Suchergebnisse

11th International Conference of The International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2) : Complex Disasters and Disaster Risk Management held on August 27 – 29 2015, at University of Seoul, Korea. ; Most valuable historical villages in Southwest China are located within remote mountainous areas, not only facing a high risk of unexpected natural disasters, but also threatened by isolation, fire, and blocked situations that may occur during emergencies, due to vulnerable spatial connections, high density wooden buildings, compact village structure, and so on. Since public emergency services cannot cover all affected areas immediately after disaster, disaster coping capability of a village community is noticeably important. This study focused on the disaster coping capability of a historical village within a mountainous area. Based on previous studies, this paper listed the necessary components of disaster coping capability, while considering the social and organizational features of a community in China. Accordingly, this paper investigated the case of the historical village Shangli regarding three topics: disaster awareness, potential capability, and practical capability. The conclusions are as follows. First, local inhabitants had insufficient cognition of risk and emergency response, while a deficiency in the potential of public cooperation was also observed. Second, under the conventional top-down administration method, local inhabitants were prone to rely on the government, leaving an obvious gap between their high perception of the community and the actual inactive situation that shows that, although there was great potential, the community had not yet been motivated to become cohesive. Third, practical disaster countermeasures were still at the primary stages without a systematic plan for disaster risk reduction. However, they had started with rough arrangement concerning basic emergency issues.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

International audience ; A previous study by the authors, archeologists and geographers, has been carried out in the ancient City of Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) in order to understand the structure of its territory, regarding the accessibilities, centralities and spatial interactions. The purpose is now to enlarge the topic on the same territory, which covers a jurisdiction during a long span of time, around four periods of reference : Antiquity, central Middle Age, beginning & end of the 18th. century. The main target is to appreciate the resilience capability and the breakdowns in the « towns system » of the countryside of Lodève and to describe its organizational logic through appropriate spatial analysis. ; Une précédente étude des mêmes auteurs, archéologues et géographes, a porté sur le territoire antique de la Cité de Luteva (Lodève, Hérault, France) pour en saisir la structure en matière d'accessibilités, de centralités et d'interactions spatiales. Il s'agit ici de généraliser le propos sur le même espace, qui recouvre une entité administrative et politique dans la longue durée, autour de quatre périodes de référence : Antiquité, Moyen Âge central, début et fin du XVIIIème siècle. L'objectif principal est d'apprécier les capacités de résilience et les ruptures du « système de villes » en Lodévois et d'en décrire les logiques d'organisations au moyen d'analyses spatiales appropriées.

The European Union regional policy has undoubtedly been a key to the European integration process. Its main purpose, originally, was to correct territorial imbalances between different EU states and regions. However, cohesion policy is today one of the most important tools to develop the Lisbon Strategy objectives (closely related to economic competitiveness), in a process called by some authors the 'Lisbonisation' of EU policies. The importance recently gained as a tool to promote competitiveness has allowed 'to save' the cohesion policy from the budget cuts supported by some net contributor countries. Moreover, since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the cohesion policy is a shared competence between the EU and Member States, which gives the Commission a right of initiative to address cohesion policy recommendations. For a better implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, a greater territorialization of the actions as well as a better territorial governance between different institutional levels are needed, since the economic competitiveness is based on optimizing the regional territorial capital and on the capacity for resource mobilization. Thus, while cohesion policy originally lacked of a territorial approach, currently it is one of the policies with higher territorial impact. Consequently, from the French approach of aménagement du territoire, it means a real operational capability on spatial planning by the EU. Through this, the Union could overcome the need of financing and the lack of competence on territorial matters. In fact, although the term 'spatial planning' is almost banned in the EU language, the influence of European level on countries and regions spatial planning is increasing. Therefore, territorial cohesion, as a more neutral and vague concept, could turn into the 'Trojan Horse' by which the EU would exercise a real European spatial planning. This paper is aimed to analyze the development of EU cohesion policy, focusing in the role that it plays nowadays in territorial matters. Indeed, the new economic and institutional context could have a great influence on its function in a near future, acting as a framework for a real European spatial planning.

The Arctic and sub-Arctic region of the North Atlantic is a remote area, also in relations to environmental contaminants, such as POPs, BFRs and last but not least, PFCs. Both the BFRs and PFCs are considered emerging pollutants of significant environmental concern. The main objective of this thesis is to increase the knowledge and understanding of organohalogen compound distribution in the Nordic environment, their occurrence in biota and change over time. The temporal change of environmental contaminants in the Baltic Sea was monitored over the years 1971 to 2001, with emphasis on BCPS. Further, the pollution profile of the Nordic region was investigated by using common guillemot eggs. Further, to investigate a single remote site, Iceland, in more depth, eggs from seven marine bird species were collected and analysed. Both the organohalogen compounds mentioned above and their metabolites were investigated. The study focused also on an inter-species difference in the bird's capability of metabolising xenobiotics. All environmental pollutants investigated in the Baltic Sea show decreasing levels over the time period investigated. BCPS showed a remarkably small change over time compared to other compounds. These results reinforce the previous findings, indicating the North Atlantic as remote where the concentrations of the organohalogens are lower compared to Europe in general. There are some exceptions however; the concentration of HCB is ubiquitously distributed across the study area. Further, the spatial trends of the PFCs are complicated and differ within the PFC group. When comparing bird species from Iceland, the concentration of organohalogens mainly depends on trophic level, while migration seems to contribute to a lesser extent. There are some similarities in the metabolism between the bird species investigated. However, the guillemot seems to distinguish itself from other marine birds, with a different composition of metabolites, indicating a different metabolic capacity. In conclusion, even human populations living in remote areas need to minimise the release of pollutants to the environment. Long term, well organised, and extensive governmental monitoring programs are highly recommended to follow the quality the environment and to detect any immediate and/or new threats of chemical pollutants.

