Search Results (1,444)

This study investigates the rapid, often uncontrolled urban expansion in Khenchela, a medium-sized city in Algeria’s eastern High Plains, and its profound environmental repercussions amid semi-arid fragility. Drawing on sustainable urban development and resilience frameworks, it dissects pressures such as green space reduction (from 45 ha in 1998 to 33 ha in 2023, dropping per capita from 6.1 m² to 3 m² below WHO standards), water scarcity with 35% leakage losses waste mismanagement, informal settlements on hazardous lands, air/soil pollution, and climate vulnerabilities like heat waves and flooding. Employing a mixed-methods approach documentary analysis of (MPLUUP, LUP and MDP) plans, GIS cartography of spatial evolution (2000–2025), statistical demographics, field observations, and institutional critiques, the research exposes governance gaps: fragmented coordination, weak ecological integration, and resource shortages. It reveals socio-spatial disparities across functional zones, underscoring the need for adaptive, participatory strategies that promote polycentric and compact urban forms, enhanced biodiversity, efficient infrastructure, and inclusive governance to strengthen urban resilience. Full article

The fact that a large Gabor bandwidth promotes measurement accuracy has motivated research on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) meta-signals, which are obtained by jointly processing components from different frequencies. When two side-band components are considered, the resulting meta-signal has characteristics close to that of a pure carrier and measurement ambiguities can arise: a third signal in between side-band components can alleviate this problem and help estimating the integer ambiguities. This paper provides a framework for the generation of measurements from triple-component GNSS meta-signals with the goal of reducing the ambiguity problem. The whole meta-signal is at first decomposed as two dual-component meta-signals with the central component used as pivot. Measurements on the dual-component meta-signals are computed using the synthetic approach based on the Hatch-Melbourne-Wübbena (HMW) combination. Triple-component pseudoranges are then obtained as the narrow lane combination of the pseudoranges from the dual-component meta-signals. Theoretical results have been supported through experimental analyses based on measurements from two Septentrio PolaRx5S multi-frequency, multi-constellation receivers set up in a zero-baseline configuration. Results based on the Galileo E5a, E5b and E6 components show the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Full article

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has fundamentally changed the way interdisciplinary coordination works in construction projects; however, the theoretical mechanisms underlying open collaboration standards in this field remain insufficiently explored. This article fills this gap by presenting a systematic analysis of the BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) through the lens of reification and serialization, two fundamental concepts in information systems theory. Although the BCF format is widely used in the industry and implemented in major BIM tools for clash detection and issue tracking, the existing literature treats it primarily as an operational tool, overlooking the deeper information systems principles that govern its architecture. The analysis demonstrates that BCF achieves reification by transforming informal coordination knowledge—such as verbally communicated clashes, scattered email threads, and undocumented design decisions—into first-class objects (Topic, Comment, Viewpoint) equipped with unique identifiers, typed attributes, ownership, temporal metadata, and formalized inter-object relationships. Further analysis was conducted on BCF’s serialization mechanisms, including XML encoding for file exchange, JSON for RESTful API communication, and ZIP archiving as a distribution container, each of which was selected to balance human readability, schema validation, compression, and cross-platform portability. The complementarity of these two mechanisms was examined: reification determines what to preserve and in what structure, while serialization determines how to encode and in what format, which together enable interoperable, auditable, and automatable coordination workflows in heterogeneous software environments. The analysis was illustrated with a real-world BCF example from a major infrastructure project in Poland, demonstrating practical alignment between theoretical constructs and their implementation. The research results provide both a conceptual foundation for researchers working on openBIM standards and practical guidance for practitioners seeking to optimize issue management, the implementation of a Common Data Environment (CDE), and the specification of Exchange Information Requirements (EIR). The study contributes new knowledge in three areas: (1) To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it provides the first systematic theoretical analysis of BCF through the lens of reification and serialization, filling a gap between the format’s widespread practical use and its limited theoretical understanding. (2) It demonstrates how the formal criteria of reification (unique identity, typed attributes, ownership, temporal metadata, and inter-object relationships) map onto specific BCF entities, offering a transferable analytical framework for evaluating other openBIM standards. (3) It identifies the complementarity of reification and serialization as a design principle that can guide the development of future standards for digital twins and IoT-based facility management. Full article

