Decision makers' perspectives on European geographic information policy issues

The proposals for a European policy framework for Geographic Information (GI) recently put forward by Directorate General XIII raise three sets of issues about measures required to facilitate the dissemination of GI in the European Union: (1)'hot topics' such as privacy and the legal protection of databases that apply to information generally; (2) GI issues such as reference data and metadata services that may require action by the European Commission; and (3) perceived barriers to the development of a European GI market. This paper examines the views of 20 experts responsible for the provision and management of GI in key organizations throughout Europe. A Delphi-style strategy was used to identify the relative importance of the issues raised by the proposals and to ascertain the level of agreement as to the importance of these issues between the experts. The results show that issues relating to copyright, the protection of intellectual property rights, data quality, and data access policies were ranked highly by most of the respondents. A lack of awareness, education, and training (as opposed to the lack of public domain data and metadata services) were viewed as the main barriers to the deveiopment of the GI market in Europe.     

Pollen analysis of the Husterbaach peat (Luxembourg): its significance for the study of subrecent geomorphological events

Pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of a core section from the valley head of the Husterbaach near Hosingen (Oesling) provides a very detailed record of the successive vegetations from 1200 A. D. until today. This palynological record agrees largely with the consecutive events known from the agricultural history of that area. Particularly significant are the curves obtained of several cultivated and ruderal plants. In this section it could be demonstrated that the interruption of peat growth by deposition of minerogenic material corresponds with a comparatively high arable land/pasture ratio. As well as being intrinsically interesting for assessing which features of the present landscape are due to former human activities, a detailed knowledge of the Subatlantic evolution of the vegetation and land use in the Oesling is indispensable, as its geomorphological development in the immediate past has largely been influenced by man.     

Glacitectonites in till stratigraphy

By analogy with hard rock myloniles it is suggested that the base of a glacial, litho-structural, stratigraphical unit should he taken at the lower limit of penetrative structures in (soft) bedrock. Reference is made to mylonites in the NW Basal Gneiss Complex of South Norway and to the Marly Drift of Norfolk, England.     

Pollen and fragments of plant tissue in core samples from the Greenland Ice Cap

Investigation of two Late-Wisconsin and two sub-recent core samples from the Greenland Ice Cap has shown the presence ol determinable pollen, wood fragments and other plant remains in the ice.     

A RECONCILIATION OF MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR SPONTANEOUS MINERALIZATION POTENTIALS1

Two methods for computing spontaneous mineralization potentials in the region external to the source body are reviewed. The first of these is a long-established technique in which the causation is assumed to be a distribution of simple current source on the boundary of the mineralization. The second is a more recent technique which assumes a surface distribution of current dipole moment (double layer) along the boundary of the source body. The former technique is a special case of a more general spontaneous potential (SP) model in which the source is a density of current dipole moment (current polarization) distributed throughout the mineralization. As far as the potentials in the region external to the source body are concerned this current polarization can be simply related to an equivalent double layer source function, i.e. the potential discontinuity produced over the boundary of the mineralization by an equivalent double layer model. This simple relationship suggests an integral equation technique for the exact numerical solution of boundary value problems appropriate to the polarization model for spontaneous mineralization potentials. The technique is applied to exploring the justification of interpreting mineralization self-potentials by the traditional approach.     

Making a Difference on Jobs

While macroeconomic settings and the regulator environment matter, something more is needed to deal with unemployment. That involves infrastructure redevelopment, to boost private sector investment and productivity growth, industry policy to capture the full benefits of market conditions and a strategic partnership with Maori for full use of Iwi resources.     

Rapid tunnel-valley formation beneath the receding Late Weichselian ice sheet in Vendsyssel, Denmark

Interpretation of Transient ElectroMagnetic (TEM) data and wire-line logs has led to the delineation of an intricate pattern of buried tunnel valleys, along with new evidence of glaciotectonically dislocated layers in recessional moraines in the central part of Vendsyssel, Denmark. The TEM data have been compared with recent results of stratigraphical investigations based on lithological and biostratigraphical analyses of borehole samples and dating with Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon. This has provided an overview of the spatial distribution of the late Quaternary lithostratigraphical formations, and the age of the tunnel valleys has been estimated. The tunnel valleys are typically 5–10 km long, 1 km wide and are locally eroded to depths of more than 180 m b.s.l. The valleys are interpreted to have been formed by subglacial meltwater erosion beneath the outermost part of the ice sheet during temporary standstills and minor re-advances during the overall Late Weichselian recession of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. The formation of the tunnel valleys occurred after the retreat of the Main ice advance c . 20 kyr BP and before the Lateglacial marine inundation c . 18 kyr BP. Based on the occurrence of the tunnel valleys and the topography, four ice-marginal positions related to the recession of the northeastern Main advance and seven ice-marginal positions related to the recession from the following eastern re-advance across Vendsyssel are delineated. All the tunnel valleys were formed within a time interval of a few thousand years, giving only a few hundred years or less for the formation of the tunnel valleys at each ice-marginal position.