Evaluating the fitness for use of spatial data sets to promote quality in ecological assessment and monitoring     

Isabel Pôças  João Gonçalves  Bruno Marcos  Joaquim Alonso  Pedro Castro  João P. Honrado 《International journal of geographical information science》2014,28(11):2356-2371

This article proposes and illustrates a practical methodological framework to evaluate the fitness for use of spatial data sets for environmental and ecological applications, focusing on user requirements for specified application contexts. The methodology is based on the use of metadata to analyze similarity between the data characteristics and the user’s needs or expectations for several quality indicators. Additionally, the concept of ‘critical factors’ is introduced in this framework, allowing users to define which quality indicators have greater importance given their own requirements or expectations and the specified application contexts. The proposed methodology further allows integrating and interconnecting the spatial data quality (SDQ) evaluation methodology with metadata geoportals in WebGIS platforms, facilitating its operation by users from non-spatial disciplines and with often limited expertise on this subject. Examples of the evaluation of fitness for use for specific application contexts within the project BIO_SOS (‘Biodiversity Multi-SOurce Monitoring System: From Space To Species’ FP7 project) are presented. By providing a prompt and straightforward evaluation tool, the proposed methodology can encourage the implementation of SDQ evaluation routines in ecological assessment and monitoring programs, promoting a more adequate use of geospatial data and ultimately contributing to well-supported policy and management decisions.  相似文献   

Coastal vulnerability in barrier islands: The high risk areas of the Ria Formosa (Portugal) system     

Filipe Rafael Ceia  Joana Patrício  João Carlos Marques  João Alveirinho Dias 《Ocean & Coastal Management》2010,53(8):478-486

Coastal vulnerability in barrier island systems is extremely high. The barrier island shoreline is exposed to many threats, such as storm erosion, reductions in sediment longshore drift and sea level rise. Many of these threats to coastal areas, such as Ria Formosa, are likely to increase in the near future. The main objectives of the present study are to identify the areas in the system that are at most risk by assessing the evolution of the Ria Formosa barrier island system since the 1940s, and determine which interventions would be necessary to protect these areas.The coastal vulnerability of the system was assessed based on current literature, data available from official institutions, and aerial and terrestrial in situ examination. The results obtained for the evolution of the Ria Formosa coastal system reveal that there are several vulnerable areas that have very dynamic processes, such as extremely high evolution rates of islands and inlets. Human actions that affect the whole system, namely the construction of many physical structures, are the main cause of the instability. Moreover, as several stakeholders are involved, efficient management of the coastal system is imperative. Extensive and careful interventions are urgently needed to avoid irreversible negative impacts on the barrier island system. Three types of techniques could be adopted to deal with the threats to barrier islands: hard stabilization, soft techniques, and non-structural alternatives. However, using hard techniques has many negative effects compared to soft techniques, and as a result it is necessary to remove existing structures from the areas at most risk.  相似文献   

Feature: Geology of the bridges of the Dorset Stour     

Jo Thomas 《Geology Today》2004,20(4):149-152

Famously, geology is on our doorstep, and an understanding of the geology of everyday things helps us communicate to those for whom it is a closed subject. The stone bridges of the River Stour from Stourhead to Christchurch in southern England are a topic worthy of study and rewarding as an example of the variety of the geology of this part of England.  相似文献   

Regional dispersion of first-order overtone Rayleigh waves     

Emile A. Okal  Bong-Gon Jo 《Geophysical Journal International》1983,72(2):461-481

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Nickel, Copper, Zinc and Cadmium Cycling with Manganese in Lake Vanda (Wright Valley, Antarctica)     

William J. Green  Brian R. Stage  Bonnie Jo Bratina  Shannon Wagers  Adam Preston  Kevin O’bryan  Joseph Shacat  Silvia Newell 《Aquatic Geochemistry》2004,10(3-4):303-323

