scholarly journals Influence of Surface Water on Desert Vegetation Expansion at the Landscape Scale: A Case Study of the Daliyabuyi Oasis, Taklamakan Desert

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9522
Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Qingdong Shi ◽  
Yanbo Wan ◽  
Haobo Shi ◽  
Bilal Imin

Surface water is an important factor affecting vegetation change in desert areas. However, little research has been conducted on the effects of surface water on vegetation expansion. In this study, the annual spatial distribution range of vegetation and surface water in the Daliyabuyi Oasis from 1990 to 2020 was extracted using Landsat time-series images. Based on multi-temporal and multi-scale remote sensing images, several plots were selected to demonstrate the process of landform change and vegetation expansion, and the influence of surface water on vegetation expansion was analyzed. The results show that the vegetation distribution and surface water coverage have increased from 1990 to 2020; and surface water is a critical factor that drives the expansion of vegetation. On the one hand, surface water in the study area was essential for reshaping the riparian landform, driving the transformation of dunes into floodplains, and increasing the potential colonization sites for vegetation. However, landform changes ultimately changed the redistribution of surface water, ensuring that enough water and nutrients provided by sediment were available for plant growth. Our study provides a critical reference for the restoration of desert vegetation and the sustainable development of oases.

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
NITU SINGH ◽  
FATIMA SULTANA

India is a developing nation and is dependent on its natural resources for growth and development. Water, being one of the vital natural resource, must be used judicially for the sustainable development. Present study focuses on the analysis of physicochemical parameters (pH, Turbidity, Alkalinity, Total Hardness, Total dissolved solids, Conductivity, Chloride, Sulfate, Fluoride contents) of ground water and surface water in Kota City (Rajasthan). The study shows the adverse impact of exploitation and urbanization on water resources of Kota City (Rajasthan). Some physicochemical parameters exceed the desirable limits as defined by WHO and Indian Standards in the selected sites. The level of pollution in ground water and surface water of Kota City is increasing due to urbanization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6052
Author(s):  
Paola Comodi ◽  
Azzurra Zucchini ◽  
Umberto Susta ◽  
Costanza Cambi ◽  
Riccardo Vivani ◽  
...  

A multi-methodic analysis was performed on five samples of fly ashes coming from different biomasses. The aim of the study was to evaluate their possible re-use and their dangerousness to people and the environment. Optical granulometric analyses indicated that the average diameter of the studied fly ashes was around 20 µm, whereas only ~1 vol% had diameters lower that 2.5 µm. The chemical composition, investigated with electron probe microanalysis, indicated that all the samples had a composition in which Ca was prevalent, followed by Si and Al. Large contents of K and P were observed in some samples, whereas the amount of potentially toxic elements was always below the Italian law thresholds. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were completely absent in all the samples coming from combustion plants, whereas they were present in the fly ashes from the gasification center. Quantitative mineralogical content, determined by Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data, indicated that all the samples had high amorphous content, likely enriched in Ca, and several K and P minerals, such as sylvite and apatite. The results obtained from the chemo-mineralogical study performed make it possible to point out that biomass fly ashes could be interesting materials (1) for amendments in clayey soils, as a substitution for lime, to stimulate pozzolanic reactions and improve their geotechnical properties, thus, on the one hand, avoiding the need to mine raw materials and, on the other hand, re-cycling waste; and (2) as agricultural fertilizers made by a new and ecological source of K and P.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Zijie Jiang ◽  
Weiguo Jiang ◽  
Ziyan Ling ◽  
Xiaoya Wang ◽  
Kaifeng Peng ◽  
...  

Surface water is an essential element that supports natural ecosystem health and human life, and its losses or gains are closely related to national or local sustainable development. Monitoring the spatial-temporal changes in surface water can directly support the reporting of progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) outlined by the government, especially for measuring SDG 6.6.1 indicators. In our study, we focused on Baiyangdian Lake, an important lake in North China, and explored its spatiotemporal extent changes from 2014 to 2020. Using long-term Sentinel-1 SAR images and the OTSU algorithm, our study developed an automatic water extraction framework to monitor surface water changes in Baiyangdian Lake at a 10 m resolution from 2014 to 2020 on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform. The results showed that (1) the water extraction accuracy in our study was considered good, showing high consistency with the existing dataset. In addition, it was found that the classification accuracy in spring, summer, and fall was better than that in winter. (2) From 2014 to 2020, the surface water area of Baiyangdian Lake exhibited a slowly rising trend, with an average water area of 97.03 km2. In terms of seasonal variation, the seasonal water area changed significantly. The water areas in spring and winter were larger than those in summer and fall. (3) Spatially, most of the water was distributed in the eastern part of Baiyangdian Lake, which accounted for roughly 57% of the total water area. The permanent water area, temporary water area, and non-water area covered 49.69 km2, 97.77 km2, and 171.55 km2, respectively. Our study monitored changes in the spatial extent of the surface water of Baiyangdian Lake, provides useful information for the sustainable development of the Xiong’an New Area and directly reports the status of SDG 6.6.1 indicators over time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 567
Author(s):  
Alessandra Capolupo ◽  
Cristina Monterisi ◽  
Alessandra Saponieri ◽  
Fabio Addona ◽  
Leonardo Damiani ◽  
...  

