Gridded Croatian climatology for 1961–1990

In climatology, one of the most important pieces of information about the climate of a place or a region is information about the Climatological Normals (CLINO)—the average values of meteorological elements for a 30-year period. This kind of information usually comes in tables and is available for different observation sites from national meteorological services or from World Meteorological Organisation publications. The key issue, then, becomes how to interpolate these values over the entire area of interest to get reliable and accurate estimates (maps) of climatic elements. Here, the regression kriging framework has been applied for mapping of 20 climatological parameters for the 1961–1990 period for the 56,594 km² of Croatian territory, with a resolution of 1 km. In total, 152 main and climatological and 567 precipitation-measuring stations have been used in the analysis. Extensive pre-processing of metadata on station co-ordinates has been done, as well as completion of missing monthly averages. The final results are 20 climatological maps available in high resolution together with error maps and accuracy assessment measures.     

NEAT approach for testing and validation of geospatial network agent-based model processes: case study of influenza spread

ABSTRACT

Agent-based models (ABM) are used to represent a variety of complex systems by simulating the local interactions between system components from which observable spatial patterns at the system-level emerge. Thus, the degree to which these interactions are represented correctly must be evaluated. Networks can be used to discretely represent and quantify interactions between system components and the emergent system structure. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop and implement a novel validation approach called the NEtworks for ABM Testing (NEAT) that integrates geographic information science, ABM approaches, and spatial network representations to simulate complex systems as measurable and dynamic spatial networks. The simulated spatial network structures are measured using graph theory and compared with empirical regularities of observed real networks. The approach is implemented to validate a theoretical ABM representing the spread of influenza in the City of Vancouver, Canada. Results demonstrate that the NEAT approach can validate whether the internal model processes are represented realistically, thus better enabling the use of ABMs in decision-making processes.     

Ombla Spring,Croatia

Ombla Spring is located on the Adriatic coast near the town of Dubrovnik. The spring discharges at sea level. To eliminate the influence of the tide, a small dam was constructed 50 m downstream of the spring outlet. The spring water overflows the dam crest at an elevation of 2.40 m. Since 1897 the springwater has been used for the water supply for Dubrovnik.     

Influence of construction on hydrogeological and environmental conditions in the karst region,eastern Herzegovina,Yugoslavia

The region of eastern Herzegovina and Dubrovnik coastal belt is one of the hydrogeologically and hydrologically most interesting regions of Yugoslavia karst. The main water course in the region is the Trebinjica river, the largest sinking river in Europe. All the poljes in the catchment area are temporary flooded, hydrologically separated, and closed karst entities. Enormous quantities of available water are not evenly disturbed neither in the time nor in the space. The Trebinjica Hydrosystem project uses the basic concept of total water regime organization and its multipurpose utilization. With the construction of seven dams, six artificial reservoirs, six tunnels (with total length, 57 km), and four canals (with total length 74 km) the natural regime of surface and underground waters has been completely changed.As a consequence of water regime disturbance, a lot of changes have been observed in the catchment area: changes in the karst aquifers; local changes of climate conditions; eolic erosion effect; influence on the karst underground and littoral belt; influence on the springs yield; influence on adjacent catchment area; pollution of karst aquifers and influence of storage reservoirs on seismicity—induced seismicity. This article presents influences observed after the first stage of hydrosystem construction.     

Are prominent mountains frequently mentioned in text? Exploring the spatial expressiveness of text frequency

Data-driven GIScience shows a growing interest in making spatial information from large text data. In this paper, we quantify and thus evaluate the relation between text frequency and properties of the outer-text, geographic setting by comparing text frequencies of mountain names to the respective geomorphometric characteristics. We focus on some 2000 unique mountain names that appear some 50,000 times in a large compilation of texts on Swiss alpine history. The results on the full data set suggest only a weak relation: only 5–10% of the variation in the text frequency being explained by the respective geomorphometric characteristics. However, an analysis of multiple scales allows us to identify a Simpson’s Paradox. What appears to be ‘noise’ in the analysis of all mountains in the whole of Switzerland shows significant local signals. Small spatial extents, found all over Switzerland, can show considerably strong correlations between text frequency and spatial prominence, with up to 90% of the total variation explained. We argue that our findings have practical implications for data-driven GIScience. Retrieving meaningful spatial information from text might only be possible if the spatial scale of analysis reflects the spatial scale described in the input text documents.     

