Scenario-based Case Study Research Articles

Health professions learners' evaluation of e-learning scenario-based case study design: Reinvigorating flipped classroom modalities.

Interactive scenario-based learning (SBL) cases were developed using the SoftChalk platform to deliver content about patients' barriers to accessing healthcare and patient management strategies connecting oral to systemic health. The interactive cases were designed to engage the digital-savvy learners, meet them where they are by leveling up, and seek their feedback to determine flipped (FC) or modified flipped classroom (MFC) content delivery approaches. Health professions students completed interactive SBL cases (Phase-I) using either FC as assigning content outside of class time preparation or MFC as allocating time at the beginning of the class deliveries, and a 12-item post-completion survey. Thesenior dental student cohort (Phase-II) completed an anonymous Qualtrics survey that assessed their confidence leading to clinical competence two years after the interactive SBL case deliveries. The final survey (Phase-III) of first-year dental students evaluated the improved interactive scenario-based cases post modifications. [Corrections added on 03 October 2023: After first online publication the first sentence of methods section has been updated.] RESULTS: No significant differences existed between the FC and MFC content delivery scores; however, learners preferred the structured time allotted in the MFC approach as a learning style for participants (N=989). The overall means percent score was 93.2% (n=398) for FC and 96.5% (n=591) for MFC. Thematic analysis of written responses indicated that learners felt the vignettes were relevant, thought-provoking, incorporated decision-making, and provided feedback. Four themes about strengths emerged as engaging, interactive, relevant, and critical. Design and technological challenges emerged as interactive SBL improvements. A follow-up report (74/103, 2021) revealedthat 48% of senior dental students surveyed recollected the SBL cases when they delivered preventive, patient-centered dental services asjuniors and seniors. They also recalled that the interactive cases prepared them for clinical success. The Final comments (2022) did not commend any significant improvements. Interactive scenario-based approaches nurture active learning and critical thinking. The educator can engage learners by incorporating teaching modalities as SBL cases to enhance their knowledge and create educational environments by meeting learners where they are. Learners can be valuable partners as educators define their instructional strategies to be equitable and student-centered. [Correction added on 04 October 2023: after first online publication, abstract section has been revised.].

Medical Education in the Context of the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Professional Development Activity of Health Professionals.

The development and maintenance of a high-quality medical education workforce depend on continuing medical education (CME). Traditionally, CME is delivered face-to-face, but due to COVID-19 and geographical distances, it is challenging to conduct professional development activities for several days. Using a webinar on advancement in medical education in the context of the eastern Mediterranean, we aimed to assess the participants' perspectives towards the professional development activity using a synchronous learning approach. We used a cross-sectional survey-based study design. We invited faculty members from King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) and United Arab Emirates University for Health Sciences (UAEU). We assessed their perspectives on the relevance of the content and effectiveness of the activity on their knowledge and skills after the two days' webinar series. A self-designed questionnaire was administered post-webinar immediately. Open-ended responses were analyzed thematically. One hundred thirty-six registered healthcare professionals attended day 1, and 97 registered participants joined on the second day of the webinar. Most participants appreciated the diversity of the contents, the quality of the presentations, and the expertise of the facilitators. They reported that the content optimized their knowledge and understanding of new concepts such as assessment in simulation teaching, programmatic assessment, insight into the implementation of IPE and EPAs in CBME, and so on. The e-learning platform's user accessibility, online tutor interaction, and the addition of more scenario-based case studies were all recommended for improvement. Overall the two days webinar series presentations were informative and highlighted the transformation in medical practices. Suggestions to improve the quality of the webinars and content were discussed.

