scholarly journals Climate effects on US infrastructure: the economics of adaptation for rail, roads, and coastal development

2021 ◽  
Vol 167 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Neumann ◽  
Paul Chinowsky ◽  
Jacob Helman ◽  
Margaret Black ◽  
Charles Fant ◽  
...  

AbstractChanges in temperature, precipitation, sea level, and coastal storms will likely increase the vulnerability of infrastructure across the USA. Using models that analyze vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation, this paper estimates impacts to railroad, roads, and coastal properties under three infrastructure management response scenarios: No Adaptation; Reactive Adaptation, and Proactive Adaptation. Comparing damages under each of these potential responses provides strong support for facilitating effective adaptation in these three sectors. Under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario and without adaptation, overall costs are projected to range in the $100s of billions annually by the end of this century. The first (reactive) tier of adaptation action, however, reduces costs by a factor of 10, and the second (proactive) tier reduces total costs across all three sectors to the low $10s of billions annually. For the rail and road sectors, estimated costs for Reactive and Proactive Adaptation scenarios capture a broader share of potential impacts, including selected indirect costs to rail and road users, and so are consistently about a factor of 2 higher than prior estimates. The results highlight the importance of considering climate risks in infrastructure planning and management.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Häußler ◽  
Wolfgang Haupt

AbstractCities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many larger cities have identified the potential impacts of different climate change adaptation scenarios. However, their smaller and medium-sized counterparts are often not able to address climate risks effectively due to a lack of necessary resources. Since a large number of cities worldwide are indeed small and medium-sized, this lack of preparedness represents a crucial weakness in global response systems. A promising approach to tackling this issue is to establish regional municipal networks. Yet, how might a regional network for small and medium-sized cities be systematically designed and further developed? Focussing on the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, we have explored this question by applying a participatory action research approach. As part of our research, we established a regional network framework for small and medium-sized cities. The framework supports small and medium-sized cities in identifying key regional actors, while taking local and regional contextual factors into account. Based on our findings, we suggest that other small and medium sized cities follow these steps: develop the knowledge base; build the network; and transfer and consolidate knowledge.


Author(s):  
Леонид Вячеславович Калимуллин ◽  
Денис Константинович Левченко

Несмотря на существующие государственные инициативы, одним из факторов, сдерживающих развитие электротранспорта в России, является низкий уровень развития электрозарядной инфраструктуры. В данном контексте актуально изучить успешный опыт построения и внедрения моделей функционирования электрозарядной инфраструктуры и управления ею на примере наиболее развитых по данному направлению стран. Целью статьи является исследование моделей функционирования инфраструктуры для электромобилей и управления ею, применяемых в США и Китае, выявление характерных особенностей, преимуществ и недостатков с целью формирования наиболее оптимальных условий для построения российской модели электрозарядной инфраструктуры. Элементы научной новизны заключаются в обобщении и систематизация практического опыта применения моделей функционирования электрозарядной инфраструктуры и управления ею. Despite existing state initiatives, one of the factors limiting the development of electric transport in Russia is the low level of development of electric charging infrastructure. In this context, it is relevant to study the successful experience of building and implementing models for the management and operation of electric charging infrastructure on the example of the most developed countries in this area. The purpose of the article is to study models of infrastructure management and functioning for electric vehicles used in the USA and China, to identify characteristic features, advantages and disadvantages in order to form the most optimal conditions for building a Russian model of electric charging infrastructure. Elements of scientific novelty are the synthesis and systematization of practical experience in the application of models of control and operation of electric charging infrastructure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1179
Author(s):  
Tomasz Opach ◽  
Erik Glaas ◽  
Mattias Hjerpe ◽  
Carlo Navarra

