Vann, juss og samfunn

Society’s use and management of water relies on professional expertise spanning diverse fields: from biology and technology to economics and law. This book examines current issues related to regulating water through chapters summarizing various sets of regulation as well as chapters that take a scientific deep dive into selected themes. The diversity of professional expertise is also reflected in the law aspect. We explore such subjects as surface runoff, natural disasters, drinking water, groundwater, salmon, hydropower, and human rights, as well as general impact assessment requirements and duty of knowledge in environmental law administration. A key objective of the book has been to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the legal circumstances associated with water, and in addition, deliberate the pros and cons of some of the current regulations. This book will be particularly useful for those who in various ways support and facilitate procedures within the public sector at both the national and municipal levels. It will also be useful for private sector actors seeking familiarity with legal questions that can arise in relation to public administration and other private actors. From a broader perspective, we hope the book can help to throw light on conflicts between different interests and groups within society that occur, for example, when introducing fees, special injunctions against private actors, and requirements for knowledge basis. This book project is the result of legal research conducted at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and is supplemented by national expertise in several areas. It has been edited by Steinar Taubøll, a professor at NMBU’s Department of Property and Law. Taubøll has a background in both law and the natural sciences, and extensive experience with interdisciplinary work.Håndtering og bruk av vann i samfunnet krever et faglig mangfold fra biologi og teknikk til økonomi og juss. Denne boken drøfter aktuelle temaer knyttet til rettslig regulering av vann, både i form av oversiktskapitler om ulike regelsett og gjennom vitenskapelige dypdykk i utvalgte temaer. Den faglige spennvidden gjenspeiler seg også innen det juridiske. I boken finner man stoff om overvannshåndtering, naturfare, drikkevann, grunnvann, villaks, kraftutbygging, menneskerettigheter, samt om generelle utredningskrav og kunnskapsplikter i miljørettsforvaltning. Et sentralt siktemål er å bygge opp tverrfaglig forståelse av gjeldende juridiske forhold knyttet til vann, og dessuten sette noen av dagens reguleringer under debatt. Boken retter seg særlig til de ressurspersonene som på ulike måter støtter saksbehandlingen i stat og kommune. Boken antas også å være nyttig for private aktører som vil gjøre seg mer kjent med rettsspørsmål som kan oppstå i forhold til forvaltningen og til andre private aktører. I et bredere perspektiv er det dessuten ønskelig at boken kan bidra til å belyse konflikter mellom ulike hensyn og grupper i samfunnet, for eksempel ved innføring av gebyrer, pålegg rettet mot private, innføring av tyngende vilkår og krav til kunnskap og faktagrunnlag. Bokprosjektet springer ut av den juridiske forskningen ved Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet, og har i tillegg knyttet til seg nasjonal spisskompetanse på mange temaer. Bokas redaktør er dosent Steinar Taubøll ved Institutt for eiendom og juss ved NMBU, som har naturfaglig og juridisk utdannelse, samt lang erfaring med tverrfaglig arbeid

Vann, juss og samfunn

Society’s use and management of water relies on professional expertise spanning diverse fields: from biology and technology to economics and law. This book examines current issues related to regulating water through chapters summarizing various sets of regulation as well as chapters that take a scientific deep dive into selected themes. The diversity of professional expertise is also reflected in the law aspect. We explore such subjects as surface runoff, natural disasters, drinking water, groundwater, salmon, hydropower, and human rights, as well as general impact assessment requirements and duty of knowledge in environmental law administration. A key objective of the book has been to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the legal circumstances associated with water, and in addition, deliberate the pros and cons of some of the current regulations. This book will be particularly useful for those who in various ways support and facilitate procedures within the public sector at both the national and municipal levels. It will also be useful for private sector actors seeking familiarity with legal questions that can arise in relation to public administration and other private actors. From a broader perspective, we hope the book can help to throw light on conflicts between different interests and groups within society that occur, for example, when introducing fees, special injunctions against private actors, and requirements for knowledge basis. This book project is the result of legal research conducted at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and is supplemented by national expertise in several areas. It has been edited by Steinar Taubøll, a professor at NMBU’s Department of Property and Law. Taubøll has a background in both law and the natural sciences, and extensive experience with interdisciplinary work

Quality issues in georeferencing: from physical collections to digital data repositories for ecological research

Natural history collections constitute an enormous wealth of information of Life on Earth. It is estimated that over 2 billion specimens are preserved at institutions worldwide, of which less than 10% are accessible via biodiversity data aggregators such as GBIF. Moreover, they are a very important resource for eco¿evolutionary research, which greatly depends on knowing the precise location where the specimens were collected in order to characterize the environment in which they lived. Yet, only about 55% of the accessible records are georeferenced and only 31% have coordinate uncertainty information, which is critical for conducting rigorous studies. The awareness of this gap of knowledge which hinders the enormous potential of such data in research led to the organization of a workshop which brought together key players in georeferencing of natural history collections. The discussion and outcomes of this workshop are here presented

Quality issues in georeferencing: from physical collections to digital data repositories for ecological research

Natural history collections constitute an enormous wealth of information of Life on Earth. It is estimated that over 2 billion specimens are preserved at institutions worldwide, of which less than 10% are accessible via biodiversity data aggregators such as GBIF. Moreover, they are a very important resource for eco¿evolutionary research, which greatly depends on knowing the precise location where the specimens were collected in order to characterize the environment in which they lived. Yet, only about 55% of the accessible records are georeferenced and only 31% have coordinate uncertainty information, which is critical for conducting rigorous studies. The awareness of this gap of knowledge which hinders the enormous potential of such data in research led to the organization of a workshop which brought together key players in georeferencing of natural history collections. The discussion and outcomes of this workshop are here presented

Association of common genetic variants in GPCPD1 with scaling of visual cortical surface area in humans

Visual cortical surface area varies two- to threefold between human individuals, is highly heritable, and has been correlated with visual acuity and visual perception. However, it is still largely unknown what specific genetic and environmental factors contribute to normal variation in the area of visual cortex. To identify SNPs associated with the proportional surface area of visual cortex, we performed a genome-wide association study followed by replication in two independent cohorts.Weidentified one SNP (rs6116869) that replicated in both cohorts and had genome-wide significant association (Pcombined = 3.2 × 10-8). Furthermore, a metaanalysis of imputed SNPs in this genomic region identified a more significantly associated SNP (rs238295; P = 6.5 × 10-9) that was in strong linkage disequilibrium with rs6116869. These SNPs are located within 4 kb of the 5′ UTR of GPCPD1, glycerophosphocholine phosphodiesterase GDE1 homolog (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which in humans, is more highly expressed in occipital cortex compared with the remainder of cortex than 99.9% of genes genome-wide. Based on these findings, we conclude that this common genetic variation contributes to the proportional area of human visual cortex. We suggest that identifying genes that contribute to normal cortical architecture provides a first step to understanding genetic mechanisms that underlie visual perception