Soil erosion modelled with USLE and PESERA using QuickBird derived vegetation parameters in an alpine catchment

The focus of soil erosion research in the Alps has been in two categories: (i) on-site measurements, which are rather small scale point measurements on selected plots often constrained to irrigation experiments or (ii) off-site quantification of sediment delivery at the outlet of the catchment. Results of both categories pointed towards the importance of an intact vegetation cover to prevent soil loss. With the recent availability of high-resolution satellites such as IKONOS and QuickBird options for detecting and monitoring vegetation parameters in heterogeneous terrain have increased. The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of QuickBird derived vegetation parameters in soil erosion models for alpine sites by comparison to Cesium-137 (Cs-137) derived soil erosion estimates. The study site (67 km²) is located in the Central Swiss Alps (Urseren Valley) and is characterised by scarce forest cover and strong anthropogenic influences due to grassland farming for centuries. A fractional vegetation cover (FVC) map for grassland and detailed land-cover maps are available from linear spectral unmixing and supervised classification of QuickBird imagery. The maps were introduced to the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA) model as well as to the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Regarding the latter model, the FVC was indirectly incorporated by adapting the C factor. Both models show an increase in absolute soil erosion values when FVC is considered. In contrast to USLE and the Cs-137 soil erosion rates, PESERA estimates are low. For the USLE model also the spatial patterns improved and showed “hotspots” of high erosion of up to 16 t ha⁻¹ a⁻¹. In conclusion field measurements of Cs-137 confirmed the improvement of soil erosion estimates using the satellite-derived vegetation data.     

A natural gas hydrate-oil-gas system in the Qilian Mountain permafrost area,northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Natural gas hydrate, oil and gas were all found together in the Qilian Mountain permafrost area, northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. They are closely associated with each other in space, but whether they are in any genetic relations are unknown yet. In this paper, a hydrocarbon gas-generation series, gas-fluid migration series and hydrocarbon gas-accumulation series are analyzed to probe the spatial, temporal and genetic relationships among natural natural gas hydrate, oil and gas. The subsequent results show that natural gas hydrate, oil and gas actually form a natural gas hydrate-oil-gas system. Based on the Middle Jurassic and the Upper Triassic hydrocarbon gas-generation series, it is divided into four major sub-systems in the study area: (1) A conventional Upper Triassic gas-bearing sub-system with peak hydrocarbon gas-generation in the late Middle Jurassic; (2) a conventional Middle Jurassic oil-bearing sub-system with low to mature hydrocarbon gas-generation in the late Middle Jurassic; (3) a natural gas hydrate sub-system with main gas source from the Upper Triassic gas-bearing sub-system and minor gas source from the Middle Jurassic oil-bearing sub-system as well as little gas source from the Middle Jurassic coal-bed gas and the microbial gas; (4) a shallower gas sub-system with microbial alteration of the main gas source from the Upper Triassic gas-bearing sub-system. This natural gas hydrate-oil-gas system and its sub-systems are not only theoretical but also practical, and thus they will play an important role in the further exploration of natural gas hydrate, oil and gas, even other energy resources in the study area.     

Systems of agriculture farming in the Uttranchal Himalaya,India

Agricultural practices are the main stay of the people of Uttranchal. Out of the total population,more than 75% people are engaged either with the main occupation of agriculture or its allied practices,dominated by traditional subsistence cereal farming.Among them, the main crops are rice, wheat, millet,barley, all types of pulses, all types of oilseeds and almost all types of fruits. The crops, vegetables and fruits of all varieties are grown in the different climatic zones such as tropical, temperate, and cold because, the region is characterized by the different altitudinal zones elevated from 200 m to more than 8000m. As a result, different climates are found from hot tropical to sub temperate and chilly cold. Pulses varieties are grown extensively. Among vegetables,potato, onion, carrot, all types of green leaf vegetables,brinzal, pumpkin, ladyfinger, pea, gram, radish,ginger, garlic, etc, are grown widely. All fruit varieties are grown in the different altitudinal zones. The mainfruits are orange, malta (a big size of orange),elephant citrus, lemon and all other types of citrus,apple, stone fruits including peach and pears, manykinds of nuts, and the fruits which are grown in the low lying areas. In spite of feasible climatic conditions,agricultural dominant society, and availability of all types of crops, the production and productivity of these crops are very low, even they are unable to meet the grain-need of the people in Uttaranchal. Agricultural crops are grown almost in all the altitudinal zones -- from the low-lying areas, which are called ‘Ga. ngarh‘, to the highly elevated region,where the legendary term is given as ‘Danda‘. The growing seasons vary according to the heights. The present paper aims to discuss the agricultural practices including cropping season, cropping pattern,land use, production of cropsagricultural system in thisand ecological aspect of Himalayan state and suggest some measures for developing farming system,which could lead the sustainability, in terms of meeting the food grain needs of the people on the one hand and restoring the ecological balance on the other.     

