INCOME AND PRICE ELASTICITIES OF DEMAND FOR WATER IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES1

ABSTRACT: The income and proce elasticity of demand for domestic water is estimated for Penang Island, Malaysia. A cross-sectional analysis of a random sample of 1400 households indicated an income-elasticity of zero for low-income families (per capita income less than US$300) and an elasticity of 0.2-0.4 for higher-income families. A time-series analysis of a subsample of individuals of varying income levels suggests a short-run price elasticity of -0.1 to -0.2. The implications of these results for demand forecasting are discussed.     

Global-scale vs. regional-scale scenario assumptions: implications for estimating future water withdrawals in the Elbe River basin

In this paper, we explore how scenarios of future water withdrawals in a river basin are influenced by scale-dependent quantifications of the driving forces for two global-scale storylines. Either global-scale information or region-specific information is used to do the quantifications. In addition, we analyze the impact of including or not some restricted regional-scale information in the employed water use model. To develop scenarios of water withdrawals in the German part of the Elbe River basin, we applied the modules for domestic, thermoelectric power and manufacturing water use of the global water model WaterGAP, using scale-dependent driving forces scenarios and other scale-dependent model input. In the global-scale quantitative interpretations of the storylines of the IPCC SRES scenarios A1 and B2, all major driving forces of water withdrawals in the basin—population, thermoelectric power production and industrial gross domestic product—show vigorous increases between 2000 and 2025, while from the regional perspective, smaller increases but mostly decreases appear to be plausible. These discrepancies are partly due to the fact that for the global-scale interpretations only the historic developments until 1990 were taken into account, and not until 2000 as in the regional case. The resulting scenarios of sectoral water withdrawals in 2025 differ strongly between the two scale-dependent interpretations of the storylines, with the global one leading to much higher absolute water withdrawals and much lower withdrawal decreases between 2000 and 2025. Therefore, for regional assessments of water withdrawals, we recommend to embed the scenario analysis in global-scale storylines by performing regional-scale quantifications of the global qualitative driving forces scenarios, based on a limited amount of region-specific information.     

石油短缺与中国经济安全

石油短缺已经成为引起中国能源危机最核心的问题,本文分析了中国石油短缺的背景及其影响因素,在实证分析的基础上,提出了“对石油依赖程度”这一概念。本文还把石油短缺与经济安全问题联系了起来,并提出了确保我国经济安全的具体对策。     

Analysis of the role of waste minimisation clubs in reducing industrial water demand in the UK

As a result of the UK Government's waste policy, which increasingly encourages sustainable development, and the realisation that water in the UK cannot be treated as an unlimited resource, there is growing interest in reducing the demand for water by industry. A series of industrial waste minimisation clubs have been set up within the country. This paper identifies the effectiveness of these clubs in reducing the demand for water. An overview of some of the clubs show how there is a major discrepancy between potential and implemented water savings, whilst a more detailed analysis of three specific examples show how water demand and cost to the company can be reduced, with the project paying for itself within around 1 year. It appears that companies are able to reduce water consumption by approximately 30%. If this level of saving was taken up by the entire industrial sector in England and Wales, water consumption could be reduced by approximately 1500 Ml/day. This reduction would be more significant in regions of lower rainfall, for example East Anglia and Southeast England.     

《海洋环境保护法》对排污收费制度的改革

长期以来,我国对排污或超标排污实行征收排污费制度。九届人大常委会第13次会议修订通过的《海洋环境保护法》对此进行了改革。本文对此进行了深入分析。     

Mining and sustainable development: considerations for minerals supply

Sustainable development involves meeting the needs of human societies while maintaining viable biological and physical Earth systems. The needs include minerals: metals, fuels, industrial and construction materials. There will continue to be considerable demand for virgin mineral resources, even if levels of recycling and efficiency of use are optimal, and rates of population growth and globalisation decrease significantly. This article aims to stimulate debate on strategic issues for minerals supply. While the world has considerable stocks of mineral resources overall, international considerations of the environmental and social aspects of sustainable development are beginning to result in limitations on where mining will be conducted and what types of deposits will be mined. Current and emerging trends favour large mines in parts of the world where mining can be conducted within acceptable limits of environmental and social impact. Finding new deposits that meet such criteria will be all the more challenging given a disturbing global decline in the rate of discovery of major economic resources over the last decade, and the decreasing land area available for exploration and mining.
To attract responsible exploration and mining, governments of mining nations will need to provide: regional-scale geo-scientific datasets as required to attract and guide future generations of exploration; resource access through multiple and sequential land use regimes, and frameworks for dealing with indigenous peoples' issues; and arrangements for consideration of mining proposals and regulation of mines that ensure responsible management of environmental and social issues.
The minerals industry will need to continue to pursue advances in technologies for exploration, mining, processing, waste management and rehabilitation, and in public reporting of environmental and social performance.     

