Discovering Natural Assets

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Collier
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Railway Line ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Rich ◽  
National Borders

Natural assets are living dangerously: lacking natural owners they are liable to be plundered. Since mankind has had a long time in which to plunder, those depleting natural assets that are still around are there because they are difficult to extract. They lie beneath the earth, hence why they are called “subsoil assets.” Where are they? The world currently consists of 194 nation states, which can conveniently be grouped, as we’ve seen, into four roughly equal quadrants: the rich countries of the OECD; the countries of the bottom billion; Russia and China with their satellites; and the emerging market economies, such as India and Brazil. Each group occupies around a quarter of the planet’s land surface area. Occasionally national borders have been determined by the presence of subsoil assets. British colonial pioneers, for example, got wind of the existence of deposits of copper in central Africa and so pushed a railway line northward from South Africa. They found the copper belt in what is now Zambia. Having pushed over two thousand miles, however, they missed by some thirty the far richer copper deposits that now lie in the southeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But usually, national borders do not reflect the endowments of subsoil assets to any significant degree. It would therefore be reasonable to regard subsoil assets as being randomly distributed between countries. Further, countries in the four groups are scattered across the planet. Although each group adds up to around a quarter of the planet’s total land area, it does not literally make up a quadrant, a neat quarter-slice out of a global orange. Since subsoil assets are randomly distributed among the 194 countries, and each of the four groups of countries is fairly randomly distributed around the earth, we might expect the law of large numbers to even out the distribution of subsoil assets among the groups. That is, while the random distribution over the 194 countries is likely to produce some spectacular differences between lucky and unlucky countries, by the time we have aggregated them into four massive groups the remaining differences should be much smaller.

Economic Transition in Africa

1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-349
Author(s):  
Surendra J. Patel
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Popular Pressure ◽  
Transition To Independence ◽  
Lack Of Knowledge

Africa is a vast continent. It embraces nearly one-fourth of the land surface of the earth. The last decade has witnessed a profound transformation of its political landscape. Thirty-four countries have attained their independence. The rest of the continent will soon be governed by its people. The broad sweep of the surge towards independence has belied those predictions of only a decade ago that the political transition to independence in Africa would take a long time. This has already come about. But the continent yet remains mostly ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-housed, and illiterate. The popular pressure to overcome the age-old afflictions of mankind—poverty, disease, and lack of knowledge—is mounting. The new African governments are beginning their first faltering steps towards the economic transition from poverty to relative affluence.

scholarly journals Popular Culture in Francophone Central Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogumil Jewsiewicki ◽  
Katrien Pype
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Nation States ◽  
New Radio ◽  
National Sentiment ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Set Up

In the Belgian Congo, colonial authorities such as state officials and missionaries strongly monitored the leisure activities of the urban population. The latter gradually managed to set up their own sphere of entertainment and communication, and appropriated the popular culture offered to the colonial subjects. An example in case is the Bills movement, a type of masculinity developed in colonial Kinshasa (then Léopoldville), and inspired by American western films. The development of local popular cultures happened in local languages, and, among other things, led to hybrid music and dance forms such as rumba and maringa which set the tune of the townships and mining camps. Locally produced musical styles gradually became important vectors in the search for political independence. One can argue that in Francophone Central Africa, popular culture nourished anticolonial sentiment and expression. Postcolonial leaders invested heavily in music and mass media as well. Probably best known is Mobutu’s politics of animation, which happened in Lingala, and served to glorify the leader and to cement national sentiment. This propaganda program was inspired by the rich cultural heritage of ethnic groups, and relied on mass events and mass media. In Kagame’s post-genocide Rwanda, folkloric dance remains an important technology to solidify national cohesion. Since the mid-1990s, as nation states deregulated their media, new radio and television entrepreneurs appeared, and they nourished local popular culture with new styles and genres. In particular, the Nigerian Nollywood films traveled to Central Africa. This happened in the wake of the increased popularity of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, which has generated a thriving gospel culture. The digitalization of society, especially social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook, transformed how people relate to others in the diaspora, spawned new social groups, such as Yoyettes in urban Cameroon, and had an impact on the ways in which people retrieve and share information, as well as how they engage with their leaders. These then provide alternative avenues for expressing and mediating citizenship and kinship.

