Public Perception of Ocean Governance and Marine Resources Management in Taiwan

Understanding public perception of the oceans, and relationship between society and the sea is an important key to the sustainable management of marine resources. This research reports the first population-based survey on Taiwanese public knowledge, attitudes, and actions on marine-related issues. The stratified random sampling by county was completed with 1,120 telephone respondents from October to December 2010. More than 60% of the respondents have heard about global warming, sea-level rising, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the coral reef bleaching crisis, and Japan whaling fisheries. However, less than 20% of the respondents are aware of Taiwanese domestic marine policies, such as the Ocean White Paper. On resources conservation, 74.7% of the respondents support the bluefin tuna catches regulations and 76.6% agree that the shark fin fisheries will impact shark resources. Education and age are the major affecting variables for resource conservation and knowledge. Higher education and age 40–49 are most supportive of conservation measures. For marine recreational activities, 42.2% of the respondents can swim, and 44.2% of the respondents had not visited the beach in the previous year. The results suggest that the government could establish a specialized agency to strengthen its marine policy and take more actions to protect ocean environment and conserve marine resources. To encourage more Taiwanese to participate in ocean recreational activities, the government could build a safe facility for marine recreation, cooperate with the private sectors in education, and provide outreach to raise public awareness of the oceans.     

The expansion of the national fleet of the Republic of China on Taiwan 1960-1985: the policies adopted and conflicts created

Doubting that its infant shipping industry would be able to overcome, unaided, the bottleneck it was becoming for the country's export expansion policy, the government of the Republic of China has implemented in the last 25 years a set of shipping policies to address the problem. This paper examines the details of these policies, assesses the extent to which they have succeeded, and comments on the conflicts their implementation has created within the shipping and shipbuilding sectors.     

Evaluating Boating Safety Risk in Intracoastal Waterways

Growth in the number of recreational vessels that use inland and coastal waterways, coupled with the diversity of boating activities, results in increased boating-related conflicts, accidents, and fatalities. This situation has led to numerous requests from boaters, shorefront property owners, waterfront businesses, and local governments for the imposition and enforcement of boating safety speed zones within Florida's Intracoastal Waterways. A decision-support framework that incorporates Geographic Information Systems (GIS)–based risk assessment was developed to assist the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Division of Law Enforcement evaluate requests and applications for the establishment of boating safety zones, pursuant to the Florida Administrative Code Rule 68-D-23.105 “Criteria for Approval of Regulatory Markers.” The risk assessment uses geospatial data compiled from multiple government agencies, survey data from subject matter experts, and public input from participatory workshops. Relevant spatial data includes waterway features and marine infrastructure from field surveys, vessel traffic patterns observed and mapped from aerial reconnaissance, and indicators of boater behaviors extracted from accident and citation reports. The outcome is a characterization of waterway segments according to perceived risk to boating safety. The application was tested in two Florida counties and it helped guide the establishment of new, and the revision of existing, boating regulatory zones within their Intracoastal Waterways. The application design is such that it is adaptable to waterways beyond those in Florida.     

Public transport policy in Canada and the United States: Developing political commitment from the federal government

The United States federal government has been involved in public transport funding for over 40 years, whereas in Canada the federal government has little history of urban public transport policy. In that context, over the past 10 years, Canada has made significant progress in developing new federal commitments for public transport. Critical as these developments have been, however, they do not represent a true National Transit Strategy, which needs to be permanent, predictable and comprehensive. This claim is supported by economic analysis which suggests that Canadian government investment in transit is significantly below the optimal level.     

Maritime safety and the ISM code: a study of investigated casualties and incidents

In 1993, the International Maritime Organization adopted the International Safety Management (ISM) Code which requires all shipping companies operating certain types of vessels to establish safety management systems. Nevertheless, two decades later, maritime safety remains a concern. This article studies 94 maritime cases investigated by the Maritime Accident Investigation Branch in the UK. By providing an analysis of reported casualties and incidents, it highlights current challenges in maritime safety. For each casualty and incident, the study reviews the underlying causal factors. These causal factors are then coded according to the functional sections of the ISM Code, covering various aspects of safety management. To investigate human and organizational factors involved in the casualties and incidents, the human factor analysis and classification system (HFACS) is applied to code the same data. Finally, the relative seriousness of casualties and incidents is considered to discuss the findings from ISM Code and HFACS reviews. The study found that the main challenges pertain to the development of plans for shipboard operations, local shipboard management, and the ability of the company to verify when such practices deviate from best practices or required standards.     

Living with ships in distress

In November 2003 the IMO Assembly adopted Guidelines on Places of Refuge for Ships in Need of Assistance following a two-year deliberation period. The Guidelines were adopted in the wake of the highly publicized ERIKA, CASTOR and PRESTIGE incidents and at the same time as the European Union adopted a regional policy on places of refuge. This paper discusses the problem of places of refuge for ships in distress and analyses the IMO Guidelines adopted as a response to the problem. The paper concludes that the Guidelines constitute a practical modus vivendi for a non-resolvable problem. However, many legal questions remain unanswered and it is likely that the IMO will continue to be seized of the legal aspects of the problem into the future.     

洋山港爆破工程与地基处理项目安全风险评价模型

进行爆破工程和地基处理的施工中,人、物和环境等因素均可能在施工过程中诱发安全事故。在洋山港工程实践中,为了从根本上减少安全事故的发生,减少事故造成的损失,从整个系统综合管理的角度考虑,建立一套能对安全事故诱因进行监测、诊断的安全风险评价模型,从而为政府和企业采取相应的预防控制措施规避爆破工程和地基处理中的风险提供技术支持。     

Attitude to safety onboard fishing vessels in the Northern Periphery

This paper reports the findings of a study within the European Union Northern Peri phery Programme targeting attitude to safety onboard fishing vessels. The study was designed to improve safety, to save lives and to reduce the number and severity of accidents onboard fishing vessels. Using psychological research methods a questionnaire was developed for assessing safety attitudes on board fishing vessels. An analysis of the collected data allowed for the identification of the underlying attitudes to safety. An intervention programme to improve these attitudes was developed based on the analysis of the answers provided by survey participants. Face to face discussions were used to change the attitudes encountered. The results were measured in order to realize in which way the attitudes have changed after the discussions. Through this work a steady reduction in the numbers of incidents, fatalities and injuries amongst fishermen is hoped to be achieved.     

Hazardous material incidents: Some key results of a risk analysis

Human safety and health, environmental and property protection and security concerning hazardous materials supply chain are important issues for many countries, industries and organisations around the world. This paper presents some key results of a comprehensive risk study on hazardous materials supply chain incidents. Based on a risk analysis framework adapted for maritime transport of packaged dangerous goods, this study combines qualitative and quantitative analysis of large and diverse datasets collected from some of the U.S.’s best and largest data sources. The study may be one of the largest of its kind, and some of the results might not be found elsewhere. Incidents have occurred in every system of the hazardous materials supply chain, including platforms, all modes of transport, chemical plants, terminals and storages. The results show that more than half (52.1 %) of incidents are attributed to the transport system. The study largely considers incidents happening during maritime transport, which account for 18% of transport incidents. In absolute terms, the FN curves of maritime transport human risks are generally found to be well below the corresponding FN curves of aggregated supply chain human risks.     

船舶事故的特点与原因分析

文章在分析船舶运行环境特点的基础上,从事故船舶种类、事故类型、故障部位、故障模式、事故原因等几个方面综合探讨了船舶事故的特点,并从系统安全工程学的角度对船舶事故的影响因素进行了分析,为预防船舶事故提供了安全管理的重点,最后展望了船舶事故未来的研究方向。     

信息技术对水运公共行政的影响

社会信息化是当代社会的一种大趋势，它正推动着水运公共行政现代化的进程。信息技术的发展对诸如行政人员、行政决策、行政组织、行政方法、行政公文、政府管理模式等公共行政要素和过程产生着深远的影响。     

浅议海事应急指挥系统的建设

我国目前处在突发公共事件的高发时期,而且在未来很长一段时间内,我国都将面临突发公共事件所带来的严峻考验。越来越多的人认识到,加强重大危机应对工作势在必行。本文作者从信息化建设的角度对突发公共事件应对措施进行了研究,结合海事工作实际提出了应急指挥系统的功能需求及建设思路,并对系统建设中要注意的问题进行了分析,期望对读者有所启发和帮助。     

Overview of public transport policy developments in South Africa

Public transport in South Africa is one of the most burning issues in the transport sector. The government is faced with huge public pressure to improve public transport systems in the face of rising fuel costs, the pending implementation of expensive urban toll road systems in the Gauteng province, and elsewhere in urban environments, public transport safety issues, public transport fleet renewal, especially the commuter rail services, as well as limited resources to fund public transport. As a developing country, the South African Government has pressing funding issues such as funds needed to improve housing for the poor to improve schooling and public health services. Government is also faced with a vocal minibus taxi industry that transports an estimated 65% of all commuters in the country that is also insisting on subsidies for its services.     

