论环境民事纠纷行政处理机制的完善

行政处理机制在解决环境纠纷时具有高效性和专业化的优势，但我国现行行政处理方式单一，行政处理决定的效力不明确，不利于纠纷的及时解决。完善之途在于制定专门的法律，设立专门的处理机关，增加行政处理方式，明确行政处理决定的效力。     

完善我国环境公益诉讼制度的思考

针对环境纠纷增多,现行法律不能有效解决环境纠纷、环境污染与破坏带来新问题,文章在结合典型案例阐述我国现阶段环境公益诉讼进程的基础上,确定环境公益诉讼原告诉讼主体范围,提出保障普通公众诉讼利益配套措施。通过阐述环保公益团体的地位与作用,说明检察机关和环境保护行政机关的职责与分工,对完善我国环境公益诉讼制度提出几点建议。     

民事司法改革进程中环境纠纷行政处理问题探析

民事司法手段的局限性限制了司法手段在环境纠纷解决中的地位和作用。民事司法改革进程的深入发展和多元化纠纷解决机制的兴盛为环境纠纷的多元化解决途径带来了新的发展契机。环境纠纷行政处理的专业性、便捷性、可接近性决定了行政处理在环境纠纷解决中的独特作用和适用空间。在借鉴发达国家和地区环境纠纷行政处理的立法经验和灵活多样的纠纷解决途径的基础上,从环境纠纷行政处理专门立法、纠纷解决机构设置、纠纷解决方式、行政处理的纠纷范围、行政处理救济的程序保障等方面,提出完善我国环境纠纷行政处理制度的思考和建议。     

浅析国外的环境标志制度

全球环境恶化及资源，日益枯竭，增加了环境保护的艰巨性和复杂性。世界各国越来越认识到，不能单纯依靠政府的作用来保护环境，还需发挥广大消费者和生产者的积极性。把政府干预和市场机制作用有效结合起来．会更有利于环境的保护和管理。于是环境标志制度在国外应运而生。目前，环境标志制度在国外的发展方兴未艾，并已产生了明显的环境效益。本文就国外的环境标志制度做出分析和探讨，以求对我国发展环境标志制度提供启示。一、国外环境标志的性质环境标志，在国外称为绿色标志、生态标志或环境选择。它是外国政府公共或民间团体依据一定…     

以加强对政府环境责任的监督为核心修改《环境保护法》

环境问题本质上是市场失灵造成的外部性问题,这决定了环境保护法应是一部以行政规范为主的法律,由此赋予了政府可根据客观现实对企业、公民涉及环境的权利义务做出相应调整,政府环境责任和环境治理绩效也由此产生了明显的正相关关系。由于发展阶段、政治架构的影响,地方政府面对环境与经济矛盾时更多选择的是经济而非环境,因此政府的环境责任并不简单在于环境主管部门,而在于整个政府。笔者认为要严格禁止地方政府保护主义和主要领导人的不当干预,必须确保政府的可诉权和环境公益诉讼的实现。在经过各方利益的博弈之后,《环境保护法》将体现它的基本功能。     

中日环境纠纷处理法律制度比较

随着环境污染和生态破坏的加剧,环境纠纷时有发生,并有日益增多的趋势。及时而妥善地处理环境纠纷,是环境法实施的一个重要方面。中国和日本的环境纠纷处理法律制度各具特色。本文拟对两国的环境纠纷处理法律制度分别作些探讨,并在此基础上作一比较分析。一、中国的环境纠纷处理法律制度(一)我国环境纠纷处理法律制度的概念。所谓环境纠纷,是指因污染和破坏环境而产生的社会成员之间的争执。这种纠纷通常都是由于单位或个人在利用环境的过程中违反环境法的规定,污染和破坏环境,侵犯他人的合法权益而产生的。与其他社会纠纷相比,环境纠纷具有自身的一些特点,概括起来就是:涉及面广,情况复杂,矛盾尖锐,技术性强,处理起来比较困难。     