Existing BIM (Building Information Modeling) validation mechanisms, namely geometric clash detection and attribute completeness checking of individual objects (MVD, IDS), do not cover a significant category of informational incompleteness: situations in which the properties of interdependent entities become fully defined only as a result of their mutual presence in the model. This article introduces the new concept of ontosaturation as a new mechanism of formal ontology that formalizes this phenomenon. Ontosaturation describes the relationship between existentially independent entities whose certain properties remain undetermined (unsaturated) in isolation and acquire values only after the attributes of related objects are taken into account. The article proposes a formal definition of ontosaturation and the supporting concepts needed to apply it in practice. These include the saturant (an entity that completes the properties of another), the saturation cluster (a group of mutually saturating entities), and the saturation index, a metric enabling a quantitative assessment of the relational completeness of a BIM model at the level of a single entity (s(e)) and the entire model (S(M)). The concept of a saturation profile was also introduced, complementary to the Level of Information Need (LOIN) in accordance with the ISO 19650 series of standards, defining minimum saturation thresholds for successive phases of the project lifecycle. The mechanism was demonstrated using the example of an installation penetration through a fire separation wall, modeled in Autodesk Revit 2025, showing that collision detection and attribute validation fail to detect four unsaturated properties critical to fire safety and structural integrity, which ontosaturation identifies. The proposed approach constitutes a third layer of BIM model validation, alongside the geometric and attribute layers, addressing the relational completeness of information between interdependent objects. Full article

Understanding drought and water availability requires integrating multiple components of the hydrological cycle. Satellite observations enable consistent monitoring of water storage, groundwater variability, and water budget components at continental scales. This study synthesises results from several satellite-based analyses to examine hydrological signals across Europe within the Köppen–Geiger climate zones. Indicators were analysed jointly, including the Combined Climatologic Deviation Index (CCDI), Water Budget (WB), Water Storage Deficit Index (WSDI), and Groundwater Drought Index (GDI). The comparison of these indices reveals consistent spatial and temporal patterns of water deficit across Europe, with the strongest drying signals observed in temperate and Mediterranean regions. In contrast, northern climatic zones show higher retention capacity. The integrated approach highlights relationships among groundwater variability, water storage anomalies, climate anomalies, and water budget dynamics, providing a broader perspective on hydrological responses to climate variability. The results demonstrate the value of multi-indicator satellite analysis for large-scale drought monitoring and water resource assessment. Full article

Sustainable forest management is increasingly recognized as an important climate change mitigation strategy because forests capture and store large amounts of carbon. This study presents a regional framework that integrates LiDAR data, forest cartography, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify biomass-related carbon dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions associated with forest management operations. The methodology was applied to the Autonomous Community of La Rioja (Spain) for the period 2010–2016 using public LiDAR campaigns, the Forest Map of Spain, and inventory data for reforestation and logging operations. Results show that above-ground biomass increased from 4,537,956 t in 2010 to 7,092,890 t in 2016, which corresponds to an increase of 1,200,819 t C in above-ground carbon stock. A complementary first-order estimate based on IPCC default root/shoot ratios suggests that total living biomass carbon (above- plus below-ground) increased by approximately 1,495,269 t C during the same period. In parallel, LCA results indicate that logging has substantially higher operational impacts than reforestation, particularly in terms of global warming potential. Even under a conservative scenario in which part of the carbon removed through logging is returned to the atmosphere, the regional balance remains net negative in CO₂-equivalent terms, indicating a net sink over the analyzed period. However, the approach has important limitations, including the absence of independent field validation, stand-age stratification, and explicit soil-carbon accounting. Full article

The Somyne lake-mire system is a unique wetland landscape complex in the Polissia region of Ukraine and forms part of the Rivne Nature Reserve. Its ecological importance is internationally recognised through its designation as the Ramsar wetland “Somyne Peatland Massif”. Effective conservation of this wetland requires an understanding of the factors controlling the functioning of the lake and its drainage basin, considered in this study as a lake-basin system (LBS). The aim of this study is to assess the geoecological condition of the Somyne LBS using the principles of landscape limnology and the basin approach. The research integrates morphological, morphometric, hydrological, landscape-metric, hydrochemical and geochemical analyses. These are complemented by bathymetric modelling, landscape mapping, and analysis of long-term meteorological observations. The results identify key natural and anthropogenic drivers shaping the functioning of the system, characterise the hydrochemical state of lake waters and the geochemical properties of bottom sediments, and describe the spatial distribution of bottom sediments and the bathymetric structure of the lake basin. A multivariate algorithm for the geoecological assessment of lake-basin systems is proposed, providing a framework for comparative analysis of small lakes in the Polissian lake region under climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressure. Full article

