Zhenghong Tang

Moving from agenda to action: evaluating local climate change action plans.

Climate change is conventionally recognised as a large-scale issue resolved through regional or national policy initiatives. However, little research has been done to directly evaluate local climate change action plans. This study examines 40 recently adopted local climate change action plans in the US and analyses how well they recognise the concepts of climate change and prepare for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The results indicate that local climate change action plans have a high level of ‘awareness’, moderate ‘analysis capabilities’ for climate change, and relatively limited ‘action approaches’ for climate change mitigation. The study also identifies specific factors influencing the quality of these local jurisdictional plans. Finally, it provides policy recommendations to improve planning for climate change at the local level.

Linking Planning Theories with Factors Influencing Local Environmental-Plan Quality

The major planning theories provide a theoretical foundation for environmental planning. This study extends the major planning theories and develops a robust conceptual framework to measure the key factors influencing local environmental-plan quality. A random sample of forty Californian local comprehensive land-use plans and associated planning processes is analyzed to identify the critical factors influencing environmental-plan quality. Results from multiple regression analysis indicate that regular updating, environmental-information management and sharing, and planners contribute significantly to local environmental-plan quality. The findings expand established planning theories and practice by suggesting ways to improve local environmental-plan quality.

Examining Local Coastal Zone Management Capacity in U.S. Pacific Coastal Counties

The coastal zone has critical natural, commercial, recreational, ecological, industrial, and esthetic values for current and future generations. Thus, there are increasing pressures from population growth and coastal land development. Local coastal land use planning plays an important role in implementing the U.S. Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) by establishing goals and performance policies for addressing critical coastal issues. This study extends the CZMA Performance Measurement System from the national level to the local land use level by measuring coastal zone land use plan quality and political context in fifty-three Pacific coastal counties. Plan quality is measured using an evaluation protocol defined by five components and sixty-eight indicators. The results indicate a reasonable correspondence between national goals and local coastal zone land use planning goals, but a slight gap might exist between the national/state versus local levels in the overall effectiveness of coastal zone management (CZM) efforts. The results show many U.S. Pacific coastal counties lack strong coastal zone land use plans because the average plan quality score was only 22.7 out of 50 points. Although these plans set relatively clear goals and objectives, they are somewhat weaker in their factual basis, identify a limited range of the available planning tools and techniques, and establish few coordination and implementation mechanisms. The regression analysis results indicate that CZM plan quality was not significantly related to any of the jurisdictional characteristics.

Examining the role of social media in California’s drought risk management in 2014

Social media creates an interactive information communication platform for disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Recent research has analyzed the participation of social media in natural disasters, such as the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, Queensland floods from 2010 to 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and Colorado flood in 2013, but little research has paid attention to drought risk management. In this study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis method is used to evaluate the social media sites of governmental agencies that were directly involved in California’s Drought Task Force in the historic drought in 2014. The results show that state governmental agencies have used the popular social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) as communication channels with professional stakeholders and the general public. The major functions of social media in the California drought risk management process included one-way information sharing, two-way information sharing, situational awareness, rumor control, reconnection, and decision making. However, social media was not active in donation solicitation and volunteer management. The two-way communication still stayed in relatively surficial levels with limited comments and inadequate conversations. A gap existed to reconnect public social media domain and personal social networks, even though drought risk was closely related to everyone’s daily life. During the California drought in 2014, Facebook worked actively in two-way information sharing for drought risk information and water conservation strategies; YouTube was a robust platform that attracted large number of views on drought videos; and Twitter played an effective role in reconnection of social networks to expedite drought risk information dissemination.

Characterizing spatiotemporal non-stationarity in vegetation dynamics in China using MODIS EVI dataset

This paper evaluated the spatiotemporal non-stationarity in the vegetation dynamic based on 1-km resolution 16-day composite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) datasets in China during 2001–2011 through a wavelet transform method. First, it revealed from selected pixels that agricultural crops, natural forests, and meadows were characterized by their distinct intra-annual temporal variation patterns in different climate regions. The amplitude of intra-annual variability generally increased with latitude. Second, parameters calculated using a per-pixel strategy indicated that the natural forests had the strongest variation pattern from seasonal to semiannual scales, and the multiple-cropping croplands typically showed almost equal variances distributed at monthly, seasonal, and semiannual scales. Third, spatiotemporal non-stationarity induced from cloud cover was also evaluated. It revealed that the EVI temporal profiles were significantly distorted with regular summer cloud cover in tropical and subtropical regions. Nevertheless, no significant differences were observed from those statistical parameters related to the interannual and interannual components between the de-clouded and the original MODIS EVI datasets across the whole country. Finally, 12 vegetation zones were proposed based on spatiotemporal variability, as indicated by the magnitude of interannual and intra-annual dynamic components, normalized wavelet variances of detailed components from monthly to semiannual scale, and proportion of cloud cover in summer. This paper provides insightful solutions for addressing spatiotemporal non-stationarity by evaluating the magnitude and frequency of vegetation variability using monthly, seasonal, semiannual to interannual scales across the whole study area.

