Summary of the Proceedings of the AquaKnow E-conference on Knowledge Management for Technical Cooperation in the Water Sector in Developing Countries

In the framework of the EC project called ¿AquaKnow¿ an e-conference was organised on knowledge management for technical cooperation in the water sector in developing countries. The e-conference was organised by DG AIDCO and DG JRC and was held in June 2008. The chairman of the conference was Dr. Jay Bhagwan, Director of the Water Use and Waste Management in the Water Research Commission in South Africa. Some 145 participants from 67 organisations active in the water sector in Africa, in Europe and in Latina America participated to this e-conference. The organisations were public, private, NGOs, research and high education institutions, etc... This e-conference was an unique event to bring together an important amount of field experiences in treating the knowledge related to the water sector in the context of technical cooperation oriented to capacity building in developing countries. This technical report resumes the many ideas put on the table and extracts some of the conclusions that were used in the design and development of the Aqua know Content Management System developed by the Water4Dev team of the IES institute of the DG JRC of the European Commission.JRC.DDG.H.3-Global environement monitorin

SHEER “smart” database: technical note

The SHEER database brings together a large amount of data of various types: interdisciplinary site data from seven independent episodes, research data and those for the project results dissemination process. This concerns mainly shale gas exploitation test sites, processing procedures, results of data interpretation and recommendations. The smart SHEER database harmonizes data from different fields (geophysical, geochemical, geological, technological, etc.), creates and provides access to an advanced database of case studies of environmental impact indicators associated with shale gas exploitation and exploration, which previously did not exist. A unique component of the SHEER database comes from the monitoring activity performed during the project in one active shale gas exploration and exploitation site at Wysin, Poland, which started from the pre-operational phase. The SHEER database is capable of the adoption of new data such as results of other Work Packages and has developed an over-arching structure for higher-level integration

Capitalist Dynamics: A Technical Note

Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School of Economics, had the ambition that economics should be a .map of the forces at workÿ. Standard textbook economics (.neo-classical economicsÿ) takes as its starting point a metaphor of .equilibriumÿ based on the state of the physics profession in the 1880s. This force towards equilibrium is, however, only one of many forces at work. The most fundamental feature of capitalism is change, and this change is only poorly reflected in standard economics. Financial crises are just one of the many things that happen in real life, but cannot happen in standard textbook economics. From the standpoint of Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950), Austrian economist and Harvard economics professor who spent much time at Harvard Business School, .equilibriumÿ is the opposite of economic development. Equilibrium theory therefore fails to reflect many of the mechanisms of industrial and economic dynamics that create economic welfare. This note attempts to outline some of these forces.

Technical note: Bias and the quantification of stability

Research on bias in machine learning algorithms has generally been concerned with the impact of bias on predictive accuracy. We believe that there are other factors that should also play a role in the evaluation of bias. One such factor is the stability of the algorithm; in other words, the repeatability of the results. If we obtain two sets of data from the same phenomenon, with the same underlying probability distribution, then we would like our learning algorithm to induce approximately the same concepts from both sets of data. This paper introduces a method for quantifying stability, based on a measure of the agreement between concepts. We also discuss the relationships among stability, predictive accuracy, and bias

Identifying and Using CGIAR's Comparative Advantage

Comparative Advantage (CA) is one of the most powerful theoretical insights in economics. It provides a useful framework for identifying areas where CGIAR's efforts are most crucial to achieving its mission - to deliver science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. 'One CGIAR' transition facilitates and promotes the use of portfolio approaches to research and innovation. In that context, ISDC aims to put the concept of CA to effective use in research portfolio management at all levels of the System. Applying a CA analysis can produce a more streamlined, purposive, and intentional research portfolio. It is designed to harness the various competencies of CGIAR entities, and other organizations with which the system interacts, to make the 'sum of its parts' as large as possible. This Technical Note first introduces the CA concept, its aims and benefits, and illustrates how gain from specialization occurs. Then, it reflects on possible sources of CA, and how broad categories (i.e., incentives, human capital, biophysical capital (such as labs, genetic material, and equipment), and social capital) can help identifying outputs in which CGIAR is likely to have CA. The four key steps of a CA analysis are then described, and retrospectively applied to specific deliverables from the Livestock Genetics Flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock. The final section summarizes these insights

Technical note: Hydrology of the Bahi Wetland, Tanzania

Wetlands / Rivers / Flow / Hydrology / Climate / Water budget / Irrigated farming / Rice / Tanzania / Bahi Wetland / Bubu River

Stress Tests for Banking Sector: A Technical Note

Credit and market risks are crucial for financial institutions. In this paper we present the model used by the Central Bank of Chile to conduct the stress tests for commercial banks in Chile. Market risk uses a balance-sheet approach that is consistent with the credit risk. For exchange rate risk we consider a change in the value of the portfolio under an unexpected change in the exchange rate by X%, meanwhile the interest rate risk is computed using a model for the whole yield curve. In particular, the modeling of this risk follows Nelson and Siegel (1987). Credit risk is computed using a non-linear VAR that relates banking system aggregates (loan loss provisions, credit growth, and write-offs) with macroeconomics variables (output growth, short and long term interest rates, terms of trade, and unemployment). For each Financial Stability Report (FSR) the model is calibrated using data from 1997 to the most recent date at monthly frequency. The effect on individual banks is computed adjusting the loan loss provision and total loans of each bank with the forecast value for the system. Given that forecasts are separated by type of loans (commercial, mortgage, and consumer) then the final effect on a particular bank depend on its initial composition.