Can e-Government Systems Bridge the Digital Divide?

Electronic Government systems are often seen as panacea in the remedy of all failings of governance. With a history span of almost two decades, e-government implementations have often reached dead ends and have regularly failed to deliver the promise that the governments that have initiated them have made to their citizens. Despite an abundance of development models and best case scenarios identified in literature, e-government services are continually failing to attract the citizens and to capture their trust and faith. The main reason quoted for such failures is the lack of innovation and inclusivity in the way a service is designed and delivered. The digital divide is the major risk of marginalizing sectors of society or even whole continents due to lack of access to web based services. In the developing world it is mainly the lack of, or poor infrastructure that maintains and often widens the divide, while in the developed world it is lack of skills and difficulty of accessing services that leads citizens to abandon their efforts in using services online. Whatever the reason that leads to non-access of services the effect is similar and those citizens that fall victim to it are increasingly consumed into the trap of the digital divide. Efforts and initiatives to address the divide have primarily focused on building the infrastructure and providing access to the web. However, the quality and accessibility of online services is quite often then reason why citizens distance themselves from web-based services and the internet in total. This paper attempts to explore the shortfall in criteria for evaluating a government’s efforts in planning, implementing and delivering services that address the operational requirements of efficient government, but equally cater for the needs of the citizens as end users of the service

Promoting ecological solutions for sustainable infrastructure

Sustainable infrastructure needs ecological solutions – it’s time to work together! We, the participants of the IENE 2020 International Conference, acknowledge that: 1. We are facing a significant worldwide expansion of transportation networks; this is especially the case in countries with developing economies. 2. If no action is taken, this global expansion will entail a substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions, wildlife mortality and landscape fragmentation and change, with devastating effects on climate, biodiversity and ecosystem services. 3. Globally, ecosystem services are estimated to yield more than the Gross World Product of 2019 (https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/). 4. Despite the development and implementation of environmental impact assessment legislation, many existing transportation infrastructure networks are not environmentally friendly. These impacts are far-reaching with a debt being paid daily through unnecessary risks extendable to human health and well-being. 5.The economic, social, and ecological consequences of biodiversity loss and the role of transportation infrastructure is increasingly acknowledged worldwide: •Conservation and restoration of ecological connectivity is a major flagship in the preparation of the upcoming United Nations “Post-2020 Global biodiversity framework” following the recognised failure of the Aichi Targets associated with the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats (Target 5) (https://www.cbd.int/gbo5). •The European Green Deal and the new European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, adopted by the European Commission in May 2020, stresses the need to develop a resilient Trans-European Nature Network supported by ecological corridors allowing the free flow of genes and individuals (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/communication-annex-eu-biodiversity-strategy-2030_en.pdf). •The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) states that since 1970, transportation infrastructure is an important driver of land use change and associated loss of terrestrial biodiversity (https://ipbes.net/global-assessment). •The World Economic Forum 2020 recognised that biodiversity loss is one of the major threats with ‘plausible higher than average impact’ on Global Economies (https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2020). 6.To ahieve sustainability, infrastructure development must be decoupled from its negative effect on biodiversity. This requires immediate, stringent action and shared responsibilities from all stakeholders. 7.Regional, national, and worldwide networks of experts, including researchers, practitioners, landscape designers, and managers, address such concerns through knowledge-sharing platforms that promote effective ecological solutions. 8.The scarcity of collective and coordinated efforts, such as joint decision-making processes involving environmental, transportation, energy, policy and financing agencies, is still a major obstacle to achieve sustainability in transportation infrastructure projects.Comissão Europeia. Programa LIFE. Projeto LIFE LINES (LIFE14 NAT/PT/001081

Promoting ecological solutions for sustainable infrastructure

Linear infrastructure networks such as roads, railways, navigation and irrigation canals, and power lines have grown exponentially since the mid-20th century. Most of these networks built before the 1990s have a significant impact on the environment. While there is no doubt that humanity needs infrastructure to ensure safe, secure and sufficient access to food, water and energy, it is essential to prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems which are also at the basis of the provision of such fundamental services. Those complex, interconnected issues cannot be tackled without research and innovation, both in the fields of biodiversity and of infrastructure.IENE (Infrastructure Ecology Network Europe) was set up in 1996 to meet this need. Its mission is to promote the exchange of knowledge, experience and best practice in safe and sustainable pan-European transport infrastructure. With a status of an association today, this independent network has more than 400 members consisting of researchers, engineers, decision makers and infrastructure operators. IENE functions as an international and interdisciplinary forum. It supports cross-border cooperation in research, mitigation, planning, design, construction and maintenance in the field of biodiversity and transport infrastructure.Every two years, IENE organises an international conference to present cutting-edge research, identify pressing issues and problems, discuss effective solutions and map out future activities in the field of transport ecology and infrastructure. We are very glad to present you in this special issue some of the best scientific outcomes of the IENE 2020 conference, hoping that it will contribute to further breakthroughs in science and uptake in policy-making and practices on the ground. We commend the organising team of the University of Evora, Portugal, for their excellent programming of the conference and for having gathered exceptional scientists on the topic of biodiversity and infrastructure. They managed to host a high-quality event, despite the many adjustments that had to be done because of the covid-19, including postponing the conference to January 2021 and holding it entirely online.The topic of IENE conference 2020 was “Linear Infrastructure Networks with Ecological Solutions” and the motto was “working together”. This means that every stakeholder has a role to play, and that biodiversity should be considered at all governance scales and during all phases of the set-up of infrastructure. The papers selected here are of particular interest to follow the path set forth in the conference’s final declaration, that is included in this issue

A Global Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Transport and other Linear Infrastructure

The current Global Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Transport and other Linear Infrastructure primarily sets up the objectives and principles for governments and organizations for mainstreaming biodiversity and ecological connectivity on transport infrastructure development. Additionally, it addresses the overall framework of stakeholders who must be engaged as key players in: • launching proactive policies, • establishing appropriate legal frameworks, • supporting better planning, • promoting multi-sector cooperation, and • encouraging innovative science-based solutions. We consider this as a living document as future versions may integrate additional elements with regards to governance, policy, and financing, in the attempt to develop a common comprehensive language and grounds for cooperation. This “Global Strategy” has been developed by an international working group coordinated by IENE and supported by an international coalition formed from the international conferences on transport and ecology and conservation organisations as IENE, ICOET, ANET, ACLIE, WWF and IUCN. The working group is drawn from global experts in transport and ecology and aims to work towards finding a ‘win-win’ solution for securing mainstreaming biodiversity and ecological connectivity and avoiding, mitigating, or compensating ecosystems’ fragmentation during transport infrastructure development or adaptation. This Strategy builds upon five years of development of the guidelines “International Guidance for Ecologically - Friendly Linear Infrastructure (IGELI)” initiated at the ICOET 2015 conference in North Carolina, USA. IGELI was an international debate with experts from all over the world continued during workshops held at the international conferences of IENE (Lyon, France, 2016 and Eindhoven, Holland, 2018), ICOET (Salt Lake City, USA, 2017 and Sacramento, USA, 2019), IUCN (Hawaii, USA, 2016) and ACLIE (Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2019). Summarising the Decision 14/3 on mainstreaming of biodiversity in the energy and mining, infrastructure, manufacturing, and processing sectors (CBD/ COP/DEC/14/3/30 November 2018) of 14th COP CBD (Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Nov 2018) (Convention on Biological Diversity 2018), the international coalition of the working group, initiated to promote the Strategy at the CBD COP 15 in China. We hope, this Strategy provides a useful tool and roadmap for promoting the urgent need of supporting biodiversity conservation and securing ecological connectivity at all scales of governance, policies, planning and implementation of transport projects internationally. The creation of an International Observatory for monitoring the fragmentation status globally as an important threat for biodiversity loss is proposed as a common ambition of the working group members and their organizations.IENE, ICOET, ANET, ACLIE, WWF, IUCN, WWF, WCPA, Connectivity Conservation Specialist Grou

A DIGITAL CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC TECHNIQUE FOR MONITORING SLOPE DISPLACEMENTS

Deformation monitoring of slope instability and its surroundings supplies important information on the behavior of the slope in that it evaluates whether potential collapse may occur. Monitoring results may also be used in verifying design geotechnical parameters of slopes such as in mines and aid in the calculation of soil mass volume. The development of digital Photogrammetry allows calculation of high accuracy three-dimensional coordinates for points on and around the slopes. A main advantage is that no physical contact with the monitoring body (i.e., to install targets) is necessary, like in conventional land surveying techniques. Given the high spatial resolution of Photogrammetry compared to discrete point monitoring of conventional surveying, it is evident that there is enormous potential for use of this technology in monitoring applications where dense data sets could provide great insight into the nature of slope displacements for risk assessment, volume computation and structural model validation. The paper describes the use of digital Photogrammetry in the slope monitoring and soil volume computation under real conditions. The proposed technique uses digital close-range photogrammetric images and non-signalized control points. The advantage in this approach is that the data processing is applied in a terrestrial photogrammetric coordinate system, i.e. xyplane in a vertical position, but the products can be generated in a standard 3D Cartesian coordinate system (horizontal xy-plane) as well. Finally, results including 2D maps, orthomaps, 3D photorealistic views and the calculation of the moving soil mass volume are presented. 1