Rethinking mountain water security

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Water security in mountain regions relies on a broader understanding of the complex interlinks of water supply and demand that goes far beyond the study of glacier melt.

Current information on how the communities which depend on water from mountain snow and ice will be affected by climate change is limited, according to new research published in Nature Sustainability.

The study, led by Imperial College London, University of Birmingham, University of Zurich, the British Geological Survey and Pontifical Catholic University of Peru along with local partners, suggests this lack of integrated water security knowledge is due to poor understanding of what happens ‘beyond the cryosphere’ – that is the contribution from water sources other than frozen water such as hillslopes, wetlands, and groundwater.

Emerging research is showing that the effects of global warming and climate change is enhanced in mountainous areas. Glacier-related disasters such as ice avalanches and glacial lake outburst floods are becoming more commonplace, but there are serious and life-threatening implications for the millions of people who depend on mountain water supply.

In the new study, the researchers described huge gaps in available data on how communities use water from glaciers and mountain snow in combination with other water sources. The picture is especially difficult to construct because of complex mountain landscapes, localised weather systems and a low density of data station records.

Low uptake of new monitoring technologies and approaches, particularly in lower income countries with limited institutional capacities, is hampering further our understanding of high-altitude data sparse regions. These make it hard to create models that can be scaled up across watersheds with accuracy.

Beyond these factors, the picture is further complicated by uncertainties about future water needs. Information on population growth and likely adaptation to water security threats is limited, as are data on the future expansion of irrigated agriculture and hydropower, all of which will have substantial impact on water access and allocation.

Professor David Hannah, UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham, said: “In mountains, there are complex interconnections between the cryosphere and other water sources, as well as with humans. We need to identify the gaps in our understanding and rethink strategies for water security in the context of climate change adaptation and shifting human needs.”

The research team, have called for a fundamental rethink of the methods and technologies used to assess current water availability and model future scenarios.

Lead author Dr Fabian Drenkhan, who undertook the work while at Imperial and now works at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, said: “The future is likely to lead to a more variable water supply and growing water demand, which is a real threat to water security in many mountain regions. Our current incomplete picture is hampering the design and implementation of effective climate change adaptation. A holistic perspective based on improved data and process understanding is urgently needed to guide robust, locally tailored adaptation approaches in view of increasingly adverse impacts from climate change and other human interferences.”

Senior author Professor Wouter Buytaert of Imperial, who developed the original research concept for this work, said: “Our study highlights the need for scientists to work on the ground with stakeholders. A thorough understanding of the local water security context is essential to co-produce integrated local and scientific knowledge that can support local water management decisions and adaptation strategies.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-00996-4 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Looking beyond glaciers to understand mountain water security

Working with mountain communities could help water systems adapt to climate

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

Nearly two billion people globally rely on mountain water for drinking and irrigation, but this water source is under threat due to global heating. Mountainous regions are particularly impacted by the effects of the climate crisis, with melting glaciers and snow adding to water scarcity in regions such as the Himalayas, Central Asia, and Andes.  

 

In a new paper, Imperial College London researchers outline how integrated water strategies that include scientists working directly with communities on the ground could help them drive their own climate adaptation and boost water security. 

 

Local communities have often developed ingenious local solutions such as water sowing and harvesting practices, wetland conservation, and interconnected storage reservoirs. A better scientific evidence base can help integrating these practices and river basin management plans, to offset some of the negative impacts of climate change. 

 

At present, scientists monitor glacier melt and river flows, using the data to produce predictive models of future hydrological scenarios. However this method leaves huge data gaps on how communities use glacier and snow water in combination with other water sources like hillslopes, wetlands, and groundwater. The solution, the researchers say, could be to incorporate more information on water management practices, using multi-generational knowledge from people who live in mountain regions. 

 

Senior author Professor Wouter Buytaert of Imperial’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who developed the original research concept for this work, said: “The picture is especially difficult to construct because of the complexity of mountain landscapes, the diversity of local livelihood strategies, and the lack of scientific awareness and understanding of these practices. 

 

“Our study highlights the need for scientists to work directly on the ground with communities. This is the only way we can gain a thorough understanding of the local water security context, and it is essential to uncover local and scientific knowledge that can support regional water management decisions and adaptation strategies.” 

 

Water security 

 

The impacts of climate change, such as glacier shrinkage, ice avalanches, and glacial lake outburst floods are becoming more commonplace as the climate changes. These impacts present serious and life-threatening implications for those who depend on mountain water supply. 

 

However, the study found that current information on precisely how these communities will be affected by climate change is limited. The researchers say that working directly with mountain communities can combine local knowledge and scientific inquiry to drive effective adaptations to their changing homes. 

 

Lead author Dr Fabian Drenkhan, who undertook the work at Imperial’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Grantham Institute said: “Water security in mountain regions relies on a broader understanding of the complex interplay between water supply and demand. These links go far beyond just the scientific study of glacier melt.” 

 

The study which includes researchers from Imperial, University of Birmingham, University of Zurich, the British Geological Survey and Pontifical Catholic University of Peru along with local partners, calls for a fundamental rethink of the methods and technologies used to assess current water availability and model future scenarios. 

 

Adaptation is key 

 

Low uptake of new monitoring technologies and approaches, particularly in lower income countries with limited institutional capacities, is further hampering our understanding of high-altitude, data-sparse regions. These make it difficult to create models and solutions that can be scaled up across watersheds with accuracy. 

 

Co-author Professor David Hannah, UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham, said: “In mountains, there are complex interconnections between the cryosphere and other water sources, as well as with humans. We need to identify the gaps in our understanding and rethink strategies for water security in the context of climate change adaptation and shifting human needs.” 

 

Dr Drenkhan, who now works at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, said: “The future is likely to lead to a more variable water supply and growing water demand, which is a real threat to water security in many mountain regions. Our incomplete picture of future water availability and security is keeping us from designing and implementing the best possible climate adaptations. We urgently need a holistic perspective to guide robust, locally tailored adaptations to global heating.” 

 

This study was funded by CONCYTEC Peru and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). 

 

For more information contact:  

Caroline Brogan  

Senior Media Officer (Engineering)  

Email: caroline.brogan@imperial.ac.uk  

Tel: +44(0)20 7594 3415  

Out of hours duty media officer: +44 (0)7803 886 248 

 

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

1. “Looking beyond glaciers to understand mountain water security” by Drenkhan et al., published 7 November 2022 in Nature Sustainability.  

1. About Imperial College London   

Imperial College London is a global top ten university with a world-class reputation. The College's 22,000 students and 8,000 staff are working to solve the biggest challenges in science, medicine, engineering and business.  

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 found that it has a greater proportion of world-leading research than any other UK university, it was named University of the Year 2022 according to The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, University of the Year for Student Experience 2022 by the Good University Guide, and awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its COVID-19 response.  

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/  

1. About University of Birmingham 

The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.   

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

Report outlines plans for major research effort on subduction zone geologic hazards

An ambitious interdisciplinary initiative aims to advance understanding of the processes that trigger earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanic eruptions where tectonic plates converge

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA CRUZ

 

IMAGE: THE SZ4D IMPLEMENTATION PLAN DETAILS HOW THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY PLANS TO MAKE MAJOR ADVANCES IN UNDERSTANDING SUBDUCTION ZONE HAZARDS. view more 

CREDIT: SZ4D INITIATIVE

Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides beneath another, produce the most devastating seismic, volcanic, and landslide hazards on the planet. A new report presents an ambitious plan to make major advances in understanding subduction zone hazards by bringing together a diverse community of scientists in a long-term collaborative effort, deploying new instrumentation in subduction zones, and developing more sophisticated and accurate models.

The report from the Subduction Zones in Four Dimensions (SZ4D) Research Coordination Network has been years in the making. After a 2016 workshop produced a “Vision Document” for the initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Research Coordination Network to develop a detailed plan. Through a series of meetings, workshops, webinars, and town halls to engage the U.S. research community and solicit input, the SZ4D initiative identified community priorities and the key infrastructure requirements and science activities needed to better understand geohazards and reduce their risks to society.

The implementation plan presented in the new report will inform ongoing discussions with NSF and other agencies regarding funding for the initiative.

