Download or read book Which Way to Livable and Productive Cities written by Kirsten Hommann and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For African cities to grow economically as they have grown in size, they must create productive environments to attract investments, increase economic efficiency, and create livable environments that prevent urban costs from rising with increased population densification. What are the central obstacles that prevent African cities and towns from becoming sustainable engines of economic growth and prosperity? Among the most critical factors that limit the growth and livability of urban areas are land markets, investments in public infrastructure and assets, and the institutions to enable both. To unleash the potential of African cities and towns for delivering services and employment in a livable and environmentally friendly environment, a sequenced approach is needed to reform institutions and policies and to target infrastructure investments. This book lays out three foundations that need fixing to guide cities and towns throughout Sub-Saharan Africa on their way to productivity and livability.
Download or read book Africa s Power Infrastructure written by Orvika Rosnes and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa's Power Infrastructure: Investment, Integration, Efficiency is based on the most extensive data collection exercise ever undertaken on infrastructure in Africa: the Africa Country Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD). Data from this study have provided new insights on the extent of a power crisis in the region, characterized by insufficient capacity, low electricity connection rates, high costs, and poor reliabilityùand on what can be done about it. The continent faces an annual power sector financing gap of about $21 billion, with much of the existing spending channeled to maintain and operate high-cost power systems, leaving little for the huge investments needed to provide a long-term solution. Meanwhile, the power crisis is taking a heavy toll on economic growth and productivity. This book asserts that the current impediments to economic growth and development need to be tackled through policies and investment strategies that renew efforts to reform state-owned utilities, build on the lessons of private participation in infrastructure projects, retarget electrification strategies, expand regional power trade, and mobilize new funding resources. Further development of regional power trade would allow Africa to harness larger-scale and more cost-effective energy sources, reducing energy system costs by US$2 billion and carbon dioxide emissions by 70 million tons annually. But reaping the promise of regional trade depends on a handful of major exporting countries raising the large volumes of finance needed to develop generation capacity for export; it also requires a large number of importing countries to muster the requisite political will. With increased utility efficiency and regional power trade in play, power costs would fall and full cost recovery tariffs could become affordable in much of Africa. This will make utilities more creditworthy and help sustain the flow of external finance to the sector, which is essential to close the huge financing gap.
Download or read book Electricity Access in Sub Saharan Africa written by Moussa P. Blimpo and published by Africa Development Forum. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Access to reliable electricity is a prerequisite for the economic transformation of African economies, especially in a digital age. Yet the electricity access rate in Sub-Saharan African countries is often substantially low, households and businesses with access often face unreliable service, and the cost of the service is often among the highest in the world. This situation imposes substantial constraints on economic activities, provision of public services, adoption of new technologies, and quality of life. Much of the focus on how best to provide reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity service to all has been on mitigating supply-side constraints. However, demand-side constraints may be as important, if not more important. On the supply side, inadequate investments in maintenance result in high technical losses; most state-owned utilities operate at a loss; and power trade, which could significantly lower the cost of electricity, is underdeveloped. On the demand side, the uptake and willingness to pay are often low in many communities, and the consumption levels of those who are connected are limited. Increased uptake and use will encourage investment to improve service reliability and close the access gap. This report shows that the fundamental problem is poverty and lack of economic opportunities rather than power. The solution lies in understanding that the overarching reasons for the unrealized potential involve tightly intertwined technical, financial, political, and geographic factors. The ultimate goal is to enable households and business to gain access, to afford to use, and utilities to recover their cost and make profits. The report makes the case that policy makers need to adopt a more comprehensive and long-term approach to electrification in the region--one centered on the productive use of electricity at affordable rates. Such an approach includes increased public and private investment in infrastructure, expanded access to credit for new businesses, improved access to markets, and additional skills development to translate the potential of expanded and reliable electricity access into substantial economic impact. Enhancing the economic capabilities of communities is the best way to achieve faster and more sustainable development progress while addressing the broad challenges of affordability, low consumption, and financial viability of utilities, as well as ensuring equitable provision between urban and rural areas.
Download or read book Congo Basin Hydrology Climate and Biogeochemistry written by Raphael M. Tshimanga and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-03-22 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New scientific discoveries in the Congo Basin as a result of international collaborations The Congo is the world's second largest river basin and home to 120 million people. Understanding the cycling of water, sediments, and nutrients is important as the region faces climatic and anthropogenic change. Congo Basin Hydrology, Climate, and Biogeochemistry: A Foundation for the Future explores variations in and influences on rainfall, hydrology and hydraulics, and sediment and carbon dynamics. It features contributions from experts in the region and their international collaborators. Volume highlights include: New in-situ and remotely sensed measurements and model results Use of historic data to assess precipitation and hydrologic changes Exploration of water exchange between wetlands and rivers Biogeochemical processes in the Congo's forests and wetlands A scientific foundation for hydrologic resource management in the region Studies from different parts of the Congo river and its adjoining basins This book is available in English and French. The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals. Find out more about this book in this short video and this article.
