Search results for: official land price.

Authors: Gülfem I. Alptekin, S. Emre Alptekin

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The next generation wireless systems, especially the cognitive radio networks aim at utilizing network resources more efficiently. They share a wide range of available spectrum in an opportunistic manner. In this paper, we propose a quality management model for short-term sub-lease of unutilized spectrum bands to different service providers. We built our model on competitive secondary market architecture. To establish the necessary conditions for convergent behavior, we utilize techniques from game theory. Our proposed model is based on potential game approach that is suitable for systems with dynamic decision making. The Nash equilibrium point tells the spectrum holders the ideal price values where profit is maximized at the highest level of customer satisfaction. Our numerical results show that the price decisions of the network providers depend on the price and QoS of their own bands as well as the prices and QoS levels of their opponents- bands.

Keywords: cognitive radio networks, game theory, nextgeneration wireless networks, spectrum management.

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Authors: Melis Inalpulat, Levent Genc

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Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes due to human activities and natural causes have become a major environmental concern. Assessment of temporal remote sensing data provides information about LULC impacts on environment. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the important components for modeling environmental changes in climatological, hydrological, and agricultural studies. In this study, LULC changes (September 7, 1984 and July 8, 2014) especially in agricultural lands together with population changes (1985-2014) and LST status were investigated using remotely sensed and census data in South Marmara Watershed, Turkey. LULC changes were determined using Landsat TM and Landsat OLI data acquired in 1984 and 2014 summers. Six-band TM and OLI images were classified using supervised classification method to prepare LULC map including five classes including Forest (F), Grazing Land (G), Agricultural Land (A), Water Surface (W), Residential Area-Bare Soil (R-B) classes. The LST image was also derived from thermal bands of the same dates. LULC classification results showed that forest areas, agricultural lands, water surfaces and residential area-bare soils were increased as 65751 ha, 20163 ha, 1924 ha and 20462 ha respectively. In comparison, a dramatic decrement occurred in grazing land (107985 ha) within three decades. The population increased 29% between years 1984-2014 in whole study area. Along with the natural causes, migration also caused this increase since the study area has an important employment potential. LULC was transformed among the classes due to the expansion in residential, commercial and industrial areas as well as political decisions. In the study, results showed that agricultural lands around the settlement areas transformed to residential areas in 30 years. The LST images showed that mean temperatures were ranged between 26-32°C in 1984 and 27-33°C in 2014. Minimum temperature of agricultural lands was increased 3°C and reached to 23°C. In contrast, maximum temperature of A class decreased to 41°C from 44°C. Considering temperatures of the 2014 R-B class and 1984 status of same areas, it was seen that mean, min and max temperatures increased by 2°C. As a result, the dynamism of population, LULC and LST resulted in increasing mean and maximum surface temperatures, living spaces/industrial areas and agricultural lands.

Keywords: Census data, landsat, land surface temperature (LST), land use land cover (LULC).

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Authors: Miloš Marjanović, Jaroslav Burian, Ja kub Miřijovský, Jan Harbula

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This paper regards the phenomena of intensive suburbanization and urbanization in Olomouc city and in Olomouc region in general for the period of 1986–2009. A Remote Sensing approach that involves tracking of changes in Land Cover units is proposed to quantify the urbanization state and trends in temporal and spatial aspects. It actually consisted of two approaches, Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 which implied two different image classification solutions in order to provide Land Cover maps for each 1986–2009 time split available in the Landsat image set. Experiment 1 dealt with the unsupervised classification, while Experiment 2 involved semi- supervised classification, using a combination of object-based and pixel-based classifiers. The resulting Land Cover maps were subsequently quantified for the proportion of urban area unit and its trend through time, and also for the urban area unit stability, yielding the relation of spatial and temporal development of the urban area unit. Some outcomes seem promising but there is indisputably room for improvements of source data and also processing and filtering.

Keywords: Change detection, image classification, land cover, Landsat images, Olomouc city, urbanization.

