Building the IDECi-UIB: the scientific spatial data infrastructure node for the Balearic Islands University

Technical and methodological enhancements in Information Technologies (IT) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has permitted the growth in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) performance. In this way, their uses and applications have grown very rapidly. In the scientific and educational working fields, different institutions and organisations have bet for its use enforcing information exchange that allows researchers to improve their studies as well as give a better dissemination within the scientific community. Therefore, the GIS and Remote Sensing Service (SSIGT) at the Balearic Islands University (UIB) has decided to build and launch its own SDI to serve scientific Geo-Information (GI) throughout the Balearic Islands society focussing on the university community. By these means it intends to boost the development of research and education focusing on the field of spatial information. This article tries to explain the background ideas that form the basic concept of the scientific SDI related to the concepts of e-Science and e-Research. Finally, it explains how these ideas are taken into practice into the new University Scientific SDI

Kennis voor duurzame voedselsystemen : een inventarisatie van recent onderzoek naar duurzame voedselsystemen

In opdracht van het ministerie EL&I is een inventarisatie gemaakt van partijen en instellingen die zich bezig houden met ontwikkeling van onderzoek in relatie tot Foodlink, het programma dat voortkomt uit de doelstelling dat Nederland binnen 15 jaar mondiaal koploper is op het gebied van duurzaam voedsel. Het blijkt dat vanuit onderzoeksinstellingen en maatschappelijke organisaties in toenemende mate aandacht is voor het onderwerp duurzaam voedsel. De onderzoeken zijn innovatief omdat zij zich richten op vragen uit de maatschappij, op het operationaliseren van duurzame voedselsystemen en op bewustwording van de consument. Ook nemen onderzoekers met actie-onderzoek een faciliterende rol op zich in regionale projecten en is er in toenemende mate aandacht voor de verbinding met het groene onderwijs. Een integrale benadering van onderzoek wordt belangrijker waarbij koppelingen worden gelegd tussen voorheen gescheiden werelden, zoals voedsel, energie en het benutten van reststromen. Onderzoek naar duurzaam voedsel vraagt om een multidisciplinaire aanpak waarbij verschillende expertises en inzichten betrokken worden

Raamwerk voor omgaan met onzekerheid

In de nieuwe Wro staat dat nieuwe ruimtelijke plannen vanaf 1 januari 2010 digitaal en uitwisselbaar vervaardigd moeten worden. Het digitaliseren van het ruimtelijke ordeningsproces heeft een grote impact. Het zou het vergelijken van plannen eenvoudiger moeten maken, maar vooral onzekere planobjecten kunnen lastig zijn bij het vergelijken van plannen. De taxonomie voor onzekerheid in de ruimtelijke ordening is de basis voor het raamwerk. In het raamwerk worden alle bronnen van onzekerheid die in de ruimtelijke ordening aanwezig zijn besproken en er worden omgangsvormen aangeboden

Neolithic settlement at the woodland's edge: palynological data and timber architecture in Orkney, Scotland

It has often been assumed that the islands of Orkney were essentially treeless throughout much of the Holocene, with any ‘scrub’ woodland having been destroyed by Neolithic farming communities by around 3500 cal. BC. This apparently open, hyper-oceanic environment would presumably have provided quite marginal conditions for human settlement, yet Neolithic communities flourished and the islands contain some of the most spectacular remains of this period in north-west Europe. The study of new Orcadian pollen sequences, in conjunction with the synthesis of existing data, indicates that the timing of woodland decline was not synchronous across the archipelago, beginning in the Mesolithic, and that in some areas woodland persisted into the Bronze Age. There is also evidence to suggest that woodland communities in Orkney were more diverse, and therefore that a wider range of resources was available to Neolithic people, than has previously been assumed. Recent archaeological investigations have revealed evidence for timber buildings at early Neolithic settlement sites, suggesting that the predominance of stone architecture in Neolithic Orkney may not have been due to a lack of timber as has been supposed. Rather than simply reflecting adaptation to resource constraints, the reasons behind the shift from timber to stone construction are more complex and encompass social, cultural and environmental factors

Mineral deficiency and the presence of Pinus sylvestris on mires during the mid- to late Holocene: Palaeoecological data from Cadogan's Bog, Mizen Peninsula, Co. Cork, southwest Ireland

Pollen records across parts of Ireland, England and northern Scotland show a dramatic collapse in Pinus pollen percentages at approximately 4000 radiocarbon years BP. This phenomenon has attracted much palaeoecological interest and several hypotheses have been put forward to account for this often synchronous and rapid reduction in pine from mid-Holocene woodland. Explanations for the 'pine decline' include prehistoric human activity, climatic change, in particular a substantial increase in precipitation resulting in increased mire wetness, and airborne pollution associated with the deposition of tephra. Hitherto, one largely untested hypothesis is that mineral deficiency could adversely affect pine growth and regeneration on mire surfaces. The discovery of pine-tree remains (wood pieces, stumps and trunks) within a peat located at Cadogan's Bog on the Mizen Peninsula, southwest Ireland, provided an opportunity to investigate the history of Pinus sylvestris and also to assess the importance of mineral nutrition in maintaining pine growth on mires. Pollen, plant macrofossils, microscopic charcoal and geochemical data are presented from a radiocarbon dated monolith extracted from this peat together with tree ring-width data and radiocarbon dated age estimates from subfossil wood. Analyses of these data suggest that peat accumulation commenced at the site around 6000 years BP when pine was the dominant local tree. Thereafter Pinus pollen percentages diminish in two stages, with the second decline taking place around 4160 ± 50 years BP. Concomitant with this decline in Pinus pollen, there is a noticeable, short-lived increase in wet-loving mire taxa and a decrease in the concentration of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron and zinc. These results suggest that increased mire surface wetness, possibly the result of a change in climate, created conditions unsuitable for pine growth c. 4000 years BP. Mire surface wetness, coupled with a period of associated nutrient deficiency, appears to be a possible explanation for a lack of subsequent pine-seedling establishment for most of the later Holocene