Higher Developed Pressure Research Articles

Sites of Modern Industrial Heritage in Egypt and Iran

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have only recently discovered their modern industrial heritage as an object of conservation and future development. Through an in-depth analysis of four industrial sites in Egypt and Iran, testifying to a designated modern era, this article documents the complex historical process of industrialization and its political and economic background. Building on fieldwork, archive studies, workshops, and interviews, the article explores how built structures of modern industrial sites signify the multi-facetted, symbiotic, and exploitative international exchange behind the modernization of economies in the region. In the face of many obstacles to the conservation of this heritage, ranging from incomplete listings and ineffectual policies to high development pressures on urban land, this article aims to transcend the current Eurocentrism in industrial heritage research and practice, and encourage regional claims on this significant heritage.

How local governments avoid floodplain development through consistent implementation of routine municipal ordinances, plans, and programs

Abstract Avoiding floodplain development is critical for limiting flood damage, yet there is little empirical evidence of how local governments effectively avoid floodplain development. We conduct a mixed-methods study to explain how local floodplain management influences floodplain development in New Jersey, a state with high development pressure and flood risk. We find that 85% of towns developed relatively little in the floodplain from 2001 to 2019, and they achieved this with commonplace land use management tools and modest levels of local government capacity. One hundred twenty-six New Jersey towns put none of their new housing in the floodplain 2001–2019. Our findings run counter to common reports of rampant floodplain development requiring legal innovation and capacity-building campaigns and suggest alternative approaches for promoting floodplain avoidance. We find multiple paths to floodplain avoidance, weak support for previously identified drivers, and strong evidence that the keys to avoidance include having a few high-quality tools that are well-implemented, requiring consistency, coordination, and commitment of local officials. The multiple paths and importance of maximum, rather than average, quality might explain the mixed evidence in prior research connecting floodplain management actions and development outcomes. A lack of attention to towns that limit floodplain development impedes our ability to learn from and disseminate their successes. Contrary to our expectations, we show that floodplain avoidance can be and is achieved through routine municipal practices. Our findings underscore the importance of sustained commitment to development management as a core tool for limiting flood risk.

Abstract 16801: Effect of Cyclosporine A on Infarct Size in Rat Hearts Donated After Circulatory Death

Introduction: Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is inherent in heart donation after circulatory death (DCD), hence only hearts with <30 minutes of ischemia are used for transplantation. Mitochondrial permeability-transition pore (MPTP) opening has been implicated in IRI. Cyclosporine A (CyA) is known to inhibit MPTP opening. No data on infarct size reduction with CyA exists in a DCD heart. Hypothesis: CyA given during reperfusion will reduce infarct size in DCD hearts. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to either DCD + CyA, DCD + vehicle, or control-beating heart donors (CBD) (n=10 per group). Rats were anesthetized with pentobarbital, intubated and ventilated. Vecuronium and heparin were given for muscle paralysis and anticoagulation respectively. For DCD group, ventilation was terminated (start of anoxia/ischemia time), and hearts procured after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes. CBD hearts were procured without ischemia. Hearts were then perfused on a Langendorff setup for 90 minutes. Vehicle and CyA groups received DMSO and CyA (2μM) in KH buffer, respectively, for first 15 minutes followed by 75 minutes of KH buffer. Developed pressure (DP) was measured via a balloon tip catheter placed in the left ventricle. Infarct size was measured using triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. CBD hearts perfused with KH buffer only served as controls. Results: Percent infarct size following 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 minutes of ischemia was 17.7 ± 4, 19.3 ± 6, 25 ± 4, 27.3 ± 3, and 25.4 ± 11 respectively. CyA given to 25 minutes ischemia group reduced infarct size to 14.7%, corresponding to 6 minutes of ischemia. At 60 minutes CyA treated hearts had higher DP (mmHg) compared to vehicle group (34 ± 13 vs. 51 ± 17, p=0.017 ). Conclusions: CyA given during reperfusion to DCD hearts significantly reduced infarct size and preserved function. CyA use may allow for longer ischemia times during DCD heart procurement.

