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,

In 2017 and beyond, the UK-US Special Relationship will be caught between a Trump Rock and a Brexit Hard Place

Donald Trump’s forthcoming presidency poses uncomfortable questions for Britain about the future of the UK-US ‘Special Relationship’. As Tim Oliver and Mike Williams argue in a new LSE IDEAS Strategic Update, that even the core elements of the relationship look set to be strained mean Britain is likely to find itself caught between a Trump Rock and a Brexit Hard Place

Karl Valentin’s Illogical Subversion: issues arising from Karl Valentin’s Das Aquarium and Liesl Karlstadt’s Verein der Katzenfreund

Valentin Ludwig Fey was born on 4 June 1882 in the Munich suburb of Au, effectively the only child of an artisan-class family – his sister and two brothers all died in early childhood before Valentin Ludwig was even six months old. Valentin himself only narrowly survived a childhood encounter with diptheria (all of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, contributed to his ever-increasing hypochondria1), but he went on to become Karl Valentin, arguably the most famous German comedian and cabaret performer of his generation

Karl Valentin’s Illogical Subversion: issues arising from Karl Valentin’s Das Aquarium and Liesl Karlstadt’s Verein der Katzenfreund

Valentin Ludwig Fey was born on 4 June 1882 in the Munich suburb of Au, effectively the only child of an artisan-class family – his sister and two brothers all died in early childhood before Valentin Ludwig was even six months old. Valentin himself only narrowly survived a childhood encounter with diptheria (all of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, contributed to his ever-increasing hypochondria1), but he went on to become Karl Valentin, arguably the most famous German comedian and cabaret performer of his generation

Overview about Service Labs worldwide: Approaches, Methods and Use Cases to test Service across Lifecycle

AbstractAs product-service systems are very complex, an integrated approach how to test a service is needed. The paper provides a framework for the development and testing of new services, and thereby grants a lot of space and tools for service innovation. In product-service-systems different types of resources are involved, for instance people, technology, information and organization. In the framework provided by mixed reality laboratory environments, all of these resources are brought together as well. The resources people, technology, information and organization are integrated. The interdisciplinary knowledge concerning these relevant resources is merged in the laboratory environments. Furthermore mixed reality laboratory environments are unifying academic expertise and practical, business-driven interests. Since service relevance in manufacturing companies is growing, the testing of new service concepts gets more important. Various methods are available, which help to verify service concepts. Due to this, the focus of this paper is on the analysis of established Service and Innovation Labs worldwide. To give an overview 24 Service labs are identified and analysed

Revisiting the Tsunami: Health Consequences of Flooding

Morgan and colleagues critically review the evidence on the health consequences of flooding disasters, and consider what interventions are appropriate

Portfolio assessment of laboratory practicals integrating learning across modules

Physical Metallurgy, a compulsory module on the part time and full time Materials Engineering degree programme at Sheffield Hallam University has for a number of years utilised a series of separate practical based laboratories in order for students to gain a greater understanding of some key concepts associated with linking microstructure to properties and processing. One of the main issues of these stand-alone practicals was that students were following a menu of tasks, leading to a lack of deeper understanding of key concepts and theories and therefore were unable to link information between each of them. A recent revision of this module has drawn the practical elements into a year-long integrated package of practical work, where students undertake an investigation, developing broader and deeper skills. Additionally the learning strategy utilises the output of another module in manufacturing, using the output of a casting practical linking the two modules with an integrating investigation, eventually leading to summative assessment by portfolio. This paper will detail the development of the new programme of work undertaken by the students and evaluate, using student feedback, and how student learning and achievement has been improved compared to previous methodologies

Hybrid DC circuit breaker with coupled inductor for automatic current commutation

HVDC transmission systems using voltage source converters (VSC-HVDC) have been identified as an attractive solution for bulk power delivery over long distance. However if DC grids are to be built using this technology, fast DC circuit breakers are needed. This work proposes a new hybrid DC circuit breaker utilizing a series connected coupled inductor connected, which enables automatic current commutation from the mechanical switch to the semiconductor switch during a fault. The key advantage of the proposed DC circuit breaker is that the current in the mechanical switch automatically reduces to zero when a fault happens. This paper focuses on comparison of different mechanisms to commutate the current from the mechanical switch to the semiconductor switch and create a zero current for the mechanical switch. Three types of hybrid DC circuit breaker topologies including proactive hybrid DC circuit breaker, hybrid DC circuit breaker with commutation booster, and hybrid DC circuit breaker with coupled inductor for a 500 kV HVDC system are simulated and compared using Matlab/Simulink. A prototype hybrid DC circuit breaker with coupled inductor is designed and built. The prototype is capable of interrupting 200 A direct current within 4 ms. The automatic current commutation compensates for the fault detection and location time in the selective protection scheme, which provides faster fault current interruption