Multiple-Aspect Analysis of Semantic Trajectories

This open access book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the First International Workshop on Multiple-Aspect Analysis of Semantic Trajectories, MASTER 2019, held in conjunction with the 19th European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2019, in Würzburg, Germany, in September 2019. The 8 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 12 submissions. They represent an interesting mix of techniques to solve recurrent as well as new problems in the semantic trajectory domain, such as data representation models, data management systems, machine learning approaches for anomaly detection, and common pathways identification

Balancing Spatial and Environmental Impacts of large scale Renewable Offshore Energy Generation in the North Sea

The growing EU energy ambitions in the North Sea region are urging for an accelerated deployment of large-scale renewable energy (RE) infrastructure, with offshore wind farms (OWF) playing an essential role. However, implementing the current EU targets can be limited by the multiple competing spatial claims between existing sea uses, ecological values and OWFs, causing key uncertainties related to potential risks of interaction that may result in barriers to a swift roll-out of RE infrastructure. Up to this date there is no clear understanding of the space availability for different renewable energy installations. Such space availability depends on the alternative space management options applied, relying e.g. on more sectoral management to separate activities or instead, more integrated management to pursue multiuse in time or space. Understanding these trade-offs is especially urgent in the current context of planning marine resources on the North Sea, characterized by lack of coordination, sectoral and fragmented planning, which exacerbates the uncertainties on the potential socio-economic and ecological risks of interaction. In response to these challenges, this thesis aimed to:Develop and demonstrate a set of integrated analytical tools for quantifying and qualifying the spatially explicit trade-offs between offshore spatial claims, in the context of the energy system transition in the North Sea basin.The analytical frameworks developed and used in this study relied and benefited from multiple interactions with multiple research disciplines and methodologies developed as part of the larger network of the ENSYSTRA project

Assessing the implementation efficacy of an ecosystem approach to Fisheries management in the South African sardine fishery

Includes bibliographical referencesAn Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries management (EAF) offers a holistic approach for sustainable fisheries management by extending the traditional target resources-orientated management (TROM) to include wider social-ecological dimensions of fisheries. An EAF requires balancing of multiple, often conflicting objectives, effectively dealing with complexity and uncertainty, and engaging with diverse groups of stakeholders. Various tools within the field of Multi-criteria Decision Analysis provide a formal approach which takes explicit account of multiple criteria, while effectively dealing with risk and uncertainty. A knowledge-based tool was developed in this thesis to assess the efficacy of EAF implementation for the ecological well-being dimension in the South Africa sardine fishery. An iterative, participatory approach was adopted for its implementation. The modelling philosophy applied a rapid prototyping approach, and an applied research perspective was employed to direct the research. A broad group of stakeholders participated in indicator selection, tool design, and interpretation. The knowledge-based tool provided a hierarchical framework for seven specific management objectives to which eleven ecological indicators were linked. Time series (1987-2009) were collated for each indicator, and a utility approach was used to transform indicators to a common scale. Weights for indicators and objectives were agreed to by stakeholders and combined through the objectives' hierarchy using weighted means. The resulting outputs were discussed in detail during focus group meetings to ensure that the tool was clearly presented and as intended helped improve the stakeholder's understanding of the process. It was confirmed that the 20 knowledge-based tool presents a transparent, repeatable and scientifically defensible approach, suitable to meet management requirements. The tool development process was useful in bringing diverse stakeholder groups together, and through applying the tool as a boundary object, has helped to bridge the boundary between the TROM and EAF research communities. Encouraging stakeholder interaction offers opportunities for social learning, which if carefully facilitated through the tool development process is likely to enhance the outcomes of this process and support more generally in bridging boundaries to EAF implementation. The combined focus on tool development and social processes supports effective implementation of an EAF in the South African small pelagic fishery and provide a model for other fisheries

Internet of Underwater Things and Big Marine Data Analytics -- A Comprehensive Survey

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is an emerging communication ecosystem developed for connecting underwater objects in maritime and underwater environments. The IoUT technology is intricately linked with intelligent boats and ships, smart shores and oceans, automatic marine transportations, positioning and navigation, underwater exploration, disaster prediction and prevention, as well as with intelligent monitoring and security. The IoUT has an influence at various scales ranging from a small scientific observatory, to a midsized harbor, and to covering global oceanic trade. The network architecture of IoUT is intrinsically heterogeneous and should be sufficiently resilient to operate in harsh environments. This creates major challenges in terms of underwater communications, whilst relying on limited energy resources. Additionally, the volume, velocity, and variety of data produced by sensors, hydrophones, and cameras in IoUT is enormous, giving rise to the concept of Big Marine Data (BMD), which has its own processing challenges. Hence, conventional data processing techniques will falter, and bespoke Machine Learning (ML) solutions have to be employed for automatically learning the specific BMD behavior and features facilitating knowledge extraction and decision support. The motivation of this paper is to comprehensively survey the IoUT, BMD, and their synthesis. It also aims for exploring the nexus of BMD with ML. We set out from underwater data collection and then discuss the family of IoUT data communication techniques with an emphasis on the state-of-the-art research challenges. We then review the suite of ML solutions suitable for BMD handling and analytics. We treat the subject deductively from an educational perspective, critically appraising the material surveyed.Comment: 54 pages, 11 figures, 19 tables, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, peer-reviewed academic journa

Ethnic group affiliation and social exclusion in Cornwall; analysis, adjustment and extension of the 2001 England and Wales Census data

This thesis provides a critical understanding of the size and relative position of the Cornish in Cornwall, a county in the south-west of the UK. Cornwall is a region which has experienced increased levels of disadvantage for a prolonged period of time. The indigenous people, whilst seeing a rise in their inclusion in ethnicity variables in the region, have remained under-researched in terms of their socio-economic position relative to the non-Cornish in the same geographic area. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature and represents the first in-depth examination of the group. The 2001 Census included an option to ‘write-in’ a Cornish ethnic identity, however whilst accurate in the responses it recorded the result was almost certainly an under-enumeration due to the lack of a dedicated tick-box selection. This thesis is a rigorous examination of the Cornish, starting with these data, estimating their size and socio-economic position (in terms of social exclusion) relative to non-Cornish individuals. Three stages of primary analysis sought to; analyse, adjust and extend the 2001 Census result to broadly estimate the size, links with exclusion and the causal processes behind these links. Firstly, an accurate picture of the size of the Cornish population was estimated using an innovative weighting strategy, developed to collate all other data referring to the Cornish and to derive weights for application to the raw Census data. Secondly, a stage of primary survey research examined this group more directly for links with social exclusion factors; and thirdly, a stage of qualitative interviews with knowledgeable individuals in the region lent depth to the findings and provided a more coherent explanatory framework. The results indicate that the Cornish are certainly more numerous than the 2001 Census had indicated. The proportion of individuals self-identifying as Cornish is likely to be closer to a quarter of the population rather than the 6.7% indicated in the 2001 ii data. There was some discrepancy in the data between the belief amongst the group of social exclusion and the reality. In order to explain the discrepancy, a model was used which explores the difference between personal-level experience and group level discrimination (Taylor et al 1990). The results of this thesis highlight the complex and multi-dimensional processes inherent in, firstly, the methodological and practical process of ethnicity measurement and, secondly, its use as an explanatory variable for social exclusion experience. Overall, this thesis represents the first and most comprehensive examination of the indigenous people of Cornwall and their relative lived experience compared to non-Cornish in the same area

Movement ecology and fisheries bycatch risk of albatross and large petrel species from Bird Island, South Georgia

Recording animal movements is essential for understanding the distribution of species over time, with far-reaching consequences for fitness, population dynamics and conservation. Oceanic seabirds are some of the most mobile and threatened species on Earth, mainly because of incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries. Tracking these birds has improved our knowledge of how the environment and individual traits shape specific foraging and migratory strategies; however, this research is biased towards adult life-stages, which are easier to track. In particular, juveniles remain understudied, even though they are likely to differ in their critical habitats and overlap with fisheries, and hence bycatch risk, with implications for population trajectories. In this thesis, I capitalize on recent advances in tracking technology and the wealth of data collected on threatened albatross and large petrel species breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia, to investigate variation in spatial ecology and fisheries bycatch risk across multiple life-stages and species. In Chapter 1, I introduce the main topics of this thesis. In Chapters 2-4, I investigate how wind and resource availability shape divergent movement patterns between juveniles and adult life-stages, and identify age-specific bycatch risk. As high juvenile mortality is likely to result in an ageing population, in Chapter 5 I examine senescence in foraging behaviour, and consider the ramifications for population recovery. In Chapter 6, I then assess the effectiveness of existing fisheries bycatch mitigation measures by investigating the diving capabilities of the most bycaught species in the Southern Ocean. Finally, I conclude with a general discussion summarizing my main findings and suggesting future work. Overall, my results provide new insight into the capacity and motivation for movement in wide-ranging animals; highlighting the diversity of extrinsic and intrinsic processes shaping movements over the lifespans of individuals, and with implications for focusing conservation efforts in time and space