Central Atlantic regional ecological test site: A prototype regional environmental information system

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 12: User evaluation of experimental land use maps and related products from the central Atlantic test site

The author has identified the following significant results. Recommendations resulting from the CARETS evaluation reflect the need to establish a flexible and reliable system for providing more detailed raw and processed land resource information as well as the need to improve the methods of making information available to users

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 10: Environmental problems in the coastal and wetlands ecosystems of Virginia Beach, Virginia

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Beyond the hybrid library : libraries in a Web 2.0 world

Considers the development of social networking and the concept of Web 2.0. Looks at the implications for libraries and how traditional competences remain relevant. Explores what libraries are doing and must do to remain relevan

Land use and environmental assessment in the central Atlantic region

Data from high altitude aircraft, LANDSAT and Skylab were used in a comprehensive regional survey of land use and its associated environmental impact in the Central Atlantic Regional Ecological Test Site (CARETS). Each sensor system has advantages that were demonstrated by producing experimental land use maps and other data products, applying them to typical problems encountered in regional planning and environmental impact assessment, and presenting the results to prospective users for evaluation. An archival collection of imagery, maps, data summaries, and technical reports was assembled, constituting an environmental profile of the central Atlantic region. The investigation was organized into four closely-related modules, a land use information module, an environmental impact module, a user interaction and evaluation module, and a geographic information systems module. Results revealed a heterogeneous user community with diverse information needs, tending, however, definitely toward the higher-resolution sensor data and the larger-scale land use maps and related information products. Among project recommendations are greater efforts toward improving compatibility of federal, state, and local land use information programs, and greater efforts toward a broader exchange of imagery, computer tapes, and land use information derived therefrom

The social power paradigm: causalities, mechanisms, and constructions in the perspective of systems theory

The article outlines and illustrates a new social power paradigm based on an innovative approach to causation, action processes, and social construction. It aims to overcome several of the major limitations of the social science research of Robert Dahl, Steven Lukes, Stefano Guzzini, Michael Mann, John Searle, and Max Weber. The paradigm distinguishes agential, social structural, and material/ecological modalities of power. Moreover, neglected modalities such as meta-power (power over power, transformative power) and relational control are specified and exemplified. Section I provides a brief introduction and background to the theoretical paradigm outlined in the article. The section focuses largely on a major contemporary social theorist of power, Stephen Lukes. The work of a number of other scholars is referred to as well. The limitations of the work of Lukes as well as others such as Robert Dahl, Stefano Guzzini, Michael Mann, John Searle and Max Weber are briefly outlined. Of particular importance is their failure to systematically specify and analyze meta-power, the fundamental powering in any society. 2 Section II briefly presents causal power theory, postulating multiple causalities and powering mechanisms based on concrete actions and algorithms. Three general modalities of power are identified and analyzed: material/ecological forces, social structural and agential influences – typically making up complexes of regulatory mechanisms. Intentionality/non-intentionality and agential/systemic are shown to be critical dimensions. Section III introduces the meta-power conceptualization (power over power, transformative power), distinguishing agential and systemic forms of meta-power. Section IV takes up for discussion several of the key features of the power paradigm. Finally, there is a section of concluding remarks making five points: (1) social power is based on multiple interdependent causal mechanisms that pervade all social life. (2) social power systems (institutional arrangements, socio-technical systems, and infrastructures, are complexes of causality). (3) Most power relations and systems are human constructions (4) Major complex systems of power and meta-power are found in the forms of capitalism, state, socio-technical systems and built environments. (5) The mechanisms (and therefore modalities) of power are being multiplied as new types of causal and control technologies and new socio-technical systems are constructed

Emissions Trading and Intersectoral Dynamics: Absolute versus Relative Design Schemes

This paper examines the interdependence between imperfect competition and emis- sions trading in a two-sector (clean and dirty) economy. We compare the welfare implica- tions of an absolute cap-and-trade scheme (permit trading) with a relative intensity-based scheme (credit trading). We nd unambiguously more clean rms in the long run under credit trading. However, neither emissions trading con guration creates the rst-best out- come: there are too few (many) clean rms under permit (credit) trading. Permit trading dominates credit trading in terms of overall welfare at the long run equilibrium, except when policy is relatively lenient. It is also demonstrated that stricter policy does not necessarily induce the clean sector to grow relative to the dirty sector and we determine under what conditions this holds

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 5: Interpretation, compilation and field verification procedures in the CARETS project

The author has identified the following significant results. Level 2 land use mapping from high altitude aircraft photography at a scale of 1:100,000 required production of a photomosaic mapping base for each of the 48, 50 x 50 km sheets, and the interpretation and coding of land use polygons on drafting film overlays. To enhance the value of the land use sheets, a series of overlays was compiled, showing cultural features, county boundaries and census tracts, surface geology, and drainage basins. In producing level 1 land use maps from LANDSAT imagery, at a scale of 1:250,000 drafting film was directly overlaid on LANDSAT color composite transparencies. Numerous areas of change were identified, but extensive areas of false changes were also noted

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 2, parts A and B: Norfolk and environs; a land use perspective

The author has identified the following significant results. The Norfolk-Portsmouth metropolitan statistical area in southeastern Virginia was the site of intensive testing of a number of land resources assessment methods. Land use and land cover data at three levels of detail were derived by manual image interpretation from both aircraft and satellite sources and used to characterize the 1,766 sq km (682 sq mi) area from the perspective of its various resource-related activities and problems. Measurements at level 1 from 1:100, 000 scale maps revealed 42 percent of the test area (excluding bays and estuaries) to be forest, 28 percent agriculture, 23 percent urban and built-up, 4 percent nonforested wetlands, and 2 percent water. At the same scale and level of detail, 10 percent of the area underwent change from one land use category to another in the period 1959-70, 62 percent of which involved the relatively irreversible change from forest or agriculture to urban uses