环境邻避冲突中公众纠纷解决机制的发展与完善

近年来我国环境邻避形势严峻,人民群众日益增长的对美好生态环境的需求、公众参与环境保护的意愿、维护自身权益的意识和当前纠纷解决机制不平衡不充分的矛盾突出。为了有效化解冲突,环境邻避纠纷解决机制先后经历了萌发期、探索期,并逐步进入多元化发展阶段。现阶段环境邻避纠纷非诉讼解决方式存在制度局限,诉讼解决方式在实际应用中面临诉讼积极性不高、立案难、举证难、审理难等问题。为此,结合环境邻避纠纷的特点,本文提出了环境邻避纠纷解决机制完善建议:一是预防为主,建立贯穿项目建设始终的公众参与法律制度体系,增强公众意见反馈的强制性;二是分类化解,建立和完善适应不同需求的纠纷解决程序,加强多元化纠纷解决机制的衔接。希望通过建立"预防为主,分类化解"的精细化纠纷解决机制来推动环境邻避冲突的有序解决。     

论政府环境信息公开与完善

国家的环境管理职能决定了政府环境信息的全面性、真实性和权威性,因而政府环境信息是衡量环境管理能力和判断环境质量状况、公众参与环境保护,维护自身环境权益的重要依据,也是环境管理的重要环节,更是环境知情权、环境保护参与权和监督权实现的基础。尽管我国政府环境信息公开已经取得了预期的成效,但也有多方面需要与时俱进,在法律制度层面进行完善。     

关于完善中国环境保护法律体系的设想

已初步形成的我国环境法律体系，为促进环境保护事业发展发挥了重要作用，但仍需进一步完善。由于我国主要实行各单项法律，以单个环境要素为其调整对象的立法模式，随着各单项法律的先后制定或者修订，必然在各单项法律之间导致彼此不协调，特别是与之相伴的某些主要管理制度和措施的规定在不同的单项法律之间存在不协调，这在客观上要求国家结合新的形势和任务，制定一部更高阶位的基本法律，用以宣示国家环境政策，并有效整合各单项环境法律存在的问题。     

非诉讼环境纠纷解决机制之重构

在环境纠纷的非诉讼解决方面,我国虽然已有运用各种非诉讼纠纷解决方式来处理环境纠纷的实践,但在立法方面以及运作方式上仍然不完善,通过对该机制的各种程序进行分析和阐述,提出我国在环境纠纷解决中运用非诉讼解决机制进行重构.     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

Using Paleo Reconstructions to Improve Streamflow Forecast Lead Time in the Western United States

In water stressed regions, water managers are exploring new horizons that would help in long‐range streamflow forecasts. Oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations have been shown to influence streamflow variability. In this study, long‐lead time streamflow forecasts are made using a multiclass kernel‐based data‐driven support vector machine (SVM) model. The extended streamflow records based on tree ring reconstructions were used to provide a longer time series data. Reconstructed data were used from 1658 to 1952 and the instrumental record was used from 1953 to 2007. Reconstructions for oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations included the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and North Atlantic Oscillation. Streamflow forecasts using all four oscillations were made with one‐year to five‐year lead times for 21 gages in the western United States. This is the first study that uses both instrumental and reconstructed data of oscillations in SVM model to improve streamflow forecast lead time. SVM model was able to provide “satisfactory” to “very good” forecasts with one‐ to five‐year lead time for the selected gages. The use of all the oscillation indices helped in achieving better predictability compared to using individual oscillations. The SVM modeling results are better when compared with multiple linear regression model forecasts. The findings are statistical in nature and are expected to be useful for long‐term water resources planning and management.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

MANGANESE CYCLE IN IMPOUNDMENT WATER

Manganese entering impounded water will undergo a cyclic transformation. Oxidation precipitates manganese from top waters. At the bottom of the lake, biological activity will render manganese soluble by both intracellular as well as extracellular activity. The study was made to demonstrate that biological reduction and transformation, organometallic complexation, together with the presence of carbon dioxide and the lowering of pH all have some effect on the solubility of manganese. Dissolved manganese may be brought back to top waters during the lake overturn and therefore deteriorates the water quality.     

