1,706 research outputs found

    SPATIAL ANALYSES AND REMOTE SENSING FOR LAND COVER CHANGE DYNAMICS: ASSESSING IN A SPATIAL PLANNING

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    ABSTRACT (EN) Spatial planning is a crucial discipline for the identification and implementation of sustainable development strategies that take into account the environmental impacts on the soil. In recent years, the significant development of technology, like remote sensing and GIS software, has significantly increased the understanding of environmental components, highlighting their peculiarities and criticalities. Geographically referenced information on environmental and socio-economic components represents a fundamental database for identifying and monitoring vulnerable areas, also distinguishing different levels of vulnerability. This is even more relevant considering the increasingly significant impact of land transformation processes, consisting of rapid and frequent changes in land use patterns. In order to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, the role of environmental planning is crucial in addressing spatial problems, such as agricultural land abandonment and land take, which cause negative impacts on ecosystems. Remote sensing, and in general all Earth Observation techniques, play a key role in achieving SDG 11.3 and 15.3 of Agenda 2030. Through a series of applications and investigations in different areas of Basilicata, it has been demonstrated how the extensive use of remote sensing and spatial analysis in a GIS environment provide a substantial contribution to the results of the SDGs, enabling an informed decisionmaking process and enabling monitoring of the results expected, ensuring data reliability and directly contributing to the calculation of SDG objectives and indicators by facilitating local administrations approaches to work in different development and sustainability sectors. In this thesis have been analyse the dynamics of land transformation in terms of land take and soil erosion in sample areas of the Basilicata Region, which represents an interesting case example for the study of land use land cover change (LULCC). The socio-demographic evolutionary trends and the study of marginality and territorial fragility are fundamental aspects in the context of territorial planning, since they are important drivers of the LULCC and territorial transformation processes. In fact, in Basilicata, settlement dynamics over the years have occurred in an uncontrolled and unregulated manner, leading to a constant consumption of land not accompanied by adequate demographic and economic growth. To better understand the evolution and dynamics of the LULCCs and provide useful tools for formulating territorial planning policies and strategies aimed at a sustainable use of the territory, the socio-economic aspects of the Region were investigated. A first phase involved the creation of a database and the study and identification of essential services in the area as a fundamental parameter against which to evaluate the quality of life in a specific area. The supply of essential services can be understood as an assessment of the lack of minimum requirements with reference to the urban functions exercised by each territorial unit. From a territorial point of view, the level of peripherality of the territories with respect to the network of urban centres profoundly influences the quality of life of citizens and the level of social inclusion. In these, the presence of essential services can act as an attractor capable of generating discrete catchment areas. The purpose of this first part of the work was above all to create a dataset of data useful for the calculation of various socio-economic indicators, in order to frame the demographic evolution and the evolution of the stock of public and private services. The first methodological approach was to reconstruct the offer of essential services through the use of open data in a GIS environment and subsequently estimate the peripherality of each municipality by estimating the accessibility to essential services. The study envisaged the use of territorial analysis techniques aimed at describing the distribution of essential services on the regional territory. It is essential to understand the role of demographic dynamics as a driver of urban land use change such as, for example, the increase in demand for artificial surfaces that occurs locally. Social and economic analyses are important in the spatial planning process. Comparison of socio-economic analyses with land use and land cover change can highlight the need to modify existing policies or implement new ones. A particular land use can degrade and thereby destroy other land resources. If the economic analysis shows that the use is beneficial from the point of view of the land user, it is likely to continue, regardless of whether the process is environmentally friendly. It is important to understand and investigate which drivers have been and will be in the future the most decisive in these dynamics that intrinsically contribute to land take, agricultural abandonment and the consequent processes of land degradation and to define policies or thresholds to mitigate and monitor the effects of these processes. Subsequently, the issues of land take and abandonment of agricultural land were analysed by applying models and techniques of remote sensing, GIS and territorial analysis for the identification and monitoring of abandoned agricultural areas and sealed areas. The classic remote sensing methods have also been integrated by some geostatistical analyses which have provided more information on the investigated phenomenon. The aim was the creation of a quick methodology that would allow to describe the monitoring and analysis activities of the development trends of soil consumption and the monitoring and identification of degraded areas. The first methodology proposed allowed the automatic and rapid detection of detailed LULCC and Land Take maps with an overall accuracy of more than 90%, reducing costs and processing times. The identification of abandoned agricultural areas in degradation is among the most complicated LULCC and Land Degradation processes to identify and monitor as it is driven by a multiplicity of anthropic and natural factors. The model used to estimate soil erosion as a degradation phenomenon is the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). To identify potentially degraded areas, two factors of the RUSLE have been correlated: Factor C which describes the vegetation cover of the soil and Factor A which represents the amount of potential soil erosion. Through statistical correlation analysis with the RUSLE factors, on the basis of the deviations from the average RUSLE values and mapping of the areas of vegetation degradation, relating to arable land, through statistical correlation with the vegetation factor C, the areas were identified and mapped that are susceptible to soil degradation. The results obtained allowed the creation of a database and a map of the degraded areas to be paid attention to

