Geo-political genetics: Claiming the commons through species mapping

Genetic techniques are increasingly employed in the field of conservation biology; our understanding of sea turtle biology, and particularly of sea turtle migrations and population structures, has increased through genetic analyses that ‘match’ turtles found in various and often widely distributed habitats (e.g. nesting beaches, foraging grounds, migratory corridors). This relatively recent technological development has implications for how sea turtles are conceived, both as resources and as objects of conservation. Traditionally, sea turtle populations have been identified with nesting beaches, and most conservation efforts have been focused on these discrete geographic locations and undertaken by the state. The more complete understanding of relationships among turtles found in geographically disparate areas, achieved via genetic analysis, can take conservation beyond the beaches and territorial waters of individual states; foraging populations can now be linked to nesting populations sometimes hundreds of kilometers distant. In this paper, we explore the implications of genetic analysis for sea turtle conservation, the scale at which it is undertaken, and the variety of actors with competing interests in it. We focus on the case of hawksbill sea turtles in the Caribbean, where genetic data are invoked in conservation conflicts. We are particularly interested in the way genetic data can support the scaling-up of sea turtle conservation, creating new ‘conservation territories,’ and we draw on political ecology and common pool resource theory to explore the implications thereof.     

Juggling through Ghanaian urbanisation: flood hazard mapping of Kumasi

More recently, driven by rapid and unguided urbanisation and climate change, Ghanaian cities are increasingly becoming hotspots for severe flood-related events. This paper reviews urbanisation dynamics in Ghanaian cities, and maps flood hazard zones and access to flood relief services in Kumasi, drawing insight from multi-criteria analysis and spatial network analysis using ArcGIS 10.2. Findings indicate that flood hazard zones in Kumasi have been created by natural (e.g., climate change) and anthropogenic (e.g., urbanisation) factors, and the interaction thereof. While one would have expected the natural factors to guide, direct and steer the patterns of urban development from flood hazard zones, the GIS analysis shows that anthropogenic factors, particularly urbanisation, are increasingly concentrating population and physical structures in areas liable to flooding in the urban environment. This situation is compounded by rapid land cover/use changes and widespread haphazard development across the city. Regrettably, findings show that urban residents living in flood hazard zones in Kumasi are also geographically disadvantaged in terms of access to emergency services compared to those living in well-planned neighbourhoods.     

Geospatial contour mapping of shear wave velocity for Mumbai city

Shear wave velocity is one of the most important input parameter in the analysis of geotechnical earthquake engineering problems, particularly to estimate site-specific amplification factor and ground response study. Dynamic in situ tests such as spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) or multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) are very expensive. Also due to lack of specialized personnel, these tests are generally avoided in many soil investigation programs. Worldwide, several researchers have developed correlations between the SPT ‘N’ value and shear wave velocity ‘V _s’, which are useful for determining the dynamic soil properties. In the present study, more than 400 numbers of soil borehole data were collected from various geotechnical investigation agencies, government engineering institutes and geotechnical laboratories from different parts of Mumbai city, which is financial capital of India with highest population density. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop the correlation between the SPT ‘N’ value and shear wave velocity ‘V _s’ for various soil profile of Mumbai city and compared with other existing correlations for different cities in India. Using Geographical Information System (GIS), a geospatial contour map of shear wave velocity profile for Mumbai city is prepared with contour intervals of 25 and 50 m/s. The scarcity of database or maps of shear wave velocity profile for Mumbai city will make the present geospatial contour maps extremely useful and beneficial to the designer, practitioners for seismic hazard study involved in geotechnical earthquake engineering.     

浅谈煤炭城市工程地质编图分区方法

煤炭城市的规划发展和施工设计都需要对场地的工程地质条件有一个详尽的了解。本文从煤炭城市特殊的工程地质条件出发,讨论煤炭城市工程地质编图分区方法。编制定量化的工程地质分区图是进行城市规划分区的一个必然趋势,通过针对目前较有影响的几种定量化的分区方法进行总结,并对其各自的优缺点进行了比较,最后指出了各种方法的优势与不足。     

Geospatial mapping of potential recharge zones in parts of Pune city

Runoff has increased many fold in urban areas due to increase in paved areas, training of streams and construction of storm water drains. The recharge is therefore continuously decreasing; resulting in depleting groundwater reserves beneath large cities, especially those situated on water divides. In order to reduce surface runoff and replenish groundwater many advocate artificial recharge through rainwater harvesting. Conventionally, detailed hydrogeological survey is needed by expert hydrogeologists to suggest suitable sites for rooftop rainwater harvesting and storage in the subsurface aquifers. Pune, a rapidly growing city, is under severe stress due to shortage of water in some areas. An effort has been made in this study to identify areas suitable for rooftop rainwater harvesting by integrating traditional hydrogeological survey data with the help of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System. This endeavour has led to develop a program called SLUGGER-DQL which helps to identify potential sites for rooftop rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge. The program is open ended and several other factors controlling potential recharge can be easily added on. Based on the results of the present study, potential sites for rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge have been identified in the Pune University-Shivajinagar-Kothrud area. The present paper demonstrates the utility of traditional hydrogeological surveys combined with modern techniques in solving problems related to urban hydrogeology and town planning.     

