Land-cover changes in an urban lake watershed in a mega-city, Central China

Urbanization can exert a profound influence on land covers and landscape characteristics. In this study, we characterize the impact of urbanization on land cover and lacustrine landscape and their consequences in a large urban lake watershed, Donghu Lake watershed (the largest urban lake in China), Central China, by using Landsat TM satellite images of three periods of 1987, 1993 and 1999 and ground-based information. We grouped the land covers into six categories: water body, vegetable land, forested land, shrub-grass land, open area and urban land, and calculated patch-related landscape indices to analyze the effects of urbanization on landscape features. We overlaid the land cover maps of the three periods to track the land cover change processes. The results indicated that urban land continuously expanded from 9.1% of the total watershed area in 1987, to 19.4% in 1993, and to 29.6% in 1999. The vegetable land increased from 7.0% in 1987, 11.9% in 1993, to 13.9% in 1999 to sustain the demands of vegetable for increased urban population. Concurrently, continuous reduction of other land cover types occurred between 1987 and 1999: water body decreased from 30.4% to 23.8%, and forested land from 33.6% to 24.3%. We found that the expansion of urban land has at least in part caused a decrease in relatively wild habitats, such as urban forest and lake water area. These alterations had resulted in significant negative environmental consequences, including decline of lakes, deterioration of water and air quality, and loss of biodiversity.     

Changes of Land Use and of Ecosystem Service Values in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

Agricultural activities, especially reclamation, are considered major threats to the wetland ecosystems in Sanjiang Plain, the largest concentrated area of the freshwater wetlands in China. In the past decades, the area of the cultivated land and its grain production have been increased at the cost of wetlands shrinkage. The large-scale land reclamation severely affected the ecosystems in this region. However, such effects at the regional scale are seldom evaluated quantitatively. We used three datasets of LANDSAT MSS and/or TM imagery to estimate the area changes and the transition of land use types from 1980 to 2000. We also valued changes in ecosystem services delivered by each land category using value coefficients published by Costanza et al. [Nature 387, 1997, 253–260]. Sensitivity analysis suggested that these estimates were relatively robust. Finally, the contribution of various ecosystem functions was ranked to the overall value of the ecosystem services in this study. According to our estimates, the total annual ecosystem service values in Sanjiang Plain have declined by about 40% between 1980 and 2000 ($156284–182572.18 million in total over 20 years). This substantial decline is largely attributed to the 53.4% loss of wetlands. For individual ecosystem functions, waste treatment, water supply and disturbance regulation account for more than 60% to the total ecological values. During those two decades, the contribution of disturbance regulation, cultural and recreation decreased, while the contribution of water regulation, nutrient cycling, food production, raw materials and climate regulation increased during the same period. We also put forward a few proposals concerning the future land use policy formulation and sustainable ecosystems. They are adjusting the ‘food first’ agricultural policy, establishing more nature reserves for wetlands, creating systems for the rational use of water, harnessing the degraded cultivated land and encouraging eco-tourism.     

中国生态毒理学研究现状

从陆生生态毒理与水生生态毒理两方面综述了我国生态毒理学在近年取得的研究成果。陆生生态毒理包括大气污染物、重金属和有毒有机物对植物影响的生态毒理效应研究及陆生动物生态毒理学研究;水生生态毒理包括化学物质对浮游类生物和鱼虾类生物的生态毒理效应研究及逆境物理因素对水生生物影响的毒理研究。      

我国清洁生产的认识与实践

首先,论述了我国清洁生产的认识形成过程;接着,分析了我国清洁生产的实践及取得的成就;最后,总结出了我国清洁生产实践所得出的结论,并提出了在我国进一步推行清洁生产的几点建议。      

中国台风灾害及其影响的研究

中国是世界上受热带气旋影响最严重的国家之一。本文对影响和登陆中国的热带气旋活动的特征、台风灾害特点及其形成规律作了分析，并讨论了台风灾害对中国社会和经济发展的影响。分析结果指出，影响中国的台风灾害具有发生频率高、突发性强、群发性显著、影响范围广、成灾强度大等特点，这类灾害主要由台风带来的狂风、暴雨、风暴潮及其引发的灾害链所造成。台风灾害不仅造成大批人员伤亡，而且对中国各个经济部门都有严重影响，它所     