Reform oder Papstwahl: das Konzil in der Zerreißprobe. Eine innerkonziliare Auseinandersetzung zwischen ‘Mehrheit’ und ‘Minderheit’ auf dem Konstanzer Konzil

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-308
Author(s):  
Ansgar Frenken
Keyword(s):  
Limited Extent ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Key Events ◽  
The Church ◽  
Broad Consensus ◽  
National Borders

Abstract Reform or Papal Election – the Council and its Ordeal: An Inner-Conciliar Dispute between ‘Majority’ and ‘Minority’ at the Council of Constance. The broad consensus that prevailed among the Fathers at the beginning of the Council of Constance gave way to a climate of tension, at the latest after the resurgence of the English-French conflict in mid-1415, which made the inner tensions among the participants of the Council more and more apparent. The front that arose between ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ only followed ‘national’ borders to a limited extent, and for a long time it had not been firmly established, hence shifts and overlaps were still possible. The arrival of the Spaniards – first the Aragonese, later the Castilians – and the outbreak of the conflict of nations can be interpreted as key events in this development, which led to the formation of the two blocs. The national tensions between the English and the French were overlaid by the question of how the Council should proceed further: to proceed to the election of a new Pope first or to prioritize the reform of the church. For a long time both sides were in balance, but after the Castilians’ accession to the Council in the summer of 1417, the situation changed rapidly. The predominance of a coalition of Cardinals, Italica, Gallicana and the Castilians grew, while the group assembled around Sigmund, Germanica, Anglicana and the Aragonese increasingly eroded and became a ‘minority’. A finally negotiated compromise, in which both sides were able to save face, rendered a successful conclusion of the council possible.

Convection tectonics: some possible effects upon the Earth's surface of flow from the deep mantle

1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1199-1208 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tuzo Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Angle Of Incidence ◽  
Gulf Of Aden ◽  
Upward Flow ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Ocean Ridges ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Mid Ocean Ridge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ocean Ridge

Until a little more than a century ago the land surface not only was the only part of the Earth accessible to humans but also was the only part for which geophysical and geochemical methods could then provide any details. Since then scientists have developed ways to study the ocean floors and some details of the interior of the Earth to ever greater depths. These discoveries have followed one another more and more rapidly, and now results have been obtained from all depths of the Earth.New methods have not contradicted or greatly disturbed either old methods or old results. Hence, it has been easy to overlook the great importance of these recent findings.Within about the last 5 years the new techniques have mapped the pattern of convection currents in the mantle and shown that these rise from great depths to the surface. Even though the results are still incomplete and are the subject of debate, enough is known to show that the convection currents take two quite different modes. One of these breaks the strong lithosphere; the other moves surface fragments and plates about.It is pointed out that if expanding mid-ocean ridges move continents and plates, geometrical considerations demand that the expanding ridges must themselves migrate. Hence, collisions between ridges and plates are likely to have occurred often during geological time.Twenty years ago it was shown that the effect of a "mid-ocean ridge in the mouth of the Gulf of Aden" was to enter and rift the continent. This paper points out some of the conditions under which such collisions occur and in particular shows that the angle of incidence between a ridge and a coastline has important consequences upon the result. Several past and present cases are used to illustrate that collisions at right angles tend to produce rifting; collisions at oblique angles appear to terminate in the lithosphere in coastal shears, creating displaced terrane, but in the mantle the upward flow may continue to uplift the lithosphere far inland and produce important surface effects; collisions between coasts and mid-ocean ridges parallel to them produce hot uplifts moving inland. For a time these upwellings push thrusts and folds ahead of them, but they appear to die down before reaching cratons.

Thermal Contraction, Land Bridges, and Geosynclines

1935 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 377-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Specific Gravity ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Average Height ◽  
Thermal Contraction ◽  
Geological History ◽  
The Earth

Consideration of the continental areas over which the sea spread at various times during the course of geological history leads to the impression that perhaps every part of the land surface of the earth was, at one time or another, raised from a position below sea-level. The present land surface seems to have grown around ancient nuclei owing to the compression of the granitic, sedimentary, and other rocks of which the continental layers are composed. At certain times the compressive forces acted so strongly upon these rocks that the average height of the land reached maximum values, which might have been as great as 3,000 feet. Then denudation, and perhaps other processes, coming into operation and persisting through ages of comparative quiescence, lowered the surface, sometimes to minimum average levels, which might have been as low as 500 feet. There have been a few comparatively short periods of exceptionally high relief, separated by longer periods of low relief. Assuming that the land was raised by horizontal compression, the diminution in surface area of the earth necessary to produce a change in level of 2,500 feet would be very considerable. Instead of considering the change from a minimum average height of 500 feet to a maximum of 3,000 feet, it may be more convenient in the first place to consider the elevation of, say, the continental layers of Dr. H. Jeffreys from sea-level to the average height of the present land surface, that is about 2,500 feet, or 762 metres. It will be supposed, then, that the continental layers, as they now exist, were developed from layers consisting of 1 km. of sediments of specific gravity 2·4, 10 km. of granite of specific gravity 2·6, and 20 km. of tachylyte of specific gravity 2·9, the whole resting on dunite of specific gravity 3·3.

Plot-scale retrieval of land surface temperature and emissivity estimation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gitanjali Thakur ◽  
Stan Schymanski ◽  
Kaniska Mallick ◽  
Ivonne Trebs
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface Temperature ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Downwelling Longwave Radiation

<p>The surface energy balance (SEB) is defined as the balance between incoming energy from the sun and outgoing energy from the Earth’s surface. All components of the SEB depend on land surface temperature (LST). Therefore, LST is an important state variable that controls the energy and water exchange between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. LST can be estimated radiometrically, based on the infrared radiance emanating from the surface. At the landscape scale, LST is derived from thermal radiation measured using  satellites.  At the plot scale, eddy covariance flux towers commonly record downwelling and upwelling longwave radiation, which can be inverted to retrieve LST  using the grey body equation :<br>             R<sub>lup</sub> = εσ T<sub>s</sub><sup>4</sup> + (1 − ε) R<sub> ldw         </sub>(1)<br>where R<sub>lup</sub> is the upwelling longwave radiation, R<sub>ldw</sub> is the downwelling longwave radiation, ε is the surface emissivity, <em>T<sub>s</sub>  </em>is the surface temperature and σ  is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. The first term is the temperature-dependent part, while the second represents reflected longwave radiation. Since in the past downwelling longwave radiation was not measured routinely using flux towers, it is an established practice to only use upwelling longwave radiation for the retrieval of plot-scale LST, essentially neglecting the reflected part and shortening Eq. 1 to:<br>               R<sub>lup</sub> = εσ T<sub>s</sub><sup>4 </sup>                       (2)<br>Despite  widespread availability of downwelling longwave radiation measurements, it is still common to use the short equation (Eq. 2) for in-situ LST retrieval. This prompts the question if ignoring the downwelling longwave radiation introduces a bias in LST estimations from tower measurements. Another associated question is how to obtain the correct ε needed for in-situ LST retrievals using tower-based measurements.<br>The current work addresses these two important science questions using observed fluxes at eddy covariance towers for different land cover types. Additionally, uncertainty in retrieved LST and emissivity due to uncertainty in input fluxes was quantified using SOBOL-based uncertainty analysis (SALib). Using landscape-scale emissivity obtained from satellite data (MODIS), we found that the LST  obtained using the complete equation (Eq. 1) is 0.5 to 1.5 K lower than the short equation (Eq. 2). Also, plot-scale emissivity was estimated using observed sensible heat flux and surface-air temperature differences. Plot-scale emissivity obtained using the complete equation was generally between 0.8 to 0.98 while the short equation gave values between 0.9 to 0.98, for all land cover types. Despite additional input data for the complete equation, the uncertainty in plot-scale LST was not greater than if the short equation was used. Landscape-scale daytime LST obtained from satellite data (MODIS TERRA) were strongly correlated with our plot-scale estimates, but on average higher by 0.5 to 9 K, regardless of the equation used. However, for most sites, the correspondence between MODIS TERRA LST and retrieved plot-scale LST estimates increased significantly if plot-scale emissivity was used instead of the landscape-scale emissivity obtained from satellite data.</p>

Gravimetric Method for Calibrating Flow Meter

2014 ◽  
Vol 501-504 ◽  
pp. 2335-2337
Author(s):  
Xi Ming Zhang ◽  
Xue Li
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Gravimetric Method ◽  
Correction Coefficient ◽  
Flow Meter ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Improve Measurement ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Experimental Errors ◽  
Lower Energy Density ◽  
Test Use

What the earth obtain the energy annually is ten thousand times of the earth energy consumption at present,but the solar energy has a lower energy density on the earth’s surface .solar energy is the main source of all energy The experimental research was conducted for the heating performance utilizing the solar-assisted heat pump experimental platform. Experimental errors will be caused to flow meter by different measured media and long time usage In order to improve measurement precision and reduce the experimental errors, this test use gravimetric method to calibrate the LZB glass rotor meter and MCE08-787 cumulative flow meter of indoors and outdoors pipes. The paper also presents flow correction coefficient to guarantee both the accuracy and reliability of the experimental results.

scholarly journals The SCALEX Campaign: Scale-Crossing Land Surface and Boundary Layer Processes in the TERENO-preAlpine Observatory

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 1217-1234 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wolf ◽  
C. Chwala ◽  
B. Fersch ◽  
J. Garvelmann ◽  
W. Junkermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Soil Variables ◽  
Boundary Layer Processes ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
June July

