Gravel roads are essential for economic development as they facilitate the movement of people, transportation of goods and services, and promote cultural and social development. They typically connect sparsely populated rural areas to urban centres, providing essential access for residents and entrepreneurs. Maintaining these roads to an acceptable level of service is crucial for the efficient and safe transportation of goods and services. However, substantial maintenance investmentis required, yet resources are limited. Gravel roads are prone to dust, potholes, corrugations, rutting and loose gravel. They deteriorate faster than paved roads, and their failure development is affected by traffic action and physical, geometric and climatic factors. Thus, more condition monitoring and proper road condition assessment are necessary for dynamic maintenance planning to reach efficiency and effectiveness using objective, data-driven condition assessment methods to ensure all-year-round access. However, objective data-driven methods (DDMs) are not frequently used for gravel road condition assessment, and where they have been applied, the practical implementation is limited. Instead, visual windshield assessment and manual methods are predominant. Visual assessments are unreliable and susceptible to human judgement errors, while manual methods are time-consuming and labour-intensive. Maintenance activities are predetermined despite dynamic maintenance needs, and the planning is based on historical failure data rather than the actual road condition. This thesis establishes a data-driven approach to gravel road maintenance describing the systematic assessment of the gravel road condition and collection of the condition data to ensure efficient and effective maintenance planning. This thesis uses a design research methodology based on a literature review, concept development, interview study and field experiments. A holistic approach is proposed for data-driven maintenance of gravel roads encompassing objective condition data collection, processing, analysing, and interpreting the findings for obtaining reliable information concerning the condition to gravel road decision support by utilising the opportunities presented by technological advancements, particularly sensor technology. Then, decision-making is primarily influenced by the objectively collected gravel road condition data rather than the evaluator’s perception or experience. The successful implementation of a data-driven approach depends on the quality of the collected data; therefore, data relevance and quality are emphasised in this thesis. The lack of data quality and relevance hinders effective data utilisation, leading to less precisionin decision-making and ineffective decisions. Furthermore, the thesis proposes a participatory data-driven approach for unpaved road condition monitoring, allowing road users to be part of the maintenance process and providing an efficient and effective alternative for collecting road condition data and accomplishing broad coverage at minimum cost. A top-down iiapproach for data-driven gravel road condition classification is proposed to achieve an objective assessment to address the lack of readily available quality and relevant condition data. The established data-driven approach to gravel road maintenance is evaluated and verified with field experiments on three gravel roads in Växjö municipality, Southern Sweden. The research findings indicate that properly implementing a data-driven approach to gravel road maintenance would ensure efficient and effective condition assessment and classification, which are a basis for a maintenance management system of gravel roads and enable road maintainers and authorities to achieve cost-effective decision-making. / Sustainable maintenance of gravel road

Les modèles de Rejets Urbains par Temps de Pluie (MRUTP) de Matières en Suspension (MES) dans les systèmes d’assainissement urbains sont essentiels pour des raisons scientifiques, environnementales, opérationnelles et réglementaires. Néanmoins, les MRUTP ont été largement mis en question, surtout pour reproduire des données mesurées en continu à l’exutoire des grands bassins versants. Dans cette thèse, trois limitations potentielles des MRUTP traditionnels ont été étudiées dans un bassin versant de 185 ha (Chassieu, France), avec des mesures en ligne de 365 événements pluvieux : a) incertitudes des données dû aux conditions sur le terrain, b) incertitudes dans les modèles hydrologiques et mesures de pluie et c) incertitudes dans les structures traditionnelles des MRUTP. Ces aspects sont approfondis dans six apports séparés, dont leurs résultats principaux peuvent être synthétisés comme suites : a) Acquisition et validation des données : (i) quatre stratégies d’échantillonnage pendant des événements pluvieux sont simulées