A training model for environmental educators and interpreters employed in Greek protected areas and ecotourism settings

In Greece, environmental interpretation is in its infancy as an academic field. In particular, there are no nature guides or specific conservation objectives, and no professional training for non-formal environmental educators and/or interpreters. In view of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, this paper develops and recommends a training model for environmental educator/interpreter guides in protected areas and sensitive ecotourism settings in Greece. An investigation was undertaken into training programmes in developed and less developed ecotourism countries, where environmental interpretation is practiced in the sustainable management of sensitive areas. The proposed model is based mainly on interpretive training programmes of other developed and less developed countries. This model introduces the art of environmental interpretation as a form of non-formal environmental education, integrated in strategic communication in protected areas and sensitive ecotourism areas in Greece. The developed model takes into consideration the special social settings and biophysical environments of Greece. Moreover, a professional environmental interpreter group is recommended to support the role of management authorities in protected areas.     

Review of challenges and strategies for balanced urban–rural environmental protection in China

With the rise of environmentalism in China, great efforts have been devoted to environmental protection over the past several decades. Compared with urban environmental protection, rural environmental protection has not been attached enough importance in China due to the dual-track structure of socio-economic development. As a result, rural China is shouldering disproportionally heavy environmental burdens partly because of the differences and biases between urban and rural environmental protection seen in environmental policies, environmental rights and interests, environmental protection investment, and the environmental protection awareness of people. To eliminate the gap between rural and urban environmental protection, and achieve the goal of “balanced urban–rural environmental protection” (BUREP), government should consider mapping out proper policies and strategies. In this paper we put forward an innovative strategy of BUREP against the background of China’s urban-rural environmental protection. First, we review the current status of rural environmental protection status and its challenges compared with urban environmental protection in China. Secondly, we analyzed the main driving factors and reasons deeply, and then we put forward the BUREP strategy base on the unequal status between urban and rural environment. Finally, we proposed the framework of BUREP. This study may serve as a scientific reference regarding decision-making in coordinating urban and rural environmental protection and in constructing the new countryside of China.     

城市生态学基本原理的探讨

城市生态学是一门正在发展中的生态学分支,因其产生历史较短,而尚未形成一套成熟的理论体系和研究方法.本文试图应用生态学基本原理来探讨城市生态系统的性质和特点,初步提出了城市生态学的一些原理和研究城市生态系统的指导原则,并提出了环境承载力—人类社会行为和生态环境之间的界面在城市生态系统研究的地位和作用.     

Development of environmental policy,objectives, and targets

This paper describes a process to develop and establish an environmental policy and its associated environmental targets, objectives, and management programmes. The environmental policy is defined in a statement which addresses the company expectations for programmes that are important to assure adequate environmental protection and define its future commitment towards preventing pollution and continuously improving the effectiveness of its environmental protection programmes. A set of environmental objectives, derived from the policy, define the overall goals which will ensure that the company's environmental performance will remain consistent with the commitment identified in its policy when its environmental management system (EMS) is implemented, Environmental targets reflect the requirements and standards that the company must strive to achieve each objective and minimize any harmful environmental impacts from its production and manufacturing processes or other activities. In addition to defining specific targets, environmental management programmes are also used to guide EMS implementation. These programmes, however, must provide the company with the necessary flexibility to select the most appropriate technologies to enhance its own processes and prudently allocate its available financial resources in areas that return the greatest overall environmental benefit.Though they are expected to allow some discretion in the allocation of resources targeted towards environmental protection, EMS programmes must also provide assurance that the corporation environmental policy, objectives, targets, and management programmes do not result in a facility failure to adhere to all of its certification requirements. The principle and factors described in this article should be considered to the extent that they are necessary and practical.     

