PROCEDURES FOR THE EVALUATION OF ENGINEERING ALTERNATIVES1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a method of analyzing the nonquantifiable parameters which should be considered in the evaluation of engineering alternatives. The nonquantifiable parameters can include environmental impact, feasibility of implementation, and performance. The method considers rating all the alternatives on the basis of a set of criteria which reflect these parameters. A procedure is discussed for obtaining review and guidance in the evaluation of engineering alternatives from the local elected officials or governing bodies and for obtaining the views and desires of the local communities. This is achieved through the formation of project review committees and an evaluation procedure which allows for the technical rating of alternatives by the engineer and the weighing of the evaluation criteria by the political and social groups. With the growing environmental concern and the high cost of engineering projects, the involvement of the public during the evaluation of engineering projects is becoming increasingly important to the final success of the project.     

FARMERS’ATTITUDES TOWARD GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN PREVENTING AGRICULTURAL NONPOINT SOURCE WATER POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Concern over the pollution of our lakes and streams has become a major issue in the United States. Sedimentation from sigricultural lands has been identified as a significant factor in water pollution. Some citizens suggest that government should force compliance with soil loss standards, while others suggest that we ask farmers to voluntarily comply. Related questions are “DO farmers think government should be involved in controlling erosion and protecting water quality?”“To what extent should government be involved?” What level of government should be involved? Federal? State? Local?“Why should pay for water quality projects?” Farmers from a small watershed in northeastern Indiana were interviewed before and after a major demonstration project. Their responses suggest that farmers feel that individual landowners should be responsible for controlling erosion and agricultural nonpoint source water pollution. However, over 60 percent of the study fanners indicated that the federal government should play an important role, in terms of both technical and financial assistance.     

Multi-level water governance – the case of the Morsa River Basin in Norway

Management of fresh water resources meets a range of often conflicting interests. Waterways usually run across political and administrative borders and hence make management difficult and collective action politically challenging. In order to meet these challenges, multi-level bioregional approaches to water management have been called for. Such an approach is institutionalised in the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper presents the experiences of the Morsa water sub-district in southern Norway, a pilot for implementing the WFD. The paper discusses Morsa in the light of four principles for multi-level water governance: management on a bioregional scale; polycentric governance; public participation; and an experimental approach to water governance. Contrary to widely held assumptions that collective action in polycentric networks will be difficult because actors will follow their own narrow interests, the findings demonstrate how this is not an absolute truth, and how social action cannot be fully explained by rational action theories. The analysis concludes that the relative success of Morsa relates to a complex of factors, including openness of practices and active involvement of key actors, strong but including leadership, and a knowledge based ‘hybrid’ type of multi-level network combining horizontal and vertical network governance.     

Thinking with salmon about rain tanks: commons as intra-actions

The construction of California's large waterworks was inextricably entangled with a discourse of progress through technoscientific control over unruly rivers. In recent years, a turn towards decentralised governance and diversified infrastructure has produced alternate discourses of human–ecological collaboration and water as a commons. I investigate how water is understood by residents along Salmon Creek (Sonoma Co., CA) engaged in efforts to increase streamflow and restore salmon runs. Drawing on Barad's theory of agential realism, I find that living with springs and rainwater harvesting cisterns enacts intra-actions that increase residents' sense of interdependence with other human and nonhuman watershed residents. I argue that commons frameworks represent a coherent alternative to state and market frameworks of water governance.     

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation at the local level

National authorities in many countries aim at having climate change adaptation mainstreamed into existing policy domains in order to achieve coherence and synergies, and to avoid mal-adaptation. Because of local variations in climate change impacts, the lion's share of climate adaptation work will have to take place at the local level. This means also that the mainstreaming process needs to occur locally. This article examines the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into existing sectors in five Norwegian municipalities. Applying theories of mainstreaming and policy integration we find that policy development is slower, but perhaps more robust in the municipalities that have chosen a horizontal, cross-sectoral approach to mainstreaming than in the municipalities that have chosen a vertical sector approach to mainstreaming.     

