Volcanological study of the middle Miocene Okiduse Volcanic Group,Woodlark Island (Muyuw), eastern Papua

Woodlark Island (Muyuw) is located in a tectonically complex region, one of the few places on Earth where continental breakup is occurring ahead of seafloor spreading. Rifting commenced in the late Miocene (8.8–6 Ma) and is associated with the westward-propagating Woodlark Basin Spreading Centre. The island comprises approximately 850 km² of raised Pleistocene coral reef and associated sediments with a central, moderately elevated range underlain by the middle Miocene calc-alkaline to shoshonitic Okiduse Volcanic Group (new name). It provides an exposure of upper Cenozoic geology in close proximity to the spreading centre. The Okiduse Volcanic Group is host to most of the island's historical gold and silver production and recently defined mineral resources totalling 1.75 Moz gold. This study uses facies analysis of pyroclastic deposits to develop a detailed geological map of the Okiduse Volcanic Group, with a revision and reinterpretation of the unit. Facies associations suggest that two major volcanic centres erupted synchronously during the middle Miocene (14–12 Ma), referred to as the Watou Mountain Eruptive Centre (new name) and the Uvarakoi Caldera (new name). The mafic–intermediate Watou Mountain Eruptive Centre formed during frequent small eruptions of widely varying style. Strombolian, subplinian, vulcanian and dome-related explosive eruptions occurred, alternating with extrusion of block and ash flow deposits and lava domes. Pyroclastic deposits were rapidly reworked from the steep cone, and were redeposited in a series of coalescing aprons surrounding the volcano. The felsic Uvarakoi Caldera formed during a series of violent explosive eruptions by rapid removal of magma from the underlying chamber, followed by collapse. Plinian and possibly phreatoplinian eruptions, as a result of magma–water mixing in the surface environment, resulted in widely dispersed, highly fragmented tuff deposits. The caldera was modified by widespread erosion following eruptions, resulting in fluvial, laharic and slope-wash deposits. This study highlights lithological controls (porosity and permeability) by various units within the Okiduse Volcanic Group on ore deposition.     

A multi-dimensional assessment of urban vulnerability to climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this paper, we develop and apply a multi-dimensional vulnerability assessment framework for understanding the impacts of climate change-induced hazards in Sub-Saharan African cities. The research was carried out within the European/African FP7 project CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa, which investigated climate change-induced risks, assessed vulnerability and proposed policy initiatives in five African cities. Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) was used as a main case with a particular focus on urban flooding. The multi-dimensional assessment covered the physical, institutional, attitudinal and asset factors influencing urban vulnerability. Multiple methods were applied to cover the full range of vulnerabilities and to identify potential response strategies, including: model-based forecasts, spatial analyses, document studies, interviews and stakeholder workshops. We demonstrate the potential of the approach to assessing several dimensions of vulnerability and illustrate the complexity of urban vulnerability at different scales: households (e.g., lacking assets); communities (e.g., situated in low-lying areas, lacking urban services and green areas); and entire cities (e.g., facing encroachment on green and flood-prone land). Scenario modeling suggests that vulnerability will continue to increase strongly due to the expected loss of agricultural land at the urban fringes and loss of green space within the city. However, weak institutional commitment and capacity limit the potential for strategic coordination and action. To better adapt to urban flooding and thereby reduce vulnerability and build resilience, we suggest working across dimensions and scales, integrating climate change issues in city-level plans and strategies and enabling local actions to initiate a ‘learning-by-doing’ process of adaptation.     

