Coefficients of pollution: Interindustry linkage and pollution in Belgium

The paper briefly develops an approach toward using pollution coefficients from one country as an expedience for applying an environmental economic analysis to a separate, but similar country for which hard data may not be available.The Coefficients are defined based upon information available from the Netherlands and the United States in combination with input-output data available for Belgium. A combination of the various data results in a crude estimate of the direct and indirect pollution generation per unit activity in different sectors on a country-wide basis.     

灾害防御工程的费用和效益问题浅议

在分析现有的灾害防御工程费用效益计算方法的基础上，提出灾害防御工程应遵循从整个国家和社会的角度进行分析的原则，并对如何应用国民经济评价方法，以影子价格来衡量灾害防御工程项目对国民经济的真正影响作了初步的讨论。这对于正确评价和选择灾害防御工程方案有重要的理论和现实意义。     

Assessing the economics of pre-fragmentation material recovery within the UK

The 2006 end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) directive target for the recycled and reused material content of an ELV has been undertaken using the current recovery infrastructure within the UK. The current expectation is that the conformance for the 2006 recycling target will be mainly achieved using existing post-fragmentation separation technologies rather than manually disassembling vehicles into their constituent materials. With the economic pressure of the current legislative targets weighing heavily on end-of-life stakeholders, and the further increase of recycling levels for 2015, it is important to understand “when” and “if” manual dismantling activities become economically viable within a dramatically changing vehicle recovery industry. This paper describes a method of costing the dismantling of specific makes and models of vehicle due for retirement in 2015, and discusses the economic implications of such practice and possible strategic directions for pre-fragmentation vehicle recovery.     

Barriers to Water Conservation in the Rio Grande Basin1

Abstract: The Rio Grande basin shares problems faced by many arid regions of the world: growing and competing demands for water and river flows and uses that are vulnerable to drought and climate change. In recent years legislation, administrative action, and other measures have emerged to encourage private investment in efficient agricultural water use. Nevertheless, several institutional barriers discourage irrigators from investing in water conservation measures. This article examines barriers to agricultural water conservation in the Rio Grande basin and identifies challenges and opportunities for promoting it. Several barriers to water conservation are identified: clouded titles, water transfer restrictions, illusory water savings, insecure rights to conserved water, shared carry‐over storage, interstate compacts, conservation attitudes, land tenure arrangements, and an uncertain duty of water. Based on data on water use and crop production costs, price is found to be a major factor influencing water conservation. A low water price discourages water conservation even if other institutions promote it. A high price of water encourages conservation even in the presence of other discouraging factors. In conclusion, water‐conserving policies can be more effectively implemented where water institutions and programs are designed to be compatible with water’s underlying economic scarcity.     

Stakeholder Willingness to Pay for Watershed Restoration in Rural Bolivia1

Abstract: Two CVM surveys were administered to 211 urban households and 188 rural farmer‐irrigators in the Comarapa watershed in Bolivia, South America, to estimate stakeholder willingness to pay (WTP) for a proposed upper watershed restoration program. Mean monthly household WTP to improve drinking water was $1.95 (65% of current charges), while mean annual WTP among farmer‐irrigators to improve irrigation water was $17 per hectare (34% of current costs). Aggregated to the entire population of households and farmer‐irrigators total WTP is $77,400 per year, which is 77% of the minimum cost to implement a watershed restoration program.     

经济增长与建设用地扩张的脱钩分析

为分析经济增长与建设用地扩张之间的相互关系,论文探讨了经济增长与建设用地扩张脱钩的定义,将环境领域的脱钩概念和脱钩分析引入土地利用分析,在IPAT模型基础上建立了包含建设用地和GDP等变量在内的核算方程,据此对环境领域基于变化量的脱钩评价方法加以了改进,建立了经济增长与建设用地扩张脱钩分析方法。在此基础上,文章以我国经济增长与建设用地的相互关系为例,分别分析了2002—2007年期间全国以及31个省级区域GDP增长与建设用地扩张、非农产业GDP增长与建设用地扩张以及第三产业GDP增长与建设用地扩张之间的脱钩关系。分析表明:以年度为时间尺度,在2002—2007年之间,从GDP和建设用地角度考察,除青海省、上海和海南在个别年份落在强脱钩区域,其余28个省级区域均落在弱脱钩区域;从非农产业GDP和建设用地角度考察,除上海在2006年落在强脱钩区域外,其余30个省级区域均落在弱脱钩区域;从第三产业GDP和建设用地角度考察,除西藏在2003年落在扩张性复钩以及青海、上海、海南和广西在个别年份落在强脱钩区域外,其余26个省级区域均落在弱脱钩区域;以2002—2007年时间段为时间尺度,全国及31个省级区域均落在弱脱钩区域。鉴于建设用地扩张与经济增长之间的滞后关系,以时期为时间尺度进行脱钩分析更为合适;分析还表明,在经济增长过程中,提高建设用地效率对于实现脱钩有重要作用,有效控制建设用地总量是实现强脱钩的重要手段。     

