Are soil conservation technologies “win‐win?” A case study of Anjeni in the north‐western Ethiopian highlands

This study measures the impact of fanya juu terraces on the net value of crop income in a high‐rainfall area in the Ethiopian highlands using cross‐sectional multiple plot observations. Using propensity score matching methods we find that the net value of crop income for plots with fanya juu terraces is lower than for plots without fanya juu terraces. This finding makes it difficult to avoid concluding that while the technologies might reduce soil erosion and associated off‐site effects, they do so at the expense of poor farmers in the Ethiopian highlands. Therefore, fanya juu terraces cannot be characterized as a “win‐win” measure to reduce soil erosion. New agricultural technologies need to be profitable to the farmer if they are to be adopted and sustained.     

Is a negative correlation between resource abundance and growth sufficient evidence that there is a “resource curse”?

Evidence from cross-sectional growth regressions suggests that economies dependent on natural resource exports have had slower growth than resource scarce economies. Explanations for this “curse of resources” focus on institutional and market failures caused by resource abundance. With a simple two sector model exhaustible resource model, we demonstrate that the correlation between growth and natural resource abundance can be negative in the absence of market and institutional failures. Since there is no way to distinguish between efficient and inefficient equilibria on the basis of the negative correlation between growth and resource abundance, finding that correlation is not sufficient to conclude resources are a curse, nor is it necessary to find a positive correlation between growth and resources to overturn the resource curse interpretation. We show whether resources are a curse or a blessing for an economy can only be determined by an investigation of the correlation between resource abundance and income levels. Using panel data for U.S. states for the period 1970-2001, we show that resource abundance is negatively correlated with growth rates but positively correlated with income levels.     

Will Evolving Climate Conditions Increase the Risk of Floods of the Large U.S.‐Canada Transboundary Richelieu River Basin?

In spring 2011, an unprecedented flood hit the complex eastern United States (U.S.)–Canada transboundary Lake Champlain–Richelieu River (LCRR) Basin, destructing properties and inducing negative impacts on agriculture and fish habitats. The damages, covered by the Governments of Canada and the U.S., were estimated to C$90M. This natural disaster motivated the study of mitigation measures to prevent such disasters from reoccurring. When evaluating flood risks, long‐term evolving climate change should be taken into account to adopt mitigation measures that will remain relevant in the future. To assess the impacts of climate change on flood risks of the LCRR basin, three bias‐corrected multi‐resolution ensembles of climate projections for two greenhouse gas concentration scenarios were used to force a state‐of‐the‐art, high‐resolution, distributed hydrological model. The analysis of the hydrological simulations indicates that the 20‐year return period flood (corresponding to a medium flood) should decrease between 8% and 35% for the end of the 21st Century (2070–2099) time horizon and for the high‐emission scenario representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5. The reduction in flood risks is explained by a decrease in snow accumulation and an increase in evapotranspiration expected with the future warming of the region. Nevertheless, due to the large climate inter‐annual variability, short‐term flood probabilities should remain similar to those experienced in the recent past.     

“Is this really a police station?”: Police department exteriors and judgments of authority, professionalism, and approachability

This study examined the relationship between exteriors of police department facilities and participants’ ratings of the buildings’ authority, professionalism, and approachability. After a pilot study, research was conducted with 122 participants who were undergraduate students from a small, liberal arts college in the Northeast. On each of three characteristics (authority, professionalism, and approachability), participants rated 16 color images of police departments located in the United States. The façade ratings for each characteristic were then categorized into factors through factor analyses. There were three factors for authority (Ineffectual, Strong, and Outdated); three for professionalism (Unskilled, Non-traditional, and Governmental); and four for approachability (Uninviting, Accessible, Public, and Impenetrable). The results were compared to participants’ scores on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (Altemeyer, 1981) and the Social Dominance Orientation scale (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). Although the primary goal for the study was to determine whether there are consistent responses to police department exteriors, it was hypothesized that the façade ratings would relate to the authoritarianism ratings, with more authoritarian people expected to rate the façades higher in authority. Although this hypothesis was not supported, significant findings were related to gender. Applications to architectural design are discussed.     

Do Energy‐Based PET Models Require More Input Data than Temperature‐Based Models? — An Evaluation at Four Humid FluxNet Sites

It is well established that wet environment potential evapotranspiration (PET) can be reliably estimated using the energy budget at the canopy or land surface. However, in most cases the necessary radiation measurements are not available and, thus, empirical temperature‐based PET models are still widely used, especially in watershed models. Here we question the presumption that empirical PET models require fewer input data than more physically based models. Specifically, we test whether the energy‐budget‐based Priestley‐Taylor (P‐T) model can reliably predict daily PET using primarily air temperature to estimate the radiation fluxes and associated parameters. This method of calculating PET requires only daily minimum and maximum temperature, day of the year, and latitude. We compared PET estimates using directly measured radiation fluxes to PET calculated from temperature‐based radiation estimates at four humid AmeriFlux sites. We found good agreement between P‐T PET calculated from measured radiation fluxes and P‐T PET determined via air temperature. In addition, in three of the four sites, the temperature‐based radiation approximations had a stronger correlation with measured evapotranspiration (ET) during periods of maximal ET than fully empirical Hargreaves, Hamon and Oudin methods. Of the three fully empirical models, the Hargreaves performed the best. Overall, the results suggest that daily PET estimates can be made using a physically based approach even when radiation measurements are unavailable.     

Is the convenience yield a good indicator of a commodity's supply risk?

A strong increase in the demand for some commodities over the last decade will have a major impact on their future supply situation. Of increasing importance, therefore, is an assessment of a commodity's criticality, and especially its supply risk, by appropriate indicators. The literature has proposed numerous indicators of the supply risk. Here, we use the convenience yield of commodity futures as a supply risk indicator to address some of the major shortcomings of existing indicators, especially regarding their predictive power. This paper aims to test the applicability of the convenience yield as an indicator of a commodity's future supply risk. Therefore, we calculate historical convenience yields for 3-, 15-, and 27-month futures contracts for five major industrial metals (aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc) during the period 1999 to 2011. We compare the convenience yields at the beginning of the contract period to known indicators at maturity to find that the convenience yield has generally predictive power for the static stock lifetime (i.e., inventory volume/turnover) and future spot prices. Furthermore, we find that, with some restrictions, the convenience yield is an applicable indicator of a commodity's supply risk.     

Possible Input of Nitrogen of Visitors’ Origin on a Protected Peatland

The Ozegahara peatland, in the Nikko-Oze National Park in Japan, is ecologically significant because of its oligotrophic environment; it is one of the most strictly preserved areas in the country. The isotope ratio of nitrogen (¹⁵N/¹⁴N) and carbon (¹³C/¹²C) and C/N ratio of peat moss (Sphagnum spp.) and sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) in the peatland were analyzed. The correlation of the isotope ratio with some parameters (sundew population density, number of trapped insects, water level, bog myrtle coverage, and visitor density) was investigated. The nitrogen isotope ratio of sundew showed the most significant covariation with visitor density, where sundew from lunch areas or along busy walkways showed a higher nitrogen isotope ratio. The nitrogen isotope ratio of peat moss covaried, not only with route traffic frequency but also with water level, bog myrtle coverage, and number of trapped insects by sundew, indicating that factors other than the visitor level influence the local nitrogen cycle. This study suggests that the nitrogen imported into the peatland by visitors is a principal factor to be monitored for the maintenance of the natural environment.     

Policy context as a factor of bias in the valuation of environmental goods – a dual-process theories perspective

When ecosystem services value estimates are applied in the economic assessment of environmental policies, high accuracy of these estimates is required. One of the directions in the scientific discussion on biases in stated preference (SP) valuation surveys builds on dual-process theories of judgment. The paper contributes to this literature by presenting an experiment where two types of judgment were induced via separate versus joint valuation of environmental goods. The results demonstrated that policy relevance of environmental issues, e.g. the need for conservation measures increases emotional response, causing a larger bias in the separate design as it involves ‘valuation by feeling.’ This finding suggests that the context of a specific policy, which is often the reason for conducting SP surveys, influences the answers, thereby making the results less reliable for use in cost–benefit analysis.     

Calibrating a model to 30 years of data to capture the accumulation of chloride from winter deicers in a shallow aquifer

Winter deicers are a major source of chloride contamination to shallow aquifers in northern latitudes. In the greater Chicago area of northeast Illinois, chloride has been accumulating for decades and in many places now exceeds the United States Environmental Protection Agency secondary standard of 250 mg/L. MODFLOW-NWT and MT3D-USGS were used to simulate the accumulation of chloride with 30 years of data in the shallow aquifer of Will County in northeast Illinois. This aquifer is composed of unconsolidated sediments, largely from glacial deposits, overlying a fractured dolomite bedrock. To calibrate to observed heads and chloride, the model needed refined geologic features, higher chloride concentrations on cells representing commercial or industrial lands, lower chloride concentrations on cells representing roads, and point source areas to speed chloride's emergence in the aquifer. These point sources are locally significant and could represent different anthropogenic or geologic features, such as municipal stormwater infrastructure. Future simulations indicate that chloride is not at steady state in the shallow aquifer and wells are at risk of exceeding the secondary standard if winter deicing applications are not reduced. It may take decades for the full impacts of reduced deicing rates to be observed in wells, owing to the long residence time of water in the aquifer. This transient model calibration was possible because of the 30-year dataset collected by communities and government agencies.     

Food Security: One of a Number of ‘Securities’ We Need for a Full Life: An Australian Perspective

Although agriculture in Australia is very productive, the current food supply systems in Australia fail to deliver healthy diets to all Australians and fail to protect the natural resources on which they depend. The operation of the food systems creates ‘collateral damage’ to the natural environment including biodiversity loss. In coming decades, Australia’s food supply systems will be increasingly challenged by resource price inflation and climate change. Australia exports more than half of its current agricultural production. Government and business are aiming to substantially increase production to bolster exports. This will increase pressure on agricultural resources and exacerbate ‘collateral’ damage to the environment. The Australian public have a deep and ongoing interest in a very wide range of issues associated with the food systems including the environment, health and sustainability. Food is something we require in order to live and a good diet is something we have to have to be healthy. For health over a life-time we need food security. However, we also require a range of other material goods and social arrangements in order to develop and flourish as human beings. And we need these other things to be secure over a life-time. Food is therefore one security among a range of other securities we need in order to flourish. The paper outlines a number of approaches, as examples, that help to identify what these other goods and arrangements might be. The approaches mentioned in this paper include human rights, national securities, human needs, authentic happiness, capabilities, sustainability and environmental ethics. The different approaches provide a way of evaluating the current situation and indicating a direction for change within the food systems that will address the problems. However, changing large systems such as those involved in food supply is difficult because inertias and vested interests make the current food supply systems resilient to change. The paper suggests that one of the first and ongoing tasks is to develop an understanding of the situation from a comprehensive social–ecological systems perspective. The paper also suggests that a practical leverage point for system change is restructuring the flow of information on the health, natural resources and biodiversity loss issues related to the food supply systems.     

Use of artificial roughness for performance enhancement of solar air heaters—a review

The performance characteristics of a solar air heater can effectively be improved by providing artificial roughness in the form of protrusions and dimples of various shapes, sizes, and orientations on the underside of heated surface. An extensive literature review on artificial roughness elements has been carried and the correlations developed for heat transfer and friction factor for roughened solar air collector have been discussed and presented in this paper. The performance parameter has also been computed and compared with various kinds and shapes of roughness geometries using correlations developed by various investigators. The optimum values of the roughness parameters obtained by several investigators have also been discussed.     

The Politics of Waste Incineration in Beijing: The Limits of a Top-Down Approach?

The siting of waste incinerators is often a highly contentious issue. Although most studies have focused on Western countries, municipal solid waste management has become an extremely pressing issue in China. Incineration is being strongly promoted by government officials, yet this has resulted in strong societal opposition. Through documentary analysis and in-depth stakeholder interviews, this article analyses three anti-incineration campaigns in Beijing, focusing on outcomes and campaigner strategies. Anti-incineration campaigns have partly undermined the government's top-down, non-consultative approach to waste management. In developing an ‘expert strategy’, campaigners have exploited government weakness whilst depoliticizing the issue. Yet rather than lead to a more open and consultative incineration policy, it is more likely that officials will circumvent unrest through increasing opacity and by choosing sites in locations where opposition is less likely to emerge.     

(Why) did Desertec fail? An interim analysis of a large-scale renewable energy infrastructure project from a Social Studies of Technology perspective

ABSTRACT

In 2009 the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) was founded by several, predominant German enterprises. The objective of DII was to organise the conditions for the realisation of the Desertec idea, which aimed to both (a) supply Europe, in a large-scale manner, with electricity produced in solar power plants in North Africa and the Arabic peninsula and (b) contribute to the self-supply of the Middle East North Africa region (MENA). Protagonists of the desert energy idea saw this megatechnic project as a starting point for a new trans-Mediterranean EU-MENA union, critics in contrast as a neo-colonial project. Disputes over the adequate interpretation and implementation of the Desertec idea broke out from the beginning. In 2014/2015, the media talked of the failure of DII and of the Desertec concept. The majority of the members left DII at the end of 2014. On the other hand, in some MENA countries renewables are playing a crucial role in securing the future of the energy sector. This paper analyses the development of DII and the Desertec idea by using concepts from Social Studies in Technology, and especially by the multi-level perspective approach in Transition Studies. It shows how the interplay of different factors, such as technological developments, entrepreneurial performances and political processes, lead to internal conflicts and the non-realisation – up to now – of related large-scale energy projects. As an important aspect of the paper, different understandings of the future of our energy supply and of North–South relations are presented in detail.     

