Urban sustainability – a segmentation study of Greater Brisbane,Australia

Setting universal goals for sustainability is problematic and may hinder the adoption of sustainable pathways as different sectors of society often have differing opinions on not just what sustainability means for them, but also what is of priority to them. This paper tests a set of psychographic, behavioural, lifestyle and social identities to segment the public on sustainability. We evaluate general knowledge, apply social-choice tools to identify public priorities, and then apply segmentation to reveal broad strata of community profiles around these choices. We discuss our findings in the context of moving beyond knowledge on sustainability and general public choices, to more nuanced messaging and engagement that respects differences in sustainability orientations. We suggest that by focusing on what matters most for different segments of society, there is potential to design effective processes to engage with people and acquire better ownership of sustainability.     

环境分权、市场分割与碳排放

中国有着庞大的环境管理队伍以及巨大的国内市场,科学的环境管理制度以及高度一体化的国内市场将深刻改变碳排放格局,然而,已有研究对于这些影响碳排放的体制性因素既缺乏足够的理论分析也缺乏实证检验。有鉴于此,本文首先分析了环境分权和市场分割影响碳排放的理论机理,并提出了三个理论假设,进一步地,本文以环境管理人员在不同层级政府的配置衡量环境分权度,以相对价格法衡量市场分割程度,基于1995-2012年的省际面板数据,从实证层面检验了环境分权和市场分割对碳排放的影响效应。结果显示:环境分权和市场分割都显著地加剧了碳排放,原因在于分权的环境管理体制安排扭曲了激励,无法对碳排放形成真实有效的约束,而市场分割则恶化了碳排放在区域间的配置效率。同时,环境分权与市场分割对碳排放的共同影响作用上存在互补效应,即环境分权程度越高,市场分割对碳排放的负面影响效应越大,反之,市场分割程度越高,环境分权对碳排放的负面影响效应也越大。这主要是由于环境分权与市场分割是地方政府一对互补的策略行为,在环境分权较高的地区,地方政府进行市场分割的能力越强,而在市场分割较高的地区,地方政府争取环境事务管理权的动力越强。因此,在既定的碳排放约束下,中央政府一方面需要适度集中环境事务管理权限,进一步优化环境事务管理机构设置以及人员队伍在不同层级政府间的配置,提高对碳排放的管控效率,另一方面需要打通省际壁垒,加快区域市场一体化建设,优化碳排放的区域配置,提高碳排放效率。     

基于自动种子区域生长的火焰分割算法

在存在壁面反射的低照度火灾环境中,传统的火焰分割算法如颜色分割、运动检测等,在进行火焰分割时造成过分割现象,分割的效果不理想,影响后续的火灾正确识别。针对上述问题,提出了一种基于自动种子区域生长(Automatic Seeded Region Growing,ASRG)的火焰分割算法。首先将从火灾视频中获取的火灾图像从RGB颜色空间转换到YCbCr颜色空间,在Y通道中采用较大自适应阈值背景减法将火灾图像二值化,分别将可疑火焰像素点的横坐标和纵坐标按大小进行排序,取排序后的中间值作为种子点,再由原RGB火灾图像转换而成的灰度图像中,以该种子点进行区域生长,最后将区域生长后的火焰分割图像与采用较小自适应阈值背景减法得到的火焰分割图像进行交集处理,得到最终的火焰分割图像。实验表明ASRG算法在存在壁面反射的低照度火灾环境中,火焰分割效果好,有效解决了该环境下的火焰过分割问题,同时在其他火灾环境中也有较好的火焰分割效果。     

“Science is Everywhere,but No One Knows It”: Assessing the Cultural Distance to Science of Rural South African Publics

ABSTRACT

In science communication, a prerequisite for reaching different parts of a society is to find out how these publics experience and interpret science. Since rural South African publics are perceived to exhibit a large cultural distance to science, the present exploratory study aimed to know in more detail how rural South Africans perceive and understand science in their local and social contexts. Theoretical notions on cultural distance and the methodological approach of segmentation studies were considered. Semi-structured interviews with rural South Africans were carried out in four towns (n?=?52) that differ with respect to having a large scientific installation in their vicinity, or not. Sensitively comparing local and social contexts helped identifying three different publics who differed regarding their perceptions of science; however, the large scientific installations only made a difference in perceptions for those publics who were generally less exposed to and less knowledgeable about science.     

Between Active Seekers and Non-Users: Segments of Science-related Media Usage in Switzerland and Germany

ABSTRACT

Citizens’ attitudes toward science are related to their use of science-related information from various sources. Evidence is scarce regarding citizens’ individual media repertoires for staying informed about science as segmentation studies so far have primarily focused on scientific attitudes. In this paper, we explore audience segments regarding their science-related information behavior and whether such segments are comparable or vary between two countries with similar information environments. Based on two surveys in Switzerland and Germany, we identify national audience segments that differ in their science-related information repertoires, and analyze their sociodemographic characteristics and science-related attitudes. In both countries, we find very comparable information user segments ranging from those who inform themselves frequently about science (“Active Seekers”/“Science Consumers”) to those who hardly get in contact with any information about science and research (“Non-Users”). Those segments which get in contact with information about science frequently show generally more positive attitudes.     

人口学特征和动机偏好双重视角的入境游客市场细分研究——西安市的实证研究

基于SPSS16.0社会科学统计软件,采用单因素方差分析法和均值比较法,从9项内驱力指标和9项吸引力指标入手,对游客性别、年龄、学历水平等人口学特征与旅游动机之间的差异关系进行了定量分析。作为实证研究,以国家自然科学基金项目组在西安市开展市场调查获取的第一手数据为依据,从人口学特征和旅游动机双重视角,细分了西安市的入境客源市场,并据此提出针对性的客源市场开发方案,旨在为入境旅游市场的开发拓展提供理论借鉴和技术支持。     

Predicting Opportunities for Greening and Patterns of Vegetation on Private Urban Lands

This paper examines predictors of vegetative cover on private lands in Baltimore, Maryland. Using high-resolution spatial data, we generated two measures: “possible stewardship,” which is the proportion of private land that does not have built structures on it and hence has the possibility of supporting vegetation, and “realized stewardship,” which is the proportion of possible stewardship land upon which vegetation is growing. These measures were calculated at the parcel level and averaged by US Census block group. Realized stewardship was further defined by proportion of tree canopy and grass. Expenditures on yard supplies and services, available by block group, were used to help understand where vegetation condition appears to be the result of current activity, past legacies, or abandonment. PRIZM™ market segmentation data were tested as categorical predictors of possible and realized stewardship and yard expenditures. PRIZM™ segmentations are hierarchically clustered into 5, 15, and 62 categories, which correspond to population density, social stratification (income and education), and lifestyle clusters, respectively. We found that PRIZM 15 best predicted variation in possible stewardship and PRIZM 62 best predicted variation in realized stewardship. These results were further analyzed by regressing each dependent variable against a set of continuous variables reflective of each of the three PRIZM groupings. Housing age, vacancy, and population density were found to be critical determinants of both stewardship metrics. A number of lifestyle factors, such as average family size, marriage rates, and percentage of single-family detached homes, were strongly related to realized stewardship. The percentage of African Americans by block group was positively related to realized stewardship but negatively related to yard expenditures.     

一种改进的帧差法实现火焰目标分割

针对传统船舶火灾报警系统采用的传感器在远离火灾源时很难探测到初期火灾的特性,提出了利用摄像头模式识别的方法来探测火源的构想,将顶置鱼眼摄像头作为图像传感器,在一个较大的范围内探测初期火灾,提出了一种基于火焰闪点位置的交叉性与聚合性的帧差算法,实现火焰目标分割识别.该方法是在实时视频流中,对连续两帧图像进行帧差,根据闪点位置的交叉性排除运动物体的干扰,再根据闪点的聚合程度排除一部分游离的干扰闪点,最后得到疑似火焰区域.对疑似火焰区域二值化、抽取轮廓、再由种子点位置确定火焰外形.此法能够高效地从视频图像中分割出火焰,从而为火灾的初期预防报警提供高效识别手段.     

一种HSI空间基于模糊聚类的火灾彩色图像分割算法

针对通用模糊聚类算法进行彩色图像分割存在对初值敏感,迭代过程耗时等问题,在HSI空间结合火焰图像分布特征,采用平均值法进行初值优选,构造抑制算子和抑制因数对火焰无关区域S和I分量进行有效抑制,采用直方图聚类后进行数据融合等方式,最终实现彩色火灾图像分割。实验表明,该算法提高了彩色火灾图像分割的准确性和收敛速度。     

基于U-Net深度神经网络的早期火灾烟雾自动分割方法

在火灾事件监测中,为了减少数据处理量、加快探测速度,需要先分割出疑似烟雾区域。传统的烟雾分割算法大多需要设置阈值进行处理,算法的环境适应能力还需进一步提升。在研究中,使用U-Net结构的深度神经网络进行早期火灾烟雾的自动分割,通过半自动算法人工辅助分割出烟雾区域的图像样本,基于深度神经网络对分割烟雾区域进行学习,得到原始视频帧到分割结果的映射模型,并据此模型进行烟雾区域分割。在测试集上的分割实验结果表明该方法与传统方法相比,不需要设置阈值,自动化程度更高,分割速度极快,在疑似烟雾区域分割任务中性能较好。