Bibliometric analysis of ecosystem monitoring-related research in Africa: implications for ecological stewardship and scientific collaboration

Regional ecosystem monitoring is a central form of knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst scientists and decision makers on environmental health, land use change, and science-policy development. Despite the proliferation of such research networks on long-term monitoring on many continents, little has been achieved in Africa. This study aims to assess and examine the spatiotemporal trend and categorical patterns in ecosystem monitoring-related research in Africa for the benefits of conserving biodiversity and sustaining natural resource sectors for well-being and livelihood security, environmental planning, and ecological stewardship. A systematic review was conducted using bibliometric tools. Based on a set of search terms and peer-reviewed publications retrieved from various ecosystem monitoring networks and journal databases, further analysis was conducted using social network approaches, mapping tools, and content analysis. About 1442 scientific publications on ecosystem monitoring and related research were documented from 1987 to 2014 mostly published in English. The number of publication increased progressively since 1992 after the Convention on Biodiversity was signed and this trend peaked till 2008. South African Journal of Science was the most leading journal and Nature the most cited. Internationally coauthored and collaborative articles represented majority of the findings with the United Kingdom at the central position in the research network due to colonial relationships. Regional collaboration amongst countries is limited owing to language barriers and other institutional constraints such as funding and short-term projects. These findings have implication for prioritizing national and regional policies toward biodiversity science and its contribution to human well-being, food security, and global change responses.     

我国流域水生态完整性评价方法构建

流域水生态完整性评价是指通过对水生态系统中不同水生态指标(生物和非生物)的监测以及由数学方法综合形成的综合评价指数,来反映水生态系统完整性状况。近年来,世界各国水环境管理政策发生了变化,开始强调生态保护,重视水体的生态质量。中国现行的常规理化监测指标(如COD、氨氮、BOD5)很难满足水环境管理的需求,难以全面准确地反映水环境质量变化的趋势。因此,在借鉴欧美发达国家流域水生态完整性评价方法的基础上,结合中国目前监测现状以及流域水环境管理需求,构建了包括物理生境指标、理化指标、水生生物指标在内的流域水生态完整性监测与评价方法,以期为中国流域水质目标管理技术体系的业务化运行提供可资借鉴的技术支撑,实现从单一的化学指标监测转向综合的水生态系统监测,实现流域水生态完整性的监测与评价。     

LCA与环境决策

应用生命周期评估对一个产品体系在其生命周期中的投入产出对环境造成的影响进行评估，可以帮助人们对全过程和全方位来认识事物，从而有利于避免环境决策的失误。     

政府激励企业环境技术创新的初步研究

环境技术创新是实施可持续发展战略的有效个介手段。政府激励企业ＥＳＴｓ的手段有开展环保教育，制订宏观经济管理政策，调整经济体制和结构，加强经济手段和实施环境法。政府激企业ＥＳＴｓ应兼顾多重目标、以及通过完善市场机制来节约激励成本。     

生态环境科学研究中的数据管理

本文简要介绍了生态环境科学研究中数据管理的基本概念，详细介绍了数据文档文件的建立工并讨论了数据管理的数据共享政策在数据管理中的重要作用。     

环境管理手段对企业排污行为调控力度的定量化研究

在构造出反映企业排污行为和若干环境管理手段的统计特征量的基础上,提出以统计特征量之间的回归分析来定量化研究环境管理手段对企业排污行为调控力度的方法．对1993 ～1997年度镇江市26家COD 重点排放企业的研究表明：排污收费、环保补贴、执法检查、行政干预4 种环境管理手段都对企业的 COD 排放行为起到了明显的调控作用,调控力度由大到小依次为环保补贴、排污收费、执法检查和行政干预．     

日本炼厂环保工作的特点与借鉴

根岸炼油厂是日本国最大的燃料、润滑油型炼油厂，通过交流参观看到作为发达国家的日本国对环境保护非常重视，各项环保法规、法令、标准从国家到地方各级都很严格和详细，治理措施十分完善，环境保护取得显著的成效。     

电力需求侧管理与可持续发展战略

在探讨电力需求侧管理理论，方法以及电力经济结构和电力与环境问题的基础上，分析评价电力需求侧管理对可持续发展的作用贡献，电力需求侧管理是促进系统可持续发展的战备途径之一。     

Opportunities and constraints for Product-oriented Environmental Management Systems (P-EMS)

Product-oriented Environmental Management Systems (P-EMS) are a logical extension of current, often primarily process- of facility-oriented Environmental Management Systems. The Dutch government promotes P-EMS as part of its product-oriented environmental policies. The idea of P-EMS is to enable producers to make environmentally responsible decisions on product development and product strategies, in collaboration with suppliers and customers. This paper summarises example P-EMS projects in The Netherlands for two segments of industry, namely retail and manufacturing industry. Moreover two other initiatives will be covered that deal with the development of tools to facilitate P-EMS in two other industry sectors (food processing and building). Success factors that emerge from these initial experiences are: focus on partners that have a strong incentive to act, application of screening Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) or user-shells for LCA, and focus on improvements that can be implemented on the short term.     

Fine‐resolution conservation planning with limited climate‐change information

Climate‐change induced uncertainties in future spatial patterns of conservation‐related outcomes make it difficult to implement standard conservation‐planning paradigms. A recent study translates Markowitz's risk‐diversification strategy from finance to conservation settings, enabling conservation agents to use this diversification strategy for allocating conservation and restoration investments across space to minimize the risk associated with such uncertainty. However, this method is information intensive and requires a large number of forecasts of ecological outcomes associated with possible climate‐change scenarios for carrying out fine‐resolution conservation planning. We developed a technique for iterative, spatial portfolio analysis that can be used to allocate scarce conservation resources across a desired level of subregions in a planning landscape in the absence of a sufficient number of ecological forecasts. We applied our technique to the Prairie Pothole Region in central North America. A lack of sufficient future climate information prevented attainment of the most efficient risk‐return conservation outcomes in the Prairie Pothole Region. The difference in expected conservation returns between conservation planning with limited climate‐change information and full climate‐change information was as large as 30% for the Prairie Pothole Region even when the most efficient iterative approach was used. However, our iterative approach allowed finer resolution portfolio allocation with limited climate‐change forecasts such that the best possible risk‐return combinations were obtained. With our most efficient iterative approach, the expected loss in conservation outcomes owing to limited climate‐change information could be reduced by 17% relative to other iterative approaches.