Assessment of environmental hazards in the north western coast -Egypt using RS and GIS

AbstractSoil erosion, salinity and sodicity hazards are serious problems in the northern west coast of Egypt and lead to reducing the soil quality and increasing the degradation of soil resources. Sidi Barrani and Al-Sallum regions are selected as study areas which are located from a longitude of 25°10′00″ to 26°55′00″East and from a latitude of 31°00′0″ to 31°37′30″ North. Erosion hazard was estimated using the ‘Universal Soil Loss Equation’ (USLE), which is a simple empirical model that is widely used for assessing long-term annual soil loss .The salinity and sodicity hazards were estimated based on FAO method as standard reference. The resultant map of annual soil erosion shows a maximum soil loss of 60th−1y−1with a close relation to foot slopes and wide units on the steep side-slopes (with high LS value) and the erodibility value reached to 0.1th−1y−1. Meanwhile sand beaches and sabkha units are characterized by high environmental hazards of both water erosion, salinity and sodicity, while in the overflow basin units are identified as low environmental hazards. The spatial environmental hazards assessment is conducted by using integrated GIS and RS which can serve as effective inputs in deriving strategies for sustainable land use planning and management

Magnetoresistance of compensated semimetals in confined geometries

Two-component conductors -- e.g., semi-metals and narrow band semiconductors -- often exhibit unusually strong magnetoresistance in a wide temperature range. Suppression of the Hall voltage near charge neutrality in such systems gives rise to a strong quasiparticle drift in the direction perpendicular to the electric current and magnetic field. This drift is responsible for a strong geometrical increase of resistance even in weak magnetic fields. Combining the Boltzmann kinetic equation with sample electrostatics, we develop a microscopic theory of magnetotransport in two and three spatial dimensions. The compensated Hall effect in confined geometry is always accompanied by electron-hole recombination near the sample edges and at large-scale inhomogeneities. As the result, classical edge currents may dominate the resistance in the vicinity of charge compensation. The effect leads to linear magnetoresistance in two dimensions in a broad range of parameters. In three dimensions, the magnetoresistance is normally quadratic in the field, with the linear regime restricted to rectangular samples with magnetic field directed perpendicular to the sample surface. Finally, we discuss the effects of heat flow and temperature inhomogeneities on the magnetoresistance.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, published versio

Coulomb interaction in graphene: Relaxation rates and transport

We analyze the inelastic electron-electron scattering in undoped graphene within the Keldysh diagrammatic approach. We demonstrate that finite temperature strongly affects the screening properties of graphene, which, in turn, influences the inelastic scattering rates as compared to the zero-temperature case. Focussing on the clean regime, we calculate the quantum scattering rate which is relevant for dephasing of interference processes. We identify an hierarchy of regimes arising due to the interplay of a plasmon enhancement of the scattering and finite-temperature screening of the interaction. We further address the energy relaxation and transport scattering rates in graphene. We find a non-monotonic energy dependence of the inelastic relaxation rates in clean graphene which is attributed to the resonant excitation of plasmons. Finally, we discuss the temperature dependence of the conductivity at the Dirac point in the presence of both interaction and disorder. Our results complement the kinetic-equation and hydrodynamic approaches for the collision-limited conductivity of clean graphene and can be generalized to the treatment of physics of inelastic processes in strongly non-equilibrium setups.Comment: 28 pages, 16 figure

Assessment of the impacts of clear-cutting on soil loss by water erosion in Italian forests: First comprehensive monitoring and modelling approach

Abstract As a member of the European Union, Italy has committed to the maintenance and protection of its forests based on sustainable forest development and management practices. According to Eurostat, Italy has the seventh largest forest surface available for wood supply in the EU-28, which is equal to 8.086 million hectares. For 2012, the Italian National Institute of Statistics estimated the total roundwood production of Italy to be 7.7 million m3, from a harvested forest surface of 61,038 ha. Large parts of the country's forests, mainly located in vulnerable mountainous landscapes that are highly sensitive to environmental changes, are subject to anthropogenic disturbance driven by wood supply interests. Despite the extensive logging activities and the well-known impacts that such management practices have on the soil-related forest ecosystems, there is a lack of spatially and temporally explicit information about the removal of trees. Hence, this study aims to: i) assess the soil loss by water erosion in Italian forest areas, ii) map forest harvests and iii) evaluate the effects of logging activities in terms of soil loss by means of comprehensive remote sensing and GIS modelling techniques. The study area covers about 785.6 × 104 ha, which corresponds to the main forest units of the CORINE land cover 2006 database (i.e. broad-leaved forests, coniferous forests and mixed forests). Annual forest logging activities were mapped using Landsat imagery. Validation procedures were applied. A revised version of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was used to predict the soil loss potential due to rill and inter-rill processes. To ensure a thorough modelling approach, the input parameters were calculated using the original methods reported in the USDA handbooks. The derived high-resolution data regarding forest cover change shows that 317,535 ha (4.04% of the total forest area in Italy) were harvested during the period under review. The predicted long-term annual average soil loss rate was 0.54 Mg ha− 1 yr− 1. The average rate of soil loss in forests that remained undisturbed during the modelled period is equal to 0.33 Mg ha− 1 yr− 1. Notably, about half of the soil loss (45.3%) was predicted for the logged areas, even though these cover only about 10.6% of the Italian forests. The identified erosion hotspots may represent a serious threat for the soil-related forest ecosystems, and are in contrast to the EC Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection and Water Framework Directive

Footpaths: pedogenic and geomorphological long-term effects of human trampling

Footpaths are of the oldest and most widely distributed forms of human imprint on the landscape. These elongated features are the result of continuous usage of a certain route for walking, at time scales ranging from days to centuries or millennia. In this qualitative investigation, we take a holistic approach combining micromorphology (including voids analysis), chemical soil parameters (such as selective iron oxide dissolution), and remote sensing (spatial distribution and orientation of footpaths in the landscape) to evaluate the long-term residues and environmental effects resulting from the formation of footpaths. Our diverse case studies incorporate footpaths used for recreational and transport purposes in temperate and sub-humid climates from both recent and historical perspectives. A reduction of the large pores was observed down to 3 cm below current and historical surfaces compared to control areas without footpaths. The lower porosity subsequently hinders of the supply of oxygen and/or water into the sub-surface and encourages water stagnation on the compacted footpath surface. These processes result in higher amounts of pedogenic Fe oxides and, at times, macro-organic residues under footpaths and hindering of soil formation. As an additional result of compaction, surface runoff is promoted. The latter may either trigger the initiation of gullies directly downslope from footpaths or lead to incision of the footpaths themselves. Incised footpaths are more likely to occur when the footpath is oriented parallel to the stream network. Once an incised footpath is formed, it may reduce gully erosion susceptibility downslope as the incised footpath acts as a channel that decreases a footpath’s ‘overbank’ flow. With a better understanding of footpaths as landscape units we can (1) pose archaeological questions related to human environmental interaction, (2) assess carbon storage potential under footpaths and (3) use incised footpaths as possible measures against gully erosion

Coulomb drag in graphene near the Dirac point

We study Coulomb drag in double-layer graphene near the Dirac point. A particular emphasis is put on the case of clean graphene, with transport properties dominated by the electron-electron interaction. Using the quantum kinetic equation framework, we show that the drag becomes $T$-independent in the clean limit, $T\tau \to \infty$, where $T$ is temperature and $1/\tau$ impurity scattering rate. For stronger disorder (or lower temperature), $T\tau \ll 1/\alpha^2$, where $\alpha$ is the interaction strength, the kinetic equation agrees with the leading-order ($\alpha^2$) perturbative result. At still lower temperatures, $T\tau \ll 1$ (diffusive regime) this contribution gets suppressed, while the next-order ($\alpha^3$) contribution becomes important; it yields a peak centered at the Dirac point with a magnitude that grows with lowering $T\tau$.Comment: 3 figures, with expanded Supplemental Material attached as an appendi

Plasmons in layered structures including graphene

We investigate the optical properties of layered structures with graphene at the interface for arbitrary linear polarization at finite temperature including full retardation by working in the Weyl gauge. As a special case, we obtain the full response and the related dielectric function of a layered structure with two interfaces. We apply our results to discuss the longitudinal plasmon spectrum of several single and double layer devices such as systems with finite and zero electronic densities. We further show that a nonhomogeneous dielectric background can shift the relative weight of the in-phase and out-of-phase mode and discuss how the plasmonic mode of the upper layer can be tuned into an acoustic mode with specific sound velocity.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Biomimetic Carbon-Fiber Systems Engineering: A Modular Design Strategy to Generate Biofunctional Composites from Graphene and Carbon Nanofibers

electrical conductivity. It is additionally advantageous if such materials resembled the structural and biochemical features of the natural extracellular environment. Here we show a novel modular design strategy to engineer biomimetic carbon-fiber based scaffolds. Highly porous ceramic zinc oxide (ZnO) microstructures serve as 3D sacrificial templates and are infiltrated with carbon nanotube (CNT) or graphene dispersions. Once the CNTs and graphene uniformly coat the ZnO template, the ZnO is either removed by hydrolysis or converted into carbon by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The resulting 3D carbon scaffolds are both hierarchically ordered and free-standing. The properties of the micro-fibrous scaffolds were tailored with a high porosity (up to 93 %), high Young’s modulus (~0.027 to ~22 MPa), and an electrical conductivity of (~0.1 to ~330 S/m), as well as different surface compositions. Cell viability and fibroblast proliferation rate and protein adsorption rate assays have shown that the generated scaffolds are biocompatible and have a high protein adsorption capacity (up to 77.32 ±6.95 mg/cm3), so that they not only are able to resemble the ECM structurally, but also biochemically. The scaffolds also allow for the successful growth and adhesion of fibroblast cells showing that we provide a novel, highly scalable modular design strategy to generate biocompatible carbon-fiber systems that mimic the extracellular matrix with the additional feature of conductivity.RA gratefully acknowledges partial project funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under contract FOR1616. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. GrapheneCore2 785219. CS is supported by the European Research Council (ERC StG 336104 CELLINSPIRED, ERC PoC 768740 CHANNELMAT), by the German Research Foundation (RTG 2154, SFB 1261 project B7). MT acknowledges support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through a research grant for doctoral candidates (91526555-57048249). We acknowledge funding from EPSRC grants EP/P02534X/1, ERC grant 319277 (Hetero2D) the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Scheme, the Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Isaac Newton Trust