Troublesome trade-offs: balancing urban activities and values when securing a city-centre governmental quarter

Background Homeland security measures increasingly affect urban life and activities. Standoff distance, which prevents unscreened vehicles from approaching within a certain distance of a building, is a widely applied measure when protecting buildings against attacks with vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. This measure both is rather inexpensive and has few negative externalities when implemented in rural areas. Unfortunately, sites with protection needs often are situated in city centres. Methods We apply the so-called Security Function Framework to illuminate the externalities or the ‘troublesome trade-offs’ between protecting a high-value site against vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and protecting other urban values. Results This paper demonstrates that standoff creates challenges for other important values, such as functional office spaces for all employees, deliveries and emergency vehicle access. Simultaneously, standoff creates opportunities for reinforcing social-responsibility requirements, such as accessibility for pedestrians and environmental considerations. Conclusions Security measures can have both negative and positive externalities and planning might alleviate some of the negative ones

Managing visitor sites in Svalbard: from a precautionary approach towards knowledge-based management

Increased tourism in the Arctic calls for more knowledge to meet management challenges. This paper reviews existing knowledge of the effects of human use on vegetation, fauna and cultural heritage in Svalbard, and it addresses the need for site-specific knowledge for improved management. This paper draws upon scientific studies, knowledge held by management authorities and local people, the Governor's database on visitors and visited sites and our own data from landing sites we visited. There is a certain level of basic knowledge available, allowing us to roughly grade the vulnerability of sites. However, there is a thorough lack of site-specific data related to the management of single locations or groups of similar locations. Future research needs to address specific on-site challenges in the management of visitor sites. Relevant management models and measures are discussed. We contend that a shift away from a blanket application of the precautionary principle and towards a more integrated, site-specific and evidence-based management plan will contribute to more trusted and reliable, and thereby acceptable among stakeholders, decisions in the management of growing tourism activity in Svalbard