Botanical resources usage in the tourist product of the city: cartographic vision

Urban tourism is identified as one of the main destinations of the XXI century. Its intensification is associated with overcoming the critical situation in the industry, which will require expanding the variety of tourist products. The potential opportunity for this matter will include active involvement of botanical resources in them, which will enable increasing interest for the existing projects as well as selecting the most promising ones. It is noted that vegetation cover is an integral component of all urbanized territories not used in the full volume in the tourist product of cities despite the resources’ high potential. Cartographic method is presented as the universal, informative, visual and operational-predictive one. The purpose of the study was to create a cartographic interpretation of the botanical resources potential usage for urban tourism development using the example of Khabarovsk. For the first time, a map “Objects with high potential of botanical resources for tourism development in Khabarovsk” (scale 1

Geodetic foundations of cartography in Europe in 19th century

Geodetic surveying comprises the determination of locations on and the dimensions of the earth’s surface at a various scales. In the 19th century, its technologies are those of direct measurement of the earth’s surface combined with astronomical observations. Its social context encompasses all those individuals and institutions involved in the creation, preservation, use, and arrangement of knowledge of the earth. In the introductory part of the paper the author mentions several important events in the history of the 19th century geodesy. Geodetic work on determining the size of the Earth by measuring the lengths of the meridian arcs continues in this century. An international surveying organization was established and the international meter convention adopted. Basing on a detailed research of geodetic surveying in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the 19th century, a part of these surveys is presented that relates to Switzerland, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Common to all these geodetic surveys is that they were necessary for the development of cartography and were carried out by military institutions. The developed geodetic networks are characterized by the use of different ellipsoids, different prime meridians, different coordinate systems and their origin. In the area under consideration in the 19th century, there were five different ellipsoids in use suggested by Bessel, Bonenberger, Schmidt, Valbeck and Zach. Prime meridians were

The Earth’s surface remote sensing methods used to explore heat islands in the city of Tyumen

The authors present the results of mapping the “heat island” surface in the city of Tyumen and determining its spatial and seasonal manifestations using the Landsat-8 satellite data. Geothermic scenes of four seasons were obtained and analyzed

Determination of the geodetic latitude and height by spatial geocentric coordinates

The authors propose to derive the formulas given in [1, 2] for determining the height and latitude based on the Cartesian rectangular coordinates X, Y, Z, giving an accuracy for the geodetic height H of 1 mm for heights up to 50 km and for geodetic latitude B of 0,0001 arc seconds for H < 10 km. The formulas proposed in [1, 2] apply to all values of latitude and longitude (B and L). In [3], we propose two new formulas for H and B. In this paper, it is shown that the formulas proposed in [3] apply to points of ellipsoid surface and points with geodetic latitude of 0° and 90°. For the same formulas proposed in [3], the corrections are derived to ensure an accuracy of H of 1 mm at H ≤ 10 km, which apply to all values of B and L. Basing on the presented geometric conclusions, calculations and analyzes, a new solution for H and B respectively is proposed for given X, Y, Z, which provides an accuracy for H less than 1 mm for H ≤ 100 km and for B of 0,0001 arc seconds for H ≤ 50 km.

Matters of choosing the pixel size in topographic aerial photography

The existing regulatory documents on photogrammetric works are technologically outdated. They neither take into account the peculiarities of aerial photography with digital cameras, the navigation equipment used and modern image processing methods, nor regulate the technique of calculating the pixel size on the ground. In order to select the pixel size in the terrain for aerial photography with topographic requirements concerning to the results, the method of multivariate analysis of the input data is proposed. It is supposed to ensure the minimum pixel size on the ground according to such criteria as the accuracy of the aerial triangulation results, the accuracy of building a digital elevation model for orthotransformation, the possibility of the objects interpretation with a specified minimum size and consideration of camera exposure parameters. To determine the accuracy criteria, we used formulas for pre- calculation of spatial phototriangulation accuracy with multiple choice of parameters. Examples of pixel size selection in the terrain at designing aerial photography by an amateur camera for the purposes of large-scale mapping are considered. Conclusions on the necessity of solving the issues of selecting parameters of large scale aerial photography, taking into account multiple input data and used aerial survey equipment are made.

