The assessment of biomass carbon stocks was conducted at plot scale as a sample to estimate for all vegetation areas by using destructive sampling and or allometric equation method. Remote sensing is one of the techniques can be used to estimate and mapping biomass carbon stock for the entire areas. The objectives of the study are the identification and determine the range of electromagnetic wave of Landsat 8 satellite data that most suitable for assessing and mapping biomass carbon stock distribution. This research analyses exponential regression equation between spectral radiance values (Lλi) for with biomass measurement results on the field to find the best correlation based on the coefficient of determination value (R2). It also analyses the relationship between field biomass and NDVI value (Normal Differences Vegetation Index) from satellite data. The study area consists of 54.9% bush (Bs), 24.5% scrub (Sc), 16.8% secondary forest (Sf), while the rest (3.8%) is a water body. The with average biomass carbon stock value 4.11 tons.ha-1, 64.43 tons.ha-1, and 85.36 tons.ha-1, for strata Sc, Bs, and Sf respectively. Spectral radiance of SWIR (Shortwave Infra-Red) band 6 is determined as a spectral characteristic that can be used to estimating carbon stock with following the equation Y= 12657(EXP(-0.642(Lλband6)) with r2 = 0.75. Correlation NDVI and field biomass showed the low r2 value (0.08), so in this study, NDVI cannot be used to estimate the biomass carbon stock.

This research focuses on the effect of trampling on vegetation in high-mountain ecosystems through the electromagnetic spectrum’s interaction with plant pigments, cell structure, water content and other substances that have a direct impact on leaf properties. The most heavily visited part of the High Tatras in Poland was divided into polygons and, after selecting the dominant species within alpine swards, a detailed analysis of trampled and reference patterns was performed. An ASD FieldSpec 3 was used to acquire high-resolution spectral properties of plants, their fluorescence and the leaf chlorophyll content with the ts-ta temperature index and fraction of accumulated radiation in the range of photosynthesis (fAPAR) used as reference data. The results show that, along tourist trails, vegetation adapts to trampling with the impact depending on the species. A lower chlorophyll value was confirmed by a decrease in fluorescence, and the state of cellular structures was degraded in trampled compared to reference species, with a lower leaf reflectance. Also, at the extreme, trampling can eliminate certain species such as Luzula alpino-pilosa.

Suitable measures of grazing impacts on ground cover, that enable separation of the effects of climatic variations, are needed to inform land managers and policy makers across the arid rangelands of the Northern Territory of Australia. This work developed and tested a time-series, change-point detection method for application to time series of vegetation fractional cover derived from Landsat data to identify irregular and episodic ground-cover growth cycles. These cycles were classified to distinguish grazing impacts from that of climate variability. A measure of grazing impact was developed using a multivariate technique to quantify the rate and degree of ground cover change. The method was successful in detecting both long term (> 3 years) and short term (< 3 years) growth cycles. Growth cycle detection was assessed against rainfall surplus measures indicating a relationship with high rainfall periods. Ground cover change associated with grazing impacts was also assessed against field measurements of ground cover indicating a relationship between both field and remotely sensed ground cover. Cause and effects between grazing practices and ground cover resilience can now be explored in isolation to climatic drivers. This is important to the long term balance between ground cover utilisation and overall landscape function and resilience.

Water pollution associated with flooding is one of the major problems in cities in the global South. However, studies of water quality dynamics during flood events are not often reported in literature, probably due to difficult conditions for sampling during flood events. Water quality parameters in open water (canals, rivers, and lakes), floodwater on roads and water in sewers have been monitored during the extreme fluvial flood event on 7 October 2013 in Can Tho city, Vietnam. This is the pioneering study of urban flood water pollution in real time in Vietnam. The results showed that water quality is very dynamic during flooding, especially at the beginning of the event. In addition, it was observed that the pathogen and contaminant levels in the floodwater are almost as high as in sewers. The findings show that population exposed to flood water runs a health risk that is nearly equal to that of being in contact with sewer water. Therefore the people of Can Tho not only face physical risk due to flooding, but also exposed to health risk.

Thorium (Th) is a natural radioactive element present in the environment and has a potential to be used as a nuclear fuel. Relatively little is known about the influence and toxicity of Th in the environment. In the present study, the toxicity of Th to the green algae Chlorella pyrenoidosa (C. Pyrenoidosa) was evaluated by algal growth inhibition, biochemical assays and morphologic observations. In the cultural medium (OECD TG 201), Th(NO₃)₄ was transformed to amorphous precipitation of Th(OH)₄ due to hydrolysis. Th was toxic to C. Pyrenoidosa, with a 96 h half maximum effective concentration (EC₅₀) of 10.4 μM. Scanning electron microscopy shows that Th-containing aggregates were attached onto the surface of the algal cells, and transmission electron microscopy indicates the internalization of nano-sized Th precipitates and ultrastructural alterations of the algal cells. The heteroagglomeration between Th(OH)₄ precipitation and alga cells and enhanced oxidative stress might play important roles in the toxicity of Th. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the toxicity of Th to algae with its chemical species in the exposure medium. This finding provides useful information on understanding the fate and toxicity of Th in the aquatic environment.

The segmentation of urban scene mobile laser scanning (MLS) data into meaningful street objects is a great challenge due to the scene complexity of street environments, especially in the vicinity of street objects such as poles and trees. This paper proposes a three-stage method for the segmentation of urban MLS data at the object level. The original unorganized point cloud is first voxelized, and all information needed is stored in the voxels. These voxels are then classified as ground and non-ground voxels. In the second stage, the whole scene is segmented into clusters by applying a density-based clustering method based on two key parameters: local density and minimum distance. In the third stage, a merging step and a re-assignment processing step are applied to address the over-segmentation problem and noise points, respectively. We tested the effectiveness of the proposed methods on two urban MLS datasets. The overall accuracies of the segmentation results for the two test sites are 98.3% and 97%, thereby validating the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Woody vegetation in farmland acts as a carbon sink and provides ecosystem services for local people, but no macro-scale assessments of the impact of management and climate on woody cover exists for drylands. Here we make use of very high spatial resolution satellite imagery to derive wall-to-wall woody cover patterns in tropical West African drylands. In arid and semi-arid Sahel, areas of more people are associated with more trees: mean woody cover is greater in farmlands (12%) than in savannas (6%), and likewise it is higher close to villages than further away. In sub-humid savannas of West Africa, woody cover is generally above 20% and decreases with increasing population density, but remains around 15% in farmlands, independent of rainfall. In the region as a whole, rainfall, terrain and soil are the most important (80%) determinants of woody cover, while management factors play a smaller (20%) role. We conclude that agricultural expansion cannot generally be claimed to cause woody cover losses, and that observations in Sahel contradict simplistic ideas of a high negative correlation between population density and woody cover.

The variations of visibility, PM mass concentration and mixing layer height (MLH) at four major urban-industry regions (Shenyang, Anshan, Benxi and Fushun) in multi-cities of central Liaoning over northeast China were evaluated from 2009-2012 to characterize the dynamics effect on air pollution. The annual mean visibilities were about 13.7±7.8km, 13.5±6.5km, 12.8±6.1km and 11.5±6.8km in Shenyang, Anshan, Benxi and Fushun, respectively. The pollution load (PM×MLH) shown a weaker vertical diffusion in Anshan with a higher PM concentration in the near-surface. High concentrations of fine mode particles may be partially attributed to the biomass burning emissions from September in Liaoning Province and surrounding regions in Northeast China as well as the coal burning during the heating period with lower MLH in winter. The increasing wind speed has a similar change as the increasing of mixing layer height to make the effect on the aerosol vertical diffusion. The visibility on the non haze-fog days was about 2.5-3.0 times higher than that on hazy and fog days. The fine particle concentrations of PM2.5 and PM1.0 on the haze and fog days were ~1.8-1.9 times and ~1.5 times higher than that on no hazy-fog days. The MLH during fog pollution showed more declining trend than haze pollution compared with non haze-fog days. The results of this study could provide the useful information to better recognize the effects of vertical pollutants diffusion on air quality in the multi-cities of central Liaoning over Northeast China.

Sulfate, the main dissolved contaminant in acid mine drainage (AMD), is ubiquitous in watersheds affected by coal and metal mining operations worldwide. Engineered passive bioremediation systems (PBS) are low-cost technologies that remediate sulfate contamination by promoting (1) precipitation of sulfate-bearing compounds, such as schwertmannite and gypsum; and (2) microbially-mediated sulfate reduction (BSR) to sulfide with subsequent precipitation of sulfide minerals. In this study, chemical and sulfur isotopic data are used to infer multiple pathways for sulfate sequestration in the Tab-Simco PBS. By simultaneously monitoring sulfate concentrations and δ34SSO4 values at four sampling points across the PBS, we (1) identified that the organic layer within the bioreactor was the primary site of BSR processes contributing to sulfate sequestration; (2) observed seasonal variations of BSR processes; (3) estimated that initially the BSR processes contributed up to 30% to sulfate sequestration in the Tab-Simco bioreactor; and (4) determined that BSR contribution to sulfate sequestration continuously declined over the PBS operational lifetime. Together, our results highlight the utility of combining geochemical and microbial fingerprinting techniques to decipher complementary processes involved in sulfur cycling in a PBS as well as the value of adding the sulfur isotope approach as an essential tool to help understand, predict, prevent and mitigate sulfate contamination in AMD-impacted systems.

The main goal of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission over land surfaces is the production of global maps of soil moisture (SM) and vegetation optical depth (τ) based on multi-angular brightness temperature (TB) measurements at L-band. The operational SMOS Level 2 and Level 3 soil moisture algorithms account for different surface effects, such as vegetation opacity and soil roughness at 4 km resolution, in order to produce global retrievals of SM and τ. In this study, we present an alternative SMOS product which was developed by INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) and CESBIO (Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère). This SMOS-INRA-CESBIO (SMOS-IC) product provides daily SM and τ at the global scale and differs from the operational SMOS Level 3 (SMOSL3) product in the treatment of retrievals over heterogeneous pixels. Specifically, SMOS-IC is much simpler and does not account for corrections associated to the antenna pattern and the complex SMOS viewing angle geometry. It considers pixels as homogeneous to avoid uncertainties and errors linked to inconsistent auxiliary data sets which are used to characterize the pixel heterogeneity in the SMOS L3 algorithm. SMOS-IC also differs from the current SMOSL3 product (Version 300, V300) in the values of the effective vegetation scattering albedo (ω) and soil roughness parameters. An inter-comparison is presented in this study based on the use of ECMWF (European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting) SM outputs and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) from MODIS (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer). A 6 year (2010-2015) inter-comparison of the SMOS products SMOS-IC and SMOSL3 SM (V300) with ECMWF SM yielded higher correlations and lower ubRMSD (unbiased root mean square difference) for SMOS-IC over most of the pixels. In terms of τ, SMOS-IC τ was found to be better correlated to MODIS NDVI in most regions of the globe, with the exception of the Amazonian basin and of the northern mid-latitudes.

A case-crossover study examined how PM_2.5 from Asian Dust Storms (ADS) affects the number of emergency room (ER) admissions for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and respiratory diseases (RDs). Our data indicated that PM_2.5 concentration from ADS was highly correlated with ER visits for CVDs and RDs. The odds ratios (OR) increased by 2.92 (95% CI: 1.22-5.08) and 1.86 (95% CI: 1.30-2.91) per increase 10 µg/m³ in PM_2.5 levels, for CVDs and RDs, respectively. A 10 µg/m³ increase in PM_2.5 from ADSs was significantly associated with increase in ER visits for CVDs among those 65 years of age and older (an increase of 2.77 in OR) and for females (an increase of 3.09 in OR). In contrast, PM_2.5 levels had a significant impact on RD ER visits among those under 65 years of age (OR=1.77). The risk of ER visits for CVDs increased on the day when the ADS occurred in Taiwan and the day after (lag 0 and lag 1); the corresponding risk increase for RDs only increased on the fifth day after the ADS (lag 5). In Taiwan’s late winter and spring, the severity of ER visits for CVDs and RDs increases. Environmental protection agencies should employ an early warning system for ADS to reduce high-risk groups’ exposure to PM_2.5.

Understanding the dynamics of Organic Carbon mineralization is fundamental in forecasting biosphere to atmosphere Net Carbon Ecosystem Exchange (NEE). With this perspective, we developed 3D-CMCC-PSM, a new version of the hybrid Process Based Model 3D‐CMCC FEM where also heterotrophic respiration (R_h) is explicitly simulated. The aim was to quantify NEE as a forward problem, by subtracting Ecosystem Respiration (R_eco) to Gross Primary Productivity (GPP). To do so, we developed a simplification of the Soil Carbon dynamics routine proposed in DNDC [1]. The method calculates decomposition as a function of soil moisture, temperature, state of the organic compartments, and relative abundance of microbial pools. Given the pulse dynamics of soil respiration, we introduced modifications in some of the principal constitutive relations involved in phenology and littering sub-routines. We quantified the model structure related uncertainty in NEE, by running our training simulations over 1000 random parameter-sets extracted from parameters distributions expected from literature. 3D-CMCC-PSM predictability was tested on independent time series for 6 Fluxnet sites. The model resulted in daily and monthly estimations highly consistent with the observed time series. It showed lower predictability in Mediterranean ecosystems, suggesting that it may need further improvements in addressing evapotranspiration and water dynamics.

