Free and open source software for geospatial applications (FOSS4G) to support Future Earth

ABSTRACT

The development, integration, and distribution of the information and spatial data infrastructure (i.e. Digital Earth; DE) necessary to support the vision and goals of Future Earth (FE) will occur in a distributed fashion, in very diverse technological, institutional, socio-cultural, and economic contexts around the world. This complex context and ambitious goals require bringing to bear not only the best minds, but also the best science and technologies available. Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Applications (FOSS4G) offers mature, capable and reliable software to contribute to the creation of this infrastructure. In this paper we point to a selected set of some of the most mature and reliable FOSS4G solutions that can be used to develop the functionality required as part of DE and FE. We provide examples of large-scale, sophisticated, mission-critical applications of each software to illustrate their power and capabilities in systems where they perform roles or functionality similar to the ones they could perform as part of DE and FE. We provide information and resources to assist the readers in carrying out their own assessments to select the best FOSS4G solutions for their particular contexts and system development needs.     

Salt tectonics in pull-apart basins with application to the Dead Sea Basin

The Dead Sea Basin displays a broad range of salt-related structures that developed in a sinistral strike-slip tectonic environment: en échelon salt ridges, large salt diapirs, transverse oblique normal faults, salt walls and rollovers. Laboratory experiments are used to investigate the mechanics of salt tectonics in pull-apart systems. The results show that in an elongated pull-apart basin the basin fill, although decoupled from the underlying basement by a salt layer, remains frictionally coupled to the boundary. The basin fill, therefore, undergoes a strike-slip shear couple that simultaneously generates en échelon fold trains and oblique normal faults, trending mutually perpendicular. According to the orientation of basin boundaries, sedimentary cover deformation can be dominantly contractional or extensional, at the extremities of pull-apart basins forming either folds and thrusts or normal faults, respectively. These guidelines, applied to the analysis of the Dead Sea Basin, show that the various salt-related structures form a coherent set in the frame of a sinistral strike-slip shearing deformation of the sedimentary basin fill.     

Volcanic particles in agriculture and gardening

Volcanic pyroclasts of small size, such as lapilli and small pumice stones, are widely used in agriculture, gardening, and for pot plants as natural inorganic mulch. The technique of using pyroclasts to enhance topsoil stems from the eighteenth century, and specifically from the ad 1730–1736 eruption on Lanzarote. Critical observations on plant development during and after the eruption showed that the vegetation died when buried under a thick layer of lapilli, but grew vigorously when covered thinly. While the agriculture of Lanzarote was restricted to cereals before the eruption, it diversified to many kinds of fruit and vegetables afterwards, including the production of the famous Malvasía wines in the Canaries. The population of Lanzarote doubled in the years after the eruption, from about 5000 in 1730 to near 10 000 in 1768, predominantly as a result of the higher agricultural productivity. This outcome led to widespread use of lapilli and pumice fragments throughout the islands and eventually the rest of the globe. Lapilli and pumice provide vesicle space for moisture to be retained longer within the planting soil, which can create an environment for micro‐bacteria to thrive in. Through this route, nutrients from volcanic matter are transported into the surrounding soil where they become available to plant life. The detailed processes that operate within the pyroclasts are less well understood, such as the breakdown of nutrients from the rock matrix and transport into the soil by biological action. Further studies promise significant potential to optimize future agricultural efforts, particularly in otherwise arid areas of the globe.     

Mornings with the highest non-rainfall water during 2 years of measurements in the Negev–Ecological implications

By providing water during the long dry rainless season, non-rainfall water (NRW), principally dew and fog, is commonly thought to serve as an important water source for arid soil biocrusts, which require water threshold of 0.05 (for lichens) and 0.1 mm (for cyanobacteria) for growth. Such values are commonly reported in the literature. Moreover, values of >0.45 mm/d (considered as the practical theoretical threshold for dew) are also reported. Following an analysis of limited (29 days) dewy mornings, it was recently reported that dew is incapable of forming on the soil surface. Being of limited scope, we therefore analyse days that yielded the highest amounts of NRW during 2 years (2021–2023) of measurements (22 days with NRW ≥0.15 mm). We conducted measurements at 1 m above ground, cobbles, rocks, and the soil surface, and compared them to the cloth-plate method. Additionally, periodical temperature measurements were conducted, and the dewpoint temperature (T_d) was calculated. Our findings indicate that (a) dew yield never surpassed 0.4 mm, (b) while the water threshold amounts were reached on the rocks and especially on the cobbles, these thresholds were seldom reached on soil (a single morning with 0.1 mm and 3 days with ≥0.05 mm), (c) in comparison to air temperatures at 0.05 m and especially at 1 m-height above ground, surface nocturnal soil temperatures were 2–3°C warmer, thus eliminating possible vapour condensation. Our data cast doubt on values of >0.45 mm reported from various deserts. Additionally, while supporting the view that NRW may provide water for the growth of rock-dwelling lichens, NRW in the Negev does not provide the soil biocrusts with sufficient water for growth.     

