Regional Management Plans Research Articles

Description of a relict aspen parkland-associated grassland in the Peace River region of British Columbia, Canada

The aspen parkland-associated grasslands of the Peace River region, British Columbia (BC), have been severely reduced in area, primarily because of agricultural and urban development. In this region, the species composition of plant communities is similar to that of prairie grasslands and is topographically influenced, occurring primarily on warm-aspect slopes along the Peace River and some of its tributaries. Historical records show that non-forested grass- and sedge-dominated plant communities occurred on flat and gently rolling terrain in a parkland ecosystem near what are now the communities of Dawson Creek and Fort St. John. The Peace grasslands are not represented in BC’s biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification, perhaps leading to their neglect in regional natural resource management and conservation planning. Here, I describe the vascular plant community of a level-terrain relict aspen parkland-associated grassland in the Peace River region. Its species composition differs from nearby warm-aspect grasslands and includes provincially listed plant species. Increased awareness of grassland communities may support conservation, ecosystem restoration, and climate change adaptation in the southern boreal region of BC.

Creating financial mechanisms for enacting the monotowns revitalization strategy

The article provides an analysis of a study focused on crafting financial mechanisms to enact the monotown revitalization strategy. Monotowns marginalized within the economic development landscape encounter multifaceted challenges, including demographic decline, elevated unemployment rates, and degradation of social infrastructure. Consequently, the formulation of efficient financial mechanisms emerges as imperative for their resurgence. The objective of this study is to formulate efficient financial mechanisms to facilitate the implementation of monotown revitalization strategies. This entails a comprehensive examination of the existing conditions within monotowns, encompassing the identification of pertinent challenges and potential avenues for development. Additionally, the study aims to devise financial strategies and instruments geared towards fostering both economic advancement and social progress within these locales. Scientifically, the significance of this research resides in the conception of novel financing paradigms tailored specifically for monotowns, thereby fostering their sustainable development. Practically, the research holds relevance in its potential application, as the developed mechanisms stand poised for utilization by governmental and municipal entities in the execution of monotown revival initiatives. Consequently, this investigation contributes substantively to the realm of regional development management and financial planning. Its findings are poised to offer utility to governmental bodies, corporate entities vested in the enhancement of regional infrastructural frameworks and the rejuvenation of monotowns.

Integrative Review of Riparian Buffers Benefits in Urbanized Watersheds

Riparian buffers or riparian corridors are areas of vegetation in the floodplains and areas surrounding a stream. By the early 2000s, numerous national reports and studies of riparian buffer benefits established that vegetation near streams is helpful in protecting the stream from increasing urban runoff, minimizing bank erosion, reducing flooding, and improving overall water quality. However, influential studies concluded that buffer benefits dwindle as urbanization increases, eventually becoming ineffective. This study evaluates more recent research that suggests riparian buffers are more effective at countering urbanization impacts than previously understood, and considers the extent to which we can quantify these benefits and identify the factors that maximize their effectiveness (i.e. greater efficiency based on buffer distance from the stream, extent of stream setbacks, and percentage of impervious cover in the area). Much of the research has been conducted in the Kansas City area in the Blue River Watershed, which begins in Kansas and flows into Missouri River east of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. About 800,000 residents live in the watershed, which includes some of the region’s fastest growing areas. It is critical to protect this major resource, and other regional rivers and streams, for residents of the Kansas City Metropolitan area and the ecosystems that depend on them. It is also critical to provide the latest and best information to the community-of-practice currently updating regional stormwater management planning and design guidance.

New perspective on the recent challenges of regional environmental management plans under the background of deep-sea mining: from Northwest Pacific to global

New perspective on the recent challenges of regional environmental management plans under the background of deep-sea mining: from Northwest Pacific to global

Recent Declining Trends in Pelagic Fish Catches in the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka: Is Gill Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT) a Possible Explanation?

