Developing Governance Principles for Public Natural Resources

Wildlife governance principles (WGPs) identify desirable governance characteristics for wildlife conservation in the United States (US). The types of institutional, ecological, and socio-cultural challenges that WGPs are designed to address also affect governance of public natural resources other than wildlife and in places other than the US. This raises the possibility that a similar set of governance principles might help natural resource professionals working in other resource contexts address the particular challenges they face. We describe the process by which we developed WGPs and offer seven practically oriented questions to help natural resource professionals ascertain whether a similar set of principles could improve governance in their context. In some contexts, minor modification of WGPs might be appropriate; in others, the process by which we developed WGPs could serve as a blueprint for formulating appropriate principles.     

Evaluation and Monitoring of Service Quality: Discussing Ways to Meet INSPIRE Requirements

Service oriented architectures (SOA) are widely used nowadays. As the name implies such architectures rely on services. Germany developed a marine‐specific service oriented data infrastructure (MDI‐DE – Marine Dateninfrastruktur Deutschland) from 2010 to 2013. The services in MDI‐DE can contribute to fulfilling reporting commitments for various European and national legislation. The services of MDI‐DE (just like other services affected, for instance, by INSPIRE) have to meet specific requirements regarding performance, availability and conformity (quality of service, QoS). Although SOA is an important field in scientific research there are very few publications and studies available on QoS, especially regarding INSPIRE requirements. The services of MDI‐DE were analyzed using various existing tools. Their usefulness to reflect where either the aspect's performance, availability or conformity needs improvement was partly verified. Due to varying results and the neglect of some services for various reasons it can be stated that the more tools are used, the more conclusive the outcome. Furthermore, service quality was not coherent when measured with different tools. This means that measuring QoS in terms of INSPIRE will be very difficult to do in the future and there is the danger that people will choose the tools with which their services perform best.     

Main Species Characteristics of Phytoplankton Spring Blooms in NE Atlantic and Arctic Waters (68–80° N)

A compilation of phytoplankton species abundance data from the spring bloom along the northern Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea shows that the quantitatively most important species are the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis pouchetii and the common cold water to temperate diatoms Chaetoceros socialis, Skeletonema costatum sensu lato, Fragilariopsis oceanica, Thalassiosira spp., Chaetoceros furcellatus, Chaetoceros compressus, Chaetoceros debilis and Bacterosira bathyomphala. The relative abundance of diatoms and Phaeocystis varied highly and apparently stochastically between years. P. pouchetii occurred during all stages of the spring bloom and sometimes completely dominated the phytoplankton community. Along the Norwegian coast, the importance of P. pouchetii increased northwards. The species composition in coastal fjords at 70° N is surprisingly similar to that of shelf waters in the Barents Sea (up to 80° N). An exception is S. costatum sensu lato which was seldom observed in Arctic waters. Small flagellates (<10 μm) other than dinoflagellates and P. pouchetii are also important among the Barents Sea spring phytoplankton. Associations of species seem rigid over time and are dominated by C. socialis and P. pouchetii in northern waters. Biogeographical categories of spring bloom species in relation to environmental conditions are discussed.     

Assessing anthropogenic impacts on limited water resources under semi-arid conditions: three-dimensional transient regional modelling in Jordan

Both increasing aridity and population growth strongly stress freshwater resources in semi-arid areas such as Jordan. The country’s second largest governorate, Irbid, with over 1 million inhabitants, is already suffering from an annual water deficit of 25 million cubic meters (MCM). The population is expected to double within the next 20 years. Even without the large number of refugees from Syria, the deficit will likely increase to more then 50 MCM per year by 2035 The Governorate’s exclusive resource is groundwater, abstracted by the extensive Al Arab and Kufr Asad well fields. This study presents the first three-dimensional transient regional groundwater flow model of the entire Wadi al Arab to answer important questions regarding the dynamic quality and availability of water within the catchment. Emphasis is given to the calculation and validation of the dynamic groundwater recharge, derived from a multi-proxy approach, including (1) a hydrological model covering a 30-years dataset, (2) groundwater level measurements and (3) information about springs. The model enables evaluation of the impact of abstraction on the flow regime and the groundwater budget of the resource. Sensitivity analyses of controlling parameters indicate that intense abstraction in the southern part of the Wadi al Arab system can result in critical water-level drops of 10 m at a distance of 16 km from the production wells. Moreover, modelling results suggest that observed head fluctuations are strongly controlled by anthropogenic abstraction rather than variable recharge rates due to climate changes.     

On the evaluation of sediment transport models in tidal environments

The application of numerical models for the simulation of coastal hydro-and sediment dynamics requires model verification, calibration and validation with field data. Yet, no commonly accepted rules for the evaluation of sediment transport models exist. This paper discusses the significance of statistical parameters and their limitations considering common time lags in tidal environments. It is shown that the occasionally used discrepancy ratio lacks quantitative and qualitative information on model performance, as the time context information on time series characteristics is lost. As an initial measure of association, the simple linear correlation coefficient r² is proposed. To account for time lag errors in suspended transport models, a separate cross-correlation analysis for the flood and ebb tidal phase is proposed. For a comparison with other model applications, a concluding rating of model performance can be expressed by a dimensionless error definition which takes into account the quality of field data.     

Europeanizing Timisoara: neoliberal reforms, continuity with the past, and unexpected side effects

This paper analyzes how processes of Europeanization opened up opportunities and generated ideals, which in turn changed the articulation between political and economic powers in the city and county of Timisoara, Western Romania. It builds on case studies of local government agencies and foreign investors from Italy. In doing so, it discusses the circular relationship between the European and the local levels of governance: European governance affected the interactions between firms and institutions in the city, while at the same time city authorities used different understandings of ‘Europe’ to pursue their own agenda. It also shows some of the unexpected side-effects of Europeanization, due to the political activism of Italian investors. Beck and Grande’s concept of ‘reflexive modernization’ and the literature on regional economies frame the discussion.     

Mineralogical,geochemical and microfabric evidences of gypsum crusts: a case study from Budapest

High levels of SO₂ and particulate pollution enable the rapid development of gypsum-rich weathering crusts in Budapest. Two types of white crusts, thin and thick ones, and two forms of black crusts, laminar and framboidal ones, were studied in limestone buildings of the parliament and Citadella. The percentage of crust cover and damage categories were documented on selected walls. Petrographic, XRD, XRF and sulphur isotope analyses were performed under laboratory conditions to understand the mechanism of crust formation. White crusts found both on exposed and sheltered walls display a calcite-rich layer with gypsum, while black crusts are enriched with gypsum. The sulphur isotopic composition of white and black crusts overlaps, but the crusts are slightly enriched in heavy isotopes compared to rainwater. S content, Si/Al ratios and particulates in black crusts suggest that air pollution (SO₂, dust) contributes to black crust formation. The accumulation of sulphur and Zn enrichment of white crusts were also documented indicating that under high pollution levels, even these compound can accumulate on exposed facades.