Water sharing policies conditioned on hydrologic variability to inform reservoir operations

Water resources infrastructure is critical for energy and food security; however, the development of large-scale infrastructure, such as hydropower dams, may significantly alter downstream flows, potentially leading to water resources management conflicts and disputes. Mutually agreed upon water sharing policies for the operation of existing or new reservoirs is one of the most effective strategies for mitigating conflict, yet this is a complex task involving the estimation of available water, identification of users and demands, procedures for water sharing, etc. A water sharing policy framework that incorporates reservoir operating rules optimization based on conflicting uses and natural hydrologic variability, specifically tailored to drought conditions, is proposed. First, the trade-off between downstream and upstream water availability utilizing multi-objective optimization of reservoir operating rules is established. Next, reservoir operation with the candidate (optimal) rules is simulated, followed by their performance evaluations, and the rule selections for balancing water uses. Subsequently, a relationship between the reservoir operations simulated from the selected rules and drought-specific conditions is built to derive water sharing policies. Finally, the reservoir operating rules are re-optimized to evaluate the effectiveness of the drought-specific water sharing policies. With a case study of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile river, it is demonstrated that the derived water sharing policy can balance GERD power generation and downstream releases, especially in dry conditions, effectively sharing the hydrologic risk in inflow variability among riparian countries. The proposed framework offers a robust approach to inform water sharing policies for sustainable management of water resources.

CONFLICTS OF NATURE MANAGEMENT IN MURMANSK REGION

В статье рассматриваются основные конфликты природопользования в Мурманской области. Анализируются источники, определяются объекты этих конфликтов, рассматривается их содержание. В ней также описываются такие важные аспекты конфликтов природопользования, как тип формы, степень сложности, проявление, динамика, длительность развития, интенсивность и характер границ. The article deals with the main conflicts of nature management in Murmansk region. The sources are analyzed, the objects of these conflicts are determined, and their content is considered. It also describes such important aspects of environmental management conflicts as the type of a form, the degree of complexity, manifestation, dynamics, duration of development, intensity and nature of borders.

Asymmetry in knowledge, attitudes, and practices of shark conservation advocates: sustainable shark fisheries vs. bans on fisheries and trade

Current shark conservation and management conflicts represent an underrecognized expression of long-standing debates over whether the goal of modern conservation should be sustainable exploitation of natural resources or maximum possible preservation of wilderness and wildlife. In the developing world, exploitation of fisheries resources can be essential to food security and poverty alleviation, and management is typically focused on sustainably maximizing economic benefits. This approach aligns with traditional fisheries management and the perspectives of most surveyed scientific researchers who study sharks. However, in Europe and North America, sharks are increasingly venerated as wildlife to be preserved irrespective of conservation status, resulting in growing pressure to prohibit exploitation of sharks and trade in shark products. To understand the causes and significance of this divergence in goals, we surveyed 155 shark conservation focused environmental advocates from 78 environmental non-profits, and asked three key questions: (1) where do advocates get scientific information? (2) Does all policy-relevant scientific information reach advocates? and (3) Do advocates work towards the same policy goals identified by scientific researchers? Findings suggest many environmental advocates are aware of key scientific results and use science-based arguments in their advocacy, but a small but vocal subset of advocates report that they never read the scientific literature or speak to scientists. Engagement with science appears to be the key predictor of whether advocates support sustainable management of shark fisheries or bans on shark fishing and trade in shark products. Conservation is a normative discipline, and this analysis more clearly articulates two distinct perspectives in shark conservation. Most advocates support the same evidence-based policies as academic and government scientists, while a smaller percentage are driven more by moral and ethical beliefs, and may not find scientific research relevant or persuasive. A values-based perspective is also a valid approach to conservation, but claiming that it is a science-based approach while misrepresenting the science is problematic. This suggests possible alternative avenues for engaging diverse stakeholders in productive discussions about shark conservation.

Nearly Got Shot Dead, and He Didn’t Get His Little Check Yet: Workers, Crime, and Law and Order in New York City, 1962-1970

Historians have conducted important research on the rise of law-and-order politics in New York City, where anxieties over women’s freedoms, political battles over police oversight, and crime impacts in poor communities contributed to its rise. The numerous walkouts, negotiations, and worker-management conflicts around high-crime areas in New York City suggest that the question of law and order was a salient workplace issue as well for the members of Communication Workers of America Local 1101. In their case, such concerns predate the rhetorical rise of law and order and help us better understand why such politics found fertile ground among working-class New Yorkers, white and black. Repeated incidences, largely in the city’s black ghettoes, prompted workers with a strong class consciousness and commitment to solidarity to transform the problems and experiences of individual workers into a shared question to be addressed via collective action.

