Colloquiam: Documents published in 2019

Receiving and Processing ADS-B Signals for Aircraft Tracking

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:44:42 +0100

utomatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS_B) system is one of the most important innovation of radar system which is used for direct state information exchange between aircraft. The project consists of the study of ADS-B signal received from Barcelona airport. The low-cost device RTL-SDR is used to capture the signal and then be processed by Matlab. Through the Matlab demo execution such information can be extracted, per example, altitude, position, velocity, aircraft identification, etc. These information during the flight usually are displayed to cockpit, to enhance the situational awareness of pilot and its safety. Through the Simulink the spectrum of the ADS-B signal can be obtained and be studied. The capture of signal is taken in different places to see the influence the distance at the receiving signal process. The present paper is organized as following structure: firstly, there is an overview of ADS-B system in the world. Second chapter talks about the background of the ADS-B system and deeper study of it. After it comes the study of the captured signal by RTL-SDR. The study of aerial traffic is followed the study of the signal. At the final part, the conclusion is reported.

El sistema automático de transmisión de vigilancia dependiente (ADS_B) es una de las innovaciones más importantes del sistema de radar que se utiliza para el intercambio directo de información de estado entre aeronaves. El proyecto consiste en el estudio de la señal ADS-B recibida desde el aeropuerto de Barcelona. El dispositivo de bajo costo RTL-SDR se utiliza para capturar la señal y luego ser procesado por Matlab. A través de la ejecución de la demo de Matlab, se puede extraer dicha información, por ejemplo, altitud, posición, velocidad, identificación de la aeronave, etc. Esta información durante el vuelo generalmente se muestra a la cabina, para mejorar el conocimiento de la situación del piloto y su seguridad. A través de Simulink, se puede obtener y estudiar el espectro de la señal ADS-B. La captura de la señal se toma en diferentes lugares para ver la influencia de la distancia en el proceso de la recepción de señal. El presente documento está organizado según la siguiente estructura: en primer lugar, se presenta una descripción general del sistema ADS-B en el mundo. El segundo capítulo habla sobre los antecedentes del sistema ADS-B y su estudio más profundo. Luego viene el estudio de la señal capturada por RTL-SDR. El estudio de tráfico aéreo con los datos obtenidos viene después del estudio de señal. Por lo último, la conclusión del trabajo.

Shared Electric Scooters : how this new mobility offer is being addressed in Lisbon

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:41:49 +0100

The mobility market has constantly been exposed to innovation, and shared mobility solutions are becoming increasingly viable. The new offer of shared electric scooters has joined current offers such as bike-sharing or car-sharing, and quickly spread throughout the city of Lisbon, with a growing number of companies entering the market. This study aims to understand how this new mobility offer is being addressed in Lisbon, providing an overview of the service through the identification of the main characteristics of the users, the main drivers for using the service and the main barriers that may exist. Two methodologies were used - semi-structured interviews (12 participants) and an online survey (127 participants). The results show that the service seems to be more attractive to young adults, digital economy participants, people who value innovation and sustainability when choosing a mode of transport, and people who seek to save time on travel. The service is also considered enjoyable and as a way to spend pleasant moments. It is seen mostly as a way of complementing other means of transport and for short distances and not as a primary mode of transport. Being the main barriers: the price, since people consider that the service becomes expensive if it is used on a regular basis, the city's infrastructures, which people consider are not completely prepared for the effective use of the service, and the lack control of inappropriate parking of the scooters, causing dissatisfaction to users and non-users. O mercado da mobilidade tem sido constantemente exposto a inovação e as soluções de mobilidade partilhada estão a tornar-se cada vez mais viáveis. A nova oferta de trotinetes elétricas partilhadas juntou-se a ofertas já existentes como bike-sharing ou car-sharing, e rapidamente espalhou-se por Lisboa, com um número crescente de empresas a entrar no mercado. O objetivo deste estudo é perceber de que forma esta nova oferta de mobilidade está a ser abordada em Lisboa, fornecendo uma visão geral do serviço através da identificação das principais caraterísticas dos utilizadores, dos fatores que impulsionam a utilização e das principais barreiras que podem existir. Para tal, foram utilizadas duas metodologias – entrevistas semiestruturadas (12 participantes) e um questionário online (127 participantes). Os resultados revelam que o serviço parece ser especialmente atrativo para jovens adultos, participantes da economia digital, pessoas que valorizam inovação e sustentabilidade num meio de transporte e pessoas com procuram poupar tempo. O serviço é também considerado divertido e como uma forma de passar momentos agradáveis. É visto essencialmente como uma forma de complementar outros meios de transporte e para curtas distâncias e não como um meio de transporte principal. Sendo as principais barreiras: o preço, uma vez que as pessoas consideram que o serviço se torna caro se for usado de forma recorrente, as infraestruturas da cidade, que as pessoas consideram que não estão completamente preparadas para o uso efetivo do serviço, e a falta de controlo no estacionamento inapropriado das trotinetes, que provoca descontentamento a utilizadores e não utilizadores.

Influence of inland vessel stern shape aspects on propulsive performance: Derivation of insights and guidelines based on a computational study

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:40:40 +0100

This research focuses on identifying the most important stern shape aspects, with regard to resistance and propulsion power, of inland ships. Such information should help designers to determine which hull form aspect to adjust in case design requirements need them to do so. The information is obtained by firstly conducting a large series of CFD calculations, using the PARNASSOS code, for systematically varied inland ships. Next, response surface technologies are used to identify the most important aspects. This is done by sequentially adding and/or removing parameters from the response surface in order to find the combination of parameters that explains the majority of the variance in the performance data for the tested hull forms. Finally, an optimization algorithm is used to determine the optimal hull forms for varying displacement, showing which parameters should be adjusted preferably in order to increase (or decrease) ship displacement. This, specifically, should aid designers in making the trade-off between displacement (or cargo capacity) and energy consumption.

Emergency logistics considering traffic congestion

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:39:41 +0100

Human Factors of Monitoring Driving Automation: Eyes and Scenes

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:38:08 +0100

This PhD thesis document is a collection of several of my published (and submitted) peer review journal articles from underneath the Human Factors of Automated Driving (HF Auto, PITN-GA-2013-605817) seventh framework program (FP7) of the European Commission. The topics include: human factors, automotive road safety, autonomous/automated driving technology, human supervisory control, adaptive automation, driver state monitoring, and scene-tied (situated) eye-based assessments of attention. Outside of the publications are summary, introduction, and conclusion chapters as well as contribution appendices to tie all the related work together. Summary: Like fatigue and distraction driving aids before, the advent of additional driving automation/autonomy poses new challenges for protecting road users now against vigilance decrements. Within the larger Human Factors of Automated Driving (HFAuto) project, the goal of this thesis was ‘to develop a system that is able to monitor the driver’s vigilance’. The approach taken was to investigate vigilance from a cognitive systems engineering (ecological perspective). Instead of conceptually restricting vigilance to be some kind of internal cognitive state/property of a driver, this thesis treated vigilance as a state/property of a system (i.e., the relationship between a driver and driving scene/situation). This thesis contains seven research papers in the form of literature reviews and experiments with eye-tracking, driving video clips, driving simulation, and on-road semi-naturalistic observation. It can be concluded form this thesis, that to develop driver monitoring systems (DMS) of driving vigilance, eye measurements (especially of movement distances) and scene contents (especially road curvatures and collision hazards) are important and relatable factors. Furthermore, it is concluded that these factors are obtainable in viable ways for future research and development application efforts. Specifically, the studies suggest means for DMS to be targeted to protect and maintain a foundational level or inner-most loop of driving attention at a behavioral level (rather than interactive implicit cognitive layers and representational experiences that can be added on top). An applied observational, data-driven, and behavioral/situated approach is expected to better avoid higher order cognitive ambiguity/dilemmas, and so serves to make more end-user acceptable DMS more tractable.

Estimating the occupancy using Wi-Fi sensing of mobile phones: an application of the urban public transportation by bus.

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:34:55 +0100

lotação do veículo é um dos fatores determinantes para a qualidade do transporte público (TP), pois, além do conforto do passageiro, afeta também a confiabilidade da linha, alterando a velocidade média do veículo. Entretanto, na cidade de São Paulo, Brasil, uma das maiores operações de ônibus do mundo, é difícil se encontrar implantado algum equipamento de contagem automática de passageiros (APC), provavelmente devido aos custos das tecnologias atuais. Esta pesquisa apresenta os resultados de um método de APC utilizando o sensoriamento por Wi-Fi de telefones móveis dos passageiros embarcados num veículo do TP por ônibus. Para este fim, um protótipo de baixo custo foi desenvolvido e instalado na linha 6500-10 entre o Terminal Santo Amaro e o Terminal Bandeira, durante 7 dias da semana em horários de pico e entre pico. Os dados coletados foram analisados através de ferramentas estatísticas e métodos de análise geográficas. Durante o experimento observou-se que o APC foi capaz de detectar a mudança da ocupação do veículo em 85% dos casos, com uma confiança de até 20% e um erro de até 22 passageiros por medida. Através de dados de posição geográfica foi possível gerar matrizes de carregamento, que permitem inferir a origem e o destino dos passageiros em cada viagem, assim como - para todo o período do experimento - indicar os trechos com maior lotação. Por outro lado, o método não apresentou bons resultados saindo dos terminais e quando a ocupação mudou repentinamente, requerendo estudos posteriores para refinar o algoritmo apresentado. Da mesma maneira, ainda não há como generalizar o método para toda operação, pois, o espaço amostral estudado foi pequeno, deixando como sugestão para pesquisas futuras o aprimoramento deste sistema. The crowdedness of a vehicle is one of the main quality factor of the public transportation (TP) quality, since, besides the comfort, also affect the reliability of the line, changing its average speed. However, the city of São Paulo, Brazil, one of the biggest bus operations of the world, it is difficult to find any automatic passenger counter (APC) equipment deployed, probably due the costs of current technologies. This research shows the results of an APC technology by the sensing of the Wi-Fi signal of smartphones that are boarded in a vehicle on TP by bus. Therefore, a prototype was developed and deployed on the line 6500-10 between the Terminal Santo Amaro and the Terminal Bandeira, during 7 working days of the week on peak and off-peak hours. was analyzed with statistical and geographical tools. During the experiment, it was observed that the Wi-Fi APC was capable of estimate the occupancy of the vehicle 85% of the cases, with a significance level up to 20% and an error up to 22 passengers per estimation. Through the geographical analysis it was generated load matrices, that allow to infer the origin and destination of the passenger in each trip, indicating the sections along the route where were more boarding and alighting. On the other hand, the method did not perform well when coming out of the final stops and when the crowdedness changed suddenly, requiring further analysis to understand how to deal better under these circumstances. Likewise, due to the limited sample utilized in this research, we cannot generalize the results presented, pressing the need for new researches on different operation scenarios.

Fuel-Efficient Look-Ahead Control for Heavy-Duty Vehicles with Varying Velocity Demands

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:34:08 +0100

The fuel consumption of heavy-duty vehicles can be reduced by using information about the upcoming road section when controlling the vehicles. Most manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles today offer such look-ahead controllers for highway driving, where the information consists of the road grade and the velocity only has small variations. This thesis considers look-ahead control for applications where the velocity of the vehicle has large variations, such as distribution vehicles or vehicles in mining applications. In such conditions, other look-ahead information is important, for instance legal speed limits and curvature. Fuel-efficient control is found by formulating and solving the driving missions as optimal control problems. First, it is shown how look-ahead information can be used to set constraints in the optimal control problems. A velocity reference from a driving cycle is modified to create an upper and a lower bound for the allowed velocity, denoted the velocity corridor. In order to prevent the solution of the optimal control problem from deviating too much from a normal way of the driving, statistics derived from data collected during live truck operation are used when formulating the constraints. It is also shown how curvature and speed limits can be used together with actuator limitations and driveability considerations to create the velocity corridor. Second, a vehicle model based on forces is used to find energy-efficient velocity control. The problem is first solved using Pontryagin's maximum principle to find the energy savings for different settings of the velocity corridor. The problem is then solved in a receding horizon fashion using a model predictive controller to investigate the influence of the control horizon on the energy consumption. The phasing and timing of traffic lights are then added to the available information to derive optimal control when driving in the presence of traffic lights. Third, the vehicle model is extended to include powertrain components in two different approaches. In a first approach, a Boolean variable is added to represent open or closed powertrain. This enables the vehicle to freewheel, in order to save fuel by reducing the losses due to engine drag. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer quadratic program. In a second approach, the full powertrain is modeled including a fuel map and a model of the gearbox losses, both based on measurements on real components. The problem is solved using dynamic programming, with transitions between states including gear shifts, freewheeling, and coasting in gear. Forth, the optimal control framework is used to implement an optimal control-based powertrain controller in a real Scania truck. The problem is first solved offline resulting in trajectories for velocity and freewheeling. These are used online in the vehicle as references to the existing controllers for torque and gear demands. Experiments are performed with fuel measurements, resulting in 16% fuel savings, compared to 18% savings by solving the optimal control problem. Bränsleförbrukningen för tunga fordon kan sänkas genom att använda information om framtida vägförhållanden för att styra fordonen. De flesta fordonstillverkare erbjuder idag prediktiva farthållare för motorvägskörning, där information består av data för väglutning och fordonets hastighet endast har små variationer. Denna avhandling behandlar körfall där hastighetsvariationerna är stora, som för t.ex. fordon i distributionsdrift eller gruvfordon. För sådana fordon är andra typer av information viktiga, som t.ex. hastighetsbegränsningar och kurvatur. Genom att formulera köruppdraget som ett optimalt styrproblem, tas bränsleeffektiv styrning fram. För det första visas hur framförhållningsinformation kan användas för att sätta bivillkor i det optimala styrproblemet. Utifrån en hastighetsreferens från en körcykel skapas en hastighetskorridor, vilken består av en övre och en undre gräns för den tillåtna hastigheten. För att förhindra att hastigheten i lösning avviker för mycket från ett normalt körsätt används data från verklig lastbilskörning när bivillkoren sätts. Här visas också hur kurvatur och hastighetsbegränsningar kan användas tillsammans med begränsningar på fordonets aktuatorer och anpassning för körbarhet när hastighetskorridoren skapas. För det andra används en fordonsmodell baserad på krafter för att hitta energiminimerande hastighetsstyrning. Styrproblemet löses med hjälp av Pontryagins maximum princip för att undersöka energibesparingarna för olika inställningar på hastighetskorridoren. Problemet formuleras sedan på receding-horizon form och en modellprediktiv regulator används för att undersöka horisontlängdens inverkan på energiförbrukningen. Tid och fas för trafikljus läggs sedan till den tillgängliga informationen för att hitta den optimala körstrategin vid körning bland trafikljus. För det tredje utökas fordonsmodellen till att innehålla drivlinekomponenter via två olika ansatser. I den första ansatsen används en Boleansk variabel för att representera huruvida drivlinan är öppen eller stängd. Detta gör att fordonet kan frirulla, vilket sparar bränsle genom att minska släpförlusterna i motorn. Problemet formuleras som ett blandat kvadratiskt heltalsproblem. I den andra ansatsen modelleras hela drivlinan, med en bränslemussla för motorn och förlustmodell för växellådan baserade på tidigare mätningar. Problemet löses genom dynamisk programmering med övergångar mellan tillstånd genom växlingar, frirullning och släpning. För det fjärde används optimal styrning för att implementera en regulator för drivlinestyrning i en Scania-lastbil. Problemet löses först offline, vilket ger trajektorier för hastighet och frirullning. Dessa används sedan online i fordonet som referens till befintliga regulatorer för momentstyrning och växelval. Experiment med bränslemätning ger 16% uppmätt bränslebesparing mot 18% besparing från lösningen till det optimala styrproblemet. "p"QC 20200518

How Certain Are You of Getting a Parking Space? : A deep learning approach to parking availability prediction

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:32:30 +0100

Traffic congestion is a severe problem in urban areas and it leads to the emission of greenhouse gases and air pollution. In general, drivers lack knowledge of the location and availability of free parking spaces in urban cities. This leads to people driving around searching for parking places, and about one-third of traffic congestion in cities is due to drivers searching for an available parking lot. In recent years, various solutions to provide parking information ahead have been proposed. The vast majority of these solutions have been applied in large cities, such as Beijing and San Francisco. This thesis has been conducted in collaboration with Knowit and Dukaten to predict parking occupancy in car parks one hour ahead in the relatively small city of Linköping. To make the predictions, this study has investigated the possibility to use long short-term memory and gradient boosting regression trees, trained on historical parking data. To enhance decision making, the predictive uncertainty was estimated using the novel approach Monte Carlo dropout for the former, and quantile regression for the latter. This study reveals that both of the models can predict parking occupancy ahead of time and they are found to excel in different contexts. The inclusion of exogenous features can improve prediction quality. More specifically, we found that incorporating hour of the day improved the models’ performances, while weather features did not contribute much. As for uncertainty, the employed method Monte Carlo dropout was shown to be sensitive to parameter tuning to obtain good uncertainty estimates.

Modeling and analyzing Helsinki's traffic network using a microscopic simulator

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:30:37 +0100

In today’s urban transportation networks, traffic is regulated by traffic signals which control vehicle flows in road intersections and other road spaces. Generally, controllers follow a fixed-cycle schedule which is previously designed. Under heavy or changing conditions, these standard methods may prove insufficient, and it is where adaptive traffic signaling at intersections can be the solution. This thesis examines a part of Helsinki’s city center network to verify theories of traffic flow and tests the performance of the Max-Weight algorithm under different scenarios. Traffic simulations are accomplished using PTV Vissim, which is a microscopic traffic simulator, whereas MATLAB R2018b executes the algorithms, the filter, and plots the results. The analysis led to the following conclusions: the Max-Weight algorithm control outperforms the traditional fixed and cyclic control under rush hour situation in Helsinki. Nevertheless, under noisy measurements, the tested filtered Max-Weight algorithm control did not make such a difference, compared with the non-filtered noisy control. Further investigations are proposed referring to the particle filter.

Passenger well-being in highly automated vehicles

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:27:56 +0100

Technical advances in vehicle automation make highly automated driving a realistic possibility within the next decade. With higher levels of vehicle automation, the driver will be able to transfer the driving task and supervision to the vehicle for extended periods and can engage in non-driving related tasks. The different driver/passenger behavior will change user requirements for automated vehicles and may increase the importance of a holistic view of the passengers’ experience in an automated vehicle. One way to view the automated driving experience more holistically from a passenger perspective is to focus on passenger well-being. This work investigates the concept of passenger well-being in automated driving and explores reliable and valid subjective and objective measures to gauge passenger well-being in study settings and during real-world automated driving experiences. Based on these findings and prior findings in transportation research, a model of determinants of passenger well-being is developed. Empirical user studies are utilized to investigate the role of each element. The resulting model considers physical and technical features that affect passenger well-being through a dual processing mechanism. The features may have a direct effect (peripheral pro-cessing) or a mediated effect (central processing) on passenger well-being. Nine passenger needs categorized as utilitarian or hedonic needs act as mediators depending on the features. The impact of features on passenger well-being is further moderated by non-driving related tasks engaged in during the drive and by passenger characteristics. The resulting model is partially validated with two empirical studies. The model of determinants of passenger well-being in automated driving provides a framework for a user-centered development of automated vehicles. Further, this work yields implications and recommendations for the design of such vehicles.

