Hydrologic Response to Land Use Change and Climate Variability in an Ungauged Basin, North-Western Himalaya, India

Hydrological models are overwhelmingly used for gauged basins to simulate variations in water balance components from environmental changes. In the present study, we used Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to investigate the impacts of land use land cover (LULC) change and climate variability on hydrological regime of an ungauged river basin (Sirsa river) in north-western Himalaya, India for the period 1983–2008.  The model was calibrated and validated (2004–2008) using MODIS actual evapotranspiration data (MOD16A2) with high monthly concordance (R2=0.81). The results showed that remotely sensed evapotranspiration data could be used as a proxy of gauge discharge data to calibrate the physically-based model. The substantial increase in built-up area (6.5%) and cropland (9.8%) over forest cover and barren land caused a corresponding increase in average annual surface runoff (12%) and a decrease in lateral flow (6.7%) from base level LULC of 1989 to 2009. The climate variability alone was found significant to reduce average annual streamflow (26.5%) in monsoon season (wet), baseflow (6.5%) and lateral flow (4.6%) in the dry period.  As the water resources of the study area are expected to be adversely effected in the near future, this study will effectively benefit stakeholders and administrators for the management of water resources

The attitude of the local community towards the Saxon’s cultural heritage - a comparative analysis between Sibiu and Braşov counties

AbstractThe purpose of the research consists in performing a comparative analysis between the counties of Sibiu and Braşov in relation to the attitude of the local population towards the cultural patrimony of the Saxons from the communities in which they live. The ten Saxon settlements analysed presently preserve a valuable cultural heritage, numerous buildings are registered on the Romanian national heritage list, and two are on the UNESCO world heritage list. The research methods used were: questionnaire and statistical analysis. The Sibiu sample includes the rural localities: Biertan, Cȃrţa, Mălȃncrav, Hosman and Şelimbăr and the one in Braşov the localities: Hălchiu, Hărman, Prejmer, Sȃnpetru and Vulcan. To compare the two samples in terms of the population’s attitude towards the Saxons’ cultural patrimony, I have applied the Kruskal-Wallis test. The test identified 15 total differences between the two samples. The differences of perception where influenced by individual as well as demographic factors. The experience, needs and expectations of the respondents were reflected in the answer choices. Sex and the locality had a high impact in the differentiation of the samples

THE ASSESSMENT OF GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR INFLUENCE OVER LAND DEGRADATION PROCESSES WITHIN VALEA NEAGRĂ CATCHMENT AREA

The paper analysis geomorphological conditions in the drainage basin of Valea Neagră river, upstream Dulcești locality, and also the influence of the landforms over the development of  main degradation processes: soil erosion, linear erosion and landslides. The area lies on the western edge of the Moldavian Plateau, where the unit confines the Moldavian Subcarpathians. The characteristic landform is the hilly relief, with altitudes ranging between 219 m and 505 m. Geologically, the monoclinic structure of the deposits determined the evolution of cuesta landform that emphasizes the double asymmetrical structure. The relief inversions occured in the territory are the result of a long paleogeomorphologic evolution. In the studied section, the Valea Neagră river valley has a subsequent direction, except from the river section, upstream Hârtop village, where the valley is consequent. Results indicate that unappreciable soil erosion characterizes 73% of the entire area, while the landslides occupy 22% of the territory, being often accompanied by linear erosion forms

ANALYSIS OF RELIEF CHARACTERISTICS USING DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL: A CASE OF DUMKA UPLAND, JHARKHAND, INDIA.

Analysis of relief characteristics is an important part of terrain analysis. Morphometric analysis based on geospatial technology has several advantages over manual methods based on conventional data bases such as topographical maps. Firstly, being fully automated process, it has very less scope for subjectivity, omission or commission errors. Secondly, it is much easier to acquire geospatial data than topographical maps. There are various authoritative sources that provide free geospatial data on global and regional scales. Hence, it is much easier to work on global or regional scales cutting across international boundaries. In this paper ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) digital elevation model (DEM) has been used for the analysis of relief characteristics

GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS WITHIN THE MILETIN CATCHMENT AREA

The present paper proposes the study of the geomorphologic aspects featured in the Miletin drainage area, from Jijia Rolling Plain. For a better understanding of these features we took into consideration the morphometric and morphographic characteristics, the cotrol factors but also the genetic relief types. Miletin valley represents a subsequent valley emphasizing the first order structural asymmetry, where the direction of the river course intersects the geologic strata under a right or acute angle. Although the general orientation of the river course is NW-SE, in reality develops a zigzag succession of acute subsequent valley-sectors, typical subsequent and even consequent. The hillslopes are represented by a backslope, the left hillside of the main valley, which is generally-oriented towards south and a cuesta front, facing north, namely right hillside. The morphological anomaly occured in this drainage basin is the large extent of the cuesta front, upstream of Prăjeni locality, where more than 50% of Miletin catchment area develops on the right hillside

