scholarly journals Impact of transboundary transport of carbonaceous aerosols on the regional air quality in the United States: A case study of the South American wildland fire of May 1998

Author(s):  
Hee-Jin In ◽  
Daewon W. Byun ◽  
Rokjin J. Park ◽  
Nan-Kyoung Moon ◽  
Soontae Kim ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Marlon Boarnet ◽  
Randall C. Crane

The facts, figures, and inferences in chapter 7 regarding municipal behavior toward transit-oriented housing opportunities illustrate many points. Still, there is much that even a careful statistical analysis might miss or misunderstand. For that reason, we also explored what we could learn by talking to real planners about these issues. The case of San Diego is interesting and useful for several reasons. First, the San Diego Trolley is the oldest of the current generation of light rail projects in the United States. Unlike many newer systems, the age of San Diego’s rail transit (the South Line opened in 1981) allows time for land use planning to respond to the fixed investment. Second, the San Diego system is no stranger to modern transit-based planning ideas. The San Diego City Council approved a land-use plan for their stations that includes many of the ideas promoted by transit-oriented development (TOD) advocates (City of San Diego, 1992). Third, the light rail transit (LRT) authority in San Diego County, the Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB), is often regarded as one of the more successful municipal LRT agencies. The initial parts of the MTDB rail transit system were constructed strictly with state and local funds, using readily available, relatively low-cost technology (Demoro and Harder, 1989, p. 6). Portions of San Diego’s system have high fare-box recovery rates, including the South Line, which in its early years recovered as much as 90 percent of operating costs at the fare box (Gómez-Ibáñez, 1985). All of these factors make San Diego potentially a “best-case” example of TOD implementation. When generalizing from this case study, it is important to remember that the transit station area development process in San Diego is likely better developed than in many other urban areas in the United States. The results from San Diego County can illustrate general issues that, if they have not already been encountered, might soon become important in other urban areas with rail transit systems. Also, given San Diego County’s longer history of both LRT and TOD when compared with most other regions, any barriers identified in San Diego County might be even more important elsewhere.


2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Gustavo Poggio Teixeira

This article argues that Brazil went from a posture of estrangement in relation to the hemispheric project represented by the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) to a strategy of cooperative hegemony aimed at institutionalizing the South American space and increasing the costs of the FTAA for the United States. Although Brazil was initially isolated, US lack of leadership combined with events at the subregional level ended up turning the tide in the direction of Brazilian interests. These factors help to understand the current institutional configuration of South America.


2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen R. Riebau ◽  
Douglas Fox

This paper was presented at the conference ‘Integrating spatial technologies and ecological principles for a new age in fire management’, Boise, Idaho, USA, June 1999 The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will implement new regulations for the management of atmospheric particulate matter 2.5 µm and less in diameter (PM2.5), tropospheric ozone, and regional haze in the next few years. These three air quality issues relate directly to forest and agriculture burning. Fire generates PM2.5 and ozone precursor gases that reduce visibility. Hence, wild and agricultural land managers will be subject to these air quality regulations much as industrial and mobile sources have been for the past 25 years. In addition, these new regulations come at a time when private as well as public land managers throughout the United States are developing plans to increase their application of fire as a management tool. Prescribed fire will remain viable as a tool for land managers with these new regulations but only under a responsible smoke management paradigm. This paradigm will include formal ‘state-approved’ Smoke Management Programs and will require the use of new and ‘approved’ technologies that have been subjected to public and stakeholder scrutiny as regulatory tools. These programs will acknowledge that wildland fire is different from conventional human-caused air pollution sources. They will recognize that the managed use of fire is a superior option to wildfire from public safety and health perspectives. But they will also require greater utilization of non-burning alternatives in all circumstances, especially where fire is used for economic rather than ecological reasons. Through better smoke management and greater use of non-burning alternatives, steadily reduced smoke emissions will likely result.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Hyde ◽  
Kara M. Yedinak ◽  
Alan F. Talhelm ◽  
Alistair M. S. Smith ◽  
David M. J. S. Bowman ◽  
...  

Wildland fire emissions degrade air quality and visibility, having adverse economic, health and visibility impacts at large spatial scales globally. Air quality regulations can constrain the goals of landscape resilience and management of fire-dependent ecosystems. Here, we review the air quality regulatory framework in the United States, comparing this framework with that of Australia. In the United States, wildland fire management and air quality policies have evolved independently, yet interact to meet diverse public needs. Australian policy development is more recent and decentralised. We find that (1) for maxiumum effectiveness, smoke and fire regulatory frameworks must keep pace with scientific evidence, environmental and social change, and be accompanied by clear regulatory guidance; (2) episodic, non-stationary qualities of fire, and its role in ecosystems, pose specific challenges to regulators and policy-makers; and (3) the complexity of industry-focused air quality policies often leads to unintended consequences for fire management. More research is needed to create and implement more effective fire and air policies and better prepare social-ecological systems to address the challenges of climate change mitigation. These insights may be helpful for countries initially developing complementary fire and air policies, especially as the role of fire becomes more important geopolitically and globally.


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