Early life and family.

Dole was born Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Mary Ella ("née" Cathey; 1901–2004) and John Van Hanford (1893–1978).  Dole first met her future husband, Bob Dole, in the spring of 1972 at a meeting arranged by her boss and mentor, Virginia Knauer. The couple dated, and she became his second wife on December 6, 1975, in the Washington National Cathedral. They have no children, though she is stepmother to Bob's adult daughter Robin from his first marriage of 24 years, which ended in divorce in 1972.  She attended individually, and later with her husband, the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., before joining the National Presbyterian Church in 1996. Articles at the time reported that the Doles stopped attending Foundry in 1995, finding the pastor at the time, J. Philip Wogaman, too liberal.

Education.

Dole attended Duke University and graduated with distinction in Political Science, on June 2, 1958. She was a finalist for an Angier B. Duke scholarship, a full-tuition award given to outstanding applicants who matriculate at Duke. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, a national prize given to those exemplifying the ideal of service to others.  Among her activities at Duke were the chapel choir, "Chanticleer" (yearbook) business staff, freshman advisory council, The Order of the White Duchy (a local honorary society for outstanding women student leaders, a female counterpart of The Order of The Red Friars), Phi Kappa Delta (a local leadership honorary for senior women), and Pi Sigma Alpha (a national political-science honorary society). Dole is a sister of Delta Delta Delta. She was also elected president of the woman's student government association, 1958 May queen, and "leader of the year" by the student newspaper, The Chronicle. Dole has remained involved with Duke University, serving at various points in time as president of the Duke University alumnae association, and a member of the board of trustees and board of visitors. She has spoken formally at Duke several times.  Following her graduation from Duke, she did her post-graduate work at Oxford in 1959. After Oxford, she took a job as a student teacher at Melrose High School in Melrose, Massachusetts, for the 1959–1960 school year. While teaching, she also pursued her master's degree in education from Harvard University, which she earned in 1960, followed by a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965. At graduation, she was one of 24 women in a class of 550 students. She is an alumna of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

White House years.

Johnson Administration.

Dole, who had campaigned for the Kennedy–Johnson presidential ticket in 1960, worked in the White House in the later years of the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Nixon and Ford Administrations.

When many Democrats left the White House following Richard Nixon's replacement of Johnson, Dole did not. From 1969 to 1973, she served as deputy assistant to President Nixon for consumer affairs. In 1973, Nixon appointed her to a seven-year term on the Federal Trade Commission. In 1975, she became a Republican. She took a leave from her post as a Federal Trade Commissioner for several months in 1976 to campaign for her husband for vice president of the United States, when he ran on the Republican ticket with Gerald Ford. She later resigned from the FTC in 1979, to campaign for her husband's 1980 presidential run. During the 1970s, Dole was a self-described member of the Women's Liberation Movement and helped reform laws to ensure equal credit for women. She was also a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Reagan Administration and Secretary of Transportation.

She served as director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, from 1981 to 1983 and as United States Secretary of Transportation from 1983 to 1987 under Ronald Reagan. She was also appointed by Reagan to chair task forces that sought to reform federal and state laws to ensure equal rights for women. She was the first woman appointed Secretary of Transportation. In this role, she was the first woman to have served as the head of a branch of the United States Military, as the United States Coast Guard was under the Department of Transportation at the time. Dole's appointment was "particularly irritating" to conservative activists, since "though at least nominally opposed to abortion, [she was] viewed by the right as [an] aggressive feminist."  During her tenure, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, mandated the installation of a center high-mounted stop lamp on new cars; these are sometimes called "Liddy Lights" in her recognition. She worked with MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to pass laws withholding federal highway funding from any state that had a drinking age below twenty-one. The state government of South Dakota opposed the drinking age law and sued Dole in the case "South Dakota v. Dole", but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dole. She oversaw the privatization of the national freight railroad, CONRAIL. She initiated random drug testing within the Department of Transportation.

Bush Administration and Secretary of Labor.

Dole served as United States Secretary of Labor from 1989 to 1990 under George H. W. Bush; she is the first woman to serve in two different Cabinet positions in the administrations of two presidents. Her tenure as both U.S. Transportation Secretary and U.S. Labor Secretary focused heavily on improving public safety and workplace safety and health. In 1990, Dole tapped former Ronald Reagan Administration official and long-time public safety and health advocate, Roy Clason Jr. as Director of Policy of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to help her spearhead a number of OSHA reforms to better protect America's 91 million workers from workplace injuries and illnesses.

American Red Cross presidency.

In 1991, Dole became the president of the American Red Cross. She served until 1999.

1996 Republican National Convention.

Dole's husband Bob Dole was the Republican nominee in the US presidential election of 1996. Elizabeth Dole, who would have become First Lady had her husband won the election, or the Second Lady of the United States, had Gerald Ford won the 1976 election, received recognition for her speech at the 1996 Republican National Convention, during which she walked out into the audience while talking conversationally about her husband's qualities.

2000 United States Presidential candidacy.

Elizabeth Dole ran for the Republican nomination in the US presidential election of 2000, but pulled out of the race in October 1999 before any of the primaries, largely due to inadequate fundraising even though a Gallup poll had her in second place in the presidential race at 11% behind George W. Bush at 60% as late as October 1999. Dole placed third—behind George W. Bush and Steve Forbes—in a large field in the Iowa Straw Poll (the first, non-binding, test of electability for the Republican Party nomination). The Iowa Straw Poll differed from the national polls where she was second only to Bush; Senator John McCain was in third place.  Shortly before the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Bush campaign sources said Elizabeth Dole was on the short list to be named the vice-presidential nominee, along with Michigan Governor John Engler, New York Governor George Pataki, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and former Missouri Senator John Danforth. Many pundits believed that Dole was the frontrunner for the vice presidential nomination. Bush then surprised most pundits by selecting former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, who was actually in charge of leading Bush's search for a vice presidential nominee.

United States Senate career.

Campaigns.

In late December 2001, Dole shifted her official residency from the Doles' condominium in the Watergate complex to her mother's home in Salisbury to seek election to the U.S. Senate. The seat was made available by the retirement of Republican Jesse Helms. Although Dole had not lived regularly in North Carolina since 1959 and had been a resident of the Washington area for most of the time since the mid-1960s, the state and national Republican establishment quickly cleared the field for her. She handily won the Republican primary with 80 percent of the vote over a lesser-known candidate, Dr. Ada Fisher. In the November general election, she defeated her Democratic opponent Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, by an eight-point margin.  Her election to the Senate marked the first time a spouse of a former Senator was elected to the Senate from a different state from that of her spouse (although Kansas Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum married former Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, the marriage occurred after Kassebaum and Baker both had finished their service in the Senate). Dole was criticized by Democrats during her first Senate campaign over the fact that for over 40 years prior to her nomination, she had not lived in North Carolina.  In November 2004, following Republican gains in the United States Senate, Dole narrowly edged out Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota for the post of chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She is the first woman to become chair of the NRSC. During her election cycle as chairperson, her Democratic Party counterpart, Senator Chuck Schumer raised significantly more money, and experienced more success in recruiting candidates. In the November election, Dole's party lost six U.S. Senate seats to the Democrats, thus losing control of the U.S. Senate. Dole was replaced as NRSC chair by Senator John Ensign of Nevada following the 2006 midterms.

2008 Senate re-election campaign.

Dole was initially a heavy favorite for re-election, especially after several potential top-tier challengers such as Congressman Brad Miller, Governor Mike Easley and former Governor Jim Hunt all declined to compete against Dole. Ultimately, Kay Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, won the Democratic primary election against Jim Neal and became Dole's general election opponent. Reports late in the campaign suggested that Dole suffered from Barack Obama's decision to aggressively contest North Carolina in the presidential election, while Hagan received substantial support from independent 527 groups lobbying/advertising against Dole, as well as the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, which spent more money in North Carolina than in any other state during the 2008 election season. Dole undertook an eight-day "ElizaBus" tour of the state in the days leading up to election day.  In late October, Dole released a controversial television ad attacking Hagan for reportedly taking donations from individuals involved in the Godless Americans PAC, a group that advocates for the rights of people who do not believe in God. The ad also included a female voice saying, "There is no god." Hagan's campaign said the ad sought to put inflammatory words in their candidate's mouth. Hagan, who was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a former Sunday school teacher, condemned the ad as "fabricated and pathetic," and, according to Hagan's campaign website, a cease-and-desist letter was "hand-delivered to Dole's Raleigh office and to her home at the Watergate in Washington, DC." Hagan also filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court accusing Dole of defamation and libel. The ad met significant criticism from some members of the public as well as national media outlets. After the first ad Hagan received over 3,600 contributions, including major donors as well as individual support from a range of persons who believed in the right to participate in civil government free of religious orthodoxy requirements. Following the second ad Hagan's lead doubled according to some polls.  In the 2008 election, Dole lost by a wider-than-expected margin, taking 44 percent of the vote to Hagan's 53 percent – the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent Senator in the 2008 cycle. It has been speculated that the outcry over the "Godless" ad contributed to Dole's loss. Hagan trounced Dole in the state's five largest counties – Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Forsyth and Durham. Hagan also dominated most of the eastern portion of the state, which had been the backbone of Helms' past Senate victories. While Dole dominated the Charlotte suburbs and most of the heavily Republican Foothills region, it was not enough to save her seat.

Political positions.

