Developing a Dynamic Model for Assessing Green Infrastructure Investments in Urban Areas

ABSTRACT: In recent decades, cities have been experiencing accelerated population growth, associated with an increase in the scales of production and consumption. This fact, combined with deficient management of resources and waste, has led to the loss of biological diversity, compromising the generation of ecosystem services, with disastrous consequences for human health and well-being, but also for the economic system. In the field of civil engineering, the predominance of artificialisation and impermeabilization of cities (called "grey engineering") is being questioned to be replaced or complemented with new types of infrastructures that represent a transformative change to achieving more sustainable cities. Through system dynamics applied to the economic modelling of the city of Santander (Spain), the aim of this study is to analyse the profitability of investment in ecosystem restoration and in both green and blue infrastructure, and of the implementation of environmental policies based on the relationships of affection established in the model, which represent the interactions between the main actors in urban dynamics. As a main conclusion, it is found that investing in green infrastructures and ecosystem restoration, and environmental policies is highly profitable: EUR 1 spent can produce up to EUR 100 as a benefit.This research was funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the grant RISKOADAPT (BIA 2017-89401-R)

The Global flood protection Benefits of Mangroves

ABSTRACT: Coastal flood risks are rising rapidly. We provide high resolution estimates of the economic value of mangroves forests for flood risk reduction every 20 km worldwide. We develop a probabilistic, process-based valuation of the effects of mangroves on averting damages to people and property. We couple spatially-explicit 2-D hydrodynamic analyses with economic models, and find that mangroves provide flood protection benefits exceeding $US 65 billion per year. If mangroves were lost, 15 million more people would be flooded annually across the world. Some of the nations that receive the greatest economic benefits include the USA, China, India and Mexico. Vietnam, India and Bangladesh receive the greatest benefits in terms of people protected. Many (>45) 20-km coastal stretches particularly those near cities receive more than$US 250 million annually in flood protection benefits from mangroves. These results demonstrate the value of mangroves as natural coastal defenses at global, national and local scales, which can inform incentives for mangrove conservation and restoration in development, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and insuranceWe thank the supporting provided by the World Bank and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. We also acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation (BIA2014-59718-R). Authors are grateful to the useful contributions provided by Borja González Reguero (University of Santa Cruz California), Antonio Espejo, Sheila Abad and Pedro Díaz Simal (IH Cantabria). Pelayo Menéndez acknowledge to the FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation (BES-2015-074343). The authors acknowledge to the National Plan “RISKOADAPT” from the Spanish Ministry of Sciences, Innovation and Universities (BIA2017-89401-R)

Assessing the effects of using high-quality data and high-resolution models in valuing flood protection services of mangroves

The rate of change on coastlines is accelerating from climate change and coastal development. Coastal flooding is a particularly pressing and increasing problem, which affects hundreds of millions of people and damages trillions of US$ in property. Scientists, practitioners and managers must be able to quickly assess flood risk and identify appropriate adaptation and risk reduction measures often with limited data and tools, particularly in developing countries. To inform these decision-making processes, we identify how sensitive flood risk and adaptation analyses are to changes in the resolution of data and models. We further do these comparisons in the context of assess the benefits of an ecosystem-based approach for risk reduction. There is growing interest in these ecosystem-based approaches as cost effective measures for adaptation and risk reduction. We assess flood risks from tropical cyclones and the flood risk reduction benefits provided by mangroves in Pagbilao (the Philippines). Then, we also compare risks and risk reduction (benefits) using different quality data and models, to identify where to invest in in new modeling and data acquisition to improve decision-making. We find that coastal flood risk valuation improves by using high resolution topography and long time series of data on tropical cyclones, while flood reduction benefits of mangroves are better valued by using consistent databases and models along the whole process rather than investing in single measures.We gratefully acknowledge support from the World Bank WAVES Program (Wealth Account- ing and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation (currently named as Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities), within ECOPROOF project (BIA2014-59718-R), RISKOADAPT project (BIA2017-89401-R) and the FPI grant (BES-2015-074343