“It’s been a huge community effort,” said Emily Brodsky, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz and chair of the SZ4D steering committee. “This is the right time to put serious resources into the question of whether these events are predictable or not. That’s something we’re poised to address now.”

Subduction zones are found around the world, mostly in coastal regions where an oceanic plate dives beneath a continental plate. The resulting geohazards include the largest earthquakes and tsunamis, active chains of volcanoes, and large landslides. Many large population centers are situated along subduction zones and are vulnerable to these hazards.

In the United States, the greatest risk is associated with the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. According to Brodsky, however, Cascadia is not the best place to concentrate research efforts because it moves so slowly. The Chilean subduction zone is geologically active enough to provide useful information and is a good locale for comparative studies with Cascadia and Alaska. The SZ4D implementation plan recommends deploying instruments at all three sites, but with most of the observational efforts in Chile (70% of the instrumentation), along with a substantial portfolio of scientific activities in Cascadia and Alaska.

“We want to be able to translate what we learn in Chile to Cascadia and Alaska,” Brodsky explained. She said the initiative has already begun building partnerships with Chilean scientists and international groups studying the subduction zone there.

The implementation plan involves a major effort to improve observations of subduction zones in a systematic way, collecting a diverse set of measurements at a range of temporal and spatial scales both on land and under the sea. The infrastructure required for this includes extensive arrays of instruments to monitor different facets of subduction zone behavior as well as volcanoes and surface and environmental conditions related to landslides. In addition, the plan calls for researchers to study the geologic context, conduct laboratory experiments, and build computational models that integrate field observations and laboratory data.

The plan also emphasizes the need for close coordination among all components and deep integration throughout the program. The initiative brings together a diverse community of scientists and stakeholders with a wide range of geoscience backgrounds and expertise related to earthquakes, volcanoes, and surface processes.

“It’s a complicated problem, and solving it requires stitching together a lot of different pieces. It’s not enough for individual scientists to focus on their individual pieces,” Brodsky said. “We need the infrastructure and the science, as well as the organizational structure to integrate all the pieces of the puzzle.”

Major advances in understanding the science behind subduction zone hazards could yield tangible benefits for communities in the affected regions, including the possibility of useful forecasts of large earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides.

“We’re not promising that we will be able to predict anything, but we need to figure out if our inability to predict these things is related to the fundamental properties of the system, or because we just haven’t had the instruments in the right place at the right time,” Brodsky said.

George Hilley at Stanford University served as lead editor of the report. The SZ4D initiative is organized into three working groups (Landscapes and Seascapes, Faulting and Earthquake Cycles, and Magmatic Drivers of Eruption) and two integrative groups (Building Equity and Capacity in Geoscience and Modeling Collaboratory for Subduction), with a total of 74 members from 55 universities and institutions. The next SZ4D Community Meeting will be held November 14 to 16 in Houston.

Additional information is available on the SZ4D website at www.sz4d.org

A subduction zone is created where two plates converge, with one sinking into the mantle. Dynamics along the plate interface create earthquakes, magma generated above the sinking slab leads to explosive volcanic eruptions, and topography created in the upper plate leads to landslides and sediments that feed back into the subduction zone.

CREDIT

Image Credit: Katy Cain/Carnegie Institution for Science

Understanding rogue waves of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: ROGUE WAVES CAN CAUSE COLOSSAL DAMAGE IF NOT AVOIDED. CREDIT: JOHN LUND, GETTY IMAGES view more 

CREDIT: JOHN LUND, GETTY IMAGES

The eastern Mediterranean Sea, a large basin surrounded by ancient cultural sites, is also a climatology hot spot. However, the region has received comparatively little attention when it comes to understanding the extreme sea states that produce massive and potentially catastrophic waves.

Recognizing a gap in scientific knowledge, an international team of researchers led by Francesco Fedele, associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, investigated potential hazards for ship navigation in the eastern Mediterranean. They looked at rogue waves, examined how they form, and analyzed the likelihood that a ship would encounter them while navigating the rough waters of intense storms. Their findings illuminate the nature of extreme waves in the Mediterranean Sea and could advance technology for rogue wave predictions and maritime navigation in extreme weather conditions.

