Objective: The objective of this article is to provide empirical evidence for safe speed limits that will meet the objectives of the Safe System by examining the relationship between speed limit and injury severity for different crash types, using police-reported crash data.
Method: Police-reported crashes from 2 Australian jurisdictions were used to calculate a fatal crash rate by speed limit and crash type. Example safe speed limits were defined using threshold risk levels.
Results: A positive exponential relationship between speed limit and fatality rate was found. For an example fatality rate threshold of 1 in 100 crashes it was found that safe speed limits are 40 km/h for pedestrian crashes; 50 km/h for head-on crashes; 60 km/h for hit fixed object crashes; 80 km/h for right angle, right turn, and left road/rollover crashes; and 110 km/h or more for rear-end crashes.
Conclusions: The positive exponential relationship between speed limit and fatal crash rate is consistent with prior research into speed and crash risk. The results indicate that speed zones of 100 km/h or more only meet the objectives of the Safe System, with regard to fatal crashes, where all crash types except rear-end crashes are exceedingly rare, such as on a high standard restricted access highway with a safe roadside design. 相似文献
Under what conditions do critical events trigger large-scale public discussion and mobilisation, and can these lead to policy change? In a comparative study of nuclear energy policy after the Japanese Fukushima disaster in March 2011, a theory-development approach is adopted, mobilising data collected from national news agencies’ newswires, public surveys, legislation and parliamentary databases, and newspaper editorials in 12 established democracies between March 2011 and March 2013. The analysis suggests two main hypotheses that can guide future research: critical events are more likely to trigger policy change when intense (contentious) mobilisation from policy challengers aligns with the views of the general public, and is backed by major political allies; and critical events are more likely to trigger intense (contentious) mobilisation when policy challengers articulate their opposition around pre-existing policy debates on the issue and resort to pre-existing organisational and mobilisation resources. 相似文献
The periodicity of fires in larch forests of Evenkia and their relationship with landscape elements have been studied. Cross-sections with “burns” in them caused by past fires have been analyzed in 72 test plots; the fire chronology encompassed the period from the 15th to the 20th century. The between-fire intervals (BFIs) have been calculated by two methods: (I) on the basis of burns alone and (II) on the basis of burns and the start of growth of the new generation of larch after the earliest fire. The BFI depends on local orographic features; it is 86 ± 11 (105 ± 12), 61 ± 8 (73 ± 8), 139 ± 17 (138 ± 18), and 68 ± 14 (70 ± 13) years for northeastern slopes, southwestern slopes, bogs, and flatlands, respectively. The mean BFIs calculated by methods I and II are 82 ± 7 and 95 ± 7 years, respectively. The permafrost horizon rises at a mean rate of 0.3 cm per year after a forest fire. It has been shown that the number of fires regularly peaks at periods of 36 and 82 years. There is also a temporal trend in fire frequency: the mean BFI was approximately 100 years in the 19th century and 65 years in the 20th century. 相似文献
This study investigates the inherent optical properties (IOP) of a Brazilian river during a non-natural, anthropogenically
mediated, toxic spill of a wood-pulping factory (the ‘Cataguazes accident’). The results indicated an outstanding transformation
in the river water chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) pools. For instance, increases in CDOM absorption coefficients,
aCDOM(λ), which were averaged at specific spectral intervals, , ranged from 58-fold at the UV-B and UV-A ranges to 95-fold at the PAR range. As a result, the water color expressed as CDOM
absorption at 440 nm, aCDOM(440), varied from 4.16 to 365.03 m-1. For S-coefficient, the variations ranged from ∼1.1 to 5.6-fold, respectively, at the 300–650 nm and UV-B range. The variability
of S as a proxy of dissolved chromophores was thus clearly influenced by the spectral range used. Optical proportions were also
investigated through the use of and S ratios at the UV-B, UV-A, and PAR ranges and, in the case of , also at the NIR range. This approach also showed clear variations between the water samples, likely reflecting changes in
the composition of optically active substances in the river system. As a whole, the findings obtained here indicated that
both the quantity and quality of the chromophoric material dissolved in the river water were greatly altered by the toxic
spill. The changes in the optical properties of the river water, although extreme and likely with no parallel in the literature,
were quite rapid as indicated by the optical resilience of the system. Overall, this study indicates that IOP might be thought,
and possibly used, as a metric tool for monitoring the state of waters and aquatic ecosystems. 相似文献
We compared the effects of natural and anthropogenic watershed disturbances on methyl mercury (MeHg) concentration in bulk
zooplankton from boreal Shield lakes. MeHg in zooplankton was monitored for three years in nine lakes impacted by deforestation,
in nine lakes impacted by wildfire, and in twenty lakes with undisturbed catchments. Lakes were sampled during spring, mid-
and late summer. MeHg in zooplankton showed a seasonal trend: concentrations were the lowest in spring, then peaked in mid-summer
and decreased in late summer. Over the three study years, MeHg concentrations observed in mid-summer in zooplankton from forest
harvested lakes were significantly higher than in reference and fire-impacted lakes, whereas differences between these two
groups of lakes were not significant. The pattern of distribution of MeHg in zooplankton during the different seasons paralleled
that of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which is known as a vector of Hg from watershed soils to lake water. Besides DOC,
MeHg in zooplankton also showed a positive significant correlation with epilimnetic temperature and sulfate concentrations.
An inter-annual decreasing trend in MeHg was observed in zooplankton from reference and fire-impacted lakes. In forest harvested
lakes, however, MeHg concentrations remained higher and nearly constant over three years following the impact. Overall these
results indicate that the MeHg pulse observed in zooplankton following deforestation by harvesting is relatively long-lived,
and may have repercussions to the accumulation of MeHg along the food chain. Therefore, potential effects of deforestation
on the Hg contamination of fish should be taken into account in forest management practices. 相似文献
To identify major PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter) sources with a particular emphasis on the ship engine emissions from a major port, integrated 24 h PM2.5 speciation data collected between 2000 and 2005 at five United State Environmental Protection Agency's Speciation Trends Network monitoring sites in Seattle, WA were analyzed. Seven to ten PM2.5 sources were identified through the application of positive matrix factorization (PMF). Secondary particles (12–26% for secondary nitrate; 17–20% for secondary sulfate) and gasoline vehicle emissions (13–31%) made the largest contributions to the PM2.5 mass concentrations at all of the monitoring sites except for the residential Lake Forest site, where wood smoke contributed the most PM2.5 mass (31%). Other identified sources include diesel vehicle emissions, airborne soil, residual oil combustion, sea salt, aged sea salt, metal processing, and cement kiln. Residual oil combustion sources identified at multiple monitoring sites point clearly to the Port of Seattle suggesting ship emissions as the source of oil combustion particles. In addition, the relationship between sulfate concentrations and the oil combustion emissions indicated contributions of ship emissions to the local sulfate concentrations. The analysis of spatial variability of PM2.5 sources shows that the spatial distributions of several PM2.5 sources were heterogeneous within a given air shed. 相似文献