Mountain Land Use Planning of Metropolitan Suburbs： the Case of the Jinyun Mountain and Its Surrounding area, Chongqing, China

Open space of metropolitan suburbs in mountain region, has been increasingly becoming the coupling mosaic structure of industrial actions and landscape behaviors. However, the local governments, when making land use planning, often aim at economic development, and rarely refer to the coordination of compatibilities and conflicts between industrial actions and landscape behaviors in the mosaic structure. In this study land use in the Jinyun Mountain and its surrounding area, Chongqing is adjusted by gray multi-objective programming approach and local-level decision-making process to cope with conflicts between objectives for human welfare and objectives for landscape conservation. The results indicate that： 1） the compatibilities and conflicts among different behavior characters and different landscape types result in the compatibilities of landscape to human behavior; 2） a land use planning in the study area is produced based on the sustainable land use and social-eco development, which pays more attention to the resources and environment constraints and economic objectives, and follows the distribution law of rare resources; 3） in the study area, cultivated land of 1,207.27 ha can meet the demands for food and byproducts by the residents there, orchard land and forestland of 632.55 ha, 2,276.61 ha, respectively can provide enough spaee for the local people to improve their living structure and meet their demands for reereational activities, and urban residential land, rural residential land, mining land and transportation land of 1107.60 ha, 120.27 ha, 162.48 ha, 100.91 ha, respeetively can satisfy the resident＇s eeonomie development and infrastructures; 4） the equilibrium among industrial actions, landscape accessibility and ecological conservation can be obtained by analyzing the possible impaets of human activities on landscape eeologieal proeess in open spaee of metropolitan suburbs in mountain areas.     

祁连山冻土区天然气水合物地球化学迁移机理探讨

陆域冻土区天然气水合物成矿机制较为复杂,水合物横向难以对比,形成机理不清楚,急需对天然气水合物迁移机理进行研究。文章根据祁连山冻土区天然气水合物发现区钻井揭示的地质和地球化学资料以及岩芯样品分析测试结果进行了综合分析。结果显示,研究区中侏罗统和上三叠统均为较好烃源岩,天然水合物气源以热解气为主,主要由上三叠烃源岩迁移和中侏罗统木里组烃源岩扩散提供,显示了多源多期次的特点。根据地质和地球化学分析,祁连山天然气水合物的形成经历了晚侏罗世—早白垩世的气体运移与聚集、中新世中晚期—上新世整体抬升、第四纪游离气体转化成天然气水合物矿藏3个阶段,经历了"先聚集-再抬升-后成藏"等过程,是构造-气候耦合作用的结果,初步建立了祁连山冻土区天然气水合物迁移机理。     

北大巴山早古生代辉绿岩地球化学特征及其地质意义

对南秦岭北大巴山地区广泛分布的一套基性岩墙群中的辉绿岩进行采样,并进行了锆石U-Pb年代学、全岩地球化学分析。结果显示,岩石形成年龄为435~433 Ma,为早志留世晚期岩浆活动产物。这些辉绿岩具低硅、高碱、高钛的碱性岩特征。岩石微量及稀土元素具板内玄武岩特征,轻稀土元素相对富集,轻重稀土元素分异明显,富集不相容元素Ba、Nb、Ta,而K、Y、Yb相对亏损;K及Rb的负异常表明岩石源区残留角闪石或金云母,部分熔融模拟结果显示岩石起源于尖晶石角闪石岩高程度部分熔融。综合地球化学特征及前人研究结果,认为北大巴山地区在早古生代处于大规模伸展裂陷背景下,岩石圈的拉张诱发了低熔点的交代岩石圈地幔熔融,进而形成了这条碱性岩浆带。     

Using multivariate statistical analysis of groundwater major cation and trace element concentrations to evaluate groundwater flow in a regional aquifer

