PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS AND ARBITRAGE IN THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND WOOL MARKETS*

The physical characteristics of wool are important determinants of its spinning properties, yarn quality and end use. The degree to which wools from different countries of origin may be substituted has important implications for the domestic marketing policies of Australia and New Zealand. The hypothesis examined in this paper is that the differences in wool prices can be explained by differences in the physical characteristics of the wool and that objective measures of these characteristics allow for effective arbitrage between these markets. The alternative hypothesis is that premiums or discounts exist owing to country of origin. A hedonic price analysis was conducted on wool prices in Australia and New Zealand using a balanced sample of sale lot data from the 1986-87 selling season. In the year examined, there was no evidence of any price premiums associated with country of origin.     

The West African middle belt: Land use patterns and development problems

The West African Middle Belt is an area of limited resources, low population density and a severe agricultural climate. Many reasons have been given for the poor state of agriculture in this region, but a look at the agricultural communities of tropical Africa clearly shows that land use cannot be explained by physical and environmental factors alone. For this reason, decision makers must increasingly take into account socioeconomic factors when making policy decisions for development in these peripheral zones.     

UNDP coordination of disaster and development planning

Rapid telecommunications and media coverage have brought to world attention visual evidence of the increasing number of earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, floods, volcanic eruptions and prolonged droughts. Increasingly these natural disasters have added to hardship in the lives of population groups already living in clearly unacceptable conditions. Recent experience around the world illustrates how the effects of disasters can be mitigated by an effective system of pre-disaster activity. Some countries are experiencing the same kinds of disaster more often than in the past, and some emergency situations could have been mitigated or even prevented. Several governments are paying increasing attention to disaster-related issues in their development planning. This article looks at case studies from Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia and Jamaica.     

Floods,food security,and coping strategies: Evidence from Afghanistan

In this paper, we assess the long‐term effect of floods on food security (as measured by calorie and micronutrient consumption) by applying an instrumental variable approach to data from the Afghanistan National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment survey. To identify the determinants of this effect, we also estimate how floods affect per capita yearly household income and poverty status. We find that exposure to flooding during a 12‐month period decreased daily calorie consumption by approximately 60 kcal while increasing the probability of iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C deficiency by 11, 12, and 27 percentage points, respectively. Controlling for price shocks and income only marginally reduces this flood effect on food security, suggesting that impaired livelihoods (rather than price hikes) are its primary driver. We further determine that exposure to this natural disaster decreases income by about 3% and makes flood‐affected households about 3 percentage points more likely to be poor. Lastly, we show that experience of floods is strongly and significantly associated with lower diet quality and quantity, and with engaging in consumption smoothing coping strategies, such as buying food on credit and taking loans. These findings underscore the serious direct impact of floods on both diet and effective behavioral responses to such shocks while emphasizing the need for targeted micronutrient supplementation in disaster relief and food aid measures even after the period of natural disaster emergency.     

水土流失是我国最严重的公害

我国是世界上水土流失最严重的国家之一。水土流失造成了耕地减少、水旱灾害频发和社会贫困等问题，已经严重影响到我国的粮食安全、环境安全和社会经济可持续发展能力。造成我国水土流失严重的根本原因是人为原因，必须采取多种措施加紧对我国水土流失的治理。     

湄公河流域洪旱灾害损失分析

受海洋气候及气候变化的影响,湄公河流域洪旱灾害频发。澜湄合作及中国-东盟合作机制是我国发展周边外交的重要内容。搜集整理近几十年来湄公河流域洪旱灾害事件资料,分析了流域洪旱灾害损失情况、成因及影响因素,结果表明:洪旱灾害是湄公河流域的主要灾害形式,流域4国洪水发生次数占总自然灾害次数的50%左右;洪旱灾害对流域各国的人口、交通、农业、经济等方面的影响均比较显著;气候变化是引起湄公河流域洪旱灾害的主要原因。     

水患对安徽省相对经济资源承载力的影响与可持续发展

水患给安徽经济，社会可持续发展带来很大负面影响；以20世纪90年代两次特大水灾为例。分析了水患对安徽相对经济资源承载力影响，并从人口，资源配置，产业结构，资金等方面提出了可持续发展策略。     

城市洪水资源化研究

综合分析城市缺水、城市灾害和洪水资源化,提出城市洪水资源化的概念,并以华南师范大学社区为例,分析洪水资源化的经济效益,建议城市在遵循生态效益最大化的原则下,化害为利,通过城市雨洪收集利用,利用水库、湖泊蓄水,引水输沙,引水冲污等措施实现城市洪水资源化。     

怎样解决中国4大水问题

针对中国水资源面临的洪涝灾害、水资源紧缺、水土流失与生态变化和水污染严重4大问题，提出解决中国水资源问题的对策：给洪水以出路，建设节水型社会，充分发挥大自然的自我修复能力，发展绿色经济。     

论明清时期苏北里下河自然环境的变迁

明清时期，黄、淮洪水屡屡倾泻苏北里下河。水走沙停，里下河地区的河湖港汉日趋淤塞，并最终导致射阳湖的消失。里下河自然环境亦因此而完成了从泻湖到平畴的巨大变迁，而自然环境的变迁又进一步加剧了水灾的肆虐性。水灾与自然环境变迁交相作用，将里下河引入赤贫的深渊。     

A fine-scale spatial analytics of the assessment and mapping of buildings and population at different risk levels of urban flood

Nowadays, urban flooding is becoming a severe issue in most of the developing and developed countries. The growth of the urbanization rate is also increasing, and the United Nations (UN) projected that 68 % of the world’s population would live in urban areas by 2050. People tend to migrate from rural to urban areas, which expose them more vulnerable to urban floods. The flood-related damages and deaths are increasing every year globally. Using the Birmingham city, Alabama (AL), USA as the study area, the objective of this research is to assess potential damage risks due to flood exposure of buildings and population in an urban area. Different social and environmental factors influence urban floods in an urban area. This paper considered elevation, slope, flow accumulation, land-use, soil types, and distance from the river as significant influential factors to urban flooding. The flood risk model hence can be developed by using an integrated GIS and cartrographic approach, in which we assessed and assigned weights to these factors and formed a GIS risk assessment model, which shows the level of flood risks in the floodplain areas of Birmingham and quantifies and maps both commercial buildings, home buildings, and populations’ exposed to flooding risks. This study found that the Valley Creek area is the highest flood risk zone in Birmingham, and about 48.85 percent of Valley Creek’s floodplain area will face very high flood risk. The findings further reveal that total number of 5602 people are living in high and very high flood risk zones in Birmingham that approximates 44.04 % of the total population in this floodplain area. The physical vulnerability is also assessed, and findings suggest that the Valley Creek zone has the highest percentage of residential (i.e., 56.14 %) and commercial (i.e., 75.34 %) buildings located in very high flood risk areas. Our study providing a GIS risk assessment approach to locating and mapping the areas, buildings, and populations from the most to the least at risks with a fine spatical scale for urban flood risk management. The numbers of vulnerable buildings and populations within each risk category are quantified and their distributions are mapped. Therefore, revealing population’s and buildings’ risks and their geographic information, this flood risk assessment can help local governments and communities prepare better to take actions against future urban flood events in Birmingham, and this integrated GIS and cartographic analysis for fine flooding assessments can be applied to other urban areas for flood mitigation and risk management.     

Regional Economic Growth and Inequality in India during the Pre- and Post-reform Periods

Abstract

This paper evaluates the economic performance of 15 major states in India, and examines whether initially disparate states displayed any tendency towards convergence in real per capita income during the period 1960/61–2006/07. Though the growth performance of the states has improved in the post-reform period, since 1991 the states have diverged in per capita income. The states following different steady-state paths are classified into three clubs—one convergent and two non-convergent. The regional divergence and club convergence are explained in terms of interstate variations in physical and social infrastructures, state-level policy reforms, foreign direct investment flows and economic structure. The poorly performing states could improve their relative economic position by undertaking investments in physical and social infrastructures, and speeding up the reform process by liberalizing investment and infrastructure policies. As industry and services are the major sources of regional divergence, any effort to reduce regional imbalance must focus primarily on these two sectors.     

