Social benefits and costs of large scale research infrastructures

2016 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 65-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Florio ◽  
Emanuela Sirtori
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Research Infrastructures ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Social Benefits and Social Costs of Drug Control Laws

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Black Markets ◽  
Control Laws ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Levels Of Control

While drug control laws tend to reduce the incidence of drug use, their enforcement is not without cost to society. Among the most obvious costs is the development of black markets in drugs and the criminalization of users. Modest control laws can substantially reduce drug use without incurring serious social costs. However, increasing the severity of control laws adds less and less to the benefits achieved and more and more to the costs to society. Ultimately the costs outweigh the benefits. We should aim for optimum levels of control by weighing both the benefits and costs of our drug control laws.

GERI – The emerging Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaana Bäck ◽  
Werner Kutsch ◽  
Michael Mirtl
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Research Infrastructure ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Ecosystem Research ◽  
Decadal Scale ◽  
Research Infrastructures ◽  
Access To Data

<p>Ecosystem Research Infrastructures around the world have been designed, constructed, and are now operational as a distributed effort. The common goal is to address research questions that require long-term ecosystem observations and other service components at national to continental scales, which cannot be tackled in the framework of single and time limited projects.  By design, these Research Infrastructures capture data and provide a wider range of services including access to data and well instrumented research sites. The coevolution of supporting infrastructures and ecological sciences has developed into new science disciplines such as macrosystems ecology, whereby large-scale and multi-decadal-scale ecological processes are being explored. </p><p>Governments, decision-makers, researchers and the public have all recognized that the global economy, quality of life, and the environment are intrinsically intertwined and that ecosystem services ultimately depend on resilient ecological processes. These have been altered and threatened by various components of Global Change, e.g. land degradation, global warming and species loss. These threats are the unintended result of increasing anthropogenic activities and have the potential to change the fundamental trajectory of mankind.  This creates a unique challenge never before faced by society or science—how best to provide a sustainable economic future while understanding and globally managing a changing environment and human health upon which it relies.</p><p>The increasing number of Research Infrastructures around the globe now provides a unique and historical opportunity to respond to this challenge. Six major ecosystem Research Infrastructures (SAEON/South Africa, TERN/Australia, CERN/China, NEON/USA, ICOS/Europe, eLTER/Europe) have started federating to tackle the programmatic work needed for concerted operation and the provisioning of interoperable data and services. This Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) will be presented with a focus on the involved programmatic challenges and the GERI science rationale.</p>

scholarly journals The effects of the universal metering programme on water consumption, welfare and equity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmine Ornaghi ◽  
Mirco Tonin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Water Usage ◽  
Social Efficiency ◽  
Similar Reduction ◽  
Income Groups ◽  
Large Heterogeneity ◽  
Low Sensitivity ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Policy Target

Abstract There is consensus that meters are necessary for the promotion of efficient water usage. However, available evidence on the benefits and costs of metering is scant, and often based on small samples. We use data from the first large-scale compulsory metering programme in England to study its impact on consumption, social efficiency and distributional outcomes. We find a decrease in consumption of 22% following meter installation, a considerably higher value than assumed as a policy target. This result implies that, overall, the benefits of metering outweigh its costs. We also document a large heterogeneity in reaction, with many households showing low sensitivity to the new tariff. This novel finding suggests that selective metering, where only more price-sensitive households receive meters, would deliver even higher social welfare. Looking at distributional effects, we find similar reduction in consumption across income groups, although only high-income households gain financially from the new tariff.

scholarly journals Gardening in Displacement: The Benefits of Cultivating in Crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet Millican ◽  
Carrie Perkins ◽  
Andrew Adam-Bradford
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Refugee Camp ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Trauma Recovery ◽  
Northern Iraq

AbstractWhile the benefits of gardening to mental health and trauma recovery are well documented, and a number of voluntary organizations have been involved in developing gardens with refugees, as yet there is no clear mandate to allow and mainstream gardening in large-scale refugee camps. This article argues for the importance of this in the planning of camps on the basis that many crises are indeed protracted, that refugees often stay in camps for tens of years rather than months and that gardening has significant environmental, psychological and social benefits, as well as contributing to food sovereignty and sustainable drainage. Drawing on interviews with residents of a refugee camp in northern Iraq, all participants in a camp-based garden competition in 2016 and 2017, this article illustrates the benefits of gardening and argues for their sustained inclusion in camp design.

Research on Innovative Technologies for Construction of Alien & Large-Scale Aluminum/Wood Window

2014 ◽  
Vol 935 ◽  
pp. 247-250
Author(s):  
Jun Yi Shao ◽  
Dong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Case Analysis ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Construction Technology ◽  
Commercial Building ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
Quality Issues ◽  
Technology Processes

New building materials alien & large-scale aluminum/wood window with the features of different shapes and large scale is a new direction in the application of civil and commercial building. The traditional method of construction and installation is prone to a lot of quality issues. If measures cannot be promptly taken to deal with or prevent these aspects, which will inevitably affect use function, durability and aesthetics, while maintenance is difficult, meantime resulting in increased costs. Thus, considering the safe use, durability and exterior performance, the project quality must be improved. This paper makes related research about the quality issues, proposes corresponding solutions and provides a complete set of construction technology processes. At last, through engineering case analysis the economic and social benefits.

scholarly journals The Sustainability of Social Science Survey Infrastructures

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Emery
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
European Research ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Research Infrastructures ◽  
Survey Methodologies

Social science surveys are undergoing rapidchange due to fundamental shifts in the way data is generated, collected and processed. In order to address this challenge, several large scale social surveys have been integrated into the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). This has allowed them to develop specialized and professionalized survey work flows within an integrated infrastructural context. This allows for greater sustainability through investment in survey methodologies and data collection which advance the field of social science. This paper examines three case studies within the ESFRI framework; The Survey of Health & Retirement (SHARE) and the European Social Survey (ESS) are European Research Infrastructure Consortia and are both landmarks within the ESFRI landscape. The third case study is of the Generations & Gender Programme which is an Emerging Community in the ESFRI landscape. The three case studies are used to illustrate the developments but also the persistent challenges for social surveys as they evolve with the framework of European Research Infrastructures. Each survey infrastructure is presented and it’s scientific, financial and governance sustainability. Conclusions are drawn as to the sustainability of survey infrastructures and how they could be further improved.

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