Sustainable land use planning in post war areas using geo- informatics as tools

Proper land use planning is indispensable for the sustainable economic development in the war affected areas. Impacts of war always result in drastic change in the present land use practices of a region. Migration of people is the major factor induced in the transformation of (and use. Geo informatics (Geographic Information System, Remote sensing and Global Positioning System) can be used as a powerful tool for sustainable land use planning in the post war regions. Sustainable land use planning in post war regions involves two stages a) Creation of database (Spatial and non-spatial) and b) Planning with the help of decision support systems. Creation of database involves identifying natural resources using satellite images, preparation of various thematic maps (soil map, geomorphology map, geology map, topographical map, vegetation map and present land use map), surveying using sophisticated instruments and collecting general information's! population, Climate and land ownership) from the local administration. Effective planning can be made using GIS and remote sensing which involves identifying disaster free sites for settlements, creating ecology conserved zones and building basic infrastructures. Occupation creation and restoration are also parts of sustainable land use planning. Restoring people to their own lands, providing basic infrastructures, natural resource management and creating income to the people are the major themes of sustainable land use planning. Land use planning in post war areas using GIS as a decision support systems are able to bring out a sustainable and more efficient land use pattern than in the pre war period

Governing Sustainable Waste Management: Designing sustainable waste management into the housing sector

In seeking to shift municipal waste policy towards sustainability, policy-makers at European, national and local levels are facing the challenge of how to engage householders in reducing, reusing and recycling their waste. This in turn means engaging with the arena within which day to day waste management activities are practiced – the home. In view of this critical relationship between waste policy and household practices, this research project1 has sought to examine: • the ways in which new infrastructures for managing waste are being ‘designed in’ to new housing developments and renovated kitchens in the UK and Europe; • the barriers identified by key actors in the as impending the pursuit of a more integrated approach to housing design and waste management and how these might be overcome; • examples of best practice currently being developed in the UK and their applicability in the context of the North-East of England

Digital Preservation Services : State of the Art Analysis

Research report funded by the DC-NET project.An overview of the state of the art in service provision for digital preservation and curation. Its focus is on the areas where bridging the gaps is needed between e-Infrastructures and efficient and forward-looking digital preservation services. Based on a desktop study and a rapid analysis of some 190 currently available tools and services for digital preservation, the deliverable provides a high-level view on the range of instruments currently on offer to support various functions within a preservation system.European Commission, FP7peer-reviewe

The New Politics of US Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration and the Emergence of All-Payer Claims Databases

Prices are a significant driver of health care cost in the United States. Existing research on the politics of health system reform has emphasized the limited nature of policy entrepreneurs’ efforts at solving the problem of rising prices through direct regulation at the state level. Yet this literature fails to account for how change agents in the states gradually reconfigured the politics of prices, forging new, transparency-based policy instruments called all-payer claims databases (APCDs), which are designed to empower consumers, purchasers, and states to make informed market and policy choices. Drawing on pragmatist institutional theory, this article shows how APCDs emerged as the dominant model for reforming health care prices. While APCD advocates faced significant institutional barriers to policy change, we show how they reconfigured existing ideas, tactical repertoires, and legal-technical infrastructures to develop a politically and technologically robust reform. Our analysis has important implications for theories of how change agents overcome structural barriers to health reform

Urban management revolution: intelligent management systems for ubiquitous cities

A successful urban management support system requires an integrated approach. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated transparent and open decision making mechanism. The paper emphasises the importance of integrated urban management to better tackle the climate change, and to achieve sustainable urban development and sound urban growth management. This paper introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for ubiquitous cities. The paper discusses the essential role of online collaborative decision making in urban and infrastructure planning, development and management, and advocates transparent, fully democratic and participatory mechanisms for an effective urban management system that is particularly suitable for ubiquitous cities. This paper also sheds light on some of the unclear processes of urban management of ubiquitous cities and online collaborative decision making, and reveals the key benefits of integrated and participatory mechanisms in successfully constructing sustainable ubiquitous cities