Delineation of flooding risk hotspots based on digital elevation model,calculated and historical flooding extents: the case of Ouagadougou

Delineation of flood risk hotspots can be considered as one of the first steps in an integrated methodology for urban flood risk management and mitigation. This paper presents a step-by-step methodology in a GIS-based framework for identifying flooding risk hotspots for residential buildings. This is done by overlaying a map of potentially flood-prone areas [estimated through the topographic wetness index (TWI)], a map of residential areas [extracted from a city-wide assessment of urban morphology types (UMT)], and a geo-spatial census dataset. The novelty of this paper consists in the fact that the flood-prone areas (the TWI thresholds) are identified through a maximum likelihood method (MLE) based both on inundation profiles calculated for a specific return period (T_R), and on information about the extent of historical flooding in the area of interest. Furthermore, Bayesian parameter updating is employed in order to estimate the TWI threshold by employing the historical extent as prior information and the inundation map for calculating the likelihood function. For different statistics of the TWI threshold, the map of potentially flood-prone areas is overlaid with the map of residential urban morphology units in order to delineate the residential flooding risk urban hotspots. Overlaying the delineated urban hotspots with geo-spatial census datasets, the number of people affected by flooding is estimated. These kind of screening procedures are particularly useful for locations where there is a lack of detailed data or where it is difficult to perform accurate flood risk assessment. In fact, an application of the proposed procedure is demonstrated for the identification of urban flooding risk hotspots in the city of Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, a city for which the observed spatial extent of a major flood event in 2009 and a calculated inundation map for a return period of 300 years are both available.     

Wind flow over ridges in simulated atmospheric boundary layers

The flows over four two-dimensional triangular hills and three two-dimensional bell-shaped hills have been investigated in a simulated rural atmospheric boundary layer modelled to a scale of 1:300: Further measurements were made over two of the triangular hills in a simulated rural boundary layer of 1: 3000 scale and in a simulated urban boundary layer modelled to a scale of 1:400. The effect of the model hill surface roughness was also investigated. Flow measurements were restricted to the mean velocity U, RMS velocity fluctuations u and the energy spectra for the streamwise velocity component Measurements were made at a number of longitudinal positions in the approach flow, over the model hills and downstream of the model hills. For each model hill, the crest was the region of largest mean velocity and smallest velocity fluctuations. The largest mean velocities over the model hills occurred for hills of intermediate slope rather than for the steepest hills. A decrease in the scale of the simulated atmospheric boundary layer led to a reduction in the amplification factors at the hill crests, whereas an increase in the surface roughness of the approach flow resulted in increased amplification factors at the hill crests.     

Large‐scale structures on Gazelle Peninsula,New Britain: Implications for the evolution of the New Britain arc

Geological mapping of fault systems on the Gazelle Peninsula, eastern New Britain arc, combined with a reinterpretation of existing sea floor data indicate that faults previously thought to be a possible location of the boundary between the North and South Bismarck Plates, do not appear to be directly related to the plate boundary spreading centres and transform faults in the 3.5 Ma Manus Basin. Structure on the Gazelle Peninsula is dominated by the Mediva Fault (new name) and the Wide Bay Fault System, both north‐northwest trending, deep‐seated features. The Mediva Fault, an element of the Baining Mountain Horst and Graben Zone, is an extensional structure which has focused Middle Miocene intrusive activity, controlled Mio‐Pliocene sedimentation in the central Gazelle Peninsula, and displaced Quaternary volcanic deposits. The Wide Bay Fault System has been active since at least the Late Oligocene. One hundred kilometres of sinistral strike‐slip motion is likely on this fault since at least the late Middle Miocene, moving the Gazelle Peninsula in a north‐northwest direction with respect to the remainder of New Britain. The nature and timing of movements along these two major structures indicate that some other major tectonic process has operated (and presently continues) in this region of the New Britain arc to create these structures.     

