Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Essays

Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Essays Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Paper Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Paper Abstract Country location influences the institutional surroundings of the infrastructures related to water systems. In the Netherlands, water management has its own particularities. Temporarily inflow of affluent water from the rivers or the sea resulted in a highly developed institutional setting based on flood risk prevention. From an economic perspective, managing water is about allocating and using water in an effective and efficient way. This article deals with the coordination problem related to multi functionality of water systems. ‘Allocation efficiency’ is the issue. The diversity of water systems such as rivers, lakes, ditches or groundwater is multifunctional and within the systems, demand is competing. Decision makers should be aware of the different aspects of infrastructures that interfere with water systems. Further on in the decision-making, these aspects need to be valued. This may be done explicitly (for example in a formal cost-benefit analysis) or implicitly. Implicit valuation takes place when the outcome of a choice is expressed without an explicit weight and value of the effects a project has. The focus of this article is on economic drivers that express values to decision makers and thereby may stimulate the implementation of planned water projects. The problem addressed here is how these economic drivers may be institutionalized and what  institutional (re-)designs are necessary to organize the coordination problem related to the multi functionality of water systems. It is part of participative water management that, under the name of Joint Planning Approach (JPA), is developed during the ‘Freude am Fluss’ international project that aims at formulating and realizing adaptation strategies in water management, specifically the realization of more space for rivers. 1. Introduction The Netherlands are known for their water management practices. Obviously, this is resulting from an economy located in the delta of the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt. Country location influences its institutional surroundings, which means that also water management in a different setting has other particularities. High water levels of rivers or the sea resulted in a robust institutional setting concerning flood risk prevention. From an economic perspective, managing water is about allocating and using water in an effective and efficient way. In this respect three main levels of decision making can be identified: the international level (with countries and supranational organizations); the national level (with governments and stakeholders); the level of the individual (with users like consumers and producers). This article deals with the efficient allocation of the many functions water systems provide. In other words, the coordination problem related to multi functionality of water systems is at stake. For example, a river, or one of the many other types of water system, may absorb waste streams (cooling water, polluted waste water) in competition with ecological and other economic activities, such as production of drinking water. From an economic point of view, clean, fresh water can be interpreted as a scarce commodity. Scarcity of water and water systems is sometimes reflected in the prices users need to pay, or in collective resources (collected taxes), governments provide money out of. Increasingly, water managers allocate natural resources of a water system on the basis of the value of water systems. This means that decision-makers should be fully aware of all these values connected to a water system. These values may be explicitly reflected in a market price or implicitly acknowledged by means of meeting qualitative or quantitative standards. For decision-makers, this issue of getting a complete and accurate understanding of the value of water systems is crucial, but generally, information asymmetry is at hand. The policy makers are often not fully aware of the costs and benefits of each separate function a water system possibly may fulfill. Besides, stakeholders want to take their role in the decision- making process that precedes the acknowledgement or rejection of the functions a water system may fulfill in the future or against which costs this will take place. These values can be explicated by the involvement of the public or representing stakeholders within decision-making processes (Van Ast and Boot, 2003). Nevertheless, decision-makers can never be sure that the outcome of public participation in terms of value is realistic for the full range of values of the water system. How can policy makers be assisted in this complex and dynamic challenge of getting ecological values incorporated in a balanced way? Not only economic and ecological functions are at stake, but also social and cultural values have to be considered. What are the rules of this allocation game? 2. Contents The importance of economic drivers that can stimulate implementation of planned water projects is high (WMO, 2006). Creating more room for rivers is necessary to reduce climate change induced water levels. Realization of projects that aim at giving back territories to natural systems however is extremely difficult in terms of costs and culture. The ‘Freude am Fluss’ (FaF) international project aims at improving and smoothening the realization of ‘Room for Rivers’ projects. A basis stream of research within the project deals with participative water management that is developed under the name of ‘Joint Planning Approach’. One of the research objectives of FaF (2008) is the identification of economic drivers that can foster realization of these projects, including the institutional arrangements that can embed these drivers. Figure 1 shows the different steps in the FaFproject, that were taken to develop a JPA that includes public and private value s. Explication of these values can function as necessary economic drivers for the realization of water projects. The JPA should assure that economic, ecological and social values that policy makers aim for, are integrated into regional planning. This integration is approached from the perspective of the process of institutional design that policy makers are key actors in. Figure 1, economic drivers and the Joint Planning Approach After the introduction of the subject and the contents of this article, section 3 describes the framework of interactive policy-making JPA. Further the economic drivers of managing multifunctional water systems and the infrastructures that contribute to or even co-create the multi-functionality are elaborated. In many cases the water system is accompanied by infrastructures that play a key role to provide the services to the people. This is the case for infrastructures related to functions such as providing drinking water, sanitation and transportation. The difficulty of reflecting the total economic value of water systems in decision making is discussed in section 4. To illustrate the concepts, firstly, in section 5 a framework is presented, in which economic drivers can be captured. This is illustrated in a case study, presented in section 6. Finally, in section 7 conclusions are drawn and practical recommendations are presented. 3. Joint Planning Approach The Joint Planning Approach (JPA) is developed within the Freude am Fluss-project (FaF, 2008). It incorporates the idea that the performance of water systems has an ecological, a social and an economical dimension. It assists the capturing of the total economic value of innovative regional planning by measuring the economic value realized by managing the multi-functional dimensions of water systems. If innovative regional planning implies a sound combination of, for example the housing function of riverbeds (like the use of floating houses) and the transportation function (transportation by boats and transportation by trucks over roads), a net economic benefit should be gained. In general, the Joint Planning Approach (JPA) provides an action oriented framework on how authorities, local communities and private actors can organize the planning process from the earliest stage of problem identification up to the agreement on what measures to implement (De Groot, 2008). Additionally, the JPA facilitates the design of institutional arrangements that embeds the values (framed as economic drivers) related to concrete measures that shape regional in combination with its river systems. In the FaF-project, this framework is applied to regional planning along rivers. The term ‘joint’ implies that all morally considerable actors that are involved in causes, effects or solutions of the problem are also involved, directly or by representation, in the planning process. These actors are referred as stakeholders and are regarded as the ‘morally considerable entities’. This includes individual people but also future generations, and the elements of nature that are recognized, e.g. in policy documents, as carrying intrinsic value. The representation can be directly, e.g. as a farmers group representing involved floodplain farmers or indirectly, as an NGO representing the interests of nature. However, representation may imply that also governmental organizations take part of the planning  process because they are democratically vested to represent all kinds of values the protection of which individual people cannot easily organize (the ‘common good’ or ‘system-level rationality’) or tend to forget in the midst of the affairs of daily life. JPA should help in realizing inclusive planning that involves a broad set of stakeholders that depends on the perception of the problem, its causes, effects and solutions. No standard lists of participants in FaF can be provided. Because perceptions what the problems and possible solutions are to manage a river and its direct surrounding may shift over time. The possible technological solutions with its challenges and threats may evolve. Also, the political context may change and consequently the policy approaches towards managing water systems. The Joint Planning Approach is based on a number of principles emerging from various scientific disciplines (De Groot and Lenders, 2006). Crucial is the contribution from ecological science with insights and new concepts of non-equilibrium ecosystem behavior (Smits et al., 2000). This has triggered notions of ‘adaptive management’, that do not aim to fix ecosystems in states of presumed climax, but aim to maintain ecosystem quali ty, for the benefit of people and nature alike, by way of intensive monitoring and flexible responses to change (e.g. Holling and Gunderson, 2002). Adaptive management should be guided by a long-term vision in order to prevent that the sum of many small adaptive steps could end up in an undesired overall result. In this respect policy approaches such as ‘room-for rivers’ is incorporated into the plans that result from the FaF-project. JPA may be coined as a practical guideline but the relationships it builds upon are derived from theoretical insights into the combinations of variables that affect the incentives and actions of stakeholders in water systems (Ostrom, 2007). The JPA builds upon strong relationships between the Resource systems (the geographical area with its water and landscape), resource units, governance system and users of the resource systems. It are these relationships that frame economic drivers into variables (institutional arrangements) that build the governance of rivers. De Groot and Lenders (2006) brought forward in the FaF-project that in the social sciences, resistance against the seemingly irrevocable logic of the Tragedy of the Commons (the idea that communality of property can only lead to destruction of that property; see for instance Hardin (1968)) has led to increased insight that local communities can be quite successful in the management of