Aerial image classification has become popular and has attracted extensive research efforts in recent decades. The main challenge lies in its very high spatial resolution but relatively insufficient spectral information. To this end, spatial-spectral feature extraction is a popular strategy for classification. However, parameter determination for that feature extraction is usually time-consuming and depends excessively on experience. In this paper, an automatic spatial feature extraction approach based on image raster and segmental vector data cross-analysis is proposed for the classification of very high spatial resolution (VHSR) aerial imagery. First, multi-resolution segmentation is used to generate strongly homogeneous image objects and extract corresponding vectors. Then, to automatically explore the region of a ground target, two rules, which are derived from Tobler’s First Law of Geography (TFL) and a topological relationship of vector data, are integrated to constrain the extension of a region around a central object. Third, the shape and size of the extended region are described. A final classification map is achieved through a supervised classifier using shape, size, and spectral features. Experiments on three real aerial images of VHSR (0.1 to 0.32 m) are done to evaluate effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach. Comparisons to state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method in VHSR image classification.

Remote sensing datasets are increasingly being used to provide spatially explicit large scale evapotranspiration (ET) estimates. The focus of this study was to estimate and thematically map on a pixel-by-pixel basis, the actual evapotranspiration (ET_a) of the Wonji Shoa Sugarcane Estate using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEB) and Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) algorithms. The results obtained revealed that the ranges of the daily ETa estimated on January 25, February 26, September 06 and October 08, 2002 using SEBAL were 0.0 - 6.85, 0.0 – 9.36, 0.0 – 3.61, 0.0 – 6.83 mm/day; using SSEB 0.0 - 6.78, 0.0 – 7.81, 0.0 – 3.65, 0.0 – 6.46 mm/day, and SSEBop were 0.05 - 8.25, 0.0 – 8.82, 0.2 – 4.0, 0.0 – 7.40 mm/day, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values between SSEB and SEBAL, SSEBop and SEBAL, and SSEB and SSEBop were 0.548, 0.548, and 0.99 for January 25, 2002; 0.739, 0.753, and 0.994 for February 26, 2002;0.847, 0.846, and 0.999 for September 06, 2002; 0.573, 0.573, and 1.00 for October 08, 2002, respectively. The standard deviation of ET_a over the sugarcane estate showed high spatio-temporal variability perhaps due to soil moisture variability and surface cover. The three algorithm results showed that well watered sugarcane fields in the mid-season growing stage of the crop had higher ET_a values compared with the other dry agricultural fields confirming that they consumptively use more water. Generally during the dry season, ET_a is limited to water surplus areas only and in wet season, ET_a was high throughout the entire sugarcane estate. The evaporation fraction (ETrF) results also followed the same pattern as the daily ET_a over the sugarcane estate. The total crop and irrigation water requirement and effective rainfall estimated using the Cropwat model were 2468.8, 2061.6 and 423.8 mm/yr for January 2001 planted and 2281.9, 1851.0 and 437.8 mm/yr for March 2001 planted sugarcanes, respectively. The mean annual ET_a estimated for the whole estate were 107 Mm³, 140 Mm³, and 178 Mm³ using SEBAL, SSEB, and SSEBop, respectively. Even though the algorithms should be validated through field observation, they have potential to be used for effective estimation of ET in the sugarcane estate.

A field experiment was conducted for 2 years in Green Tea Laboratory of Saitama Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center, Iruma, Saitama, Japan from March 2014 to December 2015. Controlled release fertilizers (CRF) or organic fertilizers (ORG) which is the mixture of chicken manure and oil cakewere applied with the amount of 450 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1 in 2014 and 397 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1 in 2015. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissionsfrom soil in green tea fields were measured by closed chamber method. The results showed that CRF has significantly lower N₂O compared to ORG. The cumulative N₂O emissions from CRF accounted for 51% of N₂O emissions from ORG fields and 138% of control with no fertilizer treatment. The N₂O flux from the row was higher than that of under the canopy, since fertilizer were applied on the row. However the total emission from the area between the rows was lower than that under the canopy because of the area ratio of row and canopy was 1:5.

Outdoor lighting is becoming increasingly widespread, and residents are suffering from serious light pollution as a result. Residents’ awareness of their rights to protection has gradually increased. However, due to the sometimes-inaccessible nature of residential vertical light incidence intensity data and the high cost of obtaining specific measurements, there is no appropriate hierarchic compensation for residents suffering from different degrees of light pollution. It is therefore important to measure light pollution levels and their damage at the neighborhood scale to provide residents with basic materials for proper protection and to create more politically suitable solutions. This article presents a light pollution assessment method that is easy to perform, is low-cost, and has a short data-processing cycle. This method can be used to monitor residential zone light pollution in other cities. We chose three open areas to test the spatial variation pattern of light intensity. The results are in accordance with spatial interpolation patterns and can be fit, with high precision, using the IDW method. This approach can also be used in 3 dimensions to quantitatively evaluate the distribution of light intensity distribution. We use a mixed-use zone in Beijing known as The Place as our case study area. The vertical illumination at the windows of residential buildings ranges from 2 lux to 23 lux; the illumination in some areas is far higher than the value recommended by CIE. Such severe light pollution can seriously interfere with people's daily lives and has a serious influence on their rest and health. The results of this survey will serve as an important database to assess whether the planning of night-time lighting is scientific and whether it provides residents with a basis for the protection of their rights.

Mercury has a strong environmental impact since both its organic and inorganic forms are toxic and it represents a pollutant of global concern. Liquid Hg is highly volatile and it can be released during natural and anthropogenic processes in the hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. In this study the distribution of Gaseous Elemental Mercury (GEM) and the total and leached mercury concentrations on paints, plasters, roof tiles, concretes, metals, dust and wood structures were determined in the main buildings and structures of the former Hg-mining area of Abbadia San Salvatore (Siena, Central Italy). The mining complex (divided into 7 units) covers a surface of about 65 ha and contains mining structures and managers and workers buildings. In this work, nine surveys of GEM measurements were carried out from July 2011 to August 2015 for the buildings and structures located in the units 2, 3 and 6. Moreover, detailed measurements were performed in February, April, July, September and December 2016 in the edifices and mining structures of Unit 6. GEM concentrations showed a strong variability in terms of space and time mostly depending on the distance from the building hosting driers, furnaces and condensers and ambient temperature, respectively. In the Unit 2 surveys carried out in the hotter period (from June to September) showed GEM concentrations up to 27,500 ng m⁻³, while in the Unit 6 they were on average much higher and occasionally they saturated the GEM measurement device (>50,000 ng m⁻³). Concentrations of total (in mg kg⁻¹) and leached (in μg L⁻¹) mercury measured in different building materials (up to 46,580 mg kg⁻¹ and 4,470 mg L⁻¹ for total and leached mercury, respectively) showed for the same type of material highly variable values in dependence on the edifice or mining structure from which they were collected. The results obtained in this study are of relevant interest for the operational cleanings to be carried out during the reclamation activities.

Air pollution has created a lot of problems in the developed and developing countries. To avoid or reduce these problems, constant monitoring of the air should be ensured. The conventional techniques is costly because it requires a lot of money and time consuming. Biomonitoring has been the alternative method. Moss, lichens and plants are biomonitors available to entrap air pollutants. The aim of this paper is to discuss one of the ways of monitoring air pollution – Moss bag technique. To do this, types, choice, preparation, handling of bags after preparation of moss were discussed. From the literatures consulted, it was discovered that there were differences in the techniques used by the researchers. In all, the use of mosses with emphasis on the employment of moss bag have proved to be a powerful tool in airborne particulate and toxic elements. To conclude, developing countries should focus more on this technique because it will reduce cost of air monitoring.

No doubt pollution is a global problem which must be holistically tackled. In doing this, adequate knowledge of the sources of pollution is important, therefore the aim of this paper is to review source apportionment with reference to top-down and bottom-up methods. In this paper, dispersion modeling, emissions inventory, and sampling methods were discussed. Also, analytical methods involved in top-down source apportionment were mentioned. The two techniques are needed to evaluate pollutants and their sources. Based on these two approaches, pollution control strategy would be developed and decisions can be made in deciding the right approach to solve or reduce the pollution problems.

High salt environment was widespread in modern and geological record, and sedimentation induced by microbes in these systems was an important part of sedimentary minerals and rocks. The mechanism of microbiologically induced carbonate precipitation has not been solved thoroughly although numerous scholars and experts have made specifically research of the problems with respect to minerals induced by bacteria. The study of carbonate minerals induced by Halophilic bacteria has aroused wide concern. The present study was aim to investigate the characterization and process of biomineralization in the high salt system, a Halophilic bacterium, Chromohalobacter israelensis LD532 strain (Genbank: KX766026), which isolated from Yinjiashan Saltern of China, was selected as an object to induce carbonate minerals. Carbonate minerals induced by LD532 were investigated in several comparative experimental sets with Mg resources of magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride. Magnesium calcite and aragonite were induced by LD532 bacteria while these minerals were not in the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and energy dispersive X-ray detector. Carbonic anhydrase and urease secreted by strain LD532 through metabolism promoted the pH values of the liquid medium and the process of carbonate precipitation. Further study proved that the nucleation sites of partial carbonate nucleus were located on the extracellular polymeric substance and the membrane of intracellular vesicles of LD532 bacteria by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray detector and ultrathin slices analysis, which provided favorable conditions for the growth of carbonate mineral crystals. The morphology and composition of minerals formed in MgSO4 and MgCl2 solution have significant differences, indicating that different sources of Mg2+ could also affect the physiological and biochemical activities of microorganisms and then affect the mineral deposition. The accomplished study is of certain interest for interpretation of the carbonates biomineraliazation in natural salt environment, and has a certain reference value in understand of the sedimentary carbonates in ancient marine environment like evaporated tidal flat.

Daily maximum surface air temperature (Tamax) is a crucial factor for understanding complex land surface processes under rapid climate change. Remote detection of Tamax has widely relied on the empirical relationship between air temperature and land surface temperature (LST), a product derived from remote sensing. However, little is known about how such a relationship is affected by the high heterogeneity in landscapes and dynamics in seasonality. This study aims to advance our understanding of the roles of land cover and seasonal variation in the estimation of Tamax using the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) LST product. We developed statistical models to link Tamax and LST in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China for five major land-cover types (i.e., forest, shrub, water, impervious surface, cropland, and grassland) and two seasons (i.e., growing season and non-growing season). Results show that the performance of modeling the Tamax-LST relationship was highly dependent on land cover and seasonal variation. Estimating Tamax over grasslands and water bodies achieved superior performance; while uncertainties were high over forested lands that contained extensive heterogeneity in species types, plant structure, and topography. We further found that all the land-cover specific models developed for the plant non-growing season outperformed the corresponding models developed for the growing season. Discrepancies in model performance mainly occurred in the vegetated areas (forest, cropland, and shrub), suggesting an important role of plant phenology in defining the statistical relationship between Tamax and LST. For impervious surfaces, the challenge of capturing the high spatial heterogeneity in urban settings using the low-resolution MODIS data made Tamax estimation a difficult task, which was especially true in the growing season.

No doubt pollution is a global problem which must be holistically tackled. In doing this, adequate knowledge of the sources of pollution is important, therefore the aim of this paper is to review source apportionment with reference to top-down and bottom-up methods. In this paper, dispersion modeling, emissions inventory, and sampling methods were discussed. Also, analytical methods involved in top-down source apportionment were mentioned. The two techniques are needed to evaluate pollutants and their sources. Based on these two approaches, pollution control strategy would be developed and decisions can be made in deciding the right approach to solve or reduce the pollution problems.

In order to investigate the size distributions and seasonal variations of carbonaceous aerosols (OC and EC), the carbonaceous species were collected and then analyzed by using a 9-stage Anderson-type aerosol sampler and DRI Model 2001A Thermal/Optical Carbon Analyzer on the typical industrial city Nanjing in Yangtze River Delta, China in the summer, autumn and winter of 2013 and spring of 2014. OC, EC, SOC and POC exhibited obvious seasonal variations, with the highest level in winter (39.1±14.0, 5.7±2.1, 23.6±11.7 and 14.1±5.7 μg•m^-3) and the lowest level in summer (20.6±6.7, 3.3±2.0, 12.2±3.8 and 8.4±4.1 μg•m^-3), and were mainly centralized in PM_1.1 in four seasons. The concentrations of OC in PM_1.1 varied in the order of winter > autumn > spring > summer, while EC ranked in the order of autumn > winter > summer > spring. In the PM_1.1-2.1 and PM_2.1-10, the concentrations of OC and EC decreased in the sequence of winter > spring > autumn > summer. The size spectra of OC, EC and SOC had bimodal distributions in four seasons, except for EC with four peaks in summer. The size spectra of POC varied greatly with seasons, exhibiting bimodal distribution in winter, trimodal distribution in spring and summer, and four peaks in autumn. The OC/EC ratios were 7.0, 6.3, 7.6 and 6.9 in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, which demonstrated the abundance of secondary organic aerosols in Nanjing. The sources of carbonaceous aerosol varied significantly with seasons, and were dominated by vehicle exhaust, coal and biomass burning in PM_2.1, and dominant by dust, coal and biomass burning in PM_2.1-10.

