Impact of climate change on domestic water accessibility in Bamenda III Sub-Division, North West region, Cameroon

The effects of climate change are felt most at the household level, when taps and springs run dry for several weeks or months, forcing people to access potable water from doubtful sources. There has been an increase in the population of Bamenda III without a proportionate increase in the water supply capacity. This has resulted in severe water crises, even though Bamenda III municipality has water supplies from the Council, Community, CAMWATER, natural springs and streams, wells and boreholes. Household data on water accessibility against a backdrop of a changing climate was collected using 269 questionnaires to assess perceptions on the state of water resources and climate. Rainfall data were collected from 1963-2019 and results revealed that mean annual rainfall is at 182.52 mm, with a standard deviation of 29.16 and a Coefficient of Variation of 15.69%, while the mean Standardized Precipitation Index is -0.07 (mild dryness), and rainfall has reduced by -2.07 mm from 1963-2019. The population attributed problems of water accessibility to climate change, urbanization and poor water governance. It is recommended that sustainable water management through Nature-based Solutions and Ecosystem-based Adaptation should be implemented from the watershed to the community level.

The Trade-Offs between Supply and Demand Dynamics of Ecosystem Services in the Bay Areas of Metropolitan Regions: A Case Study in Quanzhou, China

Bay areas are endowed with unique sea and land resources, location advantages, and high environmental carrying capacities. The rapid urbanization process has intensified the demand for limited natural resources, leading to a series of problems in coastal zones such as land use conflicts and the degradation of ecosystem services. Taking Quanzhou, a bay city in a metropolitan region, as an example, this paper established an accounting model of ecosystem services supply and consumption demand based on multisource data (meteorological site data, land use data and statistical data). We estimated the supply capacity and consumption demand of provisioning services, regulating services, and cultural services in Quanzhou from 2005 to 2015. In addition, the supply and demand of ecosystem services were simulated for 2030 under different scenarios. The results showed that the supply capacity of ecosystem services in Quanzhou was greater than the demand in general, but the supply-demand difference showed a gradual decrease. The high-value areas of supply capacity were concentrated in the upstream basin in the non-bay area, while the high-value areas of consumption demand were located downstream of the river basin in the bay area. The supply-demand difference in the bay area was negative, indicating that it was in a state of supply-demand imbalance and that the ecological security was under threat. Among the three simulated scenarios in 2030, the balance between supply and demand declined compared with the results of 2015, with the most serious decline in the natural scenario. The method to quantify the evolution of spatial and temporal patterns in supply and demand of ecosystem services could provide a decision-making reference for natural resource management in Quanzhou. This is conducive to the improvement and establishment of urban ecological security research systems, especially in bay areas that are lacking research.

Modelling the Demand and Access of Mineral Resources in a Changing World

Humanity is using mineral resources at an unprecedented level and demand will continue to grow over the next few decades before stabilizing by the end of the century, due to the economic development of populated countries and the energy and digital transitions. The demand for raw materials must be estimated with a bottom-up and regionalised approach and the supply capacity with approaches coupling long-term prices with energy and production costs controlled by the quality of the resource and the rate of technological improvement that depends on thermodynamic limits. Such modelling provides arguments in favour of two classically opposed visions of the future of mineral resources: an unaffordable increase in costs and prices following the depletion of high quality deposits or, on the contrary, a favourable compensation by technological improvements. Both views are true, but not at the same time. After a period of energy and production cost gains, we now appear to be entering a pivotal period of long-term production cost increases as we approach the minimum practical energy and thermodynamic limits for many metals.

