Assessing climate change impacts on the rape stem weevil, Ceutorhynchus napi Gyll., based on bias- and non-bias-corrected regional climate change projections

Science.gov (United States)

Junk, J.; Ulber, B.; Vidal, S.; Eickermann, M.

2015-11-01

Agricultural production is directly affected by projected increases in air temperature and changes in precipitation. A multi-model ensemble of regional climate change projections indicated shifts towards higher air temperatures and changing precipitation patterns during the summer and winter seasons up to the year 2100 for the region of Goettingen (Lower Saxony, Germany). A second major controlling factor of the agricultural production is the infestation level by pests. Based on long-term field surveys and meteorological observations, a calibration of an existing model describing the migration of the pest insect Ceutorhynchus napi was possible. To assess the impacts of climate on pests under projected changing environmental conditions, we combined the results of regional climate models with the phenological model to describe the crop invasion of this species. In order to reduce systematic differences between the output of the regional climate models and observational data sets, two different bias correction methods were applied: a linear correction for air temperature and a quantile mapping approach for precipitation. Only the results derived from the bias-corrected output of the regional climate models showed satisfying results. An earlier onset, as well as a prolongation of the possible time window for the immigration of Ceutorhynchus napi, was projected by the majority of the ensemble members.

Assessing climate change impacts on the rape stem weevil, Ceutorhynchus napi Gyll., based on bias- and non-bias-corrected regional climate change projections.

Science.gov (United States)

Junk, J; Ulber, B; Vidal, S; Eickermann, M

2015-11-01

Agricultural production is directly affected by projected increases in air temperature and changes in precipitation. A multi-model ensemble of regional climate change projections indicated shifts towards higher air temperatures and changing precipitation patterns during the summer and winter seasons up to the year 2100 for the region of Goettingen (Lower Saxony, Germany). A second major controlling factor of the agricultural production is the infestation level by pests. Based on long-term field surveys and meteorological observations, a calibration of an existing model describing the migration of the pest insect Ceutorhynchus napi was possible. To assess the impacts of climate on pests under projected changing environmental conditions, we combined the results of regional climate models with the phenological model to describe the crop invasion of this species. In order to reduce systematic differences between the output of the regional climate models and observational data sets, two different bias correction methods were applied: a linear correction for air temperature and a quantile mapping approach for precipitation. Only the results derived from the bias-corrected output of the regional climate models showed satisfying results. An earlier onset, as well as a prolongation of the possible time window for the immigration of Ceutorhynchus napi, was projected by the majority of the ensemble members.

Environmental impact assessment of Kachchh tidal power project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yadav, Ramanand; Lal, B.B.

1995-01-01

The Kachchh tidal power development project is a single-basin, single -effect and ebb generation development by construction of a tidal power barrage of about 3.25 km length across Hansthal creek. The project may disturb the ecosystem of the region. The paper deals in detail the environmental impacts of the project on climate, water velocity, flow and sedimentation pattern, water quality, flora and fauna, fishery, tourism and recreation, wild life, public health and socio-economic conditions. (author). 4 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs

Using Google Analytics to evaluate the impact of the CyberTraining project.

Science.gov (United States)

McGuckin, Conor; Crowley, Niall

2012-11-01

A focus on results and impact should be at the heart of every project's approach to research and dissemination. This article discusses the potential of Google Analytics (GA: http://google.com/analytics ) as an effective resource for measuring the impact of academic research output and understanding the geodemographics of users of specific Web 2.0 content (e.g., intervention and prevention materials, health promotion and advice). This article presents the results of GA analyses as a resource used in measuring the impact of the EU-funded CyberTraining project, which provided a well-grounded, research-based training manual on cyberbullying for trainers through the medium of a Web-based eBook ( www.cybertraining-project.org ). The training manual includes review information on cyberbullying, its nature and extent across Europe, analyses of current projects, and provides resources for trainers working with the target groups of pupils, parents, teachers, and other professionals. Results illustrate the promise of GA as an effective tool for measuring the impact of academic research and project output with real potential for tracking and understanding intra- and intercountry regional variations in the uptake of prevention and intervention materials, thus enabling precision focusing of attention to those regions.

Valuation of ecological impacts - a regional approach using the ecological footprint concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knaus, Michael; Loehr, Dirk; O'Regan, Bernadette

2006-01-01

All economic activities impact on the environment but not all environmental impacts are assigned values and taken into consideration in development budgets. At project level, the environmental consequences of proposed economic activities have to be evaluated by conducting an environmental impact assessment. Threshold levels in physical terms are outlined in corresponding laws and regulations. Projects fulfilling the necessary environmental assessment requirements (threshold levels) tend to be permitted without predicting the expected environmental impacts in monetary terms. The economic valuation of environmental impacts tends to be affected by uncertainties. The following example of indirect monetary valuation of environmental impacts uses the Ecological Footprint (EF) concept to calculate the total land use of projects. According to the strong sustainability concept it is assumed that every additional direct or indirect utilisation of land caused by a project requires corresponding offset areas. The offset areas required by different project alternatives are valued with relevant regional guide land values

Methodological issues in regional impacts research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, S.J.

1990-01-01

Analysis of the literature concerning regional impacts of climatic change research reveals common elements. Global climatic change scenarios are used to derive regional climate change scenarios, but there is no standard approach for doing so. These scenarios are applied as inputs to impact models that have been used to describe past variations but may not be calibrated for global scenarios. The human element (technology, land use, population density) is generally assumed to remain unchanged. The general process of performing a study on the impacts of projected global warming on the physical and human environments involves three main steps: develop or specify a scenario for global warming for the study area; develop or specify an impact model for the activity in question; and apply the scenario to the impact model. Problems include defining a baseline, resolution of the scenarios, scenario data for regional-scale features, combination of model output with station data, and validation of impact models using archived climate data as inputs. A review of scenario application procedures indicates that four general approaches have been used: the study area baseline is combined with the scenario anomaly of the nearest center of the grid square; the scenario anomaly field is objectively interpreted and combined with the baseline value; the baseline field is objectively interpreted so that data are produced for the same points as the scenario anomaly field; and the baseline and several scenario's anomaly fields are interpolated and combined into one scenario using dynamical/empirical reasoning. 48 refs., 1 fig

Regional Issue Identification and Assessment program (RIIA). Environmental impacts and issues of the EIA MID-MID scenario: Federal Region I (New England)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brainard, J.; Munson, J.S.

1979-01-01

The impacts described here for 1985 and 1990 are based on a national energy projection which assumes medium energy demand and fuel supply through 1990 but does not incorporate the policies of the National Energy Act (NEA). This scenario, referred to as the Projection Series C or the TRENDLONG MID-MID scenario, is one of six possible energy futures developed by the DOE Energy Information Administration for the Department's 1977 Annual Report to Congress. It was chosen as representative of the official DOE national energy projections when this project was initiated, prior to the passage of the National Energy Act. Since the RIIA program is part of an ongoing review of the regional impact of energy policies, the next phase will examine the National Energy Act (NEA) and initiatives suggested by the President's second National Energy Plan. However, since coal utilization increases under the NEA, in general, impacts identified in the TRENDLONG Series C Scenario should provide a framework for the discussion of impacts by NEA. The environmental impacts discussed in this volume are for Federal Region I (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). However, there are nine companion volumes, one for each of the other Federal Regions

'ReRegions' project - contribution of Usti region to co-operation of public administration in regions impacted by open-cast brown coal mining; Sbornik, Vyzkumny ustav pro hnede uhli

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2006-07-01

Usti Region is the Lead partner of the ReRegions project. In this project we co-operate with six partners from five European countries: Greece, Spain, Germany, Poland and Great Britain. The project's main objective is to find solutions to joint environmental and socio-economic issues. One of Usti Region's targets is to help to the change the image of the Region both in the eyes of outside subjects (professionals and general public abroad and in other regions of the Czech Republic) as well as inhabitants and representatives of public administration of Usti Region. The project is financed by the EU INTERREG IIIC East initiative. 9 figs.

Observed and simulated impacts of the summer NAO in Europe: implications for projected drying in the Mediterranean region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blade, Ileana; Fortuny, Didac [Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Fisica, Departament d' Astronomia i Meteorologia, Barcelona (Spain); Liebmann, Brant [CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO (United States); Oldenborgh, Geert Jan van [Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute, De Bilt (Netherlands)

2012-08-15

Climate models predict substantial summer precipitation reductions in Europe and the Mediterranean region in the twenty-first century, but the extent to which these models correctly represent the mechanisms of summertime precipitation in this region is uncertain. Here an analysis is conducted to compare the observed and simulated impacts of the dominant large-scale driver of summer rainfall variability in Europe and the Mediterranean, the summer North Atlantic Oscillation (SNAO). The SNAO is defined as the leading mode of July-August sea level pressure variability in the North Atlantic sector. Although the SNAO is weaker and confined to northern latitudes compared to its winter counterpart, with a southern lobe located over the UK, it significantly affects precipitation in the Mediterranean, particularly Italy and the Balkans (correlations of up to 0.6). During high SNAO summers, when strong anticyclonic conditions and suppressed precipitation prevail over the UK, the Mediterranean region instead is anomalously wet. This enhanced precipitation is related to the presence of a strong upper-level trough over the Balkans - part of a hemispheric pattern of anomalies that develops in association with the SNAO - that leads to mid-level cooling and increased potential instability. Neither this downstream extension nor the surface influence of the SNAO is captured in the two CMIP3 models examined (HadCM3 and GFDL-CM2.1), with weak or non-existent correlations between the SNAO and Mediterranean precipitation. Because these models also predict a strong upward SNAO trend in the future, the error in their representation of the SNAO surface signature impacts the projected precipitation trends. In particular, the attendant increase in precipitation that, based on observations, should occur in the Mediterranean and offset some of the non-SNAO related drying does not occur. Furthermore, the fact that neither the observed SNAO nor summer precipitation in Europe/Mediterranean region

Producing custom regional climate data sets for impact assessment with xarray

Science.gov (United States)

Simcock, J. G.; Delgado, M.; Greenstone, M.; Hsiang, S. M.; Kopp, R. E.; Carleton, T.; Hultgren, A.; Jina, A.; Nath, I.; Rising, J. A.; Rode, A.; Yuan, J.; Chong, T.; Dobbels, G.; Hussain, A.; Song, Y.; Wang, J.; Mohan, S.; Larsen, K.; Houser, T.

2017-12-01

Research in the field of climate impact assessment and valuation frequently requires the pairing of economic observations with historical or projected weather variables. Impact assessments with large geographic scope or spatially aggregated data frequently require climate variables to be prepared for use with administrative/political regions, economic districts such as utility service areas, physical regions such as watersheds, or other larger, non-gridded shapes. Approaches to preparing such data in the literature vary from methods developed out of convenience to more complex measures intended to account for spatial heterogeneity. But more sophisticated methods are difficult to implement, from both a theoretical and a technical standpoint. We present a new python package designed to assist researchers in the preparation of historical and projected climate data for arbitrary spatial definitions. Users specify transformations by providing (a) sets of regions in the form of shapefiles, (b) gridded data to be transformed, and, optionally, (c) gridded weights to use in the transformation. By default, aggregation to regions is conducted such that the resulting regional data draws from each grid cell according to the cell's share of total region area. However, researchers can provide alternative weighting schemes, such that the regional data is weighted by, for example, the population or planted agricultural area within each cell. An advantage of this method is that it enables easy preparation of nonlinear transformations of the climate data before aggregation to regions, allowing aggregated variables to more accurately capture the spatial heterogeneity within a region in the transformed data. At this session, we will allow attendees to view transformed climate projections, examining the effect of various weighting schemes and nonlinear transformations on aggregate regional values, highlighting the implications for climate impact assessment work.

The use of regional advance mitigation planning (RAMP) to integrate transportation infrastructure impacts with sustainability; a perspective from the USA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thorne, James H; Huber, Patrick R; O’Donoghue, Elizabeth; Santos, Maria J

2014-01-01

Globally, urban areas are expanding, and their regional, spatially cumulative, environmental impacts from transportation projects are not typically assessed. However, incorporation of a Regional Advance Mitigation Planning (RAMP) framework can promote more effective, ecologically sound, and less expensive environmental mitigation. As a demonstration of the first phase of the RAMP framework, we assessed environmental impacts from 181 planned transportation projects in the 19 368 km 2 San Francisco Bay Area. We found that 107 road and railroad projects will impact 2411–3490 ha of habitat supporting 30–43 threatened or endangered species. In addition, 1175 ha of impacts to agriculture and native vegetation are expected, as well as 125 crossings of waterways supporting anadromous fish species. The extent of these spatially cumulative impacts shows the need for a regional approach to associated environmental offsets. Many of the impacts were comprised of numerous small projects, where project-by-project mitigation would result in increased transaction costs, land costs, and lost project time. Ecological gains can be made if a regional approach is taken through the avoidance of small-sized reserves and the ability to target parcels for acquisition that fit within conservation planning designs. The methods are straightforward, and can be used in other metropolitan areas. (papers)

A probabilistic method for streamflow projection and associated uncertainty analysis in a data sparse alpine region

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Weiwei; Yang, Tao; Shi, Pengfei; Xu, Chong-yu; Zhang, Ke; Zhou, Xudong; Shao, Quanxi; Ciais, Philippe

2018-06-01

Climate change imposes profound influence on regional hydrological cycle and water security in many alpine regions worldwide. Investigating regional climate impacts using watershed scale hydrological models requires a large number of input data such as topography, meteorological and hydrological data. However, data scarcity in alpine regions seriously restricts evaluation of climate change impacts on water cycle using conventional approaches based on global or regional climate models, statistical downscaling methods and hydrological models. Therefore, this study is dedicated to development of a probabilistic model to replace the conventional approaches for streamflow projection. The probabilistic model was built upon an advanced Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) approach directly fed by the large-scale climate predictor variables and tested in a typical data sparse alpine region, the Kaidu River basin in Central Asia. Results show that BNN model performs better than the general methods across a number of statistical measures. The BNN method with flexible model structures by active indicator functions, which reduce the dependence on the initial specification for the input variables and the number of hidden units, can work well in a data limited region. Moreover, it can provide more reliable streamflow projections with a robust generalization ability. Forced by the latest bias-corrected GCM scenarios, streamflow projections for the 21st century under three RCP emission pathways were constructed and analyzed. Briefly, the proposed probabilistic projection approach could improve runoff predictive ability over conventional methods and provide better support to water resources planning and management under data limited conditions as well as enable a facilitated climate change impact analysis on runoff and water resources in alpine regions worldwide.

Hierarchical biodiversity and environment impact assessment of South-to-North Water Diversion Project of China

OpenAIRE

Youhua Chen

2013-01-01

In this brief review, the potential environmental and biodiversity impact of South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) project in China on regional environments was assessed. I used the hierarchical environmental impact assessment to classify the possible impacts into three orders caused by the construction of SNWD and then presented the current research advances on each order of the impacts. Further impact assessments should be reinforced during the construction period of SNDW project for the su...

Southeast Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Facilities Improvements Project and Geysers Effluent Pipeline Project. Final EIR/EIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

On May 26, 1994, the Lake County Sanitation District and the US Bureau of Land Management released for public review a Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) on the proposed Southeast Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Facilities Improvements Project and Geysers Effluent Pipeline Project. A minimum 45-day review and comment period began on that date and notices were published in the Federal Register. The public review and comment period closed on July 26, 1994. Public hearings on the Draft EIMIS were held in Lakeport, CA, on June 30 and July 14, 1994. The first part of this document contains copies of the written comments submitted on the Draft EIR/EIS. It also contains summary paraphrased comments of the public hearings. The second part of this document contains responses to the comments

Economic impact analysis of independent power projects in British Columbia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-12-01

Independent power producer (IPP) projects have been active in British Columbia's (BC) regulated electricity market since the late 1980s. The 49 IPP projects developed in the province currently account for approximately 10 per cent of BC's electricity generation, and IPP development continues to expand in nearly every region. This study presented an economic impact analysis of IPP projects in BC. The economic impacts of IPP projects were divided into 2 categories: (1) existing IPP projects, and (2) potential IPP projects. The study showed that the total power potential supplied by BC IPP projects would increase from a current level of 5940 annual GWh to approximately 14,149 GWh. BC could also be generating a further 21,321 GWh of annual output to service demand domestically in addition to exporting to the United States. The value of capital investment in existing IPPs across BC was estimated at $2.8 billion. Capital investment in potential IPPs was estimated at $26.1 billion in 2009 constant dollars. Government revenues generated through the construction phase of potential IPP projects were estimated at $1.6 billion. IPP projects are expected to have a significant impact on First Nations groups, contribute to provincial energy self-sufficiency, and have little to no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 25 refs., 19 tabs., 24 figs.

Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Land-Water-Ecosystem Quality in Polar and Mountainous Regions: A New Interregional Project (INT5153)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dercon, Gerd [Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Subprogramme, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, IAEA, Seibersdorf (Austria); Gerardo-Abaya, Jane [Division for Asia and the Pacific Section 2, Department of Technical Cooperation, IAEA, Vienna (Austria); Mavlyudov, Bulat [Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation); others, and

2014-07-15

The INT5153 project aims to improve the understanding of the impact of climate change on fragile polar and mountainous ecosystems on both a local and global scale for their better management and conservation. Seven core and five related benchmark sites have been selected from different global regions for specific assessments of the impact of climate change with the following expected outcomes and outputs: Outcomes: • Improved understanding of the impact of climate change on the cryosphere in polar and mountainous ecosystems and its effects on landwater- ecosystem quality at both local and global scales. • Recommendations for improvement of regional policies for soil and agricultural water management, conservation, and environmental protection in polar and mountainous regions. Outputs: • Specific strategies to minimize the adverse effects of, and adapt to, reduced seasonal snow and glacier covered areas on land-water-ecosystem quality in polar and mountain regions across the world. • Enhanced interregional network of laboratories and institutions competent in the assessment of climate change impacts on the cryosphere and land-water-ecosystem quality, using isotopic and nuclear techniques. • Increased number of young scientists trained in the use of isotope and nuclear techniques to assess the impact of climate change on the cryosphere and land-water-ecosystem quality in polar and mountainous ecosystems. • Platform/database with global access for continuing work and monitoring of impact of climate change on fragile polar and mountainous ecosystems at local and global scales, as well as for communicating findings to policy makers and communities. • Improved understanding of the effects of climate change disseminated through appropriate publications, policy briefs, and through a dedicated internet platform. • Methodologies and protocols for investigations in specific ecosystems and conservation/adaptation measures for agriculture areas.

Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Land-Water-Ecosystem Quality in Polar and Mountainous Regions: A New Interregional Project (INT5153)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dercon, Gerd; Gerardo-Abaya, Jane; Mavlyudov, Bulat

2014-01-01

The INT5153 project aims to improve the understanding of the impact of climate change on fragile polar and mountainous ecosystems on both a local and global scale for their better management and conservation. Seven core and five related benchmark sites have been selected from different global regions for specific assessments of the impact of climate change with the following expected outcomes and outputs: Outcomes: • Improved understanding of the impact of climate change on the cryosphere in polar and mountainous ecosystems and its effects on landwater- ecosystem quality at both local and global scales. • Recommendations for improvement of regional policies for soil and agricultural water management, conservation, and environmental protection in polar and mountainous regions. Outputs: • Specific strategies to minimize the adverse effects of, and adapt to, reduced seasonal snow and glacier covered areas on land-water-ecosystem quality in polar and mountain regions across the world. • Enhanced interregional network of laboratories and institutions competent in the assessment of climate change impacts on the cryosphere and land-water-ecosystem quality, using isotopic and nuclear techniques. • Increased number of young scientists trained in the use of isotope and nuclear techniques to assess the impact of climate change on the cryosphere and land-water-ecosystem quality in polar and mountainous ecosystems. • Platform/database with global access for continuing work and monitoring of impact of climate change on fragile polar and mountainous ecosystems at local and global scales, as well as for communicating findings to policy makers and communities. • Improved understanding of the effects of climate change disseminated through appropriate publications, policy briefs, and through a dedicated internet platform. • Methodologies and protocols for investigations in specific ecosystems and conservation/adaptation measures for agriculture areas

Environmental impact assessments of the Three Gorges Project in China: Issues and interventions

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Xibao; Tan, Yan; Yang, Guishan

2013-09-01

The paper takes China's authoritative Environmental Impact Statement for the Yangzi (Yangtze) Three Gorges Project (TGP) in 1992 as a benchmark against which to evaluate emerging major environmental outcomes since the initial impoundment of the Three Gorges reservoir in 2003. The paper particularly examines five crucial environmental aspects and associated causal factors. The five domains include human resettlement and the carrying capacity of local environments (especially land), water quality, reservoir sedimentation and downstream riverbed erosion, soil erosion, and seismic activity and geological hazards. Lessons from the environmental impact assessments of the TGP are: (1) hydro project planning needs to take place at a broader scale, and a strategic environmental assessment at a broader scale is necessary in advance of individual environmental impact assessments; (2) national policy and planning adjustments need to react quickly to the impact changes of large projects; (3) long-term environmental monitoring systems and joint operations with other large projects in the upstream areas of a river basin should be established, and the cross-impacts of climate change on projects and possible impacts of projects on regional or local climate considered.

Offshore Wind Jobs and Economic Development Impact: Four Regional Scenarios (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tegen, S.

2014-11-01

NREL's Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) Model for Offshore Wind, is a computer tool for studying the economic impacts of fixed-bottom offshore wind projects in the United States. This presentation provides the results of an analysis of four offshore wind development scenarios in the Southeast Atlantic, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico regions.

Modeling the Impacts of Global Climate and Regional Land Use Change on Regional Climate, Air Quality and Public Health in the New York Metropolitan Region

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenthal, J. E.; Knowlton, K. M.; Kinney, P. L.

2002-12-01

There is an imminent need to downscale the global climate models used by international consortiums like the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to predict the future regional impacts of climate change. To meet this need, a "place-based" climate model that makes specific regional projections about future environmental conditions local inhabitants could face is being created by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, in collaboration with other researchers and universities, for New York City and the 31 surrounding counties. This presentation describes the design and initial results of this modeling study, aimed at simulating the effects of global climate change and regional land use change on climate and air quality over the northeastern United States in order to project the associated public health impacts in the region. Heat waves and elevated concentrations of ozone and fine particles are significant current public health stressors in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Climate and Health Project is linking human dimension and natural sciences models to assess the potential for future public health impacts from heat stress and air quality, and yield improved tools for assessing climate change impacts. The model will be applied to the NY metropolitan east coast region. The following questions will be addressed: 1. What changes in the frequency and severity of extreme heat events are likely to occur over the next 80 years due to a range of possible scenarios of land use and land cover (LU/LC) and climate change in the region? 2. How might the frequency and severity of episodic concentrations of ozone (O3) and airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 æm in diameter (PM2.5) change over the next 80 years due to a range of possible scenarios of land use and climate change in the metropolitan region? 3. What is the range of possible human health impacts of these changes in the region? 4. How might projected future human

Managing regional innovation strategy projects

OpenAIRE

Wolf, Patricia; Hanisch, Christoph

2014-01-01

This paper presents a qualitative interview study with 28 RIS project managers that aimed at understanding whether or not this is true in the context of regional innovation and what the specifics of managing regional innovation projects are. In taking up a recent claim for policy intervention studies which allow to “derive precise suggestions for their design and management”.  The study investigated the interrelation between the agility of the management approach and the achievements of RIS p...

Modeling the determinants of the social impacts of agricultural development projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmadvand, Mostafa; Karami, Ezatollah; Iman, Mohammad Taghi

2011-01-01

In an attempt to help policy-makers improve the social sustainability of development projects, this study identifies the key determinants of farmers' attitudes relating to the social impacts of the floodwater spreading project (FWSP) on the Gareh-Bygone plain in Iran. In order to analyze the links between the various factors that affect the experience of social impact, a theoretical framework was developed. Stratified random sampling was used to survey 138 farm households from the four villages in the region. One male and one female from each house were interviewed face-to-face using a questionnaire, resulting in a total of 276 interviews. Structural factors were found to be the largest contribution to stakeholders' attitudes relating to the social impacts of the project. Results from a cluster analysis suggested that the level of floodwater information, level of participation, water access, ownership change, and environmental worldview were the most important factors explaining attitude towards social impact of the FWSP.

Projected impacts of climate change on marine fish and fisheries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hollowed, Anne B.; Barange, Manuel; Beamish, Richard J.

2013-01-01

This paper reviews current literature on the projected effects of climate change on marine fish and shellfish, their fisheries, and fishery-dependent communities throughout the northern hemisphere. The review addresses the following issues: (i) expected impacts on ecosystem productivity and habitat......) implications for food security and associated changes; and (v) uncertainty and modelling skill assessment. Climate change will impact fish and shellfish, their fisheries, and fishery-dependent communities through a complex suite of linked processes. Integrated interdisciplinary research teams are forming...... in many regions to project these complex responses. National and international marine research organizations serve a key role in the coordination and integration of research to accelerate the production of projections of the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems and to move towards a future where...

Wind power installations in Switzerland - Regional planning basics and impact

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ott, W.; Kaufmann, Y.; Steiner, P.; Gilgen, K.; Sartoris, A.

2008-01-01

This report published by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) takes a look at the basics of regional planning and its impact on the construction of wind-energy installations in Switzerland. The authors state that the planning and realisation of wind turbine installations is often time and resource consuming: this document presents and discusses the results obtained in a project that aimed to supply consolidated knowledge on project-relevant basics and their effect with respect to wind-energy installations. Experience gained in Switzerland and in other countries is discussed. This report on the basics of wind-energy planning with its detailed information formed the basis of a checklist described in a further report. In nine chapters, regional planning aspects, environment and landscape-relevant aspects, effects on the national and regional economies and social acceptance factors are discussed. Also, success-factors and possible solutions for the successful realisation of wind-energy projects are looked at.

Assessing the impacts of 1.5°C of global warming - The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) approach

Science.gov (United States)

Frieler, Katja; Warszawski, Lila; Zhao, Fang

2017-04-01

In Paris, France, December 2015 the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) invited the IPCC to provide a "special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways". In Nairobi, Kenya, April 2016 the IPCC panel accepted the invitation. Here we describe the model simulations planned within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) to address the request by providing tailored cross-sectoral consistent impacts projections. The protocol is designed to allow for 1) a separation of the impacts of the historical warming starting from pre-industrial conditions from other human drivers such as historical land use changes (based on pre-industrial and historical impact model simulations), 2) a quantification of the effects of an additional warming to 1.5°C including a potential overshoot and long term effects up to 2300 in comparison to a no-mitigation scenario (based on the low emissions Representative Concentration Pathway RCP2.6 and a no-mitigation scenario RCP6.0) keeping socio-economic conditions fixed at year 2005 levels, and 3) an assessment of the climate effects based on the same climate scenarios but accounting for parallel changes in socio-economic conditions following the middle of the road Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP2) and differential bio-energy requirements associated with the transformation of the energy system to reach RCP2.6 compared to RCP6.0. To provide the scientific basis for an aggregation of impacts across sectors and an analysis of cross-sectoral interactions potentially damping or amplifying sectoral impacts the protocol is designed to provide consistent impacts projections across a range of impact models from different sectors (global and regional hydrological models, global gridded crop models, global vegetation models, regional forestry models, global and regional marine

Environmental Impact Assessment Process for Oil, Gas and Mining Projects in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allan Ingelson and Chilenye Nwapi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Oil and gas development projects are well known to have damaging environmental effects, and that is especially true in the Niger Delta region. Since the enactment of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act in Nigeria in 1992, there has been a general perception that EIAs are seldom carried out in the region. This article presents a critical analysis of legislation and practice concerning the environmental impact assessment (EIA process for oil and gas projects in Nigeria, the world’s twelfth largest producer of crude oil. It discusses a range of reasons why the impacts of oil and gas projects are not being managed well, despite the legal requirements for EIAs. A review of Nigeria’s environmental governance is presented along with a comprehensive discussion of the EIA process and its significant deficiencies. We argue that the EIA system for oil and gas projects in Nigeria reflects tokenism, resulting in the concentration of benefits of developments in big corporations and government officials. The EIA process in Nigeria faces many challenges that must be addressed in order to improve its effectiveness and alleviate the environmental burdens on this rich oil-producing region.

Regional demand and supply projections for outdoor recreation

Science.gov (United States)

Donald B. K. English; Carter J. Betz; J. Mark Young; John C. Bergstrom; H. Ken Cordell

1993-01-01

This paper develops regional recreation supply and demand projections, by combining coefficients from the national 1989 RPA Assessment models with regional regressor values. Regional recreation opportunity estimates also are developed, based on regional travel behavior. Results show important regional variations in projections of recreation opportunities, trip supply,...

Regional Climate Change Impact on Agricultural Land Use in West Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, K. F.; Wang, G.; You, L.

2014-12-01

Agriculture is a key element of the human-induced land use land cover change (LULCC) that is influenced by climate and can potentially influence regional climate. Temperature and precipitation directly impact the crop yield (by controlling photosynthesis, respiration and other physiological processes) that then affects agricultural land use pattern. In feedback, the resulting changes in land use and land cover play an important role to determine the direction and magnitude of global, regional and local climate change by altering Earth's radiative equilibrium. The assessment of future agricultural land use is, therefore, of great importance in climate change study. In this study, we develop a prototype land use projection model and, using this model, project the changes to land use pattern and future land cover map accounting for climate-induced yield changes for major crops in West Africa. Among the inputs to the land use projection model are crop yield changes simulated by the crop model DSSAT, driven with the climate forcing data from the regional climate model RegCM4.3.4-CLM4.5, which features a projected decrease of future mean crop yield and increase of inter-annual variability. Another input to the land use projection model is the projected changes of food demand in the future. In a so-called "dumb-farmer scenario" without any adaptation, the combined effect of decrease in crop yield and increase in food demand will lead to a significant increase in agricultural land use in future years accompanied by a decrease in forest and grass area. Human adaptation through land use optimization in an effort to minimize agricultural expansion is found to have little impact on the overall areas of agricultural land use. While the choice of the General Circulation Model (GCM) to derive initial and boundary conditions for the regional climate model can be a source of uncertainty in projecting the future LULCC, results from sensitivity experiments indicate that the changes

Projections of Heat Waves Events in the Intra-Americas Region Using Multimodel Ensemble

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moises Angeles-Malaspina

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Significant accelerated warming of the Sea Surface Temperature of 0.15°C per decade (1982–2012 was recently detected, which motivated the research for the present consequences and future projections on the heat index and heat waves in the intra-Americas region. Present records every six hours are retrieved from NCEP reanalysis (1948–2015 to calculate heat waves changes. Heat index intensification has been detected in the region since 1998 and driven by surface pressure changes, sinking air enhancement, and warm/weaker cold advection. This regional warmer atmosphere leads to heat waves intensification with changes in both frequency and maximum amplitude distribution. Future projections using a multimodel ensemble mean for five global circulation models were used to project heat waves in the future under two scenarios: RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Massive heat waves events were projected at the end of the 21st century, particularly in the RCP8.5 scenario. Consequently, the regional climate change in the current time and in the future will require special attention to mitigate the more intense and frequent heat waves impacts on human health, countries’ economies, and energy demands in the IAR.

Environmental impact assessment for the Nova projects (Building 391 complex)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Odell, B.N.

1979-01-01

The environmental impact assessment of the Nova projects (Building 391 Complex) describes (1) the proposed actions, (2) the existing environment in and around the Livermore Valley, and (3) the potential environmental impacts from the construction and operation of these facilities. It shows that the proposed action does not conflict with any Federal, State, Regional, or Local Plans and Programs. Possible alternatives to the proposed action are discussed. However, it is concluded that the proposed actions were the most reasonable of the alternatives and would involve relatively minor adverse environmental impacts

Regional climate projection of the Maritime Continent using the MIT Regional Climate Model

Science.gov (United States)

IM, E. S.; Eltahir, E. A. B.

2014-12-01

Given that warming of the climate system is unequivocal (IPCC AR5), accurate assessment of future climate is essential to understand the impact of climate change due to global warming. Modelling the climate change of the Maritime Continent is particularly challenge, showing a high degree of uncertainty. Compared to other regions, model agreement of future projections in response to anthropogenic emission forcings is much less. Furthermore, the spatial and temporal behaviors of climate projections seem to vary significantly due to a complex geographical condition and a wide range of scale interactions. For the fine-scale climate information (27 km) suitable for representing the complexity of climate change over the Maritime Continent, dynamical downscaling is performed using the MIT regional climate model (MRCM) during two thirty-year period for reference (1970-1999) and future (2070-2099) climate. Initial and boundary conditions are provided by Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulations under the emission scenarios projected by MIT Integrated Global System Model (IGSM). Changes in mean climate as well as the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are investigated at various temporal and spatial scales. Our analysis is primarily centered on the different behavior of changes in convective and large-scale precipitation over land vs. ocean during dry vs. wet season. In addition, we attempt to find the added value to downscaled results over the Maritime Continent through the comparison between MRCM and CESM projection. Acknowledgements.This research was supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore through the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology's Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling interdisciplinary research program.

Regional restrictions on environmental impact assessment approval in China: the legitimacy of environmental authoritarianism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhu, X.; Zhang, L.; Ran, R.; Mol, A.P.J.

2015-01-01

The poor enforcement and effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) on construction and investment projects in China has long been blamed for not preventing environmental pollution and degradation. At the same time, freezing EIA approval of all new projects in an administrative region,

Southeast Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Facilities Improvements Project and Geysers Effluent Pipeline Project. Draft EIR/EIS: Executive summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

The Southeast Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (SERWTP) Facilities Improvement Plan and Geysers Effluent Pipeline and Effluent Injection Project are proposed as a plan to provide expanded wastewater treatment capabilities and to dispose of the effluent by injection in The Geysers geothermal field for purposes of power production. The project is located predominantly in the County of Lake, California, and also in part of Sonoma County. The plan includes various conventional facilities improvements in wastewater treatment to a secondary level of treatment at the SWERWTP. The plan includes facilities to convey the treated effluent in a 26-mile, 24-inch inside diameter pipeline to the Southeast Geysers. The wastewater from the SERWTP would be supplemented by raw lake water diverted from nearby Clear Lake. At The Geysers, the effluent would be directed into a system of distribution lines to wells. In the geothermal reservoir, the water will be converted to steam and collected in production wells that will direct the steam to six existing power plants. This document is a summary of a combined full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIR/EIS describes the environmental impacts of the various components of the project. Mitigation measures are suggested for reducing impacts to a less than significant level

Summary of the GNWT Dehcho regional workshop on the social impacts of the Mackenzie Valley gas project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The proposed Mackenzie Gas Project will span at least 20 years and is expected to have significant social impacts. This workshop provided a forum for communities and government to evaluate the social impacts of the project, as well as a means for initiating collaborative planning to monitor and manage them over the next 20 years. Local plans for managing the impacts during the construction of the pipeline were discussed, as well as issues concerning future economic activity, demographic changes and long-lasting social impacts. Participants included government and community representatives from various areas in the Northwest Territories (NT). Impacts on employment and income were reviewed, as well as issues concerning housing, health and wellness. The role of the NT bureau of statistics in the monitoring of social trends was examined. Current government resources for managing impacts were evaluated as well as various social envelope departments. Community resources for managing social impacts were reviewed. Positive and negative impacts were discussed for each of the topics presented at the workshops, as well as current and future mitigation efforts. Participants developed concrete suggestions for monitoring impacts, assessing resource needs and collaborating. refs., tabs., figs.

Impact of Geological Changes on Regional and Global Economies

Science.gov (United States)

Tatiana, Skufina; Peter, Skuf'in; Vera, Samarina; Taisiya, Shatalova; Baranov, Sergey

2017-04-01

Periods of geological changes such as super continent cycle (300-500 million years), Wilson's cycles (300-900 million years), magmatic-tectonic cycle (150-200 million years), and cycles with smaller periods (22, 100, 1000 years) lead to a basic contradiction preventing forming methodology of the study of impact of geological changes on the global and regional economies. The reason of this contradiction is the differences of theoretical and methodological aspects of the Earth science and economics such as different time scales and accuracy of geological changes. At the present the geological models cannot provide accurate estimation of time and place where geological changes (strong earthquakes, volcanos) are expected. Places of feature (not next) catastrophic events are the only thing we have known. Thus, it is impossible to use the periodicity to estimate both geological changes and their consequences. Taking into accounts these factors we suggested a collection of concepts for estimating impact of possible geological changes on regional and global economies. We illustrated our approach by example of estimating impact of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 on regional and global economies. Based on this example we concluded that globalization processes increase an impact of geological changes on regional and global levels. The research is supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Projects No. 16-06-00056, 16-32-00019, 16-05-00263A).

Role of exposure in projected residential building cyclone risk for the Australian region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Waters, Denis; Cechet, Bob; Arthur, Craig

2010-01-01

The paper presents a methodology to analyse the direct impact of tropical cyclone hazard on communities in northern Australia. The study focuses on the maximum potential intensity (MPI) of the cyclonic wind hazard, and location. Storm surge impacts were developed using a simple relationship between intensity and storm surge height and mid-point sea-level rise projections. The impact on residential building stock of severe wind and storm surge hazards associated with IPCC climate change scenarios is considered. Changes in residential building stock, for over 500 coastal statistical local areas (SLAs) from Southeast Queensland anticlockwise to Perth, were estimated using Australian Bureau of Statistics population projections through to 2100. A Probable Maximum Loss (PML) curve was derived, and the average annual cost across a 5000 year period (or 'annualised loss') was evaluated for each region. The projected population growth and the drift to coastal locations are significant elements in determining the damage associated with possible future cyclone threat.

Intercomparison of regional-scale hydrological models and climate change impacts projected for 12 large river basins worldwide—a synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Krysanova, Valentina; Vetter, Tobias; Eisner, Stephanie; Huang, Shaochun; Pechlivanidis, Ilias; Strauch, Michael; Gelfan, Alexander; Kumar, Rohini; Aich, Valentin; Arheimer, Berit; Chamorro, Alejandro; van Griensven, Ann; Kundu, Dipangkar; Lobanova, Anastasia; Mishra, Vimal; Plötner, Stefan; Reinhardt, Julia; Seidou, Ousmane; Wang, Xiaoyan; Wortmann, Michel; Zeng, Xiaofan; Hattermann, Fred F.

2017-10-01

An intercomparison of climate change impacts projected by nine regional-scale hydrological models for 12 large river basins on all continents was performed, and sources of uncertainty were quantified in the framework of the ISIMIP project. The models ECOMAG, HBV, HYMOD, HYPE, mHM, SWAT, SWIM, VIC and WaterGAP3 were applied in the following basins: Rhine and Tagus in Europe, Niger and Blue Nile in Africa, Ganges, Lena, Upper Yellow and Upper Yangtze in Asia, Upper Mississippi, MacKenzie and Upper Amazon in America, and Darling in Australia. The model calibration and validation was done using WATCH climate data for the period 1971-2000. The results, evaluated with 14 criteria, are mostly satisfactory, except for the low flow. Climate change impacts were analyzed using projections from five global climate models under four representative concentration pathways. Trends in the period 2070-2099 in relation to the reference period 1975-2004 were evaluated for three variables: the long-term mean annual flow and high and low flow percentiles Q 10 and Q 90, as well as for flows in three months high- and low-flow periods denoted as HF and LF. For three river basins: the Lena, MacKenzie and Tagus strong trends in all five variables were found (except for Q 10 in the MacKenzie); trends with moderate certainty for three to five variables were confirmed for the Rhine, Ganges and Upper Mississippi; and increases in HF and LF were found for the Upper Amazon, Upper Yangtze and Upper Yellow. The analysis of projected streamflow seasonality demonstrated increasing streamflow volumes during the high-flow period in four basins influenced by monsoonal precipitation (Ganges, Upper Amazon, Upper Yangtze and Upper Yellow), an amplification of the snowmelt flood peaks in the Lena and MacKenzie, and a substantial decrease of discharge in the Tagus (all months). The overall average fractions of uncertainty for the annual mean flow projections in the multi-model ensemble applied for all basins

Air Pollution and Climate Change Health Impact Assessment. The ACHIA Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kinney, P.L.

2013-01-01

Climate change may affect human health via interactions with air pollutants such as ozone and PM 2.5 . These air pollutants are linked to climate because they can be both affected by and have effects on climate. In coming decades, substantial, cost-effective improvements in public health may be achieved with well-planned strategies to mitigate climate impacts while also reducing health effects of ozone and PM 2.5 . Climate mitigation actions affect greenhouse pollutant emissions, including methane and black carbon, but also may affect other key air pollution precursors such as NOx, CO, and SOx. To better understand the potential of such strategies, studies are needed that assess possible future health impacts under alternative assumptions about future emissions and climate across multiple spatial scales. The overall objective of this project is to apply state of the art climate, air quality, and health modelling tools to assess future health impacts of ozone and PM 2.5 under different IPCCs scenario of climate change, focusing specifically on pollution-related health co-benefits which could be achieved under alternative climate mitigation pathways in the period 2030-2050. This question will be explored at three spatial scales: global, regional (Europe), and urban (Paris). ACHIA is comprised of an integrated set of four work packages: WP1. Global Climate and Air Pollution Impacts of Alternative Emissions Pathways; WP2. Climate and Air Quality at Regional and Urban Scales: Results for Europe and Paris; WP3. Health Impact Assessment; WP4. Dissemination, Evaluation, Management. ACHIA is designed to create an interdisciplinary approach to the impacts of climate change on health through air quality changes, and to start longer-term collaborations between communities. We expect the project to advance state of art across all WPs, with important implications for research groups around the world. A particular innovation of the project is the multi-scale aspect, i.e., the

Navajo transmission project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-09-01

Dine Power Authority, a Navajo Nation enterprise, proposes to construct a 500 kilovolt transmission line planned to deliver electrical power from the Shiprock Substation in northwestern New Mexico to either the Mead or the Marketplace Substation in southern Nevada. The line would relieve constraints on transmission of electricity west from the Four Comers area; improve operational flexibility and reliability of the overall system; and allow increased economical transfers, sales, and purchases in the Rocky Mountains/Four Comers/Desert Southwest region. Also, the project allows an opportunity for the Navajo Nation to participate in the electrical utility industry and promote economic development to benefit the people of the Navajo Nation. Alternatives considered include energy conservation and electric load management, new generation facilities, use of existing transmission systems, alternative transmission technologies, no action, and the proposed action. For the proposed action, several alternative routes and ancillary facility locations are addressed: four alternative routes and five substations in the eastern portion of the project area; and six alternative routes, three substation sites, and a microwave communication facility in the western portion of the project area. The existing condition of the environmental resources in the project area is described and potential impacts on those resources as a result of the proposed action are addressed. The impacts of the proposed action would be caused mainly by access roads, tower sites, and other associated facilities on soils, vegetation, wildlife, and cultural and paleontological resources, and the impact of the transmission line's presence on visual resources and land uses

Projections of Three-Dimensional Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, Felix; Rosa, De La

2005-01-01

When first-year calculus students are interested in studying double integrals, they can find, in standard textbooks, a detailed description of the different regions of integration. The aims of this paper are: to give a criterion to select the plane that will be projected, to classify the projections, and to give a simple rule to obtain them.…

Africa region population projections - 1988-89

OpenAIRE

Vu, My T.; Bos, Eduard; Bulatao, Rodolfo A.

1988-01-01

The report which is part of a series, presents population projection tables for each country in the Africa region. The report provides an explanation on projection results as well as a description of the projection methodology, summarizing the main results. The projections in the report cover the period 1985 - 2150. This time period allows countries to approach stability. The key elements in these projections are the base year (mid 1985). Total population estimates and age - sex structures ar...

Renewable biomass energy: Understanding regional scale environmental impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graham, R.L.; Downing, M.

1993-12-31

If biomass energy is to become a significant component of the US energy sector, millions of acres of farmland must be converted to energy crops. The environmental implications of this change in land use must be quantitatively evaluated. The land use changes will be largely driven by economic considerations. Farmers will grow energy crops when it is profitable to do so. Thus, models which purport to predict environmental changes induced by energy crop production must take into account those economic features which will influence land use change. In this paper, we present an approach for projecting the probable environmental impacts of growing energy crops at the regional scale. The approach takes into account both economic and environmental factors. We demonstrate the approach by analyzing, at a county-level the probable impact of switchgrass production on erosion, evapotranspiration, nitrate in runoff, and phosphorous fertilizer use in multi-county subregions within the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) region. Our results show that the adoption of switchgrass production will have different impacts in each subregion as a result of differences in the initial land use and soil conditions in the subregions. Erosion, evapotranspiration, and nitrate in runoff are projected to decrease in both subregions as switchgrass displaces the current crops. Phosphorous fertilizer applications are likely to increase in one subregion and decrease in the other due to initial differences in the types of conventional crops grown in each subregion. Overall these changes portend an improvement in water quality in the subregions with the increasing adoption of switchgrass.

Renewable biomass energy: Understanding regional scale environmental impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graham, R.L.; Downing, M.

1993-01-01

If biomass energy is to become a significant component of the US energy sector, millions of acres of farmland must be converted to energy crops. The environmental implications of this change in land use must be quantitatively evaluated. The land use changes will be largely driven by economic considerations. Farmers will grow energy crops when it is profitable to do so. Thus, models which purport to predict environmental changes induced by energy crop production must take into account those economic features which will influence land use change. In this paper, we present an approach for projecting the probable environmental impacts of growing energy crops at the regional scale. The approach takes into account both economic and environmental factors. We demonstrate the approach by analyzing, at a county-level, the probable impact of switchgrass production on erosion, evapotranspiration, nitrate in runoff, and phosphorous fertilizer use in two multi-county subregions within the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) region. Our results show that the adoption of switchgrass production will have different impacts in each subregion as a result of differences in the initial land use and soil conditions in the subregions. Erosion, evapotranspiration, and nitrate in runoff are projected to decrease in both subregions as switchgrass displaces the current crops. Phosphorous fertilizer applications are likely to increase in one subregion and decrease in the other due to initial differences in the types of conventional crops grown in each subregion. Overall these changes portend an improvement in water quality in the subregions with the increasing adoption of switchgrass

Assessing the health equity impacts of regional land-use plan making: An equity focussed health impact assessment of alternative patterns of development of the Whitsunday Hinterland and Mackay Regional Plan, Australia (Short report)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gunning, Colleen; Harris, Patrick; Mallett, John

2011-01-01

Health service and partners completed an equity focussed health impact assessment to influence the consideration of health and equity within regional land-use planning in Queensland, Australia. This project demonstrated how an equity oriented assessment matrix can assist in testing regional planning scenarios. It is hoped that this HIA will contribute to the emerging interest in ensuring that potential differential health impacts continue to be considered as part of land-use planning processes.

