Impact of the Atatürk Dam Lake on Agro-Meteorological Aspects of the Southeastern Anatolia Region,Turkey

In this study, the spatial and temporal impacts of the Atatürk Dam on agro-meteorological aspects of the Southeastern Anatolia region have been investigated. Change detection and environmental impacts due to water-reserve changes in Atatürk Dam Lake have been determined and evaluated using multi-temporal Landsat satellite imageries and meteorological datasets within a period of 1984–2011. These time series have been evaluated for three time periods. Dam construction period constitutes the first part of the study. Land cover/use changes especially on agricultural fields under the Atatürk Dam Lake and its vicinity have been identified between the periods of 1984–1992. The second period comprises the 10-year period after the completion of filling up the reservoir in 1992. At this period, Landsat and meteorological time-series analyses are examined to assess the impact of the Atatürk Dam Lake on selected irrigated agricultural areas. For the last 9-year period from 2002 to 2011, the relationships between seasonal water-reserve changes and irrigated plains under changing climatic factors primarily driving vegetation activity (monthly, seasonal, and annual fluctuations of rainfall rate, air temperature, humidity) on the watershed have been investigated using a 30-year meteorological time series. The results showed that approximately 368 km² of agricultural fields have been affected because of inundation due to the Atatürk Dam Lake. However, irrigated agricultural fields have been increased by 56.3% of the total area (1552 of 2756 km²) on Harran Plain within the period of 1984–2011.     

Simulation of permafrost changes on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau,China, over the past three decades

ABSTRACT

Permafrost is one of the largest elements of the terrestrial cryosphere and is extremely sensitive to climate change. Based on mean annual ground temperature (MAGT) data from 189 boreholes on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), terrain factors, and climate data from China Meteorological Forcing Dataset, we propose a new mean annual ground air temperature (MAGAT) statistical model between meteorological parameters with subsurface temperatures to simulate permafrost distribution and variation of MAGT on the QTP over the past three decades (1981–2010). Validation of the model with MAGT data from 13 boreholes and permafrost maps of the QTP indicated that the MAGAT model is applicable to simulate the distribution and evolution of permafrost on the QTP. Simulation results show that the spatiotemporal MAGT of permafrost significantly increased by 0.37°C, or 0.25°C/10 yr, and the total area of permafrost decreased by 2.48?×?10⁵?km² on the QTP over the past three decades. Regionally, the changes of permafrost in the southwestern QTP were greater than other regions of the QTP.     

MacLeod,MI4, and the Directorate of Military Survey 1919–1943

Abstract

The organization lineage of the UK Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency can be traced back to the seventeenth century. For much of this time the organization, bearing a succession of different titles, formed only a very small section of the armed forces, and, until the World War of 1914–1918, its main duties were the creation and maintenance of a map collection and the acquisition of geographical data of foreign countries. The survey and mapping innovations made during the war greatly enlarged the remit of what was now termed the Geographical Section General Staff (MI4). This paper outlines the work of MI4 in the inter-war years taking account of the principal personalities involved, and traces the controversial background to the creation in 1943 of the Directorate of Military Survey — the immediate predecessor of the DGIA.     

Fifty Years of the British Cartographic Society, 1963–2013

The British Cartographic Society has been in existence for 50 years. During that time it has sought to pursue its central aim of promoting the art and science of cartography through a variety of publications and events to its members and beyond. The Society has been on a journey of continual development in response to the way maps are created and used. In this short history we touch on some of the factors that have influenced its evolution and what the future may hold.     

How Large Was the Earth in the Sixteenth Century? The Length of the Degree of Latitude in the Iberian Cartography of the Renaissance

In this paper, the results of a cartometric analysis of a number of Portuguese and Spanish charts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are presented and conclusions are drawn concerning the length of the degree of latitude adopted in the Iberian nautical cartography of the Renaissance. Under the light of what we know about the navigational and charting methods of the time, a new interpretation of the textual and cartographic sources is proposed. Rather than being the result of technical considerations or precise measurements, the adoption of the various standards during this long period appears to be no more than the echoes of the traditional models of the Earth and of the political disputes between Portugal and Spain.     

