Integrating agroecology and sustainable tourism: applying geodesign to farm management in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori land is frequently owned by local communities and managed by trusts. For such arrangements on rural holdings, land managers often wish both to provide for their communities and implement agricultural management practices in a culturally responsive manner. Agroecology offers an alternative model of land management and provides opportunities for the development of visitor programmes to learn about and observe traditional practices. This paper reports on the integration of agroecology and tourism on a working farm in Te Wai Pounamu South Island, Aotearoa New Zealand. The programme successfully applied spatial analysis in a geographical information system (GIS) within an iterative geodesign framework to plan a route for visitor access across the farm, with suitable areas identified for information platforms located strategically along the way. These agritourism related features were visually communicated through maps generated by the GIS. Such visualisation makes the possible consequences of change more accessible and understandable to decision makers. As well as satisfying the need to verify the approach empirically, there are plans underway to apply GIS in this way to other similarly managed farms in Aotearoa New Zealand.

• Highlights:

• Iterative geodesign approach used to evolve sites for access paths and information platforms

• Approach is of public interest, hence the need for planning farm access facilities for tourists

• Agroecology-based plan for managing a traditionally run farm in Aotearoa New Zealand

• Local cultural values addressed by GIS for positive environmental and economic impact

     

OPTIMAL PROPERTY TAXATION IN CALIFORNIA: Is Greater Reliance on Land Values Feasible and Desirable?

Legal changes to Proposition 13 and fiscal imbalance provide, for the first time since 1978, the environment for serious consideration of restructuring property taxation in California. The background of the current situation is reviewed, and as a first approach to determining the optimal property tax system, Henry George's a priori case for taxing land is noted. Studies in the new public finance, especially optimal taxation theory and applications - for example, general equilibrium modeling in policy analysis - provide encouraging though limited support for greater reliance on site value taxation.     

Monopoly and the choice of product characteristics

Monopoly firms producing large, indivisible goods may be able to effect perfect price discrimination by charging an all-or-none implicit price for each product characteristic. In that case, a monopolist will provide the same vector of product characteristics (i.e., the same product ‘quality’) as will a competitive industry; and, perhaps more surprisingly, produce the same quantity of the good. With all-or-none pricing, monopoly power leads to a higher product price, but no change in product quality or output.     

The effects of risk and return on the currency composition of money demand

Zusammenfassung Die Wirkungen von Risiko und Ertrag auf die W?hrungszusammensetzung der Geldnachfrage. — In diesem Aufsatz wird ein theoretisches Modell einer variablen W?hrungszusammensetzung der Geldnachfrage entwickelt, das auf dem Maximierungsverhalten und einer Geld-Produktionsfunktion basiert und Wechselkursunsicherheit einschlie\t. Ein empirischer Test des Modells zeigt, da\ es eine solche Portfolio-Diversifikation auf den internationalen Geldm?rkten gibt. In den Vereinigten Staaten beeinflu\t die Unsicherheit über den Wechselkurs die Zusammensetzung der Geldbest?nde statistisch in der erwarteten Richtung. Obwohl die Ergebnisse für Deutschland statistisch kaum signifikant sind, haben die Reaktionen doch das richtige Vorzeichen. Diese Ergebnisse legen es nahe, die Diversifikationswirkungen in die Theorie von den Anpassungsprozessen der internationalen Geldm?rkte einzubauen.

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Résumé Les effets de risque et de rendement sur la composition de monnaie de la demande monétaire. — Dans cet article nous avons développé un modèle théorique de la composition variable de monnaie de la demande monétaire qui se fonde sur le comportement de maximiser et sur une fonction de la production monétaire et qui incorpore l’incertitude sur le taux de change. Un test empirique du modèle démontre une évidence concrète d’une telle diversification du portefeuille de monnaie sur les marchés internationaux monétaires. L’incertitude sur le taux de change influence statistiquement fort les dispositions monétaires de la direction anticipée dans les états-Unis. Bien que les résultats pour l’Allemagne ne soient statistiquement significatifs que marginalement, la direction de la réponse a aussi le propre signe. Les résultats impliquent que ces effets de diversification devraient être incorporés dans la théorie d’ajustement des marchés internationaux monétaires.

