Institutional arrangements for managing the great lakes of the world: Results of a workshop on implementing the watershed approach

The conceptual framework for lake management has evolved at an accelerating rate in recent years to include the basic principles of a watershed approach: (i) citizen and stakeholder involvement is important throughout the planning and management process; (ii) the geographic focus for management activities includes the lake and its entire watershed; and (iii) mechanisms need to be in place to promote cooperation among different government jurisdictions and organizations in the watershed. Creating effective institutional arrangements for implementing this watershed approach in lake regions is perhaps the most challenging and important issue facing the world’s lakes. LakeNet organized a workshop at the 8th International Conference on the Conservation and Management of Lakes in May 1999. This article is a synthesis of the results of the workshop and the eight case reports prepared by the workshop participants published in this special issue. Seven major threats to lakes were identified: (i) accelerated eutrophication; (ii) invasive species; (iii) toxic contamination; (iv) overfishing; (v) water diversion, (vi) acidification; and (vii) climate change. Institutions and institutional arrangements for addressing these issues and for implementing a watershed approach are just beginning to emerge on lakes around the world. All of the institutions described in the case reports were established or formalized during the 1980s and 1990s. The legal mechanisms creating these institutions range from cooperative agreements among jurisdictions for purposes of policy and planning to national laws and international treaties with full regulatory powers. The knowledge base, political will and financial resources for these activities were very small in comparison with the complexity of the task at hand.     

The exploration factors of affecting knowledge sharing – The case of Taiwan’s high-tech industry

In the past, the studies on knowledge sharing tended to be focused on the organization and few paid attention to the departments inside the organization. In this study, valid samples were collected from Taiwan’s 92 IC related firms in the high-tech industry through the Hierarchical Random Sampling method for empirical analysis. The non-linear fuzzy neural network is used due to its capacity in accepting errors and low limitation. This method enables researchers to accurately assess the relations between variables. The result of this study indicated that the degree of formalization and complexity of the organizational structure is negatively and significantly correlated with knowledge sharing. Similarly, motivation through material reward correlates positively and significantly with knowledge sharing with stronger intensity than that between motivation through non-material reward and knowledge sharing. The degree of integration between organizations correlates positively and significantly with knowledge sharing.     

行人腿部保护汽车前部结构优化

为减少人车碰撞事故中对行人的伤害,采用LS-DYNA软件模拟人车碰撞过程,分别模拟了刚性腿型和柔性腿型的碰撞情况,得到行人小腿的伤害规律。同时,针对柔性腿型的分析结果,对汽车前部结构从三个方面进行优化:改进泡沫刚度,行人腿部总得分值提高了10.01%;改变小腿支撑,行人腿部总得分值提高了10.37%;改进保险杠横梁,行人腿部总得分值提高了17.63%。通过改进汽车的前部结构,柔性小腿的碰撞性能得到了优化,为行人保护方面的汽车前部结构设计提供了参考。     

旧城更新中的社区整治规划实践——以重庆市渝中区为例

城市社区是构成整个城市及其管理的基础单元,对于展现城市文脉与特色具有不可替代的作用。反思大拆大建的粗放模式造成的城市邻里冷漠、社区环境不协调、社区管理不到位等突出问题,城市社区整治与社区规划正逐步成为解决社区建设的关键手段。论文以重庆市渝中区社区整治实践为例,从整治管理机制、社区规划编制方法与内容、居民公众参与、整治资金来源渠道方面总结了经验与启示。     

Learning from the social construction of environmental indicators: From the retrospective to the pro-active use of SCOT in technology development

This article explores the challenges, advantages and limitations of the pro-active use of the social construction of technology (SCOT) to improve the methods applied in the development of technology for use by a broad range of actors. Our example is the development of environmental indicators for buildings (EIFOBs). We compare the pro-active use of SCOT with both the ‘traditional’ use of SCOT and with the ‘traditional’ way of developing EIFOBs. pro-actively applying SCOT in developing EIFOBs has the potential of bridging some of the communication gaps at the boundaries between the various professional groups in a multi-actor decision-making process. Using SCOT in a pro-active way means the research becomes action research and the researcher goes beyond the role of a mere observer and becomes an actor too. This means the researcher has to consider the criteria for valid action research when designing and carrying out the research.     

如何利用园林植物实现人与景观的互动

通过阐述植物景观的重要性,让人们更加重视城市景观中的植物配置,应用植物景观调研、查阅大量资料分析提炼的途径,提出了如何利用园林植物实现人与景观互动的方法,以指导景观设计师创造出符合人们需求的优美植物景观。     

The Prevention of Oil and Chemical Pollution: Proactive Approaches in the UK and Canada

In the UK, various initiatives have been launched in an attempt to provide guidance on the occurrence and avoidance of oil and chemical pollution. Despite these efforts, oil and chemicals remain a major cause of pollution. In Canada, similar initiatives have been more successful due to a participative approach to campaign development and implementation. This paper compares UK and Canadian initiatives and identifies factors which led to the success of the Canadian campaigns.     

The place of social impacts in the iterative assessment process: a case study of a highway project in the US State of Georgia

Social impact assessments (SIAs) were conducted in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process along the US 441 corridor in Clinch and Atkinson Counties, Georgia. The SIA approach consisted of both quantitative and participatory (public involvement) components. Successes in using this approach included: aligning the roadway with access and optimal benefits for the adjacent communities; support for the project despite the change it will bring to the region; improved relationships with the community, which previously had little trust in government; and, most important of all, education of the design engineers about community impacts.     

Thin walled beams with sinusoidal embedded patterns under deep bending collapse

Adding complex sinusoidal patterns on wall surfaces has been recently suggested in literature as an effective innovation for improving energy dissipation of thin walled box beams during axial collapses. This paper studies the energy absorption efficiency and performance of patterned beams under pure bending. A numerical investigation is carried out using commercially available Marc Mentat^™ solver and the investigation is also verified using existing analytical models. Five different types of patterns are tested. The result of adding patterns on individual and combination of walls and the effect of progressive triggering proposed previously in literature on the maximum bending moment of the beam is also studied. Results indicate that the beams with sinusoidal patterns are significantly better in energy absorption in deep bending collapse; an increase of about 53.49% at 0.6 rad is noted in the optimal case. The pattern types which had higher energy absorption in axial impact reflect the same trend in bending collapses. This research may further endorse the viability of using sinusoidal patterned beams in mainstream practical applications.