A Scenario-Based Case Study: Using AI to Analyze Casualties from Landslides in Chittagong Metropolitan Area, Bangladesh

Understanding the complex dynamics of landslides is crucial for disaster planners to make timely and effective decisions that save lives and reduce the economic impact on society. Using the landslide inventory of the Chittagong Metropolitan Area (CMA), we have created a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based insight system for the town planners and senior disaster recovery strategists of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Our system generates dynamic AI-based insights for a range of complex scenarios created from 7 different landslide feature attributes. The users of our system can select a particular kind of scenario out of the exhaustive list of 1.054 × 1041 possible scenario sets, and our AI-based system will immediately predict how many casualties are likely to occur based on the selected kind of scenario. Moreover, an AI-based system shows how landslide attributes (e.g., rainfall, area of mass, elevation, etc.) correlate with landslide casualty by drawing detailed trend lines by performing both linear and logistic regressions. According to the literature and the best of our knowledge, our CMA scenario-based AI insight system is the first of its kind, providing the most comprehensive understanding of landslide scenarios and associated deaths and damages in the CMA. The system was deployed on a wide range of platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows systems so that it could be easily adapted for strategic disaster planners. The deployed solutions were handed down to 12 landslide strategists and disaster planners for evaluations, whereby 91.67% of users found the solution easy to use, effective, and self-explanatory while using it via mobile.

Integrating ecosystem services conservation into the optimization of urban planning policies in eco-fragile areas: A scenario-based case study

Alleviating the contradiction between land use change and natural ecosystem protection is an urgent problem that needs to be solved in the context of rapid urbanization. Urban expansion from 2015 to 2035 is simulated under three scenarios in this study using the Future Urban-Regional Environment Simulation (FUTURES) model, with Hohhot, China as the research area. Then, the value of crucial ecosystem services and the trade-offs or synergies between them are calculated for past and future periods. We find that urban expansion is dominated by the occupation of cropland and grassland, leading to the losses of ecosystem services. Especially under the economic priority (EP) scenario, food production may be reduced by up to 2.98 % and soil conservation may be reduced by up to 1.04 %. The directionality of the relationships between ecosystem services will not be reversed under any scenario. Our results also emphasize that although ecosystem services have been effectively protected under the ecological conservation (EC) scenario, it may increase the trade-off intensity among them. By considering the assessment of ecosystem services and changes in their interactions when choosing the urban expansion pattern, managers can optimize planning policies to ensure sustainable urban and community management.

In-service training programme for health and social care workers in the Philippines to strengthen interprofessional collaboration in caring for older adults: a mixed-methods study

BackgroundA growing number of older adults require complex care, but coordination among professionals to provide comprehensive and high-quality care is perceived to be inadequate. Opportunities to gain the knowledge and skills important for interprofessional collaboration in the context of geriatric care are limited, particularly for those already in the workforce. A short-term training programme in interprofessional collaboration for health and social care workers in the Philippines was designed and pilot tested. The programme was devised following a review of the literature about geriatric care education and group interviews about training needs. The objectives of this paper are to introduce the training programme and to evaluate its influence on attitudes and readiness to collaborate among participants using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.MethodsA total of 42 community health workers and 40 health institution workers participated in the training in July 2019. Quantitative indicators were used to evaluate attitudes towards and readiness for collaboration before and after the training. Content analysis was performed of responses to open-ended questions asking participants to evaluate the training. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was applied to determine the patterns of similarities or differences between the quantitative and qualitative data.ResultsSignificant improvements were seen in scores on the Attitudes Towards Health Care Teams Scale among community health (P < 0.001) and health institution (P < 0.001) staff after the training. Scenario-based case studies allowed participants to work in groups to practise collaboration across professional and institutional boundaries; the case studies fostered greater collaboration and continuity of care. Exposure to other professionals during the training led to a deeper understanding of current practices among health and social care workers. Use of the scenario-based case studies followed by task-based discussion in groups was successful in engaging care professionals to provide patient-centred care.ConclusionsThis pilot test of in-service training in interprofessional collaboration in geriatric care improved community and health institution workers’ attitudes towards such collaboration. A 3-day training attended by health and social care workers from diverse healthcare settings resulted in recommendations to enhance collaboration when caring for older adults in their current work settings.

