Operational model for direct determination of evapotranspiration for well watered crops in Mediterranean region

Direct calculation of actual evapotranspiration ET_c based on Penman-Monteith type models gives more accurate values than indirect models, which need the determination of reference evapotranspiration and crop coefficient. However, the direct models need the measurement of weather variables above the crop, which is limiting and not easily feasible in practice. An operational version of a known ET_c direct model is described and tested. This new version is based on the determination of the weather variables collected in a standard agro-meteorological station. The original and the operational versions of the ET_c model were validated on two crops with contrasting height: soybean (0.8 m) and sweet sorghum (3 m). For soybean, ET_c calculated with the two versions gave results very similar at both hourly and daily scales. For sweet sorghum, ET_c calculated with the operational version is good at daily scale and not as good, although acceptable, at the hourly scale.     

Exchange times in the Pacific Equatorial Current system

Tritium data from the GEOSECS eastern and western track stations sampled in the thermocline of the North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC) showed high values, which are indicative of the contribution of the North Equatorial Current (NEC) to the equatorial region. A tritium front at 6°N is evidence of the penetration of northern latitude water into the NECC. The results of a two-? model show no net flux between NEC and NECC and a lower bound estimate of five years for an exchange time scale between the NEC and NECC in the thermocline; this is consistent with a horizontal diffusivity of 5 × 10⁷ cm²/s.     

Land degradation is not a necessary outcome of communal pastoralism in arid Namibia

In Otjimbingwe, a region of arid south-central Namibia, human population densities are high and these communal pastoralists own large numbers of livestock. Such situations are commonly perceived to lead to the ‘tragedy of the commons'. This region lends itself to a comparison of the effects of communal and commercial farming (with private land ownership) because the communal area is completely surrounded by commercial farms. In spite of far higher stocking densities on the communal areas and the absence of an overall grazing strategy, we found no evidence of the ‘tragedy of the commons' on Otjimbingwe. Indeed, the communal areas did not differ in a number of soil and vegetation parameters from the commercial farms. These results point both to the resilience of arid environments to high stocking levels and the over-riding influence of abiotic variables on environmental quality.     

Application of GIS for land-use/land-cover change analysis in a mountainous terrain

Integration of remote sensing data with other spatial/non-spatial data was carried out using ARC/INFO software package. A simple classification technique was adopted for land cover/land-use change analyses in relation to elevation, slope, aspect and bio-climatic classes. Suitability assessment of land where agricultural extension occurred between 1963 and 1993 was made using GIS software package. Expansion of agriculture and was found to be maximum in 2200-2400 m elevation zone and 20–30° slope classes. When topographic aspects were considered expansion was maximum on south east and west facing slopes. The loss of vegetal cover is estimated to be 15 per cent between 1963–1993. However regeneration of forest was found to be maximum in elevation ranges of 1600–2000 metre and mostly having 20–30° average slope, Land deterioration over the two mapping periods was identified and strategies were suggested to mitigate the problem.     

Assessment of bearing capacity of interfering strip footings located near sloping surface considering artificial neural network technique

The bearing capacity of interfering footings located near the slope face suffers from reduced bearing capacity due to the formation of the curtailed passive zone. Depending upon the position of the footing, their spacing and steepness of the slope, different extents of bearing capacity reduction can be exhibited. A series of finite element investigation has been done with the aid of Plaxis 3D vAE.01 to elucidate the influence of various geotechnical and geometrical parameters on the ultimate bearing capacity of interfering surface strip footings located at the crest of the natural soil slope. Based on the large database obtained from the numerical simulation, a 6-8-1 Artificial Neural Network architecture has been considered for the assessment of the ultimate bearing capacity of interfering strip footings placed on the crest of natural soil slope. Sensitivity analyses have been conducted to establish the relative significance of the contributory parameters, which exhibited that for the stated problem, apart from shear strength parameters, the setback ratio and spacing of footing are the prime contributory parameters.     

Storm surge simulation along the Meghna estuarine area: an alternative approach

In this study, numerical prediction of surges associated with a storm was made through the method of lines (MOL) in coordination with the newly proposed RKARMS (4, 4) method for the meghna estuarine region, along the coast of Bangladesh. For this purpose, the vertically integrated shallow water equations (SWEs) in Cartesian coordinates were firstly transformed into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of initial valued, which were then soloved using the new RKARMS (4, 4) method. Nested grid technique was employed for resolving the complexities of the region of interest with minimum cost. Fresh water discharge through the lower Meghna River was taken into account along the north east corner of the innermost child scheme. Numerical experiments were performed with the severe cyclone on April 1991 that crossed the coast over the study area. Simulated results by the study were found to be in good agreement with some reported data and were found to compare well with the results obtained by the MOL in addition with the classical 4th order Runge-Kutta (RK (4, 4)) method and the standard finite difference method (FDM).     

Remote sensing mapping of the regeneration of coastal natural habitats in Singapore: Implications for marine conservation in tropical cities

Rapid urbanization has resulted in the loss of coastal and marine habitats in cities worldwide. The effective conservation of urban coastal ecosystems requires detailed knowledge of their spatial distribution, necessitating high-resolution mapping. Our study produces a high-resolution coastal and marine habitat map and shoreline map for the tropical city-state of Singapore created through pixel-based supervised classification of satellite imagery, bathymetry data and expert ground knowledge. These maps can be used as a base reference for multiple applications including ecological research, conservation and urban planning. They also help identifiy trends in the extent of key coastal habitats, providing insight into their differing levels of vulnerability to loss and potential for restoration to ensure long-term resilience. The method used for mapping shoreline typologies and resulting insights gained, can guide other rapidly urbanizing coastal cities on strategies to assemble useful spatial knowledge for effective conservation of their urban coastal ecosystems.     

Astration of deuterium during the evolution of the solar neighbourhood

It is here shown that the stellar astration of deuterium in the solar neighbourhood of the Galactic Disc over 13 Gy corresponds to a factor of about 2 only in a closed model of chemical evolution.     

Mass luminosity ratio of nearby stars and its relation to Baryonic dark matter problem

In view of the recent report on the discovery of low mass halo stars for the candidates of MACHOs, a calculation has been made for the possible enhancement ofM/L ratio for populations of stars of varying mass domains taking the input data from the latest present day mass function (PDMF) of stars. It is seen that there is good scope for explaining dark matter problem where the dark matter is mostly in the form of low mass stars.