<<20130301>>
Archived distributions can be retrieved at; <http://tinyurl.com/azg3eyl>. This archive includes a html version of this list
distribution and its MS/WORD version with its filename as
Òyear-month-date.doc.Ó You can also access all of its attachments, if any.
Francisco (Paco) Bozzano‑Barnes
<francisco@tenureecology.com>
Yaman Barlas, Ph.D. <ybarlas@boun.edu.tr>
Dennis Ramdahin <sustainable.development@yahoo.com>
Muriel Glasgow MPH <muriella@gmail.com> gow
Ms. Astrid Hogmo <astrid.hogmo@me.com>
Mr. Lars Utstol <utstol@me.com>
References:
(a)
(20120306) Possible example of mission control room of GEWS
<http://tinyurl.com/98jlacu>
(b) ÒMission Control, Built for Cities: I.B.M. Takes ÔSmarter CitiesÕ Concept
to Rio de JaneiroÓ
The New York Times, March 3, 2012
<http://tinyurl.com/87ynzkl>
(c) The Global Early Warning System (GEWS) with The Global University System (GUS): Their Use Within
ECOWAS Countries; A Priority Agenda Item of the First GEWS/GUS
Planning Workshop at School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA),
Columbia University, and The Stevens Institute of Technology (August 2, 2012)
<http://tinyurl.com/bmo9ljj>
(d) The Global Early Warning System (GEWS) with The Global University System (GUS): Their Use Within
ECOWAS Countries (October 7, 2012)
<http://tinyurl.com/bqbjh9g>
Dear Paco:
(1) Many thanks for your msg
(ATTACHMENT I below) with a very interesting New York Times article.
(2) This article is similar to the one appeared in the New York Times on March
3, 2012 (Reference (b) above), which reported the construction of the Mission
Control Room in Rio de Janeiro by IBM with US$ 16 million.
The clear difference between the two is that, as a critique for the Rio project
said, the accumulated data was ÒreactiveÓ rather than Òproactive.Ó
On the other hand, the one for the New York City (ATTACHMENT I below) is
proactive with the use of simulation models, though the project has not really
started yet.
Ideally, both approach would better be merged
together, so that the simulator/trainer with real-time data can be developed
for the sake of bureaucrats and future leaders, as we advocate with our
GEWS/GUS projects (References (c) and (d) above.)
(3) The cause-and-effect diagram below was developed by Yaman,
which may be expanded by the people of the New York UniversityÕs Center for
Urban Science and Progress.
Figure 1 <http://tinyurl.com/qvlya4>
Dear Dennis and Muriel:
(4) Many thanks for your dinner party with Paco last
night.
The New York City project Paco mentioned at that time
is the one in ATTACHMENT I below.
Dear Lars:
(5) Paco and I were very glad to have met with you
— it was very productive and fruitful discussions. I gave you a
hard copy of the New York Times article of ATTACHMENT I below.
Dear Astrid:
(6) Many, many thanks for your kind introduction of your husband. Paco and I really enjoyed talking with him this afternoon.
Lars described your large very impressive educational, national network
in Norway.
Hope to see you again in the coming April — we will have a lot things to
talk about.
Keep in touch.
Best, Tak
ATTACHMENT
I
From:
Francisco Bozzano-Barnes <paco.bozzano@gmail.com>
Subject: NYT article on pro-GEWS modelling in NYC
Date: March 1, 2013 12:03:35 PM EST
To: Takeshi Utsumi <takutsumi0@gmail.com>, Victor Lawrence <victor.lawrence@gmail.com>, "msinghi@Baharicom.Net" <msinghi@baharicom.net>, Greg Cole <gcole@gloriad.org>, Dennis Ramdahin
<sustainable.development@yahoo.com>, muriel
glasgow <muriella@gmail.com>
Dear friends,
This is a very clear simplified example of what we propose. We should contact
these people at NYU. I include in this email the url
link to the article, I have copied the article to
this email and have attached it in a word file hoping that you can all see it
this time.
Best, Paco
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/technology/nyu-center-develops-a-science-of-cities.html
pagewanted=all&_r=0
Business Day Technology
Unboxed
SimCity, for Real: Measuring an Untidy Metropolis
By STEVE LOHR
Published: February 23, 2013
THE notion of a Òscience of citiesÓ seems contradictory. Science is a realm of
grand theory and precise measurement, while cities are messy agglomerations of
people and human foible. But science is precisely the ambition of New York
UniversityÕs Center for Urban Science and Progress. Founded last
year, the center has been getting under way in recent weeks, moving into new
office space and firing off its first project proposal to the National Science
Foundation.