AN APPLICATION RUNOFF MODEL STRATEGY FOR UNGAGED WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: Mathematical models for predicting watershed surface flow responses are available, most of which are elaborate nonlinear numerical surface and channel flow models linked with infiltration models. Such models may be used to make predictions for ungaged areas, assuming an acceptable fitting of the model to the topography and roughness of the real system. For some application purposes, these models are impractical because of their complexity and expensive computer solutions. A procedure is developed that uses a complex model of an ungaged area to derive a simpler parametric nonlinear system model for repetitious simulation with input sequences. The predicted flow outputs are obtained with the simpler model at significant savings of money and time. The procedures for constructing a complex kinematic model of a 40 acre (161,880 m²) reference watershed and deriving the simpler system model are outlined. The results of predictions from both models are compared with a selected set of measured events, all having essentially the same initial conditions. Peak discharges ranged from 3 to 118 ft³/sec (0.085 to 3.34 m³/sec), which includes the largest event of record. The inherent limitations of lumped systems models are demonstrated, including the bias caused by their inability to model infiltration losses after rainfall ceases. Computer costs and times for the models were compared. The derived simple model has a cost advantage when repeated use of a model is required. Such an applications hydrologic model has an engineering tradeoff of reduced accuracy, and lumping bias, but is more economical for certain design purposes.     

Sources and Transport of Phosphorus to Rivers in California and Adjacent States,U.S., as Determined by SPARROW Modeling

The SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regression on Watershed attributes) model was used to simulate annual phosphorus loads and concentrations in unmonitored stream reaches in California, U.S., and portions of Nevada and Oregon. The model was calibrated using de‐trended streamflow and phosphorus concentration data at 80 locations. The model explained 91% of the variability in loads and 51% of the variability in yields for a base year of 2002. Point sources, geological background, and cultivated land were significant sources. Variables used to explain delivery of phosphorus from land to water were precipitation and soil clay content. Aquatic loss of phosphorus was significant in streams of all sizes, with the greatest decay predicted in small‐ and intermediate‐sized streams. Geological sources, including volcanic rocks and shales, were the principal control on concentrations and loads in many regions. Some localized formations such as the Monterey shale of southern California are important sources of phosphorus and may contribute to elevated stream concentrations. Many of the larger point source facilities were located in downstream areas, near the ocean, and do not affect inland streams except for a few locations. Large areas of cultivated land result in phosphorus load increases, but do not necessarily increase the loads above those of geological background in some cases because of local hydrology, which limits the potential of phosphorus transport from land to streams.     

Surface applied water treatment residuals affect bioavailable phosphorus losses in Florida sands

Water treatment residuals (WTR) can reduce runoff P loss and surface co-application of P-sources and WTR is a practical way of land applying the residuals. In a rainfall simulation study, we evaluated the effects of surface co-applied P-sources and an Al-WTR on runoff and leacheate bioavailable P (BAP) losses from a Florida sand. Four P-sources, namely poultry manure, Boca Raton biosolids (high water-soluble P), Pompano biosolids (moderate water-soluble P), and triple super phosphate (TSP) were surface applied at 56 and 224kgPha(-1) (by weight) to represent low and high soil P loads typical of P- and N-based amendments rates. The treatments further received surface applied WTR at 0 or 10gWTRkg(-1) soil. BAP loss masses were greater in leachate (16.4-536mg) than in runoff (0.91-46mg), but were reduced in runoff and leachate by surface applied WTR. Masses of total BAP lost in the presence of surface applied WTR were less than approximately 75% of BAP losses in the absence of WTR. Total BAP losses from each of the organic sources applied at N-based rates were not greater than P loss from TSP applied at a P-based rate. The BAP loss at the N-based rate of moderate water-soluble P-source (Pompano biosolids) was not greater than BAP losses at the P-based rates of other organic sources tested. The hazards of excess P from applying organic P-sources at N-based rates are not greater than observed at P-based rates of mineral fertilizer. Results suggest that management of the environmental P hazards associated with N-based rates of organic materials in Florida sands is possible by either applying P-sources with WTR or using a moderate water-soluble P-source.     

Animal Consciousness and Ethics in Asia and the Pacific

The interactions between humans, animals and the environment have shaped human values and ethics, not only the genes that we are made of. The animal rights movement challenges human beings to reconsider interactions between humans and other animals, and maybe connected to the environmental movement that begs us to recognize the fact that there are symbiotic relationships between humans and all other organisms. The first part of this paper looks at types of bioethics, the implications of autonomy and the value of being alive. Then the level of consciousness of these relationships are explored in survey results from Asia and the Pacific, especially in the 1993 International Bioethics Survey conducted in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. Very few mentioned animal consciousness in the survey, but there were more biocentric comments in Australia and Japan; and more comments with the idea of harmony including humans in Thailand. Comparisons between questions and surveys will also be made, in an attempt to describe what people imagine animal consciousness to be, and whether this relates to human ethics of the relationships. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.