Using geographically weighted regression kriging for crop yield mapping in West Africa

Geographical information systems support the application of statistical techniques to map spatially referenced crop data. To do this in the optimal way, errors and uncertainties have to be minimized that are often associated with operations on the data. This paper applies a spatial statistical approach to upscale crop yields from the field level toward the scale of Burkina Faso. Observed yields were related to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index derived from SPOT-VEGETATION. The objective was to quantify the uncertainties at the subsequent steps. First, we applied a point pattern analysis to examine uncertainties due to the sampling network of field surveys in the country. Second, geographically weighted regression kriging (GWRK) was applied to upscale the yield observations and to quantify the corresponding uncertainty. The proposed method was demonstrated with the mapping of sorghum yields in Burkina Faso and results were compared with those from regression kriging (RK) and kriging with external drift using a local kriging neighborhood (KEDLN). The proposed method was validated with independent yield observations obtained from field surveys. We observed that the lower uncertainty range value increased by 39%, and the upper uncertainty range value decreased by 51%, when comparing GWRK with RK and KEDLN. Moreover, GWRK reduced the prediction error variance as compared to RK (20 vs. 31) and to KEDLN (20 vs. 39). We found that climate and topography had a major impact on the country’s sorghum yields. Further, the financial ability of farmers influenced the crop management and, thus, the sorghum crop yields. We concluded that GWRK effectively utilized information present in the covariate datasets and improved the accuracies of both the regional-scale mapping of sorghum yields and was able to quantify the associated uncertainty.     

Uncertainty analysis of runoff and sedimentation in a forested watershed using sequential uncertainty fitting method

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) was implemented in a small forested watershed of the Soan River Basin in northern Pakistan through application of the sequential uncertainty fitting(SUFI-2) method to investigate the associated uncertainty in runoff and sediment load estimation. The model was calibrated for a 10-year period(1991–2000) with an initial 4-year warm-up period(1987–1990), and was validated for the subsequent 10-year period(2001–2010). The model evaluation indices R~2(the coefficient of determination), NS(the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency), and PBIAS(percent bias) for stream flows simulation indicated that there was a good agreement between the measured and simulated flows. To assess the uncertainty in the model outputs, p-factor(a 95% prediction uncertainty, 95PPU) and r-factors(average wideness width of the 95 PPU band divided by the standard deviation of the observed values) were taken into account. The 95 PPU band bracketed 72% of the observed data during the calibration and 67% during the validation. The r-factor was 0.81 during the calibration and 0.68 during the validation. For monthly sediment yield, the model evaluation coefficients(R~2 and NS) for the calibration were computed as 0.81 and 0.79, respectively; for validation, they were 0.78 and 0.74, respectively. Meanwhile, the 95 PPU covered more than 60% of the observed sediment data during calibration and validation. Moreover, improved model prediction and parameter estimation were observed with the increased number of iterations. However, the model performance became worse after the fourth iterations due to an unreasonable parameter estimation. Overall results indicated the applicability of the SWAT model with moderate levels of uncertainty during the calibration and high levels during the validation. Thus, this calibrated SWAT model can be used for assessment of water balance components, climate change studies, and land use management practices.     

Toxic hexavalent chromium reduction by Bacillus pumilis,Cellulosimicrobium cellulans and Exiguobacterium

Three bacterial strains B acillus pumilis,Cellulosimicrobium cellulans and Exiguobacterium were investigated when grown in Luria-Bertani(LB) medium at 500 μg/m L Cr(VI). The hexavalent chromium reduction was measured by growing the strains in De Leo and Ehrlich(1994) medium at 200 and 400 μg/m L K 2 Cr O 4. The optimal Cr(VI) reduction by strains B. pumilis,Exigubacterium and C. cellulans was 51%,39%,and 41%,respectively,at an initial K2 Cr O 4 concentration of 200 μg/m L at p H 3 and temperature 37°C. At an initial chromate concentration of 400 μg/m L,the Cr(VI) reduction by strains B. pumilis,Exigubacterium and C. cellulans was 24%,19%,and 18%,respectively at p H 3 at 37°C after 24 h. These strains have ability to reduce toxic hexavalent chromium to the less mobile trivalent chromium at a wide range of different environmental conditions and can be useful for the treatment of contaminated wastewater and soils.     

Heterogeneous data management and modeling for the gravimetric geoid model: a review study in Pakistan

Arabian Journal of Geosciences - The gravimetric geoid model can be used as vertical reference in surveying and other related technologies. It is being developed by NESCOM in collaboration with the...     

Aggregative effect on rice production due to climate change using index number under indeterminate environment: a case study from Punjab,Pakistan

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - The existing Laspeyres index, Paasche’s index, and Fisher’s index under classical statistics cannot be applied when observations are indeterminate,...     

Primordial magnetic fields in the f2FF model in large field inflation under de Sitter and power law expansion

We use the f²FF model to study the generation of primordial magnetic fields (PMF) in the context of large field inflation (LFI), described by the potential, V ∼ Mϕ^p. We compute the magnetic and electric spectra for all possible values of the model parameters under de Sitter and power law expansion. We show that scale invariant PMF are not obtained in LFI to first order in the slow roll approximation, if we impose the constraint V (ϕ = 0) ∼ 0. Alternatively, if these constraints are relaxed, the scale invariant PMF can be generated. The associated electric field energy can fall below the energy density of inflation, ρ_Inf for the ranges of comoving wavenumbers, k > 8 × 10^–7 Mpc^–1 and k > 4 × 10^–6 Mpc^–1 in de Sitter and power law (PL) expansion. Further, it can drop below ρ_Inf on the ranges, e‐foldings N > 51, p < 1.66, p > 2.03, l₀ > 3 × 10⁵ M_Pl^–1(H_i < 3.3 × 10^–6 M_Pl), and M > 2.8 × 10^–3 M_Pl. All of the above ranges fit with the observational constraints. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Depositional Environment and Lithofacies Analyses of Eocene Lacustrine Shale in the Bohai Bay Basin: Insights from Mineralogy and Elemental Geochemistry

The effect of various depositional parameters including paleoclimate, paleosalinity and provenance, on the depositional mechanism of lacustrine shale is very important in reconstructing the depositional environment. The classification of shale lithofacies and the interpretation of shale depositional environment are key features used in shale oil and gas exploration and development activity. The lower 3^rd member of the Eocene Shahejie Formation(Es₃^x shale) was sel...     

Influence of drainage and root biomass on soil mechanical behavior in triaxial tests

Acta Geotechnica - This paper presents a study in which triaxial tests were performed on loess soil reinforced with natural roots. Triaxial compression tests were performed on soil specimens with...