scholarly journals VISUALISATION OF DEPENDENCIES BETWEEN CITY STRUCTURE AND THERMAL BEHAVIOUR IN BRNO

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B2 ◽  
pp. 741-745
Author(s):  
J. Novotny ◽  
M. Pivovarnik ◽  
S. J. Khalsa ◽  
F. Zemek
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Behaviour ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Hyperspectral Data ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Data Set ◽  
City Structure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Good understanding of a city’s thermal regime and its dependency on the structure of the city provides key knowledge serving as an input for long-term strategic decision-making by local governments. The urban heat island, and more specifically overheating of the streets and adjacent buildings during summer heat waves, has been pointed out as an important issue in the city of Brno, Czech Republic. A complex research effort using remote sensing techniques has started which will analyse the impact of city structure on the thermal behaviour, principally the role of vegetation in the thermal regulation of streets. Two airborne data sets were acquired: hyperspectral data using CASI, SASI and TASI sensors (ITRES, Canada) and lidar mapping using a Riegl 680i instrument (RIEGL, Austria). The thermal data were acquired on two occasions: 7 February 2015 (winter season) and 4 July 2015 (summer season). A laser scanning data-set was acquired on 22 September 2015 with a point cloud density of approximately 15 points/m<sup>2</sup>. Surface temperature was retrieved from the thermal hyperspectral data by applying a temperature-emissivity separation algorithm. The 3-D structure of the city was classified from the laser scanning data; we distinguished three main classes: bare land, buildings and vegetation. In the paper we present figures comparing thermal behaviour with other features collected along linear transects through the central part of the city.

scholarly journals VISUALISATION OF DEPENDENCIES BETWEEN CITY STRUCTURE AND THERMAL BEHAVIOUR IN BRNO

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B2 ◽  
pp. 741-745
Author(s):  
J. Novotny ◽  
M. Pivovarnik ◽  
S. J. Khalsa ◽  
F. Zemek
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Behaviour ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Hyperspectral Data ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Data Set ◽  
City Structure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Good understanding of a city’s thermal regime and its dependency on the structure of the city provides key knowledge serving as an input for long-term strategic decision-making by local governments. The urban heat island, and more specifically overheating of the streets and adjacent buildings during summer heat waves, has been pointed out as an important issue in the city of Brno, Czech Republic. A complex research effort using remote sensing techniques has started which will analyse the impact of city structure on the thermal behaviour, principally the role of vegetation in the thermal regulation of streets. Two airborne data sets were acquired: hyperspectral data using CASI, SASI and TASI sensors (ITRES, Canada) and lidar mapping using a Riegl 680i instrument (RIEGL, Austria). The thermal data were acquired on two occasions: 7 February 2015 (winter season) and 4 July 2015 (summer season). A laser scanning data-set was acquired on 22 September 2015 with a point cloud density of approximately 15 points/m<sup>2</sup>. Surface temperature was retrieved from the thermal hyperspectral data by applying a temperature-emissivity separation algorithm. The 3-D structure of the city was classified from the laser scanning data; we distinguished three main classes: bare land, buildings and vegetation. In the paper we present figures comparing thermal behaviour with other features collected along linear transects through the central part of the city.

scholarly journals The Impact of Soda Taxes: Pass-Through, Tax Avoidance, and Nutritional Effects

2020 ◽  
pp. 002224372096940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Seiler ◽  
Anna Tuchman ◽  
Song Yao
Keyword(s):  
Average Rate ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Sweetened Beverages ◽  
Geographic Coverage ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

