Ecological Sectors Research Articles

Effectiveness of the water resources allocation institution in Tunisia

Abstract This paper examines the water allocation system and its effects on water use, users' behavior and on the country's achievement of desirable goals. It investigates efficiency, equity, and sustainability issues that arise under this allocation rule. The current allocation system functions according to a queuing system of priorities, where the urban allocation is found to be the most efficient and least risky allocation, while the ecological sector bears the highest degree of climate risk variability. The rule of priority is applied to crops as well; the non-strategic crops have the least efficient and riskiest allocation. The current system allows the country to secure drinking water supply, but it does not create sufficient incentives for entitlement holders that have priority to increase their water use efficiency, does not guarantee ecosystem health and integrity and does not equally distribute the risk among users. An institutional reform is especially relevant to improve water use performance in the agriculture sector and the country's ability to manage drought. The nonpriority system that allows farmers to exchange their water-use entitlement might increase social welfare of water use.

Spatial Patterns and Environmental Settings of Non-reefal Coral Communities Across the Tropic of Cancer in the Penghu Archipelago (Pescadores), Taiwan.

Hernyi Justin Hsieh, Colin Kou-Chang Wen, Yuan-Chao Huang, Kao-Sung Chen, Chang-Feng Dai, and Chaolun Allen Chen (2016) Non-reefal coral communities occurring at the edges of scleractinian coral distribution ranges normally show a sharp gradient in the composition of coral species. Environmental and biological factors such as sea surface temperature (SST), competition with other benthos, and human disturbances might play roles in shaping the structure of coral communities. The Penghu Archipelago is located on the east side of Taiwan Strait straddling the Tropic of Cancer and hosts non-reefal coral communities. In this study, benthic surveys throughout the Penghu Archipelago were conducted and potential environmental and biological factors that shape coral species distributions were inferred by multivariate analyses. A total of 103 species representing 28 genera of scleractinian corals were recorded. Three major ecological sectors (northeast, south, and inner) were defined based on a canonical analysis of the principal coordinates of scleractinian species composition. Correlation analyses showed that scleractinians in the south and northeast sectors were strongly influenced by SST-related variables. In contrast, the coral communities in inner sector were mainly affect by turbidity or nutrition, which supposed come from human activities. Distance-based redundancy analysis showed that benthos, except soft corals, hardly interacted with scleractinian coral distributions. Our study demonstrated a distinct coral species assemblage among different islands across the Tropic of Cancer in the Penghu Archipelago. Natural and human-derived environmental factors both showed a strong correlation with coral species distribution. It's clear that either natural and human-derived factors influenced coral composition in Penghu archipelago.

Regional variability in water use intensity in China by clustering analysis

Water use intensity (WUI) reveals water withdrawals with respect to economic output. Decomposing WUI into factors provides inner-system information affecting the indicator. The present study investigates variability in WUI among provinces in China by clustering the principal components of the decomposed factors. Motivated by the index decomposition method, the authors decomposed WUI into seven factors: water use in agricultural, industrial, household and ecological sectors, exploitation rate of water resources, per capita water resources and population intensity. Those seven factors condense into four principal components under application of principal component analysis. Comprehensive WUI is calculated by these four components. Then the cluster analysis is applied to get different patterns in WUI. The principal components and the comprehensive intensity are taken as cluster variables. The number of clusters is determined to be three by applying the k-means clustering method and the F-statistic value. Variability in WUI is detected by implementing three clustering algorithms, namely k-means, fuzzy c-means and the Gaussian mixture model. WUI in China is clustered into three clusters by the k-means clustering method. Characteristics of each cluster are analyzed.

