An Airport, a Valley—and the Consequences of Chronic Indecision

Evaluating the Competitiveness for Major International Airports in Northeast Asia

With the development of international cultural heritage, the positive shift from historic environments to historic urban landscapes has been explored in China. At the same time, China is also trying to extend its heritage corridors to historic urban landscape corridors; thus, the spatial organization characteristics and themes of historic landscapes are being explored. This study took the Dunhuang Oasis area as an example and, based on regional, cultural, and natural heritage sites and man-made environmental characteristics, identified and evaluated historic urban landscape corridors. The least cumulative resistance model was applied to identify historic landscape corridors, and the multicenter evaluation model was used to classify the historic landscape corridors. From the perspective of corridor identification, the military defense and historic landscapes of the city ruins together reflect the human need for “city administration–border defense–ancient trade and commerce”. Grottoes and scenic landscapes are more dependent on the Gobi Desert, mountains, and other areas intertwined with the oasis. The drainage system and water conservancy landscape consists of four stable landscape corridors containing east, west, north, and south canals, which are the basic driving force for the growth of the town. From the corridor hierarchy, we studied layer formation from the Dunhuang urban area, the western and northern local oasis dry canal, Mingsha Mountain–Crecent Spring, etc., as interconnected trunk corridors. The periphery of the Dunhuang urban area encompasses the southern trunk canal, southeastern Mogao Grottoes–Sanwei Mountain road, and other branch corridors. This study determined the composition and level of importance of historic landscape corridors, while at the same time enhancing the visual representation and skyline organization, which can be used for territorial spatial planning and research in functional urban areas.

ABSTRACTThis article examines local residents’ identity with historic landscapes through the case study of the Austrått landscape in Norway, where cultural and natural heritage are under pressure from increasing local development. In order to understand what the place means to local residents, i.e., how local residents perceive the landscape and how they attach themselves to the landscape, the theory of place identity was applied, which has two dimensions: identity with the place and identity of the place. Local residents were approached by interviewing local farm owners, and by holding a workshop with local interest groups. The findings indicate that local residents have a good understanding of what constitute the qualities and values of the historic landscape; they have a deep attachment to the place, mainly through activities and frequent use, and they expressed a wish to have balance between preserving the past and developing the future. The conclusion argues that, when overseeing a historic landscape that also has a close relationship with local residents, it is crucial to involve these people at all stages of the process, from knowledge generation and evaluation to planning and management. Having local residents actively involved can help ensure the lasting integrity of the qualities and values of historic landscapes, and sustain local residents’ identity with the place.

This study focused on the condition of Eco- tourism in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines as being perceived by the local residents. It attempted to identify the qualities of Gabaldon Nueva Ecija as an eco-tourist destination; the over-all rating of the local residents in terms of tourism components; the perceived impacts of tourism to local residents among the economic, the socio-cultural and environment; the level of community awareness; and the common problems encountered by the tourists. The participants of the study were chosen using a purposive random sampling, a total of 88 respondents were utilized in this study i.e. eight respondents for each ten barangays identified wherein, tourist destinations are located. Furthermore, respondents of the study were chosen by the following criteria: (1) barangay officials who were responsible in overseeing the tourist spot as well as assisting in the tourist arrival; (2) resort employees; (3) resort owners; (4) residents who reside nearby/in the tourist destination. Upon identifying the respondents, a face to face interview and observation were conducted in which the researcher uncovered trends in thoughts and opinions and dove deeper into the perception of local residents who only had a minimal knowledge about tourism. After the said procedure, questionnaires were disseminated which contained 7 parts: (1) concerned with the profile of the respondents; (2) respondent’s perception on the qualities of Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija to be considered as an eco-tourist destination; (3) the over-all rating of the local residents to different resorts and natural parks in terms of tourism component; (4) the impact of tourism to local residents in terms of economic, socio-cultural, and environmental aspects; (5) the level of community awareness; (6) the common problems encountered by the tourists; and (7) the different policies, procedures and guidelines that can be recommended to attain sustainable tourism based on the local residents’ perspectives. Frequency Distribution and Percentage; Weighted Mean and Ranking were used as a Statistical Treatment of data. The study came up with the following findings: In terms of qualities, the item “offers different recreational facilities such as the presence of resorts and natural tourist attractions” got the highest rank with a verbal interpretation of “Good” from the total response of the respondents. They perceived Gabaldon (Summer Capital of Nueva Ecija) as good in terms of climate; serves as home to NEUST Gabaldon Campus which offers farm tourism ambiance and scenic landscape, cultures and festival. Also, the respondents rated the item “positive socio-cultural and economic impacts of eco-tourism” as “Strongly Agree” while they also agreed on the negative impacts of it. On both positive and negative environmental impacts of eco-tourism, the respondents also answered “Agree” on those items. Furthermore, on the identified problems met by the tourists, the items obtained an over-all verbal interpretation of “Agree”. To sum it all, the study shows that the respondents were aware about the tourism of the municipality. The researcher found out that if the LGU will prioritize tourism more, the economic aspect of the area will grow because of the multiplier effects of tourism. In totality, the researcher fully recommends that, the LGU may strengthen the tourism of the municipality by adopting a Tourism Destination Management to achieve sustainable and competitive results.

