Analysis of high-resolution annual data shows that global human settlements have expanded continuously and rapidly into flood zones, with those in the most hazardous zones increasing by 122% from 1985 to 2015. Disaster losses are increasing and evidence is mounting that climate change is driving up the probability of extreme natural shocks^ 1 – 3 . Yet it has also proved politically expedient to invoke climate change as an exogenous force that supposedly places disasters beyond the influence of local and national authorities^ 4 , 5 . However, locally determined patterns of urbanization and spatial development are key factors to the exposure and vulnerability of people to climatic shocks^ 6 . Using high-resolution annual data, this study shows that, since 1985, human settlements around the world—from villages to megacities—have expanded continuously and rapidly into present-day flood zones. In many regions, growth in the most hazardous flood zones is outpacing growth in non-exposed zones by a large margin, particularly in East Asia, where high-hazard settlements have expanded 60% faster than flood-safe settlements. These results provide systematic evidence of a divergence in the exposure of countries to flood hazards. Instead of adapting their exposure, many countries continue to actively amplify their exposure to increasingly frequent climatic shocks.
Este estudo avalia a dinâmica de uso e cobertura da terra em Dianópolis (TO), Brasil, utilizando dados da Coleção 9.0 do Projeto MapBiomas para os anos de 1985 e 2023. As informações foram derivadas de imagens Landsat classificadas com algoritmos de aprendizado de máquina no Google Earth Engine e analisadas no ArcGIS®. Observou-se redução da cobertura florestal de 68,35% para 54,40% e expansão agropecuária de 8,63% para 44,18%. A vegetação herbácea e arbustiva foi praticamente suprimida, indicando conversão de ecossistemas nativos. Houve ainda aumento de áreas urbanas, não vegetadas e de corpos hídricos, refletindo intensificação antrópica. Os resultados confirmam padrões nacionais e globais de conversão da vegetação natural, destacando a urgência de estratégias de manejo sustentável e conservação ambiental.
Jonathan Hanson, Ciaran Collins, Tiziana O’Hara
et al.
This paper explores the extent to which community farming can be a component of a community-based circular food system. Community farming is part of a broader pattern of civic agriculture, whereby more localized food production and consumption are linked to a wider, and sometimes global, set of economic, social and environmental factors. However, although aspects of community farming, notably community supported agriculture (CSA) and care (or social) farming have been well defined and studied, community farming as a broader process of civic agriculture has not. Furthermore, there is a limited number of published studies on the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the varied components of community farming. In this study, a focus group was used to generate the following definition of community farming: a process of collaborative transformation at the intersection of land, community, and enterprise; and a definition of a community farm: a place of collaborative transformation at the intersection of land, community and enterprise. This study also presents data from nine diverse community farming projects in Northern Ireland that are part of the Cultivating Community Farming (CCF) project. Over a two-year period, social return on investment (SROI) methodology was used to quantify their cumulative impacts, employing 12 metrics: 11 monetized and one nonmonetized. The overall SROI ratio for the nine projects was 3.52:1, with 90% of this value being social, followed by 8% environmental and 2% economic. This study provides valuable insights into some of the value generated by community farming, notably social, as well as an operational definition that can catalyse further research, practice, and advocacy among stakeholders. It also articulates community farming as a continuum or umbrella term which can incorporate more multifunctional approaches such as care and social farming, and more food production-oriented practices such as CSA.
Federico Allione, Maria Lazzaroni, Antonios E. Gkikakis
et al.
Musculoskeletal disorders, particularly low back pain, are some of the most common occupational health issues globally, causing significant personal suffering and economic burdens. Workers performing repetitive manual material handling tasks are especially at risk. FleXo, a lightweight (1.35 kg), flexible, ergonomic, and passive back-support exoskeleton is intended to reduce lower back strain during lifting tasks while allowing full freedom of movement for activities like walking, sitting, or side bending. FleXo’s design results from an advanced multi-objective design optimization approach that balances functionality and user comfort. In this work, validated through user feedback in a series of relevant repetitive tasks, it is demonstrated that FleXo can reduce the perceived physical effort during lifting tasks, enhance user satisfaction, improve employee wellbeing, promote workplace safety, decrease injuries, and lower the costs (both to society and companies) associated with lower back pain and injury.
