A rural “eye” in the Capital: Tuti Island,Khartoum, Sudan

Islands at strategic points have often become the core of a modern city, or have been developed as historic heritage sites. This has been especially true when the settlers have been strangers in the land. This paper examines why such a situation has not occurred with Tuti Island at the confluence of the White and Blue Niles in the centre of Sudan's Three Towns capital, even though the first permanent inhabitants at the confluence were strangers and chose Tuti Island for their first settlement. The paper questions whether Tuti can survive as a green eye in its present form with the increasing pressures from the urban areas surrounding it.     

Geohydrological models and earthquake effects at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

 Yucca Mountain, the proposed site for the high-level nuclear waste repository, is located just south of where the present water table begins a sharp rise in elevation. This large hydraulic gradient is a regional feature that extends for over 100 km. Yucca Mountain and its vicinity are underlain by faulted and fractured tuffs with hydraulic conductivities controlled by flow through the fractures. Close to and parallel with the region of large hydraulic gradient, and surrounding the core of the Timber Mountain Caldera, there is a 10- to 20-km-wide zone containing few faults and thus, most likely, few open fractures. Consequently, this zone should have a relatively low hydraulic conductivity, and this inference is supported by the available conductivity measurements in wells near the large hydraulic gradient. Also, slug injection tests indicate significantly higher pressures for fracture opening in wells located near the large hydraulic gradient compared to the opening pressures in wells further to the south, hence implying that lower extensional stresses prevail to the north with consequently fewer open fractures there. Analytical and numerical modeling shows that such a boundary between media of high and low conductivity can produce the observed, large hydraulic gradient, with the high conductivity medium having a lower elevation than the water table. Further, as fractures can close due to tectonic activity, the conductivity of the Yucca Mountain tuffs can be reduced to a value near that for the hydraulic barrier due to strain release by a moderate earthquake. Under these conditions, simulations show that the elevation of the steady-state water table could rise between 150 and 250 m at the repository site. This elevation rise is due to the projected shift in the location of the large hydraulic gradient to the south in response to a moderate earthquake, near magnitude 6, along one of the major normal faults adjacent to Yucca Mountain. As the proposed repository would only be 200–400 m above the present water table, this predicted rise in the water table indicates a potential hazard involving water intrusion. Received: 7 June 1996 / Accepted: 19 November 1996     

The changing role of hydrogeology in semi-arid southern and eastern Africa

Much of southern and eastern Africa is semi-arid and heavily groundwater dependent. Borehole drilling commenced over a hundred years ago with magnetic and electrical resistivity surveys for borehole siting being introduced from 1936. Formalised training of hydrogeologists led in the 1970s to an almost standard approach to hydrogeological investigation and a period of stability followed, during which some major investigations were carried out. A period of decentralisation and fragmentation has since taken place in many parts of southern and eastern Africa, and groundwater monitoring and management are inadequate in many countries. All but six of the 14 SADC (Southern African Development Community) member states reportedly have an adequate monitoring network in place. However, groundwater demand is increasing and hydrogeologists need to promote the use of appropriate methodologies as an essential part of tackling the severe issues now facing the water sector in the region.     

Synoptic Climatology of Air Pollution in Moscow

Summary Seasonal synoptic indices are developed employing principal components analysis and cluster analysis for Moscow and using surface and upper air meteorological data. Synoptic types are analysed in terms of circulation patterns and air mass characteristics. The indices are used to examine weather-induced variability in CO and NO₂ concentrations for different land use types and in the context of multiple pollution sources. Anticyclonic conditions in spring, summer and autumn are identified as producing high pollution concentrations. Local depressions developing in the low pressure gradient fields in summer are another synoptic type resulting in high levels of air pollution. Extremely cold anticyclonic conditions in winter result in high CO but low NO₂ levels. Weather patterns characterised by strong winds associated either with an established zonal flow or the passage of a cold front caused high NO₂ concentrations in the areas affected by elevated sources. Received October 28, 1997 Revised January 26, 1998     

Objective cyclone climatologies of the North Atlantic – a comparison between the ECMWF and NCEP Reanalyses