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Authors: Ju-Young Kim, Tae-Heon Moon, Jung-Hun Cho

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Urban regeneration projects have been actively promoted in Korea. In particular, Jeonju Hanok Village is evaluated as one of representative cases in terms of utilizing local cultural heritage sits in the urban regeneration project. However, recently, there has been a growing concern in this area, due to the ‘gentrification’, caused by the excessive commercialization and surging tourists. This trend was changing land and building use and resulted in the loss of identity of the region. In this regard, this study analyzed the land use transformation between 2010 and 2016 to identify the commercialization trend in Jeonju Hanok Village. In addition, it conducted SNS big data analysis on Jeonju Hanok Village from February 14th, 2016 to March 31st, 2016 to identify visitors’ awareness of the village. The study results demonstrate that rapid commercialization was underway, unlikely the initial intention, so that planners and officials in city government should reconsider the project direction and rebuild deliberate management strategies. This study is meaningful in that it analyzed the land use transformation and SNS big data to identify the current situation in urban regeneration area. Furthermore, it is expected that the study results will contribute to the vitalization of regeneration area.

Keywords: Land use, SNS, text mining, urban regeneration.

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Authors: Jinrui Ren, Li Wu

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Anthropogenic activities and changes of underlying surface affect the temporal and spatial distribution of surface temperature in Kunming. Taking Kunming city as the research area, the surface temperature in 2000, 2010 and 2020 as the research object, using ENVI 5.3 and ArcGIS 10.8 as auxiliary tools, and based on the spatial autocorrelation method, this paper devoted to exploring the interactions among the changes of surface temperature, urban heat island effect and land use type, so as to provide theoretical basis and scientific basis for mitigating climate change. The results showed that: (1) The heat island effect was obvious in Kunming City, the high temperature area increased from 604 km2 in 2000 to 1269 km2 in 2020, and the sub-high temperature area reached 1099 km2 in 2020; (2) In terms of space, the spatial distribution of LST was significantly different with the change of underlying surface. The high temperature zone extended in three directions: south, north and east. The overall spatial distribution pattern of LST was high in the east and low in the west. (3) The inter-annual fluctuation of land surface temperature (LST) was large, and the growth rate was faster, from 2000 to 2010. The lowest temperature in 2000 was 13.45 ℃, which raised to 19.71 ℃ in 2010, and the temperature difference in 10 years was 6.26 ℃. (4) The land use/land cover type has a strong effect on the change of LST: the man-made land made a great contribution to the increase of LST, followed by grassland and farmland, while forest and water have a significant cooling effect on LST. To sum up, the variation of surface temperature in Kunming is the result of the interactions of human activities and climate change.

Keywords: Surface temperature, urban heat island effect, land use cover type, spatiotemporal variation.

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Authors: Ibtihaj Al-Siyabi

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The crisis of COVID-19 posed enormous challenges to the statistical providers. While official statistics were disrupted by the pandemic and related containment measures, there was a growing and pressing need for real-time data and statistics to inform decisions. This paper gives an account of the way the pandemic impacted the operations of the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in general in terms of data collection and methods used, and the main challenges encountered by them based on international surveys. It highlights the performance of the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf, GCC-STAT, and its responsiveness to the pandemic placing special emphasis on environmental statistics. The paper concludes by confirming the GCC-STAT’s resilience and success in facing the challenges.

Keywords: NSO, COVID-19, pandemic, National Statistical Offices.

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Authors: K. Qonono

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Despite the significance and economic benefits of petrol stations in South Africa, these still pose a huge risk of fire and explosion threatening public safety. This research paper examines the extent to which land-use planning in Stellenbosch, South Africa, considers the fire risk posed by petrol stations and the implications for public safety as well as preparedness for large fires or explosions. To achieve this, the research identified the land-use types around petrol stations in Stellenbosch and determined the extent to which their locations comply with the local, national, and international land-use planning regulations. A mixed research method consisting of the collection and analysis of geospatial data and qualitative data was applied, where petrol stations within a six-kilometre radius of Stellenbosch’s town centre were utilised as study sites. The research examined the risk of fires/explosions at these petrol stations. The research investigated Stellenbosch Municipality’s institutional preparedness to respond in the event of a fire/explosion at these petrol stations. The research observed that siting of petrol stations does not comply with local, national, and international good practices, thus exposing the surrounding developments to fires and explosions. Land-use planning practice does not consider hazards created by petrol stations. Despite the potential for major fires at petrol stations, Stellenbosch Municipality’s level of preparedness to respond to petrol station fires appears low due to the prioritisation of more frequent events.

Keywords: Petrol stations, technological hazard, DRR, land-use planning, risk analysis.

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Authors: Djordjevic J. Sladjana, Djordjevic-Milošević B. Suzana, Milošević M. Slobodan

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The potential of biomass as a renewable energy source leads Serbia to be the top of European countries by the amount of available but unused biomass. Technologies for its use are available and ecologically acceptable. Moreover, they are not expensive high-tech solutions even for the poor investment environment of Serbia, while other options seem to be less achievable. From the other point of view, Serbia has a huge percentage of unused agriculture land. Agricultural production in Serbia languishes: a large share of agricultural land therefore remains untreated, and there is a significant proportion of degraded land. From all the above, biomass intended for energy production is becoming an increasingly important factor in the stabilization of agricultural activities. Orientation towards the growing bioenergy crops versus conventional crop cultivation becomes an interesting option. The aim of this paper is to point out the possibility of growing energy crops in accordance with the conditions and cultural practice in rural areas of Serbia. First of all, the cultivation of energy crops on lower quality land is being discussed, in order to revitalize the rural areas of crops through their inclusion into potential energy sector. Next is the theme of throwing more light on the increase in the area under this competitive agricultural production to correct land use in terms of climate change in Serbia. The goal of this paper is to point out the contribution of the share of biomass in energy production and consumption, and the effect of reducing the negative environmental impact.

Keywords: Agro-energy crops, conditions for plantation, revitalization of rural areas, degraded and unused soils.

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Authors: P. Kanakasabapathy, Radhika. S,

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In the competitive electricity market environment, the profit of the pumped-storage plant in the energy market can be maximized by operating it as a generator, when market clearing price is high and as a pump, to pump water from lower reservoir to upper reservoir, when the price is low. An optimal self-scheduling plan has been developed for a pumped-storage plant, carried out on weekly basis in order to maximize the profit of the plant, keeping into account of all the major uncertainties such as the sudden ancillary service delivery request and the price forecasting errors. For a pumped storage power plant to operate in a real time market successive self scheduling has to be done by considering the forecast of the day-ahead market and the modified reservoir storage due to the ancillary service request of the previous day. Sliding Window Technique has been used for successive self scheduling to ensure profit for the plant.

Keywords: Ancillary services, BPSO, Power System Economics (Electricity markets), Self-Scheduling, Sliding Window Technique.

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Authors: Abdulla Rahil, Rupert Gammon, Neil Brown

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The rapid growth of renewable energy sources and their integration into the grid have been motivated by the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental issues. Unfortunately, the grid is unable to cope with the predicted growth of renewable energy which would lead to its instability. To solve this problem, energy storage devices could be used. Electrolytic hydrogen production from an electrolyser is considered a promising option since it is a clean energy source (zero emissions). Choosing flexible operation of an electrolyser (producing hydrogen during the off-peak electricity period and stopping at other times) could bring about many benefits like reducing the cost of hydrogen and helping to balance the electric systems. This paper investigates the price of hydrogen during flexible operation compared with continuous operation, while serving the customer (hydrogen filling station) without interruption. The optimization algorithm is applied to investigate the hydrogen station in both cases (flexible and continuous operation). Three different scenarios are tested to see whether the off-peak electricity price could enhance the reduction of the hydrogen cost. These scenarios are: Standard tariff (1 tier system) during the day (assumed 12 p/kWh) while still satisfying the demand for hydrogen; using off-peak electricity at a lower price (assumed 5 p/kWh) and shutting down the electrolyser at other times; using lower price electricity at off-peak times and high price electricity at other times. This study looks at Derna city, which is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (32° 46′ 0 N, 22° 38′ 0 E) with a high potential for wind resource. Hourly wind speed data which were collected over 24½ years from 1990 to 2014 were in addition to data on hourly radiation and hourly electricity demand collected over a one-year period, together with the petrol station data.

Keywords: Hydrogen filling station off-peak electricity, renewable energy, off-peak electricity, electrolytic hydrogen.

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Authors: Delphine Mukaneza, Lin Qiao, Wang Pengxin, Li Yan, Chen Yingyi

