Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Urban trees reduce nutrient leaching to groundwater

Many urban waterways suffer from excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) feeding algal blooms, which cause lower water clarity and oxygen levels, bad odor and taste, and the loss of desirable species. Nutrient movement from land to water is likely to be influenced by urban vegetation, but there are few empirical studies addressing this. In this study, we examined whether or not urban trees can reduce nutrient leaching to groundwater, an important nutrient export pathway that has received less attention than stormwater. We characterized leaching beneath thirty-three trees of fourteen species, and seven open turfgrass areas, across three city parks in Saint Paul, Minnesota. We installed lysimeters at 60 cm depth to collect soil water approximately biweekly from July 2011 through October 2013, except during winter and drought periods, measured dissolved organic carbon (C), N, and P in soil water, and modeled water fluxes using the BROOK90 hydrologic model. We also measured soil nutrient pools (bulk C and N, KCl-extractable inorganic N, Brays-P), tree tissue nutrient concentrations (C, N, and P of green leaves, leaf litter, and roots), and canopy size parameters (leaf biomass, leaf area index) to explore correlations with nutrient leaching. Trees had similar or lower N leaching than turfgrass in 2012 but higher N leaching in 2013; trees reduced P leaching compared with turfgrass in both 2012 and 2013, with lower leaching under deciduous than evergreen trees. Scaling up our measurements to an urban subwatershed of the Mississippi River (~17,400 ha, containing roughly 1.5 million trees), we estimated that trees reduced P leaching to groundwater by 533 kg in 2012 (0.031 kg/ha or 3.1 kg/km2) and 1201 kg in 2013 (0.069 kg/ha or 6.9 kg/km2). Removing these same amounts of P using stormwater infrastructure would cost $2.2 million and $5.0 million per year (2012 and 2013 removal amounts, respectively).

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Assessing the contributions of intraspecific and environmental sources of infection in urban wildlife: Salmonella enterica and white ibis as a case study

Conversion of natural habitats into urban landscapes can expose wildlife to novel pathogens and alter pathogen transmission pathways. Because transmission is difficult to quantify for many wildlife pathogens, mathematical models paired with field observations can help select among competing transmission pathways that might operate in urban landscapes. Here we develop a mathematical model for the enteric bacteria Salmonella enterica in urban-foraging white ibis (Eudocimus albus) in south Florida as a case study to determine (i) the relative importance of contact-based versus environmental transmission among ibis and (ii) whether transmission can be supported by ibis alone or requires external sources of infection. We use biannual field prevalence data to restrict model outputs generated from a Latin hypercube sample of parameter space and select among competing transmission scenarios. We find the most support for transmission from environmental uptake rather than between-host contact and that ibis–ibis transmission alone could maintain low infection prevalence. Our analysis provides the first parameter estimates for Salmonella shedding and uptake in a wild bird and provides a key starting point for predicting how ibis response to urbanization alters their exposure to a multi-host zoonotic enteric pathogen. More broadly, our study provides an analytical roadmap to assess transmission pathways of multi-host wildlife pathogens in the face of scarce infection data.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2015View details →

Received Signal Srength (RSS) urban measurements from GSM and UMTS networks for cellular-based positioning

GSM (2G) and UMTS (3G) urban measurement data for cellular-based positioning. The data has been collected in Tampere city, Finland with a mobile phone with proprietary software. The data is given in Matlab *mat format and it contains a cell variable called BS_grid* which shows the GPS coordinates (x,y,z) (converted in local coordinates, in meter values) and the collected RSS value (in dB) per transmitter (i.e., BS or Node B). Each cell contains a N x 4 matrix, whose rows are [x y z RSS]. N is the number of measurements points in which the corresponding Base Station were heard. The size of the BS_grid* cells is equal to the number of heard Base Stations in the measured area. Example of research results based on these measurements can be found for example in: <ul> <li>H. Nurminen, J. Talvitie, S. Ali-Loytty, P. Muller, E.S. Lohan, R. Piche, M. Renfors, "Statistical path loss parameter estimation and positioning using RSS measurements", Journal of Global Positioning Systems, vol. 12(1), 2013, ISSN 1446-3156.</li> </ul>

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2024View details →

Dataset and full R script used in the data analysis of the paper "Overlooked and undervalued: Peripheral pollinators in an urban network"

