Spatiotemporal Analysis of Land Use Land Cover Mapping and Change Detection in Dambatta Local Government Area

This research studied the spatiotemporal changes in land use (LU)/land cover (LC) in Dambatta local government area, with a view to identifying the effect arising from the observable changes in land use patterns. The imageries used in the study were obtained from the National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA), Abuja. Spatial analytical techniques and descriptive statistical techniques were employed to analyze the data. The results showed 66.8% reduction in agricultural lands, 45.5% reduction in vegetation cover, 223.2% increase in built-up areas, 269.1% increase in bare lands and 70% increase in water bodies within the 20 years. Spatio-temporal analysis of the three imageries revealed that agricultural lands were largely been taken over by urbanization while vegetation had rapidly given way to bare lands within the 20 years. It was observed that these changes resulted from anthropogenic activities, environmental factors and climate change. These result in the loss of farmlands, inadequate food supply, unemployment, inadequate industrial raw materials, reduction in revenue generated, forest depletion, desertification, wildlife extinction and temperature increase. While it is recommended that reforestation, land reclamation and irrigation agriculture should be promoted in the area, it is also suggested that further research should focus on the impact of climate change on land cover change in the area

Tourists' Willingness to Pay for Recreation Services in Nyerere National Park, Tanzania: Are We Overvaluing or Undervaluing Our Nature Recreation Resources?

This study estimated tourists' Willingness to Pay (WTP) per day for recreation services in Nyerere National Park (NNP) and compared these values with daily travel costs that are incurred by tourists to visit NNP in order to inform whether recreation resources in the park are overvalued or undervalued. The study revealed that tourists' WTP per day for recreation services was estimated at $237.4 and$1521 for resident and non-resident tourists, respectively. The estimated tourists' WTP values exceed the daily travel costs currently incurred by tourists, which are $201.04 and$1517.97 for resident and non-resident tourists, respectively. This indicates that tourists are willing to spend more to enjoy recreation services in NNP, which signifies that recreation resources in NNP are slightly undervalued. In addition, the findings disclosed that the largest share of tourist daily travel expenses is allocated to transportation services, and very little is paid to the park as a conservation fee. It was revealed that out of the daily travel expenses incurred by non-resident and resident tourists, only 4.62% and 2.23% are respectively paid directly to NNP as conservation fees. This study considers that allocation is not very fair; thus, NNP, in collaboration with TANAPA, needs to adjust the current entrance or conservation fee and reduce the transportation costs charged by tourist companies. The travel costs incurred by tourists, age, education, monthly income, site visited, substitute site, and quality of park were identified as significant factors in influencing tourists' WTP for recreation services in NNP. Thus, policies oriented to reduce tourists' transportation costs and improve the quality of national parks would attract more tourists to NNP

Assessment of the Impacts of Thunderstorm on Flight Operations at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria

The inefficiency of the aviation industry and the persistent rise in aviation hazards have been linked to weather phenomena. As a result, researchers are looking for better solutions to the problem. The study examined the impact of thunderstorms on flight operations at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The data on thunderstorms and flight operations were sourced from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) respectively. In order to meet the research target, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and charts) and inferential statistics (Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Regression) were used. The significance level for all inferential analyses was set at 5% (0.05). The study revealed that 77.4% of thunderstorms occurred during the rainy season (April-October) while 22.6% occurred during the dry season (November-March). It also revealed some fluctuating movements of a thunderstorm in the study area. According to the findings, thunderstorms occur most frequently at the airport in June and less frequently in January and December. The study also discovered that thunderstorms at the airport are positively and significantly related to flight delays and cancellations, while the association between flight diversions and thunderstorm occurrence is positive but statistically insignificant. Furthermore, flight delays, flight diversions, and flight cancellations interact positively among themselves. The regression result of the study revealed that a 1% increase in thunderstorm occurrence leads to a 19.4% increase in flight delay, a 7.1% increase in flight cancellation, and a 4.3% increase in flight diversion. As a result, the study presented various regression models that may be utilized to make predictions. The study proposes consistent thunderstorm observation at the airport and steady forecasts using the regression models, based on the findings. However, it further recommends that pilots, air traffic controllers, and meteorologists be trained and retrained so that they can provide better and more efficient services

Editorial on Emerging Trends in Polymeric Materials Research and Applications

Polymeric materials especially nanocomposites (Graphene, MXene based) are widely used in food, electronics, biomedical, batteries, energy storage, fuel cells, wastewater treatment, and automotive. Nanocomposites are stronger, lighter, and stiffer and can improve properties such as mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, thermal stability, flame retardancy, surface appearance, optical clarity and chemical resistance. Current research is focusing on nanocomposites applications, CO2 capturing polymers, making polymers degradable especially developing bio composites and green compositeswhich are degradable, use of deep eutectic solvents for biomass pretreatment to manufacture bio composites or green composites and polymeric composites as drilling fluids and their use in developing ceramics and to construct sequence-controlled and complex topological structures through control of polymerization methodologies.