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Human activities on land use make the land-cover gradually change or transit. In this study, we examined the use of Landsat TM data to detect the land use change of Kigali between 1987 and 2009 using remote sensing techniques and analysis of data using ENVI and ArcGIS, a GIS software. Six different categories of land use were distinguished: bare soil, built up land, wetland, water, vegetation, and others. With remote sensing techniques, we analyzed land use data in 1987, 1999 and 2009, changed areas were found and a dynamic situation of land use in Kigali city was found during the 22 years studied. According to relevant Landsat data, the research focused on land use change in accordance with the role of remote sensing in the process of urbanization. The result of the work has shown the rapid increase of built up land between 1987 and 1999 and a big decrease of vegetation caused by the rebuild of the city after the 1994 genocide, while in the period of 1999 to 2009 there was a reduction in built up land and vegetation, after the authority of Kigali city established, a Master Plan where all constructions which were not in the range of the master Plan were destroyed. Rwanda's capital, Kigali City, through the expansion of the urban area, it is increasing the internal employment rate and attracts business investors and the service sector to improve their economy, which will increase the population growth and provide a better life. The overall planning of the city of Kigali considers the environment, land use, infrastructure, cultural and socio-economic factors, the economic development and population forecast, urban development, and constraints specification. To achieve the above purpose, the Government has set for the overall planning of city Kigali, different stages of the detailed description of the design, strategy and action plan that would guide Kigali planners and members of the public in the future to have more detailed regional plans and practical measures. Thus, land use change is significantly the performance of Kigali active human area, which plays an important role for the country to take certain decisions. Another area to take into account is the natural situation of Kigali city. Agriculture in the region does not occupy a dominant position, and with the population growth and socio-economic development, the construction area will gradually rise and speed up the process of urbanization. Thus, as a developing country, Rwanda's population continues to grow and there is low rate of utilization of land, where urbanization remains low. As mentioned earlier, the 1994 genocide massacres, population growth and urbanization processes, have been the factors driving the dramatic changes in land use. The focus on further research would be on analysis of Rwanda’s natural resources, social and economic factors that could be, the driving force of land use change.

Keywords: Land use change, urbanization, Kigali City, Landsat.

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Authors: Yan Wang, Yasushi Asami, Yukio Sadahiro

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In urban area, several landmarks may affect housing price and rents, and hedonic analysis should employ distance variables corresponding to each landmarks. Unfortunately, the effects of distances to landmarks on housing prices are generally not consistent with the true price. These distance variables may cause magnitude error in regression, pointing a problem of spatial multicollinearity. In this paper, we provided some approaches for getting the samples with less bias and method on locating the specific sampling area to avoid the multicollinerity problem in two specific landmarks case.

Keywords: Landmarks, hedonic regression, distance variables, collinearity, multicollinerity.

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Authors: Fiona Curran-Cournane

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Soil quality monitoring is a science-based soil management tool that assesses soil ecosystem health. A soil monitoring program in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city extends from 1995 to the present. The objective of this study was to firstly determine changes in soil parameters (basic soil properties and heavy metals) that were assessed from rural land in 1995-2000 and repeated in 2008-2012. The second objective was to determine differences in soil parameters across various land uses including native bush, rural (horticulture, pasture and plantation forestry) and urban land uses using soil data collected in more recent years (2009- 2013). Across rural land, mean concentrations of Olsen P had significantly increased in the second sampling period and was identified as the indicator of most concern, followed by soil macroporosity, particularly for horticultural and pastoral land. Mean concentrations of Cd were also greatest for pastoral and horticultural land and a positive correlation existed between these two parameters, which highlights the importance of analysing basic soil parameters in conjunction with heavy metals. In contrast, mean concentrations of As, Cr, Pb, Ni and Zn were greatest for urban sites. Native bush sites had the lowest concentrations of heavy metals and were used to calculate a ‘pollution index’ (PI). The mean PI was classified as high (PI > 3) for Cd and Ni and moderate for Pb, Zn, Cr, Cu, As and Hg, indicating high levels of heavy metal pollution across both rural and urban soils. From a land use perspective, the mean ‘integrated pollution index’ was highest for urban sites at 2.9 followed by pasture, horticulture and plantation forests at 2.7, 2.6 and 0.9, respectively. It is recommended that soil sampling continues over time because a longer spanning record will allow further identification of where soil problems exist and where resources need to be targeted in the future. Findings from this study will also inform policy and science direction in regional councils.

Keywords: Heavy metals, Pollution Index, Rural and Urban land use.

