Improved Transport Links Research Articles

Innovate – Renovate – Electric

With around 40 crore consumers in need of sustainable mobility by 2030, India is the fifth - largest automotive market and has the possibility of becoming one of the top three in the coming years. Nevertheless, in light of the Paris Agreement's aims, a growth in the number of automobile users will not result in a rise in traditional fuel usage. In order to accomplish India's Net Zero Emissions objective of 2070, a transit transformation is required. This will result in more "availability," as well as improved transport links. Many of these "faster mileage" will very certainly be electric vehicles. Electric automobiles are the new frontier, according to a growing consensus among auto experts and the broader population. However, India, among other things, has a long approach in terms of battery manufacturing and charging facilities . This review throughs the light on how non-renewable and renewable sources takes part in Co2 emission and how the world in comparison to India is moving towards electrical vehicles.

Regional differences in the mid-Victorian diet and their impact on health.

SummaryThe aim of this study was to examine the impact of regional diets on the health of the poor in mid-Victorian Britain. Contemporary surveys of regional diets and living condition were reviewed. This information was compared with mortality data from Britain over the same period. Although there was an overall improvement in life expectancy during the latter part of the 19th century, there were large regional differences in lifestyle, diet and mortality rates. Dietary surveys showed that the poor labouring population in isolated rural areas of England, in the mainland and islands of Scotland and in the west of Ireland enjoyed the most nutritious diets. These regions also showed the lowest mortality rates in Britain. This was not simply the result of better sanitation and less mortality from food and waterborne infections but also fewer deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis, which is typically associated with better nutrition. These more isolated regions where a peasant-style culture provided abundant locally produced cheap foodstuffs such as potatoes, vegetables, whole grains, and milk and fish, were in the process of disappearing in the face of increasing urbanisation. This was to the detriment of many rural poor during the latter half of the century. Conversely, increasing urbanisation, with its improved transport links, brought greater availability and diversity of foods to many others. It was this that that led to an improved nutrition and life expectancy for the majority in urbanising Britain, despite the detrimental effects of increasing food refinement.

Getting Road Expansion on the Right Track: A Framework for Smart Infrastructure Planning in the Mekong.

The current unprecedented expansion of infrastructure promises to enhance human wellbeing but risks causing substantial harm to natural ecosystems and the benefits they provide for people. A framework for systematically and proactively identifying the likely benefits and costs of such developments is badly needed. Here, we develop and test at the subregional scale a recently proposed global scheme for comparing the potential gains from new roads for food production with their likely impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Working in the Greater Mekong—an exceptionally biodiverse subregion undergoing rapid development—we combined maps of isolation from urban centres, yield gaps, and the current area under 17 crops to estimate where and how far road development could in principle help to increase food production without the need for cropland expansion. We overlaid this information with maps summarising the importance of remaining habitats to terrestrial vertebrates and (as examples of major ecosystem services) to global and local climate regulation. This intersection revealed several largely converted yet relatively low-yielding areas (such as central, eastern, and northeastern Thailand and the Ayeyarwady Delta), where narrowing yield gaps by improving transport links has the potential to substantially increase food production at relatively limited environmental cost. Concentrating new roads and road improvements here while taking strong measures to prevent their spread into areas which are still extensively forested (such as northern Laos, western Yunnan, and southwestern Cambodia) could thus enhance rural livelihoods and regional food production while helping safeguard vital ecosystem services and globally significant biological diversity.

Wider Economic Impacts in Transport Infrastructure Cost-Benefit Analysis – A Bridge Too Far?

Proponents of transport infrastructure have in recent decades sought to augment the estimated benefit of major projects beyond conventional cost-benefit analysis. Improved transport links are claimed to increase Marshallian external economies of scale; to reduce transport costs experienced by imperfectly competitive industries, and so induce them to increase their output; and to increase supply of labour, in response to lower transport costs, and thereby increase GDP and tax receipts. Estimates of the value of these three additional effects have resulted in multipliers and ‘uprate factors’ that appear to be applied by some government agencies to transport sector benefits calculated using conventional CBA. However, empirical estimates of these effects are likely to be exaggerated.

Live holding of Nephrops norvegicus (Linnaeus, 1758) in land-based facilities: Health and condition effects

Recent advances in the knowledge of the basic requirements to sustain captured lobsters, combined with improved transport links, has seen a dramatic expansion in the sale of live Nephrops norvegicus. In this paper, we describe the effects of storage system type on the health of lobsters held for periods up to three weeks in order to develop an optimal protocol for Icelandic producers for whom logistical challenges have thus far hindered access to the live market. Nephrops were caught by creel and transported to a holding facility in tanks supplied by either a flow-through from a harbour bore or recirculating water via a filtration system, where they were maintained without being fed for a period of three weeks. During this time, lobsters were assessed for haemolymph biochemistry and hepatopancreas composition and health. It was found that lobsters from both systems used storage reserves from the hepatopancreas, showing a progressive decline in hepatopancreatic index, hepatopancreas protein and glycogen. Nephrops from the flow-through system also presented indications of considerable health impacts with chronically elevated levels of circulating haemocytes during storage and granuloma plus melanized hepatopancreas tubules after three weeks.

