Search results

Societal problems have impacted the northeast of the USA for various generations. This paper aims to analyse various sustainability aspects in the Hudson River watershed of New York by highlighting a temporal progression from environmental sustainability at the watershed level in the 1970s to growing concerns with more localized cross-border social and cultural sustainability in recent decades. We discuss an engagement with the Rapp Road Historic District and a documentary screening series as potential ways to eliminate racism and embrace diversity.

The research was based on fieldwork and classroom teaching conducted mostly since summer 2014. It included mixed methods combining document analysis and reviews with the examination of case studies, and the assessment of public policy priorities.

Formal training has to be combined with a substantial dose of realism, humility and motivation to recognize that what the authors teach and research in the community matters. Future learning experiences within a place-based education paradigm could include: Having students help devise urban rehabilitation strategies whilst suggesting integrative measures with the surrounding built and natural environments; students could also help improve public spaces in the neighbourhood; and finally, they could also help to strengthen the cultural identity of the district by augmenting urban design features endogenous to the African American community.

Opportunities could be further augmented with service-learning projects and programmes, internships and even full-time jobs for recent graduates in local community development organizations.

The study served to raise the community’s awareness of its own natural, ecological and human assets, and to create place-based real-world opportunities for students and faculty in environmental and cultural sustainability studies.

Environmental sustainability is discussed with the creation of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, whilst the public engagement with the Rapp Road Historic Association in the Capital Region of upstate New York, the identification of an emerging creative cluster in the Berkshires-Hudson region, and a documentary and discussion series on striving for diverse cities serve to demonstrate current concerns with social and cultural sustainability.

Direct economic use and changing patterns of human habitation have long been a cause of concern for the ecological health of many rivers and tributaries. Current development trends in many watersheds are driving the conversion of rural, agricultural and forestland to urban or industrial uses. While any single project may not have an adverse effect on the watershed as a whole, the summation of development can rapidly change the character of the landscape and alter the ecosystem functions of a river, its tributaries and an entire watershed. This chapter is a discussion on using available tools to help piece together economic transactions and their relationship to the land.

This chapter presents projections of residential development in Wappinger Creek watershed of Dutchess County, New York in the Hudson River Valley. A spatial econometric model is developed based on data from a geographical information system (GIS) of county-level socio-economic trends, tax parcel attributes, town-level zoning restrictions, location variables, and bio-geophysical constraints including slope, soil type, riparian and agricultural zones. Monte Carlo simulation is employed to distribute spatially explicit projections of land-use change under various residential development scenarios. Scenario analysis indicates the likelihood of continued residential, decentralized development patterns in formerly agricultural and forested parcels. Policy scenarios demonstrate possible courses of action to direct development and protect watershed health.

Our primary goal is to develop an integrated, quantitative assessment tool evaluating how human economic activities influence spatial patterns of urbanization, and how land-use change resulting from urbanization affects stream water quality and aquatic ecosystem health. Here we present a prototype of a holistic assessment tool composed of three “building blocks” simulating the social and economic structures, spatial pattern of urbanization, and watershed health as determined by various metrics. The assessment tool is applied to Dutchess County, New York and two of its largest watersheds, Wappinger and Fishkill Creek watersheds, demonstrating how an explicit link can be established between human economic activities and ecosystem health through changes in land use.

Early on, public libraries in America tended toward grand appearances befitting seriousness of purpose. Library design changed gradually through the 20th century and more dramatically with automation and new technology. Today's libraries are becoming lively community cultural centers that may include art galleries, flexible auditoriums, meeting and conference rooms, media lounges, and cafés.

This chapter discusses changes in public library design. It focuses on four recent examples – two traditional libraries and two innovative libraries. The changing requirements present significant challenges for library administrators and for the architects who must design the libraries to be organized and used appropriately, now and in the future.

This paper aims to explore the role of observable product characteristics and label wording in consumers' valuations for credence goods, products for which key characteristics may not be fully evaluated even after purchase. The objective is to draw conclusions with relevance to pricing policy.

Hedonic price equations are estimated for a dietary supplement called black cohosh, taken by women for relief from menopausal symptoms.

