Search results for: drone ecosystem

Authors: Savannah Rugg, Carlo Moreno, Pushpa Soti, Alexis Racelis

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Situated in deep South Texas, the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) is considered one the most productive agricultural regions in the southern US. With the highest concentration of organic farms in the state (Hidalgo county), the LRGV has a strong potential to be leaders in sustainable agriculture. Finding management practices that comply with organic certification and increase the health of the agroecosytem and the farmers working the land is increasingly pertinent. Cover cropping, or the intentional planting of non-cash crop vegetation, can serve multiple functions in an agroecosystem by decreasing environmental pollutants that originate from the agroecosystem, reducing inputs needed for crop production, and potentially decreasing on-farm costs for farmers—overall increasing the sustainability of the farm. Use of cover crops on otherwise fallow lands have shown to enhance ecosystem services such as: attracting native beneficial insects (pollinators), increase nutrient availability in topsoil, prevent nutrient leaching, increase soil organic matter, and reduces soil erosion. In this study, four cover crops (Lablab, Sudan Grass, Sunn Hemp, and Pearl Millet) were analyzed in the subtropical region of south Texas to see how their multiple functions enhance ecosystem services. The four cover crops were assessed to see their potential to harbor native insects, their potential to increase soil nitrogen, to increase soil organic matter, and to suppress weeds. The preliminary results suggest that these subtropical varieties of cover crops have potential to enhance ecosystem services on agricultural land in the RGV by increasing soil organic matter (in all varieties), increasing nitrogen in topsoil (Lablab, Sunn Hemp), and reducing weeds (Sudan Grass).

Keywords: cover crops, ecosystem services, subtropical agriculture, sustainable agriculture

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Authors: Tabugbo B. Ifeyinwa, Josephat O. Ogbuagu, Okeke A. Princewill, Victor C. Eze

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The increasing amount of plastic pollution in maritime settings poses a substantial risk to the functioning of ecosystems and the preservation of biodiversity. This comprehensive analysis combines the most recent data on the environmental effects of pollution from macroplastics, microplastics, and nanoplastics within marine ecosystems. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the cumulative impacts that plastic waste accumulates on marine life by outlining the origins, processes, and ecological repercussions connected with each size category of plastic debris. Microplastics and nanoplastics have more sneaky effects that are controlled by chemicals. These effects can get through biological barriers and affect the health of cells and the whole body. Compared to macroplastics, which primarily contribute to physical harm through entanglement and ingestion by marine fauna, microplastics, and nanoplastics are associated with non-physical effects. The review underlines a vital need for research that crosses disciplinary boundaries to untangle the intricate interactions that the various sizes of plastic pollution have with marine animals, evaluate the long-term ecological repercussions, and identify effective measures for mitigating the effects of plastic pollution. Additionally, we urge governmental interventions and worldwide cooperation to solve this pervasive environmental concern. Specifically, we identify significant knowledge gaps in the detection and effect assessment of nanoplastics. To protect marine biodiversity and preserve ecosystem services, this review highlights how urgent it is to address the broad spectrum of plastic pollution.

Keywords: macroplastic pollution, marine ecosystem, microplastic pollution, nanoplastic pollution

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Authors: Jose Carlos Rodriguez, Mario Gomez

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In the last years, the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has gained popularity. It reveals the importance of a supportive community and adequate economic environment for entrepreneurial activity, and thus the possibility of developing a different perspective on the innovation system. On the other hand, the (regional/technology) innovation system approach lacks in its analyses the presence of an entrepreneur as a key actor that develops innovations. In this regard, this paper examines the foundations of both theoretical approaches (the entrepreneurial ecosystems and the regional/technology systems of innovation) and their contributions to understand entrepreneurial activity at different levels of analyses, namely national, regional or local. The paper makes a literature review on both perspectives of innovation stressing the role played by entrepreneurs in these theoretical approaches. It concludes remarking that the regional/technology innovation systems approach and the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach have established themselves in their own right, but the regional/technology innovation system approach is a predecessor of the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach.

Keywords: entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovation systems, entrepreneurial activity, comparative analysis

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Authors: Andreas Schomburg, Claire Le Bayon, Claire Guenat, Philip Brunner

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Numerous river restoration projects have been established in Switzerland in recent years after decades of human activity in floodplains. The success of restoration projects in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem functions largely depend on the development of the floodplain soil system. Plants and earthworms as ecosystem engineers are known to be able to build up a stable soil structure by incorporating soil organic matter into the soil matrix that creates water stable soil aggregates. Their engineering efficiency however largely depends on changing soil properties and frequent floods along an evolutive floodplain transect. This study, therefore, aims to quantify the effect of flood frequency and duration as well as of physico-chemical soil parameters on plants’ and earthworms’ engineering efficiency. It is furthermore predicted that these influences may have a different impact on one of the engineers that leads to a varying contribution to aggregate formation within the floodplain transect. Ecosystem engineers were sampled and described in three different floodplain habitats differentiated according to the evolutionary stages of the vegetation ranging from pioneer to forest vegetation in a floodplain restored 15 years ago. In addition, the same analyses were performed in an embanked adjacent pasture as a reference for the pre-restored state. Soil aggregates were collected and analyzed for their organic matter quantity and quality using Rock Eval pyrolysis. Water level and discharge measurements dating back until 2008 were used to quantify the return period of major floods. Our results show an increasing amount of water stable aggregates in soil with increasing distance to the river and show largest values in the reference site. A decreasing flood frequency and the proportion of silt and clay in the soil texture explain these findings according to F values from one way ANOVA of a fitted mixed effect model. Significantly larger amounts of labile organic matter signatures were found in soil aggregates in the forest habitat and in the reference site that indicates a larger contribution of plants to soil aggregation in these habitats compared to the pioneer vegetation zone. Earthworms’ contribution to soil aggregation does not show significant differences in the floodplain transect, but their effect could be identified even in the pioneer vegetation with its large proportion of coarse sand in the soil texture and frequent inundations. These findings indicate that ecosystem engineers seem to be able to create soil aggregates even under unfavorable soil conditions and under frequent floods. A restoration success can therefore be expected even in ecosystems with harsh soil properties and frequent external disturbances.