Traffic safety at road junctions

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:33:57 +0100

Detection of Buried Non-Metallic (Plastic and FRP Composite) Pipes Using GPR and IRT

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:32:03 +0100

Location of electric vehicles charging stations for professionals : Mobiletric case

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:29:33 +0100

The project developed for Mobiletric was conducted to improve one of their core business, ProStations, which is a network of electric vehicles charging stations hubs with exclusive access for professionals. The goal was to find the factors affecting the optimal locations for their new charging stations hubs. Mobiletric plans to be the market leader of this segment that is expected to increase exponentially from 2025 onward when the three major barriers for electric vehicles are overcome – price, range, and charging infrastructure. During the project, interviews were conducted to major players in the electric mobility industry with the purpose of better understanding the current dynamics of the market and questionnaires were conducted to potential clients – electric vehicles drivers. We found out that the optimal location for new fast-charging stations in Lisbon is close to main roads and usual routes, like home-work route or TVDE drivers usual working routes. When compared with the distance to the center (Terreiro do Paço), those charging stations should be located in the peripheries of the city, with a distance, on average, between 4,5 kilometers and 5,5 kilometers to that center. However, drivers value more the charging station being available than its location (availability over location) and are not price-sensitive due to the lack of fast-charging infrastructure in the city. O projeto desenvolvido para a Mobiletric foi realizado para melhorar uma das suas atividades principais, as ProStation, uma rede de estações de recarga para veículos elétricos com acesso exclusivo para profissionais. O objetivo foi encontrar os fatores que afetam as localizações ideais para os seus novos hubs de estações de carregamento. A Mobiletric pretende ser a líder de mercado deste segmento, que deve aumentar exponencialmente a partir de 2025, quando as três principais barreiras para os veículos elétricos forem superadas - preço, alcance e infraestrutura de carregamento. Durante o projeto foram feitas entrevistas aos principais intervenientes na indústria da mobilidade elétrica com o objetivo de entender melhor a dinâmica atual do mercado e forem feitos questionários a potenciais clientes - utilizadores de veículos elétricos. Descobrimos que a localização ideal para as novas estações de carregamento rápido em Lisboa seria perto de estradas principais e de rotas habituais, como a rota casa-trabalho ou as rotas de trabalho habituais dos condutores TVDE. Quando comparadas com o centro da cidade (Terreiro do Paço), essas estações de carregamento devem ficar situadas na periferia da cidade, a uma distância, em média, entre 4,5 quilómetros e 5,5 quilómetros desse centro. No entanto, os motoristas valorizam mais a disponibilidade das estações de carregamento que a sua localização (disponibilidade sobre a localização) e não são sensíveis ao preço devido à falta de infraestrutura de carregamento rápido na cidade.

Spatio-Temporal Forecasts for Bike Availability in Dockless Bike Sharing Systems

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:28:26 +0100

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies Forecasting bike availability is of great importance when turning the shared bike into a reliable, pleasant and uncomplicated mode of transport. Several approaches have been developed to forecast bike availability in station-based bike sharing systems. However, dockless bike sharing systems remain fairly unexplored in that sense, despite their rapid expansion over the world in recent years. To fill this gap, this thesis aims to develop a generally applicable methodology for bike availability forecasting in dockless bike sharing systems, that produces automated, fast and accurate forecasts. To balance speed and accuracy, an approach is taken in which the system area of a dockless bike sharing system is divided into spatially contiguous clusters that represent locations with the same temporal patterns in the historical data. Each cluster gets assigned a model point, for which an ARIMA(p,d,q) forecasting model is fitted to the deseasonalized data. Each individual forecast will inherit the structure and parameters of one of those pre-build models, rather than building a new model on its own. The proposed system was tested through a case study in San Francisco, California. The results showed that the proposed system outperforms simple baseline methods. However, they also highlighted the limited forecastability of dockless bike sharing data.

Improvements in seismic imaging and migration-velocity model building

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:25:52 +0100

Seismic imaging methods have been widely used in the petroleum industry for hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir monitoring. The principle of seismic imaging methods is employing elastic waves generated by seismic source to obtain images of the subsurface. In seismic acquistion, the emitted seismic waves propagate down into the Earth, and are reflected and refracted at each lithostratigraphic boundary. Those reflected waves are recorded by sensors near the surface within a defined time period, and are subsequently processed in order to image the subsurface structures, predict the types of rocks encountered and determine the presence of hydrocarbons (oil and gas). With the progress of exploration and production, the petroleum industry has moved into exploring fields that have ever more complex geological structures, such as the salt deposits in the Nordkapp Basin in the Norwegian Barents Sea and pre-salt discoveries in the Santos Basin in Brazil. The conventional seismic processing and imaging methods have challenges with the quality of resolution, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or accuracy of the image in such geological scenarios. This thesis focuses on the development of improved high-resolution seismic imaging techniques, in combination with the iterative, 3D velocity model-building approach, in order to address velocity modelling and depth imaging in complex geological scenarios. As a result of this work, three main contributions have been made to improved seismic imaging: (1) A fast and robust seismic wavefront, or Common-Reflection-Surface (CRS), attributes estimation method in CRS stacking to provide improved SNR in seismic images of complex subsurface geological structures. (2) An improved Fourier mixed-domain prestack depth migration technique to image vertical transversely-isotropic (VTI) media with large lateral contrasts and complex structures. (3) A new time-migration velocity estimation algorithm using nonlinear mapping of seismic wavefront attributes based on the kinematic time migration and demigration schemes.

Operational interventions aiming at the regularity and efficiency of urban bus systems: review of academic studies and simulation of applications with real data.

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:25:29 +0100

O ônibus ainda é o modo de transporte público mais usado nas cidades brasileiras, mesmo aquelas que contam com sistemas sobre trilhos extensos. Já centenários, os sistemas de ônibus urbanos ainda se debatem na peleja diária da competição com os demais veículos e na busca de uma imagem mais favorável perante a seus usuários e à população. O advento do ferramental de Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte (ITS) ofereceu a oportunidade de que esses sistemas pudessem contar com instrumentos de Planejamento, Programação, Monitoração e Controle Operacional próximos àqueles que os sistemas metroferroviários já dispõem há muitas décadas. Entre os vários avanços proporcionados pelo emprego de ITS no campo operacional, destacam-se as intervenções operacionais em tempo real, isto é, a aplicação de medidas que buscam oferecer ou restabelecer a regularidade e a eficiência da operação dos ônibus urbanos frente a contingências que eles enfrentam diariamente. Este trabalho objetiva fazer uma resenha das diversas opções de intervenções estudadas no campo acadêmico e executar simulações de três modalidades dessas estratégias. Foi construída uma rede reproduzindo um trecho de Corredor de ônibus na cidade de São Paulo e simulada a operação de uma linha de alta demanda, com base nos dados reais da operação, do trânsito (semáforos) e velocidades de percurso dos ônibus. A simulação, por sua vez, permitiu apurar os benefícios propiciados pelas intervenções testadas, chegando aos ganhos de tempos nas viagens e o possível aumento de oferta de veículos sem aumento da frota. Além de comparar os resultados entre os tipos de intervenção, foi verificada a sensibilidade dos resultados de cada estratégia a mudanças na intensidade de sua aplicação.Os resultados enquadram-se na faixa dos resultados obtidos nos diversos experimentos acadêmicos analisados. Dentro das expectativas, a intervenção das Meias Viagens (\\"deadheading\\") apresentou melhores resultados nos ganhos de tempos de viagem variando entre 8,5% e 12,9%, secundados pelas Paradas Limitadas (\\"skip-stop\\") variando entre 2,9% e 4,7%, enquanto a Linha Expressa apresentou resultados menores, motivados, principalmente, pelas limitações da extensão do trecho analisado. Buses are still the most common transit mode in Brazilian cities even in those that count with extensive rail systems. Century old city bus operations still struggle daily to compete with other road vehicles while trying to gain a better image before its users and the general public. The arrival of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) solutions brought to these systems the opportunity of counting on Operational Planning, Programing, Monitoring and Control like those already used by rail transit for decades. Among several improvements possible using ITS real time intervention during operation stands out. This enables the application of measures to offer or restore regularity and efficiency of bus services in face of contingencies faced daily. This paper aims to review different options of intervention reported in academic publications and to perform simulations of three of these strategies. A network was modeled duplicating a real Sao Paulo bus corridor section on which a high demand bus line operation, based on actual operation data, traffic, traffic lights and bus speeds, was studied. The simulation, in turn, allowed us to assess the benefits of each alternative intervention tested by determining travel time gains and the increase in bus service supply without increasing the operating fleet. Besides comparing results between intervention types the sensitivity of each one\\'s results to strategy application intensity was also reached. The final experiments results fall within the range of those obtained in several other academic studies analyzed. Within the expectations, the deadheading intervention presented better results in travel time gains ranging from 8.5% to 12.9%, followed by the skip-stop, ranging from 2, 9% and 4.7%, while the Express Line presented lower results motivated, mainly, by the limitations of the extension of the analyzed section

Growth strategy for EV's charging network

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:25:15 +0100

Nonholonomic Motion Planning for Automated Vehicles in Dense Scenarios

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:23:18 +0100

Second-life electric vehicle batteries in the Norwegian power system : a feasibility study

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:22:13 +0100

a result of the acknowledgment of climate change and the agreements set forth to combat it, the share of renewable energies in our power systems is growing. Due to the interlinking of the European power systems, imbalances can be expected to increase in the Norwegian grid as well as in other European countries. Combined with the rising amount of distributed energy production and the electrification of the Norwegian society, it is evident that new solutions are needed. This thesis investigates the use of used electric vehicle batteries in second-life battery systems, with the goal of determining its feasibility in the Norwegian power system. Several aspects are examined in a literature review: suitability, availability, costs, laws and regulations, and the repurposing process. In addition, an in-depth use case is conducted for the peak shaving application in south-eastern Norway. The use case employed consumption data from one substation and its associated consumer nodes and explored peak shaving in both households and at the associated substation. Household peak shaving was achieved, but to what degree was dependent on the individual consumption patterns. The cost of the battery system was too high for it to be reasonable for households to implement these systems at current electricity prices. Substation peak shaving was most efficiently accomplished by using one large battery at the substation, although the collected peak shaving of the households also shaved the peaks at the substation. The cost of one large battery is expected to be considerably lower than the aggregated cost of the household batteries needed to achieve the same peak shaving effect as one larger battery, but it is not necessarily profitable in comparison to upgrading the substation. The literature study revealed promising results with regards to capabilities, availability of batteries, and an increasing experience level. However, some questions remain regarding the second-life aging and lifespan. Lifespans of 4-29 years have been suggested, depending on the application. Also, guidelines and clearer regulations are needed to ensure safe handling during processing. How feasible or profitable a second-life battery system is, depends on the application, battery price, and repurposing cost. Balancing services and frequency regulation might be feasible applications today, while others could become feasible within the decade. In conclusion, second-life battery systems could have a future in the Norwegian power system, given some conditions and developments. However, it is not likely until 2025 at the earliest. Som et resultat av målsetningene til ulike klimaavtaler, er en økende andel fornybar energi på vei inn i kraftsystemene. Det europeiske kraftsystemet knyttes stadig mer sammen og resulterer i utfordringer for nettet, både i Norge og i Europa for øvrig. Dette, kombinert med en økende andel av distribuert kraftproduksjon og elektrifiseringen av det norske samfunnet, gir opphav til et behov for nye løsninger. Denne masteroppgaven har som hovedmål å finne ut om gjenbrukte elbilbatterier har en fremtid i det norske kraftsystemet. For å avgjøre dette, er flere faktorer blitt undersøkt i en litteraturstudie: egnethet, tilgjengelighet, kostnader, lover og forskrifter og hvordan slike batterier kan gjenbrukes. I tillegg til litteraturstudiet er det uført en case-studie for såkalt "peak shaving" i Hvaler, sør-øst i Norge. Case-studiet er basert på forbruksdata fra en nettstasjon og dens tilknyttede kunder, og undersøker peak shaving ved hjelp av simuleringer for både husholdninger og nettstasjonen de er knyttet til. Forbrukskutt ble oppnådd i varierende grad for husholdningene, avhengig av forbruksmønster. Kostanden til batterisystemet viste seg å uansett være for høy til at det vil lønne seg for husholdningskunder. Den samlede effekten av forbrukskutt hos husholdningene førte til redusert forbruk hos nettstasjonen også, men ett enkelt stort batteri gjorde jobben mer effektivt. I tillegg er kostnaden forventet å være betydelig lavere, men ikke nødvendigvis et mer lønnsomt alternativ til en eventuell oppgradering av nettstasjonen. Litteraturstudiet ga lovende resultater når det kom til egnethet og tilgjengelighet av batterier. Kunnskapsnivået ser også ut til å være stigende. På den andre siden gjenstår en del spørsmål angående aldring og levetid for gjenbrukte batterier. En levetid på 4-29 år har blitt foreslått, avhengig av bruksområde. Det er også behov for tydeligere retningslinjer og forskrifter for håndtering av brukte elbilbatterier. Lønnsomheten til disse batterisystemene avhenger av batteripris, prosesseringskostnader og bruksområde. Systemer brukt i nettjenester, som frekvensregulering, kan være levedyktige allerede i dag. Andre bruksområder kan bli lønnsomme innen dette tiåret. Altså kan gjenbrukte elbilbatterier ha en fremtid i det norske kraftsystemet, gitt noen forutsetninger. Likevel virker det ikke sannsynlig at dette skjer før tidligst 2025. M-MF

Allocation des ressources dans l’informatique en brouillard le calcul du brouillard véhiculaire pour une utilisation optimale des véhicules électriques

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:18:27 +0100

Technological advancements made it possible for Electric vehicles (EVs) to have onboard computation, communication, storage, and sensing capabilities. Nevertheless, most of the time these EVs spend their time in parking lots, which makes onboard devices cruelly underutilized. Thus, a better management and pooling these underutilized resources together would be strongly recommended. The new aggregated resources would be useful for traffic safety applications, comfort related applications or can be used as a distributed data center. Moreover, parked vehicles might also be used as a service delivery platform to serve users. Therefore, the use of aggregated abundant resources for the deployment of different local mobile applications leads to the development of a new architecture called Vehicular Fog Computing (VFC). Through VFC, abundant resources of vehicles in the parking area, on the mall or in the airport, can act as fog nodes. In another context, mobile applications have become more popular, complex and resource intensive. Some sophisticated embedded applications require intensive computation capabilities and high-energy consumption that transcend the limited capabilities of mobile devices. Throughout this work, we tackle the problem of achieving an effective deployment of a VFC system by aggregating unused resources of parked EVs, which would be eventually used as fog nodes to serve nearby mobile users’ computation demands. At first, we present a state of the art on EVs and resource allocation in VFC. In addition, we assess the potential of aggregated resources in EVs for serving local mobile users’ applications demands by considering the battery State of Health (SOH) and State of Charge (SOC). Here, the objective is to choose EVs with a good condition of SOH and SOC so that owners secure tolerable amount of energy for mobility. Then, we address the problem of resource allocation scheme with a new solution based on Markov Decision Process (MDP) that aims to optimize the use of EVs energy for both computing users’ demands and mobility. Hence, the novelty of this contribution is to take into consideration the amount of aggregated EVs resource for serving users’ demands. Finally, we propose a stochastic theoretical game approach to show the dynamics of both mobile users’ computation demands and the availability of EVs resources.; Résumé : Les progrès technologiques ont permis aux véhicules électriques d’avoir des capacités à la fois de calcul, de communication, de stockage et de perception. Néanmoins, la plupart du temps, ces véhicules électriques sont en stationnement, ce qui engendre une sous utilisation de leurs capacités embarquées. Ainsi, une meilleure gestion et une mise en commun de ces ressources sous-utilisées deviennent fortement recommandées. Les ressources agrégées seraient utiles pour des applications de sécurité routière, des applications liées au confort ou pourraient même être utilisées en tant que centre de calcul distribué. En outre, les véhicules en stationnement pourraient également être utilisés comme plate-forme de fourniture de services. Par conséquent, l’utilisation de ressources abondantes agrégées pour le déploiement de différentes applications mobiles locales a conduit au développement du concept d’informatique en brouillard véhiculaire (an anglais, Vehicular Fog Computing - VFC). Grâce à ce dernier, les véhicules dans les aires de stationnement, les centres commerciaux ou les aéroports vont agir en tant que nœuds fog. Dans un autre contexte, les applications mobiles sont devenues de plus en plus populaires, complexes et gourmandes en ressources. Certaines applications mobiles nécessitent des capacités de calcul intensives et une consommation d'énergie élevée qui transcendent les capacités limitées des appareils mobiles. Tout au long de ce travail, nous abordons les verrous liés au déploiement efficace d’un système VFC agrégeant les ressources inutilisées des véhicules électriques en stationnement pour être utilisées comme nœuds fogs répondants aux demandes de calcul des utilisateurs mobiles à proximité. Notre travail commence par un état de l'art sur les véhicules électriques et l'allocation de ressources dans le système VFC. En outre, nous évaluons le potentiel des ressources agrégées dans les véhicules électriques pour répondre aux demandes d'applications d'utilisateurs mobiles locaux en prenant en compte l'état de santé de la batterie (en anglais, State of Health - SOH) et son état de charge (en anglais, State of Charge - SOC). Notre objectif est de choisir des VEs ayant un état de santé et de charge satisfaisants pour faire partie du VFC tout en permettant aux propriétaires de ces véhicules de disposer d’une quantité d’énergie suffisante pour leur mobilité. Nous abordons, par la suite, le problème d’allocation de ressources avec une nouvelle solution basée sur le processus de décision Markovien (en anglais, Markov Decision Process - MDP) qui vise à optimiser l’utilisation de l’énergie des véhicules électriques pour répondre à la fois à aux demandes de calcul et de mobilité des utilisateurs. Enfin, nous proposons une approche basée sur un jeu stochastique pour montrer la dynamique de la demande de calcul des utilisateurs mobiles et la disponibilité des ressources des véhicules électriques.

