Advancing urban ecosystem governance in Ljubljana

Extensive green areas generate a recognizable green identity of Ljubljana. Due to the challenges of climate change and urbanization the city's spatial policy highlights revitalization of degraded urban areas, preserving the quality and scope of the existing green network and the protection of multifunctional natural areas surrounding the city. Article describes the project of Rakova Jelša Park as a good example of these policies. With an NGO initiative a former degraded area with illegal dumping and non-indigenous vegetation was transformed into recreational park with increased biocultural diversity. Important lesson of the project is that opening up space for public use not only prevents degradation, but also improves the quality of urban ecosystems. One of the challenges for the city's future sustainable ecosystem development will be a more active cooperation with its citizens in the green infrastructure policy and later also a partial transfer of responsibility for green areas to them.     

Considering agro-ecosystems as ecological funds for collective design: New perspectives for environmental policy

Enhancing agro-ecosystem sustainability raises difficult challenges for environmental policy: it requires both increasing knowledge on these complex systems to design effective solutions and coordinating stakeholders with diverging interests. However, most existing environmental policies consider ecosystems’ desirable properties as given, leading ecosystem managers to favor “turnkey” solutions. How could public policy better support local collective initiatives aiming at reconciling agriculture and the environment? This paper presents an empirical case study from western France, in which a partnership between an agricultural cooperative and an ecological research center resulted in a collective design initiative. We conceptually model this initiative drawing upon recent design theories and Georgescu-Roegen’s ‘fund-flow’ model, defining ‘ecological funds’ as the starting point of a collective design process. The results highlight the importance of developing policy instruments that can better support local innovation processes through greater democratization. Adopting a design approach to sustainable agricultural landscape management could be particularly fruitful in situations where collective action is necessary but where there is no common good recognized as such, and no existing community identified.     

A multiple timescales approach to assess urgency in adaptation to climate change with an application to the tourism industry

As climate change adaptation is increasingly discussed and becoming a mainstream concept, different types of users are asking themselves if and when they should develop an adaptation strategy, often not knowing where to begin. Climate experts, on the other hand, have access to an enormous amount of data that could be useful to users but often do not know how to translate it into something practical. Both users and experts can be linked through two timescales, the system lifespan and climate vulnerability. While the system lifespan relies on the user’s estimation of his planning timeframe, the climate vulnerability is estimated from climate model projections and observations. We propose a simple tool to relate user and climate expert knowledge by combining the two timescales. To be reliable, the interconnection implies a dialogue to first identify what sensitive climate variable will impact the system and subsequently the extent of the impact. Climate data can then be used to identify, with the use of a simple graph, how sensitive a system is likely to be and help users position themselves about the urgency of adaptation. The concept has been successfully presented and applied to the tourism industry, notably the ski industry, which is showcased in this paper.     

Towards an inter-disciplinary research agenda on climate change, water and security in Southern Europe and neighboring countries

The Mediterranean and neighboring countries are already experiencing a broad range of natural and man-made threats to water security. According to climate projections, the region is at risk due to its pronounced susceptibility to changes in the hydrological budget and extremes. Such changes are expected to have strong impacts on the management of water resources and on key strategic sectors of regional economies. Related developments have an increased capacity to exacerbate tensions, and even intra- and inter-state conflict among social, political, ecological and economic actors. Thus, effective adaptation and prevention policy measures call for multi-disciplinary analysis and action.This review paper presents the current state-of-the-art on research related to climate change impacts upon water resources and security from an ecological, economic and social angle. It provides perspectives for current and upcoming research needs and describes the challenges and potential of integrating and clustering multi-disciplinary research interests in complex and interwoven human-environment systems and its contribution to the upcoming 5th assessment report of the IPCC.     