A Review of the Policies on the Private Colleges of China

One of the most impor tant factors impacting the development of today‘s private higher education in China is that there are not enough policies to support in.Then,the history of private higher educationin Nanjing Nationalist Government(1927-1749)is focused on.     

Monitoring recovery after earthquakes through the integration of remote sensing,GIS, and ground observations: the case of L’Aquila (Italy)

The usefulness of remote sensing (RS), geographical information systems, and ground observations for monitoring changes in urban areas has been demonstrated through many examples over the last two decades. Research has generally focused on the relief phase following a disaster, but we have instead investigated the subsequent phases involving early recovery, recovery, and development. Our aim was to determine to what extent integration of the available tools, techniques, and methods can be used to efficiently monitor the progress of recovery following an earthquake. Changes in buildings within the Italian city of L’Aquila following the 2009 earthquake were identified from Earth observation data and are used as indicators of progress in the recovery process. These changes were identified through (1) visual analysis, (2) automated change detection using a set of decision rules formulated within an object-based image analysis framework, and (3) validation based on a combination of visual and semiautomated interpretations. An accuracy assessment of the automated analysis showed a producer accuracy of 81% (error of omission: 19%) and a user accuracy of 55% (error of commission: 45%). The use of RS made it possible for the identification of changes to be spatially exhaustive, and also to increase the number of categories used for a recovery index. In addition, using RS allowed the area requiring extensive fieldwork (to monitor the progress of the recovery process) to be reduced.     

Celebration on the 50th Anniversary of Establishment of Surveying and Mapping Discipline, Wuhan University

Through 50 years＇ untiring efforts and innovation, the surveying and mapping discipline of Wuhan University has undergone an extraordinary course. In October 2006, she will celebrate her 50th birthday. On this occasion, we would like to pay our great tribute and express our sincere gratitude to officials at different levels, alumni at home and abroad, people and friends of all walks of life, who have been supporting the construction and development of the discipline over the years.     

Application of Remote Sensing and GIS Technology to the Study of Desertification of Arable Lands in North Shaanxi, China

The policy of the Chinese government concerning the horizontal expansion of the cultivated land through the reclamation of desert soils result in a total increase of 665. 985 km^2 during the period 1987-1999 in North Shaanxi. This increase is less than the loss in arable land by urbanization. The accelerated rate of change in agricultural areas calls for more rapid surveys of urbanization and loss of arable land. Remote sensing has a number of advantages over ground-based methods for such surveys. The multi-scale concept of remote sensing data help us study the problem in four towns. Several maps were produced to analyze the situation of urban coverage in different times. The evaluation of the status, rate and risk of urbanization are based on an accepted average of urban increase as 2% of population growth per year.     

GIMMS NDVI time series reveal the extent,duration, and intensity of “blooming desert” events in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert,Northern Chile

The “blooming desert”, or the explosive development and flowering of ephemeral herbaceous and some woody desert species during years with abnormally high accumulated rainfall, is a spectacular biological phenomenon of the hyper-arid Atacama Desert (northern Chile) attracting botanists, ecologists, geo-scientists, and the general public from all over the world. However, the number of “blooming deserts”, their geographical distribution and spatio-temporal patterns have not been quantitatively assessed to date. Here, we used NDVI data from the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) project to reconstruct the annual land surface phenology (LSP) of the Atacama Desert using a non-parametric statistical approach. From the reconstructed LSP, we detected the “blooming deserts” as positive NDVI anomalies and assessed three dimensions of the events: their temporal extent, intensity of “greening” and spatial extent. We identified 13 “blooming deserts” between 1981 and 2015, of which three (1997–98, 2002–03, and 2011) can be considered major events according to these metrics. The main event occurred in 2011, spanning 180 days between July and December 2011, and spread over 11,136 km² of Atacama dry plains. “Blooming deserts” in Atacama have been triggered by the accumulation of precipitation during a period of 2 to 12 months before and during the events. The proposed three-dimensional approach allowed us to characterize different types of “blooming deserts”: with longer episodes or larger spatial distribution or with different “greening” intensities. Its flexibility to reconstruct different LSP and detect anomalies makes this method a useful tool to study these rare phenomena in other deserts in the world also.     

