Infrastructure Approach Research Articles

Bringing Collaborative Positioning to Native 5G Systems for Enhanced 2D & 3D Location Services

5G's large bandwidths and ubiquity make it a promising candidate for catalyzing future mobile services (emergency, V2X, XR, etc.) that benefit from accurate positioning over a wide area. However, we demonstrate that its heavy reliance on infrastructure base stations significantly limits its positioning ability in urban environments, where multi-story buildings and urban canyons are the norm, resulting in only a small fraction of devices being positioned, often only in 2D. To this end, we propose CAMP, a novel, collaboration-augmented paradigm for 2D and 3D positioning with cellular networks, where UEs leverage 5G NR's peer-peer Sidelink protocol to directly enable positioning measurements between each other in a scalable manner. Leveraging better connectivity (higher degree and SNR) between devices, CAMP overcomes the challenges inherent to infrastructure approaches. It brings algorithmic innovations in distributed, stochastic access and dynamic resource scheduling in a 5G-compliant manner to Sidelink measurements that are otherwise not scalable in conventional gNB-driven Sidelink operation. CAMP is implemented as a near real-time xApp service in the Open-RAN framework. Evaluations in a small cell 5G test-bed and a large-scale RAN on Colosseum, highlight its ability to position over 80% (72%) UEs with under 3m accuracy in 2D (3D) in real-world urban scenarios (compared to 30% with infrastructure approaches) and with 7-25x less overhead compared to baseline collaborative schemes.

Integration of BIM Tools for the Facility Management of Railway Bridges

Current railway infrastructure maintenance work, which is mostly carried out by visual inspection, has a reactive approach, dissociated information, and limited follow-up. On the other hand, railway bridges, being critical infrastructures, require effective monitoring and maintenance to guarantee their safety and operation over time. The designed tool links a parametric BIM model in Revit® with an automated spreadsheet in MS Excel® through visual programming in Dynamo, generating BIM/data automation as an initial step towards a digital twin. This achieves a bidirectional flow to exchange data on the structural condition of elements. The procedure was applied to a railway bridge in use for over 100 years, representing its geometry and damage information according to technical standards. The value lies in laying the foundations for adopting preventive approaches for this key infrastructure. The BIM/data automation allows the BIM model to visually reflect the condition of the elements, depending on their damage, consolidate the inspection information, and generate a visual management tool. In conclusion, the designed BIM/data automation improves the monitoring of railway bridges compared to traditional methods, facilitating the interaction and relationship between the damage records and the actual bridge elements, laying the foundations for the construction of digital twins.

The gap between farmers and beneficiaries in terms of awareness and expectations regarding the paddy field dam project

The paddy field dam (PFD) is a type of nature-based solution to flooding that is centered on a green infrastructure approach to flood control. PFDs have attracted a considerable amount of attention in Japan, with several studies evaluating their effectiveness. However, the perceptions of PFDs among stakeholders are unclear. In this study, we examined attitudes about PFDs via a questionnaire survey. We found that awareness of PFDs was low among beneficiaries and farmers who had not implemented this approach, and these farmers had significantly lower expectations regarding PFDs compared with beneficiaries and farmers who had implemented them. In addition, our data indicated that increasing the level of awareness could narrow the gap in expectations among stakeholders. Furthermore, a comparison of expectations regarding the PFD with quantitative estimations suggested that greater awareness is needed regarding this strategy. This could be achieved via the dissemination of correct information, including on the limitations of the PFD.

Management of the Management Strategy of the Giwangan Traditional Main Market by the Special Region Government of Yogyakarta

Government management and strategy in managing traditional markets is very necessary, seeing the conditions of traditional markets which if not considered, will have an impact and reduce public interest in conducting transactions in traditional markets due to the influence of modern markets. The purpose of this study was to describe the management strategy of the Giwangan wholesale market by the government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY). This type of research uses descriptive-qualitative with a SWOT analysis approach. The data used are primary data obtained through observation, interview, observation, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and documentation. This study also uses a phenomenological approach to case studies. The results showed that the implementation carried out by the government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the management of the Giwangan traditional wholesale market was quite effective, namely the implementation of several market management programs in terms of planning, structuring, organizing, field action, as well as monitoring and evaluation. In market management, the DKI government takes a two-way approach. First, an infrastructure approach with infrastructure improvements and additions, a program to rearrange market conditions in 2022, greeting traders once a week, gotong royong with associations, and exercising with market traders. Second, the non-physical approach is the application of regional regulations and mayoral regulations. This has an impact on the welfare of the people of Yogyakarta.

Encapsulating Green Infrastructure in Modern Urban Landscape

The growing urbanisation has casted various challenges in building a resilient infrastructure supporting sustainable landscape. The present urbanisation challenges faced around the globe is related to the waste management and mindful consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources. The traditional urban landscape had used the grey infrastructure that in the present scenario is aging and showing incapability of handing disasters. The modern landscapes require advanced technological involvement in a planned manner to have a sustainable future. This review paper considered various studies of economies of rebuilding their landscapes with modern green infrastructural approach with the use of solid waste management, waster management, Government Interventions and the use of AI for a better tomorrow.

A Probabilistic and Distributed Validation Framework Based on Blockchain for Artificial Intelligence of Things

Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) applications have advanced rapidly. However, most of them are inherently vulnerable to security threats and may be the source of spoofing attacks, and meanwhile, in AIoT systems, the transfer of real-time data from terminals and the cloud strains network bandwidth. To defend against attacks, save network forwarding resources, and relieve authentication pressure on the receiver end, it is essential to verify source identity of AIoT terminals on the forwarding path. In this paper, we propose PDIV, a probabilistic and distributed identity validation solution for AIoT applications. In the framework of PDIV, honest forwarders can verify the authenticity of the source identity of packets with a certain probability and filter spoofed packets to prevent them from spreading, reduce end-to-end network latency, and increase throughput as much as possible. Additionally, PDIV, a blockchain-based system that uses Merkle Patricia Trie (MPT) on the blockchain, makes it practical and efficient to realize distributed storage and verification of identity information. Moreover, we theorize about the trade-off between PDIV network performance and detection effectiveness, as well as how PDIV enables defenses against different attacks like spoofing and DDoS attacks. Furthermore, we implement PDIV on Network Simulator Version 3 (NS3) and evaluate its performance. The simulation results demonstrate that PDIV can prevent the spread of spoofed packets effectively and PDIV works better than currently available blockchain-based public key infrastructure (PKI) approaches in terms of network latency.

Digital objects to make computable biomedical knowledge FAIR: an infrastructural approach to knowledge representation, dissemination and implementation

We present our work to develop digital objects to represent and convey a specific category of scientific knowledge: computable biomedical knowledge (CBK). Properly developed, validated, implemented and stewarded, CBK has the potential to accelerate the translation of actionable knowledge from scientific discovery to clinical application. Our research takes an infrastructural approach to CBK, initially by focusing on the creation of a conceptual model for packaging computable biomedical knowledge - the Knowledge Object (KO) - and on corresponding efforts to create an architecture for KO management and implementation. Additionally, our work is grounded in the FAIR principles, such that KO artefacts should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable and we are exploring aligning KOs with emerging best practices for FAIR Digital Objects (FDO). The outcomes of this work resonate in clinical contexts, health professions education, healthcare quality improvement, biomedical and translational research and population care. Our KO model is also of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in knowledge science, including those working with semantic technologies and other forms of digital objects.

Religion, Mission, and Development: The Catholic Church as a Religious Infrastructure in Kafa, Ethiopia

Abstract The Catholic Church, along with other denominational groups, is an important part of the religious landscape in the Kafa region of southwestern Ethiopia. In addition to pastoral activities, the Catholic Church is particularly involved in the provision of social infrastructure facilities such as schools, kindergartens, or hospitals as part of the Human Integral Development approach to its mission. This article therefore examines the role of the Catholic Church and its mission on the everyday life of the people in the Kafa region. Drawing on ethnographic research, the article conceptualises the Catholic Church as a religious infrastructure – a notion that sheds light on the socio-material processes and entanglements that enable the anticipation of ideas about the future and about development. In addition, the article explores the role of the Catholic Church in sociocultural transformation processes through this infrastructural approach, thereby contributing to a subject that has been hitherto neglected in anthropological studies of religion and Christianity.

The geoeconomics of infrastructures: viewing globalization and global rivalry through a lens of infrastructural competition

ABSTRACT In the current triad competition between the US, the EU, and China, globalization-relevant infrastructures serve both as the means and ends of conflicts. This paper asks how this historical constellation of geoeconomic competition has changed the infrastructure policy of its centers. Its political-economic perspective discusses infrastructures not just in terms of their strategic instrumentalization, but also of their role in global production and geoeconomic competition. It underlines how infrastructures serve as fixes that counteract internal crisis dynamics and allow for an expansion of productive activity. The paper undertakes an empirical comparison of the triad centers’ central infrastructural measures and flagship projects. The results highlight a shared reorientation towards infrastructure policy that is driven by internal crisis dynamics and external competition over contested markets. Yet, it also reveals the varieties of infrastructural approaches as regards political objectives, modes of policy-making, and the role of national businesses.

An infrastructural approach to the digital Hostile Environment

ABSTRACT This article delves into the ongoing consequences of UK ‘Hostile Environment’ policies, notably the Windrush Scandal and the challenges of techno-solutionism in migration governance. There is an exploration of how borders have permeated the internal boundaries of the UK and pushed private citizens and institutions to become new border agents. In this article there is a reflection on the infrastructure that has become reinforced, made visible and technologically upholds Hostile Environment policies. This article investigates the Home Office’s new case working system, Atlas, to illuminate the intersection of border policies, technology and ethics. Through disentangling the political promises placed into the new case working system, this article argues the technological solutions to unjust policies are doomed to repeat and reinforce historic racialised practices. This article argues that technology projects in development, like Atlas, offer an opportunity to identify new private actors responsible for maintaining internal borders within the UK, private technology consultancy groups. Tracing the privatisation of border technology crystallises the new power dynamics introduced through technological projects developed to translate the goals of the Hostile Environment into operational technology used by the Home Office.

THE POTENTIAL OF THE MUSYARAKAH MUTANAQISHAH AGREEMENT AS AN ALTERNATIVE FOR DEVELOPING THE MADURA HALAL TOURISM OBJECT AREA THROUGH AN INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH

Musyarakah Mutanaqishah is a form of cooperation between two or more parties forownership of an item or asset. Even though the capabilities and technicalities ofmusyarakah mutanaqishah have been stated in the DSN-MUI fatwa Number 73 of 2008,in practice this contract is still not widely used. This agreement is used as an alternativefor developing halal tourist attractions in Madura through an infrastructure approach.Based on this, the objectives of this research are (1) To examine the potential of themusyarakah mutanaqishah contract in supporting the development of halal touristattractions (2) To provide a general description of the development of Madura touristattractions through an infrastructure approach using the musyarakah mutanaqishahcontract. This research uses a descriptive qualitative research method which aims todescribe the condition of the subject and research object. The data collection techniquesused by researchers in this research were conducting interviews and documentation.Then the results of the interviews and documentation were imported using the NVIVOapplication to get more measurable results. The research results obtained: (1) Access tohalal tourism development which includes the construction of railway infrastructure isin the less productive category because the existing route has become a public facility.(2) The potential of the Mutanaqishah Musyarakah Agreement as an alternative fordeveloping halal tourism with infrastructure development in the Madura region is veryimpactful and less significant. It is hoped that this research will be able to develop touristtransportation access in the Madura area.Keywords: Musyarakah Mutanaqishah, Halal Tourism, Infrastructure.

