Time in a bottle: challenges to disaster studies in Latin America and the Caribbean

LA RED (Network of Social Studies on the Prevention of Disasters in Latin America) has become the most influential group analysing disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its contributions have paved the way for a new way of understanding disasters, disaster risk, and their management, concerning: (i) that disasters are not natural, but socially constructed; (ii) the inherent nexus between disaster risk, development, and the environment; (iii) the significance of small‐ and medium‐sized disasters and extensive and intensive risks; (iv) disaster risk management at the local level; and (v) integrated disaster risk research and the need for forensic investigations of disasters. As a result of this unification of challenges, intellectual communities of connected individuals were formed. Nonetheless, a focus on territorial management, exposure, and vulnerability remains a challenge for academia. In addition, the labyrinths of disaster risk governance must be disentangled by other stakeholders, such as national authorities, policymakers, and practitioners.     

美国企业应急预案及其对我国的启示

美国企业的应急预案,根据其所处行业领域监管法律法规的要求不同,预案的名称、形式和主要内容都有较大的差异。美国企业的应急预案主要可分为:应急行动预案（EAP）、应急响应预案（ERP）、设施应急预案(FCP)、综合应急管理预案（CEMP）、应急操作预案（EOP）等不同的类别。简要分析美国法律法规对企业编制应急预案的规定和要求,描述不同预案的特点、主要内容及应用情况,并提出完善我国企业应急预案的几点建议。     

Agricultural production and bird conservation in complex landscapes of the dry Chaco

The South American dry Chaco is a mosaic of woody vegetation and grasslands with high deforestation rates in recent decades. Considering forests and grasslands as the main natural habitats, we assessed the trade-offs between bird populations and agricultural production to compare the potential consequences of different land use strategies (‘sharing’, ‘sparing’, and intermediate) for populations of bird species sensitive to agriculture, while attaining a regional production target. We evaluated how populations responded to scenarios with different proportions of forest and grasslands, considering three reference states (100% forest, 80:20% and 50:50% forest and grasslands, respectively); and scenarios capable of meeting three after-farming scenarios, with land destined to reach a regional production target with three variations of forest:grasslands within spared land. We fitted curves to relate bird abundance to agricultural yield along a gradient of meat production intensity; and we classified bird species as ‘losers’ (if their populations were lower than the baseline population in the reference state, at any level of production) and ‘winners’ (if their current populations were higher than the baseline population). At the ‘current’ (c. 2010) level of regional agricultural production, we found a similar number of loser species maximized by land-sparing and land-sharing strategies; while intermediate strategies were the least favourable to balance production and bird populations. Under the most probable scenarios of increases in regional meat production, most loser bird species populations were maximized by a land-sparing strategy, suggesting that if meat production targets are going to increase in the region, this can be more efficiently achieved by combining well-protected forests and grasslands, and high-yielding mechanized agriculture (e.g. soybean). Our results highlight the importance of assessing all the important natural habitats (e.g. forests and grasslands) of a region to explore conservation strategies at a regional scale.     

Spatial and temporal variations of urban litter in Mar del Plata, the major coastal city of Argentina

Urban littering is considered an important environmental and public issue globally. This problem is growing considerably within coastal communities of the southern region of South America. The goals of this study were to assess (1) the abundance and composition of urban litter; (2) the spatial and temporal variations of its abundance; and (3) the relationship between the abundance of litter and three anthropogenic variables (i.e. abundance of pedestrians, of parked vehicles, and of trash bins) in Mar del Plata, the most populated coastal city in Argentina. Eighty-eight transects, each covering 1425 m², were sampled along four sites from April 2008 to March 2009. Results showed 20,336 items (ca. 14 items per m²) of which cigarette butts (33%), papers (31%), and plastics (22%) were the most commonly littered items. Higher amounts of litter were found in an industrial area (city’s harbor), while the abundance of litter appeared relatively even throughout the year. Redundancy analysis techniques indicated a high abundance of all three anthropogenic variables associated with the central business district area of the city and an area in close proximity to a major seaside resort, where cigarette butts and papers dominated. This is the first study that has examined spatial and temporal variations of urban litter in a high-density coastal city in Argentina. Our results showed that addressing the problems associated with urban litter must include intensive educational and advertising campaigns directed at pedestrians and owners of parked vehicles, but waste reduction, clean-up operations and law enforcement should be also considered.     

A legal assessment of private land conservation in South America

Privately protected areas (PPAs) are a potentially innovative conservation tool. Legal recognition is necessary for their success, especially where there are institutional challenges to nature conservation, such as in South America. Although PPAs have increased in South America since the early 2000s, there is a critical information gap pertaining to their legal frameworks. We analyzed the level of landowner commitment to and governmental support for PPAs across countries in South America that officially recognize PPAs. We analyzed the legal framework governing PPAs and reviewed literature on them. This process was done in English and Spanish. The information we gathered was validated by 16 conservation experts from 10 South American countries. Because Peru is 1 of only 2 South American countries where local communities create and manage PPAs, we studied Peruvian PPAs in more detail by examining official creation documents and interviewing 13 local conservation professionals. We found inadequate minimum duration of PPAs and vague guidelines for conducting economic activities within them and a lack of governmental support (e.g., financial and technical support) for PPAs. Support was limited to the exemption from rural property taxes, which are relatively low compared with countries outside South America. In Peru, PPAs run by individuals and communities needed different legal frameworks because they were created with different objectives and had different sizes and duration of commitments. The prompt improvement of legal frameworks across South America is necessary for PPAs to achieve their aim of being places for enduring nature conservation in the region.     

