农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的影响因素——基于野外土地利用测量与入户调查

恢复力作为刻画人类自身响应和发挥主体能力、积极抵御和适应外界变化的指标，在灾害学领域的引入进一步丰富和明晰了灾害承灾体的性质，与脆弱性具有同等的重要性。但当前对灾害恢复力的研究不足，如何界定灾害恢复力的特征、诊断和定量评价恢复力尚存在较大的探讨空间。在湖南鼎城高排河流域野外土地利用现状测量与入户调查所得数据和气象数据的基础上，应用数学统计方法重点分析了土地利用、农户经济、文化素质状况等因素与农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的关系。结果表明，地貌类型与海拔高度从较大尺度上决定了农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的大小，水源地位置及其蓄水能力、水田与旱地的比例关系、劳动力文化水平、农户实际年收入和非农收入比例是影响农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的主要因素。     

Designing a knowledge co-production operating space for urban environmental governance—Lessons from Rotterdam,Netherlands and Berlin,Germany

Challenges for a sustainable urban development are increasingly important in cities because urbanization and related land take come up with negative challenges for the environment and for city residents. Searching for successful solutions to environmental problems requires combined efforts of different scientific disciplines and an active dialogue between stakeholders from policy and society. In this paper, we present a comparative assessment of the way policy-science dialogues have achieved knowledge co-production about strategic urban environmental governance action using the cities of Berlin in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands as case studies. The ecosystem services framework is applied as a lens for policy–science interaction and a ‘knowledge co-production operating space’ is introduced. We show how policy officers, urban planners, practitioners and scientists learned from each other, and highlight the impact of this knowledge co-production for governance practice. We found that the concerted collaboration and co-creation between researchers and policy officers have led to mutual learning and establishment of relationships and trust in both cities. Not only the policy-relevance of research and its policy uptake were achieved but also new insights for research blind spots were created. In our conclusions we reflect on co-production processes with two types of conditions that we introduced to be most influential in the way knowledge can be co-created. These are conditions that relate to the way knowledge co-production processes are set-up and, conditions that relate to the expected value or benefit that the co-produced knowledge will bring across society, policy and practice.     

Knowledge brokerage designs and practices in four european climate services: A role model for biodiversity policies?

Environmental policies are broadly claimed to rely on sound scientific evidence because of the complexity, the uncertainty and the diverging political stakes that characterize issues like biodiversity decline or climate change. Classical advisory formats like assessments or standing advisory bodies have proliferated widely – especially at the global and national levels – yet exert only a limited influence on political decision-making, particularly in sub-national and local implementation contexts. Against this background, scholars have called for ‘bottom-up’ approaches to Science-policy interfaces that move from ‘problem to policy’. In the area of climate change, numerous ‘climate services’ have evolved at national, sub-national and even local levels, with the promise of being more decision-oriented. Four climate services in three European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland) are investigated regarding whether and how they institutionalize and enact knowledge brokerage in a credible, salient and legitimate way. Focusing on the institutional and strategic design principles of this advisory setting in climate policy, insights are generated for the biodiversity policy field, where comparable settings are still broadly lacking.     

Risky business: Engaging the public on sea level rise and inundation

To examine whether U.S. public opinion may become as sharply polarized on adaptation responses as it has been on mitigation policies, we surveyed a sample of urban coastal residents in Maryland (n = 378). We then tested the impact of a community deliberative event (n = 40) with small-group sea level rise discussions as a depolarization strategy. Cultural worldviews which contribute to politically polarized beliefs about climate were predictive of perceptions of sea level rise risk. Living close to flooding hazards also significantly predicted respondents’ perceptions of household or neighborhood risks, but not of risks to the entire county. The event significantly increased topic knowledge among all participants and, among those with a worldview predisposing them to lower risk perceptions, significantly increased problem identification and concern about impacts. These results suggest small-group deliberation focused on local problem-solving may be an effective tool for reducing the polarizing effects of cultural worldviews on decision-making.     

On several issues regarding efforts toward a sustainable society

Environmental issues and the future sustainability of society are among the greatest concerns facing society today. How to formulate a pathway toward a sustainable society is a critical question. Several issues associated with this question are presented and discussed. First, a structuring of the issues is presented. The environment can be said to consist of three systems—the natural, social, and human—and their interactions; environmental problems may therefore be defined in terms of perturbations of the interactions among the three systems. A sustainable society can be realized by restoring these interactions. Next, the characteristics of the issues are discussed. Because environmental issues relate to the future, forecasts of the future are essential. Because it is impossible to predict the future with complete accuracy, however, we should develop a method of using information about the future with allowance for error. It should be noted that error characteristics differ according to their time-scale. Third, the relationship between environmental issues and society is discussed. To take collective action on these issues we need society-wide consensus, which requires a reliable and objective platform. Here, more attention must be paid to the distribution of knowledge across society, because scientific knowledge in a modern society tends to be monopolized by research organizations. The role of the media is therefore important. Another important factor is the commitment of the general public; user-friendly ways of galvanizing such commitment should be developed.

A review of diversity-stability relationship of soil microbial community: What do we not know?

