FISHERIES MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND THE MDGS: PAST EXPERIENCE AND FUTURE VISION
This paper examines the eleven year Department for International Development funded Fisheries Management Science Programme as a model to explore how fisheries management science can contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It describes how the Programme strategy was able to adapt to a changing policy environment and local needs and demands for research in order to achieve these goals. It describes a research portfolio that addresses a number of themes contributing to achieving ecologically and economically sustainable fisheries that can support and maintain fisheries associated livelihoods. These themes include policy information required to support fisheries; the information systems needed to involve fishers, particularly the poor, in the comanagement of fishery resources; fisheries assessment methods and how these can be integrated within pro-poor capture fisheries management strategies; and, the role that enhancement fisheries can play in poverty alleviation. The paper concludes by highlighting what more needs to be done, building on the achievements of the FMSP, and outlining a vision for the future.
Assessing the impacts of fisheries management science: a review of the Department for International Development's fisheries management science programme
A central objective for the UK Department for International Development (DFID)-funded research on renewable natural resource systems has been that the research commissioned results in significant positive developmental impacts. This paper examines how the DFID-funded Fisheries Management Science Programme has approached the assessment of the impact achieved through the projects it has commissioned. Fisheries pose a particular challenge for the attribution of impact and a variety of approaches to impact assessment are required, as the systems are characteristically complex, dynamic and heterogeneous. Typically fishery systems operate across multiple scales, involving a wide range of stakeholders with different, and sometimes conflicting, objectives. The paper describes the model and methods that were employed and highlights some of the developmental impact of fisheries management research achieved by projects commissioned during the 11 years of the programme. The lessons learned regarding uptake, adoption and impact assessment should be of interest both to researchers and those funding developmental research.
Influence of pressure and fluidization velocity on the hydrodynamics of a fluidized bed containing horizontal tubes
Abstract An experimental investigation of the influence of horizontal tubes on the bubble behaviour and through-flow velocity of gas inside bubbles was carried out and the influence of pressure and fluidization velocity was studied. The visible bubble flow rate and the gas velocity through the bubbles were measured simultaneously in a pressurized fluidized bed, using capacitance and Pitot-static pressures probes respectively. Silica sand with a mean particle diameter of 0.7 mm was fluidized at pressures between 01. and 1.6 MPa, in a bed of 0.2 × 0.3 m cross-section. Six different horizontal tube configurations were used and comparisons were made with results obtained in the same bed operated without tubes. The results from the bed with tubes show that the influence of pressure and fluidization velocity is basically the same as in the bed without tubes; an increase in pressure and fluidization velocity increases the bubble activity. At low excess gas velocities, the influence of immersed tubes on the bubble behaviour is less pronounced than at high excess gas velocities. Measurements and visual observations show that a small tube pitch gives a more uniform distribution of the visible bubble flow over the bed cross-section. At a combination of high pressure, high excess gas velocity and a large tube pitch, a preferred bubble path was observed in the centre of the bed cross-section. The pressure probe measurements show that the through-flow velocity of gas inside the bubbles is in most cases higher when tubes are present in the bed. The through-flow velocity consistently decreases with increasing pressure in the bed without tubes. The tendency is largely the same at a low excess gas velocity when tubes are present, but at a high excess gas velocity the through-flow velocity first decreases and then increases as the pressure is increased.