Influence of inland vessel stern shape aspects on propulsive performance

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:00:39 +0100

Diffusion of Battery Electric Vehicles : The Role of Total Cost of Ownership

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:56:18 +0100

Due to their high efficiency, zero tailpipe emissions and possibilities of using renewable electricity, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) have been proposed as a way to alleviate the negative consequences of transport. However, as with other energy-efficient innovations market uptake or diffusion of BEVs have so far been limited. Three main barriers for BEV diffusion have been identified in the literature: limited range, lack of charging and high purchase price. Range and charging have been extensively studied. The high purchase price and other ownership costs of BEVs has not received the same amount of attention. The focus of this thesis is to go beyond the purchase price of BEVs, that in general is higher than for Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs). This thesis will center on costs; as the low running cost of BEVs validates further investigations regarding the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) compared to ICEVs. The aim of this thesis is therefore to investigate the TCO of BEVs for both private and professional use-cases relative to the TCO of ICEVs, and further, to explore to which degree TCO is incorporated in the vehicle choice process. The main theoretical underpinnings of this thesis are innovation diffusion theory, a set of theories that describes the process by which an innovation is adopted among the members of a social system. In a narrower consumer behavior setting, rational choice and the emerging literature in behavior economics also forms an important theoretical basis for this thesis. The method choices in the four studies included in this thesis reflects the complex socio-technical system that BEVs inhabits. A mix of quantitative (e.g. surveys and driving data) and qualitative (interviews) methods have been used. The results of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) computations in this thesis indicate that the actual cost of BEVs can be lower than for equivalent ICEVs. This has been validated for different contexts and use-cases in both private and professional settings. However, the actual TCO of BEVs is likely to have a small influence on vehicle choice. The results indicate that only a small minority (4 %) of mainstream vehicle buyers conducted a complete TCO analysis and that the majority (58 %) did not calculate any ownerships costs into their vehicle choice process. In addition, vehicle buyers have a poor understanding of on-going vehicle ownership costs of their present vehicle. Thus, they are uninformed about vehicle costs in general and of TCO in particular. Calculating TCO is a challenging task for consumers, requiring both cognitive efforts and time. It can be suspected that vehicle buyers instead use purchase price as a proxy for TCO. Approximation of costs through purchase price could yield significant overestimation in the cost of owning and operating a BEV. This thesis argues that the market introduction of BEVs requires a new approach to evaluate vehicle costs among the stakeholders involved. The relationship between high effort costs and unknown ownership cost is radically altered due to the low ownership costs of BEVs. The potential rewards of being attentive to TCO are thus larger in the case of BEVs compared to ICEVs. Several aspects have been found to correlate to being more TCO attentive: higher income, higher educational level, having a larger comparison set of vehicles and increased stated importance of TCO in vehicle choice. However, vehicle buyers receive little assistance from vehicle salespeople in estimating TCO of BEVs. Vehicle salespeople often focus on purchase price instead of taking the time to estimate TCO. Lower financial incentives for selling BEVs could be an underlying cause for vehicle salespeople not to emphasize the potential cost superiorities of BEVs in relation to ICEVs. In addition, the results allude that additional barriers related to BEV diffusion remains important. This is exemplified in the professional use-case of taxis that was investigated in this thesis, where range and charging limitations of BEVs negatively affected work conditions. Four main conclusions can be drawn based on the results of this thesis: BEVs can be TCO competitive with ICEVs, TCO is rarely applied in the vehicle choice process, the market introduction of BEVs requires a new approach to evaluate vehicle costs among the stakeholders involved, and that improved understanding and application of vehicle TCO would improve the diffusion outlook of BEVs by improving their relative advantage. Based on these conclusions it is recommend that industry and public policy address the apparent misalignment between perceived and actual TCO of BEVs. This can be done by: improving knowledge of TCO among vehicle buyers, creating a comprehensive yet simple to use TCO computational tool and increasing the financial incentives of selling BEVs for vehicle salespeople. Transportsektorn står idag för en stor del av världens miljöproblem, både genom utsläpp som bidrar till dålig luftkvalitet och till den globala uppvärmningen. En möjlig väg för att minska transportsektorns negativa konsekvenser är en övergång till mer effektiva bilar. Batterielbilar som endast drivs av elektricitet har hög energieffektivitet, nollutsläpp i brukarfasen och kan laddas med förnyelsebar elektricitet. Batterielbilar kan därmed motverka transportsektorns negativa konsekvenser. I likhet med andra energieffektiva innovationer har dock batterielbilar hittills haft en begränsad diffusion, dvs låga marknadsandelar. Tidigare forskning har identifierat tre huvudbarriärer som hindrar batterielbilar att nå större marknadsandelar: begränsad räckvidd, brist på laddning och höga inköpspriser. Både forskare och industrin har hittills främst fokuserat på problematiken rörande räckvidd och laddning. Det höga inköpspriset och andra ekonomiska aspekter som ägandekostnader har inte fått samma uppmärksamhet. Denna avhandling adresserar detta forskningsgap genom att undersöka de ekonomiska aspekter som kan påverka försäljningen av batterielbilar. Inköpspriset är generellt högre för batterielbilar jämfört med förbränningsmotorbilar. Batterielbilar har dock erkänt lägre driftskostnader, vilket gör det intressant att flytta fokus bortom inköpspriset och istället undersöker och jämför den totala ägandekostnaden för batterielbilar och förbränningsmotorbilar. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka hur totalkostnaden för batterielbilar står sig mot totalkostnaden för förbränningsmotorbilar och vilken betydelse totalkostnadsbedömningar har i valet av bil och därmed för batterielbilens diffusion på marknaden. Både privata och professionella bilköpare samt olika aspekter av köpprocessen har undersökts. En viktig aspekt har varit huruvida totalkostnaden beaktas i bilvalsprocessen hos bilköpare. Den huvudsakliga teoretiska bakgrunden till avhandlingen är innovationsdiffusionsteori, vilket är en samling teorier som beskriver processen för hur innovationer köps och sprids av medlemmarna i ett socialt system. Ytterligare teorier som utgör en viktig bakgrund för avhandlingen berör konsumentbeteende från ett rationellt eller beteendeekonomiskt perspektiv. Metodvalen i de fyra studierna som ingår i avhandlingen återspeglar det komplexa socio-tekniska system som batterielbilar befinner sig i. En blandning av kvantitativa (t.ex. enkät och kördata) och kvalitativa (intervjuer) metoder har använts. Resultaten av studierna som undersökte totalkostnaden för ägande (TCO (dvs Total Cost of Ownership)) indikerar att den faktiska kostnaden för batterielbilar kan vara lägre än för motsvarande förbränningsmotorbilar. Dessa resultat har validerats för olika användningsfall i både den privata och den professionella kontexten. Den faktiska totalkostnaden för batterielbilar har dock troligen ett relativt litet inflytande i valet av bil hos bilköpare. Resultaten visar att endast en minoritet (4 %) av bilköparna genomför en fullständig totalkostnadsanalys och att majoriteten av bilköparna (58%) inte har beräknat någon av de olika ägandekostnader under bilvalsprocessen. Dessutom har bilköpare en dålig förståelse av de löpande kostnaderna för ägande av deras nuvarande bil. Således verkar bilköpare vara oinformerade om bilkostnader i allmänhet och om totalkostnaden i synnerhet. Att beräkna TCO kräver dock både tid och kognitiva ansträngningar, vilket delvis kan förklara detta beteende. Istället för att beräkna totalkostnaden verkar bilköpare använda inköpspriset som en representation för vad bilen kommer att kosta under ägandet. En tänkbar konsekvens av denna typ av ungefärlig kostnadsbedömning via inköpspriset är en överskattning av totalkostnaden för batterielbilar. Denna avhandling visar att marknadsintroduktionen av batterielbilar kräver nya tillvägagångssätt för att utvärdera bilkostnaderna hos de berörda intressenterna. De lägre ägarkostnaderna för batterielbilar gör att en bedömning av kostnader baserat på inköpspriset ofta blir missvisande. De potentiella fördelarna med att vara uppmärksamma på TCO är därmed större när det gäller batterielbilar jämfört med förbränningsmotorbilar. Det finns emellertid ett antal aspekter som korrelerar med en högre beräkningsbenägenhet av totalkostnaden, dessa är: högre inkomst, högre utbildningsnivå, fler bilar som jämförs i bilvalsprocessen samt den uttryckta betydelsen av TCO i bilval. Det kan även tilläggas att bilförsäljare inte spelar en betydande roll i att informera eller assistera bilköpare rörande totalkostnaden. Istället fokuserar bilförsäljare ofta på inköpspriset. En underliggande orsak för varför bilförsäljarna inte betonar de potentiella kostnadsbesparingarna för batterielbilar i förhållande till förbränningsmotorbilar kan vara sämre ekonomiska incitament för att sälja batterielbilar. Dessutom bekräftar resultaten att befintliga marknadshinder för batterielbilar är fortsatt viktiga. Detta exemplifieras i det professionella användningsfallet (taxi) som undersöktes i avhandlingen. I taxiverksamhet har batterielbilars begränsade räckvidd och laddningsmöjligheter en stark negativ inverkan på förarnas arbetsmiljö och villkor. Följande fyra slutsatser kan dras från resultaten i avhandlingen: batterielbilar kan vara ekonomiskt konkurrenskraftiga mot förbränningsmotorbilar om de jämförs utifrån totalkostnaden; totalkostnaden appliceras generellt inte i bilvalsprocessen; marknadsintroduktionen av batterielbilar kräver nya tillvägagångssätt för att korrekt kunna uppskatta den verkliga kostnaden och en ökad förståelse och applikation av totalkostnaden i bilvalsprocessen skulle förbättra batterielbilars relativa fördelar med ökad försäljning som följd. För att adressera dessa slutsatser förslås ett antal rekommendationer som syftar att minska gapet mellan faktiskt och upplevd totalkostnad för batterielbilar. Det kan göras genom att öka kunskapen om totalkostnad hos bilköpare; skapa en heltäckande men användarvänlig totalkostnadskalkylator samt öka de finansiella incitamenten för att sälja batterielbilar hos bilförsäljare.

Transient phenomena during the emptying process of water in pressurized pipelines

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:53:33 +0100

The analysis of transient phenomena during water filling operations in pipelines of irregular profiles has been studied much more compared to emptying maneuvers. In the literature, there is a lack of knowledge about mathematical models of emptying operations. This research starts with the analysis of a transient phenomenon during emptying maneuvers in single pipelines, which is a previous stage to understand the emptying operation in pipelines of irregular profiles. Analysis are conducted under two typical situations: (i) one corresponding to either the situation where there are no air valves installed or when they have failed due to operational and maintenance problems which represents the worse condition due to causing the lowest troughs of subatmospheric pressure, and (ii) the other one corresponding to the situation where air valves have been installed at the highest point of hydraulic installations to give reliability by admitting air into the pipelines for preventing troughs of subatmospheric pressure. Particularly, this research developed a mathematical model to predict the behavior of the emptying operations. The mathematical model is proposed for the two aforementioned situations. The liquid phase (water) is simulated using a rigid water column model (RWCM), which neglects the pipe and water elasticity given that the elasticity of the entrapped air pockets is much higher than the one from the pipe and the water. The air-water interface is simulated with a piston flow model assuming that the water column is perpendicular with the main direction of the flow. Gas phase is modeled using three formulations: (a) a polytropic model based on its energetic behavior, which considers an expansion of air pockets; (b) an air valve characterization to quantify the magnitude of admitted air flow; and (c) a continuity equation of the air. An ordinary differential equations system is solved using the Simulink tool of Matlab. The proposed model has been validated using experimental facilities at the hydraulic laboratories of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain, and the Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. The results show how the mathematical model adequately predicts the experimental data, including the pressure oscillation patterns, the water velocities, and the lengths of the water columns. Finally, the mathematical model is applied to a case study to show a practical application, which can be used for engineers to study the phenomenon in real pipelines to make decisions about performing of the emptying operation.

Exploring the Potential of Crowdfunding for EV-Charging Infrastructure Development : A Strategy for Collaborative Financing of EV Charging Points in Sweden

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:50:47 +0100

over the world, raising concerns about energy conservation and the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions has promoted the development of a sustainable mobility transition. Successful electric vehicle (EV) deployment plays a vital role in this manner but is still facing obstacles, where public charging infrastructure is one of them. Additionally, digitization is transforming and introducing new industries worldwide, contributing with new constructs to be used in the evolving transition. Simultaneously, technology is surpassing the competition, and is one of the most potent transformational force affecting customer relations in the energy sector, leading to customers anticipating more from the power utility companies. To attain a long-termsustainable competitive advantage, firms have to retain, sustain, and nurture their customer base. To do so, corporations have comprehended the value of embracing customer-centric incentives, enabling them to capture more indirect business values. Furthermore, this thesis was done in collaboration with a power utility company, referred to as ‘Org X’ or ‘the CPO’. Influenced by the reasoning above, it investigated the opportunity to create indirect business values through a demand-driven roll-out of the national charging infrastructure with the use of crowdfunding. This was achieved by adopting an exploratory methodology approach, where a mixed inductive-deductive design was used. A multi-method qualitative data collection was made; consisting mainly of semi-structured-, and unstructured interviews with experts in the field. Thus, a profound perspective of the EV-charging market landscape was attained, which enabled adequate reasoning when proposing a strategy approach for the cause. Additionally, quantitative secondary data was used to develop a tool for an initial location evaluation, that is part of the recommended approach. This tool was also used to enhance the understanding of the national EV-charging market landscape, the customer segments, as well the potential market for a co-creating platform. The findings suggest that the perceived readiness level of crowdfunding charging infrastructure varies depending on what aspect that is being accommodated. A platform that connects stakeholders is encouraged by actors in the field, but crowdfunding through solely end-users is questioned as close proximity to the end-user’s location is a key-factor regarding motivation to fund a charging point. A ‘Tier based framework’, that facilitates this transition was therefore developed and evaluated. Additionally, the framework was considered in the market analysis case study, which further included a recommended implementation and communication approach. If used accordingly, this framework could bring both indirect- and direct business values to the power utility company in question, as well as the involved stakeholders. Oro över energieffektiviseringar och miljökonsekvenser från utsläpp av växthusgaser världen över har främjat utvecklingen av ett hållbart energisystem. En framgångsrik marknadspenetration av elbilar (EVs) har en viktig roll i denna aspekt, men står fortfarande inför hinder där publik laddningsinfrastruktur är en del av problemet. Digitaliseringen leder till transformation och nya industrier vilket bidrar med ytterligare konstruktioner som används i övergången till ett mer hållbart samhälle. Samtidigt driver teknikutvecklingen till ökad konkurrens och har en kraftfull påverkan på vad kunderna förväntar sig från företagen. För att uppnå mer långsiktigt hållbara konkurrensfördelar måste företag sträva efter att behålla, upprätthålla och ta hand sin kundbas. Företag börjar förstå det ökade värde som finns i att utöva mer kundcentrerade incitament och strategier, vilket potentiellt bidrar till mer indirekta affärsvärden. Denna uppsats är i samarbete med ett Svenskt energiföretag, följaktligen refererat till som 'Org X' eller 'CPO'. Baserat på resonemanget ovan, har möjligheten att skapa indirekta affärsvärden genom verkställandet av en mer efterfrågedriven utveckling av den nationella elbilsladdning infrastruktur med hjälp av crowdfunding undersökts. Detta uppnåddes genom att använda ett utforskat tillvägagångssätt, där en blandad induktiv-deduktiv design användes. En kvalitativ datainsamling gjordes på flera sätt; huvudsakligen bestående av semistrukturerade och ostrukturerade intervjuer med experter inom området. Således uppnåddes ett djupgående perspektiv på av elbilsladdning marknaden vilket möjliggjorde sakliga resonemang kring den presenterade och rekommenderade strategin. Ytterligare användes kvantitativ sekundärdata för att utveckla ett verktyg för en initial plats bedömning, vilket är en del av den rekommenderade strategin. Detta verktyg användes dessutom för att öka förståelsen för den nationella elbilsladdning marknaden, kundsegmenten, liksom den potentiella marknaden för en samskapande plattform. Resultaten tyder på att den upplevda beredskapsnivån att crowdfunda laddningsinfrastruktur varierar beroende på plats och kundgrupp. En plattform som ansluter intressenter uppmuntras av aktörer på marknaden, men crowdfunding genom enbart slutanvändare ifrågasätts då närhet till slutanvändarens läge är en nyckelfaktor när det gäller motivationen att medverka i finansieringen. Därav har ett tier based framework utvecklats och presenterats, som bör underlätta transformationen mot en mer kunddriven affärsmöjlighet. Dessutom beaktades ramverket i fallstudien för marknadsanalysen, som ytterligare inkluderade en rekommenderad strategi för implementering och kommunikation. Om den används i enlighet bör ramverket ge både indirekta och direkta affärsvärden till det aktuella energi företaget, liksom till berörda intressenter.

A study of optimization of air traffic network and flight schedules

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:50:04 +0100

Smart charging grid

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:49:07 +0100

This project describes an implementation of the third connection scheme described by the Low Voltage Regulation for the charging of electric vehicles in community parkings. This scheme allows to reduce installation and maintenance costs since all users share the installation and electric connection. Although, the fact that these types of installations currently follow the first scheme of this regulation, where each user performs an individual installation from the electric connection of his house, it is expected that in the near future these types of facilities will be prohibited and the trend is an installation as proposed. The proposed project is not only a novelty in that there are none similarly in the market, but also represents a challenge for the application of new technologies where a set of users must share and manage resources using communications networks, databases and control algorithms for the efficient management of the installation and the contracted power. The design has not been limited to the programming of these functions but has also been necessary in the design and implementation of the hardware of the charging stations following the restrictions of the current legislation.

Optimal operation of energy systems of groups of large buildings

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:38:31 +0100

The development of microgrids has enabled prosumers to develop optimal power management and demand response (DR) strategies. Based on this idea, virtual prosumers and microgrids can be created in a traditional city structure, exploiting microgrids’ ability to operate connected or disconnected to the grid. Therefore, the development of more complex energy control and management systems becomes necessary. In this thesis, an easy to apply and computationally efficient energy management system (EMS) has been developed in Matlab. It is based on a hierarchical multi-agent system aiming to minimize the operating cost of a microgrid, that consists of a group of buildings, renewable energy sources (RES), energy storage systems (ESS) and electric vehicles (EVs). The examined optimization problem is solved using the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO), that ensures the optimum use of every microgrid’s component. Based on the results obtained by applying the algorithm to the operation of the microgrid, both in the time frame of one day and one week, cost savings of 40% can be achieved while all the microgrid’s energy needs and operation constraints are met.

