Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Applications

The existence of wetlands in central Biqā‘ has been reported by various textual sources ranging between the Hellenistic and Medieval periods. Intensive large-scale drainage work operated by the Mamluks in the 14th century C.E. has led to an important loss of its expanse. The aim of the following study is to initially establish a new predictive model of these wetlands by cross-referencing the geographical data provided by textual sources with remote sensing surveys and geographic information system. The territorial landscape of the Biqā‘ in the Roman period will then be revisited and discussed at a second stage. These wetlands seem to have formed a buffer zone between the territory of the Roman colony of Berytus located in northern Biqā‘ and Sidon in the South.

Nowadays, we are moving forward to more sustainable societies, where a crucial issue consists on reducing footprint and greenhouse emissions. This transition can be achieved by increasing the penetration of distributed renewable energy sources together with a smarter use of energy. To achieve it, new tools are needed to plan the deployment of such renewable systems by modelling variability and uncertainty of their generation profiles. In this paper, we present a distributed software infrastructure for modelling and simulating energy production of Photovoltaic (PV) systems in urban context. In its core, it performs simulations in a spatio-temporal domain exploiting Geographic Information Systems together with meteorological data to estimate Photo-voltaic generation profiles in real operating conditions. This solution provides results in real-sky conditions with different time-intervals: i) yearly, ii) monthly and iii) sub-hourly. To evaluate the accuracy of our simulations, we tested the proposed software infrastructure in a real world case study. Finally, experimental results are presented and compared with real energy production data collected from PV systems deployed in the case study area.

This paper explores the impact of mining on the everyday lives of people in the Wassa West District, Western Region, Ghana. It is based on an interpretative methodology involving focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, complemented with an analysis of policy documents. The results reveal an extensive geographic transformation of livelihoods at various scales as a result of the local people being displaced from their lands that have become contested economic spaces. Monetary compensation for farmers who have lost their lands to mining companies remains a contentious issue, with farmers reporting that they are always at the losing end of any contestation for land and compensation. Furthermore, the local public perception is that there is hardly any trickle down of mining benefits to the local communities to improve their lives. After more than two decades of operation of various minerals and mining laws, our findings point to a conflicting and confused mining sector policy environment that disadvantages local communities. There is therefore a need to revise the country’s mining laws to reflect international best practices, to help make Ghana a sustainable mining investment destination in Africa, and to facilitate sustainable economic development in the country.

This paper studies the globalization of major African cities through their changing insertion in global airline networks. As such, the paper adds to a growing body of literature that analyzes the role of infrastructure in the formation of world-city networks. We draw on a rich data source that provides longitudinal airline booking data, which can be directly linked up to the evolution of inter-urban networks at the African and global scale. Our results indicate that Johannesburg remains the major gateway to Africa, but other regional centers and in particular Cairo, Lagos, Casablanca and Nairobi are rapidly complementing Johannesburg in this role. The globalization of African cities is related to rapid network growth on the African continent, but is outrun by fast growth in terms of non-African connections. Among the latter, connections to Asia and the Middle East are rapidly gaining importance. In the end, the paper argues that South–South connections are crucial for an understanding of the contemporary globalization of African cities.

Archaeological surveys and excavations carried out in two areas of the municipality of Cañamero (Cáceres, Spain) have revealed the presence of significant Middle Palaeolithic stone tool assemblages. This paper contextualizes the site at a regional scale and presents its chronological evolution over time, accounting for the different post-depositional processes. To do so, different techniques and methodologies have been implemented, including archaeology, geomorphology, and GIS analysis. The aim is to understand the genesis and evolution of these kinds of Middle Palaeolithic settlements and to characterize them in contemporary soils.