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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2005

156

Abstract

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Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 77 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2018

Tarek Bouregaa and Mohamed Fenni

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to show the impact of greenhouse gas emission scenarios on annual temperature and precipitation changes during three periods of the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to show the impact of greenhouse gas emission scenarios on annual temperature and precipitation changes during three periods of the twenty-first century in Setif region by using two selected GCMs; and second, to show the importance of “Setif-Hodna” hydraulic transfers’ project, like a method to adapt to the water scarcity in the future.

Design/methodology/approach

This study investigates likely changes in annual temperature and precipitation over Setif high plains region (North-East of Algeria) under four Special Report on Emission Scenarios scenarios: A1B, B1, A2 and B2, between three time slices: 2030, 2060 and 2090. MAGICC-SCENGEN 5.3v.2 was used as a tool for downscaling the two selected general circulation models.

Findings

The projections of GFDLCM20 and GFDLCM21 indicate that annual temperature will increase under the four scenarios and across the three time slices. GFDLCM20 predictions indicate a general decrease in mean annual precipitation across the four scenarios, with average of −3.02, −2.47 and −1.07 percent in 2030, 2060 and 2090, respectively. GFDLCM21 show a high decrease, with values of −18.72, −27.2 and −31.9 percent across the three periods, respectively.

Originality/value

This work is one of the first to study the impact of greenhouse gas emission scenarios on annual temperature and precipitation changes over the region, and present the hydraulic transfers project “Setif-Hodna” like an adaptive strategy to limit the effect of water scarcity in this region.

Details

World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-5945

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 September 2021

Alejandra Duarte Vera, Julien Vanhulst and Eduardo Antonio Letelier Araya

Rural drinking water services in Chile are managed by Rural Drinking Water Associations (RDWAs) with a community governance model. However, urban growth and a neoliberal…

Abstract

Purpose

Rural drinking water services in Chile are managed by Rural Drinking Water Associations (RDWAs) with a community governance model. However, urban growth and a neoliberal institutional setting tend to favor market-style governance, both in terms of territorial planning and drinking water supply, placing stress on the community governance model of RDWA. The authors seek to understand these processes and identify the position of RDWA actors facing socio-territorial and environmental transformations experienced in peri-urban sectors of the city of Talca (Chile).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used georeferenced data, participant and non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews. With these data, the authors analyzed the positions and discourses of water governance actors in relation to socio-territorial transformations in the peri-urban areas of the city, as well as for tensions between community and market governance.

Findings

The authors identified a growth tendency of RDWA users around the city of Talca due to a sharp drinking water demand increase in peri-urban territories. As such, the authors describe and contrast RWDA managers and governmental regulators' discourses regarding environmental and socio-territorial transformations. In these discourses, the authors found three critical topics: (1) land liberalization blurring urban territory borders; (2) Law #20998, a poorly financed reform which raises the specter of RDWA privatization, jeopardizing historic community drinking water management; and (3) the consequences of declining community commitment to RDWAs.

Practical implications

One key implication of these findings is the need to modify RDWA pricing policies to deal with new rural inhabitant lifestyles and drinking water demands and to fulfill water basic needs of rural families, avoiding privatization risks. This change could help not only dealing with growing scarcity during global climate change, but could also provide financial resources to face new technical and administrative requirements of SSR Law.

Originality/value

The originality of the study comes from using a framework of governance tensions applied to water governance in peri-urban areas in a neoliberal institutional setting.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 49 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 January 2024

John Pearson

This paper aims to consider the potential implications of the layering of regulation in relation to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at the borders between the nations of the UK.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to consider the potential implications of the layering of regulation in relation to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at the borders between the nations of the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a qualitative research method grounded in particular in legal geography to examine the existing approaches to regulating hydraulic fracturing and identify the places and their features that are constructed as a result of their intersection at the borders of the nations comprising the UK.

Findings

The current regulatory framework concerning hydraulic fracturing risks restricts the places in which the practice can occur in such a manner as to potentially cause greater environmental harm should the process be used. The regulations governing the process are not aligned in relation to the surface and subsurface aspects of the process to enable their management, once operational, as a singularly constructed place of extraction. Strong regulation at the surface can have the effect of influencing placement of the site only in relation to the place at which the resource sought reaches the surface, whilst having little to no impact on the environmental harms, which will result at the subsurface or relative to other potential surface site positions, and potentially even increasing them.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is limited by uncertainty as to the future use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas within the UK. The issues raised within it would also be applicable to other extractive industries where a surface site might be placed within a radius of the subsurface point of extraction, rather than having to be located at a fixed point relative to that in the subsurface. This paper therefore raises concerns that might be explored more generally in relation to the regulation of the place of resource extraction, particularly at legal borders between jurisdictions, and the impact of regulation, which does not account for the misalignment of regulation of spaces above and below the surface that form a single place at which extraction occurs.

