2,565 research outputs found
\u27Takings\u27 Clarified: U.S. Supreme Court Provides Clear Direction
The United States Supreme Court holding in Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. clarified years of takings jurisprudence and overturned a controversial decision in the case of Agins v. City of Tiburon. This article discusses how the Lingle court denounced the âsubstantially advancesâ test created in Agins, as a due process inquiry rather than a proper takings test. The Lingle court instead opted to create a clear four-category paradigm for takings cases, which focuses on the burden the government places on private property rights in order to distinguish takings categories
Year in Review: 2007\u27s Most Significant Land Use Cases
New York courts busily decided a multitude of land use cases due to the increased growth in magnitude and complexity of land use issues. This year, as in the past, the authors provide a summary describing some of the most crucial New York land use cases. This yearâs cases include the following topics: review of local board action, takings law, eminent domain, enforcement, jurisdiction, religious land uses, standing, moratoria, and New Yorkâs State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA)
Despite Alarmists, \u27Kelo\u27 Decision Protects Property Owners and Serves the General Good
The United States Supreme Courtâs decision in Kelo v. City of New London, has spurred national debate, as many people portray the courtâs decision as a damaging blow to private property rights. In Kelo, the court confirmed local governmentâs ability to condemn property in an area designated as blighted by the state, in order to encourage economic development. This article highlights several positive examples of this sort of condemnation in New York case law, where the public interest was served by economic redevelopment. The article goes further, to distinguish several legal decisions from Kelo, where courts invalidated condemnations upon a finding that the condemnations would serve private interests rather than public interest
Zoning for Solar Energy: Resource Guide
This document is designed to help New York State localities amend zoning and other land use regulations to permit the development of solar energy systems in their jurisdictions. While it applies to many types of solar energy systems, this resource guide focuses primarily on solar electric or photovoltaic (PV) systems. It begins by describing the local governmentâs role in land use planning and regulation. It then discusses the importance of defining all solar energy systems that a community wants to allow in existing zoning districts and shows how to incorporate those definitions in the zoning ordinance. Next, the guide explains how a municipality can amend zoning to permit these systems either as principal, secondary, accessory, or specially permitted land uses in existing zoning districts, as well as how to exempt certain systems from zoning altogether. The resource then explains how relevant bulk and area requirements must be amended to accommodate permitted solar energy systems. Subsequently, the guide discusses how to amend site plan requirements to include standards for solar energy systems, examines how local governments can modify environmental impact review under SEQRA, and considers the role of other local boards in streamlining the approval process for solar energy systems. Beyond permitting solar energy systems, the guide discusses ways to amend land use laws to either require or encourage them. Throughout, this document provides helpful resources and examples that communities can use when regulating to allow, encourage, or require various solar energy systems. Although land use terminology may vary by regional and jurisdictional practice, the examples generally represent approaches discussed throughout the guide. The examples are intended to be illustrative samples and are not intended to be an endorsement of the content
The Atmosphere Explorer power subsystem
The design and operation of the power subsystem for the Atmospheric Explorer spacecraft are discussed. The additional functional redundancy which was added in several component areas to improve the overall subsystem reliability is analyzed. The battery charging technique has been modified to include third electrode overcharge control. The automatic removal of all battery charge is provided to correct abnormally high battery voltages. An undervoltage detector has been added which removes all nonessential spacecraft loads when the battery voltage falls below a given level. All automatic functions can be over-ridden by ground command
Land Use Planning for Solar Energy: Resource Guide
This document was created to help New York State localities develop and adopt solar friendly policies and plans. It begins by presenting the local governmentâs role in land use planning and regulation and introduces common characteristics of âsolar friendlyâ communities. The resource then describes how municipalities should begin a solar energy initiative through an official policy statement that provides support for solar energy and that authorizes a task force to shepherd the process, appropriate studies, training programs for staff and board members, inter-municipal partnerships, and outside funding sources. Next, the document explains how municipalities should engage the entire community in the solar energy initiative process to ensure support for the initiative and its implementation. Finally, the resource presents local planning best practices that communities can incorporate into their comprehensive plans, subarea plans, or other plans. Throughout, this document provides helpful resources and examples that communities can use to develop effective solar energy policies and plans
Variabitity on decadal scales in Pacific sea surface temperatures and atmosphere ocean interaction in the coupled general circulation model ECHAM4/OPYC3
The work presented in this thesis consists of both practical development and analytical investigation of a run with the coupled climate model ECHAM4/OPYC3. The practical aspect involved the devel- opment of a coupling interface for synchronizing ECHAM and OPYC and performing the regridding of the surface fluxes and SST. The numerical treatment of the regridding problem is innovative in coupled climate modelling. A meshwidth refinement strategy in analogy to interpolatory subdivision, widespread in Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD), was developed which preserves positiv- ity for fields such as river discharge. It includes special treatment of the irregular domain given by ocean grid points only and employs open boundaries at the latitudinal extremities. The annual mean flux adjustment used was based on ideas by Oberhuber (pers. comm.), in collaboration with whom a scheme for heat flux adjustment for sea ice covered grid points was implemented. The coupled model simulation for the Pacific reproduces the mean climate simulated by the uncou- pled model as discussed in Roeckner et al. (1996b). Temperature, zonal wind, 500 hPa height and preciptation annual mean and seasonal results deviate little from the uncoupled reference. For sea surface temperature (SST) the seasonal cycle of warm pool and cold tongue extent is similar to observations, apart from cooling in the north-eastern warm pool area about one month prematurely and a premature termination of the cold tongue cold phase. Surface heat fluxes and wind stress agree with the Oberhuber (1988) and ECMWF reanalysis climatologies, respectively, if the uncertainties in the heat flux climatology, e.g. over the warm pool domain, are taken into account. Exceptions are excessive heat flux in areas with stratus over the eastern subtropical oceans and the substantial over- estimation of boreal summer south-eastern trades on the equator. Mixed layers are predicted success- fully. The tropical thermocline and currents due to the use of isopycnic coordinates are located correctly, but currents are artificially broadened and attain only about half the observed maximum speeds. Sea ice seasonal evolution agrees with observations except for underestimated Antarctic win- ter sea ice cover. Decadal scale Pacific SST variability was mostly captured by the projection onto two modes. One mode was linearly related to decadal eastern equatorial Pacific cold tongue ('CT') variability. The other, termed the 'NP' (North Pacific) mode, was obtained as the dominant mode of an SVD analysis of Pacific domain SST and 500 hPa geopotential height both of which had first been transformed to residual fields by removing the variability linearly related to the CT index. These modes were found both in the coupled control integration and in an integration of the ECHAM4 model with the bound- ary condition prescribed from the GISST 2.2 dataset Explained fractions of variance for these modes of covariability of SST and the general circulation are substantially greater than expected for a null continuum. The associated regression pattems closely resembled the pattems of Pacific SST variability found by Deser and Blackmon (1995) or those found inZhang et al. (1996). A regression analysis for zonal wind and temperature on latitude-pressure sections both at 160o E and 160o'W was performed to address the problem of a robust atmospheric response to the two types of SST anoma- lies. A significant signal consistent with equivalent barotropic structure and thermal wind balance was associated with each mode. Due to the substantial midlatitude contribution found in the NP mode SST pattern, the regression result is of interest regarding the persistent controversy as to whether midlatitude SST has a detectable influence on the extratropical circulation (Namias, 1959, Pitcher et al., 1988, Latif and Barnett, 1994, Peng et al., 1997). The CT related anomalies were con- sistent with a weakened Walker circulation familiar from ENSO, consistent with which there waslso a North East Pacific response (Roeckner et al., 1996a). The analysis of SST tendency terms examined heat flux components, but also lateral and vertical heat fluxes through the depth of the mixed layer. Heat fluxes for the CT mode exhibit negative corre- lation dominated by latent heat flux and shortwave radiation, mostly confined to the tropics as in the study by Lau and Nath (1994). For the decadal scale, a sizable negative correlation with the CT pat- tem was found for shortwave radiation between 10o N and25o N along the northern flank of the tri- angular tropical SST anomaly, explained by anomalous moisture convergence in the PBL and associated midlevel convection. For the NP mode, positive shortwave radiative flux anomalies asso- ciated with negative SST anomalies were found near the date line south of the equator. The other prominent signal for this mode consisted in turbulent heat flux in the westem North Pacific associ- ated with warm SST anomalies, heating the surface south-east of Japan but cooling it further north. In the eastern subtropical North Paciflc the anomalous heat budget was dominated by upwelling (downwelling) associated with cold (warm) SST anomalies. For both modes this could be attributed to oceanic Rossby waves in consequence of more than one ENSO (cf. Meyers et al., 1996). The North Pacific SST anomalies were predominantly maintained by the advective Ekman contribution. Applying Sverdrup balance, the wind stress anomalies associated with a warm (cold) midlatitude SST anomaly implied anomalous meridional convergence (divergence) in the thermocline. A com- plex regression analysis of sea level confirmed this ocean response. It also corroborated the Rossby wave mechanism for the CT mode, yielding patterns similar to the coupled model study by Yukimoto et al. (1996). The results for the NP mode were similar to those obtained in the coupled models of Latif and Barnett (1994) and Storch (1994). Difference patterns for periods after and before the 1976 'climate shift' shown for SST by Namias (1979), for SLP by Trenberth (1990) and for net surface heat flux and wind stress by Yasuda and Hanawa(1996) were found to be reproduced by the coupled model in terms of the regression pattems for the NP mode.Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt technische Entwicklungsarbeiten und statistische Analysen des Autors hinsichtlich des gekoppelten AtmosphĂ€re-Ozean-Klimamodells ECHAM4/OPYC3. Der technische Beitrag des Autors besteht in der Entwicklung eines eigenstĂ€ndigen Programmpaketes und der Modifikation des Datenflusses beider Einzelmodelle derart, daĂ eine synchron gekoppelte Simulation beider Komponenten ablĂ€uft. FĂŒr die tĂ€gliche Ăbergabe der FlĂŒsse von WĂ€rme, Impuls und turbulenter kinetischer Energie an der MeeresoberflĂ€che sowie von Netto-Niederschlag und FluĂeintrag wurde ein in der gekoppelten Klimamodellierung neuartiges numerisches Verfahren ent- wickelt. Integralerhaltende Gittertransformation von ECHAM zu OPYC wird eruielt, indem ein von ECHAM berechneter FluĂ an der MeeresoberflĂ€che zunĂ€chst als Histogramm auf dem rekursiv ver- feinerten Gitter dargestellt und anschlieĂend durch einfache FlĂ€chenmittelung auf das Gitter in OPYC ĂŒbertragen wird. Der Fall der PositivitĂ€t, z. B. beim FluĂeintrag, wird benicksichtigt. Die durch KĂŒsten gegebenen irregulĂiren RandstĂŒcke und die meridionale EinschrĂ€nkung auf Tropen und Subtropen werden geeignet behandelt. Die Simulation verwendet nach Oberhuber (pers. Mitteilg.) eine FluĂkorrektur, die keinen Jahresgang aufweist und nur auf die FlĂŒsse von 'WĂ€rme und Frisch- wasser (Kombination von Niederschlag, Verdunstung und FluĂeintrag) wirkt. Das mittlere Klima der gekoppelten Kontrollsimulation stimmt gut mit dem des ungekoppelten At- mosphĂ€renmodells ĂŒberein (Roeckner et al.1996b). Temperatur, Zonalwind, geopotentielle Höhe der 500-hPa-F1Ă€che und Niederschlag weichen im Jahres-,'Winter- und Sommermittel wenig vom ungekoppelten Modus ab. Der Jahresgang der in OPYC berechnete MeeresoberflĂ€chen-TĂŸmperatur (engl. 'sea surface temperature', SST) reproduziert die Beobachtungen, abgesehen von einer etwa ei- nen Monat verfrĂŒht einsetzenden AbkĂŒhlung des nordöstlichen Randbereichs im westpazifischen Warmwassergebiet und einem vorzeitigen Ăbergang von der Kalt- zur Warmphase in Bereich der kalten Zunge im östlichen Ăquatori aIpazifrk. OberflĂ€chenflĂŒsse von 'WĂ„irme und Impuls liefert die Simulation in guter Ăbereinstimmung mit der Klimatologie von Oberhuber (198S) bzw. der Reana- lyse des EuropĂ€ischenZentrums ftir Mittelfrist-V/ettervorhersage (EZMW). Ausnahmen hiervon bil- den ĂŒberhöhte V/Ă„irmefluĂ-'Werte in Bereichen maritimer Stratusbewölkung und deutlich ĂŒberhöhte 'Werte der'Windschubspannung (:ImpulsfluĂ) im Ăquatorialpazifrkim nordhemispĂ€rischen Sommer. Der Jahresgang der Tiefe der ozeanischen Deckschicht wird von OPYC mit gutem Erfolg simuliert. Dank der in LĂ€nge, Breite und Zeit variierenden vertikalen Diskretisierung nach Isopyknen haben Ă€quatoriale Strömungen und Sprungschicht (Thermokline) einen realistischen Verlauf, doch zeigen die Strömungen eine erheblich ĂŒberschĂ€tzte laterale Ausdehnung und nur etwa die HĂ€lfte der beob- achteten Maximalgeschwindigkeiten. Die simulierte Meereisbedeckung reproduziert die Beobach- tungen, abgesehen von einer UnterschĂ€tzung der antarktischen Eisausdehnung im Wintermaximum. Im wesentlichen lĂ€Ăt sich die simulierte dekadische VariabilitĂ€t der SST im Pazifik durch ein Paar Indexzeitreihen und die zugehörigen Regressionsmuster der SST darstellen. Der erste Index be- schreibt den durch TiefpaĂfilterung mit Transmission fĂŒr dekadische und lĂ€ngere Skalen gewonne- nen Anteil der VariabilitĂ€t in der Ă€quatorialen kalten Zunge (engl. 'cold tongue', CT). Der zweite Index wird als 'NP'-Index (fĂŒr 'Nordpazifik') bezeichnet und ergibt sich als Entwicklungskoeffizient fĂŒr das fĂŒhrende Paar singulĂ€rer Vektoren in der SingulĂ€rwertzerlegung ('SVD') der Kreuzkovari- anzmaftix der nach Elimination des CT-Anteils verbleibenden ResidualgröĂen pazifischer SST und der geopotentiellen Höhe der 500-hPa-FlĂ€che. Beide Indizes können aufgrund des jeweiligen Anteils erklĂ„irter Yarianz, der deutlich ĂŒber dem fĂŒr ein Nullkontinuum erwarteten V/ert liegt, als Moden derKovariabilitĂ€t pazifrscher SST und der allgemeinen Zirkulation auf dekadischen und lĂ€ngeren Zeit- skalen angesehen werden. Beide Moden wurden sowohl fĂŒr die gekoppelte Kontrollsimulation als auch fĂŒr eine multidekadische Simulation mit ECHAM4 unter Vorgabe von SST des GISST 2.2Da- tensatzes erhalten. Meridionalschnitte bei 160" E und 160" W fĂŒr Temperatur und Zonalwind zeigen signifikante Regressionsmuster, die der thermischen Windgleichung genĂŒgen. Da das SST-Muster des NP-Index wesentliche BeitrĂ€ge im Nordpazifrk zeigt, weist dies auf mögliche Verursachung von Zirkulationsanomalien durch extratropische SST hin, woniber bis heute eine Kontroverse besteht (Namias 1 959, Pitcher et al. 1 988, Latif und Barnett 1.994, Peng et al. 1997). Bzgl. des CT-Index be- schreiben die Regressionsmuster eine AbschwĂ€chung der Ă€quatorialen zonalen 'Walker'-Zirkulation, wie sie auch bei einem El-Niño/SĂŒdliche-Oszillations-Ereignis (ENSO) auftritt, sowie eine entspre- chende Reaktion in mittleren Breiten im Nordpazifik (vgl. Roeckner et al., 1996a). Mittels linearer Regression fĂŒr beide Indizes wurde die Bedeutung