Bamboo is one of the noble plant species in Ethiopia. Household (HH) income and construction role of highland bamboo (Oldeania alpina (K. Schum.) Stapleto) stands were assessed at Masha district, Southern Ethiopia. Three peasant associations (PAs), Yepo, Yina and Gada, 7–15 key informants and 68, 46, 31 households, respectively were interviewed about the cost and income of bamboo to compare with woody climbers, honey, and mushroom in 2021. Bamboo was one of the main sources of income in all PAs, at least for fencing or house construction. In Yepo, Yina and Gada bamboo accounts 0.7%, 28.1%, 16.3% of the HH NTFP income, respectively. The local people responded that bamboo constructed houses and fences were durable for 15–30 and 2–10 years, respectively. In constructing a 2.44–4.27 m radius local house in Yepo, Yina and Gada 2.4–6 m³, 4.1–5.82 m³ and 3.1–4.3 m³ bamboo culms were harvested at 15, 20, and 30 years interval, respectively by each HH. Bamboo young shoots were also seasonally used for food. Although bamboo provides multiple uses, like substitute for wood and environmental services, it was facing different problems of deforestation. Therefore, policy attention is highly important for bamboo sustainable utilization.

This paper reviews the emerging potential of mid-tier transit, articulating how a complex set of established and new factors could contribute both to better transit outcomes and the associated urban regeneration around station precincts. The analysis is based on two structured literature reviews, supported by insights from the authors’ original research. The first provides an overview of the established and new rationale for mid-tier technologies such as the established Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as well as the new Trackless Tram Systems (TTS). The established role for mid-tier transit is now being given extra reasons for it to be a major focus of urban infrastructure especially due to the need for net zero cities. The second review, is a detailed consideration of established and new factors that can potentially improve patronage on mid-tier transit. The established factors of urban precinct design like stop amenities and improved accessibility and density around stations, are combined with new smart technology systems like advanced intelligent transport systems and real-time transport information for travellers, as well as new transport technologies such as micro-mobility and Mobility on Demand. Also explored are new processes with funding and development models that properly leverage land value capture, public private partnerships, and other entrepreneurial development approaches that are still largely not mainstreamed. All were found to potentially work, especially if done together, to help cities move into greater mid-tier transit.

Richard’s equation was approximated by finite-difference numerical scheme to model water infiltration profile in variably unsaturated soil^[1]. The published data of Philip’s semi-analytical solution was used to validate the simulated results from the numerical scheme. A discrepancy was found between the simulated and the published semi-analytical results. Morris method as a global sensitivity tool was used as an alternative to local sensitivity analysis to assess the results discrepancy. Morris method with different sampling strategies were tested, of which Manhattan distance method has resulted a better sensitivity measures and also a better scan of input space than Euclidean method. Moreover, Morris method at p = 2 , r = 2 and Manhattan distance sampling strategy, with only 2 extra simulation runs than local sensitivity analysis, was able to produce reliable sensitivity measures (μ^*, σ). The sensitivity analysis results were cross-validated by Sobol’ variance-based method with 150,000 simulation runs. The global sensitivity tool has identified three important parameters, of which spatial discretization size was the sole reason of the discrepancy observed. In addition, a high proportion of total output variance contributed by parameters β and θ_s is suggesting a greater significant digits to reduce its input uncertainty range.