Albedo is a key variable in the response of glaciers to climate. In Iceland, large albedo variations in the ice caps may be caused by the deposition of volcanic ash (tephra). Sparse in situ field measurements are insufficient to characterize the spatial variation of albedo over the ice caps. Here we evaluate the latest MCD43 MODIS albedo product (collection 6) to monitor albedo over the Icelandic ice caps using albedo from ten automatic weather stations in Vatnajökull and Langjökull as ground truth. We examine the influence of the albedo variability within MODIS pixels by comparing the results with a collection of Landsat scenes. The results indicate a good ability of the MODIS product to characterize the seasonal and interannual albedo changes with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.47 to 0.90 (median 0.84) and a small bias ranging from -0.07 to 0.09. The root-mean square errors (RMSE) ranging from 0.08 and 0.21, is larger than that from previous studies, but we did not discard the retrievals flagged as bad quality to maximize the amount of observations given the frequent cloud obstruction in Iceland. We find a positive but non-significant relationship between the RMSE and the subpixel variability as indicated by the standard deviation of the Landsat albedo within the MODIS pixel (R=0.48). The summer albedo maps and time series computed from the MODIS product show that the albedo decreased significantly after the Eyjafjallajökull and Grímsvötn eruptions in 2010 and 2011 in all the main ice caps (except the northernmost Drangajökull), with albedo reduction up to 0.6 over large regions of the accumulation areas. Following this validation, these data will be assimilated in an energy and mass balance model of to better understand the relative influence of the volcanic and climate forcing to the ongoing mass losses of Icelandic ice caps.

Analysis of 49 strains of F. langsethiae originating from northern Europe (Russia, Finland, Sweden, UK, Norway, and Latvia) revealed the presence of spontaneous auxotrophic mutants that reflect natural intraspecific diversity. Our investigations detected that 49.0% of F. langsethiae strains were auxotrophic mutants for biotin, and 8.2% of the strains required thiamine as a growth factor. They failed to grow on vitamin-free media. For both prototrophic and auxotrophic strains, no growth defect was observed in rich organic media. Without essential vitamins, a significant reduction in the growth of the auxotrophic strains results in a decrease of the formation of T-2 toxin and diacetoxyscirpenol. In addition, all analysed F. langsethiae strains were distinguished into two subgroups based on PCR product sizes. According to our results, 26 and 23 strains of F. langsethiae belong to subgroups I and II respectively. We determined that the deletion in the IGS region of the rDNA of F. langsethiae belonging to subgroup II is linked with temperature sensitivity and causes a decrease in strain growth at 30 °C. Four thiamine auxotrophic strains were found in subgroup I, while 21 biotin auxotrophic strains were detected in subgroups II. To the best of our knowledge, the spontaneous mutations in F. langsethiae observed in the present work have not been previously reported.

This study was conducted to explore the potential of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) from used disposable diapers as soil moisture conditioner. Swelling behavior of the proposed hydrogel in response to external stimuli such as salt solutions, temperature and pH was studied. In addition, laboratory experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of incorporation hydrogel on germination of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and pumpkin (C. pepo) seeds. The structure of the superabsorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results indicate that the proposed SAP exhibited a maximum swelling capacity of 189 g.g-1 of dry gel. It was observed that the swelling capacity decreased with an increase in the ionic strength of the swelling medium. When this SAP was mixed with sandy soil, the mixture was able to lose water more slowly. The seeds germination and seedling growth was remarkably influenced by the application of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 w/w% of SAP compared to the untreated soil. Therefore, it follows that it is possible to take advantage of SAPs property from used disposable diapers to retain the moisture in soil as an alternative to value the use of such waste, showing that it has potential for diverse applications in agriculture.

Channel bends are one of the most important characteristic features of natural streams. These bends often create the conditions for a hyporheic zone, which has been recognized as a critical component of stream ecosystems. The streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity (K_v), vertical hydraulic gradient (VHG) and Darcian flux (DF) in the hyporheic zone were estimated at 61 locations along a channel bend of the Beiluo River during July 2015 and January 2016. All the streambed attributes showed great spatial variability along the channel bend. Both upward fluxes and downward fluxes occurred during the two test periods, most of studied stream sections were controlled by downwelling, indicating stream water discharge into the subsurface. The average downward flux was higher at the downstream side than at the upstream side of the channel bend, especially in July 2015. The distribution of streambed sediment grain size has a significant influence on the variability of K_v; high percentages of silt and clay sediments generally lead to low K_v values. Higher K_v at the depositional left bank at the upstream site shifted toward the erosional right bank at the downstream site, with K_v values positively correlated with the water depth. This study suggested that the variabilities of K_v and VHG were influenced by the stream geomorphology and that the distribution of K_v was inversely related, to a certain extent, to the distribution of VHG across the channel bend. K_v and VHG were found to have opposite effects on the DF, and the close relationship between K_v and DF indicated that the water fluxes were mainly controlled by K_v.

Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) plays an irreplaceable role in regional dry/wet conditions under the background of climate change. Based on the FAO Penman-Monteith method and daily climate variables, ET0 was calculated for 22 stations in and around Songnen Grassland, northeast China, during 1960-2014. The temporal and spatial variations of ET0 and precipitation (P) were comprehensively analyzed at different time scales by using the Mann-Kendall test, Sen’s slope estimator, and linear regression coupling with break trend analysis. Sensitivity analysis was used to detect the key climate parameter attributed to ET0 change. Then, the role of ET0 in regional dry/wet conditions was discussed by analyzing the relationship between ET0, P and aridity index (AI). Results shown a higher ET0 in the southwest and a lower in the northeast, but P was opposite to that of ET0. Evidently decreasing trend of ET0 at different time scales was detected in almost the entire region, and the significant trend mainly distributed in the eastern, northeastern and central. For the whole region, sensitivity analysis indicated decreasing trend of ET0 was primarily attributed to relative humidity and maximum air temperature. The positive contribution of increasing temperature rising to ET0 was offset by the effect of significantly decreasing relative humidity, wind speed and sunshine duration. In addition, the value of ET0 shown higher in drought years and lower in wet years.

From June 18 to 19, 2013, the Ésera river in the Pyrenees, Northern Spain, caused widespread damage due to flooding as a result of torrential rains and sustained snowmelt. We estimate the contribution of snow melt to total discharge applying a snow energy balance to the catchment. Precipitation is derived from sparse local measurements and the WRF-ARW model over three nested domains, down to a grid cell size of 2 km. Temperature profiles, precipitation and precipitation gradient are well simulated, although with a possible displacement regarding the observations. Snowpack melting was correctly reproduced and verified in three instrumented sites, and according to satellite images. We found that the hydrological simulations agree well with measured discharge. Snowmelt represented 33% of total runoff during the main flood event and 23% at peak flow. The snow energy balance model indicates that most of the energy for snow melt during the day of maximum precipitation came from turbulent fluxes. This approach forecast correctly peak flow and discharge during normal conditions at least 24h in advance and could give an early warning of the extreme event 2.5 days before.

We evaluated the potential of using fish species and functional traits as indicators of land use impacts to fish assemblages. We used environmental data collected at multiple spatial scales (local, reach, and upstream catchment) for 19 tributary and main stem sites in the Nolichucky River watershed in Tennessee. Canonical correspondence analyses showed that temperature, elevation, specific conductivity, sediment yield, impervious surfaces, and row crop cover at the catchment scale were strongly associated with fish assemblage structure, as well as forest cover from all three spatial scales. Blocked indicator species analysis, with stream size as the block, showed that significantly strong indicators of the least-impacted riparian land use condition (≥60% forest cover) were Saffron Shiner (Notropis rubricroceus), Rainbow Trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss), Longnose Dace (Rhynichthys cataractae), Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus), and Mottled Sculpin (Cottus bairdi). Traits indicative of the least-impacted sites were the herbivorous trophic guild, mean female age-at-maturity, longevity, rock-gravel spawners, montane geology and pelagic swimmers. Specific conductivity was strongly related to multiple catchment-scale land use variables, and was a strong local-scale influence on fish assemblage structure. Our results show promise for using a relatively common but endemic southern Appalachian fish species, the Saffron Shiner, as an indicator for land-use related impacts to these streams.

Estimating ground surface PM2.5 with fine spatiotemporal resolution is a critical technique for exposure assessments in epidemiological studies of its health risks. Previous studies have utilized monitoring, satellite remote sensing or air quality modeling data to evaluate the spatiotemporal variations of PM2.5 concentrations, but such studies rarely combined these data simultaneously. We develop a three-stage model to fuse PM2.5 monitoring data, satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) and community multi-scale air quality (CMAQ) simulations together and apply it to estimate daily PM2.5 at a spatial resolution of 0.1˚ over China. Performance of the three-stage model is evaluated using a cross-validation (CV) method step by step. CV results show that the finally fused estimator of PM2.5 is in good agreement with the observational data (RMSE = 23.00 μg/m^3 and R2 = 0.72) and outperforms either AOD-retrieved PM2.5 (R2 = 0.62) or CMAQ simulations (R2 = 0.51). According to step-specific CVs, in data fusion, AOD-retrieved PM2.5 plays a key role to reduce mean bias, whereas CMAQ provides all-spacetime-covered predictions, which avoids sampling bias caused by non-random incompleteness in satellite-derived AOD. Our fused products are more capable than either CMAQ simulations or AOD-based estimates in characterizing the polluting procedure during haze episodes and thus can support both chronic and acute exposure assessments of ambient PM2.5. Based on the products, averaged concentration of annual exposure to PM2.5 was 55.75 μg/m3, while averaged count of polluted days (PM2.5 > 75 μg/m3) was 81, across China during 2014. Fused estimates will be publicly available for future health-related studies.

According to the IPCC guidelines, CO₂ emissions from biomass should be excluded from the entire amount of CO₂ emissions when calculating CO₂ emissions and should be separately reported due to the “carbon neutrality.” Sewage sludge is one of the representative biomass fuels. And it is mixed with fossil fuels in terms of greenhouse gas reduction or is used as fuel to replace fossil fuels by itself. According to the results of this study, biomass contents of both the sewage sludge and the sewage sludge incineration exhaust gases did not amount to 100%. At present, in many countries(South Korea, Japan, and Germany), when calculating greenhouse gas emissions from sewage sludge incinerator, all CO₂ emissions from sewage sludge are judged to be biomass and only those greenhouse gas emissions that correspond to Non-CO₂ gases are calculated as greenhouse gas emissions. However, since, according our results, the content of sewage sludge is not 100% biomass, if CO₂ emissions are excluded according to the existing greenhouse gas emission calculation method, the amount of emissions may be underestimated. Therefore, to accurately calculate greenhouse gas emissions from sewage sludge incinerator, CO₂ emissions should be calculated in consideration of the fossil carbon contents of sewage sludge.

Long term Precipitation and temperature variations are one of the main determinants of climate variability of one’s area. The aim of this study is to determine trends variation in climatic elements of temperature and precipitation in the southern zone of Tigray regional state, Ethiopia. The station is assumed for the study of climatic records over southern zone of the region in detection for probable trends. The daily, monthly and annual precipitation totals and temperature observed at korem meteorological station were used for the period of 1981-2010 for Precipitation and 1985 – 2010 for minimum and maximum temperature. Summary of descriptive statistics and Mann Kendall test methods were employed for the observed data analysis to demonstrate any existence of possible trends. The main findings of the study indicated that the mean and maximum temperature had a general increasing trend; however, minimum temperature showed decreasing trend. In general annual temperature from 1985 – 2010 of the area showed a warming trend. Moreover analysis of the 30 years (1981-2010) annual precipitation showed a coefficient of variation ranging from 33.77 – 233 %. It indicated that the precipitation dissemination is not normal with large year to year variances.

Large-scale hydrological modeling in China is challenging given the sparse meteorological stations and large uncertainties associated with atmospheric forcing data.Here we introduce the development and use of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS) in the Heihe River Basin(HRB) for improving hydrologic modeling, by leveraging the datasets from the China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS)(including climate data from nearly 40000 area encryption stations, 2700 national automatic weather stations, FengYun (FY) 2 satellite and radar stations). CMADS uses the Space Time Multiscale Analysis System (STMAS) to fuse data based on ECWMF ambient field and ensure data accuracy. In addition, compared with CLDAS, CMADS includes relative humidity and climate data of varied resolutions to drive hydrological models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Here, we compared climate data from CMADS, Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and traditional weather station (TWS) climate forcing data and evaluatedtheir applicability for driving large scale hydrologic modeling with SWAT. In general, CMADS has higher accuracy than CFRS when evaluated against observations at TWS; CMADS also provides spatially continuous climate field to drive distributed hydrologic models, which is an important advantage over TWS climate data, particular in regions with sparse weather stations. Therefore, SWAT model simulations driven with CMADS and TWS achieved similar performances in terms of monthly and daily stream flow simulations, and both of them outperformed CFRS. For example, for the three hydrological stations (Ying Luoxia, Qilian Mountain, and ZhaMasheke) in the HRB at the monthly and daily Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency ranges of 0.75-0.95 and 0.58-0.78, respectively, which are much higher than corresponding efficiency statistics achieved with CFSR (monthly: 0.32-0.49 and daily: 0.26 – 0.45). The CMADS dataset is available free of charge and is expected to a valuable addition to the existing climate reanalysis datasets for deriving distributed hydrologic modeling in China and other countries in East Asia.