Gravity acceleration changes in Russian stations of comparing absolute gravimeters

The article deals with the study of changes in the values of gravitational accelerations at the Russian comparison’s sites of the absolute gravimeters “Pulkovo”, “Svetloye” and “Zvenigorod” for the years of 2007–2013. A significant increase of the values instead of the expected decrease was obtained. The authors make an attempt to reveal the reasons for that basing on the calculation of the change in the gravitational field using the Bouguer and Faye corrections. The estimates do not fully explain the phenomenon, according neither to gravimeters nor to satellite data. At the sites of “Pulkovo” and “Svetloye”, the measured changes in the values differ from the calculated ones by +5,7 and 6,6 μGal, which significantly exceeds the errors of the absolute gravimeters. The change of the gravity varies from satellites GRACE data by 9,4 μGal at the “Zvenigorod” site. This may be due to local hydrological reasons. Determining the causes of gravity changes at the absolute stations of gravity network is an urgent task.

Multi-scale assessment and mapping of anthropogenic impacts on the atmosphere

The authors present a method of multi-scale integrated assessment of anthropogenic impact on the atmospheric air as part of a comprehensive environmental assessment of the European states territory. Multiscale assessment enables identifying areas of the greatest impact and determining the relations between objects of administrative-territorial division. The methodology is based on the aggregation of indicators of human exposure to atmospheric air at various scale levels. For a multi-scale assessment of the anthropogenic impact, 3 levels of research were selected

On the presentation of the heights theory in the Russian literature

Our review of the Russian literature on geodesy caused a desire to consider the texts related to determining the heights of points on the earth’s surface. This topic, seeming simple, is very complex and is a mandatory part of most textbooks for students of geodetic specialties in universities and colleges. The presentation of the heights theory in the course of topography affects not only the specialized departments of construction, polytechnic universities and specialized colleges, but higher geodetic educational institutions as well. The authors review and evaluate the sections on the theory of heights in the domestic educational geodetic literature. Typical inaccuracies in the presentation of elevation systems are analyzed, criticism of the most common clichés among surveyors is given, recommendations are made on the minimum of presentation of the elevation system for non-specialists, and some useful illustrations are provided to make understanding the essence of the phenomenon easier. The article was written basing on the experience of lecturing height systems by employees of the departments of surveying and higher geodesy. We hope to arouse the interest to this topic.

Methodological approach to creating a catalog of test objects for evaluating the space survey materials quality

The necessity of solving a number of methodological tasks is substantiated, aimed at ensuring the objectivity of estimating the visual, measuring and information quality of materials for remote sensing the Earth on the basis of test sites. The results of generalization of the accumulated practical work experience on creating test sections, which are formalized as a methodological approach to creating a priori data base for assessing the space survey materials quality, are presented. As part of the proposed methodological approach to arranging a priori data base for assessing the Earth remote sensing materials quality, a set of issues related to the requirements for selecting test sites, sampling and justification of test objects at sites, determining the characteristics of these objects, the content of the test site, requirements to the site passport and passports of test objects, to the content of the database in the form of a geoinformation system of the test site is reflected. The urgency of developing a network of test sites for control, calibration and estimating the quality of the obtained materials from space survey systems, the main elements of which are typical objects of natural and anthropogenic origin, is substantiated. A set of issues related to maintaining the test sites up-to-date is considered.

Studying the homogeneity of the coordinate base SSC-2011 at arranging a special-purpose geodetic network

The results of studies on the SSC-2011 coordinate base homogeneity carried out in the process of linking a special-purpose geodetic network’s points to this coordinate system are presented. The research consisted of multiple determinations of the differential geodetic stations (DGS) coordinates in GSK-2011 from different types of the coordinate base of this system. In the first version, they were obtained through their binding to the nearest points of the SGN with known coordinates in the SSC-2011. In the second one, the DGS was linked to SSC-2011 by GNSS vectors to four FAGS points. In the third variant, in order to obtain these coordinates in SSC-2011 the reference were four points of the IGS network. The grid coordinates of the DGS determined in GSK-2011 from the FAGS and IGS points coincided within 1,3 cm. Those of the DGS in SSC-2011, from points of the SGN, differ from the ones obtained in the FAGS and IGS by maximum values up to 21,8 cm, 22,2 cm, 27,2 cm in the abscissa, ordinate, and position, respectively. The derived data on the degree of heterogeneity of the SGN in SSC-2011 enable concluding the impracticality of using it as the coordinate basis of this system at carrying out works, requiring positioning accuracy at the level of several centimeters.