“Imagine that at a single point in the ocean, waves are coming from many directions,” Fedele said. “There is always a chance they will meet, pile up in amplitude, and create an enormous wave. This is what we call a rogue event.”

Rogue waves have long been observed in the western Mediterranean by eyewitnesses — sometimes travelers on cruise ships — and have been known to cause structural damage and loss of lives. To examine the case of the eastern Mediterranean, Fedele teamed up with collaborators at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the CAMERI Coastal and Marine Engineering Research Institute in Haifa, Israel. The team employed a novel theory of space-time wave extremes and considered the hypothetical scenarios of Israeli naval fleet ships navigating the waters of two major storms that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea in 2017 and 2018.

The researchers studied the frequency of rogue wave occurrences as encountered by an observer at a given point on the sea’s surface, such as an oil rig. The team’s statistical analysis indicated that the largest observed waves during the two major storms have similar characteristics to the catastrophic El Faro, Andrea, and Draupner rogue waves, in which the asymmetry of the waves’ crests and troughs was the dominant factor in creating rogue waves.

They discovered that, because the eastern Mediterranean basin is characterized by waves coming from all directions, rogue waves do not “steal” energy from neighboring waves or grow at their expense. This effect, known as modulational instability, has been employed in the past to understand rogue waves. But, according to Fedele, it is only relevant when waves travel in the same direction, like through a long channel, and therefore does not apply in realistic seas.

The team’s novel space-time analysis of the most intense sea states also demonstrated the ability to predict potential rogue hazards for ships of various sizes and cruise speeds navigating within the rough waters of the analyzed storms.

Fedele says a surfer can offer a useful analogy for the space-time effect of waves.  

“As we know, surfers do not wait all day at the same spot, hoping a large wave will arrive,” he said. “They swim around an area to increase their chances of encountering large waves, and they always find one. Similarly, a ship navigating waves will encounter more waves along its path, and the likelihood of coming across a rogue wave is higher than it would be for an oil rig.”

The team’s novel analysis of waves in space-time can also predict the potential of rogue hazards for ship navigation. A version of Fedele’s model has already been adopted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for WAVEWATCH III, the national operational wave forecast model. According to Fedele, such a model can be expanded to account for ship motion and rogue hazards, and has the potential to benefit shipping companies, maritime industries, and coastal communities.

 

CITATION: Knobler, S., Liberzon, D. & Fedele, F. Large waves and navigation hazards of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Sci Rep 12, 16511 (2022). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20355-9

About Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 46,000 students, representing 50 states and more than 150 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning.

As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society. 

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-022-20355-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Large waves and navigation hazards of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Earth’s oldest stromatolites and the search for life on Mars

New Geology Science published online ahead of print

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

 

IMAGE: HAND SAMPLE OF DRESSER FORMATION STROMATOLITE, SHOWING A COMPLEX LAYERED STRUCTURE FORMED OF HEMATITE, BARITE, AND QUARTZ, AND A DOMED UPPER SURFACE (DOME ARROW). view more 

CREDIT: KEYRON HICKMAN-LEWIS AND COLLEAGUES

Boulder, Colo., USA: The earliest morphological traces of life on Earth are often highly controversial, both because non-biological processes can produce relatively similar structures and because such fossils have often been subjected to advanced alteration and metamorphism. Stromatolites, layered organo-sedimentary structures reflecting complex interplays between microbial communities and their environment, have long been considered key macrofossils for life detection in ancient sedimentary rocks; however, the biological origin of ancient stromatolites has frequently been criticized. An article released Friday in the Geological Society of America journal Geology uses a range of advanced two- and three-dimensional analytical techniques to establish the biological origins of Earth’s oldest stromatolites from the 3.48-billion-year-old Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia.

Although these stromatolites have undergone severe diagenesis and weathering and preserve no organic materials, a team led by Dr. Keyron Hickman-Lewis of the Natural History Museum, London, has used optical and electron microscopy, elemental geochemistry, Raman spectroscopy, and laboratory- and synchrotron-based tomography to identify numerous characteristics indicative of a biological origin.

