Auflistung Environmental Informatics 2005 nach Erscheinungsdatum
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- KonferenzbeitragExposure Modelling for High-Frequency Non-Ionising Radiation: Results of a Pilot Study(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Bürgi, Alfred; Theis, Gaston; Siegenthaler, Andreas; Röösli, MartinWe present results of a pilot study modelling the electromagnetic fields produced by fixed transmitters of base stations for mobile communications, broadcast (UHF and DAB radio, television) and paging services. The aim of the study was to explore the possibilities and limits of modelling the actual, time-averaged background electromagnetic field over an extended region, taking into account a 3-dimensional topographical and building model. The comparison of the model results with exploratory measurements gave a remarkably good agreement and allowed to identify the most realistic propagation models.
- KonferenzbeitragCompliance in Environmental Governance Requires Eenvironmental Knowledge Management in Developing Countries: The Liberian Case Study(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Eben, MosesThis paper will commence with the definition and or explanation of environmental governance and environmental knowledge management. It will continue with the reasons why environmental knowledge management is required in developing countries and specifically the Liberian case study. Hence, explanation that environmental knowledge management will enhance and or facilitate implementation or formulation of appropriate policies, strategies, setting priorities, creating political will for the government or “ power that be”, etc. Similarly, it will enhance people’s knowledge and boost their compliance and execution of environmental laws and regulations of the country. The paper will narrate how environmental knowledge management will be implemented in developing countries and specifically Liberia, considering constraints of finance resources, appropriate or necessary Information Communication Technology (ICT), research capability and or lack of research, etc., on environmental issues. Enumeration of advantages and or benefits, which will be derived from the implementation of environmental knowledge management, will be expounded on. A review of the effects and or impact globally as a result of the implementation of environmental knowledge management will be briefly given. In conclusion, we will mention that environmental knowledge management will enhance compliance in environmental governance leading further to sustainable development in the world.
- KonferenzbeitragReporting Schemes for the European Water Framework Directive in the Context of the Internet Portal WasserBLIcK and INSPIRE(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Usländer, Thomas; Stumpp, Jörg; Busskamp, Ralf; Fretter, KlausIT developments for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) currently focus on the support of the reporting obligations, from regional Water Information Systems in multiple information integration and aggregation steps towards the European Commission. The present article illustrates how the reporting is currently organised in Germany based upon the Internet Portal WasserBLIcK. Furthermore, an outlook is given how the reporting schemes will be influenced by European projects like INSPIRE and ORCHESTRA that aim at providing standardised service-oriented architectures to improve the syntactical and semantic interoperability.
- KonferenzbeitragPassive Sampling as an Attractive Tool for Air Genotoxic Potency Screening Assessment(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Čupr, Pavel; Klánová, Jana; Bartoš, Tomáš; Flegrová, Zuzana; Kohoutek, Jiří; Holoubek, IvanEpidemiological studies carried out to investigate the health risks related to the air pollution suggest that ambient air pollution may be responsible for increased rates of diseases like a lung cancer. The complexity and potential synergic effects of the airborne toxic compounds cannot be adequately ascertained by the chemical analysis itself and for the purpose of potential public health risk assessment, the bio-monitoring of ambient air in addition to chemical monitoring is receiving increasing attention. These demands require specific and sensitive methods capable of indicating the presence of genotoxic compounds in the environment. Several biological test systems have been developed recently to assess the mutagenic and carcinogenic hazards. Among them, the genotoxicity assessment bioassays are valuable bacterial assays based on the response to DNA damage induced by the genotoxic compounds in cells. The assays based on the transcriptional fusions between DNA-damage inducible promoters and reporter systems have been used to detect a variety of environmental genotoxins. These sensitive tests utilize the gene promoters involved in the SOS response to the DNA damage. The aim of the study was to investigate the capability of passive air sampling technique to be employed in the evaluation of direct genotoxicity of ambient air samples. Genotoxic effects of the total extracts from the polyurethane foam filters exposed for 28 days during the regional passive air sampling campaign were investigated. Assessment of genotoxic potency of the passive sampling obtained air samples using the screening genotoxicity test (SOS chromotest), was performed in this study. Twenty sampling sites were selected in Brno city on the area of approximately 20x20 km in October and November 2004. Brno is the second largest city of the Czech Republic, highly industrialized with approximately 370 000 of permanent inhabitants. The territory of the city is well ventilated; no climatic calamities have been recorded in Brno over the recent years. The levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and chlorinated pesticides were determined in all samples. In a parallel arrangement a fraction of each extract was assayed in the bacterial genotoxicity test-SOS chromotest using the Escherichia coli sulA::lacZ. This method is based on the induction of the SOS repair system as a result of the sample interaction with DNA of a genetically modified tester strain. Complete dose-response relationships of the air extracts were determined. The genotoxicity assay revealed direct mutagenicity answers in the samples from eleven sites, minimal genotoxic concentrations (MGC) were 8,57±2,07 % PUF ml-1. The statistical analysis showed significant correlation between observed biological effects and PAHs concentrations in samples. Passive air sampling technique coupled with a biological system proved to be a sensitive tool capable of monitoring the air quality. Geographic information system (GIS) was applied to perform the spatial analysis of the results.
