What’s the middle ground? Institutionalized vs. emerging water-related stakeholder engagement processes

Abstract

In this day and age, it is widely argued that stakeholder engagement in water-related decision-making processes yields many benefits, including legitimacy, acceptance and trust. Key legal frameworks, such as the European Water Framework Directive and the Aarhus Convention, have spurred the emergence of formal forms of stakeholder engagement. On the other hand, many engagement processes are spontaneous and self-organized. This article investigates the strategies used in formal (government-led) and informal (bottom-up) engagement processes in search of a middle ground. To this end, case studies in the Netherlands, the United States, Uganda and Ethiopia are analyzed using the OECD’s stakeholder engagement checklist. We conclude with reflection on the ways forward to make formal and informal stakeholder engagement complementary.     

Quantitative assessments of performance and robustness of maintenance policies for stochastically deteriorating production systems

Over the last few decades, many efforts have been invested in improving the economic performances of maintenance policies for stochastically deteriorating production systems. However, with the development of complex production systems, maintenance managers are interested not only in cost saving, but also in how to trustworthily plan and allocate the required maintenance budget. In this context, the robustness of maintenance policies which is related to the maintenance cost variability from a renewal cycle to another plays a pivotal role. This research deals with a quantitative approach to jointly assess the economic performance and robustness of some representatives of two most well-known classes of maintenance policies: time-based and condition-based maintenance. To this end, we first propose a new cost criterion which combines the long-run expected cost rate and standard deviation of maintenance cost per renewal cycle. Then, we develop and compare the associated mathematical cost models of the considered maintenance policies on the basis of the Gamma degradation process and the theory of stochastic renewal processes. The comparison results under different situations of maintenance costs and system characteristics show that the optimal configuration of maintenance policies gives the best compromise between the performance and robustness, and is mostly affected by the system downtime. Under this aspect, the condition-based maintenance remains more profitable than the time-based maintenance. Still, maintenance managers could implement condition-based maintenance policies that efficiently control the downtime to maximise the maintenance effectiveness of production systems from both performance and robustness viewpoints.     

Reinforcement learning for electricity dispatch in grids with high intermittent generation and energy storage systems: A case study for the Brazilian grid

Intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar have recently been growing a lot faster than dispatchable energy sources in Brazil, which made investments in energy storage systems become an attractive possibility in the country. Current operational policies for energy dispatch do not consider storage systems and need adjustments to fit this technology. With this motivation, we use reinforcement learning techniques to develop policies for managing storage systems in a grid that can handle time-varying inputs and loads, with rolling forecasts. We use a deterministic lookahead (DLA) policy which has been parametrically modified to perform well in the presence of uncertain forecasts. For realistic simulations, the base model considers important characteristics in a grid that influence the interaction between scheduling and real-time operation such as power and ramping capacities, notification times, and stochastic forecasts. The parametric modification with tunable parameters allows an optimal balance between two conflicting services provided by the storage system: time-shifting and spinning reserves. Optimal reserves ranged from 35% to 100%, depending on the tested dataset, which shows the importance of tuning. Differently from stochastic lookahead policies, which are computationally expensive, parameterized DLA policies can be applied to real-time operation after being optimized in a stochastic base model.     

LNG产业发展前景分析

中国能源消费结构将逐步实现以煤炭消费为主向油气消费为主的过渡，油气资源体系中天然气的地位日益重要。从供给的角度看，天然气管网运输的局限性、天然气进口和中小气田开发等都是LNG产业发展的驱动因素。我国LNG产业尚处于发展初期，其发展需要依靠政府扶持。政府应对LNG产业的发展进行中长期规划，并通过国内气田开发和进口天然气两种渠道确保LNG产业的稳定气源。在此基础上．政府应通过环保法规、金融支持、税收减让和财政补贴等产业政策鼓励LNG产业发展。     

贯彻钢铁产业发展政策促进冶金矿山持续发展

分析研究了国家发改委于2005年7月8日发布的新的《钢铁产业发展政策》，该政策以贯彻落实科学发展观，走新型工业化道路为主线，其中保持总量适度发展，强调发展循环经济，提高自主创新能力，规范管理投资行为，稳定矿产资源供应等，对冶金矿山的发展具有指导意义。提出冶金矿山要认清形势，围绕大局，适应调整，趋利抑弊的建议。     

河北省迁安市合理开发利用水资源若干政策措施探讨

本文在深入分析河北省迁安市城市建设和工业快速发展对水资源需求增大现状的基础上,提出该市保护与合理开发利用水资源的若干对策建议:一是依靠科技进步,大力提高水资源利用率,全面建设节水型社会;二是强化政府职能,发挥企业治理水资源污染的积极性和主动性,全面建设环境友好型社会;三是建设生态防洪工程,构建和谐迁安。     

当前耕地保护形势及政策优化分析

我国是一个人多地少的国家,随着社会经济的持续高速发展,耕地流失问题越来越严重,耕地保护任重道远。本文分析了国土资源部成立以来的耕地利用形势,指出“耕地总量动态平衡”重量轻质、耕地保护激励机制不合理、耕地产权制度建设不完善、耕地保护的法律保障不得力是现行耕地保护政策存在的主要缺陷,认为综合运用经济、管制、法律等手段是当前耕地保护政策的优化方向。     

实现和分配土地开发权的公共政策——城乡规划体系的核心要义和创新方向

引入"土地开发权"概念,从公共政策的角度,提出城乡规划的核心任务,是要高效地实现和公平地分配开发权。城乡规划体系中的三大法定规划,就是从不同层面逐步明确土地开发权的:区域规划确定各地区发展权并制定区域之间开发权的转移和补偿政策,城乡总体规划确定土地使用性质并制定城乡之间开发权的转移和补偿政策,城市控制性详细规划确定土地开发强度并制定城市内部开发权转移和补偿政策。由此提出对现行城乡规划体系及其编制内容和方法等方面新的完善要求。     

论实施城市设计的策略

针对城市设计发展中存在的有效实施的问题 ,分析了影响城市设计实施的相关因素 ,同时对城市设计的实施类型进行讨论并提出应建立的价值取向 ,并重点论述了实施城市设计的五个对策     

城市核心竞争力及其培育策略研究

城市核心竞争力较比较优势、竞争优势对城市的发展更具深远影响。它具有独特性、扩展性、积累性和耐久性,由城市运行控制能力和城市持续发展能力组成。我国城市应运用城市特色资源,扩大城市的影响力;塑造城市形象,增强社会成员对城市的认同感;进行技术创新和体制创新,提高城市自我更新、自我改造的能力;应建立城市学习机制,构建学习型城市;应加强城市人才资源的开发和管理,以这样的策略来实现城市核心竞争力的培育。