农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付额度研究——基于选择实验法的生态外溢视角

农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付是调整农田保护和农地发展之间利益关系的重要环境经济政策,对于实现区域生态环境保护和经济发展之间的相协调具有重要意义。以武汉城市圈为例证,基于生态外溢的视角,运用选择实验法计算基于市民支付意愿的农田生态补偿标准,并修正得到武汉城市圈42个县(市、区)的农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付标准介于683.10~6 169.60元/hm~2之间。进一步依据粮食安全法将武汉城市圈42个县(市、区)划分为17个支付区和25个受偿区,得到各县(市、区)的农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付面积。最后依据农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付标准和农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付面积计算出武汉城市圈地方政府县(市、区)间农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付额度的绝对值总和为44.03亿元。研究结果可为农田生态补偿横向财政转移支付体系的构建提供初步的政策建议。     

农田生态补偿方式的选择及市场运作——基于武汉市383户农户问卷的实证研究

选择交易成本低、具有操作性的补偿方式,实现农田生态产品的市场运作,是农田生态补偿制度实施的关键。利用问卷调查资料,分析了武汉市农户对不同农田生态补偿方式的认知、选择以及其影响因素,在此基础上指出了政府补偿方式在农田生态补偿领域的缺陷及引进市场方式的建议。研究表明:(1)武汉市农户对农田生态补偿的认知程度较低,仅有10.71%的受访农户听说过生态补偿、生态危机等概念;(2)49.02%农户对现行的现金补偿方式不太满意,认为补偿金额太低,94.65%的受访者更倾向于接受更高额度的现金补偿方式;(3)农户对现金、实物、技术(智力)、政策等农田生态补偿方式的选择偏好受其性别、年龄、家庭人口、家庭年收入、家庭中需抚养人口数和文化程度的显著影响。研究提出构建农田生态补偿的交易平台、完善生态环境物品数量化的体系设计和管理模式的多样化是推进农田生态补偿的市场化运作的关键。     

猫儿山自然保护区生态受益者支付意愿及影响因素

利用问卷调查和条件估值法，以猫儿山自然保护区为例，基于保护区受益者视角，分析受益区居民对保护区的认知、支付意愿及其影响因素和支付方式，探讨自然保护区生态补偿机制的构建。结果表明：（1）受益区居民对猫儿山自然保护区基本情况不熟悉，但绝大多数受益者认同保护区与漓江中下游的水源密切相关。部分受访者不认同作为保护区生态效益受益者的身份；（2）8558%的受益者愿意为猫儿山自然保护区提供帮助，受益者的支付意愿为每户每年28789元，对受益者来说，保护区生态系统服务的经济价值为202×108元/a；（3）文化层次和家庭年收入与支付意愿的关系呈单调变化，职业的影响表现出企业员工的支付意愿最高，其次是教师，农民的支付意愿最低；（4）受益者支付意愿的方式偏好存在差异性，比起现金支付，受益者更倾向于通过参加环保公益活动和纳税的形式，支付保护区提供的生态效益。     

基于游客支付意愿的生态补偿经济价值评估——以武汉素山寺国家森林公园为例

基于意愿调查法,通过支付卡式问卷调查等方式,对武汉素山寺国家森林公园游客生态补偿的支付意愿进行研究。结果表明:游客有较强的环境保护意识,57.3%的受访者愿意为环境进行补偿性的支付;问卷调查结果认为,支付意愿值随年龄、个人月收入和文化程度等不同而变化,年龄大、文化程度和收入高,而且游览次数多的游人,支付愿意值更高。支付意愿分布范围是4.4~7.8元,平均值和多元线性回归两种方法估计得到支付意愿值分别为6.1元/人和7.7元/人。以2011年游客量43万人次计算,总支付意愿为296.7万元。     

