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Auflistung Environmental Informatics 2013 nach Erscheinungsdatum
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- KonferenzbeitragUpscaling of spatially explicit and linked time- and space-discrete models simulating vegetation dynamics under climate change(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Nabel, Julia Esther Marlene Sophia; Lischke, HeikeModels applied to simulate the impact of climate change on vegetation dynamics generally face the trade-off between computational expenses (computation time and memory) and modelled detail. Models used for simulations of large areas (e.g. continental) often abstract processes entailing spatial linkages, e.g. species migration, and have too coarse resolutions to depict microsite heterogeneity. Regional to local models, on the other hand, are more detailed, but their computational expenses prevent applications on larger scales. For manageable and accurate simulations of vegetation dynamics on large scales, small-scale dynamics need to be integrated with large-scale applications in a balanced way. Several methods have been proposed and applied to expedite the integration of scales. However, each method has different advantages and drawbacks and the applicability of a method also strongly depends on the initial model and on the research question. Here we present a conceptual framework for a further step integrating the scales in simulations with spatially explicit, time- and space-discrete models simulating vegetation dynamics under climate change. In such models, grid cells with similar environmental drivers and species compositions often entail repetitive calculations. Our method strives to reduce this redundancy and aims to disentangle repetitive calculations from processes specific to single cells. The proposed method is based on a dynamic two-layer classification (D2C) concept, in which the majority of processes is simulated in representative cells constituting the coarse layer, and only processes which might lead to changes specific to a single cell are simulated on the original grid, i.e. the fine layer. This new concept is a further step to enable the simulation of more detailed small-scale dynamics on a larger scale. We provide an example applying the D2C concept with the forest-landscape model TreeMig and shortly discuss its advantages and limitations.
- KonferenzbeitragSmart Grid Integration of an Existing Office Building: Modelling and Simulation of Adaptation Strategies(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Hilty, Lorenz M.; Bornhöft, Nikolaus A.The development of smart grids makes possible the introduction of dynamic electricity rates, with prices changing each hour. Dynamic rates can reflect the temporal dependency of supply and demand for electrical power and network capacity, thus avoiding load peaks and promoting the use of fluctuating renewable energy sources. We present a simulation model that studies the electricity demand for heating and cooling modern office buildings in the context of dynamic electricity prices. The model permits the simulation of scenarios in which existing thermal energy reservoirs (warm and cold water tanks) are used for the smart grid integration by means of adapted control strategies. The adaptation to dynamic electricity rates and thus indirectly to the fluctuating supply of wind and solar power is achieved solely by changing the control of the existing infrastructure without changing the infrastructure itself.
- KonferenzbeitragOpenResKit – Herausforderungen und aktuelle Entwicklungstendenzen bei der software-technischen Unterstützung von Ressourcen- und Energieeffizienzfragestellungen auf der Basis einer Client-/Server-Architektur(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Krehahn, Peter; Ziep, Tobias; Schiemann, Lars; Wohlgemuth, VolkerDas Projekt OpenResKit besch ftigt sich mit der Erstellung von Open-Source-basierenden Softwarewerkzeugen zur Unterst tzung von innerbetrieblichen Ressourcen- und Energieeffizienzfragestellungen. Dabei werden vornehmlich kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) fokussiert, welche auf Grund ihrer Anzahl ein erh htes Potential zur Steigerung eben dieser Fragestellungen bieten (VDI Zentrum Ressourceneffizienz GmbH, 2011, S. 4). Der hier beschriebene Beitrag soll die Vision des Projektes, den Stand der aktuellen Methodenauswahl und deren softwaretechnischen Umsetzungsm glichkeiten aufzeigen. Spezieller soll die umgesetzte Softwarearchitektur des Forschungsprojekts OpenResKit erl utert werden.
- KonferenzbeitragUsing a web-based SDSS for siting solar power plants(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Wanderer, Thomas; Herle, StefanIn the global energy turnaround towards renewable clean systems the optimal exploitation of natural resources becomes more important. Several spatial decision problems arise in this context, which are usually faced by Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This holds especially for the deployment of solar power stations which depends on a variety of different spatial factors like the solar radiation. The paper demonstrates the application of a GIS-based spatial Multi- Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach to assess sites suitability for utility-scale solar power plants by implementing and evaluating a Site Ranking tool. The tool integrates accepted spatial MCDA methods to facilitate well-founded siting decisions. Since it is mounted in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) using common Web standards, the features are accessible to a broad range of users via a WebGIS client. In addition, the evaluation of the tool is performed by two conducted case studies trying to match and explain the current spatial distribution of existing solar power plants in the study areas. It becomes evident that spatial MCDA is an adequate approach to solve site selection problems for solar power plants even if the spatial distribution of solar installations cannot be confirmed by the resulting suitability maps in the case studies. Different sources of error and uncertainty can be identified which should be investigated and tackled in the future. Nevertheless, the prototype of the tool provides a sound basis for integrating further capabilities.
- KonferenzbeitragA quantitative study on transport time for sustainable road freight logistics(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Froese, JanReferring to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU), road freight transport will increase by 80% between 2004 and 2025. In order to reduce the negative environmental effects freight transport needs to be arranged more sustainably in future. Although rail and water transport is less climate-damaging than road freight, companies hesitate to relocate road freight transport to more environmentally friendly modes because these are slower. But at the moment it is not proven to what extent the majority of customers actually require the fastest possible delivery for their orders. In case longer transport times are accepted in the market, rail and water logistics would be an attractive and sustainable alternative. In this contribution more than 5000 freight transport orders handled in continental Europe have been analyzed in terms of time constraints given by the customers. It can be concluded that there is a significant amount of road transport which could be handled in a slower and more sustainable way. To do so, it is crucial that future transport management systems are able to identify non time-critical orders and support a modal shift.