Liquefaction potential and susceptibility mapping in the city of Yalova, Turkey

This study presents results of both field and laboratory tests that have been used to asses liquefaction susceptibilities of the soils in Yalova city, located in the well-known seismically active North Anatolian Fault Zone. Liquefaction potentials of the sub-surface materials in Yalova city were estimated by using the standard penetration test (SPT) method of field testing. The data obtained have been mapped according to susceptibility, and the susceptibility maps based on the geotechnical data indicated a moderate to high susceptibility to liquefaction for the magnitude of earthquake of M=7.4. Both the high groundwater level and the grain size of the soils, in conjunction with the active seismic features of the region, result in conditions favourable to the occurrence of liquefaction. When the surface and near surface geological conditions were taken under consideration, it was seen that the study areas geology is prone to liquefaction having a moderate liquefaction susceptibility. If geologic and geomorphological criteria are considered, it should be understood that the study area as discussed under the regions geology is susceptible to liquefaction. The geotechnical data largely support the geologic-based liquefaction susceptibility of the study area.     

Estimating flood exposure potentials in Turkish catchments through index-based flood mapping

Flooding is widely believed to be the most common natural disaster in Europe, and the changing climatic conditions are estimated to increase its adverse impacts. Effective flood strategies require thorough consideration of the factors underlying the flood generation mechanism and a widened display of mitigation priorities for spatially exhaustive assessments. Flood potential maps generated herein for indicating potential flood areas prove to be among powerful tools for comprehensive flood assessments. In the presented study, a countrywide characterization is achieved in this context by analyzing catchment units, which constitute the river basin systems in Turkey, through a series of spatial indices adapted from different factors effective in flood generation. The study aims to contribute to depicting priorities for in-depth flood assessments and to the re-orientation of subsequent control measures. The flood potential maps obtained for river catchments and designating individual locations with comparably higher flood potentials are expected to set light to the selection of case studies for local flood research in Turkey while contributing to decision making and policy implementation on flood control at the macroscale.     

Participation constrained: Generating buy-in and rationalizing carbon forestry labor through participatory mapping in Southern Mexico

In recent years diverse actors have hailed participatory practice as an effective means to empowering people in payment for ecosystem services (PES) work. In Chiapas, Mexico participation is a central component of the Scolel’ Te carbon forestry program, the cornerstone of which includes Plan Vivo participatory mapping. Plan Vivo mapping is used by the managing NGO, AMBIO, to build trust relations between participating farmers and program managers so as to ensure the successful production of carbon credits. However, I argue that it is also used to instill in farmers a series of behavioral and attitudinal transformations designed to align farmer land-use activities and attitudes with the program’s carbon credit production objectives. Yet, despite these ambitions, the ability of the mapping activity in Scolel’ Te to achieve its stated goals is challenged on the ground. In order to explain this discrepancy between the aspirations tied to the mapping activity and the mapping experience, I assess Plan Vivo mapping as a situated discourse and as a labor process. Taking the former perspective, I show how the managing NGO uses a paternalistic discourse to justify participatory mapping, one that presents farmers as misguided resource managers in need of external intervention. Then, using a labor process approach, I show how PVM acts to reorient farmer relationships to their land and to development organizations by intervening in farmer land-use practices and by establishing trust relations. It is, however, a process that consists of inequalities that stand to potentially limit the effectiveness of the activity.     

