Level of Urban Infrastructure Services and Coping Mechanisms of Households

Basic infrastructure services like clean water, proper sewage and sanitation, etc. are important attributes in urbanization of a city to make it healthy, livable, and sustainable. Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aims to ensure clean water and sanitation for all. Access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation facilities are crucial requirements for good health. Issues like intermittent supply, poor water quality, and low-pressure cause unreliable situations due to which community members resort to various coping strategies. Coping strategies are influenced by the household's level of education, income, and the level of unreliability of the service. The coping mechanisms used by the households are costly, and the poor people end up paying more because of the hidden cost. The poor water supply services result in induced costs by the residents in terms of the time costs for water collection and illness due to disease and water treatment costs. Because of these induced costs, the urban poor end up spending more for a clean and reliable water supply.

Detecting DDoS Attacks Using Polyscale Analysis and Deep Learning

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are serious threats to the availability of a smart grid infrastructure services because they can cause massive blackouts. This study describes an anomaly detection method for improving the detection rate of a DDoS attack in a smart grid. This improvement was achieved by increasing the classification of the training and testing phases in a convolutional neural network (CNN). A full version of the variance fractal dimension trajectory (VFDTv2) was used to extract inherent features from the stochastic fractal input data. A discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was applied to the input data and the VFDTv2 to extract significant distinguishing features during data pre-processing. A support vector machine (SVM) was used for data post-processing. The implementation detected the DDoS attack with 87.35% accuracy.

A Study of 5G Edge-Central Core Network Split Options

With the wide adoption of edge compute infrastructures, an opportunity has arisen to deploy part of the functionality at the edge of the network to enable a localized connectivity service. This development is also supported by the adoption of “on-premises” local 5G networks addressing the needs of different vertical industries and by new standardized infrastructure services such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). This article introduces a comprehensive set of deployment options for the 5G network and its network management, complementing MEC with the connectivity service and addressing different classes of use cases and applications. We have also practically implemented and tested the newly introduced options in the form of slices within a standard-based testbed. Our performed validation proved their feasibility and gave a realistic perspective on their impact. The qualitative assessment of the connectivity service gives a comprehensive overview on which solution would be viable to be deployed for each vertical market and for each large-scale operator situation, making a step forward towards automated distributed 5G deployments.

MODELING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTEGRATED REPORTING QUALITY AND SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the sensitivity in terms of the preference for using the integrated reporting quality (IRQ) based on the reporting companies’ field of activity. The study focusses on designing a sensitivity analysis relying on the most relevant financial and nonfinancial indicators as required by the stakeholders. They were adjusted by the key factors for the IRQ such as the social, natural, human and intellectual capital. The study has been designed based on the upgrade and in compliance with the connectivity principle as required by the IIRC. The data was collected from the IR examples Database between 2015–2017. The results suggest that based on sensitivity function value, those sectors of activity such as transportation and infrastructure, services and trade have a higher sensitivity preference for the IR due to the quantification of the stakeholders’ interest in terms of performance positive trend indexes. Making use of regressive techniques, the authors undertook an econometrical model for the evaluation of the IRQ that may become very useful for those companies that intend to set in place a sustainable business as it provides them the opportunity of measuring the IRQ.

Interconnection In the Convergence Era (IP-BASED Interconnection Regulation Challenges)

The IP age of networks and services is increasing very quickly. Starting from its VoIP, NGN, and IMS to today's IP services landscape, which includes fixed and mobile high-definition (HD) voice, HD video calling, unified communications (UC), video conferencing, and telepresence, cooperation, instant messaging (IM), and the rich communication suite (RCS). Convergence is one of the most significant current trends in the ICT sector. It has changed the way services are delivered and obscured the distinction between fixed and mobile services. The transition to Next-Generation Networks (NGN) is the most important next phase in the ICT sector's convergence-driven evolution. In the realms of NGN, VoIP, and IMS, there is no PSTN equivalent; instead, there are "IP islands " that locate the total value of an IP service. The next basic step is to expand the arrive of those services across a totally interconnected cross-network premise in order to maximize their overall esteem among their target audiences. The liberalization of infrastructure services depends on managing the interconnection interface between the competitive and regulated sectors. These paper outlines regulation issues raised by IP-based interconnection and examine the current practices and procedural ways that being developed to address these concerns.

Dynamics of Open Green Areas in Polish and Romanian Cities during 2006–2018: Insights for Spatial Planners

Studying green urban infrastructure is important because of its ecosystem services, contributing to the welfare and comfort of citizens, mitigation of climate changes, and sustainability goals. Urban planning can increase or diminish the performance of ecosystem services. Despite numerous studies on the green infrastructure–services–planning nexus, there are very few concrete planning recommendations. This study aims to provide such recommendations for a broader audience by analyzing the dynamic of open green areas in Polish and Romanian cities, connected with its drivers. A novel approach including mathematical modeling and geostatistical analyses was applied to Urban Atlas and statistical yearbooks data. The results indicated that open green areas were lost and fragmented in all Romanian and Polish cities during 2006–2018. The drivers included urban built-up areas, population and density, the number of building permits, number of new dwellings completed, number of employees, and total length of roads. The study also revealed a tremendous lack of consistent datasets across the countries using the same statistical indicators. Based on the findings, planners should aim to preserve and develop urban greenery and maintain its continuity. City managers should use more research and decision-making policy developers to develop targeted policies and scientists should develop planning manuals.

Geographical Analysis of Ruralization Phenomenon in Rania City and Impact on Their Urban Enviroment

Ruralization of Urban areas is one of the most important topics of Urban Geography as it is one of the issues of urban areas and a major contributor to other urban issues; therefore, researchers need to look at this issue with caution. Ranya city has experienced this issue to a great extent mostly due to population growth and urban expansion. Ruralization has caused major issues such as infrastructure issues in terms of education, health, transportation and increased crime rates in different parts of the city. This research addresses this issue and aims to investigate the causes and characteristics of ruralization in Ranya city. This effort will help the local government to look for solution to address this issue. This research has used descriptive and analytical methods.The research concludes that ruralization has caused some drastic consequences when it comes to providing and delivering different public and infrastructure services. The paper recommends to authorities that preparing a master plan for the city would be the ideal resolution for this issue and other issues in the city.

Efficiency of Infrastructure Services in Khor Al-Zubair City (Iraq) Firas Sami Abdulaziz Alqatrani1 and Amira

The aim of the research is to demonstrate the concept, characteristics, efficiency and adequacy of infrastructure in Khor Al-Zubair, as it represents an important benchmark for judging the development of the city. The researchers thus aim to measure the efficiency, adequacy and personal impression of each service in Khor Al-Zubair city and its residential neighborhoods. To meet this objective, the researchers used the descriptive and analytical approach that involves randomly distributing a questionnaire with specific questions to the neighbors of the city. The study has reached a set of results and recommendations that contribute to addressing the problems to the sector of infrastructure services in the city, such as: the per capita share of liquid water in Khor Al-Zubair has reached 100 liters/day, which is less than the quota specified, 450 liters/day by the Iraqi standard. This results in a deficit of 77.2% of the total amount of water that must be provided per person. In addition to the deficiency there is also a decrease in the quality of liquefied water in Khor Al-Zubair city due to its high level of salinity in it, which reached 916 TDS in 2020. Further, there is a deficit of electrical power of 10 megawatts, leading the city to be exposed to regular interruption of electrical current of about six hours per day, where the hours of interruption increase in the hot season of the year.

Reliability Analysis of Communication Network Service Quality For Internet of Vehicles (IoV)

The development of the Internet of Vehicle (IoV) is overgrowing toward driving comfort, safety, and efficiency. Autopilot or a car without a driver is one implementation of IoT. To run the full function of IoV, a reliable communication network is needed because the risk will be substantial due to the low quality of network infrastructure services. In this research, we will analyze the quality of network infrastructure services. The analysis can be done through two approaches: direct measurement in the field using a GPS Tracker-based system and modeling using the mathematical function of transmit power of mobile communication transmitting devices. The test is carried out in a specific area with a sample of high traffic and low-density areas. This method was chosen to find the right pattern in measuring the quality of communication network services. The tests carried out produce dynamic data on service quality in certain areas. For areas of low density, the service quality tends to be below as well, and many areas without signal are found, while for areas with high density, the quality of service is found to be good, but network overload conditions often occur.