In urban area, one of the great problem is the rise of temperature, which leads to form the urban heat island effect. This paper refers to the trend of the urban surface temperature extracted from the Landsat images from which to consider changes in the formation of surface urban heat island for the north of Ho Chi Minh city in period 1995-2015. Research has identified land surface temperature from thermal infrared band, according to the ability of the surface emission based on characteristics of normalized difference vegetation index NDVI. The results showed that temperature fluctuated over the city with a growing trend and the gradual expansion of the area of the high-temperature zone towards the suburbs. Within 20 years, the trend of the formation of surface urban heat island with two typical locations showed a clear difference between the surface temperature of urban areas and rural areas with space expansion of heat island in 4 times in 2015 compared to 1995. An extreme heat island located in the inner city has an area of approximately 18% compared to the total area of the region. Since then, the solution to reduce the impact of urban heat island has been proposed, in order to protect the urban environment and the lives of residents in Ho Chi Minh City becoming better

The Tibetan Plateau(TP) is known as ‘the water tower of Asian’, its precipitation variation play an important role in the eco-hydrological processes and water resources regimes. based on the monthly mean precipitation data of 65 meteorological stations over the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding areas from 1961-2015,variations, trends and temporal-spatial distribution were analyzed, furthermore, the possible reasons were also discussed preliminarily. The main results are summarized as follows: the annual mean precipitation in the TP is 465.54mm during 1961-2015, among four seasons, the precipitation in summer accounts for 60.1% of the annual precipitation, the precipitation in summer half year (May.- Oct.) accounts for 91.0% while that in winter half year (Nov.- Apr.) only accounts for 9.0%; During 1961-2015, the annual precipitation variability is 0.45mm/a and the seasonal precipitation variability is 0.31mm/a, 0.13mm/a, -0.04mm/a and 0.04mm/a in spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively on the TP; The spatial distribution of precipitation can be summarized as decreasing from southeast to northwest in the TP, the trend of precipitation is decreasing with the increase of altitude, but the correlation is not significant. The rising of air temperature and land cover changes may cause the precipitation by changing the hydrologic cycle and energy budget, furthermore, different pattern of atmospheric circulation can also influence on precipitation variability in different regions.

Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to simulate five glacierized river basins that are global in coverage and vary in climate. The river basins included the Narayani (Nepal), Vakhsh (Central Asia), Rhone (Switzerland), Mendoza (Central Andes, Argentina), and Central Dry Andes (Chile) with a total area of 85,000 km2. A modified SWAT snow algorithm was applied in order to consider spatial variation of associated snow melt /accumulation by elevation band across each subbasin. In the previous studies, melt rates varied as a function of elevation resulting from an air temperature gradient while the snow parameters were constant throughout the entire basin. A major improvement of the new snow algorithm is separating the glaciers from seasonal snow based on their characteristics. Two SWAT snow algorithms were evaluated in simulation of monthly runoff from glaciered watershed: 1) the snow parameters are lumped (i.e. constant throughout the entire basin) and 2) the snow parameters are spatially variable based on elevation band-subbasin (i.e. modified snow algorithm). Applying the distributed SWAT snow algorithm improved the model performance in simulation of monthly runoff with snow-glacial regime, so that mean RSR decreased to 0.49 from 0.55 and NSE increased to 0.75 from 0.69. Improvement of model performance was negligible in simulation of monthly runoff from the basins with monsoon runoff regime.

The global usage of veterinary antibiotics is significant. These antibiotics can be released into the aquatic environment and exert toxic effects on non-target organisms. To explore the physiological effects of tetracycline antibiotics on aquatic life, the growth characteristics of and toxin release from the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) were studied. Results showed that the toxicity order of the three target antibiotics was TC (tetracycline) > CTC (chlortetracycline hydrochloride) > OTC (oxytetracycline) in terms of inhibition occurrence time and the EC₁₀ and EC₂₅ values. Further, the target antibiotics regulated the production of MC-LR (microcystin-LR) to different degrees. CTC destroyed the M. aeruginosa cells and resulted in a decreased MC-LR release but stimulated the ability to synthesise MC-LR. OTC had a relatively weaker toxicity compared with CTC, while TC was the most toxic among the three antibiotics. Therefore, TC is friendly to the aquatic environment because it simultaneously reduced the intracellular and extracellular MC-LR content. These results aid our understanding of the effects of tetracycline antibiotics on Microcystis aeruginosa, which is important for environmental evaluation and protection. These results are also helpful for guiding the application of veterinary antibiotics in agricultural settings.

Reducing the hardness of hard water is of great concern nowadays due to some adverse effects on water pipes, boilers and soap consumption. Using the method of biomineralization to precipitate calcium and magnesium ions to become carbonate minerals was one of the most important innovations for reducing the hardness of hard water. The present study sought to explore the physical and chemical conditions of carbonates bio-precipitation and the potential use of Bacillus licheniformis SRB2 strain (GenBank: KM884945.1) isolated from sludge sample of Moshui River (Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China) in reducing the hardness of hard waters by the induction of carbonate minerals. In this study, B. licheniformis SRB2 strain was identified based on the morphological, biochemical and 16S rDNA gene sequence homology analysis. The carbonate minerals induced by B. licheniformis bacteria in the liquid culture medium with 3% NaCl and Mg/Ca molar ratio of 0, 6, 8, 10 and 12 were investigated. The culture medium was inoculated with the bacterial liquid seed was set as the experimental group and the other culture medium was inoculated with the same volume of distilled water was set as the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray detector, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. The bacterial concentrations and pH values of the solution were measured by a spectrophotometer and a pH meter, respectively. The urease secreted by B. licheniformis SRB2 was found to greatly increase the pH values of the liquid medium, which favored the formation of calcium carbonate.As a result, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ion concentrations decreased greatly due to the biomineralization of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals in the presence of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacterium. There were only few calcium carbonates and no nesquehonite minerals in the control groups. It was also found that the minerals of nesquehonite induced by B. licheniformis SRB2 had a phenomenon of preferred orientation. What was more, even though Mg²⁺ ions inhibited the precipitation of Ca²⁺ ions, but under the action of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacteria, the inhibition effect was significantly declined. The bio-precipitation of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals may represent a new method of pretreatment for the hardness reduction of hard water. The accomplished study is of certain interest for interpretation of the carbonates biomineralization in natural environment, and maybe also has a certain application value in the former processing of hard water

Adaptation to climate change is being addressed in many domains. This means that there are multiple perspectives on adaptation; often with differing visions resulting in disconnected responses and outcomes. Combining singular perspectives into coherent, combined perspectives that include multiple needs and visions can help to deepen the understanding of various aspects of adaptation and provide more effective responses. Such combinations of perspectives can help to increase the range and variety of adaptation measures available for implementation or avoid maladaptation compared with adaptations derived from a singular perspective. The objective of this paper is to present and demonstrate a framework for structuring the local adaptation responses using the inputs from multiple perspectives. The adaptation response framing has been done by: (i) contextualizing climate change adaptation needs; (ii) analyzing drivers of change; (iii) characterizing measures of adaptation; and (iv) establishing links between the measures with a particular emphasis on taking account of multiple perspectives. This framework was demonstrated with reference to the management of flood risks in a case study Can Tho, Vietnam. The results from the case study show that multiple perspective framing of adaptation responses enhance the understanding of various aspects of adaptation measures, thereby leading to flexible implementation practices.

The article focuses on mining of non-energy mineral resources with minimum environmental impacts. It issues from research results of a project Competence Centre for Effective and Ecological Mining of Mineral Resources implemented at the Faculty of Mining and Geology at VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Geological Survey, a company Watrad ltd., a state enterprise Diamo, a company RPS Ostrava plc and a company Sedlecký kaolin plc. The paper starts with a partial analysis of the existing legal norms related to mining and processing of mineral resources. Next, it analyses mineral resource mining options free of negative environmental impacts. The fundamental tool to assess potential environmental impacts of mining is the implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for a given mineral resource. In the Czech Republic environmental impact assessment is carried out by course of Act 100/2001 Coll. Its important amendment is Act 39/2015 Coll. claiming, inter alia, that the environmental impact assessment is rigidly connected with other permits and procedures, such as the zoning process and building construction permits. The article describes the environmental impacts of mining of non-energy mineral resources, including the following factors: appropriation of land, impacts on surface water, ground water and soil, noise, influence on the landscape character, and air pollution. The paper also includes a case study summarizing information on the environmental factors that may play a role in potential underground mining of graphite in the deposit Český Krumlov - Městský Vrch and the deposit Lazec - Křenov.

Camelina (Camelina sativa L.) is an oilseed with potential for use as a raw material in second-generation biofuels. Camelina has a seed yield of up to 2380 kg ha^-1 and contains around 45% fatty acids. Selection of a suitable site is critical for production optimization. The objective of this study was to determine Chilean agro-climatic suitability for establishing camelina as a productive alternative. Climate and soil requirements and geographical restraints were evaluated for the species, considering the climatological characteristics of its regions of origin, as well as regions where camelina is successfully grown in the rest of the world. The variables considered include factors (maximum temperatures of the warmest month, water deficits, and degree days) and limitations (altitude, geomorphology, and current land use), which permitted the evaluation of the national territory for a certain level of suitability. It was determined that 1.3% of the national territory (960,664 ha) has some degree of suitability for camelina adoption. Between the Biobío and Los Lagos regions, 49.0% of land (471,203 ha) is in the category of without thermic restrictions, with mild water restrictions, and mild soil restrictions or without information, which can be used for camelina production. The Los Ríos region had 21.4% surface area (321,176 ha) with some level of suitability for camelina, the most suitable region to establish this crop in Chile.

The urbanization effects on land surface phenology (LSP) have been investigated by many studies, but few studies focused on the temporal variations of urbanization effects on LSP. In this study, we used the MODIS EVI, MODIS LST data and China’s Land Use/Cover Datasets (CLUDs) to investigate the temporal variations of urban heat island intensity and urbanization effects on LSP in Northeast China during 2001–2015. Land surface temperature (LST) and phenology differences between urban and rural areas represented the urban heat island intensity and urbanization effects on LSP, respectively. Mann-kendall nonparametric test and Sen's slope were used to evaluating the trends of urbanization effects on LSP and urban heat island intensity. The results indicated that the average land surface phenology (LSP) during 2001–2015 was characterized by high spatial heterogeneity. The start of the growing season (SOS) in old urban area had become earlier and earlier than rural area and the differences of SOS between urbanized area and the rural area changed greatly during 2001–2015 (−0.79 days/year, p < 0.01). Meanwhile, the length of the growing season (LOS) in urban and adjacent areas had become increasingly longer than rural area especially in urbanized area (0.92 days/year, p < 0.01), but the differences of the end of the growing season (EOS) between urban and adjacent areas did not change significantly. Next, the UHII increased in spring and autumn during the whole study period. Moreover, the correlation analysis indicated that the increasing urban heat island intensity in spring contributed greatly to the increases of urbanization effects on SOS, but the increasing urban heat island intensity in autumn did not lead to the increases of urbanization effects on EOS in Northeast China.

Urban sprawl propelled by rapid population growth leads to the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands and pristine forests in the suburban areas and, in turn, substantially alters ecosystem services. Hence, the quantification of urban sprawl is crucial for effective urban planning, and environmental and ecosystem management. Like many megacities in fast growing developing countries, Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu and one of the business hubs in India, has experienced extensive urban sprawl triggered by the doubling of total population over the past three decades. We employed the Random Forest (RF) classification on Landsat imageries from 1991, 2003, and 2016, and computed spatial metrics to quantify the extent of urban sprawl within a 10km suburban buffer of Chennai. The rate of urban sprawl was quantified using Renyi’s entropy, and the urban extent was predicted for 2027 using land-use and land-cover change modeling. A 70.35% increase in urban areas was observed for the suburban periphery of Chennai between 1991 and 2016. The Renyi’s entropy value for year 2016 was ≥ 0.9, exhibiting a two-fold rate of urban sprawl. The spatial metrics values indicate that the existing urban areas of Chennai became denser and the suburban agricultural, forests and barren lands were transformed into fragmented urban settlements. The forecasted urban growth for 2027 predicts a conversion of 13670.33ha (16.57 % of the total landscape) of existing forests and agricultural lands into urban areas with an associated increase in the entropy value of 1.7. Our findings are relevant for urban planning and environmental management in Chennai and provide quantitative measures for addressing the social-ecological consequences of urban sprawl and the protection of ecosystem services.

Agro-meteorology is the relationship between agriculture and weather. All farm activities are affected by weather. Therefore it is always necessary to monitor the weather as a forecast. The aim of the research was to monitor the weather and rainwater samples obtained at Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. For the eight months periods, results were obtained. The mean results for the physicochemical parameters were: TDS (12.25 mg/L), temp (28.13 ^oC), pH (6.63), EC (24.25µS/cm), Free CO₂ (24.38mg/L), nitrate (0.16mg/L), phosphate (0.17mg/L), sulphate (0.18mg/L). The rainwater was colorless and had no odor. The mean meteorological data: The prevailing wind directions were from SE, mostly in May, June, July and November and NE. The dry and wet temperatures were 22-29 ^oC and 20-26 ^oC respectively. The maximum value was observed in the month of July. The correlation matrix showed that there were many strong correlations in the physicochemical properties. The months of May, June and July had the highest wind speed. In these months there would be a need to use a windbreaker around the crops planted to avoid soil erosion and damaging of plants.

Crop productivity is directly dependent to soil fertility. High soil organic carbon (SOC) content in soil is vital as it leads to improved soil quality, increased productivity, and stable soil-aggregates. In addition, with the signing of the climate agreement, there is growing interest in carbon sequestration in landscapes. This paper looks at how SOC can be increased so that it not only contributes to reduction of CO₂, but also translates to increased food production thereby enhancing food security. This synergy between mitigation and enhancing food security is even more relevant for mountain landscapes of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region where there remains huge potential to increase CO₂ sequestration and simultaneously address food security in the chronic food deficit villages. Soil samples were collected from seven transects each in Bajhang and Mustang and from 4 land use types in each transect. Samples of soils were taken from two depths in each plot; 0-15 cm below the soil surface and 15-30 cm below the soil surface to compare the top soil and subsoil dynamics of the soil nutrients. The lab analysis was performed to assess the soil texture, soil color, soil acidity in 'power of hydrogen' (pH), macro-nutrients as soil fertility. Secondary data was used to analyze the level of food deficit in the villages. The result shows that most of the sample soils from Mustang were clay (82.1%) which is 46 samples out of 56. The pH value of soil from Bajhang ranged from 5.29 to 9.09. The pH value of soil ranged from 5.65 to 8.81 in Mustang. SOC contents of sampled soils from Bajhang ranged from 0.20% to 7.69% with mean amount of 2.47% ± 0.17. SOC contents of sampled soils from Mustang ranged from 0.51% to 8.56% with mean amount of 2.60% ± 0.25. By land use type, forest land had the highest carbon (C) content of 53.61 t ha^-1 in Bajhang whereas in Mustang, agricultural land had the highest C content of 52.02 tons ha-1. Based on these data, we can say that there is potential for increasing SOC through improved soil health and crop production and soil. Sustainable soil management should be practiced for higher productivity. Livestock may also provide farmyard manure, which can be used to fertilize cultivated soils, which increases soil productivity. Increasing productivity would aid in increasing the access and availability of food in these mountain villages.

