EFFECTS OF ALTITUDE AND MICROCLIMATE ON THE DISTRIBUTION FERNS IN AND URBAN AREAS

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (30) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashidi Othman ◽  
Nur Hanie Mohd Latiff ◽  
Izawati Tukiman ◽  
Khairusy Syakirin Has-Yun Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Ecological Indicator ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Fern Species ◽  
Pityrogramma Calomelanos ◽  
Dicranopteris Linearis ◽  
Atmospheric Factor

The aim of the research is to explore the potential of fern species as natural ecological indicator agent to forecast microclimate changes in the urban area. Ferns which also known as pteridophyte are not only valuable in term of its ethno-botanical uses such as food and medicine but also useful in ecological values. Other than that it can be used to treat unhealthy environment such as absorbing methane gas, fertilizing land and treating heavy metal such as arsenic as well as can be used as a potential ecological indicator agent for microclimate changes. In this research, observation and measurement were made at two different environments which are natural environments; Gunung Jerai, Kedah and Lata Jarum, Pahang and manmade setting environments; Hospital Serdang, Serdang and Secret Garden, Kuala Lumpur. Interestingly results from two case studies of natural environments indicated that the distribution and abundance of fern species strongly influenced by differences in altitude. Twelve fern species were found at different elevations at Gunung Jerai, Kedah whereas 20 fern species were found at Lata Jarum, Pahang. Among the species found at Gunung Jerai were Selaginella willdenowii, Arcypteris irregularis, Adiantum caudatum, Pityrogramma calomelanos, Histiopteris stipulacea, Athyrium cordifolium, Osmund wachellii, and Cyathea contaminans. Whereas the species found at Lata Jarum are Dicranopteris linearis, Phymatodes scolopendria, Antrophyum callifolium, Arcypteris irregularis, Phymatodes crustachea, Selaginella willdenowi, Angiopteris evecta and Aglaomorpha heraclea. Another factor that influences the occurrences of the fern species is microclimate particularly atmospheric factor. Results observed from both case studies showed that light intensity, relative humidity and temperature also influenced the distribution of fern species. Therefore fern species are excellent ecological indicator which can be used as phytoindicator for unhealthy environment such as harsh environment or to predict microclimate changes at urban area.

scholarly journals Dengue Vector Density Incident and Its Implication to Urban Livability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuriah Abd Majid ◽  
Muhammad Rizal Razman ◽  
Sharifah Zarina Syed Zakaria ◽  
Nurafiqah Muhamad Nazi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Density Estimation ◽  
Kernel Density Estimation ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Kernel Density ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Future Management

Abstract Background: Malaysia's population is set to reach 33.10 million by the end of 2020. About 75% of the population of Malaysia lived in urban areas and cities. The metropolitan area of Greater Kuala Lumpur had a population of more than seven million that year, making it the largest urban area in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur as the city centre for Greater Kuala Lumpur has been ranked as Southeast Asia's second most liveable city after Singapore. The livable city imperative is relevant because Malaysia's urbanization process is moving towards harmonization with the principles of sustainable development. Livable city involves many interdependent factors contributing to the urban quality of life. With their complete physical and social infrastructures, the urban types are an essential basis for improving the quality of life of the urbanites. However, increasing population and rapid land-use changes led to the emergence of vector-borne diseases such as dengue in an urban area. Prolong dengue outbreaks will reduce livability in urban areas. Therefore, this study aims to look at the density of dengue distribution in Bandar Baru Bangi town in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.Methods: The study uses data provided from the Ministry of Health Malaysia and shows the focus of dengue cases in residential and industrial areas of Bandar Baru Bangi town. Spatial analysis using Geographical Information System (GIS) was applied to identify the locality of dengue incidence within the study area. Spatial statistical analysis of dengue cases used Kernel Density Estimation to distinguish dengue hotspots from the distribution of the exact location of dengue cases reported in Bandar Baru Bangi town.Results: Kernel density estimation showed the dengue hotspots concentrated on the east of Bandar Baru Bangi town. The results found that the highest density was in 2015 was 605 to 706 points per square kilometres. This study also discovers that most of the hotspots constructed were located in the residential area of Bandar Baru Bangi.Conclusions: This study is essential to help local authorities eradicate dengue in urban areas for future management strategies; therefore, this study is vital to help local authorities eradicate dengue in urban areas for future management strategies.

