João Porto de Albuquerque

Development of a spatial decision support system for flood risk management in Brazil that combines volunteered geographic information with wireless sensor networks

Effective flood risk management requires updated information to ensure that the correct decisions can be made. This can be provided by Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which are a low-cost means of collecting updated information about rivers. Another valuable resource is Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) which is a comparatively new means of improving the coverage of monitored areas because it is able to supply supplementary information to the WSN and thus support decision-making in flood risk management. However, there still remains the problem of how to combine WSN data with VGI. In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate AGORA-DS, which is a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) that is able to make flood risk management more effective by combining these data sources, i.e. WSN with VGI. This approach is built over a conceptual model that complies with the interoperable standards laid down by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) - e.g. Sensor Observation Service (SOS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) - and seeks to combine and present unified information in a web-based decision support tool. This work was deployed in a real scenario of flood risk management in the town of Sao Carlos in Brazil. The evidence obtained from this deployment confirmed that interoperable standards can support the integration of data from distinct data sources. In addition, they also show that VGI is able to provide information about areas of the river basin which lack data since there is no appropriate station in the area. Hence it provides a valuable support for the WSN data. It can thus be concluded that AGORA-DS is able to combine information provided by WSN and VGI, and provide useful information for supporting flood risk management. HighlightsA conceptual framework integrates information from sensors and volunteers.Interoperable standards are employed for integrating the heterogeneous data sources.Lessons were learned from the deployment in a real scenario of flood risk management.Volunteered Geographic Information improves the coverage of monitored areas.

Exploring the Geographical Relations Between Social Media and Flood Phenomena to Improve Situational Awareness

Recent research has shown that social media platforms like twitter can provide relevant information to improve situation awareness during emergencies. Previous work is mostly concentrated on the classification and analysis of tweets utilizing crowdsourcing or machine learning techniques. However, managing the high volume and velocity of social media messages still remains challenging. In order to enhance information extraction from social media, this chapter presents a new approach that relies upon the geographical relations between twitter data and floodphenomena.Ourapproachusesspecificgeographicalfeatureslikehydrological data and digital elevation models to prioritize crisis-relevant twitter messages. We apply this approach to examine the River Elbe Flood in Germany in June 2013. The results show that our approach based on geographical relations can enhance informationextractionfromvolunteeredgeographicinformation,thusbeingvaluable for both crisis response and preventive flood monitoring.

Mobile Money and Payment: a literature review based on academic and practitioner - oriented publications (2001 - 2011)

The use of mobile technology has become widespread with astonishing speed all over the world, particularly among the poor. The more mobile phones go to the hands of people who formerly lacked access to financial services, the more the notions of mobile money, mobile payment and mobile banking become pervasive as a means of financial inclusion. Although there are more than 120 mobile money projects deployed in about 70 emerging markets (Beshouri et al. 2010), mobile payment has only taken off in a limited number of countries. This failure to disseminate a service with such a huge potential worldwide, shows that the reasons for the successful cases are not clearly understood, and as a result, are not being easily replicated. This paper seeks to fill this knowledge gap by providing a comprehensive literature review, which attempts to analyse significant experiences in this field, especially in developing countries. An investigation has been carried out of both academic, peer-reviewed articles and the available non-peer-reviewed practitioner-oriented publications, (a total of 196 papers – 94 peer-reviewed and 92 non-peer-reviewed – published in the period 2001-2011) to obtain information related to the actors and institutions involved in mobile money initiatives. In other words, the study addresses the following questions: what is the driving-force behind these initiatives, what are the obstacles and the social and economic implications of their implementation. Thus, the aim of this review is to map out the existing knowledge on mobile money by pointing out the main sources of information on the subject, and defining the topics that are most frequently researched. In addition, it examines which locations most studies focus on, and which methodologies are being applied to these studies, as well as the determining factors and contexts of the published studies.

Mobile payments: a scoping study of the literature and issues for future research

Despite its huge potential, the use of mobile technology for carrying out payment transactions and replicating monetary features, has only taken off in a limited number of countries. The fact that mobile payment services are not being provided on a worldwide scale, suggests that the reasons for the successful cases are not yet fully understood, and as a result, cannot be easily replicated. This paper seeks to fill this knowledge gap by providing a comprehensive scoping study, which seeks to map out the literature published between 2001 and 2011. An investigation has been carried out of a total of 94 peer-reviewed papers, with the aim of providing a comprehensive picture of the knowledge, production and dissemination about mobile payments. Furthermore, this study includes a detailed analysis of 12 primary case studies on existing mobile payment schemes, as well as a consultation exercise with stakeholders. The main contribution of this study is to provide a clear account of the knowledge that exists on mobile payments. As a result, it has been possible to detect serious gaps in this knowledge base (in geographical, methodological and conceptual areas) and show how future research can make improvements in the field.

Improving the configuration management of large network security systems

The security mechanisms employed in todays networked environments are increasingly complex and their configuration management has an important role for the protection of these environments. Especially in large scale networks, security administrators are faced with the challenge of designing, deploying, maintaining, and monitoring a huge number of mechanisms, most of which have complicated and heterogeneous configuration syntaxes. This work offers an approach for improving the configuration management of network security systems in large-scale environments. We present a configuration process supported by a modelling technique that uniformly handles different mechanisms and by a graphical editor for the system design. The editor incorporates focus and context concepts for improving model visualisation and navigation.