Suckling Dome and the Australian–Woodlark plate boundary in eastern Papua: the geology of the Keveri and Ada'u Valleys

The Owen Stanley Fault Zone (OSFZ) is the low-angle thrust boundary between the Australian and Woodlark plates. The eastern extension of the OSFZ links with the Woodlark Basin spreading centre. Recent tectonic models of eastern Papua depict the OSFZ boundary passing through the Mt Suckling district, with the Keveri Fault a key component. Gravity data clearly show that the OSFZ and the Papuan Ultramafic Belt (PUB) pass north of Mt Suckling. Tectonised mafic and ultramafic rocks of the Mt Suckling district, previously referred to the PUB, are reassigned to the Awariobo Range Complex (new name). Extensive pillow basalts previously referred to the middle Eocene part of the Kutu Volcanics at the top of the PUB sequence are, in the map area, reassigned on lithological and biostratigraphic grounds to the late Oligocene–middle Miocene Wavera Volcanics. The detailed work reported here indicates that the Keveri Fault is unrelated to the OSFZ with no evidence for thrusting along the structure. The area's tectonic history has been dominated by large vertical displacements along the Keveri Fault. The commencement of late Miocene buoyant uplift of the Suckling Dome (new name), related to granite intrusion into thick crust of the eastern Papua region, marks the inception of the Keveri Fault and coincides with the initiation of Woodlark rifting. The fault facilitated much of the rapid vertical movement of the dome, with an estimated 8000 m of uplift (2.5 m/10³ a) since the late Miocene. Movement on the Keveri Fault is notably different from structures flanking other metamorphic core complexes in eastern Papua. There is no field evidence for the development of a low-angle, south-dipping detachment fault along the southern margin of the Suckling Dome. The Suckling Dome is the westernmost of the eastern Papua domes, localised within a broad extensional zone that continues to propagate westward along the OSFZ plate boundary.     

Estimating spatial and temporal patterns of urban anthropogenic heat fluxes for UK cities: the case of Manchester

A model is proposed for determining the temporal and spatial patterns of anthropogenic heat fluxes in UK urban areas. It considers buildings, traffic, and metabolic heat flux sources and has been evaluated to a good accuracy against alternative data for the Greater Manchester area in the UK. Results are presented at spatial resolution of 200 ×?200 m although the model itself is scalable depending on data availability. In this paper, results are generated using a set of urban morphology units so that detailed and time-consuming accounting of individual building and road emissions is not required. The model estimates a mean heat emission of 6.12 Wm^-2 across Greater Manchester, with values in the region of 10 Wm^-2 for non central urbanized areas and 23 Wm^-2 in city center areas. Despite this difference, the results are not described by a simple distance decay function, as has been reported for other cities, due to the influence of satellite towns and the influence of the road network. Buildings are the dominant emitter, contributing some 60% of total emissions across the city compared to around 32% for road traffic and 8% for metabolic sources.     

A multi-dimensional assessment of urban vulnerability to climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this paper, we develop and apply a multi-dimensional vulnerability assessment framework for understanding the impacts of climate change-induced hazards in Sub-Saharan African cities. The research was carried out within the European/African FP7 project CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa, which investigated climate change-induced risks, assessed vulnerability and proposed policy initiatives in five African cities. Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) was used as a main case with a particular focus on urban flooding. The multi-dimensional assessment covered the physical, institutional, attitudinal and asset factors influencing urban vulnerability. Multiple methods were applied to cover the full range of vulnerabilities and to identify potential response strategies, including: model-based forecasts, spatial analyses, document studies, interviews and stakeholder workshops. We demonstrate the potential of the approach to assessing several dimensions of vulnerability and illustrate the complexity of urban vulnerability at different scales: households (e.g., lacking assets); communities (e.g., situated in low-lying areas, lacking urban services and green areas); and entire cities (e.g., facing encroachment on green and flood-prone land). Scenario modeling suggests that vulnerability will continue to increase strongly due to the expected loss of agricultural land at the urban fringes and loss of green space within the city. However, weak institutional commitment and capacity limit the potential for strategic coordination and action. To better adapt to urban flooding and thereby reduce vulnerability and build resilience, we suggest working across dimensions and scales, integrating climate change issues in city-level plans and strategies and enabling local actions to initiate a ‘learning-by-doing’ process of adaptation.