Inconsistent Risk Profiles within Pan-European Private Banks: Insufficient Transparency for Retail Investors

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) must protect retail investors and increase risk transparency. To disclose and mitigate investment risks effectively, banks use standardized risk profiles. Through a scenario-based case study, we demonstrate that based on future risk-adjusted returns and volatility, these risk profiles of pan-European private banks significantly differ. Even though MiFID is not subject to bandwidth restrictions, differences could interfere with risk transparency and lead to significant differences in future risk, return, and managed expectations of clients due to profile overlap. This article uses the risk profiles of twelve pan-European private banks. We found significant non-equality among three rebalancing strategies: buy-and-hold, yearly rebalancing, and bandwidth rebalancing. The impact of broader bandwidths in the rebalancing strategy results in a significantly higher risk and return for investors due to greater flexibility in equity weights. Consequently, this article presents inconsistencies in private banks’ risk profiles. Future regulations should address and reconstitute guidelines to mitigate risk discrepancies. The difference in risk and return within the pan-European private banks creates a lack of transparency and does not contribute to investor protection envisaged by MiFID.

China’s rise and the Arctic region up to 2049 – three scenarios for regional futures in an era of climate change and power transition

ABSTRACT Although China has emerged as an increasingly influential global actor over recent decades, it is unclear whether a more fundamental transformation is shaking processes of regionalisation in this context. Our scenario-based case study considers the spatial reconfiguration of the rapidly globalising Arctic with varying degrees of Chinese engagement. More specifically, we examine alternative and transformational configurations of the Arctic in 2049, and ponder upon the plausibility of the hypothesised changes in light of three schools of thought on International Relations – realism, liberal institutionalism and relationalism. Hence, we explore how the rise of China could potentially alter the regional dynamics and whether, consequently, regions should be rethought both empirically and theoretically. We conclude that pluralistic discussion on the multiple regional outcomes is a necessary precondition for achieving a balanced and democratic future in the Arctic and beyond.

Data Privacy in Wearable IoT Devices: Anonymization and Deanonymization

With the development of IoT devices, wearable devices are being used to record various types of information. Wearable IoT devices are attached to the user and can collect and transmit user data at all times along with a smartphone. In particular, sensitive information such as location information has an essential value in terms of privacy, and therefore some IoT devices implement data protection by introducing methods such as masking. However, masking can only protect privacy to a certain extent in logs having large numbers of recorded data. However, the effectiveness may decrease if we are linked with other information collected from within the device. Herein, a scenario-based case study on deanonymizing anonymized location information based on logs stored in wearable devices is described. As a result, we combined contextual and direct evidence from the collected information. It was possible to obtain the result in which the user could effectively identify the actual location. Through this study, not only can a deanonymized user location be identified but we can also confirm that cross-validation is possible even when dealing with modified GPS coordinates.

Adaptive Water Management-land Use Practice for Improving Ecosystem Services – a Hungarian Modelling Case Study

During the 20th century in the Hungarian lowlands the emphasis was put on maximizing provisioning ecosystem services (ES), which caused the weakening of regulating and other services. With the growing environmental pressures, it is crucial to apply a more adaptive landscape management. This, however, leads to territorial conflicts, as large areas with water-tolerant land cover (i.e., wetlands, meadows, riparian forests) are needed to buffer extreme hydrological events.We present some findings of the WateRisk project, a research that focused on the possible solutions of these conflicts. In a scenario-based case study, we analyze the outlined issue for the Szamos-Kraszna Interfluve, a 510 km2 lowland catchment heavily affected by excess water. Scenarios were evaluated with an integrated methodology that focuses on the water budget and the total values of ES. The efficiency of the drainage network was found to be minor/moderate as it provided only -1–5% reduction in the spatial extents of inundations, and it contributed only ~20% to the elimination of water coverage. Furthermore, comparing the present (defense-focused) and the alternative (water retention focused) scenarios, the latter turned out to provide higher monetary value for the summed individual and social benefits of ES. This underlines the need for extensive adaptive measures in both water management and landscape planning to create resilience and the ability to cope with contemporary environmental challenges.

