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Serbian Tertiary ultrapotassic province is part of widespread but not voluminous basaltic magmatism in Serbia. Two principal groups of ultrapotassic rocks are recognized; the lamproite affinity group (LAG) and the kamafugite affinity group (KAG). My results demonstrate three dominant low-pressure evolutional processes: magma mixing and fractional crystallization, analcimization and heteromorphism. The two suites of ultrapotassic rocks show large ranges of Sr and Nd isotopic values but a restricted variation of Pb isotopes. LAG is characterized by wide ranges of Sr and Nd isotopes (87Sr/86Sri 0.70735- 0.71299, 143Nd/144Ndi 0.51251-0.51216). KAG is isotopically homogeneous with a limited range of Sr-Nd isotopes (87Sr/86Sri 0.70599-0.70674, 143Nd/144Ndi 0.51263-0.51256). The Pb isotope compositions of both groups are similar (206Pb/204Pb 18.581-18.832, 207Pb/204Pb 15.624-15.696 and 208Pb/204Pb 38.744-38.987), and fall within the pelagic sediment field resembling Mesozoic flysch sediments from the Vardar ophiolitic composite suture zone. Highly variable Sr and Nd isotopic signatures of primitive-LAG rocks correlate with REE fractionation and enrichment of the HFSE. I explain this correlation using vein+wall-rock melting model, invoking the presence of different metasomatic domains (veins with phlogopite, Cpx and F-apatite) that are out of isotopic equilibrium with the peridotite wall rock. Relatively uniform Sr and Nd isotopic data of KAG rocks, similar trace element patterns and small but regular variations of HFSE ratios, indicate different degrees of melting of a relatively homogeneously metasomatized mantle source. Geochemical modelling implies the role of phlogopite, apatite and Ti-oxide in their mantle source.
The present work is a paleolimnological orientated approach to refine and improve the indicator ability of freshwater ostracods from Holocene and Late glacial deposits in northeast Germany. The thesis follows two different approaches, one utilizes quantitative paleoenvironmental analysis, while the other evaluates ecological investigations of living specimens to extend the potential indicator group. For the first time quantitative ostracod analysis are carried out for a lacustrine basin (lake Krakower See) and a near-shore locality (Pudagla lowland) in the study area. The ecological investigation of living ostracods comprises 96 localities. The evaluation focused on environmental variables, which explain significantly the species composition. A canonical correspondence analysis identified at least four environmental parameters - water temperature, conductivity, pH-value, and mean water depth – which have an effect on ostracod assemblages. An extended analysis, which included only a subset of lake sites, revealed also that the former three environmental parameters affect the ostracod lake fauna, whereas the water temperature is the dominant factor. A temperature-transfer function could be regressed and calculated from the given trainingset by a weighted average model. These estimates can now be use in future paleolimnological investigations in northeast Germany to quantify the paleotemperature.
Recent geochemical and mineralogical alteration processes in tropical coastal sediments of Vietnam
(2006)
The dissertation contains two main parts: (i) Syn-sedimentary hydrodynamic processes & relationship with elemental distribution, clay matter, (ii) Short-term mineral alteration during early diagenes. Samples were taken from the uppermost one metre (<50 year old in RRD, < 300 y old in south central VN). In part one, three principal hydrodynamic factors can be revealed based on End-Member Modelling Algorithm (EMMA), for the polymodal grain-size distribution patterns in coastline of VN (i) Accumulation factor: accumulation of terrigenous sediments linked with a grain size separation (distance dependence), (ii) Erosion factor: synsedimentary erosion by wave activities, (iii) Aeolian factor: deposition from neighbour sand bar by wind (typically only for low sedimentation rate, like in South Central Coast but not to detect in RRD). Distributions of clay matter and chemical elements in the coastal sediments in Vietnam are strongly influenced by hydrodynamic forces (distance from the coastline). In part two, particle-wise analysis by TEM allowed to determined four main mixed layer series: di-Vermiculite/Smectite-ml, Kaolinite/ Expandable-ml, Illite/Smectite-ml, Chlorite/Saponite-ml. Three principal mineral alteration processes can be detected in coastal sediments during early diagenesis: Dissolution, Smectitization, Kaolinitization, based on XRD (CSD, peak area) & TEM-EDX (particle morphology, chemical formula, polytype, particle frequency). Dissolution process of clay matter is typically in the coastal alkaline condition. It is a function of diagenetic time. Dissolution begins with a higher degree of dislocation and is followed by step-wise delamination & dissolution of the first stacks Smectitization (mirrored in diVS-ml series) alters mica-like structures (illite, dioctahedral vermiculite) to smectitic structures (Beidellite, Montmorillonite). Smectitization process occurs in group-wise layer by layer transforming mechanism (mica-like layer to smectitic layer). Each step is indicated by a gauss-like distribution of the octahedral layer charge with K as trigger. Kaolinitization of KE series alters smectitic structure (beidellite, smectitic KE-ml) to kaolinitic structure (kaolinitic KE-ml, kaolinite) "interlayer by interlayer" transformation of KE-ml series is comparable to kaolinitization mechanism discussed by Dudek et al. (2006).OH- groups in ambient could be the trigger. Mangroves biota influences the sediments in two main pathways: Nutrients supply & trapping function (clay matter, heavy metals)Interaction of active root-layer: intensification of dissolution, smectitization & kaolinitization: uptake of K, Na by mangrove root is possible trigger Human activities like shrimp cultivation have stopped the influences of the former active roots.Besides, erosion process related to water discharge gives rise to dispersion of clay species & heavy metals => more toxic for ecosystem.
