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With continued growth in tourism, demand for guided local excursions, sightseeing, and entertainment has increased rapidly, particularly in European tourist destinations cities. Many touristic sights can often be viewed best from the water. Operators offer a variety of sightseeing cruises on motor barges along rivers, canals, lakefronts, or ports. In many tourist destination cities and around urban heritage sites, however, increasing boat traffic and the associated air pollution from diesel-powered engines have become a local environmental concern. Based on complaints from residents and visitors, several cities have already announced plans for (mandatory) tourist boat emission reductions. Today, electric mobility offers alternative options for safely and conveniently powering commercial tourist boats, that may contribute to mutually beneficial solutions for local operators, tourist visitors, and residents alike. However, the technology is still expensive and new businesses may also face considerable challenges when entering established local competitive tourism markets. Focusing on the local waterways of the city of Berlin, Germany, the authors have conducted a local case study, including interviews with several operators of (electric) tour boats, as well as an initial empirical survey of their tourist customers. The authors point out the viewpoints of the various stakeholders, identify opportunities, discuss constraints, and offer policy recommendations with a view to enhance the sustainability of waterborne transport in tourist destination cities.

If one were revisiting the list of the Seven Wonders of the World, Uzbekistan and the Silk Road region would offer many candidates. The Registan in Samarkand, the central square in Bukhara, the Ichan Kala in Khiva, all offer architectural marvel after marvel. Our task, sadly, is to consider wonders of another kind. Any list of the worst disasters of the world would also rank Uzbekistan at the top, making clear reference to the massive transformation of western Uzbekistan (and Kazakhstan) from home to the fourth largest inland sea to host of a barren desert. All of the waterborne life force of the Aral Sea has been swept from the region and converted into dry sands and dusty winds. The void that remains is a scar on nature of unprecedented magnitude. In the Aral's collapse, the disaster has sucked into its vacuum the peoples of the region, their lives and livelihood, their health and well being, and certainly their hopes and aspirations. And it has created regional and global issues of great urgency and sensitivity.

Over the last decades, there has been an increasing interest among scientists on the linkage between population health and climate and environmental factors, as well as health impacts of climate change and climate variability. Numerous studies have been done and substantial results achieved, but mostly in the developed countries, and not much quantitative evidence or assessment of the impacts at national and local levels has been provided for developing countries.

This chapter examines lessons for response gleaned from 70 years of research on human and organizational behavior. These lessons for response are examined in the context of the current homeland security policy environment for national preparedness. This chapter also focuses on implementation steps for current preparedness guidance by law enforcement agencies. It joins research knowledge and policy to inform law enforcement planners in the development of local strategic-, operational-, and tactical-level response plans.

The continuing urbanization, the still increasing cargo distribution volumes towards the city centers and the spectacular growth in road transportation are deteriorating the traffic situation in large cities, and so a heavy threat for fast, predictable and cost-effective city logistics. Now is the time to develop new standardized logistic concepts, including the use of all available modes of transport. Standardized city boxes, vehicles, handling equipment and city access rules will support the interchangeability within logistic networks and will encourage the implementation of new concepts for city logistics offering a better service for equal or even lower costs. Shuttle concepts for road-bound distribution will result in better vehicle utilization, less environmental impact and better quality of life. Furthermore, rail-bound systems for the combined transport of passengers and freight have a large potential for regional and city-bound cargo distribution.

For area's with a suitable waterways network, barge transportation can be used both for long-haul and bi-modal (barge-truck) city logistics.

Partnerships between transportation companies, retailers, logistic providers and local/regional authorities will be required to introduce new logistic concepts. These will be necessary to maintain efficient city logistics and to improve the quality of life in the cities.

The urbanization of poverty is a structural trend embodied in the sprawling urban slums of the developing countries. It remains a largely unacknowledged dynamic. This is particularly true in terms of the population-level patterns of social well-being derived from urban slum prevalence or proportion of the total population living in urban slum conditions. In particular, there is increasing evidence of an “urban penalty” wherein urban slum dwellers exhibit poorer health outcomes than non-slum urban residents and even rural populations. We articulate the proposition that urban slum prevalence is a key factor shaping population-level rates of social well-being in the developing countries, measured at the national level. Further, we develop the proposition drawn from political economy of health theorization suggesting cross-national dependency relations substantially influence urban slum conditions. In turn, the structural dynamics of the world economy underlie urban slum prevalence which itself has a direct influence on population-level patterns of social well-being as measured by infant and under-five mortality, maternal mortality, and life expectancy at birth. We conclude by arguing for greater empirical attention focusing upon the consequences of dependency relations as expressed in the built urban environment and the impact of urban slum prevalence as a key social condition impacting well-being in the less developed countries.

This cooperative alliance between a university and a nonprofit, private organization was initiated with the goal of developing capacity building measures for improving medical health and welfare in the rural village of Ocoroni in Northern Sinaloa, Mexico. Drawing from the literature on organization development and action research, it provides a detailed overview of the design and implementation of the work which was involved in this collaborative partnership. The outcomes are presented and with accomplishments noted, indicating that the initiative had a positive impact for the local community in Ocoroni, while simultaneously providing research opportunities and cross-cultural learning for faculty, graduate students, healthcare practitioners, volunteers, residents from the village and others who were involved the project.