The status and use of tree biomass in a semi-arid village ecosystem

The status of the tree biomass resource was investigated in Ungra, a semi-arid village ecosystem in South India. There were 57 tree species with 12 trees capita−1 and 35 trees ha−1. Multiple benefit yielding local tree species dominated the village ecosystem, while fuel only or single end use trees accounted for a small proportion of trees. The standing tree biomass is adequate to meet the requirement of biomass fuels for cooking only for about two years. Village tree biomass is presently being depleted largely for export to urban areas. Tree regeneration is now characterized by transformation from multiple-use local tree species to a few single-use species. A large potential exists for tree biomass production along field boundaries (bunds), stream banks and roadsides. Biomass estimation equations were developed for 10 species.

Fusion of multi resolution remote sensing data for urban sprawl analysis

Urban population is growing at around 2.3 percent per annum in India. This is leading to urbanisation and often fuelling the dispersed development in the outskirts of urban and village centres with impacts such as loss of agricultural land, open space, and ecologically sensitive habitats. This type of upsurge is very much prevalent and persistent in most places, often inferred as sprawl. The direct implication of such urban sprawl is the change in land use and land cover of the region and lack of basic amenities, since planners are unable to visualise this type of growth patterns. This growth is normally left out in all government surveys (even in national population census), as this cannot be grouped under either urban or rural centre. The investigation of patterns of growth is very crucial from regional planning point of view to provide basic amenities in the region. The growth patterns of urban sprawl can be analysed and understood with the availability of temporal multi-sensor, multi-resolution spatial data. In order to optimise these spectral and spatial resolutions, image fusion techniques are required. This aids in integrating a lower spatial resolution multispectral (MSS) image (for example, IKONOS MSS bands of 4m spatial resolution) with a higher spatial resolution panchromatic (PAN) image (IKONOS PAN band of 1m spatial resolution) based on a simple spectral preservation fusion technique - the Smoothing Filter-based Intensity Modulation (SFIM). Spatial details are modulated to a co-registered lower resolution MSS image without altering its spectral properties and contrast by using a ratio between a higher resolution image and its low pass filtered (smoothing filter) image. The visual evaluation and statistical analysis confirms that SFIM is a superior fusion technique for improving spatial detail of MSS images with the preservation of spectral properties.

Urban Sprawl Pattern Analysis Using GIS

Urbanisation has evinced interest from a wide section of the society including experts, amateurs, and novices. The multidisciplinary scope of the subject invokes the interest from ecologists, to urban planners and civil engineers, to sociologists, to administrators and policy makers, students and finally the common man. With the development and infrastructure initiatives mostly around the urban centres, the impacts of urbanisation and sprawl would be on the environment and the natural resources. The wisdom lies in how effectively we plan the urban growth without - hampering the environment, excessively harnessing the natural resources and eventually disturbing the natural set-up. The research on these help urban residents and policymakers make informed decisions and take action to restore these resources before they are lost. Ultimately the power to balance the urban ecosystems rests with regional awareness, policies, administration practices, management issues and operational problems. This publication on urban systems is aimed at helping scientists, policy makers, engineers, urban planners and ultimately the common man to visualise how towns and cities grow over a period of time based on investigations in the regions around the highway and cities. Two important highways in Karnataka, South India, viz., Bangalore - Mysore highway and the Mangalore - Udupi highway, in Karnataka and the Tiruchirapalli - Tanjavore - Kumbakonam triangular road network in Tamil Nadu, South India, were considered in this investigation. Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing data were used to analyse the pattern of urbanisation. This was coupled with the spatial and temporal data from the Survey of India toposheets (for 1972), satellite imageries procured from National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) (LANDSAT TM for 1987 and IRS LISS III for 1999), demographic details from the Census of India (1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001) and the village maps from the Directorate of Survey Settlements and Land Records, Government of Karnataka. All this enabled in quantifying the increase in the built-up area for nearly three decades. With intent of identifying the potential sprawl zones, this could be modelled and projected for the future decades. Apart from these the study could quantify some of the metrics that could be used in the study of urban sprawl.

The quest for temperature records in California free of urban heat island effects [abstract, figures, and tables]

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): The data of this paper differ from the Jones and Bradley papers [of 1982-1986] in that it represents an attempt to select thermal pollution free records rather than to include all available records. The specific long-term trends that this paper is trying to avoid are those illustrated by the heat islands of fast growing urban locations. One other major difference in this paper is that all of the records reported of this study are complete for the entire study period.

Kelvin-Helmholtz-like instabilities in turbulent flows over complex surfaces

Riblets are small surface protrusions aligned with the flow direction, which confer an anisotropic roughness to the surface [6]. We have recently reported that the transitional-roughness effect in riblets, which limits their performance, is due to a Kelvin–Helmholtz-like instability of the overlying mean flow [7]. According to our DNSs, the instability sets on as the Reynolds number based on the roughness size of the riblets increases, and coherent, elongated spanwise vortices begin to develop immediately above the riblet tips, causing the degradation of the drag-reduction effect. This is a very novel concept, since prior studies had proposed that the degradation was due to the interaction of riblets with the flow as independent units, either to the lodging of quasi-streamwise vortices in the surface grooves [2] or to the shedding of secondary streamwise vorticity at the riblet peaks [9]. We have proposed an approximate inviscid analysis for the instability, in which the presence of riblets is modelled through an average boundary condition for an overlying, spanwise-independent mean flow. This simplification lacks the accuracy of an exact analysis [4], but in turn applies to riblet surfaces in general. Our analysis succeeds in predicting the riblet size for the onset of the instability, while qualitatively reproducing the wavelengths and shapes of the spanwise structures observed in the DNSs. The analysis also connects the observations with the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability of mixing layers. The fundamental riblet length scale for the onset of the instability is a ‘penetration length,’ which reflects how easily the perturbation flow moves through the riblet grooves. This result is in excellent agreement with the available experimental evidence, and has enabled the identification of the key geometric parameters to delay the breakdown. Although the appearance of elongated spanwise vortices was unexpected in the case of riblets, similar phenomena had already been observed over other rough [3], porous [1] and permeable [11] surfaces, as well as over plant [5,14] and urban [12] canopies, both in the transitional and in the fully-rough regimes. However, the theoretical analyses that support the connection of these observations with the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability are somewhat scarce [7, 11, 13]. It has been recently proposed that Kelvin–Helmholtz-like instabilities are a dominant feature common to “obstructed” shear flows [8]. It is interesting that the instability does not require an inflection point to develop, as is often claimed in the literature. The Kelvin-Helmholtz rollers are rather triggered by the apparent wall-normal-transpiration ability of the flow at the plane immediately above the obstructing elements [7,11]. Although both conditions are generally complementary, if wall-normal transpiration is not present the spanwise vortices may not develop, even if an inflection point exists within the roughness [10]. REFERENCES [1] Breugem, W. P., Boersma, B. J. & Uittenbogaard, R. E. 2006 J. Fluid Mech. 562, 35–72. [2] Choi, H., Moin, P. & Kim, J. 1993 J. Fluid Mech. 255, 503–539. [3] Coceal, O., Dobre, A., Thomas, T. G. & Belcher, S. E. 2007 J. Fluid Mech. 589, 375–409. [4] Ehrenstein, U. 2009 Phys. Fluids 8, 3194–3196. [5] Finnigan, J. 2000 Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 32, 519–571. [6] Garcia-Mayoral, R. & Jimenez, J. 2011 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369, 1412–1427. [7] Garcia-Mayoral, R. & Jimenez, J. 2011 J. Fluid Mech. doi: 10.1017/jfm.2011.114. [8] Ghisalberti, M. 2009 J. Fluid Mech. 641, 51–61. [9] Goldstein, D. B. & Tuan, T. C. 1998 J. Fluid Mech. 363, 115–151. [10] Hahn, S., Je, J. & Choi, H. 2002 J. Fluid Mech. 450, 259–285. [11] Jimenez, J., Uhlman, M., Pinelli, A. & G., K. 2001 J. Fluid Mech. 442, 89–117. [12] Letzel, M. O., Krane, M. & Raasch, S. 2008 Atmos. Environ. 42, 8770–8784. [13] Py, C., de Langre, E. & Moulia, B. 2006 J. Fluid Mech. 568, 425–449. [14] Raupach, M. R., Finnigan, J. & Brunet, Y. 1996 Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 78, 351–382.

