The Use of GIS and Leachability Tests to Investigate Groundwater Vulnerability to Pollution from Oil Shale Utilization at Lajjoun Area/Southern Jordan

Jordan is a country that faces "absolute water scarcity" and may not be able to meet its water needs by the year 2025. Groundwater is the major water resource for many areas of the country and the only source of water in some areas. Most of the groundwater basins in Jordan are already exploited beyond their estimated safe yield. Groundwater is the second largest contributor to the irrigation sector and is the largest source for domestic consumption. Jordan also has a huge amount of oil shale that exists in the Southern and Eastern parts of the country. It is estimated that Jordan has a reserve of 50 billion tons of oil shale. The oil shale deposits in these locations are shallow and near the surface and can be utilized by the open cut mining method. The ash is considered one of the most important factors in selecting the suitable and more economical utilization technology for Jordanian oil shale. Oil shale ash is considered one of the main environmental challenges and a barrier which stands on the way of developing oil shale industry in Jordan. The main concern in this case is that ash might reach nearby surface water and/ or leach to groundwater recourses in the area. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of pollution of groundwater resources in Lajjoun area/ Southern Jordan as a result of oil shale development. It assessed groundwater vulnerability to pollution using GIS and DRASTIC index in combination with chemical analysis and leachability tests conducted on oil shale ash that might result from two possible utilizations of oil shale; producing electricity through direct burning of oil shale and extracting oil from oil shale. It was found that Lajjoun area has a moderate groundwater vulnerability to pollution. Yet, the leachabilty tests showed that there will be huge amounts of Fe, Cr, Cd, Pb, Al and Pb as possible leachates to groundwater for both types of oil shale utilizations; oil extraction and electricity generation

The impact of information and communication technology on the marketing performance of Jordanian hotels

Purpose – This thesis proposes to address the research gap of understanding the relationshipbetween ‘Information Communication Technology (ICT)’ and ‘marketing performance’ in upscale hotels in Jordan. Design/methodology/approach – Extensive literature that links both ICT and marketing performance forms the framework of this research. This research examines the level of ICT usage by hotels as well as their marketing performance to support the theoretical framework that can be used for practical application in the hospitality industry and provides direction for both practising managers and theoreticians. The quantitative survey technique, using structured closed questions, was the main method applied to test the theoretical framework and all of its hypotheses as well as to provide answers to all the research questions. The quantitative survey was undertaken of 61 Jordanian hotels in Amman, Aqaba, the Dead Sea and Petra over the time period from May to July 2013. The senior managers including CEOs, managing directors, and general managers or marketing directors of the hotels, who are responsible for making decisions regarding the hotel marketing activities, were selected to provide the primary data regarding the use of ICT in their hotels and their marketing performance. Findings – The findings demonstrate that the majority of Jordanian hotels have a high level of ICT adoption, however, the integrated (i.e. interconnectivity) level and the usage level of ICT are significantly less. Moreover, the availability, interconnectivity and the usage extent of ICT vary according to the size of the hotel, star-rating, and the experience of hotel management in ICT. The findings also suggest that Jordanian hoteliers are to some extent satisfied with their marketing performance and particularly with the financial aspect of marketing performance. Additionally, the results exhibited important differences in the contribution that each technology makes to the marketing performance. For example, the electronic-points-of-sales systems (EPOS) and the booking-enabled hotel Website are the highest individual ICT systems that impact the marketing performance. Finally, the invention measures (e.g. the ability of launching new products/ services) are the most affected aspect of marketing performance when adopting interconnected ICT systems in hotel establishments. Practical implications – There are multiple areas and issues that need to be considered in making and implementing ICT investment decisions if they are to contribute to the hotel marketing performance. Hotel companies need to be selective in their ICT adoption decisions and look at each ICT system from the marketing management perspective. The Electronic Distribution Systems (e.g. Booking-Enabled Website), and Hotel Front-Office Systems (e.g. PMS) are some of the most differentiating technologies, which may be implemented by 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels to improve marketing performance, especially; the non-financial aspects of marketing performance (e.g. the ability to launch new processes and services and the perceived quality of these processes and services). Originality/value – This is one of the first studies in the hospitality field that offers practical evidence on how ICT systems affect the marketing performance. This research identifies the most discriminating ICT solutions across three, four, and five-star hotels, and discusses their potential for improving marketing performance. It also provides recommendations for Jordanian hotels to improve their marketing effectiveness by using the appropriate technologies in the hospitality industry.sub_iihdunpub1910_ethesesunpu

