Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Communicating Unnatural Disasters
Published: 2018-01-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Off the back of the 2017 hurricanes we extend the notion of human-influenced meteo-hydro hazards to include deeper geophysical events. We question where to place Human responsibility in a changing world, and we outline ways to bridge the gaps between scientist’s technical knowledge and ‘meaning’ as it is understood by people at risk. This short Op-ed has been rejected by Science after two rounds [...]
The crisis of a paradigm. A methodological interpretation of Tohoku and Fukushima catastrophe
Published: 2017-12-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
The 2011 Japanese disaster often presented as a ‘new Chernobyl’ accumulated the effects of earthquake, tsunami and of the subsequent nuclear accident at Fukushima. In the light of this disaster, we review methodological rea- sons both from geophysical and philosophical perspectives that lead the scientific and technological communities to flawed conclusions, prime cause of the disaster. The [...]
Ratcheting up ambition in climate policy
Published: 2017-11-10
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The historic Paris Agreement aims to constrain the peak increase in global mean temperature to 1.5 °C, or at least well below 2 °C. Every country has committed to device their own “nationally determined contributions” towards this target. These contributions are only proscribed for the coming 10-15 years with a regular reassessment of them against the global target. Here we use a global [...]
Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara
Published: 2017-11-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The benefits of pastoralism for marginal, arid environments are often not appreciated. One notable past example of the human response to encroaching desertification comes from the regional climate deterioration after the most recent African Humid Period, which ended around 5,500 years ago. Recent evidence points to a population expansion in northern Africa prior to this, associated with the [...]
Effects of spatial resolution on slope and aspect derivation for regional-scale analysis
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science
This paper investigates differences between morphometric parameters (slope and aspect) derived from a resampled DEM and resampled morphometric data derived from a medium resolution DEM, with examples for three study areas in South America selected to represent flatlands, hilly terrain, and mountain ranges. Using a low resolution DEM for regional scale morphometric analysis is not an optimal [...]
Geological applications of digital terrain analysis
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology
Editorial to the IJGIS Special Issue on "Geological applications of digital terrain analysis". In this volume, the modern advances in the field of geological terrain analysis are presented, while emphasis is given to the quantitative analysis of modern datasets.
Influence of cell size on volume calculation using digital terrain models: A case of coastal dune fields
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Sedimentology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science
In this work, we analyze how variation in cell size influences the volume calculated from Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) derived from a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) survey in two coastal Late Holocene dune fields in southern Brazil. Cell size varied from 1 to 100 m. The RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) of the resampled DTMs from the original LiDAR (with 0.5 m resolution) increases linearly [...]
Multi-scale Analysis of Topographic Surface Roughness in the Midland Valley, Scotland
Published: 2017-10-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure
Surface roughness is an important geomorphological variable which has been used in the earth and planetary sciences to infer material properties, current/past processes and the time elapsed since formation. No single definition exists, however within the context of geomorphometry we use surface roughness as a expression of the variability of a topographic surface at a given scale, where the scale [...]
Análise digital de terreno e evolução de longo-termo de relevo do centro-leste brasileiro
Published: 2017-10-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure
Geomorphological theories for long-term relief evolution postulate the existence of planation surfaces, created by the con- tinuous work of erosion/deposition during periods of tectonic quiescence and recognized as extensive areas of very gentle relief disturbed only locally by residual elevations, or by the apparent leveling of summit heights in a given region. After decades since the [...]
Comparison of roving-window and search-window techniques for characterising landscape morphometry
Published: 2017-10-31
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Theory and Algorithms
Neighbourhood analysis in a Geographical Information System (GIS) calculates the value of a given raster cell from the values of its neighboring cells. Common operations include filtering (high-pass, low-pass, etc) and smoothing (mean, mode) of data, operations that can be done by means of roving-windows or search-windows. Digital terrain analysis (or geomorphometry) relies on neighbourhood [...]
SRTM resample with short distance-low nugget kriging
Published: 2017-10-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), was flow on Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000, with the objective of acquire a digital elevation model of all land between 60º north latitude and 56º south latitude, using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques. SRTM data is distributed at horizontal resolution of 1 arc-second (aprox. 30m) for areas within the USA and at 3 [...]
Aplicações dos modelos de elevação SRTM em geomorfologia
Published: 2017-10-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science
A missão Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) foi realizada para mapear o relevo da área continental da Terra com interferometria de radar entre 60º de latitude norte e 54º de latitude sul. A utilização de Modelos Digitais de Elevação (MDEs) em geomorfologia permite o cálculo de variáveis associadas ao relevo com rapidez e precisão. Neste artigo, apresenta-se uma visão geral de aplicações dos [...]
SRTM-based morphotectonic analysis of the Poços de Caldas Alkaline Massif, southeastern Brazil
Published: 2017-10-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure
An evaluation of SRTM 03” data applicability in geomorphology and morphotectonics analysis is proposed, considering the morphometric parameters slope, aspect, surface roughness and isobase surface. The study area, in southeastern Brazil, comprises the Poços de Caldas Alkaline Massif, a 33km-diameter Late Cretaceous collapsed volcanic caldera. Morphometric indices evaluated showed the correlation [...]
Resampling SRTM 03”-data with kriging
Published: 2017-10-30
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science
The purpose of this article is to present the steps necessary to improve the resolution of a DEM us- ing variogram modelling and kriging, as well as a brief comparison of the results with those obtained with interpolation by Regularised Splines with Ten- sion (RST).
r.roughness – a new tool for morphometric analysis in GRASS
Published: 2017-10-30
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Theory and Algorithms
This article briefly describes r.roughness, a shell script written to calculate the surface roughness of raster surfaces. The method is based on Hobson (1972), where roughness is defined as the ratio be- tween surface and plan area of square cells.