A binational, supply-side evaluation for managing water quality and invasive fouling species on California's coastal boats

Integrated solutions are needed for sustainable management of risks posed by recreational boats to coastal water quality and ecosystems. Fouling organisms roughen vessel hull surfaces, creating friction that slows sailboats and increases fuel consumption by powerboats. Hull fouling control strategies for recreational boats that are stored in the water may include antifouling hull paints, newer alternative hull coatings, periodic in-water hull cleaning, and excluding propagules by surrounding the boat with a slip liner or raising it above water on a lift. Copper discharged to harbor waters from antifouling paints via passive leaching and in-water hull cleaning may elevate dissolved copper levels above government standards. Invasive species carried among boat-hull fouling organisms may be introduced as boats move among coastal areas. Some of these species tolerate copper in antifouling paints and copper-polluted harbor waters. Policy development must consider supply-side capacity, as well as economic and environmental sustainability, in managing these issues. This paper presents a supply-side evaluation useful in developing policies to co-manage water quality and invasive species risks for recreational boats navigating along the coasts of California, the Baja California peninsula and California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Supply-side perspectives on services, materials, costs, and boat owner behaviors, such as residence and travel patterns, awareness of hull-coating choices and selection of hull coatings, are determined. Analyses include evaluation of risks, risk management capacity and costs, and role of education in risk management. The issues raised are broadly applicable, as they are appearing on research and policy agendas in diverse coastal areas.     

Benefits, efforts and risks of participants in landscape co-management: an analytical framework and results from two case studies in Austria

Participatory processes in general and also in relation to managing landscape issues are gathering importance mostly due to arguments surrounding legitimacy and effectiveness in decision-making. The main aim of this research, based on a transaction costs perspective, is to present an integrated analytical framework in order to determine individual efforts (time, money), benefits and risks of participants in landscape co-management processes. Furthermore a reflection on the analytical approach developed and arising lessons to be learned for landscape co-management are presented. In the analytical framework benefit-components comprise of factors such as 'contributing to landscape maintenance/development and nature protection', 'representing one's interest group', 'co-deciding on relevant topics', 'providing and broadening one's knowledge' and 'building networks'. The risks of participation are related to a lack of information and agreements, missing support and actual decision-making power. The analytical framework is applied to two case studies in Austria: an EU LIFE-Nature project and a Cultural Landscape Project of the Provincial Government of Lower Austria. Analysis of the effort-benefit-relations provides an indication for a more effective design of co-management. Although the processes are rated as quite adequate, there is a low willingness of participants to commit additional time to co-management processes. In contrast to the Cultural Landscape Project, in the LIFE-Nature project, professionally involved persons participate next to partly and full volunteers. These uneven conditions of participation and an unfair distribution of transaction costs, jeopardize the promising chances co-management bears for landscape governance.     

Simulating Direct and Indirect Damages to Commercial Fisheries from Marine Sand Mining: A Case Study in Korea

Rapid growth in marine sand mining for construction and other uses poses environmental challenges to coastal nations virtually worldwide. Yet the development of management policies, such as a system of fees imposed on operators for damage caused by mining, has been frustrated by a lack of studies to support such measures. Adapting a Beverton-Holt bioeconomic model, this paper attempts to contribute to the estimation of external costs to commercial fisheries due to marine mining. Using the major mining area of Ongjin in Korea as a case study, we estimate economic losses in use value of commercial fisheries through the time to recovery of the injured resource stocks. Present value of lost catch over a 1-year period from mining to resource recovery is estimated at $38,851 for a single “prototype” mining site. Estimated cumulative damages due to recurring mining for 5 and 10 years are $1.5 million and $2.2 million, respectively, at 20 mining sites. Sensitivity analyses are used to examine the effects of alternative assumptions to assess the many sources of uncertainty. Using a form of meta-analysis, dose-response information is used to assess the excess mortality the mining sediment plume has on eggs and larvae and, ultimately, on the value of lost catch ($841). Also addressed is the importance of specifying the appropriate “premining” conditions against which to assess environmental losses at the mining site. Damages estimated with premining fish populations are $23,066 higher than is the case using postmining conditions. Overall, the illustrative results suggest the variety of complex conditions which influence damage to fisheries from mining and which can benefit from further study to improve management guidelines. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Competition and group size in Thomas’s langurs (Presbytis thomasi): the folivore paradox revisited

Among primates, group size is highly variable. The standard ecological model assumes that better predation avoidance as group size increases favours living in larger groups, whereas increased travel costs and reduced net food intake due to within-group competition for resources set the upper limit. Folivorous primates, however, tend to defy this generalisation in that some live in small groups despite low costs of feeding competition. To resolve this ’folivore paradox’, it has been suggested that folivore group size is limited by social factors such as male harassment or infanticide, or that females can disperse more easily and thus maintain group size near optimum levels. In this paper, we examine the effects of group size on home range size, day-journey length, activity budget and diet in wild Thomas’s langurs (Presbytis thomasi), which live in one-male multi-female groups with a limited life cycle. We examined only data from the stable middle tenure phase when factors such as the strength of the breeding male or the way in which groups were formed did not influence ranging and activities. During this phase, group size affected day-journey length and home range size, and had a minor effect on diet, but did not influence time spent feeding or resting, allogrooming or birth rates. Hence the upper limit to group size during the middle tenure phase in Thomas’s langurs is not set by feeding competition. The folivore paradox is not due to frequent female dispersal in Thomas’s langurs. The timing of female dispersal is not as expected if it serves to keep group sizes near the ecological optimum, and groups seem to be below this optimum. Instead, female reproductive success is presumably maximised in small to mid-sized groups because larger groups show a clear trend to experience higher risk of take-over, often accompanied by infanticide. Because females can redistribute themselves among nearby groups when groups reorganise each time a new male starts up a new group, females can keep the group small. Thus, a social factor, risk of infanticide, seems to provide the selective advantage to small group size in Thomas’s langurs. Received: 29 July 1999 / Revised: 17 November 1999 / Accepted: 15 October 2000     

