Retrofitting residential building envelopes for energy efficiency: motivations of individual homeowners in Israel

The willingness of private individuals in Israel to invest in energy-saving retrofit of the envelope of residential buildings was studied by means of a survey. Responses show that awareness of the need to conserve energy is high, but that willingness to participate in a retrofit project is modest and is limited to relatively small outlays. The decision on whether to retrofit at all, and then how much to invest in the project, is characterized as a two-stage process in which different factors may affect the outcome of each of the two stages. The major barrier to building retrofit is the perception (justified, in most cases) that the direct economic benefit to the homeowner from the resulting energy saving is small, and that given Israel's relatively mild climate, the payback period is very long. The stamp of approval provided by a government subsidy of 25% would have a large non-proportional effect on willingness to undertake building retrofit. Funding for the subsidy could be obtained from a Pigovian levy on electricity, applied for a limited period, and its environmental benefits outweigh the cost of the subsidy itself.     

Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US regions

It has been argued that regional collaboration can facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts through integrated planning and management. In an attempt to understand the underlying institutional factors that either support or contest this assumption, this paper explores the institutional factors influencing adaptation to climate change at the regional scale, where multiple public land and natural resource management jurisdictions are involved. Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. We propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels, be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by rapid climate change.     

国内外低碳物流研究评析

随着全球化的气候问题日益严重和“低碳革命”的兴起,低碳物流已成为现代物流业发展的必然趋势.结合国内外学者对低碳物流的研究文献,从物流过程的碳排放测量、物流环节的低碳控制、物流系统的低碳设计方面系统回顾了国内外学者在低碳物流领域的研究成果,梳理了低碳物流的发展历程,并对现有的研究成果进行了分析,以期为相关学者的后续研究提供思路.     

On reducing the windfall profits in environmental subsidy programs

Investment subsidies are widely used to induce adoption of new technologies that can lower the (marginal) cost of reducing emissions. To economize on these subsidies, governments would like to distinguish between firms that need to receive a subsidy to adopt a new technology, and firms that would adopt that technology even without subsidies. We show that policies consisting of a menu of emission taxes and investment subsidies can potentially induce firms to self-select.     

试论应收账款的管理

应收账款是单位一项重要的流动资产,如何对应收账款进行有效的控制,不仅关系到单位的营运资金,更关系到单住的经济效益．笔者首先论述了对应收账款的基本认识,在对应收账款特性认识的基础上,分析了应收账款形成的各种原因,并对形成原因进行了总结和分类,针对应收账款的形成原因,提出了如何加强单位应收账款管理的一些思考与对策．参5．     

Parental risk perceptions of childhood pedestrian road safety

Problem: Pedestrian injury is a major hazard to the health of children in most developed countries, including Australia. In a previous study it was found that parental road risk perception is a significant factor associated with their modeling of safe behavior as pedestrians. This study aimed to investigate factors that affect parental road risk perception. Method: This cross-sectional population-based randomized telephone survey aimed to study factors associated with risk perception on pedestrian road safety among parents with young children aged 4–12 years. Results: Five factors were found to be significantly associated with parental risk perception. They included age of child, sex of parent, employment of parent, living environment, and previous injury experience. The results suggested that the age of the child contributed greatest to the variance explained by the regression model. However, other factors remained significant even after adjusting for each other. Discussion: Results were discussed in light of the design and development of childhood pedestrian road safety campaigns. Impact on industry: Parental risk perceptions determine their safe road modeling behavior. In this study, significant factors that affect parental road risk perception have been identified. The information obtained can be used in the design of road safety programs that aim at changing the road risk perception of parents.     

危险辨识方法的研究

介绍了一种新的危险辨识方法 ,应用该方法可以系统地发现潜在的事故序列、事故的起始事件以及相应控制系统的薄弱环节 ,为进一步的风险分析奠定基础     

USING CLIMATE FORECASTS FOR WATER MANAGEMENT: ARIZONA AND THE 1997–1998 EL NIÑO1

ABSTRACT: Unrelenting pressure on limited surface water supplies requires increasingly sophisticated water management approaches. Climate forecasts of seasonal precipitation and temperature are potentially useful, but the operational water management community currently underutilizes them. However, some agencies in Arizona took unprecedented advantage of forecasts for a potentially wet winter during the 1997–1998 El Niño event. This study investigates use of this information through a series of semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with key personnel from agencies responsible for emergency management and water supply; their jurisdictions ranged from urban to rural and local to regional. Interviews investigated information acquisition, interpretation, and incorporation into specific decisions and actions. While unprecedented actions were taken by some water management agencies and no agencies implemented inappropriate measures, some missed opportunities for more effective response, primarily through inaction. This study reveals a variety of technical factors and institutional characteristics affecting forecast use. Study findings emphasize the need for: (a) closer ongoing relationships between forecast producers and users, (b) increased institutional flexibility to exploit the increasing skill of seasonal climate forecasts, (c) demonstration projects of effective forecast use, and (d) a regional forum to facilitate information transfer between the hydro‐climatic research community and operational water managers.     

TOWARDS CHARACTERIZING AND PLANNTNG FOR DROUGHT IN VERMONT‐PART II: POLICY IMPLICATIONS1

ABSTRACT: Vermont is one of approximately half a dozen states for which no official drought mitigation plan exists. Given the recurring nature of this natural hazard, current contingency measures should be expanded upon into a coherent mitigation framework. The types of drought and impacts resulting from the 1998 to 1999 event were the focus of a previous article in this volume. The present article builds on the understanding of drought characteristics specific to the Vermont context and introduces the rationale behind a proposed drought planning framework. Pivotal organizations and institutions that should be involved in this process are also presented.     

Forging New Directions in Science and Environmental Politics and Policy: How Can Co-operation, Deliberation and Decision be Brought Together?

Science, politics and environmental policy have for several years been encountering social and institutional as well as scientific challenges, national and international. The normative basis of all sciences is pressurised from three sides: by awareness of the public, who claims more transparency and sensibility from the scientific institutions regarding factual or possible impacts of science-based industrial progress; by the industries, which try to speed up and intensify the industrialisation of knowledge; and by the public policies, which want to see the sciences engaged in ways to mitigate unintended consequences of economic, ecological and social developments. At the same time, environmental policy is undergoing a tremendous sea change both in conceptual and practical matters. Since the Brundtland Report in 1987 and accelerated after UNCED 1992, environmental policy has been struggling to become a groundbreaking new paradigm for the capacity of resolving social and political issues as well. Any successful attempt to alter traditional institutional and mental structures in policy-making toward sustainability presupposes a renewed association of co-operation, deliberation and decision making. Results from theory of democracy, studies in science and technology, and evaluation studies in environmental policy and politics can be utilised for this context.