Price Determination and Efficiency in the Market for South Platte Basin Ditch Company Shares

Water scarcity presents an obstacle to economic development in the western United States. Water rights markets help improve water allocation, allowing states to derive the highest economic benefit from available resources, and supporting new uses and economic development. However, the implicit (marginal) prices of water rights attributes are uncertain. To address this problem, we apply econometric analysis to a unique dataset to estimate the implicit values that market participants place on the attributes of shares of ditch company water rights in Colorado's South Platte River Basin. Our analysis demonstrates that ditch company share buyers value proximity of water diversion, reliability of water deliveries, and temporal flexibility of water use. To assess reliability we introduce the use of the coefficient of variation to capture, in one variable, the randomness of supply from ditch company shares that are not a single water right, but a portfolio of rights with different appropriation dates. Finally, we test and correct for spatial autocorrelation for the first time in a study of water market prices.     

Assessing energy use and greenhouse gas emission savings from compact housing: a small-town case study

Data from the US Department of Energy show that single-family detached homes consume about 17% more energy per year than attached homes and roughly double that of units in large multi-family structures. While greater use of these compact housing types could reduce a community's energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, most local climate action plans (CAPs) do not quantify those potential savings. This article describes how the climate action planning process in the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia has addressed residential sector GHG emissions and demonstrates a methodology applied in that community for estimating potential GHG reductions from compact housing. It finds that in an aggressive compact housing scenario GHG emissions from new housing could be decreased by as much as 36%, without factoring in additional energy conservation or efficiency measures. The article concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges related to implementing compact housing in future residential development.     

Risk and the neoliberal state: why post-Mitch lessons didn't reduce El Salvador's earthquake losses

Although El Salvador suffered light losses from Hurricane Mitch in 1998, it benefited from the increased international aid and encouragement for advance planning, especially mitigation and prevention interventions. Thus, one would have supposed, El Salvador would have been in a very advantageous position, able more easily than its economically crippled neighbours, Honduras and Nicaragua, to implement the 'lessons of Mitch'. A review of the recovery plan tabled by the El Salvador government following the earthquakes of early 2001 shows that despite the rhetoric in favour of 'learning the lessons of Mitch', very little mitigation and prevention had actually been put in place between the hurricane (1998) and the earthquakes (2001). The recovery plan is analysed in terms of the degree to which it deals with root causes of disaster vulnerability, namely, the economic and political marginality of much of the population and environmental degradation. An explanation for the failure to implement mitigation and preventive actions is traced to the adherence by the government of El Salvador to an extreme form of neoliberal, free market ideology, and the deep fissures and mistrust in a country that follow a long and bloody civil war.     

General and particular observations on sheltering and housing in American disasters

After a survey of all the English language social science literature and a review of several case histories, the Disaster Research Center compiled a number of observations on sheltering and housing following sudden onset disasters which are summarized here. The study is aimed at increasing our knowledge of American peace-time disasters. The four different phases: emergency and temporary sheltering and emergency and temporary housing are defined and discussed. There seems to be little disaster planning and often the co-ordination of relief efforts is inefficient. It appears that communities could be better informed and that more research is necessary in order to understand and evaluate these phenomena properly. The paper points to areas which could be usefully investigated.     

Housing association and local authority provision in rural housing markets: a Mid‐Wales case study

Over the last decade or so, rural housing problems in Britain have become an important focus of attention both for researchers and planners. Inaccessibility to adequate housing is a significant component of the more all‐embracing problems of rural deprivation. The rented sector is of particular relevance to the amelioration of these problems, but the supply has been increasingly restricted both in the private and in the public sector. Great stress has therefore been laid on the ability of housing associations to provide rented sector housing. This paper investigates the work of one particular housing association in Mid‐Wales — Cymdeithas Tai Dyffryn Teifi (CTDT) and assesses the degree of complementarity achieved with housing provision by the local councils operating in the same rural locality. The particular areas of effectiveness of a housing association in this context are thereby evaluated.     

半轴套管内腔折叠产生原因及预防措施

分析了半轴套管成形过程中出现折叠的特点和形成原因 ,并根据折叠形成原因提出了相应的预防措施 ,从而解决了生产过程中存在的质量问题。     

中国城市化与城镇居民住房

随着住房制度改革的不断深入,我国城镇居民人均居住面积有所提高,居住水平有所改善。但是,中国城市化发展的特点很容易造成城镇居民居住水平提高的假象。本文分析了造成这些假象的原因。     

Project appraisal and planning for overdeveloped countries: II. Shadow pricing under uncertainty

In the uncertainty that surrounds the future availability of nonrenewable natural resources and the efficacy of technological advance, the economic costing of resources should be undertaken probabilistically. While optimistic assumptions entail little change from the costing procedures used in conventional cost-benefit analysis, even moderately pessimistic assumptions lead to a much increased cost for nonrenewable resources. These lead in turn to a reappraisal of the value of investment and of the cost ascribed to other factors of production. Even when optimistic assumptions are deemed the more plausible, a utility-maximizing evaluation may still give more emphasis to pessimism.     

The transformation of multi‐storey dwellings by self‐help: workers’ city,Helwan, Egypt

Self‐help extensions to government‐built housing are now accepted as a valuable addition to the housing stock in many third world countries. This paper describes self‐help extensions being made to five‐storey walk‐up flats in Helwan, Egypt, to provide more living space for households which have grown too large for the two rooms initially provided. It is argued that the cooperative effort and standard of construction are resulting in an acceptable new environment. Government response should be to encourage and guide such extensions wherever they occur.     

Adaptation of local building materials — a key to rapid housing development in Nigeria

There are some experts who are dealing with research on locally made materials for building in the Ministry of Housing and Works in Nigeria. It has been discovered in the Ministry that lateriate clays can be fired and used for building even two‐storey buildings depending on the firing and the pressure (Ogunbamwo, 1975). The Ministry has constructed a block of bungalows of low‐cost housing units with mud at Ikoyi, off Kingsway Road. No one will know that these houses are mud houses if not at closer inspection. Unfortunately, no effort has been made to continue or improve on this laudable adventure in Nigeria.