Search results for: community water usage

Authors: Song Qingfeng

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This research aims to seek the relationship between social media usage and overtourism from the perspective of tourists based on the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy needs. A questionnaire is formulated to collect data from 400 tourists who have visited the Hangzhou city in China in the last 12 months. Structural Equation Model (SEM) is employed to analysis data. The finding is that social media usage aggravates overtourism. Specifically, social media is used by tourists to information-seeking, entertainment, self-presentation, and socialization for traveling. These roles of social media would evoke the traveling intention to a specific destination at a certain time, which further influences the tourist flow. When the tourist flow concentrate, the overtourism would be aggravated. This study contributes to the destination managers to deep-understand the cause-effect relationship between social media and overtourism in order to address this problem.

Keywords: social media, overtourism, tourist flow, SEM, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Hangzhou

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Authors: Meysam Abedinpour

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Water limitation is the main challenge for crop production in a semi-arid environment. Deficit irrigation is a strategy that allows a crop to sustain some degree of water deficit in order to reduce costs and potentially increase income. For this goal, a field experimental carried out at Asrieh fields of Gorgan city in the north of Iran, during summer season 2011. The treatments imposed were different irrigation water regimes (i.e. W1:70, W2:80, W3:90, and W4:100) percent of field capacity (FC). The results showed that there was Significant difference between the yield and (WUE) under different levels of irrigation, excepting of soil moisture content at field capacity (W4) and 90% of field capacity (W3) on yield and water use efficiency (WUE). The seasonal irrigation water applied were (i.e. 375, 338, 300, and 263 mm ha-1) under different irrigation water treatments (100, 90, 80, 80 and 70%) of FC, respectively. Grain yield productions under treatments were 4180, 3955, 3640, and 3355 (kg ha-1) respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that water use efficiency (WUE) at different treatments were 7.67, 7.79, 7.74, and 7.75 Kg mm ha-1 for (100, 90, 80, and 70) per cent of field capacity, therefore the 90 % of FC treatment (W3) is recommended for Soybean irrigation for water saving. Furthermore, the result showed that the treatment of 90 % of filed capacity (W3) seemed to be better adapted to product a high crop yield with acceptable yield coupling with water use efficiency in Golestan province.

Keywords: deficit irrigation, water use efficiency, yield, soybean

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Authors: Nermin A. Morsy, Amany N. Beshay

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The tourism industry has seen considerable transformations due to the emergency of e-commerce. For instance, airlines are increasingly dependent on achieving online sales instead of their traditional platform. Online travel agencies’ (OTAs) websites have been able to reach a broader range of customers and generate more revenue. Therefore, website quality plays an important role in attaining website effectiveness. It is now considered as a critical factor in attracting customers' attention and build loyalty. Customers are more likely to visit and purchase at websites that exhibit highly desirable qualities. A user-friendly website can help tourists find their target information easily and make decisions quickly. This research focuses on analyzing the impact of airline and OTAs’ websites quality on the actual customer usage and purchase intentions. An online survey was distributed among internet users to assess the various dimensions of website quality in the context of online booking and their effect on customer’s usage and purchase intentions. The data from the survey was analyzed statistically using correlation, t-tests and other statistical tests. Results revealed the direct impact of website quality on customer usage and purchase intentions.

Keywords: airlines, OTAs, purchasing intention, website quality

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Authors: Men An Pan, Ho Hsiung Huang, Jui Chuan Lin, Tsui Hsun Wu, Hsing Yuan Yen

