Governing sustainability: a dialogue between Local Agenda 21 and transition management

Since the 1990s, the local level of governance has become increasingly important in addressing the challenge of sustainable development. In this article, we compare two approaches that seek to address sustainability locally, namely Local Agenda 21 and transition management. Discussing both approaches along six dimensions (history, aim, kind of change, governance understanding, process methodologies, and actors), we formulate general insights into the governance of sustainability in cities, towns, and neighbourhoods. This dialogue illustrates two related modes of thinking about sustainability governance. We touch upon the importance of an integrated perspective on sustainability transitions through which sustainability is made meaningful locally in collaborative processes. We suggest that the explicit orientation towards radical change is a precondition for governing sustainability in a way that addresses the root causes of societal challenges. Governing sustainability should address the tensions between aiming for radical change and working with status quo-oriented actors and governing settings. We conclude that governing sustainability should be about finding creative ways for opening spaces for participation, change, and experimentation, that is, for creating alternative ideas, practices, and social relations. These spaces for innovation encourage a reflexive stance on ways of working and one's own roles and attitudes, thereby preparing a fertile terrain for actors to engage in change from different perspectives.     

基于水生态文明建设的地方水环境资源立法研究

水生态文明是生态文明的重要组成和基础保障,是实现生态文明的重要支撑.进行水生态文明建设的重要基础保障是法律,而法律保障中最基础的一个环节就是立法,因此通过立法来保障水生态文明建设成为必然的趋势.选取江苏这一地区,从地方法治的角度出发,分析江苏省水生态文明建设在立法取得的成果以及存在的应当注意的问题.在此基础上结合江苏省的特殊省情,从立法的重点内容、立法程序以及立法监督三个方面提出完善地方水生态文明立法的建议.     

Annual and Diurnal Wind Patterns in the City of São Paulo

The major topographic, mesoscale, and urban influences on the wind patterns of the City of São Paulo are characterized using one year of surface wind velocity data observed at 11 surface stations within its urban limits. The data was used to study the diurnal and annual variations of wind velocity and horizontal wind divergence within the city. Results showed that the circulation over the investigated area is dominated by three major factors: sea breeze; mountain-valley circulations; and urban effects, such as roughness, building-barrier, and urban heat island. The sea breeze was found to be the dominant feature of the monthly-averaged diurnal variation of São Paulo surface winds during the eight warmest months of the year. The sea breeze front induces a velocity minimum at the time of its passage and a post-frontal afternoon velocity maximum. Mountain-valley thermal effects on the flow can be seen in the temporal divergence/convergence patterns. These thermal effects tend to be more important during colder months, at night, and when the wind velocities are low. Nighttime downslope convergent flows are present over the city during winter and spring and daytime upslope divergent flows are present over the city during summer months.     

Towards sustainability management systems in three Swedish local authorities

This paper explores the development towards sustainability management systems (SMSs) in three Swedish local authorities. Many local authorities have extensive experience in using standardised Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). Recently EMSs have extended their reach by widening the scope of the systems including other dimensions of sustainable development. Case studies have been performed in three of the most EMS-experienced local authorities in Sweden. These authorities have extended their EMSs into a sustainability management approach in different ways. This paper discusses the development, possible contributions, and constraints with this development. Expanding EMSs into SMSs can be seen as a learning process in which a larger systems perspective leads to increased awareness that the management system becomes limited by only managing environmental issues. Expanding the EMSs into SMSs may lead to a more complete view of the organisation's total impact on nature and society, and issues that need to be managed.     

元阳梯田水源区土壤水氢氧同位素特征

稳定同位素技术为土壤水的运移研究提供了一种全新的研究手段.通过对元阳梯田水源区降水及其4种典型植被类型(乔木林、灌木林、荒草地和无林地)下0~100 cm剖面土壤水进行采样和氢氧稳定同位素的分析测定,研究了该区不同深度层次上土壤水的稳定同位素特征.结果表明,元阳梯田水源区的大气降水线方程为δD=6.838 4δ18O-5.692 1(R2=0.878 7,n=20),其斜率和截距均小于全球大气降水线.4种典型植被类型下的土壤水氢氧稳定同位素值均落于当地大气降水线下侧,且其表层土壤剖面上的同位素值波动变化幅度较大.随着土层深度的增加,δ18O值的波动变化越来越小,尤其以80~100 cm土层体现的最为明显.乔木林和荒草地两种林分类型整体上深层土壤水中的δ18O值要偏高于表层土壤,而灌木林和无林地则恰恰相反.     

