Post-Fordist transformation,the sustainability concept and social relations with nature: a case study of the Hamburg region

Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the concept of sustainability in general and of urban sustainability in particular has become increasingly significant in the course of the 1990s. Even if the environmental problems of cities are far from being solved, one can interpret this development as a change in the relationship between society and nature on both a discursive and a material level. At the same time the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism has given rise to new forms of urban entrepreneurialism, with an absolute priority to economic competitiveness on the one hand and sharpened social conflicts on the other. Looking at the case of the Hamburg region, the article discusses the interaction of these processes. Contrary to the understanding of sustainability as a broadly accepted policy goal it conceptualizes sustainability as a terrain of conflict. As such, we will argue, the sustainability concept and the underlying change in social relations with nature contribute to containing the contradictions of capitalist societalization, which in the transition to post-Fordism have become more visible again. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Safety climate, attitudes and risk perception in Norsk Hydro

The aims of this paper are to test mental images of risk and to present some results of a survey of safety climate, employee attitudes, risk perception and behaviour among employees within the industrial company Norsk Hydro. Two mental images were tested. They are both based on the assumption that it is possible to make a distinction between cognitive and affective processes involved in risk perception. The first model was the ‘rationalistic’ approach, which assumes that the affective component of risk perception is influenced by cognitive judgements. The justification for the second model is found in Zajonc's [Zajonc, R.B., 1980. Feeling and thinking. Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist 35 (2), 151–175] conclusion that emotions are precognitive. In this model, entitled the ‘mental imagery’ approach, emotion is seen as the driving force affecting cognition of risk and safety. Employees at 13 plants have answered a self-completion questionnaire. The plants belonged to the agricultural, aluminium, magnesium and petrochemical divisions within Norsk Hydro. A total of 731 respondents replied to the questionnaire. The mental imagery approach was somewhat better fitted to the data than a rationalistic approach. Safety climate and employee attitudes towards safety and accident prevention contributed significantly to the variance in employee occupational risk behaviour. Worry and the extent to which the employee felt safe/unsafe was the most important predictor for the cognitive judgement of risk. Acceptability of rule violations seemed to be the most important predictor of behaviour, probably because acceptability also affected how often the respondents took chances and broke safety rules.     

Monitoring a Recent Delta Formation in a Tropical Coastal Wetland Using Remote Sensing and GIS. Case Study: Guapo River Delta, Laguna de Tacarigua, Venezuela

The integrated use of remotely sensed data and GIS to monitor a rapid recent delta formation was undertaken in the Tacarigua Lagoon, a mangrove coastal protected wetland in the north-central coast of Venezuela. Recently, the resource value of coastal wetlands such as coastal lagoons and deltas, has brought about a need to protect and conserve these ecosystems. To that end, valuable resources such as these should be continuously monitored so that temporal changes in their environment can be analysed. The importance of determining the cause, extent, and spatial distribution of these changes can then be used in different aspects of environmental studies, land suitability analyses and for wise resource management. Aerospace data interpretation and a field survey were utilised to study the formation of the Guapo River delta within the Tacarigua Lagoon and to map the expansion that this depositional environment has undergone. A historical set of aerial photographs and a radar image, together with a GIS, were used to assess the growth of the delta from the beginning of its formation up to the present time.     

一种高分辨率遥感影像建筑物边缘提取方法

提出一种利用高分辨率遥感影像半自动提取建筑物边缘的方法。先对遥感影像进行预处理,对所有边缘进行边缘检测。然后进行边缘跟踪,提取建筑物的主方向线,利用模型进行线段关系判断,再进行线段关系处理、区域分割和区域生长,最后进行区域合并提取出建筑物的轮廓。用上述方法对Quick Bird卫星的高分辨率影像进行了实验,实验结果证明该方法有较高的识别率、较好的准确性,具有一定的实用价值。     

河北省部分典型区域环境卫星CCD影像与Landsat TM影像的对比

根据环境卫星CCD影像与Landsat TM影像,对河北省部分典型区域进行了详细对比研究。结果表明,环境卫星CCD影像和Landsat TM影像在颜色、纹理、形状、大小等方面均存在一些差异,但对生态环境质量评价的影像解译工作影响不大。     

Visual Climate Change Communication: From Iconography to Locally Framed 3D Visualization

Climate change is an urgent problem with implications registered not only globally, but also on national and local scales. It is a particularly challenging case of environmental communication because its main cause, greenhouse gas emissions, is invisible. The predominant approach of making climate change visible is the use of iconic, often affective, imagery. Literature on the iconography of climate change shows that global iconic motifs, such as polar bears, have contributed to a public perception of the problem as spatially and temporally remote. This paper proposes an alternative approach to global climate change icons by focusing on recognizable representations of local impacts within an interactive game environment. This approach was implemented and tested in a research project based on the municipality of Delta, British Columbia. A major outcome of the research is Future Delta, an interactive educational game featuring 3D visualizations and simulation tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation future scenarios. The empirical evaluation is based on quantitative pre/post-game play questionnaires with 18 students and 10 qualitative expert interviews. The findings support the assumption that interactive 3D imagery is effective in communicating climate change. The quantitative post-questionnaires particularly highlight a shift in support of more local responsibility.     

