Riverbanks and the law: The arbitrary nature of river boundaries in New South Wales,Australia

Key aspects of environmental management exist within a legislative framework. The Rivers and Foreshores Improvement Act 1948 (NSW) and several Regional Environmental Plans created under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) make reference to ‘the top of the bank’ for defining areas of protected land adjacent to rivers, within which development consent may be required. It is an arbitrary term and its use within the Rivers and Foreshores Improvement Act 1948 (NSW) leads to confusion. This paper examines the range of definitions of ‘the top of the bank’ in respect of natural watercourses and aims to provide a more lucid and effective definition that will clarify existing ambiguities in legal interpretation. The paper examines the historical origins of the phrase ‘top of the bank’, finding that stereotyped Eurocentric views of what a river ‘should look like’ have impaired the legal definition for Australian rivers, thereby influencing common law and the development of statutory definitions. Judicial applications of the phrase ‘top of the bank’ are examined from a geomorphological perspective, demonstrating the misconceptions of the term in a legal context. The paper identifies the existence of widespread support for the need to protect land adjacent to rivers in the interests of environmental, economic and social sustainability. It concludes by calling for legislative reform that is both tailored to the individual site and consistent with overarching goals at the catchment scale.     

生态景观质量的游客感知及支付意愿评价——以福友休闲农场为例

在近年来国内休闲农业快速发展的背景下,由于缺乏对其非使用价值的正确认识和判断,出现了高速增长与效果欠佳的矛盾,如何科学评价休闲农场开发的非使用价值,对于该产业发展具有重要意义。条件价值评估方法(CVM)是国内外评估非使用价值和支付意愿较为成熟的方法,但尚未用于对具有"三产融合"和"三生一体"特性的休闲农场的评估,本研究以福建开发较为成熟的长泰福友休闲农场为研究取样点,采用该方法探究游客对休闲农场生态景观质量的感知水平及支付意愿。结果表明:游客对福友休闲农场生态保护价值支付意愿的下限为18.26元,支付上限为23.10元,游客对福友休闲农场生态景观保护的支付意愿为96.45万元/年;提供便捷的支付渠道和公开资金的使用途径能有效提升游客购买生态景观保护价值的支付意愿;农场空气的好坏、农场的生态体验设计、农场的田园功能分区在主题设计、耕作体验形式、内容等方面的创新程度对游客生态保护的支付意愿影响较大;对于大部分拥有一定农场阅历但对农业多功能性认识不足的游客,在便捷的支付手段和珍稀植物品种的吸引下,更倾向于形成较低水平的生态保护价值支付意愿,而那些文化素质较高,特别是拥有农场、生态相关领域研究背景,对于农场生态功能性、体验养生内容拥有一定认知的游客,则愿意在更高的价格水平支付农场的生态保护价值。     

Effective Long-term Ecological Monitoring Using Spatially and Temporally Nested Sampling

Effective environmental management requires documentation of ecosystem status and changes to that status. Without long-term data, short-term natural variability can mask chronic and/or cumulative impacts, often until critical levels are reached. However, a trade-off generally occurs between sampling in space and time. This study analyses a spatially and temporally nested long-term (12 years) monitoring programme conducted on benthic macrofauna in a large harbour. Sampling was carried out at six sites for 5.5 years, after which only two sites were sampled for the next 5 years. After this period, all six sites were sampled for another 2 years. While ecology is frequently thought of being highly variable, this design was able to detect trends, and cycles, in abundance, with only around 10% of species at each site exhibiting unpredictable temporal variability. Sites exhibiting similar trends in the abundance of a species over the 12.5-year period were generally spatially contiguous, and the spatial scale of change could be assessed. Continuous sampling at two sites identified whether changes in unsampled sites were related to long-term cycles. Moreover, this sampling provided a long-term background of temporal fluctuations against which to assess the ecological significance of observed changes.     

