Managing water through change and uncertainty: comparing lessons from the adaptive co-management literature to recent policy developments in England

Water management is set to become increasingly variable and unpredictable, in particular because of climate change. This paper investigates the extent to which water policy in England provides an enabling environment for ‘adaptive co-management’, which its proponents claim can achieve the dual objective of ecosystem protection and livelihood sustainability under conditions of change and uncertainty. Five policy categories are derived from a literature review, and are used to conduct a directed content analysis of seven key water policy documents. The findings reveal that although, in part, English water policy serves as an enabling environment for adaptive co-management, there is a level of discrepancy between substantive aspects of the five policy categories and water policy in England. Addressing these discrepancies will be important if English water policy is to allow for the emergence of processes, like adaptive co-management, that are capable of coping with the challenges that lie ahead.     

Adaptive capacity and climate change: the role of community opinion leaders

The contribution of the informal community sector to the development of collective response strategies to socioecological change is not well researched. In this article, we examine the role of community opinion leaders in developing and mobilising stocks of adaptive capacity. In so doing, we reveal a largely unexplored mechanism for building on latent social capital and associated networks that have the potential to transcend local-scale efforts – an enduring question in climate change adaptation and other cross-scalar sustainability issues. Participants drawn from diverse spheres of community activity in the Sunshine Coast, Australia, were interviewed about their strategies for influencing their community objectives and the degree to which they have engaged with responding to climate change. The results show community opinion leaders to be politically engaged through rich bridging connections with other community organisations, and vertically with policy-makers at local, state, national and international levels. Despite this latent potential, the majority of community opinion leaders interviewed were not strategically engaged with responding to climate change. This finding suggests that more work is needed to connect networks knowledgeable about projected climate change impacts with local networks of community opinion leaders. Attention to the type of community-based strategies considered effective and appropriate by community opinion leaders and their organisations also suggests avenues for policy-makers to facilitate community engagement in responding to climate change across sectors likely to be affected by its impacts. Opportunities to extend understanding of adaptive capacity within the community sector through further research are also suggested.     

Probability and frequency calculations related to protection layers revisited

This article casts a new glance over some methods dedicated to the calculation of the likelihood (probability or frequency) of failure of systems and, in particular, safety-related systems working alone or in association with other protection layers. It consists first in examining with a critical eye the relevancy of the aforementioned methods, which are still often used in spite of their restrictive limitations, and second in proposing an alternative approach for each of them. The correctness of the examinated methods is tested by applying them to very simple systems modeled by fault tree models, with intent to show why these methods are debatable and how they can be replaced by other ones, more appropriate. The particular case of several protection layers having to react on the demand resulting from the global failure of their associated control system is considered. That case leads to revisit the common assumption of the independence between the above protection layers and control system, by taking into account the order of their respective failures from a qualitative and quantitative point of view.     

A framework for evaluating and designing citizen science programs for natural resources monitoring

We present a framework of resource characteristics critical to the design and assessment of citizen science programs that monitor natural resources. To develop the framework we reviewed 52 citizen science programs that monitored a wide range of resources and provided insights into what resource characteristics are most conducive to developing citizen science programs and how resource characteristics may constrain the use or growth of these programs. We focused on 4 types of resource characteristics: biophysical and geographical, management and monitoring, public awareness and knowledge, and social and cultural characteristics. We applied the framework to 2 programs, the Tucson (U.S.A.) Bird Count and the Maui (U.S.A.) Great Whale Count. We found that resource characteristics such as accessibility, diverse institutional involvement in resource management, and social or cultural importance of the resource affected program endurance and success. However, the relative influence of each characteristic was in turn affected by goals of the citizen science programs. Although the goals of public engagement and education sometimes complimented the goal of collecting reliable data, in many cases trade‐offs must be made between these 2 goals. Program goals and priorities ultimately dictate the design of citizen science programs, but for a program to endure and successfully meet its goals, program managers must consider the diverse ways that the nature of the resource being monitored influences public participation in monitoring.     

