scholarly journals Information-cartographic support for studying of potential transformations of geosystems for the digital atlas “Вaikal region: society and nature”

Author(s):  
Tatiana Kuznetsova

Based on the electronic atlas “Baikal Region: Society and Nature”, the problem of landscape-cartographic support for studying the transformations of vast territories is being solved. The transformation of geosystems is understood as changes in the natural environment due to spontaneous development or anthropogenic interference. In this context, potential and actual transformations are distinguished. The research of potential transformations is associated with a geographic forecast of possible changes in the state of the environment due to external impact, and current transformations include an assessment of its current ecological state. The area under investigation includes the territory of the Baikal basin, and the northern regions of Mongolia. This aspect is realized through the integration of a multitude of geographical data on the structure of natural systems, their sustainability and trends of anthropogenic transformations into a single target cartographic information system (CIS). The main requirement for the content of the target block of maps is the reliability of the results of a comprehensive research and their evidentiality if used to make management decisions to optimize the environment. A logical and methodological coherence of small-scale target mapping of the natural environment of a vast territory has been developed. The analysis of natural structures was carried out and a basic inventory map of geosystems of scale (M 1:5,000,000) was created. We developed a set of geosystem characteristics and carried out an environmental interpretation of information and integrated environmental mapping, aside from that implemented geoecological zoning of the territory. Based on the information synthesis of the obtained data and knowledge about the modern landscape structure of the region, the methods of polysystem analysis, we revealed the nature of sustainability, functions, value characteristics of geosystems and the patterns of their anthropogenic transformations. The presence of a single set of maps will provide a study of questions about potential and relevant transformations of geosystems. The small-scale maps of the Baikal region, compiled in a certain sequence on the basis of a single structural-hierarchical specialized classification, reflect a complex of environmental conditions that are important for making constructive-geographical, design, managerial, and environmental decisions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-293
Author(s):  
Maria Doumi ◽  
Anna Kyriakaki ◽  
Theodoros Stavrinoudis

In the present article researchers feature the examination of the opinions and attitudes of the residents of Chios island in Greece. It is based on the investigation of both the characteristics (quality, potential, organization) of the island's main annual cultural events (Rocket War, Agas, and Mostra) and their possible impact on the local society, economy, tourism, and natural environment. Cluster analysis was used to classify the residents under three groups: Embracers, Realists, Neutrals. Each group has particular characteristics and a clearly defined opinion about local cultural tourism events and their impact on a local level. According to the main findings of the primary research some particularly interesting aspects of the effects of local cultural tourism events both on the local level and on the island's tourism development emerge. The conclusions drawn from the elaboration of such findings afford an opportunity to understand better the general impact of cultural events and by the same token to assist government bodies, residents, and other stakeholders in maximizing benefits, whenever possible.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina S. Rogers

One striking feature in the sweep of history is the extent to which humans have manipulated the natural environment to serve our needs and our desires. In the early written record, there are tales of deforestation and soil erosion (Plato, 360 BCE). As early as the seventeenth century, natural historians compared the grasslands around villages to inhabited areas and speculated on the consequences of human activity on natural systems ( Goudie, 2006 , p. 3). The onset of the industrial revolution in Western Europe combined with a growing understanding and knowledge base of science has rendered a circumstance of uncontrolled manipulation of the ecosystems and ever finer ways to measure these consequences. This article is an invitation to challenge us as scholars and practitioners to seek understanding as companies and other organizations take up their roles in a world that we are transforming irrevocably. Why does it matter, after all, that we seek to build a body of knowledge around corporate functioning? It is my intention that this article helps us ponder and reflect on that question.


Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorrik Stow ◽  
Zeinab Smillie

The distinction between turbidites, contourites and hemipelagites in modern and ancient deep-water systems has long been a matter of controversy. This is partly because the processes themselves show a degree of overlap as part of a continuum, so that the deposit characteristics also overlap. In addition, the three facies types commonly occur within interbedded sequences of continental margin deposits. The nature of these end-member processes and their physical parameters are becoming much better known and are summarised here briefly. Good progress has also been made over the past decade in recognising differences between end-member facies in terms of their sedimentary structures, facies sequences, ichnofacies, sediment textures, composition and microfabric. These characteristics are summarised here in terms of standard facies models and the variations from these models that are typically encountered in natural systems. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that clear distinction is not always possible on the basis of sedimentary characteristics alone, and that uncertainties should be highlighted in any interpretation. A three-scale approach to distinction for all deep-water facies types should be attempted wherever possible, including large-scale (oceanographic and tectonic setting), regional-scale (architecture and association) and small-scale (sediment facies) observations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 20160137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn E. Arnold ◽  
Nicola J. Williams ◽  
Malcolm Bennett

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been detected in the microbiota of many wildlife species, including long-distance migrants. Inadequately treated wastes from humans and livestock dosed with antimicrobial drugs are often assumed to be the main sources of AMR to wildlife. While wildlife populations closely associated with human populations are more likely to harbour clinically important AMR related to that found in local humans and livestock, AMR is still common in remote wildlife populations with little direct human influence. Most reports of AMR in wildlife are survey based and/or small scale, so researchers can only speculate on possible sources and sinks of AMR or the impact of wildlife AMR on clinical resistance. This lack of quantitative data on the flow of AMR genes and AMR bacteria across the natural environment could reflect the numerous AMR sources and amplifiers in the populated world. Ecosystems with relatively simple and well-characterized potential inputs of AMR can provide tractable, but realistic, systems for studying AMR in the natural environment. New tools, such as animal tracking technologies and high-throughput sequencing of resistance genes and mobilomes, should be integrated with existing methodologies to understand how wildlife maintains and disperses AMR.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-33
Author(s):  
Hans Hägerdal

Abstract This study rethinks the patterns of slave-holding and slave trade that can be discerned in small-scale societies in the Timor region of the Indonesian archipelago, especially Timor, the Solor and Alor Islands, Rote, and Savu. It studies how European powers—the Dutch and the Portuguese—influenced the trade in enslaved human beings and how this was balanced by slaving conducted by Asian forces. The study is based in large part on archival sources from the VOC period, together with published Portuguese sources. Data on these issues provides some basis for comparisons with other, better documented cases of slavery and slaving in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This contributes to an understanding of how local systems of slavery interacted with the transregional systems represented by external groups.


