Scientific requirements for an abyssal benthic laboratory

For over thirty years man has studied “outer space” and installed satellites which watch the surface of the Earth. The great depths of the world ocean are, however, practically unknown and there is an urgent need to put abyssal benthic laboratories into “inner space” in order to study basic phenomena of interest to marine science and climatology as well as man's impact on the oceans.In view of the numerous problems related to global change, as a first step emphasis should first be on the role of the oceans and their inherent processes, which are the focus of such international programmes as the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). Multi-disciplinary registration of key events at selected key sites investigating the variability in time and space are of the utmost importance. The same methods and techniques must be used for the study of human impacts on the deep oceans caused by mining of metalliferous resources and by waste disposal as well as in basic studies. However, the investigation of the inner space of our planet has certain requirements. As long-term and large-scale investigations become more and more important, development of automized systems, largely independent from research vessels will be required. This will demand high capacities of energy for all technical functions as well as high storage capacities for data and samples. As a consequence the needs for two different—although overlapping—functional approaches are defined for future deep-sea deployments.(A) A system for long-term registration of the natural variability and long-term monitoring of human impacts: (B) A system for short-term observations and short-time experimentations. This report summarizes their technological demands. The envisioned interdisciplinary technology should deliver information on physical, biological and geochemical processes and their variabilities in the deep oceans. The prospected systems need to have the ability for real time video observation, data transfer and experimental manipulation, as well as sensing and sampling facilities with large storage capacities for long-term deployments.Prospective costs of the described multipurpose abyssal benthic laboratory will presumably exceed the funds for deep-sea research of a single country. A joint European effort could solve this problem and help to manifest a leading role for European marine science in international deep-sea and global change research.     

Institutions Shaping Coastal Ecosystems: The Algarve Case

Water and land use have changed dramatically over the last thirty years in Southern European coastal zones. For climatic and economic reasons coastal tourism development is often accompanied by simultaneous intensification of agricultural activity. The literature highlights a number of emerging resource pressures. The intensity of land use, excessive infrastructure development, and overexploitation of water resources pose the primary problems. Unsustainable development is often ascribed to mal-performing institutions (e.g., environmental management and land use planning), but there is a lack of studies analyzing the way in which institutions contribute to the problem. We address this gap by devising an analytical strategy that combines function analysis with the analysis of governance structures, property rights, and actors. This strategy is applied to the analysis of changes in ecosystem functions of the Portuguese coastal zone of the Algarve between the mid-eighties and today. Based on the analysis we call for an improvement of the performance of formal institutions in the Algarve. Actors in charge of implementing reformed institutions have to be given the financial and human means to implement formal property rights. Furthermore, entitlements for resource exploitation and interconnected transactions should not anymore be taken for granted. Specifically, institutions to control land use should be made more effective and incentives, that exclusively promote development, such as the construction tax, need to be questioned.     

Spatial multi-criteria assessment of potential lead markets for electrified vehicles in Europe

This study presents a modeling approach that focuses on the identification of potential lead markets for electric-drive vehicles (EDVs) in Europe. It is based on a combination of several selected economic, social, environmental, and transport-related factors. The modeling approach is implemented in a GIS-based multi-criteria decision support process with fuzzy measures, enabling an assessment at different spatial and temporal scales under different EDV market penetration scenarios for Europe. The decision support system embeds a multi-criteria analysis based on selected expert-weighted market penetration drivers. The spatial scale chosen for the application of the decision support process are NUTS2 regions and cities within EU27 member states. Three scenarios are investigated, a business as usual, a moderate change, and an accelerated innovation scenario. Across the scenario horizon, it is shown how lead regions for EDVs will be changing in time between first early-adopter areas towards other long-term potential lead regions, depending on the evolution of the market drivers. The European regions and cities which will have a higher lead market potential score in 2020 and 2030 are identified. Our model solution suggests that with the business-as-usual scenario there will be a few insular lead market areas in 2020 and a relatively limited number of more connected lead regions in 2030. The other two scenarios explored suggest a more positive picture leading for the case of the 2030 accelerated scenario to a wide distribution of EDVs across most of Germany, the Netherlands, France, the UK, Ireland, and Italy. The cities of London, Madrid, Berlin and Rome would show high EDV sales under this scenario.