Assessment of transboundary environmental effects in the Pearl River Delta Region: Is there a role for strategic environmental assessment?

China's EIA Law does not require transboundary proposals to be assessed, despite recognition of this globally, for example in the Espoo Convention and Kiev Protocol, and in the European EIA and SEA Directives. In a transboundary context assessment within a state is unusual, as regulating these effects is primarily about the relationship between states. However where a state has more than one legal system such as in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region of southern China, transboundary effects should also be addressed. Yet despite the geographical connections between Guangdong Province in mainland China (where the EIA Law applies) and the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions (which have their own provisions, neither of which requires transboundary assessments), EIA and SEA are carried out separately. Coordinated or joint approaches to transboundary assessment are generally absent, with the legal autonomy of Hong Kong and Macau a major constraint. As a result institutional responses at the policy level have developed. The article considers global experiences with regulating transboundary EIA and SEA, and analyses potential application to land use, transport and air and water planning in the PRD Region. If applied, benefits may include prevention or mitigation of cumulative effects, broader public participation, and improvements to environmental governance. The PRD Region experience may encourage China to conduct and coordinate EIA and SEA processes with neighbouring states, which has been non-existent or extremely limited to date.     

A landscape-scale framework to identify refugia from multiple stressors

From a conservation perspective, quantifying potential refugial capacity has been predominantly focused on climate refugia, which is critical for maintaining the persistence of species and ecosystems. However, protection from other stressors, such as human-induced changes in fire and hydrology, that cause habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation is also necessary to ensure that conservation efforts focused on climate are not undermined by other threats. Thus, conceptual and methodological advances for quantifying potential refugia from multiple anthropogenic stressors are important to support conservation efforts. We devised a new conceptual approach, the domains of refugia, for assessing refugial capacity that identifies areas where exposure to multiple stressors is low. In our framework, patterns of environmental variability (e.g., increased frequency of warm summers), thresholds of resilience, and extent and intensity of stressors are used to identify areas of potential refugia from a suite of ongoing anthropogenic stressors (e.g., changes in fire regime). To demonstrate its utility, we applied the framework to a Southern California landscape. Sites with high refugial capacity (super-refugia sites) had on average 30% fewer extremely warm summers, 20% fewer fire events, 10% less exposure to altered river channels and riparian areas, and 50% fewer recreational trails than the surrounding landscape. Our results suggest that super-refugia sites (∼8200 km²) for some natural communities are underrepresented in the existing protected area network, a finding that can inform efforts to expand protected areas. Our case study highlights how considering exposure to multiple stressors can inform planning and practice to conserve biodiversity in a changing world.     

灾后重建土地利用规划环评重点内容解析与实证

在对四川汶川灾后重建土地利用规划环境影响评价区域与评价对象特征进行分析的基础上,对规划实施的主要资源环境制约因素进行了识别与分析,进而分析并确定了其评价要点;结合灾后重建土地规划环评实践工作,对评价重点内容与要点进行了初步应用。     

西北地区生态建设中退耕还林还草与农牧业经营方式的转变：—以内蒙古自治区准格尔旗为例

本文以内蒙古自治区准格尔旗为例,对当前退耕还林还草制度安排中存在的问题进行了分析,认为,西北地区退耕还林还草必须与改造长期占据主导地位的传统农牧业经营方式结合起来,才有可能取得预期的成效;中央政府除了对退耕还林还草进行直接的经济资助外,应为改造传统农牧业经营方式创造良好的外部环境。     

流域开发规划环境影响评价的战略意义——以岷江上游紫坪铺水库工程与都江堰保护问题为例

文章在分析岷江上游水电开发规划与流域环境问题的基础上提出对都江堰美学、经济、文化价值的再认识和对其进行保护的基本要求,讨论了紫坪铺水库工程与都江堰保护的战略抉择问题,并论述了流域开发规划环境影响评价的重要意义。     

评析中国现行环境保护投资体制

本文通过对我国近15年环保投资相关数据的分析,揭示了现行环保投资体制失灵的一个重要因素是结构上失衡,在环保投资中没有体现环保设施运营费用,直接影响了环保投资的效益,其次,一些指标的设计严重偏离了现实,影响了环保投资的有机构成,也导致环境政策的失效,在此基础上,结合实际,提出初步的改革设想。     

美国清洁空气战略规划

为维护和改善空气质量,2003年美国EPA制定了未来5年的清洁空气战略规划,包括室外空气、室内空气、大气改善、辐射防护以及科学研究5个组成部分.EPA的战略规划措施为:①强调与州、地方、部落之间的紧密合作,加大与非政府组织和专业团体间交流;②采取创新的方法制定出有关政策、规章和非规章性措施,包括绩效方法、激励与自愿计划、环境管理系统、提高环境工作者积极性措施等;③继续加大国际间协作,减少越境污染的发生.      

Strategic planning for post-disaster temporary housing

Temporary housing programmes suffer from excessively high cost, late delivery, poor location, improper unit designs and other inherent issues. These issues can be attributed in part to a prevalence of ad hoc tactical planning, rather than pre-disaster strategic planning, for reconstruction undertaken by governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the chaotic post-disaster environment. An analysis of the process and outcomes from six case studies of temporary housing programmes after disasters in Turkey and Colombia in 1999, Japan in 1995, Greece in 1986, Mexico in 1985, and Italy in 1976 yields information about the extent to which strategic planning is employed in temporary housing programmes, as well as common issues in temporary housing. Based on an understanding of these common issues, this paper proposes a framework for strategic planning for temporary housing that identifies organisational designs and available resources for temporary housing before the disaster, but allows modifications to fit the specific post-disaster situation.     

可持续发展与技术创新

加强技术创新 ,大力发展高新技术产业 ,有利于我国可持续发展战略实施。本文阐述了技术创新对提高综合国力竞争、调整产业结构的作用 ,分析了我国技术创新系统存在的问题 ,提出了技术创新及其实现产业化的政策选择。     

湖北水资源现状与可持续利用战略对策

湖北省有十分丰富的过境客水资源,但自产水资源却十分有限,在水资源开发利用中存在许多亟待解决的问题。如地表水污染日趋严重,地下水也存在不容的污染;农业用水占大头,其节水潜力巨大;目前主要是利用地表水,地下水的利用很少;洪涝时时灾害仍然十分严重,并有愈演愈烈的趋势;从长远看,湖北省的水资源问题将主要是污染型短缺的问题;南水北调中线工程将对汉江中下游供水和水质造成不容忽视的影响;在计划体制下形成的水资源