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Pingtung County, located in the southernmost region of Taiwan, has the largest number of pig farms in the country. In the past, livestock operators in Dongpian Village discharged their wastewater into the nearby water bodies, causing water pollution in the local rivers and polluting the air with the stench of the pig excrement. These resulted in many complaints from the local residents. In response to a long time fighting back of the community against the livestock farms due to the confrict, the County Government's Environmental Protection Bureau (PTEPB) examined potential wayouts in addition to heavy fines to the perpetrators. Through helping the livestock farms to upgrade their pollution prevention equipment, promoting the reuse of biogas residue and slurry from the pig excrement, and environmental education, the confrict was successfully resolved. The properly treated wastewater from the livestock farms has been freely provided to the neighboring farmlands via pipelines and tankers. Thus, extensive cultivation of bananas, papaya, red dragon fruit, Inca nut, and cocoa has resulted in 34% resource utilization of biogas residue as a fertilizer. This has encouraged farmers to reduce chemical fertilizers and use microbial materials like photosynthetic bacteria after banning herbicides while lowering the cost of wastewater treatment in livestock farms and alleviating environmental pollution simultaneously. That is, the livestock farms fully demonstrate the determination to fulfill their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Due to the success, Eight farms jointly established a social enterprise - "Dongpian Gemstone Village Co., Ltd." to promote organic farming through a "shared farm." The company appropriates 5% of its total revenue back to the community through caregiving services for the elderly and a fund for young local farmers. The community adopted the Satoyama Initiative in accordance with the Conference of the CBD COP10. Through the positive impact of environmental education, the community seeks to realize the coexistence between society and nature while maintaining and developing socio-economic activities (including agriculture) with respect for nature and building a harmonic relationship between humans and nature. By way of sustainable management of resources and ensuring biodiversity, the community is transforming into a socio-ecological production landscape. Apart from nature conservation and watercourse ecology, preserving local culture is also a key focus of the environmental education. To mitigate the impact of global warming and climate change, the community and the government have worked together to develop a disaster prevention and relief system, strive to establish a low-carbon emitting homeland, and become a model for resilient communities. By the power of environmental education, this community has turned its residents’ hearts and minds into concrete action, fulfilled social responsibility, and moved towards realizing the UN SDGs. Even though it is not the only community to integrate government agencies, research institutions, and NGOs for environmental education, it is a prime example of a low-carbon sustainable community that achieves more than 9 SDGs, including responsible consumption and production, climate change action, and diverse partnerships. The community is also leveraging environmental education to become a net-zero carbon community targeted by COP26.

Keywords: environmental education, biogas residue, biogas slurry, CSR, SDGs, climate change, net-zero carbon emissions

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Authors: Nutcha Thianbut

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In the petroleum drilling industry, besides oil and gas, water is also produced from petroleum production. which will have oil droplets dispersed in the water as an emulsion. Commonly referred to as produced water, most industrial water-based produced water methods use the method of pumping water back into wells or catchment areas. because it cannot be utilized further, but in the compression of water each time, the cost is quite high. And the survey found that the amount of water from the petroleum production process has increased every year. In this research, we would like to study the removal of oil in produced water by the Coalescer device using fibers from agricultural waste as an intermediary. As an alternative to reduce the cost of water management in the petroleum drilling industry. The objectives of this research are 1. To study the fiber pretreatment by chemical process for the efficiency of oil-water separation 2. To study and design the fiber-packed coalescer device to destroy the emulsion of crude oil in water. 3. To study the working conditions of coalescer devices in emulsion destruction. using a fiber medium. In this research, the experiment was divided into two parts. The first part will study the absorbency of fibers. It compares untreated fibers with chemically treated alkaline fibers that change over time as well as adjusting the amount of fiber on the absorbency of the fiber and the second part will study the separation of oil from produced water by Coalescer equipment using fiber as medium to study the optimum condition of coalescer equipment for further development and industrial application.

Keywords: produced water, fiber, surface modification, coalescer

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Authors: Suliman Mohammed Alghanem

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Ecological and botanical surveys were conducted on Rawdhat Salasil, Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. The survey also includes the study of the plant communities in the study area by sampling the associated species in each community using the List Count Quadrant method to study the density, frequency, and plant cover. The present study has shown an account of the under-mentioned five different communities: Haloxylonpersicum community is a dominant perennial shrub with an important value of 47.88%. This community is represented by 20 associated species. The chemical analysis of the soil of this habitat exhibits more alkalinity with low salinity. Tamarixnilotica communityis a perennial shrub with an important value of 60.48%. This community is represented by 14 associated species. The chemical analysis of the soil of this habitat demonstrates richness in alkalis with high salinity.Salsolaimbricata communityis a perennial herb with an important value of 60.18%. This community is represented by 17 associated species. The chemical analysis of the soil of this habitat exhibits richness in alkalis with low salinity.Panicumturgidum is a perennial herb with an important value of 65.1%. This community is represented by 11 associated species. The chemical analysis of the soil of this habitat exhibits richness in alkalis and the absence of salinity. Pulicariaundulata community is predominantly an annual shrub with an important value of 91.79%. This community is represented by 16 species. The chemical analysis of the soil of this habitat exhibits richness in alkalis, and the absence of salinity.