The centerÕs director is Steven E. Koonin, a Brooklyn
native and graduate of Stuyvesant High School, who came to N.Y.U. after a stint
in the Obama administration as the under secretary for science in the
Department of Energy. He is both a theoretical physicist and science policy expert.
The center shouldnÕt lack for intellectual rigor.
The initiative at N.Y.U. is part of a broader trend: the global drive to apply
modern sensor, computing and data-sifting technologies to urban environments,
in what has become known as Òsmart cityÓ technology. The goals are big gains in
efficiency and quality of life by using digital technology to better manage
traffic and curb the consumption of water and electricity, for example. By some
estimates, water and electricity use can be cut by 30 to 50 percent over the
course of a decade.
Cities from Stockholm to Singapore are deep into smart city projects. The
market looms as big, lucrative business for technology companies. ÒThe Smart
City movement,Ó according to a report this month from IDC, a technology
research firm, Òis emerging and growing as a significant force of innovation
and investment at all levels of government.Ó The N.Y.U. centerÕs partners
include technology companies like I.B.M., Cisco Systems and Xerox, as
well as universities and the New York City government.
City governments, like other institutions, have collected data for years to try
to become more efficient. There have been some notable achievements, like CompStat, the New York Police DepartmentÕs system for
identifying crime patterns, introduced in the mid-1990s and later widely
adopted elsewhere.
What is different today, says Dr. Koonin, is that
digital technologies — sensors, wireless communication, storage and
clever software algorithms — are advancing so rapidly that it is becoming
possible to see and measure activities in an urban environment as never before.
ÒWe can build an observatory to be able to see the pulse of the city in detail
and as a whole,Ó Dr. Koonin explains.
Dr. KooninÕs digital ÒobservatoryÓ of urban life raises
questions about privacy. He is keenly aware of that issue, and vows that the
center is engaged in science rather than surveillance. For example,
individualsÕ names or tax identification numbers would be stripped from
personal records.
The collected data, he says, will be the raw material for modeling outcomes
— say, the steps required to reduce electricity consumption in a
high-rise office building or in an individual apartment. Those modeled
predictions, he adds, can guide policy or inform citizens.
ÒIÕd like to create SimCity for real,Ó Dr. Koonin
says, referring to the classic computer simulation game.
To help, Dr. Koonin is forging partnerships with
government laboratories to tap their expertise in building complex computer
simulations, like climate models for weather prediction.
The path to SimCity will come step by step, through tackling specific projects.
The first one is a program to monitor and analyze noise. The largest single
cause of complaints to New YorkÕs 311 phone and online service is noise. It is
a quality-of-life issue, Dr. Koonin says, and one
related to health, especially when noise disrupts sleep.
The 10-member project team includes music professors, computer scientists and
graduate students. The group will use the cityÕs 311 data, but also plans to
employ wireless sensors — tiny ones outside windows, noise meters on
traffic lights and street corners, perhaps a smartphone app for crowdsourced data gathering. To inform policy choices, data
on noise limits for vehicles and muffler costs might be added to the
street-level noise readings. Then, computer simulations could predict the
likely effect of enforcement steps, charges or incentives to buy properly
working mufflers for vehicles without them.
The project, Dr. Koonin says, might also pull in data
on traffic flows, garbage pickup times and building classifications. For
example, he says, a 2 a.m. garbage pickup could be routed to a neighborhood
with little residential housing.
The hope, he says, is that a problem many people view as an inevitable, if
grating fact of urban life can be made less severe. ÒItÕs the beginning of what
we want to do,Ó he explains.
Another project on the drawing board is technology for capturing thermal images
of buildings across much of the city, as a starting point for research on
energy use.
The center will focus its research and resources on one city — New York,
as Òa living laboratory.Ó
That may give the center a leg up, since New York, under Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg, is at the forefront of using data to guide operations. In 2010, the
city even set up a team of data scientists for special projects in the mayorÕs
office.
ONE problem the team tackled was illegal conversions, landlords packing far
more people into an apartment building or house than its zoning permits. These
locations are fire hazards. Data from 19 agencies — including late tax
payments, repair permits, foreclosure records and ages of the buildings
— were mined to predict where to send the cityÕs 200 building inspectors,
who field more than 20,000 complaints a year.
