Search results for: spatial usage data

Authors: Hsien-Te Lin

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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the BCFES (building carbon footprint evaluation system), which is a LCA (life cycle assessment) tool developed by the Low Carbon Building Alliance (LCBA) in Taiwan. A qualified BCFES for the building industry should fulfill the function of evaluating carbon footprint throughout all stages in the life cycle of building projects, including the production, transportation and manufacturing of materials, construction, daily energy usage, renovation and demolition. However, many existing BCFESs are too complicated and not very designer-friendly, creating obstacles in the implementation of carbon reduction policies. One of the greatest obstacle is the misapplication of the carbon footprint inventory standards of PAS2050 or ISO14067, which are designed for mass-produced goods rather than building projects. When these product-oriented rules are applied to building projects, one must compute a tremendous amount of data for raw materials and the transportation of construction equipment throughout the construction period based on purchasing lists and construction logs. This verification method is very cumbersome by nature and unhelpful to the promotion of low carbon design. With a view to provide an engineer-oriented BCFE with pre-diagnosis functions, a component input/output (I/O) database system and a scenario simulation method for building energy are proposed herein. Most existing BCFESs base their calculations on a product-oriented carbon database for raw materials like cement, steel, glass, and wood. However, data on raw materials is meaningless for the purpose of encouraging carbon reduction design without a feedback mechanism, because an engineering project is not designed based on raw materials but rather on building components, such as flooring, walls, roofs, ceilings, roads or cabinets. The LCBA Database has been composited from existing carbon footprint databases for raw materials and architectural graphic standards. Project designers can now use the LCBA Database to conduct low carbon design in a much more simple and efficient way. Daily energy usage throughout a building's life cycle, including air conditioning, lighting, and electric equipment, is very difficult for the building designer to predict. A good BCFES should provide a simplified and designer-friendly method to overcome this obstacle in predicting energy consumption. In this paper, the author has developed a simplified tool, the dynamic Energy Use Intensity (EUI) method, to accurately predict energy usage with simple multiplications and additions using EUI data and the designed efficiency levels for the building envelope, AC, lighting and electrical equipment. Remarkably simple to use, it can help designers pre-diagnose hotspots in building carbon footprint and further enhance low carbon designs. The BCFES-LCBA offers the advantages of an engineer-friendly component I/O database, simplified energy prediction methods, pre-diagnosis of carbon hotspots and sensitivity to good low carbon designs, making it an increasingly popular carbon management tool in Taiwan. To date, about thirty projects have been awarded BCFES-LCBA certification and the assessment has become mandatory in some cities.

Keywords: building carbon footprint, life cycle assessment, energy use intensity, building energy

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Authors: Jianhong Xiang, Rui Sun, Linyu Wang

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In recent years, due to the continuous improvement of deep learning theory, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has played a great superior performance in the research of Hyperspectral Image (HSI) classification. Since HSI has rich spatial-spectral information, only utilizing a single dimensional or single size convolutional kernel will limit the detailed feature information received by CNN, which limits the classification accuracy of HSI. In this paper, we design a multi-scale CNN with MLP based on residual and attention modules (INRAM-3DCNN) for the HSI classification task. We propose to use multiple 3D convolutional kernels to extract the packet feature information and fully learn the spatial-spectral features of HSI while designing residual 3D convolutional branches to avoid the decline of classification accuracy due to network degradation. Secondly, we also design the 2D Inception module with a joint channel attention mechanism to quickly extract key spatial feature information at different scales of HSI and reduce the complexity of the 3D model. Due to the high parallel processing capability and nonlinear global action of the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), we use it in combination with the previous CNN structure for the final classification process. The experimental results on two HSI datasets show that the proposed INRAM-3DCNN method has superior classification performance and can perform the classification task excellently.

Keywords: INRAM-3DCNN, residual, channel attention, hyperspectral image classification

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Authors: Jelena Vucicevic

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Reliability analysis represents a very important task in different areas of work. In any industry, this is crucial for maintenance, efficiency, safety and monetary costs. There are ways to calculate reliability, unreliability, failure density and failure rate. In this paper, the results for the reliability of diesel generator fans were calculated through Extreme Value Theory. The Extreme Value Theory is not widely used in the engineering field. Its usage is well known in other areas such as hydrology, meteorology, finance. The significance of this theory is in the fact that unlike the other statistical methods it is focused on rare and extreme values, and not on average. It should be noted that this theory is not designed exclusively for extreme events, but for extreme values in any event. Therefore, this is a great opportunity to apply the theory and test if it could be applied in this situation. The significance of the work is the calculation of time to failure or reliability in a new way, using statistic. Another advantage of this calculation is that there is no need for technical details and it can be implemented in any part for which we need to know the time to fail in order to have appropriate maintenance, but also to maximize usage and minimize costs. In this case, calculations have been made on diesel generator fans but the same principle can be applied to any other part. The data for this paper came from a field engineering study of the time to failure of diesel generator fans. The ultimate goal was to decide whether or not to replace the working fans with a higher quality fan to prevent future failures. The results achieved in this method will show the approximation of time for which the fans will work as they should, and the percentage of probability of fans working more than certain estimated time. Extreme Value Theory can be applied not only for rare and extreme events, but for any event that has values which we can consider as extreme.

