Search results for: land

Authors: Alisha Sinha, Laxmi Kant Sharma

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Forest fires are a recurring issue in many parts of the world, including India. These fires can have various causes, including human activities (such as agricultural burning, campfires, or discarded cigarettes) and natural factors (such as lightning). This study presents a comprehensive and advanced methodology for assessing wildfire susceptibility by integrating diverse environmental variables and leveraging cutting-edge machine learning techniques across Rajasthan, India. The primary goal of the study is to utilize Google Earth Engine to compare locations in Sariska National Park, Rajasthan (India), before and after forest fires. High-resolution satellite data were used to assess the amount and types of changes caused by forest fires. The present study meticulously analyzes various environmental variables, i.e., slope orientation, elevation, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), drainage density, precipitation, and temperature, to understand landscape characteristics and assess wildfire susceptibility. In addition, a sophisticated random forest regression model is used to predict land surface temperature based on a set of environmental parameters.

Keywords: wildfire susceptibility mapping, LST, random forest, GEE, MODIS, climatic parameters

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Authors: Dorota Miroslaw-Swiatek, Mateusz Grygoruk, Sylwia Szporak

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We applied a two-dimensional surface water flow model with irregular wet boundaries. In this model, flow equations are in the form of a 2-D, non-linear diffusion equations which allows to account spatial variations in flow resistance and topography. Calculation domain to simulate the flow pattern in the floodplain is congruent with a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) grid. The rate and direction of sheet flow in wetlands is affected by vegetation type and density, therefore the developed model take into account spatial distribution vegetation resistance to the water flow. The model was tested in a part of the Biebrza Valley, of an outstanding heterogeneity in the elevation and flow resistance distributions due to various ecohydrological conditions and management measures. In our approach we used the highest-possible quality of the DEM in order to obtain hydraulic slopes and vegetation distribution parameters for the modelling. The DEM was created from the cloud of points measured in the LiDAR technology. The LiDAR reflects both the land surface as well as all objects on top of it such as vegetation. Depending on the density of vegetation cover the ability of laser penetration is variable. Therefore to obtain accurate land surface model the “vegetation effect” was corrected using data collected in the field (mostly the vegetation height) and satellite imagery such as Ikonos (to distinguish different vegetation types of the floodplain and represent them spatially). Model simulation was performed for the spring thaw flood in 2009.

Keywords: floodplain flow, Biebrza valley, model simulation, 2D surface flow model

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Authors: Hande Ünlü, Yu Morishita

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The total area of forest land in Japan accounts for 67% of the national land; however, despite this wealth and hundred years history of silviculture, today Japanese forestry faces socio-economic stagnation in forestry. While the growing gap in the people-forest relationship causes the depopulation of many forest villages, this paper introduces a methodology aiming to develop a place-specific approach in revitalizing this relationship. The paper focuses on a case study from Taiki town in the Hokkaido region to analyze the place's specific socio-economic requirements through interviews and workshops with the local experts, researchers, and stakeholders. Based on the analyzed facts, a master outline of design requirements is developed to produce locally sourced architectural embodiments that aim to act as a unifying element between the forests and the people of Taiki town. In parallel, the proposed methodology aims to generate a cycle of research feed and a researcher retreat, a definition given by Memu Earth Lab to the researchers' stay at Memu in Taiki town for a defined period to analyze local resources, for the continuous improvement of the introduced methodology to revitalize the interaction between people and forest through architecture.

Keywords: architecture, Japanese forestry, local timber, people-forest relationship, research platform

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Authors: Lana Whiskeyjack, Kyle Napier

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The Spirit of the language embodies the motivation for indigenous people to connect with the indigenous language of their lineage. While the concept of the spirit of the language is often woven into the discussion by indigenous language revitalizationists, particularly those who are indigenous, there are few tangible terms in academic research conceptually actualizing the term. Through collaborative work with indigenous language speakers, elders, and learners, this research sets out to identify the spirit of the language, the catalysts of disconnection from the spirit of the language, and the sources of reconnection to the spirit of the language. This work fundamentally addresses the terms of engagement around collaboration with indigenous communities, itself inviting a decolonial approach to community outreach and individual relationships. As indigenous researchers, this means beginning, maintain, and closing this work in the ceremony while being transparent with community members in this work and related publishing throughout the project’s duration. Decolonizing this approach also requires maintaining explicit ongoing consent by the elders, knowledge keepers, and community members when handling their ancestral and indigenous knowledge. The handling of this knowledge is regarded in this work as stewardship, both in the handling of digital materials and the handling of ancestral Indigenous knowledge. This work observes recorded conversations in both nêhiyawêwin and English, resulting from 10 semi-structured interviews with fluent nêhiyawêwin speakers as well as three structured dialogue circles with fluent and emerging speakers. The words were transcribed by a speaker fluent in both nêhiyawêwin and English. The results of those interviews were categorized thematically to conceptually actualize the spirit of the language, catalysts of disconnection to thespirit of the language, and community voices methods of reconnection to the spirit of the language. Results of these interviews vastly determine that the spirit of the language is drawn from the land. Although nêhiyawêwin is the focus of this work, Indigenous languages are by nature inherently related to the land. This is further reaffirmed by the Indigenous language learners and speakers who expressed having ancestries and lineages from multiple Indigenous communities. Several other key differences embody this spirit of the language, which include ceremony and spirituality, as well as the semantic worldviews tied to polysynthetic verb-oriented morphophonemics most often found in indigenous languages — and of focus, nêhiyawêwin. The catalysts of disconnection to the spirit of the language are those whose histories have severed connections between Indigenous Peoples and the spirit of their languages or those that have affected relationships with the land, ceremony, and ways of thinking. Results of this research and its literature review have determined the three most ubiquitously damaging interdependent factors, which are catalysts of disconnection from the spirit of the language as colonization, capitalism, and Christianity. As voiced by the Indigenous language learners, this work necessitates addressing means to reconnect to the spirit of the language. Interviewees mentioned that the process of reconnection involves a whole relationship with the land, the practice of reciprocal-relational methodologies for language learning, and indigenous-protected and -governed learning. This work concludes in support of those reconnection methodologies.