(Dis)connected communities and sustainable place-making

Why, despite a recent surge in the UK in “sustainable communities” policy discourse, do so many community-led sustainability initiatives remain fragmented, marginal and disconnected from local government strategies? How can community- and government-led sustainability initiatives be better integrated such that they add significantly to a denser matrix and cluster of sustainable places? These questions, we argue, lie at the heart of current sustainable place-making debates. With particular reference to two spatial scales of analysis and action, the small town of Stroud, England and the city of Cardiff, Wales, we explore the twin processes of disconnection and connection between community sustainability activists and local state actors. We conclude that whilst there will always remain a need for community groups to protect the freedom which comes from acting independently, for community activists and policy-makers alike, there are nevertheless a series of mutual benefits to be had from co-production. However, in setting out these benefits we also emphasise the dual need for local government to play a much more nuanced, integrative and facilitatory role, in addition to, but separate from, its more traditional regulatory role.     

Adapting to changing climate risk by local government in New Zealand: institutional practice barriers and enablers

Adaptation to climate change has been reviewed in several developed nations, but in none where consideration of the effects of climate change is required by statute and devolved to local government. We examine the role of institutional arrangements, the players operating under them, the barriers and enablers for adaptation decision-making in the developed nation of New Zealand. We examine how the roles and responsibilities between national, regional and local governments influence the ability of local government to deliver long-term flexible responses to changing climate risk. We found that the disciplinary practices of law, engineering and planning, within legal frameworks, result in the use of static mechanisms which create inflexible responses to changing risk. Several enablers are identified that could create greater integration between the different scales of government, including better use of national policy instruments, shared professional experience, standardised information collection and risk assessment methods that address uncertainties. The framing of climate risk as dynamic and changing that differentiates activities over their lifetime, development of mechanisms to fund transitions towards transformational change, are identified as necessary conditions for delivering flexible responses over time.     

中国污染物总量减排数据核算体系研究

"十一五"期间,中国对COD和SO2两种污染物开展总量减排工作,预期指标超额完成。"十一五"期间构建起来的总量减排数据核算体系为中央政府提供了相对准确的减排数据,是减排取得成功的基础。本文通过研究减排数据核算体系来对总量减排的成功进行制度性解释。本文采用文本分析和实地调研的方法,描述了中国减排数据核算体系的组织机构及其基本职责,整理出了自下而上的数据生成、流动机制和自上而下的数据核查、反馈机制,归纳出总量减排数据核算体系相较于传统环境统计的基本特征:一是设立了区域督查中心和各级总量控制部门等专门的组织机构;二是数据的双向流动机制,中央拥有对减排数据的审核权和最终确定权,并且会将正式确定后的数据逐级反馈给地方政府并应用于上级政府对下级政府的行政考核当中去;三是在数据核算中采用环境监测数据,并因此进行了全国范围的环境监测能力建设;四是减排工作全过程数据核算。这些新特征使得中国减排数据核算体系得以提升减排数据质量,对地方政府可能的违规行为进行约束;将减排绩效与地方政府考核相结合,通过政治激励促进地方政府开展减排工作;加强地方政府环境监管能力,保障减排工作的开展和完成。但现有数据核算体系仍然存在监测数据利用不到位而导致行政成本较高、减排量核算细则"一刀切"导致政策公平性缺失等亟需改进完善的问题。     

成都市臭氧重污染成因与来源解析

采用来源解析的方法对2020年成都市发生的一次较为严重的臭氧污染事件进行了研究.结果表明,此次污染过程呈现从清洁-污染-清洁的变化趋势,污染持续时间长达9d,最大臭氧小时浓度达到258.8μg/m3.气象因素在成都臭氧污染中的影响不可忽略,其中温度与臭氧浓度呈现显著正相关关系,东北风主要出现在污染前和污染后,可能起到稀...     

铝及铝合金在自然水环境中的腐蚀行为对比研究

目的 分析研究铝及铝合金在自然水环境中的腐蚀行为。方法 通过开展LM3纯铝、5083铝、LF6M去包铝及带包铝在淡海水交替、海水及淡水自然环境下2 a的暴露试验,将3种环境下材料的腐蚀形貌、腐蚀速率进行对比。总结4种铝及铝合金材料在不同水环境下的腐蚀规律,对其腐蚀机理进行简要的探讨,并对其长周期的腐蚀行为进行预测。结果 通过对4种材料局部腐蚀协同影响因子(b)的对比可以发现,淡水环境对LM3纯铝局部腐蚀的影响最大,淡海水环境对5083铝合金局部腐蚀影响最大,淡水及淡海水环境对2种LF6M铝合金材料局部腐蚀的影响都很大。结论 5083、LF6M带包铝及去包铝,在淡海水交替自然环境下的耐蚀性能最差,LM3纯铝在淡水环境下耐蚀性能最差。