Seasonal snow cover in mountainous regions represents a critical natural freshwater reserve for arid and semi-arid areas of Central Asia. This study evaluates the long-term (2000–2024) spatiotemporal dynamics of snow cover in the Arys River basin, located within the Western Tien Shan. The research utilizes daily satellite data from MODIS Terra and Aqua, along with data from the MODSNOW automated processing system. Terra-Aqua composite imagery was employed to minimize cloud cover effects. Satellite-derived estimates were validated against observational data from five meteorological stations of the Republican State Enterprise (RSE) “Kazhydromet”. The results indicate significant interannual variability in snow cover extent: the snow-covered area during the cold season ranged from 16.2% to 54.1%, with a mean value of 34.4%. Trend analysis revealed a weak negative trend, while Sen’s slope estimator showed an average annual reduction in snow cover area of 0.37% per year. The most pronounced decline in snow accumulation was observed in mid-elevation mountain zones. These findings suggest potential increased risks to seasonal water availability in the Arys River basin and, more broadly, across the Syr Darya basin under ongoing climate change conditions. The results provide a scientific basis for quantifying climate impacts and developing adaptation strategies for integrated water resources management in Central Asia. Full article

Pasture ecosystems in the arid regions of Kazakhstan are highly vulnerable to the combined effects of climatic variability and increasing grazing pressure, while long-term spatial assessments of degradation remain limited. This study develops an integrative remote sensing-based framework for assessing pasture degradation in Atyrau Oblast by combining long-term NDVI time series (2000–2023) with grazing pressure indicators ($K_{sust}$ and LIPS), field observations, and climatic data. The results show that 49.3% of pasturelands are degraded, with statistically significant negative NDVI trends observed across most administrative districts. Areas experiencing pasture overload ($K_{sust}$ > 1.2) spatially coincide with persistent vegetation decline, and significant negative relationships between NDVI and livestock numbers are identified in several districts. The analysis also reveals spatial heterogeneity and lagged responses of vegetation dynamics to grazing pressure under varying climatic conditions. The proposed approach provides a novel integrative framework that links spectral vegetation indicators with climate-adjusted grazing metrics, enabling the identification of degradation hotspots and supporting spatially differentiated pasture management. This framework can be applied in regional land monitoring systems to improve decision-making for sustainable rangeland use under climate change. Full article

This paper revisits the Lambert conformal conic (LCC) projection and rederives its equations using a new notation, V, defined as the reciprocal of the commonly used U, which simplifies the expressions. Based on the resulting distortion formulas, conditions determining whether the projection has two, one, or no standard parallels are obtained. An optimal LCC configuration is defined by requiring equal local linear scale factors at the bounding parallels and symmetric maximum and minimum distortions about unity. Applied to the territory of Bulgaria (φ_S ≈ 41°14′, φ_N ≈ 44°13′), this criterion yields optimized standard parallels at φ₁ ≈ 41°40′ and φ₂ ≈ 43°47′. The corresponding local linear scale factors range from ca. 0.999832 to 1.000168, i.e., symmetric distortions of approximately ±1.7 × 10⁻⁴. Compared with existing implementations such as BGS2000 and BGS2005, the proposed configuration slightly reduces the distortion range and provides a more balanced distribution of scale over the country. Full article

Despite abundant scholarship on religious architecture and urban history, a systematic city-wide analysis that treats the parish system as a territorially relevant infrastructure for planning remains uncommon. This article examines Barcelona’s network of 132 Catholic parish churches as a cartographic layer for interpreting distributed centralities and their relationships with public space. The study is grounded in an exhaustive inventory based on on-site visits and archival consultation, and on a standardised redrawing protocol (Sitte and Nolli conventions) developed from municipal cartography and architectural plans. Synthesis maps and fabric-specific drawings document spatial patterns that vary across phases of urban growth, as well as recurrent typologies of relationships between churches, squares, and urban axes. Across the corpus, at least 25 churches are associated with squares and can be grouped into four recurrent arrangements (12 with a single frontal square; 4 with concatenated lateral squares; 3 surrounded by open space; and 6 with squares severed by through-traffic infrastructure). District plates further reveal contrasting typological distributions between Ciutat Vella (n = 16), Eixample (n = 19), Gràcia (n = 11), and Nou Barris (n = 14). The findings show that Barcelona’s Catholic parish cartography constitutes a key interpretative layer for understanding the city’s complexity, including its social and urban transformations, neighbourhood-level mechanisms of resilience, and the interaction between religious networks, urban form, and civic culture. The resulting cartographic protocol is reproducible and transferable to studies of urbanisation and regional development, offering an operational framework for planning debates on the governance of public space, heritage conservation, and urban sustainability. Full article