Oil tank inventory is significant for the economy and the military, as it can be used to estimate oil reserves. Traditional oil tank detection methods mainly focus on the geometrical characteristics and spectral features of remotely sensed images based on feature engineering. The methods have a limited application capability when the distribution pattern of ground objects in the image changes and the imaging condition varies largely. Therefore, we propose an end-to-end deep convolution network Res2-Unet+, to detect oil tanks in a large-scale area. The Res2-Unet+ method replaces the typical convolution block in the encoder of the original Unet method using hierarchical residual learning branches. A hierarchical branch is used to decompose the feature map into a few sub-channel features. To evaluate the generalization and transferability of the proposed model, we use high spatial resolution images from three different sensors in different areas to train the oil tank detection model. Images from yet another sensor in another area are used to evaluate the trained model. Three more widely used methods, Unet, Segnet, and PSPNet, are trained and evaluated for the same dataset. The experiments prove the effectiveness, strong generalization, and transferability of the proposed Res2-Unet+ method.

Local economies within a country differ substantially in their economic performance and such differences might persist over long periods of time. Increasing concern with regional disparities and poverty levels have prompted a growing interest in understanding factors giving some places better conditions for enhancing performance and overcoming development challenges. In particular, researchers and policy makers have been trying to investigate the potential roles of public policy at local level. Here, the key question relates to the capability of local governments in significantly impacting their realities despite their historic, economic, social and geographical constraints. The central aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors influencing local development across Brazilian municipalities, emphasizing the role of local public policy. To do that we adopt spatial econometric models inspired by growth theory and by some recent development of spatial economics. Our results contribute to the identification of determinants of local economic development measured by three variables, namely employment change, income per capita change and the change in the population below the poverty line. From the empirical estimates evidence is provided regarding the factors suggested by the recent literature on growth, development and spatial economics.

ABSTRACT  With the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission and all fifty U.S. states to encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunication capability in a reasonable and timely manner. Today, with the rollout of advanced data services such as digital subscriber lines (xDSL), cable modems, and fixed wireless technologies, broadband has become an important component of telecommunication service and competition. Unfortunately, the deployment of last‐mile infrastructure enabling high‐speed access has proceeded more slowly than anticipated and competition in many areas is relatively sparse. More importantly, there are significant differences in the availability of broadband services between urban and rural areas. This paper explores aspects of broadband access as a function of market demand and provider competition. Data collected from the Federal Communications Commission is analyzed using a geographic information system and spatial statistical techniques. Results suggest significant spatial variation in broadband Internet access as a function of provider competition in the United States.

International audience ; Tools that incorporate information from different disciplines can greatly assist policy development of today's complex and interconnected issues and result in more informed decision-making. Over the past years the councils of the Waikato region in New Zealand have, in collaboration with several research organisations, developed an Integrated Spatial Decision Support System (ISDSS). The ISDSS forms part of an overall process that links qualitative scenarios and deliberative methods to quantitative systems modeling. The aim of the ISDSS tool is to: (1) inform strategic planning; (2) communicate and inform stakeholders and community; (3) identify links between the economy, the environment and society, expose trade-offs and enable win-win situations; and (4) enhance local government capability and capacity. The ISDSS consists of a spatially explicit systems model operating at four scales: global, regional, district and local (200 m grid cells). The current temporal resolution is one year and its horizon is set at 2050. In the development of the integrated model there has been a strong emphasis on the linkage and feedback loops between the different components (e.g., climate, hydrology, water quality, economics, population, land use and biodiversity), rather than on modeling all elements to the highest detail possible. Although ISDSSs are rapidly gaining traction for planning and policy making only few are actually being used. The paper discusses some key factors that determine the success or failure of the implementation of an ISDSS and outlines to what extent the current version of the Waikato ISDSS fulfils these requirements.

International audience ; Tools that incorporate information from different disciplines can greatly assist policy development of today's complex and interconnected issues and result in more informed decision-making. Over the past years the councils of the Waikato region in New Zealand have, in collaboration with several research organisations, developed an Integrated Spatial Decision Support System (ISDSS). The ISDSS forms part of an overall process that links qualitative scenarios and deliberative methods to quantitative systems modeling. The aim of the ISDSS tool is to: (1) inform strategic planning; (2) communicate and inform stakeholders and community; (3) identify links between the economy, the environment and society, expose trade-offs and enable win-win situations; and (4) enhance local government capability and capacity. The ISDSS consists of a spatially explicit systems model operating at four scales: global, regional, district and local (200 m grid cells). The current temporal resolution is one year and its horizon is set at 2050. In the development of the integrated model there has been a strong emphasis on the linkage and feedback loops between the different components (e.g., climate, hydrology, water quality, economics, population, land use and biodiversity), rather than on modeling all elements to the highest detail possible. Although ISDSSs are rapidly gaining traction for planning and policy making only few are actually being used. The paper discusses some key factors that determine the success or failure of the implementation of an ISDSS and outlines to what extent the current version of the Waikato ISDSS fulfils these requirements.