Addressing Japan’s disposal of nuclear-contaminated water from the perspective of international human rights law

The discharge of nuclear-contaminated water containing radionuclides into the ocean by Japan will lead to its integration into the entire ecosystem through processes of circulation and biomagnification,eventually entering the human body via the food chain.This poses a substantial risk of irreversible damage to both the ecosystem and human health,a situation that will worsen with the ongoing discharge of such water.The respect and protection of human rights represent an international consensus,and safeguarding fundamental human rights is a substantial obligation that states must undertake in accordance with both international and domestic law.Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster,Japan has continuously violated its international legal obligations to protect human rights in several areas,including the resettlement of disaster victims,the reduction of nuclear radiation levels,and the handling of contaminated water.Such actions have compromised and will continue to compromise the basic human rights of not only its citizens but also those of people worldwide,including environmental rights,the right to life,development rights,and food rights.In the aftermath of the Fukushima meltdown,the public and workers involved in handling nuclear contaminants have been continually exposed to high radiation levels,endangering their rights to life,development,and health.Japan’s inadequate efforts in victim resettlement and environmental restoration have jeopardized the environmental and food rights of its citizens to live healthily and access food in an environment unaffected by nuclear radiation.The release of nuclear-contaminated water poses a risk of Japan’s nuclear pollution to the people of neighboring countries and the global population at large.The principle of human rights underpins the theory of a community with a shared future for humanity,and human rights are a crucial area of China’s active participation in United Nations affairs and global governance.By voicing concerns over Japan’s potential human rights violations globally,China demonstrates its role as a responsible major country.In response to Japan’s breach of legal obligations and human rights violations,China can adopt a reasoned and beneficial approach,including calling on the international community to hold Japan criminally accountable for crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute and advancing scholarly discussions on ecocide and crimes against the marine environment.Furthermore,China should persist in seeking advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice and strive for substantive accountability,utilizing the mechanisms of international human rights organizations to make its voice heard.

Trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services in Yutian County along the Keriya River Basin,Northwest China

The Keriya River Basin is located in an extremely arid climate zone on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin of Northwest China,exhibiting typical mountain-oasis-desert distribution characteristics.In recent decades,climate change and human activities have exerted significant impacts on the service functions of watershed ecosystems.However,the trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services(ESs)have not been thoroughly examined.This study aims to reveal the spatiotemporal changes in ESs within the Keriya River Basin from 1995 to 2020 as well as the trade-offs and synergies between ESs.Leveraging the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs(InVEST)and Revised Wind Erosion Equation(RWEQ)using land use/land cover(LULC),climate,vegetation,soil,and hydrological data,we quantified the spatiotemporal changes in the five principal ESs(carbon storage,water yield,food production,wind and sand prevention,and habitat quality)of the watershed from 1995 to 2020.Spearman correlation coefficients were used to analyze the trade-offs and synergies between ES pairs.The findings reveal that water yield,carbon storage,and habitat quality exhibited relatively high levels in the upstream,while food production and wind and sand prevention dominated the midstream and downstream,respectively.Furthermore,carbon storage,food production,wind and sand prevention,and habitat quality demonstrated an increase at the watershed scale while water yield exhibited a decline from 1995 to 2020.Specifically,carbon storage,wind and sand prevention,and habitat quality presented an upward trend in the upstream but downward trend in the midstream and downstream.Food production in the midstream showed a continuously increasing trend during the study period.Trade-off relationships were identified between water yield and wind and sand prevention,water yield and carbon storage,food production and water yield,and habitat quality and wind and sand prevention.Prominent temporal and spatial synergistic relationships were observed between different ESs,notably between carbon storage and habitat quality,carbon storage and food production,food production and wind and sand prevention,and food production and habitat quality.Water resources emerged as a decisive factor for the sustainable development of the basin,thus highlighting the intricate trade-offs and synergies between water yield and the other four services,particularly the relationship with food production,which warrants further attention.This research is of great significance for the protection and sustainable development of river basins in arid areas.

Study on the Changes of China's Water Right System

Irrigation was developed in ancient China.The management of water resources has existed since ancient times when the embryonic form of water right system was established.From perspectives of environmental law,the water rights system in ancient China,especially the water rights system after Ming Dynasty,gave no explicit concept to water rights,but the participatory management of water users was included in implementation.Such management had the same connotation with the modern concept of water rights and thereby it has an instructional significance to perfect the water rights system of in modern China.

Principal-subordinate hierarchical multi-objective programming model of initial water rights allocation

The principal-subordinate hierarchical multi-objective programming model of initial water rights allocation was developed based on the principle of coordinated and sustainable development of different regions and water sectors within a basin. With the precondition of strictly controlling maximum emissions rights, initial water rights were allocated between the first and the second levels of the hierarchy in order to promote fair and coordinated development across different regions of the basin and coordinated and efficient water use across different water sectors, realize the maximum comprehensive benefits to the basin, promote the unity of quantity and quality of initial water rights allocation, and eliminate water conflict across different regions and water sectors. According to interactive decision-making theory, a principal-subordinate hierarchical interactive iterative algorithm based on the satisfaction degree was developed and used to solve the initial water rights allocation model. A case study verified the validity of the model.

Right recumbent position on gastric emptying of water evidenced by ^(13)C breath testing

AIM:To compare the impact of the right recumbent position with the sitting position on gastric emptying of water. METHODS:In eight healthy male volunteers,the 13C acetate breath test was performed twice to assess gastric emptying of 100 mL tap water.Subjects were seated in one test and lying on their right side in the other.In both positions,pulmonary 13CO2 exhalation curves were obtained by plotting breath data against time.Percent gastric retention curves were created by analyzing data using the Wagner-Nelson protocol. RESULTS:No significant posture effect was found in pulmonary 13CO2 output curves(P=0.2150),whereas a significant effect was seen in gastric retention curves (P=0.0315).The percent retention values at 10 min and 15 min were significantly smaller when subjects were in the right recumbent position compared with the seated position(P<0.05).Our results verified the accelerating effect of the right recumbent position on gastric emptying of non-nutritive solutions.Concerning clinical implications,this study suggests that placing patients with acute pain on their right side after oral administration of analgesic drugs in solution is justified as an effective practice for rapid pain relief.For patients with gastrointestinal reflux symptoms,sleeping in the right recumbent position may reduce nocturnal symptoms,as delayed gastric emptying can cause reflux symptoms. CONCLUSION:Gastric emptying of water occurs more quickly when a subject lies on the right side compared with sitting.

Study on the Definition and Allocation of the Rights to Water Utilization in the Ecological Environment

With the rapid development of population and economy, the conflict between the supply and demand of water resources is becoming outstanding increasingly, In China, many people concern about the problems of ecological environment water expenditure.However, owning to the shortage of water resources and indefinite water rights, “the hustle effect” of per capita water resource is appeared, Moreover. it caused a series of environment problems. This article differentiates and analyzes the relevant concepts about the ecological enviromnent, and puts forward the defined concept of the rights to the ecological environment water utilization. In addition, it points out the characteristic of those rights, and does elementary study on the allocation principle, methods, and steps on the rights.

The Application of Remote Sensing Monitoring Method and Groundwater Model for Water Rights Management in Haihe River basin

Groundwater is an important water resource in Haihe River basin,North China.The number of aquifers that appear to be declining under conditions of groundwater overdraft is increasing.To effectively manage the water resources,there is a strong scientific need to analyze the net use of this important water resource and to quantify the water rights allocation for improved understanding of the future water

Optioning Water Rights:A Potential Alternative to the Hanjiang-Weihe River Water Transfer Project,China

China has started shifting from relying on supply management to demand management strategy in addressing its water shortage problems.Water option,a financial derivative for water commodity,has been utilized to manage water demands in the United States and Europe since the 1990 s but is still novel to China.In this study we analyzed the pros and cons of China’s existing system for water rights transfers and proposed an alternative,flexible trading instrument-water options for China.Incorporating the uncertainty to water option pricing,this study first conducted an empirical analysis of the water option in the water-receiving area of the Hanjiang-Weihe River Transfer Project of China,and then evaluated the benefits of the water option applications.Results show that water option trading can bring water cost saving and increase the potential industrially added value for industrial enterprises in the receiving area,and trading of short-and-medium term water options is more favorable than the long-term water options trading.The novel water option trading proposed in this study,once verified through pilot studies,will be helpful in addressing water shortage problems in China.

Defect and Innovation of Water Rights System

The rare deposition of water resources conflicts with its limitless demand. This determined the existence of the water rights transaction system. The implementation of the water rights transaction system requires clarifying the definition of water resource right above all distinctly. At present, it is a kind of common right system arrangement which needs the Chinese government to dispose of water resources. Though a series of management systems guaranteed the government＇s supply of water resource, it hindered the development of the water market seriously and caused the utilization of water resources to stay in the inefficient or low efficient state for a long time. Thus, we should change the government＇s leading role in the resource distribution and really rely on the market to carry on the water rights trade and transaction. In this way, the water rights could become a kind of private property right relatively, and circulate freely in the market. As a result of this, we should overcome the defects of common right, make its external performance internalized maximally and achieve the optimized water resource disposition and use it more effectively.

Analysis and Discussion on Property Right of Rural Drinking Water Projects

Since rural drinking water projects have diversified investment subjects,complex form,and lacks property right system and policy at national level,there are many difficulties in determining property right of projects in many areas.This not only puzzles competent authorities and specific management institution,but also is unfavorable for long-term full play of project benefit.Combining related laws,regulations,and policies,this paper analyzed and discussed property right of rural drinking water projects.It proposed establishing usufructuary right to replace division of property right,in the hope of helping improve management of rural drinking water projects.

Rebuilding water rights system from the perspective of usufruct

As the source of life,water is indispensable to human beings.Being aware of the water stress imposed by population growth,climate change,rapid urbanization,pollution,many scholars and decision makers argue that the establishment of water rights and their system is the primary measure to tackle the water crisis problem.However,no consensus has been reached regarding the definition,nature and content of water rights both practically and academically.By examining the existing theories regarding water rights,this article tries to redefine the entitlements from the aspect of civil law.Meanwhile,it provides a system which classifies various rights by the four functions of usufruct.

A study of benef its compensation mechanism for agricultural water rights trading under the restriction of ecological reconstruction:a case study of Shiyang River basin

Agricultural water allocation system based on priority rights has caused regional conflicts and downstream ecological degradation. It is the urgent need to introduce the concept of the initial water rights and establish benefits compensation mechanism to resolve such problems. This paper takes the Shiyang River basin as an example to calculate the opportunity cost of 0.97×10^8 m^3 of agricultural water encroached by the middle reach based on initial water right allocation system under which water is allocated in accordance with the ratio between agricultural population of two different regions concerning the downstream ecological reconstruction needs with Bio-economic model （BEM）. The results suggest that the total economic loss of Minqin County for ecological reconstruction amounts to 2.5 7×10^8 yuan, of which 1.68×10^8 yuan is ecological compensation, representing the economic loss Minqin suffered for ecological reconstruction which shouM burden beneficial groups of ecological reconstruction and 0.89 ×10^8 yuan is the economic loss Minqin suffered due to Liangzhou＇s encroachment behavior which should be compensated by Liangzhou.

On the Duty of the Government to Safeguard the Right to Water

The right to water is an emerging sort of human rights aiming to protect the right to water indispensable for the survival and development of individuals. From the perspective of International Human Rights Law, the paper analyzes the standards stipulating the international obligations to safeguard the right to water, inspects the state quo of the protection of the right to water in China and demonstrates the lawful suggestions to safeguard the right to water.

Evaluation and Quantitative Attribution Analysis of Water Yield Services in the Peak-cluster Depression Basins in Southwest of Guangxi,China

Karst environmental issues have become one of the hot spots in contemporary international geological research. The same problem of water shortage is one of the hot spots of global concern. The peak-cluster depression basins in southwest of Guangxi is an important water connotation and ecological barrier areas in the Pearl River Basin of China. Thus, studying the spatial and temporal variations and the influencing factors of its water yield services is critical to achieve the sustainable development of water resources and ecological environmental protection in this region. As such, this paper uses the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST) model to assess the spatial and temporal variabilities of water yield services and its trends in the peak-cluster depression basins in southwest of Guangxi from 2000 to 2020. This work also integrates precipitation(Pre), reference evapotranspiration(ET), temperature(Tem), digital elevation model(DEM), slope, normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI), land use/land cover(LULC) and soil type to reveal the main factors that influence water yield services with the help of Geodetector. Results show that: 1) in time scale,the total annual water yield in the study area show a fluctuating and increasing trend from 2000 to 2020, with a growth rate of 7.3753 × 10^(8)m^(3)/yr, and its multi-year average water yield was 538.07 mm;2) in spatial pattern, with high yield areas mainly distributed in the south of the study area(mainly including Shangsi County, Pingxiang City, Ningming County, Longzhou County and Jingxi County), and low yield areas mainly distributed in Baise City and Nanning City;3) the dominant factor of water yield within karst and non-karst landforms is not necessarily controlled by precipitation, and the explanation degree of DEM factors in karst areas is significantly higher than that in non-karst areas;4) amongst the climatic factors, Pre, ET and Tem are dominant in the spatial pattern of region water yield capacity. among which Pre has the highest explanatory power for the spatial heterogeneity of annual water production, with q values above0.8, and each driver showed a significant interaction on the spatial distribution of water yield, with Pre exhibiting the strongest interaction with LULC.

