Framework for strategic wind farm site prioritisation based on modelled wolf reproduction habitat in Croatia

In order to meet carbon reduction targets, many nations are greatly expanding their wind power capacity. However, wind farm infrastructure potentially harms wildlife, and we must therefore find ways to balance clean energy demands with the need to protect wildlife. Wide-ranging carnivores live at low density and are particularly susceptible to disturbance from infrastructure development, so are a particular concern in this respect. We focused on Croatia, which holds an important population of wolves and is currently planning to construct many new wind farms. Specifically, we sought to identify an optimal subset of planned wind farms that would meet energy targets while minimising potential impact on wolves. A suitability model for wolf breeding habitat was carried out using Maxent, based on six environmental variables and 31 reproduction site locations collected between 1997 and 2015. Wind farms were prioritised using Marxan to find the optimal trade-off between energy capacity and overlap with critical wolf reproduction habitat. The habitat suitability model predictions were consistent with the current knowledge: probability of wolf breeding site presence increased with distance to settlements, distance to farmland and distance to roads and decreased with distance to forest. Spatial optimisation showed that it would be possible to meet current energy targets with only 31% of currently proposed wind farms, selected in a way that reduces the potential ecological cost (overall predicted wolf breeding site presence within wind farm sites) by 91%. This is a highly efficient outcome, demonstrating the value of this approach for prioritising infrastructure development based on its potential impact on wide-ranging wildlife species

A GIS Tool to Estimate Flow at Ungaged Basins Using the Map Correlation Method

Water resources management has been a critical component of sustainable resources planning. One of the most commonly used data in water resources management is streamflow measurements. Daily streamflow time series collected at a stream gage provide information on the temporal variation in water quantity where the gage is located. However, streamflow information is often needed at ungaged catchments especially when the stream gage network is not dense. One conventional approach to estimate streamflow at an ungaged catchment is to transfer streamflow measurements from the spatially closest stream gage, commonly referred to as the donor or reference gage using the drainage-area ratio method. Recently, the correlation between daily streamflow time series is proposed as an alternative to distance for reference stream gage selection. The Map Correlation Method (MCM) enables development of a map that demonstrates the spatial distribution of correlation coefficients between daily streamflow time series at a selected stream gage and all other locations within a selected study area. Although utility of the map correlation method has been demonstrated in various studies, due to its geostatistical analysis procedure it is time-consuming and hard to implement for practical purposes such as installed capacity selection of run-of-river hydropower plants during their feasibility studies. In this study, an easy-to-use GIS-based tool, called MCM_GIS is developed to apply the MCM in estimating daily time series of streamflow. MCM_GIS provides a user-friendly working environment and flexibility in choosing between two types of interpolation models, kriging and inverse distance weighting. The main motivation of this study is to increase practical application of the MCM by integrating it to the GIS environment. MCM_GIS can also carry out the leave-one-out cross-validation scheme to monitor the overall performance of the estimation. The tool is demonstrated on a case study carried out in Western Black Sea Region, Turkey. ESRI's ArcGIS for Desktop product along with a Python script is utilized. The outcomes of inverse distance weighting and ordinary kriging are compared. Results of GIS-based MCM are in good agreement with the observed hydrographs

Alcı-Aşağı Yurtçu Bölgesi Geç Kretase Yaşlı İncirli Formasyonu’nun Ostrakod Biyostratigrafisi, Kronostratigrafisi ve Paleoortamsal Yorumu, Güneybatı Ankara