Dole's voting record was somewhat more conservative than that of her husband, though slightly less conservative than that of Helms. She has a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union.  Dole worked with other senators such as Chuck Hagel to draft and attempt to pass legislation reforming housing financing regulation; the bill did not go up for a vote.  In September 2008, Dole joined the Gang of 20, a bipartisan group working towards comprehensive energy reform. The group is pushing for a bill that would encourage state-by-state decisions on offshore drilling and authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy.  As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Dole is credited with helping to prevent any closures of North Carolina military bases despite threats from the Department of Defense. In 2007, she sponsored legislation which would have granted federal recognition of a North Carolina Native American tribe, the Lumbee based in Robeson County.

Committee assignments.

Dole was a member of the following U.S. Senate committees:

After politics: Elizabeth Dole Foundation.

In 2012, Dole established the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, dedicated to helping caregivers of "wounded warriors".  Dole commissioned the RAND Corporation to develop the first nationwide comprehensive, evidence-based report on the needs of military and veteran caregivers. The two-year study includes an environmental scan of available services, a gap analysis, and recommendations for meeting the enormous challenges of America's hidden heroes – the young spouses, mothers, fathers and other loved ones caring for those who cared for us. The study was generously supported by the Wounded Warrior Project, the Lilly Endowment, and the Cannon Foundation.  The Foundation selects military and veteran caregivers from each state to serve a two-year Fellowship with the Foundation. The Dole Fellows represent a vast array of military caregivers: spouses, parents, siblings and friends, and use their voice to help bring awareness on a national scale. The Foundation also has a National Coalition Program to bring together private and public entities to create substantial change.  Actor Tom Hanks joined the Foundation's Hidden Heroes Campaign to bring awareness to the over 5.5 million military caregivers across America who are facing enormous challenges every day caring for members of the military and gravely injured veterans.

Charity work.

Dole accepted no salary from the Red Cross during her first year as president of the organization.  Dole is an Honorary Board Member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope.

Awards.

In 1995, Dole was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.  In 1999, Dole received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.  In 2014, Dole was inducted into Indiana Wesleyan University's Society of World Changers for her humanitarian public service efforts.

Mary Elizabeth "Liddy" Alexander Hanford Dole (born July 29, 1936) is an American politician and author who served in the Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush presidential administrations. She also served in the United States Senate from 2003 to 2009.

伊丽莎白·多尔(英语:Elizabeth Dole,1936年-7月29日),美国共和党籍政治人物、作家。她曾在罗纳德·里根与乔治·H·W·布什政府中任职,并担任过联邦参议员。


Geology.

History.

Studies of the volcano's lava accumulation rate have put the volcano's age at somewhere near one million years. It is believed to have breached sea level more than 500,000 years ago. Beginning 300,000 years ago, the rate of eruption slowly decreased over a long period of time to a point where erosion wore the volcano down faster than Kohala rebuilt itself through volcanic activity. Decreasing eruptions combined with increasing erosion caused Kohala to slowly weather away and subside into the ocean. The oldest lava flows that are still exposed at the surface are just under 780,000 years old. It is difficult to determine the original size and shape of the volcano, as the southeast flank has been buried by volcanic lava flows from nearby Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. However, based on a sharp increase of incline on the submarine slope of the volcano at a depth of, scientists estimate that in its prime the portion of Kohala that was above the water was more than wide. Geologists estimate that the volcano was once about twice its current size.  The volcano is so old that it experienced, and recorded, a reversal of magnetic polarity (a change in the orientation of Earth's magnetic field so that the positions of the North and South poles interchange) that happened 780,000 years ago. Fifty flow units in the top of exposed strata in the Pololu section are of normal polarity, indicating that they were deposited within the last 780,000 years. Radiometric dating ranged mostly from 450,000 to 320,000 years ago, although several pieces strayed lower; this indicated a period of eruptive history at the time. Kohala was devastated by a massive landslide between 250,000 and 300,000 years before present. Debris from the slide was found on the ocean floor up to away from the volcano. Twenty kilometers wide at the shoreline, the landslide cut back to the summit of the volcano, and is partially, if not largely, responsible for the volcano losing in height since then. The famous sea cliffs of the windward Kohala shoreline stand as evidence of the massive geologic disaster, and mark the topmost part of the debris from this ancient landslide. There are also several other unique features found on the volcano, all marks made by the decimating collapse.  Kohala is thought to have last erupted 120,000 years ago. However, several samples of a more recent date have been obtained. Two samples collected about apart, obtained from Waipio Valley on the volcano's east flank in 1977, were dated reliably to 60,000 years. Another double set of samples, collected from the western part in 1996, was measured to be 80,000 years in age. The samples have been treated with skepticism by the scientific community, and their ages have been directly challenged. The rocks collected from the west site have not been tested by subsequent experiments. The lava samples collected from the eastern site were allegedly found under a Mauna Loa lava flow, which had been previously dated to 187,000 years. The Kohala lava flows could be as young as 120,000 years although they may be even younger.  In 2004, unidentified marine fossils were found at the base of the volcano inshore. A research team led by University of Hawaii's Gary McMurtry and Dave Tappin of the British Geological Survey found that the fossils had been deposited by a massive tsunami, above the current sea level. The team dated the fossils and nearby volcanic rock at about 120,000 years old. Based on the rate of Kohala's subsidence over the past 475,000 years, it was estimated that the fossils were deposited at a height of about, well out of reach of storms and far above the normal sea level at the time. The timing corresponds with the last great landslide of nearby Mauna Loa. Researchers hypothesize that the underwater landslide from the nearby volcano triggered a gigantic tsunami, which swept up coral and other small marine organisms, depositing them on the western face of Kohala. Mauna Loa, an active volcano, has since repaired its flank. Marine geologist Tappin believes that a "future collapse on this volcano, with the potential for mega-tsunami generation, is almost certain."

Structure.

Kohala had two active rift zones, a characteristic common to Hawaiian volcanoes. The double ridge, shaped axially, was active in both the shield and postshield stages. The southeast rift zone passes under the nearby Mauna Kea and reappears further southeast in the Hilo Ridge, as indicated by the relationship between collected lava samples. In addition, the two features align to one another more closely then does the ridge to Mauna Kea, of which it was once thought to constitute a part. The bulk of the ridge is built of volcanic rock with reverse magnetic polarity, evidence that the volcano is at least 780,000 years old. Older lava dated from the toe of the ridge was estimated to be roughly between 1.1 and 1.2 million years old.  Geologists have classified the volcano's lava flows into two units. The Hawi Volcanic layers were deposited in the postshield stage of the volcano's life, and the younger Pololu Volcanics were deposited in the volcano's shield-building stage. The rock in the younger Hawi section, which overlies the older Pololu flows, is mostly 260,000 to 140,000 years old, and composed mainly of hawaiite and trachyte. The separation between the two layers is not clear; the lowest layers may actually be in the Pololu section, based on their depositional patterns and low phosphorus content. The time intervals separating the two periods of volcanic evolution were extremely brief, something first noted in 1988.  The forest-covered summit of the volcano consists of many cones which generated lava from its two rift zones between 240,000 and 120,000 years ago. Kohala completed its shield-building stage 245,000 years ago and has been in decline ever since. Potassium-argon dating indicates that the volcano last erupted about 120,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene. Kohala is currently in transition between the postshield and erosional Hawaiian volcanic stages in the life cycle of Hawaiian volcanoes.  The United States Geological Survey has assessed the extinct Kohala as a low-risk area. The volcano is in zone 9 (bottom risk), while the border of the volcano with Mauna Kea is zone 8 (second lowest), as Mauna Kea has not produced lava flows for 4,500 years.  Kohala, like other shield volcanoes, has a shallow surface slope due to the low viscosity of the lava flows that formed it; however, the northwest shoreline boasts some of the highest seacliffs on earth. Events during and after its eruptions give the volcano several unique geomorphic features, some possibly resulting from the ancient collapse and landslide. The volcano is shaped like a foot; the northeast coast is prominently indented across of shoreline.  There is a small string of faults on and near the main summit caldera, arranged parallel to the northern coast. The faults were originally regarded to be a direct result of the collapse; however scientists note the fault lines do not go all the way to the coast but are arranged tightly clustered around the caldera. This indicates that the fault lines may have been caused indirectly, possibly due to the sudden release of stress during the event.

Hydrology.

