Suchergebnisse

The deployment of onshore wind power is an important means to mitigate climate change. However, wind turbines also have negative impacts at the local scale, like disamenities to residents living nearby, changes in landscape quality, or conflicts with nature conservation. Our paper analyses how these impacts affect the optimal siting of wind turbines, as compared to a spatial allocation focused solely on minimizing generation costs. To quantify the spatial trade-offs between these criteria, we propose a novel approach using Pareto frontiers and a Gini-like potential trade-off indicator. Our analysis builds on a spatial optimization model using geographical information system data for Germany. We show that spatial trade-offs between the criteria under consideration are significant. The size of the trade-off varies substantially with the criteria under consideration, depending on the spatial heterogeneity of each criterion as well as on the spatial correlation between the criteria. Spatial trade-offs are particularly pronounced between nature conservation (measured by impacts on wind power-sensitive birds) and other criteria.

This study aims to determine the existing conditions, analyze the level of sustainability and formulate priority policies for the development of the minapolitan Region in West Seram Regency. The analytical method used in this study includes descriptive analysis, Rapfish analysis, and Analitycal Hierarchy Process (AHP). An assessment of the existing conditions shows that the geographical location is a potensial area, has superior commodities, and production units, limited of facilities and processing infrastructure, and the lack of market information and marketing institutions to support the business process and needs to be improved in order to develop the minabisnis in minapolitan area. The analytical results of the sustainable status in the ecological, economic and institutional dimensions obtain an index value that is quite sustainable, and the social dimension in technology receives a index value in a sustainable manner. Institutional factor is a criterion that becomes the main priority in the direction of the development of the minapolitan area in Kotania Bay. So that it is necessary to increase the role of local government to optimally utilize the potential of aquaculture.

This paper discusses the issue of federalism and conflicts in Ethiopia by posing the question: to what extent does the current system of ethnic Federalism help to reduce ethnic tensions and conflicts? Although federalism is taken by many as a typical strategy for avoiding ethnic conflict and promoting democracy in multi-ethnic societies, the Ethiopian experience largely suggest that the system is not reducing ethnic tensions and conflicts. Ethnicity being the major organizing principle of the federal system in the country, promotes conflicts stressing the primordial notions of ethnicity and mobilization. It has encouraged differences and competition over the control of power and resources at a local level. Thus, conflicts are increasing, becoming more decentralized and protracted. These suggest that in the Ethiopian context, there is a need to move away from using ethnicity as a sole criterion and to organize the federation using geographical and economic considerations. This would further help to reduce the current ethnic strife by encouraging civic nationality and trust among people.Keywords: Conflict, Ethnicity, Federalism, Ethiopia

Abstract. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of school buildings in Tehran city based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographical information system (GIS). To this end, the peak ground acceleration, slope, and soil liquefaction layers were utilized for developing a geotechnical map. Also, the construction materials of structures, age of construction, the quality, and the seismic resonance coefficient layers were defined as major factors affecting the structural vulnerability of school buildings. Then, the AHP method was applied to assess the priority rank and weight of criteria (layers) and alternatives (classes) of each criterion via pairwise comparison in all levels. Finally, the geotechnical and structural spatial layers were overlaid to develop the seismic vulnerability map of school buildings in Tehran. The results indicated that only in 72 (about 3%) out of 2125 school buildings of the study area will the destruction rate be very high and therefore their reconstruction should seriously be considered.

The paper is devoted to the issue of twin-cities using this term in a narrow sense, with geographical proximity as an important criterion (as opposed to the broad sense of the twin-cities where the distance between cooperating cities doesn't matter). The paper is based on academic literature and research field work in the selected towns which included collecting questionnaires and holding interviews. On the basis of the analysis of relevant Russian municipal legislation the article proves the specificity of Nikel and Kirkenes relations as one with less municipal limits for development of the twinning process. Although the town halls claimed to have weekly interactions between each other the joint vision of twin-cities hasn't come into place: usually in the strategic doctrines the focus is made not on the joint transborder potential but on the closeness to the border. The status asymmetry of Kirkenes and Nikel within the Barents region is named as one of the constraints for creating a transborder agglomeration and pooling the resources.

An investigation of the nature of regional divisions in Ark & their differential effect upon politics in the state is presented. It was hypothesized that the regions in their areas would spread & characteristic attributes would reflect differences in physical geography, cultural orientations, & settlement patterns. More particularly, the emergence of three types was predicted, with each conforming to one of the three subcultural patterns described by D. J. Elazar in his studies of American political culture. The data were measures for 71 attributes (circa 1970) gathered for all 75 Ark counties, reflecting population attributes, structural properties & syntality characteristics of the counties. The data matrix was grouped as a Q-data slice, correlated, factored & rotated by the Varimax method. The eigenvalue-one criterion was used to determine the number of factors for extraction. As predicted, three factors, or types, emerged & these strongly reflected geographical & steelement patterns as expected. Moreover, these types -- the Ozark, the Delta, & the Urban Counties -- tended to conform to Elazar's subcultural types -- the Moralistic, the Traditionalistic, & the Individualistic respectively -- in their differential arrays of the 71 attributes. AA.

