Evolution of the space concept in locational theories of intraurban economic activity

The concept of space is fundamental to various theories on the organization of intraurban economic activities. This concept has evolved from the totalitarian perspective of Greek philosophers into the contemporary space–time dichotomy. Through examining the historical concepts of space, the most significant limits of organizational theories regarding economic activity may be identified. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the concept of space in addition to the relationship of this concept with different theories on the organization of intraurban economic activities. New reflections on the concept of space are presented in order to provide insight into future directions and perspectives in the analysis of urban space. Finally, this article explores the contemporary space–time dichotomy as applied to the organization of economic activities in the city and reflects upon space as an active, dynamic, and biased factor in such organization.     

Influence of the sediment delivery ratio index on the analysis of silting and break risk in the Plasencia reservoir (Central System,Spain)

The random forest method was used to generate susceptibility maps for debris flows, rock slides, and active layer detachment slides in the Donjek River area within the Yukon Alaska Highway Corridor, based on an inventory of landslides compiled by the Geological Survey of Canada in collaboration with the Yukon Geological Survey. The aim of this study is to develop data-driven landslide susceptibility models which can provide information on risk assessment to existing and planned infrastructure. The factors contributing to slope failure used in the models include slope angle, slope aspect, plan and profile curvatures, bedrock geology, surficial geology, proximity to faults, permafrost distribution, vegetation distribution, wetness index, and proximity to drainage system. A total of 83 debris flow deposits, 181 active layer detachment slides, and 104 rock slides were compiled in the landslide inventory. The samples representing the landslide free zones were randomly selected. The ratio of landslide/landslide free zones was set to 1:1 and 1:2 to examine the results of different sample ratios on the classification. Two-thirds of the samples for each landslide type were used in the classification, and the remaining 1/3 were used to evaluate the results. In addition to the classification maps, probability maps were also created, which served as the susceptibility maps for debris flows, rock slides, and active layer detachment slides. Success and prediction rate curves created to evaluate the performance of the resulting models indicate a high performance of the random forest in landslide susceptibility modelling.     

Statistical forecast of the marine surge

Natural Hazards - This paper studies different machine learning methods for solving the regression problem of estimating the marine surge value given meteorological data. The marine surge is...     

Three decades of landslide activity in western Nepal: new insights into trends and climate drivers

In recent decades, landslide disasters in the Himalayas, as in other mountain regions, are widely reported to have increased. While some studies have suggested a link to increasing heavy rainfall under a warmer climate, others pointed to anthropogenic influences on slope stability, and increasing exposure of people and assets located in harm’s way. A lack of sufficiently high-resolution regional landslide inventories, both spatially and temporally, has prevented any robust consensus so far. Focusing on Far-Western Nepal, we draw on remote sensing techniques to create a regional inventory of 26,350 single landslide events, of which 8778 date to the period 1992–2018. These events serve as a basis for the analyses of landslide frequency relationships and trends in relation to precipitation and temperature datasets. Results show a strong correlation between the annual number of shallow landslides and the accumulated monsoon precipitation (r = 0.74). Furthermore, warm and dry monsoons followed by especially rainy monsoons produce the highest incidence of shallow landslides (r = 0.77). However, we find strong spatial variability in the strength of these relationships, which is linked to recent demographic development in the region. This highlights the role of anthropogenic drivers, and in particular road cutting and land-use change, in amplifying the seasonal monsoon influence on slope stability. In parallel, the absence of any long-term trends in landslide activity, despite widely reported increase in landslide disasters, points strongly to increasing exposure of people and infrastructure as the main driver of landslide disasters in this region of Nepal. By contrast, no climate change signal is evident from the data.

     

Late Miocene evaporite geochemistry of Lorca and Fortuna basins (Eastern Betics,SE Spain): Evidence of restriction and continentalization

The Lorca and Fortuna basins are two intramontane Neogene basins located in the eastern Betic Cordillera (SE Spain). During the Late Tortonian—Early Messinian, marine and continental evaporites precipitated in these basins as a consequence of increased marine restriction and isolation. Here we show a stratigraphic correlation between the evaporite records of these basins based on geochemical indicators. We use SO₄ isotope compositions and Sr isotopic ratios in gypsum, and halite Br contents to characterize these units and to identify the marine or continental source of the waters feeding the evaporite basins. In addition, we review the available chronological information used to date these evaporites in Lorca (La Serrata Fm), including a thick saline deposit, that we correlate with the First Evaporitic Group in Fortuna (Los Baños Fm). This correlation is also supported by micropalaeontological data, giving a Late Tortonian age for this sequence. The Second Evaporitic Group, (Chicamo Fm), and the Third Evaporitic Group (Rambla Salada Fm) developed only in Fortuna during the Messinian. According to the palaeogeographical scheme presented here, the evaporites of the Lorca and Fortuna basins were formed during the Late Tortonian—Early Messinian, close to the Betic Seaway closure. Sulphate isotope compositions and Sr isotopic ratios of the Ribera Gypsum Mb, at the base of the Rambla Salada Fm (Fortuna basin), match those of the Late Messinian selenite gypsum beds in San Miguel de Salinas, in the near Bajo Segura basin (40 km to the East), and other Messinian Salinity Crisis gypsum deposits in the Mediterranean. According to these geochemical indicators and the uncertainty of the chronology of this unit, the assignment of the Rambla Salada Fm to the MSC cannot be ruled out.     