In addition to performing laboratory tomography of 3D stromatolitic macrostructure, the team was able to achieve the first sub-micron pixel and voxel sizes for imaging of Precambrian stromatolite microstructures via phase contrast imaging using the SYRMEP beamline at the Elettra Synchrotron, Trieste, Italy. This enabled the identification of non-uniform layer morphologies, void spaces arising from the degassing of decaying organic materials, and pillar-like vertical structures interpreted as microbial palisade structure, a common indicator of phototrophic growth.

The Dresser Formation stromatolites have been mostly replaced by hematite (iron oxide) due to recent weathering. While this renders organic geochemical analyses impossible, this composition is highly relevant for the search for life on Mars.

Sedimentary rocks at the surface of Mars have been subjected to similar pervasive oxidation and also comprise mostly iron oxides in their upper centimeters to meters. In this regard, the Dresser Formation stromatolites may be uniquely relevant materials to inform us of a precise style of biosignature preservation expected on Mars. As the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover continues its exploration of Jezero crater, we should search for morphological expressions of life resembling those identified in the Dresser Formation and prepare for advanced multi-technique analyses when Martian samples are eventually returned to Earth.

FEATURED ARTICLE
Advanced 2D-3D insights into Earth's oldest stromatolites (~3.5 Ga): Prospects for the search for life on Mars
Keyron Hickman-Lewis and colleagues
Contact: keyron.hickman-lewis@nhm.ac.uk, The Natural History Museum, Department of Earth Sciences, London, UK
URL: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/G50390.1/618747/Advanced-two-and-three-dimensional-insights-into

GEOLOGY articles are online at https://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent . Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary articles by contacting Kea Giles at the e-mail address above. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GEOLOGY in articles published. Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.

https://www.geosociety.org

Undulatory laminations of the Dresser Formation stromatolites 

Optical photomicrograph (left) and EDX map (right) showing primary and replacement mineralogy in undulatory laminations of the Dresser Formation stromatolites.

CAPTION

Three-dimensional rendering of stromatolite microstructure, enabling the distribution of phases throughout the structure of the stromatolites to be visualized.

CREDIT

Keyron Hickman-Lewis and colleagues

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JOURNAL

Geology

DOI

10.1130/G50390.1 

ARTICLE TITLE

Advanced 2D-3D insights into Earth's oldest stromatolites (~3.5 Ga): Prospects for the search for life on Mars

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Nov-2022

Study highlights the complexity of dryland dynamics under a changing climate

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS SCHOOL OF SCIENCE

Professor Lixin Wang, a hydrologist in the IUPUI School of Science, recently reviewed advances in the study of dryland productivity and examined major outstanding debates on dryland responses to environmental changes in the Nature Climate Change journal. Working with a small, but diverse group of internationally recognized researchers, Wang spent more than a year examining dryland productivity and their important role in the global carbon budget.

In the review article, Wang breaks down the complexity of dryland dynamics and provides an in-depth discussion on the outstanding dryland debate regarding whether drylands are expanding under a warming climate, what are the key drivers of shifts in dryland vegetation, and the importance of hydrological processes regulating dryland ecosystems. The review article also discusses dryland agriculture, grazing, and land use change in drylands under the current and future climates.

Going forward, Wang suggests prioritizing holistic approaches to dryland management, accounting for the increase climate and anthropogenic pressures, and the associated uncertainties in the observation and prediction of dryland productivity.

Besides Wang, the research team includes Dr. Wenzhe Jiao (a former Ph.D. student in Dr. Wang’s group and currently a postdoctoral researcher at MIT) who played an instrumental role in data collection, synthesis, and virtualization, Dr. Natasha MacBean at Western University in Canada, Dr. Maria Cristina Rulli at Politecnico di Milano in Italy, Stefano Manzoni at Stockholm University in Sweden, Giulia Vico at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden, and Paolo D’Odorico at the University of California, Berkeley. The project was funded by a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Dr. Wang.

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-022-01499-y 

ARTICLE TITLE

Dryland productivity under a changing climate

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Nov-2022

Million prize at international robot competition

Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn has won the grand prize at the finals of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF BONN

 

IMAGE: AVATER ROBOT BLINDLY EXPLORES A STONE USING HAPTICS. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: XPRIZE FOUNDATION

Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn has won the grand prize of five million US dollars at the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition in Long Beach (USA). The final of the competition, sponsored by the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) and hosted by the XPRIZE Foundation, featured 17 teams from ten countries who were selected from 99 registered research groups in a multi-stage qualification process. With a total of ten million US dollars in prize money, the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition was the most highly endowed robotics competition to date.