Keywords: ecosystem engineers, flood frequency, floodplains, river restoration, rock eval pyrolysis, soil organic matter incorporation, soil structuration

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Authors: Sasiwimol Auepong, Raywat Tanadkithirun

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In this work, the problem that squirrels ruin durian, which is an economical fruit in Thailand, is considered. We seek the strategy for the durian farmers to eliminate the squirrels under the consideration that squirrels also provide ecosystem service. The population dynamics of squirrels are constructed to have carrying capacity since we consider the population in a confined area. A performance index indicating the total benefit of a given elimination strategy is provided. It comprises the cost of countermeasures, the loss of resources, and the ecosystem service provided by squirrels. The optimal performance index is numerically solved through the variational inequality using the finite difference method. The optimal strategy to control the squirrel population is also given numerically.

Keywords: controlled stochastic differential equation, durian, finite difference method, performance index, singular stochastic control model, squirrel

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Authors: Zhiqiang Yan, Chen Fan, Yafei Wang, Beicheng Xia

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Urban lakes play an invaluable role in urban water systems such as flood control, water supply, and public recreation. However, over 38% of the urban lakes have suffered from severe eutrophication in China. Chlorine that could remarkably inhibit the growth of phytoplankton in eutrophic, has been widely used in the agricultural, aquaculture and industry in the recent past. However, little information has been reported regarding the effects of chlorine on the lake ecosystem, especially on the main aquatic species.To investigate the ecological response of main aquatic species and system stability to chlorine interference in shallow urban lakes, a mini system dynamic model was developed based on the competition and predation of main aquatic species and total phosphorus circulation. The main species of submerged macrophyte, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos, spiroggra and total phosphorus in water and sediment were used as variables in the model,while the interference of chlorine on phytoplankton was represented by an exponential attenuation equation. Furthermore, the eco-exergy expressing the development degree of ecosystem was used to quantify the complexity of the shallow urban lake. The model was validated using the data collected in the Lotus Lake in Guangzhoufrom1 October 2015 to 31 January 2016.The correlation coefficient (R), root mean square error-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR) and index of agreement (IOA) were calculated to evaluate accuracy and reliability of the model.The simulated values showed good qualitative agreement with the measured values of all components. The model results showed that chlorine had a notable inhibitory effect on Microcystis aeruginos，Rachionus plicatilis, Diaphanosoma brachyurum Liévin and Mesocyclops leuckarti (Claus).The outbreak of Spiroggra.spp. inhibited the growth of Vallisneria natans (Lour.) Hara, leading to a gradual decrease of eco-exergy and the breakdown of ecosystem internal equilibria. This study gives important insight into using chlorine to achieve eutrophication control and understand mechanism process.

Keywords: system dynamic model, urban lake, chlorine, eco-exergy

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Authors: Altilio Rosa, Chirico Francesco, Foglia Goffredo

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In recent years, the number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has significantly increased. The rapid development of commercial and recreational drones makes them an important part of our society. Despite the growing list of their applications, these vehicles pose a huge threat to civil and military installations: detection, classification and neutralization of such flying objects become an urgent need. Radar is an effective remote sensing tool for detecting and tracking flying objects, but scenarios characterized by the presence of a high number of tracks related to flying birds make especially challenging the drone detection task: operator PPI is cluttered with a huge number of potential threats and his reaction time can be severely affected. Flying birds compared to UAVs show similar velocity, RADAR cross-section and, in general, similar characteristics. Building from the absence of a single feature that is able to distinguish UAVs and birds, this paper uses a multiple features approach where an original feature selection technique is developed to feed binary classifiers trained to distinguish birds and UAVs. RADAR tracks acquired on the field and related to different UAVs and birds performing various trajectories were used to extract specifically designed target movement-related features based on velocity, trajectory and signal strength. An optimization strategy based on a genetic algorithm is also introduced to select the optimal subset of features and to estimate the performance of several classification algorithms (Neural network, SVM, Logistic regression…) both in terms of the number of selected features and misclassification error. Results show that the proposed methods are able to reduce the dimension of the data space and to remove almost all non-drone false targets with a suitable classification accuracy (higher than 95%).

Keywords: birds, classification, machine learning, UAVs

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Authors: Steven Hidalgo, Patricio Neumann

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The growth of societies has increased the consumption of raw materials and food obtained from nature. This has influenced the services offered by ecosystems to humans, mainly supply and regulation services. One of the indicators used to evaluate these services is Net Primary Productivity (NPP), which is understood as the energy stored in the form of biomass by primary organisms through the process of photosynthesis and respiration. The variation of NPP by defined area produces changes in the properties of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, which alter factors such as biodiversity, nutrient cycling, carbon storage and water quality. The analysis of NPP to evaluate variations in ecosystem services includes harvested NPP (understood as provisioning services), which is the raw material from agricultural systems used by humans as a source of energy and food, and the remaining NPP (expressed as a regulating service) or the amount of biomass that remains in ecosystems after the harvesting process, which is mainly related to factors such as biodiversity. Given that agriculture is a fundamental pillar of Chile's integral development, the purpose of this study is to evaluate provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in the agricultural sector, specifically in cereal production, in the communes of the central-southern regions of Chile through a conceptual framework based on the quantification of the fraction of Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) and the fraction remaining in the ecosystems (NPP remaining). A total of 161 communes were analyzed in the regions of O'Higgins, Maule, Ñuble, Bio-Bío, La Araucanía and Los Lagos, which are characterized by having the largest areas planted with cereals. It was observed that the region of La Araucanía produces the greatest amount of dry matter, understood as provisioning service, where Victoria is the commune with the highest cereal production in the country. In addition, the maximum value of HANPP was in the O'Higgins region, highlighting the communes of Coltauco, Quinta de Tilcoco, Placilla and Rengo. On the other hand, the communes of Futrono, Pinto, Lago Ranco and Pemuco, whose cereal production was important during the study, had the highest values of remaining NPP as a regulating service. Finally, an inverse correlation was observed between the provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, i.e., the higher the cereal or dry matter production in a defined area, the lower the net primary production remaining in the ecosystems. Based on this study, future research will focus on the evaluation of ecosystem services associated with other crops, such as forestry plantations, whose activity is an important part of the country's productive sector.

