•A novel data-driven regionalization modeling framework for PUB is proposed.•The DTW-KMeans technique is suitable for catchment classification.•Matching model complexity and number of training ...catchments can improve performance.•Catchment similarity plays a crucial role on regionalization modeling.
Streamflow prediction in ungauged catchments is a challenging task in hydrological studies. Recently, data-driven models have demonstrated their superiority over traditional hydrological models in predicting streamflow in ungauged catchments. However, previous studies have overlooked the similarities between the training and the target catchments. Therefore, this study explores the role of catchment similarity in regionalization modeling using the publicly available CAMELS dataset. We employed the dynamic time warping-based KMeans (DTW-KMeans) time-series clustering technique to cluster the streamflow data from gauged catchments. We utilized the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network to construct regional models for different classes of gauged catchment. Additionally, the mapping relationship between gauged catchment classes and static attributes was established using the random forest (RF). By combining the trained RF model with the static attributes of an ungauged catchment, we determined its class and used the corresponding regional LSTM to predict streamflow. To evaluate the effectiveness of the framework, we applied the classification-based regionalization modeling (CRM) and non-classification-based regionalization modeling (NRM) approach for comparison. The results indicate that: (1) The DTW-KMeans-based catchment classification method is generally accurate and reasonable; (2) the complexity of the LSTM model and the number of training catchments should be appropriately matched to improve streamflow prediction; and (3) catchment similarity plays a crucial role in regionalization modeling, the proportion of training catchments with high similarity to ungauged catchments significantly affects prediction results.
Rapid advancement in the field of pediatric surgery has resulted in unprecedented opportunities to advance the care of children. However, assuring that the highest quality, most appropriate care is ...available to all pediatric patients remains challenging. Regionalization of care has been proposed as a means of obtaining this critical goal. In this review, we discuss the ethical challenges associated with regionalization of pediatric surgical care.
Regionalization of pediatric surgical care is associated with improved patient outcomes. Over half of pediatric surgeons favor regionalization of care. Despite these findings, regionalization of care may be associated with inequitable distribution of resources, financial and emotional burdens for patients and families, and surgeon dissatisfaction and technical decline.
Regionalization of pediatric surgical care is fraught with complex ethical issues. Development of a system of pediatric surgery networks may offer a solution to these challenges.
This paper presents a high-resolution quantitative phytoclimatic map of Europe (PME). Ecological studies and landscape planning need quantitative and reproducible tools to assess the environment and ...to define land based ecological units characterized by spatial and temporal boundaries. At small scales, Phytoclimatic maps seem appropriate to fulfill such requisites because climate determines broad ecosystem type and distribution. PME is based on Defaut’s system of phytoclimatic stages (DSPS). DSPS relies on a combination of mean annual temperature, mean temperature of the warmest month, thermal continentality and the Qn2 aridity/humidity index. Boundaries of phytoclimatic stages are defined by zonal phytosociological syntaxa. PME was developed by GIS processing, by kriging interpolation of phytoclimatic temperature classes, aridity/moisture and thermal continentality of 1113 climatological stations. PME shows fifty different phytoclimatic stages. Distribution and coverage of such stages and their main plant formations are described and discussed. PME was compared to the Map of the Natural Vegetation of Europe (MNVE) by Kappa analysis. Good agreement was found between PME and MNVE, but as expected, PME and MNVE do not match perfectly. Major circumstances that could lead to discordance between the two maps are discussed. In conclusion, it is felt that PME, thanks to its reliability and relative simplicity could be a useful and robust tool in ecological analysis and environment assessment, as well as in climate change studies, and for educational purposes.
The article explores the scope of use and the level of terminological and conceptual maturity of “Central Europe” in the post-war Soviet academic discourse. While there is a current in the ...international debate examining the notion in substance, an investigation of its usage in distinct academic languages can help to render the discussion more practice-oriented. The present work is based on a review of authoritative sources of the period, such as encyclopediae and academic dictionaries as well as publications of prominent Soviet scholars in the disciplines where the notion found its application (geography, history, etc.). The influence of foreign publications and the tendency to employ “Central Europe” as a schematic mental placement for distinct phenomena are found pivotal for the term development. The article contributes to the attempts of delimiting the region, through evincing shared understandings of and around it, and looking into the continuity between the Soviet and the post-Soviet perspectives.
We provide a map and shapefile of the 57 biogeographic provinces of the Neotropical region. Recognition of these provinces is based on their endemic species, but their delimitation on the map is ...based on ecoregions combining climatic, geological, and biotic criteria. These provinces belong to the Antillean, Brazilian and Chacoan subregions, and the Mexican and South American transition zones. We provide a vector file of the biogeographical regionalization by converting the map into a polygon shapefile and a raster file with all provinces.
