Building a Spatial Decision Support System for Conflict Prevention in the Caucasus: Harmonization of Heterogeneous Sources and Data Quality Assessment Procedures

Geodata analysis at regional level integrates inevitably some datasets from various sources (statistical, geographical, environmental,¿), various scale (regional, national, ..) and various quality: While political structures are constantly changing, as in a potentially conflicting region such as Caucasus, these data integration issues increase. Implementation of quality control methods is an initial and essential step in the integration of geodata inside a spatial regional model. This report provides tools for data harmonization that can be applied to other datasets and other region when existing data sources do not evaluate the quality of their information. The goal of this report is to provide a quality assessment of the Caucasian GIS dataset to build the Caucasus geomodel of instability/stability. This report evaluates qualitatively and quantitatively the adequacy of this dataset to the objective in following a structured quality assessment protocol (Johnston et al. 1999) and consolidates a final geodatabase. Integrating data from a multitude of derivative geospatial products produced by different sources pose severe problems. Challenges are also introduced by the GIS technology itself. Various data are introduced in this study but the main source of statistical and spatial information is the acquisition of the geopolitical atlas dataset, the ¿Caucasian dataset¿ (Radvanyi, INALCO, 2006). In this report, four data quality elements are identified and described in the specific case of the Caucasian dataset. Lineage information, the three accuracy dimensions (positional, temporal and attribute), logical consistency and completeness evaluations are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed by various metrics. This paper illustrates the use of automatic cartographic and data cleanup techniques of Geographic Information System (GIS) to solve data issues (self overlapping, dangles, pseudonodes and gap in spatial data). This report can further be used as a reference for both the producer and the user to somewhat replace the missing metadata information. Clear statements on dataset quality allow to better communicate in a common goal of understanding the geopolitical Caucasus context. The bulk of this report has aimed to illustrate how spatial data from various sources have been collected and made ready for use within a GIS. The different evaluation tests allow to give an overall estimation of the dataset quality. This type of data cannot be used at a scale higher than approximately 1:500 000. This Caucasian dataset has the objective to provide an overall picture of the regional security complex and not a precise localisation of specific real features. This fact has to be kept in mind in the following processing modelling stages. Based on the results of this report, especially the completeness and fitness of the dataset to represent the scope of the model, the Caucasus study will further explore two distinct modelling approaches: (i) a spatial and continuous muticriteria model of instability integrating in a continuous GIS the geopolitical factors, (ii) defining instability indicators values for subnational spatial entities (district units) throughout the Caucasus region. This report provides an adapted methodology to assess quantitatively the quality of a database when no metadata information is available. The elements of data quality are envisaged in a progressive way in this report and thoroughly studied for the settlement layer. The other layers are evaluated in a less in-depth way but allow the test of different methods associated to the three types of features (point, line, polygon).JRC.G.2-Support to external securit

Spatial Permeability Model at the European Union Land Border

In the frame of the ISFEREA action, the JRC IPSC carried out an analysis of the permeability of the EU Eastern land border to a specific class of illegal migration flows. This analysis is based on a preliminary version of a spatial quantitative model of the "green border" permeability. This model was built on the assumption that the flow of illegal migrants is function of the geographical permeability of the border and crossing points, the efficacy to control them by the Authorities, and also function of the driving force defined by people's willingness to cross (push and pull factors). The spatial model developed by the JRC attempts to represent in deep only the first part of this equation, while the modularity of the proposed model may allows further development for a more comprehensive explanation the illegal migration phenomena. With the present release the model uses as input more than 20 spatial datasets ranging from satellite remotely-sensed data, land use land cover, digital terrain model, weather and environmental conditions, presence of population, infrastructures, and physical obstacles, and presence of border control points. The model is focused on the geographic permeability related to a standard adult person having illegal behavior and deciding to cross the green border by foot. The basic criteria implemented in the current release are built around three concepts: the rapidity of walking allowed by the terrain and the weather conditions (walk), the possibility to hide by the physical environment (hide), and the probability to be stopped by a border police agent (secure). The geographic permeability is conceptualized as function inverse of the friction surface calculated using fuzzy multi-criteria methodology with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. Friction statistics are related to specific spatial contexts around the border lines (from 1 to 50 km) aggregated at the national and sub-national level between different countries. The model confirms the two major entry routes into Europe: the Ukrainian border and the Turkish section of the Greek border. The model shows also the high sensitivity of the potential corridor of Norway but the high number of border points at this boundary seems to be sufficient to protect this entry point. The report concludes that, in spite of limitations linked to data collection and availability, the permeability maps which resulted from this study show the high potential of such a model for the analysis of potential and actual migration flows and related policy planning. This tool could provide an opportunity to test different “what-if” scenarios about the driving forces of illegal migratory flows at the external EU land border, to prioritize investments of Member States in border management infrastructures at EU level, and to develop policy advice for relevant internal and external EU policies. This modeling tool can help estimate the impact on permeability of concrete measures, such as changes in the number of border points or number of border guards and in their level of equipment at these particular points. The flexibility of the model also allows for the input of additional data like typology of border points, in order to improve the results. Finally, the development of a more comprehensive model would require the co-operation of and contribution from relevant authorities of the EU Member States as well as FRONTEX.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Gender Dimensions in Geo-spatial Security Research: Disciplinary Confrontations

