Business Blog

I got a question today from someone doing research on the basics of urban planning.  Here are some resources that I would recommend for researching the topic of urban planning, city planning, or urban renewal.

Encyclopedia articles

Gale Virtual Reference Library  (http://www.library.ohiou.edu/find/dictencyc.html , first link at the top of that page) When the Database opens, just search for urban planning, and you get some good encyclopedia articles from multiple sources.

Journals, magazines, and trade publications

The links below will take you to the record in Alice, our online catalog, where you will need to open the individual journals and search for topics, or simply browse issues.  You might also search in the publications for things like “trends”.

• Journal of Urban Planning and Development
• Landscape and Urban Planning
• Journal of Urban Design
• City
• Cities
• Environment and Planning
• International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
• International Planning Studies

Associations and other websites

American Planning Association

Photo Courtesy of Sebastian Nieldlich on Flickr.

I started working this evening at 6:00 P.M. and it is now 7:30.  This is what the last hour-and-a-half has looked like.  It’s been a whole lot of fun answering tons of business questions.  Keep the questions coming!!  I’m here until 10.

Question

I received the question from a patron on September 10, 2009:

“i am looking for CO2 permits prices per ton (EU Markets) or (EU Stock exchange markets)data from 2005 up to date if possible. what i am looking for looks like prices $ per ton CO2 in monthly basis.”

Answer

• I initially thought Eurostat or the European Commission would have something like this, but I was not able to find anything there. I sent an inquiry to the BUS-LIB listserv and received some really good tips. Some of the suggestions are as follows:
• See the website http://www.ecx.eu/EUA-Futures and follow the link under “Prices and Volume: ECX EUA Futures Contract” for daily EU market prices from 22 April 2005 onwards.
• http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/index_en.htm
• See http://faq.econlib.princeton.edu/recordDetail?id=43547&action=&library=princeton_economics&institution=princeton Carbon Market Europe is the best place but requires a subscription which is expensive.
• A free source is the EU ETS database. http://www.carbonmarketdata.com/pages/product_info.php Free registration is required.
• you could try the European Energy Exchange www.eex.com – I think they have that kind of data. You might need to register, but it looks as if the data is free.

Keywords

European Union, cap and trade, carbon dioxide, carbon offset, carbon offsets

via CO2 Pricing Permits Data for the European Union – Biz Wiki.

While working the desk this morning, I had a patron call asking for the total casualties of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.  I had answered this question some time ago, but I forgot exactly where I found the answer. 

The statistics can be found on the Department of Defense website.  On the left side of the page is information for “Special Interest,” which includes a link to the Causality Reports (PDF).