A quantitative framework for analysing long term spatial clustering and vegetation fragmentation in an urban landscape using multi-temporal landsat data

Rapid urbanization threatens urban green spaces and vegetation, demonstrated by a decrease in connectivity and higher levels of fragmentation. Understanding historic spatial and temporal patterns of such fragmentation is important for habitat and biological conservation, ecosystem management and urban planning. Despite their potential value, Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA) measures have not been sufficiently exploited in monitoring the spatial and temporal variability in clustering and fragmentation of vegetation patterns in urban areas. LISA statistics are an important structural measure that indicates the presence of outliers, zones of similarity (hot spots) and of dissimilarity (cold spots) at proximate locations, hence they could be used to explicitly capture spatial patterns that are clustered, dispersed or random. In this study, we applied landscape metrics, LISA indices to analyse the temporal variability in clustering and fragmentation patterns of vegetation patches in Harare metropolitan city, Zimbabwe using Landsat series data for 1994, 2001 and 2017. Analysis of landscape metrics showed an increase in the fragmentation of vegetation patches between 1994–2017 as shown by the decrease in mean patch size, an increase in number of patches, edge density and shape complexity of vegetation patches. The study further demonstrates the utility of LISA indices in identifying key hot spot and cold spots. Comparatively, the highly vegetated northern parts of the city were characterised by significantly high positive spatial autocorrelation (p < 0.05) of vegetation patches. Conversely, more dispersed vegetation patches were found in the highly and densely urbanized western, eastern and southern parts of the city. This suggest that with increasing vegetation fragmentation, small and isolated vegetation patches do not spatially cluster but are dispersed geographically. The findings of the study underline the potential of LISA measures as a valuable spatially explicit method for the assessment of spatial clustering and fragmentation of urban vegetation patterns.     

市场分割对我国区域间技术扩散的影响

采用随机前沿分析方法和边界效应方法,分别度量了我国在1987～2008年间东、中、西部地区的前沿技术进步和全国平均的市场分割程度;采用非线性EGLS方法,考察了市场分割对我国区域技术扩散的影响。结果表明:市场分割对东部地区向中、西部地区的技术扩散具有明显的妨碍作用,导致了无谓的效率损失,该项损失在2004年以后约为12%左右。     

Paraguay's Atlantic Forest cover loss – Satellite-based change detection and fragmentation analysis between 2003 and 2013

The subtropical Atlantic Forest is a highly diverse ecosystem in South America and one of the most endangered rain forests in the world. The present study focuses specifically on the Paraguayan part of the tri-national Atlantic Forest. Over the last decades, the Paraguayan Atlantic Forest presented one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, and today, only a small share remains. Hence, forest loss in Paraguay's Atlantic Forest was detected and analysed through remote sensing and GIS methodologies based on Landsat images obtained in 2003 and 2013. The objective of this study was to examine the spatial impact of forest loss in Paraguay's Atlantic Forest over the past decade with a special focus on biodiversity conservation. Classifications results obtained overall accuracies above 83% and revealed that over 6000 km² of forest was cleared during the study period. The forest landscape and its fragmentation level were characterised through a set of landscape metrics, in particular the proximity analysis which support the identification of forest priority areas for nature conservation and potential biological corridors. In summary, the study revealed that deforestation and fragmentation of the Atlantic Forest area continued, but at a slower pace than that in the previous decade. Protected areas were conserved very effectively; however, forest core areas without any protection status require further attention. Intact forest patches and their connectivity are a crucial prerequisite to biodiversity conservation in a highly fragmented forest area. The combination of different remote sensing and GIS methods provides valuable information for sustainable forest management in the region.     

岩石样品破碎新方法——SelFrag高压脉冲破碎仪

高压脉冲破碎是一项世界先进的样品破碎技术,瑞士的SelFrag A G公司利用这项技术制造出了高压脉冲破碎仪,英文名SelFrag High Voltage Pulse Fragmentor.这个仪器能产生90～200 kV的高压,然后在极短时间里通过高压工作电极放电到水中的固体样品上,这些固体样品会沿着颗粒边界、包裹体、不同物相之间裂解开来,其中岩石中的各种矿物(如锆石、磷灰石)会被完全剥离,并且保持完整的晶形.对比传统的样品破碎方法,这种高选择性的破碎方法有很多优点:容易清洗,没有交叉污染;破碎在水中进行,没有粉尘;没有噪声污染;选择性破碎,不破坏矿物晶形.目前SelFrag高压脉冲破碎仪已应用在地球科学中用于从岩石中挑选矿物,此外,它还应用在电子设备的废物回收方面.     

Splintering urbanism in Mumbai: Contrasting trends in a multilayered society

This paper is an examination of the splintering urbanism argument of the relationship between neo-liberal reforms of infrastructure networks and urban cohesion. Based on an analysis of historical and contemporary processes of infrastructure provision (water, sewerage and power) in colonial/post-colonial Bombay/Mumbai, it questions the assumption of a “modern infrastructure ideal” in the context of developing cities. In Mumbai, the historical analysis reveals the contradictions between this ideal and a hierarchical society. From the outset, access to services (particularly water and sewerage) was highly distorted in favour of the elites, even though utilities networks contributed to urban integration through cross-subsidies within and across sectors, and through the setting up of municipal institutions. Second, ongoing sectoral reforms demonstrate contrasting trends as increased differentiation of services produces both positive – better adaptation to users’ needs – and potentially negative – fragmenting – socio-spatial implications. Third, an understudied potential fragmenting threat also lies in the sectoral approach to reforms as it undermines the existing crosssector subsidies and prevents the articulation of utility reforms with other limiting factors, such as land and transport, which are the main constraints for expanding housing and mobility in the city.     

