Widening the Panama Canal and U.S. ports: historical and economic impact analyses

ABSTRACT

The economic history of the U.S. illustrates how the role of many cities has been changed by being seaports or located on navigable rivers or lakes. Based on the widening of the Panama Canal in 2016, the West Coast ports that include the west coast seaports of California, Oregon, and Washington were expected to become less important, while the freight shares of the East Coast and Gulf ports would increase. By how much it has been not easy to measure or predict so far, but this study attempted to define some of the key parameters in the measurement. As well as several relevant background topics, both the demand- and supply-side versions of the National Interstate Economic Model, have been applied for the measurement of economic impacts. U.S. port authorities and policy makers at the local and national levels who respond and develop plans for coping with the new realities of the Panama Canal are able to understand the extent to which changes in shippers’ and land-mode transporters’ behaviors would undermine the logistics and the costs of their activities. Therefore, this study is important for a diverse spectrum of port development strategies in the U.S. to respond to the Canal expansion.     

生态塘处理铁路中小站区生活污水

由于传统稳定塘占地面积大、处理效率低、产生藻类等缺点,限制了其工艺的推广应用。而生态塘系统在克服传统稳定塘系统缺点的基础上引入了生态的概念,通过在塘系统中人为地建立起稳定的食物链网,使塘本身既是污水处理单元又是利用单元,在污水处理的同时可以实现污水资源化。在一些偏远干旱缺水的铁路站区,采用生态塘系统处理站区产生的生活污水,运行维护管理容易、运行费用低,在产生良好的社会环境效益的同时,可实现干旱缺水地区的污水资源化利用。     

高速铁路路基边坡纤维团粒喷播生态防护技术

针对高速铁路路基绿化工程高要求、少维护等特点,提出纤维团粒喷播技术,并详细阐述了其机理及特点.通过在京雄城际铁路路基边坡工程中的应用,归纳总结了该技术施工工艺流程:平整坡面→坡面覆土→铺设铁丝网→喷播基质→养护管理.喷播基质是利用喷播机械将性能优越的基质材料喷附至铁路路基坡面上的.工程应用表明该技术施工快,质量好,养护维修量小,经济性高.     

Establishment of Community Managed Fisheries’ Closures in Kenya: Early Evolution of the Tengefu Movement

Community-based management (CBM) could be an essential tool to prevent the depletion of marine resources in the Western Indian Ocean region. In Kenya, political pressure to strengthen local governance, has led to adoption of CBM as a way of reducing over-exploitation and managing the competing uses and impacts on the marine environment. Several communities in Kenya have embraced CBM and have set aside or closed previously fished areas to enhance recovery of fisheries and biodiversity. These community fisheries closures (locally called tengefu), despite being degraded, may recover to finfish abundances and biodiversity levels similar to established MPAs or above thresholds for maintaining some ecological services. Communities see their direct involvement and control of these tengefu as more likely to result in benefits flowing directly to them. Community closures are also important for articulating and resolving community values and strengthening their management capacity. Here, we describe the evolution of the tengefu movement in Kenya and combine information from focus group discussions, interviews, underwater surveys and boundary marking to evaluate the current status, opportunities and challenges facing these tengefu. We show that in some cases community closures suffer from slow and incomplete national and local legislative processes, challenges to compliance, and weak management.     

Competitiveness and macroeconomic impacts of reduced wait times at U.S. land freight border crossings

We analyze the macroeconomic and trade impacts of reducing wait times by adding one customs officer at each of the twelve major land freight crossings of the U.S. The change in wait time stemming from staffing changes is first estimated on the basis of primary data and then translated into changes in freight costs through a logistical model. The transportation cost changes are then fed into a multi-country computable general equilibrium model. We find that adding one customs officer at each land border crossing would, on average per crossing, generate an increase in U.S. GDP of $350 thousand and 3.58 additional jobs.     

Investigating Causal Pathways Linking Site-Level Characteristics,Compliance, and Ecological Performance in Caribbean MPAs

A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence has linked improved ecological performance of social–ecological systems (SES) with better compliance with rules governing human activities. Researchers have proposed several key factors that motivate an individual to comply with resource use rules, including deterrence, social pressures, moral inclinations, and perceived legitimacy of rules and responsible authorities. Much of the research on compliance proposes causal mechanisms at the individual human level, but few studies test causal paths with empirical data particularly at the site level. This study tested a proposed pathway for explaining overall compliance rates and ecological performance in SES using data from structured surveys of community members, key informant interviews, policy documents, and coral reef surveys at marine protected areas (MPAs) and their associated human communities in the wider Caribbean. Findings indicate that compliance and other active MPA management interventions positively affect ecological performance, and site-level contextual factors (level of community development and being part of a political network) positively influence significant predictors of overall compliance rates, which include active MPA management and enforced punishments.     

公路工程的水土保持生态补偿

就公路工程中所遇到的环境问题,结合设计施工中的解决办法,阐述公路工程的水土保持生态补偿,从而减小因道路施工给沿线自然地形、地貌造成的各种破坏,保护和改善当地环境,提高公路的使用效果,更好地发挥公路的各项功能。     

生态思想与道路建设发展综述

为探究生态和生态道路的涵义,厘清生态和道路建设的关系,从生态学和文学角度阐述了生态的释义,探讨了我国“天人合一”和“风水”思想,总结了近年来提出的绿色生态设计思想,梳理了我国道路建设技术和设计理念的发展历程,阐述了对生态道路设计建造的内涵理解,为生态道路建设的理论体系构建提供参考。     

平原地区某内河生态航道整治工程设计要点

传统的内河航道建设重点关注航运、灌溉、防洪排涝等功能,但随着经济与社会的不断发展,人们也越来越关注传统功能外的生态美、景观美、人与自然和谐的问题。以某内河航道整治工程为例,针对平面规划线型与现状线型差异大、文物保护要求和生态景观要求高、环保压力大等工程特点,通过对航道平面线型、护岸结构、文物保护、生态景观、节能环保等关键技术要点进行研究,提出自然型护岸线、生态型护岸、矩形航道断面的文物保护方案、节能环保的装配式护岸建造方案等设计对策,达到航道建设的生态美、景观美、人与自然和谐的效果。     

高速公路建设对生态环境的影响分析及防护对策

分析了高速公路在建设中对生态环境产生的影响,并针对性地提出了防护对策。