Economic Valuation of Cultural Heritage: Application of Travel Cost Method to the National Museum and Research Center of Altamira

The economic assessment of non-marketed resources (i.e., cultural heritage) can be developed with stated or revealed preference methods. Travel cost method (TCM) is based on the demand theory and assumes that the demand for a recreational site is inversely related to the travel costs that a certain visitor must face to enjoy it. Its application requires data about the tourist?s origin. This work aims to analyze the economic value of the National Museum and Research Center of Altamira, which was created to research, conserve, and broadcast the Cave of Altamira (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985). It includes an accurate replica known as the ?Neocave?. Two different TCM approaches have been applied to obtain the demand curve of the museum, which is a powerful tool that helps to assess past and future investments. It has also provided the annual economic value estimate of the National Museum and Research Center of Altamira, which varies between 4.75 and 8.00 million € per ye

Retos para la implementación de los efectos del cambio climático en proyectos de ingeniería de costas y portuaria

Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por el proyecto BIA2015-70644-R del Ministerio de Economía Y Competitividad

Return on investment for mangrove and reef flood protection

There is a growing need for coastal and marine restoration, but it is not clear how to pay for it given that environmental funding is low, and national budgets are stretched in response to natural hazards. We use risk-industry methods and find that coral reef and mangrove restoration could yield strong Return on Investment (ROI) for flood risk reduction on shorelines across more than 20 Caribbean countries. These results are robust to changes in discount rates and the timing of restoration benefits. Data on restoration costs are sparse, but the Present Value (PV) of restored natural infrastructure shows that ROI would be positive in many locations even if restoration costs are in the hundreds of thousand per hectare for mangroves and millions per km for reefs. Based on these benefits, we identify significant sources of funding for restoring these natural defenses.This work was supported in part by the Kingfisher Foundation, the World Bank, AXA XL, AXA Research Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. We thank Chris Lowrie for help with the figures

Alteraciones de los genes de la vía leptina/melanocortina en una serie de 17 personas con obesidad

Objetivo: determinar la relación que existe entre la obesidad y alteraciones genéticas en la vía leptina/melanocortina en la po­blación ecuatoriana. Metodología: es una serie de casos de 17 pacientes escogidos al azar por disponibilidad, durante el período de abril 2011 a abril 2012. Se obtuvo Talla, peso, edad, sexo, IMC y enfermedades hasta la segunda generación ascendente y pedigree del sujeto, una muestra sanguínea venosa. Los sujetos cumplieron con los criterios de tener entre 18 a 65 años, IMC > 35 con alguna comorbilidad o IMC > 40 sin comorbilidad, obesidad resistente a cambios en estilo de vida y que presente un pa­trón heredo-familiar. Se realizará el análisis estadístico de la prevalencia en la muestra. Resultados: se encontró una correlación del 47% de obesidad con los padres de los sujetos. La prevalencia absoluta de alteraciones en los genes estudiados fue de 88% (n=17). Conclusiones: aunque la relación entre los resultados de este estudio y otros, en cuanto a la prevalencia del gen más común MC4R, no es similar en razón de que se encontró alta prevalencia de otros genes como SIM1 y LEPR, se cree necesario y oportuno realizar estudios con controles y muestras más grandes

Economic Valuation of Mining Heritage from a Recreational Approach: Application to the Case of El Soplao Cave in Spain (Geosite UR004)

Heritage tourism can increase incomes and stimulate the economy in former mining areas. Recreational tourism is one of the main sources of value of heritage. People from urban areas are willing to pay for access to these tourism options. The measurement of the economic impact of this availability is one of the main problems to confront, due to the immeasurable possibilities of heritage resources. The use of non-market values and their estimation by means of revealed preference methods should help to assess the economic value of this sort of resources from a recreational perspective. The travel cost method (TCM) is widely used to value areas with recreational uses, such as lakes, beaches or forests, but there are not references to previous applications of this methodology in the field of mining heritage. In this work, TCM has been applied to obtain the economic value of El Soplao Cave (Geosite UR004, Cantabria, Spain) as a recreational site, providing an estimated result of 34,961,162 euros

