Degradation of Dolines on Logaško polje (Slovenia)

As an example of long-term human intervention onto karst geomorphology, the article deals with the area of the Logaško polje, where degradation processes of dolines have been very intense during the last fifty years. The analysis of aerial photographs from different periods (years 1944 and 2000) was carried out on a study area of 604 ha. It showed that 77.5 % of dolines (441 of total 569) have completly disappeared mostly by being filled up with different waste materials (excavation material, municipal, industrial and building waste etc.) or they were built up while 22.5 % (128) of dolines have been entirely or partly preserved. Several anthropogenic factors that had an important influence on doline-changes are being evaluated. Despite the fact, that doline is a typical geomorphological feature in karst landscape the public (local or state) and the scientific sphere pay little attention on their geomorphological preservation and protection. Considering the paradigm of sustainability, the landscape and its landforms, as they are part of Earth’s surface, would need to be classified as a non-renewable natural heritage or even non-renewable natural resources

Neural Network Predicting Remote Vehicle Movement with Vehicle-to-Vehicle Data

This paper presents a neural network developed for predicting the path of a remote vehicle using post facto created vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) data and uses that prediction to determine whether it is safe for the host vehicle to change lanes. The data was collected in a 2013 experiment involving various drivers traveling on public roads in Ann Arbor, MI. The trips were on suburban roads, city roads and divided highways over a two-day period. The vehicular satellite global positioning system (GPS) data from movement over this period was gathered and post-processed to find vehicle paths within 10 meters of one another. The path traces of the two vehicles were combined to simulate what a V2V network would have provided to properly equipped vehicles if such a network and vehicles existed on real road networks demonstrating natural driving behavior. This research harnesses this data to determine the increased effectiveness of a neural network predicting the future path of remote vehicles and lane change safety when a V2V network is available. The most studied maneuver is overtaking. To a lesser extent, this paper also provides a view into how a neural network predicts remote vehicle behaviors using a host vehicle equipped with only perceptive hardware and no given information from the remote vehicle.Master of Science in EngineeringElectrical Engineering, College of Engineering & Computer ScienceUniversity of Michigan-Dearbornhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146791/1/49698122_breg_thesis_embedded (1).pd

Gravel plains in urban areas: gravel pits as an element of degraded landscapes

In the past, the excavation of gravel placed Jarški prod among areas of great opportunity, but this was followed by a major ecological blow: the filling of gravel pits with waste. The area started to regain significance with the construction of a drinking water pumping station and in accordance with the Spatial Plan of the City Municipality of Ljubljana is today seen as a forested area with a pronounced ecological or recreational importance. In spite of suitable legal foundations, as a protected water catch-ment area Jarški prod is in practice still unprotected. Considering the most important natural (shallow groundwater, easily permeable layer of gravel) and social characteristics (location near a densely popu-lated area, irresponsible attitudes), the groundwater is an extremely endangered natural resource

Vegetation as the Bioindicator of Human-induced Degradation in Karst Landscape: Case Study of Waste-filled Dolines

Mismanagement practices, such as unsustainable waste disposal, created many degraded sites. In karst landscapes, old uncontrolled landfills are often located in dolines (sinkholes). Buried waste material in dolines represents degradation of landform, habitats and a potential danger of groundwater pollution. Buried waste provides heterogeneous ecological conditions on the surface, thus plant communities or individual plant species that developed on the surface of landfills can be used as a bioindicators of waste-filled doline sites and therefore indicators of land degradation. We aimed to discover the potential of vegetation to detect unknown locations of old dump-sites in suffusion dolines in Logaško polje (Dinaric Karst, Slovenia), either by plant communities or by plant species. We aimed to ascertain whether vegetation can indicate the dumping period by estimation of community succession stage. Locations and the age of waste-filled dolines (doline-dumps) were preliminary identified by a historical landscape study. Thus, we used time series of aerial photographs and digital photogrammetry tools for 3D modelling of historical terrain. Ecological evaluation was based on sampling the floristic composition of plots (5x5 m). We analysed ecological conditions by Ellenberg bioindicator values, structure by life history traits and naturalness by hemerobic levels of plants. We studied in detail 30 up to 50-years-old waste-filled dolines that are interspersed by dry and mesic grasslands. Ecological evaluation demonstrated that the main driver of ecological diversity at doline-dumps is the time at which the doline was backfilled and succession started. Annual and eutrophic communities dominate the youngest doline-dumps, middle aged doline-dumps are covered by nitrophilous perennial forbs and, finally, communities developed towards mesic grassland. We conclude that plant communities in combination with diagnostic plant species can be used as a bioindicators of doline-dumps in agricultural landscape of Logaško polje and can therefore indicate the sites of potential groundwater pollution sources but not the type of long-time buried waste.Key words: suffusion dolines, plant communities, waste dumping, Ellenberg indicator values, polje

Ab Condita

Time and structure; expectation and construction; landscape and architecture; history and myth. The foundation is a joint which carries extraordinary potential to speak of the cultures that built it. This text tells stories about three cultures whose identities are interwoven with their foundation-building. Tracing a path among the distinct ways in which they found, it values the foundation as a marker between anticipating and making in the architectural process; an ambiguous joint between land and building; an invisible structure of the surfaces we touch; and an indicator of an attitude towards time. The narrative begins in Rome and concludes in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Canada. Both indigenous cultures represent extremes in notions of ‘foundation’: Rome’s tufa block substructures have borne buildings stratified over millennia; while the subarctic Omushkego Cree have traditionally had no permanent foundations, their building traces perceived in subtle differences of soil composition. A third base in the Netherlands is both a fulcrum and foil, as the nation’s diverse local and large-scale strategies negotiate heavy and light building traditions, and offer another distinct set of considerations in preparing ground. The aim of this book is two-fold. Firstly, it is to restore the foundation to the purview of the architect. Groundwork is more than a technical puzzle: it is also a deeply imaginative act. Secondly, this text seeks to understand why cultures found the way they do, and to give consideration to the unique inheritances offered by diverse foundation-building traditions

Towards a comprehensive framework for foam concrete mix design

Foam concrete is a low-density, highly workable cementitious material, created by blending a fine-aggregate paste with a foaming agent. Properties of foam concrete suggest potential for commercial exploitation of the material in a wide variety of applications and markets. However, reliably designing a foam concrete mix to a particular specification has proved a difficult challenge and a barrier to more widespread usage. This thesis builds a comprehensive framework for foam concrete mix design. A strategic set of mixes, across a broad range of densities, cementitious densities, and cementitious blends, is evaluated for an extensive array of properties: compressive strength, density, slump flow, segregation, modulus of elasticity, Poisson’s ratio, crushing behaviour, creep, drying shrinkage, capillary water uptake, moisture storage, moisture movement, thermal conductivity, freeze-thaw resistance, and air-void distribution. Critical and previously neglected engineering properties are quantified and characterized. A proposed model assimilates interrelated trends, to explain observed behaviour of foam concrete in plastic, curing, and hardened phases at a micromechanical scale. Knowledge is summarized in a series of mix design guides, to assist in developing appropriate solutions for given applications, with less reliance on trial-and-error and speculation. Finally, this study lays a foundation for a systematic and methodologically consistent approach to future foam concrete research

Akzeptanz und Einfluss des digitalen Habitus bezogen auf Kinder und Jugendliche

Im Rahmen des Beitrages werden Konzepte zum medialen und digitalen Habitus angerissen und kritisch diskutiert. Dabei wird auf bereits bestehende Forschungen eingegangen, um die Wichtigkeit und Relevanz des Konstruktes für die heutige Lebenswelt zu erfassen sowie dessen Einfluss auf Heranwachsende zu beschreiben. Im Ausblick werden zudem Fragen gestellt, welche sich auf den Einfluss und den Habitus von Heranwachsenden in Bezug auf digitalen Medien beziehen, um dort anzusetzen, wo Bedürfnisse und Anleitung von und für Kindern und Jugendlichen berücksichtigt werden sollten

Nekdanja odlagališča odpadkov v vrtačah in gramoznicah

This volume (‘Former waste disposal sites in dolines and gravel pits’) presents former waste disposal sites in depressions (dolines and gravel pits) using relief analysis of the former and current landscape and based on comparing them with one another. A comprehensive methodological approach has been created called the three-dimensional (3D) model, which is used to detect and record unknown, hidden former waste disposal sites in depressions above sensitive aquifers. The research deals with the problem of former waste disposal sites from the viewpoint of discovering them, creating a registry, and studying noticeable surface effects on the landscape (relief, soil, and vegetation).Monografija predstavlja nekdanja odlagališča odpadkov v kotanjah (vrtače, gramoznice) z uporabo reliefne analize nekdanje in sedanje pokrajine ter na podlagi njune medsebojne primerjave. Z analizo reliefa smo na vzorčnih območjih Logaškega polja in Logaškega ravnika ter Ljubljanskega polja določili izhodiščno stanje vrtač in gramoznic pred njihovim zasipavanjem z odpadki. Dobljene rezultate smo preverjali s terenskim delom. Vzorčili (sondirali) smo prsti nad odpadki, na preseku zasutih kotanj smo merili električno upornost tal, s fitogeografskim popisom pa smo določili indikatorske rastline, ki so pokazatelj navzočnosti organskih odpadkov v kotanji. Rezultati terenskega preučevanja pomenijo nova izhodišča za bodoče geoinformacijske analize rastlinstva in prsti na odlagališčih odpadkov. Izsledki monografije so pomembna podlaga za morebitno izdelavo katastra nekdanjih odlagališč odpadkov na ravni celotne Slovenije, kjer je odprtih še veliko metodoloških izzivov, povezanih z različnimi tipi podatkov