scholarly journals Nepal, a multi-hazard risk country: Spatio-temporal analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Ganesh Kumar Jimee ◽  
Kimiro Meguro ◽  
Amod Mani Dixit

Nepal, though covers small area of the earth, exposes complex geology with active tectonic processes, high peaks, sloppy terrain and climatic variation. Combination of such geo-physical and climatic conditions with existing poor socio-economic conditions, unplanned settlements, rapidly increasing population and low level of awareness has put the country in highest risk to multi-hazard events. Fires, floods, landslides and epidemics are the most frequent hazard events, which have cumulatively caused a significant loss of lives and property every year. However, due to diversity in physiographic, climatic and socio-economic conditions within the country, the type, frequency and degree of the impact of such events differs in different places. During the period of 46 years (1971-2016), an average of 2 events have been occurred causing 3 deaths/missing every day. Disaster events occurred most frequently during the months of April, July and August, while relatively lesser number of events have been reported during January, November and December. However, earthquakes have been reported in different months, regardless with the season. This paper is an effort to analyse the spatial distribution and temporal variation of disaster events in Nepal. Further it has drawn a trend of disasters occurrence in Nepal, which will help the decision makers and other stakeholders for formulating Disaster Risk Management (DRM) plan and policies on one hand and heighten citizens’ awareness of against disasters on the other.

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1745) ◽  
pp. 4206-4214 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Maas ◽  
D. F. Keet ◽  
V. P. M. G. Rutten ◽  
J. A. P. Heesterbeek ◽  
M. Nielen

Bovine tuberculosis (BTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis , is a disease that was introduced relatively recently into the Kruger National Park (KNP) lion population. Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV ple ) is thought to have been endemic in lions for a much longer time. In humans, co-infection between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus increases disease burden. If BTB were to reach high levels of prevalence in lions, and if similar worsening effects would exist between FIV ple and BTB as for their human equivalents, this could pose a lion conservation problem. We collected data on lions in KNP from 1993 to 2008 for spatio-temporal analysis of both FIV ple and BTB, and to assess whether a similar relationship between the two diseases exists in lions. We found that BTB prevalence in the south was higher than in the north (72 versus 19% over the total study period) and increased over time in the northern part of the KNP (0–41%). No significant spatio-temporal differences were seen for FIV ple in the study period, in agreement with the presumed endemic state of the infection. Both infections affected haematology and blood chemistry values, FIV ple in a more pronounced way than BTB. The effect of co-infection on these values, however, was always less than additive. Though a large proportion (31%) of the lions was co-infected with FIV ple and M. bovis , there was no evidence for a synergistic relation as in their human counterparts. Whether this results from different immunopathogeneses remains to be determined.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Gaona ◽  
Pere Quintana-Seguí ◽  
Maria José Escorihuela

<p>Droughts in the Iberian Peninsula are a natural hazard of great relevance due to their recurrence, severity and impact on multiple environmental and socioeconomic aspects. The Ebro Basin, located in the NE of the Iberian Peninsula, is particularly vulnerable to drought with consequences on agriculture, urban water supply and hydropower. This study, performed within the Project HUMID (CGL2017-85687-R), aims at evaluating the influence of the climatic, land cover and soil characteristics on the interactions between rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture anomalies which define the spatio-temporal drought patterns in the basin.</p><p>The onset, propagation and mitigation of droughts in the Iberian Peninsula is driven by anomalies of rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture, which are related by feedback processes. To test the relative importance of such anomalies, we evaluate the contribution of climatic, land-cover and geologic heterogeneity on the definition of the spatio-temporal patterns of drought. We use the Köppen-Geiger climatic classification to assess how the contrasting climatic types within the basin determine differences on drought behavior. Land-cover types that govern the partition between evaporation and transpiration are also of great interest to discern the influence of vegetation and crop types on the anomalies of evapotranspiration across the distinct regions of the basin (e.g. forested mountains vs. crop-dominated areas). The third physical characteristic whose effect on drought we investigate is the impact of soil properties on soil moisture anomalies.</p><p>The maps and time series used for the spatio-temporal analysis are based on drought indices calculated with high-resolution datasets from remote sensing (MOD16A2ET and SMOS1km) and the land-surface model SURFEX-ISBA. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the EvapoTranspiration Deficit Index (ETDI) and the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI) are the three indices chosen to characterize the anomalies of the corresponding rainfall (atmospheric), evapotranspiration (atmosphere-land interface) and soil moisture (land) anomalies (components of the water balance). The comparison of the correlations of the indices (with different time lags) between contrasting regions offers insights about the impact of climate, land-cover and soil properties in the dominance, the timing of the response and memory aspects of the interactions. The high spatial and temporal resolution of remote sensing and land-surface model data allows adopting time and spatial scales suitable to investigate the influence of these physical factors with detail beyond comparison with ground-based datasets.</p><p>The spatial and temporal analysis prove useful to investigate the physical factors of influence on the anomalies between rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture. This approach facilitates the physical interpretation of the anomalies of drought indices aiming to improve the characterization of drought in heterogeneous semi-arid areas like the Ebro River Basin.</p>


Author(s):  
Varvara Mironova ◽  
Natalia Shartova ◽  
Andrei Beljaev ◽  
Mikhail Varentsov ◽  
Mikhail Grishchenko

The article presents the results of a spatio-temporal analysis of the changes of the favorability of climatic conditions for the transmission of vivax malaria in the Moscow megacity and its surroundings during the period from 1977 to 2016. Using the historical temperature records at urban and rural weather stations, we calculated the key indicators of climate favorability for malaria transmission, viz. the sum of effective temperatures, the duration of the season of effective infectiveness, and a new integral index of climate favorability. We demonstrated a dramatic increase of all three indicators, which accelerated after 1984, and a high spatial heterogeneity among them. Due to the urban heat island effect, the degree of climatic favorability is especially high in the densely urbanized areas of Moscow megacity compared with the suburban and rural areas. Climatic conditions for vivax malaria in Moscow are better now than before. The season of effective infectiveness continues in the central part of the city for 25 days longer, and the integral index of climate favorability is 85% higher in comparison to mean values over the rural surroundings. The study contains an alert regarding the risk of malaria resurgence in the Moscow region in the case of the sufficient importation of cases from abroad.


Author(s):  
Sarsenbay K. Abdrakhmanov ◽  
Yersyn Y. Mukhanbetkaliyev ◽  
Fedor I. Korennoy ◽  
Bolat Sh. Karatayev ◽  
Aizada A. Mukhanbetkaliyeva ◽  
...  

An analysis of the anthrax epidemic situation among livestock animals in the Republic of Kazakhstan over the period 1933-2016 is presented. During this time, 4,064 anthrax outbreaks (mainly in cattle, small ruminants, pigs and horses) were recorded. They fall into five historical periods of increase and decrease in the annual anthrax incidence (1933-1953; 1954-1968; 1969-1983; 1984- 2001; and 2002-2016), which has been associated with changes in economic activity and veterinary surveillance. To evaluate the temporal trends of incidence variation for each of these time periods, the following methods were applied: i) spatio-temporal analysis using a space-time cube to assess the presence of hotspots (i.e., areas of outbreak clustering) and the trends of their emergence over time; and ii) a linear regression model that was used to evaluate the annual numbers of outbreaks as a function of time. The results show increasing trends during the first two periods followed by a decreasing trend up to now. The peak years of anthrax outbreaks occurred in 1965-1968 but outbreaks still continue with an average annual number of outbreaks of 1.2 (95% confidence interval: 0.6-1.8). The space-time analysis approach enabled visualisation of areas with statistically significant increasing or decreasing trends of outbreak clustering providing a practical opportunity to inform decision-makers and allowing the veterinary services to concentrate their efforts on monitoring the possible risk factors in the identified locations.


Author(s):  
GUO-SHIANG LIN ◽  
MIN-KUAN CHANG ◽  
SHIEN-TANG CHIU

In this paper, we propose a feature-based scheme for detecting different genres of video shot transitions based on spatio-temporal analysis and model parameter estimation. In feature extraction, the histogram difference and its modified versions are calculated from the effectiveness of detecting cuts and reducing the impact of fleeting lights. We propose a hybrid algorithm composed of adaptive thresholding, parameter calculation, and transition duration refinement to measure model parameters. Some properties of the associated model parameters of each transition are computed as features. A feature measuring the time gap between two consecutive shots is also adopted. After feature extraction, a fuzzy classifier integrates these features to distinguish nontransitions, cuts, and dissolve-type features from one to another. Many test videos having different types of shots are used for performance evaluation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme not only detects cuts, dissolves, and fades well, but also accurately locates the duration of each dissolve-type transition. In addition, the proposed scheme outperforms some existing methods in terms of cut and dissolve detection.


2014 ◽  
Vol 05 (04) ◽  
pp. 1450011 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANUBHAB PATTANAYAK ◽  
K. S. KAVI KUMAR

This study estimates the weather sensitivity of rice yield in India, using disaggregated (district) level information on rice and high resolution daily weather data over the period 1969–2007. Compared to existing India specific studies on rice which consider only the effects of nighttime (minimum) temperature, the present study takes into account the effects of both nighttime and daytime (maximum) temperatures along with other weather variables on rice yield. The results suggest that both nighttime and daytime temperatures adversely affect rice during different growth phases. The effect of higher nighttime temperature on rice yield was much lower than those estimated by previous studies. Further, the negative impact of higher daytime temperature on rice yield was much larger than the impact due to higher nighttime temperature. The study further estimates that average rice yield would have been 8.4% higher had the pre-1960 climatic conditions prevailed during the period of study. This translates into an annual average loss of 4.4 million tons/yr or a cumulative loss of 172 million tons over the 39 year period for India. The paper argues that such significant loss in rice production under climate change conditions in future will have strong implications for the region's food-security and poverty, given that a large number of producers and consumers depend on rice for their livelihood and sustenance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 873 (1) ◽  
pp. 012010
Author(s):  
Muhammad Bani Al-Rasyid ◽  
Mira Nailufar Rusman ◽  
Daniel Hamonangan ◽  
Pepen Supendi ◽  
Kartika Hajar Kirana

Abstract Banda arc is a complex tectonic structure manifests by high seismicity due to the collision of a continent and an intra-oceanic island arc. Using the relocated earthquakes data from ISC-EHB and BMKG catalogues from the time period of 1960 to 2018, we have conducted a spatial and temporal variation of b-value using the Guttenberg-Richter formula in the area. Our results show that the spatial distribution of low b-values located in the south of Ambon Island and southeast of Buru Island. On the other hand, the temporal variation of b-value shows a decrease in the northern part of the Banda sea probably high potential to produce large earthquakes in the future. Therefore, further mitigation is needed to minimize the impact of earthquakes in the area.


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