Directorate General of Traffic

Abstract In June 2020, the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean Basin were affected by a series of African dust outbreaks unprecedented in size and intensity. These events, informally named “Godzilla,” coincided with CALIMA, a large field campaign, offering a rare opportunity to assess the impact of African dust on air quality in the Greater Caribbean Basin. Network measurements of respirable particles (i.e., PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) showed that dust significantly degraded regional air quality and increased the risk to public health in the Caribbean, the southern United States, northern South America, and Central America. CALIMA examined the meteorological context of Godzilla dust events over North Africa and how these conditions might relate to the greatly increased dust emissions and enhanced transport to the Americas. Godzilla was linked to strong pressure anomalies over West Africa, resulting in a large-scale geostrophic wind anomaly at 700 hPa over North Africa. We used surface-based and columnar measurements to test the performance of two frequently used aerosol forecast models: the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) and Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) models. The models showed some skills but differed substantially between their forecasts, suggesting large uncertainties in these forecasts that are critical for issuing early warnings of health-threatening dust events. Our results demonstrate the value of an integrated approach in characterizing the spatial and temporal variability of African dust transport and assessing its impact on regional air quality. Future studies are needed to improve models and to track the long-term changes in dust transport from Africa under a changing climate.

En este texto se examinan las respuestas normativas a las que se ha llegado en Italia con el fin de lograr un equilibrio entre el derecho a la información y la investigación, por una parte, y el derecho a la protección de los datos personales, por otra. Este problema extremadamente complejo no tiene una solución sencilla. A partir de la experiencia italiana, se reflexiona en torno al necesario equilibrio siempre provisorio y perfectible entre la necesidad de defender los derechos individuales de la persona y el derecho a la información.

Bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves towing of nets along the seafloor to catch demersal species. The dragging of trawling gears along the seafloor results in scraping and ploughing of the surficial sediments, leading to the formation of turbid plumes of resuspended sediments and causing measurable changes in the seabed morphology. High-resolution multibeam data, side scan sonar, sediment grain size and vessel tracking data have been used to investigate the impact of bottom trawling on the seafloor morphology and surficial sediments of the northern Catalan continental shelf (NW Mediterranean), providing new insights into the impact of this anthropogenic activity on the seafloor. Multibeam data evidenced the occurrence of large-scale erosive features as a consequence of repeated scouring by fishing gears in localized areas. They are characterized by elongated (70-300 m wide and up to 8 km long) channelized areas of high backscatter with variable incision (from 0.2 m to 1.2 m). The spatial distribution of these morphologies shows a similar pattern to that observed in the fishing intensity, with maximum values in the areas of increased trawling intensity, corresponding to the main fishing grounds. Side scan sonar data also shows higher densities of trawl marks in these areas than in the surroundings. Sediment cores collected on these features show an upward-coarsening trend in the first 4-5 cm of the core, suggesting that part of the finer fraction resuspended by trawling is winnowed, increasing the sand content of the surface sediment. The identification of such large erosive morphologies in the main fishing grounds evidences that repeated trawling over the same fishing ground during decades can result in deep excavation of the seafloor, leading to permanent large-scale morphological changes. Furthermore, the evolution of these erosive features over a 13-year interval points towards long recovery periods after the cessation of trawling activities.

Spain has a decentralized health system that operates as a network of 17 regional health services. It is publicly funded (mainly from taxes), and provides universal, free of charge, needs-based care coverage to the resident population of Spain. The Ministry of Health is responsible for the national health planning, coordination and regulation, but other competences such as the primary jurisdiction over-operational planning, resource acquisition, allocation and provision are devolved to the regional health authorities.1 In practice the regional health services, such as the Navarre Health Service, are organized into Health Departments (each one grouping several primary health care districts of more than 5000–25 000 people each) and are responsible for providing global health access to their reference population in primary, hospital and specialized outpatient care.
\nHowever, it is worth noting that whereas the health assistance is free of charge, medicines and medical devices (including orthotics and prosthetics such as wheelchairs, hearing aids etc.) are subject to a co-payment,1 which is established on the basis of the economic income and employment status of each individual.

Actualmente se estima que el turismo accesible representa casi el 3% del PIB en Europa. Sin embargo, este sector está todavía percibido por gran parte de los operadores y de las autoridades públicas como un nicho. Por ello, el turismo accesible se encuentra actualmente desatendido y con poca presencia en las estrategias de desarrollo del turismo.Este artículo tiene como objetivo ofrecer datos reales y recientes sobre el asombroso potencial de este sector en Europa e invitar a las personas responsables del sector del turismo a tomar las soluciones necesarias para integrar la oferta de turismo accesible en los modelos y canales de comercialización y distribución de productos turísticos.La información recogida en el texto se fundamenta en el estudio llevado a cabo por la Comisión Europea entre 2012 y 2014, en los 27 Estados Miembro para evaluar el impacto económico y analizar las tendencias de viaje en lo que a turismo accesible en Europa se refiere. El estudio fue realizado por un consorcio compuesto por GfK (Bélgica), la Universidad de Surrey (Reino Unido), Neumann Consulting (Alemania) y Pro-A-Solutions en España, bajo la dirección y la supervisión de la Unidad de Políticas de Turismo de la Comisión Europea. Este estudio constituye la evaluación más completa llevada a cabo hasta ahora sobre los modelos económico, demográfico y de conducta del turismo accesible en la UE, ya sea en cuanto a la profundidad del análisis como a la cobertura geográfica.El estudio también incluye un pronóstico sobre cómo la demanda del turismo accesible aumentará de aquí a 2020, teniendo en cuenta además el envejecimiento de la población y los fl ujos turísticos de entrada a Europa. Por otro lado, analiza las principales barreras encontradas por los viajeros e incluye una recopilación de buenas prácticas y recomendaciones para los responsables políticos y la industria.El artículo también quiere disipar la percepción de que la accesibilidad turística “cuesta dinero”: en cambio, lo que sí está costando dinero cada día a los operadores y a los destinos es la falta de accesibilidad.