Simulation of socio-ecological impacts: Modeling a fishing village

The interrelationship of society and environment is addressed here through the study of a remote fishing village of 750 people. An interdisciplinary study evaluated demographic, economic, and social aspects of the community, and simulation modeling was used to integrate these societal characteristics with environmental factors.The population of the village had grown gradually until the 1960's, when a decline began. Out-migration correlated with declining fish harvests and with increased communications with urban centers. Fishing had provided the greatest economic opportunity, followed by logging. A survey was conducted to investigate the costs and revenues of village fishermen. Diversification characterized the local fleet, and analysis showed that rates of return on investment in the current year were equal between vessel types.The variable levels and rate parameters of the demographic, economic, and social components of the model were specified through static and time series data. Sensitivity analysis to assess the effects of uncertainty, and validation tests against known historical changes were also conducted. Forecast scenarios identified the development options under several levels of fish abundance and investment. The weight given to ecological versus economic resource management registered disproportionate effects due to the interaction between investment and migration rates and resource stochasticity. This finding argues against a golden mean rule for evaluating policy trade-offs and argues for the importance of using a dynamic, socio-ecological perspective in designing development policies for rural communities.     

What Is Source Reduction? A Critique and Comparative Analysis of Polish and American Students

/ Source reduction is recognized as the preferred form of waste management, but its definition is ambiguous. This study proposes four underlying dimensions of the source reduction concept. Source reduction is foremost a preventive activity that reduces the number or extent of environmental impacts. Second, source reduction can prevent both resource consumption and pollution generation impacts. Third, source reduction may be viewed as both a producer and consumer activity. Lastly, it may include frugal and more efficient activities. In surveys exploring these fourdimensions, Polish and American university students evaluated whether 20 activities were examples of source reduction. The American students gave higher ratings to preventive activities over adaptive activities. The Polish students most prominently rated efficient over frugal activities. Factor analysis indicated that both samples identified a group of consumer-based resource conservation activities, with the American students recognizing a cluster of recycling activities. In a separate ranking of environmental protection priorities, the Polish students endorsed pollution prevention, whereas the American students favored both efficient and frugal resource conservation. These findings suggest that the conceptualization of source reduction varies according to contextual factors and that prevention is still an obscure environmental management theme. KEY WORDS: Source reduction; Pollution prevention; Resource conservation; Frugality; Poland     

A better future for the uplands — a planning critique

The Countryside Commission's report A Better Future for the Uplands puts forward a new strategy for public intervention in the uplands of England and Wales. The aim of the report is to integrate rural policies and to promote higher environmental priorities in rural areas. This paper considers the degree to which the report is successful in planning to achieve these ends. The paper is specifically concerned with the planning methodology on which the report is based. The paper argues for an approach to rural planning which permits the consideration of more radical solutions to rural problems, along with the application of a more systematic planning methodology, in order to assist in the choice of an appropriate direction for planned change.     

Business excellence through resource efficiency (betre): An evaluation of the UKs highest recruiting, facilitated self-help waste minimisation project

The business excellence through resource efficiency (betre) project aimed to increase awareness of the benefits of waste minimisation for SMEs in West Sussex, South East England. The programme was run by the West Sussex Sustainable Business Partnership, a collaboration of all West Sussex Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and EcoSys (a service provider). Betre provided a range of free business support and advice over an 18-month period including; workshops, newsletters, audits, grants and a technical Helpline. Information on environmental compliance and Best Practice for waste minimisation, recycling, energy and water efficiency was disseminated. All activities were linked with the UK government's Best Practice programmes. Although company recruitment was initially slow, betre was ultimately extremely successful at attracting companies to join; with 308 recruited. This is probably the most successful recruitment to a project, of this type, in the UK to date. Over half of the business members became actively involved and attended training events or had environmental audits. There were over 200 improvement actions identified by 64 of the participating companies. These resulted in estimated cost savings of at least £215 000 per annum. In addition, actions taken to prevent pollution and ensure compliance with environmental legislation have the potential to save businesses a further £204 000 in possible penalties. The environmental impact of the project has been significant, with reductions identified in waste (1437 tonnes), water (62 933 m³) and energy (15 million kW h—equivalent to 668 tonnes CO₂). In addition to actions with directly measurable results, betre has stimulated long-term benefits by addressing pollution prevention and compliance, through the formulation of environmental policies and from the adoption of Environmental Management Systems. One of the key learning points is that it may have been better to devote less time to running training events and instead to have diverted this time to increased business support, mainly through audits. To capitalise on this success, a new project is being planned to disseminate Best Practice.     

