A dataset of community perspectives on living conditions and disaster risk management in informal settlements: A case study in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

This article describes a dataset of community perspectives on living conditions and disaster risk management in Khan Road, a non-serviced informal settlement, located in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The data were collected by local community researchers via a structured questionnaire of 159 informal dwellers conducted between August and September 2022, using mobile phones via KoboToolbox. The dataset was analysed using exploratory data analysis (EDA) techniques. This household survey is part of a research project aiming to develop an evidence base of opportunities, risks and vulnerabilities related to housing construction and resource management in incremental upgrading of informal settlements in South Africa. This dataset can be used by local practitioners and policymakers involved in decision-making for informal settlement upgrading and help them prioritise resources and upgrading interventions based on what informal dwellers need. Furthermore, this cleaned dataset could support the analysis of further South African data guiding the development of digital platforms as a real-time resource management tool or guide the enhancement of existing theoretical frameworks in the field of participatory design and co-production used by academic scholars

A dataset of community perspectives on living conditions and disaster risk management in informal settlements: A case study in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

This article describes a dataset of community perspectives on living conditions and disaster risk management in Khan Road, a non-serviced informal settlement, located in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The data were collected by local community researchers via a structured questionnaire of 159 informal dwellers conducted between August and September 2022, using mobile phones via KoboToolbox. The dataset was analysed using exploratory data analysis (EDA) techniques. This household survey is part of a research project aiming to develop an evidence base of opportunities, risks and vulnerabilities related to housing construction and resource management in incremental upgrading of informal settlements in South Africa. This dataset can be used by local practitioners and policymakers involved in decision-making for informal settlement upgrading and help them prioritise resources and upgrading interventions based on what informal dwellers need. Furthermore, this cleaned dataset could support the analysis of further South African data guiding the development of digital platforms as a real-time resource management tool or guide the enhancement of existing theoretical frameworks in the field of participatory design and co-production used by academic scholars

EHSMu: a new conceptual model for hourly discharge simulation under ecohydrological framework in urban area

A parsimonious conceptual lumped model is presented here with the aim of simulating hourly discharge in urban areas. The EHSMu (EcoHydrological Streamflow Model for urban areas) is able to reproduce the discharge at the outlet of an urban drainage system and, at the same time, soil moisture dynamics and evapotranspirative fluxes over vegetated areas within an urban catchment. In urban areas, rain falling over impervious surfaces is directly transferred towards the drainage system in a time depending on the catchment characteristics, and drainage network geometry. If the rain falls over pervious and vegetated areas the runoff generation is driven by soil moisture content, which in turn is linked to evapotranspiration and leakage. While on one side soil water content determines if rainfall produces saturation excess or a leakage loss, on the other side it constrains the evapotranspirative fluxes, so that, when it approaches to saturation, the actual evapotranspiration tends to the potential one. The hydrological scheme of the urban catchment follows these premises and consists of three interconnected elements: a soil bucket and two linear reservoirs. The soil bucket epitomizes in two distinct classes different conditions within a catchment: the first interprets impervious areas while the second describes pervious and vegetated soils. The soil bucket is linked to the two linear reservoirs: one is responsible for the runoff within the drainage system, while the other is used to delay the entry of subsurface runoff component into the drainage system. The surface reservoir is fed by the rain falling on imperviuos areas, by the saturation excess generated over pervious areas and by the delayed contribution arising from the subsurface reservoir, which is solely supplied by leakage pulses. Soil moisture dynamics in the pervious part of the basin, are simulated by a simple bucket model feed by rainfall and depleted by evapotranspiration. The latter component is calculated as a linear function of soil moisture. The model has been calibrated using Montecarlo simulations on an urban catchment in the United States. This method allows to adapt the conceptual model framework to the catchment characteristics and at the same time to obtain the set of parameters with the higher efficiency in reproducing historical discharge at the outlet. The proposed model gives reliable estimate of runoff, soil moisture traces and evapotranspiration fluxes. Model outputs could be very useful for urban ecohydrology, because they allow for the simulation of vegetation water stress and consequently the design of sustainable urban green spaces. At the same time the model structure allows to simulate the effects of stormwater management best practices for achieving the hydraulic invariance

Effetto combinato di cambiamenti climatici ed urbanizzazione sugli estremi di portata

