Engineering artificial thermal mountains for large-scale water management and carbon drawdown

To meet future climate change targets, it may become necessary to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate and scale. This paper investigates a new potential strategy: the application of the thermal mountain effect to artificially increase rainfall in desert regions and transform such regions into a vegetated state, thus sequestering significant quantities of carbon. A preliminary systems engineering analysis evaluating the design parameters of an artificial thermal mountain is provided, along with the analysis of its potential for carbon capture and agricultural applications. It is estimated that a large-scale low-albedo coating, between 15 000 and 50 000 km2 in surface area, would, in principle, be sufficient to provide enough rainfall to irrigate a 1000 km × 2000 km section of the Sahara desert. While the scale of engineering is potentially vast, it is arguably smaller than other schemes such as enhanced rock weathering

Examining the case for the use of the Tertiary as a formal period or informal unit

The ‘Tertiary’, omitted from IUGS-approved timescales since 1989, is still in common use. With the recent re-instatement of the Quaternary as a formal unit, the question arises as to whether the Tertiary too should be reinstated as a formal period, with the ‘Paleogene’ and ‘Neogene’ being downgraded to sub-periods. This paper presents arguments for and against this proposal, stemming from discussions by members of the Geological Society Stratigraphy Commission. It is intended to stimulate discussion of the topic in the wider community

Nuclear facility decommissioning and site remedial actions

The 576 abstracted references on nuclear facility decommissioning, uranium mill tailings management, and site remedial actions constitute the tenth in a series of reports prepared annually for the US Department of Energy's Remedial Action Programs. Citations to foreign and domestic literature of all types--technical reports, progress reports, journal articles, symposia proceedings, theses, books, patents, legislation, and research project descriptions--have been included. The bibliography contains scientific, technical, economic, regulatory, and legal information pertinent to the US Department of Energy's Remedial Action Programs. Major sections are (1) Surplus Facilities Management Program, (2) Nuclear Facilities Decommissioning, (3) Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, (4) Facilities Contaminated with Naturally Occurring Radionuclides, (5) Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program, (6) Uranium Mill Tailings Management, (7) Technical Measurements Center, and (8) General Remedial Action Program Studies. Within these categories, references are arranged alphabetically by first author. Those references having no individual author are listed by corporate affiliation or by publication description. Indexes are provided for author, corporate affiliation, title work, publication description, geographic location, subject category, and keywords

"POROUS EUROPE: EUROPEAN CITIES IN GLOBAL URBAN ARENAS"

The notion that there is a European 'system of cities' or 'urban hierarchy' has been an attractive idea, since it appears to provide a coherent subset of cities to study within a regional context. Under conditions of contemporary globalisation, however, the spatial order of European cities can only be properly understood as a 'porous Europe'. That is, it is impossible to sensibly discuss European intercity relations separate from an encompassing world city network. This paper therefore analyses 88 European cities in the context of a global urban analysis of 234 cities around the world. The main conclusion is that leading European world cities are specifically distinguished through their forming of global urban arenas. They should therefore not be thought of as being un-European, but as a special kind of world city that is highly cosmopolitan in its intercity relations. Copyright (c) 2004 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.