Indices based assessment of built-up density and urban expansion of fast growing Surat city using multi-temporal Landsat data sets

GeoJournal - The population growth in urban areas leads to the expansion of built-up area which leads to a number of serious problems like environmental pollution, destruction of urban ecology,...     

Evaluating evapotranspiration using data mining instead of physical-based model in remote sensing

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Precise calculations for determining the water requirements of plants and the extent of evapotranspiration are crucial in determining the volume of water...     

Investigation on mantle peridotites from Neyriz ophiolite, south of Iran: geodynamic signals

Neyriz ophiolite in Abadeh Tashk area appears as four major separated massifs in an area with 125 km², south of Iran. Peridotites including harzburgite, dunite, and lesser low-Cpx lherzolite are the major constituents of the ophiolite with very minor mafic rocks. Usual gabbros of ophiolite complexes are virtually absent from the study area. Mineral modality associated with bulk rock and mineral chemistry of the peridotites show a progression from fertile to ultra-refractory character, reflected by a progressive decrease in modal pyroxenes and in Al₂O₃, CaO, SiO₂, Sc, Ta, V, and Ga values of the studied rocks by approaching chromite deposits. The Neyriz peridotites vary from low-Cpx lherzolite (MgO, 41.97–43.1 wt.%; Al₂O₃, 0.8–1.3 wt.%) with low content of Cr# spinel (36.7–37.6) and Fo olivine (90.79–91.5) to harzburgite (MgO, 44.31–45.25 wt.%;Al₂O₃, 0.29–0.45 wt.%; Cr# spinel, 58.2–73.45; Fo olivine, 91.23–91.56), and then to dunite (MgO, 45.9–49.2 wt.%; Al₂O₃, 0.18–0.48 wt.%) with higher content of Cr# spinel (74.34–79.36) and Fo olivine (91.75–94.68). Compared to modern oceanic settings, mineral and rock composition of low-Cpx lherzolite plot within the field of mid-ocean-ridge environment, whereas those of harzburgite and dunite fall in the field of fore-arc peridotites. As a result of the studies on minerals and whole rock chemistry along with rock interrelationships, we contend that the peridotites were subsequently affected by percolating hydrous boninitic melt from which the high-Cr–Mg, low-Ti chromitites were formed within mantle wedge above the supra-subduction zone in a fore-arc setting.     

Historical tsunami in the Makran Subduction Zone off the southern coasts of Iran and Pakistan and results of numerical modeling

Tsunami hazard in the Makran Subduction Zone (MSZ), off the southern coasts of Iran and Pakistan, was studied by numerical modeling of historical tsunami in this region. Although the MSZ triggered the second deadliest tsunami in the Indian Ocean, among those known, the tsunami hazard in this region has yet to be analyzed in detail. This paper reports the results of a risk analysis using five scenario events based on the historic records, and identifies a seismic gap area in western Makran off the southern coast of Iran. This is a possible site for a future large earthquake and tsunami. In addition, we performed numerical modeling to explain some ambiguities in the historical reports. Based on the modeling results, we conclude that either the extreme run-up of 12–15 m assigned for the 1945 Makran tsunami in the historical record was produced by a submarine landslide triggered by the parent earthquake, or that these reports are exaggerated. The other possibility could be the generation of the huge run-up heights by large displacements on splay faults. The results of run-up modeling reveal that a large earthquake and tsunami in the MSZ is capable of producing considerable run-up heights in the far field. Therefore, it is possible that the MSZ was the source of the tsunami encountered by a Portuguese fleet in Dabhul in 1524.     

Spatial analysis of water quality and its suitability in farming giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in Negeri Sembilan region,Peninsular Malaysia

Finding potential sites for resilient prawn production in the tropical environment that also prevents wastage of natural resources is not an easy task. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water quality suitability for prawn farming in Negeri Sembilan of Peninsular Malaysia based on Geographic Information System (GIS). To achieve this goal, numerous criteria including sources of water, water temperature, water pH, sources of pollution, salinity, soil texture and availability of phytoplankton criteria were considered for the modelling process. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique was performed to standardize the criteria and the weighting process. The weighted overlay of indicators and results were accomplished by applying the Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method in GIS. It was indicated that the Negeri Sembilan area has potential for prawn farming. The results showed that about 25 per cent (163 056.93 ha) of the area was most suitable for prawn farming, about 58 per cent (384 656.88 ha) was considered moderately suitable, while 18 per cent (117 633.49 ha) was regarded as least suitable. The study concluded that the multi‐criteria decision analysis of water quality for prawn farming is vital for regional economic planning in the Negeri Sembilan area and also significant when establishing a model for aquaculture development.     

Context-aware abstraction and generalization of street networks: two cognitively engineered user-oriented approaches using network Voronoi diagrams

Generalization and spatial contextual awareness are prevalent concepts in geographic information systems. This study adopted a context-dependent user-centred network generalization method to create a sub-network for optimal route finding. The results show an increase in the number of preferred traversed edges. A route presentation approach is suggested that is based on cognitively engineered user-oriented abstraction of street network. Successive abstractions hierarchize the street network to create a hierarchical presentation structure. The route is projected onto one level in the structure. Then, instead of showing the exact route, the network Voronoi regions represented by the projected route are shown. Experience indicates that the suggested method is an efficient way of route presentation for a hierarchical regionalized structure of a human cognitive map.     

List of forthcoming papers

List of forthcoming papers     

Cosmic energy equation for extended structures and its application to gravitational galaxy clustering

Cosmic energy equation represents the law of conservation of energy in the region expanding with time as the universe expands. It gives the evolution of kinetic and correlation potential energy with time in a cluster expanding as the universe expands. To understand the clustering of galaxies under the influence of gravitational force, cosmic energy equation is of great help. We use cosmic energy equation for extended structures (galaxies with halos) to analyse the gravitational galaxy clustering in different ways. We try to understand the influence of expansion on the clustering by deriving the relation between correlation parameter b _V and scale factor R. We also derive the relation between the peculiar kinetic energy K and correlation parameter to know that when peculiar kinetic energy dominates over the kinetic energy of galaxies due to expansion. Besides, the evolution of specific heat and energy provides the information regarding the different states of clustering.     

Cultural characteristics of chromium resistant unicellular cyanobacteria isolated from local environment in Pakistan

Many unicellular cyanobacteria were isolated from different places： fields, ponds, polluted water, and soils from Muredkey and Kasur tannery areas, near Lahore, Pakistan. Different media like BG 11 medium, Bold Basal medium, Chu＇s # 10 medium and Gotham＇s medium, in standard forms and with slight variations of ingredients, and different pH, temperature and light regimes were checked for the optimum growth of the isolates. The isolation pro- cedure was repeated with different concentrations of chromium to select the resistant strains. These selected strains grew on chromium of the range 100-200 μg/ml in BG 11 medium. Cyanobacteria were maintained in solid and liquid media with/without shaking. Cyanobacterial strains were collected from natural habitats that were accompanied by a diversified group of organisms including bacteria, protozoan, and rotifers etc. In order to eliminate these agents termed as contaminants, we used several methods including phenol treatment, use of antibiotic and careful manual picking of unicellular cyanobacteria. Resistance of these strains against different heavy metals （ZnSO4, MnSO4, NiSO4, COCl2, Pb（NO3）3, CuSO4, HgCl2, AgNO3 and CdCl2） and antibiotics （erythromycin, streptomycin, kanamycin, chloramphenicol, neomycin） was evaluated. Optimum temperature was 30℃ with variable pH for the reduction of Cr^6＋ in to Cr^3＋ in majority of strains.     

Analysis of stochastic characteristics of the Benue River flow process

Stochastic characteristics of the Benue River streamflow process are examined under conditions of data austerity. The streamflow process is investigated for trend, non-stationarity and seasonality for a time period of 26 years. Results of trend analyses with Mann-Kendall test show that there is no trend in the annual mean discharges. Monthly flow series examined with seasonal Kendall test indicate the presence of positive change in the trend for some months, especially the months of August, January, and February. For the stationarity test, daily and monthly flow series appear to be stationary whereas at 1%, 5%, and 10% significant levels, the stationarity alternative hypothesis is rejected for the annual flow series. Though monthly flow appears to be stationary going by this test, because of high seasonality, it could be said to exhibit periodic stationarity based on the seasonality analysis. The following conclusions are drawn： （1） There is seasonality in both the mean and variance with unimodal distribution. （2） Days with high mean also have high variance. （3） Skewness coefficients for the months within the dry season period are greater than those of the wet season period, and seasonal autocorrelations for streamflow during dry season are generally larger than those of the wet season. Precisely, they are significantly different for most of the months. （4） The autocorrelation functions estimated ＂over time＂ are greater in the absolute value for data that have not been deseasonalised but were initially normalised by logarithmic transformation only, while autocorrelation functions for i = 1, 2 365 estimated ＂over realisations＂ have their coefficients significantly different from other coefficients.