基于实验经济学的森林环境资源价值评估的文献综述

首先从实验经济学的概述出发,展示了实验经济学理论与方法的有代表性文献的研究结论,综述了其在中国的应用。其次,对森林资源价值评估的国内外研究现状进行了总结和归纳;并且根据各种评估方法的计算特点,将森林资源价值评估方法大致综合成了三种：直接市场评价法、替代市场评价法和假想市场评价法。最后,创造性地将二者结合起来提出了自己的看法,并指出基于实验经济学进行森林资源价值评估是一个崭新的领域,其发展中机会与挑战并存。     

Plant leaf economics and reproductive investment are responsive to gradients of land use intensity

Relationships between functional leaf traits across large sets of plant species emphasized the existence of a major axis describing a trade-off between rapid acquisition and conservation of resources forming the so-called “leaf economics spectrum”. It is uncertain which environmental factors determine the economics spectrum and whether traits associated with reproduction co-vary with the economics spectrum. To determine these trait-environment relationships for agricultural ecosystems, this study was conducted at field, pasture, and heathland sites forming a strong land use gradient in Northwest Germany. The abundance of 49 species was recorded in 85 plots together with their traits (canopy height, specific leaf area, leaf N, leaf N:P, leaf and stem dry matter content, life cycle, reproductive investment (RI) in seed mass and seed number), as well as parameters describing soil resources and land use disturbances. RLQ multivariate analysis of the data set related an environmental table to a species trait table using a species abundance table to extract the joint structure between them. Thereafter, we clustered the species on the RLQ axis to extract functional groups. Traits associated with the leaf economics spectrum were strongly related to soil resources that co-varied with disturbance intensity. A division of the whole land use gradient into agricultural and heathland sites showed that RI was not decoupled from trait-environment relationships although the direction of the RI-environment relationship was opposite in the two subsets. Species were clumped rather than linearly arranged in the trait-environment space and the functional groups broadly corresponded to weed communities, pastures with differing intensities, and heathlands. The trade-off in plant economics responding to soil resources supports predictions of previous theoretical and empirical work. Different RI-environment relationships in agricultural sites and heathlands emphasize the relevance of local scales in trait-environment studies. In general, the results point to some of the biological mechanisms controlling functions and services of agricultural ecosystems.     

The Water Market for the Middle and Lower Portions of the Texas Rio Grande Basin1

Leidner, Andrew J., M. Edward Rister, Ronald D. Lacewell, and Allen W. Sturdivant, 2011. The Water Market for the Middle and Lower Portions of the Texas Rio Grande Basin. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(3):597‐610. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00527.x Abstract: Regional water management on the United States’ side of the middle and lower portions of the Rio Grande basin of Texas has been aided by a functioning water market since the early 1970s. The water market operates over a region that stretches from the Amistad Reservoir to the Rio Grande’s terminus into the Gulf of Mexico. This article provides an overview of the organizations, institutions, policies, and geographic particulars of the region’s water‐management system and its water market. In recent years, this region has experienced high population growth, periodic droughts, and a reallocation of water resources from the area’s agricultural sector to the municipal sector. Demand growth for potable water and a relatively fixed supply of raw water are reflected in increasing prices for domestic, municipal, and industrial water rights. Rising prices in the presence of scarcity and the transfer of water from lower‐value to higher‐value uses indicate that the market is operating as suggested by economic theory. Reasons for the market’s functionality are presented and discussed. Finally, suggestions are presented which might mitigate potential complications to market operations from aquifer depletion and aid the management of instream river flows.