Environmental Management最新文献

Optimal investment in conservation requires balancing the benefits of conservation against its costs. We model the benefit of groundwater, less the cost of conserving groundwater through a subsidy for on-farm surface water storage. On-farm surface water storage reduces arable land but provides a substitute for groundwater used in irrigation. The average social net benefit from conserving water is $12.32 per acre-foot after thirty years with the current subsidy for surface storage, and the aquifer thickness rises by 10.6%. The average social net benefit of groundwater conserved rises by lowering the subsidy, but the volume of conservation also declines. A third of the sites where groundwater is nearly exhausted after thirty years increase surface storage with the subsidy and experience a rebound in groundwater volumes. Conserving groundwater with the subsidy generates the highest net benefit for sites with a high yield for rice, a low yield for dryland soybean, a low depth to the aquifer, and high natural recharge.

Environmental civic engagement provides an essential avenue to combat global environmental crises. However, opportunity and ability to participate in such civic action are not equal for everyone. Concerningly, the conservation movement in the U.S. has historically marginalized Black, Asian, and Latine voices from policy and decision-making processes. While previous research has focused on predictors of civic engagement in general and what barriers reduce participation, using an asset-based framing to consider what supports environmental civic engagement is less common. We used qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the role of community cultural wealth (CCW) in Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals’ participation in environmental civic engagement. CCW is an asset-based model, which has been used to understand persistence of marginalized groups in historically exclusionary spaces. We used CCW to identify factors that support Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals’ environmental civic engagement as these behaviors have been affected by structural racism. Results showed that understanding systems of oppression and being motivated to change such systems were important predictors of environmental civic engagement for Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals. Furthermore, our results suggest that organizations, social connections, and family connections are important sources of civic knowledge and opportunity. These findings suggest that taking an asset-based approach can be a promising way to support environmental civic engagement among Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals.

There is growing concern over integrating carbon reduction objectives into environmental impact assessment (EIA). Drawing on multiple sources of statistical data (e.g., provincial panel data from 2001 to 2019 and from January 2018 to December 2023, etc.), this study employs econometric models to empirically examine the carbon reduction effects of China’s EIA system and its underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that EIA implementation is significantly associated with reductions in carbon emissions, and this conclusion remains robust across various tests. Mechanism analysis further reveals that EIA promotes local industrial upgrading, curbs the expansion of heavily polluting enterprises, enhances the green total factor productivity of industries, and facilitates the transition toward cleaner energy systems. Nevertheless, the synergistic effect between EIA activities and EIA management in achieving carbon reduction goals has not been effectively realized. Our findings contribute to the literature on environmental regulation by providing a quantitative framework for evaluating the carbon reduction effect of EIA and uncovering its mechanisms, while also offering evidence-based guidance for incorporating carbon assessment into the EIA system, optimizing EIA management, and designing differentiated policies to strengthen its role in driving the low-carbon transition.

The capacity of brackish and freshwater tidal marshes to accrete vertically in response to sea level rise is threatened where drought and salinity intrusion are being amplified by climate change. Episodic salinity management with purchased augmented freshwater is an option for two modest-sized tracts in southeast Texas, where drought and hydrologic modifications threaten wetland resiliency and the Mottled Duck. We developed a transferable methodology to assess biophysical benefits in a spatially explicit manner for these heterogeneous wetlands. Four salinity objectives reflected zonal geography of the wetland plant communities and Mottled Duck brood-rearing needs. A calibrated daily wetlands hydrologic-salinity model contrasted scenarios of severe drought with those of freshwater augmentation. The volume of freshwater available, up to 12.33 M m³ per year, could be effective at moderating salinity over significant wetland areas, but benefits were sensitive to management approach, as well as delivery rates and duration of augmentation. Additionally, fixed freshwater application rates could depress salinities to suboptimal ranges and waste a purchased resource. Feedback scenarios based on in-marsh salinity conditions elevated the ratio of benefits to delivered water volumes but would entail additional monitoring and management cost. Compared to the extremely deleterious conditions of severe drought, most freshwater augmentation approaches would greatly benefit the Mottled Duck and the productivity of the wetland vegetation within the tracts. However, portions of a fragile brackish zone dominated by Spartina patens would remain at risk from elevated salinity, suggesting a need for complementary restoration actions.

