Compartmented flow at the Bátaapáti site in Hungary

Integration of hydrogeological and geological data into a conceptual model is critical for site investigation programs, since this model is the basis for hydrogeological modeling and for engineering. In the Hungarian Radioactive Waste Disposal Investigation Program, several methods have been used to characterize the potential host rock (granite) at the Bátaapáti site for a repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste. Hydrogeological data acquisition revealed some characteristic aspects of the site. One of the most important is the presence of extensive rock deformation zones (faults) with low hydraulic conductivity, which strongly reduce the direct hydraulic communication between adjacent blocks of rock (compartmentalization). This characteristic of the rock mass results in a mosaic-like distribution of rock compartments, each with an almost constant hydraulic head. Within the compartments, hydraulic tests have shown that transmissivity is strongly scale dependent: the larger the scale, the higher the measured transmissivity. The extensive highly transmissive zones cause very low hydraulic gradients within each block, thus the transport processes are strongly influenced by the low or average transmissivity zones and the rock matrix.     

Hydrostratigraphic framework and hydrogeological behaviour of the Mancha Oriental System (SE Spain)

The Mancha Oriental System (MOS) has a surface area of 7,260 km², making it one of the largest carbonate aquifer systems in Spain. The system sustains about 1,000 km² of irrigated crops and supplies groundwater to 275,000 inhabitants. The economic transformation brought about by the development of extensive irrigated cropland has led to a water-balance disequilibrium of about 75 million m³/year. This input–output deficit has negative consequences in the quantity and quality of the available resources, in the river–aquifer relationship, and in the associated ecosystems as well. To understand the hydrogeological behaviour of the system, it is necessary to design a conceptual model. Further, the conceptualisation of a groundwater flow system is a requirement of the European Water Framework Directive for the characterisation of groundwater bodies. The robustness of the conceptual model depends heavily on the user capability of representing the real system. In this work, a multidisciplinary approach has been used to represent the three-dimensional geological framework and the groundwater flow conceptualisation of the MOS. Data management and three-dimensional visualisation have been carried out by means of geographical information system (GIS) tools and software for contouring and three-dimensional surface mapping.     

Stratigraphic and geochemical study of the organic-rich black shales in the Tarcău Nappe of the Moldavidian Domain (Carpathian Chain,Romania)

An integrated stratigraphic analysis has been made of the Tarcău Nappe (Moldavidian Domain, Eastern Romanian Carpathians), coupled with a geochemical study of organic-rich beds. Two Main Sequence Boundaries (Early Oligocene and near to the Oligocene–Aquitanian boundary, respectively) divide the sedimentary record into three depositional sequences. The sedimentation occurred in the central area of a basin supplied by different and opposite sources. The high amount of siliciclastics at the beginning of the Miocene marks the activation of the “foredeep stage”. The successions studied are younger than previously thought and they more accurately date the deformation of the different Miocene phases affecting the Moldavidian Basin. The intervals with black shales identified are related to two main separate anoxic episodes with an age not older than Late Rupelian and not before Late Chattian. The most important organic-rich beds correspond to the Lower Menilites, Bituminous Marls and Lower Dysodilic Shales Members (Interval 2). These constitute a good potential source rock for petroleum, with homogeneous Type II oil-prone organic matter, highly lipidic and thermally immature. The deposition of black shales has been interpreted as occurring within a deep, periodically isolated and tectonically controlled basin.     

Life in the sublittoral zone of long-lived Lake Pannon: paleontological analysis of the Upper Miocene Szák Formation,Hungary

Life and depositional environments in the sublittoral zone of Lake Pannon, a large, brackish Paratethyan lake from the Late Miocene, were reconstructed from fossils and facies of the Szák Formation. This formation is exposed in several, roughly coeval (9.4–8.9 Ma) outcrops, located along strike of the paleo-shelf-break in northwestern Hungary. The silty argillaceous marl of the formation was deposited below storm wave base, at 20–30 to 80–90 m water depth. The abundance of benthic organisms indicates that the bottom water was usually well oxygenated. Interstitial dysoxia, however, may have occurred immediately below the sediment–water interface, as evidenced by occasional preservation of trace fossils such as Diplocraterion. The fauna comprised endemic mollusks, including brackish cockles of the subfamily Lymnocardiinae, dreissenid mussels (Congeria), and highly adapted, uniquely large-sized deep-water pulmonate snails (planorbids and lymnaeids). Ostracods were dominated by endemic species and, in some cases, endemic genera of candonids, leptocytherids, cypridids, and loxoconchids. Fish remnants include a sciaenid otolith and the oldest skeletal occurrence of Perca in Europe. The phytoplankton comprised exclusively endemic coccolithophorids, mostly endemic dinoflagellates (prevailingly Spiniferites), and cosmopolitan green algae. The Late Miocene fauna and flora of Lake Pannon were in many ways similar to the modern Caspian biota, and in particular cases can be regarded as its precursor.     

Geochemical constraints on the origin of the late Jurassic proto-Caribbean oceanic crust in Hispaniola

The nature of the oceanic crust produced through rifting and oceanic spreading between North and South America during the Late Jurassic is a key element for the Caribbean plate tectonic model reconstruction. Located in the Cordillera Central of Hispaniola, the Loma La Monja volcano-plutonic assemblage (LMA) is composed of gabbros, dolerites, basalts, and oceanic sediments, as well as metamorphic equivalents, which represent a dismembered fragment of this proto-Caribbean oceanic crust. Petrologic and geochemical data show that the LMA have a relatively broad diversity in composition, which represent the crystallization products of a typical low-pressure tholeiitic fractionation of mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB)-type parental magmas, ranging from N- to E-MORB. Three geochemical groups have been distinguished in the volcanic sequence: LREE-flat to slightly LREE-enriched basalts of groups II and III occur interlayered in the lower stratigraphic levels; and LREE-depleted basalts of group I in the upper levels. Mantle melt modeling suggests that group III magmas are consistent by mixing within a mantle melt column of low-degree (<1%) melts of a deep garnet lherzolite source and high-degree (>15%) melts of a shallow spinel source, and groups II and I magmas are explained with moderate to high (14–18%) and very high (>20%) fractional melting degrees of a shallower spinel mantle source, respectively. Thus, upward in the volcanic sequence of the LMA, the magmas represent progressively more extensive melting of shallower sources, in a plume-influenced spreading ridge of the proto-Caribbean oceanic crust. Nb/Y versus Zr/Y systematics combined with recent plate tectonic model reconstructions reveal that Caribbean Colombian oceanic plateau fragments in Hispaniola formed through melting of heterogeneous mantle source regions related with distinct plumes during at least from Aptian–Albian (>96 Ma) to Late Campanian.     

Great Powers and Geopolitical Change

Abstract

Most traditional segregation measures, such as the index of dissimilarity D, fail to distinguish spatial patterns effectively. Previously proposed spatial measures modifying D suffer from several shortcomings. This article describes a general spatial segregation index based upon the concept of composite population counts, which are derived from grouping people in neighboring areas together to account implicitly for spatial interaction of groups across unit boundaries. The suggested spatial index can overcome the disadvantages of previous indices and can assess the spatial extent of the segregated clusters. The results offer a more comprehensive depiction of spatial segregation of a region.

     

Watermarking of digital geospatial datasets: a review of technical,legal and copyright issues

Gathering data accounts for more than 80% of the cost of any GIS project. Fast Internet connections and digital datasets threaten the investments of data producers through data piracy. Outside the GIS community this problem has been known for a long time, and possible solutions exist for digital imagery, formatted text, 3D meshes and so on, showing possible links to typical spatial data. This is largely achieved through embedding hidden information in a dataset without producing perceptible changes in the data, a process known as watermarking. The producer can recover the embedded information on request in order to produce evidence of ownership in a court, so the overall strategy relies on a legal basis rather than technical ones. This paper analyses the state-of-the-art for watermarking protection in digital geographical datasets. Digital imagery is demonstrably a more mature area than geographical information, even with multiple commercial vendors offering watermarking protection. 2D vector and point datasets have received less attention from the research community; however, 3D meshes have been considered by the CAD community and a handful of techniques are available for that case, and they are reviewed here.     

Representing geographical objects with scale‐induced indeterminate boundaries: A neural network‐based data model

The degree of uncertainty of many geographical objects has long been known to be in intimate relation with the scale of its observation and representation. Yet, the explicit consideration of scaling operations when modeling uncertainty is rarely found. In this study, a neural network‐based data model was investigated for representing geographical objects with scale‐induced indeterminate boundaries. Two types of neural units, combined with two types of activation function, comprise the processing core of the model, where the activation function can model either hard or soft transition zones. The construction of complex fuzzy regions, as well as lines and points, is discussed and illustrated with examples. It is shown how the level of detail that is apparent in the boundary at a given scale can be controlled through the degree of smoothness of each activation function. Several issues about the practical implementation of the model are discussed and indications on how to perform complex overlay operations of fuzzy maps provided. The model was illustrated through an example of representing multi‐resolution, sub‐pixel maps that are typically derived from remote sensing techniques.     

High-performance three-horizon composition algorithm for large-scale terrains

This work presents a high-performance algorithm to compute the horizon in very large high-resolution DEMs. We used Stewart's algorithm as the core of our implementation and considered that the horizon has three components: the ground, near, and far horizons. To eliminate the edge-effect, we introduced a multi-resolution halo method. Moreover, we used a new data partition approach, to substantially increase the parallelism in the algorithm. In addition, several optimizations have been applied to considerably reduce the number of arithmetical operations in the core of the algorithm. The experimental results have demonstrated that by applying the above-described contributions, the proposed algorithm is more than twice faster than Stewart's algorithm while maintaining the same accuracy.     

Usability evaluation and PPGIS: towards a user-centred design approach

Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) is a field of research that, among other things, focuses on the use of GIS by non-experts and occasional users. These users tend to have a diverse range of computer literacy, world views, cultural backgrounds and knowledge. These aspects require that the systems used within PPGIS are accessible and easy to use. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the related usability evaluation techniques focus on how to make computer systems more accessible, while focusing on user needs and requirements. Thus, the synergy between PPGIS and HCI seems natural. In this paper, we discuss the aspects of this synergy, building on our experience from three workshops. We demonstrate how usability evaluation can contribute to PPGIS research, and how PPGIS research can contribute to the HCI aspects of GIS in general. We conclude this paper with a call for a user-centred design approach to PPGIS projects.