Policy relevance of three integrated assessment tools—A comparison with specific reference to agricultural policies

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of market support instruments, direct income transfers, and rural development measures, has been put through an ongoing reform process in recent decades. This paper introduces three policy impact assessment tools (SIAT, SEAMLESS-IF, MEA-Scope tool) and analyses how these tools have responded to a number of challenges for integrated assessment modelling as reported in the international literature. Significant progress has been made with regard to modelling linkages whereas other challenges, particularly those related to issues of scale and uncertainty management, require further efforts. It is also analysed which CAP instruments are represented and what kinds of effects can be analysed at different scales. Market instruments and direct payments are comparatively well represented, while the ability to model rural development measures is mostly beyond the scope of these tools. Because each tool has found a different solution for coping with the common challenges of integrated assessment modelling, the choice of one of the tools for a particular application depends strongly on the policy questions being asked. The SIAT provides the big picture via its ability to represent broad changes in policy instruments with EU-wide cross-sector impacts. The most comprehensive analysis of agricultural policy instruments can be obtained with SEAMLESS-IF. The MEA-Scope tool complements the other two approaches with detailed regional profiles.     

江苏生物多样性保护的重点领域和政策创新

分析了江苏生物多样性保护现状,解读了省委办公厅、省政府办公厅《关于进一步加强生物多样性保护的实施意见》,主要涵盖完善政策法规、优化空间格局、提升系统稳定性、构建监测评估体系、提升安全管理水平、创新开发利用机制、严格执法监督评估、推动公众参与等8大工作任务,加强生态岛试验区、生态安全缓冲区等10大领域政策创新,整体提升全省生态系统质量。     

脉冲变频电磁场对水华鱼腥藻生长的效应

对脉冲变频电磁场作用下,扫描频率和磁感应强度的变化对水华鱼腥藻细胞活性和生长的影响进行了研究。结果显示,扫描频率从25-27 Hz增大到1-60 kHz时,磁场对藻细胞活性的抑制作用减小,但增大到60 kHz以上,磁场对藻细胞产生强烈抑制作用,累积水力停留时间4 min的藻样在48 h培养时间内已失去活性停止生长。扫描频率为50-100 Hz和1-60 kHz时,累积水力停留时间2 min的藻样,细胞受到磁场刺激生长加快;只有累积水力停留时间〉6 min,才表现出对藻活性的抑制作用。磁感应强度增大至120 G,磁场对细胞活性产生明显抑制作用,增大磁感应强度有利于对细胞活性和生长的抑制。     

我国重点行业环境保护与节能减排宏观要求及政策建议

从我国目前节能减排的形势出发,结合几大高污染、高能耗行业的环保现状,给出了能够实现环保与节能减排的总体原则并重点提出了相应的宏观政策建议。     

The Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption

The Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption aims to promote debate and action to achieve sustainable consumption. It has met four times since it was established in 1999. Commission members have undertaken a number of projects around the world, working with communities to explore pathways to more sustainable consumption. This paper summarises the Commission’s progress and the messages emerging from its work. Current consumption trends are supported by a number of social trends, including individualisation, the spread of the market ethos, urbanisation, globalisation, and the increasing awareness of risk and uncertainty. However, these trends contain the seeds of their own limitation. In particular, increasing discourse about ethics and social goals may be the key to a shift towards more sustainable consumption.     

An assessment of Scottish development planning

The present development plan system in Scotland began in 1975. Its origins and purpose are discussed. Progress in the submission and adoption/approval of local and structure plans and in reviewing these plans is outlined. Performance to date is assessed and means of improvement are suggested, in relation to timeliness, transparency, scope and quality.     

中国农村人口问题与中国可持续发展

中国人口问题是中国可持续发展面临的首要问题。中国13亿人口中约有9亿是农村人口。因此所谓“中国人口问题”根本上是中国农村人口问题。人口为什么会成为一个“问题”则是关注的焦点。通过对人口问题本质进行剖析发现。研究人口问题必须着眼予人与自然的关系以及人与社会的关系。而解决中国的人口“问题”则必须着眼于农村人口生存方式的改变。从当前我国农村人口的生存方式和状况来看。中国的农村人口问题折射在农业、农村问题上。故统称为“三农”问题。为此，着眼于中国可持续发展提出解决中国农村人口问题的途径和建议。     

Flood policy reversal in australia

In 1977 the Government of New South Wales introduced a flood prone lands policy which attempted to break with the past emphasis on structural works. Cornerstones of the policy were the preparation of floodplain maps, and use of the 1:100 (100 year or 1%) flood to delineate floodplains and 1:20 flood for floodway definition. The fiscal and regulatory elements of the policy were to be applied more or less uniformly within the two zones. At first there was little effective opposition to the program, but this changed when large areas of Sydney, which had not been inundated since development, were mapped. Local government concern over issues of legal liability led to decisions which in turn prompted opposition to the policy from residents' action groups and property development interests. A perceived drop in property values provided the main motivation for action by residents. This pressure for change, which intensified just before the 1984 state election, saw the policy overturned.
The new policy gives local government greater responsibility for floodplain management. State authorities have withdrawn from floodplain mapping, although technical advice will continue to be provided, and there are no longer any uniform floodplain or floodway definitions. Policy implementation is to be guided by a Manual which attempts to define flood hazard in terms of both physical and social criteria.     

Sustainability in context: An Australian perspective

This article examines the concept of sustainability (sustainable development, sustainable societies) with a view to providing a means of considering the idea in such a way as to be more useful to concerns of policy. A brief background is given, covering the historical development of the concept, the constituent ecological and social concerns that lie behind it, and some aspects of the sustainability debate in Australia. Some attributes of a sustainable future, as evident from the literature, are listed. The value base of the concept is recognized, and the correct place for sustainability concerns is identified within a simple policy-making model. The complexity of such a model in the real world is explored using a list of thecontexts of sustainability, illustrated with examples from Australian natural resource management. Finally, the more dynamic and flexible nature of patterns of production and consumption in more sustainable societies is recognized and explained, as are two guiding directives to be applied in the search for models which display characteristics of sustainability.