vian prikityiww awas ada vian

Persipura Jayapura is formed in 1950. Persipura Jayapura (acronym for Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jayapura) is a West Papuan football club located in Jayapura, Papua Province, Indonesia.

Persipura Jaypura is made up of mostly players of Melanesian origin hence the nickname The Black Pearls or Mutiara Hitam in Indonesian. Persipura is considered as one of the elite football clubs in Indonesia having won the Indonesian league three times in 1976, 2005 and 2008/09.

[edit] Ground

Persipura's ground is known as the Mandala Stadium with has the capacity over of 25,000 people.The Stadium near the beach it name Dok V (lima) beach. The Stadium have beautiful view and close to Fisher village. On the east background Cyclope Mountain.

[edit] Honours

Liga Indonesia

Community Shield Indonesia

2009

[edit] Coaches

Year	Manager
2008-Present	Jacksen Tiago
2007-08	Raja Isa
2007	Irfan Bakti
2007	Ivan Kolev

Bold is winning manager of Indonesian League

[edit] The Squad

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Jendri Pitoy
30	GK	Jacob Haay
20	GK	Ferdiansyah Ismail
19	MF	Gerald Pangkali
32	DF	Victor Igbonefo
4	DF	Ricardo Salampessy
26	DF	Ortizan Solossa
45	DF	Bio Paulin
14	DF	Jack Komboy
15	DF	Edison Ames
3	DF	Erol Iba
25	DF	John Scarlet
7	MF	Stevie Bonsapia

No.	Position	Player
16	MF	Antonius Mahuze
10	MF	Eduard Ivakdalam
11	MF	Imanuel Wanggai
5	MF	Ardiles Rumbiak
18	MF	Brian Sainyakit
31	MF	Paulo Rumere
22	MF	Hendra Ridwan
6	MF	David Lally
13	FW	Ian Kabes
86	FW	Boaz Solossa
21	FW	Tinus Pae
9	FW	Beto

Belfast

2009-10-25T01:05:00.000-07:00

Belfast

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This article is about the capital city of Northern Ireland. For other uses, see Belfast (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 54°35′49″N 5°55′48″W / 54.597°N 5.930°W / 54.597; -5.930

Belfast Béal Feirste
Coat of arms of Belfast Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus What shall we give in return for so much
Belfast Béal Feirste Belfast Béal Feirste shown within Northern Ireland
Area	44.4 sq mi (115 km²)
Population	City of Belfast: 267,500^[1] Urban area: 483,418^[2] Metropolitan area: 579,276^[3]
Irish grid reference	J338740
- Dublin	106 mi (171 km) S
District	City of Belfast
County	County Antrim County Down
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BELFAST
Postcode district	BT1-BT17, BT29 (part of), BT36 (part of), BT58
Dialling code	028
Police	Northern Ireland
Fire	Northern Ireland
Ambulance	Northern Ireland
EU Parliament	Northern Ireland
UK Parliament	Belfast North Belfast South Belfast East Belfast West
NI Assembly	Belfast North Belfast South Belfast East Belfast West
Website	www.belfastcity.gov.uk
List of places: UK • Northern Ireland •

Belfast (from the Irish: Béal Feirste meaning "mouth of the sandbars") is the capital of and the largest city in Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It is the seat of devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly.^[4] It is the largest urban area in the province of Ulster, the second largest city on the island of Ireland and the 15th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city of Belfast has a population of 267,500,^[1] and lies at the heart of the Belfast urban area, which has a population of 483,418.^[5] The Belfast metropolitan area has a total population of 579,276.^[3] Belfast was granted city status in 1888.

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname "Linenopolis"), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding: the city's main shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff, which built the ill-fated RMS Titanic, propelled Belfast onto the global stage in the early 20th century as the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, establishing its place as a global industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century.

Industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast, if briefly, the largest city in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century and the city's industrial and economic success was cited by Ulster Unionist opponents of Home Rule as a reason why Ireland should shun devolution and later why Ulster in particular would fight to resist it.

Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education and business, a legal centre, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland. The city suffered greatly during the period of disruption, conflict, and destruction called the Troubles, but latterly has undergone a sustained period of calm, free from the intense political violence of former years, and substantial economic and commercial growth. Belfast city centre has undergone considerable expansion and regeneration in recent years, notably around Victoria Square.

Belfast is served by two airports: Belfast International Airport to the north-west of the city, and George Best Belfast City Airport in the east of the city.

Belfast is also a major seaport, with commercial and industrial docks dominating the Belfast Lough shoreline, including the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard.

Belfast is a constituent city of the Dublin-Belfast corridor with a population of three million, comprising of half the total population of the island of Ireland.

[edit] Name

[show]Historical populations
Year	Pop.	%±
1821	37,277	—
1831	53,287	42.9%
1841	75,308	41.3%
1851	97,784	29.8%
1861	119,393	22.1%
1871	174,412	46.1%
1881	208,122	19.3%
1891	255,950	23.0%
1901	349,180	36.4%
1911	386,947	10.8%
1926	415,151	7.3%
1937	438,086	5.5%
1951	443,671	1.3%
1961	415,856	−6.3%
1966	398,405	−4.2%
1971	362,082	−9.1%
1981	314,270	−13.2%
1991	279,237	−11.1%
2001	277,391	−0.7%
2006	267,374	−3.6%
^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

The name Belfast is derived from the Irish Béal Feirsde, which was later spelled Béal Feirste. The word Béal means "mouth" while Feirsde/Feirste is plural and refers to a sandbar or ford across a river's mouth.^[12]^[13] The name would thus translate as "mouth (of the) sandbars" or "mouth (of the) fords".^[12] These sandbars formed where two rivers met (at what is now Donegall Quay) and flowed into Belfast Lough. This area was the hub around which the settlement developed.^[14]

It is a common misconception that Belfast was simply named after the River Farset, which flows through the city. However, it would appear that both the settlement and the river were named after these sandbar crossings.^[12]

[edit] History

Main article: History of Belfast

Although the county borough of Belfast was created when it was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1888,^[15] the city continues to be viewed as straddling County Antrim and County Down.^[16]

[edit] Origins

The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giant's Ring, a 5000-year-old henge, is located near the city, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills. Belfast remained a small settlement of little importance during the Middle Ages. John de Courcy built a castle on what is now Castle Street in the city centre in the 12th century, but this was on a lesser scale and not as strategically important as Carrickfergus Castle to the north, which was built by de Courcy in 1177. The O'Neill clan had a presence in the area. In the 14th century, Clan Aedh Buidh, descendants of Hugh O'Neill built Grey Castle at Castlereagh, now in the east of the city.^[17] Conn O'Neill also owned land in the area, one remaining link being the Conn's Water river flowing through east Belfast.^[18]

[edit] Growth

Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century after being established as a town by Sir Arthur Chichester, which was initially settled by Protestant English and Scottish migrants at the time of the Plantation of Ulster. (Belfast and County Antrim, however, did not form part of the Plantation scheme.) In 1791, the Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast, after Henry Joy McCracken and other prominent Presbyterians from the city invited Theobald Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell. to a meeting, after having read Tone's "Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland". Belfast blossomed as a commercial and industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries and became Ireland's pre-eminent industrial city. Industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering and shipbuilding, and at the end of the nineteenth century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers.^[19] Belfast was heavily bombed during World War II. In one raid, in 1941, German bombers killed around one thousand people and left tens of thousands homeless. Outside of London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz.^[20]

[edit] The Troubles

Main article: The Troubles

Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1921 following the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Since its emergence as a major city, it had been the scene of various episodes of sectarian conflict between its Roman Catholic and Protestant populations. These opposing groups in this conflict are now often termed republican and loyalist respectively, although they are also referred to as 'nationalist' and 'unionist'. The most recent example of this is known as the Troubles - a civil conflict that raged from around 1969 to the late 1990s. Belfast saw some of the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups forming on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout the Troubles. The Provisional IRA detonated twenty-two bombs, all in a confined area in the city centre in 1972, on what is known as "Bloody Friday", killing nine people. The IRA also killed hundreds of other civilians and members of the security forces. Loyalist paramilitaries the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) claimed that the killings they carried out were in retaliation to the PIRA campaign. Most of their victims were Roman Catholic civilians unconnected to the Provisional IRA. A particularly notorious group, based on the Shankill Road in the mid 1970s became known as the Shankill Butchers. In all, over one thousand five hundred people were killed in political violence in the city from 1969 until 2001.^[21] Part of the legacy of the Troubles is that both republican and loyalist paramilitary groups in Belfast have become involved in organised crime and racketeering.

[edit] Governance

Belfast was granted borough status by James I in 1613 and official city status by Queen Victoria in 1888.^[22] Since 1973 it has been a local government district under local administration by Belfast City Council.^[23] Belfast is represented in both the British House of Commons and in the Northern Ireland Assembly. For elections to the European Parliament, Belfast is within the Northern Ireland constituency.

[edit] Local government

For more details on this topic, see Belfast City Council.

Belfast City Hall.

The city of Belfast has a mayoral form of municipal government. The city's officials are the Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor and High Sheriff who are elected from among 51 councillors. The first Lord Mayor of Belfast was Daniel Dixon, who was elected in 1892.^[24] As of June 2009, the Lord Mayor of Belfast is Alliance politician, Naomi Long, who is only the second woman Lord Mayor of the city. Her duties include presiding over meetings of the council, receiving distinguished visitors to the city, and representing and promoting the city on the national and international stage.^[24] Long replaces the Sinn Fein Lord Mayor, Tom Hartley.

In 1997, Unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history, with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland gaining the balance of power between Nationalists and Unionists. This position was confirmed in the council elections of 2001 and 2005. Since then it has had three Nationalist mayors, two from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and one from Sinn Féin. The first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast was Alban Maginness of the SDLP, in 1996.

In the 2005 local government elections, the voters of Belfast elected 51 councillors to Belfast City Council from the following political parties: 15 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 14 Sinn Féin, 8 SDLP, 7 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 4 Alliance Party, 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), and 1 Independent (a former deputy mayor who takes the UUP whip was a member of the defunc loyalist paramilitary linked-Ulster Democratic Party).^[25]

[edit] Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster

For more details on this topic, see Northern Ireland Assembly and Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The Parliament Buildings at Stormont. Built in 1932 and home to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

As Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the site of the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. Belfast is divided into four Northern Ireland Assembly and UK parliamentary constituencies: North Belfast, West Belfast, South Belfast and East Belfast. All four extend beyond the city boundaries to include parts of Castlereagh, Lisburn and Newtownabbey districts. In the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections in 2007, Belfast elected 24 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 6 from each constituency. The MLA breakdown consisted of 8 Sinn Féin, 6 DUP, 4 SDLP, 3 UUP, 2 Alliance Party, and 1 PUP.^[26] In the 2005 UK general election, Belfast elected one MP from each constituency to the House of Commons at Westminster, London. This comprised 2 DUP, 1 SDLP, and 1 Sinn Féin.^[27]

[edit] Coat of arms and motto

The city of Belfast has the Latin motto "Pro tanto quid retribuamus". This is taken from Psalm 116 Verse 12 in the Latin Vulgate Bible and is literally "For (Pro) so much (tanto) what (quid) we shall repay (retribuamus)" The verse has been translated in different bibles differently - for example as "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?".^[28] It is also translated as "In return for so much, what shall we give back?"^[29] The Queen's University Students' Union Rag Week publication PTQ derives its name from the first three words of the motto.

The city's coat of arms shows a central shield, bearing a ship and a bell, flanked by a chained wolf (or wolfhound) on the left and a seahorse on the right. A smaller seahorse sits at the top. This crest dates back to 1613, when King James I granted Belfast town status. The seal was used by Belfast merchants throughout the seventeenth century on their signs and trade-coins.^[30] A large stained glass window in the City Hall displays the seal, where an explanation suggests that the seahorse and the ship refer to Belfast's significant maritime history. The wolf may be a tribute to the city's founder, Sir Arthur Chichester, and refer to his own coat of arms.^[30]

[edit] Geography

Cavehill, a basaltic hill overlooking the city.

Belfast is situated on Ireland's eastern coast at 54°35′49″N 05°55′45″W / 54.59694°N 5.92917°W / 54.59694; -5.92917. The city is flanked to the northwest by a series of hills, including Cavehill. Belfast is located at the western end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan making it an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it famous. When the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1911/1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world.^[31] Belfast is situated on Northern Ireland's eastern coast. A consequence of this northern latitude is that it both endures short winter days and enjoys long summer evenings. During the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, local sunset is before 16:00 while sunrise is around 08:45. This is balanced by the summer solstice in June, when the sun sets after 22:00 and rises before 05:00.^[32]

Belfast is located at the eastern end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan. In 1994, a weir was built across the river by the Laganside Corporation to raise the average water level so that it would cover the unseemly mud flats which gave Belfast its name^[33] (from the Irish: Béal Feirste meaning "The sandy ford at the river mouth").^[13] The area of Belfast Local Government District is 42.3 square miles (110 km²).^[34]

The River Farset is also named after this silt deposit (from the Irish feirste meaning ‘sand spit’). Originally a more significant river than it is today, the Farset formed a dock on High Street until the mid 19th century. Bank Street in the city centre referred to the river bank and Bridge Street was named for the site of an early Farset bridge.^[35] However, superseded by the River Lagan as the more important river in the city, the Farset now languishes in obscurity, under High Street.

The city is flanked on the north and northwest by a series of hills, including Divis Mountain, Black Mountain and Cavehill thought to be the inspiration for Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. When Swift was living at Lilliput Cottage near the bottom of the Limestone Road in Belfast, he imagined that the Cavehill resembled the shape of a sleeping giant safeguarding the city.^[36] The shape of the giant's nose, known locally as Napoleon's Nose, is officially called McArt's Fort probably named after Art O'Neill, a 16th century chieftain who controlled the area at that time.^[37] The Castlereagh Hills overlook the city on the southeast.

Former poet and Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr William Philbin wrote this of Belfast: "Belfast is a city walled in by mountains, moated by seas, and undermined by deposits of history".

[edit] Climate

Belfast has a temperate climate. Average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. The highest temperature recorded in Belfast was 30.8 °C (87.4 °F) on 12 July 1983.^[38] The city gets significant precipitation (greater than 0.01 in/0.25 mm) on 213 days in an average year with an average annual rainfall of 846 millimetres (33.3 in),^[39] less than the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands,^[38] but higher than Dublin or the south-east coast of Ireland.^[40] As an urban and coastal area, Belfast typically gets snow on fewer than 10 days per year.^[38] The city is also renowned for how warm it can get during the winter month at its high latitude. In February, temperatures have hit 17 °C, at the same latitude where it is ~-45 °C in Russia and Canada. It is not uncommon for temperatures in summer to reach as high as 27 °C (80 °F) on numerous days.^[41] The consistently humid climate that prevails over Ireland can make temperatures feel uncomfortable when they stray into the high 20s (80-85°F), more so than similar temperatures in hotter climates in the rest of Europe.

[hide]Weather data for Belfast
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	13 (55)	14 (57)	19 (66)	21 (70)	26 (79)	28 (82)	31 (88)	28 (82)	26 (79)	21 (70)	16 (61)	14 (57)	31 (88)
Average high °C (°F)	6 (43)	7 (45)	9 (48)	12 (54)	15 (59)	18 (64)	18 (64)	18 (64)	16 (61)	13 (55)	9 (48)	7 (45)	12 (54)
Average low °C (°F)	2 (36)	2 (36)	3 (37)	4 (39)	6 (43)	9 (48)	11 (52)	11 (52)	9 (48)	7 (45)	4 (39)	3 (37)	6 (43)
Record low °C (°F)	-13 (9)	-12 (10)	-12 (10)	-4 (25)	-3 (27)	-1 (30)	4 (39)	1 (34)	-2 (28)	-4 (25)	-6 (21)	-11 (12)	-13 (9)
Precipitation mm (inches)	80 (3.15)	52 (2.05)	50 (1.97)	48 (1.89)	52 (2.05)	68 (2.68)	94 (3.7)	77 (3.03)	80 (3.15)	83 (3.27)	72 (2.83)	90 (3.54)	846 (33.31)
Source: ^[39] 2009-10-08

[edit] Areas and districts

View of Belfast from The Ashby Building, part of QUB. The David Keir Building of Queen's University is in the foreground. The orange façade of Belfast City Hospital is visible in the centre background, with the city's current tallest building Windsor House in the right background.

Main article: Districts of Belfast

For more details on City Layout, see Belfast City Layout.

Belfast expanded very rapidly from being a market town to becoming an industrial city during the course of the 19th century. Because of this, it is less an agglomeration of villages and towns which have expanded into each other, than other comparable cities, such as Manchester or Birmingham. The city expanded to the natural barrier of the hills that surround it, overwhelming other settlements. Consequently, the arterial roads along which this expansion took place (such as the Falls Road or the Newtownards Road) are more significant in defining the districts of the city than nucleated settlements. Including the city centre, the city can be divided into five areas with north Belfast, east Belfast, south Belfast and west Belfast. Each of these is a parliamentary constituency. Belfast remains segregated by walls, commonly known as “peace lines”, erected by the British Army after August 1969, and which still divide fourteen districts in the inner city.

^[42] In 2008 a process was proposed for the removal of the 'peace walls'.^[43] In June 2007, a UK£16 million programme was announced which will transform and redevelop streets and public spaces in the city centre.^[44] Major arterial roads (quality bus corridor) into the city include the Antrim Road, Shore Road, Holywood Road, Newtownards Road, Castlereagh Road, Cregagh Road, Ormeau Road, Malone Road, Lisburn Road, Falls Road, Springfield Road, Shankill Road, and Crumlin Road.^[45]

Belfast city centre is divided by two postcodes, BT1 for the area lying north of the City Hall, and BT2 for the area to its south. The industrial estate and docklands share BT3. The rest of the Greater Belfast postcodes are set out in a clockwise system. Although BT stands for Belfast, it is used across the whole of Northern Ireland.^[46]

Since 2001, boosted by increasing numbers of tourists, the city council has developed a number of cultural quarters. The Cathedral Quarter takes its name from St. Anne’s Cathedral (Church of Ireland) and has taken on the mantle of the city's key cultural locality.^[47] It hosts a yearly visual and performing arts festival.

Custom House Square is one of the city's main outdoor venues for free concerts and street entertainment. The Gaeltacht Quarter is an area around the Falls Road in West Belfast which promotes and encourages the use of the Irish language.^[48] The Queen's Quarter in South Belfast is named after Queen's University. The area has a large student population and hosts the annual Belfast Festival at Queen’s each autumn. It is home to Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum, closed for major redevelopment until 2009.^[49] The Golden Mile is the name given to the mile between Belfast City Hall and Queen's University. Taking in Great Victoria Street, Shaftesbury Square and Bradbury Place, it contains some of the best bars and restaurants in the city.^[50] Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the nearby Lisburn Road has developed into the city's most exclusive shopping strip.^[51]^[52] Finally, the Titanic Quarter covers 0.75 km² (0 sq mi) of reclaimed land adjacent to Belfast Harbour, formerly known as Queen's Island. Named after the Titanic, which was built here in 1912,^[31] work has begun which promises to transform some former shipyard land into "one of the largest waterfront developments in Europe".^[53] Plans also include apartments, a riverside entertainment district, and a major Titanic-themed museum.^[53]

[edit] Cityscape

[edit] Architecture

Main article: Buildings and structures in Belfast

Belfast City Hall and the Big Wheel at night

The architectural style of Belfast's buildings range from Edwardian, like the City Hall, to modern, like Waterfront Hall. Many of the city's Victorian landmarks, including the main Lanyon Building at Queen's University Belfast and the Linenhall Library, were designed by Sir Charles Lanyon.

The City Hall was finished in 1906 and was built to reflect Belfast’s city status, granted by Queen Victoria in 1888. The Edwardian architectural influenced the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa.^[54]^[55] The dome is 173 ft (53 m) high and figures above the door state “Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City”.^[56] Among the city's grandest buildings are two former banks: Ulster Bank in Waring Street (built in 1860) and Northern Bank, in nearby Donegall Street (built in 1769). The Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street are home to Northern Ireland's Supreme Court. Many of Belfast's oldest buildings are found in the Cathedral Quarter area, which is currently undergoing redevelopment as the city's main cultural and tourist area.^[47] Windsor House, 262 ft (80 m) high, has twenty-three floors and is the tallest building (as distinct from structure) in Ireland.^[57] Work has started on the taller Obel Tower and in 2007, plans were approved for the Aurora building. At 37 storeys and 358 ft (109 m) high, this will surpass both previous buildings.^[58]

The ornately decorated Crown Liquor Saloon, designed by Joseph Anderson in 1876, in Great Victoria Street is the only bar in the UK owned by the National Trust. It was made internationally famous as the setting for the classic film, Odd Man Out, starring James Mason.^[59] The restaurant panels in the Crown Bar were originally made for Britannic, the sister ship of the Titanic,^[56] built in Belfast. The Harland and Wolff shipyard is now the location of the world's largest dry dock,^[60] where the giant cranes, Samson and Goliath stand out against Belfast's skyline. Including the Waterfront Hall and the Odyssey Arena, Belfast has several other venues for performing arts. The architecture of the Grand Opera House has a distinctly oriental theme and was completed in 1895. It was bombed several times during the Troubles but has now been restored to its former glory.^[61] The Lyric Theatre, (currently undergoing a rebuilding programme) the only full-time producing theatre in the country, is where film star Liam Neeson began his career.^[62] The Ulster Hall (1859-1862) was originally designed for grand dances but is now used primarily as a concert and sporting venue. Lloyd George, Parnell and Patrick Pearse all attended political rallies there.^[56]

[edit] Parks and gardens

Main article: List of parks and gardens in Belfast

Sitting at the mouth of the gentle River Lagan where it becomes a deep and sheltered lough, Belfast is surrounded by mountains that create a special micro-climate that is conducive and beneficial to horticulture. From the Victorian idyll that is Botanic Gardens in the heart of the city to the spectacular heights of Cave Hill Country Park, the great expanse of Lagan Valley Regional Park to the tranquil beauty of Colin Glen, Belfast contains an abundance of beautiful parkland and forest parks, all of which are in close proximity to Belfast city centre.^[63]

Parks and Gardens are an integral part of Belfast’s heritage, and home to an abundance of local wildlife and popular places for a picnic, a stroll or a jog. Numerous events take place throughout including festivals such as Rose Week and special activities such as bird watching evenings and great beast hunts.^[63]

Belfast has over forty public parks. The Forest of Belfast is a partnership between government and local groups, set up in 1992 to manage and conserve the city's parks and open spaces. They have commissioned more than 30 public sculptures since 1993.^[64] In 2006, the City Council set aside UK£8 million to continue this work.^[65] The Belfast Naturalists' Field Club was founded in 1863 and is administered by National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.^[66]

The Palm House at the Botanic Gardens.

With 700,000 visitors in 2005,^[67] one of the most popular parks^[68] is Botanic Gardens in the Queen's Quarter. Built in the 1830s and designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, Botanic Gardens Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast iron glasshouse.^[69] Other attractions in the park include the Tropical Ravine, a humid jungle glen built in 1889, rose gardens and public events ranging from live opera broadcasts to pop concerts.^[70] U2 played here in 1997. Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, to the south of the city centre, attracts thousands of visitors each year to its International Rose Garden.^[71] Rose Week in July each year features over 20,000 blooms.^[72] It has an area of 128 acres (0.52 km²) of meadows, woodland and gardens and features a Princess Diana Memorial Garden, a Japanese Garden, a walled garden, and the Golden Crown Fountain commissioned in 2002 as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.^[71]

In 2008, Belfast was named a finalist in the Large City (200,001 and over) category of the RHS Britain in Bloom competition along with London Borough of Croydon and Sheffield.

Belfast Zoo is owned by Belfast City Council. The council spends £1.5 million every year on running and promoting the zoo, which is one of the few local government-funded zoos in the UK and Ireland. The Zoo is one of the top visitor attraction in Northern Ireland, receiving more than 295,000 visitors a year. The majority of the animals are in danger in their natural habitat. The zoo houses more than 1,200 animals of 140 species including Asian Elephants, Barbary Lions, a White Tigers (one of the few in the United Kingdom), three species of penguin, a family of Western Lowland Gorillas, a troop of Common Chimpanzees, a Red Panda and several species of langur. The zoo also carries out important conservation work and takes part in European and international breeding programmes which help to ensure the survival of many species under threat.^[73]

[edit] Demography

In the 2001 census, the population within the city limits (the Belfast Urban Area) was 276,459,^[74] while 579,554 people lived in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area.^[75] This made it the fifteenth-largest city in the United Kingdom, but the eleventh-largest conurbation.^[76] Belfast experienced a huge growth in population around the first half of the twentieth century. This rise slowed and peaked around the start of the Troubles with the 1971 census showing almost 600,000 people in the Belfast Urban Area.^[77] Since then, the inner city numbers have dropped dramatically as people have moved to swell the Greater Belfast suburb population. The 2001 census population within the same Urban Area, had fallen to 277,391^[74] people, with 579,554 people living in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area.^[75] The population density in the same year was 2,415 people/km² (compared to 119 for the rest of Northern Ireland).^[78] As with many cities, Belfast's inner city is currently characterised by the elderly, students and single young people, while families tend to live on the periphery. Socio-economic areas radiate out from the Central Business District, with a pronounced wedge of affluence extending out the Malone Road to the south.^[77] An area of greater deprivation extends to the west of the city. The areas around the Falls and Shankill Roads are the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland.^[79]

Despite a period of relative peace, most areas and districts of Belfast still reflect the divided nature of Northern Ireland as a whole. Many areas are still highly segregated along ethnic, political and religious lines, especially in working class neighbourhoods.^[80] These zones - 'Catholic' or 'Republican' on one side and 'Protestant', or 'Loyalist' on the other - are invariably marked by flags, graffiti and murals. Segregation has been present throughout the history of Belfast, but has been maintained and increased by each outbreak of violence in the city. This escalation in segregation, described as a "ratchet effect", has shown little sign of decreasing during times of peace.^[81] When violence flares, it tends to be in interface areas. The highest levels of segregation in the city are in West Belfast with many areas greater than 90% Catholic. Opposite but comparatively high levels are seen in the predominantly Protestant East Belfast.^[82] Areas where segregated working-class areas meet are known as interface areas.

Ethnic minority communities have been in Belfast since the 1930s.^[83] The largest groups are Chinese and Irish travellers. Since the expansion of the European Union, numbers have been boosted by an influx of Eastern European immigrants. Census figures (2001) showed that Belfast has a total ethnic minority population of 4,584 or 1.3% of the population. Over half of these live in South Belfast, where they comprise 2.63% of the population.^[83] The majority of the estimated 5,000 Muslims^[84] and 200 Hindu families^[85] living and working in Northern Ireland live in the Greater Belfast area.

[edit] Economy

Main article: Economy of Belfast

The IRA Ceasefire in 1994 and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 have given investors increased confidence to invest in Belfast.^[86]^[87] This has led to a period of sustained economic growth and large-scale redevelopment of the city centre. Developments include Victoria Square, the Cathedral Quarter, and the Laganside with the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall.

The Waterfront Hall. Built in 1997, the hall is a concert, exhibition and conference venue.

Other major developments include the regeneration of the Titanic Quarter, and the erection of the Obel Tower, a skyscraper set to be the tallest tower on the island until eclipsed by the U2 Tower in Dublin.^[88] Today, Belfast is Northern Ireland's educational and commercial hub. In February 2006, Belfast's unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, lower than both the Northern Ireland^[89] and the UK average of 5.5%.^[90] Over the past 10 years employment has grown by 16.4 per cent, compared with 9.2 per cent for the UK as a whole.^[91]

Northern Ireland's peace dividend has led to soaring property prices in the city. In 2007, Belfast saw house prices grow by 50%, the fastest rate of growth in the UK.^[92] In March 2007, the average house in Belfast cost £91,819, with the average in South Belfast being £141,000.^[93] In 2004, Belfast had the lowest owner occupation rate in Northern Ireland at 54%.^[94]

Peace has also boosted the numbers of tourists coming to Belfast. There were 6.4 million visitors in 2005, which was a growth of 8.5% from 2004. The visitors spent £285.2 million, supporting more than 15,600 jobs.^[95] Visitor numbers rose by 6% to reach 6.8 million in 2006, with tourists spending £324 million, an increase of 15% on 2005.^[96] The city's two airports have helped make the city one of the most visited weekend destinations in Europe.^[97]

Belfast has been the fastest-growing economy of the thirty largest British cities over the past decade, a new economy report by Howard Spencer has found. "That's because [of] the fundamentals of the UK economy and [because] people actually want to invest in the UK," he commented on that report.^[98]

BBC Radio 4's World reported furthermore that despite higher levels of corporation tax in the UK than in the Republic. There are "huge amounts" of foreign investment coming into the country.^[99]

The Times wrote about Belfast's growing economy: According to the region's development agency, throughout the 1990’s Northern Ireland had the fastest-growing regional economy in the UK, with GDP increasing 1 per cent per annum faster than the rest of the country. As with any modern economy, the service sector is vital to Northern Ireland's development and is enjoying excellent growth. In particular, the region has a booming tourist industry with record levels of visitors and tourist revenues and has also established itself as a significant location for call centres." ^[100] Since the ending of the regions conflict tourism has boomed in Northern Ireland, greatly aided by low cost. ^[100]

Der Spiegel, a German weekly magazine for politics and economy, titled Belfast as The New Celtic Tiger which is "open for business".^[101]

[edit] Industrial growth

A 1907 stereoscope postcard depicting the construction of a liner at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.