Negotiating the capacities and limitations of sensor-mediated care in the home

Abstract In-home sensor systems supported by machine learning are increasingly used to enhance communication between those living with long-term conditions such as dementia and healthcare professionals and carers who support them. Perspectives from the sociology of infrastructures are used to explore the development and deployment of such a system of smart care, drawing on interviews with researchers and developers, healthcare professionals and service users, and carers. The analysis finds that labor of various forms is required to manage the production of useful sensor data, including parsing the reasons for missing data and organizing appropriate actions in response. The analysis highlights active processes of deriving meaning from that data in ways that participants find useful, ethical, and sustainable. The conclusion emphasizes the usefulness of an infrastructural approach in order to recognize the heterogeneous forms of labor involved in developing ethically sensitive, person-centered forms of remote-monitoring-enabled care.

How is the platform a workplace? Moving from sites to infrastructure

AbstractPlatforms indicate a partial but critical shift from the workplace as site to the workplace as infrastructure. Instead of focusing on platforms as mediators of labour, this article asks: how is the platform a workplace? Platforms involve a distinctive geography, creating flexible space that challenges clear distinctions between the inside and outside of the workplace and its action. It is this issue of the location of the structure for action in platformised work that is the problem of infrastructure. Infrastructure, as studies in information work have demonstrated, exists through practices that resolve the tensions between broader structures for activity and specific enactments. The implications of this workplace infrastructure approach have not yet been fully addressed in contemporary social science research on platforms and work. The article begins by outlining how workplaces are not simply sites where work occurs but rather contingently structure work. It then shows how infrastructure names the socio‐technical constitution of this contingent structuring of workplaces, which allows both standardisation and flexibility in information work. These two insights are combined in the infrastructural qualities of platforms that produce workplaces as contingent structures, with the socio‐technical practices of arrangement and coordination as the spatial drivers of workplace flexibility. As infrastructure, the platform workplace is understood as compositor of work; its parameters shape the occurrence of working activity, at the same time as work taking place also alters the parameters of the workplace. This infrastructural approach illuminates other agencies shaping work beyond employer and employee, in turn implying that the study of platform workplaces as infrastructure can shed light on the functioning of contemporary economic activities beyond work.

Infrastructural Thinking in China: A Research Agenda

AbstractDespite China's leading role in the construction of infrastructure over the past decades, the most influential paradigms for the study of infrastructure in the social sciences originate from research conducted elsewhere. This introduction to the special section “Chinese Infrastructure: Techno-politics, Materialities, Legacies” seeks to address this apparent gap, and contributes to building an innovative research agenda for an infrastructural approach in the China studies field. To do so, it pushes forward an understanding of infrastructure as both an empirically rich material object of research and an analytical strategy for framing research questions. We draw from two strands of inquiry: recent efforts to rethink the materiality of infrastructures not as an inert or stable basis upon which more dynamic social processes emerge, but rather as unstable assemblages of human and non-human agencies; and scholarship that explores the often hidden (techno-)political dimensions of infrastructures, through which certain intended and unintended outcomes emerge less from the realms of policy and implementation and more from the material dispositions and effects of infrastructural formations. These strands of inquiry are brought together as part of our effort to recognize that the infrastructural basis of China's approach to development and statecraft deserves a more concerted theorizing of infrastructure than we have seen thus far.

Thinking vulnerability infrastructurally: Interdependence and possibility in Lebanon’s overlapping crises

The notion of ‘vulnerability’ has gained growing traction in a range of different fields, from disaster risk reduction to feminist theory. This increased academic use has been paralleled by a rise in the use of the term as an operational concept in humanitarian and development policy. Using the incongruent deployments of the term as a starting point, this article examines the assumptions underpinning definitions of vulnerability in humanitarian programming in Lebanon, with a particular focus on the links between Lebanon’s crisis of public services and the mass displacement from neighbouring Syria since 2011. We show that, in the international response to Lebanon’s overlapping crises, ‘vulnerability’ is operationalised in ways that fail to address underlying causes, and thus resist meaningful transformation while even bearing the potential of additional harm. Based on the finding that vulnerabilities emanating from Lebanon’s public service crisis and from mass displacement are deeply entangled, the article proposes that an ‘infrastructural’ approach to vulnerability may better be able to address precariousness and precarity linked to basic service provision. An infrastructural approach, we posit, foregrounds dynamic interdependency and relationality with the human and non-human environment. Such a view allows us to acknowledge the power relations at work in both the production and alleviation of vulnerability and ultimately may better enable us to ‘think otherwise’ in situations of seemingly perpetual crisis and disruption.