their common resources, and the conditions under which this is possible (e.g. Ostrom 1990). At the same time, however, local communities cannot easily be entrusted with monitoring and management of systems far beyond their spatial scale, such as sea-wide fisheries or whole river basins. The combination of new drive for community-based work and the limitation of community capacities has led to the rise of ‘co-management’ (or ‘collaborative management’, or ‘joint management’) as a central concept for empirical study, management ideas and theory-making. In co-management, local actors and supra-local agencies share visions and divide roles in the management of a given resource, in styles and balances depending on the resource itself, its local and supra-local functions, and the local and supra-local management capacities. See for instance Borrini-Feyerabend et al. (2004) for a general exploration and Wilson et al. (2003) reviewing the co-management traditions existing already in the fishery sector. Concurrently in policy and political science, approaches have emerged that rather than viewing policies as mechanistic models of inputs and outputs and viewing politics as a mere competition between opposing programs. In a broad system perspective, with the world as a complex system, learning, feedback and adaptations take place through highly linked, self-organizing networks. This makes it easier to understand how collaborative dialogues function and produce innovative actions. See for instance Hajer and Wagenaar (2003) for an overview. A sufficient level of social capital (organizational density and mutual trust within communities and between communities and government) is an important prerequisite for such dialogues to be successful, but at the same time, research has shown that social capital can also be produced during the dialogues themselves (e.g. Ostrom 1990). The latter may be of special relevance for societies in transition, where social capital tends to be low; see for ins tance Chloupkova et al. (2003), comparing social capital in Denmark and Poland. In these terms, the JPA can be characterized as an approach for the adaptive, vision-guided collaborative planning of river sections, in a framework of room-for-river policies. The JPA is composed of a number of public planning steps. They vary much in weight and content in each actual planning situation, but the steps give the JPA its basic structure. The process starts with a ‘step zero’, in which the initiators internally design the envisaged JPA application of their local situation. Then follows the real (public) planning process, ordered in six steps. The whole of the process is formulated as: 0. Preparing the JPA application 1. Mutual learning 2. Shared visioning 3. Rules and institutions 4. Joint options exploration 5. Joint design and decision-making 6. Towards implementation. Especially from the step from visioning towards a realistic project is depending from the existence of economic drivers. This means that the identification of economic drivers that can fire up the JPA-process is of utmost importance. Typically for the approach is that the JPA generates technical plans but also helps in creating the institutional context in which these technical options can be implemented. For example, sometimes the permitting processes should allow for a regional plan along with some interventions in a river like the location of a windmill park or new infrastructures that facilitate transportation of goods and electricity. Political will may force current permitting procedures to change. Conflicting values needs to be settled in a JPA and the outcome embedded by means of a institutional (re-)design. JPA has been practiced in areas in France, Germany and The Netherlands. The standardized interactive methodology shows remarkably positive results in terms of understanding under stakeholders (FaF, 2008). Policy makers in different countries may have different opinions about the relevance of some economic drivers, the values behind these drivers and how these values become drivers behind concrete projects in regional planning. Some policy makers may want to perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) by means of using a single decision-making supportive technique and present a net benefit to  societal welfare. Other policy makers want to aim for some specific economic benefits for a sector (for example, transportation or housing) and represent this stake in the decision-making process. JPA acknowledges this diversity up to some degree by stimulating participation of (often local) stakeholders. Also, JPA makes explicit that the rules of the game that guide the stakeholders in their policy making are not static but may change as result of the planning procedures. It acknowledges the dynamics in relevant values and the governance of a water system (Kuks, 2002; Hoevenaars, 2004; Oosthoek, 2006). JPA may increase these dynamics itself and shapes the institutional context of managing river systems. 4. Economic drivers As has been mentioned, one of the objectives of FaF is the identification of economic drivers for ‘room for the river’ solutions. To explore economic drivers in relation to integrated water management a variety of approaches are of interest, each of which contains different elements. A distinction can be made in different types of benefits for society, different functions of the river system and several values of natural systems. The focus on a more holistic approach to water management as a water system results in the balancing of economic, environmental and social benefits for a wide set of stakeholders. a) Economic Benefits Economic benefits reflect the creation of welfare in a society and can be divided into goods and services of freshwater ecosystems. Economic goods include water (for drinking, agriculture, cooling, production etc.), bio-products (fish, shellfish, plants) and resources (clay, sand). Economic services include flood control and water quality control of river plains, wetlands and watersheds (including forest landscapes) and tourism. The classification of an impact on welfare is strongly related to the economic valuation process. b) Ecological Benefits Ecological benefits focus specifically on increased biodiversity and protection of rare species in river basins. These environmental benefits include river basins as living space for species like fish and birds, diversity of river landscapes (forests, wetlands, floodplains) and dynamic ecosystems (nutrient rich, versatile). The classification of ecological effects as benefits is strongly related to the definition and interpretation of ecological quality. c) Social (and cultural) Benefits Social benefits include elements of enjoyment related to nature (recreation and tourism, living space) and sustainability aspects (future generations), but also social justice and equity. The positively perceived changes in the allocation of economic benefits and costs to specific stakeholders are strongly related to the adoption of certain policy principles, such as the Polluter Pays Principle. It this respect, it is important that in most cases the realisation of regional plans have benefits for the society that are neither pure economic, social or ecological. The impacts cannot be captured within one dimension for all stakeholders. The key of integrated water management is to approach the water system as a whole, from upstream to downstream, and balancing upstream-downstream stakeholder interests and needs. Table 1 illustrates the different combinations of the potential variety in impact on the benefits. Table 1: Example of water system performance: three dimensions of the potential impact of regional plans. In the Netherlands several institutions are involved in realising new approaches in water management. The key drivers are governments, non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) and academic institutions, often in close collaboration with each other and with the private sector. A good example is the Freude am Fluss (FaF) project, of which a key component, JPA, has been mentioned extensively. Involving many institutions in these kind of projects results in spreading of the new introduced approaches. JPA aims at identifying the economic drivers for a management approach to rivers and the design of institutions that transform economic drivers into the identification of current and future cash flows related to these drivers. By using this approach economic drivers may become financial drivers for individual stakeholders. A practical example of the identification of economic drivers is the ‘One Europe More Nature Program’ of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). WWF is collaborating with local knowledge institutes, governments and the private sector in river basins in 6 EU member states to identify, create and communicate practical examples of alternatives for rural development in Europe, that are good for people and for nature. At the foundation of the project is the Living Rivers concept aiming at conserving nature from source to sea. For example in the Netherlands, WWF is working with Stichting Arc in the Rhine river basin in the Gelderse Poort, where a new economy is being built that is not only also creating new jobs, but also helps to restore ecological processes and landscape quality. From the perspective of the physical system, in this case the river system, different functions can be identified. Economic drivers are based on the value people attribute to the different functions. From the perspective of society, economic drivers refer to the perceived benefit of a value that actors attribute to the consequences for them of a decision affecting the river system. These benefits can be assessed from two perspectives: those benefits that accrue to society as a whole (macro-economic drivers) and benefits that accrue to individual stakeholders (micro-economic drivers). Table 2 summarizes the main drivers in relation to the functions of a river system. Table 2: Examples of macro-economic and financial drivers of new water management approaches. If the benefits that people attribute to the above mentioned functions are associated with real cash flows, the economic drivers are simultaneously financial drivers. However, many economic benefits and costs are not associated with direct cash flows. For example, the value of a house may increase as a result of regional planning, but as long as the house has not been sold, the gain is not associated with ‘real’ cash flows. On the other hand there is an increase in property tax, which shows clearly the increased value. Another example is the increase of recreation activities around an upgraded river system. This is generally not associated with any actual cash expenditure, since the river is freely accessible to all. However, indirect economic activities that could be the result should  also be taken into account. Revenues from transport to the area or increased mental wellness resulting in higher productivity can surely lead to an implicit increase of economic value and hence should be taken into consideration as an economic driver. It is often regarded as a pitfall that many cash flows are not clearly visible. In the determination of the economic feasibility, innovative ways of integrated water management may be regarded as economically unfeasible due to a lack of insight into the true economic value of regional plans that create more room for the river in an integrated way. With respect to the value of water systems and water in specific, some reflection should be added about the special position, water has in economic sciences. Obviously, treating water as an economic good can have large advantages in optimizing water scarcity issues. For other goods and services that water systems can deliver, the efficiency improvement can be expected. Nevertheless, water delivers very special services and water is certainly not a ‘normal’ economic good. Table 3 compares the different attributes of water to other important commodities. Table 3: Comparison water and other commodities, based on Van der Zaag and Savenije (2006; pp. 14) Amongst others, Van der Zaag and Savenije (2006) state that just letting the market decide upon the price, does not result in the most favourable allocation of the scarce good ‘water’. They argue that water should have a set price. This fixed price sends out a message to all users that water is a scarce good and should be treated that way. Their view on the economics of water is pragmatic, implying informed choices of use. Applying this approach to all other values water systems can deliver, means that prices  should not depend on the market. Putting fixed prices can help people in understanding the need for a change in their approach to water management. Often, water is still seen as an enemy that can do a lot of harm, neglecting that water is essential for human survival and a special commodity that should be treated that way. Besides, other types of values can play an important role too. Social, cultural, religious and historical values that can not be translated easily in financial terms can be distinguished, next to issues related to risk. Also the intrinsic value, that by definition does not have any relation with (economic) use, should also be considered. Regarding the socio-cultural value of water systems, The Netherlands as a country provide an outstanding illustration. The Dutch have been fighting against water for centuries. Water history has been dominated by a battle against the water of both rivers and sea. Many practices of water management reflect the incorporation of these kinds of socio-cultural values, like the habit to discharge water into the ocean as fast as possible. The proposed measures in the ‘Room for the River’ program entail a fundamental change in attitude towards water management in the Netherlands. Instead of fighting against the water, the paradigm is changed in living with water. This includes that the water is given more space and should be retained longer in certain areas, meaning a loss of land in this highly populated country. The history of fighting against water has much influence on how people feel about the proposed measures in the ‘Room for the River’ project. A fundamental change in attitude is not likely to happen overnight. Socio-cultural value can also be illustrated by the essential role water plays in major religions around the world as a sacred gift of God. Religious interpretations and rules about ethically adequate use of water can strongly influence water management practices, but for that matter does not seem to have much influence in ‘Room for the Riverprojects’’ in Western Europe. In contrast, risk issues do have much influence on people’s attitude towards water systems and hence the value they attribute to the functions the water system delivers. Research by Klaveren and Oostdijk (2002) found that especially the place of building the house, i.e. on a safe position, is important for the feeling of safety. Highly visible dikes can also increase this feeling of safety. On the other hand,  misleading or unclear information decreases the feeling of safety experiences by inhabitants. In the empirical research of Broekhoven et al. (2006) peoples values with respect to how The Netherlands should protect itself in the scope of the policy concept of Space for Water were investigated. When Dutch people are asked how they think the Netherlands should protect itself against rising water levels, they respond that a combination of measures should be executed. The majority supports the heightening, enlarging and maintaining of dikes. Only a rather small minority of informed inhabitants supports the creation of retention areas, emergency runoff and reservoirs as risk decreasing. Only very few people name giving more room to the river or using nature as a protection option. It is clear that this ‘dike-culture’, in which dike protected land is valued high, is a large obstacle for ‘room for the river’-projects. On the other hand, many interviewed people consider conservation of historical landscape very important (Klaveren and Oostdijk 2002), even when dike heightening is necessary from a risk perspective. Here the intrinsic value of historical elements in the landscape, of nature and of beauty comes to the surface. In a strict sense, intrinsic value can be defined as the value that is in the object itself, not depending on human valuation. In a more practical meaning it refers to the value for people not depending on practical use (Bouma and Saeijs, 2000). Protecting a historical dike is a good example of an instiutionalised cultural value within water management. The rules of the allocation, or economic processes, are referred to in the institutionaleconomic theory as institutions. Since the re-emergence of institutional economics in the seventies of the last century, the role of contracts within transactions has been the main unit of analysis. Amongst others, Williamson (1999) describes the importance of organizations within a market economy. Besides relative prices also organisational elements, as formalized in contracts, are taken into account. By introducing organizational and context dependent elements in economic theory, recent research is broadening the institutional perspective on economic development. Contracts can be seen  as the institutionalization of norms, values and beliefs that provide rules-of-the game for the economic processes in a society. In practice the design is very difficult because of its complexity. Many actors may be involved, all having their own values, norms and perceived risks related to the final outcomes of the contract. In the case study this will be further explored in section 6. But first, in section 5 a framework for the design of the institutional arrangements dealing with economic drivers is presented. 5. The institutionalization of economic drivers In order to explicate the economic drivers behind Room for the River-projects, a guideline developed in the FaF-project (Van Ast et al, 2008), can be applied by decisionmakers. Taking these steps, divided in three main steps, stimulates the implementation of ‘Room for the River’ in practical cases. Step 1: Create a policy setting that links regional planning with river management (both water quantity and water quality control). Formulate a formal statement in which the multi-functionality of rivers is acknowledged. The link between regional planning and river management should be organized. The following questions may be raised to the relevant stakeholders of the policy process: What are the physical, social and ecological effects of regional planning? To what extent represent these effects a change in the total economic value of the river and for who are these economic drivers relevant? How can the decision-makers account for the total economic value? Step 2: Identify and/or (co-)design cost effective projects that enhance the concept of room for the river (a multi-functional approach to rivers). The set of projects can for example consist of the construction of houses and dikes. The set of projects should have as a result that the river keeps performing its essential functions, together with its economic, social and ecological gains and losses. Step 3: Design of an institutional arrangement that creates drivers for stakeholders based on the generation of economic gains. Four types of institutional processes are of main importance: The establishment of an organisation that enables decision making processes (participation of stakeholders and regulated use of formal costs-benefit approaches, Public Private Partnerships); The development of clear policy and regulation, with rules in a project plan to create space for the river; The release of resources like cash flows, labour and machines; The use of a suitable mix of juridical, economical and social policy instruments. If financial instruments like subsidies and levies are possible, they can go together with the accounting practices at macro and micro level, which enables interaction with stakeholders. As a result stakeholders can be informed about the impact of the regional plans on their costs and benefits. This does not necessarily have to be in the form of a formal cost benefit analyses. Through answering the questions in step 1, (policy setting) the gains and losses are identified and quantified in economic terms in the decision making process. Decisionmakers should decide on how these economic costs and benefits are to be integrated into the decision making process. It is suggested that the following approaches/tools are to be applied: The use of Societal Cost Benefit Analyses (SCBA) with explicit valuation of social and ecological gains and losses: the economic value is calculated by using a valuation technique the participants of a decision making process accepts. Clearly there are differences among a decision-making process which values may be expressed in monetary terms and which not. The use of Societal Cost Benefit Analyses by presenting only those gains and losses represented by market prices. Those gains and losses that are not integrated into the SCBA should be identified and integrated into the rules of the allocation game. Hereby some weights can explicitly be given  to certain aspects of the value of water systems. For example, strict safety norms and quality standards of drinking water. Participation of stakeholders in the decision making process that integrates their economic gains and losses as stakes into the assessment of plans. . The stakeholders may present their own accounting formats for performing their cost-benefit analyses (so-called private cost-benefit analyses). Step 2 (design of measurements) shows that river management and regional planning can enhance the integration of economic drivers by creating policy instruments that integrate the economic drivers into decision making processes based on regulatory push factors (such as levies paid by stakeholders who enjoy some functions of the river) and or creation of financial stimuli (creation of markets for attributes of the regional planning approach such as floating houses, increased market value of housing, revenues of concessions for fishery or drinking water concessions). Step 3 considers the institutional embedding of the drivers. The following case study explores which economic drivers exist for new water management approaches related to spatial development. How these economic values are distributed among the different participants of the decision making process and integrated into the decision making process. This three-step guideline contributes to analysing if economic drivers are strong enough to push forward the concept ‘Room to River’ into the implementation of practical water management projects. Afterwards the development of institutional arrangements is mentioned that may increase the role of these economic drivers. 6. Case The Island of Brienenoord Within the concept ‘Room for the River’ many different types of specific projects and measures are developed. In this case study a project is presented that combines different functions of an area within the riverbed. After describing the background situation of the  area and making a stakeholder analysis, we apply the earlier presented three step-model, developed for capturing the total value of a planned project to stimulate implementation. History and physical, social and ecological effects of regional planning Originally the island was a sandy dune that came to the surface of the river and was artificially heightened in the 19th century to become an island. The 21 hectare island was bought by the baron of Brienen in 1847, who started a salmon fishery on it because the main fish market, Kralingseveer, was just on the other side of the river. The year 1880 was the peak of the Rhine salmon fishery with around 100.000 salmon traded in Kralingseveer alone.The highest point of the island was built to keep the horses that were used for transporting the fishing nets. During the economical crisis of the 1930’s, the island was hired by two institutions that helped the unhealthy people of the packed labour district in the south of Rotterdam. In the second world war, the Germans accepted small private gardens for food production and those stayed ever since. On the east point, the south pillar of the Van Brienenoord bridge has been built. This is also the place where natural processes resulted i n a (small) marshy area with willows, reed and sandy beaches. Since 1989 most of the island is public space and earmarked as an area for further urban development. Project plan and measures In 1993 the World Wide Fund for nature published a new view on the wetlands in the Rotterdam (WNF, 1993). The island of Brienenoord is considered highly potential for nature development along the river and within the city. In 2000 the municipality signed an agreement (covenant) with WWF to develop an integrated plan for a combination of building and nature. At the east side, under and around the bridge pillar, a fresh water tidal system could be developed and be combined with recreation facilities. The area already has a function for nature education and educative hiking trips; since 2000 ‘wild’ cattle is freely grazing the terrain. At the west side, near to the small connecting bridge, a hotel is planned. Based on this covenant architect company Waardenburg draw a plan that was presented on 14 February 2002 in the community council. One day earlier, on February 13th, WWF retreated from the covenant because, as it states, the plan leaves not enough space for  nature and its further development. According to the plan a 180 rooms hotel complex with conference facilities and around 55 expensive apartments should be built on the west side of the island Although the project (the master plan) was not realized in total, a number of separate measures were realized. In practice, discussions may arise which measures were generated in the scope of the master plan and which measures were initiated as a result of other initiatives. Still, as long as they support the mission and realization of the master plan they may be considered. In this respect typical examples are to be listed in the area of infrastructures (roads, bridges, etc.) and nature development. Some specific measures of the master plan are: Construction of a hotel and its facilities; Reconstruction of bridge; Quay (transportation of visitors and temporary stay of boats for the commercial transportation in front of the isle); Nature friendly development of the river bank with reed and willows (planting of willows, reed, †¦). Three step-model In order to create the institutional arrangements that can contribute to capturing the total value of the project, the earlier presented three step-model has been applied. After formalizing the rules within the project (step 1), the gains and losses are identified and quantified in economic terms in the decision making process. Decision-makers should decide on how the economic costs and benefits are to be integrated into the decision making process. It is suggested that the total economic gains should be identified which may be accounted for in the decision-making process that proceeds to the implementation of the project or only some parts of the project. In practice the original plan may not be implemented but only parts of the project (eg. specific measures) may be realized. This is in fact the case with the Island of Brienenoord. It is assumed that project alternatives are assessed and that only cost-effective alternatives will be implemented (step 2). The next  step, design of institutional arrangements (step 3) has never been executed here. The case study should have been followed up with an analysis of the institutional arrangements that embed the economic drivers in the decision-making process. Total economic value, economic and financial drivers In order to obtain understanding of the economic drivers behind the project, a formal cost benefit statement according to the procedure designed by the Dutch research agency STOWA (see www.mkbainderegio.nl) has been arranged. Herewith the separate costs and benefit items could be identified in a cost-benefit framework with accounting rules and the integration of institutions in a public-private partnership. This explicit way of presenting the outcome of a societal cost benefit analyses indicates that the proposed project (Brienenoord plan) results in a welfare increase of 21 million Euros. Despite this net gain at a macro level, the project was not implemented. Only some minor parts of the master plan are realised (building of a small bridge and a quay for recreational boating). Major parts of the plan were rejected because of the institutional arrangements related to the financing of the projects (potential hotel owner should cover the financial risks) and the processes of permits related to: spatial planning; exploitation of hotel and other recreational and nature development of the area; temporary storage of dangerous gasses (in boats) along the island. The arguments for individual stakeholders to retreat from the plan were: WWF: expected extra nature value is too low. Inhabitants of nearby houses (directed located at river): the 70 meter high hotel will take away the river view. Real estate developer: Potential financial risks in a period of economic recession. Before the project is to be implemented, a number of conflicts among stakeholders need to be solved. This would imply far-reaching and probably unrealistic institutional redesigns. The case study shows that institutional design is needed at the level of individual stakeholders (the rules that define a project as financial acceptable or not). These rules are embedded in a context that imposes these financial thresholds. Also, the decision to express ecological values in monetary terms or not, can be perceived differently among stakeholders. These perceptions may even change in time for one stakeholder. Besides, conflicting interests among the stakeholders may hinder the implementation of the plan, reflecting a distributional issue of the costs and benefits. Institutional re-design can only overcome this hindrance with enough political power to overrule one or more stakeholders, with or without financial compensation for those who face the costs of the plan. 7. Conclusions and Recommendations Economic drivers can be found in macro- (welfare) and micro- (cash flow) level and can be divided into implicit and explicit values. Economic drivers that manifest themselves as cash flows theoretically are also reflected at a macro level. However, by far not all macro economic drivers are presented as cash-flows at a micro level. This integration of macro economic drivers needs to be integrated into the decision-making process by policy makers who want to stimulate projects with a significant macro economic added value and that are expected to be realized or at least accepted by non-governmental actors (such as individual project planners, households or companies). This integration can take place by means of participation. Each participant can push forward its own perceived added value or loss of value the project implies to him or her. The presented case study shows that if parties can express their costs and benefits, this does not guarantee that a project with a net macro economic added value will succeed. The distribution and differences of the perceived uncertainties about the costs and benefits may hinder the implementation of a project. Again, this added value does not necessary mean a cash flow related to this benefit. Additional rules of the game may integrate these values and express their perceived significance to decision-makers. Most extremely, certain values can be  safeguarded by compliance to strict legal rules. However, the case study shows that conflicting values and distribution of values and costs may not always be overcome by institutional (re-)design. Increase the transparency in standardized costs and benefits (arrangements that for example create a website at the level of water board; (see STOWA, www.mkbainderegio.nl); Mobilize a project developer for realization of housing and recreational values (facilitate and speed-up the process of permitting); Scan relevancy of recreational value increase and mobilize potential benefits (hotels, restaurants, etc.) through arrangements that communicate to the often unknown (potential) stakeholders of rivers; Mobilize stakeholders with positive side effects with respect to health and ecological values: involve national government and down stream stakeholders in public-private partnerships (agriculture house owners, local communities and water boards, recreation sector). To identify these stakeholders a societal CBA can be performed with an orientation at the total river basin. 8. References Borrini-Feyerabend, G., M. Pimbert, M. T. Farvar, A. Kothari, and Y. Renard (2004). Sharing Power. Learning by doing in co-management of natural resources throughout the 25 world. IIED, and IUCN/ CEESP/ CMWG, Cenesta: Tehran. (iucn.org/themes/ceesp/Publications/sharingpower.htm#download). Bouma, J.J., and H.L.F. Saeijs (2000) Eco-centric cost-benefit analysis for hydraulic engineering in river basins, in: Smits, A.J.M., P.H. Nienhuis, and Leuven, R.S.E.W. (2000) New Approaches to River Management, Leiden: Backhuys Publishers. Broekhoven, S. van, S. Hogewoning, E. Mohan, K. Sakamornsinguan, M. Sonnen (2006), Water Management and Industrial Ecology, Rotterdam: ESM-Erasmus University Rotterdam. Chloupkova, J., G.L.H. Svendsen, and G.T. Svendsen (2003). ‘Building and destroying social capital: The case of cooperative movements in Poland and Denmark’, Agriculture and Human Values 20: 241-252. De Groot, W.T. (2008), The Joint Planning Approach, website Freude am Fluss project, freudeamfluss.eu. (01-10-2008)Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. De Groot, W.T., and H.J.R. Lenders (2006). Emergent principles for river management. Hydrobiologia 565: 348-366, Springer. FaF (2008) Freude am Fluss, website Freude am Fluss project www.freudeamfluss.eu, (01-10-2008) Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. Gunderson, L.H., and C.S. Holling (eds), Panarchy. Washington: Island Press. Hajer, M.A., and H. Wagenaar (eds), (2003). Deliberative Policy Analysis; Understanding Governance in the Network Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1243-1248. Holling, C.S., and L.H. Gunderson (2002). Resilience and Adaptive Cycles. In Klaveren, S. van, and A. Oostdijk (2002) Verkennend Belevingswaardenonderzoek Ruimte voor de Rivier, , Leiden: Research voor Beleid. Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ostrom, E. (2007) A diagnostic approach for going beyond panaceas. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1004, 15181- 15187, Washington: USNAS. Smits, A.J.M., P.H. Nienhuis, and Leuven, R.S.E.W. (2000) New Approaches to River Management, Leiden: Backhuys Publishers. Stowa (2008) Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, MKBA in de regio, www.mkbainderegio.nl, Utrecht: Stowa. Van Ast, J.A., and S.P. Boot (2003) Participation in European Water Policy, Phys. Chem. Earth, Vol. 28, 2003, pp. 555-562. Van Ast, J.A., J.J. Bouma, and K.D. Schuyt, (2008) Economic drivers for ‘Room for the River’, supporting document Joint Planning Approach, Freude am Fluss, Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. Van der Zaag, , P., and H.H.G. Savenije, (2006) Water as an economic good: the value of pricing and the failure of markets, Value of Water Research Report Series, no. 19, Delft: UNESCO-IHE. Williamson, O. E., and S. E. Masten (1999). The Economics of Transaction costs. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Wilson, D.C., R.J. Nielsen, and P. Degnbol (2003). The fisheries co-management experience. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. WMO (2006) World Meteorological Organisation The Dublin statement on water sustainable development, wmo.ch/web/homs/documents/english/icwedece.html (19-01-2008) WNF (1992) Wereld Natuur Fonds, Levende rivieren, Zeist: WNF.