Keywords: extreme value theory, lifetime, reliability analysis, statistic, time to failure

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Authors: Yueying Chen

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A city can be developed through memory, and memory is one of the most important elements for urban contexts. Collective memory is a collection of personal memories that can be preserved with objects, places, and events of heritage, expressing culture through spatial changes. These preserved forms can evoke a sense of community and certain emotions. Collective memory in cities reflects urban spatial alterations and historical developments. It can be preserved and reflected by revitalisation projects. A major current focus in collective memory research is how to identify and preserve memory in an intangible way. The influential elements within the preservation of collective memory mainly include institutions and objects. However, current research lacks the assessment of the collective memory after alterations of urban heritage. The assessment of urban heritage lacks visualization and qualitative methods. The emergence of the application of space syntax can fill in this gap. Hengshan Mansions was a new project in 2015. The original residential area has been replaced with a comprehensive commercial area integrating boutique shopping, upscale restaurants, and creative offices. Hengshan Mansions is located in the largest historic area in Shanghai, and its development is the epitome of the traditional culture in Shanghai. Its alteration is the newest project in this area and presents the new concept of revitalisation of urban heritage. For its physical parts, modern vitality is created, and historical information is preserved at the same time. However, most of the local people are moved away, and its functions are altered a lot. The preservation of its collective memory needs to discuss furtherly. Thus, the article builds a framework to assess the collective memory of urban heritage, including spatial configuration, spatial interaction, and cultural cognition. Then, it selects Hengshan Mansions in Shanghai as a case to analyse the assessed framework. Space syntax can be applied to visualize the assessment. Based on the analysis, the article will explore the influential reasons for the collective memory after alterations and proposes relevant advice for the preservation of the collective memory of urban heritage.

Keywords: collective memory, alternation of urban heritage, space syntax, Hengshan Mansions

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Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec

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In recent few decades, business process management (BPM) has been in focus of a great number of researchers and organizations. There are many benefits derived from the implementation of BPM in organizations. However, there has been also noticed that lately traditional BPM faces some difficulties in terms of the divide between models and their execution, lost innovations, lack of information fusioning and so on. As a result, there has been a new discipline, called social BPM, which incorporates principles of social software into the BPM. On the other hand, many researchers indicate organizational culture as a vital part of the BPM success and maturity. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the current state of BPM maturity and the usage of social BPM among the organizations from Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, with the regards to the organizational culture as well. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted as part of the PROSPER project (IP-2014-09-3729), financed by Croatian Science Foundation. The results indicate differences in the level of BPM maturity, the usage of social BPM and the dominant organizational culture in the observed organizations from different countries. These differences are further discussed in the paper.

Keywords: business process management, BPM maturity, organizational culture, social BPM

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Authors: Bryan Jefry Sabillon, Arlex Molina Cedillo

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Currently, the raise in the demand of electrical energy as a consequence of the development of technology and population growth, as well as some projections made by ‘La Agencia Internacional de la Energía’ (AIE) and research institutes, reveal alarming data about the expected raise of it in the next few decades. Because of this, something should be made to raise the awareness of the rational and efficient usage of this resource. Because of the global concern of providing electrical energy to isolated areas, projects consisting of energy generation using renewable resources are commonly carried out. On a socioeconomically and cultural point of view, it can be foreseen a positive impact that would result for the society to have this resource. This article is focused on the great potential that Honduras shows, as a country that is looking forward to produce renewable energy due to the crisis that it’s living nowadays. Because of this, we present a detailed research that exhibits the main necessities that the rural communities are facing today, to allay the negative aspects due to the scarcity of electrical energy. We also discuss which should be the type of electrical generation method to be used, according to the disposition, geography, climate, and of course the accessibility of each area. Honduras is actually in the process of developing new methods for the generation of energy; therefore, it is of our concern to talk about renewable energy, the exploitation of which is a global trend. Right now the countries’ main energetic generation methods are: hydrological, thermic, wind, biomass and photovoltaic (this is one of the main sources of clean electrical generation). The use of these resources was possible partially due to the studies made by the organizations that focus on electrical energy and its demand, such as ‘La Cooperación Alemana’ (GIZ), ‘La Secretaria de Energía y Recursos Naturales’ (SERNA), and ‘El Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica’ (BCIE), which eased the complete guide that is to be used in the protocol to be followed to carry out the three stages of this type of projects: 1) Licences and Permitions, 2) Fincancial Aspects and 3) The inscription for the Protocol in Kyoto. This article pretends to take the reader through the necessary information (according to the difficult accessibility that each zone might present), about the best option of electrical generation in zones that are totally isolated from the net, pretending to use renewable resources to generate electrical energy. We finally conclude that the usage of hybrid systems of generation of energy for small remote communities brings about a positive impact, not only because of the fact of providing electrical energy but also because of the improvements in education, health, sustainable agriculture and livestock, and of course the advances in the generation of energy which is the main concern of this whole article.

Keywords: energy, isolated, renewable, accessibility

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Authors: Daniel Olshansky, Ramiro Rodrıguez Colmeiro

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Relay Mining presents a scalable solution employing probabilistic mechanisms and crypto-economic incentives to estimate RPC volume usage, facilitating decentralized multitenant rate limiting. Network traffic from individual applications can be concurrently serviced by multiple RPC service providers, with costs, rewards, and rate limiting governed by a native cryptocurrency on a distributed ledger. Building upon established research in token bucket algorithms and distributed rate-limiting penalty models, our approach harnesses a feedback loop control mechanism to adjust the difficulty of mining relay rewards, dynamically scaling with network usage growth. By leveraging crypto-economic incentives, we reduce coordination overhead costs and introduce a mechanism for providing RPC services that are both geopolitically and geographically distributed.

Keywords: remote procedure call, crypto-economic, commit-reveal, decentralization, scalability, blockchain, rate limiting, token bucket

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Authors: Mi-Hyang Lee, Seung-Hoon Han

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Korean traditional residences have been built with deep design issues for various values such as social, cultural, and environmental influences to be started from a few thousand years ago, but its meaning is being vanished due to the different lifestyles these days. It is necessary, therefore, to grasp the meaning of the Korea traditional building called Hanok and to get Korean people understand its real advantages. The purpose of this study is to propose a standardization methodology for evaluating comfort features towards Korean traditional houses. This paper is also trying to build an official standard evaluation system and to integrate aesthetic and psychological values induced from Hanok. Its comfort performance values could be divided into two large categories that are physical and psychological, and fourteen methods have been defined as the Korean Standards (KS). For this research, field survey data from representative Hanok types were collected for each method. This study also contains a qualitative in-depth analysis of the Hanok comfort index by the professions using AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) and has examined the effect of the methods. As a result, this paper could define what methods can provide trustful outcomes and how to evaluate the own strengths in aspects of spatial comfort of Hanok using suggested procedures towards the spatial configuration of the traditional dwellings. This study has finally proposed an integrated development of a standardization methodology assessing the comfort performance for Korean traditional residences, and it is expected that they could evaluate inhabitants of the residents and interior environmental conditions especially structured by wood materials like Hanok.

