Scientific research about climate change mitigation in transport: A critical review

This paper seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the research on climate change mitigation in transport. We suggest that work to date has focused on the effects of improvements in transport technologies, changes in the price of transport, physical infrastructure provision, behavioural change and alternative institutional arrangements for governing transport systems. In terms of research methodologies, positivist and quantitative analysis prevails, although there are signs of experimentation with non-positivist epistemologies and participatory methods. These particular engagements with climate change mitigation reflect mutually reinforcing tendencies within and beyond the academic transport community. We first draw on a revised version of Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science to explore the path dependencies within transport studies, which are at least partly responsible for the predisposition towards quantitative modelling and technology, pricing and infrastructure oriented interventions in transport systems. We then employ the governmentality perspective to examine how transport academics’ engagements with climate change mitigation depend on and align with more general understandings of climate change in UK society and beyond. The analysis makes clear that ecological modernisation and neo-liberal governmentality more generally provide the context for the current focus on and belief in technological, behaviour change, and especially market-based mitigation strategies. While current research trajectories are important and insightful, we believe that a deeper engagement with theoretical insights from the social sciences will produce richer understandings of transport mitigation in transport and briefly outline some of the contributions thinking on socio-technical transitions and practice theories can make.     

FRP约束混凝土柱强度和延性性能 试验研究

为研究碳纤维增强复合材料CFRP对约束混凝土柱延性性能的影响,玻璃纤维增强复合材 料GFRP对约束混凝土柱的强度和延性的改善效果,以及高强度CFRP以外的其他材料的约束效 应,并分析它们在约束混凝土柱中的作用机理,通过对纤维增强复合材料FRP约束柱布置纵向、 环向位移传感器进行单轴压缩试验,由裂纹走向及破坏形态总结出了FRP约束柱的破坏过程,根 据荷载-应变曲线、荷载-位移曲线研究了FRP 约束混凝土圆柱的强度和延性性能。研究结果表 明：（1） CFRP 和GFRP 作为约束材料,都可以产生强的约束效应,提高约束混凝土的强度, CFRP、GFRP约束混凝土强度分别增加了29.2%和58.6%;（2） 强约束作用下,CFRP和GFRP约 束混凝土柱的强度和延性性能得到显著改善;（3） 由于单一FRP材料的线弹性性质,FRP约束混 凝土柱破坏时脆性特征明显;（4） 与CFRP相比,变形性能较好的GFRP能更好地改善混凝土柱 的延性性能,设置1 层GFRP相比1 层CFRP延性可提高61.9%,设置2 层GFRP相比2 层CFRP延 性可提高63.6%。     

Seasonal study of dissolved CH4, CO2 and N2O in a shallow tidal system of the bay of Cádiz (SW Spain)

During 2004, 10 samplings were performed in order to measure dissolved methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) in the surface waters of Río San Pedro, a tidal creek in the salt marsh area of the Bay of Cádiz (SW Spain). The inner partvs of the creek is affected by the inputs coming from an intensive fish farm and the drainage of an extensive salt marsh area.Dissolved CH₄, CO₂ and N₂O concentrations ranged from 11 to 88 nM, 36 to 108 μM and 14 to 50 nM, respectively. Surface waters were in all cases oversaturated with respect to the atmosphere, reaching values of up to 5000% for CH₄, 1240% for CO₂ and 840% for N₂O. Dissolved CH₄, CO₂ and N₂O showed a significant tidal and seasonal variability. Over a tidal cycle, concentrations were always highest during low tide, which points to the influence of the inputs from the fish farm effluent and the drainage of the adjacent salt marsh area, as well as in situ production within the system. Dissolved CH₄, CO₂ and N₂O seasonal patterns were similar and showed maximum concentrations in summer conditions. Using four different parameterizations to calculate the gas transfer coefficients [Liss, P.S. and Merlivat, L., 1986. Air-sea exchange rates: introduction and synthesis. In P. Buat-Ménard (Ed.), The Role of Air-Sea Exchanges in Geochemical Cycling. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, p. 113–127.; Clark, J.F., Schlosser, P., Simpson, H.J., Stute, M., Wanninkhof, R., and Ho, D.T., 1995. Relationship between gas transfer velocities and wind speeds in the tidal Hudson River determined by the dual tracer technique. In: B. Jähne and E. Monahan (Eds.), Air-Water Gas Transfer: AEON Verlag and Studio, Hanau, Germany, pp. 785–800.; Carini, S., Weston, N., Hopkinson, G., Tucker, J., Giblin, A. and Vallino, J., 1996. Gas exchanges rates in the Parker River estuary, Massachusetts. Biol. Bull., 191: 333–334.; Kremer, J.N., Reischauer, A. and D'Avanzo, C., 2003. Estuary-specific variation in the air-water gas exchange coefficient for oxygen. Estuaries, 26: 829–836.], the averaged air–water fluxes of CH₄, CO₂ and N₂O from the creek to the atmosphere ranged between 34 and 150 μmol CH₄ m^− 2 day^− 1, 73 and 177 mmol CO₂ m^− 2 day^− 1 and 24 and 62 μmol N₂O m⁻² day⁻¹, respectively.