Estimation of Landscape Potential for Construction of Surface-Flow Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Estonia

The main aim of this article is to demonstrate a method of complex landscape analysis in order to estimate the landscape suitability for the construction of surface-flow wetlands (SFW) for wastewater treatment. This is a multilevel suitability analysis from a more general regional (landscape) assessment based on a map of landscape types (1:100,000) toward a detailed analysis based on aerial orthophotos and detailed soil maps (1:10,000). The assessment scheme consists of landscape classification according to the physical-chemical properties of landscape factors (soil conditions, landforms, hydrogeology, expert decisions concerning landscape values, and suitability analysis). The partial suitability values of SFWs are derived by summarizing expert values for landscape factors (each ranging from -1 to +1). By multiplying the summarized partial suitability values with nature protection values (ranging from 0 to 1), we obtain the final suitability value for each landscape type. Any kind of nature protection area has been considered nonsuitable and excluded at regional-level analysis. The results of the regional analysis demonstrate that suitability is distributed relatively equally over the study area. The high suitability potential (classified as "very suitable") is relatively evenly distributed in lowland regions throughout the country. The share of "very suitable" and "suitable" areas in different counties varies from 5 to 23% and 7 to 49%, respectively. The detailed analysis based on aerial orthophotos showed that areas suitable for SFWs can also be found within the areas determined to be unsuitable based on the less detailed map of landscape types, whereas differences are much greater between settlements chosen for the detailed suitability analysis.     

Cognitive attributes and aesthetic preferences in assessment and differentiation of landscapes

The increasing pace and scale of landscape changes involve objective measurements in order to estimate the effects of changes on people's landscape preferences in a meaningful way. In the literature, some attempts have been made to provide a more conceptual base related to landscape preferences. These concepts and their indicators need to be tested empirically in different contexts and landscape types. In the present study, different items related to theoretical concepts of both aesthetic preference and cognitive rating were examined. They were combined in an in situ questionnaire, which was conducted among undergraduate students in geography during two different field excursions. Stimuli consisted of 11 landscape vistas selected during the excursions. All vistas represent rather rural landscapes but they vary with regard to relief, degree of urbanisation, and degree of agricultural land use. Statistical analysis of all data yielded significant correlations between aesthetic and cognitive ratings. However, these correlations did not appear to be very strong. When considering landscape vistas separately, the relations between all cognitive ratings seemed to vary. Further, not all cognitive aspects had an equal predicting value for aesthetic preference. Moreover, this predicting value appeared to vary between different landscape vistas. The groups of interrelated cognitive aspects could not be associated consistently with theoretical concepts. The results demonstrated the inconsistencies existing between the contents of the theoretical concepts and the indicators found within the landscape. The findings argued for the necessity to distinguish between different ratings and landscape types instead of using unitary preference measures and generalized data when studying landscape preference.     

Landform Classification for Land Use Planning in Developed Areas: An Example in Segovia Province (Central Spain)

Landform-based physiographic maps, also called land systems inventories, have been widely and successfully used in undeveloped/rural areas in several locations, such as Australia, the western United States, Canada, and the British ex-colonies. This paper presents a case study of their application in a developed semi-urban/suburban area (Segovia, Spain) for land use planning purposes. The paper focuses in the information transfer process, showing how land use decision-makers, such as governments, planners, town managers, etc., can use the information developed from these maps to assist them. The paper also addresses several issues important to the development and use of this information, such as the goals of modern physiography, the types of landform-based mapping products, the problem of data management in developed areas, and the distinctions among data, interpretations, and decisions.     

《中国现代化报告2007——生态现代化研究》述评

《中国现代化报告2007——生态现代化研究》回顾了世界生态现代化的历程,总结了经验,介绍了世界生态现代化的基本原理,分析并评价世界各国生态现代化的水平,进而提出中国生态现代化的战略思考。这个研究报告指出了人类社会发展的方向一一生态现代化,为此我国必须进一步落实科学发展观,加快实施可持续发展战略,充分发挥后发优势,努力实现跨越式发展,走综合生态现代化的道路。     

EXAMINING LAND USE INFLUENCES ON STREAM HABITATS AND MACROINVERTEBRATES: A GIS APPROACH1

ABSTRACT: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to assess the relationships between land use patterns and the physical habitat and macroinvertebrate fauna of streams within similar sized watersheds. Eleven second or third order watersheds ranging from highly urbanized to heavily forested were selected along Lake Superior's North Shore. Land use patterns within the watersheds were quantified using readily available digital land use/land cover information, with a minimum mapping resolution of 16 ha. Physical habitat features, describing substrate characteristics and stream morphology, were characterized at sample points within each stream. Principle component and correlation analyses were used to identify relationships between macroinvertebrates and stream physical habitat, and between habitat and land use patterns. Substrate characteristics and presence of coarse woody debris were found to have the strongest correlations with macreinvertebrate assemblage richness and composition. Agricultural and urban land use was correlated with substrate characteristics. Algal abundance, associated with macroinvertebrate compositional differences, was correlated with housing density and non-forest land covers. The use of readily available spatial data, even at this relatively coarse scale, provides a means to detect the primary relationships between land use and stream habitat quality; finer-resolution GIS databases are needed to assess more subtle influences, such as those due to riparian conditions.     