et évaluées à partir de mesures en ligne de MES et débit. Les intervalles d’échantillonnage recommandés sont de 5 min, avec des erreurs moyennes entre 7 % et 20 % et des incertitudes sur ces erreurs d’environ 5 %, selon l’intervalle d’échantillonnage; (ii) la probabilité de sous-estimation de la concentration moyenne dans la section transversale du réseau est estimée à partir de deux méthodologies. Une méthodologie montre des sous-estimations de MES plus réelles (vers 39 %) par apport à l'autre (vers 269 %). b) Modèles hydrologiques et mesures de pluie : (iii) une stratégie d’estimation de paramètres d’un modèle conceptuel pluie-débit est proposée, en analysant la variabilité des paramètres optimaux obtenus à partir d’un calage Bayésien évènement-par-évènement; (iv) une méthode pour calculer les précipitations moyennes sur un bassin versant est proposée, sur la base du même modèle hydrologique et les données de débit. c) MRUTP (pollutographes) : (v) la performance de modélisation à partir du modèle traditionnel courbe d’étalonnage (RC) a été supérieur aux différents modèles linéaires de fonctions de transfert (TF), surtout en termes de parcimonie et précision des simulations. Aucune relation entre les potentielles erreurs de mesure de la pluie et les conditions hydrologiques définies en (iii) et (iv) avec les performances de RC et TFs n’a pu être établie. Des tests statistiques renforcent que l’occurrence des évènements non-représentables par RC ou TF au cours de temps suit une distribution aléatoire (indépendante de la période sèche précédente); (vi) une méthode de reconstruction Bayésienne de variables d’état virtuelles indique que des processus potentiellement manquants dans une description RC sont ininterprétables en termes d’un unique état virtuel de masse disponible dans le bassin versant qui diminue avec le temps, comme nombre de modèles traditionnels l’ont supposé. / Total Suspended Solids (TSS) stormwater models in urban drainage systems are often required for scientific, legal, environmental and operational reasons. However, these TSS stormwater traditional model structures have been widely questioned, especially when reproducing data from online measurements at the outlet of large urban catchments. In this thesis, three potential limitations of traditional TSS stormwater models are analyzed in a 185 ha urban catchment (Chassieu, Lyon, France), by means 365 rainfall events monitored online: a) uncertainties in TSS data due to field conditions; b) uncertainties in hydrological models and rainfall measurements and c) uncertainties in the stormwater quality model structures. These aspects are investigated in six separate contributions, whose principal results can be summarized as follows: a) TSS data acquisition and validation: (i) four sampling strategies during rainfall events are simulated and evaluated by online TSS and flow rate measurements. Recommended sampling time intervals are of 5 min, with average sampling errors between 7 % and 20 % and uncertainties in sampling errors of about 5 %, depending on the sampling interval; (ii) the probability of underestimating the cross section mean TSS concentration is estimated by two methodologies. One method shows more realistic TSS underestimations (about 39 %) than the other (about 269 %). b) Hydrological models and rainfall measurements: (iii) a parameter estimation strategy is proposed for conceptual rainfall-runoff model by analyzing the variability of the optimal parameters obtained by single-event Bayesian calibrations, based on clusters and graphs representations. The new strategy shows more performant results in terms of accuracy and precision in validation; (iv) a methodology aimed to calculate “mean” areal rainfall estimation is proposed, based on the same hydrological model and flow rate data. Rainfall estimations by multiplying factors over constant-length time window and rainfall zero records filled with a reverse model show the most satisfactory results compared to further rainfall estimation models. c) Stormwater TSS pollutograph modelling: (v) the modelling performance of the traditional Rating Curve (RC) model is superior to different linear Transfer Function models (TFs), especially in terms of parsimony and precision of the simulations. No relation between the rainfall corrections or hydrological conditions defined in (iii) and (iv) with performances of RC and TFs could be established. Statistical tests strengthen that the occurrence of events not representable by the RC model in time is independent of antecedent dry weather conditions; (vi) a Bayesian reconstruction method of virtual state variables indicate that potential missing processes in the RC description are hardly interpretable as a unique state of virtual available mass over the catchment decreasing over time, as assumed by a great number of traditional models.

The evolution of supply chain management has made significant and continuous contributions to logistical processes. This is highly relevant to crude oil logistics in Nigeria, because both indigenous and multinational oil companies who distribute crude oil from Nigerian ports are yet to adopt an integrated export logistics operation. Besides, the study explores the philosophy of supply chain management applying theoretic frameworks of supply chain process management, demand variability, and vertical integration to encourage integrated export logistics for the distribution of crude oil from Nigeria to China. In addition, the research objectives are: to identify the components of crude oil exports; to review the principles of integrated supply chain management; to analyse crude oil demand in China; to evaluate the efficiency of oil distribution, and to propose strategies that will raise the efficiency of crude oil exports to China from Nigeria. A conceptual model was developed to identify relevant issues that guide the synergy of China’s requirement for energy security and Nigeria’s crude oil supply capability. Also, both a Delphi survey and an archival research method’s were adopted to elucidate on the characteristics of the research population, the shipment frequencies between the two countries, and the sources of competing crude oil exports to China. Measures of central tendency from respondent feedback and non-parametric tests support the study’s findings. Furthermore, recommendations for strategic, operational, and tactical organisation of resources were identified to raise integrated crude oil export efficiency from Nigeria to China directed by the theoretic framework. Moreover, their implications for sustainable logistics practice in the short, medium, and long-term are considered. Finally, it was found that adopting vertical integration in a crude oil supply chain will ensure responsiveness to support export efficiency, and enhance the geographic characteristics of Nigeria for increased export shipments to China.

It is widely recognised that information and communication technologies development is a risky activity. Despite the advances in software engineering, many software development projects fail to satisfy the clients' needs, to deliver on time or to stay within budget. Among the various factors that are considered to cause failure, an inadequate requirements practice stands out. Model-driven development is a relatively recent paradigm with the potential to solve some of the dragging problems of software development. Models play a paramount role in model-driven development: several modelling layers allow defining views of the system under construction at different abstraction levels, and model transformations facilitate the transition from one layer to the other. However, how to effectively integrate requirements engineering within model-driven development is still an open research challenge. This thesis integrates Communication Analysis, a communication-oriented business process modelling and requirements engineering method for information systems development, and the OO Method, an object-oriented model-driven software development method provides automatic software generation from conceptual models. We first provide a detailed specification of Communication Analysis intended to facilitate the integration; among other improvements to the method, we build an ontology-based set of concept definitions in which to ground the method, we provide precise methodological guidelines, we create a metamodel for the modelling languages included in the method, and we provide tools to support the creation of Communication Analysis requirements models. Then we perform the integration by providing a technique to systematically derive OO-Method conceptual models from Communication Analysis requirements models. The derivation technique is offered in two flavours: a set of rules to be manually applied by a human analyst, and an ATL model transformation that automates this task. / España Cubillo, S. (2011). METHODOLOGICAL INTEGRATION OF COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS INTO A MODEL-DRIVEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/14572 / Palancia

Business organisations today are faced with the complex problem of dealing with evolution in their software information systems. This effectively concerns the accommodation and facilitation of change, in terms of both changing user requirements and changing technological requirements. An approach that uses the software development life-cycle as a vehicle to study the problem of evolution is adopted. This involves the stages of requirements analysis, system specification, design, implementation, and finally operation and maintenance. The problem of evolution is one requiring proactive as well as reactive solutions for any given application domain. Measuring evolvability in conceptual models and the specification of changing requirements are considered. However, even "best designs" are limited in dealing with unanticipated evolution, and require implementation phase paradigms that can facilitate an evolution correctly (semantic integrity), efficiently (minimal disruption of services) and consistently (all affected parts are consistent following the change). These are also discussed / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