New policies to deal with climate change and other drivers impacting on resilience to flooding in urban areas: the CORFU approach

In the context of urban flood management, resilience is equal to resisting, recovering, reflecting and responding. The variety of causes of flooding and their consequences underpin the need for increased and internationally coordinated efforts to enhance technologies and policies for dealing with floods. This paper addresses this issue and presents some novel research ideas related to resilience to flooding in urban areas, which are under development within the EU FP7 project ‘Collaborative research on flood resilience in urban areas’ (CORFU). The approach adopted in this project aims to quantify the cost-effectiveness of resilience measures and integrative and adaptable flood management plans for different scenarios of relevant drivers: urban development, socio-economic trends and climate changes. It is believed that the way in which the different models are being put together, combined with the variability of conditions in case study areas in Asia and in Europe, will ultimately enable more scientifically sound policies for the management of the consequences of urban flooding.     

美国环保产业政策分析及经验借鉴

美国在全球环保产业中占据着十分重要的位置。美国环保产业的蓬勃发展,得益于其行之有效的产业政策与激励措施,其环保产业政策的发展对很多国家都产生了重要影响。介绍了美国环保产业的范围和发展现状,从环境管控、环保技术、产业化、财税支持和环保贸易等方面分析了美国环保产业政策框架。最后,结合美国环保产业发展的经验与教训对我国未来环保产业的发展提出了政策建议。     

沿黄地区土地政策试点对区域发展的影响—— 基于断点回归的政策效益检验

土地试点政策是创新土地改革模式的重要方式,是乡村振兴背景下推动农村经济发展的重要动力.本文利用沿黄地区10个试点地2008?—?2018年面板数据,考察了土地试点政策实施对沿黄地区经济发展的影响.结果表明:(1)土地试点政策实施,对沿黄地区各流域经济发展影响效果存在空间差异,表现为中、下游区域对经济发展的带动作用弱于上...     

高速铁路建设的环境影响分析及环保策略建议——以沪宁城际铁路为例

近年来高速铁路发展迅猛,与此同时高铁对沿线环境的影响及生态破坏已成为社会关注的热点问题,并引起国家及地方政府的高度重视.以沪宁城际高速铁路为研究案例,首先分析了高速铁路建设对沿线自然及生态环境影响的调查内容、方法和过程,然后论述了铁路噪声、振动电磁辐射、污水及固体废弃物对沿线环境的影响,并论述各类污染的生态防护措施.在此基础上,对沪宁城际铁路环保经验进行了总结归纳,最后提炼形成中国高速铁路建设发展的环保策略建议.     

明太祖的荒政立法

救荒是明代经济发展、社会稳定的重要措施。为了保证荒政的顺利而有效地进行,明太祖从灾害防治到灾害赈济,从赈灾官员的选用到对吏治腐败的整治,都制定了较为详细的法律条文。从这些法律条文中可以概括出明太祖的荒政立法包含以下两个方面：一、防灾与减灾中的立法;二、救灾中的立法。朱元璋通过荒政立法,一方面惩治了救灾中的腐败,提高了救灾的效率;另一方面也使灾民在自然灾害面前得到国家的救济,使社会生产力的破坏得以减轻,为明王朝的经济恢复和发展奠定了基础。     

煤炭资源开发生态保护补偿政策回顾与评析研究

围绕煤炭资源开发中的生态环境问题,中国相继出台了一些资源生态环境补偿政策,建立起包括资源税费制度、环境影响评价制度、环境恢复治理保证金制度、三同时制度、排污收费制度在内的一些生态环境补偿法律制度,但现有的煤炭资源开发生态补偿制度存在法律体系和政策设计不完备,缺乏利益相关者的充分参与,部门化利益倾向,政策手段较为单一,生态补偿资金没有来源保障,缺乏统一的补偿标准等问题。为此,要不断健全生态补偿法律法规体系,将矿区开发的生态环境补偿纳入到法制化和市场化轨道,完善煤炭资源税费制度,建立健全公众参与机制,实现矿区的可持续发展。