Abstract: Tourism is considered an important sector for most countries, while maintaining good tourism attractions can promote national economic development. The State of Palestine is historically considered a wealthy country full of many archaeological places. In the city of Bethlehem, for example, the Church of the Nativity is the most important touristic site, but it does not have enough technology development to attract tourists. In this paper, we propose a smart mobile application named “Pal-STAR” (Palestine Smart Tourist Augmented Reality) as an innovative solution which targets tourists and assists them to make a visit inside the Church of the Nativity. The application will use augmented reality and feature a virtual tourist guide showing views of the church while providing historical information in a smart, easy, effective and user-friendly way. The proposed application is compatible with multiple mobile platforms and is considered user friendly. The findings show that this application will improve the practice of the tourism sector in the Holy Land, it will also increase the number of tourists visiting the Church of the Nativity and it will facilitate access to historical data that have been difficult to obtain using traditional tourism guidance. The value that tourism adds to a country cannot be denied, and the more technological advances are incorporated in this sector, the better the country’s tourism sector can be served. Palestine’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism in many of its main cities, despite several limitations, and technological development is needed to enable this sector to flourish. The proposed mobile application would definitely have a good impact on the development of the tourism sector by creating an Augmented Reality environment for tourists inside the church, helping them to navigate and learn about holy places in a non-traditional way, using a virtual tourist guide.
Abstract: The flora of Bozdağ (Konya) and its surroundings
were investigated between 2003 and 2005 years; 700 herbarium
specimens belonging to 482 taxa, 257 genera and 57 families were
collected and identified from the area. The families which have the
most taxa in research area are Asteraceae 67 (14.0%), Fabaceae 60
(12.6%), Lamiaceae 57 (11.9%), Brassicaceae 34 (7.1%), Poaceae
30 (6.3%), Rosaceae 24 (5.0%), Caryophyllaceae 23 (4.8%),
Liliaceae 19 (4.0%), Boraginaceae 17 (3.6%), and Apiaceae 13
(2.7%).
The research area is in the district of Konya and is in the B4
square according to the Grid System. The phytogeographic elements
are represented in the study area as follows; Irano-Turanian 91
(18.9%), Mediterranean 72 (14.9%), Euro-Siberian 21 (4.3%). The
phytogeographic regions of 273 (56.6%) taxa are either multi-regional
or unknown. The number of endemic taxa is 79 (16.3%).
Abstract: The groundwater is one of the main sources for
sustainability in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Intensive
developments in Al-Ain area lead to increase water demand, which
consequently reduced the overall groundwater quantity in major
aquifers. However, in certain residential areas within Al-Ain, it has
been noticed that the groundwater level is rising, for example in
Sha-ab Al Askher area. The reasons for the groundwater rising
phenomenon are yet to be investigated. In this work, twenty four
seismic refraction profiles have been carried out along the study
pilot area; as well as field measurement of the groundwater level in
a number of available water wells in the area. The processed
seismic data indicated the deepest and shallowest groundwater
levels are 15m and 2.3 meters respectively. This result is greatly
consistent with the proper field measurement of the groundwater
level. The minimum detected value may be referred to perched
subsurface water which may be associated to the infiltration from
the surrounding water bodies such as lakes, and elevated farms. The
maximum values indicate the accurate groundwater level within the
study area. The findings of this work may be considered as a
preliminary help to the decision makers.