The Impact and Legacy of the Otterburn Public Inquiry,Northumberland National Park,England

The Otterburn Public Inquiry (1997 and 1999) polarized opinion as to how England’s finest countryside should best be utilized. On the one hand, the Ministry of Defence sought to realize a major development in a protected area, whereas on the other, Northumberland County Council and Northumberland National Park Authority opposed the plans, arguing that conservation and recreation should take priority. This study was undertaken several years later and took a retrospective look at the saga through a recollection of personal accounts, so as to examine the impact and legacy that was borne out of this development. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a number of stakeholders as part of a wider project on partnership working. It was found that the Ministry of Defence used this planning dispute to affirm that defence of the realm was a greater national interest than environmental protection. The outcome of the Public Inquiry was also found to contribute towards a radical change in the way Northumberland National Park was managed.     

Tertiary gymnosperms from Tasmania: Araucariaceae

Three new species of the Araucariaceae are described from leaf remains, Araucaria readiae from the Early Eocene Regatta Point flora, A. hastiensis from the Middle-Late Eocene Hasties flora, and Agathis tasmanica from the Early Oligocene-Early Miocene Little Rapid River flora. Additionally, emended diagnoses are presented for Araucarioides linearis and A. annulata. A. readiae is the first organically preserved species in the section Eutacta described from Tasmania, A. hastiensis is the first record of a species not in section Eutacta in Tasmania, and A. tasmanica is the first record of Agathis in Tasmania. These species, along with other records from south-eastern Australia indicate the presence of a high diversity of araucarian species in the region in the Early-Middle Tertiary, although no species survive there today. Climatic change and competition from angiosperms may have led to their demise in that region.     

Estimation of Vertical Floor Displacement Using a Wavelet De-Noising Method

The horizontal response of structural and nonstructural systems during seismic events has been studied for a long time. However, the effect of the vertical response of floors on building contents and nonstructural systems has still remained a topic of concern. A wavelet de-noising method along with the experimental data obtained from a full-scale test at E-Defense is used to estimate the vertical floor displacement of a five-story steel moment frame building in base-isolated and fixed-base configurations. Vertical displacements of slabs and beams are calculated from the experimental data and formulated based on their out-of-plane dominant frequencies. A curve fitting approach is then carried out to estimate vertical displacements at floors and stories. In these tests, partition wall damage such as buckling of studs occurred at slab displacements of about 1 in.