Participants and non-participants of place-based groups: an assessment of attitudes and implications for public participation in water resource management

Policy-makers and public participation analysts face the question of who should be involved in environmental decision-making. Participants are often representatives of organized groups who share similar demographic and other characteristics. This raises concerns about the degree to which the interests and opinions of others are represented. The research presented here investigates the nature and degree of differences in environmental attitudes, specifically those toward water resource management efforts, among people who do and do not participate in place-based groups in metropolitan Portland, Oregon. Neighborhood associations and a watershed council were the focus of this research due to their involvement in land-use planning and resource activities. Thirty-four individual attitudinal judgments were evaluated, along with four indices representing attitudes toward resource protection goals, government, regulations, and economic measures. Survey findings revealed watershed council participants were more supportive of resource protection compared to others on all attitudinal dimensions except anthropocentric goals. In contrast, neighborhood association participants are relatively representative of non-participants except for heightened support for economic strategies. Participants in both groups exhibited higher socioeconomic status than non-participants. Written survey comments highlighted the perceived value of on-the-ground projects incorporating local input and feedback while interviews provided insights on how to expand participation in place-based groups and resource protection efforts.     

Impediments and Solutions to Sustainable,Watershed-Scale Urban Stormwater Management: Lessons from Australia and the United States

In urban and suburban areas, stormwater runoff is a primary stressor on surface waters. Conventional urban stormwater drainage systems often route runoff directly to streams and rivers, thus exacerbating pollutant inputs and hydrologic disturbance, and resulting in the degradation of ecosystem structure and function. Decentralized stormwater management tools, such as low impact development (LID) or water sensitive urban design (WSUD), may offer a more sustainable solution to stormwater management if implemented at a watershed scale. These tools are designed to pond, infiltrate, and harvest water at the source, encouraging evaporation, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, and re-use of stormwater. While there are numerous demonstrations of WSUD practices, there are few examples of widespread implementation at a watershed scale with the explicit objective of protecting or restoring a receiving stream. This article identifies seven major impediments to sustainable urban stormwater management: (1) uncertainties in performance and cost, (2) insufficient engineering standards and guidelines, (3) fragmented responsibilities, (4) lack of institutional capacity, (5) lack of legislative mandate, (6) lack of funding and effective market incentives, and (7) resistance to change. By comparing experiences from Australia and the United States, two developed countries with existing conventional stormwater infrastructure and escalating stream ecosystem degradation, we highlight challenges facing sustainable urban stormwater management and offer several examples of successful, regional WSUD implementation. We conclude by identifying solutions to each of the seven impediments that, when employed separately or in combination, should encourage widespread implementation of WSUD with watershed-based goals to protect human health and safety, and stream ecosystems.     

基于风险分析的流域优先有机污染物筛查:研究与应用

应用高通量分析方法对大清河流域47个沉积物中的潜在风险有机污染物进行了分析,共筛查到104种有毒有机污染物。应用基于风险分析的筛查体系对检出率高于10%的54种污染物进行了概率风险评估,筛查出11种具有潜在风险的流域优先有机污染物,包括农药(特草克、氨磺磷、枯莠隆)、工业用品及副产物(二苯胺、9,10-蒽醌、萘、2-甲基萘)及家庭及个人护理品(咖啡因、苯乙酮、苯甲酮、联苯)等。结果表明,基于风险分析的流域污染物筛查方法体系可成功地对流域内优先污染物进行识别与筛查,为流域管理提供科学依据。     

Deteriorated watersheds can be restored: A case study

A project in west-central Colorado demonstrated that a watershed dissected by a dense gully network can be stabilized and rehabilitated. Check dam systems, aided by improved vegetative cover through reduced cattle grazing and plantings, stabilized not only the structurally treated gullies, but also gullies within the network that were not structurally treated. Comparison with untreated gullies located outside of the project area, showed that the outside gullies widened three times as much as the structurally untreated inside gullies. Statistical analysis indicated that precipitation was normal during the treatment and evaluation period.Check dams decreased gully depth by accumulating sediment deposits. In turn, gully bank stabilization was hastened and alluvial aquifer volumes increased. This increase, plus higher infiltration rates as a result of denser vegetation, led to renewed perennial streamflow after 7 treatment years.Within 11 years after treatment, check dam systems and improved vegetation reduced sediment loads in the flows by more than 90 percent, providing a substantial benefit to farmlands and ponds downstream.From this work we are able to conclude that only part of a gully network requires structural treatment. The mainstem gully, and those tributaries controlling the local base levels of others, are the critical segments that should be structurally treated.     

