The Rise of Civil Society in Governing Flood Resilience

Flooding is an increasingly urgent problem that causes significant damage and disruption that affects people worldwide, including in the Netherlands and United Kingdom. Rainfall flooding is a growing risk for Dutch cities with recent floods in Arnhem, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht and Zwolle, with predictions of more damage in the future. The United Kingdom is already experiencing more frequent flooding with the February 2020 floods causing an estimated £214m in damages. Civil society and authorities in the Netherlands and United Kingdom are increasingly recognising this greater risk and are questioning how they can become more flood resilient. Steven Forrest focuses on this issue and explores ‘The Rise of Civil Society in Governing Flood Resilience’. Conducted in the Netherlands and England, this PhD research identifies civil society contributing physical actions and resources, knowledge, and advocacy activities for flood resilience. Civil society can take actions that municipalities and authorities cannot do alone, such as adapting property and being first responders to floods. The research suggests societal dialogues over ‘shared responsibility’ between citizens and authorities are needed to outline and agree flood-related responsibilities and to ensure that citizen initiatives get enough resources and support. Furthermore, being flood resilient is more than just waiting for floodwaters to drain away and then fixing the damage – it is about being pro-active and ‘building back better’. Steven argues that we need bold leadership to recognise and support citizen initiatives in managing flooding, to challenge flood-based inequalities, and to enable more transformative flood resilience

TO MARKET, TO MARKET TO SELL FRESH PRODUCE; BUT WHERE? AND WHEN?

Agribusiness,

THE INDUSTRY HAS CHANGED, HAVE YOU? THE AGCO STORY

AGCO Corporation is a success story in the agricultural machinery sector. Utilizing marketing strategies of out-sourcing, cross-over selling, and a full line of products, AGCO markets its own way. In 7 years, AGCO has 18 brands sold through 7,000 dealerships in 140 countries. Acquisition and consolidation powered the growth of AGCO using nontraditional buyout financing. Herein lies its real success.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Identifying Target Markets for Landscape Plant Retail Outlets

Landscape plant retailers must identify target markets to maximize marketing effectiveness. A tobit process is used on a system of three equations with fourteen years of data identifies target markets for different retail outlets. Results, compared with a previous study, show effects of time on target markets.Crop Production/Industries,

Collaborative Lawyers\u27 Duties to Screen the Appropriateness of Collaborative Law and Obtain Clients\u27 Informed Consent to Use Collaborative Law

Collaborative Law (CL) is an innovative dispute resolution process that offers significant benefits but also poses significant non-obvious risks. This Article provides a systematic analysis of these possible risks as identified in books written by CL experts, CL practice group websites, social science research, and bar association ethics opinions. In CL, the lawyers and clients sign a participation agreement promising to use an interest-based approach to negotiation and fully disclose all relevant information. A key element of CL is the disqualification agreement signed by parties (and sometimes by attorneys) which provides that both CL lawyers would be disqualified from representing the clients if the parties engage in contested litigation. CL is designed to encourage parties to stay in the process which can be good, though sometimes parties feel stuck there, having invested thousands of dollars and being at risk of losing their lawyer if the process terminates. Ethical rules require lawyers to inform participants about the risks of the process and screen cases for appropriateness under Rules 1.2 and 1.7 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Empirical studies raise concerns about CL lawyers\u27 compliance with these duties. This article is intended to help prepare CL lawyers and practice groups so that they can better educate potential clients and comply with their obligations to screen cases and help clients make informed decisions about use of CL. It is also intended to help policymakers in promulgating and applying relevant rules. Bar association ethics committees may find this analysis useful in writing ethics opinions and adjudicating possible complaints against CL lawyers. Similarly, courts may find this useful in adjudicating possible malpractice complaints

Serious gaming in flood risk management

Serious gaming is increasingly used to explore important real-world problems and a growing number of serious games are addressing flood-related issues. However, there has been limited synthesis of these attempts and their contributions to the ongoing shift toward a more holistic and governance-based flood resilience perspective in flood risk management (FRM). This international review collates and analyses these attempts in order to develop a knowledge base of serious gaming in the field of FRM. It contains 37 games that were developed with different rationales that include engaging players in the topic of FRM, supporting practice by exploring future options through collaboration, improving communication of FRM, as educational tools, and to collect research data. The gameplay countries and player characteristics, game characteristics, relevance to FRM, game rationales, and collection of data are explored in this paper. Identified serious games provided an unconventional and entertaining approach to engage stakeholders on flood-related issues. The review analyzed the serious games in light of the shift toward flood resilience and identified limitations in the documentation of serious games and their potential in understanding the longer-term impacts of gameplay on players. Furthermore, the vast majority of reviewed games were played in a single country and missed out on understanding the cultural production and perspectives of FRM that could support cross-cultural learning and inspiration for future FRM strategies. Overall, the review identified an important role for serious games in the shift toward governance and the adoption of more holistic flood resilience perspectives. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Methods Science of Water > Water Extremes

Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution

On several occasions during the last eighty years, states have attempted to either prohibit the teaching of evolution in public school science classes or counter the teaching of evolution with mandatory references to the religious doctrine of creationism. The Supreme Court struck down examples of the first two generations of these statutes, holding that they violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. A third generation of creationist legislation is now being proposed. Under this new generation of creationism legislation, science teachers would present so-called “intelligent design” theory as an alternative to evolution. Intelligent design theory asserts that a supernatural intelligence intervened in the natural world to dictate the nature and ordering of all biological species, which do not evolve from lower-to higher-order beings. This article considers whether these intelligent design creationism proposals can survive constitutional scrutiny. The authors analyze the religious, philosophical, and scientific details of intelligent design theory, and assess these details in light of the constitutional doctrine developed by the Court in its previous creationism decisions. The Article discusses several factors that pose problems for intelligent design theory, including the absence of objective scientific support for intelligent design, evidence of strong links between intelligent design and religious doctrine, the use of intelligent design to limit the dissemination of scientific theories that are perceived as contradicting religious teachings, and the fact that the irreducible core of intelligent design theory is what the Court has called the “manifestly religious concept of a God or Supreme Being. Based on these details, the authors conclude that intelligent design theory cannot survive scrutiny under the constitutional framework used by the Court to invalidate earlier creationism mandates