This paper demonstrates a correlation between the extensiveness of infrastructure and national development. This was achieved by considering kilometres of paved roads, kilometres of rail, kilometres of paved runways, quality of shipping ports and quality of urban infrastructure. Data were collected from a variety of sources including the World Bank and the United Nations databases. Measures of the quantity or extensiveness of the infrastructures were normalized based on the populations of the various countries, transforming them into per capita measures, which were then logarithmically transformed to produce indices of the extensiveness of the infrastructures. These indices were then plotted against the national development indicator, the human development index (HDI). Of the infrastructures considered, paved roads per capita index showed the strongest correlation with HDI, while quality of port infrastructure index showed the weakest correlation. When the indices for the different infrastructures were combined into a single index the correlation with HDI appeared to be strongest, highlighting the synergistic effect of different infrastructures when working in tandem. Based on this, the findings of this study support the position of holistically managing a country's infrastructure assets. 相似文献
Issues of resource conservation and development are essentially about choice between alternative uses of land. Resource evaluation in rural planning has usually been based on assessments of land quality or capability in relation to a variety of alternative uses. In the case of wildlife, choices have to be made as to whether the wildlife resource is worth conserving at all and if so, which sites should be used. Considerable efforts have been made to rationalise, improve and make explicit the way in which choices are made, and this paper reviews the current position and draws attention to issues and developments which could lead to improvements in current practice. 相似文献
Although it is well documented that infectious diseases can pose threats to biodiversity, the potential long‐term consequences of pathogen exposure on individual fitness and its effects on population viability have rarely been studied. We tested the hypothesis that pathogen exposure causes physiological carry‐over effects with a pathogen that is uniquely suited to this question because the infection period is specific and time limited. The fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans causes white‐nose syndrome (WNS) in hibernating bats, which either die due to the infection while hibernating or recover following emergence from hibernation. The fungus infects all exposed individuals in an overwintering site simultaneously, and bats that survive infection during hibernation clear the pathogen within a few weeks following emergence. We quantified chronic stress during the active season, when bats are not infected, by measuring cortisol in bat claws. Free‐ranging Myotis lucifugus who survived previous exposure to P. destructans had significantly higher levels of claw cortisol than naïve individuals. Thus, cryptic physiological carry‐over effects of pathogen exposure may persist in asymptomatic, recovered individuals. If these effects result in reduced survival or reproductive success, they could also affect population viability and even act as a third stream in the extinction vortex. For example, significant increases in chronic stress, such as those indicated here, are correlated with reduced reproductive success in a number of species. Future research should directly explore the link between pathogen exposure and the viability of apparently recovered populations to improve understanding of the true impacts of infectious diseases on threatened populations. 相似文献
Rates of progression and transmission of black band disease (BBD) on the staghorn coral, Acropora muricata, were compared between months for seasonal in situ studies and between temperature treatments in experimental aquaria manipulations
at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). In situ field experiments demonstrated that BBD progressed along branches
approximately twice as fast (1.7–2.4 times) during the austral summer month of January (0.99 ± 0.04 cm/day) than in the cooler
months of July (0.58 ± 0.04 cm/day) and May (0.41 ± 0.07 cm/day). Transmission of BBD between colonies was also accelerated
in warmer months, with signs of infection becoming visible 1.2 days earlier in January compared to May. The greater seawater
temperatures by ∼2 to 3°C and light intensities by up to 650 μE/m2/s in January, suggest that rates of progression and transmission of BBD are linked to one or both of these parameters. Manipulative
experiments in summer provide corroborative evidence that elevated temperatures increase rates of BBD progression, with the
disease progressing 1.3 times more rapidly in the 32°C elevated temperature treatment than in the 30°C ambient treatment (1.17 ± 0.06 cm/day
versus 0.92 ± 0.07 cm/day; F2,6 = 7.66, P = 0.022). In contrast, although a trend for greatest BBD progression was measured in elevated temperature treatments of 29°C
(0.46 ± 0.07 cm/day) and 31°C (0.52 ± 0.06 cm/day) in winter, these rates did not differ significantly (F3,7 = 1.72, P = 0.249) from those measured for the ambient 27°C treatment (0.37 ± 0.06 cm/day) or the field controls (0.41 ± 0.09 cm/day).
The lower rates of BBD progression in the 31°C winter treatment (0.52 ± 0.06 cm/day) than in the 30°C (0.92 ± 0.07 cm/day)
summer treatment, may have been a response to 28-fold decreased light irradiance in the former, suggesting that high irradiance
in combination with elevated temperatures may promote progression of BBD. Results from this study indicate that the impact
of elevated temperature on BBD progression is complex with a combination of environmental factors including temperature and
light playing key roles in progression and transmission of the disease. 相似文献
The politics of climate change is much discussed, but there has been little investigation into how politicians themselves understand or articulate the issue. Corpus analysis, a method developed within linguistics, is used to investigate how UK politicians talk about climate change, using the example of the 2008 Climate Change Bill. Corpus techniques, including keyword analysis, collocation and semantic tagging, are used, alongside critical reading of the text. The analysis shows that politicians frame climate change as an economic and technical issue, and neglect discussion of the human and social dimensions. They are selective in their use of scientific evidence, with little mention of abrupt or irreversible change. In doing so, they attempt to ‘tame’ climate change, rather than confronting difficult realities. While this strategy has the benefit of political acceptability, it does not allow for discussion of the full political and social implications of climate change, and precludes more radical responses. 相似文献
Predicted increases in coral disease outbreaks associated with climate change have implications for coral reef ecosystems
and the people and industries that depend on them. It is critical that coral reef managers understand these implications and
have the ability to assess and reduce risk, detect and contain outbreaks, and monitor and minimise impacts. Here, we present
a coral disease response framework that has four core components: (1) an early warning system, (2) a tiered impact assessment
program, (3) scaled management actions and (4) a communication plan. The early warning system combines predictive tools that
monitor the risk of outbreaks of temperature-dependent coral diseases with in situ observations provided by a network of observers
who regularly report on coral health and reef state. Verified reports of an increase in disease prevalence trigger a tiered
response of more detailed impact assessment, targeted research and/or management actions. The response is scaled to the risk
posed by the outbreak, which is a function of the severity and spatial extent of the impacts. We review potential management
actions to mitigate coral disease impacts and facilitate recovery, considering emerging strategies unique to coral disease
and more established strategies to support reef resilience. We also describe approaches to communicating about coral disease
outbreaks that will address common misperceptions and raise awareness of the coral disease threat. By adopting this framework,
managers and researchers can establish a community of practice and can develop response plans for the management of coral
disease outbreaks based on local needs. The collaborations between managers and researchers we suggest will enable adaptive
management of disease impacts following evaluating the cost-effectiveness of emerging response actions and incrementally improving
our understanding of outbreak causation. 相似文献
ABSTRACT. The failure to recognize the learning process in new technologies such as desalting may lead to incorrect water resource investment decisions for two reasons. First, to neglect cost reductions stemming from “learning by doing” implies an overestimation of desalting costs. Second, since learning in a particular plant may result in external (learning) benefits to other plants, these may serve as the basis for a subsidy intended to internalize such benefits. Accordingly, the research reported below includes an estimation of learning functions for desalting and the results of a formulation designed to measure external benefits on the basis of these learning functions. These results are then incorporated into a decision framework for water resource investments which recognizes uncertainty in determining optimal timing of desalting construction. 相似文献
Rebuilding the City: Property‐led Urban Regeneration
P. Healey, S. Davoudi, M. O'Toole, S. Tavsanoglu & D. Usher (Eds)
London, E. & F. N. Spon, 1992, 312 pp., £30
Der Wert stadtnaher Wälder als Erholungsraum: Eine ökonomishce Analyse am Beispiel von Lugano (Value of Urban Forests as Recreational Areas: An Economic Analysis on the Case of Lugano)
Claudia Nielsen
Chur (Switzerland), Verlag Rüegger, 1992, 261 pp., SFr 48
Urban Planning under Thatcherism: The Challenge of the Market
A. Thornley
London, Routledge, 1991, 253 pp., £14.99
Sustainable Development and Urban Form, European Research in Regional Science 2
M. J. Breheny (Ed)
London, Pion, Limited, 1992, 292 pp., £28.00.
Tourism, Museums and the Local Economy: The Economic Impact of the North of England Open Air Musuem at Beamish
Peter Johnson & Barry Thomas
Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 1992, 160 pp., £29.50相似文献