Northeast Regional environmental impact study: Waste disposal technical report

Science.gov (United States)

Saguinsin, J. L. S.

1981-04-01

The potential for cumulative and interactive environmental impacts associated with the conversion of multiple generating stations in the Northeast is assessed. The estimated quantities and composition of wastes resulting from coal conversion, including ash and SO2 scrubber sludge, are presented. Regulations governing the use of ash and scrubber sludge are identified. Currently available waste disposal schemes are described. The location, capacity, and projected life of present and potential disposal sites in the region are identified. Waste disposal problems, both hazardous and nonhazardous, are evaluated. Environmental regulations within the region as they pertain to coal conversion and as they affect the choice of conversion alternatives are discussed. A regional waste management strategy for solid waste disposal is developed.

Focus: Assessing the regional impacts of global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woo, Mingko

1992-01-01

Five studies are presented which assess the impacts of global warming on physical, economic, and social systems in Canada. A study on the use of climatic change scenarios to estimate ecoclimatic impacts was carried out. These scenarios may include synthetic scenarios produced from historical data, global climate model (GCM) simulations, and hybrid scenarios. The advantages and drawbacks of various scenarios are discussed along with the criteria for selecting impact assessment models. An examination of water resources in the Great Lakes and the Saskatchewan River subbasin uses case studies of two areas that have experienced wide hydrological variations due to climatic variability in order to determine the impacts of global warming scenarios on net basin supply. Problems of developing regional models are discussed and results of projected changes in net basin supply are presented for GCM-based simulations and hypothetical warming scenarios. A study of the impacts of climate warming on transportation and the regional economy in northern Canada uses stochastic models to provide examples of how Mackenzie River barge traffic will be affected. The economic impacts of the resultant lengthened shipping season are outlined under three scenarios. The implications of climatic change on Ontario agriculture are assessed according to GCM scenarios. Results are presented for crop yields and production as well as land resource suitability. Finally, sociocultural implications of global warming on the Arctic and the Inuit are summarized, with reference to a past warming episode occurring around the year 1000. 45 refs., 4 figs., 3 tabs

Southeast Regional Assessment Project for the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Dalton, Melinda S.; Jones, Sonya A.

2010-01-01

expanded to address climate change-related impacts on all Department of the Interior (DOI) resources. The NCCWSC will establish a network of eight DOI Regional Climate Science Centers (RCSCs) that will work with a variety of partners to provide natural resource managers with tools and information that will help them anticipate and adapt conservation planning and design for projected climate change. The forecasting products produced by the RCSCs will aid fish, wildlife, and land managers in designing suitable adaptive management approaches for their programs. The DOI also is developing Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) as science and conservation action partnerships at subregional scales. The USGS is working with the Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to develop science collaboration between the future Southeast RCSC and future LCCs. The NCCWSC Southeast Regional Assessment Project (SERAP) will begin to develop regional downscaled climate models, land cover change models, regional ecological models, regional watershed models, and other science tools. Models and data produced by SERAP will be used in a collaborative process between the USGS, the FWS (LCCs), State and federal partners, nongovernmental organizations, and academia to produce science at appropriate scales to answer resource management questions. The SERAP will produce an assessment of climate change, and impacts on land cover, ecosystems, and priority species in the region. The predictive tools developed by the SERAP project team will allow end users to better understand potential impacts of climate change and sea level rise on terrestrial and aquatic populations in the Southeastern United States. The SERAP capitalizes on the integration of five existing projects: (1) the Multi-State Conservation Grants Program project "Designing Sustainable Landscapes," (2) the USGS multidisciplinary Science Thrust project "Water Availability for Ecological Needs," (3) the USGS Southeast Pilot

Social impact assessment in energy projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koivujaervi, S.; Kantola, I.; Maekinen, P.

1998-01-01

The research report is based on literature and interviews on the social impact assessment (SIA) in energy projects in Finland, both before and after the EIA Act has been in force in Finland. The concept and content of SIA, the requirements set by the legislation, its relation with other environmental impacts, the assessment process and the used methods have been studied on the basis of the literature analysis. A total of 26 persons representing the coordination authorities, persons issuing statements, researchers, civil servants, consultants and project developers were interviewed for the research. The interviews were made by the University of Turku in the form of theme interviews, investigating the present status, practices and expectations of the SIA. The unestablished status was seen to be the problem in the SIA, which was reflected in the interviewers' varying views about the content of the SIA. Among the operators, the general character of the SIA criticism in the statements concerning the assessment programmes or reports was seen as a problem as well; the assessment of social impact has been considered to be insufficient, however, without any identification of the effects or how the effects should have been assessed. For the time preceding the EIA Act, the assessment of the social impact of hydraulic work, power plant and transmission line projects and the project of the fifth nuclear power plant have been studied. As to the power plant and transmission line projects after the validity of the EIA Act, all the 20 projects were gone through which had progressed during the spring 1998 at least to the assessment report stage. Of these projects, the assessment of the social impact of one transmission line and one power plant project was studied in detail. The report also studies the assessment of the social impact of the repository for nuclear waste on the basis of the experience gained in Finland and in other countries. On the basis of the literature study

Navajo transmission project. Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-08-01

Dine Power Authority, a Navajo Nation enterprise, proposes to construct a 500 kilovolt transmission line planned to deliver electrical power from the Shiprock Substation in northwestern New Mexico to the Marketplace Substation in southern Nevada. The line would relieve constraints on transmission of electricity west from the Four Corners area; improve operational flexibility and reliability of the overall system; and allow increased economical transfers, sales, and purchases in the Rocky Mountains/Four Corners/Desert Southwest region. Also, the project allows an opportunity for the Navajo Nation to participate in the electrical utility industry and promote economic development to benefit the people of the Navajo Nation. Six alternatives were considered and include (1) energy conservation and electric load management, (2) new generation facilities, (3) use of existing transmission systems, (4) alternative transmission technologies, (5) no action, and (6) the proposed action. For the proposed action, the following alternative routes and ancillary facility locations are addressed in the EIS: four alternative routes and five substations in the eastern portion of the project area; and six alternative routes, three substation sites, and a microwave communication facility in the western portion of the project area. The existing condition of the environmental resources in the project area is described, and potential impacts on those resources as a result of the proposed action are addressed. The impacts of the proposed action would be caused mainly by access roads, tower sites, and other associated facilities on soils, vegetation, wildlife, and cultural and paleontological resources; and the impact of the transmission line's presence on visual resources and land uses. Public comments on the draft EIS are addressed in this FEIS

Assessing health impacts of the Chad-Cameroon petroleum development and pipeline project: challenges and a way forward

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Utzinger, Juerg; Wyss, Kaspar; Moto, Daugla D.; Yemadji, N'Diekhor; Tanner, Marcel; Singer, Burton H.

2005-01-01

Health impact assessment (HIA) of projects, programmes and policies is increasingly recognized as a powerful methodology for mitigating negative health impacts and enhancing equitable and sustainable development, yet applications in the developing world are sparse. Here, we focus on a large infrastructure development in sub-Saharan Africa, namely the Chad-Cameroon petroleum development and pipeline project. We adapted a five-step process for HIA, consisting of (1) screening of project documents, (2) profiling of affected communities, (3) identifying priority health areas, predicting potential impacts, and proposing mitigation measures, (4) implementing interventions, and (5) monitoring and evaluation of health impacts. We found that project scoping was broad, including extensive environmental and social assessments. Innovative features of the project include the high degree of public-private partnerships, and the management of oil revenues for purposes of poverty reduction. The project also addressed occupational and public health issues, and developed and implemented measures to prevent or mitigate potential health impacts. However, there was a disproportionate emphasis on workers' health, particularly on the prevention/mitigation of construction-related injuries, sexually transmitted infections (STIs; mainly HIV/AIDS), and malaria. Health impacts among surrounding communities, and cumulative health impacts in the larger region were not considered in a comprehensive way. Concluding, there is a need for a more systemic approach to HIA and its incorporation within 'Equator Principles', which are increasingly adopted by the international financial community. This process would include clarification of corporate social responsibility beyond the project fence line in the mitigation of health problems at regional levels. Finally, we propose the establishment and running of a longitudinal demographic surveillance system, which--coupled with regular household surveys

Selection of projects in the regional energy planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramirez P, R.; Navas M, F.

1993-01-01

The processes of regional energy planning have changed vastly in the last years and it will continue changing in the future for the new norm of the State. This work tries to show the use of systematic tools in the selection of regional energy projects. It discusses a methodology of selection of projects based on a multivariate technical. It is applied in the Southwestern region of Colombia and both selection and priority results are obtained. The designed methodology allows to make the selection of projects in an automatic way with a software designed for such an end. In the case of Southwestern it arrives to a briefcase of projects for an energy plan and made for other races

Assessing the impacts of 1.5 °C global warming - simulation protocol of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP2b)

Science.gov (United States)

Frieler, Katja; Lange, Stefan; Piontek, Franziska; Reyer, Christopher P. O.; Schewe, Jacob; Warszawski, Lila; Zhao, Fang; Chini, Louise; Denvil, Sebastien; Emanuel, Kerry; Geiger, Tobias; Halladay, Kate; Hurtt, George; Mengel, Matthias; Murakami, Daisuke; Ostberg, Sebastian; Popp, Alexander; Riva, Riccardo; Stevanovic, Miodrag; Suzuki, Tatsuo; Volkholz, Jan; Burke, Eleanor; Ciais, Philippe; Ebi, Kristie; Eddy, Tyler D.; Elliott, Joshua; Galbraith, Eric; Gosling, Simon N.; Hattermann, Fred; Hickler, Thomas; Hinkel, Jochen; Hof, Christian; Huber, Veronika; Jägermeyr, Jonas; Krysanova, Valentina; Marcé, Rafael; Müller Schmied, Hannes; Mouratiadou, Ioanna; Pierson, Don; Tittensor, Derek P.; Vautard, Robert; van Vliet, Michelle; Biber, Matthias F.; Betts, Richard A.; Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon; Deryng, Delphine; Frolking, Steve; Jones, Chris D.; Lotze, Heike K.; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Sahajpal, Ritvik; Thonicke, Kirsten; Tian, Hanqin; Yamagata, Yoshiki

2017-11-01

In Paris, France, December 2015, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) invited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide a special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. In Nairobi, Kenya, April 2016, the IPCC panel accepted the invitation. Here we describe the response devised within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) to provide tailored, cross-sectorally consistent impact projections to broaden the scientific basis for the report. The simulation protocol is designed to allow for (1) separation of the impacts of historical warming starting from pre-industrial conditions from impacts of other drivers such as historical land-use changes (based on pre-industrial and historical impact model simulations); (2) quantification of the impacts of additional warming up to 1.5 °C, including a potential overshoot and long-term impacts up to 2299, and comparison to higher levels of global mean temperature change (based on the low-emissions Representative Concentration Pathway RCP2.6 and a no-mitigation pathway RCP6.0) with socio-economic conditions fixed at 2005 levels; and (3) assessment of the climate effects based on the same climate scenarios while accounting for simultaneous changes in socio-economic conditions following the middle-of-the-road Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP2, Fricko et al., 2016) and in particular differential bioenergy requirements associated with the transformation of the energy system to comply with RCP2.6 compared to RCP6.0. With the aim of providing the scientific basis for an aggregation of impacts across sectors and analysis of cross-sectoral interactions that may dampen or amplify sectoral impacts, the protocol is designed to facilitate consistent impact projections from a range of impact models across different sectors (global

Impacts of James Bay project on Cree communities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senecal, P.; Egre, D.

1993-01-01

The LaGrande hydroelectric project in northwest Quebec, originally begun in 1972, was blocked by the Cree Indians and a negotiated settlement was reached in 1975 to continue it in exchange for compensation, land rights, and other matters. The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement contained provisions regulating the use of land and aimed at preserving the traditional Cree way of life. Other complementary agreements were signed in the 1980s. The impact of river-system modifications on wildlife harvesting and the effect of access roads on Cree communities are discussed. Flooding of hunting lands affected some traplines, and the low productivity of shore habitats and the high levels of mercury in some fish have greatly limited use of the LaGrande reservoirs for other purposes. Stream navigation at some communities was made more difficult because of changed river flows. The impact of the roads has been more positive, since the roads have facilitated trade and reduced local prices of many goods, and made wildlife harvesting easier and more evenly distributed. An income security program for hunters, fishers, and trappers has helped preserve a traditional lifestyle. A sharp increase in salary income, indicating consolidation of the employment market in the region, is the most significant economic impact of the LaGrande project agreement. 6 refs

SESAME as a Model Project for Other Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Winick, Herman

2013-03-01

UNESCO became the umbrella organization for SESAME at its Executive Board 164th session, May 2002. The following comments about SESAME were made by this board: ``a quintessential UNESCO project combining capacity building with vital peace-building through science'' and ``a model project for other regions.'' Now that SESAME is well underway, other regions (e.g.; Africa and Central Asia) should be made aware of this progress, and they should be welcomed to join SESAME as a first step in developing similar projects in their region. Students and scientists from other regions should be encouraged to attend SESAME Users' meeting, schools, workshops, etc. where they can learn about synchrotron radiation sources, beamlines, and science. They should be invited to join SESAME scientists in designing and commissioning accelerators and beamlines, gaining relevant experience for their own projects and helping SESAME in the process. Work supported by DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences

Economic and environmental impact analysis of new road network project, connecting the inland metropolitan cities with port city of Karachi in Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brohi, K.M.; Uqaili, M.A.; Harijan, K.

2005-01-01

Most of the developing countries face a lack of infrastructure facilities, where the road transport network is one of them. In this paper, firstly impacts of new road network project connecting with port city and inland metropolitan cities or northwest part of Pakistan are analyzed by using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. Secondly, for the estimation of economic and environmental impacts of this project, a multi-regional CGE model is proposed. It is found that construction of this project is going to change the industrial structure, especially in production of manufacturing sector, and it will also change the Equivalent Variation (EV). It is also observed that remarkable economic and environmental impacts appeared in the inland metropolitan cities or northwest region than the rest of Pakistan. After analysis of these impacts, it is easy for government to make proper policy for maintaining economic impacts and reducing environmental impacts on national and regional level. (author)

Projecting twenty-first century regional sea-level changes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slangen, A.B.A.; Carson, M.; Katsman, C.A.; van de Wal, R.S.W.; Köhl, A.; Vermeersen, L.L.A.; Stammer, D.

2014-01-01

We present regional sea-level projections and associated uncertainty estimates for the end of the 21 (st) century. We show regional projections of sea-level change resulting from changing ocean circulation, increased heat uptake and atmospheric pressure in CMIP5 climate models. These are combined

Aurora Borealis. Project Cycle Management in Regional Development

OpenAIRE

Andra Aldea-Partanen; Heimo Keränen; Susanna Nevalainen

2003-01-01

This paper aims to analyse Project Cycle Management approach in the context of regional development. The theoretical framework covers contemporary concepts typical for regional development and specific project/programme management tools. The comparative approach is used to take into account the two versions of Project Cycle Management presented by European Commission among evaluation methods and instruments, in 1993 and 2001. A practical application is drawn using mid-term evaluation of Baren...

Environmental impact assessment for uranium mine, mill and in situ leach projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-11-01

Environmental impact assessments and/or statements are an inherent part of any uranium mining project and are a prerequisite for the future opening of an exploitation and its final closure and decommissioning. Since they contain all information related to the physical, biological, chemical and economic condition of the areas where industrial projects are proposed or planned, they present invaluable guidance for the planning and implementation of environmental mitigation as well as environmental restoration after the mine is closed. They further yield relevant data on the socio-economic impacts of a project. The present report provides guidance on the environmental impact assessment of uranium mining and milling projects, including in situ leach projects which will be useful for companies in the process of planning uranium developments as well as for the regional or national authorities who will assess such developments. Additional information and advice is given through environmental case histories from five different countries. Those case histories are not meant to be prescriptions for conducting assessments nor even firm recommendations, but should serve as examples for the type and extent of work involved in assessments. A model assessment and licensing process is recommended based on the experience of the five countries. 1 fig., 5 tabs.

Environmental impact assessment for uranium mine, mill and in situ leach projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-11-01

Environmental impact assessments and/or statements are an inherent part of any uranium mining project and are a prerequisite for the future opening of an exploitation and its final closure and decommissioning. Since they contain all information related to the physical, biological, chemical and economic condition of the areas where industrial projects are proposed or planned, they present invaluable guidance for the planning and implementation of environmental mitigation as well as environmental restoration after the mine is closed. They further yield relevant data on the socio-economic impacts of a project. The present report provides guidance on the environmental impact assessment of uranium mining and milling projects, including in situ leach projects which will be useful for companies in the process of planning uranium developments as well as for the regional or national authorities who will assess such developments. Additional information and advice is given through environmental case histories from five different countries. Those case histories are not meant to be prescriptions for conducting assessments nor even firm recommendations, but should serve as examples for the type and extent of work involved in assessments. A model assessment and licensing process is recommended based on the experience of the five countries

Campania Region's Educational Quality Facilities Project

Science.gov (United States)

Ponti, Giorgio

2009-01-01

This article describes the Educational Quality Facilities project undertaken by Italy's Campania Region to provide quality facilities to all of its communities basing new spaces on the "Flexible Learning Module". The objectives of the five-year project are to: build and equip new educational spaces; improve the quality of existing…

Environmental impact assessment in regional administration - the province of Oulu as an example

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toerttoe, H.; Kaakinen, E.; Alasaarela, E.

1992-01-01

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure is concerned with the alternatives available in activities which profoundly affect the condition of our natural environment, built-up environment and society through given intermediate stages, the detrimental effects of these activities and the possibilities for reducing such effects. The procedure provides a comprehensive explanation of the above aspects and yields the necessary material for making the relevant decisions through well-organised negotiations between the parties involved. The majority of this material is gathered together in an environmental impact statement (EIS). The data can then be used for deciding on the implementation of individual projects. The research project 'Environmental Impact Assessment in Regional Administration - the Province of Oulu as an Example' is a part of the preparations being made by the Ministry of the Environment for introducing such an evaluation procedure for use in Finland. The primary aim of the project is to develop planning and cooperation procedures for use in regional administration that will allow evaluation of the environmental effects of various projects and activates and ensure that these effects can be evaluated and taken into consideration in a comprehensive manner at an early planning stage on the basis of existing procedures and legislation. The research, which takes the province of Oulu as an example, has involved close cooperation with the EIA '92 working group set up by the Ministry of the Environment, since the report of this working group provides a general framework for the evaluation of environmental effects

The Mediterranean Solar Plan: Project proposals for renewable energy in the Mediterranean Partner Countries region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jablonski, Sophie; Tarhini, Mohamad; Touati, Manaf; Gonzalez Garcia, David; Alario, Juan

2012-01-01

This paper presents a first assessment of the renewable energy projects, proposed by the nine Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) under the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP) and the associated potential economic impacts. As one of the priority projects of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the MSP's objective which attracted most attention until now is the intention to deploy an additional 20 GW of renewable electrical capacity in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region (covering the MPCs plus Turkey) by 2020. The main findings of this research are: (1) as of February 2010, a total of 10.3 GW of renewable project proposals were identified in the MPCs, corresponding to about half of the 20 GW target; (2) investment needs for the identified projects could amount to EUR 21 billion by 2020, which represents about five times the amount invested by the region in conventional electricity generation in the last decade; and (3) the difference between the cost of renewable electricity generation and the economic cost of its fossil fuel alternatives could amount to EUR 1.2 billion. Insights stemming from the results of this research can generate useful regional messages for energy policy leaders in the MPCs to accelerate the development of renewable energy projects. - Highlights: ► We conducted a systematic survey of renewable energy projects in the Mediterranean. ► The identified projects correspond to half the MSP 20 GW target. ► Maturity assessment is used to classify the advancement of the projects. ► We estimated the investment needs and required subsidies in the region by 2020.

The Identification of Technology Platforms and Innovation Areas with High Regional Impact

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nataša Urbančíková

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The paper is focused on the process of identification of the technological platforms and innovation areas with high regional impact. The aim is to discover future fields of technological innovation which are having a high qualitative and quantitative demand of high potentials. The research has been undertaken within project Innovative Development of European Areas by fostering transnational Knowledge Development – IDEA/ 2CE1175P1 funded by Central Europe Programme. The aim of IDEA project is the development of an adequate strategy which enables the small and medium sized enterprises in the regions of Central Europe to face the increasing demand of high potentials with tested methods and instruments. The target group of IDEA project are so called “high potentials” in the engineering and scientific sector where future-oriented technologies are one of the main sources of innovation.

Projecting changes in regional temperature and precipitation extremes in the United States

OpenAIRE

Justin T. Schoof; Scott M. Robeson

2016-01-01

Regional and local climate extremes, and their impacts, result from the multifaceted interplay between large-scale climate forcing, local environmental factors (physiography), and societal vulnerability. In this paper, we review historical and projected changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in the United States, with a focus on strengths and weaknesses of (1) commonly used definitions for extremes such as thresholds and percentiles, (2) statistical approaches to quantifying change...

Methodology of impact assessment of research projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodriguez Cardona, R.; Cobas Aranda, M.

2014-01-01

In the context of the management of research projects development it is necessary to have tools to monitor and evaluate progress and the performance of the projects, as well as their results and the impact on society (international agencies of the United Nations and the States 2002 and 2005 Paris Declaration), with the objective of to ensure their contribution to the social and economic development of countries. Many organizations, agencies and Governments apply different methodologies (IDB, World Bank, UNDP, ECLAC, UNESCO; UNICEF, Canada, Japan, other) for these purposes. In the results-based project management system not only paramount is the process or product itself, but also the result or impact of the project (if the program/project produced the effects desired persons, households and institutions and whether those effects are attributable to the intervention of the program / project). The work shows a methodology that allows for a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of impact of research projects and has been result of experience in project management of international collaboration with the International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAEA) and the Cuban Nuclear programme. (author)

The Study of Impacts of Water Transferring From Wet Regions To Dry Regions In Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Motiee-Homayoun, Dr.; Ghomashchi, Dr.

available. In this situation, water transformation from wet areas (with good water resources) to dried and desert regions of the country has been identified as a necessary and reasonable policy to tacklewater shortage. Mediterain climate and mountains in north, west and southwest regions of Iran grant a benefit of high level rate of rainfall, several deep and long rivers, and large capacity of groundwater resources in these areas. Existence of such rivers and water resources, especially a big river of Karoon in southwest, strengthens the goal of constructing hydraulic structures in order to transfer water fro m wet areas to central and eastern areas of the country. This goal has led to planning and implementing of several large and high cost projects. Experts of water affairs, believe that although drinking water supply is one of the most crucial missions of the government, it should also be noted that transformation huge amount of water from an area to another area, with a very long distant, undoubtedly, will cause significant environmental impacts in future. Therefore, decision making and implementing such strategic projects needs a very precise consideration and accurate cost-benefit analyzes. On the one hand, through a socio- economic approach, implementation of such big projects for water transferring requires a great amount of investment and a long period to complete, and benefit peoples. So in many cases multi-purpose and multi- dimensional projects should be considered carefully. On the other hand, water supply for some provinces is vital. In most identified areas, water scarcity is the main cause of urban decline, economic problems and finally loosing population because of emigration. Thus, fresh water should be supplied for these provinces at the earliest possible. This paper is an attempt to identify, define and explain the characteristics and specification of all projects for transferring in different parts of Iran. Generally, advantages and disadvantages of

Regional hydrological impacts of climate change: implications for water management in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Mondal

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Climate change is most likely to introduce an additional stress to already stressed water systems in developing countries. Climate change is inherently linked with the hydrological cycle and is expected to cause significant alterations in regional water resources systems necessitating measures for adaptation and mitigation. Increasing temperatures, for example, are likely to change precipitation patterns resulting in alterations of regional water availability, evapotranspirative water demand of crops and vegetation, extremes of floods and droughts, and water quality. A comprehensive assessment of regional hydrological impacts of climate change is thus necessary. Global climate model simulations provide future projections of the climate system taking into consideration changes in external forcings, such as atmospheric carbon-dioxide and aerosols, especially those resulting from anthropogenic emissions. However, such simulations are typically run at a coarse scale, and are not equipped to reproduce regional hydrological processes. This paper summarizes recent research on the assessment of climate change impacts on regional hydrology, addressing the scale and physical processes mismatch issues. Particular attention is given to changes in water availability, irrigation demands and water quality. This paper also includes description of the methodologies developed to address uncertainties in the projections resulting from incomplete knowledge about future evolution of the human-induced emissions and from using multiple climate models. Approaches for investigating possible causes of historically observed changes in regional hydrological variables are also discussed. Illustrations of all the above-mentioned methods are provided for Indian regions with a view to specifically aiding water management in India.

Impacts of regional land-grab on regional hydroclimate in southeastern Africa via modeling and remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Maksimowicz, M.; Masarik, M. T.; Brandt, J.; Flores, A. N.

2017-12-01

Land use/land cover (LULC) change directly impacts the partitioning of surface mass and energy fluxes. Regional-scale weather and climate are potentially altered by LULC if the resultant changes in partitioning of surface energy fluxes are significant enough to induce changes in the evolution of the planetary boundary layer and its interaction with the atmosphere above. Dynamics of land use, particularly those related to the social dimensions of the Earth System, are often simplified or not represented in regional land-atmosphere models or Earth System Models. This study explores the role of LULC change on a regional hydroclimate system, focusing on potential hydroclimate changes arising from timber harvesting due to a land grab boom in Mozambique. We also focus more narrowly at quantifying regional impacts on Gorongosa National Park, a nationally important economic and biodiversity resource in southeastern Africa. After nationalizing all land in 1975 after Mozambique gained independence, complex social processes, including an extended low intensity conflict civil war and economic hardships, led to an escalation of land use rights grants to foreign governments. Between 2004 and 2009, large tracts of land were requested for timber. Here we use existing tree cover loss datasets to more accurately represent land cover within a regional weather model. LULC in a region encompassing Gorongosa is updated at three instances between 2001 and 2014 using a tree cover loss dataset. We use these derived LULC datasets to inform lower boundary conditions in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. To quantify potential hydrometeorological changes arising from land use change, we performed a factorial-like experiment by mixing input LULC maps and atmospheric forcing data from before, during, and after the land grab. Results suggest that the land grab has impacted microclimate parameters in a significant way via direct and indirect impacts on land-atmosphere interactions

Selecting downscaled climate projections for water resource impacts and adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Vidal, Jean-Philippe; Hingray, Benoît

2015-04-01

Increasingly large ensembles of global and regional climate projections are being produced and delivered to the climate impact community. However, such an enormous amount of information can hardly been dealt with by some impact models due to computational constraints. Strategies for transparently selecting climate projections are therefore urgently needed for informing small-scale impact and adaptation studies and preventing potential pitfalls in interpreting ensemble results from impact models. This work proposes results from a selection approach implemented for an integrated water resource impact and adaptation study in the Durance river basin (Southern French Alps). A large ensemble of 3000 daily transient gridded climate projections was made available for this study. It was built from different runs of 4 ENSEMBLES Stream2 GCMs, statistically downscaled by 3 probabilistic methods based on the K-nearest neighbours resampling approach (Lafaysse et al., 2014). The selection approach considered here exemplifies one of the multiple possible approaches described in a framework for identifying tailored subsets of climate projections for impact and adaptation studies proposed by Vidal & Hingray (2014). It was chosen based on the specificities of both the study objectives and the characteristics of the projection dataset. This selection approach aims at propagating as far as possible the relative contributions of the four different sources of uncertainties considered, namely GCM structure, large-scale natural variability, structure of the downscaling method, and catchment-scale natural variability. Moreover, it took the form of a hierarchical structure to deal with the specific constraints of several types of impact models (hydrological models, irrigation demand models and reservoir management models). The implemented 3-layer selection approach is therefore mainly based on conditioned Latin Hypercube sampling (Christierson et al., 2012). The choice of conditioning

The role of land-climate interactions for the regional amplification of temperature extremes in climate projections

Science.gov (United States)

Seneviratne, S. I.; Vogel, M.; Zscheischler, J.; Schwingshackl, C.; Davin, E.; Gudmundsson, L.; Guillod, B.; Hauser, M.; Hirsch, A.; Hirschi, M.; Humphrey, V.; Thiery, W.

2017-12-01

Regional hot extremes are projected to increase more strongly than the global mean temperature, with substantially larger changes than 2°C even if global warming is limited to this level (Seneviratne et al. 2016). This presentation will highlight the processes underlying this behavior, which is strongly related to land-climate feedbacks (Vogel et al. 2017). The identified feedbacks are also affecting the occurrence probability of compound drought and heat events (Zscheischler and Seneviratne 2017), with high relevance for impacts on forest fire and agriculture production. Moreover, the responsible land processes strongly contribute to the inter-model spread in the projections, and can thus be used to derive observations-based constraints to reduce the uncertainty of projected changes in climate extremes. Finally, we will also discuss the role of soil moisture effects on carbon uptake and their relevance for projections, as well as the role of land use changes in affecting the identified feedbacks and projected changes in climate extremes. References: Seneviratne, S.I., M. Donat, A.J. Pitman, R. Knutti, and R.L. Wilby, 2016: Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets. Nature, 529, 477-483, doi:10.1038/nature16542. Vogel, M.M., R. Orth, F. Cheruy, S. Hagemann, R. Lorenz, B.J.J.M. Hurk, and S.I. Seneviratne, 2017: Regional amplification of projected changes in extreme temperatures strongly controlled by soil moisture-temperature feedbacks. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(3), 1511-1519, doi:10.1002/2016GL071235. Zscheischler, J., and S.I. Seneviratne, 2017: Dependence of drivers affects risks associated with compound events. Science Advances, 3(6), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1700263

East Asian Studies of Tropospheric Aerosols and their Impact on Regional Climate (EAST -AIRC): An overview

Science.gov (United States)

Zhangqing, Li; Li, C.; Chen, H.; Tsay, S.-C.; Holben, B.; Huang, J.; Li, B.; Maring, H.; Qian, Y.; Shi, G.;

Regional air quality management aspects of climate change: impact of climate mitigation options on regional air emissions.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudokas, Jason; Miller, Paul J; Trail, Marcus A; Russell, Armistead G

2015-04-21

We investigate the projected impact of six climate mitigation scenarios on U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOX) associated with energy use in major sectors of the U.S. economy (commercial, residential, industrial, electricity generation, and transportation). We use the EPA U.S. 9-region national database with the MARKet Allocation energy system model to project emissions changes over the 2005 to 2050 time frame. The modeled scenarios are two carbon tax, two low carbon transportation, and two biomass fuel choice scenarios. In the lower carbon tax and both biomass fuel choice scenarios, SO2 and NOX achieve reductions largely through pre-existing rules and policies, with only relatively modest additional changes occurring from the climate mitigation measures. The higher carbon tax scenario projects greater declines in CO2 and SO2 relative to the 2050 reference case, but electricity sector NOX increases. This is a result of reduced investments in power plant NOX controls in earlier years in anticipation of accelerated coal power plant retirements, energy penalties associated with carbon capture systems, and shifting of NOX emissions in later years from power plants subject to a regional NOX cap to those in regions not subject to the cap.

Regional climate projections for the MENA-CORDEX domain: analysis of projected temperature and precipitation changes

Science.gov (United States)

Hänsler, Andreas; Weber, Torsten; Eggert, Bastian; Saeed, Fahad; Jacob, Daniela

2014-05-01

Within the CORDEX initiative a multi-model suite of regionalized climate change information will be made available for several regions of the world. The German Climate Service Center (CSC) is taking part in this initiative by applying the regional climate model REMO to downscale global climate projections of different coupled general circulation models (GCMs) for several CORDEX domains. Also for the MENA-CORDEX domain, a set of regional climate change projections has been established at the CSC by downscaling CMIP5 projections of the Max-Planck-Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) for the scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 with the regional model REMO for the time period from 1950 to 2100 to a horizontal resolution of 0.44 degree. In this study we investigate projected changes in future climate conditions over the domain towards the end of the 21st century. Focus in the analysis is given to projected changes in the temperature and rainfall characteristics and their differences for the two scenarios will be highlighted.

Assessing the impacts of 1.5 °C global warming – simulation protocol of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP2b

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Frieler

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In Paris, France, December 2015, the Conference of the Parties (COP to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC invited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC to provide a special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. In Nairobi, Kenya, April 2016, the IPCC panel accepted the invitation. Here we describe the response devised within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP to provide tailored, cross-sectorally consistent impact projections to broaden the scientific basis for the report. The simulation protocol is designed to allow for (1 separation of the impacts of historical warming starting from pre-industrial conditions from impacts of other drivers such as historical land-use changes (based on pre-industrial and historical impact model simulations; (2 quantification of the impacts of additional warming up to 1.5 °C, including a potential overshoot and long-term impacts up to 2299, and comparison to higher levels of global mean temperature change (based on the low-emissions Representative Concentration Pathway RCP2.6 and a no-mitigation pathway RCP6.0 with socio-economic conditions fixed at 2005 levels; and (3 assessment of the climate effects based on the same climate scenarios while accounting for simultaneous changes in socio-economic conditions following the middle-of-the-road Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP2, Fricko et al., 2016 and in particular differential bioenergy requirements associated with the transformation of the energy system to comply with RCP2.6 compared to RCP6.0. With the aim of providing the scientific basis for an aggregation of impacts across sectors and analysis of cross-sectoral interactions that may dampen or amplify sectoral impacts, the protocol is designed to facilitate consistent impact projections from a range of impact models across

Environmental impacts of wind-energy projects

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Committee on Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy Projects; National Research Council; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council

2007-01-01

.... Environmental Impacts of Wind-Energy Projects offers an analysis of the environmental benefits and drawbacks of wind energy, along with an evaluation guide to aid decision-making about projects...

Regional air quality impacts of future fire emissions in Sumatra and Kalimantan

Science.gov (United States)

Marlier, Miriam E.; DeFries, Ruth S.; Kim, Patrick S.; Gaveau, David L. A.; Koplitz, Shannon N.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Mickley, Loretta J.; Margono, Belinda A.; Myers, Samuel S.

2015-05-01

Fire emissions associated with land cover change and land management contribute to the concentrations of atmospheric pollutants, which can affect regional air quality and climate. Mitigating these impacts requires a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between fires and different land cover change trajectories and land management strategies. We develop future fire emissions inventories from 2010-2030 for Sumatra and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) to assess the impact of varying levels of forest and peatland conservation on air quality in Equatorial Asia. To compile these inventories, we combine detailed land cover information from published maps of forest extent, satellite fire radiative power observations, fire emissions from the Global Fire Emissions Database, and spatially explicit future land cover projections using a land cover change model. We apply the sensitivities of mean smoke concentrations to Indonesian fire emissions, calculated by the GEOS-Chem adjoint model, to our scenario-based future fire emissions inventories to quantify the different impacts of fires on surface air quality across Equatorial Asia. We find that public health impacts are highly sensitive to the location of fires, with emissions from Sumatra contributing more to smoke concentrations at population centers across the region than Kalimantan, which had higher emissions by more than a factor of two. Compared to business-as-usual projections, protecting peatlands from fires reduces smoke concentrations in the cities of Singapore and Palembang by 70% and 40%, and by 60% for the Equatorial Asian region, weighted by the population in each grid cell. Our results indicate the importance of focusing conservation priorities on protecting both forested (intact or logged) peatlands and non-forested peatlands from fire, even after considering potential leakage of deforestation pressure to other areas, in order to limit the impact of fire emissions on atmospheric smoke concentrations and

Regional air quality impacts of future fire emissions in Sumatra and Kalimantan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marlier, Miriam E; DeFries, Ruth S; Kim, Patrick S; Koplitz, Shannon N; Jacob, Daniel J; Gaveau, David L A; Mickley, Loretta J; Margono, Belinda A; Myers, Samuel S

2015-01-01

Fire emissions associated with land cover change and land management contribute to the concentrations of atmospheric pollutants, which can affect regional air quality and climate. Mitigating these impacts requires a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between fires and different land cover change trajectories and land management strategies. We develop future fire emissions inventories from 2010–2030 for Sumatra and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) to assess the impact of varying levels of forest and peatland conservation on air quality in Equatorial Asia. To compile these inventories, we combine detailed land cover information from published maps of forest extent, satellite fire radiative power observations, fire emissions from the Global Fire Emissions Database, and spatially explicit future land cover projections using a land cover change model. We apply the sensitivities of mean smoke concentrations to Indonesian fire emissions, calculated by the GEOS-Chem adjoint model, to our scenario-based future fire emissions inventories to quantify the different impacts of fires on surface air quality across Equatorial Asia. We find that public health impacts are highly sensitive to the location of fires, with emissions from Sumatra contributing more to smoke concentrations at population centers across the region than Kalimantan, which had higher emissions by more than a factor of two. Compared to business-as-usual projections, protecting peatlands from fires reduces smoke concentrations in the cities of Singapore and Palembang by 70% and 40%, and by 60% for the Equatorial Asian region, weighted by the population in each grid cell. Our results indicate the importance of focusing conservation priorities on protecting both forested (intact or logged) peatlands and non-forested peatlands from fire, even after considering potential leakage of deforestation pressure to other areas, in order to limit the impact of fire emissions on atmospheric smoke concentrations

Impact evaluation in multicultural educational projects : case: ADAPTYKES project

OpenAIRE

Kuusisto, Miika

2014-01-01

The objective of this thesis was to examine the common evaluation concepts of the European Union’s funded projects. Such concepts inter alia are effectiveness, impacts and sustainability. The aim was to study how these are realized in multicultural educational case–project in a context, where the project is funded by the European Commission’s Leonardo DaVinci Programme. Thesis introduces two evaluation approaches, which are Logical Framework Approach and Realistic evaluation model. The fi...

Ensemble of regional climate model projections for Ireland

Science.gov (United States)

Nolan, Paul; McGrath, Ray

2016-04-01

The method of Regional Climate Modelling (RCM) was employed to assess the impacts of a warming climate on the mid-21st-century climate of Ireland. The RCM simulations were run at high spatial resolution, up to 4 km, thus allowing a better evaluation of the local effects of climate change. Simulations were run for a reference period 1981-2000 and future period 2041-2060. Differences between the two periods provide a measure of climate change. To address the issue of uncertainty, a multi-model ensemble approach was employed. Specifically, the future climate of Ireland was simulated using three different RCMs, driven by four Global Climate Models (GCMs). To account for the uncertainty in future emissions, a number of SRES (B1, A1B, A2) and RCP (4.5, 8.5) emission scenarios were used to simulate the future climate. Through the ensemble approach, the uncertainty in the RCM projections can be partially quantified, thus providing a measure of confidence in the predictions. In addition, likelihood values can be assigned to the projections. The RCMs used in this work are the COnsortium for Small-scale MOdeling-Climate Limited-area Modelling (COSMO-CLM, versions 3 and 4) model and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The GCMs used are the Max Planck Institute's ECHAM5, the UK Met Office's HadGEM2-ES, the CGCM3.1 model from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and the EC-Earth consortium GCM. The projections for mid-century indicate an increase of 1-1.6°C in mean annual temperatures, with the largest increases seen in the east of the country. Warming is enhanced for the extremes (i.e. hot or cold days), with the warmest 5% of daily maximum summer temperatures projected to increase by 0.7-2.6°C. The coldest 5% of night-time temperatures in winter are projected to rise by 1.1-3.1°C. Averaged over the whole country, the number of frost days is projected to decrease by over 50%. The projections indicate an average increase in the length of the growing season

Socio-economic Impact of Sethusamudram Project

OpenAIRE

Kannan, Srinivasan

2007-01-01

Any major development project has both benefits and disadvantages to the society. Many development projects have very high economic benefit and at the same time lead to environmental hazard. One such project is Sethudamudram project initiated by Government of India. This is a project which aims at minimising the distance of navigation for the goods transport in the sea. This paper is an attempt to study the socio-economic impact of the project based on the secondary data.

Mapping and assessing the environmental impacts of border tactical infrastructure in the Sky Island Region

Science.gov (United States)

Caroline Patrick-Birdwell; Sergio Avila-Villegas; Jenny Neeley; Louise Misztal

2013-01-01

In this project we mapped the different types of border barriers, identified impacts of border infrastructure on public and private lands and conducted spatial analyses within the approximately 200 miles of international border in the Sky Island region. The Sky Island region, bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border, is critically important for its biodiversity and...

Regional Projections of Extreme Apparent Temperature Days in Africa and the Related Potential Risk to Human Health

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Garland, Rebecca M

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Regional climate modelling was used to produce high resolution climate projections for Africa, under a “business as usual scenario”, that were translated into potential health impacts utilizing a heat index that relates apparent temperature...

Regional analysis and environmental impact assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parzyck, D.C.; Brocksen, R.W.; Emanuel, W.R.

1976-01-01

This paper presents a number of techniques that can be used to assess environmental impacts on a regional scale. Regional methodologies have been developed which examine impacts upon aquatic and terrestrial biota in regions through consideration of changes in land use, land cover, air quality, water resource use, and water quality. Techniques used to assess long-range atmospheric transport, water resources, effects on sensitive forest and animal species, and impacts on man are presented in this paper, along with an optimization approach which serves to integrate the analytical techniques in an overall assessment framework. A brief review of the research approach and certain modeling techniques used within one regional studies program is provided. While it is not an all inclusive report on regional analyses, it does present an illustration of the types of analyses that can be performed on a regional scale

Klondike III/Biglow Canyon Wind Integration Project; Final Environmental Impact Statement, September 2006.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

United States. Bonneville Power Administration

2006-09-01

impact of this project on wildlife when combined with other proposed wind projects in the region. The low to high impacts to visual resources reflect the effect that the transmission line and the turbine strings from both wind projects would have on viewers in the local area, but this impact diminishes with distance from the project.

Landscape ecological impact of climatic change some preliminary findings of the LICC Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boer, M.M.

1991-01-01

The main objectives of the LICC project are to address the potential effects of a future climatic change on (semi-) natural terrestrial ecosystems and landscapes in Europe; six case studies are covered: alpine regions, boreal and subartic regions, Mediterranean region, fluvial systems, wetlands and coastal dunes. Preliminary findings showed a serious lack in fundamental ecological knowledge. Assessment of potential effects involved changes in water and sediment fluxes, changes in the vegetation cover, species response, dispersal and migration in a fragmented landscape and modification of climate impacts by man

Regional economic impact of oil spills

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heen, K.; Andersen, M.

1994-01-01

An approach is demonstrated of coupling an environmental model to input-output analysis which aims to quantify the regional economic impact of an environmental accident. The model is implemented with the data of a potential oil spill interacting with the salmon aquaculture industry in Northern Norway. The production loss in salmon aquaculture and the regional income impact is computed and discussed. The approach used in this article could be a model for estimating the regional socio-economic impact of environmental factors like water and air pollution. 1 fig., 4 tabs., 19 refs

Regional climate change projections of streamflow characteristics in the Northeast and Midwest U.S.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eleonora M.C. Demaria

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Study region: Northeast and Midwest, United States. Study focus: Assessing the climate change impacts on the basin scale is important for water and natural resource managers. Here, the presence of monotonic trends and changes in climate-driven simulated 3-day peak flows, 7-day low flows, and mean base flows are evaluated in the Northeast and Midwest U.S. during the 20th and the 21st centuries using climate projections from sixteen climate models. Proven statistical methods are used to spatially and temporally disaggregate precipitation and temperature fields to a finer resolution before being used as drivers for a hydrological model. New hydrological insights for the region: Changes in the annual cycle of precipitation are likely to occur during the 21st century as winter precipitation increases and warmer temperatures reduce snow coverage across the entire domain especially in the northern basins. Maximum precipitation intensities are projected to become more intense across the region by mid-century especially along the coast. Positive trends in 3-day peak flows are also projected in the region as a result of the more intense precipitation, whereas the magnitude of 7-day low flows and mean base flows are projected to decrease. The length of the low flows season will likely extend by mid-century despite the increased precipitation as the atmospheric demand increases. Keywords: Streamflow peaks, Low flows, Trend analysis, Intense precipitation, Base flows

The impact of aging on regional employment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schmidt, Torben Dall; Mitze, Timo Friedel; Kangasharju, Aki

2014-01-01

Ageing is a key challenge for many countries. The purpose of this paper is to simulate how ageing affects future regional labour market outcomes. We develop a simulation procedure based on data for 71 Nordic regions in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The procedure combines spatial econometrics...... and population projections for scenario analyses of future employment patterns up to 2021. Compared to a “benchmark scenario” based on projections of the working age population, we find that predicted regional labour market outcomes tell a much richer story if a combination of estimation results and population...... projections is used. To this end, our results can be helpful for economic policymaking, which is constantly in need of accurate regional labor market forecasts....

The Middle Eastern Regional Irrigation Management Information Systems project-update

Science.gov (United States)

The Middle Eastern Regional Irrigation Management Information Systems Project (MERIMIS) was formulated at a meeting of experts from the region in Jordan in 2003. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, it is a cooperative regional project bringing together participants from Israel, Jordan, Palestini...

Etan hydropower project spurs industrial, agricultural growth of region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1982-01-01

Located in Hongdu commune, Xincheng County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on the middle reaches of the Hongshui River, the Etan hydroelectric power station was begun in 1977 and began to generate power in April 1981. The Etan hydroelectric power station is a run-off type, low waterhead medium-sized power station. It has an installed capacity of 60,000 kW for an average yearly power output of 328 million kWh. The main structure of the power station includes a water diversion canal, a water intake gate, a main machinery building and a switching station. The main machinery building is located on the downstream side of the dam on an overhanging cliff. With a construction area of only 5000 m/sup 2/, work was very difficult due to the restricted work area and transportation problems. By strengthening construction management and promoting technical innovation some 670,000 yuan were saved for the state and construction time was accelerated. This assured the completion of the construction and installation of the main parts of the project according to timetables and design requirements. The successful construction of the Etan hydroelectric power station marks another step in amassing experience in the harnessing of the Hongshui River. The project will have a major impact on the growth of industry and agriculture in Guangxi and on the buildup of the minority regions.