Inspectors responding to complaints usually find high-risk conditions 13
percent of the time. Guided by data predictions, inspectors greatly improved
their odds when pursuing complaint reports, finding those risky conditions 70
percent of the time, says Michael P. Flowers, analytics director in the mayorÕs
office.
The city government is committed to giving the N.Y.U. center access to all its
public data. That is a rich asset not only for research, but also for its
potential to change government operations and public behavior. In many Òsmart
cityÓ projects, Òthe single biggest impact is transparency — the effect
of measurement and communicating the data,Ó observes Jonathan R. Woetzel, a director of McKinsey & Company in Shanghai,
who heads the firmÕs consulting work with cities.
Communicating effectively with data, experts say, requires skills beyond
technology. Jurij R. Paraszczak,
director of smarter cities research at I.B.M., pointed to a water-management
pilot study in Dubuque, Iowa, in which 150 households were equipped with
sensors to measure and analyze their water use. They had the data, but the
households were also grouped into teams for an informal competition. Water use
dropped by 7 percent in two months.
ÒPeople live in cities,Ó Dr. Paraszczak says. ÒSo
much of the equation is not just the data but how you encourage people to
change their behavior.Ó
The social ingredients of motivation, habit and incentives, according to Dr. Koonin, will be part of the research agenda at the N.Y.U.
center. ÒThe approach weÕre taking here is from sensors to sociologists. This
has got to be science with a social dimension.Ó
A version of this article appeared in print on February 24, 2013, on page BU3
of the New York edition with the headline: SimCity, For Real: Measuring An
Untidy Metropolis.
--
Francisco Bozzano-Barnes
Director
Tenure and Ecology LLC
(718) 433 4830
646 897 2649
www.tenureecology.com
List
of Distribution
Francisco (Paco) Bozzano‑Barnes
Director
Tenure & Ecology LLC
4705 Center Blvd., Apt 406
Long Island City, NY 11109
718-433-4830
Cel: 646-897-2649
francisco@tenureecology.com
www.tenureecology.com
Bio and photo: http://tinyurl.com/6jljtrd
CV: http://tinyurl.com/37fmf8v
Yaman Barlas, Ph.D.
Professor, Industrial Engineering Dept.
Bogazici University
34342 Bebek, Istanbul, TURKEY
Tel. +90-212-359 7073
Fax. +90-212-265 1800
ybarlas@boun.edu.tr
http://www.ie.boun.edu.tr/~barlas
SESDYN Group: http://www.ie.boun.edu.tr/labs/sesdyn/
Dennis Ramdahin
Founder, The Bihar Project
Environmental Scientist
& Sustainable Development Practitioner
Vihara Foundation
5 Dover Park Place Ballygunge Circular Road
Ballygunge, Kolkata, India 70021
Phone: 011-91-905 161 6419
E-mail: Dennis@ViharaFoundation.org
or
220 East 54th Street Suite 4J
New York, NY 10013 USA
212-826-9697
917-704-6877
Cel: 646 271 3365<<February 27, 2013>>See
his msg of today.
sustainable.development@yahoo.com
Muriel Glasgow MPH
Idea Generator,
President MG Associates, Inc
Founder, STEM Clubs for Kids
Producer, The Yakkers' Corner
212-826 9697
muriella@gmail.com
www.unitednationsyak.com
http://about.me/murielglasgow
Ms. Astrid Hogmo
Network Architect
Studiesenteret.no
Strandveien 6a
9350 Sjovegan
Norway
+47 99434031
astrid.hogmo@me.com
utstol@me.com
http://www.studiesenteret.no
Mr. Lars Utstol
utstol@me.com
Blogg: www.utstol.com
Twitter: @utstol
www.easymeeting.net
4106
IP 109.239.231.221
slΠ4106#
*******************************************************************************
Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman
GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in
the U.S.A. (GLOSAS/USA)
Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of Global University System
(GUS)
43-23 Colden Street, #9L, Flushing, NY 11355-5913, U.S.A.
Tel: 718-939-0928; Cel: 646-589-1730; Skype: utsumi
Email: takutsumi0@gmail.com,
Web: http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
U.S./IRS Employer ID: 11-2999676 <http://tinyurl.com/534gxc>
New York State Tax Exempt ID: 217837 <http://tinyurl.com/47wqbo>
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