scholarly journals How green the urban development units in Sofia are: Earth observation and population time series analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Eugenia Sarafova

Over the last decades, the pressure that people and their activities put on the environment has increased. Green areas in many cities are diminishing in size due to urbanization, which inevitably leads to a decrease in quality of life. This study uses remote sensing (RS) data for Sofia, Bulgaria, for a period of nearly four decades, analyzing the dynamics of NDVI of the urban development units (UDUs). Statistics for NDVI per were calculated for each UDU for eleven dates in the following years: 1987, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2011, 2015, and 2020.  An estimate was made of the amount of green vegetation per capita, similar to other coefficients used for population analysis. NDVI profiles for major urban parks showed differences for the studied period. Sentinel-2 data for 2020 was used for visualization of the current situation, in combination with detailed population data for all UDUs. The obtained data will help the decision-making process for the development of UDUs, while the methodology can be applied in any other city worldwide.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
Marta Baum

The housing environment is the basic area of ​​human functioning, which via its quality affects the state of people’s health and well-being. One of the main factors determining the high quality of the housing environment is an appropriate indicator of green areas per 1 inhabitant, which gives the opportunity to create friendly common spaces as well as the nature of the greenery itself. The article presents the analyzes of selected Białystok housing estates which implementation was based on various guidelines and indicators regulating the size of green areas in housing estates. The conducted research allowed to state that urban norms applied in the 20th century provided the best indicator of green areas per capita. Replacing them with a biologically active area ratio has minimized green areas in housing estates and it is becoming necessary to develop new urban indicators to improve the quality of the housing environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Roy ◽  
S Dutta ◽  
MM Hoque

Urban forestry and urban greening is one of the most substantial factors for sustainable urban development, which can contribute towards good quality of life and sound environment. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh once renowned for its green resources but in recent times the city is losing its greeneries very rapidly. This study was intended to explore the status of urban greening as well as to investigate the prospects and challenges for enhancing urban forestry and urban greening in Dhaka North city corporation area (Zone-1). This study focused on the qualitative approach where interview with key informants, questionnaire survey and observation techniques were followed to obtain required information. The study identified some factors that are responsible for losing of green resources in Dhaka city including transformation of existing green areas or open spaces to other land use purposes, unplanned urbanization & improper planning, rapid increase of urban population and lack of conservation activities for protecting the existing greeneries. The study also revealed that still there are ample opportunities to enhance the greeneries in Dhaka city by conserving the existing green areas (e.g. parks, gardens, playgrounds etc.), increasing roadside plantation, promoting homestead and rooftop gardening and by initiating afforestation and nursery activities.J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 14(2): 167-176, December 2016


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-117
Author(s):  
Novia Zalmita ◽  
Muhajirah Muhajirah ◽  
Abdul Wahab Abdi

One that influences human resource indicators is education. The teacher is a profession as a job of academic specialization in a relatively long time in college. Understanding related to teacher competence is very important to have by a prospective teacher because it can affect the quality of performance as a professional teacher. The teacher's competence is known as pedagogic, professional, social and personality competencies. The issue in this study is how the competency of the teacher of the Department of Geography Education FKIP Unsyiah as a prospective teacher of geography? The purpose of this study was to determine the competence of teachers in the Department of Geography Education FKIP Unsyiah as prospective geography teachers. Quantitative description approach is used in this study to find answers to the issue. The population in this study were students of the Department of Geography Education FKIP Unsyiah class of 2015 and 2016 who had been declared to have passed the Micro Teaching and Magang Kependidikan 3 course totaling 50 people. Because the population is small and can be reached, the determination of the sample using total sampling techniques so that the sample in this study is the whole population. Data collection is done by distributing test questions to respondents. The data was analyzed using the descriptive statistics percentage formula. The results of the study indicate that the level of teacher competence of Geography Education Department students as prospective teachers is in the moderate category, namely as many as 22 respondents (44%). A total of 12 respondents (24%) were in the high category, 15 respondents (30%) were in the low category and 1 respondent (2%) were in the very low category.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A. Lisovskyi ◽  
◽  
Eu.O. Maruniak ◽  
I.V. Gukalova ◽  
A.A. Mozgovyi ◽  
...  

1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Goda

The management and status of public water bodies in Japan is discussed. The environmental quality standards which have been set and the levels of compliance with these standards are shown. The water quality of Japanese rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands and coastal waters is described, and eutrophication problems are mentioned. The effects of changes in population density and levels of recycling of industrial wastewaters on the quality of water bodies are discussed. Almost 75% of industrial wastewater is now recycled. Per capita availability of freshwater in Japan is comparatively low, and the construction of 530 dams, in addition to the 2393 dams already in operation, is planned. Irrigation effluents from paddy fields are a major factor which influences river water quality in Japan. The improvement of water quality using various methods is discussed.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 871
Author(s):  
Hortense Cotrim ◽  
Cristina Granja ◽  
Ana Sofia Carvalho ◽  
Carlos Cotrim ◽  
Rui Martins

The assent procedure reflects an effort to enable the minor to understand, to the degree they are capable of, what their participation in the decision making process would involve. Aims: To evaluate the minors’ ability to understand the information provided to them when obtaining assent and to evaluate the opinion of the parents regarding the importance of asking the child’s assent. Methods: The sample included a total of 52 minors aged between 10 and 17 years who underwent exercise echocardiogram. The Quality of Informed Consent is divided into two parts: Part A was used to measure objective understanding and part B to measure subjective understanding. Results: The results show that the minors have a high capacity to understand the information given to them when asking for assent. A positive relationship was found between the two parts of the questionnaire. No statistically significant relationship was found between age and sex and part A and part B or between both age groups (<14 years old and ≥14 years old) and the measure. In the case of the parents, 96.6% of parents consider assent as an advantage for the child’s acceptance of health care. The opinion of the parents is not related to the age, sex or level of schooling. Conclusion: Minors showed a substantial level of understanding regarding the information provided to them. The parents considered the implementation of assent fundamental to the child’s acceptance of health care.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e041379
Author(s):  
Allard Willem de Smalen ◽  
Zhie X Chan ◽  
Claudia Abreu Lopes ◽  
Michaella Vanore ◽  
Tharani Loganathan ◽  
...  

BackgroundA large number of international migrants in Malaysia face challenges in obtaining good health, the extent of which is still relatively unknown. This study aims to map the existing academic literature on migrant health in Malaysia and to provide an overview of the topical coverage, quality and level of evidence of these scientific studies.MethodsA scoping review was conducted using six databases, including Econlit, Embase, Global Health, Medline, PsycINFO and Social Policy and Practice. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they were conducted in Malaysia, peer-reviewed, focused on a health dimension according to the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) framework, and targeted the vulnerable international migrant population. Data were extracted by using the BARHII framework and a newly developed decision tree to identify the type of study design and corresponding level of evidence. Modified Joanna Briggs Institute checklists were used to assess study quality, and a multiple-correspondence analysis (MCA) was conducted to identify associations between different variables.Results67 publications met the selection criteria and were included in the study. The majority (n=41) of studies included foreign workers. Over two-thirds (n=46) focused on disease and injury, and a similar number (n=46) had descriptive designs. The average quality of the papers was low, yet quality differed significantly among them. The MCA showed that high-quality studies were mostly qualitative designs that included refugees and focused on living conditions, while prevalence and analytical cross-sectional studies were mostly of low quality.ConclusionThis study provides an overview of the scientific literature on migrant health in Malaysia published between 1965 and 2019. In general, the quality of these studies is low, and various health dimensions have not been thoroughly researched. Therefore, researchers should address these issues to improve the evidence base to support policy-makers with high-quality evidence for decision-making.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 205435812098562
Author(s):  
Cassiano Augusto Braga Silva ◽  
José A. Moura-Neto ◽  
Marlene Antônia dos Reis ◽  
Osvaldo Merege Vieira Neto ◽  
Fellype Carvalho Barreto

Purpose of review: In this narrative review, we describe general aspects, histological alterations, treatment, and implications of Fabry disease (FD) nephropathy. This information should be used to guide physicians and patients in a shared decision-making process. Source of information: Original peer-reviewed articles, review articles, and opinion pieces were identified from PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Only sources in English were accessed. Methods: We performed a focused narrative review assessing the main aspects of FD nephropathy. The literature was critically analyzed from a theoretical and contextual perspective, and thematic analysis was performed. Key findings: FD nephropathy is related to the progressive accumulation of GL3, which occurs in all types of renal cells. It is more prominent in podocytes, which seem to play an important role in the pathogenesis of this nephropathy. A precise detection of renal disorders is of fundamental importance because the specific treatment of FD is usually delayed, making reversibility unlikely and leading to a worse prognosis. Limitations: As no formal tool was applied to assess the quality of the included studies, selection bias may have occurred. Nonetheless, we have attempted to provide a comprehensive review on the topic using current studies from experts in FD and extensive review of the literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 320
Author(s):  
José P. Granadeiro ◽  
João Belo ◽  
Mohamed Henriques ◽  
João Catalão ◽  
Teresa Catry

Intertidal areas provide key ecosystem services but are declining worldwide. Digital elevation models (DEMs) are important tools to monitor the evolution of such areas. In this study, we aim at (i) estimating the intertidal topography based on an established pixel-wise algorithm, from Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument scenes, (ii) implementing a set of procedures to improve the quality of such estimation, and (iii) estimating the exposure period of the intertidal area of the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau. We first propose a four-parameter logistic regression to estimate intertidal topography. Afterwards, we develop a novel method to estimate tide-stage lags in the area covered by a Sentinel-2 scene to correct for geographical bias in topographic estimation resulting from differences in water height within each image. Our method searches for the minimum differences in height estimates obtained from rising and ebbing tides separately, enabling the estimation of cotidal lines. Tidal-stage differences estimated closely matched those published by official authorities. We re-estimated pixel heights from which we produced a model of intertidal exposure period. We obtained a high correlation between predicted and in-situ measurements of exposure period. We highlight the importance of remote sensing to deliver large-scale intertidal DEM and tide-stage data, with relevance for coastal safety, ecology and biodiversity conservation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Popa ◽  
Diana Andreea Onose ◽  
Ionut Cosmin Sandric ◽  
Simona Raluca Gradinaru ◽  
Athanasios Alexandru Gavrilidis

&lt;p&gt;Urban green infrastructure has various benefits known as ecosystem services such as regulating, cultural, provisioning and supporting services. Among the provided benefits there are decrease of air temperature, increasing humidity and mitigating urban heat island as regulating services; human-nature relations as cultural services; improving air quality, carbon sequestration as provisioning services and photosynthesis, nutrient and water cycling as supporting services. The high intensity of the urbanization process across the last decades coupled with weak legislative frameworks resulted both in large areas affected by urban sprawl and densification of the existing urban fabric. Both phenomenon generated loss in open spaces, especially green areas. In the context of the sustainable urbanization promoted by HABITAT Agenda, the knowledge related with the distribution, size and quality of urban green areas represents a priority. The study aim is to identify small urban green areas at local level at different time moments for a dynamic evaluation. We focused on small urban green areas since they are scarcely analysed even if their importance for the urban quality of life Is continuously increasing given the urbanization process. We used satellite imagery acquired by Planet Satellite Constellations, with a spatial resolution of 3.7 m and daily coverage, for extracting green areas. The images were processed using Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) techniques implemented in Esri ArcGIS Pro. The spatial analysis we performed generated information about distribution, surfaces, quality (based on NDVI) and dynamic of small urban green areas. The results are connected with the local level development of the urban areas we analysed, but also with the population consumption pattern for leisure services, housing, transport or other public utilities. The analysis can represent a complementary method for extracting green areas at urban level and can support the data collection for calculating urban sustainability indicators.&lt;/p&gt;


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