A Steerable, Untethered, 250x60 micron MEMS Mobile Micro-Robot

We present a steerable, electrostatic, untethered, MEMS micro-robot, with dimensions of 60 µm by 250 µm by 10 µm. This micro-robot is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller in size than previous micro-robotic systems. The device consists of a curved, cantilevered steering arm, mounted on an untethered scratch drive actuator. These two components are fabricated monolithically from the same sheet of conductive polysilicon, and receive a common power and control signal through a capacitive coupling with an underlying electrical grid. All locations on the grid receive the same power and control signal, so that the devices can be operated without knowledge of their position on the substrate and without constraining rails or tethers. Control and power delivery waveforms are broadcast to the device through the capacitive power coupling, and are decoded by the electromechanical response of the device body. Individual control of the component actuators provides two distinct motion gaits (forward motion and turning), which together allow full coverage of a planar workspace (the robot is globally controllable). These MEMS micro-robots demonstrate turning error of less than 3.7 °/mm during forward motion, turn with radii as small as 176 µm, and achieve speeds of over 200 µm/sec, with an average step size of 12 nm. They have been shown to operate open-loop for distances exceeding 35 cm without failure, and can be controlled through teleoperation to navigate complex paths

Methods for improving pan-European flood risk mapping

In the past decade, there has been growing interest in analysing flood hazard and risk on European scale. Such studies allow assessment of climate change impacts, can be used at EU-level policymaking and provide information on countries where local flood maps are not available. In this thesis, some innovative methodologies that contribute to improvement of pan-European flood mapping are explored. The topics covered include: (1) using Bayesian statistics to reduce time needed to map river flood hazard compared to rainfall-runoff models; (2) computing extreme sea levels and coastal flood hazard zones under present and future climate; (3) adjusting historical flood losses for changes in exposure to reveal true long-term trends in flood losses in Europe; (4) utilizing dependency modelling for assessing the hazard of compound flood occurrence.Hydraulic Structures and Flood Ris

Measuring Central and Eastern Europe’s Socio-Economic Development Using Time Lags

This paper applies the ‘time lag’ method to a set of social and economic indicators, examining the development of Central and Eastern Europe since the first world war. Originally used to assess technology diffusion, this method allows comparison of levels of development between states and through a long period of time. It presents how many years have elapsed between achieving a certain level of development between countries. The results show that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have only narrowly converged with a set of 23 highly-developed ‘benchmark’ states. Development in monetary terms (gross domestic product per capita) is the indicator where this region lags most. Employment structure, life expectancy or infant mortality show much smaller lags. Communist states were closest to the West in the 1960s–early 1970s and struggled thereafter. They are still mostly lagging more today than at their peak before transformation despite the progress achieved in absolute terms after the fall of centrally-planned economy.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

HANZE gridded maps of land use, population, GDP and wealth in Europe, 1870-2020

The dataset provides information on exposure to natural hazards for 37 European countries and territories from 1870 to 2020 in 100 m resolution. The database was constructed using high-resolution maps of present land use and population, a large compilation of historical statistics, and relatively simple and explicit models and disaggregation techniques. It can be utilized to study changes in exposure, vulnerability and risk to various natural hazards

HANZE netCDF data on land use, population, GDP and wealth in Europe, 1870-2020 [version 1]

The dataset provides information on exposure to natural hazards for 37 European countries and territories from 1870 to 2020, regridded to EURO-CORDEX 0.11 degree rotated-pole grid and geographical 5 arc minute grid (WGS84). The database was constructed using high-resolution maps of present land use and population, a large compilation of historical statistics, and relatively simple and explicit models and disaggregation techniques. It can be utilized to study changes in exposure, vulnerability and risk to various natural hazards

HANZE database of historical damaging floods in Europe, 1870-2016.

The dataset is a compilation of past damaging floods in Europe, which contains information on dates, locations and losses for 1564 events (1870–2016). Losses include area inundated, number of persons killed and affected, value of losses in nominal and real prices

HANZE netCDF data on land use, population, GDP and wealth in Europe, 1870-2020 (updated)

The dataset provides information on exposure to natural hazards for 37 European countries and territories from 1870 to 2020, regridded to EURO-CORDEX 0.11 degree rotated-pole grid and geographical 5 arc minute grid (WGS84). The database was constructed using high-resolution maps of present land use and population, a large compilation of historical statistics, and relatively simple and explicit models and disaggregation techniques. It can be utilized to study changes in exposure, vulnerability and risk to various natural hazards. This page provides a revised version of the netCDF files previously published with the remainder of the HANZE database

HANZE input data for modelling land use, population and the economy in Europe, 1870-2020

The dataset contains input information used to prepare exposure maps for 37 European countries and territories from 1870 to 2020. It includes baseline land cover/use map and population map, and Excel tables with national or regional-level data on the environment, population and economy. Inofrmation on currencies and inflation can be used to convert nominal value of natural hazard-related losses to present-value euro