scholarly journals Open-source approaches for location cover models: capabilities and efficiency

Author(s):  
Huanfa Chen ◽  
Alan T. Murray ◽  
Rui Jiang

AbstractLocation cover models are aimed at siting facilities so as to provide service to demand efficiently. These models are crucial in the management, planning and decision-making of service systems in public and private sectors. As a result, location cover models have been incorporated in a range of GIS tools, either closed or open source. Among them, open-source tools are advantageous due to transparency and reproducibility. Nonetheless, the capabilities and limitations of location cover tools remain largely unknown, necessitating further investigation and assessment. To this end, this paper provides an overview of the open-source tools that are capable of structuring and solving location cover models. Case studies are provided to demonstrate access of location models through different open-source tools as well as exploring solution quality, scalability, computing performance and reproducibility. Directions for improving location cover models accessible through open-source tools are summarized based on this review.

Urban Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Majic ◽  
Elek Pafka

Within the broad field of walkability research, a key area of focus has been the relationship between urban form and capacities for walking. Measures of walkable access can be grouped into two key types: permeability measures that quantify the ease of movement through an urban fabric, and catchment measures, quantifying the potential to reach destinations within walking distance. Of numerous street network measures in use, it has been shown that many are poor proxies of permeability and catchment. Instead, two new measures have been proposed: the area-weighted average perimeter (AwaP) and interface catchment (IC), that, combined, better capture the capacities of urban morphologies to enable and attract pedestrian movement. In this paper, we present the QGIS tool AwaP-IC, developed to overcome the difficulty of computing these measures. Unlike GIS tools based on models that abstract streets to axial lines, by employing new algorithms and spatial computation techniques, AwaP-IC analyses actual urban morphologies, based on cadastral maps delineating public and private land. This can empower a new stream of urban morphological studies with the computational power of GIS. As an open-source tool, it can be further developed for use in urban mapping and to streamline the analysis of large datasets.


1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devra Wiseman

This paper describes an approach to analysing the value of information systems to an enterprise, and the risks that the value will not be realised. The approach is called Information Economics (IE). A key use is to prioritize investments in information systems. It brings together business and technology managers, by providing, at one level, a tool they can use for scoring systems. At another level, it offers a decision-making process that provides a number of key benefits, such as improved communications. Two case studies, from the public and private sectors, show two different, practical uses of the Information Economics approach, and how it can be adapted to different organizations.


1994 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. McKenney ◽  
R. Sarker

The value of various un-priced (non-wood) outputs or services from forests is becoming an increasingly important component of management planning. This paper reviews the methods economists have developed to derive monetary estimates of these values. From a decision-making perspective, the primary goal of such efforts is for comparison of competing values. The paper also reviews all the un-priced valuation studies that have taken place in Ontario. There is considerable scope for additional empirical research on un-priced forest values, not only in Ontario, but elsewhere in Canada. Key words: non-timber values, un-priced valuation, Ontario case studies


Author(s):  
Jenny S. Huang ◽  
Kouji Kozaki ◽  
Terukazu Kumazawa

The search for more actionable knowledge lies at the core of Sustainability Science and its implicit desire to improve the lives of various stakeholders without disrupting the balance of Nature and efficient use of all available resources. In this chapter, the authors have examined current shortfalls in knowledge-centric research and proposed the creation of an Ontology-based open-source tool to create a more practical approach for researchers to facilitate both thought and decision-making process in order to solve pressing issues with place-based actions. The effectiveness of the Hozo Tool is then examined and validated using four case studies in an attempt to both refine the current models and propose the necessary steps to create a more holistic knowledge ecosystem – one that might ultimately facilitate broader collaboration worldwide.


