scholarly journals Strategies for Monitoring Multiuse Trail Networks

2017 ◽  
Vol 2644 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Lindsey ◽  
Jeffrey S. Wilson ◽  
Jueyu Wang ◽  
Tracy Hadden-Loh

Many municipalities, park districts, and nonprofit organizations have begun monitoring nonmotorized traffic on multiuse trails as the need for information about the use of facilities has grown and relatively low-cost sensors for automated monitoring have become available. As they have gained experience, they have begun to move from site-specific monitoring on individual trails to a more comprehensive monitoring of trail networks. This case study review compares strategies developed by 10 organizations for monitoring traffic on multiuse trails, including local, multicounty, statewide, and multistate trail networks. The focus is on approaches to the design of monitoring networks, particularly the rationales or objectives for monitoring and the selection of monitoring sites. It is shown that jurisdictions are following principles of monitoring established by FHWA and that the design of monitoring networks is evolving to meet new challenges, including monitoring large-scale networks. Relevant outcomes and implications for practice are summarized. The researchers concluded that FHWA guidelines can be adapted to many circumstances and can increase information for decision making. Trail monitoring is informing decisions related to facility planning, investment, and safety.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3571
Author(s):  
Bogusz Wiśnicki ◽  
Dorota Dybkowska-Stefek ◽  
Justyna Relisko-Rybak ◽  
Łukasz Kolanda

The paper responds to research problems related to the implementation of large-scale investment projects in waterways in Europe. As part of design and construction works, it is necessary to indicate river ports that play a major role within the European transport network as intermodal nodes. This entails a number of challenges, the cardinal one being the optimal selection of port locations, taking into account the new transport, economic, and geopolitical situation that will be brought about by modernized waterways. The aim of the paper was to present an original methodology for determining port locations for modernized waterways based on non-cost criteria, as an extended multicriteria decision-making method (MCDM) and employing GIS (Geographic Information System)-based tools for spatial analysis. The methodology was designed to be applicable to the varying conditions of a river’s hydroengineering structures (free-flowing river, canalized river, and canals) and adjustable to the requirements posed by intermodal supply chains. The method was applied to study the Odra River Waterway, which allowed the formulation of recommendations regarding the application of the method in the case of different river sections at every stage of the research process.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 295
Author(s):  
Yuan Gao ◽  
Anyu Zhang ◽  
Yaojie Yue ◽  
Jing’ai Wang ◽  
Peng Su

Suitable land is an important prerequisite for crop cultivation and, given the prospect of climate change, it is essential to assess such suitability to minimize crop production risks and to ensure food security. Although a variety of methods to assess the suitability are available, a comprehensive, objective, and large-scale screening of environmental variables that influence the results—and therefore their accuracy—of these methods has rarely been explored. An approach to the selection of such variables is proposed and the criteria established for large-scale assessment of land, based on big data, for its suitability to maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation as a case study. The predicted suitability matched the past distribution of maize with an overall accuracy of 79% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.72. The land suitability for maize is likely to decrease markedly at low latitudes and even at mid latitudes. The total area suitable for maize globally and in most major maize-producing countries will decrease, the decrease being particularly steep in those regions optimally suited for maize at present. Compared with earlier research, the method proposed in the present paper is simple yet objective, comprehensive, and reliable for large-scale assessment. The findings of the study highlight the necessity of adopting relevant strategies to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Zhe Chen ◽  
Aixin Sun ◽  
Xiaokui Xiao

Community detection on network data is a fundamental task, and has many applications in industry. Network data in industry can be very large, with incomplete and complex attributes, and more importantly, growing. This calls for a community detection technique that is able to handle both attribute and topological information on large scale networks, and also is incremental. In this article, we propose inc-AGGMMR, an incremental community detection framework that is able to effectively address the challenges that come from scalability, mixed attributes, incomplete values, and evolving of the network. Through construction of augmented graph, we map attributes into the network by introducing attribute centers and belongingness edges. The communities are then detected by modularity maximization. During this process, we adjust the weights of belongingness edges to balance the contribution between attribute and topological information to the detection of communities. The weight adjustment mechanism enables incremental updates of community membership of all vertices. We evaluate inc-AGGMMR on five benchmark datasets against eight strong baselines. We also provide a case study to incrementally detect communities on a PayPal payment network which contains users with transactions. The results demonstrate inc-AGGMMR’s effectiveness and practicability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Joseph Mensah ◽  
Daniel Tucker-Simmons

In 2015, the predominantly visible minority immigrant community of Herongate, in Ottawa, Ontario, was slated for redevelopment by its landlord, Timbercreek Asset Management. This redevelopment involved mass eviction of the incumbent tenants, demolition of the existing affordable housing and its replacement with luxury rentals, which, by all indications, are beyond the financial reach of the former Herongage tenants. This paper seeks to problematize large-scale residential real estate redevelopment in Canada and examine its impact, using the Herongate situation as a case study. Among other things, it profiles the Herongate community, its history and present redevelopment, and explores the legal framework, and the limits thereof, constraining mass evictions of this type in Ontario. The findings indicate that the selection of Herongate for redevelopment was not fortuitous; generally, racialized and immigrant communities like Herongate are disproportionately likely to be selected for large-scale redevelopment projects, and thus subjected to mass-evictions. Further results suggest that the dissolution of the Herongate community – and the attendant dislocation of its members – has exacted a pronounced social and economic toll and compounded the racial discrimination already experienced by the former Herongate residents, most of whom are visible minorities. The paper concludes with an appeal to imbue the redevelopment process with a greater regard for social justice, and a right to housing as a policy solution to address the injustice caused by real estate redevelopment.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. K. Kotter ◽  
S. D. Novack ◽  
W. D. Slafer ◽  
P. J. Pinhero