Keywords: rangelands, plant communities, Rawdhat Salasil, edaphic factors

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Authors: Anja Jutraz, Tadeja Zupancic

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This article explores urban laboratory, which presents a combination of different physical and digital methods and tools for public participation in urban design. The city consists of built and unbuilt environments, which can be defined as a community of people, who live there. Communities should have the option to express opinions and decide about the future of their city, from the early stages of the design process onwards. In this paper, we presented the possibility of involving community into renewal of Banska Štiavnica in Slovakia (more exactly the old mining shaft and lake Michal Štolna) and the methods to promote the community building. As a case study we presented the eTHNo project, Education about Technical, Historical and Natural opportunities of Michal Štolna. Moreover, we discussed the possibility of using virtual digital tools for public participation in urban design, where we especially focused on Virtual Urban Laboratory, VuLab.

Keywords: community building, digital tools, public participation, urban design

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Authors: Mehdi Moeinaddini, Zohreh Asadi-Shekari, Muhammad Zaly Shah, Amran Hamzah

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Currently, planners try to have more green travel options to decrease economic, social and environmental problems. Therefore, this study tries to find significant urban travel factors to be used to increase the usage of alternative urban travel modes. This paper attempts to identify the relationship between prominent urban mobility indicators and daily trips by public transport in 30 cities from various parts of the world. Different travel modes, infrastructures and cost indicators were evaluated in this research as mobility indicators. The results of multi-linear regression analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between mobility indicators and the daily usage of public transport.

Keywords: green travel modes, urban travel indicators, daily trips by public transport, multi-linear regression analysis

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Authors: Saeed Yazdani, Shahrbanoo Bagheri, Sepideh Nikravesh

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Considering the importance and scarcity of water resources, the efficient management of water resources is of great importance. Adoption of modern irrigation technology is considered to be a key of increasing the efficiency of water used in agriculture. Policy makers have implemented several ways to induce the adoption of new irrigation technology. The empirical studies show that farmers are reluctant to utilize the use of new irrigation methods. This study aims to assess factors affecting on farmer’s decision on the application of water saving technologies with emphasize on crop price variation and water sources. A Logit model was employed to examine the impact of different variables on use of water saving technology. The required data gathered from a sample of 204 farmers in the year 2012. The results indicate that different variables such as crop price variability, water supply source, high-value crops, farm size, income, education, membership in cooperatives have a positive effect and variables such as age and number of plots have a negative impact on the probability of adopting modern water saving technologies.

Keywords: irrigation, water, water saving technology, scarcity

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Authors: Qianqian Chen

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The article intends to design a new research perspective on a linguistic landscape with the research background on multilingual urban tourism by analyzing the collected data, including a number of surveys on current urban tourism and the possibility of internationalization. The language usage analysis focuses on terms of English, Japanese and Spanish, which is based on the previous investigations. The analysis highlights the fact that contemporary tourism management and planning emphasizes cultural memories and heritage, and the combination between culture and tourism recalls the importance of "re-humanity" inhuman activities.

Keywords: multilingualism, culture, linguistic landscape, Hangzhou

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Authors: Pennapa Palapin

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This study aimed to examine the management and development of forest tourism Kamchanoad. Ban Dung, Udon Thani sustainability. Data were collected by means of qualitative research including in-depth interviews, semi-structured, and then the data were summarized and discussed in accordance with the objectives. And make a presentation in the form of lectures. The target population for the study consisted of 16 people, including representatives from government agencies, community leaders and the community. The results showed that Guidelines for the Management and Development of Forest Tourism Kamchanoad include management of buildings and infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity, toilets. Other developments are the establishment of a service center that provides information and resources to facilitate tourists.; nature trails and informative signage to educate visitors on the path to the jungle Kamchanoad; forest activities for tourists who are interested only in occasional educational activities such as vegetation, etc.; disseminating information on various aspects of tourism through various channels in both Thailand and English, as well as a website to encourage community involvement in the planning and management of tourism together with the care and preservation of natural resources and preserving the local cultural tourist area of Kamchanoad.

Keywords: guidelines for the management and development, forest tourism, Kamchanoad, sustainability

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Authors: Ahasanul Haque, Noor Hazilah Abd Manaf, Zohurul Anis, Tarekol Islam

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Sustainable community health (SCH) is an example of a new healthcare concept formed from applying the Maqasid al-Shariah principle to hospital management and delivery services. Because the idea is novel, it needs comprehensive and ongoing investigation to be improved. However, there is a lack of research on the necessity of developing sustainable community health (SCH), particularly its organizational structure. Furthermore, there is a misconception about the order of components in Maqasid al-Shariah, particularly in a hospital setting. Furthermore, the use of medicines and treatment by conventional recommendations to carry out the treatment by the Maqasid al Shariah. As such, this study focuses on the essential prerequisite for establishing a sustainable community health system based on Maqasid al-Shariah. This study discusses the use of Maqasid al-Shariah in administration and treatment. In this qualitative research approach, a literature search and interviews with specialists are conducted. The gathered data is examined using content analysis, emphasizing inductive and deductive reasoning. The research reveals that the Shariah Advisory Council and Shariah Critical Point are necessary for sustainable community health. In conclusion, by discussing the causes for each instance, this research adds to the creation of methods for determining the level of Maasid al-Shariah in-hospital care.

Keywords: empowering, sustainability, community health, maqasid al shariah, hospital and malaysia

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Authors: Aravind J.

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Passive design can be referred to a way of designing buildings that takes advantage of the prevailing climate and natural energy resources. Which will be a key to reduce the increasing energy usage in commercial buildings. Most of the small scale commercial buildings made are merely a thermal mass inbuilt with active systems to bring lively conditions. By bringing the passive design strategies for energy efficiency in commercial buildings will reduce the usage of active systems. Thus the energy usage can be controlled through analysis of daylighting and improved living conditions in the indoor spaces by using passive techniques. And comparative study on different passive design systems and conventional methods will be approached for commercial buildings in hot and humid region. Possible effects of existing risks implied with solution for those problems is also a part of the paper. The result will be carried on with the design programme to prove the workability of the strategies.

Keywords: passive design, energy efficiency, commercial buildings, hot and humid climate

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Authors: Seyedeh Zahra Seyed Sharifi, M. R. M. Tabatabaei

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Due to increase of population and healthy food demand, management and conservation of water resources have become one of the main concerns of governments, scientists and economists. In recent years, Iran has exposed to water scarcity as a result of which its rivers, lakes and wetlands have dried up or are in the drying process. Therefore, water crisis has become the most important environmental issue in the country. Under these circumstances, increasing public awareness by promoting their culture as well as public collaboration to protect water resources could only be possible by making courses to reflect water importance. This could be approached by school and high-school students to learn optimum use of water resources. This study initially focuses on the current position of water courses in levels of school and high-school educations in Iran and Turkey and then deals with the challenges to be faced for the promotion of the system. The course titles and number of pages related to water in all primary and secondary textbooks of the education system of Iran and Turkey were determined using content analysis method and the results were presented. The results indicate that primary and secondary textbooks in both countries must focus on water shortage and water protection and teach children the optimum use of water in order to promote water protection.

Keywords: educational system, environmental awareness, Iran, Turkey, water crisis

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Authors: Adedeji W. Oyediran, Yekini N. Asafe

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Mechatronics is synergistic integration of mechanical engineering, with electronics and intelligent computer control in the design and manufacturing of industrial products and processes. Automobile (auto car, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor) is a mechatronic system which served as major means of transportation around the world. Virtually all community has a need for automobile. This makes automobile issues as related to diagnostic and repair interesting to all communities. Consequent to the diversification of skill in diagnosing automobile faults and approaches in solving some problems and innovation in automobile industry. It is appropriate to say that repair and diagnostic of automobile will be better enhanced if community has opportunity of sharing knowledge and idea globally. This paper discussed the desirable elements in automobile as mechatronics system and present conceptual framework of virtual community model for automobile users.

Keywords: automobile, automobile users, knowledge sharing, mechatronics system, virtual community

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Authors: Abbas Hani

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In recent decades with the development of technology and lack of food sources, sewage sludge in production of human foods is inevitable. Various sources of municipal and industrial sewage sludge that is produced can provide the requirement of plant nutrients. Soils in arid, semi-arid climate of central Iran that most affected by water drainage, iron and zinc deficiencies, using of sewage sludge is helpful. Therefore, the aim of this study is investigation of sewage sludge and manure application on Ni and Zn uptake by Savory. An experiment in a randomized complete block design with three replications was performed. Sewage sludge treatments consisted of four levels, control, 15, 30, 80 tons per hectares, the manure was used in four levels of control, 20, 40 and 80 tons per hectare. Results showed that the wet and dry weights was not affected by sewage sludge using, while, manure has significant effect on them. The effect of sewage sludge on the cadmium and lead concentrations were significant. Interactions of sewage sludge and manure on dry weight values were not significant. Compare mean analysis showed that increasing the amount of sewage sludge had no significant effect on cadmium concentration and it reduced when sewage sludge usage increased. This is probably due to increased plant growth and reduced concentrations of these elements in the plant.

Keywords: savory, lead, cadmium, sewage sludge, manure

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Authors: Çiğdem Bakır, Mecit Yüzkat

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With the increasing emphasis on water quality worldwide, the search for and expanding the market for new and intelligent monitoring systems has increased. The current method is the laboratory process, where samples are taken from bodies of water, and tests are carried out in laboratories. This method is time-consuming, a waste of manpower, and uneconomical. To solve this problem, we used machine learning methods to detect water pollution in our study. We created decision trees with the Orange3 software we used in our study and tried to determine all the factors that cause water pollution. An automatic prediction model based on water quality was developed by taking many model inputs such as water temperature, pH, transparency, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and ammonia nitrogen with machine learning methods. The proposed approach consists of three stages: preprocessing of the data used, feature detection, and classification. We tried to determine the success of our study with different accuracy metrics and the results. We presented it comparatively. In addition, we achieved approximately 98% success with the decision tree.

Keywords: decision tree, water quality, water pollution, machine learning

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Authors: Meena K. Yadav, Rupak Aryal, Michael D. Short, Ben Van Den Akker, Christopher P. Saint, Cobus Gerber

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Illicit drugs are considered as emerging contaminants of concern that have become an interesting issue for the scientific community from last few years due to their existence in the water environment. A number of the literature has revealed their occurrence in the environment. This is mainly due to the fact that some drugs are partially removed during wastewater treatment processes, and remaining being able to enter the environment and contaminate surface and groundwater and subsequently, drinking water. Therefore, this paper evaluates the occurrence of key illicit drugs in wastewater (influent and effluent) samples in 4 wastewater treatment plants across Adelaide, South Australia over a 1 year period. This paper also compares the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants adopting different technologies in the removal of selected illicit drugs, especially in the context of which technology has higher removal rates. The influent and effluent samples were analysed using Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The levels of drugs detected were in the range of mg/L – ng/L in effluent samples; thus emphasising the influence on water quality of receiving water bodies and the significance of removal efficiency of WWTPs(Wastewater Treatment Plants). The results show that the drugs responded differently in the removal depending on the treatment processes used by the WWTPs.

Keywords: illicit drugs, removal efficiency, treatment technology, wastewater

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Authors: Gaoussou Doukoure Abdel Kader, Mnkandla Ernest

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This research aims to investigate the usage of a personal software process oriented information system in order to facilitate the promotion of software quality and its improvement in organizations. In this light, at the term of a literature review on software quality and related concepts, the personal software process is discussed, more particularly in terms of software quality. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a team of software engineers on the first hand to establish a baseline on their understanding of what quality entails for them. The PSP methodology will then be presented to the engineers in its most basic aspects. The research will then proceed to practical case study where a PSP oriented information system is submitted to engineers for usage throughout their development process. Reports from the PSP information system as well as feedback from the engineers will be used in conjunction with the theoretical foundation to establish a PSP inspired framework for software quality promotion and improvement.

Keywords: information communication technology, personal software process, software quality, process quality, software engineering

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Authors: Chia-Ling Chang, Hao-Bo Chang

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Global climate change alters rainfall characteristics, while the variation of these characteristics further influences environmental conditions, such as hydrologic responses, landslide areas, and the amounts of diffuse pollution. The variations of environmental conditions may impact the stability of water resource systems. The objective of this study is to assess the present conditions of major water resource systems in Taiwan. The impact of climate change on each system is also discussed herein. Compared to the water resource systems in northern Taiwan, the ratio of the precipitation during the rainy season to that during the dry season has a larger increase in southern Taiwan. This variation of hydrologic condition impacts the stability of water resource systems and increases the risk of normal water supply. The findings in this work can be important references for water resource management.

Keywords: basin management, climate change, water resource system, water resource management

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Authors: Sai Amulya Gollapalli, Dilip A. Patel, Parth Patel K., Lukman E. Mansuri

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Accumulation of moisture is one of the most worrisome aspects of a building. Architects and engineers tend to ignore its vitality during the designing and construction stage. Major fatalities in buildings can be caused by it. People avoid spending a lot of money on waterproofing. If the same mistake is repeated, no deep thinking is done. The quality of workmanship and construction is depleting due to negligence. It is important to do an analysis of the water maintenance issues happening in the current buildings and give a database for all the factors that are causing the defect. In this research, surveys are done with two waterproofing consultants, two client engineers, and two project managers. The survey was based on a matrix that was based on the causes of water maintenance issues. There were around 100 causes that were identified. The causes were categorized into six, namely, manpower, finance, method, management, environment, and material. In the matrices, the causes on the x-direction matched with the causes on the y-direction. 3 Likert scale was used to make a pairwise comparison between causes on each cell. Matrices were evaluated for the main categories and for each category separately. A final ranking was done by the weights achieved, and ‘cracks arriving from various construction joints’ was the highest with 0.57 relative significance, and ‘usage of the material’ was the lowest with 0.03 relative significance. Twelve defects due to water leakage were identified, and interviewees were asked to make a pairwise comparison of them, too, to understand the priorities. When the list of causes is achieved, the prioritization as per the stratification analysis is done. This will be beneficial to the consultants and contractors as they will get a primary idea of which causes to focus on.

Keywords: water leakage, survey, causes, matrices, prioritization

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Authors: Dare Ebenezer Fatumo, Olusesan Emmanuel Adelabu

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Online learning has taken another dimension through the introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), it has also become an important resource base for teaching and learning. This research aimed at investigating the use of Massive Open Online Course in a rural marginalized area. The survey research design of descriptive nature was adopted to evaluate the awareness and usage of Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) in Alice community, Eastern Cape, South Africa. This study also employed quantitative approach by using self-structured questionnaire to evoke information from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings revealed amongst others the efficacy of Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) in fostering teaching and learning in rural marginalized areas. This study concludes that MOOCs is a veritable medium for busy or less privileged individual to acquire a degree or certification. Therefore, the study recommends MOOCs platform to be fully embraced by people in rural marginalized areas, awareness programs about its usefulness should be propagated across the municipalities nationwide.

Keywords: distance learning, information and communication technology, massive open online course, online learning, teaching and learning

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Authors: Angkana Tungkasamit, Ladda Silanoi , Teerachai Nethanomsak, Sitthipon Art-in, Siribhong Bhiasiri

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As the date for the commencement of the ASEAN Community in Year 2015 is approaching, it has become apparent to all that there is an urgent need to get Thai people ready to meet the challenge of entering into the Community confidently. Our research team has been organized by the Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University with the task of training administrators and teachers of the schools along the borders with Laos People’s Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia to be able to develop supplementary courses on ASEAN Community. The course to be developed is based on the essential elements of the Community, i.e. general backgrounds of the member countries, the education, social and economic life in the Community and social skills needed for a good citizen of the ASEAN Community. The study, based on learning outcome and learning management process as a basis for inquiry, was a research and development in nature using participative action research as a means to achieve the goal of helping school administrators and teachers to learn how to develop supplementary courses to be used in their schools. A post-workshop evaluation of the outcome was made and found that, besides the successfully completed supplementary course, the participants were satisfied with their participation in the workshop because they had participated in every step of the development activity, from the beginning to the end.

Keywords: development of supplementary course, ASEAN community, social studies, northeastern border area of Thailand

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Authors: F. Gallop, C. Ward, M. Zaky, M. Vaghela, R. Sabaratnam

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Nitrous oxide (N₂O) has been used in anaesthesia for over 150 years owing to advantageous physical and pharmacological properties. However, with a global warming potential of 310, we have an urgent responsibility to reduce its usage and emission. Anecdotal evidence in our hospital trust suggests minimal N₂O usage, yet our theatres receive a staggering supply. This warranted further investigation. We used a data collection tool to prospectively capture quantitative and qualitative data regarding N₂O cases during one week: this recorded demographics, N₂O indications, clinical management, and total N₂O consumption in litres. In addition, N₂O usage in dental sedation suites and paediatric theatres was separately quantified. Pipeline supply data was acquired from British Oxygen Company accounts. We captured 490 cases. 4% (n=19) used N₂O, 63% (n=12) of these in dental theatres. Common N₂0 indications were induction speed (37%) and rapidly increasing anaesthesia depth (32%). In adult cases, N₂O was always used intraoperatively rather than solely at induction. 74% (n=14) of anaesthetists reported environmental concern over using N₂O. The week’s total N₂O usage was 8109 litres, amounting to 421,668 litres annually. However, the annual N₂O pipeline supply is 2,997,000 litres; an enormous 1.8 million Kg of CO₂. Our results supportively demonstrate that the N₂O pipeline supply greatly exceeds its clinical use. Acknowledging clinical areas not audited, the discrepancy between supply and usage suggests approximately 2.5 million litres of yearly wastage. We consequently recommend terminating the N₂O pipeline supply in minimally used areas, eliminating 1.5 million Kg of CO₂ emissions. High usage clinical areas could consider portable N₂O cylinders as an alternative. In Sweden, N₂O destruction technology is routinely used to minimise CO₂ emissions. Our results support National Health System investment in similar infrastructure.

