Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Vegetation Cover Dynamics in the Kurmi Region of Taraba State, Nigeria

The study was conducted on the Spatio-temporal assessment of vegetation cover dynamics in the Kurmi Region of Taraba State, in the Savannah belt of Nigeria, using remotely sensed satellite data from LANDSAT and the Geographic Information System. The result shows that from 2010 to 2015, there was an increase in none vegetative areas (Builtup, Barren, Rock, sand) by 6.1% and a reduction of vegetation by 6.1%, also from the year 2015 to 2020, there was an increase in the none vegetative areas (Builtup, Barren, Rock, sand) by 17.9% and reduction of vegetation by 17.9%, while from 2010 to 2020 there was an increase in none vegetative areas (Builtup, Barren, Rock, sand) by 24% and reduction of vegetation by 24%. Thus, the results of this study confirm that Spatio-temporal assessment of vegetation cover dynamics using NDVI by LANDSAT TM, ETM+ and OLI data offer an excellent potential tool for characterizing and understanding vegetation changes occurring in transitional areas like the Kurmi region of Taraba State. Furthermore, the study recommended that alternative domestic energy sources, e.g. kerosene, be provided to the low-income earners to avoid over-dependence on fuelwood sourced from deforestation.

Analyzing methods of determining pre-destruction of blast hole vicinity

The level of deformation of the rock massif of a blasted slab must be planned in advance, depending on the required results of blasting. Thus the energy costs of barren rock overfilling as part of preparing for overburden excavation are inefficient. On the contrary, an increase in the blast energy spent on degrading and breaking the ore mass is an efficient measure of preparing for the excavation of mineral wealth. There are currently two methods used to determine the pre-destruction of a blasted rock massif. The first one is based on determining the number of strain waves passing through locations of borehole charges. However, this method fails to determine the preliminary rock destruction level. The second method is based on determining coefficients of the pre-destruction of a rock massif by these strain waves. The merit of this method is that it allows evaluating the quality pattern of the pre-destruction of a rock massif. The procedure of considering the fraction of energy of the strain waves, reflected by the shielding rock mass to the destructive amount of blasting charges and refracted to this destroyed rock, is proposed.

Fossil Fuel Fires: A Forgotten Factor of Air Quality

Spontaneous fossil fuel fires, especially coal fires, are known worldwide. They occur in numerous sites, both completely natural (coal seam outcrops) and anthropogenic (burning mining waste heaps, or BMWHs). Coal and waste/barren rock fires produce gaseous emanations, acting within exhalative processes. This factor is rarely being considered as influencing quality of the atmospheric air. The paper shortly discusses most important available methods for field gas analysis, with an emphasis on a portable FTIR spectrometer. It summarizes results of gas analyses from Polish BMWHs, using a multi-tool approach. It also lists a number of additional analyses from 53 vents of these environmentally important objects, with the main purpose of enlarging the knowledge of the span of concentrations of the particular compounds. This is especially true for formaldehyde, pyridine, CO, 1,1,1-trichloroethene, 1,1-dichloroethene, cumene, SO2, and, to a lesser extent, NO2, CCl4, ethane, propane, ethene, and thiophene. The latter, and DMS, are confirmed as gaseous S source more frequent and rich than SO2.

Hygienic Nature: Afforestation and the greening of colonial Hong Kong

This article examines the ‘greening’ of Hong Kong in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on the afforestation of the colony's ‘barren’ mountainsides from the 1880s. To date, histories of Hong Kong have tended to focus on the colonial state's urban interventions, particularly on the draconian measures it took to ‘sanitize’ Chinese districts. In contrast, this article connects Hong Kong's urban development with the history of green space and the cultivation of ‘nature’. While the state sought to transform the ‘barren rock’ into a visible correlate of the colony's aspiring status as an imperial hub in Asia, the promotion of hygiene and health provided a further rationale for tree-planting. The article argues that colonial Hong Kong provides insights into the ‘tropicalization of modernity’ and the constitutive processes by which colonial power was naturalized and legitimated through planning practices that extended from the urban to the natural. A study of Hong Kong's afforestation underscores the importance of the natural environment as a ‘contact zone’ between colonial and ‘native’ cultures; it also reveals the extent to which the equation of a ‘green’ landscape with economic (re)production and colonial order, functioned as a critical trope for framing race and labour.