Assessing impacts on urban greenspace,waterways, and vegetation in urban planning

Parks, waterways, and vegetation enhance the well-being of urbanites and thus warrant consideration in planning and policy-making. It is, however, difficult to assess how land-use change may impact these features and how this in turn may impact well-being. I use a case-study approach to present a framework that combines geospatial and economic valuation techniques to generate indicators of the effects of land-use policies that alter these amenities on community well-being. This framework quantifies the impacts of land-use change on urban environmental amenities in a way that could help communities plan land use so as to maintain well-being as they urbanise.     

Conserving Connectivity: Some Lessons from Mountain Lions in Southern California

Abstract: Habitat corridors can be essential for persistence of wildlife populations in fragmented landscapes. Although much research has focused on identifying species and places critical for conservation action, the conservation literature contains surprisingly few examples of corridors that actually have been protected and so provides little guidance for moving from planning through implementation. We examined a case study from southern California that combines monitoring of radio‐collared mountain lions (Puma concolor) with an assessment of land‐protection efforts to illustrate lessons learned while attempting to maintain ecological connectivity in a rapidly urbanizing landscape. As in many places, conservation scientists have provided science‐based maps of where conservation efforts should focus. But implementing corridors is a business decision based not solely on ecological information but also on cost, opportunity cost, investment risk, and other feasibility considerations. Here, the type and pattern of development is such that key connections will be lost unless they are explicitly protected. Keeping pace with conversion, however, has been difficult, especially because conservation efforts have been limited to traditional parcel‐by‐parcel land‐protection techniques. The challenges of and trade‐offs in implementation make it clear that in southern California, connectivity cannot be bought one parcel at a time. Effective land‐use plans and policies that incorporate conservation principles, such as California's Natural Communities Conservation Planning program, are needed to support the retention of landscape permeability. Lessons from this study have broad application, especially as a precautionary tale for places where such extensive and intensive development has not yet occurred. Given how limiting resources are for biodiversity conservation, conservationists must be disciplined about where and how they attempt corridor protection: in rapidly fragmenting landscapes, the opportunity for success can be surprisingly fleeting.     

Adapting cities to climate change – exploring the flood risk management role of green infrastructure landscapes

There is now an emerging sense of the scope and nature of response that can be implemented at building and neighbourhood scales to help adapt cities and urban areas to the changing climate. In comparison, the role of larger natural and semi-natural landscapes that surround and permeate cities is less well understood. Addressing this knowledge gap, this paper outlines two case studies that describe and map the flood risk management functions offered by green infrastructure landscapes situated within the Urban Mersey Basin in North West England. The case studies establish that areas potentially exposed to flooding can be located at some distance, and within different jurisdictions, from upstream areas where the flood hazard may be generated and could be moderated via functions provided by green infrastructure landscapes. This raises planning and governance challenges connected to supporting and enhancing flood risk management functions provided by green infrastructure landscapes.     

Ecological and economic impacts of green roofs and permeable pavements at the city level: the case of Corvallis,Oregon

A city's spatial footprint is covered by extensive impervious building roofs and paved surfaces, which contribute to greater storm-water runoff, more surface pollutants, and less carbon sequestration, hence, worse ecosystem services. This research conducts an empirical study on the ecological and economic impacts of a citywide adoption of green roofs and permeable pavements in Corvallis, OR. The effects on ecosystem services of using green roofs and pervious pavements for a low impact development are modelled using Integrated Value of Ecosystem Services Trade-offs and compared to those from the City's current conventional development without green roofs and pervious pavements. The differences are analysed for ecological impact by storm-water yield, storm-water purification, and carbon sequestration and economic impact by a cost-benefit comparison. The results indicate that low impact development, especially intensive green roofs on commercial/industrial buildings and permeable pavements for parking lots, plays a significant role, even with a higher initial implementation cost, for long-term urban sustainability.     

