Landscape governance: The “politics of scale” and the “natural” conditions of places

Governance has become an iridescent concept in recent years. The term is widely used in almost all social-science disciplines as well as in the political process. The intention of this paper is not so much to clarify these sometimes vague meanings but to highlight some characteristics of environmental governance connected with the restructuring of the spatial dimensions of politics. It starts from the assumption that the quest for multi-level decision making is particularly pressing for environmental governance. However, multi-level governance raises concern about the constitution of various spatial levels and their relationships with each other, as discussed under the term of “politics of scale”. Moreover, it is argued that for environmental governance the spatial reference is strongly connected with another challenge, which concerns the question of how to deal with the biophysical conditions of particular places. The term landscape governance is introduced to tackle this question without referring to an ontologically given space. Thus, landscape governance deals with the interconnections between socially constructed spaces (the politics of scale) and “natural” conditions of places. For this task, the concept of societal relationships with nature is introduced and applied to the term “landscape” as a bridging concept between social and natural sciences. The paper illustrates the approach of landscape governance with examples of problem-oriented interdisciplinary research at the UFZ-Centre for Environmental research in Leipzig, Germany.     

Distinct brief major events in the Karoo large igneous province clarified by new Ar/Ar ages on the Lesotho basalts

Recent mineral separate ages obtained on the Karoo large igneous province (southern Africa) suggest that the province was built by several distinct magmatic pulses over a rather long period on the order of 5–6 Ma concerning the main erupted volume [Jourdan, F., Féraud, G., Bertrand, H., Kampunzu, A.B., Tshoso, G., Watkeys, M.K., Le Gall., B., 2005. The Karoo large igneous province: Brevity, origin, and relation with mass extinction questioned by new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age data, Geology 33, 745–748]. Although this apparently atypical province is dated in more detail compared to many other large igneous provinces, volumetrically important areas still lack sufficient high-quality data. The timing of the Karoo province is crucial as this event is correlated with the breakup activity of the Gondwana supercontinent. The Lesotho basalts represent a major lava sequence of the province, but have not yet been precisely dated by systematic analysis of mineral separates. We analyzed plagioclase separates from five lava flows encompassing the complete 1.4-km-thick Lesotho sequence from top to bottom using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method. We obtained five plateau and mini-plateau ages statistically indistinguishable and ranging from 182.3 ± 1.6 to 181.0 ± 2.0 Ma (2σ). We derived an apparent maximum duration for this event of  0.8 Ma by neglecting correlated errors embedded in the age uncertainties.

A critical review of previous ages obtained on the Lesotho sequence [Duncan R.A., Hooper, P.R., Rehacek, J., Marsh, J.S., Duncan, A.R., 1997. The timing and duration of the Karoo igneous event, southern Gondwana. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 18127–18138] shows that groundmass analyses are unreliable for high-resolution geochronology, due to alteration and ³⁹Ar recoil effects. Discrepancy between our ages and a previous plagioclase age at  184 Ma obtained by the later workers is tentatively attributed to the heterogeneity of the monitor used and/or cryptic excess ⁴⁰Ar. The current age database suggests that at least three temporally and spatially distinct brief major events (the Lesotho and southern Botswana lava piles and the Okavango dyke swarm) are so far recognized in the Karoo province. Identification of brief and volumetrically important Karoo magmatic events allows detecting the migration of the Karoo magmatism and potentially the stress regime that affected the southern African lithosphere at this time. A filtered compilation of 60 ages obtained with homogeneous intercalibrated standards suggests a shorter duration for the main pulses of the magmatism between 3 and 4.5 Ma, compared to a whole province duration of  10 Ma, between  182 and  172 Ma.     