This paper discusses the issue of federalism and conflicts in Ethiopia by posing the question: to what extent does the current system of ethnic Federalism help to reduce ethnic tensions and conflicts? Although federalism is taken by many as a typical strategy for avoiding ethnic conflict and promoting democracy in multi-ethnic societies, the Ethiopian experience largely suggest that the system is not reducing ethnic tensions and conflicts. Ethnicity being the major organizing principle of the federal system in the country, promotes conflicts stressing the primordial notions of ethnicity and mobilization. It has encouraged differences and competition over the control of power and resources at a local level. Thus, conflicts are increasing, becoming more decentralized and protracted. These suggest that in the Ethiopian context, there is a need to move away from using ethnicity as a sole criterion and to organize the federation using geographical and economic considerations. This would further help to reduce the current ethnic strife by encouraging civic nationality and trust among people.Keywords: Conflict, Ethnicity, Federalism, Ethiopia

The academic community is aware of three hypostases of Central Asia-(1) a geographical region; (2) a political entity; and (3) a civilizational expanse-each with its own limits. As a geographical region, Central Asia is limited by "natural borders" (mountains, rivers, the steppe, and the sea); as a political entity, it is contained within the state borders of the new political units; and as a civilizational expanse, it is described as the local peoples' cultural and/or ethnolinguistic community, that is, by civilizational factors. The idea of Central Asia as the space in which four post-Soviet Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan are situated is the region's most frequently used, not to say dominating, political description. Central Asia as a political entity is a target of academic studies in its own right and an inalienable part of the foreign policy strategies of the key members of the international community. An analysis of the dynamics of regional security reveals the complete inconsistency of the "three hypostases" scheme. In the case of Central Asia, security (or the problems of security) is the most acceptable criterion of a region, the cornerstone of the Regional Security Complexes (RSC) idea described as "regions as seen through the lens of security." 4 The regional security complex is a "very specific, functionally defined type of region, which may or may not coincide with more general understandings of region." 5 This means that the region's functional factors describe Central Asia as an RSC.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines nation as "a distinct race or people, characterized by common descent, language or history, usually organized as a separate political state and occupying a definite territory." Nationalism in turn may be defined as a sense of identity as a people, and the efforts resulting to foster this and to obtain recognition as a distinct population, bound by common historical, cultural, linguistic, political, religious or other ties in the eyes of the larger society.While in the broadest sense the term "nation" may apply to a non-politically autonomous ethnic group consisting of only a few hundred individuals (cf. the West African or Native American use of the word as an equivalent to "tribe"), it is most often used synonymously with the notion of an actual country, the existence of an independent geographical homeland being an integral part of its interpretation. However, as the dictionary definition indicates, this is usually, and therefore by implication not invariably, a defining criterion. There have been nations of people lacking a homeland (or a homeland allowing them access or control) throughout history. The pre-1948 Jewish population, for example, or the Palestinians in the present day. Bloody wars have been fought because of the existence of nations of people lacking their own autonomous territory.It is into this latter category that the Romani nation fits and, though the efforts to secure a geographical homeland were central to the nationalist movement, especially during the 1930s and 1940s, the price paid for not having one has been heavy.