Geohazard Evaluation of Bukit Merah/ Malaysia using Geospatial Information Technique

Geospatial technology (that includes Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System GIS) has opened up opportunities for qualitative analyses of sinkholes distribution with multi thematic maps to define the relationship of GIS database. Kinta Valley have been deteriorating dramatically as a result of changes that had occurred in the past and continues due to the close relationship between the fast rate of lateral urbanization and extensive dimensional expansion of surface mining and quarrying activities, where sinkholes are the main crux of the geohazard in Kinta Valley. Geospatial information system for sinkholes had been established using pictorial, tabular and ancillary data to build a relational GIS database. The application is capable of analyzing an entire data set of sinkholes to create sinkholes distribution map. The objective of this paper is to highlight the value of Geospatial Information System as a tool to define sinkhole distribution and change detection for geohazard evaluation. Keywords: Geospatial, Karst, Sinkholes distribution, Geohazard, Malaysia

The Use of Vector-Based GIS and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) for Siting Water Harvesting Dams in Karak Governorate/ South Jordan

Jordan is the 4th poorest country in the world in terms of water resources. Although, Jordan receives an average annual rainfall of 8194 million cubic metre, it can only collect 360 million cubic meters in its existing dams. There is an urgent need to construct more dams in order to harvest the obtainable runoff which might help in overcoming the shortage in its water resources for domestic and agricultural uses.  Site selection of dams must be carried out using sophisticated tools and techniques. One of these techniques is GIS, which could be integrated with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) to select the optimum sites for dams. In this research vector-Based GIS and multi-criteria decision making were used to select the optimum sites of dams in Karak governorate/ South Jordan. Rainfall, soil, slope, urban areas and roads comprise the selection criteria used in this research based on the use of weighted linear combination (WLC). Wadis, Roads, Urban Centres, Faults and Wells comprise the constraint factors used to erase the unsuitable areas for constructing dams based on the Boolean technique. The outcome of this research showed that there are 9 potential sites that could be utilized for constructing dams to harvest the surface water in the study area. Keywords: Jordan; Karak; Dams; Vector-Based; GIS; MCD

