The need for sustainable remediation

Humanity requires healthy soil in order to flourish. Soil is central to food production, the regulation of greenhouse gases, recreational areas such as parks and sports fields and the creation of an environment pleasing to the eye. But soil is fragile and easily damaged by uninformed management or accidents. One type of damage is contamination by chemicals that provide the lifestyles to which the developed world has become accustomed. Traditional soil "clean-up" has entailed either simple disposal or isolation of contaminated soil. Clearly this is not sustainable. Modern remedial techniques apply mineralogical and geochemical knowledge to clean up contaminated soil and make it good for reuse, rather than simply discarding this precious and finite resource.

Business parks and town centre workplaces in England: a comparative analysis of commuting-related energy consumption

To fully appreciate the environmental impact of a workplace the transport-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from its location should be considered in addition to the emissions that result from the occupation of the building itself. Since the first one was built in the early 1980s, business parks have become a significant workplace location for service-sector workers; a sector of the economy that grew rapidly at that time as the UK manufacturing output declined and the employment base shifted to retail services and de-regulated financial services. This paper examines the transport-related CO2 emissions associated with these workplace locations in comparison to town and city centre locations. Using 2001 Census Special Workplace Statistics which record people’s residence, usual workplace and mode of transport between them, distance travelled and mode of travel were calculated for a sample of city centre and out-of-town office locations. The results reveal the extent of the difference between transport-related CO2 emitted by commuters to out-of-town and city centre locations. The implications that these findings have for monitoring the environmental performance of workplaces are discussed.

Partnership in the provision of recreational access: the reconstruction of the public interest in private land in England and Wales

This paper examines the evolution of public rights of access to private land in England and Wales. Since the Eighteenth Century the administration and protection of these rights has been though a form of public/private partnership in which the judiciary, while maintaining the dominance of private property, have safeguarded de facto public access by refusing consistently to punish simple trespass. While this situation has been modified, principally by post-World War II legislation, to allow for some formalisation of access arrangements and consequent compensation to landowners in areas of high recreational pressure and low legal accessibility, recent policy initiatives suggest that the balance of the partnership has now shifted in favour of landowners. In particular, the new access payment schemes, developed by the UK Government in response to the European Commission's Agri-Environment Regulations, identify the landowner as the beneficiary of the partnership, financed by tax revenue and justified on the spurious basis of improved 'access provision'. As such the State, as the former upholder of citizen rights, now assumes the duplicitous position of underwriting private property ownership through the commodification of access, while proclaiming a significant improvement in citizens' access rights.

Recreational access to private land in England and Wales: public good; private interest

Since the Eighteenth Century the protection of public recreational access to private land has been maintained by the state through a mixture of legal rights of passage and the safeguarding of certain de facto access rights. While this situation has been modified in the last fifty years to facilitate some formalisation of access arrangements and landowner compensation in areas of high recreational pressure and low legal accessibility, recent policies indicate that a shift from public to private rights is underway. At the core of this paradigm shift are the new access payment schemes introduced as part of the restructuring of the European Common Agricultural Policy. Under these schemes landowners are now paid for 'supplying' recreational access, with the state, as the former upholder of citizen rights, now assuming the duplicitous position of further underwriting private property ownership through the effective commodification of access, while simultaneously proclaiming significant improvements in citizens' access rights.

Estimating regional benefits of reducing targeted pollutants: An application to agricultural effects on water quality and the value of recreational fishing

The general focus of this paper is the regional estimation of marginal benefits of targeted water pollution abatement to instream uses. Benefit estimates are derived from actual consumer choices of recreational fishing activities and the implied expenditures for various levels of water quality. The methodology is applied to measuring the benefits accruing to recreational anglers in Indiana from the abatement of pollutants that are by-products of agricultural crop production.

