A geographical analysis of the Atalanti alluvial plain and coastline as the location of a potential tourist site, Bronze through Early Iron Age Mitrou, East-Central Greece

Tourism accounts for 15% of Greece’s gross domestic product. In the wake of a struggling economy many of Greece’s coastal villages have turned to tourism to supplement local economies. Preliminary analysis of structural and cultural materials recovered from an excavation on Mitrou, a small islet near the coastal village Tragana located 140 km north of Athens has established the site’s contribution to a fuller understanding of settlement practices in Central Greece from the end of the Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age. The site’s historic importance combined with its scenic coastal setting has considerable potential to be developed into an important tourist site. The physical geography of the region is the product of the complex interaction of coastal, alluvial, fluvial, and seismic processes. This investigation integrates the archaeological material with a geographical analysis employing a variety of geographical techniques (soil and sediment analysis, past climatic data, environmental surveys, and geospatial modeling) to reconstruct the geomorphological history of the site and to evaluate the area as a potential tourist site.     

近60年洞庭湖泊形态与水沙过程的互动响应

以历史文献、图件及1951～2009年长系水沙等资料为依据,对比分析洞庭湖形态与水沙过程的互动响应,结果表明:由于湖泊形态与水沙过程存在着相互作用的关系,近60年间,水沙过程以多种形式改变湖泊形态特征值,如湖盆结构破碎、解体,水深变浅以及湖面﹑湖容依次减少1840km²及130×10⁸m³;同时湖泊形态特征值改变也引起水沙特性变异,在1951～2002年间湖盆蓄水量呈明显的增减波动,但同流量下汛期水位普遍抬高1.2～1.90m,西﹑南﹑东洞庭湖水位变幅依次增大1.61m、1.39m和1.35m,各主要水文站前5位最高洪水位排序的年份均出现在湖面积(容积)历史最低值,泥沙淤积率为70%以上;2003年6月三峡水库蓄水及"退田还湖"后,高、中水位下湖盆调蓄量有所减少,城陵矶丰、枯水位分别降低1.12m及0.35m,西湖区与东南湖区的泥沙输出比均呈增大趋势,泥沙淤积率减至35.9%。其互动响应机制,可概化为泥沙淤积循环→湖盆结构破碎、解体,湖面湖容缩小→水沙特性异变→改变湖泊形态→水沙特性变异的互动响应动态演进模式。     

基于投影法和数学形态学的车牌定位算法

车牌定位是车牌识别系统中的关键技术之一,车牌定位的质量直接影响着后续字符识别的结果。本文提出了一种结合投影法和形态学的车牌定位算法,首先对图像进行预处理,接着利用水平投影算法确定车牌的上下边界,然后利用形态学方法迭代确定车牌的左右边界．最后进行精定位。实验表明,该方法具有较高的定位精度。     

Study on Effects of Building Morphology on Urban Boundary Layer Using an Urban Canopy Model

An urban canopy model is incorporated into the Nanjing University Regional Boundary Layer Model. Temperature simulated by the urban canopy model is in better agreement with the observation, especially in the night time, than that simulated by the traditional slab model. The coupled model is used to study the effects of building morphology on urban boundary layer and meteorological environment by changing urban area, building height, and building density.It is found that when the urban area is expanded, the urban boundary layer heat flux, thermal turbulence, and the turbulent momentum flux and kinetic energy all increase or enhance, causing the surface air temperature to rise up. The stability of urban atmospheric stratification is affected to different extent at different times of the day.When the building height goes up, the aerodynamic roughness height, zero plane displacement height of urban area, and ratio of building height to street width all increase. Therefore, the increase in building height results in the decrease of the surface heat flux, urban surface temperature, mean wind speed, and turbulent kinetic energy in daytime. While at night, as more heat storage is released by higher buildings, thermal turbulence is more active and surface heat flux increases, leading to a higher urban temperature.As the building density increases, the aerodynamic roughness height of urban area decreases, and the effect of urban canopy on radiation strengthens. The increase of building density results in the decrease in urban surface heat flux, momentum flux, and air temperature, the increase in mean wind speed, and the weakening of turbulence in the daytime. While at night, the urban temperature increases due to the release of more heat storage.     

Pliocene–Quaternary fluvial and aeolian records in the Souss Basin, southwest Morocco: A geomorphological model

The Souss Basin in SW Morocco is filled by Pliocene–Quaternary fluvial, fluvio-lacustrine and aeolian sediments, representing an excellent archive of palaeohydrology, palaeoclimate and the effects of crustal deformation. In general these sediments indicate stream-dominated alluvial systems, influenced by fluctuations in climate (humidity/aridity). Lakes developed within the basin around the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition and persisted into the Early Pleistocene. During this early period, relatively humid conditions are indicated by the dominance of coarse-grained sedimentation in the upper reaches of fluvial systems, the existence of large lakes and the considerable sediment thicknesses in the centre of the basin. Uplift of the surrounding mountain ranges contributed to piedmont formation by providing large amounts of coarse-grained material that accumulated at the lowland margin. Climatic deterioration in the Middle Pleistocene was accompanied by progressively more irregular and disrupted fluvial regimes. These trends were evident in the Late Pleistocene and became clearer after the mid-Holocene, with aeolian activity becoming the dominant sedimentary agent. Differences between upstream and downstream depositional regimes became marked: while coarse-grained sedimentation has characterized the upper reaches of wadi catchments, fine-grained sedimentation has prevailed downstream. Hiatuses in sedimentation throughout the Pliocene and Quaternary are marked by palaeosol horizons interbedded within the sedimentary sequences, indicating alternate vegetated (stable) and unvegetated (unstable/active) phases (biostasy and ‘rhexistasy’).     

