MOVIDA: a procedure for flood damage assessment and mapping at the river district scale

The European Flood Directive (FD) shifted water management policy from flood protection to flood risk management. To facilitate the shift, a new instrument was introduced called the flood risk management plan. According to the FD, a flood risk management plan shall first take into account relevant aspects from water management, nature conservation, land use, spatial planning, navigation, and port infrastructure. Second, the flood risk management plan will be coordinated at the river basin level. This changes the spatial scope of water management compared to (old) flood protection approach and affects a broader group of stakeholder interests, namely landowners behind dikes. As a result, water management has to introduce a governance approach that facilitates stakeholder involvement in which different spatial interests are balanced, bargained and negotiated. Academic governance literature consists mostly of qualitative case studies, because of their complex nature. As a result, most governance literature operates on assumptions which make it difficult to formulate governance strategies that work based on general patterns. To contribute towards scientific methodologies for comparative research a quantitative method was developed to measure satisfaction in a stakeholder process. The method first provides new insights on the relation between interactive governance processes and the procedural satisfaction of stakeholders. Second, it provides insights that help to improve interactive governance in terms of managing a stakeholder process in such a way that greater procedural satisfaction can be achieved.

In response to the extreme flood events of recent decades, the European Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) requires Member States of the European Union to develop Flood Risk Management Plans (Dworak & Gorlach 2005). These plans need to be in place by 2015 and set‘appropriate objectives for the management of flood risk and [reduce] potential adverse consequences of flooding for human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity’ (Floods Directive 2007: Article 7 II). They are based on river basin districts. This special issue addresses the new plan instrument that is unique in terms of its governance since it formally changes flood risk management from being predominantly the responsibility of water engineering, to incorporate spatial planning in the management process.

Floods pose significant threats to railway infrastructure, given their linear extension across diverse landscapes and frequent intersections with rivers. While European countries have developed Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) following the EU Floods Directive, a comprehensive analysis of railway network flood susceptibility at national scale is still lacking for Italy. Here we develop a comprehensive flood hazard classification for the Italian Railway Network (IRN). Our methodology integrates flood hazard maps, railway infrastructure data, and digital elevation models to characterize flood hazard classes along flood-prone railway routes. The approach distinguishes between steep rapid, rapid and slow flood processes, based on topographical characteristics. Results demonstrate that, for the low probability flood hazard scenario (return period ≥500 years), 25.63 % of the IRN (4,523.4 km) exhibits flood susceptibility, with this proportion declining to 19.09 % and 9.77 % for medium and high flood hazard, respectively. By performing a regional analysis across seven hydrographic districts in Italy, a substantial spatial variability emerges, with the Po River district encompassing nearly half (47.5 %) of all flood-prone railway sections. Our analysis reveals also a marked predominance of rapid flood processes, characterized by values for the time of concentration <12 h. Our classification framework provides crucial insights for risk mitigation and resource allocation, relying exclusively on FRMPs and digital elevation models. The methodology presents a scalable approach applicable to other transportation networks and study areas, supporting infrastructure managers in developing targeted flood protection measures. • DEM-based flood hazard classification for the Italian Railway Network (IRN). • Low probability flood hazard scenario impact about 26 % of the IRN. • Rapid flood processes dominate 65 % of flood-prone IRN. • 42 % of flood-prone IRN is also prone to debris-flow.

Summary. Paper [1] describes the issue of mass object-by-object assessment of damages and losses caused by the war. The purpose of the work is to substantiate organizational approaches to the implementation of massive damage assessment and to develop and test an assessment methodology based on individual agricultural enterprises. The authors used the method of analysis to calculate the average annual performance of the enterprise under study before the war; the methods of generalization and comparison are used to analyze its financial and economic activities based on financial and statistical reporting. The functioning of state and international registers of losses was analyzed. The information about the Unified Digital Integrated Information and Analytical System for the Management of Reconstruction of Real Estate, Construction and Infrastructure is disclosed. Work [2] is devoted to the conceptualization of the gross value of construction for assessing direct losses and the need to restore lost, destroyed and damaged real estate as a result of armed aggression. A critical review of the existing practice of property damage assessment is made. The author analyzes the units of measurement of direct losses and restoration needs, the evidence base used, and the methods of assessment for determining property damage. The methodological potential of complex cash flow models and criteria for assessing their reliability are substantiated. The author proposes a system of valuation models for calculating direct damages and restoration needs depending on the category of real estate and market conditions at the date of valuation. These valuation models are relatively easy to implement and understandable for the target users of material damage assessment reports. Paper [3] describes the work on building condition assessment, a European project to develop a tool for selecting solutions for modernizing office buildings. The condition assessment covers the degree and extent of physical deterioration, as well as the work required for the renovation of office buildings, including the associated costs. A common, harmonized European checklist for building assets has been defined and divided into types. The checklist is used not only to assess the need for modernization due to physical deterioration, but also to assess functional obsolescence, and to identify and address the causes of complaints from building users about the quality of the indoor environment (IEQ). Thus, the analysis of recent studies in this area [1-3] has shown that the methodology and algorithm for object-by-object assessment of property damage to construction objects on the example of administrative buildings of transport infrastructure remains unresolved. Keywords: administrative building of transport infrastructure, object-by-object assessment of property damage to construction objects, inspection, damaged objects, inspection report, defect report, USESC, loss determination algorithm.

