Drivers of revitalization in Great Lakes coastal communities

Sediment remediation and habitat restoration projects have been increasingly employed along the coast of the Great Lakes to improve environmental quality since the designation of 43 highly degraded Areas of Concern (AOCs) by the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the U.S. and Canada. Improvements in water quality, habitat, and other environmental conditions can also support community wellbeing and revitalization; however, the mechanisms that support these connections are relatively unclear. We address this gap through a case study of three AOCs near Lake Michigan: 1) Grand Calumet River; 2) White Lake, and 3) Muskegon Lake. By analyzing secondary data and planning documents, we found that alongside environmental cleanup, anchor institutions, housing and economic development, and local events drive revitalization. Our research also illustrates that, rather than acting as discrete processes, environmental cleanup and revitalization drivers overlap in time and space. Finally, our research reveals a high level of variation within and across AOCs in terms of diverse socioeconomic contexts, planning capacities, and existing partnerships. Together, our findings point to the need for collaborative and inclusive planning processes that account for the heterogeneity present within and across AOCs to simultaneously support remediation, restoration, and revitalization and to sustain continued revitalization in AOC communities after delisting.     

Community involvement critical for revitalization: Grass-roots initiative key to environmental remediation and restoration in the Great River (St. Lawrence River)

This paper describes the creation of an environmentally conscious community group, the Great River Network, and the role that it has played in the remediation and restoration process as part of one of the Great Lakes environmental programs. Community engagement was initiated in the region as part of the Remedial Action Plan for the Area of Concern at Cornwall/Akwesasne/Massena within the Upper St. Lawrence River. The community group formalised as a network representing 50+ organisations in response to perceived inadequacies in the agency of the community to respond to new environmental concerns outside of the scope of the existing programs. As a grass-roots initiative, the Great River Network has successfully completed remediation and restoration actions of significant value to the environment. These include a series of river clean ups (>42 tonnes of garbage removed), fish habitat restoration, and addressing shoreline erosion issues. Success has been achieved through partnering with a range of organisations, including Indigenous, non-profit, governmental, Conservation Authorities, businesses and industry partners. The action-oriented approach showcases how remediation and restoration led by, and embedded in, the community can result in true revitalization. A simplified framework for adaptive management practices for remediation and restoration efforts that lead to revitalization, including knowledge translation, is proposed. This case study highlights the transformational opportunities that remediation and restoration initiatives can bring. In this instance, the process is intensely local and cooperative and lays the foundation for moving towards a collective impact approach for the region.     

Rescuing Big Rivers Damaged in Industrial Civilization

Large rivers with beautiful landscapes were dreamlands to the author. However, every time upon his arrival to riversides, he was shocked for the heavily polluted rivers that are dirty, messy, and smelling. Engineered dikes and dams made of concrete and steels for a greater height and hardness are built by cities along rivers. As more highways and railways built along rivers, vehicles run at a faster speed, scaring any life who wants to or has to access the water. Most of the tributaries are no longer free flow but end up as hard ditches and the water is polluted heavily. Forests and wetlands are being damaged and eroded. All of these are resulted from humans’ material desires and lack of respect for nature. Nevertheless, ecological civilization may encourage people to appreciate the beauty of nature and get a thorough understanding on river ecosystems and their services, accompanied by systematic planning and implementation of territorial ecological restoration. Moreover, laws and regulations on large river management should be put in place, and efforts should be made to break the worship of grey engineering approaches to flood control. It is expected that nature-based ecological approaches for a better resilience and sustainability in flood management can be more effective to ensure water safety.     

Oriented total variation l1/2 regularization

Total Variation (TV) is a widely used image restoration/decomposition model. It is observed that the classical TV l1 and TV l2 regularization, on the one hand, do not favor higher-gradient structures over lower-gradient details as expected for structure preserving image processing, and on the other hand, tend to reduce the horizontal and vertical gradients, and thus inevitably blur the oblique edges in images. In this paper, we address these two problems by defining Oriented Total Variation l1/2 (OTV l1/2). It is theoretically and experimentally demonstrated that applying l1/2 regularization to the directional derivatives of images leads to superior structure preservation. OTV l1/2 regularization can be applied to image denoising and video compression, and the experimental results verify that OTV l1/2 outperforms other similar models.     

铀地浸环保技术与对策

本文根据地浸工艺产生的污染源项及特点，重点论述了地浸工艺的地下水复原技术以及采取的相应环境保护对策。     

寻找失落的家园——韩国首尔市兰芝岛世界杯公园生态恢复设计

在20世纪70—90年代韩国经济高速成长时期,兰芝岛曾经是首尔市最主要的垃圾填埋场,因紧邻2002年世界杯足球赛上岩赛场而成为整个比赛场地的重要组成部分。在世界杯足球赛体育场馆建设过程中,兰芝岛被改造成为一座环境亲和型的城市公园。通过对兰芝岛垃圾山垃圾的形成、土地利用方式的选择和公园建设过程的回顾,总结了首尔世界杯公园的规划途径和公园设计过程中受污染场地受损生态系统修复所使用的基本方法,并指出对中国城市公园建设的借鉴意义。     

Communicative Approaches to Restoration Ecology: a case study from Dovre Mountain and Svalbard, Norway

Extensive damage to the vegetation cover in arctic and alpine landscapes has raised the question of restoration as a possible management strategy. Restoration is a goal-oriented activity, a technological undertaking wider than its parent science of ecology. Social science and planning concepts and methods are necessary to handle the value judgements implicit in restoration. It is argued that the notion of 'desired state' is a better reference point in defining restoration goals than the notion of 'original state'. Using qualitative methods, two areas with vulnerable arctic/alpine vegetation are investigated. Based on participants' statements, four possible scenarios or desired states for future management are constructed. The main focus in the scenarios is on participants' attitudes to restoration activity, and it is shown how these are influenced by participants' attachment to the area and their view of nature.     

四川干热河谷地区公路生态植被恢复与重建模式探讨

分析了四川干热河谷地区公路周边自然植被条件与海拔高度的关系,以国道318线二郎山至康定公路为例,对干热河谷地区公路生态恢复与重建的模式进行了研究,根据道路所处海拔高度的差异把全路段分为二郎山、泸定大渡河、康定瓦斯沟三段,根据各段气候和植被特点确定恢复模式,经过2年的生长观察,证明各恢复模式都取得很好的效果,乔灌木的平均成活率达到85%,草坪地被覆盖率平均达到93%;最后,总结了干热河谷道路生态恢复与重建的特殊技术。     

也拟回春手，试将补天工——记重庆湖广会馆的保护性开发设计

重庆湖广会馆历史街区保护性开发设计旨在真实、全面地保存并延续其历史信息及全部价值。本文论述了设计中的核心保护区、传统街区和协调区三个空间层次的理论基础以及相关理论在实际设计当中的应用,并主要阐述了核心区的规划设计理念。     

利用绿化技术进行生态与景观恢复的原理与手法--以日本兵库县淡路岛"故乡之森"的营造为例

在介绍生态恢复的生态学原则、对策目标、途径、构成要素、方法与步骤的基础上,以日本兵库县淡路岛"故乡之森"的营造为例,具体说明了利用绿化技术进行生态与景观恢复的原理与手法.