Farmers in one of Europe’s most water-stressed regions would be willing to pay double the current amount for irrigation water in order to ensure a reliable supply, new research from Spain suggests. The study also shows that they appear unsupportive of new policies proposed by the researchers, such as water markets and tighter controls on groundwater pumping, which could help enable a guaranteed supply of water.

Unusually warm or cool Pacific sea surface temperatures, known as El Niño and La Niña, can be used to reliably predict anomalies in flood risk for river basins that cover 44% of the Earth’s land surface, a new study has shown. The researchers also quantified overall flood damage by combining information on flood risk with estimates of damage to economies and numbers of people at risk. This could help improve flood disaster planning, they say.

More adaptive approaches to planning could help policymakers deal with deep uncertainties about the future of our planet. Researchers have developed a method for adaptive planning which they suggest could protect against failure when future predictions turn out to be inaccurate. They illustrate their approach using the case of water management in the Rhine Delta region of the Netherlands.

Ireland's national agri-environment scheme can reduce nitrate leaching from beef farming, shows a recent study. Nitrate leached at an average rate of 17.3 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha) on studied plots which complied with the scheme. This compares with 63.1 kg/ha on intensively farmed plots. The programme can therefore help Ireland meet requirements of the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Nitrates Directive, the researchers suggest.

A pilot cloud-based learning platform that brings together multiple datasets, models and visualisation tools has been developed with the engagement of numerous stakeholders throughout the design process. This tool could lead to informed decisions about flood risk at the local level. These types of tools and frameworks are effective ways of facilitating better decision making.

Increasing population, overconsumption and technological development have depleted many of the world’s natural resources, with profound impacts on the environment. This study applies the concept of criticality, which determines whether a resource may become a limiting factor to future development, to water.

Soil erosion in Italy could be reduced by 43% if Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) were fully adopted, a recent study has found. Reducing soil erosion would also increase soil organic carbon stocks, particularly on cultivated sloping land.

Water policies at European and French national levels have led to a clear improvement in the water quality of the River Seine, a new study has found. A significant reduction in phosphate and ammonium pollution and increasing oxygen concentrations are evident. However, nitrate concentrations are still higher than the recommended level for good freshwater status, despite substantial reductions of surplus nitrogen in agricultural soils over the past few decades. The researchers recommend strengthening current agri-environmental management measures to help the river to return to a fully healthy status.

The world could experience the highest ever global sea-level rise in the history of human civilisation if global temperature rises exceed 2 °C, predicts a new study. Under current carbon-emission rates, this temperature rise will occur around the middle of this century, with damaging effects on coastal businesses and ecosystems, while also triggering major human migration from low-lying areas. Global sea-level rise will not be uniform, and will differ for different points of the globe.

Algal blooms in inland and marine waters could be detected and monitored more accurately in future, thanks to a new assessment method. Scientists have developed a new algorithm for sensors which identify emerging blooms of cyanobacteria based on the behaviour of light reflected by the algae’s pigment. Importantly, the algorithm may reduce uncertainty in estimations of algal concentrations by distinguishing between two different types of pigment.

Water-supply planning that considers the preferences of multiple stakeholders under uncertain and variable future conditions are more robust than planning decisions based on historical conditions, a recent study has stated. Using the Thames river basin in the UK as an example, the researchers present a new computer-modelling approach to assess which combinations of water-management measures best secure future water supply under a wide range of possible future conditions.

Sustainable river management is increasingly informed by hydromorphological stream assessments — evaluations and classifications of stream conditions which account for both hydrological (the movement, distribution and quantity of water) and geomorphological (the processes and forms deriving from the interactions of water and sediment movement) features. In order to provide a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of river character and dynamics, scientists have developed three novel methods. Together, these tools represent a promising technique for conducting collaborative assessment and monitoring of river conditions in Europe.

Areas of mariculture — where marine organisms are cultivated for food — have been identified as important source areas for the dispersal of invasive alien species (IAS) via artificial floating litter. In order to identify IAS at high risk of dispersal via this method, researchers have analysed fouled anthropogenic litter sampled on beaches in two important European mariculture areas. Overall, the team detected eight aquaculture-related IAS attached to anthropogenic litter. All of these species are well adapted to rafting on artificial surfaces and have high potential to disperse in this way, suggesting that they are suitable candidates for closer monitoring and policy action in the future.

Domestic water saving is important — not only to address water scarcity and drought, but also to save energy and tackle climate change. Water-management strategies are needed to prevent these shortages, and include incentives to change consumers’ behaviour concerning water use. This study examines the design of a behaviour-change system and a linked incentive model to stimulate a sustainable change in water-consumption behaviour.

