Jeffrey McNeill

The Delphi technique in ecology and biological conservation: applications and guidelines

Summary 1. Many areas of science, including conservation and environmental management, regularly require engaging stakeholders or experts to produce consensus or technical inputs. The Delphi technique is an iterative and anonymous participatory method used for gathering and evaluating such expert-based knowledge. 2. We outline the methodology of the Delphi technique and provide a taxonomy of its main variants. In addition, we refine the technique by providing suggestions to address common limitations (e.g. time consumption, attrition rate) in order to make the method more suitable for application in ecology and conservation. 3. A comprehensive search for studies that have applied the Delphi technique in conservation and environmental management resulted in 36 papers. The Delphi technique has been applied to a range of issues, including developing decision support systems and predicting ecological impacts of climate change. 4. The papers reviewed suggest that the Delphi technique is an efficient, inclusive, systematic and structured approach that can be used to address complex issues. A major strength compared to other group-based techniques is the reduced influence of social pressures among respondents. 5. The Delphi technique is relatively little used and seems undervalued. Given its wide range of possible applications, it could be applied more widely in evaluating evidence and providing expert judgments.

Landscapes, identities and development

many, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, UK (all IEA-RETD members), and Austria, Spain, US and China). Chapter 3 presents the methodology for selecting the nine successful programmes for in-depth analysis; reviewing definitions of success for distinct programme typologies. Policies and programme selection were chosen to cover all types of programme instruments, all target technologies and several residential sectors (single, detached house; multi-unit dwellings; new construction; retrofit of existing buildings), and effort was put into providing a balanced number of observations for each type of technology or policy instrument. It is acknowledged that the comparison of the programmes needed to take into account diverse goals and different market conditions. However, a distinct feature of successful programmes was to exhibit all three instrument typologies: guidance (education of the public and the industry), carrots (subsidy) and sticks (mandatory installation regulation) (see pp. 31 32 for details). Chapter 4 presents the criteria and the list of best practices. Two thirds of these practices address market-related obstacles: acceptability, accessibility, affordability, availability and awareness (p. 33). Chapter 5 draws conclusions and puts forward recommendations for policy makers. Chapters 6 and 7 provide country profiles and list all the programmes considered (including in-depth analysis of those selected). One major underlying question on the whole process of the report is whether the socio-political and economic context was captured accurately enough to identify the major factors leading to successful deployment. In other words, can it be correctly assessed from the analysis to what extent successful programmes achieved their targets due to programme endogenous factors or due to exogenous ones? The findings showed there were improbable leaders in the installation of solar thermal technologies, given their relatively low annual solar insulation levels are low and relatively high costs of technology (for details see pages 16 and 39). Thus, not all results appear to be determined by market or climatic conditions. The analysis of best practices concluded the type of technology the programme focused on was less important than the programme phase, market maturity or barrier faced, but analysis of some barriers was left to future research. The authors acknowledged that the effectiveness of the best practices is unknown (pp. 41 42) and that detail in drafting the country reviews was sacrificed to keep the project within manageable size, so oversights could exist (p. 43). In addition, one of the final recommendations is the continued need for gathering systematic data to allow evaluation of deployment programmes’ achievements. All in all, there is a clear informative value to the handbook, making it recommendable for policy makers, particularly early career ones, and as such some of the gaps in the methodological approach do not detract from its value. It is up to the IEA-RETD to continue the effort to promote the uptake of REHC worldwide, and to update the list of smallscale renewable energy support programmes, perhaps by adding other OECD cases, such as Australia where as much as 40% of the total final energy demand of households is used for space heating and another 25% is used on water heating (2006 2007 figures from Sandu and Petchey, 2009) and most of the electricity used in any sector is produced from coal, 77% in 2008 2009 (Cuevas-Cubria et al., 2011).

Socio-political tensions in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) development in low-income Asian cities

ABSTRACT International development agencies, with the help of the central government, support building state of art Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in low-income Asian cities. However, BRT investment over indigenous modes of mobility is creating socio-political tensions at the local level. This article uses multi-level governance as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among actors in BRT investment decisions in Bandung and Surabaya, Indonesia. The research finds that local stakeholders can distort national and supranational policy initiatives totally or in a way that while projects are delivered, they are of limited use to the local communities they intended to help.

Ground Station Development at Awarua, New Zealand

The French space agency (CNES) needed to acquire Ariane 5 launcher telemetry leading up to and including spacecraft separation that would occur south-east of New Zealand for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) campaigns to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). No established ground stations were available for this purpose.