Map-Based Exploratory Evaluation of Non-Medical Determinants of Population Health

Multi‐criteria evaluation (MCE) and decision‐making are increasingly combined with interactive tools to assist users with visual thinking and exploring decision strategies. The interactive control of criterion combination rules and the simultaneous observation of geographic space and criterion space provide a means of investigating the sensitivity of the decision outcome to the decision‐maker's preferences. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is an MCE method that has been successfully implemented in management processes including those addressed by Geographic Information Systems. In this paper, we present a map‐based, interactive AHP implementation, which provides a link between a well‐understood decision support method and exploratory geographic visualization. Using a case study with public health data for the Province of Ontario, Canada, we demonstrate that exploratory map use increases the effectiveness of the AHP‐based evaluation of population health.     

Monitoring agricultural cropping patterns across the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin using MODIS-NDVI data

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) 16-day composite data product (MOD12Q) was used to develop annual cropland and crop-specific map products (corn, soybeans, and wheat) for the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin (GLB). The crop area distributions and changes in crop rotations were characterized by comparing annual crop map products for 2005, 2006, and 2007. The total acreages for corn and soybeans were relatively balanced for calendar years 2005 (31,462 km² and 31,283 km², respectively) and 2006 (30,766 km² and 30,972 km², respectively). Conversely, corn acreage increased approximately 21% from 2006 to 2007, while soybean and wheat acreage decreased approximately 9% and 21%, respectively. Two-year crop rotational change analyses were conducted for the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 time periods. The large increase in corn acreages for 2007 introduced crop rotation changes across the GLB. Compared to 2005–2006, crop rotation patterns for 2006–2007 resulted in increased corn–corn, soybean–corn, and wheat–corn rotations. The increased corn acreages could have potential negative impacts on nutrient loadings, pesticide exposures, and sediment-mediated habitat degradation. Increased in US corn acreages in 2007 were related to new biofuel mandates, while Canadian increases were attributed to higher world-wide corn prices. Additional study is needed to determine the potential impacts of increases in corn-based ethanol agricultural production on watershed ecosystems and receiving waters.     

中国对全球地球观测系统的贡献

进一步认识地球、关注地球发展规律, 保护人类共同家园已成为世界各国政府的共识。共同发展地球观测技术, 提高对地观测能力成为新世纪世界各国的共同要求。2003年发起, 2005年由欧盟组织的地球观测部长级峰会上通过了全球综合地球观测系统(Global Earth Observation System of Systems, GEOSS)十年执行计划, 构成了世界范围内地球观测领域国际科技合作的主流。中国地球观测领域呈现出快速发展的趋势, 并提出了该领域的全球性发展战略, 预示着中国将在国际地球观测领域发挥越来越重要的作用。文章介绍了中国地球观测领域发展现状和趋势, 在分析中国参与全球地球观测领域国际合作现状及目前存在问题的基础上, 提出进一步促进中国参与该领域国际合作, 为中国乃至国际社会发展做出重要贡献的建议。     

A GPS-Supported Gravity Survey in the Amazon of Ecuador

The growing importance and effectiveness of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in positioning geophysical surveys is now well established. In Ecuador's Amazon basin the use of GPS was the determining factor in the successful completion of a gravity survey carried out in 1994. Over 500 gravity stations, spaced from 1 to 5 km apart and positioned by GPS, were collected in the jungle environment in the country's southeast, where the preexisting data, of variable and unknown quality, were mostly confined to areas along the major rivers. This station densification, which includes the reoccupation of selected points, contributed to increase the gravity coverage; it also allowed us to evaluate and correct 1100 preexisting data points in the area, so that the different surveys can be merged. The composite data set is used for a geologic analysis of the study area, where previously unknown structures are discovered. ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On the growth of disturbances to forced and dissipated barotropic flows

Abstract

We consider the growth of disturbances to large-scale zonally-asymmetric steady states in a truncated spectral model for forced and dissipated barotropic flow. A variant of the energy method is developed to optimize the instantaneous disturbance energy growth rate. The method involves solving a matrix eigenvalue problem amenable to standard numerical techniques. Two applications are discussed. (1) The global stability of a family of steady states is assessed in terms of the Ekman damping coefficient r. It is shown that monotonic global stability (i.e., every disturbances energy monotonically decays to zero) prevails when r≥r_c . (2) Initially fastest-growing disturbances are constructed in the r<r_c regime. Particular attention is paid to a subregion of the r<r_c regime where initially-growing disturbances exist despite stability with respect to normal modes. Nonlinear time-dependent simulations are performed in order to appraise the time evolution of various disturbances.     

Using a regional numerical weather prediction model for GNSS positioning over Brazil

The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) can provide centimeter positioning accuracy at low costs. However, in order to obtain the desired high accuracy, it is necessary to use high-quality atmospheric models. We focus on the troposphere, which is an important topic of research in Brazil where the tropospheric characteristics are unique, both spatially and temporally. There are dry regions, which lie mainly in the central part of the country. However, the most interesting area for the investigation of tropospheric models is the wet region which is located in the Amazon forest. This region substantially affects the variability of humidity over other regions of Brazil. It provides a large quantity of water vapor through the humidity convergence zone, especially for the southeast region. The interconnection and large fluxes of water vapor can generate serious deficiencies in tropospheric modeling. The CPTEC/INPE (Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies/Brazilian Institute for Space Research) has been providing since July 2012 a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model for South America, known as Eta. It has yield excellent results in weather prediction but has not been used in GNSS positioning. This NWP model was evaluated in precise point positioning (PPP) and network-based positioning. Concerning PPP, the best positioning results were obtained for the station SAGA, located in Amazon region. Using the NWP model, the 3D RMS are less than 10 cm for all 24 h of data, whereas the values reach approximately 60 cm for the Hopfield model. For network-based positioning, the best results were obtained mainly when the tropospheric characteristics are critical, in which case an improvement of up to 7.2 % was obtained in 3D RMS using NWP models.