Nature-based solutions for coastal resilience in South Africa

ABSTRACT Coastlines globally are sensitive to the effects of sea-level rise, increased coastal storminess and changes in coastal sediment supply and sediment dynamics in the Anthropocene. Coastlines are also influenced by land use change, urbanization and development of built infrastructure. These changes can affect the dynamics of coastal landforms, weaken coastal resilience and make coasts more sensitive to climate hazards. This study critically examines the properties of coastlines that contribute to coastal biophysical resilience in South Africa, highlighting their relativerates of change and dynamic behaviour in response to physical and human forcing factors. Coastal landforms can be considered as ‘green infrastructure’ that can buffer the effects of climate change as well as providing ecosystem and environmental services in their own right. Viewing coastal landforms as green infrastructure provides a ‘nature-based solution’ to mitigate against climate change impacts that can work with – not against – the natural geomorphic, sedimentary and ecological processes of coastlines. Coastal landforms can also contribute to socioecological resilience, where they provide environmental and ecosystem services. The green infrastructure approach to coastal resilience has not been well developed in South Africa but is more effective in supporting coastal sustainable development.

Astana mosques: strategies and practices of designing new public spaces

Using examples of the construction of mosques in the capital, the article shows how the discourse of the importance of Islam for cultural memory manifests itself through the practice of forming new public spaces. Despite the fact that, in comparison with the general Kazakh trends, the increase in the number of mosques in Astana is not so significant, each new mosque in the capital is formed as a unique of case, where, in addition to the main religious issues, one can also trace: state policy in the field of cultural memory; the growth of emotional, symbolic and infrastructural load on mosques; the increasing role of participation in the spaces of the mosque. Every decade, not only the main cathedral mosques, larger and larger in terms of its size, are being opened in the capital, but also the primary infrastructural linking of mosques to different urban spaces takes place. The article also discusses the question of who is the actor of the emergence of these new mosques. One of the examples of the "diplomacy of mosques" was the Nur-Astana mosque built at the expense of a foreign investor; by order of representatives of the political elite and local communities, projects of Islamic religious buildings, unique in its architectural solutions, were implemented. The article uses an infrastructural approach, which made it possible to identify important aspects in the topography of mosques in the metropolitan area, in the specifics of relations between state authorities, patrons, Muslim clergies and other interested parties that have a direct impact on the strengthening and development of mosques as important public spaces. There has also been an increase in the practices of opening Islamic culture museums at mosques in the last decade, which contributes to the transformation of the usual image of the mosque and strengthening their importance in the mass consciousness as an important object of cultural memory infrastructure. Key words: infrastructural approach, memory infrastructure, cultural landscape, mosque, public space, Astana, Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan.

Industry remotely operated vehicle imagery for assessing marine communities associated with subsea oil and gas infrastructure on the continental shelf of South-East Australia

