Strategic Bundling of Development Policies with Adaptation: An Examination of Delhi's Climate Change Action Plan

A growing number of cities in the global South are taking proactive action on climate change. Their plans provide insights into the potential for strategically bundling long‐term development policymaking with the climate agenda. In this article I study the case of Delhi, the first city in India to adopt a climate change action plan. Drawing on the literature on urban ecological security, I examine: (1) the adaptation challenges that Delhi faces; (2) the multiple motivations that underlie early action; (3) the key actors, strategies, and associated action domains outlined in the plan; and (4) the extent to which the plan seeks to bring about systemic change. Proactive action at the city level serves multiple strategic goals. Delhi's case is significant in illustrating how it has leveraged emergent opportunities to advance its short‐term development agenda, given the tight fiscal constraints and governance challenges it faces. The plan has been strategically formulated to enhance competiveness, facilitate image‐building, garner support for pet projects and access alternative sources of funding. But the short‐term orientation of the plan and its limited mechanisms for citizen engagement have severely restrained its capacity to address underlying social vulnerabilities or bring about transformative change.     

Short-haul city travel is truly environmentally sustainable

With rising interest in and concern about climate change and environmental sustainability, and the significance of the tourism industry worldwide, the impact of tourism-related activities and behaviors on the environment has become a key area of research. In particular, transport related to tourism has come under scrutiny for its contribution to the ecological footprint of tourism of a destination, mostly accounted for by the dominance of air travel. This study contributes to research in this area by identifying the types of travel situations in which tourists make environmentally friendly choices about travel modes and, consequently, which types of tourism destinations should seek to develop and promote in order to minimize the environmental impact of the tourist sector on both an individual destination and global scale.     

辽河三角洲湿地景观格局脆弱性变化

目前湿地开发利用日益加剧,本文结合全局自相关、局部自相关进行空间关联分析的研究方法进行分析。虽然辽河三角洲区域脆弱度逐渐减弱,仍有部分地区存在高脆弱度值。数据表明2015年低脆弱度区基本覆盖整个辽河三角洲区域。     

基于资源型城市转型的唐山旅游业发展优势分析

旅游业以其低投入高产出、低能耗少污染、带动性强、就业率高等特点而成为经济社会转型中的首选产业,唐山是典型的资源型城市,和众多资源型城市发展一样面临着城市转型、产业结构调整,充分利用各种优势条件,大力发展旅游业,推动城市产业结构转型和社会经济的全面优化。     

Experts’ perceptions of the sloping land conversion program in the Loess Plateau,China

China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is the world’s largest payment for ecosystem services program for improving ecological conditions and farmers’ livelihood. Communicating the SLCP outcomes across diverse stakeholder groups in ecological, socio-economic, political and institutional contexts can facilitate the effective implementation of the new round of the SLCP. Experts from various fields involved in the SLCP have developed good connections with governments, agencies, and farmers; therefore they can play an invaluable role in informing urgent policy changes. This study is based upon 24 interviews with the SLCP experts with the aims of assessing their perceptions of ecological, economic, political and social impacts of the SLCP on the Loess Plateau of China, and then gathering their policy recommendations to ensure that the new round of the SLCP would be implemented efficiently. Content analysis based on the grounded theory is used in present study. Judging from expert-based consensual statements from this study’s interviews, the main concerns about the first round of the SLCP on the Loess Plateau are that the dramatic increase in the farmer’s income and livelihood is mainly from off-farm sources rather than the SLCP subsidy, that equitable government compensation is dependent on the outcome of the SLCP, that the aggressive SLCP causes soil drought which have negative effects on ecological restoration, and that the stakeholders’ interaction could be improved. Based on the analyses of the experts’ interviews, the recommendations are summarised as follows: strengthening the farmers’ environmental awareness and vocational skills, establishing multi-source financial supports and flexible compensation mechanisms, establishing participatory planning that requires stakeholder involvement especially farmers and insisting that scientific studies on the ecological restoration of the Loess Plateau must be shared with local governments and farmers.     