Artificial islands are extensively utilized in urban development, ports, and tourism projects worldwide, but they also present numerous ecological and environmental challenges. This study provides a comprehensive review of the principal applications of modern artificial islands as well as their development trends. All artificial islands dating back to the eighteenth century have been compiled, encompassing their locations, construction, and purposes. The main content of this review is in three different directions: (1) artificial islands are categorized into six groups: application-based groups and arranged chronologically, providing insights into the growth patterns of each category; (2) three common island-building types: cofferdam island, reef island and floating island, and the related techniques are summarized and (3) the challenges faced by the construction of artificial islands are presented along with the suggestions and expectations. This review is intended to provide some inspiration for future research on artificial islands.

The purpose of this study is to figure out structural differences among aviation networks of Korea, China, and Japan through analyzing their major airports’ and air carriers’ networks in the international aviation market. This study employs three (degree, betweeness, closeness) centrality, network density, and assortativity measures in the network analysis, in order to evaluate international connectivity of airports and air carriers operating in the three countries. The main results are as follows. First, ICN (Incheon International Airport) is positioned as a top-tier airport among major airports in Asia, in terms of international connectivity evaluated by the three centrality measures. Also, we confirm that the connectivity of secondary hubs in China and East Asia markets has rapidly increased from 2015 to 2019, according to increasing routes connecting between those regions. Next, through comparing major airports’ networks of the three countries in East Asia, we find that in Korea the centrality gap between ICN and the rest of international airports is larger than gaps among major airports in the counterparts, mainly affected by their hub network structures. However, LCCs (Low Cost Carriers) in Korea have the smaller dependence on ICN than FSCs (Full Service Carriers) according to operating regional airports as their secondary hubs. From the results, we confirm that it is necessary to pursue improving the international connectivity of regional international airports through expanding LCCs’ air networks as a suitable strategy to improve the accessibility to international flights for local residents, as well as to alleviate the imbalance of the national airport system.

