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Agri-Food System Governance in Bangladesh’s Coastal Regions: Why the Socio-Ecological Systems Approach Needs to be Politicized
Full text linkWhile Bangladesh is reported as doing well in food production, there is increasing concern that this essentially deltaic and highly climate-vulnerable country will face steep challenges in food governance and productivity. Anthropogenic drivers shaped by narrow economic goals and sectoral policies have deeply altered Bangladesh’s food systems since the early 1960s and partly led to adverse outcomes. By combining policy and institutional analysis and primary research in Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira district in the southern coastal deltas, we revisit two key transitions, poldering and commercial shrimp farming, to reveal how diverse economic, social, and political factors have reshaped the efficiency, inclusivity, and sustainability of agri-food systems. These complex interactions between agrifood systems, the broader ecology, and heterogeneity in poverty, gender, and other social identities are poorly understood and accounted for in policies and program interventions. This has resulted in unequal conflicts and contestations around critical resources, which impact most marginalized groups, also because policy incoherence encourages collusions between local elites and local decision-makers (all men) for resource appropriation and control. Conceptually, a social-ecological systems (SES) framework would identify these complexities. However, SES approaches tend to be technocratic and overlook the overtly economic framing of natural resources governance, diversity amongst local communities, and the politics of resource appropriation. This gap can be remedied by merging SES thinking with a critical political ecology lens to trace the historical, scalar, and deeply intersectional nature of socio-ecological relations
Building with Jelly, or, Concrete as the Concretion of the Abstract
Full text linkIn his recent book titled *Béton: arme de construction massive du capitalisme*, Marxist thinker Anselm Jappe presents a critique of the emergence and ongoing centrality of reinforced concrete as a hegemonic building material. In this slim volume, Jappe traces its historical trajectory, analysing the economic pressures propelling its hegemonic consolidation, examining the central role it played in political projects of various stripes, and critiquing the social, cultural, and environmental consequences of the latter. What is interesting and novel about his contribution, however, is the conceptual framework deployed for this purpose. Unlike most Marxist critiques of architecture which usually focus on questions of class or ideology, Jappe focuses on matter and abstraction. Value-form theory (and the tradition of German *Wertkritik* which Jappe is part of), reads Marx’s theory of value as a theory of the abstract domination of human life and social practice by the abstract forms set in motion by the capitalist mode of production.
What I propose is to write a review of Jappe’s book which attempts to read it in conjunction with the question of cosmotechnics. One of Yuk Hui’s central concerns is the decline of technodiversity as a result of the globalisation of Western technological monoculture throughout capitalist modernity. As the call for contributions rightly points out, the fields of architecture and urbanism have not yet properly addressed their implication in this process. I argue that the homogenization of building practices and the unanimous popularity of reinforced concrete is a major aspect of this process which ought to be examined more closely.
While Hui’s project provides us with conceptual tools useful to critique this foreclosing of alternative cosmotechnics and to imagine how modern technologies could be rechannelled towards future divergent trajectories, he does not delve into the precise mechanisms through which this monoculture has been established in the first place. To explain this, I argue, Marxist theory is crucial. Expanding Jappe’s value-critical analysis of reinforced concrete with Moishe Postone’s account of how the peculiar social ‘self-mediating’ character of abstract labour in capitalism explains the transformation of labour into pure means and of its tools and products in mere objects, I intend to complement the question of cosmotechnics with an explanation of the decline of technodiversity grounded on the abstract logic of capital
BREACH-METHOD: a new framework to generate event sets for financial flood risk assessment of the Dutch Delta
Full text linkFlood risk is defined as the probability of occurrence multiplied by the consequences, resulting in an annual risk metric. In The Netherlands, flood risk assessments for levees typically assume: 1) all levee sections and flood consequences are independent with no breaches occurring elsewhere in the system, 2) emergency measures are not taken into account, and 3) the definition of failure does not encompass the complete failure process. This method leads to an overestimation of risk and a probability of flooding in the Netherlands exceeding 1/5 per year, despite the last levee failure occurring in 1953, followed by numerous levee reinforcements. While flood protection remains the most cost-effective measure for The Netherlands, a conservative approach can be realistic, especially in light of climate change. However, for risk assessments designed to inform choices on spatial adaptation, mortgages, insurance solutions and stress tests a more realistic approach is needed.
In response, our paper proposes an alternative flood risk assessment framework and flood event model. We combine statistical methods and expert judgment tailored to polder systems characterized by complex hydraulic interdependencies. By delineating independent areas and estimating conditional probabilities of single and multiple breach events under varying hydraulic loads—such as river discharge and storm surge—the proposed model delivers a more realistic depiction of failure probabilities in The Netherlands. Consequently, it offers a less conservative local flood risk profile, facilitating informed decision-making across domains such as land use planning, risk insurance, and investment allocation..
