Assessing the consistency between AVHRR and MODIS NDVI datasets for estimating terrestrial net primary productivity over India

This study examines the consistency between the AVHRR and MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets in estimating net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) over India during 2001–2006 in a terrestrial ecosystem model. Harmonic analysis is employed to estimate seasonal components of the time series. The stationary components (representing long-term mean) of the respective NDVI time series are highly coherent and exhibit inherent natural vegetation characteristics with high values over the forest, moderate over the cropland, and small over the grassland. Both data exhibit strong semi-annual oscillations over the cropland dominated Indo-Gangetic plains while annual oscillations are strong over most parts of the country. MODIS has larger annual amplitude than that of the AVHRR. The similar variability exists on the estimates of NPP and NEP across India. In an annual scale, MODIS-based NPP budget is 1.78 PgC, which is 27% higher than the AVHRR- based estimate. It revealed that the Indian terrestrial ecosystem remained the sink of atmospheric CO ₂ during the study period with 42 TgC y ^?1 NEP budget associated with MODIS-based estimate against 18 TgC y ^?1 for the AVHRR-based estimate.     

Residential preferences in the city of Warsaw,Poland

Warsaw was heavily damaged during World War II. Post-War socialist reconstruction emphasized public multi-family housing. A 1987 survey revealed that about one-third of Warsaw residents lived in single-family units, though most expressed their preferences to live in single family houses free from noise pollution and in an aesthetically acceptable environment. In two areas, the CBD and the Praga North, a large proportion of residents preferred to live in existing multi-family units, though such preference was much greater among the blue collar workers than white collar.     

Foreign Joint Ventures in the People's Republic of China, 1979 to 1985

The motivation of alluring foreign investment is an important landmark of post Mao's economic policies, and has made a great contribution to China's current economic growth. One of the major types of foreign investments in the People's Republic of China has been Foreign Joint Ventures (FJVs). Analysis of FJVs helps us understand the impacts of China's economic reforms. This paper thoroughly scrutinizes the statistics of Foreign Joint Ventures during the period of 1979 to 1985. It concludes that the spatial distribution of foreign joint venture investment indicates three locational considerations: (i) the locational advantages of the eastern coastal region where over 90% of joint venture investment has occurred; (ii) the presence of a well-established industrial and commercial infrastructure, as China's largest industrial and commercial centers have also been the largest receivers of foreign investment; and (iii) historical Sino-foreign economic and cultural relations before 1949, as post 1979 foreign investments have often been concentrated in the foreign countries' former spheres of influence. It has also been found that differences exist in the type and location of investment among the major Western investors.     

Integrated Campaign for Aerosols,gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB): An overview

During March–May 2006, an extensive, multi-institution, multi-instrument, and multi-platform integrated field experiment ‘Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget’ (ICARB) was carried out under the Geosphere Biosphere Programme of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO-GBP). The objective of this largest and most exhaustive field campaign, ever conducted in the Indian region, was to characterize the physico-chemical properties and radiative effects of atmospheric aerosols and trace gases over the Indian landmass and the adjoining oceanic regions of the Arabian Sea, northern Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal through intensive, simultaneous observations. A network of ground-based observatories (over the mainland and islands), a dedicated ship cruise over the oceanic regions using a fully equipped research vessel, the Sagar Kanya, and altitude profiling over selected regions using an instrumented aircraft and balloonsondes formed the three segments of this integrated experiment, which were carried out in tandem. This paper presents an overview of the ICARB field experiment, the database generated, and some of its interesting outcomes though these are preliminary in nature.

The ICARB has revealed significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity in most of the aerosol characteristics both over land and ocean. Observed aerosol loading and optical depths were comparable to or in certain regions, a little lower than those reported in some of the earlier campaigns for these regions. The preliminary results indicate:

• low (< 0.2) aerosol optical depths (AOD) over most part of the Arabian Sea, except two pockets; one off Mangalore and the other, less intense, in the central Arabian Sea at ～18°N latitude
• High Ångström exponent in the southern Arabian Sea signifying steep AOD spectra and higher abundance of accumulation mode particles in the southern Arabian Sea and off Mangalore
• Remarkably low Ångström exponents signifying increased concentration of coarse mode aerosols and high columnar abundance in the northern Arabian Sea
• Altitude profiles from aircraft showed a steady BC level up to 3 km altitude with structures which were associated with inversions in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL)
• A surprisingly large increase in the BC mass fraction with altitude
• Presence of a convectively mixed layer extending up to about 1 km over the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal
• A spatial off shore extent of <100 km for the anthropogenic impact at the coast; and
• Advection of aerosols, through airmass trajectories, from west Asia and NW arid regions of India leading to formation of elevated aerosol layers extending as far as 400 km off the east coast.

     

Regional investment effectiveness and development levels in China

For centuries, it has been taken for granted that social and economic development in China has an east-west spread, or from the coast to the interior. Even though a tremendous effort was made by the socialist government for thirty years (1949-1978) on rectifying this unhealthy imbalance, most people hold the belief that the spatial patterns of China's development remain the same as they were forty years ago. This deep-rooted concept plays an important role in shaping China's present economic development strategies. Thus, an evaluation of the impact of the goverment's regional balance effort remains critical. Understanding the changes and patterns of China's regional development is central to formulating appropriate policies for future planning. In this paper an overview of regional development is presented from the perspective of history. Regression between the total fixed capital investment and the combined industrial and agricultural output is analyzed, and an effort is made to find out the spatial distribution of regional investment effectiveness. A factor analysis based on twenty socio-economic variables revealed that apart from the traditional E-W regional disparity, the modern socialist dispersal policy has also affected the regional development in China. Though the historical economic factors unbalanced the development from E to W, the economic pratice advocated by Socialist China has reversed the tendency to some extent. A cluster analysis of 21 provinces, five autonomous administrative regions, and three municipalities identified new spatial patterns, and the result strengthened the finding that the effort of regional balance in the period of 1949–1978 is still at work.