Challenges in Norwegian coastal zone planning

The article identifies some of the challenges facing local structure planing of sea areas since the mid-1980s, and asks what has been achieved. This question concerns the quality of plans as tools for spatial ordering and development. On the basis of theories of communicative and strategic planning, a framework of assessment is evolved round two main concepts: the legitimacy and the flexibility of plans. These are supplemented with a conformance concept applicable to project planning. The article then examines specific planning problems and assesses processes and achievements in selected fish-farming communes on the coast of West and North Norway.     

Adaptive adjustment of channel geometry

This paper constructs a model of channel geometry composed of three subsections: a steady-state submodel, a gradedstate submodel, and a stochastic error submodel. With the aid of this representation of the morphology of channels, the at-a-point changes in geometry can be reproduced by a simple recursive equation of autoregressive, moving-average form which is derived from methods used in the statistical analysis of time series. A set of height loss data for three Japanese rivers derived from Yatsu's (1955) paper is used to determine the effect of bed material changes on adaptations within the graded-state submodel of the channel. The results of analyzing the autocorrelation function, spectrum, and adaptive parameter shifts within this model can be used to infer that significant changes in the amplitude of height change variation, and a shift to higher frequency oscillations of bed forms are associated with the shift in bed material conditions.     

A provisional map of forest types for the British Isles 5000 years ago

The distributions of seven woodland types, plus unforested areas, are mapped for the British Isles at 5000 BP. The map was compiled using data of modern soil distribution, present-day ecological preferences of the tree taxa present, and the pollen record.     

High-Frequency Response of the Atmospheric Electric Potential Gradient Under Strong and Dry Boundary-Layer Convection

The spectral response of atmospheric electric potential gradient gives important information about phenomena affecting this gradient at characteristic time scales ranging from years (e.g., solar modulation) to fractions of a second (e.g., turbulence). While long-term time scales have been exhaustively explored, short-term scales have received less attention. At such frequencies, space-charge transport inside the planetary boundary layer becomes a sizeable contribution to the potential gradient variability. For the first time, co-located (Évora, Portugal) measurements of boundary-layer backscatter profiles and the 100-Hz potential gradient are reported. Five campaign days are analyzed, providing evidence for a relation between high-frequency response of the potential gradient and strong dry convection.     

Seabed geotechnical parameters from electrical conductivity measurements

Electrical conductivity measurements provide useful geotechnical information, particularly porosity data, and are well suited for use in conjunction with acoustic profiling techniques. A proposed conductivity measurement system for surveying the seabed is characterized by a towed inductive multifrequency probe operating underwater. It is integrated with a shipboard data acquisition and processing system.     

Distribution of glaciofluvial sediment within and on the surface of a high arctic valley glacier: Marthabreen,Svalbard

Marthabreen is a 7·8 km long valley glacier in SW Spitsbergen. The glacier is partially covered by a layer of angular debris derived from rockfall in its accumulation area, pierced in places by pinnacles and ridges of glaciofluvial sediment. These concentrations of glaciofluvial sediment fall into three categories: (1) debris pinnacles; (2) longitudinal sediment dykes; (3) longitudinal ridge accumulations. Debris pinnacles are slabs of sediment (predominantly sands, gravels and cobbles) elevated to the glacier surface along thrusts. Longitudinal sediment dykes are low (<0·5 m high) ridges of debris melting out of vertical sediment dykes within the body of the glacier. They are composed of a range of facies including sands, granule gravels, pebble gravels and diamiction. These dykes are sub-parallel to the longitudinal foliation on the glacier and form during folding of the stratification. Longitudinal ridge accumulations are higher (>1 m high) ridges of sorted sand and gravels which are not associated with penetrative ice structures. Their occurrence downglacier of sediment dykes and debris pinnacles suggests that they originate as supraglacial or englacial channels or tunnels filled by sediment derived from the dykes or thrusts. The presence of large quantities of glaciofluvial sediment on the surface of Marthabreen does not imply englacial water flow at high levels within the glacier, but is related to ice deformational processes such as thrusting and folding of debris-rich stratification. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.