Remotely-sensed data as an information source for geographical information systems in natural resource management a review

Abstract

Remotely-sensed image data have long served as a primary source of information for. geographical information systems (GIS), with the transformation of data to information provided by visual image interpretation. Digital image data, in combination with recent advances in computer technology, currently allow visual image interpretation to be realised in a completely digital processing environment. However, it remains desirable to capitalize even further on the potential of digital image data for GIS, through the use of schemes involving automated data processing. The opportunities for, and impediments to, such schemes are considered here with particular reference to the provision of information for natural resource management. It is concluded that further—although foreseeable—developments in both research and technology will be required before fully operational procedures for the automated acquisition of GIS information from image data can be established.     

Urban and ocean ensembles for improved meteorological and dispersion modelling of the coastal zone

A high-resolution (1.67 km) ensemble transform (ET)-based meso-scale modelling system utilizing urbanization and sea surface temperature (SST) perturbations is used to examine characteristics of sea breeze/heat island interactions and atmospheric transport and dispersion for Tokyo. The ensemble displays a positive spread–skill relationship, with the addition of urban perturbations enabling the ensemble variance to distinguish a larger range of forecast error variances. Two synoptic regimes are simulated. For a pre-frontal period (stronger synoptic flow), there is less variability among ensemble members in the strength of the urban heat island and its interaction with the sea breeze front. During the post-frontal time period, the sea breeze frontal position is very sensitive to the details of the urban representation, with horizontal frontal variation covering the width of the urban centre (∼30 km) and displaying significant impacts on the development and strength of the heat island. Moreover, the dosage values of a tracer released at offshore and urban sites have considerable variability among ensemble members in response to small-scale features such as coastally upwelled water, enhanced anthropogenic heating and variations in building heights. Realistic variations in SST (i.e. warm Tokyo Bay or local upwelling) produce subtle sea breeze variations that dramatically impact tracer distributions.     

Petrology of the Vandfaldsdalen Macrodike, Skaergaard Region, East Greenland

The Vandfaldsdalen macrodike is a layered and differentiatedgabbroic dike approximately 3?5 km long and from 200 to 500m wide. It appears to cut the eastern margin of the Skaergaardintrusion and may have served as a feeder for the Basistoppensill. The macrodike can be divided into three series of rocks:a marginal series of differentiated gabbros adjacent to thewalls of the dike; a central series of differentiated and subhorizontallylayered gabbros and ferrodiorites in the interior of the dike;and an upper felsic series of granophyric rocks with abundantquartzo-feldspathic xenoliths. The mineral and bulk-rock compositionsthrough both the marginal series and central series show progressiveiron enrichment. The most Ca-rich plagioclase (An₆₉) and mostmagnesian pyroxene (Wo₄₂ En₄₆ Fs₁₂) occur in olivine-bearingrocks of the marginal series about 5 m from the contact withwall rocks. The most Na-rich plagioclase (An₃₉) and Fe-richpyroxene (Wo₃₈ En₂₄ Fs₃₈) are in olivine-free ferrodiorite ofthe central series, about 20 m below the contact with the felsicseries. Evidence from field observations, bulk-rock chemical compositions,and Sr and Nd isotopic data indicate the felsic series formedas a mixture of the initial macrodike magma and granitic countryrock. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of specimens from the felsic series rangebetween 0?7129 and 0?7294. ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratios vary between 0?51208and 0?51118. Both ratios vary serially with the SiO₂ contentsof the specimens. We suggest that the felsic series evolvedas a separate body of low density liquid which floated on thedenser gabbroic magma of the central series. Heat from crystallizationof the gabbroic magma must have diffused into the felsic layer,enabling extensive assimilation of the granitic xenoliths, butour data indicate there was very little exchange of chemicalcomponents between the two liquids.     

Ensemble covariances adaptively localized with ECO-RAP. Part 1: tests on simple error models

In atmospheric data assimilation (DA), observations over a 6–12-h time window are used to estimate the state. Non-adaptive moderation or localization functions are widely used in ensemble DA to reduce the amplitude of spurious ensemble correlations. These functions are inappropriate (1) if true error correlation functions move a comparable distance to the localization length scale over the time window and/or (2) if the widths of true error correlation functions are highly flow dependent. A method for generating localization functions that move with the true error correlation functions and that also adapt to the width of the true error correlation function is given. The method uses ensemble correlations raised to a power (ECO-RAP). A gallery of periodic one-dimensional error models is used to show how the method uses error propagation information and error correlation width information retained by powers of raw ensemble correlations to propagate and adaptively adjust the width of the localization function. It is found that ECO-RAP localization outperforms non-adaptive localization when the true errors are propagating or the error correlation length scale is varying and is as good as non-adaptive localization when such variations in error covariance structure are absent.     

INDUSTRIAL TOPOGRAPHY,GROUNDWATER, AND THE CONTOURS OF ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE*

ABSTRACT. Civil engineers have played a central role in reshaping the physical environment during the past two centuries. Their accomplishments were made possible in no small measure by an ability to assess local hydrologic conditions and design structures to withstand the forces of water. Recent assertions that engineers had little comprehension of groundwater processes until the 1970s prompted an analysis of the engineering literature to reconstruct the state of knowledge up to the 1950s. Textbooks and manuals demonstrated that knowledge developed in constructing transportation lines, in draining cities and farms, in creating sewers, dams, canals, and lagoons, and in erecting manufacturing facilities contributed to design with groundwater in mind. In practice, this knowledge was available and drawn on, but the success of its application was inconsistent.     

Ensemble covariances adaptively localized with ECO-RAP. Part 2: a strategy for the atmosphere

Part 1's localization method, Ensemble COrrelations Raised to A Power (ECO-RAP), is incorporated into a Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF). Because brute force incorporation would be too expensive, we demonstrate a factorization property for Part 1's Covariances Adaptively Localized with ECO-rap (CALECO) forecast error covariance matrix that, together with other simplifications, reduces the cost. The property inexpensively provides a large CALECO ensemble whose covariance is the CALECO matrix. Each member of the CALECO ensemble is an element-wise product between one raw ensemble member and one column of the square root of the ECO-RAP matrix. The LETKF is applied to the CALECO ensemble rather than the raw ensemble. The approach enables the update of large numbers of variables within each observation volume at little additional computational cost. Under plausible assumptions, this makes the CALECO and standard LETKF costs similar. The CALECO LETKF does not require artificial observation error inflation or vertically confined observation volumes both of which confound the assimilation of non-local observations such as satellite observations. Using a 27 member ensemble from a global Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) system, we depict four-dimensional (4-D) flow-adaptive error covariance localization and test the ability of the CALECO LETKF to reduce analysis error.