The Arosa zone in Eastern Switzerland: oceanic, sedimentary burial, accretional and orogenic very low- to low grade patterns in a tectono-metamorphic mélange

In the area of Arosa?CDavos?CKlosters (Eastern Switzerland) the different tectonic elements of the Arosa zone mélange e.g. the Austroalpine fragments, the sedimentary cover of South Penninic ophiolite fragments, as well as the matrix (oceanic sediments and flysch rocks) show distinctively different metamorphic histories and also different climaxes (??peaks??) of Alpine metamorphism. This is shown by a wealth of Kübler-Index, vitrinite and bituminite reflectance measurements, and K-white mica b cell dimension data. At least six main metamorphic events can be recognized in the area of Arosa?CDavos?CKlosters: (1) A pre-orogenic event, typical for the Upper Austroalpine and for instance found in the sediments at the base of the Silvretta nappe but also in some tectonic fragments of the Arosa zone (Arosa zone mélange). (2) An epizonal oceanic metamorphism observed in the close vicinity of oceanic basement rocks units of the Arosa zone (South Penninic) is another pre-orogenic process. (3) A metamorphic overprint of the adjacent Lower Austroalpine nappes and structural fragments of the Lower Austroalpine in the Arosa zone. This metamorphic overprint is attributed to the orogenic metamorphic processes during the Late Cretaceous. (4) A thermal climax observed in the South Penninic sediments of the Arosa zone can be bracketed by the Austroalpine Late Cretaceous event (3) and the middle Tertiary event (5) in the Middle Penninic units and predates Oligocene extension of the ??Turba phase??. (6) North of Klosters, in the northern part of our study area, the entire tectonic pile from the North Penninic flysches to the Upper Austroalpine is strongly influenced by a late Tertiary high-grade diagenetic to low-anchizone event. In the Arosa zone mélange an individual orogenic metamorphic event is evidenced and gives a chance to resolve diagenetic?Cmetamorphic relations versus deformation. Six heating episodes in sedimentary rocks and seven deformation cycles can be distinguished. This is well explained by the propagation of the Alpine deformation front onto the foreland units. Flysches at the hanging wall of the mélange zone in the north of the study area (Walsertal zone) show data typical for low-grade diagenetic thermal conditions and are therefore sandwiched between higher metamorphic rock units and separated from theses units by a disconformity. The Arosa zone s.s., as defined in this paper, is characterised by metamorphic inversions in the hanging wall and at the footwall thrust, thus shows differences to the Walsertal zone in the north and to the Platta nappe in the south.     

Multi-Scale Analysis of the Geomagnetic Symmetric Index (sym)

In this work we present a methodology to estimate the geomagnetic symmetric index (Sym) based on the wavelet analysis of the time series of the H component of the geomagnetic field measured at mid-latitude stations localized at Kakioka (KAK), Honolulu (HON), Hermanus (HER) and San Juan (SJG). A case study of the intense geomagnetic storm of 17–22 February 1999, caused by intense southward magnetic fields just behind an interplanetary shock driven by a magnetic cloud, is shown as an example of the procedure of derivation of the symmetric index and the capabilities of this analysis to improve the study of the coupling of the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. Other examples are shown in order to demonstrate the applicability of the methodology to different magnetospheric conditions. It is shown that the long period variations of the symmetric index are linearly correlated to variations at the same periods of the H component of the geomagnetic field and that the contribution of short period variations to the symmetric index are biased by localized current systems such as the partial ring current and the field aligned currents.     

Challenges at the early stages of the environmental licensing procedure and potential contributions from geomorphology

Defining impact significance is the main technical task that influences decision-making during the Environmental Licensing Procedure(ELP).The ELP begins with screening to determine potentially signif-icant impacts of the proposed project.Scoping then follows to address any interventions deemed worthy of attention in the production of an Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA).This will include consider-ation of relevant landforms and geomorphological processes.However,preliminary assessments of envi-ronmental impacts often lack the scientific robustness to procure substantive and transactive effectiveness.This review presents an examination of the established practices of screening and scoping while highlighting the foremost challenges to improve the technical grounds of the ELP.The analysis of screening and scoping practices stresses the need for novel methods that ensure the sequential reasoning between their criteria while improving the preliminary evaluation of impact significance.Reducing the inherent subjectivity of discretionary judgment requires scientific methodologies that acknowledge the interaction between the natural system and human interventions,which has been addressed by geomor-phological research.The knowledge consolidated in this review opens the gate to explore the compatibil-ity between the United Nations strategy of Ecosystem Approach(EA)with the ELP through a novel geomorphological interpretation of the EIA.Therefore,this diagnosis demonstrate that screening and scoping practices would benefit from reliable methods that balance the precautionary principle with the efficient character required in the ELP.