Global Warming and Changing Temperature Patterns over Mauritius

This paper discusses the changing temperature pattern over Mauritius. We observe an increase of the annual mean temperature at Pamplemousses since 1876 with an average rate of 0.009oC per year with a significant correlation coefficient of 0.67. Compared to the mean temperature for the period of 1951 to 1960, we find that there is a shift in time (decadal) in the warming from northwest to other regions over the island. The temperature deviations are more marked in winter than in summer. Moreover, the number of hot days per year is increasing and the number of cold days is decreasing.Keywords: Temperature spatial variation, trend, hot and cold days, kriggin

A Water Accumulation Flooding Potentiality Index (WAFPI) for rating the risk of flooding– A case study of Mauritius Island

The Water Accumulation Flooding Potentiality Index (WAFPI) is a qualitative risk assessment method based on a factorial scoring system that is aimed at dividing the land into classes that are similar in their susceptibility to flooding due to accumulating water. Such an assessment precedes quantitative flood modeling work, the overall results that are used for planning flood mitigation measures. WAFPI takes the form of an equation with five parameters as input, namely, rainfall amount; topographic slope angle; permeability of geology strata; soil infiltration capacity & land cover imperviousness. The output is a map with indices ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest risk and 10 the highest risk of flooding. The assessment has been carried for Mauritius for the rainiest month of February. Results show that the assessment method succeeds in qualitatively evaluating the geospatial potentiality and the geospatial distribution of flooding due to water accumulation.Keywords: flooding, risk assessment, potentiality mapping, GIS, factorial scoring, Mauritius

AUTOMATED TRAFFIC ROUTING BASED ON THE RIP AND EIGRP ALGORITHMS USING CELLULAR AUTOMATA

The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) algorithms are widely used in the field of telecommunications for transmission of data over computer networks. Traffic Cellular Automata (TCA) is a technique that has proved to be very efficient in simulating large-scale road traffic networks. In this paper a multicell TCA model that includes anticipation and probability randomization has been hybridized with the RIP and EIGRP algorithms. Simulation was performed on a small network and the performance of these two algorithms compared and analyzed. The results show that the EIGRP algorithm, through an adaptive routing of vehicles, achieves reduced travel times, more space-headway and lower traffic densities. </jats:p

Evaluation of Congestion Relief Proposals in a Capital City

This paper aims at analyzing three different solutions suggested for traffic congestion relief in Port Louis, the busiest city of Mauritius. It evaluates the impact of the three alternatives which are the use of Light Rail Transit (LRT) as an alternative mode of transport, the construction of a Ring road around Port Louis, and the upgrading of the current bus network into a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. The impact of these three solutions has been evaluated by performing Traffic Cellular Automata (TCA) simulations. Our studies reveal that the Ring road will lead to more congestion while introducing the LRT or upgrading the current bus network will reduce congestion significantly

OVERCOMING THE PIGOU–DOWNS PARADOX USING ADVANCED TRAFFIC SIGNAL CONTROL

Expansion of a road network has often been observed to cause more congestion and has led researchers to the formulation of traffic paradoxes such as the Pigou–Downs and the Braess paradoxes. In this paper, we present an application of advanced traffic signal control (ATSC) to overcome the Pigou–Downs paradox. Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius is used to investigate the effect of using a harbor bridge to by-pass the city center. Using traffic cellular automata (TCA) simulations it has been shown how, if traffic is only gradually deviated along the by-pass, an overall longer travel time and decreased flux would result. By making use of ATSC, which involves traffic lights that sense the number of vehicles accumulated in the queue, better travel times and fluxes are achieved. </jats:p

Land cover of Mauritius Island.

In this digital era, high-resolution imagery offers a rapid and inexpensive means of monitoring land use changes. Digitally monitoring dynamic landscape change is a versatile way of facilitating rapid strategic decision making in a sustainable manner in a world of increasing complexity. Whilst a cadastral land information system is useful as a database, its use is limited for research purposes involving the manipulation of images - such as in studying flood-prone areas or land erosion susceptibility. In this paper, we report a land cover map for Mauritius Island (1859 km2), in the Indian Ocean, at a scale of 1:100,000 (A1-size paper). Inputs used to create the map are a SPOT satellite image, published map series at 1:25,000 scale, and selected ground truth surveys for validation. In total, 11 feature types, which are representative of the island's surface cover, have been mapped

Wetlands’ Inventory, Mapping and Land Cover Index Assessment on Mauritius.

Past studies conducted on wetlands of Mauritius lead to the conclusion that half of the wetlands have been backfilled for touristic and housing development and that the ecological condition of the remaining wetlands is being seriously challenged by numerous threats, natural and anthropogenic. This research aimed to fill the information gap concerning wetland type and distribution. For this, using published maps and satellite imagery, wetlands were digitised resulting in 144 wetlands and categorised into 8 ecological units. Afterwards, a number of wetlands were ranked according to their environmental condition based on a series of Land Cover Indices (LCIs). These indices were derived by analysis of land cover types and slope gradient within a 50 m and a 950 m watershed-bounded buffer zone. Wetlands in forested areas were the least disturbed, with LCI of typically 0.30, but potentially threatened by sediment accumulation due to a high slope gradient (>20 %). Three wetlands in Mauritius are classified as Ramsar wetland. One of them, the Blue Bay Marine Park (BBMP) has moderately good condition (LCI = 0.55). The other one, the Rivulet Terre Rouge Estuary Bird Sanctuary (RTREBS) was among the most heavily impacted (LCI = 0.87) due to intensive urbanization