Water stress, water transfer and social equity in Northern China--implications for policy reforms

Water stress in Northern China is characterized with major, inefficient irrigation water use and rapidly growing non-agricultural water demands, as well as limited water quantity and declining water quality. Water use in the region is undergoing transfer from agricultural to municipal and industrial sectors. Currently, part of the economic loss and environmental damage due to water stress can be considered as a consequence of water transfer failures, including the current transfers, which hurt farmers' livelihood and income, and the needed transfers, which industry and cities have been waiting for but have not received. This paper starts with a discussion of the causes of water stress in Northern China, which is fundamental to understand the necessity and complexity of agricultural water transfers. Following that, it reviews water transfers in Northern China as a cause for concern over the social stability, economy and environment of the region. Based on an integrated analysis of economic, environmental, fiscal and social implications, this paper begins by identifying critical barriers to smooth water redistribution; and ends with implications for policy reforms, ensuring that farmers can and will save water. It is concluded that the decisions of water reallocation under water stress should be shared by communities at all levels, from the local to the national, to ensure equal access of water, especially the availability of the basic water need for all groups.     

Space for equity: socioeconomic variations in the provision of public parks in Hermosillo,Mexico

This article examines the intersection between globalisation and allocation of open public space by testing the spatial equity hypothesis in Hermosillo, Mexico, a regional city impacted directly by global processes. Availability and accessibility of public parks were examined using a geographic information system and neighbourhoods were stratified into quintiles based on socioeconomic status. Overall, the analysis shows that the amount of public park space in Hermosillo is substandard and its distribution reveals a pattern of spatial inequity affecting primarily residents of poor neighbourhoods. We argue that as the economy of the city grows increasingly integrated into global circuits, the global-to-local connection materialises in an unequal competition between globalised spaces and local public space. This, in turn, leads to further relegation of neighbourhoods that are already on the margins of urban equity regarding access to public parks. This study extends prior research conducted in developed countries to a city in a developing nation and fills a vacuum of information that potentially can contribute to a more equitable development in Hermosillo.     

A decision framework for estimating the cost of marine plastic pollution interventions

Marine plastic pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. Although there has been a surge in global investment for implementing interventions to mitigate plastic pollution, there has been little attention given to the cost of these interventions. We developed a decision support framework to identify the economic, social, and ecological costs and benefits of plastic pollution interventions for different sectors and stakeholders. We calculated net cost as a function of six cost and benefit categories with the following equation: cost of implementing an intervention (direct, indirect, and nonmonetary costs) minus recovered costs and benefits (monetary and nonmonetary) produced by the interventions. We applied our framework to two quantitative case studies (a solid waste management plan and a trash interceptor) and four comparative case studies, evaluating the costs of beach cleanups and waste-to-energy plants in various contexts, to identify factors that influence the costs of plastic pollution interventions. The socioeconomic context of implementation, the spatial scale of implementation, and the time scale of evaluation all influence costs and the distribution of costs across stakeholders. Our framework provides an approach to estimate and compare the costs of a range of interventions across sociopolitical and economic contexts.     

Local Transport Problems and Possible Solutions: Comparing perceptions of residents,elected members,officers and organisations

It is generally accepted that the current growth in personal car use poses a serious threat to local communities and the environment, and that radical changes in transport policy are needed. In order for local authorities to develop acceptable sustainable transport options, it will be necessary that they have a clear view of the attitudes and perceptions of various groups in their community. This research compared the views of elected members and officers with those of residents and organisations in relation to the local transport situation and the use of car travel reduction measures. It was found that the views of elected members and officers reflect those of residents rather well. The views of local organisations, however, were different. Organisations were, in particular, more negative about policy measures that aim to reduce car use in the town centre. They also attached more importance to the viability of the local economy than the other respondents. However, they did agree with the other groups that the quality of life in the community would improve if there was less traffic. The consequences of these findings for local transport planning are discussed.     

A mixed Bentham–Rawls criterion for intergenerational equity: Theory and implications

This paper proposes a welfare criterion that balances the need for development and the concern for the least advantaged generations, and explores its implications. This criterion, called the mixed Bentham–Rawls criterion, moderates the effect of discounting, yet permits some degree of intertemporal trade-off. It is a weighted average of two terms: (a) the sum of discounted utilities and (b) the utility level of the least advantaged generation. We derive necessary conditions to characterize growth paths that satisfy our criterion, and show that in some models with familiar dynamic specifications, an optimal path exists and displays appealing characteristics.     

Ethical Issues Related to Food Sector Evolution in Developing Countries: About Sustainability and Equity

After a century of major technicaladvance, essentially achieved by and for theindustrialized countries, the evolution of thefood sector in southern countries should nolonger be thought of in terms of a ``headlongpursuit.'' In the present context of demographicgrowth, urbanization, poverty and disparities,environmental degradation, and globalization oftrade, new priorities have emerged, and newethical questions have been raised, mainlyrelated to sustainability and equity. Thispaper analyses these ethical concerns in thefollowing terms: can the model of food sectordevelopment initiated by the industrializedcountries be applied to the entire world on asustainable and equitable basis, given theeffects of this development with regard to theenergy consumed, the changes in dietarybehavior and related nutritional problems, thenew demands in terms of food safety, thequestions of biodiversity, ownership ofknowledge, cultural identities, gender issues,and Man's relationship to food and Nature?     

Representing inequities in the distribution of socio-economic benefits and environmental risk

There is currently no standard methodfor analyzing claims of environmental inequity. Neitheris there a database of statistics on the extent ofrelationship between regional indicators ofenvironmental quality, likely sources of pollution, andthe demographic characteristics of affectedpopulations. The resolution of environmental disputesis often hampered by inadequate communication betweenstakeholder groups about their perceptions andprioritization of the issues in dispute and bydifferential access to information about the issues byeach stakeholder group. This paper describes a web-based tool, ICEP, that uses multi-layered GIS maps toestablish a standard method for analyzing claims ofenvironmental inequity and establish a database ofcorrelation coefficients between environmentalindicators, industry type by SIC code, and demographiccharacteristics of the population in proximity tonoxious facilities. The maps are generated fromstakeholder reports of environmental quality and aredesigned to be accessible via the Internet. Thisprovides stakeholders with direct access to graphicaldisplays of the perceptions of their co-stakeholdersand provides all groups with links to relevantinformation sources about the issues in dispute. ICEPenhances existing community environmental websites likeScorecard and Envirofacts by providingdisplays of median household income as a measure of thedistribution of benefits accrued within an area.     

大气污染物总量分配公平性评价研究

污染物总量的合理分配是总量控制的核心内容,目前对于总量分配方案的公平性评价缺乏定量化依据,文章应用经济学Gini系数和Lorenz曲线的概念定量评价污染物总量分配公平性.以"十一五"期间广东省环保局下达到珠三角各城市的SO2总量分配方案为评价对象,考虑各地的环境容量、排放现状、人口和国内生产总值因素,计算基尼系数.结果表明:分配方案比较合理,能普遍被珠三角各城市所接受,但从社会经济发展和环境属性角度来看分配方案不够均衡,需进一步调整.     

不同产权制度下青藏高原地区草地资源使用的效率与公平性分析

论文基于四川省若尔盖牧区两个村落的田野调查,通过草地资源使用的效率和公平性指标,比较草场使用权全村共有和牧户私有这两种产权制度下的经济与社会效益。研究表明,在青藏高原牧区,草场使用权全村共有较牧户私有在资源使用的效率与公平性两个方面均能获得更好的表现。这是因为全村共有的使用权制度更契合当地的自然与社会实情,这包括草地资源时空差异大的自然条件、藏传佛教浸润下的文化氛围以及较强的社区自组织管理能力的社会背景。因此,建议我国在制定与推行草场使用权制度时,应考虑制度实施地的自然环境与社会文化等各方面背景因素,不能简单地在所有牧区强行推进一种产权制度。     

Global gains at local costs: Imposing protected areas: evidence from central India

With the ever-increasing understanding about the Earth as a living network of interdependent ecosystems, there seems to be a growing consensus that the whole planet is a global common. This feeling, however, is not bereft of severe complications arising from conflicting interests of different nations placed at varying levels of development. While developed countries are more concerned about environmental quality which is a global public good, less developed countries can hardly afford to make land use decisions that keep such wider futuristic concerns in mind while they are presently struggling with very basic problems of poverty and starvation. The actors at the global level prescribe, monitor, and enforce the global level collective choice through persuasive, and at times coercive, methods. At the national level, various legal provisions in the form of legislation reflect the collective choice at that level through creation of protected areas devoid of humans. A simple fact is overlooked, that it is impossible to achieve conservation goals without making local people equal participants in decisionmaking and benefit sharing.