Comparative aspects of mountain land resources management and sustainability: Case studies from India and Canada

India and Canada share a common heritage in natural resources management. Both have a colonial background, settlers and indigenous peoples; there is a history of management agencies with utilitarian attitudes, and a history of treating public lands as commodities for commerce rather than as resources for local livelihoods. This historical context guided the overall goal of this study, which was policy development for the sustainable use of mountain environments. Interviews, workshops and seminars were held with local people and resource management professionals in a comparative case study in two regions; the Kullu area in Himachal Pradesh, India and the Arrow Lakes area in British Columbia, Canada. The paper is organized around two main objectives of the work relating to the successes and failures of mountain environment resource management policies and the development of criteria for assessing and monitoring sustainability in mountain environments, in particular, criteria for examining relevant crosscultural dimensions of sustainable development in these environments. By way of conclusion the paper considers further ways in which traditional resource policy development and implementation is being challenged by changing values and priorities; ecosystems management with people; and co-management and public participation.     

The growing role of web‐based geospatial technology in disaster response and support

This paper examines changes in disaster response and relief efforts and recent web‐based geospatial technological developments through an evaluation of the experiences of the Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, of the Sichuan (2008) and Haiti (2010) earthquake responses. This paper outlines how conventional GIS (geographic information systems) disaster responses by governmental agencies and relief response organisations and the means for geospatial data‐sharing have been transformed into a more dynamic, more transparent, and decentralised form with a wide participation. It begins by reviewing briefly at historical changes in the employment of geospatial technologies in major devastating disasters, including the Sichuan and Haiti earthquakes (case studies for our geospatial portal project). It goes on to assess changes in the available dataset type and in geospatial disaster responders, as well as the impact of geospatial technological changes on disaster relief effort. Finally, the paper discusses lessons learned from recent responses and offers some thoughts for future development.     

基于GIS的区域干旱灾害风险区划研究

根据自然灾害风险理论,从致灾因子危险性、孕灾环境暴露性、承灾体易损性、防灾减灾能力等4个子系统选取指标,建立干旱灾害风险指数模型,结合GIS中自然断点分类法进行聚类分析,全面综合地分析各地区相关性和差异性.以淮河流域为研究实例,根据拟定的区划原则,采用“自下而上”和“自上而下”相结合的区划方法,将淮河流域分为6个旱灾风险分区,并对区划结果进行分析,为因地制宜地采取工程和非工程的防灾减灾措施,提供参考依据.     

Characterizing vulnerability to water scarcity: The case of a groundwater-dependent,rapidly urbanizing region

Groundwater overdraft is a resource management issue that poses a threat for the security of communities. Impacts of groundwater overdraft are influenced by the biophysical and social contexts of water management. This paper presents a method for assessing vulnerability to water scarcity in spatial terms using biophysical and social indicators. A geographic information system was used to establish areas of vulnerability based upon hydrologic variability in water resource availability within a groundwater basin, three types of water management systems, and 10 sociodemographic characteristics. Our study area is in the rapidly urbanizing Arizona Central Highlands, located ~150km north of the Phoenix metropolitan region, USA. Results indicate that the most biophysically vulnerable places do not necessarily intersect with the most vulnerable populations and that local differences in vulnerability are interrelated, rather than independent, outcomes in a process of socioenvironmental transformation. Vulnerability is influenced by laws that deny access to local surface waters and lead to dependence on fossil groundwater, and by economic reliance on urbanization. Localities attempt to reduce vulnerability through the development of community water systems and the expansion of water frontiers. While such strategies may reduce local vulnerability, they are not sustainable solutions because they transfer risks to other places, and thus contribute to vulnerability elsewhere.     

Investment in cleaner technology and signaling distortions in a market with green consumers

I analyze the pricing and investment behavior of a firm that signals the environmental attributes of its production technology through its price to uninformed environmentally conscious consumers. I then analyze the effect of change in environmental regulation on the signaling outcome and the firm's ex ante incentive to invest in cleaner technology. When regulation is weak, a firm signals cleaner technology through higher price; in this case, the firm earns lower profit when it has cleaner technology and thus, has no incentive to invest in cleaner technology. The price charged by the clean firm declines sharply beyond a critical level of regulation. When regulation is sufficiently stringent, the firm with cleaner technology charges lower price but earns higher signaling profit, and ex ante the firm has positive incentive to invest in cleaner technology. With weak regulation, the incentive of the firm to directly disclose its environmental performance rather than signal it through price is increasing in the level of regulation; the opposite holds when regulation is sufficiently stringent.     

Implementing optimal taxes using tradable share permits

This paper presents a simple system for efficient regulation under asymmetric information. Each firm's income is controlled by a tax that depends on the firm's own output and on a parameter construed as a share permit. These “shares of total expected output” lower a firm's tax burden and are acquired in a competitive market. By employing this scheme, the planner only requires knowledge of marginal damage to induce the first-best outcome. Relative to a traditional cap-and-trade approach the system increases expected social welfare.     

东北典型黑土区坡沟侵蚀耦合关系

东北黑土区是中国重要的商品粮基地,但是严重的水土流失给其粮食产量带来了严峻考验。论文在遥感和GIS支持下,选择黑龙江省乌裕尔河和讷谟尔河两流域包含的东北典型黑土区作为研究区,以USLE模型和SPOT 5影像为基础,分别获取了2005年研究区的坡面侵蚀量和侵蚀沟分布数据,据此分析了典型黑土区坡面侵蚀和沟蚀之间在不同等级、 坡度、 坡向等方面的耦合关系。研究发现微度侵蚀和轻度侵蚀是坡面侵蚀主要区域,沟蚀发展程度比较剧烈;坡度小于5°时,坡度是沟蚀产生的制约因素,当大于5°时,坡度已经不是侵蚀沟形成过程中的主要控制因素;阳坡坡面侵蚀量高于阴坡的坡面侵蚀量,坡向在东北典型黑土区不是影响沟蚀发育的首要因子;侵蚀强度在2 500 t/(km²·a)以下的地区,随着坡面侵蚀量的增大侵蚀沟密度增大,而当大于2 500 t/(km²·a)以后,侵蚀沟密度比较稳定。     

中国冰川旅游资源开发模式与对策研究

中国冰川资源规模巨大,形态各异,在国内旅游市场中具有绝对的垄断性地位。然而,我国冰川旅游发展却较为缓慢,景点稀少,与冰川资源禀赋极不相符,与国外冰川旅游发展差距较大。冰川旅游资源的吸引功能并非由冰川旅游单体决定,往往由冰川及周边景观的组合程度大小决定。鉴于此,中国冰川旅游需要改变以往冰川观光和其他单一景点开发模式,进而向冰川、雪山、森林、草甸、湖泊、峡谷与民族文化组团式开发转变,通过冰川与其他景观的组团式开发模式,扩展其冰川旅游类型与内涵,延伸其高山带山地旅游产业链,提升我国冰川旅游产品品牌价值,以此为我国冰川资源优势转变为经济优势提供理论与实践支持。     

基于中国风能资源专业观测网的近地层风切变日变化特征

以中国风能资源专业观测网2009年5至10月10~120 m的梯度风观测数据分析了全国近地层风切变特征,结果表明:①风切变总体呈现规律性变化趋势,即:日出前和日落后切变指数较大,随着近地层温度升高,切变指数逐渐下降,近地层温度达到最高时,切变指数达到最低值,后随着日落、地面温度下降,切变指数逐渐上升,直到次日日出、日落周期;②因局地海(湖)陆分布的差异以及下垫面粗糙程度的不同,切变指数在各地的变化可归纳为如下几种类型:典型陆地型、海陆效应差异型、湖(河)陆效应差异型、特殊地形(峡谷)型、切变指数偏大型和特殊型;③从不同梯度间的风切变特征来看,低层(30 m附近)较为明显,而中高层(50 m和70 m)较小,说明30 m高度为我国近地层风速变化较为明显的层次。该研究资料序列短,可能在反映全国近地层风切变特征的普适性方面还存在一定的不足,但仍可作为我国风能资源丰富区近地层不同梯度间风切变分布和变化特征的重要参考,期望通过该研究的开展为风电场的布设及近地面层风能资源的利用提供技术依据。