Public works
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects and constructed by the government, for recreational and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings, transport infrastructure, public spaces, public services, other long-term, physical assets and facilities. Though interchangeable with public infrastructure and public capital, public works does not carry an economic component, thereby being a broader term. Public works has been encouraged since antiquity. For example, the Roman emperor Nero encouraged the construction of various infrastructure projects during widespread deflation. Public works is a multi-dimensional concept in economics and politics, touching on multiple arenas including: recreation, economy and neighborhood, it represents any constructed object that augments a nation's physical infrastructure. Municipal infrastructure, urban infrastructure, rural development represent the same concept but imply either large cities or developing nations' concerns respectively.
The terms public infrastructure or critical infrastructure are at times used interchangeably. However, critical infrastructure includes public works as well as facilities like hospitals and telecommunications systems and views them from a national security viewpoint and the impact on the community that the loss of such facilities would entail. Furthermore, the term public works has been expanded to include digital public infrastructure projects; the first nationwide digital public works project is an effort to create an open source software platform for e-voting. Reflecting increased concern with sustainability, urban ecology and quality of life, efforts to move towards sustainable municipal infrastructure are common in developed nations in European Union and Canada. A public employment programme' or'public works programme' is the provision of employment by the creation of predominantly public goods at a prescribed wage for those unable to find alternative employment; this functions as a form of social safety net.
PWPs are activities which entail the payment of a wage by an Agent. One particular form of public works, that of offering a short-term period of employment, has come to dominate practice in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Applied in the short term, this is appropriate as a response to transient shocks and acute labour market crises. Investing in public works projects in order to stimulate the general economy has been a popular policy measure since the economic crisis of the 1930s. More recent examples are the 2008–2009 Chinese economic stimulus program, the 2008 European Union stimulus plan, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. While it is argued that capital investment in public works can be used to reduce unemployment, opponents of internal improvement programs argue that such projects should be undertaken by the private sector, not the public sector, because public works projects are characteristic of socialism. However, in the private sector, entrepreneurs bear their own losses and so private sector firms are unwilling to undertake projects that could result in losses or would not develop a revenue stream.
Governments will invest in public works because of the overall benefit to society when there is a lack of private sector benefit or the risk is too great for a private company to accept on its own. According to research conducted at the Aalborg University, 86% of public works projects end up with cost overruns; some unexpected findings of the research were that: Technically difficult projects were not more to exceed the budget than less difficult projects Projects in which more people were directly and indirectly affected by the project turned out to be more susceptible to cost overruns Project managers did not learn from similar projects attempted in the pastGenerally contracts awarded by public tenders will include a provision for unexpected expenses, that amount to 10% of the value of the contract. This money is only spent during the course of the project if the construction managers judge that it is necessary, the expenditure must be justified in writing. Contingencies fund an economic discussion.
Madaket Ditch, one of the first public works projects in AmericaIndividual programs: Egyptian Public Works New Deal, USA, 1930s Opera Publica Public Works Administration, part of the New Deal in 1930s The dictionary definition of public works at Wiktionary American Public Works Association - Professional society
Sabine Parish, Louisiana
Sabine Parish is a parish located in the U. S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 24,233; the seat of the parish is Many. Sabine was one of five parishes created in as many weeks by the Louisiana State Legislature March 27, 1843, it was created from Natchitoches Parish with the Sabine River as the international boundary between the United States and the Republic of Texas as the western boundary. The area, inhabited first by the Adais Indians of the Caddo Confederacy, was first under Spanish rule French, Spanish again, French when Napoleon sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Boundary disputes followed the purchase; the United States claimed the Sabine River as the border and Spain claimed a line farther east in Louisiana along Arroyo Hondo, a tributary of the Red River. The Neutral Ground Treaty was affected in 1806, declaring the area "Sabine Free State," a demilitarized zone, which became the neutral strip for outlaws, desperadoes and filibusters.
The strip extended from Sabine River east to the Calcasieu River, Bayous Kisatchie and Don Manuel, Lac Terre Noir and the Arroyo Hondo. Both nations neither exercised control. English speaking settlers from the older eastern states began moving into the section during the westward expansion years before the boundary was established, they settled on Spanish grants known as Rio Hondo claims. One of the earliest settlers was Thomas Arthur. In 1819, Spain abandoned all claims to land east of the Sabine River and the United States moved in to establish law and order. Great caravans of home seekers marched over the old highways and many of them settled in present-day Sabine Parish. In the years that followed, small settlements began to make their appearances throughout the parish; the earliest of these was Negreet, founded in 1822, in the southern part of the parish where Christopher Anthony located on Bayou Negreet. Other settlements were Toro, in the extreme south, 1827, Noble, in the north portion, dating back to the 1830s.