论城市创新的生态思维--推动城市可持续发展的新思维

城市化是人类生产和生活方式转型的必然结果,由于城市建设过程中依照的是传统思维模式,导致各大城市均不同程度存在一定的城市病。因此要加强可持续发展生态思维的观念,以期推动我国城市生态化与可持续城市建设工作的开展。     

“十三五”国家自然科学基金对能源环境管理领域的资助状况和趋势

能源环境管理是各界关注的热点话题,也是科学研究的重要方向.以国家自然科学基金资助能源环境管理领域的科研项目为基础数据信息,本文重点分析了\"十三五\"期间国家自然科学基金在该领域资助项目的总体特征、研究主题和热点变化,并结合新时代科学基金资助导向提出了可能的发展趋势.主要结论包括:①能源环境管理领域面上、青年、地区等自由探索类项目的立项绝对数和学科占比均呈上升趋势,并更多向青年学者倾斜,资助强度保持稳定;②碳、能源和环境是自由探索项目中出现频率最高的热词,与之相关的研究主题随着政策等调整具有动态变化特征;③能源环境管理领域重点、重大等引导类项目和优青、杰青、创新研究群体等人才类项目不断实现突破,增速明显,学科占比优势突出;④问题导向与本土情景、理论体系和一般规律、学科交叉融合,以及市场和微观主体作用是研究选题确立与项目申请时可能需要重点关注的方向.     

Effects of Riparian Vegetation and Watershed Urbanization on Fishes in Streams of the Mid‐Atlantic Piedmont (USA)1

Abstract: The joint influences of riparian vegetation and urbanization on fish assemblages were analyzed by depletion sampling in paired forested and nonforested reaches of 25 small streams along an urbanization gradient. Nonforested reaches were narrower than their forested counterparts, so densities based on surface area differ from linear densities (based on reach length). Linear densities (based on number or biomass of fish) of American eel, white sucker and tesselated darter, and the proportion of biomass of benthic invertivores were significantly higher in nonforested reaches, while linear densities of margined madtom and the number of pool species were significantly higher in forested reaches. Observed riparian effects may reflect differences in habitat and algal productivity between forested and nonforested reaches. These results suggest that relatively small‐scale riparian restoration projects can affect local geomorphology and the abundance of fish. Dense vegetative cover in riparian zones and similar or analogous habitats in both forested and nonforested reaches, the relatively small scale of the nonforested reaches, and the low statistical power to detect differences in abundance of rare species may have limited the observed differences between forested and nonforested reaches. There was a strong urbanization gradient, with reductions of intolerant species and increases of tolerant species and omnivores with increasing urbanization. Interactions between riparian vegetation type and urbanization were found for blacknose dace, creek chub, tesselated darter, and the proportion of biomass of lithophilic spawners. The study did not provide consistent support for the hypotheses that responses of fish to riparian vegetation would be overwhelmed by urban degradation or insignificant at low urbanization.     

Does Riparian Forest Restoration Thinning Enhance Biodiversity? The Ecological Importance of Large Wood

Intact riparian ecosystems are rich in biological diversity, but throughout the world, many have been degraded. Biodiversity declines, particularly of vertebrates, have led to experimental efforts to restore riparian forests by thinning young stands to accelerate creation of large diameter live trees. However, many vertebrates depend on large diameter deadwood that is standing as snags or fallen to the forest floor or fallen into streams. Therefore, we reviewed the sizes of deadwood and live trees used by different vertebrate species to understand which species are likely to benefit from different thinning treatments. We then examined how riparian thinning affects the long‐term development of both large diameter live trees and deadwood. To this end, we used a forest growth model to examine how different forest thinning intensities might affect the long‐term production and abundance of live trees and deadwood. Our results suggest that there are long‐term habitat tradeoffs associated with different thinning intensities. Species that utilize large diameter live trees will benefit most from heavy thinning, whereas species that utilize large diameter deadwood will benefit most from light or no thinning. Because far more vertebrate species utilize large deadwood rather than large live trees, allowing riparian forests to naturally develop may result in the most rapid and sustained development of structural features important to most terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates.