Book reviews

Rebuilding the City: Property‐led Urban Regeneration

P. Healey, S. Davoudi, M. O'Toole, S. Tavsanoglu & D. Usher (Eds)

London, E. & F. N. Spon, 1992, 312 pp., £30

Der Wert stadtnaher Wälder als Erholungsraum: Eine ökonomishce Analyse am Beispiel von Lugano (Value of Urban Forests as Recreational Areas: An Economic Analysis on the Case of Lugano)

Claudia Nielsen

Chur (Switzerland), Verlag Rüegger, 1992, 261 pp., SFr 48

Urban Planning under Thatcherism: The Challenge of the Market

A. Thornley

London, Routledge, 1991, 253 pp., £14.99

Sustainable Development and Urban Form, European Research in Regional Science 2

M. J. Breheny (Ed)

London, Pion, Limited, 1992, 292 pp., £28.00.

Tourism, Museums and the Local Economy: The Economic Impact of the North of England Open Air Musuem at Beamish

Peter Johnson & Barry Thomas

Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 1992, 160 pp., £29.50     

PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR NITRATE LOAD IN THE BULL RUN WATERSHED,OREGON1

ABSTRACT: Predictive models for nitrate in four streams in the Bull Run Watershed in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon were developed from a record of 17 years of nitrate samples. The models are time series regression models written in terms of Log(nitrate load). The independent variables are logarithm of 14-day mean daily stream discharge, current day's precipitation, logarithm of the previous day's precipitation, total precipitation for the previous seven days, a hydrograph position variable that indicates rising or falling limb, and average maximum air temperature for the preceding 14 days. The models describe annual cycle and seasonable trends and variations in nitrate load, but are unable to describe large day to day variations like those associated with hydrograph peaks.     

A cross-country comparison of short- and long-term effects of an ergonomic intervention on musculoskeletal discomfort, eyestrain and psychosocial stress in VDT operators: selected aspects of the international project.

Three groups of data entry female visual display terminal (VDT) workers from Norway (n = 30), Poland (n = 33) and the USA (n = 29) were compared. Before intervention, the Norwegian group reported more neck pain compared with the Polish group. The Polish group reported less shoulder pain than both the U.S. and the Norwegian groups. The clinical examination documented fewer symptoms and signs of musculoskeletal illness among the Polish participants compared with the Norwegian and the U.S. groups. After intervention, the Norwegian group reported a reduction in neck pain while the U.S. group reported a reduction in shoulder pain. The Polish group reported an increase in neck, shoulder and forearm pain at follow-up compared to after intervention. The Polish group recorded higher flexion of the upper arm at follow-up parallel with an increase of pain in the upper part of the body. Visual discomfort showed variable results in the 3 countries.     

An interdisciplinary review of current and future approaches to improving human–predator relations

In a world of shrinking habitats and increasing competition for natural resources, potentially dangerous predators bring the challenges of coexisting with wildlife sharply into focus. Through interdisciplinary collaboration among authors trained in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, we reviewed current approaches to mitigating adverse human–predator encounters and devised a vision for future approaches to understanding and mitigating such encounters. Limitations to current approaches to mitigation include too much focus on negative impacts; oversimplified equating of levels of damage with levels of conflict; and unsuccessful technical fixes resulting from failure to engage locals, address hidden costs, or understand cultural (nonscientific) explanations of the causality of attacks. An emerging interdisciplinary literature suggests that to better frame and successfully mitigate negative human–predator relations conservation professionals need to consider dispensing with conflict as the dominant framework for thinking about human–predator encounters; work out what conflicts are really about (they may be human–human conflicts); unravel the historical contexts of particular conflicts; and explore different cultural ways of thinking about animals. The idea of cosmopolitan natures may help conservation professionals think more clearly about human–predator relations in both local and global context. These new perspectives for future research practice include a recommendation for focused interdisciplinary research and the use of new approaches, including human‐animal geography, multispecies ethnography, and approaches from the environmental humanities notably environmental history. Managers should think carefully about how they engage with local cultural beliefs about wildlife, work with all parties to agree on what constitutes good evidence, develop processes and methods to mitigate conflicts, and decide how to monitor and evaluate these. Demand for immediate solutions that benefit both conservation and development favors dispute resolution and technical fixes, which obscures important underlying drivers of conflicts. If these drivers are not considered, well‐intentioned efforts focused on human–wildlife conflicts will fail.     

Constraining SWAT Calibration with Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration Data

Historically, many watershed studies have been based on using the streamflow flux, typically from a single gauge at the basin's outlet, to support calibration. In this setting, there is great potential for equifinality of parameters during the optimization process, especially for parameters that are not directly related to streamflow. Therefore, some of the optimal parameter values achieved during the autocalibration process may be physically unrealistic. In recent decades a vast array of data from land surface models and remote sensing platforms can help to constrain hydrologic fluxes such as evapotranspiration (ET). While the spatial resolution of these ancillary datasets varies, the continuous spatial coverage of these gridded datasets provides flux measurements across the entire basin, in stark contrast to point‐based streamflow data. This study uses Global Land Evaporation: the Amsterdam Model data to constrain Soil and Water Assessment Tool parameter values associated with ET to a more physically realistic range. The study area is the Little Washita River Experimental Watershed, in southern Oklahoma. Traditional objective metrics such as the Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficients record no performance improvement after application of this method. However, there is a dramatic increase in the number of days with receding flow where simulations match observed streamflow.     

Hazardous Waste Minimization: Part X The Waste Minimization Assessment: A Useful Tool for the Reduction of Industrial Hazardous Wastes

This article describes the “nuts and bolts” of implementing a waste minimization program at an industrial facility which has made a commitment to carry out such a program for waste reduction and/or elimination. Under EPA sponsorship, a waste minimization assessment methodology has been developed and applied in a total often such assessments at industrial and DOD facilities. The article reviews the eleven distinct steps that represent the preferred procedure for carrying out a waste minimization assessment at an industrial site. This procedure is presented in detail in the recently published “The EPA Manual for Waste Minimization Opportunity Assessments.” Two case studies are presented which have employed this methodology to develop waste reduction options in the areas of source reduction and recycle/reuse. Lessons learned during the development and application of this methodology are also presented.     

An Air Pollution Index Based on Sulfur Dioxide and Smoke Shade

First-prize winner in the student paper competition conducted by the Mid-Atlantic States Section of the Air Pollution Control Association was Marvin H. Green, a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology and assistant chief of Philadelphia’s Air Pollution Control Section. A condensation of his paper follows.     

Analysis for Exhaust Gas Hydrocarbons—Nondispersive Infrared Versus Flame-lonizaticn

An investigation has been made of the suitability of a nondispersive infrared analyzer and two flame-ionization analyzers for measuring the total hydrocarbon concentrations of automobile exhaust gas. The investigation consisted of measuring relative responses of various hydrocarbons, checking for possible exhaust gas interferences and finally comparing exhaust hydrocarbon concentrations indicated by the flame-ionization analyzer to those indicated by the infrared analyzer. The infrared analyzer has high relative responses for parraffins and low responses for olefins, acetylenes, and aromatics. Also, the infrared indicated hydrocarbon concentrations must be corrected for exhaust water vapor interference. When the flameionization analyzers are operated at conditions that result in approximately uniform response to hydrocarbons and low oxygen interference, the exhaust hydrocarbon concentrations indicated by either flameionization analyzer are better approximations of the total hydrocarbon concentration than those indicated by the infrared analyzer.     

Local authority technology policies

This paper is concerned with the failure of published research to provide a framework within which local technology policy could be analysed and evaluated. It firstly describes a simple model of the technological development process. Then, using this model as a base, develops a framework for analysing the main aspects of technological policies. The paper considers the main results of a recent survey of local authority technology development policies and initiatives before providing some overall conclusions relating to the nature, direction and likely effectiveness of such policies.