Suchergebnisse

Intelligence and geospatial intelligence -- Brief history of maps and charts -- Terrain -- Navigation -- Geopolitics -- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) --Geolocation -- Gaining the high ground -- The ultimate high ground -- Visible imaging -- Spectral imaging -- Radar imaging -- The drivers of geospatial intelligence -- The tools of geospatial intelligence -- The sociocultural side of GEOINT -- The NGA story -- The GEOINT explosion -- Non-national geospatial intelligence -- Commercial GEOINT -- Conclusion : the road ahead.

AbstractHydraulic and water quality models have become widely used to understand both the hydraulic behaviour, and the fate and transport of contaminants in drinking water distribution systems. Research conducted by the United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) played a major role in the development and application of hydraulic/water quality modelling in the United States and throughout the world. Eventually this research led to the development of EPANET, an integrated hydraulic/water quality model, and had a major influence on the implementation of the United States Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The modelling research conducted by the US EPA has helped many drinking water utilities throughout the world alleviate public health threats due to the deterioration of water quality in drinking water networks. The US EPA has provided over 100 000 downloads of the EPANET software over the last 2 years.

AbstractThere has been long‐standing concern that water systems are vulnerable to man‐made and natural threats. In the United States, after the events of 11 September 2001, government planners focused on the possibility that the nation's critical infrastructure may be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. However, as demonstrated in this paper, there are many other factors that influence water supply security including lack of water resource availability, threats from point and nonpoint source pollution to water‐related ecosystems, and impact of climate change. In order to meet water security threats, there is a need to balance human and environmental water needs while at the same time safeguarding essential ecosystem services and biodiversity. Integrated water resources management may help achieve this balance. Examples are presented, which illustrate the diversity of water security throughout the world.

The nature, origin, development, and possible justification of the municipal business tax in Canada are the topics considered in this paper. These subjects are all the more interesting because there has been no comparable development in the United States. Statistics as late as May, 1947 indicate that New York City is the only city in the United States with a business tax comparable to the municipal business tax in Canada.The term "municipal business tax" generally is used in Canada to refer to a tax on premises occupied for business purposes. Three bases are in use: a fraction of the assessed value of the premises, the annual rental value of premises, and square feet of space occupied.

Urban water and wastewater systems have an inherent vulnerability to both manmade and natural threats and disasters including droughts, earthquakes and terrorist attacks. It is well established that natural disasters including major storms, such as hurricanes and flooding, can effect water supply security and integrity. Earthquakes and terrorist attacks have many characteristics in common because they are almost impossible to predict and can cause major devastation and confusion. Terrorism is also a major threat to water security and recent attention has turned to the potential that these attacks have for disrupting urban water supplies. There is a need to introduce the related concept of Integrated Water Resources Management which emphasizes linkages between land-use change and hydrological systems, between ecosystems and human health, and between political and scientific aspects of water management. An expanded water security agenda should include a conceptual focus on vulnerability, risk, and resilience; an emphasis on threats, shocks, and tipping points; and a related emphasis on adaptive management given limited predictability. Internationally, concerns about water have often taken a different focus and there is also a growing awareness, including in the US, that water security should include issues related to quantity, climate change, and biodiversity impacts, in addition to terrorism. This presents contributions from a group of internationally recognized experts that attempt to address the four areas listed above and includes suggestions as to how to deal with related problems. It also addresses the new and potentially growing issue of cyber attacks against water and waste water infrastructure including descriptions of actual attacks, making it of interest to scholars and policy-makers concerned with protecting the water supply