The Climate Justice Movement in Western New York

Although climate change requires an international response and will require national policies and actions, local geographies have to be involved because it that is where the harms are felt. But how can local and regional areas respond to the climate crisis? This article offers a story of the emergence of a climate justice movement in Buffalo and Western New York as an example of how one community is addressing climate change and its unequal impacts

European Transport Policy and Cohesion - An Assessment by CGE Analysis

This paper studies the spatial impact of two main aspects of European transport policy, namely infrastructure investments and pricing. In its "White Paper: European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide" the European Commission has laid down a comprehensive programme of transport policy within the EU, aiming at increasing the efficiency of the transport industry, developing the so-called trans-European infrastructure network and bringing the prices of transport services closer to the true marginal social cost. It is an important political issue whether the policy will enhance spatial cohesion in Europe or run counter the objective of a balanced economic development in the entire area of the EU. For one thing this is because spatial development objectives are themselves prominent goals among the catalogue of objectives to be attained by transport policy. Particularly infrastructure investments which are co-financed by the structural funds, are regarded a means of regional policy supporting less favoured regions. Furthermore, transport policies motivated by efficiency or environmental reasons may have undesired regional side effects, that could generate political backlash, unless one offers some compensation. The spatial impact of the two named policies is studied with the help of a spatial computable general equilibrium model, called CGEurope. It is a static model with a large number of regions covering the whole area of the EU including the new member states, plus neighbouring countries, some of them also subdivided by regions. Regions interact by trade flows. Interregional trade is costly, with trade costs depending inter alia on the state of infrastructure and on gasoline prices and infrastructure charges. Transport policies are simulated by varying the costs of transport and quantifying the impact on the welfare of households brought about by changes in goods and factor prices. We develop a series of policy scenarios and evaluate their impact an spatial equality or inequality using a whole bundle of indicators of spatial inequality. The paper documents theses scenarios, explains the modelling framework in brief, discusses the inequality indicators to be used and maps and tabulates the main results.

Management strategies for a limited water supply

Presented at the 15th annual Central Plains irrigation conference and exposition proceedings on February 4-5, 2003 at the City Limits Convention Center in Colby, Kansas.Includes bibliographical references

Response of irrigated sunflowers to water timing

Presented at the Central Plains irrigation conference on February 16-17, 2005 in Sterling, Colorado

Olmsted Park and Parkway System for the 21st Century

This story begins with Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision of new urban form -- of green space woven into a city fabric. When the city leaders brought Olmsted to Buffalo, NY in the 1860s to replicate the successful Central Park of NYC, he transcended the Central Park concept that he and Calvin Vaux had designed and implemented. Instead, he envisioned not a place, but a system -- a system of green that would be accessible to citizens throughout the city (Kowsky 1991). The Buffalo Park and Parkway System was Olmsted’s first experiment with bringing together a collection of spaces and uses from different points in the city, connected with his uniquely designed “ribbons of green.” The greenway concept proved to be hugely successful and Olmsted later transferred his ideas of parks and parkways to other cities all over the United States. By the mid-20th century, however, the Buffalo parks were deteriorating, a victim of neglect, overuse, and suburbanization. Active sports and their facilities made incursions into parks Olmsted intended for more unstructured pursuits. Parts of parks, especially the greenways, were appropriated for automobile traffic. In response, a broad-based citizen’s movement organized itself to restore this urban treasure. In the 1970s, the Friends of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks were formed and in 1982, achieved recognition for the system on the National Register of Historic Places (O’Donnell 1979). This small grassroots organization grew in sophistication, competence, and fundraising capacity in parallel to the U.S. movement of cultural landscape preservation in general and the importance of Olmsted specifically. In 2004, the group, in their new capacity as the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, assumed management responsibility for the system