Geo-environmental mapping using physiographic analysis: constraints on the evaluation of land instability and groundwater pollution hazards in the Metropolitan District of Campinas, Brazil

Geo-environmental terrain assessments and territorial zoning are useful tools for the formulation and implementation of environmental management instruments (including policy-making, planning, and enforcement of statutory regulations). They usually involve a set of procedures and techniques for delimitation, characterisation and classification of terrain units. However, terrain assessments and zoning exercises are often costly and time-consuming, particularly when encompassing large areas, which in many cases prevent local agencies in developing countries from properly benefiting from such assessments. In the present paper, a low-cost technique based on the analysis of texture of satellite imagery was used for delimitation of terrain units. The delimited units were further analysed in two test areas situated in Southeast Brazil to provide estimates of land instability and the vulnerability of groundwater to pollution hazards. The implementation incorporated procedures for inferring the influences and potential implications of tectonic fractures and other discontinuities on ground behaviour and local groundwater flow. Terrain attributes such as degree of fracturing, bedrock lithology and weathered materials were explored as indicators of ground properties. The paper also discusses constraints on- and limitations of- the approaches taken

Harmonisation, Mosaicing and Production of the Global Land Cover 2000 Database.

Abstract not availableJRC.H-Institute for environment and sustainability (Ispra

Estimates of CO2 from fires in the United States: implications for carbon management

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fires emit significant amounts of CO₂to the atmosphere. These emissions, however, are highly variable in both space and time. Additionally, CO₂emissions estimates from fires are very uncertain. The combination of high spatial and temporal variability and substantial uncertainty associated with fire CO₂emissions can be problematic to efforts to develop remote sensing, monitoring, and inverse modeling techniques to quantify carbon fluxes at the continental scale. Policy and carbon management decisions based on atmospheric sampling/modeling techniques must account for the impact of fire CO₂emissions; a task that may prove very difficult for the foreseeable future. This paper addresses the variability of CO₂emissions from fires across the US, how these emissions compare to anthropogenic emissions of CO₂and Net Primary Productivity, and the potential implications for monitoring programs and policy development.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Average annual CO₂emissions from fires in the lower 48 (LOWER48) states from 2002–2006 are estimated to be 213 (± 50 std. dev.) Tg CO₂yr^-1and 80 (± 89 std. dev.) Tg CO₂yr^-1in Alaska. These estimates have significant interannual and spatial variability. Needleleaf forests in the Southeastern US and the Western US are the dominant source regions for US fire CO₂emissions. Very high emission years typically coincide with droughts, and climatic variability is a major driver of the high interannual and spatial variation in fire emissions. The amount of CO₂emitted from fires in the US is equivalent to 4–6% of anthropogenic emissions at the continental scale and, at the state-level, fire emissions of CO₂can, in some cases, exceed annual emissions of CO₂from fossil fuel usage.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The CO₂released from fires, overall, is a small fraction of the estimated average annual Net Primary Productivity and, unlike fossil fuel CO₂emissions, the pulsed emissions of CO₂during fires are partially counterbalanced by uptake of CO₂by regrowing vegetation in the decades following fire. Changes in fire severity and frequency can, however, lead to net changes in atmospheric CO₂and the short-term impacts of fire emissions on monitoring, modeling, and carbon management policy are substantial.</p

Case of seasonal reassortant a(H1N2) influenza virus infection, the Netherlands, March 2018

A seasonal reassortant A(H1N2) influenza virus harbouring genome segments from seasonal influenza viruses A(H1N1)pdm09 (HA and NS) and A(H3N2) (PB2, PB1, PA, NP, NA and M) was identified in March 2018 in a 19-months-old patient with influenza-like illness (ILI) who presented to a general practitioner participating in the routine sentinel surveillance of ILI in the Netherlands. The patient recovered fully. Further epidemiological and virological investigation did not reveal additional cases