Flood Risk Management: Analysis of Evacuation Process

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. Please check back later for the full article. Globally, floods cause widespread damage, especially in densely populated areas exposed to heavy land use. As a result, enormous financial expenditure is invested in flood protection and the mitigation of flood-related effects. Decisions on the allocation of resources to ensure flood protection are made on the determination of the costs entailed and the expected benefits that such actions may bring. From the economic point of view, the outlays incurred for flood protection should be outweighed by the expected results. For this reason, flood risk management is very important. Mitigation of flood-related loss should take into account a comprehensive spectrum of actions, from prevention and education, through measures taken during a flood, to strategies that help people return to normality once the disaster is over. In the 21st century there has been a radical change in the approach to the issue of flood protection (as seen in the 2007 Floods Directive)—it is no longer believed that there is such a thing as complete protection against flood, but that the damage and loss floods inflict can be mitigated, and since floods cannot be completely eradicated, societies must learn how to live with them. In the event of a flood, pre-prepared procedures to counteract and mitigate the effects of the disaster are followed, including evacuation of people and movable property from affected areas. Evacuation planning is meant to reduce the number of disaster-related fatalities and material losses. Crucially, this type of planning requires a well-defined, optimum evacuation policy for people/households within flood hazard areas. In addition, evacuation modeling is particularly important for authorities, planners, and other experts managing the process of evacuation, as it allows for more effective relocation of evacuees. Modeling can also facilitate the identification of bottlenecks within the transport system prior to the occurrence of a disaster, that is, the impact of flood-related road closures and the effects a phased evacuation has on traffic load, among other things, can be determined. Furthermore, not only may the ability to model alternative evacuation scenarios lead to the establishment of appropriate policies, evacuation strategies, and contingency plans, but it might also facilitate better communication and information flow.

New Measurement Methods for Structure Deformation and Objects Exact Dimension Determination

The current rapid development of technologies enables new procedures for deformation and the detecting of construction defects and their modelling and monitoring in BIM. New instruments were developed for fast and sufficiently accurate mapping like personal mobile laser scanners (PLS). In the world of photography, the size of camera sensors is bigger, and the photographs are sharper. The rapid development of computer performance enables automatic and complex calculations, which lead to large sets of detailed 3D data and a high degree of automation. This influences photogrammetry and its methods. The results are more detailed and more accurate. Deformation, defects and exact dimensions (metrology) of different structures or objects can be currently measured by digital close-range photogrammetry. Cracks and cavities are monitored for structure status detection. This is important for planning reconstruction and for financial reasons. For structures like cooling towers, chimneys, or bridges can be created on a 3D model with a high texture resolution for finding and monitoring cracks and cavities. Deformations or defects that were found must be in scale, and measurable for the calculation of the scope of repair work and its price. The generated 3D object model can then be used for further measurements, for the price estimation of renovation, and for the creation of a BIM, in which all processes can be modelled and watched. Deformation can be monitored over time by creating additional models after a defined period. Captured 3D models from different periods can be compared in software like CloudCompare to determine the progress of degradational changes. The trend of the aging of the structure can be traced, which will be helpful for the reasonable planning of reconstruction. Based on the rapid development and miniaturization of measuring devices, new, smaller, easier to use, and more perfect devices are constructed. This also applies to the new group of laser scanners constructed for basic measurement and structure modeling for BIM. Conventional laser scanners can be accurate, but they are relatively large and heavy, difficult to transport and measuring with them is relatively slow (stop and go type). If the project goal is the classic construction, documentation of the object, data transfer to BIM or basic documentation of objects, PLS is the ideal device. Thanks to the development of accurate IMU (inertial measurement unit) and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technologies, these devices are on the rise. The forthcoming article will inform about the methods of accurate close-range photogrammetry and mobile laser scanning and will show their advantages with specific examples.

