Search results for: Land cover/ use changes

Authors: Leila Rashidian, Abbas Ebrahimi

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The development of industrial activities, increase in fossil fuel consumption, vehicles, destruction of forests and grasslands, changes in land use, and population growth have caused to increase the amount of greenhouse gases especially CO₂ in the atmosphere in recent decades. This has led to global warming and climate change. In the present paper, we have investigated the trend of climate change according to the data simulation during the time interval of 2010-2030 in the Fars province. In this research, the daily climatic parameters such as maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of sunny hours during the 1977-2008 time interval for synoptic stations of Shiraz and Abadeh and during 1995-2008 for Lar stations and also the output of HADCM₃ model in 2010-2030 time interval have been used based on the A₂ propagation scenario. The results of the model show that the average temperature will increase by about 1 degree centigrade and the amount of precipitation will increase by 23.9% compared to the observational data. In conclusion, according to the temperature increase in this province, the amount of precipitation in the form of snow will be reduced and precipitations often will occur in the form of rain. This 1-degree centigrade increase during the season will reduce production by 6 to 10% because of shortening the growing period of wheat.

Keywords: climate change, Lars WG, HADCM3, Gillan province, climatic parameters, A2 scenario

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Authors: E. Duffin, L. Brownlow

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Arson is a crime which can provide exceptional problems to forensic specialists. Its destructive nature makes evidence much harder to find, especially when used to cover up another crime. There is a consistent potential threat of arsonists seeking new and easier ways to set fires. Existing research in this field primarily focuses on the use of accelerants such as petrol, with less attention to other more accessible and harder to detect materials. This includes the growing speculation of potato and maize-based snacks being used as fire accelerants. It was hypothesized that all ‘crisp-type’ snacks in foil packaging had the potential to act as accelerants and would burn readily in the various experiments. To test this hypothesis, a series of small lab-based experiments were undertaken, igniting samples of the snacks. Factors such as ingredients, shape, packaging and calorific value were all taken into consideration. The time (in seconds) spent on fire by the individual snacks was recorded. It was found that all of the snacks tested burnt for statistically similar amounts of time with a p-value of 0.0157. This was followed with a large mock real-life scenario using packets of crisps on fire and car seats to investigate as to the possibility of these snacks being verifiable tools to the arsonist. Here, three full packets of crisps were selected based on variations in burning during the lab experiments. They were each lit with a lighter to initiate burning, then placed onto a car seat to be timed and observed with video cameras. In all three cases, the fire was significant and sustained by the 200-second mark. On the basis of this data, it was concluded that potato and maize-based snacks were viable accelerants of fire. They remain an effective method of starting fires whilst being cheap, accessible, non-suspicious and non-detectable. The results produced supported the hypothesis that all ‘crisp-type’ snacks in foil packaging (that had been tested) had the potential to act as accelerants and would burn readily in the various experiments. This study serves to raise awareness and provide a basis for research and prevention of arson regarding maize and potato-based snacks as fire accelerants.

Keywords: arson, crisps, fires, food

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Authors: Renee Monchalin

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Métis peoples, while comprising over a third of the total Indigenous population in Canada, experience major gaps in health services that accommodate their cultural identities. This is problematic given Métis peoples experience severe disparities in health determinants and outcomes compared to the non-Indigenous Canadian population. At the same time, Métis are unlikely to engage in health services that do not value their cultural identities, often utilizing mainstream options. Given these contexts, this research aims to fill the culturally-safe health care gap for Métis peoples in Canada. It does this by engaging 56 urban Métis women who participated in a longitudinal cohort study, Our Health Counts (OHC) Toronto. Traditionally, Métis women were central to the health and well-being of their communities. However, due to decades of colonial legislation and forced land displacement, female narratives have been silenced, and Métis identities have been fractured. This has resulted in having direct implications on Métis people’s current health and access to health services. Solutions to filling the Métis health service gap may lie in the all too often unacknowledged or missing voices of Métis women. Through a conversational method, this research will explore urban Métis women’s perspectives on identity and their experiences with health services in Toronto. The goal of this research is to learn from urban Métis women on steps towards filling the health service gap. This research is currently in the data collection stage. Preliminary findings from the conversations will be disseminated. Policy recommendations for health service providers will be provided to better accommodate Métis people.

Keywords: indigenous health, Metis health, urban, health service access, identity

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Authors: A. Novikova, L. Rocchi, G. Startiene

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Market and non-market outputs are produced jointly in agriculture. Their supply depends on the intensity and type of production. The role of agriculture as an economic activity and its effects are important for the Lithuanian case study, as agricultural land covers more than a half of country. Positive and negative externalities, created in agriculture are not considered in the market. Therefore, specific techniques such as stated preferences methods, in particular choice experiments (CE) are used for evaluation of non-market outputs in agriculture. The main aim of this paper is to present construction of the research path for evaluation of non-market farming system outputs in Lithuania. The conventional and organic farming, covering crops (including both cereal and industrial crops) and livestock (including dairy and cattle) production has been selected. The CE method and nested logit (NL) model were selected as appropriate for evaluation of non-market outputs of different farming systems in Lithuania. A pilot survey was implemented between October–November 2018, in order to test and improve the CE questionnaire. The results of the survey showed that the questionnaire is accepted and well understood by the respondents. The econometric modelling showed that the selected NL model could be used for the main survey. The understanding of the differences between organic and conventional farming by residents was identified. It was revealed that they are more willing to choose organic farming in comparison to conventional farming.

