Water in Nairobi: Unveiling inequalities and its causes

Water and Sanitation in Nairobi face problem common to many cities of the developing world which grow too fast. This situation allows the stark differences in socio-economic between the wealthy and the poor to translate into unequal and inequitable consumption of the available water. To try to promote development of Water and Sanitation in Africa, GWOPA (United Nations) and IFRA attempted to depict the inner urban inequities in terms of water consumption, water supply and water access. They used a hybrid methodology of remote-sensing classification, household survey and spatial analysis to map the variation of the operator’s performance inside the city of Nairobi. This study identifies different types of neighborhoods judging at how they look from space.La contribution présente les résultats d’un projet de recherche mené en partenariat entre l’Institut français de recherche (IFRA) de Nairobi et le Centre des Nations Unies pour les Établissements Humains (UN-Habitat). Elle s’intéresse aux inégalités d’accès à l’eau dans la ville de Nairobi. La croissance de la ville a été si rapide qu’elle a pris de court les autorités responsables de l’approvisionnement en eau potable et qu’elle a induit des inégalités socio-économiques et spatiales importantes. Utilisant une approche hybride mélangeant le traitement d’une image satellitaire, une enquête à l’échelle des ménages et les méthodes de l’analyse spatiale la contribution cartographie les nuances géographiques des performances de l’opérateur d’eau de la ville de Nairobi

The influence of Economics on agricultural systems: an evolutionary and ecological perspective

Putting agricultural systems on a more sustainable path is a crucial policy issue. Within that context, the objective of this paper is to show how the unsustainable character of current agricultural systems is strongly related to the prevailing rationale of mainstream economics and the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview on which it is founded. Using the example of the ransformation of post-war agriculture in France, our analysis underlines the profound nfluence of the logic of mainstream economics on the modernisation of agricultural systems. The resulting transformation of agricultural systems based on the triptych specialisationintensification-concentration is then further explored regarding its negative impacts in terms of sustainability. Particular attention is dedicated to environmental impacts, given their magnitude and the fact that mainstream economics, because of its “mechanistic reductionist” framework, has intrinsic difficulties in dealing with them. Since the fundamental assumptions of mainstream economics are being strongly challenged, it becomes legitimate to resort to an alternative economic framework for designing appropriate policies and measures. Given that many empirical studies demonstrates that agricultural systems may be locked-in to some extent, the choice an evolutionary line of thought in an ecological perspective is quite straightforward. This approach of economic change both underlines its historically-contingent nature and the role played by systemic interdependencies. Through underlining the pathdependence of agricultural systems, the use of the evolutionary framework in an ecological perspective allows us to shed a new light on their transformation by suggesting some strategies (i.e. niche accumulation and hybridisation) that have proven efficient in overcoming cases of lock-in in other fields

Faut-il ajouter une aide climatique ou mieux intégrer les préoccupations climatiques dans l’aide au développement?

L’obligation qu’ont les pays développés de soutenir les pays en développement dans leurs efforts de réponse aux enjeux climatiques conduit à s’interroger sur la relation entre cette « aide climatique » et l’aide au développement. Nous admettons que le changement climatique induit un besoin de changements qualitatifs et quantitatifs dans l’aide en faveur des pays vulnérables et que l’ajout d’une aide dédiée au climat (finance climatique) répond partiellement à ce besoin. Mais nous montrons que cette approche présente essentiellement des inconvénients par rapport à l’option qui consiste à fournir une aide au développement augmentée, avec intégration transversale des considérations climatiques dans l’ensemble de ses composantes. Nous nous attendons à ce que cette option contribue davantage à un développement découplé des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et adapté aux contraintes climatiques.The obligation of developed countries to support developing countries in their attempts to address climate challenges leads to question the linkage between this “climate aid” and development aid. We acknowledge that climate change creates a need for qualitative and quantitative changes in development aid benefitting to vulnerable countries and that the addition of an aid dedicated to climate issues (climate finance) partly responds to this need. However we show that this approach mainly provides inconveniences compared with an increase in development aid associated with adequate climate mainstreaming in all its components. We expect that this option would better contribute to a development decoupled from greenhouse gas emissions and adapted to climate constraints

