Arctic Infrastructures: Tele Field Notes

This article contextualizes the conditions of rural “connectivity” in the Canadian Arctic. It examines the emergence of satellites, fibre optic cables, and intranets as modes of social infrastructure at the outset of the twenty-first century. At present, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon are all at a complicated confluence in that their current and inadequate telecommunications infrastructures are in the process of being renegotiated, re-designed, and re-allotted across civic, governmental, and corporate interests. The article shows how it is at sites of friction that the overlapping if fading legacies of systems-based thinking are emerging: satellites orbiting over fibre optic cable lines; corporate actors competing rather than coordinating with government agencies; and neoliberal rationales of mapping, division, and speed creating disjointed local markets. More broadly, these sites also demonstrate how indigenous forms of “connection” across the globe are increasingly experiencing telecommunications’ lags and temporal disjunctures that are having very material effects on their supposedly post-colonial lives

Understanding the Impact of Underwater Noise to Preserve Marine Ecosystems and Manage Anthropogenic Activities

Policy makers require a knowledge-based support to identify effective interventions for the socio-economic sustainability of human activities at sea. When dealing with anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems, we deal with a complex and faceted system which has high variability in terms of environment, regulation, governance, industrial activities, and geo-political scenarios. We analyzed the conceptual scientific framework adopted to address underwater noise as a polluting component of the marine environment. We identified the scientific paths that can provide useful contributions towards comprehending the impacts on the native ecosystem. In order to furnish relevant clues towards the properties of the interconnection of signals, we briefly reviewed an example from a different discipline (helioseismology). We describe a new approach on how acoustic energy in the sea could be detected and analyzed to understand its role in the functioning of the ecosystem. We propose a change of perspective in the observation strategy of underwater noise, promoting a knowledge transfer from other disciplines, which in turn will enable a better understanding of the system. This will allow researchers and policy-makers to identify feasible and effective solutions to tackle the negative impacts of underwater noise and the conservation of the marine ecosystem

Sparse Gaussian Process for Spatial Function Estimation with Mobile Sensor Networks

Gaussian process (GP) is well researched and used in machine learning field. Comparing with artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector regression (SVR), it provides additional covariance information for regression results. By exploiting this feature, an uncertainty based locational optimisation strategy combining with an entropy based data selection method for mobile sensor networks is presented in this paper. Centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) is used as a locational optimisation framework and Informative Vector Machine (IVM) is applied for data selection. Simulations with different locational optimisation criteria are conducted and the results are given, which proved the effectiveness of presented strategy

America's Pivot to the Pacific: Selective Primacy, Operational Access, and China's A2/AD Challenge

This paper assesses America's recent "pivot" or "rebalance" to the Asia-Pacific. It shows that Obama's pivot represents the beginnings of a strategic choice on "selective primacy" a grand strategy rooted in Washington's worrisome economic and fiscal situation and designed to shape America's global engagement at a time of fiscal austerity, in which primacy in one theatre will be achieved through greater selectivity of commitments elsewhere. As a result, the US military will increasingly prioritize the air and naval services within its force structure, which provides the broader context for more operational joint concepts like Air-Sea Battle. Lastly, while triggered by economic and fiscal exigencies, I will show that such a strategic shift is primarily directed at China's rise as a regional military power, with particular emphasis on its growing anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the future direction of Sino-American strategic competition

Understanding digital intelligence and the norms that might govern it

Abstract: This paper describes the nature of digital intelligence and provides context for the material published as a result of the actions of National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. It looks at the dynamic interaction between demands from government and law enforcement for digital intelligence, and at the new possibilities that digital technology has opened up for meeting such demands. The adequacy of previous regimes of legal powers and governance arrangements is seriously challenged just at a time when the objective need for intelligence on the serious threats facing civil society is apparent. This paper suggests areas where it might be possible to derive international norms, regarded as promoting standards of accepted behaviour that might gain widespread, if not universal, international acceptance, for the safe practice of digital intelligence

Assurance and deterrence in the UK’s East Asia policies : (in)credible UK?

East Asia is essential to the UK’s post-Brexit international strategy. Within a complex web of bilateral and multilateral arrangements, the UK needs to manage historical ties, new strategic objectives and ongoing partnerships. Underpinning these interactions is trust and some of the dynamics more commonly associated with formal security alliances. Post-Brexit, there is a need to assure these states of the UK’s place in the world and particularly its commitment to, and strategic objectives in, the region, but also recognise that there is an increasing risk of moral hazard for the UK in seeking to achieve some of its objectives. Catherine Jones offers a framework for understanding the challenges and opportunities for the UK’s current planning in the region.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Topographic visual analytics of multibeam dynamic SONAR data

This paper considers the problem of low-dimensional visualisation of very high dimensional information sources for the purpose of situation awareness in the maritime environment. In response to the requirement for human decision support aids to reduce information overload (and specifically, data amenable to inter-point relative similarity measures) appropriate to the below-water maritime domain, we are investigating a preliminary prototype topographic visualisation model. The focus of the current paper is on the mathematical problem of exploiting a relative dissimilarity representation of signals in a visual informatics mapping model, driven by real-world sonar systems. A realistic noise model is explored and incorporated into non-linear and topographic visualisation algorithms building on the approach of [9]. Concepts are illustrated using a real world dataset of 32 hydrophones monitoring a shallow-water environment in which targets are present and dynamic

Icy futures:carving the northern sea route

The research examines intersections between globalisation and climate change in the (re)emergence of a 'Northern Sea Route' through the Russian Arctic, which some speculate could soon rival or replace the Suez Canal as major global trade artery. The research explores shifts in the contemporary shipping system, a relatively underexplored area of mobilities research, examining the affordances and risks posed to shipping and resource extraction activities by melting Arctic sea-ice, as sections of the maritime Arctic become increasingly integrated into global circuits. The research examines actual and potential developments surrounding the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in the Russian Arctic, examining the ways geopolitics, geoeconomics and geophysical processes collide in the ‘Anthropocene Arctic’

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations on Air, Sea, Land

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land is our fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020)The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for unmanned vehicles in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land – especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues. Topics include: Information Advances, Remote ID, and Extreme Persistence ISR; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection; Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate; Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances; Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems; UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management; Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV’s; Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely and Efficiently Across Multiple Domains; Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment; UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy; UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels; Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes; Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine – Human Barrier and Maritime Cybersecurity.Unmanned Vehicle Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology / issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers. We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air, Sea, and Land will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1035/thumbnail.jp

Social Value of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in England and Wales.

The U.K. government is committed to establishing a coherent network of marine protected areas by 2012 and the recentMarine and Coastal Access Act, 2009 will designate marine conservation zones and provide wider access rights to the coast. To fulfill these goals, this article argues the need for a clearer, shared understanding of the social value of protected areas in creating new designations and managing existing ones. Although marine and coastal environments attract many people and are vitally important in terms of realized and potential social value, the majority of the public in the United Kingdom lacks understanding and awareness regarding them. Combined with this, the social value of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) have been largely ignored relative to conservation and economics, with the latter invariably taking precedence in environmental policymaking. Social value reflects the complex, individual responses that people experience in a given place. Many reasons determine why one area is valued above another, and this research investigates the social value of MCPAs from a practitioner’s perspective through a series of interviews. Understanding why we “socially” value MCPAs will ultimately equip managers with an informed understanding of these spaces, influence management decisions, and, potentially, policymaking. This article defines social value in the context of MCPAs in England and Wales from a practitioner perspective, explores key concepts, and suggests possible improvements in decision-making