Investigating the association between streetscapes and human walking activities using Google Street View and human trajectory data

Having an active lifestyle is recognized to positively contribute to public health. Creating more walkable streets and neighborhoods is an important way to promote an active lifestyle for urban residents. It is therefore important to understand how the urban built environment can influence human walking activities. In this study, we investigated the interaction of human walking activities and physical characteristics of streetscapes in Boston. A large number of anonymous pedestrian trajectories collected from a smartphone application were used to estimate human walking activities. Publicly accessible Google Street View images were used to estimate the amount of street greenery and the enclosure of street canyons, both of which were used to indicate the physical characteristics of streetscapes. The Walk Score and population were also added in the statistical analyses to control the influence of nearby urban facilities and population on human walking activities. Statistical analysis results show that both the street greenery and the enclosure of the street canyons are significantly associated with human walking activities. The associations between the streetscape variables and human walking activities vary in different land use types. The results of this study have implications for designing walkable and healthy cities.     

Improving impervious surface estimation: an integrated method of classification and regression trees (CART) and linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) based on error analysis

Classification and regression tree (CART) has been widely implemented to estimate impervious surface, an important indicator of urbanization and environmental quality. Although the CART algorithm gains higher overall accuracy than linear regression models, only very few studies have noticed that reliability of CART is affected by systematic errors. Especially, CART typically overestimates impervious surfaces in low-density urban areas and underestimates them in high-density urban areas. The primary objective of this study is to develop an improved integrated method to estimate impervious surface with higher accuracy by reducing the systematic errors of CART. This improved method was applied to three urban areas, Chicago (United States), Venice (Italy), and Guangzhou (China) to examine its effectiveness. When compared with the conventional CART, overall mean average error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of improved method are decreased by 22.64% and 20.93%, respectively, and R² rises from 0.9 to 0.96. In high-density impervious surfaces, where intensely developed urban area is located, the MAE and RMSE for the improved method are 0.066 and 0.088, respectively, largely improved from 0.100 to 0.130. Since accurate estimation of high-density impervious surfaces is the fundamental issue for monitoring and understanding the urban environment, the improved method demonstrated in this study is significant.     

Does subduction polarity control metallogeny? The Mediterranean case

The distribution of ore‐deposit types in different sectors of the circum‐Mediterranean realm that have been affected by subduction processes since the Cretaceous varies in space and time. Sectors involved in W‐directed subduction (Sardinia, Apennines–Maghrebides, Internal Betics, Tyrrhenian, Western–Eastern Carpathians) are dominated by relatively low‐sulphidation epithermal (±VMS) deposits. Orogens formed by NE‐directed subduction (Dinarides–Hellenides–Pontides–Anatolides–Taurides; DHPAT) were initially dominated by pluton‐related porphyry–skarn–high‐sulphidation epithermal associations. These distinct metallogenic styles can be related to the systematic tectono‐magmatic asymmetry of E–NE‐ and W‐directed subduction systems and are analogous to the relationship observed in circum‐Pacific belts. Exceptions to this simple pattern occurred in the DHPAT in the Cenozoic, when deposit associations typical of both E‐directed and W‐directed systems were formed. Such exceptions are interpreted to reflect superimposition of contrasting subduction trends and inheritance from earlier metallogenic stages (Apuseni) or the interference of subduction processes with subduction‐unrelated extension (Hellenides, West Anatolia).     

Adaptation of the Canadian Fire Weather Index to Mediterranean forests

Natural Hazards - The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is one of the most used tools to forecast forest fire hazard. In this paper, we propose an adaptation of the FWI to take into account the...     

Variations in multiscale curvature distribution and signatures of LiDAR DTM errors

The development of high resolution LiDAR digital terrain models (DTMs) has enabled the exploration of the statistical signature of morphology on curvature distributions. This work analyzes Minimum Curvature distributions to identify the statistical signature of two types of LiDAR‐DTM errors (outliers and striping artifacts) in the derived estimates, rather than morphology itself. The analysis shows the importance of modeling these errors correctly, in relation to the scale of analysis and DTM resolution, in order to have reliable curvature estimates. Nine DTMs of different morphological areas are considered, and grouped into a training dataset (without errors) and a test dataset (with errors). In the training dataset, the original DTMs are considered as true values; errors are then applied to these data. Minimum Curvature is computed at multiple scales from each DTM: changes in curvature distributions due only to morphology and scale are characterized from the original data; error effects are then identified from the datasets with simulated errors, and validated against the test dataset. The analysis shows that outliers and striping artifacts can be realistically simulated by heavily left tailed distributions. For DTMs without errors, the scale‐dependent change in curvature distribution is primarily controlled by real morphology. When DTMs include errors, curvature distributions become controlled by these errors, whose propagation depends on error distribution, error spatial correlation, and the scale of analysis. This study shows that the curvature distributions are impacted upon differently by striping artifacts and outliers, and that these are clearly distinguishable from the signal of morphological features: a scale‐dependent change in curvature distribution can therefore be interpreted as the signature of these specific errors, rather than morphology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speleogenesis of an exhumed hydrothermal sulphuric acid karst in Cambrian carbonates (Mount San Giovanni,Sardinia)

