Geographical information systems and planning in the USA: selected municipal adoption trends and educational concerns

Abstract

Practitioners and academics from many fields of study are currently facing numerous issues involving the diffusion of technologies from geographical information systems within their respective professions. This paper has two aims. The first is to report the partial results of a postal survey of selected municipal planning departments in the U.S.A. In measuring trends related to the adoption of computer and geographical information system technologies, the survey focuses on the availability of trained geographical information system and computer literate staff and on alternative means of training existing staff, as well as on the adequacy of collegiate education. The presentation of survey results is used to establish a framework for the principal discussion of this paper. The second part examines the relationship between planning and education in geographical information systems. Parallels within other disciplines and professions are derived. Curricula and training considerations within academic programmes and professional practice are suggested.     

The effect of capillary pressure on the saturation equation of two‐phase flow in porous media

A complete and accurate simulation of two‐phase flow in porous media requires knowledge of all the controlling physics (and values of physical parameters) that play a relevant role and an understanding of the effects of each one on the solution. Of particular concern here is the effect of capillary pressure and the length scale over which it is relevant. The goal of this paper is to provide guidance onto when to include the effects of capillary pressure in the model, and onto what are the resulting length scale restrictions if those effects are to be included. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Single-mode excitation in the shallow-water acoustic channel usingfeedback control

The shallow-water acoustic channel supports far-field propagation in a discrete set of modes. Ocean experiments have confirmed the modal nature of acoustic propagation, but no experiment has successfully excited only one of the suite of mid-frequency trapped modes propagating in a coastal environment. The ability to excite a single mode would be a powerful tool for investigating shallow-water ocean processes. A feedback control algorithm incorporating elements of adaptive estimation, underwater acoustics, array processing, and control theory to generate a high-fidelity single mode is presented. This approach also yields a cohesive framework for evaluating the feasibility of generating a single mode with given array geometries, noise characteristics, and source power limitations. Simulations and laboratory wave guide experiments indicate the proposed algorithm holds promise for ocean experiments     

WMO

ABSTRACT

Long term changes in streamflow following forest cutting are presented for three experimental basins at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, North Carolina, USA. Previous analyses have shown that, following forest cutting, streamflow increases and then declines with the logarithm of time as the forest regrows. Recent data indicate that the streamflow decline following cutting is related to vegetation regrowth, but the relationship is not a consistent function of simple stand measurements. The mixed hardwood forest of one basin was clearcut twice in the past 40 years. During the second regrowth period, streamflow increases after the first year were about one-half the increases at the same points in time after the first treatment. Concurrent with the second cutting, two other basins were cut whose mid-elevations are 400 m higher. The increases for the upper basins were similar, even though basal area was reduced by only 65% on one. Both streamflow increases were less than for either cutting on the lower basin. Variability of flow increases for the three concurrent treatments is similar and appears partly related to precipitation.     

新疆博格达造山带晚古生代构造-岩浆演化过程:火山岩组合及地球化学证据

最近,笔者在博格达山东段北部的西地-伊齐-小红柳峡一带的地质调查中发现,该区发育有大量晚石炭世柳树沟组双峰式火山岩及早二叠世卡拉岗组酸性火山岩建造,但双峰式火山岩性质及成因有别于其南侧七角井早石炭世双峰式火山岩。玄武岩富钠贫钾(K_2O=0.18%～0.45%,Na_2O=2.24%～3.63%),属拉斑系列;TiO_2=1.6%～1.7%,略高于MORB,较高的Al(Al_2O_3=16.2%～16.7%)、高Mg(MgO=8.12%～9.54%,Mg~#=61～64),以及低K_2O/TiO_2和K_2O/P_2O_5比值(分别为0.1～0.27、0.63～1.68),反映了在岩浆演化过程中分离结晶作用不明显;Rb/Sr比值0.01～0.02,Zr/Nb=21.6～39.7,Zr/Y=5.38～7.47,以及不相容元素Ba、Zr、Hf相对略富集、Nb-Ta和Th相对亏损,显示岩石具有板内玄武岩的特点;稀土元素球粒陨石标准化配分图上整体接近于平坦型,(La/Yb)_N=1.8～1.9,Eu无异常至轻微正异常(δEu=1.07～1.12),正ε_(Nd)(t)值(+5.63～+5.89),(~(143)Nd/~(144)Nd)_I=0.512927～0.512944,Th/Yb0.2,Ta/Yb=0.1,表明玄武岩浆源于亏损软流圈地幔,且在演化过程中不曾发生过斜长石的分离结晶作用,并暗示当时的大陆地壳可能由于拉张而变得较薄,玄武岩浆形成后快速上升至地表喷发。双峰式火山岩中的流纹岩Rb-Sr等时线年龄为296±2Ma(1σ),具高Si(SiO_2=76%～80%),富钾贫钠(K_2O=5.1%～5.7%,Na_2O=0.94%～2.03%);低Al(Al_2O_3=7.9%～10.4%);低Ti、Ca和P含量,属高钾钙碱性系列;微量元素Rb、Th、Zr、Hf、K相对富集,Ba、Sr、P、Ti、Nb、Ta为显著亏损;轻稀土元素适度富集且轻、重稀土分馏程度低,(La/Yb)_N=5.1～7.1,(La/Sm)_N=2、(Gd/Yb)_N=1.6～2.2,以及强烈的负Eu异常(δEu=0.17～0.2),(~(87)Sr/~(86)Sr)_I=0.7051～0.7052,δ~(18)O=11.6‰,指示岩石源于地壳物质的部分熔融,源区存在有斜长石残留,形成于大陆裂谷环境。早二叠世末流纹岩(Rb-sr等时线年龄为278±2Ma)具高Si(SiO_2=74%),富钾贫钠(K_2O/Na_2O2),低Al(Al_2O_3=11.0%)以及较低的Ti和P含量的特征,岩石为高钾钙碱性系列;微量元素PM标准化图解上表现为Rb、Ba、Th、U、K、La、Ce不相容元素相对富集,高场强元素Nb、Ta、P、Ti以及Sr为明显的负异常;轻稀土轻度富集,(La/Yb)_N=5～6,(La/Sm)_N=3,(Gd/Yb)_N=1.3～1.4,以及强烈的负Eu异常(δEu=0.31～0.39),(~(87)Sr/~(86)Sr)_I为0.7069,δ~(18)O=11.97‰,指示源于地壳物质部分熔融的产物,形成于伸展垮塌的构造环境。综合研究结果表明,博格达山前身裂谷岩浆作用始于早石炭世,结束于晚石炭世末期,早二叠世末进入后造山伸展的演化阶段。     