Purpose: This research purports to forecast the number of foreign tourists arriving at major airport in Indonesia. The airports chosen are Soekarno Hatta, Juanda, I Gusti Ngurah Rai, and Kualanamu international airports.
 Design/methodology/approach: The data used were foreign tourists arrival at major airports located in Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, and Denpasar. The data extended from January 2014 until December 2018. Two time-series methods were employed, namely Holt-Winter Seasonality and Exponential Smoothing with maximum likelihood. The forecasts would reveal the fitted numbers of foreign tourists arriving from January 2019 until December 2019. The fitted numbers would then be compared to the actual numbers of January 2019 to December 2019.
 Findings: The results showed that, overall, Holt-Winters seasonality excel at forecasting foreign tourists arrival at Soekarno Hatta and Juanda international airports. While Exponential Smoothing perform better for prediction at I Gusti Ngurah Rai and Kualanamu international airports. The MAPE for Holt-Winters at Soekarno Hatta and Juanda international airports were 26.1585% and 14.538%. The MAPE for Exponential Smoothing at at I Gusti Ngurah Rai and Kualanamu international airports were 7.76% and 15.6791%.
 Research limitations/implications: Forecasting for foreign tourist arrival at Soekarno Hatta and Juanda international airports should employ Holt-Winters approach. Forecasting for foreign tourists arrival at I Gusti Ngurah Rai and Kualanamu international airports should employ Exponential Smoothing with maximum likelihood.
 Practical implications: Certain forecasting methods work better than the others at certain international airports. Many forercasting methods are available. Two methods are specifically prominent for detecting seasonality and trend, i.e Holt-Winters and Exponential Smoothing with maximum likelihood.
 Originality/value: Most research focus on one method at a time. This research compares two methods so that we can know better which method is suitable for certain airports. Four international airports are sampled in this study. Not many research focus on several places at a time.
 Paper type: Research paper

The purpose of this study is to examine the trends in the number of arrival and departure passengers by major domestic airports, and to analyze the relationship between the increase rate and volatility of each airport. The data used in this study was organized by KOSIS “Transportation Logistics ⇨ Aviation Statistics ⇨ Airport Statistics” for the number of passengers. For the analysis period, a total of 190 monthly data were used from January 2005 to October 2020. In this study, we performed numerical analysis, index analysis, and model analysis using the rate of change from the previous month. Recently, new airports in Korea such as Gadeokdo New Airport, Jeju 2nd Airport, Ulleung Airport, Heuksan Airport, and Saemangeum Airport are being promoted with a lot of social interest. In this study, we selected six major airports among existing airports to examine the trends in the number of arrival and departure passengers by domestic airport. Incheon International Airport was built as a replacement airport when Gimpo Airport exceeded its passenger and cargo capacity. In accordance with Seoul’s global city strategy, Incheon opened its port in April 2001, and then expanded Terminal 2 through phases 1∼3 in 2017, allowing it to accommodate 72 million passengers a year. Gimpo Airport transports air passengers and cargo. Since 2001, domestic flights and international flights such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Shanghai have been operating. Since 2001, international flights have decreased, and as KTX operations and air routes in some local cities have been closed, the number of domestic flights has been further decreasing. Gimhae Airport is a military and civilian international airport in Busan. It is the fourth airport in Korea after Incheon, Jeju, and Gimpo in terms of passengers. International passengers operate a lot after Incheon Airport. In 2018, the number of international passengers exceeded 10 million, and international flights mainly operate routes such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines. Cheongju Airport is a base airport in the central region, and the relocation of Sejong City to the National Assembly is being discussed, making new changes. It is expected to contribute to regional development as the number of foreign tourists increases due to the growth of the tourism industry and the vitalization of the airport. Gwangju Airport is operating international flights to Bangkok and Osaka in June 1995 by linking Gimpo and Gimhae Airports. In 2001, it served as a key airport in the southwest region when it launched international flights to Shanghai. However, with the opening of Muan Airport in 2007, the international flight function was transferred. Jeju Airport was promoted to an international airport in 1968, and domestic airlines are the most developed among domestic airports. The Gimpo-Jeju route is the world’s most passenger-operated route with 13.46 million passengers in 2017. Even after Corona 19, it maintains the number one route used by the most passengers in the world. In technical statistics, Cheongju, Jeju, Gwangju and Gimhae showed relatively high rates of increase and high volatility. As a result of correlation analysis, compared with total passengers at domestic airports, Gimhae, Gimpo, Cheongju, Jeju, Gwangju, and Incheon were higher in order. In the scatter analysis for each airport, Gimpo and Gimhae showed relatively high levels compared to total domestic passengers. On the other hand, Gwangju and Incheon showed relatively low synchronization. In the regression analysis, it was calculated that Gimpo, Gimhae, Cheongju, and Incheon were statistically significant, while Jeju and Gwangju were not. The Durbin-Watson stat was 2.262, which was close to 2, indicating that each airport fluctuates independently of each other.