Recent trends in the pelagic fish landings of multi-day fishing fleets operated from Sri Lanka indicated significant declines in many fish species. Therefore, the present preliminary analysis investigates the perceptions of fishers on recent declining trends of pelagic fish landings from offshore areas of the Indian Ocean and further investigates whether the most common pelagic species landed in Sri Lanka conform to the gill oxygen limitation theory (GOLT) and to speculate GOLT as a possible explanation to such trends. According to the perceptions of 457 skippers of fishing vessels interviewed, such declines were possibly attributed to shifting of the areas of occurrence of pelagic fish species, making them less vulnerable to multi-day fishing vessels. As climate change and deoxygenation are major stressors affecting fish stocks, there is a challenging need for disentangling the impacts of these stressors from the effects of overfishing. The 18 most common pelagic fish species harvested from the Indian Ocean confirmed to the predictions from the GOLT, suggesting that shifting of these stocks could be due to deoxygenation which may have been triggered by increased sea surface and sub-surface temperatures. Therefore, fishery-independent surveys are needed to investigate the shifting of areas of occurrence of pelagic fishes in the Indian Ocean to understand their areas of occurrence the further investigate the relevance of GOLT for defining regional fisheries management plans.

Стратегические приоритеты развития региональных рынков персональных услуг

. Studies on regional service markets, their functioning processes, issues of economic efficiency, the result of which are personal services and measures of state support for these activities, are considered, but not enough attention is paid to issues devoted to the implementation of strategic priorities for the development of personal services regional markets. Personal services are defined from the position of personalization, i.e. through the concepts of “personal assistance”, “personal assistant”, “individual approach” and “individual action”, the subject of a personal service is a person. Personal services lead to an increase in the quality of services, an expansion of the range of services offered and, consequently, to greater consumer demand. The methodological basis of the study was based on the theoretical provisions of regional management and strategic planning, which contributes to the identification of long-term conditions and strategic priorities for the development of personal services regional markets. It is proved that the strategic priorities for the development of personal services regional markets include, firstly, the creation of a favorable business environment conducive to attracting investments into the region's economy, conducting business in the personal services sector; secondly, the creation of working conditions conducive to improving the quality and standard of living of the population, and accordingly, ensuring the growth rates in the personal services sector at the regional level; thirdly, the formation of an economic environment to provide opportunities for the use of innovations in the development of both traditional and new types of personal services.

Assessing the impact of climate change on surface runoff of the Ubolratana Reservoir, Thailand

Assessing surface runoff in river basins is paramount for effectively managing water resources. Climate change significantly impacts the availability of water within these basins. The Ubolratana reservoir is vital for sustainable water supply, aquaculture, agricultural practices, and domestic needs. This research aims to evaluate the runoff availability of the reservoir by using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) under distinct climate change scenarios. The HEC-HMS model was calibrated based on observed rainfall and runoff data. To project future runoff dynamics, calibrated model parameters were coupled with the bias-corrected rainfall data of Can-ESM5, CESM2, and GFDL-ESM4 models for two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) climate scenarios (SSP 245 and SSP 585). The results show upward trends in both projected rainfall and runoff within the drainage area of the Ubolratana reservoir between 2022 and 2061. In summary, the findings of this research may be useful for regional water resources management and strategic planning endeavors.

Ecological risk assessment under the PSR framework and its application to shallow urban lakes.

Shallow urban lakes are naturally vulnerable to ecosystem degradation. Rapid urbanization in recent decades has led to a variety of aquatic problems such as eutrophication, algal blooms, and biodiversity loss, increasing the risk to lake-wide ecological sustainability. Instead of a simple binary assessment of ecological risk, holistic evaluation frameworks that consider multiple stressors and receptors can provide a more comprehensive assessment of overall ecological risk. In this study, we analyzed a combined dataset of government statistics, remote sensing images, and 1year of field measurements to develop an index system for urban lake ecological risk assessment based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework. We used the developed ecological safety index (ESI) system to evaluate the ecological risk for three urban lakes in Jiangsu Province, China: Lake Yangcheng-LYC, Lake Changdang-LCD, and Lake Tashan-LTS. LYC and LTS were classified as "mostly safe" and "generally recognized as safe," respectively, while LCD was assessed as having "potential ecological risk." Our data suggest that socioeconomic pressure and aquatic health are the two main factors affecting the ecological risk in both LYC and LCD. The ecological risk of LTS could be improved more effectively if regional management plans are well implemented. Our study highlights the pressure of external wastewater loading, low forest-grassland coverage, and lake shoreline damage on the three selected urban lakes. The findings of this study can inform watershed management for lake ecosystem restoration and environmental sustainability.