Damage assessment plays a very important role in securing enterprise networks and systems. Gaining good awareness about the effects and impact of cyber attack actions would enable security officers to make the right cyber defense decisions and take the right cyber defense actions. A good number of damage assessment techniques have been proposed in the literature, but they typically focus on a single abstraction level (of the software system in concern). As a result, existing damage assessment techniques and tools are still very limited in satisfying the needs of comprehensive damage assessment which should not result in any “blind spots”.

Vibration-based damage assessment technology is a hot topic in aerospace engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering. In this paper, a damage assessment approach using multiple-stage dynamic flexibility analysis is proposed for structural safety monitoring. The proposed method consists of three stages. The content of Stage I is to determine the number of damaged elements in the structure by the rank of dynamic flexibility change. The content of Stage II is to determine damage locations by the minimum rank of flexibility correlation matrices. Finally, the damage extents of those damaged elements are calculated in Stage III. The proposed approach fully uses the filtering ability of matrix rank analysis for data noise. A 27-bar truss structure and a steel frame structure are used as the numerical and experimental examples to demonstrate the proposed method, respectively. From the numerical and experimental results, it is found that structure damages can be successfully identified through the multiple-stage dynamic flexibility analysis. By comparative study, the proposed method has more powerful antinoise ability and higher calculation accuracy than the generalized flexibility method. The proposed method may be a promising tool for structural damage assessment.

The devastation of crops by elephants is increasingly fuelling the anger of farmers in the human-elephant conflict. However, the crop damage attributed to elephants by farmers appears disproportionate. Despite the fact that observed crop damage has an impact on the lives of local populations, the assessment of damage remains a controversial issue. The multitude of evaluation methods used by informants makes it difficult to compare results from different areas and to harmonise and/or transpose management strategies. It is therefore wise to take an interest in evaluation methods, to know their constraints, their advantages, and their connection points. This is the purpose of this study, which offers a bibliographic synthesis of the subject based on documentary research and a synthetic analysis of articles and documents. Two types of damage assessment emerge: quantitative and qualitative. Each type of assessment requires different assessment methods, which can be combined to obtain more accurate results. A qualitative assessment can be carried out through interviews, questionnaires, bibliographic research/review, etc., and a quantitative assessment through a total site visit, a visit to conflict hot and cold spots, or a visit to a random sample of the site. Ratings can be combined because qualitative rating is subjective. Many informants use it because it is easy to carry out and gives an idea of the state of devastation of cultures and sociological constraints. Quantitative assessment requires resources but provides results on the ground. However, combining different types of assessment improves the accuracy, reliability of results, and understanding of the conflict. This bibliographic synthesis also reveals that damage assessment tools are today moving towards new information and communication technologies, because these make the work easier and more practical while improving precision.

Natural hazards, such as flooding, have been negatively impacting developed and emerging economies alike. The effects of floods are more prominent in countries of the Global South, where large parts of the population and infrastructure are insufficiently protected from natural hazards. From this scope, a lot of effort is required to mitigate these impacts by continuously providing new and more reliable tools to aid in mitigation and preparedness, during or after a flood event. Flood mapping followed by damage assessment plays an important role in all these stages. In this work we investigate a new dataset provided by DrivenData Labs based on Sentinel-1 (S1) imagery (VH, VV imagery and labels) to help map floods in the city of Beira in Mozambique. Exploiting Google Earth Engine (GEE), we deployed supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) methods on a dataset comprising imagery from 13 countries worldwide. We first mapped the floods country-by-country including Mozambique. This first part was helpful to understand the sensitivity of each method when applied to data from different regions and with different polarizations. We then trained the supervised model globally (in all 13 countries) and used it to predict floods in Beira. To assess the accuracy of the experiments we used the intersection over the union (IoU) metric, results of which we compared with the benchmark IoU achieved by the winner in the DrivenData competition for flood mapping in 2021. The implementation of unsupervised and supervised ML using VH and VV+VH produced satisfactory results, and showed to be better than using VV imagery; in Cambodia and Bolivia with VH polarization yielded IoUs values ranging from 0.819 to 0.856 which is above the benchmark (0.8094). The predictions in Beira using VH imagery yielded IoU of 0.568, which is a reasonable outcome. The proposed approach is a reliable alternative for flood mapping, especially in Mozambique due to its low cost and time effectiveness as even with unsupervised approaches, relatively high-quality results are yielded in near real-time. Finally, we used Sentinel-2 (S2) imagery for a land cover classification to perform damage assessment in Beira and integrated population data from Beira to enhance the quality the results. The results show that 20% of agricultural area and about 10% of built up area were flooded. Flooded built up area includes highly populated neighborhoods such as Chaimite and Ponta Gea that are located in the center of the city.