Seeing the Wind (Farm): Applying Q-methodology to Understand the Public’s Reception of the Visuals Around a Wind Farm Development

This research investigates the reception of the visual representations of a wind farm (WF) development by local stakeholders. Using non-verbal Qmethodology, residents of Lesvos’ island, Greece, sort images according to how these images represented their opinion about the proposed Aegean Link WF project. We found three opinion types. The “Risk Averter” type is focused on the various risks of constructing and operating the Aegean Link wind development. The “Green Developer” type believes that the renewable energy project will benefit both their local community and the environment. The “Realist” type defers to expert knowledge to make decisions about project outcomes and is sceptical of media bias. While the former two types seem to form their visual opinions based on whether they are in favour or against (respectively) of the WF development, the Realist opinion is rather guided by carefully considering whether the visual stimuli are representative of the project’s actual characteristics.     

Assessing human-induced pressures on coastal areas with publicly available data

The assessment of human-induced pressures on the coastal area is essential to target management plans effectively, and moreover is required by the EU Water Framework Directive. A simple and cost-effective assessment of human-induced pressures on the coastal zone is applied using two methodologies: a qualitative visual assessment which uses satellite images; and a quantitative assessment based on governmental census data. These methods are applied to defined areas (23 areas) of four Italian regions: Liguria, Tuscany, Latium and Sardinia. The results show a high agreement (83%) between these two methods, in which only four of the 23 areas are classified differently. These differences may mainly be ascribed to the qualitative or quantitative properties of the methods, and to the different geographical units adopted. These characteristics however provide complementary information, which suggests that the application of both proposed methods confirms reliability and allows fine-tuning of the assessment. The pressure assessment proposed is simple, time and cost-effective, and repeatable over time and space. It therefore can be applied in different contexts to respond to legislative requirements or to target management plans and remedial actions effectively.     

基于MODIS影像的洪泽湖水生植被覆盖时空变化特征及影响因素分析

水生植被是湖泊生态系统的重要组成部分,在改善湖泊水质、维护生物多样性方面起到重要的作用.当前我国湖泊普遍面临富营养化和水生植被退化等问题,监测水生植被时空变化特征、探究主要影响因子,对于保护水生植被和修复富营养化湖泊生态系统具有重要意义.因此,本文选用2007～2017年中等分辨率卫星MODIS数据,引入植被频次法(vegetation present frequency,VPF)提取水生植被信息,结合气象因子和人类活动分析了洪泽湖近11 a水生植被的时空变化特征及潜在影响因素.结果表明,洪泽湖水生植被VPF存在着明显的季节和年际变化,VPF春夏显著高于秋冬(P 0. 05,one wayANOVA),最大值0. 43出现在6月,最小值0. 21出现在1月,4～10月生长期显著高于其他月份.年际上,洪泽湖北部湖区(Z1) VPF呈现显著降低的趋势(R2=0. 56,P 0. 01),由2008年的最高值0. 50下降到2016年最低值0. 27,下降了45. 8%,表明水生植被在该地区呈现快速退化趋势.空间上,洪泽湖水生植被VPF整体上由沿岸带向开敞水域递减,其中北部(Z1)和西部湖区(Z2)高于其他湖区(Z3～Z5).洪泽湖全湖VPF年际变化受年均气温、年降水量、年平均风速和年日照时数影响不显著(P 0. 05),表明气候要素对洪泽湖水生植被年际变化影响较小.在采砂活动和水生植被共同存在的北部湖区,总悬浮物浓度与VPF存在显著负相关(R2=0. 48,P 0. 01),表明采砂导致的总悬浮物浓度增加是影响Z1区域水生植被退化的重要原因,又以采砂区附近表现尤为明显.     

基于遥感的洪水灾害承灾体神经网络的提取方法探讨

洪水灾害承文体信息的快速获取是洪水灾害评估的基础．卫星遥感所获得的遥感图象包含了有关该承灾体的空间分布信息．常规目视解译难以快速并准确地从遥感图象中提取这些信息．神经网络技术的发展为解决这一问题提供了新的工具．本文阐这了将神经网络用于从遥感图象中自动提取洪水灾害承文体的空间分布信息的基本原理和方法,并结合实例说明了这种方法的有效性