When the population of Belfast town began to grow in the seventeenth century, its economy was built on commerce.^[102] It provided a market for the surrounding countryside and the natural inlet of Belfast Lough gave the city its own port. The port supplied an avenue for trade with Great Britain and later Europe and North America. In the mid-seventeenth century, Belfast exported beef, butter, hides, tallow and corn and it imported coal, cloth, wine, brandy, paper, timber and tobacco.^[102] Around this time, the linen trade in Northern Ireland blossomed and by the middle of the eighteenth century, one fifth of all the linen exported from Ireland was shipped from Belfast.^[102] The present city however is a product of the Industrial Revolution.^[103] It was not until industry transformed the linen and shipbuilding trades that the economy and the population boomed. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Belfast had transformed into the largest linen producing centre in the world,^[104] earning the nickname "Linenopolis".

Belfast harbour was dredged in 1845 to provide deeper berths for larger ships. Donegall Quay was built out into the river as the harbour was developed further and trade flourished.^[105] The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding firm was created in 1861, and by the time the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912 it had become the largest shipyard in the world.^[31]

Samson and Goliath, Harland & Wolff's gantry cranes.

Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company based in Belfast. It was the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. The company began its association with Belfast in 1936, with Short & Harland Ltd, a venture jointly owned by Shorts and Harland and Wolff. Now known as Shorts Bombardier it works as an international aircraft manufacturer located near the Port of Belfast.^[106] The rise of mass-produced and cotton clothing following World War I were some of the factors which led to the decline of Belfast's international linen trade.^[104] Like many British cities dependent on traditional heavy industry, Belfast suffered serious decline since the 1960s, exacerbated greatly in the 1970s and 1980s by The Troubles. More than 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since the 1970s.^[107] For several decades, Northern Ireland's fragile economy required significant public support from the British exchequer of up to UK£4 billion per year.^[107] Ongoing sectarian violence has made it difficult for Belfast to compete with Dublin's Celtic Tiger economy.^[107] This has meant that wage rates in Belfast and Northern Ireland until recently were significantly lower that those in the Republic of Ireland. The effect of the economic depression in the Irish Republic on wage levels is not yet fully apparent. The cost of living in Northern Ireland is significantly lower than in the Republic and this has created a retail boom in border towns and cities.

[edit] Infrastructure

Belfast saw the worst of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, with nearly half of the total deaths in the conflict occurring in the city. However, since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, there has been significant urban regeneration in the city centre including Victoria Square, Queen's Island and Laganside as well as the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall. The city is served by two airports: The George Best Belfast City Airport adjacent to Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport which is near Lough Neagh. Queen's University of Belfast is the main university in the city. The University of Ulster also maintains a campus in the city, which concentrates on fine art, design and architecture.

Belfast is one of the constituent cities that makes up the Dublin-Belfast corridor region, which has a population of just under 3 million.

[edit] Utilities

Silent Valley Reservoir, showing the brick-built overflow

Most of Belfast's water is supplied from the Silent Valley Reservoir in County Down, created to collect water from the Mourne Mountains.^[108] The rest of the city's water is sourced from Lough Neagh, via Dunore Water Treatment Works in County Antrim.^[109] The citizens of Belfast pay for their water in their rates bill. Plans to bring in additional water tariffs have been deferred by devolution in May 2007.^[110] Belfast has approximately 1,300 km (808 mi) of sewers, which are currently being replaced in a project costing over UK£100 million and due for completion in 2009.^[111]

Northern Ireland Electricity is responsible for transmitting electricity in Northern Ireland. Belfast's electricity comes from Kilroot Power Station, a 520 megawatt dual coal and oil fired plant, situated near Carrickfergus.^[109] Phoenix Natural Gas Ltd. has been granted the licence for the transportation of natural gas across the Irish Sea from Stranraer to supply Greater Belfast from a base station near Carrickfergus.^[109] Rates in Belfast (and the rest of Northern Ireland) were reformed in April 2007. The discrete capital value system means rates bills are determined by the capital value of each domestic property as assessed by the Valuation and Lands Agency.^[112] The recent dramatic rise in house prices has made these reforms unpopular.^[113]

[edit] Health care

The Belfast Health & Social Care Trust is one of five trusts that were created on 1 April 2007 by the Department of Health. Belfast contains most of Northern Ireland's regional specialist centres.^[114] The Royal Victoria Hospital is an internationally-renowned centre of excellence in trauma care and provides specialist trauma care for all of Northern Ireland.^[115] It also provides the city's specialist neurosurgical, ophthalmology, ENT, and dentistry services. The Belfast City Hospital is the regional specialist centre for haematology and is home to a cancer centre that rivals the best in the world.^[116] The Mary G McGeown Regional Nephrology Unit at the City Hospital is the kidney transplant centre and provides regional renal services for Northern Ireland.^[117] Musgrave Park Hospital in south Belfast specialises in orthopaedics, rheumatology, sports medicine and rehabilitation. It is home to Northern Ireland's first Acquired Brain Injury Unit, costing GB£9 million and opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in May, 2006.^[118] Other hospitals in Belfast include the Mater Hospital in north Belfast and the Children's Hospital.

[edit] Transport

Main article: Transport in Belfast

Belfast is a relatively car-dependent city, by European standards, with an extensive road network including the ten lane M2 motorway.^[119] A recent survey of how people travel in Northern Ireland showed that people in Belfast made 77% of all journeys by car, 11% by public transport and 6% on foot.^[120] It also showed that Belfast has 0.70 cars per household compared to figures of 1.18 in the East and 1.14 in the West of Northern Ireland.^[120] A significant road improvement-scheme in Belfast began early in 2006, with the upgrading of two junctions along the Westlink dual-carriageway to grade-separated standard. The Westlink, a dual-carriageway skirting the western edge of the city Centre, connects all three Belfast motorways and often suffers from chronic congestion^{[citation needed]}. The work will cost UK£103.9 million and is scheduled for completion in 2009.^[121] Commentators have argued that this may simply create a bottleneck at York Street, the next at-grade intersection, until that too is upgraded (planned for 2011).^[122]

Black taxis are common in the city, operating on a share basis in some areas. These, however, are outnumbered by private hire taxis. Bus and rail public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by subsidiaries of Translink. Bus services in the city proper and the nearer suburbs are operated by Translink Metro, with services focusing on linking residential districts with the city centre on twelve quality bus corridors running along main radial roads, resulting in poor connections between different suburban areas^{[citation needed]}. More distant suburbs are served by Ulsterbus. Northern Ireland Railways provides suburban services along three lines running through Belfast’s northern suburbs to Carrickfergus and Larne, eastwards towards Bangor and south-westwards towards Lisburn and Portadown. This service is known as the Belfast Suburban Rail system. Belfast also has a direct rail connection with Dublin called Enterprise which is operated jointly by NIR and Iarnród Éireann, the state railway company of the Republic of Ireland.

In April 2008, the DRD reported on a plan for a light-rail system, similar to Dublin. The consultants said Belfast does not have the population to support a light rail system, suggesting that investment in bus-based rapid transit would be preferable.The study found that bus-based rapid transit produces positive economic results, but light rail does not. The report by Atkins & KPMG, however, said there would be the option of migrating to light rail in the future should the demand increase.^[123]

^[124]

The city has two airports: the Belfast International Airport offers domestic, European and transatlantic flights and is located north-west of the city, near Lough Neagh, while the George Best Belfast City Airport is closer to the city centre, adjacent to Belfast Lough. In 2005, Belfast International Airport was the 11th busiest commercial airport in the UK, accounting for just over 2% of all UK terminal passengers while the George Best Belfast City Airport was the 16th busiest and had 1% of UK terminal passengers.^[125]

Belfast has a large port which is used for exporting and importing goods, and for passenger ferry services. Stena Line run regular routes to Stranraer in Scotland using its HSS (High Speed Service) vessel—with a crossing time of around 90 minutes— and/or its conventional vessel—with a crossing time of around 3hrs 45 minutes. Norfolkline—formally Norse Merchant Ferries—runs a passenger/cargo ferry to and from Liverpool, with a crossing time of 8 hours and a seasonal sailing to Douglas, Isle of Man is operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

[edit] Culture

Main article: Culture of Belfast

Belfast's population is evenly split between its Protestant and Catholic residents.^[74] These two distinct vibrant cultural communities have both contributed significantly to the city's culture. Throughout the Troubles, Belfast artists continued to express themselves through poetry, art and music. In the period since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Belfast has begun a social, economic and cultural transformation giving it a growing international cultural reputation.^[126] In 2003, Belfast had an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture. The bid was run by an independent company, Imagine Belfast, who boasted that it would "make Belfast the meeting place of Europe's legends, where the meaning of history and belief find a home and a sanctuary from caricature, parody and oblivion."^[127] According to The Guardian the bid may have been undermined by the city's history and volatile politics.^[128]

In 2004-05, art and cultural events in Belfast were attended by 1.8 million people (400,000 more than the previous year). The same year, 80,000 people participated in culture and arts activities, twice as many as in 2003-04.^[129] A combination of relative peace, international investment and an active promotion of arts and culture is attracting more tourists to Belfast than ever before. In 2004-05, 5.9 million people visited Belfast, a 10% increase from the previous year, and spent UK£262.5 million.^[129]

The Ulster Orchestra, based in Belfast, is Northern Ireland's only full-time symphony orchestra and is well renowned in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1966, it has existed in its present form since 1981, when the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra was disbanded.^[130] The music school of Queen's University is responsible for arranging a notable series of lunchtime and evening concerts, often given by renowned musicians which are usually given in The Harty Room at the university (University Square).

There are many Traditional Irish bands playing throughout the city and quite a few music schools concentrate on teaching Traditional music. Well known city centre venues would include Kelly's Cellars, Maddens and the Hercules bar. Famous musicians would include The McPeakes and Brian Kennedy.

Musicians and bands who have written songs about or dedicated to Belfast: Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, Simple Minds, Elton John, Katie Melua, Boney M, Paul Muldoon, Stiff Little Fingers, Nanci Griffith, Glenn Patterson, Orbital, James Taylor,Spandau Ballet, The Police.

Further in Belfast the Oh Yeah Music Centre is located (Cathedral Quarter), a project founded to give young musicians and artists a place where they can share ideas and kick-start their music careers as chance to been supported and promoted by professional musicians of Northern Ireland's music-scene.

Although, like the rest of Northern Ireland, the city has no 'mother-tongue' community of Irish speakers, the language is heavily promoted in the city and Belfast has the highest concentration of Irish speakers in the north. Those who choose to learn the language benefit from a high level of funding from the British exchequer, funding, among other projects, a number of Irish language Primary schools and one secondary school.

Broadcasting House on Ormeau Avenue, home to BBC Northern Ireland.

Belfast is the home of The News Letter, the oldest English language newspaper in the world still in publication.^[131]^[132] Other newspapers include the Irish News and Belfast Telegraph and - until its recent closure due to poor sales, the state-funded Irish language daily newspaper Lá Nua (from the Irish: Lá Nua meaning "New Day"). The city also contains a number of free publications including Go Belfast, Fate magazine and the Vacuum that are distributed through bar, cafes and public venues.

The city is the headquarters of BBC Northern Ireland, the ITV station UTV and the commercial radio stations Belfast CityBeat & U105 Two community radio stations, Feile FM and Irish language station Raidió Fáilte broadcast to the city from west Belfast, as well as Queen's Radio - a student-run radio station which broadcasts from Queen's University Students' Union. One of Northern Ireland's two community TV stations NvTv is based in the Cathedral Quarter of the city. There are two independent cinemas in Belfast, the Queen's Film Theatre and the Strand Cinema, which host screenings during the Belfast Film Festival and the Belfast Festival at Queen's. Also broadcasting only over the internet is the Cultural Radio Station for Northern Ireland, supporting community relations, Homely Planet.^[133]

The city has become a popular film location, with The Paint Hall at Harland and Wolff becoming one of the UK Film Council's main studios. The facility comprises four 16,000 sq ft stages. Films shot at The Paint Hall include City of Ember. Filming for HBO's Game of Thrones will begin in late 2009.

Main article: Sport in Belfast

George Best mural, close to his childhood home in the Cregagh estate.

Watching and playing sports is an important part of Belfast culture. Almost six out of ten (59%) of the adult population in Northern Ireland regularly participate in one or more sports.^[134] Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports including association football, rugby, Cricket, Gaelic games, and ice hockey. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 14,300 participants in 2007.^[135] The Northern Ireland national football team, ranked 27th in September 2007 in the FIFA World Rankings,^[136] and 1st in the FIFA rankings per capita in April 2007^[137] plays its home matches in Windsor Park. The 2008-09 Irish League runners-up Linfield are also based at Windsor Park, in the south of the city. Other teams include current champions Glentoran based in east Belfast, Cliftonville and Crusaders in north Belfast and Donegal Celtic in west Belfast. Belfast was the home town of the renowned player George Best who died in November 2005. On the day he was buried in the city, 100,000 people lined the route from his home on the Cregagh Road to Roselawn cemetery.^[138] Since his death the City Airport was named after him and a trust has been set up to fund a memorial to him in the city centre.^[139]

Gaelic football is the most popular spectator sport in Ireland,^[140] and Belfast is home to over twenty football and hurling clubs.^[141] Casement Park in West Belfast, home to the Antrim county teams, has a capacity of 32,000 which makes it the second largest Gaelic Athletic Association ground in Ulster.^[142] The 2006 Celtic League champions and 1999 European Rugby Union champions Ulster play at Ravenhill in South Belfast. Belfast has four teams in rugby's All-Ireland League: Belfast Harlequins (who play at Deramore Park in south Belfast) and Malone (who play at Gibson Park in south-east Belfast) are in the Second Division; and Instonians (Shaw's Bridge, south Belfast) and Queen's University RFC (south Belfast) are in the Third Division. As well as Rugby Union, Belfast is also home to the East Belfast Bulldogs Rugby league team who are competing in the new NI rugby league conference.

Belfast boasts Ireland's premier cricket venue at Stormont. The Ireland cricket team plays many of its home games at this venue, which in 2006 hosted the first ever One Day International between Ireland and England. In 2007, Ireland, India and South Africa played a triangular series of one-day internationals at Stormont, and in 2008 the qualifying tournament for the ICC World Twenty20 was held there. At club level, Belfast has seven senior teams: Instonians (Shaw's Bridge, south Belfast) and Civil Service North (Stormont, east Belfast) are in Section 1 of the Northern Cricket Union League; CIYMS (Circular Road, east Belfast), Cooke Collegians (Shaw's Bridge) and Woodvale (Ballygomartin Road, west Belfast) are in Section 2; and Cregagh (Gibson Park, south-east Belfast) and Police Service of Northern Ireland (Newforge Lane, south Belfast) are in Section 4.

Ireland's first professional ice hockey team, the Belfast Giants play their home matches at the Odyssey Arena, watched by up to seven thousand fans.^[143] The Belfast Bulls and Belfast Trojans American football teams represent Belfast in the IAFL, competing for the Shamrock Bowl. Other significant sportspeople from Belfast include double world snooker champion Alex "Hurricane" Higgins^[144] and world champion boxers Wayne McCullough and Rinty Monaghan.^[145] Leander A.S.C is a well known swimming club in Belfast.

