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Hispaniola is in the edge of interaction between the North American and Caribbean plates. In this zone, the occurrence of earthquakes greater than 5.0, Mw is frequent, characterizing it as a seismically active zone. These earthquakes cause considerable material damage and can provoke loss of human lives. The Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Primate of the Americas, is in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo. It is the most important colonial building in Dominican Republic, was built between 1521-1541, and is a masonry building made with stone ashlars and covered with stone ribbed vault. However, it is essential to know about the possible seismic behavior that the ground could have in case of a relevant earthquake to try to avoid possible damage to this heritage. For this reason, the aim of this research is to apply geophysical prospecting methods for the seismic site characterization of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. For this study, the geophysical methods applied were: MASW (Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave), H/V Spectral Ratio and Georadar. The characterization of site conditions was determined with the values of the average shear wave velocity for the top 30 m of soil (Vs30) obtained with the MASW method. As a main result it was found that the site seismic class determined with the MASW method was type C- very dense soil and soft rock (360-760 m/s), according to the NEHRP classification. In addition, the Georadar tests allowed confirming that there are no unknown caverns in the basement of the Cathedral in the first 5 m, thus it is accepted as valid the seismic classification of the soil obtained by the MASW method.

As museums face more scrutiny and are being demanded to decolonize, there are opportunities for Dominican museums to adopt a critical perspective and turn their collections and exhibitions into connections to our cultural past, present, and future. Nevertheless, specific research on archaeological collections in the Dominican Republic, the earliest hub of the European invasion, conquest, and colonization of the New World, has been scarce. This qualitative study explored how communities can be engaged to critically analyze museum narratives that perpetuate colonial ideas of Caribbean Indigenous extinction, which contribute to a disconnection from Indigenous heritage collections. Findings suggest opportunities for connections by improving access through the design of education and exhibition initiatives and the representation of cultural practices in ways that are important to the communities. This study provides future scholars with practical suggestions for designing community connections with Indigenous heritage institutions while creating multi-vocal engagements and inclusive meeting points for cultural self-determination.

This work attempts to understand Spanish colonial intercultural interactions in the early colonial period by compiling and analyzing data related to how these occurred at Concepción de la Vega, one of the first settlements on the island of Hispaniola, in present-day Dominican Republic, using a Decolonial, Post-Processual, approach.The archaeological site associated to Concepción de la Vega, La Vega Vieja, was chosen as a study site because it was one of the earliest and most affluent Spanish settlements in the Americas. Research about the site offered the opportunity to assess some of the earliest Spanish, Amerindian and African entanglements and interactions in the Americas. Additionally, the site of La Vega Vieja has a tightly dated context (1495 to 1564) with no large, subsequent, occupation until the 20th century. The combination of both historical and archaeological data about Concepción de la Vega can help create a better understanding of the process through which the Spanish-American cultural tradition was created, and later disseminated, to the rest of Latin America.The research presented here focuses on the use of all artifacts (not just ceramics) as opposed to artifact manufacture chaine opératoire. It will focus particularly on use in nondomestic areas. This will be more in keeping with new trends in archaeological research, focusing more on problem solving, as opposed to a more chronological or typological approach.

In this paper, we focus on designing efficient 4D trajectories for the planning phase of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM). A key feature of the proposed approach is the inclusion of stakeholders’ preferences and priorities. In particular, we have implemented two priority mechanisms recently developed by Eurocontrol, namely the Fleet Delay Reordering and the Margins. For this purpose, we have customized a multi-objective binary program for the ATFM problem taking into account the specific assumptions required for the ATFM planning phase. To compute the Pareto frontier in a reasonable computational time, we have developed a simulated annealing algorithm. The algorithm has been tested on an instance resembling real world conditions using data extracted from the Eurocontrol data repository. This instance involves four major European airports and their air traffic in one of the busiest days of year 2016, and precisely, October 3rd. The simulated annealing algorithm has shown good computational performances and has provided a good approximation of the Pareto optimal frontier. The results have been validated using Eurocontrol tools and have demonstrated the viability of the proposed approach. Practitioners and stakeholders’ representatives have provided positive feedback on the proposed modeling approach and on the inclusion of ATM stakeholders’ preferences and priorities.

A key feature of trajectory based operations (TBO) – a new concept developed to modernize the air traffic system – is the inclusion of preferences and priorities of the air traffic management (ATM) stakeholders. In this paper, we present a new mathematical model to optimize flights’ 4D-trajectories. This is a multi-objective binary integer programming (IP) model, which assigns a 4D-trajectory to each flight, while explicitly modeling priorities and highlighting the trade off involved with the Airspace Users (AUs) preferences. The scope of the model (to be used at pre-tactical level) is the computation of optimal 4D pre-departure trajectory for each flight to be shared or negotiated with other stakeholders and subsequently managed throughout the flight. These trajectories are obtained by minimising the deviation (delay and re-routing) from the original preferred 4D-trajectories as well as minimizing the air navigation service (ANS) charges subject to the constraints of the system. Computational results for the model are presented, which show that the proposed model has the ability to identify trade-offs between the objectives of the stakeholders of the ATM system under the TBO concept. This can therefore provide the ATM stakeholders with useful decision tools to choose a trajectory for each flight.