Dams and Flows: Immersing in Western Meaning Systems in Search of Ecocultural Reflexivity

In this unprecedented era of anthropogenic ecological destruction, this study illustrates inadequacies in conceptual language available in Western settings to think deeply and holistically about “nature.” At the same time, the study illustrates transformative potential of moments of ecocultural reflexivity. Using free write methodology, we examine ways participants in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia articulate what they mean when they say “nature.” We interpret participant streams of consciousness as representative of a wider Western river-way, a channel of dominant, multiple, and contradictory meanings in continuous movement. We identify conceptual obstructions that provide glimpses into ways Western ecological relations are bounded and dammed by binary, fragmented, and unconsidered meanings. Yet reflexivity in the face of such obstructions, and in potent ecocultural side streams of childhood remembering and ecocentric cosmology, provides some participants a lucid flow of regenerative narratives at a time such shared stories are urgently needed.     

Voluntary emission reduction market in China: development,management status and future supply

The voluntary emission reduction (VER) trading mechanism has played an important role in China’s seven pilot carbon markets. From a comprehensive review of the VER trading and offsetting mechanisms since 2013, this study analyses the quality management of the Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) in the pilot carbon markets, conducts a comparative analysis of the geographical and field distributions of proposed and registered projects and emission reductions and provides the CCER supply outlook for 2020 in the aspects of on record, project registration, emission reduction registration and emission reduction issuance. Results show that the potential number of CCER projects by 2020 will be 2,864, 1,047, 818, and 286 with the corresponding emission reductions amounting to 493, 212, 133, and 49 million tCO₂e, respectively. Although considerable progress has been made, China remains confronted with many challenges in developing the VER trading system. Accordingly, policy stability and continuity and guarding against market risks should be maintained to enable the system to play a substantial role in promoting ecological progress and green low-carbon development in China.     

Review of China’s policy and management system for the paid use of sea area

As a carrier to develop various marine resources, sea area is regulated as a kind of important resources through legislation by many coastal countries with a management system for the paid use of sea area. Since the early 1990s, China has begun to implement the paid use and formed an institutional system comprised of three levels after developing it for more than two decades. From 2002 to 2015, the Chinese Government transferred the use right of sea area of 33,910 km² by paid use and levied a total of 75.89 billion CNY (11.328 billion US dollars) of sea area use payment. Apart from this, the Government has gained rich experience in operating and managing the compensable use of sea area. After retrospectively analyzing the development history of paid use of China’s sea area, the research presents an institutional structure and the implementation of the management system for the paid use of sea area and the main problems therein. On this basis, management policies and feasible policy suggestions are proposed. Research results from this study can provide available references for other developing countries and emerging economies to apply and improve native management system for the paid use of sea area.     

Land institution of China: overall framework,structural evolution,and regulation intensity

China’s land institution can be defined broadly or narrowly. By examining the broad definition of the land institution, we found that there were prerequisite, complementary, and substitutional relationships among the various systems. These relationships were verified through discussion of the structural evolution of each system. Based on these relationships, three methods for quantification were used to measure the regulation intensity and intra-provincial differences in each system among 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China in 2014. The statistics analysis shows that provinces used to pursue outstanding performances in land institution but few provinces could outperform the other provinces in all types of systems. The statistics results also indicate that the provinces which executed land institution earlier often hold significant advantages in institutional innovations but it is still not clear whether they can maintain the advantages. This study recommends that the Chinese government should improve the overall framework of regional land institution based on land systems’ relationships and evolutionary patterns. Furthermore, the government should optimize the spatial distribution of regional land institution based on the intra-provincial differences in land-regulation intensity.     

The sound of one hand clapping: transparency without accountability

Does increasing government transparency in an authoritarian regime, absent electoral forms of accountability, change outcomes? The case of China, which has adopted a number of open governance and public information laws, is examined to see whether increased transparency by local environmental protection bureaus affects key environmental outcomes, specifically reductions in air and water pollution. Several unique environmental performance measurements, developed by the authors, are used to supplement standard government-reported measurements of environmental outcomes, and a widely used environmental transparency index (the PITI). By testing information that is newly supplied to the public, but already available to government, government and public monitoring are distinguished from one another, and the effect of public knowledge of government functions is tested. In the absence of a mechanism for the public to hold local government accountable, public transparency alone has no impact on outcomes other than information provision itself.