Lake Vanda is a closed-basin, permanently ice-covered lake located in the Wright Valley of Antarctica. The lakes more important geochemical features include the fact that it is fed by a single glacial melt water stream for only 6–8weeks out of the year; that it has remained stratified for more than a millennium; and that, like other lakes in the region, it is remote from anthropogenic influence. These, together with the fact that it is among the least biologically productive lakes in the world, make it an ideal system for examining the transport, cycling and fate of trace metals in the aquatic environment. Like others before us, we view this lake as a natural geochemical laboratory, a flask in the desert. This paper presents the first set of closely spaced, vertical, profiles for dissolved and particulate Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd in the water column. Despite the absence of an outflow, metals in the fresh upper waters of the lake have extremely low concentrations, in the pico-molar to nano-molar range, and are partitioned largely into dissolved rather than particulate phases. Efficient metal scavenging by particles from these oxygen-rich waters is indicated. Significant increases in metal concentrations begin to appear at depth, between 57 and 60m, and these increases coincide with the onset of manganese oxide dissolution in oxic, but lower pH waters. Vertical profiles suggest that the entire suite of trace metals (Ni, Cu, Zn, and Cd) is being released from manganese oxide carrier phases. Thermodynamic analysis indicates that Mn3O4 (i.e., the mineral hausmannite) may be important in metal sequestration and recycling in the deeper waters of Lake Vanda. Manganese-reducing organisms reported by Bratina etal. (1998) are active in the zone of metal release and these could also contribute to the observed cycling.  相似文献   

On the long-term context of the 1997–2009 ‘Big Dry’ in South-Eastern Australia: insights from a 206-year multi-proxy rainfall reconstruction     

Joëlle Gergis  Ailie Jane Eyre Gallant  Karl Braganza  David John Karoly  Kathryn Allen  Louise Cullen  Rosanne D’Arrigo  Ian Goodwin  Pauline Grierson  Shayne McGregor 《Climatic change》2012,111(3-4):923-944

This study presents the first multi-proxy reconstruction of rainfall variability from the mid-latitude region of south-eastern Australia (SEA). A skilful rainfall reconstruction for the 1783–1988 period was possible using twelve annually-resolved palaeoclimate records from the Australasian region. An innovative Monte Carlo calibration and verification technique is introduced to provide the robust uncertainty estimates needed for reliable climate reconstructions. Our ensemble median reconstruction captures 33% of inter-annual and 72% of decadal variations in instrumental SEA rainfall observations. We investigate the stability of regional SEA rainfall with large-scale circulation associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) over the past 206 years. We find evidence for a robust relationship with high SEA rainfall, ENSO and the IPO over the 1840–1988 period. These relationships break down in the late 18th–early 19th century, coinciding with a known period of equatorial Pacific Sea Surface Temperature (SST) cooling during one of the most severe periods of the Little Ice Age. In comparison to a markedly wetter late 18th/early 19th century containing 75% of sustained wet years, 70% of all reconstructed sustained dry years in SEA occur during the 20th century. In the context of the rainfall estimates introduced here, there is a 97.1% probability that the decadal rainfall anomaly recorded during the 1998–2008 ‘Big Dry’ is the worst experienced since the first European settlement of Australia.  相似文献   

Nitrous oxide emissions from gasohol, ethanol and CNG light duty vehicles     

Vanderlei Borsari  Jo?o Vicente de Assun??o 《Climatic change》2012,111(3-4):519-531

A sample of 21 light duty vehicles powered by Otto cycle engines were tested on a chassis dynamometer to measure the exhaust emissions of nitrous oxide (N₂O). The tests were performed at the Vehicle Emission Laboratory of CETESB (Environmental Company of the State of Sao Paulo) using the US-FTP-75 (Federal Test Procedure) driving cycle. The sample tested included passenger cars running on three types of fuels used in Brazil: gasohol, ethanol and CNG. The measurement of N₂O was made using two methods: Non Dispersive InfraRed (NDIR) analyzer and Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR). Measurements of regulated pollutants were also made in order to establish correlations between N₂O and NO_x. The average N₂O emission factors obtained by the NDIR method was 78?±?41?mg.km^?1 for vehicles running with gasohol, 73?±?45?mg.km^?1 for ethanol vehicles and 171?±?69?mg.km^?1 for CNG vehicles. Seventeen results using the FTIR method were also obtained. For gasohol vehicles the results showed a good agreement between the two methods, with an average emission factor of 68?±?41?mg.km^?1. The FTIR measurement results of N₂O for ethanol and CNG vehicles were much lower than those obtained by the NDIR method. The emission factors were 17?±?10?mg.km^?1 and 33?±?17?mg.km^?1, respectively, possibly because of the interference of water vapor (present at a higher concentration in the exhaust gases of these vehicles) on measurements by the NDIR method.  相似文献   