Analysis of the current situation of environmental policy of China and establishment of distributed environmental policy framework

In this study, China’s current macro-environmental policies as well as their implementation and management tools are analyzed. By using the basic economic methodology, detailed studies are conducted focusing on the implementation effect of contemporary China’s typical environmental policy of the total pollutant discharge quantity control type, and also the two types of environmental management tools are compared from the perspective of implementation costs and policy uncertainty. By introduction of distributed management tools into the implementation of environmental policies, market-oriented means and the methods of economic analysis are introduced into environmental policy decision-making mechanisms, which could afford a new method for changing the current relatively low efficiency of environmental policy, solving the problem of “government failure” in environmental policy implementation, and providing a new way to make environmental policy system more flexible and more efficient. It is of great practical significance to solve China's current structural, complex and accumulative environmental problems.     

风险地图—环境风险管理的有效新工具

中国不断发生的重大环境突发事故使得环境风险管理提上了政府的议事日程,建立有效和实用的环境风险管理体系势在必行。近年来,风险地图已成为环境风险管理中迅速崛起的新领域。风险地图不但可以探讨污染物效应的空间特征,而且可作为风险可视化的重要工具。通过调研和分析大量文献,在描述了环境风险地图的功能、重要的风险地图类型基础上,以一个城市为例展示了风险图制作流程,最后,对环境风险地图在中国的应用和发展提出了建议。     

2010年亚运会对广州市可持续发展的影响

2010年举办的第16届亚运会将是广州有史以来承办的最大型的综合性体育赛事。分析了亚运会的举办将对广州市经济、社会发展、城市与环境建设等方面的影响,并提出了全面贯彻可持续发展思想,进一步办好亚运会的建议:立足长远,社会效益与经济效益并重;加大生态环境建设力度;加大宣传力度,推动公众参与;加强区域合作,协调区域发展。     

城市环境功能区环境功能评估方法

本文提出利用环境功能指数对城市环境功能区的环境功能进行评估，设计了相应的评估方法，以马鞍山市七个环境功能区为例进行了实例分析，讨论了各功能区的环境功能变化趋势，并提出了相应的对策与建议。     

西方国家工业污染场地管理经验及其对中国的借鉴

近年来,随着＂退二进三＂、＂退城进园＂和＂产业转移＂等政策的实施,中国几乎所有的大中城市正面临着重污染工业企业关闭和搬迁问题,城市出现大量工业遗留和遗弃场地。这些受污染的工业场地多存在较为严重的土壤、地表水和地下水污染;另外,工业污染场地的延迟再开发,会产生生活环境变差、就业机会减少、甚至社会不稳定因素增加等社会影响。所以,城市工业污染场地严重威胁着城市人居环境安全和公众健康,阻碍着城市建设和经济发展。面对工业污染场地目前存在的问题,国家及部分地方政府已针对污染场地的管理、修复及其再开发颁布了诸多文件和技术规范标准。然而,由于工业场地类型的多样性和环境管理学科的交叉性,中国城市工业污染场地的环境管理工作仍处于起步阶段,亟需完善。美国、英国和加拿大经过20~30年的发展已经在工业污染场地管理方面积累了丰富的经验,他们不仅在环境管理中体现了人体健康风险评估的理念,而且还立足本国实际出台了相关的法律法规,明确了污染场地的责任主体,实现了＂污染者付费＂的原则,同时还建立了各自的污染场地治理优先名录,实现了污染场地管理的信息化和网络化。本文鉴于对这些经验的比较分析,结合我国实际,就城市工业污染场地的环境管理提出了现阶段亟须解决的两大问题。首先,制定工业污染场地管理的专门法律,明确污染场地的责任主体。我国现有的与污染场地有关的国家法律法规,都比较笼统地提出了污染场地的利益相关方,缺乏具有可操作性的细则和威慑力的责任追究条款。对于我国这样地域辽阔、自然地理条件差异大、经济水平不均衡的国家来说,通过地方法律法规的建立明确污染场地的责任主体是一个重要的尝试。其次,构建污染场地健康风险评估系统。我国城市工业污染场地涉及诸多工业行业、污染类型繁多复杂。因此,在全国范围内对城市工业污染场地进行排查、建立优先污染场地名录是构建污染场地风险评估系统的重要内容。此外,我国现有的土壤质量标准和场地评估规范仍存在诸多缺陷,无法满足当前国家城市工业污染场地的管理需要。所以,完善场地评估的技术规范和相关标准将为污染场地风险评估系统的构建提供基础性保障。本文的论述和观点可为我国工业企业关停或搬迁遗留地的决策管理和污染场地管理体系的建立提供有意义的参考和借鉴。     