Landslide-hazard mapping through multi-technique activity assessment: an example from the Betic Cordillera (southern Spain)

Landslide hazard in a region limited to data from a regional scale about triggering factors is assessed via cross tabulation between determining factors and landslides with recent activity. Firstly, landslide susceptibility was evaluated and validated through a bivariate statistical method between the previously identified stability conditioning factors and the mapped landslides. In this way, the most susceptible areas for assessing landslide hazards were selected. The main problem to solve in this type of research is the landslide activity. For this purpose, several techniques were applied: news reports, differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar, digital photogrammetry, light detection and ranging, photointerpretation, and dendrochronology. Both the strong and weak points of these techniques are also mentioned. The landslide return period was computed via the association between landslide activity and triggering factors, in this case annual rainfall. Finally, landslide hazard was mapped solely based on landslides with recent activity and their computed return period. The relationship between landslide occurrence and triggering factors shows that, according to both the considered assumptions and the observations made, deep-seated landslides are triggered or reactivated together with superficial landslides once every 18 years, while superficial landslides as flows or falls occur once every 5 years. The results show that there is generally a low landslide hazard in the study zone, especially when compared to landslide susceptibility. This means that landslides are mainly dormant from a natural evolution point of view, but could be reactivated as a result of geomorphological, climate, or human changes. In any case, the landslide hazard is successfully assessed, with a prediction of a 6% annual probability of a high hazard in 5% of the area, intersecting with the main infrastructures of the region; thus, control strategies are justified in order to avoid damage in extraordinary rainfall periods.     

Improving landslide susceptibility predictive power through colluvium mapping in Tegucigalpa,Honduras

Natural Hazards - Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, has the highest number of landslides recorded in the country. The city has data and information from four landslide inventories and five...     

Assessing flood inundation mapping through estimated discharge using GIS and HEC-RAS model

Water discharge is the main parameter in hydraulic modeling for flood hazard assessment. However, the unavailability of data on discharge and observed river morphologies resulted in erroneous calculations and irregularities in flood inundation mapping. The objectives of this study are (i) to investigate uncertainties of hydraulic parameters (width, cross-sectional depth, and channel slope) used in discharge equation and (ii) to examine the influence of estimate discharge on water extent and flood depth with different boundary conditions on interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) and modified IFSAR DEMs. Sensitivity analysis was conducted with the Monte Carlo simulation method to generate random data combinations. Bjerklie’s equation was used to calculate discharge based on the three variables, and Manning’s n was substituted into the Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) model. TerraSAR-X was used to distinguish existing flood water bodies and normal water extent. The uncertainty of the combined variables was assessed with the likelihood measures such as F-statistic, mean absolute error, root mean square error, and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency which compares observed and predicted inundated area as well as flood water depth simulated using the HEC-RAS model.     

Seismic reliability-based analysis and GIS mapping of cyclic mobility of clayey soils of Mumbai city,India

Cyclic mobility is a mechanism of ground failure due to lateral spreading of soils during an earthquake that usually occurs in soft or medium stiff saturated soils. The simplified procedures developed by the researchers give a factor of safety for judging the cyclic mobility potential. However, the simplified procedures do not take into account the uncertainty in the parameters required to estimate the cyclic stresses in the soil. In this study, a reliability framework based on the simplified procedure, considering the parameter uncertainty, has been proposed for computing the probability of cyclic mobility of clay deposits for a metro city of India, i.e., Mumbai city (latitudes 18°53′N–19°19′N and longitudes 72°47′E–72°58′E). Extensive geotechnical borehole data from 1028 boreholes across 50 locations in the city area of 390 km² and laboratory test data are collected and analyzed thoroughly. A correlation between undrained shear strength (Su) and other parameters such as natural water content (w), SPT N value, liquid limit (LL) and plasticity index (PI) has been established for Mumbai city and has been used in the proposed approach. The sensitivity analysis of the proposed approach predicts that Su has significant influence in the evaluation of the cyclic mobility. Cyclic mobility hazard maps are prepared using the geo-statistical analysis tool in GIS, and it shows that the clayey soils at few locations have a 60–90 % probability of cyclic mobility for a moment magnitude (M _w) of an earthquake of 7.5. These hazard maps can be used by the geotechnical engineers for the cyclic mobility hazard assessment of Mumbai city.     

Heat wave risk assessment and mapping in urban areas: case study for a midsized Central European city,Novi Sad (Serbia)

Risk assessment and mapping methodologies for heat waves as frequently occurring hazards in central and southeastern Europe were applied in this study, and the impact of heat waves on the mortality of urban populations was determined as part of the assessment. The methodology for conducting the heat wave risk assessment is based on European Commission’s Guidelines for Risk Assessment and Mapping. The Novi Sad (Serbia) urban area was studied during summer 2015, which was one of the hottest summers in the last few decades. In situ air temperature measurements from urban stations and mortality of urban populations were used. Nocturnal urban heat island (UHI) intensity values between the various built-up zones and natural surrounding areas were used for the hazard level calculation. Temperature data from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. were used because during the night, the UHI intensity reached its maximum values. The average daily number of deaths by LCZs was used to define the impact level of the vulnerability index. Calculations for both hazard levels were completed during two intensive heat waves (in July and August 2015) when it was expected that there may be a high level of risk. The results and maps show that the urban area is complex, and the heat wave risk on the population is not uniform. The most densely built-up areas (LCZs 2, 5 and 6) have very high or high risk values that are influenced by a higher rate of mortality. The obtained results and maps can be used by local authorities to prevent and mitigate climate-related hazards, for medical institutions as well as urban planners and for ancillary local, regional or national services. According to these results, the local authorities could define hot spots where they can place medical and rescue teams and install points with water supplies, etc.     