云南瓦渣钨矿区老君山花岗岩体的SHRIMP锆石U-Pb定年、地球化学特征及成因探讨

云南省瓦渣钨矿区位于老君山花岗岩体的东北接触带,属于滇东南-桂西白垩纪钨锡多金属成矿区中的组成部分。该矿床与矿区西部大面积分布的老君山第一期中粗粒二云二长花岗岩在时间和成因上有着密切联系。本文通过SHRIMP锆石U-Pb测年、岩石主量元素、微量元素和稀土元素的系统研究,进而探讨该花岗岩的形成年龄和动力学背景、岩石物质来源以及形成温度和压力。研究表明,与瓦渣钨矿床有关的中粗粒二云二长花岗岩属于高钾钙碱性岩系,为强过铝质S型花岗岩。岩体形成时代为83.3±1.5Ma,属于晚白垩世,形成于岩石圈伸展环境,其源岩为富粘土的泥质来源,其形成温度为875～900℃,压力约为7×108Pa,相当于深度为26km。     

Airline networks and the international diffusion of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

In fewer than four months in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread from China to 25 countries and Taiwan, becoming the first new, easily transmissible infectious disease of the twenty-first century. The role of air transport in the diffusion of the disease became obvious early in the crisis; to assess that role more carefully, this study relates the spatial-temporal pattern of the SARS outbreak to a measure of airline network accessibility. Specifically, the accessibility from those countries that were infected by SARS, beginning with China, to other countries was measured using airline schedules. The country-pair accessibility measure, along with other country-level factors relevant to the disease, were tested as determinants of the speed with which SARS arrived in infected countries as well as its failure to arrive in most countries. The analyses indicate that airline network accessibility was an especially influential variable but also that the importance of this variable diminished in the latter weeks of the outbreak. The latter finding is partly attributable to public health measures, particularly health screening in airports. The timing and geography of those measures are reviewed using data from media reports and interim World Health Organization (WHO) documents during the outbreak. The uneven effort to curtail the international diffusion of SARS suggests further planning is needed to develop a concerted response to contain future epidemics.     

Signal detection for communications in the underwater acousticenvironment

Signal detection is a critical stage in the implementation of any effective communications system. The underwater acoustic environment, particularly in the presence of underwater vehicles, presents significant challenges to reliable detection without excessive false alarms. While there is often sufficient signal-to-noise ratio with respect to stationary broad-band background noise to permit reliable operation, the presence of strong event-like interference signals such as narrow-band signals and impulsive broad-band signals complicates the detection problem significantly. Frequency-hopped signals interleaved with quiescent bands are proposed as the basis of a robust detection system. These signals also make robust detection possible in a multi-access communications system. Two new detection algorithms that exploit the particular structure of these frequency-hopped signals are developed and their performance is analyzed. This analysis uses a modification of the doubly noncentral F-distribution that has not been used previously for such analysis. This distribution makes possible the direct calculation of probabilities of detection and false-alarm under interference and signal scenarios that cannot be analyzed using the better known noncentral F-distribution. With this analysis, the two developed detectors are shown to offer superior performance to that of either the CFAR detector or the binary data sequence detector. Experimental data confirms the theoretically derived results     

