The growth in technology on autonomous transportation systems is currently motivating a number of research initiatives. This paper first presents a survey of the literature on autonomous marine vessels in general. By identifying the main research interests in this field, we define nine thematic...

This paper introduces an application of R programming language for geostatistical data processing with a case study of the Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean. The formation of the Mariana Trench, the deepest among all hadal oceanic depth trenches, is caused by complex and diverse geomorphic factors...

An approach to analyse and quantify the impact of lifestyle factors on current and future energy demand is developed. Thereby not only directly environmentally relevant consumer activities such as car use or heating have been analysed, but also expenditure patterns which induce environmental...

This paper reviews fundamental concepts in environmental economics and explores theoretical results regarding the choice of the key policy instruments for the control of externalities: taxes, subsidies and marketable permits. The paper explains why today market mechanisms are increasingly being...

In this study we analyze the impact of a radical change in nuclear electricity costs on the optimal electricity generation technology mix (EGTM) and constrain the value of information (VOI) on future nuclear costs. We consider three nuclear cost events and four carbon emissions caps. We develop...

The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a cap and trade system to curb CO2 emissions. It has caused both direct costs (CO2 allowances) and indirect costs (higher electricity prices) to energy-intensive industries. Moreover, as there is no global CO2 agreement, the ETS could distort the...

Relying on Pigou's view, environmental taxes increase the costs of polluting activities reflecting in this way the true social cost imposed to society by the caused environmental damage by these activities. The total pollution cost (TPC) is defined by adding up the marginal abatement (MAC) and...

This paper, by using conditional directional distance functions as introduced by Simar and Vanhems [J. Econometrics 166 (2012) 342-354] modifies the model by Färe and Grosskopf [Eur. J. Operat. Res. 157 (2004) 242-245], examines the link between regional environmental efficiency and economic...

This thesis focuses on two statistical problems related to credit scoring. In credit scoring of individuals, two classes are distinguished, namely low and high risk individuals (the so-called "good" and "bad" risk classes). Firstly, we suggest a measure which may be used to study the nature of a...

The estimation of standard errors is essential to statistical inference. Statistical variability is inherent within data, but is usually of secondary interest; still, some options exist to deal with this variability. One approach is to carefully model the covariance structure. Another approach...