黑水河下游鱼类资源现状及其保护措施

为了解白鹤滩蓄水运行前黑水河下游鱼类资源的现状、受到的主要威胁及其保护措施,于2014年1~12月在黑水河下游干支流江段采用电捕法进行了渔获物调查。结果显示:12个月共调查发现鱼类28种,隶属于3目8科23属,其中喜流水生境、产粘沉性卵、以着生藻类或/和底栖动物为食物的鱼类种类较多;调查区域鱼类个体规格普遍较小,其中齐口裂腹鱼Schizothorax prenanti、短体副鳅Paracobitis potanini、红尾副鳅Paracobitis varigatus、短须裂腹鱼Schizothorax wangchiachii、前鳍高原鳅Triplophysa anterodorsalis、中华纹胸鮡Glyptothorax sinense和凹尾拟鲿Pseudobagrus emarginatus为调查区域的主要经济鱼类;上半年和下半年的渔获物结构在统计学上差异显著(R=0.81,p=0.1%0.05),鱼类在金沙江干流和黑水河下游之间的相互迁徙比较明显;CPUE呈现先波动下降然后逐月上升的趋势,其中10月份的CPUE最低;丰度生物量比较曲线显示2014年各月的渔获物结构均处于严重干扰状态。黑水河下游河道采砂以及过度捕捞是白鹤滩蓄水前影响黑水河下游鱼类资源的主要因素,建议通过控制采砂的江段、采砂的时间以及全面禁捕保护该区域的鱼类资源。     

铜陵市资源利用与经济增长关系分析

资源利用与经济增长之间的关系是资源与环境经济学研究的重要领域。以安徽省铜陵市为例,尝试运用物质流分析方法以及最新发展的自回归分布滞后模型（ARDL）对铜陵市1990~2008年资源利用和实际GDP二者关系进行检验和分析。采用了物质流分析指标中直接物质投入来表征区域资源利用量。ARDL边界检验结果表明了资源利用和经济增长间存在稳定的长期均衡关系。进一步通过ARDL-ECM模型分析了区域经济增长对资源利用长期弹性系数和短期弹性系数,并揭示出资源利用对经济增长的短期和长期因果关系。研究结果表明当前资源投入在一定程度上拉动了铜陵经济增长。同时还对铜陵经济增长和资源保护战略提出了政策建议     

Dynamics of local governance in natural resource conservation in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

There has been a shift in natural resource management worldwide. This paper describes how modern institutions and policies influence management and shape access to and utilization of resources by rural communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. It is rooted in the framework of adaptive co‐governance within social‐ecological systems, and employs a critical literature review to analyse access to and use of natural resources in rural Botswana. Prior to the establishment of community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) in Botswana in 1989, resource governance was dominated by strong traditional institutions that were responsible for natural resource management and decision‐making. Contemporary natural resource governance is characterized by a bureaucratic system that invariably undermines the role of traditional institutions in natural resource governance. Findings indicate that policies and regulatory instruments deny rural communities adequate access to and utilization of resources available within their immediate environment. In spite of an orientation towards an anthropocentric approach to natural resource management (as in the case of CBNRM), the current governance system continues to undermine the inclusion of local resource users as legitimate stakeholders in the decision‐making process.     

A spatially explicit backcasting approach for sustainable land-use planning

General backcasting as a decision support and planning method starts from desired future states and simulates developments backwards until reaching the present state. Development pathways that reveal steps to be taken to reach a certain future state, and milestones that serve as interim goals, are created during the process. Backcasting has hitherto only been applied in workshops or as a theoretical framework and no spatially explicit backcasting model has previously been established. This paper presents the development of a spatially explicit backcasting model. The proposed model first creates a future scenario utilizing an agent-based model and then simulates backwards. It is implemented using the programming language Python. The model has been applied to a case study for sustainable land-use planning in Salzburg, Austria. The results of the model run show a successful backcasting of land-use classes from a future state back to the present, in 10 year time steps.     