Fort Jesup was founded in 1822 by Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor who became the 12th President of the United States. Taylor's troops managed to establish order in this Neutral Ground. Fort Jesup has served as a vital part of Sabine Parish over the years and can be enjoyed by visitors today, it was an important frontier post until the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the focal point of the American expansionist movement. The two main highways of the southwest traversed the Neutral Strip and ran about four miles apart in the vicinity of Many; the San Antonio Trace and El Camino Real extended from Natchitoches Parish westward directly across Sabine Parish into East Texas. Since El Camino Real was older and better known, a number of farmers and villages settled along it. Philip Nolan's Trace crossed the Red River above Alexandria and ran through the Kisatchie country to join El Camino Real near the Sabine River crossing; the parish was created at a time. A government survey in 1831 laid out the Sabine area in townships and sections and this, together with the clearing of the Red River "raft" by Henry Miller Shreve, in 1838, opened the Red River to steamboat traffic and gave impetus to the colonization of the area.
Steamboats began running on the Sabine River in 1830, by 1850 heavy traffic was carried on the Sabine. Popular landing points were East Pendleton and Carter's Ferry. About three miles south of Pendleton was the flourishing river port of Sabine Town; the influx of settlers reached its zenith just prior to the American Civil War. Sabine Parish was one of the five parishes created in as many weeks by the state legislature in 1843 during the administration of Governor Alexander Mouton; the parish was created from Natchitoches Parish on March 7, 1843. Since Texas was an independent republic, the Sabine River constituted an international border. Less than one month the parish was given several additional townships when legislators defined lines of its northern neighbor, DeSoto Parish. One half township from Natchitoches intended to be part of Sabine was added in 1854. In 1871, a considerable portion of the southern half of Sabine Parish was removed with the establishment of Vernon Parish. Since the parish boundaries have remained unchanged.
Act 46 creating the parish specified that the seat of government should be named Many in honor of Col. John B. Many, commandant at Fort Jesup the most important settlement in the parish. Many was on El Camino Real, which carried traffic into Texas. On May 17, 1843, Judge W. R. D. Speight, parish judge, I. W. Eason, Samuel S. Eason and G. W. Thompson purchased and gave to Sabine Parish 40 acres of land; some thirty citizens petitioned the police jury to lay out the town on the land, sell lots and make arrangements for the erection of public buildings. The police jury planned a courthouse and jail, raising the construction money with the sale of the lots; the first house was erected by John Baldwin, who used his home as a tavern. He was the first postmaster of Many; the first settler was Williams Mains, who came to the area in 1830. The first cotton gin was built in the early 1850s, the first census showed Sabine had a population of 3,347 whites and 1,168 slaves. During the Civil War, Sabine Parish provided considerable support for units formed in the parish.
Historian John D. Winters in The Civil War in Louisiana, describes Sabine as "a poor piney-hill parish met earlier obligations to her men by voting funds for the S
DeSoto Parish, Louisiana
DeSoto Parish is a parish located in the U. S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 26,656, its seat is Mansfield. The parish was formed in 1843. DeSoto Parish is part of the Shreveport -- LA Metropolitan Statistical Area, it is a typical misconception that the parish was named after Hernando de Soto, the Spaniard who explored the future southeastern United States and discovered and named the Mississippi River. The parish was in fact named after the unrelated Marcel DeSoto, who led the first group of European settlers there, to a settlement known as Bayou Pierre; the parish's name is commonly misspelled following the explorer's name as "De Soto Parish," but it is properly spelled following the settler's name as "DeSoto Parish."The Battle of Mansfield was fought in DeSoto Parish on April 8, 1864. General Alfred Mouton was killed in the fighting, but his position was carried forward by Prince de Polignac, a native of France; the battle is commemorated at the Mansfield State Historic Site four miles south of Mansfield off Louisiana Highway 175.
