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Saturday, 1 April 2017

Biodiversity Conservation: Concepts and Economic Issues with Chinese Examples

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Abstract: After touching on the concerns of natural scientists about biodiversity loss, this article argues that it is a mistake to believe that there are only losses of biodiversity. The process of changes in the stock of biodiversity is more complex. Furthermore, it is pointed out that not all genetic material is an economic asset. Also, it is contended that not all genetic material is natural. Some of the genetic stock is of a heritage type and a portion has recently been developed by human beings. Improved conceptualisation of the stock of biodiversity is needed. Some of the ways are listed in which economics is relevant to issues involving biodiversity conservation. General economic factors, such as market extension and economic growth, which result in loss of genetic diversity among domesticated organisms are outlined. China’s recent experience with biodiversity loss highlights the importance of these factors. Some important reasons why economic factors result in biodiversity loss in the wild are identified and reasons are given why economic systems conserve less biodiversity than is ideal. Before concluding, the subject is discussed of what genetic material and other components of biodiversity should be conserved given economic constraints on what can be conserved.
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Conditions of forest transition in Asian countries

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Yeo-Chang Youn, Junyeong Choi, Wil de Jong, Jinlong Liu, Mi Sun Park, Leni D. Camacho, Satoshi Tachibana, Nguyen Din Huudung, Padam Parkash Bhojvaid, Ellyn K. Damayanti, Phongxiong Wanneng and Mohd Shawahid Othman
Forest Policy and Economics, 2017, vol. 76, issue C, pages 14-24

Abstract: This study identifies the important factors that contribute to or inhibit forest transitions in nine Asian countries: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam. A qualitative comparative analysis method was used to determine which conditions or combinations of conditions led to or prevented a forest transition. Under the condition of public ownership with no private forest tenure or ownership of forest land, there was no instance of forest transition among the nine countries studied. Under the condition of non-liberal timber trade policies, there was no instance of forest transition in the countries studied. The results of this analysis suggest that for a forest transition to occur, the country should liberalize timber import and provide forest tenure to the private sector. Based on these results, we argue that in order for a forest transition to take place or for REDD+ to be effective, the state should allow for private sector to participate in forest management and create market conditions that meet the demand for timber via trade policy alignment.
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Economic globalization, trade and forest transition-the case of nine Asian countries

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Lingchao Li, Jinlong Liu, Hexing Long, Wil de Jong and Yeo-Chang Youn
Forest Policy and Economics, 2017, vol. 76, issue C, pages 7-13

Abstract: Previous studies have mostly focused on the links between the variability of trade of primary sector products and forest transition. This study more widely discusses the effects of economic globalization on forest transition, and explores the links between trade, adjustment of trade structure, FDI and forest transition in nine Asian countries. The study also expands the scope of forest transition study and integrates the analysis of both forest quantity and quality change in forest transition research. The result suggests that the proportion of forestry products in total exports has significantly negative effects on forest area, forest volume and forest density, while the total export value has positive effects on forest area and forest density. It indicates that one country or region may improve forest resources condition through upgrading the export structure by absorbing FDI in manufacturing and service sectors to develop export-oriented manufacturing and service industries. This study demonstrates the need to introduce forest quality analysis in forest transition study. It also indicates that when exploring the relationship between economic globalization and forest transition, one should consider the overall situations how one country participates in economic globalization and the development and adjustment of its industries in the process of economic integration.
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‘Getting Tough’ and ‘Getting Smart’: Politics of the North American — Japan Wood-Products Trade

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R Hayter and D W Edgington
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R Hayter: Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
D W Edgington: Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada
Environment and Planning C, 1999, vol. 17, issue 3, pages 319-344

Abstract: The authors compare the Canadian and the US approaches to developing exports in the wood-products sector. They focus specifically on exports of sawn lumber and added-value wood products from the Pacific Northwest region (PNW), comprising the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), and the US states of Washington and Oregon. Conceptually, a ‘get tough—get smart’ dichotomy for evaluating export-stimulation policies is outlined and elaborated on in the context of the PNW wood-products trade with Japan. The authors show that Canada and BC favored predominantly ‘get-smart’ strategies in the wood-products trade with Japan whereas the United States and Washington/Oregon preferred mainly ‘get-tough’ strategics. However, the authors conclude by pointing to the need for both styles in order to be successful in the difficult Japanese market. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive and both generate external economy effects that cannot be limited to one national or regional territory. Nevertheless, the ‘get-tough-get-smart’ continuum is an effective starting point for classifying US and Canadian positions, respectively, and for raising policy and research questions about their relative roles and the underlying bargaining and learning processes which are involved.
Date: 1999
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Woody biomass supply potential for thermal power plants in Japan

