Monitoring and Mitigation Works in Unsaturated Archaeological Deposits

Monitoring of the archaeological deposits at the World Heritage Site Bryggen in Bergen has been ongoing since 2001. In latter years a large-scale project of mitigation works has been carried out, resulting in the creation of a water-management system aimed at raising groundwater-levels and increasing soil moisture content in areas with poor preservation conditions. Oxygen is a key parameter in the decay of archaeological material in the unsaturated zone, and the monitoring at Bryggen includes in situ monitoring of oxygen concentrations and comparison to soil moisture content, temperature, groundwater-level, precipitation and soil reactivity. This is used to document where and when decay takes place and to estimate “how wet is wet enough” in order to reduce the oxygen diffusion and the decay rate to an acceptable level. The results show that even small changes in the soil moisture can have a large impact on the oxygen dynamics in the ground.     

Maritime Cultural Resource Investigation, Management, and Mitigation in Coastal Ghana

Four field seasons of maritime archaeological research in coastal Ghana offer insights into submerged cultural heritage, but also highlight serious concerns for its preservation and protection. A discussion of cultural heritage legislation and its ineffective implementation, as well as imminent and potential threats to submerged cultural heritage frames the argument for the mitigation and protection of submerged sites in coastal Ghana. Work on the Benya Lagoon vessel and the Elmina Wreck site is presented here as both documentation and mitigation in terms of the context of threats to submerged heritage in coastal Ghana, and preventative mitigation is proposed for its protection.     

Making Territory and Negotiating Citizenship in a Climate Mitigation Initiative in Indonesia

For almost two decades, the concept of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) has been widely adopted in Indonesia, in policy initiatives ranging from pilot projects to more established PES schemes and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programmes. Drawing on a case study of a REDD+ initiative in Aceh, Indonesia, this article analyses how the initiative became an avenue to renegotiate political authority, territory and citizenship. Analysis of relevant documents, combined with focus group discussions and interviews at local and national levels, reveals the complex processes by which the authority to govern forest is claimed and legitimized through the revision of provincial land-use plans, and shows how citizenship is rearticulated through participatory mapping processes. The article demonstrates that the initiative has been negotiated and reshaped to conform to local aspirations for greater control over forests and to achieve broader development goals. The discourses of green economy and REDD+ have provided the Aceh government and communities with a new ‘surface of engagement’ to express Acehnese struggles over territory and citizenship by aligning with global climate change issues.     

Rent,Real Estate,and Flood Mitigation in New Orleans East

This paper presents results from a study of environmental harm created in the collision of real estate speculation and the political process that governed extension of the urban frontier of New Orleans into its eastern wetlands. Near term concerns of rent‐seeking real estate capital and the contested politics of urban infrastructure expansion challenged a fragmented state charged with regulatory oversight and protection of investments in land and citizens. The paper engages theoretically the relative inattention of urban political ecology theory to rent as a way to theorize how capital flows through land, and argues for increased attention to the problem of land rent and the multiple scales of political engagement that manage ecological crisis immanent in the metabolism of nature and society under capitalism.     

Nonlinear Modeling and Mitigation of Seismic Pounding between R/C Frame Buildings

A multi-link finite element contact model reproducing Jankowski’s nonlinear viscoelastic relationships is devised and implemented for a time-history analysis of seismic pounding. The mechanical and algorithmic parameters are calibrated with a numerical test case study, represented by two single-story R/C frames. A real case study, concerning two adjacent buildings representative of a stock of R/C multi-story frame structures with insufficient separation joints at rest, is then examined. A damped interconnection-based mitigation solution consisting in linking the two structures with fluid-viscous dissipaters is proposed. The benefits of this retrofit strategy are discussed by comparison with the response in original conditions.     

Numerical Analyses of the Effectiveness of Soft Barriers into the Soil for the Mitigation of Seismic Risk

An approach to mitigate the seismic risk of existing structures by means of the creation of a continuous thin layer of grouted soil at a convenient depth is presented. A parametric numerical analysis is reported using different constitutive models with reference to two geometrical schemes. It is shown that if the grouted layer has a stiffness significantly lower than that of the surrounding soil, it may be effective in reducing the seismic demand. In the parametric analyses, the positive role of yielding is also observed, which indicates that the barrier is more effective with larger input amplitudes.     

The Cutting Edge of Accumulation: Neoliberal Risk Mitigation,the Baku‐Tbilisi‐Ceyhan Pipeline and its Impact

Abstract: Adopting a historical materialist position, this article looks at new methods deployed to expand processes of accumulation and the impact that this has at different scales. Focusing upon the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline (traversing Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey), the article pays particular attention to the technocratic tools of “social neoliberalism” and corporate social responsibility, which variously incorporate environmental and social impact assessments, community investment programmes and voluntary codes of conduct. While such approaches seek to relegitimise the efforts of capital and its assistants and mitigate their risks, the assessment below details how these approaches actually assist in facilitating an increase in risk for many people. The article begins by looking at the accumulation drive pushing BTC and then provides an account of how new approaches to pipeline governance have both emerged and been incorporated into the project. The article then details what it is that these approaches have actually facilitated at four scales—the local, the national, the regional and the supra‐regional.     

Classical Temples and Industrial Stores: Survey Analysis of Historic Unreinforced Masonry (URM) Precincts to Inform Urban Seismic Risk Mitigation

ABSTRACT

Oamaru, Winton, and Invercargill feature some of New Zealand’s most intact heritage precincts that are confronted by ongoing threats of seismic activity. The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence and Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission of 2012, identified a nationwide trend through the proportion of deaths that occurred in public places as a result of the prevalent historic unreinforced masonry (URM) building stock. The reported study was undertaken to address urban safety and seismic risk mitigation through the lens of heritage conservation. The range of classically designed public buildings and industrial warehouses in the South Island of New Zealand were often produced by singular architectural practices, using locally sourced materials and construction techniques. It is vital to incorporate an examination of unique architectural qualities within urban seismic risk assessment and mitigation. Historic urban layout, architectural deployment of masonry, and extent of retrofits were recorded through onsite visual surveys via Geographical Information Systems and three-dimensional representation technologies. Extending the scope of information collected for engineering seismic risk assessment by focusing on the historical architectural context informs the selection of future mitigation measures. Oamaru, Winton, and Invercargill present intriguing case studies for multidisciplinary analysis, prior to testing urban-scale survey approaches within comparable historic centers across New Zealand.