Crop Failure in Dalocha, Ethiopia: A Participatory Emergency Response

This case study of an NGO's response to a food crisis due to crop failure focuses on the extent of active community participation at each stage of the project. With the current debate on the relationship between relief and development, and in particular the focus on encouraging more active community participation in relief responses, this study has relevance both in the Ethiopian context and beyond.
In this example the participation process was greatly facilitated by the prior relationship between the international NGO and the communities, and also by the high level of staff input into the project. Where resources or conditions are less favourable, as might be the case in similar responses by local NGOs or government agencies, the paper suggests that the participatory approach can be adapted or partially implemented and still result in a more effective and locally relevant operation.     

三维地质建模及可视化在危机矿山找矿中的应用研究——以沂南金矿为例

随着21世纪工业的快速发展,人们对矿产资源的需求日益扩大,然而我国一大批矿山却面临着严重的资源危机,解决危机矿山的根本是加大矿山周边和矿山深部的找矿工作。同时,随着地学研究和勘查工作的不断深入,积累了海量的地学数据,矿产勘查己进入信息找矿的新时代。矿山三维地质建模与可视化技术研究,是"数字矿山"的核心组成部分,是现代矿山信息化研究的热点和重点。本文从三维地质建模的概念出发,探讨了基于钻孔数据的矿山三维地质建模及可视化的一般过程,包括地质数据库的建立,实体模型、品位块体模型的创建等,通过在沂南金矿成矿预测研究中的具体应用,探讨了三维地质建模及可视化应用于危机矿山成矿地质条件分析及大比例尺成矿预测中的过程和方法,为矿区成矿规律的研究和危机矿山的成矿预测提供了有效的技术手段,大大地提高矿产勘查的效率,促进了我国矿山信息化的建设。     

关于扶持再生资源回收产业发展的若干建议

受全球金融危机的影响及我国新税政的实施,我国再生资源回收产业陷入前所未有的困境。针对当前我国再生资源回收产业所面临的突出问题和实际困难,提出扶持再生资源回收产业发展的若干建议。     

构建我国消防应急救援指挥体系的探讨

对我国应急救援体系现状和消防应急救援指挥体系现状进行分析,归纳总结出我国消防应急救援指挥体系在应急联动机制、应急救援资源配置和应急指挥体系等方面存在的问题。并针对上述问题,提出4个方面的对策,该对策包括:完善应急救援机制;强化应急救援法律体系建设;加强应急救援队伍建设;构建消防应急救援指挥体系。研究结果对完善我国应急救援体系、构建科学合理的消防应急救援指挥体系、提高公安消防部队的应急救援能力等方面具有重要的指导和推动作用。     

基层部队危机管理问题研究与对策

针对基层部队危机管理问题越来越引起部队上下广泛的关注和重视,分析当前基层部队存在危机管理意识差、沟通协调难、思想认识不到位等主要问题。为及时有效地处置危机,阐明基层部队危机管理应把握和遵循的原则;结合当前基层部队危机管理的现状,提出基层部队危机管理的应对策略,同时强调加强和改进危机管理法规体系建设是非常必要的。     

Economic development and environmental protection: an ecological economics perspective

This paper argues on both theoretical and empirical grounds that, beyond a certain point, there is an unavoidable conflictbetween economic development (generally taken to mean 'materialeconomic growth') and environmental protection. Think for a moment of natural forests, grasslands, marine estuaries, salt marshes, and coral reefs; and of arable soils, aquifers, mineraldeposits, petroleum, and coal. These are all forms of 'natural capital' that represent highly-ordered self-producing ecosystemsor rich accumulations of energy/matter with high use potential (low entropy). Now contemplate despoiled landscapes, eroding farmlands, depleted fisheries, anthropogenic greenhouse gases,acid rain, poisonous mine tailings and toxic synthetic compounds.These all represent disordered systems or degraded forms of energy and matter with little use potential (high entropy). The main thing connecting these two states is human economic activity. Ecological economics interprets the environment-economyrelationship in terms of the second law of thermodynamics. The second law sees economic activity as a dissipative process. Fromthis perspective, the production of economic goods andservices invariably requires the consumption of available energy and matter. To grow and develop, the economynecessarily 'feeds' on sources of high-quality energy/matter first produced by nature. This tends to disorder and homogenizethe ecosphere, The ascendance of humankind has consistently been accompanied by an accelerating rate of ecological degradation, particularly biodiversity loss, the simplificationof natural systems and pollution. In short, contemporary political rhetoric to the contrary, the prevailing growth-oriented global development paradigm is fundamentally incompatible with long-term ecological and social sustainability. Unsustainability is not a technical nor economic problem as usually conceived, but rather a state of systemic incompatibilitybetween a economy that is a fully-contained, growing, dependent sub-system of a non-growing ecosphere. Potential solutions fly inthe face of contemporary development trends and cultural values.     

The Ethiopian crisis of 1999-2000: lessons learned,questions unanswered

During 1999-2000, Ethiopia was brought to the edge of a major disaster, with some 10 million people estimated to be in need offood assistance at the height of the crisis. A repeat of the catastrophic famine of 1984-5 was avoided, but the numbers of people affected, the loss of life and the destruction of livelihoods made this one of the most serious crises in the Horn of Africa in the past 15 years. The humanitarian community has been slow to recognise the lessons of 1999-2000, and there have been surprisingly few attempts to conduct a serious, post-event evaluation of the overall crisis and response. The label famine averted' seems to summarise the crisis to the satisfaction of most parties involved. This paper reviews the crisis, the events that led up to it and the response effort. It examines thefactors that contributed to making this crisis so serious, in order to draw conclusions and note issues that are relevant to current thinking about disaster preparedness and response - in Ethiopia and elsewhere. Some of the lessons learned from the 1999-2000 crisis are not new. However, the veryfact that mistakes have been repeated should be a lesson to the humanitarian community.     

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning,response, and research

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.     

Genetic Engineering in Agriculture: Who Stands to Benefit?

The use of genetic engineering inagriculture has been the source of much debate. Todate, arguments have focused most strongly on thepotential human health risks, the flow of geneticmaterial to related species, and ecologicalconsequences. Little attention appears to have beengiven to a more fundamental concern, namely, who willbe the beneficiaries of this technology? Given the prevalence of chronic hunger and thestark economics of farming, it is arguable thatfarmers and the hungry should be the mainbeneficiaries of agricultural research. However, theapplication of genetic engineering appears unlikely tobenefit either of these two groups. This technology islargely controlled by the private sector, and itscontinued development hinges on its profitability.Thus, the only likely beneficiaries of the applicationof genetic engineering in agriculture are companieswith the capacity to use it.     

虚拟水战略:拯救民勤绿洲的新思路

位于甘肃石羊河下游的民绿洲，水资源极度缺乏，生产、生活和生态用水矛盾突出，出现了严重的生态危机，其中湖区的生态经济系统已呈“崩溃”之势。拯救民勤绿洲成为社会广泛关注的重大问题。“虚拟水”是20世纪90年代初Tony Allan提出的一个新概念，虚拟水战略是指贫水区域通过贸易的方式从富水地区购进水资源密集型产品来获得本区水资源安全的一种构想。本文通过对节水、调水、移民等常规方案与虚拟水战略的对比分析后，认为虚拟水战略是拯救民勤绿洲的一个全新思路，探讨了虚拟水战略实施的政策建议；提出了创新区域水资源管理体制和区域经济发展思路以及建立国家生态补偿机制的主张。