Can digital reinvention of ecological monitoring remove barriers to its adoption by practitioners? : A case study of deer management in Scotland

Open Access funded by Economic and Social Research Council This research was supported by the award made by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub (award reference EP/G066051/1). We would like to thank both the participants and the course organisers involved in the workshops for the valuable insights they offered on such a complex topic. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers whose insightful comments constructively shaped the subsequent article.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Human rewilding : Practical pointers to address a root cause of global environmental crises

The rewilding discourse to date has mostly been concerned with ecological dimensions of rewilding, but attention for human dimensions of rewilding is growing, and here we focus on the rewilding of humans. The rationale being, that human rewilding is a crucial process in restoring the broken relationship between humans and nature on both individual and societal levels. We consider what human rewilding could mean in a practical sense by presenting two case studies. The first is the rewilding of daily life, based on a yearlong experiment of living outside, and a straightforward research question: In a land without wilderness, is it possible to find wildness in everyday life? The second is the rewilding of education in a way that challenges traditional didactic frameworks and approaches. Conceptually, we approach human rewilding as a set of visions and practices that acknowledge human evolutionary history within the contemporary context of life on Earth. We argue that human rewilding is a necessary, complimentary component to ecological rewilding efforts. It provides a constructive and fundamental answer to the question of where humans sit in rewilding efforts, and suggests no less than a human inclusive, integrated part of the answer to global environmental crises

Разработка методов управления эксплуатацией релейной защиты : автореферат диссертации на соискание ученой степени кандидата технических наук : 05.14.02

As a result of societal transformations, political governance shifts, and advances in ICT, online information has become crucial in efforts by public authorities to make citizens better stewards of the environment. Yet, their environmental information provision may not always be attuned to end users' rationales, behaviours and appreciations. This study revolves around dynamic river level information provided by an environmental regulator – updated once a day or more, and collected by a sensor network of 333 gauging stations along 232 Scottish rivers. Employing an elaborate mixed methods approach with qualitative and quantitative elements, we examined if profiling of web page user groups and the subsequent employment of a specially designed Natural Language Generation (NLG) system could foster more effective online information provision. We identified profiles for the three main user groups: fishing, flood risk related, and paddling. The existence of well-distinguishable rationales and characteristics was in itself an argument for profiling; the same river level information was used in entirely different ways by the three groups. We subsequently constructed an advanced online experiment that implemented NLG based on live river level data. We found that textual information can be of much value in translating dynamic technical information into straightforward messages for the specific purposes of the user groups. We conclude that tailored NLG could be widely used in more effective online environmental information provision, and we provide five practical recommendations for public authorities and other information providers

Towards more effective online environmental information provision through tailored natural language generation: profiles of Scottish river user groups and an evaluative online experiment

As a result of societal transformations, political governance shifts, and advances in ICT, online information has become a crucial dimension in efforts by public authorities to make citizens better stewards of the environment. Yet their environmental information provision often lacks focus and knowledge of end users’ rationales, behaviours and appreciations. Our case study was dynamic river level information provided by an environmental regulator – updated once a day or more, and collected by a sensor network of 333 gauging stations along 232 Scottish rivers. We examined if profiling of web page user groups (phase 1 of this study) and the subsequent associated employment of a specially designed Natural Language Generation (NLG) system (phase 2), could be steps towards more effective (tailored) online information provision. We employed an online survey (ran over 222 days, n=1264), interviews (n=32), workshops (n=15), as well as a small-scale yet advanced online experiment to evaluate (additional) information provision through NLG (including pre- and post-experiment surveys, ‘like’ buttons, feedback boxes and the monitoring of website visit behaviour through mouse clicks and time spent on 2 sections). In phase 1, we identified and described profiles for the three main user groups: ‘fishing’, ‘flood risk related’, and ‘kayaking’. The clear delineation and existence of welldistinguishable rationales was in itself an argument for profiling; the same river level information was used in entirely different ways by the three groups. Still, in terms of provided information categories through Natural Language Generation (phase 2), the category of ‘temporal trend’ came out as most important. The experiment also showed that, besides visual information, textual information can (still) be of much value; the additional textual layer of interpretation plays an important role in translating complex technical information to straightforward messages for the specific purposes of the user groups. A key recommendation is that tailoring of environmental information merits more attention as it can aid more effective, and potentially more inclusive, information provision and communication