919 research outputs found

    INTERACTIVE SPATIALWEB-APPLICATIONS AS NEWMEANS OF SUPPORT FOR URBAN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES

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    Citizen participation, co-creation – a joint development of professionals and citizens – initiatives for urban planning processes have increased significantly during the last few years. This development has been strongly supported by the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). E.g., it has never been easier to get information through your mobile devices wherever and whenever you want it. Public open spatial data is available in many cities around the world and web-based applications use this data to provide tools and services for many different topics such as traffic information, or the communication of health-related information (e.g. ozone, particulate matter or pollen loads). This paper presents typical problems of such web-applications in terms of application design and implementation and usability evaluation via describing three case study applications which have been developed recently. It tries to answer the question: How can this kind of geo-services be developed and used by scientists to enable public participation within data gathering and urban planning processes? All three applications have the common goal to provide interactive geo-visualization and analysis features which are tailored to support users in their urban planning processes. The innovation of those applications lies in their flexibility regarding the topics they can tackle and their capability to perform interactive analyses triggered by the user. The applications have been built with a strong focus on exploring the available data (e.g. Open Government Data – OGD). Two of the applications have been implemented using the R-Shiny framework, the third application, the smarticipate platform, has been developed using ReactJS for the front-end, running a MongoDB in the background which is fed via a micro-service framework. In the latter application, the users can configure topics, i.e. the platform enables the user to create new services for different planning issues

    Resistance to Extreme Stresses by a Newly Discovered Japanese Tardigrade Species, Macrobiotus kyoukenus (Eutardigrada, Macrobiotidae)

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    Tardigrades are small micrometazoans able to resist several environmental stresses in any stage of their life cycle. An integrated analysis of tardigrade specimens collected in Tsukuba (Japan) revealed a peculiar morphology and a new sensory field in the cloaca. Molecular taxonomy and phylogenetic analysis on different genes (COI, ITS2, 18S and 28S) confirmed that this population is a new species, Macrobiotus kyoukenus sp. nov., belonging to the widespread Macrobiotus hufelandi group. The stress resistance capabilities of M. kyoukenus sp. nov. have been tested by submitting animals to extreme desiccation, rapid freezing, and high levels of ultraviolet radiations (UVB and UVC). Animals were able to survive desiccation (survivorship 95.71 ± 7.07%) and freezing up to -80 °C (82.33 ± 17.11%). Both hydrated and desiccated animals showed a high tolerance to increasing UV radiations: hydrated animals survived to doses up to 152.22 kJ m−2 (UVB) and up to 15.00 kJ m−2 (UVC), while desiccated specimens persisted to radiations up to 165.12 kJ m−2 (UVB) and up to 35.00 kJ m−2 (UVC). Present data contribute to the discovery of a larger tardigrade biodiversity in Japan, and the tolerance capabilities of M

    Solar UV irradiance in a changing climate: Trends in europe and the significance of spectral monitoring in Italy

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    Review of the existing bibliography shows that the direction and magnitude of the long-term trends of UV irradiance, and their main drivers, vary significantly throughout Europe. Analysis of total ozone and spectral UV data recorded at four European stations during 1996–2017 reveals that long-term changes in UV are mainly driven by changes in aerosols, cloudiness, and surface albedo, while changes in total ozone play a less significant role. The variability of UV irradiance is large throughout Italy due to the complex topography and large latitudinal extension of the country. Analysis of the spectral UV records of the urban site of Rome, and the alpine site of Aosta reveals that differences between the two sites follow the annual cycle of the differences in cloudiness and surface albedo. Comparisons between the noon UV index measured at the ground at the same stations and the corresponding estimates from the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) forecast model and the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI)/Aura observations reveal differences of up to 6 units between individual measurements, which are likely due to the different spatial resolution of the different datasets, and average differences of 0.5–1 unit, possibly related to the use of climatological surface albedo and aerosol optical properties in the retrieval algorithms

    Making eParticipation policy - a European analysis: social and political trends in eParticipation: the public policy and the civil society perspectives

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    The creative and disruptive characteristics of digital networks have profound consequences for the production of citizenship, which has always been technologically constructed, but now derives its significance from a tension between elite intentions and network flows. Our aim in this paper is to explore this tension empirically by interrogating the process of policy-making with regard to eParticipation in six European countries