Keywords: provisioning services, regulating services, net primary productivity, agriculture

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Authors: Mercy Chepkirui, Reuben Omondi, Paul Orina, Albert Getabu, Lewis Sitoki, Jonathan Munguti

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Globally, the decline in capture fisheries as a result of the growing population and increasing awareness of the nutritional benefits of white meat has led to the development of aquaculture. This is anticipated to meet the increasing call for more food for the human population, which is likely to increase further by 2050. Statistics showed that more than 50% of the global future fish diet will come from aquaculture. Aquaculture began commercializing some decades ago; this is accredited to technological advancement from traditional to modern cultural systems, including cage farming. Cage farming technology has been rapidly growing since its inception in Lake Victoria, Kenya. Currently, over 6,000 cages have been set up in Kenyan waters, and this offers an excellent opportunity for recognition of Kenya’s government tactic to eliminate food insecurity and malnutrition, create employment and promote a Blue Economy. However, being an open farming enterprise is likely to emit large bulk of waste hence altering the ecosystem integrity of the lake. This is through increased chlorophyll-a pigments, alteration of the plankton community, macroinvertebrates, fish genetic pollution, transmission of fish diseases and pathogens. Cage farming further increases the nutrient loads leading to the production of harmful algal blooms, thus negatively affecting aquatic and human life. Despite the ecological transformation, cage farming provides a platform for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030, especially the achievement of food security and nutrition. Therefore, there is a need for Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture as part of Blue Transformation for ecosystem monitoring.

Keywords: aquaculture, ecosystem, blue economy, food security

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Authors: Jang-Hwan Jo

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Implementing sustainable island forest management policies requires categorizing islands into groups based on key indicators and establishing a consistent management system. Building on the results of previous studies, a typology of forested islands was established: Type 1 – connected islands with high natural vegetation cover; Type 2 – connected islands with moderate natural vegetation cover; Type 3 – connected islands with low natural vegetation cover; Type 4 – unconnected islands with high natural vegetation cover; Type 5 – unconnected islands with moderate natural vegetation cover; and Type 6 – unconnected islands with low natural vegetation cover. An AHP analysis was conducted with island forest experts to identify priority ecosystem services (ESs) for the sustainable management of each island type. In connected islands, provisioning services (natural resources, natural medicines, etc.) assumed greater importance than regulating (erosion control) and supporting services (genetic diversity). In unconnected islands, particularly those with a small proportion of natural vegetation, regulating services (erosion control) requires greater emphasis in management. Considering that Type 3 islands require urgent management as connectivity to the mainland makes natural vegetation-sparse island forest ecosystems vulnerable to anthropogenic activities, the land-use scoring method was carried out on Jin-do, a Type 3 forested island. Comparisons between AHP-derived expert demand for key island ESs and the spatial distribution of ES supply potential revealed mismatches between the supply and demand of erosion control, freshwater supply, and habitat provision. The framework developed in this study can help guide decisions and indicate where interventions should be focused to achieve sustainable island management.

Keywords: ecosystem service, sustainable management, forested islands, Analytic hierarchy process

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Authors: S. Begum, T. Biswas, M. A. Islam

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The present research investigates the distribution and contamination of heavy metals in core sediments collected from three locations of the Sundarbans mangrove forest. In this research, quality of the analysis is evaluated by analyzing certified reference materials IAEA-SL-1 (lake sediment), IAEA-Soil-7, and NIST-1633b (coal fly ash). Total concentrations of 28 heavy metals (Na, Al, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Ga, As, Sb, Cs, La, Ce, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Yb, Hf, Ta, Th, and U) have determined in core sediments of the Sundarbans mangrove by neutron activation analysis (NAA) technique. When compared with upper continental crustal (UCC) values, it is observed that mean concentrations of K, Ti, Zn, Cs, La, Ce, Sm, Hf, and Th show elevated values in the research area is high. In this research, the assessments of metal contamination levels using different environmental contamination indices (EF, Igeo, CF) indicate that Ti, Sb, Cs, REEs, and Th have minor enrichment of the sediments of the Sundarbans. The modified degree of contamination (mCd) of studied samples of the Sundarbans ecosystem show low contamination. The pollution load index (PLI) values for the cores suggested that sampling points are moderately polluted. The possible sources of the deterioration of the sediment quality can be attributed to the different chemical carrying cargo accidents, port activities, ship breaking, agricultural and aquaculture run-off of the area. Pearson correlation matrix (PCM) established relationships among elements. The PCM indicates that most of the metal's distributions have been controlled by the same factors such as Fe-oxy-hydroxides and clay minerals, and also they have a similar origin. The poor correlations of Ca with most of the elements in the sediment cores indicate that calcium carbonate has a less significant role in this mangrove sediment. Finally, the data from this research will be used as a benchmark for future research and help to quantify levels of metal pollutions, as well as to manage future ecological risks of the vulnerable mangrove ecosystem, the Sundarbans.