The application of artificial neural networks to flow and phosphorus dynamics in small streams on the Boreal Plain,with emphasis on the role of wetlands

Historically, management strategies in Canada's boreal forest have focused on forest polygons and terrestrial biodiversity to address ecological considerations in forest management. The Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) project examines the problem from a watershed perspective rather than a forest polygon viewpoint. The main objective of this study was to devise an artificial neural network (ANN) modeling tool that can predict flow and total phosphorus (TP) concentration for ungauged watersheds (where daily flow is not monitored). This dictates that all inputs should be easily accessed via a public domain database, like the Environment Canada weather database, without the need to install flow gauges in each modeled watershed. Daily flow and TP concentration for two of the project watersheds were modeled using ANNs. The two watersheds (1A Creek, 5.1 km² and Willow Creek, 15.6 km²) were chosen to reflect variations in wetland area and composition in the study area. Flow was modeled with a feed-forward multilayer perceptron ANN trained with the error back-propagation algorithm. Simulated values for flow were then used, as inputs, to model TP concentration using the same neural networks algorithm. One hidden layer with three slabs; each operating with a different activation function was utilized to simulate the conceptual differences between base flow, snowmelt, and storm events. Time domain analysis was conducted to identify possible model time-lagged inputs reflecting the time dependency of the modeled variables. Spectral analysis was used to address data hystereses. Our results highlight the capabilities of ANN in modeling complex ecosystems and highly correlated variables. Results also indicated that more research towards the phosphorus dynamics in wetlands is required to better represent the impact of wetland area and composition on the water-phase phosphorus in ANN modeling.     

Impacts of land use conversion on bankfull discharge and mass wasting

Mass wasting and channel incision are widespread in the Nemadji River watershed of eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. While much of this is a natural response to glacial rebound, sediment coring and tree ring data suggest that land use has also influenced these erosional processes. We characterized land use, inventoried mass wasting, surveyed stream channels and collected discharge data along segments of five streams in the Nemadji River watershed. Due to natural relief in this region, wetlands and agricultural lands are concentrated in the flatter terrain of the uplands of the Nemadji watershed, while forestland (coniferous or deciduous) is concentrated in the deeply incised (50-200% slope) stream valleys. Bankfull discharge was higher where forests had been converted from coniferous to deciduous forests and where there were fewer wetlands. Mass wasting increased exponentially with bankfull flows. While mass wasting was not correlated with forest type conversion and agricultural land use, it was negatively dependent upon wetland extent in headwater areas. Interactions between the spatial distribution of land use and terrain obfuscate any clear cause-and-effect relationships between land use, hydrology and fluvial processes.     

Irrigation and collective action: A study in method with reference to the Shiwalik Hills, Haryana

In recent years decentralized development approaches have gained prominence in the agricultural sector. A host of community based watershed management projects have been implemented that encourage community organizations to undertake management of previously government controlled irrigation systems and forests. Community organizations have been given the responsibility of managing water distribution, collection of irrigation service fees and undertaking routine maintenance of irrigation infrastructure. In this context, analysis of irrigation management has concluded that groups that are relatively homogeneous may fare better than heterogeneous groups in facilitating collective action. However, this article argues that analysis of the influence of group heterogeneity on collective action is complicated because of its multi‐dimensional nature and the presence of non‐monotonic effects in mechanisms linking heterogeneity and collective outcomes. The article discusses the importance of context specification in analysis of group heterogeneity through a discussion of elements of a joint management contract in Haryana (India), identification of key variables with a potential to explain collective action in irrigation management and construction of household endowment and water interest scores to account for the influence of group heterogeneity in facilitating collective action. In the process of applying household endowment and water interest scores, the authors highlight the role of local ecological variation and non‐farm employment in influencing collective action. Proper specification of local context enables the researchers to rely on household endowment and water interest scores to predict conflicts and potential for irrigation service provision and compliance with irrigation service rules.     