Dataset and full R script used in the data analysis of the paper "Overlooked and undervalued: Peripheral pollinators in an urban network". Summary: Since insect pollinators are essential for their ecological and agricultural roles, their conservation should be a priority, particularly in the remnant green spaces within highly urbanised cities. To gain insight into the occurrence of interactions between plants and often overlooked pollinators, and into their requirements for persistence over time in urban green spaces, we studied flower visitor diversity associated with a remnant of native vegetation in Cordoba (Argentina), one of the largest cities in South America. We recorded 198 insect species from six orders (Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Thysanoptera, and Hemiptera) interacting with the flowers of 94 plant species. The plant-pollinator interaction network was significantly modular, with 178 pollinators playing a peripheral role (i.e., it has a few links inside its own module and rarely any to other modules). We focused on the life history traits of these peripheral pollinators, which are often neglected in ecological studies. We classified their requirements to complete the life cycle and to persist over time into three broad categories: floral rewards, places to reproduce, and additional resources for food and nests. The life cycle requirements of peripheral pollinators differ significantly across insect orders. Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera have distinct life history requirements while Diptera and Coleoptera overlap in resource use. The three life history categories highlight how pollinators displayed different foraging behaviour, reproductive strategies of immature and adult stages, and the requirement of additional food resources used by larvae and adults beyond flower rewards to complete their life cycles. Knowledge about the requirements of neglected pollinators is a benchmark that can help to identify where efforts need to be made to conserve and maintain their biodiversity, even in small urban green spaces.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Urban Redevelopment by Census Tract in New York City (2000 -2020)

The annual urban redevelopment map for NYC was produced using the classification method proposed in this experiment to highlight the spatial and temporal distribution of urban reconstructions. The time-series gentrification risk maps illustrate areas that have faced gentrification risk since 2000. The data was aggregated to the Census tract level for displaying a visually friendly result. The raw building-level data is also provided.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2023View details →

Twin test 1: Effect of vegetation on urban flows. PIV data from NTUA WT experiment and LDV from KIT WT experiment

The first Twin Test (TW1) of the TWEET-IE project (<a href="http://www.tweet-ie.eu">www.tweet-ie.eu</a>) involved measurements of the flow past a surface mounted cube with openings, representing a building exposed to an atmospheric boundary layer. Tests were performed for smooth building walls but also with modelled vegetation covering the windward façade and the roof of the building. The measurements were performed both at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), in wind tunnels, at common locations around the building. Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) was used at KIT and Particle Image Velocimetry (2C-2D and 3C-2D PIV) at NTUA. In the present data set shows the effect of vegetation on the flow velocities and a comparison of the twin wind tunnel measurements.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2023View details →

Zebra finches increase social behavior in traffic noise: implications for urban songbirds

Statistical code & datasets for "Zebra finches increase social behavior in traffic noise: implications for urban songbirds" manuscript submitted to Acta ethologica. Also includes audio file for traffic noise playback in described experiment.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2023View details →

An urban traffic dataset composed of visible images and their semantic segmentation generated by the CARLA simulator

If you use this dataset please cite this paper: Rosende, S.B.; Gavilán, D.S.J.; Fernández-Andrés, J.; Sánchez-Soriano, J. An Urban Traffic Dataset Composed of Visible Images and Their Semantic Segmentation Generated by the CARLA Simulator. Data 2024, 9, 4. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/data9010004">https://doi.org/10.3390/data9010004</a> A dataset of aerial urban traffic images and their semantic segmentation is presented to be used to train computer vision algorithms, among which those based on convolutional neural networks stand out. The images have been generated using the CARLA simulator (but would be like those that could be obtained with fixed aerial cameras or by using AUVs) in the field of intelligent transportation management. The presented dataset is available and accessible to improve the performance of vision and road traffic management systems, especially for the detection of incorrect or dangerous maneuvers.

Wildland-Urban Interface maps for the Polish Carpathians for 1860s, 1970s and 2013

The dataset contains three (1860s, 1970s, 2013) detailed Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) maps of the Polish Carpathians, including information on building density. The maps, available in the form of 10m raster GeoTIFF files, are based on the WUI definition of US Federal Register (USDA and USDI, 2001) as operationalized by (Radeloff et al., 2005), which distinguishes two kinds of WUI: intermix, where housing intermingle with wildland vegetation, and interface, where settlement abuts the wildland areas. Either WUI type requires a housing density higher than 6.17 houses/km2 (1 house/40 acres in the US context). In intermix WUI, there has to be also > 50% wildland vegetation, while the interface WUI, has < 50% wildland vegetation but is within 2.4 km of a wildland vegetation patch larger > 5 km2. Given the ecological context of the Polish Carpathians, we defined wildland vegetation as forests, because forests are the climax vegetation type below the treeline. To assess settlements, we analysed all buildings locations (residential and non-residential), because all buildings reflect human activities. The building density and forest cover share were calculated by using a 500m circular moving window algorithm.Acknowledgements The study was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, contract no. UMO-2019/35/D/HS4/00117 and by the NASA Land Use and Land Cover Change Program.

Fig. 4 in Changes In The Structure Of Nest Complexes Of The Red Wood Ants Formica Rufa And F. Polyctena (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) In Urban Forests

Fig. 4. Degradation of the Formica rufa complex No. 1 (Feofaniya) in terms of average height (4, A) and diameter (4, B) under conditions of intensive construction and recreation; 4, С, D — diameter and height near the nest complex of F. polyctena No. 4 (surroundings of the Observatory), under conditions of felling of the shrub layer and processing of fallen trunks and branches into wood chips.

Figure 4 in Changes In The Structure Of Nest Complexes Of The Red Wood Ants Formica Rufa And F. Polyctena (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) In Urban Forests

Figure 4 shows the degradation trends for the nest complexes of F. rufa No. 1 (4, A, B), F. polyctena No. 4 (4, C, D). For F. rufa No. 1, there was a sharp decrease in the average diameter of anthills in 2014, and on the contrary, an increase since 2015 (fig. 4, A). In 2016, this indicator remained at approximately the same level, and in 2021 it decreased again. In 2022, this nest complex

Fig. 1 in Changes In The Structure Of Nest Complexes Of The Red Wood Ants Formica Rufa And F. Polyctena (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) In Urban Forests

Fig. 1. Location of nest complexes of Formica rufa (diamonds), F. polyctena (triangles) on the territory of the city of Kyiv (Ukraine). The city limits are marked by a red line, the forest areas by dark grey. The numbers correspond to the serial number of each complex.

Urban Soundscapes of the World

The Urban Soundscapes of the World database currently contains about 130 high-quality audiovisual recordings performed within 9 cities worldwide. The csv and json files contain the recording locations. Each recording consists of a 360-degree video file (4096 x 2048 resolution, 30 fps), a 4-channel first-order ambisonics (ACN/SN3D) audio file and/or a binaural audio file. All audio files have a sample rate of 48 kHz and are 24-bit PCM encoded. All audio and video files are time-synchronized.Recordings are made during the day, in favorable weather conditions with little to no wind. Note that the recordings always present a snapshot in time. Combined and simultaneous audio and video recordings are performed using a portable, stationary recording setup as shown on the picture. The setup consists of the following components (from top to bottom):<ul><li>First order ambisonics: Core Sound TetraMic with windshield and Tascam DR-680 MkII 4-channel recording device;</li><li>360-degree video camera: GoPro Omni spherical camera system (only available upon request).</li><li>Binaural audio: HEAD acoustics HSU III.2 artificial head with windshield and SQobold 2-channel recording device;</li></ul>The ears of the artificial head, the video camera system and the ambisonics microphone are located at heights of about 1.5m, 1.7m and 1.9m, respectively. At each location, the recording system is oriented towards the most important sound source and/or the most prominent visual scene—this orientation defines the initial frontal viewing direction for the 360-degree video and ambisonics recordings, and the fixed orientation for the binaural recordings.All audio files are calibrated to the same reference, so once you have your playback setup calibrated, it can be used to play all files. The csv and json file contains the one-minute LAeq values of the binaural recordings (average of left and right channel and left and right channels separately). These values are the most representative for the LAeq at the location. The second column presents the LAeq of the mono mix (superposition) of both left and right channels of the binaural recording. Note that this is not necessarily the same as the (energetic) average of the LAeq's of both left and right channels separately, because both channels are to some degree correlated (depending on the diffuseness of the sound field). This explains why the (energetic) average of the third and fourth column will not always exactly correspond to the value in the second column, but the difference is usually small. Roughly speaking, the larger the difference, the more the sound at both ears is correlated.More details on the recording setup and protocol can be found in our <a href="http://urban-soundscapes.org/publications/">publications</a>. Note that some publications contain LAeq values that were calculated from the ambisonics recordings (W channel). There is not really a standard way of calculating LAeq values from ambisonics recordings, so these are maybe less suitable to use in most cases.

