Környezeti változások komplex értékelése az Alföldön földrajzi, geoinformatikai és távérzékelési módszerekkel = Complex evaluation of the environmental changes on Great Hungarian Plain using geography, geoinformatics and remote sensing

A különböző módszerekkel végzett kutatásaink azt bizonyítják, hogy globális klímaváltozás hatásait nem csak klimatikus adatokkal lehet mérni. A talajvízkészletek változásai, de különösen a talajok bemutatott átalakulásai nem az epizodikus eseményeket tükrözik, hanem inkább a trendszerű folyamatokat jelzik. A talajvíz csökkenése több kapcsolatrendszeren keresztül is érvényesíti hatásait. Egyrészt a mélyebbre kerülő talajvízszint mind nehezebben érhető el és hasznosítható a növényzet számára, ami a biomassza csökkenését eredményezi, sőt jelentős változás esetén vegetációváltozást is okozhat. Másrészt azonban a talajvíz változása módosítja a talajok vertikális víz- és sómozgását, ami a talajok genetikai típusának átalakulásával jár együtt. Ennek következtében szikesedési folyamatok indulhatnak el, vagy szikes talajok esetében akár egy sócsökkenési folyamat is elindulhat. Mind a két esetben a talaj minőségének változása a természetes vegetáció átalakulását vonja magával. A fenti folyamatoknak több fontos következménye is van. Megváltozik a talajok termőképessége (az imént említett esetben például javul), és ezzel egy időben jellegzetes - nemzeti parkokban is védett - táji értékek tűnnek el klimatikus okok miatt (pl. a sajátos magyar puszta is több felé átalakulóban van). A talajvíz készletek csökkenése, a talajok átalakulása, a vegetáció lassú módosulása a tájváltozáson túl jelentős gazdasági következményekkel jár, éppen ezért fokozott figyelmet érdemelne. | Our research, applying various methods, has proved that the outcomes of global climate change can be assessed not only by climatic data. The modification of water reserves and especially the transformation of soils do not resemble the episodic extremities but rather sign the trend of changes. Firstly, the deeper the water table moves the more difficult the plants can reach and utilise groundwater, which finally leads to the decrease of the biomass. In extreme cases, groundwater depletion might cause permanent changes in the composition of natural vegetation. Secondly, changes in groundwater can also modify the vertical water and salt transfer in soils, which might result in the transformation of genetic soil types. As a consequence, sodification processes or under reverse conditions desalination can be observed. In both cases the modification of soil type is followed by the change of natural vegetation. There are various important consequences of the above processes. The fertility of soils can change and in the meantime characteristic landscape elements under natural protection may disappear due to climatic causes (e.g. the special Hungarian 'puszta' is transforming at many locations). Beside their effects on the landscape the decrease of groundwater reserves, the transformation of soils and the slow modification of vegetation can have significant economic consequences as well, thus these processes should deserve an increased attention

Analysis of tourism climatic conditions in Hungary considering the subjective thermal sensation characteristics of the South-Hungarian residents

People living in different regions adapt physiologically and psychologically to the background climatic conditions of their place of origin. This may influence their decisions in the planning phase when travelling for holidays by determining their climatic preferences and the importance of individual climatic parameters. Due to the different levels of adaptation and acclimatization the subjective thermal assessments (e.g. the thermal perceptions) of the tourists in response to a thermal environment might be extremely varied, which should be considered in the climate potential studies. This paper analyses the tourism climatic potential of some Hungarian tourist destinations, assuming that people visiting these places have adapted to the climatic conditions prevailing in the Southern Great Hungarian Plain. We characterize the tourism climatic conditions using the Tourism Climatic Index (TCI) modified in a way which enables to include the real thermal perception characteristics of the people living in this region. To achieve this goal, we integrate a thermal sensation scale of the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) into the TCI which was modified to reflect the thermal sensation properties of the South-Hungarian citizens. Moreover, we compare the results with those referring to people living under the Western-Central-European climatic conditions by applying also the widely known conventional PET thermal sensation scale in the TCI. The preliminary results indicate that the most favourable tourism climatic conditions in terms of TCI occur in the shoulder seasons in each investigated area. The annual course of TCI is similar in the case of both methods with different PET scales, however the South-Hungarian residents seem to perceive the tourism climatic conditions less stressful throughout the year compared to the Europeans, which can be very unfavourable and dangerous in extreme warm conditions

Homes of the future

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Comment on “Tidal Love numbers of neutron and self-bound quark stars”

We comment on the paper of S. Postnikov et al. [Phys. Rev. D 82, 024016 (2010)] and give a modified formula that needs to be taken into account when calculating the tidal Love number of neutron stars in case a first order phase-transition occurs at nonzero pressure. We show that the error made when using the original formula tends to zero as p->0, and we estimate the maximum relative error to be ∼5% if the density discontinuity is at larger densities