Maritime and port security in South America: implementation costs

This edition of the Bulletin is based on a document prepared by ECLAC and the Technical Coordination Committee of the presidential initiative for Regional Infrastructure Integration in South America (IIRSA), which is composed of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Andean Development Corporation (ADC) and the Financial Fund for the Development of the River Plate Basin (FONPLATA). The document was prepared as a joint activity on maritime and port security in South America in the context of the IIRSA sectoral integration process in relation to operational systems for maritime transport. It served as an input for the meeting on that subject held by representatives of the authorities of the South American countries in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 22 June 2004.This edition presents the results of the implementation cost assessment for the new compulsory regulations for maritime and port security of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and also considers the costs of the voluntary measures.

Recent increases in shipping costs and their impact on exports from Latin America

This issue of the FAL Bulletin is based on a study prepared by ECLAC which works out a provisional approach for estimating the impact of increases in freight rates on exports from Latin America during the last few quarters. The total cost of exports from the region reflects the increases in three different components: the quantities exported, the prices of the goods and the freight charges. The influence of each of these is estimated.The information bases used are comprised of data obtained from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) (International Transport Database) and the authors own direct compilation. The conclusion is that total exports from Latin America varied by US$ 5.72 billion in the first half of 2004 compared with the first half of 2003; of this amount, US$ 2,105,000,000 correspond to the variation in price and quantity and US$ 3,615,000,000 represent the increase in export freight rates. When compared with the first half of 2002, the variation is in excess of US$ 8 billion.

Infrastructure, transport and production development in an agricultural region: a case in Argentina.

The development of the agricultural area in central and northern Argentina was analysed in a recent ECLAC study. More than 80% by volume of the country's agricultural exports pass through the ports in this area. Exports by the agroindustrial complex account for 58% of the total value of Argentine sales.It is known that investments in infrastructure generally help to reduce the costs of enterprises and to enhance productivity. The main idea presented in this study is that investments in transport infrastructure are a necessary condition for the productive development of a region, especially in relation to external trade through ports and navigable waterways.In the case of Argentina, a positive relationship has been observed between the development of port and waterway services (with reduced costs and operating times, improved reliability and new services), and expansion of the agricultural border, growth of productivity and agricultural production, and its industrialization.

An assessment of the economic impact of climate change on the coastal and human settlements, tourism and transport sectors in Barbados

This report analyses the coastal and human settlements, tourism and transport sectors in Barbados to assess the potential economic impact of climate change on the sectors. The fundamental aim of this report is to assist with the development of strategies to deal with the potential impact of climate change on Barbados. Some of the key anticipated manifestations of climate change for the Caribbean include elevated air and sea-surface temperatures, sea-level rise, possible changes in extreme events and a reduction in freshwater resources. The economic impact of climate change on the three sectors was estimated for the A2 and B2 IPCC scenarios until 2050 (tourism and transport sectors) and 2100 (coastal and human settlements sector). An exploration of various adaptation strategies was also undertaken for each sector using standard evaluation techniques. The analysis has shown that based upon exposed assets and population, SLR can be classified as having the potential to create potential catastrophe in Barbados. The main contributing factor is the concentration of socioeconomic infrastructure along the coastline in vulnerable areas. The A2 and B2 projections have indicated that the number of catastrophes that can be classified as great is likely to be increased for the country. This is based upon the possible effects of the projected unscheduled impacts to the economy both in terms of loss of life and economic infrastructure. These results arise from the A2 and B2 projections, thereby indicating that growth in numbers and losses are largely due to socioeconomic changes over the projection period and hence the need for increased adaptation strategies. A key adaptation measure recommended is for the government of Barbados to begin reducing the infrastructure deficit by continuously investing in protective infrastructure to decrease the country’s vulnerability to changes in the climate. With regard to the tourism sector, it was found that by combining the impacts due to a reduction in tourist arrivals, coral reef loss and SLR, estimated total economic impact of climate change is US $7,648 million (A2 scenario) and US $5,127 million (B2 scenario). An economic analysis of the benefits and costs of several adaptation options was undertaken to determine the cost effectiveness of each one and it was found that four (4) out of nine (9) options had high cost-benefit ratios. It is therefore recommended that the strategies that were most attractive in terms of the cost-benefit ratios be pursued first and these were: (1) enhanced reef monitoring systems to provide early warning alerts of bleaching events; (2) artificial reefs or fish-aggregating devices; (3) development of national adaptation plans (levee, sea wall and boardwalk); (4) revision of policies related to financing carbon neutral tourism; and (5) increasing recommended design wind speeds for new tourism-related structures. The total cost of climate change on international transportation in Barbados aggregated the impacts of changes in temperature and precipitation, new climate policies and SLR. The impact for air transportation ranges from US$10,727 million (B2 scenario) to US$12,279 million (A2 scenario) and for maritime transportation impact estimates range from US$1,992 million (B2 scenario) to US$2,606 million (A2 scenario). For international transportation as a whole, the impact of climate change varies from US$12,719 million under the B2 scenario to US$14,885 million under the A2 scenario. Barbados has the institutions set up to implement adaptive strategies to strengthen the resilience of the existing international transportation system to climate change impacts. Air and sea terminals and facilities can be made more robust, raised, or even relocated as need be, and where critical to safety and mobility, expanded redundant systems may be considered.

