Approaches to developing risk management objectives: an analysis of international strategies

Risk assessment/management frameworks employed around the world to guide environmental decision-making were analyzed for their approaches to developing risk management objectives and the decision criteria necessary for environmental policy implementation. Frameworks from the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, and the USA were considered. Progress in refining the scientific basis for risk assessment/management has been made, but there has been little parallel development in defining the mechanisms by which available scientific information may be used to define risk management goals or identify and select between management options using a priori decision criteria. The lack of detailed guidance on the setting and achievement of risk management goals that appropriately balance technical information and public input remains an important challenge to the use and practice of all risk assessment/management frameworks.     

Forest Die-Back Modified Plankton Recovery from Acidic Stress

We examined long-term data on water chemistry of Lake Rachelsee (Germany) following the changes in acidic depositions in central Europe since 1980s. Despite gradual chemical recovery of Rachelsee, its biological recovery was delayed. In 1999, lake recovery was abruptly reversed by a coincident forest die-back, which resulted in elevated terrestrial export of nitrate and ionic aluminum lasting ~5 years. This re-acidification episode provided unique opportunity to study plankton recovery in the rapidly recovering lake water after the abrupt decline in nitrate leaching from the catchment. There were sudden changes both in lake water chemistry and in plankton biomass structure, such as decreased bacterial filaments, increased phytoplankton biomass, and rotifer abundance. The shift from dominance of heterotrophic to autotrophic organisms suggested their substantial release from severe phosphorus stress. Such a rapid change in plankton structure in a lake recovering from acidity has, to the best of our knowledge, not been previously documented.     

Optimization-Based Atmospheric Plume Source Identification

This work applies optimization and an Eulerian inversion approach presented by Bagtzoglou and Baun in 2005 in order to reconstruct contaminant plume time histories and to identify the likely source of atmospheric contamination using data from a real test site for the first time. Present-day distribution of an atmospheric contaminant plume as well as data points reflecting the plume history allow the reconstruction and provide the plume velocity, distribution, and probable source. The method was tested to a hypothetical case and with data from the Forest Atmosphere Transfer and Storage (FACTS) experiment in the Duke experimental forest site. In the scenarios presented herein, as well as in numerous cases tested for verification purposes, the model conserved mass, successfully located the peak of the plume, and managed to capture the motion of the plume well but underestimated the contaminant peak.     

流域水质目标管理技术研究：Ⅴ.水污染防治的环境经济政策

环境经济政策是流域水质目标管理技术的重要组成部分. 通过分析国内外的环境经济政策以及主要经济手段的实施现状与特点,指出我国环境经济政策的不足与问题. 以流域控制单元为对象,提出水污染防治的环境经济政策的基本内涵和特点,以“分区、分类、分级、分期”为基本理念,研究了适合我国流域水质目标管理的环境经济政策框架与构建思路,并对环境财政、环境投融资、市场化、排污收费与污染税、生态补偿与污染赔偿等具体手段进行了阐述,提出环境经济政策的综合实施机制以及相关的政策保障.     

土地复垦投资的政策法规建议

土地复垦投资的政策法规是为了克服市场经济本身的缺陷和不足,规范生产建设者（当事者）的行为以及强化其社会意识和责任,确保土地复垦投资机制的形成和运作。本文分析了我国土地复垦投资的相关政策和法规的现状和问题,有针对性地提出了一些政策和法规建议,且对《土地复垦规定》提出了具体的修改建议。     

Design of policy mechanism to promote cleaner production in China

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北美自由贸易区和欧盟的环境政策：趋向,启示与对策

以北美自由贸易区和欧盟为代表的区域性经济集团已在经济利益与环境保护挂钩的制度性安排方面取得诸多进展，它们不同程度地在机构设置、协定条款、资金安排等方面强化了环境要求，并在国际环境公约的执行上表现出积极、灵活的特点。这一切都将为未来多边经济体系中环境问题的协商和解决开辟了新的途径， 也为我国在实施可持续发展过程中的环境制度化建设提供可鉴之处。     

中国环境产业发展的政策选择

选择中国环境产业发展政策，首先要选择开拓环境产业需求的政策，并着重考虑环境产业的问题经济效益问题和加强环境产业的能力建设。对中国环境产业发展政策进行了研究与分析。     

Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US regions

It has been argued that regional collaboration can facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts through integrated planning and management. In an attempt to understand the underlying institutional factors that either support or contest this assumption, this paper explores the institutional factors influencing adaptation to climate change at the regional scale, where multiple public land and natural resource management jurisdictions are involved. Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. We propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels, be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by rapid climate change.     

Compromising sustainable mobility? The case of the Gothenburg congestion tax

Congestion charging is widely considered an effective policy measure to regulate and reduce car traffic demand and associated environmental and health problems in cities. However, introducing restrictive measures to constrain individual choice and behaviour for the common good has often proven difficult. Using a specific case, the Gothenburg congestion tax introduced in 2013, we study the policy process behind the introduction of the tax and assess to what extent green values were compromised along the way. The tax was made possible by co-financing infrastructure investments, including roads, which seemingly contradicts stated goals of reducing car traffic and emissions. We show how the tax was ‘muddled through’ in a top-down political compromise by a grand coalition where different interests could legitimate their support in relation to the achievement of partially conflicting objectives and projects. However, to declare the regulatory goals fully neutralised would be to underestimate the scheme's direct environmental effects and restrictive potential. Finding a compromise with powerful political and economic interests was necessary to get it off the ground. Once launched, however, it can over time regain its restrictive properties and lead to more profound long-term effects.