GRID3 Zambia Operational School Points and Names, Version 01 (Beta)

The data set provides school or school affiliated point locations, names, types, and source of the data. The dataset was developed by compiling and standardizing existing government data sources of school point locations and names. This work has been undertaken as part of the Geo-referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) initiative. GRID3 works with countries to generate, validate and use geospatial data on population, settlements, infrastructure, and subnational boundaries. For more information, see https://grid3.org/ Keywords: schools, educatio

A quantitative evaluation of indoor environmental quality in refurbished kindergarten buildings: A Malaysian case study

In Malaysia, the coverage of kindergarten education has improved dramatically in recent times, although many kindergartens are located in buildings that were not originally designed for that purpose. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is considered to be one of the most important factors affecting the physical development of children. Hence, it is essential to evaluate the indoor conditions of those kindergartens which are based in buildings that have been refurbished and adapted from their original purpose. It is posited that such refurbished environments provide sub-optimal IEQ for kindergarten use, which is reflected in user perception and satisfaction. This study presents the results of the IEQ investigations conducted in refurbished kindergarten buildings in Malaysia with the focus on identifying occupants' satisfaction with the various IEQ factors. The researchers aim to utilize the results of this work to develop a benchmark for analogous studies. 240 refurbished kindergarten buildings in Malaysia were studied to evaluate occupants' perceptions and levels of satisfaction. The results indicate that the occupants found Air Movement, Ventilation, and Freshness to be of a poor quality due to the high occupancy density. Noise was the least satisfactory IEQ factor due to the closeness of the kindergartens to main roads (external noise), as well as the small size of classrooms (internal noise). It was found that Colour and Attractiveness are the most important IEQ factors from the occupants' viewpoint. This study provides a practical benchmark for the conversion of buildings' usage

Challenges towards renewable energy : an exploratory study from the Arabian Gulf region

Considering the importance of energy for social and economic development, access to clean, affordable and reliable energy has been adopted as one of the United Nations sustainable development goals that all countries aim to achieve by 2030. However, much of the world's energy is still produced from fossil fuels and thus the progress towards clean and renewable energy is slow. This paper explores the key challenges towards renewable energy in Gulf Cooperation Council countries blessed with plenty of oil and gas reserves. The key challenges identified through literature review were ranked using a quantitative approach through the data collected from a selective sample across the six countries. These challenges in order of importance were found to be policies and regulations, manpower experience and competencies, renewable energy education, public awareness, costs and incentives for renewable energy and government commitment. The findings could be helpful to decision makers and government organisations in the region to develop strategies to overcome these identified challenges