scholarly journals Assessment of Risk and Social Impact on Groundwater Pollution by Nitrates. Implementation in the Gallocanta Groundwater Body (NE Spain)

Water ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
José María Orellana-Macías ◽  
María Jesús Perles Roselló
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Pollution ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Hazard Index ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Risk Map ◽  
Hydrogeological Parameters ◽  
Degree Of Risk ◽  
Essential Resource ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Groundwater Body

Groundwater is an essential resource for humans concerning freshwater supply; therefore, preserving and protecting its quality is necessary. Risk assessment, based on hazard, intrinsic vulnerability information and mapping, may be considered as a key aspect of sustainable groundwater management. An approach has been made by combining the Nitrogen Input Hazard Index and the hydrogeological parameters considered in a modified DRASTIC method. A three-level classification has been used to determine the degree of risk, and the thresholds have been established following measurable criteria related to the potential nitrate concentration in groundwater. The second part of the study focused on estimating the socioeconomic impact of groundwater pollution by relating the degree of risk and social vulnerability to groundwater pollution. The method has been tested in the Gallocanta Groundwater Body (Spain). As a result, a risk map and an impact map are provided. The risk map shows that 67% of the study area can be classified as moderate and high-risk areas, corresponding to high hazard sources located in moderate and high vulnerability zones, whereas the impact of groundwater pollution is classified as moderate in the whole groundwater body. The proposed analysis allows comparison between aquifers in different areas and the results required by water authorities to implement control and mitigation measures.

scholarly journals A comparative analysis of methods for mapping groundwater pollution hazard: application to the Gallocanta Hydrogeologic Unit (Spain)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José María Orellana Macías ◽  
María Jesús Perles Roselló
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Pollution ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Hazard Index ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Hazard Maps ◽  
Sources Of Pollution ◽  
Hydrogeologic Unit ◽  
Groundwater Hazard ◽  
Hazard Level

Anthropogenic activities are the main sources of groundwater pollution. In order to prevent groundwater degradation and to apply suitable mitigation measures, hazard maps are a useful instrument for decision makers. The ultimate goal of the research is to analyse the effectiveness of several groundwater hazard indexes at the Gallocanta Lagoon Basin. To do so, the Hazard Index, the Danger of Contamination Index and the Pollutant Origin and its Surcharge Hydraulically method were applied and compare, and the potentialities and weaknesses of the resulting maps have been analysed. Accurate hazard maps were obtained and, based on their methodological approach, significant differences were found in relation to the rating process, the inventory of the sources, and the treatment of quantity and likelihood. In the light of the results, the indexes tended to undervalue the hazard level of agricultural activities, which were the main sources of pollution of the study area. Therefore, due to the characteristic land uses of the study area, typical of the Mediterranean context, some proposals to improve the indexes have been suggested.

Global challenges to functioning of precious gemstones market

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Maryna Khmara
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Managerial Strategies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Complicated Nature

The peculiarities of gemstone market functioning under the impact of globalization are examined. Modern condition of financial stabilization in world is defined and main features of gemstones are outlined. Negative impact of illegal market on socio-economic development of countries, namely on revenues to the country’s budget from the business, is revealed. The importance of the problem of transferring most of gemstones processing operations beyond the countries of production is emphasized. Poor public control over the circulation of precious stones is proven. The challenges are substantiated to be aggravating under the impact of globalization. The diamonds market, which has peculiar high demand, is analyzed: diamonds and derivatives account for 85% of global turnover. Application of managerial strategies for gemstones market to efficiently use resources is defined to be complicated by the fact that managerial strategies impact the high cost of product items and its variability; unique features; intangible qualities; complicated processing. More environmentally friendly production and social responsibility are confirmed to have impact on forming of demand on gemstones. Investment attractiveness of gemstones, except for diamonds, is proven to be low. Condition of production and consumption of diamonds is analyzed. Development condition of the market segment – non-diamonds gemstones – is shown. The activity of small enterprises and households engaged in gemstones production is confirmed to be characterized by chaotic and complicated nature of broker networks, leading to aggravated global challenges. The paper defines that expansion of spectrum and emergence of new opportunities for illegal activity, reduced income and loss of other types of economic benefits, growing negative ecological and social impact, growing exploitation of workers at illegal enterprises remain to be the global challenges of gemstones market functioning. The author suggests increasing of social and ecological responsibility of business, strengthening of the state regulating functions and promotion of gemstones market legalization in order to reduce the challenges.