Actualidad y prospectiva de la investigación científica en el Centro Universitario Amecameca de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México

Con responsabilidad, se organizó un programa cuya finalidad fuera publicitar con transparencia dichos avances, a través de un esfuerzo de rendición de cuentas a la comunidad inmediata, la universitaria, y a la comunidad abierta, la sociedad que la principal referencia para tal efecto. El programa se concretiza a través del presente libro, conformado con una inspiración de investigación multidisciplinaria; sin embargo, para llegar a tal fin, el reto es realizar el proceso de búsqueda y generación de conocimiento transitando hacia la colaboración de los cuerpos académicos, que puedan construir nuevos conocimientos fortalecidos por la convergencia de diferentes campos del saber. En consecuencia, la primera etapa de esta estrategia es la publicidad de los trabajos investigativos ejercidos, para hacer un balance al día, pero también proyectar el futuro de cada campo y área del conocimiento. La organización explicativa está organizada por tres bloques representativos del quehacer en la generación de conocimiento del Centro Universitario, un primer bloque centra el interés en las humanidades, educación y sustentabilidad; el segundo bloque lo integra la reflexión científica sobre la construcción democrática, derechos humanos y equidad de género; en el tercer segmento se destina a la seguridad alimentaria, salud pública y sistemas agropecuarios. La actualidad de la investigación eleva la producción lograda y lo que en el momento se encuentra en construcción y los alcances que produce para la docencia, la investigación misma, y para la sociedad en general. La prospectiva es un área que todos los capítulos desarrollan con el propósito de delinear los alcances innovadores por andar en teoría, metodología e incluso en los saberes mismo

Cuentos de nunca acabar. Aproximaciones desde la interculturalidad

Cuentos de nunca acabar. Aproximaciones desde la interculturalidad, surge después de la pandemia y su imposibilidad de socializar “en persona” con los compañeros de eventuales encuentros, porque la Comprensión Lectora tenía que reinventarse para su nueva reflexión cognitiva, adaptación contextual y reconstrucción del conocimiento. Este renovado enfoque de la realidad postpandemia, concebido en el marco de la educación intercultural comunitaria, busca potencializar los entornos naturales, sociales y culturales como recursos de aprendizaje multidisciplinario a través del lenguaje animado de los cuentos. En este marco, había que dinamizar la asignatura de Comunicación Oral y Escrita, que se dicta en los Primeros Niveles de los Centros de Apoyo de Otavalo, Cayambe, Latacunga y Riobamba, mediante un eje transversal donde los estudiantes escriban fundamentados en valores de la cosmovisión andina, considerando que provienen de varios lugares de la sierra y amazonía ecuatoriana. Todo surgió del encuentro presencial de un sábado cualquiera donde los estudiantes realizaban ejercicios narrativos, logrando una apreciable respuesta de imaginación, más emotiva que la clásica tarea de las Unidades, tanto así que, pasados unos días, seguían llegando sus escritos a mi correo. Entonces nos pusimos manos a la obra, cada estudiante tendría dos opciones como Actividad Integradora, la primera consistía en escribir un cuento de su propia inspiración, y la segunda analizar un clásico para comentar sus valores y antivalores. La mayor parte de estudiantes decidió escribir su propio cuento, de donde se escogieron algunas participaciones que podrían considerarse originales, para una edición que, respetando la transcripción de la tradición oral que prima en los sectores comunitarios, nos concretamos en revisar la puntuación y ortografía para publicarlos. Con esto buscamos innovar la Actividad Integradora, por algo más práctico y operativo para configurar los Objetos de Aprendizaje que buscamos. Así nació, en medio del camino, este libro de Cuentos de nunca acabar. Aproximaciones desde la interculturalidad, que ponemos en sus manos. Hernán Hermosa Mantilla Quito, junio de 202