Uncertainty,complexity and controversy in dolphin threat management: A role for post-normal science?

Managing fishing threats to populations of endemic, threatened Hector’s and Māui dolphins around New Zealand is a complex and controversial issue, underpinned by uncertain scientific knowledge. As such, it can be argued that it falls into the realm of post-normal science, which advocates transparency about uncertainties and stakeholder peer review of knowledge feeding into decision-making. This paper focuses on selected examples of modelling and risk assessment research relating to Hector’s and Māui dolphin threat management. It explores how knowledge is developed, shared and utilised by decision-makers, finding that uncertain scientific knowledge may be shared in ways that make it appear more certain, with some of the subjectivities involved in knowledge production hidden from view. Interviews with stakeholders illustrate how some stakeholders are aware of the subjectivities involved when uncertain knowledge underpins decision-making, so a lack of transparency may be leading to erosion of social trust in decisions made. This in turn can lead to a lack of support for dolphin conservation measures from key stakeholders such as the commercial fishing industry. The paper concludes that while moves towards increasing transparency and stakeholder involvement are apparent, a deeper embrace of post-normal science approaches to knowledge production and dissemination would contribute to effective dolphin threat management in New Zealand.     

上海城市人为灾害的灰色预测

应用灰色预测ＧＭ（１，１）模型，导出其响应函数，对上海市的火灾发灾频次作了实例预测。然后对预测模型作了检验，预测精度是２级，检验结论符合要求。对城市人为灾害的灰色预测，为防灾减灾的决策部署提供了依据。     

灰色系统在安徽省地震区划及对策中的应用

本文在分析安徽省历史地震情况的基础上,结合与地震活动有关的因素,采用非均匀网格,用灰色聚类分析法进行地震危险性区划,最后用灰色决策理论,用求不等权和的方法将多目标决策转化为单目标决策,确定最佳方案和低烈度区的地震减灾对策。     

江淮地区特大洪涝灾害的灰色预测

本文依据1951～1990年江淮地区特大洪涝资料,建立了原息GM(1,1)模型,并成功地预测出1991年该地区发出的特大洪涝灾害.在此基础上,又分别建立了新息模型,新陈代谢模型和准新陈代谢模型,并运用后两者预测了该地区未来可能发生特大洪涝灾害的时间:1999年和2007年。     

Game theory and environmental disputes

The courts have provided the traditional battleground for conflicts between environmental interest groups and those whose actions in some way have an adverse impact on the environment The judicial process is a time-consuming one in which all sides usually must concede to some points. Environmental disputes involve complex scientific issues which the court system is not set up to comprehend, so that the process gives the parties to a dispute the sense of having lost control of their own destinies. An increasing number of parties to environmental disputes are turning to negotiation, or mediation, as an alternative in which they can be active parties in the settlement-making process rather than the victims of a court-imposed solution When do the parties to a dispute choose a negotiated settlement over a court battle? To what extent does each party make the concessions necessary to reach an agreement? These questions can be answered by the game theory that provides a model for analyzing the negotiation process. This paper will apply game theory to two environmental conflict cases A series of questions pertinent to the analysis of all environmental disputes will be raised     

COMPLEMENTING OBJECTIVE PROCEDURES WITH SUBJECTIVE PRIORS IN WATER RESOURCE PLANNING1

A procedure is outlined which allows consideration of both objective and subjective indicators to establish priorities in plan implementation of water resource development. The objective procedure utilizes stepwise multiple discriminant analysis to predict community performance regarding planned project implementation, based on previous project implementation in the Northeast. The subjective procedure incorporates prior probabilities developed by the planner, based on observation and experience gained through the planning process. The proposed analysis could eliminate waste through better allocation of planning funds to implementation studies exhibiting higher probability of early implementation.     

建筑室内环境安全灰色评价模型及应用

人们在重视治理大气和江河湖海等大环境安全问题的时候 ,却忽视了直接危害人身健康甚至生命的室内环境安全问题。在现代社会 ,室内环境安全已经成为影响人们身心健康与安全的重要因素。由于影响室内环境安全的因素复杂 ,科学合理地评价其安全状况对改善室内环境安全具有重要意义。笔者针对建筑室内环境安全系统特征 ,在合理确定评价指标体系的基础上 ,建立了基于灰色关联理论的室内环境安全评价模型 ,并给予了实例验证 ,为室内环境安全评价提供了具有指导意义的技术和方法。     

浅埋型矿井涌水量预测预报的灰色模型

矿井涌水量预测 ,对矿井安全及正常生产都至关重要。矿井涌水量预测采用的常规方法对各含水层的水文地质参数依赖性较大 ,而对各因素之间的影响程度难以区分和把握 ,因此 ,在预测预报中的精度较差 ;而采用灰色理论则具有高度的概括性 ,可以把各种不确定因素 ,统统用一个简单的“灰数”来表示 ,并且预测精度高而简单实用。笔者在分析浅埋型矿井涌水量的构成要素的基础上应用灰色系统理论对其涌水量进行了预测 ,其方法与结果对推动矿井水文地质工作有一定的现实意义和指导作用。     

灾害等级的灰色聚类分析

灰色聚类分析是灾害等级研究的一种简单易行的方法。本文利用灰色聚类分析的原理和方法来确定灾害的等级归属问题，避免了人为判断中的主观任意性，从而使等级归属问题由定性判断推进到定量计算     

Effective application of monitoring information: the case of San Francisco Bay

The San Francisco Estuary Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) for Trace Substances is an innovative partnership among a regulatory agency, more than 70 regulated entities, and an independent scientific organization. The institutional arrangement behind the RMP has made the regulatory system increasingly responsive to emerging management needs, particularly with regard to the development of total maximum daily loads and ecosystem impairment assessment. Through multi-agency partnerships within and outside the RMP institutional structure, major information gaps for several pollutants of concern have been narrowed, resulting in a successful consensus-based regulatory approach to managing copper and nickel mass inputs into the Estuary. Short-term research efforts, based upon monitoring results, helped identify the most cost-effective control and remediation options for various bioaccumulative substances. Additionally, adaptive changes to the monitoring program documented the existence of widespread aquatic toxicity in the Estuary that is apparently due to pesticide runoff from agricultural and urban areas. One of the most important contributions of this collaborative monitoring program is the deliberate and systematic adjustment of management and research questions that serve to influence and add relevance to the overall research agenda related to San Francisco Estuary ecosystem assessment.