The “Seili-index” for the Prediction of Chlorophyll-α Levels in the Archipelago Sea of the northern Baltic Sea,southwest Finland

Environmental Modeling & Assessment - To build a forecasting tool for the state of eutrophication in the Archipelago Sea, we fitted a Generalized Additive Mixed Model (GAMM) to marine...     

Seasonal comparison of moss bag technique against vertical snow samples for monitoring atmospheric pollution

This is the first study seasonally applying Sphagnum papillosum moss bags and vertical snow samples for monitoring atmospheric pollution.Moss bags,exposed in January,were collected together with snow samples by early March 2012 near the Harjavalta Industrial Park in southwest Finland.Magnetic,chemical,scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(SEM-EDX),K-means clustering,and Tomlinson pollution load index(PLI)data showed parallel spatial trends of pollution dispersal for both materials.Results strengthen previous findings that concentrate and slag handling activities were important(dust)emission sources while the impact from Cu–Ni smelter's pipe remained secondary at closer distances.Statistically significant correlations existed between the variables of snow and moss bags.As a summary,both methods work well for sampling and are efficient pollutant accumulators.Moss bags can be used also in winter conditions and they provide more homogeneous and better controlled sampling method than snow samples.     

Policy innovation for technology diffusion: a case-study of Japanese renewable energy public support programs

Due to local scarcity of fossil fuel reserves, deployment of renewable energy has been on the Japanese government energy policy agenda for decades. While a significant amount of government budget was being allocated to renewables Research and Development, in contrast very little attention was paid to public support for renewable energy deployment. Against this background, in 2003, the Japanese government enacted legislation based on the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) scheme, which requires electricity retailers to supply a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources to grid consumers. The RPS legislation had been expected to ensure market efficiency, as well as bringing a steady increase in renewable capacity. Later, in 2009, the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme was introduced to let electricity utilities purchase electricity generated from renewable energy sources with regulated prices. This paper aims to use the choice of renewable policy as a case-study to understand barriers for policy transfer and innovation, mainly through comparative studies between RPS and FIT in Japan. The result of this study shows that, in Japan, most policy-makers face the ‘lock-in’ of existing technology, which frustrates the deployment of renewable energy. For this reason, there is reluctance to allow experimentation that could promote a shift to other energy sources. In order to achieve the rapid change towards green industry, innovation policy needs to be implemented through effective and efficient methods, such as a carbon tax for fossil fuels; enlargement of renewable energy deployment to sources such as wind, geothermal and solar; and conducting further studies toward public preference and willingness to pay for the new clean energy sources.     

Optimizing hurricane disaster relief goods distribution: model development and application with respect to planning strategies

Over the last few years, hurricane emergencies have been among the most pervasive major disruptions in the United States, particularly in the south‐east region of the country. A key aspect of managing hurricane disasters involves logistical planning to facilitate the distribution and transportation of relief goods to populations in need. This study shows how a variant of the capacitated warehouse location model can be used to manage the flow of goods shipments to people in need. In this application, the model is used with protocols set forth in Florida's Comprehensive Emergency Plan and tested in a smaller city in north Florida. Scenarios explore the effects of alternate goods distribution strategies on the provision of disaster relief. Results show that measures describing people's accessibility to relief goods are affected by the distribution infrastructure used to provide relief, as well as assumptions made regarding the population(s) assumed to be in need of aid.