Challenging Homelessness

I had been homeless for about 28 hours. I sat on a sidewalk in Georgetown with a friend holding a cardboard sign that read, “Put a Smile on Our Faces” with a Dunkin Donuts cup at our feet. In the two and a half hours we sat there, hundreds of people passed, hundreds of people avoided eye contact, hundreds of people detoured around the lamppost on the street side of the sidewalk. A few people glanced at our sign. [excerpt

Carving Out Policy Space for Sustainability in Biofuel Production

Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are increasingly promoted as green alternatives to petroleum-derived transport fuels. Scaling up feedstock production to produce enough biofuel to displace a significant portion of current petroleum demand will put pressure on land and water resources both domestically and internationally, however, and could potentially be accompanied by unacceptable changes in landscape-level land use patterns and provisioning of ecosystem services. Ensuring that feedstock production is sustainable and that biofuels provide the social and environmental benefits that are often attributed to them will require a carefully designed portfolio of agricultural, forestry, energy, and trade policies related to biofuels and feedstock production. Despite the difficulties associated with development and application of such policies, they should be in place before further policy incentive is provided for expansion of biofuel industries.biofuels, sustainability, land use, greenhouse gas accounting, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

CPR and ECC

This practical workshop will demonstrate the following Emergency and Critaickl Care techiques: Cardioplumonary Resuscitation. Thoracocentesis. Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation. Delegates will then be provided with the opportunity to practice the techniques themeselves on professional mannequins

Studies on the Hydroptilidae (Trichoptera) : morphology, phylogeny, taxonomy and distribution

Imperial Users onl

MODELING STRATEGIC INTERACTIONS IN LAND-USE DECISION MODELS

Replaced with revised version of paper 11/18/02.Land Economics/Use,

USING OPTIMAL CONTROL TO CHARACTERIZE THE ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SPATIAL EXTERNALITIES

This study uses optimal control theory to examine the dynamic features of agricultural landscapes characterized by spatial externalites. A stylized system of agricultural production and groundwater flow is used to illustrate how spatial externalities affect land use decisions over time. Policy alternatives are also considered.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Modeling Recreational Amenities in an Urban Setting: Location, Congestion, and Substitution Effects

In this article, we introduce a recreational amenity—a greenbelt park—into a simple urban economic model. For multiple possible park placements, we solve for the associated equilibrium urban structure, including the equilibrium rent gradient, city boundary, total number of park visits, the overall utility level, and total vehicle miles traveled. We examine how these change with alternative park placement sites. We then show how two modifications of the basic model—allowing congestion at the site to affect site quality, and introducing the possibility of a substitute site at the city’s periphery—affect our conclusions about how greenbelt location influences urban structure.urban structure, greenbelt, congestion, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

USING DEA AND VEA TO EVALUATE QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES

In this study we use data envelopment analysis (DEA), and an extension of DEA called value efficiency analysis (VEA), to explore the production of quality of life within counties in the mid-Atlantic region and the extent to which production frontiers and efficiency differ between rural and urban counties. These methods allow us to identify counties that are inefficient in their quality of life production, and to rank those counties according to their distance from a performance standard established by other observed counties (using DEA), or by a single unit designated as most preferred (using VEA) .International Development,

URBAN PLANNING AND THE LOCATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AMENITIES

In this paper, we use a simple urban economic model to study how choosing park locations within a city might contribute towards urban planning goals. For multiple possible park placements, we solve for the associated equilibrium urban structure, including the equilibrium rent gradient, city boundary, total number of park visits, the overall utility level, and total vehicle miles traveled. We then examine how these change with alternative park placement sites. We find that, as a prescription for reducing urban sprawl, park provision has mixed results. When placed close to the central business district, the park can result in an increase in inner city housing density; such placement could help ameliorate problems of commuter traffic congestion related to urban sprawl. Parks placed further out toward the periphery, although consistent with improved accessibility and utility maximization, have the opposite effect pulling residents away from the central business district and thereby likely worsening the congestion problem related to commuter traffic.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy,