理性增长十周年回顾及展望——以美国马里兰州为例

2007年10月在美国马里兰州举办了理性增长十周年（Smart Growth@10）会议。本文在回顾马里兰州理性增长十年发展历程基础上，严格审查马里兰州理性增长运动的实践成效，具体包括理性增长在土地利用变更、社区复兴、住宅偏好及选择、耕地保护、基础设施建设等领域所取得的成就和存在的不足，并总结了未来马里兰州理性增长运动进一步完善的政策建议，希望美国马里兰州的理性增长实践能够为中国未来城市规划、发展和管理的改革创新提供借鉴和启示．     

Linkages among energy, agriculture and environment in rural India

The interconnections between energy, agriculture and environment in rural India are analyzed in this paper using a systems perspective. Rural areas of developing countries use biomass for fuel, fodder, fertilizer and other purposes, and it is necessary to understand the fuel-fodder–fertilizer relationships for optimal biomass allocation. The allocation is explored using a linear programming model. First, the model is validated by simulating it using data for the year 1990–1991. The model is then applied for the year 2000, and several scenarios are generated to obtain answers to various policy questions. The results show that it is necessary to increase fertilizer consumption, to increase efficiencies of cooking stoves, to improve livestock feed, and/or to decrease population growth for maximizing the revenue generated in the rural system of India. It shows that when the prices of fertilizers increase, a large increase in kerosene requirements can be expected. It also points to the necessity to increase kerosene consumption to reduce emissions (due to non-commercial fuels) and soil fertility loss. For example, the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the scenarios range from 137.50 to 62.50 million tons (in carbon equivalent terms) for the high and low cases, respectively. Correspondingly, kerosene consumption ranges from 0.18 to 15.49 kilotons (kT).     

THE RURAL IS NOT REMOTE — THE CASE OF COMPANY DRINKS

The article focuses on the undesirable binary between the rural and the urban and uses Company Drinks as an example of a reverse ruralurban relationship, where an inner city population migrates temporarily to the countryside, which is relevant to the hop-picking tradition (“hopping”) practiced by working-class families from London’s East End. In this case, a working-class community has developed its own rural practice, moving between rural and urban settings on a regular basis. Company Drinks is a new model cultural enterprise that uses the collective memory of hopping as a starting point to rethink and reintroduce an adaptive collective production cycle into East London everyday life. With various successful activities being held, going picking has been far from an East End tradition and become a universal activity recognized and appreciated across different cultures and landscapes. The author believes that rural-urban link cannot be controlled from a distance. Rural society offers knowledge and resource that can empower urban communities, and can test and provide conditions for alternatives to urban lifestyles.     

马克思主义群众观视域下农村基层党组织建设研究

文章基于马克思主义的群众观, 从当前农村基层党组织建设现状出发, 探索出在马克思主义群众观指引下 加强农村基层党组织建设的路径, 为基层党组织的建设发展与构建社会主义新农村提供了借鉴。     

Economic analysis on small-scale forest biomass gasification considering geographical resources distribution and technical characteristics

Biomass is getting the great interest in Japan, and the cabinet approved “Biomass Nippon Strategy” in 2002 to promote the utilization of biomass. Although various projects utilizing wood biomass for energy uses have started already, many of them utilize mainly waste wood. Forest biomass remains unutilized because of the high logistic cost and the small scale of resource generation at a site. Small-scale gasification is considered as a suitable technology for forest biomass, and more than 10 demonstration plants have started to be operated recently. This study analyzes the economic feasibility of the small-scale forest biomass CHP system with gasification technology in Japan.The authors have developed the BiRReT tool, which takes input data such as geographical resource distribution and scale merit information of the target technology, and analyzes the economics of bioenergy system in target region by finding the optimal conditions; namely plant size, plant location, the number of plants, and lower generation costs. A case study in Miyagi prefecture revealed the conclusion that the system with logging residue fuel has the economic feasibility if the capital cost and the resource price will decrease from the BAU case by technological learning in the future. On the other hand, thinned wood will not be utilized as a fuel for power plants due to high fuel production cost. It is also found by the tool analysis that the technology’s scale merit has stronger impact on power generation cost in the trade-off between scale merit and the transportation cost.     