Living the green city: Freiburg's Solarsiedlung between narratives and practices of sustainable urban development

The solar settlement (Solarsiedlung) in Freiburg, Germany, has been widely hailed as an eco-city or green city neighbourhood and a blueprint for sustainable urban development. However, as there is a noticeable lack of critical analysis of what constitutes Solarsiedlung as an “eco-city”, this paper studies narratives and practices of sustainable urban development. First, we look at Solarsiedlung as a best-practice model – a narrative that was produced and perpetuated by architects, urban planners, investors and academics celebrating this neighbourhood as a technologically leapfrogging, economically sound and socially integrated project. Second, we explore the everyday practices and lived experience of the residents in Solarsiedlung. Bringing together these two perspectives, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding and critical reading of the interplay between the ecological, economic and social dimensions of sustainable development as seen from different viewpoints. Findings indicate that Solarsiedlung as a best-practice model is embedded in growth-oriented neoliberal strategies that are in conflict with the everyday practices and lived experience of the residents. Our findings put into question the widely assumed transferability of best-practice models in sustainable urban development.     

哈大齐工业走廊承接产业转移水环境风险评价

为了分析承接产业转移对水环境的影响,以哈大齐工业走廊为研究对象,在分析风险源、胁迫因子、生境、评价终点之间相互作用关系的基础上构建承接产业转移的水环境相对风险评价模型,并将研究区按照行政界线划分为3个风险评价单元,选取哈大齐地区重点承接的污染产业为风险源,选择水域作为风险受体,农田、林地、草地3种生境作为传播胁迫因子的媒介或载体,水质、水量、水生态为评价终点,对哈大齐承接产业转移水环境风险进行了定量评价.结果表明,哈尔滨市为最高风险区,其次是大庆市、齐齐哈尔市,相对风险分别为146.40、110.70和41.16.不同风险小区的最主要风险源不同,哈大齐3个城市主要风险源分别为医药制造业、化学原料与化学制品制造业及食品制造业.相反,各风险小区的主要胁迫因子大致相同,主要有需氧有机污染物、营养物质、生境破坏等.     

Evaluating long-term urban resilience through an examination of the history of green spaces in Tokyo

Long-term urban resilience requires urban systems with the capacity to respond to change and disturbance and to enhance the conditions for lasting wellbeing. Over the past century Tokyo has demonstrated impressive resilience, especially a capacity to reorganise and rebuild in response to successive major disturbances. Throughout these recoveries, the city-region maintained a focus on re-establishing, improving and maintaining international competitiveness through industrial development. Green spaces in Tokyo provided a flexible, but gradually disappearing resource. Today, to meet the needs of its ageing and minimally expanding population for enhanced wellbeing, Tokyo requires active transition planning covering many intertwined factors, but the adaptive capacity provided by the green space resource is no longer available. The Tokyo case underscores the risk inherent in the depletion of non-renewable resources (in this instance, green space) to secure immediate recovery and accommodate growth and short-term resilience at the expense of long-term resilience.     

LEED绿色建筑评价体系视角下的可持续施工管理

LEED绿色建筑评价体系是目前国际上最具权威性的绿色建筑评价标准,由美国绿色建筑委员会制定并推行.在结合国内施工阶段现状的基础上,寻找LEED绿色建筑评价体系中与施工阶段的契合点,针对相关要求采取措施,最终达到节能、环保、可持续的目的.表1,参6.     

Genotoxic effects of microcystins mediated by nitric oxide and mitochondria

<正>Microcystins are potent toxins,produced naturally by cyanobacteria(blue green algae),and they present significant threats to human and animal health(WHO,1999;Chorus,2001;Carmichael et al.,2001;Falconer,2005;IARC,2010;Ma et al.,2015).These cyclic peptides consist of five common core amino     

建设工程绿色施工环境影响因素评价研究

采用过程分析法识别建设工程不同施工阶段绿色施工的环境影响因素,建立了绿色施工环境影响因素评价指标体系。运用改进的层次分析法计算各个指标权重,建立重要环境因素影响程度模型,用来对不同施工阶段的环境影响因素进行综合评价。通过该方法,对南京市某工程项目进行了实证研究,结果表明该方法简单实用、科学有效、为其他建设工程绿色施工环境影响因素评价提供参考。