Urban Planning and Corona Spaces – Scales, Walls and COVID-19 Coincidences

This study focuses on the role and responsibility of urban planning in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic ́s impact. The far-reaching social and economic consequences of this threat are counteracted by organisational and constructional measures to prevent lockdowns and finally illnesses and deaths. Corona spaces and voids are introduced as a consistent multi scale approach concerning the pandemics spatial implications and respective measures. These terms are operationalised for urban planning and can be used as an overarching concept to be communicated within cross-sectoral planning tasks. A comparison of Taiwan's and the USA's responses to the outbreak suggests that the coincidence at the beginning of a pandemic can be controlled by institutional precautions. On an urban scale, organisational measures (e.g. contact tracing, quarantine, and lockdown) can be supported by constructional ones concerning e.g. transport, public spaces, urban agriculture, and offices aimed at crowding reduction. If appropriate measures are applied, urban density does not seem to increase spreading the virus, whereby a regression analysis based on data of districts in Germany shows no relationship between population density and COVID-19 deaths. Lockdown prevention should be a planning goal and multifunctional approaches that integrate aspects of virus resilience should be favoured over the monothematic urban development approach (Leitbild) of a virus resilient city. Urban planning can contribute to the mitigation of future outbreaks by including pandemic preparedness in planning frameworks

Urban and river flooding: Comparison of flood risk management approaches in the UK and China and an assessment of future knowledge needs

Increased urbanisation, economic growth, and long-term climate variability have made both the UK and China more susceptible to urban and river flooding, putting people and property at increased risk. This paper presents a review of the current flooding challenges that are affecting the UK and China and the actions that each country is undertaking to tackle these problems. Particular emphases in this paper are laid on (1) learning from previous flooding events in the UK and China, and (2) which management methodologies are commonly used to reduce flood risk. The paper concludes with a strategic research plan suggested by the authors, together with proposed ways to overcome identified knowledge gaps in flood management. Recommendations briefly comprise the engagement of all stakeholders to ensure a proactive approach to land use planning, early warning systems, and water-sensitive urban design or redesign through more effective policy, multi-level flood models, and data driven models of water quantity and quality

Conceptualization and Development of a Dam Break Life-Loss Estimation Model

Catastrophic events such as dam failures or severe floods are considered to be of low probability, although their consequences can be extremely high and might include loss of life. Earlier studies have linked circumstances surrounding historical darn failure events to actual loss of life and produced formulations using statistical analysis of these events. Shortcomings of these methods include the inability to adjust life-loss estimates based on the type of darn failure, global averaging of population at risk, and ignoring the dynamics of the evacuation process. The main objective of this research is to develop a practical and improved life-loss estimation approach for use in dam safety risk assessment and emergency planning. The methodology is specifically formulated to overcome the limitations of previous. purely empirical, approaches. The approach takes into account the spatial and temporal distribution of flood water depth and velocity, fate of buildings, simulation of warning diffusion, and tracking the movement of people from their original location towards safe shelters. The model created, called LlFESim, is designed to serve multiple function s. First, it can be used in a Deterministic Mode using best estimate inputs to obtain point estimates, or to test different policies for evacuation as well as different times of the day and for different dam breach flooding scenarios. Second, the Uncertainty Mode represents input and parameter uncertainties to provide estimates of life loss, and other variables relating to warning and evacuation effectiveness, as probability distributions. These distributions of life loss can be combined with estimates of the uncertainties in other risk assessment inputs, to obtain estimates of uncertainties in risk assessment results, including evaluations against tolerable risk guidelines. Two communities were used to demonstrate the model performance. Deterministic Mode results display the various possible model outputs. Sensitivity analysis for the Deterministic Mode shows that the effect of warning issuance time is the dominant factor in the estimated life loss. However, other factors play an important role such as the time of day, effectiveness of the warning system, and shelter location. Uncertainty Mode results demonstrate the effect of uncertainties in model parameters and inputs on the model results