The Evolution of Modal Split in Freight Transport in South America, 2000-2013

This FAL Bulletin analyzes data on commodities traded and the modes of transport used between nine South American countries, during 2000, 2006, 2010 and 2013. The aim is to identify the current modal split in intraregional freight transport in South America, and to ascertain the level and evolution of trade flows, imbalances and the burden of transport and insurance costs. The authors conclude with some policy recommendations.

Comparison of the Fuel Needed to Transport Plastic Recyclables Verses Aluminum Recyclables from Yellowstone National Park

Research has provided no definitive answers on whether PET plastic bottles or aluminum cans are a more environmentally sustainable choice as soda containers. This paper researches the fuel used in recycling each of these materials from Yellowstone National Park to processing locations. The data is used to determine which of these alternatives use less fuel in this process. It was found that plastics use more fuel when transported from Yellowstone National Park to the processing center. Aluminum uses less fuel per ton to transport from Yellowstone to the processing center. The conclusions from this research may have implications on which material would be advised to use in selling soda in Yellowstone National Park.

Potential costs of bacterial infection on storage protein gene expression and reproduction in queenless Apis mellifera worker bees on distinct dietary regimes

Insects are able to combat infection by initiating an efficient immune response that involves synthesizing antimicrobial peptides and a range of other defense molecules. These responses may be costly to the organism, resulting in it exploiting endogenous resources to maintain homeostasis or support defense to the detriment of other physiological needs. We used queenless worker bees on distinct dietary regimes that may alter hemolymph protein storage and ovary activation to investigate the physiological costs of infection with Serratia marcescens. The expression of the genes encoding the storage proteins vitellogenin and hexamerin 70a, the vitellogenin receptor, and vasa (which has a putative role in reproduction), was impaired in the infected bees. This impairment was mainly evident in the bees fed beebread, which caused significantly higher expression of these genes than did royal jelly or syrup, and this was confirmed at the vitellogenin and hexamerin 70a protein levels. Beebread was also the only diet that promoted ovary activation in the queenless bees, but this activation was significantly impaired by the infection. The expression of the genes encoding the storage proteins apolipophorins-I and -III and the lipophorin receptor was not altered by infection regardless the diet provided to the bees. Similarly, the storage of apolipophorin-I in the hemolymph was only slightly impaired by the infection, independently of the supplied diet. Taken together these results indicate that, infection demands a physiological cost from the transcription of specific protein storage-related genes and from the reproductive capacity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do charges to freight trucks and trains in the European Union reflect their social marginal costs? Application to the case of Spain

In the last few years, the European Union (EU) has become greatly concerned about the environmental costs of road transport in Europe as a result of the constant growth in the market share of trucks and the steady decline in the market share of railroads. In order to reverse this trend, the EU is promoting the implementation of additional charges for heavy goods vehicles (HGV) on the trunk roads of the EU countries. However, the EU policy is being criticised because it does not address the implementation of charges to internalise the external costs produced by automobiles and other transport modes such as railroad. In this paper, we first describe the evolution of the HGV charging policy in the EU, and then assess its practical implementation across different European countries. Second, and of greater significance, by using the case study of Spain, we evaluate to what extent the current fees on trucks and trains reflect their social marginal costs, and consequently lead to an allocative-efficient outcome. We found that for the average case in Spain the truck industry meets more of the marginal social cost produced by it than does the freight railroad industry. The reason for this lies in the large sums of money paid by truck companies in fuel taxes, and the subsidies that continue to be granted by the government to the railroads.

