Assessing Land-Use Impacts on Natural Resources

/ Much information is available on changes that occur in natural resources from both spatially-explicit data on environmental conditions and models of the interactions of these conditions and resources with human activities. The strategy for assessing land-use impacts on natural resources developed in this paper provides a framework for using relevant data and models to address questions of how management practices can promote both use and protection of resources. This assessment strategy integrates spatially explicit environmental data using geographic information systems (GIS) with computer models that simulate changes in land cover in response to land-use impacts. The computer models also simulate susceptibility of species to changes in habitat suitability and landscape patterns. The approach is applied to management of limestone barrens on the Oak Ridge Reservation in East Tennessee. Potential limestone barrens habitats are identified by overlaying appropriate soils, geology, slope, and land-use/land-cover conditions. Their validity is tested against known sites containing rare species that occur in these habitats. The location of habitats at risk in the aftermath of human activities is determined by using an available area model that identifies the size and proximity of sites that particular types of species can no longer use as habitat. The resulting risk map can be used in land management planning. The approach uses readily available in situ and remotely sensed data and is applicable to a wide range of locations and land-use scenarios. This approach can be refined based on needs identified by land managers and on the sensitivity of the results to the resolution of available resource information.KEY WORDS: Land management; Assessment; Habitat characterization; Limestone barrens; Ecological modeling; Geographic information systems     

Industry Response to the Challenge of Sustainability: The Case of the Canadian Nonferrous Mining Sector

/ The paper investigates how the Canadian nonferrous sector is tackling the challenge of sustainable development. Although there is no consensus as to what sustainable development means in practice for management in the sector, at least three dimensions must be taken into account: (1) metals are recyclable, the availability of this resource is not a concern for the foreseeable future; (2) the need to minimize environmental impacts of metals exploration, extraction, transformation, consumption, and recycling; and (3) production activities should not be socially or culturally disruptive. The nonferrous mining industry faces several environmental problems. Some of the most significant are acid mine drainage, sulfur emissions, recycling, and metals toxicity. The industry has developed a number of responses to address these specific concerns as well as other more general challenges. Six strategies are described and analyzed: (1) research and development, (2) an effort of consensus building among stakeholders known as the Whitehorse Mining Initiative, (3) international networking, (4) active involvement in the development of environmental management standards, (5) management reorganization and (6) voluntary agreements. The importance of external factors in the shaping of corporate environmental management practices is discussed, in particular the role of government. Progress has been achieved in three areas: (1) managerial practices and organization, (2) reducing the impacts of ongoing operations and (3) minimizing future liabilities, but two significant fields of conflict remain, namely mining in wilderness areas and projects on aboriginal lands.KEY WORDS: Canada; Environmental management; Minerals industry; Nonferrous metals; Sustainable development; Whitehorse Mining Initiative     

试论企业环境治理存在的若干问题

环境治理是贯彻环境保护法,保护环境的有效手段之一,也是必走之路。所以保护环境,走可持续发展之路,最终还得看环境治理的成效如何。本文对当前企业界环境治理所存在的问题进行了探讨,并提出了建议。     

论环境保护与中国的可持续发展

可持续发展源于环境保护。本文首先介绍了可持续发展的观点、它所体现的基本原则和含义 ,接着又根据我国面临的环境问题提出了应采取的对策。最后阐述了可持续发展是中国的必然选择。     

可持续发展指标体系研究进展

文章对于可持续发展指标体系这一国际上可持续发展研究的热点，从国家层次到地方层次，指标集和高度合并的指数货币化方法及非货币化等方面，详细分析国外可持续发展指标体系的研究进展。     

实验条件下生态修复过程中微型生物群落演替研究

在实验室恒流－－修复微生态系统中，通过健康水体来对武汉东湖污染程度不同的水体进行持续替换，以模拟受不同程度污染胁迫的自然水体恢复过程，其间定期测定微型生物群落的中结构和功能参数，通过其变动机制和规律，再现修复过程中微型生物群落的演替过程，并从生态学角度提出了东湖5个受到不同程度污染水体得到修复的换水库。     

滇池水华综合控制对策探讨

水华污染已成为滇池目前面临的主要环境问题，滇池水华治理被国家列为重中之重的项目而予以高度重视，据多年的监测资料，滇池水华的各类主要是蓝藻门的微囊藻，其次为束丝藻和鱼腥藻。该文从多方面分析了滇池水华泛滥的原因，在此基础上提出了滇池水华控制和富营养化治理的综合对策，特别强调了滇池水华必须坚持控制污染源与生态修复相结合的原则。     

电力需求侧管理与可持续发展战略

在探讨电力需求侧管理理论，方法以及电力经济结构和电力与环境问题的基础上，分析评价电力需求侧管理对可持续发展的作用贡献，电力需求侧管理是促进系统可持续发展的战备途径之一。     

Changing the story? The discourse of ecological modernisation in the European Union

ABSTRACT

Over the last three decades, ecological modernisation (EM) has emerged as a powerful political discourse, in which economic growth, environmental protection and energy security are mutually reinforcing. Here, the trajectory of EM in the European Union is traced, using a discourse analysis of the seven Environmental Action Programmes. The discourse articulated in these documents points towards an encroaching ‘double depoliticisation’. First, political decisions are discursively constructed as a matter of market rationality rather than a democratic process that engages with different political positions. Second, EM is reified as the only feasible solution, and alternative and contesting discourses are marginalised. Thus not only are political differences erased from the discourse, but the discourse is itself removed from political debate.     

Comparing aquatic risk assessment methods for the photosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides metribuzin and metamitron

Three different risk assessment procedures are described that aim to protect freshwater habitats from risks of the photosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides metribuzin and metamitron. These procedures are (1) the first-tier approach, based on standard toxicity tests and the application of an assessment factor, (2) the Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) approach, based on laboratory tests with a wider array of species and the application of a statistical model to calculate the HCx (the Hazardous Concentration for x% of the species), and (3) the model ecosystem approach, based on the evaluation of treatment-related effects in field enclosures. A comparison of the risk assessment procedures reveals that the first-tier approach is the most conservative for metamitron and metribuzin, and that HC5 values (and even HC10 values) based on acute EC50 values of algae and aquatic vascular plants may be used to derive maximum permissible concentrations for single applications. For both compounds these HC5 values were very similar to the ecological threshold concentrations in the enclosure studies. In contrast to model ecosystem experiments, however, HCx values based on lab toxicity tests do not provide information on the recovery potential of sensitive endpoints and on indirect effects, which may be important for regulatory decision-making. In the enclosure study, indirect effects of metribuzin on invertebrate populations were observed at an exposure concentration that was approximately 20 times lower than the corresponding HC5 value based on lab toxicity data for aquatic invertebrates.