Planning and construction of Xiong’an New Area(city of over 5 million people):Contributions of China’s geologists and urban geology

China established Xiong’an New Area in Hebei Province in 2017,which is planned to accommodate about 5 million people,aiming to relieve Beijing City of the functions non-essential to its role as China’s capital and to expedite the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.From 2017 to 2021,the China Geological Survey(CGS)took the lead in multi-factor urban geological surveys involving space,resources,environments,and disasters according to the general requirements of“global vision,international standards,distinctive Chinese features,and future-oriented goals”in Xiong’an New Area,identifying the engineering geologic conditions and geologic environmental challenges of this area.The achievements also include a 3D engineering geological structure model for the whole area,along with“one city proper and five clusters”,insights into the ecology and the background endowment of natural resources like land,geothermal resources,groundwater,and wetland of the area before engineering construction,a comprehensive monitoring network of resources and environments in the area,and the“Transparent Xiong’an”geological information platform that is open,shared,dynamically updated,and three-dimensionally visualized.China’s geologists and urban geology have played a significant role in the urban planning and construction of Xiong’an New Area,providing whole-process geological solutions for urban planning,construction,operation and management.The future urban construction of Xiong’an New Area will necessitate the theoretical and technical support of earth system science(ESS)from various aspects,and the purpose is to enhance the resilience of the new type of city and to provide support for the green,low-carbon,and sustainable development of this area.

Development of ToSPACE for Pipe Wall Thinning Management in Nuclear Power Plants

A number of piping components in the secondary system of nuclear power plants are exposed to aging mechanisms such as FAC (Flow-Accelerated Corrosion), cavitation, flashing, SPE (Solid Particle Erosion), LDIE (Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion), etc. Those mechanisms may lead to thinning, leak, or rupture of the components. Due to the pipe ruptures caused by wall thinning in Surry unit 2 of USA in 1986 and in Mihama unit 3 of Japan in 1994, the pipe wall thinning management has emerged as one of the most important issues in nuclear power plants. To manage the pipe wall thinning in the secondary system, Korea has used a foreign program since 1996. As using the foreign country’s program for long term, it was necessary to improve from the perspective of the users. Accordingly, KEPCO-E & C has started to develop the 3D-based pipe wall thinning management program (ToSPACE, Total Solution for Piping And Component Engineering management) from eight years ago, and the development was successful. This paper describes the major functions included in ToSPACE program, such as 3D-based DB (Database) buildup, development of FAC and erosion evaluation theories, UT (Ultra-sonic Test) data reliability analysis, field connection with 3D, automatic establishment of long-term inspection plan, etc. ToSPACE program was developed to allow site engineers performing the selection of inspection quantity at each refueling outage, UT data reliability analysis, UT evaluation, determination of next inspection timing, identification of the inspecting and replacing components in 3D drawings, etc., to access easily.

Modeling of UAV path planning based on IMM under POMDP framework

In order to enhance the capability of tracking targets autonomously of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) model for UAV path planning is established based on the POMDP framework. The elements of the POMDP model are analyzed and described. The state transfer law in the model can be described by the method of interactive multiple model (IMM) due to the diversity of the target motion law, which is used to switch the motion model to accommodate target maneuvers, and hence improving the tracking accuracy. The simulation results show that the model can achieve efficient planning for the UAV route, and effective tracking for the target. Furthermore, the path planned by this model is more reasonable and efficient than that by using the single state transition law.

Study on Conceptual Planning of Group Landscapes in Urban Core Areas—A Case Study of Conceptual Landscape Planning of the Core Area in Shuangsong Group,Wanzhou District of Chongqing City,China

The planning site was divided into a spatial structure of"one center,one corridor,two axes,two belts and three communities"and traffic system designed to a 3-grade road system of"artery,secondary artery and by-pass".Meanwhile,a 3-ring structure of the planning site was constructed:diffusion waterfront landscape belt,waterfront pathway and core eco-green island.Finally,the planning concepts for major ecological constructions were given.This study tried to explore the group eco-landscape pattern in urban core areas so as to provide a strategic instruction for the regional sustainable development.