The research described in this paper explores a new and efficient approach for producing electricity from the abundant energy of the sun, using nanoantenna (nantenna) electromagnetic collectors (NECs). NEC devices target midinfrared wavelengths, where conventional photovoltaic (PV) solar cells are inefficient and where there is an abundance of solar energy. The initial concept of designing NECs was based on scaling of radio frequency antenna theory to the infrared and visible regions. This approach initially proved unsuccessful because the optical behavior of materials in the terahertz (THz) region was overlooked and, in addition, economical nanofabrication methods were not previously available to produce the optical antenna elements. This paper demonstrates progress in addressing significant technological barriers including: (1) development of frequency-dependent modeling of double-feedpoint square spiral nantenna elements, (2) selection of materials with proper THz properties, and (3) development of novel manufacturing methods that could potentially enable economical large-scale manufacturing. We have shown that nantennas can collect infrared energy and induce THz currents and we have also developed cost-effective proof-of-concept fabrication techniques for the large-scale manufacture of simple square-loop nantenna arrays. Future work is planned to embed rectifiers into the double-feedpoint antenna structures. This work represents an important first step toward the ultimate realization of a low-cost device that will collect as well as convert this radiation into electricity. This could lead to a broadband, high conversion efficiency low-cost solution to complement conventional PV devices.


Author(s):  
Dale K. Kotter ◽  
Steven D. Novack ◽  
W. Dennis Slafer ◽  
Patrick Pinhero

This research explores a new efficient approach for producing electricity from the abundant energy of the sun. A nantenna electromagnetic collector (NEC) has been designed, prototyped, and tested. Proof of concept has been validated. The NEC devices target mid-infrared wavelengths, where conventional photovoltaic (PV) solar cells are inefficient and where there is an abundance of solar energy. The initial concept of designing NEC was based on scaling of radio frequency antenna theory. This approach has proven unsuccessful by many due to not fully understanding and accounting for the optical behavior of materials in the THz region. Also, until recent years the nanofabrication methods were not available to fabricate the optical antenna elements. We have addressed and overcome both technology barriers. Several factors were critical in successful implementation of NEC including: 1) frequency-dependent modeling of antenna elements; 2) selection of materials with proper THz properties; and 3) novel manufacturing methods that enable economical large-scale manufacturing. The work represents an important step toward the ultimate realization of a low-cost device that will collect, as well as convert this radiation into electricity, which will lead to a wide spectrum, high conversion efficiency, and low-cost solution to complement conventional PVs.


Author(s):  
Shaiful Arif ◽  
Zahed Siddique

Due to global climate change, increase in pollution along with reduced quantity of drinking water compared to the total volume of water, the scarcity of potable water is declining gradually. Researchers have become increasingly interested in efficient design of treatment processes, but, there is a lack of research to investigate appropriate, applicable, low cost and simple water treatment processes for underprivileged communities. Providing safe drinking water in these communities is more challenging due to limitation of resources and infrastructure. In this paper we developed a mathematical foundation of Demography Based Demand Driven (DBDD) approach to capture and identify design alternatives (combination of different treatment processes). The developed approach assists to identify, extract, categorize, and compare water related attributes associated with a community and mapped onto source model to identify and select a set of feasible treatment processes. A case study for a community of a rural village in emerging regions of Honduras is modeled and the approach presented in this paper is implemented to design and select feasible service solutions.


Author(s):  
S. Berto ◽  
G. Salemi

Abstract. The microphotogrammetric survey of the roman emperor Maximianus Herculeus’ medallion, described in this report, demonstrated that, despite the use of an “old” and, nowadays, “low cost” camera sensor it is still possible to obtain a detailed 3D textured model useful for different scientific purposes and virtual enhancement. Here are presented the photogrammetric results reached with the selection of the best solutions in terms of number of images, in order to speed up the entire photogrammetric workflow and pursue the goals previously explained. This medallion is one of the most important examples of roman medallions which belongs to the numismatic collection stored at the Correr Museum in Venice. Its 3D survey was developed as a parallel step of a main project which aims to acquire in three-dimensions, with a structured light scanner, the complete roman collection of medallions. This digitization project proposes to record the volumetric information of these small archaeological remains and to realize an online virtual gallery in the web site of the museum (using 3DHOP, an open source web viewer developed by the Visual Computing Lab of the CNR-ISTI of Pisa). At the end of the microphotogrammetric workflow, a distance analysis was computed to highlight the differences between the meshes obtained with a photogrammetric approach and a structured light scanner.


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