Improving visitor management approaches for the changing preferences and behaviours of country park visitors in Hong Kong

This study identified the changing preferences of country park visitors in Hong Kong and the potential for such changes to have further negative impacts on the ecologically sensitive areas of country parks. A questionnaire was used to collect feedback from 644 country park visitors to understand their preferences and visitation patterns. To investigate visitors’ preferences and behaviours and to develop better visitor management strategies, the survey data were compared with studies conducted 20 years ago. The results showed that the most popular nature‐based activities of 20 years ago, namely, picnicking and barbecuing, have significantly declined in popularity, while other activities, namely, nature studies and nature photography, have surged in popularity in recent years. These changes in visitor preferences have directly increased the negative impacts of visitors on country parks as they dispersed away from the high intensity recreation zones to the ecological sensitive areas. This emerging group of country park visitors has not been fully considered in the existing approach to visitor management and may irreversibly impact the ecological value of country parks. In this study, visitor management in Hong Kong's country parks was reviewed based on these research findings, and potential improvements were suggested.     

Blurred Borderlands: Sustainability and the Urban/Nature Divide at the Frick Environmental Center

ABSTRACT

Sustainable development is rhetorically framed as exhibiting natural processes, reflected both symbolically and materially. Taking the Frick Environmental Center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a rhetorical artifact, I argue that spaces where sustainable human-made structures and human-cultivated landscapes meet, reflect blurred borderlands of a culturally constructed urban/nature divide. Considering the Frick Environmental Center as an experiential landscape, my mixed methodology of textual analysis and rhetorical field work identifies how naturalized framing of sustainability bridges the urban/nature divide, inviting restoration, preservation, and construction efforts that are more environmentally engaged.     

LQZ型气力输送系统在电厂除灰中的应用

介绍了气力输送系统在电厂660MW机组除灰中的应用,并对飞灰特性,以及除灰系统设计、关键技术运用、运行情况、设备维护和故障处理等问题进行了分析论述。     

Dispersal connectivity and reserve selection for marine conservation

Although larval dispersal is crucial for the persistence of most marine populations, dispersal connectivity between sites is rarely considered in designing marine protected area networks. In particular the role of structural characteristics (known as topology) for the network of larval dispersal routes in the conservation of metapopulations has not been addressed. To determine reserve site configurations that provide highest persistence values with respect to their connectivity characteristics, we model nine connectivity topological models derived from graph theory in a demographic metapopulation model. We identify reserve site configurations that provide the highest persistence values for each of the metapopulation connectivity models. Except for the minimally connected and fully connected populations, we observed two general ‘rules of thumb’ for optimising the mean life time for all topological models: firstly place the majority of reserves, so that they are neighbours of each other, on the sites where the number of connections between the populations is highest (hub), secondly when the reserves have occupied the majority of the vertices in the hub, then select another area of high connectivity and repeat. If there are no suitable hubs remaining then distribute the remaining reserves to isolated locations optimising contact with non-reserved sites.     

Effectiveness of Vegetation Surrogates for Parasitoid Wasps in Reserve Selection

Abstract:  Selecting suitable nature reserves is a continuing challenge in conservation, particularly for target groups that are time-consuming to survey, species rich, and extinction prone. One such group is the parasitoid Hymenoptera, which have been excluded from conservation planning. If basic characteristics of habitats or vegetation could be used as reliable surrogates of specific target taxa, this would greatly facilitate appropriate reserve selection. We identified a range of potential habitat indicators of the species richness of pimpline parasitoid communities (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae, Diacritinae, Poemeniinae) and tested their efficiency at capturing the observed diversity in a group of small woodlands in the agricultural landscape of the Vale of York (United Kingdom). Eight of the 18 vegetation-based reserve-selection strategies were significantly better at parasitoid species inclusion than random selection of areas. The best strategy maximized richness of tree species over the entire reserve network through complementarity. This strategy omitted only 2–3 species more (out of 38 captured in the landscape as a whole) than selections derived from the parasitoid survey data. In general, strategies worked equally well at capturing species richness and rarity. Our results suggest that vegetation data as a surrogate for species richness could prove an informative tool in parasitoid conservation, but further work is needed to test how broadly applicable these indicators may be.     

