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This study aims at constructing the simulation system of distribution patterns of solar irradiance, sunshine duration and sky factor with the user-friendly interface and sharing this system with users on the Internet. The characteristics of this simulation system are as follows: (1) Web-based user interface, (2) Accessible system through the Internet and (3) Sunlight and skylight simulation based on physically accurate equations with considering various sky conditions and the reflection from the surface of objects. As a case study, impact of the development plans are analyzed and evaluated using this system. Solar irradiance, sunshine duration and sky factor are calculated at the surface of the buildings and open spaces every 10 minutes from 8 to 16 on the winter solstice. The values of these indices are expressed as the ratio to those calculated under the condition with no buildings. In conclusion, this web-based simulation system can be useful for visualizing the sunlight and skylight conditions on outdoor open spaces and the surface of the buildings to evaluate development plans objectively. Users can make access to the system from almost all of the computers connected with the Internet and modify parameters by themselves to get desirable results. Further improvement of the user interface is necessary using more advanced technology of CGI, Java and JavaScript.
Why isn't Google welcome in Kreuzberg? Social movement and the effects of Internet on urban space
(2020)
Advances in information and communication technologies such as the Internet have driven a great transformation in the interactions between individuals and the urban environment. As the use of the Internet in cities becomes more intense and diverse, there is also a restructuring of urban space, which is experienced by groups in society in various ways, according to the specificity of each context. Accordingly, large Internet companies have emerged as new players in the processes of urbanization, either through partnerships with the public administration or through various services offered directly to urban residents. Once these corporations are key actors in the digitalization of urban services, their operations can affect the patterns of urban inequality and generate a series of new struggles over the production of space. Interested in analyzing this phenomena from the perspective of civil society, the present Master Thesis examined a social movement that prevented Google to settle a new startup campus in the district of Kreuzberg, in Berlin. By asking why Google was not welcome in that context, this study also sought to understand how internet, as well as its main operators, has affected everyday life in the city. Thus, besides analyzing the movement, I investigated the particularities of the urban context where it arose and the elements that distinguish the mobilization’s opponent. In pursuit of an interdisciplinary approach, I analyzed and discussed the results of empirical research in dialogue with critical theories in the fields of urban studies and the Internet, with emphasis on Castells' definitions of urban social movements and network society (1983, 2009, 2015), Couldry's and Mejias' (2019) idea of data colonialism, Lefèbvre's (1991, 1996) concepts of abstract space and the right to the city, as well as Zuboff's (2019) theory of surveillance capitalism. The case at hand has exposed that Google plays a prominent role in the way the Internet has been developed and deployed in cities. From the perspective accessed, the current appropriation of Internet technologies has been detrimental to individual autonomy and has contributed to intensifying existing inequalities in the city. The alternative vision to this relies mainly on the promotion of decentralized solidarity networks.
The availability of the WWW technology and the introduction of the Internet as basic resource like water, electricity or gas changes dramatically normal live, business and of course civil engineering. New technologies enable innovative technical solutions and offer new potential for improvements towards support of humans nature appropriate ways of working. This demands a new culture of work and collaboration. To contribute to theses challenges is a matter the discipline 'Bauinformatik' by supporting related research, development, education and training in civil engineering. This contribution to the IKM Conference 2000 in Weimar sketches selected research and education activities of the institutes of the authors on the topics of WWW based simulation systems (example WEASEL) and of WWW based project platforms (projects MorWin and TaiGer as well as an European education experiment). Both topics supports the collaboration by new ways of tele cooperation in international, heterogeneous and interdisciplinary engineering. Demonstration from this developments and projects will be used to illustrate the dimension of changes in civil engineering in due to modern ICT.