Assessment of agricultural drought during crop-growing season in the Sudano–Sahelian region of Cameroon

Natural Hazards - Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in the Sudano–Sahelian region of Cameroon. However, it has received very little attention, especially, on its impacts on the growing season...     

Red Sea faulting and salt diapirism as a potential geotechnical hazard in Jazan,southwest Saudi Arabia: inferences from gravity data

Natural Hazards - The main objective of this study is to detect the subsurface extension of salt diapirs and structural deformations in the city of Jazan and its suburbs using gravity data. Salt...     

Damage Estimation in Masonry Buildings Based on Excavation-Induced Ground Movements

Excavation-induced ground movements and the resulting damages to adjacent structures and facilities is a source of concern for excavation projects in urban areas. The concern will be even higher if the adjacent structure is old or has low strength parameters like masonry building. Frame distortion and crack generation are predictors of building damage resulted from excavation-induced ground movements, which pose challenges to projects involving excavations. This study is aimed to investigate the relation between excavation-induced ground movements and damage probability of buildings in excavation affected distance. The main focus of this paper is on masonry buildings and excavations stabilized using soil nail wall method. To achieve this purpose, 21 masonry buildings adjacent to 12 excavation projects were studied. Parametric studies were performed by developing 3D FE models of brick walls and excavations stabilized using soil nail wall. Finally, probability evaluations were conducted to analyze the outputs obtained from case studies. Based on the obtained results, simple charts were established to estimate the damage of masonry structures in excavation affected distance with two key parameters including “Displacement Ratio” and “Normalized Distance”. The results also highlight the effects of building distance from excavation wall on its damage probability.

     

Causes of the famine among the rural population of the Sahelian zone of the Sudan

Taking the example of W Sudan, an analysis of the climatic incidents leading to the two recent famine disasters is made. On this natural background, the human side is investigated. Focus is directed towards the fragile economic structure of the famine-prone population groups. An early-warning system for famine in the Sahelian Zone is proposed taking grain production and storage, livestock development and the relationship between the prices of livestock and grain as major indicators.     

The role of rural-rural migration as a survival strategy in the Sahelian zone of the Sudan —

Taking the example of Burush, N Darfur, Sudan, the authors analyse the role of migration as a survival strategy in the desertification-stricken Sahelian zone. It is being argued that the rual-rual migration plays a greater role than the rual-urban migration among the Berti ethnic group of northern Darfur. Their high mobility within their own area is part of their traditional economic pattern for coping with aridity and high rainfall variability     

Hunger-vulnerable groups within the metropolitan food system of Khartoum

Due to the current civil war and the economic and political deterioration in the Sudan, the majority of the Sudanese are suffering from food shortage. The dislocated southern Sudanese in Khartoum, however, belong to the group most affected. This paper tries to analyse the structure of hunger in the capital city of the Sudan. The formal and informal food supply systems are described. The reasons why the southern Sudanese are specially vulnerable to hunger and the indicators of this vulnerability are discussed.     

Some phenomenological aspects of carbonate geochemistry. The control effect of transition metals

The dualism in carbonate geochemistry — organic or inorganic production — leads to an erroneous definition of the carbonate system. A different formulation of the chemical mechanism is proposed where traces of transition metals together with organic matter in natural environments play a central role in carbonate production. This approach is verified in a series of experiments using natural and artificial sea water and as chelating agents citric, tartaric, malonic, and oxalic acids with five transition metals: Ni, Co, Fe, Mn and Zn. The final product of carbonate precipitation depends on the type of metal acting as a central atom. In the series Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Zn the potential for calcium uptake increases from Ni to Zn, while magnesium uptake increases in the opposit direction from Zn to Ni. Dolomite can precipitate from Mg-rich natural waters by the catalytic effect of Fe(II)-chelates. If the waters containing Fe(II)-chelates are exhausted with respect to magnesium carbonate, they will attack dolomite to form calcite.

