Integrating nature-based tourism and forestry in private lands under heterogeneous visitor preferences for forest attributes

Developing nature-based tourism in private lands calls for new mechanisms to consolidate the interests of the tourism industry, visitors, and landowners. This choice experiment study elaborates on the heterogeneity of visitors’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for enhanced forest amenities and ecosystem services. The survey, targeting domestic and foreign tourists visiting the Ruka-Kuusamo area in Finland, considered four attributes: landscape quality, outdoor routes, forest biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. For observed heterogeneity, the visitors were grouped by their attitudes towards forest management. Unobserved heterogeneity in visitors’ choice behaviour and WTP was examined with the latent class model. While most visitors had environmentally friendly attitudes and were willing to pay, especially for enhanced landscape quality and biodiversity, considerable heterogeneity was revealed in terms of three segments with distinctive attitudes, choice behaviour and WTP. The variation in WTP has important implications for the design of a scheme of payments for environmental management.     

Old distribution procedure of both water and matter fluxes in floodplains of western Europe: Impact on present vegetation

In France and the United States it has been shown that strong linkages exist between vegetation and alluvial landforms within homogeneous river stretches characterized by geomorphological processes, flood duration, flood magnitude, flood frequency, and sediment size. Furthermore, perturbations induced by man (such as embankments and damming) have been shown to have an effect on both succession and plant distribution patterns. Yet, in numerous cases it is not possible to find either the communities or the plants whose presence might be predicted by reference to the river section characteristics (such as straight, braided, anastomosed, or meandering channels) or by reference to perturbation effects well known in piedmont valleys (such as variations of the water-table depth, variations of magnitude, and frequency and duration of floods). Unexpected species, new communities, and even new successional sequences are often observed. The presence of new alluvial forms explains these differences. An “artificial” substratum generated by an old human perturbation (limited in the time) has been established in the past; consequently, the natural distribution patterns of water and matter flows have been disturbed. Archive research has enabled a classification of abandoned systems that were commonly used during the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries on European floodplains. Several case studies were chosen in order to illustrate and explain the importance of stream corridor history. The example of the Isère River valley, downstream from Albertville, is chosen to highlight the heterogeneity of the vegetation mosaïc pattern outside the dikes. The historical reconstruction explains the role of the additional disturbances that cause deviation from the system evolution patterns.     

Investigating the uniqueness of crash injury severity in freeway tunnels: A comparative study in Guizhou,China

Introduction: With the rapid development of transportation infrastructures in precipitous areas, the mileage of freeway tunnels in China has been mounting during the past decade. Provided the semi-constrained space and the monotonous driving environment of freeway tunnels, safety concerns still remain. This study aims to investigate the uniqueness of the relationships between crash severity in freeway tunnels and various contributory factors. Method: The information of 10,081 crashes in the entire freeway network of Guizhou Province, China in 2018 is adopted, from which a subset of 591 crashes in tunnels is extracted. To address spatial variations across various road segments, a two-level binary logistic approach is applied to model crash severity in freeway tunnels. A similar model is also established for crash severity on general freeways as a benchmark. Results: The uniqueness of crash severity in tunnels mainly includes three aspects: (a) the road-segment-level effects are quantifiable with the environmental factors for crash severity in tunnels, but only exist in the random effects for general freeways; (b) tunnel has a significantly higher propensity to cause severe injury in a crash than other locations of a freeway; and (c) different influential factors and levels of contributions are found to crash severity in tunnels compared with on general freeways. Factors including speed limit, tunnel length, truck involvement, rear-end crash, rainy and foggy weather and sequential crash have positive contributions to crash severity in freeway tunnels. Practical applications: Policy implications for traffic control and management are advised to improve traffic safety level in freeway tunnels.     

内蒙古典型草原土壤及其水文过程对灌丛化的响应

基于野外观测和室内试验相结合的方法,研究了内蒙古典型草原小叶锦鸡儿灌丛化过程对土壤和土壤水文过程的影响,旨在为干旱半干旱区环境保护和恢复提供理论基础。结果表明,斑块尺度上,灌丛斑块土壤有机质和全氮含量分别是草地斑块的1.54倍和1.16倍;灌丛斑块平均沙粒、粉粒和粘粒含量是草地斑块的0.87倍、1.34倍和1.35倍;灌丛斑块土壤容重是草地斑块的0.97倍;灌丛斑块钙积层上表面出现深度是草地斑块的1.27倍。地形等自然条件也是形成土壤异质性的重要因子,坡面尺度上,灌丛和草地斑块土壤有机质、全氮、土壤容重、土壤钙积层上表面出现深度呈自坡顶向坡下方向增加的趋势。染色示踪实验表明,灌丛斑块土壤剖面湿润锋和土壤水分入渗速率分别是草地斑块的1.36倍和5.16倍,草地斑块0~10cm土层对水分的响应较敏感,而灌丛斑块25 cm以下土层对水分的响应较敏感。研究认为,灌丛化过程增强了土壤空间异质性,灌丛斑块能将土壤水分快速输送并存储于深层土壤中,灌丛斑块是土壤养分和水分富集区,灌木植物的定居和发展过程与土壤形态之间形成了正反馈。     

中国地表城市热岛驱动因素及其空间异质性

基于MODIS卫星遥感数据,计算了中国284个地级市2018年的年平均地表城市热岛强度,分析了中国地表城市热岛的空间分布规律和空间集聚模式.结合多元遥感数据、气象数据和社会经济统计数据,利用地理加权回归模型分析了日间和夜间地表城市热岛强度主要驱动因素的空间异质性结果表明,中国地表城市热岛强度的空间分布存在明显的空间自相...     

