Food and Environmental Virology - The availability of drinking water is one of the main determinants of quality of life, disease prevention and the promotion of health. Viruses are important agents... 相似文献
Improved agricultural practices that increase yields and preserve soils are critical to addressing food insecurity and undernutrition among smallholder farmer families. Urine-enriched biochar has been shown to be an accessible and effective fertilization option in various subtropical countries; however, it is new to Bangladesh. To better understand attitudes and experiences preparing and using urine-enriched biochar fertilizer, mixed-methods research was undertaken among smallholder farmers in northeastern Bangladesh in 2016/2017. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 respondents who had compared the production of crops grown with biochar-based fertilizer to usual practice. In addition, in areas where trainings on biochar-based fertilization had been offered, 845 farmers were asked about their experience through a quantitative survey. Interview results indicated that cow urine-enriched biochar was favored over human urine because cow urine was perceived as clean and socially acceptable, whereas human urine was considered impure and disgusting. Respondents praised biochar-based fertilizer because it increased yields, cost little, was convenient to prepare with readily available natural materials, produced tastier crops, and allowed families to share their larger yields which in turn enhanced social and financial capital. Comparative field trials indicated a 60% yield benefit in both cabbage and kohlrabi crops. Challenges included uneven access to ingredients, with some respondents having difficulty procuring cow urine and biomass feedstock. The low social, health, and financial risk of adoption and the perceived benefits motivated farmers to produce and apply biochar-based fertilizer in their gardens, demonstrating strong potential for scale-up of this technology in Bangladesh.
The administration of Jiuzhaigou National Park in Sichuan Province, China, is in the process of considering a range of upgrades
to their sanitation and wastewater treatment systems. Their case history involves an ongoing series of engineering design
flaws and management failures. The administration of the Park identified sustainability, environmental protection, and education
goals for their sanitation and wastewater treatment system. To meet the goal of sustainability, environmental and economic
concerns of the Park’s administration had to be balanced with socio-cultural needs. An advanced reconnaissance method was
developed that identified reasons for previous failures, conducted stakeholder analysis and interviews, determined evaluation
criteria, and introduced innovative alternatives with records of successful global implementations. This evaluation also helped
the Park to better define their goals. To prevent future failures, the administration of the Park must commit to a balanced and thorough evaluation process for
selection of a final alternative and institute effective long-term management and monitoring of systems. In addition, to meet
goals and achieve energy efficient, cost-effective use of resources, the Park must shift their thinking from one of waste
disposal to resource recovery. The method and criteria developed for this case study provides a framework to aid in the successful
implementation of sanitation projects in both underdeveloped and developed areas of the world, incorporating socio-cultural
values and resource recovery for a complex group of stakeholders. 相似文献
Systematic conservation planning is intended to inform spatially explicit decision making. Doing so requires that it be integrated into complex regulatory and governance processes, and there are limited instances where this has been achieved effectively. South Africa is a global leader in the application of conservation plans, the outputs of which are widely used for spatial planning and decision making in many spheres of government. We aimed to determine how conservation planning in the country progressed from theory to implementation, and to identify practical actions that enabled this transition, by assessing temporal trends in the characteristics of conservation plans (1990–2017, n = 94). Since 2010 conservation planning has entered an operational period characterized by government leadership of plans, administrative rather than ecological planning domains, decreasing size of planning units, increasing emphasis on end-user products, and scheduled revision of plans. Key actions that enabled this progression include transitioning leadership of plans from scientists to practitioners, building capacity within implementing agencies, creating opportunities to integrate plans in legislative processes, establishing a strong community of practice, adopting implementation-focused methods, and balancing standardization with innovation. Learning from this model will allow other countries, particularly those with a similar megadiverse, developing context, to operationalize conservation planning into spatial planning and decision making. 相似文献
Predicted climate warming is expected to have profound effects on bark beetle population dynamics in the southwestern United
States. Temperature-mediated effects may include increases in developmental rates, generations per year, and changes in habitat
suitability. As a result, the impacts of Dendroctonus frontalis and Dendroctonus mexicanus on forest resources are likely subject to amplification. To assess the implications of such change, we evaluated the generations
per year of these species under three climate scenarios using a degree-day development model. We also assessed economic impacts
of increased beetle outbreaks in terms of the costs of application of preventative silvicultural treatments and potential
economic revenues forgone. Across the southwestern USA, the potential number of beetle generations per year ranged from 1–3+ under
historical climate, an increase of 2–4+ under the minimal warming scenario and 3–5+ under the greatest warming scenario. Economic
benefits of applying basal area reduction treatments to reduce forest susceptibility to beetle outbreaks ranged from 7.75/ha (NM) to7.75/ha
(NM) to 95.69/ha (AZ) under historical conditions, and 47.96/ha (NM) to47.96/ha (NM) to 174.58/ha (AZ) under simulated severe drought conditions.
Basal area reduction treatments that reduce forest susceptibility to beetle outbreak result in higher net present values than
no action scenarios. Coupled with other deleterious consequences associated with beetle outbreaks, such as increased wildfires,
the results suggest that forest thinning treatments play a useful role in a period of climate warming. 相似文献