Introduction Offshore oil and gas (O & G) infrastructure provides hard substrata of structural complexity in marine environments and has been shown to have ecological value, particularly in oligotrophic environments. As infrastructure approaches end of life, understanding such values is critical to inform decommissioning decisions. MethodsThis study uses a decade of industry remotely operated vehicle (ROV) imagery to describe fish, invertebrate, and benthic communities on gas field infrastructure. Sampling was conducted over 22 km of flowline, three wells and one manifold in the temperate waters of Bass Strait, south east Australia in depths of 155 to 263 m.ResultsA total of 10,343 mobile animals from 69 taxa were observed. A higher diversity of fishes were observed on flowlines (28 taxa) compared to wells (19 taxa). Fish and invertebrate communities observed along flowlines were distinct from those observed on wells/manifold, however, there was also high spatial variability among the different flowlines surveyed and between the three wells and manifold. These differences appear to be driven by habitat and depth preferences of the species observed. Many sand-affiliated species were associated with buried sections of flowlines (Tasmanian giant crab Pseudocarcinus gigas, Balmain bug Ibacus peronii, slender sand burrower Creedia haswelli, red cod Pseudophycis spp., blue grenadier Macruronus novaezelandiae) whilst reef-associated and schooling species were observed on the wells/manifold (jackass morwong Nemadactylus macropterus, redbait Emmelichthys nitidus, splendid perch Callanthias australis). Species of ecological importance were also noted including the Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus), long-lived foxfish (Bodianus frenchii), and handfish (Brachionichthyidae spp).DiscussionThis study describes the habitat value of oil and gas infrastructure in a data poor temperate region that is important for understanding how the decommissioning of these structures may affect local marine ecosystems and fisheries. Therefore, it is critical to understand the habitat value of O&G infrastructure to marine life in the Bass Strait and whether decommissioning of these structures affect local marine ecosystems and fisheries. This study shows the complexity of determining temporal change in biodiversity values associated with these O & G structures from historical industry datasets that will be key for informing future decommissioning options. We also provide some guidance on how future quantitative data can be obtained in a systematic way using industry ROV data to better inform ecological investigations and decommissioning options.

A systematic literature review of carbon footprint decision-making approaches for infrastructure and building projects

There is an urgent need for all industries to go beyond the existing set of policies against greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change. As the major producer (19%) of GHG, the construction industry needs to optimise its carbon footprint (CF) decision-making processes to provide better management solutions against global warming. Identification and evaluation of the key factors that affect CF decision-making are critical yet limited. Based on our knowledge, no existing study compares the different characteristics of construction projects’ CF management approaches through the whole life cycle phases (including assessment, optimisation, and comparison) to enable CF-related knowledge transfer between the building and infrastructure sectors. To meet these knowledge gaps, this paper reviewed 1,465 studies related to infrastructure and building CF projects and selected 31 studies to evaluate academic researchers’ contributions toward the different CF decision-making stages for the building and infrastructure projects’ whole lifecycle. The paper systematically reviewed and assessed the existing information in five key CF decision-making stages: project drafting stage, methodology choosing stage, data collection stage, CF analysis stage, and CF visualisation stage. A generalised CF decision-making framework is also developed to inform future CF management. The limitations of the existing studies and the benefits of the developed framework were summarised. This study identifies the key information required from the perspective of CF management decision-makers and contributes a universal CF decision-making framework for state-of-the-art CF management practice.

A Review of Emerging Scientific Discussions on Green Infrastructure (GI)-Prospects towards Effective Use of Urban Flood Plains

The goal of the present review is to collect data on trending scientific discussions on applying green infrastructure (GI) approaches to the effective use of urban floodplains and conceptualize potential future directions. A systematic literature review methodology was employed for this review. We reviewed 120 scholarly articles published between 2011 and 2022 under a predefined protocol. In this review, we discuss the trending dialogues on GI approaches and their applications. The research gap in applying GI approaches for macro-level urban-flood-plain management is addressed by (a) speculative arguments drawn from reviewed GI case studies, (b) an analysis of the trends’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), and (c) presenting the concurrent ‘green–gray’ debate on neutral ground. Evidently, GI has its strengths and opportunities, as well as weaknesses and threats. The approaches to GI can be customized according to the application purpose, the regional or locational context, and the intended capacity. Following the analysis of emerging GI discussions, we position the current GI dialogues into four categories: (i) the green–gray continuum; (ii) GI for sustainable and resilient cities; (iii) GI as a resolution for urban issues; and (iv) the green–gray debate. In this classification, we strongly argue that placing GI in a more certain and instrumental position can be optimally achieved in the ‘green–gray continuum’ concept with a win–win scenario. Therefore, scientifically investigating the ‘green–gray continuum’ possibilities in a futuristic approach is strongly recommended.