Industrial Development Versus Environmental Conservation at Local Scale: A Case Study from Southeastern Spain

Local scale has an important role in environmental management. In Spain, rapid industrialization has occurred in the last three decades, leading to substantial changes in socioeconomic relations and resulting in significant environmental degradation. This paper describes the environmental status of the township of Sax (Alicante, in southeast Spain), which has passed from agriculture to industrial manufacturing in 50 years. The human population has grown exponentially during the second half of the 20th century, with a 91% increase from 1955 to 1995, coinciding with strong growth in manufacturing (factories increased fivefold in the period 1955–1976) and important changes in the working population and land use. Illegal rubbish dumps, water pollution, forest fires, erosion, and degradation of wildlife habitats are the main outcomes of these dramatic socioeconomic and demographic changes. The administration has focused on the control of water pollution and waste management, while nongovernmental organizations have concentrated on the prevention of forest fires and the development of environmental education programs. These measures are insufficient to manage current environmental degradation, and an environmental management plan for the study area is discussed. Increasing effort in waste management and industrial wastewater control, changes in land-use policy, and the creation of an advisory committee to increase public participation in decision-making have been identified as environmental target objectives for the coming years.     

Business closure and relocation: a comparative analysis of the Loma Prieta earthquake and Hurricane Andrew

The occurrence of a number of large‐scale disasters or catastrophes in recent years, including the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), the Kashmir earthquake (2005), Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Ike (2008), have raised our awareness regarding the devastating effects of disasters on human populations and the importance of developing mitigation and preparedness strategies to limit the consequences of such events. However, there is still a dearth of social science research focusing on the socio‐economic impact of disasters on businesses in the United States. This paper contributes to this research literature by focusing on the impact of disasters on business closure and relocation through the use of multivariate logistic regression models, specifically focusing on the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989) and Hurricane Andrew (1992). Using a multivariate model, we examine how physical damage to the infrastructure, lifeline disruption and business characteristics, among others, impact business closure and relocation following major disasters.     

千岛湖旅游产业对环境的影响

分析研究了旅游产业的发展对环境的影响，对促进旅游对环境协调发展及规划旅游产业都具有指导意义。     

我国突发性环境污染事故时空格局及影响研究

收集1993～2005年污染事故统计数据,运用GIS和非参数相关分析方法,分析了全国范围内环境污染与破坏事故的动态变化趋势、空间地域分布,探讨了不同的经济条件下影响其发生的外部凶素.结果表明:①13 a中全国每年发生的环境污染与破坏事故总次数最少为1 406次,最多为3 001次,且总体趋势是下降的,水和大气两类环境事故占据了事故总数的绝大部分(83.04%～92.02%).②环境污染与破坏事故空间上主要集中在我国东南和中部地区省份,湖南、四川和广西为环境事故最密集的区域.③人口数、GDP产值、企业个数和工业废水排放量对环境污染与破坏事故的发生次数有正作用.不同的经济水平下环境污染与破坏事故的发牛与影响因素的相关程度不同,发达省份事故数仅与企业数呈现硅著正相关关系.     

Assessing sensitivities of marine areas to stressors based on biological traits

Analysis of the biological traits (e.g., feeding mode and size) that control how organisms interact with their environment has been used to identify environmental drivers of, or impacts on, species and to explain the importance of biodiversity loss. Biological trait analysis (BTA) could also be used within risk-assessment frameworks or in conservation planning if one understands the groups of traits that predict the sensitivity of habitats or communities to specific human activities. Deriving sensitivities from BTA should extend sensitivity predictions to a variety of habitats, especially those in which it would be difficult to conduct experiments (e.g., due to depth or risk to human life) and to scales beyond the norm of most experiments. We used data on epibenthos, collected via video along transects at 27 sites in a relatively pristine region of the seafloor, to determine scales of natural spatial variability of derived sensitivities and the degree to which predictions of sensitivity differed among 3 stressors (extraction of species, sedimentation, and suspended sediments) or were affected by underlying community compositions. We used 3 metrics (weighted abundance, abundance of highly sensitive species, and number of highly sensitive species) to derive sensitivity to these stressors and simulated the ability of these metrics to detect a range of stressor intensities. Regardless of spatial patterns of sensitivities across the sampled area, BTA distinguished differences in sensitivity to different stressors. The BTA also successfully separated differences in community composition from differences in sensitivity to stressors. Conversely, the 3 metrics differed widely in their ability to detect simulated impacts and likely reflect underlying ecological processes, suggesting that use of multiple metrics would be informative for spatial planning and allocating conservation priorities. Our results suggest BTA could be used as a first step in strategic prioritization of protected areas and as an underlying layer for spatial planning.     