农地整理项目农户耕地损失补偿额度的实证研究——基于耕地资源价值与农户受偿意愿

从耕地资源价值出发,测算农地整理项目农户耕地损失补偿额度,并基于湖北省孝感市和潜江市的农户调查数据分析农户的受偿意愿及其影响因素。研究表明:基于耕地资源价值体系,测算得到孝感市和潜江市农地整理项目农户耕地损失补偿额度分别为1 449 695.76、1 784 296.17元/hm~2;农户所期望得到的耕地损失补偿标准远低于耕地资源价值体系测算出来的理论值,两市农户对耕地损失的平均受偿意愿额度为336 197.95元/hm~2,可以农户受偿意愿为主、耕地农业生产价值和社会保障价值为辅,制定农地整理项目农户耕地损失补偿标准;受教育程度对补偿标准有显著负向影响,农户文化程度的提高有助于提高其对农地整理事业的认知程度,进而促进我国农地整理事业的发展;土地权属调整是解决农户耕地损失的一项重要措施,做好农地整理项目土地权属调整工作需充分尊重农户的意愿,并以农业现代化作为土地权属调整的目标。     

国家公园游客旅游生态补偿支付意愿及影响因素研究——以黄山风景区为例

了解与把握游客的旅游生态补偿支付意愿是实施旅游生态补偿政策的前提之一。以黄山风景区为例,通过问卷调查和条件价值法获取游客的支付意愿信息,并运用二元Logistic回归分析法从游客个人特征、旅游环境影响认知、游客满意度、重游意愿、生态补偿认知等4个方面对游客旅游生态补偿支付意愿的影响因素进行研究,旨在为国家公园旅游生态补偿机制的构建提供依据。结果表明:(1)国家公园游客具有较高的旅游生态补偿支付意愿。86.7%的游客表示愿意在每次游览黄山风景区支付旅游生态补偿金,仅有13.3%的游客不愿意支付。游客的支付意愿与游客自身的角色定位密切相关。(2)从回归结果来看,游客的性别、年龄、重游意愿和补偿必要性认知对旅游生态补偿支付意愿具有显著影响,女性游客支付意愿高于男性,年龄与支付意愿呈显著负相关,重游意愿和补偿必要性认知与其呈显著正相关关系。学历水平、月收入、旅游环境影响认知、满意度和补偿政策认知等变量对支付意愿在10%的显著性水平下不存在显著影响。但从统计结果来看,学历水平、黄山环境质量评价、环境破坏的担心度、生态环境的重要性、满意度对游客的支付意愿有一定的正向作用,游客月收入水平和补偿政策认知与支付意愿呈倒"U"型非线性关系。     

耕地生态补偿相关利益群体博弈分析与解决路径

对宏观层面中央政府与地方政府、地方政府与地方政府和微观层面农民与市民之间博弈分析,找出促使均衡结果合理化方案,采用的研究方法是博弈论与条件价值法(CVM)。结果表明:①博弈结果难以达成(保护,补偿)协议,实现社会福利最大化,必须依靠中央政府作为媒介进行协商,采取管制与激励相结合的制度安排。②激励的实现通过微观层面利益主体受偿意愿与支付意愿而定,支付不够补偿,中央财政补贴,支付盈余则上缴中央财政,以湖北为例,农民每亩耕地应得到174元补偿,市民每户居民应支付246.6元,中央政府每亩耕地给予农民148.5元补偿。③宏观层面依据微观层面需求意愿与支付意愿的赤字或者盈余,确定区域之间应支付补偿或者获得补偿。研究成果能为区域内部和区域之间耕地生态补偿标准提供依据,为尽快制定耕地生态补偿机制及政策、实现利益群体福利均衡提供借鉴与参考。     