The authors analyze the impact of a tax on sweetened beverages using a unique data set of prices, quantities sold, and nutritional information across several thousand taxed and untaxed beverages for a large set of stores in Philadelphia and its surrounding area. The tax is passed through at an average rate of 97%, leading to a 34% price increase. Demand in the taxed area decreases by 46% in response to the tax. Cross-shopping to stores outside of Philadelphia offsets more than half of the reduction in sales in the city and decreases the net reduction in sales of taxed beverages to only 22%. There is no significant substitution to bottled water and modest substitution to untaxed natural juices. The authors show that tax avoidance through cross-shopping severely constrains revenue generation and nutritional improvement, thus making geographic coverage an important policy decision.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF DIFFERENT TRAJECTORIES ON EXTRINSIC SELF-CALIBRATION FOR VEHICLE-BASED MOBILE LASER SCANNING SYSTEMS

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W16 ◽  
pp. 119-125
Author(s):  
M. Hillemann ◽  
J. Meidow ◽  
B. Jutzi
Keyword(s):  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Laser Scanner ◽  
Relative Orientation ◽  
Scanning System ◽  
Confined Space ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Self Calibration ◽  
Yaw Angle ◽  
Laser Scanning System ◽  
The Impact

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The extrinsic calibration of a Mobile Laser Scanning system aims to determine the relative orientation between a laser scanner and a sensor that estimates the exterior orientation of the sensor system. The relative orientation is one component that limits the accuracy of a 3D point cloud which is captured with a Mobile Laser Scanning system. The most efficient way to determine the relative orientation of a Mobile Laser Scanning system is using a self-calibration approach as this avoids the need to perform an additional calibration beforehand. Instead, the system can be calibrated automatically during data acquisition. The entropy-based self-calibration fits into this category and is utilized in this contribution. In this contribution, we analyze the impact of four different trajectories on the result of the entropy-based self-calibration, namely (i) uni-directional, (ii) ortho-directional, (iii) bi-directional, and (iv) multi-directional trajectory. Theoretical considerations are supported by experiments performed with the publicly available <i>MLS 1 – TUM City Campus</i> data set. The investigations show that strong variations of the yaw angle in a confined space or bidirectional trajectories as well as the variation of the height of the laser scanner are beneficial for calibration.</p>

scholarly journals Financial resilience of municipal civil servants’ pension funds

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (81) ◽  
pp. 425-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Vaz de Lima ◽  
André Carlos Busanelli de Aquino
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Fund Managers ◽  
Lock In Effect ◽  
Lock In ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to analyze the responses and the repetitive pattern of financial resilience which emerge within the civil servants’ pension funds (RPPS, in Portuguese) of local governments in Brazil. The analysis extends the traditional financial resilience approach discussing the emergence of vulnerability from the sponsor and RPPS interaction, often stimulated by the lock-in effect from the federal regulation, which constrains the space for transformative responses. Financial resilience is a concern usually applied to governments’ response to crises, but not for pension funds. However, the long-term objective of such funds when juxtaposed to short-term pressures conduce a paradoxical standpoint for fund’s managers absorbing the pressures. The impact of this article to the pension funds and the regulatory field is the proposition that the growing vulnerability of RPPS regimes comes from the insufficient governance belt protecting them, which would be a necessary and applicable remedy to any pension funds reform the country decides to take . It was applied a sequential mixed-method approach, starting by interviews with fund managers, actuarial consultants and representatives of the Ministry of Finance's Pension Secretariat (SPREV), to identify the usual responses to emerging financial pressures which affect the funds’ financial performance. Secondly, four from the identified typical responses were selected and analyzed through financial and accounting data to detect the response for about 1,8 thousand funds from 2014 to 2016. Based on the frequency of the adopted responses by each fund, it was proposed a recurrent financial resilience pattern, and how the managers’ responses vary according to the vulnerability provoked by the City Hall’s decisions. It was observed that the City Halls accommodate budgetary pressures failing to transfer or downsizing the contributions to the fund, increasing the fund’s vulnerability. The managers consequently respond subjoining the reserves to pay pensioners, reinforcing the fund’s vulnerability. Such response is a weak resilience pattern, which reinforces the funds’ vulnerability due to governance gaps and the lock-in effect proposed by Pike, Dawley & Tomaney (2010), which constrains the local agents’ capacity to perceive and find solutions more transformative and actives looking for financial sustainability.

scholarly journals The First Steps to Develop a Monitoring-Based Method to Support the Sustainable Mosquito Control in an Urban Environment in Hungary

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 5013
Author(s):  
Tibor Kiss ◽  
Csaba Leitol ◽  
Gergely Márovics ◽  
Tímea Zentai ◽  
Roland Baczur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Mosquito Control ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Lower Intensity ◽  
Reduced Pressure ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Running Water ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

In Europe, several exotic Aedes species, such as Aedes albopictus, Aedes eagypti, Aedes japonicas and Aedes koreicus, have become established. Mosquito-borne infection has also become a rising public health issue in Europe. This study aims to present the results of the first Hungarian systematic mosquito monitoring (SMM) operating in an urban environment in the city of Pécs. It also explains the implementation of a targeted mosquito control by the development of a mosquito map with the SMM approach, thus contributing to a reduction of the risks of mosquito-borne diseases. The mosquito trapping started in 2015, and the traps were Center for Disease Control (CDC) equipment. Based on the data of the SMM, an urban mosquito data set was developed. It consisted of the data of 441 trappings, and the data were statistically analyzed. The results show that three influencing factors impacted mosquito population: distance from running water, built-up density and average temperature had a causal impact on the average number of mosquitoes of an urban area. Each of these factors showed direct impact, and the impact intensified with the combination of the three factors. On that basis, it was made clear which areas of the city mosquito control activity should be focused. Areas of the city where interventions of lower intensity may be necessary compared to the intensity of the earlier mosquito control measures could also be determined. Compared to the previous practice, in which the entire city was involved in intensive mosquito control, now the intensive larviciding is advised to be applied in 42.1% of the total residential areas of the city. Thus, mosquito control of lower intensity could also be sufficient in the remaining 57.9% of the city area. This resource reallocation based on planning can boost the efficiency of the control and lead to a positive change towards sustainability regarding reduced pressure on the environment and reduced expenses of protection.

Assessment of future heat events for the city of Augsburg by means of a normal vector based analog approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Merkenschlager ◽  
Christoph Beck ◽  
Elke Hertig
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
General Circulation Models ◽  
Normal Vector ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The City

&lt;p&gt;Under enhanced anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing heat waves are only one example of climatic risks mankind has to deal with. Especially in urban areas where most of the people will live until the end of the 21&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; century heat waves are a serious risk factor since the urban heat island will reinforce such events. For the city of Augsburg, new analog methods are utilized for assessing the development and impacts of heat waves taking into account the varying urban structure.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For model calibration the temperature data from the Augsburg-M&amp;#252;hlhausen weather station operated by the German Weather Service (DWD) and atmospheric circulation variables of the ERA5 reanalysis data set were used to analyze the recent temperature development. For this purpose, the least deviation of the normal vector was used to determine a subsample of analogs corresponding to the day of interest. The normal vector was derived from the regression plane of the prevailing circulation on the respective day. Subsequently, the temperature patterns were used to define the analog day from the subsample. For future periods, the same method was applied to model data for two representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5, RCP8.5) of different general circulation models (GCM: ACCESS1-0, CNRM-CM5, MPI-ESM-LR). Thus, we derive future time series of analogs corresponding to events prevailing in the observational period. To account for projected trends of the GCMs, the trends of all time-series were first removed and, after the analog selection process, added again according to the trends of the GCMs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Temperature extremes are defined as days with temperatures exceeding the 90&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; quantile (Q90) and heat days are defined as days where at least two temperature indices (TMIN, TMEAN, TMAX) exceed Q90. When at least three consecutive days are defined as heat day a heat wave is proclaimed. Analysis have shown that under consideration of RCP8.5 (RCP4.5) and all model runs the number of heat days in the end of the 21&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; century will be nine (five) times higher than within the reference period 1970-2000. Furthermore, the mean duration of heatwaves will extend by factor four (two), whereby heat waves of more than 30 (15) consecutive days are possible.&lt;/p&gt;