Africa region population projections : 1990-91

OpenAIRE

Stephens, Patience W.; Bos, Eduard; Vu, My T.; Bulatao, Rodolfo A.

1991-01-01

As recently as the mid-1970s, the Africa region had a smaller population than the Asia, the Latin American and the Caribbean, or the Europe, Middle East, and North Africa regions. Explosive population growth of more than 3 percent per year, projected to decline only gradually, will make Africa the second largest region by 2005. Its share of the world's population will increase from less than 10 percent now to 20 percent in the middle of the next century and to 25 percent when stationarity is ...

Sustainable regional development and natural hazard impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Petrova, Elena; Svetlosanov, Vladimir; Kudin, Valery

2016-04-01

During the last decades, natural hazard impacts on social and economic development in many countries were increasing due to the expansion of human activities into the areas prone to natural risks as well as to increasing in number and severity of natural hazardous events caused by climate changes and other natural phenomena. The escalation of severe disasters (such as Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan 2011) triggered by natural hazards and related natural-technological and environmental events is increasingly threatening sustainable development at different levels from regional to global scale. In our study, we develop a model of ecological, economic and social sustainable development for the European part of Russia and the Republic of Belarus. The model consists of six blocks including 1) population, 2) environment, 3) mineral resources, 4) geographic space, 5) investments, and 6) food production and import. These blocks were created based on the analysis of the main processes at the regional level; all the blocks are closely interrelated between each other. Reaching the limit values of block parameters corresponds to a sharp deterioration of the system; as a result, the system can lose its stability. Aggravation of natural and natural-technological risk impacts on each block and should be taken into account in the model of regional development. Natural hazards can cause both strong influences and small but permanent perturbations. In both cases, a system can become unstable. The criterion for sustainable development is proposed. The Russian Foundation for Humanities and Belorussian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research supported the study (project 15-22-01008).

Noxious facility impact projection: Incorporating the effects of risk aversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nieves, L.A.

1993-01-01

Developing new sites for noxious facilities has become a complex process with many potential pitfalls. In addition to the need to negotiate conditions acceptable to the host community, siting success may depend on the facility proposer's ability to identify a candidate site that not only meets technical requirements, but that is located in a community or region whose population is not highly averse to the risks associated with the type of facility being proposed. Success may also depend on the proposer accurately assessing potential impacts of the facility and offering an equitable compensation package to the people affected by it. Facility impact assessments, as typically performed, include only the effects of changes in population, employment and economic activity associated with facility construction and operation. Because of their scope, such assessments usually show a short-run, net economic benefit for the host region, making the intensely negative public reaction to some types and locations of facilities seem unreasonable. The impact component excluded from these assessments is the long-run economic effect of public perceptions of facility risk and nuisance characteristics. Recent developments in psychological and economic measurement techniques have opened the possibility of correcting this flaw by incorporating public perceptions in projections of economic impacts from noxious facilities

RegionsТ Competition for Investment Projects in Forest Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valentina Fedorovna Lapo

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The author considers the problem of competition between regions for investments. It is hypothesized that the presence of legislative stimulating benefits in a particular region, ceteris paribus, promotes investment flows in forest projects from other regions and is an instrumentl of inter-regional competition. To test the hypotheses the researcher uses a modified model with spatial weighted exogenous variables in order to assess the spatial effects. The obtained estimates indicate the presence of spatial effects, both negative (an inter-regional competition for investment and positive (agglomeration effects. The author argues that the process of inter-regional competition for investment in projects on forest development is caused by benefits under taxes and payments into the regional budget, regulation of pricing (including actions by natural and local monopolies and depreciation policy and solutions to put some forest projects in the list of priority ones. Along with this, the paper identifies agglomeration effects induced by a number of benefits: direct dealings in investment by financing or property contribution, subsidies, state guarantees, credit security and partial payment of interest

Modelling climate impact on floods under future emission scenarios using an ensemble of climate model projections

Science.gov (United States)

Wetterhall, F.; Cloke, H. L.; He, Y.; Freer, J.; Pappenberger, F.

2012-04-01

Evidence provided by modelled assessments of climate change impact on flooding is fundamental to water resource and flood risk decision making. Impact models usually rely on climate projections from Global and Regional Climate Models, and there is no doubt that these provide a useful assessment of future climate change. However, cascading ensembles of climate projections into impact models is not straightforward because of problems of coarse resolution in Global and Regional Climate Models (GCM/RCM) and the deficiencies in modelling high-intensity precipitation events. Thus decisions must be made on how to appropriately pre-process the meteorological variables from GCM/RCMs, such as selection of downscaling methods and application of Model Output Statistics (MOS). In this paper a grand ensemble of projections from several GCM/RCM are used to drive a hydrological model and analyse the resulting future flood projections for the Upper Severn, UK. The impact and implications of applying MOS techniques to precipitation as well as hydrological model parameter uncertainty is taken into account. The resultant grand ensemble of future river discharge projections from the RCM/GCM-hydrological model chain is evaluated against a response surface technique combined with a perturbed physics experiment creating a probabilisic ensemble climate model outputs. The ensemble distribution of results show that future risk of flooding in the Upper Severn increases compared to present conditions, however, the study highlights that the uncertainties are large and that strong assumptions were made in using Model Output Statistics to produce the estimates of future discharge. The importance of analysing on a seasonal basis rather than just annual is highlighted. The inability of the RCMs (and GCMs) to produce realistic precipitation patterns, even in present conditions, is a major caveat of local climate impact studies on flooding, and this should be a focus for future development.

Evaluating IPCC AR4 cool-season precipitation simulations and projections for impacts assessment over North America

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McAfee, Stephanie A. [The University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences, Tucson, AZ (United States); The Wilderness Society, Anchorage, AK (United States); Russell, Joellen L.; Goodman, Paul J. [The University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences, Tucson, AZ (United States)

2011-12-15

General circulation models (GCMs) have demonstrated success in simulating global climate, and they are critical tools for producing regional climate projections consistent with global changes in radiative forcing. GCM output is currently being used in a variety of ways for regional impacts projection. However, more work is required to assess model bias and evaluate whether assumptions about the independence of model projections and error are valid. This is particularly important where models do not display offsetting errors. Comparing simulated 300-hPa zonal winds and precipitation for the late 20th century with reanalysis and gridded precipitation data shows statistically significant and physically plausible associations between positive precipitation biases across all models and a marked increase in zonal wind speed around 30 N, as well as distortions in rain shadow patterns. Over the western United States, GCMs project drier conditions to the south and increasing precipitation to the north. There is a high degree of agreement between models, and many studies have made strong statements about implications for water resources and about ecosystem change on that basis. However, since one of the mechanisms driving changes in winter precipitation patterns appears to be associated with a source of error in simulating mean precipitation in the present, it suggests that greater caution should be used in interpreting impacts related to precipitation projections in this region and that standard assumptions underlying bias correction methods should be scrutinized. (orig.)

Southeast Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Facilities Improvements Project and Geysers Effluent Pipeline Project. Draft EIR/EIS, Volume 2 of 2: Appendices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

The Southeast Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (SERWTP) Facilities Improvement Plan and Geysers Effluent Pipeline and Effluent Injection Project are proposed as a plan to provide expanded wastewater treatment capabilities and to dispose of the effluent by injection in The Geysers geothermal field for purposes of power production. The project is located predominantly in the County of Lake, California, and also in part of Sonoma County. The plan includes various conventional facilities improvements in wastewater treatment to a secondary level of treatment at the SWERWTP. The plan includes facilities to convey the treated effluent in a 26-mile, 24-inch inside diameter pipeline to the Southeast Geysers. The wastewater from the SERWTP would be supplemented by raw lake water diverted from nearby Clear Lake. At The Geysers, the effluent would be directed into a system of distribution lines to wells. In the geothermal reservoir, the water will be converted to steam and collected in production wells that will direct the steam to six existing power plants. This document is a summary of a combined full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIR/EIS describes the environmental impacts of the various components of the project. Mitigation measures are suggested for reducing impacts to a less than significant level. This report contains appendices A and B. Appendix A contains notices of preparation/notices of intent and EIR/EIS scoping comments. Appendix B contains GeothermEx, Inc., analysis of Geothermal Reservoir Effects and Induced Seismicity

Global and Regional Impacts of the Clean Development Mechanism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Shunli; De Groot, H.L.F.; Nijkamp, P.; Verhoef, E.T.

2009-05-01

Climate change is a serious concern worldwide. Policy research on climate change in the past decades has largely focused on applied modelling exercises. However, the implications of specific policy strategies such as the clean development mechanism (CDM) for global and regional economic and environmental developments has received relatively little attention. This is partly caused by the complexities of modelling an instrument like CDM. By using and modifying the GTAP-E modelling system (GTAP stands for Global Trade Analysis Project), this paper sets out to trace the combined economic and environmental impacts of CDM policies. Particular emphasis is placed on technology transfer induced by alternative CDM policies. Specific attention is devoted to the possible negative consequences of non-participation of the USA in the global coalition, and the associated distributional impacts world-wide.

Global and Regional Impacts of the Clean Development Mechanism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Shunli; De Groot, H.L.F.; Nijkamp, P.; Verhoef, E.T. [VU University, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

2009-05-15

Climate change is a serious concern worldwide. Policy research on climate change in the past decades has largely focused on applied modelling exercises. However, the implications of specific policy strategies such as the clean development mechanism (CDM) for global and regional economic and environmental developments has received relatively little attention. This is partly caused by the complexities of modelling an instrument like CDM. By using and modifying the GTAP-E modelling system (GTAP stands for Global Trade Analysis Project), this paper sets out to trace the combined economic and environmental impacts of CDM policies. Particular emphasis is placed on technology transfer induced by alternative CDM policies. Specific attention is devoted to the possible negative consequences of non-participation of the USA in the global coalition, and the associated distributional impacts world-wide.

Ecological impact study methodology for hydrotechnical projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manoliu, Mihai; Toculescu, Razvan

1993-01-01

Besides the expected benefits, hydrotechnical projects may entail unfavorable effects on the hydrological regime, environment, health and living conditions of the population. Rational water resource management should take into consideration both the favorable and unfavorable effects. This implies the assessment of socio-economic and environmental impacts of the changes of the hydrological regime. The paper proposes a methodology for carrying out impact studies of hydrotechnical projects. The results of the work are presented graphically on the basis of composite programing. A summary of mathematical methods involved in impact study design is also presented. (authors)

Potential Impact of Fulfilment of Minimum Essential Force (MEF to The Regional Welfare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joko Tri Haryanto

2017-05-01

Full Text Available As with other aspects, the element of meeting the needs of national defence and security becomes very crucial aspect. These elements are not only coming from the domestic, but also related to the system of inter-state relations. To ensure the creation of the defence system and optimal security, policy will require minimum essential forces (MEF, which will outline the major components of the minimum requirements of national defence should be prepared to face any threats. The fulfilment of MEF must also provide welfare impacts for the region. For this reason this study was conducted with the purpose of calculating the impact of compliance with the MEF on the welfare of the region, especially in West Java province. IRIO using spatial approach, it can be concluded that the domestic defence industry is projected to have a role that is quite high, especially for the regional economy. To the West Java region, industrial goods of metal, in which there is the defence industry, encourage the creation of outputs and increase the income of workers. Although most of the economy and its impact enjoyed by workers in the territory, region or other provinces also continue to enjoy the effects of the increase in output and labour income.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant environmental impact report: an outline of the input--output model and the impact projections methodology. Technical document, socioeconomic portion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1978-07-01

A static model in the form of a regional input-output model was constructed for Eddy and Lea Counties, New Mexico. Besides the WIPP project, the model was also used for several other projects to determine the economic impact of proposed new facilities and developments. Both private and public sectors are covered. Sub-sectors for WIPP below-ground construction, above-ground construction, and operation and transport are included

How Does a Regional Climate Model Modify the Projected Climate Change Signal of the Driving GCM: A Study over Different CORDEX Regions Using REMO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claas Teichmann

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Global and regional climate model simulations are frequently used for regional climate change assessments and in climate impact modeling studies. To reflect the inherent and methodological uncertainties in climate modeling, the assessment of regional climate change requires ensemble simulations from different global and regional climate model combinations. To interpret the spread of simulated results, it is useful to understand how the climate change signal is modified in the GCM-RCM modelmodelgeneral circulation model-regional climate model (GCM-RCM chain. This kind of information can also be useful for impact modelers; for the process of experiment design and when interpreting model results. In this study, we investigate how the simulated historical and future climate of the Max-Planck-Institute earth system model (MPI-ESM is modified by dynamic downscaling with the regional model REMO in different world regions. The historical climate simulations for 1950–2005 are driven by observed anthropogenic forcing. The climate projections are driven by projected anthropogenic forcing according to different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs. The global simulations are downscaled with REMO over the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX domains Africa, Europe, South America and West Asia from 2006–2100. This unique set of simulations allows for climate type specific analysis across multiple world regions and for multi-scenarios. We used a classification of climate types by Köppen-Trewartha to define evaluation regions with certain climate conditions. A systematic comparison of near-surface temperature and precipitation simulated by the regional and the global model is done. In general, the historical time period is well represented by the GCM and the RCM. Some different biases occur in the RCM compared to the GCM as in the Amazon Basin, northern Africa and the West Asian domain. Both models project similar warming

Talking in Taejon : regional cooperative agreement project formulation meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McEwan, A. C.

1997-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency as part of its Regional Cooperative Agreement (RCA) with countries in east Asia and the neighboring Pacific, has had a project on strengthening radiation protection infrastructures operating for some years. This project has arranged training courses, workshops and other activities on a range of topics related to establishing or improving radiation protection measures and safety of radiation sources in member states of the region. A second 5 year phase of planned activities is to be concluded during 1997, and the value of the project is such that member coutntries proposed its continuation for a further 5 year period commencing in 1998. For this purpose a Task Group took the lead in assembling and evaluating proposals for consideration and approval at a meeting of national coordinators for the project held in Taejon Korea, 24-28 February. The RCA project for Phase III will be titled Enhancement and Harmonisation of Radiation Protection. The meeting of national coordinators from the region represents a unique opportunity for information sharing and cooperation in radiation protection betweem countries. (author)

Application for approval of the Cold Lake Expansion Project: volume 3: environmental impact assessment: socio-economic assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1997-02-01

Anticipated social and economic effects from the construction and operation of the proposed Cold Lake Expansion Project in Alberta were described. The regions and communities that would be directly affected by the project were identified and project impacts with respect to the following areas were analyzed: population and demographics, local economy and labour force, education, health, social and recreational services, protective and emergency services, physical community infrastructure, real estate, and current community planning and land use initiatives. The main sources of information used for the analysis were public statistical data compiled by Statistics Canada, provincial government statistics and municipal planning documents. The overall social impact of the project was expected to range from low to medium. 50 refs., 44 tabs., 6 figs

Social Impact Assessment : Guidance for assessing and managing the social impacts of projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vanclay, Francis; Esteves, Ana Maria; Aucamp, Ilse; Franks, Daniel

2015-01-01

The purpose of this Guidance Note is to provide advice to various stakeholders about what is expected in good practice social impact assessment (SIA) and social impact management processes, especially in relation to project development. Project development refers to dams, mines, oil and gas

Projected changes in climate extremes over Qatar and the Arabian Gulf region

Science.gov (United States)

Kundeti, K.; Kanikicharla, K. K.; Al sulaiti, M.; Khulaifi, M.; Alboinin, N.; Kito, A.

2015-12-01

The climate of the State of Qatar and the adjacent region is dominated by subtropical dry, hot desert climate with low annual rainfall, very high temperatures in summer and a big difference between maximum and minimum temperatures, especially in the inland areas. The coastal areas are influenced by the Arabian Gulf, and have lower maximum, but higher minimum temperatures and a higher moisture percentage in the air. The global warming can have profound impact on the mean climate as well as extreme weather events over the Arabian Peninsula that may affect both natural and human systems significantly. Therefore, it is important to assess the future changes in the seasonal/annual mean of temperature and precipitation and also the extremes in temperature and wind events for a country like Qatar. This study assesses the performance of the Coupled Model Inter comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) simulations in present and develops future climate scenarios. The changes in climate extremes are assessed for three future periods 2016-2035, 2046-2065 and 2080-2099 with respect to 1986-2005 (base line) under two RCPs (Representative Concentrate Pathways) - RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. We analyzed the projected changes in temperature and precipitation extremes using several indices including those that capture heat stress. The observations show an increase in warm extremes over many parts in this region that are generally well captured by the models. The results indicate a significant change in frequency and intensity of both temperature and precipitation extremes over many parts of this region which may have serious implications on human health, water resources and the onshore/offshore infrastructure in this region. Data from a high-resolution (20km) AGCM simulation from Meteorological Research Institute of Japan Meteorological Agency for the present (1979-2003) and a future time slice (2075-2099) corresponding to RCP8.5 have also been utilized to assess the impact of climate change on

Review on the Projections of Future Storminess over the North Atlantic European Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tina Mölter

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This is an overview of the results from previously published climate modeling studies reporting on projected aspects of future storminess over the North Atlantic European region (NAER in the period 2020–2190. Changes in storminess are summarized for seven subregions in the study area and rated by a categorical evaluation scheme that takes into account emission scenarios and modeling complexity in the reviewed studies. Although many of the reviewed studies reported an increase in the intensity of high-impact wind speed and extreme cyclone frequency in the second half of the 21st century, the projections of aspects of future storminess over the NAER differed regionally. There is broad consensus that the frequency and intensity of storms, cyclones, and high-impact wind speed will increase over Central and Western Europe, and these changes will probably have the potential to produce more damage. In contrast, future extratropical storminess over Southern Europe is very likely to decrease. For Northern and Eastern Europe the results of the evaluation are inconclusive, because there is an indication of increasing as well as decreasing development of the evaluated aspects of future storminess. Concerning the storm track, we found indications of a likely north- and eastward shift in most assessed studies. Results from three studies suggest a northeastward shift of the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Griffith energy project draft environmental impact statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-10-01

Griffith Energy Limited Liability Corporation (Griffith) proposes to construct and operate the Griffith Energy Project (Project), a natural gas-fired, combined cycle power plant, on private lands south of Kingman, Arizona. The Project would be a merchant plant which means that it is not owned by a utility and there is currently no long-term commitment or obligation by any utility to purchase the capacity and energy generated by the power plant. Griffith applied to interconnect its proposed power plant with the Western Area Power Administration's (Western) Pacific Northwest-Pacific Southwest Intertie and Parker-Davis transmission systems. Western, as a major transmission system owner, needs to provide access to its transmission system when it is requested by an eligible organization per existing policies, regulations and laws. The proposed interconnection would integrate the power generated by the Project into the regional transmission grid and would allow Griffith to supply its power to the competitive electric wholesale market. Based on the application, Western's proposed action is to enter into an interconnection and construction agreement with Griffith for the requested interconnections. The proposed action includes the power plant, water wells and transmission line, natural gas pipelines, new electrical transmission lines and a substation, upgrade of an existing transmission line, and access road to the power plant. The existing environmental resource conditions in the Project area and the potential impacts on the resources by the proposed action and alternatives are described. Construction of segments of the transmission lines and a proposed natural gas pipeline also require a grant of right-of-way across Federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management

CanWEA regional issues and wind energy project siting : mountainous areas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

D' Entremont, M. [Jacques Whitford Ltd., Vancouver, BC (Canada)]|[Axys Environmental Consulting Ltd., Vancouver, BC (Canada)

2008-07-01

Planning and permitting considerations for wind energy project siting in mountainous areas were discussed. Mountainous regions have a specific set of environmental and socio-economic concerns. Potential disruptions to wildlife, noise, and visual impacts are a primary concern in the assessment of potential wind farm projects. Alpine habitats are unique and often contain fragile and endangered species. Reclamation techniques for mountainous habitats have not been extensively tested, and the sites are not as resilient as sites located in other ecosystems. In addition, alpine habitats are often migratory corridors and breeding grounds for threatened or endangered birds. In the winter months, alpine habitats are used by caribou, grizzly bears, and wolverine dens. Bats are also present at high elevations. It is often difficult to conduct baseline and monitoring studies in mountainous areas since alpine habitat is subject to rapid weather changes, and has a very short construction period. tabs., figs.

Assessing corporate project impacts in changeable contexts: A human rights perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salcito, Kendyl, E-mail: kendyl.salcito@unibas.ch [Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland); University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel (Switzerland); NomoGaia, 1900 Wazee Street, Suite 303, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); NewFields, LLC, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); Singer, Burton H., E-mail: bhsinger@epi.ufl.edu [Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (United States); Krieger, Gary R., E-mail: gkrieger@newfields.com [NewFields, LLC, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); Weiss, Mitchell G., E-mail: mitchell-g.weiss@unibas.ch [Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland); University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel (Switzerland); Wielga, Mark, E-mail: wielga@nomogaia.org [NomoGaia, 1900 Wazee Street, Suite 303, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); NewFields, LLC, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); Utzinger, Jürg, E-mail: juerg.utzinger@unibas.ch [Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland); University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel (Switzerland)

2014-07-01

Project-level impact assessment was originally conceived as a snapshot taken in advance of project implementation, contrasting current conditions with a likely future scenario involving a variety of predicted impacts. Current best practice guidance has encouraged a shift towards longitudinal assessments from the pre-project stage through the implementation and operating phases. Experience and study show, however, that assessment of infrastructure-intensive projects rarely endures past the project's construction phase. Negative consequences for environmental, social and health outcomes have been documented. Such consequences clarify the pressing need for longitudinal assessment in each of these domains, with human rights impact assessment (HRIA) as an umbrella over, and critical augmentation of, environmental, social and health assessments. Project impacts on human rights are more closely linked to political, economic and other factors beyond immediate effects of a company's policy and action throughout the project lifecycle. Delineating these processes requires an adequate framework, with strategies for collecting longitudinal data, protocols that provide core information for impact assessment and guidance for adaptive mitigation strategies as project-related effects change over time. This article presents general principles for the design and implementation of sustained, longitudinal HRIA, based on experience assessing and responding to human rights impact in a uranium mining project in Malawi. The case study demonstrates the value of longitudinal assessment both for limiting corporate risk and improving human welfare. - Graphical abstract: Assessing changes in human rights condition as affected by both project and context, over time. - Highlights: • Corporate capital projects affect human rights in myriad ways. • Ongoing, longitudinal impact assessment techniques are needed. • We present an approach for conducting longitudinal human rights impact

Assessing corporate project impacts in changeable contexts: A human rights perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salcito, Kendyl; Singer, Burton H.; Krieger, Gary R.; Weiss, Mitchell G.; Wielga, Mark; Utzinger, Jürg

2014-01-01

Project-level impact assessment was originally conceived as a snapshot taken in advance of project implementation, contrasting current conditions with a likely future scenario involving a variety of predicted impacts. Current best practice guidance has encouraged a shift towards longitudinal assessments from the pre-project stage through the implementation and operating phases. Experience and study show, however, that assessment of infrastructure-intensive projects rarely endures past the project's construction phase. Negative consequences for environmental, social and health outcomes have been documented. Such consequences clarify the pressing need for longitudinal assessment in each of these domains, with human rights impact assessment (HRIA) as an umbrella over, and critical augmentation of, environmental, social and health assessments. Project impacts on human rights are more closely linked to political, economic and other factors beyond immediate effects of a company's policy and action throughout the project lifecycle. Delineating these processes requires an adequate framework, with strategies for collecting longitudinal data, protocols that provide core information for impact assessment and guidance for adaptive mitigation strategies as project-related effects change over time. This article presents general principles for the design and implementation of sustained, longitudinal HRIA, based on experience assessing and responding to human rights impact in a uranium mining project in Malawi. The case study demonstrates the value of longitudinal assessment both for limiting corporate risk and improving human welfare. - Graphical abstract: Assessing changes in human rights condition as affected by both project and context, over time. - Highlights: • Corporate capital projects affect human rights in myriad ways. • Ongoing, longitudinal impact assessment techniques are needed. • We present an approach for conducting longitudinal human rights impact assessment

Discussion on the post-project assessment of environmental impact for nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shang Zhaorong

2013-01-01

The paper introduces the background of post-project assessment of environmental impact in the world and focuses on the characteristic of environmental impact assessment for Chinese nuclear facilities construction projects, analyzes the necessity, principle and contents of post-project assessment of environmental impact on current Chinese nuclear facilities operation. It is considered that to start the post-project assessment of environmental impact, perfect the post-project assessment mechanism, introduce the post-project assessment into environmental impact assessment system are just at the night time. (author)

78 FR 13082 - Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Statement...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-26

...The Bureau of Reclamation has made available for public review and comment the draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS/EIS) for the Upper Truckee River Restoration and Marsh Restoration Project (Project). The California Tahoe Conservancy and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the other lead agencies for the Project, made the EIR/EIS/EIS available to the public on February 8, 2013.

Olympic Dam project: assessment of the environmental impact

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-11-01

The assessment report on the Environmental Impact Statement produced for the Olympic Dam project is intended to provide the South Australian Government with a comprehensive evaluation of the potential impact of the proposal and to make recommendations concerning the project to be negotiated with the Joint Venturers prior to approval of the EIS. The project involves the mining, processing and sale of products from the copper-uranium ore body at Olympic Dam on the Roxby Downs Station, South Australia. The report includes a description of the proposal, a description of the environment likely to be affected, a discussion of the potential impacts on that environment, a discussion of the adequacy of information presented in the EIS and a discussion of the acceptability of the environmental impacts. The Department has concluded that the pre-design proposal is acceptable on environmental grounds

Regional economic impacts of Grand Canyon river runners.

Science.gov (United States)

Hjerpe, Evan E; Kim, Yeon-Su

2007-10-01

Economic impact analysis (EIA) of outdoor recreation can provide critical social information concerning the utilization of natural resources. Outdoor recreation and other non-consumptive uses of resources are viewed as environmentally friendly alternatives to extractive-type industries. While outdoor recreation can be an appropriate use of resources, it generates both beneficial and adverse socioeconomic impacts on rural communities. The authors used EIA to assess the regional economic impacts of rafting in Grand Canyon National Park. The Grand Canyon region of northern Arizona represents a rural US economy that is highly dependent upon tourism and recreational expenditures. The purpose of this research is twofold. The first is to ascertain the previously unknown regional economic impacts of Grand Canyon river runners. The second purpose is to examine attributes of these economic impacts in terms of regional multipliers, leakage, and types of employment created. Most of the literature on economic impacts of outdoor recreation has focused strictly on the positive economic impacts, failing to illuminate the coinciding adverse and constraining economic impacts. Examining the attributes of economic impacts can highlight deficiencies and constraints that limit the economic benefits of recreation and tourism. Regional expenditure information was obtained by surveying non-commercial boaters and commercial outfitters. The authors used IMPLAN input-output modeling to assess direct, indirect, and induced effects of Grand Canyon river runners. Multipliers were calculated for output, employment, and income. Over 22,000 people rafted on the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park in 2001, resulting in an estimated $21,100,000 of regional expenditures to the greater Grand Canyon economy. However, over 50% of all rafting-related expenditures were not captured by the regional economy and many of the jobs created by the rafting industry are lower-wage and seasonal. Policy

Integrated regional assessment of global climatic change. Lessons from the Mackenzie Basin Impact Study (MBIS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, Stewart J.

1996-01-01

This paper outlines the potential role integrated regional assessments of global climatic change scenarios could play in building better links between science and related policy concerns. The concept is illustrated through description of an ongoing case study from Canada-the Mackenzie Basin Impact Study (MBIS). As part of the Government of Canada's Green Plan, the Global Warming Science Program includes a study of regional impacts of global warming scenarios in the Mackenzie Basin, located in northwestern Canada. The MBIS is a six-year program focussing on potential climate-induced changes in the land and water resource base, and the implications of four scenarios of global climatic change on land use and economic policies in this region. These policy issues include interjurisdictional water management, sustainability of native lifestyles, economic development opportunities (agriculture, forestry, tourism, etc.), sustainability of ecosystems and infrastructure maintenance. MBIS is due to be completed in 1997. MBIS represents an attempt to address regional impacts by incorporating a 'family of integrators' into the study framework, and by directly involving stakeholders in planning and research activities. The experience in organizing and carrying out this project may provide some lessons for others interested in organizing regional or country studies

Impact of choice of future climate change projection on growth chamber experimental outcomes: a preliminary study in potato

Science.gov (United States)

Leisner, Courtney P.; Wood, Joshua C.; Vaillancourt, Brieanne; Tang, Ying; Douches, Dave S.; Robin Buell, C.; Winkler, Julie A.

2017-11-01

Understanding the impacts of climate change on agriculture is essential to ensure adequate future food production. Controlled growth experiments provide an effective tool for assessing the complex effects of climate change. However, a review of the use of climate projections in 57 previously published controlled growth studies found that none considered within-season variations in projected future temperature change, and few considered regional differences in future warming. A fixed, often arbitrary, temperature perturbation typically was applied for the entire growing season. This study investigates the utility of employing more complex climate change scenarios in growth chamber experiments. A case study in potato was performed using three dynamically downscaled climate change projections for the mid-twenty-first century that differ in terms of the timing during the growing season of the largest projected temperature changes. The climate projections were used in growth chamber experiments for four elite potato cultivars commonly planted in Michigan's major potato growing region. The choice of climate projection had a significant influence on the sign and magnitude of the projected changes in aboveground biomass and total tuber count, whereas all projections suggested an increase in total tuber weight and a decrease in specific gravity, a key market quality trait for potato, by mid-century. These results demonstrate that the use of more complex climate projections that extend beyond a simple incremental change can provide additional insights into the future impacts of climate change on crop production and the accompanying uncertainty.

Choice of baseline climate data impacts projected species' responses to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, David J; Hartley, Andrew J; Butchart, Stuart H M; Willis, Stephen G

2016-07-01

Climate data created from historic climate observations are integral to most assessments of potential climate change impacts, and frequently comprise the baseline period used to infer species-climate relationships. They are often also central to downscaling coarse resolution climate simulations from General Circulation Models (GCMs) to project future climate scenarios at ecologically relevant spatial scales. Uncertainty in these baseline data can be large, particularly where weather observations are sparse and climate dynamics are complex (e.g. over mountainous or coastal regions). Yet, importantly, this uncertainty is almost universally overlooked when assessing potential responses of species to climate change. Here, we assessed the importance of historic baseline climate uncertainty for projections of species' responses to future climate change. We built species distribution models (SDMs) for 895 African bird species of conservation concern, using six different climate baselines. We projected these models to two future periods (2040-2069, 2070-2099), using downscaled climate projections, and calculated species turnover and changes in species-specific climate suitability. We found that the choice of baseline climate data constituted an important source of uncertainty in projections of both species turnover and species-specific climate suitability, often comparable with, or more important than, uncertainty arising from the choice of GCM. Importantly, the relative contribution of these factors to projection uncertainty varied spatially. Moreover, when projecting SDMs to sites of biodiversity importance (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas), these uncertainties altered site-level impacts, which could affect conservation prioritization. Our results highlight that projections of species' responses to climate change are sensitive to uncertainty in the baseline climatology. We recommend that this should be considered routinely in such analyses. © 2016 John Wiley

Climatic change impacts in Lombardia region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fiorese, G.; Gatto, M.; De Leo, G.

2008-01-01

Climatic change will change significantly our Country through impacts of natural and physical systems, on human health and the productive sectors. This article describes the expected impacts in Lombardia region [it

Environmental Impact Assessment of a Water Transfer Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pazoki

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background Reliable water supplies for drinking and agriculture are some of the objectives for the sustainable development of every country. However, constructed facilities such as dams and irrigation networks and drainage can exert positive and negative effects directly or indirectly on the environment. The environmental impact assessment is a method for identifying the positive and negative effects caused by a plan and suggests performance management best practices aimed at lessening the negative impacts and augmenting the positive ones. Objectives The present study sought to evaluate the environmental impacts of the water transfer project of the Jooban Dam in two phases of preparation and operation. Materials and Methods A checklist containing the positive, negative, short-term, and long-term effects as well as the continuation and probable occurrence of these effects was used. Results The results showed that the negative environmental and social impacts of the project outweighed the positive impacts in terms of type, number, and intensity. Conclusions Unless there are well-thought out strategies for minimizing the undesirable impact on the environment, it is not advisable that such projects be permitted.

Marine species in ambient low-oxygen regions subject to double jeopardy impacts of climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Stortini, Christine H; Chabot, Denis; Shackell, Nancy L

2017-06-01

We have learned much about the impacts of warming on the productivity and distribution of marine organisms, but less about the impact of warming combined with other environmental stressors, including oxygen depletion. Also, the combined impact of multiple environmental stressors requires evaluation at the scales most relevant to resource managers. We use the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, characterized by a large permanently hypoxic zone, as a case study. Species distribution models were used to predict the impact of multiple scenarios of warming and oxygen depletion on the local density of three commercially and ecologically important species. Substantial changes are projected within 20-40 years. A eurythermal depleted species already limited to shallow, oxygen-rich refuge habitat (Atlantic cod) may be relatively uninfluenced by oxygen depletion but increase in density within refuge areas with warming. A more stenothermal, deep-dwelling species (Greenland halibut) is projected to lose ~55% of its high-density areas under the combined impacts of warming and oxygen depletion. Another deep-dwelling, more eurythermal species (Northern shrimp) would lose ~4% of its high-density areas due to oxygen depletion alone, but these impacts may be buffered by warming, which may increase density by 8% in less hypoxic areas, but decrease density by ~20% in the warmest parts of the region. Due to local climate variability and extreme events, and that our models cannot project changes in species sensitivity to hypoxia with warming, our results should be considered conservative. We present an approach to effectively evaluate the individual and cumulative impacts of multiple environmental stressors on a species-by-species basis at the scales most relevant to managers. Our study may provide a basis for work in other low-oxygen regions and should contribute to a growing literature base in climate science, which will continue to be of support for resource managers as climate change

Implications of regional improvement in global climate models for agricultural impact research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramirez-Villegas, Julian; Thornton, Philip K; Jarvis, Andy; Challinor, Andrew J

2013-01-01

Global climate models (GCMs) have become increasingly important for climate change science and provide the basis for most impact studies. Since impact models are highly sensitive to input climate data, GCM skill is crucial for getting better short-, medium- and long-term outlooks for agricultural production and food security. The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 5 ensemble is likely to underpin the majority of climate impact assessments over the next few years. We assess 24 CMIP3 and 26 CMIP5 simulations of present climate against climate observations for five tropical regions, as well as regional improvements in model skill and, through literature review, the sensitivities of impact estimates to model error. Climatological means of seasonal mean temperatures depict mean errors between 1 and 18 ° C (2–130% with respect to mean), whereas seasonal precipitation and wet-day frequency depict larger errors, often offsetting observed means and variability beyond 100%. Simulated interannual climate variability in GCMs warrants particular attention, given that no single GCM matches observations in more than 30% of the areas for monthly precipitation and wet-day frequency, 50% for diurnal range and 70% for mean temperatures. We report improvements in mean climate skill of 5–15% for climatological mean temperatures, 3–5% for diurnal range and 1–2% in precipitation. At these improvement rates, we estimate that at least 5–30 years of CMIP work is required to improve regional temperature simulations and at least 30–50 years for precipitation simulations, for these to be directly input into impact models. We conclude with some recommendations for the use of CMIP5 in agricultural impact studies. (letter)

Recycling and composting demonstration projects for the Memphis region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muller, D. [Memphis and Shelby County Div. of Planning and Development, TN (United States)

1992-05-01

This report documents the development and implementation of the project entitled ``Recycling and Composting Demonstration Projects for the Memphis Region.`` The project was funded by the Energy Task Force of the Urban Consortium for Technology Initiatives. This Project was implemented by the staff of the Special Programs Section of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development. The project began November 1, 1990, and was completed December 31, 1991. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the feasibility of a variety of solid waste disposal alternatives.

Recycling and composting demonstration projects for the Memphis region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muller, D. (Memphis and Shelby County Div. of Planning and Development, TN (United States))

1992-05-01

This report documents the development and implementation of the project entitled Recycling and Composting Demonstration Projects for the Memphis Region.'' The project was funded by the Energy Task Force of the Urban Consortium for Technology Initiatives. This Project was implemented by the staff of the Special Programs Section of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development. The project began November 1, 1990, and was completed December 31, 1991. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the feasibility of a variety of solid waste disposal alternatives.

Impacts of climate change on mangrove ecosystems: A region by region overview

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Raymond D.; Friess, Daniel A.; Day, Richard H.; MacKenzie, Richard A.

2016-01-01

Inter-related and spatially variable climate change factors including sea level rise, increased storminess, altered precipitation regime and increasing temperature are impacting mangroves at regional scales. This review highlights extreme regional variation in climate change threats and impacts, and how these factors impact the structure of mangrove communities, their biodiversity and geomorphological setting. All these factors interplay to determine spatially variable resiliency to climate change impacts, and because mangroves are varied in type and geographical location, these systems are good models for understanding such interactions at different scales. Sea level rise is likely to influence mangroves in all regions although local impacts are likely to be more varied. Changes in the frequency and intensity of storminess are likely to have a greater impact on N and Central America, Asia, Australia, and East Africa than West Africa and S. America. This review also highlights the numerous geographical knowledge gaps of climate change impacts, with some regions particularly understudied (e.g., Africa and the Middle East). While there has been a recent drive to address these knowledge gaps especially in South America and Asia, further research is required to allow researchers to tease apart the processes that influence both vulnerability and resilience to climate change. A more globally representative view of mangroves would allow us to better understand the importance of mangrove type and landscape setting in determining system resiliency to future climate change.

The environmental impact of a projected uranium development in Co. Donegal, Ireland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The report assesses both the generic and the site specific aspects of the projected uranium developments in Co. Donegal. The main focus is upon the health and safety issues arising from the dispersion of radioactivity in the vicinity of the project and the long term implications of waste disposal. The socio-economic aspects are also reviewed, in particular the likely balance of advantages and disadvantages with regard to employment in the region. The impact on the natural resources of the region is assessed. The effects of a single small operation and of regional development of mining and milling are compared. The radiological hazards of mine tailings require careful control, particularly in siting. A major review of the Low Level Radiation controversy is presented. A review of the international system for regulating radiation protection concludes that national authorities should take a greater role in the assessment of acceptable risks and that the ICRP recommendations and EEC directives should not be seen as an effective substitute. Finally, the report provides an extensive bibliography and overview of mitigation technology and monitoring programmes, and should prove of use as a guide for further analysis by the local authorities. (author)

HIMALA: climate impacts on glaciers, snow, and hydrology in the Himalayan region

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Molly Elizabeth; Ouyang, Hua; Habib, Shahid; Shrestha, Basanta; Shrestha, Mandira; Panday, Prajjwal; Tzortziou, Maria; Policelli, Frederick; Artan, Guleid; Giriraj, Amarnath; Bajracharya, Sagar R.; Racoviteanu, Adina

2010-01-01

Glaciers are the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth, supporting one third of the world's population. The Himalaya possess one of the largest resources of snow and ice, which act as a freshwater reservoir for more than 1.3 billion people. This article describes a new project called HIMALA, which focuses on utilizing satellite-based products for better understanding of hydrological processes of the river basins of the region. With support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), together with its partners and member countries, has been working on the application of satellite-based rainfall estimates for flood prediction. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) partners are working with ICIMOD to incorporate snowmelt and glacier melt into a widely used hydrological model. Thus, through improved modeling of the contribution of snow and ice meltwater to river flow in the region, the HIMALA project will improve the ability of ICIMOD and its partners to understand the impact of weather and climate on floods, droughts, and other water- and climate-induced natural hazards in the Himalayan region in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.

HIMALA: Climate Impacts on Glaciers, Snow, and Hydrology in the Himalayan Region

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Molly Elizabeth; Ouyang, Hua; Habib, Shahid; Shrestha, Basanta; Shrestha, Mandira; Panday, Prajjwal; Tzortziou, Maria; Policelli, Frederick; Artan, Guleid; Giriraj, Amarnath;

Regionalizing land use impacts on farmland birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Glemnitz, Michael; Zander, Peter; Stachow, Ulrich

2015-06-01

The environmental impacts of land use vary regionally. Differences in geomorphology, climate, landscape structure, and biotope inventories are regarded as the main causes of this variation. We present a methodological approach for identifying regional responses in land use type to large-scale changes and the implications for the provision of habitat for farmland birds. The methodological innovations of this approach are (i) the coupling of impact assessments with economic models, (ii) the linking of cropping techniques at the plot scale with the regional distribution of land use, and (iii) the integration of statistical or monitoring data on recent states. This approach allows for the regional differentiation of farmers' responses to changing external conditions and for matching the ecological impacts of land use changes with regional environmental sensitivities. An exemplary scenario analysis was applied for a case study of an area in Germany, assessing the impacts of increased irrigation and the promotion of energy cropping on farmland birds, evaluated as a core indicator for farmland biodiversity. The potential effects on farmland birds were analyzed based on the intrinsic habitat values of the crops and cropping techniques. The results revealed that the strongest decrease in habitat availability for farmland birds occurred in regions with medium-to-low agricultural yields. As a result of the limited cropping alternatives, the increase in maize production was highest in marginal regions for both examined scenarios. Maize production replaced many crops with good-to-medium habitat suitability for birds. The declines in habitat quality were strongest in regions that are not in focus for conservation efforts for farmland birds.

Impacts of the Three Gorges Project on Local Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Z.; Liang, S.; Feng, L.

2015-12-01

Three Gorges Project (TGP) is the largest hydroelectric project in the world and has led to significant land cover changes in Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA). Since its construction the debates on its environmental and climatic impacts have never stopped, especially after the extreme drought and flood in Yangtze River Basin these years. TGP reached its final impounding water level in 2010. However, studies on systematically monitoring the long-term variations in surface and atmospheric parameters in TGRA are still lacking. In this study, three important surface parameters - surface albedo, land surface temperature (LST) and evapotranspiration (ET) and two climatic parameters - air temperature and precipitation were investigated from 2000 to 2013 by combining multiple remote sensing data and ground measurements. Results showed that along the reservoir albedo decreased significantly as a result of water impounding. Correspondingly, in the same region daytime LST decreased in spring and summer and nighttime LST increased in autumn and winter. In the western region of TGRA, albedo increased due to resettlement and LST also changed. The average ET increased by 20% in TGR but kept stable in the whole TGRA. In contrast to LST, air temperature showed less apparent spatial and temporal variability. Only in the region near the dam air temperature experienced a decrease at daytime and an increase at nighttime. Further analysis demonstrated precipitation revealed no apparent changes in TGRA and the precipitation anomaly in northwest of TGRA may not be connected with TGP. All of the findings provide a more substantial clues of local climate change caused by TGP.

Employment impacts of CDM projects in China's power sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Can; Zhang, Weishi; Cai, Wenjia; Xie, Xi

2013-01-01

There are continuous debates around the question of whether CDM really contributes to sustainable development (SD) in host countries. Employment impact is an essential indicator of SD. Based on an input-out approach this research builds a quantitative assessment model to evaluate the employment impacts of CDM. Both direct and indirect jobs creation and job losses of CDM projects in the power sector registered by the end of 2011 are calculated by project types and power grids where the project is located. Results of this study show that, although the above mentioned CDM projects causes about 99,000 net direct job losses, they also create about 3.08 million indirect jobs, resulting in the gross employment of CDM to be about 2.98 million. Thereof, hydro projects induce both direct and indirect job losses, which comes to approximately 0.89 million. Solar projects have the most potential since they own the highest indirect jobs created by one GWh generation, about 104 jobs/GWh. - Highlights: • An input–output model was built for assessment of CDM projects' employment impact; • CDM projects create direct and indirect jobs while cause some losses in short. • Significant indirect job gains of CDM projects were found; • Solar projects cause 104 jobs/GWh in average, ranking as the highest contributor

Impact of Construction Health & Safety Regulations on Project ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Impact of Construction Health & Safety Regulations on Project Parameters in Nigeria: Consultants and Contractors View. ... The study recommends that better attention is given to health and safety should as a project parameter and that related practice notes and guidelines should be evolved for all project stakeholders.

Guidebook on environmental impact assessment for in situ leach mining projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-05-01

Assessment of the potential environmental impact of an in situ leach (ISL) project is the first step in the permission and licensing process. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) serves as the basis for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which in turn identifies the potential environmental and socioeconomic impact of a proposed project and outlines measures to mitigate the impact. The EIS review process serves to inform the public about a proposed project as well as provide regulatory agencies with assurance that ISL technology will comply with environmental standards, and that project sites can be rehabilitated to pre-mining use. This publication provides a step-by-step description of project parameters that must be addressed in conducting an EIA and preparing an EIS. It also includes EIA/EIS case histories for current operations in Australia, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and the United States of America. The publication will be useful to companies considering development of ISL projects and to regulatory personnel who are responsible for writing environmental regulations and licensing ISL projects

Use of significance thresholds to integrate cumulative effects into project-level socio-economic impact assessment in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joseph, Chris; Zeeg, Taylor; Angus, David; Usborne, Anna; Mutrie, Erin

2017-01-01

A longstanding critique of project-level environmental assessment is that it is weak at addressing cumulative effects, and because of this many argue that cumulative effects are best managed at a regional scale. However, in the absence of regional management it is important that project-level assessment supports cumulative effects management as best as possible. In this paper we present case study socio-economic impact assessments of liquefied natural gas development on Aboriginal groups on Canada's west coast. The case studies use an analytical structure modified from typical Canadian practice including unambiguous and non-arbitrary significance thresholds grounded in stakeholder values to focus baselines, impact assessment, and significance determination on cumulative effects. This approach is found to be more capable of informing decision-makers on cumulative effects as well as more rigorous and transparent than typical assessments. Much of this approach is not conceptually new, but at least in western Canada such an approach is not typically used or meaningfully implemented by practitioners. As such, the case studies serve to illustrate how practice can bolster project-level assessment. - Highlights: •Typical project assessment is weak with respect to cumulative effects. •Modified analysis structure and thresholds enable a focus on cumulative effects. •Clear, value-based thresholds make analysis rigorous, transparent, and democratic.

