Health impact assessment research and practice: A place for paradigm positioning?

In this article, we provide a critical review of the place of paradigm in health impact assessment (HIA) research and practice. We contend that most HIA practitioners have given insufficient attention to paradigm positioning when developing and applying HIA methodologies and that some concerns about current HIA practice can be attributed to this. We review HIA literature to assess the extent and nature of attention given to paradigm positioning and these related concerns. We then respond to our critique by exploring the implications, opportunities and challenges of adopting a critical realist paradigm, which we believe has the potential to help HIA practitioners to develop HIA methodology in a way that addresses these issues.     

对医疗废物集中焚烧处置工程设计原则和要求的探讨

结合我国医疗废物焚烧处置的相关标准和技术规范,深入分析了医疗废物焚烧处置工程每个系统的一些设计原则和基本要求,并对实际运行中经常出现的一些问题,提出了建议。     

A model for ecological assessment to pesticide pollution management

Applying the relational analysis in the Grey System Theory and Method, the comprehensive evaluation on five pesticide pollution controlling techniques in the vegetable production has been made and a comprehensive profit (cp–comprehensive cost (cc) evaluation system (composed of 15 comprehensive cost indices and 14 comprehensive profit indices) has been established, with a index optimization matrix of comprehensive cost indices and comprehensive profit indices obtained and a ratio model of comprehensive cost to comprehensive profit (R_cc/cp) built. Results show that the R_cc/cp value of vegetables intercropping soybeans in insect-proof thin film greenhouses is the smallest and the R_cc/cp value of vegetables intercropping taros in insect-proof net greenhouses, pheromones in insect-proof thin film greenhouses, pheromones in insect-proof thin film greenhouses and ground planting (only using chemical pesticide for insect-proof without covering materials and synthetic sex pheromone) other four techniques are 0.6268, 0.6393, 0.6407, 0.9809 respectively. In accordance with the R_cc/cp value, vegetables intercropping soybeans in insect-proof thin film greenhouses can be the most optimized pesticide pollution controlling technique in the vegetable growing.     

县市域边界地区协调发展研究——以浙江省尖山-南北湖地区为例

随着经济全球化进程的加快,区域协调发展的要求变得日益迫切。作为地理微观区域,县市域边界地区的协调管理尤其困难,在相关研究中还容易被忽略。以CBRs理论为指导,结合浙江省尖山-南北湖地区协调发展实例,对县市域边界地区协调发展的机制进行深入分析,构建了发展机制框架体系。尖山南北湖地区是典型的微观跨边界地区,在空间、功能上都具有协调发展的基础。由于行政体制的分割,现有的规划更加关注自身发展的需求,缺少区域整体统筹发展的眼光,造成了产业定位相互冲突,交通衔接不畅,生态环境共同保护意识不到位等问题。通过对问题的分析,在协调发展机制框架基础上,提出协调发展规划方案,以期通过规划的手段使问题得以解决和落实,希望对微观区域的协调发展研究有所启迪     

Joint propagation of variability and imprecision in assessing the risk of groundwater contamination

Estimating risks of groundwater contamination often require schemes for representing and propagating uncertainties relative to model input parameters. The most popular method is the Monte Carlo method whereby cumulative probability distributions are randomly sampled in an iterative fashion. The shortcoming of the approach, however, arises when probability distributions are arbitrarily selected in situations where available information is incomplete or imprecise. In such situations, alternative modes of information representation can be used, for example the nested intervals known as “possibility distributions”. In practical situations of groundwater risk assessment, it is common that certain model parameters may be represented by single probability distributions (representing variability) because there are data to justify these distributions, while others are more faithfully represented by possibility distributions (representing imprecision) due to the partial nature of available information. This paper applies two recent methods, designed for the joint-propagation of variability and imprecision, to a groundwater contamination risk assessment. Results of the joint-propagation methods are compared to those obtained using both interval analysis and the Monte Carlo method with a hypothesis of stochastic independence between model parameters. The two joint-propagation methods provide results in the form of families of cumulative distributions of the probability of exceeding a certain value of groundwater concentration. These families are delimited by an upper cumulative distribution and a lower distribution respectively called Plausibility and Belief after evidence theory. Slight differences between the results of the two joint-propagation methods are explained by the different assumptions regarding parameter dependencies. Results highlight the point that non-conservative results may be obtained if single cumulative probability distributions are arbitrarily selected for model parameters in the face of imprecise information and the Monte Carlo method is used under the assumption of stochastic independence. The proposed joint-propagation methods provide upper and lower bounds for the probability of exceeding a tolerance threshold. As this may seem impractical in a risk-management context, it is proposed to introduce “a-posteriori subjectivity” (as opposed to the “a-priori subjectivity” introduced by the arbitrary selection of single probability distributions) by defining a single indicator of evidence as a weighted average of Plausibility and Belief, with weights to be defined according to the specific context.     