Monitoring the Deformation of Cableways

One type of aerial cableway consists of a continuous cable,which works at the same time as carrying cable and drawing cable.This kind of cableway is supported by many towers,which divide the total length in linear sections.even small deviations from the planed layout can increase the strain of the cable and the danger of derailments.The deviations of the position of the towers from the planed layout are due to local sliding or sinking of the foundation or other mechanical movements.Up to now the axis of the cableways were periodically measured by traditional methods. The goal of this project is to demonstrate the possibility of measuring the axis of a cableway with GPS techniques,while the cable is moving.The results show that the proposed measuring device provides precise results in a simple and reliable way.     

Estimation of mass change trends in the Earth’s system on the basis of GRACE satellite data, with application to Greenland

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission measures the Earth’s gravity field since March 2002. We propose a new filtering procedure for post-processing GRACE-based monthly gravity field solutions provided in the form of spherical harmonic coefficients. The procedure is tuned for the optimal estimation of linear trends and other signal components that show a systematic behavior over long time intervals. The key element of the developed methodology is the statistically optimal Wiener-type filter which makes use of the full covariance matrices of noise and signal. The developed methodology is applied to determine the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet, both per drainage system and integrated, as well as the mass balance of the ice caps on the islands surrounding Greenland. The estimations are performed for three 2-year time intervals (2003–2004, 2005–2006, and 2007–2008), as well as for the 6-year time interval (2003–2008). The study confirms a significant difference in the behavior of the drainage systems over time. The average 6-year rate of mass loss in Greenland is estimated as 165 ± 15 Gt/year. The rate of mass loss of the ice caps on Ellesmere Island (together with Devon Island), Baffin Island, Iceland, and Svalbard is found to be 22 ± 4, 21 ± 6, 17 ± 9, and 6 ± 2 Gt/year, respectively. All these estimates are corrected for the effect of glacial isostatic adjustment.     

Reflection on the development of the tool kits of Bertin’s methods

ABSTRACT

Bertin’s first book, Semiology of Graphics, was published in 1967. His second book, Graphics and Graphic Information Processing, was subsequently published in 1977. The word “processing” in the title of the second book is interesting because in those days there were no personal computers with an interactive display system. But in Bertin’s laboratory there were many kinds of tool kits – basically manually developed thematic maps and data analysis. Bertin’s methods were concerned with making a thematic map and data visualization. Maps, and more generally graphics, were represented by sets of cartographic symbols. Thus, they are abstractions that demand both theoretical and technical literacy to represent and understand them. If the representation is systematic, a sort of tool kit might be necessary, because the representation demands consistency based on the theory. Otherwise a cartographer faces the risk of an unstable and unintelligible representation. In this paper, we discuss the discrimination between tool kits intended either for an automated system or a process assisting system. The latter process might be useful and necessary to develop a graphic way of thinking. This investigation refers to Bertin’s books, materials conserved at the National Archives in Paris, and other related software developed later.

Abbreviation: EHESS: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales inherited Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes since 1975     

Geology of the area around Badami,Bijapur District,Karnataka state—A study based on interpretation of remotely sensed data

Geological studies in the area around Badami, Bijapur District, Karnataka, were carried out with the help of Landsat imagery and aerial photographs. The study are forms a part Kaladgi Basin which is located on the northernmost fringes of the exposed Dharwar Craton. Archaen Peninsular Gneiss and intrusive Granodiorite/Granites (≈Clospet Granite) form the basement for the Middle to Late Proterozoic Kaladgi Super Group sediments which are, in turn, overlain in the north by the Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene Deccan flood basalt lavas. Geological mapping of the study area and inferences about the structural setup were primarily based on interpretation of the remotely sensed data. The combined interpretative study of Landsat imagery and aerial photographs was instrumental in mapping of the lithostratigraphic units exposed in the study area along with the structures associated with them.     

