Leveraging locational insights within retail store development? Assessing the use of location planners’ knowledge in retail marketing

The retail geography literature has long recognised the importance of spatial and catchment analysis to inform decision-making relating to store development. However, less attention has been directed to store development “in practice” and, more specifically, how location research and geographical knowledge is leveraged across the wider retail business – in particular informing the marketing function. Through the use of a semi-structured interview and focus group methodology involving approximately 40 location planning, property and marketing analysts, we find that while some larger retailers have established close links between store development and marketing functions in the exchange of catchment, customer, competitor and loyalty card data to inform local marketing, product ranging, promotional mailings and post-opening store performance reviews, this tends to be the exception rather than the rule. We suggest there is a need for location planners to develop their intra-organisational legitimacy to engender a culture of knowledge-sharing and challenge the departmentalised, silo cultures that exist within some retailers in order to better leverage geographical insights and assist in the realisation of appropriate customer propositions and marketing strategies.     

DXL: a sounding rocket mission for the study of solar wind charge exchange and local hot bubble X-ray emission

The Diffuse X-rays from the Local galaxy (DXL) mission is an approved sounding rocket project with a first launch scheduled around December 2012. Its goal is to identify and separate the X-ray emission generated by solar wind charge exchange from that of the local hot bubble to improve our understanding of both. With 1,000 cm² proportional counters and grasp of about 10 cm² sr both in the 1/4 and 3/4 keV bands, DXL will achieve in a 5-min flight what cannot be achieved by current and future X-ray satellites.     

Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement and the costs of delayed action

Current country-level commitments under the Paris Agreement fall short of putting the world on a required trajectory to stay below a 2°C temperature increase compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Therefore, the timing of increased ambition is hugely important and as such this paper analyses the impact of both the short and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement on global emissions and economic growth. Using the hybrid TIAM-UCL-MSA model we consider the achievement of a 2°C target against a baseline of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) while also considering the timing of increased ambition of the NDCs by 2030 and the impacts of cost reductions of key low-carbon technologies. We find that the rate of emissions reduction ambition required between 2030 and 2050 is almost double when the NDCs are achieved but not ratcheted up until 2030, and leads to lower levels of economic growth throughout the rest of the century. However, if action is taken immediately and is accompanied by increasingly rapid low-carbon technology cost reductions, then there is almost no difference in GDP compared to the path suggested by the current NDC commitments.

Key policy insights

• Delaying the additional action needed to achieve the 2°C target until 2030 is shown to require twice the rate of emissions reductions between 2030 and 2050.

• Total cumulative GDP over the century is lower when additional action is delayed to 2030 and therefore has an overall negative impact on the economy, even without including climate change damages.

• Increased ratcheting of the NDC commitments should therefore be undertaken sooner rather than later, starting in conjunction with the 2023 Global Stocktake.

• Early action combined with cost reductions in key renewable energy technologies can reduce GDP losses to minimal levels (<1%).

• A 2°C future with technological advancements is clearly possible for a similar cost as a 3.3°C world without these advances, but with lower damages and losses from climate change.

     

Advancing understanding in data-limited conditions: estimating contributions to streamflow across Tanzania’s rapidly developing Kilombero Valley

Large seasonal variability in precipitation patterns may help overcome data limitations and difficult conditions when characterizing hydrological flow pathways. We used a limited amount of weekly water chemistry as well as stable water isotope data to perform end-member mixing analysis (EMMA) in a generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) framework in a sub-catchment of the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. While there were considerable uncertainties related to the characterization and mixing of end-members, some robust estimates could be made on contributions to seasonal streamflow variability. For example, there is a low connectivity between the deep groundwater and the stream system throughout the year. Also, a considerable wetting-up period is required before overland flow occurs. Thus, in spite of large uncertainties, our results highlight how improved system understanding of hydrological flows can be obtained even when working in difficult environments.