Snowstorm catastrophes in the United States

Extremely damaging snowstorms, those causing more than $1 million in property losses across the US, were studied, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of the storm activity during 1949–2001 were defined. There were 155 catastrophic snowstorms and they caused insured losses of $21.6 billion (2001 dollars). The northeastern US had the nation's maximum storm occurrences (79 storms), greatest total losses ($7.3 billion), and highest storm intensity. Two-thirds of all US losses occurred in the Northeast, Southeast, and Central climate regions, and storm occurrences and losses were least in the western US. The incidence of storms peaked during the 1976–1985 period and exhibited no up or down trend during 1949–2001. However, losses had a significant upward time trend, as did storm sizes and intensity. New York and Pennsylvania had the greatest number of storms with fewest in Montana, Idaho, and Utah. Time distribution of losses in the northeastern and southeastern US were U-shaped with flat time trends for 1949–2001. Losses in the western regions and Deep South had distinct upward trends in losses, storm intensity, and storm size. More than 90 percent of all storm losses in the western US have occurred since 1980. These findings indicate that rapidly growing population and property at risk have been major factors in increasing losses as well as atmospheric changes leading to greater storm intensity and size.     

Effect of stage-specific vital rates on population growth rates and effective population sizes in an endangered iteroparous plant

Effective population size (N(e)) determines the strength of genetic drift and can influence the level of genetic diversity a population can maintain. Assessing how changes in demographic rates associated with environmental variables and management actions affect N(e) thus can be crucial to the conservation of endangered species. Calculation of N(e) through demographic models makes it possible to use elasticity analyses to study this issue. The elasticity of N(e) to a given vital rate is the proportional change in N(e) associated with a proportional increase in that vital rate. In addition, demographic models can be used to study N(e) and population growth rate (λ) simultaneously. Simultaneous examination is important because some vital rates differ diametrically in their associations with λ and N(e). For example, in some cases increasing these vital rates increases λ and decreases N(e). We used elasticity analysis to study the effect of stage-specific survival and flowering rates on N(e), annual effective population size (N(a)), and λ in seven populations of the endangered plant Austrian dragonhead (Dracocephalum austriacum). In populations with λ ≥ 1, the elasticities of N(e) and N(a) were similar to those of λ. Survival rates of adults were associated with greater elasticities than survival rates of juveniles, flowering rates, or fecundity. In populations with λ < 1, N(e) and N(a) exhibited greater elasticities to juvenile than to adult vital rates. These patterns are similar to those observed in other species with similar life histories. We did not observe contrasting effects of any vital rate on λ and N(e); thus, management actions that increase the λ of populations of Austrian dragonhead will not increase genetic drift. Our results show that elasticity analyses of N(e) and N(a) can complement elasticity analysis of λ. Moreover, such analyses do not require more data than standard matrix models of population dynamics.     

Predicting the Deleterious Effects of Mutation Load in Fragmented Populations

Abstract:  Human-induced habitat fragmentation constitutes a major threat to biodiversity. Both genetic and demographic factors combine to drive small and isolated populations into extinction vortices. Nevertheless, the deleterious effects of inbreeding and drift load may depend on population structure, migration patterns, and mating systems and are difficult to predict in the absence of crossing experiments. We performed stochastic individual-based simulations aimed at predicting the effects of deleterious mutations on population fitness (offspring viability and median time to extinction) under a variety of settings (landscape configurations, migration models, and mating systems) on the basis of easy-to-collect demographic and genetic information. Pooling all simulations, a large part (70%) of variance in offspring viability was explained by a combination of genetic structure ( F_ST ) and within-deme heterozygosity ( H_S ). A similar part of variance in median time to extinction was explained by a combination of local population size ( N ) and heterozygosity ( H_S ). In both cases the predictive power increased above 80% when information on mating systems was available. These results provide robust predictive models to evaluate the viability prospects of fragmented populations.     

工业园区生态化的产业共生体系研究——以天津空港经济区为例

工业园区生态化是未来发展的必然选择,其核心是建立"资源—产品—消费—再生资源"产业共生的生态模式,以充分利用资源、减缓或消除环境破坏、协调社会经济与资源环境的关系。在工业园区生态化发展需求及趋势分析的基础上,以产业生态学理论为指导,分析了工业园区生态产业链及产业共生模式的类别及特征。并以天津空港经济区为例,构建了嵌套型工业共生体系框架。     

沈阳市铁西新区生态工业园规划与研究

结合老工业基地改造,构建新型经济发展模式,变过去传统资源—产品—污染排放的单向流动线性经济为“资源—产品—再生资源”的反馈式经济模式。从而达到节约资源、削减污染、提高经济运行质量和效益的目的,实现整个区域的可持续发展,促进园区生态系统良性循环,建设新型生态工业园区。     

Planning and development

The paper describes the development role of the London Docklands Development Corporation and what sort of plan it uses. It describes the government initiative that promoted the regeneration idea and appraises the Dockland's approach. Finally, it discusses local authority involvement in the Urban Development Corporation's initiatives.     

事故经济损失评估理论与方法研究

简要分析了国内外事故损失评估理论与方法的共同特点及问题 ,对事故经济损失的概念和计算范围进行了比较清晰的界定 ,给出了新的事故经济损失分类方法 ,在此基础上提出了新的事故经济损失评估理论 ,建立了评估模型 ,明确了从企业角度和国家角度评估事故经济损失的方法     

Crisis in environmental management of the Soviet Union

The prevailing system of environmental management strongly depends on the economic and political structures of a country and is influenced by the current condition of them. Environmental degradation in the Soviet Union has been caused mainly by the political and economic misconceptions listed in this article. With the transformation of its state order to the model of Western democracies, the Soviet Union is experiencing a deep economic crisis of restructuring, reflected in a parallel crisis in its system of environmental management, which is manifest in the form of rapid transformation. This is characterized by the contradiction of the state’s old administrative institutions, which still exist, with the efforts to use market mechanisms of environmental control. Such methods include various fees and payments for the use of natural resources or for pollution and creation of specialized regional funds and banks to finance environmental programs. All these occur in the context of the strengthening of regional sovereignty, the introduction of self-accounting for economic units, the adoption of comprehensive legal enactments, and the setting up of an efficient administrative system of their enforcement. Public activism, as one of the principal actors in this structure, also has undergone quick maturation. Nevertheless the future development of the new Soviet system of environmental control remains uncertain because of the present unpredictability of the overall situation in the short run.     

中国经济发展中的抗灾建设与防灾对策

分析了中国自然灾害的基本现状，总结了建国以来的减灾工作状况，提出经济发展中防灾之对策，为下世纪中国抗灾策略提供基本思路。     

Golf Course Development in a Major Tourist Destination: Implications for Planning and Management

The planning and design of golf course developments is influenced by many factors. This paper focuses on the environmental ramifications of insufficient or lack of compliance with standard environmental and economic planning practices. Specifically, it looks at a tourist destination location that was under the influence of extensive land development and investment speculation. The Gold Coast in Australia was the focal point for large overseas investment due to changes in government legislation regarding foreign investment. Due to the economic climate in the second half of the 1980s many golf course resort developments were built, approved, or planned. Many of these circumvented normal business and environment planning processes. The result has been a dangerous concentration of golf facilities in environmentally sensitive areas and an oversupply of golf facilities. Both of these matters are discussed in terms of the general planning process and the potential economic and environmental impacts to the Gold Coast and similar destinations in other parts of the world.