Although the water absorption feature (WAF) at 970 nm is not very well-defined, it may be used alongside other indices to estimate the canopy water content. The individual performance of a number of existing vegetation water content (VWC) indices against the WAF is assessed using linear regression model. We developed a new Combined Vegetation Water Index (CVWI) by merging indices to boost the weak absorption feature. CVWI showed a promise in assessing the vegetation water status derived from the 970 nm absorption wavelength. CVWI was able to differentiate two groups of dataset when regressed against the absorption feature. CVWI could be seen as an easy and robust method for vegetation water content studies using hyperspectral field data.

In August 4 2011, United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) submitted an unprecedented, scientific, groundbreaking Environmental Assessment Report (EAR) of Ogoniland, to the Nigerian government. This was the outcome of a 14–month intensive evaluation of the extent of pollution. It was intended that UNEP’s recommendations would be implemented to restore the devastated environment, on the one hand, and on the other, counteract the numerous environmental health issues that have for decades, plagued Ogoniland. However, five years post EAR, and, despite the seriousness of the situation, no significant resolution has occurred, both on the part of the government, and on the part of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) or Shell. To date, millions of Niger Delta residents, particularly those living in the oil-bearing communities, continue to suffer severe consequences. Although, the assessment was conducted in Ogoniland, other communities in the Niger Delta are also affected. This article explores prevailing issues, using Ogoniland (a microcosm of the Niger Delta) as an example. A multidisciplinary approach for sustainable mitigation of environmental health risks in the Niger Delta is paramount, and Environmental Management tools offer valuable strategies. Adopting UNEP’s recommendations for addressing environmental health problems requires implementing the Environmental Management/Environmental Management System (EM/EMS) model.

Green spaces take part a vital role in reducing the harmful effects occurred through the process of rapid urbanization. This study focuses on evaluating the change of green space and per capita green space in Colombo District, Sri Lanka in between 2008 and 2015 using Landsat images. The NDVI differencing method and classification method were used to detect the change of land cover. According to the results, a gradual decline of green space from 629.1km2 to 591.16km2 with a rate of 6.03% can be depicted. The change is considerable in Kaduwela, Moratuwa and Maharagama DSDs and quite better in the areas such as Avissawella, Homagama and Padukka. The per capita green space has been decreased from 272.361 m2 to 248.811 m2. Though these rates are very well higher than the UN, EU and WHO standards for the district, Colombo DSD do not comply with UN and EU standards. The case would turn into worst in 2025, as the predictions with current rates. Therefore, the study recommends taking immediate actions to make a greener city. Further, a tax system is proposed to get the attraction of the general public.

Surface water distribution extracted from remote sensing data has been used in water resource assessment, coastal management, and environmental change studies. Traditional manual methods for extracting water bodies cannot satisfy the requirements for mass processing of remote sensing data; therefore, accurate automated extraction of such water bodies has remained a challenge. The histogram bimodal method (HBM) is a frequently used objective tool for threshold selection in image segmentation. The threshold is determined by seeking twin peaks, and the valley values between them; however, automatically calculating the threshold is difficult because complex surfaces and image noise which lead to not perfect twin peaks (single or multiple peaks). We developed an operational automated water extraction method, the modified histogram bimodal method (MHBM). The MHBM defines the threshold range of water extraction through mass static data; therefore, it does not require the identification of twin histogram peaks. It then seeks the minimum values in the threshold range to achieve automated threshold. We calibrated the MHBM for many lakes in China using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images, for which the relative error (RE) and squared correlation coefficient (R2) for threshold accuracy were found to be 2.1% and 0.96, respectively. The RE and root-mean-square error (RMSE) for the area accuracy of MHBM were 0.59% and 7.4 km2. The results show that the MHBM could easily be applied to mass time-series remote sensing data to calculate water thresholds within water index images and successfully extract the spatial distribution of large water bodies automatically.

Hydrologic studies on rainfall-runoff have been extensively conducted in many regions around the globe to fulfill various desirable needs with a purpose of effective and proper planning and managing water resources for present and future uses, whereas such study is not well drawn much attention to river catchments of Tonle Sap Lake Basin in Cambodia, which may prevail to water insecurity. The Stung Sreng catchment, which is one among them considered to be a significant basin for water resources management in Cambodia, is remarkably increasing under intolerable pressures in water resources development. This study was to apply HEC-HMS (Hydrological Engineering Center-Hydrological Model System) model to predict streamflow of Stung Sangker catchment, located in Tonlesap Lake Basin in Cambodia. The result showed that the calibration was good at monthly basis. The model performance was given by Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency criteria followed by 0.44 for daily and 0.71 for monthly basis, respectively. Moreover, the Percent Bias (PBIAS) for daily and monthly simulation was 4.13% and 3.56%, indicating a satisfactory model fit. The HEC-HMS conceptual model can be used to simulate flow of Stung Sangke catchment on a continuous time scale particularly monthly basis. The result also indicated that there was a clear seasonal variation in monthly water availability, especially during both wet and dry season.

In this study, the causal-effect between carbon dioxide emissions and forestry production and trade was investigated in Ghana by employing a data spanning from 1961 to 2014 by using the VECM and ARDL model. Evidence of the long-run equilibrium relationship in the VECM shows that, a 1% increase in veneer sheet production reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 1.47% in the long-run. There was evidence of a bidirectional causality between carbon dioxide emissions and veneer sheet production, carbon dioxide emissions and wood charcoal production, and a unidirectional causality running from carbon dioxide emissions to wood fuel production and plywood production to carbon dioxide emissions. Evidence from the long-run equilibrium relationship in the ARDL model shows that; a 1% increase in plywood production will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.17% in the long-run, a 1% increase in sawnwood production will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.17% in the long-run, a 1% increase in wood charcoal production will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.36% in the long-run and a 1% increase in wood fuel production will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.37% in the long-run.

The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) indices are used to assess the indoor environment in terms of human thermal comfort-discomfort. In this study, an experimental combined objective and subjective investigation of thermal comfort perception has been performed in students between 16-18 years old, in a non-air-conditioned school building. The objective approach included instrumentation measurements and data processing according to ISO 7730, whereas, the subjective one was based on answers collection following ISO 10551. The study is mainly devoted to the verification of Fanger’s approach in a building, in free running conditions, under a mild (moderate) climate.The comparison between instrumentation data and questionnaire results presented an underestimation of the mean vote, predicting a cooler sensation than the actual one.

The paper discusses the mechanism of montmorillonite structure alteration and bentonites properties modification (on the example of samples from clay deposit Taganka, Kazakhstan) due to the thermochemical treatment (treatment with inorganic acid solutions at different temperatures, concentrations and reaction times). With the use of the suit of methods certain processes were distinguished: transformation of montmorillonite structure, which appears in the leaching of interlayer and octahedral cations, protonation of the interlayer and OH groups at octahedral sheets. Changes in the structure of the 2:1 layer of montmorillonite and its interlayer result in significant changes in the properties – reduction of cation exchange capacity and an increase of specific surface area. The results of the work showed that bentonite clays retain a significant portion of its adsorption properties even after the long term and intense thermochemical treatment (6M HNO3, 60°C, 108 hours)

The main objective of this work is to investigate the temporal variation of PM10 concentrations within the urban area of Athens during the years 2001-2015. For this purpose, the time series of the particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10μm (PM10) is recorded for a 15-year period (2001-2015) in two different monitoring stations located in the urban area of Athens. The results show a totally different behavior of PM10 concentrations between the Athens city center and the suburban areas. It seems that in the city center the main sources of PM10 are traffic and heating systems especially during the cold period of the year. Furthermore, in the city center a significant seasonal variation was found with high concentrations during the cold period of the year and lower concentrations during the warm period of the year. Moreover, it was found that during the weekends, there is a decrease in PM10 concentrations probably due to the fact that majority of people do not use their vehicles. Finally, for both locations a significant temporal decreasing trend of the mean annual PM10 concentrations was found which indicates that during the last years, there have been improvements towards a better air quality.

Large-scale hydrological modeling in China is challenging given the sparse meteorological stations and large uncertainties associated with atmospheric forcing data. Here we introduce the development and use of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS) in the Heihe River Basin(HRB) for improving hydrologic modeling, by leveraging the datasets from the China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS)(including climate data from nearly 40000 area encryption stations, 2700 national automatic weather stations, FengYun (FY) 2 satellite and radar stations). CMADS uses the Space Time Multiscale Analysis System (STMAS) to fuse data based on ECWMF ambient field and ensure data accuracy. In addition, compared with CLDAS, CMADS includes relative humidity and climate data of varied resolutions to drive hydrological models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Here, we compared climate data from CMADS, Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and traditional weather station (TWS) climate forcing data and evaluated their applicability for driving large scale hydrologic modeling with SWAT. In general, CMADS has higher accuracy than CFRS when evaluated against observations at TWS; CMADS also provides spatially continuous climate field to drive distributed hydrologic models, which is an important advantage over TWS climate data, particular in regions with sparse weather stations. Therefore, SWAT model simulations driven with CMADS and TWS achieved similar performances in terms of monthly and daily stream flow simulations, and both of them outperformed CFRS. For example, for the three hydrological stations (Ying Luoxia, Qilian Mountain, and ZhaMasheke) in the HRB at the monthly and daily Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency ranges of 0.75-0.95 and 0.58-0.78, respectively, which are much higher than corresponding efficiency statistics achieved with CFSR (monthly: 0.32-0.49 and daily: 0.26 – 0.45). The CMADS dataset is available free of charge and is expected to a valuable addition to the existing climate reanalysis datasets for deriving distributed hydrologic modeling in China and other countries in East Asia.

This study investigates the land surface temperature (LST) distribution from thermal infrared data for analyzing the characteristics of surface coverage using the Vegetation-Impervious-Soil (VIS) approach. A set of ten images, obtained from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper, between 2001 and 2010, were used to study the urban environmental conditions of 47 neighborhoods of Porto Alegre city, Brazil. Porto Alegre has had the smallest population growth rate of all 27 state capitals in the last two decades in Brazil, with an increase of 11.55% in inhabitants from 1,263 million in 1991 to 1,409 million in 2010. We applied the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory in order to test the influence of the economically-related scenario on the spatial nature of social-environmental arrangement of the city at neighborhood scale. Our results suggest that the economically-related scenario exerts a non-negligible influence on the physically driven characteristics of the urban environmental conditions as predicted by EKC theory. The linear inverse correlation R2 between household income (HI) and LST is 0.36 and has shown to be comparable to all other studied variables. Future research may investigate the relation between other economically-related indicators to specific land surface characteristics.

Fire detection from satellite sensors relies on an accurate estimation of the unperturbed state of a target pixel, from which an anomaly can be isolated. Methods for estimating the radiation budget of a pixel without fire depend upon training data derived from the location's recent history of brightness temperature variation over the diurnal cycle, which can be vulnerable to cloud contamination and the effects of weather. This study proposes a new method that utilises the common solar budget found at a given latitude in conjunction with an area's local solar time to aggregate a broad-area training dataset, which can be used to model the expected diurnal temperature cycle of a location. This training data is then used in a temperature fitting process with the measured brightness temperatures in a pixel, and compared to pixel-derived training data and contextual methods of background temperature determination. Results of this study show similar accuracy between clear-sky medium wave infrared upwelling radiation and the diurnal temperature cycle estimation compared to previous methods, with demonstrable improvements in processing time and training data availability. This method can be used in conjunction with brightness temperature thresholds to provide a baseline for upwelling radiation, from which positive thermal anomalies such as fire can be isolated.

This paper describes the first results of an Image Recognition Based Location (IRBL) for mobile application focusing on the procedure to generate a Database of range images (RGB-D). In an indoor environment, to estimate the camera position and orientation, a prior spatial knowledge of the surrounding is needed. In order to achieve this objective a complete 3D survey of two different environment (Bangbae metro station of Seoul and E.T.R.I. building in Daejeon – Republic of Korea) was performed using LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) instrument and the obtained scans were processed in order to obtain a spatial model of the environments. From this, two databases of reference images were generated using a specific software realized by the Geomatics group of Politecnico di Torino (ScanToRGBDImage). This tool allow to generate synthetically different RGB-D images) centered in the each scan position in the environment. Later, the external parameters (X, Y, Z, ω, φ, κ) and the range information extracted from the DB images retrieved, are used as reference information for pose estimation of a set of acquired mobile pictures in the IRBL procedure. In this paper the survey operations, the approach for generating the RGB-D images and the IRB strategy are reported. Finally the analysis of the results and the validation test are described.