Municipal actors are increasingly expected to consider climate adaptation in operative and strategic work. Here, digital environments can support strategic decisions and planning through visual representations of local climate risks and vulnerabilities. This study targets visualization of vulnerability to heat and floods as a means of supporting adaptation action in preschools, primary schools, caring units, and municipal residential buildings in Norrköping, Sweden. Workshops with sector leaders identified vulnerability indicators used as a basis for collecting, calculating and representing self-assessed vulnerability of individual units and buildings. Informed by user inputs, a map-based interactive visual tool representing resulting vulnerability scores and risk maps was developed to support (1) planners and sector leaders in strategic prioritization and investments, and (2) unit heads in identifying adaptation measures to reduce local flood and heat risks. The tool was tested with adaptation coordinators from targeted sectors. The study finds that the tool made it possible to overview climate risks and adaptation measures, which arguably increases general governance capacity Allowing yearly updates of set scores, the tool was also found to be useful for monitoring how vulnerability in the municipality evolves over time, and for evaluating how adaptive efforts influence calculated risks.


1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-274
Author(s):  
Nuruddeen A. Abdullahi ◽  
Alan Wakelam

The first part deals with the financial background to the economy. The switch from an agricultural economy to one where, since 1974, oil has taken centre stage, has been dramatic. A country traumatised by civil war has left deep scars, as a result the oil boom of the 1970’s was not taken full advantage of—wastage and misallocation of revenues were characteristic of the 1970’s and 80’s. Despite this, there has been some improvement in the infrastructure as a result of public spending. The second part looks at the role of the stockbroker. As professional advisors, stockbrokers are expected to have a good understanding of the financial market. Sadly the advice that some gave to private investors was not always sound. A particular example was when a third of the sample advised their clients to borrow money for share purchase at a time when interest rates were particularly high. It is interesting to note that in spite of their strong support for deregulation of the stock market, the majority (74.1%) expressed satisfaction with the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (NSEC). The authors expected the financial press to be the most important source of financial information, instead company reports took first place, possibly reflecting a lack of confidence in press reporting. 62% of the stockbrokers were ignorant of the fact that a company may declare profit even when its cashflow position is in deficit, and 22% had the misconception that listed companies were always profitable. Unlike the UK and the USA there is yet to emerge a market risk service, hence the stockbrokers have to rely on their own perceptions of market risk, and the results show that


2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morris Abraham ◽  
Tim Sullivan ◽  
Des Griffin

A survey of 19 museums across the USA sought to identify the change processes associated with the effective management of a specific case of legislated change imposed by The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 1990 (NAGPRA). Interviews were also conducted with a sample of these museums to understand further the change process adopted. It was hypothesised that those organisations which were perceived by respondents to have achieved successful change outcomes, would have managed the change transition in accordance with generic change principles in the change literature, regardless of the legislated nature of the change. The findings provided strong support for these general principles of effective change management in situations where the organisation has little choice about the change initiative. However the legislated nature of the change and the initial lack of understanding of its scope and implications produced some deviations from these general principles, particularly with respect to the dimensions of visioning, participation and allocation of resources to the change program.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Stearns-Pfeiffer

Purpose – The author of this paper aims to reflect on the past 14 years of English education in the USA and the resulting effects of state standards and standards implementation on secondary English teachers. Design/methodology/approach – Controversy surrounding standards implementation often includes balancing the struggle between teacher autonomy and district-mandated curriculum. The journey described here includes four roles in education: first, an undergraduate in a teacher education program at a state university; second, a classroom teacher learning to create pacing guides based on the standards; third, a graduate student writing a dissertation about standards implementation; and, fourth, a teacher educator who works with pre-service and practicing teachers. Findings – Educators at all levels must determine how to best navigate standards to help students succeed in the classroom, and what teaching practices must endure even in the face of increased standardization. Originality/value – Lack of curricular autonomy and few teacher-centered professional development opportunities during early standards implementation experiences led the author to understand the importance of a workshop model of standards implementation for teachers. In addition, strong support for reading and writing workshops in the secondary English Language Arts classroom is also provided, including the specific Common Core Standards met during these classroom activities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Louchouarn ◽  
Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila ◽  
David R. Parsons ◽  
Adrian Treves

