A comprehensive view on quantity based aggregation for cadastral databases

Quantity Based Aggregation (QBA) control is a subject that is closely related to inference control in databases. The goal is to enforce k out of n disclosure control. In this paper we work on QBA problems in the context of cadastral databases: how to prevent a user from knowing 1) the owners of all parcels in a region, and 2) all parcels belonging to the same owner. This work combines and extends our previous work on the subject [1, 2, 3]. We overview the legislative context surrounding cadastral databases. We give important definitions related to the QBA concept. We present a complete model for QBA control in cadastral databases. We show how to implement the security policy efficiently, and we present our prototype of secure cadastral databases with some performance evaluations

Microeconomic and Geo-physical Data Integration for Agri-environmental Analysis, Georeferencing FADN Data: A Case Study in Italy

The authors, inside a TAPAS action, have developed a methodology - based on the integration between FADN data with statistical, administrative and cartographic information - to improve the production of statistical data related to agricultural policies impact on land and environment. This methodology allows - using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology - to produce and organise data at geographical level. Data spatially referenced respond to the specific needs of agri-environmental analysis and problems, mostly related to specific areas (environmental vulnerability areas), inside defined boundaries (e.g. river basin). The GIS is implemented with several cartographic layers (Topographic and cadastral maps, land use, soils, water sources, climate, Digital Terrain Model etc.) and is related to the regional FADN database.agricultural statistics, agri-environment, FADN, GIS, TAPAS, DPSIR, Environmental Economics and Policy, C81, O13, Q21,

Spatial analysis of urban housing stocks

Urban building-stocks must be transformed in order to reduce energy and resource use to achieve climate change mitigation targets. As the rate of renewal in the building-stock is low, energy efficiency measures need to be applied when renovation is being done. In order to evaluate renovation potential of the existing building stock on an urban level, a local approach is needed to understand challenges and possibilities associated with the transformation of the building-stock. By incorporating building-specific information and also considering the building in its setting, a more holistic view can be achieved. For this purpose, available databases containing building-specific information has been gathered and processed for the multi-family building stock of the city of Gothenburg. The available data is used to describe the energy performance of the stock, future renovation needs and is used to create a description of the stock used as input for calculating the energy demand. This thesis with appended papers shows that available data sources can be used to describe the characteristics of the stock on a building level while considering the location and context. Building attributes such as year of construction, value year, property owner, geometric data and energy performance certificates is spatially linked as well as used in modelling the energy performance of buildings to provide detailed and valuable information to policy makers, urban planners and property owners

The siena microsimulation model (sm2) for net-gross conversion of eu-silc income variables

In interview surveys collecting information on personal income, the respondents may report income amounts as gross or net of taxes and other deductions. These data must be made homogenous before use for analysis, especially when undertaking comparisons across population groups and countries. The Siena Microsimulation Model (SM2) has been developed as a practical tool providing a robust and convenient procedure for the conversion between net and gross forms of household income. In this paper we describe the logic and structure of the SM2. Starting from data on household and personal income given in different forms, and on the basis of the prevailing tax regime in a country, the SAS routines of the model are designed to estimate full information on income by component, with a breakdown of gross amounts into taxes, social insurance contributions of various types, and net income. Given this specific purpose, SM2 is not meant to be an alternative to general tax-benefit simulation models, but as a complementary tool which those models can usefully exploit. The usefulness of SM2, of course, goes beyond these specific objectives. The distinguishing feature of SM2 is that it can handle diverse tax-benefit regimes using a common logic and a standard set of procedures making it particularly useful for multi-country comparative application; these are explained in the paper in some detail. The immediate context for the development of SM2 has been the requirements of EU-SILC (EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions). Recently SM2 has been implemented for Italy based on EU-SILC data. The application and some results from it are described. Applications have also been developed for France, Spain and Greece. Selected aspects of these applications are illustrated for France and Spain.ECHP; EU-SILC; household income; income components; income surveys; Italian fiscal system; net-gross conversion; SM2; taxable income

A GEO-REFERENCED DATABASE TO MANAGE THE LANDSCAPE AREAS UNDER PRESERVATION IN LOMBARDY REGION

Abstract. One of the main goals of the Lombardy Region Landscape Plan (Piano Paesaggistico Regionale – PPR) review was to set up a detailed investigation of landscape binding actions that are issued according to article 136 of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape (D.Lgs. 42/2004).To achieve this goal, a survey was launched and a geo-referenced database was constructed, considering all the data included in the 888 landscape binding actions currently in force in Lombardy.The geo-referenced database takes into account also other architectural preservation measures and natural landscape protections, because a large quantity areas in Lombardy are safeguarded as Regional Parks and Natural Monuments, ecological corridors, geosites and various zones with natural significance are issued as ZPS and SIC by UE.Databases from other agencies and institutions were collected, examined and updated, to provide a complete tool, usable by public administrations and professionals.Such database can also be integrated by multi-temporal geoinformation availability of applications implemented to manage and share georeferenced historical maps (i.e. GEOPAN ATL@S APP), boosting the utility of these data sets in the daily professional activity.</p

Definition of a Digital Tool to Boost Photovoltaic Self-Consumption Projects in Energy Communities

Global climate change is one of the fundamental problems of our time. Its solution requires close, innovative, and successful cooperation between all governments. Policy-makers have made significant attempts in recent years to reach consensus on globally binding climate objectives. The Paris Agreement, which was approved in December 2015, was the result of these studies. According to the report, stabilizing temperature increases at less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 is crucial to prevent the worst and most harmful impacts of a changing climate system. The society is becoming more and more conscious of the need to alter our current en- ergy system and switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources with the focus on energy efficiency, distributed generation and the concept of electrification. This energy revolution paves the way for new energy projects, in particular at the empowerment of smaller players in the energy market as well as an increase in decentralized renewable energy generation and consumption, so called prosumption. Furthermore, it opens up a possibility of the formation of local energy communities which are key to address the challenge of climate change. This thesis focuses on developing a digital tool that will help with the boost of the solar photovoltaic self-consumption projects towards energy communities. Members of such initiatives, thanks to the current regulations, are now entitled to generate renewable energy without charges (including for their own consumption), store and sell their excess production with remuneration and perform peer-to-peer energy trading. The concept of an energy community brings number of benefits and opportunities for consumers which is described in detail in this thesis. This work was developed as a part of European project called ePLANET which belongs to the Horizon 2020 initiative and was written under the supervision of BEE Group - an independent department of the Catalan research centre CIMNE. The main objective of this work is the collection of energy and gas consumption data for all the buildings of the project’s pilot municipalities in Girona and matching it with the Spanish cadastre, with the use of the harmonization script developed in Python environment. Thanks to this process it is possible to characterize the buildings of different economic sectors and visualize the results on the GIS-based platform. Additionally, the obtained energy profiles of different buildings are the perfect foundation for the calculation of the size of energy community components and the optimization processes, as well as many other energy-related studies with a broader scopeObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::7 - Energia Assequible i No Contaminant::7.2 - Per a 2030, augmentar substancialment el percentatge d’energia renovable en el con­junt de fonts d’energi

Environmental assessment at the urban level combining LCA-GIS methodologies : A case study of energy retrofits in the Barcelona metropolitan area

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552This study proposes a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) methodology to develop complex LCA inventories for multiple applications. The study focusses on the environmental implications of buildings retrofits, especially in the European context, where the building sector is one of the largest energy consumers. In this context, a new and holistic perspective is needed that expands from the building scale to the urban scale. The combination of LCA and GIS methods includes the development of an urban characterization model based on bottom-up methodologies. The environmental implications associated with increasing the thermal insulation of existing buildings to the current standard are determined based on LCA methods. In this step, common construction systems for building retrofits are used, and insulation materials are compared. Then, absolute and relative extrapolations are performed considering different urban morphologies. The results confirm the importance of the energy retrofitting of residential buildings in large functional urban areas such as the Barcelona metropolitan area, which is examined as a case study. The LCA results indicate that the selection of proper construction systems and thermal insulation materials is important to the environmental performance of building retrofits, and these selections can lead to CO2 emission differences of up 16% in the region. The relative extrapolation results indicate significant environmental differences between urban morphologies. The LCA results show the potential strategic impacts of the inclusion of LCA methods in retrofit policies at the urban scale

Learning from 20 Years of Payments for Ecosystem Services in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's Payments for Ecosystems Services (PES) programme has become something of an icon in the world of conservation. Its innovative blend of economic and regulatory instruments - and its hitches and successes - provide a valuable source of inspiration for other countries that are looking for effective ways to conserve and regenerate ecosystems. Since 1997, nearly one million hectares of forest in Costa Rica have been part of the PES programme at one time or another, and forest cover has now returned to over 50 per cent of the country's land area, from a low of just 20 per cent in the 1980s. What lessons can be learnt from the 20 years since it was founded? Also published in Spanish, this paper is for local practitioners, international researchers and donors who are interested in the Costa Rican experience

Determining an optimal retail location by using GIS

Reengineering of retail networks is a continual process that has been in the forefront of management attention worldwide. The central question is how to achieve positive business results under high costs, but at the same time maintain the attained service quality. This reengineering process may be implemented successfully only if preceded by detailed preparations concerning, primarily, the analysis of business results, market potentials and retail outlet location. GIS tools offer a strong support to this process. Apart from theoretical considerations, this paper will also present the use of GIS as a tool in determining the optimal locations of the Serbian post retail

From buildings to cities: techniques for the multi-scale analysis of urban form and function

The built environment is a significant factor in many urban processes, yet direct measures of built form are seldom used in geographical studies. Representation and analysis of urban form and function could provide new insights and improve the evidence base for research. So far progress has been slow due to limited data availability, computational demands, and a lack of methods to integrate built environment data with aggregate geographical analysis. Spatial data and computational improvements are overcoming some of these problems, but there remains a need for techniques to process and aggregate urban form data. Here we develop a Built Environment Model of urban function and dwelling type classifications for Greater London, based on detailed topographic and address-based data (sourced from Ordnance Survey MasterMap). The multi-scale approach allows the Built Environment Model to be viewed at fine-scales for local planning contexts, and at city-wide scales for aggregate geographical analysis, allowing an improved understanding of urban processes. This flexibility is illustrated in the two examples, that of urban function and residential type analysis, where both local-scale urban clustering and city-wide trends in density and agglomeration are shown. While we demonstrate the multi-scale Built Environment Model to be a viable approach, a number of accuracy issues are identified, including the limitations of 2D data, inaccuracies in commercial function data and problems with temporal attribution. These limitations currently restrict the more advanced applications of the Built Environment Model