中国西部绿色发展概念框架

综合绿色发展的国际经验,以自然资本、经济资本、社会资本与人力资本四大资本为核心,提出了中国西部地区绿色发展概念框架.中国西部地区绿色发展概念框架是以“发展中促转变,转变中谋发展”的良性循环发展原则为指导原则,分析西部地区社会经济发展及生态环境和自然资源保护两个方面在发展过程中相互促进和制约的关系,并根据西部地区当前经济资本、环境资本、社会资本以及人力资本数量,通过政府适当干预,如区域规划、区内调整,最终实现社会经济与生态环境和自然资源相协调的绿色发展.该框架综合考虑了中国西部在绿色发展道路上特有挑战与机遇,阐明了社会经济发展与资源环境承载力之间的相互作用机制,明确了中国西部地区“生态友好、社会包容和内生增长”的绿色发展目标.最后,本文针对该绿色发展框架提出了中国西部地区绿色发展的政策建议:提出“西部地区绿色发展战略”是当前西部地区绿色发展进程中最为迫切的需求,中央政府应当尽快制定和实施“西部地区绿色发展战略”,同时西部地区政府在省级和地方层面将保护中国西部生态环境与区域扶贫开发相结合,加大对以提升西部地区人力资本为目的的各类工程的投入,强化区域绿色基础建设和生态服务供给,缓解西部地区贫困,提升区域绿色发展进程的速度和质量;开展财政体制机制改革,以提高各级财政资金的使用效率;结合各省发展需求与条件实施以生态城市为发展目标的可持续城镇化发展模式,制定差异化的城镇化发展战略;在西部地区重点和限制开发区尤其是贫困集中和区域发展潜力较大地区,鼓励具有区域特色的新型绿色产业的发展.在发展过程中不断加强制度创新以引导长期绿色发展.     

农户兼业阶段性分化探析

当前农户兼业的阶段性分化其本质是农户之间兼业进程的不统一,进而导致了严重的农村社会分化问题。本文利用江苏省苏北地区农户调研数据分析了当前农户兼业阶段性分化的现状及其带来的社会后果,利用似不相关双变量Probit模型分析了农户兼业阶段性分化的原因,得出了阻碍农户兼业发展的主要制约因素。结果显示,家庭人力资本稀缺是农户实现兼业生产的主要制约因素,农户无法进行非农工作主要是受到家庭人口规模小、老龄化严重的限制,这一部分农户家庭生活水平低,面临严重的"贫困陷阱"。政府直接干预土地流转使部分农户被动退出了农业生产,形式上实现了农户兼业进程的统一,但损害了农户的土地权益,造成农村土地产权不稳定,降低了农户自发性退农倾向,妨碍了土地市场的进一步发展,因此实质上对农户兼业进程起到了阻碍作用。此外,由于土地承包经营证书对承包经营权权能、地块四至等信息界定不清晰,对农户兼业进程的发展没有刺激作用。综合以上结论可知,土地产权以及农户家庭人力资本是导致当前农户阶段性分化的主要原因。政府不应对农村土地市场进行直接干预,而应通过完善农村社保体系、扶持农户非农就业、加快新一轮土地确权发证工作以促进土地市场与农户兼业进程的发展,在市场机制为主、政府调控为辅的环境下合理实现土地的集中与农业规模经营。     

Applying the Kuhn–Tucker model to estimate the value of recreational ecosystem services in Sicily

This paper applies the Kuhn–Tucker model to estimate recreation demand of parks in Sicily. We estimate a fixed coefficient specification and a random coefficient specification to take into account heterogeneity across visitors. Estimates suggest a diversity of preferences across the population and that parks with higher level of quality attributes are more likely to be visited. We also simulate two sets of hypothetical policy scenarios to evaluate and compare the recreational value of each park and the welfare impacts of changes in a quality attribute.     

A conceptual approach to model sand–gravel extraction from rivers based on a game theory perspective

Sand–gravel mining is a significant parameter of economic development and social welfare function in modern societies. As demand for aggregate increases in construction industry, conflicts for the availability of the resource and environmental impacts become more intense. The present paper describes the contested status quo in riverbed sand–gravel mining activities with an example from Greece, as a case study. The scope is to propose a methodology about good governance of the mining sector that promotes a sustainable sharing of aggregate resource by securing environment and safekeeping revenues in the mining trade market.     