Keywords: Hanok, comfort performance, human condition, analytical hierarchy process

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Authors: Sandeep Thakur, Ismail Mondal, Phani Bhusan Ghosh, Papita Das, Tarun Kumar De

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Sundarbans Reserve forest of India has been undergoing major transformations in the recent past owing to population pressure and related changes. This has brought about major changes in the spatial landscape of the region especially in the western parts. This study attempts to assess the impacts of the Landcover changes on the mangrove habitats. Time series imageries of Landsat were used to analyze the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) patterns over the western parts of Indian Sundarbans forest in order to assess the heath of the mangroves in the region. The images were subjected to Land use Land cover (LULC) classification using sub-pixel classification techniques in ERDAS Imagine software and the changes were mapped. The spatial proliferation of aquaculture farms during the study period was also mapped. A multivariate regression analysis was carried out between the obtained NDVI values and the LULC classes. Similarly, the observed meteorological data sets (time series rainfall and minimum and maximum temperature) were also statistically correlated for regression. The study demonstrated the application of NDVI in assessing the environmental status of mangroves as the relationship between the changes in the environmental variables and the remote sensing based indices felicitate an efficient evaluation of environmental variables, which can be used in the coastal zone monitoring and development processes.

Keywords: aquaculture farms, LULC, Mangrove, NDVI

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Authors: Chevonne Reynolds, Robert J. Fletcher, Jr, Celine M. Carneiro, Nicole Jennings, Alison Ke, Michael C. LaScaleia, Mbhekeni B. Lukhele, Mnqobi L. Mamba, Muzi D. Sibiya, James D. Austin, Cebisile N. Magagula, Themba’alilahlwa Mahlaba, Ara Monadjem, Samantha M. Wisely, Robert A. McCleery

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A key challenge for the developing world is reconciling biodiversity conservation with the growing demand for food. In these regions, agriculture is typically interspersed among other land-uses creating heterogeneous landscapes. A primary hypothesis for promoting biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis. While there is evidence that landscape heterogeneity positively influences biodiversity, the application of this hypothesis is hindered by a need to determine which components of landscape heterogeneity drive these effects and at what spatial scale(s). Additionally, whether diverse taxonomic groups are similarly affected is central for determining the applicability of this hypothesis as a general conservation strategy in agricultural mosaics. Two major components of landscape heterogeneity are compositional and configurational heterogeneity. Disentangling the roles of each component is important for biodiversity conservation because each represents different mechanisms underpinning variation in biodiversity. We identified a priori independent gradients of compositional and configurational landscape heterogeneity within an extensive agricultural mosaic in north-eastern Swaziland. We then tested how bird, dung beetle, ant and meso-carnivore diversity responded to compositional and configurational heterogeneity across six different spatial scales. To determine if a general trend could be observed across multiple taxa, we also tested which component and spatial scale was most influential across all taxonomic groups combined, Compositional, not configurational, heterogeneity explained diversity in each taxonomic group, with the exception of meso-carnivores. Bird and ant diversity was positively correlated with compositional heterogeneity at fine spatial scales < 1000 m, whilst dung beetle diversity was negatively correlated to compositional heterogeneity at broader spatial scales > 1500 m. Importantly, because of these contrasting effects across taxa, there was no effect of either component of heterogeneity on the combined taxonomic diversity at any spatial scale. The contrasting responses across taxonomic groups exemplify the difficulty in implementing effective conservation strategies that meet the requirements of diverse taxa. To promote diverse communities across a range of taxa, conservation strategies must be multi-scaled and may involve different strategies at varying scales to offset the contrasting influences of compositional heterogeneity. A diversity of strategies are likely key to conserving biodiversity in agricultural mosaics, and we have demonstrated that a landscape management strategy that only manages for heterogeneity at one particular scale will likely fall short of management objectives.

Keywords: agriculture, biodiversity, composition, configuration, heterogeneity

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Authors: Yongqi Dong, Zuo Zhang, Rui Fu, Li Li

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The records generated by taxicabs which are equipped with GPS devices is of vital importance for studying human mobility behavior, however, here we are focusing on taxi drivers' operation strategies between workdays and weekends temporally and spatially. We identify a group of valuable characteristics through large scale drivers' behavior in a complex metropolis environment. Based on the daily operations of 31,000 taxi drivers in New York City, we classify drivers into top, ordinary and low-income groups according to their monthly working load, daily income, daily ranking and the variance of the daily rank. Then, we apply big data analysis and visualization methods to compare the different characteristics among top, ordinary and low income drivers in selecting of working time, working area as well as strategies between workdays and weekends. The results verify that top drivers do have special operation tactics to help themselves serve more passengers, travel faster thus make more money per unit time. This research provides new possibilities for fully utilizing the information obtained from urban taxicab data for estimating human behavior, which is not only very useful for individual taxicab driver but also to those policy-makers in city authorities.

