The Value of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission to Developing Nations

The purpose of this report is to investigate the structure and functions of the IOC in order to determine its statutory authority to serve developing nations; to evaluate its current and potential activities in terms of the specific requirements of less scientifically developed countries; and to suggest changes in operation and attitude needed to advance the IOC\u27s stated purpose; the international promotion of marine science

Türkiye’deki Üniversitelerin Açık Erişim Arşivleri ve Politikaları

Türkiye’de Açık Erişim (AE) arşivleri ile ilgili 2000’li yılların başından beri önemli gelişmeler olsa da bunlar daha çok niceliksel boyutla sınırlı kalmıştır. Arşivlerin ve arşiv içeriklerinin niteliği ile ilgili önemli sorunlar hala varlığını korumaktadır. Bu çalışma ile Türkiye’deki üniversite AE arşivleri ve politikaları ile ilgili durum üniversite web sayfalarından ve AE arşivlerinden yaklaşık iki yıllık süre içerisinde (2019-2020) birbirini takip eden üç farklı dönemde (Haziran 2019, Mart 2020, Kasım 2020) toplanan veriye dayalı olarak incelenmiştir. Söz konusu zaman aralığı, YÖK’ün üniversite AE arşivleri ile ilgili çalışmalarını hızlandırmış olması açısından önemlidir. Öte yandan, toplanan üç dönemlik veri, benzer dönemlerde YÖK tarafından üniversite beyanlarına dayalı olarak toplanan veri ile de karşılaştırılarak iki yönlü bir inceleme gerçekleştirilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, üniversite AE arşivlerinde ve arşivlerdeki kayıt sayısında sistematik olmasa da bir artış söz konusudur. Üniversitelerin AE arşivine sahip olmaları kuruluş yıllarından etkilenmekte, ancak türleri (devlet, vakıf) ile bağlantısı bulunmamaktadır. Öte yandan, üniversite AE arşivlerinin içeriğindeki kayıt sayısı, üniversitenin yaşından, türünden ya da bir AE politikasına sahip olup olmamasından, hatta bu politikanın zorunlu statüsünden etkilenmemektedir. Bu durum, AE politikalarının yeterince işlevsel olamadığını akla getirmektedir. YÖK’ün topladığı üniversite beyanlarına dayalı verilere göre arşiv sayısı üç dönem için de toplanan verilere göre bulunanlardan daha fazladır. En çarpıcı farklılık zorunlu AE politikası konusundadır. YÖK verilerine göre zorunlu AE politika sayısı toplanan verilerle bulunanın çok üzerindedir ki bu üzerine ayrıca çalışılması gereken bir konudur. Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de üniversite AE arşivleri ile ilgili mevcut durumu birbirini takip eden üç döneme göre ve doğrudan birincil kaynaklardan toplanan veriler üzerinden incelemesi, bu verilerle YÖK tarafından toplanan üniversite beyanlarına dayalı verileri karşılaştırarak, karşılaştırmalı bir analiz sunması ve AE politikalarının içeriklerini incelemesi bakımından mevcut çalışmalardan farklılaşmaktadır

Landslide and debris flow warning at regional scale. A real-time system using susceptibility mapping, radar rainfall and hydrometeorological thresholds