The requirements for hydrological models have increased considerably during the previous decades to cope with the resolution of extensive remotely sensed data sets and a number of demanding ...applications. Existing models exhibit deficiencies such as overparameterization, the lack of an effective technique to integrate the spatial heterogeneity of physiographic characteristics, and the nontransferability of parameters across scales and locations. A multiscale parameter regionalization (MPR) technique is proposed as a way to address these issues simultaneously. Using this technique, parameters at a coarser scale, in which the dominant hydrological processes are represented, are linked with their corresponding ones at a finer resolution in which input data sets are available. The linkage is done with upscaling operators such as the harmonic mean, among others. Parameters at the finer scale are regionalized through nonlinear transfer functions which link basin predictors with global parameters to be determined through calibration. MPR was compared with a standard regionalization (SR) method in which basin predictors instead of model parameters are first aggregated. Both methods were tested in a basin located in Germany using a distributed hydrologic model. Results indicate that MPR is superior to SR in many respects, especially if global parameters are transferred from coarser to finer scales. Furthermore, MPR, as opposed to SR, preserves the spatial variability of state variables and conserves the mass balance with respect to a control scale. Cross‐validation tests indicate that the transferability of the global parameters to ungauged locations is possible.
Aquatic ecological regionalization and aquatic ecological function regionalization are the basis of water environmental management of a river basin and rational utilization of an aquatic ecosystem, ...and have been studied in China for more than ten years. Regarding the common problems in this field, the relationship between aquatic ecological regionalization and aquatic ecological function regionalization was discussed in this study by systematic analysis of the aquatic ecological zoning and the types of aquatic ecological function. Based on the dual tree structure, we put forward the RFCH process and the diamond conceptual model. Taking Liaohe River basin as an example and referring to the results of existing regionalization studies, we classified the aquatic ecological function regions based on three-class aquatic ecological regionalization. This study provided a process framework for aquatic ecological function regionalization of a river basin.
Regionalization techniques group spatial areas into a set of homogeneous regions to analyze and draw conclusions about spatial phenomena. A recent regionalization problem, called MP-regions, groups ...spatial areas to produce a maximum number of regions by enforcing a user-defined constraint at the regional level. MP-regions problem is NP-hard. Existing approximate algorithms for MP-regions do not scale for large datasets due to their high computational cost and inherently centralized approaches to process data. This paper introduces a parallel scalable regionalization framework (PAGE) to support MP-regions on large datasets. The proposed framework works on two stages. The first stage finds an initial solution through randomized search, and the second stage improves this solution through efficient heuristic search. To build an initial solution efficiently, we extend traditional spatial partitioning techniques to enable parallelized region building without violating the spatial constraints. Furthermore, we optimize the region building efficiency and quality by tuning the randomized area selection to trade-off runtime with region homogeneity. The experimental evaluation shows the superiority of our framework to support an order of magnitude larger datasets efficiently compared to the state-of-the-art techniques while producing high-quality solutions.
This paper analyses the observed spatiotemporal characteristics of drought phenomenon in Syria using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration ...Index (SPEI). Temporal variability of drought is calculated for various time scales (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24months) for 20 weather stations over the 1961–2012 period. The spatial patterns of drought were identified by applying a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the SPI and SPEI values at different time scales. The results revealed three heterogeneous and spatially well-defined regions with different temporal evolution of droughts: 1) Northeastern (inland desert); 2) Southern (mountainous landscape); 3) Northwestern (Mediterranean coast). The evolutionary characteristics of drought during 1961–2012 were analysed including spatial and temporal variability of SPI and SPEI, the frequency distribution, and the drought duration. The results of the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test applied to the SPI and SPEI series indicate prevailing significant negative trends (drought) at all stations. Both drought indices have been correlated both on spatial and temporal scales and they are highly comparable, especially, over a 12 and 24month accumulation period. We concluded that the temporal and spatial characteristics of the SPI and SPEI can be used for developing a drought intensity - areal extent - and frequency curve that assesses the variability of regional droughts in Syria. The analysis of both indices suggests that all three regions had a severe drought in the 1990s, which had never been observed before in the country. Furthermore, the 2007–2010 drought was the driest period in the instrumental record, happening just before the onset of the recent conflict in Syria.
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•Few studies have been performed about this topic in this area which is one of the most sensitive areas to climate change.•Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) have been applied.•The area has been divided into three heterogeneous and spatially regions using the Principle Component Analysis (PCA).•The study explains the severe drought periods in Syria over last decades which contributed to the outbreak of civil war.
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