Airport capacity dynamics: A ‘proof of concept’ approach

The continuing growth in aviation has meant that the 35 largest airports in Europe reached saturation in 2005. The consequences have been increasing air traffic congestion, delays and associated costs. There is therefore a clear need to create more capacity. However, airports in particular and the air transport system in general are also subject to sudden fluctuations in demand and capacity. This research synthesizes the mechanisms of airport capacity fluctuations through the analytical formulation of concepts of capacity dynamics, capacity elasticities and capacity stability. It demonstrates the usability of these concepts through, firstly, a case study application to Brussels National Airport and, secondly, the development of a 'proof of concept' decision-support tool for strategic and tactical airport planning. Capacity dynamics and elasticities provide a performance indication as to how quickly capacity is able to change in response to fluctuations brought about by one or more capacity disrupters, whilst capacity stability provides airport planners with a measure of capacity robustness. These three concepts - capacity dynamics, elasticities and stability - contribute to a better a priori understanding of the airport system to be modelled. They demonstrate a better quantification of the impact and sensitivity of all the factors that affect runway capacity. It is also shown how the three concepts can assist in a better quantification of the risk of potential capacity fluctuation within the scope of airport planning. Based on this analytical formulation and quantification, mitigation should be an integral part of any effective airport plan in order to predict better the response to any given potential capacity degradation. It has been found that, from a capacity perspective, an airport becomes less stable the higher its level of performance. This capacity/stability paradox enables the ultimate goal of investment in capacity enhancement to be challenged, and it is legitimately questioned whether a similar investment would not be more worthwhile at secondary airports rather than at major airports

The Format That Time Forgot!!! The Return of the Microcards

Hidden away in the darkest recesses of some libraries you will find... Wait! Don\u27t! Don\u27t open that microcard drawer!! Seriously, it feels that way when you walk by those long-neglected microcards. Very few cataloging records exist so discoverability is close to zero, and if there are records how do you read the cards? Wouldn\u27t it be great if you could bring that microcard back to life so the content could be used? Good news! A collaborative open-access effort to do so is underway. After two successful pilot projects, working with roughly 2700 Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) reports on microcard, the Technical Report Archive and Image Library (TRAIL) has embarked on its most ambitious project to date - digitization and metadata / MARC record creation for over 33,000 reports on over 50,000 microcards. Sci tech librarians and their patrons worldwide will benefit from the outcomes: open access, online, and discoverable AEC reports. This project improves discoverability through the creation of MARC records (provided to OCLC) and enables libraries that retain this legacy format to provide discoverability to their on-site materials. Sci tech librarians can access inventories to review and describe their materials, and for libraries that never owned these collections, a frightfully efficient search interface already exists. This open access project can reinvigorate microcard content and revitalize library collections nationwide. This poster details the methods used in shocking detail and sets the stage for the next chilling episode

Digital Twins II

Treball desenvolupat en el marc del programa "European Project Semester".Digital Twins have been around since the early 2000s, but it has only been until now that they started to be affordable thanks to the Internet of Things. In the realm of smart cities, a Digital Twin is a virtual model of a city, a replica of the physical world, which are rapidly becoming indispensable tools to visualize the pulse of the city in real time with layered data sources of buildings, urban infrastructure, utilities, businesses, movement of people and vehicles. The advantages of implementing this concept is that it significantly increases the city's stability. Testing in a virtual model helps prevent emergencies, properly allocate resources that reduces costs and the chances of failure in the real world. This project is a continuation of the last year's theoretical study Digital Twins Ⅰ and its aim is to continue the research about Digital City Twins and explore the Big Data from the city sensors of Vilanova i la Geltrú. A group of five international students, led by the company Neapolis, are working on transforming the city into a smart one within the summer semester of the academic year 2020- 2021. In the process, we studied scientific articles, consulted with university professors from different countries (Spain, Belgium, Brazil), contacted IT and Data Security companies to obtain the necessary information. The report provides a study of practical examples using Digital Twins around the world, their impact on the city improvement, comparison of different platforms and software for developing Digital Twins and the reasoned choice of the best option for use in the next part of the project. Furthermore, it describes Information Infrastructure of Digital Cities, Big Data Management, Data Security and the implementation of Digital Twins in Vilanova i la Geltrú. The Big Data received from the city authorities was read and analyzed in the data part with necessary conclusions. This project made a great contribution to the further development of the Digital Twins for Vilanova i la Geltrú and will simplify the practical implementation for our followers of the next EPS project.Incomin