Critical reflections on the theory and practice of social sustainability in the built environment – a meta-analysis

This article presents a critical reflection on the theory and practice of social sustainability in the built environment, identifies areas of agreement and disagreement, explores theoretical and conceptual gaps and challenges, and suggests practical implications for future research and urban policy. It argues that despite revisionist approaches which challenge the tripartite structure of sustainable development, social dimension of sustainability remains an essential valid pillar. Utilising a qualitative meta-analysis methodology for undertaking critical analysis of previous research and publications on the topic, key themes of theory and practice of social sustainability are identified and critically examined. Accordingly, 10 key formative characteristics of social sustainability and their research and policy implications are introduced. The article concludes with institutional observations for policy-makers to achieve greater success in addressing largely underestimated dimensions of social sustainability in urban settings.     

区域滑坡时间分布的自相似性研究

滑坡时间分布是滑坡预测和预警报研究的关键内容,对一定区域滑坡分布时间规律的研究可为区域滑坡预测和预警报提供参考和指导。本文以长江三峡库区滑坡为研究对象,对滑坡的年际分布和月份分布的相似性分别进行了研究。结果表明,两种时间的分布规律具有较好的相似性,且滑坡规模越接近,相似性程度越高。对滑坡时间分布的相似性研究,为应用分形理论研究该区域滑坡时间分布规律提供了理论基础。     

大型公共场所人群拥挤踩踏事故机理初探

近年来的事故灾害统计分析表明人群拥挤踩踏事故已逐步成为大型公共聚集场所的主要人为事故灾害类型之一.与火灾等常见人为事故灾害不同,人群拥挤踩踏事故的发生极其突然,社会影响重大.从人群拥挤踩踏事故的致因机理及承载体人群的运动规律开展相关研究,基于风险理论、事故突变等理论方法提出了人群拥挤踩踏事故风险(四阶段)理论,并构建了理论模型,对理论模型中的参数求解进行了阐述.人群拥挤踩踏事故风险理论研究可以为揭示人群聚集相关事故成因机制及形成演变规律提供一些有益的尝试及参考,其中的相关理论模型可供大型建筑(如奥运赛场)性能化设计、人群安全疏散及管理等工作参考.     

Empirical Research on Factors Influencing Level of Environmental Protection Information Disclosure in Annual Reports by Listed Companies

Taking 248 A-share manufacturing listed companies in 2006 Shanghai Stock Exchange as example, using ＂index method＂ to measure level of environmental protection information disclosure, this paper examines the factors influencing level of environmental protection information disclosure. The findings show that the disclosure level has improved, but the overall level is still low and unable to satisfy information users; there is positive correlation between corporate size, industry type, accounting firm＇s type and corporate environmental disclosure index. The companies of large scale and heavy pollution and those audited by international ＂Big 4＂ and domestic ＂Big 10＂ accounting firms have a high level of environmental disclosure, while the profitability and financial leverage has no impact on the disclosure level. Finally some suggestions are put forward to establish environmental information disclosure system in China.     

Understanding farmers' strategic decision-making processes and the implications for biodiversity conservation policy

The conservation of biodiversity is an important issue world wide and in Australia the maintenance of native biodiversity on farms makes an important contribution to overall conservation objectives. This paper seeks to explain Australian farmers' rationale for maintaining biodiversity on their farms for personal as opposed to business reasons by developing a decision-systems theory from in-depth interviews. This difference has implications for policy development. The decision-systems theory is divided into two main sections. The first section contains five parts. (1) A hierarchy of motivation stories, (2) the concept of suitability and availability of opportunities, (3) a hierarchy of three decision-systems, (4) the concept of personal career paths, (5) the concept of Lenses. The second section contains one part, a policy classification system called 'boxes of influence' that suggests how policy developers can use the information in the first section to develop new biodiversity conservation policy. The paper suggests that decision-systems theory could be used to shed new light on current trends in agriculture and become an important investigative tool for policy development concerning the conservation of biodiversity on farms.     