A Phenomenological Analysis of Emergent Design is performed based on the foundations of General Schemas Theory. The concept of Sign Engineering is explored in terms of Hermeneutics, Dialectics, and Ontology in order to define Emergent Systems and Meta-systems Engineering based on the concept of Meta-dialectics. Phenomenology, Ontology, Hermeneutics, and Dialectics will dominate our inquiry into the nature of the Emergent Design of the System and its inverse dual, the Meta-system. This is an speculative dissertation that attempts to produce a philosophical, mathematical, and theoretical view of the nature of Systems Engineering Design. Emergent System Design, i.e., the design of yet unheard of and/or hitherto non-existent Systems and Meta-systems is the focus. This study is a frontal assault on the hard problem of explaining how Engineering produces new things, rather than a repetition or reordering of concepts that already exist. In this work the philosophies of E. Husserl, A. Gurwitsch, M. Heidegger, J. Derrida, G. Deleuze, A. Badiou, G. Hegel, I. Kant and other Continental Philosophers are brought to bear on different aspects of how new technological systems come into existence through the midwifery of Systems Engineering. Sign Engineering is singled out as the most important aspect of Systems Engineering. We will build on the work of Pieter Wisse and extend his theory of Sign Engineering to define Meta-dialectics in the form of Quadralectics and then Pentalectics . Along the way the various ontological levels of Being are explored in conjunction with the discovery that the Quadralectic is related to the possibility of design primarily at the Third Meta-level of Being, called Hyper Being. Design Process is dependent upon the emergent possibilities that appear in Hyper Being. Hyper Being, termed by Heidegger as Being (Being crossed-out) and termed by Derrida as Differance, also appears as the widest space within the Design Field at the third meta-level of Being and therefore provides the most leverage that is needed to produce emergent effects. Hyper Being is where possibilities appear within our worldview. Possibility is necessary for emergent events to occur. Hyper Being possibilities are extended by Wild Being propensities to allow the embodiment of new things. We discuss how this philosophical background relates to meta-methods such as the Gurevich Abstract State Machine and the Wisse Metapattern methods, as well as real-time architectural design methods as described in the Integral Software Engineering Methodology . One aim of this research is to find the foundation for extending the ISEM methodology to become a general purpose Systems Design Methodology. Our purpose is also to bring these philosophical considerations into the practical realm by examining P. Bourdieu?s ideas on the relationship between theoretical and practical reason and M. de Certeau?s ideas on practice. The relationship between design and implementation is seen in terms of the Set/Mass conceptual opposition. General Schemas Theory is used as a way of critiquing the dependence of Set based mathematics as a basis for Design. The dissertation delineates a new foundation for Systems Engineering as Emergent Engineering based on General Schemas Theory, and provides an advanced theory of Design based on the understanding of the meta-levels of Being, particularly focusing upon the relationship between Hyper Being and Wild Being in the context of Pure and Process Being.

Mit der stetigen Konsolidierung der Web Service Standards vollzieht sich in der Diskussion zu serviceorientierten Architekturen ein Wechsel weg von der Implementierung und dem Deployment von Services hin zum Service Management. Die Indikatoren: Anzahl der Standardisierungsanfragen und die Menge großer Forschungsprogramme in diesem Bereich sind evident für einen wachsenden Bedarf an Managementmethoden für die Abbildung von Geschäftsanforderungen auf Servicekompositionen. Die Verwendung von semiformalen Modellen sowie die verteilte Entwicklung von SOA Services machen eine an Konventionen orientierte konstruktive Einschränkung der Freiheitsgrade bei der Prozess- und Servicemodellierung notwendig. In dieser Arbeit wird eine generische Methode vorgestellt, welche durch die Einführung von „Beschreibungsrahmen“ (Description Kits) sowohl eine Einschränkung der Modellierungsfreiheit in Bezug auf natürlichsprachliche Aspekte in fachkonzeptuellen Modellen erlaubt, als auch eine restriktive Benutzung bestehender Modellierungssprachen ermöglicht. Als Anwendungsfall wird die Konfiguration serviceorientierter Architekturen diskutiert. - (Die Dissertation ist veröffentlicht im Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, http://www.logos-verlag.de, ISBN: 978-3-8325-2402-9) / With Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) companies are facing a paradigm shift towards services as the key unit of their enterprise architectures. An exploitation of the potential of Service-oriented Architectures is up to the applicability of semi-formal business models for a transformation into service compositions. However, several conceptual shortcomings prevent semi-formal models from being a suitable resource of an automated transformation process. Problems result from a multitude of modeling aims, objects, and procedures. Enhancements in order to solve these problems require both systematic preparation, and a methodical approach. This thesis provides a modeling method for business process-oriented SOA design using a meta-model based approach. An integrated modeling environment gives an overview of business requirements and allows appropriate assignment of SOA services to the business functions at the same time. The research refers to the example of process-oriented analysis and optimization of administrative procedures in German universities.