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Authors: Katerina Antoniou

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When examining conflicts around the world, it is evident that the majority of intractable conflicts are steeped in identity. Identity seems to be not only a causal variable for conflict, but also a catalytic parameter for the process of reconciliation that follows ceasefire. This paper focuses on the process of identity securitization that occurs between rival groups of heterogeneous collective identities – ethnic, national or religious – as well as on the relationship between identity securitization and the ability of the groups involved to reconcile. Are securitized identities obstacles to the process of reconciliation, able to hinder any prospects of peace? If the level to which an identity is securitized is catalytic to a conflict’s discourse and settlement, then which factors act as indicators of identity de-securitization? The level of an in-group’s identity securitization can be estimated through a number of indicators, one of which is narrative. The stories, views and stances each in-group adopts in relation to its history of conflict and relation with their rival out-group can clarify whether that specific in-group feels victimized and threatened or safe and ready to reconcile. Accordingly, this study discusses identity securitization through narrative in relation to intractable conflicts. Are there conflicts around the world that, despite having been identified as intractable, stagnated or insoluble, show signs of identity de-securitization through narrative? This inquiry uses the case of the Cyprus conflict and its partitioned societies to present official narratives from the two communities and assess whether these narratives have transformed, indicating a less securitized in-group identity for the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Specifically, the study compares the official historical overviews presented by each community’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website and discusses the extent to which the two official narratives present a securitized collective identity. In addition, the study will observe whether official stances by the two communities – as adopted by community leaders – have transformed to depict less securitization over time. Additionally, the leaders’ reflection of popular opinion is evaluated through recent opinion polls from each community. Cyprus is currently experiencing renewed optimism for reunification, with the leaders of its two communities engaging in rigorous negotiations, and with rumors calling for a potential referendum for reunification to be taking place even as early as within 2016. Although leaders’ have shown a shift in their rhetoric and have moved away from narratives of victimization, this is not the case for the official narratives used by their respective ministries of foreign affairs. The study’s findings explore whether this narrative inconsistency proves that Cyprus is transitioning towards reunification, or whether the leaders are risking sending a securitized population to the polls to reject a potential reunification. More broadly, this study suggests that in the event that intractable conflicts might be moving towards viable peace, in-group narratives--official narratives in particular--can act as indicators of the extent to which rival entities have managed to reconcile.

Keywords: Conflict, Identity, Narrative, Reconciliation.

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Authors: S. Farid F. Mojtahedi, Ali Khosravi, Behnaz Naeimian, S. Adel A. Hosseini

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Land subsidence is a gradual settling or sudden sinking of the land surface from changes that take place underground. There are different causes of land subsidence; most notably, ground-water overdraft and severe weather conditions. Subsidence of the land surface due to ground water overdraft is caused by an increase in the intergranular pressure in unconsolidated aquifers, which results in a loss of buoyancy of solid particles in the zone dewatered by the falling water table and accordingly compaction of the aquifer. On the other hand, exploitation of underground water may result in significant changes in degree of saturation of soil layers above the water table, increasing the effective stress in these layers, and considerable soil settlements. This study focuses on estimation of soil moisture at surface using different methods. Specifically, different methods for the estimation of moisture content at the soil surface, as an important term to solve Richard’s equation and estimate soil moisture profile are presented, and their results are discussed through comparison with field measurements obtained from Yanco1 station in south-eastern Australia. Surface soil moisture is not easy to measure at the spatial scale of a catchment. Due to the heterogeneity of soil type, land use, and topography, surface soil moisture may change considerably in space and time.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, empirical method, remote sensing, surface soil moisture, unsaturated soil.

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Authors: F. Ghaiti

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In this paper, we present the 2006 survey study origin destination and price that we carried out during 2006 fall in the area in the Moroccan region of Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer. The survey concerns the people-s characteristics, their displacements behavior and the price that they will be able to pay for a tramway ticket. The main objective is to study a set of relative features to the households and to their displacement's habits and to their choices among public and privet transport modes. A comparison between this survey results and that of the 1996's is made. A pricing scheme is also given according to the tram capacity. (The Rabat-Salé tramway is under construction right now and it will be operational beginning 2010).

Keywords: Matrix O/D, Theory of pricing, Urban transport survey.

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Authors: M. Alqhatani, S. Bajwa, S. Setunge

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Metropolitan areas have suffered from traffic problems, which have steadily increased in many monocentric cities. Urban expansion, population growth, and road network development have resulted in a structural shift toward urban sprawl, increasing commuters’ dependence on private modes of transport. This paper aims to model the influence of socioeconomic and land-use factors on mode choice using a multinomial and nested logit model. Land-use patterns—such as residential, commercial, retail, educational and employment related—affect the choice of mode and destination in the short and medium term. Socioeconomic factors—such as age, gender, income, household size, and house type—also affect choice, while residential location is affected in the long term. Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Melbourne in Australia were chosen as case studies. Riyadh is a car-dependent city with limited public transport, whereas Melbourne has good public transport but an increase in car dependence. Aggregate level land-use data and disaggregate level individual, household, and journey-to-work data are used to determine the effects of land use and socioeconomic factors on mode choice. The model results determined that urban sprawl is the main factor that affects mode choice, income, and house type.

