Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

An ecosystem services value assessment of land-use change in Chengdu: Based on a modification of scarcity factor
Publication date: Available online 7 January 2019Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Yu Kang, Chuanxing Cheng, Xianghua Liu, Fan Zhang, Zhihui Li, Siqi LuAbstractChanges in land-use, caused by rapid urbanization, lead to changes in the supply and demand for ecosystem services. Significant research has been conducted to investigate the impact of changes in the physical supply of ecosystem services on their value. However, quantifying the effects of simultaneous changes in supply and demand on the scarcity value of ecosystem services can provides a more reasonable assessment of ecosystem service...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 8, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

Soil Salinity Mapping in Everglades National Park Using Remote Sensing Techniques and Vegetation Salt Tolerance
In this study, spatio-temporal soil salinity maps are created using remote sensing techniques, coupled with literature review to understand vegetation salt tolerance properties, and field assessments entailing insitu electric conductivity (EC) measurements. The mapping first entailed the execution of a supervised machine learning technique—the maximum likelihood classification algorithm—to delineate seven vegetation-based land cover classes for the area, namely, mangrove forest, mangrove scrub, low-density forest, sawgrass, prairies and marshes, barren lands with woodland hammock and water, for the years 1996, 2000, 20...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 7, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

Remote sensing image-based analysis of the urban heat island effect in Shenzhen, China
This study helps to better understand the optimization of urban landscapes and alleviation of the urban heat island effect. (Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC)
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 7, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

The complex interaction controls the spatiotemporal distribution of the air pollution Numerical study of a local PM2.5 pollution event under the typhoon Neoguri (1408) background over a coastal metropolitan city, Shenzhen, China
This study demonstrated that air pollution can form over Shenzhen under the typhoon background, and the complex interaction between typhoon circulations and sea breeze development controls the spatiotemporal distribution of the air pollution in the coastal metropolitan city. (Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC)
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 7, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

Spatial-temporal Pattern and Driving Factors of Wastewater Discharge in Yangtze River Economic Zone
This study uses Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) method and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model to analyze the Spatial-temporal pattern of industrial wastewater and discuss the dominant driving factors of industrial wastewater discharge in Yangtze River Economic Zone from 2002 to 2013.The study indicates that: (1) In terms of the spatial- temporal pattern, the wastewater discharge of Yangtze River Economic Zone first increased from 2002 to 2015 and then decreased after reaching the peak in 2005. Referring to the characteristic of spatial, the wastewater discharge increases from upstream to downstream. There...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 7, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

Impacts of land use and land cover changes on hydrology of the Gumara catchment, Ethiopia
This study quantifies the rate of LULC in the Gumara catchment (1,413 km2), an important tributary to Lake Tana in northwest Ethiopia. Landsat images of three years (1986, 2001 and 2015) were processed using the supervised classification method. An extensive field survey generated over 150 ground truth points, which were used in the classification and accuracy assessment process. Then, a conceptual rainfall-runoff model (HBV) was calibrated and validated to assess the impacts of LULC changes on water balance components - evapotranspiration, soil moisture, groundwater recharge and runoff. Additionally, the decadal means and...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 7, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

Assessment of lake surface dynamics using satellite imagery and in-situ data; case of Lake Ngami in North-West Botswana
Publication date: Available online 3 January 2019Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Leokeditswe Mokgedi, Joel Nobert, Subira MunishiAbstractThe understanding of surface dynamics of Lake Ngami, a part of Okavango river system is hindered by paucity of data. The aim of this study was to assess the lake surface dynamics using satellite imagery and in-situ data.Surface dynamics of Lake Ngami were monitored using remote sensing methods to complement the available inadequate in-situ measurements. Landsat imagery of the year 1979 to year 2016 were used. The Lake boundary was mapped using the Modifie...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - January 4, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research