Human Health Risk Assessment on the Consumption of Apples Growing in Urbanized Areas: Case of Kharkiv, Ukraine

This study aims to determine the safety of consumption of plant products grown in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Kharkiv, as well as many other post-Soviet cities, is environmentally characterized by the widespread growing of edible plants—from industrial areas to school gardens—as well as the presence of a significant number of nature management conflicts, the location of heavy industry, the prevalence of obsolete environmentally unfriendly transport, etc. The article presents the results of the study of apple samples taken in different functional zones of Kharkiv city, Ukraine. The results of the study showed that the maximum levels of heavy metals were exceeded in apple samples from all sampling sites: Pb—from 11.47 to 38.86 times; Cd—from 1.76 to 5.68 times (of the norms of the FAO and EU). The most polluted were samples from the residential areas, which is partly due to significant land pollution from various types of waste. Levels of hazard index (HI) differ by age groups: from 24.37 to 70.11 HI (children group, 1–6 years); from 10.28 to 29.59 HI (children group, 7–16 years); from 0.88 to 2.53 HI (adult group, 18–65 years). Non-carcinogenic risks can be related to disorders of the immune system, blood, urinoexcretory, and nervous systems as well as problems in the functioning of liver and kidneys. The total carcinogenic risk of eating apples exceeds the permissible level.

Conflicts of Network Embeddedness in Healthcare Organizations

This chapter examined the organizations of a university dealing with healthcare and clinical activities operating in an extremely complex network connection. In the framework of qualitative research, with the help of a series of interviews, the authors researched in which networks the university's healthcare organization and organizational units participate, and how participation in these networks influences the value creation implemented in each field. By what means can the organization handle the contradictions and conflicts that arise along the inter-organizational relations embedded in the networks. Interviews were conducted with institution leaders, business leaders, and care workers. Based on the research results, network complexity results in three types of conflicts in healthcare institutions: conflicts related to organizational management, conflicts arising in organizational processes, and personal conflicts.

The Labor Board Crew

Ronald W. Schatz tells the story of the team of young economists and lawyers recruited to the National War Labor Board to resolve union-management conflicts during the Second World War. The crew (including Clark Kerr, John Dunlop, Jean McKelvey, and Marvin Miller) exerted broad influence on the U.S. economy and society for the next forty years. They handled thousands of grievances and strikes. They founded academic industrial relations programs. When the 1960s student movement erupted, universities appointed them as top administrators charged with quelling the conflicts. In the 1970s, they developed systems that advanced public sector unionization and revolutionized employment conditions in Major League Baseball. Schatz argues that the Labor Board vets, who saw themselves as disinterested technocrats, were in truth utopian reformers aiming to transform the world. Beginning in the 1970s stagflation era, they faced unforeseen opposition, and the cooperative relationships they had fostered withered. Yet their protégé George Shultz used mediation techniques learned from his mentors to assist in the integration of Southern public schools, institute affirmative action in industry, and conduct Cold War negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Towards handover in IWN: a fast data collection technique

The communication protocols used in industrial wireless networks are designed to meet requirements of security and reliability in communications. These requirements are guaranteed by techniques like message enciphering and radio frequency interference avoidance. The WirelessHART protocol was the first one developed specifically to meet the needs of industrial applications. WirelessHART networks use centralized control where one element, the network manager, is responsible for configuring, creating and maintaining the network. This feature increases reliability as management conflicts will not occur, but the rout of communications between network manager and field devices may need several hops on the network due to the mesh topology employed in the protocol. Procedures such as joining new devices require the exchange of a series of commands with the network manager, which takes a large period of time to be executed. This paper presents a technique designed for mobile devices aiming the reduction of time needed for the publishing service. The proposed technique favors the use of mobile devices with strict time constraints under the range covered by the wireless network and precedes the study of an efficient handover process. The results present a time comparison between the standard and proposed data collection.

Integrated anti-risk management of conflicts of a scientific project in a behavioral economics

The object of the research is the processes of managing uncertainties such as risks, conflicts, and factors of behavioral economics, which may have negative consequences for a scientific project. The study revealed that the success of any project depends on the ability of the project manager to effectively manage his team to meet the values of each stakeholder and the goals of the project itself. To solve this goal, it is necessary to complete the following tasks: - analysis of methods of integration of risk management, conflicts, and factors of behavioral economics; - justification of the necessity to build integrated anti-risk management of conflicts in behavioral economics; - to carry out conceptual modeling of integrated anti-risk conflict management in behavioral economics. A conceptual model of integrated anti-risk management of conflicts of a scientific project in the context of behavioral economics is proposed, built on the basis of the "Change Management Iceberg" model. The management of scientific projects has been further developed through the integration of methodologies: project management, the theory of stakeholders, risk management, HR management, conflict management, and behavioral economics. A conceptual scheme of integrated anti-risk management of conflicts of a scientific project in behavioral economics has been developed, which allows a project manager to manage uncertainties (risks, conflicts, factors of behavioral economics). Research refers to the project management methodology and improves it by integrating the processes of risk, conflict, and behavioral economics management into one process. The main goal of the study is to reduce and eliminate all negative consequences in a scientific project, to complete it within the approved budget, terms, and a certain quality.