基于系统水平的湖泊流域生态风险评估

为实现流域范围内的生态环境管理和生态风险控制,在生态风险评估框架基础上,基于相对风险模型构建了系统水平的湖泊流域生态风险评估模型. 模型分析了社会经济系统与生态系统的耦合方式,将生态系统整体作为风险受体、生态系统服务作为评估终点,通过风险组分及其关系的分析量化实现了区域相对生态风险水平的表征,并以太湖流域上游区域为例进行了试算. 结果表明:研究区内无锡-江阴区域(沿江水系)生态风险最高,溧阳-宜兴、常州-金坛、湖州-德清和长兴-安吉区域风险值分别为无锡-江阴区域的73.2%、78.8%、74.4%和59.9%;长兴-安吉区域(西苕溪水系)生态风险最低. 不同区域风险主要来源不同,湖州-德清区域主要受水利设施影响,长兴-安吉区域各风险源贡献率较为均衡,其他区域主要风险源为工业、种植业和水产养殖业,其风险贡献率分别为13%~18%、12%~19%和8%~15%;研究区域内,水产品、水质净化等生态系统服务的产出受到较大影响.      

环境因素对密云水库上游流域土壤有机碳和全氮含量影响的通径分析

土壤是全球重要的碳库和氮库,在全球碳氮循环中具有重要地位。密云水库是华北地区最大的水库和北京市最重要的地表水水源地,其上游流域山地广布,地形复杂,气候变化明显,土壤类型和植被类型多样,影响土壤碳氮库的环境因素具有较强的变异性。为揭示环境因素对密云水库上游流域土壤有机碳（soil organic carbon,SOC）和全氮（total nitrogen,TN）含量的作用效应,采用野外采样、实验室分析与逐步回归分析和通径分析相结合的方法,研究了气候（温度和降水）、地形（海拔和坡度）、土壤理化性质（土壤容重、含水量、pH值和粘粒含量）等环境因素对流域SOC和TN含量的影响。结果表明：温度、土壤容重、含水量、pH值和粘粒含量对SOC含量的影响显著（P＆lt;0.001）,其中各因子的直接通径系数依次为：土壤含水量（0.439）＞土壤容重（-0.324）＞pH值（-0.238）＞温度（-0.209）＞土壤粘粒含量（0.092）,间接通径系数依次为：土壤容重（-0.425）＞土壤粘粒含量（0.305）＞土壤含水量（0.287）＞pH值（-0.179）＞温度（-0.043）,因此,土壤含水量、pH值和温度主要通过直接作用影响SOC含量,而土壤容重和粘粒含量则主要通过其它因子的作用间接影响SOC含量。海拔、土壤容重、含水量、pH 值和粘粒含量对 TN 含量的影响显著（P＆lt;0.001）,其中各因子的直接通径系数依次为：土壤含水量（0.456）＞海拔（0.234）＞土壤容重（-0.228）＞pH 值（-0.190）＞土壤粘粒含量（0.094）,间接通径系数依次为：土壤容重（-0.484）＞土壤粘粒含量（0.301）＞海拔（0.247）＞土壤含水量（0.257）＞pH 值（-0.202）,因此,土壤含水量主要通过直接作用影响TN含量,而土壤容重和粘粒含量主要通过土壤含水量的作用间接影响TN含量,海拔和土壤pH值的直接作用与间接作用     

泾河流域枯水复杂性研究

枯水复杂性作为枯水的重要特征,在枯水研究中具有重要的意义。论文以泾河流域张家山水文站1933—2010年的月径流序列为研究对象,基于距平法和均值标准差法对比确定月枯水序列,基于近似熵（ApEn）分析枯水的复杂性。结果表明：1）年径流在0.01水平下呈现极显著的递减趋势,流域1997年以来发生枯水的频率越来越大。张家山水文站月枯水量上界为 9 369.67×10⁴ m³,1、2和12月径流量小于月枯水量上界的月份比例远大于其他月份的比例,故以这3个月的月枯水组成枯水序列;2）枯水序列的ApEn值为1.059 1,与同期整个月径流序列的ApEn值（1.059 7）接近,说明发生于1、2和12月的15个非枯水月份径流对枯水序列的复杂度影响不大;3）月枯水复杂度在0.05水平下呈现显著的波动递增趋势,与月枯水径流呈显著的负相关关系,但与月降水量不显著相关,表明降水不是枯水径流系统的主要输入,降水量的变化对枯水复杂度的变化不起关键作用,而径流惯性可能是引起枯水复杂度变化的重要因素。