Collaborative Networks, Decision Systems, Web Applications and Services for Supporting Engineering and Production Management

This book focused on fundamental and applied research on collaborative and intelligent networks and decision systems and services for supporting engineering and production management, along with other kinds of problems and services. The development and application of innovative collaborative approaches and systems are of primer importance currently, in Industry 4.0. Special attention is given to flexible and cyber-physical systems, and advanced design, manufacturing and management, based on artificial intelligence approaches and practices, among others, including social systems and services

Enabling Effective Community Forestry Through a National Co-Management Program: The Case of Thailand's Community Forestry Program

Rural communities have engaged in the governance and management of forest resources by developing institutions that prevent overexploitation of common-pool resources and maintain the basis of their livelihoods. Effective community forestry relies on several conditions, including secure tenure rights, an enabling regulatory framework, strong governance, and sufficient knowledge. Worldwide, customary community forests have gained legal recognition in the wake of tenure reforms with the expectation that this formalization would enhance tenure security. In Thailand, the Royal Forest Department (RFD) began in 2000 to legally recognize community forests and share formal rights and responsibilities with communities through a national co-management program. This program was further expanded to support the development of community forest networks. The RFD could not provide extension services to approximately 10,000 community forests and aimed to improve the information sharing among communities. The objective of this dissertation was to investigate whether both program elements, i.e. forest tenure formalization and community forest networking, could provide better conditions for community forests. It was of particular interest whether the formalization could enhance the security of tenure rights, which could affect the willingness of communities to invest in forest conservation. The intervention to enhance inter-communal networks is of particular relevance for the international community due to its uniqueness. A diverse set of methodological approaches was required to address each objective. A quasi- experimental design was used to analyze the effect of community forest management on deforestation and the impact of the subsequent formalization based on statistical matching and panel data analyses. Comparative case studies were investigated subsequently to better understand the relationships between formalization, tenure security, forest-related conflicts, and deforestation. Social network modeling was used to analyze how networking organizations affected the flow of information between communities. The findings indicated that community in Thailand have effectively protected their forests even before receiving legal recognition. The formalization procedure has improved the relationship between communities and RFD officials but it has not enhanced their ability to prevent forest encroachment as support from the State has been insufficient in the case of tenure conflicts. In the absence of state-led extension services, established networking organizations enabled communities to provide mutual support as indicated by the enhanced inter-communal flow of information on a provincial level. However, networking organizations still depended on external funding and support during their initial establishment. The co-sharing of forest tenure rights and responsibilities between communities and the RFD might have helped to build trust and acceptance. This study has, however, confirmed that formalization can only provide limited benefits to forest-managing communities if they remain unprotected from forest encroachment because their formal tenure rights are not being enforced. Thus, communities might become disillusioned if their rights are not protected against more powerful actors. The community forest networks have the potential to increase the political influence of these communities while also enhancing their capacity to share and develop new knowledge. However, communities require more financial resources as their responsibilities increase while their ability to generate financial returns remains legally limited. Thus, the regulatory framework can be changed to balance communal rights and responsibilities or expanded by developing financing mechanisms to fund community-based conservation activities, such as forest patrols and fire prevention measures.:Acknowledgements Summary List of Figures List of Tables 1 Enabling effective community forestry 1.1 Potential outcomes of community forestry 1.2 Conditions for effective community forestry 1.3 Policy interventions in Asia’s community forests 2 Justification and objectives 2.1 Impact of formalization on tenure security and local institutions 2.2 Impact of registration on forest loss 2.3 Impact of network administration organization on information-sharing 3 The history of community-based forest management models in Thailand 3.1 Expansion of state control over forestland 3.2 Forest Village Programs 3.3 Community forestry discourse 3.4 Community Forest Program 3.5 Conclusions 4 Designing impact evaluations for policy interventions 4.1 Quantitative impact evaluation 4.2 Qualitative impact evaluation 4.3 Social network analysis 5 The impact of community forest formalization on tenure security and forest co- management in Thailand 5.1 Abstract 5.2 Introduction 5.3 Background 5.4 Methodology 5.5 Results 5.6 Discussion 5.7 Conclusion 6 Community-based forest management moderates impact of deforestation pressure regardless of formalization in Thailand 6.1 Abstract 6.2 Introduction 6.3 Methodology 6.4 Results 6.5 Discussion 6.6 Conclusion 7 Network administrators facilitate information sharing among communal forest organizations in Thailand 7.1 Abstract 7.2 Introduction 7.3 Methodology 7.4 Results 7.5 Discussion 7.6 Conclusion 8 Synthesis, implications and outlook 8.1 Synthesis of key results 8.2 Policy implications 8.3 Future research 8.4 Critical reflections on research methodology Supplementary material for Chapter 6 Supplementary material for Chapter 7 References Supplementary materia

Disinfection by-product formation from biofilm chlorination in drinking water pipes

