The regional differentiation of the German Democratic Republic — Structure · dynamics · development

In this paper aspects of the regional differentiation within the German Democratic Republic are presented, and the structure, dynamics and development of this differentiation are shown. The GDR founded after World War II comprises a territory of 108,000 sq.km with 16.7 million inhabitants. At the initial stage, its territorial structure was marked by a polarization between the industrialized regions in the South and the backward agricultural regions of the North and the East. Under socialist condition, however, his regional differentiation has been changed during the last three decades due to various basic and sequent processes. The foundation and development of a nationally-owned sector, particularly in industry, and a cooperative sector in agriculture, the industrialization of former agrarian regions, demographic processes, and a changing settlement structure has contributed to this development. The present regional differentiation is analysed by a new probabilistic approach, and seven macro-regions of the GDR are described.     

Spatial heterogeneity in near surface aerosol characteristics across the Brahmaputra valley

In order to examine the spatial variability of the aerosol characteristics across the Brahmaputra valley, a land campaign was conducted during late winter (February 3–March 2) 2011. Measurements of particulate matter (PM, PM₁₀, PM_2.5) and black carbon (BC) concentrations were made onboard an interior redesigned vehicle. The length of the campaign trail stretched about 700 km, covering the longitude belt of 89.97°–95.55°E and latitude belt of 26.1°–27.6°N, comprising 13 measurement locations. The valley is divided into three sectors longitudinally: western sector (R1: 89.97°–91.75°E), middle sector (R2: 92.5°–94.01°E) and eastern sector (R3: 94.63°–95.55°E). Spatial heterogeneity in aerosol distribution has been observed with higher PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 concentrations at the western and middle sectors compared to the eastern sector. The locations in the western sector are found to be rich in BC compared to the other two sectors and there is a gradual decrease in BC concentrations from west to east of the Brahmaputra valley. Two hotspots within the western and middle sectors with high PM and BC concentrations have been identified. The associated physico-optical parameters of PM reveal abundance of PM_2.5 aerosols along the entire valley. High population density in the western and middle sectors, together with the contribution of remote aerosols, leads to higher anthropogenic aerosols over those regions. Spectral Radiation-Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS) slightly underestimates the measured PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 at the eastern sector while the model overestimates the measurements at a number of locations in the western sector. In general, BC is underestimated by the model. The variation of BC within the campaign trail has not been adequately captured by the model leading to higher variance in the western locations as compared to the middle and eastern locations.     

雅鲁藏布江加查段河流地貌对构造运动和气候的响应

通过对雅鲁藏布江加查段河流地貌和构造调查发现,该区具有平行状水系格局,河谷地貌以峡谷和宽谷相间为主要特征,经历了碰撞、挤压和伸展构造演化过程,产生了褶皱-逆冲、走滑剪切、韧性剪切、正断层等构造变形样式.该段河谷地貌的形成演化受构造运动和气候等影响.雅鲁藏布江加查段河流至少从上新世以来沿构造运动产生的不同性质断裂构造溯源...     

Resource potential of one of Earth's final remaining frontiers: the Siberian Platform

The Siberian Platform, covering a vast area of East Siberia (Russian Federation), represents one of the largest underexplored regions in Asia. Previous expeditions and regional surveys in the twentieth century, however, suggest that the Siberian Platform and adjacent orogenic belts hold significant potential for large undiscovered gold, copper, diamond and industrial mineral deposits, along with extensive oil and gas fields. The remoteness of the region, its inhospitable winter climate, and a major lack of modern infrastructure and mining methods have long hampered exploration in this area. These factors, along with the additional investment required and political uncertainties involved with operating in Russia, have deterred many international mining companies from considering the Siberian Platform as a viable region for exploration and mining. However, as mining industry paradigms change into a green, battery metals‐driven commodity sector, and modern mining methods are developed, increasing efficiency at a lower cost, the significant undiscovered mineral potential of the Siberian Platform could elevate the region to the forefront of mineral exploration and mining in the future.     

Improving digital tools for Quaternary field survey: a case study of the Rodoretto Valley (NW Italy)

In the modern geological mapping activities geomatics technologies can facilitate data collection during field survey and avoid practical problems related to the transposition of that data onto topographic maps. This paper describes an innovative tool (the Solid True OrthoPhoto; STOP) for the structured acquisition and recording of geological field survey data that is immediately available in a GIS framework. An experimental software graphical interface has been developed to manage the STOP application during the survey. The benefits of the STOP system were tested by producing a digital map of the Quaternary formations and landforms in a 3-km² sector of the Rodoretto Valley, a minor tributary of the Germanasca Valley, northwestern Italy.     

Regional Population and Employment Change in Australia 1991–2001: Inertia in the Face of Rapid Change?

Analyses of the patterns of national population change have been influenced by the US experience where major differences between a older north and a newer south are prominent in many studies. The current paper argues that these perspectives overlook some inertia in the pattern of population and jobs. Drawing upon US and European experience the paper explores the pattern of change in Australia. There it finds that population has favoured newer locations but that gains in share of national population have not been large. At the same time some of the older regions have maintained population share, or at worst recorded small declines. That broad insight is enriched by sectoral analysis where it is clear that only the retail sector has experienced the large gains in new regions; employment change in other sectors showed the links with population change are weak. The paper concludes that simple notions of new region population and employment gains are oversimplified and overlook the substantial development around established centres. In particular it is possible that the old regions are re-structuring their spatial form and spilling over statistical boundaries and so actually maintaining established role in national networks.     

Regional Population and Employment Change in Australia 1991–2001: Inertia in the Face of Rapid Change?

Analyses of the patterns of national population change have been influenced by the US experience where major differences between a older north and a newer south are prominent in many studies. The current paper argues that these perspectives overlook some inertia in the pattern of population and jobs. Drawing upon US and European experience the paper explores the pattern of change in Australia. There it finds that population has favoured newer locations but that gains in share of national population have not been large. At the same time some of the older regions have maintained population share, or at worst recorded small declines. That broad insight is enriched by sectoral analysis where it is clear that only the retail sector has experienced the large gains in new regions; employment change in other sectors showed the links with population change are weak. The paper concludes that simple notions of new region population and employment gains are oversimplified and overlook the substantial development around established centres. In particular it is possible that the old regions are re-structuring their spatial form and spilling over statistical boundaries and so actually maintaining established role in national networks.     

Creating a diversified community: Community safety activity in Musashino City,Japan

The recent development of the third sector and the government encouragement of it have attracted the attention of many researchers. In particular, geographical research has examined how the third sector has been affected or changed by government policies or guidelines in recent political economic contexts, especially neo-liberalism and also neo-communitarianism. While much research has demonstrated that the relationship between the government and the third sector is becoming closer, and has considered the problematic impact on the sector or the community, recent studies have described a much more complicated relationship and its consequence. In response, this paper attempts to explore alternative effects of government encouragement at the local community level, through utilising empirical data on recent voluntary activity regarding community safety by the Voluntary Organisations for Crime Prevention Patrol (VOCPP) in Musashino City, a suburb of Tokyo in Japan. Before focusing on the case study in Musashino, the paper briefly outlines key geographical literature on the third sector, and also examines recent expectations of Japan’s third sector using Japanese political documents. Finally, the paper argues that the encouragement of government in fact has the potential to work as a ‘catalyst’ leading to a more independent third sector, with a geographically and organisationally less hierarchical structure, and may also assist in developing a more diversified community.     

Late Quaternary coastal and inner shelf stratigraphy, Apalachicola Delta region, Florida

Since the beginning of the Tertiary the sedimentology of the Gulf of Mexico Basin has been dominated by the depositional activity of the Mississippi River. The sedimentologic influence of the Mississippi diminishes with distance east or west of the Louisiana shelf, however. The Texas and northwest Florida shelf margins, for example, are characterized by a series of smaller deltas. In the inner and mid-shelf areas of these regions the near-surface sedimentary units include infilled stream channels and small deltas. Such features are commonly observed in sub-bottom seismic records from the middle and inner shelf of the northeastern Gulf, along the Apalachicola River coast of northwest Florida.

The Apalachicola River is the principal source of clastic sediment to the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. During the late Holocene virtually all of the river's sediment load has been deposited in the modern Apalachicola Delta and in the river's estuary, Apalachicola Bay, which has been filling rapidly. During late Quaternary lowstands, prior to the development of the modern estuary, the river traversed the present-day inner and mid-shelf, incising a network of channels. Based on seismic records, many of these buried shelf channels were considerably larger than their modern counterparts.

