Operational Indicators for Measuring Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries

This paper reviews relevant literature on the sustainability indicators theoretically proposed and practically applied by scholars over the past 15 years. Although progress is being made in the development and critical analysis of sustainability indicators, in many cases existing or proposed indicators are not the most sensitive or useful measures in developing countries. Indicator selection needs to meet the following criteria: relative availability of data representing the indicators, sensitivity to stresses on the system, existence of threshold values and guidelines, predictivity, integratability and known response to disturbances, anthropogenic stresses, and changes over time. Based on these criteria, this paper proposes a set of operational indicators for measuring agricultural sustainability in developing countries. These indicators include ecological indicators involving amounts of fertilizers and pesticides used, irrigation water used, soil nutrient content, depth to the groundwater table, water use efficiency, quality of groundwater for irrigation, and nitrate content of both groundwater and crops. Economic indicators include crop productivity, net farm income, benefit–cost ratio of production, and per capita food grain production. Social indicators encompass food self-sufficiency, equality in food and income distribution among farmers, access to resources and support services, and farmers knowledge and awareness of resource conservation. This article suggests that the selection of indicators representing each aspect of sustainability should be prioritized according to spatial and temporal characteristics under consideration.     

Recovery of the Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community in a Small Stream After Long-Term Discharges of Fly Ash

Recovery of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in a small east Tennessee stream impacted by fly ash discharges from a power plant was investigated over a period of 6.5 years. The rate of recovery was greatest in the first 2 years after an initial 75% reduction in coal use led to a similar reduction in ash discharges and associated contaminants; further recovery followed after all fly ash discharges ceased. Recovery of the stream progressed through two phases. In the first phase, which lasted for approximately the first 2 years, most density and richness metrics increased considerably. In the second phase of recovery, the increases in metric values were followed by declines before fluctuating in and out of the lower reference ranges for the metrics. Detrended correspondence analyses and indicator species analyses showed that changes in species composition and community structure were ongoing throughout the second phase. Thus, the first phase was characterized by species additions, while the second phase involved species replacements and shifts in community dominants. Further recovery of the macroinvertebrate community will probably depend on additional flushing of fly ash deposits from the streambed and flood plain, because their continued presence reduces habitat quality in the stream and serves as a potential source of contaminants. Further recovery also may be limited by the availability of vagile species in nearby watersheds.     

Environmental Management Systems at the Industrial Park Level in China

Environmental management systems (EMSs), such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001, can be used as a tool in China by industrial park managers to improve their environmental performance. This article uses the case of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone (DETDZ) to show how to establish a comprehensive environmental management system (CEMS) according to the ISO 14001 standard at the industrial park level by considering local realities. The particularly interesting feature of this case study is the use of a CEMS (in this case, ISO 14001) by the administrative group of the DETDZ to develop a more comprehensive approach to the wide range of environmental issues that they face in running the zone. In essence the goal is to address many of the issues at the level of the zone. The incentives, benefits, and barriers associated with implementing ISO 14001 are described. However, implementation of an EMS should not be thought of as the ultimate objective for an industrial parks environmental management. The next steps include encouraging further public participation and taking an integrated approach leading to an industrial ecosystem, which can realize better environmental performance at the industrial park level. Yong Geng is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University. Raymond Côté is a professor at Dalhousie University.     

全国洪涝灾害警戒水域遥感数据库的研制

由于以往对发生的洪涝灾情没有形成统一的、客观的评价标准,而不同来源的各种数据往往大相径庭,使有关部门难以了解实际灾情。为此,提出了“警戒水域”的概念,利用TM和NOAA／AVHRR图像数据建立了我国七大江河地区洪涝灾害易发区的警戒水域遥感数据库,并用以指导洪涝灾情的监测与评估,为防洪救灾决策提供科学的、可靠的、时效性强的信息。该数据库的建立在我国的抗洪救灾中发挥了重要的作用。文章对其研究方法与其关键技术进行了介绍．     

Procedures for ensuring community involvement in multijurisdictional river basins: a comparison of the Murray-Darling and Mekong river basins

Community involvement is fundamental to the management of multijurisdictional river basins but, in practice, is very difficult to achieve. The Murray-Darling basin, in Australia, and the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia are both cooperatively managed multijurisdictional river basins where the management authorities have expressed an aim of community involvement. In the Murray-Darling basin vigorous efforts have promoted a culture of community consultation throughout each of the state jurisdictions involved, although true participation has not necessarily been achieved. In the Mekong basin the community is much more diverse and the successes so far have been largely at the local level, involving action in subsections of the basin. These case studies suggest that community involvement in the form of community consultation across large multijurisdictional river basins is achievable, but more comprehensive participation is not necessarily possible.     

重庆市旅游资源开发与旅游产业发展对策

本文在列举了重庆旅游资源的优势和特点的基础上,阐述了旅游业对发展重庆经济的功能;并就重庆市旅游规划的格局,以及如何保持该市旅游业持续、健康地发展提出了相应的对策。     

UNIT HYDROGRAPHS DERWED FROM THE NASH MODEL1

ABSTRACT: Unit hydrograph ordinates are often estimated by deconvoluting excess rainfall pulses and corresponding direct runoff. The resulting ordinates are given at discrete times spaced evenly at intervals equal to the duration of the rainfall pulse. If the new duration is not a multiple of the parent duration, hydrograph interpolation is required. Linear interpolation, piece-wise nonlinear interpolation and graphical smoothing have been used. These interpolation schemes are expedient but they lack theoretical basis and can lead to undesirable results. Interpolation can be avoided if the instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH) for the watershed is known. Here two issues connected with the classic Nash IUH are examined: (1) how should the Nash parameters be estimated? and (2) under what conditions is the resulting hydrograph able to reasonably represent watershed response? In the first case, nonlinear constrained optimization provides better estimates of the IUH parameters than does the method of moments. In the second case, the Nash IUH gives good results on watersheds with mild shape unit hydrographs, but performs poorly on watersheds having sharply peaked unit hydrographs. Overall, in comparison to empirical interpolation alternatives, the Nash IUH offers a theoretically sound and practical approach to estimate unit hydrographs for a wide variety of watersheds.     

中国城市综合减灾体系建设及其系统思考

从中国城市减灾现状分析入手,重点剖析城市减灾的可持续发展问题,并探讨了城市社会经济可持续发展中如何确立防灾减灾的地位．进而用系统科学思路研究城市综合减灾的体系建设问题,从一定意义上较为科学地解决了跨世纪的中国城市可持续发展的关键问题．     

防灾减灾系统工程的国际对比分析及建议

针对我国现存的灾害状况,本文通过国际对比的方法,对其他国家已有的减灾系统工程作了简单介绍,并结合我国实际,对未来建立减灾系统工程中应着重加强的薄弱环节作了分析,提出了加强立法工作,增加减灾投入,建立全国统一的减灾通讯系统的建议。