Regulation of the informal transport sector in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil: welfare impacts and policy analysis

In Brazil, the explosion of informal transport activity during the past decade has had profound effects on formal public transport systems and is a source of great controversy in the urban transportation sector. A variety of policies have been proposed to manage the growth of the sector. This study seeks to understand how proposed policies will impact the users of these systems. A corridor in Rio de Janeiro with substantial informal activity was used as a case study. Measures of welfare changes in a discrete choice framework were used to estimate proposed policies’ impacts on users. Eleven candidate policies were evaluated, ranging from the eradication of the informal modes and investment in formal modes, to the legalization of the informal modes. Benefits were compared with costs and the distribution of benefits across income classes was explored. Net benefits from some policies were found to be substantial. Legalizing the informal sector was found to benefit users slightly but further investments in the sector are probably inefficient. Users benefited most from improvements in formal mass transit modes, at roughly 100–200 dollars per commuter per year. Finally, policies to foster a competitive environment for the delivery of both informal and formal services were shown to benefit users about 100 dollars per commuter per year. Together, the regulation of the informal sector and investments in the formal sector serve to reinforce the movement towards competitive concessions for services and help reduce the impacts of cartelization and costly in-road competition.

Challenges and Prospects of Fisheries Co-Management under a Marine Extractive Reserve Framework in Northeastern Brazil

In Brazil, Marine Extractive Reserves—MERs (Reservas Extrativistas Marinhas) represent the most significant government-supported effort to protect the common property resources upon which traditional small-scale fishers depend. From an initial small-scale experience in 1992, MERs have expanded countrywide, now encompassing 30 units (9,700 km²) and nearly 60,000 fishers. Despite such escalating interest in the model, there is little research on the effectiveness of MERs. In this article, we discuss relevant parts of the history and examine the current situation of the fisheries co-management initiative in the Marine Extractive Reserve of Corumbau, which was created in 2000 as the first MER to encompass coral reefs and reef fisheries. We describe the Extractive Reserve co-management arrangement and its main policy and legislative challenges. Finally, we discuss the prospects for the use of MERs as management frameworks for traditional small-scale fisheries in Brazil.     

Analysis of single pipeline pull-in procedure using small scale models

The structural elastic behaviour of steel pipelines during on-bottom pull-in procedure is investigated experimentally by using small scale models. Despite the lack of a sea-bed soil pipeline interaction effect in the model, it is possible to show that the unevenness of the sea-bed surface and the non-uniform distribution of friction forces can lead to large deflection bending stresses, higher than the numerical results yielded by standard software packages commonly used for design calculations. Due to foreseen difficulties in overcoming the drawbacks in practical and numerical procedures, the off-bottom pull-in operation arises as an attractive alternative even for shallow waters.     

Transportation of dangerous goods by road: the Brazilian case for selection of carriers based on a risk management methodology

Abstract

This article applies a methodology for selecting carriers for the transportation of dangerous goods by road, with a special focus on risk management aspects. The methodology makes use of Stated Preference techniques and verifies the most critical risk-related variables influencing decision-making from the shippers' point of view. It embraces the planning and execution stages, an evaluation of the contracted company and a feedback process. The methodology was effectively applied to the case of liquid fuel shippers in the Brazilian middle-west region where it proved possible to identify which dangerous goods road transport company to contract in accordance with the risk management factors selected by the decision makers.     

Dynamic response analysis of a small-scale model tension leg platform

Experimental tests performed on a hydroelastic small-scale model of a tension leg platform for deep water are reported. Comparison between the processed experimental dynamic signals and theoretical responses obtained with a simplified six degrees of freedom model are made. Moreover, some effects of fluid-structure interaction are briefly discussed in the light of results from both impact and wave loading tests.