A spatial dynamic model of population changes in a vulnerable coastal environment

This study developed a spatial dynamic model to examine the coupled natural–human responses in the form of changes in population and associated developed land area in the Lower Mississippi River Basin region. The goal was to identify key socioeconomic factors (utility) and environmental factors (hazard damages, elevation, and subsidence rate) that affected population changes, as well as to examine how population changes affected the local utility and the local environment reciprocally. We first applied areal interpolation techniques with the volume-preserving property to transform all the data at Year 2000 into a unified 3 km by 3 km cellular space. We then built an Elastic Net model to extract 12 variables from a set of 33 for the spatial dynamic model. Afterward, we calibrated the neighborhood effects with a genetic algorithm and use the spatial dynamic model to simulate population and developed land area in 2010. Furthermore, we took a Monte Carlo approach for analyzing the uncertainty of the model outcome. Our accuracy assessment shows that the model on average slightly overpredicts the number of population and the developed land percentage at 2010, as indicated by the low values of mean absolute deviation (MAD) due to quantity. On the other hand, the MADs due to allocation are larger than the MADs due to quantity, with most outliers found in the New Orleans region where population and urban development declined significantly during 2000–2010 after Hurricane Katrina. The proposed model sheds light on the complex relationships between coastal hazards and human responses and provides useful insights to strategic development for coastal sustainability.     

Education in cartography: what is the status of young people’s map-reading skills?

Due to recent technological progress, maps have become more popular than ever before. This is especially true for young people, who interact with these technologies on a daily basis. Therefore, it is essential that these potential map users possess sufficient knowledge and skills to process the content of cartographic products. A user study was conducted during which pupils (aged 11–18 years) and geography students (>18 years) had to solve a number of cartography questions using topographic maps. The data were analyzed statistically, taking into account a number of potentially influencing factors (user characteristics) on the participants’ results: age, gender, youth club membership, knowledge about the area, among others. The results show a rising trend in the pupils’ scores with increasing age, which can be explained by education in cartography at school. Geography students perform much better, but no influence of any other user characteristics was detected. For pupils, knowledge about the area and gender might be considered as influencing factors. However, the detected influence of gender depends on the scoring system.     

The impact of Hurricane Katrina on urban growth in Louisiana: an analysis using data mining and simulation approaches

ABSTRACT

Understanding human dynamics after a major disaster is important to the region’s sustainable development. This study utilized land cover data to examine how Hurricane Katrina has affected the urban growth pattern in the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana. The study analyzed land cover changes from non-urban to urban in three metropolitan areas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans-Metairie, and Hammond, for two time periods, pre-Katrina (2001–2006) and post-Katrina (2006–2010). The study first applied a focal filter to extract continuous urban areas from the scattered urban pixels in the original remote sensing images. Statistical analyses were applied to develop initial functions between urban growth probability and several driving factors. A genetic algorithm was then used to calibrate the transition function, and cellular automata simulation based on the transition function was conducted to evaluate future urban growth patterns with and without the impact of Hurricane Katrina. The results show that elevation has become a much more important factor after Hurricane Katrina, and urban growth has shifted to higher elevation regions. The elevation most probable for new urban growth increased from 10.84 to 11.90 meters. Moreover, simulated future urban growth in this region indicates a decentralized trend, with more growth occurring in more distant regions with higher elevation. In the New Orleans metropolitan area, urban growth will continue to spill across Lake Pontchartrain to the satellite towns that are more than 50 minutes away by driving from the city center.     

Discovery of metamorphic diamonds in central China: an indication of a > 4000-km-long zone of deep subduction resulting from multiple continental collisions

The Central Orogenic Belt (COB) of China is a major continental collision zone that contains extensive outcrops of deeply subducted and exhumed rocks at both the eastern and the western end of the belt. Here we report discovery of microdiamonds from both eclogites and felsic gneisses in the North Qinling zone in the central portion of the COB. This discovery demonstrates that the country rocks of continental affinity shared in the ultra‐high‐pressure metamorphic (UHPM) event and provides a bridge connecting the two previously recognized UHPM terranes, thereby establishing the existence of a UHPM belt extending more than 4000 km. Geochronological dating yields Early Palaeozoic ages in the west and Early Mesozoic ages in the east, recording two separate continental collisions overprinted within the COB. Occurrence of UHP metamorphism during recurrent continental collision here and in the Alps suggests that deep subduction of continental material during such collisions is probably common rather than exceptional, with significant implications for processes of plate tectonic reorganization and mantle mixing over time.     

The origin of garnet and clinopyroxene in “depleted” Kaapvaal peridotites

A detailed petrographic, major and trace element and isotope (Re–Os) study is presented on 18 xenoliths from Northern Lesotho kimberlites. The samples represent typical coarse, low-temperature garnet and spinel peridotites and span a P–T range from 60 to 150 km depth. With the exception of one sample (that belongs to the ilmenite–rutile–phlogopite–sulphide suite (IRPS) suite first described by [B. Harte, P.A. Winterburn, J.J. Gurney, Metasomatic and enrichment phenomena in garnet peridotite facies mantle xenoliths from the Matsoku kimberlite pipe, Lesotho. In: Menzies, M. (Ed.), Mantle metsasomatism. Academic Press, London 1987, 145–220.]), all samples considered here have high Mg# and show strong depletion in CaO and Al₂O₃. They have bulk rock Re depletion ages (T_RD) >2.5 Ga and are therefore interpreted as residua from large volume melting in the Archaean. A characteristic of Kaapvaal xenoliths, however, is their high SiO₂ concentrations, and hence, modal orthopyroxene contents that are inconsistent with a simple residual origin of these samples. Moreover, trace element signatures show strong overall incompatible element enrichment and REE disequilibrium between garnet and clinopyroxene. Textural and subtle major element disequilibria were also observed. We therefore conclude that garnet and clinopyroxene are not co-genetic and suggest that (most) clinopyroxene in the Archaean Kaapvaal peridotite xenoliths is of metasomatic origin and crystallized relatively recently, possibly from a melt precursory to the kimberlite.

Possible explanations for the origin of garnet are exsolution from a high-temperature, Al- and Ca-rich orthopyroxene (indicating primary melt extraction at shallow levels) or a majorite phase (primary melting at >6 GPa). Mass balance calculations, however, show that not all garnet observed in the samples today is of a simple exsolution origin. The extreme LREE enrichment (sigmoidal REE pattern in all garnet cores) is also inconsistent with exsolution from a residual orthopyroxene. Therefore, extensive metasomatism and probably re-crystallization of the lithosphere after melt-depletion and garnet exsolution is required to obtain the present textural and compositional features of the xenoliths. The metasomatic agent that modified or perhaps even precipitated garnet was a highly fractionated melt or fluid that might have been derived from the asthenosphere or from recycled oceanic crust. Since, to date, partitioning of trace elements between orthopyroxene and garnet/clinopyroxene is poorly constrained, it was impossible to assess if orthopyroxene is in chemical equilibrium with garnet or clinopyroxene. Therefore, further trace element and isotopic studies are required to constrain the timing of garnet introduction/modification and its possible link with the SiO₂ enrichment of the Kaapvaal lithosphere.     

On the ascent and emplacement of granitoid magma bodies dynamic-thermal numerical models

The intrusion of granitoid magmas is understood as a lower and mid crustal process. Field observations and laboratory experiments give strong reason that most granitoid plutons are formed by diapiric ascent and emplacement of large magma bodies.On this basis, the ascent and emplacement of granitoid magmas is modelled by two-dimensional finite element calculations. The physical concept for this process provides convective transport of matter and heat, an isolated finite source region, variable source temperatures as well as variable density and viscosity contrasts.The model calculations show that the structural development of the model intrusion bodies is highly dependent on the physical properties of the magma and its surroundings. The most important among them are density and viscosity. Due to the different initial conditions, stocks of several plutons in the case of high viscosity contrast or flat magma sources as well as nappe-shaped intrusion structures as a result of low viscosity contrast can be understood by the intrusive mode of emplacement. The enlargement of the negative density contrast leads to an increase of the rate of ascent, so that more advanced intrusion structures are developed.

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Zusammenfassung Die Intrusion granitoider Magmen ist ein Prozeß der unteren und mittleren Kruste. Feldbefunde und Laboruntersuchungen geben Hinweise darauf, daß die meisten granitoiden Plutone durch diapirischen Aufstieg und Platznahme ausgedehnter Magmenkörper entstehen.Auf dieser Grundlage werden der Aufstieg und die Platznahme granitoider Magmen mit Hilfe von zweidimensionalen Finite Elemente Rechnungen modelliert. Das physikalische Konzept beinhaltet den konvektiven Transport von Masse und Energie, eine isolierte finite Quellregion, veränderliche Quelltemperaturen sowie einen variablen Dichte- und Viskositätskontrast.Die Modellrechnungen zeigen, daß die strukturelle Entwicklung der Modellmagmenkörper in hohem Maße von den physikalischen Parametern des Magmas und seiner Umgebung, vor allem Dichte und Viskosität, abhängt. Gemäß den unterschiedlichen Anfangsbedingungen können sowohl einige stockförmige Plutone im Falle eines hohen Viskositätskontrastes oder flacher Magmaquellen als auch deckenförmige Intrusionsstrukturen als Folge eines geringen Viskositätskontrastes mit Hilfe des intrusiven Einlagerungskonzeptes verstanden werden. Die Erhöhung des negativen Dichtekontrastes führt zu einer Erhöhung der Aufstiegsrate, so daß fortgeschrittenere Platznahmestrukturen erreicht werden können.

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Résumé L'intrusion des magmas granitoïdes est un processus qui intéresse la croûte inférieure et moyenne. Les observations de terrain et les expériences en laboratoire fournissent des arguments très sérieux en faveur de la formation des plutons par montée diapirique et mise en place de corps magmatiques de grandes dimensions.Sur base de cette conception, la montée et la mise en place de magmas granitoïdes a fait l'objet d'une modélisation par éléments finis à deux dimensions. Un tel modèle fait appel à un transport convectif de matière et de chaleur, à une région-source isolée de dimension finie, à une source de température variable ainsi qu' à divers contrastes de densité et de viscosité.Les calculs montrent que le développement structural des corps intrusifs ainsi modélisés dépend essentiellement des propriétés physiques du magma et de son encaissant, en particulier de la densité et de la viscosité. Etant données diverses conditions initiales, la modélisation rend compte de plusieurs types de culots plutoniques dans le cas de contrastes de viscosité élevés ou de sources de magma d'extension horizontale, ainsi que d'intrusions en forme de nappe dans le cas de faibles contrastes de viscosité. L'accroissement des contrastes de viscosité négatifs contribue à augmenter la vitesse d'ascension, ce qui permet le développement de structures d'intrusion plus évoluées.

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Notation a thermal expansion coefficient - C_p specific heat capacity - Di dissipation number (model specific) - g gravity acceleration - dynamic viscosity - h heigth of model - thermal diffusivity - Q heat flow - Ra Rayleigh number - R(v) differential operator - p density - t time - T absolute temperature - v velocity - V volume - w vertical component of velocity - x horizontal coordinate - stream function - z vertical coordinate     

Solving the horizontal conflation problem with a constrained Delaunay triangulation

Datasets produced by different countries or organisations are seldom properly aligned and contain several discrepancies (e.g., gaps and overlaps). This problem has been so far almost exclusively tackled by snapping vertices based on a user-defined threshold. However, as we argue in this paper, this leads to invalid geometries, is error-prone, and leaves several discrepancies along the boundaries. We propose a novel algorithm to align the boundaries of adjacent datasets. It is based on a constrained Delaunay triangulation to identify and eliminate the discrepancies, and the alignment is performed without moving vertices with a snapping operator. This allows us to guarantee that the datasets have been properly conflated and that the polygons are geometrically valid. We present our algorithm, our implementation (based on the stable and fast triangulator in CGAL), and we show how it can be used it practice with different experiments with real-world datasets. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach is highly efficient and that it yields better results than snapping-based methods.