On some aspects of ecological resilience and the conservation of species

The importance of the notion of resilience in determining the static and the intertemporal behaviour of jointly determined ecological-economic systems has long been recognized by ecologists. This notwithstanding, there are very few formal studies of such systems which explicitly analyse the ecological and the economic aspects of the problem. Consequently, this paper has two objectives. First, a new stationary probability-based method is proposed to characterize the notion of ecological resilience. Next, this characterization is used to study the problem of optimal species conservation.     

The economics of green transition strategies for cities: Can low carbon,energy efficient development approaches be adapted to demand side urban water efficiency?

Cities are major contributors to global emissions, producers of waste and consumers of resources such as energy, water and food: implementing green development strategies is hence a core challenge of modern city-planning. The attention of research has been focusing on the development of energy efficient, low carbon strategies, yet city decision-makers need truly integrated approaches, as the one proposed by the water-energy-food Nexus. The purpose of our paper is to investigate whether it is possible to take one step in this direction by extending existing approaches to energy efficiency strategies to progressively include other priority resources, in particular water. To test this hypothesis we have taken a robust and well accepted methodology, the ELCC (Economics of Low Carbon development strategies for Cities) developed by SEI and CCCEP, and we have extended it to the case of demand side water efficiency strategies for cities. We have then applied the adapted ELCC framework to the case study of the domestic sector of the city of Bologna (Italy), identifying and prioritizing several efficiency measures. Measures were evaluated through their capital investment, annual values of savings, payback period and reduction in consumption, and then aggregated in different scenarios in order to highlight potential urban investments and to showcase a possible approach to the prioritization of demand side water efficiency measures. The results show that, with an upfront investment of € 17 million, a feasible subset of Bologna’s households could be equipped with five selected cost-effective measures, generating annual savings of € 10.2 million and reducing the total domestic water consumption of 34% by 2020 compared to the 2012 initial value. With additional € 28.5 million, households could be equipped with more costly appliances reaching an overall water reduction of 37% by 2020. Our findings confirm that it is possible to successfully extend current approaches to urban energy efficiency strategies to include demand side water efficiency, adding an important building block to the construction of an integrated Nexus-based approach to green development strategies at the city-level. We encourage further tests to confirm the robustness of the methodology.     

Human use and conservation planning in Alpine areas of Northwestern Yunnan,China

Alpine areas in northwestern Yunnan, China possess globally significant levels of biodiversity and are important locally for livelihood activities such as livestock grazing and medicinal plant collection. Because local land use has important impacts on alpine conditions and communities have significant capacity to manage alpine resources, we emphasized local collaboration during the initial stages of conservation planning. Our collaboration with local communities investigated how livelihood strategies affect the condition of alpine resources in northwestern Yunnan and how future conservation efforts can be compatible with local livelihoods. We sampled three livestock herding sites, each within a different alpine sub-region, using open-ended interviews and maximum variation sampling. According to interviewees, livestock grazing within the alpine zone currently does not appear to be negatively impacting the availability of forage. Medicinal plant collection, however, is showing unsustainable trends. Tourism is as yet a nascent industry, but is seen as having great potential by those interviewed. It is clear that with increases in population, access to regional markets, and tourism, northwestern Yunnan’s rich alpine resources will require careful management. In addition to the data collected, we found that the methodology used may be widely applicable to organizations with limited resources that wish to engage local communities during the formative stages of regional-level conservation planning.     

农业旱灾频发区旱灾恢复力评估方法研究——以鲁西北地区为例

鲁西北地区是我国农业旱灾的频发区,该地区的旱灾具有发生频率高、影响范围广的特点,严重影响了当地的农业生产和经济发展.在这种情况下,尝试构建合理的旱灾恢复力评估模型来对该地区农业旱灾灾后恢复力进行综合测评并以此为依据制定减灾策略就显得十分必要了.本文运用AHP通过建立相对完善的指标体系,从自然环境、国民经济、社会援助和政府组织四方面对鲁西北地区旱灾恢复力进行分析评估,创建起比较符合实际的评估模型,以期为鲁西北地区抗旱行为提供辅助决策.图1,表5,参7.     

‘Here,I'm not at ease’: anthropological perspectives on community resilience

A number of recent studies on disaster reconstruction have focused on the concept of community resilience and its importance in the recovery of communities from collective trauma. This article reviews the contributions the anthropological literature and the ethnographic case studies of two post‐Hurricane Mitch housing reconstruction sites make to the theorising of community and resilience in post‐disaster reconstruction. Specifically, the article demonstrates that communities are not static or neatly bounded entities that remain constant before, during and after a disaster; rather, communities take on shape and qualities depending on the relationships in which they engage with government agencies and aid organisations before and after disasters. Consequently, the article argues that definitions of community resilience and disaster mitigation programmes must take the emergent and relational nature of communities into account in order to address the long‐term causes and impacts of disasters.     