Keywords: indigenous language acquisition, indigenous language reclamation, indigenous language revitalization, nêhiyawêwin, spirit of the language

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Authors: Girija Jha

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This paper investigates the need of cotton to integrate sustainability. The methodology used in the paper is to do secondary research to find out the various environmental implications of cotton as textile material across its life cycle and try to look at ways and possibilities of minimizing its ecological footprint. Cotton is called ‘The Fabric of Our Lives’. History is replete with examples where this fabric used to be more than a fabric of lives. It used to be a miracle fabric, a symbol India’s pride and social Movement of Swaraj, Gandhijee’s clarion call to self reliance. Cotton is grown in more than 90 countries across the globe on 2.5 percent of the world's arable land in countries like China, India, United States, etc. accounting for almost three fourth of global production. But cotton as a raw material has come under the scanner of sustainability experts because of myriad reasons a few have been discussed here. It may take more than 20,000 liters of water to produce 1kg of cotton. Cotton harvest is primarily done from irrigated land which leads to Salinization and depletion of local water reservoirs, e.g., Drying up of Aral Sea. Cotton is cultivated on 2.4% of total world’s crop land but accounts for 24% usage of insecticide and shares the blame of 11% usage of pesticides leading to health hazards and having an alarmingly dangerous impact on the ecosystem. One of the possible solutions to these problems as proposed was GM, Genetically Modified cotton crop. However, use of GM cotton is still debatable and has many ethical issues. The practice of mass production and increasing consumerism and especially fast fashion has been major culprits to disrupt this delicate balance. Disposable fashion or fast fashion is on the rise and cotton being one of the major choices adds on to the problem. Denims – made of cotton and have a strong fashion statement and the washes being an integral part of their creation they share a lot of blame. These are just a few problems listed. Today Sustainability is the need of the hour and it is inevitable to incorporate have major changes in the way we cultivate and process cotton to make it a sustainable choice. The answer lies in adopting minimalism and boycotting fast fashion, in using Khadi, in saying no to washed denims and using selvedge denims or using better methods of finishing the washed out fabric so that the environment does not bleed blue. Truly, the answer lies in integrating state of art technology with age old sustainable practices so that the synergy of the two may help us come out of the vicious circle.

Keywords: cotton, sustainability, denim, Khadi

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Authors: Okunola Solomon Olufemi

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The study focused on the contribution of urban agriculture to the livelihood of 107 respondents in Kwara State of Nigeria. The study employed structured questionnaire to collect relevant data for the study while descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentage were employed to analyses the objectives. Most respondents (82.9%), were one time or the other in a married state and they had formal education (80.4%) while many of the lot (58.9%) had superior education ranging from OND to Ph.D level. These farmers were either retired government workers or those trying to argument their family income or trying to be food sufficient. Most of the respondents (77.4%) had a farm size of less than or equal to 3 hectares showing that most the urban farmers were smallholders which might be as a result of stiff completion for land resource. Most of the respondents had a relatively large family size of 6 and above members. Most respondents used family labor (59.8%). Respondents in the study area also made use of the cooperatives and daily contributions for loanable funds, while few respondents utilized the formal sector. .Urban agriculture accounted for 84.4% of the Livelihood outcomes of the respondents. While non-farming activities contributed 17.6%.Most of the respondents (31.8%) participated in non-farming activities to generate extra income while their major constraints were shortage of land both in term of access and tenure (34.1%), limited access to resource and agricultural inputs (29.3%), and prohibitive urban policies and regulation (23.2%).

Keywords: poverty throes, urban agriculture, rigors of farming, non-farming, married state

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Authors: Hantian Wu, Bo Huang, Yuan Zeng

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Divisions between wealthy and poor, private and public landscapes are propagated by the increasing economic inequality of cities. While these are the spatial reflections of larger social issues and problems, urban design can at least employ spatial techniques that promote more inclusive rather than exclusive, overlapping rather than segregated, interlinked rather than disconnected landscapes. Indeed, the type of edge or border between urban landscapes plays a critical role in the way the environment is perceived. China experiences rapid urbanization, which poses unpredictable environmental challenges. The urban green cover and water body are under changes, which highly relevant to resident wealth and happiness. However, very limited knowledge and data on their rapid changes are available. In this regard, enhancing the monitoring of urban landscape with high-frequency method, evaluating and estimating the impacts of the urban landscape changes, and understating the driving forces of urban landscape changes can be a significant contribution for urban planning and studying. High-resolution remote sensing data has been widely applied to urban management in China. The map of urban land use map for the entire China of 2018 with 10 meters resolution has been published. However, this research focuses on the large-scale and high-resolution remote sensing land use but does not precisely focus on the seasonal change of urban covers. High-resolution remote sensing data has a long-operation cycle (e.g., Landsat 8 required 16 days for the same location), which is unable to satisfy the requirement of monitoring urban-landscape changes. On the other hand, aerial-remote or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sensing are limited by the aviation-regulation and cost was hardly widely applied in the mega-cities. Moreover, those data are limited by the climate and weather conditions (e.g., cloud, fog), and those problems make capturing spatial and temporal dynamics is always a challenge for the remote sensing community. Particularly, during the rainy season, no data are available even for Sentinel Satellite data with 5 days interval. Many natural events and/or human activities drive the changes of urban covers. In this case, enhancing the monitoring of urban landscape with high-frequency method, evaluating and estimating the impacts of the urban landscape changes, and understanding the mechanism of urban landscape changes can be a significant contribution for urban planning and studying. This project aims to use the high spatiotemporal fusion of remote sensing data to create short-cycle, high-resolution remote sensing data sets for exploring the high-frequently urban cover changes. This research will enhance the long-term monitoring applicability of high spatiotemporal fusion of remote sensing data for the urban landscape for optimizing the urban management of landscape border to promoting the inclusive of the urban landscape to all communities.

