Aesthetic markets and a new automated people mover

Research literature suggests that aesthetic response toward a transportation system may be colored by non-aesthetic values. Photographic depictions of downtown street scenes with and without automated people mover guideways were shown to various community groups. Measures of external utilities—stakes in the local community and in public transportation—bore no relationship to aesthetic assessments of either guideway scenes or street scenes without a guideway. In contrast, aesthetic background and interests depressed evaluations of both guideway and non-guideway scenes. Aesthetic background evidently influences aesthetic assessments of elevated guideways in urban streets far more than do non-aesthetic utilities. This suggests that planners of new transportation systems need to address aesthetic impacts apart from other impacts and that aesthetic criteria will be applied more stringently by some community groups than by others.     

Eilat: Multiple conflicts in an inherently uncertain environment

Abstract

Ports are often at the center of conflicts regarding the use of coastal areas and their management. Yet, it is often impossible to forecast the future development patterns of a port due to its dependence on shifting international relations and markets. Such inherent uncertainty complicates the management of coastal areas affected by the port. This article looks at how such a case is being addressed in Eilat, Israel's Red Sea port.

The development of Eilat's port has been a function of the changing geopolitical situation in the Middle East. At the same time it is in the center of a number of local conflicts involving the management and planning of Israel's Red Sea coast. Evaluation of the two alternatives proposed to address these conflicts is hampered by the inherent uncertainty regarding the port's growth patterns. The use of robust evaluation techniques is suggested as one way to address inherent uncertainties.