Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress

To inform governmental discussions on the nature of a revised Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we reviewed the relevant literature and assessed the framing of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets in the current strategic plan. We asked international experts from nongovernmental organizations, academia, government agencies, international organizations, research institutes, and the CBD to score the Aichi Targets and their constituent elements against a set of specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, unambiguous, scalable, and comprehensive criteria (SMART based, excluding time bound because all targets are bound to 2015 or 2020). We then investigated the relationship between these expert scores and reported progress toward the target elements by using the findings from 2 global progress assessments (Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). We analyzed the data with ordinal logistic regressions. We found significant positive relationships (p < 0.05) between progress and the extent to which the target elements were perceived to be measurable, realistic, unambiguous, and scalable. There was some evidence of a relationship between progress and specificity of the target elements, but no relationship between progress and ambition. We are the first to show associations between progress and the extent to which the Aichi Targets meet certain SMART criteria. As negotiations around the post-2020 biodiversity framework proceed, decision makers should strive to ensure that new or revised targets are effectively structured and clearly worded to allow the translation of targets into actionable policies that can be successfully implemented nationally, regionally, and globally.     

Start-up of PN-anammox system under low inoculation quantity and its restoration after low-loading rate shock

• PN-A was start-up under low inoculation amount and a higher NRR was achieved. • PN-anammox system was successfully restored by aggressive sludge discharge. • Increase in granular sludge was the important factor to rapid recovery. • Enrichment of AOB and AnAOB in granular sludge favors the stable operation. Partial nitritation (PN)-anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is a promising pathway for the biological treatment of wastewater. However, the destruction of the system caused by excessive accumulation of nitrate in long-term operation remains a challenge. In this study, PN-anammox was initialized with low inoculation quantity in an air-lift reactor. The nitrogen removal rate of 0.71 kgN/(m³·d) was obtained, which was far higher than the seed sludge (0.3 kgN/(m³·d)). Thereafter, excess nitrate build-up was observed under low-loading conditions, and recovery strategies for the PN-anammox system were investigated. Experimental results suggest that increasing the nitrogen loading rate as well as the concentration of free ammonium failed to effectively suppress the nitrite oxidation bacteria (NOB) after the PN-anammox system was disrupted. Afterwards, effluent back-flow was added into the reactor to control the up-flow velocity. As a result, an aggressive discharge of sludge that promoted the synergetic growth of functional bacteria was achieved, leading to the successful restoration of the PN-anammox system. The partial nitritation and anammox activity were in balance, and an increase in nitrogen removal rate up to 1.07 kgN/(m³·d) was obtained with a nitrogen removal efficiency of 82.4% after recovery. Besides, the proportion of granular sludge (over 200 mm) increased from 33.67% to 82.82%. Ammonium oxidation bacteria (AOB) along with anammox bacteria were enriched in the granular sludge during the recovery period, which was crucial for the recovery and stable operation of the PN-anammox system.     

Can floor-area-ratio incentive promote low impact development in a highly urbanized area?—A case study in Changzhou City,China

As an environmental friendly measure for surface runoff reduction, low impact development (LID) has been applied successfully in urban areas. However, due to high price of land and additional expense for LID construction in highly urbanized areas, the developers of real estate would not like to proceed LID exploitation. Floor area ratio (FAR) refers to “the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built.” Increasing FAR indicates that the developers can construct higher buildings and earn more money. By means of awarding FAR, the developers may be willing to practice LID construction. In this study, a new residential district is selected as a case study to analyze the tradeoff between the runoff reduction goal achieving by LID practices and the incentive of awarding FAR to promote LID construction. The System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis IntegratioN (SUSTAIN) model is applied to simulate the runoff reduction under various LID designs and then derive the Pareto-optimal solutions to achieve urban runoff reduction goals based on cost efficiency. The results indicates that the maximum surface runoff reduction is 20.5%. Under the extremity scenarios, the government has options to award FAR of 0.028, 0.038 and 0.047 and the net benefits developers gain are 0 CNY, one million CNYand two million CNY, respectively. The results provide a LID construction guideline related to awarding FAR, which supports incentive policy making for promoting LID practices in the highly urbanized areas.

