Object-Based Greenhouse Mapping Using Very High Resolution Satellite Data and Landsat 8 Time Series

Greenhouse mapping through remote sensing has received extensive attention over the last decades. In this article, the innovative goal relies on mapping greenhouses through the combined use of very high resolution satellite data (WorldView-2) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) time series within a context of an object-based image analysis (OBIA) and decision tree classification. Thus, WorldView-2 was mainly used to segment the study area focusing on individual greenhouses. Basic spectral information, spectral and vegetation indices, textural features, seasonal statistics and a spectral metric (Moment Distance Index, MDI) derived from Landsat 8 time series and/or WorldView-2 imagery were computed on previously segmented image objects. In order to test its temporal stability, the same approach was applied for two different years, 2014 and 2015. In both years, MDI was pointed out as the most important feature to detect greenhouses. Moreover, the threshold value of this spectral metric turned to be extremely stable for both Landsat 8 and WorldView-2 imagery. A simple decision tree always using the same threshold values for features from Landsat 8 time series and WorldView-2 was finally proposed. Overall accuracies of 93.0% and 93.3% and kappa coefficients of 0.856 and 0.861 were attained for 2014 and 2015 datasets, respectively

A Quantitative Assessment of Forest Cover Change in the Moulouya River Watershed (Morocco) by the Integration of a Subpixel-Based and Object-Based Analysis of Landsat Data

A quantitative assessment of forest cover change in the Moulouya River watershed (Morocco) was carried out by means of an innovative approach from atmospherically corrected reflectance Landsat images corresponding to 1984 (Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper) and 2013 (Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager). An object-based image analysis (OBIA) was undertaken to classify segmented objects as forested or non-forested within the 2013 Landsat orthomosaic. A Random Forest classifier was applied to a set of training data based on a features vector composed of different types of object features such as vegetation indices, mean spectral values and pixel-based fractional cover derived from probabilistic spectral mixture analysis). The very high spatial resolution image data of Google Earth 2013 were employed to train/validate the Random Forest classifier, ranking the NDVI vegetation index and the corresponding pixel-based percentages of photosynthetic vegetation and bare soil as the most statistically significant object features to extract forested and non-forested areas. Regarding classification accuracy, an overall accuracy of 92.34% was achieved. The previously developed classification scheme was applied to the 1984 Landsat data to extract the forest cover change between 1984 and 2013, showing a slight net increase of 5.3% (ca. 8800 ha) in forested areas for the whole region

Hitos de la Cultura de Paz en Nicaragua

El Rev. José Miguel Torres (q.e.p.d), ofrece a grandes pinceladas hitos de construcción de una cultura de paz en el mundo y en Nicaragua, desde el aporte del pensamiento y praxis de figuras símbolos, como desde el quehacer institucional, señala ejes temáticos que hunden sus raíces en nuestra historia, que se constituyen en desafíos para la investigación para la paz y que pueden transformarse en referentes para la forjación de nuestro futuro

Mensaje ocasional en el XV aniversario del martirio de Monseñor Oscar A. Romero

El presente testimonio fue escrito por el teólogo ecuménico y pastor bautista nicaragüense José Miguel Torres h., en ocasión de la conmemoración del 15 aniversario del martirio de Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, describe a grandes trazos las vivencias con el Mártir y Santo en el año de 1977, cuando le tocó asumir el pastorado de la Iglesia Bautista “Emmanuel” de El Salvador y cuando ya en ambos países los pueblos se alzaban en rebelión contra los regímenes dictatoriales que los oprimían.Palabras clave: Monseñor Romero, profeta, martirio, ecuménico, constructor pacífico

Technological complexity: a tool for understanding the behaviour of consumers of high value-added foodstuffs

This article proposes and develops the concept of technological complexity (TC) as a useful and simple tool for grouping key attributes that give added value to a product. In addition, it reports an empirical application of this concept to two different food products (cured ham and cured sausage). The authors used a mixed-effects multi-nomial logistic regression model and show that in the cured pork product agribusiness, a low frequency of consumption favours the acceptance of high TC products. The results also confirm that marketing high TC products in stores with a large assortment decreases the chances of success for agribusiness companies that produce cured pork food products. These finding can be used by the managers for designing complementary attributes that improve their product portfolio. Besides, advertising expenditures associated with introducing new products could be reduced if companies strengthened their presence in specialty stores

Balance teológico de la UPOLI al final del siglo y milenio

This paper was published in a book in the occasion of the 40th anniversary of foundation of UPOLI (2007). Given its full validity, we have the honor to publish it in our Culture of Peace journal, as part of the accompaniment that the IMLK has been providing from our pages in the year of the 50th anniversary (1967-2017). The Rev. José Miguel Torres, ecumenical theologian, Baptist and pacifist pastor (R.I.P), gives us a theological reading of the foundation and development of UPOLI, the imagination of those who wrote their own history, factors that influenced wealth of his vision: biblical, political, sociological, historical and ecumenical. The ecumenical theologian leaves the doors open to new generations to continue enriching this history with new theological perspectives, also open and anticipated history that UPOLI represents.El presente trabajo parte de un libro que se realizara en la UPOLI, en ocasión de su 40 aniversario de fundación (2007). Dada su plena vigencia, tenemos el honor de publicarlo en nuestra revista Cultura de Paz, como parte del acompañamiento que el IMLK viene brindando desde nuestras páginas en el año del 50 aniversario (1967-2017). El Rev. José Miguel Torres h., teólogo ecuménico, pastor bautista y pacifista (q.e.p.d), nos ofrece una lectura teológica de la fundación y desarrollo de la UPOLI, el imaginario de quienes escribieron su propia historia, los factores que incidieron en la riqueza de su visión: bíblicos, políticos, sociológicos, históricos y ecuménicos. El teólogo ecuménico deja abiertas las puertas de las nuevas generaciones a continuar enriqueciendo con nuevas perspectivas teológicas esta historia también abierta y de anticipación que representa la UPOLI.

El problema de la sostenibilidad dentro de la complejidad de los sistemas de producción agropecuarios.

El problema de la sostenibilidad es una temática que desde finales del siglo XX, ha venido preocupando cada vez mas a los diferentes sectores de la sociedad; pasando a ser uno de los temas de mayor interés para empresarios, consumidores, académicos e investigadores, que conforman las diferentes cadenas agroalimentarias del mundo. Este artículo presenta desde el punto de vista de la Teoría General de Sistemas, algunos elementos de reflexión critica, abordando la problemática de la sostenibilidad desde la complejidad de los sistemas de producción agropecuarios, partiendo desde la concepción filosófica original de la agricultura, hasta llegar a plantear algunas consideraciones que se deben tener en cuenta para el desarrollo de avances científicos y tecnológicos acordes con las necesidades de las cadenas agroalimentarias del siglo XXI; las cuales permiten orientar no solo el trabajo de los profesionales que lideran los procesos de producción animal y vegetal, sino que crea un sentido de pertenencia en todos los participantes de la cadena, resaltando la importancia de estudiar a través de un pensamiento sistémico, la Agronomía y la Zootecnia, como disciplinas que se aproximan a las complejidades de la Agricultura la cual es la piedra angular de la civilización, tal y como la conocemos actualmente

Forecasting Food Price Inflation in Developing Countries with Inflation Targeting Regimes: the Colombian Case

Many developing countries are adopting inflation targeting regimes to guide monetary policy decisions. In such countries the share of food in the consumption basket is high and policy makers often employ total inflation (as opposed to core inflation) to set inflationary targets. Therefore, central banks need to develop reliable models to forecast food inflation. Our literature review suggests that little has been done in the construction of models to forecast short-run food inflation in developing countries. We develop a model to improve short-run food inflation forecasts in Colombia. The model disaggregates food items according to economic theory and employs Flexible Least Squares given the presence of structural changes in the inflation series. We compare the performance of this new model to current models employed by the central bank. Next, we apply econometric methods to combine forecasts from alternative models and test whether such combination outperforms individual models. Our results indicate that forecasts can be improved by classifying food basket items according to unprocessed, processed and food away from home and by employing forecast combination techniques.Food Inflation, Time Series,