[edit] Education

The Lanyon Building of Queen's University in south Belfast

Belfast has two universities. Queen's University Belfast was founded in 1845 and is a member of the Russell Group, an association of 20 leading research-intensive universities in the UK.^[146] It is one of the largest universities in the UK with 25,231 undergraduate and postgraduate students spread over 250 buildings, 120 of which are listed as being of architectural merit.^[147] The University of Ulster, created in its current form in 1984, is a multi-centre university with a campus in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast. The Belfast campus has a specific focus on Art and Design and Architecture, and is currently undergoing major redevelopment. The Jordanstown campus, just seven miles (11 km) from Belfast city centre concentrates on engineering, health and social science. The Conflict Archive on the INternet (CAIN) Web Service receives funding from both universities and is a rich source of information and source material on the Troubles as well as society and politics in Northern Ireland.^[148]

Belfast Metropolitan College is a large further education college with several campuses around the city. Formerly known as Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, it specialises in vocational education. The college has over 53,000 students enrolled on full-time and part-time courses, making it one of the largest further education colleges in the UK.^[149]

The Belfast Education and Library Board was established in 1973 as the local authority responsible for education, youth and library services within the city.^[150] There are 184 primary, secondary and grammar schools in the city.^[151]

The Ulster Museum is also located in Belfast.

Frommer's, the American travel guidebook series, listed Belfast as the only United Kingdom destination in its Top 12 Destinations to Visit in 2009. The other listed destinations were Istanbul, Berlin, Cape Town, Saqqara, Washington DC, Cambodia, Waiheke Island, Cartagena, Waterton Lakes National Park, the Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail, Alabama and the Lassen Volcanic National Park^[152]

To further enhance the tourist industry in Northern Ireland, the Belfast City Council is currently investing into the complete redevelopment of the Titanic Quarter, which is planned to consist of apartments, hotels, a riverside entertainment district, and a major Titanic-themed attraction. They also hope to invest in a new modern transport system (high-speed rail and others) for Belfast, with a cost of £250 million.^[153]

Doctor of Philosophy

2009-09-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

Doctor of Philosophy

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"Ph.D." redirects here. For other uses, see Ph.D. (disambiguation).

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD (also Ph.D.), for the Latin philosophiæ doctor, meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, Dr. phil. or similar, for the equivalent doctor philosophiæ, is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities. In many English-speaking countries, the PhD is the highest degree one can earn ^[1] and applies to graduates in a wide array of disciplines in the sciences and humanities. The PhD or equivalent has become a requirement for a career as a university professor or researcher in most fields.

The detailed requirements for award of a PhD degree vary throughout the world. In some countries (the US, Canada, Denmark, for example), most universities require coursework in addition to research for PhD degrees. In many other countries (such as the UK) there is generally no such condition. It is not uncommon, however, for individual universities or departments to specify additional requirements for students not already in possession of a master's degree.

In countries requiring coursework, there is usually a prescribed minimum amount of study — typically two to three years full time, or a set number of credit hours — which must take place before submission of a thesis. This requirement is usually waived for those submitting a portfolio of peer-reviewed published work. The candidate may also be required to successfully complete a certain number of additional, advanced courses relevant to his or her area of specialization.

A candidate must submit a thesis or dissertation consisting of a suitable body of original academic research, which is in principle worthy of publication in a peer-refereed context.^[2] In many countries a candidate must defend this work before a panel of expert examiners appointed by the university; in other countries, the dissertation is examined by a panel of expert examiners who stipulate whether the dissertation is in principle passable and the issues that need to be addressed before the dissertation can be passed.

Universities in the non–English-speaking world have begun adopting similar standards to those of the Anglophone PhD degree for their research doctorates (see, for example, the Bologna Process).^[3]

The doctorate was extended to philosophy in the European universities in the Middle Ages which generally placed all academic disciplines outside the professional fields of theology, medicine and law under the broad heading of "philosophy" (or "natural philosophy" when referring to science). According to Wellington, Bathmaker, Hunt, McCullough and Sikes (2005), the first Doctor of Philosophy degree was awarded in Paris in 1150, but not until the early nineteenth century, following the practice in Germany, did the degree acquire its modern status as an advanced research degree. As Wellington et al. explain, prior to the nineteenth century professional doctoral degrees could only be awarded in theology (ThD), law (JD), or medicine (MD). In 1861, Yale University adopted the German practice (first introduced in the 19^th century at the Berlin University) of granting the degree to younger students who had completed a prescribed course of graduate study and successfully defended a thesis/dissertation containing original research in science or in the humanities.^[4]

From the United States the degree spread to Canada in 1900, and then to the United Kingdom in 1917.^[5] This displaced the existing Doctor of Philosophy degree in some universities; for instance, the DPhil (higher doctorate in the faculty of philosophy) at the University of St Andrews was discontinued and replaced with the PhD (research doctorate). Oxford retained the DPhil abbreviation for their research degrees. Some newer UK universities, for example Buckingham (est. 1976), Sussex (est. 1961), and, until a few years ago, York (est. 1963), chose to adopt the DPhil, as did some universities in New Zealand.

Ph.D. degrees are awarded under different circumstances and with different requirements in many different countries.

Admission to a Ph.D. program within Australia and New Zealand requires the prospective student to have completed a bachelor's degree with an honours component or a higher degree, such as a post graduate master's degree by research or a master's degree by course work.

In most disciplines, honours require an extra year of study including a large research component in addition to coursework; however, in some disciplines such as engineering, law and pharmacy, honours are automatically awarded to high achievers of the normal four-year program. To obtain a Ph.D. position, students must usually gain first class honours, but may sometimes be admitted with upper second class honours. Alternatively, a student who fails to achieve first or second class Honours may apply for a research masters course (usually 12–18 months) and upgrade to a Ph.D. program after the first year, pending sufficient improvement.

[edit] Funding

In both Australia and New Zealand, Ph.D. students are sometimes offered a scholarship to study for their Ph.D. degree. The most common of these in Australia is the government-funded Australian Postgraduate Award (APA), which provides a living stipend to students of approximately AU$ 20,000 a year (tax free). Most universities in both countries also offer a similar scholarship that matches the APA amount, but are funded by the university. In recent years, with the tightening of research funding in Australia, these scholarships have become increasingly hard to obtain. Due to a continual increase to living costs, many Ph.D. students are forced to live under the poverty line,^[6]. In addition to the more common APA and University scholarships, Australian and New Zealand students also have other sources of funding in their Ph.D. degree. These could include, but are not limited to, scholarships offered by schools, research centres and commercial enterprise. For the latter, the amount is determined between the university and the organisation, but is quite often set at the APA (Industry) rate, roughly AU$7,000 more than the usual APA rate. Australian and New Zealand students are often also able to tutor undergraduate classes and do guest lectures (much like a teaching assistant in the USA) to generate income. An Australian or New Zealand Ph.D. scholarship is paid for a duration of 3 years, while a 6 month extension is usually possible upon citing delays out of the control of the student.

Australian-citizen and other eligible Ph.D. and Research Masters students in Australia are not charged course fees as these are paid for by the Australian Government under the Research Training Scheme. International students and Coursework Masters students must pay course fees, unless they receive a scholarship to cover them. In order to attract top international doctoral students, the New Zealand government reduced international doctoral fees to the domestic fee level in 2006.

Completion requirements vary by school, however all require completion of an original research thesis or dissertation that makes a significant new contribution to the field. Most Australian and New Zealand PhD programmes do not have a required coursework component, or a formal oral defense as part of the doctoral examination (largely due to distances that would need to be travelled by the overseas examiners). The PhD thesis is sent to three external examiners, experts in the field of research, who have not been involved in the work. Examiners are nominated by the candidate's University (often by the Head of Department or Research Office), and their identities are often not officially revealed to the candidate until the examination is complete.

In the Latin American docta, the admission to a Ph.D. program at an Argentine University requires the full completion of a Master's degree or a Licentiate's degree. Non-Argentinian Master's titles are generally accepted into a Ph.D. program when the degree comes from a recognized university.

While a significant portion of postgraduate students finance their tuition and living costs with teaching or research work at private and state-run institutions, international institutions, such as the Fullbright Program and the Organization of American States (OAS), have been known to grant full scholarships for tuition with apportions for housing.^[7]

Upon completion of at least two years' research and course work as a graduate student, a candidate must demonstrate truthful and original contributions to his or her specific field of knowledge within a frame of academic excellence.^[8] The doctoral candidate's work should be presented in a dissertation or thesis prepared under the supervision of a tutor or director, and reviewed by a Doctoral Committee. This Committee should be composed of examiners external to the program, and at least one of them should also be external to the institution. The academic degree of Doctor, respective to the correspondent field of science that the candidate has contributed with original and rigorous research, is received after a successful defense of the candidate’s dissertation.^[9]

Admission to a Ph.D. program at a Canadian university may require completion of a Master's degree in a related field, with sufficiently high grades and proven research ability. In some cases, a student may progress directly from an Honours Bachelor's degree to a Ph.D. program. The student usually submits an application package including a research proposal, letters of reference, transcripts, and in some cases, a sample of the student's writing. A common criterion for prospective Ph.D students is the comprehensive or qualifying examination, a process that often commences in the second year of a graduate program. Generally, successful completion of the qualifying exam permits continuance in the graduate program. Formats for this examination include oral examination by the student's faculty committee (or a separate qualifying committee), or written tests designed to demonstrate the student's knowledge in a specialized area (see below).

At English-speaking universities, a student may also be required to demonstrate English language abilities, usually by achieving an acceptable score on a standard examination (e.g., Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)). Depending on the field, the student may also be required to demonstrate ability in one or more additional languages. A prospective student applying to French-speaking universities may also have to demonstrate some English language ability.

[edit] Funding

While some students work outside the university (or at student jobs within the university), in some programs students are advised (or must agree) not to devote more than ten hours per week to activities (i.e., employment) outside of their studies, particularly if they have been given funding. For large and prestigious scholarships, such as those from NSERC, this is an absolute requirement.

At some Canadian universities, most Ph.D. students receive an award equivalent to the tuition amount for the first four years (this is sometimes called a tuition deferral or tuition waiver). Other sources of funding include teaching assistantships and research assistantships; experience as a teaching assistant is encouraged but not requisite in many programs. Some programs may require all Ph.D. candidates to teach, which may be done under the supervision of their supervisor or regular faculty.

Besides these sources of funding, there are also various competitive scholarships, bursaries, and awards available, such as those offered by the federal government via NSERC, CIHR, or SSHRC.

[edit] Requirements for completion

In general, the first two years of study are devoted to completion of coursework and the comprehensive examinations. At this stage, the student is known as a "Ph.D. student." It is usually expected that the student will have completed most of his or her required coursework by the end of this stage. Furthermore, it is usually required that by the end of eighteen to thirty-six months after the first registration, the student will have successfully completed the comprehensive exams.

Upon successful completion of the comprehensive exams, the student becomes known as a "Ph.D. candidate." From this stage on, the bulk of the student's time will be devoted to his or her own research, culminating in the completion of a Ph.D. thesis or dissertation. The final requirement is an oral defense of the thesis, which is open to the public in some, but not all, universities.

At most Canadian universities, the time needed to complete a Ph.D. degree typically ranges from four to six years^{[citation needed]}. It is, however, not uncommon for students to be unable to complete all the requirements within six years, particularly given that funding packages often support students for only two to four years; many departments will allow program extensions at the discretion of the thesis supervisor and/or department chair. Alternate arrangements exist whereby a student is allowed to let their registration in the program lapse at the end of six years and re-register once the thesis is completed in draft form. The general rule is that graduate students are obligated to pay tuition until the initial thesis submission has been received by the thesis office. In other words, if a Ph.D. student defers or delays the initial submission of their thesis they remain obligated to pay fees until such time that the thesis has been received in good standing.

Students who want to earn the PhD degree must complete a Master's degree program which lasts for 2 years after graduation with a Bachelor's degree (5 years in total).

The candidate must find a funding and a formal advisor with an habilitation (Directeur de thèse) throughout the doctoral program.

In France, the Masters program is divided into two branches, a "master professionnel" which orientates the students towards the working world. On the other hand, a Master of Research (Master-recherche) orientates the students towards research. The PhD admission is adopted by a graduate school (in French, "école doctorale"), a PhD Student has to follow some courses offered by the graduate school while continuing his/her research at laboratory. His/her research may be carried out in a laboratory, at a university, or in a company. In the last case, the company hires the student as an engineer and the student is supervised by both the company's tutor and a labs' professor. The validation of the PhD degree requires generally 3 to 4 years after the Master degree. Consequently, the Ph.D degree is considered in France as a "Bac +8" diploma ."Bac" stands for Baccalauréat which is the French High-school diploma.

The financing of Ph.D studies comes mainly from funds for research of French Ministry of Research. These grants often depend of the results and the student's file. However, the student can apply for funds from a company who can host him/her at its premise (as in the case where Ph.D students do their research in a company). Many other resources come from some regional/city projects, some associations, etc.

[edit] Germany

[edit] Admission

In Germany an above-average degree (Master, Diplom, Magister or Staatsexamen) is usually required to gain admission to a doctoral program. The degree should usually be in a related field. The candidate must also find a tenured professor or Privatdozent to serve as the formal advisor and supervisor (Betreuer) of the dissertation throughout the doctoral program. This supervisor is informally termed "Doktorvater".

Doctoral programs in Germany generally take one to four years to complete (usually three, up to five in Engineering), strongly depending on the subject. Since there are usually no formal classes to attend, and the doctoral candidate mainly conducts independent research under the tutelage of a single professor, a good deal of doctoral candidates work as teaching or research assistants, and are paid a reasonably competitive salary. This is a considerable difference from the situation in many other countries (such as the U. S.), where doctoral candidates are often referred to as Ph.D. "students". For German doctoral candidates, this rather inaccurate term should be avoided, because they do not take formal courses, but are often considered a full member of staff.

However, external funding by research organisations and foundations is also common. Furthermore, many universities have established research-intensive Graduiertenkollegs, which are colleges / graduate schools that provide funding for doctoral theses.

[edit] History

In early university history the Doctorate was awarded as a first degree. It has since evolved into a research degree.

In German-speaking countries, most Eastern European countries, the former Soviet Union, most parts of Africa, Asia, and many Spanish-speaking countries the corresponding degree is simply called "doctor" (Doktor), and is distinguished by subject area with a Latin suffix (e.g. "Dr. med." for doctor medicinae, "Dr. rer. nat" for doctor rerum naturalium — Doctor of Natural Science, "Dr. phil." for doctor philosophiae, "Dr. iur." for doctor iuris, etc.).

In the former Soviet Union, the Doctor of Sciences is the higher of two sequential post-graduate degrees, with Candidate of Sciences (Russian - кандидат наук) being universally accepted as the equivalent of the PhD, while the Doctorate is a (Full) Professors' or Academicians' separate and subsequent degree, indicating that the holder is a distinguished, honoured, and outstanding member of the scientific community. It is rarely awarded to those younger than late middle age or lacking in achievement and is a symbol of success in an academic career.

