Mapping Brisbane’s Casual Creative Corridor: Land use and policy implications of a new genre in urban creative ecosystems

Creative hotspots have become a key driver for urban policies to stimulate social, cultural, environmental and organisational growth of creative and knowledge-based clusters, districts and hubs. However, their functional and spatial characteristics vary due to their different evolving structure as new spaces of economic activity in different contexts. This article points to a consideration of new foci for both land use and urban economic policy through a mapping of formal and informal creative hotspots in Brisbane, Australia. The study found two distinctive development patterns: (a) earlier top-down approaches as instigated by national and international innovation policies, and; (b) recently emerging bottom-up spaces for creativity, knowledge and innovation practices. This study examines how formal creative strategies and emerging informal creative spaces shape cities and urban policies. The methodology comprises online data collection and a review of creative and knowledge strategies and implementation policies. Data was then analysed via multiple mapping techniques illustrating the spatial distribution of creative hotspots, formal and informal formations, scale and land use characteristics. The research findings consolidate our understanding of Brisbane’s creative ecosystem and suggest new urban policy mechanisms to better foster the interrelationship between top-down and bottom-up approaches in cities, that is, between formally planned and large-scale interventions and small-scale organic and informal creative activities.     

Policy lessons from spatiotemporal enrollment patterns of payment for ecosystem service programs in Argentina

Payment for ecosystem services schemes (PES) are lauded as a market-based solution to curtail deforestation and restore degraded ecosystems. However, PES programs often fail to conserve sites under strong long-term deforestation pressures. Underperformance, in part, is likely due to adverse selection. Spatial adverse selection occurs when landowners are more likely to enroll parcels with low deforestation pressure than parcels with high deforestation pressure. Temporal adverse selection arises when parcels are enrolled for short time periods. In both cases, financial resources are allocated without having a sizeable impact on long-term land use change. Improving program performance to overcome these shortcomings requires understanding attributes of landowners and their parcels across large scales to identify spatial and temporal enrollment patterns that drive adverse selection. In this paper, we examine these patterns in Argentina’s PES program in Chaco forest, a global deforestation hotspot. Our study area covers 252,319 km². Results from multinomial logistic regression models showed that large parcels of enrolled land and parcels owned by absentee landowners exhibit greater evidence of spatiotemporal adverse selection than smaller parcels or parcels owned by local landowners. Furthermore, parcels managed under land use plans for conservation and restoration are more likely to be associated with adverse selection than parcels managed for financial returns such as harvest of non-timber forest products, silviculture, and silvopasture. However, prior to recommending that PES programs focus on land uses with higher potential earnings, a greater understanding is needed of the degree to which these land uses meet ecological and biodiversity goals of PES programs. We suggest that increased spatial targeting of enrollment, along with enrollment of local landowners and further incentives for land uses that support conservation and restoration, could promote long-term conservation of forest lands.     

The decade-long cryptocurrencies and the blockchain rollercoaster: Mapping the intellectual structure and charting future directions

Recent advances in science mapping allowed to analyze the entire intellectual structure of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in business-related disciplines to identify 174 academic articles as well as 1482 practitioner-oriented articles published since the inception of cryptocurrencies in 2008 to highlight key trends of the published outputs. The results demonstrate academic research done by 389 authors in 296 organizations based in 50 countries that only just initiated the conversation on four major streams of the literature—Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies; blockchain adoption; cryptocurrency and blockchain environment; and business model innovations. When comparing academic scholarship to practitioner-oriented literature, the results demonstrate that practitioners discussed investor-related themes, cryptocurrency intrinsic value, political-economic sphere, and the impact of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies on the wider society in greater detail. As a result, a number of themes are identified and discussed that could align academic and practitioner interests and provide guidance for further research in this important field.     

Coproduction of ecosystem services as human–nature interactions—An analytical framework

There seems to be widespread consensus in the ecosystem services literature that benefits from ecosystems are not produced by ecosystems independently of humans, but arise because of people’s interactions with an ecosystem. Yet, these interactions are hardly ever explicitly investigated in a way that directly contributes to the ecosystem services debate. Here, we empirically examine the role of humans in the generation of ecosystem services, and the factors that might help us to understand diversity in these processes.We analyzed 47 qualitative interviews with people using a mixed woodland–farmland–upland ecosystem in Fife, Scotland, for a variety of activities. Interviewees mentioned a wide range of ecosystem services, especially provisioning and cultural services, which were closely connected to human activities in the place. We term the interactions between people and place that lead to ecosystem services here ‘co-production’, and distinguish between: (a) the co-production of ecosystem structures; (b) the co-production of the services proper and (c) the attribution, i.e., construction, of meaning to these structures and services. All three processes could be carried out by individuals or jointly, by groups of people, and the social nature of the interaction often added meaning and value to the co-production process. Two sets of factors, clustered under the headings of ‘identities’ and ‘capabilities’, shaped these interactions, and helped us to understand variation in people’s engagement with the ecosystem as well as their views on ecosystem disservices.While further research is needed to explore the usefulness of our analytical framework in other contexts, our findings suggest that identities and capabilities of people have to be considered much more strongly than is currently the case in standard ecosystem services assessments, as these influence which ecosystem structures are eventually turned into benefits, and give important insights into the environmental justice related to the distribution of ecosystem benefits.     