    Towards a New Curriculum: The DEREC Experience

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    This volume presents the experience of developing a new undergraduate curriculum on "Environmental and Resources Engineering" at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in FYR Macedonia, in the framework of the TEMPUS CD_JEP_19028_2004 DEREC – Development of Environmental and Resources Engineering Curriculum (2005-2008). This publication describes the methodology, instruments and processes employed in the curriculum development. It is divided into two main parts. The first part describes the European Consortium approach (including papers from all representatives of Consortium Member institutions in the European Union and the external project experts). The second part describes the approach adopted by the various faculty representatives of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje and the South East European University of Tetovo, in FYR Macedonia. This book is designed to serve as an updated, coherent and concrete set of instruments for the achievement of similar project objectives

    Modeling for policy: Challenges for technology assessment from new prognostic methods

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    Geostatistical modelling of PM10 mass concentrations with satellite imagery from MODIS sensor

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    Several epidemiological studies suggested that there is an association between incidence and exacerbation of adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health effects and air pollution. Accurate, high resolution maps of ground-level Particulate Matter (PM) are highly awaited for environmental policies and future monitoring stations design. Though the measurements made by the ground stations can ensure a high level of reliability, still they cannot provide full spatial coverage over an area, giving rise among other things to misclassified epidemiological studies. Fine particles are usually categorized by size distribution, known as fractions: PM10 represents the particles with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 ”m and comprises the thoracic (or coarse) fraction – with diameter in the range 2.5-10 ”m – and the smaller inhalable (or fine) fraction. Although including the less dangerous thoracic particles, PM10 measurements are usually far more available and hence lend themselves better for modelling. Spaceborne aerosols products like the ones offered by the polar-orbiting MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) are successfully finding practical applications for scientific research studies and, though not previously intended, the Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT, or simply τ ) from MODIS revealed to have a leading role in the evaluation of surface air quality due to its full spatial (clear-sky constrained) coverage and daily overpasses almost throughout the globe. Despite the “promised land” has not been reached yet, researchers have verified an existing correlation between aerosols and particulate concentrations, rising expectation of air quality models for high-scale environmental characterization. Air quality modelling is generally a challenging application, due to the wide range of sources affecting this variable and the high spatial and temporal variability of the particles, especially over high populated areas with rugged topography and complex meteorological profiles. In this thesis, different variogram-based geostatistical techniques are evaluated to predict the concentrations of PM10, with a focus on the effective advantages brought by AOT from satellites. This work is meant as a guide for students and researchers who are taking their first steps in this specific application, as well as to experts of the field who want to overview geostatistical filling of PM concentrations, and weigh up the usefulness of MODIS imagery. Different areas of study and temporal resolutions will be considered, so as to propose directions and outline conclusions on how this task – still far from being definitively ruled out – should be approached. Aside from modelling, the interactive visualization, extraction and analysis of the model-based predicted maps are also covered, cutting-edge Web-based software architectures based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard services are proposed, giving rise to increased capabilities in the spatio-temporal elaboration of the model results. The availability of spaceborne maps of AOT at an increased nominal resolution of 1×1 km2 has been a unique occasion to experiment their role for air quality issues; the latest algorithmics from leading FOSS-like (Free and Open Source Software) modelling software where learned and used, resulting in several new testing results in a field where variogram-based geostatistics were lacking. Solutions for novel online analysis and visualization capabilities were explored, in order to approach an open and interconnected uncertainty-enabled Web

    Communicating Air: Alternative Pathways to Environmental Knowing through Computational Ecomedia

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    This dissertation, Communicating Air: Alternative Pathways to Environmental Knowing through Computational Ecomedia, is the culmination of an art practice-led investigation into ways in which the production of ecomedia may open alternative pathways to environmental knowing in a time of urgent climate crisis. This thesis traces the author’s artistic, personal and political development across the period of study and presents an extended argument for greater public engagement with weather and climate science, greater public and private support for long-term collaborations between media art and climate science, and increased public open access to global weather and climate monitoring and computationally modelled data
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