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Resumen Los efectos del riesgo y del retorno sobre la composición monetaria de la demanda por dinero. — En este artículo hemos desarrollado un modelo teorético de una composición monetaria variable de la demanda por dinero, basada en el comportamiento maximizador y en una función de producción del dinero e introduciendo incertidumbre de tasa cambiaria. Un test empírico del modelo provee evidencia concreta de tal diversificación del portafolio de dinero en los mercados monetarios internacionales. Incertidumbre de tasa de cambio afecta la tenencia relativa de dinero con un efecto estadístico fuerte de la dirección anticipada en los EE.UU. A pesar de que los resultados para Alemania son estadísticamente solo marginalmente significantes, la dirección de la respuesta tiene nuevamente el signo correcto. Estos resultados implican, por lo tanto, que estos efectos de diversificación deberían ser incorporados en la teoría del ajuste de mercados monetarios internacionales.

     

Thorstein Veblen’s 1904 contributions to q and insider/outsider analysis

The early 20th century saw the first steps in a tradition of leading economists explaining the link between corporate finance, investment and capital valuation. The writings of Keynes, and Tobin deal with the development of an investment theory based on the financial structure. However there is no mention Veblen, whereas he made an early American analysis of corporate governance structure. Our work is based on a critical review of the literature, which is guilty of omissions, lack of accuracy and errors of formalization. So that, we focus on the reasons why Veblen’s corporate financial analysis should not be forgotten.     

旅游作为区域可持续发展的工具:一把双刃剑——以中国西南部地区旅游发展为例

中国旅游业发展迅速，现在已经成为重要的产业之一，国内旅游逐渐成为旅游业的主体。中国西南部省份是中国旅游业发展的热点，旅游业成为当地除农业之外重要的就业和政府收入的重要来源。随着旅游业的不断发展，它的发展对脆弱的环境和文化的影响也非常值得关注。本文以四川和云南的案例为基础，论述了旅游在区域可持续发展中的双重作用，提出了要特别关注承载力和外部负效应的国家公园政策。     

Developing the Teaching of Food Technology in Primary Schools in England through Curriculum Development and Initial Teacher Education

This paper investigates developments in the teaching of food technology introduced as an element of design & technology in the 1990 National Curriculum for Technology in the English primary curriculum for children aged five to eleven years. It reviews briefly the situation for food teaching before 1990 and identifies a number of relevant issues. This is followed by an overview of developments in food technology in primary schools between 1992 and 2001, highlighting the need for primary teachers and trainee teachers on initial teacher education courses to develop an understanding of how to teach food technology in their schools. The development of teaching materials through the Nuffield Approach to food technology in primary schools is outlined together with a case study of the use of the materials in initial teacher education at the University of Surrey Roehampton. The paper describes the uptake of Nuffield Primary food technology materials as measured by down loads from the Nuffield Primary Design & Technology web site. Alongside this, there are reflections of primary trainee teachers on the impact of using the Nuffield food technology materials on their classroom practice during school experience. It concludes with a discussion of the key issues arising from the paper and suggestions for future research. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Biological well-being in late nineteenth-century Philippines

This paper investigates the biological standard of living in the Philippines toward the end of Spanish rule. We investigate levels, trends, and determinants of physical stature from the birth cohorts of the 1860s to the 1890s using data on 23,000 Filipino soldiers enlisted by the US military between 1901 and 1913. We estimate average heights and use province-level information for investigating the determinants of biological well-being. We find that at 159.3 cm (62.7 inches), the average height of soldiers born in the mid-1870s was very short even for the time. The low biological standard of living observed in late nineteenth-century Philippines was not due to the tropical disease environment alone since greater heights were recorded for the same period in other parts of Asia with a similar climate. The results also indicate a decline of more than 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) in the height of soldiers born between the early 1870s and the late 1880s. This decline occurred at a time when there was an expansion of commercial activity in cash crop production for export. Heights did not regain the level of the 1870s until the late 1930s and early 1940s.