Keywords: Socioeconomic, land use, mode choice, multinomial logit and nested logit.

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Authors: E. C. Mattos, V. S. M. G. Daros, R. Dal Col, A. L. Nascimento

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The aim of this study is to present the results of a retrospective survey on the foreign matter found in foods analyzed at the Adolfo Lutz Institute, from July 2001 to July 2015. All the analyses were conducted according to the official methods described on Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) for the micro analytical procedures and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the macro analytical procedures. The results showed flours, cereals and derivatives such as baking and pasta products were the types of food where foreign matters were found more frequently followed by condiments and teas. Fragments of stored grains insects, its larvae, nets, excrement, dead mites and rodent excrement were the most foreign matter found in food. Besides, foreign matters that can cause a physical risk to the consumer’s health such as metal, stones, glass, wood were found but rarely. Miscellaneous (shell, sand, dirt and seeds) were also reported. There are a lot of extraneous materials that are considered unavoidable since are something inherent to the product itself, such as insect fragments in grains. In contrast, there are avoidable extraneous materials that are less tolerated because it is preventable with the Good Manufacturing Practice. The conclusion of this work is that although most extraneous materials found in food are considered unavoidable it is necessary to keep the Good Manufacturing Practice throughout the food processing as well as maintaining a constant surveillance of the production process in order to avoid accidents that may lead to occurrence of these extraneous materials in food.

Keywords: Food contamination, extraneous materials, foreign matter, surveillance.

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Authors: Tru C. Le, France Cheong

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Although the Vietnamese catfish farming has grown at very high rates in recent years, the industry has also faced many problems affecting its sustainability. This paper studies the perceptions of catfish farmers regarding risk and risk management strategies in their production activities. Specifically, the study aims to measure the consequences, likelihoods, and levels of risks as well as the efficacy of risk management in Vietnamese catfish farming. Data for the study were collected through a sample of 261 catfish farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam using a questionnaire survey in 2008. Results show that, in general, price and production risks were perceived as the most important risks. Farm management and technical measures were perceived more effective than other kinds of risk management strategies in risk reduction. Although price risks were rated as important risks, price risk management strategies were not perceived as important measures for risk mitigation. The results of the study are discussed to provide implications for various industry stakeholders, including policy makers, processors, advisors, and developers of new risk management strategies.

Keywords: Aquaculture, catfish farming, sources of risk, riskmanagement, risk strategies, risk mitigation.

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Authors: Bijaya Krushna Mangaraj, Deepak Kumar Das

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Sustainability in rural production system can only be achieved if it can suitably satisfy the local requirement as well as the outside demand with the changing time. With the increased pressure from the food sector in a globalised world, the agrarian economy needs to re-organise its cultivable land system to be compatible with new management practices as well as the multiple needs of various stakeholders and the changing resource scenario. An attempt has been made to transform this problem into a multi-objective decisionmaking problem considering various objectives, resource constraints and conditional constraints. An interactive fuzzy multi-objective programming approach has been used for such a purpose taking a case study in Indian context to demonstrate the validity of the method.

Keywords: Land re-organisation, Crop planning, Multiobjective Decision-Making, Fuzzy Goal Programming.

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Authors: Ali Gholami, Ebrahim Panahpour, Amir Hossein Davami

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In this research, a part of Aghche basin in Isfahan province with an area about 2000 hectars, was chosen to be obtain curve number coefficient runoff and W indicator in second Cook method By using aerial photos 1968 and 1995, the satellite data of the IRS in 2008. Then the process of land use changes in the period of study and its effect on the changes of curve number (CN), W indicator and surface runoff coefficient (C) of the basin was investigated. These results showed that on the track of these land use changes the weight averages curve number (CN), surface runoff coefficient (C) and W indicator of the basin were increased to 0.92, 0.02 and 0.78 unit in the first period of study and 1.18, 0.03, 0.99 Unit in the second period of study respectively.