Optimization of Green Spaces in Plain Urban Areas to Enhance Carbon Sequestration

Global climate change and rapid urbanization have placed enormous pressure on the urban ecological environment worldwide. Urban green spaces, which are an important component of urban ecosystems, can maintain ecological and environmental sustainability and benefits, including biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. However, land use changes across urban landscapes, especially in plain urban areas with high development pressure, have significantly impacted the carbon sequestration efficiency of urban green spaces. Nevertheless, research examining the impact of land use change and development pressure on urban green spaces and carbon sequestration is relatively scarce. Understanding the carbon sequestration efficiency of urban green spaces and its determining factors will help predict future carbon capture trends within urban ecosystems and formulate more targeted sustainable urban planning and management strategies to improve urban carbon sink efficiency and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Therefore, to understand the factors affecting the carbon sequestration efficiency of urban green spaces, this paper used an integrated framework that combined the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford approach (CASA) model, landscape pattern index, multiple linear regression, and Markov–FLUS model. The study explored the impact of urban land use and land cover changes on carbon sequestration within the plain urban areas of Beijing at street scale. The results showed that, at street scale, there was a significant positive and negative correlation between the landscape pattern index and net primary productivity (NPP). In addition, the green spaces located in areas with more complex landscape structures had better carbon sequestration benefits. In addition, multiscenario carbon sequestration efficiency prediction suggested that the sustainable development (SD) scenario could achieve a positive increment of overall NPP. In contrast, the business-as-usual development (BD), the fast development (FD), and the low development (LD) scenarios showed a downward trend in NPP. This paper also proposed strategies for optimizing and enhancing green spaces within urban plain areas. Based on the strategies, the results guide decision making for sustainable urban green space planning that maintains the ecological, economic, and social integrity of urban landscapes during urbanization.

Formalizing tenure of Indigenous lands improved forest outcomes in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

Across the globe, the legal land rights and tenure of many Indigenous peoples are yet to be recognized. A growing body of research demonstrates that tenure of Indigenous lands improves livelihoods and protects forests in addition to inherently recognizing human rights. However, the effect of tenure on environmental outcomes has scarcely been tested in regions with high development pressure, such as those with persisting forest-agriculture conflicts. In this paper, we conduct an event study and a difference-in-differences analysis to estimate the average treatment effect of land tenure on forest cover change for 129 Indigenous lands in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil from 1985 to 2019. We found that forest outcomes in Indigenous lands improved following tenure compared to pretenure and that forest outcomes improved in tenured compared to nontenured lands. We also found that formalized tenure, rather than incomplete tenure, was necessary to improve forest outcomes. Our study is the first rigorous analysis of the effect of tenure on Indigenous lands in the globally important Atlantic Forest biome and contributes to a growing body of literature on the role of rights-based approaches to conservation. The evidence presented in this study may support efforts to secure the legal rights and autonomy of Indigenous peoples.

Public Value Capture, Climate Change, and the ‘Infrastructure Gap’ in Coastal Development: Examining Evidence from France and Greece

This paper examines the role that two Public Value Capture (PVC) mechanisms could play in providing a source of funding for urban infrastructure in the case of two coastal areas in France and Greece. High development pressures in those areas have been exacerbated in recent times by the growing ‘informality of desire’. Therefore, in a context of climate change the two case study areas face the dual challenge of an increasing ‘investment gap’ and increasing vulnerability. Although the estimated costs are still based on approximate calculations, they are substantive. Using primary and secondary data, as well as analysis of the legal and policy framework, the paper shows that ‘informality of desire’ is not only tolerated but actually incentivised in both countries. This leads to substantial short-term financial benefits for private developers and property owners but also some gains for local authorities and central governments. However, the value captured via the legalisation fees and property taxation is not adequately ringfenced and in any case it is not enough to cover the infrastructure gap and the potential compensation in case of natural disasters.

Southeast Asian protected areas are effective in conserving forest cover and forest carbon stocks compared to unprotected areas

Protected areas aim to conserve nature, ecosystem services, and cultural values; however, they have variable success in doing so under high development pressure. Southeast Asian protected areas faced the highest level of human pressure at the turn of the twenty-first century. To estimate their effectiveness in conserving forest cover and forest carbon stocks for 2000–2018, we used statistical matching methods to control for the non-random location of protected areas, to compare protection against a matched counterfactual. We found Southeast Asian protected areas had three times less forest cover loss than similar landscapes without protection. Protected areas that had completed management reporting using the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) conserved significantly more forest cover and forest carbon stocks than those that had not. Management scores were positively associated with the level of carbon emissions avoided, but not the level of forest cover loss avoided. Our study is the first to find that METT scores could predict the level of carbon emissions avoided in protected areas. Given that only 11% of protected areas in Southeast Asia had completed METT surveys, our results illustrate the need to scale-up protected area management effectiveness reporting programs to improve their effectiveness for conserving forests, and for storing and sequestering carbon.