Remote Sensing Laboratory, Field Science Center, Graduate School of Agriculture Science, Tohoku University starts at April 2004. For studies and education at the laboratory we are now developing the system of remote sensing and GIS. Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) made the Home Pages of Terra/ASTER Image Web Library 3 "The Major Airport of the World." http://www.Ersdac.or.jp/ASTERimage3/library_E.html. First, we check the Airport Data to use agricultural understanding for the world. Almost major airport is located in rural area and surrounded with agriculture field. To survey the agriculture field adjacent to the major airport has almost the same condition of human activities. The images are same size and display about 18km X 14km. We can easily understand field size and surrounding conditions. We study seven airports as follows, 1. Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), Japan, 2. Taipei Chiang kai Shek International Airport (TPE), Taiwan, 3. Bangkok International Airport (BKK), Thailand, 4. Riyadh King Khalid International Airport (RUH), Saudi Arabia, 5. Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Paris, France, 6. Vienna International Airport (VIE), Austria, 7. Denver International Airport (DEN), CO, USA. At the area of Tokyo Narita Airport, there are many golf courses, big urban area and small size of agricultural fields. At Taipei Airport area are almost same as Tokyo Narita Airport area and there are many ponds for irrigations. Bangkok Airport area also has golf courses and many ponds for irrigation water. Riyadh Airport area is quite different from others, and there are large bare soils and small agriculture fields with irrigation and circle shape. Paris Airport area and Vienna Airport area are almost agricultural fields and there are vegetated field and bare soil fields because of crop rotation. Denver Airport area consists of almost agriculture fields and each field size is very large. The advantages of ASTER data are as follows, 1. High-resolution and large swath, 2. Large wavelength and many bands, 3. High-revel of geographical location, 4. Stereo pair images, 5. High performance data searching system, 6. High speed data delivery system, 7. Cheap price, 8. Seven years observation and large volume archive. A kind of project "Determination of Local Characteristics at Global Agriculture Using Archive ASTER Data" was started at middle of November 2005. We establish data processing system and get some results. Paddy rice fields analysis was started at first, we analyze 1) the Shonai Plains in Japan, 2) the Yangtze River delta in Middle-East China, 3) Mekong Delta in South Vietnam, 4) North-east Thai Plaines, Thailand, 5) Sacrament Valley, California, USA. The results of this studies are as follows, 1) Using ASTER images, we can easily understand agricultural characteristics of each local area. 2) ASTER data are high accuracy for location, and the accuracy is suitable for global study without the fine topographical maps, 3) By five years observation of ASTER, there is huge numbers of ASTER scenes, but not enough volumes for cloud free data for seasonal analysis. It means that follow-on program of ASTER is necessary, 4) We need not only paddy field, but also all crop fields and all area, 5) The studies are necessary to international corroboration.

Airports have traditionally been studied for their operational efficiency, but few studies have considered their environmental impact. This study analyzed the operational efficiency and environmental impact of the world’s major international airports, evaluated the operational status of each airport by year, and suggested improvement measures and strategies from the perspective of Incheon International Airport. To this end, this study analyzed the yearly efficiency changes of 20 international airports from 2018 to 2022, and explored various factors affecting airport operations. The result found that Hong Kong International Airport, Memphis International Airport, Ted Stevens Anchorage, and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport have consistently maintained optimal scale efficiency. When looking at the changes in efficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study found an overall decline in airport efficiency, followed by a gradual recovery in 2021. Incheon International Airport’s scale efficiency ranged from 0.635 to 0.762, which is relatively low and needs improvement. Meanwhile, the technical efficiency of 10 airports, including Incheon International Airport, achieved the optimal level. In order to consider the environmental impact, this study analyzed the landing and take-off of each airport as an undesirable output factor. Hong Kong International Airport, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport consistently achieved high efficiency, while Incheon International Airport, Miami International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport showed a decrease in efficiency due to negative factors. This research suggested that efficient scheduling is more important than simply increasing the number of flights to reduce environmental pollution. The results of this study are expected to serve as an important basis for improving the efficiency of airports in the future.