The Bonn team had already fully convinced the international jury at the semifinals in Miami last September, where it scored the most points. The finals now took place in Long Beach, California. The aim of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition was to develop robotic systems with which people can virtually put themselves to another place. This works via an operator station and an avatar robot that are connected via the Internet. The avatar robot's sensors capture the environment, which is displayed in the operator station in such a way that the user has the feeling of being in the remote location. The user’s movements are captured and transferred to the avatar robot. This enables the user to move around, handle objects, use tools and communicate intuitively through speech, facial expressions and gestures.

Intuitive usability

In the competition, the avatar systems were not controlled by the developers, but by members of an international jury. They had only a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the system. "Therefore, intuitive usability was an important objective in system design," says Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke of Team NimbRo, who heads the Autonomous Intelligent Systems group at the University of Bonn.

At the finals, there was one qualification run and two competition runs on three consecutive days. In all three runs, the jury member was able to solve all ten tasks, which formed a mission that could be set on a distant planet. Tasks included communicating with a human, operating a switch, estimating the weight of objects, using a power drill, and blindly identifying a stone by the roughness of its surface. In addition to task performance, judges also evaluated the quality of the telepresence experience.

In the two competition runs, NimbRo received full points here as well. In case of identical scores, execution time was the deciding factor. With just under six minutes, NimbRo was almost twice as fast here as the second-best team "Pollen Robotics" from Bordeaux (France). For the best competition performance, NimbRo received the grand prize of five million US dollars. "My fantastic team developed a powerful avatar system for the complex tasks of the competition and successfully solved all problems that arose," said Prof. Behnke.

The NimbRo avatar

The NimbRo team's avatar system was developed over three years at the Autonomous Intelligent Systems group of the Institute of Computer Science VI – Intelligent Systems and Robotics at the University of Bonn, led by Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke. The avatar robot has a human-like upper body with two arms and five-finger hands. Attached to the head are a wide-angle stereo camera, a stereo microphone, and a display on which the user's face is animated. The remote scene is visualized to the user through 3D data glasses, with the user's head movements captured and transferred to the avatar head. This allows the user to look around freely, see around obstacles and view objects from different angles, which contributes significantly to the feeling of immersion in the remote environment. Stereo audio is also transmitted alongside the live video signals.

The user feels the interaction forces of the avatar hands via force-moment sensors in the wrist. Robotic arms sense the user's hand movements and relay them to the avatar arms. Hand exoskeletons mediate the finger movements. Gripping forces are sensed by finger motor currents and transmitted to the user's fingers. Haptic sensor measurements are transferred to the user's fingertips. The avatar robot can move in all directions and turn on the spot, with direction and speed controlled by a foot controller. Orientation is provided by cameras which create an all-round view from above. The data glasses are equipped with three cameras to capture eye movements and facial expressions of the user for a live facial animation displayed on the avatar robot's head display.

Beyond this competition, avatar systems have numerous applications. These include, for example, helping people in need of assistance to manage their daily lives, telemedicine, and use in inaccessible or hazardous environments. "Avatar systems have great potential to overcome spatial separation between people and could be as widespread in a few years as video conferencing systems are today," says Prof. Behnke.

Team NimbRo of the University of Bonn 

won the top prize at the finals of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition (from left to right, front: Max Schwarz, Christian Lenz; back: Andre Rochow, Bastian Pätzold, Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke, Michael Schreiber and Raphael Memmesheimer.

Not the developers, but jury members, controlled the avatar systems in the competition - here from team NimbRo.

There was a mission to master, 

which could take place on a distant planet.