Keywords: contamination, core sediment, trace element, sundarbans, vulnerable

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Authors: Sadaf Zahra Usman

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Business Incubation has become a pervasive phenomenon in numerous parts of the world and is seen as a tool for creating a startup ecosystem. The reason for greatest barriers to the advancement of business incubation centers is the need for an entrepreneurial ecosystem and underdeveloped financial assistance and angel investor networks for startup firms. Business incubation helps in creating successful startup ventures by providing administrative support services and assistance in creating their ventures. We identify incubators into three categories: University incubation centers (UICs), Private incubators (PICs), and Government incubator centers (GICs) to measure the influence of different types of business incubation practices and their performance by using a survey questionnaire from incubation managers across Pakistan. The analysis is conducted on eight Business incubators. Results suggest that the quality of incubation centers is extremely important in this regard. The research anticipated helping policymakers, government officials, and incubation management to utilize business incubation more effectively to “hatch” innovation-based entrepreneurial development.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, unemployment, startups, economy, business incubation practice

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Authors: Reihaneh Rafiemanzelat

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due to towards the rapid urbanization, cities throughout the world faced to rapid growth through gray infrastructure. Therefore designing cities based on green and blue infrastructure can offer the best solution to support healthy urban environment. This conformation with a wide range of ecosystem service has a positive impact on the regulation of air temperature, noise reduction, air quality, and also create a pleasant environment for humans activities. Research mainly focuses on the concept and principles of green and blue infrastructure in the city of Esfahan at the center of Iran in order to create a livable and healthy environment. Design principles for green and blue infrastructure are classified into two different but interconnect evaluations. Healthy green infrastructure assessing based on; volume, shape, location, dispersion, and maintenance. For blue infrastructure there are three aspects of water and ecosystem which are; the contribution of water on medical health, the contribution of water on mental health, and creating possibilities to exercise.

Keywords: healthy cities, livability, urban landscape, green and blue infrastructure

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Authors: Shathya Duobiene, Gediminas Račiukaitis

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Solar-powered wireless sensor nodes work best when they operate continuously with minimal energy consumption. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a new technology opens up wide studies, and advancements are expanding the prevalence of numerous monitoring applications and real-time aid for environments. The Selective Surface Activation Induced by Laser (SSAIL) technology is an exciting development that gives the design of WSNs more flexibility in terms of their shape, dimensions, and materials. This research work proposes a methodology for using SSAIL technology for forest ecosystem monitoring by wireless sensor networks. WSN monitoring the temperature and humidity were deployed, and their architectures are discussed. The paper presents the experimental outcomes of deploying newly built sensor nodes in forested areas. Finally, a practical method is offered to extend the WSN's lifespan and ensure its continued operation. When operational, the node is independent of the base station's power supply and uses only as much energy as necessary to sense and transmit data.

Keywords: internet of things (IoT), wireless sensor network, sensor nodes, SSAIL technology, forest ecosystem

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Authors: Salma Aboussalam, Karima Khalil, Khalid Elkalay

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To describe the structure, functioning, and state of the Moroccan Mediterranean Sea ecosystem, an Ecopath mass balance model has been applied. The model is based on 31 functional groups, containing 21 fishes, 7 invertebrates, 2 primary producers, and one dead group (detritus), which are considered in this work to explore the trophic interaction. The system's average trophic transfer efficiency was 23%. Both the total primary production and total respiration were calculated to be >1, suggesting that more energy is produced than respired in the system. The structure of our system is based on high respiration and consumption flows. Indicators of ecosystem stability and development showed low values of the Finn cycle index (13.97), system omnivory index (0.18), and average Finn path length (3.09), suggesting that our system is disturbed and has a more linear than web-like trophic structure. The keystone index and mixed trophic impact analysis indicated that other demersal invertebrates, zooplankton, and cephalopods had a tremendous impact on other groups and were recognized as keystone species.

Keywords: Ecopath, food web, trophic flux, Moroccan Mediterranean Sea

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Authors: U.K. Sarkar, G. Karnatak, P. Mishal, Lianthuamluaia, S. Kumari, S.K. Das, B.K. Das

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Inland open water fisheries provide food, income, livelihood and nutritional security to millions of fishers across the globe. However, the open water ecosystem and fisheries are threatened due to climate change and anthropogenic pressures, which are more visible in the recent six decades, making the resources vulnerable. Understanding the interaction between meteorological parameters and inland fisheries is imperative to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies. As per IPCC 5th assessment report, the earth is warming at a faster rate in recent decades. Global mean surface temperature (GMST) for the decade 2006–2015 (0.87°C) was 6 times higher than the average over the 1850–1900 period. The direct and indirect impacts of climatic parameters on the ecology of fisheries ecosystem have a great bearing on fisheries due to alterations in fish physiology. The impact of meteorological factors on ecosystem health and fish food organisms brings about changes in fish diversity, assemblage, reproduction and natural recruitment. India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.7°C during 1901–2018. The studies show that the mean air temperature in the Ganga basin has increased in the range of 0.20 - 0.47 °C and annual rainfall decreased in the range of 257-580 mm during the last three decades. The studies clearly indicate visible impacts of climatic and environmental factors on inland open water fisheries. Besides, a significant reduction in-depth and area (37.20–57.68% reduction), diversity of natural indigenous fish fauna (ranging from 22.85 to 54%) in wetlands and progression of trophic state from mesotrophic to eutrophic were recorded. In this communication, different applications of biometeorology in inland fisheries management with special reference to the assessment of ecosystem and species vulnerability to climatic variability and change have been discussed. Further, the paper discusses the impact of climate anomaly and extreme climatic events on inland fisheries and emphasizes novel modeling approaches for understanding the impact of climatic and environmental factors on reproductive phenology for identification of climate-sensitive/resilient fish species for the adoption of climate-smart fisheries in the future. Adaptation and mitigation strategies to enhance fish production and the role of culture-based fisheries and enclosure culture in converting sequestered carbon into blue carbon have also been discussed. In general, the type and direction of influence of meteorological parameters on fish biology in open water fisheries ecosystems are not adequately understood. The optimum range of meteorological parameters for sustaining inland open water fisheries is yet to be established. Therefore, the application of biometeorology in inland fisheries offers ample scope for understanding the dynamics in changing climate, which would help to develop a database on such least, addressed research frontier area. This would further help to project fisheries scenarios in changing climate regimes and develop adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope up with adverse meteorological factors to sustain fisheries and to conserve aquatic ecosystem and biodiversity.

