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To illuminate the underlying logic of western Kansas farmers’ decisions to irrigate at unsustainable rates and the state’s regulatory policies and practices that enable depletion of the Ogallala aquifer.

Ethnographic interviewing of 39 western Kansas farmers, state water management personnel, and archival research.

Farmers occupy an ambiguous position as petty capitalists who focus attention on their own farms with seasonal planning horizons, and they hold a view of “good stewardship” that melds economic and noneconomic considerations, and that provides a rationale for unsustainable irrigation practices. The state resolves the contradiction between the finite groundwater resource and ideological commitments to economic growth by devolving responsibility for water management to groundwater users.

While the small sample size is likely to be representative of the larger pool of irrigators, further research with other farmers representative of the region will be necessary to verify findings.

Depletion of the Ogallala aquifer contributes to farm consolidation and community decline, and the ecological costs will leave future farmers and remaining communities without the benefits of groundwater. Western Kansas will likely have to revert to a system of dryland farming.

A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of land rents and values, and several modes of raising revenues from them besides the conventional property tax.

The paper identifies 16 elements of land's taxable capacity that received authorities either trivialize or omit. These 16 elements come in four groups.

In Group A, Elements 1‐4 correct for the downward bias in standard sources. In Group B, Elements 5‐10 broaden the concepts of land and rent beyond the conventional narrow perception, while Elements 11‐12 estimate rents to be gained by abating other kinds of taxes. In Group C, Elements 13‐14 explain how using the land tax, since it has no excess burden, uncaps feasible tax rates. In Group D, Elements 15‐16 define some moot possibilities that may warrant further exploration.

This paper shows how previous estimates of rent and land values have been narrowly limited to a fraction of the whole, thus giving a false impression that the tax capacity is low. The paper adds 14 elements to the traditional narrow “single tax” base, plus two moot elements advanced for future consideration. Any one of these 16 elements indicates a much higher land tax base than economists commonly recognize today. Taken together they are overwhelming, and cast an entirely new light on this subject.

The purpose of this paper is to look at how the topic of water governance in the USA reflects the discussion just prior to the contemporary wave of privatisation that now characterises a large section of water in the country.

In addition to select classic articles, the body of literature chosen for review includes studies published between 2000 and 2019, using The PRISMA statement. Studies chosen were published in recognised journals in core disciplines relating to governance, water management, policy and regulation.

Private equity firms and water-focused investment funds are significant investors in private companies that operate municipal water works in the USA. This has caused much of the public water infrastructure in the country (and globally) to become privatised and held by international investors as securitised assets.

There is a need for further primary research to more comprehensively capture what actions the US government are taking to carve out a large policy-making space for themselves in a country that there is not an extensive body of literature on takeover decisions in water governance.

The confluence of privatisation in water governance within the US government is an area of growing concern to those interested in how water governance systems and protocols shape broader justice and equality developments across the country.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gap between the resources required to build a strong biotechnology ecosystem in Nebraska and the perception of resources currently available within the state for doing so.

Using resource‐based theory along with data from a Battelle survey commissioned by BioNebraska, the authors first identify the human and financial capital needed to support a viable biotechnology industry sector, benchmarking with other regions currently undertaking such development. The authors then compare identified resource requirements with data from a survey of BioNebraska members regarding their perceptions of the importance of these resources to, and their availability within, Nebraska.

This process revealed gaps in several key resource areas that could impede the state's ability to achieve its sector development goals.

In the authors' view, understanding the gap between resources required and resources available for building a high technology industry sector, as well as benchmarking against the competition, are key first steps in developing successful economic policy.

The paper discusses the implications of gaps in several key resource areas for future success and makes recommendations for possible ways in which Nebraska decision makers might develop necessary resources. Also addressed is the importance of considering the perceptions of key stakeholders and decision makers regarding the resources required for developing knowledge industries such as biotechnology.

The purpose of this paper is to indicate the limitations of the studies that address the impact of climate change on groundwater resources and to suggest an improved approach.

A general review, both from a groundwater hydrological and a climatological viewpoint, is given, oriented on the impact of climate change on groundwater resources.

The impact of climate change on groundwater resources is not the subject of many studies in the scientific literature. Only rarely sophisticated downscaling techniques are applied to downscale estimated global circulation model (GCM) future precipitation series for a point or region of interest. Often it is not taken into account that different climate models calculate considerably different precipitation amounts (conceptual uncertainty). The joint downscaling of the meteorological variables that govern potential evapotranspiration (ET) is never done in the context of a study that assessed the impact of climate change on groundwater resources. It is desirable that actual ET is calculated in (groundwater) hydrological models on a physical basis, i.e. by coupling the energy and water balance at the Earth's surface.

This review signalises a number of problems with published studies on the impact of climate change on groundwater resources. In many studies the method to downscale meteorological variables from a climate model to a hydrological model is not adequate. ET is often calculated in a strongly simplified manner and not all hydrological processes are modelled in a fully coupled fashion. More sophisticated downscaling approaches, physically based schemes to calculate ET and well‐calibrated, integrative hydrological models are needed.

The Cassandra Zone is that time period – and the events that occur within it – from the voicing of the first credible warnings of foreseeable future disaster until society either awakens to the threat and proactively mitigates against it, or chooses to ignore such warnings and subsequently suffers the consequences when the foretold disaster comes to pass. Whether or not that society manages to learn from its own history of disaster and use the power of state to mitigate against foretold future ones is one of the definitive criteria for determining whether, in social theorist Phillip Selznick’s terms, such a society can be deemed to constitute a moral community.

Introduction: The insurance industry is vulnerable to attacks as it deals with the personal information of its consumers and puts the insurance company’s business at risk in the event of data breach or abuse. To ensure the security of customer data, insurance companies must comply with various data protection requirements, including requirements imposed by laws, regulations, and standards. Following such a wide range of conditions can be challenging for insurance providers. For a long time, risk management has controlled data protection to ensure compliance with data protection law and ensure that data are processed correctly and that people’s fundamental rights are protected effectively.

Purpose: This chapter explains the role and significance of risk management. An organised way to identify and assess risks, mitigate or avoid risks as much as possible, and then manage and accept the remaining risks, implemented in data protection as needed, explained by the supervisory authority, is implemented by the responsible organisation. This document highlights the growing consensus surrounding risk management as an essential tool for adequate data protection. Furthermore, it addresses vital considerations that affect the role of risk in data protection law and practice.

Need for study: There is an increasing consensus towards the role and significance of risk management in data protection in the insurance market. As a result, regulators and legislators are focussing on valuable and new attention on standardising and expanding data protection in risk management practices. This paper has attempted to identify critical issues and principles of risk management in data protection.

Methodology: Secondary data analysis was conducted in this study by reviewing literature related to data protection, risk management, and the insurance sector. Again, science direct was used as a source of information. For this study, the literature review approach was chosen since it allows us to trace the growth of the subject matter and identify the patterns that have formed through time.

Findings: The insurance industry comprises general insurance and life insurance. It is found that there are various studies conducted on the privacy violation and data breaches of individuals in the insurance industry. The study also identifies the factors causing privacy issues and recommends improving data privacy management in the insurance market.

Practical implications: The current study can be referred to by academicians, marketers, industry people, and policymakers. In addition, the study encourages companies and academicians to investigate further the process of data protection in the insurance industry.