Mauna Kea causes the trade winds to divert around it, increasing wind to super-enhanced flow over the Kohala ridge and orographic lift brings most of the rainfall to the northeastern slope of Kohala. The windward side of Kohala mountain is dissected by multiple, deeply eroded stream valleys in a southwest-northeast alignment, cutting into the flanks of the volcano. North of Kohala's summit the volcano's northwest-southeast trending rift zone separates rainfall into two streams, going southeast, into Waipio Valley, or northwest, into Honokane Nui Valley. When the volcano was still active, vertical sheets of magma, arranged in what is known as dikes, forced their way out of the magma reservoir and intruded into the rift zone, which was weakened by the collapse. As the dikes forced their way up, they formed fractures and faults parallel to the rift zone. The exertion caused by the dikes produced a series of faults along its length, forming horsts and grabens (fault blocks). Northeast of the Kohala summit, where the most rainfall occurs, the faulted structure prevents summit rainwater from naturally flowing northeast down the mountain slope. Instead, the rainwater flows down laterally and empties into the back of what have thus become the largest valleys (Waipio and Honokane Nui). The leeward northwestern slope of Kohala has few stream valleys cut into it, the result of the rain shadow effect, as the dominant trade winds bring most of the rainfall to the northeastern slope of the volcano. The seven windward valleys of Kohala are, from southeast to northwest, Waipio, Waimanu, Honopue, Honokea, Honokane Iki, Honokane Nui, and Pololu. The size of the valleys reflects the amount of drainage they have been able to capture; Waipio, the largest, at some point drained Waimanu Valley as well, and the former headwaters of Waimanu are now one of its branches. Waimanu valley, cut off from its headwaters to the summit and left with Wai'ilikahi as its main tributary, still had managed to form a substantial floodplain, although less than half the size of Waipio. Honokane Nui, the third largest valley, has its drainage almost exclusively from the north side of the summit, and as a result is a deep, long, narrow bottomed valley with little habitable floodplain.  The remaining valleys derive all their water from the lower northeastern slopes of the volcano, and as a result are smaller. In addition, there are innumerable gulches of various depths which have not yet reached sea level and began to form flood plains, becoming valleys. Still, some of these are more than in depth. The depth of the actual valley walls at the seashore range from at the Waipio Valley Lookout at the southeastern corner of Kohala mountain, to a high of over in Honopue, then diminishing to less than at Pololu Lookout at the northern end of the valleys. In the back, deeper in the mountain, all of the valleys have sheer walls well in excess of. Numerous spectacular waterfalls cascade or fall over these cliffs. Some, such as Hi'ilawe Falls in Waipi'o valley, have single drops exceeding.  The volcano stayed active well into the formation of these mountainside valleys, as illustrated by later Pololu lava flows, which covered the north and northwestern end of Kohala volcano and often flowed into Pololu Valley. Recent seafloor mapping seems to show that the valley extends a short way beyond the seashore, then terminates at what may be the headwall of the great landslide found off the northeast coast of Kohala.  In addition to being a primary factor in the development of the largest valleys, the dike complex plays another important role —that of creating and maintaining the water table. Hawaiian lava is extremely permeable and porous. Rainwater easily seeps into the lava, creating a large lens of fresh water below the island surface. In most places, the top of the water table is just a few feet from sea level, as the fresh water lens is floating on salt water. Unlike porous lava flows, however, dikes cool underground into dense rock with few cracks and vesicles. The dikes act as impermeable vertical walls through which groundwater cannot flow. Deep layers of ash compact into impermeable layers between lava flows, preventing percolation of the rainwater. Rainwater that would ordinarily seep right through the ground gets trapped in the dike "reservoirs," located well above sea level. The groundwater is confined to a flow along the dike until it finds a means to escape.  In Kohala, the numerous dikes near the summit inhibit groundwater from seeping downslope to the northeast, where it naturally wants to go. Rather, the Kohala dike complex guides it northwest or southeast, down the axis of the rift zones, just like the surface water. On the other hand, the three smaller valleys between the large ones - Honopue, Honokea, and Honokane Iki - as well as the many smaller gulches which are not yet valleys, are deprived of groundwater by the orientation of the rift zone and its dikes. Without the large amount of water that is received by the bigger valleys, these valleys grow far more slowly. Due to its topography as essentially a flat crater floor surrounded by cones and fault scarps, the main caldera is affected relatively little by erosion from water.  Most of Kohala's summit groundwater ends up in either Waipi'o or Honokane Nui; the enormous amount of water routed through these valleys results in a large amount of water erosion, which causes the valley walls to frequently collapse, accelerating valley development. This abundance of surface water inspired the first of Kohala's three massive irrigation diversion "ditches", the Upper Hamakua Ditch, although the water was initially used for transporting ("fluming") sugarcane to the mills rather than irrigation. Surface water supplies, however, were not stable enough for the large scale plantation economy developing in Hamakua and North Kohala, so later ditches tapped the spring fed base flows of the valleys and larger gulches. Only Waimanu Valley escaped with none of its tributaries tapped, along with the 16 smaller streams between Waikoloa Stream and the Wailoa river in Waipi'o Valley.

Ecology.

The natural habitats in the Kohala district range across a wide rainfall gradient in a very short distance—from less than a year on the coast near Kawaihae, to more than a year near the summit of Kohala Mountain, a distance of just. At the coast are remnants of dry forests, and near the summit lies a cloud forest, a type of rainforest that obtains much of its moisture from "cloud drip" in addition to precipitation. These large cloud forests dominate its slopes. This biome is rare, and contains a disproportionate percentage of the world's rare and endemic species. The soil at Kohala is nitrogen-rich, facilitating root growth.  The forest lies perpendicular to the prevailing trade winds, a characteristic that leads to frequent cloud formation and abundant rainfall. Thus the rain forests carpeting Kohala are vital to the supply of groundwater on the island. The role of Kohala's ecosystem in supporting water flow has long been recognized. As early as 1902, US Forester E. M. Griffith wrote "Forest protection means not only increasing the rainfall, but more important still, conserving the water supply. The future welfare and agricultural prosperity of the Hawaiian Islands depends upon the preservation of the forest."  Before humans arrived, the wildlife population at Kohala and on the rest of the island was isolated from other species, as it was separated from the nearest major landmass by over of open water. The early colonizers of Kohala came by wind, storm or floating on the ocean. Successful colonizations occur on the magnitude of once every 35,000 years. The 2,000 successful ancestors that arrived at Kohala evolved into about 8,500 to 12,500 unique species, resulting in a very high ratio of the species present being found nowhere else on Earth. Only about 2.5% of the world's rainforest is cloud rainforest, making it a unique habitat as well.  The mountain supports approximately 155 native species of vertebrates, crustaceans, mollusks, and plants. A diverse complexion of fungi, liverwort, and mosses further add to the variety. In fact, up to a quarter of the plants in the forest are mosses and ferns. These work to capture the water from clouds, in turn providing microhabitats for invertebrates and amphibians, and their predators. Estimates on the water capacity of the forest range from.  The mountain is also home to several bogs, which exist as breaks in the cloud forests. It is believed that bogs form in low-lying areas where clay in the soil prevents proper water drainage, resulting in an accumulation of water that impedes the root systems of woody plants. Kohala's bogs are characterized by sedges, mosses of the genus "Sphagnum", and oha wai, native members of the bellflower family. Other habitats include rain forest and mesophytic (wet) forests.  The same isolation that produced Kohala's unique ecosystem also makes it very vulnerable to invasive species. Alien plants and feral animals are among the greatest threats to the local ecology. Plants like the kahili ginger "(Hedychium gardnerianum)" and the strawberry guava "(Psidium cattleinum)" displace native species. Prior to human settlement, many major organisms such as conifers and rodents never made it onto the island, so the ecosystem never developed defenses against them, leaving Hawaii vulnerable to damage by hoofed animals, rodents, and predation.  Kohala's native Hawaiian rain forest has a thick layer of ferns and mosses carpeting the floor, which act as sponges, absorbing water from rain and passing much of it through to the groundwater in aquifers below; when feral animals like pigs trample the covering, the forest loses its ability to hold in water effectively, and instead of recharging the aquifer, it results in a severe loss of topsoil, much of which ends up being dumped by streams into the ocean.

Human history.

There is evidence of pre-modern agriculture on the leeward slopes of Kohala. From 1400 to 1800, the principal crop grown at Kohala was sweet potato "(Ipomoea batatas)", although there is also evidence of yams "(Dioscorea sp.)", taro "(Colocasia esculenta)", bananas "(Musa hybrids)", sugarcane "(Saccharum officinarum)", and gourds of the family Cucurbitaceae. The optimal rainfall level for the sweet potato lies between per year. A combination of factors makes the rainfall at Kohala variable both from location to location and from year to year. In addition, Kohala is buffeted by strong winds, which are directly correlated to soil erosion; ancient farmers utilized a series of earthen embarkments and stone walls to protect their crops. This technique has been shown to reduce wind by at least 20–30 percent.  In addition to walls, there are a series of stone paths that divided the farmed area into plots of variable size. These structures are unique because although many people used such systems at the time, Kohala has some of the few to survive. The leeward slopes of Kohala were used for sugarcane plantations in the late 19th century. The trip from the fields to the mills and then boats was mechanized by steam locomotive in 1883. Several plantations on the mountain were consolidated into the Kohala Sugar Company by 1937. At the peak of its production, the company had 600 employees, of land, and a capacity of of raw sugar per year. In 1975 the company finally closed down. Kohala supports a very complex hydrological cycle. In the early part of the 20th century, this was exploited by building surface irrigational channels designed to capture water at the higher elevations and distribute it to the then-extensive sugarcane industry. In 1905, after 18 months and the loss of 17 lives, the Kohala Ditch, a vast network of flumes and ditches, measuring in length, was completed. It has since come into use by ranches, farms, and homes. A portion of the ditch became a tourist attraction until it was damaged by the 2006 Kiholo Bay earthquake, centered just southwest of the mountain. The Hawaii County Department of Water Supply relies on streams from Kohala to supply water to the population of the island. With increasing demand, the original surface channels have been supplemented by deep wells designed to channel groundwater for domestic use. In 2003 the "Kohala Watershed Partnership" was formed, a voluntary group of private land owners and state managers, designed to help manage the Kohala watershed and to protect it from threats, most especially invasive species.  Another project to raise awareness of Kohala's ecosystem is "The Kohala Center", an independent, not-for-profit, community-based organization for research and education. It was established as a response to requests by island residents to create an educational and employment opportunity related to Hawaii's natural and cultural significance. The center's mission is "to respectfully engage the Island of Hawaii as an extraordinary and vibrant research and learning laboratory for humanity." The land around Kohala is administered as two districts, North Kohala and South Kohala, of the County of Hawaii. The beaches, parks, golf courses, and resorts in South Kohala are called "the Kohala Coast."  King Kamehameha I, the first King of the unified Hawaiian Islands, was born near Upolu Point, the northern tip of Kohala. The site is within Kohala Historical Sites State Monument. The original Kamehameha Statue stands in front of the community center in Kapaau, and replicas of the statue are found at Aliiōlani Hale in Honolulu, and in Emancipation Hall at the United States Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

Kohala is the oldest of five volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaii. Kohala is an estimated one million years old—so old that it experienced, and recorded, the reversal of earth's magnetic field 780,000 years ago. It is believed to have breached sea level more than 500,000 years ago and to have last erupted 120,000 years ago. Kohala is in area and in volume, and thus constitutes just under 6% of the island of Hawaii.