- KonferenzbeitragOvercoming the Multiple Islands of Ontologies(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Katharina, Schleidt; Herbert, Schentz; Michael, MirtlOne of the major challenges facing ecologists today is the problem of obtaining sufficient amounts of information pertaining to widespread ecological phenomena. While the physical information and data networking does not pose a great challenge using today’s technologies, the difficulties start when one tries to describe the metadata pertaining to the data in such a manner that other users of this data can exactly ascertain how the data was collected (where, how, who) and how it may be validly analyzed. In order to structure the available data and metadata, one is turning to the use of ontologies. As ecology, like all sciences, is not a static field, new ideas, methods and procedures are continually being introduced. This means that an ontology designed to structure data for this field must be extendable in order to adapt to emerging requirements. In order to meet these needs, we propose a procedure for the collaborative creation and extension of ontologies. By further splitting the ontology into a (relatively static) core ontology supplemented by various domain ontologies, it is possible for multiple communities to independently extend their domain ontologies without disrupting work on other domain ontologies. Thus, a flexible but stable system can be defined which meets the needs for dynamic extension while retaining the stability required for a large scale network.
- KonferenzbeitragPredictive Benthic Habitat Mapping in the North Sea using GIS and Statistical Methods1(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Pesch, Roland; Pehlke, Hendrik; Schroeder, WinfriedThe goal of this article is to introduce a methodological concept suitable to identify ecological sea floor provinces in the North Sea. The approach consists of two main working steps: (1) geostatistical analysis of biotic and abiotic measurement data and (2) calculation of sea floor provinces by means of multivariate statistics and GIS-techniques. From bottom water measurement data on salinity, temperature, silicate and nutrients as well as on grain size surface maps are calculated via geostatistical methods. At first, the autocorrelation structure is examined and modelled by variogram analysis. The variogram models are then used to calculate raster maps by applying ordinary point kriging. These raster maps are then intersected with data on benthic communities available at 182 sites within and near the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Further, Classification and Regression Trees (CART) is applied to derive a decision tree for the occurrence of these communities. This decision tree is applied on the geostatistically estimated raster data to predict benthic habitats within the study area.