The willingness and behavior of residents to engage in environmental governance and protection are the most direct drivers of environmental improvement, and constitute a vital foundation for achieving ecologically livable conditions and the reform of ecological civilization systems. Based on survey data from 769 respondents collected in Chongqing, this study aims to explore the relationship among social capital, environmental awareness, government satisfaction, and residents’ participation in environmental governance, in order to reveal the key factors that promote eco-friendly behaviors. This paper uses SPSS25.0 to conduct descriptive statistics, one-factor analysis of variance, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, mediation effect tests and other statistical methods. The results demonstrate that social capital exerts a significant positive impact on residents’ participation in environmental governance. Moreover, social capital is significantly positively correlated with key factors such as environmental awareness and government satisfaction. In particular, participation willingness has a significant positive effect on participation behavior, highlighting the importance of motivating individual willingness to participate. Further analysis reveals that environmental awareness plays a partial mediating role between social capital and participation willingness, whereas the mediating effect of government satisfaction is not significant, indicating that enhancing environmental awareness is one of the key pathways to promote participation behavior. The findings of this study are significant for formulating and implementing more effective environmental protection policies and measures, emphasizing the strategy of promoting residents’ participation in environmental governance by enhancing social capital and raising public environmental awareness.

Biological invasions are driven by both direct and indirect factors. However, the effects of indirect drivers, such as social and cultural factors, remain underexplored in many regions worldwide, including the Neotropics. Here, we characterize the knowledge and perceptions that local communities have regarding invasive plant species, aiming to explore how sociocultural factors might influence, either positively or negatively, the biological invasions in the high-mountain ecosystems of central Colombia. We conducted a semi-structured survey, which included an open-ended question analyzed using sentiment analysis, and implemented a board game to assess both perceptions and knowledge of invasive plants already established in the Colombian high mountains. The results revealed that although half of the respondents viewed biological invasions negatively, their perceptions of 18 invasive plant species already established in the region were generally neutral or positive. This shift in perception may be linked to their knowledge level, as the results showed an accuracy rate of approximately 60% for identifying native and invasive high-mountain plant species. The average correct identification rate for invasive plants (22%) was nearly three times lower than that for native plants (70%). Notably, invasive plants with cultural or economic value are generally classified as native. Collectively, these findings suggest that neutral perceptions, alongside a lack of awareness of invasive species and the value placed on a large portion of them, may significantly contribute to the transportation, introduction, and establishment of invasive plants in the Colombian high mountain regions. Thus, incorporating the effects of sociocultural drivers into invasion management strategies may be crucial for effectively preventing their establishment and spread at both the local and regional levels.

The Colombian-Peruvian Amazon’s global socio-ecological relevance attracts multiple organizations and technologies related to cooperation and environmental governance, configuring a complex network of interactions, relationships, and relational structures. This case study seeks to provide clarity on the complex functioning of the cooperation network in the Amazon biome, composed of institutional and technological nodes. It identified 17 thematic environmental narratives, their patterns of concordance by node (entities/institutions operating within the network), and how they influence inter-network links. Studying cooperating networks in dynamic contexts is made complex by progressive and diverse environmental threats, economic challenges, and barriers to accessing information. The article proposes a methodological approach to untangling these complexities, leveraging (a) social network analysis; (b) web scraping for data collection; (c) text mining to categorize narrative themes by node; and (d) network modeling using Exponential Random Graph Models. We propose and evaluate hypotheses on the influence of narrative concordance, contribution, homophily, and environmental-governance internal structural patterns that are important in creating network links. Study results indicate three dominating narratives: Research & Education, Communities, and Policy, revealing a higher distribution, average contribution, and significance for these discourses. Additionally, international nodes contribute predominantly to Research and Technology topics, surpassing Colombian-Peruvian nodes, suggesting a pattern of influence over these network themes. Lastly, we identify opportunities for improving system interventions for slowing the Amazon biome’s degradation, composed of a diversified, well-integrated cooperation network, and underscoring the need for environmental-policy frameworks that actively integrate local perspectives and capacities, while leveraging international networks to bridge regional limitations.

Given global threats to biodiversity, implementing effective biodiversity offset policies is increasingly recognised as being essential for delivering sustainable development. As research and practice on offsets has developed, so have international expectations of best practice principles, which set the benchmark for national systems in their efforts to protect biodiversity. This research aims to synthesise best practice principles for biodiversity offsets from the international literature, developing a benchmark to assess the extent to which national policies align with international standards. Chile is selected as a suitable case study due to its biodiversity richness and emerging biodiversity offsets policy, to test this analytical framework. The analysis indicates that the benchmark provides a useful basis for assessing national biodiversity offset policies and shows that Chilean policy demonstrates an initial alignment with international best practices, though several areas for improvement remain.