1,721,016 research outputs found
Tourism and recreation industries in the Baltic Sea area : How are they affected by the state of the marine environment? - An interview study
No full textThe tourism and recreation industries in the Baltic Sea area are likely to be dependent of the state of the marine environment. This report presents the results from an interview study conducted in the spring of 2008 with 87 representatives from different parts of these industries (mainly beach tourism, recreational fishing, boating, cruises and real estate agents) in all the Baltic Sea countries. The study constitutes subproject 8 in Economic Marine Information, a Swedish government assignment for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The main objective has been to obtain industry experts’ views on (1) if, and in that case, how the specific industry has been affected (or not affected) by marine environmental problems or improvements during the last three decades, and (2) how sensitive the specific industry is to potential changes in the marine environment in the future. The interview study has been carried out in collaboration with partners based in each of the nine Baltic Sea countries. Each partner has written a country report about the interviews. The most important results in these country reports have been collected into a short synthesis text, which also includes some general conclusions. This report contains this text, followed by the country reports as annexes. This is not a survey study in terms of the method for selecting interviewees. However, all interviews rely on the same basic questionnaire, a fact which allows for different comparisons and conclusions. One main conclusion from the interviews is that according to the interviewees, the tourism industries in the Baltic Sea countries are more or less unaffected by current marine environmental problems. The most important nuisance seems to be blue green algae blooms, an effect of eutrophication which reduces aesthetic and recreational values in beach and coastal areas across the Baltic Sea area. However, these algae blooms have not had any significant impact on bookings or profits in the industries so far. There are though strong indications, not least from Sweden, Finland and Denmark, that an increased frequency or duration of these blooms might cause very serious harm to the tourism industries, especially in the beach tourism sectors. In general, these three countries together with Germany show a higher dependence on the environmental state than Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, and the industry sectors most sensitive to different environmental issues seem to be beach tourism and recreational fishing. Three main explanations have been brought forward in the country reports to why the interviewees have responded that the environment is so far not a key factor for the businesses. (1) That the interviewees are uninformed about the causes and consequences of, for example, eutrophication. According to some interviewees, algae blooms are seen as a “natural” phenomenon, and are not viewed as an environmental problem. (2) That there is significant under capacity in the industry, which means that the demand is larger than the supply. This has the consequence that even if some people choose to go somewhere else for their vacation, the bookings are still full. This might mean that the consumers, not the producers, are the ones who bear the burden of environmental problems. (3) That the Baltic Sea environment is enough “ok” to not affect vacation choices to any large degree. No matter which of the reasons is true, the results from the interviews are important for policy making in the future, not the least to get a feeling for what the public opinion in different countries might look like. Except from the eutrophication issue, increased oil spill accidents make up a frightening scenario according to the responses. A major oil spill accident seems to be a complete disaster to tourism in the affected area. Regarding recreational fishery, the voices are raised uniformly that there has been a dramatic decrease in the cod stock in the Baltic Sea, and that the industrial trawlfisheries are mainly responsible for this. There have been many suggestions in the interviews to stop trawling for cod, since there are massive existence values in not extinguishing the stocks, and also since the economic value of having recreational fishermen catching cod instead of industrial fishery would be much greater. And also, quick actions would allow for more industrial cod fishery later on, which would be a gain to society. Another fish-related issue is small scale coastal commercial fishery. Many of the interviewees argue that activity in old fishery villages is crucial to tourism in the areas, and the ecological impact of this kind of fishery compared to, for example, trawling is negligible.Turism- och rekreationsbranscherna runt Östersjön är sannolikt beroende av havsmiljöns tillstånd. Den här rapporten presenterar resultaten från en intervjuundersökning genomförd under våren 2008 med 87 representanter från olika delar av branscherna (huvudsakligen verksamma inom strandturism, fritidsfiske, båtliv, kryssningsverksamhet samt fastighetsmarknaden) i samtliga länder runt Östersjön. Studien utgör delprojekt 8 i Economic Marine Information, som är ett uppdrag till Naturvårdsverket från Sveriges regering. Huvudmålet har varit att hämta in branschrepresentanternas uppfattning gällande (1) om, och i så fall hur respektive bransch har påverkats (eller inte påverkats) av problem eller förbättringar av havsmiljön under de senaste tre decennierna, samt (2) hur känslig respektive bransch är för möjliga framtida förändringar i havsmiljön. Intervjuundersökningen har genomförts tillsammans med samarbetspartners i vart och ett av de nio östersjöländerna. Varje partner har författat en landrapport kring intervjuerna. De viktigaste resultaten i landrapporterna har samlats till en sammanfattning, som även inkluderar några allmänna slutsatser. Rapporten innehåller denna sammanfattande text, följd av landrapporterna i form av bilagor. Detta är inte en vetenskaplig enkätundersökning vad gäller metoden för valet av målpopulation – urvalet har i denna studie inte varit slumpmässigt. Alla intervjuerna utgår dock från samma grundläggande frågeformulär, vilket möjliggör jämförelser och övergripande slutsatser. En huvudslutsats är att de intervjuade anser att turismen i Östersjöområdet