Benevolence, hegemony and nationalism: fifty years of the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act

This paper reviews the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 fifty years since its enactment. The Act is assessed in the light of fifty years of access policy and within the present context of political debates and manoeuvres over the ‘right to roam’. It is concluded that benevolence is still the prevailing attitude towards access provision, maintaining as it does the scope for alternative freedoms and opportunities to exploit land for consumptive practices such as leisure and recreation. As such, it is argued that the notion of the gift (Mauss, 1990) continues to dominate the provision of countryside access in England and Wales.

Children's sociospatial (re)production of disability within primary school playgrounds

There is a contemporary shift in the institutional context of 'disabled' children's education in the United Kingdom from segregated special to mainstream schools. This change is tied to wider deinstitutionalised or reinstitutionalised geographies of disabled people, fragile globalised educational 'inclusion' agendas, and broader concerns about social cohesiveness. Although coeducating children is expected to transform negative representations of (dis)ability in future society, there are few detailed explorations of how children's everyday sociospatial practices (re)produce or transform dominant representations of (dis)ability. With this in mind, children's contextual and shifting performances of (dis)ability in two case study school playground (recreational) spaces are explored. The findings demonstrate that children with mind-body differences are variously (dis)abled, in comparison with sociospatially shifting norms of ability, which have body, learning, and emotional-social facets. The discussion therefore places an emphasis on the need to incorporate 'intellectual' and 'emotional' differences more fully into geographical studies of disability and identity. The paper has wider resonance for transformative expectations placed on colocating children with a variety of 'axes of difference' (such as gender, 'race, ethnicity, and social class) in schools.

Implications of Commons Act 2006 for the registration of land as a town or village green

This paper describes the main changes of Commons Act 2006 for the registration of land as a town or village green. The purpose of the Commons Act 2006 is to protect common land and promote sustainable farming, public access to the countryside and the interests of wildlife. The changes under s15 of the Commons Act 2006 include the additional 2-year grace period for application, discounting statutory period of closure, correction of mistakes in registers, disallowing severance of rights, voluntary registration, replacement of land in exchange and some other provisions. The transitional provision contained in s15(4) Commons Act 2006 is particularly a cause for controversy as DEFRA has indicated buildings will have to be taken down where development has gone ahead and a subsequent application to register the land as a green is successful, obliging the developer to return the land to a condition consistent with the exercise by locals of recreational rights, which sums up that it would be harder in future to develop land which has the potential to be registered as a town or village green.

Attitudes of landscape professionals towards naturalistic versus formal urban landscapes in the UK

The last 30 years have seen a tide of interest sweeping across Europe in the development of nature in cities, and an increasing amount of landscape development in urban areas has involved the use of 'naturalistic' styles. This is an increasing attempt to find ways for urbanism and nature to co-exist. However, there have been considerable discussions among professionals regarding the advantages and disadvantages of 'naturalistic' styles in urban areas. This research examines professional attitudes to 'naturalistic' landscape styles in Britain, in contrast to more traditional, formal landscape styles, and aims to find out whether the interest in natural landscapes is really a fashion among landscape professionals. A self-administered postal survey was carried out using both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis. The survey included 500 professionals from parks and recreation departments of local authorities, private landscape practices and conservation trusts, and resulted in a satisfactory response rate of 53 %. The results of this study suggested that professionals recognise most of the values attached to naturalistic landscapes in urban areas. However, possible benefits that natural areas may have for urban people are not attached to naturalistic landscapes alone. The study also revealed that the naturalistic style is highly popular among conservation trusts but is less so among professionals from local authorities and private landscape practices who seem to appreciate both styles and believe that these styles are not separable from each other and should co-exist in an urban environment. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Acquiring, managing and applying knowledge for environmental conservation