[edit] Norway

Main article: Dr. philos. (Norwegian degree)

Norway was one of the first countries to introduce the Doctor of Philosophy degree, inspired by the German university system. The degree doctor philosophiae, abbreviated dr. philos., was first awarded in 1847.^[10] The degree was used for all other fields than theology, law and medicine, which had separate degrees: doctor theologiae, doctor juris and doctor medicinae. In the late 20th century new degrees were created in the fields of natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, but it was still possible to obtain the dr. philos. degree in any field. As the dr. philos. degree was one of the four original doctoral degrees and much older than the specific degrees in natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, it was considered more prestigious by some. Both the dr. philos. degree and the other degrees required four years of high-level scientific research which significantly contributed to new knowledge of its field. Most people who started at a doctoral degree had already studied for six or seven years and obtained a Candidate degree (six years) or a Magister degree (seven years).

Following a reform in 2003, all the traditional degrees except dr. philos. were abolished, and replaced by a new doctor of philosophy degree, spelled philosophiae doctor and abbreviated ph.d. The scientific standard of the ph.d. degree is lower, as it in most cases only requires three years of research.

The traditional degree dr. philos., equivalent of four years of scientific research, is still awarded to those who qualify for such a degree without being admitted to an organized doctoral programme.

[edit] Spain

Doctor Degrees are regulated by Royal Decree (R.D. 778/1998), ^[11] Real Decreto (in Spanish). They are granted by the University on behalf of the King, and its Diploma has the force of a public document. The Ministry of Science keeps a National Registry of Theses called TESEO ^[12]. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), less than 5% of M.Sc. degree holders are admitted to Ph.D. programs, and less than 10% of 1st year Ph.D. students are finally granted a Doctor title.^[13]

All doctoral programs are of research nature. A minimum of 5 years of study are required, divided into 2 stages:

1) A 3-year long period of studies, which concludes with a public dissertation presented to a panel of 3 Professors. If the projects receives approval from the university, he/she will receive a "Diploma de Estudios Avanzados" (part qualified doctor).

2) A 2-year (or longer) period of research. Extensions may be requested for up to 10 years. The student must write his thesis presenting a new discovery or original contribution to Science. If approved by his "thesis director", the study will be presented to a panel of 5 distinguished scholars. Any Doctor attending the public presentations is allowed to challenge the candidate with questions on his research. If approved, he will receive the doctorate. Four marks can be granted (Unsatisfactory, Pass, "Cum laude", and "Summa cum laude"). Those Doctors granted their degree "Summa Cum Laude" are allowed to apply for an "Extraordinary Award".

A Doctor Degree is required in order to apply to a teaching position at the University.

The social standing of Doctors in Spain is evidenced by the fact that only Ph.D. holders, Grandees and Dukes can take seat and cover their heads in the presence of the King^[14]. All Doctor Degree holders are reciprocally recognized as equivalent in Germany and Spain ("Bonn Agreement of November 14 1994")^[15].

A University of Oxford DPhil in full academic dress.

[edit] Admission

Universities admit applicants to Ph.D. programmes on case by case basis; depending on the university, admission is typically conditional on the prospective student having successfully completed an undergraduate degree with at least upper second-class honours, or a postgraduate master's degree, but requirements can vary. Oxford, for example, claims "The one essential condition of being accepted...is evidence of previous academic excellence, and of future potential."^[16] Commonly, students are first accepted on to an MPhil programme and may transfer to PhD regulations upon satisfactory progress. This is typically done after one or two years, and the research work done can potentially count towards the PhD degree. If a student fails to make satisfactory progress, he or she may be offered the opportunity to write up and submit for an MPhil degree.

In addition, Ph.D. students from countries outside the EU/EFTA area are required to comply with the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS), which involves undergoing a security clearance process with the Foreign Office for certain courses in medicine, mathematics and many natural, engineering and material sciences.^[17]^[18] This requirement was introduced in 2007 due to concerns about terrorism and weapons proliferation.^[18]

[edit] Funding

In the United Kingdom, funding for Ph.D. students is sometimes provided by government-funded Research Councils or the European Social Fund, usually in the form of a tax-free bursary which consists of tuition fees together with a stipend of around GBP 12,940 per year for three years (rising to £14,940 per year in London),^[19] whether or not the degree continues for longer. Research Council funding is sometimes 'earmarked' for a particular department or research group, who then allocate it to a chosen student, although in doing so they are generally expected to abide by the usual minimum entry requirements (typically a first degree with upper second class honours, although successful completion of a postgraduate master's degree is usually counted as raising the class of the first degree by one division for these purposes). However, the availability of funding in many disciplines (especially humanities, social studies, and pure science^{[citation needed]} subjects) means that in practice only those with the best research proposals, references and backgrounds are likely to be awarded a studentship. The ESRC (Economic and Social Science Research Council) explicitly state that a 2.1 minimum (or 2.2 plus additional masters degree) is required - no additional marks are given for students with a first class honours or a distinction at masters level.

Since 2002, there has been a move by research councils to fund interdisciplinary doctoral training centres such as MOAC^[20] which concentrate on communication between traditional disciplines and an emphasis on transferable skills in addition to research training.

Many students who are not in receipt of external funding may choose to undertake the degree part time, thus reducing the tuition fees, as well as creating free time in which to earn money for subsistence.

Students may also take part in tutoring, work as research assistants, or (occasionally) deliver lectures, at a rate of typically £25–30 per hour, either to supplement existing low income or as a sole means of funding.^[21]

[edit] Completion

There is usually a preliminary assessment to remain in the programme, and the thesis is submitted at the end of a 3-4 year program. Because students in the UK specialize in a subject at a much earlier stage in their education, the timeline of 4 years to complete a PhD program is equivalent with the North American PhD. History undergraduates at Oxbridge for example refer to themselves as "historians" (their undergraduate exams similar in breadth and depth to PhD-level coursework in North America), while American undergrads are "history majors." Thus, someone with an American undergrad degree pursuing a PhD in the UK typically is required to complete up to two years (MPhil) of coursework before embarking on a PhD programme. At top UK universities the two-year MPhil is "comparable to the first two years of the PhD programme in the best US universities."^[22] The PhD timeline in the humanities, therefore, depending on one's starting point, can typically be 2+4, or six years, especially for students coming from countries where less early specialization takes place. These periods are usually extended pro rata for part-time students. With special dispensation, the final date for the thesis can be extended for up to four additional years, for a total of seven, but this is rare.^{[citation needed]} Since the early 1990s, the UK funding councils have adopted a policy of penalising departments where large proportions of students fail to submit their theses in four years after achieving PhD-student status (or pro rata equivalent) by reducing the number of funded places in subsequent years.^[23]

[edit] Other doctorates

In the United Kingdom Ph.D. degrees are distinct from other doctorates, most notably the higher doctorates such as D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters) or D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), which are granted on the recommendation of a committee of examiners on the basis of a substantial portfolio of submitted (and usually published) research.

Recent years have seen the introduction of professional doctorates, most notably in the fields of engineering (Eng.D.), education (Ed.D.), clinical psychology (D.Clin.Psych.), public administration (D.P.A.), business administration (D.B.A.), and music (D.M.A.). These typically have a more formal taught component consisting of smaller research projects, as well as a 40,000-60,000 word thesis component, which collectively is equivalent to that of a Ph.D. degree.

[edit] United States

[edit] Overview

Further information: Doctorate#United States

In the United States, the Ph.D. degree is the highest academic degree awarded by universities in most fields of study. The Ph.D. degree is often misunderstood to be synonymous with the term doctorate. While the Ph.D. degree is the most common doctorate, the term doctorate can refer to any number of doctoral degrees in the United States. The U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation recognize numerous doctoral degrees as "equivalent", and do not discriminate between them. In law, for example, these entities recognize the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.) as the equivalent to the Ph.D.

American students typically undergo a series of three phases in the course of their work toward the Ph.D. degree. The first phase consists of coursework in the student's field of study and requires one to three years to complete. This often is followed by a preliminary, a comprehensive examination, or a series of cumulative examinations where the emphasis is on breadth rather than depth of knowledge. The student is often later required to pass oral and written examinations in the field of specialization within the discipline, and here, depth is emphasized. Some Ph.D. programs require the candidate to successfully complete requirements in pedagogy (taking courses on higher level teaching and teaching undergraduate courses) or applied science (e.g., clinical practica and predoctoral clinical internship in Ph.D. programs in clinical or counseling psychology).

Another two to four years are usually required for the composition of a substantial and original contribution to human knowledge in the form of a written dissertation, which in the social sciences and humanities typically ranges from 50 to 450 pages in length. In many cases, depending on the discipline, a dissertation consists of (i) a comprehensive literature review, (ii) an outline of methodology, and (iii) several chapters of scientific, social, historical, philosophical, or literary analysis. Typically, upon completion, the candidate undergoes an oral examination, sometimes public, by his or her supervisory committee with expertise in the given discipline.

As the Ph.D. degree is often a preliminary step toward a career as a professor, throughout the whole period of study and dissertation research the student may be required or at least offered the opportunity, depending on the university and degree, to teach undergraduate or sometimes graduate courses in relevant subjects.

The Ph.D. can also be awarded as a religious-exempt degree, if having a religious modifier, like Ph.D. in Religion or Ph.D. in Metaphysics.

[edit] Admission

There are 282 universities in the United States that award the Ph.D. degree, and those universities vary widely in their criteria for admission, as well as the rigor of their academic programs.^[24] Typically, Ph.D. programs require applicants to have a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (and, in rare cases, a master's degree), reasonably high grades, several letters of recommendation, relevant academic coursework, a cogent statement of interest in the field of study, and satisfactory performance on a graduate-level exam specified by the respective program (e.g., GRE, GMAT).^[25]^[26] Specific admissions criteria differ substantially according to university admissions policies and fields of study; some programs in well-regarded research universities may admit less than five percent of applicants and require an exceptional performance on the GRE along with near-perfect grades, strong support in letters of recommendation, substantial research experience, and academically sophisticated samples of their writing.

[edit] Master's degree "in passing"

As applicants to many Ph.D. programs are not required to have master's degrees, many programs award a Master of Arts or Master of Science degree "in passing" or "in course" based on the graduate work done in the course of achieving the Ph.D. Students who receive such master's degrees are usually required to complete a certain amount of coursework and a master's thesis. Depending on the specific program, masters-in-passing degrees can be either mandatory or optional. Not all Ph.D. students choose to complete the additional requirements necessary for the M.A. or M.S. if such requirements are not mandated by their programs. Those students will simply obtain the Ph.D. degree at the end of their graduate study.

[edit] Time

Depending on the specific field of study, completion of a Ph.D. program usually takes four to eight years of study after the Bachelor's Degree; those students who begin a Ph.D. program with a master's degree may complete their Ph.D. degree a year or two sooner.^[27] As Ph.D. programs typically lack the formal structure of undergraduate education, there are significant individual differences in the time taken to complete the degree. Many U.S. universities have set a ten-year limit for students in Ph.D. programs, or refuse to consider graduate credit older than ten years as counting towards a Ph.D. degree. Similarly, students may be required to re-take the comprehensive exam if they do not defend their dissertations within five years of taking it. Overall, 57% of students who begin a Ph.D. program in the US will complete their degree within ten years, approximately 30% will drop out or be dismissed, and the remaining 13% of students will continue on past ten years.^[28]

[edit] Funding

Doctoral students are usually discouraged from engaging in external employment during the course of their graduate training. As a result, Ph.D. students at U.S. universities typically receive a tuition waiver and some form of annual stipend. The source and amount of funding varies from field to field and university to university. Many U.S. graduate students work as teaching assistants or research assistants while they are doctoral students. Graduate schools increasingly^{[citation needed]} encourage their students to seek outside funding; many are supported by fellowships they obtain for themselves or by their advisers' research grants from government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Many Ivy League and other well-endowed universities provide funding for the entire duration of the degree program (if it is short) or for most of it.

[edit] Ph.D. candidacy

A Ph.D. Candidate (sometimes called Candidate of Philosophy) is a postgraduate student at the doctoral level who has successfully satisfied the requirements for doctoral studies, except for the final thesis or dissertation. As such, a Ph.D. Candidate is sometimes called an "ABD" (All But Dissertation or All But Defended). Although a minor distinction in postgraduate study, achieving Ph.D Candidacy is not without benefit. For example, Ph.D. Candidate status may coincide with an increase in the student's monthly stipend and may make the student eligible for additional employment opportunities.

Some programs also include a Master of Philosophy degree as part of the Ph.D. program.^[29] The M.Phil., in those universities that offer it, is usually awarded after the appropriate M.A. or M.S. (as above) is awarded, and the degree candidate has completed all further requirements for the Ph.D. degree (which may include additional language requirements, course credits, teaching experiences, and comprehensive exams) aside from the writing and defense of the dissertation itself. This formalizes the "all but dissertation" (ABD) status used informally by some students, and represents that the student has achieved a higher level of scholarship than the M.A./M.S. would indicate - as such, the M.Phil. is sometimes a helpful credential for those applying for teaching or research posts while completing their dissertation work for the Ph.D. degree itself. ^[30]

Ph.D. Candidate is not to be confused with Candidate of Sciences, an academic degree that has been used in certain countries in place of PhD.

[edit] Models of supervision

At some universities, there may be training for those wishing to supervise Ph.D. studies. There is now a lot of literature published for academics who wish to do this, such as Delamont, Atkinson and Parry (1997). Indeed, Dinham and Scott (2001) have argued that the worldwide growth in research students has been matched by increase in a number of what they term "how-to" texts for both students and supervisors, citing examples such as Pugh and Phillips (1987). These authors report empirical data on the benefits that Ph.D. students may gain if they publish their work, and note that Ph.D. students are more likely to do this with adequate encouragement from their supervisors.

Wisker (2005) has noticed how research into this field has distinguished between two models of supervision: The technical-rationality model of supervision, emphasising technique; The negotiated order model, being less mechanistic and emphasising fluid and dynamic change in the Ph.D. process. These two models were first distinguished by Acker, Hill and Black (1994; cited in Wisker, 2005). Considerable literature exists on the expectations that supervisors may have of their students (Phillips & Pugh, 1987) and the expectations that students may have of their supervisors (Phillips & Pugh, 1987; Wilkinson, 2005) in the course of Ph.D. supervision. Similar expectations are implied by the Quality Assurance Agency's Code for Supervision (Quality Assurance Agency, 1999; cited in Wilkinson, 2005).

Current sea level rise

2009-09-15T00:48:00.000-07:00

Current sea level rise

This article is about the current and future rise in sea level associated with global warming. For sea level changes in Earth's history, see Sea level - changes in geologic time.

Sea level measurements from 23 long tide gauge records in geologically stable environments show a rise of around 200 millimetres (8 inches) per century, or 2 mm/year.