An Endangered Longhorn Beetle Associated with Old Oaks and Its Possible Role as an Ecosystem Engineer

Abstract:  For more than 10 years, ecologists have been discussing the concept of ecosystem engineering (i.e., nontrophic interactions of an organism that alters the physical state of its environment and affects other species). In conservation biology, the functional role of species is of interest because persistence of some species may be necessary for maintaining an entire assemblage with many threatened species. The great capricorn ( Cerambyx cerdo ), an endangered beetle listed in the European Union's Habitats Directive, has suffered a dramatic decline in the number of populations and in population sizes in Central Europe over the last century. The damage caused by C. cerdo larvae on sound oak trees has considerable effects on the physiological characteristics of these trees. We investigated the impacts of these effects on the species richness and heterogeneity of the saproxylic beetle assemblage on oaks. We compared the catches made with flight interception traps on 10 oaks colonized and 10 oaks uncolonized by C. cerdo in a study area in Lower Saxony (Germany). Our results revealed a significantly more species-rich assemblage on the trees colonized by C. cerdo . Colonized trees also harbored more red-listed beetle species. Our results suggest that an endangered beetle species can alter its own habitat to create favorable habitat conditions for other threatened beetle species. Efforts to preserve C. cerdo therefore have a positive effect on an entire assemblage of insects, including other highly endangered species. On the basis of the impact C. cerdo seems to have on the saproxylic beetle assemblage, reintroductions might be considered in regions where the species has become extinct.     

Impacts of Human Behavioral Heterogeneity on the Benefits of Probabilistic Flood Warnings: An Agent‐Based Modeling Framework

Flood forecasts and warnings are intended to reduce flood‐related property damages and loss of human life. Considerable research has improved flood forecasting accuracy (e.g., more accurate prediction of the occurrence of flood events) and lead time. However, the delivery of improved forecast information alone is not necessarily sufficient to reduce flood damage and loss of life, as people have varying responses and reactions to flood warnings. This study develops an agent‐based modeling framework that evaluates the impacts of heterogeneity in human behaviors (i.e., variation in behaviors in response to flood warnings), as well as residential density, on the benefits of flood warnings. The framework is coupled with a traffic model to simulate evacuation processes within a road network under various flood warning scenarios. The results show the marginal benefit associated with providing better flood warnings is significantly constrained if people behave in a more risk‐tolerant manner, especially in high‐density residential areas. The results also show significant impacts of human behavioral heterogeneity on the benefits of flood warnings, and thus stress the importance of considering human behavioral heterogeneity in simulating flood warning‐response systems. Further study is suggested to more accurately model human responses and behavioral heterogeneity, as well as to include more attributes of residential areas to estimate and improve the benefits of flood warnings.     

夏季太湖水体势能异常的空间分异特征及其机制

基于2013年6月7日~8月28日在大浦口、梅梁湾、避风港、平台山及小雷山附近湖体中获取的气象数据及水温廓线,探讨了太湖水体势能异常的空间特征及其可能机制.结果表明:太湖水体势能异常不仅存在日变化,而且呈现明显的空间差异:湾区附近的梅梁湾和避风港,较易形成相对稳定的水体层化,且可能维持多天;而位于西岸的大浦口、湖心区的平台山及湖南部的小雷山区域的水体势能异常呈典型的日分层现象,即白天可能形成层化,晚间基本消失.水体获得的热量存在空间差异,但差异度较小,而动力混合作用的空间差异明显.动力混合作用的空间差异是造成水体势能异常或层化空间分异的主要成因.     

经济转型视角下中国工业行业环境全要素生产率及增长动力分析

从工业行业存在技术异质特征出发,在全局DEA分析框架下,应用共同前沿理论的MML生产率指数,测度了2001~2012年我国工业行业环境全要素生产率的动态变化及分解构成,并采用动态GMM估计方法对其增长因素进行分析.结果表明: 2001~2012年36个工业行业的环境全要素生产率年均增长率为2.3%,工业环境全要素生产率的增长主要源于技术进步与规模效率的提升.环境全要素生产率呈现清洁型生产行业、中污染生产行业、污染密集型行业依次递减的发展格局,群组间技术差异整体上呈现缩减趋势;通信设备、计算机及其他电子设备制造业、烟草制品业是推动前沿面扩张的主力行业;增长动力分析显示,工业行业存在投入要素利用的规模经济,工业行业“国退民进”的产权改革与能源结构调整有利于环境全要素生产率的提升,资本深化对环境全要素生产率的提升影响微弱,FDI抑制了环境全要素生产率的增长,行业集中度与环境全要素生产率存在“倒U”型关系,不同群组的技术异质性导致了对环境全要素生产率产生不同影响.     

矿业密集区地表热环境时空异质性驱动机理

基于Landsat遥感影像热红外波段数据,利用大气校正法反演地表水热因子中的地表温度值,基于Landsat遥感影像可见光波段,从生物地球物理效应角度提取下垫面地表扰动类型和4个生物物理参数(光合植被覆盖度,Fractional Cover of Photosynthetic VegetationfPV;土壤湿度监测指数...