The Tuntang Watershed is an important watershed in Central Java. Management of watersheds in the Tuntang stream is a priority for various parties to carry out. One of the things that threatens the sustainability of the Tuntang watershed is erosion. The erosion rate can lead to sediment accumulation and siltation in the Tuntang River reservoir, which can cause catastrophic flooding. Flood disaster mitigation caused by erosion needs to be done, one of which is by calculating the erosion rate per year that occurs in the Tuntang watershed. This study calcultated the predicted erosion rate (per year in the Tuntang watershed) using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) method, processed using the Google Earth Engine (GEE). Google offers a cloud-storage technology called GEE. Programming in JavaScript is required to operate GEE. GEE is a petabyte-scale data-based tool that can be used to analyze and archive geospatial data that is open source. The computing environment is designed for the processing of geospatial data, including the depiction of spatial analysis of satellite imagery. Data for RUSLE is obtained from the database in GEE, and the results can be imaged on a map. According to the study's findings, the degree of soil erosion throughout the Tuntang Watershed was essentially constant, with Moderate erosion predominating in the majority of locations. Senjoyo Sub Watershed, Rowopening Sub Watershed, and Tuntang Hilir Sub Watershed are the primary locations with severe erosion. Rowopening Sub Watershed is the region that is the worst.
LINK
For interspecies justice, animal welfare, and animal rights, the planet needs to be divided on the basis of species' natural resource requirements. The Half-Earth View is that to maintain viable populations of the Earth's remaining species, half of landscapes and seascapes need protection from intensive economic activity. This protection is needed outside the nature preserve system, such as in agricultural areas or cities, so nature can co-exist with local communities. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
MULTIFILE
In today’s technological world, human intertwinement with the rest of nature hasbeen severely diminished. In our digital culture, many people hardly have any direct experience of and sense of connection with “the real” of the natural world. The author assumes that when we want to find ways to mend this gap, arts-based environmental education (AEE) can play a meaningful role. In AEE, artmaking is regarded as itself a way of potentially gaining new understandings about our natural environment. As a reflective practitioner, the author facilitated three different AEE activities, at several times and at diverse locations. On basis of his observations, memories, written notes, audio-visual recordings and interviews with participants, teachers and informed outsiders, he interpreted the experiences both of participants and himself. To this end he employed interpretative phenomenological analysis paired with autoethnography.The artmaking activities researched here aimed to bring about a shift in focus. Participants were encouraged to approach natural phenomena not head-on, but in an indirect way. Moreover, the artmaking process aspired to heighten their awareness to the presence of their embodied self at a certain place. The research questions that the author poses in this study are: (1) What is distinctive in the process of the AEE activities that I facilitate?; (2) Which specific competencies can be identified for a facilitator of AEE activities?; and (3) Does participating in the AEE activities that I facilitate enhance the ability of participants to have a direct experience of feeling connected to the natural world?In this explorative study, the author identifies facilitated estrangement through participating in AEE as an important catalyst when aiming to evoke such instances of transformative learning. In undergoing such moments, participants grope their way in a new liminal space. Artmaking can create favorable conditions for this to happen through its defamiliarizing effect which takes participants away from merely acting according to habit (on “autopilot”). The open-ended structure of the artmaking activities contributed to the creation of a learning arena in which emergent properties could become manifest. Thus, participants could potentially experience a sense of wonder and begin to acquire new understandings – a form of knowing that the author calls “rudimentary cognition.” The research further suggests that a facilitator should be able to bear witness to and hold the space for whatever enfolds in this encounter with artistic process in AEE. He or she must walk the tightrope between control and non-interfering.The analysis of the impacts of the AEE activities that were facilitated leads the author to conclude that it is doubtful whether these in and of themselves caused participants to experience the natural environment in demonstrable new and deep ways. He asserts that most of their awareness was focused on the internal level of their own embodied presence; engagement with place, the location where the AEE activity was performed, seemed secondary. The findings show that AEE activities first and foremost help bring about the ignition and augmentation of the participants’ fascination and curiosity, centered in an increased awareness of their own body and its interactions with the natural world. The present study can be seen as a contribution to efforts of envisaging innovative forms of sustainable education that challenge the way we have distanced ourselves from the more-than-human world.