Keywords: choice experiments, farming system, Lithuania market outputs, non-market outputs

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Authors: Fahimeh Khatami, Elham Sanagar Darbani, Behnosh Khir Khah, R.Khatami

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Rural and ruralism is one of the residential forms that form in special natural areas, and the Interaction between their internal and external forces cause developments and changes that are different in time and space. Over time, historical developments, social and economic changes in the political system cause developments and rapid growth of the rural to urban settlements. However, criteria for recognizing rural settlements to the city are different in every land. One of the problems in modern plan is inattention to indicators and criteria of changing these settlements to the city. The method of this research is a type of applied and compilation research and library and field methods are used in it. And also qualitative and quantitative indicators have been provided while collecting documents and studies from rural districts like Dehnow, Virani, Abardeh, Zoshk, Nowchah, Jaqarq in tourism area of Mashhad. In this research, the used tool is questionnaire and for analyzing quantitative variables by Morris and Mac Granahan examination, the importance of each factor and the development settlements are evaluated, and the rural that can convert to the city was defined. In result, according to Askalvgram curve obtained from analysis, it was found that among the mentioned villages, Virani and Nowchah rural districts have this ability to convert to the city; Zoshk rural district will be converting to the city in future and Dehnow, Abardeh and Jaqarq rural districts won’t be converting.

Keywords: rural settlements, city, indicators, Torqabe and Shandiz rural districts

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Authors: Abdul-Hakeem Olatunji Abiola, A. E. Adeniran, A. O. Ajimo, A. B. Lamilisa

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Introduction: Conventional wastewater treatment technology has been found to fail in developing countries because they are expensive to construct, operate and maintain. Constructed wetlands are nowadays considered as a low-cost alternative for effective wastewater treatment, especially where suitable land can be available. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the constructed wetland vegetated with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) plant for the treatment of wastewater. Methodology: The sub-surface flow wetland used for this study was an experimental scale constructed wetland consisting of four beds A, B, C, and D. Beds A, B, and D were vegetated while bed C which was used as a control was non-vegetated. This present study presents the results from bed B vegetated with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and control bed C which was non-vegetated. The influent of the experimental scale wetland has been pre-treated with sedimentation, screening and anaerobic chamber before feeding into the experimental scale wetland. Results: pH and conductivity level were more reduced, colour of effluent was more improved, nitrate, iron, phosphate, and chromium were more removed, and dissolved oxygen was more improved in the water hyacinth bed than the control bed. While manganese, nickel, cyanuric acid, and copper were more removed from the control bed than the water hyacinth bed. Conclusion: The performance of the experimental scale constructed wetland bed planted with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is better than that of the control bed. It is therefore recommended that plain bed without any plant should not be encouraged.

Keywords: constructed experimental scale wetland, domestic sewage, treatment, water hyacinth

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Authors: Chowdhury Dilruba Shoma

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Gender is about equal rights that both males and females having access to responsibilities and opportunities in decision making is a fundamental human right. It is also a precondition for, and a mark of, sustainable people-oriented development. In Bangladesh, women have fewer opportunities than men do to access credit from banks and financial institutions. Entrenched patriarchal attitudes, unequal inheritance rights, and male-dominated hierarchies in the financial system, plus high interest rates and a lack of security/collateral, make it harder for women to obtain bank loans. Limited access to institutional credit is a serious restraint on the productivity and income of women entrepreneurs, (and the wider economy). These gender-biased and structural barriers inhibit women’s access to fundamental economic rights. Using a liberal feminist theoretical lens, this study provides some useful insights into the relationship between gender inequality and entrepreneurship, leading to a better understanding of women’s entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh. Recently, the Bangladesh Government, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, and Bangladesh Bank opened up the Women Entrepreneur Support Fund (WESF) ‒ Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS) pilot project to cover collateral shortfalls for women entrepreneurs in the small and medium enterprise sector. The aim is to improve gender equality and advance women’s rights in relation to receiving credit. This article examines the challenges and prospects of the WESF-CGS, and suggests that implementation of measures in WESF-CGS policymaking, coupled with a combination of legislatory and regulatory reforms that implement the fundamental tenets of liberal feminism, can lead to a comprehensive and effective credit policy to boost women’s agency and economic empowerment. This may ultimately lead to more sustainable development in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Bangladesh, credit guarantee scheme, liberal feminist theory, women entrepreneur support fund

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Authors: M. Varin, A. M. Dubois, R. Gadbois-Langevin, B. Chalghaf

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Good knowledge of the physical environment is essential for an integrated forest planning. This information enables better forecasting of operating costs, determination of cutting volumes, and preservation of ecologically sensitive areas. The use of satellite images in stereoscopic pairs gives the capacity to generate high precision 3D models, which are scale-adapted for harvesting operations. These models could represent an alternative to 3D LiDAR data, thanks to their advantageous cost of acquisition. The objective of the study was to assess the quality of stereo-derived canopy height models (CHM) in comparison to a traditional LiDAR CHM and ground tree-height samples. Two study sites harboring two different forest stand types (broadleaf and conifer) were analyzed using stereo pairs and tri-stereo images from the WorldView-3 satellite to calculate CHM. Acquisition of multispectral images from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was also realized on a smaller part of the broadleaf study site. Different algorithms using two softwares (PCI Geomatica and Correlator3D) with various spatial resolutions and band selections were tested to select the 3D modeling technique, which offered the best performance when compared with LiDAR. In the conifer study site, the CHM produced with Corelator3D using only the 50-cm resolution panchromatic band was the one with the smallest Root-mean-square deviation (RMSE: 1.31 m). In the broadleaf study site, the tri-stereo model provided slightly better performance, with an RMSE of 1.2 m. The tri-stereo model was also compared to the UAV, which resulted in an RMSE of 1.3 m. At individual tree level, when ground samples were compared to satellite, lidar, and UAV CHM, RMSE were 2.8, 2.0, and 2.0 m, respectively. Advanced analysis was done for all of these cases, and it has been noted that RMSE is reduced when the canopy cover is higher when shadow and slopes are lower and when clouds are distant from the analyzed site.

Keywords: very high spatial resolution, satellite imagery, WorlView-3, canopy height models, CHM, LiDAR, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV

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Authors: D. L. David, J. A. Wahedi, Q. T. Zaku

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A study was conducted at River Mayo Ranewo and River Lau, Taraba State Nigeria. The two rivers empty into the Upper Benue Basin. A survey of visual encounter was conducted within the two wetlands from June to August, 2014. The fish record was based entirely on landings of fishermen, number of canoes that land fish was counted, types of nets and baits used on each sampling day. Fishes were sorted into taxonomic groups, identified to family/ species level, counted and weighed in groups by species. Other aquatic organisms captured by the fishermen were scallops, turtles and frogs. The relative species abundance was determined by dividing the number of species from a site by the total number of species from all tributaries/sites. The fish were preserved in 2% formaldehyde solution and taken to the laboratory, were identified through keys of identification to African fishes and field guides. Shannon-Wieiner index of species diversity indicated that the diversity was highest at River Mayo Ranewo than River Lau. Results showed that at River Mayo Ranewo, the family Mochokidae recorded the highest (23.15%), followed by Mormyridae (22.64%) and the least was the family Lepidosirenidae (0.04%). While at River Lau, the family Mochokidae recorded the highest occurrence of (24.1%), followed by Bagridae (20.20%), and then Mormyridae, which also was the second highest in River Lau, with 18.46% occurrence. There was no occurrence of Malapteruridae and Osteoglossidae (0%) in River Lau, but the least occurrence was the family Gymnarchidae (0.04%). According to the result from the t-test, the fish composition was not significantly different (p≤0.05).

Keywords: Diversity Index, Lau, Mayo Ranewo, Wetlands

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Authors: Isabella Jabbour

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The world's population is expected to reach over 10 billion by 2050, creating a significant demand for food production, particularly in the agricultural industry. Cellular agriculture presents a solution to this challenge by producing meat that resembles traditionally produced meat, but with significantly less land use. Decellularized plant scaffolds, such as spinach leaves, have been shown to be a suitable edible scaffold for growing animal muscle, enabling cultured cells to grow and organize into three-dimensional structures that mimic the texture and flavor of conventionally produced meat. However, the use of freshwater to remove the intact extracellular material from these plants remains a concern, particularly when considering scaling up the production process. In this study, two protocols were used, 1X SDS and Boom Sauce, to decellularize spinach leaves with both distilled water and ocean water. The decellularization process was confirmed by histology, which showed an absence of cell nuclei, DNA and protein quantification. Results showed that spinach decellularized with ocean water contained 9.9 ± 1.4 ng DNA/mg tissue, which is comparable to the 9.2 ± 1.1 ng DNA/mg tissue obtained with DI water. These findings suggest that decellularized spinach leaves using ocean water hold promise as an eco-friendly and cost-effective scaffold for laboratory-grown meat production, which could ultimately transform the meat industry by providing a sustainable alternative to traditional animal farming practices while reducing freshwater use.

Keywords: cellular agriculture, plant scaffold, decellularization, ocean water usage

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Authors: S. Mohammad Reza Khatibi

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Statistics on urbanization in Iran and around the world show that urbanization rate and urban population had had an increasing growth and, during five decades, this trend shows the fact that growth will still continue for a long time. Therefore, instead of an irregular horizontal city development and growth, a sustainable development is achievable by filling the existing city fabric, organizing the density and changing the use of incompatible old or urban buildings. One approach is the infill development. Infill development is the development of vacant land or wasteland abandoned within built areas or where there already exist facilities and equipment. Simply put, infill development is the use of empty spaces or those lacking intra-city use for city development. Additionally, fulfillment of social justice and creating a safe, secure and desirable atmosphere for citizens to live and stay active along with acquiring equal life opportunities, are among the goals of vision plan of Iran in conflict with which, certain environments have been created by city neighborhoods having physical, social, economic, etc. problems. Accordingly, in order to meet the extensive need of many cities for openness to growing population, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between infill development indicators and life quality in urban neighborhoods, using descriptive-analytical research method. Findings show that infill development indicators in three physical, social and economic categories can be adapted with quality components of urban environments, especially urban neighborhoods, and related guidelines can be offered.

Keywords: infill development, life quality, urban neighborhoods, indicator

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Authors: Mohammad Ranjbar, Mohammad Bazyar, Blake Angell, Thomas Lung, Yibeltal Assefa

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Background: Current health insurance programs in Iran suffer from low enrolment and are not sufficient to attain the country to universal health coverage (UHC). We hypothesize that improving the enrollment rate and moving towards a more sustainable UHC can be achieved by improving the benefits package and providing new incentives. The objective of this study is to assess public preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for social health insurance (SHI) in Iran. Methods: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted in 2021, using a self-administered questionnaire on 500 participants to estimate WTP and determine individual preferences for the SHI in Yazd, Iran. Respondents were presented with an eight-choice set and asked to select their preferred one. In each choice set, scenarios were described by eight attributes with varying levels. The conditional logit regression model was used to analyze the participants' preferences. Willingness to pay for each attribute was also calculated. Results: Most included attributes were significant predictors of the choice of a health insurance package. The maximum coverage of hospitalization costs in the private sector, ancillary services such as glasses, canes, etc., as well as coverage for hospitalization costs in the public sector and drug costs, were the most important determining factors for this choice. Coverage of preventive dental care did not significantly influence respondent choices. Estimating WTP showed that individuals are willing to pay more for higher financial protection, particularly against private sector costs; the WTP to increase the coverage of hospitalization costs in the private sector from 50% to 90% is estimated at 362,068 IR, Rials per month. Conclusion: This study identifies the key factors that the population value with regard to health insurance and the tradeoffs they are willing to make between them. Hospitalization, drugs, and ancillary services were the most important determining factors for their choice. The data suggest that additional resources coming into the Iranian health system might best be prioritized to cover hospitalization and drug costs and those associated with ancillary services.

Keywords: social health insurance, preferences, discrete choice experiment, willingness to pay

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Authors: Teklay Tesfay, Gebreyesus Brhane Tesfahunegn, Abadi Berhane, Selemawit Girmay

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Adjusting the proper sowing date of a crop at a particular location with a changing climate is an essential management option to maximize crop yield. However, determining the optimum sowing date for rainfed maize production through field experimentation requires repeated trials for many years in different weather conditions and crop management. To avoid such long-term experimentation to determine the optimum sowing date, crop models such as AquaCrop are useful. Therefore, the overall objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of AquaCrop model in simulating maize productivity under varying sowing dates. A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive cropping seasons by deploying four maize seed sowing dates in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Input data required to run this model are stored as climate, crop, soil, and management files in the AquaCrop database and adjusted through the user interface. Observed data from separate field experiments was used to calibrate and validate the model. AquaCrop model was validated for its performance in simulating the green canopy and aboveground biomass of maize for the varying sowing dates based on the calibrated parameters. Results of the present study showed that there was a good agreement (an overall R2 =, Ef= d= RMSE =) between measured and simulated values of the canopy cover and biomass yields. Considering the overall values of the statistical test indicators, the performance of the model to predict maize growth and biomass yield was successful, and so this is a valuable tool help for decision-making. Hence, this calibrated and validated model is suggested to use for determining optimum maize crop sowing date for similar climate and soil conditions to the study area, instead of conducting long-term experimentation.

Keywords: AquaCrop model, calibration, validation, simulation

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Authors: Vistorina Amputu, Katja Tielboerger, Nichola Knox

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Primary productivity in dry savannahs is constraint by moisture availability and under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Thus, considering climate change and the unprecedented pace and scale of rangeland deterioration, methods for assessing the status of such rangelands should be easy to apply, yield reliable and repeatable results that can be applied over large spatial scales. Global and local scale monitoring of rangelands through satellite data and labor-intensive field measurements respectively, are limited in accurately assessing the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of vegetation dynamics to provide crucial information that detects degradation in its early stages. Fortunately, newly emerging techniques such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), associated miniaturized sensors and improving digital photogrammetric software provide an opportunity to transcend these limitations. Yet, they have not been extensively calibrated in natural systems to encompass their complexities if they are to be integrated for long-term monitoring. Limited research using drone technology has been conducted in arid savannas, for example to assess the health status of this dynamic two-layer vegetation ecosystem. In our study, we fill this gap by testing the relationship between UAV-estimated cover of rangeland functional attributes and field data collected in discrete sample plots in a Namibian dryland savannah along a degradation gradient. The first results are based on a supervised classification performed on the ultra-high resolution multispectral imagery to distinguish between rangeland functional attributes (bare, non-woody, and woody), with a relatively good match to the field observations. Integrating UAV-based observations to improve rangeland monitoring could greatly assist in climate-adapted rangeland management.

Keywords: arid savannah, degradation gradient, field observations, narrow-band sensor, supervised classification

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Authors: Kalayanee Senasu

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This research investigates the influences of different factors on the happiness of Thai people, including both general factors and sustainable ones. Additionally, this study also monitors Thai people’s happiness via Thai Happiness Index developed in 2017. Besides reflecting happiness level of Thai people, this index also identifies related important issues. The data were collected by both secondary related data and primary survey data collected by interviewed questionnaires. The research data were from stratified multi-stage sampling in region, province, district, and enumeration area, and simple random sampling in each enumeration area. The research data cover 20 provinces, including Bangkok and 4-5 provinces in each region of the North, Northeastern, Central, and South. There were 4,960 usable respondents who were at least 15 years old. Statistical analyses included both descriptive and inferential statistics, including hierarchical regression and one-way ANOVA. The Alkire and Foster method was adopted to develop and calculate the Thai happiness index. The results reveal that the quality of household economy plays the most important role in predicting happiness. The results also indicate that quality of family, quality of health, and effectiveness of public administration in the provincial level have positive effects on happiness at about similar levels. For the socio-economic factors, the results reveal that age, education level, and household revenue have significant effects on happiness. For computing Thai happiness index (THaI), the result reveals the 2018 THaI value is 0.556. When people are divided into four groups depending upon their degree of happiness, it is found that a total of 21.1% of population are happy, with 6.0% called deeply happy and 15.1% called extensively happy. A total of 78.9% of population are not-yet-happy, with 31.8% called narrowly happy, and 47.1% called unhappy. A group of happy population reflects the happiness index THaI valued of 0.789, which is much higher than the THaI valued of 0.494 of the not-yet-happy population. Overall Thai people have higher happiness compared to 2017 when the happiness index was 0.506.

Keywords: happiness, quality of life, sustainability, Thai Happiness Index

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Authors: Jyun-Huei Huang, Ting-I Lee

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Urban heat island effect is derived from the reduction of vegetative cover by urban development. Because plants can improve air quality and microclimate, green walls have been applied as a sustainable design approach to cool building temperature. By using plants to green vertical surfaces, they decrease room temperature and, as a result, decrease the energy use for air conditioning. Based on their structures, green walls can be divided into two categories, green façades and living walls. A green façade uses the climbing ability of a plant itself, while a living wall assembles planter modules. The latter one is widely adopted in public space, as it is time-effective and less limited. Although a living wall saves energy spent on cooling, it is not necessarily cost-effective from the perspective of a lifecycle analysis. The Italian study shows that the overall benefit of a living wall is only greater than its costs after 47 years of its establishment. In Taiwan, urban greening policies encourage establishment of green walls by referring to their benefits of energy saving while neglecting their low performance on cost-effectiveness. Thus, this research aims at understanding the perception of appliers and consumers on the cost-effectiveness of their living wall products from the lifecycle viewpoint. It adopts semi-structured interviews and field observations on the maintenance of the products. By comparing the two results, it generates insights for sustainable urban greening policies. The preliminary finding shows that stakeholders do not have a holistic sense of lifecycle or cost-effectiveness. Most importantly, a living wall well maintained is often with high input due to the availability of its maintenance budget, and thus less sustainable. In conclusion, without a comprehensive sense of cost-effectiveness throughout a product’s lifecycle, it is very difficult for suppliers and consumers to maintain a living wall system while achieve sustainability.

Keywords: case study, maintenance, post-occupancy evaluation, vertical greening

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Authors: Y. Fekir, K. Mederbal, M. A. Hammadouche, D. Anteur

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The cultural park of the Ahaggar, occupying a large area of Algeria, is characterized by a rich wetlands area to be preserved and managed both in time and space. The management of a large area, by its complexity, needs large amounts of data, which for the most part, are spatially localized (DEM, satellite images and socio-economic information...), where the use of conventional and traditional methods is quite difficult. The remote sensing, by its efficiency in environmental applications, became an indispensable solution for this kind of studies. Remote sensing imaging data have been very useful in the last decade in very interesting applications. They can aid in several domains such as the detection and identification of diverse wetland surface targets, topographical details, and geological features... In this work, we try to extract automatically wetlands area using multispectral remotely sensed data on-board the Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) and Landsat satellite. Both are high-resolution multispectral imager with a 30 m resolution. The instrument images an interesting surface area. We have used images acquired over the several area of interesting in the National Park of Ahaggar in the south of Algeria. An Extraction Algorithm is applied on the several spectral index obtained from combination of different spectral bands to extract wetlands fraction occupation of land use. The obtained results show an accuracy to distinguish wetlands area from the other lad use themes using a fine exploitation on spectral index.

Keywords: multispectral data, EO1, landsat, wetlands, Ahaggar, Algeria

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Authors: Oluwafemi Samuel Oyamakin

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The forest in Nigeria is currently estimated to extend to around 9.6 million hectares, but used to expand over central and southern Nigeria decades ago. The forest estate is shrinking due to long-term human exploitation for agricultural development, fuel wood demand, uncontrolled forest harvesting and urbanization, amongst other factors, compounded by population growth in rural areas. Nigeria has lost more than 50% of its forest cover since 1990 and currently less than 10% of the country is forested. The current deforestation rate is estimated at 3.7%, which is one of the highest in the world. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks constituted what is referred to as REDD+. This study evaluated some of the existing way of computing carbon stocks using eight indigenous tree species like Mansonia, Shorea, Bombax, Terminalia superba, Khaya grandifolia, Khaya senegalenses, Pines and Gmelina arborea. While these components are the essential elements of REDD+ programme, they can be brought under a broader framework of systems analysis designed to arrive at optimal solutions for future predictions through statistical distribution pattern of carbon sequestrated by various species of tree. Available data on height and diameter of trees in Ibadan were studied and their respective potentials of carbon sequestration level were assessed and subjected to tests so as to determine the best statistical distribution that would describe the carbon sequestration pattern of trees. The result of this study suggests a reasonable statistical distribution for carbons sequestered in simulation studies and hence, allow planners and government in determining resources forecast for sustainable development especially where experiments with real-life systems are infeasible. Sustainable management of forest can then be achieved by projecting future condition of forests under different management regimes thereby supporting conservation and REDD+ programmes in Nigeria.

Keywords: REDD+, carbon, climate change, height and diameter

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Authors: Beatrice Eyram Afi Ziorklui, Norihisa Shima

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Community Driven Development (CDD) is now a widely recommended and accepted development strategy for informal communities across the continent. Centered on the utilization of social capital through community structures, different informal settlements have different structures and different levels of social capital, which affect the implementation and ability to overcome CDD challenges. Although known to be very successful, there are few perspectives on the implementation of CDD initiatives in different informal settlements. This study assesses the implementation of CDD initiatives in migrant and indigenous informal settlements and their ability to navigate challenges. The case study research design was adopted in this research, and respondents were chosen through simple random sampling. Using the Statistical Package for social scientists (SPSS) for data analysis, the study found that migrant informal settlements implement CDD projects through the network of hierarchical structures based on government systems, whereas indigenous informal settlements implement through the hierarchical social structure based on traditions and culture. The study also found that, with the exception of the challenge of land accessibility in migrant informal settlements, all other challenges, such as participation, resource mobilization, and maintenance, have a significant relationship with social capital, although indigenous informal settlements have higher levels of social capital than migrant informal settlements. The study recommends a framework that incorporates community characteristics and the underlying social capital to facilitate upgrading strategies in informal in Ghana.

