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Paleoenvironments reconstructed from the analyses of loess sequences on Susak Island, Adriatic Sea
1-9Views:174Susak Island is the outermost member of the archipelago of the Kvarner Bay, North Adriatic Sea, Croatia. Its long-term landscape evolution is defined by tectonic movements. Most characteristic are partly exhumed landforms of an ancient terrane (scarps, uplifted limestone cliffs) in a still active neotectonic environment, but the most appropriate tools for the reconstruction of Quaternary paleoenvironments are loess and loess-like deposits. The Quaternary sequence is up to almost 100 m thickness locally and intensively studied by numerous disciplines (from structural geology to geochemistry and geomorphology) today. The special location of the island makes it a key area of research into the evolution of the broader environment, including the Po Plain as well as other Italian source areas of wind-borne and redeposited dust. The loess mantle was also of great importance for a paleoecological reconstruction of floral and faunal evolution, on which efforts of nature conservation are founded.
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Case study for estimation of the amount of contaminants stored in soil in an industrial area
1-11Views:294One of the main sources of contaminants in the soil is industrial activity which has become one of the major environmental problems of the last few decades. The development of geoinformatics as well as the introduction of standards and regulations has led to a decreased risk of soil contamination and the cost-effective optimization of remediation activities. Based on the above, the aim of our study is to demonstrate the geoinformation processing of the remediation performed in an industrial area located in the Great Hungarian Plain, with special regard to the estimation of the amount and spread of the contaminants accumulated in the soil. In order to reveal the lithological and hydrogeological properties of the investigated area and the environmental status of the underground areas, we performed a large number of shallow land drillings (115). During the field sampling, 1000–1500 grams of samples were collected from the drill bit and were processed in an accredited laboratory. Based on the concentration and volume models created it can be concluded that with the estimations performed via modeling, we were able to locate the most critical areas from the standpoint of contamination. It was revealed that the focal point of the contaminants accumulated in the soil was in the central part of the investigated area. Furthermore, the model demonstrated the effect of lithological factors, since contaminants tend to accumulate more heavily in cohesive soils compared to porous rocks. The extent of contaminant concentration in the aquifer increased with decreasing depth; however, after reaching the floor clay the extent of contaminant concentration began to decrease. The lithological layer closest to the surface contained the most contaminants.
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The utilization strucutre of thermal water wells and its unexploited capacities in Hungary
36-52Views:74In order to mitigate Hungary’s vulnerability in energy supply and accomplish the renewable energy production targets, it is essential to discover exploitable alternative opportunities for energy production and step up the utilization of the available capacities. The purpose of this publication is to map up the utilization structure of the existing Hungarian thermal water wells, describe its changes over the past 16 years, reveal the associated reasons and define the unutilized well capacities that may contribute to increasing the exploitation of geothermal heat by municipalities. The studies have been conducted in view of the Cadaster of Thermal Water Wells of Hungary compiled in 1994, the well cadasters kept by the regional water management directorates, as well as the data of the digital thermal water cadaster of 2010. The calculations performed for the evaluation of data have been based on the ratios and respective utilization areas of the existing wells. In the past 150 years, nearly 1500 thermal water wells have been drilled for use by a broad range of economic operations. The principal goals of constructing thermal water wells encompass the use of water in balneology, water and heat supply to the agriculture, hydrocarbon research and the satisfaction of municipal water demands. In 1994, 26% of the facilities was operated as baths, 21% was used by agriculture, while 13% and 12% served communal and waterworks supply, respectively. Then in 2010, 31% of thermal water wells was continued to be used for the water supply of bathing establishments, followed by 20% for agricultural use, 19% for utilization by waterworks, 11% for observation purposes and 10% for communal use. During the 16 years between 1994 and 2010, the priorities of utilization often changed, new demands emerged in addition to the former utilization goals of thermal water wells. The economic landscape and changes in consumer habits have transformed the group of consumers, which is the reason why most of the resources have remained untapped. In 2010, 13% of all the thermal water wells were closed in, but could potentially be utilized; these capacities could be deployed for the satisfaction of the heat demands of municipal public institutions.
