Palm tree image classification : a convolutional and machine learning approach

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesConvolutional neural networks have proven to excel at image classification tasks, do to this they have being incorporated into the remote sensing field, initial hurdles in their application like the need for large data sets or heavy computational burden, have being solve with several approaches. In this paper the transfer learning approach is tested for classification of a very high resolution images of a palm oil plantation. This approach uses a pre trained convolutional neural network to extract features from an image, and label them with the aid of machine learning models. The results presented in this study show that the features extracted are a viable option for image classification with the aid of machine learning models. An overall accuracy of 97% in image classification was obtained with the support vector machine model

IDENTIFICATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL DISTRICTS: THE CASE OF SPAIN

In recent years, several contributions have been focused on a new sort of productive systems that share some characteristics with Marshallian industrial districts. These contributions have analysed the competitiveness of these new areas and how have been promoted by policy makers. In this line, the Marshallian concept of industrial district has been increasingly related to high technology and innovation in order to analysis technological districts or clusters. The aim of this research is to show how these new areas have characteristics are not similar to those shown by traditional industrial districts. Therefore, framework and techniques for analysis that have been traditionally used for industrial districts must be adapted for identifying technological districts. Specifically, some reflections about the framework analysis of sector and spatial units are introduced in the first part of this research as well as those techniques that can be useful to identify and analyse technological districts. Next, the analysis is focused on the identification of technological districts in Spain. A multivariate analysis will be applied to calculate a synthetic index that will be used to identify those areas with a high degree of specialization in high and medium technology activities. This synthetic index will collect data about those technological activities that are involved not only in manufacturing but also in activities of innovation and R&D. Until now, there have been not many attempts to identify technological clusters through the application of quantitative methodologies; therefore, the purpose of this research is to contribute to the enhancement of knowledge about these areas in Spain. Keywords: technological districts, clusters, location, spatial agglomerations.

An experimental and modelling exploration of the host-sanction hypothesis in legume-rhizobia mutualism

Despite the importance of mutualism as a key ecological process, its persistence in nature is difficult to explain since the existence of exploitative, 'cheating' partners that could erode the interaction is common. By analogy with the proposed policing strategy stabilizing intraspecific cooperation, host sanctions against non N2 fixing, cheating symbionts have been proposed as a force stabilizing mutualism in legume-Rhizobium symbiosis. Following this proposal, penalizations would include decreased nodular rhizobial viability and/or early nodule senescence in nodules occupied by cheating rhizobia. In this work, we analyze the stability of Rhizobium-legume symbiosis when "cheating" strains are present, using an experimental and modelling approach. We used split-root experiments with soybean plants inoculated with two rhizobial strains, a cooperative, normal N2 fixing strain and an isogenic non-fixing, “perfect” cheating mutant derivative that lacks nitrogenase activity but has the same nodulation abilities inoculated to split-root plants. We found no experimental evidence of functioning plant host sanctions to cheater rhizobia based on nodular rhizobia viability and nodule senescence and maturity molecular markers. Based on these experiments, we developed a population dynamic model with and without the inclusion of plant host sanctions. We show that plant populations persist in spite of the presence of cheating rhizobia without the need of incorporating any sanction against the cheater populations in the model, under the realistic assumption that plants can at least get some amount of fixed N2 from the effectively mutualistic rhizobia occupying some nodules. Inclusion of plant sanctions merely reduces the time needed for reaching plant population equilibrium and leads to the unrealistic effect of ultimate extinction of cheater strains in soil. Our simulation results are in agreement with increasing experimental evidence and theoretical work showing that mutualisms can persist or even improve in presence of cheating partners

The new economy in Spain: a regional analysis

There is no enough evidence about the effects of the new information and communication technologies (ICT) in Spain and how these ICT cause differences between regions. So, the aim of this work is to analyze the regional disparities relative to the new economy in Spain. In the first part of this work, we will review the literature about the concept and measure of the new economy and the problems derived from the high number of definitions about it that difficult an homogeneous analysis. Despite of the several definitions, new economy refers, basically, to an economic development based in Internet and the technologic knowledge as the main inputs. Secondly, we review the empirical evidence about the location factors associated with the new economy. As we highlight in this section, the main conclusion is the complexity of the location dynamic related with the new economy because the results of the empirical studies range from the spatial concentration to the spatial dispersion. In the third section, we analyze the methodology and the empirical results. We collect regional indicators of the new economy in Spain trying to establish if the growth of the new economy in Spain has generated a high spatial concentration. But measuring the new economy at the regional level is even more difficult than it is at the national level because many of the most useful data tend to be nationally oriented. Therefore, it will be used a statistical database with the 28 regional indicators. The 28 indicators in this database are divided into 4 categories about the new economy: ICT industry, ICT services, the knowledge society and the information society. Firstly, we analyse the spatial concentration of the new economy variables in the Spanish territory with the aim of comparing the spatial concentration of the new economy with the spatial concentration of the economic activity. Next, we will construct a composite indicator that will give us the information about the relative position of a region in the new economy in order to find a variable that reflects the regional development of the new economy. Also, to compare the new economy indicator with the conventional economy it will be used the GDP per capita. As a preliminary result we find that the regional disparities in economic growth are more reduced than the regional disparities in the development of the new economy. So, the spatial concentration of the new economy is higher than the spatial concentration of the conventional economic activity. Also, a second preliminary conclusion is the relationship between a high economic development and a high level of the new economy. Finally, we conclude with an exposition of the main conclusions highlighting that the Internet and the ICT are an important progress instruments but can generate a growing of the regional disparities. Therefore, the role of the public sector promoting the introduction and development of the information and knowledge society, specially, in the regions with a low position in the new economy characteristics is essential.

THE INDUSTRY LOCATION IN SPAIN - NEW METHODS FOR MEASURING INDUSTRIAL AGGLOMERATION

A range of quantitative techniques have been employed by researchers in economic geography and other social science disciplines to measure and, spatially, define agglomerations of industrial activity. However, the application of these techniques in the literature results in a low consistency level. Because of this, new quantitative techniques have introduced solutions to solve the problems founded in the location’s analysis. One of these problems is the discrimination between geographic concentration arising from individual plants locating near to each other and that due to the concentration in an industrial structure. A relevant limitation of traditional location indexes is the absence of data about the differences in the size distribution of firms between geographic units. Recent papers by Ellison and Glaeser (1997) and Maurel and Sédillot (1999) have proposed indexes designed to measure agglomerations or geographic concentrations in excess of that which would be expected given industrial concentrations. These measures are all based on the distribution of activity over discrete geographic units. Another problem is the use of arbitrary cut-off values for determining what level of industrial specialization defines an agglomeration. O’Donoghue and Gleave (2004) have proposed a new measure, the ‘standardized location quotient (SLQ)’, which recognizes agglomerations as being comprised of locations with statistically significant location quotient values for the industry/activity under analysis. Other questions that appear when constructing these measures are the specification of the regional division’s level and the suitable use of administrative territorial units. New quantitative techniques of spatial econometrics solve this question. The use of a spatial autocorrelation indexes will allow us to know if the location of a concrete economic activity in a municipality is influenced by the location of the same activity in other neighbouring municipalities. We use global spatial autocorrelation statistics as I Moran Index (Moran, 1948) and Local Measures of Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA). The cluster map (LISA map) shows the significant locations by type of association. With LISA map, we measure geographic concentration of employment in industry clusters by detecting spatial association patterns in administrative areas (in this case, municipalities). In the empirical analysis the municipality, the micro level of administrative regions (NUTS5) in Spain, will be used as territorial unit. The data will be provided by the Industrial Register (Ministry of Industry, 2000) that contains information about the population of production plants in Spain at two and/or three-digit industry level. This includes the location of the plant (given by municipality), the plant’s three-digit industrial classification and the number of employees. So, the objective of this work will be to identify spatial agglomerations within the Spanish industrial sectors using all these new contributions to the spatial analysis and, as a secondary objective, to compare the difference of the results obtained with each quantitative technique. The results will offer a wide view of the geographic concentration and agglomeration of industrial activity in Spain.

Identification of the local productive systems in Spain: a new approach

In the last two decades there have been significant spatial changes influenced by the industrial re-organization processes. And the studies made about these changes have defined new forms of territorial distribution. One of these new forms appears because of territorial diffusion of the economic activity due to a flexible decentralization process and, simultaneously, the endogenous development in a geographical area. This industrial organization model has promoted the development of local geographic areas composed by a high number of small enterprises of the same industrial sector. These areas receive the denomination of local productive systems (LPS). However, these local areas can’t be identified with the administrative areas in which is divided a province or a region. In fact, a LPS can be defined as a certain number of towns, near geographically, with a high concentration of the same industrial activity, but not necessary located in the same municipality. The aim of this work is to identify and locate the LPS in the Spanish territory. So, the first phase will be to identify the industrial sectors which are highly concentrated in certain areas using the municipality which is the basic administrative unit in Spain. For that purpose it will be used indicators of the geographical concentration of the economic activity as the Gini index and the location coefficient. Also, the use of a spatial autocorrelation index will allow us to know if the location of a concrete economic activity in a municipality is influenced by the location of the same activity in other neighbouring municipalities. With this index it will be possible to identify the industrial sectors which are highly concentrated in one territorial area that could be different from the administrative division of the territory, being an agglomeration of municipalities with a high specialization in one industrial sector. In a second phase, the objective will be to establish the geographic areas with a high concentration level in one industrial sector. Next, we will try to delimitate the territorial boundaries in order to identify the LPS using the methodology developed by Frederic Lainé for the French case. In this methodology the characterization of the municipalities is based in four basic requirements for a concrete sector: number of establishments, employment, industrial density and specialization degree. The results, that is, the number of municipalities that fulfil these requirements, will be aggregated in order to search for the municipalities which are specialized in one industrial sector and are geographically nearby from other municipalities with the same industrial specialization. Finally, we will obtain a new spatial unit different from the administrative units traditionally used. These new units will represent a local production systems composed of several nearby municipalities specialized in the same industrial sector. In our opinion, this new spatial unit would represent better the idea of economic unit, more accurate than the administrative-political division. Industrial specialization.

The location of the Spanish technological centers

The Technological Centers have been created with the aim of being a supplier of different R&D's activities and services for those entreprises with a lack of material and financial resources to develop by themselves an innovation process. In most cases, these enterprises are SME's (Small and Medium Enterprises) placed in the area of influence of each Technological Center. Usually, these Technological Centers are located in strategic areas with specific characteristics like to be closed to the SME's (one of the valued highly characteristics by them), a good access to qualified staff and the existence of a good innovation environment. So, this situation has promoted that many decisions about the creation of the Technological Centers have depended on the distance between these and the SME's-clients. The purpose of this work will be the study about where are stablished the Spanish Technological Centers and it will be analysed if the metropolitan areas have been a key factor in their creation. First, we will analyse the spacial distribution of the possible SME'sclients of the Technological Centers (the Spanish industry). We also study how the Technological Centers are integrated in the national and regional goverment Technological Policy.

Identification and Analysis of the Industrial Districts in Spain: A Quantitative Approach

The identification and analysis of the industrial districts in Spain using a quantitative approach is the aim of this research. In the first part, the industrial districts are identified applying the methodology developed by the Italian Statistics Institute (ISTAT). This identification is possible due to the availability of information about the local labour markets; these have been estimated with labour mobility data between municipalities and the industrial data used to analyse the location of the Spanish industry comes from the Industrial Register published by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce. This statistical source classifies the different industrial activities in 23 sectors. In the second part, the characteristics of the, previously identified, industrial districts are quantitatively analysed and the results are compared with those obtained in other similar researches developed in Spain and Italy. Some of the characteristics that will be analysed are the relevance of the industrial districts for the Spanish industry (in a national, sectorial and regional level), the industrialization degree, the sectorial specialization level or the predominance of small and medium enterprises in the whole industry or by sectors. Finally, with the quantitative results, a typology of the industrial districts in Spain will be constructed, that could be used in a further analysis based in qualitative techniques.