Using embodied HANPP to analyze teleconnections in the global land system: Conceptual considerations

Geografisk Tidsskrift—Danish Journal of Geography 109(2):119–130, 2009

In our rapidly globalizing world economy activities in one region have increasingly important effects on ecological, economic or social processes elsewhere, an effect which we here denote as ‘teleconnections’ between different regions. Biomass trade, one of the causes behind such teleconnections, is currently growing exponentially. Integrated analyses of changes in the global land system are high on the agenda of sustainability science, but a methodological framework for a consistent allocation of environmental burdens related to the consumption and production of biomass between regions has not been put forth to date. The concept of the ‘embodied human appropriation of net primary production’ (abbreviated ‘embodied HANPP’ or ‘eHANPP’) allows for the assessment of the ‘upstream’ effects on ecosystem energetics associated with a particular level of biomass consumption or with a given biomass-based product. This concept is based on HANPP and its two components: (1) productivity changes resulting from land conversion (ΔNPP_LC), and (2) harvest of biomass in ecosystems (NPP_h). HANPP, defined as the sum of ΔANPP_LC and NPP_h in any given territory, is indicative of the intensity with which humans use the land for their purposes. eHANPP is defined as the NPP appropriated in the course of biomass production, encompassing losses along the production chain as well as productivity changes induced through land conversion or harvest. By making the pressure exerted on ecosystems associated with imports and exports visible, eHANPP allows for the analysis of teleconnections between producing and consuming regions. This article puts forward the eHANPP concept, illustrates its utility for integrated socioecological land-change research based on top-down data on global HANPP and biomass consumption, and discusses the possibilities and challenges related to its quantification in bottom-up approaches.     

Determination of the cleat angle distribution of the RECOPOL coal seams, using CT-scans and image analysis on drilling cuttings and coal blocks

Cleat orientation, cleat frequency and cleat angle distribution of deep coal seams are only available by the use of drilling cores and from coal mine samples. Coal drilling cuttings are a cheap and fast alternative to measure cleat angle distributions with the use of image analysis techniques. In this study oriented coal samples and drilling cuttings of the RECOPOL field experiment are compared and used to explain and validate the proposed method. In other words, cleat angle distributions from drilling cuttings are measured by image analysis. The geological framework of the polish coals is described. The image analysis methodologies for the measurement of fracture faces of cuttings and from CT-scan images, derived from these coals, are explained. The results of the methods on the cuttings are compared with cleat orientation distributions from CT-scans and artificial fragments from coal blocks of the same seams. These evaluations show high agreements between the methods. The cleat angle distributions of drilling cuttings of four seams are compared with the cleat orientation distributions of a regional structural geological study. The high correlation in this study shows that cleat angle distributions of coal seams can be used as input parameters for reservoir modelling.     

Exploring suitability for tropical crop cultivation in Hainan Island by SOTAL methodology

A SOTER-based automatic procedure for qualitative land evaluation is developed. This procedure was created in the automated land evaluation system (ALES). The objective was to design a procedure that allows for a quick separation of potentially suitable from non-suitable SOTER units for the intended land use, indicating constraints to different kinds of land use. Different kinds of land are unequal1y suited to various uses, land eva1uation is the assessment of the suitability of a tract of land for a specified kind of land use. In practice this implicates the comparison (matching) between the requirements of a specified land use and the properties of the land. Land evaluation concepts and definitions are treated in the paper. The ALES is a computer program that allows land evaluators to build their own knowledge-based system with which they can compute the physical and economical suitability of map units in accordance with FAO framework for land evaluation. The ALES program works with so-called decision trees, being hierarchical multiway keys in which the leaves are results (e.g., severity levels of land qualities), and the interior nodes of the tree are decision criteria (e.g., land characteristic values). These trees are traversed by the program to compute an evaluation using actual land data for each map unit. SOTAL is a SOTER-based qualitative model developed in ALES for physical land evaluation in which presently three land utilization types (LUTs) are distinguished, i.e., cultivated banana, coffee and rubber under different input and technological conditions. These LUTs are characterized by 11 landuse requirements and evaluated by matching the land use requirements with the corresponding land qualities. The paper elaborates on the criteria used in SOTAL for land quality assessment and how a final suitability rating is achieved on the basis of the rated land qualities. Results are visualized through G1S-generated maps as products in response to the specific information and data needs of decision and policy makers.     

Exploring suitability for tropical crop cultivation in Hainan Island by SOTAL methodology

1 Introduction Land degradation is a major threat to environmental and agricultural quality of land[1] and is directly related to food security issues. An instrument for decision-makers to plan or stimulate allocation of land to users that can be sustained and are economically viable and socially acceptable. Different kinds of land are unequally suited to various uses. Land evaluation is the assessment of the suitability of a tract of land for a specified kind of use and it provides objective…     

Late stages of solar type protostars

A consistent hydrodynamical and radiative transfer calculation in spherical symmetry for a 1M protostar is presented. The calculation starts with Larson's initial conditions and continues until almost all the material has fallen onto a hydrostatic core with a large outer convection zone. The innermost percent of the mass is partially degenerate. Due to the numerical technique used, the radius of the hydrostatic core is determined with a high degree of accuracy.Paper presented at the Conference on Protostars and Planets, held at the Planetary Science Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, between January 3 and 7, 1978.     

Pit lakes of the Central German lignite mining district: Creation, morphometry and water quality aspects

About 140 pit lakes exist in Central Germany. These have resulted from lignite mining and are important parts of the post-mining landscape in the Central German lignite mining district. Their water quality is mainly influenced by the consequences of pyrite oxidation, i.e., acidification or results of natural or artificial neutralization. The major way of filling as well as a cheap and successful measure against acidification was the diversion of river water into the lakes or their filling with neutral water from mines still operating. Eutrophication, contamination by industrial pollutants and infection with pathogens imported with river water were found to be unimportant threats for the pit lakes in the Central German lignite mining district. Intrusion of naturally saline groundwater from deeper underground resulted in some cases in elevated concentrations of sodium chloride and in meromixis. The diverse uses of the lakes (e.g. recreation, nature conservation, water management) indicate that the pit lakes fulfil widely the typical functions of lakes in a landscape. The creation, the current state of water quality and lessons learned in water quality management are reported upon for the pit lakes of the Central German lignite mining district.