Hard times in Apia? Urban landlessness and the church in Samoa

This paper presents findings from a study about the relationships between social change and settlement change in Samoa, where a form of landlessness is emerging in low income areas of the main town, Apia. It examines changing reciprocal kinship arrangements with respect to customary rural village plantation land and changes in both individual and household relationships with the church. Although these relationships are typically closely bound in Pacific island societies, recent field‐based research has revealed the expansion of landless urban settlements with households that are alienated from rural village‐based kin and, by extension, customary land.     

A typological framework for categorizing infrastructure vulnerability

The concept of vulnerability is increasingly important in engineering and the socio-economic planning sciences, particularly given the enormous costs associated with addressing it. The ability to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities is extremely challenging because it is influenced by a complex and dynamic set of interacting factors that can compromise social, economic and infrastructure systems. Where the latter is concerned, the ability to assess infrastructure vulnerability involves the consideration of a range of physical, operational, geographical and socio-economic characteristics. In this paper, significant elements of infrastructure vulnerability are identified and discussed with a focus on their intrinsic spatial nature and their propensity to interact across space. Further, the developed typology of vulnerability outlined in this paper emphasizes the need to ensure that policy, planning and disaster mitigation efforts are strongly integrated at global, regional and local levels.     

Geographic perspectives on vulnerability analysis

This special issue of GeoJournal is centered on geographic approaches to vulnerability analysis. Six papers addressing several core areas of active research in vulnerability analysis are included in this volume of work. In particular, network analysis methods, geographic data acquisition and use, measurement of vulnerability, evaluation of spatial and temporal variability in vulnerability, as well as related theoretical and policy issues are examined in detail.     

The influence of bed forms on reference concentration and suspension under waves and currents

Hydrodynamic, suspension and bed-form measurements were made 2 km off the Dutch coast near Noordwijk aan Zee in ∼14 m water depth for a period of 32 days in 2003. Tidal currents were just able to suspend sand at the bed at peak spring tide but most suspension and transport occurred as a result of the combination of waves and currents. Burst-average (17 min) sand concentration profiles (C¯-profiles) from an acoustic backscatter instrument were used to define the (varying) location of the sea-bed, following the method used by Green et al. [Green, M.O., Dolphin, T.J., Swales, A., Vincent, C.E., 1999. Transport of mixed-size sediments in a tidal channel. Coastal Sediments ‘99, edited by N.C. Kraus, and W.G. McDougal, ASCE, Long Island, New York, pp. 644–658]. Reference concentrations at the sea-bed (C₀) and at 1 cm (C₁) were examined in relation to both the hydrodynamic conditions and the type of bed forms present. The C₀ predictive equations of Green and Black [Green, M.O., Black, K.P., Suspended sediment reference concentration under waves: field measurements and critical analysis of two predictive models, Coastal Engineering, 38, 115–141, 1999](short-wave ripples) and Nielsen [Nielsen, P., Suspended sediment concentrations under waves, Coastal Engineering, 10, 23–31, 1986](all bed forms; includes ripple steepness), both of which require knowledge of the bed-form type, were not as successful in explaining the variance in our C₀ data as a regression of C₀ against the skin-friction Shields parameter θ′_cw that ignored bed-form type (73% of variance explained). The values of the reference concentration C₁ were compared with the Lee et al. [Lee, G.-H., Dade, W.B., Friedrichs, C.T., Vincent, C.E., Examination of Reference Concentration Under Waves and Currents on the Inner Shelf., Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, 1–10, 2004] equation which predicts C₁ from the product of the Shields parameter and the inverse Rouse parameter; 51% of the variance in C₁ was explained.     

Performance-based analysis and design for internal stability of MSE walls

ABSTRACT

Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls must be designed with adequate margins of safety against internal stability failure described by tensile strength and pullout limit states. Probabilities of failure (or reliability index) will vary strongly with the accuracy of the underlying models that appear in limit state performance functions. In this paper, prior work by the authors and co-workers on this topic is reviewed. Relative performance is explored in the context of the reliability (or probability of failure) of steel and polymeric reinforcing elements in MSE walls using limit state performance functions with load and resistance models having different accuracy.     

Temporal shoreline change and infrastructure influences along the southern Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia

Jizan is one of the Saudi Arabian coastal cities endowed with diverse natural settings, which includes Ash Shuqayq in the north, Turfah in the centre and Jizan in the South. This work analysed specific environmental characteristics, such as spits, sabkhas and wadis. Assessments used Landsat imagery to examine coastal change between 1973 and 2011. The cumulative temporal change identified regression trends given by coefficients of determination that explained a significant percentage of data variation for Jizan (R ² = 69%) and Turfah (R ² = 72%), while Ash Shuqayq was insignificant (R ² = 14%). Inter-survey results predicted future change, although trends were not significant, i.e. Jizan (R ² = 22%), Turfah (R ² = 14%) and Ash Shuqayq (R ² = 3 and 61% with outlying value removed). Aerial photos showed regional coastal changes, which included a maximum accretion of 36.4 m and maximum erosion of 12.9 m. These are scientifically effective techniques to monitor regional coastal change, i.e. erosion and accretion and identified rates of 0.59, 1.80 and 3.53 myr^?1 for Ash Shuqayq, Turfah and Jizan. Changes were linked to infrastructure developments, e.g. tourism, port development and natural causes, e.g. spit formations and wadi outfalls.     

贵州锦丰(烂泥沟)超大型金矿床构造解析及构造成矿作用

在矿区大比例尺填图的基础上,运用构造解析的理论和方法,对贵州锦丰(烂泥沟)金矿的构造特征、构造演化和构造控矿作用进行了系统的阐述。矿区构造线主要分为近NS向、NW向和NE向3组,其中NW向构造线控制了矿区的构造格架。构造变形主要经历了同生期裂陷、造山期挤压、后碰撞造山侧向挤压和岩石圈伸展等4个阶段。盆地裂陷期间(D2-T2)形成的同生断层为后续的构造活动提供了最初的构造薄弱面,并成为主要的热液通道;造山期挤压期间(T3)形成了矿区最为明显的近NS向和NW向大型倒转褶皱和逆冲断层以及配套的NE向右旋走滑断层;后碰撞造山侧向挤压期间(J1)形成走向NE的叠加褶皱,并在F2-F3"X"型断裂系上形成近EW向的拉张区,矿质沿着拉张的空间沉淀就位;燕山期(J2-K)岩石圈伸展,形成小规模的近水平逆断层。上述4个主要构造变形阶段与右江盆地的裂陷-闭合-坍塌的发展演化历史相吻合,成矿发生在由挤压向拉张过渡的构造体制转换阶段。造山期逆冲作用形成的构造闭圈和后碰撞造山期间挤压向伸展转变的过程中形成的局部张性构造环境是矿质得以大量聚集、沉淀的主要构造控制因素。构造成矿作用是锦丰(烂泥沟)金矿单一矿体垂向延深1000m以上的主要制约因素。构造成矿的观点将为在滇黔桂"金三角"卡林型金矿带的深部找矿提供重要的理论依据。