Rainfall triggered shallow slides and debris flows constitute a significant hazard that causes substantial economic losses and fatalities worldwide. Regional-scale risk mitigation for these processes is challenging. Therefore, landslide early warning systems (LEWS) are a helpful tool to depict the time and location of possible landslide events so that the hazardous situation can be managed more effectively. The main objective of this thesis is to set up a regional-scale LEWS that works in real-time over Catalonia (NE Spain). The developed warning system combines in real-time susceptibility information and rainfall observations to issue qualitative warnings over the region. Susceptibility has been derived combining slope angle and land use and land cover information with a simple fuzzy logic approach. The LEWS input rainfall information consists of high-resolution radar quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs). To assess if a rainfall situation has the potential to trigger landslides, the LEWS applies a set of intensity duration thresholds. Finally, a warning matrix combines susceptibility and rainfall hazard to obtain a qualitative warning map that classifies the terrain into four warning classes. The evaluation of the LEWS performance has been challenging because of the lack of a systematic inventory, including the time and location of recent landslides events. Within the context of this thesis, a citizen-science initiative has been set up to gather landslide data from reports in social networks. However, some of the reports have significant spatial and temporal uncertainties. With the aim of finding the most suitable mapping unit for real-time warning purposes, the LEWS has been set-up to work using susceptibility maps based on grid-cells of different resolutions and subbasins. 30 m grid-cells have been chosen to compute the warnings as they offer a compromise between performance, interpretability of the results and computational costs. However, from an end users’ perspective visualising 30 m resolution warnings at a regional scale might be difficult. Therefore, subbasins have been proposed as a good option to summarise the warning outputs. A fuzzy verification method has been applied to evaluate the LEWS performance. Generally, the LEWS has been able to issue warnings in the areas where landslides were reported. The results of the fuzzy verification suggest that the LEWS effective resolution is around 1 km. The initial version of the LEWS has been improved by including soil moisture information in the characterisation of the rainfall situation. The outputs of this new approach have been compared with the outputs of LEWS using intensity-duration thresholds. With the new rainfall-soil moisture hydrometeorological thresholds, fewer false alarms were issued in high susceptibility areas where landslides had been observed. Therefore, hydrometeorological thresholds may be useful to improve the LEWS performance. This study provided a significant contribution to regional-scale landslide emergency management and risk mitigation in Catalonia. In addition, the modularity of the proposed LEWS makes it easy to apply in other regions.Els lliscaments superficials i els corrents d’arrossegalls són un fenomen perillós que causa significants perdudes econòmiques i humanes arreu del món. La seva principal causa desencadenant és la pluja. La mitigació del risc degut a aquets processos a escala regional no es senzilla. Ena quest context, els sistemes d’alerta són una eina útil per tal de predir el lloc i el moment en que es poden desencadenar possibles esllavissades en el futur, i poder fer una gestió del risc més eficient. L’objectiu principal d’aquesta tesi és el desenvolupament d’un sistema d’alerta per esllavissades a escala regional, que treballi en temps real a Catalunya. El Sistema d’alerta que s’ha desenvolupat combina informació sobre la susceptibilitat del terreny i estimacions de la pluja d’alta resolució per donar unes alertes qualitatives arreu del territori. La susceptibilitat s’ha obtingut a partir de la combinació d’informació del pendent del terreny, i els usos i les cobertes del sòl utilitzant un mètode de lògica difusa. Les dades de pluja són observacions del radar meteorològic. Per tal d’analitzar si un determinat episodi de pluja te el potencial per desencadenar esllavissades, el sistema d’alerta utilitza un joc de llindars intensitat-durada. Posteriorment, una matriu d’alertes combina la susceptibilitat i la magnitud del episodi de pluja. El resultat, és un mapa d’alertes que classifica el terreny en quatre nivells d’alerta. Amb l’objectiu de definir quina unitat del terreny és la més adient pel càlcul de les alertes en temps real, el sistema d’alerta s’ha configurat per treballar utilitzant mapes de susceptibilitat basats en píxels de diverses resolucions, i en subconques. Finalment, l’opció més convenient és utilitzar píxels de 30 m, ja que ofereixen un compromís entre el funcionament, la facilitat d’interpretació dels resultats i el cost computacional. Tot i això, la visualització de les alertes a escala regional emprant píxels de 30 m pot ser difícil. Per això s’ha proposat utilitzar subconques per oferir un sumari de les alertes. Degut a la manca d’un inventari d’esllavissades sistemàtic, que contingui informació sobre el lloc i el moment en que les esllavissades es van desencadenar, l’avaluació del funcionament del sistema d’alerta ha sigut un repte. En el context d’aquesta tesi, s’ha creat una iniciativa per tal de recol·lectar dades d’esllavissades a partir de posts en xarxes socials. Malauradament, algunes d’aquestes dades estan afectades per incerteses espacials i temporals força importants. Per a l’avaluació el funcionament del sistema d’alerta, s’ha aplicat un mètode de verificació difusa. Generalment, els sistema d’alerta ha estat capaç de generar alertes a les zones on s’havien reportat esllavissades. Els resultats de la verificació difusa suggereixen que la resolució efectiva del sistema d’alerta età al voltant d’1 km. Finalment, la versió inicial del sistema d’alerta s’ha millorat per tal poder incloure informació sobre l’estat d’humitat del terreny en la caracterització de la magnitud del episodi de pluja. Els resultats del sistema d’alerta utilitzant aquest nou enfoc s’han comparat amb els resultats que s’obtenen al córrer el sistema d’alerta utilitzant els llindars intensitat-durada. Mitjançant els nous llindars hidrometeorològics, el sistema emet menys falses alarmes als llocs on s’han desencadenat esllavissades. Per tant, utilitzar llindars hidrometeorològics podria ser útil per millorar el funcionament del sistema d’alerta dissenyat. L’estudi dut a terme en aquesta tesi suposa una important contribució que pot ajudar en la gestió de les emergències degudes a esllavissades a escala regional a Catalunya. A més a més, el fet de que el sistema sigui modular permet la seva fàcil aplicació en d’altres regions en un futur.Enginyeria del terren

