Public policy, institutional investors and climate change: a UK case-study     

Stephanie Pfeifer  Rory Sullivan 《Climatic change》2008,89(3-4):245-262

Institutional investors have two important roles to play in encouraging companies to address the risks and take advantage of the opportunities presented by climate change. The first is through using their influence as shareholders to encourage companies to adopt more proactive approaches to managing the risks and opportunities presented by climate change. The second is through explicitly factoring climate change risks and opportunities into ‘mainstream’ investment analysis processes. While there is growing investor activity on the former, the integration of climate change into investment analysis remains confined to sectors where there are strong government incentives (e.g. for renewable energy) or where greenhouse gas emissions have a market price. This article reviews the evolution of UK institutional investor interest in climate change from 1990 to 2005, focusing in particular on the relative contributions of ‘soft’ policy measures such as information-disclosure and awareness raising, and ‘hard’ policy measures such as regulation and market-based instruments. The article concludes that, over this period, soft policy measures played an important role in encouraging investors to discuss climate change issues with companies, but had minimal influence on investment decisions. It was only with the introduction of hard policy measures that climate change started to be systematically factored into investment analysis. The article canvasses the implications of these findings for government efforts in the UK and elsewhere to encourage investors to play a more proactive role in the climate change debate. It also considers the role that institutional investors themselves can play in strengthening public policy measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  相似文献   

Simplified seismic performance assessment and implications for seismic design     

Timothy J.Sullivan  David P.Welch  Gian Michele Calvi 《地震工程与工程振动(英文版)》2014,(Z1)

The last decade or so has seen the development of refined performance-based earthquake engineering(PBEE) approaches that now provide a framework for estimation of a range of important decision variables,such as repair costs,repair time and number of casualties. This paper reviews current tools for PBEE,including the PACT software,and examines the possibility of extending the innovative displacement-based assessment approach as a simplified structural analysis option for performance assessment. Details of the displacement-based s+eismic assessment method are reviewed and a simple means of quickly assessing multiple hazard levels is proposed. Furthermore,proposals for a simple definition of collapse fragility and relations between equivalent single-degree-of-freedom characteristics and multi-degree-of-freedom story drift and floor acceleration demands are discussed,highlighting needs for future research. To illustrate the potential of the methodology,performance measures obtained from the simplified method are compared with those computed using the results of incremental dynamic analyses within the PEER performance-based earthquake engineering framework,applied to a benchmark building. The comparison illustrates that the simplified method could be a very effective conceptual seismic design tool. The advantages and disadvantages of the simplified approach are discussed and potential implications of advanced seismic performance assessments for conceptual seismic design are highlighted through examination of different case study scenarios including different structural configurations.  相似文献   

Seismic hazard disaggregation in performance‐based earthquake engineering: occurrence or exceedance?          下载免费PDF全文

Matthew J. Fox  Peter J. Stafford  Timothy J. Sullivan 《地震工程与结构动力学》2016,45(5):835-842

Seismic hazard disaggregation is commonly used as an aid in ground‐motion selection for the seismic response analysis of structures. This short communication investigates two different approaches to disaggregation related to the exceedance and occurrence of a particular intensity. The impact the different approaches might have on a subsequent structural analysis at a given intensity is explored through the calculation of conditional spectra. It is found that the exceedance approach results in conditional spectra that will be conservative when used as targets for ground‐motion selection. It is however argued that the use of the occurrence disaggregation is more consistent with the objectives of seismic response analyses in the context of performance‐based earthquake engineering. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

山东沂沭断裂带早白垩世晚期恐龙足迹特征差异性^*   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1       下载免费PDF全文

彭楠  柳永清  旷红伟  吴清资  刘海  陈军  许欢  徐加林  汪明伟  王宝红  王克柏  陈树清  张艳霞 《古地理学报》2013,15(4):517-528