科哈拉火山(英语:Kohala (mountain))是构成夏威夷岛的五座火山中最古老的一座。 科哈拉火山估计有一百万年的历史 - 如此的古老,以至于它经历并记录了78万年前地球磁场的逆转。 据信在50万年前已经突破了海平面,并且在12万年前最后爆发了。 科哈拉火山面积为,体积为,因此占夏威夷岛的6%略低。


History.

Hawaii is said to have been named after Hawaiiloa, the legendary Polynesian navigator who first discovered it. Other accounts attribute the name to the legendary realm of Hawaiki, a place from which some Polynesian people are said to have originated, the place where they transition to in the afterlife, or the realm of the gods and goddesses. There are indications that ancient Greeks visited the islands 6000-4000 years ago through Peru and Bolivia where they traded products, as the extended amount of greek words in the Polynesian and Hawaiian languages reveals. The ancient Greeks were great mariners and leading matitime super-power: the Minyans of Peloponesse, the Minoans of Crete followed by the Mycyneans of Peloponesse visited extensivelly America at the time, in the north they minned and traded cooper from the Great Lakes (Lake Mitchigan, islet Royal: 750.000 tonnes of pure Cooper were minned 6000-4000 years ago, although the native americans were in the stone age. Captain James Cook, the English explorer and navigator who was captain of the first European expedition that discovered the Hawaiian Islands, called them the "Sandwich Islands" after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. Cook was killed on the Big Island at Kealakekua Bay on 14 February 1779, in a mêlée which followed the theft of a ship's boat.  Hawaii was the home island of Paiea Kamehameha, later known as Kamehameha the Great. Kamehameha united most of the Hawaiian islands under his rule in 1795, after several years of war, and gave the kingdom and the island chain the name of his native island. In 1822 the missionary William Ellis arrived and was one of a party that completed a tour of the island, descriptions of which were later published in his journal.

Geology and geography.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and (20.8%) is water. The county's land area comprises 62.7 percent of the state's land area. It is the highest percentage by any county in the United States.  At its greatest dimension, the island is across. It has a land area of comprising 62% of the Hawaiian Islands' land area. Measured from its sea floor base to its highest peak, Mauna Kea is the world's tallest mountain, taller than even Mount Everest, since the base of Mount Everest is above sea level.  Ka Lae, the southernmost point in the 50 states of the United States, is on Hawaii. The nearest landfall to the south is in the Line Islands. To the northwest of the island of Hawaii is the island of Maui, whose Haleakalā volcano is visible from Hawaii across the Alenuihaha Channel.

Volcanism.

The island of Hawaiʻi is built from five separate shield volcanoes that erupted somewhat sequentially, one overlapping the other. These are (from oldest to youngest):  Geological evidence from exposures of old surfaces on the south and west flanks of Mauna Loa led to the proposal that two ancient volcanic shields (named Ninole and Kulani) were all but buried by the younger Mauna Loa. Geologists now consider these "outcrops" to be part of the earlier building of Mauna Loa.  Because Mauna Loa and Kīlauea are active volcanoes, the island of Hawaii is still growing. Between January 1983 and September 2002, lava flows added to the island. Lava flowing from Kīlauea has destroyed several towns, including Kapoho in 1960, and Kalapana and Kaimū in 1990. In 1987 lava filled in "Queen's Bath", a large, L-shaped, freshwater pool in the Kalapana area. Another 875 acres were added between May to July, 2018 by the 2018 lower Puna eruption.  Some geologists count seven volcanoes as building the island, which include the submarine volcanoes Māhukona and Lōʻihi as parts of the base of the island. Māhukona off the northwest corner of the island has already disappeared below the surface of the ocean. Approximately southeast of Hawaii lies the undersea volcano known as Lōʻihi. It is an erupting seamount that now reaches approximately below the surface of the ocean. Continued activity at current rates from Lōʻihi will likely cause it to break the surface of the ocean sometime between 10,000 and 100,000 years from now.

Great Crack.

The Great Crack is an, and fissure in the island, in the district of Kau. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Great Crack is the result of crustal dilation from magmatic intrusions into the southwest rift zone of Kilauea. While neither the earthquake of 1868 nor that of 1975 caused a measurable change in the Great Crack, lava welled out of the lower of the Great Crack in 1823.  Visitors can find trails, rock walls, and archaeological sites from as old as the 12th century around the Great Crack. Approximately of private land were purchased during the presidency of Bill Clinton, specifically to protect various artifacts in this area, as well as the habitat of local wildlife.

Hilina Slump.

The Hilina Slump is a section of the south slope of the Kīlauea volcano which is slipping away from the island. Between 1990 and 1993, Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements showed a southward displacement of about per year. Undersea measurements show that a "bench" has formed a buttress and that this buttress may tend to reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic detachment.

Earthquakes and tsunamis.

On 2 April 1868, an earthquake with a magnitude estimated between 7.25 and 7.9 rocked the southeast coast of Hawaii. This was the most destructive earthquake in the recorded history of Hawaii. It triggered a landslide on Mauna Loa, north of Pahala, killing 31 people. A tsunami claimed 46 more lives. The villages of Punaluu, Nīnole, Kawaa, Honuapo, and Keauhou Landing were severely damaged. The tsunami reportedly rolled over the tops of the coconut trees up to high, and it reached inland a distance of a quarter of a mile (400 meters) in some places.  On 29 November 1975, a section of the Hilina Slump dropped and slid toward the ocean. This movement caused a 7.2 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. Oceanfront property was washed off its foundations in Punaluu. Two deaths were reported at Halape, and 19 other people were injured.  The island suffered tsunami damage from earthquakes in Alaska on 1 April 1946, and in Chile on 23 May 1960. Downtown Hilo was severely damaged by both tsunamis, with many lives lost. Just north of Hilo, Laupāhoehoe lost 16 schoolchildren and five teachers in the tsunami of 1946.  In March 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the east coast of Japan again created a tsunami that caused minor damage in Hawaii. The estimated damage to public buildings alone was about US$3 million. In the Kona area this tsunami washed a house into Kealakekua Bay, destroyed a yacht club and tour boat offices in Keauhou Bay, caused extensive damage in Kailua Kona, flooded the ground floor of the King Kamehameha Hotel, and permanently closed the Kona Village Resort.  In early May 2018, hundreds of small earthquakes were detected on Kīlauea's East rift zone, leading officials to issue evacuation warnings. On 3 May 2018, the volcano erupted in Puna after a 5.0 earthquake earlier in the day, causing evacuations of the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions. A seemingly related 5.3 magnitude quake and a subsequent 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurred on 4 May.

Volcanic fog.

Vog (volcanic fog) can envelop the island of Hawaii when Kilauea Volcano is active. Since the termination of volcanic activity in September 2018, the vog has largely disappeared on the west side of the island. The gas plumes of the Kīlauea Volcano create a blanket of vog which the dominant trade winds mostly deflect toward the Kona coast on the west side of the island of Hawaiʻi. Vog contains chemicals that can damage the environment and the health of plants, humans, and other animals. Most of the aerosols are acidic and of a size where they can remain in the lungs to damage them and impair function. Flu-like symptoms and general lethargy are reported, and are especially pronounced in people with respiratory conditions.

Economy.

Sugarcane was the backbone of the island of Hawaii's economy for more than a century. In the mid-20th century, sugarcane plantations began to downsize, and in 1995 the last plantation closed.  Most of the island's economy is based on tourism, centered primarily in resort areas on the western coast of the island in the North Kona and South Kohala districts. More recently, Hawaii Island has become a focus for sustainable tourism.  Diversified agriculture is a growing sector of the economy. Major crops include macadamia nuts, papaya, flowers, tropical and temperate vegetables, and coffee beans. Only coffee grown in the Kona District of this island may be branded Kona coffee. The island's orchid agriculture is the largest in the state, and resulted in the unofficial nickname "The Orchid Isle". The island is home to one of the United States' largest cattle ranches: Parker Ranch, on in Waimea. The island is also known for astronomy, with numerous telescopes operated on the summit of Mauna Kea, where atmospheric clarity is excellent and there is little light pollution.  NELHA (Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority), a state developed site, is a green economic development ocean science and technology park on the west side of the island. It provides resources and facilities for energy and ocean-related research, education, and commercial activities in an environmentally sound and culturally sensitive manner. Business tenants on this coastal site include microalgae farms, aquaculture, solar technology and marine biotech. Tenants have access to three sets of pipelines delivering deep-sea water from a depth of up to, as well as pristine sea surface water and almost constant sunshine. A 2012 study by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO) found the total economic impact of activities at NELHA was $87.7 million and created 583 jobs.

