DO SPORTFISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORIES AFFECT RESERVOIR ANGLERS' SITE CHOICE?

Increasing numbers of freshwater ecosystems have had sportfish consumption advisories posted in recent years. Advisories are sometimes issued in lieu of environmental remediation if they are considered more cost-effective than "cleaning up" the resource, but this approach assumes that anglers adjust behavior in response to the warning. Previous studies, however, suggest that compliance with advisories can be quite low. In contrast, this study measures a statistically significant response by reservoir anglers to consumption advisories. In particular, anglers are less likely to choose to visit a reservoir with an advisory than a similar reservoir without an advisory. Furthermore, the economic losses due to advisories are quantified for anglers in two regions of Tennessee.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

PERCEIVED HAZARD AND PRODUCT CHOICE: AN APPLICATION TO RECREATIONAL SITE CHOICE

This study improves upon the standard "dummy variable" approach to modeling fish consumption advisories by jointly estimating a "perceived hazard" model and a site choice model. The perceived hazard model overcomes the shortcomings of the dummy variable model, namely that all anglers respond equally to advisories and that all anglers know of and believe the advisories. We find that anglers' perceived hazards associated with consumption advisories do affect product (recreational site) choice. Anglers' perceptions also affect welfare measures, where the benefits of contaminant removal follow a more reasonable pattern than that of the dummy variable approach. The joint perceived hazard/product choice model is applicable to a wide variety of risky choices with which consumers are faced.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Checklist: Gender-inclusive actionable agro-advisories

This checklist aims to assist producers and translators in developing agro-advisories (forecast and forecast-based advice) that are gender-inclusive and useful for both men and women farmers. It presents five indicators to determine the actionability of such agro-advisories:(1) What information is available?(2) If it is available, is it accessible?(3) If available and accessible, is it on time?(4) If available, accessible, and on time, can end-users understand it?(5) If available, accessible, timely, and understandable, is it useful

Lake Champlain Water Quality: A Study of Public Awareness, Perceptions, and Behavior

Introduction: Lake Champlain serves as a major source of drinking water and a prime recreational area in Vermont. The Vermont Department of Health actively monitors Lake Champlain water quality, generates informational resources, and issues restrictions and advisories as necessary. Key water quality issues include: blue-green algae blooms (BGAB), combined sewer overflow (CSO), mercury-based fish consumption advisories, and suitability for recreational use. Determining public awareness of Lake Champlain water quality, and how perceptions of Lake Champlain water quality influence behavior, are essential to improving communication with at-risk and underinformed populations.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1233/thumbnail.jp

MNS Research to Investigate Mercury Levels in Local Fish

Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Foundation awards grant to RWU faculty/student team to fund research that will help update state’s fish consumption advisories

The Benefits and Costs of Fish Consumption Advisories for Mercury

Mercury contamination of the Chesapeake Bay is a concern to health authorities in the region. We evaluate the economic and health effects of postulated recreational and commercial fishing advisories for striped bass on the Maryland portion of the bay. Awareness of and response to the advisory is estimated using a meta-analysis of the literature. Three values are estimated: welfare losses to recreational anglers, welfare losses in the commercial striped bass fishery, and health benefits. An estimate of percentage of consumer surplus loss is applied to the value of all fishing days in the bay to estimate recreational welfare loss. Welfare losses to the commercial fishery are estimated based on a model of supply and demand. Health benefits are estimated using estimated exposure and epidemiological relationships, and while potentially large, are highly uncertain. Results also suggest most individuals are below advisory standards ex ante, such that advisories should target high-frequency consumers.fisheries, mercury, advisories, recreation, health benefits

Launch of the Ethiopian Digital AgroClimate Advisory Platform (EDACaP) Progress Report on EDACaP Development and Hosting

