ALBERT

Description: Scouring around bridge pier is a major cause of bridge instability. Thus, providing appropriate methods in order to reduce and control the scour depth have received much attention. Using a slot in the bridge piers is one of modern methods of reducing bridge local scouring. In the present study, the effects of a rectangular slot on local scour mitigation around bridge pier groups have been investigated with adaptive neuro-fuzzy (ANFIS) method. ANFIS shows very good learning and prediction capabilities, which makes it an efficient tool to deal with encountered uncertainties in any system like scouring. The results show that the scour depth increased in the first pier by reinforcing effect and it decreased in the rear piers because of sheltering effect in compare with single pier. In addition, application of the slot in pier groups leads to an increase in the impact of reinforcing effect and reduce the influence of sheltering effect. The use of slot is more influential in front bridge piers than the rear piers in pier groups with 4D distance, however, this effectiveness doesn’t have significant difference among the piers with 2D distance and same as single pier. Laboratory experiments were conducted to create experimental training and checking data for ANFIS network. This intelligent estimator is implemented using Matlab/Simulink and the performances are investigated. The simulation results presented in this paper show the effectiveness of the developed method.

Description: Harbour development along the low-lying coastline of northern France necessitated the construction of a seaport protruding into the sea. The extension of the port of Dunkirk resulted in the creation of an artificial shoreline consisting of a sea dike fronted by a beach, connected to a jetty protecting the seaport access. This study illustrates how harbour infrastructure can give rise to new kinds of aeolian landforms: e.g. the spontaneous initiation of aeolian dunes on a seaport dike resulting in specific dune types. However, this coastal dune development induced unexpected sand invasion of harbour infrastructure. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of various types of windbreaks on a dike as a means of limiting sand drift and solving sand invasion problems. Seven experimental fences installed in the eastern part of the dike were monitored over an 11 month period. The experimental fences tested in this study demonstrated their effectiveness on an asphalt coated dike. Over the whole survey period, the most efficient fences were those installed close to a sand source, at the beach-dike limit. These experiments will aid the Port of Dunkirk in building a management plan for its shoreline, which is being designed in order to preserve the diversity of landscapes, and to control sand invasion which necessitates costly sand removal operations.

Description: Chilika Lake, the largest brackish water lagoon in Asia, is a prominent biodiversity hotspot along the Indian east coast. The geomorphology, water quality and biological productivity of the lake had undergone significant changes over the years under the influence of natural events and anthropogenic interventions. Decades of research have shown that the ecological changes of the lake system and its fisheries were influenced mainly by the water exchange between the lake and the sea that controls the salinity, siltation, macrophyte infestation and recruitment of marine forms. Depletion of fisheries and loss of biodiversity in 1980s and 1990s have been linked to the northward shifting of lake’s inlet and silting up of the outer channel. In order to improve the health of the lagoon and restoration of its biodiversity, a new mouth was dredged open in September 2000. Opening of the new mouth has resulted in some improvements with substantial increase in capture fishery, reduction in weed infestation, growth of seagrasses, appearance of dolphins and increase in the population of migratory birds. But, many stake holders claim that the problems associated with the lake ecology and its contribution to the socio-economic development of the stake holders still persist which could escalate in future.

Description: We tested whether marine survival and migration pattern differed between naturally and hatchery produced European trout Salmo trutta of different origins. The hatchery fish were released 150 m above the river estuary of the southwestern, Norwegian River Imsa, the home of the local population. Recaptures were used as proxy for survival. Wild and local hatchery fish survived better than transplanted hatchery stocks. Trout that were 1 year at release survived less well than 2-year olds, and small individuals less well than larger ones. Relative to their body size at release, populations that originated most distant from the River Imsa, the Baltic River Emån and the Norwegian mountain Lake Tunhovd, exhibited the poorest sea survival. At sea, trout chiefly moved less than 240 km from the river of release, but there were significant differences in dispersal among populations. Hatchery-produced River Emån and Lake Tunhovd trout moved farther from the River Imsa than the south Norwegian sea trout populations, and the marine distributions of the former were similar to that of the natural River Imsa trout. Large fish moved farther from the river than smaller ones. Straying to other rivers was low among wild and local hatchery-produced fish, and significantly lower than among most transplanted populations, and River Emån trout in particular. Thus, the River Imsa trout appeared better adapted to survival under the local conditions than non-local trout with consequences for optimal population management.

Description: Stocking Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. in the Meuse river system is unsuccessful, since hardly any adults return upstream. To investigate problems during seaward migration, individual salmon smolts were tracked in the Dutch part of the river Meuse, using the Nedap Trail® system. The study included a comparison for two seasons, one with high (2010) and one with low (2011) discharge conditions. Cultivated smolts (Loire-Allier strain, n = 100 per year) were implanted with telemetry tags and released in the tributary Roer in March, at the beginning of the natural smolt run. The study area was split into four river sections each characterized by different conditions: tributary Roer, main river Meuse extensively dammed, main river Meuse free flowing and the estuary. Mortalities differed considerably between sections. In the free flowing river Meuse the mortalities were relatively low (10 and 25 %). Mortalities were high in the tributary (44 and 45 %), the dammed river (46 and 49 %) and in the estuary (89 and 90 %). Only 2 and 3 % of the smolts escaped into the North Sea. Results are discussed in relation to environmental factors light and discharge and the presence of man-made obstacles: weirs, hydropower plants and a sea lock. A lack of current and delays at man-made obstacles result in disorientation of fish, a higher risk of predation and disturbance of the smolt run timing. Mortality causes must decrease for sustaining a salmon population in the Meuse.

Description: Seagrass beds are highly productive ecosystems and a decline in this habitat has become a global concern in recent decades. This study mapped seagrass at three sites in Port Phillip Bay between 1939 and 2011 and reviewed possible influences on seagrass cover changes. Historical aerial photographs from multiple sources were digitally scanned and orthorectified. Automated image processing techniques incorporating an unsupervised classification combined with minor editing in a GIS were applied to map seagrass cover and analyse variations in the size and distribution of seagrass beds. Large declines in seagrass cover were observed at all three sites after 1998. In contrast to other world-wide observations, these recent declines were preceded by a period of sustained seagrass expansion between the 1960s and 1990s and lower levels of seagrass cover were observed in the 1930s/40s. The recent and earlier low levels of seagrass cover coincided with extended droughts characterised by large reductions in nutrient inputs to the Bay. However, recent declines were not consistent across the Bay with three other sites remaining relatively stable during this period. The sites with large declines are all subject to longshore drift and changes in nearshore sediment transport driven by variations in weather patterns coinciding with extended periods of drought may be important influences on seagrass cover at these locations.

Description: Estuarine barriers may significantly reduce the upstream migration of diadromous fish species like the European eel ( Anguilla anguilla L.). Previous research showed that limited barrier opening during tidal rise was a cost-efficient and effective mitigation option to improve upstream glass eel migration, without significant intrusion of sea water. This paper aims to optimise this adjusted barrier management to improve eel passage at a tidal barrier complex at the mouth of the River Yser, Flanders, Belgium, one of the most important migration routes for glass eel in Flanders. Specifically, three hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis analysed the impact of the number of barriers opened on the upstream glass eel migration. The second hypothesis evaluated the relation between the size of the barrier opening and glass eel migration. Finally, we tested whether the suggested adjusted barrier management may lead to a significant increase in conductivity in the River Yser. Increased opening of one barrier appeared more efficient than opening several barriers slightly. Conductivity increased during periods of extreme drought and at base flow, but decreased within 24 h after the first peak flow. This indicates that adjusted barrier management does not entail salt intrusion in the Yser basin, as long as this management is not applied in extremely dry periods. Since the adjusted barrier management is easily implemented and could be applied on numerous tidal barriers, the presented results may contribute to restoration of eel populations worldwide and be of interest to a wide range of river managers and stakeholders.

Description: The real-time operational use of atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) at numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers in India are being adversely affected due to inaccurate height assignment of cloud tracers, especially in thin semi-transparent clouds. In India, the operational derivation of AMVs from the Indian geostationary satellite Kalpana-1 began few years ago. A statistical empirical method (SEM) of height assignment, based on a genetic algorithm, is currently used to estimate the height of the retrieved vectors from Kalpana-1. This method has many limitations. In this paper, attempts have been made to implement the widely used and well tested height assignment methods such as the infrared window (WIN) technique, the H 2 O intercept, and the cloud base method in the Kalpana-1 AMV retrieval algorithm. The new height assignment algorithm significantly improves the statistics of the retrieved winds when compared to radiosondes, especially in high and mid levels winds.

Description: The Gulf of Kachchh is characterised by a strong tidal variation and the reef communities are capable of higher exposure time during negative tides. About 11 sites located along the Marine National Park (MNP) from west to east were studied for assessing the present status of live coral cover along with other life-form categories. In the present study, the maximum live coral cover was recorded in Pirotan Island, followed by Laku Point, Mithapur and Boriya reef. Multivariate analyses such as Principal Component Analysis and Correspondence Analysis supported that the contribution of live coral cover was more towards Pirotan Island whereas the contribution of coral species cover was more towards Laku Point. Bray-Curtis cluster analysis categorized all the study sites into four major clusters with 78 % similarity based on life-form categories. Among them, two clusters from western region (one forming site from Mithapur Reef to Lakku Point and another one forming from Ashaba Gugar Reef to Dabdaba Island), the third one combines the western and eastern regions (Boriya Reef to Kalubar Island), the fourth one comprises the eastern region (Narara Reef to Sikka), and one outlier Pirotan Island. Based on coral species cover, two major clusters with 55 % similarity were formed. Among them, one cluster was formed from Pirotan Island to Kalubar Island in the eastern side of MNP and the second one comprised the western region of MNP (Boriya Reef to Laku Point), and one outlier Mithapur Reef. Thirty one species of live corals belonging to 8 families and 18 genera were recorded in the Marine National Park itself during the study period.

Description: Coastal dunes are increasingly at risk due to pressures deriving from global climate change, sea level rise, recreation and development. The consequences of the “coastal squeeze” in which dunes are placed, such as erosion and the loss of critical ecosystem services, are usually followed by expensive restoration and protection measures, many of which are unsuccessful. Due to the poor understanding and acknowledgement of the key attributes of coastal dunes in decision making processes, it is essential to provide scientific data on the impacts of human interference on coastal dunes so as to inform executives and guide them towards a sustainable management of the coastal zone. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of five different levels of infrastructure development on the vegetation community structure of coastal dunes in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. The effects of infrastructure development on dune vegetation were quantified by measuring the richness, diversity, cover, height and composition of plant species. With an increase in infrastructure development a significant decrease in dune width, average species richness and height of the plants occurred, accompanied by a shift in plant community composition. The foredunes that were backed immediately by infrastructure presented significantly greater species richness, diversity, cover and height compared with the foredunes abutted by primary dunes. This study demonstrated that coastal dunes are environments which are sensitive to varying levels of human impact. Informed and comprehensive management planning of these environments is therefore imperative for the restoration and maintenance of remnant dunes and for the conservation of undeveloped coastal dunes.

Description: Sandy beaches of the eastern coast zone in Eastern Laizhou Bay represent the most popular tourist, recreational destinations and constitute some of the most valuable restates in China. This paper presents the detection of shoreline changes in Laizhou Bay East Bank using an automatic histogram thresholding algorithm on the basis of multi-temporal Landsat images. Shoreline change rates (SCR) and shoreline change areas (SCA) were retrieved using the statistical approach and zonal change detection method, respectively. Results showed that during 1979–2010 a large portion (over 59.8 %) of shoreline are dominated by a retreating process with an average rate of −2.01 m/year, while other parts of shoreline exhibited a seaward advancing trend due to intense land reclamation activities. It is our anticipation that the result of this work would support sandy beaches protection and management in China coast.

Description: Drainage and lineaments play an important role in the flow of groundwater. The objective of this study is to assess the groundwater level and its relation to drainage and lineaments in a hard rock region of a part of Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, southern India. The region predominantly comprise of granites and gneisses. Groundwater level was measured in 42 representative wells in this study area from March 2008 to January 2010 once in every two months. Observed groundwater levels were compared with drainage and dyke density. Groundwater level fluctuation in low drainage density region is generally greater than those in moderate and high drainage density regions. The dykes do not act as barriers for groundwater flow as they are highly weathered. The quantity and flow of groundwater in this region is predominantly controlled by drainage density, intensity of weathering and presence of fractures. Thus the study indicate that the drainage density play a major role in groundwater level fluctuation and as the dykes are weathered, they do not affect the groundwater flow in this shallow unconfined aquifer.