Cross-Boundary Coordination on Forested Landscapes: Investigating Alternatives for Implementation

Cross-boundary coordination is a tool for ecosystem management whereby landowners voluntarily coordinate management practices toward economic and/or ecological landscape-scale outcomes (e.g., fiber, invasive species control, habitat). Past research indicates that it may be particularly applicable on landscapes that include small forest landholdings. To explore alternatives by which coordination might occur, we conducted seven focus groups with landowners (n = 51) who actively manage their forests in southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa. Focus group participants were presented with three hypothetical alternatives to coordinate with their neighbors; landowners could self-organize, work with a natural resource professional (i.e., forester), or work with an organization to complete a cross-boundary practice. In this article, we focus on the latter two alternatives and the role of two social theories—principal-agent and cooperation—in explaining landowners’ evaluations of these alternatives. Key findings are that (1) cross-boundary coordination has the potential to alleviate problems between landowners and resource professionals inherent to their typical working relationship, and (2) social relationships are a major factor contributing to landowners’ willingness to participate. We posit that cross-boundary coordination offers a non-economic incentive for landowners to work together as it may reduce the uncertainty associated with hiring a resource professional. At the same time, professionals can provide a bridging function among landowners who are unacquainted. To achieve these outcomes and expand the adoption of cross-boundary coordination, we suggest four guidelines. First, foster dialogue among landowners toward shared cognition and oversight. Second, match landowners’ practices and objectives such that there are clear benefits to all. Third, develop relationships through low risk activities where possible. Fourth, do not expect on-going commitments.

基于分形理论的皖江城市带城镇体系结构研究

运用分形理论对皖江城市带城镇体系的规模分布和城镇空间结构进行了具体分析,得出如下结论:在城镇规模分布方面,城市规模结构分布较为集中,中等位序的城市较多,首位城市作用不显著,人口分布低水平均衡;在城镇空间结构方面,城镇之间的空间关联程度、空间相互作用一般,空间布局较分散。在此基础上,提出了未来皖江城市带城镇体系发展的相应对策。     

越境环境污染的经济分析

本文在介绍了越境环境污染的损害非一致性和混合非一致性特征的基础上,从外部性角度分析了越境环境问题,并着重探讨了博弈论在越境环境污染分析中的应用。指出,国际合作是解决这类问题的有效途径。     

Indicating ecosystem integrity — theoretical concepts and environmental requirements

This paper discusses some conceptual fundamentals for the derivation of environmental indicator sets. On the one hand, it defines requirements from environmental politics, environmental management and legislation, reaching from political target hierarchies and sustainable management strategies to holistic protection concepts such as process protection, resource preservation, ecosystem health and ecological integrity. On the other hand, demands from ecosystem theory are described which include the consideration of features such as self-organization, emergence, thermodynamics, gradients and ecological orientors in environmental indicator sets. From that concept, collective and emergent properties are selected and eight holistic ecosystem features are presented that indicate the ecosystemic state as an ensemble. These general indicators of ecosystem integrity are supplemented by variables on structural changes and substance dynamics.     

Research on carbon emissions in China's export trade based on input-output model

Becoming the world’s largest emitter of carbon makes China the object of criticism;however,people may ignore the fact that when China exports low-carbon products,the carbon emissions have been left in the meanwhile,forming the so-called"embodied carbon".Using the input-output model,this paper analyzes the carbon emission intensity and amount of embodied carbon of various sectors in China’s export trade in 2002 and 2007,and filters out high carbon emission sectors.In addition,this paper also points out the problem of carbon emissions’international transfer from developed countries to China through the analysis of national and regional flow of export carbon emissions and changing of the proportion of emissions for exports relative to total emissions,and explains the reason that caused carbon transfer to China by using the treadmill of production theory.Based on that,this paper proposes some measures for carbon reduction in China from the foreign trade perspective.