Landscape assessment and monitoring

As the world strives towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals, development planners both at national and local levels have now come to understand the importance of informed decision-making. Natural resources management is one of the areas where careful planning is required to ensure sustainable use of and maximum benefit from the services we get from ecosystems. In developing countries, the scarcity of resources (both in terms of funding and skills) constitutes the main hindrance to the generation of accurate and timely data and information that would guide planning and implementation of development strategies. As a result, decisions are taken on an ad-hoc basis and without possibility of appreciating the long-term effect of these decisions. In that regard, Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) has developed a participatory and cost-effective framework to monitor the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services at the landscape level and to assess the socio-economic conditions that affect them. The approach termed “Integrated Landscape Assessment and Monitoring – ILAM” uses the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response model and applies a simple indicators framework that allows teams to collect needed data in a rapid and cost-effective way. Burkhard and Müller (2008) This approach is flexible enough to be adaptable to the available time and funding resources and is therefore very suitable to be applied in the context of the developing world including east-African countries. This flexibility ranges from the use GIS and remote sensing techniques combined with thorough biodiversity field surveys to simple rapid assessment of key indicators using smaller teams and for short periods of time in the field. Since 2013, ARCOS has been biennially conducting ILAM studies in its five focal landscapes in Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi and the results have influenced major decisions such as the designation of at least two wetlands as Ramsar sites and the upgrade of one forest as a national park. In addition to this, other planning processes have been informed by the results of these studies, such as the process to develop the new Rwandan National Strategy for Transformation for 2017–2024 and the development of the districts’ strategic plans for 2018–2024. Currently the biodiversity data generated through these studies is being published by Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for wider access by researchers and educators in the region and a portal, the ARCOS Biodiversity Information Management System (ARBIMS), has been established to facilitate sharing of data and information to guide planning and decision-making in the region.

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Landscape Assessment landscape assessment and Monitoring landscape monitoring

Landscape Indicators ◽

10.1007/978-94-007-0366-7_1 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Attilia Peano ◽

Claudia Cassatella

Keyword(s):

Landscape Assessment ◽

Assessment And Monitoring ◽

Landscape Monitoring

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Measuring Household Resilience to Cyclone Disasters in Coastal Bangladesh

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli9060097 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 97

Author(s):

Abdullah Al-Maruf ◽

J. Craig Jenkins ◽

Amelie Bernzen ◽

Boris Braun

Keyword(s):

Methodological Approach ◽

Coastal Region ◽

Household Survey ◽

Storm Surges ◽

Household Level ◽

Coastal Bangladesh ◽

Indicator Approach ◽

Island Communities ◽

Assessment And Monitoring ◽

Social Safety Nets

The main objective of this paper is to measure the level of household resilience to cyclone and storm surges in the coastal area of Bangladesh. We draw on four general disaster frameworks in terms of addressing household-level resilience to cyclones and storm surges. We use a composite indicator approach organized around four components: (1) household infrastructure (HI); (2) household economic capacity (HEC); (3) household self-organization and learning (HSoL), and; (4) social safety nets (SSN). Drawing on a household survey (N = 1188) in nine coastal union parishads in coastal Bangladesh purposively selected as among the most vulnerable places in the world, we use principal components analysis applied to a standardized form of the survey data that identifies key household resilience features. These household index scores can be used for the assessment and monitoring of household capacities, training, and other efforts to improve household cyclone resilience. Our innovative methodological approach allows us to (a) identify patterns and reveal the underlying factors that accurately describe the variation in the data; (b) reduce a large number of variables to a much smaller number of core dimensions of household resilience, and (c) to detect spatial variations in resilience among communities. Aggregated to the community level, our new index reveals significant differences in community cyclone resilience in different areas of the coastal region. In this way, we can show that shoreline and island communities, in particular, have significant deficits in terms of household resilience, which seem to be mutually reinforcing one another and making for lower resilience.

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FOXP1 syndrome: a review of the literature and practice parameters for medical assessment and monitoring

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽

10.1186/s11689-021-09358-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Reymundo Lozano ◽

Catherine Gbekie ◽

Paige M. Siper ◽

Shubhika Srivastava ◽

Jeffrey M. Saland ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Medical Assessment ◽

Forkhead Box ◽

Organ Systems ◽

Practice Parameters ◽

Assessment And Monitoring ◽

Multidisciplinary Group ◽

The Brain

AbstractFOXP1 syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations or deletions that disrupt the forkhead box protein 1 (FOXP1) gene, which encodes a transcription factor important for the early development of many organ systems, including the brain. Numerous clinical studies have elucidated the role of FOXP1 in neurodevelopment and have characterized a phenotype. FOXP1 syndrome is associated with intellectual disability, language deficits, autism spectrum disorder, hypotonia, and congenital anomalies, including mild dysmorphic features, and brain, cardiac, and urogenital abnormalities. Here, we present a review of human studies summarizing the clinical features of individuals with FOXP1 syndrome and enlist a multidisciplinary group of clinicians (pediatrics, genetics, psychiatry, neurology, cardiology, endocrinology, nephrology, and psychology) to provide recommendations for the assessment of FOXP1 syndrome.

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Lean Maturity Assessment in ETO Scenario

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11093833 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 3833

Author(s):

Mariastella Chiera ◽

Francesco Lupi ◽

Andrea Rossi ◽

Michele Lanzetta

Keyword(s):

Lean Manufacturing ◽

Mathematical Formulation ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Assessment Framework ◽

Lean Product Development ◽

Lean Assessment ◽

Assessment And Monitoring ◽

Mission Management ◽

Engineer To Order ◽

Manufacturing Organization

The obligatory path towards a lean manufacturing organization requires assessment and monitoring. However, a lean assessment framework is not yet available for the engineer to order (ETO) scenario. This work explored ten lean ETO maturity principles—identified from the literature—that take insight from three formally defined sets (Toyota Way, lean construction, and lean product development principles). A practical assessment model was proposed based on the evaluation of ten lean ETO objective criteria (four with mathematical formulation) and was validated on a real industrial case. A problem-solving tool, including a new lean tool, called the Problem Focus Matrix (PFM), was also presented; this tool was aimed toward development of an integrated framework that would include the organization mission, management, and continuous improvement.

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Remote Sensing for Cultural Heritage Assessment and Monitoring: The Case Study of Alba Iulia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031406 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1406 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cristian Moise ◽

Iulia Dana Negula ◽

Cristina Elena Mihalache ◽

Andi Mihai Lazar ◽

Andreea Luminita Dedulescu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Heritage Management ◽

Time Interval ◽

Urban Landscapes ◽

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry ◽

Heritage Site ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Assessment And Monitoring ◽

Historical Past

In recent times, satellite-based remote sensing has a growing role in archaeology and inherently in the cultural heritage management process. This paper demonstrates the potential and usefulness of satellite imagery for the documentation, mapping, monitoring, and in-depth analysis of cultural heritage and the archaeological sites located in urban landscapes. The study focuses on the assessment and monitoring of Alba Iulia, which is one of the Romanian cities with the richest historical past. Multitemporal analysis was performed to identify the land use/land cover changes that might contribute to an increased cultural heritage vulnerability to natural disasters. A special emphasis was dedicated to the assessment of the built-up area growth and consequently of the urbanization trend over a large time interval (30 years). Next, the urbanization and urban area expansion impact was further analyzed by concentrating on the urban heat island within Alba Iulia city and Alba Iulia Fortress (located in the center of the city). As temperature change represents a key element of climate change, the temperature trend within the same temporal framework and its impact on cultural heritage were determined. In the end, with regard to the cultural heritage condition assessment, the research was complemented with an assessment of the urban ground and individual building stability, using persistent scatterer interferometry. The results contribute to the detailed depiction of the cultural heritage site in such a manner that the site is monitored over an extensive timeframe, its current state of conservation is accurately determined, and the future trends can be identified. In conclusion, the present study offers reliable results regarding the main factors that might endanger the cultural heritage site as a basis for future preservation measures.

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