近些年来,在山东沂沭断裂带南部地区(莒南、临沭、郯城和东海）的下白垩统上部大盛群中发现了大量的恐龙足迹化石,而这些化石反映的足迹类型、形态大小、足迹踩踏深度等方面都存在有差异性。研究发现,在足迹类型方面,莒南地区以兽脚类和鸟脚类恐龙足迹为主,临沭、郯城和东海地区以蜥脚类恐龙足迹为主。足迹大小方面,莒南地区的兽脚类足迹可划分为类型Ⅰ和类型Ⅱ两种类型,而东海地区的恐龙足迹主要属于类型Ⅱ,但是莒南地区大多数足迹的趾间角要小于东海地区的,这可能是由于兽脚类恐龙属种的不同所造成的;莒南地区鸟脚类足迹绝大多数要小于临沭地区的鸟脚类足迹;郯城地区的蜥脚类足迹较小,而莒南、临沭和东海地区大多数蜥脚类足迹的大小较为相似,个别临沭和莒南地区的蜥脚类恐龙足迹较大。足迹踩踏深度方面,临沭、东海和郯城地区的足迹相比莒南地区的足迹要稍深,这与足迹形成在不同湿度、黏度、颗粒度的沉积物表面上有密切联系。基于上述研究认为,在早白垩世晚期,沂沭断裂带内生活着种类繁盛,数量庞大的恐龙动物群,联系到沂沭断裂带东部诸城地区早白垩世早期地层中也发现有大量的以兽脚类为主的恐龙足迹化石,推断在早白垩世,沂沭断裂带及胶莱盆地当时为一个理想的恐龙生存、繁衍的栖息地。同时,山东早白垩世大量恐龙足迹化石的发现也为整个华北甚至东北亚地区晚中生代恐龙属种的分布、演化以及古地理研究提供了丰富的材料和信息。  相似文献   

Seismic performance of steel friction connections considering direct-repair costs     

T. Z. Yeow  A. Orumiyehei  T. J. Sullivan  G. A. MacRae  G. C. Clifton  K. J. Elwood 《Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering》2018,16(12):5963-5993

This study compares seismic losses considering initial construction costs and direct-repair costs for New Zealand steel moment-resisting frame buildings with friction connections and those with extended bolted-end-plate connections. A total of 12 buildings have been designed and analysed considering both connection types, two building heights (4-storey and 12-storey), and three locations around New Zealand (Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington). It was found that buildings with friction connections required design to a higher design ductility, yet are generally stiffer due to larger beams being required to satisfy higher connection overstrength requirements. This resulted in the frames with friction connections experiencing lower interstorey drifts on most floors but similar peak total floor accelerations, and subsequently incurring lower drift-related seismic repair losses. Frames with friction connections tended to have lower expected net-present-costs within 50 years of the building being in service for shorter buildings and/or if located in regions of high seismicity. None of the frames with friction connections in Auckland showed any benefits due to the low seismicity of the region.  相似文献   

Toward a new conceptual model for groundwater flow in merokarst systems: Insights from multiple geophysical approaches     

Pamela L. Sullivan  Chi Zhang  Michael Behm  Fan Zhang  G. L. Macpherson 《水文研究》2020,34(24):4697-4711