    Predicting the Relationship between Student, Faculty, and Institutional Diversity with Graduation Rates in Higher Education

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    The importance and significance of diversifying higher education are undeniable. Research has examined that diversifying higher education may produce more graduates, predominantly minority students. However, more literature is needed on how diversifying faculty and students relate to and impacts overall undergraduate graduation rates in higher education in the United States. This study aimed to gauge the predictive relationships between student diversity, faculty diversity, institutional locale, enrollment size and admissions selectivity and construct a relationship with graduation rates. The study examined a random sample of 291 Title IV, four-year postsecondary institutions, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) employed for the data collection process. From IPEDS, the researcher obtained six years of cohort data from 2015-2020 for race and ethnicity of students and faculty, enrollment, admissions, and 2016-2021 graduation rates data, combined, averaged, and used for analysis. The study utilized a quantitative predictive correlational research design, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data. A significant predictive relationship was found (F = 29.985, r = .623, p \u3c .001) between student diversity, institutional locale, enrollment size, admissions selectivity, and graduation rates. However, no significant predictive relationship (p = .568) was found between faculty diversity and graduation rates. The effect size was large (R=0.623), and the null hypothesis was rejected at the .05 alpha (α) significance level. Future research should be conducted to include more institutions from towns and rural areas to assess the further impact on minority students’ graduation rates

    Current issues of the management of socio-economic systems in terms of globalization challenges

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    The authors of the scientific monograph have come to the conclusion that the management of socio-economic systems in the terms of global challenges requires the use of mechanisms to ensure security, optimise the use of resource potential, increase competitiveness, and provide state support to economic entities. Basic research focuses on assessment of economic entities in the terms of global challenges, analysis of the financial system, migration flows, logistics and product exports, territorial development. The research results have been implemented in the different decision-making models in the context of global challenges, strategic planning, financial and food security, education management, information technology and innovation. The results of the study can be used in the developing of directions, programmes and strategies for sustainable development of economic entities and regions, increasing the competitiveness of products and services, decision-making at the level of ministries and agencies that regulate the processes of managing socio-economic systems. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in the educational process and conducting scientific research on the management of socio-economic systems in the terms of global challenges

    Handbook Transdisciplinary Learning

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    What is transdisciplinarity - and what are its methods? How does a living lab work? What is the purpose of citizen science, student-organized teaching and cooperative education? This handbook unpacks key terms and concepts to describe the range of transdisciplinary learning in the context of academic education. Transdisciplinary learning turns out to be a comprehensive innovation process in response to the major global challenges such as climate change, urbanization or migration. A reference work for students, lecturers, scientists, and anyone wanting to understand the profound changes in higher education

    Data Mining in Internet of Things Systems: A Literature Review

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    The Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies have been the main focus of recent research, allowing for the accumulation of a vast amount of data generated from this diverse environment. These data include without any doubt priceless knowledge if could correctly discovered and correlated in an efficient manner. Data mining algorithms can be applied to the Internet of Things (IoT) to extract hidden information from the massive amounts of data that are generated by IoT and are thought to have high business value. In this paper, the most important data mining approaches covering classification, clustering, association analysis, time series analysis, and outlier analysis from the knowledge will be covered. Additionally, a survey of recent work in in this direction is included. Another significant challenges in the field are collecting, storing, and managing the large number of devices along with their associated features. In this paper, a deep look on the data mining for the IoT platforms will be given concentrating on real applications found in the literatur