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Boundless settlements – tendencies and future of urban sprawl in the agglomeration of Budapest
75-88Views:213The Budapest agglomeration is a rapidly changing environment. Urban sprawl has been a prominent process in municipalities around the Hungarian capital, and its pace has significantly increased since the change of regimes. In our paper, we analyse the tendencies of urban development, the role of territorial protection and the types of land use mostly threatened by urban sprawl in two study areas within the Budapest agglomeration. A significant part of the Northern study area – located on Szentendre Island – is under territorial protection, while the Southern study area – located on Csepel Island – has a considerably lower amount of protected areas. We found that the settlements of the Northern study area have been expanding at a much slower pace than their Southern counterparts, where in the absence of effective restrictions, extensive areas – mostly former agricultural fields – have been converted into built-up areas. In addition, the Spatial Plan of the agglomeration allows the same tendencies to continue in both areas in the future as well.
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A spatio-temporal urban expansion modeling a case study Teheran metropolis, Iran
10-19Views:127During the past decades, urban growth has been accelerating with the massive immigration of population to cities. Urban population in the world was estimated as 2.9 billion in 2000 and predicted to reach 5.0 billion in 2030. Rapid urbanization and population growth have been a common phenomenon, especially in the developing countries such as Iran. Rapid population growth, environmental changes and improper land use planning practices in the past decades have resulted in environmental deterioration, haphazard landscape development and stress on the ecosystem structure, housing shortages, insufficient infrastructure, and increasing urban climatological and ecological problems. In this study, urban sprawl assessment was implemented using Shannon entropy and then, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been adopted for modeling urban growth. Our case study is Tehran Metropolis, capital of Iran. Landsat imageries acquired in 1988, 1999 and 2010 are used. According to the results of sprawl assessment for this city, this city has experienced sprawl between 1988 to 2010. Dataset include distance to roads, distance to green spaces, distance to developed area, slope, number of urban cells in a 3 by 3 neighborhood, distance to fault and elevation. Relative operating characteristic (ROC) method have been used to evaluate the accuracy and performance of the model. The obtained ROC equal to 0.8366.
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Geo-physical attributes of Shushunia’s aquifer, Chhatna block, Bankura district, West Bengal, India
1-11Views:93Shushunia hill lies in a transitional zone of the South Singbhum Mobile Craton and northern Gondwana formation. The Shushunia hill appears like a porcupine peak and it has structural similarity to the Eastern Ghat. The Shushunia hill zone is an example of a contact spring. In the foothill zone, two perennial springs are observed. The study purely deals with its aquifer and water quality. Based on the present rock strata and the nature of the contact aquifer, its early condition has been assumed. The discharge of the confined aquifers occurs by leakage. The water temperature depicts the springs are not of geothermal origin. Shushunia's aquifer is the shallow flow system water table and it is the subdued replica of surface topography. The comparatively high discharge rate during post-monsoon indicates the fractured conduit-water seepage towards the aquifer. Moreover, twin-contact aquifers do not yield water uniformly. The perennial aquifer may act as a municipal water supply source for drinking purposes in the future.
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Environmental educational potentials on school grounds in Budapest
23-30Views:189As nature and greenspaces in urban areas are agreed to enhance children’s appreciation towards nature and so the purposes of environmental education, it is of high importance to create spaces in and around schools that allow students to connect to nature on a daily basis. The aim of the study was to analyse functions and other components supporting environmental education appear in the open spaces of school grounds in Budapest, and to understand the main characteristics of school grounds with the highest potential in environmental education. The study points out that the presence of environmental educational functions often depends on the size, urban context and location of the school grounds, however the curriculum of the school does not necessarily influence its open spaces, while the presence of motivated and engaged teachers does. The study reveals environmental educational functions do exist in school grounds of primary schools in Budapest, however they play only secondary role behind active movement and play functions. The schools with the best potentials in environmental education are without doubt the ones situated on large plots in the suburban zone, mostly with a high proportion of green spaces in and around the school grounds.
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Regional Development in the Age of Big Data
1-9Views:163Our paper presents a forward looking analytical approach to the territorial development in a region of the Transylvanian Plain situated in the vicinity of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We outlined the development of this region with the means of landscape architecture supported by a comparable assessment. In the age of Big Data we settled at creative usage of traditional analysis. We extracted yet undetected information from a limited amount of available as yet loosely related data. The key feature of the employed model is the ontological traceability of cause and effect. Although technology is available to collect enormous data, expert knowledge gained by education and professional practice cannot be overlooked. We demonstrate that this method of location based analysis is capable of delivering value added to established principles of spatial planning in the age of trustworthy, large volume, heterogeneous data.