以西北太平洋（150°E-160°E、38°N-45°N）柔鱼<em>Ommastrephes bartramii</em>为研究对象，以2007和2010年鱿钓渔业的原始点位数据为基础，利用常规统计和探索性空间数据分析（ESDA）中的全局空间自相关分析方法，对西北太平洋柔鱼资源空间分布及其变动进行了研究。结果表明，西北太平洋柔鱼资源呈现较强的聚集分布特征，但不同空间位置差异较大。利用GIS和ESDA的局部自相关方法进行了柔鱼资源热冷点空间分布的制图，结果显示2007年研究区存在3个显著的热点和1个冷点，2010年与之存在较为明显的差异，具有1个热点和4个冷点。变化检测分析表明，两个年份间出现1个热点区域和1个冷点区域未发生变化，另有2个区域从2007年热点变成2010年冷点；此外，非热冷点之间的变动在研究区占据了主导地位。景观指数分析表明，研究区柔鱼资源热冷点格局的复杂性和自相似性并不高，但其异质性和聚集性非常强，且整体性和凝聚度均很高。分析认为，2007年西北太平洋柔鱼渔区的形成受温度和海流的影响，近一半作业渔区产量相对较高，但并未充分保证空间热点的大面积形成，空间热点和冷点分布面积大致相当；2010年整个西北太平洋柔鱼渔场受亲潮势力影响，空间热点较为集中、空间冷点较多且分散。;The oceanic cephalopod <em>Ommastrephes bartramii</em> is widely distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and is an important target species for the fishing industries of Japan, South Korea, China and Chinese Taiwan. Owing to the effects of global climate change and increased fishing activities, the spatial patterns and hot spot dynamics of <em>O. bartramii </em>resources are changing. This study focused on <em>O. bartramii</em> resources, especially within the boundaries of 150°E-160°E and 38°N-45°N, in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Based on original fishing data from Chinese boats, the study aimed to explore the spatial structure of <em>O. bartramii</em> resources using integrated methods of spatial statistics, global spatial autocorrelation, change detection and landscape metrics. Classical statistics and global spatial autocorrelation-based primary analysis showed that there were vast differences in the resource abundance of <em>O. bartramii </em>over the study area. A relatively strong aggregated distribution was observed for <em>O. bartramii</em> in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In addition, spatial hot and cold spot maps were produced for the years of 2007 and 2010 using both a geographic information system and local spatial autocorrelation methods. The maps illustrated that there were three obvious hot spots and one cold spot for <em>O. bartramii</em> in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in 2007, whereas in 2010 there was one obvious hot spot and four cold spots. Change detection demonstrated that only one spatial hot spot remained unchanged between 2007 and 2010, while two areas showed a change in status from hot to cold spots. In addition, only one of the cold spots remained unchanged between 2007 and 2010. As a result, the non-hot and non-cold spots that showed non-aggregated or random distributions dominated the pattern of <em>O. bartramii</em> in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Landscape metrics were also employed in this study to mine the implicit information and knowledge of hot/cold spots of <em>O. bartramii</em> resources. This research demonstrated that relatively low complexity and self-similarity were observed for the <em>O. bartramii</em> resource, while strong spatial heterogeneity and aggregation, as well as high integrity and cohesion, were detected for the same fishery resource. Finally, a sea surface temperature-based analysis revealed the marine environmental characteristics and dynamics of spatial hot/cold spots of <em>O. bartramii</em> in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in both 2007 and 2010. The results showed that, owing to the influence of sea surface temperature and currents within the fishing area of the northwestern Pacific Ocean, approximately half of the area has relatively high production. However, high production alone cannot account for the hot spot clustering within most of the study area. Hence, in 2007, only 7.0% of the study area was classified as hot spots, while most of the area comprised cold spots or areas that were not statistically significant. As a result of the Oyashio Current, the fishing grounds distributed at 40°-45°N and 154°-158°E during the best fishing period displayed relatively aggregated spatial hot spots in 2010, whereas the spatial cold spots were scattered across the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

In 2007, the European Floods Directive (FD) 2007/60/EC came into force, introducing a framework for the assessment and management of flood risks. According to Article 6 of the Directive, Member States shall prepare flood hazard maps and flood risk maps at a catchment level, covering the areas that could be flooded under different probability scenarios. The former maps include crucial information towards flood management, such as flood extent - water levels - flow velocity, that will form the base of the flood risk management plans. Based on these data, Member States shall set their objectives and prepare measures concerning their flood management plans. Hence, it is obvious that effective flood management requires reliable methods for the estimation of the flooded areas, such as precise estimation of the peak discharge. This is a hard task for hydrological engineering, taking into account that in the majority of small catchments, especially in Greece, there is a substantial lack of hydrological data. The present paper presents the effect of the uncertainty, derived from lack of data, on the estimation of the peak discharge based upon which the flooded areas will be identified. Towards this direction, a methodology of peak discharge estimation is presented in an ungauged small catchment followed by hydraulic calculations using HEC-RAS and HEC-GeoRAS software packages. The results demonstrate the great variability of the estimated flood extent and the effect of it on the decision-making of the proposed flood measures.

This study presents a simulation-based method for damage detection in reinforced concrete beam-type structures. Reinforced concrete bridges are constantly exposed to dynamic loading, thus leading to deterioration before their design life. A novel damage assessment procedure has been presented, which uses the changes in non-linear vibration characteristics from computational model for damage assessment. A constitutive model is proposed, the parameters of which can be developed from compressive strength from laboratory test, and implemented in FE modelling of an RC beam. Incremental static damage is simulated in the beam, after which the non-linear behaviour is detected using harmonic excitation. The non-linear behaviour from simulation is characterised and used in proposing a damage detection method that does not rely on the baseline data of the structure. The methodology is validated experimentally and compared with conventional linear frequency-shift-based damage detection method. Resultantly, the proposed method is simple, computationally efficient, shows good agreement with the published studies on cracked vibration behaviour and has promising prospects in addressing inverse engineering problem in structural health monitoring of RC structures.

Flash floods pose significant risks due to their rapid onset and destructive potential, causing an estimated 5000 fatalities and billions of dollars in damage annually worldwide. The Dera Ismail Khan district in Pakistan, highly susceptible to flooding, highlights the urgent need for a robust flood risk management framework, especially in the aftermath of the devastating 2022 flash flood, the most severe on record for the region. This study employed remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to analyze the flood's spatiotemporal dynamics and assess the resulting damage. Flood maps were generated using Landsat 9 images using the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and classified land use using the supervised maximum likelihood method. The findings revealed that the flood inundated approximately 2876 km2 for about 1.5months, significantly impacting agricultural and urban areas, with widespread damage to crops and infrastructure. This research highlights the importance of spatiotemporal analysis in improving flood management in Dera Ismail Khan and can serve as a model for similar assessments in other regions globally.

The preventive conservation is based on acting on the causes of deterioration of cultural heritage to minimise damage, extending its lifetime and minimising the costs of restoration. In this paper, a quantitative method of recording and assessment of damage in frescoes is presented. Damage mapping has been performed with a colour scale of six values for two fresco paintings of two walls at Ariadne’s House (Pompeii, Italy); subsequently, this information has been transferred to a data matrix which and statistical analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been applied. ANOVA results show significant differences for the vertical and the horizontal axis depending on the different stages of damage. These differences also depend on the wall, which may be due to intrinsic differences such as materials of different restorations, the orientation of the wall, etc. or extrinsic differences and variations in temperature, relative humidity, etc. This methodology may be used in the future to quantify the influence of different variables on the extent of the deterioration of the paint layer, as for example determine and monitor its correlation to salts analytics in a determined facing.

To obtain high-resolution radionuclide lymphoscintigraphic images of affected limbs in persons with both symptomatic and asymptomatic filarial infection, 36 volunteers were recruited from a Wuchereria bancrofti-endemic area of Recife, Brazil, for a prospective, controlled analysis. Subjects were stratified after determination of serologic and clinical determinants of filarial infection status. Widespread lymphatic abnormalities were found in clinically asymptomatic microfilaremic persons, who had been assumed to have infection but not disease. All patients with clinical manifestations of lymphatic pathology and marked abnormalities. No correlation was found between clinical findings and actual lymphatic function as demonstrated by lymphoscintigraphy. The initial diagnosis of lymphatic filariasis, whether asymptomatic or symptomatic, is based on nonimaging laboratory criteria. After diagnosis, lymphoscintigraphy is a valuable tool for initial assessment of any lymphatic damage. Changes in strategies for therapeutic interventions in asymptomatic microfilaremic persons, who are not usually aggressively treated, may be warranted.

The clock drawing test as a cognitive screening tool for assessment of hypertension-mediated brain damage