Cultural and geological heritage in time elapsed during historical Kingdoms in Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia

Yogyakarta, Indonesia is known for its kingdom government system for all its living history; since 8-10th century Mataram Hindu-Buddhist temples to the present Muslim Ngayogyokarto Hadiningrat. Those stretch of history resulted in many artefacts and chronicles. A cultural imaginary line that linking Merapi Volcano in the north and the Indian Ocean in the south through the Yogyakarta Palace in the middle has a sacral geo-cultural heritage, explaining a prosperity gentle volcanic town, a beautiful scheme of the open panoramic features with several temples standing on the plain and mountainous landscapes in between the rest of earthquakes and the volcanic eruptions. Many temples were partly buried under volcanic materials, and some others show evidence of being shaken several times by earthquakes. Boulders of volcanic materials varying in size and shapes are present in the plain of Yogyakarta, near Cangkiringan, Ngemplak and Ngaglik. Landslides exposed many geological features, such as faults, rock formation and stratigraphy, and some unstable slopes. Cultural and geological heritages at Yogyakarta Region were created over the time.

UAV-Based Evaluation of Rockfall Hazard in the Cultural Heritage Area of Kipinas Monastery, Greece

Rockfall events consist one of the most hazardous geological phenomena in mountainous landscapes, with the potential to turn catastrophic if they occur near an anthropogenic environment. Rockfall hazard and risk assessments are recognized as some of the most challenging surveys among the geoengineering society, due to the urgent need for accurate foresight of likely rockfall areas, together with their magnitude and impact. In recent decades, with the introduction of remote sensing technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, the construction of qualitative and quantitative analyses for rockfall events became more precise. This study primarily aims to take advantage of the UAV’s capabilities, in order to produce a detailed hazard and risk assessment via the proposition of a new semi-quantitative rating system. The area of application is located in the cultural heritage area of Kipinas Monastery in Epirus, Greece, which is characterized by the absence of pre-existing data regarding previous rockfall events. As an outcome, it was shown that the suggested methodology, with the combination of innovative remote sensing technologies with traditional engineering geological field surveys, can lead to the extraction of all the necessary quantitative data input for the proposed rating system for any natural slope.

Prospects for the Development of Sustainable Tourism in the Okinsky District of the Republic of Buryatia

This article discusses the prospects for the development of sustainable tourism as an element of the network system in Okinsky District, Republic of Buryatia, RF. Before COVID-19-related restrictions, the number of tourists in this area increased annually, which was associated with the attractiveness of this terrain for visitors. The potential of the tourism sector of Okinsky District comes from the combination of a large number of natural resources. The area has rich water resources, including rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and mineral springs, with well-preserved mountainous landscapes accompanied by a centuries-old cultural and ethnic heritage. Due to Okinsky District’s specific border location and remoteness, the area has a very large number of places for recreation. The objective of our work is to clarify key factors hindering the development of tourism in the district. The study is aimed at examining the state of natural objects and determining their importance for locals, vacationers, and the district as a whole. In this regard, a problem integrity scope and a networked approach to the accompanying analysis reveal the mechanisms that contribute to the conservation of biological diversity of natural objects and their rational, scientifically grounded use in the tourism industry in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. The set of problems that impede the active promotion of tourism were identified. However, these problems are typical not only for the studied district but also many other remote areas of the Russian Federation.

Quantifying energetic costs and defining energy landscapes experienced by grizzly bears

ABSTRACT Animal movements are major determinants of energy expenditure and ultimately the cost–benefit of landscape use. Thus, we sought to understand those costs and how grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) move in mountainous landscapes. We trained captive grizzly bears to walk on a horizontal treadmill and up and down 10% and 20% slopes. The cost of moving upslope increased linearly with speed and slope angle, and this was more costly than moving horizontally. The cost of downslope travel at slower speeds was greater than the cost of traveling horizontally but appeared to decrease at higher speeds. The most efficient walking speed that minimized cost per unit distance was 1.19±0.11 m s−1. However, grizzly bears fitted with GPS collars in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem moved at an average velocity of 0.61±0.28 m s−1 and preferred to travel on near-horizontal slopes at twice their occurrence. When traveling uphill or downhill, grizzly bears chose paths across all slopes that were ∼54% less steep and costly than the maximum available slope. The net costs (J kg−1 m−1) of moving horizontally and uphill were the same for grizzly bears, humans and digitigrade carnivores, but those costs were 46% higher than movement costs for ungulates. These movement costs and characteristics of landscape use determined using captive and wild grizzly bears were used to understand the strategies that grizzly bears use for preying on large ungulates and the similarities in travel between people and grizzly bears that might affect the risk of encountering each other on shared landscapes.