The law relating to activities of man in space, appendices A-D Final report

Jurisdiction over acts in outer space, domestic use of communication satellites, UN and other international agencies in controlling space, and bibliography on space law

Sustainable Development

The technological advancement of our civilization has created a consumer society expanding faster than the planet's resources allow, with our resource and energy needs rising exponentially in the past century. Securing the future of the human race will require an improved understanding of the environment as well as of technological solutions, mindsets and behaviors in line with modes of development that the ecosphere of our planet can support. Sustainable development offers an approach that would be practical to fuse with the managerial strategies and assessment tools for policy and decision makers at the regional planning level

nestor Handbuch : eine kleine Enzyklopädie der digitalen Langzeitarchivierung

Die Überlieferung des kulturellen Erbes, traditionell eine der Aufgaben von Bibliotheken, Archiven und Museen, ist durch die Einführung digitaler Medien und innovativer Informationstechnologien deutlich anspruchsvoller geworden. In der heutigen Zeit werden zunehmend mehr Informationen (nur) digital erstellt und veröffentlicht. Diese digitalen Informationen, die Güter des Informations- und Wissenszeitalters, sind einerseits wertvolle kulturelle und wissenschaftliche Ressourcen, andererseits sind sie z.B. durch die Kurzlebigkeit vieler Formate sehr vergänglich. Die Datenträger sind ebenso der Alterung unterworfen wie die Datenformate oder die zur Darstellung notwendige Hard- und Software. Um langfristig die Nutzbarkeit der digitalen Güter sicherzustellen, muss schon frühzeitig Vorsorge getroffen werden. Es müssen Strategien zur digitalen Langzeitarchivierung entwickelt und umgesetzt werden. ..

Vetenskaplig osäkerhet i policyprocessen : En studie av svensk klimatpolitik

The dissertation is about scientific uncertainty in the policy process, that is when scientific knowledge about an issue is lacking or the existing knowledge is uncertain. The aim of the study is to understand if and how scientific uncertainty affects the policy process. For that purpose, the development of climate change policy in Sweden is studied, from 1975 until 2007. The material studied consists of interviews with politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, newspaper articles and debate articles, as well as governmental and agency material. The theoretical framework developed and used in the dissertation builds on John Kingdon’s multiple streams framework as well as insights from Science and Technology Studies, relating to the production of knowledge and the relation between scientists and society. The study shows that scientific uncertainty is only one among many factors that affect the policy process and that it has a limited influence. The area where scientific uncertainty, in the case studied, has had most influence is in the selection and formulation of policies. There policy makers have used a number of ways to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. These include reframing the issue so that uncertainties are no longer relevant, relying on the precautionary principle, requesting more research, and basing decisions on the judgment of scientists. The most common way of managing uncertainty has been to reframe the issue. In the case studied, scientific uncertainty has made scientists very influential as to how climate change has come to be understood as a political problem. Yet they have had a very limited influence over the formulation of climate policy

ICSU and the Challanges of Data and Information Management for International Science

The International Council for Science (ICSU) vision explicitly recognises the value of data and information to science and particularly emphasises the urgent requirement for universal and equitable access to high quality scientific data and information. A universal public domain for scientific data and information will be transformative for both science and society. Over the last several years, two ad-hoc ICSU committees, the Strategic Committee on Information and Data (SCID) and the Strategic Coordinating Committee on Information and Data (SCCID), produced key reports that make 5 and 14 recommendations respectively aimed at improving universal and equitable access to data and information for science and providing direction for key international scientific bodies, such as the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) as well as a newly ratified (by ICSU in 2008) formation of the World Data System. This contribution outlines the framing context for both committees based on the changed world scene for scientific data conduct in the 21st century. We include details on the relevant recommendations and important consequences for the worldwide community of data providers and consumers, ultimately leading to a conclusion, and avenues for advancement that must be carried to the many thousands of data scientists world-wide