National Wetland Map 5: An improved spatial extent and representation of inland aquatic and estuarine ecosystems in South Africa

The improved representation of freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and associated data was a key component of the 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment, and is an essential step in enhancing defensible land use planning and decision making. This paper reports on the enhancement of the National Wetland Map (NWM) version 5 for South Africa and other data layers associated with the South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems. Detail is provided on (i) the extent of wetlands mapped in NWM5, compared to previous versions of the NWMs; (ii) the improved extent of inland wetlands mapped in focus areas in NWM5 relative to NWM4; (iii) the type of cover associated with the wetlands (inundated, vegetated or arid); (iv) the ecotone between rivers and estuaries; and (v) level of confidence for the inland wetlands in terms of how well the extent and hydrogeomorphic units were captured for each sub-quaternary catchment of South Africa. A total of 4 596 509 ha (3.8% of South Africa) of inland aquatic ecosystems and artificial wetlands have now been mapped, with NWM5 delineating 23% more inland wetlands (2 650 509 ha or 2.2% of SA) compared with NWM4. The estuarine functional zone, which encapsulates all estuarine processes, and associated habitats and biota, was refined for 290 systems totalling 200 739 ha, with the addition of 42 micro-estuaries totalling 340 ha. Nearly 600 000 ha (0.5% of SA) of artificial wetlands were mapped in SA. Inland wetlands are predominantly palustrine (55%), with some arid (34%) and a few inundated systems (11%). Ecotones between rivers and estuaries, ecotones where biota and processes continuously vary from freshwater to estuarine, formed a small fraction (<1.5%) of river total extent (164 018 km). Most inland wetlands (~70%) had a low confidence ranking for designation of extent and typing, because they were not mapped by a wetland specialist and not verified in the field. Future improvements of the map should be focused on catchment-based improvements, particularly in strategic water-source areas, areas of high development pressure and those with low confidence designation.

Sustainable Management of Carbon Sequestration Service in Areas with High Development Pressure: Considering Land Use Changes and Carbon Costs

In countries and regions where development projects are frequently implemented, there is a significant change in the value of carbon sequestration services according to land use and land cover (LULC) changes. In this study, we analyzed the changes in the carbon sequestration services which occurred due to the LULC changes over a 20 years period (1989–2009) in Korea where local development projects have been active, since 1990s. As a result, the total carbon stocks decreased by about 0.07 billion t C. Significant changes in the carbon stocks mostly occurred in areas where development projects were frequently implemented. The loss of economic value due to the changes in carbon stocks over 20 years was 4.7 trillion won (4159 million USD) when market price of carbon is applied. Therefore, in countries and regions where there is an active development, it is necessary to monitor the land-use changes with high carbon stocks, to reconsider the value of the carbon when making policy decisions which cause LULC changes, and to internalize social costs into the market prices. Especially at a local level, it is necessary to promote management policy based on carbon sequestration services in accordance with local conditions such as size and types of the changes in carbon stocks.

Addressing ecological, economic, and social tradeoffs of refuge expansion in constrained landscapes

Conservation planning increasingly needs to be effective in areas that are influenced by anthropogenic land uses, yet many planning tools do not give equal consideration to ecological, social, and economic objectives, nor do they enable identification or comparison of tradeoffs among objectives. We explore outcomes and tradeoffs for the proposed expansion of a US wildlife refuge in a region characterized by strong town character and high human population density, development, and property values. Our objectives were to: (1) determine whether acquisition targets could be achieved given competing objectives; (2) evaluate tradeoffs between social, economic, and ecological objectives; and (3) evaluate how landscape development influences tradeoffs. We used genetic algorithms to generate and evaluate outcomes for refuge expansion that could systematically navigate multi-objective tradeoffs. Ecological objectives included maximizing total protected habitat, priority habitats, and connectivity between protected properties. Economic and social objectives included minimizing acquisition cost, loss of areas under high development pressure, and town character conflict. Land acquisition targets could be met, though not without economic and social tradeoffs. Positive outcomes for area protected and connectivity resulted in poor outcomes for the other four objectives. Win–win refuge expansion solutions were available for some objectives, but there were also consistent tradeoff relationships, which were exacerbated in areas with high development pressure. This multi-objective approach allows decision makers to account for tradeoffs and hard choices between social-ecological objectives. Explicit consideration of multiple, competing objectives and their benefits, losses, and costs increases transparency and improves decision making.