Mechanical engineering and machinery, Electronic computers. Computer science
Ehsanul Bari, Md Arif Chowdhury, Md Ismail Hossain
et al.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a goal on land degradation: indicator 15.3.1 (proportion of degraded land over total land). It is not always easy to monitor the SDGs, and remote sensing could be an effective tool for monitoring several SDGs. This study assessed land degradation in Bangladesh's Khulna Division over the past two decades. The Trends.Earth toolset was used to assess land degradation during the baseline period (2001–2015) and the reporting period (2016–2020). Inputs include data from the United Nations Convention on Desertification, and outputs include three sub-indicators: land productivity, land cover change, and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Over the past 20 years, the land use and land cover, land productivity, and SOC content of the study area have undergone substantial changes. A significant change was observed in croplands, water bodies, and built-up areas. Croplands have been converted into settlements and tree cover. Nonetheless, there is an increase in land productivity in the area (>64 %) accompanied by a small percentage of decreasing productivity (approximately 9 %). Accordingly, the SOC in major land areas (84.68 %) is stable with 66,475 tons of carbon lost from croplands. Overall, this area reveals substantial progress in SDG indicator 15.3.1 with a clear transformation of degraded land (from 10.38 % to 8.46 %) into stable land (32.09 %–64.01 %). Land degradation is mostly seen in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Kushtia, and Jashore areas. Land covers change for urbanisation, developments, water logging, and salinity intrusion cause land degradation. Despite poor representation of the SOC and normalised difference vegetation index datasets in the waterlogged areas, the Trends.Earth-generated results are informative and stand alone. With the results of this study, policymakers may be able to develop more appropriate land management plans by better understanding the complex interconnections of land change processes.
At present, China’s rural sewage treatment technology is mostly used in municipal sewage treatment methods, with high energy consumption and complicated operation and maintenance. Through analyzing the problem of rural sewage management, we discussed the necessity and feasibility of rural sewage resource utilization, presented the principles that should be followed in the resource utilization according to local conditions, promoting the treatment, economic rationality, and ecological safety, and Summarized the technical models of irrigation utilization, ecological dissipation and decentralized on-site utilization for the resource utilization of rural domestic wastewater. The expansion of the resource utilization model will be more conducive to reducing the cost of rural sewage management and enhancing the quality of the rural environment and human settlements.
Claudia Fagliarone, Claudia Mosca, Giorgia Di Stefano
et al.
Cyanobacteria are gaining considerable interest as a method of supporting the long-term presence of humans on the Moon and settlements on Mars due to their ability to produce oxygen and their potential as bio-factories for space biotechnology/synthetic biology and other applications. Since many unknowns remain in our knowledge to bridge the gap and move cyanobacterial bioprocesses from Earth to space, we investigated cell division resumption on the rehydration of dried Chroococcidiopsis sp. CCMEE 029 accumulated DNA damage while exposed to space vacuum, Mars-like conditions, and Fe-ion radiation. Upon rehydration, the monitoring of the ftsZ gene showed that cell division was arrested until DNA damage was repaired, which took 48 h under laboratory conditions. During the recovery, a progressive DNA repair lasting 48 h of rehydration was revealed by PCR-stop assay. This was followed by overexpression of the ftsZ gene, ranging from 7.5- to 9-fold compared to the non-hydrated samples. Knowing the time required for DNA repair and cell division resumption is mandatory for deep-space experiments that are designed to unravel the effects of reduced/microgravity on this process. It is also necessary to meet mission requirements for dried-sample implementation and real-time monitoring upon recovery. Future experiments as part of the lunar exploration mission Artemis and the lunar gateway station will undoubtedly help to move cyanobacterial bioprocesses beyond low Earth orbit. From an astrobiological perspective, these experiments will further our understanding of microbial responses to deep-space conditions.
Are institutional trust and interpersonal trust threatened by globalisation? For nineteen countries in Europe, using a fixed effects model for a panel data set relating globalisation to several economic and social macro variables, like income inequality and diversity, to average institutional and interpersonal trust derived from responses in European Social Surveys, we do not find any significant relation between the relatively moderate globalisation of the first two decades of the 21st century on average interpersonal and institutional trust. At the same time, occurrences of economic decline in a country are negatively related to institutional trust. GDP has a positive effect on both institutional and interpersonal.Combining the macro factors with the individual traits of respondents using pooled repeated cross-sectional data demonstrate the dominance of personal characteristics in individual levels of trust, with only institutional quality emerging as a macro variable which is significantly and positively related to trust, especially for the Socio-Economic Groups 3 to 7 (of the eight groups distinguished). Those who are born in the country exhibit higher levels of interpersonal trust, in particular in the higher SES groups 4–7, but show significantly lower institutional trust for the SES groups 0–2. Age is negatively related to institutional trust for all SES groups, but positively related to interpersonal trust for SES groups 4–7.These findings appear to imply that those who are concerned with the level of institutional trust in the population as a basic requirement for democracy in Europe should focus on the quality of institutions and not on globalisation.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
Background: The public health relevance of health literacy is highlighted by the fact that its higher levels can improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities. In order to design effective interventions for improving health literacy, the relationship between health literacy and other factors such as sociodemographic variables, subjective health and social support must be understood.Objective: Our aim was to test a socioecological model of the determinants of health literacy with a special focus on the effect of residence. Our study investigated geographical differences regarding the levels of health literacy and its determinants as this was not investigated before in European nationwide surveys.Methods: Data was collected by a polling company in a sample (n = 1,200) of the Hungarian adult population nationally representative by age, gender, and permanent residence in 2019 January. The questionnaire included items on sociodemographic data, subjective well-being, social support, and two health literacy scales. A recursive path model was used to outline the mediating effect of social support between sociodemographic variables and health literacy where both direct and indirect effects of the explanatory variables and multiple relationships among the variables were analyzed simultaneously. Multiple-group analysis was applied to the three pre-set categories of permanent residence (capital city, urban and rural).Results: There was no statistically significant difference by residence regarding levels of health literacy. Social support and educational attainment were the most important determinants of health literacy after adjusting for the effect of other sociodemographic variables. However, the magnitude of effect of social support and educational attainment is different between types of settlements, the strongest being in rural areas.Conclusion: Social support seems to mediate the effect of socioeconomic position on health literacy which could be taken into account when designing interventions to improve health literacy, especially in rural areas. Further studies would be needed especially in rural communities to see whether improvement of social support could be utilized in projects to increase the level of health literacy.
As the survival and destiny of mankind are originally and inextricably conditioned by the state of the natural environment, it has become clear over time that man's relationship to the environment and economic growth and development at all costs were no longer possible or acceptable, and that man is, in fact, part of the ecosystem beyond whose legality will not be able to go unpunished. Faced with problems that, as a by-product of modernization, have for decades devastated and violated the quality of life in urban environments, the environmentally conscious global community has been pushing for the creation of sustainable cities and greener urban mobility. Hence the author's intention to emphasize the importance of accepting the concept of sustainable marketing in order to, by raising the collective awareness of the importance of transition to a low-emission society, encourage the substitution of urban mobility habits and behaviour that are in contrast the idea of sustainable urban form and the vision of a green city. The research is based on the use of secondary data, analysis of the content of available professional literature and relevant reports of the United Nations and national institutions, as well as on the application of descriptive methods and methods of analysis and synthesis. The article concludes by offering a framework for the implementation of sustainable marketing and measures that can be taken in the field of creating sustainable urban mobility.
A la edad de 70 años los arquitectos Jacques Herzog y Pierre De Meuron, socios fundadores de la oficina Herzog & De Meuron en 1978, aún se mantienen liderando proyectos transformadores a nivel mundial, sus trabajos son reconocidas por la innovación tecnológica en el uso de nuevos materiales y sistemas constructivos. Entre sus obras que demarcan mayor atención se encuentran las Bodegas Dominus de California en Estados Unidos, y el Boulevard Ferroviario de Burgos en España, inauguradas en los años 1998 y 2008 respectivamente. El presente ensayo se realiza en el marco de celebrar la vida de estos arquitectos y describir estas dos grandes obras, que lo hacen distintivos por el nivel de sus diseños y construcción.
V. V. Razumov, M. I. Bogdanov, N. D. Bogdanova
et al.
Aim. Assessment of the extent of the distribution and danger of activation of landslide processes in the Republic of Dagestan.Material and Methods. The principal materials used were data of the government monitoring of subsoil conducted by Hydrospetzgeologiya and its southern regional and territorial centres (Dagestangeomonitoring) over the past fifteen years and published in the open press, as well as other literature sources. Maps were compiled using ArcGIS software.Results. An assessment was made of the extent of the distribution and danger of occurrence of landslide processes (for the period 2004-2018) in urban and rural settlements, on linear infrastructure (highways, oil, gas and water pipelines, power lines) and in reservoirs of large hydroelectric power stations of the republic. There was a high level of landslide activity recorded in 2004, 2005 and 2014, the lowest in 2007 and 2012. The largest number of landslide occurrences was recorded in the areas of Makhachkala city (12.7%) and Tlyaro-tinskiy (9.6%), Dokuzparinskiy (8.1%), Buynakskiy (6.1%), Tsuntinskiy (5.4%) and Tsumadinskiy (5.0%) districts. Landslides were most often activated in the summer period (41.6%). 31.5% of landslides occurred in spring, 22.6% in autumn and 4.3% in winter.Conclusion. Analysis of landslide activity in the territory of Dagestan showed that the presence of favorable physico-geographical conditions for the development of landslide processes and active economic activity contribute to the wide distribution of landslides in the mountainous part of the republic.
Ivana Lukić Kristić, Maja Prskalo, Vlasta Szavits-Nossan
A numerical and an empirical method for calculating nonlinear load-settlement curves for shallow foundations on sand are examined and used in a new methodology. Both methods have merits and drawbacks. The drawbacks are overcome by the methodology proposed and verified in the paper. This methodology combines the merits of each method. For this purpose, a modification of the empirical method is proposed that accounts for the finite initial soil stiffness at very small strains. Computer programs with sophisticated nonlinear stress-strain relationships, such as Hardening Soil Small in Plaxis 2D, which are versatile in solving complex foundation problems, can cover strains from very small to large. When the foundation soil is layered, it is proposed to fit such a numerical load-settlement curve against the modified empirical relationship for each sand layer separately. This requires cone penetration tests, measurements of the shear wave velocity, and basic laboratory tests. The methodology is described and applied at two locations where load tests on footings were carried out. At one location there was a top layer of clay, which was also taken into account. The results of the application of the proposed methodology are very good.
Pocos años después de graduarse como arquitecta, Odilia Suárez viajó a México en representación de la Revista de Arquitectura de la Sociedad Central de Arquitectos (SCA), para asistir al VIII Congreso Panamericano de Arquitectos de 1952. El viaje le permitiría continuar con su capacitación profesional y también visitar a su hermana mayor Yolanda, quien vivía en la Ciudad de México. Durante su estadía conoció personalidades de la cultura mexicana y al arquitecto Frank Lloyd Wright, con quien intercambiaría cinco cartas hasta llegar a su residencia “Taliesin West”. A partir de la lectura de esa correspondencia, este artículo busca establecer vinculaciones entre las experiencias personales de Suárez y sus obras profesionales, en particular, con la implementación y enseñanza del campo disciplinar Urban Design, localmente traducido como Diseño Urbano.
The construction of dwellings of varied quality and permanence in close association with specialized ceremonial spaces at both large huaca centers and expansive hillside settlements in the Jequetepeque Valley points to alternate and diverse conceptions of sacred and everyday space in the Moche world. In particular, residential constructions varied according to their degree of permanence and the temporality of domestic occupation. The Jequetepeque data demonstrate that archaeologists must consider the cultural embeddedness of residential practices as well as indigenous conceptions of domestic space. In the end, the domestic realm exhibited formidable diversity among the Moche (and in Andean prehistory in general), both in regards to its cultural construction and in relationship to the social and religious status of its inhabitants.
Latin America. Spanish America, Social sciences (General)
En la elección presidencial de 2015 el gobierno argentino cambió la orientación política del Estado, al pasar de un modelo desarrollista proteccionista hacia uno de libre mercado. El artículo analiza los cambios en la política habitacional de forma comparativa con periodos anteriores, desde una perspectiva histórica, con el objetivo de establecer diferencias y similitudes desde el enfoque de la mercantilización de los servicios sociales. Se concluye que desde hace cuarenta años la política habitacional se encuentra atravesada por una tensión entre las concepciones de la vivienda social como derecho social y como bien de acceso por el mercado, y que el gobierno actual vuelve a este último con rasgos renovados.
Human settlements. Communities, Demography. Population. Vital events
This chapter examines the notion of spatial justice and its applicability in the context of informality. In the first part it examines the concept of informal urbanism in the context of informal settlements and experiences with upgrading programmes. Drawing on critical evaluations of some of the most well-known upgrading programmes, the chapter in the second part then theorises the notion of spatial justice. I argue for a multidimensional, fragmentary, context- and culture-specific concept, which encompasses equity, empowerment and recognition. As an operationalisation of the notion of spatial justice developed in this chapter and a conclusion to it, a framework is proposed to underpin the assessment of spatial justice in public space based upgrading programmes in informal settlements. It contains aspects regarding the quality of the material space, the integrity of its production process, issues of management and regulation as well as the use of space.