Keywords: anaesthesia, environment, medical gases, nitrous oxide, sustainability

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Authors: David Maina Muthegethi

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The Victoria Basin is associated with gateway for migration to Southern part of Africa. Different communities migrated through the region including the Bantus and Nilotic communities that occupy present day Kenya and Tanzania. A distinct culture of dry-stone technology emerged around 15th century current era, a period associated with peopling of the western Kenya region. One of the biggest dry-stone walls enclosure is Thimlich Ohinga archaeological site. The site was constructed around fourteenth century current era. Architectural design was oval shaped stone structures that were around 4 meters and 2 meters in length and width respectively. The main subsistence strategies of the community that was crop faming, pastoralism, fishing, hunting and gathering. This paper attempts to examine gender dynamics of Thimlich Ohinga society. At that end, attempts are made to infer gender roles as manifested in archaeological record. Therefore, the study entails examination of material evidence excavated from the site. Also, ethnoarchaeological study of contemporary Luo community was undertaken in order to make inferences and analogies concerning gender roles of Thimlich Ohinga society. Overall, the study involved examination of cultural materials excavated from Thimlich Ohinga, extensive survey of the site and ethnography of Luo community. In total, an extensive survey and interviews of 20 households was undertaken in South Kanyamkango ward, Migori County in Western Kenya. The key findings point out that Thimlich Ohinga gender identities were expressed in material forms through architecture, usage of spaces, subsistence strategies, dietary patterns and household organization. Also, gender as social identity was dynamic and responsive to diversification of subsistence strategies and intensification of regional trade as documented in contemporary Luo community. The paper reiterates importance of ethnoarchaeological methods in reconstruction of past social organization as manifested in material record.

Keywords: ethnoarchaeological, gender, subsistence patterns, Thimlich Ohinga

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Authors: Valliyil Govindankutty

Abstract:

Human civilizations across the globe stand testimony to water being one of the major interaction points with nature. The interactions with nature especially in drier areas revolve around water, be it harnessing, transporting, usage and management. Many ingenious ideas were born, nurtured and developed for harnessing, transporting, storing and distributing water through the areas in the drier parts of the world. Many methods of water extraction, collection and management could be found throughout the world, some of which are associated with efficient, sustained use of surface water, ground water and rain water. Karez is one such ingenious method of collection, transportation, storage and distribution of ground water. Most of the Karez systems in India were developed during reign of Muslim dynasties with ruling class descending from Persia or having influential connections and inviting expert engineers from there. Karez have strongly influenced the village socio-economic organisations due to multitude of uses they were brought into. These are masterpiece engineering structures to collect groundwater and direct it, through a subsurface gallery with a gradual slope, to surface canals that provide water to settlements and agricultural fields. This ingenious technology, karez was result of need for harnessing groundwater in arid areas like that of Bidar. The study views this traditional technology in historical perspective linked to sustainable utilization and management of groundwater and above all the immediate environment. The karez system is one of the best available demonstration of human ingenuity and adaptability to situations and locations of water scarcity. Bidar, capital of erstwhile Bahmani sultanate with a history of more than 700 years or more is one of the heritage cities of present Karnataka State. The unique water systems of Bidar along with other historic entities have been listed under World Heritage Watch List by World Monument Fund. The Historical or cultural landscape in Bidar is very closely associated to the natural resources of the region, Karez systems being one of the best examples. The Karez systems were the lifeline of Bidar’s historical period providing potable water, fulfilling domestic and irrigation needs, both within and outside the fort enclosures. These systems are still functional, but under great pressure and threat of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. The change in land use and fragmentation of land are already paving way for irreversible modification of the karez cultural and geographic landscape. The Paper discusses the significance of character defining elements of Naubad Karez Landscape, highlights the importance of conserving cultural heritage and presents a geographical approach to its revival.

Keywords: Karez, groundwater, traditional water harvesting, cultural heritage landscape, urban planning

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Authors: Ahsan Abdullah, Ahmed A. S. Bakshwain

Abstract:

Livestock is one of the fastest-growing sectors in agriculture. If carefully managed, have potential opportunities for economic growth, food sovereignty and food security. In this study we mainly analyse and compare long-term i.e. for year 2030 climate variability impact on predicted productivity of meat i.e. beef, mutton and poultry for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia w.r.t three factors i.e. i) climatic-change vulnerability ii) CO2 fertilization and iii) water scarcity and compare the results with two countries of the region i.e. Iraq and Yemen. We do the analysis using data from diverse sources, which was extracted, transformed and integrated before usage. The collective impact of the three factors had an overall negative effect on the production of meat for all the three countries, with adverse impact on Iraq. High similarity was found between CO2 fertilization (effecting animal fodder) and water scarcity i.e. higher than that between production of beef and mutton for the three countries considered. Overall, the three factors do not seem to be favorable for the three Middle-East countries considered. This points to possibility of a vegetarian year 2030 based on dependency on indigenous live-stock population.