A multi-scale approach to modelling spatial and dynamic ecological patterns for reservoir's water quality management

With growing levels of urbanization and agriculture throughout the world, it is increasingly important that both research and management efforts take into account the effects of this widespread landscape alteration and its consequences for natural systems. Freshwater ecosystems, namely reservoirs, are particularly sensitive to land use changes. In this context, modelling can be very useful, for decision support, as an investigative tool to forecast the outcome of various scenarios, to guide current management in order to meet future targets and to develop integrated frameworks for management accordingly to the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The present paper examined the applicability of a holistic Stochastic-Dynamic Methodology (StDM), coupled with a Cellular Automata (CA) model, in capturing how expected changes at land use level will alter the ecological status of lentic ecosystems, namely at physicochemical and biological levels. The methodology was applied to Portuguese reservoirs located in the Douro's basin and illustrated with a series of stochastic-dynamic and spatial outputs taking into account expected scenarios regarding land use changes. Overall, the simulation results are encouraging since they seem to demonstrate the tool reliability in capturing the stochastic environmental dynamics of the selected metrics facing spatial explicit scenarios. The ultimate goal was to couple monitoring assessment and the described modelling techniques to ease management and decision making regarding the practical implementation of the WFD, both at the scale of the reservoir body and at the scale of the respective river watershed dynamics.     

地面水环境质量评价方法的比较

利用单项污染指数,综合污染指数,模糊数学和灰色系统方法对山西省汾河太原段两个主要断面进行了评价,指出了这几种评价方法的优缺点,为今后的地面水环境质量评价提供了思路。     

我国农村生态贫困研究

本文在界定生态贫困内涵的基础上，对我国农村生态贫困的规模作了粗略的估计，并对我国农村生态贫困的特征、形成机理和治理对策进行了分析。     

保护生态环境是根治洪涝灾害的战略措施

从分析我国1998年抗洪救灾的事实出发,探讨了洪涝灾害产生的原因,分析了生态环境严重破坏带来的严重影响;据此,确立保护生态环境是根治洪涝灾害的战略措施,并从城市可持续发展的高度提出了建议。     

土壤流失方程式在环境评价中的应用

通用土壤流失方程式是世界上应用最广泛的估测土壤侵蚀量的公式,在我国建设项目水土流失的环境影响评价中也有重要的应用价值。本文根据方程式各因子的物理意义和工程施工的特点,具体说明了各因子在环境评价中的取值方法及方程式的应用范围。      

Use of Constructed Wetlands for Urban Stream Restoration: A Critical Analysis

/ Investigation of a delta marsh restoration project proposed forthe Don River in Toronto, Ontario, underlines several concerns aboutconstructed wetland projects designed for water quality improvement andaquatic habitat enhancement. The Don is a highly urbanized river that hasundergone significant physiographic modifications and continually receives acomplex mixture of conventional, metallic, and organic contaminants frommultiple point and nonpoint sources. Rather than providing permanent removalof urban contaminants, wetland processes offer a limited capacity fortemporary storage of contaminant inputs, and potential reactions may actuallyproduce more toxic and/or bioavailable forms of some chemicals. Theseprocesses tend to result in the concentration of watershed contaminants inwetland vegetation and sediments. As the restored marsh would be availablefor spawning and feeding by aquatic fauna, the potential exists for chemicalbioconcentration and biomagnification through the aquatic community.Accordingly, wetland systems are not suited to the dual purposes of waterquality improvement and aquatic habitat enhancement. Upstream controls,including source reduction of contaminant inputs, are recommended asessential components of all constructed wetland projects.KEY WORDS: Constructed wetlands; Water quality; Ecological restoration;Don River     

城市污泥直接施用对农田的生态效应研究初报

采用盆栽和田间试验,研究了广州市大坦沙污水处理厂污泥对蔬菜生长发育的影响、污泥中重金属元素在作物体内的累积及在土壤中的残留状况。盆栽结果表明,作物的生长发育和产量与污泥的施用量有一定的关系,施用污泥对于在养分水平较低的砂质土上效果较明显。厂区大田试验还表明,施用污泥对生长周期长的块根类作物的增产效果比茎叶类、果实类作物更显著。作物对Ni的累积量相对为最大,土壤则以Cu、Zn的残留量为最大。在污泥施用量为3×10~4kg ha~(-1)的条件下,作物体内的重金属元素含量均未超过国家食品卫生标准。若污泥施用量为1.5×10~4kg ha~(-1),则其安全施用年限估计为12年。