Consumers respond in expected ways to label words that directly indicate product characteristics: for example, paying more for a product labeled as suitable for vegetarians. But surprising results occur for some nonspecific label words (e.g. “guaranteed” is associated with lower prices), suggesting that consumers view these words as indirect signals with respect to unobservable qualities. Additionally, consumers pay more for packages containing more units (e.g. tablets) even when the time supply of product is held constant; this outcome is consistent with the notion that sheer quantity reassures consumers about value and could indicate a reaction to uncertainty in the overall value proposition.

The study relies on list prices in place of transacted prices, so consumers' true valuations may not be reflected with complete accuracy. The study should be repeated in the future using scanner data on actual product transactions.

The indirect signals transmitted by label words and other observable attributes play a key role in consumers' valuations for credence goods, and so are highly relevant to pricing strategy.

Previous studies have considered willingness‐to‐pay for label‐indicated credence qualities, but have not looked at the role of indirect signals/indicators.

The materials included in this column were selected on the basis of an item by item review of all government publications received at a major depository library. Emphasis is placed on tools of a reference format, although much else that the Federal government publishes is otherwise of high referral value. Publications not in a reference format, in the strictest sense, are included when their potential value dictates; brief entries for “how to” items and informative pamphlets are also given if deemed potentially useful, particularly for school and public libraries and wherever the identification of vertical file materials is the responsibility of the public service librarian. Documents librarian's shorthand has been used in the bibliographical citations. Wherever possible, “United States” has been understood rather than stated in the corporate entries; also, the GPO imprint and place have been dropped. All items unless otherwise indicated are available from the Superintendent of Documents at the prices given. Prices which do not appear were not available at the date of review.

Environmental decision making involving multiple stakeholders can benefit from the use of a formal process to structure stakeholder interactions, leading to more successful outcomes than traditional discursive decision processes. There are many tools available to handle complex decision making. Here we illustrate the use of a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) outranking tool (PROMETHEE) to facilitate decision making at the watershed scale, involving multiple stakeholders, multiple criteria, and multiple objectives. We compare various MCDA methods and their theoretical underpinnings, examining methods that most realistically model complex decision problems in ways that are understandable and transparent to stakeholders.

This study aims to determine whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for locally produced hard apple cider and examine the factors influencing this premium. This study examines the influence of hard apple cider attributes and consumer characteristics on consumer preferences for local hard apple cider.

Data from a 2019 survey of 875 Tennessee consumers regarding their preferences for a local hard apple cider were obtained. Probit estimates were used to calculate the premium consumers were willing to pay for a locally made hard apple cider and factors influencing this premium. A multivariate probit was used to ascertain factors influencing the importance of attributes (e.g. heirloom apples, sweetness/dryness, sparking/still and no preservatives added) on local hard apple cider preference.

Consumers would pay a $3.22 premium for local hard apple cider compared with a $6.99 reference product. Local foods preferences, urbanization, weekly purchases of other alcoholic beverages and shopping venues influenced premium amounts. Other important attributes were sweetness/dryness and no preservatives. Influence of consumer demographics suggests targeted marketing of local ciders could be successful.

Few studies examine consumer preferences for hard apple ciders. This study represents a cross-sectional analysis of the premium consumers would pay for local hard apple ciders and the importance of other hard apple cider attributes.

New York is the third top wine producing state in America. Competitive wine production across the United States has challenged New York winemakers to secure a place in the domestic market in order to support the long-term viability of the local economy. As businesses of agriculture become increasingly disrupted by the changing natural environment and consumer demand for sustainable products grows, vintners may distinguish themselves through the production and promotion of strategic initiatives on wine bottle labels.

Fueled by the distinct fields of green marketing and environmental communication, this research investigates the promotion of sustainable practices on wine bottle labels. Through the methodology of content analysis, this project examines all 13 wineries on the Shawangunk Wine Trail located in the Hudson River Region of New York.

The findings from this study show that less than half of wineries in the sample selection employ environmental marketing as a communication strategy.

This research carries practical, business and social implications for the local Hudson River Region, the larger New York wine industry, and any organization looking to remain viable in a competitive marketplace.

This paper reveals the potential for the Hudson River Region wine industry to promote its “distinctive” and “innovative” environmental philosophy of “terroir driven and sustainably produced” winemaking on wine bottle labels to differentiate themselves in a crowded and expanding marketplace and build a Basis of Legitimacy with consumers.