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.

A Triple Nexus Water-Energy-Housing (WEH) Framework Modelling towards Improved Decision-Making in Humanitarian Operations

Given the challenges facing most humanitarian operations worldwide, a change of approach is needed to ensure greater sustainability of humanitarian settlements right from the planning stage. Some studies attribute unsustainability to inadequate provision of basic resources and highlight the apparent bottlenecks that prevent access to the meaningful data needed to plan and remedy problems. Most operations have relied on an “ad hoc ism” approach, employing parallel and disconnected data processing methods, resulting in a wide range of data being collected without subsequent prioritization to optimize interconnections that could enhance performance. There have been little efforts to study the trade-offs potentially at stake. This work proposes a new framework enabling all subsystems to operate in a single system and focusing on data processing perspective. To achieve this, this paper proposes a Triple Nexus Framework as an attempt to integrate water, energy, and housing sector data derived from a specific sub-system within the overall system in the application of Model-Based Systems Engineering. Understanding the synergies between water, energy, and housing, Systems Engineering characterizes the triple nexus framework and identifies opportunities for improved decision-making in processing operational data from these sectors. Two scenarios illustrate how an integrated platform could be a gateway to access meaningful operational data in the system and a starting point for modeling integrated human settlement systems. Upon execution, the model is tested for nexus megadata processing, and the optimization simulation yielded 67% satisfactory results, demonstrating that an integrated system could improve sustainability, and that capacity building in service delivery is more than beneficial.

Settlement Prediction for Buildings Surrounding Foundation Pits Based on a Stationary Auto-regression Model

To ensure the safety of buildings surrounding foundation pits, a study was made on a settlement monitoring and trend prediction method. A statistical testing method for analyzing the stability of a settlement monitoring datum has been discussed. According to a comprehensive survey, data of 16 stages at operating control point, were verified by a standard t test to determine the stability of the operating control point. A stationary auto-regression model, AR(p), used for the observation point settlement prediction has been investigated. Given the 16 stages of the settlement data at an observation point, the applicability of this model was analyzed. Settlement of last four stages was predicted using the stationary auto-regression model AR (1); the maximum difference between predicted and measured values was 0.6 mm, indicating good prediction results of the model. Hence, this model can be applied to settlement predictions for buildings surrounding foundation pits.

Settlement Prediction of Dredger Fill with the Optimal Combination Model

Post-construction settlement has gained increasing attention because it frequently causes engineering problems. A combined model is a commonly used prediction model that overcomes the difficulty of a single model( i. e., cannot reflect various regulations of settlement at some stages or the entire process). In this study,the correlation coefficient,maximum error values,and other values were obtained according to the fitting and predicted results of a single model. The coefficient of variation was then introduced to determine the weight of each model forming the combination. The proposed model was used to fit and predict for settlement and overcome the issue of utilizing a single model while determining the weight. The fitting predictive effect was also analyzed using the settlement fitting precision results. The fitting precision of optimizing the combination model is high. The predicted data of the post-construction settlement are closer to the calculated value of the settlement monitoring data. Moreover,the proposed model has good practicability,does not require the interval data of settlement,and restricts the model number. Thus,this model can be applied in the engineering field.

Behavior of raft on settlement reducing piles:Experimental model study

An experimental program is conducted on model piled rafts in sand soil.The experimental program is aimed to investigate the behavior of raft on settlement reducing piles.The testing program includes tests on models of single pile,unpiled rafts and rafts on 1,4,9,or 16 piles.The model piles beneath the rafts are closed ended displacement piles installed by driving.Three lengths of piles are used in the experiments to represent slenderness ratio,L/D,of 20,30 and 50,respectively.The dimensions of the model rafts are 30 cm×30 cm with different thickness of 0.5 cm,1.0 cm or 1.5 cm.The raft-soil stiffness ratios of the model rafts ranging from 0.39 to 10.56 cover flexible to very stiff rafts.The improvement in the ultimate bearing capacity is represented by the load improvement ratio,LIR,and the reductions in average settlement and differential settlement are represented by the settlement ratio,SR,and the differential settlement ratio,DSR,respectively.The effects of the number of settlement reducing piles,raft relative stiffness,and the slenderness ratio of piles on the load improvement ratio,settlement ratio and differential settlement ratio are presented and discussed.The results of the tests show the effectiveness of using piles as settlement reduction measure with the rafts.As the number of settlement reducing piles increases,the load improvement ratio increases and the differential settlement ratio decreases.