Changes in sea level since the end of the last glacial episode

Current sea level rise has occurred at a mean rate of 1.8 mm per year for the past century,^[1]^[2] and more recently at rates estimated near 2.8 ± 0.4^[3] to 3.1 ± 0.7^[4] mm per year (1993-2003). Current sea level rise is due partly to global warming,^[5] which will increase sea level over the coming century and longer periods^[6]^[7]. Increasing temperatures result in sea level rise by the thermal expansion of water and through the addition of water to the oceans from the melting of continental ice sheets. Thermal expansion, which is well-quantified, is currently the primary contributor to sea level rise and is expected to be the primary contributor over the course of the next century. Glacial contributions to sea-level rise are less important,^[8] and are more difficult to predict and quantify.^[8] Values for predicted sea level rise over the course of the next century typically range from 90 to 880 mm, with a central value of 480 mm. Based on an analog to the deglaciation of North America at 9,000 years before present, some scientists predict sea level rise of 1.3 metres in the next century.^[9]^[10] However, models of glacial flow in the smaller present-day ice sheets show that a probable maximum value for sea level rise in the next century is 800 millimetres, based on limitations on how quickly ice can flow below the equilibrium line altitude and to the sea.^[11]

[edit] Overview of sea-level change

[edit] Local and eustatic sea level

Water cycles between ocean, atmosphere, and glaciers.

Local mean sea level (LMSL) is defined as the height of the sea with respect to a land benchmark, averaged over a period of time (such as a month or a year) long enough that fluctuations caused by waves and tides are smoothed out. One must adjust perceived changes in LMSL to account for vertical movements of the land, which can be of the same order (mm/yr) as sea level changes. Some land movements occur because of isostatic adjustment of the mantle to the melting of ice sheets at the end of the last ice age. The weight of the ice sheet depresses the underlying land, and when the ice melts away the land slowly rebounds. Atmospheric pressure, ocean currents and local ocean temperature changes also can affect LMSL.

“Eustatic” change (as opposed to local change) results in an alteration to the global sea levels, such as changes in the volume of water in the world oceans or changes in the volume of an ocean basin.

[edit] Short term and periodic changes

There are many factors which can produce short-term (a few minutes to 18.6 year ) changes in sea level.

Short-term (periodic) causes	Time scale (P = period)	Vertical effect
Periodic sea level changes
Diurnal and semidiurnal astronomical tides	12–24 h P	0.2–10+ m
Long-period tides
Rotational variations (Chandler wobble)	14 month P
Lunar Node astronomical tides	18.613 year
Meteorological and oceanographic fluctuations
Atmospheric pressure	Hours to months	−0.7 to 1.3 m
Winds (storm surges)	1–5 days	Up to 5 m
Evaporation and precipitation (may also follow long-term pattern)	Days to weeks
Ocean surface topography (changes in water density and currents)	Days to weeks	Up to 1 m
El Niño/southern oscillation	6 mo every 5–10 yr	Up to 0.6 m
Seasonal variations
Seasonal water balance among oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian)
Seasonal variations in slope of water surface
River runoff/floods	2 months	1 m
Seasonal water density changes (temperature and salinity)	6 months	0.2 m
Seiches
Seiches (standing waves)	Minutes to hours	Up to 2 m
Earthquakes
Tsunamis (generate catastrophic long-period waves)	Hours	Up to 10 m
Abrupt change in land level	Minutes	Up to 10 m

[edit] Longer term changes

Various factors affect the volume or mass of the ocean, leading to long-term changes in eustatic sea level. The two primary influences are temperature (because the volume of water depends on temperature), and the mass of water locked up on land and sea as fresh water in rivers, lakes, glaciers, polar ice caps, and sea ice. Over much longer geological timescales, changes in the shape of the oceanic basins and in land/sea distribution will affect sea level.

Observational and modelling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century.

[edit] Glaciers and ice caps

Each year about 8 mm (0.3 inch) of water from the entire surface of the oceans falls into the Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets as snowfall. If no ice returned to the oceans, sea level would drop 8 mm every year. To a first approximation, the same amount of water appeared to return to the ocean in icebergs and from ice melting at the edges. Scientists previously had estimated which is greater, ice going in or coming out, called the mass balance, important because it causes changes in global sea level. High-precision gravimetry from satellites in low-noise flight has since determined Greenland is losing millions of tons per year, in accordance with loss estimates from ground measurement.^{[citation needed]} Some estimates range up to 240 km^3 per year in recent years.^[12]

Ice shelves float on the surface of the sea and, if they melt, to first order they do not change sea level. Likewise, the melting of the northern polar ice cap which is composed of floating pack ice would not significantly contribute to rising sea levels. Because they are fresh, however, their melting would cause a very small increase in sea levels, so small that it is generally neglected. It can however be argued that if ice shelves melt it is a precursor to the melting of ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica^{[citation needed]}.

Scientists previously lacked knowledge of changes in terrestrial storage of water. Surveying of water retention by soil absorption and by reservoirs outright ("impoundment") at just under the volume of Lake Superior agreed with a dam-building peak in the 1930s-1970s timespan. Such impoundment masked tens of millimetres of sea level rise in that span. ( Impact of Artificial Reservoir Water Impoundment on Global Sea Level, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/320/5873/212?rss=1 B. F. Chao,* Y. H. Wu, Y. S. Li).
If small glaciers and polar ice caps on the margins of Greenland and the Antarctic Peninsula melt, the projected rise in sea level will be around 0.5 m. Melting of the Greenland ice sheet would produce 7.2 m of sea-level rise, and melting of the Antarctic ice sheet would produce 61.1 m of sea level rise.^[13] The collapse of the grounded interior reservoir of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise sea level by 5-6 m.^[14]
The snowline altitude is the altitude of the lowest elevation interval in which minimum annual snow cover exceeds 50%. This ranges from about 5,500 metres above sea-level at the equator down to sea level at about 70° N&S latitude, depending on regional temperature amelioration effects. Permafrost then appears at sea level and extends deeper below sea level polewards.
As most of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lie above the snowline and/or base of the permafrost zone, they cannot melt in a timeframe much less than several millennia; therefore it is likely that they will not, through melting, contribute significantly to sea level rise in the coming century. They can, however, do so through acceleration in flow and enhanced iceberg calving.
Climate changes during the 20th century are estimated from modelling studies to have led to contributions of between –0.2 and 0.0 mm/yr from Antarctica (the results of increasing precipitation) and 0.0 to 0.1 mm/yr from Greenland (from changes in both precipitation and runoff).
Estimates suggest that Greenland and Antarctica have contributed 0.0 to 0.5 mm/yr over the 20th century as a result of long-term adjustment to the end of the last ice age.

The current rise in sea level observed from tide gauges, of about 1.8 mm/yr, is within the estimate range from the combination of factors above^[15] but active research continues in this field. The terrestrial storage term, thought to be highly uncertain, is no longer positive, and shown to be quite large.

Since 1992 a number of satellites have been recording the change in sea level;^[16]^[17] they display an acceleration in the rate of sea level change, but they have not been operating for long enough to work out whether this is a real signal, or just an artefact of short-term variation.

[edit] Past changes in sea level

Changes in sea level during the last 9,000 years

[edit] The sedimentary record

For generations, geologists have been trying to explain the obvious cyclicity of sedimentary deposits observed everywhere we look. The prevailing theories hold that this cyclicity primarily represents the response of depositional processes to the rise and fall of sea level. In the rock record, geologists see times when sea level was astoundingly low alternating with times when sea level was much higher than today, and these anomalies often appear worldwide. For instance, during the depths of the last ice age 18,000 years ago when hundreds of thousands of cubic miles of ice were stacked up on the continents as glaciers, sea level was 120 m (390 ft) lower, locations that today support coral reefs were left high and dry, and coastlines were miles farther basinward from the present-day coastline. It was during this time of very low sea level that there was a dry land connection between Asia and Alaska over which humans are believed to have migrated to North America (see Bering Land Bridge).

However, for the past 6,000 years (a few centuries before the first known written records), the world's sea level has been gradually approaching the level we see today. During the previous interglacial about 120,000 years ago, sea level was for a short time about 6 m higher than today, as evidenced by wave-cut notches along cliffs in the Bahamas. There are also Pleistocene coral reefs left stranded about 3 metres above today's sea level along the southwestern coastline of West Caicos Island in the West Indies. These once-submerged reefs and nearby paleo-beach deposits are silent testimony that sea level spent enough time at that higher level to allow the reefs to grow (exactly where this extra sea water came from—Antarctica or Greenland—has not yet been determined). Similar evidence of geologically recent sea level positions is abundant around the world.

[edit] Estimates

See IPCC TAR, figure 11.4 for a graph of sea level changes over the past 140,000 years.^[18]

The 2007 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report suggested that sea levels would rise by between 19 cm (7.5 inches) and 59 cm by the end of this century.^[19]
Sea-level rise estimates from satellite altimetry since 1992 (about 2.8 mm/yr) exceed those from tide gauges. It is unclear whether this represents an increase over the last decades, variability, or problems with satellite calibration.
Church and White (2006) report an acceleration of SLR since 1870. ^[2] This is a revision since 2001, when the TAR stated that measurements have detected no significant acceleration in the recent rate of sea level rise.
Based on tide gauge data, the rate of global average sea level rise during the 20th century lies in the range 0.8 to 3.3 mm/yr, with an average rate of 1.8 mm/yr.^[20]
Recent studies of Roman wells in Caesarea and of Roman piscinae in Italy indicate that sea level stayed fairly constant from a few hundred years AD to a few hundred years ago.
Based on geological data, global average sea level may have risen at an average rate of about 0.5 mm/yr over the last 6,000 years and at an average rate of 0.1 to 0.2 mm/yr over the last 3,000 years.
Since the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago, sea level has risen by over 120 m (averaging 6 mm/yr) as a result of melting of major ice sheets. A rapid rise took place between 15,000 and 6,000 years ago at an average rate of 10 mm/yr which accounted for 90 m of the rise; thus in the period since 20,000 years BP (excluding the rapid rise from 15-6 kyr BP) the average rate was 3 mm/yr.
A significant event was Meltwater Pulse 1A (mwp-1A), when sea level rose approximately 20 m over a 500 year period about 14,200 years ago. This is a rate of about 40 mm/yr. Recent studies suggest the primary source was meltwater from the Antarctic, perhaps causing the south-to-north cold pulse marked by the Southern Hemisphere Huelmo/Mascardi Cold Reversal, which preceded the Northern Hemisphere Younger Dryas
Relative sea level rise at specific locations is often 1-2 mm/yr greater or less than the global average. Along the US mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, for example, sea level is rising approximately 3 mm/yr

[edit] U. S. Tide Gauge Measurements

U. S. Sea Level Trends 1900-2003

Tide gauges in the United States show considerable variation because some land areas are rising and some are sinking. For example, over the past 100 years, the rate of sea level rise varies from about an increase of 0.36 inches (9.1 mm) per year along the Louisiana Coast (due to land sinking), to a drop of a few inches per decade in parts of Alaska (due to post-glacial rebound). The rate of sea level rise increased during the 1993-2003 period compared with the longer-term average (1961-2003), although it is unclear whether the faster rate reflects a short-term variation or an increase in the long-term trend.^[21]

[edit] Amsterdam Sea Level Measurements

The longest running sea-level measurements are recorded at Amsterdam, in the Netherlands—most of which lies beneath sea level, hence the name. Records from 1700 onwards can be found at http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/longrecords/longrecords.html. Since 1850, a rise of approx 1.5 mm/year is shown here.

[edit] Australian Sea Level Change

The London Royal Society calculates net sea level rise in Australia at 1 mm/yr^[22]—an important result for the Southern Hemisphere. The National Tidal Center also graphs 32 gauges, some since 1880, for the entire coastline^[23]

[edit] Future sea level rise

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report predicted that by 2100, global warming will lead to a sea level rise of 19 to 58 cm^[24], depending on which of six possible world scenarios comes to pass.

These sea level rises could lead to difficulties for shore-based communities in the next centuries: for example, many major cities such as London and New Orleans already need storm-surge defenses, and would need more if sea level rose, though they also face issues such as sinking land.^[25] Sea level rise could also displace many shore-based populations: for example it is estimated that a sea level rise of just 20 cm could create 740,000 homeless people in Nigeria.^[26] Maldives, Tuvalu, and other low-lying countries are among the areas that are at the highest level of risk. The UN's environmental panel has warned that, at current rates, sea level would be high enough to make the Maldives uninhabitable by 2100.^[27] ^[28]

Future sea level rise, like the recent rise, is not expected to be globally uniform (details below). Some regions show a sea-level rise substantially more than the global average (in many cases of more than twice the average), and others a sea level fall.^[29] However, models disagree as to the likely pattern of sea level change.^[30]

[edit] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change results

The results from the IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR) sea level chapter (convening authors John A. Church and Jonathan M. Gregory) are given below.

IPCC change factors 1990-2100	IS92a prediction	SRES prediction
Thermal expansion	110 to 430 mm
Glaciers	10 to 230 mm^[31] (or 50 to 110 mm)^[32]
Greenland ice	–20 to 90 mm
Antarctic ice	–170 to 20 mm
Terrestrial storage	–83 to 30 mm
Ongoing contributions from ice sheets in response to past climate change	0 to 55 mm
Thawing of permafrost	0 to 5 mm
Deposition of sediment	not specified
Total global-average sea level rise (IPCC result, not sum of above)^[31]	110 to 770 mm	90 to 880 mm (central value of 480 mm)

The sum of these components indicates a rate of eustatic sea level rise (corresponding to a change in ocean volume) from 1910 to 1990 ranging from –0.8 to 2.2 mm/yr, with a central value of 0.7 mm/yr. The upper bound is close to the observational upper bound (2.0 mm/yr), but the central value is less than the observational lower bound (1.0 mm/yr), i.e., the sum of components is biased low compared to the observational estimates. The sum of components indicates an acceleration of only 0.2 (mm/yr)/century, with a range from –1.1 to +0.7 (mm/yr)/century, consistent with observational finding of no acceleration in sea level rise during the 20th century. The estimated rate of sea-level rise from anthropogenic climate change from 1910 to 1990 (from modeling studies of thermal expansion, glaciers and ice sheets) ranges from 0.3 to 0.8 mm/yr. It is very likely that 20th century warming has contributed significantly to the observed sea-level rise, through thermal expansion of sea water and widespread loss of land ice.^[31]

A common perception is that the rate of sea-level rise should have accelerated during the latter half of the 20th century, but tide gauge data for the 20th century show no significant acceleration. Estimates obtained are based on AOGCMs for the terms directly related to anthropogenic climate change in the 20th century, i.e., thermal expansion, ice sheets, glaciers and ice caps... The total computed rise indicates an acceleration of only 0.2 (mm/yr)/century, with a range from -1.1 to +0.7 (mm/yr)/century, consistent with observational finding of no acceleration in sea-level rise during the 20th century.^[33] The sum of terms not related to recent climate change is -1.1 to +0.9 mm/yr (i.e., excluding thermal expansion, glaciers and ice caps, and changes in the ice sheets due to 20th century climate change). This range is less than the observational lower bound of sea level rise. Hence it is very likely that these terms alone are an insufficient explanation, implying that 20th century climate change has made a contribution to 20th century sea level rise.^[15] Recent figures of human, terrestrial impoundment came too late for the 3rd Report, and would revise levels upward for much of the 20th century.

