Morphological Evolution of the Port‐City Interface of Algiers (16th Century to the Present)

This article traces the centuries-long morphological development of Algiers’ port-city interface across four historically relevant time periods that together span from the dawn of the 16th century up until today. Through a diachronic and geo-historical approach, we identify and analyse the origins of Algiers’ persistent port-city divide. In doing so, the notion of the interface is interpreted as a spatial threshold between city and port, which nevertheless supports the material flows of both entities. As a multi-purpose area, the interface holds the potential to weave the disparate entities of a port city back together. To further complement this conceptual angle, we provide investigations of porosity that determine the differing degrees of connectivity between the city and port of Algiers. This is combined with a spatial-functional analysis of Algiers’ current port-city interface, which is ultimately characterised as a non-homogeneous entity composed of four distinct sequences. These results contribute to a better orientation of imminent plans for waterfront revitalisations in Algiers. Whereas the interface was long considered as some kind of no man’s land in the past, port and municipal authorities nowadays aim to turn the interface into a tool of reconciliation, and can do so by acting upon its potential porosity. Finally, this article’s critical examination of the previously neglected case of Algiers can and should also be considered as an applicable model for the continuing study of southern Mediterranean and African port metropolises in general, which share a particular evolution in the relations between city and port.

Preliminary Research on a Comparison and Evaluation of FY-4A LMI and ADTD Data through a Moving Amplification Matching Algorithm

In this study, a new moving amplification matching algorithm was proposed, and then the temporal and spatial differences and correlation were analysed and evaluated by comparing the FengYun-4A Lightning Mapping Imager (FY-4A LMI) data and the China Meteorological Administration Lightning Detection Network Advanced TOA and Direction (CMA-LDN ADTD) system data of southwest China in July 2018. The results are as follows. Firstly, the new moving amplification matching algorithm could effectively reduce the number of invalid operations and save the operation time in comparison to the conventional ergodic algorithms. Secondly, LMI has less detection efficiency during the daytime, using ADTD as a reference. The lightning number detected by ADTD increased from 5:00 AM UTC (13:00 PM BJT, Beijing Time) and almost lasted for a whole day. Thirdly, the trends of lightning data change of LMI and ADTD were the same as the whole. The average daily lightning matching rate of the LMI in July was 63.23%. The average hourly lightning matching rate of the LMI in July was 75.08%. Lastly, the mean value of the spherical surface distance in the matched array was 35.49 km, and roughly 80% of the matched distance was within 57 km, indicating that the spatial threshold limit was relatively stable. The correlation between LMI lightning radiation intensity and ADTD lighting current intensity was low.

Multiscale local definition of the wildland-urban interface to mitigate fire risk: an evidence-based approach

<p>The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) is the spatial manifestation of the coupling of human communities and ecosystems, and wildfire is the most prominent issue. The WUI accounts for large percentages of fire prevention and suppression expenditures because it is where most human fatalities and structure losses occur. Therefore a fire-risk based definition of the spatial delimitation of the WUI may be critical to properly distributing prevention action and management investments to obtain the maximum social return. We present the first methodological approach that can be used to delineate the WUI based on a fire risk assessment. To accomplish this, we developed a geographical framework to model fire risk with the most prominent drivers and their interactions to define spatial explicit thresholds of the WUI. We built a Bagged Decision Tree (BDT) model to quantify fire risk based on Human Activity, Geographic and Topographic, and Land Cover variable interaction with fire ignition. For national and subnational threshold definition, we used Partial Dependence Plots (PDP) to analyze relationships between individual variables and predicted responses. A PDP can show the inflection point where a management action could potentially attain the best social return for decreasing fire risk. We find that the spatial threshold can vary more than double between subnational areas using the local fire risk-based approach. Subnational threshold definition accounts for 52% of fires in 3.4% of the national territory where lives 63% of the human population versus the conventional threshold or even nationally defined threshold that accounts for 36% and 54.4% of fires but in 3.3% and 4.3% of the land respectively. This multi-scale approach can be used to identify both general thresholds for large-scale applications as well as local thresholds for defining the WUI both operationally and empirically to determine optimal management areas.</p>

‘Hospital Shields’ and the Limits of International Law

Assaults on hospitals have become part of a widespread warfare strategy, propelling numerous actors to claim that belligerents are not being held accountable for attacking medical units. Acknowledging that international humanitarian law (IHL) offers medical units protections, belligerents often claim that the hospitals were being used to shield military targets and therefore the bombing was legitimate. Tracing the history of hospital bombings alongside the development of legal articles dealing with the protection of medical units, we show how, from the early 20th century, international law has introduced a series of exceptions that legitimize attacks on hospitals that were framed as shields. Next, we demonstrate that the shielding argument justifies bombing hospitals because they have ostensibly assumed a threshold position in-between the two axiomatic poles informing the laws of war – combatants and civilians. We argue, however, that medical units tend to occupy a legal and spatial threshold during war and, since IHL does not have the vocabulary to acknowledge the liminal nature of medical units and identifies between liminality and criminality, it introduces several exceptions that help belligerents legitimize their attacks. By way of conclusion, we maintain that the only way to address the deliberate and widespread destruction of medical units is by reforming the law through the introduction of an absolute ban.

Validation of HOAPS Rain Retrievals against OceanRAIN In-Situ Measurements over the Atlantic Ocean

The satellite-derived HOAPS (Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data) precipitation estimates have been validated against in-situ precipitation measurements from optical disdrometers, available from OceanRAIN (Ocean Rainfall And Ice-phase precipitation measurement Network) over the open-ocean by applying a statistical analysis for binary estimates. In addition to using directly collocated pairs of data, collocated data were merged within a certain temporal and spatial threshold into single events, according to the observation times. Although binary statistics do not show perfect agreement, simulations of areal estimates from the observations themselves indicate a reasonable performance of HOAPS to detect rain. However, there are deficits at low and mid-latitudes. Weaknesses also occur when analyzing the mean precipitation rates; HOAPS underperforms in the area of the intertropical convergence zone, where OceanRAIN observations show the highest mean precipitation rates. Histograms indicate that this is due to an underestimation of the frequency of moderate to high precipitation rates by HOAPS, which cannot be explained by areal averaging.

Early warning indicators of grassland degradation in inner Mongolia

Backgroung: With the implementation of the Household Production Responsibility System in China almost 30 years ago, obvious spatial heterogeneity has developed over rangeland. Methods: We examined lifeform functional groups over 5 years on household ranches in different grazing utilization rate (30%-95%) ecosystems in Inner Mongolia to identify the early warning indicators of grassland degradation. Results: The results showed that a similar grassland utilization threshold occurred in different types of steppe, with 78-89% utilization for meadow steppe, 81-89% for typical steppe and 70-85% for desert steppe. The vegetation composition above these utilization thresholds did not show obvious signs of degradation; therefore, the risk of degradation was difficult to determine. The spatial threshold (WD: L) had a value of 31.40:100 for meadow steppe, 8.53:100 for typical steppe and 42.21:100 for desert steppe. Conclusion: Land managers cannot easily determine the risk of degeneration according to the vegetation composition or function group. So the spatial threshold is important for implemented strategies to prevent degradation, and our study provides new insights to improve the management and restoration of degraded grassland in Inner Mongolia.