A Transactions Cost Approach to the Theoretical Foundations of Water Markets1

Abstract: Water marketing is often cited as a means of alleviating the stresses attached to allocation of water use. Frequently, marketing is suggested in a context that implies substitution of competitive markets for the allocation based on the prior appropriation doctrine. This study examines water marketing from the perspective of a transactions cost approach to the private and broad social agreements (contracts) that support water allocation. It examines the major behavioral challenges faced by any contract, and the alternative approaches to those challenges, with respect to water allocation. It also examines the impact of market design on the existence of externalities, costs imposed by transactions on society and individuals not party to the transaction. It finds that the most robust water market designs will be found in systems with sufficient property rights protection to support investment, sufficient hydrologic information to provide accurate analysis of third party effects, conjunctive management of surface and groundwater, and a governance structure capable of administering the rules while not determining outcomes.     

绿色经济视角下环渤海经济圈经济效率的再评价——基于熵权法和DEA—Malmquist方法

长期以传统GDP作为衡量经济发展的单一评价指标,造成了一系列环境问题,已不能满足科学发展观的要求。以绿色经济为视角,通过计量方法重新计算包含环境成本的相对绿色GDP,发现环渤海地区除北京市以外,在经济总量扩张的同时环境压力不断增加。将计算得到的相对绿色GDP作为DEA—Malmquist模型的产出指标,重新评价环渤海地区的经济效率,发现新的效率值明显低于传统GDP下的经济效率,并有不断下降的趋势。     

CO2减排潜能和基于边际成本的补偿制度

提出了一种基于CO2排放强度的减排潜能计算方法,根据该方法对我国29个省、直辖市、自治区（不含新疆和西藏）未来减排潜能进行了分析.同时,采用麻省理工学院开发的RPPA模型对我国各个省、直辖市、自治区减排边际成本进行了计算,基于该减排边际成本,提出了省际间CO2补偿制度,并对补偿主体、补偿客体、补偿金额和补偿制度运行提出了建议,以期为我国发展低碳经济,促进各省区公平、协调发展提供借鉴.     

环境成本的内在化问题

环境成本是指人类经济活动引起的环境损失。主流经济学认为，外部性与产权是产生环境污染的经济根源，减少环境成本的实质是通过一定的手段将环境成本内在化。不同的治理手段具有不同的治理成本，一般而言，经济手段具有更高的经济效率和较低的成本，但管制手段也有其存在的意义。解决我国的环境成本问题需要树立生态经济协调发展模式，让企业成为污染治理的主体，建立环境补偿机制等。     

External cost internalisation of urban transport: a case study of Dublin

Transport users do not currently pay all costs associated with their transport activities and in particular do not pay the costs they impose on the environment. Case studies on Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels and London have been conducted to evaluate how best to meet the requirement of the European Commission in its fair and efficient pricing aims in the transport sector, i.e. where transport users are made to pay all costs they impose. The paper presents the results of Do Nothing (DN) and Do Something (DS) scenarios for 2005 where in the latter case each transport user pays for all costs they impose including pollution, noise, accidents etc. The Dublin results, from an economics model used in the study, are examined in detail; the findings are compared with those of parallel studies conducted in the other cities to demonstrate the international relevance of this work. The comparison between the DN and DS scenarios indicates that taxes on all transport modes should be increased substantially, particularly in the morning and evening peak periods. As a result of the price increases, travel demand is reduced. A practical example where transport users could be made to pay for all their costs is road use pricing, i.e. charging individuals for the use of road space. The taxation levels suggested in the DS scenario have been used in a road use pricing trial in Dublin, the results of which were published in O'Mahony, Geraghty and Humphreys (Transportation 27, 269-283, 2000), to see if the reductions in the travel requirements of individuals proposed by the economics model are in fact true. The principles of the work presented in this paper are not only relevant to environmental impact management in the transport sector but can also be applied to other sectors.     

COST COMPARISON BETWEEN CESSPOOL AND SANITARY SEWERAGE SYSTEMS IN SAUDI URBAN AREAS1

ABSTRACT: Extensive use is made of on-site wastewater disposal systems of cesspools due to the absence of a sanitary sewerage system in Saudi urban areas. This system has caused the groundwater table to rise to a public nuisance level. A health risk has also evolved. There are several infrastructural, environmental, and social impacts from this, resulting in great financial losses. Examples are: surface water flooding, damage to foundations of buildings and asphalt street pavements, flooded basements and added construction costs required for excavation, dewatering, insulation materials, and special cements. Most of these costs are indirectly being paid by the private and public sectors. This study compares the estimated costs of damage and losses with the estimated costs of building, operating, and maintaining sanitary sewerage systems in the cesspool-served areas. The annual cost of the cesspool system, depending on the severity of the adverse impacts, ranges from 2.2 to 4.4 times the annual cost of the sanitary sewerage system. Remedies for these impacts are very expensive, and delays in the implementation of the sanitary sewerage facility will make the damage recovery more expensive, and in some cases, impossible. Thus, it is recommended that highest priority to be given to the sanitary sewerage systems in Saudi urban areas.