A Unit-Problem Investigation of Blunt Leading-Edge Separation Motivated by AVT-161 SACCON Research

A research effort has been initiated to examine in more detail some of the challenging flow fields discovered from analysis of the SACCON configuration aerodynamics. This particular effort is oriented toward a diamond wing investigation specifically designed to isolate blunt leading-edge separation phenomena relevant to the SACCON investigations of the present workshop. The approach taken to design this new effort is reviewed along with the current status of the program

Rooted Water Collectives in a Modernist and Neoliberal Imaginary: Threats and Perspectives for Rural Water Commons

Water schemes that rely on user (co-) ownership and collective action have been described in the irrigation sector for a long time. Still, interest in such forms of (co-) investment in the domestic/multiple use sector is more recent. To address the persisting issue of rural water service, (what has been coined) self-supply is proclaimed to be a (supposedly) low-cost, sustainable manner to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). User (co-) investments are to be promoted and realized through the creation of an enabling policy environment and development of, and training on, low-cost technologies through government and NGO support and private sector-steered access to such technologies. In this article, we apply the Rooted Water Collectives (RWC) framework to describe two such schemes, one in South Africa and one in Switzerland. The data collection followed an action research methodology, with the main author being involved in interventions in all three schemes. We show here that these collectives create positions of purpose within societies and that what motivates people is to help themselves and contribute to the greater good of the community. This article shows that interventions to foster and sustain such collective actions that follow a neoliberal/modernist imaginary negatively affect their viability since these collectives, through their other-than-capitalist interactions, form part of and depend on an alternative imaginary. We conclude that interventions aiming to strengthen forms of collective action can only succeed if they recognize contextuality, unequal power relationships, and grass-rooted forms of interdependence and collaboration, and actively build on and work toward such alternative, more convivial imaginaries.</p

Conviviality Under Pressure of Market-Modernist Expertocracy: The Case of Water Commons in Rural Switzerland

Citizens outside of the built-up zone in the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland are self-responsible to establish and maintain their water services. In response many independent, collective water schemes emerged in rural areas. We describe these schemes as commons, since citizens organize legal, institutional, and infrastructural aspects of water access in a collective manner. Since the late 19th century such commons serving farming households have been subsidized by the State. In this article, we develop a conviviality lens to analyze how water commons are being supported and regulated by public institutions. We show how the introduction of neoliberal policy reforms summarized under the term New Public Management (NPM) put pressure on this public support. By describing a specific project in detail, we demonstrate how the failure of a market-modernist expertocracy to recognize these commons as alternative forms of social organization negatively affects their viability. We argue that for the proliferation of these commons their complexity, networked autonomy, and rooted notions of belonging need to be recognised.</p

Pollution in the open oceans: 2009-2013

This review of pollution in the open oceans updates a report on this topic prepared by GESAMP five years previously (Reports and Studies No. 79, GESAMP, 2009). The latter report, the first from GESAMP focusing specifically on the oceans beyond the 200 m depth contour, was prepared for purposes of the Assessment of Assessments, the preparatory phase of a regular process for assessing the state of the marine environment, led jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC)

A Reduced-Complexity Investigation of Blunt Leading-Edge Separation Motivated by UCAV Aerodynamics

A reduced complexity investigation for blunt-leading-edge vortical separation has been undertaken. The overall approach is to design the fundamental work in such a way so that it relates to the aerodynamics of a more complex Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) concept known as SACCON. Some of the challenges associated with both the vehicle-class aerodynamics and the fundamental vortical flows are reviewed, and principles from a hierarchical complexity approach are used to relate flow fundamentals to system-level interests. The work is part of roughly 6-year research program on blunt-leading-edge separation pertinent to UCAVs, and was conducted under the NATO Science and Technology Organization, Applied Vehicle Technology panel