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Zusammenfassung Die Gegensätzlichkeit der Geochemie der Karbonate — organische oder anorganische Produktion — führte zu einer widersprüchlichen Definition des Karbonatsystems. Es wird hier eine abweichende Formulierung der chemischen Mechanismen vorgeschlagen, wobei Spuren von Ubergangsmetallen zusammen mit organischen Substanzen in natürlicher Umgebung eine zentrale Rolle bei der Karbonatproduktion spielen. Dieser Ansatz läßt sich in Experimenten nachweisen, wobei in natürlichem und künstlichem Meereswasser chelatbildende Substanzen wie Zitronensäure, Weinsäure, Apfelsäure und Oxalsäure mit 5 Übergangsmetallen Ni, Co, Fe, Mn und Zn zusammengebracht werden. Das Endprodukt einer Karbonatfällung hängt von dem Metall ab, das als zentrales Atom in den Komplexen wirkt. In der Serie Ni, Co, Fe, Mn und Zn nimmt das Potential zur Kalziumaufnahme von Ni nach Zn zu, während die Magnesiumaufnahme in entgegengesetzter Richtung, nämlich von Zn nach Ni zunimmt. Dolomit kann man aus natürlichen Wässern unter Zuhilfenahme des katalytischen Effekts von Fe(II)-chelaten fällen, während man in eisenchelathaltigen Wässern mit einem Unterschuß an Magnesiumkarbonat den Dolomit in Kalzit umwandeln kann.

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Résumé En géochimie des carbonates, la dualité — production organique ou inorganique — conduit à une définition erronée du système carbonate. Les auteurs proposent un modèle différent du mécanisme chimique, dans lequel des métaux de transition en traces, ainsi que des substances organiques de l'environnement naturel jouent un rôle prépondérant dans la genèse des carbonates. Cette approche est vérifiée par une série d'expériences dans lesquelles on ajoute à de l'eau de mer naturelle ou artificielle: d'une part 5 métaux de transition: Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Zn; d'autre part des agents chélatants tels que: acide citrique, tartrique, malonique ou oxalique. Le produit final d'une précipitation carbonatée dépend du métal qui constitue l'atome central du complexe. Dans la série Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Zn, le potentiel de fixation du Ca augmente du Ni au Zn, tandis que celui du Mg augmente dans l'autre sens, du Zn au Ni. Il est possible de précipiter de la dolomite dans des eaux naturelles, à l'aide de l'effet catalytique de chelates de Fe¹¹, tandis que si du carbonate de Mg est soustrait à des eaux contenant du chélate de F¹¹, on peut transformer la dolomite en calcite.

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Combating famine by grain storage in Western Sudan

Traditional grain storage used to be an effective mechanism to combat famine in the rural areas of W Sudan. Of late, this mechanism has failed to function and a severe famine took place in 1984–1985. This paper endeavours to highlight this crisis, show the traditional methods of grain storage and point out to ways of retrieving grain storage systems to start again on a less vulnerable basis. An assessment of grain storage requirements under the new conditions where both market and subsistence economy are effective in rural areas is made for the different ecological zones of W Sudan.     

Social and economic geographical analysis of the Egyptian Copts

This paper gives a brief account of the social and economic situation of the Copts in Egypt. As an ethnic group the Copts are the pure successors of the ancient Egyptians. This does not imply that the Moslems are pure Arabs. At least 90% of the Egyptian Moslems are of Coptic origin, so that no particular differentiation should be made between the Copts and the Moslems of Egypt from the ethnical point of view. The Copts are fully integrated into the Egyptian population. Only in times of religious persecution, they huddled together in villages of Upper Egypt in the provinces of El Minia and Assiut. The recent wave of reislamisation in the Near East has inflicted some suffering on the Copts of Egypt. This was combined with economic losses. Nasser's nationalisation of private concerns and confiscation of large tenures of land was a blow directed against the Copts. Suggestions are made to improve their situation with the aim of giving them equal rigths with the Moslems in the political, social, economic, and religious fields.