Microplastics pollution in Bangladesh: current scenario and future research perspective

ABSTRACT

Microplastics are emerging environmental pollutants that have gained tremendous scientific interest in recent years. These micropollutants are omnipresent both in the terrestrial and aquatic environments posing a deleterious threat to the ecosystem and biodiversity. So, it is important to develop a deep understanding of the environmental fate and potential adverse impacts of microplastics on the aquatic and terrestrial environments. By critically reviewing the previously published scientific literature, the present synthesis briefly outlines the characteristics, occurrence and potential toxic effects of microplastics on terrestrial and aquatic biota. The article also focuses on some innovative approaches for sustainable remediation of macroplastics as well as microplastics. Since the concept of microplastics pollution has yet in its infancy in Bangladesh, this synthesis provides an overview of the current scenario of microplastics pollution and some future research recommendations in the context of Bangladesh which might be helpful to the novice researchers of this field.     

Wildlife impacts and vulnerable livelihoods in a transfrontier conservation landscape

Interactions between humans and wildlife resulting in negative impacts are among the most pressing conservation challenges globally. In regions of smallholder livestock and crop production, interactions with wildlife can compromise human well-being and motivate negative sentiment and retaliation toward wildlife, undermining conservation goals. Although impacts may be unavoidable when human and wildlife land use overlap, scant large-scale human data exist quantifying the direct costs of wildlife to livelihoods. In a landscape of global importance for wildlife conservation in southern Africa, we quantified costs for people living with wildlife through a fundamental measure of human well-being, food security, and we tested whether existing livelihood strategies buffer certain households against crop depredation by wildlife, predominantly elephants. To do this, we estimated Bayesian multilevel statistical models based on multicounty household data (n = 711) and interpreted model results in the context of spatial data from participatory land-use mapping. Reported crop depredation by wildlife was widespread. Over half of the sample households were affected and household food security was reduced significantly (odds ratio 0.37 [0.22, 0.63]). The most food insecure households relied on gathered food sources and welfare programs. In the event of crop depredation by wildlife, these 2 livelihood sources buffered or reduced harmful effects of depredation. The presence of buffering strategies suggests a targeted compensation strategy could benefit the region's most vulnerable people. Such strategies should be combined with dynamic and spatially explicit land-use planning that may reduce the frequency of negative human–wildlife impacts. Quantifying and mitigating the human costs from wildlife are necessary steps in working toward human–wildlife coexistence.     

旅游业发展中的环境问题及对策研究

旅游业发展中的环境问题很多，为使旅游业永续发展，应采取如下对策：对旅游风景区做环境保护规划；扩大风景区的旅游容量；运用经济手段和管理措施进行宏观调控；     

地球早期生命环境的演化

地质记录告诉我们，在地球约46亿年的整个历史中经历了无数次大大小小的劫难，其中在地球生命处于起源和早期演化阶段的前寒武纪，首先是“狂轰滥炸”，4.5亿-3.8亿年前由太阳系形成时留下的岩石林-小行星仍不断撞击着地球并烧焦了整个地球；后来的“雪球”，2.2亿-1.8亿年及大约6亿年前也许是大气中氧气的增加或/和二氧化碳或/和氨气或/和甲烷等温室气体的缩减，使我们的星球进入冰封期，显然，生命挺过了所有的磨难，并以柔克刚的脱颖而出。甚至与环境相互作用共同向高级阶段演化。在至少38亿年前，随着“狂轰滥炸”的停止，原始的生命也许已出现在地球上，到大约5.8亿年前，“雪球”刚结束，新元古代末期的埃迪卡拉大辐射和早寒武纪生命大爆发就接接踵而来，似乎早期地球生命大的进步性演化都是由大的劫难诱发的。     

旅游度假区环境影响的经济分析

以岳阳南湖旅游度假区为产例，探讨了旅游度假区环境影响的费用效益分析方法，分析时以旅游度假区的环境保护设施建设费及其运行费作为环保费用，以采取环保措施后可避免的旅游业，渔业，房地产业等的污染损失作为环保效益，根据社会折现率折算成现值进行比较。