This is the first book to treat the major examples of megadrought and societal collapse, from the late Pleistocene end of hunter–gatherer culture and origins of cultivation to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer Empire capital at Angkor, and ranging from the Near East to South America. Previous enquiries have stressed the possible multiple and internal causes of collapse, such overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, warfare, and poor leadership and decision-making. In contrast, Megadrought and Collapse presents case studies of nine major episodes of societal collapse in which megadrought was the major and independent cause of societal collapse. In each case the most recent paleoclimatic evidence for megadroughts, multiple decades to multiple centuries in duration, is presented alongside the archaeological records for synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from paleoclimate proxy sources (lake, marine, and glacial cores; speleothems, or cave stalagmites; and tree-rings) and are explained by researchers directly engaged in their analysis. Researchers directly responsible for them discuss the relevant current archaeological records. Two arguments are developed through these case studies. The first is that societal collapse in different time periods and regions and at levels of social complexity ranging from simple foragers to complex empires would not have occurred without megadrought. The second is that similar responses to megadrought extend across these historical episodes: societal collapse in the face of insurmountable climate change, abandonment of settlements and regions, and habitat tracking to sustainable agricultural landscapes. As we confront megadrought today, and in the likely future, Megadrought and Collapse brings together the latest contributions to our understanding of past societal responses to the crisis on an equally global and diverse scale.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingunn Mundal ◽  
Mariela Loreto Lara-Cabrera ◽  
Moisés Betancort ◽  
Carlos De las Cuevas

Abstract Background Shared decision-making (SDM), a collaborative approach that includes and respects patients’ preferences for involvement in decision-making about their treatment, is increasingly advocated. However, in the practice of clinical psychiatry, implementing SDM seems difficult to accomplish. Although the number of studies related to psychiatric patients’ preferences for involvement is increasing, studies have largely focused on understanding patients in public mental healthcare settings. Thus, investigating patient preferences for involvement in both public and private settings is of particular importance in psychiatric research. The objectives of this study were to identify different latent class typologies of patient preferences for involvement in the decision-making process, and to investigate how patient characteristics predict these typologies in mental healthcare settings. Methods We conducted latent class analysis (LCA) to identify groups of psychiatric outpatients with similar preferences for involvement in decision-making to estimate the probability that each patient belonged to a certain class based on sociodemographic, clinical and health belief variables. Results The LCA included 224 consecutive psychiatric outpatients’ preferences for involvement in treatment decisions in public and private psychiatric settings. The LCA identified three distinct preference typologies, two collaborative and one passive, accounting for 78% of the variance. Class 1 (26%) included collaborative men aged 34–44 years with an average level of education who were treated by public services for a depressive disorder, had high psychological reactance, believed they controlled their disease and had a pharmacophobic attitude. Class 2 (29%) included collaborative women younger than 33 years with an average level of education, who were treated by public services for an anxiety disorder, had low psychological reactance or health control belief and had an unconcerned attitude toward medication. Class 3 (45%) included passive women older than 55 years with lower education levels who had a depressive disorder, had low psychological reactance, attributed the control of their disease to their psychiatrists and had a pharmacophilic attitude. Conclusions Our findings highlight how psychiatric patients vary in pattern of preferences for treatment involvement regarding demographic variables and health status, providing insight into understanding the pattern of preferences and comprising a significant advance in mental healthcare research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5848
Author(s):  
Isaías Gomes ◽  
Rui Melicio ◽  
Victor M. F. Mendes

This paper presents a computer application to assist in decisions about sustainability enhancement due to the effect of shifting demand from less favorable periods to periods that are more convenient for the operation of a microgrid. Specifically, assessing how the decisions affect the economic participation of the aggregating agent of the microgrid bidding in an electricity day-ahead market. The aggregating agent must manage microturbines, wind systems, photovoltaic systems, energy storage systems, and loads, facing load uncertainty and further uncertainties due to the use of renewable sources of energy and participation in the day-ahead market. These uncertainties cannot be removed from the decision making, and, therefore, require proper formulation, and the proposed approach customizes a stochastic programming problem for this operation. Case studies show that under these uncertainties and the shifting of demand to convenient periods, there are opportunities to make decisions that lead to significant enhancements of the expected profit. These enhancements are due to better bidding in the day-ahead market and shifting energy consumption in periods of favorable market prices for exporting energy. Through the case studies it is concluded that the proposed approach is useful for the operation of a microgrid.


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