Solar radiation is the main energy source for mankind and an accurate data of solar radiation levels for a particular location is vital for the optimum operation of solar energy transducers such as photovoltaic cells and solar thermal collectors. In this work, we show that there is a linear relationship between recorded monthly average temperatures and solar radiation in Swaziland. The good correlation can be utilized to develop two mathematical models for the estimation of solar radiation: one from the measured monthly average temperatures and the other based on the square-root of the difference between measured maximum and minimum monthly average temperatures. Both models fit the data well and can be applied to estimate solar radiation in other parts of the region.

An adequate representation of the water infiltration process in the soil allows improving the efficiency in application and the uniformity in surface irrigation. The Green and Ampt model has shown a good representation of the process, and researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) determined the values of their parameters for soils of that country, which are shown in tables or through functional relationships and this information is used as reference in several parts of the world, although there is no certainty that they are representative of the soils in Mexico. In this study, the parameters of the Green & Ampt equation were determined and evaluated in some soils of agricultural importance in Mexico. The parameters were obtained in four ways: one of them applied a methodology adapted from Brooks and Corey to quantify the wetting front capillary pressure head and used an permeameter under constant hydraulic head to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity, and the other three consisted in taking them from three studies reported by the USDA. The values of the parameters suggested in Mexico drastically underestimated the results with relative errors (RE) in a range of -49.0 to -94.0% and the most representative were those obtained with the methodology proposed in this research with RE of -15.0 to 6.0%.

The variation of aerosols, especially dust aerosol, in time and space plays an important role in climate forcing studies. Aerosols can effectively reduce land surface longwave emission and re-emit energy at a colder temperature, making estimation of downwelling surface longwave radiation (DSLR) with satellite data difficult. Using the latest atmospheric radiative transfer code (MODTRAN 5.0), we simulate the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and DSLR under different land surface and atmospheric profile conditions. The results show that dust aerosol has an obvious “warming” effect to longwave radiation compared with other aerosols, that aerosol longwave radiative forcing (ALRF) increased with increasing aerosol optical depth (AOD), and that the atmospheric water vapor content (WVC) is critical to the understanding of ALRF. A method is proposed to improve the accuracy of DSLR estimation from satellite data for the skies under heavy dust aerosols. The AOD and atmospheric WVC under cloud-free conditions with a relatively simple satellite-based radiation model that yields the high accurate DSLR under heavy dust aerosol are used explicitly as model input to reduce the effects of dust aerosol on the estimation of DSLR. Validations of the proposed model with satellites data and field measurements show that it estimates the DSLR accurately under heavy dust aerosol skies. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) are 20.4 W/M² and 24.2 W/M² for Terra and Aqua satellites, respectively, at the Yingke site, and the biases are 2.7 W/M² and 9.6 W/M², respectively. For the Arvaikheer site, the RMSEs are 23.2 W/M² and 19.8 W/M² for Terra and Aqua, respectively, and the biases are 7.8 W/M² and 10.5 W/M², respectively. The proposed method is especially applicable to acquire relatively high accurate DSLR under heavy dust aerosol using MODIS data with available WVC and AOD data.

In Bangladesh, climate change is a major concern because of its geophysical location and climate dependent agriculture. As sessile organisms, crops plants have to face difficulties often in this environmentally vulnerable country. Therefore, this study examines the seasonal trend of two climatic parameters viz. temperature (maximum and minimum) and rainfall over a period of 1983 to 2013. Besides, this study provides insight into the relationship between climatic parameters and crop yield of two major crops viz. rice and wheat during 1997-2013. To assess the relationship of climatic parameters with time and yield using Pearson correlation analysis, time series data used at an aggregate level. SPSS software utilized for this analysis. The cropping seasons such as rice growing seasons Aus (summer rice), Aman (autumn rice) and Boro (winter rice) exhibited a significant increase in maximum and minimum temperature. Rainfall found to have a decreasing trend for all the seasons. This study also revealed that the climatic parameters had significant effects on rice yield, but these results varied among three rice crops. Maximum temperature had positive effects on all rice yields, especially on Aus and Aman. Minimum temperature had a negative effect on Aman rice yield but a positive effect on Aus rice yield. Wheat yield negatively associated with temperature. Rainfall exhibited negative relation with both rice and wheat yield.

Packaged water consumption has grown rapidly in urban areas of many low and middle income countries, but particularly in Ghana. However, the sources of water used by this growing packaged water industry and its implications for water resource management and transport-related environmental impacts have not been described. This study aimed to assess the spatial distribution of regulated packaged water production in Ghana, both in relation to demand and for natural mineral water, to hydrogeological characteristics. 764 addresses for premises licenced to produce packaged water from 2009-2015 were mapped and compared to regional sachet water consumption and beverage import/export data examined. We find evidence to suggest packaged water is transported shorter distances in Ghana than in developed countries. For natural mineral waters, producers should be able to address the most widespread water quality hazards (including high salinity, iron and nitrates) in aquifers used for production through reverse osmosis treatment. The study suggests there is scope to integrate beverage product and groundwater regulatory databases to support groundwater management.

Levels of trace element pollution in surface soil can be estimated using soil analyses and leaching tests. These methods may reveal different results due to the effect of soil properties, such as grain size and mineral composition, on elemental availability. Therefore, this study advocates an alternative method for monitoring and assessment of trace element pollution in surface soil using terricolous fruticose lichens. Lichens growing at abandoned mine sites and unpolluted areas in southwest Japan and their substrata were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to clarify the relationships between Cu, Zn, As, and Pb concentrations in lichens and soils, including their absorption properties. Concentrations of these elements in the lichens were positively correlated with those in the soils regardless of lichen species, location, habitat, or conditions of soils. The analyzed lichens had neither competitive nor antagonistic properties in their elemental absorption, which made them good biomonitors of trace element pollution in surface soil. The distribution maps of average Cu, Zn, As, and Pb concentrations at each sampling region detected almost all of the Cu, Zn, and As pollution of the soils. Therefore, lichens could be used in practical applications to monitor Cu, Zn, and As pollution in surface soils.

Levels of trace element pollution in surface soil can be estimated using soil analyses and leaching tests. These methods may reveal different results due to the effect of soil properties such as grain size and mineral composition on elemental availability. Therefore, this study advocates an alternative method for monitoring and assessment of trace element pollution in surface soil using terricolous fruticose lichens. Lichens growing at abandoned mine sites and unpolluted areas in Southwest Japan and their substrata were analyzed using inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to clarify the relationships between Cu, Zn, As, and Pb concentrations in lichens and soils, including their absorption properties. Concentrations of these elements in the lichens were positively correlated with those in the soils regardless of lichen species, location, habitat, or conditions of soils. The analyzed lichens had neither competitive nor antagonistic properties in their elemental absorption, which made them good biomonitors of trace element pollution in surface soil. The distribution maps of average Cu, Zn, As, and Pb concentrations at each sampling region detected almost all of the Cu, Zn, and As pollution of the soils. Therefore, lichens could be used in practical applications to monitor Cu, Zn, and As pollution in soils.

Implementation of the German Climate change Strategy in the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt is discussed in this paper. It shares the requirement and importance of sustainable development. An overview of strategy, The DAS Indicator System is provided with results of a portion of work being done for the ministry of agriculture by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). Applicability of the indicator system is also shown by evaluation of results for specific indicators from 1961-2015.

Climate simulations in West Africa have been attributed with large uncertainties. Global climate projections are not consistent with changes in observations at the regional or local level of the Niger basin, making management of hydrological projects in the basin uncertain. This study evaluates the potential of using the quantile mapping bias correction to improve the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) outputs for use in hydrology impact studies. Rainfall and temperature projections from 8 CMIP5 Global Climate Models (GCM) were bias corrected using the quantile mapping approach. Impacts of climate change was evaluated with bias corrected rainfall, temperature and potential evapotranspiration (PET). The IHACRES hydrological model was adapted to the Niger basin and used to simulate impacts of climate change on discharge under present and future conditions. Bias correction significantly improved the accuracy of rainfall and temperature simulations compared to observations. Nash coefficient (NSE) for monthly rainfall comparisons of 8 GCMs to the observed was improved by bias correction from 0.69 to 0.84. The standard deviations among the 8 GCM rainfall data were significantly reduced from 0.13 to 0.03. Increasing rainfall, temperature, PET and river discharge were projected for all GCMs used in this study under the RCP8.5 scenario. These results will help improving projections and contribute to the development of sustainable climate change adaptation strategies.

Establishment of protected areas (PAs) is one of the key global conservation strategies that currently cover approximately 15% of the earth’s land surface. Globally, PA networks are designed to curb the growing anthropogenic pressures in areas with high biological diversity. Despite the importance of PAs in conserving the vanishing biodiversity and unique habitats, many of them are in critical condition due to poor governance thus functioning below the expected level. Moreover, in many developing countries, the PA coverage is below the global standard. Recognizing their contemporary role in conservation, governments have recently agreed to expand the global PA coverage to 17% by the year 2020 (Aichi target 11). This book with eight chapters from different regions of the world provides an overview of the PAs governance, institutional mechanisms, conservation benefits, limitations and challenges associated with their respective policy discourse, integrated management, and functional attributes. Protected areas expect to to play an important role in the long rn in conservation and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems particularly in countries where population pressure and habitat loss are high. Regular intervention, political commitment, and effective governance are essential for the sustainability of PAs across the world. Here, we also attempted to shed some light on future development clues for the sustainable management and monitoring of PAs worldwide.

Ionospheric delay has been a critical issue that limits the accuracy of GNSS precise positioning and navigation for single-frequency users, especially in mid- and low-latitude regions where irregularity of ionosphere is often significant. Kriging spatial interpolation techniques have been recently introduced to model the spatial correlation and variability of ionosphere, which intrinsically assume that the ionosphere field is stochastically stationary but does not take the random observational errors into account. In this paper, by treating the spatial statistical information on ionosphere as prior knowledge and based on TEC semivariogram analysis, we use Kriging techniques to spatially interpolate TEC values. By assuming that the stochastic models of both the ionospheric signals and measurement errors are only known up to some unknown factors, we propose a new Kriging spatial interpolation method with unknown variance components for both the signals of ionosphere and TEC measurements. Variance component estimation has been integrated with Kriging to reconstruct regional ionospherical delay. The method has been applied to data from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) and compared with the ordinary Kriging and polynomial interpolations with spherical cap harmonic functions, polynomial functions and low-degree spherical harmonic functions. The results have shown that the interpolation accuracy of the new proposed method is better than the ordinary Kriging and polynomial interpolation by about 1.2 TECU and 0.7 TECU, respectively. The root mean squared error of the proposed new Kriging with variance components is within 1.5 TECU and is smaller than those from other methods under comparison by about 1 TECU. When compared with ionospheric grid points, the mean squared error of the proposed method is within 6 TECU and smaller than Kriging, indicating that the proposed method can produce more accurate ionospheric delays and better estimation accuracy.

For multi-sensor integrated systems, such as a mobile mapping system (MMS), data fusion at sensor-level, i.e., the 2D-3D registration between optical camera and LiDAR, is a prerequisite for higher level fusion and further applications. This paper proposes a line-based registration method for panoramic images and LiDAR point cloud collected by a MMS. We first introduce the system configuration and specification, including the coordinate systems of the MMS, the 3D LiDAR scanners, and the two panoramic camera models. We then establish the line-based transformation model for panoramic camera. Finally, the proposed registration method is evaluated for two types of camera models by visual inspection and quantitative comparison. The results demonstrate that the line-based registration method can significantly improve the alignment of the panoramic image and LiDAR datasets under either the ideal spherical or the rigorous panoramic camera model, though the latter is more reliable.

Mining wastes generate a high environmental impact, and population exposure to metals and metalloids. Phytoremediation is a technology that uses plants to remediate polluted sites, one of its limitations is seed germination in soil with high content of metals and metalloids. B. dactyloides is a native specie from semiarid regions, while C. dactylon is an introduced specie, both are tolerant to drought and low temperatures. Owing, the objective of this research was to evaluate the germination of both species, exposed to a multi-polluted soil with As, Cd, Pb and Zn of a mining site, pondering different pH conditions (from 5.0 to 9.0). The study considered 4 repetitions by type of seed and soil pH. B. dactyloides showed higher germination percentage (83%) with pH 7.8; while the greater germination of C. dactylon was 34 % at pH 6.0. In the soil at pH 5, the germination in both species was not reached, owing that metals are more bioavailable in an acid environment. C. dactylon is less tolerant to As, Cd, Pb and Zn, so it is considered not effective for phytoremediation process. B. dactyloides has a high phytoremediation potential for multi-polluted sites, but further experiments are needed.

Levels of trace element pollution in surface soil can be estimated using soil analyses and leaching tests. These methods may reveal different results due to the effect of soil properties such as grain size and mineral composition on elemental availability. Therefore, this study advocates an alternative method for monitoring and assessment of trace element pollution in surface soil using terricolous fruticose lichens. Lichens growing at abandoned mine sites and unpolluted areas in Southwest Japan and their substrata were analyzed using inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to clarify the relationships between Cu, Zn, As, and Pb concentrations in lichens and soils, including their absorption properties. Concentrations of these elements in the lichens were positively correlated with those in the soils regardless of lichen species, location, habitat, or conditions of soils. The analyzed lichens had neither competitive nor antagonistic properties in their elemental absorption, which made them good biomonitors of trace element pollution in surface soil. The distribution maps of average Cu, Zn, As, and Pb concentrations at each sampling region detected almost all of the Cu, Zn, and As pollution of the soils. Therefore, lichens could be used in practical applications to monitor Cu, Zn, and As pollution in soils.

