Szentendre considers introducing bike-sharing scheme

REC staff members pitch idea to City Hall

There's some news about a new bike-sharing scheme in Szentendre - good news, and better news!

The idea germinated last fall while the REC's Smart Cities and Mobility Topic Area team was investigating ways to reduce the environmental impact of the REC's own commuting habits, as more than half of the staff live in Budapest. The HEV (suburban rail system) and Volan buses offer a sustainable transport option for Budapest-bound commuters, but at the Szentendre end there's no public transport service for the "last mile".  Ad-hoc car-pooling groups appeared, but a big number still commute in single-occupancy vehicles. Even though many of them would like to come by bike, currently it's not a terribly attractive option as it's 22 kilometres each way from downtown. There is limited capacity for loading your bike on the HEV, not to mention that transporting a bike costs a full extra ticket!

Szentendre itself is a bedroom community: more than half of the town's working population of about 11,000 people work in Budapest and face exactly the same issues as REC employees. An extension to the Budapest Business School (BGF) is now under construction near the REC's offices - about two kilometres north of the HEV - further increasing the area's mobility needs.

A bike-share system could be an effective and relatively inexpensive way to solve this. If the system were cleverly integrated with the HEV and BuBi (the Budapest bike-share system launched last fall), it would allow commuters to bike at both ends of their HEV journey without having to pack their own rides, thus creating an environment-friendly, healthy transport option door to door.

But bike sharing would be good for more than commuters. Szentendre has outstanding tourist attractions and a bike-sharing system would give tourists a fun way to tour the city and its environs, including the Pap Sziget recreation area north of town and the Skanzen folkloric museum a few kilometres away in the Pilis foothills.

Based on these rough ideas, the REC applied for funding from the CIVITAS Initiative and will conduct an in-depth feasibility study by the end of June. The plan is to investigate the market potential, funding sources and operational model - including possibilities for integration with the BuBi system - and then analyse whether the proposal would be financially feasible, and under what conditions.

The interest that Szentendre City Hall has shown is very encouraging: four city experts at the kick-off meeting, supplemented by a team from the Centre for Budapest Transport (BKK/BuBi), are dedicated to supporting the project. In order to achieve the best possible results, the project team will rely not only on experts, but will actively involve the local biking community, set up an interactive Szentendre bike-share website, and conduct large-scale market research among citizens to hear their opinions.

REC Chinese and European practices: Lectures now available for viewing!

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Ice loss sends Alaskan temperatures soaring by 7C

Scientists analysing more than three decades of weather data for the northern Alaskan outpost of Barrow have linked 7C rise to the decline in Arctic sea ice, reports Climate News Network

If you doubt that parts of the planet really are warming, talk to residents of Barrow, the Alaskan town that is the most northerly settlement in the US.

In the last 34 years, the average October temperature in Barrow has risen by more than 7°C − an increase that, on its own, makes a mockery of international efforts to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2°C above their pre-industrial levels.

A study by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks analysed several decades of weather information. These show that temperature trends are closely linked to sea ice concentrations, which have been recorded since 1979, when accurate satellite measurements began.

The study, published in the Open Atmospheric Science Journal, traces what has happened to average annual and monthly temperatures in Barrow from 1979 to 2012.

In that period, the average annual temperature rose by 2.7C. But the November increase was far higher − more than six degrees. And October was the most striking of all, with the month’s average temperature 7.2C higher in 2012 than in 1979.

Gerd Wendler, the lead author of the study and a professor emeritus at the university’s International Arctic Research Center, said he was “astonished”. He told the Alaska Dispatch News: “I think I have never, anywhere, seen such a large increase in temperature over such a short period.”

The study shows that October is the month when sea ice loss in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, which border northern Alaska, has been highest. The authors say these falling ice levels over the Arctic Ocean, after the maximum annual melt, are the reason for the temperature rise. “You cannot explain it by anything else,” Wendler said.

They have ruled out the effects of sunlight because, by October, the sun is low in the sky over Barrow and, by late November, does not appear above the horizon.

Instead, they say, the north wind picks up stored heat from water that is no longer ice-covered in late autumn and releases it into the atmosphere.

At first sight, the team’s findings are remarkable, as Barrow’s 7.2C rise in 34 years compares with a global average temperature increase over the past century of up to about 0.8°C. But what’s happening may be a little more complex.

The fact that temperatures in and around Barrow are rising fast is no surprise, as the Arctic itself is known to be warming faster than most of the rest of the world.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says observed warming in parts of northern Alaska was up to 3C from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s. It also concludes that about two-thirds of the last century’s global temperature increase has occurred since 1980.

But Barrow’s long-term temperature rise has not been uniform, the Fairbanks study says. Its analysis of weather records between 1921 and 2012 shows a much more modest average annual rise, of 1.51C. In 2014, the city experienced the coolest summer day recorded − 14.5C.

So one conclusion is to remember just how complex a system the climate is − and how even 34 years may be too short a time to allow for any certainty.

Te rikthesh nje vlere kombetare….

Te rikthesh nje vlere kombetare….

                                       

-Perfundoi faza e pare e rehabilitimit te gjelber te Ishullit te demtuar te Ksamilit-

Agjencia AJMMI (Agjencia Joniane e Mjedisit, Medias dhe Informacionit), pjesë e Rrjetit mjedisor “ECIM”, me mbeshteten e REC –Shqiperi perfundoi fazen e pare te  rehabilitimit te gjelber te ishullit te demtuar ne Ksamil. “AJMMI” gjate nje konference per shtyp ne Ksamil, beri te ditur se “Rehabilitimi I pjeses se demtuar me lende plasese disa vite me pare, në nje siperfaqe prej rreth 500 m/kator, po mundesohet nga  REC Shqiperi ne kuader te programit SENiOR-A. Rehabilitimi do te kete nje faze te dyte gjate muajve shtator-tetor 2014  krahas me sensibilizimin e komunitetit ne qytezen turistike dhe promovimin e vlerave ekoturistike te ishujve te Ksamilit, pjese e Parkut kombetar te Butrintit dhe nje nga 19 monumentet e natyres(me status e VKM) te rajonit te Sarandes.

Eksperti I AJMMI-t,ing.Kristo Kauri, i cili hartoi dhe po ndjek me nje grup pune projektin e rehabilitimit te Ishullit te demtuar , vuri ne dukje se “Faza a pare e rehabilitimit,  perfshiu  veshjen e  te gjithe skarpates me  mbi 400 m/katror tel kuadrat per ta lidhur formacionin e tokes qe po agravohet nga dita ne dite dhe per te mbjelle  nje sasi  bimesh karakteristike te makieve te vete flores se ishullit si: dafina, gjeshtra, rushkull, etj,.”.Sipas Kaurit , faza e pare e rehabilitimit perfshiu emergjencen ,por ne nje faze te dyte gjate vjeshtes, do te rikthehemi ne Ishull per te vazhduar me mbjelljen e pemeve dhe shkurreve kacavjerrese”.

Sipas AJMMI-t,nisma e mesiperme eshte mirepritur nga komuniteti I Ksamilit, komuna e qytezes me te njejtin emer si dhe nje grup te rinjsh vullnetare mjedisore te shkolles se mesme te bashkuar nen motivin dhe sloganin  “Une I dua Ishujt  Ksamil”.///