Fuzzy logic and multi-criteria methods for groundwater potentiality mapping at Al Fo’ah area,the United Arab Emirates (UAE): an integrated approach

This study has modified an approach based on fuzzy logic in a GIS and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) for groundwater potentiality mapping in Al Fo’ah area, the United Arab Emirates. The proposed approach uses nine groundwater conditioning factors recognized by local hydrology experts. Each factor and class of each factor was given a weight and score based on its level of contributions to groundwater accumulation using analytical hierarchy process and MCDM. Our results revealed that the areas of very high harbouring groundwater are located at the foot of the Oman mountains and occupies an area of about 8.46 km² (4%) of the study area. We validated our results using the Relative Operating Characteristics. The area under the curve showed a ratio of 0.8957 (of 89.57%). The modified approach is timely and economically effective and can be applied in semi-arid regions to help hydrologists.     

Seasonal warm-water refuge and sanctuary usage by the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) in Kings Bay,Citrus County,Florida

The largest Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) aggregation at a natural warm-water site occurs in Kings Bay, Crystal River, FL. In accordance with the Manatee Recovery Plan, manatee protection areas within Kings Bay have been created by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the State of Florida including a year-round refuge designation and seven Federal manatee sanctuaries during the winter manatee season (15 November–31 March). Over the last 30 years, an increase in manatee counts has been observed in Kings Bay which has prompted the need to review existing manatee protection measures. Aerial survey data collected between 1983 and 2012 were used to examine the seasonal change in manatee distribution within Kings Bay to assess the effectiveness of current sanctuary sizes and locations. Regression analysis suggested a significant change in manatee abundance among the winter seasons (p < 0.05). The average winter manatee counts increased by 4.81 animals per year over the 30-year period. Spatially explicit maps using geographic information system (GIS) analysis revealed a strong correlation between high manatee density and artesian springs in Kings Bay during the winter seasons. Highest abundances were identified at three locations: King Spring, Three Sisters Springs, and Magnolia Springs, which coincide with preexisting sanctuary designations. Additional coverage is advocated to support the overflow of manatees outside of sanctuary boundaries. As density patterns were not uniform across summer periods, a consideration of additional boat speed regulations is recommended.     

Discovering spatial and temporal patterns from taxi-based Floating Car Data: a case study from Nanjing

Floating Car Data (FCD) refers to the trajectories of vehicles equipped with Global Positioning System-enabled devices that automatically record location-related data within a short time interval. As taxies in Chinese cities continually drive along the streets seeking passengers, FCD can easily traverse the entire street network in a city on a daily basis. Taking advantage of this situation, this study extracted passenger pickup and drop-off locations from FCD sourced from 6445 taxis over a 2-week period in Nanjing, China to discover human behavioral patterns and the dynamics behind them. In this study, road nodes are converted to the points, based on which Thiessen polygons are generated to divide the study area into small areas with the goal of exploring the spatial distribution of pickup and drop-off locations. Moran’s I index is used to calculate the spatial autocorrelation of the spatial distribution of pickup and drop-off locations, and hot spot analysis is used to identify statistically significant spatial clusters of hot and cold spots. The spatial and temporal patterns of FCD in the study area are investigated, and the results show that: (1) the temporal patterns show a strong daily rhythm, (2) the spatial patterns show that the number of pickup and drop-off locations gradually diminish from the downtown areas to the outer suburbs, (3) the spatiotemporal patterns exhibit large differences over time, and (4) the driving forces explored by regression models indicate that population density and transportation density are consistent with the population distribution, but per capita disposable income is not consistent with the population distribution.     

Modeling the environmental susceptibility of landfill sites in California

??The proper management of solid waste (SW) is a global environmental challenge. A major issue is the proper disposal of SW while balancing a wide range of criteria and working with different spatial data. In this study, we used geographic information system as a tool to perform multi-criteria decision analysis with an analytical hierarchy process to develop an environmental impact susceptibility model (EISM) for landfills. The model was applied to the state of California, USA and results are presented herein. In particular, the EISM considers factors such as geology, pedology, geomorphology, water resources, and climate as represented by 13 associated environmental indicators. The results of the EISM indicate that more than 75% of California’s territory is situated in areas with very low, low, and medium environmental impact susceptibility categories. However, in the remaining 25% of the state’s land, 61 landfills are located in the high and very high categories. These results are alarming because during the period from 2000 to 2015, these 61 landfills received approximately 308 million tons of SW, which corresponds to more than 57% of all SW disposed in California. The model results can be used toward mitigating the environmental impacts of these facilities.     

Management Challenges for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in Peri-urban Queensland

It is often assumed that places of cultural significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are protected under cultural heritage legislation such as the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 in Queensland. Such Acts are improvements on previous policies, which all but neglected Aboriginal cultural heritage. Nevertheless, the aims of policies developed at wider geographic scales, such as States within the Australian system, continue to be disconnected from the experiences of some local Traditional Owners. In this paper, we examine conflicts between non-local policy and on-ground management decisions for Aboriginal cultural heritage in peri-urban Queensland. We focus on the challenges of local Traditional Owners in peri-urban landscapes, basing our discussion on recent experiences conducting research on Indigenous land management in southeast Queensland. We examine three case studies: one in which colonial heritage values were prioritised over existing Aboriginal cultural heritage values, a second where local government failed to support a private landholder’s attempt to identify and protect a cultural heritage site, and a third where a cultural heritage site was protected but in a way that restricts the continuation of cultural practices. Developing more productive and equitable relationships between Traditional Owners and non-Indigenous decision makers, with regards to Aboriginal cultural heritage, requires new locally developed processes for engagement and we suggest how this could be achieved.     

‘Development’, resistance and the geographies of affect in Oecussi: Timor‐Leste's Special Economic Zone (ZEESM)

In 2013, it was announced that Timor‐Leste's Oecussi enclave would become the site of a special economic zone. Arid, and inhabited mostly by semi‐subsistence farmers from West Timor's Meto ethno‐linguistic group, the plan entails remaking the enclave as an industrial, transport and tourism hub. To facilitate this, in mid‐2015 the authorities began the process of clearing hundreds of indigenous gardens and homes from land slated for mega‐projects intended to make the region attractive to foreign investors. In this paper, I describe how, for many Meto, land tends to be experienced as a spiritually mediated ‘geography of affect’ (Lea & Woodward, 2010) in which questions of place, belonging, spirituality and personal fortune cannot easily be divided, a reality that raises questions about the suitability of the plan's vision of globalized and investment driven ‘development’. Drawing on Scott, I argue that in Oecussi, spirits associated with the land are not apolitical, but are sometimes perceived as acting to protect locals against powerful outsiders – a characteristically Meto ‘weapon of the weak’ that is in keeping with their previous encounters with colonial regimes.     

陕西河谷盆地生态系统服务协同与权衡时空差异分析

陕西河谷盆地是区域主要粮食基地和社会经济中心,人口增长、城镇化和工业化的加快发展,使得该地区生态环境受到人类活动的强烈冲击,生态环境面临着潜在的巨大危机,严重影响社会经济的可持续发展。本文选取西北地区经济中心—关中盆地和陕西省生态保护指定区—汉中盆地进行对比研究,以1990-2010年的生态系统服务数据（NPP、保水服务、食物供给）分析生态服务时空差异,通过相关分析、线性和幂函数回归等方法分析了生态系统服务协同与权衡的时空差异。结果表明：NPP与保水是协同关系,NPP与食物供给、保水与食物供给是权衡关系;21年中,两大盆地的协同关系均呈减弱趋势,权衡关系为加强趋势,且关中盆地的变化速度要高于汉中盆地;NPP与保水的协同程度,在关中盆地东部的耕地区域以及汉中盆地的宁强县与略阳县西部最强,以关中的铜川市和汉中的西乡县最弱;NPP与食物供给的权衡程度,在关中盆地的铜川市和西安市境内的秦岭区域以及汉中盆地的西乡县南部制约关系更为突出,以关中的宝鸡市及汉中的略阳县最弱。     

生态系统服务权衡研究进展：从认知到决策

作为沟通自然生态系统与人类社会的重要桥梁,生态系统服务一直以来都是地理学、生态学等学科的研究前沿和热点。正确认知生态系统服务之间的关系,是开展多种生态系统服务可持续管理决策的前提,有助于人类福祉的全面提升。本文通过厘定生态系统服务权衡的概念内涵,梳理了生态系统服务权衡的空间、时间和可逆性特征,将多层次人类福祉的满足作为权衡的最终目标,视生态补偿为权衡决策的基本保障途径。生态系统服务权衡关系的识别依托于定量指标法和综合模型法,且权衡关系可能随时空尺度的推移发生改变;情景分析与多目标分析是生态系统服务权衡决策的有效手段。生态系统服务权衡多尺度关联、生态系统服务流与远程耦合、生态系统服务消费与生态补偿,成为当前生态系统服务权衡研究的重点方向。     

A Research Synthesis and Theoretical Model of Relationships Between Factors Influencing Outdoor Domestic Water Consumption

Outdoor domestic water use is often targeted by demand management strategies. However, despite a rich empirical evidence base coming from primary studies, it is still unclear how factors that influence this type of demand interact and which are the most suitable to be addressed by water conservation programs. Based on 423 scientific contributions, we develop a research synthesis combining a variety of techniques to create a theoretical model of the relationships among factors most consistently observed in the literature. The findings uncover a great degree of complexity in terms of interactions between spatial-structural, social-structural, and cultural and psychological factors at different scales. For researchers, the methodology and the outcomes can be useful to better frame existing and future research within the literature on the topic. In practice, the adaptation of the theoretical model to local specificities can facilitate the design of more efficient and integrated demand management strategies.     

Fishing in the Amazonian Forest: A Gendered Social Network Puzzle

We employ social network analysis (SNA) to describe the structure of subsistence fishing social networks and to explore the relation between fishers’ emic perceptions of fishing expertise and their position in networks. Participant observation and quantitative methods were employed among the Tsimane’ Amerindians of the Bolivian Amazon. A multiple-regression quadratic assignment procedure was used to explore the extent to which gender, kinship, and age homophilies influence the formation of fishing networks. Logistic regressions were performed to determine the association between fishers’ expertise, their sociodemographic identities, and network centrality. We found that fishing networks are gendered and that there is a positive association between fishers’ expertise and centrality in networks, an association that is more striking for women than for men. We propose that a social network perspective broadens understanding of the relations that shape the intracultural distribution of fishing expertise, as well as natural resource access and use.