The study of the concentrations and effects of fine particulate matter in urban areas have been of great interest to researchers in recent times. This is due to the acknowledgment of the far-reaching impacts of fine particulate matter on public health. Remote sensing data have been used to monitor the trend of concentrations of particulate matter by deriving aerosol optical depth (AOD) from satellite images. The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has released the second version of its global PM_2.5 data with improvement in spatial resolution. This paper revisits the study of spatial and temporal variations in particulate matter in Saudi Arabia by exploring the cluster analysis of the new data. Cluster analysis of the PM_2.5 values of Saudi cities is performed by using Anselin local Moran’s I statistic. Also, the analysis is carried out at the regional level by using self-organizing map (SOM). The results show an increasing trend in the concentrations of particulate matter in Saudi Arabia, especially in some selected urban areas. The eastern and south-western parts of the Kingdom have significantly clustering high values. Some of the PM2.5 values have passed the threshold indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) standard and targets posing health risks to Saudi urban population.

The main objective of this study was to compare the removal efficiency of nutrients using Lactuca sativa, Medicago sativa and Phragmites australis in subsurface flow constructed wetlands with horizontal flow. In order to test water quality, fabricated reactors designed and the plants cultivated in the soil while their root were inside the wastewater. A long time study carried out from spring till end of autumn (9 months) in order to evaluate the difference in removal rate based on the seasonal changes. The highest removal rate was during summer which followed by spring and autumn. Thus, the effect of plants on the removal efficiency of organic matter (COD, BOD), TSS and nutrient (P and TN) appeared to be dependent on the seasonal growth. Phragmites australis the most sensitive species in order the removal of nutrient from wastewater.

The present study describes the activities performed to test a new method for measuring the mobility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the solid phase of sediments within the context of environmental pollution risk assessment. The method is based on the design of a new configuration (new materials) of the commercial passive sampler Chemcatcher as probe for predicting the bioavailability of persistent organic pollutants in marine sediments (or in water saturated soils).

Despite of being an exceptionally biodiversity rich country, the forest coverage of Bangladesh is declining at an alarming rate. Declaration and management of protected areas in this regard is one of the efforts from government side to tackle the loss of biodiversity. The limited numbers of forest-protected areas (FPA), established to conserve the dwindling forest biodiversity of the country with high pressure on them for timber, non-timber forest products, and fuelwood - makes their management challenging. Moreover, most of the FPAs of the country declared only in the recent decades with very limited infrastructure, manpower and policy support for monitoring and governance. Some people-centred approaches for the management of FPAs and alternative livelihood and income generation subsidies although made available through a few project interventions, their number are still inadequate and performance remains less than satisfactory. This chapter provides a critical review of the FPAs of Bangladesh looking at their role in biodiversity conservation, management challenges, and key lessons from previous management interventions with recommendations for the future. It has been revealed that the FPA system of Bangladesh still poorly represents the diverse forest ecosystems with relatively small forest size and lack of corridors for the movement of wildlife. There are ample opportunities to render co-management of FPAs an effective strategy to minimize the conflicts in FPAs management in the country. It is, however, important to ensure the access of local forest-dependent people to different alternative income generating options that may adequately support their livelihoods.

The experiences gathered during the past 30 years support the operational use of irrigation scheduling based on frequent multi-spectral image data. Currently, the operational use of dense time series of multispectral imagery at high spatial resolution makes monitoring of crop biophysical parameters feasible, capturing crop water use across the growing season, with suitable temporal and spatial resolutions. These achievements, and the availability of accurate forecasting of meteorological data, allow for precise predictions of crop water requirements with unprecedented spatial resolution. This information is greatly appreciated by the end users, i.e. professional farmers or decision-makers, and can be provided in an easy-to-use manner and in near-real-time by using the improvements achieved in web-GIS methodologies. This paper reviews the most operational and explored methods based on optical remote sensing for the assessment of crop water requirements, identifying strengths and weaknesses and proposing alternatives to advance towards full operational application of this methodology. In addition, we provide a general overview of the tools which facilitates co-creation and collaboration with stakeholders, paying special attention to these approaches based on web-GIS tools.

We use the third version of the Canadian Local Climate Model as a diagnostic tool to study the climatology of observed CG lightning activity at Maniwaki (latitude: 46,23°N; Longitude: 75,58°W). We examine the dependence between the hourly lightning activity and the related atmospheric variables during the warm season of sixteen years (between 1984 and 2004). The goal of this research is: a) to evaluate the atmospheric static state evolution and its moisture contents for conditions having generated lightning occurrence, b) to develop a CG lightning parameterization, and c) to verify this CG lightning parameterization on other Canadian areas. The freezing level altitude and the precipitable water content are used to estimate the static air instability and its moisture content respectively. These two parameters are served to develop the CG lightning parameterization. A comparison between the observations and simulations CG lightning occurrence and frequency at Maniwaki showed a mean absolute error rate of 27% and 55% respectively. We apply this parameterization at four Canadian regions, distributed from west to east. The simulated CG lightning results are comparable to observed CG lightning at Maniwaki and tested regions. The application of the CG lightning parameterization to the daily data enabled us to find the monthly results. This application represents a preliminary stage for validation this parameterization in regional numerical models in Canada during the historic period.

Satellite-based rainfall estimation products provide a vital alternative source of rainfall data in areas where conventional precipitation measurement is not readily available. In order to facilitate the use of these products there is the need to evaluate their accuracies. This study evaluated the accuracy of three satellite rainfall products; TMPA 3B42RT, TMPA 3B42 and CMORPH in the Pra basin (23,330 km²) of Ghana. The evaluation was through the point-to-pixel method by comparing 0.25°x 0.25° satellite grids to gauged rainfall based on gauge locations and analyzed statistically using correlation coefficient (r), bias and percent bias (pBias) as the performance verification methods. Seven (7) gauge stations with no missing data for the period of 2003-2008 was used in the evaluation. The analysis was based on daily, monthly, annual and seasonal timescales. Our results showed a good correlation between the TMPA products and the gauged data on all timescales considered. The CMORPH on the other hand showed huge overestimation at all gauge locations. The TMPA 3B42 was seen to be the best amongst the three products. The overall rainfall in the basin was well depicted by the TMPA 3B42 and 3B42RT. Although there wasn’t a perfect match between the 3B42RT and 3B42 products and the gauged rainfall, these products can be used to supplement gauged rainfall measurements in the basin and in estimation of rainfall in ungauged basins with similar characteristics.

The main objective of this work is the assessment of the annual number of hospital admissions for respiratory disease (HARD) due to the exposure to in-healable particulate matter (PM10), within the greater Athens area (GAA), Greece. Towards this aim, the time series of the particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10μm (PM10) recorded in six monitoring stations located in the GAA, for a 13-year period 2001-2013, is used. Initially, a descriptive statistical treatment of PM10 concentrations took place. Furthermore, the AirQ2.2.3 software developed by the WHO was used to evaluate adverse health effects by PM10 in the GAA during the examined period. The results show that, during the examined period PM10 concentrations present a significant decreasing trend. Also, the mean annual HARD cases per 100,000 inhabitants ranged between 20 (suburban location) and 40 (city centre location). Approximately 70% of the annual HARD cases are due to city centre residents. In all examined locations, a declining trend in the annual number of HARD cases is appeared. Moreover, a strong relation between the annual number of HARD cases and the annual number of days exceeding the European Union daily PM10 threshold value was found.

Aim: To analysis the relationship between healthy adults right ventricular diameter (RVD) and geographical factors. Location: China’s 22 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Methods: Using correlation analysis the relationship between RVD and nine geographic factors, build predictive models by factor analysis. Results: There is significant correlation between RVD and geographical factors, and the annual average temperature is most relevant geographical factors, a predictive model was built by factor analysis: Ŷ = 19.46 + 0.0007072X1 + 0.001034X2 -0.05412X3 -0.001405X4 -0.0006351X5 + 0.02903X6 + 0.01243X7 -0.01033X8 + 0.03816X9 ± 0.63. Then using Kriging interpolation interpolate the geographical distribution of Chinese healthy adult right ventricular diameter reference value in ArcGIS software. Main Conclusion: If geographic factors can be derived in anywhere of China, RVD can be calculated by the model, you can also get RVD from geographical distribution.

Scene classification plays an important role in the intelligent processing of high-resolution satellite (HRS) remotely sensed image. In HRS image classification, multiple features, e.g. shape, color, and texture features, are employed to represent scenes from different perspectives. Accordingly, effective integration of multiple features always results in better performance compared to methods based on a single feature in the interpretation of HRS image. In this paper, we introduce a multi-task joint sparse and low-rank representation model to combine the strength of multiple features for HRS image interpretation. Specifically, a multi-task learning formulation is applied to simultaneously consider sparse and low-rank structure across multiple tasks. The proposed model is optimized as a non-smooth convex optimization problem using an accelerated proximal gradient method. Experiments on two public scene classification datasets demonstrate that the proposed method achieves remarkable performance and improves upon the state-of-art methods in respective applications.

As the natural resources are getting exhausted, the concept of sustainable development of region has received increasing attentions, especially for resource-dependent cities. In this paper an innovative method that emergy analysis and IPAT (Human Impact Population Affluence Technology) model were combined in order to analyze the quantitative relationship of economic growth and energy consumption and further to evaluate its overall sustainability level. Taiyuan, a traditional, resource-dependent city in China, is selected as the case study region. The main results show that total emergy of Taiyuan increased from 9.023× 1023 sej in 2007 to 9.116× 1023sej in 2014, with 38% reduction on non-renewable emergy and 125% growth on imported emergy. Regional emergy money ratio (RMB) was reduced by 48% from 5.31× 1013sej/$ in 2007 to 2.74× 1013sej/$ in 2014, indicating that the increasing speed of consuming resources and energy was faster than the increase of GDP, and that Taiyuan’s money purchasing power declined. The lower emergy sustainability index (ESI) indicates that Taiyuan was explored and produced large quantities of mineral resources, which puts more stress on the environment as a consequence, and that this is not sustainable in the long run. The IPAT analysis demonstrates that Taiyuan sticks to the efforts of energy conservation and environmental protection, in order to promote regional sustainable development, it is necessary to take an integrated effort. Policy insights suggest that resourceful regions should improve include energy and resource efficiency, optimizing energy and resourceful structure.

In the paper the verification of forecasts of precipitation conditions measured by the standardized precipitation index SPI is presented. For the verification of categorical forecasts a contingency table was used. Standard verification measures were used for the SPI value forecast. The 30 day SPI moved every 10 days by 10 days was calculated in 2013-2015 from April to September on the basis of precipitation data from 35 meteorological stations in Poland. Predictions of the 30 day SPI were created in which precipitation was forecasted in the next 10 days (the SPI 10-day forecast) and 20 days (the SPI 20-day forecast). Both for the 10 and 20 days, the forecasts were skewed towards drier categories at the expense of wet categories. There was a good agreement between observed and 10-day forecast categories of precipitation. Less agreement is obtained for 20-day forecasts – these forecasts evidently “over-dry” the assessment of precipitation anomalies. The 10-day SPI value forecast accuracy is acceptable, whereas for the 20-day forecast is unsatisfactory. Both for the SPI categorical and the SPI value forecast, the 10-day SPI forecast is reliable and the 20-day forecast should be accepted with reservation and used with caution.

The consumption of rice, which recently increases globally, leads to requirement for planning sustainable water management for paddy cultivation. In this research, SWAT model was modified to evaluate sustainability of paddy cultivation. Modifications to simulate paddy cultivation are 1) to equip with a new water balance model of impounded fields, 2) to add an irrigation management option for paddy fields, which is characterized by flood irrigation managed by farmers on a daily basis, 3) to consider puddling operation that influences water quality and infiltration rate of soil. The enhanced model, named SWAT-PADDY, was applied to an agricultural watershed in Japan as a case study. The modified model succeeded in representing paddy cultivation in the study area. However, SWAT-PADDY underestimated base flow in irrigation period. The cause of this is inferred that the modified model doesn’t represent return flow of excess withdrawal of river water. In conclusion, addition of the models of impoundment and management practices in paddy fields to SWAT improved field scale simulation of water balance and irrigation in paddy fields. However, further improvement of the model on irrigation return flow process is needed to better predict hydrology of watersheds dominated by paddy irrigation.

Accurate and consistent rainfall observations are vital for climatological studies in support of better planning and decision making. However, estimation of accurate spatial rainfall is limited by sparse rain gauge distributions. Satellite rainfall products can thus potentially play a role in spatial rainfall estimation but their skill and uncertainties need to be under-stood across spatial-time scales. This study aimed at assessing the temporal and spatial performance of seven satellite products (TARCAT (Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite and ground-based observations (TAMSAT) African Rainfall Climatology And Time series), Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM-3B43), Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Morphing (CMORPH), the Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks- Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) and Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) using gridded (0.05o) rainfall data over East Africa for 15 years(1998-2012). The products’ error distributions were qualitatively compared with large scale horizontal winds (850 mb) and elevation patterns with respect to corresponding rain gauge data for each month during the ‘long’ (March-May) and ‘short’ (October-December) rainfall seasons. For validation only rainfall means extracted from 284 rain gauge stations were used, from which qualitative analysis using continuous statistics of Root Mean Squared Difference, Standard deviations, Correlations, coefficient of determinations (from scatter plots) were used to evaluate the products’ performance. Results revealed rainfall variability dependence on wind flows and modulated by topographic influences. The products’ errors showed seasonality and dependent on rainfall intensity and topography. Single sensor and coarse resolution products showed lowest performance on high ground areas. All the products showed low skills in retrieving rainfall during ‘short’ rainfall season when orographic processes were dominant. CHIRPS, CMORPH and TRMM performed well, with TRMM showing the best performance in both seasons. There is need to reduce products’ errors before applications.

