The idea of sustainable development

In this lecture, I demonstrate how very different macroeconomic history begins to look if Nature is included as a capital asset in production activities. The tentative conclusions I draw from the evidence are: (1) high population growth in the world’s poorest regions (South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa) has been an obstacle to the achievement of sustainable economic development there; relatedly, (2) when population growth is taken into account, the accumulation of manufactured capital, knowledge, and human capital (health and education) has not compensated for the degradation of natural capital in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and, in all probability, even in the UK and the US; (3) China is possibly an exception to (1) and (2). This article is based on the Keynote Lecture delivered at the international symposium on “Sustainability in an Unequal World”, held in Tokyo on November 24, 2006. The exposition relies on my book, Economics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007. The author is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.     

关于在长江经济带布局以水质改善为目标的流域生态缓冲体系的思考

生态缓冲带能够有效减缓流域内的人类活动或自然过程对水环境和水生态系统的影响.在长江经济带构建流域生态缓冲体系,对长江生态保护修复具有十分重要的意义.讨论了构建流域生态缓冲体系涉及的生态缓冲带位置选择、缓冲体系所占最低面积比率、宽度划定等一些基本的原则要求;利用卫星遥感影像数据,提取各汇水单元的地形特征、土地利用类型特征、土壤类型、土壤侵蚀强度、水文水系等数据,对长江经济带流域生态缓冲体系进行布局.结果表明:①长江经济带内林草地是主要土地利用类型,占区域总面积的62. 46%,但是分布很不均匀,主要集中在西部高地和中下游的丘陵地带,在人口密集、农田密集的区域分布偏少;城镇用地主要集中在长江中下游地区.②土壤类型空间差异显著,浙江省、江苏省、湖南省、江西省及安徽省大部分区域的土壤多是黏性比较大,污染物迁移能力较低;而污染物迁移能力较强的砂质土或者土层较薄的山地草甸土主要分布在四川省北部、西北部.水力侵蚀、风力侵蚀和冻融侵蚀均有分布,且以水力侵蚀为主,建议在中度及以上侵蚀强度区域尽量减少污染源,重点布置缓冲带,增加该区域的缓冲力度.③长江经济带范围内可以利用的中小型湿地、小型河流支浜的面积至...     

Institutional, Legal, and Economic Instruments in Ghana's Environmental Policy

The environmental situation in Ghana is characterized by desertification, land degradation, deforestation, soil erosion, and inadequate water supply in the northern regions of the country. The population as a whole is growing at a rate of 3% per annum, with even greater urban growth rates, due to rural out-migration. Large parts of the coastal zone in the south are rapidly developing to become one large suburbanized area. Water quality is particularly threatened in the urban and industrialized areas, which are mainly located in the southern part of the country. The coastal lagoons and coastal waters are moderately to heavily polluted. Erosion extends along the whole Ghanaian coast with excesses, for example, in the Keta area, where during the last century over 90% of the original buildings have been washed awayby the sea. The obvious environmental consequences of the mining sector are illustrative of the environmental threats caused by a fast growing industry and industrializing agriculture, in a country where environmental policy is only in its formative years. Desertification, food insecurity and coastal erosion all contribute to an increasing number of environmental refugees. Environmental policy in Ghana is a post-Rio phenomenon. Environmental laws, a Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, an advisory National Committee for the Implementation of Agenda 21, and a fully mandated environmental administration have been established. This administration advocates a progressive attitude towards environmental legislation and points out the specific utility of economic and legal instruments in environmental management in this relatively fast developing country. The choice of instruments for environmental management is increasingly influenced by the specific state of African environmental and technological capacity and by a call for the recognition of the role of traditional customs in nature conservation. This African perspective on environmental management is further intensified by an unmet need for regional, transboundary cooperation in the West African subcontinent. This specific West African context calls for an elaboration of an effective capacity-building program for environmental management in the area.     

Net value royalties : Practical tool or economist's illusion?

The petroleum industry has traditionally generated substantial revenues for governments. Where governmental power is divided, as in federations like Canada and Australia, a junior level of government normally collects royalties while the senior level levies a variety of imposts (income tax, export duties, excises on production). The combination of recent sharp reductions in prices, more price volatility and an era of freer markets has subjected existing tax and royalty systems to severe strain and has shifted attention to the design of fiscal systems that are more profit- sensitive. For the royalty element, interest focuses on net value royalties (NVRs). This paper deals with the nature and problems of NVRs. It proceeds by looking first at the application of resource rent royalties in Australia. It then focuses on recent megaproject royalty arrangements in Alberta and evaluates the degree to which Alberta's current royalty system is profit- sensitive. Problems associated with NVRs are discussed in the fourth section; concluding remarks are made in the last section.     

