An examination of the resettlement program at Mayon Volcano: what can we learn for sustainable volcanic risk reduction?

This paper investigates a resettlement program for communities impacted by volcanic hazards from Mayon volcano in the Philippines. Two resettlement sites are selected, the first FVR–FNM village (named after President Fidel V. Ramos and Mayor Florencio N. Munoz) was settled after the 1993 eruption. The second, Bungkaras Village, was settled after the 2006 eruption and associated typhoon Reming lahar event. These two sites were selected in order to explore the process of relocation over the short and longer term, although the main focus of the study is in the more recently settled Bungkaras Village. The overall aim is to determine if exposure to volcanic hazards has decreased without adding to vulnerability through loss of livelihood, community and culture, and exposure to new risks. A mixed method qualitative approach was utilized including semistructured interviews, participant observations, and a participatory workshop. This enabled an in-depth understanding of life and the challenges faced at the resettlement sites vis-à-vis the original settlements. In order to document the process of site selection, planning, and building, semistructured interviews were conducted with key government officials, emergency managers, and donors of the resettlement projects. This research demonstrates that a volcanic resettlement program must be directed by meaningful consultation with the impacted community who also share in the decision making. Successful resettlement must consider aspects of livelihood security, house design, and the availability of public and lifeline facilities.     

Charting the emergence of ‘global water initiatives’ in world water governance

Over the last century, the aperture of water governance has widened beyond local and regional schemes to include a growing number of dynamic organizations and events with a “global” scope. Until recently, little had been written about the historical development of global water governance, institutional connectivity within the field, or key organizational successes and failures as perceived by water experts. This paper provides water scientists, managers, policymakers, and those with an interest in international water issues with an overview of global initiatives. It charts the emergence of a set of institutions and events, referred to as “global water initiatives,” or GWIs, using a survey of water experts and other research. Institutional diversity among GWIs is described by defining four distinct types of initiatives and specific differences in scope and programmatic orientation. This overview also entails the historical paradigms of water management, evaluation of the results of the growth and proliferation of numerous new GWIs in recent decades, and some recommendations for supporting and sustaining GWI efforts in order to foster and improve multilevel water management in the future.     

Diagnostic analysis of future climate scenarios applied to urban flooding in the Chicago metropolitan area

Past heavy precipitation events in the Chicago metropolitan area have caused significant flood-related economic and environmental damages. A key component in flood management policies and actions is determining flood magnitudes for specified return periods. This is a particularly difficult task in areas with a complex and changing climate and land-use, such as the Chicago metropolitan area. The standard design storm methodology based on the NOAA Atlas 14 and ISWS Bulletin 70 has been used in the past to estimate flood hydrographs with variable return periods in this region. In a changing climate, however, these publications may not be accurate. This study presents and illustrates a methodology for diagnostic analysis of future climate scenarios in the framework of urban flooding, and assesses the corresponding uncertainties. First, the design storms are calculated using data downscaled by a regional climate model (RCM) at 30-km spacing for the present and 2050s under the IPCC A1Fi (high) and B1 (low) emissions scenarios. Next, the corresponding flood discharges at six watersheds in suburban Chicago are estimated using a hydrologic event model. The resulting scenarios in flood frequency were first assessed through a set of diagnostic tests for precipitation timing and frequency. The study did not reveal any significant changes in the 2050s in the average timing of heavy storms, but their regularity decreased. The average timing did not exhibit any significant spatial variability throughout the region. The precipitation frequency analysis revealed distinct differences between the northern and southeastern subregions of the Chicago metropolitan area. The quantiles in the northern subregion averaged for 2-year, 5-year, and 10-year return periods exhibited a 20% and 16% increase in daily precipitation for scenarios B1 and A1Fi, respectively. The southeastern subregion, however, exhibited a decrease of 12% for scenario B1 and a minor increase of 3% for scenario A1Fi. The hydrologic effects of changing precipitation on the flood quantiles were illustrated using six small watersheds in the region. The relative increases or decreases in precipitation translated into even larger relative increases or decreases in flood peaks, due to the nonlinear nature of the rainfall-runoff process. Simulations using multiple climate models, for longer periods, finer spatio-temporal resolution, and larger areal coverage could be used to more accurately account for numerous uncertainties in the precipitation and flood projections.     

Photointerpretation of Tertiary structures in platform cover strata of interior Oscar II Land, Spitsbergen

A structural map of Oscar II Land compiled using black and white, stereo-pair air photos and other available information sources suggests the existence of three structural zones within the deformed platform cover strata. The western zone consists of basement involved overthrusts of complex geometry in the north large-scale folds of platform cover strata with a stepped, down to the east profile in the south. The central zone consists primarily of folds within Kapp Starostin Fm. and overlying Triassic strata that likely formed above a subhorizontal décollement within Gipshuken Fm. strata. Farther to the east thrusts emplace Permian Kapp Starostin Fm. strata over Triassic strata. This zone probably represents stratigraphic climb of the basal decollement. Conservative estimates of shortening for the central and eastern zones are in the 15-25% range. The contribution of the western zone structures to overall Tertiary shortening depends on the geometry of faults underlying the stepped folds and is uncertain at present.
Changes along strike are in part due to differential levels of erosion and changes in transport direction, but also probably important was variable thickness of the platform cover strata involved (less to the north) and the availability of incompetent horizons along which thrust-fiats could form. Two areas with anomalous structural trends may represent oblique ramps.     