Description: On the western coast of France some storms have a dramatic impact while others have almost none. Some sites were insensitive to storms until the 50ies and are, today, retreating. This paper tries to explain why. First we sort out which storms are responsible for retreat and second we search for any change in management practices on the sites. The erosive storms are not always the most powerful ones (high wind speeds or high waves) but the ones which occur during the peak of high spring tides and have long period waves. The sites which retreat are the ones which, during the 20th Century; were maintained and rebuild, for economic reasons after each small storm event. Today they are left to themselves as they have no more economic activities and are turned into “natural areas”. Therefore the sensitivity of these sites to storm is human-induced. Though, they may be even more sensitive if the observed evolution in storminess (namely the increasing frequency of clusters of storms) appears to be a real trend.

Description: The fresh water reaching an estuary fluctuates on many scales and the fluctuation in the flow over a time period is also due to the anthropogenic activities like construction of dams, diversions and upstream withdrawals. These fluctuations may have profound effects on the estuarine ecosystem, which usually has remarkable biological productivity and diversity. A desktop analysis is carried out by compiling historical records of discharge and other hydrological information to study the dynamics of the river Coleroon, a distributary of the Cauvery River, Tamil Nadu, India. Remote sensing analysis was carried out on images ranging from the years 1977 to 2008 and the changes in the Pichavaram mangrove areas adjoining the Coleroon were studied by comparing the results with the freshwater flow into the ecosystem. Environmental flow analysis indicates that the minimum flow needed for a healthy mangrove system in Pichavaram is 750.75 cumecs; however, this is currently achieved only 12 % of the time. The reduction in freshwater flow over the years has resulted in loss of species diversity and degradation of the mangroves; this needs to be corrected immediately to conserve the Pichavaram mangrove ecosystem.

Description: Luwu is one of the regencies located on the east coast of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia which has large brackishwater ponds area, but it has a low productivity of shrimp and fish. Therefore, a study was carried out to know the land characteristics for determining suitability and management of land for tiger prawn ( Penaeus monodon ) culture in brackishwater ponds to increase the productivity and sustainability. Factors considered in land characteristics are: topography and tidal range, soil quality, water quality and climate. Spatial analysis in Geographic Information System is used for determining the land suitability for tiger prawn culture in brackishwater ponds. Land management is determined based on land characteristics to conform to technology that can be applied in brackishwater ponds. The results of study showed that brackishwater ponds soil in Luwu Regency are classified as acid sulfate soil and acid sulfate soil associated with peat soils that are characterized by low pH and macro nutrient content as well as high potential acidity and toxic elements content. Texture is generally classified as loamy sand, sand, sandy clay loam and sandy loam. Water quality in general can support brackishwater pond culture, except the forms of nitrogen which has relatively high content. Low rainfall was found from September to February and high rainfall in the other months. The analysis shows the actual land suitability of the existing brackishwater ponds in Luwu, namely 11,740.9 ha, where no land is classified as highly suitable (S1 class), 10,434.4 ha classified as moderately suitable (S2 class) and 1,306.5 ha classified as marginally suitable (S3 class) for tiger prawn culture. One of the recommendations for land management is through remediation, in the form of drying, submerging and flushing or liming for improving soil quality.

Description: A novel technique of aerial photography was examined using parasailing for mapping the coral reefs located in the coastal waters of Kish Island (central north of the Persian Gulf). A total number of 11 overall and 96 overlapped aerial photos were taken (6 overall and 67 overlapped were selected to use) and then were mosaicked and geo-corrected using ENVI® 5.1 image processing software by considering 8 pre-located diving buoys as ground control points. Afterwards, the corrected overall photos were stitched and used to produce a schematic map while the mosaic was digitized by applying a manual on-screen digitizing method in AutoCAD® raster design software, and a GIS-based topological thematic map was generated as output. The final results revealed that the method is applicable to map the coral reefs, while the ability to distinguish coral types by visual interpretation is the most advantageous factor for the proposed technique. Particularly in the studied area, an area ~4,500 m 2 comprising Porites and Acropora spp. as dominant coral genus could be mapped. Additionally, the low cost, quick and easy to manage and implementation, as well as producing precise thematic maps are considered as advantages of applying the proposed technique, in comparison with other alternative methods such as satellite imagery and field observations. In contrast, the limitation of this method is to use it in remote regions or areas with high turbid waters where it is not possible to interpret the coral types visually on the photos.

Description: System thinking and integrated research are widely applied approaches in environmental management, often facilitating the organization of information from different levels and sources. They are here applied to support the review of (1) political and management instruments and (2) elements that characterize the Bahia de Cádiz Nature Park (Spain). The latter objective is sustained by the DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) framework. A first DPSI conceptual map offers a broader view of the park capturing a range of elements that act at global, national and regional levels. Next, through expert consultation, prioritized DPSI issues describing the current situation of Bahia de Cádiz Nature Park are highlighted. A second DPSI map is designed to explore specific land-use and land-cover changes and their effects on the park’s ecological integrity, offering a greater level of detail. ‘Responses’ are discussed separately, through a review of most recent response actions that have originated at various levels, and future ones proposed by the park’s management. The framework proves to be appropriate to identify elements from both social and environmental dimensions, but excludes global-scale elements that do not fit the scope of this analysis. The review hopes to support future integrated research initiatives, involving in-depth analysis though the use of tools as are indicators or models.

Description: Scale-appropriate, foundational datasets are necessary for ecological analyses of the rocky intertidal ecosystem. We used terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to characterize and quantify the rocky intertidal zone topography at a western U.S. coastal site (Rabbit Rock, Oregon) to support ecological research relating to potential climate-induced changes in distribution and abundance of intertidal invertebrates and a large-bodied shorebird, the Black Oystercatcher ( Haematopus bachmani ). Alternate available data (e.g., aerial photography, airborne LIDAR) proved inadequate or infeasible for development of a topographic surface model inclusive of intertidal area from Mean Lower Low Water to Mean Higher High Water tidal elevation. Our TLS-derived topographic surface model competently supported development of an invertebrate distribution model relative to tidal elevation and topography. Using the developed model, we estimated current and future aerial extent of the intertidal zone and potential foraging habitat for Black Oystercatcher in our study area. Intertidal zone area decreased from 7,194 m 2 to 6,409 m 2 and 3,070 m 2 with 1 and 2 m sea-level rise, respectively. Surprisingly, due to the configuration of site substrate, potential foraging habitat for Black Oystercatcher increased from 5,658 to 5,903 m 2 with 1 m sea-level rise, but declined to 3,068 m 2 with 2 m sea-level rise. Our results demonstrate the utility of TLS for ecological research in the rocky intertidal zone. They further illustrate that climate change effects on ecological conditions may vary considerably depending on local configurations.

Description: The study follows an approach to estimate phytomass using recent techniques of remote sensing and digital photogrammetry. It involved tree inventory of forest plantations in Bhakra forest range of Nainital district. Panchromatic stereo dataset of Cartosat-1 was evaluated for mean stand height retrieval. Texture analysis and tree-tops detection analyses were done on Quick-Bird PAN data. The composite texture image of mean, variance and contrast with a 5×5 pixel window was found best to separate tree crowns for assessment of crown areas. Tree tops count obtained by local maxima filtering was found to be 83.4 % efficient with an RMSE ± 13 for 35 sample plots. The predicted phytomass ranged from 27.01 to 35.08 t/ha in the case of Eucalyptus sp. while in the case of Tectona grandis from 26.52 to 156 t/ha. The correlation between observed and predicted phytomass in Eucalyptus sp . was 0.468 with an RMSE of 5.12. However, the phytomass predicted in Tectona grandis was fairly strong with R 2  = 0.65 and RMSE of 9.89 as there was no undergrowth and the crowns were clearly visible. Results of the study show the potential of Cartosat-1 derived DSM and Quick-Bird texture image for the estimation of stand height, stem diameter, tree count and phytomass of important timber species.

Description: India’s Gujarat state has a long coastline with rich maritime history. The entrepreneurial nature of its citizens enabled Gujarat to emerge as the most aggressive industrial development state in the country. Due to the availability of vast land resource for industrial expansion along the coast, affordable labor cost, sparse human density and liberal state government policies have significantly contributed towards the outburst of the industrial sector’s growth across Gujarat. Ecologically fragile ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, mudflats, salt marshes, sea grass beds and nesting sites of winter migratory birds are increasingly threatened due to direct and indirect pressure induced by the industrial and allied development projects. This article reviews the status of coastal environment in Gujarat state with an emphasis on integrated coastal management associated laws and regulations.

Description: MIMO radar has received significant attention to radar communities recently. This paper presents a novel scheme for wide-swath and high-resolution synthetic aperture radar based on a MIMO UWB-OFDM system. The swath is increased based on a new approach for orthogonal pulse-shaping and MIMO wide-swath SAR topology. The resolution is improved using UWB-OFDM waveforms. Performance is further enhanced using image fusion techniques to benefit from the potentials of multi-sensor imagery such as noise level reduction.

Description: Vegetation plays a very important role conserving the natural environment and improving the living environment for humans. Thus, investigating spatio-temporal changes in vegetation is a crucial indicator to understand natural environmental changes. We explored the spatio-temporal trends of changing vegetation cover in Mongolia from 2002 to 2010 by investigating changes in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) with rainfall. The 16-day composite NDVI time series Terra MODIS (MOD13A2) and the gridded rainfall data of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were used to identify the relationship between vegetation dynamics and rainfall. Residual NDVI trends were computed. Following our general procedure, monthly NDVI and annual rainfall were correlated for each pixel. The resulting regression equation represented the statistical association between observed NDVI and rainfall, and the model predicted NDVI according to rainfall. Residuals of NDVI (differences between the observed and predicted NDVI) for each pixel were calculated, and the trends in these residuals was analyzed by linear regression. From the 12 months NDVI and rainfall values they determine a linear regression line for each pixel. The positive or negative slope of this line is considered to reflect an increase or decrease in green biomass. Our results show that vegetation cover changes in Mongolia were caused by both natural factors and human activities. The natural vegetation change, such as those in forests was influenced by climate change, whereas human activities were the main reason for the change in vegetation planted.

Description: Markov chain is one of the most widely used methods for land use change forecasting, however, it’s a non-spatial model and few papers have discussed the effects of time-duration on its performance. In this paper, we first present the primary methodologies of the Spatial-Markov model, which endows the ordinary Markov chain with spatial dimension using spatial analysis techniques, and then explore the effects of forecasting time-duration on the model’s performance. By taking Shandong province, China as a case study area, land use maps in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 were created using on Landsat images and then the Spatial-Markov model was developed at 1 km spatial scale. In detail, we repeatedly run the model by choosing different initial time points and the same time step (five year interval) to simulate the spatial-temporal dynamics of land use change from 1990 to 2010. The forecasting results of a single run included a stack of ratio scale images and a derived nominal scale image, χ 2 test and Kappa coefficient were adopted to evaluate their accuracy respectively. It turned out that the Spatial-Markov model could achieve very good performance for short period forecasting. For the case study, it was quite qualified for the prediction of three time steps (up to 15 years) or more within which the results had much high reliability, however, time-duration of forecasting had much significant impact on the model’s performance, the longer the forecasting duration, the lower the model’s accuracy.

Description: In this paper, a new spectral clustering algorithm is proposed for data clustering and SAR image segmentation. There are two main contributions in this paper. First, a new SAR image segmentation scheme based on the closeness degree cut (CDCut) model is proposed. The closeness degree cut is an improved form and an interpretation from fuzzy mathematics of normalized cut by taking the local information of each node into consideration. The second contribution is the development of the minimum description length criterion for determining the number of clustering in SAR image segmentation. The whole process of SAR image segmentation is composed of three steps. Firstly, the watershed algorithm is used to obtain the over-segmented image, which preserves the discontinuity characteristics of the image. Secondly, a graph is formed using each over-segmented region as a node and the spectral clustering based on the closeness degree cut is applied to the graph. Finally, the minimum description length criterion which takes into account the statistical properties of the speckle noise is used to determine the clustering number. Experimental results with simulated and real-world SAR images demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for SAR image segmentation and provides comparable or better results than the classical graph cut based methods.

Description: With sea level rise, erosion, and human disturbances affecting coastal areas, strategies to protect and stabilize existing shorelines are needed. One popular solution to stabilize while conserving intertidal habitat is the use of “living shoreline” techniques which are designed to mimic natural shoreline communities by using native plants and animals. However, little information is available on the success of living shoreline stabilization. This project evaluated the wave energy attenuation associated with living shorelines that contained Crassostrea virginica (eastern oyster) and/or Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) in a wave tank. Four living shoreline techniques were assessed, including a control (sediment only), oysters alone, cordgrass alone, and a combination of oysters plus cordgrass. Time since deployment (newly deployed, one-year after deployment) was also assessed to see how wave energy attenuation changed with natural oyster recruitment and plant growth. Wave energy was calculated for each newly deployed and one-year old shoreline stabilization treatment using capacitance wave gauges and generated waves that were representative of boat wakes in Mosquito Lagoon, a shallow-water estuary in Florida. All one-year old treatments attenuated significantly more energy than newly-deployed treatments. The combination of one-year old S. alterniflora plus live C. virginica was the most effective as this treatment reduced 67 % of the wave energy created by a single recreational boat wake, compared to bare sediment. Natural resource managers and landowners facing shoreline erosion issues can use this information to create effective stabilization protocols that preserve shorelines while conserving native intertidal habitats.

Description: The Meso to Neo Proterozoic Chhattisgarh Basin in Bastar craton of Central India has an analogues geological setting to that of Athabasca Basin and is well known for several uranium occurrences. Present study discusses generation and validation of a geological model for uranium exploration by integrating geological, geochemical, geophysical and remote sensing datasets along the south central margin of Chhattisgarh Basin. The area exposes volcano-sedimentary sequence of Sonakhan Group unconformably overlain by sediments of Chhattisgarh Supergroup. A knowledge driven integrated Geographical Information Systems (GIS) model has been simulated for uranium exploration by extracting and integrating exploration relevant information viz., heat source, metal source, transport pathways, traps etc. from the spatial datasets. Landsat ETM+ imageries are utilised for delineating alteration zones and lineaments. Airborne radiometric data facilitated in mapping alteration and uranium enriched zones from the anomalous ratios of K/Th and U/Th. Major lineaments, intrusive and lithological units were interpreted utilising aeromagnetic data. These data sets are interpreted in the light of available lithological and structural information from ground surveys. A uranium potential model has been developed by choosing deposit recognition criterion which is defined based on specific characteristics associated with a specific type of mineral deposit. Mappable recognition criterions such as favorable lithology, associated alteration, proximal intrusives and extrusives, favorable structural domain and suitable traps for deposition are delineated from spatial datasets as thematic vector layers. Spatial analysis on the recognition criterion thematic layers has been carried out in GIS environment using index overlay method to generate predictive model. The generated maps highlighted the targets with high exploration potential for uranium. These targets identified by the exercise are ground checked and the predictive model is validated.

Description: The measure method of information quantity for terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) 3D point cloud data have seldom been studied in previous publications. In this paper, we mainly discuss how to measure information quantity of point cloud data. We give the procedure of measuring information quantity for point cloud, and obtain the formula of calculation. Furthermore, we calculate the information quantity of 5 types of point cloud data, which verified the feasibility of the information measure theory for point cloud.

Description: The volcanic ash can affect the global climate changes and aviation safety, and has become a hot topic for public security research. The satellite remote sensing sensor can quickly and accurately obtain the volcanic ash cloud information. However, the satellite image has pretty strong inter-band correlation and data redundancy. Principal component analysis (PCA) can overcome the inter-band correlation and data redundancy of satellite images and compress a large number of complex information effectively into a few principal components. Taking the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic ash cloud formed on 19 April 2010 for example, in this paper, the PCA method is used to detect the volcanic ash cloud based on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) image. The results show that: the PCA method can obtain the volcanic ash cloud from MODIS image; it is much simpler and the detected volcanic ash cloud has a good consistency with the previous research on the basis of spatial distribution and SO 2 concentration.

Description: The vegetation index is derived using many remote sensing sensors. Vegetation Index is extensively used and remote sensing has become the primary data source. Number of vegetation indices (VIs) have been developed during the past decades in order to assess the state of vegetation qualitatively and quantitatively. Analysis of vegetation indices has been carried out by many investigators scaling from regional level to global level using the remote sensing data of varying spatial, temporal and radiometric resolutions. There are as many as 14 VIs in use. Globally operational algorithms for generation of NDVI have utilized digital counts, at sensor radiances, ‘normalized’ reflectance (top of the atmosphere), and more recently, partially atmospheric corrected (ozone absorption and molecular scattering) reflectance. Presently NDVI and EVI are standard MODIS data products which are widely used by the scientific community for environmental studies. The OCM sensor in Oceansat 2 is designed for ocean colour studies. The OCM sensor has been used for studying ocean phytoplankton, suspended sediments and aerosol optical depth by many investigators. In addition to its capability of studying the ocean surface, OCM sensor has also the potential to study the land surface features. In a past EVI has been retrieved using OCM sensor of Oceansat 1. However, there is slight change in the band width of Oceansat 2—OCM sensor compared with OCM of Oceansat 1 sensor. In the present paper an attempt has been made to derive EVI using Oceansat 2 OCM sensor and the results have been compared with MODIS data. The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) is calculated using the reflectance values obtained after removing molecular scattering and ozone absorption component from the total radiance detected by the sensor. The band-2, Band-3, band-6 and band-8 corresponding to Blue, Red and Infrared part of the visible spectrum have been used to determine EVI. The result shows that Oceansat 2 derived EVI and MODIS derived EVI are well correlated.

Description: Alteration in climatic pattern has resulted to a steady decline in quality of life and the environment, especially in and around urbanized areas. These areas are faced with increasing surface temperature arising mostly from human activities and other natural sources; hence land surface temperature has become an important variable in global climate change studies. In this paper, Landsat TM/ETM imagery acquired between 1997 and 2013 were used to extract ground brightness temperature and land use/land cover change in Kuala Lumpur metropolis. The main objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of quantifying UHI effects, in space and time, using remote sensing data and, also, to find the relationship between UHI and land use change. Four land use types (forest, farmland, built-up area and water) were classified from the Landsat images using maximum likelihood classification technique. The result reveals that Greater KL experienced an increase in average temperature from 312.641°K to 321.112°K which was quite eminent with an average gain in surface temperature of 8.4717°K. During the period of investigation (1997–2013), generally high temperature is been experienced mostly in concentrated built-up areas, the less concentrated have a moderate to intermediate temperature. Again, the study also shows that low and intermediate temperature classes loss more spatial extent from 2,246.89 Km 2 to 1,164.53 Km 2 and 6,102.42 Km 2 to 3,013.63 Km 2 and a gain of 4,165.963 Km 2 and 307.098 Km 2 in moderate and high temperature respectively from 1997 to 2013. The results of this study may assist planners, scientists, engineers, demographers and other social scientists concerned about urban heat island to make decisions that will enhance sustainable environmental practices.

Description: The conservation areas in a plain are affected by the groundwater contamination from intense application of the fertilizers. The vulnerability of groundwater can be tested by using the DRASTIC model for the pollutants. The groundwater susceptibility to pollution in the various areas is mapped through DRASTIC model. However, the effects of pollution types and its characteristics are not considered, as this model is used without any modifications. This technique must be standardized for usage in the various aquifers and specific pollution types. The rates of DRASTIC parameters are corrected to obtain the potential for a more accurate analysis of the vulnerability pollution. The relationships between the parameters are identified with respect to the nitrate concentration in the groundwater by calculating the new rates. The methodology was applied to the selected area situated in the south eastern region of Iran at Kerman plain. Twenty-seven different locations were selected to test and analyse the nitrate concentration in the water from underground wells. The pollution in the aquifer was associated and correlated with the DRASTIC index by using the measured nitrate concentrations. The relationship between the index and the measured pollution in the Kerman plain was determined by applying the Wilcoxon rank-sum nonparametric statistical tests and the rates were calculated. It was found specifically in the agricultural areas that the modified DRASTIC model performed more efficiently than the traditional method for nonpoint source pollution, as indicated by the results. After modifications, the regression coefficients revealed that the relationship between the vulnerability index and the nitrate concentration was 77 %, while it was 37 % before the modifications were used. These statistics show that the modified DRASTIC performed far more efficiently than the original version.

Description: Wave climate of the nearshore region along Chennai, Southeastern coast of India was simulated using MIKE 21 Nearshore wave module (NSW). Assessment of longshore sediment transport between Pulicat and Ennore was carried out using LITPACK. Typical wave spectrums for the three seasons – pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon at 10 m and 4 m depths exhibit the sea condition during post-monsoon, swell condition during monsoon and the combined sea and swell condition during pre-monsoon. Simulation show reasonably good comparison with buoy data in terms of wave height with an underestimation of wave period and direction. The correlation coefficient for significant wave height is 0.42 and 0.82 during the transition period and non monsoon period respectively. The littoral drift assessment has given a clear picture on how the current speed and direction play a major role in sediment transport. Sediment transport of about 0.9 × 10 6  m 3 towards north and 0.2 × 10 6  m 3 towards south results with a net northerly littoral drift of 0.7 × 10 6  m 3 /annum.

Description: ABSTRACT Accelerating urban growth and land use/cover changes places increasingly pressure on the natural environment and human welfare and have become a global concern. Iran, as a developing country, is also experiencing growth of its urban areas during the last decades by high rate of rural–urban migration along with rapid socio-economic and political changes that has resulted in degrading environmental quality in many parts of Iran, particularly in the metropolitan areas such as Isfahan. Therefore, developing methods for assessing different urban growth planning scenarios and simulating urban expansion is critically important. The main goal of this study was simulating future urban expansion of Isfahan Metropolitan area from 2010 to 2050, by making use of cellular automata methodology in the SLEUTH modelling. The model was calibrated using historical data extracted from a time series of satellite images. The input data required by the model including Slope, Land use, Exclusion, Urban extent, Transportation and Hillshade were obtained from satellite images based on supervised classification. This research used the four images of Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) acquired 1976, 1990, 2001, and 2010. Two scenarios were planned to simulate the spatial pattern of urban growth. The first scenario was historical urban growth, which permitted urban development maintenance of the historical trend and the second scenario was a more compact growth as an answer to hypothetical policies and the lack of land to decrease urban spreading. Calibration of the SLEUTH model for Isfahan metropolitan area showed a high spread coefficient, which means that the predicted mode of growth in Isfahan is “organic” or edge growth. In Isfahan metropolitan area, topography was also shown to have an enormous effect in controlling the urban development. The results of this study invites many opportunities for further studies in many other regions which are experiencing growth of their urban areas and can be useful for planners, and policy makers to implement preventative or controlling factors in advance and make more informed strategic decisions.

Description: Super resolution mapping is a continuously growing area of remote sensing. Satellite images coupled with a very high spectral resolution, and are suitable for detection and classification of surfaces and different elements in the observed image. The main problem with high resolution data for these applications is the (relatively) low spatial resolution, which can vary from a few to tens of meters. In the case of classification purposes, the major problem caused by low spatial resolution is related to subpixels, i.e., pixels in the image where more than one land cover class is within the same pixel. In such a case, the pixel cannot be considered as belonging to just one class, and the assignment of the pixel to a single class will inevitably lead to a loss of information, no matter what class is chosen. A new super resolution mapping (SRM) algorithm by combining pixel and subpixel-level spatial dependences with colorimetry is proposed in this paper. The pixel-level dependence is measured by the spatial attraction model with either surrounding or quadrant neighborhood, while the subpixel-level dependence is characterized by either the mean filter or the exponential weighting function. Both pixel-level and subpixel-level dependences are then fused as the weighted dependence for quickly obtaining the optimal spatial distribution of subpixels by employing the colorimetric algorithm. Synthetic imagery and a QuickBird image are tested for validation of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve results with greater accuracy than two traditional subpixel mapping (SPM) methods and the mixed spatial attraction model method. Meanwhile, the proposed method needs considerably less computation time than the conventional mixed spatial attraction model method, and hence it provides a new solution to subpixel land cover mapping.

Description: Serious attempts have been made to manage the highly populated Indian coast during the last 25 years in terms of regulating the activities and managing disasters. This has lead to formulation of various policies to maintain environmental quality and sustainably manage the coastal resources. Basically, the coastal zone needs to address the demands of all the stakeholders starting from traditional local communities, administrators, to academic researchers etc. India has faced tremendous challenges in implementing regulatory measures like Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) issued in 1991 by demarcating countries coast in to four different zones with provisions and prohibitions for various activities. The concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has been taken with the support of spatial decision-support tools derived from satellite data including national programmes on inter-sectoral approaches towards ICZM. 2004 onwards a series of disasters have reminded the necessity of having regulatory measures through implementable approaches. Subsequently, the CRZ 2011 notification has been a new addition to the list of policies using bottom-up approach as a good governance tool. The country has strengthened its potential in coastal management, disaster management and several community based field projects to enhance participation of stakeholders. This paper is aimed to critically review the processes that are made during the last two decades including the future challenges towards sustainable management of coastal zone with special emphasis on the three coastal areas from eastern, western and southern coast of India.

Description: Understanding the governance system, stakeholder relationships and perceptions of coastal landscape risk is essential to improving the sustainability of coastal environments. Our main objective was to analyse social networks for the Maresme Sud coastal area in Catalonia and examine public perceptions of risk in order to shed light on how the current governance system could be improved to promote more adaptive coastal landscape risk management. Our methodology was based on semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders and a social network analysis, which provided context-based information on stakeholder interactions and power relationships and the transfer and diffusion of different types of knowledge. In Maresme Sud, the strong presence of public bodies makes the integration of more adaptive and innovative discourses in coastal management practices more difficult. The role of supra-local stakeholders, currently poorly represented in the network, should be enhanced. Coastal partnerships could also act as bridging organizations to facilitate learning, cooperation and knowledge exchange among stakeholders.

Description: Coastal cliff erosion is a widespread problem that threatens property and infrastructure along many of the world’s coastlines. Rates of erosion used for shoreline management are generally based on analysis of historic maps and aerial photographs which, in rocky coast environments, does not wholly capture the detail in the processes and the failures occurring across the cliff face. This study uses airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data to gain a quantitative understanding of cliff erosion along rocky coastline where recession rates are relatively low (c. 0.1 m yr −1 ). It was found that three-dimensional volumetric changes on the cliff face and linear rates of retreat can be reliably calculated from consecutive digital elevation models (DEMs) several years apart. Furthermore, the accuracy of the data on sloping surfaces was tested by applying a threshold below which data that could be construed as error were removed. Using a vertical change threshold of 0.5 m had limited effect on the computed rates of retreat. The spatial variability in recession rates around the coastline was considered in terms of the relationship with the varying boundary conditions (rock mass characteristics, cliff geometries, beach morphology) and forcing parameters (wave climate and wave exposure). Recession rates were statistically correlated with significant wave height ( H s ), rock mass characteristics (GSI) and the ratio between the two (GSI/ H s ). The current method of assessing rocky cliff recession using maps and aerial photographs tends to not only miss the detail in the three-dimensional nature of the cliff evolution, but may also be too coarse a resolution to capture the small scale changes that contribute to the overall failure. LiDAR data, although limited in its temporal extent due to it being a relatively new technology, is a suitable method of evaluating cliff erosion on a time scale of 3–4 years and provides additional insight into the process occurring in slowly eroding environments.

Description: This paper presents an analysis of anthropogenic pressures in terms of indicators which would contribute to the relative vulnerability of coastal Wilayats (Administrative Zones) to development and related activities in the Al-Batinah North region of Oman. The main objective of this work is to rank each Wilayat based on the pressure indicators to provide inputs for local stakeholders involved in coastal management by developing a sense of understanding on the relative vulnerability of coastal Wilayats. The study of using pressure indicators would help to identify, key development pressures with the potential to affect coastal ecosystems. This would also enable to identify a Wilayat having strong driving forces for development and to determine which Wilayat’s coastal ecosystems are most affected and relatively experiencing anthropogenic pressures. Results of ranking exercise indicated that Suwaiq and Sohar Wilayats are more vulnerable, having pressures of studied drivers such as agriculture and urbanization. The identified pressure indicators presented in this study could be used to design coastal monitoring systems that can help further development of holistic environmental and socio-economic indicators for the coast.

Description: Eastern oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ) in Gulf of Mexico estuaries create complex reefs and provide important habitat for fish and crustaceans. Oyster reefs have suffered historic losses due to overharvest, disease, and degraded water quality, and recent efforts have focused on restoring reefs to benefit nekton populations. Oyster shell is the preferred substrate for oyster reef restoration, but as a consequence of its limited supply, a variety of alternative substrates are being used. We used field experiments to quantify the effects of substrate type (concrete, porcelain, limestone, river rock, and oyster shell) on oyster recruitment, growth, and nekton habitat use in St. Charles Bay, TX. After 4 months, oyster spat recruitment density, nekton density and community structure were similar across substrate types—and analogous to those on natural reefs—but differed from samples collected on bare sediment. To determine refuge value of the alternative substrates, we tested mud crab (Panopeidae) prey mortality with and pinfish ( Lagodon rhomboides ) or blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus ) predators. Prey mortality was similar across substrate types for both predators, and was significantly lower than no substrate and bare sand controls. Alternative substrates can provide important structural materials to support the development of oyster populations and nekton assemblages, and may be used to promote sustainable management of oyster reef resources via restoration.

Description: Tsunami disaster poses a great threat to coastal infrastructures. Bridges without adequate provisions for earthquake and tsunami loading is generally vulnerable to tsunami attack. During the last two disastrous tsunami event (i.e. Indian Ocean and Japan Tsunami) a number of bridges were observed subsequent damages by tsunami waves. Since it is very crucial problem in this paper was constructed a process which simulates the effects of perforations in bridge girder in force reduction with adaptive neuro-fuzzy (ANFIS) method. ANFIS shows very good learning and prediction capabilities, which makes it an efficient tool to deal with encountered uncertainties in any system like tsunami waves. Laboratory experiments were conducted to create experimental training and checking data for ANFIS network. This intelligent estimator is implemented using Matlab/Simulink and the performances are investigated. Results showed that significant amount of forces were reduced using perforations in girder. Approximately 10 to 18 % force reductions were achieved by using about 16 % perforations in bridge girder. Subsequent amount of force reductions revealed that perforations in girder are effective in reducing tsunami forces as perforations in girder let water to be passed through. Thus, less bridge damages are expected with the presence of perforations in girder during tsunami period. The simulation results presented in this paper show the effectiveness of the developed method.

Description: We gathered the available information about the anurofauna in Brazilian sand coastal plains (“restingas”) published since the 1966, which is the date of the first study we found that was conducted exclusively about anurans in these ecosystems. We made a compilation of available data found in publications and sought to finding a pattern on anuran communities of Brazilian sandy coastal plains. We found 63 published studies about anurans in remaining restingas along the Brazilian coast. We record the occurrence of 14,010 individuals, comprised of 145 amphibian species from 12 families. The species were distributed latitudinally in a peculiar way, and here, we discuss this distribution regarding the characteristics of the species. Our results showed that the available existing base still does not allow us to define the structural patterns of the anuran communities in sandy coastal plains in Brazil. The relative lack of studies about the anurofauna in “restingas” and the high rate of degradation are negative factors that can cause extinctions in these environments even before we understand the patterns and processes that act on anuran communities in restinga environments.

Description: Coastal risk management has received increasing attention from policy-makers and practitioners over the last 20 years. The introduction by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), of a new approach to coastal risk management in England, led to the Environment Agency being given overall responsibility for the management of coastal risks in 2007. The establishment of a framework for coastal management, together with appropriate policy guidance, is particularly important on account of the increasing influence that predicted climate change may have on coastal economies, infrastructure, communities and conservation interests over the next century. Within this framework, the issue of coastal land instability is now being considered alongside the hazards of coastal erosion and flooding. In developing coastal management policies, and in deciding on whether coastal change should be adapted to rather than prevented, the availability of funding for coastal risk management projects and schemes is often an overriding consideration. This is encouraging new and innovative approaches for the avoidance of risks, through the implementation of adaptation strategies and the publication of improved advice and guidance. This paper describes recent policy guidance for coastal cliffs introduced in England and Wales, as well as the testing of new approaches in the field, and provides examples of updated tools to support engagement with stakeholders.

Description: The 155 km long Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site is recognized for its 250 million years of earth history, including internationally renowned coastal geomorphological landforms and processes. It is a naturally active coast ranging from vertical ‘hard’ cliffs to very active landslides, protected by both national and international conservation designations. The primary conservation focus of the Site is geoconservation, but its cliff ecosystems also provide outstanding examples of natural resilience to rapid change as well as preserving very important communities. One of the key features of the Site is that its dynamics allow a constant renewal of the visible geology and exposures of fossils, Erosion is accepted as normal. It is a heavily used tourist location with cliff-top paths in use all year and there are concerns about safety, especially for visitors beneath cliffs and crossing mudslides. Management of the Site deals with such issues as fossil collecting and conservation, access, education, coast protection and through a management plan.

Description: It now seems likely that the first human colonists to reach this part of the world would have had to negotiate a coastal zone largely comprising a combination of towering sea cliffs, sand dunes, or closed canopy woodland even on some of the steepest slopes. On a few coastal slopes in Wales there are still remnants of these ancient woodlands now considered to be of major conservation interest and representing a coastal habitat that was no doubt much more widespread before human influence. Nevertheless, there are few detailed studies of these woodlands. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to carry out a basic assessment of their ecology and conservation, and to provide both a collation of all existing stands in Wales (Table  1 , Fig.  4 ) and review of all existing ecological surveys. In terms of arboreal species many of the most natural examples are characterised by Quercus petraea (sessile oak) and Corylus avellana (hazel). Some examples, including Gallt y Bwlch in North Wales, are extremely stunted typically growing to a maximum height of about three metres but in places canopy height can be lower than head height. These woodlands are distinctive in other ways and experience environmental conditions that differ from those just a few kilometres inland including less precipitation and more solar radiation. Reflected light from sea water is thought to provide additional solar radiation. Their species composition typically appear very natural with little evidence of management although in some cases there is evidence that coppicing took place many years ago. In Britain there are very few remaining examples of these distinctive coastal woodland and most have not been described in the terms of the United Kingdom’s National Vegetation Classification (Rodwell 1991 ). However, some appear to have affinities with the so-called Atlantic hazel woodlands of Scotland. After the last Ice Age, hazel and birch were the earliest woody species to become established in the UK dating back some 10,000 years BP. They predate both oak woodlands and the pine forests of Scotland. Hazel became well established in the coastal zones of Wales and Scotland from about 9500 years BP. The evidence provided here suggests a need to further review both the conservation and protection status of these distinctive woodlands.

Description: Rising sea levels and changing wind climates are widely expected to be associated with receding coastlines, creating a planning need for coastal change prediction, especially for soft shores like those associated with saltmarsh. We ask whether it is possible use a simple cartographic wind-wave fetch method to estimate the spatial pattern of progradation and recession of soft shores in swell-sheltered situations in which there is little or no input of new sediment from terrestrial sources. For points on an extensive embayment shoreline of this type we mapped change over 54 years from aerial photographs, recorded current shoreline morphology and calculated a wave fetch index (WFI). Morphological indication of strong progradation was associated with low WFI, but there was no statistically significant effect of variation in WFI on the degree of shoreline retreat. Saltmarsh shorelines averaged 14 cm per annum retreat between 1952 and 2006, a rate that did not vary significantly between air photo periods. We conclude that our geographic information system approach utilising WFI is likely to be useful as a planning tool in identifying those parts of sediment-poor saltmarsh shores where erosion is most likely or least likely to occur, but not particularly useful for predicting finer-scale variation in rates of shoreline recession within the particular substrate types in our study area. In the context of relative sea-level rise and increasing wind speeds, such modelling can help identify coastlines which are likely to support saltmarshes into the future.

Description: One way of measuring pre-existing knowledge of a threatened species and its circumstances is to measure the degree of surprise expressed by stakeholders in relation to factual statements regarding the species. Beach-goers ( n  = 684) were surveyed in regard to their knowledge of the beach-dwelling, threatened, Hooded Plover Thinornis rubricollis , a coastal obligate in south eastern Australia. Principle components analysis revealed that respondents’ degree of knowledge could be categorized as involving ‘chick (flightless young) ecology’ and ‘human impacts’ (threatening processes). Respondents were more surprised by aspects of chick ecology than by threatening processes (F 1,514  = 460.446, p  〈 0.001). Prior knowledge of the species was associated with less surprise at factual statements. Therefore, priorities for further education should focus on linking threats with chick ecology, particularly because an understanding that chicks are not stationary within fenced areas is critical to the interpretation and effectiveness of current signage used to mitigate human impacts.

Description: Coastal zones are comprised of a great variety of natural ecosystems and resources and for this reason they are highly attractive for many human activities including settlement and recreational tourism. This great societal interest has resulted in rapid development and even urbanization of the coasts. Coastal tourism is still a rapidly growing part of the economy in many nations including countries along the Black Sea like Bulgaria. Increasingly, coastal areas and ecosystems are pressured by population, tourism, pollution, habitat degradation and loss, overfishing and increased hazards. This study assesses the population changes during 1934–2011 and tourist growth over 1999–2011 in the coastal zone of Bulgaria as an example of human pressure on today’s shorelines. The tourist boom over the last decade has resulted in substantial coastal population growth in Bulgaria. Results based on 2011 Census data show that population density in the zone within 10 km of the coast is 223 people per square km, while in 10–30 km and 30–60 km zones from the coast, the density is much less: 27 and 33 people per square km. Tourism has substantially increased over the recent years and it is expected to continue to grow despite the effects of global financial crisis after 2008. Coastal municipalities are also subject to major population influxes during peak vacation periods. Coastal population in summer can typically increase 20 %, but at some municipalities over 320 %. The existing facilities and infrastructure in these most crowded coastal municipalities are unable to meet this additional pressure. These peak periods often overwhelm local treatment capacity resulting in heavy impacts on natural geosystems and natural resources. Obviously, this tourism is critical to many local economies, but in order to preserve the economic benefits, we must also preserve the coastal environment that the tourists so desire. This is the challenge for coastal managers in the 21st Century.

Description: The Marine Park Prof. Luiz Saldanha, in the coast of Arrábida, is the first marine park in continental Portugal. This area is a Nature 2000 site and is considered to be a hotspot for European marine biodiversity. In 2005, the management plan of the park was implemented, ending several habitat menaces, thereby allowing an application to the LIFE—NATURE Programme. The LIFE-BIOMARES project aimed at the restoration and management of the biodiversity of the marine park through several actions. The restoration of the seagrass prairies that were completely destroyed by fishing activities and recreational boating, was one of the most challenging. It included the transplanting of seagrasses from donor populations and the germination of seagrass seeds for posterior plantation to maintain genetic diversity in the transplanted area. One of the most popular actions was the implementation of environmental friendly moorings to integrate recreational use of the area with environmental protection. Several dissemination and environmental education actions concerning the marine park and the project took place and contributed to the public increase of the park acceptance. The seabed habitats were mapped along the park and a surrounding area to 100 m depth in order to create a habitat cartography of the park and to help locate alternative fishing zones. Biodiversity assessments for macrofauna revealed seasonal variations and an effect of the protection status. Preliminary results are presented and show that the marine park regulations are having a positive effect on biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries, thereby showing that these kind of conservation projects are important to disseminate coastal conservation best practices. The Biomares project is a model project that can be followed in the implementation of marine reserves and the establishment of the Natura 2000 marine network.

Description: Coastal erosion occurs as a result of human ac tivity and natural phenomena. Coastal erosion causes significant economic and ecological problem. There is continuing serious coastal erosion along the Karasu coastline. This study reports on the process of determining the extent of the coastal erosion using satellite images from different time periods and the analysis of the risk to the environment. The change in the coastline over a 26-year period from 1987 to 2013 was determined using satellite images. In this study, significant coastline movements were detected for a 26-year period. For this study, the Karasu coastline was subdivided into 7 sections for analyses the coastal erosion risk. The risk of each section can be determined by using the classic risk. The results showed that both sides of the river outfall and the coastline have a moderate risk level with the area of the breakwater has a low risk.

Description: The aim of this study is to estimate leaf area index (LAI) in different type of plants using vegetation indices (VIs) and neural network algorithms retrieved from MODIS data. Four VI were calculated, and neural networks were built up based on MODIS surface reflectance products. Among the tested VIs, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and chlorophyll index (CI) appeared to be the best candidate indices in estimating LAI across sites with different vegetation types. The models having the highest accuracy were CI for grassland and deciduous broad leaf forest with determination coefficients (R-square above 0.70, and NDVI for crop R -square = 0.78). Neural network showed better results than VI methods except in grassland sites. The added VI information showed no significant improvement of model accuracy for the neural networks in most sites.

Description: Moisture is one of the important parameters in soil polarized spectrum. It has great significance in soil remote sensing band selection and image interpretation; it also provides the information for soil investigation and analysis on physical and chemical properties. In this paper we tested and analyzed the soil polarized spectrum with different moisture in 350 ~ 2,500 nm wavelength, to study on the relationship between soil polarized spectral data and moisture, to determine the spectral response and changes in soil moisture, and establish models between spectral data and soil moisture. We also designed a orthogonal test on the various factors that affect soil polarized spectral characteristics, in which we studied soil moisture, polarized angle, detected angle and azimuth of the various factors and their interactions. The results showed it was most significant that the soil moisture and the interaction of soil moisture and polarized angle, followed by the interaction effect of detected angle and moisture, while the polarized angle had a little impact on the soil polarized spectrum.

Description: In this paper, we intent to use the remotely sensed MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data and China’s Environment Satellite (HJ-1) data for extracting the corn cultivated area over a regional scale. The high resolution HJ-1 data was to extract corn distribution at a small scale class with Support Vector Machine (SVM). The mean Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) time series curve of corn from MODIS was derived for the reference area and validated in a larger area. The MODIS-EVI time series curve derived from the reference area instead of the MODIS-EVI time series curve derived from the study area after validation, which was taken as the standard MODIS-EVI time series curve in for generating a standard MODIS-EVI image of corn. The mean absolute distance (MAD) between the standard MODIS-EVI image of corn and the MODIS-EVI time series image was used to detect the maximum possible extent of corn distribution in the study area. The results showed that the overall accuracy of the method was 82.17 %, with commission and omission errors of 16.85 and 15.40 %, respectively; at the county level, the satellite-estimated corn area and statistical data were well correlated ( R 2  = 0.85, N  = 50) for the whole Jilin Province. It indicated that the MODIS data integrated with higher spatial resolution of HJ-1 satellite data could be utilized to enhance the extraction accuracy of corn cultivated area at a larger scale.

Description: Countries like Iran, which are geographically situated in a rather arid and warm regions, will suffer more from global warming than countries located in humid and semi-humid regions. In such environments, analyzing the variations of mountain glaciers can reveal several aspects of climate change patterns more efficiently in comparison to the other geo-indicators. The present study reports some evidence of changes for Alamkouh glacier between 1955 and 2010 based on several mediums to high-resolution satellite images. Considering that most part of the Alamkouh glacier is covered by debris and delineating its actual area is not possible, planimetric change analysis was restricted to the clean-ice regions. The object-oriented classification approach was used to estimate the clean ice areas. This technique takes into account the shapes of the features along with their spectral patterns. Results revealed that clean ice regions of Alamkouh glacier shrank since 1955 with an overall area reduction of about 59 %. Although the general observed trend is a clean ice area reduction, some advancement was detected over the period from 2000 to 2010. During 1992–2000, the maximum reduction in the clean ice area was observed (0.08 km 2 .a −1 ). However, clean ice area of the case study has partially increased about 0.028 km 2 .a −1 from 2000 to 2010. Supra-glacial lake change analysis illustrated that at the surface of the glacier, lakes have been enlarged remarkably in the past 55 years (about 4.75 times greater). In addition, clean ice area and the surface area of supra-glacial lakes oscillated in compliance with each other. The findings revealed that the maximum expansion of supra-glacial lake occurred during 1992–2000, which demonstrate the glacier maximum reduction during this period. This shrinkage in the Alamkouh glacier caused an extensive glacial lake outburst flood in Jun 2011. The results of this study agree with documented changes in other mountain glaciers located in arid and semi-arid environments and they also confirm the application of mountain glaciers in climate variations monitoring over such regions.

Description: This study examined the relative impacts of different human activities and natural resource protections on the spatial distribution of beach vegetation and related habitat features (wrack, dune succession) in New Jersey (USA). Field surveys of the 209-km shoreline categorized beach segments according to vegetation cover classes, human activities, protection measures (exclosures, beach management plans, access restrictions) and ownership status (federal, state, etc.). A partition model (classification tree) was used to confirm the relative dominance hierarchy of human actions on the distribution of beach vegetation observed, and quantitative comparisons of dominant activities were conducted using vegetation data collected on 218 transects. The spatial extent of beach vegetation was found to be severely restricted by human activities when unconstrained by resource protections. The greatest reductions were found to result from mechanical raking (−99 %), scraping (−91 %) and all-year recreational ORV use (−86 %), which were dominant on nearly 70 % of the state shoreline. Beaches containing larger areas of vegetation (〉5 m) were concentrated in areas with resource protections of various kinds (99 %), and on federal or other public parklands (68 %). Exclosures resulted in the greatest coverage of vegetation (48 % of beach surface) compared to public access restricted areas (41 %), beach management plans (31 %), government-only ORV use (31 %), and off-season recreational ORVs (15 %). Greater protection and recovery of beach vegetation and habitat is needed for species conservation and erosion protection in New Jersey and other coastal environments where these activities occur.

Description: Coastal erosion may be caused by natural causes as well as human factors. Karasu town of the city of Sakarya in Turkey which is a touristic region on the Black Sea coast has been experienced a drastic coastal erosion. In recent years, this erosion reached the threatening dimensions for the structures in the settlement. According to the temporal analyses of Landsat satellite images, the maximum erosion on the coastline was detected 100 m between 1987–2013. The results of the study show that the harbour construct on the Karasu coast has the major impact on this event. The secondary factor is that the amount of the sediment carried by the Sakarya River was decreased in time due to different reasons. To prevent the coastal erosion, a series of offshore breakwaters were planned after the failed application of groins on the coastline. In this study, temporal changes of the coastline are investigated by the Landsat satellite data and land surveys, possible reasons of the erosion are discussed and the solutions are proposed regarding the coastal structures.

Description: Accurate estimation of chlorophyll-a concentration in turbid coastal waters by means of remote sensing is challenging due to the optical complexity of these waters. We have developed a four-band quasi-analytical algorithm for assessment of chlorophyll-a concentration in coastal waters. The objectives of this study are to validate the applicability of three-band semi-analytical algorithm, quasi-analytical algorithm, and four-band quasi-analytical algorithm in estimating chlorophyll-a concentration in turbid coastal waters for MODIS sensor. These three algorithms are calibrated and evaluated against coastal evaluation datasets provided by SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System. The algorithm validation results indicate that the four-band quasi-analytical algorithm produces a superior performance to both three-band semi-analytical algorithm and quasi-analytical algorithm. By comparison, using four-band quasi-analytical algorithm produces 21.61 % uncertainty in estimating chlorophyll-a concentration from turbid coastal waters, lower than 77.90 % for three-band semi-analytical algorithm and 74.31 % for quasi-analytical algorithm, respectively. The significantly reduced uncertainty in chlorophyll-a concentration assessment is due to effectively removal of pigment-package effects and particle overlapping effects on the chlorophyll-a absorption estimation using a optical classification method. These findings imply that, provided that an atmospheric correction scheme for visible and near-infrared bands is available, the database of MODIS imagery could be used for quantitative monitoring of chlorophyll-a concentration in turbid coastal waters by four-band quasi-analytical algorithm.

Description: The impact of forest management activities on the ability of forest ecosystems to sequester and store atmospheric carbon is of increasing scientific and social concern. This is because a quantitative understanding of how forest management enhances carbon storage is lacking in most forest management regimes. In this paper two forest regimes, government and community-managed, in Kayar Khola watershed, Chitwan, Nepal were evaluated based on field data, very high resolution (VHR) GeoEye-1 satellite image and airborne LiDAR data. Individual tree crowns were generated using multi-resolution segmentation, which was followed by two tree species classification ( Shorea robusta and Other species). Species allometric equations were used in both forest regimes for above ground biomass (AGB) estimation, mapping and comparison. The image objects generated were classified per species and resulted in 70 and 82 % accuracy for community and government forests, respectively. Development of the relationship between crown projection area (CPA), height, and AGB resulted in accuracies of R 2 range from 0.62 to 0.81, and RMSE range from 10 to 25 % for Shorea robusta and other species respectively. The average carbon stock was found to be 244 and 140 tC/ha for community and government forests respectively. The synergistic use of optical and LiDAR data has been successful in this study in understanding the forest management systems.

Description: This study identifies the major Cu anomalous zones including iron oxide, argillic and phyllic alterations and lithology as the most important extractable layers from the satellite images in Khoshname area located in the western part of Tarom - Hashtjin belt as a main metallogenic belt in the NW of Iran by utilization of concentration-area (C-A) fractal model based on 216 collected stream sediment and remote sensing data. The C-A fractal model for ASTER image log-log plots indicate three Cu geochemical populations for alterations which means that the high intensity for iron oxides, argillic and phyllic commences with 199, 177 and 158, respectively, in terms of pixels’ values. With respect to the C-A log-log plot based on the stream sediment data, there are three Cu populations which indicate that Cu background and high intensive anomalies are 〈38 ppm and 〉56 ppm, respectively. The locations of high intensive Cu anomalies are situated in the SW parts of the area. To certify this, a correlation between remote sensing and geochemical data has been conducted to validate the C-A fractal model for Cu anomalies associated with alteration zones.

Description: Scattering and absorption of solar radiation by anthropogenic aerosols reduce the photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) incident on the Earth surface and the changes incident PAR can cause contradictory responses in terrestrial plants. The reduction of incident PAR is mainly varied according to the regional characteristics and forcing efficiency of aerosols. The MODIS derived atmospheric products are widely used for many such environmental investigations. In this paper a radiative transfer model is developed in cloudless clear sky condition to estimate instantaneous PAR and radiative forcing of aerosol. The estimated instantaneous PAR is validated with the ground measured (AccuPAR model LP-80) incident PAR during 2009. The Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of MODIS based incident PAR simulations was 20.09 w/m 2 and Absolute Percentage Difference (APD) was 6.9 % while the MAE of Microtops II based estimations of incident PAR was 7.5 w/m 2 and APD was 2.4 % . Inter comparison of estimations incident PAR with sun-photometer and MODIS measurements showed that the MODIS based PAR is over estimated mainly due to the under estimation of MODIS AOD over the study area. The model can generate spatial maps of instantaneous PAR and aerosol forcing efficiency. An Improved PAR map was generated (MAE 7.6 w/m 2 and APD 2.5 %) by correcting MODIS AOD based on Microtops II measurements.

Description: The satellite-derived chlorophyll-a concentration was used to measure the impact of oil contamination on marine environment after the oil spill on June 4, 2011 in the Bohai Sea. The chlorophyll-a concentration and sea surface temperature was derived from MODIS images with 38.47 % and 7.63 % uncertainty, respectively. The impacts of oil spill on aquatic environments can be divided into three stages: (1) the beginning stage (0–7 weeks), during which the toxicity of other pollutants besides the oil exceeds the tolerance of most algae in the Bohai Sea; (2) the self-repairing stage (7–51 weeks), during which the petroleum hydrocarbon concentration is diluted by the physical and chemical degradation process of aquatic ecology and petroleum hydrocarbon becomes one an important carbon source for algal growth; and (3) long-term toxic affecting stage (〉1 year). However, there is currently little knowledge about the long-term toxic effect of oil spill on the natural assemblages of marine phytoplankton. In this study, we determined that the process for delivering nutrients required for algal growth from seabed to water column is slowed by the ‘oil-packaged’ suspended particles above the seabed. These results may be helpful for oil spill response, ecological remediation, and environment monitoring.

Description: In this study we evaluate the effect of coastal re-alignment on the utilisation of coastal grasslands by staging geese. We assessed vegetation change and utilisation by geese using repeated mapping and regular dropping counts in both the restored marsh and adjacent reference sites. All measurements were started well before the actual re-alignment. In addition, we studied the effects of livestock grazing on vegetation and geese, using exclosures. The vegetation transformed from fresh grassland into salt-marsh vegetation. A relatively large proportion of the de-embanked area became covered with secondary pioneer vegetation, and the overall cover of potential food plants for geese declined. Goose utilisation had initially dropped to low levels, both in autumn and in spring, but it recovered to a level comparable to the reference marsh after ten years. Exclosure experiments revealed that livestock grazing prevented the establishment of closed swards of grass in the poorly drained lower area of the restored marsh, and thereby negatively affected goose utilisation of these areas during spring staging. Goose grazing in the restored marsh during spring showed a positive numerical response to grass cover found during the preceding growing season. (1) The value of restored salt marsh as foraging habitat for geese initially decreased after managed re-alignment but recovered after ten years. (2) Our findings support the idea that the value of foraging habitats depends largely on the cover of forage plants and that this can be manipulated by adjusting both grazing and drainage.

Description: Different classification techniques are being designed and under usage for classification of hyper spectral images. The usage of these classifiers differ for different type of hyper spectral data and application domain. The performance of these classifiers are influenced by feature preprocessing stage. In this research work we have investigated the impact of feature preprocessing using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) on classification stage. The experiment is carried out using three sets of hyperspectral data. Classifications were carried out using three different classification techniques namely Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), Constraint Energy Minimization (CEM) and Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) on the preprocessed hyperspectral data. It is observed that the impact of PCA and LDA on the classification techniques are in two aspects (a) The preprocessing techniques facilitates to achieve high classification accuracy even with less number of training features and (b) Preprocessing expedites the classification process for large data sets. Also it can be concluded that PCA outperforms LDA in case of noisy data.

Description: Forest precision classification products were the basic data for surveying of forest resource, updating forest subplot information, logging and management of forest. However, due to the diversity of stand structure, complexity of the forest growth environment, it is difficult to discriminate forest tree species using multi-spectral image. The airborne hyper-spectral images can obtain high spatial and spectral resolution imagery of forest canopy, so it may be useful for tree species level classification. The aim of this paper was to test the effective of combining spatial and spectral features in airborne hyper-spectral image classification. The CASI hyper spectral image data were acquired from Liangshui natural reserves area. First the MNF (minimum noise fraction) transform method for to reduce the hyperspectral image dimensionality and highlighting variation. Second, the grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) is used to extract the texture features of forest tree canopy. Thirdly the texture and the spectral features of forest canopy were fused to classify the trees species using support vector machine (SVM) with different kernel functions. The results showed that when using the SVM classifier, MNF and texture-based features combined with linear kernel function can achieve the best overall accuracy which was 85.92 %. It also confirmed the belief that combined the spatial and spectral information can improve the accuracy of tree species classification.

Description: To understand the absolute radiometric calibration accuracy of the HJ-A CCD-1 sensors, image from these sensors were compared to nearly simultaneously image from Landsat-7 ETM+ sensors. Although the HJ-A CCD-1 sensor has almost the same wavelength of each central band and band width as Landsat-7 ETM+ sensor, there is slightly difference in spectral response function (SRF). The impacts of SRF difference effects would produce ~2 % uncertainty in predicting reflectance of HJ-A CCD-1 sensor using Landsat-7 ETM+ sensor. The reflectance observed by satellite at top-of-atmosphere generally depends on its’ geometric conditions. The results reveal that the impacts of geometrical conditions would impact on the vicarious cross-calibration accuracy, which should be removed. The performances of cross-calibration are calibrated and validated by four image pairs collected from Yellow River Delta, China, and Qingdao City, China, at four independent times. The results indicate that the HJ-A CCD-1 sensors can be cross calibrated to the Landsat-7 ETM+ sensors to within an accuracy of 3.99 % (denoted by Relative Root Mean Square Error) of each other in all bands except band 4, which has a 6.33 % difference.

Description: The access for anadromous brown trout (Salmo trutta) to watercourses on Funen was poor due to migratory barriers for upstream moving fish. Since 1990 fish passages have been established at 192 of these obstructions. We investigated the effect of the fish passages on parr abundance (age-0) at 24 obstructions between 1999 and 2008. Parr density increased significantly in stream sections upstream of the fish passage with a typical increase of 200 to 300 % with a maximum of 500 %. Mean parr density increased from 44 to 85 individuals 100 m 2 bottom area during the study period in the streams where the fish passages were established. Parr density was unchanged in streams where the migratory barriers remained. Thus, anadromous brown trout populations can be enhanced by the establishment of fish passages in rivers with migratory obstacles, and trout production increased quickly after access to new spawning and nursery areas were opened.

Description: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between crown closure and tree density in mixed forest stands using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) reflectance values (TM 1- TM 5 and TM 7) and six vegetation indices (SR, DVI, SAVI, NDVI, TVI and NLI). In this study, multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the relationships between the crown closure and tree density (number of tree stems per hectare) using reflectance values and vegetation indices (VIs). The results demonstrated that the model that used SR and DVI had the best performances in terms of crown closure (R 2  = 0.674) and the model that used the DVI and SAVI had the best performances in terms of tree density (R 2  = 0.702). The regression model that used TM 1, TM 3 together with TM 4 showed the performances of the crown closure (R 2  = 0.610) and the regression model that used TM 1 showed the performances of the tree density (0.613). Results obtained from this research show that vegetation indices (VIs) were a better predictor of crown closure and tree density than other TM bands.

Description: A new method of remote sensing image fusion is proposed based on the second generation Curvelet transform and Dempster-Shafer (DS) evidence theory. In this paper, the remote sensing images are decomposed by the Curvelet transform to get the coefficients and optimize the high coefficients with DS evidence theory. Firstly, the high resolution and multispectral remote sensing images are decomposed by the Curvelet transform to get the Curvelet transform coefficients of all layers (Coarse, Detail and Fine scale layer). Secondly, the Coarse scale layer is used the maximum fusion rule. The Detail scale layer is used by the weighted average fusion rule. The Fine scale layer is optimized by the DS evidence theory. Get the three features of the Fine scale layer coefficients. The three features are the variance, information entropy and energy. Use the features to be some parameters belief function and the plausibility function. Then compose the mass function and get new fusion coefficients. Finally, the fused image is obtained by the inverse Curvelet transform. The experimental results show that the new algorithm can more effectively than wavelet and other traditional fusion algorithms such as HIS, brovey in the remote sensing image fusion.

Description: Analysis of urban sprawl is an issue that has been continuously attracting attention in the planning and research community. Τhis paper presents the results of an analysis of the growth of the city of Rethymno during the 1997–2010 time period. Rethymno is a city in the island of Crete in Greece with population of about 35,000 people, in which developed land has expanded at a rate that is double the growth of the population during the study period. A qualitative analysis was first performed to identify growth patterns in the different parts of the city, how these are related to planning regulations and the extent of cohesiveness of the development. A logistic regression model was estimated using various variables influencing the expansion of the built up area. Variables such as slope, distance from main roads, distance from the University, distance from coastline, as well as variables describing the proximity to other developed areas were used as independent variables in the logistic regressions. Planning constraints with respect zoning were also considered. The accuracy/goodness of fit of the simulation results were also tested using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. The results revealed high (performance) accuracy, which can support the applicability of the proposed method in urban sprawl modeling. Once the equations were estimated they were applied using data from 2010 to identify future trends of urbanization. The methodology adopted in this study can result in a tool that can be of use to urban planning authorities in identifying areas of future urban growth and therefore, adopt zoning policies encouraging or discouraging growth in these areas according to the sustainability objectives of the local community.

Description: Classification of Mobile Mapping LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data is a challenge in the research community since the day when laser scanner system were integrated and mounted on vehicles for collection of 3D data in urban environment. The approach proposed here for classifying LiDAR data is analogous to the process followed for classifying data from satellite images. Pixel based and segmentation based methods have been employed in past for classifying images obtained from satellites. These methods were based on spectral properties of objects present in the images. But for Mobile mapping LiDAR data this approach has been applied and tested for the first time. The properties of this data are completely different from that of satellite images. So even if the basic approach remains the same, many changes have to be made in the entire classification process. The paper here aims to propose the basic procedure of using pixel-wise classification on dense 3D LiDAR data.

Description: The study uses a rather unusual method, dendrochronology, to investigate the growth and survival of Atriplex portulacoides L. and Artemisia maritima L. on salt marshes at two field sites on the Dutch North Sea barrier islands of Terschelling and Ameland. By providing information on longevity of these typical salt-marsh shrubs, dendrochronology offers an indirect way to investigate the influence of management regime – grazing in this case – on marsh quality and areal extent. Diminishment of salt marshes is a continuing concern in the northern Netherlands. The two shrub species studied here, A. portulacoides and A. maritima , are common to salt marshes. With their extensive roots and branches, they facilitate sedimentation and stabilize salt marshes. Using dendrochronology, this study found that annual growth rings could be identified to determine shrub age and growth. In A. portulacoides these rings took the form of a narrow band of terminal parenchyma. In A. maritima they were made up of unlignified marginal parenchyma together with higher vessel density at the beginning of the growing season. Growth rings indicated that intense grazing was clearly detrimental to the survival of A. portulacoides at the Terschelling site. However, grazing facilitated survival of A. maritima at the Ameland site by reducing light and nutrient competition from grasses. No growth trends could be found, however, as the lifespan for both species is short and many other influences on shrub growth could be identified.

Description: Present paper focuses on the development of a planning model for upgradation of rural roads keeping Pradhan Mantry Gram Sadak Yoyna (PMGSY) program as the base of this model. Database for the PMGSY roads of Gandevi block of Navasari district in Gujarat state is prepared which includes data like village data, road network & traffic data. Core network is prepared for all the villages under study which can be defined as rural network required for providing ‘basic accesses to all villages. i.e. all villages are connected nearby market centre and essential places from all weather roads. Planning model is classified in two phases. First phase is the network planning and the second phase is upgradation of roads. For the network planning utility values of the villages is calculated by using Delphi technique and on the basis of that alternative routes are decided. For the upgradation of existing roads, Pavement Condition Index (PCI) value of each road is determined and based on these values upgradation of roads are priorities. The rural road network planning methodology for PMGSY roads based on the accessibility concept is presented in this paper and implemented using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology.

Description: A new dune area was constructed by beach and foreshore nourishments along the Delfland Coast in the southwestern Netherlands. The new area is intended to be a compensation for losses of existing high quality dunes in nearby areas, due to the use/construction of Maasvlakte 2, the new harbour extension of Rotterdam opening in 2013. The target habitats for compensation include dry grey dunes and moist dune valley grassland. Due to the habitat type, the nourished material had to have a special character. The nourishment was carried out according to a special design and initial development of the new area had to follow certain pathways. In order to meet the compensation requirements in time. Careful monitoring is done to assess whether development of the new habitat is taking place in the direction of the desired target habitats. This paper reports on the construction of the new area and on the first years of development and monitoring. The monitoring mainly concerns development of the abiotic landscape elements, geomorphology, groundwater and soils. The lessons learned from this area are discussed in the light of the development of other recent young nature areas in the sandy Dutch delta coast. This gives new insights for coastal management in general in the context of building with nature.