Keywords: urban land cover changes, remote sensing, high spatiotemporal fusion, urban management

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Authors: Hung-Chu Chen, Han Qi, Bauke de Vries

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Energy consumption in the urban environment has attracted numerous researches in recent decades. However, it is comparatively rare to find literary works which investigated 3D spatial analysis of urban energy demand modelling. In order to analyze the spatial correlation between urban morphology and energy demand comprehensively, this paper investigates their relation by using the spatial regression tool. In addition, the spatial regression tool which is applied in this paper is ordinary least squares regression (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and building volume are explainers of urban morphology, which act as independent variables of Energy-land use (E-L) model. NDBI and NDVI are used as the index to describe five types of land use: urban area (U), open space (O), artificial green area (G), natural green area (V), and water body (W). Accordingly, annual electricity, gas demand and energy demand are dependent variables of the E-L model. Based on the analytical result of E-L model relation, it revealed that energy demand and urban morphology are closely connected and the possible causes and practical use are discussed. Besides, the spatial analysis methods of OLS and GWR are compared.

Keywords: energy demand model, geographically weighted regression, normalized difference built-up index, normalized difference vegetation index, spatial statistics

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Authors: Cornelius Michael Ekenta

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The study determined institutional and technological factors that influence the adoption of tenera oil palm production practices with a gender dimension among smallholder farmers in Edo State, Nigeria. Primary data were generated with use of questionnaire administered to 155 males and 137 female respondents. Results show that the level of adoption of tenera oil palm production practices was low for both male and females. Tobi regression result shows that land ownership structure and affordability at 1% significance influenced male adoption of tenera oil palm production practices while age and level of income at 1% significance influenced female in the adoption. The major roles of male as reported in adopting process were purchase of seedlings, clearing of bush for planting and selling of cut bunches while the major roles of female were periodic weeding, gathering of cut bunches and mulching of palm field. The major constraint faced by male in adoption process were high cost of labour while for females is drudgery nature of the work. The study recommended that the Land Use Act of 1978 should be enforced to help women and non-indigenes to have sizeable farm lands, Government should empower Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) by employing more extension personnel to increase their contacts with the farmers.

Keywords: gender, adoption, variety, oil, tenera, Edo

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Authors: Sidiqat A. Aderinoye-Abdulwahab, Lateef L. Adefalu, Rashid S. Adisa, Felix O. Oladipo, Tawakalitu A. Dolapo

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This study investigates whether the rural women in Nigeria have access to productive resources such as land, livestock, and capital in order to determine their level of socio-economic empowerment. The study adopted a case study design while employing qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to identify 7 locations, where 88 women were selected based on simple random sampling technique. Focus group discussions and questionnaire were used to elicit information. Gender analysis framework was used to explore and analyse the data generated for the study. The study found that the rural women desire to engage in gainful economic activities. However, cultural barriers prevent them from adequately exploring livelihood-improving opportunities. It was established that ownership of productive resources such as land and livestock can enhance their livelihoods provided cultural and governance issues do not deter them from accessing the services. It was therefore recommended that appropriate policies that will favour the access and ownership of assets by women so as to empower them need to be in place. The study provides a nuanced perspective on the influence and relevance of possession of physical assets in enhancing women’s livelihood diversification and overall development of rural livelihoods.

Keywords: livelihoods, productivity, development, economic activities, socio-economic empowerment

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Authors: Mir Ahmad Lashteh Neshaei, Hamed Afsoos Biria, Ata Ghabraei, Mir Abdolhamid Mehrdad

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Awareness of effective land using issues in coastal area including protection of natural ecosystems and coastal environment due to the increasing of human life along the coast is of great importance. There are numerous valuable structures and heritages which are located in defence sites and waterfront area. Marine structures such as groins, sea walls and detached breakwaters are constructed in coast to improve the coast stability against bed erosion due to changing wave and climate pattern. Marine mechanisms and interaction with the shore protection structures need to be intensively studied. Groins are one of the most prominent structures that are used in shore protection to create a safe environment for coastal area by maintaining the land against progressive coastal erosion. The main structural function of a groin is to control the long shore current and littoral sediment transport. This structure can be submerged and provide the necessary beach protection without negative environmental impact. However, for submerged structures adopted for beach protection, the shoreline response to these structures is not well understood at present. Nowadays, modelling and computer simulation are used to assess beach morphology in the vicinity of marine structures to reduce their environmental impact. The objective of this study is to predict the beach morphology in the vicinity of submerged groins and comparison with non-submerged groins with focus on a part of the coast located in Dahane sar Sefidrood, Guilan province, Iran where serious coast erosion has occurred recently. The simulations were obtained using a one-line model which can be used as a first approximation of shoreline prediction in the vicinity of groins. The results of the proposed model are compared with field measurements to determine the shape of the coast. Finally, the results of the present study show that using submerged groins can have a good efficiency to control the beach erosion without causing severe environmental impact to the coast. The important outcome from this study can be employed in optimum designing of defence sites in the coastal cities to improve their efficiency in terms of re-using the heritage lands.