中国的污水处理与水环境管理政策

中国已建有420座污水处理厂,城市污水处理率达30％以上。但污水处理任务仍很艰巨,必须采取加强工业污染防治,建设大批新的污水处理厂和控制面源污染等对策。     

造纸工业废水资源化途径的新探讨

本文从造纸工业废水治理技术现状分析入手,讨论了目前用于处理造纸黑液和白水的主要处理工艺及其特点。在此基础上,提出了造纸工业废水尤其是造纸黑液综合利用的新途径。着重对造纸工业废水污灌作了重点的分析,对用造纸黑液作为型煤粘合剂和水煤浆生产工艺用水作了探讨性分析,为造纸工业废水尤其是造纸黑液资源化途径的探讨提出了新思路。     

浅析安全经济统计的对象和方法

应用社会经济统计学原理 ,研究了安全经济统计的对象和方法。笔者提出 :安全经济统计的研究对象是安全经济现象的数量方面 ;安全经济统计基本环节概括为统计任务确定、统计设计 ,资料搜集、整理、分析和提供 ;安全经济统计方法有大量观察法、综合分析法和归纳推断法等。     

锂的用途及其资源开发

锂在原子能工业中具有十分独特的地位 ,被誉为“高能金属” ;它推动着能源工业 ,尤其是电池技术的发展 ,无愧于“能源金属”和“推动世界前进的金属”的称谓。随着技术的发展 ,世界锂业的传统格局和市场分布发生了较大的变革 ,盐湖提锂技术的进步打破了半个世纪以来锂资源的分布和供应格局 ,而澳大利亚、俄罗斯、加拿大和津巴布韦等硬岩型锂资源大国将失去其在世界锂资源和锂盐供应市场上的优势。智利、中国、阿根廷和玻利维亚等国将成为世界拥有锂资源大国。盐湖工业生产的锂产品适应于当今知识经济时代的需求 ,市场前景广阔。笔者介绍了金属锂的一些重要用途 ;分析了锂资源开发的现状 ;指出我国盐湖卤水提锂技术已取得了重大突破 ;透露了作为国家计委批准的西部高技术产业化示范工程项目有关信息 ,年产 30 0 0吨碳酸锂生产线 ,将于2 0 0 5年 6月正式投产。     

基于资源安全的企业人才风险管理

从资源安全的角度出发 ,笔者阐述了企业人才资源的重要性 ;对我国企业目前面临的主要人才风险进行了识别 ;指出我国企业目前的人才风险主要来自人才外流、人才获取、人才道德和人才风险意识四个方面 ;强调了我国企业加强人才风险管理的重要意义。从人才风险引起的各项损失及其损失概率的角度 ,提出了企业进行人才风险估测的方法 ;建立了人才风险损失模型 ;指出了我国企业的人才风险管理、有效防范人才风险的途径。     

丝状菌在工业废水处理中的控制与有效利用

任何活性污泥系统中都存在着丝状菌,在丝状菌与菌胶团细菌平衡生长时,不会发生膨胀污泥问题,只有当丝状菌生长超过菌胶团细菌时,就会出现污泥膨胀问题。丝状菌在工业废水中的有效控制与利用尤为重要。