Keywords: biometeorology, inland fisheries, aquatic ecosystem, modeling, India

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Badamchi

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In Iran as well as other developing countries instituting innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems by government around the universities is the new imported fashion of modernization and development in the 21st century. In recent decade various statesmen, policy makers, university administrations, economists and development theorists are emphasizing excitingly about the new “start-ups” which are going to solve all economic problems and backwardness of the country. However, critical study of modernization practices in Iran implies that this new trend is suffering from conventional deficiency of modernization planning in 20th century. This article is going to depict the misunderstandings of a situation which we can name “Pseudo-innovation in a closed society” by presenting these 12 paradoxes of this new system, actually happening in Iran: (1) Innovation without freedom? Fiction of innovation in a patriarchal state (2) Entrepreneurship without free market? Fiction of entrepreneurship in a rentier-state. (3) Ecosystem or a state-glasshouse? Is it possible to make and plan an innovation? (4) Innovation; epistemic or practical? How academic innovation could happen abstractly out of context? (5) Risk and Lucre: innovation to protect power and property?! (6) Silicon-valley mirage: what is in common between American-Iranian polity? (7) Information or Communication? ICT startups to restrict the internet (8) The elite paradox: new proletariat of private sector, new governmental clerk or a new path of brain drain? (9) Innovation or commercialization? Revisiting Schumpeterian creative destruction (10) The friendship of Jungle and fire: paradox of public science and market (11) Innovation and revolution: top-down or bottom-up paradox in an Iranian experience (12) Technology instead of civil society: ultimate result of innovation in a closed society. Through explaining these paradoxes we can gradually penetrate the real rationality of Pseudo-innovation ecosystem in a closed society, which can be understood as new-Neopatriarchy reconstruction of traditional patriarchal politics, economy and culture in Iran.

Keywords: innovation, critical sociology, modernisation, Iran, closed society

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Authors: Aminu Fagge Muhammad

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The digital economy is fast becoming the most innovative and widest reaching economy in the world, especially in developing countries. The paper aimed at examining role of digital economy in the emerging countries like Nigeria. The methodology used in the study is Business Model Perspective: lying between the process and structural perspectives, bring in the idea of the new business models that are being enabled e.g. e-business or e-commerce. The paper concluded that, the policy objectives and measures, and processes and structures necessary to enhance digital economy growth and its contribution to socio-economic development. The finding reveals that, digital infrastructure is in part incomplete, costly and poorly-performing in emerging economies like Nigeria. The wider digital ecosystem suffers a shortfall in human capabilities, weak financing, and poor governance. It is also found that, Growth in the digital economy is exacerbating digital exclusion, inequality, adverse incorporation and other digital harms. It is recommended that, government in partnership with private sector should build strong local infrastructure to enable broadband availability and accessibility and to create an enabling environment for strong competition in the telecom and technology ecosystem.

Keywords: Digital Economy, Emerging Countries, Business Model , Nigeria

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Authors: Jae Kyung Lee, Joon Young Park

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Maintenance on power transmission lines requires a lot of works. Sometimes they should be maintained on live-line environment with high altitude. Therefore, there always exist risks of falling from height and electric shock. To decline those risks, drones are recently applying on the electric power industry. This paper presents new operational technology while inspecting power transmission line. This paper also describes a technique for creating a flight path of a drone for transmission line inspection and a technique for controlling the drones of different types. Its technical and economical feasibilities have confirmed through experiments.

Keywords: drones, transmission line, inspection, control system

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Authors: Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay, Joseph Ogutu, Gundula Bartzke, Hans-Peter Piepho

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Rainfall is a critical component of climate governing vegetation growth and production, forage availability and quality for herbivores. However, reliable rainfall measurements are not always available, making it necessary to predict rainfall values for particular locations through time. Predicting rainfall in space and time can be a complex and challenging task, especially where the rain gauge network is sparse and measurements are not recorded consistently for all rain gauges, leading to many missing values. Here, we develop a flexible Bayesian model for predicting rainfall in space and time and apply it to Narok County, situated in southwestern Kenya, using data collected at 23 rain gauges from 1965 to 2015. Narok County encompasses the Maasai Mara ecosystem, the northern-most section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, famous for its diverse and abundant large mammal populations and spectacular migration of enormous herds of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelle. The model incorporates geographical and meteorological predictor variables, including elevation, distance to Lake Victoria and minimum temperature. We assess the efficiency of the model by comparing it empirically with the established Gaussian process, Kriging, simple linear and Bayesian linear models. We use the model to predict total monthly rainfall and its standard error for all 5 * 5 km grid cells in Narok County. Using the Monte Carlo integration method, we estimate seasonal and annual rainfall and their standard errors for 29 sub-regions in Narok. Finally, we use the predicted rainfall to predict large herbivore biomass in the Maasai Mara ecosystem on a 5 * 5 km grid for both the wet and dry seasons. We show that herbivore biomass increases with rainfall in both seasons. The model can handle data from a sparse network of observations with many missing values and performs at least as well as or better than four established and widely used models, on the Narok data set. The model produces rainfall predictions consistent with expectation and in good agreement with the blended station and satellite rainfall values. The predictions are precise enough for most practical purposes. The model is very general and applicable to other variables besides rainfall.

