Exploring the lay/expert divide: the attribution of responsibilities for coal ash pollution in Tuzla,Bosnia and Herzegovina

Invoking expert knowledge is a common strategy in attempts to settle environmental disputes. However, the validity of expertise is contingent upon the context in which an actor is recognised as an expert. In complex environmental conflicts the distinction between lay and expert knowledge is not always fixed a priori. However, as conflicts unfold, intervening parties tend to present their cases in ways that reinforce this distinction. This is apparent in the attribution of environmental responsibilities. This paper presents an empirical case of an environmental conflict related to land contamination due to coal ash disposal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis revealed two polar positions in the conflict: the first one, mainly held by scientists and industry representatives, invoked expert knowledge and presented a distributed approach to the attribution of responsibilities; the second one, mainly held by local residents and municipal officials, presented an experiential understanding of pollution, as lay knowledge, and attributed direct responsibilities to the local energy industry. The paper concludes that the persistence of the distinction between expert and lay knowledge is a manifestation of the social structures that underlie the conflict.     

Flooding in Texas: Examination of Temporal Changes and Impacts of Tropical Cyclones

Annual maximum peak discharge measurements from 62 stations with a record of at least 70 years are used to assess extreme flooding in Texas at the regional scale. This work focuses on examination of the validity of the stationarity assumption and on the impact of tropical cyclones (TCs) on the upper tail of the flood peak distribution. We assess the validity of the stationarity assumption by testing the records for abrupt and gradual changes. The presence of abrupt changes in the first two moments of the flood peak distribution is assessed using the Lombard test. We use the Mann‐Kendall test to examine the presence of monotonic trends. Results indicate that violations of the stationarity assumption are most commonly caused by abrupt changes, which are often associated with river regulation. We fit the time series of stationary flood records with the generalized extreme value distribution to investigate whether TCs control the upper tail of the flood peak distribution. Our results indicate that TCs play a diminished role in shaping the upper tail of the flood peak distribution compared with areas of the eastern United States subject to frequent TCs.     

Air‐Water Temperature Relationships in the Trout Streams of Southeastern Minnesota's Carbonate‐Sandstone Landscape

Carbonate‐sandstone geology in southeastern Minnesota creates a heterogeneous landscape of springs, seeps, and sinkholes that supply groundwater into streams. Air temperatures are effective predictors of water temperature in surface‐water dominated streams. However, no published work investigates the relationship between air and water temperatures in groundwater‐fed streams (GWFS) across watersheds. We used simple linear regressions to examine weekly air‐water temperature relationships for 40 GWFS in southeastern Minnesota. A 40‐stream, composite linear regression model has a slope of 0.38, an intercept of 6.63, and R² of 0.83. The regression models for GWFS have lower slopes and higher intercepts in comparison to surface‐water dominated streams. Regression models for streams with high R² values offer promise for use as predictive tools for future climate conditions. Climate change is expected to alter the thermal regime of groundwater‐fed systems, but will do so at a slower rate than surface‐water dominated systems. A regression model of intercept vs. slope can be used to identify streams for which water temperatures are more meteorologically than groundwater controlled, and thus more vulnerable to climate change. Such relationships can be used to guide restoration vs. management strategies to protect trout streams.     

An Optimization Method for Estimating Constituent Mean Concentrations in Base Flow‐Dominated Flow

Pollutant coefficients have been widely used to assess runoff nonpoint source pollution from individual land uses (e.g., agricultural, residential) of a watershed. Pollutant coefficients, known as event mean concentrations (EMCs), were developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP) to serve as a national measure for characterizing pollutant loading in a receiving water body. The term “baseflow pollutant coefficient (BPC)” is used in this study as a surrogate for EMC to describe mean concentration of pollutants in base flow‐dominated flow. A method for characterizing base flow quantity and quality for different land uses was explored using inverse modeling with two optimization techniques (a least square method and a genetic algorithm [GA] optimization), land use information, and streamflow quantity and quality data. The inverse model was formulated as a constrained minimization problem and demonstrated with data for 15 watersheds in Indiana. Results showed that estimated pollutant coefficients are comparable to the published literature. This indicates that the proposed method has the potential to effectively estimate constituent mean concentrations for pollutant load determination in gauged and ungauged watersheds, albeit more analysis with larger and more robust datasets is desirable to further refine and validate the accuracy of the approach.     

