Suburban Use Research Articles

Energy efficiency and environmental impacts of horizontal small wind turbines in Austria

Small wind turbines (SWT) can contribute to the urgent need of transforming the energy system. Nevertheless, due to the heterogeneity of SWT technology, a high variety in environmental impacts of SWT exist. To evaluate whether the use of horizontal SWT can efficiently contribute to a renewable energy system, Life Cycle Assessments of two SWT, a commercial Schachner SW5 and a do-it yourself turbine in the Piggot Pig2F design, were conducted. The energy payback time was calculated using performance measurements from a rural and a suburban site in Austria. Results show that SWTs can reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the Austrian electricity production with calculated global warming potentials of 62gCO2eq/kWh (SW5) and 94gCO2eq/kWh (Pig2F) respectively. For both SWTs, the sub-system tower with foundation contributes about half to their overall global warming potential as well as to the cumulative energy demand. An improved shaping of SWT technology is therefore exemplified by both SWTs. The analysis shows that 19 out of 20 considered impact categories can be reduced by using secondary (recycled) or re-used steel, especially for the tower. The rural and suburban use of horizontal SWT can potentially contribute to reduce the environmental impacts of Austrian electricity production. Nevertheless, it becomes evident that a more sustainable shaping of SWT technology is highly recommendable.

‘Water metres’: a new approach to thinking about water conservation in suburbia

With increased affluence and urbanisation a reliable water supply is regarded as a basic right of urban people in many countries. This has resulted in a paradigm shift in community attitudes to water, and governments increasingly encourage citizens to rethink attitudes to water use as one ‘tool’ to reduce demand. While a range of ‘tools’ are used to encourage water availability (dams, recycling, desalination, water efficiency), in urban centres conservation remains heavily reliant on water restrictions to deliver short-term reductions. To stimulate debate around further reduction in demand for potable reticulated water we propose the concept of ‘water metres’ (the distance water is transported from its point of capture to consumption). The concept parallels ‘food miles’. We argue that the introduction of this concept will encourage greater on-site water capture for on-site use, and provide commensurate reductions in demand for potable water from bulk supplies for non-potable suburban use.

Exurban development

Exurbia, the rural area beyond the built-up urban and contiguous suburban area, is being developed rapidly with attendant losses in habitat and ecosystem services. This paper analyzes a spatial dynamic model with two production technologies for residential development—municipal sewer service for suburban development and septic systems for exurban development. In outlying agricultural areas, the additional sewer extension costs can significantly reduce the value of agricultural land in suburban use. Exurban development, while at lower density, can occur immediately and requires only the onsite conversion costs of septic systems. Hence, the willingness to pay for exurban use from households with higher preferences for lot size may exceed the agricultural landowner's reservation price on future suburban use for a range of distances from the city boundary. This results in a “feasible zone” for exurban leapfrog development and another fundamental reason for scattered development in the urban–rural fringe.

Happy pills in America

“Happy pills” — in particular the anxiolytic drugs Miltown and Valium and the antidepressant Prozac — have been spectacularly successful “products” over the last 5 decades, largely because they have widespread off label use. Miltown, launched in the 1950s, was the first “blockbuster” psychotropic drug in the US. However, by 1970 it was reclassified as a sedative and considered a controlled substance due to the risk of dependence, and its market was largely replaced by Valium. Valium, approved in the early 1960s, became the top-selling pharmaceutical in the US in the 1970s. While still prescribed today for the short-term treatment of anxiety, it is now largely used in the treatment of epilepsy and spastic disorders. Prozac, brought to the US market in the late 1980s, is used to treat major depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, bulimia, and anxiety disorders and today is the third most prescribed antidepressant on the US market. These drugs were widely accepted by and prescribed for people who did not meet clinical criteria for diagnosis of anxiety disorders or major depression, the indications for which the FDA approved them. They were promoted inadvertently by publicity in magazines and newspapers and purposefully by seductive advertising to doctors in medical journals. They became popular, each a fad in its time. In Happy pills in America, David Herzberg — an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Buffalo — does an excellent job of expounding on the interplay of social, cultural, and commercial forces that influenced the rise and fall of these blockbuster drugs. Most psychiatric disorders consist of symptoms and traits that lie on a spectrum with normal behavior. Determining “caseness,” meaning what constitutes the best definition of a disease or disorder, such as major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, and distinguishes it from everyday, life event–related anxiety and depression, remains a serious challenge, even now, as the American Psychiatric Association task force convenes to write the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-V). The relatively primitive state of the art of psychiatric diagnosis allows a range of political, cultural, and commercial interests and agendas to influence disease concepts. Pharmaceutical companies broadened concepts of anxiety and depression through their advertisements, in pursuit of greater sales. Physicians who should have been the gatekeepers — after all, a prescription is required to obtain these drugs — succumbed to various pressures, including advertisements, patient requests, and so on, to overprescribe, as these drugs became part of a larger, postwar, consumer-oriented search for happiness in American culture. The author makes an important point when he says, “happiness itself came to be a part of a new psychological standard of living.” Herzberg misses an opportunity to explore relevant, known pharmacologic distinctions across drug categories such as antipsychotics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, alcohol, stimulants, and opiates. Research on neurotransmitter and receptor pharmacology has helped to explain why drugs may or may not be susceptible to abuse or acceptance for popular use. Herzberg attempts to draw a parallel between suburban use and abuse of prescription drugs by people of mixed European descent and urban street drug use by minorities. He fails to distinguish between taking drugs to alleviate negative emotions and taking drugs to get “high,” behaviors that know no social or geographic boundaries. The most relevant determinant of a substance used for either purpose may be cost. Cheap alcohol and crack cocaine or prescription pills and powder cocaine, respectively, are the anxiolytic/antidepressants and the drugs of choice for getting high of the poor and the affluent elements of society. It is not news that alcohol, the qat plant, and opium have served both of these purposes for centuries. Despite their deficiencies and commercial motivations, the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry at times receive too cynical a portrayal from Herzberg. Many physicians were good diagnosticians and gatekeepers, not sucked in by industry advertisements. These drugs have truly benefited many deserving patients and represented true scientific advances over their predecessors. The pharmaceutical industry has and continues to do good in developing new and better treatments for psychiatric disorders; it is in their best interest to do so. Marginally effective drugs do not become blockbusters, regardless of how aggressively they are marketed. Happy pills in America is recommended reading for those members of the lay public with an interest in psychopharmacology. However, not everyone will share Herzberg’s sociopolitical stance. He opines that, “surely universal access to good medical care would be a reasonable alternative to investing in more drug wars.” In an ideal world no one would disagree, but that is not the world in which we live. Take Happy pills in America with a grain of salt.

Do Suburbanites Use the Central City?

Abstract This article, using data obtained during a survey conducted in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania—just outside of Philadelphia, tries to answer four basic questions concerning suburban use of the central city. First, how often do suburbanities take advantage of (or use) the cultural, recreational, and shopping facilities of the central city? Second, are there any meaningful social-economic characteristics that affect the rate at which suburbanites use central city facilities? Third, are commuters more likely to use central city facilities than are suburbanites who do not work in the city? And, fourth, does length of residency in a suburban community affect the rate at which suburbanites use the central city? The survey showed that about 50 percent of the suburban families use the city once a month or less. Meaningful relationships were found between most social-economic factors studied, including regular central city commuting and length of residence in the suburb, and central city use.