Environmental Issues Concerning the Economic Development of Tourism in Iraq

Environmental pollution is one of the main factors that stand as an obstacle in the development of the tourism sector. In Iraq, within the last three decades, this issue has had significant impacts on the ecological, economic and social sectors, particularly on the tourism sector. Within the context of a structural adjustment, our first purpose is to look at how the relationship between the economic development, the environmental protection and tourism progresses , while reviewing key elements of the relationship between tourism and the environment, with particular reference to the environmental impacts of tourism in Iraq. Following a general overview of the importance of the environment for tourism, a brief review concerning the difficulties of monitoring environmental changes and managing tourism effects in destination areas is presented. Finally, several key questions and research subjects needing further consideration have been identified.

Adaptive Allocation Modeling for a Complex System of Regional Water and Land Resources Based on Information Entropy and its Application

Currently, water and land resources are treated as separate resources in allocation optimization for complex systems of water and land resources, which may have negative impacts on these water-land resource systems. In our study, an adaptive allocation model was established for a complex system of regional water and land resources using complex adaptive systems theory. The users of water and land resources were treated as adaptive agents, and the competition and synergy among various agents toward water and land resources were used as the driving forces for the evolution of the model. The model was accurately solved using a nested genetic algorithm to achieve the optimal joint allocation of regional water and land resources. A case study was conducted in the city of Kiamusze in Heilongjiang Province, and the results indicated that the evolution of the model was consistent with the actual behaviors of adaptive agents. Moreover, after the implementation of the optimized allocation results, the economic benefits in the study area were expected to increase by 3.34 %, and the comprehensive user satisfaction index regarding water increased from 0.61 to 0.73; moreover, the ecological footprint of the ecological sector increased by 5.6 %. Our results provide important guidance for achieving the sustainable use of regional water and land resources.

The Idea of Department of Integrative System Design and Xi Jinping’s Statecraft

This paper attempts to explain the characteristics, laws and good condition of the state running systemwhile focusing on the exploration of the design of state running system by the Chinese Communist Party and other social elites for the nearly 40 years after the Reform and Open Policy. This paper emphasizes on how General Secretary Xi Jinping uses systematic thinking on the overall design of the state governance strategy. Accordingly, this paper points out under the New Normal the strategic layout of the state running system on the coordinated development of economic, political, cultural, social, ecological sectors as well as talents is in line with the inevitable trend of development. This paper summarizes three major aspects of Xi Jinping’s overall design of state governance strategy: Chinese Dream, the Total Layout and the New Normal are necessary to the improvement of the state running system; the Four All-around— "Build a well-off society in an all-round way; deepen reform in an all-round way; govern the country in accordance with the law in an all-round way; strictly manage the Communist Party of China in an all-round way." --is the strategic path to enhance the state running system; the Five Unify-- "unify thoughts; unify standards; unify the rule of law; unify power; unifying actions" --is the guarantee of enhancing the state running system. In short, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s statecraft is necessary to enhance the state running system from the status quo of to a more satisfactory state.

Spatiotemporal distribution and composition of phytoplankton assemblages in a coastal tropical lagoon: Chilika, India.

The Asia's largest lagoon, Chilika, is a shallow water estuary and a designated "Ramsar" site located in the east coast of India. The spatiotemporal diversity of phytoplankton based on the monthly sampling between July 2011 and June 2012 was investigated in relation to physicochemical variables of the surface water column from 13 stations. The salinity was minimum (average 9) during the monsoon which was primarily due to riverine discharge. As the season progressed towards post-monsoon, average salinity of the whole lagoon reached to 10 which further increased to 20 during pre-monsoon season. A total of 259 species of phytoplankton, mostly dominated by the Bacillariophyta (138 species) followed by Dinophyta (38 species), Chlorophyta (32 species), Cyanophyta (29 species), Euglenophyta (18 species), and Chrysophyta (4 species), were recorded in this study. Different ecological sectors of the lagoon (except the northern sector) were dominated by diatoms, while the northern sector due to its freshwater regime supported large population of euglenoids. Based on the multivariate ordination analysis, salinity regime and light availability played important role in determining the distribution, diversity, and composition of phytoplankton communities. Overall, this study documented a very high diversity of phytoplankton and highlighted the importance of taking extensive sampling in getting a clearer understanding of phytoplankton community structure in less-studied environments such as Chilika lagoon.