Assessing Environmental Impact Indicators in Road Construction Projects in Developing Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamed Marzouk

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Environmental pollution is considered to be one of the main concerns in the construction industry. Environmental pollution has become a major challenge to construction projects due to the huge amount of pollution caused by construction projects. There are different types of environmental impact indicators, such as the greenhouse gas (GHG footprint, eutrophication potential (EP, acidification potential (AP, human health (HH particulate, ozone depletion, and smog. Each of these environmental impact indicators can be linked to different phases of the construction projects. The overall environmental impact indicators can be divided into direct, indirect, and operational emissions. This paper presents a Building Information Modeling (BIM-based methodology for the assessment of environmental impacts in road construction projects. The model takes into account the overall life cycle of the road construction project, which is divided into: manufacturing phase, transportation phase, construction phase, maintenance phase, operational phase, recycling phase, and deconstruction phase. A case study is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. The proposed model solves a major problem for road construction project teams who want to assess the environmental impact indicators associated with their project prior to the start of the execution of their projects.

Positive impacts in soil and water conservation in an Andean region of South America: Case scenarios from a USAID multidisciplinary cooperative project

Science.gov (United States)

The USAID-SANREM-Virginia Polytechnic Institute project has made and continues to make an excellent impact, specifically showcasing the positive results of soil and water conservation (Barrera et al. 2010a; 2010b). This project has strong international cooperation between the USA, Ecuador and Bolivi...

An intercomparison of regional climate model data for hydrological impact studies in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Roosmalen, Lieke Petronella G; Christensen, Jens Hesselbjerg; Butts, Michael

2010-01-01

The use of high-resolution regional climate models (RCM) to examine the hydrological impacts of climate change has grown significantly in recent years due to the improved representation of the local climate. However, the application is not straightforward because most RCMs are subject to consider......The use of high-resolution regional climate models (RCM) to examine the hydrological impacts of climate change has grown significantly in recent years due to the improved representation of the local climate. However, the application is not straightforward because most RCMs are subject...... to considerable systematic errors. In this study, projected climate change data from the RCM HIRHAM4 are used to generate climate scenario time series of precipitation, temperature, and reference evapotranspiration for the period 2071-2100 for hydrological impact assessments in Denmark. RCM output for the present......-day period (1961-1990) are compared to an observational data set, with precipitation corrected for undercatch and wetting losses, to quantify systematic model errors. A delta change method is applied to cope with these biases. A question arises as to how variable the climate change signals are...

Environmental impacts associated with Project Rio Blanco

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alldredge, A.W.; Whicker, F.W.; Hanson, W.C.

Project Rio Blanco, an experiment involving deep underground detonation of three 30-kton nuclear explosives designed to stimulate natural gas flow in geologic formations of low permeability, was conducted in western Colorado on 17 May 1973. Environmental impacts associated with this experiment were divided into three categories: radiation, ground motion, and conventional physical activities. Radiation and ground motion are unique to this type experiment while conventional activities would be associated with any type of resource development. The objective of observations made at Rio Blanco was to qualitatively and, where possible, quantitatively ascertain environmental impacts associated with the project. Observations indicated that ground motion and conventional activities appeared to cause the greatest impacts. Ground motion impacts were most severe within 2.4 km of the emplacement well (EW) and were predominantly associated with steep ravine and stream banks and rocky cliffs. Following the detonation, flow and turbidity had increased in a small stream adjacent to the EW. Animals receiving deleterious impacts were those associated with stream banks, cliffs and burrows. No mortality or injury was observed in any large animals. (U.S.)

A scaling approach to project regional sea level rise and its uncertainties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Perrette

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change causes global mean sea level to rise due to thermal expansion of seawater and loss of land ice from mountain glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets. Locally, sea level can strongly deviate from the global mean rise due to changes in wind and ocean currents. In addition, gravitational adjustments redistribute seawater away from shrinking ice masses. However, the land ice contribution to sea level rise (SLR remains very challenging to model, and comprehensive regional sea level projections, which include appropriate gravitational adjustments, are still a nascent field (Katsman et al., 2011; Slangen et al., 2011. Here, we present an alternative approach to derive regional sea level changes for a range of emission and land ice melt scenarios, combining probabilistic forecasts of a simple climate model (MAGICC6 with the new CMIP5 general circulation models. The contribution from ice sheets varies considerably depending on the assumptions for the ice sheet projections, and thus represents sizeable uncertainties for future sea level rise. However, several consistent and robust patterns emerge from our analysis: at low latitudes, especially in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, sea level will likely rise more than the global mean (mostly by 10–20%. Around the northeastern Atlantic and the northeastern Pacific coasts, sea level will rise less than the global average or, in some rare cases, even fall. In the northwestern Atlantic, along the American coast, a strong dynamic sea level rise is counteracted by gravitational depression due to Greenland ice melt; whether sea level will be above- or below-average will depend on the relative contribution of these two factors. Our regional sea level projections and the diagnosed uncertainties provide an improved basis for coastal impact analysis and infrastructure planning for adaptation to climate change.

The IAHR project CCHE-Climate Change impact on the Hydrological cycle, water management and Engineering: an overview and preliminary results

Science.gov (United States)

Ranzi, Roberto; Kojiri, T.; Mynett, A.; Barontini, S.; van de Giesen, N.; Kolokytha, E.; Ngo, L. A.; Oreamuno, R.; Renard, B.; Sighomnou, D.; Vizina, A.

2010-05-01

IAHR, the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research launched a research Project called Climate Change impact on the Hydrological cycle, water management and Engineering (IAHR CCHE Project). It was motivated by the fact that, although it is now well accepted that, in the light of the recent IPCC reports the vast majority of members of the scientific community are convinced that the climate is changing or at least will experience a significant fluctuation already during the current century, it is perceived that some hydrologists, water experts and hydraulic engineers are not yet ready to incorporate climate change scenarios in their designs for such projects as: - flood protection and river training, - dam rehabilitation, - water resources management under water scarcity and changes in the hydrological regimes. The objective of the project is to encourage a close co-operation between the scientific and engineering communities in taking appropriate and timely action in response to the impact of climate change on the hydrological regime and on water resource projects. The project aims at reporting on (a) the current state of knowledge as regards the impact of projected climate change on the hydrological regime in different regions of the world, where these regions are defined not just in geographic terms but also on the basis of their level of economic and water resources development; (b) the extent to which these impacts are recognized and taken into account by national water authorities, engineering organizations and other regulating bodies in setting their standard practices and procedures for the planning, design and operation of water works. These adaptation measures will include both "hard" responses, such as the construction or enlargement of engineering structures, and "soft" responses, such as changes in legislation or the operating rules of existing structures. An overview of the project and preliminary results extracted from of

Regional Climate Modeling and Remote Sensing to Characterize Impacts of Civil War Driven Land Use Change on Regional Hydrology and Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Maksimowicz, M.; Masarik, M. T.; Brandt, J.; Flores, A. N.

2016-12-01

Land use/land cover (LULC) change directly impacts the partitioning of surface mass and energy fluxes. Regional-scale weather and climate are potentially altered by LULC if the resultant changes in partitioning of surface energy fluxes are extensive enough. Dynamics of land use, particularly those related to the social dimensions of the Earth System, are often simplified or not represented in regional land-atmosphere models. This study explores the role of LULC change on a regional hydroclimate system, focusing on potential hydroclimate changes arising from an extended civil conflict in Mozambique. Civil war from 1977-1992 in Mozambique led to land use change at a regional scale as a result of the collapse of large herbivore populations due to poaching. Since the war ended, farming has increased, poaching was curtailed, and animal populations were reintroduced. In this study LULC in a region encompassing Gorongosa is classified at three instances between 1977 to 2015 using Landsat imagery. We use these derived LULC datasets to inform lower boundary conditions in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. To quantify potential hydrometeorological changes arising from conflict-driven land use change, we performed a factorial-like experiment by mixing input LULC maps and atmospheric forcing data from before, during, and after the civil war. Analysis of the Landsat data shows measurable land cover change from 1977-present as tree cover encroached into grasslands. Initial tests show corresponding sensitivities to different LULC schemes within the WRF model. Preliminary results suggest that the war did indeed impact regional hydroclimate in a significant way via its direct and indirect impacts on land-atmosphere interactions. Results of this study suggest that LULC change arising from regional conflicts are a potentially understudied, yet important human process to capture in both regional reanalyses and climate change projections.

New urban and regional management instruments: Santo André and the Tamanduateí axis project case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margarida Nobue Sakata

2009-06-01

Full Text Available From the end of twenty century, the crisis that came with to the end of the intensive capitalism system have been motivated much political and economical transformation at global scale. The post war breakdown reconstruction, oil crisis, the advances in informatics and telecommunication caused changes in the regional structure of many countries in the world. The movement of manufacturing activities of the old industrial metropolis occasioned the decadence and ascension of different urban regions. As an answer to these transformations, the paradigm of urban politics of many cities has been changed with the dismantling of the traditional planning system and accepting new management and urban intervention forms, as strategic planning, big urban projects, urban legislation flexibility, city marketing, etc. Recently many authors have done a critical review of this new urban management. This present work analyses the transformations suffered by Santo André, municipality of São Paulo metropolitan region and the implementation of Tamanduateí Axis Project, analyzing them in this context and these new urban management forms, evaluating its impacts and results.

People's perception on impacts of hydro-power projects in Bhagirathi river valley, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Negi, G C S; Punetha, Disha

2017-04-01

The people's perception on environmental and socio-economic impacts due to three hydro-electric projects (HEPs; commissioned and under construction) were studied in the north-west Indian Himalaya. Surveys among 140 project-affected people (PAPs) using a checklist of impacts indicate that among the negative impacts, decrease in flora/fauna, agriculture, flow of river, aesthetic beauty; and increase in water pollution, river bed quarrying for sand/stone, human settlement on river banks and social evils; and among the positive impacts, increase in standard of living, road connectivity, means of transport, public amenities, tourism and environmental awareness were related with HEPs. The PAPs tend to forget the negative impacts with the age of the HEPs after it becomes functional, and the positive impacts seem to outweigh the negative impacts. Study concludes that it is difficult to separate the compounding impacts due to HEP construction and other anthropogenic and natural factors, and in the absence of cause-and-effect analyses, it is hard to dispel the prevailing notion that HEPs are undesirable in the study area that led to agitations by the environmentalists and stopped construction of one of these HEPs. To overcome the situation, multi-disciplinary scientific studies involving the PAPs need to be carried out in planning and decision-making to make HEPs environment friendly and sustainable in this region. There is also a need to adopt low carbon electric power technologies and promote a decentralized energy strategy through joint ventures between public and private companies utilizing locally available renewable energy resources.

Regional Assessment of Supplementation Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-10-01

The Fish and Wildlife Program of the Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC) prescribes several approaches to achieve its goal of doubling the salmon and steelhead runs of the Columbia River. Among those approaches are habitat restoration, improvements in adult and juvenile passage at dams and artificial propagation. Supplementation will be a major part of the new hatchery programs. The purpose of the Regional Assessment of Supplementation Project (RASP) is to provide an overview of ongoing and planned supplementation activities, to construct a conceptual framework and model for evaluating the potential benefits and risks of supplementation and to develop a plan for better regional coordination of research and monitoring and evaluation of supplementation. RASP has completed its first year of work. Progress toward meeting the first year's objectives and recommendations for future tasks are contained in this report

Cumulative biological impacts framework for solar energy projects in the California Desert

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Frank W.; Kreitler, Jason R.; Soong, Oliver; Stoms, David M.; Dashiell, Stephanie; Hannah, Lee; Wilkinson, Whitney; Dingman, John

2013-01-01

This project developed analytical approaches, tools and geospatial data to support conservation planning for renewable energy development in the California deserts. Research focused on geographical analysis to avoid, minimize and mitigate the cumulative biological effects of utility-scale solar energy development. A hierarchical logic model was created to map the compatibility of new solar energy projects with current biological conservation values. The research indicated that the extent of compatible areas is much greater than the estimated land area required to achieve 2040 greenhouse gas reduction goals. Species distribution models were produced for 65 animal and plant species that were of potential conservation significance to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan process. These models mapped historical and projected future habitat suitability using 270 meter resolution climate grids. The results were integrated into analytical frameworks to locate potential sites for offsetting project impacts and evaluating the cumulative effects of multiple solar energy projects. Examples applying these frameworks in the Western Mojave Desert ecoregion show the potential of these publicly-available tools to assist regional planning efforts. Results also highlight the necessity to explicitly consider projected land use change and climate change when prioritizing areas for conservation and mitigation offsets. Project data, software and model results are all available online.

Socio-economic impacts - an overview based on coal mining projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, V.K.

1994-01-01

Socio-economic impacts of coal projects have assumed importance as new projects are affecting tribal/underdeveloped areas. The paper highlights the impacts on land uses and on life and culture of the habitats. It assesses socio-economic impacts and furnishes financial implications of rehabilitation. Some suggestions have also been given to neutralize the stresses developed due to development of coal fields

Impacts of projected maximum temperature extremes for C21 by an ensemble of regional climate models on cereal cropping systems in the Iberian Peninsula

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Ruiz-Ramos

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Crops growing in the Iberian Peninsula may be subjected to damagingly high temperatures during the sensitive development periods of flowering and grain filling. Such episodes are considered important hazards and farmers may take insurance to offset their impact. Increases in value and frequency of maximum temperature have been observed in the Iberian Peninsula during the 20th century, and studies on climate change indicate the possibility of further increase by the end of the 21st century. Here, impacts of current and future high temperatures on cereal cropping systems of the Iberian Peninsula are evaluated, focusing on vulnerable development periods of winter and summer crops. Climate change scenarios obtained from an ensemble of ten Regional Climate Models (multimodel ensemble combined with crop simulation models were used for this purpose and related uncertainty was estimated. Results reveal that higher extremes of maximum temperature represent a threat to summer-grown but not to winter-grown crops in the Iberian Peninsula. The study highlights the different vulnerability of crops in the two growing seasons and the need to account for changes in extreme temperatures in developing adaptations in cereal cropping systems. Finally, this work contributes to clarifying the causes of high-uncertainty impact projections from previous studies.

40 CFR 93.127 - Projects exempt from regional emissions analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... analysis requirements. The local effects of these projects with respect to CO concentrations must be... determination. The local effects of projects with respect to PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations must be considered... 40 Protection of Environment 20 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Projects exempt from regional...

Supporting work practices through telehealth: impact on nurses in peripheral regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Courcy François

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In Canada, workforce shortages in the health care sector constrain the ability of the health care system to meet the needs of its population and of its health care professionals. This issue is of particular importance in peripheral regions of Quebec, where significant inequalities in workforce distribution between regions has lead to acute nursing shortages and increased workloads. Information and communication technologies (ICTs are innovative solutions that can be used to develop strategies to optimise the use of available resources and to design new nursing work practices. However, current knowledge is still limited about the real impact of ICTs on nursing recruitment and retention. Our aim is to better understand how work practice reorganization, supported by ICTs, and particularly by telehealth, may influence professional, educational, and organizational factors relating to Quebec nurses, notably those working in peripheral regions. Methods/Design First, we will conduct a descriptive study on the issue of nursing recruitment. Stratified sampling will be used to select approximately twenty innovative projects relating to the reorganization of work practices based upon ICTs. Semi-structured interviews with key informants will determine professional, educational, and organizational recruitment factors. The results will be used to create a questionnaire which, using a convenience sampling method, will be mailed to 600 third year students and recent graduates of two Quebec university nursing faculties. Descriptive, correlation, and hierarchical regression analyses will be performed to identify factors influencing nursing graduates' intentions to practice in peripheral regions. Secondly, we will conduct five case studies pertaining to the issue of nursing retention. Five ICT projects in semi-urban, rural, and isolated regions have been identified. Qualitative data will be collected through field observation and approximately

US Food Security and Climate Change: Mid-Century Projections of Commodity Crop Production by the IMPACT Model

Science.gov (United States)

Takle, E. S.; Gustafson, D. I.; Beachy, R.; Nelson, G. C.; Mason-D'Croz, D.; Palazzo, A.

2013-12-01

Agreement is developing among agricultural scientists on the emerging inability of agriculture to meet growing global food demands. The lack of additional arable land and availability of freshwater have long been constraints on agriculture. Changes in trends of weather conditions that challenge physiological limits of crops, as projected by global climate models, are expected to exacerbate the global food challenge toward the middle of the 21st century. These climate- and constraint-driven crop production challenges are interconnected within a complex global economy, where diverse factors add to price volatility and food scarcity. We use the DSSAT crop modeling suite, together with mid-century projections of four AR4 global models, as input to the International Food Policy Research Institute IMPACT model to project the impact of climate change on food security through the year 2050 for internationally traded crops. IMPACT is an iterative model that responds to endogenous and exogenous drivers to dynamically solve for the world prices that ensure global supply equals global demand. The modeling methodology reconciles the limited spatial resolution of macro-level economic models that operate through equilibrium-driven relationships at a national level with detailed models of biophysical processes at high spatial resolution. The analysis presented here suggests that climate change in the first half of the 21st century does not represent a near-term threat to food security in the US due to the availability of adaptation strategies (e.g., loss of current growing regions is balanced by gain of new growing regions). However, as climate continues to trend away from 20th century norms current adaptation measures will not be sufficient to enable agriculture to meet growing food demand. Climate scenarios from higher-level carbon emissions exacerbate the food shortfall, although uncertainty in climate model projections (particularly precipitation) is a limitation to impact

Climate Change in Environmental Impact Assessment of Renewable Energy Projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Sanne Vammen

2012-01-01

Many renewable energy projects are subject to EIA. However a question that surfaces is what use an impact assessment is when the project is ‘good for the environment’? One of the current topics receiving much attention in impact assessment is climate change and how this factor is integrated...... in impact assessments. This warrants the question: How do we assess the climate change related impacts of a project that inherently has a positive effect on climate? This paper is based on a document study of EIA reports from Denmark. The results show that climate change is included in most of the EIA...... reports reviewed, and that only climate change mitigation is in focus while adaptation is absent. Also the results point to focus on positive impacts, while the indirect negative impacts are less apparent. This leads to a discussion of the results in the light of the purpose of EIA....

Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Approaches to Ecosystem Management Project

OpenAIRE

CIPAV (Centre For Research on Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems); CATIE (Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza); NITLAPAN

2007-01-01

Metadata only record The Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Approaches to Ecosystem Management Project introduces the payment for environmental services approach to silvopastoral farmers in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The objectives of the project are to "demonstrate and measure a) the effects the introduction of payment incentives for environmental services to farmers on their adoption of integrated silvopastoral farming systems in degraded pasture lands; and b) the resulting impr...

Draft guidelines for the environmental impact study of the Great-Whale hydroelectric project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

The draft guidelines on the preparation of Hydro-Quebec's environmental and social impact statement for the proposed Great Whale River hydroelectric project are detailed. The guidelines cover project justification, description of the biophysical and social environments, project description, impacts of the project, mitigative measures, residual impacts and compensatory measures, environmental monitoring and follow-up programs. The proponent is asked to provide the justification for the project, including its general rationale, and to evaluate the long-term impact of the project. In justifying the project, the proponent should present energy demand and supply scenarios in sufficient detail to demonstrate the need for the project within the context of sustainable development. Long term impacts on the ecosystems of James Bay and Hudson Bay must be examined, as well as broad ecosystemic impacts such as those on the boreal forest, the tundra, as well as such considerations as global warming and changes in biological and cultural diversity

Development of the business area construction and energy of EnergieRegion Nuernberg. Transfer from project management to a regional network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seiverth, A.

2006-01-01

The association EnergieRegion Nuernberg is a regional authority network, which is employed with the promotion of sustainable handling of the factor energy in the region Nuernberg and with the proliferation of this region as internationally recognized location for energy engineering, energy industry and energy science. The intention is to use the important industrial, service-oriented and scientific potential optimally. For this reason a functional co-ordination and communication platform had to be created for the cross-linking of the appropriate participants from economics, research and public administration. Therefore, the author of the contribution under consideration accompanies the development process of the business field construction and energy of this association in the background of the current trends in the construction and energy sector in the region Nuernberg. Under this aspect, the author reports on the following aspects: (a) Success factors of the project management in a regional network; (b) Operationalisation of the success of the project by means of a model; (c) Analysis of the different aspects of energetic measures; (d) Determination of chances and risks of the range building and energy in the region Nuernberg; (e) Comparison of the success of the model projects with the model for the determination of project success; (f) Determination of strengths and weaknesses of the project management in the business field construction and energy of the energy region Nuernberg

Impact of evolving greenhouse gas forcing on the warming signal in regional climate model experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Jerez, S; López-Romero, J M; Turco, M; Jiménez-Guerrero, P; Vautard, R; Montávez, J P

2018-04-03

Variations in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) may not be included as external forcing when running regional climate models (RCMs); at least, this is a non-regulated, non-documented practice. Here we investigate the so far unexplored impact of considering the rising evolution of the CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O atmospheric concentrations on near-surface air temperature (TAS) trends, for both the recent past and the near future, as simulated by a state-of-the-art RCM over Europe. The results show that the TAS trends are significantly affected by 1-2 K century -1 , which under 1.5 °C global warming translates into a non-negligible impact of up to 1 K in the regional projections of TAS, similarly affecting projections for maximum and minimum temperatures. In some cases, these differences involve a doubling signal, laying further claim to careful reconsideration of the RCM setups with regard to the inclusion of GHG concentrations as an evolving external forcing which, for the sake of research reproducibility and reliability, should be clearly documented in the literature.

Proceedings of the GNWT Beaufort-Delta regional workshop on the social impacts of the Mackenzie Valley Gas Project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2005-07-01

This workshop provided a forum for communities and governments to discuss the potential social impacts of the Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP). The purpose of the workshop was to ensure that communities will have the capacity to manage the social impacts of the pipeline and related exploration and development activities in the future. The workshop was organized around key questions that solicited community perspectives on social impacts from various governmental agencies. The construction of the MGP will result in increased needs for housing, medical services, and social work programs in affected communities. It is expected that construction camps located near communities will create the need for additional drug abuse, and domestic violence counsellors. Inventories of social programs and baseline profiles of social conditions were presented. Local plans for managing impacts during construction of the MGP were discussed, and potential mitigation efforts were reviewed. Issues related to funding and social assistance were also examined. It was concluded that the workshop will serve as the basis for future collaboration and cooperation amongst the various levels of government in managing the social impacts of the pipeline. Six presentations were given at the workshop. refs., tabs., figs.

Regional hydrogen roadmap. Project development framework for the Sahara Wind Project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benhamou, Khalid [Sahara Wind Inc., Rabat (Morocco); Arbaoui, Abdelaziz [Ecole National Superieure des Arts et Metiers ENSAM Meknes (Morocco); Loudiyi, Khalid [Al Akhawayn Univ. (Morocco); Ould Mustapha, Sidi Mohamed [Nouakchott Univ. (Mauritania). Faculte des Sciences et Techniques

2010-07-01

The trade winds that blow along the Atlantic coast from Morocco to Senegal represent one of the the largest and most productive wind potentials available on earth. Because of the erratic nature of winds however, wind electricity cannot be integrated locally on any significant scale, unless mechanisms are developed for storing these intermittent renewable energies. Developing distributed wind energy solutions feeding into smaller electricity markets are essential for solving energy access issues and enabling the development of a local, viable renewable energy industry. These may be critical to address the region's economic challenges currently under pressure from Sub-Saharan migrant populations. Windelectrolysis for the production of hydrogen can be used in grid stabilization, as power storage, fuel or chemical feedstock in specific industries. The objective of the NATO SfP 'Sahara Trade Winds to Hydrogen' project is to support the region's universities through an applied research framework in partnership with industries where electrolysis applications are relevant. By powering two university campuses in Morocco and Mauritania with small grid connected wind turbines and 30 kW electrolyzers generating hydrogen for power back-up as part of ''green campus concepts'' we demonstrated that wind-electrolysis for the production of hydrogen could absorb larger quantities of cheap generated wind electricity in order to maximize renewable energy uptakes within the regions weaker grid infrastructures. Creating synergies with local industries to tap into a widely available renewable energy source opens new possibilities for end users such as utilities or mining industries when processing raw minerals, whose exports generates key incomes in regions most exposed to desertification and climate change issue. Initiated by Sahara Wind Inc. a company from the private sector, along with the Al Akhawayn University, the Ecole Nationale Superieure

Regional aerosol emissions and temperature response: Local and remote climate impacts of regional aerosol forcing

Science.gov (United States)

Lewinschal, Anna; Ekman, Annica; Hansson, Hans-Christen

2017-04-01

Emissions of anthropogenic aerosols vary substantially over the globe and the short atmospheric residence time of aerosols leads to a highly uneven radiative forcing distribution, both spatially and temporally. Regional aerosol radiative forcing can, nevertheless, exert a large influence on the temperature field away from the forcing region through changes in heat transport or the atmospheric or ocean circulation. Moreover, the global temperature response distribution to aerosol forcing may vary depending on the geographical location of the forcing. In other words, the climate sensitivity in one region can vary depending on the location of the forcing. The surface temperature distribution response to changes in sulphate aerosol forcing caused by sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission perturbations in four different regions is investigated using the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM). The four regions, Europe, North America, East and South Asia, are all regions with historically high aerosol emissions and are relevant from both an air-quality and climate policy perspective. All emission perturbations are defined relative to the year 2000 emissions provided for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5. The global mean temperature change per unit SO2 emission change is similar for all four regions for similar magnitudes of emissions changes. However, the global temperature change per unit SO2 emission in simulations where regional SO2 emission were removed is substantially higher than that obtained in simulations where regional SO2 emissions were increased. Thus, the climate sensitivity to regional SO2 emissions perturbations depends on the magnitude of the emission perturbation in NorESM. On regional scale, on the other hand, the emission perturbations in different geographical locations lead to different regional temperature responses, both locally and in remote regions. The results from the model simulations are used to construct regional temperature potential

Projected Changes in the Asian-Australian Monsoon Region in 1.5°C and 2.0°C Global-Warming Scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Chevuturi, Amulya; Klingaman, Nicholas P.; Turner, Andrew G.; Hannah, Shaun

2018-03-01

In light of the Paris Agreement, it is essential to identify regional impacts of half a degree additional global warming to inform climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. We investigate the effects of 1.5°C and 2.0°C global warming above preindustrial conditions, relative to present day (2006-2015), over the Asian-Australian monsoon region (AAMR) using five models from the Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts (HAPPI) project. There is considerable intermodel variability in projected changes to mean climate and extreme events in 2.0°C and 1.5°C scenarios. There is high confidence in projected increases to mean and extreme surface temperatures over AAMR, as well as more-frequent persistent daily temperature extremes over East Asia, Australia, and northern India with an additional 0.5°C warming, which are likely to occur. Mean and extreme monsoon precipitation amplify over AAMR, except over Australia at 1.5°C where there is uncertainty in the sign of the change. Persistent daily extreme precipitation events are likely to become more frequent over parts of East Asia and India with an additional 0.5°C warming. There is lower confidence in projections of precipitation change than in projections of surface temperature change. These results highlight the benefits of limiting the global-mean temperature change to 1.5°C above preindustrial, as the severity of the above effects increases with an extra 0.5°C warming.

Climate Projection Data base for Roads - CliPDaR: Design a guideline for a transnational database of downscaled climate projection data for road impact models - within the Conference's of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) TRANSNATIONAL ROAD RESEARCH PROG

Science.gov (United States)

Matulla, Christoph; Namyslo, Joachim; Fuchs, Tobias; Türk, Konrad

2013-04-01

The European road sector is vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena, which can cause large socio-economic losses. Almost every year there occur several weather triggered events (like heavy precipitation, floods, landslides, high winds, snow and ice, heat or cold waves, etc.), that disrupt transportation, knock out power lines, cut off populated regions from the outside and so on. So, in order to avoid imbalances in the supply of vital goods to people as well as to prevent negative impacts on health and life of people travelling by car it is essential to know present and future threats to roads. Climate change might increase future threats to roads. CliPDaR focuses on parts of the European road network and contributes, based on the current body of knowledge, to the establishment of guidelines helping to decide which methods and scenarios to apply for the estimation of future climate change based challenges in the field of road maintenance. Based on regional scale climate change projections specific road-impact models are applied in order to support protection measures. In recent years, it has been recognised that it is essential to assess the uncertainty and reliability of given climate projections by using ensemble approaches and downscaling methods. A huge amount of scientific work has been done to evaluate these approaches with regard to reliability and usefulness for investigations on possible impacts of climate changes. CliPDaR is going to collect the existing approaches and methodologies in European countries, discuss their differences and - in close cooperation with the road owners - develops a common line on future applications of climate projection data to road impact models. As such, the project will focus on reviewing and assessing existing regional climate change projections regarding transnational highway transport needs. The final project report will include recommendations how the findings of CliPDaR may support the decision processes of European

Investigating the impacts of climate change on Chinese agriculture. China-UK collaboration project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Erda, Lin (ed.)

2004-04-15

The impact of climate change in China is expected to be considerable. A regional climate change model (PRECIS), developed by the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, was used to simulate China's climate and to develop climate change scenarios for the country. Results from this project suggest that, depending on the level of future emissions, the average temperature increase in China by the end of the 21st century may be between 3 and 4C.

The Impact of Student-Directed Projects in Introductory Statistics

Science.gov (United States)

Spence, Dianna J.; Bailey, Brad; Sharp, Julia L.

2017-01-01

A multi-year study investigated the impact of incorporating student-directed discovery projects into introductory statistics courses. Pilot instructors at institutions across the United States taught statistics implementing student-directed projects with the help of a common set of instructional materials designed to facilitate such projects.…

Consistency of climate change projections from multiple global and regional model intercomparison projects

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, J.; Frías, M. D.; Cabos, W. D.; Cofiño, A. S.; Domínguez, M.; Fita, L.; Gaertner, M. A.; García-Díez, M.; Gutiérrez, J. M.; Jiménez-Guerrero, P.; Liguori, G.; Montávez, J. P.; Romera, R.; Sánchez, E.

2018-03-01

We present an unprecedented ensemble of 196 future climate projections arising from different global and regional model intercomparison projects (MIPs): CMIP3, CMIP5, ENSEMBLES, ESCENA, EURO- and Med-CORDEX. This multi-MIP ensemble includes all regional climate model (RCM) projections publicly available to date, along with their driving global climate models (GCMs). We illustrate consistent and conflicting messages using continental Spain and the Balearic Islands as target region. The study considers near future (2021-2050) changes and their dependence on several uncertainty sources sampled in the multi-MIP ensemble: GCM, future scenario, internal variability, RCM, and spatial resolution. This initial work focuses on mean seasonal precipitation and temperature changes. The results show that the potential GCM-RCM combinations have been explored very unevenly, with favoured GCMs and large ensembles of a few RCMs that do not respond to any ensemble design. Therefore, the grand-ensemble is weighted towards a few models. The selection of a balanced, credible sub-ensemble is challenged in this study by illustrating several conflicting responses between the RCM and its driving GCM and among different RCMs. Sub-ensembles from different initiatives are dominated by different uncertainty sources, being the driving GCM the main contributor to uncertainty in the grand-ensemble. For this analysis of the near future changes, the emission scenario does not lead to a strong uncertainty. Despite the extra computational effort, for mean seasonal changes, the increase in resolution does not lead to important changes.

Regional Eco-hydrologic Sensitivity to Projected Amazonian Land Use Scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Knox, R. G.; Longo, M.; Zhang, K.; Levine, N. M.; Moorcroft, P. R.; Bras, R. L.

2011-12-01

Given business as usual land-use practices, it is estimated that by 2050 roughly half of the Amazon's pre-anthropogenic closed-canopy forest stands would remain. Of this, eight of the Amazon's twelve major hydrologic basins would lose more than half of their forest cover to deforestation. With the availability of these land-use projections, we may start to question the associated response of the region's hydrologic climate to significant land-cover change. Here the Ecosystem-Demography Model 2 (EDM2, a dynamic and spatially distributed terrestrial model of plant structure and composition, succession, disturbance and thermodynamic transfer) is coupled with the Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Model (BRAMS, a three-dimensional limited area model of the atmospheric fluid momentum equations and physics parameterizations for closing the system of equations at the lower boundary, convection, radiative transfer, microphysics, etc). This experiment conducts decadal simulations, framed with high-reliability lateral boundary conditions of reanalysis atmospheric data (ERA-40 interim) and variable impact of land-use scenarios (SimAmazonia). This is done by initializing the regional ecosystem structure with both aggressive and conservationist deforestation scenarios, and also by differentially allowing and not-allowing dynamic vegetation processes. While the lateral boundaries of the simulation will not reflect the future climate in the region, reanalysis data has provided improved realism as compared to results derived from GCM boundary data. Therefore, the ecosystem response (forest composition and structure) and the time-space patterns of hydrologic information (soil moisture, rainfall, evapotranspiration) are objectively compared in the context of a sensitivity experiment, as opposed to a forecast. The following questions are addressed. How do aggressive and conservative scenarios of Amazonian deforestation effect the regional patterning of hydrologic information in the

Uranium mining and indigenous social impact issues - Kakadu Region, Australia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wellings, P.

2002-01-01

This paper reports on indigenous social impact issues in the Kakadu/Alligators Rivers region of Australia. It briefly outlines the social history of the region, reflects on local, national and international attention being given to the impact of regional development on local indigenous (bininj) people, notes how social impact issues are being addressed and suggests some lessons learnt. (author)

Measuring the socio-economic impacts of agroforestry projects in the Philippines

Science.gov (United States)

Evan Mercer; Belita Vega; Hermie Francisco; Robin Maille

1994-01-01

Conventional wisdom suggests that agroforestry projects can provide both ecological and economic benefits. Most agroforestry project evaluations, however, have failed to adequately assess the soci0-economic impacts. For example, a review of 108 agroforestry project impact evaluations by Sara Scherr of IFPRJ reported that only 8% assessed economic costs or benefits, 5%...

The Effect of Mitigation Policy on Regional Climate Impacts on the U.S. Electric Sector

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, S. M.; Sun, Y.; Strzepek, K.; McFarland, J.; Boehlert, B.; Fant, C.

2017-12-01

Climate change can influence the U.S. electricity sector in many ways, the nature of which can be shaped by energy and environmental policy choices. Changing temperatures affect electricity demand largely through heating and cooling needs, and temperatures also affect generation and transmission system performance. Altered precipitation patterns affect the regional and seasonal distribution of surface water runoff, which changes hydropower operation and thermal cooling water availability. The extent to which these stimuli influence U.S. power sector operation and planning will depend to some extent on whether or not proactive policies are enacted to mitigate these impacts. Mitigation policies such as CO2 emissions limits or technology restrictions can change the makeup of the electricity system while reducing the extent of climate change itself. We use the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), a U.S. electric sector capacity expansion model, to explore electric sector evolution through 2050 under alternative climate and policy assumptions. The model endogenously represents climate impacts on load, power system performance, cooling water availability, and hydropower, allowing internally consistent system responses to climate change along with projected technology, market, and policy conditions. We compare climate impacts across 5 global circulation models for a 8.5 W/m2 representative concentration pathway (RCP) without a climate mitigation policy and a 4.5 W/m2 RCP with climate mitigation. Climate drivers affect the capacity and generation mix at the national and regional levels, with relative growth of wind, solar, and natural gas-based technologies depending on local electricity system characteristics. These differences affect regional economic impacts, measured here as changes to electricity price and system costs. Mitigation policy reduces the economic and system impacts of climate change largely by moderating

Social cost impact assessment of pipeline infrastructure projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Matthews, John C., E-mail: matthewsj@battelle.org [Battelle, 7231 Palmetto Dr, Baton Rouge, LA 70808 (United States); Allouche, Erez N., E-mail: allouche@latech.edu [Louisiana Tech University (United States); Sterling, Raymond L., E-mail: sterling@latech.edu [Louisiana Tech University (United States)

2015-01-15

A key advantage of trenchless construction methods compared with traditional open-cut methods is their ability to install or rehabilitate underground utility systems with limited disruption to the surrounding built and natural environments. The equivalent monetary values of these disruptions are commonly called social costs. Social costs are often ignored by engineers or project managers during project planning and design phases, partially because they cannot be calculated using standard estimating methods. In recent years some approaches for estimating social costs were presented. Nevertheless, the cost data needed for validation of these estimating methods is lacking. Development of such social cost databases can be accomplished by compiling relevant information reported in various case histories. This paper identifies eight most important social cost categories, presents mathematical methods for calculating them, and summarizes the social cost impacts for two pipeline construction projects. The case histories are analyzed in order to identify trends for the various social cost categories. The effectiveness of the methods used to estimate these values is also discussed. These findings are valuable for pipeline infrastructure engineers making renewal technology selection decisions by providing a more accurate process for the assessment of social costs and impacts. - Highlights: • Identified the eight most important social cost factors for pipeline construction • Presented mathematical methods for calculating those social cost factors • Summarized social cost impacts for two pipeline construction projects • Analyzed those projects to identify trends for the social cost factors.

Social cost impact assessment of pipeline infrastructure projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matthews, John C.; Allouche, Erez N.; Sterling, Raymond L.

2015-01-01

A key advantage of trenchless construction methods compared with traditional open-cut methods is their ability to install or rehabilitate underground utility systems with limited disruption to the surrounding built and natural environments. The equivalent monetary values of these disruptions are commonly called social costs. Social costs are often ignored by engineers or project managers during project planning and design phases, partially because they cannot be calculated using standard estimating methods. In recent years some approaches for estimating social costs were presented. Nevertheless, the cost data needed for validation of these estimating methods is lacking. Development of such social cost databases can be accomplished by compiling relevant information reported in various case histories. This paper identifies eight most important social cost categories, presents mathematical methods for calculating them, and summarizes the social cost impacts for two pipeline construction projects. The case histories are analyzed in order to identify trends for the various social cost categories. The effectiveness of the methods used to estimate these values is also discussed. These findings are valuable for pipeline infrastructure engineers making renewal technology selection decisions by providing a more accurate process for the assessment of social costs and impacts. - Highlights: • Identified the eight most important social cost factors for pipeline construction • Presented mathematical methods for calculating those social cost factors • Summarized social cost impacts for two pipeline construction projects • Analyzed those projects to identify trends for the social cost factors

Challenges in Projecting Sea Level Rise impacts on the Coastal Environment of South Florida (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Obeysekera, J.; Park, J.; Irizarry-Ortiz, M. M.; Barnes, J. A.; Trimble, P.; Said, W.

2010-12-01

Due to flat topography, a highly transmissive groundwater aquifer, and a growing population with the associated infrastructure, South Florida’s coastal environment is one of the most vulnerable areas to sea level rise. Current projections of sea level rise and the associated storm surges will have direct impacts on coastal beaches and infrastructure, flood protection, freshwater aquifers, and both the isolated and regional wetlands. Uncertainties in current projections have made it difficult for regional and local governments to develop adaptation strategies as such measures will depend heavily on the temporal and spatial patterns of sea level rise in the coming decades. We demonstrate the vulnerability of both the built and natural environments of the coastal region and present the current efforts to understand and predict the sea level rise estimate that management agencies could employ in planning of adaptation strategies. In particular, the potential vulnerabilities of the flood control system as well as the threat to the water supply wellfields in the coastal belt will be presented. In an effort to understand the historical variability of sea level rise, we present linkages to natural phenomena such as Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation, and the analytical methods we have developed to provide probabilistic projections of both mean sea level rise and the extremes.

South Carolina: Charleston County Area Project Impact Environmental Education Program (A Former EPA CARE Project)

Science.gov (United States)

The Charleston County Area Project Impact is the recipient of a Level II CARE cooperative agreement. The project is under the direction of the Charleston County Building Services Department, in Charleston, S.C.

The Impact of Project Organizational Culture on the Performance of Construction Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luong Hai Nguyen

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Cultural influence has recently received significant attention from academics due to its vital role in the success or failure of a project. In the construction industry, several empirical investigations have examined the influence of culture on project management. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of project organizational culture on the performance of construction projects. A total of 199 completed construction projects in Vietnam with specific data gathering through questionnaires were analyzed. The findings reveal that contractor commitment to contract agreements is the most significant cultural factor affecting project performance. Goal alignment and reliance, contractor commitment, and worker orientation (i.e., commitment to workers contribute to improved overall performance and participant satisfaction. Contractor commitment and cooperative orientation enhance labor productivity, whereas goal alignment and trust and contractor commitment ensure learning performance (i.e., learning from experience. The findings of this study may assist construction professionals in implementing practices that can contribute to the sustainability and success of construction projects.

Some environmental impacts associated with project Rio Blanco

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alldredge, A.W.; Whicker, F.W.; Hanson, W.C.

1976-01-01

Project Rio Blanco, an experiment involving deep underground detonation of three 30-kiloton nuclear explosives designed to stimulate natural gas flow in geologic formations of low permeability, was conducted in western Colorado on 17 May 1973. Environmental impacts associated with this experiment were divided into three categories: radiation, ground motion, and conventional physical activities. The objective of observations made at Rio Blanco was to qualitatively and, where possible, quantitatively ascertain environmental impacts associated with the project. Observations indicated that ground motion and conventional activities appeared to cause the greatest impacts. Ground motion impacts were most severe within 2.4 km of the emplacement well (EW) and were predominantly associated with steep ravine and stream banks and rocky cliffs. Following the detonation, flow and turbidity had increased in a small stream adjacent to the EW. Animals receiving deleterious impacts were those associated with stream banks, cliffs and burrows. No mortality or injury was observed in any large animals. Based on overall results it appears important to give adequate attention to environmental effects resulting from nuclear fracturing experiments

The AgMIP Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security

Science.gov (United States)

Ruane, Alex; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Elliott, Joshua; Antle, John

2015-01-01

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) has been working since 2010 to construct a protocol-based framework enabling regional assessments (led by regional experts and modelers) that can provide consistent inputs to global economic and integrated assessment models. These global models can then relay important global-level information that drive regional decision-making and outcomes throughout an interconnected agricultural system. AgMIPs community of nearly 800 climate, crop, livestock, economics, and IT experts has improved the state-of-the-art through model intercomparisons, validation exercises, regional integrated assessments, and the launch of AgMIP programs on all six arable continents. AgMIP is now launching Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) of climate change impacts on agriculture and food security to link global and regional crop and economic models using a protocol-based framework. The CGRA protocols are being developed to utilize historical observations, climate projections, and RCPsSSPs from CMIP5 (and potentially CMIP6), and will examine stakeholder-driven agricultural development and adaptation scenarios to provide cutting-edge assessments of climate changes impact on agriculture and food security. These protocols will build on the foundation of established protocols from AgMIPs 30+ activities, and will emphasize the use of multiple models, scenarios, and scales to enable an accurate assessment of related uncertainties. The CGRA is also designed to provide the outputs necessary to feed into integrated assessment models (IAMs), nutrition and food security assessments, nitrogen and carbon cycle models, and additional impact-sector assessments (e.g., water resources, land-use, biomes, urban areas). This presentation will describe the current status of CGRA planning and initial prototype experiments to demonstrate key aspects of the protocols before wider implementation ahead of the IPCC Sixth Assessment

The AgMIP Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security

Science.gov (United States)

Ruane, A. C.; Rosenzweig, C.; Antle, J. M.; Elliott, J. W.

2015-12-01

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) has been working since 2010 to construct a protocol-based framework enabling regional assessments (led by regional experts and modelers) that can provide consistent inputs to global economic and integrated assessment models. These global models can then relay important global-level information that drive regional decision-making and outcomes throughout an interconnected agricultural system. AgMIP's community of nearly 800 climate, crop, livestock, economics, and IT experts has improved the state-of-the-art through model intercomparisons, validation exercises, regional integrated assessments, and the launch of AgMIP programs on all six arable continents. AgMIP is now launching Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) of climate change impacts on agriculture and food security to link global and regional crop and economic models using a protocol-based framework. The CGRA protocols are being developed to utilize historical observations, climate projections, and RCPs/SSPs from CMIP5 (and potentially CMIP6), and will examine stakeholder-driven agricultural development and adaptation scenarios to provide cutting-edge assessments of climate change's impact on agriculture and food security. These protocols will build on the foundation of established protocols from AgMIP's 30+ activities, and will emphasize the use of multiple models, scenarios, and scales to enable an accurate assessment of related uncertainties. The CGRA is also designed to provide the outputs necessary to feed into integrated assessment models (IAMs), nutrition and food security assessments, nitrogen and carbon cycle models, and additional impact-sector assessments (e.g., water resources, land-use, biomes, urban areas). This presentation will describe the current status of CGRA planning and initial prototype experiments to demonstrate key aspects of the protocols before wider implementation ahead of the IPCC Sixth Assessment

EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF INNOVATIVE PROJECTS ON THE COMPETITIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ľubica RUMANOVSKÁ

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The scientific paper evaluates the impact of innovative projects on the competitiveness of agricultural holdings in SR. Evaluation of the impact of innovative projects on competitiveness of agricultural holdings was realized on the selected holdings in Nitra and Trnava region. For the evaluation was used RCR coefficient. With the use of RCR coefficient could be confirmed the scientific hypothesis - The innovative projects realized through Program for rural development SR 2007-2013 have positive impact on competitiveness of agricultural holdings. The possibilities for EU financial support for innovative projects in SR represent important source for introduction of new innovative technologies into production process and in future they can significantly contribute to the growth of competitiveness of agricultural subjects. Therefore, to increase competitiveness of agricultural holdings it is important to focus on modernization of machinery and buildings, use of natural sources for energy production, but also to increase the education and the flow of information between rural inhabitants, mainly farmers. In competitive area of EU agricultural sector it is necessary that agricultural holdings will innovate, not only to create independent flow of innovative products and knowledge, but also to increase its value on internal market. Agricultural holdings –receivers of financial support – have expressed the opinion that financial support realized through PRD SR 2007-2013 had definitely allowed them to implement new processes and products.

Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project Completes Coring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

the Scientific Staff of the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project

2006-09-01

Full Text Available The Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project (CBIS Project completed its coring operations during September–December 2005 and April–May 2006. Cores were collected continuously to a total depth of 1766 m. The recovered section consists of 1322 m of impactites beneath 444 m of post-impact continental shelf sediments.The CBIS Project is a joint venture of the International Continental Scientifi c Drilling Program (ICDP and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS. Project activities began with a planning workshop in September 2003 attended by sixtythree scientists from ten countries. Field operations began with site preparation in July 2005, and coring began in September 2005. Drilling, Observation and Sampling of theEarth’s Continental Crust (DOSECC was the general contractor for the drilling operations throughout 2005.

Wind power installations in Switzerland - Regional planning basics and impact; Windkraftanlagen in der Schweiz - Raumplanerische Grundlagen und Auswirkungen - Grundlagenbericht

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ott, W.; Kaufmann, Y.; Steiner, P. [Econcept AG, Zuerich (Switzerland); Gilgen, K.; Sartoris, A. [IRAP-HSR, Institut fuer Raumentwicklung an der Hochschule fuer Technik Rapperswil, Rapperswil (Switzerland)

2008-07-01

This report published by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) takes a look at the basics of regional planning and its impact on the construction of wind-energy installations in Switzerland. The authors state that the planning and realisation of wind turbine installations is often time and resource consuming: this document presents and discusses the results obtained in a project that aimed to supply consolidated knowledge on project-relevant basics and their effect with respect to wind-energy installations. Experience gained in Switzerland and in other countries is discussed. This report on the basics of wind-energy planning with its detailed information formed the basis of a checklist described in a further report. In nine chapters, regional planning aspects, environment and landscape-relevant aspects, effects on the national and regional economies and social acceptance factors are discussed. Also, success-factors and possible solutions for the successful realisation of wind-energy projects are looked at.

[Methods for health impact assessment of policies for municipal solid waste management: the SESPIR Project].

Science.gov (United States)

Parmagnani, Federica; Ranzi, Andrea; Ancona, Carla; Angelini, Paola; Chiusolo, Monica; Cadum, Ennio; Lauriola, Paolo; Forastiere, Francesco

2014-01-01

The Project Epidemiological Surveillance of Health Status of Resident Population Around the Waste Treatment Plants (SESPIR) included five Italian regions (Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Lazio, Campania, and Sicily) and the National Institute of Health in the period 2010-2013. SESPIR was funded by the Ministry of Health as part of the National centre for diseases prevention and control (CCM) programme of 2010 with the general objective to provide methods and operational tools for the implementation of surveillance systems for waste and health, aimed at assessing the impact of the municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment cycle on the health of the population. The specific objective was to assess health impacts resulting from the presence of disposal facilities related to different regional scenarios of waste management. Suitable tools for analysis of integrated assessment of environmental and health impact were developed and applied, using current demographic, environmental and health data. In this article, the methodology used for the quantitative estimation of the impact on the health of populations living nearby incinerators, landfills and mechanical biological treatment plants is showed, as well as the analysis of three different temporal scenarios: the first related to the existing plants in the period 2008-2009 (baseline), the second based on regional plans, the latter referring to MSW virtuous policy management based on reduction of produced waste and an intense recovery policy.

Impact of Recession on the Parameters of Quality of Regional Centres and their Attractiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samo Drobne

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the findings regarding the impact of recession that began in 2008 in Slovenia to the chosen parameters of quality of regional centres, which are reflected in their attractiveness. We wanted to test the assumption of the impact of recession to the attractiveness of regional centres to both internal migration and commuting flows. To this end, an adjusted gravity spatial interaction model was developed by evaluating regression coefficients. We analysedthe impacts of population size, distance, employment, gross personal income, municipality revenue per capita, average price per square metre of apartments and houses, and age structure in the municipality pertaining to the decision to potentially migrate or commute related to the migration and choice of workplace in the regional centre. The impact of the recession was analysed by comparing the estimations of regression coefficients before the recession (2007 and duringthe recession (2011. It is shown that during the recession, internal migrations to regional centres increased considerably, while commuting to regional centres did not change significantly. We alsoshowed that during the recession, the impact of the distance to the decision to migrate to regional centres slightly increased, while the impact of the distance to the decision to commute did not changesignificantly. Notably, during the crisis the impact of municipality revenue per capita in the regional centre to the analysed flows changed the most: during the recession, the decision to migrate and/orcommute to 'more prosperous' regional centres is made more easily.In the future, it is to be expected that local self-governments will make more effort to consider how to attract taxpayers to their local community and hence enrich the community, while the analysis of theseparameters will become more significant for the individual levels of the local self-government. Gravity models, such as the one used here, include different

Regional Transmission Projects: Finding Solutions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The Keystone Center

2005-06-15

The Keystone Center convened and facilitated a year-long Dialogue on "Regional Transmission Projects: Finding Solutions" to develop recommendations that will help address the difficult and contentious issues related to expansions of regional electric transmission systems that are needed for reliable and economic transmission of power within and across regions. This effort brought together a cross-section of affected stakeholders and thought leaders to address the problem with the collective wisdom of their experience and interests. Transmission owners sat at the table with consumer advocates and environmental organizations. Representatives from regional transmission organizations exchanged ideas with state and federal regulators. Generation developers explored common interests with public power suppliers. Together, the Dialogue participants developed consensus solutions about how to begin unraveling some of the more intractable issues surrounding identification of need, allocation of costs, and reaching consensus on siting issues that can frustrate the development of regional transmission infrastructure. The recommendations fall into three broad categories: 1. Recommendations on appropriate institutional arrangements and processes for achieving regional consensus on the need for new or expanded transmission infrastructure 2. Recommendations on the process for siting of transmission lines 3. Recommendations on the tools needed to support regional planning, cost allocation, and siting efforts. List of Dialogue participants: List of Dialogue Participants: American Electric Power American Transmission Company American Wind Energy Association California ISO Calpine Corporation Cinergy Edison Electric Institute Environmental Defense Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Great River Energy International Transmission Company ISO-New England Iowa Public Utility Board Kanner & Associates Midwest ISO National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners National Association

Adaptation of Regional Representative Soil Project and Soil Judging for Cameroon

Science.gov (United States)

Che, Celestine Akuma

2013-01-01

Representative regional soils have agricultural, cultural, economic, environmental, and historical importance to Cameroon. Twenty seven regional representative soils have been identified in Cameroon. A set of laboratory exercises, assignments and exam questions have been developed utilizing the Regional Representative Soil Project (RRSP) that…

Half Double Methodology – Leading projects to impact in half the time with double the impact

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ehlers, Michael; Svejvig, Per

this presentation to learn about the three core elements of the half-double methodology so that you can lead your projects to double the impact in half the time. Objectives: Summarize the half-double methodology and core elements of impact, flow, and leadership; explain how PMI’s project management tools can......Despite developments in agile methodologies over the last 20 years, the potential for optimization in projects is still significant. Current research shows that there are methodologies that can be used to reduce lead time and increase value creation of projects by 30% or more. Join...

Socioeconomic effects of power marketing alternatives for the Central Valley and Washoe Projects: 2005 regional econmic impact analysis using IMPLAN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, D.M.; Godoy-Kain, P.; Gu, A.Y.; Ulibarri, C.A.

1996-11-01

The Western Area Power Administration (Western) was founded by the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 to market and transmit federal hydroelectric power in 15 western states outside the Pacific Northwest, which is served by the Bonneville Power Administration. Western is divided into four independent Customer Service Regions including the Sierra Nevada Region (Sierra Nevada), the focus of this report. The Central Valley Project (CVP) and the Washoe Project provide the primary power resources marketed by Sierra Nevada. Sierra Nevada also purchases and markets power generated by the Bonneville Power Administration, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG ampersand E), and various power pools. Sierra Nevada currently markets approximately 1,480 megawatts of power to 77 customers in northern and central California. These customers include investor-owned utilities, public utilities, government agencies, military bases, and irrigation districts. Methods and conclusions from an economic analysis are summarized concerning distributional effects of alternative actions that Sierra Nevada could take with it's new marketing plan

Final environmental impact statement Kenetech/PacifiCorp Windpower Project Carbon County, Wyoming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-08-01

The Draft and Final Environmental Impact Statements (DEIS and FEIS) assess the environmental consequences of a proposed windpower energy development in Carbon County, Wyoming. This abbreviated FEIS revises and supplements the DEIS for the project and addresses comments expressed for the DEIS. The proposed project entails the erection of approximately 1,390 wind turbine generators and associated facilities (e.g., roads, substations, distribution and communications lines) by KENETECH Windpower, Inc. A 230-kV transmission line would be built by PacifiCorp, Inc. to connect a proposed substation on Foote Creek Rim near Arlington to the Miner's substation near Hanna. The proposed project would use standard procedures as currently employed by other right-of-way projects, plus additional project-specific and site-specific mitigation measures to ensure that project impacts are minimized on all important resources. Impacts to most resources would be negligible to moderate during the life-of-project. Potentially significant impacts from the project include avian mortality; declining avian populations; threatened, endangered, candidate, and/or state sensitive species mortality and/or habitat loss; disturbance to nearby residents due to noise; changes in visual resources; disturbance of important Native American traditional sites; changes in plant community species composition due to snow redistribution; displacement of big game due to windfarm operation; and loss of sage grouse nesting habitat. The proposed project could also have numerous beneficial impacts including increased revenues generated by taxes, increased employment, and benefits derived from using a nonpolluting resource for electric power generation

Governance Impact Assessment on Large Infrastructure Project (LIP Delivery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. A. Zarewa

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The linkage of failures of many projects, including Large Infrastructure Projects (LIPs, to governance problems by previous studies implies that governance impacts projects’ performance. Identification and understanding of the impacts have therefore become necessary in order to ensure that projects are governed in a way that will ensure their successful delivery. This study assessed impact of governance on delivery of Large Infrastructure Projects (LIPs through a three phase research approach. The first phase involved literature review followed by semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders/role players in the governance of eight LIPs in different locations in Nigeria in the second phase. A thematic data analysis of the study’s findings was finally conducted in the third phase to identify themes and sub-themes after which conclusions were drawn. The study established that governance impacts LIPs delivery both positively and negatively depending on how the governance is approached. Four LIPs were successful due to proper initiation, setting aside funds for the projects at the onset, proactive risk management, top management support, and simple governance policies and structures. Intuitive initiation on political exigencies, tying funding to erratic sources of funding without contingency arrangement, Procuring Authorities’ (PAs disregard for due process and consultants’ advice, failure of a Procuring Authority (PA to meet contractual obligations and change of government were identified by the study as major governance aspects that led to the abandonment of 4 LIPs. The study concluded that there was a need for significant improvement and standardisation of approaches to governance of LIPs particularly in developing countries like Nigeria and accordingly recommends the development of a governance framework containing guidelines, including sanctions for violators, to guide the governance of the projects in the country.

Environmental impacts of dispersed development from federal infrastructure projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Southerland, Mark T

2004-06-01

Dispersed development, also referred to as urban growth or sprawl, is a pattern of low-density development spread over previously rural landscapes. Such growth can result in adverse impacts to air quality, water quality, human health, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, agricultural land, military training areas, water supply and wastewater treatment, recreational resources, viewscapes, and cultural resources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is charged with protecting public health and the environment, which includes consideration of impacts from dispersed development. Specifically, because federal infrastructure projects can affect the progress of dispersed development, the secondary impacts resulting from it must be assessed in documents prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has oversight for NEPA and Section 309 of the Clean Air Act requires that U.S. EPA review and comment on federal agency NEPA documents. The adverse effects of dispersed development can be induced by federal infrastructure projects including transportation, built infrastructure, modifications in natural infrastructure, public land conversion and redevelopment of properties, construction of federal facilities, and large traffic or major growth generation developments requiring federal permits. This paper presents an approach that U.S. EPA reviewers and NEPA practitioners can use to provide accurate, realistic, and consistent analysis of secondary impacts of dispersed development resulting from federal infrastructure projects. It also presents 24 measures that can be used to mitigate adverse impacts from dispersed development by modifying project location and design, participating in preservation or restoration activities, or informing and supporting local communities in planning.

Evolution of environmental impact assessment as applied to watershed modification projects in Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Dirschl, Herman J.; Novakowski, Nicholas S.; Sadar, M. Husain

1993-07-01

This article reviews the application of environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures and practices to three watershed modification projects situaled in western Canada. These ventures were justified for accelerating regional economic development, and cover the period during which public concerns for protecting the environment rapidly made their way into the national political agenda. An historical account and analysis of the situation, therefore, seems desirable in order to understand the development of EIA processes, practices, and methodologies since the start of construction of the first project in 1961. This study concludes that there has been good progress in predicting and evaluating environmental and related social impacts of watershed modification proposals. However, a number of obstacles need to be overcome before EIA can firmly establish itself as an effective planning tool. These difficulties include jurisdictional confusions and conflicts, division of authority and responsibility in designing and implementing appropriate mitigative and monitoring measures, lack of tested EIA methodologies, and limited availability of qualified human resources. A number of conclusions and suggestions are offered so that future watershed modification proposals may be planned and implemented in a more environmentally sustainable fashion. These include: (1) EIA processes must be completed before irrevocable decisions are made. (2) Any major intrusion into a watershed is likely to impact on some major components of the ecosystem(s). (3) Mitigation costs must form part of the benefit-cost analysis of any project proposal. (4) Interjurisdictional cooperation is imperative where watersheds cross political boundaries. (5) The EIA process is a public process, hence public concerns must be dealt with fairly. (6) The role of science in the EIA process must be at arms length from project proponents and regulators, and allowed to function in the interest of the protection of the

Social and Economic Impact of the Candle Light Source Project Candle project impact

Science.gov (United States)

Baghiryan, M.

Social and economic progress related to the realization of the CANDLE synchrotron light source creation project in Armenia is discussed. CANDLE service is multidisciplinary and long-lasting. Its impacts include significant improvement in science capacities, education quality, industrial capabilities, investment climate, country image, international relations, health level, restraining the "brain-drain", new workplaces, etc. CANDLE will serve as a universal national infrastructure assuring Armenia as a country with knowledge-based economy, a place for doing high-tech business, and be a powerful tool in achieving the country's jump forward in general.

Climate change and forests: Impacts and adaption. A regional assessment for the Western Ghats, India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravindranath, N H; Sukumar, R [Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore (India). Centre for Ecological Sciences; Deshingkar, P [Stockholm Environment Inst. (Sweden)

1998-12-31

Potential climate change over the next 50 to 100 years could have major impacts on tropical forests. Forests, particularly in the tropics, are subjected to anthropogenic pressures leading to degradation and loss of forest ecosystems. Given the significant dependence of local people and economies on forests in tropical and temperate countries, there is a need to assess the possible impacts of climate change and to develop adaption measures. The diversity of forest types in the Western Ghats ranges from wet evergreen and deciduous forest to dry thorn and montane forests with a wide range of annual rainfall regimes (from less than 65 cm to over 300 cm). The study was conducted in two regions of the Western Ghats; the Uttara Kannada district and the Nilgiris. Climate change projections for 2020 and 2050 were used in assessing the possible impacts on forests. In general, the `most likely` projections of climate change were an increase in mean temperature in the range of 0.3-1.0 deg C and an increase in precipitation of 3-8% over the study regions by the year 2050. The `worst case` scenario was an increase in temperature of 1 deg C and a decrease in precipitation by 8% by 2050. To assess the vegetational responses to climate change, a simple model based on present-day correlations between climatic (mean annual temperature and precipitation) and vegetation types for these regions was developed. Likely changes in the areas under different forest types were assessed for `moderate climate` sensitivity and central scaling factor (referred to as the `most likely scenario`) for the years 2020 and 2050, and `high climate` sensitivity and a lower scaling factor (the `worst case scenario`) for 2050 90 refs, 15 figs, 15 tabs

Climate change and forests: Impacts and adaption. A regional assessment for the Western Ghats, India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravindranath, N.H.; Sukumar, R. [Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore (India). Centre for Ecological Sciences; Deshingkar, P. [Stockholm Environment Inst. (Sweden)

1997-12-31

Potential climate change over the next 50 to 100 years could have major impacts on tropical forests. Forests, particularly in the tropics, are subjected to anthropogenic pressures leading to degradation and loss of forest ecosystems. Given the significant dependence of local people and economies on forests in tropical and temperate countries, there is a need to assess the possible impacts of climate change and to develop adaption measures. The diversity of forest types in the Western Ghats ranges from wet evergreen and deciduous forest to dry thorn and montane forests with a wide range of annual rainfall regimes (from less than 65 cm to over 300 cm). The study was conducted in two regions of the Western Ghats; the Uttara Kannada district and the Nilgiris. Climate change projections for 2020 and 2050 were used in assessing the possible impacts on forests. In general, the `most likely` projections of climate change were an increase in mean temperature in the range of 0.3-1.0 deg C and an increase in precipitation of 3-8% over the study regions by the year 2050. The `worst case` scenario was an increase in temperature of 1 deg C and a decrease in precipitation by 8% by 2050. To assess the vegetational responses to climate change, a simple model based on present-day correlations between climatic (mean annual temperature and precipitation) and vegetation types for these regions was developed. Likely changes in the areas under different forest types were assessed for `moderate climate` sensitivity and central scaling factor (referred to as the `most likely scenario`) for the years 2020 and 2050, and `high climate` sensitivity and a lower scaling factor (the `worst case scenario`) for 2050 90 refs, 15 figs, 15 tabs

Environmental impact statement for the proposed Great Whale River Hydroelectric Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

Guidelines are presented on the preparation of the environmental impact statement for the Great Whale hydroelectric project by Hydro-Quebec. The statement must include a project justification, description of the biophysical and social environments, a project description, and must address project impacts, mitigative and compensatory measures, environmental surveillance, monitoring, and long-term management programs. Appendices include a memorandum of understanding, list of members of the review bodies, list of briefs submitted at the public scoping hearings, and a list of public comments on the draft guidelines. 17 figs

Deadly heat waves projected in the densely populated agricultural regions of South Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Im, Eun-Soon; Pal, Jeremy S; Eltahir, Elfatih A B

2017-08-01

The risk associated with any climate change impact reflects intensity of natural hazard and level of human vulnerability. Previous work has shown that a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C can be considered an upper limit on human survivability. On the basis of an ensemble of high-resolution climate change simulations, we project that extremes of wet-bulb temperature in South Asia are likely to approach and, in a few locations, exceed this critical threshold by the late 21st century under the business-as-usual scenario of future greenhouse gas emissions. The most intense hazard from extreme future heat waves is concentrated around densely populated agricultural regions of the Ganges and Indus river basins. Climate change, without mitigation, presents a serious and unique risk in South Asia, a region inhabited by about one-fifth of the global human population, due to an unprecedented combination of severe natural hazard and acute vulnerability.

7 CFR 1486.103 - Are regional projects possible under the program?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... consideration provided such projects target qualifying emerging markets in the specified region. CCC may consider activities which target qualified emerging markets in a specific region, but are conducted in a non-emerging market because of its importance as a central location and ease of access to that region. ...

Emission metrics for quantifying regional climate impacts of aviation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. T. Lund

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This study examines the impacts of emissions from aviation in six source regions on global and regional temperatures. We consider the NOx-induced impacts on ozone and methane, aerosols and contrail-cirrus formation and calculate the global and regional emission metrics global warming potential (GWP, global temperature change potential (GTP and absolute regional temperature change potential (ARTP. The GWPs and GTPs vary by a factor of 2–4 between source regions. We find the highest aviation aerosol metric values for South Asian emissions, while contrail-cirrus metrics are higher for Europe and North America, where contrail formation is prevalent, and South America plus Africa, where the optical depth is large once contrails form. The ARTP illustrate important differences in the latitudinal patterns of radiative forcing (RF and temperature response: the temperature response in a given latitude band can be considerably stronger than suggested by the RF in that band, also emphasizing the importance of large-scale circulation impacts. To place our metrics in context, we quantify temperature change in four broad latitude bands following 1 year of emissions from present-day aviation, including CO2. Aviation over North America and Europe causes the largest net warming impact in all latitude bands, reflecting the higher air traffic activity in these regions. Contrail cirrus gives the largest warming contribution in the short term, but remain important at about 15 % of the CO2 impact in several regions even after 100 years. Our results also illustrate both the short- and long-term impacts of CO2: while CO2 becomes dominant on longer timescales, it also gives a notable warming contribution already 20 years after the emission. Our emission metrics can be further used to estimate regional temperature change under alternative aviation emission scenarios. A first evaluation of the ARTP in the context of aviation suggests that further work to account

Modeling the Impact of Uganda's Safe Male Circumcision Program: Implications for Age and Regional Targeting.

Science.gov (United States)

Kripke, Katharine; Vazzano, Andrea; Kirungi, William; Musinguzi, Joshua; Opio, Alex; Ssempebwa, Rhobbinah; Nakawunde, Susan; Kyobutungi, Sheila; Akao, Juliet N; Magala, Fred; Mwidu, George; Castor, Delivette; Njeuhmeli, Emmanuel

2016-01-01

Uganda aims to provide safe male circumcision (SMC) to 80% of men ages 15-49 by 2016. To date, only 2 million men have received SMC of the 4.2 million men required. In response to age and regional trends in SMC uptake, the country sought to re-examine its targets with respect to age and subnational region, to assess the program's progress, and to refine the implementation approach. The Decision Makers' Program Planning Tool, Version 2.0 (DMPPT 2.0), was used in conjunction with incidence projections from the Spectrum/AIDS Impact Module (AIM) to conduct this analysis. Population, births, deaths, and HIV incidence and prevalence were used to populate the model. Baseline male circumcision prevalence was derived from the 2011 AIDS Indicator Survey. Uganda can achieve the most immediate impact on HIV incidence by circumcising men ages 20-34. This group will also require the fewest circumcisions for each HIV infection averted. Focusing on men ages 10-19 will offer the greatest impact over a 15-year period, while focusing on men ages 15-34 offers the most cost-effective strategy over the same period. A regional analysis showed little variation in cost-effectiveness of scaling up SMC across eight regions. Scale-up is cost-saving in all regions. There is geographic variability in program progress, highlighting two regions with low baseline rates of circumcision where additional efforts will be needed. Focusing SMC efforts on specific age groups and regions may help to accelerate Uganda's SMC program progress. Policy makers in Uganda have already used model outputs in planning efforts, proposing males ages 10-34 as a priority group for SMC in the 2014 application to the Global Fund's new funding model. As scale-up continues, the country should also consider a greater effort to expand SMC in regions with low MC prevalence.

Modeling the Impact of Uganda's Safe Male Circumcision Program: Implications for Age and Regional Targeting.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katharine Kripke

Full Text Available Uganda aims to provide safe male circumcision (SMC to 80% of men ages 15-49 by 2016. To date, only 2 million men have received SMC of the 4.2 million men required. In response to age and regional trends in SMC uptake, the country sought to re-examine its targets with respect to age and subnational region, to assess the program's progress, and to refine the implementation approach.The Decision Makers' Program Planning Tool, Version 2.0 (DMPPT 2.0, was used in conjunction with incidence projections from the Spectrum/AIDS Impact Module (AIM to conduct this analysis. Population, births, deaths, and HIV incidence and prevalence were used to populate the model. Baseline male circumcision prevalence was derived from the 2011 AIDS Indicator Survey. Uganda can achieve the most immediate impact on HIV incidence by circumcising men ages 20-34. This group will also require the fewest circumcisions for each HIV infection averted. Focusing on men ages 10-19 will offer the greatest impact over a 15-year period, while focusing on men ages 15-34 offers the most cost-effective strategy over the same period. A regional analysis showed little variation in cost-effectiveness of scaling up SMC across eight regions. Scale-up is cost-saving in all regions. There is geographic variability in program progress, highlighting two regions with low baseline rates of circumcision where additional efforts will be needed.Focusing SMC efforts on specific age groups and regions may help to accelerate Uganda's SMC program progress. Policy makers in Uganda have already used model outputs in planning efforts, proposing males ages 10-34 as a priority group for SMC in the 2014 application to the Global Fund's new funding model. As scale-up continues, the country should also consider a greater effort to expand SMC in regions with low MC prevalence.

Draft environmental impact statement: KENETECH/PacifiCorp Windpower Project, Carbon County, Wyoming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

This Draft Environmental Impact Statement assesses the environmental consequences of a proposed windpower development project in Carbon County, between Arlington and Hanna, Wyoming. Public scoping commenced in January 1994. All issues raised during scoping and interdisciplinary team preparation of the analysis are addressed. The proposed project entails the erection of approximately 1,390 wind turbine generators and associated facilities (e.g., roads, substations, distribution and communications lines) by KENETECH Windpower, Inc. A 230-kV transmission line would be built by PacifiCorp, Inc. to connect a proposed substation on Foote Creek Rim near Arlington to the Miner's substation near Hanna. The proposed project would use standard procedures as currently employed by other right-of-way projects, plus additional project-specific and site-specific mitigation measures to ensure that project impacts are minimized on all important resources. Impacts to most resources would be negligible to moderate during the life-of-project. Potentially significant impacts resulting from the project include avian mortality; declining avian populations; threatened, endangered, candidate, and/or state sensitive species mortality and/or habitat loss; disturbance to nearby residents due to noise; changes in visual resources; disturbance of important Native American traditional sites; changes in plant community species composition due to snow redistribution; displacement of big game due to windfarm operation; and loss of sage grouse nesting habitat. The proposed project could also have numerous beneficial impacts including increased revenues generated by taxes, increased employment, and benefits derived from using a nonpolluting resource for electric power generation

Social impacts of community renewable energy projects: findings from a woodfuel case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogers, Jennifer C.; Simmons, Eunice A.; Convery, Ian; Weatherall, Andrew

2012-01-01

There is much current interest in the potential of community-based renewable energy projects to contribute to transition towards low carbon energy systems. As well as displacing fossil fuel consumption by increasing renewable energy generation, projects are expected to have a range of social impacts which may result in additional positive sustainability outcomes. These include potential to increase: acceptance of renewable energy developments; awareness of renewable and sustainable energy technologies and issues; uptake of low carbon technologies; and sustainable/pro-environmental behaviours. To date however, there has been little investigation of whether and how these impacts occur. This paper presents results from qualitative research investigating the social impacts of a community woodfuel project as experienced by project participants and other local stakeholders. Findings show projects can raise awareness of renewable energy technologies and increase uptake of renewables. Overall the case study project successfully changed the local social context for development of woodfuel heating, reducing risk for all involved in the future development of this sector, particularly in the immediate locality. There was some evidence of increased engagement with wider sustainability issues but this was limited to direct participants, suggesting local projects need to be supported by wider systemic change to maximise impacts. - Highlights: ► We assessed the social impacts of a community woodfuel project. ► The project increased awareness and uptake of woodfuel heating. ► Impacts were achieved as a result of the locally-specific approach. ► Local projects can seed cultural change promoting transition to a low carbon society.

Incorporating regional growth into forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions from project-level residential and commercial development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rowangould, Dana; Eldridge, Melody; Niemeier, Deb

2013-01-01

To better understand the greenhouse gas (GHG) implications of land use planning decisions, regional planning organizations have developed tools to forecast the emissions from project-level residential and commercial development. This paper reviews the state of GHG emissions forecasting methods for project-level development. We argue that when forecasting changes in regional emissions it is important to make explicit what is assumed about a project′s effect on the population of residents and businesses in the region. We present five regional growth assumptions capturing the range of ways that project-level development might influence (i) construction and occupancy of similar developments elsewhere in a region and (ii) relocation of the initial activities that occur on-site before the project is built. We show that current forecasting tools inconsistently address the latter when they are interpreted as forecasted changes in regional emissions. Using a case study in Yolo County, California we demonstrate that forecasted changes in regional emissions are greatly affected by the regional growth assumption. In the absence of information about which regional growth assumption is accurate, we provide guidelines for selection of a conservative regional growth assumption. - Highlights: • Current tools inconsistently forecast GHG emissions from project-level development. • We outline five assumptions about how projects may affect regional growth. • Our assumptions capture a range of economic and population effects of projects. • Our case study shows that growth assumptions greatly affect regional GHG estimates. • We provide guidelines for selecting a conservative regional growth assumption

e-Government project strengthens regional network in the Americas ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-06-22

Jun 22, 2016 ... Building on the IDRC and Organization of American States partnership ... In an effort to showcase some of the major impacts of the IDRC project, ... There is ample evidence that addressing gender inequalities and empoweri.

Impact of Stakeholder Psychological Empowerment on Project Success

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herry Pintardi Chandra

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The relationship between psychological empowerment of stakeholders and project success is an important thing that must be known by project manager. This research developed and tested the model to predict how well the impact of stakeholder psychological empowerment on project success. Stakeholder psychological empowerment was defined to have five indicator variables covering intrinsic motivation, opportunity to perform, ability to perform, task behaviors, and contextual behaviors. Meanwhile, project success can be measured by cost performance, time performance, quality performance, profitability, and customer satisfaction. In this study, it was hypothesized that stakeholder psychological empowerment influenced project success. Based on the data obtained from a questionnaire survey carried out to 204 respondents, structural equation modeling (SEM was used for predicting the performance of project success. It was found that stakeholder psychological empowerment influenced project success, especially on the ability to perform of stakeholders.

Evaluating impacts of development and conservation projects using sustainability indicators: Opportunities and challenges

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agol, Dorice, E-mail: d.agol@uea.a.c.uk [University of East Anglia, School of International Development, Norwich NR4 7TJ (United Kingdom); Latawiec, Agnieszka E., E-mail: a.latawiec@iis-rio.org [International Institute for Sustainability, Estrada Dona Castorina 124, 22460-320 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Opole University of Technology, Department of Production Engineering and Logistics, Luboszycka 5, 45-036 Opole (Poland); University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences, Norwich NR4 7TJ (United Kingdom); Strassburg, Bernardo B.N., E-mail: b.strassburg@iis-rio.org [International Institute for Sustainability, Estrada Dona Castorina 124, 22460-320 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Department of Geography and the Environment, Pontificia Universidade Catolica, 22453-900 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

2014-09-15

There has been an increased interest in using sustainability indicators for evaluating the impacts of development and conservation projects. Past and recent experiences have shown that sustainability indicators can be powerful tools for measuring the outcomes of various interventions, when used appropriately and adequately. Currently, there is a range of methods for applying sustainability indicators for project impact evaluation at the environment–development interface. At the same time, a number of challenges persist which have implication for impact evaluation processes especially in developing countries. We highlight some key and recurrent challenges, using three cases from Kenya, Indonesia and Brazil. In this study, we have conducted a comparative analysis across multiple projects from the three countries, which aimed to conserve biodiversity and improve livelihoods. The assessments of these projects were designed to evaluate their positive, negative, short-term, long term, direct and indirect impacts. We have identified a set of commonly used sustainability indicators to evaluate the projects and have discussed opportunities and challenges associated with their application. Our analysis shows that impact evaluation processes present good opportunities for applying sustainability indicators. On the other hand, we find that project proponents (e.g. managers, evaluators, donors/funders) face challenges with establishing full impacts of interventions and that these are rooted in monitoring and evaluation processes, lack of evidence-based impacts, difficulties of measuring certain outcomes and concerns over scale of a range of impacts. We outline key lessons learnt from the multiple cases and propose ways to overcome common problems. Results from our analysis demonstrate practical experiences of applying sustainability indicators in developing countries context where there are different prevailing socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions. The

Evaluating impacts of development and conservation projects using sustainability indicators: Opportunities and challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agol, Dorice; Latawiec, Agnieszka E.; Strassburg, Bernardo B.N.

2014-01-01

There has been an increased interest in using sustainability indicators for evaluating the impacts of development and conservation projects. Past and recent experiences have shown that sustainability indicators can be powerful tools for measuring the outcomes of various interventions, when used appropriately and adequately. Currently, there is a range of methods for applying sustainability indicators for project impact evaluation at the environment–development interface. At the same time, a number of challenges persist which have implication for impact evaluation processes especially in developing countries. We highlight some key and recurrent challenges, using three cases from Kenya, Indonesia and Brazil. In this study, we have conducted a comparative analysis across multiple projects from the three countries, which aimed to conserve biodiversity and improve livelihoods. The assessments of these projects were designed to evaluate their positive, negative, short-term, long term, direct and indirect impacts. We have identified a set of commonly used sustainability indicators to evaluate the projects and have discussed opportunities and challenges associated with their application. Our analysis shows that impact evaluation processes present good opportunities for applying sustainability indicators. On the other hand, we find that project proponents (e.g. managers, evaluators, donors/funders) face challenges with establishing full impacts of interventions and that these are rooted in monitoring and evaluation processes, lack of evidence-based impacts, difficulties of measuring certain outcomes and concerns over scale of a range of impacts. We outline key lessons learnt from the multiple cases and propose ways to overcome common problems. Results from our analysis demonstrate practical experiences of applying sustainability indicators in developing countries context where there are different prevailing socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions. The

Revitalisation of Orlík reservoir – case study of a regional restoration project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Očásková

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This case study describes the bottom-up formation of a regional project for restoring a reservoir. Land use changes in the upper Vltava river basin caused the eutrophication of Orlík reservoir, which resulted in water blooms, which in association with socio-economic changes caused a decline in tourism in this region and serious difficulties for local people. The study examines how public awareness helped in the establishment of a restoration project, its framework and strategy. Regional governance of the project management took into consideration both knowledge-based solutions and the interests of local people and municipalities. The project has the potential for resolving both environmental and socio-economic problems and providing a sustainable win-win strategy for the region, residents, tourists and stakeholders.

Assessing economic impact of storm surge under projected sea level rise scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Del Angel, D. C.; Yoskowitz, D.

2017-12-01

Global sea level is expected to rise 0.2-2m by the year 2100. Rising sea level is expected to have a number of impacts such as erosion, saltwater intrusion, and decline in coastal wetlands; all which have direct and indirect socio-economic impact to coastal communities. By 2050, 25% of the world's population will reside within flood-prone areas. These statistics raise a concern for the economic cost that sea level and flooding has on the growing coastal communities. Economic cost of storm surge inundation and rising seas may include loss or damage to public facilities and infrastructure that may become temporarily inaccessible, as well as disruptions to business and services. This goal of this project is to assess economic impacts of storms under four SLR scenarios including low, intermediate-low, intermediate-high, and high (0.2m, 0.5m, 1.2m and 2m, respectively) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico region. To assess flooding impact on communities from storm surge, this project utilizes HAZUS-MH software - a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based modeling tool developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency - to estimate physical, economic, and social impacts of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. The HAZUS database comes integrated with aggregate and site specific inventory which includes: demographic data, general building stock, agricultural statistics, vehicle inventory, essential facilities, transportation systems, utility systems (among other sensitive facilities). User-defined inundation scenarios will serve to identify assets at risk and damage estimates will be generated using the Depth Damage Function included in the HAZUS software. Results will focus on 3 communities in the Gulf and highlight changes in storm flood impact. This approach not only provides a method for economic impact assessment but also begins to create a link between ecosystem services and natural and nature-based features such as wetlands, beaches and dunes

Development of Procedures for Assessing the Impact of Vocational Education Research and Development on Vocational Education (Project IMPACT). Volume 8--A Field Study of Predicting Impact of Research and Development Projects in Vocational and Technical Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Malhorta, Man Mohanlal

As part of Project IMPACT's effort to identify and develop procedures for complying with the impact requirements of Public Law 94-482, a field study was conducted to identify and validate variables and their order of importance in predicting and evaluating impact of research and development (R&D) projects in vocational and technical education.…

Regional differences in climate change impacts on groundwater and stream discharge in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Roosmalen, Lieke Petronella G; Christensen, Britt S.B.; Sonnenborg, Torben O.

2007-01-01

of the hydrological response to the simulated climate change is highly dependant on the geological setting of the model area. In the Jylland area, characterized by sandy top soils and large interconnected aquifers, groundwater recharge increases significantly, resulting in higher groundwater levels and increasing......Regional impact studies of the effects of future climate change are necessary because projected changes in meteorological variables vary regionally and different hydrological systems can react in various ways to the same changes. In this study the effects of climate change on groundwater recharge...... simulates changes in groundwater head, recharge, and discharge. Precipitation, temperature, and reference evapotranspiration increase for both the A2 and B2 scenarios. This results in a significant increase in mean annual net precipitation, but with decreased values in the summer months. The magnitude...

Impact of National Fadama Development Project II on Rice farmers ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... examined the impact of National Fadama Development Project II on the profitability of rice farmers and assessed the extent to which the various innovations disseminated by the project were adopted by the rice farmer beneficiaries. The project which had all operating expenses cofinanced by the various key stakeholders ...

The Swedish Regional Climate Modelling Programme, SWECLIM: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Rummukainen, Markku; Bergström, Sten; Persson, Gunn; Rodhe, Johan; Tjernström, Michael

2004-06-01

The Swedish Regional Climate Modelling Programme, SWECLIM, was a 6.5-year national research network for regional climate modeling, regional climate change projections and hydrological impact assessment and information to a wide range of stakeholders. Most of the program activities focussed on the regional climate system of Northern Europe. This led to the establishment of an advanced, coupled atmosphere-ocean-hydrology regional climate model system, a suite of regional climate change projections and progress on relevant data and process studies. These were, in turn, used for information and educational purposes, as a starting point for impact analyses on different societal sectors and provided contributions also to international climate research.

Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets: The role of land processes

Science.gov (United States)

Seneviratne, S. I.; Donat, M.; Pitman, A.; Knutti, R.; Wilby, R.; Vogel, M.; Orth, R.

2016-12-01

Global temperature targets, such as the widely accepted "2° and 1.5° targets", may fail to communicate the urgency of reducing CO2 emissions because they are disconnected from their implications. The translation of CO2 emissions into regional- and impact-related climate targets is more powerful because such targets are more directly aligned with individual national interests. A recent publication (Seneviratne et al. 2016, Nature) reveals that regional changes in extreme temperatures and precipitation scale robustly with global temperature across scenarios, and thus with cumulative CO2 emissions. They thus allow a better communication of implied regional impacts associated with global targets for CO2 emissions. However, the regional responses are very varied and display strong differences in regional temperature and hydrological sensitivity. Process-based based analyses explain these divergences and highlight avenues for reducing uncertainties in regional projections of extremes, in particular related to the role of land-atmosphere feedbacks. These results have important implications for the design of regional mitigation and climate adaptation policies, for instance related to land use changes. Reference: Seneviratne, S.I., M.G. Donat, A.J. Pitman, R. Knutti, and R. Wilby, 2016, Nature, 529, 477-483, doi:10.1038/nature16542

Digital Sequences and a Time Reversal-Based Impact Region Imaging and Localization Method

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Lei; Yuan, Shenfang; Mei, Hanfei; Qian, Weifeng

2013-01-01

To reduce time and cost of damage inspection, on-line impact monitoring of aircraft composite structures is needed. A digital monitor based on an array of piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) is developed to record the impact region of impacts on-line. It is small in size, lightweight and has low power consumption, but there are two problems with the impact alarm region localization method of the digital monitor at the current stage. The first one is that the accuracy rate of the impact alarm region localization is low, especially on complex composite structures. The second problem is that the area of impact alarm region is large when a large scale structure is monitored and the number of PZTs is limited which increases the time and cost of damage inspections. To solve the two problems, an impact alarm region imaging and localization method based on digital sequences and time reversal is proposed. In this method, the frequency band of impact response signals is estimated based on the digital sequences first. Then, characteristic signals of impact response signals are constructed by sinusoidal modulation signals. Finally, the phase synthesis time reversal impact imaging method is adopted to obtain the impact region image. Depending on the image, an error ellipse is generated to give out the final impact alarm region. A validation experiment is implemented on a complex composite wing box of a real aircraft. The validation results show that the accuracy rate of impact alarm region localization is approximately 100%. The area of impact alarm region can be reduced and the number of PZTs needed to cover the same impact monitoring region is reduced by more than a half. PMID:24084123

Container cargo simulation modeling for measuring impacts of infrastructure investment projects in Pearl River Delta

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jia-Qi; Shibasaki, Ryuichi; Li, Bo-Wei

2010-03-01

In the Pearl River Delta (PRD), there is severe competition between container ports, particularly those in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, for collecting international maritime container cargo. In addition, the second phase of the Nansha terminal in Guangzhou’s port and the first phase of the Da Chang Bay container terminal in Shenzhen opened last year. Under these circumstances, there is an increasing need to quantitatively measure the impact these infrastructure investments have on regional cargo flows. The analysis should include the effects of container terminal construction, berth deepening, and access road construction. The authors have been developing a model for international cargo simulation (MICS) which can simulate the movement of cargo. The volume of origin-destination (OD) container cargo in the East Asian region was used as an input, in order to evaluate the effects of international freight transportation policies. This paper focuses on the PRD area and, by incorporating a more detailed network, evaluates the impact of several infrastructure investment projects on freight movement.

Attention to impact pathways in EISs of large dam projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brismar, Anna

2004-01-01

The importance of addressing cumulative environmental impacts in Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) of large development projects is increasingly underlined. However, cumulative impacts are generated through complex impact pathways, involving multiple root causes and lower and higher order effects, interlinked by cause-effect relationships. Consideration to potential impact pathways may thus be difficult without appropriate analytical methods, expertise, and supportive Environmental Impact Assessment guidelines and terms-of-references (TOR). This paper presents the results of an analysis of six EISs prepared for large dam projects between 1994 and 2001. The objective was to analyze if, how, and to what extent potential impact pathways involved in the generation of dam-related cumulative impacts have been addressed in the analyzed material. For this purpose, a theoretical framework was developed, which identifies four key root causes, their potential effects, and associated cause-effect relationships. The analysis revealed various shortcomings. Important imbalances were found in the degree of attention given to effects of different categories. Lower order effects received greater attention than higher order, and the potential effects of reservoir filling were more extensively attended to than those of flow blockage, storage, and regulation. Most importantly, little effort was made to carefully explain the potential impact pathways involved; root causes were often referred to in general terms only, and potential pathways leading up to an anticipated higher order effect or following upon an expected lower order effect were often inadequately addressed or ignored. Probable reasons for the discovered shortcomings are discussed and recommendations are presented for improving the World Bank EIA guidelines for large dam projects

Handbook to guide the measurement and monitoring of project effectiveness and impact

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1986-09-15

This handbook demonstrates the application of a tool for measuring and monitoring the impact of a development project in the Department of Quezaltenango, Guatemala. That project itself presently is a demonstration. It explores the technical feasibility and the commercial possibilities of direct geothermal heat applications to the processing of agricultural produce - with the eventual purpose of expanding agricultural exports from Guatemala. The handbook focuses on an early stage of the geothermal initiative and guides preparations for future impact measurement and monitoring of geothermal projects. Primarily, guidance is for projects in agricultural applications of geothermal heat - and basically in Quezaltenango. But the exercise and the handbook are relevant in broad outline to other, industrial applications projects as well which may be based in other departments and have immediate impact across the whole country. This handbook attempts to prepare geothermal energy planners in Guatemala for that juncture when geothermal projects can be managed by objectives. It promotes and facilitates thinking about defining specific objectives for projects that result from the demonstration at Zunil (in Quezaltenango Department); and it prompts preparations for obtaining baseline measurements and for making rational projections on the achievements of future projects.

A Framework for Assessing the Impacts of Mining Development on Regional Water Resources in Colombia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neil McIntyre

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Developing its large-scale mining industry is an economic priority for Colombia. However, national capacity to assess and manage the water resource impacts of mining is currently limited. This includes lack of baseline data, lack of suitable hydrological models and lack of frameworks for evaluating risks. Furthermore, public opposition to large scale mining is high and is a barrier to many proposed new mining projects mainly because of concerns about impacts on water resources. There are also concerns about impacts on the uplands that are important water sources, particularly the páramo ecosystem. This paper argues the case for a new framework for Strategic Assessment of Regional Water Impacts of Mining, aiming to support land use planning decisions by government for selected mining and prospective mining regions. The proposed framework is modelled on the Australian Government’s Bioregional Assessments program, converted into seven stages plus supporting activities that meet the Colombian development context. The seven stages are: (1 Contextual information; (2 Scenario definition; (3 Risk scoping; (4 Model development; (5 Risk analysis; (6 Database development; and (7 Dissemination by government to stakeholders including the general public. It is emphasised that the process and results should be transparent, the data and models publicly accessible, and dissemination aimed at all levels of expertise.

Stuart oil shale project stage two: executive summary: draft environmental impact statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-09-01

The project is an oil shale open pit mine and processing operation that is currently being commissioned 15 km north of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and is owned as a joint venture by Southern Pacific Petroleum N.L., Central Pacific Minerals N.L, and Suncor Energy Inc., a leading Canadian company that is an integrated energy company. The results of a comprehensive investigation are included of the potential environmental impacts of the project, and which are described in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). In stage two, there is included the existing mine expansion as well as the construction of an additional process plant based around a larger commercial scale ATP oil shale processing plant. The new stage two operation will be developed next to and integral with services and infrastructure provided for stage one. Described are: the assessment process, regulatory framework and the project area, the needs for an alternative to the project, the proposal itself, the existing natural, social and economic impacts, and the environmental impacts as well as plans for their mitigation. In appendices there are included a draft environmental management overview strategy and an environmental management plan. The elements covered in the report by section are: background, need for the project, the proponent, legislation and approvals, project description, environmental issues and impact management

Resource Contingency Program - Oregon : Final Environmental Impact Statement, Hermiston Power Project.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

United States. Bonneville Power Administration.

1995-09-01

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has statutory responsibilities to supply electrical power to its utility, industrial, and other customers in the Pacific Northwest. In 1990, to cover the outer range of potential load growth with new resources, BPA embarked upon the Resource Contingency Program (RCP). Instead of buying or building generating plants now, BPA has purchased options to acquire power later, if and when it is needed. The decision to acquire any of these option energy projects to fulfill statutory supply obligations will be influenced by Federal system load growth, the outcome of BPA`s Business Plan, required operational changes in Columbia-Snake River Hydroelectric facilities, and the loss of major generating resources. In September 1993, three option development agreements were signed with three proposed natural gas-fired, combined cycle combustion turbine CT projects near Chehalis and Satsop, Washington, and near Hermiston, Oregon. Together these three projects could supply BPA with 1,090 average megawatts (aMW) of power. Under these agreements, sponsors are obtaining permits and conducting project design work, and BPA is completing this EIS process. In September 1993, BPA published a Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on these three proposed gas-fired combustion turbine projects and held public scoping meetings in October 1993 at each site. In February 1994, BPA released an Implementation Plan on the proposed scope of the EIS. A draft EIS on the three proposed projects was published in February 1995. The impacts of the Chehalis and Satsop projects located in Washington State will be covered in one EIS document, while the impacts of the Hermiston project located in Oregon are covered in this final EIS document. It is BPA`s intent to continue to base the analysis of impacts on the assumption that all three projects may be constructed at some point in the future.

