186 research outputs found

    Environmentally sustainable practices at UK airports

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    In response to growing concerns about rising energy bills, long-term energy security and the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, airport operators worldwide are increasingly implementing new sustainable practices to help reduce costs, increase efficiency and reduce their environmental impacts. These initiatives include the installation of on-site wind turbines, biomass plants, and ‘smart' heating and lighting systems as well as other ‘green' initiatives including rainwater harvesting initiatives, improved recycling facilities and financial incentives to encourage staff to travel to work by modes other than the private car. Drawing on specific examples, this paper examines the ways in which UK airports have responded to the challenge of reducing the environmental impacts of operations for which they are directly responsible by implementing green and sustainable energy and working practices. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of sustainable airport practices in light of future growth in key emerging aviation markets

    Airport surface access in the UK: A management perspective

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    Air passenger traffic in the UK has increased significantly over the last 30 years, and is forecast to continue to grow for the foreseeable future. A key associated challenge for airports involves the management of airport surface access. Currently, airport surface access in the UK is heavily reliant on trips by private car, which has resulted in congestion on local road networks and raised levels of pollution from vehicle emissions. The paper offers an airport management perspective on airport surface access in the UK. Semi-structured interviews with key personnel responsible for surface access management at 14 UK airports revealed a wide variety of surface access issues and management policies. The need to reduce the share of journeys made by private car is identified as a key issue, with a particular focus on reducing ‘kiss-and-fly’ journeys for passengers. Whilst reducing private car journeys may yield environmental benefits, such strategies are largely at odds with substantial commercial pressures to maximise the revenue potential of airport parking

    An empirical examination of the growing phenomenon of off-site residential car parking provision: the situation at UK airports

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    Parking management is a strategy that has been extensively employed by authorities and organisations world‐wide in an attempt to address traffic‐related congestion and associated environmental impacts. Airports are no exception and parking control and pricing regimes are used to raise additional revenue and manage traffic demand. However, within the last five years a new trend in unregulated off‐site, predominately residential, car parking provision around UK airports has emerged and rapidly grown in popularity. The aim of this paper is to investigate this new phenomenon. Through an in‐depth analysis of three self‐styled „parking marketplace‟ websites, this paper provides an empirical examination of the growing phenomenon of off‐site residential car parking provision around the UK‟s 25 busiest passenger airports. Data is provided on the supply and demand for these alternative spaces, insights into the physical location, attributes, and pricing regimes of these spaces is provided, and the potential implications for airport revenue, parking control, passenger safety/security, and airport‐community relations are discussed. The empirical findings indicate that, while it is still at a relatively early stage, this parking phenomenon is experiencing rapid growth. The paper concludes by contending that airport operators and local authorities need to be cognisant of the existence of, and the challenges and opportunities associated with, alternative parking provision in order to be able to better plan for, and respond to, its complex revenue, planning, environmental, and consumer implications

    Recent Decisions

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    Mapping current issues in administrative justice: austerity and the ‘more bureaucratic rationality’ approach

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    This article critically reviews recent developments in the administrative justice system; in particular, it considers three key themes: improving initial decisions; administrative review; and the future of tribunals. In each of these areas, some aspects of administrative justice work well, but austerity has presented acute challenges in ensuring the fair and just treatment of people through restrictions upon legal aid; the withdrawal of some appeal rights; and the expansion of administrative review. Consequently, the system is moving away from a ‘legal’ model of administrative justice to the ‘bureaucratic rationality’ model, which focuses upon accurate and efficient implementation. However, the reality does not correspond with the goals of the model. Rather than accurate and efficient implementation of policy, what we find is poor decision-making made by junior officials with insufficient quality controls. Digitising tribunals may have potential benefits in terms of increased accessibility. Nonetheless, the prospects for administrative justice are weak

    Tools and data services registry: a community effort to document bioinformatics resources

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    Life sciences are yielding huge data sets that underpin scientific discoveries fundamental to improvement in human health, agriculture and the environment. In support of these discoveries, a plethora of databases and tools are deployed, in technically complex and diverse implementations, across a spectrum of scientific disciplines. The corpus of documentation of these resources is fragmented across the Web, with much redundancy, and has lacked a common standard of information. The outcome is that scientists must often struggle to find, understand, compare and use the best resources for the task at hand. Here we present a community-driven curation effort, supported by ELIXIR—the European infrastructure for biological information—that aspires to a comprehensive and consistent registry of information about bioinformatics resources. The sustainable upkeep of this Tools and Data Services Registry is assured by a curation effort driven by and tailored to local needs, and shared amongst a network of engaged partners. As of November 2015, the registry includes 1785 resources, with depositions from 126 individual registrations including 52 institutional providers and 74 individuals. With community support, the registry can become a standard for dissemination of information about bioinformatics resources: we welcome everyone to join us in this common endeavour. The registry is freely available at https://bio.tools
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