The non-natural substances in commonly used UV protection creams such as TiO2, are known to have a photocatalytic side effect, which is very harmful to human skin. This study presents some properties of clays and clays minerals concerning UV protection potential, which can be very helpful for the development of new UV protection cream generation. Clays and clay minerals are demonstrated that they have potential to absorb UV-radiation. The structures of clay particles in cream were shown to be dependent on the layer charge of clay minerals. The total amount of Fe2C>3 in chemical composition of clay plays a key role in determining the UV-absorption ability of the clay matter. Moreover, the UV-absorption ability also depends on the expandable or non- expandable property of the clay. The studies were also performed on the mixtures of wool-wax-alcohol cream and nanosuspension obtained by the extraction of fungi mass Ganoderma pfeifferi by using plantacare together with clay. The combination of clays and nanosuspension increased its UV-absorption ability. The skin model test was performed in vivo in mouse ears with skin flora Escherichia coli and infectious bacteria Staphylococcus aureus in order to determine the effects of cream samples on skin under UV irradiation and skin infection. From the results of characterization of clays and clay minerals properties in UV protection cream, this study also brings some ideas about products designing.
Mind the gap: Information gaps and bridging options in assessing in-situ conservation achievements
(2008)
The biodiversity crisis has gained political attention on a global level. The “2010 Target” of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010. In order to achieve this, a network of representative and effectively managed protected areas is to be established. The effectiveness of protected areas thus represents one indicator for progress towards the CBD’s 2010 Target. However, indicators require information. The present study, in a first step, reviews the availability of open access long-term ecological data for assessing protected area effectiveness. This review shows two parallel – though contradictory – phenomena: data overkill and data scarcity. While the number of online databases providing open access data on biodiversity has grown tremendously, no long-term ecological data for a larger set of protected areas can be openly accessed. Reasons for this data scarcity are discussed. Based on this lack of information, in a second step, a method to bridge information gaps through social science research is aspired. An innovative Conservation Success Framework is developed, which defines and relates conservation needs, conservation capacity and conservation actions, its three main components. The basic assumption is that conservation can only be successful where the conservation capacity exists that is required to implement the conservation actions determined by the conservation needs. The framework was used to develop open and closed questionnaires for application in two Mexican biosphere reserves, the Sierra Gorda and the Sierra de Manantlán. As "conservation success" is often immeasurable in protected areas in practice due to unspecific conservation objectives the term is for the case studies substituted by “conservation achievements”, i.e. clearly noticeable effects from conservation actions. Overall, almost 60 interviews were conducted with different stakeholder groups. The gained information is validated through social science research techniques, such as triangulation of perspectives and active and passive observation. Based on this, conservation needs are identified and conservation capacities summarised and discussed for both case study sites. Implemented conservation actions addressing identified conservation needs and conservation capacity constraints are then analysed. In addition, noticeable effects from conservation actions on the state of biodiversity at case study sites, i.e. the conservation achievements, are described. Where locally available, non-open access data (as opposing open access data) are used to verify the findings from the social science research. Identified conservation achievements at both case study sites are evident both from quantitative information (for example forest cover increase according to non-open access data) and qualitative information (for example perceived change in the occurrence of illegal activities according to interviews). In addition, rather “intangible” indicators that can only be revealed through qualitative surveys are identified for both sites. This study thus highlights the crucial importance of integrating different types of data, ecological and socio-economic, as well as quantitative and qualitative ones. The present study concludes with a series of recommendations 1) to local practitioners at the two case study sites, and 2) to the international conservation community. Local practitioners may benefit from the present study because its results provide for each site a) an overview of existing conservation needs and implemented conservation actions; b) an easy way to identify action gaps; c) a baseline to identify progress indicators; and d) an overview of diverse perspectives on the current effectiveness of the biosphere reserves. These benefits are considered of particular importance as they can be influential in the revision of the site’s management plans, which both are now approximately ten years old and will soon be revised. The international conservation community will not be able to make a clear statement in the year 2010 about the effectiveness of protected areas on a global level due to a lack of information and transparency. However, the year 2010 should not be considered an end point for measuring progress in in-situ conservation; instead protected area quality standards must be created, effectiveness evaluations institutionalised and efforts to foster regular reporting must continue. Consequently, a scheme of consolidated actions from local to national and international level is proposed that could help to sustainably bridge existing information gaps and close them on the long run. In the end, progress reporting on the effectiveness of protected areas, and other indicators, can only improve if different governance levels “mind the information gaps” in cooperation, until continued information gathering and sharing hopefully closes these gaps one day.