Keywords: submerged structures, groin, shore protective structures, coastal cities

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Authors: Bianca Maria Rulli, Lenny Valentino Schiaretti

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The considerable recent urbanization has increasingly sharpened environmental and social problems all over the world. During the recent years, many answers to the alarming attitudes in modern cities have emerged: a drastic reduction in the rate of growth is becoming essential for future generations and small scale economies are considered more adaptive and sustainable. According to the concept of degrowth, cities should consider surpassing the centralization of urban living by redefining the relationship between rural and urban knowledge; growing food in cities fundamentally contributes to the increase of social and ecological resilience. Through an innovative approach, this research combines the benefits of urban agriculture (increase of biological diversity, shorter and thus more efficient supply chains, food security) and temporary land use. They stimulate collaborative practices to satisfy the changing needs of communities and stakeholders. The concept proposes a coherent strategy to create a sustainable development of urban spaces, introducing a productive green-network to link specific areas in the city. By shifting the current relationship between architecture and landscape, the former process of ground consumption is deeply revised. Temporary modules can be used as concrete tools to create temporal areas of innovation, transforming vacant or marginal spaces into potential laboratories for the development of the city. The only permanent ground traces, such as foundations, are minimized in order to allow future land re-use. The aim is to describe a new mindset regarding the quality of space in the metropolis which allows, in a completely flexible way, to bring back the green and the urban farming into the cities. The wide possibilities of the research are analyzed in two different case-studies. The first is a regeneration/connection project designated for social housing, the second concerns the use of temporary modules to answer to the potential needs of social structures. The intention of the productive green-network is to link the different vacant spaces to each other as well as to the entire urban fabric. This also generates a potential improvement of the current situation of underprivileged and disadvantaged persons.

Keywords: degrowth, green network, land use, temporary building, urban farming

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Authors: Rabindra K. Panda, Gurjeet Singh

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The major objective of this study was to analyze the trend and variability of rainfall in the middle Mahandi river basin located in eastern India. The trend of variation of extreme rainfall events has predominant effect on agricultural water management and extreme hydrological events such as floods and droughts. Mahanadi river basin is one of the major river basins of India having an area of 1,41,589 km² and divided into three regions: Upper, middle and delta region. The middle region of Mahanadi river basin has an area of 48,700 km² and it is mostly dominated by agricultural land, where agriculture is mostly rainfed. The study region has five Agro-climatic zones namely: East and South Eastern Coastal Plain, North Eastern Ghat, Western Undulating Zone, Western Central Table Land and Mid Central Table Land, which were numbered as zones 1 to 5 respectively for convenience in reporting. In the present study, analysis of variability and trends of annual, seasonal, and monthly rainfall was carried out, using the daily rainfall data collected from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for 35 years (1979-2013) for the 5 agro-climatic zones. The long term variability of rainfall was investigated by evaluating the mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation. The long term trend of rainfall was analyzed using the Mann-Kendall test on monthly, seasonal and annual time scales. It was found that there is a decreasing trend in the rainfall during the winter and pre monsoon seasons for zones 2, 3 and 4; whereas in the monsoon (rainy) season there is an increasing trend for zones 1, 4 and 5 with a level of significance ranging between 90-95%. On the other hand, the mean annual rainfall has an increasing trend at 99% significance level. The estimated seasonality index showed that the rainfall distribution is asymmetric and distributed over 3-4 months period. The study will help to understand the spatio-temporal variation of rainfall and to determine the correlation between the current rainfall trend and climate change scenario of the study region for multifarious use.

Keywords: Eastern India, long-term variability and trends, Mann-Kendall test, seasonality index, spatio-temporal variation

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Authors: Prabu Duplex

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Due to stringent emission regulation targets, large-scale transition to renewable energy sources is a global challenge, and wind power plays a significant role in the solution vector. This scenario has led to the construction of offshore wind farms, and several wind farms are planned in the shallow waters where the marine habitat exists. It raises concerns over impacts of underwater noise on marine species, for example bridge constructions in the ocean straits. Dangerous to aquatic life, the environmental organisations say, the bridge would be devastating, since ocean straits are important place of transit for marine mammals. One of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world is concentrated these areas. The investigation of ship noise and piling noise that may happen during bridge construction and in operation is therefore vital. Once the source levels are known the receiver levels can be modelled. With this objective this work investigates the key requirement of the software that can model transmission loss in high frequencies that may occur during construction or operation phases. Most propagation models are 2D solutions, calculating the propagation loss along a transect, which does not include horizontal refraction, reflection or diffraction. In many cases, such models provide sufficient accuracy and can provide three-dimensional maps by combining, through interpolation, several two-dimensional (distance and depth) transects. However, in some instances the use of 2D models may not be sufficient to accurately model the sound propagation. A possible example includes a scenario where an island or land mass is situated between the source and receiver. The 2D model will result in a shadow behind the land mass where the modelled transects intersect the land mass. Diffraction will occur causing bending of the sound around the land mass. In such cases, it may be necessary to use a 3D model, which accounts for horizontal diffraction to accurately represent the sound field. Other scenarios where 2D models may not provide sufficient accuracy may be environments characterised by a strong up-sloping or down sloping seabed, such as propagation around continental shelves. In line with these objectives by means of a case study, this work addresses the importance of 3D interactions in underwater acoustics. The methodology used in this study can also be used for other 3D underwater sound propagation studies. This work assumes special significance given the increasing interest in using underwater acoustic modeling for environmental impacts assessments. Future work also includes inter-model comparison in shallow water environments considering more physical processes known to influence sound propagation, such as scattering from the sea surface. Passive acoustic monitoring of the underwater soundscape with distributed hydrophone arrays is also suggested to investigate the 3D propagation effects as discussed in this article.