During lowstands the Apalachicola River also deposited coarse sediment on the shelf as deltaic and associated river-mouth sediments. These deposits comprise the modern near-surface sediments of the inner and middle shelf. An investigation of subsurface sedimentary features observed in seismic profiles provides details on the late Quaternary development of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico shelf. Seismic reflection profiles obtained on the inner and mid-shelf regions of northwest Florida reveal an approximately 50 m thickness of late Quaternary sediments, comprised of two and sometimes three discrete clastic sequences. Two lower fluvial sequences total as much as 40–50 m in thickness. A transgressive marine sand deposit overlies the older features in some places, varying in thickness from 0 to 5 m. Identification of seismic facies, combined with stratigraphic data from a suite of coastal boreholes, enables correlation of offshore seismic stratigraphic units with late Tertiary and Quaternary coastal stratigraphy.     

A method to determine warm and cool steppe biomes from pollen data; application to the Mediterranean and Kazakhstan regions

An objective method for the assignment of pollen spectra to appropriate biomes has been published recently. The aim of this paper is to improve the distinction between warm and cool steppes, thus refining vegetation and climate reconstruction, particularly during the Last Glacial Maximum. A set of modern pollen spectra from the Mediterranean and Kazakhstan regions, dominated today by open vegetation types, has been analysed statistically in order to relate pollen taxa abundances to warm and cool grass/shrub plant functional types (PFTs). A statistical test using modern pollen data shows that the method is able to distinguish between cool and warm steppe biomes with a high degree of confidence. The method has been applied to two fossil pollen records. The results of this exercise showed that cool steppe dominated in central Greece between 18 000 and 13 000 yr BP, while in western Iran the vegetation was at the boundary between cool and warm steppes. These vegetation types were replaced by warm mixed forest in Greece and warm steppe in Iran after that time span. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimate of global oil resource and the forecast for global oil production in the 21st century

A probabilistic estimate of the global conventional recoverable oil resource was performed based on the concept of the Earth's sedimentary cover as a holistic system. A forecast for global oil production was made for the period till the end of the 21st century. It has been shown that the global oil production will most likely peak at 4.2–4.7 billion tons a year in 2020–2030. For that period, the top oil-producing regions in the world will be the Persian Gulf, West and East Siberia. The upstream sector at that time will turn its focus to the Arctic shelf. Annual oil production could be maintained at a level of 4.2–4.5 billion tons till the late 2040s.     

How Viable will the Agricultural economy be in the New State of Palestine?

A key objective of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Palestine has been to render the economy of these regions dependent on the Israeli economy and thus hamper their economic development. Large areas of land have been confiscated or expropriated by the Israeli authorities to establish Jewish settlements. Other severe measures imposed include control of irrigation water and obstacles for the Arab agricultural and industrial sector in the Occupied Territories aimed at preventing Arab competition with Israeli products.Palestinian agriculturalists have met this challenge and have worked to achieve higher production levels in agriculture. Nonetheless, economic development there was blocked, and many agriculturalists sought employment inside Israel. The Intifada since December 1987 has aimed at encouraging Arab economic independence and intensification of efforts to meet national requirements of greater self-sufficiency in subsistence crops and stimulation of agriculture-related industries. The Intifada is thus functioning as a stimulus to development and economic viability.     

Iron-manganese formations in the Baikal region

This work is a review of the modern concepts of the accumulation of Fe and Mn in the Baikal bottom sediments and the regularities of formation of iron-manganese (including phosphate-bearing) nodules in the lake. Special attention is given to the probable participation of hydrothermal water in this process and the genesis of ancient nodules deeply buried in the Baikal sediments. The possible relationship between the shore ores and the nodules in the bottom sediments in the adjacent Baikal regions has been first shown.     

Back to the Future? Privatisation and the domestication of water in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, 1900-2000

In Zambia’s Copperbelt as in most of the developing world, the water sector is undergoing reforms targeted at promoting an active participation of the private sector. Conventional wisdom suggests that the private sector will be better able to achieve universal access as opposed to the public sector which hitherto has failed to deliver. Using archival materials from the Copperbelt Province, this paper however argues that in countries like Zambia where economic enterprise was driven by private capital, access to water has always been tied to an active involvement of the private sector. The full story of failure to provide universal access to potable water cannot be told without examining this historical role of the private sector and its relationship with the public sector. At the same time, contemporary policy debates can benefit from the resonance of historical debates around economic efficiency, demand management, health and access in the production and consumption of water.     