Impact of unconfined sulphur-mine waste on a semi-arid environment (Almería, SE Spain)

Thirty-five soil samples were taken from unconfined mine waste, stream sediments, and surfaces unoccupied by mining and presumably unaffected by it, in a sulphur-mining zone surrounded by carbonate material and characterized by a semi-arid climate with short torrential storms. These samples were analysed and the results compared to estimate the spread of pollution in the landscape and to assess potential environmental risk. The mean concentrations of S, Zn, Cd, Pb, and As in mine waste were between 3.5-fold (As) and 50-fold (S) greater than unaffected soils. Oxidation of S led to a sharp drop in pH, strong weathering of minerals, and solubilisation of the constituent elements, forming a toxic acidic mine drainage with highly concentrated pollutants that were discharged into the drainage channels. Successive acid mine drainage into the soil on the valley floor spreads acidification and pollution downstream. The high carbonate content in surrounding soils played an important role in the increase of the pH and precipitation of S, Pb, and Al of the affected soils. Meanwhile, high mobility of Zn, Cd and As under basic conditions and a low Fe concentration explain the broad spread of these elements, as high concentrations were detected in soil more than 2000 m from the source. Only the soil solutions from near the waste dump (first 500 m) were highly phytotoxic, and moderately phytotoxic from 500 to 1500 m away. The concentration of pollutants in the leachates was clearly higher than in soil solutions, even in the soils located over 2000 m from the source, implying that the size of the polluted area will increase with time.     

Can ISO 14063 be a tool to plan the environmental communication strategy of a territorial area?

Over the past two decades, communication on environmental values, actions and performance has become an essential activity of organisations, because of the increased public concern and legislation related to the environment.

Stakeholders put pressure on companies to take environmental responsibility. In this framework, an effective environmental communication can generate value-added on companies' environmental work, and consequently, their competitiveness and profitability can benefit from communicating their environmental responsibility.

In 2006, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) launched a standard for environmental communication, ISO 14063. ISO 14063 should not be used for third-party certification purposes. Instead, it is intended to be used as a guideline and support companies to ensure successful environmental communication. The aim of this paper is to prompt a discussion about the applicability of the standard ISO 14063 not only to single organisations but as a tool to plan the environmental communication strategy of a whole territorial area. This is achieved by performing a case study relating to the Interreg IVC-funded project “Progresland”. The project involved three Italian and one Spanish natural areas and demonstrated that ISO 14063 could be a valid support to define and implement an environmental communication plan for a territorial area.     

The Design of a New Energy-conservation Type Solar-powered Lighting System Using a High‐pressure Sodium Lamp

This study designs and applies a new energy-conservation type solar-powered lighting system using a high-pressure sodium lamp to areas not having any utility company's electricity. The proposed system uses a zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) DC/DC converter in the batteries’ charge circuit to reduce the switching loss for a higher charging efficiency. Said system also adopts the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique to maximize the solar panels’ photovoltaic conversion capability. When dark, the batteries in the proposed system will discharge, with a raised voltage, through a push-pull DC/DC converter; said voltage, as the input voltage of the series-parallel resonant inverter, will be regulated to dim the lamp. To enable the efficient usage of the batteries’ stored energy capacity, this control scheme of the proposed system may adjust the night-time discharge time lengths, according to season difference, and compute the usable capacity for the load, according to the batteries’ charged voltage, so as to select a suitable pre-scheduled light-dimming curve for the lamp to achieve energy conservation for the batteries and continuity in lighting when dark.     

The Idea of “Ethical Accounting” for a Livestock Farm

This paper presents the idea of a decision-support system for a livestock farm, called “ethical accounting”, to be used as an extension of traditional cost accounting. “Ethical accounting” seeks to make available to the farmer information about how his decisions affect the interests of farm animals, consumers and future generations. Furthermore, “ethical accounting” involves value-based planning. Thus, the farmer should base his choice of production plan on reflections as to his fundamental objectives, and he should make his final decision only after having seriously considered the various consequences for the affected parties. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.