A Nonlinear Rheological Model of Soft Clay and Its Application in Settlement of Sunk Ship

A one-dimensional consolidation-creep model test on the creep deformation of soft muddy clay in the littoral area of Tianjin is performed. A nonlinear rheologic model is established and the model coefficients are determined, in consideration of the characteristics of soft muddy clay. Furthermore, a settlement equation is deduced from the theologic model and verified by the field settlement measurements of Beitang Reservoir dam in Tianjin littoral area. Finally, the settlement e- quation is applied in calculating the settlement of ＂FAIRWAY-＂ suction dredger, which sunk in the external channel of Tianjin Port, induced by the soft clay consolidation of seabed. These results provide useful information for the decision of salvage plan.

Human Settlement Evaluation in Mountain Areas Based on Remote Sensing,GIS and Ecological Niche Modeling

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the world's highest and largest plateau.Due to increasing demands for environment exploration and tourism,a large transitional area is required for altitude adaptation.Hehuang valley,which locates in the transition zone between the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,has convenient transportation and relatively low elevation.Our question is whether the geographic conditions here are appropriate for adapted stay before going into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Therefore,in this study,we examined the potential use of ecological niche modeling(ENM) for mapping current and potential distribution patterns of human settlements.We chose the Maximum Entropy Method(Maxent),an ENM which integrates climate,remote sensing and geographical data,to model distributions and assess land suitability for transition areas.After preprocessing and selection,the correlation between variables and spatial autocorrelation input data were removed and 106 occurrence points and 9 environmental layers were determined as the model inputs.The thresholdindependent model performance was reasonable according to 10 times model running,with the area under the curve(AUC) values being 0.917 ± 0.01,and 0.923 ± 0.002 for test data.Cohen's kappa coefficient of model performance was 0.848.Results showed that 82.22% of the study extent was not suitable for human settlement.Of the remaining areas,highly suitable areas accounted for 1.19%,moderately for 5.3% and marginally for 11.28%.These suitable areas totaled 418.79 km 2,and 86.25% of the sample data was identified in the different gradient of suitable area.The decisive environmental factors were slope and two climate variables:mean diurnal temperature range and temperature seasonality.Our model showed a good performance in mapping and assessing human settlements.This study provides the first predicted potential habitat distribution map for human settlement in Ledu County,which could also help in land use management.

Influence of differential settlement on pavement structure of widened roads based on large-scale model test

This study introduced at first the background of numerous highway widening projects that have been developed in recent years in China.Using a large ground settlement simulator and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensor network system,a large-scale model test,with a similarity ratio of 1:2,was performed to analyze the influence of differential settlement between new and old subgrades on pavement structure under loading condition.The result shows that excessive differential settlement can cause considerable tensile strain in the pavement structure of a widened road,for which a maximum value (S) of 6 cm is recommended.Under the repetitive load,the top layers of pavement structure are subjected to the alternate action of tensile and compressive strains,which would eventually lead to a fatigue failure of the pavement.However,application of geogrid to the splice between the new and the old roads can reduce differential settlement to a limited extent.The new subgrade of a widened road is vulnerable to the influence of dynamic load transferred from the above pavement structures.While for the old subgrade,due to its comparatively high stiffness,it can well spread the load on the pavement statically or dynamically.The test also shows that application of geogrid can effectively prevent or defer the failure of pavement structure.With geogrid,the modulus of resilience of the subgrade is increased and inhomogeneous deformation can be reduced;therefore,the stress/strain distribution in pavement structure under loading condition becomes uniform.The results obtained in this context are expected to provide a helpful reference for structural design and maintenance strategy for future highway widening projects.

