A Smart Urbanism Management Platform

We all aspire to urbanism that recognizes the social, economic, political, cultural and physical-spatial dimensions of cities. Urbanism, which, based on working tools (SDAU, Planning Regulations, etc.) based on a quality model, will allow good practice and good translation of these systems on the territory (neighborhood, city, rural environment, etc). Due to that, we are interested in our article to propose and develop an automated urban planning management platform for the generation of updates proposed by urban planning experts in order to improve the quality of amenagement regulations.

A Smart Urbanism Management Platform

We all aspire to urbanism that recognizes the social, economic, political, cultural and physical-spatial dimensions of cities. Urbanism, which, based on working tools (SDAU, Planning Regulations, etc.) based on a quality model, will allow good practice and good translation of these systems on the territory (neighborhood, city, rural environment, etc). Due to that, we are interested in our article to propose and develop an automated urban planning management platform for the generation of updates proposed by urban planning experts in order to improve the quality of amenagement regulations.

Duff burning from wildfires in a moist region: different impacts on PM_2.5 and ozone

Wildfires can significantly impact air quality and human health. However, little is known about how different fuel bed components contribute to these impacts. This study investigates the air quality impacts of duff and peat consumption during wildfires in the southeastern United States, with a focus on the differing contributions of fine particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in size (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) to air quality episodes associated with the four largest wildfire events in the region during this century. The emissions of duff burning were estimated based on a field measurement of a 2016 southern Appalachian fire. The emissions from the burning of other fuels were obtained from the Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN). The air quality impacts were simulated using a three-dimensional regional air quality model. The results show the duff burning emitted PM2.5 comparable to the burning of the above-ground fuels. The simulated surface PM2.5 concentrations due to duff burning increased by 61.3 % locally over a region approximately 300 km within the fire site and by 21.3 % and 29.7 % in remote metro Atlanta and Charlotte during the 2016 southern Appalachian fires and by 131.9 % locally and by 17.7 % and 24.8 % in remote metro Orlando and Miami during the 2007 Okefenokee Fire. However, the simulated ozone impacts from the duff burning were negligible due to the small duff emission factors of ozone precursors such as NOx. This study suggests the need to improve the modeling of PM2.5 and the air quality, human health, and climate impacts of wildfires in moist ecosystems by including duff burning in global fire emission inventories.

BIM for Landscape Design Improving Climate Adaptation Planning: The Evaluation of Software Tools Based on the ISO 25010 Standard

This paper investigates the capabilities and limitations of different software tools simulating landscape design adaptability. The evaluation of tools is based on the ISO 25010 framework, which investigates software functionality, reliability, performance efficiency, usability, compatibility, and information quality. These quality characteristics of software are analysed during objective experiments where five software tools are used for a case study project at the conceptual design phase. These experiments reveal that the existing software tools for climate adaptation planning are focused on different aspects of climate adaptability, generating different types of information. Moreover, all tools deal with some limitations in terms of compatibility, performance efficiency, and functional operations. The ISO 25010 quality model provides a comprehensive framework to compare the capabilities of different software tools for climate adaptation planning. This paper is part of a wider study including an analysis of the needs of project stakeholders regarding climate adaptation software tools. However, this article focuses on technical capabilities of current climate adaptation software tools.

Longitudinal River Monitoring and Modelling Substantiate the Impact of Weirs on Nitrogen Dynamics

The fluvial nitrogen dynamics at locations around weirs are still rarely studied in detail. Eulerian data, often used by conventional river monitoring and modelling approaches, lags the spatial resolution for an unambiguous representation. With the aim to address this knowledge gap, the present study applies a coupled 1D hydrodynamic–water quality model to a 26.9 km stretch of an upland river. Tailored simulations were performed for river sections with water retention and free-flow conditions to quantify the weirs’ influences on nitrogen dynamics. The water quality data were sampled with Eulerian and Lagrangian strategies. Despite the limitations in terms of required spatial discretization and simulation time, refined model calibrations with high spatiotemporal resolution corroborated the high ammonification rates (0.015 d−1) on river sections without weirs and high nitrification rates (0.17 d−1 ammonium to nitrate, 0.78 d−1 nitrate to nitrite) on river sections with weirs. Additionally, using estimations of denitrification based on typical values for riverbed sediment as a reference, we could demonstrate that in our case study, weirs can improve denitrification substantially. The produced backwater lengths can induce a means of additional nitrogen removal of 0.2-ton d−1 (10.9%) during warm and low-flow periods.

Does the perceived healthcare quality provided by full-time government employee doctors in the public system differ from the perceived care quality in their own privately managed facilities in Nigeria?

Objective: Although the differences in the quality levels between the public and private sectors have been identified in literature not much is known about the level of quality differences that exist when full time government employee doctors offer the same clinical services in their own privately managed facilities. The objective of this study was to compare service user perceived quality of care provided by full-time government employee doctors in the public system and in their own privately managed facilities in Nigeria.Methods: A cross-sectional multistage sampling design was used to elicit service user views on process, structure and outcome elements of quality identified in the Donabedian’s care quality model. The software for population surveys in EPI Info 7 was used to calculate the required sample. A total of 407 questionnaires were administered and completed after a pre-test.Results: Respondents reported better health outcomes in private practice than in the public system and a majority would recommend visiting a dual physician’s private practice than the public system where they work full-time. Process aspects of quality, including better rapport with doctors, greater perceived confidentiality, shorter wait times, and absence of bureaucratic impediments were said to be better in privately managed facilities of government doctors. However, respondents said that the public sector was superior in respect of the structure element of quality as reflected in better infrastructure, equipment, and availability of drugs.Conclusions: Despite the relatively lower cost of care in government hospitals the outcome and process elements are still crucial in determining which sector patients prefer. These two elements seem to have influenced patronage for private practices of dual practitioners.

Spatio-temporal modeling of the wind field over an urban lake subject to wind sheltering

The wind field over an urban lake may exhibit considerable variability due to wind shielding effects from surrounding structures. Field measurements at an urban reservoir in Singapore were augmented by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model results to develop a wind model over the reservoir surface via a data assimilation approach. The field measurements identified, depending on structure alignment with the prevailing wind direction, wind shielding that impacted wind direction and velocity over the reservoir surface. The wind model integrated the temporal response of the measurements and spatial distribution produced by the CFD modelling. The wind model was used to predict the spatio-temporal pattern of the wind field over the reservoir surface for a full year. The modeling results showed good agreement with measured wind data at three measurement locations on the reservoir surface. The wind model has been incorporated with a hydrodynamics and water quality model to provide the spatio-temporal wind forcing over the reservoir surface.

Systematic literature review on university website quality

Website is a necessity for organizations to enable users worldwide to access their information and gain a competitive edge over others. The diversity of websites makes assessing website quality a difficult task. The aim of this paper is to identify the issues faced in the quality evaluation of university websites, the models and the factors used for evaluating university website quality. Systematic literature review was used to identify and synthesize related scholarly research papers. Findings show that there is a lack of study on university website quality compared to business websites; website designers did not have the appropriate knowledge on the interface design; and the website quality evaluation is complex since there is no specific evaluation model. Webqual 4.0 model was used to evaluate the quality of universities' websites. From 24 studies, initially 79 quality factors were extracted. After performing comparison, filtration and memoing, six quality factors were identified: information quality, specific content, usability, web appearance, service interaction quality, and functionality. This study makes a useful contribution in developing university website quality model by extending the Webqual 4.0 model.

Designing and Implementing e-School Systems: An Information Systems Approach to School Management of a Community College in Northern Mindanao, Philippines

Purpose–Colleges and Universities have been established to provide educational services to the people. Like any other organization, the school has processes and procedures similar to business or industry that involve admissions, processing of data, and generation of reports. Those processes are made possible through a centralized system in storing, processing, and retrieval of data and information, the majority of the schools in the country are already adopting computer-based systems to address their needs especially on their student and school-related transactions. The absence of a computer system and the complexity of the transactions of the college which makes the personnel be loaded with paper works in storingand keeping student records and information is the motivating factor why the School Management Information System has been designed and developed for a community college in the northern part of Mindanao.Method-This paper discusses the Major Functionalities and Modules of the systemthroughits implementation methodology which is the AgileModel and its impact on the delivery of services and procedures in the overall operation of the college.Results–The project has been evaluated based on ISO 25010,a quality model used for product/software quality evaluation systems. Based on the results of the evaluation, SMIS has been Functional, Usable, and Reliable with an average for every criterion above 4.04indicating very good performance based on a Likert scale descriptive interpretation.Conclusion–Based on the preceding findings of the study, the respondents agreed that the developed e-school system was functional and lifted the transaction process of the school. The faculty and staff have benefited from making use of the system. The overall quality and performance of the system was verygood in terms of functionality, usability, andreliability.Recommendations–It is recommended that future development such as the smartphone and tablet-based attendance monitoring should be integrated, a kiosk for grades and schedule viewing should also be placed inside the campus that is connected to the database server. Online student information systems should also be developed for the benefit of the students and parents, in easily monitoring school-related activities and requirements.Research Implications–The study enabled the centralization of school and student data in storing, processing and retrieval. The System has been implemented in the college and has been updated now and then for continuous quality improvement.