Utifrån nationalekonomiska teorier om samhällsekonomiska kalkyler och miljö utreds i uppsatsen om det togs tillräcklig hänsyn till miljöaspekter i de två samhällsekonomiska kalkylerna för Botniabanan. Fokus ligger på två miljöaspekter; värdet av intrång i natur och värdet av minskade koldioxidutsläpp till följd av förväntade trafiköverflyttningar, samt kalkylparametern diskonteringsräntan. Diskonteringsräntan har stor inverkan på kalkyler för projekt med långsiktiga effekter. Den första samhällsekonomiska kalkylen gjordes 1996 och hade en nettonuvärdeskvot på 0,54-0,83. Den andra gjordes 2004 till följd av ökade kostnader och hade en nettonuvärdeskvot på noll. Min slutsats är att det kunde ha tagits mer hänsyn till miljöaspekter i kalkylerna, vilket antagligen hade lett till större nettonuvärdeskvoter. Att kompensationsåtgärdskostnaderna var inräknade i den andra kalkylen kanske kan antas motsvara värdet av intrånget i natur. Att komplettera med någon typ av värdering hade dock varit önskvärt. Det går att anta att koldioxidvärderingarna i kalkylerna var något lågt satta, ett högre värde hade ökat nyttonuvärdekvoten. Samtidigt är det möjligt att prognoserna för trafiköverflyttning var överskattade och lägre prognoser hade minskat nettonuvärdeskvoten. Det går slutligen att argumentera för en lägre, alternativt avtagande, diskonteringsränta vilket hade ökat nettonuvärdeskvoten. Det finns dock betydande osäkerheter med de tre miljöaspekternas värden, varför det borde ha gjorts ett flertal känslighets- och scenarioanalyser.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive from the European Union strives to achieve a high level of environmental protection by preventing or reducing the pollution emanating from industrial installations directly at the source. The Directive implies that the emission limit values should be set in accordance with each industry&rsquo / s Best Available Techniques (BAT). In the present study, water recovery and wastewater treatability alternatives developed beforehand were evaluated towards the evaluation of BATs for the management of wastewaters from a denim textile mill. For this purpose, an assessment that translates the key environmental aspects into a quantitative measure of environmental performance and also financial analysis were performed for each of the alternatives. The alternatives considered for water recovery from dyeing wastewaters were nanofiltration (NF) with coagulation and/or microfiltration (MF) pretreatment, ozonation or peroxone and Fenton oxidation. On the other hand, for the end-of-pipe treatment of the mill&rsquo / s mixed wastewater / ozonation, Fenton oxidation, membrane bioreactor (MBR) and activated sludge process followed by membrane filtration technologies were evaluated. The results have indicated that membrane filtration process providing 70 % water recovery with the least environmental impacts is the BAT for water recovery. On the other side, MBR technology has appeared as the BAT for the end-of-pipe treatment of the mill&rsquo / s mixed wastewater. A technical and financial comparison of these two BAT alternatives revealed that water recovery via membrane filtration from dyeing wastewaters is selected as the BAT for the water and wastewater management in the mill.

<p>The subject of this thesis is ethical aspects of risk management. It is argued that a model for risk management needs to be developed that acknowledges several ethical aspects and most crucial among these, the individual’s right not to be unfairly exposed to risks.</p><p><i>Article </i>I takes as its starting point the demand frequently expressed in the risk literature for a consistent risk management. Such consistency is often assumed to be in accordance with some kind of cost-benefit analysis. It is maintained that such a model, here called the Standard Model, does not respect the rights of the individual. Two alternative models are outlined in order to better deal with this ethical weakness, the Model of Inviolable Rights and the Model of Procedural Justice. The arguments in the alternative models evolve around the separateness of individuals, rights and fair risk taking. It is claimed that the latter model, which focuses on a fair procedure, seems most fruitful to develop.</p><p><i>Article II</i> is a discussion of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) conflict, which is well known from situations of siting potentially risky facilities. Of special concern is to investigate what the ethical premises are behind the negative characterization of the NIMBY concept. It is argued that, contrary to the assumption that the total benefit should outweigh the individual’s cost, individuals in siting scenarios have rights not to be unfairly exposed to risks.</p><p><i>Article III</i>, which is co-authored with Professor Sven Ove Hansson, presents a three party model as a tool for ethical risk analysis. It is argued that ethical dimensions need to be acknowledged in the analysis of risks and that this is best done through a discussion of three parties that are involved in risk decisions – the risk-exposed, the beneficiary, and the decisionmaker. Seven crucial ethical questions are recognized and discussed regarding the relation between these parties. By using examples from the railway sector it is shown how the questions can be used to identify salient ethical features of risk management problems.</p>