In the past few years the systematic study of caves intercepted by mine workings in southwest Sardinia has permitted us to observe morphologies due to rare speleogenetic and minerogenetic processes related to ancient hydrothermal activity. These relic morphologies are slowly being overprinted by recent speleogenetic processes that tend to obscure the hypogene origin of these caves. A combined geomorphological and mineralogical investigation has permitted a fairly detailed reconstruction of the various phases of evolution of these caves. Cave formation had already started in Cambrian times, but culminated in the Carboniferous, when most of the large voids still accessible today were formed. A key role in carbonate dissolution was played by sulphuric acid formed by the oxidation of the polymetallic ores present in the rocks since the Cambrian. During the Quaternary a variety of minerals formed inside the caves: calcite and aragonite, that yielded sequences of palaeo‐environmental interest, and also barite, phosgenite, hydrozincite, hemimorphite and many others. These minerals are in part due to a phreatic thermal hypogenic cave forming phase, and in part to later epigene overprinting in an oxidizing environment rich in polymetallic ores. Massive gypsum deposits, elsewhere typical of this kind of caves, are entirely absent due to dissolution during both the phreatic cave formation and the later epigenic stage. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Functional evaluation of a simplified scaling method for assessing the spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties at the hillslope scale

Abstract

Mapping soil hydraulic parameters with traditional scaling methods that use laboratory-determined hydraulic characteristics (the LAB method) is not always feasible as it involves expensive, time-consuming and sophisticated measurements on soil samples collected in several locations of the study area. An alternative scaling method (the AP method) has been recently proposed to indirectly retrieve the soil hydraulic properties following the Arya-Paris physico-empirical pedotransfer function, which makes use of particle-size distribution and bulk density values. In this synthetic study we verify the performance of the AP method from a functional perspective, by evaluating the differences in the simulated soil water budget through a Monte Carlo approach. Notwithstanding that the AP method can provide soil hydraulic property patterns with faster experimental procedures and minor costs, we observe significant bias in the predicted spatially-averaged soil water budget due to a poor parametric calibration of the AP method and an imprecise identification of the spatial correlation structure of the AP-estimated scaling factors.

Citation Nasta, P., Romano, N., and Chirico, G.B., 2013. Functional evaluation of a simplified scaling method for assessing the spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties at the hillslope scale. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (5), 1059–1071.     

Isotopic composition of rain- and groundwater at Mt. Vesuvius: environmental and volcanological implications

The present work reports on the isotopic characterization of rainfall and groundwater at Mt. Vesuvius. Values of δ ¹⁸O, monthly measured on rain samples collected during the period 2002–2004 in a rain-gauge network composed of 10 stations, were compared with meteorological and DEM data. Air temperature, controlled by the local orographic structure, was identified as the main factor influencing rain isotopic composition. Another important role is played by orographic clouds, whose condensation over the top of Mt. Vesuvius is responsible for anomalously high δ ¹⁸O values recorded in rain samples from the summit area of the volcanic edifice. A spatial model of rain isotopic composition, based on a 3D distribution of temperature derived by a 1 × 1 km DEM, was implemented and used for calculating the theoretical isotopic signature of seepage, further compared with data measured in the groundwater monitoring network. The analysis evidenced the role of local meteoric recharge as the main source feeding Mt. Vesuvius aquifers. The unique exception is the Olivella drainage gallery, located on the north-eastern flank of the volcanic edifice, whose isotopic composition is slightly more positive than the one expected for its altitude, likely caused by both evaporation processes and mixing with condensed hydrothermal vapor.     

Nonsingular vectorial reformulation of the short-period corrections in Kozai’s oblateness solution

We present fully three-dimensional equations to describe the rotations of a body made of a deformable mantle and a fluid core. The model in its essence is similar to that used by INPOP19a (Integration Planétaire de l’Observatoire de Paris) Fienga et al. (INPOP19a planetary ephemerides. Notes Scientifiques et Techniques de l’Institut de Mécanique Céleste, vol 109, 2019), and by JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) (Park et al. The JPL Planetary and Lunar Ephemerides DE440 and DE441. Astron J 161(3):105, 2021. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/abd414), to represent the Moon. The intended advantages of our model are: straightforward use of any linear-viscoelastic model for the rheology of the mantle; easy numerical implementation in time-domain (no time lags are necessary); all parameters, including those related to the “permanent deformation”, have a physical interpretation. The paper also contains: (1) A physical model to explain the usual lack of hydrostaticity of the mantle (permanent deformation). (2) Formulas for free librations of bodies in and out-of spin-orbit resonance that are valid for any linear viscoelastic rheology of the mantle. (3) Formulas for the offset between the mantle and the idealised rigid-body motion (Peale’s Cassini states). (4) Applications to the librations of Moon, Earth, and Mercury that are used for model validation.