我国环境统计指标可操作性框架研究

我国环境统计指标框架的设计与统计内容的界定是一项复杂的系统工程.结合国外环境统计发展动态和国内环境统计工作的实践,提出我国的环境统计指标框架应该是现有框架向综合环境经济核算框架的一种过渡.借鉴国外环境统计发展较为成熟国家在建立环境指标体系的经验,提取出我国环境统计中缺口性指标,包括环境资源的存量、流量(实物型或价值型)和专题性统计(特别是突发性事件,如污染、自然灾害等)等,进而构建出适合我国国情的可操作性环境统计指标框架,其指标分类有八方面:水环境、大气环境、海洋环境、生态环境、能源、自然灾害、城市环境和农村环境.      

Investigating the Fate and Transport of Escherichia coli in the Charles River,Boston, Using High‐Resolution Observation and Modeling1

Abstract: The processes affecting the fate and transport of Escherichia coli in surface waters were investigated using high‐resolution observation and modeling. The concentration patterns in Boston’s Charles River were observed during four sampling events with a total of 757 samples, including two spatial surveys with two along‐river (1,500 m length) and three across‐river (600 m length) transects at approximately 25‐m intervals, and two temporal surveys at a fixed location (Community Boating) over seven days at hourly intervals. The data reveal significant spatial and temporal structure at scales not resolved by typical monitoring programs. A mechanistic, time‐variable, three‐dimensional coupled hydrodynamic and water quality model was developed using the ECOMSED and RCA modeling frameworks. The computational grid consists of 3,066 grid cells with average length dimension of 25 m. Forcing functions include upstream and downstream boundary conditions, Stony Brook, and Muddy River (major tributaries) combined sewer overflow (CSO) and non‐CSO discharge and wind. The model generally reproduces the observed spatial and temporal patterns. This includes the presence and absence of a plume in the study area under similar loading, but different hydrodynamic conditions caused by operation of the New Charles River Dam (downstream) and wind. The model also correctly predicts an episode of high concentrations at the time‐series station following seven days of no rainfall. The model has an overall root mean square error (RMSE) of 250 CFU/100 ml and an error rate (above or below the USEPA‐recommended single sample criteria value of 235 CFU/100 ml) of 9.4%. At the time series station, the model has an RMSE of 370 CFU/100 ml and an error rate of 15%.     

Emergy accounting of the Province of Siena: towards a thermodynamic geography for regional studies

This research is part of the SPIn-Eco project for the Province of Siena, Italy, and applies an environmental accounting method to a region with reference to its population, human activities, natural cycles, infrastructures and other settings. This study asserts that the consumption of resources due to the human economy is a source of great concern because of the load it places on the biosphere. Environmental resources locally used, whether directly or indirectly, from both renewable energy fluxes and storage of materials and energies, are investigated. In this paper emergy analysis is presented and applied to the Province of Siena and to each of its municipalities, in order to evaluate the main flows of energy and materials that supply the territorial system, including human subsystems, with reference to their actual environmental cost. Therefore, the behaviour of the whole system and the interactions between natural and human agents were studied; in other words, the attitudes of the territorial systems toward resource use as revealed by their patterns of emergy consumption were observed. Once expressed in units of the same form of energy through the emergy evaluation, categories of resource consumption and systems of varying scales and organization are compared. Furthermore, indexes of environmental performance based on emergy are calculated. Flows of energy and materials are assessed, and their intensities, which vary throughout the area of the Province, are then visualized on maps.     

Empirical Social-Ecological System Analysis: From Theoretical Framework to Latent Variable Structural Equation Model

The social-ecological system (SES) approach to natural resource management holds enormous promise towards achieving sustainability. Despite this promise, social-ecological interactions are complex and elusive; they require simplification to guide effective application of the SES approach. The complex, adaptive and place-specific nature of human-environment interactions impedes determination of state and trends in SES parameters of interest to managers and policy makers. Based on a rigorously developed systemic theoretical model, this paper integrates field observations, interviews, surveys, and latent variable modeling to illustrate the development of simplified and easily interpretable indicators of the state of, and trends in, relevant SES processes. Social-agricultural interactions in the Logone floodplain, in the Lake Chad basin, served as case study. This approach is found to generate simplified determinants of the state of SESs, easily communicable across the array of stakeholders common in human-environment interactions. The approach proves to be useful for monitoring SESs, guiding interventions, and assessing the effectiveness of interventions. It incorporates real time responses to biophysical change in understanding coarse scale processes within which finer scales are embedded. This paper emphasizes the importance of merging quantitative and qualitative methods for effective monitoring and assessment of SESs.     

Environmental performance indicators: an empirical study of Canadian manufacturing firms

The aim of this exploratory study is to examine the importance of measurement and use of environmental performance indicators (EPIs) within manufacturing firms. Two research questions are investigated: (i) To what extent are firm characteristics associated with the importance of measurement of various categories of EPIs? (ii) To what extent are firm characteristics associated with global and specific uses of EPIs? More specifically, this paper examines four uses of EPIs (i.e. to monitor compliance, to motivate continuous improvement, to support decision making, and to provide data for external reporting) as well as four characteristics of firms, namely environmental strategy, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 compliance, size, and ownership. This study contributes to the environmental management accounting literature by collecting and analyzing empirical evidence that provides a better understanding of the associations among firm characteristics and EPIs.     

Assessing the social impacts of extensive resource use activities

Extensive forms of resource use are rarely subject to detailed environmental and social assessment. This paper outlines a potential methodology for assessment of the social impacts of extensive resource use activities based on the Pressure-State-Impact-Response (PSIR) model of integrated indicator development. It then tests this methodology through a case study of changed water flow regimes in Central Queensland's Fitzroy River catchment. While resource degradation associated with interruptions to flow was expected to force all resource users to face higher costs and greater uncertainty, negative social impacts were particularly concentrated among vulnerable groups and downstream industries. Extension of the PSIR framework and methodology proved useful in linking social and biophysical research and would thus appear to offer some potential as a model for incorporating social concerns within natural resource decision making.     

土地利用总体规划的环境影响评价指标体系研究

科学合理的土地利用总体规划环境影响评价指标体系既可提高规划的科学性,又可为新一轮规划的修编提供科学依据。运用系统分析法、归纳演绎法、专家咨询法等方法研究建立土地利用总体规划的环境影响评价指标体系,初步将其构建为目标层、准则层和指标层3个层次,包括社会指标、环境指标及资源指标。     

Linking Hydrologic Alteration to Biological Impairment in Urbanizing Streams of the Puget Lowland,Washington, USA1

Abstract: We used a retrospective approach to identify hydrologic metrics with the greatest potential for ecological relevance for use as resource management tools (i.e., hydrologic indicators) in rapidly urbanizing basins of the Puget Lowland. We proposed four criteria for identifying useful hydrologic indicators: (1) sensitive to urbanization consistent with expected hydrologic response, (2) demonstrate statistically significant trends in urbanizing basins (and not in undeveloped basins), (3) be correlated with measures of biological response to urbanization, and (4) be relatively insensitive to potentially confounding variables like basin area. Data utilized in the analysis included gauged flow and benthic macroinvertebrate data collected at 16 locations in 11 King County stream basins. Fifteen hydrologic metrics were calculated from daily average flow data and the Pacific Northwest Benthic Index of Biological Integrity (B‐IBI) was used to represent the gradient of response of stream macroinvertebrates to urbanization. Urbanization was represented by percent Total Impervious Area (%TIA) and percent urban land cover (%Urban). We found eight hydrologic metrics that were significantly correlated with B‐IBI scores (Low Pulse Count and Duration; High Pulse Count, Duration, and Range; Flow Reversals, T_Qmean, and R‐B Index). Although there appeared to be a great deal of redundancy among these metrics with respect to their response to urbanization, only two of the metrics tested – High Pulse Count and High Pulse Range – best met all four criteria we established for selecting hydrologic indicators. The increase in these high pulse metrics with respect to urbanization is the result of an increase in winter high pulses and the occurrence of high pulse events during summer (increasing the frequency and range of high pulses), when practically none would have occurred prior to development. We performed an initial evaluation of the usefulness of our hydrologic indicators by calculating and comparing hydrologic metrics derived from continuous hydrologic simulations of selected basin management alternatives for Miller Creek, one of the most highly urbanized basins used in our study. We found that the preferred basin management alternative appeared to be effective in restoring some flow metrics close to simulated fully forested conditions (e.g., T_Qmean), but less effective in restoring other metrics such as High Pulse Count and Range. If future research continues to support our hypothesis that the flow regime, particularly High Pulse Count and Range, is an important control of biotic integrity in Puget Lowland streams, it would have significant implications for stormwater management.     

Implementing landscape fragmentation as an indicator in the Swiss Monitoring System Of Sustainable Development (Monet)

There is an increasing need and interest in including indicators of landscape fragmentation in monitoring systems of sustainable landscape management. Landscape fragmentation due to transportation infrastructure and urban development threatens human and environmental well-being by noise and pollution from traffic, reducing the size and viability of wildlife populations, facilitating the spread of invasive species, and impairing the scenic and recreational qualities of the landscape. This paper provides the rationale, method, and data for including landscape fragmentation in monitoring systems, using as an example the Swiss Monitoring System of Sustainable Development (Monet). We defined and compared four levels of fragmentation analysis, or fragmentation geometries (FGs), each based on different fragmenting elements, e.g., only anthropogenic, or combinations of anthropogenic and natural elements. As each FG has specific strengths and weaknesses, the most appropriate choice of FG depends on the context and objectives of a study. We present data on the current degree of landscape fragmentation for the five ecoregions and 26 cantons in Switzerland for all four FGs. Our results show that the degree of landscape fragmentation as quantified by the effective mesh size method is strongly supported by the postulates and indicator selection criteria of Monet, and we identify the most suitable FG focusing on the land area below 2100 m (e.g., excluding lakes) and allowing for an equitable comparison of fragmentation degrees among regions that differ in area covered by lakes and high mountains. For a more detailed analysis of landscape fragmentation in the context of environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental assessments, a combination of all four FGs may provide a more informative tool than any single FG.     

城市土地资源可持续利用评价指标体系构建

土地资源可持续发展的核心内容是如何将一个概念转换成可操作的管理模式，即建立一套切实可行的指标体系。目前，我国关于土地可持续发展的指标体系评价处于探索阶段，还没有形成一套较成熟的评价方法。基于对于我国土地可持续发展的指标体系研究，构建了一套有关城市土地可持续利用的评价指标体系。