Merokarst aquifers — relatively thin (<1–2 m) karstified carbonate units interbedded between mudstone, shale, or sandstone — constitute a significant proportion of carbonate terrain and underlie a large portion of the west- and south-central USA, yet few advances have been made in our understanding of porosity development and flow-path generation in these complex systems in decades. Toward this end, we used a multi-geophysical approach at the well-studied Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS), a part of the larger Flint Hills (25,734 km²), underlain by thin limestone units (1–2 m thick) interbedded with mudstone/shale units (2–4 m thick), to elucidate hydrologic connectivity and potential controls on known groundwater flow directions. We combined electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), surface and borehole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements across a low order catchment where over 25 boreholes and groundwater wells sampling perched aquifers could be used to constrain interpretation of lithology, potential flow paths, and permeability. Data revealed that groundwater export may be an unappreciated component of lateral-flow-dominated models used to represent merokarst in that: (a) potentiometric surfaces from two limestone units showed groundwater flows toward a hydrologic depression, opposite the direction of stream flow, in the upstream portion of the catchment, (b) long term measures of groundwater levels revealed a greater variance and overall water storage in this same upstream area compared to wells near the outlet, and (c) ERT and NMR results indicate pronounced lateral heterogeneity within a given unit, suggestive of a greater degree of vertical hydrological connectivity than usually considered for horizontally-layered merokarst. Our data suggest vertical connectivity can shunt water to depth in these “sandwiched” merokarst aquifers, yielding atypical groundwater flow directions and unrealized deep export of weathering solutes and carbon.  相似文献   

Brokering Trust in Citizen Science     

Mat Gilfedder  James E. M. Watson  Thomas G. Campbell  Brian L. Sullivan  Hugh P. Possingham 《社会与自然资源》2019,32(3):292-302

Citizen science (CS) information requires systematic review that incorporates a range of interests and concerns. Yet, there has been little research on what might constitute reviewing best practice to ensure CS is trusted by contributors and users of the data. Insights from a survey of all 1134 reviewers who curate the global eBird Project highlight the knowledge-brokering work involved to ensure CS data are trusted by both citizens and science. Drawing on scholarship focused on key drivers of useable knowledge for natural resource decision-making, we consider CS reviewing best practice to ensure CS can be useful to the producers and users of this knowledge. We find that CS reviewers need to be motivated to provide appropriate feedback to improve CS data, commit to reviewing practice that is respected by citizens, and ensure the information published is credible and be reviewed by a supportive and accountable network of fellow reviewers.  相似文献   

The role of recharge and evapotranspiration as hydraulic drivers of ion concentrations in shallow groundwater on Everglades tree islands,Florida (USA)          下载免费PDF全文

Pamela L. Sullivan  René M. Price  Fernando Miralles‐Wilhelm  Mike S. Ross  Leonard J. Scinto  Thomas W. Dreschel  Fred H. Sklar  Eric Cline 《水文研究》2014,28(2):293-304

Recently, evapotranspiration has been hypothesized to promote the secondary formation of calcium carbonate year‐round on tree islands in the Everglades by influencing groundwater ions concentrations. However, the role of recharge and evapotranspiration as drivers of shallow groundwater ion accumulation has not been investigated. The goal of this study is to develop a hydrologic model that predicts the chloride concentrations of shallow tree island groundwater and to determine the influence of overlying biomass and underlying geologic material on these concentrations. Groundwater and surface water levels and chloride concentrations were monitored on eight constructed tree islands at the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment (LILA) from 2007 to 2010. The tree islands at LILA were constructed predominately of peat, or of peat and limestone, and were planted with saplings of native tree species in 2006 and 2007. The model predicted low shallow groundwater chloride concentrations when inputs of regional groundwater and evapotranspiration‐to‐recharge rates were elevated, while low evapotranspiration‐to‐recharge rates resulted in a substantial increase of the chloride concentrations of the shallow groundwater. Modeling results indicated that evapotranspiration typically exceeded recharge on the older tree islands and those with a limestone lithology, which resulted in greater inputs of regional groundwater. A sensitivity analysis indicated the shallow groundwater chloride concentrations were most sensitive to alterations in specific yield during the wet season and hydraulic conductivity in the dry season. In conclusion, the inputs of rainfall, underlying hydrologic properties of tree islands sediments and forest structure may explain the variation in ion concentration seen across Everglades tree islands. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Model histories: Narrative explanation in generative simulation modelling     

James D.A. Millington  David O’Sullivan  George L.W. Perry 《Geoforum》2012,43(6):1025-1034

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North Sea Foundation investigation techniques     

Richard A. Sullivan 《Marine Georesources & Geotechnology》2013,31(3):279-280

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