EMODnet physics: towards an European impulsive noise register

EMODnet Physics, one of the European Marine Observation and Data network thematic portals, which is is currently providing access physical parameters of the oceans, has recently started working on water noise with the aim of making available more operational data (in terms of parameters and format that are close to MSFD I.11 requirements), offer a single European entry point to impulsive noise registries (MSFD I.11.1) and work on (regional) sound maps.Peer Reviewe

Special Issue on “Mapping and Monitoring of Geohazards”

According to the Emergency Events Database (https://public [...

An Exploration of The Application of Spatial Network Screening Methods On Iowa Rural Road Crashes

Safety on the roadway system is important due to its usage on mobility and accessibility, especially on rural roads in the state of Iowa. Single vehicle run off road crashes have been increasing in the United States and studies and research has increased due to the concern with those. For this effort, a spatial-temporal method of traffic safety network screening is utilized in order to evaluate the concerning type of crashes in particular locations. The study of single vehicle run off road crashes using the proposed method is important since distributions and clusters of crashes along roadways can be observed and further evaluations can be performed

Web-based monitoring tool of the Atlantic Ocean observing system (Europe)

Web-based service tool that monitor data flow and key performance indicators of the Atlantic observing system. The focus here is on the monitoring of European contributions, including the EuroGOOS Atlantic ROOSES

Avances en el conocimiento bioarqueológico de las poblaciones humanas del Centro-Norte de Mendoza

Fil: Novellino, Paula. Museo de Ciencias Naturales y Antropológicas J.C.Moyano. Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Menéndez, Lumila Paula. División Antropología. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Vernal, Valeria. División Antropología. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentin

Environmental baseline monitoring for shale-gas development: insights for monitoring ground motion using InSAR analysis

Shale gas operations can be contentious, with a degree of uncertainty regarding the effects that they may, or may not, have on the environment. Several countries have moratoria on hydraulic fracturing until its potential effects can be understood better. One area of debate is whether operations could cause ground motion at the surface. This research monitored ground motion prior to operations and compared that baseline to the situation during and after shale gas operations. The test sites are the Vale of Pickering (North Yorkshire) and the Fylde (Lancashire) in the UK. Planning permission was granted in May 2016 to undertake hydraulic fracturing near Kirby Misperton (Vale of Pickering) and in August 2018 at Preston New Road in Lancashire. Hydraulic fracturing has only taken place at Lancashire as it was the only site to also get the hydraulic fracturing plan approved. Complementary Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques were used to process archive and current satellite images to detect relative ground motion with millimetric accuracy in rural and semi-urban landcover. The SBAS, ISBAS and RapidSAR processing for the period from 1992 to 2019 (extending 24 years prior to hydraulic fracturing) identified broad regions with little or no surface motion, along with discrete zones of uplift or subsidence. Analysis of the average velocities and time-series data revealed that the motion, where it occurred, related to factors including compressible ground, groundwater abstraction and underground coal mining. This research concluded that the shale gas operations in Lancashire did not alter the baseline ground motion dynamics to date, as detected by InSAR. The successful application of InSAR for detecting and monitoring ground motion at shale gas sites in rural landcover in the UK, where radar coherence has traditionally been a major challenge, serves as a precedent for other regions where baseline monitoring is required

Measuring soil moisture with spaceborne synthetic aperture radar data

This report describes the methodology and preliminary results obtained within the NEE6881S Innovation Flexible Fund project funded by the British Geological Survey (BGS) aimed at assessing the capabilities of active radar satellite imagery in deriving soil moisture values. The first part of the report introduces the project in the context of the most recent methodologies used to assess soil moisture with a particular focus on spaceborne technologies. The second part details the datasets and workflow adopted for the two case studies chosen in this work: Chobham Common and Hollin Hill, both in the UK. Around 1.7Tb of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from Senintel-1 satellite have been processed to detect changes of the hydrological conditions at the two sites for the 2015-2018 period. The backscattering coefficient retrieved from Sentinel-1 images has then been compared with ground truth data on the Volumetric Water Content (VWC) and analysed against the ZOODRM recharge model. The main findings are that: the SAR signal has been able to penetrate down to a maximum depth of 15 cm in the terrain (i), the best correlation with the VWC changes is observed with the vertical transmit – vertical receive polarization of the SAR antenna (ii) and for every unit change in the backscatter signal, VWC varies by about 25% to 33% at Chobham Common and ~20% to ~50% at Hollin Hill which translate into a sensitivity of 0.04 dB/[vol.%] to 0.03 dB/[vol.%] and 0.05 dB/[vol.%] to 0.02 dB/[vol.%], respectively. The Discussion and Conclusions detail the significance and benefits of these findings, current limitations in our methodology and how it can be improved

EMODnet: your gateway to marine data in Europe

Peer Reviewe

National rural drinking water monitoring: progress and challenges with India's IMIS database

National drinking water programs seek to address monitoring challenges that include self-reporting, data sampling, data consistency and quality, and sufficient frequency to assess the sustainability of water systems. India stands out for its comprehensive rural water database known as Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), which conducts annual monitoring of drinking water coverage, water quality, and related program components from the habitation level to the district, state, and national levels. The objective of this paper is to evaluate IMIS as a national rural water supply monitoring platform. This is important because IMIS is the official government database for rural water in India, and it is used to allocate resources and track the results of government policies. After putting India's IMIS database in an international context, the paper describes its detailed structure and content. It then illustrates the geographic patterns of water supply and water quality that IMIS can present, as well as data analysis issues that were identified. In particular, the fifth section of the paper identifies limitations on the use of state-level data for explanatory regression analysis. These limitations lead to recommendations for improving data analysis to support national rural water monitoring and evaluation, along with strategic approaches to data quality assurance, data access, and database functionality.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tata Center for Technology and Desig

Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora: el impacto de la comunicación con TIC's en la Enseñanza Superior (caso de redes sociales)

El nuevo contexto socio-tecnológico ha alcanzado el mundo académico creando nuevas formas de generar y transmitir conocimiento. Ha surgido la necesidad de replantear el binomio enseñanza-aprendizaje y utilizar nuevas tecnologías a fin de mejorar la inserción de los alumnos al ámbito universitario. En este contexto, la tarea del docente comprende el diseño y la elaboración de entornos sociales virtuales interactivos, en los cuales el verdadero protagonista de los procesos formativos sea el estudiante. Frente a este desafío, nos proponemos explorar los factores clave para el diseño de un Modelo Académico de Gestión de la Comunicación y de la Información con soporte en la estructura de las Redes Sociales en la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora (FI-UNLZ). A tal fin, analizaremos el tipo y nivel de participación de los alumnos en el desarrollo de actividades de trabajo colaborativo a través del uso de Redes Sociales con fines académicos.The new socio-technological context has reached the academic world creating new ways of generating and transmitting knowledge. The need to reformulate the teaching-learning pairing and to use the new technologies have emerged, in order to improve the students’ incorporation into the university ambit. In this context, the university professor’s task comprises the design and elaboration of interactive virtual social environment in which the real protagonist in the educational process is the student. Facing this challenge, we pose to explore the key factors for the design of an Academic Model of Communication and Information Management supported on the Social Networks structures of the Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora (FI-UNLZ). For this aim, we will analyse the type and level of students’ participation in the development of collaborative work through the use of Social Networks with academic purposes