论环境监察工作制度修订的必要性

随着环境监察形势的不断变化,环境监察现有工作制度难以有效应对日新月异的环境保护新形势;环境监察工作体制、机制以及执法理念的更新换代,未来的环境监察工作制度需要进一步完善,才能更好地为国家环境保护工作保驾护航。     

“5.12”汶川地震诱发滑坡特征参数统计分析

2008年5月12日四川省汶川县发生了Ms 8.0级大地震,震后遥感影像解译与调查结果表明,在约48 700km2的区域内,地震诱发了不少于48000处的滑坡灾害。基于GIS空间分析方法,分别使用滑坡面积与滑坡数量这两个统计参数,对滑坡的地层岩性、坡度、滑向、高程、所在烈度区、上下盘位置和与发震断裂的距离等共7个参数进行了统计分析。统计结果表明,汶川地震滑坡多发育在(1)砂岩、粉砂岩、千枚岩与灰岩地层中;(2)坡度为30°～50°,尤其是35°～45°范围内;(3)沿着垂直于发震断裂SEE方向运动;(4)高程为800～2000m,尤其是1000～1600m范围内;(5)Ⅷ～Ⅺ烈度区范围内;(6)发震断裂的上盘:(7)距离发震断裂40km,尤其是10km的区域内。     

供应链食品安全管理自适应系统的结构设计

食品供应链是食品安全监管体系的重要组成部分和载体。本文探讨了自适应系统理论在供应链食品质量安全管理方面应用的可能性;针对目前的食品安全问题,依照自适应原理,设计了食品安全的自适应系统,该系统含有两套自适应的子系统,即低成本常规食品安全管理系统和高成本食品安全突发事件控制预测系统;两套子系统所采用的规则集不同,但可相互通讯,共享跟踪系统及其所采集的数据。整个系统最终输出的是安全供应渠道,与供应链决策系统中的成本、需求方向、生产计划等一起构成决定食品原材料供应来源的因素。系统以人工神经网络为自适应系统的主体,判断安全的食品供应结点并预测突发性食品安全问题;同时,提出了实现上述功能的一种可能的系统结构,以期有效实现食品安全的动态反应和控制,为完善我国食品质量安全管理提供新的思路。     

Implementing an effective conduct of operations and operational discipline program

This paper introduces the concepts of conduct of operations (COO) and operational discipline (OD), the attributes of effective COO/OD systems, and the steps an organization might take to improve its COO/OD programs. In general, the COO program encompasses the management systems developed to encourage performance of all tasks in a consistent, appropriate manner. OD is the deliberate and structured execution of the COO management systems by personnel throughout the organization. By introducing a framework and tools for describing, evaluating, and improving COO/OD, this paper provides guidance that can be used by companies to improve process safety performance.     

流域水质目标管理的风险识别与对策研究

以水质目标为约束和核心的管理将逐步完善、补充和强化当前的总量控制模式,成为我国中长期流域水环境管理的重要内容.流域水质目标管理是一个"响应→调控"并不断反馈调整的过程,但由于流域系统的非线性和不确定性,流域污染减排并不能完全确保水质目标的实现.本文将这种由不确定性而引致的流域水质目标的不完全可达性界定为风险,并在分析流域水质目标管理框架思路的基础上,识别并实证了水质目标管理中的主要风险来源,主要包括:1在"响应"层面,由于水质响应与负荷削减等措施间的非线性、时滞性、指标不协同等不对应关系带来的风险;2在"调控"层面,由于水环境管理缺乏适应性的调控和反馈机制而产生的水质达标风险.在此基础上,提出了流域水质目标风险管理的转变途径及其定量表征方法,以期为流域水质目标风险管理提供借鉴.     

Disaster preparedness in a complex urban system: the case of Kathmandu Valley,Nepal

The city is a growing centre of humanitarian concern. Yet, aid agencies, governments and donors are only beginning to comprehend the scale and, importantly, the complexity of the humanitarian challenge in urban areas. Using the case study of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, this paper examines the analytical utility of recent research on complex urban systems in strengthening scholarly understanding of urban disaster risk management, and outlines its operational relevance to disaster preparedness. Drawing on a literature review and 26 interviews with actors from across the Government of Nepal, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, non‐governmental organisations, United Nations agencies, and at‐risk communities, the study argues that complexity can be seen as a defining feature of urban systems and the risks that confront them. To manage risk in these systems effectively, preparedness efforts must be based on adaptive and agile approaches, incorporating the use of network analysis, partnerships, and new technologies.