Keywords: non-stationary covariance function, gaussian process, ungulate biomass, MCMC, maasai mara ecosystem

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Authors: Amin Karimi, Lele Zhang, Mark Fackrell

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Rural-to-urban population migrations are a global phenomenon, with projections indicating that by 2050, 68% of the world's population will inhabit densely populated urban centers. Concurrently, the popularity of e-commerce shopping has surged, evidenced by a 51% increase in total e-commerce sales from 2017 to 2021. Consequently, distribution and logistics systems, integral to effective supply chain management, confront escalating hurdles in efficiently delivering and distributing products within bustling urban environments. Additionally, events like environmental challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic have indicated that decision-makers are facing numerous sources of uncertainty. Therefore, to design an efficient and reliable logistics system, uncertainty must be considered. In this study, it examine fleet sizing and routing while considering uncertainty in demand rate. Fleet sizing is typically a strategic-level decision, while routing is an operational-level one. In this study, a carrier must make two types of decisions: strategic-level decisions regarding the number and types of drones to be purchased, and operational-level decisions regarding planning routes based on available fleet and realized demand. If the available fleets are insufficient to serve some customers, the carrier must outsource that delivery at a relatively high cost, calculated per order. With this hierarchy of decisions, it can model the problem using two-stage stochastic programming. The first-stage decisions involve planning the number and type of drones to be purchased, while the second-stage decisions involve planning routes. To solve this model, it employ logic-based benders decomposition, which decomposes the problem into a master problem and a set of sub-problems. The master problem becomes a mixed integer programming model to find the best fleet sizing decisions, and the sub-problems become capacitated vehicle routing problems considering battery status. Additionally, it assume a heterogeneous fleet based on load and battery capacity, and it consider that battery health deteriorates over time as it plan for multiple periods.

Keywords: drone-delivery, stochastic demand, VRP, fleet sizing

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Authors: Joni Asitashvili, Eka Chabashvili, Maya Virsaladze, Alexander Chokhonelidze

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Studying the soundscape is a major challenge in many countries of the civilized world today. The sound environment and music itself are part of the Earth's ecosystem. Therefore, researching its positive or negative impact is important for a clean and healthy environment. The acoustics of nature gave people many musical ideas, and people enriched musical features and performance skills with the ability to imitate the surrounding sound. For example, a population surrounded by mountains invented the technique of antiphonal singing, which mimics the effect of an echo. Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer viewed the world as a kind of musical instrument with ever-renewing tuning. He coined the term "Soundscape" as a name of a natural environmental sound, including the sound field of the Earth. It can be said that from which the “music of nature” is constructed. In the 21st century, a new field–Ecomusicology–has emerged in the field of musical art to study the sound ecosystem and various issues related to it. Ecomusicology considers the interconnections between music, culture, and nature–According to the Aaron Allen. Eco-music is a field of ecomusicology concerning with the depiction and realization of practical processes using modern composition techniques. Finding an artificial sound source (instrumental or electronic) for the piece that will blend into the soundscape of Sound Oases. Creating a composition, which sounds in harmony with the vibrations of human, nature, environment, and micro- macrocosm as a whole; Currently, we are exploring the ambient sound of the Georgian urban and suburban environment to discover “Sound Oases" and compose Eco-music works. We called “Sound Oases" an environment with a specific sound of the ecosystem to use in the musical piece as an instrument. The most interesting examples of Eco-music are the round dances, which were already created in the BC era. In round dances people would feel the united energy. This urge to get united revealed itself in our age too, manifesting itself in a variety of social media. The virtual world, however, is not enough for a healthy interaction; we created plan of “contemporary round dance” in sound oasis, found during expedition in Georgian caves, where people interacted with cave's soundscape and eco-music, they feel each other sharing energy and listen to earth sound. This project could be considered a contemporary round dance, a long improvisation, particular type of art therapy, where everyone can participate in an artistic process. We would like to present research result of our eco-music experimental performance.

Keywords: eco-music, environment, sound, oasis

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Authors: Remus Pravalie, Georgeta Bandoc

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Forests are crucial for humanity and biodiversity, through the various ecosystem services and functions they provide all over the world. Forest ecosystems are vital in Romania as well, through their various benefits, known as provisioning (food, wood, or fresh water), regulating (water purification, soil protection, carbon sequestration or control of climate change, floods, and other hazards), cultural (aesthetic, spiritual, inspirational, recreational or educational benefits) and supporting (primary production, nutrient cycling, and soil formation processes, with direct or indirect importance for human well-being) ecosystem services. These ecological benefits are of great importance in Romania, especially given the fact that forests cover extensive areas countrywide, i.e. ~6.5 million ha or ~27.5% of the national territory. However, the diversity and functionality of these ecosystem services fundamentally depend on certain key attributes of forests, such as biomass, which has so far not been studied nationally in terms of potential changes due to climate change and other driving forces. This study investigates, for the first time, changes in forest biomass in Romania in recent decades, based on a high volume of satellite data (Landsat images at high spatial resolutions), downloaded from the Google Earth Engine platform and processed (using specialized software and methods) across Romanian forestland boundaries from 1987 to 2018. A complex climate database was also investigated across Romanian forests over the same 32-year period, in order to detect potential similarities and statistical relationships between the dynamics of biomass and climate data. The results obtained indicated considerable changes in forest biomass in Romania in recent decades, largely triggered by the climate change that affected the country after 1987. Findings on the complex pattern of recent forest changes in Romania, which will be presented in detail in this study, can be useful to national policymakers in the fields of forestry, climate, and sustainable development.