Centrifugal Model Tests on the Settlement of Railway Embankment on Deep,Completely Decomposed Granite Soil

Settlement control of high-speed railways is a key technology in embankment engineering. In order to reveal the engineering characteristics of the deep, completely decomposed granite soil in the Hainan East Ring Railway, four groups of centrifuge model tests were conducted. We studied the settlement properties, under the embankment action, of untreated subsoil, subsoil treated by dynamic compaction, and subsoil reinforced with cement-mixed piles. In particular, we examined the relationship between settlement and time, including the settlement during and after construction. The results show that the Weibull model can describe the relationship between embankment settlement and time well, and that the post-construction settlements of the subsoil meet the requirements of the relevant code. Among the two foundation treatment measures, dynamic compaction is more effective than reinforcement with cement-mixed piles. The tested pressure on the contact surface between embankment and subsoil was obviously different from the commonly used calculated values.

A new approach for time effect analysis of settlement for single pile based on virtual soil-pile model

A new approach is proposed to analyze the settlement behavior for single pile embedded in layered soils.Firstly,soil layers surrounding pile shaft are simulated by using distributed Voigt model,and finite soil layers under the pile end are assumed to be virtual soil-pile whose cross-section area is the same as that of the pile shaft.Then,by means of Laplace transform and impedance function transfer method to solve the static equilibrium equation of pile,the analytical solution of the displacement impedance function at the pile head is derived.Furthermore,the analytical solution of the settlement at the head of single pile is theoretically derived by virtue of convolution theorem.Based on these solutions,the influences of parameters of soil-pile system on the settlement behavior for single pile are analyzed.Also,comparison of the load-settlement response for two well-instrumented field tests in multilayered soils is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach.It can be noted that the presented solution can be used to calculate the settlement of single pile for the preliminary design of pile foundation.

某专科医院DRGs结算模式下未入组病例分析及改进措施

目的分析某专科医院在疾病诊断相关组(diagnosis related groups,DRGs)结算模式下存在的未入组病例问题,并提出相应的改进措施。方法通过回顾性分析和专家讨论,选取并总结某专科医院2021年1月—2022年6月上传至市医保平台病例信息管理系统中病例33935例中未入组病例300例,并对所有的未入组病例进行深入分析。结果未入组病例原因主要为主要诊断编码或者手术编码为灰码、医保版本切换导致原本入组的有效主诊断变成无效主诊断、主要诊断编码国家临床版医保版没有做好对照和临床医师主要诊断选择错误等方面。结论通过对医院DRGs结算模式下未入组病例的全面分析,找到改进措施,不断加强对临床医师和编码员的培训、加强病案首页质控、加强信息系统建设,从而提高DRGs入组率。

黄土盾构下穿不同地下非连续管线的模型试验

针对城市盾构隧道施工下穿既有输气管线引起管线沉降与受力问题,以河南省某在建高速公路为工程背景,进行室内模型试验和有限元数值模拟.考虑不同非连续管线接头间距、接头刚度和管隧间距的影响,探讨管隧正交工况下,隧道开挖对非连续管线沉降、弯矩及管土接触应力的影响.研究结果表明:黄土盾构正交下穿管线存在沉降集中区,在该区范围内,管线接头与管段相对刚度比的大小对管线平均沉降增长速率影响较大,相对刚度比由1.30减小至0.21,非连续管线平均沉降增长速率增大1.5倍;相对刚度比相对大小对非连续管线沉降和弯矩起到决定性作用;通过定义非连续管线综合刚度比,揭示不同综合刚度比下非连续管线最大沉降变化规律和管线最大正负弯矩相对变化规律,其中综合刚度比与管线最大沉降服从3次多项式拟合函数,管线的最大正弯矩值随着最大负弯矩值的改变服从4次多项式拟合函数;管线的管土接触应力变化均呈现“双峰型”变化,管土接触峰值应力随着接头间距的增大而增大;数值模拟表明,管线最大沉降随着管隧间距增大而呈现折线型减小,该转折点出现在管隧间距与隧道开挖直径比为1处.

Factors influencing the quality of rural human settlements in a peripheral metropolitan area based on a structural equation model:A case study from Beijing

Rural human settlement is a significant indicator of the living standards of rural residents,and its improvement can contribute to promoting the positive interaction between inhabited environment and the social,economic,and resource environment in the countryside.Based on 557 valid questionnaires of satisfaction evaluation of human settlement in the peripheral metropolitan area of Beijing,this paper analyzed the elemental characteristics and factors influencing human settlement quality using multivariate statistical analysis and a structural equation model.The result shows that,first,the rural residents in a peripheral metropolitan area of Beijing are generally satisfied with the quality of human settlement(satisfaction rate is 66.2%).Specifically,the natural and social environment of the countryside is excellent and harmonious and corresponding standard of countryside infrastructure is advanced,but the quality of public services and follow-up management of facilities are in urgent need of improvement and the imbalance between revenue and expenditure of rural households has led to a continuous increase in the pressures of life.Second,factors such as social atmosphere,appearance of the village,entertainment,living costs,fundamental public services,and production costs have significant effects on human settlement quality in this peripheral metropolitan area,with social atmosphere as the main one.Living costs and supporting services are the main constraints to improvement in the quality of human settlement.

战略需求导向下的资金集中管理模式变革研究——基于美的集团的纵向案例分析

基于美的集团纵向单案例,分析企业资金集中管理模式随战略需求变化而动态调整的实施效果。研究发现,从机会成长阶段—规模成长阶段—优化升级阶段,美的集团战略需求呈现出“异地扩张—产业扩张—国际化与多元化扩张”的变化态势,其资金集中管理模式经历了“结算中心异地结算模式—数据大集中模式—财务公司”的动态调整,资金集中管理模式对应职能也在动态调整中完成了“异地资金管理能力—跨业务协调能力—金融发展能力”的叠加。美的集团根据战略需求变化动态调整资金集中管理模式是资金集中管理活动成功的关键,这一研究发现对战略需求影响资金集中管理模式的理论解释提供了案例依据,也为集团企业的资金集中管理模式选择提供了启示。

改进的分层总和法在黄土地区高填方地基沉降变形中的应用研究

黄土高填方沉降变形控制是工程建设的重点和难点。通过室内侧限压缩试验和加湿试验,总结了重塑黄土在自重应力和含水率变化下的变形特征。基于分层总和法的思想,引入了Gunary模型和割线模量法,将黄土高填方地基的沉降分为荷载引起的施工沉降和含水率变化引起的施工后沉降,并提出了黄土高填方地基沉降变形的计算方法。结合实际工程背景,预测了高填方工程的沉降变形。结果表明:黄土高填方沉降的主要来源是施工期荷载引起的沉降;随着填土高度的增加,工后沉降占总沉降的比例逐渐增大;在最优含水率条件下,当施工期压实度达到95%以上时即可完成土的排气固结,施工后期为土的排水固结;压实度的控制对高填方工程至关重要;该研究成果丰富了黄土高填方地基沉降变形的计算理论,为黄土高填方工后沉降和湿陷性沉降的研究提供了理论依据,并对黄土高填方工程的施工及工后沉降控制具有一定的参考价值。

砂砾土振动体变评价方法与离心机模型试验验证

2008汶川地震出现了砂砾土大范围液化致灾现象,现场震害调查表明砂砾土场地存在砾石效应影响,现有砂土场地的震后沉降评价方法不适用于砂砾土场地。对此,在“张-社本”振动体变评价方法的基础上进一步发展了考虑砾石含量的砂砾土振动体变评价方法,然后开展动三轴试验确定评价方法中的相关参数,最后开展3组典型砾石含量的砂砾土地基离心机振动台模型试验对评价方法的可靠性进行验证。试验结果表明,砾石含量越高,振动引起的场地沉降变形越小;砂砾土振动体变评价方法可以较为准确地预测新近沉积砂砾土场地的震后沉降,但对存在地震历史影响的砂砾土场地,本文提出的评价方法较为保守,建议进一步发展考虑地震历史效应的砂砾土振动体变评价方法。

Human settlement's social network analysis based on spatial trend surface model:a case study of Chongqing Municipality

Integrated with GIS and remote sensing(RS) technology,a systematic analysis and its methodology for human-settlements social environment has been introduced.This methodology has been called spatial trend field model(STFM).STFM's application history in the field of human-settlements social environment has been discussed at first.Then,some index data models have been created through STFM,which include population density trend field,human activity strength trend field,city-town spatial density trend field,urbanization ratio trend field,road density trend field,GDP spatial density trend field and PER-GDP spatial density trend field.With all above-mentioned indexes as input data,through Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Techniques Algorithm(ISODATA),this paper makes a verification study of Chongqing municipality.The result of the case study confirms that STFM methodology is credible and has high efficiency for regional human-settlements study.