Characterizing the effectiveness of COVID-19 mitigation measures: A data-centric approach (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukman Olagoke ◽  
Ahmet E. Topcu
Keyword(s):  
Control Measure ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
World Health ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
The World ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND COVID-19 represents a serious threat to both national health and economic systems. To curb this pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a series of COVID-19 public safety guidelines. Different countries around the world initiated different measures in line with the WHO guidelines to mitigate and investigate the spread of COVID-19 in their territories. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of these control measures using a data-centric approach. METHODS We begin with a simple text analysis of coronavirus-related articles and show that reports on similar outbreaks in the past strongly proposed similar control measures. This reaffirms the fact that these control measures are in order. Subsequently, we propose a simple performance statistic that quantifies general performance and performance under the different measures that were initiated. A density based clustering of based on performance statistic was carried out to group countries based on performance. RESULTS The performance statistic helps evaluate quantitatively the impact of COVID-19 control measures. Countries tend show variability in performance under different control measures. The performance statistic has negative correlation with cases of death which is a useful characteristics for COVID-19 control measure performance analysis. A web-based time-line visualization that enables comparison of performances and cases across continents and subregions is presented. CONCLUSIONS The performance metric is relevant for the analysis of the impact of COVID-19 control measures. This can help caregivers and policymakers identify effective control measures and reduce cases of death due to COVID-19. The interactive web visualizer provides easily digested and quick feedback to augment decision-making processes in the COVID-19 response measures evaluation. CLINICALTRIAL Not Applicable

scholarly journals Detection of Unknown DDoS Attacks with Deep Learning and Gaussian Mixture Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5213
Author(s):  
Chin-Shiuh Shieh ◽  
Wan-Wei Lin ◽  
Thanh-Tuan Nguyen ◽  
Chi-Hong Chen ◽  
Mong-Fong Horng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Gaussian Mixture Model ◽  
Mixture Model ◽  
Denial Of Service ◽  
Gaussian Mixture ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Distribution Model ◽  
Ddos Attacks ◽  
Open Set ◽  
The Impact

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks have become a pressing threat to the security and integrity of computer networks and information systems, which are indispensable infrastructures of modern times. The detection of DDoS attacks is a challenging issue before any mitigation measures can be taken. ML/DL (Machine Learning/Deep Learning) has been applied to the detection of DDoS attacks with satisfactory achievement. However, full-scale success is still beyond reach due to an inherent problem with ML/DL-based systems—the so-called Open Set Recognition (OSR) problem. This is a problem where an ML/DL-based system fails to deal with new instances not drawn from the distribution model of the training data. This problem is particularly profound in detecting DDoS attacks since DDoS attacks’ technology keeps evolving and has changing traffic characteristics. This study investigates the impact of the OSR problem on the detection of DDoS attacks. In response to this problem, we propose a new DDoS detection framework featuring Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory (BI-LSTM), a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and incremental learning. Unknown traffic captured by the GMM are subject to discrimination and labeling by traffic engineers, and then fed back to the framework as additional training samples. Using the data sets CIC-IDS2017 and CIC-DDoS2019 for training, testing, and evaluation, experiment results show that the proposed BI-LSTM-GMM can achieve recall, precision, and accuracy up to 94%. Experiments reveal that the proposed framework can be a promising solution to the detection of unknown DDoS attacks.

Measuring the Impact of a Full Service Grocery Store in a Food Desert

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-176
Author(s):  
Kellie Schneider ◽  
Diana Cuy Castellanos ◽  
Felix Fernando ◽  
Jeanne A. Holcomb
Keyword(s):  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Food Deserts ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Grocery Store ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health And Well Being

Food deserts, areas in which it is difficult to obtain affordable, nutritious food, are especially problematic in low-income neighbourhoods. One model for addressing food hardship and unemployment issues within low-income food deserts is a cooperative grocery store. Through the cooperative model, the grocery store can serve as a cornerstone to address socio-economic marginalisation of low-income neighbourhoods and improve the health and well-being of its residents. It is important for communities and policymakers to be able to assess the effectiveness of these types of endeavours beyond traditional economic factors such as profitability. This article uses a systems engineering approach to develop a framework for measuring the holistic impact of a cooperative grocery store on community health and well-being. This framework encompasses values that characterise the relationship between food retail, economic viability and social equality. We develop a dashboard to display the key metrics for measuring the economic, social and environmental indicators that reflect a grocery store’s social impact. We demonstrate the usefulness of the framework through a case study of a full-service cooperative grocery store that is planned within the city of Dayton, OH.

scholarly journals Understanding Social Impact and Value Creation in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Italian Civil Service

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4058
Author(s):  
Paolo Esposito ◽  
Valerio Brescia ◽  
Chiara Fantauzzi ◽  
Rocco Frondizi
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Hybrid Organizations ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, it aims to analyze what kind of value is generated by hybrid organizations and how; second, it aims to understand the role of social impact assessment (SIA) in the measurement of added value, especially in terms of social and economic change generated by hybrids. Hybrid organizations are a debated topic in literature and have different strengths in responding to needs, mainly in the public interest. Nevertheless, there are not many studies that identify the impact and change generated by these organizations. After highlighting the gap in the literature, the study proposes an innovative approach that combines SIA, interview, interventionist approach and documental analysis. The breakdown of SIA through the five elements of the value chain (inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact) guarantees a linear definition of the value generated through change with procedural objectivity capable of grasping hybrid organizations’ complexity. The value generated or absorbed is the change generated by the impact measured based on the incidence of public resources allocated. Through the SIA and counterfactual approach, the civil service case study analysis highlights how the value generated by public resources can be measured or more clearly displayed in the measurement process itself.

scholarly journals Values-Based and Global Systemically Important Banks: Their Stability and the Impact of Regulatory Changes After the Financial Crisis on it

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Schäfer ◽  
Sebastian Utz
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Bank Stability ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Systemically Important Banks

AbstractWe study the financial stability of Values-Based Banks (VBBs) and Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs), and how regulatory changes in the aftermath of the financial crisis affected bank stability. These two types of banks allow contrasting an environmental and social impact banking approach to a conventional one. VBBs exhibit significantly higher financial stability before and during the financial crisis. However, regulatory changes in the aftermath of the financial crisis requiring higher capital buffer, have significantly affected GSIBs and rendered the difference in stability levels insignificant.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 on Hospitality Industry in Greece and Its Treasured Santorini Island

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7906
Author(s):  
Nikola Medová ◽  
Lucie Macková ◽  
Jaromir Harmacek
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Multiple Variables ◽  
Hospitality Sector ◽  
Tourism And Hospitality ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Further Development

This paper focuses on the dynamic of the recent upheaval in the tourism and hospitality sector due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Greece and Santorini island. It uses the case study of a country one-fourth of whose GDP consists of tourism. We compare the available statistical data showing the change in variables in the previous years with 2020 and look into the new challenges and opportunities posed by the drop in the numbers of visitors and flights. We focus mainly on the economic and social impact on the destination and possible future scenarios for further development in the area. Data show a significant effect of the pandemic on multiple variables, such as the long-term trend of the importance of tourism sector in GDP in Greece, the number of flights and visitors to Greece and Santorini island, and the contribution of tourism and travel to GDP. Based on the available data, we also construct three foresight scenarios that describe the possible futures for Santorini island in terms of the pandemic evolution. These scenarios may help various stakeholders and policymakers to be better prepared for different developments that may appear.

scholarly journals A Methodology for Assessing the Impact of Living Labs on Urban Design: The Case of the Furnish Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4562
Author(s):  
Inés Aquilué ◽  
Angélica Caicedo ◽  
Joan Moreno ◽  
Miquel Estrada ◽  
Laia Pagès
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Phase Model ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Tactical Urbanism ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Loop Scheme

This paper presents a framework to support the assessment of urban design projects through Urban Living Labs (ULLs). The framework is based on the Tactical Urbanism (TU) practices and involves the use of Mobile Urban Elements (MUE) in uncertain and potentially confusing conditions (e.g., the COVID-19 context). The methodology includes the application of the Four-Phase Model (problem and ideation; development; implementation, testing and assessment; final proposal) and a quantitative and qualitative assessment. The proposed assessment criteria were developed through an evaluation according to three aspects: (1) feasibility impact; (2) social impact; and (3) spatial impact. The methodology was applied to Furnish, an urban design project based on a ULL and prototyping, which was recently developed in five European cities. The empirical results, obtained using the impact analysis, indicate that the prototypes developed in the project are transferable to other cities and generate social interaction in public spaces. The applied research showed that the Four-Phase Model may be used as a new and improved iterative design process: the LOOP Scheme. The application of this assessment methodology to ULLs may provide valuable information for the future planning of urban interventions in public spaces.

Assessing the Preparedness of Healthcare Facilities for Disasters and Emergencies in Damghan, Iran

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Behrad Pourmohammadi ◽  
Ahad Heydari ◽  
Farin Fatemi ◽  
Ali Modarresi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Health Staff ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Objectives: Iran is exposed to a wide range of natural and man-made hazards. Health-care facilities can play a significant role in providing life-saving measures in the minutes and hours immediately following the impact or exposure. The aim of this study was to determine the preparedness of health-care facilities in disasters and emergencies. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Damghan, Semnan Province, in 2019. The samples consisted of all the 11 health-care facilities located in Damghan County. A developed checklist was used to collect the data, including 272 questions in 4 sections: understanding threatening hazards, functional, structural, and nonstructural vulnerability of health-care facilities. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21. Results: The results revealed that the health-care facilities were exposed to 22 different natural and man-made hazards throughout the county. The total level of preparedness of the health-care centers under assessment was 45.8%. The average functional, structural, and nonstructural vulnerability was assessed at 49.3%, 31.6%, and 56.4%, respectively. Conclusions: Conducting mitigation measures is necessary for promoting the functional and structural preparedness. Disaster educational programs and exercises are recommended among the health staff in health-care facilities.

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