Keywords: big data, operation strategies, comparison, revenue, temporal, spatial

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Authors: Melik Kara, Gulsah Tulger Kara

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The soil is a crucial component of the ecosystem, and in industrial and urban areas it receives large amounts of trace elements from several sources. Therefore, accumulated pollutants in surface soils can be transported to different environmental components, such as deep soil, water, plants, and dust particles. While elemental contamination of soils is caused mainly by atmospheric deposition, soil also affects the air quality since enriched trace elemental contents in atmospheric particulate matter originate from resuspension of polluted soils. The objectives of this study were to determine the total and leachate concentrations of trace elements in soils of city area in Izmir and characterize their spatial distribution and to identify the possible sources of trace elements in surface soils. The surface soil samples were collected from 20 sites. They were analyzed for total element concentrations and leachate concentrations. Analyses of trace elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Dy, Er, Eu, Fe, Ga, Gd, Hf, Ho, K, La, Li, Lu, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nd, Ni, P, Pb, Pr, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Sr, Tb, Th, Ti, Tl, Tm, U, V, W, Y, Yb, Zn and Zr) were carried out using ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer). The elemental concentrations were calculated along with overall median, kurtosis, and skewness statistics. Elemental composition indicated that the soil samples were dominated by crustal elements such as Si, Al, Fe, Ca, K, Mg and the sea salt element, Na which is typical for Aegean region. These elements were followed by Ti, P, Mn, Ba and Sr. On the other hand, Zn, Cr, V, Pb, Cu, and Ni (which are anthropogenic based elements) were measured as 61.6, 39.4, 37.9, 26.9, 22.4, and 19.4 mg/kg dw, respectively. The leachate element concentrations were showed similar sorting although their concentrations were much lower than total concentrations. In the study area, the spatial distribution patterns of elemental concentrations varied among sampling sites. The highest concentrations were measured in the vicinity of industrial areas and main roads. To determine the relationships among elements and to identify the possible sources, PCA (Principal Component Analysis) was applied to the data. The analysis resulted in six factors. The first factor exhibited high loadings of Co, K, Mn, Rb, V, Al, Fe, Ni, Ga, Se, and Cr. This factor could be interpreted as residential heating because of Co, K, Rb, and Se. The second factor associated positively with V, Al, Fe, Na, Ba, Ga, Sr, Ti, Se, and Si. Therefore, this factor presents mixed city dust. The third factor showed high loadings with Fe, Ni, Sb, As, Cr. This factor could be associated with industrial facilities. The fourth factor associated with Cu, Mo, Zn, Sn which are the marker elements of traffic. The fifth factor presents crustal dust, due to its high correlation with Si, Ca, and Mg. The last factor is loaded with Pb and Cd emitted from industrial activities.

Keywords: trace elements, surface soil, source apportionment, Izmir

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Authors: Sahabeh Safarpour, Khiruddin Abdullah, Hwee San Lim, Mohsen Dadras

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Air pollution is a growing problem arising from domestic heating, high density of vehicle traffic, electricity production, and expanding commercial and industrial activities, all increasing in parallel with urban population. Monitoring and forecasting of air quality parameters are important due to health impact. One widely available metric of aerosol abundance is the aerosol optical depth (AOD). The AOD is the integrated light extinction coefficient over a vertical atmospheric column of unit cross section, which represents the extent to which the aerosols in that vertical profile prevent the transmission of light by absorption or scattering. Seasonal aerosol optical depth (AOD) values at 550 nm derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard NASA’s Terra satellites, for the 10 years period of 2000-2010 were used to test 7 different spatial interpolation methods in the present study. The accuracy of estimations was assessed through visual analysis as well as independent validation based on basic statistics, such as root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient. Based on the RMSE and R values of predictions made using measured values from 2000 to 2010, Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) yielded the best results for spring, summer, and winter and ordinary kriging yielded the best results for fall.

Keywords: aerosol optical depth, MODIS, spatial interpolation techniques, Radial Basis Functions

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Authors: Thomas E. Portegys

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An animal behavior problem is presented in the form of a nest-building task that involves two cooperating virtual birds, a male and female. The female builds a nest into which she lays an egg. The male's job is to forage in a forest for food for both himself and the female. In addition, the male must fetch stones from a nearby desert for the female to use as nesting material. The task is completed when the nest is built, and an egg is laid in it. A goal-seeking neural network and a recurrent neural network were trained and tested with little success. The goal-seeking network was then enhanced with “place cells”, allowing the birds to spatially navigate the world, building the nest while keeping themselves fed. Place cells are neurons in the hippocampus that map space.

Keywords: artificial animal intelligence, artificial life, goal-seeking neural network, nest-building, place cells, spatial navigation

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Authors: Subham Kharel, Sudha Ravindranath, A. Vidya, B. Chandrasekaran, K. Ganesha Raj, T. Shesadri

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Digitization of urban features is a tedious and time-consuming process when done manually. In addition to this problem, Indian cities have complex habitat patterns and convoluted clustering patterns, which make it even more difficult to map features. This paper makes an attempt to classify urban objects in the satellite image using object-oriented classification techniques in which various classes such as vegetation, water bodies, buildings, and shadows adjacent to the buildings were mapped semi-automatically. Building layer obtained as a result of object-oriented classification along with already available building layers was used. The main focus, however, lay in the extraction of high-rise buildings using spatial technology, digital image processing, and modeling, which would otherwise be a very difficult task to carry out manually. Results indicated a considerable rise in the total number of buildings in the city. High-rise buildings were successfully mapped using satellite imagery, spatial technology along with logical reasoning and mathematical considerations. The results clearly depict the ability of Remote Sensing and GIS to solve complex problems in urban scenarios like studying urban sprawl and identification of more complex features in an urban area like high-rise buildings and multi-dwelling units. Object-Oriented Technique has been proven to be effective and has yielded an overall efficiency of 80 percent in the classification of high-rise buildings.

Keywords: object oriented classification, shadow extraction, high-rise buildings, satellite imagery, spatial technology

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Authors: Tiberiu Boros, Angela Ionita, Maria Visan

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Wildfires are one of the frequent and uncontrollable phenomena that currently affect large areas of the world where the climate, geographic and social conditions make it impossible to prevent and control such events. In this paper we introduce the ground concepts that lie behind the SIAFIM (Satellite Image Analysis for Fire Monitoring) project in order to create a context and we introduce a set of newly created tools that are external to the project but inherently in interventions and complex decision making based on geospatial information and spatial data infrastructures.

Keywords: wildfire, forest fire, natural language processing, mobile applications, communication, GPS

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Authors: Jan Muhammad, Saad Malik, Fadia W. Al-Azawi, Ali Imran

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In the era of climate variability, rising temperatures are the most significant aspect. In this study PRECIS model data and observed data are used for assessing the temperature change scenarios of Sindh province during the first half of present century. Observed data from various meteorological stations of Sindh are the primary source for temperature change detection. The current scenario (1961–1990) and the future one (2010-2050) are acted by the PRECIS Regional Climate Model at a spatial resolution of 25 * 25 km. Regional Climate Model (RCM) can yield reasonably suitable projections to be used for climate-scenario. The main objective of the study is to map the simulated temperature as obtained from climate model-PRECIS and their comparison with observed temperatures. The analysis is done on all the districts of Sindh in order to have a more precise picture of temperature change scenarios. According to results the temperature is likely to increases by 1.5 - 2.1°C by 2050, compared to the baseline temperature of 1961-1990. The model assesses more accurate values in northern districts of Sindh as compared to the coastal belt of Sindh. All the district of the Sindh province exhibit an increasing trend in the mean temperature scenarios and each decade seems to be warmer than the previous one. An understanding of the change in temperatures is very vital for various sectors such as weather forecasting, water, agriculture, and health, etc.

Keywords: PRECIS Model, real observed data, Arc GIS, interpolation techniques

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Authors: Khan R. Rahaman, Quazi K. Hassan

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Global changes in climate, environment, economies, populations, governments, institutions, and cultures converge in localities. Changes at a local scale, in turn, contribute to global changes as well as being affected by them. Our hypothesis is built on a consideration that temperature does vary at local level (i.e., termed as local warming) in comparison to the predicted models at the regional and/or global scale. To date, the bulk of the research relating local places to global climate change has been top-down, from the global toward the local, concentrating on methods of impact analysis that use as a starting point climate change scenarios derived from global models, even though these have little regional or local specificity. Thus, our focus is to understand such trends over the southern Alberta, which will enable decision makers, scientists, researcher community, and local people to adapt their policies based on local level temperature variations and to act accordingly. Specific objectives in this study are: (i) to understand the local warming (temperature in particular) trend in context of temperature normal during the period 1961-2010 at point locations using meteorological data; (ii) to validate the data by using specific yearly data, and (iii) to delineate the spatial extent of the local warming trends and understanding influential factors to adopt situation by local governments. Existing data has brought the evidence of such changes and future research emphasis will be given to validate this hypothesis based on remotely sensed data (i.e. MODIS product by NASA).

Keywords: local warming, climate change, urban area, Alberta, Canada

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Authors: Taku Numao, Kazu Amimoto, Tomoko Shimada, Kyohei Ichikawa

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Background: Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a common syndrome following damage to one hemisphere of the brain (usually the right side), in which a patient fails to report or respond to stimulation from the contralesional side. These symptoms are not due to primary sensory or motor deficits, but instead, reflect an inability to process input from that side of their environment. Prism adaptation (PA) is a therapeutic treatment for USN, wherein a patient’s visual field is artificially shifted laterally, resulting in a sensory-motor adaptation. However, patients with USN also tend to perceive a left-leaning subjective vertical in the frontal plane. The traditional PA cannot be used to correct a tilt in the subjective vertical, because a prism can only polarize, not twist, the surroundings. However, this can be accomplished using a head mounted display (HMD) and a web-camera. Therefore, this study investigated whether an HMD system could be used to correct the spatial perception of USN patients in the frontal as well as the horizontal plane. We recruited healthy subjects in order to collect data for the refinement of USN patient therapy. Methods: Eight healthy subjects sat on a chair wearing a HMD (Oculus rift DK2), with a web-camera (Ovrvision) displaying a 10 degree leftward rotation and a 10 degree counter-clockwise rotation along the frontal plane. Subjects attempted to point a finger at one of four targets, assigned randomly, a total of 48 times. Before and after the intervention, each subject’s body-centre judgment (BCJ) was tested by asking them to point a finger at a touch panel straight in front of their xiphisternum, 10 times sight unseen. Results: Intervention caused the location pointed to during the BCJ to shift 35 ± 17 mm (Ave ± SD) leftward in the horizontal plane, and 46 ± 29 mm downward in the frontal plane. The results in both planes were significant by paired-t-test (p<.01). Conclusions: The results in the horizontal plane are consistent with those observed following PA. Furthermore, the HMD and web-camera were able to elicit 3D effects, including in both the horizontal and frontal planes. Future work will focus on applying this method to patients with and without USN, and investigating whether subject posture is also affected by the HMD system.

Keywords: head mounted display, posture, prism adaptation, unilateral spatial neglect

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Authors: M. C. Akay, A. Aybakan, H. Temeltas

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Aerial and ground robots have various advantages of usage in different missions. Aerial robots can move quickly and get a different sight of view of the area, but those vehicles cannot carry heavy payloads. On the other hand, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are slow moving vehicles, since those can carry heavier payloads than unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this context, we investigate the performances of various Similarity Metrics to provide a common map for Heterogeneous Robot Team (HRT) in complex environments. Within the usage of Lidar Odometry and Octree Mapping technique, the local 3D maps of the environment are gathered.  In order to obtain a common map for HRT, informative theoretic similarity metrics are exploited. All types of these similarity metrics gave adequate as allowable simulation time and accurate results that can be used in different types of applications. For the heterogeneous multi robot team, those methods can be used to match different types of maps.