Several EU policy papers have called for an improved dialogue between security policymakers, social science researchers and science and technology researchers working on security (Pullinger, 2006). To increase the understanding of gender dimensions in security, the traditional technological response can be complemented by socio-political knowledge. Gender inequities in the socio-economic and political spheres can be analysed by such a comprehensive socio-political and technological approach. In the field of geo-spatial security research, Hyndman (2004) proposes to bridge a gap between gender studies and geographical analysis of security. In this paper, a workshop is used to illustrate both the potential and the difficulties of such a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach. The workshop aim was to define a geographical and spatial analysis of gender dimensions in security. This paper discusses the gender dimensions in geo-spatial analysis, as well as the pros and cons of an interdisciplinary approach. Integrating the overall complexity of gender dimensions as a spatial component in security monitoring is a promising challenge, but is still to be achieved by the technological community. This paper explains the epistemological and methodological issues and opportunities of this dialogue

Towards Gender Equality in Education and Career in the Earth Observation and GI Sector

Ponència del XXIV ISPRS Congress, 5–9 July 2021. The International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLIII-B5-2021, 2021, pp.21-27Gender inequality is omnipresent in our society and in the field of education and training, the gender gap is especially evident in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines. While different studies have been conducted about potential reasons explaining this gap, little is known about gender inequality and underlying factors in the Earth Observation and Geoinformatics (EO*GI) domain. To close some parts of this knowledge gap, the initiative Women in Copernicus was established with the overall goal to make women working in the EO*GI field and especially in the Copernicus ecosystem more visible. This paper analyses the results of a survey of 462 women identifying reasons for not choosing STEM education and the barriers related to educational choices in their career path. The main obstacles that hinder choosing a STEM education for these women are stereotypes in society, missing female role models but also culture, television and society message transmitted by the media. The lack of self-confidence is an essential factor in this choice and is also experienced as a barrier during individual career paths. This analysis provides insights valuable for political decisions making targeting at a gender-balanced work environment and emphasizes the importance of attracting more girls and young women towards a STEM education and supporting them during their career to reach skills and occupational equality and strengthen the economic development of the EO*GI sector

Biophysical suitability, economic pressure and land-cover change: a global probabilistic approach and insights for REDD+

There has been a concerted effort by the international scientific community to understand the multiple causes and patterns of land-cover change to support sustainable land management. Here, we examined biophysical suitability, and a novel integrated index of “Economic Pressure on Land” (EPL) to explain land cover in the year 2000, and estimated the likelihood of future land-cover change through 2050, including protected area effectiveness. Biophysical suitability and EPL explained almost half of the global pattern of land cover (R 2 = 0.45), increasing to almost two-thirds in areas where a long-term equilibrium is likely to have been reached (e.g. R 2 = 0.64 in Europe). We identify a high likelihood of future land-cover change in vast areas with relatively lower current and past deforestation (e.g. the Congo Basin). Further, we simulated emissions arising from a “business as usual” and two reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) scenarios by incorporating data on biomass carbon. As our model incorporates all biome types, it highlights a crucial aspect of the ongoing REDD + debate: if restricted to forests, “cross-biome leakage” would severely reduce REDD + effectiveness for climate change mitigation. If forests were protected from deforestation yet without measures to tackle the drivers of land-cover change, REDD + would only reduce 30 % of total emissions from land-cover change. Fifty-five percent of emissions reductions from forests would be compensated by increased emissions in other biomes. These results suggest that, although REDD + remains a very promising mitigation tool, implementation of complementary measures to reduce land demand is necessary to prevent this leakage

Identification of AnnexinA1 as an endogenous regulator of RhoA, and its role in the pathophysiology and experimental therapy of type-2 diabetes.