农业水权交易发展影响因素分析——基于宏观、中观、微观视角

我国现阶段农业水权交易分散且规模较小,农业水权交易市场活跃度不高。随着水资源供需矛盾的日益紧张,需要激发市场在水资源配置中的决定性作用,进一步为农业水权创造更大的交易空间。农业水权涉及多层级管理制度,却少有从全局到细节不同维度分析农业水权交易发展影响因素的研究,无法具有系统性地推动农业水权交易发展。为此,本文将影响农业水权交易发展的关键因素划分为宏观社会经济、中观市场主体及相互关系和微观交易要素三个维度,定性分析不同维度各因素指标的实质属性以及对农业水权交易发展的影响效果,找准农业水权交易发展的宏观支撑,明确农业水权交易市场的发展思路,进而聚焦到微观交易要素在水权交易过程中的作用,从三个维度分别提出加大农业水权交易政策和多途径推进农村水系连通的建设力度、明确政企角色定位、鼓励农业水权交易与土地实现同步流转等活跃农业水权交易市场的建议,以期为完善农业水权交易市场提供建设基础和思路。

我国用水权交易现状与制度构建

为促进《关于推进用水权改革的指导意见》提出的于2035年全面建立归属清晰、权责明确、流转顺畅、监管有效的用水权制度体系的工作目标,针对我国用水权交易仍存在初始分配制度不健全、交易定价机制不完备、用水监测计量与监管尚需加强的现状,分析了现行用水权交易制度存在的问题,在明确用水权交易内涵的基础上,提出用水权交易制度的构建应当利用哈贝马斯的商谈理论指导用水权初始分配,兼顾经济利益与生态利益构建标准多元、基准有别的定价机制,建立巡查与抽查制度完善的用水监测计量与监管的具体制度设计。

关于超计划(定额)累进加价与用水权交易制度竞合的初步思考

超计划(定额)累进加价制度已实行多年,对于强化节约用水管理发挥了重要作用。近年来,随着用水权改革的深入推进,两项制度在对公共供水管网内非居民用水户新增用水需求的管理上形成了竞合。文章基于对用水权权利范围边界的界定,提出了超计划(定额)累进加价与用水权交易制度竞合的破解思路,并从持续深化用水权改革实践探索、深化理论研究方面提出了对策建议。

数字孪生水利赋能水流资源确权登记应用与探索

数字孪生水利建设、水流资源确权登记分别是水利部门、自然资源部门近期开展的重大工程项目之一,两者在实现基础地理数据共建、共享方面均有很大的需求。为解决水流资源确权登记工作所面临的重点和难点问题,通过数字孪生水利建设的技术手段、工作思路及其统一的数据底座,助力水流资源确权登记完成异源数据的同构,借助三维场景提高外业调查效率,实现登记单元范围的精准划定。结合近年来所从事的工作实际和部分典型案例,详细论述了不同的实现路径、应用方向和实施效果,为后续水利行业与自然资源规划行业更广泛的深度融合提供了一定的实践价值。

兼顾公平与效率视角下的区域农业初始水权分配研究——以湖南益阳市为例

针对农业用水量在区域总用水量中占比较大且用水效率有待提高这一问题,从兼顾公平与效率视角下构建区域农业初始水权分配模型,以最小化公平性满意度差异为目标,同时结合农业用水效率指标作为核心约束条件,以益阳市为例,运用Mtalab fmincon函数对模型进行求解,实现对益阳市2025年各行政区的农业初始水权分配。结果表明基于兼顾公平与效率模型的农业初始水权分配较现状分配总量和公平性满意度差异都有所减小,分配结果更公平高效。研究成果可为其他区域分配农业初始水权提供借鉴和参考。

关于水价、水权、水资源税费改革协同发力的思考

运用系统思维,深化水价形成机制、水权及水资源税改革,促进协同发力,是当前和今后一个时期深化水利改革的重点任务。文章在总结改革进展、分析新形势新要求的基础上,对水价、水权、水资源税费的基本属性、改革目的、重点内容进行理论解析,分析了三者间的耦合关系,提出了水价、水权、水资源税费改革协同发力的总体考虑和相关建议。