Office of Technology Assessment - 919 Matching Results
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- Verification Technologies: Cooperative Aerial Surveillance in International Agreements
- This report examines the potential and limitations of cooperative aerial surveillance as a means of supporting the goals of a variety of international agreements. It surveys the types of aircraft and sensors that might be used. It reviews the status of and issues raised by the Open Skies Treaty negotiations as an extended example of an aerial surveillance regime. The report concludes with a quantitative analysis of one possible use of cooperative over flights: the search for potential arms control violations.
- Verification Technologies: Managing Research and Development for Cooperative Arms Control Monitoring Measures
- This report examines the management of the research and development process from which the new technologies are emerging. Partly as a result of the way in which the research and development process is managed, the allocation of research resources appears to be geared to meeting short-term needs and solving isolated problems, rather than to pursuing long-term goals and developing integrated verification regimes for the future. The report identifies a range of organizational options that might help improve the balance of research emphasis.
- Verification Technologies: Measures for Monitoring Compliance With the START Treaty
- The report outlines the monitoring tasks specific to START and suggests the cooperative and unilateral measures available for a START monitoring regime. In the discussion of specific monitoring technologies, the report limits itself to those which may be available (though not necessarily applied) at about the time a START Treaty is ready to be signed and ratified.
- Virtual Reality and Technologies for Combat Simulation
- This paper describes applications of synthetic-environment technologies in simulating combat. This background paper is the first of several publications of the OTA’S assessment of combat modeling and simulation.
- Wage Record Information Systems
- This background paper responds to section 408 of the 1990 amendments to the Perkins Act, which asks OTA to review activities to be undertaken by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) to encourage the use of wage records from state unemployment insurance systems for purposes of conducting policy studies or monitoring the outcomes of vocational education.
- Wastes in marine environments
- This final report addresses two fundamental questions: what is the general condition of different marine environments and their resources, and what role can and should marine environments play in overall waste management?
- Water for Walker Lake
- This report discusses the Walker River flows, water rights decrees, agricultural diversions, and other issues related to Walker River water.
- Water-Related Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture in Arid/Semiarid Lands: Selected Foreign Experience: Background Paper
- A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that describes "selected foreign experiences using technology to develop and sustain agriculture in arid lands" (p. iii).
- Water-Related Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture in U.S. Arid/Semiarid Lands
- A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "assesses existing and emerging water-related technologies for their ability to support long-term productivity of arid/semiarid agricultural plants and animals in the context of institutional factors, water supply/use relationships, and the characteristics of the renewable natural resource base on which agriculture depends" (p. iii).
- Western surface mine permitting and reclamation
- This report responds to a request from the House Committee on interior and Insu- Iar Affairs to assess the ability of current mining and reclamation technologies and methodologies, and of Federal programs and policies, to meet the statutory mandates for environmental protection in reclaiming the surface of Western coal mined lands.
- Wetlands: Their Use and Regulation
- A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "describes the ecological values of wetlands, trends in wetlands use, and the effect of Federal and State wetland programs on wetlands" (p. iii).
- Who Goes There: Friend or Foe?
- This report discusses the problem of fratricide, or “friendly fire” casualties among combat units. The House Armed Services Committee requested that OTA assess the technology and techniques available to reduce this tragic loss of life.
- Wireless Technologies and the National Information Infrastructure
- This report examines the role wireless technologies will play in the emerging National Information Infrastructure (NII) and identifies the challenges that policymakers, regulators, and wireless service providers will face as they begin to more closely integrate wireless systems with existing wireline networks. The report also discusses some of the technical and social implications of the widespread use of wireless technologies— paying particular attention to the profound changes that wireless systems may cause in patterns of mobility.
- Wood Use: U.S. Competitiveness and Technology: Vol. 1
- An assessment by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "surveys the contribution of the forest products industry to the U.S. economy, the ability of the industry and the U.S. forest resource to satisfy expected domestic demands for wood, the competitiveness of U.S. Forest products on world markets, and the role of technology in stretching the U.S. forest resource and providing products that satisfy domestic needs as well as international markets" (p. iii).
- Wood Use: U.S. Competitiveness and Technology: Vol. 2
- An assessment by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "reviews wood manufacturing technologies that might be used to extend the timber resource through improved utilization and explores the prospects for changes in the way wood products are manufactured and used" (Abstract).
- Worker Training: Competing in the New International Economy
- This report focuses on the training given to employed workers both from the standpoint of the competitiveness of U.S. industry and from the standpoint of the individual worker who may need training to advance. Most workers who get training get it from their employer, and much of the report looks at the employer provided training system. The message of this report is that the debate about national training policies needs to be broadened to encompass not only training programs for the economically disadvantaged, the displaced worker, or people with special needs, but also those who stand on the front line of American productivity-employed workers at all levels.
- Working paper: marine ecological consequences of waste disposal
- This report summarizes the observed effect on marine resources of waste disposal activities. It first briefly describes the nationwide impacts of pollutants on water quality, sediment quality, and marine organisms.
- World Petroleum Availability 1980-2000
- A technical memorandum by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "estimates plausible levels of world oil production to the year 2000 and assesses the factors likely to determine which levels are actually reached" (p. iii).
- World Population and Fertility Planning Technologies: The Next Twenty Years
- A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "covers the status of current and projected technologies that affect fertility change" (p. iii).