local markets in Yayu, SW Ethiopia.There are important lessons for the future of transdisciplinary and transformative sustainability science that can be drawn from this experience. These lessons concern concrete challenges and chances of research and development geared toward sustainable development:

• •Working with implementation-targets as project organizing elements,
• •communication and transfer of responsibility to involved stakeholders,
• •challenges for praxis-oriented syntheses from research results,
• •practical challenges of management and coordination for transdisciplinary projects, as well as.
• •chances for long-term sustainability and use of research and implementation work.

These lessons are described in this article with the overall intention to draw conclusions and to make them more widely available for scientists and project coordinators working in transdisciplinary projects that aim to contribute toward (more) sustainable development.     

创新社会管理是解决环境公共事件的重要途径

防范环境矛盾演化为公共事件,必须加强和创新社会管理,包括丰富社会管理的内涵和创新社会管理方式。通过强化政府强制措施、建立企业行为约束与激励机制、保障公众参与畅通有效、加大法制机构的监督力度、发挥非政府组织的协调作用,平衡各方利益,有效防范越来越多的环境矛盾演化升级为环境公共事件。