Covid-19 and The Intensity of Water Use Among Households in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria

This study examined household water use intensity in the face of the current fight against COVID-19 among residents of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The study used both primary and secondary data. A structured questionnaire was administered to 180 household heads systematically across the selected four wards in Jos Town. While secondary data were extracted from maps and published materials. A descriptive-analytical technique was applied in the study. The study revealed that 51.7% used above 51ltr/capita/day of water during COVID-19 and 48.9% used between 21-30ltrs/capita/day before the pandemic. There was a marked increase in water use among households in the area during the COVID-19 pandemic as against the usage before COVID-19 outbreaks. The study also showed that major water use areas with higher intensity are hand washing, bathing, and cloth washing with use for cooking, gardening, and mopping increasing very slightly. The majority of households depended on well (53.3%), boreholes (19.4%) while 17.8% of the respondents relied on pipe-borne water sources. The study concluded that due to the fixity of water supply capacity in the area and with the increased water use in the face of the lingering pandemic, water supply capacity should be scaled up through the State Water Agency to supply more potable water to the residents in the area. ________________________________________ Cette étude a examiné l’intensité de la consommation d’eau des ménages face à la lutte actuelle contre la COVID-19 chez les résidents de la zone d’administration locale de Jos North, dans l’État du Plateau, au Nigéria. L’étude a utilisé des données primaires et secondaires. Un questionnaire structuré a été systématiquement administré à 180 chefs de ménage dans les quatre quartiers sélectionnés de Jos Town. Alors que les données secondaires ont été extraites des cartes et des documents publiés. La technique d’analyse descriptive a été appliquée dans l’étude. L’étude a révélé que 51,7 % ont utilisé plus de 51 ltr/habitant/jour d’eau pendant la COVID-19 et 48,9 % ont utilisé entre 21 et 30 ltr/habitant/jour. Il y a eu une augmentation marquée de la consommation d’eau chez les ménages de la région pendant la pandémie de COVID-19 par rapport à l’utilisation avant les éclosions de COVID-19. L’étude a également montré que les principales zones d’utilisation de l’eau avec une intensité plus élevée sont le lavage des mains, le bain et le lavage des chiffons, l’utilisation pour la cuisine, le jardinage et la nivette augmentant très légèrement. La majorité des ménagesdépendaient de l’eau de canalisation (17,8 %), des puits (53,3 %) et des forages (19,4 %). L’étude a conclu qu’en raison de la fixité de la capacité d’approvisionnement en eau dans la région et de l’utilisation accrue de l’eau face à la pandémie persistante, la capacité d’approvisionnement en eau devrait être augmentée par l’intermédiaire de l’Agence nationale de l’eau pour fournir plus d’eau potable aux résidents de la région.

Contribution of bearing capacity of land based on engineering geology in regional spatial policy (A study in Semarang City)

The bearing capacity of the land (BCL) is a determining factor for the bearing capacity of the environment. The BCL depends on the resources in the land space, which is called the supply capacity. The capacity of providing BCL for spatial use is determined by the stability of the landmass of the expanse of land, namely engineering geology characteristics. The BCL for the use of space has been based on the land capacity for agriculture and the physical land. There are important things that are not included in the criteria, namely the ability of the land in terms of engineering geology characteristics. Soil samples from the drill were analyzed for soil characteristics. Analysis of field and laboratory tests to get the distribution of the value of BCL, then compiled the map of the BCL of Semarang City at 2.5-5.0 m depth. The BCL value is 0.201–14.248 kg/cm2, settlement value is 0–247.728 cm, duration of decline (DOD) is 0 – 5.147 years. The paper intended to contribute to spatial planning policy thinking, related to the BCL based on engineering geology as a determinant of land capability, an evaluation instrument of space utilization, and fundamental policy formulation.

Performan Produksi dan Kapasitas Suplay Sapi Bali Bibit dan Potong di Kabupaten Lombok Barat, Nusa Tenggara Barat

This research was conducted in West Lombok Regency with the aim of knowing the production performance and supply capacity of Bali cattle seeds and beef in West Lombok district. The research was conducted by survey method. The research sample consisted of farmers and the livestock they kept. This research was conducted in two sub-districts and three sample villages were selected for each sub-district. The number of samples is 60 farmer respondents. The variables observed included body weight, body size, birth rate, mortality rate, calf harvest, calving period and age of rejection. The data collected were analyzed descriptively. To determine the level of production and supply capacity of Bali cattle, seeds and cuts, the data were analyzed using Dania guidelines. Structure The population of Bali cattle consists of 33.33% calves, 21.21% young and 45.45% adults with a child harvest rate of 26.97% and a mortality rate of 2.49% of the population. The average body weight of Bali cattle in West Lombok Regency, weaning calf, young and adult, respectively, is 129.65, 247.98 and 275.75 kg adults with gumba height, 99.08 weaning calves, 112.75 young and adults 118.45 cm. The supply capacity of breeder cattle and beef cattle in West Lombok Regency is 24.28% of the population, consisting of 6.51% beef cattle and 17.76% breed cattle.

Dynamic Forecasting Algorithm of Inbound Ice and Snow Tourism in China Based on Improved Deep Confidence Network

Ice and snow-based tourism is getting popular around the world and it is one of the major sources of revenue for a region with required facilities. According to a report by China Daily, China was expected to witness 230 million tourist visits in 2020-2021 with a total revenue generation surpassing 390 billion yuan. In order to promote the ice and snow tourism, proper arrangements such as accommodation, transport facility, and energy provision for heating and food need to be arranged as per the demand of the visitors at a certain period of time. A tourist prediction system can help in this regard for good estimation but considering the problems of traditional ice and snow tourism systems, specifically the prediction accuracy and long forecasting time, a dynamic forecasting algorithm for ice and snow inbound tourism based on an improved deep confidence network is proposed. The system analyzes the relationship between the demand for ice and snow inbound tourism and the level of national economic development, people’s living standards, demographic characteristics, traffic conditions, and tourism supply capacity. It then takes the influencing factors of ice and snow inbound tourism demand as sample data and arranges the sample data sequence. The inbound tourism demand dynamic prediction model uses an improved deep confidence network to learn and train the prediction model, input test data into the trained model, and output the dynamic prediction value of ice and snow inbound tourism demand in the output layer to obtain the prediction result. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has improved accuracy in predicting the demand of inbound tourism for ice and snow, whereas the forecasting time is reduced.

Can nuclear power be a solution for exacerbating global problems?

Nuclear power has been considered as a potential energy source to mitigate climate change problems thanks to its carbon-free power and huge supply capacity. Besides, it helps secure a country's energy supply, ultimately ensuring a nation’s sustainability. However, nuclear-energy-related disastrous events, such as the US military’s nuclear bombing of Japanese cities in 1945, and the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disasters, have shown the destructive power of atomic elements. In order to have a comprehensive view of the problem of nuclear energy, its strengths and weaknesses, this paper will summarize the conference report ‘Thorium energy for the world’ and discuss the possibility of science and technology in the promising energy field.

Smart Grid Nontechnical Loss Detection Based on Power Gateway Consortium Blockchain

The rapid development of the smart grid brings convenience to human beings. It enables users to know the real-time power supply capacity, the power quality, and the electricity price fluctuation of the grid. However, there are still some threats in the smart grid, which increase all kinds of expenses in the grid and cause great trouble to energy distribution. Among them, the man-made nontechnical loss (NTL) problem is particularly prominent. Recently, there are also some NTL detection programs. However, most of the schemes need huge amounts of supporting data and high labor costs. As a result, the NTL problem has not been well solved. In order to better avoid these risks, problems such as tampering of smart meter energy data, bypassing the smart meter directly connected to the grid, and imbalance between revenue and expenditure of the smart grid are tackled, and the threat scene of NTL is constructed. A hierarchical grid gateway blockchain is proposed and designed, and a new decentralized management MDMS system is constructed. The intelligent contract combined with the elliptic curve encryption technology is used to detect the storage and the acquisition of power data, and the detection of NTL problems is realized. At the same time, it has a certain ability to resist attacks such as replay, monitoring, and tampering. We tested the time consumption and throughput of this method on Hyperledger Fabric. At the same time, eight indexes of other methods proposed in the literature are compared. This method has a good effect.

Modeling the Correlation Relationship of Aqueous Battery Parameters Based on Regression Analysis

This study is a research on the new Aqueous battery. Based on the experimental data, the author selects the charge and discharge capacity, voltage and current of the battery during the charging and discharging process, establishing the correlation model between the parameters of the battery through regression analysis and other methods, and concluding the methods to optimise the performance and power supply capacity of the battery, which can explore a new high-efficiency battery that can replace the ordinary battery and provide new ideas and methods for the development of battery business.