Relevance of carbon stocks of marine sediments for national greenhouse gas inventories of maritime nations

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Carbon Balance and Management 12 (2017): 10, doi:10.1186/s13021-017-0077-x.Determining national carbon stocks is essential in the framework of ongoing climate change mitigation actions. Presently, assessment of carbon stocks in the context of greenhouse gas (GHG)-reporting on a nation-by-nation basis focuses on the terrestrial realm, i.e., carbon held in living plant biomass and soils, and on potential changes in these stocks in response to anthropogenic activities. However, while the ocean and underlying sediments store substantial quantities of carbon, this pool is presently not considered in the context of national inventories. The ongoing disturbances to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems as a consequence of food production, pollution, climate change and other factors, as well as alteration of linkages and C-exchange between continental and oceanic realms, highlight the need for a better understanding of the quantity and vulnerability of carbon stocks in both systems. We present a preliminary comparison of the stocks of organic carbon held in continental margin sediments within the Exclusive Economic Zone of maritime nations with those in their soils. Our study focuses on Namibia, where there is a wealth of marine sediment data, and draws comparisons with sediment data from two other countries with different characteristics, which are Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Results indicate that marine sediment carbon stocks in maritime nations can be similar in magnitude to those of soils. Therefore, if human activities in these areas are managed, carbon stocks in the oceanic realm—particularly over continental margins—could be considered as part of national GHG inventories. This study shows that marine sediment organic carbon stocks can be equal in size or exceed terrestrial carbon stocks of maritime nations. This provides motivation both for improved assessment of sedimentary carbon inventories and for reevaluation of the way that carbon stocks are assessed and valued. The latter carries potential implications for the management of human activities on coastal environments and for their GHG inventories.We acknowledge research support from ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Science Foundation

Generating topologically correct schematic maps

This paper studies the creation of schematic maps from traditional vector-based, cartographic information. An algorithm is proposed to modify positions of lines in the original input map with the goal of producing as output a schematic map that meets certain geometric and aesthetic criteria. Special emphasis is placed here on preserving topological structure of features during this transformation. The known, existing methods for preserving topology during map transformation generally involve computing several constrained Delaunay triangulations [Mo189, Go194, JBW95, Rua95]. The algorithm proposed here computes a transformation which preserves topological relations among linear features using simple geometric operations and tests

Community Perceptions for Geoconservation of a Coastal Area in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We collected socio-environmental data from the inhabitants of a coastal area in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to investigate the local knowledge about environmental, economic and cultural particularities of the area and the main human activities that impact the environment. Community perceptions from 11 localities in the Região dos Lagos were evaluated. The data analysis can help in the development of specific geoconservation activities for the study area, which is located in the aspirant Geopark ‘Costões e Lagunas do Rio de Janeiro'. This initiative of considering community perceptions can help to maintain and protect local geological sites, raise public awareness of environmental matters and help to manage the development of the new Geopark. Furthermore, it can also contribute to the sustainable development of the area and to the planning of effective policies to sustain progress. Taking into consideration the answers and needs of the interviewed communities, the key topics requiring geoconservation activities in the study area are land use planning and biodiversity, urban mobility, continuous monitoring strategy, environmental awareness, wastewater, urbanisation, geotourism, sense of place, waste and economical activities

Community Perceptions for Geoconservation of a Coastal Area in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We collected socio-environmental data from the inhabitants of a coastal area in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to investigate the local knowledge about environmental, economic and cultural particularities of the area and the main human activities that impact the environment. Community perceptions from 11 localities in the Região dos Lagos were evaluated. The data analysis can help in the development of specific geoconservation activities for the study area, which is located in the aspirant Geopark ‘Costões e Lagunas do Rio de Janeiro’. This initiative of considering community perceptions can help to maintain and protect local geological sites, raise public awareness of environmental matters and help to manage the development of the new Geopark. Furthermore, it can also contribute to the sustainable development of the area and to the planning of effective policies to sustain progress. Taking into consideration the answers and needs of the interviewed communities, the key topics requiring geoconservation activities in the study area are land use planning and biodiversity, urban mobility, continuous monitoring strategy, environmental awareness, wastewater, urbanisation, geotourism, sense of place, waste and economical activities.ISSN:1867-2477ISSN:1867-248

Using the Spatial Knowledge of Map Users to Personalize City Maps: A Case Study with Tourists in Madrid, Spain

The aim of personalized maps is to help individual users to read maps and focus on the most task-relevant information. Several approaches have been suggested to develop personalized maps for cities, but few consider the spatial knowledge of its users. We propose the design of “cognitively-aware” personalized maps, which take into account the previous experience of users in the city and how the urban space is configured in their minds. Our aim is to facilitate users’ mental links between maps and city places, stimulating users to recall features of the urban space and to assimilate new spatial knowledge. To achieve this goal, we propose the personalization of maps through a map design process based on user modeling and on inferring personalization guidelines from hand-drawn sketches of urban spaces. We applied this process in an experiment with tourists in Madrid, Spain. We categorized the participants into three types of tourists—“Guided”, “Explorer”, and “Conditioned”—according to individual and contextual factors that can influence their spatial knowledge of the city. We also extracted design guidelines from tourists’ sketches and developed map prototypes. The empirical results seem to be promising for developing personalized city maps that could be produced on-the-fly in the future

Targeting Sustainability Issues at Geosites: a Study in Região dos Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The aim of this study is to assess sustainability issues for a number of geosites in a study area of Região dos Lagos in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The area within the proposed Geopark ‘Costões e Lagunas do Rio de Janeiro’ is well-known for its natural environment with unusual cliffs and hypersaline lagoons, some of them containing stromatolites. We have evaluated the changes in land use and land cover in this coastal area of Brazil over the last four decades and their relation to anthropogenic activities in the area. Land use change statistics indicate that the urban areas have increased to the detriment of the natural vegetation and salt pans. Local knowledge of sustainability issues were considered in order to identify the main threats to and protection needs of the geosites. The sustainability issues comprise environmental awareness, land-use planning and biodiversity protection. The geosite identified with the best sustainability is São Mateus Fort. The geosites found to be the most threatened are Brejo do Espinho, Peró Dunes, Lagoa Vermelha and Mangue de Pedra. Educational projects have been implemented in urban and rural areas of Região dos Lagos to teach the local population the importance of geosites and sustainable development.ISSN:1867-2477ISSN:1867-248

Community Perceptions for Geoconservation of a Coastal Area in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ISSN:1867-2477ISSN:1867-248