Rethinking urban water management: Experimentation as a way forward?     

M. Farrelly  R. Brown 《Global Environmental Change》2011,21(2):721-732

There is widespread acceptance regarding the need to transition towards more sustainable urban water practices. Supporting such a transition requires new governance frameworks that can accommodate complexity and uncertainty, and organisational cultures that embrace experimentation and learning. This empirically focused research paper examines how eleven, alternative local-scale experiments were initiated while operating in an unsympathetic regime. Furthermore, the perceptions of more than 150 urban water practitioners across Australia are presented, regarding the importance of and difficulty in undertaking experimentation in the urban water sector, and the necessary mechanisms for influencing a step change to sustainable urban water management practices. Interviewees revealed perceived limitations in experimenting with new technologies and practices when operating within a hierarchical and market-based governance paradigm. Also, industry conservatism and the dominant risk-based management approach both operate as significant constraints to promoting an experimentation culture, and are closely related to concerns about public health and financial implications. Overall, the research highlights the Australian urban water sector is willing to embrace learning-by-doing; however, a stronger emphasis on promoting an organisational and industry-wide culture of experimentation and learning is required. Policy implications for future water governance are discussed.  相似文献   

Toward policy integration: Assessing carbon capture and storage policies in Japan and Norway     

Atsushi Ishii  Oluf Langhelle 《Global Environmental Change》2011,21(2):358-367

The objective of this paper is to develop independent and systematic criteria for assessing CCS policy in terms of its level of policy integration. We believe that we should assess CCS policy in terms of the distance to an ideal integrated CCS policy in order to keep track of its trajectory toward sustainable development. After reviewing the existing literature of environmental policy integration, an assessment framework for integrated CCS policy is developed based on Arild Underdal's notion of ‘integrated policy’ then, its usefulness is demonstrated by applying it to CCS policies in Japan and Norway. In the final part, we summarize the findings of the cases and conclude with some observations regarding explanatory factors of the difference in terms of the achieved level of policy integration between Japan and Norway's CCS policies, and some policy implications derived from the analysis based on the framework.  相似文献   

宁夏水资源现状、问题及对策     

闫晓红  段汉明  吴斐 《地下水》2011,(1):117-118

宁夏地处西北内陆干旱地区,水资源极为匮乏,属于重度缺水区,从城市发展和水资源危机的角度出发对宁夏省水资源现状进行研究,以期为宁夏城市可持续发展提供依据.宁夏在开发利用中,主要存在水资源供需矛盾突出、防洪抗灾体系不完善、农村水利基础设施薄弱、水土流失、水污染等水环境问题严重、制约水利发展的体制性和机制性障碍问题还比较突出...  相似文献   

Contextual factors influencing sustainable fisheries in Mexico     

Alejandro Espinoza-Tenorio  Ileana Espejel  Matthias Wolff  José Alberto Zepeda-Domínguez 《Marine Policy》2011

Sustainable fisheries take into consideration that managed fisheries ecosystems shift over time in response to evolving environmental as well as market and political factors. These contextual forces are especially valuable in understanding developing countries such as Mexico, where the unconsolidated fisheries administration faces productive marine ecosystems but unsustainable fisheries. To recognize the issues that have inhibited the consolidation of a regulatory system for sustainable fisheries, a contextual factor analysis was applied to the co-development of two current policies in the Mexican fishery regime: fisheries and environmental policies. Six historical phases have been identified in which there are few long periods of stability and frequent short periods of radical change that alternate between stable and adverse contextual situations. These short and contrasting contextual situations cause a kind of tug-of-war in Mexican fisheries policy-making. On the one hand, domestic economic, scientific, and technological forces seem to slowly lead toward the consolidation of sustainable fisheries; on the other hand, domestic policies drift from one position to another at other timing than the international fisheries and environmental policies. Although recent crises seem to highlight new periods of radical change in Mexico, they also provide an opportunity to adopt new structural plans to consolidate domestic forces as a basis for long-term strategies.  相似文献   

中国西部流域水循环研究进展与展望   总被引：35，自引：5，他引：35  

夏军  孙雪涛  谈戈 《地球科学进展》2003,18(1):58-067

由于中国西部水文循环的地区特性、生态系统的脆弱性和社会经济发展对水资源需求的增加,使得中国西部开发面临十分现实和严峻的水资源问题。从中国西部流域水循环的特点及存在的问题出发,探讨了中国西部流域水循环研究基础科学问题。同时,对21世纪中国西部流域水循环科学问题的研究进行了展望。核心的方面是：自然变化和人类活动影响的西北干旱地区水资源演变规律是什么？在西部生态环境建设中如何估算生态需水量？西北干旱地区的水资源究竟能够承载多大规模的社会经济发展需求？如何合理分配与调控水资源,最大限度地发挥其潜力,促进该地区社会经济的可持续发展？  相似文献   