Keywords: common maps, heterogeneous robot team, map matching, informative theoretic similarity metrics

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Authors: Samanta Kietytė

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The object of this study is the verbal derivatives stemming from the Lithuanian prefix per-. The prefix under examination can be classified as prepositional, having descended from the preposition per, thereby sharing the same prototypical meaning – denoting movement OVER. These frequently co-occur within sentences (1). The aim of this paper is to conduct a semantic analysis of the prefix per- and to propose a possible radial network of its meanings. In essence, the aim is to identify the interrelationships existing between its meanings. 1) Jis peršoko per tvorą/ 3SG.NOM.M jump.PST.3 over fence.ACC.SG. /ʻHe jumped over the fenceʼ. The foundation of this work lies in the methodological and theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics. The prototypical meaning of prefixes consistently embodies spatial dimensions that can be described through image schemas. This entails the identification of the trajectory, the landmark, and the relation between them in the situation described by the prefixed verb. The meanings of linguistic units are not perceived as arbitrary, but rather, they are interconnected through semantic motivation. According to this perspective, a singular meaning within linguistic units is considered as prototypical, while additional meanings are descended (not necessarily directly) from it. For example, one of the per- meanings TRANSFER (2) is derived from the prototypical meaning OVER. 2) Prašau persiųsti vadovo laišką man./ Ask.PRS.1 forward.INF manager.GEN.SG email.ACC.SG 1.SG.DAT/ ʻPlease forward the manager‘s email to meʼ. Certain semantic relations are explained by the conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory. For instances, when prefixed verb has a meaning WIN (3) it is related to the prototypical meaning. In this case, the prefixed verb describes situations of winning in various ways. In the prototypical meaning, the trajector moves higher than the landmark, and winning is metaphorically perceived as being higher. 3) Sūnus peraugo tėvą./ Son.NOM.SG outgrow.PST.3 father.ACC.SG/ ʻThe son has outgrown the fatherʼ. The data utilized for this study was collected from the 2014 grammatically annotated text "Lithuanian Web (LithuanianWaC v2)", consisting of 63,645,700 words. Given that the corpus is grammatically lemmatized, the list of the 793 items was obtained using the wordlist function and specifying that verbs starting with per were searched. The list included not only prefixed verbs but also other verbs whose roots have the same letter sequences as prefixes. Also, words with misspellings, without diacritical marks, and words listed for lemmatization errors were rejected, and a total of 475 derivatives were left for further analysis. The semantic analysis revealed that there are 12 distinct meanings of the prefix per-. The spatial meanings were extracted by determining what a trajector is, what a landmark is, and what the relation between them is. The connection between non-spatial meanings and spatial ones occurs through semantic motivation established by identifying elements that correspond to the trajector and landmark. The analysis reveals that there are no strict boundaries among these meanings, instead showing a continuum that encompasses a central core and a peripheral association with their internal structure, i.e., some derivatives are more prototypical of a particular meaning than others.

Keywords: word-formation, cognitive semantics, metaphor, radial networks, prototype theory, prefix

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Authors: Lassi Lehto, Jaakko Kahkonen, Juha Oksanen, Tapani Sarjakoski

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The use of raster-formatted data sets in geospatial analysis is increasing rapidly. At the same time, geographic data are being introduced into disciplines outside the traditional domain of geoinformatics, like climate change, intelligent transport, and immigration studies. These developments call for better methods to deliver raster geodata in an efficient and easy-to-use manner. Data cube technologies have traditionally been used in the geospatial domain for managing Earth Observation data sets that have strict requirements for effective handling of time series. The same approach and methodologies can also be applied in managing other types of geospatial data sets. A cloud service-based geodata cube, called GeoCubes Finland, has been developed to support online delivery and analysis of most important geospatial data sets with national coverage. The main target group of the service is the academic research institutes in the country. The most significant aspects of the GeoCubes data repository include the use of multiple resolution levels, cloud-optimized file structure, and a customized, flexible content access API. Input data sets are pre-processed while being ingested into the repository to bring them into a harmonized form in aspects like georeferencing, sampling resolutions, spatial subdivision, and value encoding. All the resolution levels are created using an appropriate generalization method, selected depending on the nature of the source data set. Multiple pre-processed resolutions enable new kinds of online analysis approaches to be introduced. Analysis processes based on interactive visual exploration can be effectively carried out, as the level of resolution most close to the visual scale can always be used. In the same way, statistical analysis can be carried out on resolution levels that best reflect the scale of the phenomenon being studied. Access times remain close to constant, independent of the scale applied in the application. The cloud service-based approach, applied in the GeoCubes Finland repository, enables analysis operations to be performed on the server platform, thus making high-performance computing facilities easily accessible. The developed GeoCubes API supports this kind of approach for online analysis. The use of cloud-optimized file structures in data storage enables the fast extraction of subareas. The access API allows for the use of vector-formatted administrative areas and user-defined polygons as definitions of subareas for data retrieval. Administrative areas of the country in four levels are available readily from the GeoCubes platform. In addition to direct delivery of raster data, the service also supports the so-called virtual file format, in which only a small text file is first downloaded. The text file contains links to the raster content on the service platform. The actual raster data is downloaded on demand, from the spatial area and resolution level required in each stage of the application. By the geodata cube approach, pre-harmonized geospatial data sets are made accessible to new categories of inexperienced users in an easy-to-use manner. At the same time, the multiresolution nature of the GeoCubes repository facilitates expert users to introduce new kinds of interactive online analysis operations.

