关于中国可持续发展综合区划方法的探讨

研究区域可持续发展需要有一个适当的区域划分。本文结合地理学、经济学、生态学等对中国自然地理与杜会经济发展空间差异分析的研究成果．借鉴黄秉维先生所提倡的“自上而下”和“自下而上”相结合的研究思路和方法．以自然区划、经济区划、生态区划．人口区划等四种全国性区划为基础，构建了中国可持续发展综合区划系统。采用叠置与专家评判法首先将全国划分成三大地带．再在三大地带内部划分出N个大区：然后对全国县域（或公里格网）的可持续发展状况进行定量评价．并按类型归并．将归并结果嵌入到N个大区中，用大区的可持续发展等级及地区编号对其命名。     

综合资源立法是资源可持续利用的法律保证

资源的有效保护和永续利用在我国可持续发展战略中占有十分重要的地位。本文分析了我国资源法制建设中存在的问题，阐述了综合资源立法在资源法制建设体系中的意义。     

三峡库区森林植被恢复与可持续经营研究

系统的野外调查数据和历史资料分析结果表明,三峡库区森林植被在空间上发展不均匀,无明显垂直分带,且分布分散,人为干扰严重。目前,在70多个植被类型中,森林类型占25个,江岸两侧海拔800 m以下地区森林已经很少。森林类型中,马尾松、柏木林的分布面积最大,并在许多疏林中成为主要树种,主要是飞播或人工种植。库区大于25°的坡耕地占耕地面积的17.5％。库区薪炭林仅能满足农村用能总需求量的10.78％。不合理的土地利用方式和对森林的不合理砍伐导致脆弱的土壤系统和森林生态系统的严重退化、生产力下降和严重的水土流失。库区土壤年侵蚀量达到2.9亿t。三峡工程建设和移民安置对库区森林生态系统的压力和影响将是长期的。调查结果同时表明,库区植物生物多样性丰富,植物种类在5 032种以上,而且乡土树种多。分析认为,只要抓住三峡工程建设的契机,紧密结合国家天然林保护和退耕还林工程建设,充分利用良好的生物学基础,科学地封山育林,分带逐步恢复,同时,因地制宜,退耕还林,发展森林能源,建设多目标复合和多种模式并存的林业经营体系,发展经济,就能从根本上改善森林经营环境,实现森林恢复,形成合理布局的水库森林防护系统,促进三峡库区生态环境建设和可持续发展。     

西北地区水资源—生态可持续发展的若干问题探讨

基于对西北地区大开发的关键性难题与一些违背自然规律的不良倾向的讨论 ,认为大开发的实施需要在系统科学思维的基础上综合考虑资源—环境—经济的协调发展。近年来 ,许多科学家从各种角度揭示了我国西北乃至北半球中纬度地区持续干旱的发展规律 ,对干旱化趋势与水盐失衡的分析表明 ,西北地区气候干旱化将长期存在 ,生态将继续退化 ,这种趋势是人力不可抗拒的。人为活动尤其是水资源的开发利用 ,对土壤生态的影响是非常明显的 ,应该在严格控制水资源利用总量的前提下 ,调整用水格局 ,发展节水经济 ,科学确定社会经济用水和生态用水的比例 ,保证必须的生态用水 ,大力发展生态植被。指出在分析西北生态环境问题时过于强调人为活动而忽视自然因素作用的倾向 ,讨论了水库兴修、灌溉、土地利用与改良、深层水利用、水环境脆弱性等水资源—生态建设与可持续发展中的若干关键性问题     

以多联产为支撑点的"合成气城市"规划 --煤炭城市的可持续发展

目前,中国煤炭城市普遍面临城市产业结构迫切需要转型、城市生态环境问题严重、城市人口就业形势严重等挑战。在低价高硫煤资源丰富、石油和天然气资源缺乏、经济发展水平适中、产业结构亟待调整的典型地区实施以多联产为支撑点的“合成气城市”规划,是这类煤炭城市实现经济、社会、环境、资源相互协调的可持续发展之路。本文初步探讨了“合成气城市”规划研究的内容,并以山东省济宁市是为例分析了实施“合成气城市规划”的收益。     

