Urbanisation Without Development: Environmental and Health Implications in African Cities

Sustainable development advocates for a balance between socio-economic development and the environment in the pursuit of human advancement. In Africa, high population growth and inadequate infrastructure in urban areas exert pressure on the environment and this threatens the health and wellbeing of urban residents. The population of the African continent until the 1960s was predominantly rural. This scenario has taken a swift turn and some of the major shifts in the global urbanisation process are taking place on the continent. Factors including natural increase in the population, rural–urban migration, strife and hunger leading to the internal displacement of populations have exacerbated the urbanisation process in Africa. The situation has been worsened by the imposition of Western development policies, including structural adjustment programmes on African nations, which has eroded the subsistence base of rural agricultural communities and further ignited rural urban migration. The failure of industry to absorb the increasing labour force has created massive unemployment and deepening poverty crisis in urban centres. Inadequate provision of infrastructure and services to meet the growth in urban populations has resulted in inefficient spatial development of urban centres, the proliferation of squatter settlements, inadequate basic amenities including potable water, sanitation and waste disposal. Poor environmental sanitation has resulted in the upsurge of infectious diseases and deteriorating urban health. Urban populations in Africa are also the worst affected by newly emerging diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS. The poor bear a disproportionately large share of the problems due to their particular vulnerability to environmental and health risks. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

农地资源舒适性价值评估--以江苏省为例

舒适性价值是农地资源价值的重要组成部分,但这种非市场价值往往容易在公共决策中被忽视,从而导致大量农地资源被过分占用及农地资源内部配置的低效率。合理完整地评估农地资源的舒适性价值是促进农地资源持续利用的关键。目前,对农地资源舒适性价值的认识与研究,国内尚处在起步阶段。以江苏省为例,通过意愿调查法,采用半结构问卷调查和电话访谈,对不同行业和年龄的1 000名调查者进行调查,评估了江苏省耕地、草地、园地以及林地舒适性价值。研究表明,江苏省不同类型农地资源舒适性价值差异较大,这种差异与区域经济发展水平和地区文化紧密相关。在此基础上,核算了江苏省农地资源舒适性价值总量,农地资源舒适性价值总量高达25.13亿元/年。因此,在农地资源综合利用决策中,要重视将农地资源的舒适性价值纳入决策体系,从而促进农地资源的持续利用和合理流转。     

Ecological Approaches to Urban Migration of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region

As a global developing tendency, the general viewpoint has been reached in the construction of the ecocities, which has produced widespread influence in the international society. Cities must enable people to live in harmony with nature and achieve sustainable development. Although more and more cities in the world are being designed and built to the ecological ones, the construction is also theoretical questions and arduous tasks. People oriented, ecocity development requires the comprehensiv…     

南水北调工程及其生态安全：优先研究领域

南水北调工程的实施将大幅度增加黄河上游径流量，并同时减少长江尤其是其上游及汉江下游的径流量，从而导致两条主要河流及其支流的水环境改变。中线工程从汉江上游丹江口水库调水，库区上游90 000余km2内的非点源污染和1 300万人口的生活污水处理设施的缺乏对水质将产生重大影响;调水引起水文节律的改变从而对东线沿途的湖泊生态系统产生重大影响;黄淮海平原受水区可利用水量的增加也可能导致该地区的盐渍化。介绍了南水北调工程并讨论了其必要性，提出了工程对生物迁移的影响、水环境及水生态安全、水资源保护的流域生态系统管理和西部退化生态系统的恢复和重建等优先研究领域，并提出结合“中国生态系统研究网络”、“生态环境国家野外科学观测研究站”的建设和长期监测来保障工程生态安全的策略。     

GIS支持的县域人口迁移空间模型研究--以浙江省临安市为例

人口迁移引起人口的数量、质量、结构等要素的空间分布发生变化,是人口地理学研究的重要内容之一。目前对人口迁移模型的研究大多是以行政区划作为计算单元,难以反映小尺度下行政区内部的人口迁移态势。在GIS的支持下,提出构建县域人口迁移引力模型,选择县域内独立的居民区片为计算单元来评价乡镇的人口吸引潜力和人口最大可能迁移目的地分布。以浙江省临安市为实验区,实现模型的运算,检验结果表明模型能较好地反映各乡镇对人口的实际吸引力,为研究区制定人口、经济等政策和辅助规划提供了科学合理的依据。     

Regional-scale application of the decision support system MOIRA-PLUS: an example of assessment of the radiological impact of the Chernobyl accident on the fresh water ecosystem in Italy