Author
Tsuguki Kinoshita, Takashi Ohki and Yoshiki Yamagata
Applied Energy, 2010, vol. 87, issue 9, pages 2923-2927

Abstract: Biomass energy is one of mitigation method of CO2 reduction. In Japan, it aimed to reduce fossil fuels supply 670,000Â kL of crude oil equivalent in thermal power plants and 340,000Â kL of crude oil equivalent in the utilization of heat by biomass. It was decided to use 25% or more of the forestry products such as logging residues. Japanese government aim to supply 634Â PJ of woody biomass for power generation in 2010. This amount of energy accounts for 2.8% of total primary energy. More than 68% of Japan is covered by forests, and more than 40% of these forests are plantations. But the use of woody biomass is limited because it is still not seen as economically viable. In this article, we developed a large scale forestry economic model which can estimate the wood chips supply for coal thermal power plants across all around Japan. By using this model, wood chips supply potential is currently 32,000Â m3/year and supply will increase drastically when wood chips price increase or carbon credit is installed and we found that biomass production of 15Â PJ that is the numeric target of Japanese government is possible. Especially, the lengthening of rotation period of forestry and the decrease of wood chips transportation cost is important for wood chips use in coal thermal plant.
Keywords: Bioenergy; Wood; chips; Thermal; power; plant; Marginal; abatement; cost(search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Time to Substitute Wood Bioenergy for Nuclear Power in Japan

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Nophea Sasaki (nop.kankyo@ai.u-hyogo.ac.jp), Toshiaki Owari (owari@uf.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp) and Francis E. Putz (fep@ufl.edu)
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Energies, 2011, vol. 4, issue 7, pages 1-7

Abstract: Damage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant by the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan should stimulate consideration of alternative sources of energy. In particular, if managed appropriately, the 25.1 million ha of Japanese forests could be an important source of wood biomass for bioenergy production. Here, we discuss policy incentives for substituting wood bioenergy for nuclear power, thereby creating a safer society while better managing the forest resources in Japan.
Keywords: carbon emissions; forest management; forest thinning; nuclear crisis; woody biomass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Are There Price Premiums for Certified Wood?Empirical Evidence from Log Auction Data in Japan

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Abstract: By using data on more than 38,000 log auction transactions from market in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, we estimate whether there is a price premium for certification of sustainable forest management. We found a positive and significant effect of certification for logs, especially in the smaller diameter category. The reason for the difference between diameter size can be attributed to demand from pulp and paper manufacturers. The premium found was 1.8% of the price of conventional logs, in the lower range of additional willingness to pay found in previous studies that used stated preference techniques. An analysis that includes a pre-certification equilibrium price suggests that Japanese certification is unsuccessful despite the existence of a price premium.
Keywords: Forest certification; Price premium; Log auction; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-06
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Large wood transport as significant influence on flood risk in a mountain village

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Ruiz-Villanueva (virginia.ruiz@dendrolab.ch), J. Bodoque, A. Díez-Herrero and E. Bladé

Abstract: An important issue that is not considered in most flood risk assessments in mountain villages in Spain is the transport of solids associated with the flood flow, in this case, large wood transport. The transport and deposition of this wood in urban areas may be a potentially worse hazard than the flood flow itself. Despite its importance, large wood is a key ecological element in rivers, so removing it could be an unsuccessful approach. Therefore, efforts are needed in the better understanding of wood transport and deposition in streams. To analyse this process, scenario-based 2D hydrodynamic flood modelling was carried out. Since flood risk assessment has considerable intrinsic uncertainty, probabilistic thinking was complemented by possibilistic thinking, considering worst-case scenarios. This procedure obtained a probabilistic flood map for a 500-year return period. Then, a series of scenarios was built based on wood budget to simulate wood transport and deposition. Results allowed us to identify the main infrastructures sensitive to the passing of large wood and simulate the consequences of their blockage due to wood. The potential damage was estimated as well as the preliminary social vulnerability for all scenarios (with and without wood transport). This work shows that wood transport and deposition during flooding may increase potential damage at critical stream configurations (bridges) by up to 50 % and the number of potentially exposed people nearby these areas by up to 35 %. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Keywords: Flood risk; Large wood transport; Drift wood; Woody debris (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Quantifying risk to agriculture from volcanic ashfall: a case study from the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