农业生态环境治理与可持续发展

我国是一个农业大国 ,由于长期的农业生产中忽视了对农业生态环境的保护 ,近年来 ,农业环境和农产品污染问题日趋严重 ,耕地环境质量不断下降 ,土地沙化形势十分严峻。农产品有毒有害物质残留问题突出 ,已成为制约农业和农村经济发展的重要因素。针对农业生态环境污染日益加剧的严峻形势 ,必须加大农业生态环境建设和保护力度 ,采取合理措施 ,在农业生产过程中降低化肥和农药的使用和环境造成的污染 ,推广清洁生产应当成为推动新世纪农业进步的发展新模式。与世界其它国家一样 ,合理利用资源和保护生态环境是农业可持续发展的基础。必须实施可持续发展战略 ,大力推广生态农业和生态农村建设 ,调整优化农业生产结构 ,从粗放型向集约型转变 ,以确保 2 1世纪我国农业的可持续发展。     

Infrastructure development through PPPs in India: criteria for sustainability assessment

Public private partnerships (PPPs) allow the Indian Government to leverage private capital for meeting the widening demand-supply gap in the provision of infrastructure services. The private sector, however, prefers to limit the participation to financially attractive projects only, thereby resulting in patterns of infrastructure creation impeding the progress towards sustainable development. In order to promote sustainable development, the PPP procurement process should focus on incentivising the private sector for sustainable infrastructure development rather than concentrating on ensuring financial sustainability only. This paper discusses the principles-based PPP-specific framework that has been developed to facilitate assessment of PPP projects' progress towards sustainable development. The framework development was based on a holistic approach to sustainability assessment and subsequently validated through questionnaire survey with key stakeholders in the Indian PPP programme. This framework will provide the decision makers with appropriate decision aid for integration of sustainable development principles in the PPP procurement process.     

Mitigating urban sprawl effects: a collaborative tree and shade intervention in Phoenix,Arizona, USA

Communities in Phoenix are confronted with numerous challenges that adversely affect human health and safety, with disproportionate impacts on low-income communities. While some challenges are being addressed at the city level, new alliances at the neighbourhood level are initiating community development programmes and projects. This article reports on an intervention study carried out in collaboration with community representatives, city staff, and non-profit organisations to mitigate adverse effects of urban sprawl in the Sky Harbour Neighbourhood in Phoenix. Participatory research was conducted to design and test a tree and shade intervention. Challenges associated with navigating community desires and broader principles of sustainable development are discussed. The study offers a replicable and adaptable intervention research design aimed at empowering communities to meet urban challenges.     

The green dividend of urban biking? Evidence of improved community and sustainable development

As the cost of car ownership has skyrocketed, urban biking has experienced the largest share increase of any transportation mode, rising by 40% between the years 2000 and 2014. Growing attention is being paid to the potential local economic development impacts of urban neighbourhoods becoming more bike-friendly. It is now a green economic development strategy in cities as diverse as Chicago, New York City, Portland, and San Francisco to increase bicycling as a transportation mode. This paper reports the results of a survey of 2032 responses from faculty, staff, and students of a car-dependent, downtown university. We use a mixed methods approach, including data from the American Community Survey, to support our arguments and to inform potential savings and economic benefit calculations that can be achieved from bicycle infrastructure investments and anticipated redistributed spending patterns. We argue that urban biking results in a green dividend that promotes local community development and more importantly results in zero carbon emissions.     

Ecological citizenship and democracy: Communitarian versus agonistic perspectives

Grassroots environmental movements have recently started to question the focus on sustainable consumption as a main strategy to tackle climate change. They prefer to address individuals as citizens rather than as consumers, and focus on collective rather than individual change. Two prominent movements in this regard are Transition Towns and Climate Justice Action. While both movements criticise conventional approaches, they put forward entirely different strategies for what has to happen instead. Based on extensive qualitative research, this article analyses how these movements manifest themselves in Flanders (Belgium). The focus is on their different accounts of how and why collective practices have to be built, and the place they attribute to ‘the political’ in this. The analysis reveals the existence of two different forms of ecological citizenship: one communitarian, the other agonistic.