The meteorological framework and the cultural memory of three severe winter-storms in early eighteenth-century Europe     

Christian Pfister  Emmanuel Garnier  Maria-João Alcoforado  Dennis Wheeler  Jürg Luterbacher  Maria Fatima Nunes  João Paulo Taborda 《Climatic change》2010,101(1-2):281-310

Three violent eighteenth-century storms that ravaged the North Sea area (1703), western central Europe (1739) and Portugal (1739) are investigated from the point of view of their meteorological setting, their socio-economic impact, and whether and by what means they secured an enduring place in the cultural memory. The evidence draws on individual narrative sources such as chronicles and poems, and institutional sources such as ship’s logbooks and state-organised ‘windthrow’ inventories of tree loss. Each of the three storms had socio-economic impacts that could be described as ‘war-like’ in the damage caused to buildings and the destruction of forests. The “Great Storm” of December 1703 jeopardized English naval supremacy in the War of the Spanish Succession by sinking a number of Royal Navy ships and taking the life of more than 8000 seamen. In January 1739 two similarly destructive storms swept over mainland Europe. The cultural memory of the three events here considered was however strikingly different. The sequence of storms in January 1739 though being the most protracted of the last centuries, and well-chroniceled, did not persist in the collective memories of those in France, Switzerland and elsewhere who experienced them. Likewise, the “Great Storm” was quickly forgotten on the continent, whereas its memory remained deeply rooted in England through the writings of Defoe (1704). In Portugal the 1739 storm won a lasting place in the country’s cultural memory owing to two poems that it inspired. Furthermore, it was recorded in the Kingdom’s official newspaper, in the astronomical prognoses and in written records of the Old Regime’s cultural elite.  相似文献   

A history of ENSO events since A.D. 1525: implications for future climate change   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Joëlle L. Gergis  Anthony M. Fowler 《Climatic change》2009,92(3-4):343-387

Reconstructions of past climate are important for providing a historical context for evaluating the nature of 20th century climate change. Here, a number of percentile-based palaeoclimate reconstructions were used to isolate signals of both phases of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). A total of 92 (82) El Niño (La Niña) events were reconstructed since A.D. 1525. Significantly, we introduce the most comprehensive La Niña event record compiled to date. This annual record of ENSO events can now be used for independent verification of climate model simulations, reconstructions of ENSO indices and as a chronological control for archaeologists/social scientists interested in human responses to past climate events. Although extreme ENSO events are seen throughout the 478-year ENSO reconstruction, approximately 43% of extreme and 28% of all protracted ENSO events (i.e. both El Niño and La Niña phase) occur in the 20th century. The post-1940 period alone accounts for 30% of extreme ENSO years observed since A.D. 1525. These results suggest that ENSO may operate differently under natural (pre-industrial) and anthropogenic background states. As evidence of stresses on water supply, agriculture and natural ecosystems caused by climate change strengthens, studies into how ENSO will operate under global warming should be a global research priority.  相似文献   

Model-based remote sensing algorithms for particulate organic carbon (POC) in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico     

Young Baek Son  Wilford D. Gardner  Alexey V. Mishonov  Mary Jo Richardson 《Journal of Earth System Science》2009,118(1):1-10

Hydrographic data, including particulate organic carbon (POC) from the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico (NEGOM) study, were combined with remotely-sensed SeaWiFS data to estimate POC concentration using principal component analysis (PCA). The spectral radiance was extracted at each NEGOM station, digitized, and averaged. The mean value and spurious trends were removed from each spectrum. De-trended data included six wavelengths at 58 stations. The correlation between the weighting factors of the first six eigenvectors and POC concentration were applied using multiple linear regression. PCA algorithms based on the first three, four, and five modes accounted for 90, 95, and 98% of total variance and yielded significant correlations with POC with R ² = 0.89, 0.92, and 0.93. These full waveband approaches provided robust estimates of POC in various water types. Three different analyses (root mean square error, mean ratio and standard deviation) showed similar error estimates, and suggest that spectral variations in the modes defined by just the first four characteristic vectors are closely correlated with POC concentration, resulting in only negligible loss of spectral information from additional modes. The use of POC algorithms greatly increases the spatial and temporal resolution for interpreting POC cycling and can be extrapolated throughout and perhaps beyond the area of shipboard sampling.  相似文献