der einzelnen Tendenzterme in der SST-Gleichung unter besonderer BerĂŒcksichtigung der turbulenten und strahlungsbedingten An- teile am WĂ€rmefluĂ an der MeeresoberflĂ€che untersucht. Letztercr zeigtbzgl des CT-Index ein auf die Tropen konzentriertes Muster mit vorwiegend negativer Korrelation und wird im wesentlichen durch den FluĂ latenter Wtirme und die absorbierte kurzwellige Strahlung bestimmt. Dies wurde fĂŒr interannuale Skalen von Lau und Nath (1994) in Ă€hnlicher Form festgestellt. Im Unterschied zu de- ren Ergebnissen fĂŒhrt die Konzentration auf dekadische Skalen zu erheblichen Werten der Regressi- on des'WĂ€rmeflusses in einem Bereich von 15o N bis 25" N, was der Nordflanke der meridional auf Dreiecksgestalt verbreiteten ENSO-Ă€hnlichen SST-Anomalie entspricht. Hier dominiert die Ab- schwĂ€chung der kurzwelligen Strahlung aufgrund anomaler bodennaher Konvergenz und dadurch bedingte vermehrte mittelhohe Konvektion. Beim NP-Index ergibt sich im Zentral-lWestpazifik leicht sĂŒdlich des Ăquators vermehrte Einstrahlung bei negativen SST-Anomalien, wĂ€hrend im west- lichen Nordpazifik bei positiven SST-Anomalien der Netto-V/Ă„irmefluĂ eine ErwĂ„irmung der Meeres- oberflĂ€che sĂŒdöstlich von Japan sowie eine AbkĂŒhlung weiter nördlich bewirkt. Im nordöstlichen subtropischen Pazifik dominiert fĂŒr positive (negative) SST-Anomalien die AbschwĂ€chung (VerstĂ€r- kung) des AbkĂŒhlungseffekts infolge aus der Thermokline in den turbulenten Deckschichtbereich aufsteigenden'Wassers. Dies lĂ€Ăt sich fĂŒr beide Indizes im wesentlichen als Auswirkung von Störun- gen der Thermokline infolge subtropischer Rossbywellen-AktivitĂ€t im Zusammenhang mit aufein- anderfolgenden ENSO-Ereignissen interpretieren (vgl. Meyers et aL. 1996). FĂŒr die nordpazifischen SST-Anomalien in mittleren Breiten sind anomale advektive'WĂ„irmeflĂŒsse infolge Ekman-Drift maĂ- geblich. Hier ergibt eine qualitative Argumentation unter Annahme Sverdrupscher Strömung ftir die zu positiven (negativen) SST-Anomalien assoziierten Windschubanomalien anomale Konvergenz (Divergenz) in der Thermoklinen. Diese Thermoklinenreaktion wurde durch eine komplexwertige Regression des'Wasserstandes bzgl. der beiden Indizes bestĂ€tigt, ebenso die Rolle von Rossbywel- lenaktivitĂ€t in den Subtropen. Die komplexe Regression ergab fĂŒr den CT-Index qualitative Ăberein- stimmung mit dem bei Yukimoto et al. (1996) beschriebenen gekoppelten Modell, wĂ€hrend fĂŒr den NP-Index Modellergebnisse von Storch (1994) und Latif und Barnett (1994) reproduziert wurden. Ubereinstimmung zeigen die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden gekoppelten Simulation mit Analysen von Beobachtungen im Hinblick auf die 1976 verzeichnete 'Klimaverschiebung' im nordpazifischen Raum. Differenzmuster fĂŒr ZeĂtrĂĄume nach und vor diesem Ereignis finden sich bzgl. SST bei Nami- as (1979), bzgl. Bodendruck bei Trenberth (1990) sowie bzgl. der FlĂŒsse von V/Ă„irme und Impuls an der MeeresoberflĂ€che bei Yasuda und Hanawa (1996). Diesen entsprechen in der gekoppelten Simu- lation die Regressionsmuster des NP-Index
Exacting Tests: Determining When a Taking Is Unconstitutional
In the past, courts generally deferred to legislatures when determining whether a law constitutes a regulatory taking. However, not all regulations are treated equal, and different tests apply to different types of regulations. Types of land use actions with a lower threshold of constitutionally include exactions, and regulations that apply fixed fee schedules to private landowners. This article combs both federal and New York law to come to the clear determination that universal standards exist for each type of regulation
Local Housing Efforts: The Maturation of Laws Promoting Affordability
A shortage of workforce housing, especially in the New York metropolitan area where real estate prices are rapidly increasing, has long been a critical land use issue. Since amendments to New York state law that explicitly stated municipalitiesâ implied power to incentivize affordable housing, municipalities have begun to create innovative laws to promote affordable housing. This review describes some of the basic concepts behind the affordable housing movement, and the considerations of local legislatures in defining, and providing for affordable housing
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