Biofilms in drinking water distribution networks (DWDNs) are recognized as potential pathogen reservoirs. Recent experiments have found that biofilm can also act as precursors for the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs). This project aimed to better understand the impact of the presence of biofilms and improve prediction of DBPs in DWDNs. To study the microbial significance of biofilms in water pipes, bacterial communities in biofilm and bulk water were identified in a DWDN in a tropical climate country. Drinking water and biofilms were characterised by physico-chemical parameters. Relationships between biotic, physico-chemical parameters and engineered factors (i.e., pipe age, material and diameter; and water age) were explored by the application of statistical tests. Additionally, improvement of DBP prediction in DWDNs was approached by modelling the role of biofilms as DBP precursors. Two models for predicting DBP formation potentials were developed from chlorination of cells and extracellular polymeric substances. The first model corresponded to stagnant conditions and a second more complex model was produced for transitional and turbulent flow. The models were implemented in the software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2a and sensitivity analysis was carried out to screen the parameters influence on the response variables. Field-work assessment allowed determining that biofilms are richer habitats than bulk water. Pipe age, pipe material, water age, free chlorine, pH and temperature can be key to the composition of bacterial communities. Model simulations suggested that the important DBP exposure is related to dichloroacetronitrile, stagnant bulk, and slow flow. The microbial and chemical significance of biofilms is important in the context of climate change and developing countries because water managers can face multiple challenges under these conditions. Alterations of raw water properties, increasing occurrence of extreme weather events and poor capacity to mitigate such events may rise the chemical and microbiological risk associated to biofilms in DWDNs in tropical countries

Planning and Scheduling Optimization

Although planning and scheduling optimization have been explored in the literature for many years now, it still remains a hot topic in the current scientific research. The changing market trends, globalization, technical and technological progress, and sustainability considerations make it necessary to deal with new optimization challenges in modern manufacturing, engineering, and healthcare systems. This book provides an overview of the recent advances in different areas connected with operations research models and other applications of intelligent computing techniques used for planning and scheduling optimization. The wide range of theoretical and practical research findings reported in this book confirms that the planning and scheduling problem is a complex issue that is present in different industrial sectors and organizations and opens promising and dynamic perspectives of research and development

EUSN 2021 Book of Abstracts, Fifth European Conference on Social Networks

Book of abstract of the fifth European conference on Social Networks EUSN 202

World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World

With the release of this third edition of The United Nations World Water Development Report, it is clear that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis. Despite the vital importance of water to all aspects of human life, the sector has been plagued by a chronic lack of political support, poor governance and underinvestment. As a result, hundreds of millions of people around the world remain trapped in poverty and ill health and exposed to the risks of water-related disasters, environmental degradation and even political instability and conflict. Population growth, increasing consumption and climate change are among the factors that threaten to exacerbate these problems, with grave implications for human security and development.The current Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of the world's freshwater resources. It also, for the first time, shows how changes in water demand and supply are affected by and affect other global dynamics. It represents a considerable collaborative achievement for the 26 UN agencies that make up UN-Water and are engaged in the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), which leads the monitoring and evaluation behind the Report. UNESCO is very proud to have played a pivotal role in the launch of this flagship programme and to continue to support its work by housing the WWAP Secretariat. I am confident that this third volume will prove crucial as a working tool for policy-makers and other stakeholders, providing solid evidence from which to develop an effective and sustainable approach to water issues

A complex systems approach to connectivity to international markets

PhD ThesisImproving connectivity is increasingly a topic at the centre of the international trade and transport policy agendas. An examination on available documents and studies in both the policy-making and the academic fields shows that the concept of connectivity has often been defined in different ways, and thus has taken a variety of meanings. This poses the questions: what is freight connectivity?; what are its determinants in the context of international trade? The researcher is not aware of any study that has analysed, in a comprehensive and systematic way, the different perspectives, determinants and measures of connectivity to international markets. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes a systematic literature review encompassing literature in the fields of Transport Engineering and Economics, International Economics, Supply Chain Management, Physics and Transport Geography; a survey and in-depth interviews in three countries; comparative analysis of connectivity metrics in a variety of fields; and network analysis of over 100 networks, this Dissertation contributes to fill this gap by providing: (i) a complex systems approach to connectivity to international markets; (ii) a comprehensive definition of connectivity to international markets which encompasses the different factors that influence it; and (iii) a novel method to assess connectivity to international markets using network analysis. Further contributions of this research include insights on the multi-layered characteristics of both international trade flows and its support system; the perspective of emerging economies; and the study of a region – the Americas – mostly overlooked by the literature on complex systems applied to trade and transport networks. It is expected that a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive and more precise understanding and assessment of the determinants of connectivity will contribute to identify and design more effective policies to address barriers impeding the fast, smooth access to international markets, as well as guide future multi-disciplinary research and analysis in academia and policy-making