How do economies of density in container handling operations affect ships’ time and emissions in port? Evidence from Norwegian container terminals

Efficient port services are prerequisites for competitive and sustainable maritime transports. This paper makes advances in studying the determinants of the time that ships spend in port and the associated emissions to air. We estimate a production model for cargo handling based on a unique dataset containing each port of call at the largest container terminals in Norway in 2014. In turn, we use auxiliary engine emission factors to estimate particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions from ships at berth, to determine how the corresponding damage costs of air pollution vary with container throughput, location, and terminal investments. We find that Norwegian container terminals operate under increasing returns to density. Small ships that unload few containers are far from reaping economies of density, leading to high marginal time requirements for container handling and consequently high marginal external costs. From a Pigouvian taxation perspective, port charges should therefore be regressive in the number of containers handled. Moreover, we find that the external costs of maritime transports are severely understated when port operations are ignored. Our model allows determining the marginal productivities of port facilities. Thereby, it is instrumental in designing port charges that are diversified according to the quantity of containers handled and the service quality (i.e., the speed of handling operations). Regarding contextual factors, we find that establishing high-frequent liner services improves the ship working rate, while simultaneous calls at a terminal impede productivity. The type of container (loading/unloading; empty/laden) also appears to influence the duration of ship working.     

Airline energy efficiency measures using the Virtual Frontier Network RAM with weak disposability

In this paper, airline energy efficiency is divided into three stages: the operations stage, the services stage and the sales stage. Greenhouse gas emissions are treated as an undesirable output of the services stage. This new three-stage strategic operating framework is a modification of existing models. A new model, Virtual Frontier Network Range Adjusted Measure with weak disposability, is proposed to evaluate the efficiencies of 22 international airlines, from 2008 to 2012. The results show that the new model can establish more reasonable rankings and confirm new benchmarking airlines and that inclusion in the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme has had little influence on the improvement of airline energy efficiency.     

Electric vehicles for greenhouse gas reduction in China: A cost-effectiveness analysis

There have been ongoing debates over whether battery electric vehicles contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in China’s context, and if yes, whether the greenhouse gas emissions reduction compensates the cost increment. This study informs such debate by examining the life-cycle cost and greenhouse gas emissions of conventional vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles, and comparing their cost-effectiveness for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The results indicate that under a wide range of vehicle and driving configurations (range capacity, vehicle use intensity, etc.), battery electric vehicles contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional vehicles, although their current cost-effectiveness is not comparable with hybrid electric vehicles. Driven by grid mix optimization, power generation efficiency improvement, and battery cost reduction, the cost-effectiveness of battery electric vehicles is expected to improve significantly over the coming decade and surpass hybrid electric vehicles. However, considerable uncertainty exists due to the potential impacts from factors such as gasoline price. Based on the analysis, it is recommended that the deployment of battery electric vehicles should be prioritized in intensively-used fleets such as taxis to realize high cost-effectiveness. Technology improvements both in terms of power generation and vehicle electrification are essential in improving the cost-effectiveness of battery electric vehicles.     

Accelerated vehicle retirement program: Estimating the optimal incentive payment in Israel

The paper analyzes two main aspects of the accelerated vehicle retirement program in Israel: the optimal incentive payment of private cars, and the feasibility of expanding the program to include light commercial vehicles. The benefits are the reduction of pollutant emissions and safety benefits, which were compared to the costs of the incentive payment. A differential payment scheme for private vehicles according to the vehicle’s age, is shown to have a higher net benefit than a uniform payment scheme. It is also found that the optimal payment is higher than the existing incentive payment. Additionally, it is found economically feasible to include light commercial vehicles in the program.     

Thermidor in land use control?

Abstract

In June 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission held against the California Coastal Commission. Did this legal landmark signal the rise of a new, conservative jurisprudence of takings? And if yes, did that imply the demise of what had been accomplished by the so‐called quiet revolution in land use control that swept the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s? The complexities of this case cannot be understood apart from the historical evolution of the Coastal Commission's policies through the 1970s and 1980s, particularly its coastal access policies. Because of these policies the Coastal Commission, since its inception in 1972, has been subjected to all kinds of criticism, but at the same time has been widely praised for its balanced approach. These varying assessments of the role and record of the Commission also underly the conflicting viewpoints and arguments of Justices Scalia, who wrote for the majority in Nollan, and Brennan, who filed an extremely strong dissent. The resulting legal uncertainties, added to the political setbacks suffered from a lukewarm legislature and a hostile governor, forced the Commission to temper its assertive mission of maximizing coastal access, at least for the time being.     

