Recent debates and developments in British regional policy

This paper reviews the latest regional policy changes in Britain against the background of recent political and academic debates over the nature of and appropriate response to regional economic problems. It puts forward a critique of the current government's position on regional policy, as set out in the 1983 White Paper Regional Industrial Development, and examines the options for more broadly‐based approaches to regional development planning.     

Identifying Opportunities for Decision Support Systems in Support of Regional Resource Use Planning: An Approach Through Soft Systems Methodology

/ Regional resource use planning relies on key regional stakeholder groups using and having equitable access to appropriate social, economic, and environmental information and assessment tools. Decision support systems (DSS) can improve stakeholder access to such information and analysis tools. Regional resource use planning, however, is a complex process involving multiple issues, multiple assessment criteria, multiple stakeholders, and multiple values. There is a need for an approach to DSS development that can assist in understanding and modeling complex problem situations in regional resource use so that areas where DSSs could provide effective support can be identified, and the user requirements can be well established. This paper presents an approach based on the soft systems methodology for identifying DSS opportunities for regional resource use planning, taking the Central Highlands Region of Queensland, Australia, as a case study.     

Patterns of Aquatic Species Imperilment in the Southern Appalachians: An Evaluation of Regional Databases

/ For regional analyses of species imperilment patterns, data on species distributions are available from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and from the state heritage programs. We compared these two different databases as sources of best available information for regional analyses of patterns of aquatic species imperilment for 132 counties in the southern Appalachians and examined patterns produced from the databases. The heritage program database contained information about a greater number of imperiled species because species need not be federally listed as threatened or endangered to be included in this database. In the southern Appalachians, about half of imperiled molluscs and about one-fourth of imperiled fish were listed as threatened or endangered; much smaller proportions of other taxonomic groups were federally listed. Most threatened and endangered species appeared on both lists, but for about 40% of the species inconsistencies exist, notably a lack of recent records in the heritage program dataset. Numbers of species in each county were significantly different between the two datasets for Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, where the largest number of threatened and endangered species reside. Nevertheless, some counties always appeared as centers of imperilment, and the general spatial patterns of imperilment were similar.     

Design of Mass Exchange Network and Effluent Distribution System for effective water management

The environmental impact of industrial wastewater and higher cost of fresh water are the serious challenges faced by the process industries. It has led to the development of many new techniques to minimize fresh water consumption. Of the many approaches, which have been developed, the Water Source Diagram (WSD) is a flexible and dynamic alternative for the generation of different scenarios for the management of water networks with reduction in total consumption. In the present study WSD concept was coupled with water mains concept to mains simplify the piping network and reduce the cost. A new procedure was developed for integrating the effluent treatment processes to evolve Effluent Treatment Network. Example from literature having multi contaminants was considered. This simple procedure involving hand calculations will be a useful tool for process engineers to design water and effluent treatment networks. Also the WSD and ETN were combined to form an evolutionary WAMEN (Water Allocation and Mass Exchange Network) and the proposed WAMEN aims for minimum fresh water consumption.     

基于GIS的工业水污染调查研究——以滇池流域为例

污染源调查是在进行流域水污染控制与富营养化治理技术研究和《全国第一次污染源普查》基础上,根据调查年环境统计数据、环保局排污企业的申报登记、排污许可证发放以及重点企业抽样调查、监测数据等多源资料,对企业数量及污染排放情况进行校核,基于GIS空间分析技术,建立滇池流域工业企业污染源数据库。根据滇池流域工业产业结构、分布和污染现状调查,结合昆明市社会经济发展及工业布局相关规划,预测工业发展可能带来的环境污染,提出相应的产业结构布局和相关治理政策的建议意见,为滇池的水污染防治和昆明市的发展战略规划提供参考。     

榆林市城区环境空气质量污染特征及原因分析

根据榆林城区环境空气质量监测数据,对2001～2010年间榆林城区空气质量污染特征和主要空气污染物的变化规律进行了分析。结果表明:2001～2010年间,榆林市城区的SO2、NO2和颗粒物污染总体呈下降趋势;2007～2010年间,SO2和PM10的季节性污染特征较明显,SO2浓度高值主要集中在冬季采暖期,PM10浓度高值主要集中在春季沙尘常发期的3～6月,NO2浓度全年均无超标,季节性变化较稳定。     

食堂废油制备生物柴油的研究

食品废物含有大量的油脂,本研究对食品废物的油脂含量进行了连续监测,以其为原料开展生物柴油的制备研究,并对其组成进行测试分析,同其他原料所得生物柴油作对比,结果表明:食品废物的平均含油率均超过了10%(干基)。利用食品废物中提取的废弃油脂制取的生物柴油以棕榈酸甲酯、油酸甲酯和亚油酸甲酯含量最高,分别为38.70%、亚油酸甲酯18.32%和棕榈酸甲酯31.72%,其组成与以植物油为原料合成生物柴油组成基本相似,符合作为柴油替代品的要求。     

《水污染防治法》中区域限批制度的几点思考

《水污染防治法》第18条是区域限批制度的规定,它是该法制定时的一大创新之处,在承认其有合理性一面的同时,也应注意到其在暂停审批的遣词上,审批主体行权上以及限批对象的救济上存在些许问题,应当进行探讨,以期更好的完善该制度在该法中的运用,对于暂停审批应当改为不予审批较为合理;审批主体的行权时应注意与地方保护主义做抗争,可借鉴垂直管理的模式;应当赋予限批对象多种救济途径,以减少限批的连坐性。     

The relationship between mining and socio-economic well being in Australia’s regions

This paper examines the relationship between quality of life indicators and the gross value of minerals production from Australian regions. We used quality of life indicators, aggregated for 71 local government areas containing mining activities, of household income, housing affordability, access to communication services, educational attainment, life expectancy, and unemployment. We find no evidence of systematic negative associations between quality of life and the gross value of minerals production. Instead, mining activity has a positive impact on incomes, housing affordability, communication access, education and employment across regional and remote Australia. Whilst we do not establish causality between mining activity and quality of life, our analysis prompts a rethink of the resource curse as it applies within a single country. We did not find evidence of a resource curse, at the local government level, in Australia’s mining regions. Nevertheless, we note observations by many other researchers of negative social impacts on specific demographic sectors, localities, families of fly-in fly-out mining operations, and individuals. This contrast may be a scale issue, with the regional benefits of mineral wealth masking highly localised inequalities and disadvantage. We suggest that there is a need to better understand these impacts and, more importantly, the types of policy mechanisms government and industry can adopt to mitigate or avoid them.     

Distribution of mercury and methylmercury in river water and sediment of typical manganese mining area

Manganese (Mn) ores contain substantial concentrations of mercury (Hg), and mining and smelting of Mn ores can bring Hg into the surrounding aquatic environment through atmospheric deposition, leaching of electrolytic Mn residue and Mn gangue dump. However, limited is known that how these processes influence the environmental behaviors of Hg in waterbody. Therefore, the seasonal distribution and existing form of Hg in water and sediment in one Mn ore area in Xiushan County, Chongqing were investigated. Our results showed that the mean Hg and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in water (n=35) were 5.8 ± 4.6 ng/L and 0.22 ± 0.14 ng/L, respectively. The mean Hg concentrations in retained riverbed and fluvial bank sediment (n=35) were 0.74 ± 0.26 mg/kg and 0.63 ± 0.27 mg/kg, respectively (the mean MeHg concentrations were 0.64 ± 0.40 µg/kg and 0.51 ± 0.30 µg/kg, respectively). It indicated that the mining and smelting of Mn ores were the main sources of anthropogenic Hg, and Mn may inhibit Hg methylation in rivers in Mn ore areas. Mercury in the bound to iron/ Mn (Fe/Mn) oxides of low crystallinity fraction (Hg-OX) accounted for 4.01% and 5.25% of the total Hg concentrations in the retained riverbed and fluvial bank sediment, respectively. The amount of Hg bound to Fe/Mn oxides in sediment increased significantly due to the manganese mining activities in the investigated area. Therefore, it could be hypothesized that high Hg concentrations in river sediment in Mn mining areas are closely related to high Mn concentration in sediment.