Lidar-aided analysis of boreal forest backscatter at Ku band

This paper analyzes the backscatter of the microwave signal in a boreal forest environment based on a Ku -band airborne Frequency-Modulated Continuous Waveform (FMCW) profiling radar—Tomoradar. We selected a half-managed boreal forest in the southern part of Finland for a field test. By decomposing the waveform collected by the Tomoradar, the vertical canopy structure was achieved. Based on the amplitude of the waveform, the Backscattered Energy Ratio of Canopy-to-Total (BERCT) was calculated. Meanwhile, the canopy fraction was derived from the corresponding point cloud recorded by a Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR mounted on the same platform. Lidar-derived canopy fraction was obtained by counting the number of the first/ the strongest returns versus the total amount of returns. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of radar-derived BERCT on lidar-derived canopy fraction and canopy height are investigated. A fitted model is derived to describe the Ku-band microwave backscatter in the boreal forest to numerically analyze the proportion contributed by four factors: lidar-derived canopy fraction, radar-derived canopy height, the radar-derived distance between trees and radar sensor and other factors, from co-polarization Tomoradar measurements. The Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of the proposed model was 0.0958, and the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.912. The fitted model reveals that the correlation coefficient between radar-derived BERCT and lidar-derived canopy fraction is 0.84, which illustrates that lidar surface reflection explains the majority of the profiling /waveform radar response. Thus, vertical canopy structure derived from lidar can be used for the benefit of radar analysis.     

金沙江美姑河牛牛坝水电站库区泥石流对工程影响分析

金沙江美姑河牛牛坝水电站库区泥石流沟分布面积广、发生频率高;调查表明库区现有不同类型泥石流沟31条,其中属于高度危险的泥石流沟4条,中度危险的泥石流沟15条;这些泥石流不会造成严重的堵河问题。在施工期泥石流对水电站工程的影响突出,特别是靠近库首的泥石流对工程的安全构成威胁。水库蓄水后,库区泥石流对水电站工程影响有所降低,但位于大坝下游区的泥石流对水电站正常运行仍有较大的影响。     

未来综合导航定位技术刍议

社会的发展和人们生活水平的不断提高,使得人们对位置及其相关信息的需求不断增加。未来人们对于导航定位技术的需求将是快速、高精度、高动态和无缝的。未来的综合导航定位技术主要包括单点快速高精度定位技术和特殊地区导航定位技术两大类。本文简要介绍了这两类导航定位技术的现状及今后的发展趋势。     

Modelling population retention in Australia’s Northern Territory – how do current forms of migration contribute to population turnover and retention?

ABSTRACT

In the past, population growth in Australia's Northern Territory, as in other peripheral parts of high-income countries, has been driven by internal labour migration and migration from outside of Australia. These have been contributing to the high population turnover experienced in peripheral areas. Since 2010, the Northern Territory has experienced low (and even negative) population growth, and public policy is currently focused on migration as a lever to reverse this trend. However, the extent to which the characteristics of migrants influence the potential for longer-term population growth is poorly understood. This paper uses a new method to analyse the contributions of various types of migrants to both population turnover and retention. Two major sets of findings emerge: First, the significance of separating newer in-migrants from longer-term residents when analysing migration patterns; and secondly, the contribution of age, gender, Indigenous status, international origin, wages and industry of employment to the Northern Territory's population turnover. The research suggests that current forms of migration favour people who are likely to stay for only short periods, and have high wage demands. The main policy inference is that long-term population growth will likely not eventuate unless new forms of migration can be stimulated.     

Political ecology of tiger conservation in India: Adverse effects of banning customary practices in a protected area

Protected areas have had significant impacts on local communities primarily through the physical removal of people. In some instances, people continue to live within protected areas due to the inability of the state to evict them. The restrictions on livelihoods placed on people living inside protected areas lead to in situ displacement. We show how conservation enclosures in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve have produced a class of people that the state ‘lets die’ by banning customary practices such as fire use, hunting and harvesting of forest produce. Using longitudinal ethnographic, socio‐economic and ecological data, we demonstrate that conservation policy has alienated indigenous forest dwellers from their agricultural and forest‐land. The outcomes of conservation policy include dispossession through increased crop losses, reduced income from agriculture and forest produce, as well as a forest that is dominated by weeds due to fire suppression. The ban on hunting in particular has increased wildlife densities, which has enabled the state to accumulate revenues through the establishment of wildlife tourism facilities. All in all, centralized protected area governance has changed the relationships among people, forest and the state in a way that has produced adverse effects for both livelihoods and the ecosystem.     

The Three American Wests

In the twenty-first century, there are three American Wests, which cut across cultural, political, physical, and economic boundaries. Parts of the West are booming, building homes, and adding population; others are legally off limits to such development; and much of the West has been bypassed by such development and growth. These are called here the Booming West, Protected West, and Bypassed West. Maps of climate, political boundaries, ethnic and racial identities, or presidential voting patterns do not match these three Wests. Each West has a different relationship to the others and might see them as threats or opportunities, and each West can be expected to grow in different areas at the expense of other Wests. The boundaries between the three Wests could be important locations; sharp transitions can exist between Wests, perhaps nowhere more so than where a fast growing metro area abuts a national park or forest boundary. Finally, the effects of climate change cut across the three Wests and have different implications for their future. Continued population growth will further emphasize the boundaries between each of the three Wests and raise the stakes for their control.     

Ecological Worldview as the Central Component of Environmental Concern: Clarifying the Role of the NEP

This study examines whether an ecological worldview—operationalized by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale--serves as the source of coherence of Environmental Concern (EC). Using data on four samples from the 1992 Gallup “Health of the Planet” Survey and the 2003 and 2010 Chinese General Social Surveys, we found that in all samples not only is the NEP the most powerful predictor of EC, but it also mediates the effects of socio-demographic variables on EC as hypothesized. The results confirm that the NEP is the source of coherence of EC, making it a meaningful construct.     

西北贫困地区乡村类型识别与振兴途径研究

乡村振兴战略是新时期我国推进城乡融合发展的重要举措。贫困地区既是脱贫攻坚的主战场,又是乡村振兴的重点区域。如何科学识别村落类型,分类推进典型区域乡村振兴发展,对于破解农村发展不平衡不充分问题具有重要的现实意义。本文解析了乡村地域系统发展理论,阐释了城乡融合发展理论,剖析了村域空间结构格局演变和城乡要素结构功能优化重组;构建了西北干旱贫困地区乡村振兴村落类型识别体系,从乡村主体、产业发展、人居环境、资源禀赋4个子系统进行逐级分类判断,识别乡村主导类型,结合专家征询分析与村落特征,将乡村振兴村落类型识别为集聚提升类、三产融合类、城郊融合类、特色保护类、搬迁撤并类,结合不同乡村振兴模式提出了相应地发展路径,以期为乡村振兴提供理论依据与决策参考。     

南海北部湾秋季蓝圆鲹与竹筴鱼的摄食生态及食物竞争

【目的】研究南海北部湾海域秋季蓝圆鲹与竹筴鱼的摄食生态特征和种间食物竞争。【方法】采用胃含物分析法,对2017年10月北部湾底拖网调查和港口随机取样收集的119尾蓝圆鲹(Decapterusmaruadsi)和198尾竹筴鱼(Trachurus japonicus)胃含物样品进行分析,通过肉眼直接观察或显微镜间接观察胃中残留的饵料,饵料种类鉴定、计数、称重等对食性做定量分析,以估算两种鱼类的营养级和生态位宽度,并利用生态位重叠研究两种鱼类的食物竞争关系。【结果与结论】蓝圆鲹的饵料种类19种(属),以桡足类和小型鱼类为主,优势饵料生物为布氏半棱鳀(Encrasicholinapunctifer);竹筴鱼的饵料种类18种(属),以小型鱼类和浮游甲壳类为主,优势饵料为中国毛虾(Acetes chinensis)。两种鱼类均为游泳动物食性,均存在摄食转换,随着叉长的增长,蓝圆鲹的饵料生物由小型浮游动物为主转变为小型鱼类为主,竹筴鱼的饵料生物由小型鱼类为主转变为以樱虾类和较大鱼类为主。蓝圆鲹和竹筴鱼的空胃率、竹筴鱼的平均胃饱满指数均随个体生长呈显著变化(P<0.05),但蓝圆鲹的平均胃饱满指数随个体生长无显著变化(P>0.05)。蓝圆鲹和竹筴鱼的营养级分别为3.63和3.40,营养生态位宽度分别为1.70和1.24,生态位重叠系数0.56,表明两种鱼类之间存在一定的食物竞争。     

Bathymetry,substrate and fishing areas of Southeast Atlantic high-seas seamounts

Most of the Southeast Atlantic Ocean is abyssal, and global bathymetries suggest that only ～3.2% of the areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ; also known as the high seas, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS]) are shallower than 2 500 m. This study mapped bathymetry and characterised substrates in selected seamount summit areas, including several that have been or may become fishing areas. The southernmost location, the Schmitt-Ott Seamount, has exposed volcanic bedrock with surrounding flats covered by thin biogenic sediments and/or coral rubble that appears ancient. At Wüst, Vema, Valdivia and Ewing seamounts the basaltic base appears to be overlain by coral caps and other coral substrates (sheets, rubble). Adjacent summit plains have biogenic sediments of varying thickness. Vema has a flat, roughly circular summit, <100 m deep, with the shallowest point being a 22-m-deep summit knoll; the upper slopes have ancient coral framework, but the summit has a mixture of coralline and volcanic rock and coarse sediments, including extensive areas with coralline algae and kelp forests. Valdivia Bank is a 230-m-deep, flat, rocky area (～11 × 5 km), protruding steeply from the extensive multi-summit Valdivia subarea of the Walvis Ridge. The distribution of past fisheries in the Convention Area of the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO) was considered in relation to the new information on bathymetry and substrate.