GIS-based determination of the mean long-term groundwater recharge in Lower Saxony

This paper presents the findings of a collaborative research project of the Geological Survey of Lower Saxony (NLfB) and the Programme Group Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (STE) of Research Centre Jülich on the GIS-based determination of the mean long-term groundwater recharge in Lower Saxony using high-resolution digital data (Dörhöfer and others 2001). The model calculations were performed on the basis of the water-balance model GROWA (Kunkel and Wendland 2002) with a spatial resolution of 100x100 m². The accuracy of the calculated groundwater recharge values for the period 1961–1990 was verified on the basis of data from gauging stations and displayed a good agreement between observed runoff values and model results.     

Assessing possible changes in flood frequency due to climate change in mid‐sized watersheds in New York State,USA

The frequency of flooding is often presumed to increase with climate change because of projected increases in rainfall intensities. In this paper, using 50‐plus years of historical discharge and meteorological data from three watersheds in different physiographic regions of New York State, USA, we find that annual maximum stream discharges are associated with 20% or less of the annual maximum rainfall events. Instead of rainfall events, approximately 20% of annual maximum stream discharges are associated with annual maximum snowmelt events while 60% of annual maximum discharges are associated with moderate rainfall amounts and very wet soil conditions. To explore the potential for changes in future flood risk, we employed a compound frequency distribution that assumes annual maximum discharges can be modelled by combining the cumulative distribution functions of discharges resulting from annual maximum rainfall, annual maximum snowmelt, and occurrences of moderate rain on wet soils. Basing on a compound frequency distribution comprised of univariate general extreme value (GEV) and gamma distributions, we found that a hypothetical 20% increase in the magnitude of rainfall‐related stream discharge results in little change in 96th percentile annual maximum discharge. For the 99th percentile discharge, two waterbodies in our study had a 10% or less increase in annual maximum discharge when annual maximum rainfall‐related discharges increased 20% while the third waterbody had a 16% increase in annual maximum discharges. Additionally, in some cases, annual maximum discharges could be offset by a reduction in the discharge resulting from annual maximum snowmelt events. While only intended as a heuristic tool to explore the interaction among different flood‐causing mechanisms, use of a compound flood frequency distribution suggests a case can be made that not all waterbodies in humid, cold regions will see extensive changes in flooding due to increased rainfall intensities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying substandard vessels through Port State Control inspections: A new methodology for Concentrated Inspection Campaigns

Substandard vessels that fail to comply with international maritime regulations are the target of Port State Control inspections. Despite their significant costs, many inspections do not lead to any detentions and, in a significant number of cases, no deficiencies are detected. In this paper, quantile regressions for count data are used to estimate the likelihood of having a high number of deficiencies of a specific type. The purpose is to complement existing practices focusing on detention with the objective to improve the selection process. Similar factors influence the likelihood of having a vessel detained and that of having a vessel recording a high number of deficiencies. However, quantile regressions applied to the number of deficiencies help improving the identification of factors influencing the likelihood of finding some specific types of deficiencies, which is the focus of Concentrated Inspection Campaigns. The paper concludes that the selection process for such campaigns should be improved using this new methodology.     

面向对象规则和支持向量机的天宫一号高光谱影像分类

传统的高光谱分类方法通常基于单一像元的光谱或纹理特征,很少考虑地物空间结构信息与空间相关特征.本文将面向对象规则与基于像元的分类进行融合,利用对象的空间结构特征和光谱特征进行混合分类,旨在克服像元层次分类的不足.本文尝试性的提出了两种混合分类方法:(1)基于分形网络演化的多尺度分割支持向量机分类(2)基于多层分水岭分割的SVM分类,并将这两种方法应用到天宫一号高光谱数据上.结果表明:基于面向对象规则的混合分类方法有效地提高了分类精度,不仅能够改善同谱异物现象,而且解决分类结果中地物破碎的问题.     

Variations in sediment sources and yields in the Finger Lakes and Catskills regions of New York

The proportional contributions of stream bank and surface sources to fine sediment loads in watersheds in New York State were quantified with uncertainty analysis. Eroding streamside glacial drift, including glaciolacustrine deposits, were examined to help explain variations in the proportional contributions made by bank erosion. Sediment sources were quantified by comparing concentrations of the bomb‐derived radionuclide ¹³⁷Cs in fluvial sediment with sediment from potential source areas such as agricultural soils, forest soils and stream banks. To compare sediment sources in streams containing abundant deposits of fine‐grained glacial drift with watersheds that lacked moderate or extensive streamside deposits, samples were taken from 15 watersheds in the region. The mean contribution of bank erosion to sediment loads in the six streams with glaciolacustrine deposits was 60% (range 46–76%). The proportional contribution of bank erosion was also important in one stream lacking glaciolacustrine deposits (57%) but was less important in the remainder, with contributions ranging from 0 to 46%. Data from this study on the varying contributions of bank erosion and data from past studies of sediment yield in 15 watersheds of New York State suggest that eroding streamside glacial deposits dominate sediment yield in many watersheds. In other watersheds, past impacts to streams, such as channelization, have also resulted in high levels of bank erosion. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Love for sale”: Biodiversity banking and the struggle to commodify nature in Sabah,Malaysia