This article focuses on the Israeli ethno-religious party Shas and its role in the Israeli social and political structure. It is argued that while Shas functions successfully in Israel's Western-style political system, it does so as a more typical party. Thus understanding the context within which Shas operates and its relation to political and societal divisions offers an insight into Israeli society and its political system.The aim of this article is twofold: the exploration of Shas as a political party and its place within the Israeli political system and, by implication, what this reveals about the Israeli state and society. This article seeks to present a systematic analysis of the English-language literature on Shas and its place within the wider Israeli polity. This is significant because Shas represents many of the key divisions within Israeli society. Furthermore, it reflects the failure of secular Zionist ideology to find resonance among the large post-1948 wave of Jewish immigrants from the Middle East who did not share the same intellectual history or suffer the same types of persecution as their coreligionists in Europe.By the 1970s, many Israelis from these Middle Eastern Jewish communities had mobilized along an ethno-religious cleavage in a way previously unseen in Israeli politics. This crystallized in the 1984 establishment of the Worldwide Sephardic Association of Torah Guardians (known by its Hebrew acronym, Shas), which resembles a Middle Eastern political party or movement, but operates within Israel's Western-style political system. Shas constitutes an ideal case study to analyze Israeli society, as the party's support reflects the complexity of Israeli society on two levels. First, it represents what was a new division in the form of overt intra-Jewish ethnic competition. Second, its political success revitalized and arguably exacerbated the existing secular/ religious cleavage. While one must acknowledge that the most prevalent ethnic division is between Arab and Jewish Israelis,1 there are other cleavages worthy of mention. There is an internal Jewish ethnic division between Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews that is important for understanding Israeli society and politics, as well as cleavages between secular and religious Jews, between the core and the periphery, and along class lines (all of which are reflected in the Sephardic/Ashkenazic divide).However Shas is not simply a response to divisions in Israeli society. It is also a party that has been built on deep cultural identity,2 which means Shas is more than a political party and in many respects resembles a social movement.3 The durability of Shas depends on deep cultural links that are well-established in the community and that exist outside of wider divisions in Israeli society. Therefore, Shas and its institutions resemble a social movement and a manifestation of what Myriam Charbit called identity clientelism where the party, institutions, and the community form a mutually reinforcing nexus. 4 Yet Shas is indeed a political party and operates within a structured party system. This article aims to focus on Shas within this context - as a political party, rather than on its broader social realm.As a political party, Shas draws on two distinct but interrelated identities to mobilize voters. Firstly, at the core of Shas and its most influential constituency are ultra-Orthodox Jews, who account for a third of Shas's vote.5 Ultra-Orthodox voters differ from other religious voters in Israel in that they are primarily guided by their religious leaders and a strict social conservatism, concerns that dwarf all other ideological considerations like nationalism and security.6 Shas's position as a representative for the interests of ultra-Orthodox voters manifests itself in its seeking government support and funding for its institutions, which are primarily educational and religious. The use of this funding in some respects constitutes a clientelist relationship,7as it is based on the principle that political support for Shas is rewarded with support for religious institutions. …