Land under roads and the power of politic

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-91
Author(s):  
Hassan Mohamed Abdalla Elhawary
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Early Adoption ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the following questions: What are the theoretical and practical antecedents for recognising land under roads (LUR) as an asset in local government financial reports? Why was the process of regulating this aspect of accounting practice so protracted and so controversial? Design/methodology/approach The method used a critical analytical review and synthesis of relevant literature. Findings This study rejects the recognition of LUR, and suggests that the requirements to account for LUR should be withdrawn immediately. Regardless of the way that the debate has evolved as to the need or otherwise to value LUR or the methodology to be adopted, until the issue of a consistent, standards-based data set is addressed, there is unlikely to be a unified useful outcome. Research limitations/implications The study’s findings provided opportunity to reach an overall conclusion and make policy recommendations regarding the saga of accounting for LUR by Australian local governments. However, the ability to generalise beyond Australia to other countries would need to be tested by additional research. Practical implications The study’s findings provided assessment of the impact of valuing LUR on financial reporting by local governments and suggested policy recommendations. Social implications This study provided an understanding of Australian local governments’ accounting choices in regard to the valuation of LUR and documented the history of early adoption of valuation of LUR by local governments. Originality/value The literature on the public sector and accrual accounting is extensive and varied. However, there have been only isolated studies on the specific issue of LUR (Barton, 1999a, 1999b; Hoque, 2004; Rowles et al., 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 1999). This study adds to the few isolated studies on the specific issue of accounting for LUR. Originality/value – This study provided policymakers with rich information about accounting for LUR and, it should have the capacity to impact on the future policy directions and recommendations.

AWARENESS AS AN ADAPTATION STRATEGY FOR REDUCING MORTALITY FROM HEAT WAVES: EVIDENCE FROM A DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM IN INDIA

2012 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 1250010 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAUDAMINI DAS ◽  
STEPHEN C. SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Heat Wave ◽  
Program Effectiveness ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Heat Stroke ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
The Impact

Heat waves, defined as an interval of abnormally hot and humid weather, have become a prominent killer in recent years. With heat waves worsening with climate change, adaptation is essential; one strategy has been to issue heat wave warnings and undertake awareness campaigns to bring about behavioral changes to reduce heat stroke. Since 2002, the Indian state of Odisha has been undertaking a grassroots awareness campaign on "dos and don'ts" during heat wave conditions through the disaster risk management (DRM) program. The selection criteria for DRM districts were earthquake, flood and cyclone incidence; but subsequently, heat wave awareness also received intensive attention in these districts. We present quasi-experimental evidence on the impact of the program, taking DRM districts and periods as treatment units and the rest as controls, analyzing the impact on the death toll from heat stroke for the 1998 to 2010 period, using difference-in-difference (DID) regressions with a district level panel data set and a set of control variables. We find indications of program effectiveness with initial DID specifications, but results are not always robust. We then take into account a statewide heat wave advertising program, to which the poor have limited exposure but which may also provide spillover benefits, using a triple differencing approach; results suggest the heat wave awareness programs may have complementary impacts. We examine research strategies for further improvement in the precision of impact evaluation results for innovative programs of this type.