南通市自然灾害时空分布规律及其防治

分析了南通市的地震、塌岸、水土流失、水灾、旱灾、雹灾、寒害和台风等8种自然灾害的时空分布特点;对地震、水灾等6种灾害的功率谱、集中度和集中期分析显示,南通市自然灾害具有2.2年的年际变化规律和春季多冰雹、寒害,夏季多旱涝、台风的年内分布规律;地震受新构造运动断裂分布的控制呈条带状分布,水土流失主要分布于高沙土区,塌岸主要集中于东南部的沿江沿海地带;气象灾害全市皆有分布,但具有北多南少、北重南轻的总体特点;提出了加强自然灾害预报预警系统、农田水利基础设施和江海岸坡防护工程建设等相应的防治对策。     

试论明清江淮地区的水旱灾害与农业耕作的变迁

本文以灾害社会经济史的视角，对明清时期江淮地区的水旱灾害与农业耕作关系作了深入地探讨。笔者以为，频发的水旱灾害不仅造成了江淮大量耕地的丧失和可耕地地力的下降，从而严重阻碍了当地社会经济的发展，还造成了江淮一些地区传统优势种植农业的衰退以及一些地区耕作制度的逆转。     

坚持综合治理提高除涝防渍标准

针对安徽省宿州市河网密布极易引发洪涝灾害的情况，介绍了宿州市认真贯彻农田水利基本建设政策，因地制宜，科学规划，旱涝兼治，综合治理，注重实效的经验做法，同时提出继续加强治理的建议。     

浅议水文遥测技术在苏北灌溉总渠的应用

通过水文遥测技术在苏北灌溉总渠的应用和实践，探讨其社会效益、节约管理成本及提升科技含量等优点，展望遥测报汛信息化的前景。     

农事的破坏与补救--近代江南地区的水旱灾害与农民群众的技术应对

近代时期，针对江南地区水旱灾害的威胁，为补救因正常农事活动遭到破坏而遭受的损失，人们采取了一系列的技术措施，如补种、改种相关作物，这在一定程度上反映出人们农业生产活动过程中的生态适应性。     

德州市降水及旱涝灾害变化趋势分析

该文基于德州11县市1957～2009年降水量及全市范围内的所有旱涝灾害资料,分析了年降水量及旱涝灾害变化趋势,年平均降水量555.1mm,年降水量呈减少趋势,结果表明,平均每10年减少18.3mm。年平均旱灾2.5次,旱灾呈增加趋势,平均每10年增加0.235次,53年降水量与干旱次数的相关系数为-0.39,呈负相关。年平均涝灾2.5次,涝灾呈缓慢增加趋势,平均每10年增加0.05次,主要是由于特大暴雨等极端灾害性天气气候事件增加造成的,53年降水量与涝灾次数的相关系数为0.67,呈正相关。     

基于改进DIIM的洪涝灾害下供应链系统中断关联型损失评估研究

为解决暴雨洪涝灾害频发对企业生产和整条供应链的运行带来的巨额经济损失问题,在考虑供应链系统相互关联的基础上,运用改进的动态非正常程度投入产出模型(DIIM)模拟洪涝灾害导致企业非正常程度的动态运行状态,测算洪涝灾害给供应链系统带来的直接损失及关联损失。以2021年马来西亚洪涝灾害影响下的某制造业供应链系统为例,选取相关指标对洪涝灾害导致供应链系统中断带来的关联型损失进行评估。结果表明:洪涝灾害引发的供应链各节点功能下降程度由需求端和供应端两方干扰共同影响,非正常程度和损失都是一个动态变化的过程;仿真数据直观显示了洪涝灾害下供应链中断发生、扩散及恢复过程,有助于决策者对洪涝灾害下供应链系统运行进行分析和管理。     

根治长江水患兴建川境长江上游控制性水库

四川作为西部长江上游的一个重要省份，如果抓住西部大开发的机遇，建设一批大型骨干控制性水库，从根本上防治四川乃至整个长江中下游的洪水灾害，并促进四川水利事业的发展，本文作了综合的探讨。