From mute to reflective: changing governmentality in St Petersburg and the priorities of Russian environmental planning

This paper analyses, by using a constructivist methodology, how sustainability is perceived by Russian urban and regional planners and how environmental planning is understood on a discursive level. The planning discourse, which was reconstructed primarily with the help of 14 thematic interviews undertaken in St Petersburg, is positioned on the axes of the triangle of planning contradictions. The analysis shows that the promoted planning paradigm – the interpretations about the priorities of environmental planning – stem from the expert-centred approach of the Soviet era, and poorly suits the changing governmentality of St Petersburg. Due to regime changes, a significant step from a mute to a reflective governmentality was taken in St Petersburg, but the professional planning discourse is in conflict with this context reality and prohibits a more sustainable planning standpoint from developing.     

The impact of climate changes on mass events in China

There is an increasing number of “mass events” in mainland China. My study extends the current studies to the context of China and tries to examine the potential impacts of climate changes on human conflicts in China. The results suggest a strong linkage between the deviation of monthly mean temperature from the historical mean and the number of mass events in a province. If the current trend of warming persists, in the next 6–8 decades, the number of mass events in China will increase by over 8.8%.     

海洋管理信息系统的应用

建设海洋管理信息系统是海岸带综合管理获取正确信息,协调海洋开发活动冲突及避免海洋管理漏洞的客观要求。本文通过论述目前已经用于实践的数据库型、办公自动化型、决策支持型等三种类型的海洋管理信息系统,结合福建省海洋资源与环境管理信息系统建设规划,提出我国建设海洋管理信息系统必须重视数据源、信息共享机制及系统的业务化运行等问题。     

When biologists and engineers collide: Habitat conservation planning in the middle of urbanized development

The City of Austin, Texas, is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. It is also in one of the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems in the world: the Balcones Canyonlands. Five cave invertebrates and two species of birds that inhabit the area are listed as threatened or endangered, two species of plants are candidates for listing, several others are considered rare and of concern, and a species of the salamander has also been proposed for listing. A habitat conservation plan, of national significance according to Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbit (Haurwitz 1996), has been under development for the last several years to conserve those endangered species through a 2400-ha system of preserves and to allow development to continue in more than 162,000 ha of surrounding area. The preserve system, comprising several units ranging in size from less than a hundred to several thousand hectares, would be bordered in many instances by developed areas. Development and maintenance of the infrastructure necessary for new and existing development, both commercial and residential, could have negated the biological value of the preserves (e.g., power-line corridors, water-treatment pipelines and facilities). The challenge of bringing this plan to fruition illustrates the complex biological, technical, and sociological context within which habitat conservation planning may occur. Resolving resource use conflicts of this nature have several commonalities that overarch these contexts. If recognized and addressed, one may move easily and foster positive results. These commonalities can be expressed as principles such as: relying on scientists to recognize, but not solve problems; acting before a scientific consensus is achieved; including human motivation and responses as part of the system to be studied and managed; and confronting uncertainty.     

Drivers of illegal resource extraction: An analysis of Bardia National Park,Nepal

While park-people conflicts have received worldwide attention, the extent of illegal resource extraction and the relationship with communities’ livelihoods has gained little attention in the literature. Thus this paper investigates the impact of socio-economic factors involved in illegal fuel wood and fodder extraction at Bardia National Park in Nepal. Household questionnaires, key-informant interviews and focus groups were conducted to identify different plant species used by households and explore the causes and mode of resource extraction in three buffer zone villages in the park. Altogether 50 different plants were identified by villagers that were used regularly for different livelihood purposes. Almost half of the respondents met their needs by illegally and regularly extracting resources from the park. Incentive schemes in the form of development projects were important but not sufficient in meeting the basic needs of households’ especially for such daily items such as fuel wood and fodder. The results described in this paper showed that proximity and access to resources either in the national park, the buffer zone community forest or the government forest, and impact on the livelihoods significantly influenced the likelihood of illegal resource extraction activities. Villages that differed in terms of their location to the resource base, the provision of alternative resources and influence of these on their livelihoods showed significant differences in terms of their patterns of resource extraction and use of these resources. As resource use options, resource interest, and resource extraction patterns were different between villages and dependent on circumstances specific to villages, site-specific management strategies were necessary and more influential than the enforcement of ‘one-size fits all’ policies. It is suggested that park management plans should be flexible and adaptive enough to meet site-specific contexts and to endear wider support from local communities.     