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Integrating applied lake ecology into spatial planning: towards a socially acceptable lakeshore restoration at Lake Velence (Hungary)
27-41Views:240A good chance of a socially accepted shore-restoration that is sustainable for the long run stands only, if all those, concerned in lake use, are also interested in the ecological interventions, if shore-restoration serves social and economic purposes, as well. In the previous phase of our research, assessments were made to find the sections of the shore zone that are suitable for restoration: to detect the sites where the existing artificial shoreline stabilization works could be removed. So that social demands should be involved in the assessment process, to begin with, structured interviews were made. According to the results, the share of the plots, being suitable or partially suitable for shore-restoration, slightly exceeded 7%. The analysis of restoration’s limiting factors has shown that the type of shoreline stabilization, the width of zone covered by emergent macrophytes, the extent of human pressures, and the relevant regulations on zoning (fixed in urban plans) together set limits to restoration. The interviews have made it clear that as a result of the changed demands on recreation-tourism, also the natural and landscape values have become more significant.
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Interferences between the ecological network and urbanized areas in Poland
65-77Views:50This paper presents spatial relations between Polish urban areas and valuable habitats and links between them composing the country’s ecological network. The quantitative analysis for 891 towns and cities was conducted using GIS techniques based on cartographic vector data and statistical data. Valuable habitats and links between them, such as national parks, landscape parks, CORINE biotopes sites, wildlife corridors linking NATURA 2000 sites and ECONET areas, can be found in 72% of Polish towns and cities. The proportion of artificial surfaces in those areas is different depending on the size of a town or city and its location. Urban areas with the highest index of presence of valuable habitats and links between them are concentrated in the south of Poland, where settlement network is most dense. However, in the case of those areas the proportion of artificial surfaces interfering with the ecological network is lower than Poland’s average, being 16%. The pressure of anthropogenic land cover extending onto the country’s ecological network is most conspicuous in urban areas with a population of at least several dozen thousand residents where the average developed area is 20.8% of their total area. The danger for the continuity of the nature system is best seen in the north western Poland, where artificial surfaces interference in towns and cities is largest. The analysis performed identified 82 towns and cities, in which the preservation of the continuity of the ecological network should be a priority in spatial management because of a higher than average index of the presence of valuable habitats and links between them and large proportion of artificial surfaces in those areas.
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The developement of red mud flood environmental information system and the methodology for the spatial analysis of the degraded area
1-11Views:218The red mud disaster occurred on 4th October 2010 in Hungary has raised the necessity of rapid intervention and drew attention to the long-term monitoring of such threat. Both the condition assessment and the change monitoring indispensably required the prompt and detailed spatial survey of the impact area. It was conducted by several research groups - independently - with different recent surveying methods. The high spatial resolution multispectral aerial photogrammetry is the spatially detailed (high resolution) and accurate type of remote sensing. The hyperspectral remote sensing provides more information about material quality of pollutants, with less spatial details and lower spatial accuracy, while LIDAR ensures the three-dimensional shape and terrain models. The article focuses on the high spatial resolution, multispectral electrooptical method and the evaluation methodology of the deriving high spatial resolution ortho image map, presenting the derived environmental information database.
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Land use change detection along the Pravara River basin in Maharashtra, using remote sensing and GIS techniques
71-86Views:98In the past few decades there has been an increasing pressure of population all over the world, especially in India, resulting in the utilization of every available patch of available land from woodlands to badlands. The study area represents a basin which is economically growing fast by converting the fallow lands, badlands and woodlands to agricultural land for the past few decades. IRS (Indian Remote sensing Satellites) 1 C – LISS III and IRS 1 C PAN and IRS P6 – LISS III and IRS 1 D PAN Images were merged to generate imageries with resolution matching to the landscape processes operating in the area. The images of the year 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2007 were analyzed to detect the changes in the landuse and landcover in the past ten years. The analysis reveals that there has been 20% increase in the agricultural area over the past ten years. Built up area also has increased from 1.35% to 6.36% of the area and dense vegetation also has marginally increased. The remarkable increase in the agricultural area occurs owing to the reclaim of the natural ravines and fallow lands. Presently the area looks promising, but it is necessary to understand the sedimentological and geomorphological characteristics of the area before massive invasion on any such landscapes because the benefit may be short lived.