[edit] Uncertainties and criticisms regarding IPCC results

Tide records with a rate of 180 mm/century going back to the 19th century show no measurable acceleration throughout the late 19th and first half of the 20th century. The IPCC attributes about 60 mm/century to melting and other eustatic processes, leaving a residual of 120 mm of 20th century rise to be accounted for. Global ocean temperatures by Levitus et al. are in accord with coupled ocean/atmosphere modelling of greenhouse warming, with heat-related change of 30 mm. Melting of polar ice sheets at the upper limit of the IPCC estimates could close the gap, but severe limits are imposed by the observed perturbations in Earth rotation. (Munk 2002)
By the time of the IPCC TAR, attribution of sea-level changes had a large unexplained gap between direct and indirect estimates of global sea-level rise. Most direct estimates from tide gauges give 1.5–2.0 mm/yr, whereas indirect estimates based on the two processes responsible for global sea-level rise, namely mass and volume change, are significantly below this range. Estimates of the volume increase due to ocean warming give a rate of about 0.5 mm/yr and the rate due to mass increase, primarily from the melting of continental ice, is thought to be even smaller. One study confirmed tide gauge data is correct, and concluded there must be a continental source of 1.4 mm/yr of fresh water. (Miller 2004)
From (Douglas 2002): "In the last dozen years, published values of 20th century GSL rise have ranged from 1.0 to 2.4 mm/yr. In its Third Assessment Report, the IPCC discusses this lack of consensus at length and is careful not to present a best estimate of 20th century GSL rise. By design, the panel presents a snapshot of published analysis over the previous decade or so and interprets the broad range of estimates as reflecting the uncertainty of our knowledge of GSL rise. We disagree with the IPCC interpretation. In our view, values much below 2 mm/yr are inconsistent with regional observations of sea-level rise and with the continuing physical response of Earth to the most recent episode of deglaciation."
The strong 1997-1998 El Niño caused regional and global sea level variations, including a temporary global increase of perhaps 20 mm. The IPCC TAR's examination of satellite trends says the major 1997/98 El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event could bias the above estimates of sea-level rise and also indicate the difficulty of separating long-term trends from climatic variability.^[33]

[edit] Glacier contribution

It is well known that glaciers are subject to surges in their rate of movement with consequent melting when they reach lower altitudes and/or the sea. The contributors to Annals of Glaciology [2], Volume 36 [3] (2003) discussed this phenomenon extensively and it appears that slow advance and rapid retreat have persisted throughout the mid to late Holocene in nearly all of Alaska's glaciers. Historical reports of surge occurrences in Iceland's glaciers go back several centuries. Thus rapid retreat can have several other causes than CO2 increase in the atmosphere.

The results from Dyurgerov show a sharp increase in the contribution of mountain and subpolar glaciers to sea level rise since 1996 (0.5 mm/yr) to 1998 (2 mm/yr) with an average of approx. 0.35 mm/yr since 1960.^[34]

Of interest also is Arendt et al.,^[35] who estimate the contribution of Alaskan glaciers of 0.14±0.04 mm/yr between the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s increasing to 0.27 mm/yr in the middle and late 1990s.

[edit] Greenland contribution

Krabill et al.^[36] estimate a net contribution from Greenland to be at least 0.13 mm/yr in the 1990s. Joughin et al.^[37] have measured a doubling of the speed of Jakobshavn Isbræ between 1997 and 2003. This is Greenland's largest-outlet glacier; it drains 6.5% of the ice sheet, and is thought to be responsible for increasing the rate of sea level rise by about 0.06 millimetres per year, or roughly 4% of the 20th century rate of sea level increase.^[38] In 2004, Rignot et al.^[39] estimated a contribution of 0.04±0.01 mm/yr to sea level rise from southeast Greenland.

Rignot and Kanagaratnam^[40] produced a comprehensive study and map of the outlet glaciers and basins of Greenland. They found widespread glacial acceleration below 66 N in 1996 which spread to 70 N by 2005; and that the ice sheet loss rate in that decade increased from 90 to 200 cubic km/yr; this corresponds to an extra 0.25 to 0.55 mm/yr of sea level rise.

In July 2005 it was reported^[41] that the Kangerdlugssuaq glacier, on Greenland's east coast, was moving towards the sea three times faster than a decade earlier. Kangerdlugssuaq is around 1,000 m thick, 7.2 km (4.5 miles) wide, and drains about 4% of the ice from the Greenland ice sheet. Measurements of Kangerdlugssuaq in 1988 and 1996 showed it moving at between 5 and 6 km/yr (3.1 to 3.7 miles/yr) (in 2005 it was moving at 14 km/yr [8.7 miles/yr]).

According to the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, climate models project that local warming in Greenland will exceed 3° Celsius during this century. Also, ice sheet models project that such a warming would initiate the long-term melting of the ice sheet, leading to a complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet over several millennia, resulting in a global sea level rise of about seven metres.^[42]

[edit] Antarctic contribution

On the Antarctic continent itself, the large volume of ice present stores around 70 % of the world's fresh water.^[43] This ice sheet is constantly gaining ice from snowfall and losing ice through outflow to the sea. West Antarctica is currently experiencing a net outflow of glacial ice, which will increase global sea level over time. A review of the scientific studies looking at data from 1992 to 2006 suggested a net loss of around 50 Gigatonnes of ice per year was a reasonable estimate (around 0.14 mm of sea level rise).^[44] Although, significant acceleration of outflow glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment could have more than doubled this figure for the year 2006.^[45]

East Antarctica is a cold region with a ground base above sea level and occupies most of the continent. This area is dominated by small accumulations of snowfall which becomes ice and thus eventually seaward glacial flows. The mass balance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as a whole is thought to be slightly positive (lowering sea level) or near to balance.^[44]^[45] However, increased ice outflow has been suggested in some regions.^[45]^[46]

[edit] Effects of snowline and permafrost

The snowline altitude is the altitude of the lowest elevation interval in which minimum annual snow cover exceeds 50%. This ranges from about 5,500 metres above sea-level at the equator down to sea-level at about 65° N&S latitude, depending on regional temperature amelioration effects. Permafrost then appears at sea-level and extends deeper below sea-level pole-wards. The depth of permafrost and the height of the ice-fields in both Greenland and Antarctica means that they are largely invulnerable to rapid melting. Greenland Summit is at 3,200 metres, where the average annual temperature is minus 32 °C. So even a projected 4 °C rise in temperature leaves it well below the melting point of ice. Frozen Ground 28, December 2004, has a very significant map of permafrost affected areas in the Arctic. The continuous permafrost zone includes all of Greenland, the North of Labrador, NW Territories, Alaska north of Fairbanks, and most of NE Siberia north of Mongolia and Kamchatka. Continental ice above permafrost is very unlikely to melt quickly. As most of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lie above the snowline and/or base of the permafrost zone, they cannot melt in a timeframe much less than several millennia; therefore they are unlikely to contribute significantly to sea-level rise in the coming century.

[edit] Polar ice

The sea level will rise above its current level if more polar ice melts. However, compared to the heights of the ice ages, today there are very few continental ice sheets remaining to be melted. It is estimated that Antarctica, if fully melted, would contribute more than 60 metres of sea level rise, and Greenland would contribute more than 7 metres. Small glaciers and ice caps on the margins of Greenland and the Antarctic Peninsula might contribute about 0.5 metres. While the latter figure is much smaller than for Antarctica or Greenland it could occur relatively quickly (within the coming century) whereas melting of Greenland would be slow (perhaps 1,500 years to fully deglaciate at the fastest likely rate) and Antarctica even slower.^[13] However, this calculation does not account for the possibility that as meltwater flows under and lubricates the larger ice sheets, they could begin to move much more rapidly towards the sea.^[47]^[48]

In 2002, Rignot and Thomas^[49] found that the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets were losing mass, while the East Antarctic ice sheet was probably in balance (although they could not determine the sign of the mass balance for The East Antarctic ice sheet). Kwok and Comiso (J. Climate, v15, 487-501, 2002) also discovered that temperature and pressure anomalies around West Antarctica and on the other side of the Antarctic Peninsula correlate with recent Southern Oscillation events.

In 2004 Rignot et al.^[39] estimated a contribution of 0.04±0.01 mm/yr to sea level rise from South East Greenland. In the same year, Thomas et al.^[50] found evidence of an accelerated contribution to sea level rise from West Antarctica. The data showed that the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was discharging 250 cubic kilometres of ice every year, which was 60% more than precipitation accumulation in the catchment areas. This alone was sufficient to raise sea level at 0.24 mm/yr. Further, thinning rates for the glaciers studied in 2002-2003 had increased over the values measured in the early 1990s. The bedrock underlying the glaciers was found to be hundreds of metres deeper than previously known, indicating exit routes for ice from further inland in the Byrd Subpolar Basin. Thus the West Antarctic ice sheet may not be as stable as has been supposed.

In 2005 it was reported that during 1992-2003, East Antarctica thickened at an average rate of about 18 mm/yr while West Antarctica showed an overall thinning of 9 mm/yr. associated with increased precipitation. A gain of this magnitude is enough to slow sea-level rise by 0.12±0.02 mm/yr.^[51]

[edit] Effects of sea level rise

Based on the projected increases stated above, the IPCC TAR WG II report notes that current and future climate change would be expected to have a number of impacts, particularly on coastal systems.^[52] Such impacts may include increased coastal erosion, higher storm-surge flooding, inhibition of primary production processes, more extensive coastal inundation, changes in surface water quality and groundwater characteristics, increased loss of property and coastal habitats, increased flood risk and potential loss of life, loss of nonmonetary cultural resources and values, impacts on agriculture and aquaculture through decline in soil and water quality, and loss of tourism, recreation, and transportation functions.

There is an implication that many of these impacts will be detrimental—especially for the three-quarters of the world's poor who depend on agriculture systems. ^[53] The report does, however, note that owing to the great diversity of coastal environments; regional and local differences in projected relative sea level and climate changes; and differences in the resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems, sectors, and countries, the impacts will be highly variable in time and space.

Statistical data on the human impact of sea level rise is scarce. A study in the April, 2007 issue of Environment and Urbanization reports that 634 million people live in coastal areas within 30 feet (9.1 m) of sea level. The study also reported that about two thirds of the world's cities with over five million people are located in these low-lying coastal areas. The IPCC report of 2007 estimated that accelerated melting of the Himalayan ice caps and the resulting rise in sea levels would likely increase the severity of flooding in the short-term during the rainy season and greatly magnify the impact of tidal storm surges during the cyclone season. A sea-level rise of just 40 cm in the Bay of Bengal would put 11 percent of the Bangladesh's coastal land underwater, creating 7 to 10 million climate refugees.

[edit] Island nations

IPCC assessments suggest that deltas and small island states are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise caused by both thermal expansion and ocean volume. Relative sea level rise (mostly caused by subsidence) is currently causing substantial loss of lands in some deltas.^[54] Sea level changes have not yet been conclusively proven to have directly resulted in environmental, humanitarian, or economic losses to small island states, but the IPCC and other bodies have found this a serious risk scenario in coming decades.^[55]

Many media reports have focused the island nations of the Pacific, notably the Polynesian islands of Tuvalu, which based on more severe flooding events in recent years, was thought to be "sinking" due to sea level rise.^[56] A scientific review in 2000 reported that based on University of Hawaii gauge data, Tuvalu had experienced a negligible increase in sea-level of 0.07 mm a year over the past two decades, and that ENSO had been a larger factor in Tuvalu's higher tides in recent years.^[57] A subsequent study by John Hunter from the University of Tasmania, however, adjusted for ENSO effects and the movement of the gauge (which was thought to be sinking). Hunter concluded that Tuvalu had been experiencing sea-level rise of about 1.2 mm per year.^[57]^[58] The recent more frequent flooding in Tuvalu may also be due to an erosional loss of land during and following the actions of 1997 cyclones Gavin, Hina, and Keli.^[59]

Reuters has reported other Pacific islands are facing a severe risk including Tegua island in Vanuatu. Claims that Vanuatu data shows no net sea level rise, are not substantiated by tide gauge data. Vanuatu tide gauge data show a net rise of ~50 mm from 1994-2004. Linear regression of this short time series suggests a rate of rise of ~7 mm/y, though there is considerable variability and the exact threat to the islands is difficult to assess using such a short time series.

Numerous options have been proposed that would assist island nations to adapt to rising sea level.^[60]

[edit] Satellite sea level measurement

Satellite Measurement of Sea Level.

Red and white show where sea level has risen the most rapidly. Purple and blue where it has dropped.

Sea level rise estimates from satellite altimetry are 3.1 ± 0.4 mm/yr for 1993-2003 (Leuliette et al. (2004)). This exceeds those from tide gauges. It is unclear whether this represents an increase over the last decades; variability; true differences between satellites and tide gauges; or problems with satellite calibration.^[33] Knowing the current altitude of a satellite which can measure sea level to a precision of about 20 millimetres (e.g. the Topex/Poseidon system) is primarily complicated by orbital decay and the difference between the assumed orbit and the earth geoid ^[61]. This problem is partially corrected by regular re-calibration of satellite altimeters from land stations whose height from MSL is known by surveying. Over water, the height is calibrated from tide gauge data which is needed to correct for tides and atmospheric effects on sea level.

Drift City

2009-09-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

Drift City

Drift City

Developer(s)	NPLUTO
Publisher(s)	NHN Corporation
Distributor(s)	Hangame (Korea) ijji (USA)
License	Freeware
Engine	GameBryo
Version	^NA0.16e (July 22, 2009)
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	^NA August 1, 2007^{[citation needed]}
Genre(s)	Nonlinear driving game, RPG, action-adventure
Mode(s)	Online Multiplayer
Media	Internet Download
System requirements	Processor: 1.8 GHz (Recommended: 2.4 GHz) RAM: 256 MB (Recommended: 1024 MB) Video card: Radeon 9600/Geforce 6 Series Sound card: DirectX 9.0 compatible Additional: Broadband recommended (ISDN, xDSl, Cable, Optical Fiber) Hard drive: 1GB DirectX: 9.0c
Input methods	Mouse & Keyboard

Drift City (also known as Skid Rush in Korea), is a Korean-developed nonlinear driving MMO-RPG game published in America on August 1, 2007 by NHN. The game is based in action films and TV series such as The Transporter and Fastlane and utilize the Miles Sound System middleware for its audio. The game itself is also sponsored by several automotive companies such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and U1 Technology.

[hide]

[edit] Plot

A screenshot of several players at Cras City in Drift City.

The game takes place in the near future during a worldwide oil shortage. A mysterious material dubbed Mittron is discovered on an island in the North Pacific. The island was named after the material, and the Organization for Mittron Development (OMD) is set up to manage the island and its resources. This resource quickly became the preferred fuel for all methods of transportation as Mittron-fueled cars ran much longer, cleaner, and faster than traditional gas-powered cars.

Unmanned vehicles dubbed HUVs (High-Tech Unmanned Vehicles) began appearing around the island terrorizing the people. This threat has become so widespread that pedestrians no longer walk the streets for fear of being attacked. As a result, the OMD has started importing professional drivers to assist in destroying the HUVs and uncover the mystery behind their sudden appearance.

