Using Land-use Planning to Manage Transport Demand: A survey of Scottish experience

Recent concerns surrounding the growth of mobility and associated increases in journey length and number of motorised journeys for an increasingly diverse pattern of trips have placed demands on the planning system in terms of the need to consider the land use-transport interaction. This paper first provides a review of relevant national planning policy in Scotland in particular. It then goes on to report findings from a recent survey which highlights the attitudes held by Scottish planning professionals to managing transport demand through land-use planning. The paper outlines the trade-offs encountered in practice between competing policy objectives. In Scotland there is no planning guidance equivalent to Planning Policy Guidance Note 13, which applies to England and Wales, around which there has been much debate on its impact on development control decisions and planning strategy. Draft guidance for Scotland was produced in 1996 for consultation and again in 1998, but at the time of writing has yet to be finalised. The findings from this study are timely in that they enable an assessment of the extent to which the planning system is being used to manage transport demand. Recent local government reorganisation in Scotland has resulted in significant changes to ways in which strategic planning and development control policy are likely to proceed. The paper focuses on the extent to which local authority policy emphasises the need to reduce travel through planning.     

Evaluating Adaptive Governance Approaches to Sustainable Water Management in North-West Thailand

Adaptive governance is advanced as a potent means of addressing institutional fit of natural resource systems with prevailing modes of political–administrative management. Its advocates also argue that it enhances participatory and learning opportunities for stakeholders over time. Yet an increasing number of studies demonstrate real difficulties in implementing adaptive governance ‘solutions’. This paper builds on these debates by examining the introduction of adaptive governance to water management in Chiang Mai province, north-west Thailand. The paper considers, first, the limitations of current water governance modes at the provincial scale, and the rationale for implementation of an adaptive approach. The new approach is then critically examined, with its initial performance and likely future success evaluated by (i) analysis of water stakeholders’ opinions of its first year of operation; and (ii) comparison of its governance attributes against recent empirical accounts of implementation difficulty and failure of adaptive governance of natural resource management more generally. The analysis confirms the potentially significant role that the new approach can play in brokering and resolving the underlying differences in stakeholder representation and knowledge construction at the heart of the prevailing water governance modes in north-west Thailand.     

Identifying Preservation and Restoration Priority Areas for Desert Fishes in an Increasingly Invaded World

A commonly overlooked aspect of conservation planning assessments is that wildlife managers are increasingly focused on habitats that contain non-native species. We examine this management challenge in the Gila River basin (150,730 km²), and present a new planning strategy for fish conservation. By applying a hierarchical prioritization algorithm to >850,000 fish records in 27,181 sub-watersheds we first identified high priority areas (PAs) termed “preservation PAs” with high native fish richness and low non-native richness; these represent traditional conservation targets. Second, we identified “restoration PAs” with high native fish richness that also contained high numbers of non-native species; these represent less traditional conservation targets. The top 10 % of preservation and restoration PAs contained common native species (e.g., Catostomus clarkii, desert sucker; Catostomus insignis, Sonora sucker) in addition to native species with limited distributions (i.e., Xyrauchen texanus, razorback sucker; Oncorhynchus gilae apache, Apache trout). The top preservation and restoration PAs overlapped by 42 %, indicating areas with high native fish richness range from minimally to highly invaded. Areas exclusively identified as restoration PAs also encompassed a greater percentage of native species ranges than would be expected by the random addition of an equivalent basin area. Restoration PAs identified an additional 19.0 and 26.6 % of the total ranges of two federally endangered species—Meda fulgida (spikedace) and Gila intermedia (Gila chub), respectively, compared to top preservation PAs alone—despite adding only 5.8 % of basin area. We contend that in addition to preservation PAs, restoration PAs are well suited for complementary management activities benefiting native fishes.     

Distribution,habitat preferences and behaviour of the critically endangered Maltese top-shell <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gibbula nivosa</Emphasis> (Gastropoda: Trochidae)

The Maltese top-shell, Gibbula nivosa Adams 1851, is a critically endangered marine trochid gastropod endemic to the Maltese Islands (central Mediterranean). Previously unrecorded live since 1981, rediscovery of this species in 2006 has enabled the collection of basic biological data for the first time, based on a population in Sliema Creek. The field distribution and habitat preferences of G. nivosa were investigated via stratified random sampling, while aspects of its behaviour were studied through laboratory experiments. Gibbula nivosa occurred primarily in near-homogeneous or homogeneous infralittoral cobble/pebble beds, at an overall density of 17.6 ± 25.0 SD individuals m⁻²; however, large spatial and temporal variations in abundance were recorded. The snails did not exhibit gregarious behaviour and the slightly clumped dispersion pattern noted in the field appeared to result from patchiness of the habitat. Recruitment was observed in post-summer months, which, together with data on shell-size distributions, suggests that G. nivosa spawns in early summer and attains adult size (maximum shell width ~9 mm) in less than 1 year. Gibbula nivosa showed a circadian activity pattern with nocturnal foraging involving indiscriminate ingestion of particles browsed off the substratum; observations on responses to four potential predators suggest that nocturnal activity may have evolved in response to diurnal predation. Historical records of snail occurrence and the present study suggest that population declines of G. nivosa in the past were probably related to habitat alteration as a result of anthropogenic pressure.     