Transportation.

Roads.

Three routes connect the two major towns, Hilo on the east coast and Kailua-Kona on the west coast of the island:  There are also State highways 270 (Kawaihae – Hawi) and 180 (the "Kona coffee road", from Honalo to State highway 190), South Point Road (Highway 11 to South Point), etc.  There are presently three Hawaii Scenic Byways on the island of Hawaii:  Rental car offices are at the international airports. Taxi service is also available. Island-wide bus service is provided by the "Hele-On Bus".

Airports.

Two commercial airports serve Hawaiʻi Island:  There is also:

Seaports.

Major commercial ports are Hilo on the east side and Kawaihae on the west side of the island. Cruise ships often stop at Kailua-Kona (90 times in 2017) and Hilo (108 times in 2017).

Tourism.

Hotels on the east coast.

The larger hotels on the east coast are:

Hotels on the west coast.

The larger hotels on the west coast, from north (Puako) to south ():

Hawaii () anglicized Hawaii ( ) is the largest island located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is the largest and the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of, it has 63% of the Hawaiian archipelago's combined landmass, and is the largest island in the United States. However, it has only 13% of Hawaiʻi's people. The island of Hawaiʻi is the third largest island in Polynesia, behind the two main islands of New Zealand.

夏威夷岛()是夏威夷群岛中的最大岛屿,又称大岛(Big Island);位于群岛最南端,面积10414平方公里。


Non-proliferation efforts.

Early efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation involved intense government secrecy, the wartime acquisition of known uranium stores (the Combined Development Trust), and at times even outright sabotage—such as the bombing of a heavy-water facility thought to be used for a German nuclear program. These efforts began immediately after the discovery of nuclear fission and its military potential. None of these efforts were explicitly public, because the weapon developments themselves were kept secret until the bombing of Hiroshima.  Earnest international efforts to promote nuclear non-proliferation began soon after World War II, when the Truman Administration proposed the Baruch Plan of 1946, named after Bernard Baruch, America's first representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. The Baruch Plan, which drew heavily from the Acheson–Lilienthal Report of 1946, proposed the verifiable dismantlement and destruction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal (which, at that time, was the only nuclear arsenal in the world) after all governments had cooperated successfully to accomplish two things: (1) the establishment of an "international atomic development authority," which would actually own and control all military-applicable nuclear materials and activities, and (2) the creation of a system of automatic sanctions, which not even the U.N. Security Council could veto, and which would proportionately punish states attempting to acquire the capability to make nuclear weapons or fissile material.  Baruch's plea for the destruction of nuclear weapons invoked basic moral and religious intuitions. In one part of his address to the UN, Baruch said, "Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work out our salvation. If we fail, then we have damned every man to be the slave of Fear. Let us not deceive ourselves. We must elect World Peace or World Destruction... We must answer the world's longing for peace and security." With this remark, Baruch helped launch the field of nuclear ethics, to which many policy experts and scholars have contributed.  Although the Baruch Plan enjoyed

Dual use technology.

Dual-use technology refers to the possibility of military use of civilian nuclear power technology. Many technologies and materials associated with the creation of a nuclear power program have a dual-use capability, in that several stages of the nuclear fuel cycle allow diversion of nuclear materials for nuclear weapons. When this happens a nuclear power program can become a route leading to the atomic bomb or a public annex to a secret bomb program. The crisis over Iran’s nuclear activities is a case in point.  Many UN and US agencies warn that building more nuclear reactors unavoidably increases nuclear proliferation risks. A fundamental goal for American and global

International cooperation.

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

At present, 189 countries are States Parties to the "Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons", more commonly known as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT. These include the five Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) recognized by the NPT: the People's Republic of China, France, Russian Federation, the UK,

International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA was established on 29 July 1957 to help nations develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Allied to this role is the administration of safeguards arrangements to provide assurance to the international community that individual countries are honoring their commitments under the treaty. Though established under its own international treaty, the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.  The IAEA regularly inspects civil

Scope of safeguards.

Traditional safeguards are arrangements to account for and control the use of nuclear materials. This verification is a key element in the international system which ensures that uranium in particular is used only for peaceful purposes.  Parties to the NPT agree to accept technical safeguard measures applied by the IAEA. These require that operators of nuclear facilities maintain and declare detailed accounting records of all movements and transactions involving nuclear material. Over 550 facilities and several hundred other locations are subject to regular inspection, and their records and the nuclear material being audited. Inspections by the IAEA are complemented by other measures such as surveillance cameras and instrumentation.  The inspections act as an alert system providing a warning of the possible diversion of nuclear material from peaceful activities. The system relies on;  All NPT non-weapons states must accept these full-scope safeguards. In the five weapons states plus the non-NPT states (India, Pakistan and Israel), facility-specific safeguards apply. IAEA inspectors regularly visit these

Additional Protocol.

In 1993 a program was initiated to strengthen and extend the classical safeguards system, and a model protocol was agreed by the IAEA Board of Governors 1997. The measures boosted the IAEA's ability to detect undeclared nuclear activities, including those with no connection to the civil fuel cycle.  Innovations were of two kinds. Some could be implemented on the basis of IAEA's existing legal authority through safeguards agreements and inspections. Others required further legal authority to be conferred through an Additional Protocol. This must be agreed

Limitations of safeguards.

The greatest risk from nuclear weapons proliferation comes from countries which have not joined the NPT and which have significant unsafeguarded nuclear activities; India, Pakistan, and Israel fall within this category. While safeguards apply to some of their activities, others remain beyond scrutiny.  A further concern is that countries may develop various sensitive nuclear fuel cycle facilities and research reactors under full safeguards and then subsequently opt out of the NPT. Bilateral agreements, such as insisted upon by Australia and Canada for sale of uranium, address this by including fallback provisions,

Other developments.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group communicated its guidelines, essentially a set of export rules, to the IAEA in 1978. These were to ensure that transfers of nuclear material or equipment would not be diverted to unsafeguarded nuclear fuel cycle or nuclear explosive activities, and formal government assurances to this effect were required from recipients. The Guidelines also recognised the need for physical protection measures in the transfer of sensitive facilities, technology and weapons-usable materials, and strengthened retransfer provisions. The group began with seven members—the United States, the former USSR, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Japan—but now includes 46 countries including all five nuclear weapons states.  The International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation is an international project involving 25 partner countries, 28 observer and candidate partner countries, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Generation IV International Forum, and the European Commission. Its goal is to "[..] provide competitive, commercially-based services as an alternative to a state’s development of costly, proliferation-sensitive facilities, and address other issues associated with the safe and secure management of used fuel and radioactive waste."

Unsanctioned nuclear activity.

NPT Non Signatories.

India, Pakistan and Israel have been "threshold" countries in terms of the international non-proliferation regime. They possess or are quickly capable of assembling one or more nuclear weapons. They have remained outside the 1970 NPT. They are thus largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, except for safety-related devices for a few safeguarded facilities.  In May 1998 India and Pakistan each exploded several nuclear devices underground. This heightened concerns regarding an arms race between them, with Pakistan involving the People's Republic of China, an acknowledged nuclear weapons state. Both countries are opposed to the NPT as it stands, and India has consistently attacked the Treaty since its inception in 1970 labeling it as a lopsided treaty in favor of the nuclear powers.  Relations

India.

Nuclear power for civil use is well established in India. Its civil nuclear strategy has been directed towards complete independence in the nuclear fuel cycle, necessary because of its outspoken rejection of the NPT. Due to economic and technological isolation of India after the nuclear tests in 1974, India has largely diverted focus on developing and perfecting the fast breeder technology by intensive materials and fuel cycle research at the dedicated center established for research into fast reactor technology, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, in the southern part of the country. At the moment, India has a small fast breeder reactor and is planning a much larger one (Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor). This self-sufficiency extends from uranium exploration and mining through fuel fabrication, heavy water production, reactor

Pakistan.

Over the several years, the Nuclear power infrastructure has been well established by Pakistan which is dedicated for the industrial and economic development of the country. Its current nuclear policy is directed and aimed to promote the socio-economic development of the people as a "foremost priority"; and to fulfill the energy, economic, and industrial needs from the nuclear sources. Currently, there are three operational mega-commercial nuclear power plants while three larger ones are under construction. The nuclear power supplies 787 MW (roughly ≈3.6%) of electricity as of 2012, and the country has projected to produce 8800 MW electricity by 2030. Infrastructure established by the IAEA and the U.S. in the 1950s–1960s were based on peaceful research and development and economic prosperity of the country.  Although the civil-sector nuclear power was established in the 1950s, the country has an active nuclear weapons program which was started in the 1970s. The

North Korea.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or better known as North Korea), joined the NPT in 1985 and had subsequently signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA. However, it was believed that North Korea was diverting plutonium extracted from the fuel of its reactor at Yongbyon, for use in nuclear weapons. The subsequent confrontation with IAEA on the issue of inspections and suspected violations, resulted in North Korea threatening to withdraw from the NPT in 1993. This eventually led to negotiations with the United States

Israel.