The competition between tourist destinations and its influence upon the tourism development level of the county-seat cities of the North-East Development Region

oai:ojs.85.122.19.241:article/383The need to identify the tourism development level of a destination lies in the desire to become aware of its position in the evolutionary stage and to determine the aspects to be exploited in order to increase its performance. The model of the tourism area lifecycle developed by Butler supports this idea. However, there are difficulties in correctly assessing the stage of evolution in the comparative analysis of several destinations characterized by different economic development levels, despite the similar tourist potential. The paper aims to determine a method of assessing the current life cycle of the 6 analysed destinations on the basis of synthetic indicators, as well as assessing the extent to which the potential competition between the 6 destinations considered may be a factor of influence on the life cycle stage. The result of the study highlights the ability of competition to represent an impulsive advancement factor to a higher level of development. However, the level of competition between the 6 analyzed cities is not strong enough to influence the life cycle of the destinations under the conditions of an early stage of their tourist development. It has been distinguished three levels of competition between the 6 tourist destinations, which have proved to have a different impact on their position as a stage of the life cycle. Also, as a final result, the positioning of the 6 destinations in the corresponding stages of Butler's model is noted, having considered a series of  performance indicators as a reference point

A CLIMATOGRAPHY OF TROPICAL CYCLONES IN NORTH EASTERN PACIFIC OCEAN

This article uses the database known as Best Track is used, which only contain information on those tropical disturbances that at least reached tropical storm status. This information is used to study of the origin, dissipation, abundance, seasonal variability, start and end of the season, intensity, duration and path of tropical cyclones that occur within the North Eastern Pacific basin. The statistics are calculated based on the calendar year between 1949 and 2013 and records are divided three subsets: all basin (1949-2013); from 140°W and eastward and; satellite era (1966-2013). As to the origin, the most active strip is located between 10 and 15°N and 95 and 110°W; whereas for dissipation, the active strip is 5° farther North. The most abundant period is in the eighties, followed by the nineties; while the busiest month is August followed by September. The season runs from May 15th to November 30th and only in February and April there is no activity. During the satellite era, intensities are generally higher than in the previous one; in most of the cyclones, the intensity varies between 70 and 75 kt. As for the duration, there is a positive trend; however, it is not significant and is dominated by the short duration of tropical cyclones during the pre-satellite era. The path is longer (shorter) when the system originates farther (closer) the continent

MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE IN MEXICO, WITH REGARD TO PACIFIC DECADAL OSCILLATION AND GLOBAL WARMING

The behavior of the maximum temperature in Mexico and its relationship with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is studied. A selection of climatological stations with sufficient and reliable data collected since 1950 to 2007 has been used. The temporal behavior of the selected stations is analyzed revealing that, even in those having a uniform behavior, the influence of local conditions is important. To remove these influences the stations are classified into 5 clusters, according its annual average maximum temperature, clusters are geographically distributed according to the altitude and latitude. A bilinear least square fit was made to establish the dependence of maximum temperature with these variables. The first principal component of each of the 5 conglomerates was obtained and compared with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation index. Coastal stations below 300 m, with the highest temperatures, have a similar behavior with the PDO index; the similarity is decreasing as the stations altitude increase and is increasing again for the highest stations

ESTIMATING THE TERRITORIAL AUTOCORRELATION OF AIR PASSENGERS FLOWS IN EUROPE USING A MULTIVARIATE GRAVITY MODEL

Using a gravity model that includes the cost distances and the airports' mass at origin and destination, we have obtained a matrix of residuals for 21325 air links in Europe. These residuals served as the basis for calculating the coefficients of territorial autocorrelation in a multiple regional context. The coefficients we obtained were classified using an hierarchical clustering, at country level. This final typology shows that the national frontiers are more and more permeable to air traffic, having a limitated impact on the intensity of air links between the airports. Some spatial discontinuities are still at work in the European air space and they still have an influence on the amount of traffic, negatively (West-East opposition) or positively (the Scandinavian countries vs. the mainland). Mapping the residuals of the air flows gravity model indicate that these spatial discontinuities can occur also at regional scales of analysis, but they are fuelled by other logics: economic performance, tourism or workforce migration

A NOTE ON ATTRIBUTES DESCRIBING AND MEASURING THE POLYCENTRIC DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL – A REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Even though polycentrism has gained its popularity in the late ’90, it still remains a fuzzy concept; its meaning is elusive because of the lack of a consensus regarding its definition no matter the scale of analysis. The scientific literature provides studies that approach this theme both from a normative and analytical point of view; the former case refers to polycentrism as a spatial planning vision promoted by policy documents and academic literature, while the latter addresses the concept as an analytic construct providing a way to study the spatial organizational patterns of different networks. In this paper, we propose a common classification of the attributes that define the potential of an area to become a polycentric system and of the spatial variables used to measure polycentricity