Policy considerations for wetland wastewater treatment in the coastal zone: A case study for Louisiana

Two major environmental problems currently affecting the Louisiana coastal zone are a high rate of wetland loss and high levels of surface water pollution. The application of secondarily treated wastewater to wetlands can be a means of dealing with both of these problems. The benefits of wetland wastewater treatment include improved surface water quality, increased accretion rates to balance a high relative water level rise due mainly to subsidence, improved plant productivity and habitat quality, and decreased capital outlays for conventional engineering treatment systems. Wetland treatment systems can, therefore, be designed and operated to restore deteriorating wetlands. Hydrologically altered wetlands, which are common in the Louisiana coastal zone, are appropriate for receiving municipal and some types of industrial effluent. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined wetland wastewater treatment is effective in treating municipal effluent, it has discouraged the use of natural wetlands for this purpose. At the same time, funds are being used for the construction of artificial wetlands to treat municipal effluent. In the Louisiana coastal zone, however, wetlands are deteriorating and disappearing due to hydrological alteration and a high rate of relative sea level rise. If no action is taken, these trends will continue. Effluent discharge to existing wetlands should be incorporated into a comprehensive management plan designed to increase sediment and nutrient input into subsiding wetlands in the Louisiana coastal zone, improve water quality, and result in more economical waste‐water treatment. The authors believe that the Louisiana example serves as a model for other coastal areas especially in light of projections of accelerated sea level rise.     

The implications of MARPOL Annex V on the management of ports and coastal communities

Abstract

The passage of the Marine Plastics Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 (MPPRCA), which codified Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), has encompassed every commercial and recreational shipping and boating facility in the United States. As a group, these ports, harbors, and marinas form a significant, although proportionately small, portion of the coastline of the country. More important, the economic benefits derived from the complex shoreside infrastructures required for international ocean trade, commercial and recreational fishing, and pleasure boating indicate just how critical it is for these facilities to be in conformance with effective and prudent coastal zone and environmental management practices.     

Consolidation and contestability in the European container handling industry

The first part of this paper brings into discussion some recent changes in the dynamics of the European container handling business, in particular as a result of vertical and horizontal integration strategies of container terminal operators. The industry structure has become sufficiently consolidated to raise a fundamental question about whether market forces are sufficient to prevent the abuse of market power. In this context, reference is made to the theory of contestable markets. The second part of the paper looks more closely to the issue of contestability by means of an exploratory and qualitative study of elements that could prevent other players entering or exiting the European container handling market. As such, a first indication is given of the degree of contestability in the container handling industry.     

Changing ownership structures in the Dutch fleet

The new Dutch shipping policy has given rise to high expectation and curiosity in the world of shipping. This, together with the obvious difficulties of an ex-post study of the effectiveness of such innovative policy, has prompted the authors to take an interest in attempting to investigate changes in ownership of the Dutch fleet 2 years after the new policy has been introduced. To do this, a rather new concept of ‘flagging out’ has been adopted, which is interpreted as a process leading to different degrees of ‘foreignness’ in a shipping operation. In this paper, a method to structure is presented, and ownership information, and changes in it are presented, that are essentially based on the theory of stochastic processes. The data used is the Dutch fleet data, which includes information on the nationality of the flag, parent ownership and management over the period 1994–1998. The results yield interesting insights in the shifts in the ownership and operational structure of shipping companies induced by the new policy. In particular, they allow one to establish the origin of new vessels, in which stage of ownership/operation it is most likely that shifts occur, and to determine the relationship between the different stages of the ‘flagging out’ process. These results, thus, enable an evaluation of the areas in which the policy can be expected to yield results.     

Black Boxes - Pathetic progress but some success now in sight

Little has been written about the ship demolition market, an essential element in the supply/demand balance for shipping. Either technical or economic obsolescence may be the cause for scrapping a ship, where the latter is strongly influenced not only by anticipated freight market levels, but the rate at which more efficient ships are being introduced. The scrap value of a ship is a function both of the realizable value of the materials within the ship and cost of demolition. Both are strongly influenced by the cost structures prevailing in the likely country of demolition. The paper explores not only the fundamentals of the ship demolition market, but the trends from the 1960s to the present. The shipbreaking market has moved in that time from being West European-centred to Asian-centred, concentrating for some years in Taiwan, but now shifting to the Indian subcontinent.     

Fast passenger ferries and their future

This papers examines the different choices of High Speed Craft (HSC) hull design available and briefly looks at the advantages and disadvantages of each hull form. The trends in various design aspects of HSC such as speed, capacity and size are studied. An investigation on the HSC development is conducted and the future of HSC in the UK is studied. A study onboard an HSC with the aim of trying to determine what passengers think of HSC and why they travel by them is also conducted. Finally, an analysis of the possible market for HSC is carried out.     

A new efficient EDI system for container cargo logistics

There have been many efforts to develop a logistics information system in the Korean logistics industry. In spite of these efforts, there are many points which need improvement in the Logistics Information System, of which function is the electronic data communication without added value. This paper aims to describe some of the main problems and the successful factors which are being found in the evolution of the present EDI systems for clearing import/export container cargoes, with special reference to Singapore, Korea, and Japan. Following this, leaving legal issues aside, to suggest workable guidelines for designing a new efficient EDI system for container cargo logistics. As a result of the review, the following successful factors are drawn: (a) the planning, requirement analysis and design of EDI are critical, as it provides a framework for its implementation; (b) as the data of customs clearance are an integral part of a logistics EDI system, the inclusion of customs in the system design is essential; (c) the sharing system of cargo data as the framework of the logistics EDI is efficient for data interchange; (d) the EDI software for the user has been developed and provided by an EDI network operating company; and (e) to facilitate communication between trading partners and the transport sector, it is necessary to adopt a global message standard, such as EDIFACT.