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BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has asked unprecedented questions of governments around the world. Policy responses have disrupted usual patterns of movement in society, locally and globally, with resultant impacts on national economies and human well-being. These interventions have primarily centred on enforcing lockdowns and introducing social distancing recommendations, leading to questions of trust and competency around the role of institutions and the administrative apparatus of state. This study demonstrates the unequal societal impacts in population movement during a national ‘lockdown’.MethodsWe use nationwide mobile phone movement data to quantify the effect of an enforced lockdown on population mobility by neighbourhood deprivation using an ecological study design. We then derive a mobility index using anonymised aggregated population counts for each neighbourhood (2253 Census Statistical Areas; mean population n=2086) of national hourly mobile phone location data (7.45 million records, 1 March 2020–20 July 2020) for New Zealand (NZ).ResultsCurtailing movement has highlighted and exacerbated underlying social and spatial inequalities. Our analysis reveals the unequal movements during ‘lockdown’ by neighbourhood socioeconomic status in NZ.ConclusionIn understanding inequalities in neighbourhood movements, we are contributing critical new evidence to the policy debate about the impact(s) and efficacy of national, regional or local lockdowns which have sparked such controversy.

Due to the suburbanisation process, it is becoming more difficult to properly define rural and urban areas in the Czech Republic. This delimitation problem has been intensively studied in Europe, including the Czech Republic, for decades, but only so-called 'crisp' rules have been set for the categorisation of urban and rural. This is no longer satisfactory because of substantial population movements. Our research focuses on applying fuzzy set theory to the delimitation of rural and urban areas and on the subsequent advanced cartographic visualisation. We used the principles of fuzzy regulation, or fuzzy inference systems, on socio-economic data to show the transitional character of municipalities. The generated Main map is at scale of 1:500,000, whereas secondary maps are at scale of 1:2,500,000. Map visualisation of municipalities in the Czech Republic provides a very unique combination of geographical information science, cartography and modern geo-computational methods. Information perception via a map is an adequate way to analyse geographic information, and the problem of delimiting rural and urban areas can be suitably visualised using these methods.

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Geodetic measurements and monitoring are traditional methods of the observation of landslides, and slope movements processes in general. The precision of measurements is usually an important task, as well as the expended amount of time and money are important. It is not necessary to reach sub-centimetre precision in case of the regular monitoring of shallow landslide due to the effort to the evaluation of the whole landslide body. Unmanned aerial vehicles provide the great improvement in the efficiency of the process, and they also broaden possibilities in the visualization while the accuracy is still preserved on the suitable level. The contribution aims to present the current observation of shallow landslide, which has been monitored for 6 years using geodetic measurements. Recently, the conventional surveying activities are complemented by the photogrammetric methods (Drone Pixy or Hexacopter), which allows not only the monitoring of selected measuring points but also the complex monitoring and precise evaluation of the general shape of the landslide body.

Crisis mapping is a legitimate component of both crisis informatics and disaster risk management. It has become an effective tool for humanitarian workers, especially after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Ushahidi is among the many mapping platforms on offer in the growing field of crisis mapping, and involves the application of crowdsourcing to create online and interactive maps of areas in turmoil. This paper presents the Crisis Map of the Czech Republic, which is the first such instrument to be deployed nationwide in Central Europe. It describes the methodologies used in the preparatory work phase and details some practices identified during the creation and actual employment of the map. In addition, the paper assesses its structure and technological architecture, as well as its potential possible development in the future. Lastly, it evaluates the utilisation of the Crisis Map during the floods in the Czech Republic in 2013.

Background Accounting for the co-occurrence of multiple environmental influences is a more accurate reflection of population exposure than considering isolated influences, aiding in understanding the complex interactions between environments, behaviour and health. This study examines how environmental ‘goods’ such as green spaces and environmental ‘bads’ such as alcohol outlets co-occur to develop a nationwide area-level healthy location index (HLI) for New Zealand. Methods Nationwide data were collected, processed, and geocoded on a comprehensive range of environmental exposures. Health-constraining ‘bads’ were represented by: (i) fast-food outlets, (ii) takeaway outlets, (iii) dairy outlets and convenience stores, (iv) alcohol outlets, (v) and gaming venues. Health-promoting ‘goods’ were represented by: (i) green spaces, (ii) blue spaces, (iii) physical activity facilities, (iv) fruit and vegetable outlets, and (v) supermarkets. The HLI was developed based on ranked access to environmental domains. The HLI was then used to investigate socio-spatial patterning by area-level deprivation and rural/urban classification. Results Results showed environmental ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ co-occurred together and were patterned by area-level deprivation. The novel HLI shows that the most deprived areas of New Zealand often have the most environmental ‘bads’ and less access to environmental ‘goods’. Conclusions The index, that is now publicly available, is able to capture both inter-regional and local variations in accessibility to health-promoting and health-constraining environments and their combination. Results in this study further reinforce the need to embrace the multidimensional nature of neighbourhood and place not only when designing health-promoting places, but also when studying the effect of existing built environments on population health.

Since 1965 when the fuzzy logic and fuzzy algebra were introduced by Lotfi Zadeh, the fuzzy theory successfully found its applications in the wide range of subject fields. This is mainly due to its ability to process various data, including vague or uncertain data, and provide results that are suitable for the decision making. This paper aims to provide comprehensive overview of literature on fuzzy control systems used for the management of the road traffic flow at road junctions. Several theoretical approaches from basic fuzzy models from the late 1970s to most recent combinations of real-time data with fuzzy inference system and genetic algorithms are mentioned and discussed throughout the paper. In most cases, fuzzy logic controllers provide considerable improvements in the efficiency of traffic junctions’ management.