The thesis describes a model of electromagnetic pulses from sources between 100MHz and 100GHz for use in the development of Knowledge-Based systems. Each pulse, including its modulations, is described as would be seen by a definable receiving system. The model has been validated against a range of Knowledge-Based systems including a neural network, a Learning systems and an Expert system.

Business organisations today are faced with the complex problem of dealing with evolution in their software information systems. This effectively concerns the accommodation and facilitation of change, in terms of both changing user requirements and changing technological requirements. An approach that uses the software development life-cycle as a vehicle to study the problem of evolution is adopted. This involves the stages of requirements analysis, system specification, design, implementation, and finally operation and maintenance. The problem of evolution is one requiring proactive as well as reactive solutions for any given application domain. Measuring evolvability in conceptual models and the specification of changing requirements are considered. However, even "best designs" are limited in dealing with unanticipated evolution, and require implementation phase paradigms that can facilitate an evolution correctly (semantic integrity), efficiently (minimal disruption of services) and consistently (all affected parts are consistent following the change). These are also discussed / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Mit der stetigen Konsolidierung der Web Service Standards vollzieht sich in der Diskussion zu serviceorientierten Architekturen ein Wechsel weg von der Implementierung und dem Deployment von Services hin zum Service Management. Die Indikatoren: Anzahl der Standardisierungsanfragen und die Menge großer Forschungsprogramme in diesem Bereich sind evident für einen wachsenden Bedarf an Managementmethoden für die Abbildung von Geschäftsanforderungen auf Servicekompositionen. Die Verwendung von semiformalen Modellen sowie die verteilte Entwicklung von SOA Services machen eine an Konventionen orientierte konstruktive Einschränkung der Freiheitsgrade bei der Prozess- und Servicemodellierung notwendig. In dieser Arbeit wird eine generische Methode vorgestellt, welche durch die Einführung von „Beschreibungsrahmen“ (Description Kits) sowohl eine Einschränkung der Modellierungsfreiheit in Bezug auf natürlichsprachliche Aspekte in fachkonzeptuellen Modellen erlaubt, als auch eine restriktive Benutzung bestehender Modellierungssprachen ermöglicht. Als Anwendungsfall wird die Konfiguration serviceorientierter Architekturen diskutiert. - (Die Dissertation ist veröffentlicht im Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, http://www.logos-verlag.de, ISBN: 978-3-8325-2402-9) / With Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) companies are facing a paradigm shift towards services as the key unit of their enterprise architectures. An exploitation of the potential of Service-oriented Architectures is up to the applicability of semi-formal business models for a transformation into service compositions. However, several conceptual shortcomings prevent semi-formal models from being a suitable resource of an automated transformation process. Problems result from a multitude of modeling aims, objects, and procedures. Enhancements in order to solve these problems require both systematic preparation, and a methodical approach. This thesis provides a modeling method for business process-oriented SOA design using a meta-model based approach. An integrated modeling environment gives an overview of business requirements and allows appropriate assignment of SOA services to the business functions at the same time. The research refers to the example of process-oriented analysis and optimization of administrative procedures in German universities.