Deciding How to Decide: Cultural Theory and Rule Making in Collaborative Watershed Organizations

The growing field of collaborative governance has long sought to explain processes of collective decision making. Insights from institutional analysis highlight the influence of rules in shaping collective decisions. Yet, less is known about how such rules are created; in other words, how collaborative organizations decide how to decide. By drawing on concepts from Cultural Theory, we examine the connections between worldviews and decision rules across four collaborative watershed organizations in Ohio, United States. Results from this comparative case analysis indicate correlations between the group dimension of worldview and decision rules about choice, as well as between the grid dimension of worldview and two different types of decision rules, choice and aggregation. These results highlight the explanatory value of integrating aspects of Cultural Theory with the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. Results also suggest how governments might more effectively engage with collaborative organizations.     

Rules for Collaboration: Institutional Analysis of Group Membership and Levels of Action in Watershed Partnerships

This study employs the Institutional Analysis and Development framework across three collaborative watershed partnerships with differing membership profiles (government centered, citizen centered, or mixed) to determine how rules at varying levels of action (operational rules, collective-choice rules, and constitutional rules) affect the formation and implementation of rules-in-use at different levels. Examining trends across group types at varying levels of action helps illuminate how the operational rules produced by different types of partnerships result in outputs that impact watershed management. Results show that the source of rules and their impact on subsequent levels of action vary by group type, with federal and state policies playing a larger role in government-centered and mixed-membership groups than in citizen-centered groups.     

Quantifying tomb geometries in resistivity images using watershed algorithms

Quantifying the geometries (defined here as width, height and depth of burial) of archeological structures within resistivity models produced as a result of the regularization constraints used in most inversion algorithms is difficult, especially when structures are closely spaced. Here we apply the watershed by simulated immersion method of boundary detection to smooth 2D resistivity images generated for synthetic and field data over 3D targets. The synthetic studies include a single cavity model, a model for two widely spaced cavities (spacing ? unit electrode spacing) and a model for two closely spaced cavities (spacing < unit electrode spacing). We also examine a single-cavity model where a relatively resistive overburden, common at archaeological sites in Egypt, is included. In the case of the single cavity models, the maximum error for any geometries are 18% for the model without the resistive overburden and 10% for the model where the overburden is included, whereas it increases to 24% for the widely spaced model and 40% for the closely spaced model. Despite, the higher errors in the closely spaced cavity model, application of the algorithm confirms the presence of two features, which is not ascertainable from the smooth resistivity images. Boundaries detected with the watershed algorithm are subsequently used to define a disconnect in the regularization, resulting in a markedly improved estimate of the resistivity structure (particularly for the closely spaced cavity model) in a second inversion step using the model obtained from the smoothness constraint inversion as the starting model. This revised resistivity model also results in a lower root-mean-square (rms) misfit between measured and theoretical data, and between synthetic and inverted models. We demonstrate how the method can be applied on images from the archaeological site at Qurnet Murai, Luxor City Egypt.     

明中期湟水流域汉族社会与文化之中兴

从明初洪武至嘉靖万历年间,经过卫、所制度建立,军、民屯田及移民,湟水流域汉族人口增加,经济发展,屯田繁盛,居住区域扩大,区域性汉族社会成型;同时由于儒学设立、教育发展,汉族群体中人才辈出、著述颇丰,使得汉文化在湟水流域复兴,为青海传统社会、文化、经济结构增添了新的成分,建构了青海传统社会、经济、文化多元性特征。本文通过对明中期湟水流域汉族社会的军事、政治、经济发展状况的梳理,阐述了明中期湟水流域汉文化中兴及对后世的影响。     

流域综合治理与流域持续发展——以山东平阴汇泉流域为例

水土流失严重的流域,能否快速实现生态、经济与杜会的持续协调发展,关键在于治理模式的选择.汇泉流域综合治理的经验证明,生态经济型治理模式,是快速实现流域持续发展的有效模式。     

明初湟水流域汉族社会之政治管理体制

明朝初年,由于蒙古势力盘踞青海海西,南部又有藏族势力,湟水流域安危举足轻重。为此,明朝中央在此设置军民卫所、屯田、驻军等制度。由于这些制度起到了稳定边防之作用,因而一直沿袭到清朝雍正初年,成为明清时期中央朝廷管理青海汉族社会的主要模式。且在此基础上,湟水流域汉族社会逐渐形成了以堡、寨为主要形式的基层社会结构,一直沿袭到现在。本文着重就明初中央朝廷关于湟水流域汉族社会的政治管理体制作一详细梳理。