Strategic environmental assessment in China: motivations, politics, and effectiveness

This paper examines how strategic environmental assessment has been practiced at the national level in China through 2005 and why it has been practiced in the manner observed. Based on literature reviews and interviews carried out in 2005 and 2006, we find that bureaucratic politics between environmental and nonenvironmental ministries has limited the legislation and implementation of strategic environmental assessment to environmental assessment (EA) for a set of government plans defined in the 2003 Environmental Impact Assessment Law. Interviewees from environmental and nonenvironmental ministries and key research institutes have reported that few planning EAs have been performed at the sectoral level. Nonenvironmental ministries have either evaded the 2003 Environmental Impact Assessment Law and have not undertaken required planning EA or have organized planning EA on their own without participation by the State Environmental Protection Administration. The rising tension between the environmental and nonenvironmental ministries has limited the role of planning EA as a participatory decision-making tool. In addition to bureaucratic politics, we find that weak public participation and underemphasis on social analysis in planning EA may have further compromised the utility of planning EA.     

战略环评中环境合理性综合论证要点分析——以矿产资源总体规划环评为例

对矿产资源总体规划环评中的环境影响识别与预测评价以及资源环境承载力影响评价进行了简述,提出了矿产资源总体规划环评中环境合理性综合论证要点。其结论可为国内开展矿产资源总体规划环评提供技术参考,对于其他针对空间规划的环境影响评价也具有较强的借鉴意义。     

Optimal management of strategic reserves of nonrenewable natural resources

This paper studies the stockpiling issue for an oil importing country that is likely to suffer embargoes, the occurrence and duration of which are uncertain. I show the existence of a decreasing reserves path that the country wants to attain in order to hedge against these disruptions. Allowing the importing country to invest in R&D in order to free itself from the embargo threat, I determine the optimal effort that should be engaged in research. The incentive to develop a backstop is shown to increase with the depletion of the reserves.     

Transaction costs,communication and spatial coordination in Payment for Ecosystem Services Schemes

Agricultural producer participation and spatial coordination of land use decisions are key components for enhancing the effective delivery of ecosystem services from private land. However, inducing participation in Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes for coordinating land management choices is challenging from a policy design perspective owing to transaction costs associated with participation. This paper employs a laboratory experiment to investigate the impact of such costs on participation and land use in the context of an Agglomeration Bonus (AB) scheme. The AB creates a coordination game with multiple Nash equilibria related to alternative spatially-coordinated land use patterns. The experiment varies transaction costs between two levels (high and low), which affects the risks and payoffs of coordinating on the different equilibria. Additionally, an option to communicate is implemented between neighbors arranged on a local network to facilitate spatial coordination. Results indicate a significant difference in participation and performance under high and low transaction costs, with lower uptake and performance when transaction costs are high. These effects are, however, impacted by transaction costs faced in the past. Communication improves both AB participation rates and performance with the effect being greater for participants facing high transaction costs.     

Strategic metal markets : Prospects for producer cartels

The OECD area is a major consumer and importer of strategic metals. Assurance of a steady supply of these critical materials at reasonably stable prices has for a long time been an important policy issue in the industrialized market economies. The present study addresses one aspect of supply security. The purpose is to explore the prospects for and strength of price-raising cartel action in selected strategic metal markets, mounted by producers outside the OECD countries.     

Integrating Strategic Environmental Assessment with Industry Planning: A Case Study of the Pasquai-Porcupine Forest Management Plan,Saskatchewan, Canada

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is gaining widespread recognition as a tool for integrating environmental considerations in policy, plan, and program development and decision-making. Notwithstanding the potential of SEA to improve higher-order decision processes, there has been very little attention given to integrating SEA with industry planning practices. As a result, the benefits of SEA have yet to be fully realized among industrial proponents. That said, SEA practice is ongoing, albeit informally and often under a different label, and is proving to be a valuable tool for industry planning and decision-making. Based on a case study of the Pasquai-Porcupine forest management plan in Saskatchewan, Canada, this paper illustrates how an integrated approach to SEA can contribute to industry environmental decision-making and can enhance the quality and deliverability of industry plans.     

区域战略安全管理——历史、现状与未来

以人权原则以及现代工业的理念 ,从现代安全管理体系和方法的新要求入手 ,站在长久安全和可持续发展战略的高度 ,探求新的安全管理理念和模式 ;进一步研讨了区域战略安全管理模式 ,并归纳出其类型与层次 ;概述了国内外安全管理模式的发展历程 ,对我国战略安全管理的现状和对新模式的探索过程进行了分析 ,归纳出国内外战略安全管理新理念构架 ;重点阐述了HSE(健康、安全、环境 ) ,QHSE(质量、健康、安全、环境 ) ,OHS(职业健康安全 )管理体系战略、安全文化战略以及美国和欧共体战略安全管理等先进理念 ;最后提出了闭环控制的滚动式战略安全管理技术构思和战略安全管理的国内外发展趋势。区域战略安全管理模式的应用与发展将使现代安全管理提高到一个新的高度。     

Evaluation of the Fire Simulation Processes of the National Fire Management System's Initial Attack Analysis Processor

The fire simulation processes of the National Fire Management System's (NFMAS) Initial Attack Analysis (IAA) processor were evaluated by conducting two types of sensitivity analysis: one based on a hypothetical set of data to assess IAA's outputs under a wide range of fire input values, and the other using an actual Stanislaus National Forest database to test IAA's validity with a real set of data. The results revealed that IAA's outputs (projected annual number of fires and area burned) were most sensitive, in descending order, to the input values of the fire spread rate, the productivity rates of the suppression forces, and the initial attack time, for all fuel models tested. In contrast, IAA's outputs were extremely insensitive to variations in the fire size at discovery. Changes are necessary in the ways IAA incorporates the fire size at discovery to facilitate the comparison among various fire detection options. The program's “escaped fire situation” analysis was found inadequate, because the projected annual frequencies and final sizes of the simulated escaped fire events produced unacceptable results with the Stanislaus National Forest database. Assigning final sizes to simulated escaped fires according to the fire intensity level in which they are historically expected to occur provides a consistent way of calculation of the projected annual area burned and the consequent cost plus net value change (C + NVC).     

战略环境影响评价与可持续发展的关系研究

概述了战略环境影响评价产生的原因，概念及可持发展的内涵和指标体系，分析了两者的相互关系，强调了战略环境影响评价是达到可持发展的中心环节及可持续发展对战略环境影响评价的指导作用。     

东北地区地下水资源可持续利用与发展战略决策研究

建立东北地区水资源优化配置模型,得出东北地区地下水可持续开发利用方案,提出适合东北地区地下水可持续发展的战略决策。