Ethnic change and diversity in England, 1981–2001

The paper compares ethnic change and diversity across two recent decades using common group and area definitions. Ethnic minority groups are shown to be growing rapidly at 41 per cent between 1981 and 1991 and 39 per cent between 1991 and 2001. Some groups have grown swiftly (Black Africans, Bangladeshis), while others have seen moderate expansion (Indians, Other Asians). The White population has hardly grown and the White British population has probably declined. Black and Ethnic Minority (BEM) populations remain concentrated in metropolitan areas in 2001 as in 1991 and 1981. Whereas between 1981 and 1991, BEM groups were concentrating into metropolitan areas, between 1991 and 2001 deconcentration began for most groups. The London region stands out as highly dominant, housing more than 50 per cent of BEM populations as a whole in 1991 and 2001. However, between 1991 and 2001, BEM groups grew outside their core areas. The consequence of BEM population growth and spread has been a dramatic increase in ethnic diversity in all regions.     

The big picture of field hydrology studies in Brazil

ABSTRACT

In-situ

hydrological monitoring is essential for a proper decision-making process and modelling. Efforts have been made in Brazil to carry out field activities at the basin scale, but how complete and comprehensive are those studies? Where are they located? How long have they been carried out? What are the main findings? To answer these questions, an overview of experimental monitoring basins in Brazil is presented, listing their geographical locations, monitored variables, operational status, monitoring periods and main publications. We identified 60 monitored sites, spread across most Brazilian biomes, with an average monitoring period of 12 years. However, some publications from these monitoring studies are not fully accessible to the international community. Field hydrology activities in Brazil contribute to a better understanding of hydrological processes in humid and semi-arid regions and inform us about the impacts of land-use change on water quality and quantity.     

The identification of various types of geochemical stream sediment anomalies in Northern Ireland

A regional geochemical stream sediment survey of part of Northern Ireland led to the recognition of three types of base metal anomaly of exploration interest. These were significant anomalies of both elastic and hydromorphic origin, and non-significant hydromorphic anomalies in several upland areas. The significant anomalies are derived from Pb-Zn-Cu mineralization, whereas the non-significant anomalies are due to the leaching of Zn and other metals from acidic and/or gleyed soils and subsequent concentration in stream channels by coprecipitation with manganese oxides. Significant hydromorphic anomalies can be identified on the basis of abnormal Zn/Mn ratios and significant elastic anomalies on the basis of anomalous Pb contents. It is of the utmost importance to distinguish the dispersion mechanisms. Regional variations in bedrock geochemistry may only be identified when consideration is given to local dispersion mechanisms and account taken of the effects of variations in the surface environment on stream sediment composition. Changes in vegetation and land use may lead to rapid alterations in the nature of the dominant dispersion mechanisms.     

Improved method of generation of artificial time-histories,rich in all frequencies,from floor spectra

A method to generate artificial time-histories from given floor response spectra is presented in this paper. The original method proposed by Levy and Wilkinson¹ is modified. New iterative equations are developed, based on extensive computational experimentation, to speed up and stabilize the convergence process. The present approach, when applied to spectra with peaks in the high frequency range (40 to 100 Hz) along with seismic peaks, converges very closely to the target spectra within eight iterations regardless of damping values. The original computer program for synthetic time-history generation was developed on the UNIVAC 1100 series computer. This program was converted to work on the IBM PC. The PC based program ‘MICRO-SEIM’ saves the response spectra generated at each iteration and the final synthetic time-history on the PC diskette. The post processing program reads those saved data from the diskette and plots the spectra and time-history.     

Will Contextual Factors and Providing the Maximum Price Information Affect People’s Actual Willingness-to-pay in BDM Auctions? Evidence from Three Asian Countries

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of maximum price information and contextual factors on people’s bidding behaviors in a controlled Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions. 354 respondents from three Asian countries (China, Cambodia and the Philippines) participated in this study. In each country, both households with piped water connection and households without piped water connection were investigated. The sample in each country was then randomly assigned to two groups: one group was provided with a maximum price of a water filter and the other group was not provided with the maximum price information. The results show that the treatment group with maximum price information had a higher actual willingness-to-pay than the control group without maximum price information, but they were not significantly different. Our results also indicate that contextual and socioeconomic factors did play a role in participants’ bid results for the water filter.     

Prediction of spatial soil loss impacted by long-term land-use/land-cover change in a tropical watershed

The devastating effect of soil erosion is one of the major sources of land degradation that affects human lives in many ways which occur mainly due to deforestation, poor agricultural practices, overgrazing,wildfire and urbanization. Soil erosion often leads to soil truncation, loss of fertility, slope instability, etc.which causes irreversible effects on the poorly renewable soil resource. In view of this, a study was conducted in Kelantan River basin to predict soil loss as influenced by long-term land use/land-cover(LULC) changes in the area. The study was conducted with the aim of predicting and assessing soil erosion as it is influenced by long-term LULC changes. The 13,100 km~2 watershed was delineated into four sub-catchments Galas, Pergau, Lebir and Nenggiri for precise result estimation and ease of execution. GIS-based Universal Soil Loss Equation(USLE) model was used to predict soil loss in this study. The model inputs used for the temporal and spatial calculation of soil erosion include rainfall erosivity factor,topographic factor, land cover and management factor as well as erodibility factor. The results showed that 67.54% of soil loss is located under low erosion potential(reversible soil loss) or 0-1 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1) soil loss in Galas, 59.17% in Pergau, 53.32% in Lebir and 56.76% in Nenggiri all under the 2013 LULC condition.Results from the correlation of soil erosion rates with LULC changes indicated that cleared land in all the four catchments and under all LULC conditions(1984-2013) appears to be the dominant with the highest erosion losses. Similarly, grassland and forest were also observed to regulate erosion rates in the area. This is because the vegetation cover provided by these LULC types protects the soil from direct impact of rain drops which invariably reduce soil loss to the barest minimum. Overall, it was concluded that the results have shown the significance of LULC in the control of erosion. Maps generated from the study may be useful to planners and land use managers to take appropriate decisions for soil conservation.