Development Commission Research Articles

Public Subsidy, Property Development, and Economic Activity: An Evaluation of Britain's Rural Development Commission's Redundant Building Grant

The Rural Development Commission (RDC) operates the Redundant Building Grant (RBG) which is designed to bring redundant buildings in certain rural areas into commercial activity. In this paper a recent evaluation of the grant is outlined. At the national level RDC data can be used to describe the key characteristics of the grant. This evaluation is primarily based on data obtained from more than 400 applicants in nine counties. This information is employed to assess RBG within three parameters; the property market; economic consequences; and performance impact measures. Policy issues are raised in relation to the specificity of RBG and deadweight.

USGS collects ice core through Alpine glacier

On August 24, 1991, a U.S. Geological Survey study team from Wyoming completed a core hole to bedrock underlying Upper Fremont Glacier in the Wind River Range of central Wyoming. During the month of core drilling, the team collected a 160‐m ice core from the glacier at an elevation of 4000 m above sea level using a solar‐powered thermal drill (See photo). The drill was constructed and operated by personnel from the Polar Ice Coring Office (PICO) in Fairbanks, Alaska.The 1991 drilling project is part of ongoing research conducted by the USGS since 1988 on temperate glaciers in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. The objective of the project is to use variations in concentrations of chemical and isotopic constituents in samples of ice cores to reconstruct records of the chemical quality of atmospheric deposition and to extend long‐term climatic records. A maximum of 300–500 years of record is estimated to be available in upper accumulation zones of the Wind River Range glaciers. The proximity of the Wind River Range glaciers to atmospheric pollution sources in the western United States makes them unique environmental records. Cooperating in the project were the Shoshone and Arapaho Indian tribes, Wyoming Water Development Commission, PICO, Wyoming State Engineer, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Commentary: A Blueprint for Change in the Northwest Territories?

September 1992 marks the 25th anniversary of moving the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) from Ottawa to Yellowknife. In that time, the growth of the territorial governmental process has been phenomenal. In 1967, most GNWT employees travelled in one plane going to Yellowknife, and the government's budget was about $14 million. Today, there are almost 6000 GNWT employees and the budget is over $1.1 billion. Strength at Two Levels (the Beatty Report) is certainly one of the more interesting and contentious reports commissioned by the GNWT. On the one hand it advocates expanding the powers of local governments in the region - hence, strength at the territorial and local levels of government. At the same time, if implemented, recommendations of the report would undermine part of the GNWT's power base in Yellowknife. The question then is: Will the report become a blueprint for change, or will it be just another document for decentralization, unheeded by Yellowknife? The Beatty Report is about the high cost of government in the Northwest Territories (NWT). ... The Beatty Report is not the only design for change on the table in the North. Since November 1991, the governing of their own lands by the Inuit would certainly necessitate restructuring northern government. In the western Northwest Territories the Commission for Constitutional development issued its report in April 1992, "Working Toward a Common Future." It posed the possibility of a new constitutional process for the new territory, emphasizing the necessity of beginning authority relationships with people and communities. Its design would certainly restructure the governmental process in the NWT. Thus the dominant view circulating in the NWT seems to be that change is required in northern government. Twenty-five years of evolution have created a centralized, cumbersome and expensive territorial government centred in Yellowknife. Many individuals and groups outside Yellowknife want a greater say in the policy-making process. A number of ideas exist about how the present system should be changed. The Beatty Report is one of those ideas, but one upon which the GNWT is relying heavily. Pressures on members of the Legislative Assembly may force the government to incorporate a number of views in its plans for restructuring. But the question remains, will the GNWT actually embark on a process of change, where communities or regions actually have greater decision-making powers? This may be difficult for a government that has built up a great deal of inertia over 25 years.

Museums in Rural Areas

Abstract The Arts Council report (1989) Think Rural: Act Now begins with this quotation from the Rural Development Commission:The English Countryside is not an open air museum, nor is it just a Sunday breath of fresh air for town people. Country areas offer homes and jobs to 10 million people.No one still regards the countryside as an open-air museum — even the Archers addresses some of the current issues, such as the cost of housing, the decline of rural transport and the threat of new road building. However the chocolate box image of rural England is remarkably persistent — in art, poetry and our own perception. Up-market glossies like Country Life, Country Living and the Field portray an environmentalist movement promoting the consumption of pricey organically grown vegetables and designer outdoor clothing. The Hovis advert on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, the Shell pipeline simplistically slicing through Cumbria and leaving not a trace — the image rammed home is of timelessness, tranquillity, refreshment.