SUMBER DAYA LAUT INDONESIA DALAM KANCAH MASYARAKAT EKONOMI ASEAN, ANTARA JEBAKAN REIFIKASI DAN DEEP ECOLOGY

The sea area of Indonesia reached 5.8 million km2, with a cluster of more than 17,500 islands, promising a great resource in facing the ASEAN single market. A coastline of 81,000 km which is actually the second longest in the world after Canada, potentially, become a storefront variety of national products which are marketed around the world. But the single market proposed in Asean Economic Community (AEC), leaving homework, which is not simple in the ecological sector. The purpose of this writing is actually wanting to show challenges that must be faced when AEC creating a single ASEAN market. Based on the categorization of legal study analysis method, the method in use, including method of dogmatic research which developed legal studies as a dogmatic law (Rechtsdogmatiek). The results showed that, consciously or not, the Asean single market has brought a new myth called rationality efficiency of the commodity. Horkheimer and Adorno in their enlightment dialectic explained that in the field of economy, efficiency is the law of the market, substitutes all kinds of feudal and religious restrictions. Then rationality equated with efficiency. When this efficiency is applied in the dynamics of the capitalist economy, what happens next is the entire field of human life will become a commodity. Then came the so-called reification, that is when everything becomes a commodity, people no longer feel enjoy but only for the sake of consumption without establishing social relations in the true sense. At this situation, the ecological damage becomes inevitable, even considered reasonable as a price worth paying. Law, which in essence is the ethical conversation humans to produce justice, easily forgotten because of greed. In-depth perspective on the ecological (deep ecology), which essentially is in the interests of civilization, began excluded. But all such reification excesses can be avoided when the law still pursued progressively, so the law must arrive at the radicality demolition on law assumptions. The law is not only to check the fairness, but it should produce justice, even a new kind of justice, namely justice for the sake of future generations (intergeneration justice). It can be concluded that the ocean should not only being taken for its wealth resources in the trap of reification of the ASEAN single market, but also should be maintained, its preservation for the sake of our next generation in regard of deep ecology.

A return-on-investment framework to identify conservation priorities in Africa

Environmental conservation activities must continue to become more efficient and effective, especially in Africa where development and population growth pressures continue to escalate. Recently, prioritization of conservation resources has focused on explicitly incorporating the economic costs of conservation along with better defining the outcomes of these expenditures. We demonstrate how new global and continental data that spans social, economic, and ecological sectors creates an opportunity to incorporate return-on-investment (ROI) principles into conservation priority setting for Africa. We suggest that combining conservation priorities that factor in biodiversity value, habitat quality, and conservation management investments across terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal marine environments provides a new lens for setting global conservation priorities. Using this approach we identified seven regions capturing interior and coastal resources that also have high ROI values that support further investment. We illustrate how spatially explicit, yet flexible ROI analysis can help to better address uncertainty, risk, and opportunities for conservation, while making values that guide prioritization more transparent. In one case the results of this prioritization process were used to support new conservation investments. Acknowledging a clear research need to improve cost information, we propose that adopting a flexible ROI framework to set conservation priorities in Africa has multiple potential benefits.

Effect of Thermoplastic as Fine Aggregate to Concrete Mixture

This paper outlines an experimental study that measures the effects of thermoplastic when added to concrete cement and needs of the ecological sector in terms of recycling the waste plastic that harms not only the soil structure and the environment as per say but as well as the human who without their knowledge damage their health because of the degradation of this product. The plastic was grounded into pieces for concrete mixture, where it substitutes the 5% of the fine aggregate, which is the sand. It then undergoes to strength test that investigate whether it can pass or at least equal the standard specification of concrete mix for wall panel. The experimentation went through moisture content test, specific gravity. test, slump test, sieve analysis, compressive test and flexural test.