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退耕还林工程对四川盆周低山丘陵区生态系统服务价值的影响——以洪雅县为例

退耕还林工程是我国实施的重点林业生态工程。以四川盆周低山丘陵区退耕还林工程重点示范县洪雅县为研究对象,基于遥感和地理信息系统技术,参照中国陆地生态系统单位面积生态系统服务价值当量表,结合研究区粮食平均产量和收购价格,分析了退耕还林前(1994-1999年)、后(1999-2007年)的生态系统服务价值变化,探讨了退耕还林工程对生态系统服务价值的影响。结果表明:退耕还林工程在一定程度上使土地利用程度呈减弱趋势,土地利用处于衰退阶段;退耕前,生态系统服务价值变化不明显;退耕后,生态系统服务价值发生显著变化,总生态系统服务价值增加2.90×10⁸元,可能是由于退耕还林使耕地生态系统服务价值降低,林地生态系统服务价值增加;各项生态功能服务价值中,食物生产功能价值下降,其它各项功能价值上升,以水源涵养功能上升最大,水源涵养价值增加0.78×10⁸元;敏感性分析表明,研究区生态系统服务价值对生态系统服务价值系数变化缺乏弹性,研究结果具有稳定性。     

废旧商品回收体系建设要略初探

国务院总理温家宝召开国务院常务会议,部署建立完整的先进的废旧商品回收体系,指出,中国废旧商品回收体系很不完善,不仅影响废物利用,而且极易造成环境污染,建立完整、先进的回收、运输、处理、利用废旧商品回收体系已刻不容缓。作为再生资源回收行业的主力军,供销社在废旧商品回收体系建设中如何应对并开展工作,对此进行了全面的探讨。     

Waging the struggle for healthy eating: food environments,dietary regimes and Brazil's dietary guidelines

The struggle for healthy eating is a nascent social movement that represents active resistance to the hostile food environments created by multinational food and beverage corporations. Using a political economy approach and leveraging Winson's [2013. The industrial diet: the degradation of food and the struggle for healthy eating. Vancouver: UBC Press] concepts of dietary regimes and the industrial diet, this paper will examine the strengths and limitations of Brazil's new dietary guidelines and discuss its role as a precursor to a new dietary regime that incorporates social justice and sustainability.     

基于资源环境统筹下的“多规合一”试点建设—以河南省获嘉县为例

"多规合一"是一项从国家顶层设计推进的市县规划体制改革,河南省获嘉县作为全国28个"多规合一"试点城市之一,是欠发达平原农业区小城市的典型代表。本文深入分析了获嘉县多规并存的冲突与差异、资源环境与城市发展不协调的现实,同时在考虑生态环境空间约束与资源承载的前提下,突出生态环境的基本制约与保障作用,提出从底线控制、规模约束、环境保障三方面体现市县多规融合,从规划体系、标准数据、空间布局、信息平台、管理机制五个方面实现多规融合,并给出了多规融合调整策略。     

Artificially roughened solar air heater: A comparative study

Artificially roughened solar air heater has been topic in research for the last 30 years. Prediction of heat transfer and fluid flow processes of an artificially roughened solar air heater can be obtained by three approaches: theoretical, experimental, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This article provides a comprehensive review of the published literature on the investigations of artificially roughened solar air heater. In the present article, an attempt has been made to present holistic view of various roughness geometries used for creating artificial roughness in solar air heater for heat transfer enhancement. This extensive review reveals that quite a lot of work has been reported on design of artificially roughened solar air heater by experimental approach but only a few studies have been done by theoretical and CFD approaches. Finally this article presents a comparative study of thermo-hydraulic performance of 21 different types of artificial roughness geometries attached on the absorber plate of solar air heater in terms of thermo-hydraulic performance parameter. Heat transfer and friction factor correlations developed by various investigators for different types of artificially roughened solar air heaters have also been reported in this article.     

Artificial neural network based maximum power point tracking controller for photovoltaic standalone system

This article presents a two-stage maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller using artificial neural network (ANN) for photovoltaic (PV) standalone system, under varying weather conditions of solar irradiation and module temperature. At the first-stage, the ANN algorithm locates the maximum power point (MPP) associated to solar irradiation and module temperature. Then, a simple controller at the second-step, by changing the duty cycle of a DC–DC boost converter, tracks the MPP. In this method, in addition to experimental data collection for training the ANN, a circuit is designed in MATLAB-Simulink to acquire data for whole ranges of weather condition. The whole system is simulated in Simulink. Simulation results show small transient response time, and low power oscillation in steady-state. Furthermore, dynamic response verifies that this method is very fast and precise at tracking the MPP under rapidly changing irradiation, and has very low power oscillation under slowly changing irradiation. Experimental results are provided to verify the simulation results as well.     

Mathematical modelling and experimental validation of solar drying of mushrooms

This article presents two mathematical models for drying mushrooms considering the shrinkage effect. Both the models consider the physical changes of mushrooms during drying using the diffusion equation. A convective term is presented in the first model while, in the second model, the effective diffusion co-efficient is employed. Although the diffusion co-efficient is mainly dependent on the water content of the mushrooms, both models are suitable for analyzing the drying process. Moreover, in this study it has been demonstrated that both models are equivalent. The Genetic Algorithmic process was used to estimate the parameter values in different conditions. The information regarding the moisture content and the thickness evaluation taken from the models shows the best fit with the experimental data. The mathematical models developed to simulate the drying curve of mushroom have been evaluated and compared.