A LATE PLEISTOCENE INTERTIDAL BOULDER PAVEMENT FROM AN ISOSTATICALLY EMERGENT COAST,DUNDALK BAY,EASTERN IRELAND

Late Pleistocene sequences around Dundalk Bay, eastern Ireland, record glaciomarine sedimentation near the margin of a grounded ice lobe around 15 ka BP. A coastal exposure at Cooley Point consists of four major facies deposited outside this ice limit. (1) A basal mud facies deposited from sediment plumes accumulated following the initial ice marginal retreat inland. It contains a well-preserved Arctic microfauna dominated by the foram Elphidium clavatum and the ostracod Roundstonia globulifera. (2) A flat to undulating boulder facies (pavement), mostly one clast thick, is found pressed into the mud and is characterized by bevelled and striated upper clast surfaces. Pavement attributes are a result of intertidal activity in a cold climate. The boulder source is due to rafting by ice floes from glacigenic debris deposited during an ice advance. (3) Laminated sand facies drape the pavement and are a result of variable current activity. (4) The overlying gravel facies is separated from the sand facies by a marine erosion surface. The gravel facies is subaqueous, channelized and is overlain by late glacial raised beach ridges. Locally the gravels have been deformed by ice pressure from partially floating ice floes. Facies changes record terrestrial submergence and provide evidence for changes in relative sea level during part of the last deglacial cycle. The boulder pavement and deformed gravel facies suggest that ice floes and sea ice effects may be more common within stratigraphies along emergent coasts than previously thought, though they have a low preservation potential. Extreme conditions during the deglacial favoured opportunistic microfaunas during mud deposition. This event may be related to a major meltwater event within the Irish Sea Basin.     

Sea level monitoring in Africa

A review is provided of the African sea level dataset, which is limited not only in size, especially given the great length of the African coastline, but also in quality. The review is undertaken primarily from Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) and Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) perspectives, but the conclusions on the need for major new investments in sea level infrastructure are undoubtedly the same as would be arrived at through any other approach. Stations to be installed as part of the Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAfrica) programme are described and a survey of currently existing and planned sea level stations in Africa is presented, together with information on where data for existing stations may be found.     

A Hybrid System of Expanding 2D GIS into 3D Space

A hybrid system that integrates two-dimensional (2D) GIS and three-dimensional (3D) visualization has been developed to provide unique solutions to application domains where traditional 2D GIS and 3D visualization cannot alone provide a solution. In this paper, we focus on three key issues in realizing such an integrated system, including large-scale terrain rendering, 2D and 3D combination display (for example, rendering 2D GIS layers in 3D space), expanding traditional 2D GIS analysis functions into a 3D environment, and visualizing 3D geographical data. A generic framework is developed to integrate 3D visualization with various types of 2D GIS, such as commercial GIS software, open source GIS software and spatial databases. A prototype 2D and 3D hybrid system that seamlessly integrates 2D GIS (developed with ArcEngine) and 3D rendering engine (developed with DirectX) is then developed based on the framework. In this hybrid system, 2D and 3D data are viewed within the same scene. Multiple 2D GIS layers are overlaid on the base terrain using a Level of Detail (LOD) model. Advanced query functions, data accessing, data management and spatial analysis, which are executed in the traditional 2D GIS, are provided to users in a 3D environment by continuously transforming information between the 2D GIS subsystem and the 3D subsystem. The 3D data are organized and displayed by Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and textured 3D models in the COLLAborative Design Activity (COLLADA) format. The prototype demonstrates that this hybrid system has effectively addressed the three key issues identified above and that it can seamlessly integrate 2D GIS and 3D visualization. The hybrid system has great potential to be employed in many application domains, such as urban planning, landscape design and environmental decision making, among others, to enhance the 3D design capability and facilitate public participation in the planning, design and decision-making process.