Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques for Selecting a Sustainable Scenario for Lake Koronia,Greece

During recent decades, Lake Koronia has undergone severe degradation as a result of human activities around the lake and throughout the basin. Surface and groundwater abstraction and pollution from agricultural, industrial, and municipal sources are the major sources of degradation. Planning a restoration project was hampered by lack of sufficient data, with gaps evident in both spatial and temporal dimensions. This study emphasized various remote sensing and geographic information system techniques, such as digital image processing and geographic overlay, to fill gaps using satellite imagery and other spatial environmental, hydrological, and hydrogeological data in the process of planning the restoration of Lake Koronia, following Ramsar guidelines. Current and historical remote sensing data were used to assess the current status and level of degradation, set constraints and define the ideotype for the restoration, and, finally, define and select the best restoration scenario.     

Bird distributions relative to remotely sensed habitats in Great Britain: towards a framework for national modelling

This paper develops a comprehensive and objective picture of bird distributions relative to habitats across Britain. Bird species presence/absence data from an extensive field survey and habitat data from the remotely sensed UK Land Cover Map 2000 were analysed in 36,920 tetrads (2 kmx2 km) across Britain (a 65% sample of Britain's c. 240,000 km2). Cluster analysis linked birds to generalised landscapes based on distinctive habitat assemblages. Maps of the clusters showed strong regional patterns associated with the habitat assemblages. Cluster centroid coordinates for each bird species and each habitat were combined across clusters to derive individualised bird-habitat preference indices and examine the importance of individual habitats for each bird species. Even rare species and scarce habitats showed successful linkages. Results were assessed against published accounts of bird-habitat relations. Objective corroboration strongly supported the associations. Relatively scarce coastal and wetland habitats proved particularly important for many birds. However, extensive arable farmland and woodland habitats were also favoured by many species, despite reported declines in bird numbers in these habitats. The fact that habitat-specialists do not or cannot move habitat is perhaps a reason for declining numbers where habitats have become unsuitable. This study showed that there are unifying principles determining bird-habitat relations which apply and can be quantified at the national scale, and which corroborate and complement the cumulative knowledge of many and varied surveys and ecological studies. This 'generality' suggests that we may be able, reliably and objectively, to integrate and scale up such disparate studies to the national scale, using this generalised framework. It also suggests the potential for a landscape ecology approach to bird-habitat analyses. Such developments will be important steps in building models to develop and test the sustainable management of landscapes for birds.     

EQUILIBRIUM EVAPORATION AND POSITWE EVAPORATION-SURFACE TEMPERATURE RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS A GRASSLAND1

Sensible (H) and latent (LE) heat fluxes, soil moisture (SM) and surface temperatures (T_s) were analyzed from seven sites at FIFE to evaluate relationships among the spatial variability of evaporative fraction, EF, SM, and the diurnal surface temperature range (T_dr). Intersite correlations between EF and T_dr were significantly negative for regional average soil moisture SM_r < 20 percent, insignificant for 20 < SM_r < 27 percent, and slightly positive for SM_r > 27 percent. Statistical analysis of the pooled correlation coefficient between EF and T_dr for SM_r < 20 percent indicates that it is less than zero at a very high level of significance, while the pooled correlation coefficient for regional SM_r > 27 percent is greater than zero at the 10 percent level. The positive EF:T_dr correlations are attributed to increased surface vapor pressure at warmer sites under nearly potential conditions. These results suggest that to characterize the spatial variability of the energy budget partitioning, a variable representing the thermal response of the site should be included. An important application of these findings relates to modeling the subgrid variability of a region by subdividing the region into a few classes within which surface variables and parameters are assumed invariant. The thermal response of the surface should be included as a variable in defining these classes.     

The Importance of Mixing Height in Characterising Pollution Levels from Aerosol Optical Thickness Derived by Satellite

In the present study the horizontal distribution of columnar aerosol optical thicknessderived at high spatial resolution from Earth observation satellite data in the Lombardy area (Italy) was converted to the horizontal distribution of optically effective aerosols concentration at the ground level. This was achieved by incorporating information on atmosphere's mixing height, at which pollutants released at ground level are vertically dispersed by convection or mechanical turbulence. The resulted fields compared favourably to pollutant concentration measurements provided by the ground stations. These results show that it is possible to calculate mean concentration fields by using the spatial distribution of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) measured by satellite normalized by the atmospheric mixing height. The advantage of satellites in measuring AOT is that they can capture all actual emissions compared to the models, which are based on inventoried data.     