Ecological homogenization of urban USA

A visually apparent but scientifically untested outcome of land-use change is homogenization across urban areas, where neighborhoods in different parts of the country have similar patterns of roads, residential lots, commercial areas, and aquatic features. We hypothesize that this homogenization extends to ecological structure and also to ecosystem functions such as carbon dynamics and microclimate, with continental-scale implications. Further, we suggest that understanding urban homogenization will provide the basis for understanding the impacts of urban land-use change from local to continental scales. Here, we show how multi-scale, multidisciplinary datasets from six metropolitan areas that cover the major climatic regions of the US (Phoenix, AZ; Miami, FL; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Minneapolis-St Paul, MN; and Los Angeles, CA) can be used to determine how household and neighborhood characteristics correlate with land-management practices, land-cover composition, and landscape structure and ecosystem functions at local, regional, and continental scales. © The Ecological Society of America.

Assessing the homogenization of urban land management with an application to US residential lawn care.

Changes in land use, land cover, and land management present some of the greatest potential global environmental challenges of the 21st century. Urbanization, one of the principal drivers of these transformations, is commonly thought to be generating land changes that are increasingly similar. An implication of this multiscale homogenization hypothesis is that the ecosystem structure and function and human behaviors associated with urbanization should be more similar in certain kinds of urbanized locations across biogeophysical gradients than across urbanization gradients in places with similar biogeophysical characteristics. This paper introduces an analytical framework for testing this hypothesis, and applies the framework to the case of residential lawn care. This set of land management behaviors are often assumed--not demonstrated--to exhibit homogeneity. Multivariate analyses are conducted on telephone survey responses from a geographically stratified random sample of homeowners (n = 9,480), equally distributed across six US metropolitan areas. Two behaviors are examined: lawn fertilizing and irrigating. Limited support for strong homogenization is found at two scales (i.e., multi- and single-city; 2 of 36 cases), but significant support is found for homogenization at only one scale (22 cases) or at neither scale (12 cases). These results suggest that US lawn care behaviors are more differentiated in practice than in theory. Thus, even if the biophysical outcomes of urbanization are homogenizing, managing the associated sustainability implications may require a multiscale, differentiated approach because the underlying social practices appear relatively varied. The analytical approach introduced here should also be productive for other facets of urban-ecological homogenization.

Village Greens, Commons Land and the Emergence of Sports Law in the UK

This article traces the legal development of recreational rights surrounding village greens and, later, urban public spaces in the UK. The article highlights that at a critical juncture in the development of modern sport in Britain - in the mid-nineteenth century - the law helped embed not only just a space for sport in the emerging industrialised and increasingly urbanised environment, but also the place of sport in the Victorian era's evolving socio-economic landscape and, further, the relevant case law was the precursor for what is known today as sports law.

Dieu, le capitalisme et le développement local : conflits sociaux et enracinement territorial : étude monographique d'un village québécois

Inscrite dans la tradition monographique en sociologie et en anthropologie, cette thèse prend pour objet la diversité des pratiques et des idéologies caractéristiques des différents types de populations rurales distingués en fonction de l'enracinement territorial, afin d'apporter un nouvel éclairage sur les conflits sociaux actuels dans tous les milieux ruraux québécois qui surgissent notamment de l'accroissement du nombre des néo-ruraux dont les visions du monde s'opposent à celles des agriculteurs, dont le nombre diminue sans cesse. Prenant un village comme observatoire, il s'agit de rendre compte du mouvement totalisant de l'expérience de la vie en société à la fois dans ses dimensions « matérielles » et « symboliques ». L'étude des principales formes de vie sociale (religieuse, économique et politique) se fait grâce à des méthodes diversifiées: l'observation participante, l'analyse statistique, l'analyse du discours, le travail sur les archives municipales et l'histoire orale. L'analyse des différentes formes de vie sociale montre que leur organisation est structurée par deux principaux modèles. Le modèle public et communautaire comprend les personnes qui valorisent l'implication de l'État et des professionnels dans la gestion collective de la redistribution des richesses et dans le développement des milieux ruraux. Ces personnes occupent une position économique « marginale » à l'intérieur de la localité et sont plus près des milieux urbains tant par leurs positions que par leurs visions du monde. Quant au modèle privé et familial, il comprend les personnes défendant le rôle prépondérant des réseaux familiaux dans le développement local et la fermeture de la localité face à la concurrence des marchés extérieurs et aux interventions politiques exogènes. Les représentants de ce modèle occupent une position économique locale dominante, mais se sentent de plus en plus dominés politiquement face aux interventions extérieures des représentants politiques régionaux et des professionnels ainsi qu'économiquement à l'échelle mondiale où ils occupent une position dominée. Les oppositions sous-jacentes à ces deux modèles s'inscrivent dans une histoire ancienne qui met en scène d'une part les élites traditionnelles liées à l'Église et les notables francophones scolarisées et d'autre part les élites industrielles et commerciales qui succèdent aux anglophones dès les années 1920. Le sens et le contenu des modèles varient légèrement avec les transformations récentes de la structure familiale et la régionalisation des pouvoirs politiques et religieux.

De l’or et des putes : vie et mort d’un village de 'squatters' abitibien

Cette étude s’intéresse au village de squatters de Roc-d’Or, surnommé Putainville, qui apparaît en 1936 avant d’être détruit par le gouvernement provincial au milieu des années 1940. Notre but est de comprendre pourquoi cette agglomération, qui est érigée illégalement sur les terrains gouvernementaux et qui est réputée pour être un important foyer de déviance, est relativement tolérée pendant une décennie avant que les résidences soient détruites ou déménagées à Malartic. D’abord, nous expliquons pourquoi cette agglomération, sans reconnaissance légale et dans laquelle les résidents ne sont pas propriétaires des terrains sur lesquels leurs bâtiments sont érigés, apparaît en Abitibi-Témiscamingue au début des années 1930. Ensuite, nous nous intéressons à l’aspect physique et à la population de Roc-d’Or. Le taux de masculinité, la mobilité, la diversité d’emploi et l’origine ethnique des résidents sont analysés. De plus, nous nous penchons sur la mauvaise réputation de Putainville : autant le contrôle judiciaire que la présence du monde interlope sont étudiés. Finalement, comme les mœurs légères des résidents et l’influence du curé de Malartic sont souvent considérées comme étant à l’origine de la décision d’éliminer ce village, nous évaluons la pertinence de cette croyance et nous déterminons si d’autres motifs, notamment monétaire ou politique, sont aussi entrés en ligne de compte.

Urban mammals: what does the future hold? An analysis of the factors affecting patterns of use of residential gardens in Great Britain

1Urban areas are predicted to grow significantly in the foreseeable future because of increasing human population growth. Predicting the impact of urban development and expansion on mammal populations is of considerable interest due to possible effects on biodiversity and human-wildlife conflict. 2The British government has recently announced a substantial housing programme to meet the demands of its growing population and changing socio-economic profile. This is likely to result in the construction of high-density, low-cost housing with small residential gardens. To assess the potential effects of this programme, we analysed the factors affecting the current pattern of use of residential gardens by a range of mammal species using a questionnaire distributed in wildlife and gardening magazines and via The Mammal Society. 3Twenty-two species/species groups were recorded. However, the pattern of garden use by individual species was limited, with only six species/species groups (bats, red fox Vulpes vulpes, grey squirrel Sciurus carolinensis, hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus, mice, voles) recorded as frequent visitors to > 20% of gardens in the survey. 4There was a high degree of association between the variables recorded in the study, such that it was difficult to quantify the effects of individual variables. However, all species/species groups appeared to be negatively affected by the increased fragmentation and reduced proximity of natural and semi-natural habitats, decreasing garden size and garden structure, but to differing degrees. Patterns of garden use were most clearly affected by house location (city, town, village, rural), with garden use declining with increasing urbanization for the majority of species/species groups, except red foxes and grey squirrels. Increasing urbanization is likely to be related to a wide range of interrelated factors, any or all of which may affect a range of mammal species. 5Overall, the probable effects of the planned housing development programme in Britain are not likely to be beneficial to mammal populations, although the pattern of use examined in this study may represent patterns of habitat selection by species rather than differences in distribution or abundance. Consequently, additional data are required on the factors affecting the density of species within urban environments.

