scholarly journals Economic Impact Of Railroad Line Abandonment On Regional And Urban Areas: A Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-154
Author(s):  
Duane J. Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Community Or ◽  
Rail Line ◽  
Rail Service ◽  
Future Growth

This case study focuses on the economic and legal issues affecting a region or community as a result of potential railroad line abandonment. Railroad line abandonment, where rail service is being discontinued over a rail line or segment of a line, is becoming an increasing common practice in the United States. The loss to an affected community or a region can have significant economic and social consequences, especially when the rail line to be abandoned represents one of the principal modes of transportation into and out of the affected area. This can limit future growth and the marketing of an area to potential entrants. This case study analyzes the specific steps required by the railroad and interested parties in the rail line abandonment process as well as alternative arrangements to abandonment. It concludes by analyzing the economic issues related to alternative uses of railroad right-of-way, including its use as a rail trail. This case study offers students the opportunity to analyze the various economic and legal issues involved and develop alternative plans from both the perspective of the railroad as well as the affected community or region.

A Case Study of Planning

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlon Boarnet ◽  
Randall C. Crane
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
San Diego ◽  
The United States ◽  
San Diego County ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
The South

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.

Landside Access to Seaports in Urban Areas: A Case Study

1997 ◽  
Vol 1602 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Chatterjee ◽  
Joseph E. Hummer ◽  
David B. Clarke ◽  
Scott M. Ney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North Carolina ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
East Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Local Levels

Seaports in the United States usually are located in urban areas. They are major traffic generators on the landside. However, the landside access needs of ports often are overlooked by the transportation and land-use planning processes. A case study of three ports on the East Coast of the United States was performed: Savannah, Georgia; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Morehead City, North Carolina. Both highway and rail access issues were examined at regional and local levels. Several serious issues and problems are identified and discussed in the paper, including effects on local communities.

scholarly journals Bright Bounty

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (04) ◽  
pp. 38-42
Author(s):  
Tom Gibson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food System ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Waste Energy ◽  
Locally Grown ◽  
A Company

This article is a case study on BrightFarms, which is a company in Midtown Manhattan that brings fresh, locally grown produce to underserved urban areas by engineering green gardening on a commercial scale. Based in Midtown Manhattan, BrightFarms builds and operates hydroponics greenhouse farms across the United States, mostly at supermarkets. The company tries to use renewable energy sources and waste energy from a host building. BrightFarms now focuses on commercial clients that can handle the high volumes of produce that come out of the greenhouses. The BrightFarms team has expertise spanning horticultural sciences, engineering, ecology, energy analysis, environmental education, and produce marketing. While much of BrightFarms’ work has focused on New York City till date, it is trying to build facilities not only wherever it makes economic sense, but also where it makes sense in the food system.

The Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Regional Sustainability, and Hydraulic Fracturing: An Integrated Assessment of the Denver Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya Ahamed ◽  
Joshua Sperling ◽  
Gillian Galford ◽  
Jennie C. Stephens ◽  
Douglas Arent
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Integrated Assessment ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Food Energy

Intersections of food, energy, and water systems (also termed as the FEW nexus) pose many sustainability and governance challenges for urban areas, including risks to ecosystems, inequitable distribution of benefits and harms across populations, and reliance on distant sources for food, energy, and water. This case study provides an integrated assessment of the FEW nexus at the city and regional scale in ten contiguous counties encompassing the rapidly growing Denver region in the United States. Spatial patterns in FEW consumption, production, trans-boundary flows, embodied FEW inputs, and impacts on FEW systems were assessed using an urban systems framework for the trans-boundary food-energy-water nexus. The Denver region is an instructive case study of the FEW nexus for multiple reasons: it is rapidly growing, is semi-arid, faces a large projected water shortfall, and is a major fossil fuel and agricultural producer. The rapid uptake of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) combined with horizontal drilling in populated areas poses ongoing risks to regional water quality. Through this case study, fracking is identified as a major topic for FEW nexus inquiry, with intensifying impacts on water quantity and quality that reflect nationwide trends. Key data gaps are also identified, including energy for water use and food preparation. This case study is relevant to water and sustainability planners, energy regulators, communities impacted by hydraulic fracturing, and consumers of energy and food produced in the Denver region. It is applicable beyond Denver to dry areas with growing populations, agricultural activity, and the potential for shale development.