The Confederate victory prevented a planned Union invasion thereafter of Texas. Mansfield known as the Battle of Sabine Crossroads, a Confederate victory, occurred with one year and one day left in the duration of the war. Mansfield was followed by the Battle of Pleasant Hill to the south. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 895 square miles, of which 876 square miles is land and 19 square miles is water. Interstate 49 Future Interstate 69 U. S. Highway 84 U. S. Highway 171 U. S. Highway 371 Louisiana Highway 5 Caddo Parish Red River Parish Natchitoches Parish Sabine Parish Shelby County, Texas Panola County, Texas Red River National Wildlife Refuge As of the census of 2010, there were 32,000 people, 12,562 households, 7,012 families residing in the parish; the population density was 29 people per square mile. There were 11,204 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile; the racial makeup of the parish was 56.97% White, 38.16% Black or African American, 0.82% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 0.15% Pacific Islander, 0.54% from other races, 0.66% from two or more races.
2.85% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 9,691 households out of which 33.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.70% were married couples living together, 18.60% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.10% were non-families. 25.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.60% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.11. In the parish the population was spread out with 28.40% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 26.30% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, 14.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 90.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.00 males. The median income for a household in the parish was $28,252, the median income for a family was $33,196. Males had a median income of $30,780 versus $20,182 for females; the per capita income for the parish was $13,606.
About 21.00% of families and 25.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.80% of those under age 18 and 24.90% of those age 65 or over. Public schools in DeSoto Parish are operated by the DeSoto Parish School Board. Mansfield Keachi Logansport Stonewall Grand Cane Longstreet South Mansfield Stanley Frierson Gloster Carmel Hunter Kingston Naborton Pelican Larry Bagley, incoming Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Caddo and Sabine parishes Terry Bradshaw, Hall of Fame professional football player, sportscaster and actor Richard Burford, current Louisiana state representative Vida Blue, professional baseball player C. L. Bryant, Baptist minister and radio talk show host Riemer Calhoun, state senator from 1944 to 1952 for DeSoto and Caddo parishes Joe T. Cawthorn, state senator from 1940 to 1944 for DeSoto and Caddo parishes Sherri Smith Cheek Buffington, Louisiana State Senator Joe Henry Cooper, Louisiana state representative Kenny Ray Cox, Louisiana state representative and former United States Army officer Milton Joseph Cunningham and New Orleans lawyer, state senator from Natchitoches and DeSoto parishes from 1880 to 1884.
S. attorney and state 1st Judicial District Court judge in Shreveport. "Johnny" Rogers, politician C. O. Simpkins, Sr. African-American state
Sabine County, Texas
Sabine County is a county located on the central eastern border of the U. S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,834, its county seat is Hemphill. The county was organized on December 14, 1837, named for the Sabine River, which forms its eastern border. Sabine County is represented in the Texas House of Representatives by Republican Chris Paddie, a radio broadcaster and former mayor of Marshall in Harrison County. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 577 square miles, of which 491 square miles is land and 85 square miles is water. U. S. Highway 96 State Highway 21 State Highway 87 State Highway 103 State Highway 184 Sabine National Forest Shelby County Sabine Parish, Louisiana Newton County Jasper County San Augustine County Like other eastern Texas counties, Sabine was developed as cotton plantations, which depended on the labor of numerous enslaved African Americans. After the Civil War and emancipation, many freedmen remained in the rural area, working as tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
There was considerable violence by whites against blacks after Reconstruction. After 1877 and through the early 20th century, Sabine County had 10 lynchings of blacks by whites in acts of racial terrorism; this was the fourth-highest total in the state, where lynchings took place in nearly all counties through this period. From 1930 to 1970, the population declined as many African Americans left this rural county and other parts of the South in the Great Migration to escape Jim Crow oppression and seek better jobs in Northern industrial cities and on the West Coast, where the defense industry built up beginning during World War II; as of the census of 2000, there were 10,469 people, 4,485 households, 3,157 families residing in the county. The population density was 21 people per square mile. There were 7,659 housing units at an average density of 16 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 87.85% White, 9.92% Black or African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.82% from other races, 0.88% from two or more races.
1.81% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 4,485 households out of which 23.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.90% were married couples living together, 8.70% had a female householder with no husband present, 29.60% were non-families. 27.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.40% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.78. In the county, the population was spread out with 21.10% under the age of 18, 5.60% from 18 to 24, 21.10% from 25 to 44, 27.20% from 45 to 64, 24.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females there were 93.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.70 males. The median income for a household in the county was $27,198, the median income for a family was $32,554. Males had a median income of $28,695 versus $21,141 for females; the per capita income for the county was $15,821.