Annexin A1 (ANXA1) is an endogenously produced anti-inflammatory protein, which plays an important role in the pathophysiology of diseases associated with chronic inflammation. We demonstrate that patients with type-2 diabetes have increased plasma levels of ANXA1 when compared to normoglycemic subjects. Plasma ANXA1 positively correlated with fatty liver index and elevated plasma cholesterol in patients with type-2 diabetes, suggesting a link between aberrant lipid handling, and ANXA1. Using a murine model of high fat diet (HFD)-induced insulin resistance, we then investigated (a) the role of endogenous ANXA1 in the pathophysiology of HFD-induced insulin resistance using ANXA1−/− mice, and (b) the potential use of hrANXA1 as a new therapeutic approach for experimental diabetes and its microvascular complications. We demonstrate that: (1) ANXA1−/− mice fed a HFD have a more severe diabetic phenotype (e.g., more severe dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hepatosteatosis, and proteinuria) compared to WT mice fed a HFD; (2) treatment of WT-mice fed a HFD with hrANXA1 attenuated the development of insulin resistance, hepatosteatosis and proteinuria. We demonstrate here for the first time that ANXA1−/− mice have constitutively activated RhoA. Interestingly, diabetic mice, which have reduced tissue expression of ANXA1, also have activated RhoA. Treatment of HFD-mice with hrANXA1 restored tissue levels of ANXA1 and inhibited RhoA activity, which, in turn, resulted in restoration of the activities of Akt, GSK-3β and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) secondary to re-sensitization of IRS-1 signaling. We further demonstrate in human hepatocytes that ANXA1 protects against excessive mitochondrial proton leak by activating FPR2 under hyperglycaemic conditions. In summary, our data suggest that (a) ANXA1 is a key regulator of RhoA activity, which restores IRS-1 signal transduction and (b) recombinant human ANXA1 may represent a novel candidate for the treatment of T2D and/or its complications

Long-term follow-up after retrosternal ileocolic esophagoplasty in two cases of long-gap esophageal atresia: why it is still a valid option as a rescue strategy

IntroductionEsophageal replacement surgery in children is sometimes necessary for long-gap esophageal atresia. Ileocolic esophagoplasty in the retrosternal space can serve as a good alternative technique in case of hostile posterior mediastinum. We present two cases of successful ileocolic transposition performed at 6 months of age.MethodsEsophageal replacement was performed through a midline laparotomy incision associated with a left cervical approach. The ileocolic transplant was pediculized on the right superior colic artery after ligating the right colic and ileocolic vessels. A retrosternal tunnel was created, and the ileocolic transplant pulled through it to reach the cervical region. Proximally, esophageal-ileal anastomosis and, distally, colonic–gastric anastomosis were performed. Ileocolic continuity was repaired.ResultsThere were no early postoperative complications. In both cases, the patients presented oral feeding difficulties during the first 6 postoperative months. Thereafter, full oral feeding was achieved, and both patients were clinically asymptomatic during the following 18 and 20 years, respectively, with satisfactory oral radiological assessments, showing no redundancy or inappropriate growth of the graft and no anastomotic stricture. Currently, these patients do not complain of dysphagia, pathological reflux, or respiratory symptoms.ConclusionWhen native esophagus preservation in long-gap esophageal atresia is estimated unfeasible, ileocolic transposition in the retrosternal space might be considered a good and safe option, particularly in those difficult cases after multiple previous surgical attempts and mediastinitis. This technique is putatively associated with a beneficial anti-reflux effect, thanks to the presence of the ileocecal valve, in preventing cervical peptic esophagitis. Long-term follow-up confirms that the transposed colon in the retrosternal space did not suffer any abnormal modification in size and growth

Simulation of muon radiography for monitoring CO2 stored in a geological reservoir

Current methods of monitoring subsurface CO2, such as repeat seismic surveys, are episodic and require highly skilled personnel to acquire the data. Simulations based on simplified models have previously shown that muon radiography could be automated to continuously monitor CO2 injection and migration, in addition to reducing the overall cost of monitoring. In this paper, we present a simulation of the monitoring of CO2 plume evolution in a geological reservoir using muon radiography. The stratigraphy in the vicinity of a nominal test facility is modelled using geological data, and a numerical fluid flow model is used to describe the time evolution of the CO2 plume. A planar detection region with a surface area of 1000 m2 is considered, at a vertical depth of 776 m below the seabed. We find that 1 year of constant CO2 injection leads to changes in the column density of ≲1%, and that the CO2 plume is already resolvable with an exposure time of less than 50 days