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► LATEST NEWS: _sust invent 0.1 RC 2 is onlin e. go here... -- a note from _kt75 As of today the fourth issue of the Notes is available via: server1 | server2 .    ► As announced previousl y, t his last issue of the Notes is edited as special issue and concentrat es exclu sively on hydro power as an alternative energy source. This in particular in order to encourage critical (re-) consideration of this type of alternative energy. A key region is Africa. The Notes intend to highlight recent political deve lopments , technica l and s cientifi c trends and provide access to relevant information .  Aside this the Notes inform about: _sust invent 0.1 RC1 ( visit: http://kt75-mirror.blogspot.ch/p/kt75-interactive.html ) . _sust invent is a web-based cross-browser service that comprises technical, economic, environmental and geo-political information. In its first version _sust invent provides qualitative and quantitative geographical and technical ...

-- a note from _kt75   As of today _sust invent 0.1 release candidate 1 is available online: http://kt75-mirror.blogspot.ch/p/kt75-interactive.html .  _sust invent is a web-based cross-browser service that comprises technical, economic, environmental and geo-political information. It is aimed to provide qualitative and quantitative information about   ► renewable and non -renew able energy (current focus : hydro power)     ► transport (mobility infrastructure)   ► building and construction     ► education , e mployment and further social issues   The service provides both, foreground data as well as b ackground (i.e. meta ) data. The latter provides access to rather rare docu ments.   _sust invent is intended to assist researchers , engineers and consultants in their work. Th ere e x ist two versions of _sust invent 0.1 RC1 : _sust invent and _sust invent + . _sust invent is available free of charge . It provid...

-- a teaser poll by _kt75

-- a note from _kt75 The fo u rth issue of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management - Q0 4 /2012 will be released soon . This last issue of the Notes is edited as special issue and concentrat es exclu sively on hydro power as an alternative energy source. It highlights recent political deve lopments , technica l and s cientifi c trends.  In addition more i nformation about the recently started _sust invent project (visit: http://kt75-mirror.blogspot.ch/p/kt75-interactive.html ) is provided. Previous releases of the Notes are available from: http://swm-group.blogspot.ch/p/kt75-mirror-downloads.html

-- a note from _kt75   Key words : Mobility, Sustainability, Hydro-, Wind-, Solar power, Railways, Transport Downloads (problems ? contact: kt75@gmx.ch ) Server 1 | 2 Server 3   Summary It is a popular misconception that a certain good , for example a certain transport service possesses an inherent sustainability per se. Attended is this perception by the widespread belief that technical/technological development (i.e. any kind of tools, standards, etc.) more or less guarantees the sustainability of a certain good. Such technical measures in addition to e.g. environmental standards, labels, certificates, protocols, might be helpful to facilitate the sustainable use of a certain good, if applied appropriately and if – in addition to the economic dimension - also the technical, environmental and geo-political dimensions of a certain good are considered in a comprehensive way. Decisive however, for successful and robust, thus sustainable development accor...

-- a note from _kt75 ( updated : 2012-11-12 ) The most essential good, water, comes under economic pressure. A number of reports document sharply rising prices for water among others in the USA, e.g. [ 1 ]- [ 4 ], Europe, e.g. [ 5 ]-[ 7 ] and Asia/Australia, e.g. [ 8 ] - [ 10 ] etc. Accordingly, for the USA an increase between 5-15% is prognosticated. Israel, with a reported increase in water consumption by 6% in 2011 [ 11 ] is about to raise water rates by about 4% in 2013 [ 12 ] . In Europe the price per m3 of water will raise up to 5% [ 5 ], [ 7 ], [ 13 ]. The reasons for the increasing water prices are diverse. Some are of technical nature (outdated infrastructure, installation of new equipment), some are of social nature (pension costs for water workers). However, the price of water is increasingly liable to some artificial manipulation, i.e. speculation [ 1 ], [ 2 ]. It seems to be rather questionable and actually critical (in particular from a social ...

-- a note from _kt75 Hydro power is considered one of the promising sustainable (because renewable) ener g y sources able to fa cilitate and guarantee a safe energy turnaround away from fossil energy carriers. Accordingly, hydro power industry is on the rise a nd a multitude of construction projects are either in the planning stage , in progress or already finished. However, as in any other case in ad dition to the te chnical dimension al so hydr o power has a n e nvironmental , an economic and a geo-p olitical d imen sion which are cl osely interlinked [ 1 ]. Due to the ongoing pronounced and rather uni -directional prom otion of al ternative/renewable en ergy car riers (like hydro power ) critical tra de-offs and ass oci ated conflicts (whatever kind of) can create rat her drastic situations and the actually sustainable nature of renewable energy carr iers gets lost. In particular politically unstable, mainly developing regions are concerned [ 2 ] - [ 5 ] . Here, bu...