水源地生态补偿标准估算——以贵阳鱼洞峡水库为例

鱼洞河是乌江水系的一个小支流,为下游贵阳市提供饮用水水源。在鱼洞河上下游之间建立生态补偿机制,理论上需要知道上游治理污染和维护生态环境的费用,以及下游对上游提供的生态环境服务的支付意愿。只有下游的支付意愿大于上游的费用,上下游之间的生态补偿机制才有理论可能性。在对上游龙里县汇水区进行实地调研后,重点评估了当地安装沼气系统、坡耕地(≥25°)退耕还林、其他地区的土壤侵蚀防治以及点源污染治理费用,得出上游治理投资费用为199万元,年度费用每年89.2万元-168万元。采用意愿调查法(CVM)对贵阳市自来水用户对上游环境服务的支付意愿进行了评估。采用简单随机抽样方法在贵阳3个区内选取了900户作为样本,结果表明,有62.7%的人愿意为生态补偿付费。采用PROBIT模型,可以计算出为避免鱼洞河水质恶化的支付意愿均值为0.37元/m3,贵阳市自来水用户总的支付意愿每年达847万元。结果表明在鱼洞河水源地进行上下游生态补偿理论上是可能的,补偿标准介于上游费用与下游支付意愿之间。     

上海河岸带公众偏好及生态系统服务价值评估

针对上海地区河岸带的环境质量提升情况,基于条件价值法(CVM)研究上海市居民对河岸带的偏好、支付意愿及生态系统服务价值,并通过SPSS软件考察影响受访者支付意愿率的主要因素。得到以下结论:①受访者对上海地区河岸带满意度与其使用河岸带频率呈显著相关性(p=0.001),表明受访者与河岸带的亲疏关系主要取决于其利用河岸带的实际频率。②使用五点评价法对河岸带状况进行分析,亲水性指标得分2.94,水质指标得分3.51,分别为受访者对河岸带最满意与最不满意要素。③针对河岸带10项评价要素进行因子分析,可将受访者对河岸带的满意度因子归纳为河岸带的自然属性和社会属性,且后者的影响权重更大。④受访者对树草结合、人行道位于绿化间且护岸保留湿地的河岸带布局的评价结果得分1 199,为最高得分,表明受访者偏好该类河岸带布局。⑤投标金额在一系列影响支付意愿率因子中,显著性p=0.000,影响最为剧烈。⑥受访者的支付意愿为537.6元/(年.户),整个生态系统的估算价值为2.74亿元/年。     

基于随机效用理论的赣江流域生态补偿支付意愿研究

研究生态补偿的支付意愿及影响因素可为建立和实施流域生态补偿机制提供决策依据。在随机效用理论框架下采用条件价值评估法和有序Logistic模型分析了赣江流域居民的生态补偿支付意愿及其影响因素,并着重研究了心理距离、心理所有权对支付意愿的影响,引入区位和类别虚拟变量对比分析了异质性支付意愿产生的原因。通过对赣江流域593份样本数据的分析发现,居民感觉河流离自己越远,则其支付河流生态服务价值的意愿越低;居民对河流的心理所有权越强烈,则其支付河流生态服务价值的意愿越高;对水质满意度较低、对环保部门的信任度较高是下游居民支付意愿偏高的主要原因;与赣江的心理距离较远,对环保部门的信任度较低是抗议性响应群体支付意愿偏低的主要原因。研究得到的政策启示在于政策制定者在设计生态补偿制度时应该重视居民支付决策的心理机制,因人因地选择不同的政策工具。从心理上缩短人与河流的距离,提升居民对河流的占有感,都有助于提高赣江流域居民的生态补偿支付意愿。     

Design of a novel comfort liner for a motorcycle helmet

Natural fibres are nowadays increasingly being employed for producing protective clothing and sportswear. Due to economic and/or environmental considerations they are replacing synthetic materials. The present work provides an insight into the design and development of a novel comfort liner for a motorcycle helmet. The liner is produced from wool and Tunisian alfa fibre. The plant of the alfa fibre is abundantly available in Tunisia. Furthermore, we describe a design concept for a liner that uses these natural fibres and phase change material to improve sweat absorption and perception of thermal comfort. The raw material, the processes involved and the solution to use the phase change material are analysed. The novel comfort liner can facilitate breathability and evaporative transfer of heat in the safety helmet. In addition, it increases comfort, well-being, and provides an indirect message to use natural fibres for textile support to preserve our environment.     

Paleoecological analysis of chironomid assemblages of a mountain lake as a source of information for biomonitoring

The results of paleoecological analysis of chironomid remains in bottom sediments of a mountain lake exposed to atmospheric pollution with acidifying compounds and heavy metals are described. With consideration of the reconstructed chironomid assemblages, it is demonstrated that the course of natural lake ontogeny has been tending to change since the beginning of industrial development in the region. Chironomid taxa promising as indicators for biological monitoring are discussed.     

Thermal performance of a central annular cavity vessel with fins of a box-type solar cooker

Solar cooker is an alternate device used for reducing the problems of energy supply for cooking needs, especially in rural households. Though solar cookers have been commercialised in rural and other domestic areas, further research is still required to enhance the efficiency of the solar cooker. Previous studies have helped to ascertain that the central annular cylindrical hole in the cooking vessel reduces the length of the heat-transfer path and provides higher heat-transfer rate to the water kept in the vessel. Convective heat transfer can be further increased by providing additional surface area in the cylindrical hole. This study proposes a new cooking vessel with central annular cavity and fins attachment that will help in increasing the heat-transfer rate to the cooking vessel. Experiments are conducted with three types of vessels, i.e. conventional cooking vessel, cooking vessel with central annular cavity and cooking vessel with rectangular fins in the central annular cavity. For the annular cavity with fins vessel, a peak temperature of 98°C is observed. The maximum temperature difference of 30°C has been observed between annular cavity vessel with fins and conventional vessel. As the height of the lug is also expected to play an important role, experiments are conducted to determine the effect of lug height on the heat transfer to the cooking vessel. This study indicates that a lug height of 9 mm is optimum for maximum heat transfer to the cooking vessel.     

Environmental impact assessment of a ceramic tile supply chain – a case study

The beginning of the twenty-first century saw a surge in the growth of construction industry, particularly the housing sector in India. This led to the growing demand of ceramic tiles. This growth is responsible for large-scale consumption of natural resources and generation of solid waste. The objective of this paper is to assess the environmental impact of vitrified ceramic floor tile supply chain by performing life cycle assessment (LCA) following international standards of ISO 14040 series guidelines. The impact has been determined by conducting a LCA using Umberto NXT software (eco-invent 3.0 database) with ReCiPe endpoint and midpoint methods. It has been found that the manufacturing stage of supply chain is generating highest impact on environment in all the categories. Impact analysis of different input resources/material shows that red oxide used in glaze preparation, electricity in manufacturing, packaging material, distribution by trucks, installation of tiles using concrete and disposal of packaging material are responsible for most of the environmental impact. This study will offer the essential quantitative assessment to recognise the phases and materials which are highly responsible for the degradation of environment so that appropriate interventions by the different stakeholders can be planed.     

Community partnered projects: a case study of a collaborative effort to improve sanitation in a marginalized community in northwest Mexico

There is a growing recognition in developing countries that community participation in water and sanitation projects is a necessary strategy in sustainable development. The main advantage of following such an approach is that, if participation can encourage a sense of ownership of the projects, the benefits of the project are more likely to extend over the long term. The case study at hand focuses on the challenges faced in implementing a wastewater treatment system to solve an environmental and public health problem in a rural community, Rosario de Tesopaco, in northwest Mexico. Until recently, the community has been unable to implement an effective plan to treat the wastewater generated in the community. The problems faced by the community can be attributed to the political arrangement of water and sanitation decentralization in Mexico that occurred in the mid 1980’s, whereby communities were required to meet wastewater treatment standards, but were not given the technical and political guidance needed to achieve this goal. However, in this instance, cooperation between the authorities in Rosario de Tesopaco, the federal agency for social development, and an academic institution has led to the successful design and approval of a wastewater treatment project. This achievement can be attributed to the use of an effective collaborative strategy, tailoring the project to the needs and capacity of the local community, positioning the community as the leaders and owners of the project. A model for following this strategy for developing rural sanitation projects in Mexico is proposed. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Design for environment as a tool for the development of a sustainable supply chain