Social implications

This paper considers the potential impacts of misaligned positions held by nations in the UK in relation to environmentally harmful practices undertaken by extractive industries, which are highlighted by an analysis of the extant regulatory framework for hydraulic fracturing.

Originality/value

Whilst the potential for cross internal border extraction of gas within the UK via hydraulic fracturing and the regulatory consequences of this has been highlighted in academic literature, this paper examines the implications of regulation for the least environmentally harmful placement of the process.

Details

Journal of Place Management and Development, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

Stênio de Sousa Venâncio, Swami Marcondes Villela, José Luís da Silva Pinho and José Manuel Pereira Vieira

The purpose of this paper is to construct a numerical model for the numerical analysis of the hydraulic transient profile in Trabalhador channel for filling and emptying maneuvers…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to construct a numerical model for the numerical analysis of the hydraulic transient profile in Trabalhador channel for filling and emptying maneuvers and to determine the water level in time. Model results support operational managers in the decision-making process.

Design/methodology/approach

Physical data were provided for the construction and calibration of the numerical model. The equations of Saint-Venant were approximated by a finite difference scheme and the numerical model was written in Fortran. The results of filling and emptying of the channel simulations were compared with the measured water levels.

Findings

Measured water levels and those simulated by the numerical model have shown good correlation. The time recorded for the filling and emptying of the canal was also close between the measured and simulated data. The simulation design flow pointed to inundation in the channel banks. Simulation water levels were slightly higher than those measured.

Research limitations/implications

In this model, the combination of canals and pressure conduits was not considered.

Practical implications

The findings confirm the measured time for filling and emptying of the canal, as well as inundation of canal banks for the maximum design flow. These results help in the management process.

Originality/value

This paper presents a numerical model for hydraulic transient analysis in channels with good agreement with the field data.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1964

R.A.G. Harcourt

FILTERS have been in use in one form or another throughout history. Despite this fact, there has been, until comparatively recent times, very little written upon the subject…

Abstract

FILTERS have been in use in one form or another throughout history. Despite this fact, there has been, until comparatively recent times, very little written upon the subject. Certainly, to the author's knowledge, there has been only a handful of papers written or read upon high‐pressure oil hydraulic filtration within the past decade. It was for aircraft hydraulic circuits that Fairey originally designed filters and only then because the Company failed to find a filter that fulfilled the stringent requirements we set down as representing the minimum standard demanded by our own hydraulic systems.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Article
Publication date: 30 March 2012

Wei‐Wei Wu, Bo Yu and Chong Wu

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two issues: understanding how Chinese equipment manufacturing firms can achieve successful independent innovation; and studying the…

3398

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two issues: understanding how Chinese equipment manufacturing firms can achieve successful independent innovation; and studying the roles of technology management (TM) and technological capability (TC) in independent innovation. The paper will develop a new model for independent innovation for China's equipment manufacturing firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews literature related to independent innovation models, then develops a theoretical framework combining and integrating research from different fields. First, it examines how indexes of independent innovation are defined from the perspectives of technology, patents, standard, R&D and the market. Second, technology management and technological capability are interpreted. Third, relationships among TM, TC, and independent innovation are theoretically analyzed and discussed. Based on these, the paper conducts an in‐depth case study of Harbin Electric Corporation to explain how independent innovation is achieved from perspectives of TM and TC. Finally, the paper constructs and discusses the double helix model of TC and TM for independent innovation.

Findings

The paper finds that: technology management and technological capability both exert important influences on successful independent innovation; the improvement of TC follows cyclical steps of acquisition, assimilation and improvement, and TM is promoted by reforming and updating strategy management, organization management, regulation management and resource‐quality management; TM and TC have interactive effects; and TM and TC are coupled in the form of a double helix to realize independent innovation.

Originality/value

The paper provides new aspects of technology management, technological capability and their interaction to deconstruct independent innovation. The paper also offers insights in presenting a detailed case study of on‐the‐ground innovation and upgrading in China.