Monitoring ground subsidence induced by salt mining in the city of Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Salt mining induced ground subsidence is a major hazard in the city of Tuzla (Northeastern sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and its surroundings since 1950, when solution mining of salt deposits by boreholes began. An analysis of the large (and never before processed) amount of topographical data collected during two periods: from 1956 to the Balkan War, and from 1992 to 2003 has been made. The analysis reveals a cumulative subsidence as high as 12 m during the whole period, causing damage to buildings and infrastructures within an area that includes a large portion of the historical town. Human-induced subsidence, (with rates up to 40 cm/year in the most developed area), has been investigated to recognize the areas affected by the sinking phenomenon and to produce a subsidence hazard. The time series of topographical observations have been enlarged by conducting new surveys in the urban area by modern space-geodesy methodologies, such as static relative GPS (Global Positioning System) and high resolution satellite imageries. The GPS monitoring started in 2004 and detected a decrease in the subsidence rates to 20 cm/year related to the reduction of salt exploitation. There is close correlation between the average subsidence rate and the annual amount of salt extracted.     

云南宣威-曲靖段高速公路遥感选线应用研究

在国家高速公路G56杭州至瑞丽公路宣威-曲靖段前期选线研究中,以日本ALOS卫星遥感图像为主要信息源,对其进行遥感数据处理。依据遥感解译结果,结合野外调查验证资料,对宣威-曲靖段进行了工程地质区划分与评价,确定地质灾害较易发区：滑坡区、地表岩溶塌陷区、隐伏岩溶区、煤矿采空塌陷区;依据公路工程评价因素,将工程区划分为4个工程地质区、9个工程地质亚区。通过对线路走廊带及主要工点工程地质条件的评价,对工程设计推荐线与三段局部比较线（C、D、E）方案进行优选,最终确定了在推存线方案中可考虑采用C、E局部方案的理想线路。     

Ground‐based InSAR reveals conduit pressurization pulses at Stromboli volcano

At Stromboli volcano (Southern Italy), only few minor precursors (gas output) have been identified for ‘major’ Strombolian explosions. We use ground‐based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (GBInSAR) technology to monitor the displacement rate of the summit area of Stromboli. We analysed the 2009–2011 period. The analysis of the displacement rate has been performed by dividing the summit zone monitored by the GBInSAR into three regions, corresponding to the edge of the crater area (1 and 2), and to the slope of the NE crater (3). Pulses of rapid expansion of sector 3, of variable duration and amplitude, appear in coincidence with periods of intense activity that include lava flows and major explosions. We associate this expansion with the pressurization of the magma column that is recharged by deep‐derived gas, promoting the onset of ‘major explosion‐dominated’ activity.     

Incorporating the transport sector into carbon emission trading scheme: an overview and outlook

The transport sector is a major consumer of fossil fuels and, consequently, one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutant emissions. In recent years, global transport’s emissions have experienced a remarkable increase and will become a crucial cause of global warming in the next few decades. The public has become well aware of the issues regarding carbon emissions in this sector, and reducing greenhouse gases has also become a regulatory agenda of governments around the globe. Emissions trading schemes are considered one of the most cost-efficient ways of controlling greenhouse gas emissions and have been implemented by many countries around the world. While several countries have already incorporated the transport sector into their emissions trading schemes, China is in the process of incorporating a part of the transport sector into its emission trading scheme pilots. Introducing a market mechanism to reduce carbon emissions in the transport sector is still at a nascent stage and much is still to be explored. This paper explores the current development and challenges of applying carbon trading mechanisms in the transport sector around the world. Then, the paper analyzes the policies and current developments of incorporating the transport sector in China’s carbon trading pilots. Several suggestions are then provided in regard to options on transport sector entities coverage, initial allowance allocation models, integration of carbon trading policies with existing policies, collection of transportation statistics and rolling out a nationwide carbon trading system.     

中国大陆森林线空间分布特征及其与多年冻土线、气候雪线的关系

在自然植被垂直带谱上一般以暗针叶林带的上限代表森林线,它的海拔高度取决于温度及其年较差。本文主要根据我国一些地区现代暗针叶林带上限的海拔高程和102个气象台站的气象资料,计算出我国的森林线的理论海拔高度,并编绘出我国的森林线高程等值线图以及多年冻土线与森林线高差等值线图和现代气候雪线与森林线高差等值线图。在此基础上研究了我国森林线的空间分布特征及其与多年冻土线、气候雪线的关系。