Fog Computing based traffic Safety for Connected Vulnerable Road Users

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:37:22 +0100

nnually, millions of people die and many more sustain non-fatal injuries because of road traffic crashes. Despite multitude of countermeasures, the number of causalities and disabilities owing to traffic accidents are increasing each year causing grinding social, economic, and health problems. Due to their high volume and lack of protective-shells, more than half of road traffic deaths are imputed to vulnerable road users (VRUs): pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Mobile devices combined with fog computing can provide feasible solutions to protect VRUs by predicting collusions and warning users of an imminent traffic accident. Mobile devices’ ubiquity and high computational capabilities make the devices an important components of traffic safety solutions. Fog computing has features that suits to traffic safety applications as it is an extension of cloud computing that brings down computing, storage, and network services to the proximity of end user. Therefore, in this thesis, we have proposed an infrastructure-less traffic safety architecture that depends on fog computing and mobile devices possessed by VRUs and drivers. The main duties of mobile devices are extracting their positions and other related data and sending cooperative awareness message to a nearby fog server using wireless connection. The fog server estimates collision using a collision prediction algorithm and sends an alert message, if an about-to-occur collision is predicted. Evaluation results shows that the proposed architecture is able to render alerts in real time. Moreover, analytical and performance evaluations depict that the architecture outperforms other related road safety architectures in terms of reliability, scalability and latency. However, before deploying the architecture, challenges pertaining to weaknesses of important ingredients of the architecture should be treated prudently. Position read by mobile devices are not accurate and do not meet maximum position sampling rates traffic safety applications demand. Moreover, continuous and high rate position sampling drains mobile devices battery quickly. From fog computing’s point of view, it confronts new privacy and security challenges in addition to those assumed from cloud computing. For aforementioned challenges, we have proposed new solutions: (i) In order to improve GPS accuracy, we have proposed an efficient and effective two-stage map matching algorithm. In the first stage, GPS readings obtained from smartphones are passed through Kalman filter to smooth outlier readings. In the second stage, the smoothed positions are mapped to road segments using online time warping algorithm. (ii) position sampling frequency requirement is fulfilled by an energy efficient location prediction system that fuses GPS and inertial sensors’ data. (iii) For energy efficiency, we proposed an energy efficient fuzzy logic-based adaptive beaconing rate management that ensures safety of VRUs. (iv) finally, privacy and security issues are addressed indirectly using trust management system. The two-way subjective logic-based trust management system enables fog clients to evaluate the trust level of fog servers before awarding the service and allows the servers to check out the trustworthiness of the service demanders. Engaging omnipresent mobile device and QoS-aware fog computing paradigm in active traffic safety applications has the potential to reduce overwhelming number of traffic accidents on VRUs.; Chaque année, des millions de personnes meurent et beaucoup d'autres subissent des séquelles graves à la suite d'accidents de la route. Malgré une multitude d’initiatives, le nombre de cas mortels et d'accidents graves augmente chaque année en engendrant des problèmes préoccupants à la fois sociaux, économiques et sanitaires. En raison de leur nombre élevé et de l'absence de protection personnelle, plus de la moitié de ces décès concerne les usagers vulnérables (en anglais, vulnerable road users - VRU) regroupant les piétons, cyclistes et motocyclistes. Les appareils mobiles, combinés à la technologie de Fog Computing (ou informatique géodistribuée, ou même informatique en brouillard), représentent une solution réaliste à court terme pour les protéger en les avertissant de l’imminence d'un accident de circulation. L’omniprésence des appareils mobiles et leurs capacités de calcul élevées font de ces appareils un élément important à considérer dans les solutions de sécurité routière. Le Fog Computing offre des fonctionnalités adaptées aux applications de sécurité routière, puisqu’il s’agit d’une extension du Cloud Computing permettant de rapprocher les services informatiques, le stockage et le réseau au plus près des utilisateurs finaux. Par conséquent, dans cette thèse, nous proposons une architecture réseau sans infrastructure supplémentaire (PV-Alert) pour des fins de sécurité routière et reposant uniquement sur les appareils mobiles des VRU et des conducteurs sur la route avec l’aide du concept de Fog Computing. Les données géographiques et cinématiques de ces appareils sont collectées et envoyées périodiquement au serveur fog situé à proximité. Le serveur fog traite ces données en exécutant un algorithme de calcul de risque d’accident de circulation et renvoie des notifications en cas d'accident imminent. L’évaluation de cette architecture montre qu’elle est capable de générer des alertes en temps réel et qu’elle est plus performante que d’autres architectures en termes de fiabilité, d’évolutivité et de latence.

Modeling and Forecasting of Electric Vehicle Charging, Solar Power Production, and Residential Load : Perspectives into the Future Urban and Rural Energy Systems

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:36:21 +0100

The urban and rural energy systems are undergoing modernization. This modernization is motivated by the need to increase sustainability in both systems. Some characteristics of this modernization include electrification of industries, transports, and heating and cooling loads. Additionally, there has been an increase in building-applied photovoltaic (PV) systems, and in the flexibility of customer loads. This thesis aims to progress the knowledge regarding the electric power production and consumption in the future urban and rural energy systems. In total, three models were developed and applied to case studies: a spatial electric vehicle (EV) charging model, a residential load forecasting model, and a clear-sky index (CSI) generative model. The results of the EV spatial model showed that there is an aggregation effect for the charging of the EVs. If all EVs charge opportunistically upon arrival using 3.7 kW, at most 19% of the EVs in a large area will charge simultaneously. Delaying the charging to after 22:00 will result in a significant increase in the simultaneity factor — to 59%. Two forecasting models were compared for the residential load. Both models achieved a root mean square error (RMSE) smaller than 4%. One model had a slightly sharper forecast than the other model — by 2.6% — and a variable prediction interval (PI) which decreased at night. As regards the spatiotemporal matching between PV power production and EV charging in rural and urban areas, the results showed that there were no correlations between the building type in each part of the city and the temporal matching. Both residential and workplace areas had similar temporal matching. This is because of the orientations of the roofs in the cities and the sizes of the parking lots. Considering the impacts of EV charging on the distribution grid of a Swedish municipality (Herrljunga), it is shown that 3.7 kW chargers will result in at most a 1% decrease in the voltage of the grid. No under-voltages were witnessed. In conclusion, the urban and rural energy systems can withstand the penetration of PV and EVs in the nearby coming years. Extreme scenarios might, however, require increasing the flexibility or performing upgrades to the systems.

Mody : a smart commuting experience

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:36:03 +0100

Due to the current urbanization trend, people are spending more time than ever on their daily commute. However, commuting in megacities often results in irritating scenarios. Especially when using public transportation. This project tried to provide an alternative way of commuting that would allow people to refresh themselves during the journey and prepare for their activities in the best way possible. Rather than looking at the commute as a transition from A to B, this project tried to envision different scenarios of daily life and implement smart solutions that would enhance the experience through seamlessly integrated technologies—based on the technological expertise from the sponsor Huawei. In this concept, smart sensors combined with data collection would provide a tailored experience for the customer at different depth levels. The process includes brand research and topic selection to set up the design goal. Basing on the valuable material got from the first step, the design moved to the next step and tried to find the solution for the thesis topic. This is processed by gathering information from the website, brainstorming the ideation. Then the author built up the prototype by sketching, rendering, and 3D modeling. The user experience got developed basing on the robust design. The author started with user research and analyzed and set up personas. The result is an interior design concept with a particular focus on its interaction and user experience. The seating position supports the user experience by changing in harmony with individual preferences and time of the day. Three unique travel modes provide different levels of control over the overall experience based upon the user's request and their trust in the smart system.

Inferring passenger-level bus trip traces from schedule, positioning and ticketing data: methods and applications.

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:35:18 +0100

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2019-08-29T11:47:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TARCISO BRAZ DE OLIVEIRA FILHO - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2019.pdf: 1872963 bytes, checksum: 87ed3cf8f4914f2822f9c5f2715ad487 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-29T11:47:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TARCISO BRAZ DE OLIVEIRA FILHO - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2019.pdf: 1872963 bytes, checksum: 87ed3cf8f4914f2822f9c5f2715ad487 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-02-27 Como resultado do recente e rápido crescimento da população urbana, a mobilidade tem emergido como um dos problemas urbanos mais complexos e de rápida evolução no século XXI. Com o advento da Internet das Coisas, gigabytes de dados são gerados diariamente por Sistemas de Transporte Público ao redor do mundo, incluindo registros de GPS e velocidade dos ônibus, além de registros de embarque de passageiros. A despeito desses dados possuírem o potencial de auxiliar na melhoria da mobilidade, a enorme quantidade, dinamicidade e diversidade de dados produzidos por diferentes sistemas com diferentes objetivos e restrições, impõe dificuldades para a integração e análise do mesmo com o fim de ajudar os usuários, operadores e administradores do sistema. Esse estudo aborda esse problema, mais especificamente o de utilizar dados de programação dos ônibus, dados brutos de GPS e dados de cartão de embarque para reconstruir viagens de ônibus a nível de passageiro. São utilizados dados do sistema de ônibus de Curitiba no Brasil para conceber um processo de análise que combine e estenda heurísticas consolidadas encontradas na literatura. Experimentos demonstram a utilidade da solução proposta em dois cenários de aplicações: a) a estimação de uma Matriz de Origem-Destino para usuários de Transporte Público, que foi validada através de uma comparação com uma Pesquisa Origem-Destino realizada recentemente na cidade; e b) uma análise da (in)eficiência da escolha de itinerário do passageiro, realizada contrastando o itinerário escolhido estimado (extraído da reconstrução da viagem) com o conjunto de itinerários disponíveis e viáveis no momento do embarque. As a result of the recent and fast rise in urban population, mobility has emerged as one of the most problematic and fast-evolving urban problems of the 21st century. With the advent of the Internet of Things, gigabytes of data are generated every day by Public Transportation Systems around the world, including bus GPS/speed records, and passenger boarding registries. Although this data has the potential to help improve mobility, the vast amount, dynamicity and diversity of data produced by different systems with different goals and constraints poses difficulties to integrate and analyze it and help the system’s users, operators and administrators. This study addresses this problem, more specifically the one of using bus schedule data, raw GPS and smart card records to reconstruct trips at passenger-level. We use data from the Curitiba bus system in Brazil to devise an analysis pipeline that combines and extends consolidated heuristics found in literature. Experiments demonstrate the utility of the proposed solution in two applications scenarios: a) the estimation of an Origin-Destination Matrix for Public Transport users, which was validated by a comparison to a recent Origin-Destination Survey performed in the city; and b) an analysis of the (in)efficiency of passenger itinerary choice, conducted by contrasting the estimated itinerary choice (extracted from trip reconstruction) to the set of available and feasible itineraries at the time of boarding.

A multi-agent system for the reactive fleet maintenance support planning of a fleet of mobile cyber-physical systems : application to rail transport industry

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:34:34 +0100

The manufacturers and the operators of the fleets of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are subjected to huge expectations expressed in terms of the availability and reliability of the provided products and services during the exploitation of these fleets in dynamic environments. These expectations foster the fleet manufacturers, particularly in the transportation sector, to develop effective mechanisms as far as the reactive planning of the maintenance operations at the fleet level is concerned. In this research work, a multi-agent system (MAS) for the reactive maintenance planning of a fleet of CPSs is proposed. The proposed MAS is conceived by using the ANEMONA design methodology and it aims at optimizing the fleet maintenance planning decisions to meet the specified objectives. The experiments carried out in the course of this work demonstrate the ability of the proposed MAS in planning the fleet maintenance effectively (i.e. satisfying the fleet’s availability and reliability requirements in a static environment) and reactively (i.e. being able to adapt/modify the fleet maintenance planning decisions following perturbations). The effectiveness of the MAS model is validated by a mathematical programming model and its reactivity is tested by using simulated perturbations. An application in rail transport industry to the fleet of trains at Bombardier Transportation France is proposed. The proposed MAS is integrated in a decision support system called "MainFleet". The development of Main-Fleet at Bombardier is ongoing.; Les industriels et les opérateurs des flottes de systèmes cyber-physiques (CPS) sont soumis à de fortes exigences exprimées en termes de disponibilité, fiabilité des produits et des services fournis lors de l’exploitation de ces flottes dans des environnements dynamiques. Ces attentes incitent les industriels, et notamment dans le secteur du transport, à développer des mécanismes efficaces de planification réactive des opérations de maintenance au niveau de la flotte. Dans cette thèse, un système multi-agent (SMA) pour la planification réactive de la maintenance d’une flotte de CPS est proposé. Ce SMA est construit en utilisant la méthode de conception ANEMONA et a pour objectif d’optimiser la planification de la maintenance au niveau flotte afin de répondre aux exigences spécifiées. Les expériences réalisées au cours de ces travaux démontrent la capacité de ce SMA à planifier la maintenance de la flotte de manière efficace (c'est-à-dire satisfaire les exigences de disponibilité et de fiabilité de la flotte dans un environnement statique) et de manière réactive (c'est-à-dire être capable d'adapter/de modifier les décisions de planification de la maintenance à la suite des perturbations). L'efficacité de ce modèle SMA est validée par un modèle mathématique et sa réactivité est testée par simulation de perturbations. Une application dans le domaine ferroviaire au sein de Bombardier Transport France est proposée. Le SMA est intégré à un système d’aide à la décision dénommé « MainFleet ». Le développement de MainFleet est en cours.

Efficient Traffic Management in Urban Environments

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:33:30 +0100

Currently, one of the main challenges that large metropolitan areas have to face is traffic congestion, which has become an important problem faced by city authorities. To address this problem, it becomes necessary to implement an efficient solution to control traffic that generates benefits for citizens, such as reducing vehicle journey times and, consequently, use of fuel, noise and environmental pollution. In fact, by properly analyzing traffic demand, it becomes possible to predict future traffic conditions, and to use that information for the optimization of the routes taken by vehicles. Such an approach becomes especially effective if applied in the context of autonomous vehicles, which have a more predictable behavior, thus enabling city management entities to mitigate the effects of traffic congestion and pollution by improving the traffic flow in a city in a fully centralized manner. Validating this approach typically requires the use of simulations, which should be as realistic as possible. However, achieving high degrees of realism can be complex when the actual traffic patterns, defined through an Origin/Destination (O-D) matrix for the vehicles in a city, are unknown, as occurs most of the times. Thus, the first contribution of this thesis is to develop an iterative heuristic for improving traffic congestion modeling; starting from real induction loop measurements made available by the City Hall of Valencia, Spain, we were able to generate an O-D matrix for traffic simulation that resembles the real traffic distribution. If it were possible to characterize the state of traffic by predicting future traffic conditions for optimizing the route of automated vehicles, and if these measures could be taken to preventively mitigate the effects of congestion with its related problems, the overall traffic flow could be improved. Thereby, the second contribution of this thesis was to develop a Traffic Prediction Equation to characterize the different streets of a city in terms of travel time with respect to the vehicle load, and applying logistic regression to those data to predict future traffic conditions. The third and last contribution of this thesis towards our envisioned traffic management paradigm was a route server capable of handling all the traffic in a city, and balancing traffic flows by accounting for present and future traffic congestion conditions. Thus, we perform a simulation study using real data of traffic congestion in the city of Valencia, Spain, to demonstrate how the traffic flow in a typical day can be improved using our proposed solution. Experimental results show that our proposed solution, combined with frequent updating of traffic conditions on the route server, is able to achieve substantial improvements in terms of average travel speeds and travel times, both indicators of lower degrees of congestion and improved traffic fluidity.

Environmental impact assessment of rail freight intermodality in Belgium using a Life Cycle Assessment approach

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:31:55 +0100

Freight transport is a crucial sector for the development of the economy and society, but it also produces negative impacts on the environment and the human health that must be considered. Intermodal freight transport represents an opportunity to achieve a transport of goods with enhanced environmental and competitive characteristics. Hence, intermodal freight transport consists in the transport of goods by at least two modes of transport, in the same loading unit (e.g. container), without handling the goods themselves when changing modes in an intermodal terminal. Intermodal freight transport leads to the shifting of road freight transport in long distances to others modes of transport with improved environmental performance such as rail freight transport and inland waterways transport. This thesis is concerned with a study of the environmental impacts of rail freight intermodality using a life cycle approach. The purpose of this research is to analyse the environmental impacts of the different inland freight transport modes in Belgium (focusing on rail freight transport), and their use in intermodal freight transport routes in Belgium and Europe. In this framework, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology constitutes an effective tool to assess the environmental impact of the inland freight transport modes. The system perspective of the LCA methodology implies the need to analyse not only the direct processes related to the transport activity such as energy consumption and exhaust emissions, but also the processes connected with the electricity and fuel production, vehicles (e.g. locomotives and wagons, barges and lorries) and infrastructure (e.g. railway, inland waterways and road). This thesis studies the inland freight transport in Belgium from the period 2006 to 2012. It has been carried out the LCA of rail freight transport (distinguishing between electric and diesel traction), inland waterways transport and road freight transport independently. A comparison between the environmental impacts of these inland freight transport modes has been performed as well. Within rail freight transport, the environmental impacts of electric trains using the electricity supply mix of different European countries have been compared. Moreover, a detailed study of the life cycle phases of construction, maintenance and disposal of railway infrastructure has been conducted. Furthermore, the influence of load factor and emission engine technology in the environmental performance of road transport have been studied. In addition, a study of the environmental impacts of consolidated intermodal freight transport routes in Belgium and Europe have been carried out. The aim of this analysis is the comparison of the environmental impacts of these intermodal routes depending on the transport mode chosen for the major part of the intermodal route. Finally, this thesis studies the environmental impact of the modal splits of inland freight transport in Belgium for several scenarios such as the increase of rail freight transport as a result of the possible development of the intermodal rail freight transport or the optimization of the operational costs. It has been analysed how the change of the modal split and the improvement of the technology used by the different transport modes affects the environmental impacts of inland freight transport in Belgium.

Automated Driving: Towards Trustworthy and Safe Human-Machine Cooperation

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:28:04 +0100

utomated vehicles are gradually entering the market and the technology promises to increase road safety and comfort, amongst other advantages. An important construct guiding humans' interaction with safety-critical systems is trust, which is especially relevant as most drivers are consumers rather than domain experts, such as pilots in aviation. The successful introduction of automated vehicles on the market requires to raise the trust of technology skeptics, but at the same time prevent overtrust. Overtrust is already suspected of having contributed to a couple of - even fatal - accidents with existing driving automation systems. Consequently, there is a need to investigate the topic of trust in the context of automated vehicles and design systems which maintain safety by preventing both distrust and overtrust, a process also called "trust calibration". As the possibility to engage in non-driving related tasks is an important consumer desire, this work proposes to consider drivers' multitasking demands already in the vehicle design process to prevent emerging trust issues. Therefore, a framework integrating theoretical considerations from the domains of trust, human-machine cooperation, and multitasking is proposed. By aligning overall goals between the operator and the system whilst supporting drivers in tasks at the strategical, tactical, and operation level of control, a more trustworthy cooperation should be achieved. A series of studies was conducted to identify important dimensions of trust in driving automation as well as scenarios leading to distrust and overtrust. Those scenarios were then used to demonstrate how the structured approach provided by the framework allows for designing in-vehicle interfaces. Three interaction concepts aiming to support drivers in the different levels of automation were designed and evaluated in driving simulator studies. Results highlight the potential of multimodal as well as attentive user interfaces (interruption management) to deal with overtrust, and augmented reality visualizations to raise acceptance of drivers distrusting the automation. All approaches confirmed to improve the subjective trust of the operator and demonstrate the structured approach provided by the framework can assist to design more trustworthy in-vehicle interfaces, which is important for a successful and safe implementation of driving automation systems. submitted by Dipl.-Ing. Philipp Wintersberger Universität Linz, Dissertation, 2020 (VLID)5108376

Study of deviations from planned flights in the European air traffic network

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:27:36 +0100

This study analyses deviations from planned flights in the European space network by studying economical motivations of airlines as triggering factors. For that reason, planned and performed historical traffic data from EUROCONTROL’s DDR2 have been used to examine 579,243 flights of December 2018 by calculating their savings in terms of operational costs and en-route charges. Results show that aircraft operators are systematically achieving savings on account of reducing planned distance when performing the flight and not by cutting en-route charges, which have a significantly lower weight in comparison to pure operational costs. This seems to be triggered by a combination of three factors: the intrinsic nature of flights that are performed during low traffic conditions; the interaction of pilots and air traffic controllers that look for a more efficient operation; and what seem to be distinct legitimate internal policies of airlines that would lead pilots to behave distinguishably when facing possibilities of reducing planned distance when performing the flight. The latter has been observed by introducing a new metric called dsTS, which measures the savings achieved by an airline per nautical mile, and by appreciating a relevant disparity among their values.

Disruptive technologies and urban mobility: innovations for the design of cities

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:26:12 +0100

O objeto desta pesquisa é o impacto das tecnologias disruptivas na mobilidade urbana devido, principalmente, aos veículos sem motorista e à mobilidade compartilhada. Com a adoção das tecnologias disruptivas, o objetivo geral é propor desenhos urbanos em função da redução da infraestrutura viária, visando a qualificação dos espaços públicos e a mobilidade urbana mais sustentável, de modo a fomentar os percursos a pé, de bicicleta, em transporte coletivo e em viagens compartilhadas, além de facilitar a intermodalidade dos deslocamentos. A adoção das tecnologias disruptivas também contribui para a redução de acidentes, para o aumento da mobilidade e da sua eficiência operacional, bem como para o favorecimento das pessoas que não dirigem, das que possuem limitações etárias, físicas ou motoras. Essas alterações vão impactar as cidades existentes e devem ser consideradas em projetos futuros, dentro de uma nova realidade. Sendo assim, os objetivos específicos consistem em: elencar as diretrizes para o redesenho urbano; estabelecer critérios para embasar a seleção do contexto urbano e da área de intervenção; selecionar e analisar parâmetros e indicadores de diferentes contextos urbanos; estimar a redução da infraestrutura viária; efetuar o levantamento da área de intervenção; analisar se as porcentagens de redução da infraestrutura viária obtidas nos levantamentos validam o intervalo anteriormente estimado, entre 15% e 25%; elaborar proposições para o cenário futuro e verificar se estas atendem aos objetivos inicialmente propostos. A hipótese é que o impacto das tecnologias disruptivas na mobilidade urbana, em função da redução da infraestrutura viária, tem potencial para inovações no desenho da cidade, visando a qualificação dos espaços públicos e a mobilidade urbana mais sustentável. O método é indutivo, por meio de levantamentos de dados secundários na literatura e em diferentes bases de dados, e dedutivo, por meio de proposições para o cenário futuro e os seus consequentes impactos no desenho urbano. Com essas proposições foi possível verificar que as porcentagens de redução da infraestrutura viária validam a estimativa inicial para o contexto local, sendo que a área liberada pela redução da infraestrutura viária - 21,8% na área foco, no distrito da Liberdade, em São Paulo, e 22,8% na área de referência, nos distritos da Bela Vista, da Liberdade, do Jardim Paulista e da Vila Mariana, em São Paulo - pôde ser convertida em outros usos, contemplando as principais diretrizes encontradas na literatura. Considerando-se os resultados obtidos, entende-se que os objetivos foram atingidos, bem como a hipótese comprovada, uma vez que as proposições demonstram o potencial de transformação do desenho urbano existente em prol da qualificação dos espaços públicos e de uma mobilidade urbana mais sustentável. The subject of this research is the impact of disruptive technologies on urban mobility mainly due to driverless vehicles and shared mobility. With the adoption of the disruptive technologies, the general objective is to propose urban designs due to the reduction of road infrastructure, aiming at the qualification of the public spaces and the more sustainable urban mobility, in order to foster walking, cycling, public transportation and transportation in shared travel, as well as facilitating the intermodality of travel. The adoption of disruptive technologies also contributes to reducing accidents, increasing mobility and its operational efficiency, as well as favoring people who do not drive, those with age, physical or motor limitations. These changes will impact the existing cities and should be considered in future projects within a new reality. Thus, the specific objectives are: to list the guidelines for urban redesign; establish criteria to support the selection of the urban context and the intervention area; select and analyze parameters and indicators of different urban contexts; estimate the reduction of road infrastructure; carry out the survey of the intervention area; analyze whether the percentages of road infrastructure reduction obtained in the surveys validate the previously estimated range, between 15% and 25%; elaborate propositions for the future scenario and verify if they meet the objectives initially proposed. The hypothesis is that the impact of disruptive technologies on urban mobility, due to the reduction of road infrastructure, has the potential for innovations in city design, aiming at the qualification of public spaces and more sustainable urban mobility. The method is inductive, through secondary data surveys in the literature and in different data bases, and deductive, through propositions for the future scenario and its consequent impacts on urban redesign. After these propositions it was possible to verify that the percentages of road infrastructure reduction validate the initial estimate for the local context, in Sao Paulo, and the area released by the road infrastructure reduction - 21.8% in the focus area at Liberdade district, in Sao Paulo, and 22.8% in the reference area at Bela Vista, Liberdade, Jardim Paulista and Vila Mariana districts, in Sao Paulo - could be converted to other uses, contemplating the main guidelines found in the literature. Considering the results obtained, it is understood that the objectives were achieved, as well as the hypothesis was proven, since the propositions demonstrate the potential for transformation of the existing urban design in favor of public space qualification and a more sustainable urban mobility.

Validation of a Public Transport Model

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:23:30 +0100

During 2018, the Public Transport Administration (Trafikförvaltningen) in the Stockholm region spent approximately 2.2 billion SEK on new infrastructure investments related to the public transport system, many of which were based on their public transport models. The previously used method for validating these models has lacked scientific rigour, efficiency and a systematic approach, which has led to uncertainty in decision making. Furthermore, few scientific studies have been conducted to develop validation methodologies for large-scale models, such as public transport models. For these reasons, a scientific validation methodology for public transport models has been developed in this thesis. This validation methodology has been applied on the 2014 route assignment model used by Trafikförvaltningen, for the transport modes bus, commuter train and local tram. In the developed validation methodology, the selected validation metrics called MAPE, %RMSE and R^2 are used to compare link loads from a route assignment model with observed link loads from an Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) system. To obtain an overview of the performance of the route assignment model, eight different scenarios are set, based on whether the validation metrics meet acceptable thresholds or not. In the application of the developed validation methodology, the average link loads for the morning rush have been validated. To adjust the developed validation methodology to system-specific factors and to set acceptable metric thresholds, discussions with model practitioners have taken place. The validation has been performed on both lines and links, and for bus entire line number series have been validated as well. The validation results show that commuter train meets the set threshold values in a higher proportion than bus and local tram do. However, Trafikförvaltningen is recommended to further calibrate the route assignment model in order to achieve a better model performance. The developed validation methodology can be used for validation of public transport models, and can in combination with model calibration be used in an iterative process to fine-tune model parameters for optimising validation results. Finally, a number of recommendations are proposed for Trafikförvaltningen to increase the efficiency and quality of the validation process, such as synchronising model data with the observed data. Under 2018 spenderade Trafikförvaltningen ungefär 2,2 miljarder kronor på nya infrastrukturinvesteringar för kollektivtrafiksystemet i Stockholm, varav många av dessa baserades på deras kollektivtrafikmodeller. Den tidigare metoden för att valideras dessa modeller har saknat gedigen vetenskaplig grund, effektivitet och ett systematiskt tillvägagångssätt, vilket lett till osäkerhet gällande investeringsbeslut. Dessutom har få vetenskapliga studier genomförts för att ta fram valideringsmetodologier för storskaliga modeller, såsom kollektivtrafikmodeller. Av dessa skäl har en vetenskaplig valideringsmetodologi för kollektivtrafikmodeller tagits fram i detta examensarbete. Denna valideringsmetodologi har tillämpats på Trafikförvaltningens 2014 års nätutläggningsmodell, för trafikslagen buss, pendeltåg och spårväg. I den framtagna valideringsmetodologin har de valda valideringsmåtten vid namn MAPE, %RMSE och R^2 använts för att jämföra länkbelastningar från en nätutläggningsmodell med observerade länkbelastningar från ett Automatisk Trafikanträkning-system (ATR). För att ge en översikt över modellens precision har åtta scenarios satts baserat på om valideringsmåtten godkänns eller inte enligt tröskelvärden. I tillämpningen av den framtagna valideringsmetodologin har de genomsnittliga länkbelastningarna för morgonens rusningstrafik validerats. För att justera den framtagna valideringsmetodologin efter systemspecifika faktorer och för att sätta godkända tröskelvärden för valideringsmåtten, har diskussioner med trafikanalytiker hållits. Valideringen har utförts både på linjer och länkar, och för buss har även hela linjeserier validerats. Valideringsresultaten för pendeltåg har en högre andel godkända mätningar än buss och spårväg. Trafikförvaltningen rekommenderas dock att kalibrera nätutläggningsmodellen ytterligare för att uppnå ett bättre resultat. Den framtagna valideringsmetodologin kan användas för valideringar av kollektivtrafikmodeller, och kan i kombination med modellkalibrering användas i en iterativ process för att finjustera modellparametrar och därmed optimera valideringsresultaten. Slutligen föreslås ett antal rekommendationer för Trafikförvaltningen för att öka effektiviteten och kvaliteten på valideringsprocessen, till exempel att synkronisera modelldata med observerad data.

Analysis of possible measures for Peak Demand Reduction in a Smart Grid with high penetration of Photovoltaics and Electric Vehicles in Thailand in a Scenario up to 2040

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:21:35 +0100

Global electricity demand is increasing every year. New services appear on the market in order to make our daily life easier. Decarbonization in transport sector makes electric vehicles more popular. Those electric vehicles are considered new demand in electricity sector. New power plants are to be built in order to serve those increasing demand. Due to climate change and global warming, many countries tend to increase the share of renewable energy. Those renewable power plants such as wind and photovoltaic tend to be, not only unpredictable, but also, distributed generation. They tend to be a number of small-scale power plants which are installed close to the loads in order to reduce the transmission losses. This high number of small-scale power plants makes it more challenging to manage. With all these challenges, the electrical grid must be smarter in order to cope with the increasing demand and also be able to balance between power demand side and power supply side. It should be monitored and be able make real-time adjustment in order to deliver electricity efficiently with standard power security and power quality to consumers.There are various types of smart grid technologies that can contribute directly to the reduction of electricity production cost. The reduction of peak demand is the key. Smart grid technologies such as Home energy management system, utility-scale battery storage system, and vehicle-to-grid are investigated in this master thesis in order to reduce the peak demand. von Dechawat Tamaneewan Arbeit an der Bibliothek noch nicht eingelangt - Daten nicht geprüft Abweichender Titel nach Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des Verfassers Technische Universität Wien, Masterarbeit, 2020 (VLID)4795383

An Evaluation of Automatic Test Case Generation strategy from Requirements for Electric/Autonomous Vehicles

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:21:08 +0100

Software testing is becoming more prominent within the automotive industry due to more complex systems, and functions are implemented in the vehicles. The vehicles in the future will have the functionality to manage different levels of automation, which also means that vehicles driven by humans will have more supportive functionality to increase safety and avoid accidents. These functionalities result in a massive growth in the number of test scenarios to indicate that the vehicles are safe, and this makes it impossible to continue performing the tests in the same way as it has been done until today. The new conditions require that the test scenarios and Test Cases both be generated and executed automatically. In this thesis, an investigation and evaluation are performed to analyze the Automatic Test Case Generation methods available for inputs from Natural Language Requirements in an automotive industrial context at NEVS AB. This study aims to evaluate the NAT2TEST strategy by replacing the manual method and obtain a similar or better result. A comparative analysis is performed between the manual and automated approaches for various levels of requirements. The results show that utilizing this strategy in an industrial scenario can improve efficiency if the requirements to be tested are for well-documented lower-level requirements.

Vertal HEX : Mobility for the future vertical cityscape

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:17:13 +0100

The project originated with the question "What is the future of urban mobility?" and the counterquestion "What is the future of urbanity?". To understand the future of mobility, we first need to try to understand more of the future context where it'll reside. Mobility and the context it exists within are two symbiotic yet constantly evolving elements. This project seeks to speculate about their respective state in the year of 2050. Our global population keeps on growing, and more people are moving into urbanized regions. Already today more 90% of the worlds population is concentrated on roughly 10% of our planets land surface, and the density keeps increasing. To cope with the expanding population, cities need to keep growing and create sustainable infrastructure. The trend in densely populated regions has been to grow in the vertical axis. Besides just residential spaces, modern cities are starting to distribute shops, utilities and other typical city content vertically as well. City blocks and their content that used to be spread out in the horizontal plane are now increasingly being housed within compact hubs over multiple levels vertically. This project proposes the idea of a prototype sub-city within a mega city in the South East Asian region, around the year of 2050. Created as a way to prototype solutions to challenges found in hyper densely populated regions ranging from urban planning and congestion to general liveability. The fictional district has a highly vertically oriented cityscape, consisting of many interconnected highrises and megastructures. Traversing the walls of the buildings, vertically and horizontally, are vehicles propelled through magnetic levitation technology on an inductive infrastructure retrofitted onto or built into the buildings in the region. The far future, visionary setting of the project intends to provoke thoughts and reflection about an urban lifestyle within a far more vertically oriented environment. The thesis also aims to paint a picture of a car free city hub where vehicles are bound to the vertical plane, and the horizontal plane is devoted to the community of the city. Whether it's on the ground level or multiple stories up in a luscious "sky garden", the horizontal planes belong to the people and are roamed by foot. The process behind the development of the project involved research into the future setting and emerging technologies. Creative development and ideation were done using analogue as well as digital sketching, brainstorm sessions and physical and digital mockuping. The final vizualisations and compositions were designed from storyboards describing typical use cases of the vehicle. After researching topics of future cityscapes, creating the future premise of the project and ideating and refining various ideas, the end result of the thesis is Vertal Hex. A maglev propelled shuttle targetting future businesses. Travelling along the walls of the interconnected megastructures making up the future cityscape and company campuses, it allows it's passengers to reach their destinations anywhere within the hub entering right at the floor of their destination.

Optimization of a charging system for electric vehicles : A case study in Magangué, Colombia

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:16:58 +0100

To reduce the emissions from the transport sector, the electric vehicle (EV) is a promising alternative to the internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). An important aspect of implementing new transport systems in terms of EVs is the charging strategy, as many energy sources with different limitations can be utilized. Although various studies have investigated charging strategies for electric cars, there is a lack of optimized charging strategies for electric boats with specific considerations for these cases. In Colombia, the river transport sector plays an important role in areas with lack of access to other transport alternatives. This study presents an optimization of the charging strategy for an electric boat that is planned to traffic the Magdalena River in the region of Magangué, Colombia. The objective of the optimization model is to minimize the electricity bill while maintaining a desired transport service. The study considers solar photovoltaics (PV), the electric grid and battery storage for charging, and compares different battery sizes in a scenario analysis. Furthermore, the impact of the instability of the grid is included in terms of a sensitivity analysis of grid blackouts, together with varying battery investment costs. The results show that PV is a recommended investment as it lowers the charging cost and gives positive results in terms of economic feasibility. To further increase the economic feasibility, lower the charging costs and improve the reliability of the system, it is suggested to invest in energy storage. The techno-economic feasibility of storage is heavily affected by battery investment costs and number of grid blackouts affecting the boat charging. If the investment cost is low and the number of blackouts is high, a large storage is a suggested solution. För att minska utsläppen från transportsektorn är elfordon (EV) ett lovande alternativ till förbränningsmotorfordon (ICEV). En viktig aspekt vid implementering av nya transportsystem för EV:s är val av laddningsstrategi, eftersom många energikällor med olika begränsningar kan användas. Även om flertalet studier har undersökt laddningsstrategier för elbilar, saknas optimerade laddningsstrategier för elbåtar och som beaktar de specifika förhållandena för dessa fall. I Colombia spelar flodtransportsektorn en viktig roll i områden med brist på tillgång till andra transportalternativ. Denna studie presenterar en optimering av laddningsstrategin för en elbåt som är planerad att trafikera floden Magdalena i regionen Magangué, Colombia. Syftet med optimeringsmodellen är att minimera elräkningen samtidigt som en önskad transporttjänst bibehålls. Studien omfattar solceller (PV), elnätet och batterilagring för laddning, och jämför olika batteristorlekar i en scenarioanalys. Vidare inkluderas effekterna av elnätets instabilitet genom en känslighetsanalys av strömavbrott, tillsammans med varierande kostnader för batteriinvesteringar. Resultaten visar att PV är en rekommenderad investering eftersom den sänker laddningskostnaden och ger positiva resultat när det gäller ekonomisk lönsamhet. För att ytterligare öka den ekonomiska lönsamheten, sänka laddningskostnaderna och förbättra systemets tillförlitlighet föreslås det att investera i energilagring. Den teknisk-ekonomiska genomförbarheten för lagring påverkas starkt av kostnader för batteriinvesteringar och antalet strömavbrott som påverkar båtladdningen. Om investeringskostnaden är låg och antalet strömavbrott är högt är energilagring med stor kapacitet en föreslagen lösning.

Real-world data-driven decision support system for electric vehicle charging infrastructure development.

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:16:42 +0100

Trends show that the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased significantly in recent years, bringing about changes not only in the transport industry but also in the economy and society. There are many obstacles for EVs to reach their full market potential, among which the underdevelopment of the charging station infrastructure is clearly highlighted. The main objective of this PhD thesis is to provide a data-driven approach for an intelligent management of the infrastructure of EV charging stations using data science methods in the interdisciplinary field of sustainable transport, business and energy informatics. This dissertation answers three research questions: (i) "Where should a provider of EV charging station infrastructure install / remove / relocate a charging station?", (ii) "How can the infrastructure management approach be determined in view of the development of the existing infrastructure?" and (iii) "How can the range anxiety in the use of electric vehicles be defined and measured?" using practical methods. The scientific contributions of the dissertation are: a model and computing system based on real-world data intended for the management of charging station infrastructure for electric vehicles, and a techno-economic framework that allows a technological action plan and the analysis of what-if scenarios for the development of charging stations for electric vehicles. Trendovi pokazuju kako se popularnost električnih vozila (EV) značajno povećala unazad par godina, uzrokovajući pritom promjene ne samo u transportnoj industriji već u poslovanju i društvu također. Postoje mnoge prepreke kako bi EV-ovi dosegli svoj potpuni tržišni potencijal među kojima se značajno ističe nerazvijenost infrastrukture punionica. Glavni cilj ove doktorske disertacije jest koristeći metode znanosti o podacima nad interdisciplinarnim područjem održivog transporta, ekonomije i energetske informatike, pružiti pristup temeljen na podacima za pametno upravljanje strukturom punionica EV-ova. Ova doktorska disertacija odgovara na tri istraživačka pitanja: (i) "Gdje pružatelj infrastrukture punionica za EV-ove treba postaviti/maknuti/premjestiti punionicu?", (ii) "Kako odrediti pristup upravljanja infrastrukturom s obzirom na razvijenost postojeće infrastructure?" te (iii) “Kako definirati I izmjeriti anksioznost dometa prilikom korištenja električnih vozila?” koristeći metodologije bazirane na podacima iz stvarnoga svijeta. Znanstveni doprinosi disertacije su: model i računalni sustav zasnovan na podacima namijenjen upravljanju infrastrukturom punionica za električna vozila te tehnološko-ekonomski radni okvir koji omogućuje tehnološki akcijski plan i analizu što-ako scenarija za razvoj infrastrukture punionica električnih vozila.

Engineering User-Centric Smart Charging Systems

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:13:37 +0100

Die Integration erneuerbarer Energiequellen und die Sektorenkopplung erhöhen den Bedarf an Flexibilität im Elektrizitätssystem. Elektrofahrzeuge koordiniert zu Laden bietet die Chance solche Flexibilität bereitzustellen. Allerdings hängt das Flexibilitätspotential von Elektrofahrzeugen davon ab in welchem Umfang sich die Nutzer der Fahrzeuge dazu entschließen intelligentes Laden zu nutzen. Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es Lösungen für intelligente Ladesysteme zu entwickeln, welche die Nutzer zu flexiblerem Laden anreizen und diese dabei zu unterstützen. Anhand eines Literaturüberblicks und einer Expertenbefragung werden zunächst Ziele identifiziert, welche Nutzer zu einer flexiblen Ladung motivieren können. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass neben finanziellen Anreizen auch die Integration erneuer-barer Energien und die Vermeidung von Netzengpässen einen Anreiz für das flexible La-den darstellen können. In der Folge wird untersucht, ob das Framing der Ladesituation hinsichtlich dieser Ziele die Ladeflexibilität von Elektrofahrzeugnutzern beeinflussen kann. Hierzu wird ein Online-Experiment mit Elektrofahrzeugnutzern evaluiert. Das sich ein Teil der Nutzer bei einem Umwelt-Framing flexibler verhält, macht Feedback darüber, wie die CO2-Emissionen von der bereitgestellten Flexibilität abhängen zu einem vielversprechenden Anreiz intelligentes Laden zu nutzen. Um solches Feedback zu er-möglichen werden als Nächstes die CO2-Einsparpotenziale eines optimierten Ladens im Vergleich zu unkontrolliertem Laden untersucht. Dazu werden die marginalen Emissions-faktoren im deutschen Stromnetz mithilfe eines regressionsbasierten Ansatzes ermittelt. Um Echtzeit-Feedback in realen Systemen zu ermöglichen wird darauf aufbauend eine Prognosemethode für Emissionsfaktoren entwickelt. Die Zielerreichung intelligenten Ladens hängt hauptsächlich von der zeitlichen und energetischen Flexibilität der Elektrofahrzeuge ab. Damit Nutzer diese Ladeeinstellungen nicht bei jeder Ankunft an der Ladestation von Hand eingeben zu müssen, könnten sie durch intelligente Assistenten unterstützt werden. Hierfür werden probabilistische Prognosen für die Flexibilität einzelner Ladevorgänge basierend auf historischen Ladevorgängen und Mobilitätsmustern entwickelt. Darüber hinaus zeigt eine Fallstudie, dass probabilistische Prognosen besser als Punktprognosen dazu geeignet sind die Ladung mehrerer Elektrofahrzeuge zu koordinieren.

Improving mass transit service by using crowdsourcing and gamification : A study on how to develop and design an application that can be used to encourage Värmlandstrafik’s passengers to report problems and concerns

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:13:06 +0100

lication that combines crowdsourcing and gamification elements should be usable by as many passengers as possible, considering all the different smartphones available on the market and people with disabilities. Thus, most popular platforms for cross-platform mobile application development should be compared in order to choose the appropriate one for this project. Finally, application prototype should be further tested to gather more feedback about design and concept for improvements and future studies. Such solution is not meant to replace current methods of information gathering, but instead should be one of the available tools.

Studies on Travel Experience of Intra-city Buses: Supporting Service Design with Travel Experience Toolkit

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:11:05 +0100

Today, we live in a world where mobility is a part of the everyday life. At the same time, there is a global need for cities to be smart and sustainable. People spend increasing amounts of time traveling, and thus the development of public transportation services is central for advancing these goals. Transportation services include associated digital services – such as navigation and scheduling services, and various infotainment services. In order to make public transportation services desirable for wide audience, all aspects of the services need to be designed with a focus on the passengers’ and their needs and experiences. While there is a considerable amount of research conducted in the public transportation field, there is a lack of qualitative studies that contribute to the understanding of the travel experience of intra-city bus transportation from the User Experience (UX) point of view. This thesis contributes to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), with a more specific focus on User Experience (UX) and Human-Centered Design (HCD). In addition, the practical aspects of this research contribute to the field of service design. This thesis also provides a theoretical contribution to the travel experience and transportation field, viewing the topic from human-centered design perspective. This research was conducted over the period of three years between 2016-2019, as a part of the research project Living Lab Bus (LLB). LLB collaboration project with industrial partners. The research on user experience perspective of bus passengers resulted in five publications which form the basis of this compound thesis. This dissertation presents a series of qualitative studies conducted with Research for design approach to gain understanding of intra-city bus passengers’ travel experience. These studies involved a total of 68 bus passengers representing different age groups and backgrounds from two city regions in Finland: Tampere and Helsinki. The preliminary interview study involved 10 international students, a total of 24 international students participated in the idea generation workshops, and representatives of three different user groups: high school students, parents of young children, and pensioners took part to in-depth ideation workshops. A total of 20 people of different ages and backgrounds participated in the bus travel experience study. This study utilised the diary method to collect contextual data of bus passengers’ experience over a three-week period. The goal of this research is two-fold: first, to gain insights of bus passengers’ needs and expectations for intra-city bus related services and to create holistic understanding of the intra-city bus travel experience. This forms the theoretical contribution of the thesis. The second aim of the thesis work was to transform these insights into practical and visual format. This part of the research resulted in a set of design tools, enabling the findings of this research to be utilized by different stakeholders when developing and designing services for the public transportation context. This practical contribution is presented in the form of Travel Experience Toolkit (T-rEX), including four design tools that support the service development in different stages of the design process: 1. Bus Travel Experience Model for understanding the context, 2. Context Cards for diversifying ideation, 3. Passenger Journey Map for exploring service touchpoints, and 4. Experience Personas for getting to know the passengers. These tools bring Human-Centered Design knowhow to different stakeholders working in the transportation context, with the aim to enable the design and development of services that fulfill the needs and expectations of bus passengers. As a final study, we conducted a multi-stakeholder evaluation of T-rEX toolkit with four public transportation stakeholders, to gain understanding of how the toolkit serves different stakeholders in their public transportation service development. The theoretical and practical contributions advance the research and design of future digital services for passengers and can help make public transportation more attractive.

Evaluating the Environmental Impact of a Product : Partial Life Cycle Assessment

Scipedia content — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:10:19 +0100

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate how manufacturing organisations can decrease their environmental impact in the supply chain. To meet the purpose, two research questions were formulated: 1. How can a manufacturing organisation reduce its environmental impact caused by transportation? 2. How can a manufacturing organisation reduce its environmental impact caused by production? Method – To provide the opportunity to reach a conclusion and to create a basic understanding of the research area, a literature review was conducted, which formed the basis of the theoretical framework. Through a case study at a manufacturing organisation, interviews and document analyses were used as sources for empirical data. In order to develop solutions and recommendations, collected data and theoretical framework were analysed and discussed. Findings – The research findings indicate that there are several possible measures to implement to reduce an organisation's environmental impact in the supply chain. A decisive factor is creating a holistic and fundamental understanding of sustainability and enabling everyone involved to work according a common view and in the same direction. In addition, a requirement to pursue the same goal is that all stakeholders are involved where a prerequisite is a well-functioning internal communication. Implications – The research did not contribute to any new theories, but through the research analysis, statements and theories from previous research were strengthened. The research suggests actions that can be used for organisations to reduce their environmental impact, but also to increase the understanding of why actions should be implemented. Society has an important responsibility for motivating and provide conditions for manufacturing organisations to reduce their footprint. This research is considered to lead to an improved environment in the form of lower emission levels where both organisations and the entire community take responsibility for the planet. Limitations – The case study is designed as a single-case study which, from a validity perspective, is not considered as advantageous as a multiple case study because the results are difficult to generalize. In order to strengthen the study's reliability, several functional units and / or organisations could have been included in the study.

Trade-off Analytics for Infrastructure Preservation

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:23:11 +0100

The project objective was to develop an online course to be taught to the maritime and multimodal infrastructure community including: transportation planners, maritime planners, infrastructure managers, Civil Engineers, and Industrial Engineers, on the use of trade-off analytics as a tool to assist them in their infrastructure development, management and preservation decision-making.Modules of this course can also be packaged into online webinars for practicing professionals. This course was developed using existing trade-off analytics resources and maritime case studies developed for the course.The course uses Multiple Objective Decision Analysis (MODA) with Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) and Optimization and to structure complex program asset management decisions requiring trade-offs between conflicting stakeholder objectives. The course focuses on framing decisions, identifying stakeholders, developing objectives and value measures, generating alternatives, developing a value model, developing a cost model, evaluating alternatives, identifying uncertainties, analyzing uncertainties, and making meaningful trade-offs between cost, value, and risk. The case studies and examples focus on maritime and multimodal infrastructures.The course was developed and taught in an online program, the University of Arkansas M.S. in Engineering Management in Fall of 2019.The complete set of course material are available through the MarTREC website for use by instructors at other universities and continuing education programs.

Developing and Applying an Analysis Methodology to Identify Flow Generation Influences between Vessel and Truck Shipments

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:16:02 +0100

Truck activity is logically connected to vessel activity at a port. In turn, vessel activity is also influenced by truck shipments. Although one might expect a direct and straightforward relation between these two types of shipments, that is rarely the case. For instance, many maritime containers carry consolidated cargos that have multiple and different final destinations. Also, different truck capacities, customs clearance and regulations play a critical role in determining the actual relation between these two types of shipments. This project aims at shedding light on the nuances of maritime and roadway flow relations by quantitatively analyzing the linkages between these two types of shipments. The study performed a statistical analysis to determine the probability distributions of vessel and truck activity, and then explore the correlation of each activity with the other. The analysis yielded coefficients that function as explanatory values for specific truck flows. The ultimate purpose of this study is to provide a clearer and quantitative understanding of the relationship between maritime and truck shipments, and by doing so, to provide tools to develop a system for managing trucks that maximizes efficiency for industry, while minimizing industry’s negative impacts on a region. For this purpose, the study selected the Port Freeport as a case study.

SIMWESTMED - Analysis of data needs and existing gaps (R16)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:12:46 +0100

Component 1: Supporting Implementation of MSP Sub-component 1.3.3: Data and Information requirements for MSP The Analysis of Data Needs and Existing Gaps – Specifically Relating to Transboundary Working report is an intermediary document related to the SIMWESTMED action on data exchanges. It provides an initial overview on the data arrangements in the Western Mediterranean. This initial information analysis is aimed to guide the implementation of activities to enhance data exchanges between countries in the SIMWESTMED context. The report analyses the current state of data needs and gaps for MSP in the Western Mediterranean in order to highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with data and information in the region. It identifies where (portals, infrastructures...) and how (accessibility, interoperability...) relevant data for MSP is available and to what extent it can be improved (assets and barriers) ; it is based on an inventory of existing data, data portals, projects and tools established according to the knowledge of the partnership. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

From A Rocky Road to Smooth Sailing: Building Transport Resilience to Natural Disasters

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:10:30 +0100

Reliable transport infrastructure is one of the backbones of a prosperous economy, providingaccess to markets, jobs and social services. Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG9) calls forincreased access to sustainable transport infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries.Collectively, these countries will need to spend between 0.5 percent and 3.3 percent of their GDPannually (157 billion to 1 trillion US Dollars) in new transport infrastructure by 2030 – plus an additional 1 percent to 2 percent of GDP to maintain their network – depending on their ambition and their efficiency in service delivery (Rozenberg and Fay, 2019). Because of the wide spatial distribution of transport infrastructure, many transport assets are exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards, increasing costs for national transport agencies and operators. During the 2015 floods in Tbilisi, Georgia, the repair of transport assets contributed approximately 60 percent of the total damage cost (GFDRR, 2015). In the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, accessibility as measured by the length of open networks directly after the shock dropped by 86 percent for highways and by 71 percent for railways (Kazama and Noda, 2012b). Such transport disruptions necessarily have direct impacts on the local economy. Employees face difficulties commuting, access to firms is disrupted for clients, interruptions in the supply chain inhibit production, and finished products cannot be easily shipped (Kajitani and Tatano, 2014). The paper, prepared as background material for the Lifelines report on infrastructure resilience, summarizes the main findings on the risk faced by transport networks and users as a result of natural disasters and climate change, and the main recommendations for building more resilient transport networks. It starts by describing how transport disruptions affect firms and households either directly and through supply chains. It then proposes a range of approaches and solutions for building more resilient transport networks, showing that the additional cost of resilience is not high if resources are well spent. Finally, it provides a set of practical recommendations.

City-scalable Destination Recommender System for On-demand Senior Mobility

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:02:13 +0100

This project aims to propose a Mobility-on-Demand (MOD) service with a destination recommender system that interacts with users and recommends activity destinations to them. The proposed system implements a learning algorithm to learn the users' destination preferences efficiently, dealing with a trade-off between balancing an option selection that could efficiently learn the uncertainty (exploration) and providing users with rewarding choices (exploitation). It will be especially helpful for seniors who have limited access to contemporary ICT because they can act as physical search engines for travelers. This project has a threefold objective: 1. Better understand the mobility needs of the elderly across different cities. This is accomplished via a joint survey conducted with collaborators from the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), on elderly living in El Paso, TX, and in New York, NY. 2. Implement a proof-of-concept of a recommender system that can be readily adapted to MOD services, one that considers routing constraints. 3. Conduct computational experiments with the proof of concept to demonstrate the existence of the effect that adding spatial constraints has on the performance of a recommender system. Based on these computational experiments, we draw new guidelines for expanding this research for MOD service providers using publicly available data. Codes used for the analysis are provided here: https://github.com/BUILTNYU/recommender-system Also, the expanded version of the recommender system is available: https://github.com/BUILTNYU/DestinationRecoMOD

Roadspace re-allocation: D2.1 report with annexes

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:53:49 +0100

https://www.roadspace.eu/; This report constitutes the first WP2 deliverable. It examines how road space allocation is addressed across different urban contexts an urban governance and a public policy perspective. It contributes to the understanding of transition management in the transport policy domain, from a car-oriented transport policy perspective towards the development of new policy approaches, such as one favouring sustainable mobility and over the recent period, place-making. The report includes an up-to-date analysis of major institutional, organizational and political factors shaping the design and implementation of urban road space allocation strategies across the five cities: London, Constanta, Malmö, Lisbon and Budapest.

SIMWESTMED - State-of-play of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive Implementation process - Focus on the role of the Regions (R2)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:53:35 +0100

Component: C1.2 Development of cooperation on transboundary MSP Sub-component: C.1.2.2 Analysis of the Maritime Spatial Planning Process The Directive establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning was adopted on 23 July 2014, it commits Member States to define a planning strategy and develop maritime spatial management plans by 2021. In doing so, EU Member States must adhere to a series of principles, including consultation of the relevant authorities. This paper will describe the state of play of MSP implementation in the European Union and especially within the four countries of the SIMWESTMED project being France, Italy, Malta and Spain, together with regional implications. In a second part, this paper will indeed address the role of the regions in the implementation process of the Directive and will analyse their concerns and proposed solutions. EU Coastal regional authorities can be considered as indispensable actors in the development and management of human activities at sea, in link with their regulatory powers, scope of competencies, and actions. The stakes of the Directive are in that sense of high importance for many regions whose economy is largely based on the maritime sector. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

Roadspace re-allocation: organizational, institutional and political dimensions. Cross-findings report.: D2.1

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:46:38 +0100

This cross-findings report constitutes the first WP2 deliverable. It draws from the work undertaken as part of Task 2.1. on mapping institutional, organizational and political responsibilities, interests and objectives; Identifying interfaces and barriers to improved design and operation. It is completed with a set of annexes, listed under "halshs-02382083"; This report provides an overview of existing institutional, organizational and political responsibilities in allocating road space across five cities in Europe. It accounts for the main barriers and opportunities faced by local authorities in addressing new demands. It lays the groundwork for a more systematic analysis of the politics of road space allocation. A brief description of the MORE project is introduced in the following paragraphs, followed by a presentation of this report’s main objectives.

SIMNORAT - Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors (D8)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:45:22 +0100

Component 1.3.2 – Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors and marine conservation C1.3.2. Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors The interest in this study in the direct expression of the spatial demand by the representatives of the maritime sector activity constitutes its originality. This expression reflects the concrete vision, specific to each sector, of its evolution as well as its expectations regarding the MSP. The purpose of this study is not to define and study several prospective development scenarios or to map sectorial trends, but rather to explore the factors influencing its development (policies, interactions, context, etc.) and to characterize positioning strategy with respect to the MSP. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

INTEND Project D 4.3 Transport Research Agend

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:45:06 +0100

Deliverable 4.3 provides a blueprint of a new and holistic research agenda, consisting of key research and innovation pathways for the future as well as blind spots beyond mainstream research that aim to support a system transformation and re-organization of the mobility system consistent with political goals of the European Union.

SIMWESTMED - Relationship between LSI and ICZM (R5)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:44:10 +0100

Component: C 1.3 Support for Member States' implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning Sub‐component: C 1.3.1 Develop and propose a conceptual methodology for transboundary MSP in the Western MED, with operational details on selected aspects C 1.3.1.4 Relationship between LSI and ICZM This document aims to provide a methodological guideline for LSI analysis within MSP, also exploring how such analysis can be embedded in the wider ICZM context. In this perspective, this document intends to support MSP planners with a possible operative framework for the LSI analysis, identifying specific actions to be carried out in close connections with the maritime spatial planning process. Finally, with specific regard to addressing the MSP Directive requirements, the ultimate scope of this document is to provide some guidance on how to (re)organize topics, information and effort, including those eventually already available from formal or informal processes (e.g. ICZM). In addition to this introduction, the document includes other 5 chapters. Based on the analysis of the available literature, chapter 2 provides the description of some key concepts for LSI analysis, including its definition (section 2.1), different possible categorization of LSI typologies (section 2.2), and criteria that might delimitate the area of LSI analysis (section 2.3). Chapter 3 illustrates examples of LSI definitions included in the national legislation and of interactions considered particularly relevant in the countries participating to the SIMWESTMED project. Chapter 4 reflects on the step-by-step methodological guideline to perform LSI analysis within the MSP process, as proposed within SUPREME project. Links between LSI and MSP are in detail explored in chapter 5, which also discusses how outcome of the LSI analysis can be transferred in the ICZM context, referring in particular to the ICZM Protocol, as well as in other planning processes. Finally, chapter 6 provides some reflections on LSI analysis coming from the pilot cases implemented by SIMWESTMED project. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

FORESEE – D1.1: Guideline to measure service provided by, and resilience of, transport infrastructure

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:39:43 +0100

Vehicle Sensor Data (VSD) Based Traffic Control in Connected Automated Vehicle (CAV) Environment

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:34:21 +0100

SIMWESTMED - MSPGI: A Geoportal Feasibility Study - Planning Authority MSP Geoportal MSP Implementation Initiative (R26)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:30:59 +0100

Component 1: Supporting Implementation of MSP Sub-component 1.3.3: Data and information requirements for MSP. Deliverable: Data management guidance document (R26) This document presents a proposal for the setting up of a Marine-related Geoportal supporting the implementation of the MSP Directive which may serve as the basis for the implementation of the operational functionalities required for the integration of the marine-related spatial datasets, the facilitation of inter-agency data dissemination as well as creating a web tool that helps users to understand the wider catchments that spread beyond the terrestrial domain within which the current web portals reside. The resultant approach showed that there are two options available: one that a new system is created, one that replicates the PA’s Geoportal, or one that would add on a section to the current Geoportal, where the latter was deemed the most feasible. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

Inland Marine Transportation System travel time atlas via Automatic Identification System (AIS) data : Ohio River, Upper Mississippi River, and Illinois River

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:30:27 +0100

SIMNORAT - Land Sea Interactions and Relationships with Integrated Coastal Zone Management (D6)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:28:27 +0100

Component: 1.3.1 Develop and propose a conceptual methodology for transboundary MSP in the Northern Atlantic, with operational details on selected aspects Sub-component: 1.3.1.4 Land Sea Interactions and Relationships with Integrated Coastal Zone Management The MSP Directive asks Member States to consider land-sea interactions (LSI) when establishing and implementing maritime spatial planning. The aim is to promote an integrated and strategic vision for MSP that is coherent with land use planning frameworks. This line of thinking is in consistency with other European processes, namely the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) recommendation, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and the Water Framework Directive (WFD). In the scope of SIMNORAT project, land-sea interaction refers to a complex phenomenon relating to: • the natural processes across the land-sea interface; • the interactions between uses and activities at the sea and at the land, but also to their impacts on the quality or ecological dynamics of coastal and marine environments; • the governance arrangements in these interface and socio-ecological systems. Management of maritime uses/activities and marine resources cannot be dissociated from what happens in thecoastal zone, and vice versa. Many maritime uses need support installations on land. Some uses existing mostly on land (e.g., tourism, recreation, ports) expand their activities to the sea as well. These interactions need to be understood, in order to assess their individual and cumulative impacts and potential conflicts and synergies. For instance, maritime uses and activities may have negative impacts on coastal zone, as well as land-based uses and activities - in the coast or in the watershed - may have negative impacts on the marine environment. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Incentives for Crowdsourcing

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:26:22 +0100

This whitepaper provides an overview perspective on the foundation of crowdsourcing and crowdsensing, detailing related notions such as collective intelligence and citizen science. As all crowd-based initiatives are usually built upon a core of volunteers participating to an “open call” to perform tasks, crowdsensing in particular relies on the willingness of participants to invest time and interest in a cause, sacrifice limited resources of their mobile devices, and provide implicit or explicit efforts, including ignoring risks that impact the privacy of their data. This document describes how incentives and rewarding schemes are adopted in this context to attract a community of users and to keep it engaged. Two incentive schemes in particular are described, both of which have been developed within the CROWD4ROADS project: a game mode that transforms collected data into generated terrain for a 2D platform game and a voucher exchange system that acts as a platform for any initiative for the common good. Both incentive schemes are fully anonymous and integrate within a fully anonymous data collection scheme.

Supplementary material to ECOMAR: A data-driven framework for ecosystembased Maritime Spatial Planning in Danish marine waters

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:25:52 +0100

Project manager Jesper H. Andersen This report contains, as said in the title, the supplementary material to the synthesis report from the ECOMAR project (2018- 2020). The supplementary material consists of three parts: 1) Annex A, being the data sets and layers dealing with human pressures and activities, 2) Annex B, being the data set related to ecosystem components and analogue data sets, and 3) Annex C, being additional data used for the mapping of potentially cumulative effects in Danish marine waters as well as maps of results mentioned, but not show in the synthesis report. For each data set, a specific reference to the data authoring organization as well as contact information for the Data Author. THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS

SIMNORAT - State-of-play of MSP directive implementation process - Focus on the role of the regions (D2)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:19:39 +0100

Component: C1.2 Development of Cooperation on transboundary MSP Sub-component: C1.2.2 Analysis of the Maritime Spatial Planning Process The Directive establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning was adopted on 23 July 2014, it commits Member States to define a planning strategy and develop maritime spatial plans by 2021. In doing so, EU Member States must adhere to a series of principles, including consultation of the relevant authorities. This paper will describe the state of play of MSP implementation in the European Union and especially within the three countries of the SIMNORAT project being France, Spain, Portugal together with regional implications. To complement this state-of-play, this paper will address the role of the regions in the implementation process of the Directive and will analyse their concerns and proposed solutions. EU Coastal regional authorities can be considered as indispensable actors in the development and management of human activities at sea, in link with their regulatory powers, scope of competencies, and actions. The stakes of the Directive are in that sense of high importance for many regions whose economy is largely based on the maritime sector. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). The project: Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Planning in Gateway and Natural Amenity Region Communities: Understanding the Unique Challenges Associated with Transportation, Mobility, and Livability

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:17:50 +0100

Village women organize: The Mraru Bus Service

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:13:57 +0100

Taxing vehicles, fuels, and road use

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:11:14 +0100

This paper discusses the main external costs related to road transport and the design of taxes to manage them. It provides an overview of evolving tax practice in the European Union and the United States and identifies opportunities for better alignment of transport taxes with external costs. There is considerable scope for improving transport tax practice, notably by increasing the use of taxes based on road use. Distance charges offer great promise in delivering more efficient road transport. In heavily congested areas, targeted charges are a cost-effective way of reducing congestion. Fiscal objectives provide an impetus for change as improving vehicle fuel efficiency and fleet penetration of alternative fuel vehicles erode traditional tax bases, particularly those relating to fossil fuel use. A gradual shift from an energy-based approach towards distance-based transport taxes has the potential to establish a stable tax base in the road transport sector in the long run.

SIMWESTMED - Case Study #4 "Strait of Sicily - Malta" (R23)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:07:34 +0100

Component: C 1.3 Support for Member States' implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning Sub‐component: C 1.3.6. Establish Case Studies on Approaches to MSP Implementation Case Study #4 Strait of Sicily (Italy-Malta) The SIMWESTMED case study for Malta is focused on the Malta - Sicily marine waters, bordering the south of Sicily and the north of the Maltese Islands. The study area (9420 km2) features portions of internal, territorial and international waters, continental shelf areas, Malta’s Contiguous Zone and Malta’s Fisheries Management Conservation Zone. After a thorough refinement of information on legal/planning status, environmental conditions and uses and acquisition of fine scale spatial data, available approaches and toolsets (http://data.adriplan.eu/tools4msp/) were used to identify MSP issues for the area, conflicts among uses and their cumulative effects on the marine environment, proper analysis of land-sea interactions, and elaborate recommendations for transboundary MSP. Results and stakeholders engagement were used for the proposal of integrated sectoral measures, with the identification of possible management objectives, plan proposals and recommendations. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

SIMNORAT - Annex 2 to Initial Assessment: Pressures/Impacts (D1)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:07:13 +0100

Component: 1.1 Initial Assessment Sub-component: 1.1.4 Marine Environment Annex This Initial Assessment of anthropogenic pressures and impacts on ecosystems in OSPAR Region IV provides information on different types of pressures that are assessed under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The main goal of the MSFD is to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of EU waters by 2020. GES is defined as “The environmental status of marine waters where these provide ecologically diverse and dynamic oceans and seas which are clean, healthy and productive”. GES is described by eleven Descriptors, including nine Descriptors that are related to anthropogenic pressures, belonging to “biological”, “physical” or “substances, litter and energy” categories. For each type of pressure, this document mentions activities driving this pressure, potentially impacted areas (areas subject to high levels of pressures), and if available also information on actual impacts of the pressure on ecosystems. This document did not assess ‘input of microbial pathogens’, ‘input of genetically modified species and translocation of native species’, ‘loss of, or change to, natural biological communities due to cultivation of animal and plant species’. As the knowledge on cumulative impacts is currently limited, this report is restricted to potential and actual impacts of each pressure on the ecosystem. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Resilience Management Guidelines for Critical Infrastructures, Practical Solutions Addressing Expected and Unexpected Events

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:06:54 +0100

Crises and disasters (Eyjafjallajökull and Deepwater Horizon 2010, Fukushima Daiichi 2011, and more recently the wildfire in Sweden 2018) have made it obvious that a more resilient approach to preparing for and dealing with such events is needed. This paper presents the results of the H2020 DARWIN project, which contributes to improving responses to expected and unexpected crises affecting critical infrastructures and social structures, whether man-made events (e.g. cyber-attacks) or natural events (e.g. earthquakes). The main result of the Darwin project is the creation of the DARWIN Resilience Management Guidelines (DRMG). The DRMG are evolving guidelines, designed to improve the ability of stakeholders to monitor, anticipate and learn from crises, and thereby allow them to adapt and respond more effectively and operate more efficiently during disasters. These guidelines are not prescriptive. Instead, they enable organizations to have a critical view of their own crisis management activities. The target beneficiaries of DARWIN are crisis management managers and practitioners responsible for public safety, such as critical infrastructures and service providers, which might be affected by a crisis, as well as the public and media. The DRMG are not meant to be dust-collectors on a shelf. To this end, they have been made into a variety of formats to support their evolution, ease of use and maintenance. Within this paper, the reader is introduced to the DRMG in its different formats, as well as a host of innovative tools (e.g. DRMG Wiki, serious gaming, training packages) developed by the project to support resilience management learning and the uptake of the guidelines. A multidisciplinary approach is applied, involving experts in the field of resilience, crisis and risk management, social media, and service providers in the air traffic management and healthcare domains. To ensure transnational, cross-sector applicability, long-term relevance and uptake of project results, the DARWIN Community of Practitioners (DCoP) has been established, with membership including experts and end users from different fields of expertise and from across multiple critical infrastructure domains. The DCoP has been involved in an iterative development and evaluation process to provide feedback on the results. The evaluation in pilot exercises and other activities involved 247 practitioners from 22 countries. The DCoP members contributed with knowledge and experience ensuring the feasibility of adapting them to other critical infrastructure domains. Our achievement is the current version of guidelines and associated innovative tools proposing practical interventions that end-users find useful. This paper includes testimonials of end-users within and outside the consortium. This document represents an invitation to explore the content of the guidelines, to encourage its use and further developments of the resilience management. Concluding Paper of the H2020 DARWIN Project as published 25 March 2019 on www.h2020darwin.eu

Creating Markets in Angola : Opportunities for Development Through the Private Sector

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:06:12 +0100

This Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) identifies opportunities to stimulate sustainable economic growth and development by harnessing the power of the private sector in Angola. Applying a sectoral lens, it leverages the private sector’s knowledge and experience to accelerate transformational investment. It also puts forward operational recommendations highlighting strategic entry points for diversification and growth, while addressing key constraints to private sector engagement. The CPSD discusses implementation principles inspired by international good practices. It informs World Bank and IFC strategies, paving the way for joint programming to create markets and unlock private sector potential.

Lock Operations Management Application (LOMA) Aid to Navigation (AtoN) Monitoring and Recovery (LAMaR)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:56:57 +0100

SIMWESTMED - Coordination of sectoral policies - Background document (R25)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:55:09 +0100

Component: C 1.3 Support for Member States' implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning Sub‐component: C 1.3.1 Develop and propose a conceptual methodology for transboundary MSP in the Western MED, with operational details on selected aspects This document reviews the regional policy instruments relevant for the scope of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the Mediterranean and analyses the possibility for their coordination through the MSP process, considering the ecosystem approach as the overall structuring framework. An overview of the ecosystem approach concept is given in chapter 1. Regionally available policies relevant for MSP and their links with the ecosystem approach are analysed in chapter 2. Opportunities for policy integration through MSP, using the ecosystem approach as a framework, are highlighted in chapter 3. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

SIMWESTMED - Spatial demands and future trends - Maritime sectors briefing notes (R8-R15)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:50:11 +0100

Component 1.3.2 – Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors and marine conservation - Maritime sectors briefing notes (R8-R15) The aim of this report is to investigate current and potential future spatial demands of key maritime sectors and when possible with reference to cross-border matters. In order to do so it was decided to base this work on an as large as possible literature review. Key maritime sectors are analyzed through the elaboration of briefing notes on Fishing, Marine aquaculture, Offshore Oil & Gas, Marine aggregates, Ports & Shipping, Submarine cables and pipelines, Marine renewable energies, Maritime tourism. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

SIMWESTMED - Tyrrhenian Case Study (R21)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:48:31 +0100

Component: C 1.3 Support for Member States' implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning Sub‐component: C 1.3.6. Establish Case Studies on Approaches to MSP Implementation Deliverable: Tyrrhenian Case Study The Tyrrhenian case study comprehends portions of internal, territorial and international waters and the entire study area is included within the Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI) of the Pelagos Sanctuary for the Conservation of Marine Mammals, a transboundary Sanctuary established through an international agreement signed between three different countries (Italy, France and Principality of Monaco). It includes key areas in the context of Western Mediterranean in terms of ecological and socio-economic value, in particular three Italian National Parks, Asinara Island, La Maddalena Archipelago and the whole Tuscan Archipelago; the Corsica Channel, an area characterised by a great environmental sensitivity, subject to increased anthropic pressure for which the Italian and French Governments have signed a MoU concerning the regulation of international maritime traffic; the Bonifacio Strait, an international strait shared between French and Italian jurisdictions; and the only Particularly Sensitive Sea Area declared by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the Mediterranean Sea. Several human activities take place and interact dynamically with local uses and the marine environment components. Among these activities some are expected to increase in coming years. Thus, it will be fundamental to effectively organize their spatial distribution and mutual interactions in balance with the protection and sustainable management of the natural resources, taking in consideration the priority of avoiding impacts on marine mammals due to their great conservation relevance. In order to address specific details of the SIMWESTMED Tyrrhenian case study, the analysis process was directed through two main foci: a thematic focus (in the whole area) on the processes and instruments for the transboundary cooperation on MSP, coordinated by UNEP PAP/RAC; and a management focus on the Tuscan Archipelago, coordinated by CORILA. To address the thematic focus in the whole area, processes and instruments for transboundary cooperation on MSP were exhaustively and thoroughly analysed in depth, at different levels (international, EU, national), together with the different governance levels and requirements for a comprehensive application of MSP. In particular, the relevant legal framework and/or concerning the formal planning systems, and cross-border cooperation processes, governance context, relevant for the particularities of preservation of marine mammals as well as existing institutional regional cooperation structures were assessed. Based on these, the proposals on the MSP approach, addressing the appropriate measures in order to achieve greater protection of marine mammals in the Mediterranean, were developed. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

SIMWESTMED - Taking Marine Protected Areas into account in the context of Marine Spatial Planning (R7)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:45:20 +0100

Component 1.3.2 – Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors and marine conservation Deliverable: Taking Marine Protected Areas into account in the context of Marine Spatial Planning This specific report, part of the component on Spatial Demands, aims to provide an overview on the legal basis for marine protection, the current actors involved on the national processes and the different categories of MPAs present at the SIMNORAT Region. A Comprehensive review of MPA policies: in the SIMWESTMED area, over 25 different MPA categories have been identified, coming from international, European or national regulations. MPA landscape is therefore complex since each of these categories could have different objectives (from strict conservation to sustainable development) and management processes. The review carried out through SIMWESTMED aimed to better inform planners on each MPA category to facilitate integration of MPA policies within the MSP process. Several key questions were driving the study: What objectives does the MPA pursue?, how is it managed?, what kind of regulations are implemented? to which sector are the regulations addressed?, what is the management body?, are stakeholders involved in the governance? This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

Cleaning the Air of Tehran, One Bus at a Time : Retrofit Solutions for the Ageing Diesel Bus Fleet in Tehran

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:45:09 +0100

ording to a report by the World Bank published in April 2018, air pollution in Tehran incurs annual loss of billions of dollars and over 4,000 premature deaths from exposure to fine particles ambient concentrations. Particulate matter (PM), one of the primary pollutants from diesel exhaust, is associated with many different types of respiratory and cardiovascular effects, and premature mortality. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the cost effectiveness of retrofitting existing city diesel bus fleet in Tehran with best available Diesel particulate filters (DPFs) available in the market. The report provides an updated assessment on the diesel retrofit solutions for an ageing diesel city bus fleet in Tehran based on publicly available information. The economic benefits of DPF installed in buses are evaluated with standard techniques of environmental economics, and technological assumptions about how much PM emissions can be avoided and control costs. The report highlights a number of national, regional and local examples of effective emission control program that exhibit best practices from around the world. Also, it presents important features and global experiences of successful retrofit program on heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs), including benefit-cost analysis from several case studies to help Tehran city leadership in taking informed economic and policy decisions. Finally, it recommends a set of critical actions to the government both at the national and local level for implementation of an effective emission control programs.

