684 research outputs found
FINANCING COMMUNITY FACILITIES: A CASE STUDY OF THE PARKS AND RECREATIONAL GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND MEASURE OF SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
No full textThis study of the City of San Jose’s Parks and Recreation General Obligation (GO) Bond Measure seeks to identify the politics-, management-, and planning-related lessons learned by the City as it developed its community facilities using the GO bonds proceeds. The study finds that these lessons include: be conservative in what you promise the residents; be prepared for changes in economic environment by identifying supplementary funding sources should the primary source not yield adequate funds; make sure that the jurisdiction is organizationally capable of handling the increased workload; and prepare detailed project plans prior to the bond issuance.Community Infrastructure and Services; Municipal Bonds; Public Finance
Marine protection dividend
No full textAs the NSW government considers marine management reforms, this report finds that marine parks already provide significant economic benefits, but it is too early to judge their environmental effectiveness.This short paper presents compelling evidence that: NSW marine parks are already delivering clear and demonstrable economic benefits for local communities and businesses.The protected areas must be allowed to exist for a minimum of 15 years before they can be judged as to their effectiveness.Community support for marine parks and the sanctuary zones within them, is very high around the more established reserves. NSW marine parks are all relatively young. The oldest NSW marine parks are barely 11 years old and the youngest only six. In ecological terms, these parks are still in their infancy. Yet marine parks are already providing economic dividends to local communities, by attracting significant tourism. The establishment of the Solitary Island Marine Park, for example, saw a 20% increase in local business’s turnover in the first five years. Jervis Bay Marine Park has brought an estimated $2.4 million into the region through marine tourism. “Marine parks have become essential infrastructure for regional economies. As long as investment in the parks is maintained, benefits will continue to increase over years and even decades,” said report author Caroline Hoisington. Recreational and commercial fishing also benefit from marine parks, particularly sanctuary zones, where fishing is restricted. European studies have shown that for each year a sanctuary zone is in place, the number and/or size of commercially valuable fish increased by 8 per cent compared to surrounding fished areas. Benefits flow when these fish spill over into surrounding areas. “Local community support for sanctuary zones is 80 per cent or higher, in the three marine parks where opinions have been surveyed”, Caroline said. “The numbers are no different for recreational fishers.” Recreational fishing may also see bigger and better catches immediately, as competition from commercial fishing is reduced. However, sustainable fish stock management must also take account of recreational fishing, which makes up as much as 90 per cent of the catch for some NSW species. The report recommends the NSW Government set 15 years after zoning as the earliest point for making judgments about the impacts and environmental effectiveness of marine parks. Improvements in biodiversity, biomass and resilience of fish species will continue to take place after this time. The first fifteen years is not the end of benefits from marine parks, but is just enough time to show big changes. By contrast, decisions based on short-term assessments risk being driven by emotional reactions, rather than taking a balanced view based on evidence of the dividends that will continue to flow from marine parks
Discussion on "Performance analysis of Wells turbine blades using the entropy generation minimization method" by Shehata, A. S., Saqr, K. M., Xiao, Q., Shahadeh, M. F. and Day, A.
No full textThis paper presents a critical appraisal of the paper “Performance analysis of Wells turbine blades using the entropy generation minimization method” by Shehata, A. S., Saqr, K. M., Xiao, Q., Shahadeh, M. F. and Day, A., published in Renewable Energy, volume 86, pp. 1123–1133. The discussion focuses in particular on five aspects of the work being critiqued: the set-up of the numerical experiment, the similarity of the problem studied with the large existing literature on oscillating airfoils, the estimation of entropy generation through the numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations, the equivalence between entropy and drag, and finally a comparison of the results presented with existing literature. From this appraisal, it is concluded that the problem studied is not representative of a Wells turbine and that the article contains a number of fundamental errors that lead to incorrect results. These mistakes would have been evident had the results been analyzed critically and compared to the existing literature on the subject. If the results had been presented in non-dimensional form, as best practice recommends, they would have been more readily comparable to those in existing literature and important discrepancies might not have been obscured
Protected area visitor data collection and management: Emerging issues and gaps in current Australian practices
No full textProtected area agencies are charged with the preservation, conservation and management of areas including wilderness, national parks and forests. These agencies are faced with increasing visitor numbers and decreasing budgets at a time where activities like tourism have to be managed alongside their traditional roles as natural resource managers. This paper reports on the outcomes of the first stage of a research project that seeks to guide a nationally consistent approach to visitor use data collection for protected area agencies. First, the paper provides a background literature review of approaches to visitor use data collection for protected area agencies. Second, the paper outlines the participatory action research approach used in the study where thirteen protected area agencies are collaborators in the research process. This approach ensures that the protected areas agencies data needs are central to the research outcomes and recognises the pragmatic organisational cultural issues associated with visitor data collection, management and use. The research process incorporates organisational networking at all levels from head office, regions, branches and individual parks involving management information systems, interviews, focus groups, presentations, briefings and follow-up contact. Third, the paper then presents the emergent themes that examine the issues and gaps in current visitor data collection, management and use systems. The paper concludes with discussion of the challenges to developing a national system of visitor data collection and use
Recommended from our members
The use of reduced-moderation light water reactors for transuranic isotope burning in thorium fuel
No full textLight water reactors (LWRs) are the world’s dominant nuclear reactor system. Uranium (U)-fuelled LWRs produce long-lived transuranic (TRU) isotopes. TRUs can be recycled in LWRs or fast reactors. The thermal neutron spectrum in LWRs is less suitable for burning TRUs as this causes a build-up of TRU isotopes with low fission probability. This increases the fissile feed requirements, which tends to result in a positive void coefficient (VC) and hence the reactor is unsafe to operate. Use of reduced-moderation LWRs can improve TRU transmutation performance, but the VC is still severely limiting for these designs. Reduced-moderation pressurized water reactors (RMPWRs) and boiling water reactors (RBWRs) are considered in this study.
Using thorium (Th) instead of U as the fertile fuel component can greatly improve the VC. However, Th-based transmutation is a much less developed technology than U-based transmutation. In this thesis, the feasibility and fuel cycle performance of full TRU recycle in Th-fuelled RMPWRs and RBWRs are evaluated. Neutronic performance is greatly improved by spatial separation of TRU and 233-6U, primarily implemented here using heterogeneous RMPWR and RBWR assembly designs.
In a RMPWR, the water to fuel ratio must be reduced to around 50% of the normal value to allow full actinide recycle. If implemented by retrofitting an existing PWR, steady-state thermal-hydraulic constraints can still be satisfied. However, in a large break loss-of-coolant accident, the emergency core cooling system may not be able to provide water to the core quickly enough to prevent fuel cladding failure. A discharge burn-up of ~40 GWd/t is possible in RMPWRs. Reactivity control is a challenge due to the reduced worth of neutron absorbers in the hard neutron spectrum, and their detrimental effect on the VC, especially when diluted, as for soluble boron. Control rods are instead used to control the core. It appears possible to achieve adequate power peaking, shutdown margin and rod-ejection accident response.
In RBWRs, it appears neutronically feasible to achieve very high burn-ups (~120 GWd/t) but the maximum achievable incineration rate is less than in RMPWRs. The reprocessing and fuel fabrication requirements of RBWRs are less than RMPWRs but more than fast reactors. A two-stage TRU burning cycle, where the first stage is Th-Pu MOX in a conventional PWR feeding a second stage continuous burn in a RBWR, is technically reasonable. It is possible to limit the core area to that of an ABWR with acceptable thermal-hydraulic performance. In this case, it appears that RBWRs are of similar cost to inert matrix incineration in LWRs, and lower cost than RMPWRs and Th- and U-based fast reactor recycle schemes
A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach to the Assessment of Natural Parks’ Economic Efficiency and Sustainability. The Case of Italian National Parks
No full textWilderness protection is a growing necessity for modern societies, and this is particularly true for areas where population density is extremely high, as for example Europe. Conservation, however, implies very high opportunity costs. It is thus crucial to create incentives to efficient management practices, to promote benchmarking and to improve conservation management. In the present paper we propose a methodology based on Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA, a non parametric benchmarking technique specifically developed to assess the relative efficiency of decision-making units. In particular, the objective of the discussed methodology is to assess the relative efficiency of the management units of the protected area and to indicate how it could be improved, by providing a set of guidelines. The main advantage of this methodology is that it allows to assess the efficiency of natural parks’ management not only internally (comparing the performance of the park to itself in time) but also by external benchmarking, thus providing new and different perspectives on potential improvements. Although the proposed methodology is fairly general, we have applied it to the context of Italian National Parks in order to produce a representative case study. Specifically, the choice of adequate cost and benefit indicators is a very important and delicate phase of any benchmark analysis. For this purpose, a questionnaire was used to investigate the opinions of Italian National Parks managers and stakeholders and to define the relevant indicators for the analysis. Finally, relevant policy implications for the case study are given.Data envelopment analysis, Natural park management
Acceleration of energy cooperation implementation on Dutch business parks in congested areas: A comparative multilple case analysis
No full textThe Dutch energy transition is alive and kicking, however problems arise because of this same transition. Transmission grid congestion is one of them, whereby the grid cannot handle all the extra electricity from wind and solar power, combined with the extra demand due to electrification. Furthermore, business parks have a large potential for emission reduction of the Netherlands, but this potential is not harvested yet. Sustainable energy measures for individual businesses are hindered by the congestion problems, but cooperative solutions could offer a way out. Currently, not much is known about how to implement energy cooperation solutions on business parks in congested areas, and with the help of interviews with relevant stakeholders, insights on existing barriers, drivers and solutions will be gathered. Relevant stakeholders consist of business owners, park managers, grid operators and experts. Ultimately, with the findings from this qualitative data collection, a methodology will be designed to help developers of energy cooperation projects to accelerate the implementation of such projects.Management of Technology (MoT
How to research the history of a house
No full textThe State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for the evaluation and approval of areas, sites, structures and objects for inclusion in the New Jersey State Register of Historic Places. The register, kept by DEP's Division of Parks and Forestry, Office of Historic Preservation, is a permanent record of properties, both private and public, that are determined to have significant historical, archeological, architectural or cultural merit.
As an aid tp the amateur historian in preparing accurate information on prospective candidates to the register, the Office of Historic Preservation has written the following guidelines
Dostoevsky's traditions in the novel “Doctor Faustus” by T. Mann
No full textThis paper makes analyses of the different research points of the Dostoevsky's traditions in the novel “Doctor Faustus” by T. Mann . On this case, Reception of ideas of F. Dostoevsky's in the novel “Doctor Faustus” by T. Mann . Finally, conclusions of the author done to make further analyses on the topic
- …