Factors Causing Farmland Price-Value Distortion and Their Implications for Peri-Urban Growth Management

Taiwan’s Agricultural Development Act (ADA) of 2000 relaxed farmland ownership criteria and allowed non-farmers to own farms. Although this opened up the market and induced a growth in farmland trading, relaxing these criteria without proper monitoring resulted in rapid development of farmhouses that fragmented farmlands, adversely affecting agricultural production and the quality of peri-urban environments, and increased management difficulties. Relaxing farmland ownership criteria also provided opportunities for speculation, which pushed up farmland prices, causing farmland price to deviate from its production value. We used a price:value ratio as an index of price-value distortion to explore farmland price-value distortion spatially using a geographical information system (GIS). Yilan County was used as a case study since its agricultural lands suffer high development pressure due to ready accessibility from the Taipei metropolitan area. Ordinary least square and quantile regression were used to identify factors driving distortion in Yilan County. Finally, we discuss the distortion and key factors for specific sites in Yilan to assess the urban sprawl and propose a preliminary course of action for peri-urban growth management. Our findings suggest that residential activities stimulate farmland price-value distortion but do not enhance farmland value. Designation of a land parcel as agricultural within an urban area allows for speculation and increases distortion. The land parcel’s association with infrastructure such as road and irrigation systems, and the price of agricultural products, are significantly correlated with distortion. Most of these identified factors increased farmland price because of the potential for non-agricultural land-use. We propose that to resolve farmland price-value distortion in Yilan, multi-functional values, in addition to agriculture, must be envisioned.

Spatial analysis of development pressure in the Langat Basin, Selangor, Malaysia

The process of globalization and urbanization is growing rapidly in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, one of the fastest growing areas is in Langat Basin, Selangor. Outrageous process the city to the periphery is now growing towards the southern corridor. This article discusses the use of geographical information system to spatially analyze the development of the built-up area in the north of Selangor. The purpose is to identify areas experiencing high-intensity development. The development of the built-up area has affected the environment, society and economic development of the area. The result shows rapid development has increased pressure to the Langat basin since the 1990s. In 1996 the built-up area is about 23017.8 square km. It had increased to 119587 sq km in 2016. This shows that developed areas had increased 40.70% over the period of 20 years from 1996 to 2016. This indicates that the area has been experiencing high development pressure over the period. More importantly, the pattern of urban development was not evenly distributed throughout the study area. This situation needs to be addressed so that rural area is protected from further development pressure.

Study of the Influence of the Dielectric Composition of Al/Ti/ZrO2:Al2O3/TiN/Si/Al Structures on the Resistive Switching Behavior for Memory Applications

