137,965 research outputs found

    Efficiency of Photovoltaic Systems in Mountainous Areas

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    Photovoltaic (PV) systems have received much attention in recent years due to their ability of efficiently converting solar power into electricity, which offers important benefits to the environment. PV systems in regions with high solar irradiation can produce a higher output but the temperature affects their performance. This paper presents a study on the effect of cold climate at high altitude on the PV system output. We report a comparative case study, which presents measurement results at two distinct sites, one at a height of 612 meters and another one at a mountain site at a height of 1764 meters. This case study applies the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique in order to determine maximum power from the PV panel at different azimuth and altitude angles. We used an Arduino system to measure and display the attributes of the PV system. The measurement results indicate an increased efficiency of 42% for PV systems at higher altitude

    Use of ERTS Data for Mapping Snow Cover in the Western United States

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    Application of ERTS-1 data to mapping snow cover in mountainous areas of western United State

    Sub-daily simulation of mountain flood processes based on the modified soil water assessment tool (SWAT) model

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    Floods not only provide a large amount of water resources, but they also cause serious disasters. Although there have been numerous hydrological studies on flood processes, most of these investigations were based on rainfall-type floods in plain areas. Few studies have examined high temporal resolution snowmelt floods in high-altitude mountainous areas. The Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is a typical semi-distributed, hydrological model widely used in runoff and water quality simulations. The degree-day factor method used in SWAT utilizes only the average daily temperature as the criterion of snow melting and ignores the influence of accumulated temperature. Therefore, the influence of accumulated temperature on snowmelt was added by increasing the discriminating conditions of rain and snow, making that more suitable for the simulation of snowmelt processes in high-altitude mountainous areas. On the basis of the daily scale, the simulation of the flood process was modeled on an hourly scale. This research compared the results before and after the modification and revealed that the peak error decreased by 77% and the time error was reduced from +/- 11 h to +/- 1 h. This study provides an important reference for flood simulation and forecasting in mountainous areas

    Sustainability assessment of organic dairy farms in mountainous areas of Austria

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    Dairy farming plays a major role in mountainous regions of Austria, mostly due to high proportion of grasslands. In general, Austria’s dairy farming faces challenges regarding sustainability, e.g. environmental impacts, but specifically for alpine areas low productivity and dependency on direct payments are lowering sustainability. Organic farming is considered as a strategy to overcome these challenges. Considering this general background, we analysed the sustainability performance and its main drivers of organic dairy farms in mountainous regions of Austria

    The future of organic grassland farming in mountainous regions of Central Europe

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    8 % of the total EU population lives in mountainous areas which represent a particularly important eco-region in Central Europe. Because of ecological, climatic and economic reasons an increasing pressure is imposed upon agriculture. Hence in large parts of European mountainous areas drastic changes in agricultural structure and land use systems can be observed in terms of emigration and land abandonment. Due to disadvantaged production conditions, and the high ecological sensitivity, organic farming is an important option for a sound regional development. In alpine regions organic farming does not proceed in a homogeneous way. One essential reason for that could be seen in the differences of national and regional “traditions and orientations” and supporting tools. For a positive development it is necessary to work on further integration of organic farming in regional development concepts (e.g. organic regions) and on the development of the “quality leadership” through cross-regional production, marketing and merchandising concepts. Undisputedly, further positive development of organic farming in mountainous regions depends on ongoing financial, research and advisory support

    Research on Housing Planning Development Design in Mountainous Area: Difference between China and Hawaii