- KonferenzbeitragSome thoughts to realignment of PortalU(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Konstantinidis, Stefanie; Kruse, FredEnvironmental information is the basis for improving the environmental situation in the EU. The challenge poses the tailoring of information to a defined group of interest and not only the technical possibility to retrieve the environmental information. Even though, the technical infrastructure for retrieving public environmental information is the first step. Hence, the clear understanding of the needs of the general public is essential for a successful environmental information portal for the interest group general public . What does this mean referring to the German Environmental Information Portal PortalU? Since the launch of PortalU the focus of the portal is set on making available official environmental information especially on German Federal Republic and Federal States level. Currently, information from web pages represents the greatest amount of information. In contrast, information from environmental data catalogs and further data bases represent a smaller amount of information within PortalU. But quantity itself does not tell anything about the demand of a target group. The experience of the last years has shown that environmental interested citizens use mainly general search engines like Google to find information from public environmental web pages. Thus it would be worth thinking about a realignment of PortalU. The idea of a prospective alignment of PortalU is to concentrate on important environmental information, which is not easily found via Google and other general search engines. This information is mainly provided via environmental data catalogs and possibly further data bases. Some thoughts about the potential form and design of a respectively aligned environmental portal are discussed in the paper.
- KonferenzbeitragThe future of sustainability reporting – Institutional infrastructure and dynamics of the field(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Isenmann, RalfIn the 20 years since sustainability reporting first became a topic of broader interest in academia, business, and governments, it has rapidly grown to a field of research (e.g. Fifka 2012), with increasing relevance for companies, and more and more also of importance for capital markets and the financial community, even in the eyes of professional investors (FSC and ACSI 2011; Sullivan and Gouldson 2012). At present, sustainability reporting seems to become part of companies daily affairs, entering the business mainstream, at least to a certain degree. Hence, for a growing number, not just for some pioneering companies, the question is now how to report on sustainability issues, and no longer whether to report at all. Regardless of national characteristics or other differences in country results and firm size (Fifka 2012), this is not only true for leading edge companies in corporate sustainability and few sector leaders, but also for global players and multinationals, stock-quoted and publicly traded companies, as well as for a number of medium-sized or small companies. This trend is evidently a worldwide phenomenon, with North America and Europe coming first, followed by the Asia-Pacific region, and even spreading to Africa.
- KonferenzbeitragBenefits and Limits of OGC-Web Services to the new SoDa Service on Solar Energy(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Thomas, Claire; Saboret, Laurent; Wey, Etienne; Wald, LucienThe SoDa Service (website: www.soda-is.com) is providing an easy and standardized access to valuable information related to solar energy for professionals. Several providers offer via the SoDa Service an access to for-free and forpay Web services and off-line services delivering data on solar radiation, atmospheric optics, position of the sun and many others. Since the launch of the Service in 2003, the SoDa team is making efforts to improve the quality of the service to customers. After the duplication of the whole system in 2010 for a better reliability, and the development of a more esthetic website in summer 2012, the team is now populating the new SoDa Service with new Web services. This is a perfect opportunity to explore different standards in order to increase the dissemination and acceptation of the existing and new services by the community of users. After several trials, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards were selected. This communication discusses the OGC-compliant Web services and how the decision for developments within the new SoDa website was taken.
- KonferenzbeitragInvolving the Expert in the Delivery of Environmental Information from the Web(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Wanner, Leo; Bosch, Harald; Vrochidis, Stefanos; Bouayad-Agha, Nadjet; Casamayor, Gerard; Johansson, Lasse; Karppinen, Ari; Moumtzidou, Anastasia; Kompatsiaris, Ioannis; Ertl, ThomasAutomatic provision of accurate user need- and profile-tailored environmental information is of increasing demand. However, it is a challenging task with many facets. Among them is the difficulty to compile and cast into a formal representation all the expert knowledge needed to accurately and exhaustively acquire, assess and process the data in order to be able to reliably judge their relevance to the user and to produce an adequate summary and recommendations. Studies in Human-Computer Interaction show that both the satisfaction of the users with an application and the objective performance of a service increases if the users (in particular, experts) are assigned an active role in the system. Based on this insight, we propose a largely interactive environmental information acquisition and generation framework. The PESCaDO service involves the experts in four central tasks: (i) determination of criteria for the search of environmental nodes in the web; (ii) assessment of the relevance of the identified nodes; (iii) assessment of the quality of the data provided by the nodes, and (iv) selection of the content to be communicated to the user. Quantitative evaluations and user trials show that the performance of the system is good and the satisfaction with the service is high.
- KonferenzbeitragiPad – An Environmental-Friendly Working Tool?(Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2013) Arndt, Hans-Knud; Mokosch, Matthias; Pleshkanovska, RoksolanaNowadays a lot of medial and mobile devices are on the market. While some devices have driven out of the market by others, some devices can exist side by side. The iPad is a medial and mobile device too. This contribution aims to answer the question whether the iPad is an environmental-friendly working tool in two steps. Firstly, the iPad is introduced and its environmental friendliness is compared with those of notebooks. Secondly, the question whether the iPad is a working tool is answered by the help of a quantitative study. All in all it is shown that the iPad is an environmental- friendly working tool which is on the way to be a laptop replacement.