Belgrad, Daniel, author

Samsung has created an ecommerce platform in partnership with Benow.in along with mobile phone retailers across the country that will allow them to sell and deliver smartphones. Offline stores are also being used to fulfil orders placed on Samsung’s e-store for television and appliances.

Restaurants have been hit hard and are expected to continue facing a challenge in getting customers back as social distancing becomes the new norm.

The report titled "COVID-19: A wake up call for telecom service providers" is based on a survey conducted by QS I Guage, which rates colleges and universities in India with complete operational control held by London-based QS.

There has been a significant increase in cybercrime against women, especially sextortion, during the COVID-19-induced lockdown with "caged criminals" targeting them online, say experts.

The stratospheric rise in phishing and identity attacks since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic is give sleepless nights to CISOs across the world making them the Digital Security Warriors

DDoS attacks during the first three months of this year have seen a significant spike in attacks on educational websites.

Facebook has announced to expand its Community Help feature as part of COVID-19 efforts which will help people offer help to those affected by the new coronavirus pandemic, as well as donate to nonprofit organisations.

Facebook said that when people saw those warning labels, 95% of the time they did not go on to view the original content. To date, the social media giant also removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm.

IBM, Microsoft, and Google are among the top companies that employ large numbers of data scientists, engineers, architects, and database administrators.

A Nasscom study said the central government, as well as several state governments and public sector undertakings, owed close to Rs 5,000 crore for just technology projects to the IT industry.

Pai said IT cos won't hire more and they will suspend recruitment, except honouring prior commitments.

Companies like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Haier and Godrej Appliance are leveraging Livechat, WhatsApp, DIY video as well as on-call assistance, and helping remotely on real time basis as their service centres are closed in compliance with the government directives.

“We have attracted interest from companies such global giant Samsung and Chinese OEMs in the mobile phone segment coupled with the right set of incentives for them,” said Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, TechArc. “The mass domestic market, which was underpenetrated for long, has provided an opportunity to these players to address local demand as well as set-up base here,” he added.

“We recommend allowing all physical shops dealing on sales, repair and service activity of mobile phones, mobile devices (laptops and tablets) and their supporting accessories to be opened on a limited basis (three days a week for five hours) with limited number of staff,” AIMRA said in an April 17 letter to union home minister Amit Shah.

“We request for your kind direction to the MHA on this very important recommendation from the industry which is duly considered and approved by the crisis management structure set up you – the Empowered Group of Technology and Data Management,” India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo wrote in the letter.

It is unclear today how to draft a patent framework that allows seamless communication between IoT devices manufactured by different companies adhering to different standards

AI-based recognition systems, and smart security video networks have led to a paradigm shift in the architecture of security video systems.

With the emerging synergy between hybrid cloud and AI, we will witness tremendous innovation and business value in the enterprise IT world.

​​The current lockdown has prompted even fence-sitters to begin using these tools, as they face constraints in accessing critical information that resides on systems in company premises

While workloads are increasingly moving from traditional to cloud data centers - both private and public, hybridization has allowed mission-critical workloads to stay on-premise. Multi-cloud adoption is also being driven by the evolution of new orchestration and management services that are helping to define and run cloud processes and create competitive solutions.

The flurry of transactions show the tycoon's ambitions to pivot Reliance Industries into an Indian technology titan are going into hyperdrive

IT firm says margins to remain under 16-17%, sees a $50-70-million hit from ransomware Maze attack

DDoS attacks during the first three months of this year have seen a significant spike in attacks on educational websites.

Modular data centres are attractive options to power next-gen applications such as Internet of Things (IoT), industrial process control and smart cities. Radical edge computing possibilities are on offer.

The new center takes the total number of Customer Support Centres of Excellence to ten, five of which are based in Asia.

The data centre market, currently pegged at around $4 billion, is likely to grow to $7 billion by 2020 or 2022, say industry players.

Adani expects to invest Rs 700 billion to build data parks in India over the next two decades.

From big businesses to real estate companies to global technology firms, everybody is talking of setting up data centres or of making aggressive expansions. Priyanka Sangani delineates the new trend.

The investment follows a Rs1,715 crore infusion into Amazon’s payments and wholesale arms last month.

Intensive irrigation of agricultural land in a Mediterranean water basin is altering the habitats of associated wetlands and changing the balance of the bird population living there, according to a recent study.

Sustainable urban planning recognises the importance of green space networks to conserve biodiversity. A recent study in China has assessed whether a development plan for Jinan City improves the city's urban green networks.

New research indicates that successful integration of conservation into local land-use planning needs a combination of regulatory measures and community values. This could be encouraged by better education on conservation, and greater collaboration between neighbouring geographical areas.