Determining older driver crash responsibility from police and insurance data

This study aimed to determine the extent to which older drivers can be considered responsible for their crashes, to identify key factors in those crashes for which older drivers have been judged responsible, and to assess the extent to which older drivers' extra crash responsibility contributes to the road toll. Insurance claims from the State of Tasmania, Australia, for 1998-2002 were linked with police records for crashes involving drivers aged either 41-55 years or 65 years or older. Insurance and police data sets contained independent judgments of crash responsibility. There was a high level of agreement between the two sets of judgments, with older drivers judged around 1.5 times more likely to be responsible for their crashes than middle-aged drivers and, conversely, older drivers were around 0.6 as likely to be absolved from crash responsibility. It was concluded that older drivers' additional crash responsibility while valuable in explaining "what went wrong," currently makes only a small contribution to the overall road toll.     

Occupant restraint use in Canada

Legislation regarding seat belt use in Canada is a provincial/territorial responsibility. Each of the 13 jurisdictions has enacted legislation and set the penalties regarding non-use of seat belts and appropriate child restraint systems. The federal government regulates occupant restraint systems and child restraints. In addition, Transport Canada (TC) gathers annual survey data on the use of seat belts and child restraints on Canadian roads and provides research support. National coordination toward the Canadian Road Safety Vision 2010 goal of a 40% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries related to non-belt/child restraint use and a 95% restraint usage rate is provided by the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators' (CCMTA) National Occupant Restraint Program (NORP). The paper examines the history of legislation, provincial/territorial penalties, NORP, and TC involvement in promoting the use of occupant restraints.     

Measurement and Spatial Distribution of Urban Land Use Compactness in Chaoyang District of Beijing, China

China is in the process of rapid urbanization, and wise land use is critical to the long-term sustainability of Chinese cities.Promotion of a compact city is typically believed to be helpful for sustainable land use management. However, given the fact that Chinese cities are characterized by high population densities, the applicability of a more compact solution to expand cities in China remains questionable; there is little evidence to support the many claims in its favor. In seeking to provide empirical data to explore the application of compact city theory in China, one of the key problems researchers face is the task of measuring the urban com-pactness, in order to objectively investigate the current characteristics of urban compactness. To meet this need, indices were developed for measuring the urban land use compactness, by which the spatial distribution characteristics of urban land use compactness were identified and applied to the Chaoyang District of Beijing. The conclusions can be made as follows: (1) comprehensive land use compactness in Chaoyang District has increased during the period of 2001-2007, especially the population density; (2) the spatial distribution of land use compactness has the characteristics of a ring structure, which shows a decreasing trend with its distance to the city center; (3) there is a strong positive correlation between urban land use compactness and location. The better the location is, the higher the land use compactness is.     

Use of 210Pb and 137Cs to simultaneously constrain ages and sources of post-dam sediments in the Cordeaux reservoir, Sydney, Australia

Environmental radionuclides can be employed as tracers of sediment movement and delivery to water bodies such as lakes and reservoirs. The chronologies of sediments that have accumulated in the Cordeaux reservoir in Sydney, Australia, were determined by the rate of change of (210)Pb(ex) with depth and indicate slow accretion in the reservoir. The ratio of enrichment of radionuclides in sediment cores to (210)Pb(ex) and (137)Cs concentrations in a reference soil sample within the Cordeaux catchment indicates that the dominant source of sediment in the Cordeaux reservoir is surface erosion (detachment and removal of sediment at depths less than 30 cm). However, in the Kembla Creek arm of the reservoir a mixture of sources was detected and includes sheet and rill erosion together with sub-soil contributions. Implications for the utility of these radionuclide sedimentation assessments, especially where samples are limited, are that well-constrained chronologies and sources of soil erosion are facilitated.     