Nowadays both the volatile and non-volatile memories are under a high development pressure in the current industrial context. Besides the dominant solid-state memory technologies, such as DRAM and FLASH, non-volatile resistive memories (RRAM) are considered adequate candidates to complement the memory landscape [1, 2]. In spite of the interest, no consensus has been reached yet about the selection of appropriate materials for fabrication [3, 4]. The aim of this work is to deepen in the usefulness of metal transition oxides in this field, and specifically to explore the improvements on the memory behavior of metal/ZrO2/metal structures by stabilizing the metastable phase by doping or nanolaminating the dielectric films with small and controlled amounts of Al2O3. The effect on memory window, stability and robustness, as well as the comparative small-signal response are reported in this study. ZrO2:Al2O3 films were grown on highly-doped conductive Si <100> substrates covered by 10 nm thick TiN fims by means of atomic layer deposition (ALD) at 350 ºC. The reactor was a flow-type hot-wall F120. The used precursors were AlCl3 (99%, Acros Organics), ZrCl4 (99.9%, Aldrich), and O3. For electrical measurements, Al/Ti/ZrO2:Al2O3/TiN/Si/Al capacitor stacks were fabricated. Double-layer 110 nm-Al / 50 nm-Ti top electrodes were beam evaporated. The bottom electrode was provided by evaporating 100-120 nm thick Al layer on etched Si. A similar sample based on HfO2:Al2O3 was also fabricated for comparison, at 350 ºC and by using HfCl4 (99.9%, Strem) as precursor. Films characteristics of all samples are listed in Table I. The electrical characterization consisted on recording the DC and small-signal parameters by using a Keithley 4200 semiconductor analyzer. At first, all samples showed insulating behavior, but after a forming step they behaved as memory elements, with two clearly differentiate states: high-resistance state (HRS) and low-resistance state (LRS). The forming is an initial electrical stress necessary to activate the switching property, and consists on applying a DC bias ramp from 0 to ≈ 3-4 V, with a current compliance of 10 mA. In Fig. 1(a) the forming step and subsequent very first I-V memory cycles are depicted for the ZrO2-based sample. The repetitiveness of the resistive switching is shown in Fig. 1(b), in which 20 consecutive cycles are plotted. After the forming, small-signal parameters were recorded as well. Similarly, to the current, both conductance and capacitance exhibit set and reset loops [5], as it is seen in Fig. 2. In the LRS state G y C are practically constant (ohmic behavior), whereas in the HRS state the linear voltage dependencies of G and C indicate that conduction is dominated by space charge limited conduction (SCLC). To establish the influence of dielectric composition on the resistive switching performance, a comparison of the I-V loops is shown in Fig. 3 (a). The introduction of very small amounts of Al2O3 (Al:Zr = 0.16) extends the voltage range in which the loops appear, and provides narrower windows. However, the current window can be open by increasing the Al:Zr ratio (Al:Zr = 0.30), besides the voltage span diminishes. This way the resistive switching characteristic significantly improves. On the other hand, Fig. 3(b) demonstrates that thicker dielectrics lead to narrower voltage ranges but does not open the current window; finally, samples based in HfO2 instead of ZrO2 provide much lower current values. Admittance parameters sheds more light on this issue. In fact, zero-bias admittance memory maps for different Al:Zr ratios (Fig. 4) clearly show the two different states, as well as the influence of the dielectric composition. These maps represent the conductance and capacitance values measured at 0 V as a function of the programming voltage previously applied [6]. The reading process is carried out at 0 V, so without power consumption. The memory aspect ratio can be modulated by changing the amount of Al2O3. The best power consumption behavior is achieved by samples with Al:Zr = 0.30, which has the lowest values of HRS state conductance, and also the lowest values of Vset and Vreset. [1] A. Bec et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 77(1), 139 (2000). [2] R. Waser and M. Aono, Nature Mater. 6 (11), 833 (2007). [3] E. Gale, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 29, 104004 (2014). [4] H. Nili et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 24, 6741 (2014) [5] S. Dueñas et al. Mic. Eng. 178, 30 (2017) [6] S. Dueñas et al. EDL 38(9), 1216 (2017) Figure 1

Multi-Objective Land-Use Allocation Considering Landslide Risk under Climate Change: Case Study in Pyeongchang-gun, Korea

Extreme landslides triggered by rainfall in hilly regions frequently lead to serious damage, including casualties and property loss. The frequency of landslide occurrences may increase under climate change, due to the increasing variability of precipitation. Developing urban areas outside landslide risk zones is the most effective method of reducing or preventing damage; however, planning in real life is a complex and nonlinear problem. For such multi-objective problems, genetic algorithms may be the most appropriate optimization tools. Therefore, in this study, we suggest a comprehensive land-use allocation plan using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II to overcome multi-objective problems, including the minimization of landslide risk, minimization of change, and maximization of compactness. Our study area is Pyeongchang-gun, the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea, where high development pressure has resulted in urban sprawl into the hazard zone where a large-scale landslide occurred in 2006. We obtain 100 Pareto plans that are better than the actual land use data for at least one objective, with five plans that explain the trade-offs between meeting the first and second objectives. The results can be used by decision makers for better urban planning and for climate change-related spatial adaptation.

