27 research outputs found
Traditional use of shore platforms:a study of the artisanal management of salinas on the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean)
Shore platforms and salinas in the Mediterranean region have a long-standing relationship, rooted in the traditional practice
of salt making. On small islands with limited natural resources, the production of salt from seawater, through insolation and
intense human endeavour, offered numerous economic benefits. Salt has been a foremost natural resource for millennia
with a range of uses from preserving edible foods to cooking, cleaning, laundry, and hygiene, and for medicinal uses in dilute
solutions. Within the Maltese Islands, this traditional activity was developed primarily on the soft limestone shore platforms
situated along low-lying rocky coasts. Although coastal production has declined in number over the years, a few salinas have
persisted in their artisanal practice and are becoming a cultural geo-heritage attraction. The aim of this article is to explore
the multiple geographies of this industry on two shore platforms by examining the complicated relationships that have
emerged and molded between the physical landscape and human culture. Mapping out these relations through the traditional
but complex management systems at two salinas, that is, the salinas at Delimara Point (Malta) and those at Xwejni Bay
(Gozo), highlights the delicate nature of these relations as well as the need to support them in order to continually reproduce
the cultural micro-landscape. The resultant micro-landscape is becoming an increasingly important living expression of the
cultural geo-heritage of the Maltese Islands, which requires careful understanding and management of these relations if it is
to be maintained as a vibrant geo-tourist attraction.peer-reviewe
Universal shapes? Analysis of the shape of Antarctic tafoni
Using dimensional data from over 700 tafoni in Antarctica, this paper identifies how the dimensionless ratios of width/length (W/L) and depth/length (D/L) vary with tafoni length. The analysis suggests that these ratios do tend to converge to values that are similar to those found for fragments produced by brittle fracture and fragmentation. Dividing the data into quintiles and deciles, it is possible to assess how tafoni size and shape change as tafoni length increases. Smaller tafoni do tend to have a rounder plan form which rapidly changes as tafoni length increases towards the W/L ratio of 0.67. It is suggested that initial tafoni development is limited by the conditions set out in a recent mathematical model of tafoni development. This model focuses on tafoni development through the interactions of variable rock strength and the varying concentration gradient of a corrosive agent. Erosion involves the removal of relatively small sections of rock and is analogous to a continuous erosional process. This model produces tafoni of relatively circular plan form. Above a certain tafoni length it is suggested that processes associated with brittle fracture begin to dominant the development and shape of tafoni
Using morphospaces to understand tafoni development
Tafoni research has tended to focus on issues around definition and differences rather
than trying to develop general concepts for understanding the nature of tafoni. This
paper uses the concepts of fitness landscapes and morphospaces to develop a
standardized and dimensionless phase space within which to represent, visualize and
analyze a dataset of 800 tafoni collected from Antarctica. Within this phase space it is
possible to identify clustering of tafoni forms and to illustrate how tafoni development
is constrained by a relational hierarchy of rock structure, processes and geometry or
form.South African NRF.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/geomorph2017-05-31hb2016Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog
Spatial analysis of eroding surface micro-topographies
Analysis of the spatial variability in erosion rates at the micro-scale has the potential to improve our understanding
of how shore platforms erode. Comparing the erosion rate of a single measurement reading with the
erosion rate of other increasingly distant readings would indicate whether average variation in erosion rate is
homogeneous and at what spatial scale. Little variation in erosion rate from one measurement reading as distance
increased would indicate that an area is eroding homogeneously and that the surface measured is responding as a
single spatial unit. An increase or decrease in the variation in erosion rate difference with increasing distance
from one reading would suggest that the area was not acting as a single spatial unit and that surface responses
differ with scale. This study used a two-year dataset of traversing micro-erosion meter (TMEM) readings,
collected from two limestone shore platforms on the north of Malta, at Ponta tal-Qammieħ and Blata l-Bajda, in
order to explore the relationship between difference in erosion rate and distance from TMEM readings. A
Microsoft Excel macro was developed and applied to calculate and analyse the average variation in erosion rate
difference between all possible pairs of measurement readings over a set of fixed distances. The resultant analysis
suggests that there are some consistent patterns between measurement periods and locations on a platform in
terms of how erosion rate difference varies with distance between readings. These are not simple relationships to
either characterise or explain but nevertheless, they suggest variations in how the same surface responds to
erosional forces. These findings are significant for erosion research as they imply that spatial scales to erosion
within even small areas may impact upon the representativeness of an average erosional loss for the platform
site. It raises issues about how representative rates really are and contributes to the discussion about the wider
understanding of erosion rates across spatial scale.peer-reviewe
Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research
This paper reviews the published articles on eTourism in the past 20 years. Using a wide variety of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, this paper comprehensively reviews and analyzes prior studies in the context of Internet applications to Tourism. The paper also projects future developments in eTourism and demonstrates critical changes that will influence the tourism industry structure. A major contribution of this paper is its overview of the research and development efforts that have been endeavoured in the field, and the challenges that tourism researchers are, and will be, facing
Gravestone Weathering
This webpage outlines the different types of weathering found on gravestones, possible mechanisms of weathering, methods for measuring weathering as well as some results from gravestone studies. Users can follow links to gravestone weathering, methods of measuring weathering, a bibliography of gravestone weathering papers and gravestone weathering data. Educational levels: Graduate or professional, Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division