基于Kriging模型的载人航天某装置结构优化设计研究

对于处在振动环境中的载人航天某装置复杂结构,设计过程中存在最小化质量、同时最大化一阶整体振动频率的多目标优化问题,可以利用多目标遗传算法(NSGA-II)求解得到Pareto最优解集,但利用NSGA-II进行求解计算量大,对于复杂结构更甚。为了节省计算时间,提出基于Kriging代理模型的复杂结构多目标优化设计方法,首先通过拉丁超立方采样获得样本点,然后通过样本点创建Kriging模型,最后利用多目标遗传算法求解代理模型得到Pareto最优解集,方便设计师从中选择最优解,优化结果表明本文所述方法合理有效。     

Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries

Adaptation to climate change is given increasing international attention as the confidence in climate change projections is getting higher. Developing countries have specific needs for adaptation due to high vulnerabilities, and they will in this way carry a great part of the global costs of climate change although the rising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are mainly the responsibility of industrialized countries. This article provides a status of climate change adaptation in developing countries. An overview of observed and projected climate change is given, and recent literature on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation are reviewed, including the emerging focus on mainstreaming of climate change and adaptation in development plans and programs. The article also serves as an introduction to the seven research articles of this special issue on climate change adaptation in developing countries. It is concluded that although many useful steps have been taken in the direction of ensuring adequate adaptation in developing countries, much work still remains to fully understand the drivers of past adaptation efforts, the need for future adaptation, and how to mainstream climate into general development policies.     

Improving Conservation Outcomes with Insights from Local Experts and Bureaucracies

We describe conservation built on local expertise such that it constitutes a hybrid form of traditional and bureaucratic knowledge. Researchers regularly ask how local knowledge might be applied to programs linked to protected areas. By examining the production of conservation knowledge in southern Mexico, we assert local expertise is already central to conservation. However, bureaucratic norms and social identity differences between lay experts and conservation practitioners prevent the public valuing of traditional knowledge. We make this point by contrasting 2 examples. The first is a master's thesis survey of local experts regarding the biology of the King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) in which data collection took place in communities adjacent to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The second is a workshop sponsored by the same reserve that instructed farmers on how to monitor endangered species, including the King Vulture. In both examples, conservation knowledge would not have existed without traditional knowledge. In both examples, this traditional knowledge is absent from scientific reporting. On the basis of these findings, we suggest conservation outcomes may be improved by recognizing the knowledge contributions local experts already make to conservation programming. Mejorando los Resultados de la Conservación con la Percepción de Expertos y Burócratas Locales Haenn et al.     

基于贝叶斯公式的地下水污染源识别

将贝叶斯公式与地下水二维水质对流-扩散方程相耦合,建立依靠监测井监测值的地下水污染源参数（污染源强度M、排放位置（X₀,Y₀）和排放时刻T₀）反演模型.针对监测井监测值信息量不充分或者监测值与模型参数关联性较弱的问题,提出了一种基于贝叶斯公式与信息熵的监测井优化设计方法.构建一个污染物在承压含水层中瞬时排放的算例,在确定单井监测及监测次数条件下,以监测井位置D及监测频率Dt的优化为目标,分别进行模型参数后验分布信息熵最小的单目标监测方案优化,以及信息熵最小且监测耗时最短的多目标监测方案优化.依据优化后的监测方案采用延迟拒绝自适应Metropolis算法进行污染源参数反演识别.算例研究表明：在预设定单井监测,且监测次数为5次条件下,单目标优化后的监测方案为D=（830.2,199.8）,△t=2.7,在此监测方案下,4个污染源参数M,X₀,Y₀,T₀的反演均值误差分别为19.5%、13.2%、3.4%、1.3%;多目标优化后的监测方案为D=（807.9,199.4）,△t=1.2,在此监测方案下,4个污染源参数M,X₀,Y₀,T₀的反演均值误差分别为19.9%、13.4%、3.7%、4.2%.与基于单目标优化的监测方案的反演结果相比,基于多目标优化的监测方案条件下,污染源参数的反演均值误差虽分别增加了0.4%、0.2%、0.3%、2.9%,但监测时间却显著缩短了55.6%.     

Developing sustainable agricultural systems for small farmers in Latin America

The great majority of farmers in Latin America are peasants who still farm small plots of land, usually in marginal environments utilizing traditional and subsistence methods. The contribution of the 16 million peasant units to regional food security is however substantial. Research has shown that peasant systems, which mostly rely on local resources and complex cropping patterns, are reasonably productive despite their small land endowments and low use of external inputs. Moreover analysis of NGO-led agroecological initiatives show that traditional crop and animal systems can be adapted to increase productivity by biologically re-structuring peasant farms which in turn leads to optimization of key agroecosystem processes (nutrient cycling, organic matter accumulation, biological pest regulation, etc.) and efficient use of labour and local resources. Examples of such grassroots projects are herein described to show that agroecological approaches can offer opportunities to substantially increase food production while preserving the natural resource base and empowering rural communities.