Disaster resilience and population ageing: the 1995 Kobe and 2004 Chuetsu earthquakes in Japan

This paper provides a framework for evaluating the effects of population ageing on disaster resilience. In so doing, it focuses on the 1995 Kobe and 2004 Chuetsu earthquakes, two major disasters that affected Japan before the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake. It analyses regional population recovery on the basis of pre‐disaster and post‐recovery demographic characteristics using defined transition patterns of population ageing. The evaluation framework demonstrates that various recovery measures make different contributions to disaster resilience for each transition pattern of population ageing. With reference to regional population ageing, the framework allows for a prediction of disaster resilience, facilitating place vulnerability assessments and potentially informing policy‐making strategies for Japan and other countries with ageing populations.     

Organisational resilience following the Darfield earthquake of 2010

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study on the resilience and recovery of organisations following the Darfield earthquake in New Zealand on 4 September 2010. Sampling included organisations proximal and distal to the fault trace, organisations located within central business districts, and organisations from seven diverse industry sectors. The research captured information on the challenges to, the impacts on, and the reflections of the organisations in the first months of recovery. Organisations in central business districts and in the hospitality sector were most likely to close, while organisations that had perishable stock and livestock were more heavily reliant on critical services. Staff well‐being, cash flow, and customer loss were major concerns for organisations across all sectors. For all organisations, the most helpful factors in mitigating the effects of the earthquake were their relationship with staff members, the design and type of buildings, and critical service continuity or swift reinstatement of services.     

沂蒙山区农户生计变迁及其住宅形态的响应研究

以山东省沂水县3个村（核桃园、高桥、唐家庄子）为例,运用参与式农村评估法（PRA）、对比分析法,剖析沂蒙山区农户生计变迁与其住宅形态功能转型的关系,为农村居民点整治中的新村建设提供决策指导。研究结果表明：1）改革开放前,研究区农户以农业生计为主,修建“平房+庭院”形态住宅,利用庭院种植蔬菜;2）改革开放后,农户生计逐渐多样化和非农化。禽畜养殖成为农户重要的生计来源,农户在住宅内搭建猪圈养猪,在庭院内饲养家禽。高桥农户就地发展非农经济,修建两层楼房,将一层的空间用于非农经营;3）21世纪以来,农户生计进一步非农化和分化。核桃园农户以粮食种植和外出务工为主,将庭院硬化晾晒粮食,改造猪圈为储物间储存粮食和农机具;高桥农户为了扩大非农经营空间修（改）建三层楼房,将一二层用于非农经营;唐家庄子农户到县城非农就业,为改善居住环境修建两层楼房,住宅中用于生产的空间消失。可见：农村住宅形态和功能转型是与农户生计方式变迁相适应的,农村居民点整治中新村建设模式应充分考虑农户生计的实际需求。     

系统安全韧性的塑造与评估建模

为完善安全系统学理论体系,立足于理论思辨层面,基于韧性科学和安全系统学,提出安全韧性的定义,并解析其内涵,论述其研究意义。基于此,从3个维度构建系统安全韧性塑造体系的概念模型,并对其进行扼要阐释;深入剖析系统安全韧性塑造体系的作用机理,并构建其作用模型。基于系统安全韧性曲线,构建系统安全韧性评估的数学模型,并进行系统安全韧性曲线的对比分析。研究结果可为安全系统学研究提供新思路和新方法,系统安全韧性是安全系统学和韧性科学交叉领域一个值得关注的重要范式。     

Resilience from the ground up: how are local resilience perceptions and global frameworks aligned?

Numerous resilience measurement frameworks for climate programmes have emerged over the past decade to operationalise the concept and aggregate results within and between programmes. Proxies of resilience, including subjective measures using perception data, have been proposed to measure resilience, but there is limited evidence on their validity and use for policy and practice. This article draws on research on the Decentralising Climate Funds project of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters programme, which supports communities in Mali and Senegal to improve climate resilience through locally controlled adaptation funds. It explores attributes of resilience from this bottom‐up perspective to assess its predictors and alignment with food security, as a proxy of well‐being. We find different patterns when comparing resilience and the well‐being proxy, illustrating that the interplay between the two is still unclear. Results also point to the importance of contextualising resilience, raising implications for aggregating results.