Keywords: cloud service, geodata cube, multiresolution, raster geodata

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Authors: Halina Veloso e Zarate, Manuela Triggianese

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The urban challenges posed by rapid population growth, climate adaptation, and sustainable living have compelled Dutch cities to reimagine their built environment and transportation systems. As a pivotal contributor to CO₂ emissions, the transportation sector in the Netherlands demands innovative solutions for transitioning to low-carbon mobility. This study investigates the potential of transit oriented development (TOD) as a strategy for achieving carbon reduction and sustainable urban transformation. Focusing on the Lombardijen station area in Rotterdam, which is targeted for significant densification, this paper presents a design-oriented exploration of a low-carbon transport node. By employing a research-by-design methodology, this study delves into multifaceted factors and scales, aiming to propose future scenarios for Lombardijen. Drawing from a synthesis of existing literature, applied research, and practical insights, a robust design framework emerges. To inform this framework, governmental data concerning the built environment and material embodied carbon are harnessed. However, the restricted access to crucial datasets, such as property ownership information from the cadastre and embodied carbon data from De Nationale Milieudatabase, underscores the need for improved data accessibility, especially during the concept design phase. The findings of this research contribute fundamental insights not only to the Lombardijen case but also to TOD studies across Rotterdam's 13 nodes and similar global contexts. Spatial data related to property ownership facilitated the identification of potential densification sites, underscoring its importance for informed urban design decisions. Additionally, the paper highlights the disparity between the essential role of embodied carbon data in environmental assessments for building permits and its limited accessibility due to proprietary barriers. Although this study lays the groundwork for sustainable urbanization through TOD-based design, it acknowledges an area of future research worthy of exploration: the socio-economic dimension. Given the complex socio-economic challenges inherent in the Lombardijen area, extending beyond spatial constraints, a comprehensive approach demands integration of mobility infrastructure expansion, land-use diversification, programmatic enhancements, and climate adaptation. While the paper adopts a TOD lens, it refrains from an in-depth examination of issues concerning equity and inclusivity, opening doors for subsequent research to address these aspects crucial for holistic urban development.

Keywords: Rotterdam zuid, transport oriented development, carbon emissions, low-carbon design, cross-scale design, data-supported design

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Authors: Josué Alfredo Tomas Machaca Fajardo, Jhon Elvis Chahua Janampa, Pedro Rau Lavado

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A flood vulnerability index was developed for the Piura River watershed in northern Peru using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to assess flood risk. The official methodology to assess risk from natural hazards in Peru was introduced in 1980 and proved effective for aiding complex decision-making. This method relies in part on decision-makers defining subjective correlations between variables to identify high-risk areas. While risk identification and ensuing response activities benefit from a qualitative understanding of influences, this method does not take advantage of the advent of national and international data collection efforts, which can supplement our understanding of risk. Furthermore, this method does not take advantage of broadly applied statistical methods such as PCA, which highlight central indicators of vulnerability. Nowadays, information processing is much faster and allows for more objective decision-making tools, such as PCA. The approach presented here develops a tool to improve the current flood risk assessment in the Peruvian basin. Hence, the spatial analysis of the census and other datasets provides a better understanding of the current land occupation and a basin-wide distribution of services and human populations, a necessary step toward ultimately reducing flood risk in Peru. PCA allows the simplification of a large number of variables into a few factors regarding social, economic, physical and environmental dimensions of vulnerability. There is a correlation between the location of people and the water availability mainly found in rivers. For this reason, a comprehensive vision of the population location around the river basin is necessary to establish flood prevention policies. The grouping of 5x5 km gridded areas allows the spatial analysis of flood risk rather than assessing political divisions of the territory. The index was applied to the Peruvian region of Piura, where several flood events occurred in recent past years, being one of the most affected regions during the ENSO events in Peru. The analysis evidenced inequalities for the access to basic services, such as water, electricity, internet and sewage, between rural and urban areas.

Keywords: assess risk, flood risk, indicators of vulnerability, principal component analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Cassandra Hansen, Paul Doherty, Chris Ferner, German Whitley, Holly Torpey

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Wildfire is a natural and inevitable occurrence, yet changing climatic conditions have increased the severity, frequency, and risk to human populations in the wildland/urban interface (WUI) of the Western United States. Rapid dissemination of accurate wildfire information is critical to both the Incident Management Team (IMT) and the affected community. With the advent of increasingly sophisticated information systems, GIS can now be used as a web platform for sharing geographic information in new and innovative ways, such as virtual story map applications. Crowdsourced information can be extraordinarily useful when coupled with authoritative information. Information abounds in the form of social media, emergency alerts, radio, and news outlets, yet many of these resources lack a spatial component when first distributed. In this study, we describe how twenty-eight volunteer GIS professionals across nine Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACC) sourced, curated, and distributed Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) from authoritative social media accounts focused on disseminating information about wildfires and public safety. The combination of fire progression maps with VGI incident information helps answer three critical questions about an incident, such as: where the first started. How and why the fire behaved in an extreme manner and how we can learn from the fire incident's story to respond and prepare for future fires in this area. By adding a spatial component to that shared information, this team has been able to visualize shared information about wildfire starts in an interactive map that answers three critical questions in a more intuitive way. Additionally, long-term social and technical impacts on communities are examined in relation to situational awareness of the disaster through map layers and agency links, the number of views in a particular region of a disaster, community involvement and sharing of this critical resource. Combined with a GIS platform and disaster VGI applications, this workflow and information become invaluable to communities within the WUI and bring spatial awareness for disaster preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery. This study highlights progression maps as the ultimate storytelling mechanism through incident case studies and demonstrates the impact of VGI and sophisticated applied cartographic methodology make this an indispensable resource for authoritative information sharing.

Keywords: storytelling, wildfire progression maps, volunteered geographic information, spatial and temporal

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Authors: Suktisuddha Goswami, Surekha Chukkali

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Metaverse is a real time rendered 3D world which is an extension of the virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and holographic reality. While using the metaverse can enhance various aspects of our lives, it might also create certain challenges. However, since the concept of the metaverse is very new, there is a lack of research on factors influencing the individual’s behavioural intentions to use it. To address this gap, this quantitative research study was conducted to understand the factors influencing the behavioural intention of individuals towards metaverse usage. This research was conducted through a large-scale questionnaire survey of 325 Indian students at three major engineering colleges. The questionnaire was adequately customized for the present study. It was found that behavioral intention towards metaverse usage differs among individuals. There were few individuals who had no intention of using metaverse in near future, while some of them were already using it and a few were significantly inclined towards using it. The findings of this study have suggested that behavioural intention was significantly and positively related to performance expectancy and effort expectancy of individuals.