Managing community acceptance of major industrial projects

Abstract

In some cases, the major risk encountered by an industry seeking to site a facility is that of community acceptance. Without community acceptance of a proposed project, construction can be delayed, taxes can be prohibitive, and operations can be prevented through the opposition and influence of local groups. This paper describes the community acceptance risk, the traditional industrial approach to countering local opposition, and a positive approach to achieving community acceptance. This positive approach entails careful site selection; affirmative management of the community acceptance problem, including explicit planning of the community acceptance effort, assignment of staff with specific responsibilities to implement plans, and a budget for mitigating the impacts of the project on the community; acquisition of sufficient land to buffer unavoidable impacts of the project; a carefully formed corporate policy on the public release of information concerning the project; and constructive participation in state and local government policy development.     

Results so far and prospects of Kazakhstan passenger rail franchising

From 1991 till 2004 passenger rail transportation in Kazakhstan was organized by a public company without financial contribution from the state budget. As in any post-Soviet country losses from passenger sector in the integrated rail company were covered at the expense of the freight transportations. From 2005 the Government is trying to introduce competition in passenger rail industry by competitive tendering rights to operate on particular route and providing subsidies.This paper reviews the Kazakhstan passenger rail franchising policy from statement and implementation with analysis of results so far. To get sense about the current policy’s perception survey among managers of the government bodies and railway companies had been performed. It indicates respondents’ opinion about main concerns and suggestions for improvement in passenger rail industry. According to provided analysis there are opportunities for improvements in operation of public and private companies as well as in the Government policy.     

Strategies of state and local government in management of urban transport problems – A case of Delhi

In India, different layers of Government control different policy instruments to tackle transport externalities which might result in coordination problems and possible efficiency losses. This paper, therefore, addresses the coordination problem resulting from the division of policy instruments between two different government levels that face different types of externalities in varying degrees of magnitude in the urban transport sector by developing three types of theoretical models: the Full Control Centralised Model where the state government has full control over all pricing instrument; a Nash equilibrium model where each of the government levels controls only one instrument and takes the behaviour of the other as given; and a Stackelberg equilibrium mode where the behaviour of the state government is influenced by the fact that one of the price instruments is controlled by the local government. With an empirical illustration of the model for Delhi, the paper finds that since there are many interactions and many externalities between the two levels of government, a division of roles between them does not guarantee an efficient pricing outcome and the efficiency of pricing would depend on the institutional set up and on the correspondence between the objective functions of the two government levels.     

Analyzing road safety in the United States

This paper reviews road safety performance in the United States. The paper develops a framework for assessing dimensions of road safety, and analyzes the importance of economic factors, travel patterns, demographics, road/traffic/vehicle technology, driver behavior, and public policy. Issues and challenges for future road safety research are discussed.     

浅谈滚装客船装车处所的固定式灭火系统

装车处所固定式灭火系统直接影响船舶航行安全。文章介绍了滚装客船装车处所固定式灭火系统的配备、各种常见固定式灭火系统的性能，提出了固定式灭火系统的检查要点及保证这些船舶消防设备正确操作和时刻处于良好使用状态的要求。     

Risk assessment: An introduction and critique

Abstract

Risk assessment is a methodology which has been used to evaluate the safety of major public projects, notably aerospace programs, liquefied natural gas import facilities, and nuclear power plants.

This article begins with a review of public attitudes toward risk and then describes the basic components of a risk assessment. Subsequent critical analysis suggests the pitfalls inherent in the technique, especially in regard to the establishing of a criterion of safety against which the results of a risk assessment will be compared. The author identifies three such criteria and rejects two of them, including the one most commonly used in federal government agency decision‐making, as unreliable or philosophically unacceptable.

The article concludes with comments on the applicability of risk assessment in coastal zone management.     

How to Retreat: The Necessary Transition from Buyouts to Leasing

Abstract

Moving assets out of vulnerable areas, known as “retreat,” is a necessary but unpopular option when coastal hazards impact land. Most people prefer protection options. Governments and private land owners tend to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach for retreat. This may be because the time for retreat seems some way off, or because protection has not yet been ruled out, or to avoid unwelcome news. This policy void has allowed people to assume that government will offer to “buyout” property on generous terms after coastal hazards inevitably force the owner to relocate. The problem with that assumption is that (a) it is unaffordable as a solution for all at-risk properties and (b) it acts as an incentive to intensify development in locations vulnerable to coastal hazards. It is, in effect, a form of market distortion which promotes maladaptive behavior. We therefore need to retire that assumption by articulating a standard default arrangement for retreat. This essay suggests that government should establish a default position of renting land, rather than acquiring it, once assets are abandoned by private land owners. This provides sufficient leverage to protect the public interest and a level of financial assistance to the relocating land owner, while allowing markets to properly reflect risk and enabling coastal adaptation.