云南地区房屋建筑的震害矩阵

自1992年4月23日云南孟连西中缅交界6.7、6.9级地震始,地震部门对云南地区的破坏性地震进行了现场灾害调查和经济损失评估。1992~2003年,云南地区共发生50次破坏性地震,积累了丰富的震害资料。本文根据云南地区的主要建筑结构,统计分析了50次地震不同烈度区的破坏比、损失比和震害指数,给出了房屋建筑的震害矩阵。     

我国早期的地震科学研究概述

我国早期的现代地震学研究，曾孕育于现代地质学中。用现代科学观点，最早调查研究现场大地震的年代，可追溯到1913年云南峨山7级地震考察。地震台站监测工作，是从1923年地质调查所派李善邦先生前去日本东京学习测震，并于1930年在北京西山郊区建造鹫峰地震观测台开始。最早的地震目录是1913年由上海黄司铎编的“法文中国地震表”。1921年翁文灏先生发表的“甘肃地震考”，首次将史料中的地震情形描述与罗西一福来氏烈度表加以对照，来确定地震烈度，从而提供了更详细、确切的“甘肃地震表”。1922年翁文灏在布鲁塞尔国际地质大会上宣读的“中国地质构造对于产生地震的影响”论文，曾引起与会者极大兴趣与关注，是最早论述我国地震地质和地震区域划分的文献。     

三峡库区塌岸预测新方法——岸坡结构法

水库塌岸是三峡库区重大地质灾害之一。通过三峡库区数百段库岸的塌岸地质现场调查和预测分析的基础上,提出了类似三峡这种山区河道型水库的塌岸预测新方法——岸坡结构法(RBSM),并给出了详细的图解方法和预测步骤。同时,开展了二滩、宝珠寺和龚咀三个运行中的类比水库和三峡水库(139m蓄水)的塌岸预测检验,验证结果表明该方法适宜于三峡水库以及类似的山区河道型水库塌岸预测,从而为水库塌岸预测与防治工程提供重要依据。     

腾冲盆地阻水构造的发现

腾冲来凤山北麓前缘,潜伏一段阻水构造——地下水位坡降带。从研究13个水文钻井、119口民间井、2个泉水露头地下水位特征入手,采用古水文和现代水文地质研究方法,论证此段阻水构造的存在。     

云南茶树林铅锌矿电磁波找矿效果

茶树林铅锌矿，过去认为震旦系赋矿，钻探验证未见矿。本次利用物探方法实施深部探矿。依据物探异常，结合地质规律综合分析，认为是构造控矿。布置验证坑道，沿断裂破碎带发现新的厚大、品位高铅锌矿体，收到良好的找矿效果。     

一种扩展的基于结构检测的最优多视极化SAR相干斑滤波算法

全极化数据的可得,使得利用极化散射矩阵以减少多视全极化SAR图像中的相干斑成为了可能。其中,被称为最优的多视极化白化滤波器（MPWF）就是一个典型例子。然而,为提高滤波器参数估计的精度,同时能够自适应的检测图像中的结构特征,在滤波时采用适当的窗算法是必要的。本文提出了两个有效的窗算法,并用1994年NASA SIR-C/X-SAR,L band,经过四视处理的天山森林的极化数据进行了仿真。实验结果表明,这两种算法不仅很好的达到了降噪效果,而且对图像的纹理信息以及结构特征（即边缘特征、线性特征、强散射体特征）的保持效果是最佳的。     

地震折射波法探测研究张强地区的构造特征

张强地区位于中朝地台北缘的吉黑地槽区,其基底岩系和构造特征与中朝地台的基底和构造特征有明显的差别,通过２００ｋｍ的折射波法探测,得出如下结论：（１）本区基底构造线方向呈现近ＳＮ或ＮＮＷ向,二条此方向的断层划分出三个构造单元。（２）该区内中生代前基底分为两套地层,其岩性、断层特征和基底埋深均有差别。     

Pit crater structure and processes governing persistent activity at Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua

 Persistent activity at Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua, is characterised by cycles of intense degassing, lava lake development and pit crater formation. It provides a useful site to study the processes which govern such activity, because of its easy accessibility and relatively short cycles (years to decades). An understanding of the present activity is important because Masaya is visited by large numbers of tourists, is located close to major cities and has produced voluminous lavas, plinian eruptions and ignimbrites in the recent past. We provide structural and geophysical data that characterise the "normal" present state of activity. These indicate that the ongoing degassing phase (1993 to present) was not caused by fresh magma intrusion. It was associated with shallow density changes within the active Santiago pit crater. The activity appears to be associated predominantly with shallow changes in the pit crater structure. More hazardous activity will occur only if there are significant departures from the present gravity, deformation and seismic signatures. Received: 16 May 1997 / Accepted: 29 October 1997