idag är mer eller mindre opåverkad av de aktuella havsmiljöproblemen. Det viktigaste besväret tycks vara algblomningen, som är en följd av övergödningen. Algblomningen minskar estetiska värden och rekreationsvärden på stränder och kustområden runt Östersjön. Algblomningen har ännu inte gett någon större effekt på bokningar och vinster inom branschen, men det finns starka indikationer, inte minst från Sverige, Finland och Danmark, att en ökad frekvens eller varaktighet kan leda till mycket allvarliga problem för turistnäringen, i synnerhet inom strandturismsektorn. Rent allmänt är dessa tre länder tillsammans med Tyskland mer beroende av miljöns tillstånd än Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen och Ryssland, och de branscher som tycks vara mest känsliga för olika miljöfrågor verkar vara strandturismen och fritidsfisket. Tre huvudorsaker har förts fram i landrapporterna som förklaring till varför de intervjuade har svarat att miljön än så länge inte är en nyckelfaktor för de här turism- och rekreationsbranscherna. (1) Att de intervjuade är okunniga om till exempel övergödningens orsaker och följder. Enligt några av de intervjuade uppfattas algblomningar som ett ”naturligt” fenomen och de betraktas därför inte som ett miljöproblem. (2) Att det råder en betydande underkapacitet inom industrin, vilket innebär att efterfrågan är större än utbudet. Detta får som konsekvens att även om några människor väljer att åka någon annanstans på sin semester, så blir allting ändå fullbokat. Detta kan innebära att det är konsumenterna och inte producenterna som är den grupp som bär bördan av miljöproblemen. (3) Att östersjömiljön är tillräckligt ”ok” för att inte påverka semestervalen i någon större utsträckning. Oavsett vilka av de tre orsakerna som är sanna är svaren från de intervjuade viktiga för den framtida politiken, inte minst för att få en känsla för hur den allmänna opinionen i de olika länderna kan se ut. Förutom övergödningsfrågan är ökande oljeutsläppsolyckor ett skrämmande scenario enligt många av svaren. En större olycka med ett oljeutsläpp kan bli en fullständig katastrof för turismen inom det drabbade området. När det gäller fritidsfisket höjs röster unisont för att torskbeståndet har minskat dramatiskt i Östersjön och att det är det industriella trålfisket som har det största ansvaret för detta. Det har framkommit många rekommendationer i intervjuerna om att man bör sluta tråla efter torsk, eftersom det finns enorma existensvärden i att inte utarma beståndet, men även för att det skulle skapa ett mycket större ekonomiskt värde om man lät fritidsfiskarna fånga torsken istället för att låta den industriella fiskenäringen göra det. Ett snabbt agerande skulle ge utrymme för mer industriellt fiske senare, vilket skulle bli en vinst för samhället. En annan fiskerelaterad fråga rör det småskaliga kommersiella kustfisket. Många av de intervjuade menar att den här aktiviteten i de gamla fiskesamhällena är livsviktig för turismen i dessa områden och att de ekologiska konsekvenserna av detta slags fiske är försumbara jämfört med till exempel trålfisket.Rapporten är ursprungligen framtagen av Naturvårdverket men ansvaret har senare tagits över av Havs- och vattenmyndigheten.</p
The monetary value of marine environmental change
No full textThe marine ecosystems are fundamental for human welfare. A number of current environmental pressures need attention, and the formulation of management strategies requires information from a variety of analytical dimensions. The linkage between environmental change and resulting implications for human welfare is one such dimension. This thesis presents studies on welfare implications from hypothetical future policies which improve the state of the marine environment. The method for these studies is economic valuation. The studied scenarios concern eutrophication in the Baltic Sea (including the Kattegat) and oil spill risk from shipping in the Lofoten-Vesterålen area in the Arctic Barents Sea. The thesis shows that the economic benefits from undertaking policies to improve or protect the marine environment in these cases are substantial and exceed the costs of taking measures. In addition to providing new monetary estimates, the thesis also provides new insights concerning 1) what type of scenario to use when valuing an environmental improvement and 2) whether there may exist trade-offs between precision in estimates and the level of ambition with respect to survey instrument complexity and econometric models when conducting valuation studies. The findings suggest an end of an era for studies in which the environmental change is unspecified or based on a single environmental indicator while the actual consequences of the suggested measures are more multifaceted. In contrast, relevant scenarios to study are well-specified and holistic. The thesis further reveals that it might not always be worth the effort to go for the most advanced scenario presentation or statistically best-fitting model specifications. This is something that needs to be further discussed among practitioners in order to allocate valuation resources wisely and not waste resources on unnecessarily elegant valuation studies.QC 20161011</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Payments for nutrient uptake in the blue bioeconomy & ndash; When to be careful and when to go for it
No full textHarvesting of marine biomass for various applications may generate ecosystem services that currently lack a market price. One of these is nutrient uptake, which could counteract eutrophication. Market-based instruments (MBIs) such as cap & trade, compensatory mitigation, and payment for ecosystem services could help internalize such positive externalities. However, activities of the blue bioeconomy are diverse. We show that identifiable market characteristics can provide guidance concerning when to use these instruments and not. We find that the activities most suitable for MBIs are those that have positive environmental impacts but that are not (yet) financially viable. For activities that are already profitable on the biomass market, ensuring 'additionality' may be a significant problem for MBIs, especially for cap & trade systems or compensatory mitigation. We provide an overview of how some current biomass options fit into this framework and give suggestions on which biomass types to target.</p
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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