Safe Water Adaptability: An Approach to Combat Water Scarcity

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. Please check back later for the full article. Water scarcity is a significant global concern affecting every continent. Safe water crises mainly occur due to climate change, increasing global population, and urbanization. Safe water crises are more distressing in climate hot spots such as coastal areas, areas with low rainfall, and urban areas. Bangladesh, a developing country, is experiencing the problem of water crisis in both coastal and urban areas. Safe water adaptability can be an integrative approach to mitigate water scarcity in these areas. Adaptability measures include surface and groundwater resources monitoring, use of natural and artificial water storage, and providing technical training in safe water management to local community members. These measures can help to combat the safe water crisis across the globe. Safe water adaptability measures can be classified into four different dimensions known as SIPE (i.e., socioeconomic, institutional, physiochemical, and environmental) based on both primary and secondary indicators. The SIPE approach measures the adaptability index by scoring the primary and secondary indicators and categorizes them as low to high in the adaptive community. This new approach will offer information and guidelines for the government, policymakers, and researchers to combat the water scarcity problem. Although the proposed approach is applicable in the context of Bangladesh, this strategy can also be used in any part of the globe by customizing the secondary indicators and considering the type of local problem in order to provide safe water for people in the community. Initiated at a micro level, the SIPE approach can become an integral part of national policies related to access to safe water, especially for drinking and irrigation purposes.

Terrestrial Analogs to Planetary Volcanic Processes

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article. More than 50 years of solar system exploration has revealed the great diversity of volcanic landscapes beyond the Earth, be they formed by molten rock, liquid water, or other volatile species. Classic examples of giant shield volcanoes, solidified lava flows, extensive ash deposits, and volcanic vents can all be identified but, with the exception of eruptions seen on the Jovian moon Io, none of these planetary volcanoes have been observed in eruption. Consequently, the details of the processes that created these landscapes must be inferred from the available spacecraft data. Despite the increasing improvement in the spatial, temporal, compositional, and topographic characteristics of the data for planetary volcanoes, details of the manner in which they formed are not clear. However, terrestrial eruptions can provide numerous insights into planetary eruptions, whether they result in the emplacement of lava flows, explosive eruptions due to volatiles in the magma, or the interaction between hot lava and water or ice. In recent decades, growing attention has therefore been directed at the use of terrestrial analogs to help interpret volcanic landforms and processes on the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, the Moon, and Mars) and in the outer solar system (the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the larger asteroids, and potentially Pluto). In addition, terrestrial analogs not only provide insights into the geologic processes associated with volcanism, but they can also serve as test sites for the development of instrumentation to be sent to other worlds, as well as serve as a training ground for manned and unmanned explorers seeking to better understand volcanism throughout the solar system.

Musical Bows in the Rock Art of Southern Africa

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. The musical bow is speculated to have been discovered as a result of hunting, after a musical tone was heard from the vibrating string seconds after releasing the arrow. Some consider it the first musical instrument of the Bushman. A musical bow is an instrument that is made of a wooden stave that has a string attached to both ends of the stave, as well as, typically, a resonator. The musical bow belongs to the chordophone family, which comprises musical instruments that produce sound through the vibration of strings. Musical bows occur in southern African rock art specifically from South Africa and Namibia. In South Africa they are found in the Maloti Drakensberg massif, in the KwaZulu-Natal region, and in Maclear District in the Eastern Cape Province, whereas in Namibia they are found around the Daureb region. The occurrence of musical bows in the rock art of southern Africa hints at some of the musical instruments that were used during the Holocene period in the region. Their use as musical instruments is well documented ethnographically, and they are still used even today.

Landslides in the Solar System

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article. Landslides are gravity-driven mass movements of rock, earth, or debris. All of these surface processes occur under the influence of gravity, meaning that they globally move material from higher to lower places. Outside Earth, these structures were first observed in a lunar crater during the Apollo program, but mass movements have been spotted on several rocky worlds (solid bodies) in the solar system, including icy satellites, asteroids, and comets. On Earth, landslides have the effect of shaping the landscape more or less rapidly, leaving a signature that is recognised through field surveys and visual analysis, or automatic identification, on aerial photographs or satellite images. Landslides observed on Earth and in solid bodies of the solar system are of different types on the basis of their movement and the material involved in the failure. Material is either rock or soil (or both) with a variable fraction of water or ice; a soil mainly composed of sand-sized or finer particles is referred to as earth, while it is called debris if composed of coarse fragments. The landslide mass may be displaced in several types of movement, classified generically as falling, toppling, sliding, spreading, or flowing. Such diverse characteristics mean that the size of a landslide (e.g., area, volume, fall height, length) can vary widely. For example, on Earth, their areas range up to eleven orders of magnitude, while their volumes vary by eighteen orders, from small rock fragments to huge submarine landslides. The classification of extraterrestrial landslides is based on terrestrial analogs, which have similarities and characteristics that resemble those found on the planetary body. This morphological classification is made regardless of the geomorphological environment or processes that may have triggered the slope failure. Comparing landslide characteristics on various planetary bodies helps to understand the effect of surface gravity on landslide initiation and propagation, which can be of tremendous importance when designing manned and unmanned missions with landings on extraterrestrial bodies. Regardless of the practical applications of such study, knowing the morphology and surface dynamics that shape solid bodies in the space surrounding the Earth is something that has fascinated the human imagination since the time of Galileo.

Women Leadership: Advancing with or without his support.

The present paper is built on data collected from our PhD thesis which addressed the burning issue of Women Leadership and which took the form of a census in the region of Western Macedonia and Thrace, which consists 10,7% of the total Greek territory and 5,7% of the Greek population respectively. More specifically, the information provided here resulted from the investigation of one of the seven topics that constituted our questionnaire and by which we tried to figure out the personal life of women-leaders in the Greek educational system, how they manage/cope with their multiple roles and responsibilities, whether their spouses are supportive (and if so how) or competitive. As with all studies, there are areas that I have been unable to tackle. One such area is the multidimensional issue of maternity. The latter will be exposed analytically in a forthcoming article.

Trans-Neptunian Dwarf Planets

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially recognizes five objects as dwarf planets: Ceres in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter; and Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake in the trans-Neptunian region beyond the orbit of Neptune. However, the definition used by the IAU applies to many other trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and can be summarized as any nonsatellite large enough to be rounded by its own gravity. Practically speaking, this means any nonsatellite with a diameter >400 km. In the trans-Neptunian region, there are more than 100 objects that satisfy this definition, based on published results and diameter estimates. The dynamical structure of the trans-Neptunian region records the migration history of the giant planets in the early days of the solar system. The semi-major axes, eccentricities, and orbital inclinations of TNOs across various dynamical classes provide constraints on different aspects of planetary migration. For many TNOs, the orbital parameters are all that is known about them, due to their large distances, small sizes, and low albedos. The TNO dwarf planets are a different story. These objects are large enough to be studied in more detail from ground- and space-based observatories. Imaging observations can be used to detect satellites and measure surface colors, while spectroscopy can be used to constrain surface composition. In this way, TNO dwarf planets not only help provide context for the dynamical evolution of the outer solar system, but also reveal the composition of the primordial solar nebula as well as the physical and chemical processes at work at very cold temperatures. The largest TNO dwarf planets, those officially recognized by the IAU, plus others such as Sedna, Quaoar, and Gonggong, are large enough to support volatile ices on their surfaces in the present day. These ices are able to exist as solids and gases on some TNOs, due to their sizes and surface temperatures (similar to water ice on Earth) and include N2 (nitrogen), CH4 (methane), and CO (carbon monoxide). A global atmosphere composed of these three species has been detected around Pluto, the largest TNO dwarf planet, with the possibility of local atmospheres or global atmospheres at perihelion for Eris and Makemake. The presence of nonvolatile species, such as H2O (water), NH3 (ammonia), and organics provide valuable information on objects that may be too small to retain volatile ices over the age of the solar system. In particular, large quantities of H2O mixed with NH3 points to ancient cryovolcanism caused by internal differentiation of ice from rock. Organic material, formed through radiation processing of surface ices such as CH4, records the radiation histories of these objects as well as providing clues to their primordial surface compositions. The dynamical, physical, and chemical diversity of the >100 TNO dwarf planets are key to understanding the formation of the solar system and subsequent evolution to its current state. Most of our knowledge comes from a small handful of objects, but we are continually expanding our horizons as additional objects are studied in more detail.

Water Ice at Mid-Latitudes on Mars

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article. Mars’ mid-latitudes (roughly 30–60° N and S) host voluminous deposits of water ice in the subsurface. At present, perennial water ice cannot exist at the surface in these regions. This is because, for a significant portion of the Martian year, surface temperatures exceed the sublimation point of water ice under Mars’ low atmospheric pressure. Therefore, any seasonal water-ice frost that accumulates in winter sublimates back into the atmosphere in spring. However, a centimeters-to-meters-thick covering of lithic material can inhibit sublimation sufficiently to allow perennial stability of ice in the subsurface. Perennial ice in Mars’ mid-latitudes exists as pore-ice and excess-ice lenses within the regolith, and as massive accumulations of buried, high-purity ice akin to debris-covered glaciers on Earth. The ice is thought to range in age from hundreds of thousands to many hundreds of millions of years old. Its emplacement and modification has been widely attributed to cyclical climate changes induced by variations in Mars’ orbital parameters (primarily its axial tilt). Water ice in Mars’ mid-latitudes is therefore of significant interest for reconstructing such climate changes. It could also provide an essential in situ supply of water for future human missions to Mars. It is possible to infer the presence of water ice in Mars’ subsurface without direct imaging of the ice itself. For example, the distribution of near-surface ice was mapped using Mars Odyssey Neutron Spectrometer detections to calculate the percentage of water-equivalent hydrogen in the upper 1 m of the regolith. Orbital images have revealed a great diversity of ice-related landforms which suggest flow, thermal cycling, sublimation, and disruption (e.g. by impact cratering) of subsurface ice. In some locations, orbital ground-penetrating radar observations have been used to confirm subsurface ice content in areas where its presence has been inferred from the geomorphology of the surface. Water ice in Mars’ mid-latitudes has also been imaged directly by landed and orbital missions. The Phoenix lander exposed water-ice lenses just centimeters beneath the surface, in trenches that it excavated at 68 °N latitude. Orbital images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed transient bright ice deposits exhumed by small, fresh impacts into mid-latitude terrains, and ~100 m-high scarps of water ice in exposures through debris-covered ice deposits. In all these cases, the exposed ice has been observed to lose mass by sublimation over time. This demonstrates the essential role of lithic cover in preserving subsurface water ice in Mars’ mid-latitudes.

The influence of the dust-free zone on F-corona brightness

<p>This presentation is related to model calculations of the circumsolar dust brightness that is seen in the F-corona and inner Zodiacal light. We calculate the brightness integral that includes the size distribution of the interplanetary dust, the spatial distribution, and the scattering properties. The scattering properties are estimated with Mie calculations of spherical particles consisting of astronomical silicate. We consider different size distributions of the dust particles with sizes between 1 nanometre - 100 micrometre. It was recently discussed that the extension of the dust-free zone can be inferred from the slope of the F-corona brightness seen in new observations received from the WISPR instrument on the NASA Parker Solar Probe (Stenborg et al., 2020). We, therefore, investigate the influence of the dust-free zone on the brightness and compare it to the influence that the dust size distribution has.</p><p>References</p><p>1. G. Stenborg, R. A. Howard, P. Hess, B. Gallagher, PSP/WISPR observations of dust density depletion near the Sun I. Remote observations to 8 Rsol from an observer between 0.13-0.35 AU, A&A, Forthcoming article, 2020. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202039284</p>