Mechanisms of changes in population numbers of Caucasian red deer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cervus elaphus maral</Emphasis>) in the northwestern Caucasus

Mechanisms of changes in the numbers of red deer in the Caucasian State Biosphere Reserve (the northwestern Caucasus) were studied from 1958 to 2004 using simulation models developed on the basis of concepts concerning the combined effect of density-dependent and density-independent factors. The results show that changes in population numbers are accounted for by larger (more numerous) local subunits, with small groups remaining relatively stable. In the periods of depression, such a mechanism provides for the maintenance of the spatial population structure.     

PROBABILISTIC GREAT LAKES HYDROLOGY OUTLOOKS1

ABSTRACT: The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory developed a semiautomatic software package for making hydrological outlooks for the Great Lakes. These include basin moisture storages, basin runoff, lake heat storage, lake evaporation, heat fluxes, and net lake supplies, one or more full months into the future. The package combines GLERL's rainfall-runoff and lake evaporation models with near real-time data reduction techniques to represent current system states. Users select historical meteorologic record segments as candidate future scenarios to generate deterministic near real-time hydrological outlooks. GLERL has extended the package to make probabilistic outlooks for a decision-maker who must estimate the risk associated with his decisions. GLERL matches National Weather Service meteorologic outlook probabilities by selecting groups of historical meteorologic sequences, and constructs embedded outlook intervals for each hydrologic variable of interest. Interval probabilities are assigned from comparisons over a recent evaluation period. This physically-based approach for generating outlooks offers the ability, as compared to other statistically-based approaches, to incorporate improvements in the understanding, of process dynamics as they occur in the future and to respond reasonably to conditions initial to a forecast (such as heat and moisture storages), not observed in the past.     

我国现代煤化工项目废水处理的误区和建议

介绍了我国现代煤化工项目的废水来源及特性,归纳了废水的处理技术路线,从废水"零排放"、废水处理技术与管理、蒸发塘的污染转移、废水处理与固体废物处理及废气处理的关系、污染物源头控制等方面阐述了我国当前煤化工废水处理存在的误区和建议。     

区域COD、SO_2及TSP排放的空间自相关分析:以江苏省为例

空间自相关分析是空间统计学的一个重要组成部分,是认识空间格局的有效手段.针对研究的空间范围不同,常采用全局空间自相关和局部空间自相关来衡量区域空间自相关程度.利用江苏省1990~2006年13个省辖市COD、SO2和TSP排放量数据,采用空间自相关分析方法对江苏省环境污染排放区域异质性进行了研究.结果表明,江苏省COD和TSP排放总量分别从1990年的596 353 t和1 101 404 t显著下降到2006年的291 762 t和704 734 t,SO2排放量基本保持稳定;江苏省COD、SO2和TSP排放的空间自相关性随时间推移正在发生着变化,到2006年COD、SO2和TSP排放的Global Moran’s I分别达到0.465 7、0.214 2和0.510 1,呈现较显著的正空间自相关趋势,空间上的集聚分布格局业已形成,且COD排放先于SO2和TSP排放在空间呈现集聚格局,空间集聚的程度也较大;苏南与苏北的污染排放格局差异较大,苏南COD、SO2和TSP排放的Global Moran’s I值至2006年分别增加到0.499 7、0.320 2和0.298 3,集聚格局明显,而苏北COD、SO2...     

2-萘酚生产对环境的影响及废水处理工艺研究

分析了2-萘酚生产现状、市场形势及污水特点，在总结当前2-萘酚生产废水处理工艺研究状况的基础上，提出了处理2-萘酚污水的双效蒸发-冷凝结晶工艺。该工艺回收2-萘磺酸钠并加以再利用，回收率可达到50％以上，余下的浓缩液可用于生产硫酸钠。实践表明，经该工艺处理的排放污水，其净化程度达到国家污水排放二级标准。