Impacts of Changes in Precipitation Amount and Distribution on Water Resources Studied Using a Model Rainwater Harvesting System

Water supply reliability is expected to be affected by both precipitation amount and distribution changes under recent and future climate change. We compare historical (1951‐2010) changes in annual‐mean and annual‐maximum daily precipitation in the global set of station observations from Global Historical Climatology Network and climate models from the Inter‐Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI‐MIP), and develop the study to 2011‐2099 for model projections under high radiative forcing scenario (RCP8.5). We develop a simple rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) model and drive it with observational and modeled precipitation. We study the changes in mean and maximum precipitation along with changes in the reliability of the model RWHS as tools to assess the impact of changes in precipitation amount and distribution on reliability of precipitation‐fed water supplies. Results show faster increase in observed maximum precipitation (10.14% per K global warming) than mean precipitation (7.64% per K), and increased reliability of the model RWHS driven by observed precipitation by an average of 0.2% per decade. The ISI‐MIP models show even faster increase in maximum precipitation compared to mean precipitation. However, they imply decreases in mean reliability, for an average 0.15% per decade. Compared to observations, climate models underestimate the increasing trends in mean and maximum precipitation and show the opposite direction of change in reliability of a model water supply system.     

Photovoltaic-thermal (PV/t) panel to minimize electrical and air conditioning energy consumption of a typical office in Beirut

A combined photovoltaic–thermal (PV/t) panel is proposed to produce simultaneously electricity and heat from one integrated unit. The unit utilizes effectively the solar energy through achieving higher PV electrical efficiency and using the thermal energy for heating applications. To predict the performance of the PV/t at a given environmental conditions, a transient mathematical model was developed. The model was integrated in a heating application for a typical office space in the city of Beirut to provide the office needs for electricity, heating during winter season, and dehumidification and evaporative cooling during the summer season. To minimize the yearly office energy (electrical and heat) needs, the PV/t panel cooling air flow rate and the dehumidification regeneration temperature were determined for opimal unit operation. Thermal energy savings of up to 85% in winter and 71% in summer were achived compared to conventional systems at a payback period of 8 years for the panels.     

Modeling urban solar energy with high spatiotemporal resolution: A case study in Toronto,Canada

This research presents a method to determine the maximum potential for the capturing of solar radiation on the rooftop of buildings in an urban environment. This involves the modeling of solar energy potential and comparison to historical building energy demand profiles through the use of 3-D solar simulation software tools and geographic information systems (GIS). The objective is to accurately identify the amount of surface area that is suitable for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations and to estimate the hourly PV electricity generation potential of existing building rooftops in an urban environment. This study demonstrates a viable approach for modeling urban solar energy and offers valuable information for electricity distributors, policy makers, and urban energy planners to facilitate the substantial design of a green built environment. The developed methodology is comprised of three main sections: (1) determination of suitable rooftop area, (2) determination of the amount of incident solar radiation available per rooftop, and (3) estimation of hourly solar PV electricity generation potential. A case study was performed using this method for Ryerson University, located in Toronto, Canada. It was found that solar PV could supply up to 19% of the study area’s electricity demands during peak consumption hours. The potential benefits of solar PV was also estimated based upon hourly greenhouse gas emission intensity factors as well as Time-of-Use (TOU) savings through the Ontario Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program, which allows for better representation of the positive impacts of solar technologies.     

Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China’s coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China’s coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China’s coastal ecosystem services.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0692-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia

Wood-pastures are associated with high cultural and biodiversity values in Europe. However, due to their relatively low productivity, large areas of wood-pastures have been lost over the last century. In some areas, incentive schemes have been developed to revive wood-pastures. We investigated the effects of one such scheme in western Estonia. We compared the structure of grazed wood-pastures (old and restored) to those of abandoned wood-pastures and ungrazed forest stands to explore the effects of management, and conducted interviews with 24 farmers to investigate their motivations to carry out the management. We found a positive influence of active management on the semi-open structure of wood-pastures. Financial support was vital for management, but personal values related to tradition also played an important role. The interviewees differed widely in their range of motivations, suggesting that other strategies in addition to financial incentives would further improve the management of wood-pastures in the region.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0719-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Globalization’s limits to the environmental state? Integrating telecoupling into global environmental governance

Globalization entails increased interdependence and interconnectivities among distal regions and social-ecological systems. This global interregional connectedness – telecoupling – gives rise to specific sustainability challenges, which require new governance solutions. Moving beyond ‘scaling-up’ governance to address global environmental problems, and exploring the implications of telecoupling for state-led environmental governance, ways the state can effectively address telecoupled environmental issues both within and beyond national borders are addressed, drawing on the example of soy trade between Brazil and Germany. This builds on recent contributions to the literature on governance of interregional ecological challenges to elaborate potential policy and governance options, ranging from classical bilateral, multilateral, and international agreements, to information-based, economic, and hybrid governance modes. While telecoupled environmental problems create governance challenges related to scale, knowledge gaps, coordination, and state capacity, the state has an important role to play. To explore this further, interdisciplinary inquiry is required that includes but moves beyond the state.