Il termine “cambiamento idrologico” (hydrological change) è spesso utilizzato per sintetizzare quell’insieme di alterazioni della risposta idrologica dei bacini indotte da fattori naturali o antropici. ll ruolo fondamentale di tali alterazioni nel determinare fenomeni di dissesto ha stimolato l’International Association of Hydrological Scienses (IAHS) a dedicare la decade scientifica 2013-2022 (denominata “Phanta Rhei”) ai cambiamenti idrologici e all’analisi dei diversi fattori perturbanti. I cambiamenti climatici e l’urbanizzazione sono fra i fattori antropici perturbanti più influenti e, allo stesso tempo, più diffusi a livello globale. Il cambiamento climatico è stato abbondantemente studiato in passato, con chiare evidenze di trend sugli estremi (es. Burn et al., 2011; Arnone et al., 2013) e con numerosi esempi attestanti i possibili cambiamenti idrologici indotti (es. Wang and Alimohammadi, 2012; Francipane et al., 2015; Chiarelli et al., 2016; Pumo et al. 2016). Molto più recente è l’analisi degli effetti dell’urbanizzazione sulla risposta idrologica dei bacini (es. Salvadore et al., 2015). Il processo di urbanizzazione è associato a una perdita di “superfici permeabili” (suoli naturali), con conseguente impoverimento dei processi d’infiltrazione, alterazione ai sistemi di drenaggio naturale e ai processi di trasferimento (alterazione dei percorsi idrici e delle velocità di deflusso). La valutazione dell’impatto di tali perturbazioni sulle portate di picco durante eventi estremi, può risultare particolarmente utile nel definire e orientare efficaci politiche di pianificazione urbana e gestione di eventi di inondazione, nonché in attività di verifica delle infrastrutture idrauliche esistenti e di progettazione di quelle future. L’obiettivo di questo lavoro è quello di investigare gli effetti dell'interazione delle suddette perturbazioni sugli eventi estremi di deflusso. A tale scopo, è stato ideato un esperimento numerico, applicato ad un piccolo bacino fluviale, che ha permesso di generare e confrontare serie temporali di deflusso orario sotto diversi ipotetici scenari di cambiamento. Gli scenari, generati attraverso l’uso combinato di un modello di cambiamento di uso del suolo opportunamente implementato e di un modello di generazione di serie climatiche già esistente (Fatichi et al., 2011), descrivono situazioni estreme sia in termini di espansione delle aree urbane che in termini di variazioni (aumento o diminuzione) della precipitazione media annua (MAP). Nella creazione degli scenari climatici si è anche tenuto conto di un aumento della temperatura media, e, a parità di MAP, sono state create diverse configurazioni, caratterizzate da diversa frequenza e/o l’intensità media degli eventi di pioggia. La risposta idrologica del bacino ai vari scenari è stata riprodotta mediante il tRIBS (Ivanov et al., 2004), un modello idrologico, fisicamente basato e distribuito, in grado di simulare, con alta risoluzione temporale, anche le diverse componenti di deflusso. I risultati mostrano un’alta sensibilità degli indicatori della risposta idrologica utilizzati alle variazioni delle caratteristiche di pioggia. In termini di deflusso totale, gli effetti dei cambiamenti climatici sembrano essere prevalenti rispetto a quelli indotti dall’espansione urbana, anche se, a una maggiore frazione di suoli impermeabili, corrisponde un chiaro aumento della componente di scorrimento veloce, i cui effetti sul deflusso totale vengono parzialmente smorzati da una simultanea riduzione della componente di deflusso lento e profondo

A paradigm of extreme rainfall pluvial floods in complex urban areas: The flood event of 15 July 2020 in Palermo (Italy)

In the last few years, some regions of the Mediterranean area have witnessed a progressive increase in extreme events, such as urban and flash floods, as a response to the increasingly frequent and severe extreme rainfall events, which are often exacerbated by the ever-growing urbanization. In such a context, the urban drainage systems may not be sufficient to convey the rainwater, thus increasing the risk deriving from the occurrence of such events. This study focuses on a particularly intense urban flood that occurred in Palermo (Italy) on 15 July 2020; it represents a typical pluvial flood due to extreme rainfall on a complex urban area that many cities have experienced in recent years, especially in the Mediterranean region. A conceptual hydrological model and a 2D hydraulic model, particularly suitable for simulations in a very complex urban context, have been used to simulate the event. Results have been qualitatively validated by means of crowdsourced information and satellite images. The experience of Palermo, which has highlighted the urgent need for a shift in the way stormwater in urban settlements is managed, can be assumed to be a paradigm for modeling pluvial floods in complex urban areas under extreme rainfall conditions. Although the approaches and the related policies cannot be identical for all cities, the modeling framework used here to assess the impacts of the event under study and some conclusive remarks could be easily transferred to other, different urban contexts

Neuroinflammation in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) as assessed by [11C]PBR28 PET correlates with vascular disease measures

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has triggered a consequential public health crisis of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), sometimes referred to as long COVID. The mechanisms of the heterogeneous persistent symptoms and signs that comprise PASC are under investigation, and several studies have pointed to the central nervous and vascular systems as being potential sites of dysfunction. In the current study, we recruited individuals with PASC with diverse symptoms, and examined the relationship between neuroinflammation and circulating markers of vascular dysfunction. We used [ 11C]PBR28 PET neuroimaging, a marker of neuroinflammation, to compare 12 PASC individuals versus 43 normative healthy controls. We found significantly increased neuroinflammation in PASC versus controls across a wide swath of brain regions including midcingulate and anterior cingulate cortex, corpus callosum, thalamus, basal ganglia, and at the boundaries of ventricles. We also collected and analyzed peripheral blood plasma from the PASC individuals and found significant positive correlations between neuroinflammation and several circulating analytes related to vascular dysfunction. These results suggest that an interaction between neuroinflammation and vascular health may contribute to common symptoms of PASC

The Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) val158met Polymorphism Affects Brain Responses to Repeated Painful Stimuli

Despite the explosion of interest in the genetic underpinnings of individual differences in pain sensitivity, conflicting findings have emerged for most of the identified "pain genes". Perhaps the prime example of this inconsistency is represented by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), as its substantial association to pain sensitivity has been reported in various studies, but rejected in several others. In line with findings from behavioral studies, we hypothesized that the effect of COMT on pain processing would become apparent only when the pain system was adequately challenged (i.e., after repeated pain stimulation). In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the brain response to heat pain stimuli in 54 subjects genotyped for the common COMT val158met polymorphism (val/val = n 22, val/met = n 20, met/met = n 12). Met/met subjects exhibited stronger pain-related fMRI signals than val/val in several brain structures, including the periaqueductal gray matter, lingual gyrus, cerebellum, hippocampal formation and precuneus. These effects were observed only for high intensity pain stimuli after repeated administration. In spite of our relatively small sample size, our results suggest that COMT appears to affect pain processing. Our data demonstrate that the effect of COMT on pain processing can be detected in presence of 1) a sufficiently robust challenge to the pain system to detect a genotype effect, and/or 2) the recruitment of pain-dampening compensatory mechanisms by the putatively more pain sensitive met homozygotes. These findings may help explain the inconsistencies in reported findings of the impact of COMT in pain regulation.United States. National Institutes of Health (R01AT005280)United States. National Institutes of Health (R21AT00949)United States. National Institutes of Health (KO1AT003883)United States. National Institutes of Health (R21AT004497)National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (U.S.) (PO1-AT002048)United States. National Institutes of Health (M01-RR-01066)United States. National Institutes of Health (UL1 RR025758-01)United States. National Institutes of Health (P41RR14075)United States. National Institutes of Health (DE-FG03-99ER62764)Swedish Society for Medical Researc

Petrophysics of Chicxulub Impact Crater's Peak Ring

A new set of physical property measurements was undertaken on 29 peak-ring samples from the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364. Among the studied lithologies, the dominant one recovered in the peak ring consists of shocked granitoid rocks (19 samples). Porosity measurements with two independent methods (triple weight and C-14-PMMA porosity mapping) concur and bring new observations on the intensity and distribution of fracturing and porosity in these shocked target rocks. Characterization of the porous network is taken a step further with two other independent methods (electrical and permeability measurements). Electrical properties such as the cementation exponent (1.59 m < 1.87) and the formation factor (21 F < 103) do not compare with other granites from the published literature; they point at a type of porosity closer to clastic sedimentary rocks than to crystalline rocks. Permeabilities of the granitoid rocks range from 0.1 to 7.1 mD under an effective pressure of similar to 10 MPa. Unlike other fresh to deformed and altered granitoid rocks from the literature compared in this study, this permeability appears to be relatively insensitive to increasing stress (up to similar to 40 MPa), with implications for the nature of the porous network, again, behaving more like cemented clastic rocks than fractured crystalline rocks. Other analyzed lithologies include suevite and impact melt rocks. Relatively low permeability (10(-3) mD) measured in melt-rich facies suggest that, at the matrix scale, these lithologies cutting through more permeable peak-ring granitoid rocks may have been a barrier to fluid flow, with implications for hydrothermal systems.Peer reviewe

Telerilevamento di aree archeologiche mediante dati iperspettrali MIVIS

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between physical parameters and the spatial distribution of buried archaeological structures, using data acquired by the airborne hyperspectral sensor MIVIS in the visible, near infrared and thermal infrared wavelengths. The study areas are the territories of Halaesa, an important city in the Hellenistic-Roman period, and the Punic city of Mozia in Sicily. The influence of buried structures on thermal-radiative behaviour has been investigated using three parameters: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), thermal inertia, and Thermal Balanced Gradient. These techniques are shown to be particularly effective in identifying surface phenomena caused by structures present in the top soil. Multicriterial analysis has been carried out to investigate the possible presence of buried linear structures, which are linked to these parameters. Results show good agreement with the distribution of known structures and archaeological sites identified by survey