Wood density as a screening trait for drought sensitivity in Norway spruce

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rosner ◽  
J. Světlík ◽  
K. Andreassen ◽  
I. Børja ◽  
L. Dalsgaard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Norway Spruce ◽  
Wood Density ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Drought Event ◽  
Pressure Potential ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Cambial Age ◽  
Hydraulic Vulnerability ◽  
Southern Norway ◽  
The Impact

We linked hydraulic vulnerability in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) trunkwood with different cambial age to wood density and applied the findings on annual density variations in healthy and declining trees from southern Norway during 1990 to 2010. We hypothesized that drought stress due to the 2003 or 2006 European heat waves were the triggers for tree decline and focused analyses on the structure of wood that was produced after, as well as before, signs of stress, i.e., when decreases in height or diameter growth were visible. In the data set comprising previously published and new measurements, P50, i.e., the pressure potential necessary to induce a 50% loss in hydraulic conductivity, was negatively related to wood density. Declining trees produced wider annual rings with lower density than vigorous trees before their radial and height increment started to decline in 2003 or 2006. Trees that produced low-density wood under favorable water availability were more stressed by a sudden drought event because of higher P50 values in their sapwood. Due to the strong genotypic relationship between wood density and growth, we suggest that spruce trees selected for fast growth might experience limited hydraulic performance under the impact of extreme heat waves.

Development of hyperspectral thermal infrared mapping capabilities at field and airborne level within MOSES heat wave event chain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Chabrillat ◽  
Robert Milewski ◽  
Maximilian Brell ◽  
Christian Hohmann ◽  
Thomas Ruhtz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Heat Wave ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Hyperspectral Data ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Measured Signal ◽  
Calibration And Validation ◽  
Dynamic Events ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Heat waves have tremendous ecological and socioeconomic consequences for many countries and initiate complex event chains that reach from the land surface to the upper atmosphere. Although it is well known that global change affects the Earth and environment on many different time and length scales, currently, only very limited knowledge is available on the importance of such distinct dynamic events for the long-term development of the Earth system. To investigate the impact of extended heat periods and droughts on our terrestrial ecosystems and natural resources, the Helmholtz MOSES project implements a modular infrastructure that is designed to capture such highly dynamic events in event-driven campaigns. As part of this infrastructure initiative a new hyperspectral thermal instrument, the Telops Hyper-Cam LW, was recently acquired at the Potsdam German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and capabilities for airborne surveys, laboratory and field deployment, as well as data processing in the context of heat wave impacts are currently developed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Telops Hyper-Cam LW is a Fourier-transform imaging spectrometer (~8&amp;#8211;12 &amp;#956;m) with adjustable spectral resolution from 0.25 to 150 cm&lt;sup&gt;&amp;#8722;1 &lt;/sup&gt;that can be operated at various scales from ground and airborne platforms. The hyperspectral longwave infrared shows great potential for the characterization of soil and vegetation properties and their variability related to heat wave impacts. However, this spectral imagery can only be used to fullest advantage when the signal is corrected, e.g. path radiance of the atmosphere, as well as the downwelling radiance component have been removed from the measured signal and temperature is separated from emissivity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this context, this contribution describes the recent developments at GFZ toward (i) The development of suitable field sampling strategy &amp; protocols related to the acquisition of field thermal hyperspectral data including calibration and validation measurements, (ii) Establishment of preliminary protocols for field data processing to temperature and emissivity, (iii) Test and mounting of the Hyper-cam on the Cessna-T207A airborne platform from the Free University Berlin (FUB) and (iv) Flight testing and calibration, and establishment of preliminary protocols and strategies for the development of a processing chain from raw data to temperature and emissivity imagery and extraction of relevant thematic parameters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In particular, first results will be shown based on the MOSES/ScaleX-2019 campaign where field Hyper-Cam measurements were acquired in different configurations at the Fendt grassland test site located in the German Pre-Alpine foreland. Different approaches for temperature emissivity separation are tested and compared, e.g. normalization emissivity method and spectral smoothness based emissivity separation. Furthermore, calibration and validation activities are presented in the frame of several airborne surveys over different targets to correct and validate the thermal signal. Preliminary airborne results will be shown over different locations in Germany and Greece that indicate good geometric and radiometric data accuracy, as well as high potential for the differentiation of surface materials from the spectral emissivity and surface temperature.&lt;/p&gt;

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