Simple and easily reproducible techniques have been used to construct two objective cyclone climatologies of the North Atlantic-European sector. The goal of this study is to increase understanding of cyclones with the potential to cause damage, in particular, those reaching Beaufort category 7 and above. The two climatologies constructed here span the period 1979–2000 and have been developed from reanalysis mean sea level pressure data from the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts) and NCEP (National Centres for Environmental Prediction). The ECMWF reanalysis data are only available for 15 years, and have been extended from 1994 using operational analyses. The major temporal and spatial characteristics of North Atlantic cyclones are examined and a comparison between the climatologies developed from the two data sets is carried out. The well-known cyclogenesis regions along the east coast of the United States and to the southeast of Greenland are replicated by both reanalyses, as is the characteristic southwest/northeast orientation of the dominant cyclone track across the Atlantic basin. However, only weak correlations are found between the time series of cyclone frequency produced from the two reanalyses, and this is particularly true for the lower intensity Beaufort Scale category 0–6 cyclones. This result, together with the large differences in the spatial distribution of cyclones over Greenland for Beaufort Scale 0–6 cyclones, indicates the NCEP reanalyses generates fewer systems than the ECMWF reanalyses. The overall conclusion is that the ECMWF mean sea level pressure data produce a more comprehensive climatology of North Atlantic cyclones at all scales.     

Cleantech clusters: Transformational assemblages for a just,green economy or just business as usual?

The rhetorical zeal for green enterprise as a global fix for the tripartite challenges of economic recession, environmental degradation and social inequality is increasingly visible in state and non-state pronouncements around the globe under the banner of ‘The Green Economy’. In particular, many policy-facing statements call for transitions leading to a transformation in development practices. Yet there is little detail either in policy or research regarding the types of transitions needed and how they are to be initiated, nor agreement about what a transformed economy might look like. Despite this, there are emergent activities within the cleantech arena which are being heralded as actually existing examples of green economy activities. One means through which these activities are seeking to exert influence over development trajectories is by clustering both at the subnational and transnational level. While diverse in formation, many of these clusters are hybridised, involving actors from public, private and civil society sectors. Critiquing the efficacy of mainstream industrial cluster theory to analyse hybridised cleantech clustering, this paper presents a unique synthesis of current thought on multiscalar environmental governance and socio-spatial formations to explore the practices and potentialities of these hybridised cleantech clusters. Surveying the landscape of cleantech clustering and meta-clustering, before focusing in depth on one case study, the contribution of clustering to transitioning towards a transformed green economy is considered. Despite strong forces, both within and beyond cleantech clusters, for maintaining neoliberalised approaches to cleantech activity, it is concluded that for as long as cleantech clusters remain open and inclusive of actors proposing alternative pathways they do represent potential, albeit provisional, assemblages for transformation.     

Late Cretaceous genesis of the Kula plate

We propose that the Pacific-Kula ridge began spreading approximately 85 m.y. B.P., during Late Cretaceous time. Extrapolation of the Great Magnetic Bight backwards in time results in an implausible ridge configuration. This implies that plate velocity vectors for the Pacific, Kula, and Farallon plates were not constant during this interval. Evidence for splitting of the Kula plate from the Pacific plate along the Chinook trough is the relationship between the north-striking Amlia and Adak fracture zones, the Chinook and Emperor troughs, and the magnetic lineations south of the Aleutian trench. If this hypothesis is correct, it will require that Mesozoic reconstructions of the Pacific basin and their relation to Cenozoic reconstructions be re-examined. A previously unrecognized Mesozoic plate may be required. We propose calling this the Izanagi plate.     

The polarization of Pc5 ULF waves around dawn: A possible ionospheric conductivity gradient effect

In this study over 100 Pc5 events observed on the SAMNET magnetometer array have been catalogued. The ground horizontal polarization of these waves has been investigated and it has been shown that there are large differences between the polarization azimuth distributions on either side of noon. In the morning the azimuth distributions are spread evenly across all possible orientations whereas in the afternoon they are predominantly in a North-South orientation. The difference appears to be the result of a specific polarization pattern that occurred across the SAMNET array for 31 of the Pc5 events. These 31 Pc5 events all occurred in the morning sector, close to the dawn terminator. It is suggested that this special polarization pattern is a consequence of ionospheric conductivity gradients that occur at around dawn. This theory is reinforced by the comparison of the local times of these polarization variations with the local time of sunrise. By employing ionospheric conductivity data from the EISCAT radar for two of these Pc5 events, this connection has been studied in more detail.     

Estimating the surface wind speed over drifting pack ice from surface weather charts

Routine surface wind speed data, vital for the study of drifting pack ice, are not available for the polar oceans. Over sea, it has been demonstrated by Hasse that estimates of surface wind speed may be obtained from the geostrophic wind speed using linear formulae. Comparing estimated with observed data for six sites in Canada, it is found that the formulae may also be applied to obtain estimates of surface wind speed over pack ice.