A methodology for assessing urban sustainability: Aalborg commitments baseline review for Riga, Latvia

Both the Aalborg Commitments and the guidance on integrated urban environmental management and sustainable urban transport plans proposed by the EU Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment foresee a baseline review as the first step in developing integrated urban management plans and systems. A baseline review of urban sustainability undertaken in Riga reveals significant discrepencies between the sustainability criteria of the Aalborg Commitments and the: responsibilities and competencies of the municipal government and administration as defined by statutes; policy goals and measures defined in municipal planning documents; policy goals and measures defined in the Riga Development Plan. To better orient the mandate of the municipality towards sustainable development, municipal statutes should be supplemented to more fully reflect the issues defined by the Aalborg Commitments and should include sustainability as a goal. In order to strengthen the implementation of sustainable development specific policy goals, measures and targets should be formulated for all the Aalborg Commitments issues when revising existing municipal planning documents or developing a municipal sustainable development management plan. An analysis of the European Common Indicators and the State of the Environment in Riga 2001 indicators indicates that they can only partially fulfill a monitoring function for the implementation of the Aalborg Commitments. This highlights a need to better coordinate sustainable development initiatives at the European level. The methodology used for the baseline review in Riga is useful for assessing the status of urban sustainability when preparing integrated urban management plans or systems, but requires testing elsewhere. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

人类自我科学管理是实现可持续发展的必然选择

现今人口规模的不断膨胀和物质生活水平的日益提高,对资源和环境造成的压力急剧增加。分析了世界现状和可持续发展面临的挑战之后,提出人类要实现可持续发展必须要进行自我科学管理,分别从人类自我定位、对待科技的态度、人口管理、人类消费管理4个方面进行讨论和阐述。人类首先需重新审视自己,进行自我定位;其次要正确对待科技;控制人口数量和转变不合理消费是目前人类自我管理的重要任务,对此提出一些实施对策。     

规划环评中公众参与有效性案例研究

针对规划环评的特点,通过秦皇岛经济技术开发区规划环评案例分析,就如何保证规划环境影响评价中公众参与有效性进行了探讨,提出了只有做到广泛的公众代表性、有效的公众参与形式、科学的问卷设计、合理的反馈意见处理,才能发挥公众参与在规划环境影响评价工作中的作用。     

e-Serem – A Web-Based Manual For The Estimation of Emission Reductions From JI and CDM Projects

This paper presentse-SEREM (Smart Emission ReductionEstimation Manual), a cost-free, easilyaccessed and updated, web-based manual forestimating emission reductions from Joint Implementation (JI) andClean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. e-SEREM's main functions arethe selection of a benchmark for a specificproject type in the power or heat sectorand the calculation of the annual andcumulative emission reductions accrued bythis project for its crediting lifetime.e-SEREM was developed in order to test itsapplicability and practicality in assistingproject developers and evaluators toelaborate baselines easily and calculatethe emission credits earned by candidate JIor CDM projects hosted in several countries.     

中国生态农业的理论与实践

论述中国生态农业的概念，内涵，目标及理论依据和基础，归纳生态农业建设的一些模式和技术，总结中国生态农业得到的丰硕实践成果，指出中国生态农业是发展有中国特色的现代持续农业的重要模式，是中国实现农业现代化和农业可持续双重目标的战略抉择，并展望中国生态农业发展前景。     

污水处理消毒技术及发展方向

水循环过程中因受自然因素和人类的生活生产活动的影响,杂质和异物带入水循环形成污水。污水主要包括城市生活污水、工业废水和径流污水。若这些污水若不经处理就排入地面水体,就会使河流、湖泊受到严重污染。污水经过二级处理后,仍可能有病原菌,因此必须对污水进行消毒。本文分析比较了紫外线消毒以及氯消毒技术的适用条件、优缺点,还比较分析比较了二氧化氯消毒以及臭氧消毒技术的适用条件与优缺点,并对污水消毒技术的发展方向进行了探讨。     

祁东经济开发区生态化建设规划研究

工业园生态化建设是发展循环经济走新型工业化道路的重要途径,生态工业园是我国继经济技术开发区、高新技术开发区之后第三代工业园区发展的必然趋势。本文从祁东经济开发区的内部资源和外部环境出发,对其发展生态工业园具备的优势与劣势、面临的机遇与威胁进行了系统分析,并对其建设生态工业园的模式和实施层次进行了探讨,同时提出了相应的保障措施,以利于祁东经开区的可持续发展。     

浅议经济开发区环境风险评价

从经济开发区与建设项目环境风险的区别入手,分析了开发区环境风险评价的特点,并对开发区环境风险评价的内容及方法进行了阐述。通过实例分析,提出了适合于开发区环境风险评价的内容与模式,并提出在开发区环境风险评价方法上需要进一步丰富和发展的内容。     

The incidence of land tenure insecurity in Southern Africa: Policy implications for sustainable development

The study presented in this article used a combination of key informant interviews and a review and synthesis of existing country level literature to identify the major sources of land tenure insecurity in six Southern African countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. Findings reveal that the main causes of land tenure insecurity experienced in Southern Africa include lack of land rights of minority groups, unclear or overlapping land rights, overcrowding, land alienation into leasehold, insecurity of farm workers and farm labour tenants, inappropriate and exploitative administrative practices, land encroachment and illegal settlers and limited women's land rights. The article presents a summary of land tenure security related initiatives that the study countries have or are in the process of adopting. Analysis of these initiatives shows that tenure reforms have focused on changing the law and rules but little has been done to translate new laws into implementable programs; capacity building; prioritization of resources to support tenure reform; provision of complementary policies and incentives; addressing HIV/AIDS‐land tenure related problems; and monitoring and evaluation. The paper contends that these policy issues should be addressed in order to ensure realization of land tenure security for all.