    Interactive visualisation of electricity usage in smart environments

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    Saving electricity is a trending topic due to the electricity challenges that are being faced globally. Smart environments are environments that are equipped with physical objects, which include computers, sensors, actuators, smartphones, and wearable devices interconnected together through the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things provides a network to achieve communication, and computation abilities to provide individuals with smart services anytime, and anywhere. Rapid developments in information technology have increased the number of smart appliances being used, leading to increased electricity usage. Devices and appliances in Smart Environments continue to consume electricity even when not in use, because of the standby function. The problems arise as the electricity consumption of the standby function accumulates to large amounts. Effective communication through visualisation of the electricity consumption in a Smart Environment provides a viable solution to reducing the consumption of electricity. This research aimed to design and developed a visualisation system that successfully communicates electricity consumption to the user using a variety of visualisation techniques. The Design Science Research Methodology was used to address the research questions and was used to iteratively design and develop an energy usage visualisation system. The visualisation system was created for the Smart Lab at the Nelson Mandela University's Department of Computing Sciences. A usability study was conducted to assess the usability and efficacy of the system. The system was found to be usable and effective in communicating power usage to potential customers, since the participants were able to complete the tasks in a short amount of time. The positive results show that visualisation can aid in communicating electricity usage to customers, resulting in a possible reduction in electricity consumption and improved decision-making.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, School of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, 202

    An investigation of energy saving behaviour for residential buildings in Nigeria

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    Threats of climate change, global warming and uncertainty about future energy prices have sparked a global discussion about energy efficiency, particularly energy saving behaviour in residential buildings. Numerous challenges have been faced in achieving energy savings, with specific concern on energy consumption behaviour of building occupants. Accordingly, governments have set targets through policies for the reduction of energy emission, these have been adopted by the building industry through policies on energy efficiency in buildings including public private partnership in energy management and the development of near zero energy buildings.Previous studies have shown that occupant behaviour can result in a significant amount of variance in building energy use. To address these challenges in line with objectives of sustainable development goal (clean and sustainable energy and climate action), as well as energy efficiency in residential buildings, this research investigated key factors as well as practices that determine and limit energy saving behaviour in residential buildings from a different cultural perspective. Nigeria has been constantly confronted with an electricity demand that exceeded supply capacity. The increased demand for electricity can be attributed to growing populations, increased commercial activity and industrialisation. Households are a significant contributor to the rapidly increasing electricity demand as identified. Energy providers resort to ‘load shedding’ of electricity supply between communities and industries and even long-term electrical outage due to limited supply. It is also important to understand how the actions of occupants affect energy consumption behaviour in residential buildings. To reduce electricity demand and save energy, this research exploited literature on energy saving behaviour and behaviour change. The research study was conducted based on a sequential exploratory mixed method and consists of two key phases. Firstly, qualitative data was collected using semi-structure interview with eighteen experts in the energy and construction industry in Nigeria. The purpose of which was to provide an insight into residential energy consumption behaviour and the barriers faced in the adoption of sustainable energy sources. Analysis from the result shows that cost of energy is a major driver to the adoption of energy saving practices as there are no compulsory regulatory agencies to enforce and facilitate the migration to a more sustainable and innovative society. Furthermore, results also show that there is a need for continuous awareness on energy saving behavioural change, a need for government subsidies on renewable energy, government checks and standardization of energy efficient appliances imported into the country could improve the trust towards sustainable choices and promote efficient energy use. The second phase involved a household survey with 317 households from the case study area. The survey instrument was developed based on the constructs of energy culture framework, sociodemographic factors and physical environment. The hypothesised relationship from the conceptual model were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicated that energy practices, material culture, attitude perception cognitive and social norms with behaviour changes were statistically significant, with attitude perception cognitive and social norms having the least impact on behaviour change. Additionally, the correlations from the constructs shows a direct relationship with behaviour change in achieving energy efficiency and energy saving approach while a deliberate policy to achieve energy efficiency and energy saving practices is vital to achieve sustainable development goals. The outcome from this work provided a better understanding of drivers and barriers to energy use behaviour and will inform future energy policy and interventions related to household energy saving. It also will contribute to the existing body of knowledge as well as give policy direction of governments towards climate action and some specific objectives of sustainable development goals

    SET2022 : 19th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies 16th to 18th August 2022, Turkey : Sustainable Energy Technologies 2022 Conference Proceedings. Volume 4

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    Papers submitted and presented at SET2022 - the 19th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies in Istanbul, Turkey in August 202
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