Assessment of flood inundation mapping of Surat city by coupled 1D/2D hydrodynamic modeling: a case application of the new HEC-RAS 5

Surat city of India, situated 100 km downstream of Ukai Dam and 19.4 km upstream from the mouth of River Tapi, has experienced the largest flood in 2006. The peak discharge of about 25,770 m³ s^?1 released from the Ukai Dam was responsible for a disaster. To assess the flood and find inundation in low-lying areas, simulation work is carried out under the 1D/2D couple hydrodynamic modeling. Two hundred ninety-nine cross sections, two hydraulic structures and five major bridges across the river are considered for 1D modeling, whereas a topographic map at 0.5 m contour interval was used to produce a 5 m grid, and SRTM (30 and 90 m) grid has been considered for Surat and the Lower Tapi Basin. The tidal level at the river mouth and the release from the Ukai Dam during 2006 flood are considered as the downstream and upstream boundaries, respectively. The model is simulated under the unsteady flow condition and validated for the year 2006. The simulated result shows that 9th August was the worst day in terms of flooding for Surat city and a maximum 75–77% area was under inundation. Out of seven zones, the west zone had the deepest flood and inundated under 4–5 m. Furthermore, inundation is simulated under the bank protection work (i.e., levees, retaining wall) constructed after the 2006 flood. The simulated results show that the major zones are safe against the inundation under 14,430 m³ s^?1 water releases from Ukai Dam except for the west zone. The study shows the 2D capability of new HEC-RAS 5 for flood inundation mapping and management studies.     

大连地铁盾构开挖地层移动规律的模型试验研究

以大连市地铁2号线202标段工程为研究对象,通过相似材料模型试验绘制不同地层随时间沉降曲线,即同一时刻不同地层沉降槽曲线和不同地层水平位移曲线,得到盾构隧道施工地层移动规律。试验结果表明,不同地层各测点的垂直位移随时间的变化可用以时间为自变量的负指数函数表示;先行隧道施工对地层产生扰动,引起地层软化,导致两条隧道之间地表沉降明显叠加,沉降较大;隧道开挖时,若存在地下结构或管线,其将受到附加剪切作用,易出现裂缝,在施工中必须做好切实可行的防护措施。     

Applied earth-science mapping: the planners'' requirement

During the last 20 years earth-scientists have energetically explained the relevance of environmental geology to, and provided advice for, planning and development. Even so, numerous instances of sterilisation of earth-resources and of development on unstable land with insufficient precautions taken still occur. The reasons for this include: (a) limited training in the earth-sciences for many planners and developers; (b) failure to appreciate the benefits of having sound, easily available background information for decision making; and (c) presentation of results in ways that are not readily understood by potential users or do not fit easily into the administrative processes for land-use planning and development control.

Addressing these issues is at least as important as developing techniques and undertaking new studies, since full and proper utilisation of results and appreciation of the need to commission such research depend on their resolution.     

Milan: The city of constant renewal

Traditional models of urban development are no longer adequate to describe current metropolitan transformations. These are now at the centre of a debate concerning management and administration. In Italy, delays in resolving problems of urban and metropolitan government, despite the legal framework provided by Law 142/90, have weighed heavily on the larger urban areas of the country: Rome, Naples, Milan, which have not been able to tackle the issue of metropolitan government. Recent legislation, while not providing a pre-defined institutional solution, allows separate administrative districts to collectively establish metropolitan institutions of `variable geometry'. The Milan urban area is not one city, but a system of mutually-dependent cities, linked to each other and the rest of the world by a transport network still requiring much investment. The vitality of its economic structure (especially its small firms) is held back by seriously inadequate infrastructure and low external economic efficiency. The provincial capital may boast `historic centrality' but the most interesting potential for development is to be found on the periphery and in the administrative districts immediately surrounding it, in the recovery of derelict industrial areas and dormitory towns established in the 1950s and 1960s, especially to the north. Recovery of derelict areas, green areas, and better transport links within the urban area and with the outside world are the key elements in the reorganization of `Greater Milan'. In this situation of rapid transformation the most appropriate political strategies involve negotiated planning. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.