Developing Data Extraction and Dynamic Data Visualization (Styling) Modules for Web GIS Risk Assessment System (WGRAS)

Interactive web-GIS tools play an important role in determining disaster risk assessment which ultimately result in reduction of unexpected damages, cost and saves millions of lives. Disaster management practitioners largely benefited information at their disposal about location where possible incidents are eminent, anticipate the impact and project possible outcomes to help mitigate and organize proper response. It is also important to note that, accurate and timely information is critical for coherent coordination in response to disasters. All the above can be achieved through proper data collection combined with computer assisted modelling, analysis, production and timely dissemination of spatial information. This Master’s thesis aims to extend features of Web GIS for Risk Assessment (WGRAS) project conducted at the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science at Lund University. The work includes development of tools for geospatial data acquisition and extraction from freely available external open non-commercial sources and dynamic, user-oriented map Visualization allowing user-defined symbolization and coloring resulting flexible visual portrayal of geospatial data in the web environment. In this regard, solutions are driven based upon open source, open data and implementation strictly complies with open web standard protocols and web services. As a result, WGRAS is furnished with easy and user driven raw geo-spatial data extracts for an area of interest from OpenStreetMap (OSM). Thus, data is automatically stored for later use for different spatial modelling and analysis. The second most important contribution of this thesis is the feature developed to solve visualization of geographic information through a map server where maps are generated with a pre-defined style that limits user’s visual needs. Visualization module enables dynamic definition of style (symbolization and coloring) data which assist non-GIS expert to produce instant and meaningful presentation of maps to the end user. Overall, the work in this practical thesis adds value to disaster management and analysis in terms of easy provision of data and enabling clear dissection of disaster prone areas using effective visualization mechanism.Interactive web-GIS tools play an important role in determining disaster risk assessment which ultimately result in reduction of unexpected damages, cost and saves millions of lives. Disaster management practitioners largely benefited information at their disposal about location where possible incidents are eminent, anticipate the impact and project possible outcomes to help mitigate and organized response. It is also important to note that, accurate and timely information is critical for coherent coordination in response to disasters. This can be achieved through proper data collection combined with computer assisted modelling, analysis, production and timely dissemination of spatial information. This Master’s thesis aims to extend features of Web GIS for Risk Assessment (WGRAS) project conducted at the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science at Lund University. Modules are developed to enable easy integration of geospatial data extraction from freely available sources which are open to use and non-commercial. Implementation is facilitated with intuitive user interface which allows extracts for an area by location name(s) or area defined by two latitude and two longitude values. The other major contribution of the study focuses on visualization of geographic information in the web environment. Currently, map servers use pre-defined styling mechanism which virtually doesn’t satisfy user’s visual needs. This module enable dynamic and user-oriented map visualization allowing non-GIS experts to define (symbolization and colouring) and produce instant and meaningful presentation of maps to the end user. As recommendation, visualization of geographic data in the web environment should further be examined, especially the map servers in use should integrate powerful and meaningful dynamic styling on top existing pre-defined style. In conclusion, this thesis adds value for disaster management and analysis in terms of easy provision of geographic data and enabling clear dissection of disaster prone areas using effective visualization mechanism

Farmers’ Perception to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of Mareka District of Dawuro Zone, South Ethiopia

Agriculture is the main stay of people in Ethiopia. However, the current change in the main parameters of climate, temperature and precipitation put rain dependent agriculture under serious problem. This coupled with low adaptive capacity of the people make the country highly susceptible to the adverse impact of climate change and variability. The main objective of this study was to assess the perception of farmers to climate change and variability in Mareka District of Dawuro zone, South Ethiopia. A total of 37 kebeles of the wereda were stratified under three dominant agro-ecologies (as highland, midland and lowland).Date collected using semi-structured questionnaire from the total of 384 households of the district was subjected to Statistical Software for Social Science SPSS v.20. Besides data collected employing qualitative tools: Focused group discussion and Key informant interview was coded, categorized and finally narrated. The finding confirmed that most of the interviewed farmers perceived the changes in temperature and precipitation: about 89.6% of farmers believed that temperature has increased and 80.5% of farmers mentioned as the pattern of precipitation have become unpredictable. The perception of farmers on temperature and precipitation was also in line with meteorological data of the area. This indicates a need for the implementation of different strategies in communities across the district to help effectively to manage the consequent future impact of climate change and variability in the area. Therefore, rigorous policy that can effectively work in mitigating the shocking increase of local temperature and change in precipitation, and its resultant impact in the community through building permanently functioning early warning system and local area specific strategies that help them to live with the changing climate is required from the government and institutions working in the area. Keywords: Climate change, Perception, Variabilit

The Lively Practice of Dérsanä Rufaýel (Homily of Raphael) in Ethiopian Healing Tradition

This article focuses on the living practice of Dérsanä Rufaýel in the Ethiopian healing tradition. Homily of Raphael is one of the earliest religious books in the EOTC tradition. The study examines use of Dérsanä Rufaýel in the healing tradition of Ethiopia in liturgical and spiritual practice. Major aim of the study is to identify the applicability of manuscripts of Raphael's homilies in alleviating ailments and other problems and to examine their significance in the Ethiopian tradition. It will be studied based on a critical edition prepared by the author from the main part of his doctoral dissertation. The content analysis of the critical edition of Dérsanä Rufaýel will, together with inter-textually related texts, show its significant impact on the Ethiopian tradition. The study also includes indirect observation of healing services in some of St. Raphael's churches in some parts of Ethiopia. The research shows that the Homily of Raphael is one of the available liturgical books on the motif of healing in the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahédo Church as well as illustrated in Mäséhäfä Sénksar and in the annual and monthly celebrations. Healing is thus particularly associated with the devotion to the glorious archangel Rufaýel, whereby the faithful followers of the EOTC celebrate this day and use the holy water to cure themselves from their ailments and other problems

