4,482 research outputs found
Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)
This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio
Enforcement Guide: Near Shore Artisanal Fisheries
We need healthy oceans to support our way of life. Unfortunately, fish stocks are under growing pressure and the need to find innovative and pragmatic resource management strategies is more important than ever. Disregard for fisheries and environmental laws is common and if we are to succeed in reversing the declining trend, we must draft relevant regulations, design and fund comprehensive enforcement programs and cultivate a culture of compliance. Historically, marine law enforcement has been the competency of Naval and Coast Guard authorities; however, many fishery and park agencies, who lack training, equipment, and at times controlling legal authority, are tasked with fisheries management and enforcement. Complicating matters, most agencies are understaffed; lack budgetary resources, and possess limited authority (i.e. power of arrest and the ability to use force). WildAid in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy developed this guide to assist managers in designing a cost effective enforcement strategy for near shore artisanal fisheries. This document is not a recompilation of literature, but a practical guide based on our experience in the Eastern and Western Pacific. Generally, an enforcement system is designed to monitor all activities within a given area ranging from tourism, investigation, and transportation to fisheries; however, this guide will focus primarily on near shore artisanal fisheries. The objectives of this guide are three-fold:1. Examine all factors considered for the design and operation of a marine law enforcement system; 2. Illustrate key components of an enforcement system and evaluate surveillance technology and patrol equipment options; 3. Guide managers in the design and implementation of an enforcement system.In summary, it aims to equip managers with the tools needed to strengthen fisheries management and design enforcement systems that are practical, affordable and feasible to implement in a timely manner. Fisheries enforcement requires a holistic approach that accounts for surveillance, interdiction, systematic training, education and outreach and lastly, meaningful sanctions. Although it explores many surveillance technologies and management tools, this guide more importantly provides a blueprint for the capacity building and professionalization of enforcement officers, who truly are the core component of any fisheries enforcement program
Review of unmanned aircraft system technologies to enable beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations
The need to develop and deploy Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) aerial vehicles has intensified over the last decade. As the demand for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has increased, so too has the regulations that surrounds the industry. Strict regulations are currently in place but differ from country to country. Due to these regulations BVLOS innovators have been posed the task of exploring the means of operating flight missions with the UAV out of the sight of the pilot. Autonomous flight capability is not only fundamental to BVLOS operations for UAS but also likely to have a significant impact on the future development of passenger carrying autonomous aircraft. This review explores the technologies that have been developed to date that enable BVLOS applications. BVLOS flight operations have the potential to open a huge area of commercial opportunity however, there remain many concerns about the current capabilities of UAS to detect and avoid manned and unmanned airborne hazards that may pose a significant safety risk
Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Version 1.0
This Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Version 1.0 (âroadmapâ) represents the culmination of the UASSCâs work to identify existing standards and standards in development, assess gaps, and make recommendations for priority areas where there is a perceived need for additional standardization and/or pre-standardization R&D.
The roadmap has examined 64 issue areas, identified a total of 60 gaps and corresponding recommendations across the topical areas of airworthiness; flight operations (both general concerns and application-specific ones including critical infrastructure inspections, commercial services, and public safety operations); and personnel training, qualifications, and certification. Of that total, 40 gaps/recommendations have been identified as high priority, 17 as medium priority, and 3 as low priority. A âgapâ means no published standard or specification exists that covers the particular issue in question. In 36 cases, additional R&D is needed.
The hope is that the roadmap will be broadly adopted by the standards community and that it will facilitate a more coherent and coordinated approach to the future development of standards for UAS. To that end, it is envisioned that the roadmap will be widely promoted and discussed over the course of the coming year, to assess progress on its implementation and to identify emerging issues that require further elaboration
Trademarks as Surveillance Transparency
We know very little about the technologies that watch us. From cell site simulators to predictive policing algorithms, the lack of transparency around surveillance technologies makes it difficult for the public to engage in meaningful oversight. Legal scholars have critiqued various corporate and law enforcement justifications for surveillance opacity, including contract and intellectual property law. But the public needs a free, public, and easily accessible source of information about corporate technologies that might be used to watch us. To date, the literature has overlooked a free, extensive, and easily accessible source of information about surveillance technologies hidden in plain sight: federal trademark filings.This Essay examines the powerful and unexplored role of trademark law in exercising oversight within and beyond surveillance. Trademark law promotes access to information, and the federal trademark application processâlong overlooked by scholarsâdemands extensive public disclosures that reveal a wealth of information about surveillance technologies. This Essay leverages examples from real trademark applications to explore how journalists, researchers, and civil society can use the detailed disclosures in trademark applications for transparency. I conclude that trademark law can be a powerful tool for correcting longstanding information asymmetries between the watchers and the watched by empowering the public to watch back
Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks
In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge,
and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor
Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system
that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining
certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control,
learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and
WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new
opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields
which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be
the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path
between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the
advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of
articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a
range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant
to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core
problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity,
localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the
existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from
robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in
the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature,
and identify topics that require more research attention in the future
Smartphones as personal digital archives? Recentring migrant authority as curating and storytelling subjects
This article addresses the smartphone as a complicated technology of forced migration: a device that accompanies those who move, but which also records and catalogues digital traces within life contexts of conflict, uprooting, migration and resettlement. We conceptualise smartphones as personal digital archives: migrantsâ curation of their own stories on their own portable devices. Personal digital archives, we argue, reflect the migrant gaze and constitute mobile subaltern subjectsâ record of forced migration. Inductively learning from fieldwork conducted across five sites over 5Â years, we analyse how the personal digital archive records and reflects the mediation of migration in its three dimensions: symbolic, affective and material. By focussing on personal digital archives, we recentre the authority of migrants as witnessing subjects of their own life stories. Their archives as autonomous migrant records provide a powerful basis to reflect upon and potentially contest mainstream western journalism cultures, which too often reduce migration to a spectacle and the migrant to a dehistoricised figure with little agency or voice
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