自然保护区景观结构设计与物种保护——以卧龙自然保护区为例

以卧龙自然保护区大熊猫保护为实例,提出了自然保护区中景观结构设计的一些基本原则和方法。认为在进行景观要素设计之前,应先进行景观适宜性评价,之后进行核心斑块、缓冲区和廊道的设计。①核心斑块 :不仅要考虑斑块的景观适宜性,而且斑块的面积应能维持一定物种数量 ;②缓冲区 :在考虑距离对目标物种影响的同时,还应考虑缓冲区的范围应该覆盖所有的核心斑块 ;③廊道 :需要辨识两种情况,其一是对现存生境廊道的保护,为了避免不同核心斑块被隔离,必须严格保护现存的生境廊道。其二是对潜在生境廊道的建设,在条件允许时,通过植被重建,建立适宜的生境廊道。     

特殊区域地表水环境背景值表征技术方法研究与应用

选取黑龙江省源头水保护区作为研究对象,根据DEM数据对保护区内随机布设的水质监测点控制单元进行划分并提取单元内的相关指标建立监测点背景特性量化模型,基于量化结果提出地表水环境背景值监测方案,建立背景值数据库.选取研究区自然属性指标与空间属性指标,以空间叠置技术与聚类分析方法对研究区地表水进行背景值分区,最终将黑龙江省分为六大地表水水质背景值地理分区,并计算了各分区地表水环境背景值表征范围.表征范围显示：依据现行标准进行水质评价,保护区内水质背景值已超出Ⅱ类水质标准限值.因此,基于水质背景值研究成果提出了考虑背景值影响下的水环境质量评价方法,并将方法应用于研究区,结果表明方法切实可行且优于单因子评价法.研究成果可为区域制定背景值影响下的水环境评价方法提供科学的数据支撑与理论依据.     

环保型CO_2跨临界带膨胀机制冷循环性能研究

由于CFCs和HCFCs人工合成制冷剂破坏大气臭氧层,并产生温室效应,因此用自然工质替代合成工质越来越受到国内外制冷界的重视。文章对环保型CO2制冷工质进行了综合评价,并利用热力学原理建立模型,分析了CO2跨临界带膨胀机制冷循环的性能。结果表明:与CO2跨临界带节流阀制冷循环相比,CO2跨临界带膨胀机制冷循环明显提高了系统的性能系数(COP)。同时在保持压缩机排气压力和膨胀机等熵效率一定时,CO2跨临界带膨胀机制冷循环系统COP随着气体冷却器出口温度的增加而逐渐降低,但随着蒸发温度的增加而快速增加。在实际系统设计过程中,应综合考虑以上影响因素,以使系统设计最优化。     

富阳地区水资源自然支持力分析评价

以富阳地区为例,采用主成分分析法,寻找出影响水资源自然支持力的主要驱动因子;再根据富阳地区某一时段内的水资源量(因变量)与其驱动力(自变量)之间存在的线性关系,利用统计资料,对可能引起水资源自然支持力变化的各种驱动力因子进行多变量分析。得出,对富阳地区水资源自然支持力影响较大的指标是水资源可利用量、地表水资源量、地下水资源量、水资源的剩余开采程度和化学需氧量。从计算结果可以看出:富阳地区的水资源自然支持力总体来看在逐年减弱,原因在于近年来富阳地区造纸行业异军突起,用水量急剧加大,总污水排放量增多,使得水资源支持力系统变得越来越脆弱。最后,针对目前的水资源现况提出了一些提高富阳地区水资源自然支持力的措施。     

国外城市自然保护与生态重建及其对我国的启示

论文对当前国外的城市自然保护与生态重建活动作了介绍。城市自然保护包括野生生物生境保护、城市地区湿地及自然景观保护等内容。城市生态重建则主要有生态公园建设、废弃地生态重建、城市扩散廊道体系建设等方面。城市自然保护与生态重建具有以生态学为基础,多学科交叉;注重生态过程的恢复;多目标、多层次规划设计的特点。在此基础上,论文给出了4点对于我国城市生态建设的启示。