试论环境犯罪中因果关系的确立原则

修订后的《刑法》在环境刑事立法上虽有重大发展，但摁环境犯罪的特殊性而使传统的刑法因果关系理论受到冲击，新因果关系确立原则－因果关系推定原则应运而生。我国应以最高人民法院发布司法解释的形式确立因果关系推定原则，将其适用于污染环境的犯罪行为和部分破坏环境的犯罪行为的因果关系确立中。     

Psychosocial drivers of land management behaviour: How threats,norms, and context influence deforestation intentions

Understanding how private landholders make deforestation decisions is of paramount importance for conservation. Behavioural frameworks from the social sciences have a lot to offer researchers and practitioners, yet these insights remain underutilised in describing what drives landholders’ deforestation intentions under important political, social, and management contexts. Using survey data of private landholders in Queensland, Australia, we compare the ability of two popular behavioural models to predict future deforestation intentions, and propose a more integrated behavioural model of deforestation intentions. We found that the integrated model outperformed other models, revealing the importance of threat perceptions, attitudes, and social norms for predicting landholders’ deforestation intentions. Social capital, policy uncertainty, and years of experience are important contextual moderators of these psychological factors. We conclude with recommendations for promoting behaviour change in this deforestation hotspot and highlight how others can adopt similar approaches to illuminate more proximate drivers of environmental behaviours in other contexts.Supplementary informationThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01491-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Can community-based governance strengthen citizenship in support of climate change adaptation? Testing insights from Self-Determination Theory

Motivation plays a powerful role in guiding human decision-making and behaviour, including adaptation to climate change. This study aimed to determine whether community-based governance would increase behavioural support, in the form of donation behaviour, for a climate change adaptation trust fund. A sample of 548 Australians was randomly assigned to view one of two governance scenarios: (1) a community-based scenario in which community members were afforded a high level of autonomy in designing and allocating funding within a trust fund to help their community adapt to climate change, or (2) a government-centred scenario in which decision making regarding the trust fund remained with government officials. Path analysis revealed that the community-based scenario produced significantly higher levels of perceived autonomy support within the study’s participants. High levels of perceived autonomy support predicted higher levels of autonomous motivation (indicating stronger citizenship) and lower levels of amotivation, a motivational pattern, which, in turn, predicted greater willingness to donate to the climate change adaptation trust. Results are interpreted in terms of Self-Determination Theory and Motivational Crowding Theory.     

突变级数法在区域生态系统健康评价中的应用

目前在多目标综合评价方面有层次分析、因子分析、模糊评判等诸多方法．但有些方法对权重的确定主观性较大或计算过程过于复杂。介绍了突变理论用于多准则决策问题的基本思想和步骤，该法不需对评价指标赋以权重。它只考虑指标的相对重要性。避免了直接使用难于确定且主观性较大的“权重”概念。因而显得简易。同时．突变级数是一种多维模糊隶属函数。用它来计算通常模糊数学的多目标评价决策问题。就更适宜和更准确。以广东省生态系统健康评价为实例．引用相关文献中的数据构建了适用于突变级数法的层次结构指标体系．运用突变理论中的归一公式。计算了广东省生态系统的健康得分，发现健康排名与实际情况较为符合．证明了该方法的可行性。文章同时使用了加权平均法对指标体系进行计算，通过比较。发现原文献的结果与本文采用的两种方法的评价结果基本一致。尤其是健康程度较好和较坏的区域。实例表明．突变级数法较为简便、快捷和可靠。这为解决区域多目标评价问题提供了一种新的思路。