An Economic Assessment of the Amenity Benefits Associated with Alternative Coastal Protection Options

Current government guidelines for the appraisal of coastal defence projects in the UK do not require that non-market amenity benefits to be considered . However, a new option in coastal defence, namely multi-purpose reefs, provides an opportunity to integrate coastal defence with significant amenity provision. This paper reports the findings of a choice experiment study that evaluated the amenity benefits of four alternative coastal defence systems currently being considered for Borth in west Wales. The results indicate that traditional coastal defence options such as timber and rock groynes do not generate amenity benefits, while a multipurpose reef would generate significant benefits in terms of improvements in the visual appeal of the beach, safer swimming opportunities and improved surfing conditions. Importantly, these benefits were found to be significant for all members of the local community and not just surf ers. Based on our findings, we recommend that guidelines for the appraisal of coastal defence projects should be amended to incorporate non-market amenity benefits.Choice experiments, amenity value, coastal defence, multi-purpose reef, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q26, Q51, Q58,

The hunt for submarines in classical art: mappings between scientific invention and artistic interpretation

This is a report to the AHRC's ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme. This report stems from a project which aimed to produce a series of mappings between advanced imaging information and communications technologies (ICT) and needs within visual arts research. A secondary aim was to demonstrate the feasibility of a structured approach to establishing such mappings. The project was carried out over 2006, from January to December, by the visual arts centre of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS Visual Arts).1 It was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as one of the Strategy Projects run under the aegis of its ICT in Arts and Humanities Research programme. The programme, which runs from October 2003 until September 2008, aims ‘to develop, promote and monitor the AHRC’s ICT strategy, and to build capacity nation-wide in the use of ICT for arts and humanities research’.2 As part of this, the Strategy Projects were intended to contribute to the programme in two ways: knowledge-gathering projects would inform the programme’s Fundamental Strategic Review of ICT, conducted for the AHRC in the second half of 2006, focusing ‘on critical strategic issues such as e-science and peer-review of digital resources’. Resource-development projects would ‘build tools and resources of broad relevance across the range of the AHRC’s academic subject disciplines’.3 This project fell into the knowledge-gathering strand. The project ran under the leadership of Dr Mike Pringle, Director, AHDS Visual Arts, and the day-to-day management of Polly Christie, Projects Manager, AHDS Visual Arts. The research was carried out by Dr Rupert Shepherd

How cost-effective are direct payments to organic farms for achieving environmental policy targets?

Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management,

Opening Our Eyes : How film contributes to the culture of the UK

Opening our eyes looks at how films are consumed and the factors which affect people’s viewing choices. It also covers the relationships audiences report between film and other activities. It goes on to explore the sorts of effects which film has upon people, their sense of identity and relationship with the world. Finally it looks at the various effects which individual films have had on those surveyed and reaches a number of conclusions.Final Published versio

Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity : final report

This document reports the findings from the DEFRA funded research project 'Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity'. The aim of the research was to develop an appropriate framework that will enable cost-effective and robust valuations of the total economic value of changes to biodiversity in the UK countryside. The research involved a review of ecological and economic literature on the valuation of biodiversity changes. The information gathered from this review, along with the findings from a series of public focus groups and an expert review of valuation methodologies, were used to develop a suite of valuation instruments that were used to measure the economic value of different aspects of biodiversity. Contingent valuation and choice experiment studies were administered to households in Cambridgeshire and Northumberland, while valuation workshops were conducted in Northumberland only. The data from these studies were also used to test for benefits transfer

Developing a Community-Designed Healthy Urban Food System

Learning About Food in Urban Communities is a comprehensive guide with Extension resources for Food Production, Food & Business, Food & Family, and Food & Community. This publication emerged as part of a 2-year community-planning project. An interdisciplinary OSU team worked with the Weinland Park community, in the central Ohio University District, to explore how food could be a catalyst for urban neighborhood development

Burials and builders of Stonehenge: social identities in Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Britain

The identity of the people who built Stonehenge has long been a mystery. Fifty years ago, archaeologists speculated that it was built by Mediterranean or Egyptian architects directing local barbarians. The results of current research indicate that the influences behind its architecture can all be traced to pre-existing British traditions of monument building in Wales and Wessex.Preliminary results of osteological research are demonstrating that, of the estimated 150 people buried at Stonehenge, the 64  that have been excavated were drawn from a restricted section of society. Whereas two of them were adult women and two or three were children, the remainder may have been adult males.The few grave goods found with these cremation burials suggest that these may have been individuals with political and religious authority. They were buried at Stonehenge in the period 3000–2300 cal BC and may have formed one or more dynasties of rulers.Stonehenge’s first stage of construction (3000–2920 cal BC) was at a time of growing unity in material culture across Britain, in terms of ceramic style, henge monuments and house forms. Its construction may have been designed to unify different regions of Britain, specifically the sarsen stone region of Wessex with the bluestone region of Wales.Stonehenge’s second stage of construction (2620–2480 cal BC),when the monument largely took the form that it has today, was associated with a large village at nearby Durrington Walls which was later monumentalized as a henge. Inspiration for Stonehenge’s stone architecture – shaped stones, lintels and mortice-and-tenon jointing – can be found in the indigenous timber architecture of Britain. Specifically, its form derives from the timber circles of Wessex and elsewhere in Britain, while the horseshoe arrangement of the trilithons derives from the D-shaped plans of timber public buildings excavated in Wales as well as at Durrington Walls and Stonehenge. In conclusion, Stonehenge can be understood as a monumental representation in stone of building styles normally built in timber – a meeting house for the ancestors

Product Development Practices for Meeting Financial Objectives

This paper reports product development practices that separate the most successful product development programs from the rest. A detailed understanding of best product development practices is important because product development is fundamental to corporate success (Clark & Fujimoto, 1991; Eisenhardt & Tabrizi, 1995; Eppinger & Chitkara, 2006). Teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and McKinsey and Company have collaborated to investigate practices used for 112 product development projects at 57 firms in the medical device, industrial, and high-tech industries. Preliminary results suggest that certain practices are particularly important for influencing project outcomes. Our research is consistent with and contributes to best practices reported previously by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) (see Barczak, Griffin, & Kahn, 2009; Griffin & Page, 1996; Page, 1993). As this previous research has shown, best practices in product development evolve. For example, the 1990 PDMA study found that successful firms differentiated themselves from the rest by having well defined New Product Development (NPD) processes and new product strategies (Page, 1993). The second study, conducted in 1995, found that successful firms measured their product development efforts and outcomes, did qualitative market research, and used engineering design tools such as CAD (Griffin & Page, 1996). The third study, completed in 2003, found that successful firms put more emphasis on portfolio management, use a wide variety of software tools, have supporting organizational mechanisms and processes in place, and use formal processes for generating ideas (Barczak, Griffin, & Kahn, 2009). The findings presented here contribute additional understanding of practices that lead to successful product development. Researchers and practitioners often investigate product development from the perspectives of cost, schedule, and performance. There are many more ways to evaluate product development processes and outcomes (Cooper, 1979). Griffin and Page (1996) identified over 75 different product development metrics documented in the literature. Some researchers categorize these metrics into firm level, project level, or product level metrics (e.g. Montoya-Weiss & Calantone, 1994); others categorize them into financial and non-financial metrics (e.g. Hart, 1993). This paper presents our work on correlating product development practices with a broad set of financial metrics

TMT telescope structure system: design and development progress report

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project has revised the reference optical configuration from an Aplanatic Gregorian to a Ritchey-Chrétien design. This paper describes the revised telescope structural design and outlines the design methodology for achieving the dynamic performance requirements derived from the image jitter error budget. The usage of transfer function tools which incorporate the telescope structure system dynamic characteristics and the control system properties is described along with the optimization process for the integrated system. Progress on the structural design for seismic considerations is presented. Moreover, mechanical design progress on the mount control system hardware such as the hydrostatic bearings and drive motors, cable wraps and safety system hardware such as brakes and absorbers are also presented