AbstractDespite illegal killing (poaching) being the major cause of death among large carnivores globally, little is known about the effect of implementing lethal management policies on poaching. Two opposing hypotheses have been proposed in the literature: implementing lethal management may decrease poaching incidence (‘killing for tolerance’) or increase it (‘facilitated illegal killing’). Here, we report a test of the two opposed hypotheses that poaching (reported and unreported) of Mexican grey wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) in Arizona and New Mexico, USA, responded to changes in policy that reduced protections to allow more wolf-killing. We employ advanced biostatistical survival and competing-risk methods to data on individual resightings, mortality and disappearances of collared Mexican wolves, supplemented with Bayes Factors to assess strength of evidence. We find inconclusive evidence for any decreases in reported poaching. We also find strong evidence that Mexican wolves were 121% more likely to disappear during periods of reduced protections than during periods of stricter protections, with only slight changes in legal removals by the agency. Therefore, we find strong support for the ‘facilitated illegal killing’ hypothesis and none for the ‘killing for tolerance’ hypothesis. We provide recommendations for improving the effectiveness of US policy on environmental crimes, endangered species, and protections for wild animals. Our results have implications beyond the USA or wolves because the results suggest transformations of decades-old management interventions against human-caused mortality among wild animals subject to high rates of poaching.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepali Arun Bhanage ◽  
Ambika Vishal Pawar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the bibliometric study of articles IT Infrastructure Management to Avoid Failure Conditions. As in today’s era of IT Industries, IT infrastructure management plays a crucial role. As a result, substantial research is going on to improve the reliability and availability of assets in IT infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyzes and focuses the results acquired from articles accessed from Scopus for the past 15 years by examining in terms of frequently used keywords, the amount of work done in different countries and year-wise progression of the research, prolific authors, article citation frequencies, etc. Tools such as Gephi, Word Cloud, BiblioShiny, GPS visualizer, etc. are used for bibliometric analysis. Findings The study comes out with maximum publications of IT infrastructure management from conferences and journals. Anomaly detection, log analysis and learning system are the most frequently used keywords in the publications. Significant research has been done in the USA, followed by China under the area of Computer Science with an increase in publication since 2018. Originality/value This paper provides an accurate idea about the amount of work done in different countries and year-wise progression of the research. This bibliometric analysis will be useful for beginners to conduct a literature survey using appropriate literature available on the Scopus database.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 887-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Somers ◽  
Dee Birnbaum ◽  
Jose Casal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess conceptually based arguments that the three-component model (TCM) is not a model of commitment but rather of employee turnover, and that the mindsets that comprise the TCM do not form a unified construct. Design/methodology/approach A survey design was used that was comprised of 223 staff nurses located in a large, urban hospital in the USA. Data were analyzed using dominance analysis, a variant of multiple linear regression that provides more accurate estimates of the strength of relationships between predictor and criterion variables when multicolinearity among predictors is present. Findings Results from OLS regression and dominance analysis provided no support for concerns about the viability of the TCM. First, there was no evidence that the continuance and normative mindsets were associated only with employee turnover, and there was strong support that this was not the case. Second, our overall patterns of results indicated that the mindsets that comprise the TCM operated as a unified construct that is consistent with the theory and research underpinning the TCM. Practical implications This study indicates that work commitment is multidimensional and must be managed accordingly so that it is important to be mindful of the development and implications of different constellations of work commitment. Originality/value Conceptually grounded criticisms of the TCM have not been tested empirically leading to uncertainty about the nature of work commitment. This study adds an empirical perspective that is augmented by an advanced application of multiple regression analysis.


Author(s):  
Hongtao Yi ◽  
Richard C Feiock

Purpose – This paper aims to examine state adoption of climate action plans (CAPs) and investigates the factors driving the adoption of these climate policies in the states. Design/methodology/approach – The framework that is formulated to explain the state climate actions involves four dimensions: climate risks, climate politics, climate economic and climate policy diffusions. These hypotheses are tested with event history analysis on a panel data set on 48 US continental states from 1994 to 2008. Findings – This paper found empirical evidence to support climate politics, economics and policy diffusion explanations. It also found that climate risks are not taken into account in states’ climate actions. A comparison is conducted to compare the differences in state and local climate policymaking. Originality/value – The paper investigates the motivations of state governments in adopting CAPs, and makes comparisons with local climate strategies. It contributes to academic understanding of the multilevel governance of climate protection in the USA.


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