scholarly journals RECREATIONAL FACILITIES FOR YOUTH IN MALAYSIAN URBAN AREAS. CASE STUDIES: LEMBAH PANTAI, KUALA LUMPUR AND KOTA KINABALU, SABAH

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dasimah Omar ◽  
Kamarul Ariff Omar ◽  
Zuriyati Kamaludin ◽  
Saberi Othman ◽  
Zaharah Mohd Yusoff
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Recreational Facilities ◽  
Recreational Activities ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction

Recreational facilities refer to places or buildings that provide space for any kind of leisure activities. Recreational activities are often considered to be fun and undertaken mostly by youth for enjoyment, amusement or pleasure. The level of satisfaction is, however, depends on individual’s opinion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perception level of youth living in urban neighbourhoods towards the recreational facilities provided in their areas. Data from case studies were collected through questionnaire survey involving 540 respondents aged between 15-24 years old. Results of analyses show that respondents were more aware of the availability of recreational facilities related to popular sports. Additionally, mean analysis show that respondents perceived the provision of recreational facilities in their areas as acceptable.

scholarly journals RECREATIONAL FACILITIES FOR YOUTH IN MALAYSIAN URBAN AREAS. CASE STUDIES: LEMBAH PANTAI, KUALA LUMPUR AND KOTA KINABALU, SABAH

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dasimah Omar ◽  
Kamarul Ariff Omar ◽  
Zuriyati Kamaludin ◽  
Saberi Othman ◽  
Zaharah Mohd Yusoff
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Recreational Facilities ◽  
Recreational Activities ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction

Recreational facilities refer to places or buildings that provide space for any kind of leisure activities. Recreational activities are often considered to be fun and undertaken mostly by youth for enjoyment, amusement or pleasure. The level of satisfaction is, however, depends on individual’s opinion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perception level of youth living in urban neighbourhoods towards the recreational facilities provided in their areas. Data from case studies were collected through questionnaire survey involving 540 respondents aged between 15-24 years old. Results of analyses show that respondents were more aware of the availability of recreational facilities related to popular sports. Additionally, mean analysis show that respondents perceived the provision of recreational facilities in their areas as acceptable.

The Status of Livelihood Vulnerability and Its CopingCapacities of Urban Squatters in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal

Patan Pragya ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Chhabi Ram Baral
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
The Status

Urban poverty is one of multidimensional issue in Nepal. Increasing immigration from the outer parts of Kathmandu due to rural poverty, unemployment and weak security of the lives and the properties are core causes pushing people into urban areas. In this context how squatter urban area people sustain their livelihoods is major concern. The objectives of the study are to find out livelihood assets and capacities squatters coping with their livelihood vulnerability in adverse situation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied for data collection. It is found that squatters social security is weak, victimized by severe health problems earning is not regular with lack of physical facilities and overall livelihood is critical. This study helps to understand what the changes that have occurred in livelihood patterns and how poor people survive in urban area.

DETECTING HIDDEN FAULTS IN URBAN AREAS: CASE STUDIES AND METHODOLOGIES

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Hultz ◽  
◽  
Kerri M. Gefeke ◽  
Kerri M. Gefeke ◽  
Elana Balch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Urban Areas

scholarly journals The Wood Quality of Small-Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) Trees in an Urban Area: A Pilot Study

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 420
Author(s):  
Benas Šilinskas ◽  
Aistė Povilaitienė ◽  
Gintautas Urbaitis ◽  
Marius Aleinikovas ◽  
Iveta Varnagirytė-Kabašinskienė
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Wood Quality ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Urban Trees ◽  
Measuring System ◽  
Forest Site ◽  
Tilia Cordata ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Wood Development

This study performed a pilot evaluation of the wood quality—defined by a single parameter: dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEdyn, N mm−2)—of small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) trees in urban areas. A search of the literature revealed few studies which examined the specifics of tree wood development in urban areas. Little is known about the potential of wood from urban trees wood of their suitability for the timber industry. In this study, an acoustic velocity measuring system was used for wood quality assessment of small-leaved lime trees. The MOEdyn parameter was evaluated for small-leaved lime trees growing in two urban locations (along the streets, and in an urban park), with an additional sample of forest sites taken as the control. MOEdyn was also assessed for small-leaved lime trees visually assigned to different health classes. The obtained mean values of MOEdyn of 90–120-year old small-leaved lime trees in urban areas ranged between 2492.2 and 2715.8 N mm−2. For younger trees, the values of MOEdyn were lower in the urban areas than in the forest site. Otherwise, the results of the study showed that the small-leaved lime wood samples were of relatively good quality, even if the tree was classified as moderately damaged (which could cause a potential risk to the community). Two alternatives for urban tree management can be envisaged: (1) old trees could be left to grow to maintain the sustainability of an urban area until their natural death, or (2) the wood from selected moderately damaged trees could be used to create wood products, ensuring long-term carbon retention.

scholarly journals Semantic segmentation of PolSAR image data using advanced deep learning model

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajat Garg ◽  
Anil Kumar ◽  
Nikunj Bansal ◽  
Manish Prateek ◽  
Shashi Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Deep Learning Model

AbstractUrban area mapping is an important application of remote sensing which aims at both estimation and change in land cover under the urban area. A major challenge being faced while analyzing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) based remote sensing data is that there is a lot of similarity between highly vegetated urban areas and oriented urban targets with that of actual vegetation. This similarity between some urban areas and vegetation leads to misclassification of the urban area into forest cover. The present work is a precursor study for the dual-frequency L and S-band NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission and aims at minimizing the misclassification of such highly vegetated and oriented urban targets into vegetation class with the help of deep learning. In this study, three machine learning algorithms Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been implemented along with a deep learning model DeepLabv3+ for semantic segmentation of Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) data. It is a general perception that a large dataset is required for the successful implementation of any deep learning model but in the field of SAR based remote sensing, a major issue is the unavailability of a large benchmark labeled dataset for the implementation of deep learning algorithms from scratch. In current work, it has been shown that a pre-trained deep learning model DeepLabv3+ outperforms the machine learning algorithms for land use and land cover (LULC) classification task even with a small dataset using transfer learning. The highest pixel accuracy of 87.78% and overall pixel accuracy of 85.65% have been achieved with DeepLabv3+ and Random Forest performs best among the machine learning algorithms with overall pixel accuracy of 77.91% while SVM and KNN trail with an overall accuracy of 77.01% and 76.47% respectively. The highest precision of 0.9228 is recorded for the urban class for semantic segmentation task with DeepLabv3+ while machine learning algorithms SVM and RF gave comparable results with a precision of 0.8977 and 0.8958 respectively.

scholarly journals Cost-efficient factors in local public spending: Detecting relationships between local environments, population size and urban area category

2021 ◽  
pp. 239980832110038
Author(s):  
Hiroki Baba ◽  
Yasushi Asami
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Environment Factors ◽  
Major Factors