Keywords: underwater acoustics, naval, maritime, cetaceans

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Authors: Byoungjoon Yu, Jihwan Park, Sujung Sin, Junghyun Im, Minsoo Park, Sehwan Park, Seunghee Park

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In this paper, we propose a technology to monitor the soundness of an Internet-based bridge using a non-conductive inspection function. There has been a collapse accident due to the aging of the bridge structure, and it is necessary to prepare for the deterioration of the bridge. The NDT/SHM system for maintenance of existing bridge structures requires a large number of inspection personnel and expensive inspection costs, and access of expensive and large equipment to measurement points is required. Because current drone inspection equipment can only be inspected through camera, it is difficult to inspect inside damage accurately, and the results of an internal damage evaluation are subjective, and it is difficult for non-specialists to recognize the evaluation results. Therefore, it is necessary to develop NDT/SHM techniques for maintenance of new-concept bridge structures that allow for free movement and real-time evaluation of measurement results. This work is financially supported by Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) as 'Smart City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program' and a grant (14SCIP-B088624-01) from Construction Technology Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean government.

Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring, SHM, non-contact sensing, nondestructive testing, NDT, Internet of Things, autonomous self-driving drone

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Authors: Oseni Taiwo Amoo, Bloodless Dzwairo

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In this paper, we extend the versatility and usefulness of GIS as a methodology for any river basin hydrologic characteristics analysis (HCA). The Gurara River basin located in North-Central Nigeria is presented in this study. It is an on-going research using spatial Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Arc-Hydro tools to take inventory of the basin characteristics in order to predict water abstraction quantification on streamflow regime. One of the main concerns of hydrological modelling is the quantification of runoff from rainstorm events. In practice, the soil conservation service curve (SCS) method and the Conventional procedure called rational technique are still generally used these traditional hydrological lumped models convert statistical properties of rainfall in river basin to observed runoff and hydrograph. However, the models give little or no information about spatially dispersed information on rainfall and basin physical characteristics. Therefore, this paper synthesizes morphometric parameters in generating runoff. The expected results of the basin characteristics such as size, area, shape, slope of the watershed and stream distribution network analysis could be useful in estimating streamflow discharge. Water resources managers and irrigation farmers could utilize the tool for determining net return from available scarce water resources, where past data records are sparse for the aspect of land and climate.

Keywords: hydrological characteristic, stream flow, runoff discharge, land and climate

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Authors: Meisam Zargar, Yurii Pleskachov, Mostafa Abdelkader, Aldaibe Ahmed, Maryam Bayat, Malek H. Walli, Shimendi Okbagabir

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The increased need of humankind for foodstuffs highlights the intensification of agricultural production. It is necessary either to increase the size of the sown area or to look for new approaches to improve agricultural land productivity. Developing new areas for cultivation is possible due to the intensification of soil cultivation. Nevertheless, this will decrease the effectiveness of de-carbonization programs since this approach will inevitably increase greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, searching for new solutions to conserve natural resources while obtaining stable predicted crop yields is a vital scientific and technical task. For a long time, destructive land use methods have been used in crop production. The present stage of civilization's development and implementation of new techniques and methods of tillage and crops require the solution of technological, economic, and environmental problems simultaneously with the possibility of creating conditions for the regeneration of soil resources. Implementing these approaches became possible due to the development of new technology for the cultivation of crops based on the exact selective impact on the object of processing. This technology of particular effects of TIV combines the positive accumulated experience of traditional farming systems and resource-saving approaches. Particularly high-quality indicators and cost savings with introducing TIV can be achieved when used on row crops, including vegetables and melons.

Keywords: agricultural machinery, vegetable, irrigation, strip system

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Authors: K. C. Sony

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This paper investigates the coping strategies of households confronting disease in large cardamom (Amomum Subulatum Roxb.) in eastern Nepal. Cardamom farmers draw on various coping strategies to reduce the impact of crop disease in their livelihoods. Yet farmers face tremendous decline in production with a constant effort for revival. Past evidences provides dearth of information about coping strategies employed by farmers and institutional intervention to combat disease. Using factual data from Ilam district, and conducting a political economic analysis, this research addresses the gap by 1) understanding the impact of crop disease in farmers’ livelihoods, 2) identifying the coping strategies adopted by farmers and, 3) examining the existing institutional arrangements to address the disease. Coping strategies vary by household’s status defined by size of land, alternative income, and access to supporting institutions. Measures adopted are burning the cardamom field, changing land use pattern, diversifying crops, and visiting institutions for support. The local government’s support is limited to providing trainings and producing new varieties of cardamom. During crisis, farmers expect institutions to help revive the cardamom production, despite customary practice to combat disease. To retain and improve the livelihoods of farmers, there needs to be institutional innovation at the community level and policies that endorse immediate and sustainable support during hazards.

Keywords: cardamom, coping strategy, disease, institutions, Nepal

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Authors: Valdir Moura, Raniele dos Anjos de Souza, Fernando Gomes de Souza, Jose Vagner da Silva, Jerry Adriani Johann

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The estimate of the Area of Land to be planted with annual crops and its stratification by the municipality are important variables in crop forecast. Nowadays in Brazil, these information’s are obtained by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and published under the report Assessment of the Agricultural Production. Due to the high cloud cover in the main crop growing season (October to March) it is difficult to acquire good orbital images. Thus, one alternative is to work with remote sensing data from dates before the crop growing season. This work presents the use of multitemporal Landsat data gathered on July and September (before the summer growing season) in order to estimate the area of land to be planted with summer crops in an area of São Paulo State, Brazil. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digital image processing techniques were applied for the treatment of the available data. Supervised and non-supervised classifications were used for data in digital number and reflectance formats and the multitemporal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images. The objective was to discriminate the tracts with higher probability to become planted with summer crops. Classification accuracies were evaluated using a sampling system developed basically for this study region. The estimated areas were corrected using the error matrix derived from these evaluations. The classification techniques presented an excellent level according to the kappa index. The proportion of crops stratified by municipalities was derived by a field work during the crop growing season. These proportion coefficients were applied onto the area of land to be planted with summer crops (derived from Landsat data). Thus, it was possible to derive the area of each summer crop by the municipality. The discrepancies between official statistics and our results were attributed to the sampling and the stratification procedures. Nevertheless, this methodology can be improved in order to provide good crop area estimates using remote sensing data, despite the cloud cover during the growing season.

Keywords: area intended for summer culture, estimated area planted, agriculture, Landsat, planting schedule

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Authors: Michelle Eliane Hernández-García, Angélica Lozano

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The traffic accidents study usually contemplates the relation between factors such as the type of vehicle, its operation, and the road infrastructure. Traffic accidents can be explained by different factors, which have a greater or lower relevance. Two zones are studied, a mixed industrial zone and the extended zone of it. The first zone has mainly residential (57%), and industrial (23%) land uses. Trucks are mainly on the roads where industries are located. Four sensors give information about traffic and speed on the main roads. The extended zone (which includes the first zone) has mainly residential (47%) and mixed residential (43%) land use, and just 3% of industrial use. The traffic mix is composed mainly of non-trucks. 39 traffic and speed sensors are located on main roads. The traffic mix in a mixed land use zone, could be related to traffic accidents. To understand this relation, it is required to identify the elements of the traffic mix which are linked to traffic accidents. Models that attempt to explain what factors are related to traffic accidents have faced multiple methodological problems for obtaining robust databases. Poisson regression models are used to explain the accidents. The objective of the Poisson analysis is to estimate a vector to provide an estimate of the natural logarithm of the mean number of accidents per period; this estimate is achieved by standard maximum likelihood procedures. For the estimation of the relation between traffic accidents and the traffic mix, the database is integrated of eight variables, with 17,520 observations and six vectors. In the model, the dependent variable is the occurrence or non-occurrence of accidents, and the vectors that seek to explain it, correspond to the vehicle classes: C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6, respectively, standing for car, microbus, and van, bus, unitary trucks (2 to 6 axles), articulated trucks (3 to 6 axles) and bi-articulated trucks (5 to 9 axles); in addition, there is a vector for the average speed of the traffic mix. A Poisson model is applied, using a logarithmic link function and a Poisson family. For the first zone, the Poisson model shows a positive relation among traffic accidents and C6, average speed, C3, C2, and C1 (in a decreasing order). The analysis of the coefficient shows a high relation with bi-articulated truck and bus (C6 and the C3), indicating an important participation of freight trucks. For the expanded zone, the Poisson model shows a positive relation among traffic accidents and speed average, biarticulated truck (C6), and microbus and vans (C2). The coefficients obtained in both Poisson models shows a higher relation among freight trucks and traffic accidents in the first industrial zone than in the expanded zone.

Keywords: freight transport, industrial zone, traffic accidents, traffic mix, trucks

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Authors: K. Nikilsha, Lakshmi Manohar, Debayan Chatterjee

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Landscape is a setting that informs the way of life of a set of people, and the repository of intangible values and human meanings that nurture our very existence. Along with the linkage that it forms with our lives, it can be argued that landscape and memory cannot be separated, as landscape is the nucleus of our memories. In this context, this paper studies landscape evolution of a region with unique geographic setting, where the dependency of the inhabitants on its resources, led to the formation of certain peculiar beliefs and taboos that formed the basis of a set of unwritten rules and guidelines which they still follow as a part of their lifestyle. One such example is Kuttanad, a low lying region in Kerala which is a complex mosaic of fragmented agricultural landscape incorporating coastal backwaters, rivers, marshes, paddy fields and water channels. The more the physical involvement with the resources, the more was the inhabitants attachment towards it. This attachment of the inhabitants to the place is very strong because the creation of this land was the result of the toil of the low caste labourers who strived day and night to create Kuttanad, which was reclaimed from water with the help of the finance supplied by their landlords. However, the greatest challenge faced by them is posed by the forces of water in the form of floods. As this land is fed by five rivers, even the slight variation in rainfall in its watershed area can cause a large imbalance in the water level causing the reclaimed land to be inundated. The effects of climate change including increase in rainfall, rise in sea level and change of seasons can act as a catalyst to this damage. Hasty urbanization has led to the conversion of paddy fields to housing plots and coconut/plantain fields giving no regard to the traditional systems which had once respected nature and combated floods and draughts through the various cultural practices and taboos practiced by the people. Thus it is essential to look back at the landscape evolution of Kuttanad and to recognise methods used traditionally in the region to establish a cultural landscape, and to understand how climate change and urbanisation shall pose a challenge to the existing landscape and lifestyle. This research also explores the possibilities of alternative and sustainable approaches for resilient urban development learned from Kuttanad as a case study.

