Alternative objectives : time extensions and less stringent objectives

The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD) establishes a suite of environmental objectives for groundwater. In implementing the Directive and producing the first River Basin Management Plans, Member States have had to identify whether the these objectives are being met. If this assessment has shown that one or more of the objectives for groundwater is not being met, or is at risk of being failed, programmes of measures must be implemented to ensure that all relevant environmental objectives are met within six years – the publication date of the next River Basin Management Plan (22nd December, 2015). In reality, especially for groundwater, achieving all the relevant objectives in such a short timescale may not be possible or practical. The WFD recognises this and allows for an extension of the deadline (beyond 2015) for the purposes of a phased achievement of the environmental objectives. This is provided that there is no further deterioration in status (Article 4.4). Any such extension is limited to a maximum of two further river basin cycles (12 years) except where natural conditions mean that objectives can still not be achieved. A further provision is made for the situation where a water body is so badly affected by human activity or where natural conditions mean that achievement of the objectives(s) would be infeasible or disproportionally expensive. In these cases less stringent objectives (relative to those defined in Article 4.1) can be set, provided that there is the least possible deviation from good status conditions. Where extended deadlines or less stringent objectives have been proposed, Member States must provide an explanation and justification in the River Basin Management Plan. In the case of extended deadlines, a timetable for implementation of measures and the achievement of objectives must also be provided. This paper provides an overview of the approach used in England and Wales for identifying programmes of measures for groundwater, predicting outcomes and setting alternative objectives in relation to groundwater quality. Similar approaches were used for quantitative (water resource) aspects and also for surface water bodies

New localism, old retrenchment: the Big Society, housing policy and the politics of housing reform

This article considers the ideology underpinning the 2010 UK Government’s welfare reform agenda in order to foreground what we see as the contradictions of new localism and the ‘Big Society’ programme as it relates to housing policy. The article has three sections. It begins by discussing some of the methodological challenges that arise in interpreting contemporary policy and the value of an historically informed approach to understand the wider ‘politics’ underpinning the ‘Big Society’ programme. To support our argument, the second part of the article traces the ‘localist’ agenda (mainly focused on England and Wales) back from the 1960s to the defeat of Labour in the 2010 general election to show how both Conservative and Labour administrations deployed localism as a justification for welfare reform and in the process created opportunities to extend the marketisation of social policy. The third section of the article considers the contemporary period, in particular reforms presented to parliament in 2011 that, if enacted, will provide new avenues for powerful interest groups to influence decisions that hitherto have been mainly the preserve of local government. The conclusion provides a summary of the key policy implications and theoretical issues that arise from the analysis

Learning search control in adversary games

Recently there has been increased interest in applying machine learning methods to adversary games. However, the emphases has been mainly on learning evaluation function parameters and opening book lines, with little attention given to other aspects of the game. In contrast, learning as applied in the domain of planning and scheduling has focussed on ways of speeding up the search process, primarily by deriving rules for controlling the search. Unfortunately, most board games are far too complex to make such a rule-based approach feasible. In this paper we introduce a new framework for learning search control, and give experimental results in the domain of chess

Central place practice: shopping centre attractiveness measures, hinterland boundaries and the UK retail hierarchy

Christaller's (Central Places in Southern Germany (translated by Baskin C (1966)), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1933) well-known and much criticised ‘central place theory’ was based on classical, arguably unsustainable, economic assumptions such as the uniformity of consumers and travel. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that the emergence of shopping areas in UK towns could largely be explained in terms of central place principles (Retail Location: A Micro-Scale Perspective, Aldershot, Avebury, 1992). Brown drew support from the example of the retail hierarchy of Cardiff (UK, Store Location and Store Assessment Research, Chichester, Wiley, 1984): a town centre core radiating progressively further out with greater numbers of district centres, neighbourhood centres and finally local centres. Christaller's theory was based on rigid ‘laws of distribution of central places’ and ‘laws of settlement’ which ‘often determine[d] with astonishing exactness, the location of central places’ in southern Germany. Guy considered that for useful application to UK retail, a more flexible interpretation was needed and that strict economic assumptions could be relaxed in a more pragmatic approach. The ‘classical’ approach fails to account for the positions and hinterland (or catchment area) boundaries of modern out-of-town regional shopping centres. Except in defining the components of places at various levels in the hierarchy, Christaller did not even consider the attractiveness of shopping areas in consumer choice. A number of other authors have investigated various measures to define positions in the retail hierarchy. In the Cardiff example, Guy used retail sales floor area as a surrogate measure. Systems have been proposed based on numbers and status of retail outlets (The New Guide to Shopping Centres of Great Britain, Hillier Parker, London, 1991; Shopping Centres, Mintel, London, 1997; J. Property Res. 9 (1992) 122–160; J. Property Res. 9 (1985) 122–160). This paper evaluates the authors’ empirically based measurement system for attractiveness that can be applied to out-of-town as well as in-town shopping centres. The approach adapts previous simple systems based on retailer counts. These have been combined in attractiveness measurements applied to definitions of position in the hierarchy. Results support the prediction of central place hinterland boundaries based on the authors’ attractiveness measures and adaptation of (The Law of Gravitation, Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1931) ‘Law’. The data fit exemplar published empirical data on shopping centre hinterlands more closely than do the commonly used drive-time isochrones

The mystery of consumer behaviour: market segmentation and shoppers’ choices of shopping centres

Shopping centers represent a substantial slice of the UK economy and have rightly attracted considerable research. Despite interest from academics and practitioners, little research attention has been paid to the market segmentation of shoppers. Proactive marketing management is a feature of only a minority of UK shopping centers. The marketing communications of most would appear to be aimed mainly at a homogenised consumer population, rather than attempting to target specific groups. This paper is based on an empirical investigation of six UK shopping centers, ranging in size from a small in-town sub-regional center to a large out-of-town regional center, the total number of respondents being 287. Earlier studies by the authors have described the ‘attractiveness’ and ‘distance’ aspects of shopping center choice. Here, they explore the differences in behaviour between shoppers and draw attention to differences between exemplar segments as to which attributes are critical in shopping center choice. The authors’ post hoc shopper classification based on a psychographic analysis is central to the findings. Two groups identified, ‘service’ vs. ‘shops’ importance motivation, were more effective than conventional a priori segmentation bases in modelling spending behaviour. Implications are drawn for center managements and researchers. The paper concludes with a suggestion for a greater degree of data sharing between shopping center owners and retail tenants. Introduction Despite attention given to shopping motivation, there has been little previous research into the differences in responses to shopping center marketing mixes from different segments of shoppers. This is surprising as ‘pro-active marketing’ has been demonstrated to be central to shopping center success (e.g. Capital Shopping Centers, 1996; Mintel, 1997). This paper explores the potential to apply market segmentation to shopping centers and to draw attention to the benefits sharing customer preferences data between shopping center owners and their tenant retailers. The empirical work concerns case studies of six UK shopping centers, listed in Table 1