The effect of protected areas on forest disturbance in the Carpathian Mountains 1985–2010

Protected areas are a cornerstone for forest protection, but they are not always effective during times of socioeconomic and institutional crises. The Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe are an ecologically outstanding region, with widespread seminatural and old‐growth forest. Since 1990, Carpathian countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine) have experienced economic hardship and institutional changes, including the breakdown of socialism, European Union accession, and a rapid expansion of protected areas. The question is how protected‐area effectiveness has varied during these times across the Carpathians given these changes. We analyzed a satellite‐based data set of forest disturbance (i.e., forest loss due to harvesting or natural disturbances) from 1985 to 2010 and used matching statistics and a fixed‐effects estimator to quantify the effect of protection on forest disturbance. Protected areas in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Ukraine had significantly less deforestation inside protected areas than outside in some periods; the likelihood of disturbance was reduced by 1–5%. The effectiveness of protection increased over time in these countries, whereas the opposite was true in Romania. Older protected areas were most effective in Romania and Hungary, but newer protected areas were more effective in Czech Republic, and Poland. Strict protection (International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] protection category Ia‐II) was not more effective than landscape‐level protection (IUCN III‐VI). We suggest that the strength of institutions, the differences in forest privatization, forest management, prior distribution of protected areas, and when countries joined the European Union may provide explanations for the strikingly heterogeneous effectiveness patterns among countries. Our results highlight how different the effects of protected areas can be at broad scales, indicating that the effectiveness of protected areas is transitory over time and space and suggesting that generalizations about the effectiveness of protected areas can be misleading.     

Can climate mitigation help the poor? Measuring impacts of the CDM in rural China

This study examines whether investment in climate change mitigation contributes to poverty alleviation. We investigate the impacts of the renewable energy-based clean development mechanism (RE-CDM) projects on rural communities in China. The impacts of RE-CDM projects are estimated by combining propensity score matching with the difference-in-differences approach. We found that the biomass-based CDM projects significantly contribute to income improvement and employment generation in rural communities in China. Our estimation results also reveal that wind energy-based CDM projects have the potential to increase income and the share of labor force in the primary industry in rural areas. These results suggest different channels through which renewable energy sources affect income.     

Effects of spatial autocorrelation and sampling design on estimates of protected area effectiveness

Estimating the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in reducing deforestation is useful to support decisions on whether to invest in better management of areas already protected or to create new ones. Statistical matching is commonly used to assess this effectiveness, but spatial autocorrelation and regional differences in protection effectiveness are frequently overlooked. Using Colombia as a case study, we employed statistical matching to account for confounding factors in park location and accounted for for spatial autocorrelation to determine statistical significance. We compared the performance of different matching procedures—ways of generating matching pairs at different scales—in estimating PA effectiveness. Differences in matching procedures affected covariate similarity between matched pairs (balance) and estimates of PA effectiveness in reducing deforestation. Independent matching yielded the greatest balance. On average 95% of variables in each region were balanced with independent matching, whereas 33% of variables were balanced when using the method that performed worst. The best estimates suggested that average deforestation inside protected areas in Colombia was 40% lower than in matched sites. Protection significantly reduced deforestation, but PA effectiveness differed among regions. Protected areas in Caribe were the most effective, whereas those in Orinoco and Pacific were least effective. Our results demonstrate that accounting for spatial autocorrelation and using independent matching for each subset of data is needed to infer the effectiveness of protection in reducing deforestation. Not accounting for spatial autocorrelation can distort the assessment of protection effectiveness, increasing type I and II errors and inflating effect size. Our method allowed improved estimates of protection effectiveness across scales and under different conditions and can be applied to other regions to effectively assess PA performance.     

Heterospecific song matching in two closely related songbirds (Parus major and P. caeruleus): great tits match blue tits but not vice versa

To date, song research has focused primarily on the interactions of conspecifics. However, frequent interactions of songbirds with heterospecifics may necessitate adequate communication outside the species boundary. In this study, we focus on heterospecific communication behaviour of two small sympatric congeneric passerines, great and blue tits (Parus major and Parus caeruleus), which breed in overlapping territories and compete for food and nesting cavities. By means of a first playback experiment, we show that (1) heterospecific matching (imitating songs of the other species) is a strategy frequently used by great tits but not by blue tits, (2) both blue tit trilled and untrilled song can be accurately matched by great tits and that (3) almost half of the great tits in our study population match at least one blue tit song across all studied breeding stages, indicating that this heterospecific matching behaviour is a common feature in this population. A second playback experiment showed that these great tit imitations of blue tit songs do not function in intraspecific communication between male great tits. Hence, these heterospecific imitations appear to be designed for interspecific communication with blue tits. These findings suggest a strong heterospecific influence on the vocal learning process, repertoire composition and repertoire use in great tits and provide a possible mechanism that can drive song convergence in songbirds.     