About 11.80% of families and 15.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.90% of those under age 18 and 12.70% of those age 65 or over. The following school districts serve Sabine County: Brookeland Independent School District Hemphill Independent School District Shelbyville Independent School District West Sabine Independent School District Hemphill Pineland Milam Bronson Brookeland Fairmount Geneva Isla Pendelton Harbor Subdivision Rosevine Sexton Yellowpine National Register of Historic Places listings in Sabine County, Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Sabine County Sabine County website Sabine County Chamber of Commerce Sabine County from the Handbook of Texas Online
Handbook of Texas
The Handbook of Texas is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association. The original Handbook was the brainchild of TSHA President Walter Prescott Webb of The University of Texas history department, it was published as a two-volume set in 1952, with a supplemental volume published in 1976. In 1996, the New Handbook of Texas was published, expanding the encyclopedia to six volumes and over 23,000 articles. In 1999, the Handbook of Texas Online went live with the complete text of the print edition, all corrections incorporated into the handbook's second printing, about 400 articles not included in the print edition due to space limitations; the handbook continues to be updated online, contains over 25,000 articles. The online version includes entries on general topics, such as "Texas since World War II", biographies such as notable Texans Samuel Houston and W. D. Twichell, ranches such as the Matador, geographical entries such as "Waco, Texas".
Many Texas scholars and professors, such as Robert A. Calvert and Art Martinez de Vara, have contributed to the Handbook. Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas 1952 2 volume edition at HathiTrust
Lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, therefore are distinct from lagoons, are larger and deeper than ponds, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are flowing. Most lakes streams. Natural lakes are found in mountainous areas, rift zones, areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found along the courses of mature rivers. In some parts of the world there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them. Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for industrial or agricultural use, for hydro-electric power generation or domestic water supply, or for aesthetic, recreational purposes, or other activities.
The word lake comes from Middle English lake, from Old English lacu, from Proto-Germanic *lakō, from the Proto-Indo-European root *leǵ-. Cognates include Dutch laak, Middle Low German lāke as in: de:Wolfslake, de:Butterlake, German Lache, Icelandic lækur. Related are the English words leak and leach. There is considerable uncertainty about defining the difference between lakes and ponds, no current internationally accepted definition of either term across scientific disciplines or political boundaries exists. For example, limnologists have defined lakes as water bodies which are a larger version of a pond, which can have wave action on the shoreline or where wind-induced turbulence plays a major role in mixing the water column. None of these definitions excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure. For this reason, simple size-based definitions are used to separate ponds and lakes. Definitions for lake range in minimum sizes for a body of water from 2 hectares to 8 hectares. Charles Elton, one of the founders of ecology, regarded lakes as waterbodies of 40 hectares or more.
The term lake is used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre, a dry basin most of the time but may become filled under seasonal conditions of heavy rainfall. In common usage, many lakes bear names ending with the word pond, a lesser number of names ending with lake are in quasi-technical fact, ponds. One textbook illustrates this point with the following: "In Newfoundland, for example every lake is called a pond, whereas in Wisconsin every pond is called a lake."One hydrology book proposes to define the term "lake" as a body of water with the following five characteristics: it or fills one or several basins connected by straits has the same water level in all parts it does not have regular intrusion of seawater a considerable portion of the sediment suspended in the water is captured by the basins the area measured at the mean water level exceeds an arbitrarily chosen threshold With the exception of the seawater intrusion criterion, the others have been accepted or elaborated upon by other hydrology publications.
The majority of lakes on Earth are freshwater, most lie in the Northern Hemisphere at higher latitudes. Canada, with a deranged drainage system has an estimated 31,752 lakes larger than 3 square kilometres and an unknown total number of lakes, but is estimated to be at least 2 million. Finland has larger, of which 56,000 are large. Most lakes have at least one natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, which maintain a lake's average level by allowing the drainage of excess water; some lakes do not have a natural outflow and lose water by evaporation or underground seepage or both. They are termed endorheic lakes. Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for hydro-electric power generation, aesthetic purposes, recreational purposes, industrial use, agricultural use or domestic water supply. Evidence of extraterrestrial lakes exists. Globally, lakes are outnumbered by ponds: of an estimated 304 million standing water bodies worldwide, 91% are 1 hectare or less in area. Small lakes are much more numerous than large lakes: in terms of area, one-third of the world's standing water is represented by lakes and ponds of 10 hectares or less.