Keywords: community driven development, informal settlements, social capital, upgrading

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Authors: Otuu O. Obasi, Jude C. Ajaraogu, Happiness C. Anthony-Ikpe

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Women in Igbo land generally experience culture-related mistreatment in the event of the death of their husbands. The mistreatment ranges from scraping of widows’ hair to denial of the right to see their husbands’ corpses. The objectives of the study were to determine the forms and prevalence of widowhood practice in the studied communities, the effects of the socio-cultural attributes of the people on the practice, and the perceived effect of the practice on the victims. Data for the study were collected from 64 randomly selected communities out of 640 communities in Imo State, Nigeria. 450 copies of the researcher-made-questionnaire were distributed across the three senatorial zones of the State. A total of 418 or 92.8% were completely filled and returned. The result of the study showed, among other things, that the majority of males and females recognized widowhood practice as dehumanizing, but opined that it cannot be stopped because it is rooted in culture. However, 30.2% of the female population did not agree that the practice is dehumanizing to women since it was their cultural practice. The study also revealed that scrapping of widows’ hair was the commonest practice while sleeping alone with the husband’s corpse was the least practice. Regarding the effect which this practice has on widows, emotional trauma topped the list; and was followed by economic hardship and health deterioration. Also shown by the study was that the level of education and religion did not have a notable effect on widowhood practice. With regard to possible stoppage measures, greater number of the respondents (38%) indicated that a synergy of efforts was needed to curb the social scourge.

Keywords: widowhood practice, socio-cultural attributes, violence, impact

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Authors: Mindaugas Zavalis

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Analysis of experimental tests data of bending one-way reinforced concrete slabs from various articles of science revealed that voided slabs with a grid of hollow plastic inserts inside have smaller mechani-cal and physical parameters compared to continuous cross-section slabs (solid slabs). The negative influence of a reinforced concrete slab is impacted by hollow plastic inserts, which make a grid of voids in the middle of the cross-sectional area of the reinforced concrete slab. A formed grid of voids reduces the slab’s stiffness, which influences the slab’s parameters of serviceability, like deflection and cracking. Prima-ry investigation of data established during experiments illustrates that cracks occur faster in the tensile surface of the voided slab under bend-ing compared to bending solid slab. It means that the crack bending moment force for the voided slab is smaller than the solid slab and the reduction can variate in the range of 14 – 40 %. Reduce of resistance to cracking can be controlled by changing a lot of factors: the shape of the plastic hallow insert, plastic insert height, steps between plastic in-serts, usage of prestressed reinforcement, the diameter of reinforcement bar, slab effective depth, the bottom cover thickness of concrete, effec-tive cross-section of the concrete area about reinforcement and etc. Mentioned parameters are used to evaluate crack width and step of cracking, but existing analytical calculation methods for cracking eval-uation of voided slab with plastic inserts are not so exact and the re-sults of cracking evaluation in this paper are higher than the results of analyzed experiments. Therefore, it was made analytically calculations according to experimental bending tests of voided reinforced concrete slabs with hollow plastic inserts to find and propose corrections for the evaluation of cracking for reinforced concrete voided slabs with hollow plastic inserts.

Keywords: voided slab, cracking, hallow plastic insert, bending, one-way reinforced concrete, serviceability

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Authors: Alexander Hedlund, Anna-Karin Stengard, Olof Björkqvist

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A step towards reducing greenhouse gases and energy consumption is to collaborate with the energy system between several industries. This work is based on a case study on integration of pulp and paper mills with a district heating system in Sundsvall, Sweden. Present research shows that it is possible to make a significant reduction in the electricity demand in the mechanical pulping process. However, the profitability of the efficiency measures could be an issue, as the excess steam recovered from the refiners decreases with the electricity consumption. A consequence will be that the fuel demand for steam production will increase. If the fuel price is similar to the electricity price it would reduce the profit of such a project. If the paper mill can be integrated with a district heating system, it is possible to upgrade excess heat from a nearby kraft pulp mill to process steam via the district heating system in order to avoid the additional fuel need. The concept is investigated by using a simulation model describing both the mass and energy balance as well as the operating margin. Three scenarios were analyzed: reference, electricity reduction and energy substitution. The simulation show that the total input to the system is lowest in the Energy substitution scenario. Additionally, in the Energy substitution scenario the steam from the incineration boiler covers not only the steam shortage but also a part of the steam produced using the biofuel boiler, the cooling tower connected to the incineration boiler is no longer needed and the excess heat can cover the whole district heating load during the whole year. The study shows a substantial economic advantage if all stakeholders act together as one system. However, costs and benefits are unequally shared between the actors. This means that there is a need for new business models in order to share the system costs and benefits.

Keywords: energy system, cooperation, simulation method, excess heat, district heating

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Authors: Ogbole Alexandra Simi, Wuyep Solomon Zitta, Monday Seri Nentok, Boilif Yilni Edward, Ocheri Maxwell Idoko

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Vegetables have positive antioxidative properties and are abundant in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. However, if consumed in large quantities, it may be harmful to human health. Therefore, this study assessed the effects of heavy metals on irrigated pepper, cabbage, and Irish potatoes grown in Butura. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AA240FS) was used to analyze cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), and arsenic (As) levels. Three samples were selected from each of the vegetables grown on nine selected farms at distances of 0 m, 10 m, and 30 m. This forms a composite sample of vegetables at each farm. The study showed that the concentrations of cobalt, chromium, cadmium, copper, arsenic, zinc and nickel were within the standard limits set by the FAO/WHO, except for lead, which is higher than the allowable limits for vegetables. These may have behavioral problems, neurological complications, and hematologic disorders for consumers. Thus, these findings could lead to a risk for the human population consuming these vegetables. It is recommended that irrigation water and agricultural soils be constantly monitored to determine the concentration of metals accumulated by crop plants to ensure that crop plants are safe for consumption by humans.

Keywords: vegetable, cabbage, heavy metals, irrigated, Irish potato, Bokkos, pepper

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Authors: Isaac Mugume

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Since the beginning of the 21st century, climate change has been an issue due to the reported rise in global temperature and changes in the frequency as well as severity of extreme weather and climatic events. The changing climate has been attributed to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, including environmental changes such as ecosystems and land-uses. Climatic projections have been carried out under the auspices of the intergovernmental panel on climate change where a couple of models have been run to inform us about the likelihood of future climates. Since one of the major forcings informing the changing climate is emission of greenhouse gases, different scenarios have been proposed and future climates for different periods presented. The global climate models project different areas to experience different impacts. While regional modeling is being carried out for high impact studies, bias correction is less documented. Yet, the regional climate models suffer bias which introduces uncertainty. This is addressed in this study by bias correcting the regional models. This study uses the Weather Research and Forecasting model under different representative concentration pathways and correcting the products of these models using observed climatic data. This study notes that bias correction (e.g., the running-mean bias correction; the best easy systematic estimator method; the simple linear regression method, nearest neighborhood, weighted mean) improves the climatic projection skill and therefore reduce the uncertainty inherent in the climatic projections.

Keywords: bias correction, climatic projections, numerical models, representative concentration pathways

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Authors: Ahmed T. Farid, Khaled Z. Soliman

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Due to limited areas and excessive cost of land for projects, backfilling process has become necessary. Also, backfilling will be done to overcome the un-leveling depths or raising levels of site construction, especially near the sea region. Therefore, backfilling soil materials used under the foundation of structures should be investigated regarding its effect on ground motion characteristics, especially at regions subjected to earthquakes. In this research, 60-meter thickness of sandy fill material was used above a fixed 240-meter of natural clayey soil underlying by rock formation to predict the modified ground motion characteristics effect at the foundation level. Comparison between the effect of using three different situations of fill material compaction on the recorded earthquake is studied, i.e. peak ground acceleration, time history, and spectra acceleration values. The three different densities of the compacted fill material used in the study were very loose, medium dense and very dense sand deposits, respectively. Shake computer program was used to perform this study. Strong earthquake records, with Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) of 0.35 g, were used in the analysis. It was found that, higher compaction of fill material thickness has a significant effect on eliminating the earthquake ground motion properties at surface layer of fill material, near foundation level. It is recommended to consider the fill material characteristics in the design of foundations subjected to seismic motions. Future studies should be analyzed for different fill and natural soil deposits for different seismic conditions.

Keywords: acceleration, backfill, earthquake, soil, PGA

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Authors: Neeraj Shetye

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A common phenomenon between the rise of leaders like Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in the 20th century is their 'charisma'. They possessed the ability to seduce the crowd not just by the things they said but also by the way they said it. Aristotle defined rhetoric as an art of persuasion and reasoning which is how social scientists understand the concept. Political rhetoric in a modern democracy has several complexities including the huge number of speakers, quantity of information, diverse viewpoints, number of candidates and the impact of digital age. Politics in India since the seventies have been 'visibly dominated' by uses of rhetorical language and with a number of slogans. This idea of how language can steer an individual to establish or adopt a certain viewpoint has not been a focus of study in the Indian discourse. In a linguistically diverse region such as India, the idea of political rhetoric is vast and may not be accomplished in a year. There are in-depth studies by western thinkers on European or American political rhetoric unlike their Asian counterparts such as China, India or any of the Pacific nations. India saw an integration of states based on languages. Keeping this idea in mind, this paper aims to cover one political party that rose to its prominence over five decades and most significantly known for its conservative expression: Shivsena. Shivsena’s rise during the eighties and eventually establishing their government in the nineties are two fascinating periods to focus especially with a simultaneous rise of Bombay underworld, Babri demolition and major economic policy changes in the form of liberalisation (1991) and globalization (1995). This project attempts to study this with a two-fold methodology: literature review and fieldwork. There is an immense literature on Shivsena by both its admirers and critiques, contributing to both sides of the debate. Scholars have been writing about this party over these years and have keenly observed its growing popularity amongst the masses. There is just one intention behind this project, and it is to connect and analyse the vast, dispersed literature that is available and contribute to a field that has not been adequately analysed in the academic discourse.