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    With the rapid development of urbanization in China, more and more houses are being put up; however, the land resources available are quite limited. As a result, the problem of residential development has become a contradiction between man and land. Owing to the feature of this development situation, and the fact that the majority of land resources are in the form of mountains or hills, people have to consider how to develop mountainous areas to increase the living space. However, in the process of building mountainous residential buildings, the protection of land and environmental resources is often neglected due to the pursuit of the maximization of commodity interests and the large demolition and construction of land resources in mountainous areas, which result in the loss of land resources and the occurrence of various consequent natural disasters. Therefore, the author of this dissertation takes the opportunity of this dualdegree training program between Tongji University and the University of Hawaii, compares the similarities and differences of the development of residential house between China and Hawaii, and draws vantages and advantages from mountainous or hillside residential development in Hawaii to explore how to solve and improve the development of China’s domestic mountainous residential houses and the contradiction between man and land to provide guidance for the sustainable construction of new rural housing in mountainous areas by examining the characteristics and ideas of mountainous and hillside houses of development in Hawaii. This present thesis is divided into eight chapters. Chapter One serves as the introduction, which mainly introduces the background, purpose and significance of the research. Chapter Two presents the related theoretical research, which mainly discusses related domestic and foreign theoretical research on the use and development of mountainous areas and mountain cities from all ages, and makes a detailed introduction to the contents of theoretical research based on the theories of mountainous residential settlements. Chapter Three, the Historical Development of the Mountainous Residences in Hawaii and Mainland China, focuses on and compares the characteristics of the historical development of the mountainous residential areas and the historical process of the use of mountainous areas in the United States and China, and compares the differences between the two regions through the perspectives of residential layout model, courtyard and public space as well as road development, and concludes that there is a fundamental similarity between them, namely, mountainous areas were by no means easy to reach before there emerged powered means of transport. Chapter Four, the Modern Planning Development of the Mountainous Residences in Hawaii and the Development of Domestic Modern Mountainous Residences, focuses on and compares the planning characteristics and mountain utilization features in the development of modern mountainous residential areas in Hawaii, the United States and in China to find out the differences and draw the surface similarities in the use of cluster layout model in mountainous areas by means of progressive land use mechanism and planned construction modes. Chapter Five, a Comparison of the Design Norms for Mountain Residential Buildings in Hawaii and in China, mainly studies the classification as well as planning and designing norms of the residential lands in Hawaii and China, summarizes several typical directions to compare their difference and reaches the conclusion that China can learn and benefit from some norms in Hawaii. Chapter Six, A Case Study of the Practices and Characteristics of Sloping Land and Mountainous Residences in Oahu Region, Hawaii, summarizes the characteristics and features of the planning and construction of the two categories of mountainous and hillside residential areas in Hawaii. Chapter Seven, the Planning and Design of Mountainous Residential Buildings in FengGang Township, completes the design of renewal, mainly targeted at Mainland China’s current mountainous residential situation to provide innovative tips and renewal programs for the planning and design of China’s mountainous and hillside residential areas. Chapter Eight, Conclusion and Prospects, puts forward three guiding opinions for the sustainable development planning model of the new type of mountainous and hillside residences in China, looking forward to further and more detailed research in the future. The whole thesis illustrates the author’s reflections on the comparison of mountainous and hillside residential buildings between Hawaii and Mainland China and the consequent conclusions. Due to the limit of time and the limited vision of the author, there is still some room to be desired

    Identifying hotspots and management of critical ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta Region, China

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    Rapid urbanization has altered many ecosystems, causing a decline in many ecosystem services, generating serious ecological crisis. To cope with these challenges, we presented a comprehensive framework comprising five core steps for identifying and managing hotspots of critical ecosystem services in a rapid urbanizing region. This framework was applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Region. The study showed that there was large spatial heterogeneity in the hotspots of ecosystem services in the region, hotspots of supporting services and regulating services aggregately distributing in the southwest mountainous areas while hotspots of provisioning services mainly in the northeast plain, and hotspots of cultural services widespread in the waterbodies and southwest mountainous areas. The regionalization of the critical ecosystem services was made through the hotspot analysis. This study provided valuable information for environmental planning and management in a rapid urbanizing region and helped improve China's ecological redlines policy at regional scale

    Sustainability of dairy farms in mountainous areas

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    The general aim of this thesis was to analyze the sustainability of dairy cattle farms in mountainous areas. The studies were conducted in the Eastern Italian Alps, a study area representative of the evolution of livestock systems in mountainous areas

    Factors of land abandonment in mountainous Mediterranean areas : the case of Montenegrin settlements

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    Land use changes have been investigated in the surroundings of 14 rural Montenegrin settlements in order to get specific information about trends in land abandonment since around 1950. Permanently, seasonally and less inhabited settlements with different geographic conditions were studied. This was done by interviewing local inhabitants, which enabled a holistic approach to reveal the underlying processes of land abandonment. According to the observed patterns of land use change, the study sites can be categorized into intensified, urbanized, extensified, overgrown and forested cases. The category of extensified settlements is characterized by a highly reduced agricultural management intensity, resulting in an increase in grasslands and fruit trees at the expense of cropland. This land use change is mainly related to emigrating and aging inhabitants, having less livestock. Such extensive land use is found in both permanently inhabited and abandoned villages. Only some studied settlements became largely overgrown by bushes and forest. The steep average slope gradients and a large distance to the nearest city are explanatory factors of such land abandonment. Land use intensification takes place in low-lying areas located nearby towns
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