Xavier Lastra-Bravo

National and Regional Analysis of Road Accidents in Spain

Objective: In Spain, the absolute fatality figures decreased almost 50 percent between 1998 and 2009. Despite this great effort, road mortality is still of great concern to political authorities. Further progress requires efficient road safety policy based on an optimal set of measures and targets that consider the initial conditions and characteristics in each region. This study attempts to analyze road accidents in Spain and its provinces in time and space during 1998–2009. Methods: First, we analyzed daily, monthly, and nationwide (NUTS 0) development of road accidents, the correlation between logarithmic transformations of road accidents and territorial and socioeconomic variables, the causality by simple linear regression of road accidents and territorial and socioeconomic variables, and preliminary frequency by fast Fourier transform. Then we analyzed the annual trend in accidents in the Spanish provinces (NUTS 3) and found a correlation between the logarithmic transformations of the mortality rate, fatalities per fatal accident, and accidents resulting in injuries per inhabitant variables and population, population density, gross domestic product (GDP), length of road network, and area. Finally, causality was analyzed by simple linear regression. Results: The most outstanding results were the negative correlation between mortality rate and population density in Spanish provinces, which has increased over time, and that road accidents in Spain have an approximate periodicity of 57 days. Conclusions: The fast Fourier transform analysis of road accident frequency in Spain was useful in identifying the periodic, harmonic components of accidents and casualties. The periodicity observed both for the period 1998–2009 and by year showed that the highest intensity in road accidents was bimonthly, despite the lower number of accidents and casualties in the spectra of amplitude and power and efforts to reduce the intensity and concentration during off-season travel (summer and December). Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publishers online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.

Bases for Building a Sustainability Indicator System for Transport

The globalization of sustainable development requires the use of transferable indicator systems which help in finding a balanced solution to the conflicts between the objectives of economic, environmental and social sustainability. This paper serves as a methodological basis for building an indicator system, in phases, which enables The assessment and follow-up of the sustainability of the transport sector in its threefold dimension: economic, environmental and social The synchronic and diachronic comparison of the indicators Setting critical and desirable threshold values and objective values for realistic progress towards those desirable values

Good Soils in Extinction: Degradation of Red Ferralitic Soils in Western Cuba

Abstract Specialized literature continues classifying Red Ferralitic soil, or Rhodic Ferralsol in the World Reference Base, as “not eroded” in spite of the gradual degradation of the most productive soils in Cuba. Depth of Red Ferralitic soil has traditionally been the dominant criterion for estimating ancestral erosion rates. However, this did not take karst erosion into consideration. This new approach considers the influence of karstic morphogenesis on soil erosion using the amount of karst formation as a diagnostic index for evaluating soil erosion in karst regions. The potential and current erosion indices were mapped as medium and high using the CORINE and EVERC methodologies. Quantitative soil losses of as much as 13.71 t ha−1 year−1 were found with the Morgan-Morgan-Finney method. This article, based on research done over more than two decades in reference localities in the west of the country, revalidates the influence of intensive anthropogenesis. This reinforces water and karst erosion, which coexist spatially by zones in karst plains and highlands karst environments, and have a strong tendency to increase, threatening Cuban “red soils,” traditionally considered to be the most productive in the world, with extinction.

National road mortality reduction targets under European Union road safety policy: 2011–2020

The European Union (EU) has proposed renewing the target for halving the number of road fatalities in the period 2011–2020. In this paper, a nonlinear distribution method for dynamic fatality reduction targets is applied for the purpose of finding individual national mortality reduction targets for each of the 27 member countries in the EU. Weighting is undertaken for four scenarios based on the following indicators: road mortality rates, fatality rates, fatality risks, and fatality density. Results are presented for four proposals to reduce the number of fatalities in each Member State, based on the original situation of the indicators considered in the study. The results seek to provide policy-makers with a broader vision with regard to the achievement of the goals of EU road safety policy.