Creation of "Regional Characteristic" in Planning and Design of Farmers' Residential Area at the South of Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River

After analysis of location feature of the south of lower reaches of Yangtze River and its construction of urban and rural integration,the paper pointed out harmonious combination between natural and artificial factors had been neglected in planning and design of farmers' residential area at the south of lower reaches of Yangtze River,"regional characteristic" losing,residential area in the form of "city community" and buildings in European style.In view of these problems,relevant planning and design thoughts and methods had been proposed as to how to create "regional characteristic" from the perspective of planning,architecture and landscape design.It discussed with emphasis the importance of construction base type and combination of environment with residential area construction;inspirations and design methods obtained from traditional architectures;and the content of landscape overall planning and specific design.It was hoped to enlighten designers to shoulder social and historical responsibility,make exploration unremittingly,and construct beautiful homelands for people.

A comparison of strategic mine planning approaches for in-pit crushing and conveying, and truck/shovel systems

In a global environment where energy and labor are becoming increasingly expensive, continuous mining systems such as In-Pit Crushing and Conveying(IPCC) systems have been advanced as offering a real alternative to conventional truck haulage systems. The implementation of IPCC systems in hard rock operations in open pit mines however requires different and more comprehensive planning approaches in order to adequately reflect the practical aspects associated with these. This paper investigates the impact that these approaches may have on the implementation of IPCC systems on a basic metalliferous deposit amenable to open pit exploitation. A strategic life of mine plan to provide numerous economic indicators for each approach is analyzed and compared to traditional truck haulage systems. The mine planning and evaluation process highlights the increased overall resource recovery that may accompany the use of IPCC systems. This investigation also provides insights into the issues associated with IPCC and the scale and type of operation and orebody that is likely to provide a feasible alternative to truck haulage.

Environmental Renovation and Improvement Strategies for the Great Relics——A Case Study of Landscape Planning for the Front Hall Relics of the Weiyang Palace in China

Through introducing concepts of great relics and its protective planning theories, construction of relics park is a characteristic protection mode for cultural heritage in China, and also a useful exploration in the combination of theories and practices of great relics protection. Moreover, it is also the best means of protecting great relics ever found. Taking landscape planning of the front hall relics of the Weiyang Palace, relics of the front hall was believed to have great scientific value, so its environmental renovation and improvement should be based on scientific landscape planning, the whole relics should be protected and displayed scientifically and completely, landscape elements introduced as the effective texture by applying ecological patterns according to actual conditions, new techniques favorable for the protection and scientific research of relics adopted to provide a new strategy for the construction of great ruins park in China.

Potential gains from spatially-explicit coordinated planning between two large public ownerships in Minnesota

Background: Many forested landscapes throughout the world involve a mix of public forest ownerships. This study explores how coordinated planning between two large public ownerships in Minnesota impact landscape-level trade-offs between timber production and production of core area of older forest (COF) for the region. COF is an important metric for wildlife habitat. Emphasis is on better understanding potential gains from both coordinated planning at the site-level where ownerships share stand boundaries and from coordinated planning at a broader policy level involving assumed values of COF by the public. The study area involves over 300,000 ha, 150,000 analysis units and a 100-year planning horizon. Methods: The concept of influence zones in modeling spatial interdependencies is described and implemented. The estimated total area of COF is assumed an important landscape metric for forest wildlife habitat condition for each forest planning period. COF has a surrounding buffer protecting it from edge effects. Differences are recognized between COF condition requirements and condition requirements for its surrounding buffer. A spatially-explicit harvest scheduling model is applied in conjunction with moving-windows techniques of GIS to find near-optimal management schedules for the large landscape. Multiple model runs are examined to help better understand both potential gains from coordinated planning and the tradeoffs between timber and COF production. Results: Results demonstrate the ability to incorporate detailed site-level COF production into management scheduling models for broad, landscape-level planning. For the study area and the assumed COF definitions, substantially larger gains are possible by coordinating COF value assumptions across ownerships, as compared to possible gains from coordinating on-the-ground management activities in areas involving shared stand boundaries. Although a general map of the study area shows a definite intertwining mosaic of ownership by the two large public agencies, a detailed breakdown of influence zone information shows that a low percentage of the land is influenced by both of these ownerships for COF production. Conclusions: This research helps illuminate potential large gains from coordinated planning at a broad policy level by large public ownerships through coordination of assumed COF values. For the study area, these gains are substantially greater than gains from combined modeling efforts addressing spatial detail and shared stand boundaries or neighborhoods. From a practical standpoint, this is important, as spatial detail adds substantially to model size, making combined analysis a major undertaking. Detailed site-level coordination also presents operational challenges in schedule implementation.

Concept Planning of Ecological Landscapes on Urban Fringes——A Case Study of Landscape Concept Planning of Shiling Area in the Eastern New District of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province of China

With Shiling Area of Eastern New District in Chengdu City as a background, concept design scheme was put forward from the perspective of ecological landscape through analyzing present development and ecological landscapes of the study area, applying philosophic thinking and Abstract concepts, and also combining with actual conditions of Chengdu, and meanwhile, concepts, orientation and functional structure of the eco-landscape concept planning were proposed. Key points of the planning were elaborated from 4 perspectives of spatial structure, traffic organization, spatial sequence and plant configuration to discuss spatial configuration of ecological landscapes on the fringes of Chengdu City, then further improve functions of ecological landscapes and quality of ecological environment, and put the concept planning into the construction practice of urban fringes.

Integration of Location-Allocation and Accessibility Models in GIS to Improve Urban Planning for Health Services in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia

In this study, accessibility and location-allocation models have been integrated into GIS to improve spatial planning and environmental sustainability of health services in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah. This integration provides a planning framework in order to check the efficiency of the spatial allocation of health services and to generate alternatives either by proposing an active service or to improve an existing one. To achieve these objectives, the accessibility to the service area was analyzed within the analysis of health services networks, which are divided into eight types: public hospitals, specialized hospitals, health units, healthcare centers, infirmaries, clinic complexes, the Red Crescent Center, and ambulance facilities, with time intervals of (5 minutes - 10 minutes - 15 minutes) to access coverage ranges, and the location-allocation model was used based on the maximum coverage model within a response time not exceeding 15 minutes, The results of the study revealed the poor distribution of health services Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah suffers from weak accessibility to health services coverage areas and is unable to meet the needs of its population at present. The current need for health services reached twenty-four locations, including two public hospitals, three specialized hospitals, two health centers, three ambulance facilities, four infirmaries, three clinic complexes, four health units, and three Red Crescent centers.

Study on Planning and Design Mode of Eco-agricultural Demonstration Base in Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone

Guided by the Planning of Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone, traffic and geographic conditions of the Eco-agricultural Demonstration Base in the study area were analyzed, and design principles proposed as "adaptation to local conditions, scientific planning, benign circulation and sustainable development". Detailed planning and design was interpreted from the perspectives of infrastructure planning and functional area planning. Specifically, infrastructure construction should focus on traffic design, water, power and gas supply design, and also architectural design; while functional areas should be gradually developed from south section to central and then north section. It was to establish a design and planning mode that can be widely applied.

Improving the Patient Discharge Planning Process through Knowledge Management by Using the Internet of Things

The UK National Health Service (NHS) is faced with problems of managing patient discharge and preventing the problems that result from it such as frequent readmissions, delayed discharge, long waiting lists, bed blocking and other such consequences. The problem is exacerbated by the growth in size, complexity and the number of chronic diseases in the NHS. In addition, there is an increase in demand for high quality care, processes and planning. Effective Discharge Planning (DP) requires practitioners to have appropriate, patient personalised and updated knowledge in order to be able to make informed and holistic decisions about a patients’ discharge. This paper examines the role of Knowledge Management (KM) in both sharing knowledge and using tacit knowledge to create appropriate patient discharge pathways. The paper details the factors resulting in inadequate DP, and demonstrates the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine2Machine (M2M) as candidate technologies and possible solutions which can help reduce the problem. The use of devices that a patient can take home and devices which are perused in the hospital generate information, which can serve useful when presented to the right person at the right time, thus harvesting knowledge. The knowledge when fed back can support practitioners in making holistic decisions with regards to a patients’ discharge.

Russian architectural town-planning traditions and innovations in the Far East in the second half of the XIX-the beginning of the XX centuries