Development of a fluorescent method for the detection in marine organisms of the respiratory electron transport system

Trabajo realizado por: Maldonado, F.; Packard, T.; Gómez, M.; Santana Rodríguez, J. J

Polymeric membranes for CO2 separation: effect of aging, humidity and facilitated transport

Polymeric membranes represent a promising technology for gas separation processes, thanks to low costs, reduced energy consumption and limited waste production. The present thesis aims at studying the transport properties of two membrane materials, suitable for CO2 purification applications. In the first part, a polyimide, Matrimid 5218, has been throughout investigated, with particular reference to the effect of thermal treatment, aging and the presence of water vapor in the gas transport process. Permeability measurements showed that thermal history affects relevantly the diffusion of gas molecules across the membrane, influencing also the stability of the separation performances. Subsequently, the effect of water on Matrimid transport properties has been characterized for a wide set of incondensable penetrants. A monotonous reduction of permeability took place at increasing the water concentration within the polymer matrix, affecting the investigated gaseous species to the same extent, despite the different thermodynamic and kinetic features. In this view, a novel empirical model, based on the Free Volume Theory, has been proposed to qualitatively describe the phenomenon. Moreover, according to the accurate representation of the experimental data, the suggested approach has been combined with a more rigorous thermodynamic tool (NELF Model), allowing an exhaustive description of water influence on the single parameters contributing to the gas permeation across the membrane. In the second part, the study has focused on the synthesis and characterization of facilitated transport membranes, able to achieving outstanding separation performances thanks to the chemical enhancement of CO2 permeability. In particular, the transport properties have been investigated for high pressure CO2 separation applications and specific solutions have been proposed to solve stability issues, frequently arising under such severe conditions. Finally, the effect of different process parameters have been investigated, aiming at the identification of the optimal conditions capable to maximize the separation performance.

The nitrogen costs of photosynthesis in a diatom under current and future pCO2

With each cellular generation, oxygenic photoautotrophs must accumulate abundant protein complexes that mediate light capture, photosynthetic electron transport and carbon fixation. In addition to this net synthesis, oxygenic photoautotrophs must counter the light-dependent photoinactivation of Photosystem II (PSII), using metabolically expensive proteolysis, disassembly, resynthesis and re-assembly of protein subunits. We used growth rates, elemental analyses and protein quantitations to estimate the nitrogen (N) metabolism costs to both accumulate the photosynthetic system and to maintain PSII function in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, growing at two pCO2 levels across a range of light levels. The photosynthetic system contains c. 15-25% of total cellular N. Under low growth light, N (re)cycling through PSII repair is only c. 1% of the cellular N assimilation rate. As growth light increases to inhibitory levels, N metabolite cycling through PSII repair increases to c. 14% of the cellular N assimilation rate. Cells growing under the assumed future 750 ppmv pCO2 show higher growth rates under optimal light, coinciding with a lowered N metabolic cost to maintain photosynthesis, but then suffer greater photoinhibition of growth under excess light, coincident with rising costs to maintain photosynthesis. We predict this quantitative trait response to light will vary across taxa.

Transport modal choice by multinational firms : firm-level evidence from Southeast Asia

We examine transport modal decision by multinational firms to shed light on the role of freight logistics in multinational activity. Using a firm-level survey in Southeast Asia, we show that foreign ownership has a significantly positive and quantitatively large impact on the likelihood that air/sea transportation is chosen relative to truck shipping. This result is robust to the shipping distance, cross-border freight, and transport infrastructure. Both foreign-owned exporters and importers also tend to use air/sea transportation. Thus, our analysis presents a new distinction between multinational and domestic firms in their decision over transport modes.

E-comparisons: A new approach to round robin tests for environmental noise assessment in transport infrastructures

The increasing importance of pollutant noise has led to the creation of many new noise testing laboratories in recent years. For this reason and due to the legal implications that noise reporting may have, it is necessary to create procedures intended to guarantee the quality of the testing and its results. For instance, the ISO/IEC standard 17025:2005 specifies general requirements for the competence of testing laboratories. In this standard, interlaboratory comparisons are one of the main measures that must be applied to guarantee the quality of laboratories when applying specific methodologies for testing. In the specific case of environmental noise, round robin tests are usually difficult to design, as it is difficult to find scenarios that can be available and controlled while the participants carry out the measurements. Monitoring and controlling the factors that can influence the measurements (source emissions, propagation, background noise…) is not usually affordable, so the most extended solution is to create very effortless scenarios, where most of the factors that can have an influence on the results are excluded (sampling, processing of results, background noise, source detection…) The new approach described in this paper only requires the organizer to make actual measurements (or prepare virtual ones). Applying and interpreting a common reference document (standard, regulation…), the participants must analyze these input data independently to provide the results, which will be compared among the participants. The measurement costs are severely reduced for the participants, there is no need to monitor the scenario conditions, and almost any relevant factor can be included in this methodology