The impacts of commercial plantation forests on groundwater recharge: A case study from George (Western Cape, South Africa)
This study sought to contribute to addressing this important knowledge gap. The main objective was to compare groundwater recharge dynamics in commercial plantation forests and co-occurring indigenous forests. The HYDRUS-2D model was used to simulate the hillslope hydrological dynamics along 3 study transects, i.e. a Pinus radiata transect, a Pinus elliotii transect and in the Groenkop indigenous forest, during the period 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2017. The model was used to simulate the interaction between the vegetation, unsaturated zone and the saturated zone in order to better understand the groundwater recharge d...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 22, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Combining a thermal tracer with a transport model to estimate shallow flow velocities
Publication date: Available online 21 December 2018Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): João R.C.B. Abrantes, Rodrigo B. Moruzzi, João L.M.P. de Lima, Alexandre Silveira, Abelardo A.A. MontenegroAbstract:For a long time, tracer techniques based on dyes, salts and more recently heat have been used to estimate shallow flow velocities. Traditionally, flow velocity estimation using tracers would consist of tracking the movement of the leading edge or the centroid of the tracer with the flow. An alternative methodology uses an analytical solution of an advection–dispersion transport equation as ...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 22, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Prediction of future climate in Ngerengere river catchment, Tanzania
In this study, one of the protocols for downscaling climate variables from coarse Global Circulation Models (GCM), the Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG) was applied in the Ngerengere catchment in Tanzania. LARS-WG is a stochastic weather generator which can be used for generation of weather data at single site under both current and future climate condition.The LARS-WG model was calibrated and validated using the observed daily rainfall data for the period 1971-2000 (30 years) in Ngerengere catchment. LARS-WG calibration results indicate a good fit between observed and generated average daily rainfal...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 20, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

An Automatic Traffic Density Estimation Using Single Shot Detection (SSD) and MobileNet-SSD
In this study, we show a key application area for the SSD and MobileNet-SSD framework. The advantages and shortcomings of the SSD and MobileNet-SSD framework were analyzed using fifty-nine individual traffic cameras. In addition, we compared the two algorithms with manually estimated density. The SSD framework shows significant potential in the field of traffic density estimation. SSD achieved 92.97% average detection accuracy in our experiment. On the other hand, the MobileNet-SSD achieved 79.30% average detection accuracy. (Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC)
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 19, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Advancements in satellite remote sensing for mapping and monitoring of Alien Invasive Plant species (AIPs)
Publication date: Available online 18 December 2018Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Lwando Royimani, Onisimo Mutanga, John Odindi, Timothy Dube, Trylee Nyasha MatongeraAbstractDetecting and mapping the occurrence, spatial distribution and abundance of Alien Invasive Plants (AIPs) have recently gained substantial attention, globally. This work, therefore, provides an overview of advancements in satellite remote sensing for mapping and monitoring of AIPs and associated challenges and opportunities. Satellite remote sensing techniques have been successful in detecting and mapping the spatial a...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 19, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Evaluation of the adsorptive properties of locally available alumino-silicate clay in As(III) and As(V) remediation from groundwater
This study evaluates the adsorptive properties of locally available alumino-silicate clay in removal of As(III) and As(V) from groundwater. Physicochemical properties of the clay were characterized using x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the alumino-silicate clay in the removal of As(III) and As(V) under various conditions of contact time, adsorbent dosage, initial adsorbate concentration and initial pH. The results showed that adsorp...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 4, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Detection of soil moisture anomalies based on Sentinel-1
Publication date: Available online 30 November 2018Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Felix Greifeneder, Erick Khamala, Degelo Sendabo, Wolfgang Wagner, Marc Zebisch, Hussein Farah, Claudia NotarnicolaAbstractActive and passive microwave remote sensing has evolved into a well-accepted and widely used method for the spatially continuous, coarse to medium resolution mapping of the surface soil moisture content (SMC). Presently, the exploitation of high-resolution data is less mature. Sentinel-1 is a high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (∼5 by 20 m), which acts as the basis for mapping of ...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - December 1, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Spatial-temporal evolution of urban heat Island in Xi'an from 2006 to 2016
Publication date: Available online 22 November 2018Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Suhua Liu, Zhenfeng Zang, Wenchuan Wang, Yueru WuAbstractDuring the rapid development of urbanization, the urban heat island (UHI), becomes one of the major urbanization progress problems that affects the environmental, social and ecology profoundly. Analyzing the UHI can help understanding the UHI status and the physical characteristics of cities, and is significant to provide ecosystem management plans and mitigation strategies for the UHI. By utilizing the MODIS LST products, Landsat series data and the e...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - November 30, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research