Moral Disengagement and its Relationship to Moral Identity among Adolescents

ملخص: هدفت الدراسة الحالية إلى دراسة العلاقة بين التحرّر الأخلاقي والهويّة الأخلاقيّة، كما هدفت إلى معرفة مستوى التحرّر الأخلاقي والهويّة الأخلاقيّة، ومعرفة ما إذا كانت هنالك فروق في مستوى التحرّر الأخلاقي والهويّة الأخلاقيّة تُعزى لمُتغيّريّ الجنس، والصف الدّراسي. ولتحقيق أهداف الدّراسة، اُستُخدم مقياس التحرّر الأخلاقي، ومقياس الهويّة الأخلاقيّة. تكونت عينة الدّراسة من (1032) من المراهقين تم اختيارهم بالطريقة القصدية. أسفرت نتائج الدراسة عن مستويات منخفضة من التحرّر الأخلاقي ومرتفعة من الهويّة الأخلاقيّة لدى عينة الدراسة. وأظهرت النتائج وجود فروق دالّة إحصائيًّا في مستوى التحرّر الأخلاقي وأبعاده (التبرير الأخلاقي، والمسميات الملطفة، والمقارنة المفيدة، وإزاحة المسؤولية، ونشر المسؤولية، وتجاهل العواقب، وعزو اللوم، والتجريد من الخصائص الإنسانية) تُعزى لمُتغيّر الجنس، حيث إنّ مستوى التحرّر الأخلاقي وأبعاده لدى الذّكور أعلى منه لدى الإناث، ووجود فروق دالّة إحصائيًّا في مستوى التحرّر الأخلاقي وأبعاده (التبرير الأخلاقي، والمسميات الملطفة، ونشر المسؤولية، وعزو اللوم، والتجريد من الخصائص الإنسانية) تُعزى لمُتغيّر الصف الدّراسي، حيث إنّ مستوى التحرّر الأخلاقي وأبعاده لدى طلبة الصف السابع أعلى منه لدى طلبة الصف الثامن والصف التاسع. وكذلك أظهرت النتائج وجود فروق دالّة إحصائيا في مستوى الهويّة الأخلاقيّة وبعديها (الترميز، والاستيعاب) تُعزى لمُتغيّر الجنس، ولصالح الإناث، ووجود فروق دالّة إحصائيًّا في مستوى الهويّة الأخلاقيّة وبُعديها (الترميز، والاستيعاب) تُعزى لمُتغيّر الصف الدّراسي، ولصالح طلبة الصف الثامن. وأخيرًا أظهرت النتائج وجود علاقة ارتباطية سالبة ودالّة إحصائيًّا بين التحرّر الأخلاقي والهويّة الأخلاقيّة. واستنادًا الى النتائج، توصي الدراسة بالاستفادة من المستوى المرتفع للهوية الأخلاقيّة عند المراهقين في تنمية، وتطوير جوانب الشخصيّة الأخرى، كالمسؤولية الاجتماعيّة.Abstract: This study aimed to examine the relationship between moral disengagement and moral identity; moreover, it aimed at identifying the level of moral disengagement as well as the moral identity. Furthermore, this paper also aimed to see whether there are statistically significant differences in the level of moral disengagement and moral identity can attributed to so gender and class levels. To achieve the objective of the study, both moral disengagement scale, and moral identity scale were used. The sample of the study consisted of (1032) adolescents chosen purposive method. The results of the study revealed low levels of moral disengagement and high levels of moral identity. Male adolescents were significantly higher than their female counterpart regarding the moral disengagement and its dimensions (moral justification, euphemistic language, advantageous comparison, displacement of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility, distorting consequence, attribution of blame, and dehumanization), and seventh-grade were significantly higher than their eighth and ninth grade counterpart regarding the moral disengagement and its dimensions (moral justification, euphemistic language, diffusion of responsibility,  attribution of blame, and dehumanization). It was found that the levels of moral identity and its dimensions (symbolization and internalization) were significantly higher in females than males. It was also found that the levels of moral identity and its dimensions (symbolization and internalization) were significantly higher eighth-grade than seventh and ninth grade. Finally, the results showed a negative relationship between moral disengagement and moral identity. Based on the results, the study recommends taking advantage of the high level of moral identity among adolescents in the development of other aspects of personality, such as social responsibility

The level of using mind maps and its relationship to internal and external motivation among a sample of secondary school students in the Mafraq District

The study aims at identifying the level of using mind maps, and the level of the internal and external motivation among high school students and revealing whether there are any differences in the level of using mind maps according to the variables of gender, academic branch or the interaction between them. It also aims at revealing the prediction ability of mind maps with internal and external motivation. The sample of the study consisted of (308) male and female students from the twelfth grade in Jordan. To achieve the objectives of the study, the mind maps scale prepared by (Amin & Hina, 2018), and the internal and external motivation scale prepared by (Lepper et al., 2005) were used. The results of the study show that the level of using mind maps and internal motivation was high, but the level of external motivation was low. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences in the level of using total mind maps according to the variable of gender in favor of females, and according to the variable of academic branch in favor of the scientific branch, and according to the interaction between gender and academic branch, in favor of males in scientific branch. The results also showed that the mind maps explained (51%) of the internal motivation and (71%) of the external motivation

A comparison of machine learning models for the mapping of groundwater spring potential

