A multi-scale method to assess pesticide contamination risks in agricultural watersheds

The protection of water is now a major priority for environmental managers, especially around drinkingpumping stations. In view of the new challenges facing water agencies, we developed a method designedto support their public policy decision-making, at a variety of different spatial scales. In this paper, wepresent this new spatial method, using remote sensing and a GIS, designed to determine the contami-nation risk due to agricultural inputs, such as pesticides. The originality of this method lies in the useof a very detailed spatial object, the RSO (Reference Spatial Object), which can be aggregated to manyworking and managing scales. This has been achieved thanks to the pixel size of the remote sensing, witha grid resolution of 30 m × 30 m in our application.The method – called PHYTOPIXAL – is based on a combination of indicators relating to the environmen-tal vulnerability of the surface water environment (slope, soil type and distance to the stream) and theagricultural pressure (land use and practices of the farmers). The combination of these indicators for eachpixel provides the contamination risk. The scoring of variables was implemented according knowledgein literature and of experts.This method is used to target specific agricultural input transfer risks. The risk values are first calculatedfor each pixel. After this initial calculation, the data are then aggregated for decision makers, accordingto the most suitable levels of organisation. These data are based on an average value for the watershedareas.In this paper we detail an application of the method to an area in the hills of Southwest France. Weshow the pesticide contamination risk by in areas with different sized watersheds, ranging from 2 km2to 7000 km2, in which stream water is collected for consumption by humans and animals. The resultswere recently used by the regional water agency to determine the protection zoning for a large pumpingstation. Measures were then proposed to farmers with a view to improving their practices.The method can be extrapolated to different other areas to preserve or restore the surface water

Concentration despite competition : the organizational ecology of technical assistance providers

When international organizations expand and proliferate, why do they fail to spread more evenly in their policy sphere? To answer this question, this article builds on organizational ecology theory, which was recently introduced into the study of inter- national organizations. However, rather than studying each population separately, as previous studies have done, this article investigates how distinct populations with overlapping niches shape each other’s evolution. It argues that when inter-population competition occurs, the first population to occupy its niche at a high density limits the long-term development of other populations. This is the case even if emerging popu- lations may temporarily enjoy a higher growth rate. The argument is illustrated by a study of the relations between four populations of technical assistance providers in the field of intellectual property. By doing so, the article brings for the first time inter- population relations in the study of international organizations and provides an expla- nation for the persistent concentration of international organizations in specific areas of the governance space

Consensus-seeking, distrust and rhetorical entrapment : the WTO decision on access to medicines

While the WTO secretariat, key delegations, several NGOs, and industry publicly present the 30 August 2003 WTO Decision as an attempt to reconcile intellectual property with access to medicines, our research shows otherwise. We draw on qualitative analyses of 54 interviews and a lexicometric analysis of press releases to show that their enthusiastic public statements contrast deeply with their internal, cynical beliefs. Most of these actors not only consider the WTO Decision to be fundamentally flawed but claim to have known this prior to its adoption. We argue that a procedural norm of consensus-seeking impeded traditional bargaining over this sensitive issue and that distrust among participants hindered truth-seeking deliberation. Caught between strategic and communicative actions, state and non-state actors found themselves trapped in their own rhetoric of reconciling intellectual property with access to medicines. They realized that the appearance of a solution, rather than a functional solution, provided the only realistic outcome to a fruitless and publicly damaging continuation of debate. From a theoretical perspective, this case study sheds a new light on the gray zone between rational choice theory and constructivism, where both discourse and strategies matter. From an empirical perspective, it illustrates the risk of seeking consensus within international regimes when the procedural norm of consensus coexists with a high level of distrust

What can best explain the prevalence of bilateralism in the investment regime?

Most efforts to negotiate a multilateral agreement on the liberalization and protection of investment have failed despite the fact that there are more than 2,400 bilateral investment treaties in existence. We have coined this phenomenon the “lateralism paradox.” Within this article, we consider five hypotheses that focus respectively on power asymmetries, incentives for defection, strategic linkages, domestic constraints, and ongoing adaptation. We found that the first four explanations are not supported by empirical evidence from the post-NAFTA period. We conclude that bilateralism appears to be the only feasible approach for negotiating investment rules, as well as the most sensible process to ensure continuous and dynamic adaptation

Further Remarks on Strict Input-to-State Stable Lyapunov Functions for Time-Varying Systems

We study the stability properties of a class of time-varying nonlinear systems. We assume that non-strict input-to-state stable (ISS) Lyapunov functions for our systems are given and posit a mild persistency of excitation condition on our given Lyapunov functions which guarantee the existence of strict ISS Lyapunov functions for our systems. Next, we provide simple direct constructions of explicit strict ISS Lyapunov functions for our systems by applying an integral smoothing method. We illustrate our constructions using a tracking problem for a rotating rigid body.Comment: 6 pages, submitted for publication in June 200

Segmentation hiérarchique du domaine sémantique pour l'accélération d'un modèle de langage

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal