Au cours de ces dernières décennies, le développement de Systèmes Mobiles de Cartographie, soutenu par un progrès technologique important, est devenu plus apparent. Il a été stimulé par le besoin grandissant de collecte d'informations géographiques précises sur l'environnement. Nous considérons, au sein de cette thèse, des solutions pour l'acquisition des nuages de points mobiles de qualité topographique (précision centimétrique). Il s'agit, dans cette tâche, de mettre au point des méthodes de qualification des données, et d'en améliorer sur les erreurs systématiques par des techniques d'étalonnage et de recalage adéquates.Nous décrivons une démarche innovante d'évaluation de l'exactitude et/ou de la précision des relevés laser mobiles. Celle-ci repose sur l'extraction et la comparaison des entités linéaires de la scène urbaine. La distance moyenne calculée entre les segments appariés, étant la distance modifiée de Hausdorff, sert à noter les nuages par rapport à des références existantes. Pour l'extraction des arêtes, nous proposons une méthode de détection d'intersections entre segments plans retrouvés via un algorithme de RANSAC enrichi d'une analyse de composantes connexes. Nous envisageons également une démarche de correction de relevés laser mobiles à travers un recalage rigide fondé, lui aussi, sur les éléments linéaires. Enfin, nous étudions la pertinence des segments pour en déduire les paramètres de l'étalonnage extrinsèque du système mobile. Nous testons nos méthodes sur des données simulées et des données réelles acquises dans le cadre du projet TerraMobilita. / Over the past few decades, the development of land-based Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS), supported by significant technological progress, has become more prominent. It has been motivated by the growing need for precise geographic information about the environment. In this thesis, we consider approaches for the acquisition of mobile point clouds with topographic quality (centimeter-level accuracy). The aim is to develop techniques for data quality assessment and improvement. In particular, we eliminate the systematic errors inherent to an MMS data using appropriate calibration and registration methods.We describe a novel approach to assess the accuracy and/or the precision of mobile laser point clouds. It is based on the extraction and comparison of line features detected within the urban scene. The computed average distance between corresponding pairs of line segments, taking advantage of a modified Hausdorff distance, is used to evaluate the MMS data with respect to a reference data set. For edge extraction, we propose a method which relies on the intersections between planes modelled via the RANSAC algorithm refined by an analysis of connected components. We also consider an approach to correct point clouds using a line-based rigid registration method. Finally, we study the use of line segments for estimating the boresight angles of a land-based mobile mapping system. We apply our methods to synthetic data and to real data acquired as part of the TerraMobilita project.

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The original Yukpa are an indigenous community who have inhabited the lands of the Sierra de Perij a (mountain range of Perij a) in Venezuela since prehistoric times. The sovereignty of the Yukpa on their ancestral territories was protected from non-indigenous people until the arrival of Spanish Capuchin missionaries during the seventeenth century. The presence of the Capuchin missionaries furthered the entrance of non-indigenous people, who explored the area and discovered the fertility of the soil and a rich variety of natural resources. In the 1930s, ranch owners started the progressive occupation of Yukpas' ancestral lands, taking advantage of the Venezuelan government's indi erence to indigenous communities. The Yukpa started to resist the ranch owners. In retaliation, ranch owners responded with violence to intimidate and expel the Yukpa from what they claimed to be their property. The Yukpa have also been harassed by insurgent Colombian groups and drug dealers, who nd the Sierra de Perij a an ideal place to cultivate marijuana and opium poppy owers. To avoid the violence in the Sierra de Perij a, a signi cant number of Yukpa moved during the eighties to the city of Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela. These displaced Yukpa have settled in lots located in the vicinities of the Hospital General del Sur, in Maracaibo, where they continue to live. For many indigenous communities, land and culture are interdependent. Land represents for many indigenous people their origin and continuity. Some authors claim that the forced displacement to areas distinct from their place of origin may disrupt the continuity of traditions which are the essence of their culture (Maybury-Lewis 2001:31; UNESCO 2009:207). This study examines ethnographically the Yukpa settled in Maracaibo in order to identify the extent to which the involuntary displacement from their ancestral territories has a ected their autochthonous land-based culture. Furthermore, this study provides a biographic pro le of the Yukpa settled in Maracaibo along with a discussion of their current needs, and some recommendations for further studies / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

La demande croissante pour l’alimentation, l’énergie et les ressources naturelles, combinée à la limitation des ressources et à la libéralisation du commerce sont parmi les facteurs ayant entrainé une nouvelle « ruée sur les terres agricoles » observée depuis quelques années. Alors que certains ont exprimé des inquiétudes sur les implications potentielles de ces projets sur les droits et les moyens de subsistance des populations rurales des pays en développement, d’autres ont souligné le potentiel de ces opportunités dans la lutte pour la sécurité alimentaire et le développement rural que constituait ces annonces d’investissements dans un secteur longtemps négligé. Cette thèse interroge la complexité économique, institutionnelle et sociale des investissements fonciers à grande échelle et leur capacité à engendrer des restructurations agraires et un changement du modèle de développement agricole au Mozambique. En raison de leur fort taux d’échec et des difficultés d’implantation des projets, il apparait que les investissements fonciers à grande échelle n’ont pas entrainé une rupture dans les structures agraires locales marquée par un changement des caractéristiques des exploitations majoritairement productrices dans le secteur agricole national. En revanche, l’intérêt des investisseurs étrangers tend à influencer les autorités nationales vers une réactivation du modèle de développement agricole qui prévalait après l’Indépendance, c’est-à-dire un secteur agricole dual avec des agriculteurs familiaux marginalisés d’une part et des exploitations agricoles à grande échelle établies avec des investissements étrangers de l’autre. Ainsi, non seulement la grande majorité des agriculteurs familiaux ne bénéficient pas de la dynamique actuelle de projets d’investissement, mais les politiques agricoles et foncières et les mesures de soutien tendent à se détourner d’eux au profit de la facilitation des investissements à grande échelle. Nos résultats remettent en cause la capacité des projets actuels à enclencher une trajectoire de développement agricole capable de répondre aux défis des économies africaines. / The growing demand for food, energy and natural resources, combined with the limited stock of natural resources available and the process of trade liberalization are among the factors that have triggered a new rush for land observed in the last years. Despite an extensive literature, most analyses of large scale land based investment are politically and ideologically anchored, reflecting strong opposing stances. On one hand, some have expressed some concerns on the potential implications of these projects on peasants’ land rights and livelihood. On the other hand, some other researchers have argued that these projects should be seen as opportunities in the struggle for food security and rural development. This thesis questions the economic, social and institutional complexity of large scale land based investment including their differentiated evolutionary dynamics and implications in terms of agricultural development and agrarian change in Mozambique. Because of a high failure rate and difficulties to establish the production structures, it appears that large scale land based investments haven’t led to a shift from small scale farming to large scale farming as the main farming organization in Mozambique. However, the rising interest of foreign investors tend to influence national authorities in rehabilitating the post-Independence agricultural development model, which was characterized by a dual system composed of marginalized subsistence farmers on one hand and foreign owned large scale farms. So, not only do smallholders benefit little from present agricultural investment dynamics, but also agricultural policies and support measures tend to shift away from the former towards the facilitation of large-scale investment. Our results questions the capacity of actual large scale land based investments to trigger a trajectory of agricultural development able to meet African economies challenges.

This essay is about the tactical basic principles as they are mentioned in the Swedish Doctrine for land based operations (2005) and the German side during the battle of Verdun 1916. The purpose of this essay is to clarify whether the used doctrine is appropriate to use on future attrition battles.         This is done by a case study of the German side during the battle ofVerdun. In this case study indicators of the basic principles are then identified and analysed with the starting point at the two questions that the essay is based around.  The essay starts with an introduction where above is attended, in the second part the basic principles, the background to the battle and the battle itself is described. Finally the tactical basic principles are analysed and discussed based on the questions that the essay is based on. In the analysis and the discussion the conclusion is drawn that the tactical basic principles were present on the German side during the battle of Verdun and that they are of a general character and may be applied on both attrition warfare of 1916 and modern battles of attrition. / Denna uppsats avhandlar de taktiska grundprinciperna som de står angivna i Doktrin för markoperationer (2005) och tysk sida under slaget vid Verdun 1916. Syftet med detta är att utröna om doktrinen gällande de taktiska grundprinciperna är generell nog för att tillämpa på ett framtida utnötningsslag. Detta har utförts genom en fallstudie av den tyska sidan under slaget vid Verdun. I denna fallstudie har sedan indikatorer på de taktiska grundprinciperna identifierats, analyserats och diskuterats utifrån de två frågor arbetet utgår ifrån. Arbetet är indelat i en inledning där ovanstående behandlas, en avhandling där de taktiska grundprinciperna och slaget beskrivs. Därefter analyseras slaget utifrån grundprinciperna och slutligen besvaras och diskuteras frågorna. I analysen framgår det att alla de taktiska grundprinciperna som de anges i Doktrin för markoperationer förekom på tysk sida under slaget vid Verdun. Dessa är generella och är aktuella både idag och 1916.

The original Yukpa are an indigenous community who have inhabited the lands of the Sierra de Perij a (mountain range of Perij a) in Venezuela since prehistoric times. The sovereignty of the Yukpa on their ancestral territories was protected from non-indigenous people until the arrival of Spanish Capuchin missionaries during the seventeenth century. The presence of the Capuchin missionaries furthered the entrance of non-indigenous people, who explored the area and discovered the fertility of the soil and a rich variety of natural resources. In the 1930s, ranch owners started the progressive occupation of Yukpas' ancestral lands, taking advantage of the Venezuelan government's indi erence to indigenous communities. The Yukpa started to resist the ranch owners. In retaliation, ranch owners responded with violence to intimidate and expel the Yukpa from what they claimed to be their property. The Yukpa have also been harassed by insurgent Colombian groups and drug dealers, who nd the Sierra de Perij a an ideal place to cultivate marijuana and opium poppy owers. To avoid the violence in the Sierra de Perij a, a signi cant number of Yukpa moved during the eighties to the city of Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela. These displaced Yukpa have settled in lots located in the vicinities of the Hospital General del Sur, in Maracaibo, where they continue to live. For many indigenous communities, land and culture are interdependent. Land represents for many indigenous people their origin and continuity. Some authors claim that the forced displacement to areas distinct from their place of origin may disrupt the continuity of traditions which are the essence of their culture (Maybury-Lewis 2001:31; UNESCO 2009:207). This study examines ethnographically the Yukpa settled in Maracaibo in order to identify the extent to which the involuntary displacement from their ancestral territories has a ected their autochthonous land-based culture. Furthermore, this study provides a biographic pro le of the Yukpa settled in Maracaibo along with a discussion of their current needs, and some recommendations for further studies / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

Co-operation between states is a necessity to be able to handle environmental issues in the Baltic Sea area, since these are transboundary problems. Two organisations that deal with environmental issues in this region are HELCOM and Baltic 21. The aim has been to study how the problem of pollution from diffuse land-based sources, especially agriculture, has been dealt with through these organisations, to look upon the roles of and the relationship between HELCOM and Baltic 21 and to study the possibilities and the difficulties in the practical co-operation. The study holds a Swedish perspective, as Swedish representatives with connections to the HELCOM and Baltic 21 processes have been interviewed. The analysis shows that the EU is becoming increasingly important as an actor in the Baltic Sea co-operation, which makes the future roles of HELCOM and Baltic 21 uncertain. Concerning the difficulties of the work, aspects mentioned were cultural differences, group problems and lack of resources. To improve the work some proposals made by the interviewees were to use the experiences from different projects and to increase the resources.

Written from a nuučaan̓uł perspective this dissertation documents the reclamation of knowledge, teachings, culture, language, responsibilities, and identity through my personal (re)connection to my family’s ḥaḥuułi and hereditary home, čaačaac̓iiʕas. In specific and intentional ways my research, fieldwork, and dissertation are part of a story of reconciliation between myself and čaačaac̓iiʕas, the ḥaḥuułi that my family was dispossessed from because of the impacts of colonization. Despite the near severing of our relationship with čaačaac̓iiʕas and the near destruction of our ḥaḥuułi, čaačaac̓iiʕas is thriving and now is the time to pick up my responsibilities and begin to re-establish a relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds found there. In my research the lands, waters, skies, and natural world are not a place and/or object of inquiry, they are non-human knowledge holders and teachers. The dissertation draws upon on a diverse set of ethnographic, anthropological, and Indigenous literatures. Emphasis is placed upon the use of nuučaan̓uł scholarship, theory, and methodologies including muułmuumps (being rooted to the land), ceremony, language, song, and interviews. The research builds on four kinds of knowledge that are expressed as: 1) known knowledge; 2) incomplete knowledge; 3) unaccounted for and/or unknown knowledge; and, 4) ethnographic/anthropological knowledge. Through this theoretical platform I explore tangible and intangible cultural and hereditary forms of knowledge production. Importantly, I highlight the role of song and sound as critical vehicles through which contemporary Indigenous peoples can connect to historical places and times. I place equal emphasis on the production of sound through song as I do through the reception of song and sound through a methodology of deep listening. Song and sound play a crucial role in my research and form the basis of knowledge transfer between myself, čaačaac̓iiʕas, and my yakʷiimit kʷiyiis nananiqsu (ancestors). Furthermore, the songs shared within this dissertation are the analysis of my data and how I am choosing to disseminate that data. I argue that these connections provide ways for future agendas and aspirations for cultural resurgence and governance to emerge. / Graduate

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The Surface Combat Systems Center (SCSC), Wallops Island, Virginia is a combination of personnel, geography, airspace, and technology located on a barrier island off Virginia's Eastern Shore. First opened in 1985 as a US Navy, AEGIS Land-Based Test Site (LBTS), SCSC has grown to include the Ship Self Defense (SSD), and DD(X) combat system facilities to the site. SCSC is chartered to support computer program development, life cycle and in-service engineering, team training, and research, development, test, and evaluation services while adapting to evolution of US Naval combatants and emerging requirements. The purpose of this document is to present an analysis of existing US Navy shipboard and land-based organization business practices and apply them to the existing SCSC command organization. The objective is to combine US Navy transformation concepts and SCSC planning concepts to provide the documentation needed to support the development of new strategic business plans for the command. The goal is to provide a long-term strategy to transform SCSC into the US Navy's East Coast Weapons Range Facility or otherwise named, the Wallops Island Test and Evaluation Range Facility (WITERF), while maintaining its synergy as a LBTS for research, development, testing and evaluation of naval combat systems. / Civilian, United States Navy

Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / Soil erosion, which is a critical component of land degradation, is one of the serious global environmental problems often threatening food security, water resources, and biodiversity. A comprehensive assessment and analysis of remote sensing applications in the spatial soil erosion mapping and monitoring over time and space is therefore, important for providing effective management and rehabilitation approaches at local, national and regional scales. The overall aim of the study was to assess the use of multispectral remote sensing sensors in mapping and monitoring the spatio-temporal variations in levels of soil erosion in the former homelands of Sekhukhune district, South Africa. Firstly, the effectiveness of the new and freely available moderate-resolution multispectral remote sensing data (Landsat 8 Operation Land Imager: OLI and Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument: MSI) derived spectral bands, vegetation indices, and a combination of spectral bands and vegetation indices in mapping the spatio-temporal variation of soil erosion in the former homelands of Sekhukhune District, South Africa is compared. The study further determines the most optimal individual sensor variables that can accurately map soil erosion. The results showed that the integration of spectral bands and spectral vegetation indices yielded high soil erosion overall classification accuracies for both sensors. Sentinel-2 data produced an OA of 83, 81% whereas Landsat 8 has an OA of 82.86%. The study further established that Sentinel-2 MSI bands located in the NIR (0.785-0.900 μm), red edge (0.698-0.785μm) and SWIR (1.565-2.280 μm) regions were the most optimal for discriminating degraded soils from other land cover types. For Landsat 8 OLI, only the SWIR (1.560-2.300 μm), NIR (0.845-0.885 μm) region were selected as the best regions. Of the eighteen spectral vegetation indices computed, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and Global Environmental Monitoring Index (GEMI) were selected as the most suitable for detecting and mapping soil erosion. Secondly, the study assessed soil erosion in the former homelands of Sekhukhune, South Africa by applying a time-series analysis (2002 and 2017), to track changes of areas affected by varying degrees of erosion. Specifically, the study assessed and mapped changes of eroded areas (wet and dry season), using multi-date Landsat products 8 OLI and 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+)). Additionally, the study used extracted eroded areas and overlay analysis was performed together with geology, slope and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) of the area under study to assess whether and to what extent the observed erosional trends can be explained. ii Time series analysis indicated that the dry season of 2002, experienced 16.61 % (224733 ha) of erosion whereas in 2017 19.71% was observed. A similar trend was also observed in the wet season. This work also indicates that the dominant geology type Lebowa granite: and Rustenburg layered its lithology strata experienced more erosional disturbances than other geological types. Slopes between 2-5% (Nearly level) experienced more erosion and vice-versa. On the hand, the relationship between TWI and eroded areas showed that much erosion occurred between 3 and 6 TWI values in all the seasons for the two different years, however, the dry season of 2002 had a slightly higher relationship and vice-versa. We, therefore, recommend use and integration of freely and readily available new and free generation broadband sensors, such as Landsat data and environmental variables if soil erosion has to be well documented for purposes of effective soil rehabilitation and conservation. Keywords: Food security Global changes, Land degradation, Land-based ecosystems, Land management practices, Satellite data, Soil conservation, Sustainable Development; Topographic Wetness Index; Time series analysis.