Degradation analysis of mangrove ecological function as macrozoobenthos habitat and its management in the Angke Kapuk Coastal Area, Jakarta

Bayan IE, Yulianda F, Isdradjad Setyobudiandi I. 2016. Degradation analysis of mangrove ecological function as macrozoobenthos habitat and its management in the Angke Kapuk Coastal Area, Jakarta. Bonorowo Wetlands 6: 1-11. Mangrove ecosystem is a natural resource that has many ecological benefits in the coastal ecosystems, such as become the habitat and food source for terrestrial and marine biota. One of the Indonesian territory which has fairly large mangrove forest area is in the north of DKI Jakarta Province. That is Angke Kapuk coastal which has 327.70 hectares green belt area and scattered in several regions (BKSDA Jakarta, 2003). Mangrove areas in Angke Kapuk play some important roles in the ecosystem, such as became a preservation habitat for the number of species, especially macrozoobenthos. The environmental degradation along regional development, such as tourism, fisheries activity, and industry cause coastal resources which are mangrove areas to become vulnerable. The purpose of this study was to analyze the ecological functions of mangroves as the habitat of macrozoobenthos in Angke Kapuk coastal region, to determine the extent of damage mangrove state and its sustainable management recommendation of mangrove ecosystems in the Angke Kapuk coastal region. This study was conducted in June 2013 and March 2014 at six different stations based on the representation of the condition of the study site. The data collection consists of macrozoobenthos data collection and measurement of water quality parameters, including turbidity, DO, COD, BOD, salinity, pH, nitrate (NO3-N), nitrite (NO2-N), ortho phosphate (PO4-P), and solids suspended (TSS). The results showed that as the macrozoobenthos habitat, ecological functions of coastal mangrove areas in Angke Kapuk was degraded. The state of mangroves ecology in coastal Angke Kapuk was in damage category based on standard mangrove destruction criteria of Minister of Environment’s Decree Number 201 of 2004. The mangrove density was less than 1000 trees/Ha, and its coverage area was less than 50%, so that rehabilitation effort involving the community and manager sectors for the mangrove area sustainable is necessary. Habitat improvement can be applied through cleaning trash in mangrove areas, especially in group A stations that be the most degraded condition and the largest receiving environmental pressures, as well as the group B stations which potentially fall on ecological function degradation due to high development pressures. To plant mangrove vegetation on the site that is ready to be planted also be another way to improve the habitat.

Landscape patterns of bioenergy in a changing climate: implications for crop allocation and land-use competition.

Rural landscapes face changing climate, shifting development pressure, and loss of agricultural land. Perennial bioenergy crops grown on existing agricultural land may provide an opportunity to conserve rural landscapes while addressing increased demand for biofuels. However, increased bioenergy production and changing land use raise concerns for tradeoffs within the food-energy-environment trilemma. Heterogeneity of climate, soils, and land use complicate assessment of bioenergy potential in complex landscapes, creating challenges to evaluating future tradeoffs. The hypothesis addressed herein is that perennial bioenergy production can provide an opportunity to avoid agricultural land conversion to development. Using a process-based crop model, we assessed potential bioenergy crop growth through 2100 in a southern Appalachian Mountain region and asked: (1) how mean annual yield differed among three crops (switchgrass Panicum virgatum, giant miscanthus Miscanthus x giganteus, and hybrid poplar Populus x sp.) under current climate and climate change scenarios resulting from moderate and very high greenhouse gas emissions; (2) how maximum landscape yield, spatial allocation of crops, and bioenergy hotspots (areas with highest potential yield) varied among climate scenarios; and (3) how bioenergy hotspots overlapped with current crop production or lands with high development pressure. Under both climate change scenarios, mean annual yield of perennial grasses decreased (-4% to -39%), but yield of hybrid poplar increased (+8% to +20%) which suggests that a switch to woody crops would maximize bioenergy crop production. In total, maximum landscape yield increased by up to 90 000 Mg/yr (6%) in the 21st century due to increased poplar production. Bioenergy hotspots (> 18 Mg x ha(-1) x yr(-1)) consistently overlapped with high suburban/exurban development likelihood and existing row crop production. If bioenergy production is constrained to marginal (non-crop) lands, landscape yield decreased by 27%. The removal of lands with high development probability from crop production resulted in losses of up to 670 000 Mg/yr (40%). This study demonstrated that tradeoffs among bioenergy production, crop production, and exurban expansion in a mountainous changing rural landscape vary spatially with climate change over time. If markets develop, bioenergy crops could potentially counter losses of agricultural land to development.