The New Zealand coal covering the complete maturity range from peat to high volatile bituminous, thus from early diagenetic to catagenesis coalification levels, has been studied in order to bring out new insights into molecular alterations, macromolecular structural evolution, elemental-compositional changes as function of maturation and to propose which processes cause these changes. As particular note from the previous observations that many immature coals from around the world often have rather high extraction yields. It is uncertain whether or not bitumen affecting on petroleum potential and structural evolution of coals. My purposes were therefore to find out the possible interaction between kerogen and bitumen during pyrolysis, and to elucidate the role of bitumen in defining petroleum potential and structural evolution of coals. Furthermore, it is assumed that low rank coals appear to be well suited for feeding the deep subsurface microbes. The products are released as either CO2 or CO that could be substrates for microbial activity. Thus, in this dissertation, I have calculated the loss of CO2 during diagenesis to give the quantitative feeding potential link to deep biosphere, using a mass balance model. To achieve these purposes, at the primary step, the facies variability as well as the molecular compositional changes within the coal band sequence in regard to distinguish the influences of organofacies and maturity need to be clear. Hence, the first aim was to gather information about depositional environment and insights into the plant communities that have contributed to New Zealand coals. Numerous organic-geochemical techniques were used to analyse the free lipids and macromolecular organic matter. Total organic carbon determination (TOC), bulk δ13Corg isotope analysis, the Rock-Eval pyrolysis, pyrolysis- gas chromatography and infrared spectrometry were performed on the original samples and the residue after solvent extraction. The crude lipid extract was separated into fractions that were then analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The obtained data shows that organic matter of New Zealand coals contains mainly terrestrial higher plant material, with a more or less constant background supply of bacterial biomass, deposited in oxidising environment. Angiosperms contributed as the main proportion of the organic matters. Gymnosperms, particularly the Podocarpaceae, Cupressaceae, Taxodiaceae, Pinanceae and Araucariaceae conifer species, still dominated during the Cretaceous. New Zealand coal is classified as mixed gas- and oil-prone. Hydrogen index values increase from 120 to 280 (mg/g TOC) with increasing maturity, which has been explained by the loss of oxygen during diagenesis. A Transformation Ratio of CO2 (TRCO2) has been formulated here in order to quantify the loss of CO2 for any given coal type. It obviously shows CO2 generation is one of the major features of diagenesis that might feed the deep biosphere. In case of study, about 10 to 105 mg CO2 per gram of total organic carbon have been released during maturation from peat to high volatile bituminous. This is equivalent to 0.23 to 2.4 millimoles CO2 per g TOC. For methanogenesis via CO2 reduction, between 0.92 and 9.6 millimoles hydrogen would be required for complete CO2 reduction during diagenesis. Future work must determine if this is feasible or not. The important role of bitumen in defining the petroleum generation potential was elucidated. The presence of hydrogen transfer agents in bitumen helps to stabilize free radicals hence prevents recombination/ repolymerization processes thus preserving the petroleum generating potential in original coals. Specially, second-order reactions between kerogen and bitumen occurred during pyrolysis that reduce the primary gas yield, but increase the potential secondary gas as well as oil yields. Therefore, it is proposed that pre-extraction of source rocks before pyrolysis, especially coals where extraction yields are particularly high, is not recommended. The comparative investigation with previously studied higher rank Carboniferous German coals showed an excellent fit for both pyrolysis and infrared spectrometry data, suggesting that the New Zealand coals can be considered as natural precursors of the German coals. The structural evolution of coals during maturation is firstly characterized by the enrichment of the aliphatic structures in low rank, peat to high volatile bituminous, then decreases with further maturation. This enrichment of aliphatic carbon content in low rank is accompanied by an increase in the average aliphatic chain length. A slightly enrichment of CH3 group is observed in maturity range 0.9- 2.1% vitrinite reflectance. Secondly, during coalification the content of protonated aromatic carbons increases until R0 ~ 1.6%, then decreases with further maturation.
