FARM-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF DEEP PERCOLATION EMISSIONS IN IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE1

ABSTRACT: Source control costs for deep percolation emissions from irrigated agriculture are analyzed using a farm-level model. Crop area, irrigation system and applied water are chosen to maximize the net benefits of agricultural production while accounting for the environmental damages and disposal costs of those emissions. Deep percolation is progressively reduced as environmental and disposal costs are increased. This occurs primarily through the adoption of more efficient irrigation technology and reductions in applied water for a given technology Higher surface water prices, such as through irrigation reform and constrained surface supplies, are additionally considered in light of the drainage problem, as are the effects, both short- and long-term, on ground water use.     

APPLICATION OF CROP YIELD FUNCTIONS IN RESERVOIR OPERATION1

ABSTRACT: A model is developed for real-time operation of an irrigation reservoir with the objective of maximizing the value of multiple crop yields during a growing season. The model employs monthly additive and product forms of crop yield functions for dry matter and grain crops, respectively. The resulting nonlinear optimization model uses a log transform to reduce nonlinearities in the model. An application of the proposed model is compared to a common operating rule used in simulation models. The proposed model results were better in terms of net benefits from crop yields. The model uses GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) language. It requires an IBM-compatible microcomputer and is suitable for use by a reservoir manager.     

Constructed Wetland Treatment of Nitrates: Removal Effectiveness and Cost Efficiency

A constructed wetland (CW) was strategically placed to treat nitrates in groundwater as part of a watershed‐based farmer engagement process. Using stream water quality data collected before and after installation, this CW was found to reduce stream concentrations of nitrogen from nitrate (NO₃‐N) during the growing season by about 0.14 mg/l at mean streamflow, a 17% reduction. Based upon realistic ecological and economic assumptions, about 80 kg of NO₃‐N were removed annually by the CW at a cost of around US$30/kg. This per unit cost is at the low range of small wastewater treatment plant costs for nitrates, but higher than the costs of reduced fertilizer application.     

Relative Value of Water for Hydropower and Municipal Supply in Southeastern Reservoirs

Population growth in the Southeast has driven withdrawals for municipal water beyond the limits of local supplies. With few options left for development of virgin sources, a number of urban areas are looking toward demand management and additional supplies by reallocating storage in reservoirs that were built primarily or in part for hydropower. Hydropower has become a lesser part of the mix of energy sources, and the question arises as to value of water for that purpose relative to its value for municipal use. Three cases are used to examine the issue. Effects of withdrawal for municipal water supply on output of electric energy are estimated. Benefits of foregone energy are evaluated using the least cost alternative for replacement, and benefits for municipal water are estimated using costs for development of new sources. Benefits for use as municipal water are found to be considerably higher than benefits for hydroelectric energy at existing prices, even higher than the least cost alternative for replacement. Given the spatial distribution of the cases, that finding would appear to hold in general across the region.     

旅行费用法在旅游资源价值评估中的若干问题述评

旅行费用法(TCM)是一种基于观测资料评估旅游资源价值的显示偏好法。论文在文献梳理的基础上,对TCM研究过程中的偏差进行了述评,并指出了可能的解决方案;然后,讨论了TCM的有效性、适用性以及合法性,并提出进一步研究的重点和方向。文献综述表明:常见的TCM模型可以分为ZTCM、TCIA、GTCM、ITCM、HTCM和RUM六种类型,在研究中应根据实际情况选择合适的模型;旅行费用测度中的内生分层、抽样误差、时间的机会成本计算、多目的地之间的费用分成等问题,需求函数估算中的多重共线性、内生性、函数形式的选择等问题,均会导致评估结果出现偏差;TCM在发展中国家的有效性、适用性和合法性遭到了质疑,但仍不失为一种评估旅游资源价值的有效手段;今后的研究要加强TCM中的偏差分析及有效性检验,并着力于模型的修正和改进,加强TCM与CVM的结合,提高研究方法的有效性。     

Obscuring Ecosystem Function with Application of the Ecosystem Services Concept

Abstract: Conservationists commonly have framed ecological concerns in economic terms to garner political support for conservation and to increase public interest in preserving global biodiversity. Beginning in the early 1980s, conservation biologists adapted neoliberal economics to reframe ecosystem functions and related biodiversity as ecosystem services to humanity. Despite the economic success of programs such as the Catskill/Delaware watershed management plan in the United States and the creation of global carbon exchanges, today's marketplace often fails to adequately protect biodiversity. We used a Marxist critique to explain one reason for this failure and to suggest a possible, if partial, response. Reframing ecosystem functions as economic services does not address the political problem of commodification. Just as it obscures the labor of human workers, commodification obscures the importance of the biota (ecosystem workers) and related abiotic factors that contribute to ecosystem functions. This erasure of work done by ecosystems impedes public understanding of biodiversity. Odum and Odum's radical suggestion to use the language of ecosystems (i.e., emergy or energy memory) to describe economies, rather than using the language of economics (i.e., services) to describe ecosystems, reverses this erasure of the ecosystem worker. Considering the current dominance of economic forces, however, implementing such solutions would require social changes similar in magnitude to those that occurred during the 1960s. Niklas Luhmann argues that such substantive, yet rapid, social change requires synergy among multiple societal function systems (i.e., economy, education, law, politics, religion, science), rather than reliance on a single social sphere, such as the economy. Explicitly presenting ecosystem services as discreet and incomplete aspects of ecosystem functions not only allows potential economic and environmental benefits associated with ecosystem services, but also enables the social and political changes required to ensure valuation of ecosystem functions and related biodiversity in ways beyond their measurement on an economic scale.     

唐山市大气环境治理措施的效果及分析

为揭示河北省唐山市大气环境治理的措施效果,分析了“十一五”期间唐山市的减排措施、污染物排放量和空气污染物浓度的变化. 结果表明:“十一五”期间(2005—2010年),烟尘、工业粉尘、SO₂排放量分别减少35%、57%、20%,ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)年均值分别下降12%、33%、33%. 与GB 3095—2012《环境空气质量标准》相比,2005年ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)分别超标36%、42%、7%,而到2010年ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)已达标,但ρ(PM₁₀)仍然超标20%. 2008年北京奥运会期间的减排措施使得唐山市ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)年均值均显著下降,分别比2007年下降13%、20%、28%. 2008—2009年的全球经济危机使得2009年地方生产总值增速较其他年均值降低13%,2009年烟尘和SO₂排放量也呈显著下降趋势,二者比2008年分别下降14%和10%,但工业粉尘排放量反而增加8%. 经济危机使ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)下降速率分别提升了20%、2%、2%. 研究结果表明,“十一五”总量减排、2008年北京奥运会期间的治理措施和全球经济危机对唐山市的空气质量产生了明显的影响.      

Re-evaluating the role of energy efficiency standards: A behavioral economics approach

The economic models that prescribe Pigovian taxation as the first-best means of reducing energy-related externalities are typically based on the neoclassical model of rational consumer choice. Yet, consumer behavior in markets for energy-using durables is generally thought to be far from efficient, giving rise to the concept of the “energy-efficiency gap.” This paper presents a welfare analysis of energy policies that is based on a behavioral model of temptation and self-control, introduced by Gul and Pesendorfer 23 and 24. We find that, in the presence of temptation, (i) Pigovian taxes alone do not yield a first-best outcome, (ii) when viewed as substitutes, energy efficiency standards can dominate Pigovian taxes, and (iii) a policy combining standards with a Pigovian tax can yield higher social welfare than a Pigovian tax alone, implying that the two instruments should be viewed as complements rather than substitutes.     

Economic aspects of natural resource exploitation

Low entropy accumulations of matter and energy are more economic for humans to exploit as natural resources. This accumulation of a resource takes place over time and the most concentrated resources, such as fossil fuels, are created over geological ages. As the most concentrated resources become depleted it may be possible for technology to enable the exploitation of less concentrated resources, such as low-grade metal ores or thinly populated fishing grounds. Analysis of the timescales necessary to create different types of natural resource reveals three distinct groups. Further consideration of economic characteristics of resources, including ownership and access, and rate of consumption relative to rate of supply confirms the grouping of resources into the three distinct groups. Rate of change of entropy as a resource is exploited is an indicator of its impact on the environment. Consideration of this again suggests three distinct groups of resources, and this paper identifies them as: continuous natural resources (CNR), such as solar power and wind power; potentially renewable resources (PRR), such as fish and forests; and non-renewable resources (NRR), such as fossil fuels and metals.     

Challenges for a sustainable resource use: Uncertainty,trade, and climate policies

We integrate new challenges to thinking about resource markets and sustainable resource use policies in a general framework. The challenges, emerging from six papers that JEEM publishes in a special issue, are (i) demand uncertainty and stockpiling, (ii) international trade and resource dependence, (iii) deforestation, and (iv) intertemporal effects of climate change policies (“Green Paradox”). We discuss new insights and results on these issues by fitting them into the Hotelling model of non-renewable resource depletion.