8,953 research outputs found
Living on other people’s property: land rights of farm dwellers on wildlife ranches in South Africa
No full textVacuum Insulation Panels Applied in Building Constructions
No full textDue to sustainability and due to international treaties, it is desired and required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically. One contributor to these emissions is the burning of fossil fuels for generating power and electricity to be used in and for buildings. Buildings and building-related processes are responsible for about 40% of the primary energy consumption in the European Union. More than half of this energy is applied for heating systems in dwellings and commercial buildings. The European Union therefore has laid down new energy performance requirements for buildings in the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings. Moreover, a reduction of energy losses of buildings during their occupational phase is important for facilitating the implementation of sustainable energy sources in the built environment. Increasing the insulation value of the envelope of buildings may contribute to this reduction of primary energy use. Two strategies can be followed. The first strategy is to increase the thickness of the thermal insulation layer. Until recently, this strategy has primarily been adopted. If, however, German or Swiss Passivhaus standard is applied, the thickness of this insulation layer would increase to beyond 30 cm, resulting in very thick building enclosures. The second, more innovative, strategy for reducing energy losses through the building skin would be the application of more effective thermal insulators. One such more effective thermal insulator is a vacuum insulation panel, abbreviated as VIP. A VIP consists of an open-celled core material which is evacuated and then tightly sealed into a barrier envelope to maintain this vacuum. The vacuum inside the pores of the core material reduces the thermal conductivity of the product significantly, as a result of which the thickness of the insulation layer can be reduced to obtain a certain performance. This reduction of thickness is among the most promising features for large-scale application of VIPs in the building industry. However, integration of VIPs into buildings must be performed very meticulously for several reasons; first, due to its nature a VIP cannot be processed on site and needs careful planning in advance; second, it is very sensitive to mechanical damage thus requiring careful handling; third, thermal bridges along the panel’s edges reduce its performance; fourth, the composite system is highly subjected to aging. This dissertation therefore looks into many of these aspects, presents several calculation tools and shows how VIPs can be applied in façade panels, EPS insulation boards and as under-floor insulation. With the wide-spread proliferation of VIPs in buildings a more sustainable and healthy environment can then be achieved.Building TechnologyArchitectur
Coastal land use in the Maltese islands: a description and appraisal
Full text linkThe area of the Maltese Islands is 316 km , and with an official coastal length of 180 km(^2) possess a high ratio of coastal length to area. The physical properties of the coast include a highly indented and largely accessible coastline having a low sloping profile, on the north, east and south-east littoral of Malta, presenting inlets, bays and deep harbours. Most of the recreational, industrial and coastal residential areas are situated around these areas together with a wide range of fortifications and military defensive structures built as part of the coastal defensive network of Malta over the last five centuries. In contrast, the other parts of the coast, including Gozo, consists of a largely inaccessible coastline made up of cliffs and boulder scree slopes with the few indentations marking sandy beaches. These areas have a high aesthetic quality. The rapid pace of development over last half-century has witnessed an economic transformation from an economy based on British military spending to one based on the development of coastal areas for marine-related services, tourism and residential and second-home development. Coastal land use conflicts have intensified with economic development and as people have sought to make a more use of the coast. This thesis is concerned with the evaluation of the coastal land use in the Maltese Islands. A historical overview of the coast is first presented, then a methodology for the mapping, surveying and estimation of the land uses along the coastal zone of the Maltese Islands is developed. This is based on a number of coastal field surveys that the author participated in between 1989 and 1998. The coastal zone was divided into sixteen segments and mapping is covered by sixteen land uses. The main results were that coastal development was centred in areas where a high natural coastal indentation and good physical accessibility of the coast were present, these, in turn, gave rise to land use conflict. In addition, civil engineering works and modifications such as rock-cutting, jetties, breakwaters and, in densely populated areas, promenades, intensified land use conflict. A notable difference in the type of coastal development processes to the north (tourism) and south (industry) of the Great Fault is evident. The thesis also includes the part played by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in influencing coastal land uses, the main land use modifications proposed in the European Union accession talks and a brief assessment of the land use situation in selected localities in 2003