Keywords: forests, biomass, climate change, trends, romania

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Dor Oppenheim, Yael Edan, Guy Shani

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This paper presents an image analysis algorithm to detect and count yellow tomato flowers in a greenhouse with uneven illumination conditions, complex growth conditions and different flower sizes. The algorithm is designed to be employed on a drone that flies in greenhouses to accomplish several tasks such as pollination and yield estimation. Detecting the flowers can provide useful information for the farmer, such as the number of flowers in a row, and the number of flowers that were pollinated since the last visit to the row. The developed algorithm is designed to handle the real world difficulties in a greenhouse which include varying lighting conditions, shadowing, and occlusion, while considering the computational limitations of the simple processor in the drone. The algorithm identifies flowers using an adaptive global threshold, segmentation over the HSV color space, and morphological cues. The adaptive threshold divides the images into darker and lighter images. Then, segmentation on the hue, saturation and volume is performed accordingly, and classification is done according to size and location of the flowers. 1069 images of greenhouse tomato flowers were acquired in a commercial greenhouse in Israel, using two different RGB Cameras – an LG G4 smartphone and a Canon PowerShot A590. The images were acquired from multiple angles and distances and were sampled manually at various periods along the day to obtain varying lighting conditions. Ground truth was created by manually tagging approximately 25,000 individual flowers in the images. Sensitivity analyses on the acquisition angle of the images, periods throughout the day, different cameras and thresholding types were performed. Precision, recall and their derived F1 score were calculated. Results indicate better performance for the view angle facing the flowers than any other angle. Acquiring images in the afternoon resulted with the best precision and recall results. Applying a global adaptive threshold improved the median F1 score by 3%. Results showed no difference between the two cameras used. Using hue values of 0.12-0.18 in the segmentation process provided the best results in precision and recall, and the best F1 score. The precision and recall average for all the images when using these values was 74% and 75% respectively with an F1 score of 0.73. Further analysis showed a 5% increase in precision and recall when analyzing images acquired in the afternoon and from the front viewpoint.

Keywords: agricultural engineering, image processing, computer vision, flower detection

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: Francisco Domingos Francisco

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Tropical forests are key providers of many Ecosystem Services (ES), contributing to human wellbeing on a global and local scale. Communities around and within Moribane Forest Reserve (MFR), Manica Province - Mozambique, benefit from ES through the exploitation of non-wood and wood forest products. The objective was to assess the provisioning capacity of the MFR in woody forest products in species and profiles of interest to local communities in the main sources of extraction. Social data relating to the basic needs of local communities for these products were captured through an exploratory study before this one. From that study, it became known about the most collected wood species, the sources of collection, and their availability in the profiles of greatest interest to them. A field survey through 39 rectangular 50mx20m plots was conducted with 13 plots established in each of the three land-use types (LUT), namely Restricted Forest, Unrestricted Forest, and Disturbed areas. The results show that 89 species were identified, of which 28 (31.4%) are assumed to be the most used by the communities. The number of species of local interest does not vary across the LUT (p>0.05). The most used species (MUS) is distributed in 82% in Restricted Forest, 75% in Unrestricted, and also 75% in Disturbed. Most individuals of both general and MUS found in Unrestricted Forest, and Degraded areas have lower end profiles (5-7 cm), representing 0.77 and 0.26%, respectively. The profile of individuals of species of local interest varies by LUT (p<0.05), and their greatest proportion (0.51%) outside the lower end is found in Restricted Forest. There were no similarities between the LUT for the species in general (JCI <0.5) but between the MUS (JCI >0.5). Conclusion, the areas authorized for the exploitation of wood forest products in the MFR tend to reduce their ability to provide local communities with forest products in species and profiles of their interest. This reduction item is a serious threat to the biodiversity of the Restricted Forest. The study can help the academic community in future studies by replicating the methodology used for monitoring purposes or conducting studies in other similar areas, and the results may support decision-makers in designing better strategies for sustainability.

Keywords: ecosystem services, land-use types, local communities, species profile, wellbeing, wood forest product

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Authors: Talal Alharigi, Kawther Alshlash, Mariska Weijerman

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The government of Saudi Arabia has developed an ambitious “Vision 2030”, which includes a Green Initiative (i.e., the planting of 10 billion trees) and the establishment of seven Royal Reserves as protected areas that comprise 13% of the total land area. The main objective of the reserves is to restore ecosystem balance and reconnect people with nature. Two royal reserves are managed by The Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Royal Reserve Development Authority, including Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Royal Reserve and King Khalid Royal Reserve. The authority has developed a management plan to enhance the habitat through seed dispersal and the planting of 10 million trees, and to restock wildlife that was once abundant in these arid ecosystems (e.g., oryx, Nubian ibex, gazelles, red-necked ostrich). Expectations are that with the restoration of the native vegetation, soil condition and natural hydrologic processes will improve and lead to further enhancement of vegetation and, over time, an increase in biodiversity of flora and fauna. To evaluate the management strategies in reaching these expectations, a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation program was developed. The main objectives of this program are to (1) monitor the status and trends of indicator species, (2) improve desert ecosystem understanding, (3) assess the effects of human activities, and (4) provide science-based management recommendations. Using a random stratified survey design, a diverse suite of survey methods will be implemented, including belt and quadrant transects, camera traps, GPS tracking devices, and drones. Data will be gathered on biotic parameters (plant and animal diversity, density, and distribution) and abiotic parameters (humidity, temperature, precipitation, wind, air, soil quality, vibrations, and noise levels) to meet the goals of the monitoring program. This case study intends to provide a detailed overview of the management plan and monitoring program of two royal reserves and outlines the types of data gathered which can be made available for future research projects.

Keywords: camera traps, desert ecosystem, enhancement, GPS tracking, management evaluation, monitoring, planting, restocking, restoration

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Authors: Fares Senouci, Bachir Imine

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This document provides numerical and experimental optimization of the aerodynamic performance of a drone equipped with three types of horizontal stabilizer. To build this optimal configuration, an experimental and numerical study was conducted on three parameters: the geometry of the stabilizer (horizontal form or reverse V form), the position of the horizontal stabilizer (up or down), and the landing gear position (closed or open). The results show that up-stabilizer position with respect to the horizontal plane of the fuselage provides better aerodynamic performance, and that the landing gear increases the lift in the zone of stability, that is to say where the flow is not separated.

