Monitoring payments for watershed services schemes in developing countries

Payments for watershed services (PWS) are schemes that use funds from water users (including governments) as an incentive for landholders to improve their land management practices. They are increasingly seen as a viable policy alternative to watershed management issues, and a means of addressing chronic problems such as declining water flows, deteriorating water quality and flooding. In some places, local governments, donor agencies and NGOs are actively trying to upscale and replicate PWS schemes across the area. While their apparent success and progress in launching new initiatives is encouraging, there is still much to be learned from formative experiences in this field, especially with regard to monitoring and evaluation. In this paper we discuss the monitoring and evaluation criteria behind compliance or transactional monitoring, which ensures that contracts are followed, and effectiveness conditionality, which looks at how schemes manage to achieve their environmental objectives regardless of the degree of compliance. Although the two are usually linked, a high degree of compliance does not necessarily ensure that a scheme is effective. This is because a poorly designed scheme may target the wrong land managers and land that is at least risk, meaning that payments do not generate the desired hydro-ecological or conservation benefits. As the levering capacity to demand payments for better watershed management increases, so does the need to understand the dynamics of such activities and demonstrate their impacts. While the growing interest in such schemes shows that participants believe in the principle of land management, evidence of their impact is needed to determine which initiatives genuinely add value and are worth pursuing

From regional pulse vaccination to global disease eradication: insights from a mathematical model of Poliomyelitis

Mass-vaccination campaigns are an important strategy in the global fight against poliomyelitis and measles. The large-scale logistics required for these mass immunisation campaigns magnifies the need for research into the effectiveness and optimal deployment of pulse vaccination. In order to better understand this control strategy, we propose a mathematical model accounting for the disease dynamics in connected regions, incorporating seasonality, environmental reservoirs and independent periodic pulse vaccination schedules in each region. The effective reproduction number, $R_e$, is defined and proved to be a global threshold for persistence of the disease. Analytical and numerical calculations show the importance of synchronising the pulse vaccinations in connected regions and the timing of the pulses with respect to the pathogen circulation seasonality. Our results indicate that it may be crucial for mass-vaccination programs, such as national immunisation days, to be synchronised across different regions. In addition, simulations show that a migration imbalance can increase $R_e$ and alter how pulse vaccination should be optimally distributed among the patches, similar to results found with constant-rate vaccination. Furthermore, contrary to the case of constant-rate vaccination, the fraction of environmental transmission affects the value of $R_e$ when pulse vaccination is present.Comment: Added section 6.1, made other revisions, changed titl

New wine in old bottles : a case study of innovation territories in 'New World' wine production

This article applies the concept of "innovation territories" to explain the recent export success of the Australian Wine Industry. Recent data collected from four "New World" wine producing countries are contrasted in order to investigate "innovation territories" that in the Australian context transcend geographic and policy boundaries. The international comparison shows that these territories can be mapped and their interaction compared. A major finding from the study is that one of the major contributors to Australia's success in gaining comparative advantage in this industry is the way local and national investments in R&D have transcended geographic and policy boundaries. Coordination driven by strong national policies is required to make this happen. This suggests that "knowledge intensive clusters" driven by national policies can be turned to advantage for regional development. The present study serves to sketch out how the idea of innovation territories might be operationalised for the purpose of future industry policy research

An investigation into the implementation of Pavegen tiles in the Student Union Building

The purpose of this report is to provide the details of a feasibility study regarding the installation of Pavegen tiles in the new Student Union Building at UBC. The study was conducted based on a triple bottom line analysis, considering economic, social and environmental factors of the manufacture, transport, installation, service life and disposal of the product. There is limited information available regarding the manufacturing process of the product as this is considered a trade secret, however a reasonable qualitative/comparative analysis was performed. A qualitative description of the emissions associated with transport and disposal is presented, as well as a quantitative cost analysis of the product through its service life. It is difficult to quantitatively analyze the potential social effects of the project, but by utilizing survey data collected from previous SEEDS project reports on similar topics, a justifiable projection was attained. The report concludes with a summary and analysis of the findings in the form of recommendations as to how the project should move forward. Briefly put, we have determined that the current proposal for an installation of Pavegen tiles is not desirable or in line with the goal of sustainability and increased environmental awareness held by the new SUB. Instead, we suggest an alternative implementation scheme using a smaller number of tiles in conjunction with other innovative green technologies in a space we have tentatively dubbed the "Green Corner." Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”Applied Science, Faculty ofUnreviewedUndergraduat

Definition of a wide swath SAR Final report

European Space Agency contract reportAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3425.9293(ESA-CR(X)--2905) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Definition of a wide swath SAR Final report

European Space Agency contract reportAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3425.9293(ESA-CR(X)--2905) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

The effect of elevated dietary cholesterol on pulmonary surfactant function in adolescent mice

NRC publication: Ye