A new methodology to map double-cropping croplands based on continuous wavelet transform

Abstract Cropping intensity is one of the major factors in crop production and agricultural intensification. A new double-cropping croplands mapping methodology using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) time series datasets through continuous wavelet transform was proposed in this study. This methodology involved four steps. First, daily continuous MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) time series datasets were developed for the study year. Next, the EVI time series datasets were transformed into a two dimensional (time–frequency) wavelet scalogram based on continuous wavelet transform. Third, a feature extraction process was conducted on the wavelet scalogram, where the characteristic spectra were calculated from the wavelet scalogram and the feature peak within two skeleton lines was obtained. Finally, a threshold was determined for feature peak values to discriminate double-cropping croplands within each pixel. The application of the proposed procedure to Chinas Henan Province in 2010 produced an objective and accurate spatial distribution map, which correlated well with in situ observation data (over 90% agreement). The proposed new methodology efficiently handled complex variability that might be caused by regional variation in climate, management practices, growth peaks by winter weed or winter wheat, and data noise. Therefore, the methodology shows promise for future studies at regional and global scales.

INTEGRATING THE PRINCIPLES OF STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT INTO LOCAL COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLANNING

The lack of early integration with the planning and decision-making process has been a major problem in environmental assessment. Traditional project-based environmental impact assessment has inadequate incentives and capacities to incorporate critical environmental impacts at a broader temporal or spatial scale. While many applications have been geared towards implementing project-level environmental assessments, comparatively little research has been done to determine how to incorporate strategically critical environmental impacts into local comprehensive land use planning. Although the principles of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are not yet required in local comprehensive land use planning in the United States, these principles create a theoretical framework for local environmental assessment. This study builds a theoretical framework for more effectively integrating the principles of strategic environmental assessment into local comprehensive land use plans. The empirical case study results indicate that California local jurisdictions did not fully integrated the SEA principles into their local plans.

Effect of topography and accessibility on vegetation dynamic pattern in Mountain-hill Region

Knowledge of both vegetation distribution pattern and phenology changes is very important. Their complicated relationship with elevation and accessibility were explored through a geographically weighted regression (GWR) framework in Fujian province, China. The 16-day time series of 250 m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) dataset from 2000 to 2010 was applied. Wavelet transform method was adopted to decompose the original time series and construct the annual maximum EVI and amplitude of the annual phenological cycle (ΔEVI). Candidate explaining factors included topographic conditions, accessibility variables and proportions of primary vegetation types. Results revealed very strong positive influence from parameters of elevation and accessibility to big rivers and negative effect from accessibility to resident on both maximum EVI and phenological magnitude through ordinary linear least square (OLS) regression analysis. GWR analysis revealed that spatially, the parameters of topography and accessibility had a very complex relationship with both maximum EVI and phenology magnitude, as a result of the various combinations of environmental factors, vegetation composition and also intensive anthropogenic impact. Apart from the continuously increasing trend of phenology magnitude with increasing altitude, the influence of topography and accessibility on maximum EVI and phenological magnitude generally decreased, even from strongly positive to negative, with increasing altitude or distance. Specially, the most rapid change of correlation coefficient between them was observed within a low elevation or close distance; less variation was discovered within a certain range of medium altitude or distance and their relationship might change above this range. Non-stationary approaches are needed to better characterize the complex vegetation dynamic pattern in Mountain-hill Region.

Assessing local land use planning's awareness, analysis, and actions for climate change

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the previous larger‐scale climate policy studies to the local jurisdiction level to evaluate local land use planning capacity for climate change.Design/methodology/approach – This paper evaluated 53 recently developed local comprehensive land use plans in California and analyzes how well these plans recognized the concepts of climate change and prepared for climate change mitigation and adaptation.Findings – The descriptive results show that local land use plans reflect very low awareness and little analysis for climate change; however, the actions for climate change varied widely in scope and content in their plans.Originality/value – This paper provides policymakers important empirical evidence to improve local land use planning capacities for climate change.

An overview of US state drought plans: crisis or risk management?

Recent severe drought events across the nation have raised our concerns over society’s changing and increasing vulnerability to droughts. All levels of governments have taken actions to plan for the slow-onset, long-lasting and spatially extensive drought hazard. The progress of drought planning at the state level is especially impressive over the past decade due to the dramatic growth of drought plans. To date, almost all states have drought plans, but previous studies indicated these plans are still heavily relying on the reactive crisis management approach to deal with ongoing droughts rather than the proactive risk management approach toward building drought resilience. No study so far has empirically examined how well all of these state plans are and to what extent these plans incorporated risk management theory and practices on a national basis. Thus, this study develops a drought risk coding protocol to systematically assess the 44 latest state drought plans’ quality in risk management. An inventory of the state drought plans is also established to demonstrate their quality, content and characteristics. The results indicate that state drought plans typically address emergency responses well, while they are generally weak in establishing strong goals, mitigation and adaptation, public involvement, plan updates and implementation. Lastly, recommendations are provided for drought officials to develop, enhance or revise drought plans toward a risk management approach.