Traditional energy generation methods is causing ton of side effect to the natural environment and indirectly endanger living species including human. Dependences of unrenewable resources for energy production need to be reduce step by step. This paper focus on estimate the potential of energy generated at Belawai river. Field study on the river, understanding on the natural condition of river and turbine blade consideration are done to undergo estimation. The result is positive on the capability of Belawai river where each month of year 2014 is estimated capable producing more that 12000 kW


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 1505
Author(s):  
V. Zotiadis ◽  
A. Kollios

Industrial activities that took place in the old industrial zone of Athens-Piraeus widespread pollution in natural systems. This specific environmental site assessment presents subsoil and groundwater pollution data by petroleum hydrocarbons in a property occupied by a small scale refinery the last 50 years. Additionally the vertical distribution and horizontal variability of pollution is analysed as a result of several point sources existence such as underground storage tanL·. Environmental survey site works conducted by boreholes performance and installation of stand-pipe type piezometers for groundwater monitoring. Totally 32 soil core samples were analyzed for total petroleum hydrocarbons and additionally 4 soil core sub-samples where volatile organic compounds maximum values were recorded, analyzed for aromatic hydrocarbons. Petroleum hydrocarbons values in subsoil and groundwater range from 310 to 8130 mgKg1 and 0.6 to 2550 mg/l respectively. This paper provides hydrocarbons pollution data of the site and demonstrates the need for an environmental site assessment study before any investment and development action takes place in brownfield's areas


Author(s):  
Zhumakhan Suleimenovich MUSTAFAYEV ◽  
Jozef MOSIEJ ◽  
Lya Tobazhanovna KOZYKEEVA ◽  
Kurmanbek ZHANYMKHAN

Development of the national economy in the Karatal basin river is characterized by the progressive involvement and development of the resource potential of natural landscapes, the current rate of utilization of which greatly enhances the anthropogenic impact on the natural environment. A significant impact on the formation of the ecological environment of natural landscapes is provided by the rural and water sectors, as well as by industrial facilities related to processing and mining. At the same time, on the one hand the economic activity of the man in the catchment areas of the river basin gives a certain positive effect, and on the other hand, it is accompanied by an unavoidable set of negative ecological consequences that complicate ecological situations in various ranks of natural systems. Such negative natural and man-caused process in human activity occurs as a result of inadequate knowledge of the regularities of interaction between natural and anthropogenic factors, about the processes developing in the natural environment in complex watershed management, which is one of the obstacles on the way to the creation of ecologically sustainable cost-effective water catchment systems. Scientific interest to the assessment of the ecological state of the catchments of rivers and the problem of their complex development have been appeared relatively recently which is explained by the increase in modern conditions of anthropogenic load on the catchment areas, the need to assess the impact of such pressures on the ecological stability of catchments and the emergence of the problem of ensuring the sustainable function of catchments. The catena concept was developed to analyze the regular variability of soil on the slope. The example of this approach consists first in a structural component, the recurring pattern of certain soils in a landscape transects in which every chain element has its place in the chain, a soil has it in a landscape areal. The object of the research is the catchment basin of the Karatal river with a length of 390 km, an area of 19.1 thousand km², which is formed by the merger of three rivers called Tekeliaryk, Chadzha and Kora, sources which are at an altitude of 3200-3900 m. The initial 160 km is mountain character, from the Zhungarian Alatau and below the confluence of Kara and Chizhe River overlooks a wide intermountain plain. Other tributaries are Kara, Terekty, Laba, Balykty, Mokur and the most abundant is Koksu. After the confluence of the tributary of the Koksu River, Karatal flows through the sandy desert of the Southern Balkhash. At a distance of 40 km from the mouth, the river has a delta area of 860 km 2. According to long-term observations, the average annual discharge of the Karatal River in the Ushtobe section is 66.7 m3/s or 2.1 km3/ year.


Author(s):  
A. Filippova ◽  
N. Gileva

We calculated seismic moment tensors in a double-couple approximation (focal mechanisms, scalar seismic moments, and moment magnitudes) and hypocentral depths for twenty earthquakes with Mw≥4.2 that occurred in the Baikal region and Transbaikalia in 2015. The initial data were amplitude spectra of Rayleigh and Love waves obtained from their records at the broadband seismic stations of the IRIS and the DK networks and first-motion polarities of body waves recorded at regional distances. A combination of the normal fault and strike-slip movements dominate in the sources of the major part of the study earthquakes. For the strongest of the considered seismic events (Mw≥4.6), the subvertical compression and subhorizontal tension in the SE-NW direction prevail, i.e. the tension is perpendicular to the main structures of the Baikal rift zone. The seismic events with Mw<4.6 are characterized by a more scattered orientation of compression and tension axis that could be caused, for instance, by stress redistribution in small-scale crustal blocks after stronger earthquakes. The obtained results are of great value for issues concerned with seismic hazard assessment and the development of geodynamical models of the lithosphere evolution of the study region.


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