环境污染型项目中农村移民安置规划研究--以梅城垃圾填埋场为例

在一些环境污染型工程项目中,做好农村移民的安置规划工作尤为重要。借助世行贷款项目,通过持续的实际调研,以梅城垃圾填埋场为例,介绍了项目的建设主要内容及影响。从征地补偿安置、农村住宅房屋拆迁安置及弱势群体及妇女权益保护三个方面论述了农村移民生产生活安置方式。基于此,总结出了以下四个结论：(1)严格遵守相关法律法规、(2)征迁过程与安置工作相协调、(3)合理补偿,适当调整、(4)强化机构建设和人员能力培养。并提出了四条合理化建议。     

煤矸石堆场Fe、Mn迁移累积效应研究

通过对贵州织金典型煤矿区矸石堆场周边地表水体及耕地进行调查与采样分析,探讨了煤矸石堆场Fe、Mn元素迁移对周边地表水体及耕地累积效应的影响。研究结果表明:受煤矸石堆场酸性排水的影响,煤矸石堆场周边溪沟水Fe、Mn含量分别达0.81~32.14mg/L、1.17~8.42mg/L,超过"集中式生活饮用水地表水源地标准"限值的3~107、12~84倍。堆场周边旱作土中Fe、Mn含量分别达63 530~85 990mg/kg、243.1~910.1mg/kg,水稻土达46 940~75 810mg/kg、144.5~409.1mg/kg,Fe、Mn累积指数旱作土分别达1.61、2.97,水稻土分别达1.24、1.33。随着与堆场距离的增大,水稻土Fe、Mn含量逐步降低,在500m范围内Fe降低了35%,Mn降低了61%,而旱作土变化规律不明显。     

退耕还林工程对黄土高原土地利用/覆被变化的影响——以陕西省安塞县为例

退耕还林工程(Sloping land conversion program, SLCP)可快速改变土地利用/覆被格局。论文以黄土高原典型沟壑区--陕西省安塞县为例,利用MSS/TM/ETM+卫星遥感影像,获取研究区6个时期土地利用/覆被的时空信息,通过统计模型,定量分析了研究区SLCP对土地利用/覆被格局的影响。草地、耕地及林地为研究区三大主要土地利用/覆被类型,研究区土地利用/覆被变化整体处于不平衡态势;整个研究时段内,耕地先增后减,整体减少38.4%;林地先减后增,整体增加4.36%;灌木林地和草地减少,而未成林造林地快速增加;SLCP显著加强了耕地的递减趋势,并大幅增加了未成林造林地面积,至2010年未成林造林地面积显著大于天然林地的面积。这些变化可能具有降低土壤侵蚀与产流量、改善土壤结构、增加土壤碳吸收等效应;SLCP能提高农民收入,且大部分农民支持SLCP;但其负面效应亦不可忽视。研究将有助于对SLCP效应的全面理解,并可为该区生态恢复工程的规划与决策及生态环境保护提供参考。     

兰西城市群县域土地利用效率时空差异研究

在考虑绿色发展内涵的基础上,运用SBM-Undesirable模型测度了2006—2018年兰西城市群县域土地利用效率值,并采用泰尔指数、空间自相关方法揭示其时空差异特征。结果表明:①2006—2018年兰西城市群县域土地利用效率稳步提升,区域差异先扩大后缩小。②兰西城市群县域土地利用效率呈现“中部高—外围低、西高东低、南北分异”的空间差异规律,两省域呈现“西—东”的递减规律。③兰西城市群县域土地利用效率空间集聚特征显著,局部范畴上高—高集聚区在中部地区较为典型,低—低集聚区出现由东南向西南的扩散现象。     

Land management in rural Burkina Faso: the role of socio‐cultural and institutional factors

Farmers in the Sahel have been acknowledged for reclaiming degraded lands and improving food security by ingeniously modifying traditional agroforestry, water, and soil management practices. Despite the advantages offered by this range of farming techniques, their adoption rate is influenced by several factors. Using multivariate probit models and a correlation coefficient, this article examines the factors influencing the adoption of five land management practices based on 220 household and 40 farm surveys in four adjacent rural communities in southern Burkina Faso. The model results indicate that household labor force, education of household head, land tenure security, livestock holding, and membership in farmers’ groups influence the adoption of zaï practice, composting, improved fallow, stone bunds, and live hedges. However, two of the surveyed factors ‐ number of farms and visit by agricultural extension staff during the 12 months prior to the survey ‐ were not significant. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between different land management practices, e.g., the decision to practice zaï is significantly linked to that of live hedges and composting. Zaï practice and stone bunds are considered labor intensive, which explains their significant correlations with household labor force at the 1% and 5% levels of significance, respectively.     

Ecological networks and greenways in Europe: reasoning and concepts

The paper gives an overview of approaches towards ecological networks throughout Europe.It does not intend to present a complete picture,but to highlight comon developments within countries and regions and show common principles and differences between countries and regions that have to be taken into account when developing a joint European intiative,Countries or regions that have not been included can be active in the same way ,but information was not accessible to be authors for different reasons.This overview shows the comparable trends in decline of landscapes and the diversity in approaches to biodiversity conservation and nature conservation planning.Understanding the differences and common issues are of utmost imprtance to generalise common principles and to understand the way neighbours and other European partners approach problems.