Is Urban Stream Restoration Worth It?1

Kenney, Melissa A., Peter R. Wilcock, Benjamin F. Hobbs, Nicholas E. Flores, and Daniela C. Martínez, 2012. Is Urban Stream Restoration Worth It? Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(3): 603-615. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00635.x Abstract: Public investment in urban stream restoration is growing, yet little has been done to quantify whether its benefits outweigh its cost. The most common drivers of urban stream projects are water quality improvement and infrastructure protection, although recreational and aesthetic benefits are often important community goals. We use standard economic methods to show that these contributions of restoration can be quantified and compared to costs. The approach is demonstrated with a case study in Baltimore, Maryland, a city with a legal mandate to reduce its pollutant load. Typical urban stream restoration costs of US$500-1,200 per foot are larger than the cost of the least expensive alternatives for management of nitrogen loads from stormwater (here, detention ponds, equivalent to $30-120 per foot of restored stream) and for protecting infrastructure (rip-rap armoring of streambanks, at $0-120 per foot). However, the higher costs of stream restoration can in some cases be justified by its aesthetic and recreational benefits, valued using a contingent valuation survey at $560-1,100 per foot. We do not intend to provide a definitive answer regarding the worth of stream restoration, but demonstrate that questions of worth can be asked and answered. Broader application of economic analysis would provide a defensible basis for understanding restoration benefits and for making restoration decisions.     

Socio-Economic Stakes and Perceptions of Wetland Management in an Arid Region: A Case Study from Chott Merouane, Algeria

The objective of our study was to identify how actors from the main socio-economic sectors perceive their interactions and impacts on a sensitive wetland in an arid climate, specifically the salt pans of Chott Merouane in Algeria. The results revealed that there are three main economic stakes including agriculture, livestock production and salt mining, each activity providing a great benefit for local and national populations. The local population perceived that the current activities are conducted in such a way that they created conflict between socio-economic sectors and caused a threat for long term sustainability of the wetlands. The results highlighted the need to initiate an integrated management approach between the different sectors and to develop a shared vision for the territory.     

生物柴油促进原油污染砂粒释放油

对4种生物柴油促进原油污染砂粒释放油的效果进行了研究,并探讨了菜籽生物柴油投加量和砂粒粒径对促进效果的影响。结果表明,菜籽生物柴油的促进效果最好,8 h释放量达到73%,废油脂生物柴油的效果最差,仅为52%;生物柴油的促进效果随着投加量的增大而升高,当投加量超过海水体积的5%时促进效果不再明显增加;在生物柴油作用下,小粒径砂粒上原油的释放效果优于大粒径砂粒。     

我国滨海地区入境旅游流空间结构研究

以我国滨海11个省（市）1995--2011年17年间入境旅游资料为基础,从旅游流流量、旅游流客源地空间结构和旅游流目的地空间结构方面研究入境旅游流空间结构。结果显示,滨海省（市）入境旅游流流量一直呈现持续增长态势;滨海省（市）入境旅游外国客源市场的地理集中指数处于31—34．5之间,总体趋势减小;入境游客密度指数说明滨海地区入境旅游流目的地呈现明显的非均衡态势,整体上是从中心向两翼递减的空间格局。     

Evolution of a Mediterranean Coastal Zone: Human Impacts on the Marine Environment of Cape Creus

This study presents an integrated analysis of the evolution of the marine environment and the human uses in Cape Creus, a Mediterranean coastal area where intense commercial fisheries and recreational uses have coexisted over the last fifty years. The investigation synthesizes the documented impacts of human activities on the marine environment of Cap de Creus and integrates them with new data. In particular, the evolution of vulnerable, exploited species is used to evaluate the fishing impacts. The effects of area protection through the establishment of a marine reserve in the late 1990s and the potential climate change impacts are also considered. The evolution of the human uses is marked by the increasing socioeconomic importance of recreational activities (which affect species and habitats) in detriment to artisanal and red coral fisheries (which principally affect at a species level). Overall, populations of sedentary, vulnerable exploited species, hard sessile benthic invertebrates, and ecologically fragile habitats, such as seagrass meadows, the coralligenous and infralittoral algal assemblages have been the most negatively impacted by anthropogenic activities. Albeit human uses currently constitute the largest negative impact on the marine environment of Cap de Creus, climate change is emerging as a key factor that could have considerable implications for the marine environment and tourism activities. The establishment of the marine reserve appears to have had little socioeconomic impact, but there is some evidence that it had some positive biological effects on sedentary, littoral fishes. Results demonstrate that the declaration of a marine reserve alone does not guarantee the sustainability of marine resources and habitats but should be accompanied with an integrated coastal management plan.     

Evaluating Local Benefits from Conservation in Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area

Protected areas are integral to the global effort to conserve biodiversity, and, over the past two decades, protected area managers have begun to recognize that conservation objectives are next to impossible to achieve without considering the needs and concerns of local communities. Incentive-based programs (IBPs) have become a favored approach to protected area management, geared at fostering local stewardship by delivering benefits tied to conservation to local people. Effective IBPs require benefits to accrue to and be recognized by those experiencing the greatest consequences as a result of the protected area, and those likely to continue extractive activities if their livelihood needs are compromised. This research examines dispersal of IBP benefits, as perceived by local residents in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area. Results reported here are based on questionnaire interviews with 188 households conducted between September and December 2004. Results indicate that local residents primarily identify benefits from social development activities, provisions for resource extraction, and economic opportunities. Overall, benefits have been dispersed equally to households in villages on and off the main tourist route, and regardless of a household's participation in tourism. However, benefits are not effectively targeted to poorer residents, those highly dependent on natural resources, and those experiencing the most crop damage and livestock loss from protected wildlife. This article provides several suggestions for improving the delivery of conservation incentives.     

Integrated coastal management: top-down vs. community-based approaches

In this paper, a dynamic model is developed in which coastal quality can be improved, restored, or maintained by two distinct user groups; this is done by identifying a context that ensures an increase (or a greater increase) in coastal quality in terms of specific features that characterise the user groups. The results demonstrate that integrated coastal management is always better than non-integrated management. Moreover, when there is a low degree of interest in maintaining the coastal use over time, only integrated community-based (CB) coastal management will increase the coastal quality. Even when the interest in maintaining the coastal use over time is high, an integrated CB approach is preferred if the willingness to pay for coastal improvements is great and the marginal inefficiency of investments in coastal improvements is low, because the coastal quality improves to a greater extent; if not, only an integrated top-down (TD) approach to coastal management will increase the coastal quality. These results suggest that developing countries should always adopt a CB approach; in contrast, developed countries should adopt a CB approach where local stakeholders attach direct values to the coastal quality, and adopt a TD approach where the general population attaches indirect (option or existence) values to coastal quality.     

Factors Affecting Sediment Oxygen Demand Dynamics in Blackwater Streams of Georgia’s Coastal Plain1

Abstract: Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) is believed to be an important process affecting dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in blackwater streams of the southeastern coastal plain. Because very few data on SOD are available, it is common for modelers to take SOD values from the literature for use with DO models. In this study, SOD was measured in seven blackwater streams of the Suwannee River Basin within the Georgia coastal plain for between August 2004 and April 2005. SOD was measured using four in situ chambers and was found to vary on average between 0.1 and 2.3 g O₂/m/day across the seven study sites throughout the study period. SOD was found to vary significantly between the watersheds within the Suwannee River Basin. However, land use was not found to be the driving force behind SOD values. Statistical analyses did find significant interaction between land use and watersheds suggesting that an intrinsically different factor in each of the watersheds may be affecting SOD and the low DO concentrations. Further research is needed to identify the factors driving SOD dynamics in the blackwater streams of Georgia’s coastal plain. Results from this study will be used by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – Environmental Protection Division as model input data for the development and evaluation of DO total maximum daily loads in the Georgia coastal plain.     

Streambank Soil and Phosphorus Losses Under Different Riparian Land‐Uses in Iowa1

Abstract: Phosphorus and sediment are major nonpoint source pollutants that degrade water quality. Streambank erosion can contribute a significant percentage of the phosphorus and sediment load in streams. Riparian land‐uses can heavily influence streambank erosion. The objective of this study was to compare streambank erosion along reaches of row‐cropped fields, continuous, rotational and intensive rotational grazed pastures, pastures where cattle were fenced out of the stream, grass filters and riparian forest buffers, in three physiographic regions of Iowa. Streambank erosion was measured by surveying the extent of severely eroding banks within each riparian land‐use reach and randomly establishing pin plots on subsets of those eroding banks. Based on these measurements, streambank erosion rate, erosion activity, maximum pin plot erosion rate, percentage of streambank length with severely eroding banks, and soil and phosphorus losses per unit length of stream reach were compared among the riparian land‐uses. Riparian forest buffers had the lowest streambank erosion rate (15‐46 mm/year) and contributed the least soil (5‐18 tonne/km/year) and phosphorus (2‐6 kg/km/year) to stream channels. Riparian forest buffers were followed by grass filters (erosion rates 41‐106 mm/year, soil losses 22‐47 tonne/km/year, phosphorus losses 9‐14 kg/km/year) and pastures where cattle were fenced out of the stream (erosion rates 22‐58 mm/year, soil losses 6‐61 tonne/km/year, phosphorus losses 3‐34 kg/km/year). The streambank erosion rates for the continuous, rotational, and intensive rotational pastures were 101‐171, 104‐122, and 94‐170 mm/year, respectively. The soil losses for the continuous, rotational, and intensive rotational pastures were 197‐264, 94‐266, and 124‐153 tonne/km/year, respectively, while the phosphorus losses were 71‐123, 37‐122, and 66 kg/km/year, respectively. The only significant differences for these pasture practices were found among the percentage of severely eroding bank lengths with intensive rotational grazed pastures having the least compared to the continuous and rotational grazed pastures. Row‐cropped fields had the highest streambank erosion rates (239 mm/year) and soil losses (304 tonne/km/year) and very high phosphorus losses (108 kg/km/year).     

沿海高速公路风险评价体系构建

沿海高速公路建设面临地质条件复杂,气象灾害多样、工程类型多等困难,针对其风险评估工作多而繁杂的实际情况,以浙江沿海疏港高速公路为工程背景,选择道路工程、桥梁工程和隧道工程为研究对象,在其中筛选提炼出软土路基区、人工海岸区、跨海湾特大桥、水底隧道等作为评价对象,分析了在沿线地质条件及气象条件下,不同评价对象在施工期和运营期可能面临的各种风险因素,选择其中的主要风险因素,构成多级评估对象,搭建了沿海高速公路风险评价的体系,并且说明了所采用的评估方法和评估流程,并介绍了所采用的风险概率和风险后果等级标准。构建沿海高速公路风险评价体系能为我国的类似工程提供了借鉴。