The impact of decreased biodiversity on ecosystem stability, or the diversity-stability (D-S) relationship, is one of the major concerns of modern ecological studies. Studies on the D-S relationship for soil microbial communities began in 2000 when the fumigation method was developed to generate different levels of soil microbial biodiversity. The studies used various measures and levels of biodiversity, and covered several functional parameters. Due to the lack of general concepts and reliable approaches to define microbial species, studies on the D-S relationship of soil microbial communities concentrate on genetic diversity and functional diversity more than species diversity. Contradictory results were observed in various studies on D-S relationship with possible factors affecting or even changing the directions of the D-S relationship including: (1) the methods of stability measurement, (2) the techniques in microbial diversity measurement, (3) the measures and levels of diversity, (4) the type and strength of disturbance, (5) the traits of functions, and (6) the hidden treatments stemming from diversity manipulation. We argue that future studies should take diversity, species composition and interaction, and soil environmental conditions holistically into account in D-S studies to develop modeling to predict soil functional stability. We also suggest that studies should be carried out on a wider range of disturbance types and functional parameters, and efforts be shifted towards long-term field studies.     

Effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature on the soil profile methane distribution and diffusion in rice–wheat rotation system

The aim of this experiment was to determine the impacts of climate change on soil profile concentrations and diffusion effluxes of methane in a rice–wheat annual rotation ecosystem in Southeastern China. We initiated a field experiment with four treatments: ambient conditions (CKs), CO₂ concentration elevated to ~ 500 μmol/mol (FACE), temperature elevated by ca. 2°C (T) and combined elevation of CO₂ concentration and temperature (FACE + T). A multilevel sampling probe was designed to collect the soil gas at four different depths, namely, 7 cm, 15 cm, 30 cm and 50 cm. Methane concentrations were higher during the rice season and decreased with depth, while lower during the wheat season and increased with depth. Compared to CK, mean methane concentration was increased by 42%, 57% and 71% under the FACE, FACE + T and T treatments, respectively, at the 7 cm depth during the rice season (p < 0.05). Mean methane diffusion effluxes to the 7 cm depth were positive in the rice season and negative in the wheat season, resulting in the paddy field being a source and weak sink, respectively. Moreover, mean methane diffusion effluxes in the rice season were 0.94, 1.19 and 1.42 mg C/(m²·hr) in the FACE, FACE + T and T treatments, respectively, being clearly higher than that in the CK. The results indicated that elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration and temperature could significantly increase soil profile methane concentrations and their effluxes from a rice–wheat field annual rotation ecosystem (p < 0.05).     

Interactions in hazard management policies: the case of drought in Nicaragua, 1976–2010

The literature on adaptive and multi‐level governance calls for interactive hazard management to increase societies’ resilience. This paper maps the hazard management policies in a poor and hazard‐prone country—Nicaragua—and examines what role the government gives to interactions among different actors at different societal levels. A new analytical framework is developed that includes scope and direction to capture unidirectional or mutual interactions that are either horizontal or vertical. This enables a more complex analysis of interactions than that found in previous research. The review shows that the historical change in the role given to interactions, as a result of a focus on short‐term emergency response being complemented by long‐term risk management, mainly lies in how they are characterised—with more participants and other types of content categories—and the awareness that interactions other than mutual ones can be positive. This illustrates the complexity of the issue of interactions.     

Fragile environment in need of resilient carers? A case of regional natural resources management in Perth,Western Australia

The Perth region is one of the 56 designated Natural Resources Management (NRM) regions in Australia. A community-led body – Perth Region NRM (PRNRM) – is in charge of overseeing NRM initiatives in the region. PRNRM heavily relies on Environmental Care Organisations (ECOs) that are involved in a wide variety of activities ranging from managing nature reserves to restoring ecosystems on a voluntary basis. While ECOs have become an integral component of PRNRM, they are often vulnerable because of the uncertain availability of financial and human resources. The way these organisations can overcome resource scarcities and become resilient is therefore significant for the effective delivery of regional NRM arrangements. However, what makes some ECOs in the Perth region more resilient than others is not well understood. This paper responds to this gap and explores the state of ECOs in the Perth region. The paper begins by reviewing the notion of resilience using a social capital lens. Drawing on a survey of ECOs and interviews, the method used for data collection and data analysis is presented next. Finally, the paper makes a case for fostering social capital as a way of enhancing the resilience of ECOs in the Perth region and beyond.     

Social innovation and the governance of sustainable places

This article explores social innovation as a tool for the promotion of place-based sustainable development. The literature highlights the satisfaction of basic needs and situations of crises as two major drivers of socially innovative actions. We use these insights to explore the conditions under which social innovation can lead to social transformation and sustainable place making. We also recognise that social processes occur through, and are shaped by, the material forms that constitute and are constituted in place-specific settings. This highlights the deep interconnections that exist between place making and the resources, attributes and characterises – the materiality (such as rivers, soil, trees) – that exist within that locality. It is here that a close tie can be discerned between understanding the adaptive process in complex socio-ecological systems and the role of social innovation in such adaptation. Socially innovative initiatives at the community level can also be scaled upwards through the co-ordinating role of the state, while at the same time act as a pressure for more participatory forms of governance. Governance processes that enhance the role of both economic and social actors in the steering of social change help to infuse more open, democratic practices into social steering. With social, economic and state actors co-mingling as agents of social change, social innovation can come to play a key role in enhancing sustainable human–environment interactions.