Four ‘artificial islands’ are being constructed in Giant Offshore Field in Abu Dhabi, for the purpose of using as centers for drilling and oil production. ZADCO carried out extensive studies to assess the effect of these ‘artificial islands’ on the existing field facilities, such as offshore jacket platforms and pipelines, as these ‘islands’ would permanently alter the estuaries / topographies of the offshore fields. Studies clearly established that these ‘alteration’ does influence the long term / short term hydrodynamic forces on the existing offshore facilities thus affecting ZADCO's structural integrity management plan. Therefore, it was important to quantify the extent of these changes on the existing jacket platforms such that appropriate modification to the current plan can be implemented. The present case study attempts to address the above issue by analyzing two representative jacket platforms, out of numerous platforms. SACS structural analysis software has been utilized for the analysis of these two platforms using hydrodynamic models developed for the two cases: (1) before the construction of artificial islands and (2) after the construction of ‘artificial islands’. Inplace, Fatigue and Pushover cases are part of major parameters used for the structural integrity of the offshore jacket platforms and the results of these analyses are part of critical input to the structural integrity management plans. It was observed that there were significant changes to the result of these analyses due to the introduction of artificial islands especially for the platforms which are having marginal reserve strength. This, in effect, alters current plan of inspection for critical nodes and members which need to be regularly inspected / monitored. It is also observed that the platforms pile on the mudline need to be inspected more frequently to know whether there are any changes to scouring of piles in soil. As a result of this case study it was established that such studies need to be performed while planning ‘artificial islands’ like facilities in offshore field like areas in order to asses its effect on existing facilities.

Hourly surface weather observations are combined with air traffic records to calculate projected utilization of operational warm fog dispersal systems at 15 Air Force bases in the United States and Europe, and at one civilian airport in California, Los Angeles International (LAX). It is projected that between 0.8 and 2.7% of the flights at the airports in the United States and between 4.8 and 7.1% of those at the European bases are adversely affected by warm fog in an average year. In most cases these percentages represent between 300 and 500 flights per year at the Air Force bases in the United States, approximately twice that amount of traffic at the bases in Europe, and approximately ten times that number of flights at LAX. A similar study sponsored by the FAA allowed comparable projections to be made for 40 additional civilian airports. Of the 21 civilian airports with the highest projected utilization of warm fog dispersal systems, it was found that the percentage of affected landings was generally less than one-half of the Air Force bases, but the total number of such landings was generally as high, and in many cases considerably higher.

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the performance evaluation of major international airports in the world.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors utilized data envelopment analysis in an input‐oriented method to discuss the overall operational performance of 20 major international airports between 2001 and 2005. They used cross efficiency measure to determine the international airports that enjoy the best operational performances and used the bilateral model to compare the performance differences between international airports of different regions.FindingsThe Atlanta Airport (ATL) in the USA and the Beijing Airport (PEK) in China experienced MPSS. The overall performance of international airports in Asia is better than those in Americas, Europe, and Oceania.Research limitations/implicationsService quality can be discuss in the field in the future.Practical implicationsIn sensitivity analysis, four inputs had positive impacts on overall performances.Originality/valueThe ATL in the USA and the PEK in China were the best practices for the other international airports.

After the successful conference on Synchrotron Radiation in Polymer Science (SRPS) in Rolduc Abbey (the Netherlands), we are now looking forward to the next meeting in this topical series started in 1995 by H G Zachmann, one of the pioneers of the use of synchrotron radiation techniques in polymer science. Earlier meetings were held in Hamburg (1995), Sheffield (2002), Kyoto (2006), and Rolduc (2009). In September of 2012 the Synchrotron Radiation and Polymer Science V conferences will be organized in a joint effort by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory Advanced Light Source at LBL The conference will be organised in the heart of beautiful San Francisco. The program will consist of invited and contributed lectures divided in sessions on the use of synchrotron SAXS/WAXD, imaging and tomography, soft x-rays, x-ray spectroscopy, GISAXS and reflectivity, micro-beams and hyphenated techniques in polymer science. Poster contributions are more than welcome and will be highlighted during the poster sessions. Visits to both SLAC as well as LBL will be organised.San Francisco can easily be reached. It is served by two major international airports San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport. Both are being served by most major airlines with easy connections to Europe and Asia as well as national destinations. Both also boast excellent connections to San Francisco city centre. We are looking forward to seeing you in the vibrant city by the Bay in September 2012. Alexander Hexemer Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Advanced Light Source, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Michael F Toney Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Pk, CA 94025, USA E-mail: ahexemer@lbl.gov, mftoney@slac.stanford.edu