 
Automating the Estimation of Noise and Emissions Near Airports With ADS-B Data
Full text linkAircraft arrivals and departures significantly affect nearby populations, primarily through noise pollution and the release of pollutants that degrade air quality. Estimating these environmental impacts can be a lengthy process and is typically mandated by legal regulations governing airport operations. This paper proposes a methodology to automate the estimation of environmental impacts for historical scenarios, specifically noise and pollutant emissions in the vicinity of airports, by utilizing open-source data. The automation pipeline developed retrieves the necessary databases and ADS-B data for a specified airport and time frame, and validates, pre-processes and enhances the data before estimating noise and local air quality emissions with it. The developed automation pipeline is applied to the Cologne Bonn Airport for the year of 2019. In addition to the open-source data, confidential datasets were made available containing the airport flight logs and the records from the airport noise measurement stations. This confidential dataset is used to assess the coverage of the ADS-B data and to validate the noise estimates generated with the automated process. The number of flights obtained from the ADS-B network covers ca. 82\% of the flights in the airport flight logs, and the mean noise levels derived from ADS-B data deviate between 0 and 3 dB(A) from the ones recorded by the noise measurement stations, depending on the flight type and location of the noise stations. Possible reasonings for the different discrepancies observed include the assumptions made in the ADS-B data enhancement, as well as the underlying noise model and databases used. As a final step in the Cologne Bonn Airport use case, aircraft emissions reported according to the Landing \& Takeoff cycle are compared with emissions estimates derived from ADS-B data. Significant discrepancies are observed between the two estimation methods which can be attributed to variations in time spent below 3000~ft~AGL, average fuel flow and average EIs for each pollutant. This contribution provides an initial step toward automating the estimation of environmental impacts from arriving and departing aircraft. Further work shall focus on addressing the limitations of the methodology used to enhance the ADS-B tracks obtained and further validation of the environmental impacts estimated.
The Nature of Disasters
Full text linkThe dialogue between Jeremy Bricker and Dicky C. Pelupessy explores the fundamental nature of disasters, questioning the balance between natural forces and human influence while exploring themes of responsibility, risk perception, and preparedness. Drawing from Dicky’s essay Earth, Humankind, and the Haze Disaster, the discussion challenges the idea that the earth itself is vengeful, arguing instead that humans perceive natural events as acts of rage. It highlights humanity’s propensity to take risks and the misconception that disasters are purely natural occurrences. Instead, what we call a disaster is often the consequence of one—the result of human choices and vulnerabilities. For instance, as Dicky’s essay illustrates, in an earthquake, deaths are not caused by the quake itself but by collapsing structures—a failure to account for seismic risks that exceed a building’s capacity.
Curated by guest editor Tara Kanj and chief editor Fransje Hooijmeijer, this transcribed dialogue brings together backgrounds in psychology, engineering, and design. Through cases from the Netherlands, Indonesia, and the United States, it highlights the complex interplay between environmental forces and human decisions that shape them
Enhancing Aircraft Ground Trajectories through Map-Matching and Stochastic Pavement Roughness Modeling
Full text linkPredictive maintenance is essential in aviation due to rising cost pressures, leveraging sensor data and maintenance logs for improving planning efficiency. Analyzing historical data ensures timely interventions, reducing unplanned downtime and enhancing aircraft reliability. Digital twin applications expand these capabilities, allowing precise monitoring and proactive analyses of aircraft components, tracking stress, fatigue, and health conditions. Accurate load monitoring during ground operations requires integrating actual aircraft trajectories with environmental factors like pavement conditions and weather, which can pose challenges due to data sparsity, noise, or misalignment. Our study outlines a methodology using sparse Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and geospatial airport data, employing map-matching and filtering techniques for comprehensive trajectory representation and analysis. Additionally, we introduce roughness-specific pavement stochastic modeling to allow load assessment on aircraft structures during ground roll including surface irregularities and damage patterns. This model precedes a probabilistic fatigue model, aiming to initially diagnose potential structural issues to enable subsequent prediction, and mitigate efforts, thereby enhancing aircraft durability and thus operational safety.
In dialogue with, within, and beyond depletion
Full text linkThis dialogue brings together geomorphologist David R. Montgomery and landscape architect Seth Denizen to explore ideas of depletion in soil and deltaic landscapes. Moderated by Laura Thomas, the conversation considers depletion both as a physical condition at different scales and as a situated judgment. Across deltas, megacities, and agricultural hinterlands, the participants discuss soil as both an ecological foundation and a site where social relations are produced. Both speakers highlight how soils are shaped by complex social and material processes that actively contribute to their formation. They raise caution that reducing all questions of soil health to a single number is reductive, and that the way scientific problems around soil health are framed can obscure the bigger picture. Moments of synthesis, they suggest, require interdisciplinary collaboration to connect political ideas to their ecological foundations. The dialogue also emphasizes that urban soils are not isolated but connected to rural hinterlands. Linking urban planning, soil science, and health, they argue, could help reduce conflicts over scarce resources and support urban adaptation. In closing, the conversation turns to regenerative futures. If depletion signals systems pushed beyond their limits, what possibilities emerge when it is treated as a starting point? The speakers reflect that rethinking our relationship with soils involves paying close attention to the processes that brought us here: processes that are deeply political and can only be addressed through conversation and collective action
Reviews and Responses for Modelling ADS-B Reception Probability Using OpenSky Data
Full text linkSee detailed reviews and responses in the PDF file.
DOI for the original paper: https://doi.org/10.59490/joas.2024.789
Reviews and Responses for Training a Machine Learning Model to Detect Holding Patterns in Aircraft Trajectories
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.2024.794
Cosmotechnologies of Community and Collaboration in Vandana Singh’s Speculative Architectures
Full text linkYuk Hui, referring both to climate change and its accompanying social upheavals, writes that ‘to confront the crisis that is before us’, humans will have to rethink the idea of technological universality and how it constructs our relationship to each other and to the natural world. For architects, this means considering how much architecture today is constrained by a singular technological paradigm, and how architects can think the many technologies of architecture differently.
This essay considers architectural cosmotechnology through discourses in global speculative fiction (SF), fictions proceeding from different ways of understanding and being in the world, to explore the future implications of these fictions for architecture and other technological practices in contrast to the hegemony of global modernism – what I have called cosmotechnologies of community and collaboration. The short fiction of SF author Vandana Singh supplies an image of architecture that proceeds from different images of and concerns about the future, and is an exemplary practice in cosmotechnology. She reframes existing technologies and invents new technologies in a mode of practice that centres the experience of diverse cultures in technologies of community and collaboration where architecture becomes central to new ways of being in the world