Search results for "Pact"
showing 10 items of 2355 documents
The Economic Impact of Water Taxes: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis with an International Data Set
2006
Water is scarce in many countries. One instrument to improve the allocation of a scarce resource is (efficient) pricing or taxation. However, water is implicitly traded on international markets, particularly through food and textiles, so that impacts of water taxes cannot be studied in isolation, but require an analysis of international trade implications. We include water as a production factor in a multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium model (GTAP), to assess a series of water tax policies. We find that water taxes reduce water use, and lead to shifts in production, consumption, and international trade patterns. Countries that do not levy water taxes are nonetheless af…
Raising environmental awareness through education
2016
This paper presents a method for involving learners in awareness-raising and real changes in consumption. The described method is a teaching assignment comprising a self-audit of household chemicals' consumption, system thinking to find the main causes and consequences, finding solutions and taking action. Findings about students' household chemicals consumption patterns and their reactions one month and six months after the assignment are presented and analysed. We found that the students' households use considerable amounts of chemicals and in most cases do not pay attention to their health and environmental impacts when making purchasing decisions. When doing this, students were able to …
Economic Impacts of Cultural Events on Local Economies: An Input—Output Analysis of the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival
2005
This paper examines the economic impacts of Finland's Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. The impacts are calculated on output, demand and wages, employment and on national and regional taxes. The results indicate, first, that the effects of the festival on output are about ₠1.7 million. Kaustinen can also be seen as a good investment for the local municipality, as regional tax revenues increased by about ₠65,600 in the year studied, while the annual subsidy was ₠40,365. From the perspective of the Keski-Pohjanmaa region as a whole, the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival has a substantial impact on regional incomes through subsidies (about one-fifth of the costs of the festival is offset by subsidie…
Resource consumption and environmental impacts of the agrofood sector: life cycle assessment of italian citrus-based products
2009
Though many studies concern the agro-food sector in the EU and Italy, and its environmental impacts, literature is quite lacking in works regarding LCA application on citrus products. This paper represents one of the first studies on the environmental impacts of citrus products in order to suggest feasible strategies and actions to improve their environmental performance. In particular, it is part of a research aimed to estimate environmental burdens associated with the production of the following citrus-based products: essential oil, natural juice and concentrated juice from oranges and lemons. The life cycle assessment of these products, published in a previous paper, had highlighted sign…
Sustainable production and consumption in remote working conditions due to COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: An environmental and user acceptance investiga…
2021
Abstract In response to the disruptive changes brought upon our society by the COVID-19 pandemic, most work activities and service providers had to resort to remote working. This is credited to reduce emissions for transportation, however the role of forced confinement within dwellings, especially if not designed for hosting working stations, deserves to be properly evaluated in terms of both user acceptance and long-term environmental impact. In this work, a dedicated survey campaign is used for investigating the potential pros and cons of remote working. In more detail, logistic regression and generalized linear models are used for capturing the effect of several independent variables on …
Port–City Relationship and the Environment: Literature Survey and Methodological Approach for Project Appraisal in Presence of Environmental External…
2015
AbstractIn times of increasing environmental awareness, the port–city relationship has gained new meaning because ports have been seen as the origin of both negative and positive externalities affecting public welfare. While the former are the result of port expansion, the latter are the result of transforming obsolete port areas into recreational facilities. Therefore, to support effective policymaking, this paper considers the following question: What is the scope of economic valuation of these externalities in the context of port-project appraisal? Considering their nonmarket nature, which makes economic valuation more difficult, a contingent valuation method is introduced as an economic…
Disturbed Exploitation compact Differential Evolution for Limited Memory Optimization Problems
2011
This paper proposes a novel and unconventional Memetic Computing approach for solving continuous optimization problems characterized by memory limitations. The proposed algorithm, unlike employing an explorative evolutionary framework and a set of local search algorithms, employs multiple exploitative search within the main framework and performs a multiple step global search by means of a randomized perturbation of the virtual population corresponding to a periodical randomization of the search for the exploitative operators. The proposed Memetic Computing approach is based on a populationless (compact) evolutionary framework which, instead of processing a population of solutions, handles …
The impact of COVID-19 on alternative and local food systems and the potential for the sustainability transition: Insights from 13 countries
2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major stress test for the agri-food system. While most research has analysed the impact of the pandemic on mainstream food systems, this article examines how alternative and local food systems (ALFS) in 13 countries responded in the first months of the crisis. Using primary and secondary data and combining the Multi-Level Perspective with social innovation approaches, we highlight the innovations and adaptations that emerged in ALFS, and how these changes have created or supported the sustainability transition in production and consumption systems. In particular, we show how the combination of social and technological innovation, greater citizen involvement,…
Approximations of Parabolic Equations at the Vicinity of Hyperbolic Equilibrium Point
2014
This article is devoted to the numerical analysis of the abstract semilinear parabolic problem u′(t) = Au(t) + f(u(t)), u(0) = u 0, in a Banach space E. We are developing a general approach to establish a discrete dichotomy in a very general setting and prove shadowing theorems that compare solutions of the continuous problem with those of discrete approximations in space and time. In [3] the discretization in space was constructed under the assumption of compactness of the resolvent. It is a well-known fact (see [10, 11]) that the phase space in the neighborhood of the hyperbolic equilibrium can be split in a such way that the original initial value problem is reduced to initial value prob…
Optimal damping coefficient for a class of continuous contact models
2020
AbstractIn this study, we develop an analytical formula to approximate the damping coefficient as a function of the coefficient of restitution for a class of continuous contact models. The contact force is generated by a logical point-to-point force element consisting of a linear damper connected in parallel to a spring with Hertz force–penetration characteristic, while the exponent of deformation of the Hertz spring can vary between one and two. In this nonlinear model, it is assumed that the bodies start to separate when the contact force becomes zero. After separation, either the restitution continues or a permanent penetration is achieved. Therefore, this model is capable of addressing …