However, large lakes account for much of the area of standing water with 122 large lakes of 1,000 square kilometres or more representing about 29% of the total global area of standing inland water. Hutchinson in 1957 published a monograph, regarded as a landmark discussion and classification of all major lake types, their origin, morphometric characteristics, distribution; as summarized and discussed by these researchers, Hutchinson presented in it a comprehensive analysis of the origin of lakes and proposed what is a accepted classification of lakes according to their origin. This
Reservoir
A reservoir is, most an enlarged natural or artificial lake, pond or impoundment created using a dam or lock to store water. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, through excavation, or building any number of retaining walls or levees. Defined as a storage space for fluids, reservoirs may hold gasses, including hydrocarbons. Tank reservoirs elevated, or buried tanks. Tank reservoirs for water are called cisterns. Most underground reservoirs are used to store liquids, principally either water or petroleum, below ground. Reservoir is most an enlarged natural or artificial lake. A dam constructed in a valley relies on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. Dams are located at a narrow part of a valley downstream of a natural basin; the valley sides act as natural walls, with the dam located at the narrowest practical point to provide strength and the lowest cost of construction.
In many reservoir construction projects, people have to be moved and re-housed, historical artifacts moved or rare environments relocated. Examples include the temples of Abu Simbel, the relocation of the village of Capel Celyn during the construction of Llyn Celyn, the relocation of Borgo San Pietro of Petrella Salto during the construction of Lake Salto. Construction of a reservoir in a valley will need the river to be diverted during part of the build through a temporary tunnel or by-pass channel. In hilly regions, reservoirs are constructed by enlarging existing lakes. Sometimes in such reservoirs, the new top water level exceeds the watershed height on one or more of the feeder streams such as at Llyn Clywedog in Mid Wales. In such cases additional side dams are required to contain the reservoir. Where the topography is poorly suited to a single large reservoir, a number of smaller reservoirs may be constructed in a chain, as in the River Taff valley where the Llwyn-on, Cantref and Beacons Reservoirs form a chain up the valley.
Coastal reservoirs are fresh water storage reservoirs located on the sea coast near the river mouth to store the flood water of a river. As the land based reservoir construction is fraught with substantial land submergence, coastal reservoir is preferred economically and technically since it does not use scarce land area. Many coastal reservoirs were constructed in Europe. Saemanguem in South Korea, Marina Barrage in Singapore and Plover Cove in China, etc are few existing coastal reservoirs. Where water is pumped or siphoned from a river of variable quality or size, bank-side reservoirs may be built to store the water; such reservoirs are formed by excavation and by building a complete encircling bund or embankment, which may exceed 6 km in circumference. Both the floor of the reservoir and the bund must have an impermeable lining or core: these were made of puddled clay, but this has been superseded by the modern use of rolled clay; the water stored in such reservoirs may stay there for several months, during which time normal biological processes may reduce many contaminants and eliminate any turbidity.
The use of bank-side reservoirs allows water abstraction to be stopped for some time, when the river is unacceptably polluted or when flow conditions are low due to drought. The London water supply system is one example of the use of bank-side storage: the water is taken from the River Thames and River Lee. Service reservoirs store treated potable water close to the point of distribution. Many service reservoirs are constructed as water towers as elevated structures on concrete pillars where the landscape is flat. Other service reservoirs can be entirely underground in more hilly or mountainous country. In the United Kingdom, Thames Water has many underground reservoirs, sometimes called cisterns, built in the 1800s, most of which are lined with brick. A good example is the Honor Oak Reservoir in London, constructed between 1901 and 1909; when it was completed it was said to be the largest brick built underground reservoir in the world and it is still one of the largest in Europe. This reservoir now forms part of the southern extension of the Thames Water Ring Main.
The top of the reservoir is now used by the Aquarius Golf Club. Service reservoirs perform several functions, including ensuring sufficient head of water in the water distribution system and providing water capacity to out peak demand from consumers, enabling the treatment plant to run at optimum efficiency. Large service reservoirs can be managed to reduce the cost of pumping, by refilling the reservoir at times of day when energy costs are low. Circa 3 000 BC, the craters of extinct volcanoes in Arabia were used as reservoirs by farmers for their irrigation water. Dry climate and water scarcity in India led to early development of stepwells and water resource management techniques, including the building of a reservoir at Girnar in 3000 BC. Artificial lakes dating to the 5th century BC have been found in ancient Greece; the artificial Bhojsagar lake in present-day Madhya Pradesh state of India, constructed in the 11th century, covered 650 square kilometres. In Sri Lanka large reservoirs were created by ancient Sinhalese kings in order to save the water for irrigation.
The famous Sri Lankan king Pa