Resource contingency program - Oregon. Final environmental impact statement, Hermiston power project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-09-01

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has statutory responsibilities to supply electrical power to its utility, industrial, and other customers in the Pacific Northwest. In 1990, to cover the outer range of potential load growth with new resources, BPA embarked upon the Resource Contingency Program (RCP). Instead of buying or building generating plants now, BPA has purchased options to acquire power later, if and when it is needed. The decision to acquire any of these option energy projects to fulfill statutory supply obligations will be influenced by Federal system load growth, the outcome of BPA's Business Plan, required operational changes in Columbia-Snake River Hydroelectric facilities, and the loss of major generating resources. In September 1993, three option development agreements were signed with three proposed natural gas-fired, combined cycle combustion turbine CT projects near Chehalis and Satsop, Washington, and near Hermiston, Oregon. Together these three projects could supply BPA with 1,090 average megawatts (aMW) of power. Under these agreements, sponsors are obtaining permits and conducting project design work, and BPA is completing this EIS process. In September 1993, BPA published a Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on these three proposed gas-fired combustion turbine projects and held public scoping meetings in October 1993 at each site. In February 1994, BPA released an Implementation Plan on the proposed scope of the EIS. A draft EIS on the three proposed projects was published in February 1995. The impacts of the Chehalis and Satsop projects located in Washington State will be covered in one EIS document, while the impacts of the Hermiston project located in Oregon are covered in this final EIS document. It is BPA's intent to continue to base the analysis of impacts on the assumption that all three projects may be constructed at some point in the future

Evaluating Impacts of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Water Resources in Semiarid Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Scanlon, B. R.; Faunt, C. C.; Pool, D. R.; Reedy, R. C.

2017-12-01

Land use/land cover (LU/LC) changes play an integral role in water resources by controlling the partitioning of water at the land surface. Here we evaluate impacts of changing LU/LC on water resources in response to climate variation and change and land use change related to agriculture using data from semiarid regions in the southwestern U.S. Land cover changes in response to climate can amplify or dampen climate impacts on water resources. Changes from wet Pleistocene to much drier Holocene climate resulted in expansion of perennial vegetation, amplifying climate change impacts on water resources by reducing groundwater recharge as shown in soil profiles in the southwestern U.S.. In contrast, vegetation response to climate extremes, including droughts and floods, dampen impacts of these extremes on water resources, as shown by water budget monitoring in the Mojave Desert. Agriculture often involves changes from native perennial vegetation to annual crops increasing groundwater recharge in many semiarid regions. Irrigation based on conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater increases water resource availability, as shown in the Central Valley of California and in southern Arizona. Surface water irrigation in these regions is enhanced by water transported from more humid settings through extensive pipelines. These projects have reversed long-term declining groundwater trends in some regions. While irrigation design has often focused on increased efficiency, "more crop per drop", optimal water resource management may benefit more from inefficient (e.g. flood irrigation) surface-water irrigation combined with efficient (e.g. subsurface drip) irrigation to maximize groundwater recharge, as seen in parts of the Central Valley. Flood irrigation of perennial crops, such as almonds and vineyards, during winter is being considered in the Central Valley to enhance groundwater recharge. Managed aquifer recharge can be considered a special case of conjunctive use of

THE IMPACT OF THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND ON SMES – EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ciocoiu Cristina-Elena

2015-07-01

Full Text Available As the first programming period for Romania is reaching its end, more information becomes available regarding the effects of the European Union funds on the Romanian economy. Going beyond the mathematical absorption rate, it is important to analyse these effects, especially with regard to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, in order to improve the future implementation documents for 2014-2020. The purpose of this article is to measure the impact of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, granted within one of the 2007-2013 operational programmes, on the net turnover, number of staff and gross profit of the small and medium-sized enterprises from one Romanian county – Iasi. Overcoming the difficulties of gathering reliable data, the empirical research presented in this article tests three hypotheses. The first one is that the EU funding provided to an SME leads to an increase in its net turnover, number of staff and gross profit. The second hypothesis is that there is a direct relationship between the amount of the grant given to an SME and the evolution of the three previously mentioned parameters. The third and last tested hypothesis is that the SMEs that implemented more than one EU-funded project have a better evolution than the ones that implemented only one. The conclusions of our study include recommendations for the implementation guides that are currently being drafted by the responsible national authorities. They also include suggestions with regard to the availability of data concerning the EU-funded projects, especially in the context of the new requirements of the European Union regarding e-cohesion and information and communication. In this context, we also explore the potential benefits of implementing projects that complement each other instead of independent projects. As such, the research presented in this article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of the EU regional development policy

A multilevel study of the impact of project manager's leadership on extra-role performance of project team members

Science.gov (United States)

Shokory, Suzyanty Mohd; Suradi, Nur Riza Mohd

2018-04-01

The current study examines the impact of transformational and transactional leadership of project manager on the extra-role performance of project team members. In addition, this study also identifies factor dominant to extra-role performance of project team members when the transformational and transactional leadership of project managers are analyzed simultaneously. The study involved 175 of project team members from 35 project teams (each project team consists of different contracting companies registered in the Selangor (N = 175 from 35 contractors company). A multilevel analysis with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) approach was used in this study. The analysis showed that transformational and transactional leadership of the project manager is a positive significant with extra-role performance project team members when analyzed separately. However when the two constructs (transformational leadership and transactional leadership of project manager) were analyzed simultaneously, transformational leadership was found to have more impact on extra-role performance project team members compared to transactional leadership. These findings explained that although transformational and transactional leadership of project managers can improve extra-role performance project team members, but this study has proved that transformational leadership of project managers affect extra-role performance project team members more as compared to transactional leadership.

Regional Development and Management of Sunk Capital: Some Issues in Project Evaluation

OpenAIRE

Gyles, Oliver

1995-01-01

Government intervention aimed at regional development can be justified where there are opportunities for profitable investement of public funds. Benefit: cost analysis can be an effective tool for economic evaluation of regional development project proposals, providcd the distinction between sunk costs and historical outlays is recognised. Because the cost of previous development is sunk, it is appropriate to value existing assets at their opportunity cost. In terms or ex ante project apprais...

Ecological projects of Semipalatinsk region rehabilitation program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Musataev, M.Kh.

2000-01-01

Number of radioecological investigations of Semipalatinsk region evident, that radiatively dangerous levels of contaminations remains only on test settlements of site, on traces of explosion dose-forming clouds, and on some sections where experiments with radioactive substances were carried out. Radiological problem includes necessity of clarification of boundaries between dirty and clean lands; study of plutonium contamination hazard and radionuclides migration with underground and surface waters; conducting of monitoring of both the water quality and the agricultural foodstuff. Today in the region the problem of psychological stress of population remains. The problem is arisen because of late consequences of nuclear tests and other factors related with insufficient well-informing of population and mistrust of population to official radiation assessments in the region. To this problem is devoted six ecological projects of Semipalatinsk site rehabilitation program proposed by 53 session of United Nation Assembly for financing by international financing organizations and by countries-donors

Analysis of projects development of enterprises in engineering industries in Khmelnytskyi region

OpenAIRE

SHKODA M.S.

2012-01-01

This article analyzes the use of development projects in the engineering industry of Khmelnitsky region. The current state of engineering field. Solves warehouse development projects engineering enterprises and activities to enhance their implementation.

Kukimbia: the impact of environmental refugees in Southern Africa: A regional perspective on climate-induced migration

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Jacobs-Mata, Inga M

2017-08-01

Full Text Available areas identified. 3. To develop local adaptive management strategies for environmental migration in the case study areas identified. 7 Project scales Descriptors Global / regional National Sub-national / Local Unit of analysis SADC... • Documentary • Policy briefs • Policy guidelines • Reports and publications • Community of Practice (CoP) Impact • Better preparedness at different levels of scale • Institutional enhancement • Improvement in capacity/capability and skills...

[Health impact assessment of policies for municipal solid waste management: findings of the SESPIR Project].

Science.gov (United States)

Ranzi, Andrea; Ancona, Carla; Angelini, Paola; Badaloni, Chiara; Cernigliaro, Achille; Chiusolo, Monica; Parmagnani, Federica; Pizzuti, Renato; Scondotto, Salvatore; Cadum, Ennio; Forastiere, Francesco; Lauriola, Paolo

2014-01-01

The SESPIR Project (Epidemiological Surveillance of Health Status of Resident Population Around the Waste Treatment Plants) assessed the impact on health of residents nearby incinerators, landfills and mechanical biological treatment plants in five Italian regions (Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Lazio, Campania, and Sicily). The assessment procedure took into account the available knowledge on health effects of waste disposal facilities. Analyses were related to three different scenarios: a Baseline scenario, referred to plants active in 2008-2009; the regional future scenario, with plants expected in the waste regional plans; a virtuous scenario (Green 2020), based on a policy management of municipal solid waste (MSW) through the reduction of production and an intense recovery policy. Facing with a total population of around 24 million for the 5 regions, the residents nearby the plants were more than 380,000 people at Baseline. Such a population is reduced to approximately 330.000 inhabitants and 170.000 inhabitants in the regional and Green 2020 scenarios, respectively. The health impact was assessed for the period 2008-2040. At Baseline, 1-2 cases per year of cancer attributable to MSW plants were estimated, as well as 26 cases per year of adverse pregnancy outcomes (including low birth weight and birth defects), 102 persons with respiratory symptoms, and about a thousand affected from annoyance caused by odours. These annual estimates are translated into 2,725 years of life with disability (DALYs) estimated for the entire period. The DALYs are reduced by approximately 20% and 80% in the two future scenarios. Even in these cases, health impact is given by the greater effects on pregnancy and the annoyance associated with the odours of plants. In spite of the limitations due to the inevitable assumptions required by the present exercise, the proposed methodology is suitable for a first approach to assess different policies that can be adopted in regional planning in

Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration, a Regional Smart Grid Demonstration Project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yinger, Robert [Southern California Edison Company, Rosemead, CA (United States); Irwin, Mark [Southern California Edison Company, Rosemead, CA (United States)

2015-12-29

ISGD was a comprehensive demonstration that spanned the electricity delivery system and extended into customer homes. The project used phasor measurement technology to enable substation-level situational awareness, and demonstrated SCE’s next-generation substation automation system. It extended beyond the substation to evaluate the latest generation of distribution automation technologies, including looped 12-kV distribution circuit topology using URCIs. The project team used DVVC capabilities to demonstrate CVR. In customer homes, the project evaluated HAN devices such as smart appliances, programmable communicating thermostats, and home energy management components. The homes were also equipped with energy storage, solar PV systems, and a number of energy efficiency measures (EEMs). The team used one block of homes to evaluate strategies and technologies for achieving ZNE. A home achieves ZNE when it produces at least as much renewable energy as the amount of energy it consumes annually. The project also assessed the impact of device-specific demand response (DR), as well as load management capabilities involving energy storage devices and plug-in electric vehicle charging equipment. In addition, the ISGD project sought to better understand the impact of ZNE homes on the electric grid. ISGD’s SENet enabled end-to-end interoperability between multiple vendors’ systems and devices, while also providing a level of cybersecurity that is essential to smart grid development and adoption across the nation. The ISGD project includes a series of sub-projects grouped into four logical technology domains: Smart Energy Customer Solutions, Next-Generation Distribution System, Interoperability and Cybersecurity, and Workforce of the Future. Section 2.3 provides a more detailed overview of these domains.

Specification and evaluation of a regional PACS in the SaxTeleMed project

Science.gov (United States)

Lemke, Heinz U.; Niederlag, W.; Heuser, H.

2002-05-01

During the early development phase of PACS, its implementation was mainly a matter of the radiological department of a hospital. This is changing rapidly and PACS planning and realization is increasingly seen in the context of a hospital-wide approach. With a growth of networking amongst healthcare institutions and the growing relevance of teleradiological scenarios, new strategies must be followed which take not only local but also regional and global aspects of PACS into consideration. One such regional PACS project was initiated by the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. This 'reference model program for the digitization of imaging procedures and communication of images between hospitals in the free state of Saxony' (SaxTeleMed) covers seven regional projects distributed throughout Saxony. Each regional project is organized around so called lead hospitals, which network with other cooperating hospitals and medical practices. The regional reference projects are designed to be largely independent from one another. In some instances, however, a network connection between reference projects is also considered. Altogether, 39 hospitals and medical centers are involved in the model program. The aim of this program is to test the technical, organizational, legal and economic problems in the area of digitization and networking within the free State of Saxony. With the knowledge gained it is expected to improve future investment decisions in healthcare and above all to implement secure systems.

WindNet: Improving the impact assessment of wind power projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher R. Jones

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Growing international demand for renewable energy has led to rapid growth in the wind power sector and wind farms are becoming an increasingly common feature of landscapes and seascapes in many countries. However, as the most appropriate locations within established markets are taken up, and as wind power penetrates new markets, there is an increasing likelihood that proposed projects will encroach on sensitive landscapes and residential areas. This will present challenges for the industry, particularly due to the impact that public opinion can have upon the outcomes of planning decisions about specific projects. This article introduces the four key dimensions of the WindNet programme, which are helping to elucidate some of the socio-technical debates that will likely shape the future of the wind power sector. The article outlines studies investigating (1 public responses to cumulative landscape and visual impacts, (2 the auditory impact of wind power projects on human health, (3 the science of wind farm design and its implications for planning, and (4 the relevance of the democratic deficit explanation of the so-called "social gap" in wind farm siting. The outcomes of the research being conducted by WindNet stand to help reduce uncertainty within the planning process and assist in providing a more comprehensive and fairer assessment of the possible impacts associated with wind power project development.

A review of Environmental Impact Assessment parameters required for set up of a hydropower project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roy, Pankaj Kumar; Mazumdar, Asis

2013-01-01

Environmental Impact Assessment in general, hydro-meteorological conditions, topography, hydrology, water availability analysis of a river system, importance of hydropower and feasibility study of Environmental Impact assessment due to the construction of the hydropower plant have been discussed in this research work. The site selection is one of the major components so far the hydropower is concerned and also the minimum flow should have known to us so that the capacity of a hydropower plant can be predicted. The sustainable flow, which refers the flow is available throughout the year, has been calculated based on flow duration curve. This study highlights the environmental impact assessment particularly related to hydropower project. Here the study area a district town located in the eastern region of India on the banks of river Kosi has been considered. The historical rainfall and the river discharge data have been collected from various organizations. The stage-discharge correlation and hydrological parameters related to hydropower have been analyzed and also to discuss the review of environmental impact assessment in hydropower project. The EIA analysis can be also carried out by using fuzzy logic wherein the EIA parameters can be given different weight-age based on the various survey reports that have been carried out at different places at different time. Such analysis has also been provided below based on the various data obtained.

The Climate Impacts Research Consortium: Lessons Learned from the Evaluation of Co-production projects

Science.gov (United States)

Sokolovska, I.; Andrepont, J. A.; Lach, D.

2017-12-01

The Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC) is a climate-science-to-climate-action team funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), member of NOAA's Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program. The internal evaluation of the last 6 years of CIRC's work focused on the co-production of knowledge process. The evaluation was based on CIRC's Reflection and Logic model and used a mixed methods design. During regular monthly meetings in 2014/15, all CIRC PIs reflected on the co-production process and presented their evaluation of the projects they worked on. Additionally, we conducted semi-structured interviews with CIRC participants, purposefully targeting key informants. The Climate Impacts Research Consortium teams also administered surveys to assess participants' experiences of the coproduction process as they were engaging in it. Identifying and cultivating an informant from the local stakeholder group with deep, accessible roots within the target community can lead to better coproduction results than having to build those relationships from naught. Across projects, most participants agreed that the project increased their understanding of their area's hazards and by the end of the project most participants were confident the project would produce useful results for themselves. Finally, most participants intended to share what they had learned from this experience with their colleagues and we found that co-production built capacities necessary for communities to incorporate climate change in discussions even after the end of CIRC's participation. During the projects, the involvement of non-traditional participants along with experts was critical to success and a lot of work and preparation needs to be put into the planning of any co-production meeting to overcome various barriers to communication and build trust.

Scenarios of bioenergy development impacts on regional groundwater withdrawals

Science.gov (United States)

Uden, Daniel R.; Allen, Craig R.; Mitchell, Rob B.; Guan, Qingfeng; McCoy, Tim D.

2013-01-01

Irrigation increases agricultural productivity, but it also stresses water resources (Huffaker and Hamilton 2007). Drought and the potential for drier conditions resulting from climate change could strain water supplies in landscapes where human populations rely on finite groundwater resources for drinking, agriculture, energy, and industry (IPCC 2007). For instance, in the North American Great Plains, rowcrops are utilized for livestock feed, food, and bioenergy production (Cassman and Liska 2007), and a large portion is irrigated with groundwater from the High Plains aquifer system (McGuire 2011). Under projected future climatic conditions, greater crop water use requirements and diminished groundwater recharge rates could make rowcrop irrigation less feasible in some areas (Rosenberg et al. 1999; Sophocleous 2005). The Rainwater Basin region of south central Nebraska, United States, is an intensively farmed and irrigated Great Plains landscape dominated by corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) production (Bishop and Vrtiska 2008). Ten starch-based ethanol plants currently service the region, producing ethanol from corn grain (figure 1). In this study, we explore the potential of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a drought-tolerant alternative bioenergy feedstock, to impact regional annual groundwater withdrawals for irrigation under warmer and drier future conditions. Although our research context is specific to the Rainwater Basin and surrounding North American Great Plains, we believe the broader research question is internationally pertinent and hope that this study simulates similar research in other areas.

A statistical proposal for environmental impact assessment of development projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plazas C, Julian A; De J Lema T, Alvaro; Leon P, Juan Diego

2009-01-01

Environmental impact assessment of development projects is a fundamental process, which main goal is to avoid that their construction and functioning, lead to serious and negative consequences on the environment. Some of the most important limitations of the models employed to assess environmental impacts, are the subjectivity of its parameters and weights, and the multicolineality among the variables, which represent high quantities of similar information. This work presents a multivariate statistical-based method that tries to diminish such limitations. For this purpose, environmental impact assessment, is valuated through different environmental impact attributes and environmental elements, synthesized in an environmental quality index (ICA in Spanish). ICA can be applied at different levels, such as at a project level, or applied only at a partial level on one or some environmental components.

Renewable Resources: a national catalog of model projects. Volume 3. Southern Solar Energy Center Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-07-01

This compilation of diverse conservation and renewable energy projects across the United States was prepared through the enthusiastic participation of solar and alternate energy groups from every state and region. Compiled and edited by the Center for Renewable Resources, these projects reflect many levels of innovation and technical expertise. In many cases, a critique analysis is presented of how projects performed and of the institutional conditions associated with their success or failure. Some 2000 projects are included in this compilation; most have worked, some have not. Information about all is presented to aid learning from these experiences. The four volumes in this set are arranged in state sections by geographic region, coinciding with the four Regional Solar Energy Centers. The table of contents is organized by project category so that maximum cross-referencing may be obtained. This volume includes information on the Southern Solar Energy Center Region. (WHK)

Renewable Resources: a national catalog of model projects. Volume 1. Northeast Solar Energy Center Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-07-01

This compilation of diverse conservation and renewable energy projects across the United States was prepared through the enthusiastic participation of solar and alternate energy groups from every state and region. Compiled and edited by the Center for Renewable Resources, these projects reflect many levels of innovation and technical expertise. In many cases, a critique analysis is presented of how projects performed and of the institutional conditions associated with their success or failure. Some 2000 projects are included in this compilation; most have worked, some have not. Information about all is presented to aid learning from these experiences. The four volumes in this set are arranged in state sections by geographic region, coinciding with the four Regional Solar Energy Centers. The table of contents is organized by project category so that maximum cross-referencing may be obtained. This volume includes information on the Northeast Solar Energy Center Region. (WHK).

Renewable Resources: a national catalog of model projects. Volume 4. Western Solar Utilization Network Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-07-01

This compilation of diverse conservation and renewable energy projects across the United States was prepared through the enthusiastic participation of solar and alternate energy groups from every state and region. Compiled and edited by the Center for Renewable Resources, these projects reflect many levels of innovation and technical expertise. In many cases, a critique analysis is presented of how projects performed and of the institutional conditions associated with their success or failure. Some 2000 projects are included in this compilation; most have worked, some have not. Information about all is presented to aid learning from these experiences. The four volumes in this set are arranged in state sections by geographic region, coinciding with the four Regional Solar Energy Centers. The table of contents is organized by project category so that maximum cross-referencing may be obtained. This volume includes information on the Western Solar Utilization Network Region. (WHK)

The Impact of the SESAME Project on Science and Society in the Middle East

Science.gov (United States)

Winick, Herman

2008-04-01

SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) is a UNESCO-sponsored project that is constructing an international research laboratory, closely modeled on CERN, in Jordan (www.sesame.org.jo). Ten Members of the governing Council (Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, and Turkey) have responsibility for the project, led by Herwig Schopper, Council President since 1999. In late 2008 Chris Llewellyn-Smith will become Council President. SESAME was initiated by a gift from Germany of the decommissioned BESSY I facility. The BESSY I 0.8 GeV injector is now being installed in the recently completed building, funded by Jordan, as components are procured for a new 133 m circumference, 2.5 GeV third-generation storage ring with 12 locations for insertion devices. Beam line equipment has been provided by laboratories in France, UK, and US. Support also comes from EU, IAEA, ICTP, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the US Department of Energy and State Department, and laboratories around the world. The broad scientific program includes biomedical, environmental, and archaeological programs particularly relevant to the Middle East. Five scientific workshops and six annual Users' meetings have brought together several hundred scientists from the region, along with researchers from around the world. Training programs have enabled about 100 scientists from the region to work at synchrotron radiation laboratories. These activities have already had significant impact on science and society in the Middle East, for example leading to collaborations between scientists from countries that are not particularly friendly with each other, and to national planning emphasizing synchrotron radiation research. When research starts in 2011 this impact will grow as graduate students are trained in the region in many scientific disciplines, and scientists working abroad are attracted to return.

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station: an example of the state role in regional nuclear projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pasternak, A.

1980-10-01

A nuclear power plant siting policy which confines new construction to existing sites will lead to the formation of large regional power centers, each involving many utilities from several states. The Palo Verde Nuclear Project in Arizona has been examined in terms of the role state regulation plays in large regional nuclear projects. State regulatory processes do not reflect the regional nature of large power centers. Decisions and actions by individual state regulatory commissions create risk and uncertainty for all the utility participants in regional projects. A climate and mechanism to encourage and facilitate interstate cooperation are needed to enhance the viability of the confined siting policy and the regional power center concept

Impact of an aquaculture extension project in Bangladesh

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rand, John; Tarp, Finn

2009-01-01

productivity and the value of fish production per capita among participants. However, in the long run no similar well-determined effect emerges. Second, MAEP appears to have had no significant impact on socioeconomic status as measured by consumption expenditure of participating households. The authors argue......This paper is an impact study of key short- and long-run effects of the Danida supported Mymensingh Aquaculture Extension Project (MAEP) in Bangladesh, applying different matching and double difference estimators. Results are mixed. First, the paper finds a positive short-run impact on pond...

1992 Colorado Economic Impact Study for the US Department of Energy and Colorado Department of Health Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

The findings of the 1992 Colorado Economic Impact Study (CEIS) for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project are outlined below. All dollar amounts used in the study are in year-of-expenditure dollars. The total funding requirement for the State of Colorado for the UMTRA Project is estimated to be $66.8 million, or 10 percent of the remedial action costs for the UMTRA Project in Colorado. The UMTRA Project will generate $487.5 million in gross labor income in Colorado between 1983 and 1996. This includes $54.4 million in state and local tax revenues and $41.2 million in federal individual income tax revenues. The net economic benefit of the UMTRA Project to Colorado is $355.1 million. For every dollar the State of Colorado invests in the UMTRA Project, it will realize $5.32 in gross labor income. The employment impact to the Western Slope region is significant. The UMTRA Project will create a total employment impact of 13,749 fulltime equivalents (FTES) spread over. a period of 13 years in seven site areas. Nearly 100 percent of the labor will be drawn from the local communities. The State of Colorado's Western Slope is anticipated to be minimally impacted by the phaseout of the UMTRA Project. Unlike industries that shut down operations without warning, the UMTRA Project workers, local government, and businesses know the schedule for completion and can consider and prepare for the impact of UMTRA Project conclusion. Further, because the majority of the work force is local, there has not been a significant investment in each community's infrastructure. Any small increases in the infrastructure will not be abandoned at the end of the UMTRA Project due to a marked increase in migration out of the local community

Guidelines for the environmental impact statement for the proposed Great Whale River Hydroelectric Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

The guidelines presented on the preparation of the environmental impact statement for the Great Whale hydroelectric project by Hydro-Quebec stipulated a project justification, description of the biophysical and social environments, a project description, and that the assessment must address project impacts, mitigative and compensatory measures, environmental surveillance, monitoring, and long-term management programs. Background information presented in this document provides technical notes on the guidelines and the environmental assessment process, a glossary of terms, and biographical notes. The technical notes address guideline structure, project justification, native knowledge, evaluation issues, cumulative impacts, and the assessment and review process

Socioeconomic study: WPPSS Nuclear Projects 1 and 4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1975-04-01

A study is presented which is primarily concerned with the identification of those WNP-1 and WNP-4 impacts which place stress upon the socioeconomic structure of the Tri-City region. The study fulfills three objectives: first, to describe the socioeconomic implications of the proposed projects and the components of socioeconomic structure characterizing the study region; second, to postulate the potential impacts of the projects as well as possible mitigating measures on these components; and third, to present overall evaluation and planning strategies

The impact of ethanol production on US and regional gasoline markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Du Xiaodong; Hayes, Dermot J.

2009-01-01

This study quantifies the impact of increasing ethanol production on wholesale/retail gasoline prices employing pooled regional time-series data from January 1995 to March 2008. We find that the growth in ethanol production kept wholesale gasoline prices $0.14/gallon lower than would otherwise have been the case. The negative impact of ethanol on retail gasoline prices is found to vary considerably across regions. The Midwest region has the biggest impact at $0.28/gallon, while the Rocky Mountain region had the smallest impact at $0.07/gallon. The results also indicate that the ethanol-induced reduction in gasoline prices comes at the expense of refiners' profits. We find a net welfare loss of $0.5 billion from the ethanol support policies in multiple markets.

Impact of promoting sustainable agriculture project on livelihood ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study on impact assessment of Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Project ... the Fisher Index, Focused Group Discussion and descriptive statistical analysis. ... The qualitative analysis showed that 30%, 45% and 10% of men, women and ...

Distributional and regional economic impact of energy taxes in Belgium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vandyck, Toon; Van Regemorter, Denise

2014-01-01

We analyse the macroeconomic and distributional effects of increased oil excises in Belgium by combining a regional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model with a microsimulation framework that exploits the rich detail of household-level data. The link between the CGE model and the microlevel is top–down, feeding changes in commodity prices, factor returns and employment by sector into a microsimulation model. The results suggest that policymakers face an equity-efficiency trade-off driven by the choice of revenue recycling options. When the additional revenue is used to raise welfare transfers to households, the reform is beneficial for lower income groups, but output levels decrease in all regions. However, when the energy tax revenue is used to lower distortionary labour taxes, the tax shift is slightly regressive. In this case, national GDP is hardly affected but regional production levels diverge. The impact of the environmental tax reform on income distribution depends strongly on changes in factor prices and welfare payments, whereas sector composition is an important determinant for regional impact variation. - Highlights: • We study the impact of oil excises across regions and households in Belgium. • Lower income groups gain if the revenue is used to raise welfare payments. • If labour taxes are reduced, the reform is only slightly regressive. • The differential impact across households is driven by factor price changes. • Sector composition is a crucial determinant for impact variation across regions

Investigating Time-Varying Drivers of Grid Project Emissions Impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barrett, Emily L.; Thayer, Brandon L.; Pal, Seemita; Studarus, Karen E.

2017-11-15

The emissions consequences of smart grid technologies depend heavily on their context and vary not only by geographical location, but by time of year. The same technology operated to meet the same objective may increase the emissions associated with energy generation for part of the year and decrease emissions during other times. The Grid Project Impact Quantification (GridPIQ) tool provides the ability to estimate these seasonal variations and garner insight into the time-varying drivers of grid project emissions impacts. This work leverages GridPIQ to examine the emissions implications across years and seasons of adding energy storage technology to reduce daily peak demand in California and New York.

A comparative study on the Environmental Impact Assessment of industrial projects in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Marmaya, E. A.; Mahbub, R.

2018-02-01

In the past decade, mankind has been manipulating the natural environment to better suit its needs for providing buildings and infrastructure for residential, commercial, business and industrial purposes. The rapid industrialization that has taken place has generated several issues regarding the environment. Therefore, managing environmental risks in construction projects has been recognized as an important process to achieve the project objectives in terms of time, cost, quality, safety and environmental sustainability. The aim of this research is to assess the environmental impact of industrial projects to the surrounding areas. The impact to the environment can be categorized into several aspects such as ecosystem impact, natural resources impact and public impact. This research employs the quantitative approach, that is, a questionnaire survey targeted at the occupants living in the surrounding areas of the case study location, namely the industrial sites in Sabah Ammonia Urea (SAMUR), Sipitang, Sabah and Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP), Gebeng Pahang. The findings of the research show that the two projects are perceived to have negative environmental impact especially for land pollution and green-house gas emissions.

An Empirical Study of the Impact of the Air Transportation Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Projects on the Local Economy in China

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yuxiu; Yu, Jian; Li, Li; Li, Linlin; Li, Long; Zhou, Jie; Chen, Quan

2018-01-01

Green development has been of particular interest to a range of industries worldwide, one of which being the air transportation industry (ATI). The energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) projects of the ATI have a huge impact on the local economy. In this study, the input-output method was used to analyze the indirect economic impact of the implementation of the ECER projects of the ATI on the local economy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. We examined the direct benefits, backward spread effects, forward spread effects, and consumption multiplier effects. The final results showed that the comprehensive economic income from 2011–2013 in the BTH region reached RMB 4.74 billion. The results revealed that the ECER projects commissioned by the ATI were worth investing from both the economic and social benefits perspectives. To increase the green development effects and promote the sustainable development of the ATI, the special funds provided by the Civil Aviation Administration of China should be invested intensively in basic green technology research and setting green regulating and governance rules. PMID:29677160

An Empirical Study of the Impact of the Air Transportation Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Projects on the Local Economy in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yuxiu; Yu, Jian; Li, Li; Li, Linlin; Li, Long; Zhou, Jie; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Chen, Quan

2018-04-20

Green development has been of particular interest to a range of industries worldwide, one of which being the air transportation industry (ATI). The energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) projects of the ATI have a huge impact on the local economy. In this study, the input-output method was used to analyze the indirect economic impact of the implementation of the ECER projects of the ATI on the local economy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. We examined the direct benefits, backward spread effects, forward spread effects, and consumption multiplier effects. The final results showed that the comprehensive economic income from 2011⁻2013 in the BTH region reached RMB 4.74 billion. The results revealed that the ECER projects commissioned by the ATI were worth investing from both the economic and social benefits perspectives. To increase the green development effects and promote the sustainable development of the ATI, the special funds provided by the Civil Aviation Administration of China should be invested intensively in basic green technology research and setting green regulating and governance rules.

An Empirical Study of the Impact of the Air Transportation Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Projects on the Local Economy in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuxiu Chen

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Green development has been of particular interest to a range of industries worldwide, one of which being the air transportation industry (ATI. The energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER projects of the ATI have a huge impact on the local economy. In this study, the input-output method was used to analyze the indirect economic impact of the implementation of the ECER projects of the ATI on the local economy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH region. We examined the direct benefits, backward spread effects, forward spread effects, and consumption multiplier effects. The final results showed that the comprehensive economic income from 2011–2013 in the BTH region reached RMB 4.74 billion. The results revealed that the ECER projects commissioned by the ATI were worth investing from both the economic and social benefits perspectives. To increase the green development effects and promote the sustainable development of the ATI, the special funds provided by the Civil Aviation Administration of China should be invested intensively in basic green technology research and setting green regulating and governance rules.

Regional economic impacts of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isard, W.; Reiner, T.; Van Zele, R.; Stratham, J.

1976-08-01

This study of economic and social impacts of nuclear power facilities compares a nuclear energy center (NEC) consisting of three surrogate sites in Ocean County, New Jersey with nuclear facilities dispersed in the Pennsylvania - New Jersey - Maryland area. The NEC studied in this report is assumed to contain 20 reactors of 1200 MW(e) each, for a total NEC capacity of 24,000 MW(e). Following the Introductory chapter, Chapter II discusses briefly the methodological basis for estimating impacts. This part of the analysis only considers impacts of wages and salaries and not purchase of construction materials within the region. Chapters III and IV, respectively, set forth the scenarios of an NEC at each of three sites in Ocean County, N.J. and of a pattern of dispersed nuclear power plants of total equivalent generating capacity. In each case, the economic impacts (employment and income) are calculated, emphasizing the regional effects. In Chapter V these impacts are compared and some more general conclusions are reported. A more detailed analysis of the consequences of the construction of a nuclear power plant is given in Chapter VI. An interindustry (input-output) study, which uses rather finely disaggregated data to estimate the impacts of a prototype plant that might be constructed either as a component of the dispersed scenario or as part of an NEC, is given. Some concluding remarks are given in Chapter VII, and policy questions are emphasized

Quantitative indicators of the impacts generated in lineal development projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ospina N, Jesus Efren; Lema T, Alvaro de J.

2002-01-01

This work outlines a methodological proposal for the elaboration of quantitative indicators of the impact caused by electrical power transmission projects, using the perspective of the model of environmental administration by dimensions (physical, biotic, cultural, economic, and political). The model achieved an integral and interdisciplinary analysis, managing to determine what the degree of impact that a project generates on a dimension and its relationships to the others, moreover the indicators identified are useful tools that should help support planning, project formulation, decisions making, and environmental studies, such as: environmental management plans and greater efficiency in the estimation of administrative costs, as well as in the techniques of generating location alternatives, and also may lead to better administration of economic and human resources, among others

Development of the virtual research environment for analysis, evaluation and prediction of global climate change impacts on the regional environment

Science.gov (United States)

Okladnikov, Igor; Gordov, Evgeny; Titov, Alexander; Fazliev, Alexander

2017-04-01

Description and the first results of the Russian Science Foundation project "Virtual computational information environment for analysis, evaluation and prediction of the impacts of global climate change on the environment and climate of a selected region" is presented. The project is aimed at development of an Internet-accessible computation and information environment providing unskilled in numerical modelling and software design specialists, decision-makers and stakeholders with reliable and easy-used tools for in-depth statistical analysis of climatic characteristics, and instruments for detailed analysis, assessment and prediction of impacts of global climate change on the environment and climate of the targeted region. In the framework of the project, approaches of "cloud" processing and analysis of large geospatial datasets will be developed on the technical platform of the Russian leading institution involved in research of climate change and its consequences. Anticipated results will create a pathway for development and deployment of thematic international virtual research laboratory focused on interdisciplinary environmental studies. VRE under development will comprise best features and functionality of earlier developed information and computing system CLIMATE (http://climate.scert.ru/), which is widely used in Northern Eurasia environment studies. The Project includes several major directions of research listed below. 1. Preparation of geo-referenced data sets, describing the dynamics of the current and possible future climate and environmental changes in detail. 2. Improvement of methods of analysis of climate change. 3. Enhancing the functionality of the VRE prototype in order to create a convenient and reliable tool for the study of regional social, economic and political consequences of climate change. 4. Using the output of the first three tasks, compilation of the VRE prototype, its validation, preparation of applicable detailed description of

The Regional Impact of Monetary Policy in Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ridhwan, M.M.; de Groot, H.L.F.; Rietveld, P.; Nijkamp, P.

2014-01-01

This paper employs vector autoregressive (VAR) models to measure the impact of monetary policy shocks on regional output in Indonesia. We find substantial cross-regional variation in policy responses in terms of both magnitude as well as timing. Our work adds to the existing literature by providing

Red-impact project: First results of the evaluations of the impact of P and T on geological disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marivoet, Jan; Vokal, Antonin; Gudowski, Waclaw

2006-01-01

The Red-Impact project (Impact of partitioning, transmutation and waste reduction technologies on the final nuclear waste disposal) is a research project in the 6. Framework Programme of the European Commission. The main objective of the project is to assess the impact of partitioning and transmutation (P and T) on geological disposal and waste management. The project started with the identification of a number of representative fuel cycle scenarios. Five basis scenarios are considered for the evaluations: 2 industrial scenarios and 3 innovative scenarios. Mass flow schemes have been prepared for each basis fuel cycle scenario and the corresponding neutronic calculations have been made. A first list of performance indicators that will be calculated or estimated in the project has been prepared. As a first step the impact of 2 fuel cycle scenarios, the reference 'open cycle' scenario and of the innovative 'fast neutron Gen IV' scenario, on geological repositories in granite and clay formations have been evaluated. The results obtained show that the introduction of innovative fuel cycle scenarios can result in a considerable reduction of the needed size of the geological repository. However, the impact on the radiological consequences is rather limited. Indeed, the maximum dose, which is expected to occur a few tens of thousands year after the disposal of the waste, is essentially due to fission products and their amount is about proportional to the heat generated by nuclear fissions. (authors)

2017 NMC Technology Outlook for Nordic Schools A Horizon Project Regional Report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2017-01-01

research effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education to inform Nordic school leaders and decision-makers about significant developments in technologies supporting teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in primary and secondary education across Denmark......Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Freeman, A., and Rose, K. (2017). 2017 NMC Technology Outlook for Nordic Schools: A Horizon Project Regional Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. The 2017 NMC Technology Outlook for Nordic Schools: A Horizon Project Regional Report reflects a collaborative...

Regionalization Impact on Performance Management for Malaysian Multinational Companies

OpenAIRE

Tan, We Chang

2015-01-01

Operation offshore or regionalization is one of the key strategies by many Malaysian MNCs nowadays. The purpose is to expand their business and also establish a sustainable business model. This change in business direction introduces impacts to performance management framework. If these impacts are not properly handled, it may leads to business expansion failure. The current performance management framework will have to be enhanced such that the regional needs in the performance management ar...

Environmental impact assessments of wind energy projects: An Alberta example

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, W.K.

1993-01-01

A description is presented of the environmental impact assessment for an Alberta windfarm, summarizing the rationale, process and results of the assessment, costs involved, and recommendations made. The Pe-kun-nee windfarm was designed as a 44 turbine, 9.9 kW windfarm. The assessment included consideration of the complete range of environmental impacts of the windfarm, including reviews of impacts associated with similar developments elsewhere. From an environmental perspective, the proposed site and transmission line route were exceedingly suitable for development. No major potential impacts were identified. Most impacts that could occur, including terrain and vegetation disturbance, were associated with the construction phase of the project. A series of mitigation measures were developed to minimize each identified impact. Monitoring during the operations phase of the development was recommended to: ensure that the revegetation of disturbed areas was adequate; verify the sound level model; and document the incidence of bird strikes. Potential aesthetic impacts were addressed through a proposed interpretive project designed to educate visitors, enhance the profile of the wind-energy industry, and provide local employment. The assessment was completed within 8 months of initiation at a cost less than $200,000

Preliminary evaluation of the physical impacts of a nearshore sand extraction project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anctil, F.; Ouellet, Y.

1991-01-01

A review is presented of the potential physical impacts of a nearshore sand extraction project in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In Canada, sand extraction is mainly limited to the Beaufort Sea area, where in 1982 alone 15 million tonnes of aggregate was dredged to satisfy the requirements of offshore petroleum exploration; but there is much experience in nearshore dredging in Europe. Criteria related to impacts, developed for conditions prevailing in the North Sea (England) and the Gulf of Gascogne (France) are adapted to meet the more moderate hydrodynamic impacts of an extraction project in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Potential impacts of extraction projects include destruction of sand bars or dunes, direct erosion resulting from beach drawdown or sedimentation interference, and impacts on littoral drift due to modified wave refraction patterns. Three schemes for the sand extraction are considered, and from the results, a fourth scheme is elaborated in such a way as to limit the negative impacts to the minor category. 17 refs., 5 figs., 4 tabs

Modeling climate change impacts on overwintering of Spodoptera exigua Hübner in regions of China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia-Lin Zheng

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Inferential models are usually used to evaluate the effect of winter warming on range expansion of insects. Generally, correlative approaches used to predict changes in the distributions of organisms are based on the assumption that climatic boundaries are fixed. Spodoptera exigua Htibner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae overwinters as larvae or pupae in China regions. To understand the climate change impacts on overwintering of this species in regions of China, CLIMEX and Arc-GIS models were used to predict possible changes of distribution based on temperature. The climate change projection clearly indicated that the northern boundary of overwintering for S. exigua will shift northward from current distribution. Thus, the ongoing winter warming is likely to increase the frequency of S. exigua outbreaks.

Development of regional growth centres and impact on regional growth: A case study of Thailand’s Northeastern region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nattapon Sang-arun

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the spatial economic structure and inequality in Thailand at the national and regional levels, with a particular focus on the Northeastern region in the period from 1987 to 2007. The study has three main points: 1 examination of the economic structure and inequality at the national level and in the Northeastern region according to the Theil index, 2 determination of regional growth centres and satellite towns by using growth pole theory as a conceptual framework and incorporating spatial interaction analysis and 3 analysis of the relationship between regional growth centres and satellite towns with regard to the impact on growth and inequality. The results show that the Northeastern region is definitely the lagging region in the nation, by both gross domestic product (GDP and gross regional product (GRP per capita. It was therefore selected for a case study. Spatial analysis identified Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Ubon Ratchathani as regional growth centres. Each of them has its own sphere of influence (or satellite towns, and the total area of regional growth centres and satellite towns are classified as sub-regions. The development of regional growth centres has a direct impact on sub-regional economic growth through economic and social relationships: urbanisation, industrial development, per capita growth, the number of higher educational institutes and so on. However, such growth negatively correlates with economic equality among the provinces in a sub-region. The inequality trend is obviously on an upswing. This study suggests that industrial links between regional growth centres and their satellite towns should be improved in order for regional growth centre development to have a consistently desirable effect on both economic growth and equality. Such a strong process means that the growth of regional growth centres will spread, leading to the development of their surrounding areas.

Final report of the project GICC-MedWater (march 2003/february 2006). Impacts of the climatic change on the hydrological cycle of the mediterranean basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, L.

2006-03-01

In the framework of the climatic change, the management of the impacts needs a precise knowledge of the change characteristics at the regional scale. The hydrological cycle is an important component of the mediterranean regional climate. The GICC-MedWater project is placed in the scope of climatic scenari regionalization and studies the characteristics of the climatic warming for the mediterranean basin. The main objective is to propose scenari of the climate evolution, for the mediterranean basin region and the impacts on the general circulation and the biology of Mediterranean Sea. It also includes a validation of the models in order to verify the the quality of the obtained scenari. (A.L.B.)

Regionalization and Evaluation of Impacts of Climate Change on Mexican Coasts

Science.gov (United States)

Nava-Sanchez, E. H.; Murillo-Jimenez, J. M.; Godinez-Orta, L.; Morales-Perez, R. A.

2009-04-01

Mexican coasts exhibit a high variety of geoforms and processes, and consequently, are exposed to a variability of types and impact levels of geological hazards. Tropical cyclones are the most devastating hazards for the Mexican coast, although, impact levels are higher on the southern coast of both Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The second dangerous geo-hazards are earthquakes and tsunamis, which affect all Pacific coast, causing more damage the earthquakes generated in the Cocos Trench. For seismic hazards, there is a regionalization of the Mexican territory, however, even though the high levels of damages caused by other natural hazards, there is a lack of initiatives for performing atlas of natural hazards or coastal management plans. Exceptions are the local scale atlas of natural hazards by the Mexican Geological Survey or some other local scale atlas made with several errors by non experience private consultant companies. Our work shows results of analyses of coastal geological hazards associated to global warming such as the sea level rise, and the increase in strength of some coastal processes. Initially, due to the high diversity in coastal environments for the Mexican coast, it was considered that, a regional characterization of the coastal zone, and the gathering of environmental data for determining levels of impact of the various coastal hazards, as an evaluation of coastal vulnerability. Thus, the basic criteria for defining Coastal Regions, in order of importance, were the following: geomorphology, climate, geology, tectonics, and oceanography. Also, some anthropogenic factors were taken in account for the coastal regionalization, such as civil construction along the coastline, land used and modification of the fluvial system. The analysis of such criteria, allows us to classify the Mexican coasts in 10 Coastal Regions. On the Pacific coast regions are: (I) Pacific Coast of Baja California, (II) Gulf Coast of Baja California, (III) Coastal Plain of

Distal Ejecta from Lunar Impacts: Extensive Regions of Rocky Deposits

Science.gov (United States)

Bandfield, Joshua L.; Cahill, Joshua T. S.; Carter, Lynn M.; Neish, Catherine D.; Patterson, G. Wesley; Williams, Jean-Pierre; Paige, David A.