A storm-related origin for the Jurassic Brentskardhaugen Bed of Spitsbergen, Norway

The laterally persistent but thin, Jurassic age (Bathonian-Callovian) Brentskardhaugen bed is poorly sorted (often with mud to cobble size), and is crudely normally and/or reversely graded without internal discontinuities. These traits may indicate a short-lived depositional event, and are inconsistent with an origin as a basal, transgressive gravel lag formed in a terrestrial or shoreline setting. Mega-storm events on a shallow marine shelf with an underlying condensed section may account for the poor sorting, grading, stratigraphic position and remanie character of the bed.     

Sediment provenance in a tropical fluvial and marine context by magnetic 'fingerprinting' of transportable sand fractions

The sources and fluxes of sediment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from north‐eastern Australian rivers have been the subject of much concern and study, with the large catchments of the Burdekin and Fitzroy Rivers thought to be the key sources at present. Here, the utility of newly developed magnetic ‘fingerprinting’ methods for identifying sediment provenance, both onshore and offshore, and in association with individual large flood events, is investigated. Within the Burdekin catchment, sediments are mobilized from different subcatchments by runoff generated by intense, localized rainfall events. Magnetic measurements were made on untreated and acid‐treated samples of river channel sediments within the Burdekin River subcatchments and from the estuarine and inner shelf depocentres of Burdekin River sediments. The acid treatment removes all discrete magnetic particles and coatings, and leaves magnetic inclusions (protected within host silicate grains) as the basis of the measured magnetic signature of a sample. The magnetic properties of the acid‐treated samples display statistically distinct sediment provenance groupings. Sand samples from the Upper Burdekin River appear magnetically distinct from samples from tributaries of the Burdekin (e.g. Hann Creek, Fanning River) and also from nearby coastal rivers, including the Haughton. Suspended sand samples from a Burdekin flood event in 2000 appear to have a different source compared with those from floods in 1998 and 1999. Comparisons of the terrestrial, acid‐treated sand fractions with the same, acid‐treated, sand‐size fractions from transects taken offshore suggest that the surface sediments in Upstart Bay and Bowling Green Bay have different sources. Some of these sources are as yet unidentified but may represent the unsampled, lower‐discharge south‐western Burdekin subcatchments, and/or along‐shore drift of sand from the south, perhaps even from the Fitzroy River, over millennial timescales of cyclone pumping. The magnetic inclusion method precludes any obfuscation or confounding of sediment source, which might arise from hydraulic sorting and/or post‐depositional magnetic diagenesis or authigenesis.     

Modeling the Effects of Oyster Reefs and Breakwaters on Seagrass Growth

Seagrass beds have declined in Chesapeake Bay, USA as well as worldwide over the past century. Increased seston concentrations, which decrease light penetration, are likely one of the main causes of the decline in Chesapeake Bay. It has been hypothesized that dense populations of suspension-feeding bivalves, such as eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica), may filter sufficient seston from the water to reduce light attenuation and enhance seagrass growth. Furthermore, eastern oyster populations can form large three-dimensional reef-like structures that may act like breakwaters by attenuating waves, thus decreasing sediment resuspension. We developed a quasi-three-dimensional Seagrass-Waves-Oysters-Light-Seston (SWOLS) model to investigate whether oyster reefs and breakwaters could improve seagrass growth by reducing seston concentrations. Seagrass growth potential (SGP), a parameter controlled by resuspension-induced turbidity, was calculated in simulations in which wave height, oyster abundance, and reef/breakwater configuration were varied. Wave height was the dominant factor influencing SGP, with higher waves increasing sediment resuspension and decreasing SGP. Submerged breakwaters parallel with the shoreline improved SGP in the presence of 0.2 and 0.4 m waves when sediment resuspension was dominated by wave action, while submerged groins perpendicular to the shoreline improved SGP under lower wave heights (0.05 and 0.1 m) when resuspension was dominated by along-shore tidal currents. Oyster-feeding activity did not affect SGP, due to the oysters’ distance from the seagrass bed and reduced oyster filtration rates under either low or high sediment concentrations. Although the current implementation of the SWOLS model has simplified geometry, the model does demonstrate that the interaction between oyster filtration and along-shore circulation, and between man-made structures and wave heights, should be considered when managing seagrass habitats, planning seagrass restoration projects, and choosing the most suitable methods to protect shorelines from erosion.