OCS development and commercial and recreational fishing

As the controversy over Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing continues, with environmentalists and fishermen seeking to block or delay leasing decisions that they think will adversely affect their interests, the need for better estimates of the environmental costs associated with OCS development becomes increasingly apparent. Although high degrees of precision in such estimates may never be economic, let alone feasible, better knowledge would reduce the uncertainty surrounding the magnitude of such costs, and would make it easier to come to grips with the problem and reduce, if not resolve, the controversy.     

Second international conference on new survey methods in transport Hungerford Hill,Australia 12–16 September 1983

The Second International Conference on New Survey Methods in Transport was held at Hungerford Hill, Australia in September 1983. The aims of the conference were to provide a focus for discussion of survey methodology and to establish bench‐marks with respect to the state of the art in various facets of transport surveys. The conference evolved around workshops in twelve key areas: sample design, survey needs for modelling, questionnaire design and piloting, perceptual studies, diary surveys, longitudinal studies, interactive survey methods, freight surveys, traffic surveys, total design concepts, response errors and data correction, and coding and computing.

A number of plenary keynote papers were also presented describing the state of the art in cross‐sectional, longitudinal and interactive survey methods. Emerging from the conference discussions, six key issues were prominent; the gap between the state of the art, as espoused by researchers, and the state of practice, as employed by practioners; the differences in results obtained when employing different survey methods to collect essentially the same data; the emerging use of the telephone for the conduct of interview travel surveys; the interaction between survey methods and demand modelling and the disparate levels of sophistication in the two areas; the role of microcomputers in the design, conduct and analysis of transport surveys; and the need for practitioners to engage in controlled experimentation, so that methodological advances may continue to be made in the field of transport surveys.     

The relationship between segment-level built environment attributes and pedestrian activity around Bogota’s BRT stations

Few studies have examined the relationship between micro-scale features of the built environment and street segment usage. Micro-scale features of the built environment include the width of the sidewalk, the presence of amenities such as benches and trash bins, and the presence of crossing aids such as stoplights and crosswalks. This study employs segment-level primary data collected for 338 street segments in close proximity to one of 71 bus rapid transit stations in Bogotá, Colombia. We also use secondary data to control for area-level characteristics such as density, socio-economic stratum, unemployment, and crime. Factor and regression analyses are to use identify two dimensions of the built environment that are associated with higher levels of pedestrian activity: pedestrian-friendly amenities, comprised of wider and higher quality sidewalks and the presence of amenities such as benches, garbage cans, and bike paths; and connectivity, comprised of higher levels of road density, three- and four-way intersections, and density. In addition, we find greater pedestrian activity on segments with higher development intensity, with more mix of land uses, and with more crossing aids. Although the relationships identified are not causal, they are suggestive in terms of planning successful built environment interventions.     

Sediment community biomass and respiration in the Northeast water polynya, Greenland: a numerical simulation of benthic lander and spade core data

Sediment community metabolism (oxygen demand) was measured in the Northeast Water (NEW) polynya off Greenland employing two methods: in situ benthic chambers deployed with a benthic (GOMEX) lander and shipboard laboratory Batch Micro-Incubation Chambers (BMICs) utilizing ‘cores’ recovered from USNEL box cores. The mean benthic respiration rate measured with the lander was 0.057 mM O₂ m⁻² h⁻¹ (n = 5); whereas the mean measured with the BMICs was 0.11 mM O₂ m⁻² h⁻¹ (n = 21; p < 0.01 that the means were the same). In terms of carbon fluxes (14 and 27 mg C m⁻² d⁻¹), these respiration rates represent ca. 5–15% of the average net primary production measured in the euphotic zone in 1992. The biomass of the bacteria, meiofauna and macrofauna were measured at each location to quantify the relationship between total community respiration and total community biomass (mean 1.42 g C m⁻²). Average carbon residence time in the biota, calculated by dividing the biomass by the respiration, was on the order of 50–100 days, which is comparable to relatively oligotrophic continental margins at temperate latitudes.The biomass and respiration data for the aerobic heterotrophic bacteria, the infaunal invertebrates (meiofauna and macrofauna), and the epifaunal megabenthos (two species of brittle stars) are summarized in a ‘steady-state’ solution of a sediment food chain model, in terms of carbon. This carbon budget illustrates the relative importance of the sediment-dwelling invertebrates in the benthic subsystem, compared to the bacteria and the epibenthos, during the summer open-water period in mud-lined troughs at depths of about 300 m. The input needed to drive heterotrophic respiratory processes was within the range of the input of organic matter recorded in moored, time-sequencing sediment traps.A time-dependent numerical simulation of the model was run to investigate the potential responses of the three size groups of benthos to abrupt seasonal pulses of particulate organic matter. The model suggests that there is a time lag in the increase in bottom community biomass and respiration following the POC pulse, and provides hypothetical estimates for the potential carbon storage in the summer (open water), followed by catabolic losses during each ensuing winter (ice covered).This sequence of storage and respiration may contribute to the process of seasonal CO₂ ‘rectification’ (sensu Yager et al., 1995) in some Arctic ecosystems.     

