Assessing Nighttime Deliveries in Stockholm, Sweden

Author(s):  
Anastasios Koutoulas ◽  
Joel P. Franklin ◽  
Jonas Eliasson

Off-peak-hour delivery programs are a promising but challenging concept for promoting sustainable urban logistics. Stockholm, Sweden, initialized a nighttime freight deliveries program in 2014, aimed at a more efficient and environmentally friendly delivery system within the central area of the city. The policy of shifting freight deliveries from daytime to off-peak hours generates a wide range of effects that can be analyzed from several angles. This paper identifies the social costs and benefits, how these are distributed between stakeholders, and their effects on the everyday life and operations of all interested parties. According to information and data collected through in-depth interviews with private and public stakeholders, the social benefits mainly consist of increased efficiency and productivity for carriers and receivers, reduced transport costs, fuel cost savings, and reduced congestion and accidents when trucks are moved from peak to off-peak hours. Social costs may include increased noise levels and noise disturbances; additional staff requirements, equipment, and wage costs; and higher risks in handling goods deliveries at nighttime, especially in the case of unassisted deliveries. This paper concludes by discussing the lessons learned from the trial, challenges and opportunities that arose during implementation, and the implications for enhancement of off-peak-hour delivery in Stockholm and other cities.

2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-74
Author(s):  
Attiya Y. Javed

The economic reform process began in India in 1991. However, the reform agenda is still far from its goals as is evident from low per capita income. Thus, this reform effort has not produced the desired outcome of a faster rate of economic and social development in a meaningful way. It is the premise of this volume that to transform the social and economic landscape, the proposed reforms should be broadbased and multi-pronged which take into account incentives for the stockholders in both the private and public sectors. The institutions are the rules that govern economy and include the fundamental legal, political, and social rules that establish the basis for production, exchange, and distribution. The two editors of this volume have received contributions from a number of authors and the wide range of papers are grouped under five main headings: political economy of reforms, reforming public goods delivery, reform issues in agriculture and rural governance, and reforming the district and financial sector.


2017 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 429-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. T. Shindell ◽  
J. S. Fuglestvedt ◽  
W. J. Collins

Methane emissions contribute to global warming, damage public health and reduce the yield of agricultural and forest ecosystems. Quantifying these damages to the planetary commons by calculating the social cost of methane (SCM) facilitates more comprehensive cost-benefit analyses of methane emissions control measures and is the first step to potentially incorporating them into the marketplace. Use of a broad measure of social welfare is also an attractive alternative or supplement to emission metrics focused on a temperature target in a given year as it incentivizes action to provide benefits over a broader range of impacts and timescales. Calculating the SCM using consistent temporal treatment of physical and economic processes and incorporating climate- and air quality-related impacts, we find large SCM values, e.g. ∼$2400 per ton and ∼$3600 per ton with 5% and 3% discount rates respectively. These values are ∼100 and 50 times greater than corresponding social costs for carbon dioxide. Our results suggest that ∼110 of 140 Mt of identified methane abatement via scaling up existing technology and policy options provide societal benefits that outweigh implementation costs. Within the energy sector, renewables compare far better against use of natural gas in electricity generation when incorporating these social costs for methane. In the agricultural sector, changes in livestock management practices, promoting healthy diets including reduced beef and dairy consumption, and reductions in food waste have been promoted as ways to mitigate emissions, and these are shown here to indeed have the potential to provide large societal benefits (∼$50–150 billion per year). Examining recent trends in methane and carbon dioxide, we find that increases in methane emissions may have offset much of the societal benefits from a slowdown in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions. The results indicate that efforts to reduce methane emissions via policies spanning a wide range of technical, regulatory and behavioural options provide benefits at little or negative net cost. Recognition of the full SCM, which has typically been undervalued, may help catalyze actions to reduce emissions and thereby provide a broad set of societal benefits.


Author(s):  
Andrea Bastianin

Abstract This note summarizes the results of a social Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) of the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The social CBA methodology is well-suited to assess social costs and benefits of the HL-LHC up to 2038. The analysis shows that the ratio between incremental benefits and incremental costs of the HL-LHC with respect to operating the LHC under normal consolidation (i.e. without high-luminosity upgrade) is slightly over 1.7, meaning that each Swiss Franc invested in the HL-LHC upgrade project pays back approximately 1.7 CHF in societal benefits. The rest of the note is organized as follows. We first discuss the merits of CBA; next, we present the methodology and discuss the results.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad Gaffield

