Tracking traffic citations through court adjudications to posting to public driver records

Research has shown that one of the best predictors of a driver's future crash risk is the number of prior moving traffic violations (e.g., speeding). Public driver records are used by government and nongovernment users to assess drivers' future crash risks. However, the adequacy of such records may be compromised by deficient recordkeeping systems and by court-based diversion programs (e.g., probation before judgment, traffic school election) that allow drivers presumed guilty to avoid convictions in court and posting of the violations to their driver records. Using a case study approach in four jurisdictions in three states, citations issued for traffic violations were tracked through court adjudication to placement on driver records. Individual court case records and driver history records were reviewed. The percentages of citations issued that appeared on driver records were 58-87% for moving violations, 30-94% for driving while impaired (DWI), and 67-95% for occupant restraint violations. Diversion programs were a significant factor in two states, where 21% and 35% of moving violation citations resulted in diversions. Almost all court convictions in each jurisdiction were recorded on driver records, but few citations resulting in diversions were recorded. Thus, diversion programs in some jurisdictions substantially reduce the utility of public driver records as reliable indicators of prior traffic violations and future crash risks. Recordkeeping inefficiencies and errors were less important factors in this study.     

Analysis of motor-vehicle crashes at stop signs in four US cities

Problem: Nearly 700,000 police-reported motor vehicle crashes occur annually at stop signs, and approximately one-third of these crashes involve injuries. The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the crashes that occur at stop signs and to identify potential countermeasures. Method: Police reports of crashes at stop sign-controlled intersections during 1996–2000 in four U.S. cities were examined in detail. At total of 1,788 crash reports for intersections with two-way stop signs were included in the study. Results: Stop sign violations accounted for about 70% of all crashes. Typically these crashes were angular collisions. Among crashes not involving stop violations, rear-end crashes were most common, accounting for about 12% of all crashes. Stop sign violation crashes were classified into several subtypes — driver stopped, driver did not stop, snow/wet/ice, and other/unknown. In about two-thirds of stop sign violation crashes, drivers said they had first come to a stop. In these cases, inability or failure to see approaching traffic often was cited as the cause of the crash. Drivers younger than 18 as well as drivers 65 and older were disproportionately found to be at fault in crashes at stop signs. Impact on industry: Potential countermeasures include changing traffic control and intersection design, improving intersection sight distance, and increasing conspicuity of stop signs through supplemental pavement markings and other devices.     

FLOOD FORECASTING FOR TUCURUI HYDROELECTRICAL PLANT,BRAZIL1

ABSTRACT: The construction of the Tucurui Hydroelectric Plant on the Tocantins River basin in Brazil requires flood forecasting for ensuring the safety of the cofferdam. The latter has been initially designed for a flood with a return frequency of one in 25 years. Lack of adequate forecasting facilities during the earlier stages of construction has resulted in significant damages and construction delays. Statistical forecasting models were developed by Projeto de Hidrologiay Climatologie da Amazonia (PHCA) for the purpose of preventing further damages at the site. These models are currently in use and are the subject of this paper. The application of these models during the 1980 flood season, when the highest flood on record occurred at the Tucurui site, proved of great assistance in preventing the flooding of the cofferdam. In conjunction with the development of these models a number of data collection platforms using data transmission through the GOES system were installed to provide automatically the data required for forecasting.     

Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2.     

Livelihood strategies,environmental dependency and rural poverty: the case of two villages in rural Mozambique

This article attempts to explore the nexus between rural households’ environmental dependency, poverty and livelihood strategies. Households’ income from each livelihood activities formed the basis for categorizing households according to livelihood strategies. The principal component analysis, agglomerative hierarchical and the k-means cluster analysis were employed to determine the four livelihood clusters and to assign households to the identified livelihood strategies. Households’ environmental dependency, poverty and asset holding were compared across the strategies, and the determinants of livelihood choice were analyzed using multinomial logit model. The results indicate the existence of marked differences in environmental dependency, rural poverty and asset endowments across the livelihood groups. Household’s total saving, access to credit, production implements, business cost, exposure to agricultural shock determined household’s access to a more remunerative livelihood strategy. Incomes from each livelihood activities for the identified livelihood strategies were analyzed, and their implications were also discussed.     

Nutrient reduction in runoff water from sugarcane farms by sedimentation method

Due to intensive use of agronomic inputs in sugarcane farming, runoff water from these farms is loaded with high concentrations of nutrients. These nutrients find their way into rivers, lakes and sinks, eutrophicating them. Reducing the levels of these nutrients in runoff water from sugarcane farms before it is discharged into sinks will help solve the problems that arise out of eutrophication. This study employed a simple sedimentation method of making depressions in canals draining runoff water from sugarcane farms and emptying them fortnightly during the rainy season and monthly during the dry season. The method was found to significantly (p????0.05) reduce water conductivity (??S/cm), turbidity (Nephelometric Turbidity Units), total phosphates, nitrate?Cnitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, sodium and zinc (ppm) in the dry season from 52.89, 148.70,0.87, 3.34, 446.00, 420.00, 205.00, 12,941.00, 261.00, 398.00, and 484.00 in untreated canals to 48.33, 30.22, 0.21, 2.95, 120.00, 154.00, 98.00, 456.00, 181.00, 234.00, and 311.00 in treated canals, respectively. And in the wet season, the parameters were reduced from 261.46, 719.30, 820.00, 25.16, 654.00, 549.00, 493.00, 19,230.00, 763.00, 748.00, and 903.00 to 128.67, 365.70, 3.47, 10.12, 136.00, 187.00, 167.00, 654.00, 207.00, 321.00, and 231.00, respectively. Dissolved oxygen significantly (p????0.05) increased from 5.11 to 8.14?ppm in the dry season and from 3.82 to 7.92?ppm wet season. Acidity reduced in the wet season from pH 5.02 to 6.20. It is, therefore, recommended that sugarcane farmers adopt this method for sustainability of aquatic systems within these zones.     

An investigation into the anthropogenic nexus among consumption of energy,tourism, and economic growth: do economic policy uncertainties matter?

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Global warming has been a pressing issue for the past decade as various economic activities have been flagged and are expected to reduce emissions....     

Terrestrial, benthic, and pelagic resource use in lakes: results from a three-isotope Bayesian mixing model

Fluxes of organic matter across habitat boundaries are common in food webs. These fluxes may strongly influence community dynamics, depending on the extent to which they are used by consumers. Yet understanding of basal resource use by consumers is limited, because describing trophic pathways in complex food webs is difficult. We quantified resource use for zooplankton, zoobenthos, and fishes in four low-productivity lakes, using a Bayesian mixing model and measurements of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. Multiple sources of uncertainty were explicitly incorporated into the model. As a result, posterior estimates of resource use were often broad distributions; nevertheless, clear patterns were evident. Zooplankton relied on terrestrial and pelagic primary production, while zoobenthos and fishes relied on terrestrial and benthic primary production. Across all consumer groups terrestrial reliance tended to be higher, and benthic reliance lower, in lakes where light penetration was low due to inputs of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon. These results support and refine an emerging consensus that terrestrial and benthic support of lake food webs can be substantial, and they imply that changes in the relative availability of basal resources drive the strength of cross-habitat trophic connections.