Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach to Design a Human Settlement to Better Serve Displaced People

The challenge of transitioning from temporary humanitarian settlements to more sustainable human settlements is due to a significant increase in the number of forcibly displaced people over recent decades, difficulties in providing social services that meet the required standards, and the prolongation of emergencies. Despite this challenging context, short-term considerations continue to guide their planning and management rather than more integrated, longer-term perspectives, thus preventing viable, sustainable development. Over the years, the design of humanitarian settlements has not been adapted to local contexts and perspectives, nor to the dynamics of urbanization and population growth and data. In addition, the current approach to temporary settlement harms the environment and can strain limited resources. Inefficient land use and ad hoc development models have compounded difficulties and generated new challenges. As a result, living conditions in settlements have deteriorated over the last few decades and continue to pose new challenges. The stakes are such that major shortcomings have emerged along the way, leading to disruption, budget overruns in a context marked by a steady decline in funding. However, some attempts have been made to shift towards more sustainable approaches, but these have mainly focused on vague, sector-oriented themes, failing to consider systematic and integration views. This study is a contribution in addressing these shortcomings by designing a model-driving solution, emphasizing an integrated system conceptualized as a system of systems. This paper proposes a new methodology for designing an integrated and sustainable human settlement model, based on Model-Based Systems Engineering and a Systems Modeling Language to provide valuable insights toward sustainable solutions for displaced populations aligning with the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

A Systems Approach to Assessing Sustainability Capacity in Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement in Turkana County, Kenya

Refugee settlements face several challenges in transitioning from a temporary planning approach to more sustainable settlements. This is mainly due to an increase in the number of forcibly displaced people over the last few decades, and the difficulties of sustainably providing social services that meet the required standards. The development of refugee settlements assumed that forcibly displaced people would return to their places or countries of origin. Unfortunately, displacement situations are prolonged indefinitely, forcing these people to spend most of their lives in conditions that are often deplorable and substandard, and therefore unsustainable. In most cases, the establishment of refugee settlements is triggered by an emergency caused by an influx of forcibly displaced people, who need to be accommodated urgently and provided with some form of international assistance and protection. This leaves little or no time for proper planning for long-term development as required. In addition, the current approach to temporary settlement harms the environment and can strain limited resources with ad hoc development models that have exacerbated difficulties. As a result, living conditions in refugee settlements have deteriorated over the last few decades and continue to pose challenges as to how best to design, plan, and sustain settlements over time. To contribute to addressing these challenges, this study proposes a new methodology supported by Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and a Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to develop a typical sustainable human settlement system model, which has functionally and operationally executed using a Systems Engineering (SE) approach. To assess the sustainability capacity of the proposed system, this work applies a matrix of crossed impact multiplication through a case study by conducting a system capacity interdependence analysis (SCIA) using the MICMAC methodology (Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) to assess the interdependency that exist between the sub-systems categories to deliver services at the system level. The sustainability analysis results based on capacity variables influence and dependency models shows that development activities in the settlement are unstable and, therefore, unsustainable since there is no apparent difference between the influential and dependent data used for the assessment. These results illustrate that an integrated system could improve human settlements’ sustainability and that capacity building in service delivery is beneficial and necessary.

METALLURGICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING:PRESENT SITUATION AND FUTURE

The paper presents a discussion on the emergence and development of metallurgical systems engineering on the account of the history and development of modern metallurgy. The contents, characteristics, methodology and applications of metallurgical systems engineering are also addressed.

Machine Learning and Data-Driven Techniques for the Control of Smart Power Generation Systems:An Uncertainty Handling Perspective

Due to growing concerns regarding climate change and environmental protection,smart power generation has become essential for the economical and safe operation of both conventional thermal power plants and sustainable energy.Traditional first-principle model-based methods are becoming insufficient when faced with the ever-growing system scale and its various uncertainties.The burgeoning era of machine learning(ML)and data-driven control(DDC)techniques promises an improved alternative to these outdated methods.This paper reviews typical applications of ML and DDC at the level of monitoring,control,optimization,and fault detection of power generation systems,with a particular focus on uncovering how these methods can function in evaluating,counteracting,or withstanding the effects of the associated uncertainties.A holistic view is provided on the control techniques of smart power generation,from the regulation level to the planning level.The benefits of ML and DDC techniques are accordingly interpreted in terms of visibility,maneuverability,flexibility,profitability,and safety(abbreviated as the“5-TYs”),respectively.Finally,an outlook on future research and applications is presented.