The primary objective of this study is to practically apply geostatistical tools that can help to improve an evaluation of groundwater quality for a particular area. The Nam Dinh area, an area of 70 x 70 km2, located in the Southern part of the Red River Delta, was selected as a source for different data sets to be used as case studies. A set of geostatistical tools has thus been applied to the different real data sets which were collected from the coastal Quaternary aquifers in the different campaigns. This gives us a yardstick by which the success of a specific approach can be measured. Throughout the thesis a series of the case studies are, in turn, represented in order to get insight into and an understanding of what various geostatistical tools can do and, more importantly, what their shortcomings are. There are nine different methods of data analyses use in this thesis, which include: (1) Major Ion Comparison, (2) Graphic Plots, (3) Exploratory Statistical Data Analysis, (4) Variogram Analysis, (5) Spatial Estimation Using Kriging, (6) Cluster Analysis, (7) Principle Component Analysis, (8) Multivariate Regionalization Analysis, and (9) Contamination Risk Mapping Using Indicator Kriging. First, major ion comparison and graphic analysis are performed in order to get a general hydrogeochemical view of the collected datasets, before stepping into a further geostatistical approach. By these analyses, various groundwater types are observed and a general hydrochemical trend is visualized using Stiff- and Piper diagrams as well as site maps. The major ion ratios in relation to TDS concentration are compared to investigate the origin of water. Second, a statistical exploratory data analysis is applied to describe the important features of the data by which the character of a specific hydrogeochemical variable might be recognized. Deviations from the Gaussian probability model are detected and appropriate transformations for a formal analysis in geostatistics are selected. Since the Theory of Regionalized Variables (Mathéron 1971; short term: Geostatistics) assumes Gaussian distribution the hydrochemical variables used here are checked for normality. These analyses show that although the data are facing some problems such as outliers and they are very positively skewed at the linear scale, this can effectively be minimized by transforming the data to log-scale. Third, both variogram analyses and Kriging techniques are used to spatially estimate a rectangular 36x36 estimation grid within an area of 70 x 70 km based on the sampled locations (85, 45 and 74 and 38 visited locations for the Pleistocene RS, the Pleistocene DS, the Holocene RS, the Holocene DS, respectively). These estimated values are then used to map the spatiotemporal variability of groundwater quality. In practice, estimation of unknown values and mapping of concentrations of a specific variable can, of course, easily be created by many available software programs. However, error variances are always present in any estimation due to a level of uncertainty, so the reliability of how these estimates could be yielded has also been evaluated in this case study. A critical assessment of all possible variations, tightly related to the seasonal change, directional influence, spatial distribution and prediction error is conducted and concluded. Fourth, Cluster Analysis (CA), Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Multivariate Regionalization Analysis (RA) are applied to three main datasets of all Quaternary aquifers in the Nam Dinh area to discover the relationships among measured hydrochemical parameters by which we can detect and regionalize major factors which have an impact upon groundwater quality. These approaches are also to overcome the plethora of data that is usually a common problem for any one who has already tackled groundwater data. In this case study both clustering and R mode principal component analyses are thus performed based on the following parameters: The log-transformed concentrations of all measured major ions and of NO3-, NO2-, NH4+, PO42-, i.e. 11 variables from three different datasets of the main aquifers. By cluster analysis three classes of water types, ranging from freshwater to brackish-saltwater types, are typically grouped. Finally, Indicator Kriging (IK) is performed to evaluate the risks of arsenic contamination. The focus of this approach is to assess contamination risk expressed as probability of exceeding threshold- values. The region may thus be subdivided into “safe” and “unsafe” zones on the basis of probability maps which mark contaminated all places where the risk of arsenic contamination exceeds a given threshold for drinking water purpose. By this case study, it is shown that Indicator Kriging is a useful method which has some advantages for many contamination studies. Firstly, it is well known as the non-parametric technique which can be appreciably used when a dataset does not reach normal shape or nearly normal shape as in this situation. Secondly, the outlier problem that often exists in any analysis can be overcome when applying this method. Thirdly, it can be applied in practice to delimit a study area into “safe zone” or “unsafe zone” from which decision-making on the water supply can be decided for the remediation of a contaminated water source or selecting an appreciative source for exploitation. The combined use of spatial (Geostatistics) and multivariate statistical measures have proven to be of major assistance in questions of assessing groundwater quality especially in less sampled regions. A major advantage lies in the possibility of simultaneously creating spatial estimates as well as estimation confidence limits.
The Caribbean is a geologically complex region with several different plate boundary interactions. Geodynamic reconstructions of the northwestern Caribbean region have been particularly controversial in terms of the number of arcs, subduction polarity, and timing of collision. This thesis develops a refined tectonic reconstruction for the northwestern Caribbean based on a review of geological data of Cuba and a regional analysis within the northwestern Caribbean context. With regard to plausibility, significant emphasis was put on the degree and qualitiy of visualization. Three crustal sections across key areas in western, central, and eastern Cuba have been constructed in order to conduct an evolutionary interpretation in three dimensions. Western and central Cuba constitute an orogenic belt resulting from the collision of a mid- to Late Cretaceous volcanic arc - the "Great Caribbean Arc" - with the southern paleomargin of North America. The collision process apparently started in the Campanian, but major north- to northeast-directed thrusting processes at the southern Bahamas margin culminated during the Paleocene. A continous southwest-dipping polarity of the "Great Caribbean Arc", at least from the Aptian-Albian, can be infered from (1) its Late Cretaceous approach towards the North American margin, (2) the magnitude of top to the north directed tectonic transport in the Cuba orogenic belt, and (3) the internal structures of the metamorphic fore-arc assemblages and their evolution on the north side of the arc. An Early Cretaceous southwest-dipping origin of the "Great Caribbean Arc" along the northern fringe of the Chortís Block appears to be in all probability. This concept provides a link between (1) middle Late Cretaceous collision processes along the Matagua suture zone, (2) the Turonian termination of "Great Caribbean Arc"-activity on Jamaica, and (3) the late Campanian onset of collision in the Cuba orogenic belt. The collision of the "Great Caribbean Arc" with the Bahamas margin hampered relative northward motion of the Caribbean Plate from the late Campanian onward. Continued northward push finally resulted in the commencement of north-dipping subduction. Late Cretaceous commencement of north-dipping subduction was accompanied by superposition of oceanic crust and large-scale north-directed gravity sliding on the upper plate, as documented by ophiolitic slide-masses and Maastrichtian olistostromes in eastern Cuba (Nipe - Cristal and Moa Baracoa ophiolite massifs) as well as on Jamaica (ophiolites of the Bath-Dunrobin Complex) and the southern peninsula of Hispaniola. Progress of north-dipping subduction was responsible for the emergence of a Paleocene to Middle Eocene volcanic arc which spanned the northwestern Caribbean along the southern boundary of the Yucatán Basin while the Chortís Block and the Nicaragua Rise were still in a paleoposition to the south of the Maya Block. North-dipping subduction and the associated volcanic arc isolated the Yucatán Basin from its original affiliation to the Caribbean Plate. Relative northward motion of the Caribbean Plate and activity of the Paleogene volcanic arc stopped after the Eocene arrival of thickened oceanic crust of the Caribbean Large Igneous Province at the north-dipping subduction zone. After the late Early Eocene commencement of spreading at the Mid-Cayman Rise, North America - Caribbean relative motion was taken up along the sinistral Oriente Fault with estimated amounts of 800 to 1000 km offset since the Middle Eocene. This transform margin dissmembered the northwestern Caribbean extend of the Paleocene to Middle Eocene volcanic arc. Its eastern bend was uncoupled in the course of this process and may be represented by the Aves Ridge. South-central Hispaniola can be restored to a Middle Eocene position to the south of eastern Cuba, which accounts for an approximate Cenozoic displacement of 200 to 300 km. Therefore, most of the western prolongation of the Oriente Fault must be accommodated at the northern bounding-faults of the southern peninsula of Hispaniola. The proposed synthesis is in clear accordance with the paradigm of plate tectonics, corroborating its capability to incorporate even a complex region like the Caribbean.
In 1992, the international regime 'