Protecting people and property: the influence of land-use planners on flood hazard mitigation in New Urbanist developments

Research suggests that characteristics of local government land-use planners help determine the priority that local communities place on flood hazard mitigation. However, research has not examined the significance of land-use planners' values and role orientations for flood hazard mitigation. Multiple regression analysis is used to examine the influence that land-use planners' values and role orientations have on flood hazard mitigation in a national sample of New Urbanist development projects. Findings indicate that land-use planners' values and role orientations have significant implications for flood hazard mitigation in these projects. The paper recommends that local governments adopt a land-use planning approach to flood hazard mitigation that relies on land-use planners to help direct development away from hazardous portions of development sites.     

Supporting Diverse Data Providers in the Open Water Data Initiative: Communicating Water Data Quality and Fitness of Use

Shared, trusted, timely data are essential elements for the cooperation needed to optimize economic, ecologic, and public safety concerns related to water. The Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) will provide a fully scalable platform that can support a wide variety of data from many diverse providers. Many of these will be larger, well‐established, and trusted agencies with a history of providing well‐documented, standardized, and archive‐ready products. However, some potential partners may be smaller, distributed, and relatively unknown or untested as data providers. The data these partners will provide are valuable and can be used to fill in many data gaps, but can also be variable in quality or supplied in nonstandardized formats. They may also reflect the smaller partners' variable budgets and missions, be intermittent, or of unknown provenance. A challenge for the OWDI will be to convey the quality and the contextual “fitness” of data from providers other than the most trusted brands. This article reviews past and current methods for documenting data quality. Three case studies are provided that describe processes and pathways for effective data‐sharing and publication initiatives. They also illustrate how partners may work together to find a metadata reporting threshold that encourages participation while maintaining high data integrity. And lastly, potential governance is proposed that may assist smaller partners with short‐ and long‐term participation in the OWDI.     

Paying for International Environmental Public Goods

Supply of international environmental public goods must meet certain conditions to be socially efficient, and several reasons explain why they are currently undersupplied. Diagnosis of the public goods failure associated with particular ecosystem services is critical to the development of the appropriate international response. There are two categories of international environmental public goods that are most likely to be undersupplied. One has an additive supply technology and the other has a weakest link supply technology. The degree to which the collective response should be targeted depends on the importance of supply from any one country. In principle, the solution for the undersupply lies in payments designed to compensate local providers for the additional costs they incur in meeting global demand. Targeted support may take the form of direct investment in supply (the Global Environment Facility model) or of payments for the benefits of supply (the Payments for Ecosystem Services model).     

Evaluation of give kids a boost: A school-based program to increase booster seat use among urban children in economically disadvantaged areas

Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of a series of 1-year multifaceted school-based programs aimed at increasing booster seat use among urban children 4–7 years of age in economically disadvantaged areas.

Methods: During 4 consecutive school years, 2011–2015, the Give Kids a Boost (GKB) program was implemented in a total of 8 schools with similar demographics in Dallas County. Observational surveys were conducted at project schools before project implementation (P₀), 1–4 weeks after the completion of project implementation (P₁), and 4–5 months later (P₂). Changes in booster seat use for the 3 time periods were compared for the 8 project and 14 comparison schools that received no intervention using a nonrandomized trial process.

The intervention included (1) train-the-trainer sessions with teachers and parents; (2) presentations about booster seat safety; (3) tailored communication to parents; (4) distribution of fact sheets/resources; (5) walk-around education; and (6) booster seat inspections.

The association between the GKB intervention and proper booster seat use was determined initially using univariate analysis. The association was also estimated using a generalized linear mixed model predicting a binomial outcome (booster seat use) for those aged 4 to 7 years, adjusted for child-level variables (age, sex, race/ethnicity) and car-level variables (vehicle type). The model incorporated the effects of clustering by site and by collection date to account for the possibility of repeated sampling.

Results: In the 8 project schools, booster seat use for children 4–7 years of age increased an average of 20.9 percentage points between P₀ and P₁ (P₀ = 4.8%, P₁ = 25.7%; odds ratio [OR] = 6.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.5, 8.7; P < .001) and remained at that level in the P₂ time period (P₂ = 25.7%; P < .001, for P₀ vs. P₂) in the univariate analysis. The 14 comparison schools had minimal change in booster seat use. The multivariable model showed that children at the project schools were significantly more likely to be properly restrained in a booster seat after the intervention (OR = 2.7; 95% CI, 2.2, 3.3) compared to the P₀ time period and compared to the comparison schools.

Conclusion: Despite study limitations, the GKB program was positively associated with an increase in proper booster seat use for children 4–7 years of age in school settings among diverse populations in economically disadvantaged areas. These increases persisted into the following school year in a majority of the project schools. The GKB model may be a replicable strategy to increase booster seat use among school-age children in similar urban settings.     

基于微信公众平台的空气质量显示系统的设计与实现研究

空气质量的好坏直接影响着人类的出行和健康,创建便于查询的空气质量显示系统,可以使人们简单直观的了解当日的空气质量指数(AQI).随着互联网的迅猛发展,"微信"逐渐成了人们日常通信的重要工具.本系统利用物联网技术与微信公众平台相结合,提出了空气质量显示系统的设计与实现方案,来建设空气质量显示系统.该系统可从各个区内监测点得到空气质量指数数据,进而将每日各个时段的空气质量指数(AQI)以动态图的方式直观清晰的展示给用户,为人们的出行带来了方便.     

关于我国发展循环经济的思考

循环经济在我国还处于研究探索的阶段,其理论基础和实践途径有待进一步发展。发展循环经济,建设资源节约型社会,需要积极发挥政府的主导作用,努力实现企业行为的转变,大力倡导社会公众的积极参与,以及尽快建设绿色技术支撑体系。但是,我国的现实情况是,政府在循环经济发展中主导作用不强;企业生态化转型滞后;公众对发展循环经济的意识淡薄。     

环境保护公众参与制度回顾、评估和建议

文章总结了国际上公众参与环境保护的发展与趋势,分析了中国公众参与环境保护现状、存在问题及原因,并借鉴国际经验,明确中国公众参与的具体方式和主要内容,提出了进一步推进中国公众参与环境保护的政策建议。     

白洋淀流域水资源管理中的公众参与分析及评价

有效的公众参与是提高流域水资源管理效率和流域综合管理成功的关键因素. 选取白洋淀流域的典型城市模块(保定市)、乡村模块(涞水县)及水敏感区(安新县)进行研究,综合采用问卷调查、利益群体访谈和专家咨询等方法,对政府管理人员、流域居民的环境意识及水资源管理参与现状进行了分析评价,比较与评估了政府及相关利益群体的环境知识、环境满意度、信息流通渠道、参与意愿、实际参与度、政府行为及其公众认知度和接受度. 结果表明:公众参与水资源管理的现状是水敏感区的参与效果好于城镇模块,且城镇模块好于乡村模块;公众获取环境知识与环境信息的途径主要以亲身感受与媒体宣传的被动接受形式为主;参与途径不畅通,实际参与度低于有参与意愿的比例,参与意愿不确定性高;公众对于政府行为的认知度为41.3%,接受度仅为19%;管理者对于公众参与在水资源管理中作用的认识仍有待提高,参与活动以宣传教育为主,缺乏整体考虑及上下游沟通与设计,缺乏全过程参与,居民尚未形成共同认可的流域价值观. 建议加强全过程参与、环保民间团体的作用以及学校环境教育.      

环境影响评价中公众参与影响因素及方式分析研究

针对环境影响评价中公众参与影响因素及方式分析问题,介绍了环境影响评价中公众参与的特征,包括公开性、双向性和参与性,对公众参与的影响因素进行了分析,主要分析了利害关系人、法律制度、公共政策、市场经济发展水平和社会信息化程度,探讨了公众参与有效性要素的措施,主要有公众人员的选择、公众赋予的权力、参与时间的选择、解决矛盾能力和公众参与形式,在环境影响评价中进行公众参与不仅是环境影响评价本身的需要,同时也是中国民主制度的体现。     

发挥城市基层组织作用,有效进行公众参与工作

根据作者从事环境评价工作的经验,结合北京市的城市建设项目的案例,说明在公众参与工作中结合中国城市基层组织特点,发挥基层组织作用,能够有效使公众参与环境保护、体现公众环境知情权、制止群体事件的发生,进一步做好公众参与工作。