Suchergebnisse

Full-text available at SSRN. See link in this record. ; This article takes up the increasingly important land use question of siting for renewable energy. As concern over climate change grows, new policies are being crafted at all levels of government to support renewable energy as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These policies are driving the need to site and construct new power plants that will utilize renewable resources. Historically, power plant siting has been the province of state and local governments, so the regulatory context into which renewables are being integrated varies, sometimes significantly, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. To examine this regulatory context, this article focuses on Florida – the third largest consumer of electricity in the U.S. with less than two percent generated from renewable resources. The article first provides an overview of Florida's power supply sector and sets out the existing regulatory context for terrestrial siting of energy facilities. It then situates Florida's most promising renewable resources within that context, identifies regulatory barriers that implicate siting, and considers the siting issues unique to each resource. As the article explains, we now have a window of opportunity in which state and local governments can plan for and guide renewable energy siting – an approach that contrasts with utility-driven planning and siting that has long been standard practice.

This paper is an attempt to answer the question "could there be conflict – in particular, armed conflict – in the Arctic over disputed territory and claims of sovereignty?" In recent years, as climate change has thawed the ice in the northern regions, the prospect of new shipping lanes through once ice-locked corridors, as well as the prospect of access to new oil, gas, and mineral reserves, has led some scholars to believe that conflict could erupt as nations scramble to carve up one of Earth's remaining 'frontiers.' While other scholars have debated the merits of these observations, few have undertaken a rigorous methodological approach that seeks to gauge the likelihood of conflict. This paper is thus an attempt to forge ground in making predictive analysis regarding this question. Using both historical qualitative analysis and statistical methods, I reach two conclusions: first, despite some scholars' forbidding portrayals of the ineluctable coming strife over the Arctic, my research demonstrates that the likelihood of conflict is rather low. Cooperation, not conflict, is the most likely trend for Arctic diplomacy within the foreseeable future. And second, contrary to popular perceptions in the West, it is Canada, not Russia, who has demonstrated the highest relative likelihood of promoting conflict in the future among the nation-states evaluated.

Turkey (Turkiye) lies at the nexus of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Turkey's location, mountains, and its encirclement by three seas have resulted in high terrestrial, fresh water, and marine biodiversity. Most of Turkey's land area is covered by one of three biodiversity hotspots (Caucasus, Irano-Anatolian, and Mediterranean). Of over 9000 known native vascular plant species, one third are endemic. Turkey faces a significant challenge with regard to biodiversity and associated conservation challenges due to limited research and lack of translation into other languages of existing material. Addressing this gap is increasingly relevant as Turkey's biodiversity faces severe and growing threats, especially from government and business interests. Turkey ranks 140th out of 163 countries in biodiversity and habitat conservation. Millennia of human activities have dramatically changed the original land and sea ecosystems of Anatolia, one of the earliest loci of human civilization. Nevertheless, the greatest threats to biodiversity have occurred since 1950, particularly in the past decade. Although Turkey's total forest area increased by 5.9% since 1973, endemic-rich Mediterranean maquis, grasslands, coastal areas, wetlands, and rivers are disappearing, while overgrazing and rampant erosion degrade steppes and rangelands. The current "developmentalist obsession", particularly regarding water use, threatens to eliminate much of what remains, while forcing large-scale migration from rural areas to the cities. According to current plans, Turkey's rivers and streams will be dammed with almost 4000 dams, diversions, and hydroelectric power plants for power, irrigation, and drinking water by 2023. Unchecked urbanization, dam construction, draining of wetlands, poaching, and excessive irrigation are the most widespread threats to biodiversity. This paper aims to survey what is known about Turkey's biodiversity, to identify the areas where research is needed, and to identify and address the conservation challenges that Turkey faces today. Preserving Turkey's remaining biodiversity will necessitate immediate action, international attention, greater support for Turkey's developing conservation capacity, and the expansion of a nascent Turkish conservation ethic. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Rural Visioning Project, a community-based research project in Elk Grove, California, emerged from collaboration between two local community groups and researchers from the University of California, Davis. It is presented as "an exercise in community development," which lends insight into community processes, the meaning of "community" and perceptions of community action by participants and observers. The project provides an example of how participatory research can generate desired community change as well as valid, relevant data. Moreover, the substantive community development issues which emerged from the project have far-reaching impacts and relevance, informing wider conversations around the concept of a "public good," public participation, and capacity building, including how local communities can empower themselves to enact change of their own design rather than follow the status quo and the preferences of vested interests. Related to these issues, we discuss the NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) label and how it is mobilized by both sides in land use disputes to either bolster or demean public legitimacy. The Rural Visioning Project also offers valuable insight into some of the questions, implications, and complexities of the rural-urban interface, revealing divergent experiences of culture, identity and public decision-making.

While it will not cause the devastation of a nuclear weapon, the radiological dispersal event (RDE) is particularly dangerous in that it has the potential to cause major economic disruptions. The purpose of this research was to develop a generalized methodology that can be used to assess economic impacts, resulting from a (RDE), occurring in any location and across any industry. Currently, there is no universal approach for measuring the costs or economic impacts on businesses, or a common framework for conducting an economic impact for a RDE. The objective of this research was to aid in the RDE response effort by providing government planners, officials, and key stakeholders with an (pre-RDE) economic assessment tool which can be used to quantify the economic impacts arising from a RDE, thereby facilitating the strategic decision making process. A random study site was selected to use as a practical application for the research methodology. Through the use of an economic input-output model, the research identified that the economic impacts to the study site's output totaled $1.2 billion, while impacts to labor income totaled $529.6 million. Overall, 21,374 jobs were affected due to the economic disruptions resulting from the RDE. The culmination of this effort was the development of a generalized, "off the shelf", economic impact assessment tool that can be used to estimate the financial impacts of a RDE, or any localized event which disrupts an economy.

What does globalization mean for societies dependent on natural resource extraction? Synthesizing comparative evidence with empirical analysis from Venezuela, the author shows how the "growth pole" model for economic growth translated to an applied model for the spatial transformation of Latin America's resource frontier, and the contradictions this development model engendered. Specifically, he weighs local versus national consequences of Venezuela's variation of the growth pole concept, Ciudad Guayana. Despite unimaginable natural resources and staggering public investments, this forty-year-old frontier metropolis is Latin America's most successful experiment with the model, yet it remains constrained by its status as a source of raw materials. (InWent/DÜI)