Operational response simulation tool for epidemics within refugee and IDP settlements: A scenario-based case study of the Cox's Bazar settlement.

The spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 presents many challenges to healthcare systems and infrastructures across the world, exacerbating inequalities and leaving the world’s most vulnerable populations most affected. Given their density and available infrastructure, refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) settlements can be particularly susceptible to disease spread. In this paper we present an agent-based modeling approach to simulating the spread of disease in refugee and IDP settlements under various non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies. The model, based on the June open-source framework, is informed by data on geography, demographics, comorbidities, physical infrastructure and other parameters obtained from real-world observations and previous literature. The development and testing of this approach focuses on the Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh, although our model is designed to be generalizable to other informal settings. Our findings suggest the encouraging self-isolation at home of mild to severe symptomatic patients, as opposed to the isolation of all positive cases in purpose-built isolation and treatment centers, does not increase the risk of secondary infection meaning the centers can be used to provide hospital support to the most intense cases of COVID-19. Secondly we find that mask wearing in all indoor communal areas can be effective at dampening viral spread, even with low mask efficacy and compliance rates. Finally, we model the effects of reopening learning centers in the settlement under various mitigation strategies. For example, a combination of mask wearing in the classroom, halving attendance regularity to enable physical distancing, and better ventilation can almost completely mitigate the increased risk of infection which keeping the learning centers open may cause. These modeling efforts are being incorporated into decision making processes to inform future planning, and further exercises should be carried out in similar geographies to help protect those most vulnerable.

The J-IDEA Pandemic Planner: A Framework for Implementing Hospital Provision Interventions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Planning for extreme surges in demand for hospital care of patients requiring urgent life-saving treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), while retaining capacity for other emergency conditions, is one of the most challenging tasks faced by health care providers and policymakers during the pandemic. Health systems must be well-prepared to cope with large and sudden changes in demand by implementing interventions to ensure adequate access to care. We developed the first planning tool for the COVID-19 pandemic to account for how hospital provision interventions (such as cancelling elective surgery, setting up field hospitals, or hiring retired staff) will affect the capacity of hospitals to provide life-saving care. We conducted a review of interventions implemented or considered in 12 European countries in March to April 2020, an evaluation of their impact on capacity, and a review of key parameters in the care of COVID-19 patients. This information was used to develop a planner capable of estimating the impact of specific interventions on doctors, nurses, beds, and respiratory support equipment. We applied this to a scenario-based case study of 1 intervention, the set-up of field hospitals in England, under varying levels of COVID-19 patients. The Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics pandemic planner is a hospital planning tool that allows hospital administrators, policymakers, and other decision-makers to calculate the amount of capacity in terms of beds, staff, and crucial medical equipment obtained by implementing the interventions. Flexible assumptions on baseline capacity, the number of hospitalizations, staff-to-beds ratios, and staff absences due to COVID-19 make the planner adaptable to multiple settings. The results of the case study show that while field hospitals alleviate the burden on the number of beds available, this intervention is futile unless the deficit of critical care nurses is addressed first. The tool supports decision-makers in delivering a fast and effective response to the pandemic. The unique contribution of the planner is that it allows users to compare the impact of interventions that change some or all inputs.

An evidence-based approach to health and safety management in megaprojects

With regard to the technical challenge on health and safety in megaprojects, this article puts forward a new evidence-based health and safety analysis (EHSA) approach in megaprojects. The purpose of the article is to initiate a conceptual EHSA framework to support evidence-based learning in practice-oriented research into large-scale complex health and safety management in megaprojects. The EHSA approach aims to find an innovative way to facilitate the collection of data and information from accumulated professional knowledge about accidents and failures as well as good practices and innovations, to derive useful lessons to inform improved practice in health and safety management in megaprojects. Through a scenario-based case study, this article will demonstrate how EHSA approach can effectively support health and safety management in megaprojects. It is expected that this article can make a good contribution to the body of knowledge by providing the new EHSA approach and a practice-oriented experimental case study on the use of EHSA approach for health and safety management in construction projects so as to inform future practice and research at strategic and tactic level.