Description: On 26 March 2003, the Tokyo Bay Renaissance Promotion Council, composed of six central government agencies and eight regional government bodies endorsed an “Action Plan for Tokyo Bay Renaissance”. Under the action plan, the monitoring campaign of bay environment has been started in 2008. Dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, and temperature were monitored in sea area, chemical oxygen demand, temperature, and discharge were monitored in river area. These data sets show a detailed snap shot of hypoxic water occurrence in the inner part of the bay. A series of environment maps for Tokyo Bay have been published for sharing the data. For example, in 2012, goby census has been implemented to show importance of biological – environmental relations. Participants of the census are 240, and the more than 8,000 data of fished gobies has been corrected. It clearly shows relation between growth and special environment variation. From just few trial of the campaigns are not enough to answer all questions, nevertheless, these trials shows its importance and efficiency on bay environment monitoring and management as one of the ICM tools.

Description: The importance of tourism and the evident impacts from coastal overdevelopment are two realities that coastal managers have to face. Coastal tourism in the Ravenna province started in the end of 19th century and has grown immensely over the last 60 years, stimulated by a combination of rapid urban built-up and increasing in beach holiday attraction. This paper presents preliminary results on evolution of coastal dunes focusing on tourism development and impacts arising from it. Determination of spatial and temporal dunes settings was performed within a GIS environment. A multitemporal investigation provided a description of coastal dunes transformation with emphasis on historical aspects of landscape changes. Marina di Ravenna was selected as a remarkably representative example illustrating the highest level of tourism development pressure on the coastal dunes. The study shows that extensive stretches of coastal dunes have been removed, mainly due to intensive construction of beach establishments. Total loss of coastal dunes in Marina di Ravenna was estimated about 18 ha over almost 60 years, an equivalent to 28 football pitches. The results reveal that the relation between tourism development and coastal dune evolution in Ravenna coastal area is evident, and requires more detailed investigation at different scales, combining other coastal factors to the analysis.

Description: Cultural ecosystem services are generally understood to be the non-material value that can be gained through ecosystems such as a sense of well-being, reflection and spiritual enhancement. These are often linked with a sense of place, culture, heritage and identity. The assessment of cultural ecosystem services, particularly in the marine environment is an inherently complex and difficult task, because they often involve making value judgments which can be hard to quantify. Methods applied to determining the value of these services are often focused on their financial value. Whilst methodologies have been developed to assess the non-material importance of these services, this paper argues that Q methodology provides a highly appropriate way of examining unmeasurable values by being able to convert qualitative, subjective data into quantitative information. The research presents two data sets derived from Q methodology which examined stakeholder views of the cultural values from two marine protected areas; the Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, Canada and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Chichester Harbour, UK. The relevance of using Q methodology as a valuation mechanism in this type of study is examined and justified; whilst highlighting the advantages of tackling a subject of values and intangibility, highly qualitative information, with a structured, semi-automated and primarily quantitative methodology. The findings show that the case-study areas hold three predominant ‘factors’ of value for its stake holders. These include the protected areas; as a place of care for each other and oneself through the natural world; a place of spirituality; and as a place of freedom and refuge. The paper strongly argues for the use of Q methodology in such a study, which ultimately helps to bring about a depth of information that arguably traditional methods are incapable of in the same capacity.

Description: This paper highlights the biological and geological importance of England’s coastal soft cliff resource, and the coastal processes that sustain their conservation value. Since publication of the Maritime Cliff and Slope Habitat Action Plan in 1999 and designation of Special Areas of Conservation for the Annex I habitat ‘Vegetated sea cliffs of the Atlantic and Baltic coasts’ there has been a legal and policy obligation to conserve and enhance the quality of cliff environments, their habitats and species and their dependence on geomorphology at different scales. Although the development of strategic coastal planning in England now includes a better appreciation of coastal processes and cliff recession, tensions inevitably arise where properties and infrastructure are affected by coastal change, with soft cliffs at greatest risk of landslides and marine erosion. Rather than always using hard engineering approaches to stabilise soft cliffs, there is an increasing appreciation of the need to make use of adaptation for built assets through the planning system and working towards better understanding of the role of eroded sediment in provision of ecosystem services.

Description: Of the 52 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, 12 are separated from the main islands at high tide. Within these 12 sites, only one of which (St Kilda) has any human inhabitants, there are a further eight islands or groups of islands more than 2 km apart, so that within the Outer Hebrides, there are - for practical purposes - 20 separate offshore designated sites requiring survey, monitoring and management input. This presents challenges of resource allocation and logistics for the small team of conservation staff based within the two Outer Hebrides offices of Scottish Natural Heritage, Scotland’s statutory nature conservation agency. There are also challenges for the other agencies and managers involved in these sites, which in some cases allow the pooling of resources, but in others, lead to new sets of problems with conservation implications. These problems are discussed and reviewed with regard to future management and the obligations placed on Scottish Natural Heritage.

Description: The coast of Holy Island, situated off the Isle of Anglesey, Wales, is recognised for its geological, biological, cultural, aesthetic and recreational values by multiple conservation designations. The ecological functions of geology, climate, soil, biota, human history and current management in shaping this landscape are outlined. Much of the site is now managed by the RSPB as their “South Stack” nature reserve. The challenge of addressing the sometimes conflicting objectives of diverse interests in an iconic landscape is described. Solutions have developed through monitoring of key features and understanding of ecological relationships and through close liaison between local managers and the various communities of interest. In the process pioneering approaches have been developed which are now accepted practice elsewhere.

Description: This research considers the smoothness prior and four discontinuity adaptive Markov Random Field (DA-MRF) models to deal with discontinuity adaptation for the contextual fuzzy c-means (FCM) classifier. They were applied to classify AWiFS and LISS-III images from the Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2 satellites. A fraction image from the high resolution LISS-IV image has been used as reference data. Quality of the classified AWiFS and LISS-III images was assessed by means of an image to image fuzzy error matrix (FERM). The classification accuracy increased by 1.5 to 6 % as compared to the conventional FCM. Classification accuracy increased with 0.5 to 8 % when comparing Resourcesat-2 with Resourcesat-1 data. The study showed that DA3-MRF model with FCM performed better than other MRF models, showing an improved overall classification accuracy as well as preserving the edges at boundaries.

Description: The satellite derived meteorological parameters are quite useful for understanding the genesis of a tropical cyclone. This paper analyses some of the characteristic features of the tropical cyclone (TC) PHET using satellite derived meteorological observations, and numerical model simulations while investigating the performance of various cumulus parameterization schemes using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modeling system. The genesis of the TC is primarily discussed using the observed meteorological parameters including the outgoing long-wave radiation, quantitative precipitation estimate (or rainfall), sea surface temperature, relative vorticity and upper tropospheric humidity. These satellite derived parameters show suitable meteorological condition for the development and propagation of the TC. The qualitative analysis of WRF simulated results indicates that Kain-Fritsch cumulus scheme (Kain and Fritsch, 1990 and 1993 ; Kain, 2004 ) performs relatively better in predicting various parameters in relation to the genesis and propagation of PHET.

Description: The general tendency of mapping groundwater resource using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques involve assigning higher weightage to geomorphology. But this cannot be used as a thumb rule everywhere, especially an area where many ductile and brittle zones are prevalent. The influence of texture and structure of sheared rocks might play a control over retaining and permitting groundwater to flow. Attur valley is characterized by the presence of many shear zones and faults and hence the rocks are highly fissile within the shear zones. The present study tries to establish a new ranking and weightage scheme and hence a new spatial model for groundwater resource mapping in shear zone area like Attur Valley. This spatial model can be verified with field data such as water level data, pump test and resistivity data.

Description: It has been suggested that studies of geomorphological systems should identify potential system feedbacks, determine their direction of influence, and assess their relative importance. In this paper we show how a core set of processes and feedback loops can be distilled from existing literature on rock coast morphodynamics. The structure has been represented using Causal Loop Diagrams and a methodology to estimate the strength of a single feedback loop is presented. The backwearing erosion rate (cliff horizontal erosion) has been found to be controlled by at least four feedback loops; three balancing (cliff toe wave energy depletion, ground-water pore pressure diminution and cliff deposit protection) and one positive loop (abrasion enhancement). The downwearing erosion rate (vertical erosion) has been found to be controlled by at least three balancing feedback loops (weathering limited, shear depletion, cover-protection). Mean sea level directly influences the downwearing rate, through the water depth relative to the wave base, and indirectly influences the backwearing erosion rate through the wave energy dissipation that determines the amount of energy reaching the cliff toe. The offshore wave non-linearity parameter is proposed to capture the complex interaction between waves and shore platform geometries. The strength of the cliff toe energy depletion loop is assessed by reasoning on its causal pathway and found to be O(−10 −10 to −10 −4 ) for poorly lithified rock coasts. By understanding how the individual and overall feedback strengths are influenced by different future environmental and human intervention scenarios we could provide better assessment at the time scales needed for coastal management.

Description: The present study was carried out with an aim to assess two semianalytical algorithms, Garver–Siegel–Maritorena (GSM) and Generalized IOP (GIOP) and their association with Inherent Optical Properties (IOP) such as phytoplankton absorption coefficient (a ph ), detritus absorption (a dg ) and particulate backscattering (b bp ). Ten years of Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer-Aqua (MODISA) data was processed to retrieve Chlorophyll_ a (Chl_ a ) from GSM and GIOP. Subsequently the R rs from MODISA was inverted to compute a ph , a dg and b bp . Both the algorithms showed similar trend at an annual scale. However in magnitude, Chl_ a from GSM was three times higher than that from GIOP. Further the Chl_ a retrieved from GSM was closer to in situ values. The variability of a ph and a dg was similar at long-term time scale. The peak observed in variability of a ph and a dg during pre-monsoon was due to the occurrence of bloom whereas the peak during monsoon was due to nutrient discharge from river. The observed peak in b bp during monsoon can be also attributed to the increasing concentration of total particulate matter from river as well as from bottom re-suspension. The poor association of IOP with Chl_ a explains the limited accuracy of satellite retrieved Chl_ a from these semianalytical algorithms. Hence it is require generating IOP at the regional scale and tuning the semianalytical model for better accuracy.

Description: Experience with both analog and digital systems show that laboratory calibration is not necessarily valid in airborne conditions; whereas the advantages of field calibration are that the entire imaging system is calibrated and not alone the optical part; and the parameters determined are valid in operational airborne conditions (Cramer 2004 , 2006 ; Honkavaara et al. International Archives of Photogrammetry”, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 36, 2008a , b ). The result of calibration and testing is dependent on a number of permanent system factors and systematic and random components associated with camera, imaging system, flight, atmosphere, object and data post-processing (Honkavaara et al. International Archives of Photogrammetry”, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 36, 2008a , b ) those affect the quality of the raw images produced by the sensors. It is therefore important to calibrate the aerial or satellite imaging sensors in specially designed fields so that the performance of the entire chain is assessed taking into consideration all the influencing factors. In addition to imaging sensors, ISO 19159 for ‘Calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery sensors and data’ also incorporates airborne laser scanners, imaging radar and water borne sonar systems (Kresse 2010 ). The task of developing uniform practices and standards for field calibration and testing has been taken up by several international working groups but hardly any permanent multipurpose test field like the one in Sjökulla, Finland with facilities for radiometric and spatial resolution calibration and networks of targeted benchmarks for geometric calibration at large, medium and small imaging scales is available. National Remote Sensing Centre’s (NRSC) interest is in sensor’s performance to solve the question of whether the technology will be able to fulfill present standards of map compilation for disaster management support, urban planning & development, cadastral resurvey, utility mapping, corridor mapping for canal, road, rail alignment, etc. those need very accurate data for its effective usage. With this objective a multi-sensor calibration field, first of its kind in India, designed with targets for geometric calibration, radiometric calibration, spatial resolution and height accuracy calibration is under construction in Shadnagar about 50 km away from Hyderabad that would serve aerial sensors and very high resolution satellite sensors better than 1 m.

Description: This paper assesses the capability of hyperspectral remote sensing to estimate chlorophyll a (Chl a), chlorophyll b (Chl b), and chlorophyll a + b (Chl a + b) concentration at cherry leaf scale using a variety of spectral variables during the growth season. A field experiment was conducted in cherry orchard. The leaf reflectance spectra of cherry plants were acquired within 350–1050 nm wavelengths. A variety of spectral variables were mathematically computed based on the leaf spectra and transformation of reflectance spectra. The relationships between all of spectral variables and chlorophyll concentration were discussed. Estimating Chl a, Chl b, and Chl a + b concentration by stepwise linear regression method and curve estimation method were carried out. Results demonstrated that the best spectral variable for prediction of chlorophyll concentration was the new spectral variable (the first derivative of log (1/R 741 ) and D 751 /D 511 ), with the root mean square error prediction (RMSEP) of 4.802 mg L −1 for Chl a concentration, 1.659 mg L −1 for Chl b concentration, and 6.419 mg L −1 for Chl a + b concentration. It should be noted that spectral variables such as D 715 /D 705 , EBFR, D 705 /D 722 , and BND showed a good performance with the RMSEP of 5.768, 7.838, 12.146, and 14.437 mg L −1 for Chl a concentration, 1.795, 1.985, 1.765, and 3.164 mg L −1 for Chl b concentration, and 7.935, 11.49, 17.99, and 21.79 mg L −1 for Chl a + b concentration respectively. Further investigation is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of such techniques on other orchard varieties or at the canopy level.

Description: The forest conservation organizations in Turkey have recommended changing the classical forest management systems to protect forest biodiversity since 2006. This study discusses the spatio-temporal analysis of forest management activities and land use changes in Yalova Forest Ecosystems, Turkey. We focused on the Yalova City because (a) it is located in a highly urbanized area, northwestern Turkey, (b) forest is a governmental ownership and producing of many non-wood forest product and wildlife species, (c) governmental organizations are encouraged to be decreased clear-cuts to protect forest ecosystems; (d) GIS databases are available in Yalova; (e) Yalova Forestry Administration has a membership of the Mediterranean Model Forest Network in 2011, and (f) many new forest policies will be developed in Turkey after the membership of the model forest . This study used forest management plans of Yalova Forest during 1971–2008 periods and analyzed data in geographic information system (GIS). Results showed that the rate of forest area in the Yalova steadily increased from 53.4 % in 1971 to 61.2 % to 62.5 % between 1994 and 2008 respectively.

Description: 3D space-time phase unwrapping is a major problem in many disciplines including SAR interferometry, where elevation models and displacement measurements can be obtained after phase unwrapping and removing the ambiguity modulo 2π. The unwrapping of these phases can be performed in two different approaches, the first is to place the differential phases in the 2D plane and the second approach is to unwrap the phase taking into account the phase discontinuity in the time series. The latter quantifies the space-time deformation. In this context, we propose a strategy of 3D phase unwrapping which focuses on two methods: the first one is based on locating and tracking the unwrapping path of the best quality three-dimensional factor and the second method enables to unwrap the phase voxels regardless of the path avoiding the lines and planes cut. The proposed strategy has been tested on a series of simulated interferograms to show the use of voxel phase unwrapping 3D versus the 2D unwrapping (pixel to pixel temporally). It is then applied to the differential interferogram generated from a series of ERS1/ERS2 radar images acquired over a region of southern Algeria affected by the problem of land subsidence and the presence of scalable tectonic faults.

Description: The co-registration of panchromatic and multispectral images is an important task to obtain a good pan sharpened images. Generally, co-registration can be realized by using image-based or geometry-based methods. The geometry-based method necessitates the understanding and the modelling of the imaging process. This paper describes a method for co-registration of panchromatic and multispectral images from ALSAT-2A the first high resolution Algerian satellite. This method, based on the analysis of the metadata provided by the considered sensor, uses the time dependant collinearity condition for rigorous camera modelling. Three experiments, based on ALSAT-2A images, are performed. The first experiment deals with calculating the exterior orientation parameters (EOP) using the panchromatic image and applying them for georeferencing the multispectral image. In the second experiment; the panchromatic image is georeferenced by applying the model EOP calculated from the multispectral image. The third experiment consists in using both images in a bundle adjustment procedure for a higher accuracy. Sub pixel positioning accuracy can be obtained using the model calculated using the panchromatic image only.

Description: Urban vegetation can help decrease Land surface temperature (LST) to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects. The relationship between LST and urban vegetation amount has been extensively documented. However, few studies have examined the relationship between LST and urban vegetation configuration and particularly whether the relationship changes across scales. In this study, LST in Changchun, China was obtained from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and then correlated to urban vegetation amount and configuration information derived from high-spatial-resolution SPOT satellite data to uncover the relationship between urban vegetation configuration and LST. These results suggest that not only by increasing the amounts of urban vegetation, but also by optimizing their spatial pattern of urban vegetation can decrease LST. Given a fixed amount of urban vegetation, LST can be significantly decreased or increased by different configuration of urban vegetation. Besides the relationship between LST and urban vegetation configuration is complex and scale dependant and spatial scales should be considered when we try to explore the relationship between them. These findings can deepen the understanding of their interactions between LST and urban vegetation and provide useful information for urban planners about how to arrange urban vegetation at the landscape level to improve urban thermal environment.

Description: Satellite imagery enables rapid data collection and assessment for several earth and environmental sciences. However, the obtained raw imagery cannot be used directly for spatial data collection and assessment and should be further processed for geometric distortions. The usefulness and reliability of the data obtained from satellite images heavily relies on the geometric correction process and it can be applied through either parametric or non-parametric methods. Parametric methods require physical sensor model parameters which are generally available only to the vendor. The Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs) supplied by several vendors provide global geometric correction, however they are usually available for specific high resolution imagery systems. Other polynomials methods provide geometric corrections locally but applicable for nearly all satellite imagery systems. Depending on the degree of the employed polynomial, the topography, the distribution and the quality of the control points, local geometric corrections could provide lower misfits at GCPs (Ground Control Points) while they might produce very large misfits at ICP (Independent Check Points). In particular, when the available number of GCPs is limited and they are poorly distributed over the image area. In this study, 2D and 3D Affine functions with covariance constraints are introduced to improve the geometric correction when the available GCP are of limited accuracy and poorly distributed. The efficiency of the proposed method was numerically shown in two applications. The results show that the proposed method provides a compromise between the local and global misfits without using any ICP coordinates and enables robust and efficient geometric correction of satellite imagery which lacks a precise RPC model such as TUBİTAK RASAT satellite.

Description: A terrain-following ocean model is implemented for simulating three-dimensional tidal and residual circulations in the Gulf of Khambhat and its adjacent oceans on the west coast of India. The model is forced with time varying tidal levels and momentum fluxes at the western and southern boundaries. Simulated tidal levels and currents compare well with the observation at tide gauge and current-meter stations. Estimated residual circulation in the region has several notable features that include strong southward along channel flow inside the gulf, northwestward propagating coastal boundary jet currents parallel the 60 m isobaths, southward slope currents, alongshore coastal currents on the southeastern flank of the shelf and a number of meso-scale eddies. All these features of residual circulation are captured well by the satellite imagery of Chlorophyll concentration mapped in the month of March, the period when tide plays dominant role on the control of net circulation in the region.

Description: Conservation and management of Sundarban mangrove forest is difficult chiefly due to inaccessibility and hostile condition. Remote sensing serves as an important tool to provide up-to date baseline information which is the primary requirement for the conservation planning of mangroves. In this study, supervised classification by maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) has been used to classify LANDSAT TM and LANDSAT ETM satellite data. This algorithm is used for computing likelihood of unknown measurement vector belonging to unknown classes based on Bayesian equation. Image spectra for various mangrove species were also generated from hyperspectral image. During field visits, GPS locations of five dominant mangrove species with appreciable distribution were taken and image spectra were generated for the same points from hyperion image. The result of this classification shows that, in 1999 total mangrove forest accounted for 55.01 % of the study area which has been reduced to 50.63 % in the year 2010. Avicennia sp . is found as most dominating species followed by Excoecaria sp. and Phoenix sp. but the aerial distribution of Avicennia sp. , Bruguiera sp . and Ceriops sp. has reduced. In this classification technique the overall accuracy and Kappa value for 1999 and 2010 are 80 % and 0.77, 85.71 % and 0.81 respectively.

Description: The reconstruction of environmental conditions allows us to categorize an area before it has suffered disturbances or even completely disappeared. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the natural conditions of the Guanarteme dune system (Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain) before it disappeared, focusing on studying its processes, landforms and vegetation cover. To this end, both primary sources and bibliographical references have been used as the basis of a description for the environmental state of this system between the 15th century and the middle of the 20th century, when the system was considered extinct. The different shapes and forms of the dunes over the centuries have enabled us to study the system evolution: its landforms have changed both in shape and number, as has the volume of sediments. This variation becomes obvious when we study the appearance of the system at the different dates of analysis. These changes are linked to the aeolian sediment dynamics, which are fairly stable from the 15th century until the last third of the 19th century, when a large amount of sediment in circulation was observed together with the shift of large aeolian landforms.

Description: In this paper, an attempt has been made to derive the tasselled cap coefficients manually following the rigorous mathematical computations for the three-band Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) data. Considering ten DMC images of same season, it has been found that the first two transformation components, namely brightness and greenness can capture on an average 94.44 % of the three band variance of the DMC image. The coefficients of TC transformation equations for DMC image were derived considering the above mentioned ten DMC images. For the application purpose the TC images were applied to classify the forest types of the New Forest area of UK. For the comparison purpose, the tasselled cap images generated after the automated transformation of the Landsat 7 ETM+ image of the same area were considered to classify the forest types. A series of statistical intra-image and inter-image comparisons were conducted to find out the intra and inter-relationships between the brightness and greenness images obtained from the two different sensors. Finally, the accuracies of both the classified images were assessed based on the field collected GPS data. It was estimated that the overall accuracies of the classified DMC and ETM+ images were 77.44 % and 81.43 % respectively.

Description: This study was undertaken the use of course and moderate spatial resolution remote sensing data to assess the forest degradation in the Peninsular Malaysia. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery was used as coarse spatial resolution data, while Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper + (ETM + ) imagery was used as moderate spatial resolution to compare the accuracy. Geometric and radiometric correction and re-sampling were performed in pre-processing to enhance the analysis and results. Canopy fractional cover was used as an approach to assess the forest degradation in this study. Then, an optimum vegetation index was selected to apply on canopy fractional cover to enhance the detection of forest canopy damage. At the same time, accuracy assessment for the approach was referred to the location of Neobalanocarpus Heimii and correlate with global evapotranspiration rate. The forest degradation analysis was also applied and compared for all of the states in the Peninsular Malaysia. In conclusion, Landsat ETM + imagery obtained higher accuracy compare to MODIS using canopy fractional cover approach for forest degradation assessment, and can be more broadly applicable to use for forest degradation investigation.

Description: Monitoring of river width and centerline is one of the most important activities in river engineering. Changes in the width and center line can be attributed to several reasons and monitoring these changes can be conveniently achieved with the aid of remote sensing images. In this study, digital image processing techniques have been implemented using the image processing tool-box available in MATLAB for studying temporal variations of width and centerline of the river Brahmaputra in its 300 Km reach in the state of Assam, India. The current study uses relatively high resolution imageries acquired from the LANDSAT series of satellites. Apart from the LANDSAT imageries, the low resolution imageries acquired by MODIS program is also used in order to see the variation in the obtained results. The evaluation of the results shows that the digital image processing technique is very handy and can be applied to obtain the centerline and width of a river. The evaluation also shows that the low resolution image can also be used for obtaining centerline of a river. However, it may give erroneous result when width of the river is narrow or very large.

Description: The aim of this study is twofold. First, it explores the local discourses of poverty and well-being in a fishing community in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Second, the study examines the several constraints that fishers face for secure and sustainable livelihoods. The assessment used the sustainable livelihoods framework as analytical approach. The study concluded that poverty and marginalization in this fishing community is closely linked with institutional and social factors rather than to economics issues. The most severe constraints observed were corruption in the allocation of fishing licenses and permits, social exclusion and marginalization of new settlers and domestic violence associated with alcoholism and drug addictions. The current discourse that explains poverty exclusively in economic terms is discussed largely and confronted with empirical evidence. Finally, the study emphasizes the necessity to implement a marine protected area in the region, with the aim to preserve the marine resources as well as to establish a normative framework which guarantees transparency and justice in the resources allocation.

Description: This paper explores the impact of erosion and restoration measures on habitat development and on wave damping by a small salt marsh nestled alongside a dike on the Wadden island of Terschelling. The aim is to advance knowledge about the benefits and possible side-effects of salt-marsh restoration. Analysis of a time series of aerial photographs from 1944 to 2010 indicates that the salt marsh decreased steadily in size after maintenance of accretion works was terminated. In the western part of the marsh, which is accessible to sheep, vegetation is low (5–15 cm) and dominated by Salicornia europaea and by Spartina anglica . In the most intensively grazed parts, vegetation is very scarce. The eastern, inaccessible part of the salt marsh is covered by dense patches of the shrubby perennial Atriplex portulacoides and Spartina anglica (15–25 cm in height). SWAN wave models show that wave height at this location is significantly affected by the areal extent of the salt marsh as well as by the vegetation. High or dense vegetation are in the models nearly as effective in damping waves (with an initial height of 0.15 and 0.5 m) as widening the salt-marsh area by 350 m. A low density of low plants, as observed in the grazed part of the marsh, has almost no wave-damping effect. Even under conditions of sea level rise, a broader salt marsh vegetated with high plants significantly affects modelled wave height. Therefore, salt-marsh restoration is an adaptation measure worth exploring, though an array of effect types must be considered.