Legal Challenges and Market Rewards to the Use and Acceptance of Remote Sensing and Digital Information as Evidence

Bakgrund I den nutida forskningen är det essentiellt att företag tar hänsyn till medarbetarnas motivation så att de gynnas av det arbetssätt som tillämpas. En arbetsmetod som blivit allt vanligare är konceptet Lean som ursprungligen kommer från den japanska bilindustrin. Lean har idag utvecklats till ett allmängiltigt koncept som tillämpas i flertalet branscher världen över. Trots att konceptet innebär flertalet positiva aspekter har det fått utstå stark kritik när det kommer till de mänskliga aspekterna och forskare har ställt sig frågan om Lean är "Mean". Kritiken härleds främst till medarbetares arbetsmiljö i form av stress och brist på variation, självbestämmande, hälsa och välmående. Få empiriska studier har däremot genomförts som undersöker konsekvenserna som Lean får på medarbetares upplevda motivation. Syfte Vårt syfte är att undersöka och öka förståelsen för medarbetares upplevelser av motivationen i företag som tillämpar Lean. Vidare har studien för avsikt att utreda om det föreligger en paradox mellan Lean och vad som motiverar medarbetare på en arbetsplats. Metod Studien har utgått från en kvalitativ metod via intervjuer. För att göra en djupare undersökning och analysera hur vårt fenomen, motivation, upplevs i en kontext med Lean tillämpade vi Små-N-studier. Vi har även haft en iterativ forskningsansats som förenat den deduktiva och induktiva ansatsen där studien pendlat mellan teorier och empiriska observationer fram tills det slutgiltiga resultatet. Slutsatser Utefter medarbetarnas upplevelser har vi identifierat att det inte föreligger någon paradox mellan Lean och motivation eftersom övervägande antal medarbetare upplevde att de är motiverade även om företaget tillämpar Lean. Dock har studien kunnat urskilja både stödjande och motverkande faktorer när det kommer till medarbetarnas upplevda arbetsförhållanden som i sin tur inverkar på motivationen. De motverkande faktorerna menar vi främst beror på att arbetsförhållandena i somliga fall innehåller höga prestationskrav, målstyrning samt standardiseringar. Vidare upplevs motivationen överlag som mer positiv när företagen använder en mjukare form av Lean där samtliga medlemmars intressen beaktas.Background In modern research, it is essential that companies consider employees’ motivation so that they benefit from the applied practices. A working method that has become increasingly common is the concept Lean, which has its origin in the Japanese automotive industry. Today, Lean has evolved into a universal concept that is applied in many industries worldwide. Although the concept involves numerous positive aspects it has endured strong criticism when it comes to the human aspects and researchers have raised the question if Lean is "Mean". Criticism is derived primarily to employees’ working conditions in terms of stress and lack, variation, autonomy, health and wellbeing. However, few empirical studies have been carried out that examines the impact that Lean has on employees’ experienced motivation. Aim The aim is to increase the understanding of employees’ experienced motivation in companies that practice Lean. Further on the study has the intention to investigate if there is a paradox between Lean and what motivates employees on work. Methodology The study has been conducted through a qualitative method by interviews and to be able to do a deeper examination and analyze how our phenomenon, motivation, is experienced in a Lean context we applied small-N-studies. Our strategy has been iterative, combining both a deductive and inductive approach, where the study has varied between theories and empirical observations until the final result. Conclusions We have identified that there is no paradox between Lean and motivation since the majority of employees’ experienced that they are motivated even though the company practice Lean. Nevertheless the study shows that there are both supportive and counteractive factors when it comes to the employees’ experienced working conditions. The counteractive factors consists foremost of high performance standards, goal steering and standardizations, and have in some cases a negative influence on the working conditions. Furthermore the experienced motivation is more positive overall when the companies use a softer form of Lean where all the members’ interests are taken into account

Great Lakes Research Review 2004

Several years ago, staff from the Great Lakes Program, the Great Lakes Research Consortium, and New York Sea Grant realized an information gap existed between peer reviewed journal articles and newsletter type information related to Great Lakes research. The Great Lakes Research Review was created to fill that gap by providing a substantive overview of research being conducted throughout the basin. It is designed to inform researchers, policymakers, educators, managers and stakeholders about Great Lakes research efforts, particularly but not exclusively being conducted by scientists affilliated with the Consortium and its member institutions. Each issue has a special theme. Past issues have focused on the fate and transport of toxic substances, the effects of toxics, fisheries issues, and exotic species. The most recent volumes have focused on the Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River and Lake Erie ecosystems, and the research of the New York Great Lakes Protection Fund. The present issue describes some of the research by the MERHAB Project. We gratefully acknowledge all of the contributing authors who willingly shared their research efforts for this publication, especially Greg Boyer for his assistancewith editing and organizing authors. We also wish to thank the SUNY ESF Office of News and Publications for assistance

Remote sensing in shallow lake ecology

Shallow lakes are an important ecological and socio-economic resource. However, the impact of human pressures, both at the lake and catchment scale, has precipitated a decline in the ecological status of many shallow lakes, both in the UK, and throughout Europe. There is now, as direct consequence, unprecedented interest in the assessment and monitoring of ecological status and trajectory in shallow lakes, not least in response to the European Union Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). In this context, the spatially-resolving and panoramic data provided by remote sensing platforms may be of immense value in the construction of effective and efficient strategies for the assessment and monitoring of ecological status in shallow lakes and, moreover, in providing new, spatially-explicit, insights into the function of these ecosystems and how they respond to change. This thesis examined the use of remote sensing data for the assessment of (i) phytoplankton abundance and species composition and (ii) aquatic vegetation distribution and ecophysiological status in shallow lakes with a view to establishing the credence of such an approach and its value in limnological research and monitoring activities. High resolution in-situ and airborne remote sensing data was collected during a 2-year sampling campaign in the shallow lakes of the Norfolk Broads. It was demonstrated that semi-empirical algorithms could be formulated and used to provide accurate and robust estimations of the concentration of chlorophyll-a, even in these optically-complex waters. It was further shown that it was possible to differentiate and quantify the abundance of cyanobacteria using the biomarker pigment C-phycocyanin. The subsequent calibration of the imagery obtained from the airborne reconnaissance missions permitted the construction of diurnal and seasonal regional-scale time-series of phytoplankton dynamics in the Norfolk Broads. This approach was able to deliver unique spatial insights into the migratory behaviour of a potentially-toxic cyanobacterial bloom. It was further shown that remote sensing can be used to map the distribution of aquatic plants in shallow lakes, importantly including the extent of submerged vegetation, which is central to the assessment of ecological status. This research theme was subsequently extended in an exploration of the use of remote sensing for assessing the ecophysiological response of wetland plants to nutrient enrichment. It was shown that remote sensing metrics could be constructed for the quantification of plant vigour. The extrapolation of these techniques enabled spatial heterogeneity in the ecophysiological response of Phragmites australis to lake nutrient enrichment to be characterised and assisted the formulation of a mechanistic explanation for the variation in reedswamp performance in these shallow lakes. It is therefore argued that the spatially synoptic data provided by remote sensing has much to offer the assessment, monitoring and policing of ecological status in shallow lakes and, in particular, for facilitating the development of pan-European scale lake surveillance capabilities for the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). It is also suggested that remote sensing can make a valuable contribution to furthering ecological understanding and, most significantly, in enabling ecosystem processes and functions to be examined at the lake-scale