In Malaysia, second largest palm oil producer worldwide, logging companies, palm oil corporations, and even responsible citizens can now compensate their biodiversity impacts by purchasing Biodiversity Conservation Certificates in an emerging new biodiversity market: the Malua BioBank. Biodiversity markets are part of a wider trend of marketisation and neoliberalisation of biodiversity governance; introduced and promoted as (technical) win–win solutions to counter biodiversity loss and enable sustainable development. The existing neoliberalisation and nature literature has tended to analyse these processes as consequences of an inherent drive of capital to expand accumulation and submit ever more areas of nature to the neoliberal market logic.In contrast, I aim (a) to problematise the agency and the “work” behind marketisation of biodiversity, challenging the story of (corporate-driven) neoliberalisation as the realisation of an inherent market-logic (based on the a false conceptual state–market divide, often prevalent even in activist academic circles working on neoliberalisation of nature) and to see the state not only as regulator, but driving force behind, and part of “the market”; (b) to question the myth of neoliberalisation as state losing control to the market and to show how the state is using the biodiversity market as mode of governing; re-gaining control over its forests and its conservation policy; and (c) to demonstrate empirically the distinction between neoliberal ideology and practice, and to show that marketisation was based on pragmatic decisions, not ideology-driven political action. My analysis is based on 35 qualitative interviews with actors involved in the BioBank.     

South Australian geology and the State Heritage Register: an example of geoconservation of the Naracoorte Caves complex and karst environment

South Australia’s State Heritage Register contains 2294 listed places, the majority of which are from the ‘Built’ environment, ranging from settlers’ huts, community buildings, historical industrial sites to magnificent stone mansions. Only 96 places are linked to the ‘Natural’ environment. The Register listings protect heritage places from alteration, damage or removal without formal prior consultation, compulsory under the South Australian Development Act. ‘Natural’ environments are landscape-based and oriented towards Geological, Archaeological, Palaeontological and Speleological heritage (‘GAPS heritage’). A process to provide a greater balance between ‘Natural’ and ‘Built’ listings has initiated a series of State Heritage ‘Natural’ environment assessments, mostly of single sites. Two individual caves in the Naracoorte Caves National Park are already entered in the State Heritage Register as single sites. However, an innovative broader multiple-site nomination has focused on the many different but significant GAPS features contained within the 25 caves of the Naracoorte Caves National Park, providing a further level of protection for the land and the caves’ exteriors and interiors. The example of the Naracoorte Caves draws attention to the number of important land and coastal karst (limestone) features across South Australia that were generated by steady geological uplift of three large sections of Oligocene–Miocene limestone—the Nullarbor Plain, the Murray Basin and the Gambier Karstfield (which includes Naracoorte and Mount Gambier), resulting in specific karst forms worthy of a broader coordinating management approach across South Australian karst parks.     

Paleoproterozoic volcanic rocks in the southern margin of the North China Craton,central China:Implications for the Columbia supercontinent

The volcanic rocks of the Xiong'er Group are situated in the southern margin of the North China Craton(NCC).Research on the Xiong er Group is important to understand the tectonic evolution of the NCC and the Columbia supercontinent during the Paleoproterozoic.In this study,to constrain the age of the Xiong'er volcanic rocks and identify its tectonic environment,we report zircon LA-ICP-MS data with Hf isotope,whole-rock major and trace element compositions and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotopes of the volcanic rocks of the Xiong'er Group.The Xiong'er volcanic rocks mainly consist of basaltic andesite,andesite.dacite and rhyolite,with minor basalt.Our new sets of data combined with those from previous studies indicate that Xiong'er volcanism should have lasted from 1827 Ma to 1746 Ma as the major phase of the volcanism.These volcanics have extremely low MgO.Cr and Ni contents,are enriched in LREEs and LILEs but depleted in HFSEs(Nb,Ta,and Ti),similar to arc-related volcanic rocks.They are characterized by negative zircon ε_(Hf)_(t) values of-17.4 to 8.8,whole-rock initial ~(87)Sr/~(86)Sr values of 0.7023 to 0.7177 andε_(Nd)(t) values of-10.9 to 6.4.and Pb isotopes(~(206)Pb/~(204)Pb =14.366-16.431,~(207)Pb/~(204)Pb =15.106-15.371,~(208)Pb/~(204)Pb= 32.455-37.422).The available elemental and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope data suggest that the Xiong'er volcanic rocks were sourced from a mantle contaminated by continental crust.The volcanic rocks of the Xiong'er Group might have been generated by high-degree partial melting of a lithospheric mantle that was originally modified by oceanic subduction in the Archean.Thus,we suggest that the subduction-modified lithospheric mantle occurred in an extensional setting during the breakup of the Columbia supercontinent in the Late Paleoproterozoic,rather than in an arc setting.     

Delineating Hierarchical Hospital Service Areas in Florida

Hospital service area (HSA) and hospital referral region (HRR), known as a hierarchical HSA system, have been used as analysis units in a growing body of large‐scale studies of healthcare spending, utilization, and outcome in the United States. However, the popular Dartmouth HSAs and HRRs were produced more than two decades ago and are unable to represent contemporary healthcare markets. This research uses a revised Huff Model to delineate two levels of hospital service areas in Florida, resulting in sixty‐four HSAs nested in twenty‐one HRRs. Three elements distinguish our method from existing work. First, a best‐fitting distance‐decay function derived from the actual travel pattern of hospitalization is embedded in the Huff Model to strengthen the model's theoretical foundation in individual spatial behavior. Secondly, the hierarchal central place structure is supported by the differing travel‐friction coefficients for general versus specialized patients; general patients experience a steeper gradient and thus a shorter average travel range that supports delineating more HSAs of smaller area size, and specialized patients exhibit a flatter gradient and thus a longer average travel range that leads to fewer HRRs of large‐sized areas. Finally, the delineation method automated in geographic information systems (GIS) can be easily replicated in other regions to define large‐scale and consistent hierarchical HSA systems.