IDENTIFICATION OF PROBLEMS IN THE PROCESS OF FORMING AN EFFECTIVE REGIONAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN UKRAINE

Introduction. Attention is focused on the activation of the waste processing process, the technical equipment of the functional elements of the regional waste management system, the use of foreign experience in the implementation of recycling capacities, which will make it possible to specify goals in the implementation of innovative tasks in this field. The reasons that led to the low level of development of the domestic sphere of waste management are singled out: ineffective environmental policy, insufficient financing of relevant measures, neglect of environmental requirements, lack of practical steps in the development of infrastructure of a utilization nature. The purpose of the article. The purpose of the article is to identify problems that occur in the process of forming a regional waste management system in Ukraine, which prevent the achievement of real results in the context of sustainable development of regions. In order to achieve the set goal, the task of determining: a) problems that occurred before the full-scale war of 2022 was solved; b) problems that were added in the conditions of martial law. Results. It is emphasized that the formation of an effective waste management system is an important component of qualitative changes (sustainable development) in the regions of Ukraine in the context of its European integration aspirations. The region was considered in the context of obligations to eliminate existing problems in the field of waste management and practical implementation of tasks defined in regional waste management plans. A number of problems that occur in the field of waste management at the regional level are highlighted. The legislative provision of the waste management system and its influence on the achievement of expected results in this field are analyzed. The capabilities of local authorities in developing infrastructure for waste processing are substantiated. The treatment of waste in the conditions of martial law was studied. It was determined that within the limits of particularly dangerous territories there is a need to focus on the management of waste from destruction, on relatively safe ones - on household waste. The problems associated with the functioning of existing waste processing facilities due to the crisis situation in energy supply are singled out. Conclusions. It is noted that the identified problems are issues that need to be resolved, as threats arise behind them; these are tasks that should be solved in the context of the National Waste Management Strategy in Ukraine until 2030 with the aim of forming/developing the waste management system; these are the goals that must be resolved in the context of sustainable development and the development of a cyclical economy.

Feasibility of monitoring floodplain on-farm water storages by integrating airborne and satellite LiDAR altimetry with optical remote sensing

Small water storages (≤ 500 ha surface area) enhance water supply for agricultural, human and livestock consumption. Their oftentimes large numbers and wide geographic spread, plus inaccurate or absent in situ metering, make their inclusion in water resource management difficult. This research assessed the capabilities of satellite optical remote sensing and LiDAR altimetry to characterise small water storages used for irrigation, so they can be included in water resources assessments. Landsat and Sentinel-2 water maps were integrated with airborne and satellite LiDAR altimetry to assess: (i) locations; (ii) elevation-area-volume relations; (iii) dates of construction/decommissioning; (iv) actual evaporation losses; and (v) storage volume changes of floodplain on-farm water storages (FoFWS) used primarily for cotton irrigation in the semi-arid Barwon-Darling region (142,173 km2), Australia. These remotely sensed characteristics would enable the representation of FoFWS in river system models and in regional water management plans, thus enhancing socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. Results from Landsat water maps showcased the growth in FoFWS surface area. In January 1988 there were 17 FoFWS with a total maximum surface area of 101.89 ha. By December 2021, the then 105 FoFWS maximum surface area was 5587.68 ha; a 55-times increase. For the first time in a regional context, mean annual (2000/01–2020/21) standing water evaporation losses were estimated for all FoFWS. These accounted to 52.47 MCM/year, which is a substantial ∼27% of the estimated long-term mean regional irrigation diversion limit (189 MCM/year). Elevation measurements from satellite LiDAR altimetry data, specifically GEDI and ICESat-2, were evaluated to assess if water volumes in FoFWS can be estimated through elevation-area-volume relations from a 1 m digital elevation model derived from airborne LiDAR data. Although GEDI's spatially variable footprint and ICESat-2's 91-day repeat cycle render them insufficient to monitor changes in water volumes in FoFWS, both satellite LiDAR altimeters provided accurate water level observations, with root mean squared differences (RMSD) of 0.38 m for GEDI and 0.12 m for ICESat-2, when compared to in situ water level measurements. ICESat-2's 0.7 m along-track sampling interval also detected changes of FoFWS structural features, such as increases in wall heights in recent years. This study demonstrated the value of integrating high-resolution airborne LiDAR data with satellite altimetry (LiDAR and/or radar interferometry), along with satellite optical water maps and rates of actual evaporation, to monitor FoFWS and other similar individually small yet collectively large reservoirs. Where similar data are available globally, then accurate information about small and dispersed water storages across poorly metered irrigated agricultural landscapes can be retrieved. Doing so will improve water resource management in the Barwon-Darling region, and in similar semi-arid and arid areas globally where irrigated agriculture is present.