“Yu laid out the lands:” georeferencing the Chinese Yujitu [Map of the Tracks of Yu] of 1136

In an historically contextualized overview of the earliest extant version of the Yujitu, engraved on stone under the Liu Yu regime but believed to be a copy of a Northern Song map, the paper analyzes factors that complicate its georeferencing. The paper introduces a new algorithm for nonlinear georeferencing, applying it to 45 points and finding that the placement of sites on the north-south axis must have been based on latitudinal observation. Despite the Yujitu's startlingly modern appearance, the paper finds that there are areas in which it reflects a loyalty to classical texts.     

Cartographica incognita: ‘Dijital Jedis’, Satellite Salvation and the Mysteries of the ‘Missing Maps’

Like Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) and Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) crowdsourced collaborative mapping is often imagined as an alternative to conventional cartographic practice. This paper examines collaborative mapping projects designed to assist in humanitarian work and respond to catastrophes. These projects, their technological complexity and wide range of collaborators, including affected locals, international Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and anonymous online contributors, invite closer consideration. In this article I unpick the gnarly question of how the remote sourcing of information through cloud collaboration and satellite imagery jostles with grounded work encouraging local control of local geoinformation. My critical analysis of these projects explores: (1) justifications for action – what is being promised through digital mapping as aid or satellite salvation?; (2) forms of participation – the role of ‘hotties’ ‘nodders’ and ‘digital jedis’; and (3) contingencies of mapping practices and the assemblages of actors within which they are embedded – as the mysteries of the ‘missing maps’. The conclusion considers differing approaches towards the inclusion of local knowledges within participatory digital aid mapping and identifies remote mapping practices that are both incognito and incognisant.     

Mapping for history: the influence of the 7th Field Survey Company’s 1917 operation maps on the historiography of the 3rd Battle of Gaza

ABSTRACT

During Palestine Campaign of World War I, the British Army’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force produced a series of operation maps to track and control the progress of their offensive into Palestine. These maps demonstrated innovation in both their form and function, and they have been referenced and reproduced by both map scholars and military historians ever since. Leaning on J.B. Harley and Matthew Edney’s ideas about critical map history, this essay provides a critical examination of these operation maps to illuminate the sociocultural context of their creation and examines the maps’ influence over the broader historiography of the Palestine Campaign. In doing so it highlights the interdisciplinary value of critical map histories.     

Development of the second-order derivatives of the Earth’s potential in the local north-oriented reference frame in orthogonal series of modified spherical harmonics

The second-order derivatives of the Earth’s potential in the local north-oriented reference frame are expanded in series of modified spherical harmonics. Linear relations are derived between the spectral coefficients of these series and the spectrum of the geopotential. On the basis of these relations, recurrence procedures are developed for evaluating the geopotential coefficients from the spectrum of each derivative and, inversely, for simulating the latter from a known geopotential model. Very simple structure of the derived expressions for the derivatives is convenient for estimating the geopotential coefficients by the least-squares procedure, at a certain step of processing satellite gradiometry data. Due to the orthogonality of the new series, the quadrature formula approach can be also applied, which allows avoidance of aliasing errors caused by the series truncation. The spectral coefficients of the derivatives are evaluated on the basis of the derived relations from the geopotential models EGM96 and EIGEN-CG01C at a mean orbital sphere of the GOCE satellite. Various characteristics of the spectra are studied corresponding to the EGM96 model. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Contribution to the Investigation of Structure and Origin of the East African Graben by Gravimetry

IntroductionGeophysics as its nameindicates has to do withthe physics of the earth and its surrounding at-mosphere . Gilbert’s discovery that the earth be-haves as a great and rather irregular magnet andNewton’s theory of gravitation may be said toconstitute the beginning of geophysics . Miningand the search of metals date from the earliestti mes , but the scientific record began with thepublicationin 1956 of the famous treatise De remetallica by Georgius Agricola , whichfor manyyears was …