西北地区县域生态系统服务的供需匹配——以甘肃古浪县为例

作为人类福利的源泉,生态系统服务的供需特征及匹配状况反映了区域生态与环境资源的空间配置,分析其供需匹配关系是评价与优化生态系统服务管理、促进生态系统服务供需平衡的重要前提。以西北地区河西走廊东端的古浪县为例,利用气象观测、土地利用、统计年鉴等多源数据,基于InVEST模型、ArcGIS等方法,分析古浪县2017年的产水、碳固持、食物供给和土壤保持四项生态系统服务的供需及其匹配状况。结果表明：（1）古浪县产水、碳固持、食物供给和土壤保持服务供给与需求的总量均表现出供大于求的状态,其供求总量差值依次为：12.45×10⁸ m³、21.55×10⁷ t、3.8×10⁷ t、1.28×10⁷ t,且不同类型的生态系统服务供给与需求存在明显差异。（2）古浪县各项生态系统服务供需匹配类型可划分为高供给高需求、低供给高需求、低供给低需求、高供给低需求,不同区域与不同生态系统服务间的匹配模式存在明显的空间异质性。（3）古浪县生态系统服务供需匹配表现出南中北空间差异性,且呈现集中连片的态势,说明匹配类型相同的乡镇存在“相邻相似”的特征。基于对生态系统服务的供给、需求及匹配状况的分析,进一步提出了不同匹配类型下生态经济发展、城镇化建设、生态可持续化管理、国土空间规划等方面的优化对策。     

矿井主扇合理匹配安全及经济效益分析

部分矿井由于受到各方面因素影响,实际生产能力不能达到设计生产能力,有些采区安装的主要通风机的通风能力大于采区实际需要风量,即主要通风机匹配的电动机不合理,不但造成经济效益的损失,而且影响矿井的本质安全。本文以嘉禾煤矿浦溪井为例,通过简述矿井主要通风机与电动机匹配的合理改造,分析其运行效果和对矿井安全的影响;并浅述改造后的经济效益。     

A causal analysis of time-varying speed camera safety effects based on the propensity score method

Introduction: Speed limit enforcement cameras provide an effective approach to reduce vehicle speeds and the number of road accidents. However, it is still unclear whether the safety effects of speed cameras show durability over long periods of time. This paper analyses how the effects of speed cameras on road accidents change over time. A total number of 771 camera sites and 4787 potential control sites are observed for a period of 18 years (1999–2016) across England. Method: Covariates such as road class, crash history, speed limit, and annual average daily traffic (AADT) are included in the data set. A difference in difference (DID) based propensity score matching (PSM) method is employed to select proper control sites and estimate the treatment effects. The safety effects of speed cameras are then evaluated from a long-term perspective. The post-treatment period is divided into four equal-length periods: early, medium 1 and 2, and late. Results and Conclusions: The results show that speed cameras have significantly reduced the number of road accidents near the camera sites. However, the effects vary across different time periods. The safety effects of speed cameras experienced a sharp decrease during the medium periods after an initial period of highly reduced accidents (medium 1: −53.1%, medium 2: −40.7%) and recovered slightly during the late period. In addition, to evaluate the criteria for selecting camera sites in the UK, we further investigated whether speed cameras at high risk sites have better safety performance. The results show that while safety effects at high risk camera sites also decreased during the medium periods, the reduction was smaller (medium 1: −20.8%, medium 2: −2.1%). Practical Applications: Appropriate road traffic regulations and management, as well as proper camera sites selection criterion, are important to maintain the effectiveness of speed cameras.     

A new methodology for the synthesis of an optimum flexible water networks

This paper presents a new optimization model for the synthesis of direct reuse/recycle water networks with data uncertainties. In this case, data uncertainties were originated from the varying parameters of the water sources and sinks, which fluctuate within a given range of values. The aim of the method is to design an optimum flexible water network (FWN) that ensures minimum fresh water consumption and yet fulfilling all process constraints and uncertain parameters. The resulting FWN also features the minimum number of pipelines, which will ease process operation and control. Due to the complexity of the problem, multistep solving method based on theorem of corner points has been developed. The FWN obtained using the proposed method also includes information on the maximum flow rate in the pipelines, which is essential for detailed network design stage. The resulting model is a mixed integer linear problem (MILP), which may be solved to obtain global optimum solution. Two case studies were used to elucidate the newly proposed method.     

试论高压水射流清洗系统的合理匹配

随着高压水射流清洗的应用领域日益广泛， 高压水射流清洗系统的合理匹配已成为急待解决的问题。因为只有高压水射流清洗系统的合理匹配，才能充分发挥高压水射流的高效、高质量清洗及节能、污染小的特点。笔者利用系统分析的方法，从实际应用角度出发，结合理论与实验，从高压泵技术指标的选择、清洗设备的选择及参数简析、清洗压力的选择等几个方面，分析了合理匹配高压水射流清洗系统主要参数的一般方法和原则，并将其应用于铁路罐车的高压水射流清洗系统的匹配。实际应用结果表明，这种方法是行之有效的     

中国资源型城市转型对劳动力需求的影响

资源部门的自强机制导致城市人力资本集中于资源型产业,进而造成资源型城市中低技能劳动者增多,使新兴产业对当地劳动力需求下降。因此,资源型城市转型可能会导致城市面临失业问题。使用倾向得分匹配与双重差分结合的方法,探讨了《全国资源型城市可持续发展规划（2013—2020年）》对资源型城市劳动力需求的影响。为验证该影响的内在机制,分别根据教育水平和制造业占比对城市进行三重差分回归。结果显示：城市转型导致资源型城市劳动力需求下降6.9%;成熟型和衰退型城市的转型是导致需求下降的主要原因;检验发现,教育水平更高或制造业占比更高的城市受转型政策的影响更小,从而可以从侧面证明资源部门的自强机制使新兴产业对当地劳动力需求下降。