Download or read book Electricity Consumption and Temperature Evidence from Satellite Data written by Jiaxiong Yao and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-02-05 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Past studies on the relationship between electricity consumption and temperature have primarily focused on individual countries. Many regions are understudied as a result of data constraint. This paper studies the relationship on a global scale, overcoming the data constraint by using grid-level night light and temperature data. Mostly generated by electricity and recorded by satellites, night light has a strong linear relationship with electricity consumption and is correlated with both its extensive and intensive margins. Using night light as a proxy for electricity consumption at the grid level, we find: (1) there is a U-shaped relationship between electricity consumption and temperature; (2) the critical point of temperature for minimum electricity consumption is around 14.6°C for the world and it is higher in urban and more industrial areas; and (3) the impact of temperature on electricity consumption is persistent. Sub-Saharan African countries, while facing a large electricity deficit already, are particularly vulnerable to climate change: a 1°C increase in temperature is estimated to increase their electricity demand by 6.7% on average.
Download or read book Open Data and Energy Analytics written by Benedetto Nastasi and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open data and policy implications coming from data-aware planning entail collection and pre- and postprocessing as operations of primary interest. Before these steps, making data available to people and their decision-makers is a crucial point. Referring to the relationship between data and energy, public administrations, governments, and research bodies are promoting the construction of reliable and robust datasets to pursue policies coherent with the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as to allow citizens to make informed choices. Energy engineers and planners must provide the simplest and most robust tools to collect, process, and analyze data in order to offer solid data-based evidence for future projections in building, district, and regional systems planning. This Special Issue aims at providing the state-of-the-art on open-energy data analytics; its availability in the different contexts, i.e., country peculiarities; and its availability at different scales, i.e., building, district, and regional for data-aware planning and policy-making. For all the aforementioned reasons, we encourage researchers to share their original works on the field of open data and energy analytics. Topics of primary interest include but are not limited to the following: 1. Open data and energy sustainability; 2. Open data science and energy planning; 3. Open science and open governance for sustainable development goals; 4. Key performance indicators of data-aware energy modelling, planning, and policy; 5. Energy, water, and sustainability database for building, district, and regional systems; 6. Best practices and case studies.
Download or read book Energy in Africa written by Manfred Hafner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book presents a picture of the current energy challenges on the African continent (and the Sub-Saharan region in particular) and proposes pathways to an accelerated energy transition. Starting with an analysis of the status quo and the outlook for Africa’s energy demand and energy access, it provides an account of the available resources, including hydrocarbons and renewable energy resources, which are playing an increasingly crucial role. It then moves on to analyze the level of investment required to scale-up Africa’s energy systems, shedding light on the key barriers and elaborating on potential solutions. It also provides a suggestion for improving the effectiveness of EU–Africa cooperation. While mainly intended for policymakers and academics, this book also speaks to a broader audience interested in gaining an overview of the challenges and opportunities of the African energy sector today and in the future.
Download or read book Use of Earth Observations for Actionable Decision Making in the Developing World written by Niall Patrick Hanan and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2021-01-13 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Handbook on Geospatial Infrastructure in Support of Census Activities written by and published by United Nations Publications. This book was released on 2009 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The handbook demonstrates how the use and application of contemporary geospatial technologies and geographical databases are beneficial at all stages of the population and housing census process.
Download or read book Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa s Infrastructure written by Raffaello Cervigni and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To sustain Africa’s growth, and accelerate the eradication of extreme poverty, investment in infrastructure is fundamental. In 2010, the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic found that to enable Africa to fill its infrastructure gap, some US$ 93 billion per year for the next decade will need to be invested. The Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), endorsed in 2012 by the continent’s Heads of State and Government, lays out an ambitious long-term plan for closing Africa’s infrastructure including trough step increases in hydroelectric power generation and water storage capacity. Much of this investment will support the construction of long-lived infrastructure (e.g. dams, power stations, irrigation canals), which may be vulnerable to changes in climatic patterns, the direction and magnitude of which remain significantly uncertain. Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa 's Infrastructure evaluates -using for the first time a single consistent methodology and the state-of-the-arte climate scenarios-, the impacts of climate change on hydro-power and irrigation expansion plans in Africa’s main rivers basins (Niger, Senegal, Volta, Congo, Nile, Zambezi, Orange); and outlines an approach to reduce climate risks through suitable adjustments to the planning and design process. The book finds that failure to integrate climate change in the planning and design of power and water infrastructure could entail, in scenarios of drying climate conditions, losses of hydropower revenues between 5% and 60% (depending on the basin); and increases in consumer expenditure for energy up to 3 times the corresponding baseline values. In in wet climate scenarios, business-as-usual infrastructure development could lead to foregone revenues in the range of 15% to 130% of the baseline, to the extent that the larger volume of precipitation is not used to expand the production of hydropower. Despite the large uncertainty on whether drier or wetter conditions will prevail in the future in Africa, the book finds that by modifying existing investment plans to explicitly handle the risk of large climate swings, can cut in half or more the cost that would accrue by building infrastructure on the basis of the climate of the past.