Keywords: aerodynamics, drag, lift, turbulence model, wind tunnel

Procedia PDF Downloads 219

Authors: Ahmet Ozcan, Onder Alparslan, Anil Sezgin, Omer Cetin

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The use of unmanned systems for different purposes has become very popular over the past decade. Expectations from these systems have also shown an incredible increase in this parallel. But meeting the demands of the tasks are often not possible with the usage of a single unmanned vehicle in a mission, so it is necessary to use multiple autonomous vehicles with different abilities together in coordination. Therefore the usage of the same type of vehicles together as a swarm is helped especially to satisfy the time constraints of the missions effectively. In other words, it allows sharing the workload by the various numbers of homogenous platforms together. Besides, it is possible to say there are many kinds of problems that require the usage of the different capabilities of the heterogeneous platforms together cooperatively to achieve successful results. In this case, cooperative working brings additional problems beyond the homogeneous clusters. In the scenario presented as an example problem, it is expected that an autonomous ground vehicle, which is lack of its position information, manage to perform point-to-point navigation without losing its way in a previously unknown labyrinth. Furthermore, the ground vehicle is equipped with very limited sensors such as ultrasonic sensors that can detect obstacles. It is very hard to plan or complete the mission for the ground vehicle by self without lost its way in the unknown labyrinth. Thus, in order to assist the ground vehicle, the autonomous air drone is also used to solve the problem cooperatively. The autonomous drone also has limited sensors like downward looking camera and IMU, and it also lacks computing its global position. In this context, it is aimed to solve the problem effectively without taking additional support or input from the outside, just benefiting capabilities of two autonomous vehicles. To manage the point-to-point navigation in a previously unknown labyrinth, the platforms have to work together coordinated. In this paper, cooperative work of heterogeneous unmanned systems is handled in an applied sample scenario, and it is mentioned that how to work together with an autonomous ground vehicle and the autonomous flying platform together in a harmony to take advantage of different platform-specific capabilities. The difficulties of using heterogeneous multiple autonomous platforms in a mission are put forward, and the successful solutions are defined and implemented against the problems like spatially distributed tasks planning, simultaneous coordinated motion, effective communication, and sensor fusion.

Keywords: unmanned systems, heterogeneous autonomous vehicles, coordination, task planning

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Authors: Ahmed Rashad Harb Riad Ismail

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The purpose of this research is to study the potential of Dynamic Pricing if deployed by mobile operators and analyse its effects from both operators and consumers side. Furthermore, to conclude, throughout the research study, the recommended conditions for successful Dynamic Pricing deployment, recommended factors identifying the type of markets where Dynamic Pricing can be effective, and proposal for a Dynamic Pricing stakeholders’ framework were presented. Currently, the mobile telecommunications industry is witnessing a dramatic growth rate in the data consumption, being fostered mainly by higher data speed technology as the 4G LTE and by the smart devices penetration rates. However, operators’ revenue from data services lags behind and is decupled from this data consumption growth. Pricing strategy is a key factor affecting this ecosystem. Since the introduction of the 4G LTE technology will increase the pace of data growth in multiples, consequently, if pricing strategies remain constant, then the revenue and usage gap will grow wider, risking the sustainability of the ecosystem. Therefore, this research study is focused on Dynamic Pricing for 4G LTE data services, researching the drivers, benefits and challenges of 4G LTE Dynamic Pricing and the feasibility of its deployment in practice from different perspectives including operators, regulators, consumers, and telecommunications equipment manufacturers point of views.

Keywords: LTE, dynamic pricing, EPC, research

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: Esmaeil Kouhgardi, Elaheh Shakerdargah

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The mangrove ecosystem is a complex of various inter-related elements in the land-sea interface zone which is linked with other natural systems of the coastal region such as corals, sea-grass, coastal fisheries and beach vegetation. The mangrove ecosystem consists of water, muddy soil, trees, shrubs, and their associated flora, fauna and microbes. It is a very productive ecosystem sustaining various forms of life. Its waters are nursery grounds for fish, crustacean, and mollusk and also provide habitat for a wide range of aquatic life, while the land supports a rich and diverse flora and fauna, but pollutions may affect these characteristics. Iran has the lowest share of Persian Gulf pollution among the eight littoral states; environmental experts are still deeply concerned about the serious consequences of the pollution in the oil-rich gulf. Prolongation of critical conditions in the Persian Gulf has endangered its aquatic ecosystem. Water purification equipment, refineries, wastewater emitted by onshore installations, especially petrochemical plans, urban sewage, population density and extensive oil operations of Arab states are factors contaminating the Persian Gulf waters. Population density has been the major cause of pollution and environmental degradation in the Persian Gulf. Persian Gulf is a closed marine environment which is connected to open waterways only from one way. It usually takes between three and four years for the gulf's water to be completely replaced. Therefore, any pollution entering the water will remain there for a relatively long time. Presently, the high temperature and excessive salt level in the water have exposed the marine creatures to extra threats, which mean they have to survive very tough conditions. The natural environment of the Persian Gulf is very rich with good fish grounds, extensive coral reefs and pearl oysters in abundance, but has become increasingly under pressure due to the heavy industrialization and in particular the repeated major oil spillages associated with the various recent wars fought in the region. Pollution may cause the mortality of mangrove forests by effect on root, leaf and soil of the area. Study was showed the high correlation between industrial pollution and mangrove forests health in south of Iran and increase of population, coupled with economic growth, inevitably caused the use of mangrove lands for various purposes such as construction of roads, ports and harbors, industries and urbanization.

Keywords: Mangrove forest, pollution, Persian Gulf, population, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 367