61 research outputs found
Investigating the relationship between ESG factors and market performance in Spain
Treballs Finals del Mà ster en Oficial en Empresa Internacional / International Business, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2022-2023. Tutor: David Alaminos AguileraEnvironmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) reporting has gained significant prominence across global markets in the last decade. Public interest, scientific studies and regulatory initiatives have all impacted how corporations approach their operations and manage their business models. However, there is a lack of conclusive evidence that would suggest ESGrelated initiatives create positive value for firms. This paper evaluates the potential relationships between factors related to ESG reporting and corporate market performance within the Spanish market using multiple linear regression models. The findings show mixed results, with social variables showing a positive relationship with market performance and governance variables showing a negative relationship. Negative relationships between ESG factors and market
performance suggest investors are not convinced by ESG initiatives. Insufficient results within environmental variables resulted in an inability to determine a relationship with market performance. Investment trends will shape the future of ESG, whether driven by shareholder values or pressure from all stakeholders
Textbook for technical training
Tato práce se zaměřuje na vyuĹľitĂ pracovnĂch listĹŻ pĹ™i vĂ˝uce. V prvnà části se vÄ›nuji teoretickĂ© stránce vÄ›ci, a to jak didaktickĂ˝m metodám, tak i dalšĂm pĹ™edpisĹŻm stanovenĂ˝m v Ĺ VP a RVP. Druhá část je vÄ›nována praktickĂ© stránce vÄ›ci, a tedy samotnĂ˝m pracovnĂm listĹŻm, jejich podobÄ› a zaměřenĂ na jednotlivĂ© aspekty vĂ˝uky. CĂlem tĂ©to práce je vytvoĹ™enĂ ucelenĂ©ho souboru pracovnĂch listĹŻ a zdĹŻraznÄ›nĂ jejich dĹŻleĹľitosti a potĹ™ebnosti pĹ™i vĂ˝uce jak pro žáky, tak i pro uÄŤitele.This thesis is focused on using paper-based worksheets during educational classes. At first, I push ahead with the theoretical side of this project: didactic method, and also other rules stand by the school education program and the framework education program. The second part is focused on the practical side - the worksheets, its character, is focusing on each aspect of the education. The target of this thesis is making worksheets and point out its importance and usefulness during the classes for students as well as for teachers
AIS-based Evaluation of Target Detectors and SAR Sensors Characteristics for Maritime Surveillance
International audienceThis paper studies the performances of different ship detectors based on adaptive threshold algorithms. The detec- tion algorithms are based on various clutter distributions and assessed automatically with a systematic methodology. Evaluation using large datasets of medium resolution SAR images and AIS (Automatic Identification System) data as ground truths allows to evaluate the efficiency of each detector. Depending on the datasets used for testing, the detection algorithms offer different advantages and disadvantages. The systematic method used in discriminating real detected targets and false alarms in order to determine the detection rate, allows us to perform an appropriate and consistent comparison of the detectors. The impact of SAR sensors characteristics (incidence angle, polarization, frequency and spatial resolution) is fully assessed, the vessels' length being also considered. Experiments are conducted on Radarsat-2 and CosmoSkymed ScanSAR datasets and AIS data acquired by coastal stations
Sentinel-1 InSAR coherence to detect floodwater in urban areas: Houston and hurricane harvey as a test case
This paper presents an automatic algorithm for mapping floods. Its main characteristic is that it can detect not only inundated bare soils, but also floodwater in urban areas. The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations of the flood that hit the city of Houston (Texas) following the landfall of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 are used to apply and validate the algorithm. The latter consists of a two-step approach that first uses the SAR data to identify buildings and then takes advantage of the Interferometric SAR coherence feature to detect the presence of floodwater in urbanized areas. The preliminary detection of buildings is a pre-requisite for focusing the analysis on the most risk-prone areas. Data provided by the Sentinel-1 mission acquired in both Strip Map and Interferometric Wide Swath modes were used, with a geometric resolution of 5 m and 20 m, respectively. Furthermore, the coherence-based algorithm takes full advantage of the Sentinel-1 mission's six-day repeat cycle, thereby providing an unprecedented possibility to develop an automatic, high-frequency algorithm for detecting floodwater in urban areas. The results for the Houston case study have been qualitatively evaluated through very-high-resolution optical images acquired almost simultaneously with SAR, crowdsourcing points derived by photointerpretation from Digital Globe and Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) inundation model over the area. For the first time the comparison with independent data shows that the proposed approach can map flooded urban areas with high accuracy using SAR data from the Sentinel-1 satellite mission
Towards a 20m global building map from Sentinel-1 SAR Data