Facies and architectural element analysis of a meandering fluvial succession: The Permian Warchha Sandstone, Salt Range, Pakistan

The 30 to 155 m thick Early Permian (Artinskian) Warchha Sandstone of the Salt Range, Pakistan is a conglomerate, sandstone and claystone succession within which seven lithofacies types (Gt, St, Sp, Sr, Sh, Fl and Fm) occur in a predictable order as repeated fining-upward cycles. Common sedimentary structures in the conglomerates and sandstones include planar and trough cross-bedding, planar lamination, soft sediment-deformed bedding, compound cosets of strata with low-angle inclined bounding surfaces and lags of imbricated pebbles. Structures in the finer-grained facies include desiccation cracks, raindrop imprints, caliche nodules and bioturbation. Groups of associated facies are arranged into nine distinct architectural elements (channels, gravel bars, sandy bedforms, downstream and laterally accreting barforms, sand sheets, crevasse splays, levees, floodplain units and shallow lakes), which is consistent with a fluvial origin for the succession. The types of architectural elements present and their relationship to each other demonstrate that the Warchha Sandstone preserves a record of a meandering river system that drained the northern margin of Gondwanaland. The dominance of fine-grained (floodplain) facies over gravel-grade (channel-base) facies and the widespread occurrence of large-scale lateral accretion elements supports the interpretation of a high-sinuosity, meandering fluvial system in which channel bodies accumulated via the lateral accretion of point bars but in which the active channels covered only a small part of a broad floodplain at any time instant. Although the regional and temporal distribution of these deposits is complex, in broad terms the lower part is dominated by stacked, multistorey channel bodies, whereas single-storey channel elements isolated in abundant fine-grained floodplain deposits dominate the middle and upper parts of the formation.     

New data of typomorphic features of diamonds from placers in North Timan

The morphological and spectral-optical properties of diamond crystals from placers in North Timan rivers have been studied with IR-spectroscopy and cathode luminescence methods. As a result, correlation between external characteristics of diamonds (size and degree of mechanical damage) and number of optically active centers has been revealed. The habit and the type of distribution of structural defects in diamond crystals studied are comparable with those in diamonds from the Archangelsk Region and North Timan’s placers. Based on the obtained data, origin issues and possible primary sources of diamonds from North Timan’s placers are discussed.     

云纹石斑鱼仔、稚、幼鱼的形态观察

为丰富云纹石斑鱼(Epinephelus moara)的基础生物学资料,对云纹石斑鱼早期发育阶段的形态变化进行了观察,对各时期的形态特征与生态习性进行了描述,并详细记录了各时期全长、口裂、第2背鳍棘和腹鳍棘的变化.根据卵黄囊和油球的消失、鳍膜的消退、第2背鳍棘和腹鳍棘的伸缩、鳞片的生长及色素的变化把云纹石斑鱼早期发育阶段胚后发育分为仔鱼期(包括早期仔鱼和晚期仔鱼)、稚鱼期和幼鱼期.在水温26.71±1.26℃的培育条件下,仔鱼4日龄开口摄食;至6日龄,卵黄囊和油球消失,进入晚期仔鱼期;至29日龄,鳍膜消失,进入稚鱼期;至41日龄,鳞片开始长出,至59日龄,稚鱼全身覆盖鳞片,完成变态,进入早期幼鱼期.并发现在生态幅范围内提高培育水温,可以提高生长效率,加快育苗速度.     

Observations on decadal sandbar behaviour along a large-scale curved shoreline

Nearshore sandbars are characteristic features of sandy surf zones and have been observed with a variety of geometries in cross-shore (e.g. location) and longshore direction (e.g. planform). Although the behaviour of sandbars has been studied extensively on spatial scales up to kilometres and timescales up to years, it remains challenging to observe and explain their behaviour on larger spatial and temporal scales, especially in locations where coastline curvature can be prominent. In this paper, we study a data set with 38 years of coastal profiles, collected with alongshore intervals of 50 m, along the 34 km-long curved sandy shoreline of Sylt island, Germany. Sylt's shoreline has an orientation difference of ~20° between the northern and southern half of the island. We found that the decadal coastal profiles on the southern half show features of a low-tide terrace and a sandbar located further from the shoreline (~441 m). On the nothern half, the sandbar was located closer to the shoreline (~267 m) and was less pronounced, while the profiles show transverse bar and rip features. The alongshore planform also differed systematically and significantly along the two island sides. The sandbar on the southern island half, with alongshore periodicity on a larger length scale (~2240 m), was coupled out-of-phase to the shoreline, while no phase coupling was observed for the sandbar with periodicity on a shorter length scale (~670 m) on the northern half. We related the observed geometric differences of the sandbars to the difference in the local wave climate along Sylt, imposed by the shoreline shape. Our observations imply that small alongshore variations in wave climate, due to the increasing shoreline curvature on larger spatial scales, can lead to significant alongshore differences in the decadal evolution of coastal profiles, sandbars and shorelines. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd