Stay home, stay safe? High habitat suitability and environmental connectivity increases road mortality in a colonizing mesocarnivore

Context Anthropogenic structures have considerable effects on ecosystems, disrupting natural population processes and representing a serious risk in terms of vehicle collisions. The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a mesocarnivore species whose range is expanding in Europe. Roadkills are one of the main human-induced mortalities in Italy to the species. Objectives Identify road-related characteristics and ecological factors related to golden jackal roadkill risk in Italy. Methods We used habitat suitability (Maxent) and connectivity (Circuit theory) models to derive 15 metrics potentially affecting roadkill risk. We tested their influence using Bayesian generalized linear models and generalized linear models comparing golden jackal roadkill locations to random locations. Furthermore, we tested if there were significant sex, age-related and seasonal differences among roadkilled individuals. Results We found that roadkill risk was higher in areas characterized by higher values of habitat suitability and connectivity, habitat fragmentation and along highways. It was lower with increasing distance to the source population and in the presence of guardrails. No significant differences were detected in terms of roadkill risk between sexes, age classes and season. Conclusions The identified factors affecting road mortality of golden jackals in Italy provide insights on how to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions. Crossing areas, and visual and acoustic warnings for wildlife, as well as the importance of managing fences along high traffic volume roads could help mitigate further damage. Finally, there is a need to further investigate the effectiveness of mitigation measures in the light of the golden jackal’s ongoing expansion in a human-modified landscape

Simulating and optimizing stormwater best management practices in University of Louisville watershed.

Urbanization disrupts natural soil profiles and as watersheds are urbanized, their surfaces become impervious and this will result in reduction of infiltration. For this reason, many cities are facing problems with treating runoff water. Best management practices (BMPs) consist of built systems designed to reduce and control the quality of runoff water in urban areas and help to control the direction of it. This system guides water to a structural soil retention area beneath the pavement where it is then temporary stored. BMPs are based of rainwater withholding (such as infiltration basins) or infiltration into the soil (such as permeable pavement). In this project we are to create a stormwater management model for campus using a modeling software for the purpose of guiding future BMP types and locations by predicting different scenarios\u27 efficiency based on runoff water reduction

An efficient cluster-based service model for vehicular ad-hoc networks on motorways

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANET) can, but not limited to provide users with useful traffic and environmental information services to improve travelling efficiency and road safety. The communications systems used in VANET include vehicle-to-vehicle communications (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications (V2I). The transmission delay and the energy consumption cost for maintaining good-quality communications vary depending on the transmission distance and transmission power, especially on motorways where vehicles are moving at higher speeds. In addition, in modern transportation systems, electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular, which require a more efficient battery management, this also call for an efficient way of vehicular transmission. In this project, a cluster-based two-way data service model to provide real-time data services for vehicles on motorways is designed. The design promotes efficient cooperation between V2V and V2I, or namely V2X, with the objective of improving both service and energy performance for vehicular networks with traffic in the same direction. Clustering is an effective way of applying V2X in VANET systems, where the cluster head will take the main responsibility of exchanging data with Road Side Units (RSU) and other cluster members. The model includes local service data collection, data aggregation, and service data downloading. We use SUMO and OMNET++ to simulate the traffic scenarios and the network communications. Two different models (V2X and V2I) are compared to evaluate the performance of the proposed model under different flow speeds. From the results, we conclude that the cluster-based service model outperforms the non-clustered model in terms of service successful ratio, network throughput and energy consumption

Gini coefficient, dissimilarity index and Lorenz curve for the spanish port system by type of goods

This paper shows the Gini Coefficient, the dissimilarity Index and the Lorenz Curve for the Spanish Port System by type of goods from 1960 to the year 2010 for business units: Total traffic, Liquid bulk cargo, Solid bulk cargo, General Merchandise and Container (TEUs) with the aim of carcaterizar the Spanish port systems in these periods and propose future strategies

Using network analysis to explore the effects of road network on traffic congestion and retail store sales

The physical road system plays a critical role in environmental and city planning. In the context of retail store site-selection, measures of accessibility and the ease and willingness of consumers to shop at a store can be essential to revenue generation and retail success. To quantify accessibility requires a detailed examination of the road networks and in many cases modelling to estimate potential traffic congestion that would inhibit accessibility. The application of network theory to assess the accessibility of road segments and land parcels is non-existent. Research on the effects of the structure of the road network, via network analysis, can facilitate identifying potential congestion issues and subsequently the effects of congestion on commercial performance (e.g., retail sales). The application of network analysis to a road network is distinctive from applications in other disciplines (e.g., sociology, ecology), since, among other network attributes, the road network is a low-dimension, link-centroid, and relatively static system with time-variant traffic flow. In addition to conceptually interrogating the difference between social and road networks for network analysis, the presented research results show the relationship among different network metrics and simulated traffic congestion and the strength of the relationship between network metrics and retail sales relative to socio-demographic and site-location characteristics