Development potential of the Nawalparasi area of Nepal
No full textThe table of contents for this item can be shared with the requester. The requester may then choose one chapter, up to 10% of the item, as per the Fair Dealing provision of the Canadian Copyright Ac
Land, Land Use and Competitiveness
Full text linkLand costs account for a significant proportion of the total costs for many agricultural products that are traded internationally, especially for the major grain crops that the U.S. exports in competition with several other countries. For owner-operators, a common form of tenure in the U.S. and most other countries, most land costs are implicit and involve few cash outlays, i.e., are opportunity costs that are important in the long-run but that may not affect production decisions in the short-run. To the extent that land is rented or where the owner is making mortgage payments, however, larger explicit land costs are incurred and can be a very significant factor in the cost of production and competitiveness. U.S. cost of production data for most crops in recent years indicate that the returns on equity, including land and other owned resources are zero or negative, i.e., the prices of many farm products are too low to cover total costs when opportunity costs are included as part of the cost of production. Thus, land costs may not be a significant factor in competitiveness in the current policy framework where government payments are a significant part of the net returns of farm operators.Land Economics/Use,
Land Use Consequences of Crop Insurance Subsidies
Full text linkThere have long been concerns that federal crop insurance subsidies may significantly impact land use decisions. It is well known that classical insurance market information asymmetry problems can lead to a social excess of risky land entering crop production. Our conceptual model shows that the problem will arise absent any information failures. This is because the subsidy is i) proportional to acres planted, and ii) greatest for the most production risky land. Using farm-level data, we follow this observation through to establish the implications of subsidies for the extent of crop production, with particular emphasis on U.S. regions where the cropland growth is likely to have marked adverse environmental impacts. Simulation results show that when subsidy rate decreases by 5 percentage points, then about 0.60 percent of insured cropped land will be converted to non-cropped land. When crop price decreases by 5 percent, then about 1.01 percent of insured cropped land will be converted to non-cropped land.crop insurance, land use, crop yields, yield risk measurement, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use, Q15, Q18, Q24,
A Land Market Cycle in the Netherlands
Full text linkThis paper develops a disequilibrium model of land prices in the Netherlands. It shows that the behaviour of traded quantities and prices of Dutch land have some resemblance with a disequilibrium land market model developed by Søgaard. An error correction model based on Søgaard’s model generates significant results with GDP and the real interest rate as explanatory variables, but regrettably farm income nor government demand for land generate significant results. If the model is correct, bubbles are characteristic for the Dutch land market, and this suggests that there is an opportunity for Dutch government to improve on the timing of buying land for nature policy.land market cycle, land prices, nature policy, Land Economics/Use,
Living on other people’s property: land rights of farm dwellers on wildlife ranches in South Africa
No full textWhat determines the Czech land market prices? Some regional findings
Full text linkThe paper deals with the analysis of market land prices that were collected from land purchased contracts in the Czech Republic. Regression model was used to identify determinants explaining variability of market prices between 2008 and 2009. It was found out that type of plantation, region, type of buyers, plot size, distance to regional city or number of parcels play significant role. These factors explain more than a half of variance in land price. Quality of land that was expressed through administrative price has significant effect on market price. Yet, such effect became less import in regions nearby cities (e.g. Prague and Olomouc), where the market land price is significantly influenced by the distance to the district city. Land reform, however has not been confirmed to stimulate higher prices for sellers. It is reasonable to expect that part of the remaining variation could still be accounted for by non-random variables.Land, market price, administrative price, regression model, region., Land Economics/Use, GA, IN,
Institutional Factors Affecting Agricultural Land Markets
Full text linkThis paper analyses the main institutional factors affecting the rental and sales markets for agricultural land. Particular attention is paid to the effects of the common agricultural policy on land markets, and more specifically the underlying mechanism through which agricultural subsidies are capitalised into land values and farmland rents. This paper also provides a broad overview of the empirical studies that estimate the impact of agricultural support policies on land rents and land prices. Various other fundamental factors that affect agricultural land markets are discussed, such as land market institutions and regulations, transaction costs, credit market constraints and levels of profitability, the legal means of contract enforcement and land use alternatives.
- …
