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Geophysical monitoring of large-scale levee overflow experiments with electrical resistivity tomography
Full text linkIn the Interreg-funded Polder2C’s project, large-scale overflow experiments were conducted from 2020 to 2022 on levee slopes along the Scheldt River in Belgium and the Netherlands. These tests assessed surface erosion resistance under varied conditions, including levee sections containing animal-induced damages. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) was employed as a non-invasive monitoring tool to observe subsurface changes, particularly those linked to erosion-prone animal burrows. A unique system configuration enabled detailed imaging of the levee’s internal dynamics during overflow testing. Post-processed ERT data effectively captured subsurface changes during these events, including water infiltration into existing burrows, cavity formation and collapse, and the interconnection of subsurface voids.
The study demonstrates ERT’s ability to identify critical subsurface features, with low resistivity zones indicating water-saturated areas and high resistivity zones marking air-filled voids. Time-lapse ERT imaging successfully captured dynamic resistivity shifts, correlating with key processes like soil displacement around burrows. Despite potential limitations, such as environmental noise and the influence of synthetic road plates used as protective coverings, ERT proved effective in detecting internal erosion patterns and pre-existing structural weaknesses.
The results indicate that ERT offers a feasible, scalable approach, also for real-time levee monitoring in overflow scenarios, enhancing its applicability for validation of erosion models. Future studies should investigate the effect of cumulative damage during overflow testing and optimize forms of data presentation to improve interpretability, ultimately refining ERT’s potential as a reliable tool for predicting levee vulnerabilities
Assessing the Impact of Multimodal Transportation on Economic Growth: A Machine Learning and Cointegration Approach in 28 Countries: Assessing the Impact of Multimodal Transportation on Economic Growth
No full textIn this study, the effect of freight and passenger transport in different modes on economic growth is determined for 28 selected countries. The Westerlund cointegration test is used to reveal the long-term relationship between freight and passenger transportation and growth. According to the cointegration analysis, all transportation modes (road, rail, and air) are cointegrated with growth. Additionally, machine learning models were used to predict growth based on each transportation mode for each country for the upcoming four years and to determine the importance of the input parameters. According to the importance of the parameter analysis, for the entire panel, rail transport is the most effective transport mode for economic growth. On a country-by-country basis, the findings differ. Rail transport is the strongest transport mode for growth in high-income countries. However, although it is not the dominant mode, the relative impact of air passenger transport is strong. In upper middle-income countries, there generally is not a dominant mode of transport, but in general, freight transport is important to economic growth. In passenger transportation, air passenger transport is the most prominent mode in these countries. In lower middle-income countries, rail freight is the strongest transport mode for economic growth
DISCUSSION ON: Robust validation of trends and cycles in sea level and tidal amplitude in the Dutch North Sea
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Uncovering Hidden Inefficiencies in the Route Availability Document
Full text linkThis study investigates inefficiencies within the Route Availability Document (RAD) used in European air traffic management, focusing on flights from Zurich Airport (LSZH) to various airports in London (EGLL, EGKK, and EGLC). The RAD imposes complex restrictions that impact flight planning, which can lead to inefficiencies. By analyzing flight plans and historical aircraft trajectories, this study highlights discrepancies between filed flight plans and actual flight paths for these city pairs, with only between 2.7% and 4.5% of the flights flying as filed. The impact of EUROCONTROL’s All Together Now 2024 initiative was also assessed, revealing no improvements in adherence to the flight plans. Statistical tests were employed to quantify differences in flight distance and duration, demonstrating that deviations from the RAD constraints lead to shorter and more efficient flights. The study proposes methods for scaling this analysis to uncover inefficiencies and suggests potential RAD modifications to enhance air traffic management efficiency
Materiality and Machinic Embodiment: A Postphenomenological Inquiry into ChatGPT’s Active User Interface
Full text linkThe rise of ChatGPT affords a fundamental transformation of the dynamics in human-technology interaction, as Large Language Model (LLM) applications increasingly emulate our social habits in digital communication. This poses a challenge to Don Ihde’s explicit focus on material technics and their affordances: ChatGPT did not introduce new material technics. Rather, it is a new digital app that runs on the same physical devices we have used for years. This paper undertakes a re-evaluation of some postphenomenological concepts, introducing the notion of quasi-materiality to better understand the role that user interfaces (UIs) play in affording different stabilities in technological mediation. We propose the term “active User Interface” (aUI) to denote the specifics of how ChatGPT makes use of LLMs within its UI design to afford seamless, intuitive conversations with a quasi-other in what Ihde termed “alterity relations”. Drawing inspiration from Peter-Paul Verbeek’s work on the intelligification of our material world through (AI) technologies, our analysis leads to the formulation of a novel stability afforded through aUIs: “machinic embodiment stability”. This concept sheds light on how ChatGPT’s aUI integrates with our established habits of digitally mediated social communication. As the use of LLMs is expected to become increasingly prevalent, this provides a new perspective on the current evolution of the technological landscape