The Italian coastline stretches over about 8350 km, with 3600 km of beaches, representing a significant resource for the country. Natural processes and anthropic interventions keep threatening its morphology, moulding its shape and triggering soil erosion phenomena. Thus, many scholars have been focusing their work on investigating and monitoring shoreline instability. Outcomes of such activities can be largely widespread and shared with expert and non-expert users through Web mapping. This paper describes the performances of a WebGIS prototype designed to disseminate the results of the Italian project Innovative Strategies for the Monitoring and Analysis of Erosion Risk, known as the STIMARE project. While aiming to include the entire national coastline, three study areas along the regional coasts of Puglia and Emilia Romagna have already been implemented as pilot cases. This WebGIS was generated using Free and Open-Source Software for Geographic information systems (FOSS4G). The platform was designed by combining Apache http server, Geoserver, as open-source server and PostgreSQL (with PostGIS extension) as database. Pure javascript libraries OpenLayers and Cesium were implemented to obtain a hybrid 2D and 3D visualization. A user-friendly interactive interface was programmed to help users visualize and download geospatial data in several formats (pdf, kml and shp), in accordance with the European INSPIRE directives, satisfying both multi-temporal and multi-scale perspectives.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Elena Zarova ◽  
Dr Konstantin Laykam ◽  
Elvira Dubravskaya ◽  
Sergey Musikhin

This article describes on the one hand statistical methods for assessing informal employment based on the requirements as set by international standards. On the other hand it describes the potential of integrating various data sources to generate informal employment statistics. With as example official statistics of the Russian Federation, the authors show the features of applying the requirements of international standards. Methods are proposed for assessing informal employment in the formal sector of the economy, i.e. in enterprises that submit employment reports to the National Statistical Office. This phenomenon appears in the employment situation of many countries. However, there is no uniformity between countries in how they evaluate the application of the international standards in such assessment exercises. A theoretical model of informal employment is developed and validated based on statistical data published by international organizations. The validation focuses on assessing the causal relationships between informal employment indicators and the main components of the sustainable development goals. This analysis contributes to coordinated decisions on regulating informal employment and ensuring the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1666
Author(s):  
Zinhle Mashaba-Munghemezulu ◽  
George Johannes Chirima ◽  
Cilence Munghemezulu

Reducing food insecurity in developing countries is one of the crucial targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Smallholder farmers play a crucial role in combating food insecurity. However, local planning agencies and governments do not have adequate spatial information on smallholder farmers, and this affects the monitoring of the SDGs. This study utilized Sentinel-1 multi-temporal data to develop a framework for mapping smallholder maize farms and to estimate maize production area as a parameter for supporting the SDGs. We used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to pixel fuse the multi-temporal data to only three components for each polarization (vertical transmit and vertical receive (VV), vertical transmit and horizontal receive (VH), and VV/VH), which explained more than 70% of the information. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (Xgboost) algorithms were used at model-level feature fusion to classify the data. The results show that the adopted strategy of two-stage image fusion was sufficient to map the distribution and estimate production areas for smallholder farms. An overall accuracy of more than 90% for both SVM and Xgboost algorithms was achieved. There was a 3% difference in production area estimation observed between the two algorithms. This framework can be used to generate spatial agricultural information in areas where agricultural survey data are limited and for areas that are affected by cloud coverage. We recommend the use of Sentinel-1 multi-temporal data in conjunction with machine learning algorithms to map smallholder maize farms to support the SDGs.