Male lagoon gobies, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Knipowitschia panizzae</Emphasis>, prefer more ornamented to larger females

Female ornamentation may be directly sexually selected, by male choice or female competition, or occurs as the result of a genetic correlation, arising from sexual selection on males. However, increasing evidence supports the former hypothesis, suggesting that males actively choose their partner preferring traits indicative of female quality. In the lagoon goby, Knipowitschia panizzae, a polygynous species whose males perform parental care to eggs, body length and the size of a sex-specific yellow patch on the belly are known to be reliable indicators of female fecundity. In this paper, we tested, using dummies, the male’s mating preferences for female body and yellow belly patch sizes. The two experimental trials in which a single female trait was variable showed that males prefer a larger belly patch and a larger body size, indicating that both these characters are selected by male mate choice. However, when faced with dummies exhibiting an inverse combination of body and belly patch sizes (experiment 3), males significantly preferred the smaller ones with larger yellow belly patches. A calculation of dummy theoretical fecundity reveals that in the first two experiments, males would have received an immediate benefit from their choice in terms of egg number, whereas in the third one, males chose partners that would have provided them with fewer eggs. The male lagoon goby preference for females with larger belly patches, regardless of their size, suggests that this trait, in addition to indicating fecundity, conveys information about other aspects of female and/or egg quality.     

The association between objectively measured neighbourhood features and walking for transport in mid-aged adults

The aim of this paper is to examine the association between a range of objectively measured neighbourhood features and the likelihood of mid-aged adults walking for transport. Increased walking for transport would bring multiple benefits, including improved population and environmental health. As part of the baseline HABITAT study, 10,745 residents of Brisbane, Australia, aged 40–65 years, from 200 neighbourhoods were asked about the time they spent walking for transport. Walking data were collected by mail survey and the physical environmental features of neighbourhoods were compiled using a geographic information systems database. Walking for transport was categorised into four levels and the association between walking and each neighbourhood characteristic was examined using multilevel multinomial models. A number of threshold trends were evident; for example, off-road bikeways were consistently associated with walking between 60 and 150 min per week. Living within 500 m of public transit was also an important predictor but only for those who walked for less than 150 min per week. Interventions targeting these neighbourhood characteristics may lead to improved environmental quality, lower rates of overweight and obesity and associated chromic disease.     

水土匹配、空间效应及区域农业经济增长——基于中国2003-2013的经验分析

水资源和土地资源是非常重要的自然资源,是农业经济发展不可或缺的物质要素。水资源与土地资源的合理匹配能够促进区域的资源优势转化为经济增长,从而促进区域农业经济发展。我国是一个人口众多的农业大国,同时也存在水资源与土地资源短缺的问题。本文结合我国农业水土资源自然禀赋与实际利用情况,首先利用中国2003-2013年的分省数据,选取单位耕地面积的广义农业水资源量测度方法和当量系数描述了我国农业水土资源匹配的现实,发现我国农业水资源与土地资源在空间上匹配程度不高,农业生产受到水土资源约束较强,农业水土资源的形成区域与消耗区域在空间上不相匹配;然后,在邻接权重矩阵下采用Moran’s I指数验证我国区域农业经济增长的空间关联性,结果显示我国各省农业经济增长存在显著的空间关系,呈现出高度的集聚性和非均质性。为避免估计结果有偏,本文在此基础上采用空间计量建模及估计方法,加入农业生产人、财、物等控制变量,测度水土匹配度对区域农业经济增长的空间溢出效应。结果显示,水土匹配度对区域农业经济发展的区域内和区域间的溢出效应都显著为正,总体上水土匹配度对区域农业经济发展具有正向的溢出效应,即水土匹配度对本地区农业经济增长具有促进作用;同时,由于相邻区域的水土资源自然禀赋条件类似,而且农业生产中存在"示范效应"和"模仿效应",水土匹配度对相邻地区农业经济增长也具有一定的促进作用。因此,采取相关措施优化农业水土资源匹配关系,对促进我国区域农业经济增长,保障我国粮食安全非常重要。     

新能源汽车需求市场培育的政策取向:供给侧抑或需求侧

政策支持是促进新能源汽车消费市场等商业化条件成熟的重要手段。近年来,中央和一些地方政府在新能源汽车需求市场培育的"供给侧"和"需求侧"都先后出台了相应的市场培育政策。"供给侧"和"需求侧"的政策功能与效果不完全相同,地方政府在选择和应用新能源汽车需求培育政策时面临着诸多困惑。论文尝试将基尼系数分解法引入到新能源汽车需求市场"供给侧"和"需求侧"政策实施效果的区域差异分析中,分析了我国培育新能源汽车消费市场培养"供给侧"和"需求侧"政策取向的分布情况以及现阶段政策取向所面临的困惑,应用我国新能源汽车试点推广城市数据开展了实证研究。结果表明,"供给侧"政策着力于改善新能源汽车消费市场供给体系的质量和效率,为需求市场持续发展提供驱动力量;"需求侧"政策着力于激发新能源汽车消费的积极性和购买能力,为需求市场持续发展提供拉动力量。"供给侧"和"需求侧"政策在不同收入水平区域试点城市中的实施效果存在差异,高收入区域试点城市"供给侧"和"需求侧"政策都有着明显效果,但是"供给侧"政策效果更为显著;中等收入区域试点城市"需求侧"政策效果十分显著,"供给侧"政策效果相对较弱;收入稍低区域试点城市则以"供给侧"政策效果更为显著,"需求侧"政策效果相对较弱。我国新能源汽车市场培育在"供给侧"和"需求侧"政策取向上应因地制宜,各有侧重点。