UCLARIS – urban thermo-hygrometric gridded dataset for Iasi city, Romania

<h4>This dataset contains 6 daily gridded climate variables derived from the measurements made during 10 years at 11 screen-level monitoring points for air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH), distributed over the city of Iași, a medium-sized city in north-eastern Romania. Additionally, T and RH data from 3 air quality monitoring points of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [1], and from the single National Meteorological Administration (NMA) official weather station of Iasi were used. The monitoring points cover the entire urban area of Iasi, sampling the most important local climate zones inside the city. The data were firstly quality controlled and homogenized using the CLIMATOL package [2], and afterwards the spatial distribution was obtained through residual kriging  method with the digital elevation model (DEM) as predictor [3]. </h4>Climate variables: Maximum air temperature – Tmax; Mean air temperature – Tavg; Minimum air temperature - Tmin; Maximum relative humidity - RHmax; Mean relative humidity - RHavg; Minimum relative humidity – RHmin. Spatial extent: from 27.44167 to 27.84167 °E and 47.05833 to 47.25833 °NTemporal resolution: daily Temporal coverage: 2013/01/01 – 2022/12/31Spatial resolution: 0.008°File format: netCDF, CF-1.4-compliant format using netCDF4 compressionCoordinate system: WGS 84 (EPSG: 4326)Other Institutions: National Meteorological Administration of Romania, Environmental Protection Agency of RomaniaAcknowledgement: This work was supported by a grant of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2021-0882, within PNCDI III.References:[1] https://www.calitateaer.ro/[2] Guijaro, J., 2023. Package "Climatol", CRAN, https://climatol.eu/[3] European Digital Elevation Model (https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub/datahubitem-view/d08852bc-7b5f-4835-a776-08362e2fbf4b)

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2023View details →

Species‑specific influence of powdery mildew mycelium on the efficiency of PM accumulation by urban greenery - Data

Dataset of article: Przybysz, A., Nawrocki, A., Mirzwa-Mróz, E. et al. Species-specific influence of powdery mildew mycelium on the efficiency of PM accumulation by urban greenery. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28371-6

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2023View details →

Data for: Assessing hydrology, biogeochemistry and organic micropollutants in an urban stream-aquifer system: an interdisciplinary dataset

Accompanying data for data article "Assessing hydrology, biogeochemistry and organic micropollutants in an urban stream-aquifer system: a comprehensive dataset" of Popp et al., JGR:Biogeosciences. In this repository, all data described in Table 1 of the manuscript can be found, except for the data already published by Popp et al., 2020, ES&T, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b05393. These data can be freely accessed in ERIC (Eawag Research Data Institutional Collection): doi.org/10.25678/0001JD.  Data are structured the following way: 1_logger-data: time series of logger data (water temperature, water levels, electrical conductivity and pH [the latter only for the stream]) obtained at the stream Chriesbach and piezometers P1 and P4; 2_tracer-data: time series of nutrients, ions, and other tracer data obtained at the stream Chriesbach, the piezometers (P1, P4, P5) and the regional groundwater well (reg-gw);   3_micropollutant_data: time series of organic micropolluntants obtained at the stream Chriesbach, P1, P4, P5 and the regional groundwater well (reg-gw); 4_R-script: R script used for statistical analysis and to create the plots shown in the manuscript. Units, estimated uncertainties or other measures of uncertainty such as limits of quantification are provided in the respective files. Each subfolder contains its own readme file with relevant metadata.  Coordinates (WGS84):         Location    Latitude    Longitude Stream logger monitoring    47.404613    8.6113 Stream sampling    47.404459    8.607777 Piezometer 1 (P1)    47.4044    8.6080 Piezometer 4 (P4)    47.4044    8.6078 Piezometer 5 (P5)    47.404392    8.607619 Regional groundwater    47.40501    8.60822

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Genomic footprints of (pre) colonialism: Population declines in urban and forest túngara frogs coincident with historical human activity

Urbanisation is rapidly altering ecosystems, leading to profound biodiversity loss. To mitigate these effects, we need a better understanding of how urbanisation impacts dispersal and reproduction. Two contrasting population demographic models have been proposed that predict that urbanisation either promotes (facilitation model) or constrains (fragmentation model) gene flow and genetic diversity. Which of these models prevails likely depends on the strength of selection on specific phenotypic traits that influence dispersal, survival, or reproduction. Here, we a priori examined the genomic impact of urbanisation on the Neotropical túngara frog (Engystomops pustulosus), a species known to adapt its reproductive traits to urban selective pressures. Using whole-genome resequencing for multiple urban and forest populations we examined genomic diversity, population connectivity and demographic history. Contrary to both the fragmentation and facilitation models, urban populations did not exhibit substantial changes in genomic diversity or differentiation compared to forest populations, and genomic variation was best explained by geographic distance rather than environmental factors. Adopting an a posteriori approach, we additionally found both urban and forest populations to have undergone population declines. The timing of these declines appears to coincide with extensive human activity around the Panama Canal during the last few centuries rather than recent urbanisation. Our study highlights the long-lasting legacy of past anthropogenic disturbances in the genome and the importance of considering the historical context in urban evolution studies as anthropogenic effects may be extensive and impact non-urban areas on both recent and older timescales.

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Patterns in bird and pollinator occupancy and richness in a mosaic of urban office parks across scales and seasons

Urbanization is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, yet cities can provide resources required by many species throughout the year. In recognition of this, cities around the world are adopting strategies to increase biodiversity. These efforts would benefit from a robust understanding of how natural and enhanced features in urbanized areas influence various taxa. We explored seasonal and spatial patterns in occupancy and taxonomic richness of birds and pollinators among office parks in Santa Clara County, California, USA, where natural features and commercial landscaping have generated variation in conditions across scales. We surveyed birds and insect pollinators, estimated multi-species occupancy and species richness, and found that spatial scale, season, and urban sensitivity were all important for understanding how communities occupied sites. Features at the landscape- and local-scale (i.e., distance to streams or baylands and tree canopy, shrub, or impervious cover, respectively) were the strongest predictors of avian occupancy in all seasons. The pollinator richness index was influenced by local tree canopy and impervious cover in spring, and distance to baylands in early and late summer. We predicted relative contributions of different spatial scales to annual bird species richness by assigning values to simulated sites representing "good" and "poor" quality, based on influential covariates returned by models. Shifting from poor to good quality conditions locally increased annual avian richness by up to 6.8 species with no predicted effect of the quality of the neighborhood. Conversely, sites of poor local- and neighborhood-scale quality in good quality landscapes were predicted to harbor 11.5 more species than sites of good local- and neighborhood-scale quality in poor quality landscapes. Finally, more urban sensitive bird species were gained at good quality sites relative to urban tolerant species, suggesting that urban natural features at the local- and landscape-scales disproportionately benefited them.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2024View details →

Large Urban Regions of the world

This database provides the construction of Large Urban Regions (LUR) in the world. A Large Urban Region (LUR) can be defined as an aggregation of continuous statistical units around a core that are economically dependent on this core and linked to it by economic and social strong interdependences. The main purpose of this delineation is to make cities comparable on the national and world scales and to make comparative social-economic urban studies. Aggregating different municipal districts around a core city, we construct a single large urban region, which allows to include all the areas of economic influence of a core into one statistical unit (see Rozenblat, 2020 or Rogov & Rozenblat, 2020 for Russia). In doing so we use four principal urban concepts (Pumain et al., 1992): local administrative units (Municipality or localities: MUNI), morphological urban area (MUA), functional urban area (FUA), and conurbation that we call Large Urban Region (LUR). The LURs are the spatial extensions of the influence of one or several FUAs or MUAs. MUAs and FUAs are defined by various national or international sources. We implemented LURs using criteria such as the population distribution among one or several MUAs or FUAs, road networks, access to an airport, distance from a core, and presence of multinational firms. FUAs and MUAs perimeters, if they form a part of a LUR, belong to a unique LUR. In this database, we provide the composition of the LURs in terms of local administrative units (MUNI), Morphological Urban Areas (MUA), and Functional Urban Areas (FUA). This last update provides new LURs for the 54 African Countries (see Rogromel & Rozenblat, 2024) and some corrections for China. It includes now 1'828 LURs composed of 130'283 localities.