太湖流域城镇形态的遥感信息提取模型研究

城市形态学在城市地理学的发展过程中占有重要地位，为战后城市地理学成为一门独立学科起了重要的推动作用。20世纪50年代后，因城市形态的研究没有取得突破性的进展，城市形态的研究似乎变成传统景观研究内容的一部分。20世纪80年代后，城市化、城市郊区化进程加快，城镇研究越来越受到重视，但城市地理学者在研究城镇之前必须对城乡进行划分，而城乡划分的基础是城市形态的信息提取，因而对城市形态的研究又得到重视，但城镇形态信息提取没有找到一个切实有效的方法。利用遥感技术，以太湖流域苏锡常地区为例，建立城镇形态信息的提取模型－仿归一化植被指数法，且通过对比监督分类法，说明仿归一化植被指数法提取城镇信息的特点，为城乡划分，城镇聚落结构，城市群等研究提供客观，简便的获取城镇信息的方法。     

Landscape ecology of the region surrounding Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province of China based on remote sensing

--A region surrounding Qinghai Lake was chosen as thestudy area and nine ecological landscape types that were recognizedbased on Landsat TM image classification of land cover/use typesalong with the ancillary data, and their ecological features andthe measures dealing with the eco-environmental problems arepresented in this paper. The study has shown that using thisapproach the ecological landscape types in a region like the studyarea can be readily recognized and their ecological features can berather accurately derived. Moreover, the deterioration in near alllandscape ecological types in the area is quite serious. Therefore,effective and proper measures have to be taken in order to realizea sustainable development of the region.     

THE POTENTIAL FOR REMOTE SENSING OF LOESS SOILS SUSPENDED IN SURFACE WATERS1

ABSTRACT: The potential for detecting the concentration and type of soils suspended in surface water through remote sensing techniques was investigated by studying the spectral reflectance of two types of soils in suspension. In a large tank filled with 7510 liters of water, 20 levels of suspended sediment (soil) concentration (SSC), ranging from 50 to 1000 mg/l were prepared. A high resolution spectroradiometer was used to measure the reflectance at each SSC level. The reflectance spectra of two contrasting soils were distinct in the visible and near infrared (NIR) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength range between 580–690 nm (visible) was found to be optimal for indicating the type of soil, whereas, the wavelength range between 714–880 (NIR) was found to be appropriate for estimating the concentration of sediment suspended in surface waters.     

长江三角洲地区城镇扩展、开发区设置遥感解译

长江三角洲地区开发区的设置同城市扩展紧密相联，１９８５年以来掀起了办开发区热。通过遥感信息的解译，获取了城镇扩展和开发区的设置的数据，至１９９３年下半年，经过调整，开发区走上了稳步、健康发展的轨道，成为经济发展的“窗口”与“示范”。     

基于RS的多数据源的700 多年来贵阳城市扩展时空特征研究

以1973、1990、2001、2006 和2010 年的Landsat 系列遥感影像为主要数据源,结合历史文献和专题图的多数据方法,在贵阳城市区域遥感信息提取的基础上,对1279 年建城以来,包含1626、1930、1947 年的共9 个时相的贵阳市时空扩展特征进行分析,主要包括城市扩展的时间轨迹、方向性、扩展强度、扩展规模和城市扩展的空间分异等。结果表明:花溪、金阳是贵阳城市扩展的主要区域;1947 年以前,贵阳市扩展速度极其缓慢,基本处于停滞状态;1947-1973年,城市已填满贵阳狭小的盆地区域,并开始沿着河谷地形向外扩展;1990 年贵阳市向外扩散趋势加剧,2006 年以后,贵阳以喷水池-大十字为核心,以南明河为主要的扩展轴,沿着南、东、东北、西分别向花溪、龙洞堡、新添寨和金阳扩散,呈现显著的Y字形扩展格局。贵阳城市扩展过快,停止外延型扩展进程,将有助于区域的和谐发展。     

Evaluating the emission status of light-duty gasoline vehicles and motorcycles in Macao with real-world remote sensing measurement

Roadside remote sensing measurement was used to explore the real-world emission status of light duty gasoline vehicles （LDGVs） and motorcycles in Macao. Both fuel-based and distance-based emission factors were derived using the mass balance method. The emission concentration profile of LDGVs illustrated the benefits of tightening emission standards at the source country or region of import. The distance-based emission factors for CO, HC and NOx of LDGVs registered before 2000 were 8.00, 1.04 and 1.36 g/km, respectively. The distance-based emission factors for CO, HC and NOx of LDGVs registered in or after 2000 were 1.16, 0.15 and 0.18 g/km, respectively. The fuel-based CO emission factors of light duty motorcycles （LDMCs） and heavy duty motorcycles （HDMCs） registered before 2000 were about 10 times higher than those of LDGVs of the same age group. As the emissions of LDGVs decreased more quickly after 2000, the gap widens for newer vehicles. The distance-based HC emission factors of LDMCs and HDMCs registered before 2000 were 4.81 and 2.91 g/km, respectively. The distance-based HC emission factors of LDMCs and HDMCs registered in or after 2000 were 3.52 and 0.93 g/km, respectively. The poor emission performance of motorcycles and their larger share in the traffic flow will cause them to be the major contributor to traffic CO and HC emissions. LDMCs, especially two-stroke models, should be the priority for vehicle emission control efforts in Macao.