Glacier change and glacier runoff variation in the Tuotuo River basin,the source region of Yangtze River in western China

Glaciers in the Tuotuo River basin, western China, have been monitored in recent decades by applying topographical maps and high-resolution satellite images. Results indicate that most of glaciers in the Tuotuo River basin have retreated in the period from 1968/1971 to 2001/2002, and their shrinkage area is 3.2% of the total area in the late 1960s. To assess the influence of glacier runoff on river runoff, a modified degree–day model including potential clear-sky direct solar radiation has been applied to the glaciated regions of the river basin over the period 1961–2004. It was found that glacier runoff has increased in the last 44 years, especially in the 1990s when a two-thirds increase in river runoff was derived from the increase in glacier runoff caused by loss of ice mass in the entire Tuotuo River basin.     

Regional distribution pattern of groundwater heavy metals resulting from agricultural activities

Contaminations of groundwater by heavy metals due to agricultural activities are growing recently. The objective of this study was to evaluate and map regional patterns of heavy metals (Cd, Zn and Cu) in groundwater on a plain with high agricultural activities. The study was conducted to investigate the concentration of heavy metals and distribution in groundwater in regions of Shush Danial and Andimeshk aquifers in the southern part of Iran. Presently, groundwater is the only appropriate and widely used source of drinking water for rural and urban communities in this region. The region covers an area of 1,100 km² between the Dez and Karkhe rivers, which lead to the Persian Gulf. For this study, the region was divided into four sub-regions A, B, C and D. Additionally, 168 groundwater samples were collected from 42 water wells during the earlier months of 2004. The flame atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS-Flame) was used to measure the concentration of heavy metals in water samples and the Surfer software was used for determination of the contour map of metal distribution. The results demonstrated that in all of the samples, Cd and Zn concentrations were below the EPA MCLG and EPA secondary standard, respectively. However, the Cu contents of 4.8 % of all samples were higher than EPA MCL. It is also indicated that the concentrations of metals were more pronounced at the southern part of the studied region than at the others. The analysis of fertilizers applied for agricultural activities at this region also indicated that a great majority of the above-mentioned heavy metals were discharged into the environment. Absence of confining layers, proximity to land surface, excess agricultural activities in the southern part and groundwater flow direction that is generally from the north to the southern parts in this area make the southern region of the Shush plain especially vulnerable to pollution by heavy metals than by other contaminants.     

A transdisciplinary analysis of water problems in the mountainous karst areas of Morocco

Water management and engineering in the karstic High Atlas of Morocco are difficult tasks under the prevailing geological, hydrogeological, geomorphological, vegetational and climatic conditions. It is important to be able to understand and predict the characteristics and availability of water for future water planning in the region under changing climatic and agricultural conditions. An interdisciplinary analysis of problems and adequate hydrological modelling tools developed by geologists, hydrologists and biologists are necessary. The karst areas of the High Atlas Mountains are characterised by impermeable triassic basalt underlying substantial subsurface reservoirs with high potential discharge rates. The karst groundwater aquifers are extensive but largely unknown in dimension, probably with a hierarchical network of groundwater flow paths. It is estimated that approximately 70% of the surface water is directly lost to groundwater. Steep landslide- and debris flow prone slopes exist next to coarse-grained, highly porous river beds. Infrequent, high intensity rainfall or snowmelt causes a particularly high flood risk to these karst areas. In addition, agriculture and land use changes have degraded the karst areas. The most important driving forces for degradation include permanent overgrazing even during droughts and the use of firewood by a continually growing population. Large scale degradation of vegetation has occurred in the oro-mediterranean (mountainous Mediterranean) zone, between 2600 and 3400 m which coincides with the most important zone for karstic groundwater creation. The combination of high amounts of groundwater flow and rapid surface flow due to sparse vegetation has increased the problems of flood flow.     

Water and power networks and urban fragmentation in Los Angeles: Rethinking assumed mechanisms

Los Angeles is often described as the epitome of urban fragmentation, a notion which in this context is frequently connected to, or even conflated with urban sprawl. At the same time, the city features integrated water and power networks which have been under public ownership for over 70 years. We thus have an apparent paradox in the context of the debate on ‘splintering urbanism’, between socio-spatial fragmentation and the integration of networks. In discussing the idea that deregulation of infrastructural networks exacerbates urban fragmentation, the authors use the case of Los Angeles in order to highlight the central role of private interests in management decisions concerning infrastructure networks. The authors carry out their analysis in an historical perspective, revealing that network integration and universal access can often serve private interests more than the public good. Urban fragmentation in Los Angeles, they conclude, is the result of a complex process of instrumentalisation of network development and management.     

Water and sanitation in the Buenos Aires metropolitan region: Fragmented markets, splintering effects?

This paper discusses the provision of water and sanitation services and the related urban impacts in Buenos Aires circa 2005. The first part of the paper focuses on the metropolitan region (BAMR) which is larger than the area served by the Aguas Argentinas S.A. (AASA) concession (i.e. the capital and its conurbano). It highlights a form of institutional fragmentation that is reflected in the diverse management practices of the numerous service providers and results in differentiated levels of and access to services. The paper discusses the technical, economic and regulatory factors that have historically resulted in this institutional fragmentation. The second part of the article focuses on AASA’s water concession agreement. It demonstrates that, although the agreement had an in-built splintering logic, its implementation led to a more “integrated approach” based on the “reality on the ground”. On the whole, the conclusion regarding the application of the splintering urbanism concept to Buenos Aires is a mixed one and depends on the scale of observation. Although at regional level (BAMR), a form of “institutional fragmentation” would appear to be obvious, it is the result of a long and complex historical process and, while recent neo-liberal reforms in service provisions have “cemented” this fragmentation, they did not actually cause it. If we take the AASA service area in isolation, the trend in the decade following the contracting out of the service has been one of improved service provision and access—although this was not achieved through increased integration of the supply system. Finally, in the case of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region, the splintering urbanism thesis defended by Marvin and Graham needs to be nuanced in several significant ways.     