Incised valleys drive distinctive oceanographic processes and biological assemblages within rhodolith beds

Continental shelves encompass gently sloped seascapes that are highly productive and intensively exploited for natural resources. Islands, reefs and other emergent or quasi-emergent features punctuate these shallow (<100 m) seascapes and are well known drivers of increased biomass and biodiversity, as well as predictors of fishing and other human uses. On the other hand, relict mesoscale geomorphological features that do not represent navigation hazards, such as incised valleys (IVs), remain poorly charted. Consequently, their role in biophysical processes remains poorly assessed and sampled. Incised valleys are common within rhodolith beds (RBs), the most extensive benthic habitat along the tropical and subtropical portions of the mid and outer Brazilian shelf. Here, we report on a multi-proxy assessment carried out in a tropical-subtropical transition region (~20°S) off Eastern Brazil, contrasting physicochemical and biological variables in IVs and adjacent RBs. Valleys interfere in near bottom circulation and function as conduits for water and propagules from the slope up to the mid shelf. In addition, they provide a stable and structurally complex habitat for black corals and gorgonians that usually occur in deeper water, contrasting sharply with the algae-dominated RB. Fish richness, abundance and biomass were also higher in the IVs, with small planktivores and large-bodied, commercially important species (e.g. groupers, snappers and grunts) presenting smaller abundances or being absent from RBs. Overall, IVs are unique and vulnerable habitats that sustain diverse assemblages and important ecosystem processes. As new IVs are detected by remote sensing or bathymetric surveys, they can be incorporated into regional marine management plans as conservation targets and priority sites for detailed in situ surveys.

Coupling RESI with Multi-Scenario LULC Simulation and Spatiotemporal Variability Analysis: An Ecological Spatial Constraint Approach

Southwest China’s arid river valleys represent ecologically vulnerable areas with intense human activity. Understanding the historical changes in LULC and land cover and projecting the impacts of various development scenarios on future LULC have become crucial for regional spatial information management and territorial spatial planning. This research analyzes the land-use changes in the Yuanmou dry-hot valley over a 30-year span from 1990 to 2020. Building upon the PLUS model, we established a coupled habitat quality spatial and multi-scenario land-use simulation model. Four development scenarios were proposed: natural progression, economic development, ecological conservation, and balanced development. We conducted simulations and evaluations of land-use in the Yuanmou dry-hot valley for 2030 using the PLUS mode, assessing the sustainability of future development scenarios under varying ecological constraints. During the simulation, three distinct RESI regions were employed as restricted development zones, integrating the three ecological constraints with the four simulation scenarios. We introduced a novel approach based on ecological environmental quality as the ecological constraint, providing a scientific reference for sustainable development in ecologically vulnerable areas. The results indicate that under ecological conservation scenarios with high-to-low RESI constraints, the ecological environment is superior to the other three scenarios. The results show the following: (1) From 1990 to 2020, aside from a continuous decrease in grassland area, there was an increasing trend in the areas of water bodies, forests, croplands, construction lands, and unused lands in the Yuanmou dry-hot valley. (2) By 2030, under all four development scenarios, the cropland area is expected to expand rapidly, while forested areas will decrease; grassland areas will decline under natural and economic development scenarios but show opposite trends under the other scenarios; and construction land and unused land areas will decrease under the ecological conservation and balanced development scenarios. (3) Land-use intensity analysis for the four scenarios indicated that, by 2030, unused lands in the Yuanmou dry-hot valley are more likely to be converted into water bodies, forests are more likely to be converted into croplands and grasslands, grasslands are more likely to be converted into croplands, croplands are more likely to be converted into grasslands, and construction lands are more likely to become unused lands. (4) Sustainable LULC management evaluations based on landscape indices reveal that ecological conservation and balanced development scenarios exhibit superior landscape connectivity and clustering. Thus, the balanced development scenario is the most appropriate LULC strategy for the Yuanmou dry-hot valley in the future. These findings provide scientific references for balancing ecological conservation and economic development in the arid river valleys of Southwest China.