A never-ending debate: demand versus supply water policies. A CGE analysis for Catalonia

Water scarcity is a long-standing problem in Catalonia, as there are significant differences in the spatial and temporal distribution of water throughout the territory. There has consequently been a debate for many years about whether the solution to water scarcity must be considered in terms of efficiency or equity, the role that the public sector must play and the role that market-based instruments should play in water management. The aim of this paper is to analyse the advantages and disadvantages associated with different policy instruments, from both a supply and a demand viewpoint, which can be applied to water management in Catalonia. For this purpose, we use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, in which we introduce an ecological sector that allows us to analyse the environmental and economic impact of the alternative policies simulated. The calibration of the exogenous variables of the CGE model is performed by using a social accounting matrix (SAM) for the Catalan economy with 2001 data. The results suggest that taking into account the principle of sustainability of the resource, the policy debate between supply and demand in water policies is obsolete and a new combination of policies is required to respect the different values associated with water.

A new quantitative model of ecological compensation based on ecosystem capital in Zhejiang Province, China

Ecological compensation is becoming one of key and multidiscipline issues in the field of resources and environmental management. Considering the change relation between gross domestic product (GDP) and ecological capital (EC) based on remote sensing estimation, we construct a new quantitative estimate model for ecological compensation, using county as study unit, and determine standard value so as to evaluate ecological compensation from 2001 to 2004 in Zhejiang Province, China. Spatial differences of the ecological compensation were significant among all the counties or districts. This model fills up the gap in the field of quantitative evaluation of regional ecological compensation and provides a feasible way to reconcile the conflicts among benefits in the economic, social, and ecological sectors.

Passerine migration strategies and body mass variation along geographic sectors across East Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula

Using the body mass estimates of 12 long-distance migrating Palearctic passerine species monitored at successive sites across the Eastern Africa flyway, we tested whether birds modulate their body mass according to specific seasonal demands across different geographic sectors. We compared body mass estimates across latitudinal distances and geographic sectors in Europe, the desert, Northeast Africa and East Africa. Our results show that, depending on the species and season considered, the average body mass increase or decrease is variable at and among different geographic sectors. By comparing the variation in body mass between different ecological sectors, we were able to show when and where migrants accumulate their migratory fuel reserves during migration.

Real burden and potential risks from foodborne infections: the value of multi-jurisdictional collaborations

The burden of foodborne infections on the public health is substantial. Many different microbes can contaminate foods and cause illness in the consumer. New and emerging problems are identified with regularity, as a result of microbial change, of changing patterns of production and trade, and the complex ecologies in which we produce and process the foods we eat. In the United States, the zoonotic pathogens Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (such as E. coli O157:H7), Listeria and Toxoplasma are major challenges. Public health surveillance is vital to estimate the burden, to detect outbreaks, and to track trends in the illness as interventions take place. Cases reported to public health authorities represent only a small fraction of those that occur, but if that fraction is known, the total number of cases can be estimated. Most cases are sporadic, occurring outside of recognized outbreaks. With systematic molecular methods for surveillance, large and dispersed outbreaks can be identified. Investigation of outbreaks of illnesses can detect new pathogens, establish new food vehicles, and identify likely points of contamination. The results of surveillance, of research based on sporadic cases, and of outbreak investigations can guide the important multi-disciplinary research in food science, veterinary and ecological sectors that are critical to improving prevention upstream from the consumer. Because microbes travel freely across boundaries, this increasingly requires a transnational approach. We can anticipate more unexpected challenges, even as current challenges are controlled. Robust, stable and flexible public health platforms for surveillance, for investigation, and for supporting interdisciplinary research that improves prevention are important to sustained progress in the field of food safety.

TWIN: a TWo-stage INdex to evaluate ecological quality status in lagoon environments by means of hard bottom zoobenthos

The macrobenthos colonizing the artificial hard bottoms in lagoons has been used in biomonitoring programs as it requires easy sampling procedures and provides a variety of responses to different environmental pressures, like marine or continental influence, eutrophication, and urban pollution. In this paper we present the development and application of a new TWo-stage INdex (TWIN), aimed to assess water quality of lagoon environments using the hard bottom macrobenthos community. TWIN is calculated in two separate stages. First, the presence and abundance of macrobenthic species are used to define, through a fuzzy model, a station's membership grade in six pre-defined ecological sectors (Lagoon Mouth, Vivified Lagoon, Rough Eutrophic, Calm Eutrophic, Urban, Estuarine), each corresponding to characteristic communities. Then a formula links the membership grades to the five ecological status classes ranging from high to bad quality, as requested by the European Water Framework Directive. This method was tested in four Adriatic lagoons: the results are consistent with literature information and expert judgement, therefore we propose its use in the definition of water quality in lagoons.

THE INFLUENCE OF ECONOMICAL POLICY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE IN ROMANIA

The European Union considers very important the ecological agriculture, from the point of view of rural development. The main objective of the agricultural policy of EU regarding rural development is to promote and develop a compatible relationship between agriculture and environment. A succesfull integration of ecological objectives in sectorial policies depends on three different aspects: a carefull projection of the policy frame, a proper applying of the policy and also the monitoring and assessing the policy. The government, civil society and business environment from our country realized the necessity of promoting ecological agriculture. Some steps were already made in this direction and the harmonization proccess with acquis-ul comunitar is almost finished. In order to develope the agroecological sector in Romnia and to improve the competitivity of ecological products on the eport markets need to be identified and implemented following: implementing the legislation elaborate for this sector in order to strengthen the control system through additional measures which have to supervise the controlling and certifying organisms in order to rise the quality of eported products, creating of a special producing, processing and marketing system for ecological products tht will satisfy the internal and external market needs; promoting the export of romanian ecological products through developing research activities, improving trainings for those who act on the ecological sector.

Sustainable entrepreneurship: regional innovation cultures in the ecological food sector

How do regional innovation cultures in the eco-food sector develop? And how can they be supported and empowered within a national strategy for sustainable agriculture? Based on three case studies, this paper explores key characteristics and dynamics of ongoing regional innovation cultures within the ecological food sector in Norway. The common denominator of each case is a strong community of innovative practitioners that shape their activities around intentional interaction, dialogue and inquiry with a long term commitment. They sustain and develop common tasks by uniting individual commitment to shared questions. Thereby, the intensity and ecology of the shared questions build the carrying capacity and structure of the innovation culture. Each case is unique by being rooted in personal incentives and shared ownership to tasks. Structurally their uniqueness demonstrates three modes of activity and roots of identity, related to the three concepts of institutional entrepreneurship, market entrepreneurship and cultural entrepreneurship. Four implications are finally drawn for regional innovation strategies within the eco-food sector: (1) build strategies on the activity of pioneering local/regional cultures of practice; (2) analyse their entrepreneurial uniqueness and social ecology; (3) facilitate a broader entwining of institutional, market and cultural entrepreneurship; and (4) develop competency and cultures of inquiry linked to entwined entrepreneurship. A corresponding research strategy should acknowledge, build on and strengthen the culture of inquiry embedded in the regional communities of practice.