Une pompe étonnante : le Bélier hydraulique

A surprising pump : the hydraulic ram. The hydraulic ram is a device, motor and pump all together, which will lift water automatically. It is an application of phenomenon well known in hydraulics : the water hamrner effect. This pump works without any external power : the power needed for its operation cornes from the water itself. This paper contains : an introduction with application examples, a story of the process and machine, and the explanation of the basic working principles, a description of a typical hydraulic ram, a description of its working, a survey of characteristics and performances of the machine, the basic models of use of hydraulic rams, the setting-up diagram and basic ru/es to comply with in order to ensure a problemless working, a conclusion

Predicting the spatial distribution of population based on impervious surface maps and modeled land use change

Land use and changes in the spatial distribution of population are spatially and temporally linked and have an obvious impact on the urban environment. For instance, they influence the mobility and accessibility and play an important role in waste water management. This forecasting of the spatial distribution of population is thus a critical issue in planning. In order to allow this forecasting we have adjusted a multiple regression model to estimate the population distribution in function of land-use. The originality in our modeling strategy is the use of sealed surface proportion maps as weighting factor assuming that sealed surface proportion is a proxy of population density. The data exploited to adjust the parameters of the model are three time-series of landuse maps from the EU-MOLAND, census data and medium and high resolution remotely sensed images. We made use of these images in a spectral unmixing procedure that provides the sealed surface proportion maps. In the model, the population was normalized in order to get a model that is independent of time and space. This is required for prediction and spatial extrapolation which assumes a temporally and spatially stable relationship between land use, imperviousness and population density. We validated the model by means of a population disaggregation/re-aggregation procedures and tested its robustness regarding the resolution because predicted sealed surface proportion and predicted landuse maps using the calibrated EU-MOLAND model are generated at lower resolution (200 m) than the resolution used in the model adjustment. The results described in this paper regard the urban zone of Dublin.MAMU

The influence of Economics on agricultural systems: an evolutionary and ecological perspective

Putting agricultural systems on a more sustainable path is a crucial policy issue. Within that context, the objective of this paper is to show how the unsustainable character of current agricultural systems is strongly related to the prevailing rationale of mainstream economics and the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview on which it is founded. Using the example of the transformation of post-war agriculture in France, our analysis underlines the profound influence of the logic of mainstream economics on the modernisation of agricultural systems. The resulting transformation of agricultural systems based on the triptych specialisation-intensification-concentration is then further explored regarding its negative impacts in terms of sustainability. Particular attention is dedicated to environmental impacts, given their magnitude and the fact that mainstream economics, because of its “mechanistic reductionist” framework, has intrinsic difficulties in dealing with them. Since the fundamental assumptions of mainstream economics are being strongly challenged, it becomes legitimate to resort to an alternative economic framework for designing appropriate policies and measures. Given that many empirical studies demonstrates that agricultural systems may be locked-in to some extent, the choice an evolutionary line of thought in an ecological perspective is quite straightforward. This approach of economic change both underlines its historically-contingent nature and the role played by systemic interdependencies. Through underlining the path-dependence of agricultural systems, the use of the evolutionary framework in an ecological perspective allows us to shed a new light on their transformation by suggesting some strategies (i.e. niche accumulation and hybridisation) that have proven efficient in overcoming cases of lock-in in other fields.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Dynamique de la Forêt du Mont babor et préférences écologiques de la sittelle kabyle Sitta ledanti

The aim of this study was the conservation of the Kabylian nuthatch, a vulnerable bird endemic to the Babor forest (Algeria). In this habitat, six forest types were identified and their dynamics analysed. In each type, census of the Kabylian nuthatch was taken during May 1982, by sampling the lapse of time taken for the answer to the bird song emitted by a tape recorder. Two quadrant censuses were also made which allowed us to estimate the absolute density from the first sampling method. The total population is thought to be about 80 pairs. The density differences between forest types are ascribed to the diversity of the tree species, the mean basal area of trees and the varying climate due to altitude. The possible causes of a decrease in the diversity and in the mean basal area of trees are identified. Threats to the Kabylian nuthatch are described, together with the means of conservation. © 1985.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe