Youth Mobility and Territorial Disparities: An Analysis of Urban and Rural Barcelona

Travel behavior of the present generation of youths is being increasingly explored due to their relevance in shaping future accessibility needs and mobility habits. The present study offers an original perspective on this topic by identifying territorial disparities that emerge in youth mobility patterns in rural and urban areas. Unlike most previous research, we propose taking a global view on mobility by analyzing all trip purposes and transportation modes. This is conducted by analyzing a comprehensive mobility survey in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, which provides data on mobility engagement, trip purposes, modal split, travel times and territorial differences. In general, youngsters account for larger daily travel times than older adults, present a higher attachment to public transportation and walk less on a daily basis. These differences are enhanced in rural territories, where while older adults overcome accessibility issues with higher use of the private vehicle, youngsters are more likely to invest larger travel times on transit.     

Tuning the second-generation SDI: theoretical aspects and real use cases

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) actors have great expectations for the second-generation SDI currently under development. However, SDIs have many implementation problems at different levels that are delaying the development of the SDI framework. The aims of this article are to identify these difficulties, in the literature and based on our own experience, in order to determine how mature and useful the current SDI phenomena are. We can then determine whether a general reconceptualization is necessary or rather a set of technical improvements and good practices needs to be developed before the second-generation SDI is completed. This study is based on the following aspects: metadata about data and services, data models, data download, data and processing services, data portrayal and symbolization, and mass market aspects. This work aims to find an equilibrium between user-focused geoportals and web service interconnection (the user side vs. the server side). These deep reflections are motivated by a use case in the healthcare area in which we employed the Catalan regional SDI. The use case shows that even one of the best regional SDI implementations can fail to provide the required information and processes even when the required data exist. Several previous studies recognize the value of applying Web 2.0 and user participation approaches but few of these studies provide a real implementation. Another objective of this work is to show that it is easy to complement the classical, international standard-based SDI with a participative Web 2.0 approach. To do so, we present a mash-up portal built on top of the Catalan SDI catalogues.     

Climate change and summer mass tourism: the case of Spanish domestic tourism

This paper investigates the impact of climate change on destination choice decisions in a context of domestic coastal tourism in Spain. Destinations are characterized in terms of travel cost and coastal ‘attractors’, such as temperature and beach-related attributes. By means of a discrete choice model based on the random utility theory, these variables are used to explain the observed pattern of interprovincial domestic trips, showing trade-offs between temperature and attractiveness in the probability of a particular destination being chosen. The model is used to investigate the impact of two climate change scenarios on the allocation of domestic tourism within Spain. The findings show that while Spain’s northern colder provinces would benefit from rising temperatures, provinces in the south would experience a decrease in the frequency of trips.     

Coupled thermal, hydraulic and geochemical evolution of pyritic tailings in unsaturated column experiments

The evolution of pore-water and the composition of solid phases in the vadose zone of pyritic tailings was studied by means of unsaturated column experiments. Several columns of water-saturated mine tailings were dried during 125 days under controlled laboratory conditions. The columns were dismantled at four successive drying stages and the evolution of pore-water, mineralogy, water content and temperature was characterized.Sulfide and aluminosilicate minerals present in the waste dissolved, releasing sulfate and other solutes (mainly Fe, Zn, Cu, Al, Mg and Ca) to the pore-water. Evaporation caused a crust of efflorescent, water-soluble sulfates to develop over the complete top surface of the columns and into the pores of the underlying waste material. This crust, which has also been identified in the field, changed the hydraulic properties of the tailings and produced a decrease in the evaporation rate of the columns. Moreover, these water-soluble precipitates (mainly rozenite, szomolnokite, halotrichite, hexahydrite, mirabilite and gypsum) acted as temporary sinks for Cd, Pb, Co and Ni, which could be released to the surface run-off or the groundwaters during rainfall events under field conditions.Pore-water evolution was determined not only by geochemical processes (dissolution of sulfides and aluminosilicates, precipitation of secondary phases) but also by thermal and hydraulic processes. Progressive dilution was observed in the lower part of the columns. Dilution was caused by the thermally driven vapor flux from the top of the column to its colder bottom and subsequent condensation therein. This process, which may also occur in tailings under sub-arid climate, played a key role on the evolution of pore-water with increasing drying.     

Recent evolution of Lake Arreo,northern Spain: influences of land use change and climate

We present a high-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the depositional history of Lake Arreo, northern Spain, for the last 60 years. We conducted sedimentological, geochemical and diatom analyses in short cores and made a detailed comparison with regional instrumental climate data (1952–2007), limnological monitoring of the lake (1992–2008) and recent land use changes that affect the lake catchment. Chronology is based on “floating” discontinuous varve counts and ¹³⁷Cs and ¹⁴C dates. Four periods were identified in the Lake Arreo recent history: (1) prior to 1963, varved facies intercalated with fine turbidite deposits, and diatom assemblages dominated by Cyclotella taxa indicate predominantly meromictic conditions, (2) from 1964 to 1978, permanent anoxia persisted in bottom waters, as shown by similar facies and diatom assemblages as before, though detrital layers were coarser, (3) from 1979 to 1994, sediment delivery to the lake increased and laminated, clastic facies were deposited, and (4) from 1995 to 2008, dominance of massive facies and an increase in Fragilaria tenera and Achnanthes minutissima reflect relatively lower lake levels, less frequent bottom anoxia with more frequent water column mixing, similar to modern conditions. The period 1952–1979 was a time of meromixis and varved facies deposition, and was characterized by higher rainfall and less intense agricultural pressure in the watershed. There were two short humid periods (1992–1993 and 1996–1998) when monitoring data show more anoxic weeks per year and relatively higher lake levels. Increased cultivation of small landholdings in 1963, and particularly after 1979, caused a large increase in sediment delivery to the lake. The inferred lake evolution is in agreement with monitoring data that suggest a transition from dominantly meromictic conditions prior to 1993–1994 to a predominantly monomictic pattern of circulation since then, particularly after 2000. The synergistic effects of intensive water extraction for irrigation and lower rainfall since 1979, and particularly since 1994, brought the long period of meromictic conditions in Lake Arreo to an end. Water balance and sediment delivery to the lake are dominant factors that control the limnological and mixing conditions in Lake Arreo and they must be considered in management and restoration plans.     

SPLITTING OF CALIBRATION DATA BY CLUSTER ANALYSIS

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A Parametric Approach for Dealing with Compositional Rounded Zeros

In this work, a parametric approach for replacing data below the detection limit, also known as rounded zeros, in compositional data sets is proposed. Compositional rounded zeros correspond to small proportions of some whole that cannot be reliably detected by the analytical instruments under given operating conditions. This kind of zeros appear frequently in the data collection process in geosciences. They must be treated in an adequate way before some multivariate analysis can be applied. Our procedure results from a modification of the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and is based on the additive log-ratio transformation. Its coherence with the nature of compositional data and with basic operations in the simplex sample space is checked. Using real data sets, we find that this approach improves other parametric and non-parametric techniques for compositional rounded zeros.     

Short-term residence and movement patterns of the annular seabream Diplodus annularis in a temperate marine reserve

The short-term movements of a small temperate fish, the annular seabream Diplodus annularis (Linnaeus 1758), were examined using standard tag-recapture and passive acoustic telemetry in Palma Bay (NW Mediterranean), a marine protected area (MPA). The study aimed to provide valuable information for assessing the recreational fishery and its results suggest that MPAs can be used to protect the adult stock of D. annularis. All the fish tagged with standard tags were recaptured near the release locations, with a maximum distance of ∼300 m. The maximum time between release and recapture was 185 d. Two different arrays of acoustic receivers were deployed, one in 2008 and another in 2009, within the MPA. Twenty adults were surgically tagged with acoustic transmitters. Fish monitored in 2008 (n = 12) were translocated from the point of capture to analyse the movement behaviour after artificial displacement. Upon release at displaced locations, 67% of the fish moved towards the original capture location using a time of return that ranged from 0.75 to 15.25 h. Fish monitored in 2009 (n = 8) were released at the point of capture. They showed high site fidelity with a maximum period of 27 d between the first time and the last time they were detected.     

Evaluation of the removal of heavy metals in a natural wetland impacted by mining activities in Mexico

This research is focused on evaluating heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn) uptake and removal by Eleocharis ovata, Cyperus manimae, Typha dominguensis, and Pteridium aquilinum in a natural wetland impacted by mining activities. We analyzed heavy metals content and distribution in native plants, soils, and water of a semipermanent natural wetland in Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, and we also determined the physicochemical characteristics of the water. Translocation factor (TF) and bioconcentration factor (BCF) were evaluated. Results showed that physical and chemical conditions are favorable for plants development. Correlation analysis showed a good and positive relation (0.95) between Cu and Pb in soils and plants. In the analyzed matrices: Zn (0.62–2.20 mg/L) exceeded the permissible limits in water, high concentrations of Pb and Zn (26.57–525.67 and 266.67–983.33 mg/kg, respectively) were detected in the studied soils, and Pb exceeded the normal range for E. ovata and P. aquilinum in the analyzed plants. Uptake of heavy metals in the tissues of different species was found in the following order: root > leaf. Data of TF and BCF showed that E. ovata is a tolerant plant with respect to heavy metals exposure since TF value was greater than 1. This study showed that E. ovata could be considered as a bioaccumulator of heavy metals in contaminated soils.     

Residual drift demands in moment‐resisting steel frames subjected to narrow‐band earthquake ground motions

This paper presents the main results of the evaluation of residual inter‐story drift demands in typical moment‐resisting steel buildings designed accordingly to the Mexican design practice when subjected to narrow‐band earthquake ground motions. Analytical 2D‐framed models representative of the study‐case buildings were subjected to a set of 30 narrow‐band earthquake ground motions recorded on stations placed in soft‐soil sites of Mexico City, where most significant structural damage was found in buildings as a consequence of the 1985 Michoacan earthquake, and scaled to reach several levels of intensity to perform incremental dynamic analyses. Thus, results were statistically processed to obtain hazard curves of peak (maximum) and residual drift demands for each frame model. It is shown that the study‐case frames might exhibit maximum residual inter‐story drift demands in excess of 0.5%, which is perceptible for building's occupants and could cause human discomfort, for a mean annual rate of exceedance associated to peak inter‐story drift demands of about 3%, which is the limiting drift to avoid collapse prescribed in the 2004 Mexico City Seismic Design Provisions. The influence of a member's post‐yield stiffness ratio and material overstrength in the evaluation of maximum residual inter‐story drift demands is also discussed. Finally, this study introduces response transformation factors, T_p, that allow establishing residual drift limits compatible with the same mean annual rate of exceedance of peak inter‐story drift limits for future seismic design/evaluation criteria that take into account both drift demands for assessing a building's seismic performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.