Do charges to freight trucks and trains in the European Union reflect their social marginal costs? Application to the case of Spain

In the last few years, the European Union (EU) has become greatly concerned about the environmental costs of road transport in Europe as a result of the constant growth in the market share of trucks and the steady decline in the market share of railroads. In order to reverse this trend, the EU is promoting the implementation of additional charges for heavy goods vehicles (HGV) on the trunk roads of the EU countries. However, the EU policy is being criticised because it does not address the implementation of charges to internalise the external costs produced by automobiles and other transport modes such as railroad. In this paper, we first describe the evolution of the HGV charging policy in the EU, and then assess its practical implementation across different European countries. Second, and of greater significance, by using the case study of Spain, we evaluate to what extent the current fees on trucks and trains reflect their social marginal costs, and consequently lead to an allocative-efficient outcome. We found that for the average case in Spain the truck industry meets more of the marginal social cost produced by it than does the freight railroad industry. The reason for this lies in the large sums of money paid by truck companies in fuel taxes, and the subsidies that continue to be granted by the government to the railroads.

Robustness and Recoverability in Transport Logistics

Abstract Transport is the foundation of any economy: it boosts economic growth, creates wealth, enhances trade, geographical accessibility and the mobility of people. Transport is also a key ingredient for a high quality of life, making places accessible and bringing people together. The future prosperity of our world will depend on the ability of all of its regions to remain fully and competitively integrated in the world economy. Efficient transport is vital in making this happen. Operations research can help in efficiently planning the design and operating transport systems. Planning and operational processes are fields that are rich in combinatorial optimization problems. These problems can be analyzed and solved through the application of mathematical models and optimization techniques, which may lead to an improvement in the performance of the transport system, as well as to a reduction in the time required for solving these problems. The latter aspect is important, because it increases the flexibility of the system: the system can adapt in a faster way to changes in the environment (i.e.: weather conditions, crew illness, failures, etc.). These disturbing changes (called disruptions) often enforce the schedule to be adapted. The direct consequences are delays and cancellations, implying many schedule adjustments and huge costs. Consequently, robust schedules and recovery plans must be developed in order to fight against disruptions. This dissertation makes contributions to two different fields: rail and air applications. Robust planning and recovery methods are presented. In the field of railway transport we develop several mathematical models which answer to RENFE’s (the major railway operator in Spain) needs: 1. We study the rolling stock assignment problem: here, we introduce some robust aspects in order to ameliorate some operations which are likely to fail. Once the rolling stock assignment is known, we propose a robust routing model which aims at identifying the train units’ sequences while minimizing the expected delays and human resources needed to perform the sequences. 2. It is widely accepted that the sequential solving approach produces solutions that are not global optima. Therefore, we develop an integrated and robust model to determine the train schedule and rolling stock assignment. We also propose an integrated model to study the rolling stock circulations. Circulations are determined by the rolling stock assignment and routing of the train units. 3. Although our aim is to develop robust plans, disruptions will be likely to occur and recovery methods will be needed. Therefore, we propose a recovery method which aims to recover the train schedule and rolling stock assignment in an integrated fashion all while considering the passenger demand. In the field of air transport we develop several mathematical models which answer to IBERIA’s (the major airline in Spain) needs: 1. We look at the airline-scheduling problem and develop an integrated approach that optimizes schedule design, fleet assignment and passenger use so as to reduce costs and create fewer incompatibilities between decisions. Robust itineraries are created to ameliorate misconnected passengers. 2. Air transport operators are continuously facing competition from other air operators and different modes of transport (e.g., High Speed Rail). Consequently, airline profitability is critically influenced by the airline’s ability to estimate passenger demands and construct profitable flight schedules. We consider multi-modal competition including airline and rail, and develop a new approach that estimates the demand associated with a given schedule; and generates airline schedules and fleet assignments using an integrated schedule design and fleet assignment optimization model that captures the impacts of schedule decisions on passenger demand.