Photo: University of Bonn

Videos of the final competition runs by Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn:
https://youtu.be/pxblVcN606E
https://youtu.be/8AwgGSpcAe8

Information about the avatar system: https://www.ais.uni-bonn.de/nimbro/AVATAR

Information about the competition: https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke
University of Bonn
Institute for Computer Science VI - Intelligent Systems and Robotics
Email: behnke@cs.uni-bonn.de

National study suggests it’s time to rethink how we treat atrial fibrillation

Early intervention with catheter cryoablation can halt disease progression, reduce risk of serious health impacts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: CRYOABLATION INVOLVES GUIDING A SMALL TUBE INTO THE HEART AND INFLATING A SMALL BALLOON TO KILL PROBLEMATIC TISSUE WITH COLD TEMPERATURES. view more 

CREDIT: MEDTRONIC

A national study led by UBC researchers at the Centre for Cardiovascular Innovation is shedding light on how to more effectively treat atrial fibrillation (AF) – a common heart rhythm problem associated with increased risk of stroke and heart failure.

The study, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, shows that early intervention with cryoballoon catheter ablation (cryoablation) is more effective at reducing the risk of serious long-term health impacts, when compared to the current first step in treatment, antiarrhythmic drugs.

“By treating patients with cryoablation right from the start, we see fewer people advancing to persistent, more life-threatening forms of atrial fibrillation,” says Dr. Jason Andrade, an associate professor of medicine at UBC and director of Heart Rhythm Services at Vancouver General Hospital. “In the short term, this can mean less recurrences of arrhythmia, improved quality of life and fewer visits to the hospital. In the long run, this can translate into a reduced risk of stroke and other serious heart problems.”

Cryoablation is a minimally invasive procedure that involves guiding a small tube into the heart to kill problematic tissue with cold temperatures. Historically, the procedure has been reserved as a secondary treatment when patients don’t respond to antiarrhythmic drugs.

“This study adds to the growing body of evidence that early intervention with cryoablation may be a more effective initial therapy in the appropriate patients,” says Dr. Andrade.

Early intervention halts disease progression

AF affects approximately three per cent of the population, or more than one million Canadians.

While the condition starts as an isolated electrical disorder, each recurring incident can cause electrical and structural changes in the heart that can lead to longer-lasting events known as persistent AF (episodes lasting more than seven continuous days).

“Atrial fibrillation is like a snowball rolling down a hill. With each atrial fibrillation episode there are progressive changes in the heart, and the heart rhythm problem gets worse,” explains Dr. Andrade.

The new findings, stemming from a multi-site clinical trial, show that cryoablation can stop this snowball effect.

For the trial, the pan-Canadian research team enrolled 303 patients with AF at 18 sites across Canada. Half of the patients were randomly selected to receive antiarrhythmic drugs, while the other half were treated with cryoablation. All patients received an implantable monitoring device that recorded their cardiac activity throughout the study period.

After three years, the researchers found that patients in the cryoablation group were less likely to progress to persistent AF compared to patients treated with antiarrhythmic drugs. Over the follow-up period, the cryoablation patients also had lower rates of hospitalization and experienced fewer serious adverse health events that resulted in death, functional disability or prolonged hospitalization.

Addressing the root cause

Because cryoablation targets and destroys the cells that initiate and perpetuate AF, the researchers say it can lead to longer-lasting benefits.

“With cryoablation, we’re treating the cause of the condition, instead of using medications to cover-up the symptoms,” says Dr. Andrade. “If we start with cryoablation, we may be able to fix atrial fibrillation early in its course.”

The new study builds on a previous paper in which Dr. Andrade and his team demonstrated that cryoablation was more effective than antiarrhythmic drugs at reducing the short-term recurrence of atrial fibrillation.

The researchers say that more effective early interventions would benefit patients as well as the health care system. Currently, costs associated with the provision of atrial fibrillation-associated care are estimated at 2.5 per cent of overall annual health care expenditures. Those costs are expected to rise to four per cent within the next two decades.

“The evidence shows increasingly that it’s time to rethink how we approach the treatment of atrial fibrillation. With effective early intervention, we can keep people healthy, happy, and out of hospital, which would be a tremendous benefit for patients and their families, and also our entire health system.”

Interview language(s): English

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JOURNAL

New England Journal of Medicine

DOI

10.1056/NEJMoa2212540 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Progression of Atrial Fibrillation after Cryoablation or Drug Therapy

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Nov-2022

COI STATEMENT

https://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2212540/suppl_file/nejmoa2212540_disclosures.pdf