MUPPETS: A Computer Tool for Modelling and Mapping Emissions from Urban Transport and Stationary Sources

MUPPETS is a computer modelling tool for modelling and mapping emissions of pollutants from urban sources . It is composed of two sub-models (Figure 1): MWPET. which deals with emissions from transport. and MESS. which deals with emissions from stationary sources (anthropogenic and natural) . Both models aim to estimate spatial variations in emissions per unit area with a 1 km2 resolution . They can model a range of pollutants. subject to availability of data on emission rates from various processes . Currently. MESS contains data necessary for modelling emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) . MUPPET uses the SATURN transport model. which has built in formula to calculate emissions of carbon monoxide (CO). nitrogen oxides (NO& hydrocarbons (HC) and lead (Pb)

Computer implementation of the Quantifiable City Decision Support System (QCDSS).

Design and development of a computer model that would allow to monitor urban sustainability trends, to identify major urban processes contributing to unsustainability, and to predict the impacts of policies on city sustainability involves two major tasks: (i) Specification of the scientific contents of the model; (ii) Design and development of the computing framework that will enable an effective implementation of functionality specified under (i). This report addresses mainly the second task. Part B describes the general structure of the computer system (called the Quantifiable City Decision Support System, QCDSS in short). Part C introduces an exemplar model that has been used to demonstrate the process of the transition from a conceptual to an operational computer model. A detailed description of the computer implementation of the exemplar model, which focuses on urban air pollution, including sources and impacts, is presented in [Kupiszewska 1996al

Modelling for Sustainable Cities: The Transport Sector.

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report "Our Common Future" in 1987 and the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, sustainable development has been widely accepted as an issue of strategic importance on global, national and local scales. The problems to be addressed under the sustainability heading are extremely diversified. On the one hand there are the developing countries of the South experiencing rapid population growth and environmental degradation. On the other hand there is the North with more stable population but very large consumption, putting higher pressure on the environment than the South. Also, the increase of consumption and wealth in the North does not necessarily parallel an improvement of the quality of life. Most severe and diversified problems are encountered in cities: from traffic congestion and air pollution to unemployment, disruption of social networks and crime. This paper concerns urban sustainability issues related to transport, focusing on European cities. A conceptual model is described in which we have attempted to present impacts of transport on the human system and the environment, factors that determine the extent of that impact, and indicators that could be used as a measure of transport sustainability

Internal Migration and Regional Population Dynamics in Europe: Finland Case Study

Both natural increase and internal migration have played roles in the shaping of population distribution of Finland since 1900. Far reaching recent changes in the economy have brought about massive shift of jobs from agriculture to manufacturing and services. As a result people have relocated from rural to urban areas. Both natural change and net migration have distinct geographical patterns, resulting in serious depopulation in remote areas in the east and north of the country. Internal migration benefits the south, the west, coastal areas, urban agglomerations and suburban areas. International migration is a marginal phenomenon in Finland and has little impact on population dynamics. Net migration losses in the past were offset by high natural increase and in recent decades Finnish emigrants have returned. Urban concentration is a dominant feature of the Finnish migration system. At the subregional level, suburbanisation is visible, but is not as strong as in the overcrowded metropolises of Western Europe. The relationships between migration and size of municipality, migration and population density and migration and urban/rural class of municipalities show that the process of concentration is the strongest force at work in shifting people to urban agglomerations and their suburban rings. Regional patterns of migration show strong transfers of population from north and east to south and to lesser extent to west of the country. The Baltic Sea coast has a strong attraction to migrants. Migration is sex-selective, with a much higher propensity of females to leave remote and rural areas and migrate to urban centres and the southern part of the country. The result is a significant gender imbalance: a deficiency of females in rural areas and in the north and east of the country and a surplus in urban and semi-urban areas. However, the economic indicator unemployment has a rather weak and imprecise effect on migrants

POCARIM policy brief 5 : internationalisation and international mobility in social science and humanities careers

The Innovation Union Communication asserts the need for researchers to be able ‘to work and cooperate across the EU as easily as within national borders’ and for the development of ‘frameworks for a truly free movement of knowledge’ (2010b). In this way policymakers aim to establish Europe as the most advanced knowledge-based economy in the world.Against this background the POCARIM project explored the movement and engagements of social science and humanities (SSH) PhDs across national borders. Specifically, we aimed to understand the motivations behind and the obstacles to international mobility, as well as its consequences and impacts not just for the individual but for social and economic communities on multiple scales

POCARIM policy report 10 : The internationalisation of careers in the social sciences and humanities

Between 2011 and 2014 a multinational team of academics and researchers collaborated on a research project funded by the European Commission under the Framework 7 Programme: Mapping the Population, Careers, Mobilities and Impacts of Advanced Research Degree Graduates in the Social Sciences and Humanities (POCARIM).One aim of the project was to explore the movement and engagement of social science and humanities (SSH) PhDs across national borders. Specifically, we aimed to understand the motivations behind and the obstacles to international mobility, and its consequences and impacts not just for the individual but for social and economic communities on multiple scales.In this policy report we present the project’s key findings on internationalisation. Our findings are based on original work carried out in each of the POCARIM countries and which includes: a review of the literature, policy and existing data, as well as original empirical survey and interview research. We draw out the implications of our findings for policymakers

Photon tunneling through absorbing dielectric barriers

Using a recently developed formalism of quantization of radiation in the presence of absorbing dielectric bodies, the problem of photon tunneling through absorbing barriers is studied. The multilayer barriers are described in terms of multistep complex permittivities in the frequency domain which satisfy the Kramers--Kronig relations. From the resulting input--output relations it is shown that losses in the layers may considerably change the photon tunneling times observed in two-photon interference experiments. It is further shown that for sufficiently large numbers of layers interference fringes are observed that cannot be related to a single traversal time.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX, 9 figures (PS) include

Drude model and Lifshitz formula

Since nearly 10 years, it is known that inserting the permittivity of the Drude model into the Lifshitz formula for free energy causes a violation of the third law of thermodynamics. In this paper we show that the standard Matsubara formulation for free energy contains a contribution that is non-perturbative in the relaxation parameter. We argue that the correct formula must have a perturbative expansion and conclude that the standard Matsubara formulation with the permittivity of the Drude model inserted is not correct. We trace the non-perturbative contribution in the complex frequency plane, where it shows up as a self-intersection or a bifurcation of the integration path.Comment: accepted for publication in EPJ