Urban development in Kenya and Tanzania: a comparative analysis

Urban housing, land allocation and planning policy is compared for Kenya and Tanzania for the post-Independence decade. In both countries, performance has fallen short of policy goals, especially in terms of the inability to shift development from the centre and the difficulty in effecting programmes for the lower income groups. Still, policy in Tanzania, while more innovative, and more focused on the needs of lower income groups, has been beset by more severe bureaucratic problems of implementation than has been the case in Kenya. The two countries' policies represent opposite dilemmas in the tension between equity and performance, these policy divergences are related more broadly to different elite political attitudes and structures, and to different patterns of urban income distribution

Working Paper No. 2012/49 Donor Assistance and Urban Service Delivery in Africa

Sub-Saharan African cities have been growing at historically unprecedented rates. Since the early 1970s, they have welcomed international assistance involving a succession of major thematic objectives. The main agency involved in urban assistance has been the World Bank. But as its goals have changed, it has been obliged to operate increasingly through a decentralized, more democratically structured local government system. Overall, the success of this international assistance regime has been positive but modest, given the overwhelming needs of African cities. Still, African cities are increasingly finding solutions both co-operatively and on their own

Ultra Low Momentum Neutron Catalyzed Nuclear Reactions on Metallic Hydride Surfaces

Ultra low momentum neutron catalyzed nuclear reactions in metallic hydride system surfaces are discussed. Weak interaction catalysis initially occurs when neutrons (along with neutrinos) are produced from the protons which capture ``heavy'' electrons. Surface electron masses are shifted upwards by localized condensed matter electromagnetic fields. Condensed matter quantum electrodynamic processes may also shift the densities of final states allowing an appreciable production of extremely low momentum neutrons which are thereby efficiently absorbed by nearby nuclei. No Coulomb barriers exist for the weak interaction neutron production or other resulting catalytic processes.Comment: 4 pages, ReVTeX forma

Development of a CubeSat CLIMBing to the Van-Allen belt

Based on its successful CubeSat mission PEGASUS, the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt (FHWN) is preparing its new CubeSat mission called CLIMB. CLIMB is a 3U CubeSat that will be launched to a low, circular orbit of about 500 km. Using a Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP) system commercialized by the company ENPULSION, the satellite will be lifted to an elliptical orbit with its apogee around 1000 km – well inside the inner Van Allen belt. During its 1.5 yearlong ascent and its operation in the Van Allen belt, the satellite will continuously monitor the space radiation with a RadFET dosimeter payload and the impact on CLIMB’s subsystems. Comparisons with radiation testing on ground will allow the assessment of the capability of ground tests to predict effects of space radiation on CubeSat subsystems. The operation of the propulsion system will raise the satellite’s apogee on average 16 times a day. A comprehensive analysis has been conducted to assess its collision probability throughout its mission time. Using various tools, provided by ESA (CROC, MASTER and the DRAMA ARES python package), the collision probability for the entire mission duration (~3 years) was calculated to be 3.38 × 10-5, i.e. a magnitude smaller than the requested probability of 10-4. The second payload of CLIMB is an anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) magnetometer with a, for CubeSats high, sensitivity of about 10 nT RMS. The first results of measurements with this COTS based magnetometer are presented as well as experimental assessments of the satellite’s magnetic cleanliness. The benign thermal conditions on CubeSats operating close to Earth are complicated by the relatively high-power propulsion system onboard CLIMB. Detailed numerical analysis (ANSYS, ESATAN) and experimental verifications resulted in the identification of possible methods to deal with up to 18 W of dissipated electric power. The main heat sources are the thruster and the battery unit, during thruster operatio

Properties of New York/New Jersey Harbor Sediments

Sediments found in waterways around the world may contain toxic compounds of anthropogeilic origin that can harm the environment and human health. As a result, it is often necessary to remove them and find disposal methods that are environmentally and economically acceptable. Here, we report on results obtained in an experimental program to characterize the nature of the sediment contamination. The objective was to gain a better understanding of the properties of the sediments to develop better methods for understanding the fate and transport of the contaminants and for improving methods for their removal from the sediments. Our investigations made use of x-ray facilities at the Brookhaven National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) at Grenoble, France. The experiments included: measurements of the microstructure of the sediments using computed microtomography, x-ray absorption, and fluorescence microscopy with resolutions as low as 0.2 micrometers to obtain information on the relationships of organic and mineral components of the sediments and on the distribution of contaminants on the surfaces of the sediment grains, investigation of functional groups of chemical compounds using x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron probe measurements were made to ascertain the morphology of the sediment surfaces and the distribution of metals on individual sediment grains

A tale of two cities: restoring water services in Kabul and Monrovia

Kabul and Monrovia, the respective capitals of Afghanistan and Liberia, have recently emerged from long-lasting armed conflicts. In both cities, a large number of organisations took part in emergency water supply provision and later in the rehabilitation of water systems. Based on field research, this paper establishes a parallel between the operations carried out in the two settings, highlighting similarities and analysing the two most common strategies. The first strategy involves international financial institutions, which fund large-scale projects focusing on infrastructural rehabilitation and on the institutional development of the water utility, sometimes envisaging private-sector participation. The second strategy involves humanitarian agencies, which run community-based projects, in most cases independently of the water utilities, and targeting low-income areas. Neither of these approaches manages to combine sustainability and universal service. The paper assesses their respective strengths and weaknesses and suggests ways of improving the quality of assistance provided

On handling urban informality in southern Africa

In this article I reconsider the handling of urban informality by urban planning and management systems in southern Africa. I argue that authorities have a fetish about formality and that this is fuelled by an obsession with urban modernity. I stress that the desired city, largely inspired by Western notions of modernity, has not been and cannot be realized. Using illustrative cases of top–down interventions, I highlight and interrogate three strategies that authorities have deployed to handle informality in an effort to create or defend the modern city. I suggest that the fetish is built upon a desire for an urban modernity based on a concept of formal order that the authorities believe cannot coexist with the “disorder” and spatial “unruliness” of informality. I question the authorities' conviction that informality is an abomination that needs to be “converted”, dislocated or annihilated. I conclude that the very configuration of urban governance and socio-economic systems in the region, like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, renders informality inevitable and its eradication impossible

Digital representation of park use and visual analysis of visitor activities

Urban public parks can serve an important function by contributing to urban citizens' quality of life. At the same time, they can be the location of processes of displacement and exclusion. Despite this ambiguous role, little is known about actual park use patterns. To learn more about park use in three parks in Zurich, Switzerland, extensive data on visitor activities was collected using a new method based on direct recording via a portable GIS solution. Then, the data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper examines whether geographic visualization of these data can help domain experts like landscape designers and park managers to assess park use. To maximize accessibility, the visualizations are made available through a web-interface of a common, off-the-shelf GIS. The technical limitations imposed by this choice are critically assessed, before the available visualization techniques are evaluated in respect to the needs and tasks of practitioners with limited knowledge on spatial analysis and GIS. Key criteria are each technique's level of abstraction and graphical complexity. The utility and suitability of the visualization techniques is characterized for the distinct phases of exploration, analysis and synthesis. The findings suggest that for a target user group of practitioners, a combination of dot maps showing the raw data and surface maps showing derived density values for several attributes serves the purpose of knowledge generation best