Conservation in Saudi Arabia

During the last 5 years a major conservation programme has been under way in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The author worked for the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development between 1987 and 1990, and in this article gives a personal view of the achievements of the organization and the problems it faces in trying to implement its policies.

Solar desalination plant contra CO 2 emission

For solar desalination units based on the Aquasolar system, research is provided from the prototype units in Hannover and in Sfax. The commission for water development predicts that an additional 24 million cu m per day of desalinated water will be required by the year 2000. To produce this quantity of desalinatedwater using conventional systems, we would have to use approximately 3,000,000,000,000 liters of oil per year. The resulting nitrogen oxide emission is the basis of research and development in cooperation with several universities in Germany and in Tunisia.

Cartographically-related research In Birkbeck College 1987–91

The Department of Geography in Birkbeck College is rather unusual in various ways. Part of this stems from the College's unique mission to educate students on a part-time basis: only a small proportion of students (normally research students) are full-time. As a consequence, our students attend in the evening and work during the day in their normal occupations. The range of occupations varies dramatically from top civil servants and business staff to much more humble jobs. As a consequence, what we teach goes directly into the 'corporate blood stream' of many organisations; it is often used within days of it being taught. For this reason (amongst others) we see it as essential for our research results to be fed immediately into our teaching; inevitably, then, we seek some applicable results even from the most basic of our research. Birkbeck is generally reckoned to be one of the leading centres world-wide in relation to research and applications of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). This can be demonstrated in various ways. For instance, in a national research competition funded by the Natural Environment and the Economic and Social Research Councils (NERC and ESRC) in 1989, we secured about 25070 of the resources far more than any competitor. Apart from our own inhouse developments (see below), we were also the first site in Europe (in 1983) to install a commercial GIS (ARC/INFO) and now run several systems, using each for what it can do best. Because of this reputation, we are a centre to which many visitors come: recent long-stay researchers have come from China, France, Japan, Spain and Sweden. Overall, we are active in GIS in research of many kinds, much of it funded by government or international organisations, in education and training, in publishing and in consultancy. Given all this, where does cartography fit in within Birkbeck's activities? In the first instance, we exploit Desk Top Publishing and mapping in the cartography which illustrates work published by all departmental staff. More specifically, however, map-making from GIS is an everyday event within many projects and in teaching; the numbers made annually must run into many thousands. Many of our projects (e.g. for British Rail and for the Rural Development Commission) have involved displaying complex data in map form in order to convince non-expert staff about research findings. Maps as archival data stores of historical information are also important as input to our systems. Some projects (notably that on generalisation see below) are heavily cartographic. Overall, however, we see GIS and cartography as intimately linked though we do not subscribe to the view that the former is simply a tool encompassed within the latter. The spatial analysis aspects of GIS, in particular, constitute a distinctive area little explored by cartographers. It would be difficult to describe the 100+ projects carried out since 1987 in any detail. For this reason, a selection is made below and is arranged under distinct headings though most work makes a contribution to multiple areas.

Providing access for the public to the shoreline of San Francisco Bay

This paper will discuss how the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission has responded to the public need to get to the shoreline and view the water as part of its regulatory program for the San Francisco Bay Area. The Commission's authority will be discussed as well as the way the Commission uses its Design Review Board and design guidelines to assure that public access areas are well designed and integrated into project development.

Conservation status of gazelles in Saudi Arabia

The populations of the three gazelle species native to Saudi Arabia have been greatly reduced over the last fifty years. The Saudi gazelle Gazella (dorcas) saudiya is almost certainly extinct in the wild. Scattered populations of the mountain gazelle Gazella gazella still occur in the mountains of western Saudi Arabia and in the northern deserts. There is also one substantial population of the subspecies G. g. farasani on the Farasan Islands in the Red Sea. Sand gazelle Gazella subgutturosa marica are only found in two areas on the fringes of the Nafud desert in the north. As a result of the protected area system being established by the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development, some populations of the two remaining species of gazelle can be expected to survive despite continued hunting pressure and overgrazing over much of the Kingdom, but their future is bleak outside protected areas.