Environmental and economic impact of using new-generation wide-base tires

New-generation wide-base tire (NG-WBT) is known for improving fuel economy and at the same time for potentially causing a greater damage to pavement. No study has been conducted to evaluate the net environmental saving of the combined system of pavements and NG-WBT. This study adopted a holistic approach (life cycle assessment [LCA] and life cycle costing [LCC]) to quantitatively evaluate the environmental and economic impact of using NG-WBT. The net effect of different levels of market penetration of NG-WBT on energy consumption, global warming potential (GWP), and cost based on the fatigue cracking and rutting performance of two different asphalt concrete (AC) pavement structures was evaluated. The performance of pavements was determined based on pavement design lives; pavement surface characteristics, and pavement critical strain responses obtained from the artificial neural network (ANN) based on finite element (FE) simulations were used to calculate design lives of pavements. Based on the calculated design lives, life cycle inventory (LCI) and cost databases, and rolling resistance (RR) models previously developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) were used to calculate the environmental and economic impact of the combined system. The fuel economy improvement using NG-WBT is 1.5% per axle. Scenario-based case studies were conducted. Considering 0% NG-WBT market penetration (or 100% standard dual tire assembly [DTA]) as a baseline, scenario 1 assumed the same fatigue and rutting potential between NG-WBT and DTA; therefore, the only difference came from fuel economy improvement of using NG-WBT. In scenario 2, pavement fatigue cracking potential determined the pavement design life; both thick and thin AC overlay sections experienced positive net environmental savings, but mixed net economic savings. In scenario 3, pavement rutting potential determined the pavement design life; the thick AC overlay section experienced positive net environmental savings, but mixed net economic savings. The thin section experienced negative net environmental and economic savings. The outcomes of scenario-based case studies indicated that NG-WBT can result in significant savings in life cycle energy consumption and cost, and GWP; however, these benefits were sensitive to the method used to determine the pavement performance; especially, a small change in pavement strain can result in significant change in pavement life. In addition, the effect of fuel price/economy improvement, discount rate, and International Roughness Index (IRI) threshold values was studied in the sensitivity analyses.

Scenario-Based Case Study Method and the Functionality of the Section Called ‘from Production to Consumption’ from the Perspective of Primary School Students

In this research, the aim was showing the evaluation of students on scenario-based case study method and showing the functionality of the studied section called ‘from production to consumption’. Qualitative research method and content analysis were used to reveal participants' experiences and reveal meaningful relations regarding problems of the research. The study consisted of 28 fourth grade students from the same classroom, in a public school of Central District of Ankara. The study group was selected by neutral assignment. Lesson plans and forms developed by the researcher were used to obtain qualitative data in the research, which was carried out as a doctoral thesis study. Four lesson plans have been developed in order to be able to achieve advances in the field of learning 'production, distribution and consumption' in the social studies course. Each lesson plan includes a case study associated with the achievement but not finalized, a finalized scenario script covering the case study, open-ended questions, and digital and printed resources. The evaluation form that has been prepared to assess the functionality of the used method, includes the open-ended questions prepared for evaluating the function of the unit in terms of the students and thus, forms the basic data collection tool of this research. According to qualitative results of students answers, using scenario-based case study method is a positive experience. Students are more active in the learning process, they are more caring and they pay more attention to the lessons. They want to use this method in other lessons in which they struggle to concentrate and by using this method they are more able to keep their focus.The results of this study show that scenario-based case study methods have been well received by the students, the learning process with this method is more functional and the learned information continues to be used in non-school settings.

Areal location of hazardous atmospheres simulation on toxic chemical release: A scenario-based case study from Ray, Iran.

