基于面板数据的土地投入对经济增长的影响-以浙江省为例

采用生产函数与面板数据回归模型相结合的研究手段,以地处经济发达地区的浙江省为实证研究区域对土地要素投入对经济增长的影响进行了定量的研究。研究结果表明：(1)就规模效应而言,浙江省的经济增长处于规模报酬不变的发展阶段;(2)浙江省经济增长对劳动力要素的投入最为敏感,其中土地要素、劳动力要素和资本要素增加1个单位的投入量对经济增长的推动为 0.247 3、0.538 5 和 0.321 6;（3）固定资产投入在研究期间是浙江省经济增长的主要推动力,其贡献率达到6823%,而劳动力要素与土地要素则分别为2346%和625%;(4)浙江省土地利用不够集约,在研究期间土地要素对经济增长的影响能被资本要素与劳动力要素有效替代,而劳动力要素则难以被资本投入与土地投入有效替代,劳动集约型产业应该成为浙江省未来发展方向之一。     

基于AHP和DEA模型的农业生态效率评价——以无锡市为例

农业面源污染已成为我国重要环境污染源之一,但由于农业面源污染具有分散、面广、周期长、随机性等特点,在评价上存在较大难度。根据生态效率理论,结合农业生产的特点,建立了综合考虑经济效益和环境影响的农业生态效率评价指标体系,并以江苏省无锡市为例,选取该市1998~2008年农业生产和面源污染相关数据,运用偏好锥的数据包络分析模型（DEA）对其农业生态效率进行了评价分析。结果显示：1998~2008年,无锡市农业生态效率呈现先下降后上升的趋势,近三年累计上升幅度达22%。表明近年来无锡市农业面源污染治理成效显著,农业可持续发展水平显著提高。提出的农业生态效率评价体系和方法为进一步推进农业面源污染治理工作提供了依据     

上海霾气候数据序列重建及其时空特征

利用上海11个气象站点1960～2008年日均相对湿度、能见度以及天气现象资料,重建了上海近50a霾气候数据序列,并从时间和空间两个方面分析了上海霾日数的气候特征和变化规律。结果表明,上海霾气候数据序列重建值与报表记录值之间变化形态存在着较好的一致性,重建值较记录值偏高。1960～2008年,上海霾日数以9.7d/10a的线性趋势显著增加,2002年以后霾日数总体上呈减少趋势。上海多年平均霾日数以冬季最多而夏季最少。近50a,上海霾日数呈现出西南部最多-市区较多-东北和东南部最少的空间分布,霾日数的空间变化趋势则表现为西南部增加较多而东部增加较少。1981～2008年,上海霾日数在西部和南部都增加,东部则减少。     

中国环境效率评价及其影响因素实证研究

环境效率是实际污染排放和潜在污染排放的一种度量。本文运用包含污染排放的环境DEA模型,测算了1998-2007年中国省际环境效率,检验了其收敛情况。结果显示,全国环境效率总体水平较低,省际、区域间差距较大,表明现阶段实行地区间减排合作、推动环保技术在区域间扩散的现实必要性;分别从20032、005年开始,省际、区域环境效率差距逐渐缩小,存在一定的收敛趋势;同时,本文采用Tobit模型分析了影响环境效率因素,研究发现人均GDP对提高环境效率具有积极影响,而工业比重上升、财政分权度的提高以及贸易自由化对环境效率具有显著的负面影响。最后,基于实证研究的结果,就减少地区污染排放、提高我国环境效率给出了相关政策建议。     

Connecting the Dots: Public Engagement with Environmental Data

Air pollution and other environmental hazards are often imperceptible and need to be made publicly visible. The paper argues for the importance of visualizations in drawing public attention to imperceptible hazards and in providing the public with access to empirical data describing the risks. It also argues for critical inquiry into hazards’ selective visibility as it is produced by visualizations. The impact of visualizations and their selective visibility are considered through the example of a public art project called Particle Falls installed in 2014 in Pittsburgh, a city with a long history of both ignoring air pollution and working to ameliorate this problem. I examine the impact and selective visibility of Particle Falls by considering the underlying production of data, as well as context and support systems for this visualization, and by comparing it with other visualizations of local air quality.     