Green tourism in the countryside

The conference ‘Shades of Green - Working Towards Green Tourism in the Countryside’, held in Leeds on 10–12 April 1990, was the first major conference on green tourism in the UK. It was sponsored by the Countryside Commission, English Tourist Board and Rural Development Commission, with the objective of encouraging good practice in rural tourism, which respects and sustains the fabric of environment and community. Bill Bramwell, Senior Lecturer in Tourism at Sheffield City Polytechnic, reports on the differing approaches to green tourism which emerged from the practical case studies discussed at the conference. The full proceedings of the ‘Shades of Green’ Conference, edited by Bill Bramwell, has been published jointly by the Countryside Commission, English Tourist Board and Rural Development Commission.

Policy Review Section

In this Policy Review Section, Hilary Metcalf and Richard Pearson of the Institute of Manpower Studies, University of Sussex, and Ron Martin of the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, set out the findings of a study into the charitable job creation activities of private sector companies and the work of enterprise agencies and related bodies which have received support from these companies. In relation to corporate job creation, it is considered that many companies could improve the effectiveness of their support through better organization, targeting and focusing on agencies' needs. In regard to the issues facing agencies, the authors conclude that many problems revolve around the question of sponsorship. Much of the responsibility of fund raising rests with agency staff who, in some cases, have little idea about how to effectively approach companies, and yet have to devote a considerable amount of time to the task. Looking to the future, Metcalf, Pearson and Martin believe agencies will face increased financial pressures as charitable demands on companies grow, whilst government policies towards local authorities result in a reduction in agency support from that source. A consequence of these pressures, they believe, will be a reduction in the number of agencies with the development of regional consortia and networks to share resources and co-ordinate activities. In the second article, Steve Martin, Mike Tricker and Tony Bovaird of Aston Business School present the findings of their study of the effectiveness of Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) as a vehicle for co-ordinating economic and social initiatives in twenty-seven Rural Development Areas designated by the Development Commission in 1984. It is considered that to date the RDPs have had a positive impact on the areas concerned through improved co-ordination, bringing about changes in policies and practices amongst agencies and levering extra resources from the public and voluntary sectors. However, they conclude it remains to be seen, in the longer term, how successful the RDPs will be in bending agencies' main programmes towards rural priorities, in attracting substantial private sector funds and in developing truly integrated and innovative rural development strategies.

THE INTERNATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION ON AGEING: SECOND REVIEW AND APPRAISAL OF IMPLEMENTATION Bulletin on Ageing 1989

The second Review and Appraisal of the implementation of the International Plan of Action on Ageing was conducted by the Commission for Social Development of the United Nations. The primary objective of the second review was to examine the impact of the Plan of Action at the national, regional and international levels since 1984 when the first review was conducted.The following article is reprinted with permission form the Bulletin on Ageing, published by the United Nations Office at Vienna, Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. The article focusses on a report based on the replies of 53 States Members of the United Nations to a questionnaire on ageing circulated by UNOV/CSDHA in 1988.The second review was also considered by the Economic and Social Council of the UN. A set of priorities and recommendations to supplement the Plan of Action and to encourage its implementation were determined. Also, a programme of United Nations activities leading up to and following 1992, the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the International Plan of Action on Ageing, was endorsed.Second Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the International Plan of Action on Ageing

Poverty, Conflict, and Hope: A Turning Point in Central America. The Report of the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1989), pp. x+151. - William Ascher and Ann Hubbard (eds.), Central American Recovery and Development: Task Force Report to the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press,

Poverty, Conflict, and Hope: A Turning Point in Central America. The Report of the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1989), pp. x+151. - William Ascher and Ann Hubbard (eds.), Central American Recovery and Development: Task Force Report to the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1989), pp. ix + 462, $27.50. - Volume 22 Issue 1-2

Central American Recovery and Development Task Force report to the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development

The International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development was created in 1987 to analyze development in the region and to make recommendations to the region's governments and to the international community. The essays in this volume were written by experts in Central American development, economics, politics, and administration who were asked by the commission to synthesize existing knowledge on Central America's prospects for aid, trade, and institutional reform, and to propose creative approaches to the problems facing the region. The Center for International Development Research at Duke University was chosen to perform the editorial and support tasks for the commission.

Administrative and legal frameworks for promoting landscape architecture: a third world contribution

Abstract The development of policy towards landscape planning in Nigeria is described, both Colonial and post‐Colonial. The present parlous state of the nation's parks and open spaces is analysed and much hope is found in the Open Space Development Commission of Anambra State, which forms a case study.