Tidal river management in the south west Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh: Moving towards a transdisciplinary approach?

Due to both natural and anthropogenic forces, the south west part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra coastal area is facing diverse problems such as waterlogging, salinity, and loss of biodiversity. In order to address these challenges, local people have identified ‘tidal river management (TRM)’ as a comprehensive approach for sustainably managing this part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin. However, due to institutional limitations, mismanagement and social conflicts, application of the TRM approach is not straightforward. In order to identify existing implementation barriers and to effectively apply the TRM approach, a transdisciplinary approach is examined for its potential to inform the re-shaping of TRM governing values and actions. It is argued that a thorough application of a transdisciplinary framework is essential, supported by the active involvement of key agencies and local stakeholders. The proposed transdisciplinary framework can potentially be applied to TRM projects for solving waterlogging and associated problems in order to achieve greater sustainability of the area.     

Studying freeway merging conflicts using virtual reality technology

Introduction: This research aims to investigate the perceptions and reactions of drivers regarding freeway merging situation, utilizing a new approach with the basis of a multilevel simulation platform which incorporates virtual reality (VR) technology. Methods: A VR driving environment integrated with traffic micro-simulation was developed to evaluate driving behaviors and the impact of merging decisions in terms of traffic conflicts. The driving experiments were conducted under a variety of circumstances, including varying traffic flows and the presence of ramp metering. The Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) was utilized to extract the number of conflicts from the micro-simulation results. Results: The final results indicated that the probability of conflict has a positive correlation with traffic flow, while conflict frequency at freeway merges is affected by the presence of ramp metering due to its potentiality to enhance driver decisions and reduce the drivers’ pressure when they make maneuvers. Practical Applications: The findings reveal that the proposed VR simulation platform is a useful tool to improve the safety of freeway merging. It has the potential to enhance driver skills and can also be used in the study of human–machine interaction.     

Indigenous peoples,biological diversity and protected area management — policy framework towards resolving conflicts

Legal notification of protected area status follows enforcement which, by and large, curtails resource use and means of livelihood, apart from affecting the sociocultural value system of the local communities, leading to park-reserve-people conflicts. These conflicts are major threats to biodiversity conservation in developing countries and call for changes in conventional strategies for conservation planning and management. The attempts to involve local communities in protected area management usually fail when initiated and directed by outsiders. This paper deals with the present concept of protected area management and focuses on some of the fundamental issues related to indigenous peoples. It offers principles and options which may be followed towards resolving the conflicts arising out of such issues.     

WATER-ENERGY CONFLICTS IN MONTANA'S YELLOWSTONE RIVER BASIN1

ABSTRACT The abundant, high-quality waters of the Yellowstone River Basin have fostered a strong agricultural-based economy in eastern Montana. The region also contains the nation's largest strippable coal reserves. Numerous conflicts have developed around the mining of coal and in-state conversion of coal into electricity and synthetic fuels – processes that require large volumes of water. Competition for water among industrialists, agriculturalists, and others is a critical state issue. Probable effects of increased water diversions, the nature of water-energy conflicts, and state efforts to control development are discussed.     

LINEAR PROGRAMMING USE FOR EVALUATING WATER RESOURCES AND COST AND BENEFIT ALLOCATION1

ABSTRACT A linear programming model for a river basin was developed to include almost all water-related economic activity both for consumers and producers. The model was so designated that the entire basin or basin sub-division could be analyzed. The model included seven sectors, nine objective function criteria, and three river-flow levels. Economic basis for conflicts among sectors over incidence of cost allocation and level of economic activity can be traced to some chosen objective. The disposal of untreated household waste water, particularly from the rural household, directly into the river was consistent with maximizing net benefits and minimizing costs. The optimum resource allocation, water-treatment plants, farms and industry activities would change with flow level. For each of the three industries analyzed separately, paper, wool and tanning, public treatment of industrial waste water was the optimal treatment process in one or more of the solutions. Lake shoreline was the dominant feature determining lake-resource valuation. Implied capital value varied from $126 per shoreline foot to over $250 depending on discount rate. Implied prices on lake surface ranged from $42 to $147 per acre. Strong economic forces encouraged small lot sizes for vacation cottages.