2016-01-01

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner Radiometer, Mini-RF, and LRO Camera data were used to identify and characterize rocky lunar deposits that appear well separated from any potential source crater. Two regions are described: 1) A approximate 18,000 sq km area with elevated rock abundance and extensive melt ponds and veneers near the antipode of Tycho crater (167.5 deg E, 42.5 deg N). This region has been identified previously, using radar and aging data. 2) A much larger and more diffuse region, covering approximately 730,000 sq km, centered near 310 deg E, 35 deg S, containing elevated rock abundance and numerous granular flow deposits on crater walls. The rock distributions in both regions favor certain slope azimuths over others, indicating a directional component to the formation of these deposits. The spatial distribution of rocks is consistent with the arrival of ejecta from the west and northwest at low angles (approximately 10-30 deg) above the horizon in both regions. The derived age and slope orientations of the deposits indicate that the deposits likely originated as ejecta from the Tycho impact event. Despite their similar origin, the deposits in the two regions show significant differences in the datasets. The Tycho crater antipode deposit covers a smaller area, but the deposits are pervasive and appear to be dominated by impact melts. By contrast, the nearside deposits cover a much larger area and numerous granular flows were triggered. However, the features in this region are less prominent with no evidence for the presence of impact melts. The two regions appear to be surface expressions of a distant impact event that can modify surfaces across wide regions, resulting in a variety of surface morphologies. The Tycho impact event may only be the most recent manifestation of these processes, which likely have played a role in the development of the regolith throughout lunar history

Impacts of current and projected oil palm plantation expansion on air quality over Southeast Asia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. J. Silva

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Over recent decades oil palm plantations have rapidly expanded across Southeast Asia (SEA. According to the United Nations, oil palm production in SEA increased by a factor of 3 from 1995 to 2010. We investigate the impacts of current (2010 and near-term future (2020 projected oil palm expansion in SEA on surface–atmosphere exchange and the resulting air quality in the region. For this purpose, we use satellite data, high-resolution land maps, and the chemical transport model GEOS-Chem. Relative to a no oil palm plantation scenario (∼ 1990, overall simulated isoprene emissions in the region increased by 13 % due to oil palm plantations in 2010 and a further 11 % in the near-term future. In addition, the expansion of palm plantations leads to local increases in ozone deposition velocities of up to 20 %. The net result of these changes is that oil palm expansion in SEA increases surface O3 by up to 3.5 ppbv over dense urban regions, and in the near-term future could rise more than 4.5 ppbv above baseline levels. Biogenic secondary organic aerosol loadings also increase by up to 1 µg m−3 due to oil palm expansion, and could increase by a further 2.5 µg m−3 in the near-term future. Our analysis indicates that while the impact of recent oil palm expansion on air quality in the region has been significant, the retrieval error and sensitivity of the current constellation of satellite measurements limit our ability to observe these impacts from space. Oil palm expansion is likely to continue to degrade air quality in the region in the coming decade and hinder efforts to achieve air quality regulations in major urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Regional Assessment of Supplementation Project. Status report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-10-01

The Fish and Wildlife Program of the Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC) prescribes several approaches to achieve its goal of doubling the salmon and steelhead runs of the Columbia River. Among those approaches are habitat restoration, improvements in adult and juvenile passage at dams and artificial propagation. Supplementation will be a major part of the new hatchery programs. The purpose of the Regional Assessment of Supplementation Project (RASP) is to provide an overview of ongoing and planned supplementation activities, to construct a conceptual framework and model for evaluating the potential benefits and risks of supplementation and to develop a plan for better regional coordination of research and monitoring and evaluation of supplementation. RASP has completed its first year of work. Progress toward meeting the first year`s objectives and recommendations for future tasks are contained in this report.

Coyote Springs Cogeneration Project, Morrow County, Oregon: Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

United States. Bonneville Power Administration.

1994-01-01

BPA is considering whether to transfer (wheel) electrical power from a proposed privately-owned, combustion-turbine electrical generation plant in Oregon. The plant would be fired by natural gas and would use combined-cycle technology to generate up to 440 average megawatts (aMW) of energy. The plant would be developed, owned, and operated by Portland General Electric Company (PGE). The project would be built in eastern Oregon, just east of the City of Boardman in Morrow County. The proposed plant would be built on a site within the Port of Morrow Industrial Park. The proposed use for the site is consistent with the County land use plan. Building the transmission line needed to interconnect the power plant to BPA`s transmission system would require a variance from Morrow County. BPA would transfer power from the plant to its McNary-Slatt 500-kV transmission line. PGE would pay BPA for wheeling services. Key environmental concerns identified in the scoping process and evaluated in the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) include these potential impacts: (1) air quality impacts, such as emissions and their contributions to the {open_quotes}greenhouse{close_quotes} effect; (2) health and safety impacts, such as effects of electric and magnetic fields, (3) noise impacts, (4) farmland impacts, (5) water vapor impacts to transportation, (6) economic development and employment impacts, (7) visual impacts, (8) consistency with local comprehensive plans, and (9) water quality and supply impacts, such as the amount of wastewater discharged, and the source and amount of water required to operate the plant. These and other issues are discussed in the DEIS. The proposed project includes features designed to reduce environmental impacts. Based on studies completed for the DEIS, adverse environmental impacts associated with the proposed project were identified, and no evidence emerged to suggest that the proposed action is controversial.

Environmental impact management during construction of the limestone project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Windsor, D.C.

1988-01-01

The Limestone Generating Station is being constructed on the Nelson River in Northern Manitoba, and will consist of a 10 unit powerhouse, 5 gate concrete spillway and earthfill dam spanning the 1.5 km width of the Nelson River. Environmental concerns associated with the project included insufficient pre- and post-construction monitoring documenting resources present or magnitude of impacts, impacts on brook trout and lake sturgeon resources, wildlife habitat loss due to construction activities, destruction or disturbance of historic or archaeological sites, degradation of nearby water courses and fish habitat by aggregate removal, in-migration of construction personnel, and various other socio-economic impacts. An overview is provided of monitoring activities and results in the above areas, which involved numerous consultants and government agencies. The project administration and workers did not find the environmental programs, including inspection and enforcement activities, to be onerous or an impediment to the project. On the contrary, the environmental requirements assisted in the general planning for certain activities, and in the general criteria for the conduct of the activities. The work permit process was particularly useful as it defined the requirements of both parties and provided the specific standards necessary determining the acceptability of the activities. 14 refs., 1 fig

The TARGET project in Tuscany: the first disease management model of a regional project for the prevention of hip re-fractures in the elderly.

Science.gov (United States)

Piscitelli, Prisco; Brandi, Maria Luisa; Nuti, Ranuccio; Rizzuti, Carla; Giorni, Loredano; Giovannini, Valtere; Metozzi, Alessia; Merlotti, Daniela

2010-09-01

The official inquiry on osteoporosis in Italy, promoted by the Italian Senate in 2002 concluded that proper preventive strategies should be adopted at regional level in order to prevent osteoporotic fractures. Tuscany is the first Italian region who has promoted an official program (the TARGET project) aimed to reduce osteoporotic fractures by ensuring adequate treatment to all people aged ≥65 years old who experience a hip fragility fracture. this paper provides information concerning the implementation of TARGET project in Tuscany, assuming that it may represent an useful model for similar experiences to be promoted in other Italian Regions and across Europe. we have examined the model proposed for the regional program, and we have particularly analyzed the in-hospital and post-hospitalization path of hip fractured patients aged >65 years old in Tuscany after the adoption of TARGET project by Tuscany healthcare system and during its ongoing start-up phase. orthopaedic surgeons have been gradually involved in the project and are increasingly fulfilling all the clinical prescriptions and recommendations provided in the project protocol. Different forms of cooperation between orthopaedic surgeons and other clinical specialists have been adopted at each hospital for the treatment of hip fractured elderly patients. GPs involvement needs to be fostered both at regional and local level. The effort of Tuscany region to cope with hip fractures suffered from elderly people must be acknowledged as an interesting way of addressing this critical health problem. Specific preventive strategies modelled on the Tuscany TARGET project should be implemented in other Italian regions.

Precipitation in a warming world: Assessing projected hydro-climate changes in California and other Mediterranean climate regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Polade, Suraj D; Gershunov, Alexander; Cayan, Daniel R; Dettinger, Michael D; Pierce, David W

2017-09-07

In most Mediterranean climate (MedClim) regions around the world, global climate models (GCMs) consistently project drier futures. In California, however, projections of changes in annual precipitation are inconsistent. Analysis of daily precipitation in 30 GCMs reveals patterns in projected hydrometeorology over each of the five MedClm regions globally and helps disentangle their causes. MedClim regions, except California, are expected to dry via decreased frequency of winter precipitation. Frequencies of extreme precipitation, however, are projected to increase over the two MedClim regions of the Northern Hemisphere where projected warming is strongest. The increase in heavy and extreme precipitation is particularly robust over California, where it is only partially offset by projected decreases in low-medium intensity precipitation. Over the Mediterranean Basin, however, losses from decreasing frequency of low-medium-intensity precipitation are projected to dominate gains from intensifying projected extreme precipitation. MedClim regions are projected to become more sub-tropical, i.e. made dryer via pole-ward expanding subtropical subsidence. California's more nuanced hydrological future reflects a precarious balance between the expanding subtropical high from the south and the south-eastward extending Aleutian low from the north-west. These dynamical mechanisms and thermodynamic moistening of the warming atmosphere result in increased horizontal water vapor transport, bolstering extreme precipitation events.

Potential impacts of climate change on the primary production of regional seas: A comparative analysis of five European seas

Science.gov (United States)

Holt, Jason; Schrum, Corinna; Cannaby, Heather; Daewel, Ute; Allen, Icarus; Artioli, Yuri; Bopp, Laurent; Butenschon, Momme; Fach, Bettina A.; Harle, James; Pushpadas, Dhanya; Salihoglu, Baris; Wakelin, Sarah

2016-01-01

Regional seas are potentially highly vulnerable to climate change, yet are the most directly societally important regions of the marine environment. The combination of widely varying conditions of mixing, forcing, geography (coastline and bathymetry) and exposure to the open-ocean makes these seas subject to a wide range of physical processes that mediates how large scale climate change impacts on these seas' ecosystems. In this paper we explore the response of five regional sea areas to potential future climate change, acting via atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial vectors. These include the Barents Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Celtic Seas, and are contrasted with a region of the Northeast Atlantic. Our aim is to elucidate the controlling dynamical processes and how these vary between and within these seas. We focus on primary production and consider the potential climatic impacts on: long term changes in elemental budgets, seasonal and mesoscale processes that control phytoplankton's exposure to light and nutrients, and briefly direct temperature response. We draw examples from the MEECE FP7 project and five regional model systems each using a common global Earth System Model as forcing. We consider a common analysis approach, and additional sensitivity experiments. Comparing projections for the end of the 21st century with mean present day conditions, these simulations generally show an increase in seasonal and permanent stratification (where present). However, the first order (low- and mid-latitude) effect in the open ocean projections of increased permanent stratification leading to reduced nutrient levels, and so to reduced primary production, is largely absent, except in the NE Atlantic. Even in the two highly stratified, deep water seas we consider (Black and Baltic Seas) the increase in stratification is not seen as a first order control on primary production. Instead, results show a highly heterogeneous picture of positive and negative change

Impact evaluation of productive use—An implementation guideline for electrification projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bensch, Gunther; Peters, Jörg; Schmidt, Christoph M.

2012-01-01

There is a consensus in the international community that rural electrification and, in particular, the productive use of electricity contributes to poverty alleviation. At the same time, efforts to evaluate the impacts of development projects have increased substantially. This paper provides a hands-on guide for designing evaluation studies regarding the impacts of productive electricity usage. Complementary to the existing literature on evaluation methods, this guide familiarizes project managers with the concrete steps that have to be undertaken to plan and implement an evaluation. The guide comprises three modules based on enterprise surveys and on anecdotal case studies. For each module, the implementation is described on a step-by-step basis including conceptual issues as well as logistics and methodological questions. - Highlights: ► Hands-on evaluation guideline for development project managers. ► Step-by-step procedure on how to implement evaluation. ► Impacts of productive electricity use.

Renewable Resources: a national catalog of model projects. Volume 2. Mid-American Solar Energy Complex Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-07-01

This compilation of diverse conservation and renewable energy projects across the United States was prepared through the enthusiastic participation of solar and alternate energy groups from every state and region. Compiled and edited by the Center for Renewable Resources, these projects reflect many levels of innovation and technical expertise. In many cases, a critique analysis is presented of how projects performed and of the institutional conditions associated with their success or failure. Some 2000 projects are included in this compilation; most have worked, some have not. Information about all is presented to aid learning from these experiences. The four volumes in this set are arranged in state sections by geographic region, coinciding with the four Regional Solar Energy Centers. The table of contents is organized by project category so that maximum cross-referencing may be obtained. This volume includes information on the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex Region. (WHK)

WorldSID - an international project for the harmonisation and improvement of side impact dummies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Page, M. [Centre Europeen d' Etudes de Securite et d' Analyse des Risques (France); Cesari, D. [Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Securite, Arcueil (France); Hautmann, E. [BMW Group, Muenchen (Germany); Scherer, R. [Ford-Werke AG, Koeln (Germany); Uchimura, Takahiko [Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan); Kostyniuk, G.W. [DaimlerChrysler (United States); Asakawa, Kazuhito [JAMA (Japan); Bortenschlager, K. [Audi AG, Ingoldstadt (Germany)

2001-07-01

In order to substantiate the efficiency of side impact protection measures, various side impact dummies are legally required in various countries. Moreover, these side impact dummies do not meet the currently requested bio-fidelity requirements. The target of the WorldSID project is to develop a new 50 per cent side impact dummy with at least good to excellent biofidelity, which will be used all over the world in all side impact test procedures, and thus will considerably contribute to harmonisation. Contents of the lecture: (a) Intention, initialisation, organisation of the project. (b) Technical and bio-mechanical specifications, design. (c) Prototype - first impressions of test, handling.. (d) Further project plans, targets. (orig.)

Integration of Regional Mitigation Assessment and Conservation Planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James H. Thorne

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Government agencies that develop infrastructure such as roads, waterworks, and energy delivery often impact natural ecosystems, but they also have unique opportunities to contribute to the conservation of regional natural resources through compensatory mitigation. Infrastructure development requires a planning, funding, and implementation cycle that can frequently take a decade or longer, but biological mitigation is often planned and implemented late in this process, in a project-by-project piecemeal manner. By adopting early regional mitigation needs assessment and planning for habitat-level impacts from multiple infrastructure projects, agencies could secure time needed to proactively integrate these obligations into regional conservation objectives. Such practice can be financially and ecologically beneficial due to economies of scale, and because earlier mitigation implementation means potentially developable critical parcels may still be available for conservation. Here, we compare the integration of regional conservation designs, termed greenprints, with early multi-project mitigation assessment for two areas in California, USA. The expected spatial extent of habitat impacts and associated mitigation requirements from multiple projects were identified for each area. We used the reserve-selection algorithm MARXAN to identify a regional greenprint for each site and to seek mitigation solutions through parcel acquisition that would contribute to the greenprint, as well as meet agency obligations. The two areas differed in the amount of input data available, the types of conservation objectives identified, and local land-management capacity. They are representative of the range of conditions that conservation practitioners may encounter, so contrasting the two illustrates how regional advanced mitigation can be generalized for use in a wide variety of settings. Environmental organizations can benefit from this approach because it provides a

Regional Studies Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parzyck, D.C.

1978-01-01

Progress is reported on methodology studies with regard to hydrologic analysis; atmospheric transport; forest growth models; distribution of sensitive species; agricultural analysis; and environmental objectives in energy facility siting. National coal utilization assessment studies are reported with regard to technology characterization; air quality impacts; water resources; regional characterization; forest impacts; coal extraction impacts on sensitive animal species; and health impacts. The following special projects were carried out: water resource aspects of inexhaustible technology deployment; ecological constraints on the rapidly expanded use of coal; and U.S. coal and the global carbon problem

Average regional end-use energy price projections to the year 2030

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

The energy prices shown in this report cover the period from 1991 through 2030. These prices reflect sector/fuel price projections from the Annual Energy Outlook 1991 (AEO) base case, developed using the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Intermediate Future Forecasting System (IFFS) forecasting model. Projections through 2010 are AEO base case forecasts. Projections for the period from 2011 through 2030 were developed separately from the AEO for this report, and the basis for these projections is described in Chapter 3. Projections in this report include average energy prices for each of four Census Regions for the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation end-use sectors. Energy sources include electricity, distillate fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas, motor gasoline, residual fuel oil, natural gas, and steam coal. (VC)

Analysis the temporal and spatial impact of water harvesting on Aforestation processes, at the Northen Negev region, Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Argaman, E.; Egozi, R.; Goldshlager, N.

2012-04-01

Water availability in arid regions is a major limiting factor, which affect plant development. Therefore, knowledge about preliminary and ongoing spatial & temporal conditions (e.g. land surface properties, hydrological regime and vegetation dynamics) can improve greatly afforestation practice. The Ambassadors forest is one of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) new afforestation projects (initiated on 2005), which rely on water harvesting irrigation systems, located at the northern Negev region, Israel. Temporal and spatial processes are studied utilizing ground, air-borne and space-borne techniques for assessment of surface processes, that take place due to significant land-use change. Since 2005 the area shows significant variation of surface energy balance components which impact the spatial and temporal forest generation. Both human and climate affect these parameters, hence their influence is essential for future study of the region. Parameters of surface Albedo & Temperature and Vegetation dynamics are gathered by space-borne sensors (e.g. MODIS, Landsat & ALI) and verified at field scale in conjunction with ground-truth measurements of climate and soil properties. In addition, the project study various scenarios that might result from diverse climate trajectories that impact soil formation factors and therefore forest development. Preliminary results show that surface physical & ecoligical properties had changed significantly since the aforestation project began, comparing previous years. Sharp increase of surface albedo detected since 2005 that raised from 0.25 to 0.32, while vegetation density, estimated from NDVI, had dropped from annaul average of 0.21 down to 0.13 during 10-year time period. These changes are related to human interferance. The current paper presents the first phase of the long-term study of the Remote Sensing analysis and the current surface monitoring phase.

Modeling the Impact of Uganda’s Safe Male Circumcision Program: Implications for Age and Regional Targeting

Science.gov (United States)

Kripke, Katharine; Vazzano, Andrea; Kirungi, William; Musinguzi, Joshua; Opio, Alex; Ssempebwa, Rhobbinah; Nakawunde, Susan; Kyobutungi, Sheila; Akao, Juliet N.; Magala, Fred; Mwidu, George; Castor, Delivette

2016-01-01

Background Uganda aims to provide safe male circumcision (SMC) to 80% of men ages 15–49 by 2016. To date, only 2 million men have received SMC of the 4.2 million men required. In response to age and regional trends in SMC uptake, the country sought to re-examine its targets with respect to age and subnational region, to assess the program’s progress, and to refine the implementation approach. Methods and Findings The Decision Makers’ Program Planning Tool, Version 2.0 (DMPPT 2.0), was used in conjunction with incidence projections from the Spectrum/AIDS Impact Module (AIM) to conduct this analysis. Population, births, deaths, and HIV incidence and prevalence were used to populate the model. Baseline male circumcision prevalence was derived from the 2011 AIDS Indicator Survey. Uganda can achieve the most immediate impact on HIV incidence by circumcising men ages 20–34. This group will also require the fewest circumcisions for each HIV infection averted. Focusing on men ages 10–19 will offer the greatest impact over a 15-year period, while focusing on men ages 15–34 offers the most cost-effective strategy over the same period. A regional analysis showed little variation in cost-effectiveness of scaling up SMC across eight regions. Scale-up is cost-saving in all regions. There is geographic variability in program progress, highlighting two regions with low baseline rates of circumcision where additional efforts will be needed. Conclusion Focusing SMC efforts on specific age groups and regions may help to accelerate Uganda’s SMC program progress. Policy makers in Uganda have already used model outputs in planning efforts, proposing males ages 10–34 as a priority group for SMC in the 2014 application to the Global Fund’s new funding model. As scale-up continues, the country should also consider a greater effort to expand SMC in regions with low MC prevalence. PMID:27410234

Assessing climate change over the Marche Region (central Italy) from 1951 to 2050: toward an integrated strategy for climate impacts reduction

Science.gov (United States)

Sangelantoni, Lorenzo; Russo, Aniello; Marincioni, Fausto; Appiotti, Federica

2013-04-01

This study investigates consequences and future impacts of climate change on the social and natural systems of the Marche Region (one of the 20 administrative divisions of Italy). This Region, is located in central part of the peninsula and borders the Adriatic Sea on the East and the Apennine mountains on the West. The Region extends for about 60 km E-W, and has a NW-SE coastline of about 170 km, covering a total area of 9366 km2. Multimodel projections over the Marche Regions, on daily, monthly and seasonal temperature and precipitation parameters, have been extracted from the outputs of a set of Regional Climate Models (RCMs) over Europe run by several research institutes participating to the EU ENSEMBLE project. These climate simulations refer to the boundary conditions of the IPCC A1B emission scenario, and have a horizontal resolution of 25km × 25km covering a time period from 1951 to 2050. Results detail a significant increase of daily, monthly and seasonal mean temperatures, especially in summer, with anomaly values reaching +3°C after the year 2025, referring to the model CliNo 1981-2010. Mountain areas show higher values of temperature anomalies than coastal ones of approximately 0.5 °C. Concurrently, a widespread decrease of seasonal precipitation appears to affect all seasons, except for autumn. Rainfall decrease and temperature increase could reduce the Region's aquifer recharge and overall availability of hydro resources. These alterations could affect human health, agricultural productivity, forest fires, coastal erosion, algal blooms and water quality. Ongoing analysis of extreme climatological indices (e.g. frequency of maximum daily temperature exceeding comfort thresholds) are expected to quantify such impacts. A first analysis, linking climate change to the hydrologic cycle, studied through the computation of the hydro-climatic intensity index (as defined by Giorgi et al., 2012), suggests for the Marche Region an increase of the intensity of

The impact of friendship ties on new product development student projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kylindri, Stamatia; Blanas, George; Tanev, Stoyan

2013-01-01

The competition between firms for more effective new product development (NPD) capabilities has posed the research question: what possibilities are there to improve traditional and knowledge based project team organisation by analysing the impact of social relationships between team members......? The authors of this article tested the hypothesis that friendships have a positive impact on project team effectiveness using the cohesion social network metric. The methodology involves a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies applicable to social network analysis (SNA) research...

Regional hydro-climatic impacts of contemporary Amazonian deforestation

Science.gov (United States)

Khanna, Jaya

More than 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been cleared in the past three decades triggering important climatological and societal impacts. This thesis is devoted to identifying and explaining the regional hydroclimatic impacts of this change employing multidecadal satellite observations and numerical simulations providing an integrated perspective on this topic. The climatological nature of this study motivated the implementation and application of a cloud detection technique to a new geostationary satellite dataset. The resulting sub daily, high spatial resolution, multidecadal time series facilitated the detection of trends and variability in deforestation triggered cloud cover changes. The analysis was complemented by satellite precipitation, reanalysis and ground based datasets and attribution with the variable resolution Ocean-Land-Atmosphere-Model. Contemporary Amazonian deforestation affects spatial scales of hundreds of kilometers. But, unlike the well-studied impacts of a few kilometers scale deforestation, the climatic response to contemporary, large scale deforestation is neither well observed nor well understood. Employing satellite datasets, this thesis shows a transition in the regional hydroclimate accompanying increasing scales of deforestation, with downwind deforested regions receiving 25% more and upwind deforested regions receiving 25% less precipitation from the deforested area mean. Simulations robustly reproduce these shifts when forced with increasing deforestation alone, suggesting a negligible role of large-scale decadal climate variability in causing the shifts. Furthermore, deforestation-induced surface roughness variations are found necessary to reproduce the observed spatial patterns in recent times illustrating the strong scale-sensitivity of the climatic response to Amazonian deforestation. This phenomenon, inconsequential during the wet season, is found to substantially affect the regional hydroclimate in the local dry and parts of

Burgundy regional climate change and its potential impact on grapevines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu, Yiwen [University of Burgundy, Center for Climate Research, UMR 5210 CNRS, Dijon (France); G.C. Rieber Climate Institute at the Nansen Environment and Remote Sensing Center, Bergen (Norway); Castel, Thierry [University of Burgundy, Center for Climate Research, UMR 5210 CNRS, Dijon (France); AgroSup, Department of Agriculture and Environment, Dijon (France); Richard, Yves; Cuccia, Cedric [University of Burgundy, Center for Climate Research, UMR 5210 CNRS, Dijon (France); Bois, Benjamin [University of Burgundy, Center for Climate Research, UMR 5210 CNRS, Dijon (France); IUVV, University of Burgundy, Dijon (France)

2012-10-15

ARPEGE general circulation model simulations were dynamically downscaled by The Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) for the study of climate change and its impact on grapevine growth in Burgundy region in France by the mid twenty-first century. Two time periods were selected: 1970-1979 and 2031-2040. The WRF model driven by ERA-INTERIM reanalysis data was validated against in situ surface temperature observations. The daily maximum and minimum surface temperature (T{sub max} and T{sub min}) were simulated by the WRF model at 8 x 8 km horizontal resolution. The averaged daily T{sub max} for each month during 1970-1979 have good agreement with observations, the averaged daily T{sub min} have a warm bias about 1-2 K. The daily T{sub max} and T{sub min} for each month (domain averaged) during 2031-2040 show a general increase. The largest increment ({proportional_to}3 K) was found in summer. The smallest increments (<1 K) were found in spring and fall. The spatial distribution of temperature increment shows a strong meridional gradient, high in south in summer, reversing in winter. The resulting potential warming rate in summer is equivalent to 4.7 K/century under the IPCC A2 emission scenario. The dynamically downscaled T{sub max} and T{sub min} were used to simulate the grape (Pinot noir grape variety) flowering and veraison dates. For 2031-2040, the projected dates are 8 and 12 days earlier than those during 1970-1979, respectively. The simulated hot days increase more than 50% in the two principal grapevine regions. They show strong impact on Pinot noir development. (orig.)

Environmental impact studies of projects be licensed under the Atomic Law

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heuel-Fabianek, Burkhard; Lennartz, Reinhard

2009-01-01

The German Law on Environmental Impact Assessment (UVPG) defines projects to be licensed under the Atomic Law that require an environmental impact study (EIS). Since the project concepts as defined in the UVPG are often not the same as those defined in the Atomic Law (AtG), the licensing authority has to decide which project should be subjected to an EIA. Additionally, Article 37 of the EURATOM Treaty obliges every Member State to communicate certain data relating to the impact of emissions of radioactive substances to the Commission. This is independent of the EIA. A licence may only be granted by the competent authorities if an opinion has been received from the Commission pursuant to Article 37. In either case, the licensing authority is the first point of contact for the applicant if the question arises of whether a project has to be subjected to an EIA. A ''voluntary'' EIA should be regarded with caution because of the complexity of such a procedure within the licensing process requiring considerable resources of time and manpower, and the danger of a loss of credibility of the EIA. (orig.)

Economic impact of industrial wood energy use in the Southeast region of the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephenson, C.D.

1991-01-01

More than 1,000 commercial and industrial installations in the Southeast burn wood fuels. Collectively, these facilities consume 44.3 million green tons of fuelwood and 41.7 million tons per year of 'black liquor' residues. Considering the entire direct and indirect impacts of industrial wood energy expenditures as they ripple through the economy, activities associated with the use of industrial wood energy resulted in the production of over 71,000 jobs and $1 billion in personal income for the Southeast region in 1987. In addition, a total of $237 million in State and Federal tax revenues were generated through wood energy related economic activities. Growth projections indicate that by the year 2000, industrial wood energy utilization will generate approximately 97,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in income in the Southeast region

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Clean Cities Project Awards

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2016-08-01

Each Clean Cities project award under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a diverse group of stakeholders who worked together to lay the foundation for their communities to adopt alternative fuels and petroleum reduction strategies. This document provides a snapshot of the impact of each project and highlights the partners and Clean Cities coalitions who helped transform local and regional transportation markets through 25 projects impacting 45 states.

Climate Change Impacts on Nutrient Losses of Two Watersheds in the Great Lakes Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lili Wang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Non-point sources (NPS of agricultural chemical pollution are one major reason for the water quality degradation of the Great Lakes, which impacts millions of residents in the states and provinces that are bordering them. Future climate change will further impact water quality in both direct and indirect ways by influencing the hydrological cycle and processes of nutrient transportation and transformation, but studies are still rare. This study focuses on quantifying the impacts of climate change on nutrient (Nitrogen and Phosphorus losses from the two small watersheds (Walworth watershed and Green Lake watershed within the Great Lakes region. Analysis focused on changes through this century (comparing the nutrient loss prediction of three future periods from 2015 to 2099 with 30 years for each period against the historical nutrient estimation data from 1985 to 2008. The effects on total phosphorus and nitrate-nitrogen losses due to changes in precipitation quantity, intensity, and frequency, as well as air temperature, are evaluated for the two small watersheds, under three special report emission scenarios (SRES A2, A1B, B1. The newly developed Water Erosion Prediction Project-Water Quality (WEPP-WQ model is utilized to simulate nutrient losses with downscaled and bias corrected future climate forcing from two General Circulation Models (GFDL, HadCM3. For each watershed, the observed runoff and nutrient loads are used to calibrate and validate the model before the application of the WEPP-WQ model to examine potential impacts from future climate change. Total phosphorus loss is projected to increase by 28% to 89% for the Green Lake watershed and 25% to 108% for the Walworth watershed mainly due to the combined effects of increase of precipitation quantity, extreme storm events in intensity and frequency, and air temperature. Nitrate-nitrogen losses are projected to increase by 1.1% to 38% for the Green Lake watershed and 8% to 95% for the

The corporate impact of addressing social issues: a financial case study of a project in Peru.

Science.gov (United States)

Dabbs, Alan; Bateson, Matthew

2002-05-01

Large, multinational resource development projects can affect many aspects, including social, economic and ecological realities, in the regions where they operate. Social and environmental issues that are usually ignored in such projects are increasingly affecting the financial future of multinational corporations in negative ways. In this article, we advance the argument that corporations can successfully manage these issues and that if they choose to view these management efforts as an investment rather than an expense, they may well acquire a competitive advantage over companies that do not. We describe as a case study the Camisea natural gas and condensates development project in Peru, operated by Shell Prospecting and Development Peru (SPDP). Camisea is one of the first projects anywhere in the world to conduct a detailed analysis of key industry-related social issues and the processes, required investment and financial impact of managing them. The Camisea example supports the argument that addressing social and environmental concerns makes financial sense. In present value terms, the benefit of managing these concerns was expected to surpass the cost investment by approximately US$50 million.

A comparison of the aquatic impacts of large hydro and small hydro projects

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Lara A.

The expansion of small hydro development in British Columbia has raised concerns surrounding the effects of these projects, and the provincial government's decision to proceed with Site C has brought attention to the impacts of large hydro. Together, these decisions highlight that there are impacts associated with all energy development. My study examines the aquatic effects of large and small hydro projects using two case study sites: Site C and the Upper Harrison Water Power Project. I first determine the aquatic effects of each of the case study sites. Next, I use existing literature and benefits transfer to determine the monetary value of these effects. My results suggest that, with mitigation, small hydro projects have less of an effect on the environment than a large hydro project per unit of electricity. I also describe the implications of my study in the context of current British Columbia energy policy. Keywords: hydropower; aquatic effects. Subject Terms: environmental impact assessment; benefits transfer.

All projects related to | Page 116 | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Assessing the Impact of Cash Transfer Programs on Women's Empowerment in Tanzania. Project. This project will ... Program: Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women ... Region: South Asia, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States.

Gas Regional Initiative. North West Regional Energy Market. Transmission Transparency Project. First Implementation Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-07-01

The purpose of this report is to comment on the implementation of the TSO Transmission Transparency Project. In December 2007 sixteen TSOs presented a project plan which committed them to publishing information on capacity availability and gas flows at crossborder interconnection points in the North-West gas region. The data types to be published were agreed between TSOs and network users. It was agreed that TSOs would release new information on capacity and actual gas flows at crossborder interconnection points. The TSOs have committed to publishing the agreed information by three project milestones May, September or December 2008. At the end of May 2008 the TSOs submitted initial data to Ofgem (Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets) on implementation. This report presents the data submitted by the TSOs, provides comment on implementation progress and explains the next steps. This report does not approve or guarantee the accuracy of the data submitted by TSOs

Booming Asia-Pacific oil trade spawns regional storage projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Land, R.

1992-01-01

This paper reports that surging oil trade in the Asia-Pacific region is spawning a number of big petroleum storage projects there. Among the biggest are those in Indonesia and Singapore. A group led by Singapore's Sembawang Group plans to build a $272 million (Singapore) oil storage terminal on Karimun Island in Riau province, Indonesia. Other participants include Kuo International, Hong Kong, and likely companies from Japan, Europe, and the U.S. According to press reports from Jakarta and Singapore, Van Ommeren Terminals of Netherlands was also reportedly involved in negotiations on the projects. A joint venture agreement was expected to be signed by the third quarter. Plans call for building a terminal with a capacity of 1.5 million cu m on the island, where Sembawang has a 100 year lease. Ultimately, Sembawang and Indonesian company Bangun Cipta want to develop the site as an industrial city with petrochemical plants, engineering and manufacturing industries, and shipyards. Semabawang Project Engineering recently completed a feasibility study of the Karimun storage project

Metropolitan governance and infrastructure in São Paulo: the challenge of mediating regional interests and local impact

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Sacenco Asquino

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The formation of the São Paulo metropolis is related to the historical process of building regional infrastructure as of the late 19th century, in connection with economic motivation and territorial influences. Since that time, São Paulo has played a key role in the network of cities that has been fundamental to its economic development and to its recognition as the most important city in Brazil. This article examines the importance of understanding the regional scale in relation to São Paulo's plans and projects, from Plano de Avenidas (Avenue Plan in the 1930s to the Rodoanel (ring road in the 1990s; the experience of planning and management of the metropolitan system in the 1970s and, in contrast, the environmental licensing process of these large projects after the 1990s. Discussing São Paulo's plans and projects is a complex task, because a project's local impact as well as regional interests must be considered. From different perspectives, the author reviewed the results of environmental licensing of Ampliação da Calha do Rio Tietê (deepening the bed of the Tietê river and Rodoanel Trecho Sul (south section of the ring road projects, and their actual role in the future arrangement and development of the São Paulo metropolis. Based on (a the results of the metropolitan planning experience in the 1970s, (b the updating of the metropolitan discussion in the 1990s from an economic globalization perspective, and (c the current experience of metropolitan systems in the state of São Paulo, it seems necessary to re-establish an effective metropolitan planning and management system in order to guarantee its legitimacy, commitment and governance.

Impact of a quality improvement project to strengthen infection ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Impact of a quality improvement project to strengthen infection prevention and control training at rural healthcare facilities. ... African Journal of Health Professions Education. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search ...

Health care networks implementation and regional governance challenges in the Legal Amazon Region: an analysis of the QualiSUS-Rede Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Casanova, Angela Oliveira; Cruz, Marly Marques; Giovanella, Ligia; Alves, Glaydes Dos Reis; Cardoso, Gisela Cordeiro Pereira

2017-04-01

This paper aims to analyze the potential, limits and challenges of regional governance in the implementation process of health care networks in three Brazilian regions: Alto Solimões (Amazonas), Belém (Pará) and an interstate region comprising Tocantins, Pará and Maranhão states (Topama). The study is based on the evaluation study on the implementation of the Quality Health Care Network Development and Improvement Project (QualiSUS-Rede). This is a qualitative multiple case study with the analysis of official documents and use of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders conducted from July to December 2014. Governance review encompassed three components: stakeholders involved, especially local steering groups and their regional coordination capacity; strategies used for strengthening regional governance, anchored on the intervention's modeling; and implementation of local health care networks. Results point that the regional managing commissions were the main governance strategy and that the QualiSUS-Rede Project strengthened regional governance and integration differently in every case, depending on stakeholders' administration and consensus capacity on regional and political priorities.

Tribal Grant Program Area Polygons with Project Officer and Tribal Contact Information, US EPA Region 9, 2015, Regional Tribal Operations Committee

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This dataset contains information pertaining to EPA Region 9 project officers and their areas of oversight, EPA Region 9 grant program recipients and grant types,...

Regional scale temperature and circulation impacts of short-lived climate pollutants reductions

Science.gov (United States)

Oudar, T.; Kushner, P. J.; Fyfe, J. C.; von Salzen, K.; Shrestha, R.

2017-12-01

The role of anthropogenic aerosols on climate is still not clearly understood. Aerosol forcing is spatially heterogeneous and their emissions are controlled by regional economic and regulatory factors. For example, it is known that black carbon is responsible for a global net warming but its regional impacts are less understood. We evaluate the regional climate impacts of anthropogenic aerosol emission changes over the recent past and near future. Specifically, we report on numerical experiments using aerosol emissions from the Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants (ECLIPSE, Stohl et al., 2015) project. These scenarios are alternative mitigation pathways for black carbon and organic aerosol over the period from 1990 to 2050. With these scenarios, we carried out three sets of simulation using the second generation Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2): 1) A current legislation emission (CLE) scenario for black carbon and organic aerosols; 2) A mitigation (MIT) scenario for black carbon and organic aerosols, and; 3) A black carbon only mitigation scenario (MIT-BC). Five simulations were carried out for each scenario and the response analyzed in the context of a large fifty-member initial condition ensemble of simulations using historical anthropogenic aerosol forcings to 2005 as well as those forcing from the RCP8.5 scenario to 2020. Our main finding is a significant springtime cooling over the Northern midlatitudes that attributable to black carbon. Other cooling signals attributable to black carbon reductions are found in the boreal summer over Southern Europe as well as over the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes and tropical troposphere in boreal summer and fall. All of these cooling signals are to some degree offset by simultaneous reductions in organic aerosols. As a check on the robustness, we will also report on results of five-member draws from the large ensemble over periods of comparably strong radiative forcing changes, to

Regional climate change-Science in the Southeast

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Sonya A.

2010-01-01

Resource managers are at the forefront of a new era of management. They must consider the potential impacts of climate change on the Nation's resources and proactively develop strategies for dealing with those impacts on plants, animals, and ecosystems. This requires rigorous, scientific understanding of environmental change. The role of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in this effort is to analyze climate-change data and develop tools for assessing how changing conditions are likely to impact resources. This information will assist Federal, State, local, and tribal partners manage resources strategically. The 2008 Omnibus Budget Act and Secretarial Order 3289 established a new network of eight Department of Interior Regional Climate Science Centers to provide technical support for resource managers. The Southeast Regional Assessment Project (SERAP) is the first regional assessment to be funded by the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (http://nccw.usgs.gov/). The USGS is working closely with the developing Department of Interior Landscape Conservation Cooperatives to ensure that the project will meet the needs of resource managers in the Southeast. In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is providing resources to the SERAP to expand the scope of the project.

ARPA-E Impacts: A Sampling of Project Outcomes, Volume II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rohlfing, Eric [Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington DC (United States). Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)

2017-02-27

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is demonstrating that a collaborative model has the power to deliver real value. The Agency’s first compilation booklet of impact sheets, published in 2016, began to tell the story of how ARPA-E has already made an impact in just seven years—funding a diverse and sophisticated research portfolio on advanced energy technologies that enable the United States to tackle our most pressing energy challenges. One year later our research investments continue to pay off, with a number of current and alumni project teams successfully commercializing their technologies and advancing the state of the art in transformative areas of energy science and engineering. There is no single measure that can fully illustrate ARPA-E’s success to date, but several statistics viewed collectively begin to reveal the Agency’s impact. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided more than $1.5 billion in funding for 36 focused programs and three open funding solicitations, totaling over 580 projects. Of those, 263 are now alumni projects. Many teams have successfully leveraged ARPA-E’s investment: 56 have formed new companies, 68 have partnered with other government agencies to continue their technology development, and 74 teams have together raised more than $1.8 billion in reported funding from the private sector to bring their technologies to market. However, even when viewed together, those measures do not capture ARPA-E’s full impact. To best understand the Agency’s success, the specific scientific and engineering challenges that ARPA-E project teams have overcome must be understood. This booklet provides concrete examples of those successes, ranging from innovations that will bear fruit in the future to ones that are beginning to penetrate the market as products today. Importantly, half of the projects highlighted in this volume stem from OPEN solicitations, which the agency has run in 2009, 2012, and 2015. ARPA-E’s OPEN programs

Regional absolute conductivity reconstruction using projected current density in MREIT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sajib, Saurav Z K; Kim, Hyung Joong; Woo, Eung Je; Kwon, Oh In

2012-01-01

Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is a non-invasive technique for imaging the internal conductivity distribution in tissue within an MRI scanner, utilizing the magnetic flux density, which is introduced when a current is injected into the tissue from external electrodes. This magnetic flux alters the MRI signal, so that appropriate reconstruction can provide a map of the additional z-component of the magnetic field (B z ) as well as the internal current density distribution that created it. To extract the internal electrical properties of the subject, including the conductivity and/or the current density distribution, MREIT techniques use the relationship between the external injection current and the z-component of the magnetic flux density B = (B x , B y , B z ). The tissue studied typically contains defective regions, regions with a low MRI signal and/or low MRI signal-to-noise-ratio, due to the low density of nuclear magnetic resonance spins, short T 2 or T* 2 relaxation times, as well as regions with very low electrical conductivity, through which very little current traverses. These defective regions provide noisy B z data, which can severely degrade the overall reconstructed conductivity distribution. Injecting two independent currents through surface electrodes, this paper proposes a new direct method to reconstruct a regional absolute isotropic conductivity distribution in a region of interest (ROI) while avoiding the defective regions. First, the proposed method reconstructs the contrast of conductivity using the transversal J-substitution algorithm, which blocks the propagation of severe accumulated noise from the defective region to the ROI. Second, the proposed method reconstructs the regional projected current density using the relationships between the internal current density, which stems from a current injection on the surface, and the measured B z data. Combining the contrast conductivity distribution in the entire imaging

Effective use of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for geothermal development projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goff, S.J.

2000-01-01

Both the developed and developing nations of the world would like to move toward a position of sustainable development while paying attention to the restoration of natural resources, improving the environment, and improving the quality of life. The impacts of geothermal development projects are generally positive. It is important, however, that the environmental issues associated with development be addressed in a systematic fashion. Drafted early in the project planning stage, a well-prepared Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can significantly add to the quality of the overall project. An EIA customarily ends with the decision to proceed with the project. The environmental analysis process could be more effective if regular monitoring, detailed in the EIA, continues during project implementation. Geothermal development EIAs should be analytic rather than encyclopedic, emphasizing the impacts most closely associated with energy sector development. Air quality, water resources and quality, geologic factors, and socioeconomic issues will invariably be the most important factors. The purpose of an EIA should not be to generate paperwork, but to enable superb response. The EIA should be intended to help public officials make decisions that are based on an understanding of environmental consequences and take proper actions. The EIA process has been defined in different ways throughout the world. In fact, it appears that no two countries have defined it in exactly the same way. Going hand in hand with the different approaches to the process is the wide variety of formats available. It is recommended that the world geothermal community work towards the adoption of a standard. The Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)(OLADE, 1993) prepared a guide that presents a comprehensive discussion of the environmental impacts and suggested mitigation alternatives associated with geothermal development projects. The OLADE guide

Discussion on the method of environmental radiological impact assessment for the highway construction project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qiu Guohua

2008-01-01

Based on the characteristics and environmental radiological impact of the highway construction project, the basic procedure of environmental radiological impact assessment for the highway construction project is put forward, including analysis and determination of contamination sources, selection of evaluation factors, determination of assessment range and dose limit, environmental investigation, environmental impact prediction and assessment. The working method of each procedure is analyzed. (authors)

Impacts of commercial agricultural development project (CADP) on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study evaluates the impacts of the Commercial Agricultural Development Project (CADP) on the empowerment of farmers in Kaduna State with specific reference to Lere, Giwa and Kubau Local Government Areas for the period of 2010-2016. Survey and documentary research design were employed and data sourced ...

Ecologic impacts on the Three Gorges Dam. BMBF supported German-Chinese water projects; Oekologische Auswirkungen des Drei-Schluchten-Damms. BMBF gefoerderte Deutsch-Chinesische Wasserprojekte

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilken, Rolf-Dieter [IWW Rhein-Main, Biebesheim am Rhein (Germany); Subklew, Guenter; Kueppers, Stephan [Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH (Germany). Zentralabteilung fuer Chemische Analysen

2011-06-15

Water quality and water supply are a global challenge. In many regions of the world this is more clearly visible than in Germany. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany) supports joint ventures at which German scientists and foreign partners address current issues and propose solutions to their practical implementation. In cooperation with China, now projects on the environmental impact of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze as well as projects to water management issues have been started. These projects are presented in this paper.

Sustainable manure management in the Baltic Sea Region - results, cases and project recommendations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tybirk, Knud; Luostarinen, S; Hamelin, Lorie

This magazine contains the major results, conclusions and recommendations of the project Baltic Forum for Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Manure Management (Baltic Manure) which via co-funding from Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme has been a Flagship project in the EU Strategy...

Uncertainty in projected impacts of climate change on biodiversity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garcia, Raquel A.

Evidence for shifts in the phenologies and distributions of species over recent decades has often been attributed to climate change. The prospect of greater and faster changes in climate during the 21st century has spurred a stream of studies anticipating future biodiversity impacts. Yet, uncerta......Evidence for shifts in the phenologies and distributions of species over recent decades has often been attributed to climate change. The prospect of greater and faster changes in climate during the 21st century has spurred a stream of studies anticipating future biodiversity impacts. Yet......, uncertainty is inherent to both projected climate changes and their effects on biodiversity, and needs to be understood before projections can be used. This thesis seeks to elucidate some of the uncertainties clouding assessments of biodiversity impacts from climate change, and explores ways to address them...... models, are shown to be affected by multiple uncertainties. Different model algorithms produce different outputs, as do alternative future climate models and scenarios of future emissions of greenhouse gases. Another uncertainty arises due to omission of species with small sample sizes, which...

Analyzing socio-economic impacts of tourism : Case of Lumbini region- Nepal

OpenAIRE

K.C., Shambhu; Gewali, Jhabindra

2014-01-01

The first objective of this Thesis is to identify, select, and analyze the socio- economic impacts of faith tourism in Lumbini region. The second objective is to present the impacts in context of changing business environment. And the last objective is to develop strategies for economic progress in a society. In this research work previous reports, theses, literatures and reviews were studied to get an idea about the socio-economic impacts of faith tourism in Lumbini region. In addition,...