The establishment on the Far East of the orthodox Church and cultural stereotypes of the traditional Russian city occurred through active church building. The temples of the Far Eastern cities by its position in urban environment played a role of the basic exponents of the spiritual-state ideals of Russia. Ussumption cathedrals in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, Nikolsky cathedral in Nikcolsk-Ussurisk, Shadrinsky cathedral in Blagoveshchensk, Saint-Nikolaevsky at Russiand iplomatic mission in Seoul and other orthodox temples of the last thirty years of the XIX-the beginning of the XX-th centuries inherited ancient Russian tradition and were designed in the Byzantian style, style of the Moscow XVII century architecture, in Russian style. The ideas of ″the orthodox, the autocracy and the nationality″ in town-planning are expressed also in devotions of temples and names of new settlements. For example, a large number of temples is devoted to Saint Nicholas. Only in the Primorye Territory they are about 20. Harbin’s Saint-Nikolaevsky cathedral also in a name Nicholas. Harbin’s the Sofia church is devoted to a great symbol Ancient Russia and Russian Empire - church of Saint Sofia in Constantinople. The general plans of settlements and cities of the Far East of the second half of the XIX and boundary XIX-XX centuries were realized by two leading directions of town-planning of Russia: the first is based on the norms of regular town-planning, the second is one connected with the realization of the city - garden concept. The priority remains for classicismical tradition. At the same time, the general plans of Harbin, Dairen realized the innovative idea of the time-the concept of city-garden. On the Russian Far East social town-planning ideas of the city -gardens in a certain measure were embodied in 1910-s in the project of Alexseevsk town; Anutovsky country settlement on Ocean station near Vladivostok, later it was officially named-Garden-City; in a settlement for the railway servicemen on Nikolskay station of the Ussuriskay railway and others. Russian architectural town-planning tradition was enriched by new understanding of the social and town-planning purposes, realized in cities of the Far East in the end of the XIX-the beginning of the XX centuries.

Discussion on Planning and Construction of Villages and Towns in Nature Reserve——A Case Study of Weitun Town of Hengshui City in China

The development of nature reserve was closely related with that of villages and towns at its surrounding area.It was the core issue to be discussed in the paper as to how to form mutually beneficial relation between them and achieve both protection of nature reserve and economic development of villages and towns.Through analysis on internal relation between nature reserve and villages and towns,it put forward three methods for planning and construction of villages and towns around the nature reserve.By taking Hengshui Lake National Nature Reserve in Weitun Town for example,it hoped to serve as a modest spur to induce exchange and discussion in the field.

Ship Path Planning Based on Sparse A^(*)Algorithm

An improved version of the sparse A^(*)algorithm is proposed to address the common issue of excessive expansion of nodes and failure to consider current ship status and parameters in traditional path planning algorithms.This algorithm considers factors such as initial position and orientation of the ship,safety range,and ship draft to determine the optimal obstacle-avoiding route from the current to the destination point for ship planning.A coordinate transformation algorithm is also applied to convert commonly used latitude and longitude coordinates of ship travel paths to easily utilized and analyzed Cartesian coordinates.The algorithm incorporates a hierarchical chart processing algorithm to handle multilayered chart data.Furthermore,the algorithm considers the impact of ship length on grid size and density when implementing chart gridification,adjusting the grid size and density accordingly based on ship length.Simulation results show that compared to traditional path planning algorithms,the sparse A^(*)algorithm reduces the average number of path points by 25%,decreases the average maximum storage node number by 17%,and raises the average path turning angle by approximately 10°,effectively improving the safety of ship planning paths.

Fusion Algorithm Based on Improved A^(*)and DWA for USV Path Planning

The traditional A^(*)algorithm exhibits a low efficiency in the path planning of unmanned surface vehicles(USVs).In addition,the path planned presents numerous redundant inflection waypoints,and the security is low,which is not conducive to the control of USV and also affects navigation safety.In this paper,these problems were addressed through the following improvements.First,the path search angle and security were comprehensively considered,and a security expansion strategy of nodes based on the 5×5 neighborhood was proposed.The A^(*)algorithm search neighborhood was expanded from 3×3 to 5×5,and safe nodes were screened out for extension via the node security expansion strategy.This algorithm can also optimize path search angles while improving path security.Second,the distance from the current node to the target node was introduced into the heuristic function.The efficiency of the A^(*)algorithm was improved,and the path was smoothed using the Floyd algorithm.For the dynamic adjustment of the weight to improve the efficiency of DWA,the distance from the USV to the target point was introduced into the evaluation function of the dynamic-window approach(DWA)algorithm.Finally,combined with the local target point selection strategy,the optimized DWA algorithm was performed for local path planning.The experimental results show the smooth and safe path planned by the fusion algorithm,which can successfully avoid dynamic obstacles and is effective and feasible in path planning for USVs.