Keywords: Aghche Watershed, Curve Numbers (CV), Land UseChanges, Surface Runoff Coefficient(C) Map, W indicator

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Authors: Anyapak Prapannetivuth

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The purpose of this research is to investigate the marketing mix that is perceived to be important for the small sized hotels in Pattaya. This research provides insights through a review of the marketing activities performed by the small sized hotels. Nine owners & marketing manager of small sized hotels and resorts, all local Chonburi people, were selected for an in-depth interview. The research suggests that seven marketing mixes (e.g. Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process) were commonly used by these hotels, however, three types – People, Price and Physical Evidence were considered most important by the owners.

Keywords: Marketing Mix, Marketing Tools, and Small Sized Hotels.

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Authors: Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani, Martin Macken

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FACTS devices have great influence on the grid stability and power markets price. Recently, there is intent to integrate a large scale of renewable energy sources to the power system which in turn pushes the power system to operate closer to the security limits. This paper discusses the power system stability and reliability improvement that could be achieved by using FACTS. There is a comparison between FACTS devices to evaluate their performance for different functions. A case study has also been made about its effect on reducing generation cost and minimizing transmission losses which have good impact on efficient and economic operation of electricity markets.

Keywords: FACTS, grid stability, spot price, Optimal Power Flow.

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Authors: Reza Mohammadi, Mahmod R. Sahebi, Mehrnoosh Omati, Milad Vahidi

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Classification of high resolution polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images plays an important role in land cover and land use management. Recently, classification algorithms based on Bag of Visual Words (BOVW) model have attracted significant interest among scholars and researchers in and out of the field of remote sensing. In this paper, BOVW model with pixel based low-level features has been implemented to classify a subset of San Francisco bay PolSAR image, acquired by RADARSAR 2 in C-band. We have used segment-based decision-making strategy and compared the result with the result of traditional Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. 90.95% overall accuracy of the classification with the proposed algorithm has shown that the proposed algorithm is comparable with the state-of-the-art methods. In addition to increase in the classification accuracy, the proposed method has decreased undesirable speckle effect of SAR images.

Keywords: Bag of Visual Words, classification, feature extraction, land cover management, Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar.

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Authors: Najam Aziz, Nasru Minallah, Ahmad Junaid, Kashaf Gul

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Landcover classification using automated classification techniques, while employing remotely sensed multi-spectral imagery, is one of the promising areas of research. Different land conditions at different time are captured through satellite and monitored by applying different classification algorithms in specific environment. In this paper, a SPOT-5 image provided by SUPARCO has been studied and classified in Environment for Visual Interpretation (ENVI), a tool widely used in remote sensing. Then, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classification technique is used to detect the land cover changes in Abbottabad district. Obtained results are compared with a pixel based Distance classifier. The results show that ANN gives the better overall accuracy of 99.20% and Kappa coefficient value of 0.98 over the Mahalanobis Distance Classifier.

Keywords: Landcover classification, artificial neural network, remote sensing, SPOT-5.

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Authors: Elijah Acquah-Andoh

Abstract:

The UK has had its fair share of the shale gas revolutionary waves blowing across the global oil and gas industry at present. Although, its exploitation is widely agreed to have been delayed, shale gas was looked upon favorably by the UK Parliament when they recognized it as genuine energy source and granted licenses to industry to search and extract the resource. This, although a significant progress by industry, there yet remains another test the UK fracking resource must pass in order to render shale gas extraction feasible – it must be economically extractible and sustainably so. Developing unconventional resources is much more expensive and risky, and for shale gas wells, producing in commercial volumes is conditional upon drilling horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing, techniques which increase CAPEX. Meanwhile, investment in shale gas development projects is sensitive to gas price and technical and geological risks. Using a Two-Factor Model, the economics of the Bowland shale wells were analyzed and the operational conditions under which fracking is profitable in the UK was characterized. We find that there is a great degree of flexibility about Opex spending; hence Opex does not pose much threat to the fracking industry in the UK. However, we discover Bowland shale gas wells fail to add value at gas price of $8/ Mmbtu. A minimum gas price of $12/Mmbtu at Opex of no more than $2/ Mcf and no more than $14.95M Capex are required to create value within the present petroleum tax regime, in the UK fracking industry.

Keywords: Capex, economical, investment, profitability, shale gas development, sustainable.