[edit] Gameplay

Players earn experience points and the in-game currency of Mito for completing missions and deliveries, as well as for bounties when hunting HUVs.

Players can choose from a variety of vehicles in different classes. They can also purchase upgrade parts for their vehicle for increased performance, though many parts require the player to have reached a certain level before they can be equipped. Performance parts can be further enhanced by Mittron Enhancers for increased stats.

Players can also earn "coupons" to unlock cars for purchase by completing certain in-game requirements, similar to the Burnout series' Trophy requirements. The player can also earn items through driving and hunting HUVs. These items can range from fuel for the car to car parts.

Players also have the option to join and form "crews," as well as form impromptu "parties" for extra experience. Each crew has ranks depending on their crew points, you can be rank A, rank B or rank S. B class crews are 3rd class^{[citation needed]}, A class crews are 2nd class^{[citation needed]} and S class (special class^{[citation needed]}) crews are 1st class^{[citation needed]}. For players to tell which rank crews are, the crew names are colored: white for C class crews, blue for B class crews, yellow for A class crew and red for S class crews. Players can also trade items directly with each other.

Having been released first, Skid Rush contains a number of features have yet to be implemented in Drift City. These include a wider variety of customization options for the player's car and new cars.

[edit] Mittron Island

Mittron Island consists of four cities: Moon Palace, Koinonia, Cras, Oros, and Chinatown (not currently accessible). Players start in Moon Palace and work their way into Koinonia, Cras, and then Oros by completing storyline missions and reaching certain levels. Once these cities are opened, players can travel between them at any time using the highway system.

Each server hosts a central hub known as the Driver Dome where drivers can converse with each other. The Driver Dome contains several buildings, which include the Battle Zone where drivers can challenge each other on preset courses, the Auction House, where players can purchase items that others have posted for sale through an in-game browser, the Dealership, where players may purchase new vehicles, the Parts Shop, where players may purchase new parts from an NPC, the Garage, where players can switch between each of the vehicles they own, and the Crew Center, where players can create a crew or participate and spectate in crew battles. The Driver Dome also has an underground level only accessible by players who are level 31 and higher which also contains the aforementioned buildings.

[edit] Cities

Moon Palace - The city where rookie OMD drivers are deployed. Moon Palace is a seaside metropolis with a wide open road system. The east of the city also houses a portion of the island's industrial district, where Mittron is refined into fuel. There is an airport on the west side of this city that is shared with Oros.
Koinonia - Mittron Island's industrial and commercial center, which also features a seaport.
Cras - A hilly city with a little beach that is also home to the facilities where Mittron is mined. The city also has a tunnel that leads the player directly back to Moon Palace without having to pass through Oros or Koinonia. Cras is also popular for the normal HUV apeeranceat the Seaside apartment complex one.
Oros - A desert city that is a hotspot for Mittron development. Its main facilities are a space center based on^{[citation needed]} NASA and a secret military installation named "Area 71" based on Area 51 in America. Released November 21. The game says it is where the HUV is formed but it is actually a 8-lane "race track".There is no place to see the production line of the HUV.
Chinatown - A city based on the real-world location of Taipei, Taiwan. It first appeared in the Taiwanese edition of Drift City, and is slowly being added to other clients. Despite it is currently impossible to access the city in free roam mode, a single track can be raced on in the Battle Zone.
Underground City

[edit] Cars

The cars are organized by classes ranging from V1 to V9 with V9 being the highest. Each class requires the player to have reached a certain level and to have attained a certain amount in mito. Most of the cars also require the player to have previously attained a "coupon" which unlocks it for purchase.

While most of the cars are fictionally branded yet modeled on their real-life counterparts, a number of vehicles from Chrysler and Jeep have been licensed for the game, most prominently the 4th-generation^{[citation needed]} Dodge Viper SRT-10 coupe and the 6th-generation^{[citation needed]} Dodge Charger.

[edit] Rush Time

Rush Time is a new feature of Drift City where anyone can join a massive "Boss HUV" chase, which consists of chasing one of five possible large HUVs, with significantly increased HP and different abilities. The event can begin once at least 10 players are within the Rush Time circle. Larger Rush Time events occur at scheduled times.

Users gain items by crashing into the boss HUV. The user who touches the boss last will receive a big prize: 3 Mittron Enhancers (used for upgrading parts) and some mito, the in-game currency. Except for scheduled Rush Time events, the Boss HUV is rarely defeated within the ten-minute limit. However, participating in Rush Time is the only way to obtain the highest level parts in the game, and many players participate in smaller Rush Times so they can obtain these rare parts to use or sell via the Auction House.

[edit] Parts enhancing

Parts can be enhanced (upgraded) by using Mittron Enhancers. All parts are divided into 3 branches, Normal parts (level 1 through level 25 parts), Super parts (level 31 through level 55 parts) and Hyper parts (level 60 through level 80 parts). Since the Stage 2 update, each branch requires a corresponding Mittron Enhancer to enhance the part (e.g. H Mittron Enhancer is needed to enhance Hyper parts). However, the old Mittron Enhancer which has a 24 hour usage period limit can be still obtained by various ways (e.g. Rush Time) and can still be used to enhance any part. The cash item "Mittron Enhancer Booster" can be used to double the effect of Mittron Enhancers. Attempting to enhance has a chance to fail or even break the part. Broken parts can be repaired by using a repair kit that removes all enhancements from the part or the cash item "Restore kit" that keeps the enhancements made to the part. Success rate of enhancement drops with each time the part was successfully enhanced. You will almost always succeed if you attempt to enhance an unenhanced part.

[edit] Stage 2 features

[edit] Sticker feature

By uploading up to 5 images per day, players can fully customize their cars. While the stickers themselves are Mito, the adhesive used to apply them to the car costs at least 10 G Coins.^[1]

[edit] Glossy paints

Paint with a special, reflective finish that adds stat points. Unlike regular paint, it cannot be removed from the car it was bought for until it expires. New players can choose a free, unlimited glossy paint, but there is no stat bonus. ^[2]

[edit] Undercity

Undercity is a dungeon instance where a party of players may participate in multiple HUV chasing events for items and money.^[1] Completing one round of Undercity earns the player a coupon for the Monster, a large truck with a high durability stat built to destroy HUVs.

At the final stage of an Undercity session, the party must defeat a Boss HUV within a time limit. Each city has a different Boss HUV, and when the Boss HUV is defeated, each player receives up to three items depending on how well they did. The game mode can give parts from special part sets that give additional stats if all of the parts are equipped, and the part sets available from Undercity also differ between each city.

The currently available Undercity missions are in both Moon Palace, Koinonia and Cras. The Undercity mission in Koinonia is tougher than to the one in Moon Palace.

[edit] Real Match

A balanced team race where every player drives the same car, a Bugatti Veyron 16.4^{[citation needed]} look-alike called the Duel. Winning 100 Real Match races earns the player a coupon that they can use to purchase their own Duel. Currently, Real Matches are only available during scheduled times.Although Real Match races rewards a lot of Mito, there is no exp. rewarded.^[1]

[edit] Lap Time

Similar to the style of racing found in Trackmania. Players compete for the best time around the track without using gate powerups and may earn parts and part enhancers depending on their position.^[1]

[edit] Update

In April, a new patch was released by IJJI which included new updates such as the Dew car, which is exchanged through G-coins. Along with this is a new interface system. Repeatable missions are available in Moon Place and Koinonia. The repeatable missions in Moon Place are essentially delivery missions while the ones in Koinonia are a sideline to the story. Both offers rewards of mito, exp, MKII Quick Battle Repair kits, and Mittron powder (which are used to exchange for items such as VHUV appearance or Traffic car appearance at the trade centers). In addition, there is a new license and rank system. Players are able to acquire licenses, which they could put on the profiles for others to see, once they complete the requirements. For instance, for the Tuning license, the player needs to successfully create 1 +12 part and 6 +10 parts. In the Battle Zone, there are now ladder ranks.^[3]

3 Grades of Chemicals for Thames Kosmos Chemistry Sets

2009-09-05T00:41:00.000-07:00

3 Grades of Chemicals for Thames Kosmos Chemistry Sets

Chemistry sets from brands like Thames Kosmos, Scientific Explorer and Powertech provide children with hours of educational entertainment. The great thing about these sets is they provide all the chemicals and materials required to conduct the experiments. But what do you do when the chemicals have all been used?

Walmart seems to have just about everything but have you ever found the chemicals aisle? Not only are chemicals hard to find but who even knows what to buy? This article explains the difference between 3 grades of chemicals so you can know the right chemicals for your next school experiment, homework assignment or science fair project.

Chemistry sets can awaken an interest in chemistry and the physical world, setting children on a path to a future career. Even the most basic chemistry sets are filled with experiments that will peak and keep the interest of children who already have a basic scientific interest or knowledge, or those who are absolute beginners. Chemistry experiments are designed to teach things like air pressure and water tension, and how everyday things function. Some of the experiments work with benign objects, while others require chemicals.

Not all the experiments found in chemistry sets like the Thames Kosmos series require the use of chemicals. For those that do, it’s good to know what you’re working with, and what your choices are when you need to purchase chemicals.

Most chemicals are graded, the grade representing the purity of the chemical. A chemical with a higher grade has fewer impurities, or other chemicals, such as metals and water, than those with a lower grade. The cost of chemicals is in keeping with its grade: a higher grade is more expensive than lower grades.

Although there are several different protocols for grading chemicals, there are three basic grades that are the most common and most likely to be used. They are, from highest to lowest, reagent grade, laboratory grade, and technical grade.

Reagent grade, also known as ACS, is the highest chemical grade there is, meaning it is the most pure. It meets or exceeds American Chemical Society standards. Chemicals graded as reagent grade can be used in all situations, from scientific to manufacturing. It is the only chemical grade that can be used in biological experiments.

Laboratory grade chemicals, which may also be referred to as lab, are less pure than reagent grade chemicals, but are still of a fairly high purity. These chemicals would not be pure enough to use in medical or food products, but they are usually more than adequate for science fair projects.

Technical grade chemicals are also called industrial grade, and are the least pure chemicals. Chemicals of this grade are typically used in industrial or commercial applications, but may be adequate for some science fair projects. These chemicals are not acceptable for use in food or medicinal purposes.

If your experiment has stringent requirements for chemical purity, your best bet would be purchasing from a chemical supply house where you can be assured of the grade of chemical you are purchasing. If you are unsure of what grade is needed for a particular experiment, laboratory grade is a safe choice.

So now that you have a handle on that, where do you go to find the chemicals you need? You don’t have to buy chemistry sets to get more chemicals. You can actually purchase just the chemicals at various stores (hardware store, drug store, even the grocery store) rather than a chemical supply house. However, before you get excited about that, there is a problem. When you buy from these types of stores, the chemicals are unlikely to be graded and may contain an unacceptable level of impurities for the experiment being performed.

Now you can buy the right chemical with confidence that it will get the job done. Having the proper chemicals allows you to successfully conduct experiments. It also allows you to replenish the supply of chemicals in your old Thames Kosmos chemistry sets so you can blow the dust off of the set and put it back to good use.

How Anyone Who Knows How to Type Can Write an Article in 30 Minutes or Less

2009-09-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

How Anyone Who Knows How to Type Can Write an Article in 30 Minutes or Less

It seems that one of the fastest growing recommendations flying around the net these days is about writing articles.

Of course as something starts to pick up momentum it brings forth a myriad of products, all wanting your hard earned cash.

Recently I picked up a product by Melanie Mendelson called The 30 Minute Article Writing System.

In The 30 Minute Article Writing System Melanie teaches a step by step system for creating articles on virtually any topic in 30 minutes or less. Instead of just giving you more content you are given a clearly defined set of steps and a time limit for each one’s completion.

Although the system is straight forward the largest obstacle would be the system assumes you have some knowledge of the topic you are writing about.

This is easily overcome with some quick search engine research on your topic, however if you’re not very versed in your topic it will take you more than 30 minutes factoring in research time.

Melanie Mendelson, although she has only been working online for a little more than 3 years has been able to create a full time income for herself.

Creating her own products, Melanie uses article writing as her top strategy for attracting customers.

In The 30 Minute Article Writing System I found the simplicity of the system to be its most powerful quality. Knowing the exact step to take and having a pre determined time limit for its completion keeps your article writing on track.

The system is powerful enough to have you create very well written articles even though you may have very limited knowledge on the subject of your article.

Using the program definitely eliminates any type of writers block.

There is also a huge list of sites included in the book for submitting your articles to for massive exposure.

Although the information is not new the way Melanie presents it in a clearly defined system is rare and very refreshing even for someone who has never written an article in their life.

I must admit I was a little skeptical about the following sentence from Melanie’s sales letter:

If you are a complete novice, you will be churning out articles like you’ve been doing it all your life.

However after going through the system I can see where she has the proof to back this statement.

Understanding that The 30 Minute Article Writing System is designed to be a quick system for writing articles, I do wish Melanie would have maybe touched somewhat on the subject of quick research for topics you might not be familiar with.

After purchasing the product and using it I believe that everything stated in the original sales letter was true and I was left with no unanswered questions or concerns.

If you are at all interested in attracting more search engine traffic or publicity to your business or affiliate programs, then this article system should prove very helpful.

An informative article can draw huge amounts of traffic to your website and business and I would give this product a 7 out of 10 recommendation to help you with your article writing.

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Persipura Jayapura

Persipura Jayapura

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Ground

[edit] Honours

[edit] Coaches

[edit] The Squad

Belfast

Belfast

Contents

[edit] Name

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

[edit] Growth

[edit] The Troubles

[edit] Governance

[edit] Local government

[edit] Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster

[edit] Coat of arms and motto

[edit] Geography

[edit] Climate

[edit] Areas and districts

[edit] Cityscape

[edit] Architecture

[edit] Parks and gardens

[edit] Demography

[edit] Economy

[edit] Industrial growth

[edit] Infrastructure

[edit] Utilities

[edit] Health care

[edit] Transport

[edit] Culture

[edit] Education

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy

Contents

[edit] Funding

[edit] Funding

[edit] Requirements for completion

[edit] Germany

[edit] Admission

[edit] History

[edit] Norway

[edit] Spain

[edit] Admission

[edit] Funding

[edit] Completion

[edit] Other doctorates

[edit] United States

[edit] Overview

[edit] Admission

[edit] Master's degree "in passing"

[edit] Time

[edit] Funding

[edit] Ph.D. candidacy

[edit] Models of supervision

Current sea level rise

Current sea level rise

Contents

[edit] Overview of sea-level change

[edit] Local and eustatic sea level

[edit] Short term and periodic changes

[edit] Longer term changes

[edit] Glaciers and ice caps

[edit] Past changes in sea level

[edit] The sedimentary record

[edit] Estimates

[edit] U. S. Tide Gauge Measurements

[edit] Amsterdam Sea Level Measurements

[edit] Australian Sea Level Change

[edit] Future sea level rise

[edit] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change results

[edit] Uncertainties and criticisms regarding IPCC results

[edit] Glacier contribution

[edit] Greenland contribution

[edit] Antarctic contribution

[edit] Effects of snowline and permafrost