资源丰度的定量计算

提出了一种通用的定量计算方法,即用规范化指数表示各地区的资源丰度,用“度”作为资源丰度的计量单位。指数表示法计算的资源丰度值实现了资源丰度在可比尺度上的综合评价。它概念明确,简单易行,具有可比性和可传递性,从理论和应用方面来说都具有许多优点。     

阿尔金山国家级自然保护区管理机制的探讨

自然保护区的建设和管理是环境保护工作的一个重要方面。也是保护自然资源和生物多样性、建设现代文明的需要,因此对保护区管理的指导思想应立足于保护,着眼于开发,以保护带开发,以开发促保护,走保护与开发组结合的路子。为适应当前形势,切实加强阿尔金山自然保护区（国家级）的管理工作及体制的改革,作者从保护区的现状及存在的问题,探讨新形势下保护区的建设工作。为加强阿尔金自然保护区的建设和管理好自然保护区途径进行     

应用不同结构参数预测取代苯甲醛类化合物的分配性质

测定了28种取代苯甲醛类化合物的正辛醇/水分配系数（Kow）和水溶解度（Sw）,采用量化参数和分子连接性指数来构建定量结构－性质相关（QSPR）模型．所得模型能较好地预测该类化合物的Kow和Sw．Kow和Sw平均估算误差分别为0.15和0.20个对数单位．模型的统计检验表明,模型中自变量不存在相关关系;残差呈正态分布．     

A framework for reforming India's forest biodiversity management regime

India's forest biodiversity management regime is analysed at the policy, legal and institutional levels, from the perspective of the triple objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the principles of the Indian constitution. The forest biodiversity management regime has both structural and functional flaws that render it largely incapable of facing the challenge of increasing biodiversity degradation and deepening poverty among the Adivasis and other forest‐dependent communities. The paper argues for the reform of the forest biodiversity management regime and offers recommendations in regard to most aspects of the regime, with a view of putting the country's conservation enterprise on a course that is effective, sustainable and inclusive, rejecting the report of the High Power Committee (HPC) (also known as the Subramanian Committee), which is premised on easing corporate access to forests.     

Building community resilience: can everyone enjoy a good life?

Initiatives to reduce community carbon emissions and foster sustainable lifestyles have had varying degrees of success. There is now a need for a re-energised, concerted and joined-up approach that places environmental issues in a wider context – one that improves quality of life while building community resilience. This involves enhancing the capacity of neighbourhoods to recover, respond and adapt to environmental and socio-economic changes. This paper examines the experience gained in a participatory action research (PAR) study to build community resilience, where facilitators supported residents to take ownership of their own agendas. The New Earswick Good Life Initiative (GLI) was an 18-month project undertaken in a low-income suburb of York (UK). A range of approaches were used to identify activities which had the most potential to nurture resilience and foster a shift towards greater environmental sustainability. The GLI highlighted how the introduction of new ideas not only need to be locally relevant but also requires care and time in order for them to embed within community. Altering the way a community manages its environment involves transforming social relationships, strengthening institutions and influencing local power balances. Furthermore, it is necessary to build social capital, knowledge, leadership skills and support social networks to allow communities to effectively engage with relevant local and national policies. Only by providing opportunities to develop these resilient attributes can increased local responsibility be successful. The paper concludes by providing guidance on strengthening community resilience and delivering pro-environmental behaviour change.     

Evolution of China’s water issues as framed in Chinese mainstream newspaper

There is an urgent need globally to trigger fundamental societal changes in water management away from existing unsustainable paradigms. This paper attempts to understand the evolution of newspaper coverage of water issues in China by analyzing water-related articles in a major national newspaper, the People’s Daily, over the period 1946–2012 using a content analysis approach. The major findings include the following: (1) water issues were in relatively prominent positions in the newspaper; (2) the reporting of water issues in China experienced three stages: 1946 to the middle of 1980s—flood and drought control and water for food production, the middle of 1980s to 1997—water for economic development, and 1998 to the present—water for the environmental sustainability and economic development; (3) the reporting of water issues in the People’s Daily clearly reflected China’s top-down water resources management system, and no “real” public opinions on water were reported during the study period; and (4) the People’s Daily is just a wind vane of Chinese mainstream values and policies on water. The findings supported the realist assumption that the societal value changes on water issues in China were triggered by a range of factors including biophysical pressure (floods and droughts), political campaign (the Cultural Revolution), macro-economic reform (Reform and Opening-up), water institutional arrangement (the Water Law), and water management reform (the No. 1 Central Document on water reform). While there are similarities and differences between this study and other studies, important implications for more sustainable water management are a need to strengthen academic specialists’ and NGO’s voices in the newspaper to create a better informed public, and to stimulate practices toward sustainable water use.     

Human rights and proactive displacement: determining the appropriate balance between the duty to protect and the right to remain

The proactive displacement by public authorities of populations from areas perceived to be exposed to a high risk of disaster presents complex human rights challenges. Provided that no ulterior motive is at play, the use of compulsory evacuations and relocations as policy responses to such risk is mandated by the duty to protect the right to life. However, proactive displacement in the interest of saving lives can be problematic as such measures can lead to the limitation of other human rights, resulting in an intricate assessment of whether compulsory evacuation or permanent relocation is proportional in any given circumstance. Such an analysis demands critical attention by public authorities to the perception of the disaster risk in question and problematises claims to objectivity of official risk assessments. Furthermore, it poses the question as to whether measures designed to address the disaster risk in question that are less intrusive than relocation may be available to public authorities.     

QSAR models for predicting the toxicity of halogenated phenols to Tetrahymena

Halogenated phenols are industrial pollutants which may cause serious damage to the environment. In this work, a two-dimensional (2D) and two three-dimensional (3D) quantitative structure–activity relationship models for the toxicity prediction of halogenated phenols in Tetrahymena were developed. The structural factors that mainly influence toxicity were explored, agreeing with previously reported data. The results obtained with the 3D model were in agreement with those obtained with the 2D model. According to our findings, several new molecules with different predicted activities were designed.     

Socioeconomic backwardness and vulnerability to climate change: evidence from Uttar Pradesh state in India

This study tests the thesis that ‘vulnerability to climate change is not only a result of biophysical events alone but also influenced by the socioeconomic conditions in which climate change occurs’. The study chose Uttar Pradesh (UP), a state in India, for its importance in the nation's food and nutrition security programme and its high sensitivity to climate change. It uses an indicator approach to see which districts of UP are the most vulnerable to climate change, and attempts to identify the factors on a set of explanatory variables. The study finds that infrastructurally and economically developed districts are less vulnerable to climate change; in other words, vulnerability to climate change and variability is linked with social and economic development. This observation is corroborated by the findings of relational analysis wherein livestock, forestry, consumption of fertilizer, per capita income, and infant mortality rate are observed to be important correlates of vulnerability to climate change.