Toward Cloud Computing QoS Architecture:Analysis of Cloud Systems and Cloud Services

Cloud can be defined as a new computing paradigm that provides scalable, on-demand, and virtualized resources for users. In this style of computing, users can access a shared pool of computing resources which are provisioned with minimal management efforts of users. Yet there are some obstacles and concerns about the use of clouds. Guaranteeing quality of service QoS by service providers can be regarded as one of the main concerns for companies tending to use it. Service provisioning in clouds is based on service level agreements representing a contract negotiated between users and providers. According to this contract, if a provider cannot satisfy its agreed application requirements, it should pay penalties as compensation. In this paper, we intend to carry out a comprehensive survey on the models proposed in literature with respect to the implementation principles to address the QoS guarantee issue. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Loss Factors and their Effect on Resonance Peaks in Mechanical Systems

The loss factors and their effects on the magnitude and frequency of resonance peaks in various mechanical sys-tems are reviewed for acoustic,vibration,and vibration fatigue applications.The main trends and relationships were obtained for linear mechanical models with hysteresis damping.The well-known features(complex module of elasticity,total loss factor,etc.)are clarified for practical engineers and students,and new results are presented(in particular,for 2-DOF in-series models with hysteresis friction).The results are of both educational and prac-tical interest and may be applied for NVH analysis and testing,mechanical and aeromechanical design,and noise and vibration control in buildings.

Evolution process of rock mass engineering system using systems science

The rock mass engineering system （RMES） basically consists ofrock mass engineering （RME）, water system and surroundingecological environments, etc. The RMES is characterized by nonlinearity,occurrence of chaos and self-organization （Tazaka, 1998;Tsuda, 1998; Kishida, 2000）. From construction to abandonmentof RME, the RMES will experience four stages, i.e. initial phase,development phase, declining phase and failure phase. In thiscircumstance, the RMES boundary conditions, structural safetyand surrounding environments are varied at each phase, so arethe evolution characteristics and disasters （Wang et al., 2014）.

A Kind of Systems Methodology——The SPIPRO Principle

This paper deals with the Self-Increasing-Difficulty system (SIDIS) separated from general systems, with emphasis on the relevant methodology based on the Spiral Combining Propulsion Principle (SPIPRO principle in short). The system feature and its causative factors are analysed, and the implications and mechanism of the SPIPRO principle are discussed. Finally, the application possibilities of this methodology are illustrated with some examples.

Project Systems Engineering for Developing Space Robots

Space robots possess unique distinguishing features unlike general robots on earth, due to the particular environments in space. The developing of various practical space robots promoting the improvement of space science and technology is a complex man-machine-environment engineering problem. This paper analyses from the systems engineering viewpoint the space robot system in the scope of the architecture of robotics discipline, space environment characteristics, man-machine-environment system of space robots, the general methodology of project systems engineering and the process of space robot systems engineering.

Disaster Management Systems——A Placeholder for Decision Support Sub-Systems

Aspects of techniques for understanding and developing a system which is useful in the context of Disaster Management are outlined in the paper. The emphasis is on techniques for the development of requirements and software - specifically here for the basic, underlying computing system whose application packages (amongst others: Decision Support Sub-Systems) shall support Disaster Prediction, Relief (Damage Assessment & Mitigation) and Recovery. Throughout the body of the paper we shall be making frequent references to Decision Support Sub-Systems. As acronym for the subject domain the author has chosen: DiMaCS: Disaster Management Computing Systems.

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics

The Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics （English Edition） is a comprehensive academic periodical jointly sponsored by the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, the Chinese Society of Astronautics, the Systems Engineering Society of China and the Chinese Association for System Simulation. It started publication in 1990, and now appears six times a year, distributed at home and abroad.

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics

The Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics is a comprehensive academic periodical jointly sponsored by Defense Technology Academy of China Aerospace Science ＆ Industry Corporation, Chinese Society of Astronautics, System Engineering Society of China, and Chinese Association for System Simulation. It started publication in 1990, and now is published bimonthly.

Automated integration of real-time and non-real-time defense systems

Various application domains require the integration of distributed real-time or near-real-time systems with non-real-time systems.Smart cities,smart homes,ambient intelligent systems,or network-centric defense systems are among these application domains.Data Distribution Service(DDS)is a communication mechanism based on Data-Centric Publish-Subscribe(DCPS)model.It is used for distributed systems with real-time operational constraints.Java Message Service(JMS)is a messaging standard for enterprise systems using Service Oriented Architecture(SOA)for non-real-time operations.JMS allows Java programs to exchange messages in a loosely coupled fashion.JMS also supports sending and receiving messages using a messaging queue and a publish-subscribe interface.In this article,we propose an architecture enabling the automated integration of distributed real-time and non-real-time systems.We test our proposed architecture using a distributed Command,Control,Communications,Computers,and Intelligence(C4I)system.The system has DDS-based real-time Combat Management System components deployed to naval warships,and SOA-based non-real-time Command and Control components used at headquarters.The proposed solution enables the exchange of data between these two systems efficiently.We compare the proposed solution with a similar study.Our solution is superior in terms of automation support,ease of implementation,scalability,and performance.

Status and Perspectives of Process Systems Engineering

The definitions, methodology, applications, and perspectives of process system engineering are discussed from a strategic point of view. The focal points in future development of process systems engineering are to break through in methodology, to expand application fields, and to develop a new generation of process simulation systems.