No abstract

We analyze the response of municipalities to the occurrence of natural disasters in terms of spending behavior, use of upper‐tier transfers and recovery, using balance sheet data of about 8,000 Italian municipalities for the period 2000–2015, and the universe of earthquakes events. We find evidence of increasing expenditure for about 12 years after the shocks, with asymmetric responses between earthquake‐related and unconditional grants, and heterogeneous flypaper effects across the country. While in northern municipalities expenditure tends to regress to pre‐earthquake levels, southern municipalities stick to higher expenditure levels when grants drop. This evidence is coupled with a faster recovery of private income and housing prices in northern municipalities.

No abstract

Global warming as a result of increasing greenhouse gas emissions is associated with a rise in the intensity and the frequency of extreme weather events (Stott, 2016) with harmful effects on human well-being, especially health and longevity. These effects are likely exacerbated by population aging that enlarges the share of the vulnerable population. The design of (costly) policy measures meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and so the potential impact on population health, relies on precise estimates of the effects of extreme weather conditions that vary over time and across space. To this end, the recent literature has shown that a decline in the mortality effects of extreme temperature is moderated by human adaptation through the adoption of

The wear of paste fill pipes is affected by a range of factors and can be difficult to predict. Tailings properties, paste mixture, pipe material and geometry as well as human factors regarding the operation of plant may all affect pipe wear. For this reason monitoring the condition of pipework through regular inspection is good practice in any paste fill infrastructure maintenance program. Recent advances in digital imaging recognition algorithms make it possible to perform real-time internal pipe measurement and image-capture to quickly collect valuable pipe condition data with minimal plant downtime. A paste pipe measuring instrument, called HoloSense, which can be lowered down vertical paste pipes is described here and examples are given of measurements from regular inspections on paste fill borehole pipes at Newmont's Tanami Gold Mine since December 2015. The instrument uses a laser source together with a holographic diffraction grating and conical mirror to illuminate the inside of the pipe with a ring of light. This ring is imaged with a centrally located camera and measurements of internal wear are determined automatically in real time and logged for later detailed analysis. The mathematical image analysis system is the main innovation with the instrument and allows measurements of pipe wear to an absolute accuracy of better than 1 mm and a resolution of 0.2 mm. Up to 360 Independent points are measured on the circumference of the ring giving an excellent resolution of wear. In the direction of the pipe axis, measurements are taken typically every 10 mm in a reconnaissance survey where the instrument is lowered down the pipe at its maximum winch speed of 0.3 m/s. By slowing down the winch speed, detailed measurements of highly worn areas give information every 1 mm in the pipe axis direction.