Keywords: India, language, political rhetoric, Shivsena, slogans

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Authors: Mahdi Momeni

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The arrival of Mysticism to the subcontinent can be generally divided into two periods. The first period, was the Sporadic arrival of Sufis whom were traveling to the subcontinent according to the tradition of disquisition and the second period was; when the Sufi dynasties were sending missionaries and caliphs to guide and promote people from different direction to that land. Among the Sufi dynasty that entered to India in the thirteenth century, two dynasties of Chishti and Suhrawardîya were more successful than other Sufi dynasties. And thus they are very important in the spread of Islam and Mysticism to the subcontinent. Suhrawardiyya dynasty was founded by Sheikh Ziauddin Abu Najib Suhrawardi and was developed and spread by his nephew Sheikh Shahabuddin Suhrawardi Abo hafs Omar. Sheikh Shahabuddin sent many Caliphs and missionaries to India. Among these missionaries were People like Sultan Sakhi Sarwar, Seyyed Noureddin Mobarak Ghaznavi, Sheikh Jalal al-din Tabrizi and Sheikh Zakariya Multani. Since Suhrawardiyya doctrine relies on Asceticism and Sharia, so one of the important elements among Suhrawardiyya missionaries was inviting people to Islam. Accordingly Sheikh Shahab Caliphs had a great role in the spread of Islam and Mysticism in different territories, especially India. Such that it can be pointed out is the the role of Sheikh Baha-ud-din Zakariya Multani, the founder of Suhrawardiyya Dynasty in India. Sheikh Zakaria Multani after working in three areas, establishing monasteries, training managers, having numerous trips to different places, participating to social affairs provided the spread of Islam and Mysticism in subcontinent. This paper studies his role and actions in the subcontinent.

Keywords: islam, sufism, Suhrawardiyya, subcontinent, Multan

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Authors: Ts. Lazarova, V. Tumbalev, S. Atanacova-Vladimirova, G. Ivanov, A. Naydenov, D. Kovacheva

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Methane is a major Greenhouse Gas (GHG) that accounts for 14% of the world’s total amount of GHG emissions, originating mainly from agriculture, Coal mines, land fields, wastewater and oil and gas facilities. Nowadays the problem caused by the methane emissions has been a subject of an increased concern. One of the methods for neutralization of the methane emissions is it's complete catalytic oxidation. The efforts of the researchers are focused on the development of new types of catalysts and optimizing the existing catalytic systems in order to prevent the sintering of the palladium, providing at the same time a sufficient activity at temperatures below 500oC. The aim of the present work is to prepare mixed Cu-Ag-Pd oxide catalysts supported on alumina and to test them for methane complete catalytic oxidation. Cu-Ag-Pd/Al2O3 were prepared on a γ-Al2O3 (BET surface area = 220 m2/g) by the incipient wetness method using the corresponding metal nitrates (Cu:Ag = 90:10, Cu:Pd =97:3, Cu:Ag:Pd= 87:10:3) as precursors. A second set of samples were prepared with addition of urea to the metal nitrate solutions with the above mentioned ratios assuming increased dispersivity of the catalysts. The catalyst samples were dried at 100°C for 3 hours and calcined at 550°C for 30 minutes. Catalysts samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), low temperature adsorption of nitrogen (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The catalytic activity tests were carried out in a continuous flow type of reactor at atmospheric pressure. The effect of catalyst aging at 500 oC for 120 h on the methane combustion activity was also investigated. The results clearly indicate the synergetic effect of Ag and Pd on the catalytic activity.

Keywords: catalysts, XRD, BET, SEM, catalytic oxidation

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Authors: Osaretin Rosemary Uyi, A. O. Ogungbemi

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Female involvement in policy making and partnership in a man-driven-world is fast gaining international recognition. The Nigeria commercial real estate is one of the sectors of the economy that has a significant number of the male in the business. This study was conducted to assess the participation of females in estate management in Lagos state, Nigeria. Lagos is the commercial nerve center of Nigeria having the highest number of real estate practitioners and investors. The population due to the daily influx of people has made real estate business to continue to grow in this part of Nigeria. A structured questionnaire duly pre-tested and validated was used to elicit information from the respondents. The data collected were presented using tables and charts and were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentages, were used to test the hypothesis. The results also indicated that most females that participated in commercial real estate business are educated (80%), fell within 31-40 years of age (75%) and of high income status (88%) earn above ₦800,000 per year, while 10% are real estate investors and 82% of the female in the sector are employee. The study concluded that the number of female participating in various aspect of commercial real estate business in the study area was moderate while the numbers of female investors are low when compared to male. This might be due to the problems associated with rent collection, land disputes and other issues that are associated with property management in Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that females in real estate should be empowered and encouraged to match with their male counterpart.

Keywords: commercial real estate, empowerment, female, participation, property management

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Authors: Prasenjit Panda

Abstract:

Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Bronte’s Jane Eyre, explores the history of the other and gives voices to the people who were silenced and kept under the darkness of negation and denial for a long time. Jean Wide Sargasso Sea provides an alternative understanding of Charlotte Brontë’s mad Creole woman, i.e., Bertha Mason of Jane Eyre in the postcolonial context. Rhys transforms Charlotte Bronte’s Victorian romance into a realistic narrative. In doing so, she re-reads Bertha as Antoinette, the unspeakable figure of otherness, into an unnameable self, and creates a new stage for the inner self. She in the novel is no longer a lunatic heiress in Rochester’s attic rather in this novel she finds her fantasy, dream and most importantly, voice. Rhys peeps through the character of Antoinette through her fragmented memories, dreams, and identity. Antoinette’s identity is mutilated constantly in the conflicts between colonizers and colonized, male and female, black and white. We shall use postcolonial theories like Bhaba’s hybridity and third space as a methodology to reveal the dialectics of struggle of a doubly colonized woman.We shall see that Bertha Mason was neglected by Bronte because of her madness and was locked in the Rochester’s Attic, but here Rhys beautifully converts her madness as a language of Antoinette, a language for her protest, a language for her liberation, a language for her dreams. In this present paper, we shall try to show how Antoinette tries to free her soul and body from the clutches of her multiple existences, identity, and narratives.

Keywords: colonizer, dislocation, fragmented memories, identity, narratives

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