1994 ◽  
Vol 126 (S169) ◽  
pp. 7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale H. Vitt

AbstractCanadian peatlands can be classified into ombrotrophic bogs and minerotrophic fens, the latter subdivided into poor, moderate-rich, and extreme-rich fens, each with distinctive indicator species, acidity, alkalinity, and base cation content. If hydrology is considered the most important factor in peatland classification then the primary division must be between ombrotrophic bogs and minerotrophic fens; however both chemical and vegetational differences strongly indicate that the primary division of peatlands should be between acidic, Sphagnum-dominated bogs and poor fens on the one hand, and alkaline, brown-moss-dominated rich fens on the other. Although some metals such as sulphur and aluminum also vary along this gradient, nutrient contents of the surface waters do not. Bogs and fens are oligotrophic to mesotrophic wetlands that should be distinguished from eutrophic, non-peat-forming wetlands such as marshes and swamps by the presence in the former of a well-developed ground layer of bryophytes associated with relatively little seasonal water level fluctuation. Oligotrophy is probably maintained in bogs and poor fens by reduced water flow, whereas rich fens maintain mesotrophy by having larger water through-puts; however this is not well documented. Sphagnum appears to have real ecological significance, both in the initial stages of acidification and in controlling surface water temperature. Seasonal variation in surface water chemistry in all peatland types is relatively small, however precipitation events leading to changes in water levels do affect some chemical components. Although both autogenic and allogenic factors affect peatland development, initiation of peat formation and early development of peatlands during the Early and Mid Holocene were considerably influenced by regional climatic change. Later developmental patterns during the late Holocene and those seen at the present time appear to be more influenced by autogenic factors.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
M V Shugurov

This article is devoted to investigation of the forming and the initial stage of functioning of the UN’s Technology Facilitation Mechanism in the context of exploring new trends of international innovation, scientific and technological cooperation in interests of Sustainable development and achieving its aims. The study goal is a elaborating the conceptual model of given Mechanism in the light of tasks, enshrined in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and addressed to the Global partnership in the interest of sustainable development as regards development of environmentally sound technologies, knowledge and innovation and other sustainable technologies.The methodology of research conducted consists of the general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization and abstracting. The author have used the system principle and the historical principle. The empirical basis of analysis concludes provisions of international documents in the area of sustainable development, UNs’ documents and documents, stipulating the Mechanism activity.As results of given study are following: the proof of hypothesis that Mechanism is a key institutional innovation of global policy in respective area of international cooperation; explicating the specificity of its political and legal foundations; indicating its stakeholders; indicating its structure; pointing its priority directions of activity. The conclusions drawn are conceptual provisions that, firstly, Mechanism really has a potential for consolidating and broadening the scope of international cooperation and also increasing the coordination between stakeholders by means of elimination of fragmentation and gaps that should lead to cumulative effect. Secondly, Mechanism is designed to focus attention on facilitating overcoming various barriers, such as trade, investment and financial, of development and transfer of technologies and knowledge that should lead to a conjugating the scientific and technological progress, on the one hand, and the sustainable development, on the other hand.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Priscilla Ananian ◽  
Bernard Declève

Brussels Capital Region has to deal with urban conflicts arising from the different kinds of land uses. On the one hand the process of metropolisation has intensified the inner city's land use through residential, economic and urban development and on the other hand this same process has contributed to the expansion and sprawling of the city beyond its administrative borders. The city's main challenge is to ensure the cohabitation of different urban forms and densities in a multi-scale level related to metropolitan and local functions (Ananian P. 2010). Brussels, originally an industrial city, has become an administrative centre, generating a series of disaffected areas. Urban regeneration and sustainable development policies aim to improve the standard of living through urban, social and economic enhancements. Indeed, these policies deal with the construction, renovation and requalification of obsolete areas into new dwelling complexes. In this context, the present article shows the results of a broader research commissioned by the Brussels Capital Region on residential densification between 1989 and 2007(Declève B. Ananian P. et al 2009). Through the analysis of this inventory, we have identified three main techniques concerning the requalification of old places into residential uses: firstly the reurbanisation of brownfields generated by the delocalisation of large facilities; secondly the requalification and reconversion of isolated buildings (abandoned and obsolete industrial and office buildings) and last but not least, the recycling of terrains merged into the urban fabric of old neighbourhoods. Following two methodological approaches (morphological observation and analysis of social perception), this research has shown us that, in the last twenty years of housing production in Brussels, the main abandoned buildings and sites that were available were requalified, increasing density and improving urbanity through the diversity of the urban forms adopted for the public and private spaces.


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