Dynamics of coastline changes in Mexico

Journal of Geographical Sciences - The goal of our work was to locate and quantify changes that occurred in 66% of the Mexican coastline, based on four land cover maps generated by the Mexican...     

A method for checking the quality of geographic metadata based on ISO 19157

With recent advances in remote sensing, location-based services and other related technologies, the production of geospatial information has exponentially increased in the last decades. Furthermore, to facilitate discovery and efficient access to such information, spatial data infrastructures were promoted and standardized, with a consideration that metadata are essential to describing data and services. Standardization bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization have defined well-known metadata models such as ISO 19115. However, current metadata assets exhibit heterogeneous quality levels because they are created by different producers with different perspectives. To address quality-related concerns, several initiatives attempted to define a common framework and test the suitability of metadata through automatic controls. Nevertheless, these controls are focused on interoperability by testing the format of metadata and a set of controlled elements. In this paper, we propose a methodology of testing the quality of metadata by considering aspects other than interoperability. The proposal adapts ISO 19157 to the metadata case and has been applied to a corpus of the Spanish Spatial Data Infrastructure. The results demonstrate that our quality check helps determine different types of errors for all metadata elements and can be almost completely automated to enhance the significance of metadata.     

Environmental limitations on recruitment from seed in invasive Spartina densiflora on a southern European salt marsh

The South American cordgrass, Spartina densiflora, has invaded a range of different habitats that can support different native species assemblages on salt marshes in the Gulf of Cadiz, Spain. Little is known about the mechanisms of invasion. We examined the potential for seed germination and recruitment in a field transplant experiment, representing a wide range of environments, on elevational gradients across marshes with muddy and sandy sediments. The biotic resistance of native, perennial vegetation (where present) to recruitment of the alien was also investigated. Spartina densiflora seeds were able to germinate over a greater than 2-m range of elevation in the tidal frame. Germination success on unvegetated muddy sediments was related to sediment redox potential, with poor germination at strongly negative redox potentials on the lower sites. On sandy, well-drained sediments, germination was apparently constrained by water availability at the highest elevations. Comparison of vegetated and cleared plots on the upper marsh showed that there was a negative relationship between the presence of Atriplex portulacoides and germination on the muddy sediments. Recruitment (survival of seedlings for 12 weeks) was seen only on unvegetated muddy sediments at the highest elevation. Hence the invasive success and wide elevational tolerance of S. densiflora on the marshes of the Gulf of Cadiz are not reflected in its short-term ability to become established from its prolific seed production. Colonization of sub-optimal habitats may be largely by vegetative propagules and clonal growth.     

Observations of the North Equatorial Current,Mindanao Current,and Kuroshio current system during the 2006/07 El Niño and 2007/08 La Niña

Two onboard observation campaigns were carried out in the western boundary region of the Philippine Sea in December 2006 and January 2008 during the 2006/07 El Niño and the 2007/08 La Niña to observe the North Equatorial Current (NEC), Mindanao Current (MC), and Kuroshio current system. The NEC and MC measured in late 2006 under El Niño conditions were stronger than those measured during early 2008 under La Niña conditions. The opposite was true for the current speed of the Kuroshio, which was stronger in early 2008 than in late 2006. The increase in dynamic height around 8°N, 130°E from December 2006 to January 2008 resulted in a weakening of the NEC and MC. Local wind variability in this region did not appear to contribute to changes in the current system.     

On the use of logistic regression for stellar classification

We are totally immersed in the Big Data era and reliable algorithms and methods for data classification are instrumental for astronomical research. Random Forest and Support Vector Machines algorithms have become popular over the last few years and they are widely used for different stellar classification problems. In this article, we explore an alternative supervised classification method scarcely exploited in astronomy, Logistic Regression, that has been applied successfully in other scientific areas, particularly biostatistics. We have applied this method in order to derive membership probabilities for potential T Tauri star candidates from ultraviolet-infrared colour-colour diagrams.