Patterns and controls of chlorophyll-a and primary productivity cycles in the Southern California Bight

Factors that influence the magnitude and the depth of the chlorophyll maximum layer in the ocean off Southern California are explored using observations from the long-term California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program. The data record is sufficiently long to reveal patterns not always evident from single stations or single cruises. Processes such as coastal wind-driven upwelling, geostrophic circulation, and annual physical and chemical cycles are illustrated to demonstrate their effect on euphotic zone nutrient availability, and subsequent phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity. In this area, where the influence of wind-driven upwelling is spatially restricted and advected waters are generally nutrient depleted, geostrophically induced upwelling and winter convection become important in determining spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton.     

Incorporating crowding into the San Francisco activity-based travel model

Information produced by travel demand models plays a large role decision making in many metropolitan areas, and San Francisco is no exception. Being a transit first city, one of the most common uses for San Francisco??s travel model SF-CHAMP is to analyze transit demand under various circumstances. SF-CHAMP v 4.1 (Harold) is able to capture the effects of several aspects of transit provision including headways, stop placement, and travel time. However, unlike how auto level of service in a user equilibrium traffic assignment is responsive to roadway capacity, SF-CHAMP Harold is unable to capture any benefit related to capacity expansion, crowding??s effect on travel time nor or any of the real-life true capacity limitations. The failure to represent these elements of transit travel has led to significant discrepancies between model estimates and actual ridership. Additionally it does not allow decision-makers to test the effects of policies or investments that increase the capacity of a given transit service. This paper presents the framework adopted into a more recent version of SF-CHAMP (Fury) to represent transit capacity and crowding within the constraints of our current modeling software.     

An integrated assessment of factors affecting modal choice: towards a better understanding of the causal effects of built environment

This paper discusses the methodological challenges in understanding causal relationships between urban form and travel behavior and uses a holistic quasi-experimental approach to investigate the separable marginal influence of each of several urban form factors on mode choice as well as the complex relationships between those factors and a wide range of personal traits. Data analysis and models are used to reveal the effect of such interactions on mode choice for both work and non-work trips in Rome, Italy. It is found that population density does not have a significant marginal positive effect on sustainable mode choice for work trips. Conversely, this factor decreases sustainable mode choice for non-work trips. Small scale street design quality alone increases sustainable mode choice for non-work trips. This is while presence of street network integration alone increases automobile use for all trip purposes. The results point to the importance of incorporating all the urban form factors of diversity, design and street network integration if the goal is to increase the use of more sustainable modes of transportation for both work and non-work trips, but also show that attitudes and preferences can modify the response to urban design factors. The findings suggest that thoughtful policies triggering certain attitudes (cost sensitivity, sensitivity to peer pressure regarding the value attributed to sustainable transportation, and transit preference) can be adopted to significantly increase sustainable mode choice even in the neighborhoods with specific physical restrictions.     

Why Conservation Needs Religion

Conservationists have been criticized for failing to protect nature in the face of mounting threats including overexploitation, species loss, habitat destruction, and climate change. Resource managers and scientists have yet to fully engage a major segment of the global population in their outreach efforts to protect the environment: religious communities. The world's religions have been recognized as a surprising driver of support for conservation of biological diversity, and numerous examples demonstrate religious and conservation groups working together to achieve conservation outcomes. However, many conservation organizations do not effectively engage religious groups. When conservation organizations do engage religious groups, efforts to do so are often ad hoc and such partnerships may wane over time. A more systematic approach is needed that directly engages religious communities, develops effective partnerships, supports and sustains dialogue aimed at finding common ground despite potentially divergent worldviews, and establishes supporting mechanisms to maintain the partnerships that are developed. Effective partnerships between religious and conservation groups represent significant untapped potential which can directly support conservation outcomes; such partnerships are likely to become increasingly important with dwindling support for conservation.     

A new approach to cross-sector cooperation in road safety through a comparison of policies in selected countries

Statistics from the databases of various countries and international organizations show that road accident rates and fatalities have fallen since the 1970s. With demographic changes taking place in many developed countries, however, accident and accident-risk patterns have changed in the last two decades. This study aims to introduce a new approach to cross-sector cooperation with the hope of making road safety more holistic and sustainable. The authors compare the road safety policies of three selected countries based on various categories, using a simple quantitative method. The results show some fragmentation within the policies, illustrating the need for a new road safety approach. The effort to reduce road traffic accidents by 50% by the year 2020 has also increased the pressure on stakeholders to meet this goal. This paper's contribution toward the 2020 goal lies in its recommendation of a new approach to road safety that will enlighten stakeholders on probable missing links in road safety.     

The EEZ: International enforcement problems

This paper sets out the problems and discusses possible solutions related to the policing of, and protection of economic activities undertaken in, off-shore zones over which coastal states will be expected to exercise jurisdiction.