The Value of Using Feasibility Models in Systematic Conservation Planning to Predict Landholder Management Uptake

Understanding the social dimensions of conservation opportunity is crucial for conservation planning in multiple‐use landscapes. However, factors that influence the feasibility of implementing conservation actions, such as the history of landscape management, and landholders’ willingness to engage are often difficult or time consuming to quantify and rarely incorporated into planning. We examined how conservation agencies could reduce costs of acquiring such data by developing predictive models of management feasibility parameterized with social and biophysical factors likely to influence landholders’ decisions to engage in management. To test the utility of our best‐supported model, we developed 4 alternative investment scenarios based on different input data for conservation planning: social data only; biological data only; potential conservation opportunity derived from modeled feasibility that incurs no social data collection costs; and existing conservation opportunity derived from feasibility data that incurred collection costs. Using spatially explicit information on biodiversity values, feasibility, and management costs, we prioritized locations in southwest Australia to control an invasive predator that is detrimental to both agriculture and natural ecosystems: the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). When social data collection costs were moderate to high, the most cost‐effective investment scenario resulted from a predictive model of feasibility. Combining empirical feasibility data with biological data was more cost‐effective for prioritizing management when social data collection costs were low (<4% of the total budget). Calls for more data to inform conservation planning should take into account the costs and benefits of collecting and using social data to ensure that limited funding for conservation is spent in the most cost‐efficient and effective manner.     

Quantifying population declines based on presence‐only records for red‐list assessments

Accurate trend estimates are necessary for understanding which species are declining and which are most in need of conservation action. Imperfect species detection may result in unreliable trend estimates because this may lead to the overestimation of declines. Because many management decisions are based on population trend estimates, such biases could have severe consequences for conservation policy. We used an occupancy‐modeling framework to estimate detectability and calculate nationwide population trends for 14 Swiss amphibian species both accounting for and ignoring imperfect detection. Through the application of International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria to the different trend estimates, we assessed whether ignoring imperfect detection could affect conservation policy. Imperfect detection occurred for all species and detection varied substantially among species, which led to the overestimation of population declines when detectability was ignored. Consequently, accounting for imperfect detection lowered the red‐list risk category for 5 of the 14 species assessed. We demonstrate that failing to consider species detectability can have serious consequences for species management and that occupancy modeling provides a flexible framework to account for observation bias and improve assessments of conservation status. A problem inherent to most historical records is that they contain presence‐only data from which only relative declines can be estimated. A move toward the routine recording of nonobservation and absence data is essential if conservation practitioners are to move beyond this toward accurate population trend estimation.     

The role of digital data entry in participatory environmental monitoring

Many argue that monitoring conducted exclusively by scientists is insufficient to address ongoing environmental challenges. One solution entails the use of mobile digital devices in participatory monitoring (PM) programs. But how digital data entry affects programs with varying levels of stakeholder participation, from nonscientists collecting field data to nonscientists administering every step of a monitoring program, remains unclear. We reviewed the successes, in terms of management interventions and sustainability, of 107 monitoring programs described in the literature (hereafter programs) and compared these with case studies from our PM experiences in Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greenland, and Vietnam (hereafter cases). Our literature review showed that participatory programs were less likely to use digital devices, and 2 of our 3 more participatory cases were also slow to adopt digital data entry. Programs that were participatory and used digital devices were more likely to report management actions, which was consistent with cases in Ethiopia, Greenland, and Australia. Programs engaging volunteers were more frequently reported as ongoing, but those involving digital data entry were less often sustained when data collectors were volunteers. For the Vietnamese and Canadian cases, sustainability was undermined by a mismatch in stakeholder objectives. In the Ghanaian case, complex field protocols diminished monitoring sustainability. Innovative technologies attract interest, but the foundation of effective participatory adaptive monitoring depends more on collaboratively defined questions, objectives, conceptual models, and monitoring approaches. When this foundation is built through effective partnerships, digital data entry can enable the collection of more data of higher quality. Without this foundation, or when implemented ineffectively or unnecessarily, digital data entry can be an additional expense that distracts from core monitoring objectives and undermines project sustainability. The appropriate role of digital data entry in PM likely depends more on the context in which it is used and less on the technology itself.     

Can we take the pulse of environmental governance the way we take the pulse of nature? Applying the Freshwater Health Index in Latin America

Quantitative assessments have long been used to evaluate the condition of the natural environment, providing information for standard setting, adaptive management, and monitoring. Similar approaches have been developed to measure environmental governance, however, the end result (e.g., numeric indicators) belies the subjective and normative judgments that are involved in evaluating governance. We demonstrate a framework that makes this information transparent, through an application of the Freshwater Health Index in three different river basins in Latin America. Water Governance is measured on a 0–100 scale, using data derived from perception-based surveys administered to stakeholders. Results suggest that water governance is a primary area of concern in all three places, with low overall scores (Guandu-26, Alto Mayo-38, Bogotá-43). We conclude that this approach to measuring governance at the river basin scale provides valuable information to support monitoring and decision making, and we offer suggestions on how it can be improved.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01407-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

协同治理理论视角下连云港湾长制试点存在的问题及对策

近岸海域环境综合治理是典型的公共产品和公共服务,需要多个主体协同治理。连云港湾长制已实施两年多,虽取得了一定成效,但从协同治理理论来看,仍存在治理主体相对单一、公众参与不足问题。因此,今后应以协同治理理论为指导,形成多元的治理主体,树立各个治理主体的权威性,加强各治理主体的协同性,充分发挥各治理主体的积极性,共同推进湾长制的实施。     

西大海湖沉积物营养盐垂直分布特征变化分析

通过对西大海湖心柱状沉积岩芯有机质(OM)、总氮(TN)、总磷(TP)、磷形态和粒度指标的测试和分析,探讨其垂向分布特征及影响因素.结果表明,营养盐中OM、TN和TP的含量分别为0.633%~2.756%、0.150%~0.429%和648.00~1 480.67 mg·kg-1.Ca-P是TP的主要部分,占TP含量66.04%.1843~1970年间,Ca-P、IP、OM含量变化较小,Fe/Al-P、OP、TP、TN含量波动较大;1970~1996年间,Ca-P、IP、TP含量变化均呈减小趋势,Fe/Al-P、OP、OM含量不同程度上先减少后增加,TN波动较大;1996~2009年营养元素含量相对波动较大,Fe/Al-P、OP和OM的平均含量是3个阶段中最高的.西大海湖沉积岩芯营养元素污染来源以工业废水、生活污水和化肥农药的流失为主.沉积物中C/N比值显示有机质主要来源于水生生物.沉积物粒度组成以黏土和细粉砂为主.相关性研究表明,Ca-P、IP与TP均呈显著的正相关关系,表明Ca-P对IP、TP的增长贡献大.     

GJB 4239—2001在航空型号研制中的应用

结合GJB 4239—2001《装备环境工程通用要求》在航空重点型号研制中应用案例和工作经验,系统地阐述了环境工程技术体系在立项论证阶段、工程研制阶段和设计定型阶段的实现方式,并着重介绍了近几年以来GJB 4239—2001《装备环境工程通用要求》在重点航空型号项目研制中的应用情况。最后,分别在环境分析、环境设计、环境试验,以及环境工程管理等四个方面分析了实际型号研制工作中工作项目、开展时机、输出形式所存在的突出问题,并给出了今后改进完善的建议。     

SCREEN3模型在大气环境管理中的应用研究

基于高斯扩散的单源估算模式SCREEN3计算佛山市环境统计企业的SO2排放最大落地浓度距离,发现全市工业企业SO2排放最大落地浓度距离为0.4~13.5 km.其中水泥和火电等高架源的最大落地浓度的距离最远.佛山市及五区纳入环境统计的重点废气排放企业平均的SO2排放最大落地浓度距离为2.9~4.9 km,能直接影响国控监测点位的企业合计37家,其中40%为高明区的企业.该结果证明加强空气质量国控监测点位周边至少5 km内废气排放企业的督查有利于空气质量的改善.     

基于AnnAGNPS模型四岭水库小流域氮磷流失特征的模拟研究

采用流域尺度的农业非点源污染模型——AnnAGNPS模拟预测苕溪流域四岭水库小流域氮磷流失情况,分析氮磷流失空间分布特征.结果表明,单位面积总氮、总磷流失量在空间分布上有一定的相似性,均呈现出南部大于北部,西部高于东部的特点.以竹林地为主的林地是氮磷输出的最主要来源,其对氮、磷流失总量的贡献率在90%以上.设定不施肥处理(CK)、适地养分管理(SSNM)、当地高产竹农普遍采用的施肥方法(FFP)这3种施肥方式对林地主要植被类型竹林进行情景分析,模拟结果表明,与FFP相比,SSNM在一定程度上减少了氮磷输出,其中溶解性氮和颗粒态氮流失量分别削减8.17%、4.33%,溶性磷和颗粒态磷流失量依次减少9.08%、1.02%.     

再生水灌溉利用的生态风险研究进展

污水再生回用因其具有显著的社会、经济及生态效益,已成为缓解水资源危机的一项重要举措.城市绿地和农业灌溉作为再生水的主要利用途径之一,在国内外已经得到广泛推广实践.为了解国内外在再生水灌溉利用风险方面的研究进展,本文围绕再生水典型污染物包括盐、氮、重金属和新型污染物、病原菌等,从对土壤质量、植物生长、地下水质量和公众健康等几方面,对再生水灌溉利用的生态风险进行了系统分析.结果表明,盐分及盐离子是再生水灌溉利用的主要风险,灌溉利用导致疾病传播的风险始终存在,而新型污染物的生态风险是科学研究热点.借鉴国外经验,分别就城市绿地和农业的灌溉提出了风险管理措施.最后,提出了加强长期定位研究和模型研究,建立再生水水质、灌溉管理与生态风险的有机关联,进行再生水灌溉土壤承载力评价和建立风险管理体系等5项建议,以促进再生水安全利用.