Aboriginal cosmotechnics: Alison Page and Paul Memmott, Design: Building on Country
Full text linkThe unassuming title of the 2021 Australian book Design: Building on Countrypositions Aboriginal making as potentially cosmotechnical, since it restores the inter-dependence of what in the west would be categorised as nature, culture, technology. As the editor of the series to which the book belongs reminds us, ‘in the Aboriginal worldview, everything starts and ends with Country. ... Everything is part of a continuum, and endless flow of life and ideas emanating from Country’ which ‘includes the built environment and objects, which reflects both a conceptual and a physical process with ancestral and cultural dimensions’.And yet colonisation of the continent all but erad-icated Country as it had evolved over 65 000 years. So having carefully pieced together the objects, spiri-tuality, camps, shelters, materials and kinship of what Aboriginal design was (and is, in isolated ways), the book posits something more synthetic – an ‘offering’, as its conclusion graciously puts it, in which ‘this new Australian design will improve the wellbeing of people and create places that ultimately mean more to all of us. It will extend Country, not abrogate it, and it should be created with that in mind – because we are all con-nected to Country’
Scenarios of automated driving based on a switchboard for driving forces - an application to the Netherlands
Full text linkOver the past decade many developments have taken place in the field of automation of cars, trucks and public transport. The penetration rate of Level 2 partially automated vehicles in mixed traffic is increasing, Level 3 conditional automation is now supported by legislation, and different experimental and commercial applications of Level 4 high automation in mixed traffic exist. This shows that automated driving developments should be considered when making decisions about investments in physical and digital infrastructure. However, there are still many uncertainties regarding future penetration rates, the level of connectivity, the operational design domain, and the expected impacts of automated driving. This paper proposes four scenarios for automated driving developments in the Netherlands in 2040 and 2060: 1) Late transition, 2) Automated vehicles on main roads, 3) Car-topia, and 4) Share-topia. To derive these scenarios, a new “switchboard” method is introduced in which multiple driving forces for automated driving can be varied. The main driving forces were identified based on expert surveys. For each scenario, a modelling approach is used to compute the impact of automated driving on vehicle kilometres driven and congestion. The switchboard method offered more flexibility than existing scenario methods. The model-based impact assessment provided more conservative and probably more accurate insights into the expected impacts of automated driving on vehicle kilometres driven and congestion than expert estimates from the literature. The results show that in all scenarios automation leads to an increase in the number of trips, vehicle kilometres driven and congestion. In the scenarios with autonomous vehicles, congestion is expected to increase up to 17%. The higher the penetration rates of connected automated vehicles, the smaller the increase in congestion (1.5% -11%). The results indicate that investments in digital infrastructure are needed to prevent capacity reduction due to autonomous driving. The scenarios “car-topia” and “share-topia” may require additional physical infrastructure on motorways and regional roads
Revealed demand patterns of people with disabilities in on-demand ridepooling
Full text linkSince 2023, the on-demand ridepooling service MOIA operates, as part of Hamburg\u27s public transport, an integrated wheelchair-accessible service and offers subsidized fares for individuals with severe disabilities. This study analyzes one year of demand patterns in Hamburg following these enhancements, utilizing data analyses to assess their impact on service usage and accessibility. Findings reveal insights into distinct spatio-temporal user behavior, offering valuable guidance for the development of large-scale urban mobility solutions
Earth, Humankind, and the Haze Disaster
Full text linkThe Earth, Humans, and Haze Disaster was written in the wake of one of the worst forest fires that occurred in Indonesia. The essay refers to and highlights the book The Angry Earth by anthropologists Anthony Oliver-Smith and Susanna Hoffman, and the notion of disaster as the collapse of the cultural protection coined by Lowell Carr. It underlines an imbalance in the mutual relations between humans and the Earth. The haze disaster is not a result of an "angry Earth" but of human recklessness, systemic failure, and the erosion of preventive cultural structures. It is a warning that continues to be ignored, created by human action
Reviews and Responses for Testing Applicability of Point Merge Systems for Göteborg Landvetter Airport
Full text linkDetailed reviews and responses can be found in the PDF and HTML versions of this document.
The DOI for the original paper is https://doi.org/10.59490/joas.2024.7899