This brief outlines progress achieved with the establishment of the Ethiopian Digital AgroClimate Advisory Platform (EDACaP) under the CCAFS project P263 (Regional and national engagement, synthesis and strategic research) with support from P1605 (Capacitating African Stakeholders with Climate Advisories and Insurance Development). EDACaP aims to build farmers' resilience through agro-climate advisories that digitally integrate climate, soil, crop and agronomic data and are delivered through SMS, IVRS and radio to development agents and farmers in local languages. It builds on a partnership between the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the National Meteorological Agency, CIAT, ILRI, CIMMYT with additional support from ICRISAT, IRI, and University of Florida

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS AND DRINKING WATER ADVISORIES ACTIVE IN SASKATCHEWAN COMMUNITIES FROM 2012-2016

This research aimed to describe temporal patterns in the number and duration of drinking water advisories in Saskatchewan communities on and off reserve from 2012 to 2016. The analyses included 445 communities – including cities, towns, villages, and reserves – in which 2036 advisories were in effect. The large sample test of proportion was used to compare the observed proportion of advisories issued which occurred on and off reserve to the expected proportion based upon the proportion of communities which experienced an advisory during the study period that were reserve or non-reserve. Comparisons were also conducted which took into account the size of non-reserve communities, the season advisories were issued, the year advisory were issued, and the community’s geographic region. Descriptive statistics were utilized to describe reasons for issuing advisories. The duration of advisories was investigated using the same comparisons, as well as the reason for issuing advisories, using the Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U Test. Reserve drinking water systems were found to have fewer advisories than would be expected when compared to communities off reserve (p<0.01). Advisories on reserve were longer lasting than those off reserve, the median advisory lasted 14 days on reserve and 9 days for the smallest community type off reserve (villages) (p<0.01). Advisories occurred more often in summer for both reserve and non reserve communities. But while advisories were equivalent in duration across seasons off reserve, advisories issued for reserves were significantly longer if they were issued during the winter(p=<0.02). Advisories were issued more often off reserve for depressurization and equipment issues, while power outages, disinfection failures, contamination, and operation deviation were more common on reserve. The analyses included in this study highlight the acute problem of drinking water on reserve and shows that significant work remains to ensure that all Saskatchewan residents have access to safe, potable drinking water. The use of comparison between reserve and non-reserve communities represents an important step forward towards understanding the extent and causes of drinking water disparities across Saskatchewan

Pilots' use of a traffic alert and collision-avoidance system (TCAS 2) in simulated air carrier operations. Volume 1: Methodology, summary and conclusions

Pilots' use of and responses to a traffic alert and collision-avoidance system (TCAS 2) in simulated air carrier line operations are described in Volume 1. TCAS 2 monitors the positions of nearby aircraft by means of transponder interrogation, and it commands a climb or descent when conflicting aircraft are projected to reach an unsafe closest point-of-approach within 20 to 25 seconds. A different level of information about the location of other air traffic was presented to each of three groups of flight crews during their execution of eight simulated air carrier flights. A fourth group of pilots flew the same segments without TCAS 2 equipment. Traffic conflicts were generated at intervals during the flights; many of the conflict aircraft were visible to the flight crews. The TCAS equipment successfully ameliorated the seriousness of all conflicts; three of four non-TCAS crews had hazardous encounters. Response times to TCAS maneuver commands did not differ as a function of the amount of information provided, nor did response accuracy. Differences in flight experience did not appear to contribute to the small performance differences observed. Pilots used the displays of conflicting traffic to maneuver to avoid unseen traffic before maneuver advisories were issued by the TCAS equipment. The results indicate: (1) that pilots utilize TCAS effectively within the response times allocated by the TCAS logic, and (2) that TCAS 2 is an effective collision avoidance device. Volume II contains the appendices referenced in Volume I, providing details of the experiment and the results, and the text of two reports written in support of the program

Fish Advisories: Useful Or Difficult to Interpret?

The authors note that fish and shellfish offer significant exposure to environmental toxins but find that consumer knowledge and other factors may limit efforts to control risk in urban populations