Keywords: ecological conservation, landscape and ecological engineering, landscape evolution, man-made landscapes

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Authors: WonHo Lee, Hyo-Gyoung Kwak

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A numerical model considering slip behavior of steel-concrete composite structure is introduced. This model is based on a linear bond stress-slip relation along the interface. Single node was considered at the interface of steel and concrete member in finite element analysis, and it improves analytical problems of model that takes double nodes at the interface by adopting spring elements to simulate the partial interaction. The slip behavior is simulated by modifying material properties of steel element contacting concrete according to the derived formulation. Decreased elastic modulus simulates the slip occurrence at the interface and decreased yield strength simulates drop in load capacity of the structure. The model is verified by comparing numerical analysis applying this model with experimental studies. Acknowledgment—This research was supported by a grant(13SCIPA01) from Smart Civil Infrastructure Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) of Korea government and Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement(KAIA) and financially supported by Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) as U-City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program.

Keywords: bond-slip, composite structure, partial interaction, steel-concrete structure

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Authors: Ana Maria De Azevedo

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We are living a remarkable period, responsible for the thriving of the human population to unprecedented levels. Still, it is empirically obvious that sustaining such a huge population puts a tremendous pressure on our planet. Once Land resources grow scarcer, there is a mounting pressure to find alternatives to support basic human needs elsewhere. Occupying most of our planet, it’s therefore natural that, is not a so distant future, humankind look for such basic subsistence means at the Ocean. Thus, once the Ocean becomes essential to Human subsistence, it is predictable it's moving to the foreground of Geopolitics. Both future technologies and uses of the Ocean, as bidding for the exploration of its resources away from the natural territory of influence of a Country, are susceptible of raising the risk of conflict between traditional political adversaries and/or the dilemma of having to balance economic interests, with various security and defense concerns. Those empirical observations suggest the need to further research on this perspective shift of the main Geopolitical axis to the Ocean, the new sources of conflict that can result thereon, and how to address them. The author suggests a systematic analysis of this problematic, to attain a political and legal international consensus, namely on what concerns updating of the 'United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea' of 10 December 1982, and/or its annexes. To proceed with the present research, the primary analysis was based on a quantitative observation, but reasoning thereon relied essentially on a qualitative process of prospective scenarios assessment.

Keywords: marine resources, ocean geopolitics, security and defense, sustainable development

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Authors: Kumaraamy Sasikumar

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The study was conducted in Vadamarachchi-East in Sri Lanka. Data collection was done for a period of two months from June to July 2011. The main focus of this study was to examine factors contributing to mangrove deforestation within the study area, and resultant impacts from deforestation. The study found that, the main factors that have contributed to deforestation include: Long civil wars in the region, poverty which pushed people to clear the forest to earn income through the sale of firewood and timber among others, industrial development, increasing demand for farm and settlement land, limited knowledge within the local community, weak government polices and implementation strategies, and natural disasters especially the 2004 Tsunami destruction. The impacts presented are those that impact both on the environment and the economy including; loss of income sources, loss of biodiversity, climate change, desertification, conflicts in the use of forest products and loss of land productivity due to reduced fertility caused by soil erosion. However, a few strategies have been put in place by the government to ensure the sustainable use of mangrove forest products, though these have not proved successful in reducing deforestation. The recommendations make suggestions to the government and other stakeholders to work together in ensuring sustainable use of natural resources, for example implementing laws and regulations aimed at controlling deforestation among others.

Keywords: deforestation, impacts, actors, environment, economic, sustainable development

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Authors: Mahdi Naeemi Nooghabi, Mohammad Tofiqu Arif

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Gas Insulated Switchgears by using an insulation material named SF6 (Sulphur Hexafluoride) and its significant dielectric properties have been the only choice in urban areas and other polluted industries. However, the initial investment of GIS is more than conventional AIS substation, its total life cycle costs caused to reach huge amounts of electrical market share. SF6 environmental impacts on global warming, atmosphere depletion, and decomposing to toxic gases in high temperature situation, and highest rate in Global Warming Potential (GWP) with 23900 times of CO2e and a 3200-year period lifetime was the only undeniable concern of GIS substation. Efforts of international environmental institute and their politic supports have been able to lead SF6 emission reduction legislation. This research targeted to find an appropriate alternative for GIS substations to meet all advantages in land occupation area and to improve SF6 environmental impacts due to its leakage and emission. An innovative new conceptual design named Multi-Storey prepared a new AIS design similar in land occupation, extremely low Sf6 emission, and maximum greenhouse gas emission reduction. Surprisingly, by considering economic benefits due to carbon price saving, it can earn more than $675 million during the 30-year life cycle by replacing of just 25% of total annual worldly additional GIS switchgears.

Keywords: AIS substation, GIS substation, SF6, greenhouse gas, global warming potential, carbon price, emission

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Authors: Muhammad Saad Aslam

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In 2021, our organization has launched our proprietary mobile App i.e. Farm Intelligence platform, an industrial-first precision agriculture solution, to Pakistan. It was piloted at 47 locations (spanning around 1,200 hectares of land), addressing growers’ pain points by bringing the benefits of precision agriculture to their doorsteps. This year, we have extended its reach by more than 10 times (nearly 130,000 hectares of land) in almost 600 locations across the country. The project team selected highly infested areas to set up traps, which then enabled the sales team to initiate evidence-based conversations with the grower community about preventive crop protection products that includes pesticides and insecticides. Mega farmer meeting field visits and demonstrations plots coupled with extensive marketing activities, were setup to include farmer community. With the help of App real-time pest monitoring (using heat maps and infestation prediction through predictive analytics) we have equipped our growers with on spot insights that will help them optimize pesticide applications. Heat maps allow growers to identify infestation hot spots to fine-tune pesticide delivery, while predictive analytics enable preventive application of pesticides before the situation escalates. Ultimately, they empower growers to keep their crops safe for a healthy harvest.