The present work illustrates the customisation and application of the decision support system MOIRA-PLUS (a MOdel-based computerised system for management support to Identify optimal remedial strategies for Restoring radionuclide contaminated Aquatic ecosystems and drainage areas) to the fresh water environment in Italy. MOIRA-PLUS is aimed at evaluating the behaviour of radiocaesium and radiostrontium in fresh water ecosystems and at assessing the appropriateness of suitable strategies for the management of contaminated water bodies by the application of multi-attribute analysis techniques. MOIRA-PLUS can be applied to complex networks of lakes, rivers and tributaries and can be straightforwardly customised utilising data and information from readily accessible sources such as official websites provided by scientific or government organisations. The present work shows an application of the decision system to 10 lakes and 18 rivers in Italy contaminated with ¹³⁷Cs of Chernobyl origin. Site-specific values of some aggregated transfer parameters were estimated for the most important Italian lakes. Although high values of fish and water consumptions were hypothesised, very low doses to public from the fresh water pathway following the accident were calculated.     

Impact of Regional Economy on Internal Migration in Yangtze Delta： Based on Panel Data

Metropolitan Shanghai, in Yangtze River Delta （YRD）, plays undoubtedly the leading role in the economic development in China, and becomes one of the most important population congregation areas. It is also widely regarded as the sixth uprising urban agglomeration in the world. Based on the quantitative studies on basic socioeconomic and demographic profile on the number and transition of population, this paper concluded that the migration is the key factor for population dynamics in YRD. Then, what are the regional economic factors affecting the migration of different cities in YRD？ The panel data show that the different wage level is the most important factor that affects the immigration in YRD. Moreover, the ratio of industry sector and service sector has an impact on attracting immigration. However, per-capital GDP and the share of foreign direct investment （FDI） to GDP have dual-side impact： not high per-capital GDP and FDI bring the high immigration.     

高效藻类塘对农村生活污水的处理及氮的迁移转化

研究了高效藻类塘系统处理高氮农村污水氮的去除及其迁移转化规律.高效藻类塘和水生高等植物塘水力停留时间分别为8 d和4 d,进水总氮和氩氮分别为17.13-133.2 mg/L和1.85～108.3 mg/L,两级高效藻类塘对总氮和氨氮的全年平均去除效率分别为29.4%和91.6%,季节处理效率排序为夏季>秋季>春季>冬季.高效藻类塘中氨氮的降解和转化途径依次为硝化作用、藻类同化吸收及其他途径、氨氮挥发;硝化作用占氨氮总转化量的50%以上;高效藻类塘内可以发生氨氮沉淀,但可忽略不计.总氮的去除以藻类同化形成颗粒有机氮经分离后得以去除为主,氨氮挥发较少.可采用藻类塘出水回流至化粪池或改进水生高等植物塘构造强化反硝化.提高系统的整体脱氮效果.     

Modelling multiple dispersion of radionuclides through the environment

The migration of a contaminant through the environment is the result of the transport by a variety of biotic and abiotic carriers which move according to different dispersion mechanisms. Consequently, the patterns of the distribution of a pollutant in the environment cannot be ever explained on the basis of a single migration process or assuming that the concentrations of contaminant in the different kinds of carriers quickly reach the equilibrium condition. The present work discusses two examples (wash-off from catchments and transport through soils of radionuclides) that clearly demonstrate the inadequacy of “single dispersion” models to predict these patterns. On the contrary, models based on multiple dispersion can successfully simulate the particular features of the above mentioned processes. It was demonstrated that the time behaviour of radionuclide migration rates from catchment of different rivers vary within small ranges as a consequence of multiple dispersion. This result can be useful for the development of generic predictive models.     

Connectivity of wood thrush breeding,wintering, and migration sites based on range‐wide tracking

Many migratory animals are experiencing rapid population declines, but migration data with the geographic scope and resolution to quantify the complex network of movements between breeding and nonbreeding regions are often lacking. Determining the most frequently used migration routes and nonbreeding regions for a species is critical for understanding population dynamics and making effective conservation decisions. We tracked the migration of individual Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina) (n = 102) from across their range with light‐level geolocators and, for the first time, quantified migration routes and wintering regions for distinct breeding populations. We identified regional and species‐level migratory connectivity networks for this declining songbird by combining our tracking results with range‐wide breeding abundance estimates and forest cover data. More than 50% of the species occupied the eastern wintering range (Honduras to Costa Rica), a region that includes only one‐third of all wintering habitat and that is undergoing intensive deforestation. We estimated that half of all Wood Thrushes in North America migrate south through Florida in fall, whereas in spring approximately 73% funnel northward through a narrow span along the central U.S. Gulf Coast (88–93°W). Identifying migratory networks is a critical step for conservation of songbirds and we demonstrated with Wood Thrushes how it can highlight conservation hotspots for regional populations and species as a whole. Conectividad de Sitios de Reproducción, Invierno y Migración del Zorzal con Base en Rastreo de Cobertura Amplia