Roadside crashes account for a large portion of total fatal crashes that occur annually in the United States. About 30% of those fatalities are the result of single vehicle run-off-road crashes. A large proportion of these fatal crashes occur in rural roads when vehicles depart from the travel lane and collide with trees or other roadside safety hazards. Many of these run-off-road accidents occur in local roads that carry traffic volumes between 1,000 and 20,000 vehicles per day. Many of these roads are part of the jurisdiction of county authorities faced with the dilemma of having too many "potentially dangerous" sites and lacking a methodology for assessing their risk to rank them accordingly; and to apply the limited resources to the ones that will bring the greatest benefit to society. This situation describes the case in Hillsborough County, Florida, in 2004 when they contracted a study with the Transportation Program of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of South Florida. The initial scope was to develop a methodology to assess the potential risk for each of 19 sites in a given list to prioritize further studies. The project was sponsored by the Engineering Division, Public Works Department, of Hillsborough County. The methodology developed considered the roadside safety hazards at each location and it was based on the use of the Road Safety Analysis Program (RSAP) software distributed as part of the 2002 AASHTO's Roadside Design Guide. This dissertation presents a further development of this approach: it continues to use the probabilistic approach built into RSAP to calculate the annual crash cost of each roadside safety hazard at 45 study segments. It then obtains regression models to predict that annual crash cost, as computed by RSAP, based on roadway and traffic characteristics as well as on the nature, location and physical dimensions of the roadside safety hazard. For each study segment, the annual crash cost of each feature (as estimated with the models developed) is added for a final comparison with the RSAP Annual Crash Cost. A coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.80 was obtained. The models developed were finally used to replicate the original 2005 study for Hillsborough County. Although there were minor variations on the risk index originally computed, the ranking of the 19 study sites remained basically the same with a clear cut indication of the sites that should be considered for further engineering studies.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) is used in traffic signals and highway illumination in the Texas Department of Transportation, Houston District (TxDOT). The thesis focuses on the cost of maintenance of the LED for signals on the highway system in the Houston District. This LED cost includes human and capital resources which are compared against the cost associated with the incandescent bulb used in traffic signals at a similar location in Houston. The analysis leads to actionable decisions to see if total migration of the LED is advisable or not, amidst budgetary constraints and the benefits thereof. / text

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第19156号 / 地環博第131号 / 新制||地環||27 / 32107 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)准教授 森 晶寿, 教授 劉 徳強, 准教授 吉野 章 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

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Determining the social cost of carbon emissions (SCC) is a crucial step in the economic analysis of climate change policy as the US government's recent decision to use a range of estimates of the SCC centered at $77/tC (or, equivalently, $21/tCO2) in cost-benefit analyses of proposed emission-control legislation underlines. This note reviews the welfare economics theory fundamental to the estimation of the SCC in both static and intertemporal contexts, examining the effects of assumptions about the typical agent's pure rate of time preference and elasticity of marginal felicity of consumption, production and mitigation technology, and the magnitude of climate-change damage on estimates of the SCC. We high-light three key conclusions: (i) an estimate of the SCC is conditional on a specific policy scenario, the details of which must be made explicit for the estimate to be meaningful; (ii) the social discount rate relevant to intertemporal allocation decisions also depends on the policy scenario; and (iii) the SCC is uniquely defined only for policy scenarios that lead to an efficient growth path because marginal costs and benefits of emission mitigation diverge on inefficient growth paths. We illustrate these analytical conclusions with simulations of a growth model calibrated to the world economy. (authors' abstract)

Darbo tikslas – įvertinti Marijampolės miesto centrinės dalies motorizuotos transporto infrastruktūros plėtros galimybes panaudojant transporto srautų modeliavimo programinę įrangą. Siekiant šio tikslo buvo apžvelgta pasaulio miestų susisiekimo sistemos plėtros tendencijos ir problematika, apžvelgtos transporto politikos susisiekimo kokybei gerinti, pasaulyje naudojama eismo modeliavimo įranga, išanalizuota Marijampolės miesto susisiekimo sistema. Pagal augantį miesto automobilizacijos lygį buvo prognozuotas automobilizacijos lygis 2017 metams. Buvo pasiūlyti 8 centrinės mieto dalies plėtros variantai. Šių variantų modeliavimo rezultatai buvo palyginti tarpusavyje, buvo pasirinkti 2 geriausi variantai ir atliktas jų ekonominis vertinimas. / The aim of the work: with the help of traffic modeling program to evaluate the Marijampolė city central part development scenarios. For such aim were analyzed world city’s transport system development trends and problems, transport policies to improve level of service, transport modeling programs and Marijampolė city transport system. Forecast of traffic flows prepared till 2017. During analysis 8 solutions were prepared how to improve level of service in the central part of the Marijampolė. According to traffic flows analysis with the “VISUM” program was made: basic model and 8 more models-solutions. Modeling results were compared and two best solutions were chosen to prepare economic estimations.

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