ABSTRACT
Undergraduate students enrolled in Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Urban Planning (CAU) must develop competencies in Geomatics and Topography (G&T) as part of their learning process. During this time, theoretical concepts are traditionally taught with field practice using specialized tools such as a theodolite, laser level, and total station. Due to the environmental restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional field practice (TFP) was suspended, preventing access to equipment and study areas. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR), have been explored in the last decade for educational purposes. This paper studies the benefits of using these tools for developing G&T skills. This research aimed to assess students' learning outcomes using a traditional G&T teaching method and a new methodology based on Virtual Field Practice (VFP) for CAU students. The methodology provides a virtual study area for the CAU student by integrating point clouds derived from photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning. It also assesses their learning results and compares them against a control group using a validated instrument. Findings suggest continuing with fieldwork for a greater understanding and correct application of G&T concepts by students, and using virtual models as an efficient way to complement the acquisition of spatial information in the teaching-learning process. Until the publication of this article, we found no evidence in the literature at the undergraduate level of applying exercises like those proposed. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This study analyzes crash data from 2016 to 2020 on a National Highway in Maharashtra, India. The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the road crashes of the study area is presented, and recommendations to improve road safety are proposed. The crash data is collected from the "National Highways Authority of India, Kolhapur” from 2016 to 2020, and the information is classified into three scenarios: Before Lockdown, After Lockdown, and Strict Lockdown. The crash data is analyzed under three scenarios for seven different classifications followed by their sub-classifications. The time-wise analysis of crash data is performed in four-time slots, namely 00:00–05:59 AM, 06:00–11:59 AM, 12:00–17:59 PM, and 18:00–23:59 PM. The season-wise analysis of crash data is performed in three seasons: Summer, Monsoon, and Winter. The crashes that occurred on 2-lane-straight roads having T-junction are more than 90% in all three scenarios. The significant factors responsible for crashes are "Head-on collision,” "Vehicle out of control,” and "Overspeeding.” Most crashes (more than 36%) occurred between 12:00 and 17:59 PM and in the Summer season (more than 42%) in all three scenarios. The crashes in the COVID-19 "Strict Lockdown” scenario witnessed a fall of 254.55% compared to 2019 and 2018. Surprisingly, there was a rise of 137.5% and a fall of 127.27% in crashes of the COVID-19 2020 "Strict Lockdown” scenario, compared to 2017 and 2016, respectively. The crashes under the sub-classifications "Right angle collision” and "Fatal” increased in 2020 compared to the previous 4 years due to the impact of COVID-19. © 2023, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has led communities, including Kinshasa peri-urban schools, to reinforce WASH-related practices as a key com-ponent in preventing the spread of COVID-19. This study aimed to determine the institutional and behavioural changes in adolescent girl students' handwashing practices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was performed, observing the hand hygiene of adolescent girl students, and assessing WASH facilities at schools, chosen from a sample previously selected in the study area. The results indicate significant increases in the prevalence of water points in schools from 10.9 to 22.5%, of handwashing facilities from 43 to 60.1% of schools with an average number of handwashing facilities from one to two, and the prevalence of school WASH brigades from 4.8 to 11.8% of schools. There was also a significant increase in schools receiving funds, and other support for WASH, respectively, from 24.9 to 70.3%, and from 17 to 45.9%, while the proportion of adolescent girl students washing their hands after using the toilet and before eating significantly increased from 6 to 28.4%. However, to improve the current WASH picture, and succeed in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and related impacts, additional efforts to enhance handwashing practice and WASH items' coverage are expected. © 2023 The Authors.
ABSTRACT
There is an ever-urgent need for accessing real-time crowdedness and airflow information for indoor study spaces in universities, for example, to control COVID-19 transmission risk. Even before the pandemic, many students spent valuable time finding suitable study areas with proper lighting, low noise, and ample seating. This paper presents a pilot system, CampusX, which aims to provide students with useful real-time information about study spaces on campus. Our system collects and analyzes environmental data before presenting them to students as useful information. This helps them to select the most suitable study spaces. The main components of this system include a sensor platform, data collection and processing pipelines, networking, and an interactive web-application. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
National parks are protected areas that have provided various experiences for both domestic and international tourists. Countries around the world are re-opening tourism after the Corona virus (COVID-19) global pandemic and therefore, managing tourism is crucial particularly in the area concerning enjoyment of national parks. Tanzania is endowed with many national parks and this study was motivated to explore enjoyment of national parks. The main objective involved exploring experiences and enjoyment of national parks with a pilot study of tourists at Mikumi National Park and specifically, analysing indirect experiences and enjoyment of national parks. The study area is Mikumi National Park in Tanzania while the unit of analysis was domestic tourists. This cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach had a pilot study sample of 50 domestic tourists. Tools of analysis used are descriptive statistics and Partial Least Square Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed a significant relationship between indirect experiences and enjoyment of national parks among domestic tourists (p=0.000). Hence, the implication of this study is for tourism stakeholders to consider these results as a guide on domestic tourists' experiences and enjoyment of national parks. Future research can use a larger sample size within Mikumi National Park as well as apply quantitative and qualitative methods to enrich the understanding of domestic tourists' experiences and enjoyment of national parks. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
Food supply chains hold significant embodied carbon emissions that need to be mitigated and neutralized. This study aimed to explore the historical Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with household food consumption at a local scale i.e. across the eight English regions and the four nations that comprise the United Kingdom (UK). UK EatWell guidelines were used to explore the potential change in emissions and food costs in a scenario of transitions to healthier diets across the study areas. These emissions were calculated based on food consumption data before the advent of the Covid-pandemic i.e. between the years 2001 and 2018. Spatial data analysis was used to explore if the study areas had any significant correlations with respect to the emissions during the study period. The results displayed a potential reduction in GHG emissions for all study areas in the explored scenario. Further impacts include a reduction in household food costs across a majority of the areas during the study period. However, a consistent trend of significant correlations among the study areas was absent. This study concludes that local or regional policymaking should take precedence over national regulations to achieve healthier diets that are both carbon-neutral and affordable for the households. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes the Susceptible-exposed of Small-world Network Model (SSEM) by combining the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model with the Small-world Network (SN) model. The scenarios of COVID-19 propagation in urban public transport network was set by the specific model parameters. A study area, Huicheng District, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China, was selected to estimate the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of COVID-19 within 12 hours based on SSEM. The results show that, without taking protective measures, if the two infectious source were in a bus, after 12 hours, 324 bus stations, 762 infected people and 68.85km2 were covered in the study area. The results of this study will provide a reference for the future study of COVID-19 virus transmission mechanism in the small enclosed environment. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Air is a crucial element of the earth’s ecosystem, and even minor changes in its composition can have a wide range of effects on the survival of creatures on earth. Deterioration of air quality is an important issue faced by many cities in India. Modelling of air pollution is a numerical method for describing the causal relationship between emissions, meteorology, atmospheric concentrations and deposition. The current study prepared annual and monthly air pollution dispersion maps at sensitive areas of Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, which is the administrative spot in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. ADMS-Urban model was used in conjunction with GIS to produce the dispersion maps. The study has demonstrated a methodology for the development of emission inventory, dispersion modelling and mapping. Dispersion modelling and trend analysis were used to investigate the concentration of the pollutants and their intensity of dispersion in relation to meteorological conditions in the study area such as wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity. The present study calculates emission concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), suspended particulate matter (SPM) and respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM), from various monitoring stations and industries within the study area from the year 2016–2020. It was found that concentration of pollutants lie within the Central Pollution Control Board limits. Also, trend analysis of pollutant concentration was done separately for the year 2020 and there was a significant reduction (>50%) in pollution concentration due to the lockdown scenario created by COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Many hospitals face challenges to adapt to the changing environment and persistent diseases and after the emergence of the Corona crisis that caused by an increase in the number of cases of people living with HIV increased the need to accommodate more patients in spaces, which led to the momentum on hospitals to absorb increasing numbers of cases, which led to finding design solutions for the intensive care environment to continuously accommodate people while maintaining the privacy and safety of occupants and staff and increasing the rate of recovery, the goal of this paper is to identify the type of change in care spaces The status associated with the Covid-19 pandemic is the possibility of expanding within Iraqi hospitals and the possibility of providing solutions for its development, The paper has made use of the concept of negative pressurized areas, the flexible module, the entry to the operating department and the connection between the intensive care unit and the staff department with a strong spatial relationship, to increase the possibility of further development. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Pharmacies are one of the basic components of health services in settlement centers. Providing pharmacy services to the community efficiently can be achieved with the sufficient number of available pharmacies precisely distributed within the settlement areas. Especially in extraordinary times as the Covid-19 Pandemic, the adequate and accessible service of pharmacies contributes surveillance by reducing the potential contacts. In this study, two districts with high number of COVID-19 cases in Istanbul, Bagcilar and Esenler districts, were examined using geographic information technology. In this context, the number of pharmacies in the study area and their spatial distribution were examined and a neighborhood-based service adequacy assessment was provided. In addition, pharmacies with fast pedestrian access were determined by evaluating the defined service area of each pharmacy together with demographic data. Policies for effective pandemic management that can be applied in regions with limited or no service access within international standards were discussed. The main findings of the study are that although there are sufficient number of pharmacies for the living population in both districts where unplanned urbanization is dominant, the population without pedestrian access within the standards is remarkable due to the imbalances in the spatial distribution of the existing pharmacies in the study area. It is important to establish temporary service points in these regions during the pandemic so that this problem, which is especially appeared in neighborhoods with high population density far from the district center, does not adversely affect the pandemic management. After the pandemic, studies should be planned to improve the existing unequal service distribution by considering the service demand and service usage habits of the people of the region. © ACRS 2021.All right reserved.
ABSTRACT
Aiming at the problem of insufficient quantity and spatial refinement in the extraction of industrial heat source from annual scale thermal anomaly data, a neural network industrial heat source extraction method based on temperature feature template is proposed by using VIIRS active fire data. This study took Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas as the study area, Firstly, according to the spatial aggregation characteristics of industrial heat sources, the heat source objects were divided by the OPTICS algorithm. Secondly, according to the thermal radiation characteristics of the heat sources, the temperature characteristic template of industrial heat sources and non-industrial heat sources were constructed. Finally, the BP neural network was used to extract industrial heat source objects using the temperature feature template and heat source statistical characteristics as parameters. The results show that: (1) the extraction precision of industrial heat source of the neural network algorithm of temperature feature template proposed in this paper reached 96.31%. Compared with time filtering and logistic regression methods, the extraction precision of industrial heat sources was improved by 8.45% and 7.53%, respectively;(2) From 2015 to 2020, the number of industrial heat sources in the six provinces and cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas decreased by 27.46%. The number of industrial heat source objects and heat anomalies in Hebei Province decreased by 8.06% and 7.44% annually, respectively, which was the largest decrease compared with other provinces and cities. The concentration of industrial heat sources in Shandong and Tianjin increased by 25.72% and 86.64%, respectively, indicating that the industrial transformation and upgrade policies in the two places have achieved remarkable results;(3) Tangshan, Handan, Lvliang, and Changzhi accounted for 31.37% of the total industrial heat sources in the study area, which are the main cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas. The degree of industrial heat source accumulation and energy consumption in seven cities such as Linfen and Taiyuan was higher than those in other cities;The degree of industrial heat source accumulation and energy consumption in 11 cities such as Beijing and Zhoukou was lower than those in other cities;(4) From January to May 2020, the number of industrial heat anomalies in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas remained unchanged or increased compared with the same period in 2019 and 2021. The COVID-19 had no significant impact on the industrial heat source in the study area. The number of industrial heat anomalies in Wuhan in January and February 2020 decreased by more than 66.67% compared with that in the same period in 2019 and 2021, the number of industrial heat anomalies from March to May 2020 was lower than that in the same period of 2019. The COVID-19 has had a significant impact on industrial heat sources in Wuhan from January to May 2020. This study reflects the current situation and trend of industrial heat source development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas, which provides a valuable reference for the formulation and adjustment of relevant policies such as reducing energy consumption and improving secondary industry concentration. © 2022, Science Press. All right reserved.
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In this paper, we compare emissions of major air polluters from 20 March to 20 April 2020 to the same period in 2019. Our study area covers major cities in Europe’s cleanest and most polluted countries. Results show that there is a statistically significant decrease in maximum daily values of NO2 emissions in almost all cities. The concentrations of other pollutants indicate that the closure measures cannot be related to statistically significant reductions. A noticing finding is that a statistically significant reduction in pollutants (except for SO2) is more frequent in cleaner cities. © 2021 Samo Drobne – Lidija Zadnik Stirn – Mirjana Kljajić Borštnar – Janez Povh – Janez Žerovnik
ABSTRACT
The objective of the study is to analyze how tourism demand impacts, in the sustainable Inca infrastructure of Ollantaytambo in Cusco during 2020 in COVID-19. Based on bibliographic reviews presented in other research, regulations, and registration of updated data from the last 10 years in the tourism sector, such as the registration of visitors, flights, and others. There was relying on GIS tools to determine its location and accessibility. For its development, there were stages of recognition and description of the study area, characterization of the physical and demographic aspects, analysis of the data collected and tourist demand, and identifying the impacts from COVID-19. It was found that By 2020, a considerable increase in the tourist demand of Ollantaytambo was expected. However, the repercussion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the visitor registration in Ollantaytambo fell by 73% compared to 2019 and flights fell by 71, 7%, thus concluding that tourism has had a significant drop, with uncertain prognostic. A change in the current tourist dynamics allows controlling the capacity, respecting the spaces, taking care of the visitor, and generating a greater organization for developing the tourist activity. © 2021 IEEE.