Groundwater resources are vitally important in arid and semi-arid areas meaning that spatial planning tools are required for their exploration and mapping. Accordingly, this research compared the predictive powers of five machine learning models for groundwater potential spatial mapping in Wadi az-Zarqa watershed in Jordan. The five models were random forest (RF), boosted regression tree (BRT), support vector machine (SVM), mixture discriminant analysis (MDA), and multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS). These algorithms explored spatial distributions of 12 hydrological-geological-physiographical (HGP) conditioning factors (slope, altitude, profile curvature, plan curvature, slope aspect, slope length (SL), lithology, soil texture, average annual rainfall, topographic wetness index (TWI), distance to drainage network, and distance to faults) that determine where groundwater springs are located. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was employed to evaluate the prediction accuracies of the five individual models. Here the results were ranked in descending order as MDA (83.2%), RF (80.6%), SVM (80.2%), BRT (78.0%), and MARS (75.5%).The results show good potential for further use of machine learning techniques for mapping groundwater spring potential in other places where the use and management of groundwater resources is essential for sustaining rural or urban life

Wildland Fire Susceptibility Mapping Using Support Vector Regression and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System-Based Whale Optimization Algorithm and Simulated Annealing

Fires are one of the most destructive forces in natural ecosystems. This study aims to develop and compare four hybrid models using two well-known machine learning models, support vector regression (SVR) and the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), as well as two meta-heuristic models, the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and simulated annealing (SA) to map wildland fires in Jerash Province, Jordan. For modeling, 109 fire locations were used along with 14 relevant factors, including elevation, slope, aspect, land use, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), rainfall, temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, soil texture, topographic wetness index (TWI), distance to drainage, and population density, as the variables affecting the fire occurrence. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) was used to evaluate the accuracy of the models. The findings indicated that SVR-based hybrid models yielded a higher AUROC value (0.965 and 0.949) than the ANFIS-based hybrid models (0.904 and 0.894, respectively). Wildland fire susceptibility maps can play a major role in shaping firefighting tactics

Direct soil moisture controls of future global soil carbon changes: An important source of uncertainty

The nature of the climate–carbon cycle feedback depends critically on the response of soil carbon to climate, including changes in moisture. However, soil moisture–carbon feedback responses have not been investigated thoroughly. Uncertainty in the response of soil carbon to soil moisture changes could arise from uncertainty in the relationship between soil moisture and heterotrophic respiration. We used twelve soil moisture–respiration functions (SMRFs) with a soil carbon model (RothC) and data from a coupled climate–carbon cycle general circulation model to investigate the impact of direct heterotrophic respiration dependence on soil moisture on the climate carbon cycle feedback. Global changes in soil moisture acted to oppose temperature‐driven decreases in soil carbon and hence tended to increase soil carbon storage. We found considerable uncertainty in soil carbon changes due to the response of soil respiration to soil moisture. The use of different SMRFs resulted in both large losses and small gains in future global soil carbon stocks, whether considering all climate forcings or only moisture changes. Regionally, the greatest range in soil carbon changes across SMRFs was found where the largest soil carbon changes occurred. Further research is needed to constrain the soil moisture–respiration relationship and thus reduce uncertainty in climate–carbon cycle feedbacks. There may also be considerable uncertainty in the regional responses of soil carbon to soil moisture changes since climate model predictions of regional soil moisture changes are less coherent than temperature changes

The use of DRASTIC Index and Simple Matrix Techniques to Assess the Environmental Impact of Akaider Dumpsite Area

Abstract: EIA are needed to avoid adverse impacts and to ensure long term benefits which lead to sustainable development. There are several techniques to conduct an EIA. Among these techniques include checklists, Matrices and overlay. DRASTIC index is considered an important methodology for studying groundwater vulnerability. In this research study, a simple matrix technique was adopted to investigate the Environmental Impacts of Akaider dumpsite on the surrounding environment. Nine environmental parameters (Groundwater, surface water, air, soil, land use, industry, public health, heritage and historical sites and socio-economic situation) were studies to see the impact of the dumpsite on their quality. It was found that the dumpsite might pose a major threat to these parameters. Also, DRASTIC index was used to investigate groundwater vulnerability to contamination in the area. It was found that the dumpsite is located within a moderate vulnerability zone. This means that groundwater in the underlying groundwater basins in not completely save and might be contaminated in the future