Harnessing social media for promoting tourism in Africa: an exploratory analysis of tweets

Tourism has the potential to be the engine of a country’s economic development. Some developing countries, especially those in Africa, rely on tourism for their citizens’ employment. Consequently, the rise and fall of their unemployment rates are closely associated with that of tourist numbers. Hence, they need to constantly find ways to promote their cultural heritage in order to attract more tourists. Some of the key promotion tools are social media such as Twitter and an investigation to understand the nature of tweets about cultural heritage institutions is an important undertaking. However, investigations into the nature of tweets about African cultural heritage are non-existent. Our research aims to shed some light on the broad characteristics of tweets about African cultural heritage. We also identify possible implications and suggest potential strategies for tourism organizations, operators, and other stakeholders in their use of Social Media in general and Twitter in particular

Bibliography of the Literatures on Tuberculosis, TB/HIV and MDRTB in Ethiopia from 2001 – 2017

Ethiopia is among the thirty-high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries with multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and Tuberculosis/Human Immunodeficiency Virus (TB/HIV). Given the public health importance of the problem, it is apparent that probing the work done in this regard is essential to mitigate the problem and thus we reviewed research repositories and compile directories of researches in Ethiopia from Jan 1, 2001 to Dec 30, 2017 in order to avail evidence-based information to stakeholders and beneficiaries intervening the problem in the country. The evidences generated in this bibliography are through different databases and websites using key terms. A range of different published and unpublished literatures (journal articles, conference presentations, reports/manual/book, and graduate theses or dissertations) on TB, MDR-TB, extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB), or TB/HIV are presented. We presented literatures by four themes (Biomedical and clinical researches, epidemiological researches, operational or implementation researches, and health systems researches). A total of 1571 researches and reports were accessed through the above search engines and revealed 635 epidemiological researches followed by 538 clinical or biomedical researches, 257 operational or implementation research, and 141 health systems research. Interestingly, up to 2008 clinical or biomedical researchers were the leading researches and from 2009 onwards, epidemiological researches held the largest constituency. In conclusion, TB or TB/HIV and MDR-TB literatures in Ethiopia have substantially increased over years. Referred journal publications took theleading source and epidemiologic studies were the commonest one. We suggest the need to focus on operational or implementation and health system researches to plummet the disease spreading, drug resistance and impact. We also recommend a regular update of the bibliography every 3 to 4 years with annotations

Risky sexual behaviour and associated factors among students of Debre Tabor University, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Youth are the foundation of any society. Neglecting their sexual and reproductive health leads to high social and economic crisis. However, there is limited information on the sexual and reproductive health aspects of University students in Ethiopia. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess risky sexual behaviours and associated factors among students of Debre Tabor University.Methods and materials: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between 1February and 30 March 2014 using self-administered structured questionnaire to collect data on socio-demographic, sexual and associated risk behaviours among 394 University students. Descriptive and stepwise logistic regression model was carried out using SPSS version 21. A p value of < 0.05 and 95% CI was considered to test statistical significance.Results: A total of 394 students were enrolled in the study. Among these, 347 (88.1%) provided complete responses. About 97 (28.4%) study participants had sexual experience at the mean age of 18.9 years (SD 1.9 years). Out of these, 59 (62.1%) had sexual contact with their regular friends. Female students under the age of 18 were less likely to start sexual intercourse compared with males [AOR=0.2, 95%CI (0.7-0.9)]. Students who had symptoms of sexually transmitted infection (STI) were 16 times more likely to have early sexual contact compared to those students who had no symptoms [AOR = 16.4, 95% CI (1.4-193]. Not using condom at the first [AOR= 3.2 95%CI (1.2-10.5)] and last [AOR= 3.8, 95%CI (1.2-13.6)] sexual engagement were significant predictors of having multiple sexual partners.Conclusions: This study revealed risky sexual behaviours among Debre Tabor University students. Thus, continuous and intensified public health strategies on health education and reproductive health services are required to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of the students.Key words: Risky sexual behaviours, University students, Debre Tabo

a case study of the dedebit credit and saving institution (DECSI)

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Business Administration,2006Outstandingmasterpublishedby Daniel Assefa Abera

BRONCHODILATOR AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITIES OF ADHATODA SCHIMPERIANA

No abstract - Available on PD

A Modeling Approach to Determine the Impacts of Land Use and Climate Change Scenarios on the Water Flux of the Upper Mara River

With the flow of the Mara River becoming increasingly erratic especially in the upper reaches, attention has been directed to land use change as the major cause of this problem. The semi-distributed hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool 5 (SWAT) and Landsat imagery were utilized in the upper Mara River Basin in order to 1) map existing field scale land use practices in order to determine their impact 2) determine the impacts of land use change on water flux; and 3) determine the impacts of rainfall (0%, ±10% and ±20%) and air temperature variations (0% and +5%) based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections on the water flux of the 10 upper Mara River. This study found that the different scenarios impacted on the water balance components differently. Land use changes resulted in a slightly more erratic discharge while rainfall and air temperature changes had a more predictable impact on the discharge and water balance components. These findings demonstrate that the model results 15 show the flow was more sensitive to the rainfall changes than land use changes. It was also shown that land use changes can reduce dry season flow which is the most important problem in the basin. The model shows also deforestation in the Mau Forest increased the peak flows which can also lead to high sediment loading in the Mara River. The effect of the land use and climate change scenarios on the sediment and 20 water quality of the river needs a thorough understanding of the sediment transport processes in addition to observed sediment and water quality data for validation of modeling results