Spider, bee, and bird communities in cities are shaped by environmental control and high stochasticity

Spatially organized distribution patterns of species and communities are shaped by both autogenic processes (neutral mechanism theory) and exogenous processes (niche theory). In the latter, environmental variables that are themselves spatially organized induce spatial structure in the response variables. The relative importance of these processes has not yet been investigated in urban habitats. We compared the variance explained by purely spatial, spatially structured environmental, and purely environmental components for the community composition of spiders (Araneae), bees (Apidae), and birds (Aves) at 96 locations in three Swiss cities. Environmental variables (topography, climate, land cover, urban green management) were measured on four different radii around sampling points (< 10 m, 50 m, 250 m, 1000 m), while Moran's eigenvector maps (MEMs) acted as spatial variables. All three taxonomic groups showed weak spatial structure. Spider communities reacted to very fine-scaled environmental changes of lawn and meadow management and climate. Bird community composition was determined by woody plants as well as solar radiation at all radii, the scale of the influence varying among species. Bee communities were weakly explained by isolated variables only. Our results suggest that the anthropogenic structuring of urban areas has disrupted the spatial organization of environmental variables and inhibited the development of biotic spatial processes. The near absence of spatial structure may therefore be a feature typical of urban species assemblages, resulting in urban community composition mainly influenced by local environmental variables. Urban environments represent a close-knit mosaic of habitats that are regularly disturbed. Species communities in urban areas are far from equilibrium. Our analysis also suggests that urban communities need to be considered as being in constant change to adapt to disturbances and changes imposed by human activities.     

Knowledge-based decision-making model for the management of transit system alternative fuel infrastructures

Energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable public transportation systems are within the solution space provided by alternative fuel vehicles. Given the large revenue service potential of alternative fuel buses within the urban space, they are good candidates for emissions reductions when they are employed as part of a comprehensive urban transit planning process. The determination of the most appropriate alternative fuel bus asset for a given application is not necessarily that straightforward. The typical bus fleet is developed over a broad time horizon with each asset being acquired to meet a certain agency need or to close a perceived gap in the delivery of public transportation service. Therefore, as new assets are considered, it is critical for the fleet manager to consider as many factors of the fleet infrastructure to better ensure the positive impact that the newly acquired asset will have on fleet performance relative to the overall service goals and objectives of the fleet. This study investigates a broad range of alternative fuel bus technologies and the associated factors that will inform the decision-making process. Further, this work utilizes the inventory and understanding of the range of technology factors and leverages the perspective knowledge of industry experts on each of these factors to develop an expert systems decision-making philosophy to aid in the adoption of industry standards, best practices, consistency and sustainability in fleet asset management over time.     

环境保护规划与武汉的城市生态建设

鉴于城市规划在环境保护方面的局限性，本文以武汉市九峰城市森林保护区环境保护规划为例，提出了环境保护规划的技术路线、环境规划目标以及结论等，指出了城市大气、水体、声、固体废物和生态环境综合整治规划，并探讨环境保护规划与武汉的城市生态建设。     

城市环境影响模拟的系统动力学研究

城市化进程的加快已导致严重的环境问题。对城市环境影响的模拟研究是确定合理的城市发展规模和制定科学的发展规划的重要依据,以采取措施从源头控制环境质量的恶化。城市环境属于复合多动态系统,传统的一些方法可以实现城市环境影响的模拟预测,但参数调控方面的功能较不完善。文章将基于信息反馈控制理论的系统动力学引入城市环境影响模拟中,构建城市环境、社会、经济之间的系统动力学模型,通过调整环保投入、科技投入、经济增长速率以及单位能耗等系统变量,对武汉市未来发展的主要污染物（SO2、COD）排放量和主要资源消耗量（能源、水）等进行了四种情景动态模拟。结果表明：（1）系统动力学适合于研究复杂系统行为,具有较强的模拟和调控能力,同时可以避免繁琐的计算和信息成本高等缺点;（2）＂两型＂发展模式（Ⅳ）下的资源消耗量和污染物排放量明显低于其它3种情景,但仍处于较高的水平。武汉市污染物削减、生态环境保护任务依然繁重,开发新的替代能源、提高资源利用率仍是今后工作的重点。     

Tourism policy,biodiversity conservation and management: a case of the Kruger National Park,South Africa

Management of Kruger National Park (KNP) has recently made considerable progress in developing new policies to address biodiversity conservation and management challenges. These include tourism, water provision and elephant management policies. This study examines the integration of these three policies with regard to biodiversity conservation and management. Findings indicate that in their current fragmented form, the three policies actually undermine opportunities for effective biodiversity conservation and management in the KNP. This can be reversed by adopting a new management approach based on an environmental matrix organizational framework. Such a framework provides a mechanism for integrated policymaking and implementation and for improving biodiversity conservation and management in the KNP. The study concludes that an integrated approach is necessary due to the interlinkages between policies that affect biodiversity conservation at the KNP.     

The responses and prospects of sustainable development for Guangzhou and Hong Kong

The ability to achieve urban sustainability has become an indication of the competence of a municipal government aiming to gain world class status for the city. While both Guangzhou and Hong Kong are Chinese cities having their own formulation of urban sustainability, the implementation details and the actual sustainability blueprints are very different. As a result, the outcomes and prospects for urban sustainability are also different.

Hong Kong has adopted a less integrative and more institutionally-oriented approach for urban sustainability. Guangzhou has used the conventional approach to formulate an integrated sustainability programme for its local Agenda 21. Hong Kong's action plan emphasizes improving coordination, making objective assessments and achieving consistency in policy-making. Guangzhou, on the other hand, emphasizes the meeting of concrete environmental targets. Unfortunately, the new institutional arrangement and monitoring tools adopted by Hong Kong have not been able to achieve the original intent and neither is there the intention to go too far beyond the weak sustainability approach. On the contrary, Guangzhou has planned and attempted to incorporate industrial ecology in its development regime while heavily investing into pollution control programmes and pushing forward a green community programme at the grass-roots level.     

Evaluating 22 EU member states’ ‘waste culture’ using Hofstede’s and Schwartz’s cultural dimensions

The issue of municipal solid waste (MSW) arisings has received great attention recently since it is not only a by-product of economic activity but also serves as an input to the economy through material or energy recovery. The main focus of this study is cultural formation and especially the current picture of waste culture and public perception across European Union (EU) member states. Thus, this study will first evaluate environmental efficiency with data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on five parameters: waste, gross domestic product (GDP), labour, capital, and population density for 22 EU Member States and for the years 2005, 2010 and 2015 in order to evaluate which Member States are more efficient. Then the efficiency results are contrasted to Hofstede’s and Schwartz’s cultural dimensions on STATA with the use of regression modelling. Results show that for year 2005 no significant relationship is noticed for both cultural models, whereas for years 2010 and 2015 there appears to be a significant connection. The above-mentioned findings can be associated with the financial crisis that has hit Europe after 2008 making people more sceptical, while EU legislations have laid out some important directives in the field of waste management. Finally, along with the factors above, EU has faced severe environmental challenges due to waste arisings, as well as accidents and injuries for people working in this sector, which in turn have widely modified EU’s waste culture as supported by this study’s results.     

Towards a Coastal Area Management Act for the Russian Federation

Coastal area management should be considered as an element of a more general philosophy—that of natural resource management—which is in the process of replacing the purely ‘protection of the environment’ approach which was dominated most of the 20th century. Specific legislation on coastal management has been adopted by many countries, and today steps have been taken to acumulate all experience accumulated and to harmonize legal regulations on the international level. For the Russian Federation, formerly the Soviet Union, with an enormous sea-shore line to cope with, it is a new experience to develop a concept and a legal regulation specifically tackling coastal area management. The draft of a legislative act on coastal area management reflects the attempts to find ways for harmonizing various economic, environmental and social interests in this huge area, encompassing relevant Russian legislation in force as well as international conventions and treaties, and taking into considerations and treatices, and taking into consideration foregin expereience in this field.     

An overview of the environmental finance policies in China: retrofitting an integrated mechanism for environmental management

Considering the significant roles of the policies in developing environmental finance, an overview is conducted on the environmental finance policies （EFPs） in China. This paper analyzed the definition, scope, evolution and main instruments of EFPs. The implementation progress of financial activities on each instrument are investigated respectively. Then the experiences learned from and failures discovered in the development of the EFPs are discussed well recommendations for further improvement of the EFPs and their implementation are provided. Our study found that the EFPs have been established in China after a four-phase evolution since the early 1980s. The policies have played a critical role in leading to a rapid development in environmental finance by involving more financial instruments to accomplish the objective-led environmental plans. Driven by the policies, the new green credit （GC）, green security （GS）, and green insurance （GI） instruments have been phased in as supplements to the conventional command and control approaches to improve the environmental governance of financial activities and pollution sources. However, the market mechanism of financial institution is limited due to their defensive and incapable performance on implementation some of EFP instruments. To further strengthen the effectiveness of EFPs in facilitating environmental man- agement, recommendations are made mainly on the aspects including developing more specific policy guidelines, enhancing information sharing and disclosure, providing sufficient economic incentives, establishing environmental liabilities with financial activities, and involving issues related to climate change, and biodiversity and ecosystem service.     

Biodiversity of urban soils for sustainable cities

The last century was marked by a high demographic revolution and the fast development of urban environments. Now, more than 50% of the world’s 7.5 billion humans live in cities. This change has often induced the degradation of environmental quality in urban areas. As a consequence, management policies are now fostering the ‘return of nature’ in cities, which, in turn, is requiring a better understanding of the ecology of urban environments. In particular, there is a need for a better knowledge on soil management because soils provide many functions in cities such as urban agriculture. Optimizing the diversity of soil-living organisms is essential to many environmental functions such as water depollution, biochemical cycles, fertility and carbon storage. However, few studies on the biological quality of urban soils have been performed so far. This article reviews actual knowledge on soil biological quality for urban management. The definition of urban soils is discussed, and we present services provided by soils. We also review modern methods and techniques to assess the biological quality of urban soils. Last, we suggest communication means to improve the consideration of soil quality in urban planning policies aimed at sustainable cities.     

城市河道生态环境需水研究--以湖南省常德市穿紫河为例

在系统归纳总结国内外河道生态环境需水理论研究成果的基础上，结合穿紫河作为一条城市河流的实际情况，应用生态学、环境学和水文学理论，系统分析了穿紫河河道生态环境需水的研究范畴和影响因素，对穿紫河不同时段下的河道生态环境需水进行定量研究。研究得出穿紫河河道生态环境需水平均为2．92m^3／s，城市河道生态环境需水与来水水质和河道沿岸的污染物排放情况关系最为密切。一方面，为穿紫河流域水资源的合理调配提供科学依据，有利于穿紫河生态环境的稳定和良性循环；另一方面，对城市河道生态环境需水理论进行一些探索。