Influence of new town development on the urban heat island - The case of the Bundang area

Five new towns have been developed around the Seoul metropolitan area since 1996. However, these new towns generate lots of traffic and related problems in the areas including those new towns and Seoul as a result of increases in population and a lack of ecological-self-sufficiency. Currently, construction of another new town is under deliberation, and what should be a major consider is the notion that the new town be located within a wide, green zone. Many studies have revealed that green space can play an important role in improving urban eco-meteorological capability and air quality. In order to analyze the urban heat island which will be created by the new urban development, and to investigate the local thermal environment and its negative effects caused by a change of land use type and urbanization, Landsat TM images were used for extraction of urban surface temperature according to changes of land use over the last 15 years. These data are analyzed together with digital land use and topographic information. As a study result, it was found the urban heat island of the study area from 198.5 to 1999 rapidly developed which showed a difference of mean temperature above 2.0. Before the Bundang new town construction the temperature of the residential area was the same as a forest, but during the new town construction in 1991 analysis revealed the creation of an urban heat island. The temperature of a forest whose size is over 50% of the investigation area was lowest, and thus the presence of a forest is believed to have a direct cooling effect on the urban environment and its surroundings. The mean temperature of the residential and commercial areas in the study was found to be 4.5 higher than the forest, and therefore this part of land use is believed to be the main factor causing the temperature increase of the urban heat island.     

Citizen science networks in natural history and the collective validation of biodiversity data

Biodiversity data are in increasing demand to inform policy and management. A substantial portion of these data is generated in citizen science networks. To ensure the quality of biodiversity data, standards and criteria for validation have been put in place. We used interviews and document analysis from the United Kingdom and The Netherlands to examine how data validation serves as a point of connection between the diverse people and practices in natural history citizen science networks. We found that rather than a unidirectional imposition of standards, validation was performed collectively. Specifically, it was enacted in ongoing circulations of biodiversity records between recorders and validators as they jointly negotiated the biodiversity that was observed and the validity of the records. These collective validation practices contributed to the citizen science character or natural history networks and tied these networks together. However, when biodiversity records were included in biodiversity‐information initiatives on different policy levels and scales, the circulation of records diminished. These initiatives took on a more extractive mode of data use. Validation ceased to be collective with important consequences for the natural history networks involved and citizen science more generally.     

HYDROLOGIC AND HYDRAULIC RESEARCH IN MOUNTAIN RWERS1

ABSTRACT: Although our current (1990) knowledge of hydrologic and hydraulic processes is based on many years of study, there are river environments where these processes are complex and poorly understood. One of these environments is in mountainous areas, which cover about 25 percent of the United States. Use of conventional hydrologic and hydraulic techniques in mountain-river environments may produce erroneous results and interpretations in a wide spectrum of water-resources investigations. An ongoing U.S. Geological Survey research project is being conducted to improve the understanding of hydrologic and hydraulic processes of mountainous areas and to improve the results of subsequent hydrologic investigations. Future hydrologic and hydraulic research needs in mountainous areas are identified.     

DEVELOPMENT OF EARTH SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE TELEMETRY OF HYDROLOGIC DATA1

ABSTRACT The use of satellite telemetry is playing a major role in the collection of hydrologic data. Advancing technology and availability of government satellites have permitted many agencies to take advantage of new procedures for acquiring data from automated remote data collection stations. Experiments with Earth satellite technology started in the 1960's and 1970's, with the polar-orbiting National Aeronautics and Space Administration Nimbus and Landsat satellites. Subsequent advancements took place through the development phase to operational systems using the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This satellite system supports more than 2,500 active telemetry sites, of which approximately 1,200 are Geological Survey stream-gaging stations for the collection of hydrologic data. A satellite data collection system is made up of three primary components; a small battery-operated radio, and Earth-orbiting satellite, and an Earth receive and data processing station. The data relay satellites' vast aerial view of the Earth's surface gives satellite telemetry a large advantage over ground-based systems for the collection of real-time hydrologic data for flood warning, reservoir management, irrigation water control, hydropower generation, and the operation of hydrologic stations.     

Mapping Disturbances in a Mangrove Forest Using Multi-Date Landsat TM Imagery

To evaluate the accounts of local fishermen, Landsat TM images (1986, 1993, 1999) were examined to assess potential losses in the mangrove forests of the Teacapán–Agua Brava lagoon system, Mexico. A binary change mask derived from image differencing of a band 4/3 ratio was employed to calculate any changes within this forested wetland. The results indicate that by 1986 approximately 18% (or 86 km²) of the mangrove area under study was either dead or in poor condition. The majority of this damage had occurred in the eastern section of the Agua Brava basin, which coincides, with the reports of the elderly fishermen. Examination of aerial photographs from 1970 revealed no adverse impacts in this area and would suggest, as postulated by the fishermen and other scientists, that modifications in environmental conditions following the opening of a canal, Cuautlá canal, in 1972 may have initiated the large-scale mortality. Although these areas of impact are still developing, the results from the satellite data indicate that the majority of the more recent changes are occurring elsewhere in the system. Obvious in the 1999 satellite data, but not so in the 1993, are large areas of mangrove degradation in the northern section of the Teacapán region. In the Agua Brava basin, the more recent transformations are appearing on the western side of the basin. Since long-term records of environmental conditions are absent, it is difficult to determine why these latest changes are occurring or even if the earlier losses were the result of the canal. Potential agents of change that have recently been observed include a hurricane, a second canal, and the uncontrolled expansion of the Cuautlá canal since 1994.