Groundwater samples were collected from 11 springs in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in southern Nevada and seven springs from Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Concentrations of the major cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K) and 45 trace elements were determined in these groundwater samples. The resultant data were subjected to evaluation via the multivariate statistical technique principal components analysis (PCA), to investigate the chemical relationships between the Ash Meadows and Death Valley spring waters, to evaluate whether the results of the PCA support those of previous hydrogeological and isotopic studies and to determine if PCA can be used to help delineate potential groundwater flow patterns based on the chemical compositions of groundwaters. The results of the PCA indicated that groundwaters from the regional Paleozoic carbonate aquifers (all of the Ash Meadows springs and four springs from the Furnace Creek region of Death Valley) exhibited strong statistical associations, whereas other Death Valley groundwaters were chemically different. The results of the PCA support earlier studies, where potentiometric head levels, δ¹⁸O and δD, geological relationships and rare earth element data were used to evaluate groundwater flow, which suggest groundwater flows from Ash Meadows to the Furnace Creek springs in Death Valley. The PCA suggests that Furnace Creek groundwaters are moderately concentrated Ash Meadows groundwater, reflecting longer aquifer residence times for the Furnace Creek groundwaters. Moreover, PCA indicates that groundwater may flow from springs in the region surrounding Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park, to a spring discharging on the valley floor. The study indicates that PCA may provide rapid and relatively cost‐effective methods to assess possible groundwater flow regimes in systems that have not been previously investigated. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of episodic acidification in North‐eastern USA: an empirical/mechanistic approach

Observations from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Episodic Response Project (ERP) in the North‐eastern United States are used to develop an empirical/mechanistic scheme for prediction of the minimum values of acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) during episodes. An acidification episode is defined as a hydrological event during which ANC decreases. The pre‐episode ANC is used to index the antecedent condition, and the stream flow increase reflects how much the relative contributions of sources of waters change during the episode. As much as 92% of the total variation in the minimum ANC in individual catchments can be explained (with levels of explanation >70% for nine of the 13 streams) by a multiple linear regression model that includes pre‐episode ANC and change in discharge as independent variables. The predictive scheme is demonstrated to be regionally robust, with the regional variance explained ranging from 77 to 83%. The scheme is not successful for each ERP stream, and reasons are suggested for the individual failures. The potential for applying the predictive scheme to other watersheds is demonstrated by testing the model with data from the Panola Mountain Research Watershed in the South‐eastern United States, where the variance explained by the model was 74%. The model can also be utilized to assess ‘chemically new’ and ‘chemically old’ water sources during acidification episodes. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中山市五桂山旅游景区形象设计探讨

五桂山作为一个新开发的旅游景区,存在形象模糊、主题不突出、“灰度区”特征明显等问题。基于SWOT分析、形象定位和区域形象系统理论,五桂山旅游景区整体形象定位为：绿野仙踪、红色胜迹。旅游景区人-地感知形象、人-人感知形象的要素设计重点：视觉形象主要是标准色及字体、旅游徽标、标识牌、建筑物亭、交通工具、服饰、门票和吉祥物等8大识别要素,旅游徽标主体图案设计为“五桂飘香”;听觉形象主要是沁人心扉元素;居民形象应强化纯朴、热情、善良、文明元素设计;地标区、光环效应区形象建设的重点在东部绿野仙踪、红色胜迹旅游区和城桂路、翠山路、马石路沿岸及其进出口。     

TRMM降水数据在中天山区域的精度评估分析

 遥感降水产品能反映降水的时空分布变化,对于资料稀缺的西北干旱区生态水文研究有重大意义。TRMM卫星降水资料在热带湿润地区有大量应用,但要将其用于我国西北干旱半干旱气候地区,还需对该数据产品在质量进行评估。选择干旱区内陆的新疆天山中部为研究区,并以周边15个台站的实测数据为依据对TRMM3B42降水数据质量进行评价。结果表明：（1）TRMM3B42数据对日降水事件的估计准确率较低,但是总体上暖季好于冷季,相对于较大的降水,对发生量小的降水估计更为准确;在暖季高估量小降水,低估量大降水,冷季则相反;（2）月降水情况来看,天山南坡两站与北坡的规律不符;对北坡山区降水估计的精度好于平原区,并且精度与海拔呈抛物线分布,降水越大的区域精度越高;偏差量的年内分布在各海拔区域之内一致性较好,但区域之间规律各有特点;（3）从年降水量来看,TRMM降水整体低于站点观测值,并且差量随着高程具有抛物线分布的特征。总之,该降水产品的质量总体上不高,但是其偏差在时间和空间上具有一定的规律性,该数据在干旱区的应用需要进一步校准处理。