Amino acid epimerization dating of coastal neotectonic processes in southeastern Iberian Peninsula: the region between Aguas and Antas river mouths

The coastal area between the mouths of the Aguas and Antas Rivers presents a deformed system of raised marine deposits, some of which have been strongly affected by active tectonics. The use of amino acid epimerization dating of Glycymeris shells from raised coastal deposits allowed determining the age of these marine deposits, all of them linked to highstand sea levels in the Mediterranean realm, with ages between MIS 11 and MIS 1. These results allowed corroborating the age of some previously studied sites, and using new sampling sites, the general aminostratigraphy for the Quaternary raised marine deposits on the Mediterranean coast was confirmed. The main deformation event took place after MIS 11 and continued until MIS 5, and was linked to the activity of the Palomares Faul

Irrigation efficiency and water-policy implications for river-basin resilience

Rising demand for food, fiber, and biofuels drives expanding irrigation withdrawals from surface water and groundwater. Irrigation efficiency and water savings have become watchwords in response to climate-induced hydrological variability, increasing freshwater demand for other uses including ecosystem water needs, and low economic productivity of irrigation compared to most other uses. We identify three classes of unintended consequences, presented here as paradoxes. Ever-tighter cycling of water has been shown to increase resource use, an example of the efficiency paradox. In the absence of effective policy to constrain irrigated-area expansion using "saved water", efficiency can aggravate scarcity, deteriorate resource quality, and impair river basin resilience through loss of flexibility and redundancy. Water scarcity and salinity effects in the lower reaches of basins (symptomatic of the scale paradox) may partly be offset over the short-term through groundwater pumping or increasing surface water storage capacity. However, declining ecological flows and increasing salinity have important implications for riparian and estuarine ecosystems and for non-irrigation human uses of water including urban supply and energy generation, examples of the sectoral paradox. This paper briefly considers three regional contexts with broadly similar climatic and water-resource conditions – central Chile, southwestern US, and south-central Spain – where irrigation efficiency directly influences basin resilience. The comparison leads to more generic insights on water policy in relation to irrigation efficiency and emerging or overdue needs for environmental protection.

Networked Utopia : the Architecture and Urbanism of the Bata Shoe Company Satellite Cities = Utopia en red : arquitectura y urbanismo en las ciudades satélite de la Bata Shoe Company, 1930 al presente

From its humble beginnings as a small workshop established by Tomáš Baťa in 1874, the Bata Shoe Company became a gigantic concern in the 1920s, built on the principles of scientific management and welfare capitalism. The growth of the company engulfed Zlín (in today’s Czech Republic), its hometown, and transformed it into a modern industrial garden city satisfying the needs of both a growing industrial population, and those of the company itself. As a reaction to the aftermath of the crisis of 1929, the enterprise began a strategy of decentralization and international expansion characterized by the design and construction of a series of modern industrial towns that replicated the model of Zlín around the globe. This study is an exhaustive survey of these cities, their rationale, design, and their postindustrial conditions; it is a comparative work that has used field trips, photography, interviews, and archival material to explain the logics behind Bata’s project, to document the design and implementation of the model to multiple contexts and geographies, and to evaluate of the urban legacy of this undertaking. Finally, the research explores the question of what can the design disciplines, and other parties involved, learn from a full synthesis on the history and urbanism of the Bata satellite cities with regard to the re-imagination and sustainability of contemporary industry-sponsored interventions in developing geographies. RESUMEN Con origen en un humilde y pequeño taller fundado en 1874 por Tomáš Baťa, la Bata Shoe Company creció hasta convertirse en una gigantesca empresa en los anos 20, fundada en principios de control científico de la producción y capitalismo de bienestar. El crecimiento de la compañía se extendió por Zlín (en la actual República Checa), su pueblo de nacimiento, y la transformó en una moderna ciudad jardín industrial capaz de satisfacer las necesidades tanto de una población en alza como de la propia empresa. Como reacción a la crisis de 1929, Bata inició una estrategia de descentralización y expansión internacional caracterizada por el proyecto y construcción de modernas ciudades industriales que replicaron el modelo de Zlín por el mundo. Esta tesis es un estudio exhaustivo de estas ciudades: las razones detrás del proyecto, su diseño, y su condición post-industrial; es un estudio comparativo que se ha servido de trabajo de campo, documentación fotográfica, entrevistas y materiales de archivo para explicar la lógica detrás del proyecto de Bata, documentar el diseño e implementación de tal modelo en múltiples contextos y geografías, y valorar el legado urbano de esta empresa. Finalmente, la investigación evalúa qué podrían aprender las disciplinas del diseño y otras partes implicadas de una síntesis completa de la historia y el urbanismo de las ciudades satélite de Bata, en lo relativo a la reinvención y sostenibilidad de proyectos contemporáneos de la industria en geografías en desarrollo.

The human side of social technology for climate change mitigation and human development: the case of "efficient stoves" in Brazil

Carbon management has gradually gained attention within the overall environmental management and corporate social responsibility agendas. The clean development mechanism, from Kyoto Protocol, was envisioned as connecting carbon market and sustainable development objectives in developing countries. Previous research has shown that this potential is rarely being achieved. The paper explores how the incorporation of the human side into carbon management reinforces its contribution to generate human development in local communities and to improve the company's image. A case study of a Brazilian company is presented, with the results of the application of an analytical model that incorporates the human side and human development. The selected project is an "efficient stoves" programme. "Efficient stoves" are recognised in Brazil as social technologies. Results suggest that the fact that social technologies value the human side of the technology plays a key role when it comes to analysing the co-benefits of the project implementation.

Differences between innovative and non-innovative microenterprises: internal factors

This exploratory study presents a comparison between two samples of microenterprises. One sample is formed by companies involved in product innovation during the current economic crisis and the other is formed by companies not involved in product innovation during the same period. The comparison analyzes which internal factors, supported by the literature as the influential factors of small business innovation, are significant when explaining the main differences between innovative microenterprise and non-innovative ones. The results suggest that the factors related to the organization and activity of the company are the factors which explain the differences between these two types of firms, rather than those factors related to micro-entrepreneurs own profile.