The significance of quality of life and sustainability at the urban–rural fringe in the making of place-based community

Understandings of community in urban–rural fringe locations in Ireland are explored in this paper. As a specific space at the interface between the urban and the rural the fringe incorporates processes of rapid physical, social, and demographic change. These give rise to a range of complex and often competing dynamics, that impact on people and place in a variety of ways. Among the main preoccupations and concerns in these rapidly evolving fringe locations are those relating to what can broadly be described as ‘quality of life’. How this concept is understood across different groups situated within the spatial setting of the fringe, and how it influences the development of a sustainable community there, are central to this discussion. Drawing on household interviews from four case-study locations surrounding Galway City, Ireland, this paper examines how quality of life is experienced across a range of social and spatial dimensions that relate to these locations, and the extent to which they provide a common set of interests around which community may be built. From a wider knowledge perspective, it contributes to debates about how the concept of community provides explanatory power regarding the way in which individuals are associated with one another on the basis of a set of shared interests or concerns within a particular spatial setting.     

Temporal Variations in the Second-Degree Stokes Tesseral Geopotential Coefficients from Topex/Poseidon Altimetry

The TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) altimetry data set covering the periodof January 1, 1993 to January 3, 2001 was used to derive monthlyseries of the second-degree tesseral geopotential coefficients.To account for the sea water temperature variations, rathersimple models have been devised and discussed, describinglocalized as well as areal variations of sea water temperatureand heights. The second-degree tesseral coefficients have alsobeen shown to be proportional to the pressureportions of the oceanic equatorial effective excitation functions,used in Ocean Angular Momentum (OAM) data. OAM datatogether with Atmospheric Angular Momentum (AAM) data canbe used to study observed polar motion (PM) series.The excess PM rates, derived from the T/P effective excitationfunctions, were compared to the corresponding observed PM rates,derived from the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS)Bulletin A and corrected with AAM also obtainedfrom IERS. The noise of the T/P derived PM rate series was foundto be significantly larger than the corresponding Bulletin A/AAMPM rate residuals as well as the PM rates derived from anindependent OAM series that was also available for the1993–2000 period.     

Rhone River flood deposits in Lake Le Bourget: a proxy for Holocene environmental changes in the NW Alps, France

The Holocene evolution of Rhone River clastic sediment supply in Lake Le Bourget is documented by sub-bottom seismic profiling and multidisciplinary analysis of well-dated sediment cores. Six high-amplitude reflectors within the lacustrine drape can be correlated to periods of enhanced inter- and underflow deposition in sediment cores. Based on the synthesis of major environmental changes in the NW Alps and on the age-depth model covering the past 7500 years in Lake Le Bourget, periods of enhanced Rhone River flood events in the lake can be related to abrupt climate changes and/or to increasing land use since c. 2700 cal. yr BP. For example, significant land use under rather stable climate conditions during the Roman Empire may be responsible for large flood deposits in the northern part of Lake Le Bourget between AD 966 and 1093. However, during the Little Ice Age (LIA), well-documented major environmental changes in the catchment area essentially resulted from climate change and formed basin-wide major flood deposits in Lake Le Bourget. Up to five 'LIA-like' Holocene cold periods developing enhanced Rhone River flooding activity in Lake Le Bourget are documented at c. 7200, 5200, 2800, 1600 and 200 cal. yr BP. These abrupt climate changes were associated in the NW Alps with Mont Blanc glacier advances, enhanced glaciofluvial regimes and high lake levels. Correlations with European lake level fluctuations and winter precipitation regimes inferred from glacier fluctuations in western Norway suggest that these five Holocene cooling events at 45°N were associated with enhanced westerlies, possibly resulting from a persistent negative mode of the North Atlantic Oscillation.     

Nile floods recorded in deep Mediterranean sediments

Clastic mud beds rich in continental organic matter are observed recurrently in the Nile deep-sea turbidite system. They formed during flooding periods of the river similar to those that induce sapropel formation and occurred during periods of increased density stratification of the eastern Mediterranean. The very fine-grained flood deposits are intercalated within pelagic sediments, sapropels and Bouma-type turbidites. These flood deposits form by the successive reconcentrations of surface (hypopycnal) plumes by convective sedimentation, which in turn generate a fine-grained low-energy hyperpycnal flow. Sea-level high stands seem also to favor hypopycnal plume formation and increase clastic mud bed formation. Consequently, these muddy clastic beds provide a direct link between deep-marine sedimentary records and continental climatic change through flood frequency and magnitude.     

东亚季风MIS 3早期DO事件的亚旋回及全球意义

根据湖北永兴洞石笋(YX51)10个U/Th年龄,470组氧、碳同位素数据建立了深海氧同位素3阶段(MIS3)早期57.7~35.6kaB.P.期间东亚夏季风演化时间序列。在发育时段,千年尺度δ18O峰谷变化与高纬冰芯记录的Dansgaard-Oeschger(DO)事件一致;δ13C呈现出与δ18O正相关同步演化特征,但受区域环境影响,在事件内部细节上存在差异。区域对比表明,同一季风区的永兴洞和葫芦洞石笋δ18O指示的季风降水同位素组成具有本质上一致性;高低纬记录对比显示,千年尺度的峰谷变化一一对应,反映热带辐合带(ITCZ)水汽传输能力、平均位置变化对东亚季风和高北纬气候具有重要影响。在DO13至DO15事件内部,永兴洞石笋δ18O记录了显著的双峰特征,说明低纬季风强度变化和格陵兰冰芯δ18O揭示的次级暖峰具有一致对应关系,指示大气快速传输机制在高低纬环境突变中起着重要作用。     

Extreme precipitation in WRF during the Newcastle East Coast Low of 2007

In the context of regional downscaling, we study the representation of extreme precipitation in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, focusing on a major event that occurred on the 8^th of June 2007 along the coast of eastern Australia (abbreviated “Newy”). This was one of the strongest extra-tropical low-pressure systems off eastern Australia in the last 30 years and was one of several storms comprising a test bed for the WRF ensemble that underpins the regional climate change projections for eastern Australia (New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory Regional Climate Modelling Project, NARCliM). Newy provides an informative case study for examining precipitation extremes as simulated by WRF set up for regional downscaling. Here, simulations from the NARCliM physics ensemble of Newy available at ～10 km grid spacing are used. Extremes and spatio-temporal characteristics are examined using land-based daily and hourly precipitation totals, with a particular focus on hourly accumulations. Of the different physics schemes assessed, the cumulus and the boundary layer schemes cause the largest differences. Although the Betts-Miller-Janjic cumulus scheme produces better rainfall totals over the entire storm, the Kain-Fritsch cumulus scheme promotes higher and more realistic hourly extreme precipitation totals. Analysis indicates the Kain-Fritsch runs are correlated with larger resolved grid-scale vertical moisture fluxes, which are produced through the influence of parameterized convection on the larger-scale circulation and the subsequent convergence and ascent of moisture. Results show that WRF qualitatively reproduces spatial precipitation patterns during the storm, albeit with some errors in timing. This case study indicates that whilst regional climate simulations of an extreme event such as Newy in WRF may be well represented at daily scales irrespective of the physics scheme used, the representation at hourly scales is likely to be physics scheme dependent.