Potential of Collaborative Mapping for Disaster Relief: A Case Study of OpenStreetMap in the Nepal Earthquake 2015

In the aftermath of a disaster, there is an urgent need for base maps to support relief efforts, especially in developing countries. In response to this, the OpenStreetMap project has been leveraged to produce maps of disaster-affected areas in a collaborative way. However, there has been little investigation aimed at explaining the collaborative mapping activity itself. This study presents an exploratory case study on how the collaborative mapping activities that followed the Nepal Earthquake in 2015 were coordinated and structured, i.e. how volunteers were organized, and what were the main outcomes of their activity in the context of disaster management. The results show that a large number of remote contributors spread across the world carried out concerted efforts to support the relief work. Moreover, coordination mechanisms were used by local actors to share their knowledge with remote mappers, and, hence, to improve the accuracy of the map.

oDMN: An Integrated Model to Connect Decision-Making Needs to Emerging Data Sources in Disaster Management

Disaster managers depend on timely and accurate information for task-related decision-making in highly complex and dynamic environments. New data sources, like online social media provide an increasing volume of data that promises improvements in situation awareness. But it remains difficult to focus data collection on information needs and integrate relevant information back into decision-making. In this paper, we present the observation-aware Decision Model and Notation (oDMN), which connects tasks, decisions, information and data sources based on standardized models and notations as well as on domain-specific information models. The integrated model allows for deriving information requirements and determining the impact of incoming observations on relevant tasks and decisions. To demonstrate its usefulness, we apply the model to a case centered on logistics operations during the 2015 Nepal earthquake response. The results show that the model is indeed able to formally connect tasks, decisions, information and data sources, and thus support better decision-making.

FlexFT: A Generic Framework for Developing Fault-Tolerant Applications in the Sensor Web

Fault-tolerant systems are expected to operate in a variety of devices ranging from standard PCs to embedded devices. In addition, the emergence of new software technologies has required these applications to meet the needs of heterogeneous software platforms. However, the existing approaches to build fault-tolerant systems are often targeted at a particular platform and software technology. The objective of this paper is to discuss the use of F l e x F T —a generic component-based framework for the construction of adaptive fault-tolerant systems that can integrate and reuse technologies and deploy them across heterogeneous devices. Furthermore, F l e x F T provides a standardized and interoperable interface for sensor observations by relying upon the “Sensor Web” paradigm established by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). We have implemented a Java prototype of our framework and evaluated the potential benefits by carrying out case studies and performance measurements. By implementing and deploying these case studies in standard PCs as well as in sensor nodes, we show that F l e x F T can cope with the problem of a wide degree of heterogeneity with minimal resource overheads.

Ambivalent implications of health care information systems: a study in the Brazilian public health care system

Este articulo analiza las implicaciones sociales del Sistema de Informacion SIGA en una institucion publica de salud, en la ciudad de Sao Paulo. La evaluacion fue realizada por medio de un estudio de caso exploratorio en profundidad con pacientes y funcionarios de la institucion publica, utilizando una metodologia cualitativa y cuantitativa. Los resultados obtenidos fueron ambivalentes: por un lado, el sistema tuvo consecuencias percibidas como positivas, tales como la mejoria en la comodidad y la democratizacion de la atencion especializada para los pacientes, asi como mejorias en la organizacion del trabajo. Por otro lado, no obstante, fueron relatados tambien resultados negativos, tales como las dificultades enfrentadas por los trabajadores, debido a su poca familiaridad con la tecnologia de la informacion y, mas sorprendentemente, un aumento en el tiempo necesario para marcar consultas medicas. Los resultados muestran la ambiguedad de las implicaciones de los sistemas de informacion de salud en paises en desarrollo, enfatizando la necesidad de una vision mas aguzada en relacion a la evaluacion de fracasos o exitos, asi como la importancia de factores sociales contextuales.This article evaluates social implications of the “SIGA” Health Care Information System (HIS) in a public health care organization in the city of Sao Paulo. The evaluation was performed by means of an in-depth case study with patients and staff of a public health care organization, using qualitative and quantitative data. On the one hand, the system had consequences perceived as positive such as improved convenience and democratization of specialized treatment for patients and improvements in work organization. On the other hand, negative outcomes were reported, like difficulties faced by employees due to little familiarity with IT and an increase in the time needed to schedule appointments. Results show the ambiguity of the implications of HIS in developing countries, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced view of the evaluation of failures and successes and the importance of social contextual factors.

On scalability and modularisation in the modelling of network security systems

As the use of computers and data communication technologies spreads, network security systems are becoming increasingly complex, due to the incorporation of a variety of mechanisms necessary to fulfil the protection requirements of the upcoming scenarios. The integrated design and management of different security technologies and mechanisms are thus of great interest. Especially in large-scale environments, the employment of security services and the design of their configurations shall be supported by a structured technique which separates the consideration of the system as a whole from the detailed design of subsystems. To accomplish this goal, this paper presents a scalable approach for the modelling of large security systems, relying on the concepts of policy-based management and model-based management.