Quality Assessment of an Automatic Sounding Selection Process for Navigational Charts

A good seabed representation is one of the important characteristics of any navigational chart. Along with depth contours and coloured depth areas, soundings are used for this task. All the soundings on a navigational chart are selected for a reason. Soundings contribute to the navigational chart safety aspect by alerting to all the threats and dangers. They also show all the attributes of a seabed relief without overcrowding it, thus maintaining the overall chart quality. Soundings are selected from a hydrographic survey and since it consists of a vast number of data, the process of sounding selection is a challenging and demanding task. It requires experience and knowledge from the nautical cartographer and is mostly done manually. Some types of software nowadays provide an automatic selection feature. This paper analyses a process of automatic sounding selection in the dKart Editor software. On the Croatian side of the Adriatic Sea, ?ibenski Kanal (?ibenik channel) and Kanal Sv. Ante (St. Ante’s channel) are used as the study area. A hydrographic survey of the area represents the input data. The official navigational chart of the surveyed area is used as the basis for determining three different sets of parameters for the selection process. After the selection, obtained results are assessed based on geometrical accuracy and on the conservation level of navigational safety. For geometrical accuracy, the best results were produced by the third set that was divided in two subsets for each channel. It was determined that the nature of the seabed relief had an impact on the selection process. The same set had the best result for navigational safety assessment but it was concluded that all the sets undermined the aspect. Because of these crucial shortcomings noticed in all the tested sets of parameters, the feature is considered inadequate for serious usage as a completely automatic tool for the process of sounding selection on navigational charts.     

Magmatism and metallogeny of the Ridanj-Krepoljin belt (eastern Serbia) and their correlation with northern and eastern analogues

In the southwestern Carpathians of SW Romania and E Serbia calc-alkaline Upper Cretaceous-Paleogene subduction related magmatic rocks occur in two main zones. The Ridanj-Krepoljin belt (E Serbia) represents the southern part of the western zone. In this belt Early Maastrichtian dacites and subordinate andesites occur, but there are indications of an unexposed granodioritic (?) magmatism about 60 Ma old. Pb-Zn-Ag and only subordinate Cu mineralization is associated with this igneous activity. The Timok magmatic complex (E Serbia) composed of Upper Cretaceous (-Paleocene?) andesites and analogue intrusives represents the eastern zone south of the Danube. Associated with this magmatism are Cu (+Au) and very subordinate Zn (±Pb) mineralization. To the north (SW Romania) in both zones mainly intrusive bodies (diorites, quartz diorites, granodiorites, monzonites) of Campanian-Paleocene age are exposed. Porphyry copper (+Mo) and in north Pb-Zn (±Cu) mineralization are related to those intrusives. The petrological and geochemical features of all these calc-alkaline rocks are very similar. It appears, however, that the associated polymetallic and the copper mineralization are both spatially and vertically separated.     

Phytogenic lacustrine sedimentation - oil shales in Neogene from Serbia, Yugoslavia

Lacustrine basins of Neogene age in Serbia were formed either in intramountain valleys-graben and half-graben structures or in the marginal part of the Pannonian sea during Oligocene or at the beginning of Miocene, lasted and ended at the end of Miocene or Pliocene. The formation of the numerous depressions of the Balkan Peninsula, due to tectonic activity, gave lake basins with alluvial, swamp and lacustrine facies. The cycle with these facies was repeated several times. The lakes are mostly meromictic, often permanently stratified (oil-shale). A high rate of sedimentation with thickness up to 2000 m is characteristic for many of these basins. In many lakes phytogenic sedimentation occurs, giving facies with coal and with oil-shales. In this paper only some basins with oil-shales will be discussed, e.g. Valjevo-Mionica, Jadar and Pranjani basin. The characteristics of Vranje and Aleksinac basin will be discussed only in general. The organic rich sequences (oil shales) are characterized by the thin lamination, preservations of fish remains and plant leaves and absence of bioturbation, which needed permanent stratification of water body and anoxic conditions. Paleoclimatic regimes at the time of deposition and diagenesis were warm, subtropic with the changes of humid and dry periods.     

Thermal stability of extended clusters in dravite: a combined EMP,SREF and FTIR study

A dravite from Yemen of near end-member composition was treated in air and hydrogen atmospheres at 600–900 °C to reveal changes in Mg and Al order over the octahedrally coordinated Y and Z sites, and to explore related changes in the characteristic vibrational bands in the principal (OH)-stretching frequency. Relevant information was obtained using electron microprobe analysis (EMPA), structural refinement (SREF) and polarized infrared (IR) single-crystal spectroscopy. Overall, the EMPA, SREF and IR data show that only minor changes occur during thermal treatment up to at least 800 °C, including variations in structural parameters, Mg–Al order–disorder and (OH)-stretching bands, indicating limited hydrogen loss. Untreated and treated dravite samples have very similar long-range and short-range atomic structures, which may be related to the occurrence of stable Al–Mg extended clusters around the O1 (=W) and O3 (=V) sites: ^W(F)–^Y(MgMgMg)–^V(OH)₃–^Z[AlAlAlAlAl(Al,Mg)]; ^W(OH)–^Y(MgMgAl)–^V(OH)₃–^Z[AlAlAlAlAl(Al,Mg)]; ^W(O^2–)–^Y(AlAlAl)–^V(OH)₃–^Z[AlAlAlAlAl(Al,Mg)]. These extended clusters remain stable to temperatures close to the observed start of decomposition (~900 °C).