Cal State Monterey Bay CSUMB Admissions Data

Cal State Monterey Bay CSUMB Admissions Data California State University-Monterey Bay (CSUMB) is selective, with 35% of applicants accepted last  year. The school is accessible to many interested students, especially those with grades and test scores well above average. Students should have at least a 2.0 high school GPA to be considered for admission. Prospective students are encouraged to visit the campus and to check out the schools website for more information regarding applications and the admissions process. Will You Get In? Calculate Your Chances of Getting In  with this free tool from Cappex Admissions Data (2016) Cal State - Monterey Bay Acceptance Rate: 35%CSUMB GPA, SAT Score and ACT Score GraphCompare Cal State SAT ScoresCompare Cal State ACT Scores CSUMB Description Founded in 1994, CSUMB, the California State University at Monterey Bay, is the second youngest school in the  Cal State system. The schools stunning coastal setting is a big draw. CSUMB emphasizes hands-on, outcome-based learning and interaction between faculty and students. The CSUMB experience begins with a first-year seminar and concludes with a senior capstone project. The university owns two research boats for studying Monterey Bay, and service learning and undergraduate research projects are common. In Athletics, the CSUMB Otters compete in the NCAA Division II  California Collegiate Athletic Association. Enrollment (2016) Total Enrollment: 7,274  (6,758 undergraduates)Gender Breakdown: 38% Male / 62% Female92% Full-time Costs (2016 - 17) Tuition and Fees: $6,379 (in-state); $17,539 (out-of-state)Books: $1,339 (why so much?)Room and Board: $11,930Other Expenses: $2,030Total Cost: $21,678 (in-state); $32,838 (out-of-state) CSUMB Financial Aid (2015- 16) Percentage of New Students Receiving Aid: 80%Percentage of New Students Receiving Types of AidGrants: 74%Loans: 52%Average Amount of AidGrants: $8,623Loans: $4,532 Academic Programs Most Popular Majors:  Business Administration, Computer Software, Environmental Science, Humanities, Kinesiology, Liberal Studies, Radio and Television, Social SciencesWhat major is right for you?  Sign up to take the free My Careers and Majors Quiz at Cappex. Transfer, Graduation and Retention Rates First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 80%Transfer Out Rate: 7%4-Year Graduation Rate: 21%6-Year Graduation Rate: 55% Intercollegiate Athletic Programs Mens Sports:  Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Track and Field, GolfWomens Sports:  Soccer, Softball, Water Polo, Volleyball, Basketball, Golf, Basketball Data Source National Center for Educational Statistics If You Like CSUMB, You May Also Like These Schools Menlo College: Profile  Otis College of Art and Design: Profile  Point Loma Nazarene University: Profile  Occidental College: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphUniversity of Redlands: Profile  Westmont College: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT Graph Admissions Profiles for Other Cal State Campuses Bakersfield  | Channel Islands  | Chico  | Dominquez Hills  | East Bay  | Fresno State  | Fullerton  | Humboldt  | Long Beach  | Los Angeles  | Maritime  | Monterey Bay  | Northridge  | Pomona (Cal Poly)  | Sacramento  | San Bernardino  | San Diego  | San Francisco  | San Jose State  | San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)  | San Marcos  | Sonoma State  | Stanislaus More California Public University Information SAT Score Comparison for Cal State SchoolsACT Score Comparison for Cal State SchoolsThe University of California SystemSAT Score Comparison for the UC SystemACT Score Comparison for the UC System

Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things - Essay Example The desire to stay ahead of Pepsi and to be able to meet the taste of what Pepsi produces made the strategy of New Coke compelling to the executives of Coca Cola. In the early 80’s coke lost its market share to its rival Pepsi by two share points which represented to about $960million sales of Coke production. Coke real marketing problem was its advertisement and not its product. With a change in the soft drink consumer market, coke was not able to match up with the thought process with its commercials ads. Coca Cola had lost generation of young people with its bland advertising style. Coke advertising had a stodgy look and feel in comparison to Pepsi. Coke did not have any relevant statement for the youth in the 80’s. It was being positioned as a beverage preferred by senior citizens in comparison to Pepsi ads which targeted the youths. As a result the company did not pay any attention in improving the advertising rather focused on the product as marketing problem. Coke advertising strategy was no longer matching with the youth culture. Coke had researched every number and projection before the launch of its New Coke and the figures were accurate but it mis-leaded the company as it allowed the company to chase the wrong problem. The problem was in advertisement strategy the executives thought it to be the product. The executive of Coke got carried away with fragile and funky numbers. It ignored the issue that impacted the quality of the numbers such as research design, problem definition, how to ask questions and the analytical skills which helped to interpret the meaning of the numbers. Numbers have always been accepted blithely and so did New Coke before its launch. New Coke marketing research lacked validity as it did not communicate to its consumer that its flagship brand would be replaced with new sweeter product and its research was one dimensional. It was based only in sip testing which took place at central locations and was

Arbitration and Litigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Arbitration and Litigation - Essay Example First, the law that recognises and enforces the agreement of arbitration. Then law that regulates actual arbitration procedure, next the specific law or rules that arbitral tribunal has to use in the matter and finally law for recognition and enforcement of the decision of arbitral tribunal, known as arbitration award. The laws governing arbitration proceedings may be same but it is not necessarily so always. Since most of the international arbitration take place in a neutral country to which neither the arbitrating parties belong. So the law of the proceedings, as applied to the matter of the case and known as substantive or applied law, may be different from the law of enforcement of the award. For example, an arbitral tribunal sitting in England will have English law for place of arbitration but may need to apply New York law as substantive law1. Compared to the courts of law, arbitration is a "primitive' way to resolve the issues which is simple because of less formality and expense. The person deciding the dispute has the qualification that he is accepted for arbitration by two parties.2 For example two merchants disputing over damage to their goods would turn to and accept the judgement of a third, fellow merchant. Actually such had been a community practice to maintain peace and harmony among members of business community3. Why International Arbitration The answer may come from the fact that sometimes national law is not sufficient to resolve disputes between warring parties. For e.g. A corporation based in USA contracts another in Germany. The contract is for setting up a power plant in Egypt with any disputes to be arbitrated in London. Now, if a dispute arises and one of the party refuses to arbitrate or the losing party refuses to carry out the award. No national law can resolve the dispute in such case and is an International treaty was necessary to link the national laws and respecting the award (see footnote 1 p. 4). The international treaty to resolve international disputes is a result of Geneva protocols 1923 & 1927 and New York Convention 1958. The aim for such treaty was to remove all the short comings of law of courts, viz. It is to be fast while law is slow, it is to be inexpensive while law is costly, to be simple in contrast to law which is technical and is peace maker in contrast to str ife creator4. The present arbitral process no longer has the simplicity of its beginning, it has incorporated somewhat more technical complexity which was needed to strengthen it to remove any loopholes leading to non acceptance of the award, particularly by the losing party. In the modern arbitral process the award is binding on both the parties and if it is not carried out voluntary by the losing party it would be enforced by the court at the expense of that party (See footnote. 1). The Arbitration Process: The first step is selection of an arbitrator, which should be done carefully. Ideally the help of an arbitral institution is a good option for

GI tract symptoms Essay Example for Free

GI tract symptoms Essay Nick has complained of â€Å"burning and prickly pain† in his feet, dizziness when he is standing or sitting, weak refluxes, being clumsy, vision changes, hearing changes, and trouble focusing. His symptoms are considered both sensory and motor.Nick’s symptoms are most likely due to peripheral nerve damage not central nervous damage. The component of the reflex arc that is most likely to be damaged is the integrating center. One or more regions of the CNS relay impulses from the sensory to the motor neurons, meaning that the impulses don’t ever reach the effectors and the motor neurons. The parasympathetic division of the ANS would be causing Nick’s GI tract symptoms because it is in controls of the inner workings of the body. The ANS control blood pressure by sensing a rise or fall in the about of blood pumping in the veins. Depending on that amount it either causes them to constrict o dilate at needed. During physical stress the part of the brain that interacts with the ANS to initiate the rapid heart rate and respiratory rate, elevated BP and extreme sweating is the prefrontal cortex. The Adrenergic receptors regulate the closing of sphincters and relaxation of the organ walls. Polyneuropathy is an appropriate term to use to describe Nick’s symptoms because his symptoms are caused by damage to more than one nerve. The symptoms that indicate polyneuropathy are the decreased ability to feel pressure or pain, burning and tingling in his feet, decreased refluxes, being clumsy and the dizziness. Nick’s symptoms indicate a peripheral polyneuropathy rather than a CNS lesion of the brain or spinal cord because they are symptoms related to sensation loss or weakness of certain areas. Symptoms related to the somatic reflexes are the weakness of reflexes, loss of pressure sensation and burning/tingling in his feet. Symptoms related to the autonomic reflexes are dizziness when sitting to standing and his GI tract symptoms.

Essay --

The drinking age in America should be changed and it is because the tax revenue caused by the increased population of drinkers will be paying more taxes for the alcohol produced. The maturity of the adult population changes through the span of three years, but adults can drink in other countries while fighting for it. In the year of 1919 prohibition for alcohol was introduced into America. The tax revenue from alcohol would increase due to the population of people buying alcohol would increase. Between the age of eighteen and twenty, there is a no tolerance for alcohol law throughout America. In the state of North Carolina, along with other states, at the age of twenty-one and older the alcohol level is 0.08 percent. Many European and South American countries have lower drinking ages, such as Germany being sixteen. However, teenagers in Germany can only buy beer instead of liquor. Introducing minor alcoholic beverages to adults at the age of eighteen reduces the amount of negative ef fects of drinking too much alcohol. Australia‘s drinking age is eighteen; however, some citizens in their country disagree with the drinking have tried to increase the drinking age to twenty-one to follow America. Fifty percent of Australians are for increasing the age, but fifty percent are for the drinking age of eighteen. Increasing the drinking age in Australia would not keep eighteen year-olds from drinking. The law of drinking at a lower age also applies to the standards in America. Many adults in America at the age of eighteen have no drinking privileges, which affects the maturity and economy drastically. Alcohol can affect adults of various ages, but the legal age of drinking has a lack of adults paying due to the drinking law. Adults at the... ...ld increase because there would be more jobs and more rules for drinking at eighteen. Other countries such as Germany, Australia, and United Kingdom believe their youth is more mature, because their drinking age is lower. The youth in other countries, such as Germany, show more responsibility when drinking alcoholic beverages. Germany and the United Kingdom have an increased population of children drinking at a younger age, but introduce it to children safely. The population of drinking is more common in European countries which show that there are fewer alcoholics that affect society. Teenagers in other countries become a large part of society at the age of most children in America are becoming average drivers. However, the maturity of citizens in European countries varies depending on the drinking age. Many adults would mature faster and have more jobs and taxes.

Scientific Method Allows to Uncover Truth

The scientific method consists of five steps: first, observing and recollecting information. Second, creating or formulating a hypothesis. Thirdly, scientists experiment, with the information and the observations they have made so as to reach to a conclusion, which is the fourth step. Finally, the last step consists in the communication, which is when you tell society about a new discovery or theory and the verification of this conclusion, in order to see if it is valid or not. Along this method there are lots of perceptions which are made, such as sense perception or induction, which may limit this method. What I will try to analyze along this essay is if the scientific method allows us or not to uncover truth. In order to do so, I will analyze whether the scientific method gives us absolute or provisional truth and how it gives us that truth. To start with, the scientific method can allow us to uncover truth. It is needed to say that it allow us to uncover provisional truth. Related article: Disagreements in Science Examples Truth can be provisional because we accept it may change over time, as new discoveries are made and the supposedly â€Å"truth† is no longer but it’s replaced by another and new â€Å"truth†. We accept one statement as true or not according to its degree of objectivity. Scientific method recollects empirical evidence, which is measurable and comparable and allows for the application of consistency tests. The application of consistency tests reduces the impact of subjectivity and the limitations of sense perception in the recollection of evidence. This allows us to construct explanations that are objective enough for society to define these explanations as provisional truth. Furthermore, as the scientific method is a very rigorous and complex method. Scientists do observation, formulation of a hypothesis, experimentation, they reach a conclusion and they then communicate and verify this conclusion. These steps are followed thousands of times, in order to be as objective as possible and in order to prove or create a theory. But these steps are followed not by just a scientist but by many, under different circumstances and places, again in order to be as objective as possible. All this repetition of the steps and the analysis made by lots of different scientist allows the scientific method to be, in part, objective and, in consequence, to give us a provisional truth. Finally, we can say that natural sciences objective is to build up provisional truths which are accepted by society and which predict future phenomena but not to build up absolute truth. During all times there have been many theories about evolution, which were replaced one by another and, the last accepted one is Darwin’s but before his theory there had been others theories of evolution which were â€Å"true†, so the ideal of the scientific method is to allow us to uncover provisional truth, as we know there are going to be, afterwards, new theories or changes in older ones. On the other hand, the scientific method doesn’t allow us to uncover absolute truth. When scientists observe, experiment, formulate a hypothesis or reach a conclusion, there are, mainly, two ways of knowing used: sense perception and intuition. These ways of knowing have limitations which don’t allow the scientific method to give us absolute truth. As regards sense perception, our senses have a limited range and they are selective. This means they can’t perceive everything which goes around us and that out of what we perceive (which isn’t everything) we remember or pay attention to some stimuli, according to our expectations, interests, culture and past experiences. Furthermore, as our senses are limited and there is variability in the ability of individuals to capture stimuli, we’ll never be sure if what we perceive is the real reality or just an interpretation of it. As regards induction, which is when from a variety of particular premises we get to a general conclusion we also have some limitations: As there’s no magical number that tells us how many people or things we’ve got to analyze to reach a generalization, we’ll never be sure that a generalization is right. Also because we need just one case in order to contradict a generalization, so we’ll never be sure a theory is right, as there’s nobody who may be able to analyze each particular case in every part of the world. So the scientific method is limited, as it doesn’t analyze each particular case and as, the observation made by scientists is limited. So, as from the beginning of the scientific method (observation) there are limitations, it will probably have failures along all the method. Secondly, there’s a limit to what science can explain. There are things which science can’t explain. As the scientific method uses empiricism and rationality to give us truth, it denies the mystical knowledge, such as the religious beliefs. So how can we say that scientific method allows us to uncover truth if it denies many things, such as religious beliefs, which many people believe are true? As we’ve said before it gives us provisional truth, as it gives us about natural or social sciences, but not absolute, as it doesn’t give us truth about religion or any similar theme. Moreover, as sciences are based on assumptions, looking for patterns in nature assumes nature is regular. Here we can clearly see that scientific method doesn’t allow us to uncover absolute truth, as nature evolves and changes, so it will never be regular. Finally, the scientific method doesn’t allow us to get truth, as there are some scientists which first get to a conclusion or make a hypothesis and then look for the information or patterns which suit their conclusion or hypothesis. So, they may look for patterns in nature which only fit with their conclusion or, in order to fit their conclusions, they’ll avoid certain features or patterns of nature which will contradict or which won’t fit to their hypothesis. So, this idea together with the limitations that sense perception and induction has, makes the scientific method unable to uncover truth. All in all, I strongly believe that scientific method can’t allow us to uncover truth, if we consider truth as absolute. But what is necessary to clarify is that there’s not any way of knowing which will allow us to uncover absolute truth. In this case we should take truth as a provisional concept and, if we take truth as provisional then the scientific method allows us to uncover it, as it takes us to discover truth in a provisional way. We can then say that the scientific method can take us to a provisional truth, but that it will never lead us to absolute truth, as it will always have some limitation.

Ethical Arguments for Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart went public in October of 1970. Their IPO was 3,000 shares at a price of $16. 50 per share. By having a smart business model and keeping cost low though a variety of tactics including low employees wages and benefits, Wal-Mart has been able to sustain an incredible rate of growth. Since their IPO Wal-Mart has undergone eleven full 2-1 stock splits. That means that just one share of their IPO has turned into 2,048 current shares. The current market value of Wal-Mart stocks on the NYSE is $62. 0 per share. If an investor bought just one share in 1970 for $16. 50, today that investment would be worth $127,590. 40. In addition to rising stock value, investors receive a quarterly cash dividend payment that was paid out at $0. 2725 per share as of July 2009. People start and invest in businesses to make money. Wal-Mart should concentrate on serving their shareholders by producing profits because the business would not exist in the same capacity without their investment.They have c ertainly done this, keeping their expenses low by paying minimum wage and limiting employee benefits in addition to a number of other influential factors has allowed Wal-Mart to recognize large profits, which serve its shareholders well. By paying employees low wages and limiting benefits in addition to savvy business planning Wal-Mart has grown into an incredibly profitable company. In 2010 they had revenues totaling $408,214,000,000 and more importantly they recognized a profit of $14,335,000,000.Some of this profit is paid out to shareholders in the form of dividends but the vast majority is retained by Wal-Mart and reinvested. These retained earnings allow them to expand and open up stores all over the world. As they expand their operations they will employ more and more people. Wal-Mart has been known to open up stores in rural areas where unemployment rates happen to be especially high. By opening stores in these areas they are lowering unemployment and putting cash into the h ands of people who desperately need it.They currently operate more than 9,600 retail units in 28 countries around the world. They employ 2. 1 million people globally, including almost 1. 4 million in the United States alone. By generating an astounding amount of revenue and keeping there expenses as low as they can make them i. e. paying employees minimum wage and limiting benefits, Wal-Mart is able reinvest profits and open up new retail units that will employ lots of people who desperately need employment.

Mayans essays

Mayans essays Maya were an American Indian People who developed a magnificent civilization in Central America and south Mexico. The Maya civilization reached its period of development about A.D.250 and continued to flourish for over 600 years. The Maya produced remarkable architecture, painting, pottery, and sculpture. They made great advancements in astronomy and mathematics and developed and accurate yearly calender. They were one of the first peoples in the Western Hemisphere to develop and advanced form of writing. The Maya lived in an area of about 120,000 square miles (311,000 square kilometers). Today, the territory of the Maya is divided among Mexico and several Central American countries. It consists of the Mexican states of Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo and part of the states of Tabasco and Chiapas. It also includes Belize, most of Quatemala, and parts of El Salvador and of Honduras. The heart of the Maya civilization was in the tropical rain forest of the lowlands of northern Qua temala. Many of the major Maya Cities, such as Piedras Negras, Tikal, and uaxactun, developed in this area. People, Geography and Language The Maya homeland, called Mesoamerica, span fine countries: Mexico, Quatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador. There are now indications that the people we call the Maya had migrated from North America to the highlands of Guatemala perhaps as long ago as 2600 B.C., living an agriculuture village-based life. The cultural of these Preclassic Maya owes much to the earlier civilization of the Olmec, which flourished ca 1200 B.C. By the time Maya civilization had reached its peak the classic period (A.D. 200-900) the Maya were spread across an almost continuous territory of roughly 311,000 square kilometers (120,000 square miles). Comprising three general areas: The tropical rain forest of the lowlands, stretching from northern Honduras, through the Peten region of Guatemala and into Belize and chiapas, which became the heart ...

Steve Brodie and the Brooklyn Bridge

Steve Brodie and the Brooklyn Bridge One of the enduring legends about the early years of the Brooklyn Bridge was a wildly famous  incident which may never have happened. Steve Brodie, a character from  the Manhattan neighborhood adjacent to the bridge, claimed to have jumped from its roadway, splashed into the East River from a height of 135 feet, and survived. Whether Brodie actually jumped on July 23, 1886, has been disputed for years. Yet the story was widely believed at the time, and the sensationalist newspapers of the day put the stunt  on their front pages. Reporters provided extensive details about Brodie’s preparations, his rescue in the river, and his time spent in a police station following the jump. It all seemed quite credible. Brodies leap came a year after another jumper from the bridge, Robert Odlum, died after hitting the water. So the feat had been assumed to be impossible. Yet a month after Brodie claimed to have jumped, another neighborhood character, Larry Donovan, jumped from the bridge while thousands of spectators watched. Donovan survived, which at least proved that what Brodie claimed to have done was possible. Brodie and Donovan became locked in a peculiar competition to see who could jump off other bridges. The rivalry ended two years later when Donovan was killed jumping from a bridge in England. Brodie lived for another 20 years and became something of a tourist attraction himself. He ran a bar in lower Manhattan and visitors to New York City would visit to shake the hand of the man who had jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge. Brodies Famous Jump The news accounts of Brodies jump detailed how he had been planning the jump. He said his motivation was to make money. And stories on  the front pages of both the   New York Sun and New York Tribune provided extensive details of Brodies activities before and after the jump. After arranging with friends to pick him up in the river in a rowboat, he hitched a ride onto the bridge in a horse-drawn wagon.   While in the middle of the bridge Brodie got out of the wagon. With some makeshift padding under his clothes, he stepped off from a point about 135 feet above the East River. The only people expecting Brodie to jump were his friends in the boat, and no impartial witnesses claimed to have seen what happened. The popular version of the story was that he landed feet first, sustaining only minor bruises. After his friends pulled him into the  boat and returned him to shore there was a celebration. A policeman came along and arrested Brodie, who appeared to be intoxicated.  When the newspaper reporters caught up with him, he was relaxing in a jail cell. Brodie appeared in court on a few occasions but no serious legal problems resulted from his stunt. And he did cash in on his sudden fame. He began appearing in dime museums, telling his story to gawking visitors. Donovans Leap A month after Brodies famous jump, a worker in a lower Manhattan print shop showed up at the office of the New York Sun on a Friday afternoon. He said he was Larry Donovan (though the Sun claimed his last name was actually Degnan)  and he was going to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge the next morning. Donovan claimed he had been offered money by the Police Gazette, a popular publication, and was going to ride onto the bridge in one of their delivery wagons. And he would jump with plenty of witnesses to the feat. Good to his word, Donovan did jump from the bridge on Saturday morning, August 28, 1886. Word had been passed around his neighborhood, the Fourth Ward, and rooftops were crowded with spectators. The New York Sun described the event on the front page of Sundays paper: He was steady and cool, and with his feet close together he leaped straight out into the great space before him. For about 100 feet he shot straight downward as he had leaped, his body erect and his legs tight together. Then he bent slightly forward, his legs spread a little apart and bent at the knees. In this position he struck the water with a splash that sent the spray high in the air and was heard from the bridge and on both sides of the river. After his friends picked him up in a boat, and he was rowed to shore, he was, like Brodie, arrested. He was also soon free.  But,  unlike Brodie, he did not want to display himself in the dime museums of the Bowery. A few months later, Donovan traveled to Niagara Falls. He jumped off the suspension bridge there on November 7, 1886. He broke a rib, but survived. Less than a year after his leap from the Brooklyn Bridge, Donovan died after jumping from the Southeastern Railway bridge in London, England. The New York Sun reported his demise on the front page, noting that while the bridge in England was not as high as the Brooklyn Bridge, Donovan had actually drowned in the Thames. Later Life of Steve Brodie Steve Brodie claimed to have jumped from the suspension bridge at Niagara Falls three years after his purported Brooklyn Bridge leap. But his story was immediately doubted. Whether or not Brodie had jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge, or any bridge, didnt seem to matter. He was a New York celebrity, and people wanted to meet him. After years of running a saloon, he became ill and went to live with a daughter in Texas. He died there in 1901.

Media Law Matrix Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media Law Matrix - Assignment Example New technologies push the boundaries of ethical discussions on ownership of creative work First Amendment The media’s right to free expression is protected, with the amendment prohibiting the enactment of laws that abridge or curtail press freedom and free speech What are the bounds of press freedom? Can private individuals slighted wrongly by the press and by individuals seek redress under the law? This relates to libel as a legal recourse. Prior restraint prohibition An extension of the First Amendment, prohibiting government from prohibiting speech prior to the utterance of the speech. The effect is the broadening of the power of mass media, and the press in particular Ethical issues are again tied to limits of free speech as they pertain to the rights of private individuals Abridgements to First Amendment Rights Non-interference of government on free speech rights is not absolute, but may be justified by public safety considerations. The effect on media is the setting of b ounds on free expression, in cases where the public safety or the national safety are compromised There is the ethical issue of where the bounds of government power and the public and media lie. There is a tug of war in legal discourse/precedents relating to this Libel law The freedom of the press is not absolute, but is predicated on such freedom not trampling the rights of others. This is a curtailment and a bound on press freedom, because those slighted by media has recourse to libel law Libel law interpretations in courts determine the bounds of press freedom and free speech. Ethical issues are tied to making sure that judgments are just and fair to media and to private individuals Table inputs source: Vivian, 2011, pp. 424-445 B. Two Issues A. Local Media Issue The issue at hand in an article discussing the extension of the treatment of media organizations to private individuals posting online, in blogs and in social media, and the standards that ought to govern both forms of m edia, the traditional and the emergent, when it comes to considering the evidence and the arguments relating to possible defamation and libel charges. The issue at hand is tied to the emergence of social media and blogs in particular, and how those emergent media forms have empowered ordinary individuals to speak freely and to publish their thoughts with the same reach and power, and print permanence, as the newspapers and related media forms of old. There are established precedents for governing free speech issues for traditional media, but the precedent for emergent media is not always well laid out. On the other hand, recent court decisions seem to apply a different set of standards for blog-published and social media-published content on the one hand and traditional media on the other. The legal implications of the double standard are evident in the way there seems to be an unequal application of First Amendment rights as they apply to ordinary people in social media and to medi a practitioners, creating potential future problems in the interpretation of First Amendment and related laws. The ethical implications are profound, because the double standard may mean that the rights of private individuals, for instance, against defamation may be compromised by such unequal treatment of bloggers and ordinary social media users on the one hand a