This study examines regional differences in local environment factors to better understand the sustainability of local governments indexed by per capita public spending. Under the condition of heterogeneous population size, we examine how factor characteristics differ depending on the spatial context represented by the urban area category. By employing a Cobb–Douglas cost function with congestion effects on public service provision, the estimated factors enable us to articulate major factors and differences in cost-efficiency between urban area categories. We found that statistical significance and even the signatures of local environment factors differ depending on the urban employment area category. Regarding factors such as the ratios of employees in secondary and tertiary industries, these did not tend to be statistically significant in small-sized urban areas, while small-sized cities in large-sized urban areas were likely to gain confidence intervals. Moreover, we did not observe any statistical significance for the ratio of elderly people due to the balance of spending between national and local governments. These findings could contribute to sustainable management of cities in the advent of population decline.

scholarly journals Mapping 20 Years of Urban Expansion in 45 Urban Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Yann Forget ◽  
Michal Shimoni ◽  
Marius Gilbert ◽  
Catherine Linard
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Annual Growth Rate ◽  
Urban Dynamics ◽  
Mapping Approach ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

By 2050, half of the net increase in the world’s population is expected to reside in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), driving high urbanization rates and drastic land cover changes. However, the data-scarce environment of SSA limits our understanding of the urban dynamics in the region. In this context, Earth Observation (EO) is an opportunity to gather accurate and up-to-date spatial information on urban extents. During the last decade, the adoption of open-access policies by major EO programs (CBERS, Landsat, Sentinel) has allowed the production of several global high resolution (10–30 m) maps of human settlements. However, mapping accuracies in SSA are usually lower, limited by the lack of reference datasets to support the training and the validation of the classification models. Here we propose a mapping approach based on multi-sensor satellite imagery (Landsat, Sentinel-1, Envisat, ERS) and volunteered geographic information (OpenStreetMap) to solve the challenges of urban remote sensing in SSA. The proposed mapping approach is assessed in 17 case studies for an average F1-score of 0.93, and applied in 45 urban areas of SSA to produce a dataset of urban expansion from 1995 to 2015. Across the case studies, built-up areas averaged a compound annual growth rate of 5.5% between 1995 and 2015. The comparison with local population dynamics reveals the heterogeneity of urban dynamics in SSA. Overall, population densities in built-up areas are decreasing. However, the impact of population growth on urban expansion differs depending on the size of the urban area and its income class.

scholarly journals InSAR Multitemporal Data over Persistent Scatterers to Detect Floodwater in Urban Areas: A Case Study in Beletweyne, Somalia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Luca Pulvirenti ◽  
Marco Chini ◽  
Nazzareno Pierdicca
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Spatial Average ◽  
Calibration Data ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
Persistent Scatterers ◽  
Optical Images ◽  
Interferometric Phase ◽  
Multitemporal Data

A stack of Sentinel-1 InSAR data in an urban area where flood events recurrently occur, namely Beletweyne town in Somalia, has been analyzed. From this analysis, a novel method to deal with the problem of flood mapping in urban areas has been derived. The approach assumes the availability of a map of persistent scatterers (PSs) inside the urban settlement and is based on the analysis of the temporal trend of the InSAR coherence and the spatial average of the exponential of the InSAR phase in each PS. Both interferometric products are expected to have high and stable values in the PSs; therefore, anomalous decreases may indicate that floodwater is present in an urban area. The stack of Sentinel-1 data has been divided into two subsets. The first one has been used as a calibration set to identify the PSs and determine, for each PS, reference values of the coherence and the spatial average of the exponential of the interferometric phase under standard non-flooded conditions. The other subset has been used for validation purposes. Flood maps produced by UNOSAT, analyzing very-high-resolution optical images of the floods that occurred in Beletweyne in April–May 2018, October–November 2019, and April–May 2020, have been used as reference data. In particular, the map of the April–May 2018 flood has been used for training purposes together with the subset of Sentinel-1 calibration data, whilst the other two maps have been used to validate the products generated by applying the proposed method. The main product is a binary map of flooded PSs that complements the floodwater map of rural/suburban areas produced by applying a well-consolidated algorithm based on intensity data. In addition, a flood severity map that labels the different districts of Beletweyne, as not, partially, or totally flooded has been generated to consolidate the validation. The results have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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