陕北地区土地利用及景观格局变化对生态服务价值的影响*——基于退耕还林（草）背景

［目的］通过揭示退耕还林（草）工程背景下陕北地区近25年生态系统服务价值的演变规律，旨在为陕北地区的土地利用规划及新一轮退耕还林（草）政策的推进提供参考。［方法］以生态环境脆弱的陕北地区为研究对象，基于1990年、2000年、2015年3期的土地利用变化数据，以退耕还林（草）政策的实施为节点，利用土地转移矩阵、景观格局指数、生态服务价值损益表等方法对陕北地区的土地利用情况、景观格局演变以及生态服务价值的变化进行分析，借助相关性系数对土地利用类型、景观格局及生态服务价值之间的关系进行了定量研究。［结果］（1）草地、耕地和林地是陕北地区最主要的土地利用类型，耕地面积减少，林草地面积持续增加且增速加快。（2）近25年，陕北地区景观格局的连接性和通达性降低，景观格局主要呈破碎化发展趋势。研究区各景观类型的破碎化程度增大，空间异质性增加，草地是该地区的优势景观类型。（3）陕北地区1990年、2000年和2015年各类生态系统提供的总生态服务价值分别为38919亿元、39431亿元和40622亿元，退耕还林（草）前年均增长率为1396%，退耕还林（草）后这一比率增加至5622%。［结论］受退耕还林（草）政策的影响，陕北地区土地利用类型和土地景观格局的变化均对生态系统服务价值有显著的影响，但是不同的景观指数对生态系统服务价值的影响程度和趋势不同，水域和林草地面积对生态系统服务价值呈正相关，未利用地和城乡建设用地面积对生态系统服务价值呈负相关。     

滨海区域生态区划研究——以北戴河新区为例

滨海区域生态系统不稳定,沿海城市的生态环境问题已经成为全球关注的重点。滨海地区生态区划是根据滨海区域区位、自然资源、环境条件及开发利用要求,选取相应的生态环境指标对区域状态进行评价,并划分为不同类型的生态单元的过程。文章以北戴河新区为例,从生态敏感性、建设用地适宜性和景观格局安全性等3个生态要素中共选取14个指标建立生态区划指标体系,运用GIS技术进行生态要素的空间分析,最终将北戴河新区分为生态涵养、生态旅游、生态服务和生态农业等4个生态主区以及15个生态亚区,并针对4个区分别给出了未来发展方向和保护对策。     

Tourism at Costalegre,Mexico: An ecosystem services-based exploration of current challenges and alternative futures

Tourism, as all human activities, is dependent on the natural environment and its respective ecosystem services (ES). Different user groups manage and consume these touristic ES differently, resulting in discrepancies and potential conflicts. Despite the urgency to find inclusive local approaches for sustainable development, tourism studies still analyze socio-economic and ecological impacts separately and lack integrated social–ecological approaches to improve foresight in tourism planning. Based on a growing concern regarding the future of Costalegre on the Jalisco coast of Western Mexico, we analyze through interviews, surveys, and participant observation the dependence of tourism on specific ecosystem services and conduct a scenario analysis which shows present and future implications for the social–ecological system. Furthermore, this analysis shows in detail how different scenarios change ES provision and people's livelihoods. Key findings include identifying freshwater provision and cultural ES as the most important touristic ES. At a regional scale, peasants in ejidos are the main ES stewards, whereas high-class tourism facilities constitute important local stewards. Benefits, mainly access to freshwater and the beach, are unequally distributed, provoking conflicts among different ES user groups that may escalate in the near future. Improved communication between all user groups and strengthening of key political actors seem to be the most immediate recommendations to ensure the long term sustainability of this particular region. This work may contribute to improved planning and decision-making as our ES based scenarios are a first step to integrate social–ecological knowledge into improved decision-making. At a local scale, the study reveals the most likely future development options and their social and ecological consequences. It could also serve as a baseline for informed policy making.     

基于生态位适宜度的区域创新生态系统与创新效率研究

由于区域内创新资源的有限性，区域创新生态系统中创新主体生态位之间的重叠程度对创新效率的影响愈发的显著，基于此本文运用生态位适宜度评价模型对我国30个省市 2011~2015 年的创新生态系统适宜度水平进行了测度，并分别与运用超效率数据包络分析法所测得的区域知识创新效率和产品创新效率进行了面板数据的回归分析。结果显示，区域创新生态系统的生态位适宜度对两个阶段的创新效率均具有正向的相关关系，但这种影响只具有短期的时间维度，并不存在两年及以上的相互作用。区域创新生态系统的对外开放会对产品创新阶段的创新效率产生负面影响，同时会促进知识创新阶段创新效率的提高。最后，在协调系统内部各生态位之间的发展关系时，应注重区域内经济发展水平对两个阶段创新效率的促进作用。     

居民生态补偿意愿影响因素研究

基于条件价值评估法设计调查问卷,对哈尔滨市居民随机调查,建立结构方程模型,以此分析影响居民生态补偿意愿的关键因素。研究表明:影响居民生态补偿意愿的因素有学历、家庭收入、对生态补偿以及生态重要性的认知程度,而且学历和家庭收入有双向关系,学历对居民的生态补偿及生态重要性的认知程度有正向影响。因此,提出提高人们的文化程度以提升居民的生态补偿意愿;加大生态补偿的宣传力度,从而增强居民的生态补偿意识等建议。