Keywords: behavioral intention, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, technology, metaverse

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Authors: Aijuka Nicholas

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A research study was undertaken to characterize the aquifers and identify the potential groundwater recharge zones in the Kagandi district. Quantitative characterization of hydraulic conductivities of aquifers is of fundamental importance to the study of groundwater flow and contaminant transport in aquifers. A conditional approach is used to represent the spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity. Briefly, it involves using qualitative and quantitative geologic borehole-log data to generate a three-dimensional (3D) hydraulic conductivity distribution, which is then adjusted through calibration of a 3D groundwater flow model using pumping-test data and historic hydraulic data. The approach consists of several steps. The study area was divided into five sub-watersheds on the basis of artificial drainage divides. A digital terrain model (DTM) was developed using Arc GIS to determine the general drainage pattern of Kagandi watershed. Hydrologic characterization involved the determination of the various hydraulic properties of the aquifers. Potential groundwater recharge zones were identified by integrating various thematic maps pertaining to the digital elevation model, land use, and drainage pattern in Arc GIS and Sufer golden software. The study demonstrates the potential of GIS in delineating groundwater recharge zones and that the developed methodology will be applicable to other watersheds in Uganda.

Keywords: aquifers, Arc GIS, groundwater recharge, recharge zones

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Faseluka Olamide Tope

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Giving quality education to students with special needs requires that all necessary resources should be harnessed and digital devices has become important part of resources used as instructional materials in educating students with special needs. Teachers who will make use of these technologies are considered as a part of the most important elements in any educational programme and the effective usage of these technologies largely depends on them. Out of numerous determinants of the effective use of these digital devices, this study examines teachers’ attitude and knowledge as predictors of effective use of digital technology for education of special needs student in Oyo state, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design of the expo-facto type was adopted for the study, using simple random sampling technique. The study was carried out among sixty (60) participants. Two research questions and two research hypotheses were formulated and used. The data collected through the research instruments for the study were analysedusing frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, Pearson, Product, Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Multiple Regression Analysis. The study revealed a significant relationship between teachers attitude (50, < 0.05) and effective use of digital technologies for special needs students. Furthermore, there was a significant contribution F (F=4.289; R=0.876 and R2 =0.758) in the joint contribution of the independent variable  (teacher’s attitude and teacher’s knowledge) and dependent variable (effective use of digital technologies) while teachers knowledge have the highest contribution(b=7.926, t=4.376), the study therefore revealed that teachers attitude and knowledge are potent factors that predicts the effective usage of digital technologies for the education of special needs student. The study recommended that due to the ever-changing nature of technology which comes with new features, teachers should be equipped with appropriate knowledge in order to effectively make use of them and teachers should also develop right attitude toward the use of digital technologies

Keywords: teachers’ knowledge, teachers’ attitude, digital devices, special needs students

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Authors: C. Rana, S. K. Jain

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The enormous amount of Web data has challenged its usage in efficient manner in the past few years. As such, a range of techniques are applied to tackle this problem; prominent among them is personalization and recommender system. In fact, these are the tools that assist user in finding relevant information of web. Most of the e-commerce websites are applying such tools in one way or the other. In the past decade, a large number of recommendation algorithms have been proposed to tackle such problems. However, there have not been much research in the evaluation criteria for these algorithms. As such, the traditional accuracy and classification metrics are still used for the evaluation purpose that provides a static view. This paper studies how the evolution of user preference over a period of time can be mapped in a recommender system using a new evaluation methodology that explicitly using time dimension. We have also presented different types of experimental set up that are generally used for recommender system evaluation. Furthermore, an overview of major accuracy metrics and metrics that go beyond the scope of accuracy as researched in the past few years is also discussed in detail.

Keywords: collaborative filtering, data mining, evolutionary, clustering, algorithm, recommender systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 413

Authors: R. Lhissou , A. El Harti , K. Chokmani, E. Bachaoui, A. El Ghmari

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Soil salinity is a serious environmental hazard in many countries around the world especially the arid and semi-arid countries like Morocco. Salinization causes negative effects on the ground; it affects agricultural production, infrastructure, water resources and biodiversity. Remote sensing can provide soil salinity information for large areas, and in a relatively short time. In addition, remote sensing is not limited by extremes in terrain or hazardous condition. Contrariwise, experimental methods for monitoring soil salinity by direct measurements in situ are very demanding of time and resources, and also very limited in spatial coverage. In the irrigated perimeter of Tadla plain in central Morocco, the increased use of saline groundwater and surface water, coupled with agricultural intensification leads to the deterioration of soil quality especially by salinization. In this study, we assessed several spectral indices of soil salinity cited in the literature using Landsat TM satellite images and field measurements of electrical conductivity (EC). Three Landsat TM satellite images were taken during 3 months in the dry season (September, October and November 2011). Based on field measurement data of EC collected in three field campaigns over the three dates simultaneously with acquisition dates of Landsat TM satellite images, a two assessment techniques are used to validate a soil salinity spectral indices. Firstly, the spectral indices are validated locally by pixel. The second validation technique is made using a window of size 3x3 pixels. The results of the study indicated that the second technique provides getting a more accurate validation and the assessment has shown its limits when it comes to assess across the pixel. In addition, the EC values measured from field have a good correlation with some spectral indices derived from Landsat TM data and the best results show an r² of 0.88, 0.79 and 0.65 for Salinity Index (SI) in the three dates respectively. The results have shown the usefulness of spectral indices as an auxiliary variable in the spatial estimation and mapping salinity in irrigated land.

Keywords: remote sensing, spectral indices, soil salinity, irrigated land

Procedia PDF Downloads 391