Optimal Risk-Based Maintenance Planning of Ship Hull Structure

Various structures such as marine structures age over time. In order to always maintain safety conditions, maintenance processes including inspection and repair should be implemented on them. Corrosion and fatigue cracks are two main factors that reduce the ultimate strength of the ship's hull girder over time and thus increase the probability and risk of failure. At the time of inspection,the structural conditions must be checked so that, if necessary, the required repairs can be done on it. The main objective of this paper is to provide optimized maintenance plans of the ship structure based on probabilistic concepts with regard to corrosion and fatigue cracks. Maintenance activities increase the operational costs of ships; therefore, it is advisable to inspect and repair in the optimal times. Optimal maintenance planning of the ship structure can be conducted by formulating and solving a multi-objective optimization problem. The use of risk as a structural performance indicator has become more common in recent years. The objective functions of the optimization problem include minimizing the structure's lifecycle maintenance costs, including inspection and repair costs, and also minimizing the maximum risk of structural failure during the ship's life. In the following,to achieve better responses, reliability index has been added to the problem as the third objective function. The multi-objective optimization problem is solved using genetic algorithms. The proposed risk-based approach is applied to the hull structure of a tanker ship.

Utilization of Postpartum Family Planning Services between Six and Twelve Months of Delivery at Ntchisi District Hospital, Malawi

This study examined factors that determine utilization of postpartum family planning services at Ntchisi District Hospital in Malawi. The study design was descriptive and utilized quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. A random sample of 383 postpartum women was interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 16.0. Chi-square tests were used to establish relationships between utilization of Post Partum Family Planning services and demographic variables. Knowledge about family planning services was almost universal at 94.3% among the women. About 75% of the women were using the contraceptives within the first year after delivery however they started taking the contraceptives after they had already resumed sex. There was a significant association (P < 0.05) between utilization of post partum family planning services and the following: clarity of family planning information given, level of education, period for resuming sex, husband’s approval of family planning method, counselling on fertility intention, duration of lactation amenorrhoea, maternal age and parity. There is therefore a need to promote these factors to increase uptake of postpartum services.

Use of Augmented Reality Methods to Support Legal Conflicts in the Planning Process for Wind Turbines Using the Example of the Landscape Conservation Area “Eulenkopf and Surroundings”

The world’s growing energy demand poses a serious problem. At the same time fossil fuels are finite, which we must work against. Therefore, the Federal Government of Germany has set itself the goal to push forward the use of renewable energy in order to completely do without the generation of nuclear energy by 2023. There are, however, no specific guidelines from the European Directive on the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources for the internal electricity market regarding how high each share of the different production method should be and, above all, which specific aim should be achieved by the share of wind energy. Nevertheless, it presents a crucial step toward a nuclear phaseout and a concomitant change of course of the Federal Government of Germany in the spring of 2011 regarding the expansion of renewable energy, taking the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima into account. Using new legal planning approaches, also including the area of Rhineland-Palatinate, opportunities should be provided to make previously protected land available for setting up facilities for the generation of renewable energy. However, it is important to examine the legal situation regarding the installation of these kinds of constructions more detailed, as no general statements can be made. This will be illustrated using the example of the landscape conservation area “Eulenkopf and surrounding area” in the district of Kaiserslautern. The stated goal of the Social Democrat/Green coalition of the federal state government of Rhineland-Palatinate is to considerably expand the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources so that by 2030 at least the entire electricity demand can be covered by those. Due to the enormous potential of wind power, it is therefore necessary to quintuple its share of electricity generation by 2020, compared to 2011 numbers. In order to achieve the desired political objectives, by 2030 the number of turbines has to be increased to around 2650, representing a capacity of 7500 MW. This increase gives reason for boundary conditions to manage the generation of wind energy to be adjusted. This is intended to facilitate management and simultaneously minimise negative effects, such as the “sprawling” of wind turbines.

Geo-Parks Planning Based on Land Coordination Analysis——A Case Study of World Geo-Park of Yuntai Mountain

By taking the World Geo-Park of Yuntai Mountain for example,based on its present land using,interpretation of its remote sensing images,and systematic analysis by MAPGIS,the authors analyzed the coordination between land use and park construction in the study area,proposed suggestions for moderate adjustment of the original land structure to control the scale of construction land,protect and expand ecological land use,geological heritages and landscape land use.All land uses should be comprehensively coordinated,and the role of land use planning of the scenic area as a coordinator should be stressed.Moreover,results of the re-investigation should be properly utilized to optimize the new round of planning,particular land value of the scenic area should be highlighted,so as to form the benign circulation between new human activities and eco-environment,provide a new concept and approach for the sustainable development of the geo-park.