In order to correct attenuated millimeter-wavelength (Ka-band) radar data and address the problem of instability, an attenuation correction methodology (attenuation correction with variation trend constraint; VTC) was developed. Using synchronous observation conditions and multi-band radars, the VTC method adopts the variation trends of reflectivity in X-band radar data captured with wavelet transform as a constraint to adjust reflectivity factors of millimeter-wavelength radar. The correction was evaluated by comparing reflectivities obtained by millimeter-wavelength cloud radar and X-band weather radar. Experiments showed that attenuation was a major contributory factor in the different reflectivities of the two radars when relatively intense echoes exist, and the attenuation correction developed in this study significantly improved data quality for millimeter-wavelength radar. Reflectivity differences between the two radars were reduced and reflectivity correlations were enhanced. Errors caused by attenuation were eliminated, while variation details in the reflectivity factors were retained. The VTC method is superior to the bin-by-bin method in terms of correction amplitude and can be used for attenuation correction of shorter wavelength radar assisted by longer wavelength radar data.

Soil pollution has been estimated using soil analysis and leaching test. These methods could show different data from reality due to effects by soil properties such as grain size and mineral composition. Therefore, this study advocates a new assessment and monitoring method of heavy metal polluted soil using fruticose lichens. Lichens growing at abandoned mine sites and unpolluted areas in southwest Japan and their substrata were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to clarify the relationships between the heavy metal concentrations in lichens and soils, and their heavy metal absorption properties. Concentrations of Cu, Zn, As, and Pb in the lichens were positively correlated with those in the soil. Variability of the relationships did not depend on the lichen species, location, habitat, or the conditions of soils. The analyzed lichens had neither competitive nor antagonistic properties in their heavy metal absorption, which make them good biomarkers of heavy metal pollution of soil. The distribution maps of average heavy metal concentrations at each sampling region detected almost all of the Cu, Zn, and As pollution of soil. Therefore, lichens could be used in practical applications to assess Cu, Zn, and As pollution of soils.

Water resources provided by alpine glaciers are an important pillar for people living in the arid regions in the west of China. In this study, the HBV (Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenavdelning) light model was applied to simulate glacier mass balance and runoff in the Koxkar River Basin (KRB) on the south slope of Mt. Tumur, western Tianshan Mts.. Daily temperature and precipitation were calculated by multiple linear regressions and gradient-inverse distance weighting, respectively, based on in-situ observed data by automatic weather stations (AWSs) in the basin (2007–2009) and at four meteorological stations neighbering the basin (1959–2009). Observed daily air temperature and precipitation were taken as input data for the HBV model, which was calibrated using runoff in 2007/08 and 2009/10, and validated in 2008/09 and 2010/11. Generally, the model could simulate runoff very well. The annual glacier mass balance and runoff were calculated using the HBV model driven by interpolated meteorological data for the period of 1959–2009. The simulated glacier mass balance were reasonable when compared with those observed values at nearby glaciers, indicating a decrease trend of mass balance in the basin with an average value of –370.4 mm a^-1 since 1959. The annual runoff showed a slight increase trend (5.51 mm a^-1). Futher analysis indicated that the runoff is more sensitive to temperature than precipitation amuont in the Koxkar river basin.

In this paper, Rice water requirement and irrigation water requirement in Amol agro meteorological Station in 2016-2045 are forecasted based on the projected meteorological data of Hadcm3 under A2 scenario. Rice water requirements are estimated by using crop coefficient approach. Reference evapotranspiration are calculated by FAO Penman-Monteith method. Moreover, the irrigation water requirements are simulated by calibrated CROPWAT model using the meteorological parameters. The results show that both crop water requirement and irrigation water requirement present downward trend in the future. In 2016-2045, the rice water requirement and irrigation water requirement decrease by more than 9.9% under A2 scenario, respectively. Furthermore, the precipitation rise may be the main reason for the decrease in crop water requirement, while significant decrease of irrigation water requirement should be attributed to combined action of rising precipitation and a slight increase in temperature.

Precipitation during 2001-2016 over the northern and central part of Tuscany was studied in order to characterize the rainfall regime. The dataset consisted of hourly cumulative rainfall series recorded by a network of 801 rain gauges. The territory was divided into 30x30 km square areas, the annual, seasonal and daily Average Cumulative Rainfall (ACR) in all areas was estimated along with its uncertainty. The trend analysis of ACR time series was performed by means of the Mann-Kendall test. Four climatic zones were identified: the north-western was the rainiest, followed by the north-eastern, north-central and south-central. An overall increase in precipitation was identified, more intense in the north-west, and determined mostly by the increase in winter precipitation. On the entire territory, the ACR, number of rainy days, mean precipitation intensity and sum of daily ACR in four intensity groups were evaluated at annual and seasonal scale. The main result was a magnitude of the ACR trend evaluated as 35 mm/year, due mainly to an increase in light and extreme precipitations. This result is in contrast with the decreasing rainfall detected in the past decades.

A flow-chart is presented depicting atmosphere-ocean coupling, which is initiated by decadal solar variability. Possible mechanisms for Canonic ENSO, Modoki ENSO and Canonic-Modoki ENSO are proposed and their relevance to the decadal variation of Hadley, Walker circulation and mid-latitude jets are discussed. We also show subsequent teleconnections by ENSO for eg., on ISM with a special emphasis on later two decades of the last century. As there is a disruption of the usual ENSO-ISM teleconnection, we discussed on possible mechanism. The role of volcanos and the change in sun-NAO connection were discussed. The regional Hadley circulation, via NAO in the northern hemisphere and Indian Ocean Dipole in the southern hemisphere, may have a role in the change of ISM behaviour. Such flow-chart helps to improve our understanding of various types of ENSO in both temporal as well as spatial scale. It subsequently can benefit the modelling community by improved representation of ENSO in models.

Walking School Buses (WSBs) provide a safe alternative to being driven to school. Children benefit from the contribution the exercise provides towards their daily exercise target, it gives children practical experience with respect to road safety and helps to relieve traffic congestion around the entrance to their school. Walking routes are designed largely based in road safety considerations, catchment need and the availability of parent support. However, little attention is given to the air pollution exposure experienced by children during their journey to school, despite the commuting microenvironment being an important contributor to a child’s daily air pollution exposure. This study aims to quantify the air pollution exposure experienced by children walking to school and those being driven by car. A school was chosen in Bradford, UK. Three adult participants carried out the journey to and from school each carrying a P-Trak ultrafine particle (UFP) count monitor. One participant travelled the journey to school by car while the other two walked, each on opposite sides of the road for the majority of the journey. Data collection was carried out over a period of two weeks, for a total of five journeys to school in the morning and five on the way home at the end of the school day. Results of the study suggest that car commuters experience lower levels of air pollution dose due to lower exposures and reduced commute times. The largest reductions in exposure for pedestrians can be achieved by avoiding close proximity to traffic queuing up to intersections, and, where possible, walking on the side of the road opposite the traffic, especially during the morning commuting period. Major intersections should also be avoided as they were associated with peak exposures. Steps to ensure that the phasing of lights is optimized to minimize pedestrian waiting time would also help reduce exposures. If possible, busy roads should be avoided altogether. By the careful design of WSB routes, taking into account air pollution, children will be able to experience the benefits that walking to school brings while minimizing their air pollution exposure during their commute to and from school.

Hydrological processes are complex to compute on hilly areas when compared to the plain areas. Most of the hydrological model do not take into account the critical rainfall-runoff generation processes such as subsurface storm flow, saturation excess flow, overland flow, return flow and pipe storage. The simulations of the above processes in the soil matrix requires detailed hillslope hydrological modelling. In present study, a hillslope experimental plot is designed to study the runoff generation processes on the plot scale. The setup is designed keeping in view the natural hillslope conditions prevailing in the north western Himalayas, India where high intensity storm event occurs frequently. Using the experimental data and the developed conceptual model, the overland flow and the subsurface flow through macropore dominated area has been estimated/analyzed on the pixel basis. Over the experimental hillslope plot, a rainfall simulator was installed to generate the rainfall intensity in the range of 15 to 150 mm/hr which represented the dominating rainfall intensity range in the region. Soil moisture sensors were also installed at 100 mm and 300 mm depth at different locations of the plot to observe soil moisture variations. It was found that once the soil is saturated, it remains in the field capacity for next 24-36 hours. Such antecedent moisture conditions are most favorable for the generation of rapid stormflow from hillslopes. Dye infiltration test was also performed on the undisturbed soil column to observe the macropore fraction variability over the vegetated hillslopes. The surface runoff predicted using the developed hillslope hydrological model compared well with the observed surface runoff under high intensity rainfall conditions.

As part of the Copernicus programme of the European Union (EU), the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed and is currently operating the Sentinel-2 mission that is acquiring high spatial resolution optical imagery. This paper provides a description of the calibration activities and the current status of the mission products validation activities. Measured performances, from the validation activities, cover both Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) and Bottom-Of-Atmosphere (BOA) products. Results presented in this paper show the good quality of the mission products both in terms of radiometry and geometry and provide an overview on next mission steps related to data quality aspects.

We present a comprehensive database of near-shore wind observations that were carried out during the experimental campaign of the RUNE project. RUNE aims at reducing the uncertainty of the near-shore wind resource estimates from model outputs by using lidar, ocean, and satellite observations. Here we concentrate in describing the lidar measurements. The campaign was conducted from November 2015 to February 2016 at the west coast of Denmark and comprises measurements from eight lidars, an ocean buoy and three types of satellites. The wind speed was estimated based on measurements from a scanning lidar performing PPIs, two scanning lidars performing dual synchronized scans, and five vertical profiling lidars, of which one was operating offshore on a floating platform. The availability of measurements is highest for the profiling lidars, followed by the lidar performing PPIs, those peforming the dual setup, and the lidar buoy. Analysis of the lidar measurements reveals good agreement between the estimated 10-m wind speeds, although the instruments used different scanning strategies and measured different volumes in the atmosphere. The campaign is characterized by strong westerlies with occasional storms.

Background: Long-range transport of dust aerosol has intense impacts on the atmospheric environment over wide areas. Methods: The annual and seasonal changes in meteorological parameters associated with the occurrence of dust storms were studied. The features of an intense dust storm and its transport characteristics were studied during June 7th to June 9th 2010 in Ahvaz city. Temporal and spatial distribution of Middle Eastern dust storm event was analyzed by models of HYSPLIT and WRF/Chem, and in- situ observations. Results: A disagreement between the occurrences of dust storms, temperature, relative humidity and rainfall, show the major source of dust storms over Ahvaz city are neighboring countries. Using HYSPLIT results, the dust particles are mainly transported from north western region of Iraq and eastern Syria to downward areas including Ahvaz city. The arrived Dust aerosols mixed with local anthropogenic emissions, led to the highest PM10 concentration of 4200 ppm. The model results were found to well reproduce temporal and spatial distribution of mineral dust concentrations according to in-situ measurements. Conclusion: The performance of WRF/Chem was acceptable for simulation of temporal and spatial distributions of dust storm events. Therefore, it can be taken as a reference in daily air quality forecasting.

As the most active plateau on the Earth, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a complex crust-mantle structure. Knowledge of the distribution of such a structure provides information for understanding the underlying geodynamic processes. We obtains a three-dimensional density model of crustal and upper mantle beneath Qinghai-Tibet plateau and its surrounding areas from the residual geoid anomalies using the Earth Gravitational Model (EGM) 2008. We estimate a refined density model by iterations, using an initial density contrast model. We confirm that the EGM2008 mission products can be used to constrain the crust-mantle density structures. Our major findings are: (1). At 300-400 km depth, high-D anomalies terminate around Jinsha River Suture (JRS) in the central TP, suggesting that the Indian plate has been reached over the Bangong Nujiang Suture (BNS) and almost reach to the JRS. (2). On the eastern TP, low-D anomalies at the depth of 0-300 km together with high-D anomalies at 400-670 km further verified the current eastward subduction of Indian plate. The ongoing subduction provides forces to the occurrences of frequent earthquakes and volcano. (3). At 600 km depth, low-D anomalies inside the TP illustrate the existence of hot weak material beneath there, contributing to the external material inward-thrusting.

The greater Wellington region, New Zealand, is highly vulnerable to large earthquakes because it is cut by active faults. Bulk water supply pipelines cross the Wellington Fault at several different locations, and there is considerable concern about severe disruption of the provision of reticulated water supplies to households and businesses in the aftermath of a large earthquake. A number of policy initiatives have been launched encouraging householders to install rainwater tanks to increase post-disaster resilience. However, little attention has been paid to potential health hazards associated with consumption of these supplies. To assess health hazards for householders in emergency situations, six 200-litre emergency water tanks were installed at properties across the Wellington region, with five tanks being allowed to fill with roof-collected rainwater and one tank being filled with municipal tapwater as a control. Such tanks are predominantly set aside for water storage, and once filled, feature limited drawdown and recharge. Sampling from these tanks was carried out fortnightly for one year, and samples analysed for E. coli, pH, conductivity, a range of major and trace elements, and organic compounds, enabling an assessment of the evolution of water chemistry in water storage tanks over time. Key findings were that the overall rate of E.coli detections in the rain-fed tanks was 17.7%, which is low in relation to other studies. We propose that low incidences of E.coli may be due to biocidal effects of high zinc concentrations in tanks, originating from unpainted galvanised steel roof cladding. Lead concentrations were high compared to other studies, with 69% of rain-fed tank samples exceeding the World Health Organisation’s health-based guideline of 0.01 mg/L. Further work is required to determine risks of short-term consumption of this water in emergency situations.