This study introduces a technique for automatically mapping built-up areas using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscattering intensity and interferometric multi-temporal coherence generated from Sentinel-1 data in the framework of the Copernicus program. The underlying hypothesis is that, in SAR images, built-up areas exhibit very high backscattering values that are coherent in time. Several particular characteristics of the Sentinel-1 satellite mission are put to good use, such as its high revisit time, the availability of dual-polarized data, and its small orbital tube. The newly developed algorithm is based on an adaptive parametric thresholding that first identifies pixels with high backscattering values in both VV and VH polarimetric channels. The interferometric SAR coherence is then used to reduce false alarms. These are caused by land cover classes (other than buildings) that are characterized by high backscattering values that are not coherent in time (e.g., certain types of vegetated areas). The algorithm was tested on Sentinel-1 Interferometric Wide Swath data from five different test sites located in semiarid and arid regions in the Mediterranean region and Northern Africa. The resulting building maps were compared with the Global Urban Footprint (GUF) derived from the TerraSAR-X mission data and, on average, a 92% agreement was obtained.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Assimilation of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) brightness temperature into a large-scale distributed conceptual hydrological model to improve soil moisture predictions : the Murray-Darling basin in Australia as a test case
The main objective of this study is to investigate how brightness temperature observations from satellite microwave sensors may help to reduce errors and uncertainties in soil moisture and evapotranspiration simulations with a large-scale conceptual hydro-meteorological model. In addition, this study aims to investigate whether such a conceptual modelling framework, relying on parameter calibration, can reach the performance level of more complex physically based models for soil moisture simulations at a large scale. We use the ERA-Interim publicly available forcing data set and couple the Community Microwave Emission Modelling (CMEM) platform radiative transfer model with a hydro-meteorological model to enable, therefore, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and brightness temperature simulations over the Murray-Darling basin in Australia. The hydrometeorological model is configured using recent developments in the SUPERFLEX framework, which enables tailoring the model structure to the specific needs of the application and to data availability and computational requirements. The hydrological model is first calibrated using only a sample of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) brightness temperature observations (2010-2011). Next, SMOS brightness temperature observations are sequentially assimi-lated into the coupled SUPERFLEX-CMEM model (20102015). For this experiment, a local ensemble transform Kalman filter is used. Our empirical results show that the SUPERFLEX-CMEM modelling chain is capable of predicting soil moisture at a performance level similar to that obtained for the same study area and with a quasi-identical experimental set-up using the Community Land Model (CLM). This shows that a simple model, when calibrated using globally and freely available Earth observation data, can yield performance levels similar to those of a physically based (uncalibrated) model. The correlation between simulated and in situ observed soil moisture ranges from 0.62 to 0.72 for the surface and root zone soil moisture. The assimilation of SMOS brightness temperature observations into the SUPERFLEX-CMEM modelling chain improves the correlation between predicted and in situ observed surface and root zone soil moisture by 0.03 on average, showing improvements similar to those obtained using the CLM land surface model. Moreover, at the same time the assimilation improves the correlation between predicted and in situ observed monthly evapotranspiration by 0.02 on average
Provision of an Automated, Global, Satellite-based Flood Monitoring Product for the Copernicus Emergency Management Service: Product Definition Document (PDD)
Recommended from our members
Assimilation of probabilistic flood maps from SAR data into a coupled hydrologic–hydraulic forecasting model: a proof of concept
Coupled hydrologic and hydraulic models represent
powerful tools for simulating streamflow and water levels
along the riverbed and in the floodplain. However, input
data, model parameters, initial conditions, and model structure
represent sources of uncertainty that affect the reliability
and accuracy of flood forecasts. Assimilation of satellitebased
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations into a
flood forecasting model is generally used to reduce such uncertainties.
In this context, we have evaluated how sequential
assimilation of flood extent derived from SAR data can help
improve flood forecasts. In particular, we carried out twin
experiments based on a synthetically generated dataset with
controlled uncertainty. To this end, two assimilation methods
are explored and compared: the sequential importance sampling
method (standard method) and its enhanced method
where a tempering coefficient is used to inflate the posterior
probability (adapted method) and reduce degeneracy. The experimental
results show that the assimilation of SAR probabilistic
flood maps significantly improves the predictions of
streamflow and water elevation, thereby confirming the effectiveness
of the data assimilation framework. In addition,
the assimilation method significantly reduces the spatially
averaged root mean square error of water levels with respect
to the case without assimilation. The critical success index of
predicted flood extent maps is significantly increased by the
assimilation. While the standard method proves to be more
accurate in estimating the water levels and streamflow at the
assimilation time step, the adapted method enables a more
persistent improvement of the forecasts. However, although
the use of a tempering coefficient reduces the degeneracy
problem, the accuracy of model simulation is lower than that
of the standard method at the assimilation time step
GFM Product User Manual
This Product User Manual (PUM) is the reference document for all end-users and stakeholders of the new Global Food Monitoring (GFM) product of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). The PUM provides all of the basic information to enable the proper and effective use of the GFM product and associated data output layers. This manual includes a description of the functions and capabilities of the GFM product, its applications and alternative modes of operation, and step-by-step guidance on the procedures for accessing and using the GFM product
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