A fuzzy logic model to recognise ecological sectors in the lagoon of Venice based on the benthic community

The lagoon of Venice is a mosaic resulting from the interaction of several biotic and abiotic factors. A qualitative scheme of such a mosaic was proposed in literature; it subdivided the lagoon into six ecological sectors (“lagoon mouths”, “vivified lagoon”, “rough eutrophic”, “calm eutrophic”, “urban”, “estuarine”), related with current velocity, salinity, eutrophication and pollution, and expressed by means of the sessile macrobenthos living on wooden piles. In this paper, we present the conversion of that scheme into a fuzzy logic model, which considers four input variables: abundance of marine species; abundance of lagoon species; abundance of oligohaline species and total abundance of the sessile macrozoobenthos. Three fuzzy sets describe abundance levels ( low, medium, high) for each one of the four variables; the 81 (3 4) resulting combinations have been associated to the six ecological sectors, for a total of 486 “if … then” rules. We have used two different interpretations of the inference process, and combined their results with the “crisp weighting” technique to obtain the fuzzy membership grades to the six ecological sectors. The model, built on data from the lagoon of Venice in 1993–1994, has been validated with more recent data from the same stations and from the nearby lagoon of Grado-Marano; the results are in agreement with the literature information.

The sessile benthic community patterns on hard bottoms in response to continental vs. marine influence in northern Adriatic lagoons

The sessile hard bottoms zoobenthos community was studied in three northern Adriatic lagoons (Venice, Caorle and Grado-Marano). On the basis of previous researches (1993–1994 in Venice; 1997 in Grado-Marano), these lagoons had been subdivided into ecological sectors. The time consistency of such a subdivision has been assessed. The largest number of species was found in the lagoon of Venice, showing a high heterogeneity of environments and an intense shipping traffic, coupled with aquaculture activities that favoured the arrival of exotic species. A very poor community of obligate oligohaline species was found in Caorle. The natural and stable environment of Grado-Marano lagoon, with its large area of freshwater influence, hosted an intermediate number of species. The multi-dimensional scaling ordination plot of 27 representative stations from the three lagoons (samples of July 2000) clearly distinguished a cluster of “estuarine” sites from the remaining ones, that could be classified as “inner lagoon” sites, “vivified lagoon” sites and “lagoon mouth” sites. When compared with past results by Anosim test and Simper analysis, a lesser degree of discrimination between clusters of sites could be observed. In the following year (samples of July 2001), a larger number of sampling stations was considered in Venice and Grado-Marano. The multi-dimensional scaling plot for the community data of Grado-Marano showed fairly recognisable clusters, that substantially repeated those defined in 1997. As far as Venice is concerned, about 25% of the examined stations had shifted towards a different group, compared with those identified in 1993–1994; in particular, the “urban”, “inner lagoon” and “estuarine” sectors and their peculiar assemblages survived only in small areas with unique features of harsh environmental conditions. The progressively enhanced marine influx in all the lagoon sectors (but the ones directly affected by the outflow of the only river still discharging into the lagoon) has, on the one hand, reduced the most evident effects of eutrophication and urban pollution, and on the other, led to a banalisation of the lagoon communities.

Exploitation of genetically modified inoculants for industrial ecology applications.

The major growth seen in the biotechnology industry in recent decades has largely been driven by the exploitation of genetic engineering techniques. The initial benefits have been predominantly in the biomedical area, with products such as vaccines and hormones that have received broad public approval. In the environmental biotechnology and industrial ecology sectors, biotechnology has the potential to make significant advances through the use of genetically modified (GM) microbial inoculants that can reduce agri-chemical usage or remediate polluted environments. Although many GM inoculants have been developed and tested under laboratory conditions, commercial exploitation has lagged behind. Here, we review scientific and regulatory requirements that must be satisfied as part of that exploitation process. Particular attention is paid to new European Union (EU) regulations (Directives) that govern the testing and release of genetically modified organisms and microbial plant protection inoculants in the EU. With regard to the release of GM inoculants, the impact of the inoculant and the fate of modified genes are important concerns. Long term monitoring of release sites is necessary to address these issues. Data are reported from the monitoring of a site 6 years after release of GM Sinorhizobium meliloti strains. It was found that despite the absence of a host plant, the GM strains persisted in the soil for at least 6 years. Horizontal transfer and microevolution of a GM plasmid between S. meliloti strains was also observed. These data illustrate the importance of assessing the long-term persistence of GM inoculants.