Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sustainability of the Marine Environment Towards the Anthropogenic Impacts in the Ecosystem of the Barents Sea
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Nature and Society Relations, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Among all Arctic seas, the Barents Sea is characterized by its unique environment and high level of the biodiversity. At the same time the Gulf Stream waters transport large amounts of pollutants in the Barents Sea bringing various contaminants and substances from the North Sea. Nowadays, there are in Timan Pechora-Carboniferous basin located in the Barents Sea with 76 oil and gas subsidies, [...]
Google Earth web service as a support for GIS mapping in geospatial research at universities
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Computer Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Geography, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The geospatial work has been performed using combination of the Google Earth imagery, Landsat TM images and Erdas Imagine GIS software. The advantage of utilizing Google Earth scenes with Landsat TM satellite imagery, along with GIS techniques and methods, for inventorying land cover types has been demonstrated for landscape studies. Combination of land cover type characteristics and landscape [...]
Geo-Information Technologies of Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) for Urban Mapping
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Sustainability
Current work is aimed at the deriving of information from the remote sensed VHR data using a priori knowledge in the Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) approach. OBIA technology is new and effective tool for urban mapping, as it enables dealing with raster images for detailed and precise cartography. Specific focus of this study is selected urban areas of the city of Brussels, Belgium. The study [...]
The Use of Satellite Images for Assessment of Environmental Vulnerability and Resilience of the Arctic Wetlands
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Water Resource Management
The research paper focuses on the environmental problem of Yamal region, geographically located in the Russian Yamal-Nenets autonomous region, northern-central Russia. This region is characterized by the unique nature and environmental conditions, combining two physical-geographical regions: sub-Arctic and Arctic moss-lichen tundra and permafrost conditions. The recent changes in global climate [...]
Topology, homogeneity and scale factors for object detection: application of eCognition software for urban mapping using multispectral satellite image
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Education, Educational Methods, Engineering, Environmental Education, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces, International and Area Studies, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Computer Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Sustainability
The research scope of this paper is to apply spatial object based image analysis (OBIA) method for processing panchromatic multispectral image covering study area of Brussels for urban mapping. The aim is to map different land cover types and more specifically, built-up areas from the very high resolution (VHR) satellite image using OBIA approach. A case study covers urban landscapes in the [...]
Report for the Yujiang Government on the China-UK Knowledge Exchange Project for the Red Soil Critical Zone
Published: 2018-12-19
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Knowledge exchange (KE) has been increasingly used to translate the scientific findings to produce outputs that inform land users and policy makers to lead to the sustainable environmental management. As part of the wider China-UK Critical Zone (CZ) programme, a KE research project was conducted to help ensure research results can be more effectively delivered to those who need them. Following on [...]
Report for the Puding Government on the China-UK Karst Knowledge Exchange Project
Published: 2018-12-13
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Water Resource Management
The report summaries the first stage output from the Knowledge Exchange (KE) research carried out in one of China’s rural areas in the karst landscape, aiming to understand the local knowledge sharing dynamic and learning preference of stakeholders. A social science survey was carried out in November 2016 in 7 villages of Puding County to 15 county leaders, 8 town leaders and 24 village leaders [...]
Summary Report of China-UK Knowledge Exchange Project for Their Critical Zone Programme
Published: 2018-12-12
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Water Resource Management
Global to local environmental policy-making is increasingly evidenced-based. Knowledge exchange (KE) is increasingly used by environmental scientists and policymakers, to deliver evidence-based policy and practice. This study presents the output from the KE research project within the China-UK Critical Zone (CZ) programme in China from 2016 to 2018, focussing on understanding: (i) the key issues [...]
Mangrove pollen of Indonesia and its suitability as a sea-level indicator
Published: 2018-10-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geography, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
We investigated the mangroves of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, to assess their potential as proxies for reconstructing sea level during the Holocene. Initial investigations confirmed that the mangrove species demonstrate zonations parallel to the shoreline and are dominated by the family Rhizophoraceae with Avicennia, Heritiera and Sonneratia also important constituents of the mangroves. We [...]
Creating a Model to Optimize and Evaluate the Heat-Reducing Capacity of Green Infrastructure
Published: 2018-09-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Studies, Medicine and Health Sciences, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
As global warming increases temperatures worldwide, cities are experiencing even greater temperatures due to the urban heat island effect, which is the trapping of heat in “gray” urban infrastructure. Cities are combatting this with green infrastructure (GI) initiatives, such as the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) GI initiative in New York City. However, these programs are often [...]
Powers of 10: cross-scale optimization of social agencies for rapid climate and sustainability action
Published: 2018-08-27
Subjects: Education, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, International and Area Studies, Library and Information Science, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability
Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and related sustainability initiatives will require halving of greenhouse gas emissions each decade from now on through to 2050, when net zero emissions should be achieved. To reach such significant reductions requires a rapid and strategic scaling of existing and emerging technologies and practices, coupled with economic and social transformation and [...]
Micromorphological report of Hof ter Coign
Published: 2018-06-28
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Education, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Geology, Life Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science
Micromorphological report of the Hof ter Coign site (Belgium)
What Even Is Climate?
Published: 2018-06-26
Subjects: Climate, Geography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Although the concept of climate is easy to understand, there is not any uncontroversial definition of it. Most definitions fall back to the simple formulation that `climate is the statistics of weather. Recent attempts at a definition called versions of this saying vague. Climate is policy-relevant, and discussions on climate and climate change benefit from clarity on the topic. Beyond the policy [...]
Spatial association between regionalizations using the information-theoretical V-measure
Published: 2018-04-19
Subjects: Categorical Data Analysis, Computer Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Statistics and Probability, Theory and Algorithms
There is a keen interest in inferring spatial associations between different variables spanning the same study area. We present a method for quantitative assessment of such associations in the case where spatial variables are either in the form of regionalizations or in the form of thematic maps. The proposed index of spatial association – called the V-measure – is adapted from a measure [...]
Knowledge in the Dark: Scientific Challenges and Ways Forward
Published: 2018-03-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Higher Education, Language and Literacy Education, Liberal Studies, Library and Information Science, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Public Health, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences
We propose the concept of knowledge in the dark – or short: dark knowledge – and outline how it can help clarify why in our current era of Big Data, the knowledge (i.e. evidence-based understanding) of people does not seem to be substantially increasing despite a rapid increase in produced data and information. Key reasons underlying dark knowledge are: (1) the production of biased, erroneous or [...]