Beyond urban legends : an emerging framework of urban ecology, as illustrated by the Baltimore Ecosystem Study

The emerging discipline of urban ecology is shifting focus from ecological processes embedded within cities to integrative studies of large urban areas as biophysical-social complexes. Yet this discipline lacks a theory. Results from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, part of the Long Term Ecological Research Network, expose new assumptions and test existing assumptions about urban ecosystems. The findings suggest a broader range of structural and functional relationships than is often assumed for urban ecological systems. We address the relationships between social status and awareness of environmental problems, and between race and environmental hazard. We present patterns of species diversity, riparian function, and stream nitrate loading. In addition, we probe the suitability of land-use models, the diversity of soils, and the potential for urban carbon sequestration. Finally, we illustrate lags between social patterns and vegetation, the biogeochemistry of lawns, ecosystem nutrient retention, and social-biophysical feedbacks. These results suggest a framework for a theory of urban ecosystems.

Urban warming in villages

Long term meteorological records (> 100 years) from stations associated with villages are generally classified as rural and assumed to have no urban influence. Using networks installed in two European villages, the local and microclimatic variations around two of these rural-village sites are examined. An annual average temperature difference ($\Delta{T}$) of 0.6 and 0.4 K was observed between the built-up village area and the current meteorological station in Geisenheim (Germany) and Haparanda (Sweden), respectively. Considerably larger values were recorded for the minimum temperatures and during summer. The spatial variations in temperature within the villages are of the same order as recorded over the past 100+ years in these villages (0.06 to 0.17 K/10 years). This suggests that the potential biases in the long records of rural-villages also warrant careful consideration like those of the more commonly studied large urban areas effects.

Experience with PV-diesel hybrid village power systems in southern Morocco

In October 2002, under the auspices of Spanish Cooperation, a pilot electrification project put into operation two centralised PV-diesel hybrid systems in two different Moroccan villages. These systems currently provide a full-time energy service and supply electricity to more than a hundred of families, six community buildings, street lighting and one running water system. The appearance of the electricity service is very similar to an urban one: one phase AC supply (230V/50Hz) distributed up to each dwelling using a low-voltage mini-grid, which has been designed to be fully compatible with a future arrival of the utility grid. The management of this electricity service is based on a “fee-for-service” scheme agreed between a local NGO, partner of the project, and electricity associations created in each village, which are in charge of, among other tasks, recording the daily energy production of systems and the monthly energy consumption of each house. This register of data allows a systematic evaluation of both the system performance and the energy consumption of users. Now, after four years of operation, this paper presents the experience of this pilot electrification project and draws lessons that can be useful for designing, managing and sizing this type of small village PV-hybrid system

New York, N.Y. and vicinity, 1899 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: New York City and vicinity, H.M. Wilson, geographer in charge ; triangulation by U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ; topography by S.H. Bodfish ... [et al. and] U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, N.Y. City Government and the Geological Survey of New Jersey. It was published by U.S.G.S. in 1899. Scale 1:62,500. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 18N NAD83 projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, railroads, drainage, cities and towns, villages, forts, cemeteries, aqueducts, boundaries, and more. Relief is shown with standard contour intervals of 20 feet. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection as part of the Imaging the Urban Environment project. Maps selected for this project represent major urban areas and cities of the world, at various time periods. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features at a large scale. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.