Pursuing the Distilled Good Practices to Improve the Quality of Environmental Impact Assessment Reports and Hence Enhance the EIA Effectiveness and Help Address the Concerns of Project Proponents: An Indian Context

Despite a wealth of literature on the different facets of the EIA, and copious theoretical knowledge and practical experience, the general agreement is eluding definitions of EIA effectiveness, quality, and good practices. There are apprehensions about EIA meeting its basic objectives while project proponents continue to treat EIA as an impediment to development. Governments tend to adopt a “practical” approach, sacrificing pillars of EIA and overlooking the prime objective of environmental protection. Based on an extensive literature study and the author’s long EIA-related experience, some key workable practices for the EIA process are elaborated. Meticulous scoping using different sets of lenses, spotlighting significant impacts to determine the breadth and depth of EIA reports for focussed EIAs, robust EIA review and decision-making, commitment from the regulators for environmental protection, and use of strategic planning, strategic environmental assessment, and tiering practices are expected to address scholars’ apprehensions and project proponents’ concerns

Impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Factors on Stock Prices and Investment Performance

This study examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors and stock prices as well as investment performance. ESG factors have become increasingly relevant in investment decisions as investors prioritize companies with sustainable practices. Using a sample of publicly-traded companies, this research analyzes the impact of ESG factors on stock prices and investment returns. The findings suggest that companies with strong ESG performance tend to have higher stock prices and better investment performance than those with weak ESG performance. The study also highlights the significance of the individual components of ESG, such as environmental policies and corporate governance practices, on stock prices and investment returns. Overall, this research provides valuable insights for investors seeking to incorporate ESG factors into their investment decision-making processes

A Review of CFD Modeling of Erosion-induced Corrosion Formation in Water Jets Using FEA

A comprehensive review of all the related investigations carried on water jet cutting or AWJ (AWJ) cutting is performed. The experimental methods and results used on this subject were examined, defined and compared by the researchers. This research shows that further improvements are possible in the water jet cutting method. In order to reduce the high cost of the empirical technique and increase the time efficiency, it is important to perform computerized Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based AWJ processing. An attempt has been performed to systematically arranged the research investigations conducted on water jet cutting. The studies on the definition of the nozzle failure, calculate using CFD of water jet cutting or AWJ cutting processes, the studies on the parameters influencing water jet cutting are reviewed and the future work for the further improvement of water jet cutting process is highlighted

The Influence of Family Factors on the Mental Health of College Students was Analyzed Combined with Literature and Cases

Through the combing of relevant literature and the analysis of relevant psychological students' cases, the composition of family factors affecting college students' mental health is analyzed, the specific manifestations of college students' psychological problems are summarized, and the influence of family factors on college students' mental health status is analyzed in detail. The article finally puts forward suggestions and recommendations for strengthening college students' family education and tries to explore how to promote college students' mental health through improving family education

SAR Change Detection Algorithm Combined with FFDNet Spatial Denoising

Objectives: When detecting changes in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, the quality of the difference map has an important impact on the detection results, and the speckle noise in the image interferes with the extraction of change information. In order to improve the detection accuracy of SAR image change detection and improve the quality of the difference map, this paper proposes a method that combines the popular deep neural network with the clustering algorithm.Methods: Firstly, the SAR image with speckle noise was constructed, and the FFDNet architecture was used to retrain the SAR image, and the network parameters with better effect on speckle noise suppression were obtained. Then the log ratio operator is generated by using the reconstructed image output from the network. Finally, K-means and FCM clustering algorithms are used to analyze the difference images, and the binary map of change detection results is generated. Results: The experimental results have high detection accuracy on Bern and Sulzberger's real data, which proves the effectiveness of the method

Challenges and Trends for Multifunctional Materials

Materials science is the study of materials, their properties and their applications. As the rapid development of material science, materials tend to approach multifunctionality. Multifunctional materials are designed to perform multiple responsibilities through prudent combinations of different functional capabilities. Typically, each function contributes a distinct physical or chemical process that can deliver system-level improvements beyond the status quo. Even though some researchers have defined "smart material" as multifunctional materials (MFM), multifunctional composites (MFC), multifunctional structures (MFS), and multifunctional material systems (MFMS), the term "multifunctional materials" will be used to refer to all of these materials, composites, and structures in this paper [1]. One of the main advantages of multifunctional materials is their capacity to simultaneously accomplish multiple functions, which can decrease the need for various materials and components in the system. This benefit can result in reduced weight, higher efficiency, and superior properties and the development of multifunctional materials enables technologies that were previously impossible. The properties of multifunctional materials could vary substantially based on the applications and demands of the material. For example, the materials may respond to heat (thermal), stress & stain (mechanical), electrical, magnetic, pH, moisture, light (photonic), and molecular or biomolecular substances, and others. By incorporating these materials into composites, numerous functionalities, including self-healing, self-sensing, self-cleaning, electric conductive, thermal conductive, membrane, shape memory, and actuation, can be achieved. Therefore, multifunctional materials can improve processes and products, create several avenues to increase sustainability, and have a direct and positive impact on economic growth, environment, and quality of life