Urban land transformation for pro-poor economies

The transformation of land into a setting for clustering local economies can become an important cornerstone of poverty policy. This transformation has several functional aspects, which in turn have important institutional and political aspects. Underlying both the functional and institutional factors is the role of local government and local democracy. Such a conceptualization puts to center stage several paradoxes: A terrain that seems “slum-like” turns out to be highly productive and employment generating. Complex tenure forms and mixed land use seen as “unplanned” turn out to be pre-requisites for economic development. There are institutional paradoxes that contrast efforts at “transparency” and managerial “best practices”. Here, the messiness of local bureaucracies in municipal government turns out to be critical for poor groups to influence interventions in their favor. Influencing the public process may be more effective in stealth-like ways rather taking a more visible approach. Most fundamentally these issues remind us that the potential of cities to reinforce or reduce poverty moved far beyond projects and programs and the normative frameworks used by planners and administrators. Instead, it is the transformative process of turning land into economic settings that might be at the center stage. This is a stage where poor groups are the central actors who stealth-like draw on complex alliances across ethnic and class lines to shapes cities in their interests.     

Spatio-temporal patterns and changes in environmental attitudes and place attachment in Gauteng,South Africa

In this study, we employed a number of geospatial techniques to examine the spatio-temporal patterns and changes of environmental attitudes and place attachment...     

Improved Representation of Land-surface Heterogeneity in a Non-hydrostatic Numerical Weather Prediction Model

This study focuses on the relevance of accurate surface parameters, in particular soil moisture, and of parameterizations for heterogeneous land surfaces, for the prediction of sensible and latent heat fluxes by a mesoscale weather forecast model with horizontal grid resolution of 7 km. The analysis is based on model integrations for a 30-day period, which are compared both to flux measurements obtained from the LITFASS-2003 field experiment and to high-resolution-model (1-km grid spacing) results. At first, the relevance of improved parameter sets and input data compared to usual operational practice for an accurate prediction of near-surface fluxes is shown and discussed. It is demonstrated that an observation-based land-surface assimilation scheme leads to an improved soil moisture analysis, which is shown to be essential for the realistic simulation of surface fluxes. Secondly, the implementation of two efficient parameterization strategies for subgrid-scale variability of the surface, the mosaic and the tile approach, is presented. Using these methods, the simulations are in better agreement with measurements than simulations with simple aggregation methods that use effective surface parameters. Integrations with the mosaic approach reproduce high resolution simulations very well and more accurately than simulations with the tile method. Finally, the high resolution simulations are analyzed to justify and discuss the approximations underlying both methods.     

Coastal erosion vs riverine sediment discharge in the Arctic Shelf seas

This article presents a comparison of sediment input by rivers and by coastal erosion into both the Laptev Sea and the Canadian Beaufort Sea (CBS). New data on coastal erosion in the Laptev Sea, which are based on field measurements and remote sensing information, and existing data on coastal erosion in the CBS as well as riverine sediment discharge into both the Laptev Sea and the CBS are included. Strong regional differences in the percentages of coastal erosion and riverine sediment supply are observed. The CBS is dominated by the riverine sediment discharge (64.45᎒⁶ t a^-1) mainly of the Mackenzie River, which is the largest single source of sediments in the Arctic. Riverine sediment discharge into the Laptev Sea amounts to 24.10᎒⁶ t a^-1, more than 70% of which are related to the Lena River. In comparison with the CBS, the Laptev Sea coast on average delivers approximately twice as much sediment mass per kilometer, a result of higher erosion rates due to higher cliffs and seasonal ice melting. In the Laptev Sea sediment input by coastal erosion (58.4᎒⁶ t a^-1) is therefore more important than in the CBS and the ratio between riverine and coastal sediment input amounts to 0.4. Coastal erosion supplying 5.6᎒⁶ t a^-1 is less significant for the sediment budget of the CBS where riverine sediment discharge exceeds coastal sediment input by a factor of ca. 10.     

Ergebnisse neuer Spezialforschungen in den deutschen Alpen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Substrate inhibition kinetics of phenol degradation by Pseudomonas fluorescence from steady state and wash-out data

The present study investigated the phenol utilization kinetics of a pure culture of an indigenous Pseudomonas fluorescence under steady state and non-steady state (washout) conditions. Steady states of a continuous culture with an inhibitory substrate was used to estimate kinetic parameters under substrate limitation (chemo stat operation) Pure cultures of an indigenous Pseudomonas fluorescence were grown in continuous culture on phenol as the sole source of carbon and energy at dilution rates of 0.010 - 0.20/h. Using different dilution rates, several steady states were investigated and the specific phenol consumption rates were calculated. In addition, phenol degradation was investigated by increasing the dilution rate above the critical dilution rate (washout cultivation). The results showed that the specific phenol consumption rate increased with increased dilution rate at steady state and phenol degradation by Pseudomonas fluorescence can be described by simple substrate inhibition kinetics under substrate limitation but cannot be described by simple substrate inhibition kinetics under washout cultivation. Fitting of the steady state data from continuous cultivation to various inhibition models resulted in the best fit for Haldane, Yano and Koga (2), Aiba and Teissier kinetic inhibition models. The r_smax value of 0.229 mg/mg/h obtained from the inhibition model equations was comparable to the experimentally calculated r_smax value of 0.246 mg/mg/h obtained under washout cultivation. Therefore, the biokinetic constants evaluated using these models showed good tolerance and growth of the indigenous organism.     

新疆地区雪深和雪压的分布及其55年的变化特征分析

本文主要使用新疆地区109个气象站观测资料,对新疆地区雪深和雪压的分布和变化特征以及相关气象因子进行了系统分析,结果表明:新疆地区的积雪多年平均表现为北部多于南部,其中雪深和雪压最大值出现在新疆北部,数值分别为10 cm和10g/cm2.新疆积雪的季节特征较为明显,其中2月份积雪最大,雪深和雪压分别为9.2 cm和5....     

塔里木盆地塔北露头区的古岩溶发育模式

目前塔里木盆地海相碳酸盐岩的油气勘探已进入高峰期,为弥补钻井岩心资料不足,进一步认识井下岩溶发育规律及发育模式特征,开展塔北露头区奥陶系风化壳古岩溶缝洞系统发育特征及发育模式研究。研究表明,岩溶发育主要受控于岩性因素和不整合面,主要发育层位为一间房组地层;主要岩溶作用期为吐木休克组/一间房组沉积间断岩溶期。为井下岩溶缝洞系统的认识及岩溶地质模型的建立提供了重要理论依据。