We are experiencing an explosion of knowledge with relevance to conserving biodiversity and protecting the environment necessary to sustain life on earth. Many science disciplines are involved in generating this ne, knowledge and real progress can be made when scientists collaborate across disciplines to generate both macro- and micro-environmental knowledge and then communicate and interact with specialists in sociology, economics and public policy. An important requirement is that the often complex scientific concepts and their voluminous supporting data are managed in such ways as to make them accessible across the many specializations involved. Horticultural science has much to contribute to the knowledge base for environmental conservation. While it seems that production horticulture has been slow to embrace knowledge and concepts that would reduce the heavy reliance on agricultural chemicals, the use of peat as a growing medium, and lead to more sustainable use of water and other resources, environmental horticulture is providing valuable opportunities to rescue or protect endangered species, educate the public about plants and plant science, and demonstrate environmental stewardship and sustainable production practices. Likewise, social horticulture is drawing, attention to the many contributions of horticultural foods and parks and gardens to human health and welfare. Overall, horticulture has a vital role to play in integrating, knowledge from other scientific, social, economic and political disciplines.

Test performance indicators from a single soccer specific fitness test differentiate between highly trained and recreationally active soccer players

Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a single soccer specific fitness test (SSFT) could differentiate between highly trained and recreationally active soccer players in selected test performance indicators. Methods. Subjects: 13 Academy Scholars (AS) from a professional soccer club and 10 Recreational Players (RP) agreed to participate in this study. Test 1-(V)over dotO(2) max was estimated from a progressive shuttle run test to exhaustion. Test 2-The SSFT was controlled by an automated procedure and alternated between walking, sprinting, jogging and cruise running speeds. Three activity blocks (1A, 2A and 3A) were separated by 3 min rest periods in which blood lactate samples were drawn. The 3 blocks of activity (Part A) were followed by 10 min of exercise at speeds alternating between jogging and cruise running (Part B). Results. Estimated (V)over dotO(2) max did not significantly differ between groups, although a trend for a higher aerobic capacity was evident in AS (p<0.09). Exercising heart rates did not differ between AS and RP, however, recovery heart rates taken from the 3 min rest periods were significantly lower in AS compared with RP following blocks 1A (124.65 b(.)min(-1) +/-7.73 and 133.98 b(.)min(-1) +/-6.63), (p<0.05) and 3A (129.91 b.min(-1) +/-10.21 and 138.85 b.min(-1) +/-8.70), (p<0.01). Blood lactate concentrations were significantly elevated in AS in comparison to RP following blocks 2A (6.91 mmol(.)l(-1) +/-2.67 and 4.74 mmol(.)l(-1) +/-1.28) and 3A (7.18 mmol(.)l(-1) +/-2.97 and 4.88 mmol(.)l(-1) +/-1.50), (p<0.05). AS sustained significantly faster average sprint times in block 3A compared with RP (3.18 sec +/-0.12 and 3.31 sec +/-0.12), (p<0.05). Conclusion. The results of this study show that highly trained soccer players are able to sustain, and more quickly recover from, high intensity intermittent exercise.

A netball specific fitness test.

Performance analysis has been used for many applications including providing feedback to coaches and players, media applications, scoring of sports performance and scientific research into sports performance. The current study has used performance analysis to generate knowledge relating to the demands of netball competition which has been used in the development of a Netball Specific Fitness Test (NSFT). A modified version of the Bloomfield movement classification was used to provide a detailed analysis of player movement during netball competition. This was considered during a needs analysis when proposing the structure of the NSFT. A series of pilot versions were tested during an evolutionary prototyping process that resulted in the final version of the NSFT, which was found to be representative of movement in netball competition and it distinguished between recreational club players and players of university first team level or above. The test is incremental and involves forward, backward and sideways movement, jumping, lunging, turning and choice reaction.

Stability of solutions of linear difference equations with periodic coefficients

This paper represents the last technical contribution of Professor Patrick Parks before his untimely death in February 1995. The remaining authors of the paper, which was subsequently completed, wish to dedicate the article to Patrick. A frequency criterion for the stability of solutions of linear difference equations with periodic coefficients is established. The stability criterion is based on a consideration of the behaviour of a frequency hodograph with respect to the origin of coordinates in the complex plane. The formulation of this criterion does not depend on the order of the difference equation.