Keywords: prediction, animal-source foods, pastures, CO2 fertilization, climatic-change vulnerability, water scarcity

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Authors: Jiayue Zhao, Hongjuan Wu, Guiwen Liu

Abstract:

Old neighborhoods with a large elderly population depend on community-based elderly care facilities (community-based ECFs) for aging-in-place. Yet, due to scarce and scattered land, the facilities face inequitable distribution. This research uses spatial equity theory to measure the spatial equity of community-based ECFs in old neighborhoods. Field surveys gather granular data and methods, including coverage rate, Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, and G2SFCA. The findings showed that coverage is substantial but does not indicate supply is a match to demand, nor does it imply superior accessibility. The key contributions are that structuring spatial equity framework considering elderly residents’ travel behavior. This study is dedicated to the international literature on spatial equity from the perspective of travel behavior and could provide valuable suggestions for the urban planning of old neighborhoods.

Keywords: community-based ECFs, elderly residents’ travel behavior, old neighborhoods, spatial equity

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Authors: Iranga Weerakkody, Palitha Sri Geegana Arachchige, Dasith Tilakaratna

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to study how folk wisdom can be applied to assist in the process of purification of water. This is qualitative research, and by random sampling, it is focused on to the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The research limitation has been set to the use of Ingini seeds (Strychnos potatorum) to purify water. Here the research is based on connecting traditional knowledge regarding water purification using Ingini seeds to modern times and the advantages and disadvantages of using Ingini seeds to purify water sources. Ingini seeds have been used among villagers of the dry zone to purify water for a long time by methods such as planting Ingini plants around water sources and depositing seeds covered with a cotton cloth inside wells. Crushed Ingini seeds have been put into clay water pots to reduce the hardness of water, as well as the number of impurities present in the water. This shows that Ingini seeds have a property that is successful in precipitating dissolved impurities in water. Ingini seeds are also used to precipitate solid impurities in herbal wine. The advantages of using Ingini seeds are that it can be obtained naturally from the ecology without an additional cost and that it is completely organic forest produce. Another specialty is that in practices, it is used to treat kidney stones and other water-related diseases affecting the kidneys.

Keywords: folklife, Ingini seeds, Strychnos potatorum, organic forest produce, water purification

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Authors: Eakarat Boonreang, Anothai Harasarn

Abstract:

The objectives of this study are to investigate the flood disaster management capacity of communities in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, and to recommend the sustainable flood management approaches of communities in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand. The selected population consisted of the community leaders and committees, the executives of local administrative organizations, and the head of Ubon Ratchathani provincial office of disaster prevention and mitigation. The data was collected by in-depth interview, focus group, and observation. The data was analyzed and classified in order to determine the communities’ capacity in flood disaster management. The results revealed that communities’ capacity were as follows, before flood disaster, the community leaders held a meeting with the community committees in order to plan disaster response and determined evacuation routes, and the villagers moved their belongings to higher places and prepared vehicles for evacuation. During flood disaster, the communities arranged motorboats for transportation and villagers evacuated to a temporary evacuation center. Moreover, the communities asked for survival bags, motorboats, emergency toilets, and drinking water from the local administrative organizations and the 22nd Military Circle. After flood disaster, the villagers cleaned and fixed their houses and also collaborated in cleaning the temple, school, and other places in the community. The recommendation approaches for sustainable flood disaster management consisted of structural measures, such as the establishment of reservoirs and building higher houses, and non-structural measures such as raising awareness and fostering self-reliance, establishing disaster management plans, rehearsal of disaster response procedures every year, and transferring disaster knowledge among younger generations. Moreover, local administrative organizations should formulate strategic plans that focus on disaster management capacity building at the community level, particularly regarding non-structural measures. Ubon Ratchathani provincial offices of disaster prevention and mitigation should continually monitor and evaluate the outcomes of community based disaster risk management program, including allocating more flood disaster management-related resources among local administrative organizations and communities.

Keywords: capacity building, community based disaster risk management, flood disaster management, Thailand

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