Measuring the linkage between strategies on sustainability and institutional forces: an empirical study of Spanish universities

Policy documents are commonly identified as key outcomes that guide initiatives directed by senior university leaders towards sustainability through plans and policies. Many studies have called for a more integration of sustainability into universities. Nevertheless, the interest in sustainability issues has been more recent in the specific case of Spain. This study analyses the strategic plans developed by Spanish universities in the last decade with two different aims: first, we examine the extent to which Spanish universities are incorporating strategies on sustainability. The second goal evaluates whether the presence of strategies on sustainability in Spanish universities could be associated with coercive and mimetic pressures. Findings indicate the low presence of strategies on sustainability in Spanish universities. Moreover, the results seem to suggest that the presence of strategies on sustainability in Spanish universities could be linked with coercive and mimetic pressures emanating from the State performance funding for universities. The results indicate that universities usually incorporate practices and strategies on sustainability as a response of the pressure exerted by institutional forces, such as the funding systems of higher education institutions.     

Assessing local planning capacity to promote environmentally sustainable residential development

Smart growth and sustainability planning have, in recent years, become central issues in planning discourse. Scholars have argued that planning capacity at the local government level is critical for smart growth planning, and that planners have a fundamental role to play in advancing local and regional sustainability. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which local planning capacity enables communities to promote more sustainable, smart growth residential development. Based on a 2013 survey of 38 county and 53 municipal governments in the state of Wisconsin, USA, this study finds that the majority of the sample communities have permitted residential developments characterized as transit-oriented, New Urbanist, mixed use, infill developments, or conservation subdivisions as alternatives to low-density, automobile-dependent conventional developments. The study also finds that jurisdictions with higher planning capacities are more likely to overcome significant barriers to more sustainable residential development.     

Ecosystem services assessments in local municipal decision making in South Africa: justification for the use of a business-based approach

The ecosystem services (ES) concept is being increasingly incorporated into environmental policy formulation and management approaches. The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) is a framework used to assess the dependence and impact that a business has on ES. The success of the corporate experience of ES assessment provides an opportunity for adaption for local authority decision making. In this paper, the ESR tool was adapted to the South African setting at a local government level, and tested at two sites in the Msunduzi Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. In testing the tool and gathering feedback from key stakeholders, it was found that there are both opportunities and challenges to this approach. Overall, however, it provides an opportunity for the systematic inclusion of ES assessment into existing regulatory frameworks for land-use planning and Integrated Environmental Management, whether in a strategic application, at a broader spatial (municipal) scale or in a specific locale within the municipality.     

Environmental health in the complex city: a co-evolutionary approach

While public health and urban planning were closely linked in the past, today both domains are institutionally separate. In most cases, health intersects with spatial planning processes only through obligatory evaluations, such as environmental impact assessments, or restrictive environmental legislation. This institutionalisation of health criteria in most western countries has difficulty in dealing with recent environmental health challenges, leading to continual distrust and conflict between citizens and the government. This impasse has recently been discussed by academics who acknowledge the complexity of both city and health issues. It seems, however, that the full extent of the issue has not been covered yet, leading to recommendations and frameworks that are useful but fixed and retrospective. This paper moves beyond those fixed frameworks to develop a better understanding of the complexity of the current disconnect and explores ideas for a future planning approach, grounded on new ideas of co-evolutionary and adaptive planning.     

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.     

Emerging Tools for Continuous Nutrient Monitoring Networks: Sensors Advancing Science and Water Resources Protection

Sensors and enabling technologies are becoming increasingly important tools for water quality monitoring and associated water resource management decisions. In particular, nutrient sensors are of interest because of the well‐known adverse effects of nutrient enrichment on coastal hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, and impacts to human health. Accurate and timely information on nutrient concentrations and loads is integral to strategies designed to minimize risk to humans and manage the underlying drivers of water quality impairment. Using nitrate sensors as the primary example, we highlight the types of applications in freshwater and coastal environments that are likely to benefit from continuous, real‐time nutrient data. The concurrent emergence of new tools to integrate, manage, and share large datasets is critical to the successful use of nutrient sensors and has made it possible for the field of continuous monitoring to rapidly move forward. We highlight several near‐term opportunities for federal agencies, as well as the broader scientific and management community, that will help accelerate sensor development, build and leverage sites within a national network, and develop open data standards and data management protocols that are key to realizing the benefits of a large‐scale, integrated monitoring network. Investing in these opportunities will provide new information to guide management and policies designed to protect and restore our nation's water resources.