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Mary Anne Thompson (m.thompson@auckland.ac.nz), Jan M. Lindsay, Thomas M. Wilson, Sebastien Biass and Laura Sandri
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Abstract: Abstract Quantitatively assessing long-term volcanic risk can be challenging due to the many variables associated with volcanic hazard and vulnerability. This study presents a structured first-order approach for considering variables in hazard and vulnerability analyses, such as eruption style and cyclic fragility, in order to quantitatively estimate risk. Probabilistic volcanic hazard data derived from advection–diffusion–sedimentation tephra fall model TEPHRA2 and probabilistic volcanic hazard analysis tool BET_VH (Bayesian Event Tree for Volcanic Hazards) are combined with fragility functions and seasonal vulnerability coefficients for agricultural production to calculate volcanic risk indices which represent the likelihood of damage or loss to farm production over a given time frame. The resulting dataset allows for approximations of quantitative risk over a continuous range of ash thickness thresholds, at multiple levels of uncertainty, and in the context of fluctuating hazard and vulnerability environments (e.g., seasonal wind patterns and crop phases). We illustrate this approach through a case study which evaluates the risk of incurring 90% damage to agricultural production at dairy and fruit farms in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand (BoP) due to ashfall from a Plinian eruption phase at the large local caldera volcano, the Okataina Volcanic Centre (OVC). Consideration of seasonal wind profiles, seasonal fluctuations in fruit and dairy farm vulnerability, multiple possible OVC eruption styles, different possible OVC vent locations, and a continuous distribution of ash thickness and damage thresholds enables a multi-dimensional analysis that aims to reflect the natural complexity and interdependencies associated with volcanic risk. A risk uncertainty matrix is introduced as a conceptual scheme to help guide evaluation and communication of the results of such quantitative risk analyses by showing how different types of uncertainty can yield “maximum”, “average”, or “minimum” estimates of risk. Results of this case study indicate that BoP fruit farms are at higher risk of experiencing damage and production loss from OVC ashfall than dairy farms, and farms to the east of the OVC are typically at higher risk than farms to the north of the OVC. Forecasts based on the annual maximum estimate of risk for fruit farms show a regional average of 2.3% probability (greater than 1 in 50 likelihood) of experiencing 90% damage from a basaltic or rhyolitic Plinian eruption from anywhere within the OVC over a period of 100 years. Seasonal-level analyses revealed that the risk of experiencing losses due to OVC ashfall at fruit farms is cyclic and fluctuates with time of year and harvest season, with the highest risk experienced during peak harvest season (15 October–14 April) when crop vulnerability is high and westerly winds dominate in the BoP.
Keywords: Risk; Ashfall; Tephra; Hazard; Vulnerability; BET_VH; TEPHRA2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Complete flood frequency analysis in Abiod watershed, Biskra (Algeria)

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S. Benameur, A. Benkhaled, D. Meraghni, F. Chebana (fateh.chebana@ete.inrs.ca) and A. Necir
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Abstract: Abstract Extreme hydrological events, such as floods and droughts, are one of the natural disasters that occur in several parts of the world. They are regarded as being the most costly natural risks in terms of the disastrous consequences in human lives and in property damages. The main objective of the present study is to estimate flood events of Abiod wadi at given return periods at the gauge station of M’chouneche, located closely to the city of Biskra in a semiarid region of southern east of Algeria. This is a problematic issue in several ways, because of the existence of a dam to the downstream, including the field of the sedimentation and the water leaks through the dam during floods. The considered data series is new. A complete frequency analysis is performed on a series of observed daily average discharges, including classical statistical tools as well as recent techniques. The obtained results show that the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD), for which the parameters were estimated by the maximum likelihood (ML) method, describes the analyzed series better. This study also indicates to the decision-makers the importance to continue monitoring data at this station.
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Early alert and community involvement: approach for disaster risk reduction in Rwanda

Author
Lamek Nahayo, Christophe Mupenzi, Alphonse Kayiranga, Fidele Karamage, Felix Ndayisaba, Enan Muhire Nyesheja and Lanhai Li (lilh@ms.xjb.ac.cn)
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Abstract: Abstract Natural disasters’ socioeconomic and environmental losses are predicted to rise, unless early warning, full stakeholders and community involvement in the mitigation, adaptation and risk reduction are squarely engaged. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of early alert and community involvement in disaster risk reduction in Nyabihu District, Western Rwanda. A quota sampling method was employed to obtain a sample of 240 households from 12 sectors of Nyabihu District in 2015. A structured questionnaire was used, and the field data collected were computed by using SPSS16.0 for Windows. The results indicated that, as stated by respondents, the frequently experienced disasters are floods (51.25%) and landslides (42.08%). However, as asserted by 68% of informants, disaster-related information is communicated through radio channels after the occurrence, while 29% of them declared that disaster information is disseminated before occurrence, which implies the rising level of risk vulnerability and incidences to the community due to lack of early warning. A lower community participation in disaster risk preparedness and mitigation was noticed (6.2%) while 31.6% mentioned taking part in activities aimed at coping with the aftermath (adaptation). Moreover, disaster risk reduction government policies are preferentially implemented (42.9%) other than considering the community’s knowledge (14.1%). To halt the gradual increase in disasters’ associated risks and losses, it is suggested to introduce disaster-related training across the community, introduce disaster courses from elementary schools and integrate the community in decision-making process.
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A proposed methodology for deriving tsunami fragility functions for buildings using optimum intensity measures

Author
Joshua Macabuag (joshua.macabuag.12@ucl.ac.uk), Tiziana Rossetto, Ioanna Ioannou, Anawat Suppasri, Daisuke Sugawara, Bruno Adriano, Fumihiko Imamura, Ian Eamesand Shunichi Koshimura
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Abstract: Abstract Tsunami fragility curves are statistical models which form a key component of tsunami risk models, as they provide a probabilistic link between a tsunami intensity measure (TIM) and building damage. Existing studies apply different TIMs (e.g. depth, velocity, force etc.) with conflicting recommendations of which to use. This paper presents a rigorous methodology using advanced statistical methods for the selection of the optimal TIM for fragility function derivation for any given dataset. This methodology is demonstrated using a unique, detailed, disaggregated damage dataset from the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami (total 67,125 buildings), identifying the optimum TIM for describing observed damage for the case study locations. This paper first presents the proposed methodology, which is broken into three steps: (1) exploratory analysis, (2) statistical model selection and trend analysis and (3) comparison and selection of TIMs. The case study dataset is then presented, and the methodology is then applied to this dataset. In Step 1, exploratory analysis on the case study dataset suggests that fragility curves should be constructed for the sub-categories of engineered (RC and steel) and non-engineered (wood and masonry) construction materials. It is shown that the exclusion of buildings of unknown construction material (common practice in existing studies) may introduce bias in the results; hence, these buildings are estimated as engineered or non-engineered through use of multiple imputation (MI) techniques. In Step 2, a sensitivity analysis of several statistical methods for fragility curve derivation is conducted in order to select multiple statistical models with which to conduct further exploratory analysis and the TIM comparison (to draw conclusions which are non-model-specific). Methods of data aggregation and ordinary least squares parameter estimation (both used in existing studies) are rejected as they are quantitatively shown to reduce fragility curve accuracy and increase uncertainty. Partially ordered probit models and generalised additive models (GAMs) are selected for the TIM comparison of Step 3. In Step 3, fragility curves are then constructed for a number of TIMs, obtained from numerical simulation of the tsunami inundation of the 2011 GEJE. These fragility curves are compared using K-fold cross-validation (KFCV), and it is found that for the case study dataset a force-based measure that considers different flow regimes (indicated by Froude number) proves the most efficient TIM. It is recommended that the methodology proposed in this paper be applied for defining future fragility functions based on optimum TIMs. With the introduction of several concepts novel to the field of fragility assessment (MI, GAMs, KFCV for model optimisation and comparison), this study has significant implications for the future generation of empirical and analytical fragility functions.
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Kinetic study on the liquefaction of wood and its three cell wall component in polyhydric alcohols

Author
Hairong Zhang, Huijuan Yang, Haijun Guo, Chao Huang, Lian Xiong and Xinde Chen
Applied Energy, 2014, vol. 113, issue C, pages 1596-1600

Abstract: To better understand liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass, wood and its three cell wall components (lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose) were subjected to a liquefaction process using polyethylene glycol (PEG 400)/glycerol as liquefaction solvent. On the basis of the experimental results obtained at different temperatures (140, 160, and 180°C), a kinetics of liquefaction of wood and its major cell wall components was presented, and the kinetic parameters were estimated. The values of total activation energy obtained in the liquefaction were about 44.31kJmol−1 of lignin, 40.49kJmol−1 of hemicellulose, 73.25kJmol−1 of cellulose and 63.93kJmol−1 of wood. Hemicellulose was the most susceptible component to liquefaction among the three cell wall components, followed by the lignin and cellulose.
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