Abstract ScaleX is a collaborative measurement campaign, collocated with a long-term environmental observatory of the German Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) network in the mountainous terrain of the Bavarian Prealps, Germany. The aims of both TERENO and ScaleX include the measurement and modeling of land surface–atmosphere interactions of energy, water, and greenhouse gases. ScaleX is motivated by the recognition that long-term intensive observational research over years or decades must be based on well-proven, mostly automated measurement systems, concentrated in a small number of locations. In contrast, short-term intensive campaigns offer the opportunity to assess spatial distributions and gradients by concentrated instrument deployments, and by mobile sensors (ground and/or airborne) to obtain transects and three-dimensional patterns of atmospheric, surface, or soil variables and processes. Moreover, intensive campaigns are ideal proving grounds for innovative instruments, methods, and techniques to measure quantities that cannot (yet) be automated or deployed over long time periods. ScaleX is distinctive in its design, which combines the benefits of a long-term environmental-monitoring approach (TERENO) with the versatility and innovative power of a series of intensive campaigns, to bridge across a wide span of spatial and temporal scales. This contribution presents the concept and first data products of ScaleX-2015, which occurred in June–July 2015. The second installment of ScaleX took place in summer 2016 and periodic further ScaleX campaigns are planned throughout the lifetime of TERENO. This paper calls for collaboration in future ScaleX campaigns or to use our data in modelling studies. It is also an invitation to emulate the ScaleX concept at other long-term observatories.

scholarly journals The Excess Secular Change in the Obliquity of the Ecliptic and Its Relation to the Internal Motion of the Earth

1972 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 192-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuichi Kakuta ◽  
Shinko Aoki
Keyword(s):  
Time Variation ◽  
Rotational Speed ◽  
Internal Motion ◽  
Secular Change ◽  
Electrically Conducting ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Fluid Core ◽  
Electrical Conductivities ◽  
Long Time

The previous result (Aoki, 1969) on the explanation of the excess secular change in the obliquity of the ecliptic frictional couplings in the rigid constituents, the mantle and the core, is extended by using a model of an elastic and electrically conducting mantle and a hydromagnetic core. The secular change of the obliquity of the ecliptic referred to the mantle is found to be 1/3.2 times of the observed value, if the electrical conductivities of the fluid core and the mantle are assumed to be 3·10−6 emu and 3·10−9 emu respectively. A large secular deceleration of the Earth's rotational speed obtained in the previous result is proved to be strongly reduced because of weak excitation of the perturbing potential for a long time variation.

scholarly journals Fusing Geostationary Satellite Observations with Harmonized Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 Time Series for Monitoring Field-Scale Land Surface Phenology

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4465
Author(s):  
Yu Shen ◽  
Xiaoyang Zhang ◽  
Weile Wang ◽  
Ramakrishna Nemani ◽  
Yongchang Ye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Cloud Cover ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Spatiotemporal Resolution ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Land Surface Phenology ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Sentinel 2

Accurate and timely land surface phenology (LSP) provides essential information for investigating the responses of terrestrial ecosystems to climate changes and quantifying carbon and surface energy cycles on the Earth. LSP has been widely investigated using daily Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations, but the resultant phenometrics are frequently influenced by surface heterogeneity and persistent cloud contamination in the time series observations. Recently, LSP has been derived from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 time series providing detailed spatial pattern, but the results are of high uncertainties because of poor temporal resolution. With the availability of data from Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) onboard a new generation of geostationary satellites that observe the earth every 10–15 min, daily cloud-free time series could be obtained with high opportunities. Therefore, this study investigates the generation of synthetic high spatiotemporal resolution time series by fusing the harmonized Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 (HLS) time series with the temporal shape of ABI data for monitoring field-scale (30 m) LSP. The algorithm is verified by detecting the timings of greenup and senescence onsets around north Wisconsin/Michigan states, United States, where cloud cover is frequent during spring rainy season. The LSP detections from HLS-ABI are compared with those from HLS or ABI alone and are further evaluated using PhenoCam observations. The result indicates that (1) ABI could provide ~3 times more high-quality observations than HLS around spring greenup onset; (2) the greenup and senescence onsets derived from ABI and HLS-ABI are spatially consistent and statistically comparable with a median difference less than 1 and 10-days, respectively; (3) greenup and senescence onsets derived from HLS data show sharp boundaries around the orbit-overlapped areas and shifts of ~13 days delay and ~15 days ahead, respectively, relative to HLS-ABI detections; and (4) HLS-ABI greenup and senescence onsets align closely to PhenoCam observations with an absolute average difference of less than 2 days and 5 days, respectively, which are much better than phenology detections from ABI or HLS alone. The result suggests that the proposed approach could be implemented the monitor of 30 m LSP over regions with persistent cloud cover.

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