Energy poverty in rural Bangladesh

Energy poverty is a well-established concept among energy and development specialists. International development organizations frequently cite energy-poverty alleviation as a necessary condition to reduce income poverty. Several approaches used to measure energy poverty over the past 20 years have defined the energy poverty line as the minimum quantity of physical energy needed to perform such basic tasks as cooking and lighting. This paper uses a demand-based approach to define the energy poverty line as the threshold point at which energy consumption begins to rise with increases in household income. At or below this threshold point, households consume a bare minimum level of energy and should be considered energy poor. This approach was applied using cross-sectional data from a comprehensive 2004 household survey representative of rural Bangladesh. The findings suggest that some 58 percent of rural households in Bangladesh are energy poor, versus 45 percent that are income poor. The findings also suggest that policies to support rural electrification and greater use of improved biomass stoves might play a significant role in reducing energy poverty.     

Comprehending household cooking energy choice in rural India

Energy is essential to attain the quality of life and economic prosperity in a society. In the rural areas of India, cooking dominates the aggregate consumption of energy. This energy demand is mostly met by biomass fuels, which have many associated inherent disadvantages. Hence, it is important to understand the decision making process in rural households regarding the choice of cooking fuels. For this purpose, household information using the 61st round of National Sample Survey is analyzed for the rural parts of India. The logistic regression model is used to explain the determinants of clean fuel use for cooking purposes. The study shows that number of educated females between 10 and 50 years of age, average household education index, regular salary, and monthly per capita consumption expenditure have a positive and significant impact on probability of using clean cooking fuels, whereas possessing a Below Poverty Line ration card, belonging to reserved caste categories, family size and size of farm land have a significant negative linkage.     

制定镇规划编制办法是当前迫切任务

中国特色城镇化应当走大中小城市和小城镇协调发展的道路,这是中央明确提出要长期坚持的方针,镇的发展在现实中已经起到了重要作用。但如何认识镇在当前城镇化过程中的作用和地位,尤其是如何确定镇的定位、制定镇的规划客观存在不一致。《城乡规划法》的颁布实施,要求我们进一步更新观念,依照法律要求制定镇的规划。本文从理论和实践上论述了发展镇是我国经济和社会发展的客观规律,明确提出制定镇规划编制办法是当前落实《城乡规划法》,指导镇规划的编制,引导和调控镇健康发展的关键工作,并对编制办法提出建议和要求。     

《城乡规划法》:落实区域循环经济的机遇

提出要把循环经济整合到城市规划决策过程中,可以与《城乡规划法》确立的不同层次的法定规划编制接轨,通过城市空间规划从宏观、中观、微观层次着手进行落实。     

Analysis of distribution systems for supply of synthetic grain protectants to maize smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe: Implications for hermetic grain storage bag distribution

Grain storage in pesticide-free hermetic bags is a promising alternative to synthetic pesticide treatment and storage in polypropylene bags for smallholder farmers but the hermetic bags are not conveniently available to rural customers. Developing a commercial hermetic storage bag distribution chain that supplies bags to smallholder farmers is a challenge for manufacturers. We therefore examined the factors affecting the design of grain synthetic insecticide distribution channels to draw lessons for hermetic bag manufacturers to consider. Key informant interviews with insecticide manufacturers and/or distributors and agricultural merchants along the supply chain from national to grassroots level were complemented with farmer focus group discussions. The insecticide distribution channels were analyzed in terms of channel length and breath. Some of the factors that influenced the length of the insecticide distribution channel included the manufacturer's financial, human and technological resources; the value-to-volume ratio of insecticide products; and the sparse geographic concentration of smallholder farmers. The number of intermediaries in each channel depended on farmer purchase habits, product features and market factors. Given the small operational scale of local insecticide formulators, distribution was mainly through intermediaries. The shorter one-tier supermarket distribution channel primarily served urban consumers while the traditional two-tier wholesaler-retailer channel served rural customers. To penetrate the rural smallholder market segment, the longer channel that placed inventory closer to farmers will continue to be the main route for hermetic bag manufacturers. With a low value-to-volume ratio product feature, collaboration between manufacturers of hermetic bags and rural retailers will be essential. In addition, a large-package delivery approach that aggregates retail orders for a particular farming radius should be considered.