Jascha Grübel

Tag: Cornerstone Course

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 5: Digital Society – Big Data

    Digital Society is a very elastic phrase. We will explore three examples: Network Neutrality Privacy and Surveillance Big Data All are focused on how technology changes society. It is a contested topic on whether the impact is positive or negative. Issues are at the intersection of information and communications technologies and society, law, and public…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 5: Digital Society – Privacy and Surveillance

    Digital Society is a very elastic phrase. We will explore three examples: Network Neutrality Privacy and Surveillance Big Data All are focused on how technology changes society. It is a contested topic on whether the impact is positive or negative. Issues are at the intersection of information and communications technologies and society, law, and public…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 5: Digital Society – Network Neutrality

    Digital Society is a very elastic phrase. We will explore three examples: Network Neutrality Privacy and Surveillance Big Data All are focused on how technology changes society. It is a contested topic on whether the impact is positive or negative. Issues are at the intersection of information and communications technologies and society, law, and public…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 4: Omitted

    For personal reasons I did not join the 4th day of the cornerstone course. Some notes may be added at a later point in time.

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Urbanisation II

    This entry will deal with urbanisation is from the view of UN Habitat and all numbers come from them. 4 billion people (54% of people) live in urban areas. Of those 1 billion live in Informal Settlements (or slums) where basic services and tenure security are lacking. However, cities account for 80% of GDP. Urbanisation…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Urbanisation I

    There is a claim that more 50% of humankind live in cities. This claim, however, is wrong. The reason is that a city and an urban environment is not the same and the correct description would be that more than 50% live in urban environments. This differentiation has a huge impact, Caracas, Mexico City and…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Water quality

    Water has many exotic physical properties: surface tension, transparency in green and blue wavelengths (allows photosynthesis), protection from wavelengths shorter than UV light (high biodiversity). Surface water however looses lots of biodivserty (76% in freshwater, 39% in seawater). The physiological water cycle in humans consist of 5 litres of blood that transport sugars, amino acids…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Water use case study

    A case study about the Zambezi river basin. There a several big flood planes (wetlands each the size of Switzerland). It also includes Lake Malawi and there are 2 large dams (colonial heritage) for energy generation. Half of the basin is highland above 1000m, the other half falls towards the sea. Temperature is constant up…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 3: International Water Resources

    Water resources are unevenly distributed. Less than 10 countries have 60% of the world’s available fresh water. Water stress appears when there is not enough renewable water to replace the withdrawal. Conventionally, 40% of withdrawal of the available yearly resources is considered to be the threshold for water stress. Climate change and population change increase…

  • Cornerstone Course – Day 2: Climate Change II

    Climate Change History: Emission trends are not disputed any more. However, they can be viewed in different lights. Either emissions include production emission (i.e. are counted at the end user), or emission are only counted where and when they happen (i.e. caunted locally when they happen). Policy-wise the focus increased beyond mitigation to include adaptation.…