Territorial Distribution Proposal for the Biofuel Consumption Target in the Transportation Sector in Accordance with the EU Energy Policy for 2020

AbstractOne of the current targets of European Union (EU) energy policy is to reach at least a 10% share of biofuels in fuel consumed for transportation (petrol and diesel) in 2020. However, it has not been specified how this global target should be distributed among the Member States according to its different starting points and potentials. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a dynamic nonlinear target distribution method for increasing the share of biofuels in fuel consumed for transportation. We applied the proposed distribution based on the following indicators: nonbiofuels in fuel consumed for transportation, nonbiofuels per capita, nonbiofuels per gross domestic product (GDP), and GDP per capita, in the reference year (2005). In addition, a multicriteria analysis was also conducted to weigh the variables in the study. The proposed methodology is innovative, easy-to-use, and attempts to contribute to the political discussion on the importance of territorial weighing of the biofuel con...

Use of Cordia Africana in the Phytostabilization of Substrates from Excavations of the Ore Courtyard at the Port of Itaguai, Brazil

The objective of this study was to evaluate the phytostabilization of two substrates contaminated with heavy metals from excavations of the ore courtyard at the port of Itaguai, Brazil. Initially, an inventory of tree species located near the study area was performed to select species for phytostabilization. The species Cordia africana exhibited deeper roots, a larger diameter at chest height (DCH) and crown diameter, as well as higher concentrations of Zn, Cd, and Pb in the trunk, bark, and roots compared to the other investigated species. The tolerance of the selected species to the metals Zn, Cd, and Pb was subsequently assessed through a greenhouse test. The substrates used in the experiment also obtained from excavations at the ore courtyard and showed different levels of heavy metals, indicating either low contamination (Substrate 1) or high contamination (Substrate 2). Alkaline industrial waste steel slag (SS) was used as an amendment to reduce the solubility of heavy metals. Application of the amendment agent to the substrates reduced the bioavailability of heavy metals, favoring the growth of C. africana. This species presents potential for use in phytostabilization programs due to its tolerance for heavy metals and the observed higher accumulation of these metals in the roots and especially the trunk of this species compared to other vegetal parts.

Assessment model of territorial articulation in rural areas. Application to four Spanish “comarcas”.

This paper proposes a territorial articulation study model based on a set of indicators. The indicators used in this study were urban distribution, weighted distance of road network and road accessibility. We have applied the indicators to four regions in the Spanish province of Almeria: Alpujarra Almeriense, Alto y medio Almanzora, Los Velez and Poniente Almeriense. The results found show them to be highly heterogeneous, and allow areas with deficient road access or distribution of urban areas to be identified. Indexes were poorest for mountainous regions with high slopes and areas furthest from cities. The conclusions will contribute to improv ing the development strategies of Settlement and Road transport infra structures in these rural regions.

Model of territorial distribution of CO2 emissions reduction target in the transport sector

In this paper CO2 emissions reduction targets in the Kyoto Protocol and in the energy policy of the EU are transferred to the transport sector. First, we analyze CO2 emissions from transport in the reference year (1990) and their evolution from 1990 to 2007. Later, we propose a nonlinear method ology for distributing the dynamic CO2 emissions reduction targets. We have applied the proposed distribution function for 2012 and 2020 to two territorial levels. The weighted distribution is based on per capita and per GDP CO2 emissions. Finally, we show the weighted targets found for each EU Member State and Spanish Autonomous Communities, compare them to the real achievements to date, and forecast them for the years the Kyoto and EU goals are to be met.

Dinamic targets for the European Union biofuel goal for 2020

One of the European Union main goals of its energy policy is a 10% share of biofuels in fuel consumed for transport (petrol and diesel) in the year 2020. But the effort associated to this global target is not distributed among the member states (MS). Therefore, this study proposes a non-linear distribution method with dynamic objective targets for increasing the share of biofuels according to the particular characteristics of every MS (share of non-biofuels in fuel consumed for transport, non-biofuels per capita and non-biofuels per GDP). The results were analyzed on three scenarios: the whole European Union (27 MS), the European Union 15 (the most industrialized ones) and the European Union 12 (those that joined the EU after 2004), with the objective of identifying differences in behavior between the different blocks inside the European Union.