乌蒙山区生物资源持续历史的启示与保护发展的方向   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

赵光材 《地球科学进展》2003,18(6):954-959

乌蒙山区属古热带北缘,是海陆变迁的海岸线,生物演化至今,造就了丰富的生物资源。人类活动以来,历经了自取自用-半农耕-坝区开发-山区开发的历史时期。由于该区是多民族居住区,又处于国家统一、巩固西南边疆、通向边区的交通要道上,较先进的中原农耕方式最先在此试用。明、清两个朝代的移民与经营,全面开始了生物资源的利用。历代各族人民在适应生存的实践中,找到了持续稳定地增长和利用生物资源的方法。这些,既充满了对自然规律的认识和利用,也为进一步发展提供了技术支持。该区在长江和珠江上游的分水岭上,只有以生态建设为基础,施行保护优先于开发的持续生物资源利用,才能发挥持续性和获得最大效益。概述了上述问题,在生物资源可持续经营上,简要提出了需要研究的基础科学问题和培育新产业的几个方向,并探讨了适应今后持续发展的管理问题。  相似文献   

Using a groundwater quality negotiation support system to change land-use management near a drinking-water abstraction in the Netherlands     

Cors van den Brink  Willem Jan Zaadnoordijk  Bas van der Grift  Peter C. de Ruiter  Jasper Griffioen 《Journal of Hydrology》2008,350(3-4):339-356

A negotiation support system (NSS) was developed to solve groundwater conflicts that arose during land-use management. It was set up in cooperation with the stakeholders involved to provide information on the impact of land use, e.g., agriculture, nature (forested areas), recreation, and urban areas, on the quality of both infiltrating and abstracted groundwater. This NSS combined simulation programs that calculate (1) the concentrations of nitrate in shallow groundwater for each land-use area and (2) the transport of nitrate in the groundwater-saturated zone. The user interface of the NSS enabled scenario analyses. The NSS was validated at a drinking-water abstraction near Holten (the Netherlands) using a spatial planning process aimed at sustainable land-use and groundwater-resource management. Two land-use scenarios were considered: a base scenario reflecting the autonomous development and an adapted land-use scenario. The calculated results for shallow groundwater provided an explicit spatial overview of the impact of historical land use and N application on the quality of abstracted groundwater as well as insight into the impact of changes in land use and N application. Visualization of the conflicting interests of agriculture and the drinking-water abstraction helped all stakeholders accept the necessary changes in land use identified by the adapted land-use scenario of the NSS. These changes were included in the preferred land-use management option in the regional planning process, which has since been formalized. The NSS provided system insight, scoping analyses, and education, in addition to generating quantitative information on the impact of land-use functions on groundwater quality.  相似文献   

How good is good? Human values and Europe's proposed Marine Strategy Directive   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Mee LD  Jefferson RL  Laffoley Dd  Elliott M 《Marine pollution bulletin》2008,56(2):187-204

The adoption of the proposed European Marine Strategy Directive is an opportunity for a comprehensive policy for protecting, improving and sustainably using Europe's environmentally degraded seas. It calls for an ecosystem-based approach to management where humans are regarded as a key system component. Although the proposed wording has been the subject of fierce debate, the central policy goal remains achieving "Good Environmental Status". The interpretation of "good" is key to implementation and relates to human values and worldviews. We demonstrate how these vary widely across Europe. Solution of fundamental considerations such as the assignation of reference states, the balance between precautionary and evidence-based action, the degree of subsidiarity, and conservation strategies including marine protected areas, will ultimately depend upon public understanding, involvement in and support for the Directive. The social element, critical to effective adaptive management, requires greater attention within the context of a regional seas geographical framework.  相似文献   

A critical review of groundwater budget myth, safe yield and sustainability   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Yangxiao Zhou   《Journal of Hydrology》2009,370(1-4):207-213

The principle of water balance is well known, but its application often causes controversy. One recent debate is the use of the water balance equation to determine the safe yield and sustainable yield. Two extreme opinions exist on natural groundwater recharge. One misconception is that the development of groundwater is considered to be safe if the pumping rate does not exceed the rate of natural recharge. Another is that the sustainable pumping rate has nothing to do with natural recharge, but depends on the increased recharge and decreased discharge (called capture) induced by pumping. The truth is that both the natural recharge and dynamic development of the capture determine the safe yield or sustainable yield of a groundwater basin. This paper clarifies the water budget controversy and uses the water balance equation to critically analyse the concepts of safe yield and sustainable yield. Numerical simulation of a hypothetical case was used to demonstrate the natural groundwater balance, effects of pumping and the dynamic development of the capture.  相似文献   

Sustainable Chemical Technologies in Production of Clean Fuels from Fossil Fuels     

Marian Taniewski 《洁净——土壤、空气、水》2008,36(4):393-398

Some aspects of the present and the possible future role of sustainable chemical technologies in the production of clean liquid and gaseous fuels from fossil fuels are discussed. The state‐of‐the‐art and the vision of possible sources and alternative routes which may lead to clean fuels from fossil fuels due to the progress in crude oil, natural gas and coal processing are briefly presented. The possible future role of the Fischer‐Tropsch synthesis, methanol synthesis, dimethylether synthesis, and a group of methanol transformation processes is also discussed.  相似文献