Keywords: precision pest management, precision agriculture, real time pest tracking, pest forecasting

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Authors: Alicja Kot-Niewiadomska

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Securing sustainable access to raw materials is vital for the growth of the European economy and for the goals laid down in Strategy Europe 2020. One of the most important sources of mineral raw materials are primary deposits. The efficient management of them, including extraction, will ensure competitiveness of the European economy. A critical element of this approach is mineral deposits safeguarding and the most important tool - spatial planning. The safeguarding of deposits should be understood as safeguarding of land access, and safeguarding of area against development, which may (potential) prevent the use of the deposit and the necessary mining activities. Many European Union countries successfully integrated their mineral policy and spatial policy, which has ensured the proper place of mineral deposits in their spatial planning systems. These, in turn, are widely recognized as the most important mineral deposit safeguarding tool, the essence of which is to ensure long-term access to its resources. The examples of Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, discussed in the paper, are often mentioned as examples of good practices in this area. Although none of these countries managed to avoid cases of social and environmental conflicts related to mining activities, the solutions they implement certainly deserve special attention. And for many countries, including Poland, they can be a potential source of solutions aimed at improving the protection of mineral deposits.

Keywords: mineral deposits, land use planning, mineral deposit safeguarding, European practices

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Authors: M. Anji Reddy, R. Uma Devi

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Environmental planning for urban development is very much needed to reduce air pollution through the enhancement of vegetative cover in the cities like Hyderabad. This can be mainly based on the selection of appropriate native plant species as bioindicators to assess the impact of ambient Ozone. In the present study, tolerant species are suggested aimed to reduce the magnitude of ambient ozone concentrations which not only increase eco-friendly vegetation but also moderate air pollution. Hyderabad city is divided into 5 zones based on Land Use/Land Cover category further each zone divided into residential, traffic, industrial, and peri-urban areas. Highest ambient ozone levels are recorded in Industrial areas followed by traffic areas in the entire study area ( > 180 µg/m3). Biomonitoring of selected sixteen local urban plant species with the help of Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) showed its susceptibility to air pollution. Statistical regression models in between the tolerant plant species and ambient ozone levels suggested five plant species namely Azardirachta indica A. Juss which have a high tolerant response to ambient ozone followed by Delonix regia Hook. along with Millingtonia hortensis L.f., Alestonia Scholaries L., and Samania saman Jacq. in the industrial and traffic areas of the study area to mitigate ambient Ozone pollution and also to improve urban greenery.

Keywords: air pollution tolerance index, bio-indicators, eco-friendly vegetation, urban greenery

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Authors: Meliha Nur Cercinli

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In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, foreign officers played important role in the political area. Behind their political activities, their wives had a considerable influence on Ottoman social life. Despite the difficult conditions, these women involved in educating girls, encouraging Ottoman women to take part in the production area. For this purpose, they opened many schools and workplaces in various regions of the capital-Istanbul. One of these women was Lady Alice Lowther, who was known as the wife of British ambassador Gerard Agustus Lowther. She arranged various organizations in order to create necessary resources to help families of martyrs. Also, she chaired the Committee for Aid to Ottoman Military Families (Asker Ailelerine Yardım Komitesi), made an effort to establish the Society for Protection Animals in Istanbul (Istanbul Himaye-i Hayvanat Cemiyeti) with the supports of The Royal Society For Prevention Cruelty For Animals. Apart from these, she was also a good observer and writer as a traveller. She wrote and published her memories with the name of Down The Old Road (1921), When It Was June (1923) Land Of Gold Mohur (1932), Moments In Portugal Or Land Of The Laurel (1939). This paper aims to analyze Lady Alice Lowther’s activities in Istanbul based on Ottoman Archive documents. In addition, her books will also be examined as they will present a different perspective regarding her experiences.

Keywords: Lady Lowther, Ottoman Empire, women history, social life

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Authors: Armanul Hoque Shaon, Md Baizid Mahmud, Askander Nobi, Md. Raju Ahmed, Md. Jiabul Hoque

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In the Internet of Things (IoT), devices are linked to the internet through a wireless network, allowing them to collect and transmit data without the need for a human operator. Agriculture relies heavily on wireless sensors, which are a vital component of the Internet of Things (IoT). This kind of wireless sensor network monitors physical or environmental variables like temperatures, sound, vibration, pressure, or motion without relying on a central location or sink and collaboratively passes its data across the network to be analyzed. As the primary source of plant nutrients, the soil is critical to the agricultural industry's continued growth. We're excited about the prospect of developing an Internet of Things (IoT) solution. To arrange the network, the sink node collects groundwater levels and sends them to the Gateway, which centralizes the data and forwards it to the sensor nodes. The sink node gathers soil moisture data, transmits the mean to the Gateways, and then forwards it to the website for dissemination. The web server is in charge of storing and presenting the moisture in the soil data to the web application's users. Soil characteristics may be collected using a networked method that we developed to improve rice production. Paddy land is running out as the population of our nation grows. The success of this project will be dependent on the appropriate use of the existing land base.

Keywords: IoT based agriculture monitoring, intelligent irrigation, communicating network, rice production

Procedia PDF Downloads 154