Application of Conservation Biology Research to Management

Abstract: We conducted a survey of all primary authors of "Contributed Papers" and "Research Notes" in Conservation Biology from 1987 to 1998 to assess the perceived effectiveness of published management recommendations. No systematic survey has previously assessed the degree to which authors believe that resource managers are using the growing body of research published in Conservation Biology . In March 1999, we sent surveys to 667 authors of 790 published papers, asking whether their papers included management recommendations, whether such recommendations have been used in practice, and why they believed they have or have not been used. We received completed surveys from 198 authors of 223 papers. The percentage of papers that included management recommendations increased from 1987 to 1991, then stabilized at about 75%. Author perception of the use of management recommendations generally increased over the 5 years from 1994 to 1998. Initiatives of federal, state, and local agencies were the most often-cited cause of successful implementation of management recommendations, accounting for over half of all such cases. Our survey suggests that authors in Conservation Biology have increased the use of explicit management recommendations in their papers and that authors believe their recommendations are being used to an increasing degree.     

The Applicability of National Critical Loads Data in Assessing Designated Sites

Critical loads have been successfully used within Europe in the development of effects-based policies for pollution abatement, including the Second Sulphur Protocol and the Protocol to abate acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone (CLRTAP, 1979). This success has encouraged the UK Environment Agency and Conservation Agencies to use the national critical load maps as a screening tool in assessing the threats from acidification and eutrophication to designated (Natura 2000) sites. The UK maps of critical loads are based on national-scale data sets appropriate for national-scale assessments, and were never intended for use at the site-specific level. Site-based assessments are often targeted at Special Areas of Conservation, a sub-set of the UK Natura 2000 sites. The spatial data available includes the boundaries of the sites but not the location of the designated features. Ancillary data is variable from one site to another; habitat types may be described in detail with cross-reference to classes of the National Vegetation Classification (NVC: Rodwell, 1991 et seq), but information available on soils and geology is generalised and has not been related to the habitats or species being protected. Hence it can be difficult to relate the individual sites to the national maps, even where appropriate to do so. This paper examines the underlying uncertainties in the national critical load maps showing how the maps could give misleading results if used for site-specific assessments. It also includes advice on how to determine when the national data may be appropriate as a policy-tool at the site-level.     

Arsenic sequestration by nitrate respiring microbial communities in urban lake sediments

Changes in microbial community composition and activity were related to geochemical conditions favoring arsenic sequestration in sediments collected from the urban, arsenic-contaminated Upper Mystic Lake. After amendment with nitrate, >94% total soluble arsenic is sequestered by Fe(III)-(oxy)hydroxides generated in live sediments. Of this sequestered arsenic, >75% existed as As(III), indicating As redox state alone is not responsible for changes in mobility. Arsenic sequestration was concurrent with the microbial respiration of nitrate as indicated by steady state hydrogen concentration and the presence of organisms similar to nitrate-reducing, iron-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the genus Dechloromonas in 16S rDNA clone libraries.     

Contingent Valuation and Real Economic Commitments: Evidence from Electric Utility Green Pricing Programmes

This paper presents the findings of two 'green pricing' studies conducted to evaluate public support of utilities' investments in renewable energy technologies. These studies compared hypothetical WTP statements with actual payment commitments. The results of these studies indicate that the CVM can be an accurate indicator of an individual's WTP, but that it is an unreliable predictor of which individuals will actually pay. This has important implications for aggregating mean WTP estimates of the value of environmental benefits. It also suggests that market simulations can be useful for predicting programme participation rates when voluntary donations are used as a payment vehicle.     

Ten Key Questions About the Management of Water in the Yellow River Basin

Water is scarce in many regions of the world, clean water is difficult to find in most developing countries, there are conflicts between irrigation needs and urban demands, and there is wide debate over appropriate means of resolving these problems. Similarly, in China, there is limited understanding of the ways in which people, groups, and institutions contribute to, are affected by, and respond to changes in water quantity and quality. We use the example of the Yellow River basin to argue that these social, managerial, and policy dimensions of the present water problems are significant and overshadow the physical ones. Despite this, they receive relatively little attention in the research agenda, particularly of the lead agencies in the management of the Yellow River basin. To this end, we ask ten research questions needed to address the policy needs of water management in the basin, split into two groups of five. The first five relate to the importance of water in this basin and the changes that have affected water problems and will continue to do so. The second five questions represent an attempt to explore possible solutions to these problems.