Hydrological memory reflects the persistence of hydrological processes and plays an important role in understanding basin regime dynamics under changing climatic conditions. This study investigates the temporal stability of hydrological memory in the ten largest European basins: Volga, Danube, Dnieper, Don, Northern Dvina, Pechora, Neva, Rhine, Vistula, and Elbe. The analysis used rolling cross-correlation (CCF) and auto-correlation (ACF) functions calculated with a 50-month moving window to assess temporal changes in hydrological dependence structures. Additionally, an Instability Index was applied to quantify the variability of hydrological memory over time. The results indicate that the strongest correlations occur mainly at lag 0 and ±1, suggesting a relatively short hydrological memory in most basins. The lowest Instability Index was observed in the Volga basin, whereas the highest values were recorded in the Danube and Rhine basins. Full article

Modern web mapping technologies implement web standards that make the visualization of geoscience data on the web possible using various methods, offering a high degree of customizability for creating web maps. In meteorology, synoptic surface weather charts serve as crucial products to communicate observed surface weather at a point in time. To convey such information, these maps implement complex symbology, such as a multi-element surface station model symbol to indicate station data, isobars, and special line symbology to visualize weather fronts. Synoptic messages (SYNOP standard numerical code by WMO) are periodic meteorological reports of weather observations, exchanged by national meteorological services around the globe. This study focuses on visualizing surface weather data decoded from SYNOP reports. The paper introduces an open-source JavaScript module, which handles data decoding and dynamic symbol generation, using a WMO-compliant method for creating station model vector symbols for observational GeoJSON data on the client-side, in an interactive web mapping environment. Its output is compatible with popular, open-source web mapping libraries. It runs Python in the browser with Pyodide and makes use of the Web Workers API for parallelization, speeding up the decoding and visualization process without blocking the user interface thread. The developed module intends to help with easy representation of surface weather observations on web maps used in meteorology, which can also be implemented in a dynamically updated server–client architecture. The code is presented with a ready-to-use wrapper for Leaflet. Full article

Underwater cultural heritage represents a fragile and largely unexplored component of historical landscapes, particularly in dynamic fluvial and coastal environments. Despite increasing international attention to its protection, the spatial identification of submerged heritage remains methodologically challenging. This study proposes a geo-historical approach that integrates historical cartography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identify areas of high archaeological potential in underwater contexts. Focusing on the Douro River in Porto (Portugal), a UNESCO World Heritage city with a long maritime and fluvial history, the research analyses a set of key historical maps from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, complemented by documentary and archaeological sources. These cartographic materials were georeferenced and critically assessed in QGIS, enabling the digitisation of features associated with land–water interaction, navigation hazards, port infrastructures, and military defences. The resulting spatial dataset was used to generate an interpretative map and a kernel density model highlighting potential underwater heritage hotspots along the riverbed and riverbanks. The findings identify several priority zones, including the river mouth, historic quays, former shipbuilding areas, and sectors linked to nineteenth-century defensive structures. While the study does not include in situ verification, it demonstrates the value of historical maps as predictive tools for guiding targeted underwater surveys and proposes a transferable, cost-effective framework for heritage prospection and management in historically active fluvial–estuarine settings. Full article

Post-mining surface uplift has affected the northeastern part of Pécs, Hungary, since the closure of underground coal mines in the 1990s. This study synthesises 30 years of SAR data (ERS, Envisat, and Sentinel-1) with geodetic surveys, groundwater monitoring, and over 900 residential damage reports to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of this deformation. In densely built urban environments, Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PS-InSAR) provides spatially detailed complementary data measurements to traditional levelling, particularly where survey lines offer limited coverage. The performed combined analysis tracked deformation from initial uplift through stabilisation, revealing a clear transition: while early lower-order measurements showed limited correlation, modern Sentinel-1 data and high-order geodetic surveys (post-2014) demonstrate a robust correlation (R = 0.65). The cross-correlation of InSAR results with geodetic and hydrogeological records revealed that aquifer recovery by the 2010s coincided with the onset of surface stability. While over 90% of 1990s residential damage claims fell within measured deformation zones, this relationship weakened over time, with recent claims showing little spatial connection with ground movements. This highlights the complementary strengths of InSAR and geodetic techniques. It demonstrates the value of integrating geotechnical and socio-economic datasets, providing a transferable framework for reliable deformation monitoring and risk management in post-mining urban environments. Full article