At the heart of the emergence and development of the Digital Humanities has been the potential to move beyond the out-dated epistemological and metaphysical dichotomies of the later 20th century including quantitative-qualitative, pure-applied, and campus-community. Despite significant steps forward, this potential has been only partially realized as illustrated by DH pioneer Edward L. Ayers’ recent question, ‘Does Digital Scholarship have a future?’ As a way to think through current challenges and opportunities, this paper reflects on the building and initial use of the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI). As one of the largest projects in the history of the social sciences and humanities, CCRI enables research on the making of modern Canada by offering complex databases that cover the first half of the twentieth century. Built by scholars from multiple disciplines from coast-to-coast and in collaboration with government agencies and the private sector, CCRI team members came to grips with key DH questions especially those faced by interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, cross-sectoral and internationally-connected initiatives. Thinking through this experience does not generate simple recipes or lessons-learned but does offer promising practices as well as new questions for future scholarly consideration.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Anas Abdul Razak ◽  
Ahmad Zawawi Abdul Rajab ◽  
Jay Sern Chew ◽  
John Brian Chesson ◽  
Susin Lim

Abstract Malaysia's government recognizes the high risk that aging idle wells pose to its health, safety and environment and has developed some of the most stringent plug and abandonment, P&A, regulations to protect its future. Corroded casing strings and sustained casing pressure are common issues on its multi-decade old platforms and a risk-based design philosophy has been adopted to balance risk mitigation and operational costs, while still ensuring an eternal barrier. Both conventional rigs as well as rigless hydraulic workover units, HWU, are being used for P&A operations. This study considers the barrier element rationale applied in four offshore wells that were plug and abandoned by cap-rock restoration Perforate, Wash, Cement, PWC, barrier plugs. It also considers the operating window of a jet-based PWC technology to understand the challenges and opportunities for further optimization during HWU operations. Cap rock restoration utilizing both cup-based and jet-based PWC technology is being widely applied throughout Malaysia as a cost-effective alternative to casing section milled barrier plugs. Malaysia's P&A regulation allows isolation at the cap rock level, whereby "Contractor shall adhere to the Cap-Rock Abandonment Applicability Flowchart to identify technically and commercially acceptable candidates for this well abandonment method." The PWC method enables cap rock restoration in a single trip process; whereby the casing annulus is accessed by TCP guns to allow for annular debris to be effectively washed prior to cement plug placement. The process is not limited only to TCP guns; as a mechanical casing perforator was utilized in a shallow cased hole section of one of the wells to avoid damaging the outer casing. A custom BHA was developed and tested to match the cuts from the mechanical perforator. Specially oriented, rotating, wash jets were configured to maximize the annular access during the washing process. The washing effectiveness of this new BHA was confirmed by the massive amount of annular debris that was observed over the surface shakers. Operations were conducted offshore with a HWU with limited infrastructure and operating capability compared to a conventional rig. A PWC candidate screening matrix was applied early during the planning phase to manage rig limitation, well condition and operational risk to ensure successful barrier placement. All cap rock barriers were successfully installed and tested, and no sustained annular pressure remained in any of the wells. Fewer PWC plugs were required than originally planned, due to strict adherence to the Caprock Restoration Plan Decision Tree, resulting in significant cost savings for the project. The detailed time breakdown of the HWU operations provides useful insight into the operational efficiencies and unplanned events during the HWU campaign and lessons learned are shared from the project.


2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-163
Author(s):  
Mario Biagioli

The scale is the most famous emblem of the law, including intellectual property (IP). Because IP rights impose social costs on the public by limiting access to protected work, the law can be justified only to the extent that, on balance, it encourages enough creation and dissemination of new works to offset those costs. The scale is thus a potent rhetorical trope of fairness and objectivity, but also an instrument the law thinks with – one that is constantly invoked to justify or to question the extent of available IP protection. The balancing act that underlies the legitimacy of IP is, however, literally impossible to perform. Because we are unable to measure the benefits that IP has for inventors or the costs it has for the public, the scale has nothing to weigh. It conveys a clear sense that IP law can be balanced, but in fact propagates only a visible simulacrum of balance – one that is as empty as it is powerful.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Prokop ◽  
Marie LaPres ◽  
Brad Barron ◽  
Jon Villasurda

As the number of individuals in the United States with chronic conditions and the associated costs in caring for these individuals continues to rise, there is a need to transform how health care services are delivered. Under Section 2703 of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the federal government provides state Medicaid programs the opportunity to improve care coordination for people with chronic conditions in a person-centered approach through the establishment of health homes. Given the complexity of care for Medicaid beneficiaries with chronic conditions, addressing the social determinants of health and providing integrated care are central to effectively improving health outcomes and generating cost-savings. Although launching a health home model is a step toward improving care coordination and care management for high-risk individuals, there are myriad components to implementing such a program. The purpose of this article is to explain the process that Michigan policymakers undertook to implement its Section 2703 Medicaid health home initiative, named the MI Care Team. The authors present lessons learned for policymakers and stakeholders in other states seeking to implement a Medicaid health home and explain how the nursing profession is integral for health homes.


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