Practical Decision Methods for Watershed Management

Why are formal statistical methods for risk-based decision-making so seldom used in the practice of watershed management? I contend that complex formal methods, while internally consistent, are often inappropriate to real world decision-making. The primary purpose of risk analysis is to support risk management, and decision methods need to be effective not just in evaluating risk, but also in communicating risk among stakeholders and decision makers. Useful methods must be not only correct, but also readily communicable. Many formal risk-based decision methods have real obstacles to practical application in one of the following areas: (1) many important components of risk that matter to stakeholders are difficult to express in quantitative terms, and any method which turns “fuzzy” information and subjective opinion into hard numbers is prone to be regarded with suspicion; (2) methods which are not understandable and convincing to decision makers have little practical value; (3) a complex formal analysis will be seen as misguided or irrelevant if it does not represent the full spectrum of management goals. This paper compares the process of watershed management with the process of ecological risk assessment, highlighting similarities and key differences. A practical decision method which balances quantitative rigor with ability to communicate to and forge consensus among stakeholders is then outlined with reference to a successful case study.     

甘南高寒湿地草地放牧系统管理的AHP决策分析及生态恢复对策

以甘南玛曲县的高寒湿地为研究对象,系统探讨了湿地植被退化及土地沙漠化的主要动因及其时空变化特征。采用多层次的AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process)决策模型,对导致湿地植被退化的主要因素及诸种恢复措施综合效果进行了管理决策分析。结果表明：引发湿地植被退化的诸因素中,长期超载放牧和鼠害、虫害是其主要因素,其权重分别为0．4995和0．2684;在湿地恢复的诸管理措施中,围栏轮牧和建植人工草地或半人工草地的综合效果显著,其组合权重分别为0．2584和0．2009。基于上述分析,提出了湿地生态恢复与可持续利用的主要管理对策。     

What Role Should Government Regulation Play in Ecological Restoration? Ongoing Debate in São Paulo State,Brazil

Around the world, there is growing desire and momentum for ecological restoration to happen faster, with better quality, and in more extensive areas. The question we ask is how can laws and governmental regulations best contribute to effective, successful, and broad‐scale restoration? In the state of São Paulo, Brazil, there is a legal instrument (SMA 08‐2008) whose aim is to increase the effectiveness of tropical forest restoration projects in particular. It establishes, among other things, requirements regarding the minimum number of native tree species to be reached within a given period of time in restoration projects and the precise proportion of functional groups or threatened species to be included when reforestation with native species is used as a restoration technique. There are, however, two differing perspectives among Brazilian restoration ecologists on the appropriateness of such detailed legal rules. For some, the rules help increase the chances that mandatory projects of ecological restoration will succeed. For the other group, there is no single way to achieve effective ecosystem restoration, and the existing science and know‐how are far from sufficient to establish standardized technical and methodological norms or to justify that such norms be imposed. Both points of view are discussed here, aiming to help those developing new legislation and improving existing laws about ecological restoration. The precedents established in São Paulo, and at the federal level in Brazil, and the ongoing debate about those laws are worth considering and possibly applying elsewhere.     

Policy planning in the Oosterschelde estuary

During the execution of the Delta project the awareness of the environmental values of estuaries was growing strongly. This awareness has led to a reconsideration of the original proposal to close off the Oosterschelde, and to an alternative view of the management of the estuarine areas and of the civil engineering structures. Now, the completed storm-surge barrier and two compartmentation dams, together with the reinforced dikes, guarantee a sufficient safety against flooding.After the decision to build a storm-surge barrier it was soon recognized that a coherent plan would be needed for the management and development of the Oosterschelde. A policy plan was accordingly produced in which the broad outlines of the policy were set out regarding the various potential uses of the estuary and the possible means of effecting them. Because of the periodic improvement and adjustment of the policy plan an environmental research programme was set up. Also, environmental research played a significant role in the decision-making processes for the completion of the barrier and the compartmentation dams as well as for the management of the storm-surge barrier.The coping-stone of the Delta Project marks the beginning of a new period in the water management of the Netherlands: the period of integrated water management.     

三江自然保护区湿地保护与退耕还湿政策的农民响应

通过对三江自然保护区核心区边缘6个村屯和实验区内5个村屯的310家农户家庭就湿地保护与退耕还湿的问卷调查和访谈研究,探讨了农民对湿地保护和退耕还湿政策的响应.调查发现:湿地保护与退耕还湿的农民响应具有很大的相似性,不同年龄结构,认知水平和区域位置,决定了他们对湿地保护和退耕还湿支持意愿的不同,表现在年轻人、受教育程度高和居住在实验区的人更倾向于湿地保护和退耕还湿.在退耕还湿问题上,农民反对退耕还湿的原因和农民接受退耕还湿的补偿方式选择都反映出农民对现有耕地及补偿制度的思考.研究表明:湿地重要性已经被广大农民所认可,农民对湿地保护和退耕还湿政策的支持主要取决于能否保证农民的经济利益;缺乏明确的退耕还湿补偿制度和替代生计引导是湿地保护和退耕还湿实施的制度障碍和政策缺失.     

Conflicting demands on wetland ecosystem services: nutrient retention,biodiversity or both?

1. Wetland ecosystems may, besides having considerable economical value, increase landscape biodiversity and function as traps for nutrients from land to freshwater‐ and marine systems. As a result of these features, wetlands are nowadays often protected and restored, and many countries have even initiated wetland construction programmes. 2. In the present study, we aim at increasing the knowledge on how to improve the design of a wetland with respect to both biodiversity and nutrient retention, by analysing physical, chemical and biological features of a large set of constructed wetlands. 3. Our results show that a combination of the wetland features, namely shallow depth, large surface area and high shoreline complexity are likely to provide a high biodiversity of birds, benthic invertebrates and macrophytes and to have high nitrogen retention, whereas a small, deep wetland is likely to be more efficient in phosphorus retention, but less valuable in terms of biodiversity. 4. Hence, among the features used to design new wetlands, area, depth and shoreline complexity have fundamental, and sometimes conflicting, effects on nutrient retention and biodiversity. This means that there are, within limits, possibilities to direct the ecosystem function of a specific wetland in desired directions.     

国内外湿地生态系统研究进展

湿地生态系统具有重要的生态功能和社会经济价值。由于诸多因素的影响,目前全球范围内相当一部分湿地生态系统已经丧失或正在遭受不同程度的威胁,湿地生态系统已经成为近年来相关领域研究的热点之一。近年来,国内外湿地生态系统的研究主要集中在湿地生态系统生物多样性本底资料的调查、湿地生态系统的动态以及湿地生态系统胁迫因子研究、退化湿地生态系统的重建和管理,以及恢复湿地有效性的评估体系等4个方面。一些新方法、新技术也不断应用于湿地生态系统研究中。除了自然湿地外,人工湿地的构建和评价体系的建立也成为该领域研究的热点方向。影响湿地生态系统的因素涉及到自然、社会经济、文化等多个方面,加之湿地类型多样性,因此开展更为广泛的湿地生态系统结构、功能和动态的研究是十分必要的。同时,对特定区域内的湿地生态系统修复过程中的关键技术(包括物种的选择等)的研究、新方法和新手段的应用研究也应该在湿地生态系统研究中给予特别关注。