SIMWESTMED - Cumulative Effects Assessment using DESEASION - In the Var County area, France (R19)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:41:44 +0100

Component: C 1.3 Support for Member States' implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning Sub‐component: C 1.3.6. Establish Case Studies on Approaches to MSP Implementation Deliverable: Var Case Study The knowledge of the marine environment is a baseline for the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning. It is of major importance to understand the complex interactions between activities and environment, and within activities, in order to organize activities while taking into account the needs of an economical development, and of a good ecological status. The use of the decision tool named “DESEASION” was tested during the project SIMWESTMED, in the Var Case Study, to implement and spatialize a rules-based system based on pressures and impacts models. DESEASION tool is a hosting platform integrating GIS functions, in which scientific can implement evaluation models. As the tool is in a development phase, the main challenge was to confront it to a real case study. This factsheet provides a brief description of the steps of cumulative impacts evaluation using DESEASION, starting from data taken from www.medtrix.com, and models coming from used came from Holon et al.,2015. In this first attempt and facing to the difficulty of dataset collection, this test is limited to 3 anthropogenic pressures (agriculture, anchoring, urbanization) occurring in the Var region in France and one ecosystem (Posidonia seagrass), in GIS format files. This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is a EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identify the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more North countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

SIMNORAT - Potential approaches for stakeholder engagement on Marine Spatial Planning and outcomes of pilot testing (D14)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:37:21 +0100

Component 1.3.5 – Improving Stakeholder Engagement Component 1.3.6 – Cases Studies The specific objective of this component was to support good practice in stakeholder engagement within the transboundary context of MSP. The aim was to engage stakeholders to discuss about the Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) process and its cross-border dimension as well as to support dissemination of good practice in stakeholder engagement, and so participate in the coherence of national planning plans. The approach retained for stakeholder engagement was to carry out multisector workshops relying on information produced by other actions of the project and stakeholders interviews to test different engagement methods: interviews, workshops, post-it sessions, Role-play “MSP challenge”. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

SIMNORAT - Interactions between uses, between uses and environment, including cumulative impacts. Review of evaluation methods carried out in France, Spain and Portugal (D13)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:35:37 +0100

Component: 1.3.4. Tools and methods supporting MSP process Sub-component: 1.3.4.1 Interactions between uses and between uses and environment, including cumulative impacts. MSP as a process must be based on a strong and shared knowledge of planned areas. Distribution of each activity and their needs have to be evaluated as well as location of species and habitats, associated with a good comprehension of ecosystems functionalities. The focus has been done on approaches seeking to evaluate and map effects of human activities in marine ecosystems. Various tools and approaches have been developed throughout the world to do so (like examples in France and Portugal). Their use as source of information to feed MSP is an ongoing question. This action aims to detail and compare the mains caracteristics of the tools developed in SIMNORAT countries. A better comprehension of divergence between approaches is a step toward an increased transboundary coherence for MSP processes. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

SIMNORAT - Marine protected areas in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coasts - Database completion and analysis (D10)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:34:20 +0100

Component 1.3.2 – Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors and marine conservation C1.3.2 Marine protected areas in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coasts database completion and analysis Completion of the North East Atlantic MPA database: to enhance decision makers awareness on MPA policies, a concrete view on the network is necessary. To do so, the North Est MPA database (available through http://www.maia-network.org), which was developed by a previous Interreg Project, has been completed with as much information as possible for the 350 MPAs of the SIMNORAT Area. This task has provided harmonized maps of the MPA network throughout the SIMNORAT area. This basin scale view of the network is essential since marine conservation must take into account ecosystem functioning, which is not framed by administrative delimitation. Moreover, collection of the information related to the management of each MPA allowed to provide original views on the network. For example, maps displaying MPAs based on their conservation objectives have been produced. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

SIMNORAT - The definition and application of MSP by the OSPAR Convention (D4)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:34:03 +0100

Component: 1.3.1 Develop and propose a conceptual methodology for transboundary MSP in the Northern Atlantic, with operational details on selected aspects Sub-component: 1.3.1.2 The definition and application of MSP by the OSPAR Convention taking into consideration the relationship between EU and non EU countries The political commitment for MSP by OSPAR and the cooperation in the North Sea were addressed in the Bergen Declaration, assigned in 2002, in the Fifth International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea. OSPAR Convention does not have a direct role on MSP implementation neither a legal framework. Despite this fact, OSPAR has an important contribution setting baseline information and guidelines in key aspects to the success of the development of a joint regional marine spatial planning perspective, especially on the development of OSPAR region, tailor-made principles for maritime spatial planning. An Intersessional Correspondence Groups (ICG) Working Group on MSP was established to design a set of guidelines to implement MSP in the North Atlantic Region in which all Contracting Parties agreed to pursue strategies that would promote cooperation in spatial planning between competent authorities. Questions of concern about transboundary cooperation on MSP, transnational consultation and the requirement of a region-specific, tailor-made approach to apply MSP supporting the Ecosystem Approach and the share of experiences and best practices regarding marine spatial planning are also central questions set in the OSPAR´s North-East Atlantic environment Strategy. OSPAR develops mechanisms for early transnational consultation on spatial plans highlighting the interactions that could promote integration, early stakeholder involvement and the introduction of MSP by all Contracting Parties. OSPAR is also actively involved in, and supportive of, initiatives and projects in MSP undertaken by the European Commission under the Integrated Maritime Policy. OSPAR Commission serves as an efficient platform to encourage, facilitate a regional seas MSP approach, and provide comprehensive regional marine perspectives in cross-border cooperation, which is critical to sustainable development. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 11 : What is the Potential and Hindrances for the Tourism Sector in Sao Tome and Príncipe?

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:31:37 +0100

The purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate the tourism performance of STP with respect to the main determinants that have been found in the literature. Tourism is clearly a comparative advantage of STP and already an important economic activity, however, STP is far from the characterization of a tourism-dependent small economy. Tourism represents 10.8 percent of GDP and the ratio between international inbound tourists and population is at 14.5 percent. For a summary of how STP relates to other destinations. This puts STP as the twelfth country in terms of size of direct contribution of the tourism sector to GDP and the eighteenth in terms of the ratio between tourists and population. Using data from different sources, this note analyzes STP’s tourism-related characteristics and uses different empirical tools to evaluate them vis-à-vis its peers. Economic literature shows that tourism demand is affected by price and income but also by a host of other factors such as air connectivity, language, and culture among others. First, there is an extensive research agenda on measuring price and income elasticities of tourism, which is specific for different types of tourism destination. Second, there is a myriad of characteristics that are found to be important to the tourism industry, such as remoteness, language, culture, air connectivity, bilateral trade, etc. More recently, there has been many studies emphasizing the role of digital media and digital presence1 as a key determinant of tourist decisions.

SIMNORAT - Annex 1 to Initial Assessment: Marine Environment (D1)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:30:37 +0100

Component: 1.1 Initial Assessment Sub-component: 1.1.3 Marine Environment Annex The purpose of this document is to identify the specific ecological characteristics of the marine management area. It aims at identifying where the particularly sensitive or ecologically important areas are. Identifying where ecologically or biologically significant areas are located is a key step for marine spatial planning. This assessment is centered on the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (European Parliament et Council of European Union s. d.) ‘Good Environmental Status’ Descriptor 1 (Biodiversity) and Descriptor 4 (Ecosystems, including food webs). This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Myanmar's Urbanization : Creating Opportunities for All

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:23:44 +0100

Urbanization in Myanmar is still in an early phase with slightly less than one-third of the population living in cities. This presents an enormous opportunity for the country. Cities are engines of growth and prosperity, which facilitate industries to grow jobs, services and innovations. Cities are also fundamental to lifting people out of poverty through increased employment opportunities and incomes to citizens. No country has reached middle income status without urbanizing. That being said, the way that cities urbanize is important to growth, poverty and livability. If adequate investments are not made in basic infrastructure and services, urban planning, and in ensuring a governance and financing structure that can deliver for residents, cities instead can end up with major problems of congestion, pollution, sprawl, and inequality which can create or worsen social divisions, and potentially contribute to crime and violence. The report, Myanmar’s Urbanization: Creating Opportunities for All aims to understand urbanization in Myanmar drawing on the growing literature on the topic in Myanmar, especially for Yangon. It uses an inclusive urbanization lens and proposes a set of priority policy areas for urgent attention that will help to ensure the benefits of urbanization are widely realized given the projected growth of cities. An inclusion lens is particularly important in Myanmar as the country transitions from a complex history that has been characterized by decades of economic and political isolation, conflict, and underdevelopment. Inclusive urbanization is reliant on three keydimensions; economic, social and spatial. Economic inclusion refers to equitable access to employment and income-generating activities in a city, and resilience to shocks. Spatial inclusion refers to equitable and affordable access to land, housing, infrastructure and basic public services. Social inclusion relates to individual and group rights, equity, security and dignity. Such aspects of social inclusion and exclusion are relevant to groups who are often marginalized inday-to-day urban life.

Traffic Signal Consensus Control

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:21:27 +0100

Case study reports on constructive findings on the prerequisites of successful big data implementation in the transport sector

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:20:19 +0100

The deliverable presents seven reports of the case studies conducted in Work Package 3 during Task 3.2. The case studies conducted include: • Case study 1 “Railway transport” • Case study 2 “Open data and the transport sector” • Case study 3 “Real-time traffic management” • Case study 4 “Logistics and consumer preferences” • Case study 5 “Smart inland shipping” • Case study 6 “Optimised transport & improved customer service” • Case study 7 “Big data and intelligent transport systems”

SIMNORAT - C1.3.6. CASE STUDY # 2 – CROSS BORDER MPA GALICIA BANK – VIGO AND VASCO DA GAMA SEAMOUNTS (D17)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:19:11 +0100

Component: 1.3.6. Establishing case studies on approaches to MSP implementation Sub-component: CS#2 North western marine waters of Iberian Coast Case Study This report is the output of one of the case studies of the SIMNORAT project, shared by Portugal and Spain. All background information presented in this document supports a conceptual methodology to create and manage a cross-border Marine Protected Area (MPA) between both countries. In order to achieve this, the case study focused on the existing Spanish MPA of Galicia Bank and on the Vigo and Vasco da Gama Seamounts, located in the western limit of the geologic continental platform and on the northern limit of the Portuguese jurisdictional area. • The case study exercise is focused on four main objectives/ Identification of the existing uses and activities, as well as the major pressures; • Analysis of the governance framework in Spain and Portugal regarding marine conservation and maritime spatial planning; • Comparative analysis of Portuguese and Spanish marine and coastal planning policies and management tools; • Development of a roadmap for a cross-border MPA between Spain and Portugal. This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

SIMNORAT - Data Management Guidance Document (D12)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:16:55 +0100

Component 1: Supporting Implementation of MSP Sub-component 1.3.3: Data Information requirements for MSP The implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), defined in the MSP Directive 2014/89/EU requires high quality maritime spatial data and information. Data sharing is favored by Maritime Spatial Data Infrastructures (MSDI). This type of infrastructure improves access to data and provides information on the MSP policies implemented in the neighbouring countries. MSDIs contribute to enable access to data and information. It is a basis for discussion and exchange and promotes cross-border cooperation. This report aims to transfer the knowledge built in the SIMNORAT project context, related to MSP transboundary data sharing. It also analyses the opportunities and limits of data interoperability improvement activities undertaken, at each steps of the data management process: - Information flow: collection, publication and dissemination - Understand: production of metadata - Represent: displaying the datasets - Enhance: explain and enrich the information This report was produced as part of SIMNORAT Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMNORAT project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Northern European Atlantic) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Portugal, Spain and France, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMNORAT aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established in 2021. The action ran until 31st of January 2019 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and one international organisation. It was composed of UAVR, CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, and CPMR. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMNORAT project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Northern European Atlantic, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, OSPAR Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientific as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMNORAT permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Atlantic area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of France and Spain in SIMNORAT and in the EU-DG Mare sister projects SIMWESTMED and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours in the Western Mediterranean. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMNORAT project has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures were developed by the participating partners with the best available knowledge at the time. They do not necessarily reflect the national governments' positions and are not official documents, nor data. The European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

LSDTopoTools Documentation

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:12:27 +0100

n updated version of the documentation including instructions for installing LSDTopoTools2.

INTEND Project D 3.2 Megatrends validation and impact assessment

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:05:36 +0100

This document illustrates the findings regarding megatrend validation and impacts assessment on the transport concept of the future priorities that have been illustrated in Deliverable D 2.2 and D 3.1 of INTEND project. The validation is carried out through the application of the Analytic network process (ANP). Analytic Network Process method taking into account clusters of megatrend

LIFE E-VIA - Electric Vehicle noIse control by Assessment andoptimisation of tyre/road interaction(LIFE18 ENV/IT/000201-LIFE E-VIA)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:04:18 +0100

The project LIFE E-VIA aims to tackle noise pollution from road traffic noise, in a future perspective involving a consistent portion of electric and hybrid vehicles. By combining knowledge of road optimization and tyre development, it will test an optimized solution for reducing noise in urban areas and Life Cycle Cost with respect to actual best practices. The project includes three preparatory actions, consisting of state-of-the-art studies on the components implicated in the issue: the electric vehicles (EVs), the quiet pavement technologies and the tyre role in the context of EVs vs. conventional vehicles. This report refers to project action A1 and provides an overview of the concern of electric vehicles and of their noise emission. It intends to highlight the key aspects to be taken into consideration in order to achieve the most effective and relevant implementation work, in the light of the latest technical and scientific knowledge. In the shift from conventional mobility to electromobility, the present study deals with: the electric vehicle fleet characteristics, the changed driving behaviours induced by the vehicle specificities, the different noise source features with a sharp focus on rolling noise, the changes in the noise perception by the citizens and the consideration of electric vehicles in the noise prediction methods.

Crowdsensing Scenarios for the Common Good

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:57:04 +0100

This whitepaper provides an overview of mobile crowdsensing, as an extension to “participatory sensing” that tasks average citizens and volunteers to perform local knowledge gathering and sharing, in particular thanks to the use of mobile smart devices. The article describes existing examples from literature and related works, detailing how crowdsensing has already been adopted successfully in several different fields, which share the focus on the common good. Examples include existing systems aimed at the development of smart cities, life quality improvements for urban citizens, critical event management, social recommender systems, or road quality monitoring platforms, such as SmartRoadSense.

Norfolk Harbor improvement study, Virginia : Norfolk Harbor deepening and widening ship simulation results

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:54:45 +0100

Demand Management: : New Perspectives for the Road Transport System Based on Practices in Electricity and Telecommunications

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:53:24 +0100

The transport, electricity and telecommunication systems, also known as utilities, are under pressure from disruptive technologies, climate change and even unexpected health disasters. Questions related to demand management and safeguarding the functioning of the system are an important part of handling these pressures. In terms of road transport more specifically, the practices currently in use have been unsuccessful in flattening the demand curve or shifting the demand to more sustainable and space-efficient modes of travel. Therefore, the need for new input in the transport sector regarding demand management is higher than ever before. This report is intended to provide new insights for the transport sector based on the practices and methods for managing fluctuating demand found in other sectors, which can be translated into the following research question: What can the road transport sector learn about demand management practices from the electricity and telecom sectors? The analytical framework used for data collection and analysis is based on and combines the socio-technical theory of large technical systems (LTS) with the multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainable transition into the infrastructure lifecycle model (ILM) introduced by Bolton and Foxon (2015). The findings are divided into three sections: road transport, electricity and telecom, and a matrix summarizing the identified practices and tools in use is provided at the end of each section. The concluding section is structured into specific learnable moments/new insights, providing an overview and discussion of all three systems in parallel with the help of the ILM. These moments include real-time monitoring and interventions, activating end users to make better-informed decisions, and public-private participation in planning and development. The report concludes with suggestions for future research. "p"QC 20200828

Incorporate Emerging Travel Modes in the Regional Strategic Planning Model (RSPM) Tool

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:49:54 +0100

SIMWESTMED - Data management guidance document (R17)

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:48:48 +0100

Component 1: Supporting Implementation of MSP Sub-component 1.3.3: Data Management Guidance Document. The implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), defined in the MSP Directive 2014/89/EU requires high quality maritime spatial data and information. Data sharing is favored by Maritime Spatial Data Infrastructures (MSDI). This type of infrastructure improves access to data and provides information on the MSP policies implemented in the neighbouring countries. MSDIs contribute to enable access to data and information. It is a basis for discussion and exchange and promotes cross-border cooperation. This report aims to transfer the knowledge built in the SIMWESTMED project context, related to MSP transboundary data sharing. It also analyses the opportunities and limits of data interoperability improvement activities undertaken, at each steps of the data management process: - Information flow: collection, publication and dissemination - Understand: production of metadata - Represent: displaying the datasets - Enhance: explain and enrich the information This report/document was produced as part of the SIMWESTMED Project (Grant Agreement N0. EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/02/SI2.742101). PROJECT: Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region (SIMWESTMED) Competition for maritime space – for renewable energy equipment, aquaculture and other uses – has highlighted the need to manage our waters more coherently. Maritime spatial planning (MSP) works across borders and sectors to ensure human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. That is why the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning in Europe. The Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 (said Maritime Spatial Planning Directive) establishes a framework in order to reduce conflicts between sectors and create synergies between different activities, to encourage investment – by creating predictability, transparency and clearer rules, to increase cross-border cooperation – between EU countries to develop energy grids, shipping lanes, pipelines, submarine cables and other activities, but also to develop coherent networks of protected areas, and to protect the environment – through early identification of impact and opportunities for multiple use of space. The SIMWESTMED project (Supporting Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the Western Mediterranean region) is an EU/DG Mare co-funded cross-border project. It was launched on 1st of January 2017 and involves Spain, France, Italy and Malta, while these countries had just designated their Competent Authorities and transposed the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. SIMWESTMED aims to support the implementation of the MSP Directive in the waters of Spain, France, Italy and Malta, as well as to establish cross-border cooperation mechanisms between these Member States, to contribute to the coherence of their marine spatial plans to be established by 2021. The action ran until 31st of December 2018 and was based on a partnership of public bodies of the countries and two international organisations. It was composed of CEDEX, IEO, AFB, CEREMA, Shom, CORILA and its affiliated entities IUAV and CNR-ISMAR, MIT, IMELS, PA, CPMR, UNEP-MAP and its affiliated entity UNEP-MAP/PAP-RAC. Shom acted as coordinator. The objectives of the SIMWESTMED project were addressed through a variety of activities and desktop or case studies. They are dedicated to identifying the methodology steps, and explore the challenges and opportunities of the MSP implementation in the Western Mediterranean area, including thus related to transboundary issues (Ecosystem based approach, marine policies, Barcelona Convention, Land Sea Interactions, geographical scale of the plans, data interoperability, tools to support MSP). The project led to a multiplicity of outputs including overviews of MSP relevant information related to the countries and on more focus areas, to a number of interviews and meetings where stakeholder views were collected to feed the reasoning, and to guidelines and good practices to be shared at a national and transnational level with marine stakeholders, scientists as well as planners, administrations and authorities. In addition, SIMWESTMED permitted a lot of progression internally in the countries and regarding transboundary cooperation. It led to establish and develop new dialogues and to connect the technical or scientific actors, the stakeholders, the administrations of the countries of a same sea basin, and the administrations within the countries, including the representative of Regions. It allowed to better understand Maritime Spatial Planning mechanisms, to share knowledge and as such reached to build capacities, which is of importance as there is such a need in the Mediterranean area compared to more Northern countries. The project also permitted to address topics which have never been addressed before. The involvement of some countries in SIMWESTMED and in the EU-DG Mare "brother" projects SUPREME, SIMNORAT and SIMCelt was useful for them to develop a global vision with their neighbours through the East and West side of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic sea basin. At the end of this exercise, it is stated the need of pursuing the work and dialogue in particular through common tools, but at this stage, the SIMWESTMED has constituted a common knowledge and background. Disclaimer: The contents and conclusions of this report, including the maps and figures, do not imply the expression of any opinion or endorsement of the participating partners concerning the legal status of any country, territory, area, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps included in this report are not warranted to be error free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by any of the participating partners. This report is a working document and may rely on data from sources external to the SIMWESTMED project Consortium and, in addition to this, it may contain some information gaps. Neither the European Commission or Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises nor UN Environment/MAP Barcelona Convention Secretariat may be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this report.

Crude by Rail, Option Value, and Pipeline Investment

Scipedia content — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:47:29 +0100

The U.S. shale boom has profoundly increased crude oil movements by both pipelines–the traditional mode of transportation–and railroads. This paper develops a model of how pipeline investment and railroad use are determined in equilibrium, emphasizing how railroads' flexibility allows them to compete with pipelines. We show that policies that address crude-by-rail's environmental externalities by increasing its costs should lead to large increases in pipeline investment and substitution of oil flows from rail to pipe. Similarly, we find that policies enjoining pipeline construction would cause 80-90% of the displaced oil to flow by rail instead.