Background and aimChemical accidents cause significant danger for residents living close to chemical facilities. For this reason, this study assessed the impacts of a simulated chemical accident on surrounding residents in the city of Ray, Iran.MethodsIn this scenario-based case study in 2015, the Areal Location of Hazardous Atmospheres (ALOHA) model was applied to simulate a toxic chemical release from a chlorine warehouse in Shourabad, Ray, Iran. The population of the area was calculated based on the latest census in Iran, 2011. The atmospheric variables included were wind speed, air temperature, and relative humidity. We also included data on pollution source such as diameter, length and volume, and condition of chemicals. The simulation was repeated for each seasonal period. The simulated threat zones were mapped using Geographical Information System. The percentage of residents sustaining injuries and death was calculated using probit.ResultsThe maximum and minimum simulated threat zones by chlorine release are during summer and winter at 8.8 and 6.4 kilometers respectively. The total affected population was estimated at approximately 30,000 people. The greater percent of injuries and death was estimated to occur in the winter and autumn, compared to summer and spring, because of greater climatic instability. The number of individuals affected by chlorine release in the spring, summer, autumn and winter at 8.3, 8.8, 7.6 and 6.4 kilometers, are estimated at 22,500, 25,000, 28,100 and 27,500, respectively. Populations located in hot and warm zones of toxic chemical releases should have access to medical resources.ConclusionsThe results showed that relevant factors impact human vulnerability, and these should be examined to mitigate the harmful consequences of chemical accidents. Establishing a multi-level Emergency Response Program is also recommended in the area under study.

Modeling the influence of urbanization on urban pluvial flooding: a scenario-based case study in Shanghai, China

Rapid urbanization has brought great productivity, prosperity and challenges to Shanghai in the last few decades. This paper focuses on the influence of urbanization on urban pluvial flooding, which frequently occurs and causes severe losses, especially in the central urban areas. We quantitatively evaluate the flood risk using scenario simulation methods. The involved scenarios were designed by incorporating two environmental variables (land subsidence and land use/land cover (LULC) change), three time points (2000, 2006 and 2012) and four degrees of rainfall magnitude, with 5-, 10-, 50- and 100-year return periods, respectively. A toolset was developed to model the hydrodynamic process of pluvial flooding in each scenario. The inundation area and average depth were selected as metrics to estimate the severity of flooding, and the corresponding F statistic and root-mean-square deviation were employed to quantify the inundation changes with the impact of all variables. Results suggest that the impacts of land subsidence and LULC change are a function of rainfall magnitude and display a spatial disparity across the entire study area. LULC change is the key factor contributing to the flood risk, which largely affects the inundation extent at a regional scale. Nonetheless, the effects of different land use types are distinctive. The inundation intensifies within industry and transportation land uses and alleviates within green space and waters. Furthermore, except for a slight change captured in the local water depth, the overall flood risk is less sensitive to the impact of land subsidence with varying rainfall magnitudes when compared to the LULC change.

Optimization of automation: III. Development of optimization method for determining automation rate in nuclear power plants

Automation has been introduced in various industries, including the nuclear field, because it is commonly believed that automation promises greater efficiency, lower workloads, and fewer operator errors through reducing operator errors and enhancing operator and system performance. However, the excessive introduction of automation has deteriorated operator performance due to the side effects of automation, which are referred to as Out-of-the-Loop (OOTL), and this is critical issue that must be resolved. Thus, in order to determine the optimal level of automation introduction that assures the best human operator performance, a quantitative method of optimizing the automation is proposed in this paper.In order to propose the optimization method for determining appropriate automation levels that enable the best human performance, the automation rate and ostracism rate, which are estimation methods that quantitatively analyze the positive and negative effects of automation, respectively, are integrated. The integration was conducted in order to derive the shortest working time through considering the concept of situation awareness recovery (SAR), which states that the automation rate with the shortest working time assures the best human performance. The process to derive the optimized automation rate is demonstrated through an emergency operation scenario-based case study. In this case study, four types of procedures are assumed through redesigning the original emergency operating procedure according to the introduced automation and ostracism levels. Using the derivation process, the optimized automation rate is estimated through integrating the automation rate and ostracism rate according to the decreasing rate of working time. The automation rate that induces the most decreased rate of working time is calculated, and it is explained that the estimated automation rate is the optimized automation rate that provides the best operator performance for the circumstances. It is expected that the proposed automation rate optimization method will be useful in introducing automation with assurance of the best human performance.