Investigation of Visual Management Cases in Construction by an Analytical Framework from Manufacturing

Along with the progress of globalization, speed and efficiency have become more critical for any industry than ever before. In this sense, the concept and methods of lean management, promoting these performances, have been deployed from manufacturing, its origin industry, to other industries. This paper deals with this management style in the construction industry, called lean construction. In particular, visual management (VM) as one effective tool in this scheme is focused on. A number of VM cases, 306 in total, was collected from both construction and manufacturing sites and investigated by the so-called 5W1H analytical framework developed in the manufacturing industry. Obtained results suggest that the VM cases in construction have common attributes such as purpose and location, target to attain, users’ attributes, timing to use and elemental technologies for case development. A comparison analysis of the VM cases from construction and those from manufacturing was also carried out, for a mutual transfer of this technology between these industries

Advanced extravehicular protective system Interim report, 1 Jul. 1970 - 31 May 1971

Regenerable portable life support systems concepts for EVA use in 1980 and technology assessmen

Technology transfer: Transportation

The successful application of aerospace technology to problems related to highways and rail and rapid transit systems is described with emphasis on the use of corrosion resistant paints, fire retardant materials, and law enforcement. Possible areas for the use of spinoff from NASA technology by the California State Department of Corrections are identified. These include drug detection, security and warning systems, and the transportation and storage of food. A communication system for emergency services is also described

Strategies for adapting to climate change in rural Sub-Saharan Africa

The ten ASARECA member countries (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda) have adopted, or are planning to adopt, a range of climate change adaptation strategies in agriculture (see Table 1 for a summary). Of the 26 strategies mentioned, only two are common to all 10 countries, while five more are common to five or more. The strategies common to all member countries include the development and promotion of drought-tolerant and early-maturing crop species and exploitation of new and renewable energy sources. Most countries have areas that are classifiable as arid or semiarid, hence the need to develop drought-tolerant and early-maturing crops. Strangely, only one country recognizes the conservation of genetic resources as an important strategy although this is also potentially important for dealing with drought. Biomass energy resources account for more than 70 percent of total energy consumption in ASARECA member countries. To mitigate the potential adverse effects of biomass energy depletion, ASARECA countries plan to harness new and renewable energy sources, including solar power, wind power, hydro and geothermal sources, and biofuels. Eight of the 10 countries cite the promotion of rainwater harvesting as an important adaptation strategy, either small scale with small check dams or large scale with large dam projects. The five measures that are common to more than five countries are (a) the conservation and restoration of vegetative cover in degraded and mountain areas; (b) reduction of overall livestock numbers through sale or slaughter; (c) cross-breeding, zero-grazing, and acquisition of smaller livestock (for example, sheep or goats); (d) adoption of traditional methods of natural forest conservation and food use; and (e) community-based management programs for forests, rangelands, and national parks. The promotion of environmentally friendly investments and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects that can be funded through carbon trading is a feature of only one country. Three examples of strategies that warrant greater region wide collaboration are the conservation of genetic materials, development and promotion of drought-tolerant species, and soil conservation. To date, the national adaptation policies of only three countries have indicated that they carry out these strategies.Adaptation, ASARECA, Climate change, NAPA, Natural resource management, PRSP,

Risks, designs, and research for fire safety in spacecraft

Current fire protection for spacecraft relies mainly on fire prevention through the use of nonflammable materials and strict storage controls of other materials. The Shuttle also has smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, using technology similar to aircraft practices. While experience has shown that the current fire protection is adequate, future improvements in fire safety technology to meet the challenges of long duration space missions, such as the Space Station Freedom, are essential. All spacecraft fire protection systems, however, must deal with the unusual combustion characteristics and operational problems in the low gravity environment. The features of low gravity combustion that affect spacecraft fire safety, and the issues in fire protection for Freedom that must be addressed eventually to provide effective and conservative fire protection systems are discussed