Fractal models for predicting soil hydraulic properties: a review

Modern hydrological models require information on hydraulic conductivity and soil-water retention characteristics. The high cost and large spatial variability of measurements makes the prediction of these properties a viable alternative. Fractal models describe hierarchical systems and are suitable to model soil structure and soil hydraulic properties. Deterministic fractals are often used to model porous media in which scaling of mass, pore space, pore surface and the size-distribution of fragments are all characterized by a single fractal dimension. Experimental evidence shows fractal scaling of these properties between upper and lower limits of scale, but typically there is no coincidence in the values of the fractal dimensions characterizing different properties. This poses a problem in the evaluation of the contrasting approaches used to model soil-water retention and hydraulic conductivity. Fractal models of the soil-water retention curve that use a single fractal dimension often deviate from measurements at saturation and at dryness. More accurate models should consider scaling domains each characterized by a fractal dimension with different morphological interpretations. Models of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity incorporate fractal dimensions characterizing scaling of different properties including parameters representing connectivity. Further research is needed to clarify the morphological properties influencing the different scaling domains in the soil-water retention curve and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. Methods to functionally characterize a porous medium using fractal approaches are likely to improve the predictability of soil hydraulic properties.     

Modeling fragmentation in two dimensions

Three cellular automaton toy-models of fragmentation in two-dimensional lattices are explored. Of the three models, two can be considered in the class of simple bond percolation, and one as correlated bond percolation. Fractal fragment-size distribution in all models is found away from criticality, providing a certain fraction of the bonds is designated with considerably larger strengths than the rest in the system. As the fraction of these bonds is raised from zero, the fragment-size distribution transforms smoothly from exponential forms into a power law. Though each model takes a different path to the fractal distribution, they all show the same fractal exponent of 1.85(5). As might be expected in one dimension, the same models of their variants, failed to produce fractal distributions.     

Can severely fragmented patches of riparian vegetation still be important for arid-land bird diversity?

The vegetation of riparian habitats is often distinct from that of the surrounding landscape, thus representing unique habitat for a variety of biota. Although highly mobile, birds often exhibit distinct species assemblages associated with habitat. Therefore, degradation or removal of riparian habitat, particularly in arid environments, may threaten bird diversity. Along the Vaal River, South Africa, mining and agriculture have reduced natural riparian habitat to ca. 9% of its former extent in the Northern Cape Province. We surveyed bird assemblages within intact riparian, savanna and bush-thickened habitats along the Vaal River to ascertain their importance to bird diversity. Avian abundance and species richness did not differ between the three habitats. Species composition of riparian bird assemblages was significantly different to that of savanna and bush-thickened habitats, however, which were not significantly different from each other, and more species were characteristic of riparian habitat (17 species) than bush-thickened (seven species) or savanna (one species) habitats. Of three species reaching the south-western limit of their African distribution, all occurred in riparian habitat. Thus, despite its fragmented nature, the riparian vegetation on the Vaal still supports an important component of avian diversity, and a landscape-level approach is required to manage this relatively rich, arid-land, river.     

An explosive–intrusive subglacial rhyolite eruption at Dalakvísl,Torfajökull,Iceland

This paper describes unusual rhyolitic deposits at Dalakvísl, Torfajökull, Iceland that were emplaced during a Quaternary subglacial eruption. Despite its small volume (<0.2 km³), the eruption mechanisms were highly variable and involved both explosive and intrusive phases. The explosive phase involved vesiculation-driven magma fragmentation at the glacier base and generated a pumiceous pyroclastic deposit containing deformed sheets of dense obsidian. Textures suggest that the obsidian was generated by the collapse of partly fragmented foam that was intruding the deposit and water contents indicate quenching at elevated pressures. In contrast, the intrusive phase of the eruption generated vesicle-poor quench hyaloclastites associated with a variety of peperitic lava bodies. The presence of juvenile-rich fluvio-lacustrine sediments is the first documented evidence that meltwater may pond close to the vent during subglacial rhyolite eruptions if the bedrock topography is favourable. In order to explain the variable eruption mechanisms, a conceptual model is presented in which the transition from an explosive to an intrusive eruption was controlled by the space available for fragmentation within the subglacial cavity melted above the vent. When the cavity became completely filled by volcanic deposits, the vent became blocked and rising magma was forced to intrude through poorly consolidated debris. This led to arrested fragmentation and welding of foam domains to form vesicle-poor obsidian lava; the transition to an intrusive eruption has taken place. Although this vent-blocking mechanism is particularly relevant to subglacial eruptions, it may also apply to subaerial rhyolitic eruptions, where patterns of explosive and effusive activity cannot be explained by shallow degassing processes alone. Meanwhile, the variable style of a small-volume subglacial rhyolite eruption further highlights the complex processes that mediate volcano-ice interactions.