- KonferenzbeitragEvaluating the Long-range Transport of Persistent Organic Pollutants – Computation and Analysis of Air Mass Backward Trajectories(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Dvorská, Alice; Čupr, Pavel; Holoubek, IvanPersistent organic pollutants (POPs) are present in all environmental compartments. Most of them are products of human activities, however a small part of some POPs is of natural origin. They are lipophylic and therefore accumulate in organisms. A problem is also the fact that some of their metabolites and products of degradation processes are of a more dangerous character than the original pollutant. POPs are subject to long-range transport, mainly in the atmosphere. We can use mathematical models to describe the movement of POPs and other pollutants inside of single environmental compartments and between them. In case of the atmosphere it is possible to use dispersion models which evaluate the transport, dispersion and transformation of pollutans from the known source. We can also use different types of receptor models to describe the situation at a receptor (sampling) site. Receptor models can be used if there is only an uncomplete or inaccurate inventory of sources available or the existence of unknown sources is supposed. Both models are very often based on the analysis of forward or backward air mass trajectories. A trajectory is the path of an imaginary air parcel as it is acted on by winds. There exist different ways of computation but all of them require meteorological data computed or measured regularly during the whole time of considered air mass transport. The accuracy of a computed trajectory depends on the spatial and temporal resolution of meteorological observations, errors in data measurement and analysis and simplifying assumptions. Also, the longer a trajectory is, the less accurate it is. Air mass trajectories used in our study were calculated using the HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model developed by the Air Resources Laboratory of the American NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) which is available free of charge on their READY website. Backward trajectories were calculated to examine the situation at the regional background observatory Košetice (Pelhřimov district, Czech Republic) which is a part of EMEP (Co-operative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-Range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe). The study focused on 16 according to EPA prior polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), seven polychlorinated bifenyls (PCBs), four isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) and two metabolites, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachlorobenzene (PeCB). There exist various ways of evaluating backward trajectories. To examine the direction from which the most polluted air masses arrived it is possible to use the EMEP „sector“ method. These results can be supported by determining countries over which territories these air masses traveled. Other simple methods include the residence time analysis, identification of subsets of trajectories associated to air masses of a specific air quality or statistics methods. The last three mentioned methods require gridding the considered area into regular cells and evaluating the abundance of trajectory endpoints within them. Here the geographic information system (GIS) comes into use together with the ArcGIS 8 computer programme and its special modules for data processing. The results can be presented in form of tables, graphs and also maps showing areas over which polluted air masses traveled and which have led with 1 RECETOX, Masaryk University, Kamenice 3/126, CZ-62500 Brno, email: dvorska@recetox.muni.cz, Internet: http://www.recetox.muni.cz 980 some probability to increased pollutant concentrations measured at the receptor site. It is useful to compare the results with already existing knowledge on industrial or agricultural areas too. Data from the observatory Košetice for the years 1999 to 2001 were already evaluated by the EMEP method – we found the western sector to be dominant for more polluted air masses and this is in agreement with general meteorological conditions for the Czech Republic too. Also the states were previously roughly evaluated and except our neighbouring countries also France was more abundant. The analysis of air mass trajectories helps to reveal connections between the meteorological activity and measured ambient air quality parameters. Evaluating backward trajectories also helps to identify pollutant sources and/or areas which is the first step when developing effective pollutant control strategies. Revealing air mass transport patterns for a background station like Košetice is also useful for the characterization of atmospheric long-range transport for a whole region.
- KonferenzbeitragFlood Warnings at the Local Level: Tools and Experiences in Their Implementation(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Madej, Pawel; Koniecny, Roman; Kruszewski, Aleksander; Partyka, DanutaIn recent years, we are observing a change in approach to natural disasters, including floods. It consists of a departure from actions focusing on protection from hazards, in the direction of actions focusing on risk management and on the behavior of inhabitants and crisis intervention forces in hazard situations. These changes mean that flood warning systems are becoming a tool more important than before in flood damage mitigation; their main aim should be to enable citizens to take effective action. In this article, we present experiences from the building of a local warning system in the Klodzko Valley, an area located in southwestern Poland, which is at risk for flash flooding.
- KonferenzbeitragUsing Calculated-logical Systems (CLS) to Raise the Effectiveness of the Remote Control of Automatic Space Vehicles (SV)(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Alekseevich, Udaloy Valeriy; Leonidovich, Sokolov NikolayIn this article is investigating a problem of CLS building application of it during taking decision process during the remote control of SV (space vehicle). CLS is based on the periodic accumulation of knowledge about flight information of SV and on elements using of intellectual searching. There are following principles in the base of CLS projecting: The apportionment of hierarchical stages of TMP to make the operative diagnostics of onboard systems′ capacity for work; The working out of logical connections between control influences and the prognosis of SV onboard systems′ condition; The automated working out recommendations of taking decisions to take SV in different conditions. CLS functions in two conditions: the tuning condition using during the preparing stage of SV for control and the operative condition using during control process. Using of CLS allows making the monitoring of onboard systems, to make prognosis onboard systems′ capacity for work for the following period of time and to work out future control programs. There are described examples of CLS using during the operative control process of SV. Given the inference about the existence of a big reserve of reliability and energy in getting things done during the remote control when an irregular situation is string up.
- KonferenzbeitragAnalysis of Residential Heat Consumption and Building Data(Informatics for Environmental Protection - Networking Environmental Information, 2005) Krüger, Birgitta; Kleemann, Manfred