Integration of spatial analysis and an agent-based model into evacuation management for shelter assignment and routing

Evacuation planning is a complex and challenging task as it requires an integrated approach to heterogeneous spatial datasets, including population, road network and facilities. Evacuation management of emergency situations is often based on delineation of evacuation circumstances and spatial analyses of the datasets. A practical evacuation management system would be a system that provides an easy configuration to evacuation managers who may not have full knowledge of spatial analysis functionality of geographic information system (GIS) software but need to understand the emergency situation promptly and provide decisive instructions which can be fulfilled when they manage the datasets and develop new workflows in various scenarios. An agent-based simulation approach is capable of demonstrating the spatio-temporal aspect of complex dynamic systems. Spatial analysis toolkits embedded in GIS software and open-source software are utilised in order to demonstrate the feasibility of enabling users to manage spatial data and customise the spatial analysis by combining common data analysis tools to meet their requirements in evacuation planning from both spatial and temporal perspectives. This paper proposes a shelter assignment and routing strategy for evacuating households at the 2011 Brisbane flood event as a scenario-based case study. The result shows that communities located in the east and west of Brisbane are scarcely covered by existing shelters. Furthermore, an agent-based simulation for households located in the service areas of three shelters indicates that the corresponding clearance time is 50 minutes. It is envisaged that this study can assist urban planners and emergency managers in developing an effective evacuation plan for a flood disaster in Brisbane.

A Quality Model for Evaluating IoT Applications

In this paper, we focuses on suggestion to Quality model of IoT Applications which are popularly used in the characteristics defined in the quality model of IoT Applications. In order to achieve this purpose, we propose Quality model for IoT Applications. The IoT application is a complex fusion of a variety of technologies such as wireless network, embedded, sensor and connectivity. Because these technologies involves utilization and mobility in addition to quality characteristics in existing software, application of ISO 9126 is not perfect when evaluating IoT applications. It was considered to have some different views of attribute of the quality of service models in order to support convenient approach to modeling and IoT applications. We suggested new quality model for IoT applications by quality attribute in ISO 9126. The effectiveness of the quality model for evaluating IoT application through scenario-based case studies were validated. The quality model for IoT application using the IA-QM proposed in this paper it can be measured relatively accurately.

Modelling the anthropogenic impacts on fluvial flood risks in a coastal mega-city: A scenario-based case study in Shanghai, China

This paper describes a novel approach to the evaluation of anthropogenic impacts on flood risks in coastal mega-cities by incorporating three anthropogenic variables (land subsidence, urbanization and flood defence) within a scenario-based framework where numerical modelling was undertaken to quantify the risks. The evolving risks at four time points (1979, 1990, 2000 and 2009) were assessed for the Huangpu River floodplain where the city of Shanghai is located. A 2D hydrodynamic model (FloodMap-Inertial) was used to estimate the flood risks associated with each scenario. Flood events with various return periods (10-, 100- and 1000-year) were designed based on a one in 50 year flood event that occurred in Shanghai on August 1997.Results demonstrate the individual as well as the combined impacts of the three anthropogenic factors on the changing fluvial flood risks in the Huangpu River basin over the last three decades during the city's transitional economy (1979–2009). Land subsidence and urbanization were found to lead to proportionate but non-linear impact on flood risks due to their complex spatial and temporal interaction. The impacts and their sensitivity are the function of the rate and spatial distribution of each evolving factor. While the pattern of response to individual anthropogenic variables is largely expected, the combined impacts demonstrate greater spatial and temporal variation. Flood defences offer considerable benefits in reducing the total inundated areas in the Huangpu River basin over the periods considered, for all magnitude floods. This, to a large extent, alleviates the adverse impacts arising from land subsidence and urbanization.