云南大理洱源西湖浮游植物功能群季节演替特征

为探讨云南大理洱源西湖浮游植物功能群特征及其与环境因子的关系,于2019年9月—2020年8月每月采集浮游植物样品及水环境指标,采用修正的卡尔森营养状态指数和浮游植物功能群分类法评价洱源西湖水体富营养化程度及探讨浮游植物的季节演替特征。结果表明：洱源西湖为低透明度且浊水状态的富营养化水体;研究期间共镜检鉴定出浮游植物7门72属,划分为23个浮游植物功能群,其中MP〔颤藻（Oscillatoria sp.）〕、S1〔伪鱼腥藻（Anabaenopsis sp.）〕、H1〔鱼腥藻（Dolichospermum sp.）〕和S_N〔拟柱胞藻（Cylindrospermopsis sp.）〕为优势功能群,其均为蓝藻门的丝状藻类;秋季浮游植物主要以颤藻、拟柱胞藻为主,冬季和春季主要以伪鱼腥藻和颤藻为主,而夏季主要以颤藻和鱼腥藻为主;冗余分析结果显示,洱源西湖浮游植物功能群演替的关键环境因子为水温、pH、正磷酸盐浓度与可溶性总磷浓度,尤其是可溶解性磷（主要为 PO₄ ³⁻-P）浓度变化促成了优势功能群的季节演替。洱源西湖的富营养化状态为丝状蓝藻占优势且藻类结构单一。

     

水资源约束下西北干旱区城市扩张特征与变动趋势分析——以西陇海兰新经济带城市为例

论文以西北干旱区陇海兰新经济带城市为例,分析了城市水资源利用状况及其短缺程度,认为绝大多数城市“缺水又费水”,城市发展具有明显的“旱生性”。在水资源约束下,西陇海兰新经济带城市的发育程度远远落后于东部地区城市,也落后于全国城市平均水平,略好于西部地区城市,但明显好于西北地区城市,城市扩张的总体特征表现为以总量扩张为主,“农转非”空间和用地拓展空间大,以高耗低效扩张为主,水土资源投入产出效益普遍低下,城市发展处在主要依靠资源开发拉动经济增长的低级阶段,扩张质量有待提高。城市发展具有明显的外部推动性。未来20a,在水资源短缺的继续约束下,经济带城市扩张步伐将比较缓慢,扩张幅度将不会有大的变化。表现为将净增城市非农业人口6.31×106人,城市化水平将提高到35.97%,20a共净增7.21%,特大城市数量将保持西安、兰州和乌鲁木齐3个不变;大城市从无到有,将建成宝鸡、咸阳、铜川、天水、石河子和库尔勒6个;中等城市数量将会显著增加,由2000年的10个增加到2020年的14个,在不考虑“县改市”的前提下,小城市的数量将会进一步减少。为了确保经济带沿线城市的有序扩张,建议在城市建设过程中以人为本,以水为生命线,以经济发展为动力,以城市规划为法定依据。     

Growth in urban extent and allometric analysis of West African cities

Urban area expansion is happening at much faster rates in Asian and African cities than elsewhere in the world. This study uses multi-temporal Landsat images to map the urban extent of six small to large cities in West Africa at four different time steps from the early 1970s–2010. The selected cities are Kumasi of Ghana, Daloa of Cote d’Ivoire, Abuja and Kano in Nigeria, Kindia of Guinea, and Ouagadougou of Burkina Faso. All cities revealed significant urban growth in both urban area and population; however, it was apparent that there was a lot of variability in urban area development. Exponential urban growth rates in the cities were measured as ranging between 0.026 and 0.077, with allometric scaling factors matching those of other countries.     

NEATS: A Network Economics Approach to Trophic Systems

The main principle of the economic approach to a trophic system we propose here lies in assuming that there is a transfer of food along a path between a prey and a predator if, for the predator, the benefits are greater than costs of predation on this path. Conversely, if the costs exceed the benefits, there are no flows. This trade-off, considered all along the food chains of an ecosystem, together with ecological processes (assimilation, somatic maintenance) results in a model coupling mass balance equations (biological constraints) and complementarity principles (Walras’ law). Here is the core of the Network Economics Approach to Trophic Systems (NEATS).     

机场噪声污染的舒适性影响评价和经济损失分析

飞机噪声污染带来的经济损失是多方面的和难以计算的,噪声污染的舒适性资源的损失仅仅是其中的一部分。本文以广州市白云机场为例,介绍了机场噪声污染的舒适性影响评价及其经济损失分析方法,计算方法为调查评价法,主要参数为人们对改善噪声环境的支付愿望。     

新疆工业污染与“九五”时期防治对策

对新疆工业污染的现状及产生的原因进行了分析论述,并提出了相应的防治对策。