Use of the Dynamic Model `MAGIC' to Predict Recovery Following Implementation of the Gothenburg Protocol

Reduction of sulphur deposition causesrecovery of acidified surface waters. Processes in thecatchment delay recovery. The acidification model MAGICwas applied to the Vikedal and Tovdal rivers in southernNorway. Response in water chemsitry is delayed by 10–20 yr. The delay is due to release of old sulphate atVikedal and cation exchange at Tovdal. Assuming that theGothenburg protocol is fully implemented by the year2010, much of the predicted increase of ANC will occur inthe next 10 yr with a levelling off by about 2040. Ifnitrogen leaching increases in the future, however,recovery of ANC will not be as rapid, nor as complete.Critical load for acidity calculated by steady-statemodels is confirmed by the MAGIC predictions. Futurerequirement for mitigation measures such as liming willdecrease in the future as acid deposition decreases. Bythe year 2046 the liming requirement will be reduced byabout 45% at Vikedal and 65% at Tovdal. One of the mainpurposes of the Norwegian national monitoring programmeis to provide documentation of changes in environmentalquality due to long-range transported air pollutants.Modelling applications such as this clearly show that thedata fill this purpose.     

Quantitative approaches to the analysis of stable isotope food web data

Ecologists use stable isotopes (delta13C, delta15N) to better understand food webs and explore trophic interactions in ecosystems. Traditionally, delta13C vs. delta15N bi-plots have been used to describe food web structure for a single time period or ecosystem. Comparisons of food webs across time and space are increasing, but development of statistical approaches for testing hypotheses regarding food web change has lagged behind. Here we present statistical methodologies for quantitatively comparing stable isotope food web data. We demonstrate the utility of circular statistics and hypothesis tests for quantifying directional food web differences using two case studies: an arthropod salt marsh community across a habitat gradient and a freshwater fish community from Lake Tahoe, USA, over a 120-year time period. We calculated magnitude and mean angle of change (theta) for each species in food web space using mean delta13C and delta15N of each species as the x, y coordinates. In the coastal salt marsh, arthropod consumers exhibited a significant shift toward dependence on Spartina, progressing from a habitat invaded by Phragmites to a restored Spartina habitat. In Lake Tahoe, we found that all species from the freshwater fish community shifted in the same direction in food web space toward more pelagic-based production with the introduction of nonnative Mysis relicta and onset of cultural eutrophication. Using circular statistics to quantitatively analyze stable isotope food web data, we were able to gain significant insight into patterns and changes in food web structure that were not evident from qualitative comparisons. As more ecologists incorporate a food web perspective into ecosystem analysis, these statistical tools can provide a basis for quantifying directional food web differences from standard isotope data.     

Relationship between body zinc concentration and allometric growth measurements in the mussel Mytilus edulis

The frequency distribution of shell lengths in the mussels Mytilus edulis (L.) taken from a site in the Tyne Estuary (UK) in summer, 1980, typically displayed a bimodal shape, with a small peak in the 8 to 20 mm size range and a much broader peak in the 22 to 50 mm region. A collection of mussels was made consisting of two groups, one from each of the above size peaks. The group of larger mussels had a significantly higher mean zinc concentration than the group of smaller mussels, mainly because a few large individuals had very high zinc concentrations. The ratios of shell width:height, width:length and length:height were also significantly higher in larger mussels. However, the ratio of flesh dry wt:shell dry wt (flesh condition) was lower in larger individuals. The whole soft tissue zinc concentration was positively correlated with width:height and width:length, but negatively correlated with flesh wt:shell wt. It was concluded that allometric ratios may provide an attractive alternative to simple size characteristics as a basis for trace metal determinations, particularly in a comparison of metal levels in mussel populations from widely differing habitats where absolute size is a poor indicator of age or growth rate.Contribution No. 1221 of the Center for Estuarine and Environmental Studies of the University of Maryland     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) dispersion and deposition to vegetation and soil following a large scale chemical fire

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined in soil and vegetation following a large scale chemical fire involving 10,000 ton of polypropylene. In comparison with sites outside the plume from the fire, PAH concentrations were elevated in grass shoots (by up to 70-fold) and in soil (by up to 370-fold). The pattern of PAH dispersion under the plume was dependent on the physical-chemical properties of individual PAHs. The lighter, least hydrophobic PAHs were dispersed into the environment at greater distances than heavier, more hydrophobic PAHs. At the most distant sampling point (4.5 km) under the plume, the low molecular weight PAHs were still considerably elevated in vegetation samples compared to control sites. Dispersion appeared to be regulated by the compounds partitioning between the vapour and particulate phase, with dry particulate deposition occurring closer to the fire source than gaseous deposition. For all PAHs, the fire resulted in greater contamination of soils compared to grasses, with the relative ratio of plant/soil contamination decreasing as hydrophobicity increased.     

Greenhouse gas emissions from Canadian peat extraction, 1990-2000: a life-cycle analysis

This study uses life-cycle analysis to examine the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the Canadian peat industry for the period 1990-2000. GHG exchange is estimated for land-use change, peat extraction and processing, transport to market, and the in situ decomposition of extracted peat. The estimates, based on an additive GHG accounting model, show that the peat extraction life cycle emitted 0.54 x 10(6) t of GHG in 1990, increasing to 0.89 x 10(6) t in 2000 (expressed as CO2 equivalents using a 100-y time horizon). Peat decomposition associated with end use was the largest source of GHGs, comprising 71% of total emissions during this 11-y period. Land use change resulted in a switch of the peatlands from a GHG sink to a source and contributed an additional 15%. Peat transportation was responsible for 10% of total GHG emissions, and extraction and processing contributed 4%. It would take approximately 2000 y to restore the carbon pool to its original size if peatland restoration is successful and the cutover peatland once again becomes a net carbon sink.