Gravity measurements in Kenya

summary . A new catalogue of gravity data from Kenya has been prepared and is briefly described here. New Bouguer anomaly maps have also been compiled and a copy is included.     

Seismic reflection measurements behind the Hikurangi convergent margin, southern North Island, New Zealand.

Summary. The active Australian-Pacific plate boundary passes through New Zealand. In the north, the Pacific plate subducts beneath the Australian plate with an accretionary wedge forming the eastern continental (Hikurangi) margin of the North Island. The structure of the region behind the Hikurangi margin changes from the extensional back-arc basin under central North Island to a postulated crustal downwarp under the southern North Island. A 100 km long multichannel seismic reflection profile was recorded across the region of crustal downwarp. The data show discontinuous coherent reflectors dipping westwards at the east end of the profile, and east dipping reflectors at the west end, from depths of 9 to 15 s two way time. Simple hand migration of these events indicate that the east dipping reflectors, interpreted as the base of the Australian plate crust, abut against the west dipping reflectors which are interpreted as marking the top of the subducted Pacific plate. Detailed earthquake hypocentre locations in the area show a dipping zone of high seismicity, the top of which coincides closely with the west dipping events, thus supporting this interpretation.     

Crustal structure beneath exposed accreted terranes of Southern Alaska

Summary. The crustal structure beneath the exposed terranes of southern Alaska has been explored using coincident seismic refraction and reflection profiling. A wide-angle reflector at 8–9 km depth, at the base of an inferred low-velocity zone, underlies the Peninsular and Chugach terranes, appears to truncate their boundary, and may represent a horizontal decollement beneath the terranes. The crust beneath the Chugach terrane is characterized by a series of north-dipping paired layers having low and high velocities that may represent subducted slices of oceanic crust and mantle. This layered series may continue northward under the Peninsular terrane. Earthquake locations in the Wrangell Benioff zone indicate that at least the upper two low-high velocity layer pairs are tectonically inactive and that they appear to have been accreted to the base of the continental crust. The refraction data suggest that the Contact fault between two similar terranes, the Chugach and Prince William terranes, is a deeply penetrating feature that separates lower crust (deeper than 10 km) with paired dipping reflectors, from crust without such reflectors.     

Radiation from an impulsive line source in an unbounded homogeneous anisotropic medium

Summary. The space-time elastic wave motion generated by an impulsive line source in a homogeneous anisotropic medium is calculated with the aid of the Cagniard-de Hoop method. Two types of sources are considered in detail, viz. a line source of expansion (model for an explosive source) and a line force (model for a mechanical vibrator). Numerical results are presented for the radiated particle velocity in the medium including those regions of space where shear-wave triplication occurs. There is a marked difference in the time response observed for the two types of sources and for the different positions of the receiver with respect to the source position. These waveform differences are important when the radiated wave is used to determine experimentally the elastic properties of the medium. As compared with the traditional Fourier-integral transform method to handle this problem, the computation time with the present method is considerably less.     

The Myth of Location Privacy in the United States: Surveyed Attitude Versus Current Practices

In the United States, legal steps have been taken to protect personal privacy, which is viewed as an individual's fundamental right. Location privacy (i.e., protection of personal and location information), however, has not received equal attention in the legal system. Given the recent popularity of location-based services (e.g., cell phones), it is possible to obtain an individual's location information easily and precisely. An investigation of public perception of privacy in the United States indicated that survey responders (1) were unaware of legal implications of location privacy violation and (2) believed that there should be location privacy protection similar to that provided by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.     

Road network detection from SPOT imagery for updating geographical information systems in the rural–urban fringe

Abstract

Visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite data has been useful for mapping linear features, such as roads and updating land-use changes. However, it would be beneficial to map new road networks digitally from satellite data to update digital databases using semi-automated techniques. In this paper, an algorithm called Gradient Direction Profile Analysis (GDPA) is used to extract road networks digitally from SPOT High Resolution Visible (HRV) panchromatic data. The roads generated are compared with a visual interpretation of the SPOT HRV multispectral and panchromatic data. The technique is most effective in areas where road development is relatively recent. This is due to the spectral consistency of new road networks. As new road networks are those of most interest to the land manager, this is a useful technique for updating digital road network files within a geographical information system of urban areas.     

HyperArc: a task-oriented hypertext GIS interface

Abstract

The rationale, development and -implementation of a task-oriented hypertext GIS interface (HyperArc) are described. HyperArc is a fully functional interface on an Apple Macintosh computer acting as a client to a host computer running the ARC/INFO GIS. The package has been developed using the HyperCard package, and makes full use of the Apple Macintosh WIMP interface, enabling the user to perform a range of standard ARC/INFO tasks, including a variety of map displays and data queries. The key advantage of this kind of interface is that it permits the creation of tasks or sets of spatial procedures which can be easily customised and executed by the end user without any knowledge of the system command language.     

Design of a view-based DSS for location planning

Abstract.

The traditional approach in DSS falls short of providing a highly interactive problem solving environment for planning. Often, cumbersome procedures are required to implement optional plans and obtain feedback information. In dynamic graphic systems, the user is able to view different linked graphic representations (e.g., spatial or statistical graphs) of statistical data and interact (e.g., selecting items) with these graphics. In this paper we describe the design of a DSS for planning facility locations, which uses principles of dynamic graphics to achieve a highly interactive problem solving environment. As in dynamic graphic systems, the user interacts with the DSS through active and linked views. However, where views in dynamic graphics are different representations of a given dataset, the views in the DSS are active data structures describing the facility system to be planned from different perspectives. The declarative and procedural forms of knowledge involved are identified by a logical analysis of planning problems. A frame-based formalism is proposed to represent the knowledge contained in the views. The main advantage of this view-based approach is that it offers the user a highly flexible and interactive environment for performing ‘what-if’ analyses.     

The relative influences of climate and catchment processes on Holocene lake development in glaciated regions

Following deglaciation, the long-term pattern of change in diatom communities and the inferred history of the aquatic environment are affected by a hierarchy of environmental controls. These include direct climate impacts on a lake’s thermal and hydrologic budgets, as well as the indirect affects of climate on catchment processes, such as weathering, soil development, microbial activity, fire, and vegetation composition and productivity, which affect the transfer of solutes and particulates from the terrestrial ecosystem into the lake. Some of these catchment influences on lacustrine systems operate as time-dependent patterns of primary succession that are set in motion by glacier retreat. This paper provides a conceptual model of some dominant pathways of catchment influence on long-term lake development in glaciated regions and uses a series of paleolimnological examples from arctic, boreal, and temperate regions to evaluate the relative role of direct climate influences and of catchment processes in affecting the trajectory of aquatic ecosystems during the Holocene in different environmental contexts.     

Compact,concurrent, and contiguous: smart growth and 50 years of residential planning in the Toronto region

In this article, we use parcel-based land-use data to analyze 50 years of residential development in the Toronto region. We test two hypotheses: (1) Toronto’s form does not conform to conventional definitions of suburban sprawl and (2) Toronto’s suburban development shows high levels of continuity over time with relatively high densities and mixed housing types. Contrary to recent research suggesting a convergence of urban forms among North American metropolitan regions, Ontario’s robust planning system has created a distinctive, highly consistent pattern of residential development that has, for half a century, achieved many of the core goals of smart growth including relatively compact, contiguous, and concurrent development. This form continues to be automobile dependent, however, and is not producing many of the benefits ascribed to smart growth. Rather than continuing to adopt United States-inspired smart growth policies, a more ambitious set of initiatives will be required to address current regional challenges.