Geographical variations in hurricane risk and legislative response

Abstract

Risk from the “natural event system”; of hurricanes varies greatly along the U.S. coastline, and so do the property and lives at risk. Damage potential from storm surge in the Miami area is less than a third that of the Tampa area. However, damage potential from winds in the Boston and New York areas exceeds that of either the Miami or Tampa areas. Passage of time since the great hurricane disasters near the turn of the century and improvements in the warning system may make coastal dwellers underestimate the likelihood of a hurricane catastrophe. But population growth near the coast has been more than three times the national average, and 10 of 58 coastal segments 50 miles in width more than doubled in population between 1960 and 1970. Twenty‐two segments increased by more than 25,000 people with six increasing by 150,000. Legislative response to the growing hazard has varied as widely as risk but is not clearly correlated with risk.     

Forecasting bunker prices; A nonstationary,multivariate methodology

This paper suggests a methodological approach for the forecasting of marine fuel prices. The prediction of the bunker prices is of outmost importance for operators, as bunker prices affect heavily the economic planning and financial viability of ventures and determine decisions related to compliance with regulations. A multivariate nonstationary stochastic model available in the literature is being retrieved, after appropriate adjustment and testing. The model belongs to the class of periodically correlated stochastic processes with annual periodic components. The time series are appropriately transformed to become Gaussian, and then are decomposed to deterministic seasonal characteristics (mean value and standard deviation) and a residual time series. The residual part is proved to be stationary and then is modeled as a Vector AutoRegressive Mooving Average (VARMA) process. Finally, using the methodology presented, forecasts of a tetra-variate and an octa-variate time series of bunker prices are produced and are in good agreement with actual values. The obtained results encourages further research and deeper investigation of the driving characters of the multivariate time series of bunker prices.     

Resolving the property right of transportation emissions through public–private partnerships

The application of public–private partnerships (P3’s) in the transportation sector has grown in popularity worldwide. Despite this important shift in the provision of transportation service, there are clear gaps in knowledge about the impacts of P3 projects, especially on emissions from transportation systems as a whole. Not only should policy makers evaluate the emissions impacts from P3 projects, but they should also think about innovative models that address or charge for emissions into P3 contracts. This addition to P3 contracts could provide a new solution to the long-existing property right paradox: who owns (is responsible for) emissions from transportation systems? This study attempts to fill the research gap by analyzing these innovative models. Using the road network of Fresno, California, as our case study, we offer a number of interesting insights for policy makers. First, average peak emissions costs range from 1.37 cents per mile (the do-nothing case) to 1.20 cents per mile (profit-maximizing cases) per vehicle. Although emissions costs from the P3 projects are lowest for the profit-maximizing cases, the system-wide emissions costs of these cases are highest because of spillover effects. Second, charging project owners for the emissions costs of P3 projects is not an effective way to reduce emissions or the total costs of travel, especially on a VMT basis. Instead, the public sector should implement emissions-included social cost-based price ceilings. When employing these limits, project owners could still be charged for the emissions costs. Finally, using total travel time as the only objective function for evaluating P3 projects can be misleading. Several P3 projects have shown better outcomes using total travel cost with the inclusion of emissions and fuel consumption costs, instead of using total travel time as the only objective function.     

冷却液温度为边界条件的柴油机起动试验研究

为了研究冷却液温度对柴油机起动过程初期燃烧不稳定性及排放的影响规律,在一台单缸直喷式柴油机上,利用缸压和单循环采样测试系统对柴油机起动初期单个工作循环的燃烧和排放进行了试验研究。结果表明:冷却液温度是影响柴油机起动过程不稳定的重要因素之一。较低的冷却液温度导致柴油机起动初期燃烧不稳定性增加,失火和不完全燃烧循环较多,从而导致HC排放升高,而且冷却液温度低造成的滞后燃烧会产生较高的CO排放。冷却液温度升高后,失火循环消除,同时着火延迟期明显缩短,最高燃烧压力升高,HC和CO排放显著降低,NOx排放升高,表明燃烧状况改善。     

A study of the environmental impacts of intelligent automated vehicle control at intersections via V2V and V2I communications

This article presents a novel intersection traffic management system for automated vehicles and quantifies its impact on fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of CO₂ relative to traditional traffic signal and roundabout intersection control. The developed intelligent traffic management (ITM) techniques, which are based on a spatiotemporal reservation scheme, ensure that vehicles proceed through the intersection without colliding with other vehicles while at the same time reducing the intersection delay and environmental impacts. Specifically, the spatiotemporal reservation scheme provides each vehicle a collision-free path that is decomposed into a speed profile along with navigational instructions. The integration of the developed microscopic traffic simulator with instantaneous emission model, provides improved assessments of the environmental impact of traffic control strategies at intersections. The simulator architecture integrates several ITM algorithms, vehicle sensors, V2V/V2I communications, and emission and fuel consumption models. Each vehicle is modeled by an agent and each agent provides information depending on the specific vehicle sensors. The ITM system is supported by V2V and V2I communications, allowing the exchange of information among vehicles and infrastructure. The data include the estimated vehicle position and speed. Compared with traditional traffic management techniques, the simulation results prove that the proposed ITM system reduces CO₂ emissions significantly. The research also shows that these reductions are more significant when the traffic flow increases.