Analysis of the spatio-temporal and semantic aspects of land-cover/use change dynamics 1991–2001 in Albania at national and district levels

In the turmoil of a rapidly changing economy the Albanian government needs accurate and timely information for management of their natural resources and formulation of land-use policies. The transformation of the forestry sector has required major changes in the legal, regulatory and management framework. The World Bank financed Albanian National Forest Inventory project provides an analysis of spatially explicit land-cover/use change dynamics in the period 1991–2001 using the FAO/UNEP Land Cover Classification System for codification of classes, satellite remote sensing and field survey for data collection and elements of the object-oriented geo-database approach to handle changes as an evolution of land-cover/use objects, i.e. polygons, over time to facilitate change dynamics analysis.Analysis results at national level show the trend of natural resources depletion in the form of modifications and conversions that lead to a gradual shift from land-cover/use types with a tree cover to less dense tree covers or even a complete removal of trees. Policy failure (e.g., corruption, lack of law enforcement) is seen as the underlying cause. Another major trend is urbanisation of areas near large urban centres that change urban-rural linkages. Furthermore, after privatisation agricultural areas increased in the hills where environmental effects may be detrimental, while prime agricultural land in the plains is lost to urbanisation.At district level, the local variability of spatially explicit land-cover/use changes shows different types of natural resources depletion. The distribution of changes indicates a regional prevalence, thus a decentralised approach to the natural resources management could be advocated.     

Managing Mediterranean soil resources under global change: expected trends and mitigation strategies

Regional Environmental Change - The soils of the Mediterranean Basin are the products of soil processes that have been governed by a unique convergence of highly differentiated natural and...     

产业联盟透视 关于中外产业联盟问题的10个答问

国内外产业联盟的形成和发展,原因在于经济全球化、高新技术特别是信息技术的快速发展。联盟按照自愿、平等、互利原则建立,这种组织形式有利于成员间的资源整合,有利于新技术的研发、统一标准、开拓全球市场,使联盟成员在市场竞争中获得更多的优势。联盟的发展需要有明确的定位,坚持战略性、市场化、互利性原则。目前安防行业成立的产业联盟,本质上是企业联盟。在企业家探索、实践产业联盟之际,我们对产业联盟的来龙去脉、对联盟的定位和功能进行了梳理,目的是抛砖引玉,希望大家对产业联盟、企业联盟有一个相对全面、直观的解读。     

Monitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a produced water disposal area in the Potiguar Basin,Brazilian equatorial margin

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The Potiguar Basin has oil and gas production fields offshore and onshore. All treated produced water (PW) from these fields is discharged through...     

Sprawl matters: the evolution of fringe land,natural amenities and disposable income in a Mediterranean urban area

We investigate the relationship between land-use changes (1987–2007) and the spatial distribution of the average declared income of resident population in a southern European metropolitan region (Athens, Greece) as a contribution to the analysis of suburbanization processes in the Mediterranean region. To demonstrate that urban expansion is accompanied with multiple modifications in the use of the surrounding non-urban land, we developed a computational approach based on spatial indexes of landscape configuration and proximity as a result of changes in the local socio-spatial structure. Diversity in the use of land surrounding built-up parcels in the Athens’ metropolitan region increased significantly between 1987 and 2007, reflecting a progressive fragmentation of the exurban landscape. The percentage of forests and (high-quality) natural land surrounding built-up parcels increased from 8.1 to 9.4 % between 1987 and 2007. The reverse pattern was observed for (low-quality) sparsely vegetated areas, declining from 65 to 47 %. Large built-up parcels were surrounded by a higher percentage of natural land than small parcels. The largest increase over time in forest and natural land surrounding built-up parcels was observed in municipalities with high per capita declared income, and the reverse pattern was observed for sparse vegetation. Our results demonstrate that scattered urban expansion determines a polarization in suburban areas with high-quality and low-quality natural amenities. Sprawl increases economic inequality and socio-spatial disparities contributing to a spatially unbalanced distribution of natural amenities with higher consumption of high-quality land.     

In-between regional disparities and spatial heterogeneity: a multivariate analysis of territorial divides in Italy

Processes such as economic polarization, social disparities and the asymmetric distribution of natural capital are becoming progressively more interlinked in developed countries and may reflect the uneven decline of the ‘centre-periphery’ model. The assessment of regional disparities and spatial heterogeneity in socioeconomic phenomena is a key issue in regional studies and takes advantage of the use of multi-domain frameworks and decision support systems. We performed an exploratory analysis of 133 indicators assessing seven thematic domains (demography/settlements, labour market, economic structure, quality of life, agriculture/rural development, landscape/water, environment/soil resources) with the aim of investigating regional disparities in Italy in the light of territorial changes driven by urbanization, industrial decentralization, agricultural intensification and land abandonment. The results of our study indicate that latitude, elevation and urban gradients have determined a complex spatial pattern in both socioeconomic and environmental variables in Italy. The proposed approach provides an overall assessment of the intensity of territorial disparities on a regional scale for each thematic domain, and of intra-region spatial heterogeneity for each indicator, representing a decision-making tool for policies targeting a sustainable and spatially balanced development.     

Perceptions of industrial risk and emergency management procedures in Hazmat Logistics: A qualitative mental model approach

In the industrial risk field, Hazmat Logistics research is growing as a sector of special relevance. The road transport of these substances is an activity with an elevated risk, involving drivers, logistics systems, industries, infrastructures, urban areas, etc.In the study of risk and safety of the logistics of hazardous materials there is a special relevance for new and complex elements, as human factors and mental models involved in managing critical incidents ‘‘on the road”. Moreover, the ‘‘emergency management training” of human resources in this field is often limited, and this represents another factor of vulnerability.In collaboration with SBG (one of the leading European Hazmat Logistics corporations), we developed a quali-quantitative study on cognitive representations and semantic perceptions of risk and emergency management procedures in tanker drivers. The main innovation of the study, with the direct involvement of the stakeholder and 47 drivers, is represented by the construction and use of ‘‘ad hoc” psychometrical and knowledge-elicitation, allowing a deeper analysis of workers’ mental models.The application of PCP tools of adapted RepGrid and Landfield Laddering Procedures allows to analyze some of the main qualitative structures of mental models held by drivers about Hazmat Logistics. Through the analysis of these mental models, it could become possible to set up efficient preventive actions for this type of industrial risk. We are going to discuss the consequences of these findings and methodological approaches for the industrial risk-and-safety field.     

Recursive Operability Analysis as a decision support tool for Risk-Based Maintenance

This work was developed with the support of MEMC, one of the most important producers of ultra-pure silicon wafers for electronic applications throughout the world. The availability of ultra-pure water is of prime importance in the silicon production process. In order to maximize the availability of UP water, MEMC has developed a preventive maintenance program and a detailed record of each maintenance intervention is recorded. This has allowed a complete failure rate data bank to be developed. In order to optimize the maintenance intervention, a Recursive Operability Analysis (ROA) has been used as a decision support tool. The results of the ROA, coupled with the failure rates, have made it possible to calculate the expected number of events (ENE) of various top events (TEs). The magnitude of each TE has been estimated on the basis of the monetary losses provoked by each event. The risk then has been calculated and the events ranked on this basis. Maintenance policies have been optimized with the aim of reducing the risk of the top ranked events.     

Spatial scales of variation in lichens: implications for sampling design in biomonitoring surveys

The variability of biological data is a main constraint affecting the quality and reliability of lichen biomonitoring surveys for estimation of the effects of atmospheric pollution. Although most epiphytic lichen bioindication surveys focus on between-site differences at the landscape level, associated with the large scale effects of atmospheric pollution, current protocols are based on multilevel sampling, thus adding further sources of variation and affecting the error budget. We test the hypothesis that assemblages of lichen communities vary at each spatial scale examined, in order to determine what scales should be included in future monitoring studies. We compared four sites in Italy, along gradients of atmospheric pollution and climate, to test the partitioning of the variance components of lichen diversity across spatial scales (from trunks to landscapes). Despite environmental heterogeneity, we observed comparable spatial variance. However, residuals often overcame between-plot variability, leading to biased estimation of atmospheric pollution effects.