Israel is also thought to possess an arsenal of potentially up to several hundred nuclear warheads based on estimates of the amount of fissile material produced by Israel. This has never been openly confirmed or denied however, due to Israel's policy of deliberate ambiguity.  An Israeli nuclear installation is located about ten kilometers to the south of Dimona, the Negev Nuclear Research Center. Its construction commenced in 1958, with French assistance. The official reason given by the Israeli and French governments was to build a nuclear reactor to power a "desalination plant", in order to "green the Negev". The purpose of the Dimona plant is widely assumed to be the manufacturing of nuclear weapons, and the majority of defense experts have concluded that it does in fact do that. However, the Israeli government refuses to confirm or deny this publicly, a policy it refers to as "ambiguity".  Norway sold 20 tonnes of heavy water needed for the reactor to Israel in 1959 and 1960 in a secret deal. There were no "safeguards" required in this deal to prevent usage of the heavy water for non-peaceful purposes. The British newspaper "Daily Express" accused Israel of working on a bomb in 1960. When the United States intelligence community discovered the purpose of the Dimona plant in the early 1960s,

Nuclear arms control in South Asia.

The public stance of the two states on non-proliferation differs markedly. Pakistan has initiated a series of regional security proposals. It has repeatedly proposed a nuclear free zone in South Asia and has proclaimed its willingness to engage in nuclear disarmament and to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty if India would do so. It has endorsed a United States proposal for a regional five power conference to consider non-proliferation in South Asia.  India has taken the view that solutions to regional security issues should be found at the international rather than the regional

NPT signatories.

Egypt.

In 2004 and 2005, Egypt disclosed past undeclared nuclear activities and material to the IAEA. In 2007 and 2008, high enriched and low enriched

Iran.

In 2003, the IAEA reported that Iran had been in breach of its obligations to comply with provisions of its safeguard agreement. In 2005, the IAEA Board of Governors voted in a rare non-consensus decision to find Iran in non-compliance with its NPT Safeguards Agreement and to report that non-compliance to the UN Security Council. In response, the UN Security Council passed a series of resolutions

Iraq.

Up to the late 1980s it was generally assumed that any undeclared nuclear activities would have to be based on the diversion of nuclear material from safeguards. States acknowledged the possibility of nuclear activities entirely separate from those covered by safeguards, but it was assumed they would be detected by national intelligence activities. There was no particular effort by IAEA to attempt to detect them.  Iraq had been making efforts to secure a nuclear potential since the 1960s. In the late 1970s a specialised plant, Osiraq, was constructed

Libya.

Libya possesses ballistic missiles and previously pursued nuclear weapons under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi. On 19 December 2003, Gaddafi announced that Libya would voluntarily eliminate all materials, equipment and programs that could lead to internationally proscribed weapons, including weapons of mass destruction and long-range ballistic missiles. Libya signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Myanmar.

A report in the "Sydney Morning Herald" and "Searchina", a Japanese newspaper, report that two Myanma defectors saying that the Myanmar junta was secretly building a nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction facility with North Korea's help, with the aim of acquiring its first nuclear bomb in five years. According to the report, "The secret complex, much of it in caves tunnelled into a mountain at Naung Laing in northern Burma, runs parallel to a civilian reactor being built at another site by Russia that both the Russians and Burmese say will be put under international safeguards." In 2002, Myanmar had notified IAEA of its intention to pursue a civilian nuclear programme. Later, Russia announced that it would build a nuclear reactor

North Korea.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) acceded to the NPT in 1985 as a condition for the supply of a nuclear power station by the USSR. However, it delayed concluding its NPT Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, a process which should take only 18 months, until April 1992.  During that period, it brought into operation a small gas-cooled, graphite-moderated, natural-uranium (metal) fuelled "Experimental Power Reactor" of about 25 MWt (5 MWe), based on the UK Magnox design. While this was a well-suited design to start a wholly indigenous nuclear reactor development, it also exhibited all the features of a small plutonium production reactor for weapons purposes. North Korea also made substantial progress in the construction of two larger reactors designed on the same principles, a prototype of about 200 MWt (50 MWe), and a full-scale version of about 800 MWt (200 MWe). They made only slow progress; construction halted on both in 1994 and has not resumed. Both reactors

Russia.

Security of nuclear weapons in Russia remains a matter of concern. According to high-ranking Russian SVR defector Tretyakov, he had a meeting with two Russian businessman representing a state-created "C-W" corporation in 1991. They came up with a project of destroying large quantities of chemical wastes collected from Western countries at the island of

South Africa.

In 1991, South Africa acceded to the NPT, concluded a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA, and submitted a report on its nuclear material subject to safeguards. At the time, the state had a nuclear power programme producing nearly 10% of the country's electricity, whereas Iraq and North Korea only had research reactors.  The IAEA's initial verification

Syria.

On 6 September 2007, Israel bombed an officially unidentified site in Syria which it later asserted was a nuclear reactor under construction ("see Operation Outside the Box"). The alleged reactor was not asserted to be operational and it was not asserted that nuclear material had been introduced into it. Syria said the site was a military site and was not involved in any nuclear activities. The IAEA requested Syria to provide further access to the site and any other locations where the debris and equipment from the building had been stored. Syria denounced what it called the Western "fabrication and forging of facts" in regards to the incident. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei criticized the strikes and deplored that information regarding the matter had not been shared with his agency earlier.

Breakout capability.

For a state that does not possess nuclear weapons, the capability

Arguments for and against proliferation.

There has been much debate in the academic study of International Security as to the advisability of proliferation. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gen. Pierre Marie Gallois of France, an adviser to Charles DeGaulle, argued in books like "The Balance of Terror: Strategy for the Nuclear Age" (1961) that mere possession of a nuclear arsenal, what the French called the "force de frappe", was enough to ensure deterrence, and thus concluded that the spread of nuclear weapons could increase international stability.  Some very prominent neo-realist scholars, such as Kenneth Waltz, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, and John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, continue to argue along the lines of Gallois in a separate development. Specifically, these scholars advocate some forms of nuclear proliferation, arguing that it will decrease the likelihood of war, especially in troubled regions of the world. Aside from the majority opinion which opposes proliferation in any form, there are two schools of thought on the matter: those, like Mearsheimer, who favor selective proliferation, and those such as Waltz, who advocate a laissez-faire attitude to programs like North Korea's.

Total proliferation.

In embryo, Waltz argues that the logic of mutually assured destruction (MAD) should work in all security environments, regardless of historical tensions or recent hostility. He sees the Cold War as the ultimate proof of MAD logic—the only occasion when enmity between

Selective proliferation.

John Mearsheimer would not support Waltz's optimism in the majority of potential instances; however, he has argued for nuclear proliferation as policy in certain places, such as post–Cold War Europe. In two famous articles, Professor Mearsheimer opines that Europe is bound to return to its pre–Cold War environment of regular conflagration and suspicion at some point in the future. He advocates arming both Germany and Ukraine with nuclear weaponry in order to achieve a balance of power between these states in the east

Arguments against both positions.

There are numerous arguments presented against both selective and total proliferation, generally targeting the very neorealist assumptions (such as the primacy of military security in state agendas, the weakness of international institutions, and the long-run unimportance of economic integration and globalization to state strategy) its proponents tend to make. With respect to Mearsheimer's specific example of Europe, many economists and neoliberals argue that the economic integration of Europe through the development of the European Union has made war in most of the European continent so disastrous economically so as to serve as an effective deterrent. Constructivists take this one step further, frequently arguing that the development of EU political institutions has led or will lead to the development of a nascent European identity, which most states on the European continent wish to partake in to some degree or another, and which makes all states within or aspiring to be within the EU regard war between them as unthinkable.  As for Waltz, the general opinion

Proliferation begets proliferation.

Proliferation begets proliferation is a concept described by Scott Sagan in his article, "Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons?". This concept can be described as a strategic chain reaction. If one state produces a nuclear weapon it creates almost a domino effect within the region. States in the region will seek to acquire nuclear weapons to balance or eliminate the security threat. Sagan describes this reaction best in his article when he states, “Every time one state develops nuclear weapons to balance against its main rival, it also creates a nuclear threat to another region, which then has to initiate its own nuclear weapons program to maintain its national security”. Going back through history we can see how this has taken place. When the United States demonstrated that it had nuclear power capabilities after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Russians started to develop their program in preparation for the Cold War. With the Russian military buildup, France and the United Kingdom perceived this as a security threat and therefore they pursued nuclear weapons (Sagan, p. 71). Even though proliferation causes proliferation, this does not guarantee that other states will successfully develop nuclear weapons because the economic stability of a state plays an important role on whether the state will successfully be able to acquire nuclear weapons. The article written by Dong-Jong Joo and Erik Gartzke discusses how the economy of a country determines whether they will successfully acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been a frequent critic of the concept of "nuclear apartheid" as it has been put into practice by several countries, particularly the United States. In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Ahmadinejad said that Iran was "against 'nuclear apartheid,' which means some have the right to possess it, use the fuel, and then sell it to another country for 10 times its value. We're against that. We say clean energy is

India.

India has also been discussed in the context of "nuclear apartheid". India has consistently attempted to pass measures that would call for full international disarmament, however they have not succeeded due to protests from those states that already have nuclear weapons. In light of this, India viewed nuclear weapons as a necessary right for all nations as long as certain states were still in possession of nuclear weapons. India stated that nuclear issues were directly related to national security.  Years before India's first underground nuclear test in 1998, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was passed. Some have argued that coercive language was used in an attempt to persuade India to sign the treaty, which was pushed for heavily by neighboring China. India viewed the treaty as a means for countries that already had nuclear weapons, primarily the five nations of the United Nations Security Council, to keep their weapons while ensuring that no other nations could develop them.

Security guarantees.

In their article, "The Correlates of Nuclear Proliferation," Sonali Singh and Christopher R. Way argue that states protected by a security guarantee from a great power, particularly if backed by the "nuclear umbrella" of extended deterrence,

Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT. Proliferation has been opposed by many nations with and without nuclear weapons, as governments fear that more countries with nuclear weapons will increase the possibility of nuclear warfare (up to and including the so-called countervalue targeting of civilians with nuclear weapons), de-stabilize international or regional relations, or infringe upon the national sovereignty of states.

核武器扩散是指地球上越来越多国家拥有核武器且核武总数越来越多的状态,其带来的政治、军事、经济相关变化和问题。垂直扩散指的是一个国家同时增加核武器的种类多样性和数量,例如发生在冷战时美国和苏联之间;水平扩散指的是以往没有的国家拥有了核武。


Statistical setting.

Suppose we have pairs formula_1 taking values in formula_2, where is the class label of, so that formula_3 for formula_4 (and probability distributions formula_5). Given some norm formula_6 on formula_7 and a point formula_8, let formula_9 be a reordering of the training data such that formula_10

Algorithm.

The training examples are vectors in a multidimensional feature space, each with a class label. The training phase of the algorithm consists only of storing the feature vectors and class labels of the training samples.  In the classification phase, "k" is a user-defined constant, and an unlabeled vector (a query or test point) is classified by assigning the label which is most frequent among the "k" training samples nearest to that query point.  A commonly used distance metric for continuous variables is Euclidean distance. For discrete variables, such as for text classification, another metric can be used, such as the overlap metric (or Hamming distance). In the context of gene expression microarray data, for example, "k"-NN has been employed with correlation coefficients, such as Pearson and Spearman, as a metric. Often, the classification accuracy of "k"-NN can be improved significantly if the distance metric is learned with specialized algorithms such as Large Margin Nearest Neighbor or Neighbourhood components analysis.  A drawback of the basic "majority voting" classification occurs when the class distribution is skewed. That is, examples of a more frequent class tend to dominate the prediction of the new example, because they tend to be common among the "k" nearest neighbors due to their large number. One way to overcome this problem is to weight the classification, taking into account the distance from the test point to each of its "k" nearest neighbors. The class (or value, in regression problems) of each of the "k" nearest points is multiplied by a weight proportional to the inverse of the distance from that point to the test point. Another way to overcome skew is by abstraction in data representation. For example, in a self-organizing map (SOM), each node is a representative (a center) of a cluster of similar points, regardless of their density in the original training data. "K"-NN can then be applied to the SOM.

Parameter selection.

The best choice of "k" depends upon the data; generally, larger values of "k" reduces effect of the noise on the classification, but make boundaries between classes less distinct. A good "k" can be selected by various heuristic techniques (see hyperparameter optimization). The special case where the class is predicted to be the class of the closest training sample (i.e. when "k" = 1) is called the nearest neighbor algorithm.  The accuracy of the "k"-NN algorithm can be severely degraded by the presence of noisy or irrelevant features, or if the feature scales are not consistent with their importance. Much research effort has been put into selecting or scaling features to improve classification. A particularly popular approach is the use of evolutionary algorithms to optimize feature scaling. Another popular approach is to scale features by the mutual information of the training data with the training classes.  In binary (two class) classification problems, it is helpful to choose "k" to be an odd number as this avoids tied votes. One popular way of choosing the empirically optimal "k" in this setting is via bootstrap method.

The -nearest neighbor classifier.

The most intuitive nearest neighbour type classifier is the one nearest neighbour classifier that assigns a point to the class of its closest neighbour in the feature space, that is formula_11.  As the size of training data set approaches infinity, the one nearest neighbour classifier guarantees an error rate of no worse than twice the Bayes error rate (the minimum achievable error rate given the distribution of the data).

The weighted nearest neighbour classifier.

The -nearest neighbour classifier can be viewed as assigning the nearest neighbours a weight formula_12 and all others weight. This can be generalised to weighted nearest neighbour classifiers. That is, where the th nearest neighbour is assigned a weight formula_13, with formula_14. An analogous result on the strong consistency of weighted nearest neighbour classifiers also holds.  Let formula_15 denote the weighted nearest classifier with weights formula_16. Subject to regularity conditions on the class distributions the excess risk has the following asymptotic expansion for constants formula_18 and formula_19 where formula_20 and formula_21.  The optimal weighting scheme formula_22, that balances the two terms in the display above, is given as follows: set formula_23,  With optimal weights the dominant term in the asymptotic expansion of the excess risk is formula_28. Similar results are true when using a bagged nearest neighbour classifier.

Properties.

"k"-NN is a special case of a variable-bandwidth, kernel density "balloon" estimator with a uniform kernel. The naive version of the algorithm is easy to implement by computing the distances from the test example to all stored examples, but it is computationally intensive for large training sets. Using an approximate nearest neighbor search algorithm makes "k-"NN computationally tractable even for large data sets. Many nearest neighbor search algorithms have been proposed over the years; these generally seek to reduce the number of distance evaluations actually performed.  "k-"NN has some strong consistency results. As the amount of data approaches infinity, the two-class "k-"NN algorithm is guaranteed to yield an error rate no worse than twice the Bayes error rate (the minimum achievable error rate given the distribution of the data). Various improvements to the "k"-NN speed are possible by using proximity graphs.  For multi-class "k-"NN classification, Cover and Hart (1967) prove an upper bound error rate of  where formula_30is the Bayes error rate (which is the minimal error rate possible), formula_31 is the "k-"NN error rate, and is the number of classes in the problem. For formula_32 and as the Bayesian error rate formula_30 approaches zero, this limit reduces to "not more than twice the Bayesian error rate".

Error rates.

There are many results on the error rate of the nearest neighbour classifiers. The -nearest neighbour classifier is strongly (that is for any joint distribution on formula_34) consistent provided formula_35 diverges and formula_36 converges to zero as formula_37.  Let formula_38 denote the nearest neighbour classifier based on a training set of size. Under certain regularity conditions, the excess risk yields the following asymptotic expansion for some constants formula_40 and formula_41.  The choice formula_23 offers a trade off between the two terms in the above display, for which the formula_43-nearest neighbour error converges to the Bayes error at the optimal (minimax) rate formula_28.

Metric learning.

The K-nearest neighbor classification performance can often be significantly improved through (supervised) metric learning. Popular algorithms are neighbourhood components analysis and large margin nearest neighbor. Supervised metric learning algorithms use the label information to learn a new metric or pseudo-metric.

Feature extraction.

When the input data to an algorithm is too large to be processed and it is suspected to be redundant (e.g. the same measurement in both feet and meters) then the input data will be transformed into a reduced representation set of features (also named features vector). Transforming the input data into the set of features is called feature extraction. If the features extracted are carefully chosen it is expected that the features set will extract the relevant information from the input data in order to perform the desired task using this reduced representation instead of the full size input. Feature extraction is performed on raw data prior to applying "k"-NN algorithm on the transformed data in feature space.  An example of a typical computer vision computation pipeline for face recognition using "k"-NN including feature extraction and dimension reduction pre-processing steps (usually implemented with OpenCV):

Dimension reduction.

For high-dimensional data (e.g., with number of dimensions more than 10) dimension reduction is usually performed prior to applying the "k"-NN algorithm in order to avoid the effects of the curse of dimensionality. The curse of dimensionality in the "k"-NN context basically means that Euclidean distance is unhelpful in high dimensions because all vectors are almost equidistant to the search query vector (imagine multiple points lying more or less on a circle with the query point at the center; the distance from the query to all data points in the search space is almost the same).  Feature extraction and dimension reduction can be combined in one step using principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), or canonical correlation analysis (CCA) techniques as a pre-processing step, followed by clustering by "k"-NN on feature vectors in reduced-dimension space. In machine learning this process is also called low-dimensional embedding.  For very-high-dimensional datasets (e.g. when performing a similarity search on live video streams, DNA data or high-dimensional time series) running a fast approximate "k"-NN search using locality sensitive hashing, "random projections", "sketches" or other high-dimensional similarity search techniques from the VLDB toolbox might be the only feasible option.

Decision boundary.

Nearest neighbor rules in effect implicitly compute the decision boundary. It is also possible to compute the decision boundary explicitly, and to do so efficiently, so that the computational complexity is a function of the boundary complexity.

Data reduction.

Data reduction is one of the most important problems for work with huge data sets. Usually, only some of the data points are needed for accurate classification. Those data are called the "prototypes" and can be found as follows:

Selection of class-outliers.

A training example surrounded by examples of other classes is called a class outlier. Causes of class outliers include:  Class outliers with "k"-NN produce noise. They can be detected and separated for future analysis. Given two natural numbers, "k>r>0", a training example is called a "(k,r)"NN class-outlier if its "k" nearest neighbors include more than "r" examples of other classes.

CNN for data reduction.