LINK
In the SensEQuake project, the Research Centre for Built Environment NoorderRuimte of Hanze University of Applied Sciences, StabiAlert, Target Holding and NHL Stenden Leeuwarden are investigating the following question:How can we provide relevant and understandable information to support decision makers when an earthquake has occurred?In case of a crisis such as an earthquake, parties such as the provincial government, large company sites, airports or hospitals need information on the scope and severity of the effect of the crisis.Systematic updates of the actual situation on site are of the essence for emergency services. At present only a small amount of the data necessary for this information needed is being collected. And the data that is collected is not processed into relevant and easily understandable information for the decision makers. This project aims to fill this gap.The objective of the project is to integrate the existing sensor technologies into a decision support system, allowing a wider and more immediate use of sensor data for public interest, particularly in crisis times.A heat-map will be produced based on scenario earthquakes and loss (hazard and risk assessment) estimation tools. After running several scenario quakes, critical points in respect to the expected damages and the distribution of existing sensors will be defined. More sensors in critical locations will also be placed to create a high enough resolution.
In recent years, frequent earthquakes have been reported in the Groningen region due to gas extraction. The building stock of the region mainly consists of brick masonry structures which were built without any seismic design taken into consideration. Therefore, these structures are extremely vulnerable to the loads coming from the earthquakes hitting the Groningen area on a regular basis. Numerous damage claims for damages on structures arise after every earthquake. In order to protect and reassure the structural integrity of the numerous brick masonry structures (more than 14.000 lay in the seismic zone), innovative solutions need to be developed. One of the approaches is to strengthen these houses extensively, up to a level that earthquake forces do not affect the original structure. This approach results in heavy and most of the times ugly strengthening solutions. A promising technology seems to be the installation of a vibration isolating concrete at the foundation level in order to decrease the vibration demands to the structures during the earthquake events. This latter method has been developed by the partner of this project, Nederboom, and will be investigated further for its advantages over the conventional techniques in terms of efficacy, applicability and cost. The aim of the proposed project is to carry out an experimental campaign to provide the essential experimental background to introduce and validate the effectiveness of this technology when repeated earthquake loads are applied several times on a brick masonry structural component. The experiments will be performed at the testing facilities of BuildinG, partner of the project, and will be supervised by members of the Earthquake Research Group of Hanze University of Applied Sciences.
In recent years, frequent earthquakes have been reported in the Groningen region due to gas extraction. The building stock of the region mainly consists of brick masonry structures which were built without any seismic design taken into consideration. Therefore, these structures are extremely vulnerable to the loads coming from the earthquakes hitting the Groningen area on a regular basis. Numerous damage claims for damages on structures arise after every earthquake. In order to protect and reassure the structural integrity of the numerous brick masonry structures (more than 14.000 lay in the seismic zone), innovative solutions need to be developed. One of the approaches is to strengthen these houses extensively, up to a level that earthquake forces do not affect the original structure. This approach results in heavy and most of the times ugly strengthening solutions. A promising technology seems to be the installation of a vibration isolating concrete at the foundation level in order to decrease the vibration demands to the structures during the earthquake events. This latter method has been developed by the partner of this project, Nederboom, and will be investigated further for its advantages over the conventional techniques in terms of efficacy, applicability and cost. The aim of the proposed project is to carry out an experimental campaign to provide the essential experimental background to introduce and validate the effectiveness of this technology when repeated earthquake loads are applied several times on a brick masonry structural component. The experiments will be performed at the testing facilities of BuildinG, partner of the project, and will be supervised by members of the Earthquake Research Group of Hanze University of Applied Sciences.