Trihalomethanes (THMs) are the most common disinfection by-products formed by the reaction of chlorine and/or bromide with organic matter. Total THMs in chlorinated treated water are defined as the sum of the concentrations of chloroform (TCM), bromodichloromethane (BDCM), dibromochloromethane (DBCM), and bromoform (TBM). The monitoring of trihalomethanes in distribution tap water collected in from five regions of Portugal, from North to South, in a total of 33 samples, during spring to summer season, is described. Solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography and electron capture detector methodology was applied to determine whether THMs concentrations in urban water supply systems are is in agreement with European Regulations. It was found a great discrepancy in total THMs concentration values, with concentrations varying from 1.8-97.7 μg/L, although the results were below the European parametric value of 100 μg/L. Regarding the Environmental Protection Agency regulations, however, only 97% of samples fulfilled the established criterion of 80 μg/L. and investigate if the individual compounds trihalomethanes content in was also investigated in order to determine if there is observed distribution tap water follows a common or a different THMs pattern in close geographical areas. In the geographical areas under study, mean values of concentrations measured revealed two different clusters: one including the three groups from the North geographical areas, with samples revealing a similar pattern (TCM>BDCM>DBCM>TBM), and another including the two groups from South with a different THMs pattern (DBCM>BDCM>TCM>TBM). A great degree of variation in the concentrations of THMs in tap water was observed, although the results the total THMs concentrations were below the European parametric value (100 μg/L). Mean results of samples grouped by five geographical areas revealed a similar pattern in samples collected from North and Centre TCM>BDCM>DBCM>TBM, whereas samples from South presented a different pattern, DBCM>BDCM>TCM>TBM. The origin of raw water (surface or groundwater) seems to influence this different pattern formation of brominated compounds. ; This work received financial support from the European Union (FEDER funds POCI/01/0145/FEDER/007265) and National Funds (FCT/MEC, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Ministério da Educação e Ciência) under the Partnership Agreement PT2020 UID/QUI/50006/2013. One of the authors (A. Melo) wishes to thank the Fundação Ciência Tecnologia grant SFRH/BPD/86898/2012. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Marine Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) are animals and plants introduced accidently or deliberately into the European seas, originating from other seas of the globe. About 800 marine non-indigenous species (NIS) currently occur in the European Union national marine waters, several of which have negative impacts on marine ecosystem services and biodiversity. Under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Descriptor 2 (D2), EU Member States (MSs) need to consider NIS in their marine management strategies. The Descriptor D2 includes one primary criterion (D2C1: new NIS introductions), and two secondary criteria (D2C2 and D2C3). The D2 implementation is characterized by a number of issues and uncertainties which can be applicable to the Descriptor level (e.g. geographical unit of assessment, assessment period, phytoplanktonic, parasitic, oligohaline NIS, etc.), to the primary criterion D2C1 level (e.g. threshold values, cryptogenic, questionable species, etc), and to the secondary criteria D2C2 and D2C3. The current report tackles these issues and provides practical recommendations aiming at a smoother and more efficient implementation of D2 and its criteria at EU level. They constitute a solid operational output which can result in more comparable D2 assessments among MSs and MSFD regions/subregions. When it comes to the policy-side, the current report calls for a number of different categories of NIS to be reported in D2 assessments, pointing the need for the species to be labelled/categorised appropriately in the MSFD reporting by the MSs. These suggestions are proposed to be communicated to the MSFD Working Group of Good Environmental Status (GES) and subsequently to the Marine Strategy Coordination Group (MSCG) of MSFD. Moreover, they can serve as an input for revising the Art. 8 Guidelines.

Marine Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) are animals and plants introduced accidently or deliberately into the European seas, originating from other seas of the globe. About 800 marine non-indigenous species (NIS) currently occur in the European Union national marine waters, several of which have negative impacts on marine ecosystem services and biodiversity. Under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Descriptor 2 (D2), EU Member States (MSs) need to consider NIS in their marine management strategies. The Descriptor D2 includes one primary criterion (D2C1: new NIS introductions), and two secondary criteria (D2C2 and D2C3). The D2 implementation is characterized by a number of issues and uncertainties which can be applicable to the Descriptor level (e.g. geographical unit of assessment, assessment period, phytoplanktonic, parasitic, oligohaline NIS, etc.), to the primary criterion D2C1 level (e.g. threshold values, cryptogenic, questionable species, etc), and to the secondary criteria D2C2 and D2C3. The current report tackles these issues and provides practical recommendations aiming at a smoother and more efficient implementation of D2 and its criteria at EU level. They constitute a solid operational output which can result in more comparable D2 assessments among MSs and MSFD regions/subregions. When it comes to the policy-side, the current report calls for a number of different categories of NIS to be reported in D2 assessments, pointing the need for the species to be labelled/categorised appropriately in the MSFD reporting by the MSs. These suggestions are proposed to be communicated to the MSFD Working Group of Good Environmental Status (GES) and subsequently to the Marine Strategy Coordination Group (MSCG) of MSFD. Moreover, they can serve as an input for revising the Art. 8 Guidelines.

Integrating agronomic information into economic models is required for simulating farming systems so as to better determine how agriculture can adapt to a continuously changing global economic and physical environment. In this respect, farm level mathematical programming bio-economic models can provide valuable insights for examining current and future pressures on resource use. Although a necessary condition for the effective use of such models is their calibration against observed data on input use, this information may not always be available, particularly at higher geographical scales. Imperfect or missing input markets pose an additional challenge to modelers. To overcome these difficulties, we present a theoretical framework for calibrating water-nitrogen yield response functions, which are used to represent the bio-physical aspects of crop production in bio-economic farm models at the European Union level. The method is based on the simulation results of an agronomic model, while the calibration criterion derives from the first-order conditions for farmers' profit maximization and utilizes all available information from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The method is tested on maize-producing farms in two regions in France.

One of the requirements of the recently approved EU-BSS (European Basic Safety Standards Directive, EURATOM, 2013) is the design and implementation of national radon action plans in the member states (Annex XVIII). Such plans require radon surveys. The analysis of indoor radon data is supported by the existing knowledge about geogenic radiation. With this aim, we used the terrestrial gamma dose rate data from the MARNA project. In addition, we considered other criterion regarding the surface of Spain, population, permeability of rocks, uranium and radium contain in soils because currently no data are available related to soil radon gas concentration and permeability in Spain. Given that, a Spanish radon map was produced which will be part of the European Indoor Radon Map and a component of the European Atlas of Natural Radiation. The map indicates geographical areas with high probability of finding high indoor radon concentrations. This information will support legislation regarding prevention of radon entry both in dwellings and workplaces. In addition, the map will serve as a tool for the development of strategies at all levels: individual dwellings, local, regional and national administration.