Download or read book Access to Modern Energy Services for Health Facilities in Resource constrained Settings written by Mikul Bhatia and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This study is a joint effort by WHO, aimed at improving quality, safety and accessibility of health services in support of universal health coverage, and The World Bank in furtherance of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)-funded activity on Defining and Measuring Access to Energy for Socio-Economic Development. The WHO inputs are drawn from two years of comprehensive review of energy use in the health sector as part of the Health in the Green Economy series, for which the preliminary findings were published in 2011 and the full report is to be published in 2015. The study also draws upon the framework for measuring energy access developed by the World Bank in consultation with partner agencies to track progress under the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative."--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Google Earth Engine Applications written by Lalit Kumar and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a rapidly changing world, there is an ever-increasing need to monitor the Earth’s resources and manage it sustainably for future generations. Earth observation from satellites is critical to provide information required for informed and timely decision making in this regard. Satellite-based earth observation has advanced rapidly over the last 50 years, and there is a plethora of satellite sensors imaging the Earth at finer spatial and spectral resolutions as well as high temporal resolutions. The amount of data available for any single location on the Earth is now at the petabyte-scale. An ever-increasing capacity and computing power is needed to handle such large datasets. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a cloud-based computing platform that was established by Google to support such data processing. This facility allows for the storage, processing and analysis of spatial data using centralized high-power computing resources, allowing scientists, researchers, hobbyists and anyone else interested in such fields to mine this data and understand the changes occurring on the Earth’s surface. This book presents research that applies the Google Earth Engine in mining, storing, retrieving and processing spatial data for a variety of applications that include vegetation monitoring, cropland mapping, ecosystem assessment, and gross primary productivity, among others. Datasets used range from coarse spatial resolution data, such as MODIS, to medium resolution datasets (Worldview -2), and the studies cover the entire globe at varying spatial and temporal scales.
Download or read book Digital Connectivity in sub Saharan Africa A Comparative Perspective written by Mr.Emre Alper and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher digital connectivity is expected to bring opportunities to leapfrog development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Experience within the region demonstrates that if there is an adequate digital infrastructure and a supportive business environment, new forms of business spring up and create jobs for the educated as well as the less educated. The paper first confirms the global digital divide through the unsupervised machine learning clustering K-means algorithm. Next, it derives a composite digital connectivity index, in the spirit of De Muro-Mazziotta-Pareto, for about 190 economies. Descriptive analysis shows that majority of SSA countries lag in digital connectivity, specifically in infrastructure, internet usage, and knowledge. Finally, using fractional logit regressions we document that better business enabling and regulatory environment, financial access, and urbanization are associated with higher digital connectivity.
Download or read book Down to Earth written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-10-24 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1992, world leaders adopted Agenda 21, the work program of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development. This landmark event provided a political foundation and action items to facilitate the global transition toward sustainable development. The international community marked the tenth anniversary of this conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2002. Down to Earth, a component of the U.S. State Department's "Geographic Information for Sustainable Development" project for the World Summit, focuses on sub-Saharan Africa with examples drawn from case-study regions where the U.S. Agency for International Development and other agencies have broad experience. Although African countries are the geographic focus of the study, the report has broader applicability. Down to Earth summarizes the importance and applicability of geographic data for sustainable development and draws on experiences in African countries to examine how future sources and applications of geographic data could provide reliable support to decision-makers as they work towards sustainable development. The committee emphasizes the potential of new technologies, such as satellite remote-sensing systems and geographic information systems, that have revolutionized data collection and analysis over the last decade.
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book Africa written by United Nations Environment Programme and published by UNEP/Earthprint. This book was released on 2008 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This stunning 400-page Atlas is a unique and powerful publication which brings to light stories of environmental change at more than 100 locations spread across every country in Africa. There are more than 300 satellite images, 300 ground photographs and 150 maps, along with informative graphs and charts that give a vivid visual portrayal of Africa and its changing environment that provide scientific evidence of the impact that natural and human activities have had on the continent's environment over the past several decades. The observations and measurements of environmental change help gauge the extent of progress made by African countries towards reaching the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. More importantly, this book contributes to the knowledge and understanding that are essential for adaptation and remediation, and should be of immense value to all those who want to know more about Africa and who care about the future of this continent.
Download or read book International Aerospace Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 1020 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