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2016

Qihua Cai, Yuchun Zhu and Qihui Chen

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles social networks play in households’ contribution to the provision of small hydraulic facilities (SHFs) in rural China.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles social networks play in households’ contribution to the provision of small hydraulic facilities (SHFs) in rural China.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a sample-selection ordered probit model (Greene and Hensher, 2010) to estimate the impacts of overall social-network intensity, of the number of strong ties (relatives), and of the number of weak ties (friends), using data on 1,064 representative households collected from three provinces (Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Shandong).

Findings

The numbers of strong ties and weak ties both have significant impacts on households’ willingness to contribute to SHFs provision, but only the latter has a significant impact on their level of contribution. More specifically, a one standard deviation increase in the number of weak ties (i.e. friends) is associated with a 6.6 percent increase in households’ propensity of contributing more than 550 yuan and a 8.2 percent decrease in their propensity of contributing less than 100 yuan.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to examine the impacts of social networks on households’ contribution to SHFs provision in rural China. Its finding is of great policy relevance-fostering and maintaining social networks (e.g. through rural cooperatives) can significantly increase households’ contribution to public-good provision.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 March 2020

Chunhui Ma, Jie Yang, Lin Cheng and Li Ran

To improve the efficiency, accuracy and adaptivity of the parameter inversion analysis method of a rockfill dam, this study aims to establish an adaptive model based on a harmony…

Abstract

Purpose

To improve the efficiency, accuracy and adaptivity of the parameter inversion analysis method of a rockfill dam, this study aims to establish an adaptive model based on a harmony search algorithm (HS) and a mixed multi-output relevance vector machine (MMRVM).

Design/methodology/approach

By introducing the mixed kernel function, the MMRVM can accurately simulate the nonlinear relationship between the material parameters and dam settlement. Therefore, the finite element method with time consumption can be replaced by the MMRVM. Because of its excellent global search capability, the HS is used to optimize the kernel parameters of the MMRVM and the material parameters of a rockfill dam.

Findings

Because the parameters of the HS and the variation range of the MMRVM parameters are relatively fixed, the HS-MMRVM can imbue the inversion analysis with adaptivity; the number of observation points required and the robustness of the HS-MMRVM are analyzed. An application example involving a concrete-faced rockfill dam shows that the HS-MMRVM exhibits high accuracy and high speed in the parameter inversion analysis of static and creep constitutive models.

Practical implications

The applicability of the HS-MMRVM in hydraulic engineering is proved in this paper, which should further validate in inversion problems of other fields.

Originality/value

An adaptive inversion analysis model is established to avoid the parameters of traditional methods that need to be set by humans, which strongly affect the inversion analysis results. By introducing the mixed kernel function, the MMRVM can accurately simulate the nonlinear relationship between the material parameters and dam settlement. To reduce the data dimensions and verify the model’s robustness, the number of observation points required for inversion analysis and the acceptable degree of noise are determined. The confidence interval is built to monitor dam settlement and provide the foundation for dam monitoring and reservoir operation management.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 37 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 February 2023

Ying Lu, Jie Liu and Wenhui Yu

Mega construction projects (MCPs), which play an important role in the economy, society and environment of a country, have developed rapidly in recent years. However, due to…

Abstract

Purpose

Mega construction projects (MCPs), which play an important role in the economy, society and environment of a country, have developed rapidly in recent years. However, due to frequent social conflicts caused by the negative social impact of MCPs, social risk control has become a major challenge. Exploring the relationship between social risk factors and social risk from the perspective of risk evolution and identifying key factors contribute to social risk control; but few studies have paid enough attention to this. Therefore, this study aims to systematically analyze the impact of social risk factors on social risk based on a social risk evolution path.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposed a social risk evolution path for MCPs explaining how social risk occurs and develops with the impact of social risk factors. To further analyze the impact quantitatively, a social risk analysis model combining structural equation model (SEM) with Bayesian network (BN) was developed. SEM was used to verify the relationship in the social risk evolution path. BN was applied to identify key social risk factors and predict the probabilities of social risk, quantitatively. The feasibility of the proposed model was verified by the case of water conservancy projects.

Findings

The results show that negative impact on residents’ living standards, public opinion advantage and emergency management ability were key social risk factors through sensitivity analysis. Then, scenario analysis simulated the risk probability results with the impact of different states of these key factors to obtain management strategies.

Originality/value

This study creatively proposes a social risk evolution path describing the dynamic interaction of the social risk and first applies the hybrid SEM–BN method in the social risk analysis for MCPs to explore effective risk control strategies. This study can facilitate the understanding of social risk from the perspective of risk evolution and provide decision-making support for the government coping with social risk in the implementation of MCPs.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

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