Condensed nearest neighbor (CNN, the "Hart algorithm") is an algorithm designed to reduce the data set for "k"-NN classification. It selects the set of prototypes "U" from the training data, such that 1NN with "U" can classify the examples almost as accurately as 1NN does with the whole data set.  Given a training set "X", CNN works iteratively:  Use "U" instead of "X" for classification. The examples that are not prototypes are called "absorbed" points.  It is efficient to scan the training examples in order of decreasing border ratio. The border ratio of a training example "x" is defined as  where is the distance to the closest example "y" having a different color than "x", and is the distance from "y" to its closest example "x' " with the same label as "x".  The border ratio is in the interval [0,1] because never exceeds. This ordering gives preference to the borders of the classes for inclusion in the set of prototypes "U". A point of a different label than "x" is called external to "x". The calculation of the border ratio is illustrated by the figure on the right. The data points are labeled by colors: the initial point is "x" and its label is red. External points are blue and green. The closest to "x" external point is "y". The closest to "y" red point is "x' ". The border ratio is the attribute of the initial point "x".  Below is an illustration of CNN in a series of figures. There are three classes (red, green and blue). Fig. 1: initially there are 60 points in each class. Fig. 2 shows the 1NN classification map: each pixel is classified by 1NN using all the data. Fig. 3 shows the 5NN classification map. White areas correspond to the unclassified regions, where 5NN voting is tied (for example, if there are two green, two red and one blue points among 5 nearest neighbors). Fig. 4 shows the reduced data set. The crosses are the class-outliers selected by the (3,2)NN rule (all the three nearest neighbors of these instances belong to other classes); the squares are the prototypes, and the empty circles are the absorbed points. The left bottom corner shows the numbers of the class-outliers, prototypes and absorbed points for all three classes. The number of prototypes varies from 15% to 20% for different classes in this example. Fig. 5 shows that the 1NN classification map with the prototypes is very similar to that with the initial data set. The figures were produced using the Mirkes applet.

"k"-NN regression.

In "k"-NN regression, the "k"-NN algorithm is used for estimating continuous variables. One such algorithm uses a weighted average of the "k" nearest neighbors, weighted by the inverse of their distance. This algorithm works as follows:

"k"-NN outlier.

The distance to the "k"th nearest neighbor can also be seen as a local density estimate and thus is also a popular outlier score in anomaly detection. The larger the distance to the "k"-NN, the lower the local density, the more likely the query point is an outlier. Although quite simple, this outlier model, along with another classic data mining method, local outlier factor, works quite well also in comparison to more recent and more complex approaches, according to a large scale experimental analysis.

Validation of results.

A confusion matrix or "matching matrix" is often used as a tool to validate the accuracy of "k"-NN classification. More robust statistical methods such as likelihood-ratio test can also be applied.

In pattern recognition, the k"-nearest neighbors algorithm (k"-NN) is a non-parametric method proposed by Thomas Cover used for classification and regression. In both cases, the input consists of the "k" closest training examples in the feature space. The output depends on whether "k"-NN is used for classification or regression:

在模式识别领域中,最近邻居法(KNN算法,又译K-近邻算法)是一种用于分类和回归的无母数统计方法。在这两种情况下,输入包含特征空间(机器学习)(Feature Space)中的k个最接近的训练样本。


Geography.

Territory.

Brenner lies about north of the city of Bolzano. The municipality is named after the Brenner Pass, whose summit marks the border between Italy and Austria.  Brenner borders the following municipalities: Pfitsch (Italy), Ratschings (Italy), Sterzing (Italy), Gries am Brenner (Austria), Gschnitz (Austria), Neustift im Stubaital (Austria) and Obernberg am Brenner (Austria).

Frazioni.

The municipality of Brenner contains the "frazioni" (parishes) of Brennerbad (Terme di Brennero), Gossensaß (Colle Isarco), Pflersch (Fleres) and Pontigl (Ponticolo).  "Gossensaß" () is the main village of the "municipality". It dates back 4000 years, reflecting its position as a place to prepare for the Brenner Pass. In the 15th and 16th century, Gossensaß prospered due to silver mining. Today Gossensaß benefits from the local tourism, especially during the winter when the ski resort in Ladurns is open.

History.

Origin.

The Breuni were a people who lived in the Eisacktal and in the Brenner region on both sides of the pass until the 9th century. The place, after the Roman Conquest in 15 BC, was called "Vibidena", and the only road was a track. The Romans built a military road in the 2nd century, milestone of Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus and Caracalla period were found in the region and in the 3rd century the Romans completed the Retica road. In 565 Venantius Fortunatus mentioned in his writings the "Saint Valentine" temple that later became a church; in the Middle Ages it was restored in Romanesque style, in 1500 in Gothic, then in Baroque. In the period of the barbaric migrations, approximately in 590 the region was invaded by Baiuvarii, the place declined, however 66 German Sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire, from 960 to 1530 and among them, in 1154, Frederick I, also known as Barbarossa (meaning Red Beard), passed through Brenner as he headed towards the Pope in Rome.  In about 1,000 A.D., a permanent village was settled with the name of "Oberes Mittewald" while "Prenner" is mentioned in 1288. During the 14th and 15th centuries the village was busy with the traffic and the trade connected with the pass and a new carriage was built in 1314 while in 1414 the Count of Tyrol established a Customs in order to check the goods in transit. The two historic inhabited places of the village were the "Saint Valentine" church, the "Post Hotel" and few other houses on the south side, the "Kerschbaumer Hotel", "Griesberg" and "Venn" on the north, nowadays in Austria. The old carriage was enlarged and the tracing modified in 1740 in order to have a comfortable road; Goethe, on 8 September 1786, on his journey to Italy stopped in Brenner at "Post Hotel".  The construction of the Brenner railway, between Innsbruck and Bolzano through the Brenner Pass, began on 23 February 1864 at Bergisel (Innsbruck) and the building involved the village with hundreds of workers who lived there for three years. The railway transformed the planimetry of the village; some houses were destroyed to make room for a new area, 600 meters long, regarding the station and the other infrastructures connected with the railway itself. On 25 July 1867 at 8.05 the first train departed from Brenner station directed to Bozen though the official opening would be August 24; the railway opened a new era for the village with the arrival of travellers and tourism. At Brenner Bad (Thermal baths), few miles south of the village, a "Grand Hotel", with a train stop, was built and attracted a new class of tourists until the beginning of the first World War.  On 26 April 1915 the Treaty of London assigned to Italy the South Tyrol, from Trent to Brenner, and on 10 November 1918, at the end of the war, Italian troops arrived at Brenner. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed on 10 September 1919 and just at Brenner the new boundary line was traced.

Coat-of-arms.

The shield is party per pale: the first is a miner holding a hammer in his right hand and a lamp in his left, on a vert hill with a gules background; the second part is tierced per fess in argent, azure and or. The emblem was adopted in 1906.

Main sights.

Religious architecture.

Brenner Parish church “Hl. Valentin und Maria am Wege”.

The new modern church was built between 1958 and 1962 on project of Luis Plattner. The altar piece is a creation by Max Spielmann and represent “Saint Mary of the road” to whom the church is dedicated. The font and the way of the Cross are by Maria Delago while the stained glass windows were created by Hans Prünster.

Gossensaß Parish church “Maria Unbefleckte Empfängnis”.

The church is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and was built in 1750 on the same place of the old gothic church erected in 1471 and dedicated to Saint George of which remains the bell tower. The church was built on design of in baroque, it is possible a former project by Johann G. D. Grasmair. The church was consecrated on July 4 and 5, 1754 by bishop Leopold von Spaur. The front shows the portal of the old church and the three niches in which are placed the statues of the Immaculate Conception, Joachim and Saint Anne. The nave has a cross shape with two arms forming four lateral chapels. The high altar is rich in golden shades and at the centre of the throne is placed the statue of the Immaculate with the child was installed on April 23, 1752 by Josepf Stapf. The four statues are: St. George, St. Stephen, St. Lawrence and St. Florien. To the left side, between the two lateral chapels, is the baroque pulpit of 1777 positioned in a central site. To the right side between the two lateral chapels is a Crucifix by Bartlmä Kleinhans. The first right lateral altar is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows encircled by the statues of Mary Magdalene, Saint Elisabeth and Saint James works of 1750. The second right lateral altar is dedicated to Francis Xavier and two Bishops: Saint Ingenuinus and coming from the old Saint George church. The first left lateral altar is the Flagellation of Christ at the column and the Saints Peter and John on each side. To the second left lateral altar is Saint Leonard, by side are the statues of Saint Sylvester, Saint Gregory and Saint Barbara coming from the old church. The eastern dome fresco is works by Matthäus Günther and represents the Christ crowning Mary and Saint George throwing the pierced dragon downwards.

Pflersch Parish church “Hl. Antonius Abt”.

The first church was mentioned the first time in 1418 and was dedicated to St. Anthony Abbot. The church was enlarged in 1482, restored in 1740 and underwent major changes in 1810 when it was removed the Gothic style. The church was re-built once again between 1880 and 1888 in Romanesque style. The church has a single nave and two lateral altars beside the high altar. The first priest was assigned in 1737, a curate in 1755 and became an autonomous parish in 1891.

Society.

Linguistic distribution.

According to the 2011 census, 80.86% of the population speak German, 18.64% Italian and 0.50% Ladin as first language.<ref name="Volkszählung 2011/Censimento della popolazione 2011"></ref>

Demographic evolution.

Population over time :

Brenner (; ; Ladin: "Prëner") is a "comune" in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about north of Bolzano on the border with Tyrol, Austria.

布伦内罗(;;拉登语:),是意大利北部波尔扎诺自治省的一个市镇,位于其省会波尔查诺的北方约60公里处。总面积114.3平方公里,人口2118人,人口密度18.5人/平方公里(2009年)。ISTAT代码为021010。