1 The cathepsin-L inhibitor CAA0225 protects against myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury

Ischaemia-reperfusion (IR) injury contributes to the cardiac damage following myocardial infarction and paradoxically reduces the benefits of reperfusion therapy. In patients with ischaemic heart disease, cathepsin-L is elevated in the serum and correlates with disease severity. Our data demonstrate that cathepsin-L released from ex vivo rat hearts after ischaemia, and the cathepsin-L inhibitor CAA0225 improves cardiac function during ischaemia-reperfusion ex vivo . However, the effects of the CAA0225 in in vivo hearts during ischaemia-reperfusion are unknown. We hypothesised that using CAA0225 in an in vivo mouse model of ischaemia-reperfusion would identify the role cathepsin-L plays during ischaemia-reperfusion. Ischaemia-reperfusion injury was induced by 45 min temporary coronary artery ligation and CAA0225 was given by intra-venous injection during ischaemia before reperfusion. Double-dye staining demonstrated no difference in area at risk between groups whereas CAA0225 significantly reduced infarct size to 73% of control. Echocardiography demonstrated significantly preserved left ventricular fractional shortening at 2 wk and 4 wk post-IR in CAA0225 treated mice compared with control mice. PV loop measurements demonstrated CAA0225 treated mice had higher developed pressure than control mice at 2 weeks post-IR. Ex vivo isolated rat cardiomyocytes demonstrated that ischemia-reperfusion increased calcium influx through L-type calcium channels, reduced sarcolemmal NCX extrusion and SERCA activity. While CAA0225 treatment normalised the abnormalities of intracellular calcium handling parameters back to control thus reducing calcium waves following ischaemia-reperfusion. These data demonstrate for the first time that CAA0225 protects against ischaemia-reperfusion injury in mice and the mechanism relates to the normalisation of abnormal calcium handling following ischaemia-reperfusion injury.

Effectiveness of conservation easements for reducing development and maintaining biodiversity in sagebrush ecosystems

Conservation easements are the primary tool used globally by land trusts and governmental agencies to achieve conservation goals on private lands, but empirical evaluations of their effectiveness are lacking. Here we compared biodiversity in sagebrush ecosystems and recent rates of change in road and structure densities on properties with and without easements held by The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming, USA. To determine whether any differences between properties with and without easements were better explained by development pressure or by management practices, properties were stratified by low versus high residential development pressure and property managers were surveyed. In areas with high development pressure, easement properties had fewer structures and tended to have fewer, smaller roads than properties without easements. In the high-pressure areas, properties with easements also had greater use by some wildlife species than properties without easements. Regardless of easement presence, there was higher cover of exotic plant species and fewer mammal burrows in high than low-pressure areas. There were no significant differences in land management practices between properties with and without easements, but managers of properties with easements tended to seek management support more often than other managers. This may present an opportunity to provide support for specific management activities on easements to ensure that they continue to meet intended goals. Given the importance of easements as an alternative to nature reserves and the significant investment being made to acquire additional easements, it is essential to continue to evaluate whether easements are an effective tool in other locations.

Local planning practice and flood risk management in England: is there a collective implementation deficit?

Although planning policy enables local planning authorities to influence development with regard to flood risk, in practice there appears to be a number of barriers inhibiting effective flood mitigation, particularly in areas with high development pressures. This research focuses on treatment of flood risk within the English local planning system and discovers that there is a seeming failure to capture strategic, collective flood management opportunities, resulting in an implementation deficit between the aims of planning policy and its practical application. Improvements to local planning policy frameworks are needed therefore, to enable the use of more strategic solutions without compromising local development needs.

Marine Tourism Development Strategy of the South Sea through Sustainable Management of Coastal Environment

This study is to integratedly examine coastal management policy and marine tourism development project for Korean coasts, especially for the South Sea of high development pressure, presenting sustainable tourism development policies for the future. To do so, it is examined central government-level coastal development projects set up by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Ministry cf Construction and Transportation, setting the direction of south coastal management and tourism development at a level of national territory planning. The problems of coastal management first and then the problems of the South Coast Tourism Belt Project are analyzed in order to present political and administrative alternatives. To overcome such problems and make Korea a marine tourism base in East Asia, there is a need for re-recognition of the value of the project and its continuous push through cooperation between central and local governments. Also, under the presupposition of consensus building among local people and the sustainable development of environments, there should be are-recognition that the future cf Korean marine tourism in the 21st-century and the success of an inverted <TEX>$\pi-axis$</TEX> national development depend on the South coastal Tourism Belt Development Project.