Dairy Cattle Housing in Lancashire, Seventeenth to Twenty-First Centuries

The modernisation and adaptation of dairy cattle housing over 400 years is explored, focusing on the historic county of Lancashire. A distinctive regional building type was continuously upgraded in response to structural changes in dairying and to new business opportunities resulting from industrialisation and improved transport links. Higher standards of animal husbandry and further upgrading were required from the mid-nineteenth century to conform to a succession of national public health regulations. Medical Officers of Health were aware of potential infection risks, both from cattle and from workers in the dairy trade, which they were determined to minimise. Traditional buildings were modified to conform to legislation by providing more spacious housing, with improved cleanliness, light and ventilation. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the adapted buildings were finally outmoded by further pressures, both local and national, bringing about the end of the vernacular tradition.

Closing gaps on the urban fringe of Australian capital cities: an investment worth making

This paper commences by demonstrating that Australia's capital cities follow a similar development profile; a large portion of all jobs are concentrated in the inner urban areas. As a result, the accessibility of jobs and services is poor in the outer urban areas. It then goes on to argue that by creating a more accessible and equitable distribution of jobs and services, significant productivity benefits would be conferred across Australian cities, primarily through agglomeration economies, human capital enhancements and transport-based savings. Speculative modelling is undertaken to estimate the likely scale of costs and benefits of partially closing the gaps between urban growth areas and their host metropolises. Interventions for improving the distribution and accessibility of jobs and services are discussed, including improved government service delivery on the urban fringe, promoting vibrant town centres and improving transport links across the metropolis.

An Evaluation of the Timing and Use of Healthcare during Pregnancy in Birmingham, UK and Pretoria, South Africa

Objective. A pilot study to compare the rates of antenatal healthcare use in Birmingham, UK and Pretoria, South Africa, and identify differences in knowledge and perception of antenatal healthcare. Subjects. 62 women, 31 at each location <24 hours after delivery. Results. Women from Birmingham use healthcare services earlier (P ≤ .0001) and more often during pregnancy (P ≤ .0001). Women from Birmingham identified more conditions that may affect pregnancy (median 6 versus 3 reasons) and were less aware of HIV. In addition they perceived antenatal healthcare as relatively more important for advice and reassurance about pregnancy, whilst women from Pretoria had more problems with transport and clinic overcrowding. Conclusions. Increasing education on the importance of antenatal healthcare and medical problems during pregnancy may help improve antenatal healthcare use in Pretoria. Improving transport links and overcrowding in clinics in Pretoria may also help increase use. Measuring maternal outcomes and confirming these findings in a larger population are important for future studies.

China Gazes West: Xinjiang's Growing Rendezvous with Central Asia

A senior American specialist on the geography of China surveys that country's enduring interest and involvement with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, increasingly on the basis of Xinjiang's role as a bridgehead for economic linkages. Among the key features of this growing involvement reviewed in the paper are the establishment in 2001 of a regional security alliance (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) to combat Islamist extremism as well as separatist activities; growing commercial linkages (especially with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) in tandem with improved transport links and increasing crossborder movements of merchants, traders, and tourists; and China's growing need for oil and increasing reliance on Kazakhstan as a key source for petroleum. China's growing engagement with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries is examined within the context of both opportunities as well as challenges, the latter reflecting the increasing complexity of Han Chinese and Uyghur/Turkic relations owing to increased Uyghur ties to affiliated populations in the Central Asian states.

Design and construction of the New Sheppey Crossing, UK

The £100 million A249 Iwade bypass to Queenborough improvement scheme includes a new road bridge over the Swale and the construction of road links on either side, improving transport links between the Isle of Sheppey and mainland Kent. The Highways Agency awarded a 30-year design, build, finance and operate contract to Sheppey Route Limited in February 2004. Sheppey Route Limited's contractor, Carillion, has designed and constructed the 5·6 km long A249 Iwade bypass to Queenborough improvement. The bridge and road project were completed during summer 2006. The existing A249 crosses the Swale via a vertical lifting bridge and there are long delays to traffic when it is raised to allow shipping through. The new Swale Crossing is a vital part of the scheme and will provide major benefits by reducing congestion and improving journey times on the route because it is high enough for ships to pass underneath. This paper describes the design, fabrication, erection and construction of the new Swale High-level Crossing.

Facing up to re-emergence of urban yellow fe ver

Transmitted from person to person by Aedes aegypti, urban yellow fever was eliminated in the first half of this century, with the eradication of its mosquito vector from most of South America. However, reinfestation began in the 1970s is now almost complete, and vector control is considerably more difficult now than before. The threat of urban yellow fever is greatest in towns such as Santa Cruz, Bolivia, near the forest, but improved transport links increase the likelihood of spread by viremic people to nonendemic areas. Van der Stuyft et al. have reported the first instance of urban transmission of yellow fever in the Americas in 44 years. Since residents of the densely populated cities and much visited areas in coastal South America have never been vaccinated, an outbreak there would facilitate widespread dissemination of the disease, even to other continents. While urban yellow fever is a significant threat, carrying a case-fatality rate of about 20%, the constrained dynamics of transmission, early recognition of the striking clinical presentation, and efforts to control the infection should limit the impact of the disease. Laboratory-based surveillance, together with the prevention and control strategies outlined by van der Stuyft et al. are the key defensive measures against the future threat of urban epidemics.

Healthy end to the long journey of a unique bridge

Opened this summer, Humberside County Council's Stoneferry Bridge is a new and unique construction in Britain, spanning the River Hull in two sections and providing improved transport links for over 30,000 vehicles per day.