The study was carried out on the İncirli Formation (Alcı Basin) that crops out along a NE-SW trending direction between Alcı and Aşağı Yurtçu districts, located 40 km southwest of Ankara. The trangressive İncirli Formation starts with red fluvial sequence dominated by poorly sorted, monogenic conglomerate derived from the underlying Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous limestones. The formation progressively passes to sandstones, and dark gray-blue marls and mudstones are observed in the uppermost part. The ostracoda fauna of the İncirli Formation, that was deposited during the Late Cretaceous period in the Alcı Basin of Ankara, is determined from the 37 samples gathered from the 2 measured stratigraphic sections. During the examinations, 14 different genera and 4 genera that was left open to nomenclature has been determined. While only 11 of the 27 determined taxa of ostracoda were previously defined, the remaining 12 taxa are left open to nomenclature. In consideration of the environmental diffusion of the determined ostracoda genera, its concluded that the İncirli Formation deposited in shallow marine neritic environmental conditions. According to the chronostratigraphic ranges of the determined ostracoda species, the age of the deposition of the İncirli Formation is determined as Santonian-Campanian.ÖZET ABSTRACT TEŞEKKÜR ŞEKİLLER DİZİNİ ÇİZELGELER DİZİNİ KISALTMALAR 1. GİRİŞ 1.1. Çalışma Alanı 1.2. Çalışmanın Amacı 1.3. Önceki Çalışmalar 1.4. Çalışma Yöntemleri 1.4.1. Arazi çalışmaları 1.4.2. Laboratuvar çalışmaları 1.4.3. Büro çalışmaları 2. STRATİGRAFİ 2.1. Bölgesel jeoloji 2.2. Litostratigrafi Birimleri 2.2.1. Sedimanter Melanj (Km) 2.2.2. İncirli Formasyonu (Ki) 2.2.3. Kapıkaya Kireçtaşı (Kk) 2.2.4. Alcı Formasyonu (Ta) 2.2.5. Pliyo-Kuvaterner yaşlı Birimler 2.3. Ölçülü Stratigrafik Kesitler ve Açıklamaları 2.3.1. Cemilegedik Ölçülü Stratigrafik Kesiti 2.3.2. Çarıkkaya Ölçülü Stratigrafik Kesiti 3. SİSTEMATİK 3.1. Giriş 3.2. Sistematik 4. OSTRAKOD FAUNASININ ÖLÇÜLÜ STRATİGRAFİK KESİTLER BOYUNCA DAĞILIMI, BİYOSTRATİGRAFİSİ VE KRONOSTRATİGRAFİSİ 4.1. Ostrakod Faunasının Ölçülü Stratigrafik Kesitler Boyunca Dağılımı 4.1.1. Cemilegedik Ölçülü Stratigrafi Kesiti 4.1.2. Çarıkkaya Ölçülü Stratigrafik Kesiti 4.2. Kronostratigrafi 5. PALEOORTAM ANALİZİ 6. SONUÇLAR 7. KAYNAKLAR LEVHALAR ÖZGEÇMİŞÇalışma, Ankara ilinin 40 km güneybatısında yer alan Alcı ve Aşağı Yurtçu yerleşimleri arasında KD-GB doğrultulu uzanıma sahip İncirli Formasyonu (Alcı Havzası)’nda gerçekleştirilmiştir. Transgresif karakterdeki İncirli Formasyonu, tabanda temeldeki Geç Jura-Erken Kretase yaşlı kireçtaşlarından türemiş kötü boylanmalı, monojenik çakıltaşlarının baskın olduğu kırmızı renkli flüviyal bir istif ile başlamaktadır. Formasyon dereceli olarak kumtaşlarına geçmekte ve en üstte koyu gri-mavi renkli marn ve çamurtaşları izlenmektedir. Ankara Alcı Havzası’nda Geç Kretase dönemi boyunca çökelmiş olan İncirli Formasyonu’nda ostrakod faunası, formasyonda ölçülen 2 adet stratigrafik kesitten derlenen 37 adet örnek incelenerek belirlenmiştir. İncelemeler sonucunda 14 adet ostrakod cinsi ve 4 adet isimlendirilmeye açık bırakılmış ostrakod cinsi saptanmıştır. Saptanan 14 ostrakod cinsine ait 27 taksondan 11 adedi önceden tanımlanmış türler olup 12 adet tür isimlendirilmeye açık bırakılmıştır. Saptanan ostrakod türlerinin ortamsal yayılımlarına dayanarak İncirli Formasyonu’nun sığ denizel neritik ortam koşullarında çökeldiği sonucuna varılmıştır. Saptanan ostrakod türlerinin kronostratigrafik yayılımları göz önüne alındığında İncirli Formasyonu’nun oluşum yaşı Santoniyen-Kampaniyen olarak belirlenmiştir