The health sector gap in the southern Africa crisis in 2002/2003

The southern Africa crisis represents the first widespread emergency in a region with a mature HIV/AIDS epidemic. It provides a steep learning curve for the international humanitarian system in understanding and responding to the complex interactions between the epidemic and the causes and the effects of this crisis. It also provoked much debate about the severity and causes of this emergency, and the appropriateness of the response by the humanitarian community. The authors argue that the over-emphasis on food aid delivery occurred at the expense of other public health interventions, particularly preventative and curative health services. Health service needs were not sufficiently addressed despite the early recognition that ill-health related to HIV/AIDS was a major vulnerability factor. This neglect occurred because analytical frameworks were too narrowly focused on food security, and large-scale support to health service delivery was seen as a long-term developmental issue that could not easily be dealt with by short-term humanitarian action. Furthermore, there were insufficient countrywide data on acute malnutrition, mortality rates and performance of the public health system to make better-balanced evidence-based decisions. In this crisis, humanitarian organisations providing health services could not assume their traditional roles of short-term assistance in a limited geographical area until the governing authorities resume their responsibilities. However, relegating health service delivery as a long-term developmental issue is not acceptable. Improved multisectoral analytical frameworks that include a multidisciplinary team are needed to ensure all aspects of public health are dealt with in similar future emergencies. Humanitarian organisations must advocate for improved delivery and access to health services in this region. They can target limited geographical areas with high mortality and acute malnutrition rates to deliver their services. Finally, to address the underlying problem of the health sector gap, a long-term strategy to ensure improved and sustainable health sector performance can only be accomplished with truly adequate resources. This will require renewed efforts on part of governments, donors and the international community. Public health interventions, complementing those addressing food insecurity, were and are still needed to reduce the impact of the crisis, and to allow people to re-establish their livelihoods. These will increase the population's resilience to prevent or mitigate future disasters.     

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.     

The legacy of large dams in the United States

The sustainability of large dams has been questioned on several grounds. One aspect that has been less explored is that the development of dams and reservoirs often enables agricultural expansion and urban growth, which in turn increase water consumption. As such, dam development influences, while being influenced by, the spatial and temporal distribution of both supply and demand of water resources. In this paper, we explore the interplay between large dams, patterns of population growth and agricultural expansion in the United States over the past two centuries. Based on a large-scale analysis of spatial and temporal trends, we identify three distinct phases, in which different processes dominated the interplay. Then, we focus on agricultural water use in the Southwest region (Arizona, California and Nevada) and explore chicken-and-egg dynamics where water supply partly meets and partly fuels water demand. Lastly, we show that the legacy of dams in the United States consists of a lock-in condition characterized by high levels of water consumption, especially in the Southwest, which leads to severe water crises and groundwater overexploitation when droughts occur.     

Navigating the authority paradox: Practising objectivity in environmental expertise

We empirically reveal how environmental experts interpret the objectivity norm while navigating the authority paradox. The paradox here is that while there is a need for objective scientific advice, such advice is only to be acquired from experts and expert agencies whose objectivity and, hence, authority are contested. Viewed through the lens of practice, we identify what practitioners at the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency understand by objectivity. Using this paradigmatic case, we show how practitioners renegotiate the meaning of objectivity while seeking to engage with new policy actors and extended peers in an independent, rigorous and legitimate manner. Successfully navigating the authority paradox is related to skilfully representing and adapting to various meanings of objectivity. Experts and experts agencies accordingly need reflexive skills to recognise which meanings of objectivity they ascribe to and which ones are invoked in public debates. Environmental experts who are able to loosely connect diverse objectivity conceptions are more likely considered as trustworthy and authoritative partners in environmental science-policy interfaces.     

我国沿海城市的生态危机与调控机制 --以长江三角洲城市群为例

本文以长江三角洲城市群为例。研究了我国沿海城市的生态危机、剖析了生态危机的根源并提出了调控机制。由于沿海城市的生态问题存在着较大的共性。本文提出的措施对其他沿海城市解决生态危机也有一定借鉴作用。     

论长江流域生态危机与生态建设的对策

揭示了长江流域大面积山丘、水系生态系统普遍恶化,特别是中上游地区水土流失严重,以及因此而带来的一系列严重后果。根据史料、统计资料及实测成果等,分析了生态环境恶化的原因,着重研究了水土流失等生态失调现象与森林植被的紧密关系及其演变规律,探讨了进行绿色生态建设的必要性、可能性与可行性。最后提出了建设长江流域防护林体系的宏观战略和微观措施。     

A “RATIONAL” POLICY FOR THE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES1

ABSTRACT: The present energy and environmental crises are due to increasing per capita demands as well as increasing populations. The role that traditional pricing policies have played in promoting these demands is discussed. The reduction or stabilizing of per capita demands is advocated through the use of Conservational Pricing mechanisms which charge higher average prices for high consumption. An example of the effect of Conservational Pricing in the water supply industry is given.     

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。