In this work, design for environment (DfE) methodologies have been used as a tool for the development of a more sustainable supply chain. In particular by combining life‐cycle assessment (LCA) techniques and by using the quality function deployment (QFD) multi‐criteria matrices, an ‘environmental compromise’ can be reached. In this work, the QFD matrices have been developed in a new way using an iterative process that involves the whole supply chain starting from the product life‐cycle, taking into consideration the machines that make the product and their components. This methodology is compatible with the requirements of the various stakeholders, suppliers, manufacturers and clients, involved in the supply chain. To assess the validity of the proposed approach a specific supply chain was studied concerning packaging systems for liquid food substances (beverage cartons). Firstly all the stages which are most critical from the environmental point of view in the supply chain of packaging systems were identified and assessed. The starting point for the analysis of environmental aspects and impacts which characterise the supply chain was LCA, which proved to be useful for the identification and the environmental assessment of the various stages in a packaging system. Through the use of ‘iterative QFD’ it is possible to arrive at a definition of the engineering characteristics of all the machinery which is involved in the supply chain. In particular in this work the authors have tried to identify the critical points in the design of those machines which either make the beverage cartons or are involved in the filling process.     

Cyanobacteria as a Food Source for Invertebrates: Results of a Model Experiment

Russian Journal of Ecology - Cyanobacterial blooms are regarded as a global environmental problem. The role of cyanobacteria in the food web of water bodies is still unclear. We have carried out an...     

Implementation of a software platform to support an eco-design methodology within a manufacturing firm

The paper aims to explore the implementation of an eco-design methodology and the related software platform (G.EN.ESI – Green ENgineering dESIgn) within technical departments of a manufacturing firm. The G.EN.ESI eco-design methodology is based on the life cycle thinking concept and the software platform is conceived as a set of inter-operable software tools able to efficiently exchange data among them and with the traditional design systems (i.e. CAD, PDM and PLM). A multinational company, designing and producing household appliances, adopted the proposed methodology and related software platform for redesigning two cooker hood models with the aim to improve their environmental performances. Design and engineering departments evaluated the methodology and platform impact on the product development process, as well as the platform inter-operability with traditional design tools. The results indicate that methodology and software platform satisfy the requirements of the enterprise in terms of: (i) degree of expertise and training requirement on this subject, (ii) low impact in a consolidated design process and, (ii) good level of inter-operability among heterogeneous tools. However, the testing results highlight the necessity of a further platform optimisations in terms of software integration (single workbench made by integrated software tools with the same graphical user interface).     

Exergy efficiency analysis of a refurbished dwelling: a case study in Ljubljana,Slovenia

Buildings contribute almost half of the world's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Energy and water consumption are some of the largest and fastest growing pressures on the global environment. The use of energy is mainly attributed to the heating and cooling of buildings. The type of materials used in the construction of buildings plays a significant role in the life-cycle emissions of each dwelling. Changing the material use in the construction of an existing building and adding insulation could have a major impact on energy use and the environment of the building in its entire life cycle. This paper investigates the amount of exergy savings and the decrease in CO₂ emissions resulting from the refurbishing of an existing building in Ljubljana. This study results from the growing awareness that in the choice of building materials, the designer must consider not only the requirements of the owner and occupier of the building, but also the resulting energy savings, the resource base and the effects of the manufacturing and processing of building materials on the environment. The exergy efficiency of the material use is calculated and the environmental impact assessment of energy and material use is accounted for.