Water and power in Santiago de Chile: Socio-spatial segregation through network integration

The analysis of the history of the management and distribution of electricity, water and sanitation networks in Santiago de Chile throws light on a problem which is central to thinking on the relationship between urban services management and territorial splintering: what is the impact of urban policy, in particular housing policy and urban planning, on access to services and on the potential levels of social segregation and institutional splintering of metropolises?The Chilean example is eminently anchored in its political and institutional history. We shall see, for example, that the authoritarian urban policy of the military government, associated with early liberal reform, enabled the improvement of access to networks in every municipality of the Greater Santiago area. However, this success, leading to the integration by urban services of a large territory, does not signify that networks remained neutral as regards the process of spatial segregation. Inversely, we can defend the theory that the presence of an integrated service was a necessary condition and a reinforcing factor of the process of urban spread and residential segregation. This paradoxical argument is a result of the ambivalent liberal network and urban policies of the military government. Urban expansion was largely sustained by the development of integrated infrastructures and universal services. The processes of liberalising land and urban services were mutually sustaining and provided the necessary conditions for the birth of an extremely intense movement of urban sprawl and segregation between 1985 and 2000.     

Soil erosion susceptibility assessment and validation using a geostatistical multivariate approach: a test in Southern Sicily

A certain number of studies have been carried out in recent years that aim at developing and applying a model capable of assessing water erosion of soil. Some of these have tried to quantitatively evaluate the volumes of soil loss, while others have focused their efforts on the recognition of the areas most prone to water erosion processes. This article presents the results of a research whose objective was that of evaluating water erosion susceptibility in a Sicilian watershed: the Naro river basin. A geomorphological study was carried out to recognize the water erosion landforms and define a set of parameters expressing both the intensity of hydraulic forces and the resistance of rocks/soils. The landforms were mapped and classified according to the dominant process in landsurfaces affected by diffuse or linear water erosion. A GIS layer was obtained by combining six determining factors (bedrock lithology, land use, soil texture, plan curvature, stream power index and slope-length factor) in unique conditions units. A geostatistical multivariate approach was applied by analysing the relationships between the spatial distributions of the erosion landforms and the unique condition units. Particularly, the density of eroded area for each combination of determining factors has been calculated: such function corresponds, in fact, to the conditional probability of erosion landforms to develop, under the same geoenvironmental conditions. In light of the obtained results, a general geomorphologic model for water erosion in the Naro river basin can be depicted: cultivated areas in clayey slopes, having fine-medium soil texture, are the most prone to be eroded; linear or diffuse water erosion processes dominate where the topography is favourable to a convergent or divergent runoff, respectively. For each of the two erosion process types, a susceptibility map was produced and submitted to a validation procedure based on a spatial random partition strategy. Both the success of the validation procedure of the susceptibility models and the geomorphological coherence of the relationships between factors and process that such models suggest, confirm the reliability of the method and the goodness of the predictions.     

Field Measurement of Suction, Water Content, and Water Permeability

This paper presents a review of techniques for field measurement of suction, water content, and water hydraulic conductivity (permeability). Main problems in the use of field tensiometers are addressed and hints on how to improve tensiometer performance are given. Advantages and limitations of instruments for indirect measurement of suction including electrical conductivity sensors, thermal conductivity sensors, dielectric permittivity sensors, filter paper, and psychrometer are discussed. Techniques for water content measurement based on dielectric methods are then presented. These include time and amplitude domain reflectometry and capacitance. Finally, a brief overview of methods for measurement of water permeability in the field is presented.     

乌鲁木齐河流域地下水水质监测网设计

文章运用地下水易污性编图及污染源分布图法进行了乌鲁木齐河流域地下水水质监测网设计。共设计了130监测孔,现有46个监测孔,另需要84个新的监测孔。按监测类型分为面源监测点22个,点源监测点87个,重点水源地与泉水监测点21个。按监测运行分长期监测点55个,流域普查监测点75个。普查监测点监测频率为1次/5年,长期监测点监测频率为1次/年。首期有针对性地在污染严重的柴窝堡新化厂排污区、乌鲁木齐河谷老排污区、米泉污灌区、米泉工业污染区、老龙河污染区取了25个污染水样测试分析,结果显示地下水已经受到严重污染。     

1998年夏、冬季南海水团分析

为了解南海水团的特征和分布 ,基于 1 998年夏季和冬季两个航次的实测资料 ,采用聚类分析、判别分析和模糊分析方法 ,对南海的水团进行了分析。结果表明 ,南海外海水可划分为 6个水团 ,即南海表层水团、南海次表层水团、南海次 中层混合水团、南海中层水团、南海深层水团和南海底盆水。越南附近夏季存在一个暖涡 ;1 998年夏季还可鉴别出黑潮表层水团和黑潮次表层水团 ,但在冬季观测期间无黑潮水越过 1 1 9.5°E经线进入南海 ;这些现象可能与厄尔尼诺现象有关联。夏季有苏禄海海水在 5 0— 75m层经由民都洛海峡侵入南海