ECONOMIC COSTS AND BENEFITS OF INSTREAM FLOW PROTECTION FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES IN AN INTERNATIONAL BASIN1

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) restricts federal agencies from carrying out actions that jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species. The U.S. Supreme Court has emphasized that the language of the ESA and its amendments permits few exceptions to the requirement to give endangered species the highest priority. This paper estimates economic costs associated with one measure for increasing instream flows to meet critical habitat requirements of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Impacts are derived from an integrated regional model of the hydrology, economics, and institutions of the upper Rio Grande Basin in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. One proposal for providing minimum streamflows to protect the silvery minnow from extinction would provide guaranteed year round streamflows of at least 50 cubic feet per second in the San Acacia reach of the upper Rio Grande. These added flows can be accomplished through reduced surface diversions by New Mexico water users in dry years when flows would otherwise be reduced below the critical level required by the minnow. Based on a 44‐year simulation of future inflows to the basin, we find that some agricultural users suffer damages, but New Mexico water users as a whole do not incur damages from a policy that reduces stream depletions sufficiently to provide habitat for the minnow. The same policy actually benefits downstream users, producing average annual benefits of over $200,000 per year for west Texas agriculture, and over $1 million for El Paso municipal and industrial water users, respectively. Economic impacts of instream flow deliveries for the minnow are highest in drought years.     

湛江市土地资源的可持续利用

湛江市位于祖国大陆的最南端，地形以平原、台地为主，土地资源利用受台风、干早等自然因素的影响。作者对湛江市土地资源可持续利用的限制因子进行了分析，提出了滋江市土地资源可持续利用的对策和措施。     

森林可持续经营的林地产权政策研究--以临安示范林为例

林地产权政策是决定资源配置效率的基础条件。对临安示范林地区研究基点河桥乡的林地产权政策、林地流转的基本情况及农户对林地产权的意愿进行了介绍，找出了现行政策存在的问题，并提出了一套科学合理的适合当地水平的林地产权政策方案。     

我国耕地保护前景分析

耕地作为最重要的生产资料在国民经济建设中具有非常重要的地位，是社会稳定的重要物质基础。在分析我国人多地少、人增地减、人地矛盾日益突出的国情和今后一段时期国家对耕地大量需求的基础上，认为我国必须加强耕地保护，确保社会经济的可持续发展。     

Maplnfo机助制图在土地利用总体规划中的应用

在土地利用总体规划中，传统的模拟制图日益暴露出其局限性。随着信息时代的到来，计算机机助制图以其强大的优势逐步取代了传统的模拟制图。阐述了在土地利用总体规划中应用Maplnfo机助制图的必要性和工作原理，并着重探索其在土地利用总体规划中的应用过程。     

黔南州2002年土地利用变更情况分析

根据2002年土地调查结果，作者对黔南州本年度各类土地增减变更情况进行了统计分析，重点探讨了新地减少的原因以及耕地增加来源和建设用地变更情况。     

IMPLICATIONS OF C.A.R.E. VS. SOUTHVIEW FARM ON THE U.S. LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY INDUSTRY1

ABSTRACT: On May 19, 1993, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York found Southview Farm and Richard H. Popp guilty of violating the Clean Water Act on five occasions. The violations were the result of storm water runoff from a site used for disposal of dairy cattle manure from an unpermitted concentrated animal feeding operation. The presiding District Court judge later dismissed the jury verdict, and subsequently a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the dismissal. The Court of Appeals concluded that the discharges were not exempt as agricultural storm water discharges, and that the manure spreaders involved were point sources. Because the use of animal manures in crop production activities will result, unavoidably, in the discharge of some pollutants to adjacent surface waters, a rational and universally applicable basis is needed to determine when such discharges are point versus nonpoint source. Current statutes and regulations do not delineate clearly such a boundary. To address this lack of specificity, I propose that application rates be based on recommended crop nutrient needs.     

MUNICIPAL WATER USE AND WATER RATES DRIVEN BY SEVERE DROUGHT: A CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: This paper synthesizes and interprets data pertaining to the evolution of average water revenue, water use, and the average cost of water supply in the City of Santa Barbara, California, from 1986 to 1996, a period which included one of the most devastating droughts in California this century. The 1987–1992 drought hit the study area particularly hard. The City of Santa Barbara was dependent exclusively on local sources for its water supply. That made it vulnerable as the regional climate is prone to extreme variability and recurrent droughts. The 1986–1992 drought provided a rare opportunity to assess the sensitivity of municipal water use to pricing, conservation, and other water management measures under extreme drought conditions. Our analysis indicates that the average cost of water rose more than three-fold in real terms from 1986 to 1996, while the gap between the average cost of supply and the average revenue per unit of water (= 100 cubic feet) rose in real terms from $0.14 in 1986 to $ 0.75 in 1996. The rise of $3.08 in the average cost of supplying one unit of water between 1986 and 1996 measures the cost of hedging drought risk in the study area. Water use dropped 46 percent at the height of the drought relative to pro-drought water use, and remains at 61 percent of the pre-drought level. The data derived from the 1987–1992 California drought are unique and valuable insofar as shedding light on drought/water demand adaptive interactions. The experience garnered on drought management during that unique period points to the possibilities available for future water management in the Arid West where dwindling water supplies and burgeoning populations are facts that we must deal with.     

Adaptive management: Promises and pitfalls

Proponents of the scientific adaptive management approach argue that it increases knowledge acquisition rates, enhances information flow among policy actors, and provides opportunities for creating shared understandings. However, evidence from efforts to implement the approach in New Brunswick, British Columbia, Canada, and the Columbia River Basin indicates that these promises have not been met. The data show that scientific adaptive management relies excessively on the use of linear systems models, discounts nonscientific forms of knowledge, and pays inadequate attention to policy processes that promote the development of shared understandings among diverse stakeholders. To be effective, new adaptive management efforts will need to incorporate knowledge from multiple sources, make use of multiple systems models, and support new forms of cooperation among stakeholders.     

SOUND POLICY OR SMOKE AND MIRRORS: DOES ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT MAKE SENSE?1

ABSTRACT: Protection of ecosystems as entities on the landscape has attracted a wide range of support. Ecosystem-based public policies are claimed to be more effective, efficient, and scientifically sound than other approaches to environmental and natural resource policy. The ecosystem concept was never intended to serve as a public policy guide or to determine landscape units for land management purposes. This paper critically examines the use of the ecosystem concept in public policy and land use management and analyzes the proposed rule to manage the National Forest System according to ecosystem management principles. The concept is found to be unsuitable as a basis for guiding environmental and natural resource public policies in general while the proposed rule to manage the national forests according to ecosystem management principles is shown to be incoherent.