Balancing Water Resources Development and Environmental Sustainability in Africa: A Review of Recent Research Findings and Applications

Sustainable development in Africa is dependent on increasing use of the continent’s water resources without significantly degrading ecosystem services that are also fundamental to human wellbeing. This is particularly challenging in Africa because of high spatial and temporal variability in the availability of water resources and limited amounts of total water availability across expansive semi-arid portions of the continent. The challenge is compounded by ambitious targets for increased water use and a rush of international funding to finance development activities. Balancing development with environmental sustainability requires (i) understanding the boundary conditions imposed by the continent’s climate and hydrology today and into the future, (ii) estimating the magnitude and spatial distribution of water use needed to meet development goals, and (iii) understanding the environmental water requirements of affected ecosystems, their current status and potential consequences of increased water use. This article reviews recent advancements in each of these topics and highlights innovative approaches and tools available to support sustainable development. While much remains to be learned, scientific understanding and technology should not be viewed as impediments to sustainable development on the continent.     

Is There a Metabolism of an Urban Ecosystem? An Ecological Critique

The energy and material flows of a city are often described as urban metabolism (UM), which is put forward as a way to link a city's ecology and economy. UM draws parallels to the biology of individual organisms, yet the analogy is misapplied. In striving to be interdisciplinary, UM makes this organismic comparison rather than identifying the city as an ecosystem, thereby ignoring developments in ecological theory. Using inappropriate rhetoric misdirects researchers, which influences scientific investigation-from problem statements to interpretations. UM is valuable in quantifying the city's use of natural resources but does not achieve a comprehensive, integrated analysis of the urban ecosystem. To realize an interdisciplinary, perhaps transdisciplinary, understanding of urban ecology, researchers need to emphasize the essential tenets of material flows analysis, view the city as an ecosystem, and use language that properly reflects current knowledge, theory, and conceptual frameworks in the foundational disciplines.     

Anthropogenic metal cycles in China

The flows and stocks of seven important industrial metals were characterized for mainland China for several years in the dynamically changing decade of 1994–2004. One-year snapshot cycles are provided for chromium, nickel, and silver. For copper, zinc, lead, and iron, multiple-year cycles have been completed; they demonstrate that the flows of these metals into use in China doubled between 2000 and 2004. Although the Chinese per capita flows from production to disposal are mostly shown to be below the global average rate, they are increasing or are expected to increase dramatically. The metal resource efficiency is evaluated for several indicators of material flow analysis; these metrics for China are also below the global average values. The research quantitatively illustrates that China’s metal cycles may pose significant resource and environmental challenges in terms of their magnitudes and potential for growth.     

尾矿库溃坝模型探讨

针对尾矿库日常工作中需要对其溃坝可能造成的危害及危害范围进行估计而又没有成熟的模型可用的情况,采用工程类比法,根据泥石流以及水库溃坝等方面的工程经验和数学模型,经过对其相似之处进行类比,并对原有模型进行适当调整,以期得出尾矿库溃坝所形成泥石流的数学模型,并求出其冲击范围和破坏能力,可以为尾矿库的应急管理工作和选址决策提供一个相对成熟和稳定的方法。     

A European model for waste and material flows

The use of materials and the generation of waste are linked to economic activities and in many projections these are assumed to be a constant ratio of the economic activities. This may be the case considering detailed economic activities and unchanged technology. However, the assumption of constant coefficients is questionable when linking material use and waste generation to aggregated economic activities. Therefore, in this paper, econometrics is used to test the assumption of constant waste coefficients empirically. The analyses show that an assumption of constant waste coefficients is not supported, generally, and a model allowing for trendwise changing coefficients is developed and used for projections of waste and material flows in 25 European countries.     

运用模拟方法解决步行街人车混流区问题

在分析城市步行街及其周边存在人车混行、人员密度高、通行效率低、潜在的危险大的基础上,笔者用计算机模拟方法研究了沈阳市中街步行街的一个人车混行的交叉路口,实际勘察了十字路口道路格局、车流、人流状况,测量、估计通过路口的人数、流量,根据获得的数据,对不设置交通信号灯、设置信号灯、建设过街天桥或地下通道等几种情况进行模拟,得到各种情况下的通行效率,并对不同的过街方案的优缺点进行比较。最终选择过街方案需要综合考虑影响安全和效率的多种因素,包括地域、人流量、路口宽度、周边交通等因素,用较小的经济投入取得最大的通行效率。文中的模拟采用EXODUS软件。     

航海技术专业安全管理素质培养方案研究

比较分析了海运物流业的风险程度,指出航海技术专业是隐性的安全工程专业。针对海运物流业对高级船员的“安全管理素质”、“驾驶台安全素质”、“应急反应素质”新需求,指出需用高等工程教育模式替代传统的职业教育模式,采用国际上“回归工程”理念来培养安全管理素质。因而提出了由3个课群构成的安全管理课系,阐述“综合安全管理素质”课群的设计思想,重点给出关键课程《海运安全科学基础》的内容组织和教学要求。研究成果为造就具有自组织自适应能力的海运安全管理素质的高级船员奠定了课系基础和培养机制。     

河流生态基流量整合计算模型

针对北方地区流域水域生态系统人工化明显和河流断流的现状,提出了河流生态基流量的概念,并分析了其内涵．河流生态基流量包括河道生态基流量、河口生态基流量和湿地生态基流量．河流生态基流量计算应考虑流域内不同水系、不同河段生态环境的差异性和时空变化规律．通过改进生态环境需水量的计算方法,分析河流的空间结构特征、各河段的相互关系以及流域的水特征,提出了整合计算模型．整合计算模型分为2类：不同水系和同一水系的整合．同一水系整合计算模型又分为：河流生态基流量整合模型、河流与湿地生态基流量的整合以及河道生态基流量的整合模型．其中最为复杂的河道生态基流量的整合模型共分为6种形式：简单式、汇流式、分流式、组合式、交叉式和河口式．研究结果表明：各子系统的生态基流量是河流生态基流量整合计算的基础;河流生态基流量保证系数是计算的重要参数,其值在确定基数的基础上,通过恢复模式和空间优化配置这2个影响因子进行调整而得到,取值范围为[0,1];整合计算模型需要明确消耗性生态基流量和非消耗性生态基流量,消耗性生态基流量不受保证系数的影响,非消耗性生态基流量因保证系数取值的不同而变化．     

Effects of threat management interactions on conservation priorities

Decisions need to be made about which biodiversity management actions are undertaken to mitigate threats and about where these actions are implemented. However, management actions can interact; that is, the cost, benefit, and feasibility of one action can change when another action is undertaken. There is little guidance on how to explicitly and efficiently prioritize management for multiple threats, including deciding where to act. Integrated management could focus on one management action to abate a dominant threat or on a strategy comprising multiple actions to abate multiple threats. Furthermore management could be undertaken at sites that are in close proximity to reduce costs. We used cost‐effectiveness analysis to prioritize investments in fire management, controlling invasive predators, and reducing grazing pressure in a bio‐diverse region of southeastern Queensland, Australia. We compared outcomes of 5 management approaches based on different assumptions about interactions and quantified how investment needed, benefits expected, and the locations prioritized for implementation differed when interactions were taken into account. Managing for interactions altered decisions about where to invest and in which actions to invest and had the potential to deliver increased investment efficiency. Differences in high priority locations and actions were greatest between the approaches when we made different assumptions about how management actions deliver benefits through threat abatement: either all threats must be managed to conserve species or only one management action may be required. Threatened species management that does not consider interactions between actions may result in misplaced investments or misguided expectations of the effort required to mitigate threats to species.