Sustainable Seabed Mining—The Phase 1 Environmental Draft Standards and Guidelines

Abstract The oceans are home to a rich diversity of plant and animal life and also provide a source of food and marine resources that drive economies. Climate change and pollution are changing ocean dynamics and the ability of the oceans to support life. Seabed mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction will add to the ocean’s stressors and could cause severe environmental damage. The International Seabed Authority (‘ISA’) is mandated to manage access to and benefits from the seabed, its subsoil, and mineral resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction (the ‘Area’). Although the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea sets out the legal framework for developing the Area and its resources, it does so in broad terms and leaves substantial gaps. These gaps include the scope of activities in the Area, the interrelationship of international obligations, the division of responsibilities between the ISA and sponsoring states, and the regulation of the mining system in situ. To partially fill these gaps, the ISA has drafted a set of ‘Phase 1’ Standards and Guidelines under the Draft Regulations on Exploitation of Mineral Resources in the Area. This paper investigates and critiques five environmental Draft Standards from a precautionary and comparative law perspective. Phase 1 standards and guidelines should adopt a more rigorous interpretation of the precautionary principle. Additional recommendations include creating enhanced governance processes and incorporating an ecosystem-based framework for regional environmental assessments and management plans not present in Draft Standards. This research will assist academics, practitioners, governments and the ISA with policies and strategies to enhance environmental and social protections from seabed mining.

Conservation and management of olive ridley sea turtles and their nesting habitat: A study at Rushikulya rookery, Odisha, east coast of India

Odisha coast, along the east coast of India, has the world's largest mass nesting sites (rookeries) for olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtles. It has three rookeries namely Gahirmatha, Devi and Rushikulya. Olive ridley sea turtles and their habitat along the Odisha coast often face natural and anthropogenic threats leading to failure of mass nesting (arribada) and a population decline. The focus of the present study is to understand the coastal processes near the Rushikulya rookery, assess the impacts of natural and anthropogenic threats to the nesting population and their habitat, and suggest a management plan for the conservation of sea turtles and their habitat. Coastal processes and the associated geomorphological changes, shoreline change, and cyclonic disturbances at the Rushikulya rookery from 2008 to 2019 were studied. It is revealed that the natural threats for arribada are cyclonic storms, high wave exposure, and sand spit growth leading to erosion of the nesting habitat and debris accumulation. Coastal processes, such as east-southeast to south-southeast waves with moderate wave height, lunar semidiurnal tide, moderate southwest current, and predominantly southerly and easterly winds with moderate speed, are identified as favourable conditions for the sea turtles prior to and during an arribada. The study reveals that nesting on the sand spit is vulnerable because of frequent wave exposure and washout, while the beach to the north of the estuary is the most preferred and safe habitat for arribada. Coastal development, incidental capture, entanglement in gill nets, fisheries bycatch and illegal take are revealed as the major anthropogenic threats. Based on natural and anthropogenic threats, the local knowledge of the fishermen and the status of legislation, the study suggests an integrated regional management plan for the conservation of olive ridley sea turtles and their nesting habitat.

Application of Hybrid ANN Techniques for Drought Forecasting in the Semi-Arid Region of India.