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Authors: Chimaobi V. Okolo, Onyinye S. Ugwuanyi, Kenneth A. Okpala

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This study evaluated the effect of exchange rate volatility on the manufacturing sector of Nigeria. The flow and stock market theories of exchange rate determination was adopted considering macroeconomic determinants such as balance of trade, trade openness, and net international investment. Furthermore, the influence of changes in parallel exchange rate, official exchange rate and real effective exchange rate was modeled on the manufacturing sector output. Vector autoregression techniques and vector error correction mechanism were adopted to explore the macroeconomic determinants of exchange rate fluctuation in Nigeria and to examine the influence of exchange rate volatility on the manufacturing sector output in Nigeria. The exchange rate showed an unstable and volatile movement in Nigeria. Official exchange rate significantly impacted on the manufacturing sector of Nigeria and shock to previous manufacturing sector output caused 60.76% of the fluctuation in the manufacturing sector output in Nigeria. Trade balance, trade openness and net international investments did not significantly determine exchange rate in Nigeria. However, own shock accounted for about 95% of the variation of exchange rate fluctuation in the short-run and long-run. Among other macroeconomic variables, net international investment accounted for about 2.85% variation of the real effective exchange rate fluctuation in the short-run and in the long-run. Monetary authorities should maintain stability of the exchange rates through proper management so as to encourage local production and government should formulate and implement policies that will develop other sectors of the economy as this will widen the country’s revenue base, reduce our over reliance on oil sector for our foreign exchange earnings and in turn reduce the shocks on our domestic economy.

Keywords: Exchange rate volatility, exchange rate determinants, manufacturing sector, official exchange rate, parallel exchange rate, real effective exchange rate.

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Authors: O. Maklouf, Ahmed Abdulla

Abstract:

A general decline in the cost, size, and power requirements of electronics is accelerating the adoption of integrated GPS/INS technologies in consumer applications such Land Vehicle Navigation. Researchers have looking for ways to eliminate additional components from product designs. One possibility is to drop one or more of the relatively expensive gyroscopes from microelectromechanical system (MEMS) versions of inertial measurement units (IMUs). For land vehicular use, the most important gyroscope is the vertical gyro that senses the heading of the vehicle and two horizontal accelerometers for determining the velocity of the vehicle. This paper presents a simplified integration algorithm for strap down (ParIMU)\GPS combination, with data post processing for the determination of 2-D components of position (trajectory), velocity and heading. In the present approach we have neglected earth rotation and gravity variations, because of the poor gyroscope sensitivities of the low-cost IMU and because of the relatively small area of the trajectory.

Keywords: GPS, ParIMU, INS, Kalman Filter.

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Authors: Sandya Mummullage, Prasanna Egodawatta, Ashantha Goonetilleke, Godwin A. Ayoko

Abstract:

Urban road dust comprises of a range of potentially  toxic metal elements and plays a critical role in degrading urban  receiving water quality. Hence, assessing the metal composition and  concentration in urban road dust is a high priority. This study  investigated the variability of metal composition and concentrations  in road dust in 4 different urban land uses in Gold Coast, Australia.  Samples from 16 road sites were collected and tested for selected 12  metal species. The data set was analyzed using both univariate and  multivariate techniques. Outcomes of the data analysis revealed that  the metal concentrations inroad dust differs considerably within and  between different land uses. Iron, aluminum, magnesium and zinc are  the most abundant in urban land uses. It was also noted that metal  species such as titanium, nickel, copper and zinc have the highest  concentrations in industrial land use. The study outcomes revealed  that soil and traffic related sources as key sources of metals deposited  on road surfaces.

 

Keywords: Metals build-up, Pollutant accumulation, Stormwater quality, Urban road dust.

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Authors: Ha T. Pham, Shuichi Miyagawa

Abstract:

Ongoing landscape transformation is one of the major causes behind disappearance of traditional landscapes, and lead to species and resource loss. Tree in paddy fields in the northeast of Thailand is one of those traditional landscapes. Using three different historical time layers, we acknowledged the severe deforestation and rapid urbanization happened in the region. Despite the general thinking of decline in tree density as consequences, the heterogeneous trend of changes in total tree density in three studied landscapes denied the hypothesis that number of trees in paddy field depend on the length of land use practice. On the other hand, due to selection of planting new trees on levees, existence of trees in paddy field now relies on their values for human use. Besides, changes in land use and landscape structure had a significant impact on decision of which tree density level is considered as suitable for the landscape.

Keywords: Aerial photographs, land use change, traditional landscape, tree in paddy fields.

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