Ultramafic Xenoliths from the Bearpaw Mountains, Montana, USA: Evidence for Multiple Metasomatic Events in the Lithospheric Mantle beneath the Wyoming Craton

Ultramafic xenoliths in Eocene minettes of the Bearpaw Mountainsvolcanic field (Montana, USA), derived from the lower lithosphereof the Wyoming craton, can be divided based on textural criteriainto tectonite and cumulate groups. The tectonites consist ofstrongly depleted spinel lherzolites, harzburgites and dunites.Although their mineralogical compositions are generally similarto those of spinel peridotites in off-craton settings, somecontain pyroxenes and spinels that have unusually low Al₂O₃contents more akin to those found in cratonic spinel peridotites.Furthermore, the tectonite peridotites have whole-rock majorelement compositions that tend to be significantly more depletedthan non-cratonic mantle spinel peridotites (high MgO, low CaO,Al₂O₃ and TiO₂) and resemble those of cratonic mantle. Thesecompositions could have been generated by up to 30% partialmelting of an undepleted mantle source. Petrographic evidencesuggests that the mantle beneath the Wyoming craton was re-enrichedin three ways: (1) by silicate melts that formed mica websteriteand clinopyroxenite veins; (2) by growth of phlogopite fromK-rich hydrous fluids; (3) by interaction with aqueous fluidsto form orthopyroxene porphyroblasts and orthopyroxenite veins.In contrast to their depleted major element compositions, thetectonite peridotites are mostly light rare earth element (LREE)-enrichedand show enrichment in fluid-mobile elements such as Cs, Rb,U and Pb on mantle-normalized diagrams. Lack of enrichment inhigh field strength elements (HFSE; e.g. Nb, Ta, Zr and Hf)suggests that the tectonite peridotites have been metasomatizedby a subduction-related fluid. Clinopyroxenes from the tectoniteperidotites have distinct U-shaped REE patterns with strongLREE enrichment. They have ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd values that range from0·5121 (close to the host minette values) to 0·5107,similar to those of xenoliths from the nearby Highwood Mountains.Foliated mica websterites also have low ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd values (0·5113)and extremely high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios in their constituent phlogopite,indicating an ancient (probably mid-Proterozoic) enrichment.This enriched mantle lithosphere later contributed to the formationof the high-K Eocene host magmas. The cumulate group rangesfrom clinopyroxene-rich mica peridotites (including abundantmica wehrlites) to mica clinopyroxenites. Most contain >30%phlogopite. Their mineral compositions are similar to thoseof phenocrysts in the host minettes. Their whole-rock compositionsare generally poorer in MgO but richer in incompatible traceelements than those of the tectonite peridotites. Whole-rocktrace element patterns are enriched in large ion lithophileelements (LILE; Rb, Cs, U and Pb) and depleted in HFSE (Nb,Ta Zr and Hf) as in the host minettes, and their Sr–Ndisotopic compositions are also identical to those of the minettes.Their clinopyroxenes are LREE-enriched and formed in equilibriumwith a LREE-enriched melt closely resembling the minettes. Thecumulates therefore represent a much younger magmatic event,related to crystallization at mantle depths of minette magmasin Eocene times, that caused further metasomatic enrichmentof the lithosphere. KEY WORDS: ultramafic xenoliths; Montana; Wyoming craton; metasomatism; cumulates; minette     

Erosion rather than plant dieback as the mechanism of marsh loss in an estuarine marsh

Coastal marsh loss in Louisiana is attributed to plane dieback caused by processes that stress vegetation, and a common landscape pattern is broken marsh that expands at the expense of surrounding unbroken marsh. We tested the hypothesis that vegetation is more stressed in broken marsh than in adjacent unbroken marsh, as indicated by vegetation aboveground biomass, species diversity and soil Eh, on transects that extended from broken marsh to unbroken marsh at Marsh Island, Louisiana. Soil Eh, vegetation above-ground biomass and species diversity did not differ between broken marsh and unbroken marsh, and above-ground biomass was similar to that reported from other marshes. Thus, we rejected the hypothesis that marsh loss is related to vegetation stress. Two factors were related to vegetation vigour: soil drainage and soil bulk density. Surprisingly, significant soil drainage occurred in broken marsh but not in unbroken marsh. Above-ground biomass of the dominant plant, Spartina patens (Aiton) Muhl., was lowest where soil bulk density was less than 0-08 gcm⁻³, which illustrated the importance of mineral matter accumulation in submerging coastal marshes. The mechanism of marsh loss appeared to be erosion below the living root zone, as indicated by the vertical and often undercut marsh-water interface, and by the separation of sod clasts. This is different from more rapid marsh loss associated with plant stress which we observed in other Louisiana marshes only 135 km away, indicating that marsh loss mechanisms can vary spatially even within a relatively small region.