The intensity and frequency of diverse hydro-meteorological disasters viz., extreme droughts, severe floods, and cyclones have increasing trends due to unsustainable management of land and water resources, coupled with increasing industrialization, urbanization and climate change. This study focuses on the forecasting of drought using selected Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based models to enable decision-makers to improve regional water management plans and disaster mitigation/reduction plans. Four ANN models were developed in this study, viz., one conventional ANN model and three hybrid ANN models: (a) Wavelet based-ANN (WANN), (b) Bootstrap based-ANN (BANN), and (c) Wavelet-Bootstrap based-ANN (WBANN). The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the best drought index identified for the study area, was used as a variable for drought forecasting. Three drought indices, such as SPEI-3, SPEI-6 and SPEI-12 respectively representing "short-term", "intermediate-term", and "long-term" drought conditions, were forecasted for 1-month to 3-month lead times for six weather stations over the study area. Both statistical and graphical indicators were considered to assess the performance of the developed models. For the hybrid wavelet model, the performance was evaluated for different vanishing moments of Daubechies wavelets and decomposition levels. The best-performing bootstrap-based model was further used for analysing the uncertainty associated with different drought forecasts. Among the models developed for drought forecasting for 1 to 3 months, the performances of the WANN and WBANN models are superior to the simple ANN and BANN models for the SPEI-3, SPEI-6, and SPEI-12 up to the 3-month lead time. The performance of the WANN and WBANN models is the best for SPEI-12 (MAE = 0.091-0.347, NSE = 0.873-0.982) followed by SPEI-6 (MAE = 0.258-0.593; NSE = 0.487-0.848) and SPEI-3 (MAE = 0.332-0.787, NSE = 0.196-0.825) for all the stations up to 3-month lead time. This finding is supported by the WBANN analyze uncertainties as narrower band width for SPEI-12 (0.240-0.898) as compared to SPEI-6 (0.402-1.62) and SPEI-3 (0.474-2.304). Therefore, the WBANN model is recommended for the early warning of drought events as it facilitates the uncertainty analysis of drought forecasting results.

Mapping and identification of potential groundwater development zones of an alluvial aquifer in parts of Ghaggar and Upper Yamuna basins in India.

Using an integrated analytical hierarchy process, remote sensing and geographic information system techniques, the current study aims to map and identify the potential groundwater zones of Kurukshetra District of Haryana, which is located in the Ghaggar and Upper Yamuna Basins in India. This is done in the context of a significant change in the use of groundwater pattern, with respect to its continuously increasing demand due to the growing population, expansion of area under irrigation and related economic factors. The amount and quality of groundwater are anticipated to be impacted by anthropogenic activities as well as natural factors such as geomorphology, soil type, lithology and rainfall variance owing to a changing climatic scenario. The potential index of groundwater for this study was calculated by using nine important factors, including geomorphology, rainfall, soil type, depth to groundwater level, lithology, land use land cover, normalized difference vegetation index, cumulative sand thickness and elevation. The integration of multiple thematic layers was accomplished using the overlay weighted method to generate a potential groundwater zonation map and the accuracy of the resulting map was validated against a groundwater resource potential map. Statistical measures demonstrate an 82% agreement between the two maps, indicating a high level of concurrence. Accordingly, three groundwater zones of good, average and bad potential have been identified in the study area. In the current study, a process that combines weighted ranking with spatial data transformation and harmonization has been developed to obtain information for accurate decision-making. The results accruing from this research have significant ramifications for creating regional sustainable groundwater management plans.

Artisanal fishers’ perceptions of two co-existing kelp resource management regimes in northern Chile

As fisheries management evolves and includes new measures, it is imperative to evaluate co-existing regimes. In Chile, two kelp fishery management policies were implemented sequentially over the last 20 years and currently co-exist. We analysed fishers’ perceptions regarding the performance of a territorial user rights policy and a regional management plan policy operating in what were historically open access areas along the coastline of two important kelp production regions in northern Chile. Interviews with Directorates of fisher associations were used to report key dimensions of both regimes, their problems, benefits, and proposals for improvement. A survey was used to assess artisanal fishers’ perceptions of the outcomes of the two management regimes studied: satisfaction, perceived success, and compliance. Trust, environmental attitude, and participation in decision-making associated to both regimes were also assessed. The results of the interviews show that the majority of association Directorates mentioned illegal harvesting by unregistered fishers as the most important problem of the regional management plan regime and suggest that the state needs to invest in law enforcement as a key issue for improvement. The survey results showed that, in general, the territorial user rights regime is perceived to have higher levels of compliance, success, and generates more satisfaction. Lessons from the different management regimes can provide important insights for improving the implementation of management plans to generate synergies between co-existing management regimes.

Developing a model for managing sustainable regional forest biomass resources: System dynamics-based optimization

In Japan, the number of plantation forests that must be harvested is increasing. Therefore, it is desirable to establish an operational system with a high efficiency. When using efficient forestry machinery, it is necessary to secure a sufficient amount of operation commensurate with the cost of machines, while simultaneously considering the feasibility of the labor force. However, no previous research has presented a quantitative forestry operation management method from the viewpoint of optimizing the amount of operation on a regional forestry scale. First, a basic model that mathematically quantifies the amount of operation and changes in forest biomass by applying system dynamics (SD) was developed, and a regional forestry scenario with the labor force as a constraint was optimized. As a result of the optimization, it is suggested that the scenario will be sustainable if regional forests are managed in an area of approximately 800 ha for 10 workers. The amount of operation in the scenario was generally feasible with a limited labor force during the simulation period and was also validated against reported domestic forestry data. We conclude that the SD model can contribute to the development of a regional forest management plan tailored to local conditions. In addition, it will greatly contribute to the assessment of carbon reduction in the national forestry sector through sustainable management of local forest biomass resources.

Taking Precautionary Approaches to the Governance of Commercial Deep Seabed Mining: Law-Making of International Seabed Authority and Multi-Subject Participation

Although commercial deep seabed mining could provide the international community with new sources of metals and minerals, it can potentially cause adverse effects on the marine environment and biodiversity of the Area. To date, insufficient scientific knowledge has been obtained about the complex deep seabed ecosystems and the detailed impacts of deep seabed mining. The International Seabed Authority has begun to make provisions for exploiting mineral resources and related environmental protection requirements. The draft exploitation regulations take precautionary approaches such as stipulating rules, including environmental standards and guidelines, environment impact assessment, environmental management and monitoring plan, and regional environmental management plan. However, there are still apparent differences and controversies about these rules between States. This article elaborates on the evolution and content of drafted rules and explores the manifested specific divergences and interest conflicts in formulating these rules. Implementing precautionary approaches requires balancing potential serious environmental risks, available scientific evidence, and cost-effectiveness. This article also explores the essential requirements of taking precautionary approaches for governing commercial deep seabed mining. The ISA, sponsoring States, Contractors, scientists, experts, and public all play roles in the governance of imminent commercial deep seabed mining. Strengthening multi-subject participation in the ISA’s law-making process for deep seabed environmental protection can be conducive to promoting consensus on taking precautionary approaches to govern commercial deep seabed mining.

The spatiotemporal evolution of socioeconomic drought in the Arid Area of Northwest China based on the Water Poverty Index

The Arid Area of Northwest China (AANC) has the most resource-based water scarcity in China. It also has engineering-, structural-, and management-based water scarcity, all of which seriously restricts the AANC's socioeconomic development. This paper uses the Water Poverty Index's (WPI) characterization of socioeconomic drought to analyze WPI change trends and spatiotemporal patterns in the AANC from 2001 to 2020. Further, the paper comprehensively analyzes the relative water scarcity degree across different zones, using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) to identify the main factors affecting the WPI and the contribution rate of each factor. The results show that the average value of the WPI in the AANC from 2001 to 2020 was 45.6, indicating severe drought. However, from 2016 onward, the degree of socioeconomic drought eased and then transitioned to moderate drought. Significant differences in the spatial distribution of the WPI occur in the AANC, with the WPI in the Hexi Corridor (47.17) being higher than the regional average (45.32), the WPI in northern Xinjiang (45.74) being the same as the regional average, and the WPI in southern Xinjiang (43.05) being lower. There are different types of water scarcity problems across the region, with Alashan, Kezhou and Zhangye experiencing water scarcity that is resource-, engineering-, and management-based, respectively. Numerous factors affect the socioeconomic drought in the AANC. Potential water resources are the main factor, with a contribution rate of 36.58%. Water supply facilities, utilization capacity, use efficiency, and the environment have a relatively small impact on the WPI, with contribution rates of 18.29%, 15.36%, 15.52%, and 14.25%, respectively. This study can provide a reference framework for the construction of a regional socioeconomic index system for drought evaluation. It can also provide scientific and technological support for regional water resources management and industrial structure planning.