Draft Environmental Impact Statement: Proposed Tenaska, Washington II Generation Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-08-01

BPA is considering whether to purchase electrical power from a proposed privately-owned combustion-turbine electrical generation plant in Washington. The plant would be fired by natural gas and would use combined-cycle technology to generate 240 average megawatts (aMW) of energy. The plant would be developed, owned, and operated by Tenaska Power Partners, Inc. The project would be located about 19 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of downtown Tacoma in the Frederickson Industrial Area, Pierce County. The proposed plant would occupy about half of a 6.4-hectare (16-acre) parcel and would be consistent with the industrial character of its surroundings. The proposed site is currently undeveloped and zoned for industrial use by the county. Main environmental concerns identified in the scoping process and evaluated in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) include: potential air quality impacts such as emissions and their contribution to the ''greenhouse'' effect; potential health and safety impacts, such as nuisance odors, plant safety, visibility and heat-emission systems which may affect low-flying planes and potential health effects of electric and magnetic fields, and potential water quality impacts such as the amount of wastewater to be discharged, the source and amount of water required for plant operation. These and other issues are discussed in detail in the EIS. The proposed project already includes many features designed to reduce environmental impacts. Based on investigations performed for the EIS, no significant unavoidable adverse environmental impacts associated with the proposed project were identified, and no evidence emerged to suggest that the proposed action is particularly controversial. The EIS is being mailed to numerous agencies, groups, and individuals. There will be a 45-day comment period, during which a Public Hearing will be held

The Swedish satellite project Viking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hultqvist, B.

1990-01-01

The Swedish satellite project Viking is described and related to earlier missions. Some new operational characteristics are discussed, including the real-time data analysis campaigns that were an important part of the project. Some areas of important scientific impact of the project are also described. Viking was specially designed and equipped for investigation of plasma physical acceleration and other processes in the transition region between hot and cold plasma on auroral latitude magnetic field lines

Evaluating the impact of climate change on landslide occurrence, hazard, and risk: from global to regional scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Gariano, Stefano Luigi; Guzzetti, Fausto

2017-04-01

According to the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "warming of the climate system is unequivocal". The influence of climate changes on slope stability and landslides is also undisputable. Nevertheless, the quantitative evaluation of the impact of global warming, and the related changes in climate, on landslides remains a complex question to be solved. The evidence that climate and landslides act at only partially overlapping spatial and temporal scales complicates the evaluation. Different research fields, including e.g., climatology, physics, hydrology, geology, hydrogeology, geotechnics, soil science, environmental science, and social science, must be considered. Climatic, environmental, demographic, and economic changes are strictly correlated, with complex feedbacks, to landslide occurrence and variation. Thus, a holistic, multidisciplinary approach is necessary. We reviewed the literature on landslide-climate studies, and found a bias in their geographical distribution, with several studies centered in Europe and North America, and large parts of the world not investigated. We examined advantages and drawbacks of the approaches adopted to evaluate the effects of climate variations on landslides, including prospective modelling and retrospective methods that use landslide and climate records, and paleo-environmental information. We found that the results of landslide-climate studies depend more on the emission scenarios, the global circulation models, the regional climate models, and the methods to downscale the climate variables, than on the description of the variables controlling slope processes. Using ensembles of projections based on a range of emissions scenarios would reduce (or at least quantify) the uncertainties in the obtained results. We performed a preliminary global assessment of the future landslide impact, presenting a global distribution of the projected impact of climate change on landslide activity and abundance

Assessing human rights impacts in corporate development projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salcito, Kendyl, E-mail: kendyl.salcito@unibas.ch [Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland); University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel (Switzerland); NomoGaia, 1900 Wazee Street, Suite 303, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); NewFields, LLC, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); Utzinger, Jürg, E-mail: juerg.utzinger@unibas.ch [Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland); University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel (Switzerland); Weiss, Mitchell G., E-mail: Mitchell-g.Weiss@unibas.ch [Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland); University of Basel, P.O. Box, CH-4003 Basel (Switzerland); Münch, Anna K., E-mail: annak.muench@gmail.com [Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (United States); Singer, Burton H., E-mail: bhsinger@epi.ufl.edu [Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (United States); Krieger, Gary R., E-mail: gkrieger@newfields.com [NewFields, LLC, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); Wielga, Mark, E-mail: wielga@nomogaia.org [NomoGaia, 1900 Wazee Street, Suite 303, Denver, CO 80202 (United States); NewFields, LLC, Denver, CO 80202 (United States)

2013-09-15

Human rights impact assessment (HRIA) is a process for systematically identifying, predicting and responding to the potential impact on human rights of a business operation, capital project, government policy or trade agreement. Traditionally, it has been conducted as a desktop exercise to predict the effects of trade agreements and government policies on individuals and communities. In line with a growing call for multinational corporations to ensure they do not violate human rights in their activities, HRIA is increasingly incorporated into the standard suite of corporate development project impact assessments. In this context, the policy world's non-structured, desk-based approaches to HRIA are insufficient. Although a number of corporations have commissioned and conducted HRIA, no broadly accepted and validated assessment tool is currently available. The lack of standardisation has complicated efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of HRIA as a risk mitigation tool, and has caused confusion in the corporate world regarding company duties. Hence, clarification is needed. The objectives of this paper are (i) to describe an HRIA methodology, (ii) to provide a rationale for its components and design, and (iii) to illustrate implementation of HRIA using the methodology in two selected corporate development projects—a uranium mine in Malawi and a tree farm in Tanzania. We found that as a prognostic tool, HRIA could examine potential positive and negative human rights impacts and provide effective recommendations for mitigation. However, longer-term monitoring revealed that recommendations were unevenly implemented, dependent on market conditions and personnel movements. This instability in the approach to human rights suggests a need for on-going monitoring and surveillance. -- Highlights: • We developed a novel methodology for corporate human rights impact assessment. • We piloted the methodology on two corporate projects—a mine and a plantation. �

Assessing human rights impacts in corporate development projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salcito, Kendyl; Utzinger, Jürg; Weiss, Mitchell G.; Münch, Anna K.; Singer, Burton H.; Krieger, Gary R.; Wielga, Mark

2013-01-01

Human rights impact assessment (HRIA) is a process for systematically identifying, predicting and responding to the potential impact on human rights of a business operation, capital project, government policy or trade agreement. Traditionally, it has been conducted as a desktop exercise to predict the effects of trade agreements and government policies on individuals and communities. In line with a growing call for multinational corporations to ensure they do not violate human rights in their activities, HRIA is increasingly incorporated into the standard suite of corporate development project impact assessments. In this context, the policy world's non-structured, desk-based approaches to HRIA are insufficient. Although a number of corporations have commissioned and conducted HRIA, no broadly accepted and validated assessment tool is currently available. The lack of standardisation has complicated efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of HRIA as a risk mitigation tool, and has caused confusion in the corporate world regarding company duties. Hence, clarification is needed. The objectives of this paper are (i) to describe an HRIA methodology, (ii) to provide a rationale for its components and design, and (iii) to illustrate implementation of HRIA using the methodology in two selected corporate development projects—a uranium mine in Malawi and a tree farm in Tanzania. We found that as a prognostic tool, HRIA could examine potential positive and negative human rights impacts and provide effective recommendations for mitigation. However, longer-term monitoring revealed that recommendations were unevenly implemented, dependent on market conditions and personnel movements. This instability in the approach to human rights suggests a need for on-going monitoring and surveillance. -- Highlights: • We developed a novel methodology for corporate human rights impact assessment. • We piloted the methodology on two corporate projects—a mine and a plantation. • Human

The economic and social significance of RCA regional co-operative projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fowler, E.E.

1979-01-01

The regional Co-operative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (RCA) is an established and valuable instrument between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Member States in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific or Far East for assisting in the transfer of modern technology to areas having economic and social importance to the region. The purpose of this review is to identify on-going or planned work which is designed to help achieve this goal. Currently approved RCA Regional Co-operative Research Projects are listed

Selection of a representative subset of global climate models that captures the profile of regional changes for integrated climate impacts assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alex C. Ruane

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract We present the Representative Temperature and Precipitation (T&P GCM Subsetting Approach developed within the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP to select a practical subset of global climate models (GCMs for regional integrated assessment of climate impacts when resource limitations do not permit the full ensemble of GCMs to be evaluated given the need to also focus on impacts sector and economics models. Subsetting inherently leads to a loss of information but can free up resources to explore important uncertainties in the integrated assessment that would otherwise be prohibitive. The Representative T&P GCM Subsetting Approach identifies five individual GCMs that capture a profile of the full ensemble of temperature and precipitation change within the growing season while maintaining information about the probability that basic classes of climate changes (relatively cool/wet, cool/dry, middle, hot/wet, and hot/dry are projected in the full GCM ensemble. We demonstrate the selection methodology for maize impacts in Ames, Iowa, and discuss limitations and situations when additional information may be required to select representative GCMs. We then classify 29 GCMs over all land areas to identify regions and seasons with characteristic diagonal skewness related to surface moisture as well as extreme skewness connected to snow-albedo feedbacks and GCM uncertainty. Finally, we employ this basic approach to recognize that GCM projections demonstrate coherence across space, time, and greenhouse gas concentration pathway. The Representative T&P GCM Subsetting Approach provides a quantitative basis for the determination of useful GCM subsets, provides a practical and coherent approach where previous assessments selected solely on availability of scenarios, and may be extended for application to a range of scales and sectoral impacts.

Assessing climate change impacts, benefits of mitigation, and uncertainties on major global forest regions under multiple socioeconomic and emissions scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, John B.; Monier, Erwan; Sohngen, Brent; Pitts, G. Stephen; Drapek, Ray; McFarland, James; Ohrel, Sara; Cole, Jefferson

2017-04-01

We analyze a set of simulations to assess the impact of climate change on global forests where MC2 dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) was run with climate simulations from the MIT Integrated Global System Model-Community Atmosphere Model (IGSM-CAM) modeling framework. The core study relies on an ensemble of climate simulations under two emissions scenarios: a business-as-usual reference scenario (REF) analogous to the IPCC RCP8.5 scenario, and a greenhouse gas mitigation scenario, called POL3.7, which is in between the IPCC RCP2.6 and RCP4.5 scenarios, and is consistent with a 2 °C global mean warming from pre-industrial by 2100. Evaluating the outcomes of both climate change scenarios in the MC2 model shows that the carbon stocks of most forests around the world increased, with the greatest gains in tropical forest regions. Temperate forest regions are projected to see strong increases in productivity offset by carbon loss to fire. The greatest cost of mitigation in terms of effects on forest carbon stocks are projected to be borne by regions in the southern hemisphere. We compare three sources of uncertainty in climate change impacts on the world’s forests: emissions scenarios, the global system climate response (i.e. climate sensitivity), and natural variability. The role of natural variability on changes in forest carbon and net primary productivity (NPP) is small, but it is substantial for impacts of wildfire. Forest productivity under the REF scenario benefits substantially from the CO2 fertilization effect and that higher warming alone does not necessarily increase global forest carbon levels. Our analysis underlines why using an ensemble of climate simulations is necessary to derive robust estimates of the benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation. It also demonstrates that constraining estimates of climate sensitivity and advancing our understanding of CO2 fertilization effects may considerably reduce the range of projections.

The regional impacts of climate change: an assessment of vulnerability

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Zinyowera, Marufu C; Moss, Richard H; Watson, R. T

1998-01-01

.... The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability reviews state-of-the-art information on potential impacts of climate change for ecological systems, water supply, food production, coastal infrastructure, human health...

Guidelines for the environmental impact statement for the proposed Great Whale River Hydroelectric Project. Backgorund information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-09-01

The guidelines presented on the preparation of the environmental impact statement for the Great Whale hydroelectric project by Hydro-Quebec stipulated a project justification, description of the biophysical and social environments, a project description, and that the assessment must address project impacts, mitigative and compensatory measures, environmental surveillance, monitoring, and long-term management programs. Background information presented in this document provides technical notes on the guidelines and the environmental assessment process, a glossary of terms, and biographical notes. The technical notes address guideline structure, project justification, native knowledge, evaluation issues, cumulative impacts, and the assessment and review process

An observational and modeling study of the regional impacts of climate variability

Science.gov (United States)

Horton, Radley M.

Climate variability has large impacts on humans and their agricultural systems. Farmers are at the center of this agricultural network, but it is often agricultural planners---regional planners, extension agents, commodity groups and cooperatives---that translate climate information for users. Global climate models (GCMs) are a leading tool for understanding and predicting climate and climate change. Armed with climate projections and forecasts, agricultural planners adapt their decision-making to optimize outcomes. This thesis explores what GCMs can, and cannot, tell us about climate variability and change at regional scales. The question is important, since high-quality regional climate projections could assist farmers and regional planners in key management decisions, contributing to better agricultural outcomes. To answer these questions, climate variability and its regional impacts are explored in observations and models for the current and future climate. The goals are to identify impacts of observed variability, assess model simulation of variability, and explore how climate variability and its impacts may change under enhanced greenhouse warming. Chapter One explores how well Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) atmospheric models, forced by historical sea surface temperatures (SST), simulate climatology and large-scale features during the exceptionally strong 1997--1999 El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. Reasonable performance in this 'proof of concept' test is considered a minimum requirement for further study of variability in models. All model versions produce appropriate local changes with ENSO, indicating that with correct ocean temperatures these versions are capable of simulating the large-scale effects of ENSO around the globe. A high vertical resolution model (VHR) provides the best simulation. Evidence is also presented that SST anomalies outside the tropical Pacific may play a key role in generating remote teleconnections even

Experiences with IAEA project: TC Regional Project on Quality Control and Quality Assurance for Nuclear Analytical Techniques (RER/2/004)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glavic-Cindro, Denis; Korun, Matjaz

2002-01-01

In the TC Regional Project on Quality Control and Quality Assurance for Nuclear Analytical Techniques RER/2/004, 12 laboratories from east and central European countries participated. Within this project 4 workshops, 2 audit inspections and 2 proficiency tests were organized. The aim of this project was to help these laboratories to implement quality assurance system based on the ISO 17025 standard and to help them on the way towards accreditation. (author)

Measuring the Social Impact of Infrastructure Projects: The Case of Gdańsk International Fair Co.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Zamojska

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Efcient infrastructure is a prerequisite of, and critcal to, development. Only some projects generate a positve rate of return, but all of them should generate positve non-economic impacts and contribute social gains. Social impact is considered as a consequence or efect of decisions or interventons which lead to development. It can also be considered as a social consequence of development. The main problem of social costs and benefts is that the impact is difcult to predict and quantfy and can be taken into account diferently by authorites, decision makers and project developers. The main purpose of the paper is to identfy and demonstrate a concept of the social impact of infrastructure projects. The principal methods used are a review of existng social science literature and surveys based on focus group interviews, devoted stakeholders of infrastructure projects, and their involvement at diferent stages of the project. The expected result is a set of outputs and outcomes which demonstrates social impacts (costs and benefts related to stakeholders’ groups of the analyzed project.

Remote Sensing and Spatial Growth Modeling Coupled With Air Quality Modeling to Assess the Impact of Atlanta, Georgia on the Local and Regional Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, D. A.; Estes, M. G.; Crosson, W. L.; Johnson, H.; Khan, M.

2006-05-01

compared with USGS 1km land use/land cover data that have traditionally been used in modeling. Air quality prediction for future scenarios to 2030 is being facilitated by land use projections using a spatial growth model. Land use projections were developed using the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan developed by the Atlanta Regional Commission, the regional planning agency for the area. This allows the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to evaluate how these transportation plans will affect future air quality. The coupled SGM and air quality modeling approach provides insight on what the impacts of Atlanta's growth will be on the local and regional environment and exists as a mechanism that can be used by policy makers to make rational decisions on urban growth and sustainability for the metropolitan area in the future.

USDA/Regional Dairy Quality Management Alliance (RDQM) Project-2008 Report

Science.gov (United States)

The Regional Dairy Quality Management Alliance (RDQMA) research project has been underway for four years. We have so far been able to study best management practices on three dairy farms in the Northeast. ON these farms very precise data are collected with regard to the health status of the animals ...

Projected impacts of climate change on Indian agriculture

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. Projected impacts of climate change on Indian agriculture. Increase in CO2 to 550 ppm increases yields of rice, wheat, legumes and oilseeds by 10-20%. A 1oC increase in temperature may reduce yields of wheat, soybean, mustard, groundnut, and potato by 3-7%.

Impact Research Report and Site Summaries for Project ALERT. Workplace Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Brandenburg, Dale C.

In order to evaluate the Project ALERT (Adult Literacy Enhanced & Redefined through Training) Workplace Literacy Project, data were collected to gauge the impact of the program on individual participants, the organizations in which they were employed, and to provide the use of whole language and multimedia techniques in workplace literacy…

Community-Level Impacts Projection System (CLIPS). Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Monts, J.K.; Bareiss, E.R.

1979-02-01

The Community-Level Impacts Projection System includes a set of techniques for providing detailed advance information required for rational planning. The computerized system generates reports which enable the user: to describe the energy development activity in terms of its employment demands and spatial location; to estimate how many in-migrating workers will be required; to estimate the demographic characteristics of the in-migrating workers (e.g., how many elementary school children they will bring); to estimate how many additional secondary employment opportunities (e.g., employment in eating and drinking establishments and grocery stores) will be generated; to estimate what the local area's population levels in various age groups would be both with the project and without it; to estimate community population levels for both the impact case and the baseline case; and to estimate the approximate resource requirements and costs for providing additional municipal facilities and services (e.g., water treatment and distribution, wastewater treatment and collection, gas and electric distribution, police and fire protection, etc.)

Climate change projections over three metropolitan regions in Southeast Brazil using the non-hydrostatic Eta regional climate model at 5-km resolution

Science.gov (United States)

Lyra, Andre; Tavares, Priscila; Chou, Sin Chan; Sueiro, Gustavo; Dereczynski, Claudine; Sondermann, Marcely; Silva, Adan; Marengo, José; Giarolla, Angélica

2018-04-01

The objective of this work is to assess changes in three metropolitan regions of Southeast Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Santos) based on the projections produced by the Eta Regional Climate Model (RCM) at very high spatial resolution, 5 km. The region, which is densely populated and extremely active economically, is frequently affected by intense rainfall events that trigger floods and landslides during the austral summer. The analyses are carried out for the period between 1961 and 2100. The 5-km simulations are results from a second downscaling nesting in the HadGEM2-ES RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 simulations. Prior to the assessment of the projections, the higher resolution simulations were evaluated for the historical period (1961-1990). The comparison between the 5-km and the coarser driver model simulations shows that the spatial patterns of precipitation and temperature of the 5-km Eta simulations are in good agreement with the observations. The simulated frequency distribution of the precipitation and temperature extremes from the 5-km Eta RCM is consistent with the observed structure and extreme values. Projections of future climate change using the 5-km Eta runs show stronger warming in the region, primarily during the summer season, while precipitation is strongly reduced. Projected temperature extremes show widespread heating with maximum temperatures increasing by approximately 9 °C in the three metropolitan regions by the end of the century in the RCP8.5 scenario. A trend of drier climate is also projected using indices based on daily precipitation, which reaches annual rainfall reductions of more than 50 % in the state of Rio de Janeiro and between 40 and 45 % in São Paulo and Santos. The magnitude of these changes has negative implications to the population health conditions, energy security, and economy.

The NASA Severe Thunderstorm Observations and Regional Modeling (NASA STORM) Project

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, Christopher J.; Gatlin, Patrick N.; Lang, Timothy J.; Srikishen, Jayanthi; Case, Jonathan L.; Molthan, Andrew L.; Zavodsky, Bradley T.; Bailey, Jeffrey; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Jedlovec, Gary J.

2016-01-01

The NASA Severe Storm Thunderstorm Observations and Regional Modeling(NASA STORM) project enhanced NASA’s severe weather research capabilities, building upon existing Earth Science expertise at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). During this project, MSFC extended NASA’s ground-based lightning detection capacity to include a readily deployable lightning mapping array (LMA). NASA STORM also enabled NASA’s Short-term Prediction and Research Transition (SPoRT) to add convection allowing ensemble modeling to its portfolio of regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) capabilities. As a part of NASA STORM, MSFC developed new open-source capabilities for analyzing and displaying weather radar observations integrated from both research and operational networks. These accomplishments enabled by NASA STORM are a step towards enhancing NASA’s capabilities for studying severe weather and positions them for any future NASA related severe storm field campaigns.

Determining long-term regional erosion rates using impact craters

Science.gov (United States)

Hergarten, Stefan; Kenkmann, Thomas

2015-04-01

More than 300,000 impact craters have been found on Mars, while the surface of Moon's highlands is even saturated with craters. In contrast, only 184 impact craters have been confirmed on Earth so far with only 125 of them exposed at the surface. The spatial distribution of these impact craters is highly inhomogeneous. Beside the large variation in the age of the crust, consumption of craters by erosion and burial by sediments are the main actors being responsible for the quite small and inhomogeneous crater record. In this study we present a novel approach to infer long-term average erosion rates at regional scales from the terrestrial crater inventory. The basic idea behind this approach is a dynamic equilibrium between the production of new craters and their consumption by erosion. It is assumed that each crater remains detectable until the total erosion after the impact exceeds a characteristic depth depending on the crater's diameter. Combining this model with the terrestrial crater production rate, i.e., the number of craters per unit area and time as a function of their diameter, allows for a prediction of the expected number of craters in a given region as a function of the erosion rate. Using the real crater inventory, this relationship can be inverted to determine the regional long-term erosion rate and its statistical uncertainty. A limitation by the finite age of the crust can also be taken into account. Applying the method to the Colorado Plateau and the Deccan Traps, both being regions with a distinct geological history, yields erosion rates in excellent agreement with those obtained by other, more laborious methods. However, these rates are formally exposed to large statistical uncertainties due to the small number of impact craters. As higher crater densities are related to lower erosion rates, smaller statistical errors can be expected when large regions in old parts of the crust are considered. Very low long-term erosion rates of less than 4

Factors that Impact Software Project Success in Offshore Information Technology (IT) Companies

Science.gov (United States)

Edara, Venkatarao

2011-01-01

Information technology (IT) projects are unsuccessful at a rate of 65% to 75% per year, in spite of employing the latest technologies and training employees. Although many studies have been conducted on project successes in U.S. companies, there is a lack of research studying the impact of various factors on software project success in offshore IT…

Modulation of extremes in the Atlantic region by modes of climate variability/change: A mechanistic coupled regional model study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saravanan, Ramalingam [Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

2015-01-09

During the course of this project, we have accomplished the following: 1) Explored the parameter space of component models to minimize regional model bias 2) Assessed the impact of air-sea interaction on hurricanes, focusing in particular on the role of the oceanic barrier layer 3) Contributed to the activities of the U.S. CLIVAR Hurricane Working Group 4) Assessed the impact of lateral and lower boundary conditions on extreme flooding events in the U.S. Midwest in regional model simulations 5) Analyzed the concurrent impact of El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Atlantic Meridional Mode on Atlantic Hurricane activity using observations and regional model simulations

Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment of forests in the Indian Western Himalayan region: A case study of Himachal Pradesh, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sujata Upgupta

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment at state and regional levels is necessary to develop adaptation strategies for forests in the biogeographically vital Himalayan region. The present study assesses forest ecosystem vulnerability to climate change across Himachal Pradesh and presents the priority districts for vulnerability reduction under ‘current climate’ and ‘future climate’ scenarios. Vulnerability of forests under ‘current climate’ scenario is assessed by adopting indicator-based approach, while the vulnerability under ‘future climate’ scenario is assessed using climate and vegetation impact models. Based on the vulnerability index estimated to present the vulnerability of forests under current and projected climate change impacts representing climate driven vulnerability, five districts – Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi and Shimla are identified as priority forest districts for adaptation planning. Identifying vulnerable forest districts and forests will help policy makers and forest managers to prioritize resource allocation and forest management interventions, to restore health and productivity of forests and to build long-term resilience to climate change.

Privacy impact assessment in the design of transnational public health information systems: the BIRO project.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Iorio, C T; Carinci, F; Azzopardi, J; Baglioni, V; Beck, P; Cunningham, S; Evripidou, A; Leese, G; Loevaas, K F; Olympios, G; Federici, M Orsini; Pruna, S; Palladino, P; Skeie, S; Taverner, P; Traynor, V; Benedetti, M Massi

2009-12-01

To foster the development of a privacy-protective, sustainable cross-border information system in the framework of a European public health project. A targeted privacy impact assessment was implemented to identify the best architecture for a European information system for diabetes directly tapping into clinical registries. Four steps were used to provide input to software designers and developers: a structured literature search, analysis of data flow scenarios or options, creation of an ad hoc questionnaire and conduction of a Delphi procedure. The literature search identified a core set of relevant papers on privacy (n = 11). Technicians envisaged three candidate system architectures, with associated data flows, to source an information flow questionnaire that was submitted to the Delphi panel for the selection of the best architecture. A detailed scheme envisaging an "aggregation by group of patients" was finally chosen, based upon the exchange of finely tuned summary tables. Public health information systems should be carefully engineered only after a clear strategy for privacy protection has been planned, to avoid breaching current regulations and future concerns and to optimise the development of statistical routines. The BIRO (Best Information Through Regional Outcomes) project delivers a specific method of privacy impact assessment that can be conveniently used in similar situations across Europe.

Global projections of 21st century land-use changes in regions adjacent to Protected Areas.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linda J Beaumont

Full Text Available The conservation efficiency of Protected Areas (PA is influenced by the health and characteristics of the surrounding landscape matrix. Fragmentation of adjacent lands interrupts ecological flows within PAs and will decrease the ability of species to shift their distribution as climate changes. For five periods across the 21(st century, we assessed changes to the extent of primary land, secondary land, pasture and crop land projected to occur within 50 km buffers surrounding IUCN-designated PAs. Four scenarios of land-use were obtained from the Land-Use Harmonization Project, developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5. The scenarios project the continued decline of primary lands within buffers surrounding PAs. Substantial losses are projected to occur across buffer regions in the tropical forest biomes of Indo-Malayan and the Temperate Broadleaf forests of the Nearctic. A number of buffer regions are projected to have negligible primary land remaining by 2100, including those in the Afrotropic's Tropical/Subtropical Grassland/Savanna/Shrubland. From 2010-2050, secondary land is projected to increase within most buffer regions, although, as with pasture and crops within tropical and temperate forests, projections from the four land-use scenarios may diverge substantially in magnitude and direction of change. These scenarios demonstrate a range of alternate futures, and show that although effective mitigation strategies may reduce pressure on land surrounding PAs, these areas will contain an increasingly heterogeneous matrix of primary and human-modified landscapes. Successful management of buffer regions will be imperative to ensure effectiveness of PAs and to facilitate climate-induced shifts in species ranges.

Impact of Community Driven Development Project: A Case of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper evaluates impact of Community Driven Development programme on infrastructure under National Fadama II Project in Oyo State Nigeria. Data were collected from two hundred and sixty-four farmers using multistage sampling procedures. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and infrastructure index.

A socio-economic impact assessment of a project to identify and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of the Best Management Practices (BMP) project on social and economic wellbeing at the Zanyokwe Irrigation Scheme (ZIS) in central Eastern Cape Province. The BMP project is a knowledge-based initiative aimed at introducing management practices in order to improve ...

The regional environmental impact of biomass production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graham, R.L.

1994-01-01

The objective of this paper is to present a broad overview of the potential environmental impacts of biomass energy from energy crops. The subject is complex because the environmental impact of using biomass for energy must be considered in the context of alternative energy options while the environmental impact of producing biomass from energy crops must be considered in the context of the alternative land-uses. Using biomass-derived energy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase them; growing biomass energy crops can enhance soil fertility or degrade it. Without knowing the context of the biomass energy, one can say little about its specific environmental impacts. The primary focus of this paper is an evaluation of the environmental impacts of growing energy crops. I present an approach for quantitatively evaluating the potential environmental impact of growing energy crops at a regional scale that accounts for the environmental and economic context of the crops. However, to set the stage for this discussion, I begin by comparing the environmental advantages and disadvantages of biomass-derived energy relative to other energy alternatives such as coal, hydropower, nuclear power, oil/gasoline, natural gas and photovoltaics

Introduction to the special collection of papers on the San Luis Basin Sustainability Metrics Project: a methodology for evaluating regional sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Heberling, Matthew T; Hopton, Matthew E

2012-11-30

This paper introduces a collection of four articles describing the San Luis Basin Sustainability Metrics Project. The Project developed a methodology for evaluating regional sustainability. This introduction provides the necessary background information for the project, description of the region, overview of the methods, and summary of the results. Although there are a multitude of scientifically based sustainability metrics, many are data intensive, difficult to calculate, and fail to capture all aspects of a system. We wanted to see if we could develop an approach that decision-makers could use to understand if their system was moving toward or away from sustainability. The goal was to produce a scientifically defensible, but straightforward and inexpensive methodology to measure and monitor environmental quality within a regional system. We initiated an interdisciplinary pilot project in the San Luis Basin, south-central Colorado, to test the methodology. The objectives were: 1) determine the applicability of using existing datasets to estimate metrics of sustainability at a regional scale; 2) calculate metrics through time from 1980 to 2005; and 3) compare and contrast the results to determine if the system was moving toward or away from sustainability. The sustainability metrics, chosen to represent major components of the system, were: 1) Ecological Footprint to capture the impact and human burden on the system; 2) Green Net Regional Product to represent economic welfare; 3) Emergy to capture the quality-normalized flow of energy through the system; and 4) Fisher information to capture the overall dynamic order and to look for possible regime changes. The methodology, data, and results of each metric are presented in the remaining four papers of the special collection. Based on the results of each metric and our criteria for understanding the sustainability trends, we find that the San Luis Basin is moving away from sustainability. Although we understand

Tropical Warm Semi-Arid Regions Expanding Over Temperate Latitudes In The Projected 21st Century

Science.gov (United States)

Rajaud, A.; de Noblet, N. I.

2015-12-01

Two billion people today live in drylands, where extreme climatic conditions prevail, and natural resources are limited. Drylands are expected to expand under several scenarios of climatic change. However, relevant adaptation strategies need to account for the aridity level: it conditions the equilibrium tree-cover density, ranging from deserts (hyper-arid) to dense savannas (sub-humid). Here we focus on the evolution of climatically defined warm semi-arid areas, where low-tree density covers can be maintained. We study the global repartition of these regions in the future and the bioclimatic shifts involved. We adopted a bioclimatological approach based on the Köppen climate classification. The warm semi-arid class is characterized by mean annual temperatures over 18°C and a rainfall-limitation criterion. A multi-model ensemble of CMIP5 projections for three representative concentration pathways was selected to analyze future conditions. The classification was first applied to the start, middle and end of the 20th and 21st centuries, in order to localize past and future warm semi-arid regions. Then, time-series for the classification were built to characterize trends and variability in the evolution of those regions. According to the CRU datasets, global expansion of the warm semi-arid area has already started (~+13%), following the global warming trend since the 1900s. This will continue according to all projections, most significantly so outside the tropical belt. Under the "business as usual" scenario, the global warm semi-arid area will increase by 30% and expand 12° poleward in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the multi-model mean. Drying drives the conversion from equatorial sub-humid conditions. Beyond 30° of latitude, cold semi-arid conditions become warm semi-arid through warming, and temperate conditions through combined warming and drying processes. Those various transitions may have drastic but also very distinct ecological and sociological

Air quality impacts of projections of natural gas-fired distributed generation

Science.gov (United States)

Horne, Jeremy R.; Carreras-Sospedra, Marc; Dabdub, Donald; Lemar, Paul; Nopmongcol, Uarporn; Shah, Tejas; Yarwood, Greg; Young, David; Shaw, Stephanie L.; Knipping, Eladio M.

2017-11-01

This study assesses the potential impacts on emissions and air quality from the increased adoption of natural gas-fired distributed generation of electricity (DG), including displacement of power from central power generation, in the contiguous United States. The study includes four major tasks: (1) modeling of distributed generation market penetration; (2) modeling of central power generation systems; (3) modeling of spatially and temporally resolved emissions; and (4) photochemical grid modeling to evaluate the potential air quality impacts of increased DG penetration, which includes both power-only DG and combined heat and power (CHP) units, for 2030. Low and high DG penetration scenarios estimate the largest penetration of future DG units in three regions - New England, New York, and California. Projections of DG penetration in the contiguous United States estimate 6.3 GW and 24 GW of market adoption in 2030 for the low DG penetration and high DG penetration scenarios, respectively. High DG penetration (all of which is natural gas-fired) serves to offset 8 GW of new natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) units, and 19 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations by 2030. In all scenarios, air quality in the central United States and the northwest remains unaffected as there is little to no DG penetration in those states. California and several states in the northeast are the most impacted by emissions from DG units. Peak increases in maximum daily 8-h average ozone concentrations exceed 5 ppb, which may impede attainment of ambient air quality standards. Overall, air quality impacts from DG vary greatly based on meteorological conditions, proximity to emissions sources, the number and type of DG installations, and the emissions factors used for DG units.

Impact of Requirements Elicitation Processes on Success of Information System Development Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bormane Līga

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Requirements articulating user needs and corresponding to enterprise business processes are a key to successful implementation of information system development projects. However, the parties involved in projects frequently are not able to agree on a common development vision and have difficulties expressing their needs. Several industry experts have acknowledged that requirements elicitation is one of the most difficult tasks in development projects. This study investigates the impact of requirements elicitation processes on project outcomes depending on the applied project development methodology.

Projected climate change impacts in rainfall erosivity over Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Climate change projections and historical analyses have shown alterations in global precipitation dynamics, and therefore, it is also expected that there will be associated changes to soil erosion rates. The impacts of climate change on soil erosion may bring serious economic, social, and environmen...

Investigating the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of sea level rise in the Galveston Bay, Texas region

Science.gov (United States)

Subedee, M.; Dotson, M.; Gibeaut, J. C.

2016-02-01

Anthropogenic effects throughout the twenty-first century, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, have contributed to global climatic and environmental changes. Sea level rise (SLR) is one of these changes which is occurring along the Texas Coast and is amplified by land subsidence. SLR along the northern Texas coast is impacting sensitive coastal environments as well as human populations, and industries and infrastructure supporting those populations. Sea level data from the NOAA gauge at Galveston Pier 21 has shown an increase of 2.08 feet in relative sea level in 100 years. Given an expected increase in the rate of sea level rise in the next decades, the purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth assessment on the effects of relative sea level rise on the habitat distribution of highly valuable coastal wetlands in the Galveston Bay region. This study also focuses on projecting the potential socioeconomic losses due to coastal flooding that is amplified by SLR in the region. In this study, three SLR scenarios are modeled: a scenario based on a linear extrapolation of satellite altimetry data (0.21 m by 2100); the IPCC's RCP8.5 mean scenario (0.74 m by 2100); and a high-end scenario (1.8 m by 2100) as proposed by Jevrejeva et al. (2014). A land subsidence rate calculated by developing a subsidence grid using GPS-measured subsidence monitoring and releveling data is added to all these scenarios. The Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) is used to predict wetland conversion due to long-term SLR incorporating the processes of inundation, erosion, accretion, overwash, and saturation. Similarly, HAZUS-MH is used to evaluate the property damage to building stocks and the direct business interruption losses due to flooding caused by 100-year flood event scenario with three SLR scenarios. This coordinated research effort to assess the physical, environmental and policy impacts due to SLR is intended to enable policy-makers, managers, and the general public to

Regional flood impact assessment for Kiel and Eckernförde, Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Shustikova, Iuliia; Viavattene, Christophe; Seiß, Guntram

2017-04-01

It is well-observed that extreme flood events bring considerable destruction to coastal communities. The estimates of damage increases when direct and indirect losses are both considered in the assessment. This study applied the INtegrated DisRuption Assessment (INDRA) model which is designed to estimate and compare not only tangible but also intangible losses such as risk to life, recovery mechanisms and household displacement. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) was performed in order to compare hotspots of high flood risk on the regional scale and detect which impact indicators influence results the most. INDRA allowed assessing the following impact indicators: direct damages to buildings and roads, transport disruption, risk to life and financial recovery mechanisms of private households and businesses. The focus was on two hotspots of flood risk, where direct and indirect impacts from 200 years flood were assessed and analyzed in terms of relative importance to the region. The region here was defined as municipalities located on the Baltic Sea coast within the Schleswig-Holstein state, Germany. The hotspots are the towns of Kiel and Eckernförde. They are urban areas with a high concentration of people and assets, which previously experienced extreme flood events. From the performed investigation it was found out that modeled flood differently impacts Kiel and Eckernförde. The results produced by MCA show that the scores of direct and indirect damage are slightly higher in Eckernförde than in Kiel. Transport disruption is a compelling element in the performed regional impact assessment and demonstrated immense weight. Extreme events may pose significant direct and indirect impacts on the coastal roads, obstructing not only the access to important landmarks such as hospitals, train stations, harbors, etc. but also to contiguous municipalities. Yet, the analysis showed that other impact indicators are rather of local importance and would not cause vast damage on a

Draft programmatic environmental impact statement for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Ground Water Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-04-01

The purpose of the UMTRA Ground Water Project is to protect human health and the environment by meeting the proposed EPA standards in areas where ground water has been contaminated. The first step in the UMTRA Ground Water Project is the preparation of this programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS). This document analyzes potential impacts of four programmatic alternatives, including the proposed action. The alternatives do not address site-specific ground water compliance. Rather, the PEIS is a planning document that provides a framework for conducting the Ground Water Project; assesses the potential programmatic impacts of conducting the Ground Water Project; provides a method for determining the site-specific ground water compliance strategies; and provides data and information that can be used to prepare site-specific environmental impacts analyses more efficiently. This PEIS differs substantially from a site-specific environmental impact statement because multiple ground water compliance strategies, each with its own unique set of potential impacts, could be used to implement all the alternatives except the no action alternative. Implementing a PEIS alternative means applying a ground water compliance strategy or strategies at a specific site. It is the use of a strategy or a combination of strategies that would result in site-specific impacts

Tono regional hydrogeological study project. Annual report 2004

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwatsuki, Teruki; Ota, Kunio; Takeuchi, Shinji; Amano, Kenji; Takeuchi, Ryuji; Saegusa, Hiromitsu; Osawa, Hideaki

2005-09-01

Tono Geoscience Center, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute has been conducting a wide range of geoscientific research in order to build firm scientific and technological basis for the research and development of geological disposal. One of the geoscientific research programme is a Regional Hydrogeological Study (RHS) project in the Tono region, central Japan. This report mainly summarizes the results of research in DH-14 and DH-15 boreholes at Toki city and Mizunami city in fiscal year 2004 which were carried out to support and improve the results in fiscal year 2003. The research in the regional scale area shows the reliability of conceptual hydrogeological model and numerical simulation for the evaluation of regional hydrogeology. On the other hand, the geological and geophysical investigation, and borehole investigation during the surface-based investigations in the local scale area provide the pragmatic distribution of hydrogeological structure that may control regional groundwater hydrology. Hydrogeological simulations regarding the geological structure such as fault and hydrogeological property demonstrate the priority of investigation of geological structure for the evaluation of hydrogeology. The fault perpendicular to groundwater flow direction crucially affects on regional hydrology. Such fault is necessary to be investigated by priority. Hydrochemical investigation shows that chemical evolution process in this groundwater illustrated is mixing between groundwaters with different salinities. Principal component analysis and mass balance calculation reveal reliable chemistry of end-member waters for mixing. Regarding methodology development, the strategy and procedure of investigations are summarized based on the results of surface-based investigation. Moreover the multi interval monitoring system for water pressure and temperature has developed and started to monitor the in-situ condition of groundwater. The geology, geological structure, hydraulic

Projected Effect of Increased Active Travel in German Urban Regions on the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Science.gov (United States)

Brinks, Ralph; Hoyer, Annika; Kuss, Oliver; Rathmann, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

Background Future transportation policy is likely to reduce emissions in the cities and urban regions by strengthening active travel. Increased walking and cycling are known to have positive effects on health outcomes. This work estimates effects of increased active travel on type 2 diabetes in Germany, where 64% of the population live in urban regions. Methods Based on the effect size of an increased active travel scenario reported from a recent meta-analysis, we project the change in the life time risk, the proportion of prevented cases and the change in diabetes free life time in a German birth cohort (born 1985) compared to business as usual. Results The absolute risk reduction of developing type 2 diabetes before the age of 80 is 6.4% [95% confidence interval: 3.7-9.7%] for men and 4.7% [2.2-7.7%] for women, respectively. Compared to business as usual, the increased active travel scenario prevents 14.0% [8.1-21.2%] of the future cases of diabetes in men and 15.8% [9.3-23.1%] in women. Diabetes free survival increases by 1.7 [1.0-2.7] years in men and 1.4 [0.6-2.3] in women. Conclusions Our projection predicts a substantial impact of increased active travel on the future burden of type 2 diabetes. The most striking effect may be seen in the number of prevented cases. In all urban regions with an increased active travel transport policy, about one out of seven male and one out of six female cases can be prevented. PMID:25849819

Projected effect of increased active travel in German urban regions on the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ralph Brinks

Full Text Available Future transportation policy is likely to reduce emissions in the cities and urban regions by strengthening active travel. Increased walking and cycling are known to have positive effects on health outcomes. This work estimates effects of increased active travel on type 2 diabetes in Germany, where 64% of the population live in urban regions.Based on the effect size of an increased active travel scenario reported from a recent meta-analysis, we project the change in the life time risk, the proportion of prevented cases and the change in diabetes free life time in a German birth cohort (born 1985 compared to business as usual.The absolute risk reduction of developing type 2 diabetes before the age of 80 is 6.4% [95% confidence interval: 3.7-9.7%] for men and 4.7% [2.2-7.7%] for women, respectively. Compared to business as usual, the increased active travel scenario prevents 14.0% [8.1-21.2%] of the future cases of diabetes in men and 15.8% [9.3-23.1%] in women. Diabetes free survival increases by 1.7 [1.0-2.7] years in men and 1.4 [0.6-2.3] in women.Our projection predicts a substantial impact of increased active travel on the future burden of type 2 diabetes. The most striking effect may be seen in the number of prevented cases. In all urban regions with an increased active travel transport policy, about one out of seven male and one out of six female cases can be prevented.

Impact of externally funded projects on development of research ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Impact of externally funded projects on development of research capability of national agricultural research system. S K Sharma. Abstract. No Abstract. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT · AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL.

Nuclear facility projects in Finland: quality of environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vaatainen, A.

2001-01-01

In Finland, three public EIA hearings arranged by the contact authority concerning nuclear facilities were organised in 1999: the EIAs of two reactors planned to be constructed in Eurajoki (Olkiluoto) and in Loviisa, and the EIA of a final disposal facility of spent nuclear fuel, to be situated either in Olkiluoto, Loviisa, Romuvaara or Kivetty. Additionally, an application for a decision-in-principle concerning a final disposal facility to be constructed in Olkiluoto was submitted. The Ministry of Trade and Industry is the contact authority in all nuclear projects in Finland. Probably due to the simultaneity of the processes and the great importance of nuclear facility projects to the whole of society, the public opinions did not include only views about environmental impacts of each project, but also opposing and overall views about the use of nuclear energy and its safety. As for the final disposal project, alternative methods were introduced and opposition to the project itself was expressed instead of or in addition to the environmental impacts. (author)

A Study on Evaluation of the Biology Projects Submitted to the TUBITAK Secondary Education Research Projects Contest from the Bursa Region

Science.gov (United States)

Zeren Özer, Dilek; Güngör, Sema Nur; Özkan, Muhlis

2015-01-01

This study evaluates, through the employment of scientific methods and techniques, a total of 107 Biology projects submitted by secondary education students to the Bursa Region Coordinatorship of TUBITAK (a region which encompasses the municipalities of Afyonkarahisar, Balikesir, Bilecik, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Kutahya, and Yalova). The projects…

Application of environmental impact assessment in Spain (1989-2008): the case of Road Projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barbero Rodriguez, J.; Espigares Pinilla, T.

2010-01-01

In this study we analyze the application in Spain of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) along the first 20 years since its implementation, paying special attention to road projects. We revised all Environmental Impact Statement (EISs) published during the period 1989-2008 and monitored, among others, the following variables; the record of decision (favorable or unfavorable) of the State Authority, the type of ecosystem affected by the projects and the mitigation measures required to the developer to implement the project. The results allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of EIA procedure for road projects and to suggest some practical recommendations to improve the quality of EISs. (Author) 13 refs.

Environmental impacts of Ghazi Barotha hydropower project on river Indus and surrounding areas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soomro, G.A.; Sufi, A.B.

2005-01-01

WAPDA being an esteemed organization of the country is involved in development of Water and Power Sector Projects. Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project is another huge hydropower generation project in the country after Tarbela. The barrage to feed power channel of Ghazi Barotha Power Station are built over River Indus 7 Km down of Tarbela Dam. The project has been constructed to utilize the hydraulic head for power generation that is available between the tailrace of Tarbela Dam and the confluence of Haro River. In this reach river Indus drops by 76 m in distance of 63 Km. This is solely a power generation project with an installed capacity of 1450 MW. The purpose of this paper is to assess the negative impacts on the River Indus due to the construction of GBHP as Water of river Indus will be diverted to the power channel and the river Indus flows go to its lowest in low flow season. The reduction in river flow may change the ecology of the river - belas and people dependant on river water. In this context a study was made to keep the negative environmental impacts as low as possible and suggest mitigation measures to reduce negative impacts and provide enhancement measure to compensate the losses to be sustained by the area people and maintain the social life along with the ecology of the area less disturbed. The study demonstrated that the project is technically sound, economically viable and has limited environmental and social impacts on the area overall and specific the belas and people dependant on the Indus Water from Tarbela downstream up to confluence of Kabul River. (author)

Economic impacts of marine ecological change: Review and recent contributions of the VECTORS project on European marine waters

Science.gov (United States)

Groeneveld, Rolf A.; Bartelings, Heleen; Börger, Tobias; Bosello, Francesco; Buisman, Erik; Delpiazzo, Elisa; Eboli, Fabio; Fernandes, Jose A.; Hamon, Katell G.; Hattam, Caroline; Loureiro, Maria; Nunes, Paulo A. L. D.; Piwowarczyk, Joanna; Schasfoort, Femke E.; Simons, Sarah L.; Walker, Adam N.