俄罗斯环境管理问题所引发的法律思考

对俄罗斯的环境管理观念，相关环境法律规定的生态化要求，联邦及联邦各主体两级关系协调化以及环境管理手段的经济化与多样化倾向等问题作了着重分析，并鉴于中俄在历史上社会与经济制度的关联性及正处经济转轨的共同性，希望通过比较中俄两国在历史和现实发展中存在的异同与联系，以求能为我国进一步的环境管理立法提供借鉴性的思考。     

Indicators of visual scale as predictors of landscape preference; a comparison between groups

Landscape change alters the visual scale of agricultural landscapes, as production units get larger and strips of taller vegetation are removed between smaller units. Visual scale, defined as the perceptual units reflecting the experience of landscape rooms, visibility and openness, is considered a key factor shaping landscape preference. The visual expression of landscapes affects people in many ways; aesthetic appreciation, health and well being. In order to understand how landscape changes alter the visual scale of landscapes, and hence its effect on human beings, it is important to establish efficient and practical ways of measuring visual scale and its relation to landscape preferences. This paper presents an empirical test of the ability to predict landscape preference of two photo-based indicators of visual scale; percentage open land in the view and size of landscape rooms. A preference survey was conducted with two groups of respondents; a student group from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) and a public group. The student group was chosen to represent future landscape professionals. Photos of landscapes varying in the expression of visual scale were shown to survey respondents, who were asked to give scores according to how much they liked the landscapes. Both indicators were found to be predictors of preference for the student group, but not for the public group. The results demonstrate that student preferences do not reflect the landscape preferences of the wider public. The different appreciation of visual scale in the landscape of future landscape professionals and the public implies that experts wanting to reflect preferences of the wider public should be cautious when evaluating the visual impact of landscape change.     

Neighborhood satisfaction,physical and perceived naturalness and openness

This study examined neighborhood satisfaction in relation to naturalness and openness. It used Geographic Information System (GIS) and Landsat satellite imagery to physically measure the environmental attributes. Through path analysis it examined the relationship among the attributes, resident ratings of those environmental attributes, their satisfaction with them, and their overall neighborhood satisfaction (n = 725). We expected overall neighborhood satisfaction to relate to the resident's ratings of the environmental attributes and to the physical measures of them. The path model showed that overall neighborhood satisfaction was associated directly with the physical measure of building density and indirectly with the physical measure of vegetation rate through perception and evaluation of them. The perceptions and evaluations of the attributes related to one another. With refinements, GIS and Landsat data geo-related to survey data can offer a powerful tool for understanding the complex nature of neighborhood satisfaction and behavior.     

西部城镇化、能源消费与碳排放的动态关系研究

通过西部11省、市、自治区1997~2012年面板数据,对西部地区城镇化、贸易开放、经济增长、能源消费与碳排放之间的动态关系进行了研究。使用3种面板单位根检验方法,结果显示:所有变量都是一阶单整;Pedroni和Kao协整检验表明变量之间存在协整关系;通过FMOLS估计方法进行回归,结果发现经济增长、能源消费、贸易开放都对CO2排放产生正的影响;西部地区GDP平方与CO2的关系符合环境库兹涅茨曲线特征;城镇化对CO2产生负的影响。格兰杰因果关系检验显示,短期内,GDP、贸易开放是CO2的单向格兰杰原因;能源消费、城镇化是CO2的双向格兰杰原因;能源消费、贸易开放是GDP的双向格兰杰原因;贸易开放是能源消费的双向格兰杰原因。存在误差修正机制,当系统在短期内偏离长期均衡时,5个变量在调整过程中能发挥重要作用,使其重新回到均衡状态。最后,提出政策建议。     

Understanding the functional principles of nature—Proposing another type of ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are usually interpreted as a free of charge “favour” provided to us and our society by nature. In other words, nature supplies us with a functionality that we would otherwise have to pay for. Our cost would be to provide resources either (1) to ensure the necessary inputs to drive our society, or (2) to assist in counteracting, absorbing or remediating unwanted effects that are results of our societal activities. Through ecosystem studies it has been found that a substantial part of the functionality of nature is laid out in all types of components—the compartments of the ecosystems together with the transactional interrelations (flows) and controls between them. Eventually, many so-called indicators have been proposed during the last decades. Such measures are dedicated to tell us about the quality side of ecosystem functionality, e.g. to tell us how well the system performs relatively to a theoretical maximum efficiency possible. As an additional hypothesis, such functions are thought to orient the systems and thus increase through time development, i.e. to be optimised under the given the constraints, through the evolution of the system. Recently is has been pointed out that natural and societal systems share the feature of being complex in their organisation. Meanwhile, it was remarked that societal systems in many ways evolved in opposite direction of how natural evolution would drive an ecosystem. Many philosophers of biology have stated that biological systems posses information and memory functions which improve their long-term capability to survive. This information is believed to be contained in the organisational structures of the system as much as in its gene pool. If we accept such arguments it means that studies of organisation and function of natural systems will provide us with another type of ecosystem services. This would namely give us information about in what direction to drive society in order to achieve a more sustainable system.