Border area tourism with problems and prospective: RF-Mongolia

This article will explore the potential of the tourism sector in the districts of the Republic of Buryatia, Irkutsk region and Tyva, RF at the Russian-Mongolian border is based on a combination of a huge amount of diverse natural resources. The area in whole has rich water resources, including lakes, rivers, waterfalls and mineral springs, with well-preserved mountainous landscapes, in harmony with a centuries-old cultural and ethnic heritage of locals. Also, the Okinsky District has a unique location adjacent to the border between the Russian Federation and Mongolia. Despite its remoteness, the area might be considered as an attractive destination with great recreational prospects. However, several problems have been identified which impede severely active promotion of tourism. It is noteworthy that these are typical not only for the Okinsky district but common within many remote areas of the Russian Federation. Ways of solving the problems have been suggested to develop the tourism industry along with provision of environmental sustainability of the area and well-being of the local population.

Gaming and Grieving: Digital Games as Means of Confronting and Coping with Death

This paper explores structural similarities between playing a digital game and experiencing grief. The digital game Mandagon evokes a sense of loss through its game environment of grey mountainous landscapes, broken wooden scaffolds, and Tibetan temples and prayer flags in states of disrepair. It elicits feelings of disorientation and dependency as players repeatedly fall from scaffolds but ascend by using lifts or finding air bubble streams underwater. It encompasses terrestrial, corporeal, and cosmic crossings as players move through air, land, and water, as they neither inhabit nor encounter a human body, and they cross various cosmic thresholds through the course of the game. For players struggling with grief, it validates and normalizes feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and vulnerability in the wake of death and loss.

Planform river channel perturbations resulting from active landsliding in the High Himalaya of Bhutan

Large creeping landslides are persistent features in mountainous landscapes. Evaluating the long-term evolution of these features and associated present-day hazards is however difficult. We use a Fourier transform to characterize planform channel sinuosity and find that the amplitude at given wavelengths follows the power law of pink noise (1 / fnoiseα) with an exponent of α = 1.1, which is consistent with a fractal distribution. This allows us to distinguish local landslide perturbations from the background sinuosity of the unperturbed channels. In order to quantify the interaction of landslides with river channels, we use a new metric for landslide-induced channel offset, which allows us to identify exceptional amplitudes associated with landslide activity. We find that 83 % of the 226 mapped large creeping landslides in the High Himalaya of Bhutan have generated lateral channel migration in the direction of the landslide displacement. Assuming landslide initiation is associated with knickpoint propagation, our derived stream power normalized rates of landslide-induced channel offset range from 2 · 10−1 to 2 · 10−2 m−0.9. These rates are consistent with an early period of relatively rapid landslide displacement followed by a long period of stabilization, and finally, a gradual acceleration of more mature landslides. Assuming constant bedrock erodibility, displacement rates derived from the landslides in our study region may provide inside into the evolution of large creeping landslides over a period of 1 Myr.

Assessment of Eco-geomorphological potential of Mongolia

The eco-geomorphological analysis includes the impact assessment of relief under various ecosystem conditions in as much relief has various ecological roles, both direct and indirect. Rising elevation above sea level is mostly influenced by climate indirectly leading to reduced air pressure, oxygen deficiency, reduction of air temperature, excessive solar radiation, and creation of strong wind. The depth of relief dissection of the bumpy surface of mountainous areas created by floods and mudflows, and the depth of the bumpy surface increases energy consumption and poses risks during mountain climbing, and also has negative economic implications if economic activities are undertaken in such terrain. On the other hand, mountainous landscapes have a specific impact on human well-being and also have considerable potential for promoting tourism. Although, in the steppe environment, relief dissection increases the unique features of the landscape and increases the potential of tourism in other respects, however, it is assessed negatively to a large extent. The nature of corelationship between and the interdependence of the terrestrial surface and population, terrestrial surface and livestock, terrestrial surface and agriculture, which are significant in the study into the inter-relationship between environment and human society, was assessed and determined , and the relevant conclusion was drawn.