基于乡村振兴视角下西部绿洲流转农户生计脆弱性影响因素研究

［目的］乡村振兴战略中，保障民生是重中之重，而生计脆弱性可综合全面地反映生计特征，因此对西部绿洲流转农户生计脆弱性的影响因素探究，是保障民生、促进农户生计可持续发展的关键举措。［方法］文章以西部绿洲区沙湾县为研究区域，构建“暴露—敏感—适应性”框架，通过熵值法和多元线性回归模型探究转入与转出户生计脆弱性的微观动因。［结果］（1）转入户的生计脆弱性低于转出户； （2）转入户生计脆弱性与家中劳动力数量、家庭收入对耕地资源的依赖程度、耕地机械化程度、流转交易费用、家庭成员有公职人员数量、经营管理能力的程度、获得种植技术援助机会显著相关； （3）中大型生产性工具种类数、家庭中非农就业的人数与转出户生计脆弱性在1%的置信水平上显著相关。［结论］通过加强非农就业技术培训，促进生计选择多元化； 加大惠农政策支持和宣传，推进农村的社会保障体系建设； 组织农技交流会，提升经营管理技术水平； 完善流转交易管理体制，提供相关法律援助的对策，切实保障西部绿洲区流转农户的生计安全，推动区域社会经济的稳定发展。     

北京跨界水源地生态可持续发展模式比较研究——以官厅水库流域延庆怀来两县为例

水资源短缺和水环境污染的现状使得北京跨界水源地发展模式受到各界的关注。以官厅水库流域的北京市延庆县和河北省怀来县为例，运用指标体系进行对比分析，得出了延庆县符合生态可持续的发展模式，其生态可持续发展水平也接近或达到相关标准；而相对而言，怀来县的发展模式和发展现状距离生态可持续的目标差距较大。而行政区划是导致北京跨界水源地境内外发展模式不同的重要原因。     

传统旅游城市经济系统脆弱性研究——以桂林市为例

文章将经济系统脆弱性理论引入旅游城市研究,以我国传统旅游城市桂林为例,构建旅游城市经济系统脆弱性指标体系,采用因子分析法确定权重,测度1999～2009年桂林经济系统的脆弱性。研究表明,旅游城市经济系统的脆弱性本质上是结构型脆弱性,产业多元化发展总体上能够降低旅游城市经济系统的脆弱性,但桂林产业多元化是围绕旅游业建立,旅游业的波动必然带来城市经济的震荡,表现出较高的脆弱性。根据研究结论,文章认为产业多元化并非旅游城市可持续发展的唯一途径,也非旅游城市发展的唯一诉求。如果城市发展能够更多地照顾社区利益,藏富于民,改善就业情况,减少劳动者负担,提高劳动者素质,也能够降低经济系统的脆弱性。     

Tempering effects of (dependent) background risks: A mean-variance analysis of portfolio selection

In a mean variance framework, we analyse risk taking in the presence of a (possibly) dependent background risk, exemplified in a linear portfolio selection problem. We first characterise the comparative statics of changes in the distribution and dependence structure of the background risk. For unfair, undesirable and loss-aggravating increases in background risks (both dependent and independent), we then present necessary and sufficient restrictions on preferences such that greater background uncertainty leads to reduced risk taking. With mean-variance preferences, these restrictions boil down to simple conditions on the marginal rate of substitution between risk and return. They can be easily related to familiar notions such as risk vulnerability, properness or standardness.     

浅议我国生态环境保护的制度建设——基于环境库兹涅茨曲线的视角

为实现人与自然的和谐,对生态环境的保护日益重要。文章通过对环境库兹涅茨曲线进行剖析,揭示了环境保护事业的关键特征;并指出我国迫切需要加强生态资源产权制度改革,完善绿色税收制度,建立环保基金制度及公众参与制度,以实现对生态环境的保护。