Consequences to flood management of using different probability distributions to estimate extreme rainfall

The design of flood defences, such as pumping stations, takes into consideration the predicted return periods of extreme precipitation depths. Most commonly these are estimated by fitting the Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) or the Generalised Pareto (GP) probability distributions to the annual maxima series or to the partial duration series. In this paper, annual maxima series of precipitation depths obtained from daily rainfall data measured at three selected stations in southeast UK are analysed using a range of probability distributions. These analyses demonstrate that GEV or GP distributions do not always provide the best fit to the data, and that extreme rainfall estimates for long return periods (e.g. 1 in 100 years) can differ by more than 40% depending on the distribution model used. Since a large number of properties in the UK and elsewhere currently benefit from flood defences designed using the GEV or GP probability distributions, the results from this study question whether the level of protection they offer are appropriate in locations where data demonstrate clearly that alternative probability distributions may have a better fit to the local rainfall data. This work: (a) raises awareness of the limitations of common practices in extreme rainfall analysis; (b) suggests a simple way forward to incorporate uncertainties that is easily applicable to local rainfall data worldwide; and thus (c) contributes to improve flood risk management. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

ICROFS news 1/2012. Newsletter from ICROFS

International organic research theme: Organic Farming in Brazil: Organic milk production in Brazil Mokichi Okada Research Center - Agricultural research and development Effect of alternative fertilization: Productive and qualitative per-formance in recovering degraded pastures in Brazil CORE Organic: Preventing disease and parasites in european organic pi

Hyphy Sparked a Social Movement

“Hyphy,” a genre of rap and lifestyle associated with Bay Area hip hop evolved into a counter-cultural social movement for marginalized youth in early 2000. Hyphy originated from Black youth as a musical protest in response to their historical lack of social power, economic resources and systematic institutional oppression. Hyphy provided a space to release tension, celebrate life and freedom of expression, primarily as a means of resisting hegemonic perceptions of Black youth and their cultural productions. Applying a cultural studies theoretical approach, this ethnographic research examines literature and media coverage pre and post Hyphy highlighting the ways in which it fostered a personal and political agenda, attracting organizations that employed hip hop to provide direct services to youth as a means of advocating for social justice. This article argues that the Hyphy Movement although dated, supported the foundation of the Black Lives Matter movement in the Bay Area by playing a pivotal role in shifting the revolutionary consciousness of young people when addressing police violence during a pivotal social upheaval in 2009, the unjust murder of Oscar Grant III

ICROFS news 3/2010 - newsletter from ICROFS

Contents: - Organic RDD application deadline: 13. September 2010 - DARCOF III project, SEED, finalized - VOA3R project website is published - New project: Transparent Food: Quality & Integrity in Food - Why Danish Organic Farming Policy has been succesful - Quality of foraging material and effect on hens feed intake - Chinese organic export model & a Danish future perspective - The climate heroes of the future? - Course: ‘Organic agriculture in a development perspective’ - Brief news on congresses and publication

The relationship between shape and size of diaspores depends on being seeds or fruits

The relationship between the size and shape of diaspores was investigated in angiosperms and gymnosperms including determining if being a seed or fruit was a factor. Size was expressed as volume and shape as the departure from a perfect idealized sphere. Departure from sphericity in seeds was found to be independent from volume. Conversely, an inverse relationship was found between departure from sphericity and volume in fruits. Therefore, whether a diaspore is a seed or a fruit should be considered and included in analyses when ecological, functional or evolutionary correlates of diaspore morphology are under investigation

ICROFS news 1/2010 - newsletter from ICROFS

Contents: - CORE Organic II kick-off meeting - Organic Agriculture: New journal calls for papers - PhD defense on meta-analysis of variety mixtures - Strip cropping system for sustainable food/energy production - OA systems benefit biodiversity and natural pest regulation - A pro-poor model for smallholder inclusion in developing countries - Brief news on congresses and publication

Potting media, transplants and yields in the production of glasshouse tomatoes

Samples of potting composts for raising tomatoes on holdings in the South Holland glasshouse district were collected in 1960 and 1961.<p/>In propagation experiments with soil blocks, fresh weight of young tomato plants were found to vary widely. Some 3/4 out of the investigated composts were not suitable for raising plants.<p/>Soil analyses proved that under the given conditions many composts had an insufficient amount of plant available nitrogen, measured by means of N-value which is defined as mg water soluble N per 100 ml soil. Further investigations on composts for raising tomato plants in soil blocks showed that the relation between the optimal nitrogen dressing ( <em>N _d</em> in mg N per l, or g N per m3) and N-value is given by:<br/><em>N _d</em> = 10 [35 - N-value].<p/>Plant growth in the growers' potting composts was also influenced by soil physical condition measured as the air filled pore content at pF = 1,0 or as the organic fraction&gt;1000μin % of the total organic matter. The respective content should be at least 6 % or 30 %.<p/>Experiments with series of transplants from different compost qualities showed that heavier plants made a better crop and produced a higher early and total yield. Overall stem height and fresh weight of the transplants were most accurate for predicting yields by means of regression equations, while the number of leaves at least 3 cm long and the stage of development of the first inflorescence were less accurate.<p/>It is supposed that in the Netherlands the variation in yields of glasshouse tomatoes is partly due to poor potting composts for propagation; the decrease in potential during 1960-1965 <em/> is estimated at about 20 million guilders a year

ICROFS news 4/2010 - newsletter from ICROFS

Contents: - 59 CORE Organic pre-proposals - Organic RDD is in place - ICROFS coordinates research in 3 African countries - Improving wheat production using nitrogen - Communicating 'ethical' attributes of organic food - Markets and institutional capacity - A glance at the development of the organic sector in Nigeria - Organic bread-wheat in New England, USA - 3rd ISOFAR conference: New deadline: 31.12.2010 - New version of Organic.Edunet - FQH 2011, NJF 2011 - CERTCOST workshop at BioFach and in Brussels (on preventing fraud

ICROFS news 2/2010 - newsletter from ICROFS

Contents: - CORE Organic II is set into motion - News on the next Danish research programme, Organic RDD - ICROFS' chairman speaks at international ATV conference - Public organic food procurement for youth in 4 EU countries - Cattle trampling reduces risk of nitrate leaching in organic dairy rotation - Horse bean, pea and rape protein in feed for organic trout - Cows fed vitamin-rich feed produce vitamin-rich milk - Brief news on congresses and publication