Cutting the Cost of Housing; Why More Building Land is the Answer

Economic AffairsVolume 9, Issue 4 p. 7-7 Cutting the Cost of Housing; Why More Building Land is the Answer Lord Vinson, Lord Vinson Lord Vinson is Chairman of the Rural Development Commission, and Chairman of the Managing Trustees of the Institute of Economic Affairs. He has played an active part in public life over the last 11 years and is a Director of a number of City companies. He pioneered the concept of Personal and Portable Pensions for all, and originated the idea of the successful ‘enterprise allowance’ scheme.Search for more papers by this author Lord Vinson, Lord Vinson Lord Vinson is Chairman of the Rural Development Commission, and Chairman of the Managing Trustees of the Institute of Economic Affairs. He has played an active part in public life over the last 11 years and is a Director of a number of City companies. He pioneered the concept of Personal and Portable Pensions for all, and originated the idea of the successful ‘enterprise allowance’ scheme.Search for more papers by this author First published: April 1989 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0270.1989.tb01128.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume9, Issue4April 1989Pages 7-7 RelatedInformation

Characteristics of traditional midwives and their beliefs and practices in rural Bangladesh

This study has analyzed the characteristics, beliefs and practices of midwives in rural Bangladesh. The midwives were mainly above age 30, married or widowed, and illiterate. Most of them learned their midwifery from informal sources such as female relatives or neighbours. Often, during pregnancy, childbirth, and post-partum period, midwives imposed dietary restriction on the mothers. Similarly, devices used in the cutting of the umbilical cord and placenta were not properly sterilized and potentially dangerous substances were applied at the navel after cutting the umbilical cord or placenta. There was a practice of withholding breast-feeding up to 3 days after the birth of a child. However, there were also some beliefs or practices among the midwives that could be regarded as based on scientific understanding such as the practice of cutting the umbilical cord by boiled razor blade or the belief that child death could occur from tetanus caused by the unsterilized device used in the cutting of the umbilical cord.

The Wills and Administration of Testate Estates Act 1989 and The Intestate Succession Act 1989 of Zambia

After conducting research into the customary law of succession and considering the various arguments for and against reforming succession law, in 1982 the Law Development Commission published a report which favoured reform and which contained a draft bill dealing with testate and intestate succession, and with family provision. Now two laws have been enacted, the one governing wills and the administration of testate estates, the other governing intestacy and the administration of intestate estates. Although there are obvious similarities between the draft bill and the new laws, there are also significant differences. It is not only that the draft bill did not deal with the administration of estates, but that several of its key provisions relating to wills and intestacy have been modified or abandoned.

The Accommodation of "Occupation" and "Social Utility" in Prior Public Use Jurisprudence

The city of New Haven owns an airport located partially within the city and partially within the town of East Haven. East Haven is hostile to the development of the airport and for years has sought to contain it. East Haven and the East Haven Economic Development Commission institute eminent domain proceedings to take three parcels of the airport's land, situated in East Haven but owned by New Haven, to develop an industrial park. The parcels are not currently used for airport operations except to the extent that they ensure requisite unobstructed air space and permit future expansion of airport facilities. The industrial park could be an important source of economic development for the town. East Haven seeks to take the parcels subject to any height restrictions imposed by federal and state statutes and regulations. In response, the city of New Haven and the board of airport commissioners bring actions to enjoin East Haven from taking the three parcels. New Haven's central argument is that the property cannot be condemned because it is already devoted to public use.' The prior public use doctrine is a judicial rule employed in the adjudication of such conflicts, in which a condemnor endowed with a general grant of the power of eminent domain attempts to use the power to take property already dedicated to a public use. The problem often arises in disputes between corporations granted equal powers of

The Effects of Regional Land Use Control in Oregon: A Theoretical and Empirical Review

This paper examines the impact of state government in the Oregon land use program. For several reasons the State of Oregon offers an ideal setting for examining the impact of state participation in land use regulation. First, Oregon is a pioneer in statewide land use regulation. The Oregon land use statutes were enacted in 1973, long enough ago to have had measurable impacts. Second, the Oregon land use program requires both state and local participation in land use regulation. In 1974 the Oregon State Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), a governor-appointed commission, adopted 19 statewide land use goals and guidelines. Subsequently, every local government had to construct comprehensive land use plans in conformance with these goals and guidelines or suffer stiff non-compliance penalties and/or state preemption of land use authority. Compliance with the goals and guidelines is determined through an acknowledgement process by the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), the administrative arm of the LCDC. All of the comprehensive plans of the 246 local governments have now been acknowledged by the DLCD. As a result, the Oregon land use program contains a mix of state and local land use controls. Third, the Oregon land use program has been the subject of considerable theoretical and empirical research. This research offers insights into the impacts of state participation in land use regulation.