scholarly journals Teledentistry Overview: United States of America

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katelyn Nichols
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Financial Arrangements ◽  
Current Guidelines ◽  
Remote Health

This paper describes current teledentistry practices in the United States of America.  The health landscape of the country is reviewed and the emerging need for remote health services discussed. The origins, current guidelines, legal issues, and financial arrangements for teledentistry are described.  Specific attention is paid to emerging teledentistry programmes throughout the country, including a case study of a successful and expanding teledentistry programme in the state of Oregon. Although the literature has long touted the health and economic benefits associated with teledentistry, it has become clear that this technology has generally outpaced policymaking and regulatory agencies. This paper attempts to contextualise and review leading developments in teledentistry to aid in the dissemination of otherwise fragmented efforts and experiences.

Improving Inner-City Mobility with Commuter Rail Service

2005 ◽  
Vol 1930 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nelson ◽  
Yawa Duse-Anthony ◽  
Scott Friemann
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Massachusetts Bay ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Commuter Rail ◽  
Rail Line ◽  
Automobile Use ◽  
The City ◽  
Rail Service

Public transportation is critical for mobility in most large cities in the United States. In Boston and eastern Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) offers subway, bus, ferry, and commuter rail service to provide options to personal automobile use and thereby reduce highway congestion, improve air quality, and reduce energy consumption. In recent years, scholarly research has suggested that railroads in the city represent an overlooked rail transit opportunity for inner-city mobility. The MBTA's Fairmount Commuter Rail Line passes through some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the region, yet residents seldom use the line for travel. Instead, Fairmount corridor residents tend to use private automobiles and the overcrowded bus and rapid transit network to travel to downtown Boston. This report documents the methods, findings, and recommendations of a 14-month planning study to investigate strategies that would increase the attractiveness and utility of MBTA services on this underutilized line. The paper then suggests where and how the findings of the Fairmount project might be applied for other inner-city corridors.

Gendered differences in emigration and mobility perspectives among European researchers working abroad

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Scheibelhofer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Highly Skilled

This paper focuses on gendered mobilities of highly skilled researchers working abroad. It is based on an empirical qualitative study that explored the mobility aspirations of Austrian scientists who were working in the United States at the time they were interviewed. Supported by a case study, the paper demonstrates how a qualitative research strategy including graphic drawings sketched by the interviewed persons can help us gain a better understanding of the gendered importance of social relations for the future mobility aspirations of scientists working abroad.

‘A Routh O’ Auld Nick-Nackets’ – the antiquarian collection of John Rae

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Case ◽  
National Museums ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.

Varied Responses to Human-Induced Seismicity in the City of Azle, Texas

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sarmistha R. Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
The Status

Fracking has helped to usher in an era of energy abundance in the United States. This advanced drilling procedure has helped the nation to attain the status of the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, but some of its negative externalities, such as human-induced seismicity, can no longer be ignored. The occurrence of earthquakes in communities located at proximity to disposal wells with no prior history of seismicity has shocked residents and have caused damages to properties. It has evoked individuals’ resentment against the practice of injection of fracking’s wastewater under pressure into underground disposal wells. Though the oil and gas companies have denied the existence of a link between such a practice and earthquakes and the local and state governments have delayed their responses to the unforeseen seismic events, the issue has gained in prominence among researchers, affected community residents, and the media. This case study has offered a glimpse into the varied responses of stakeholders to human-induced seismicity in a small city in the state of Texas. It is evident from this case study that although individuals’ complaints and protests from a small community may not be successful in bringing about statewide changes in regulatory policies on disposal of fracking’s wastewater, they can add to the public pressure on the state government to do something to address the problem in a state that supports fracking.

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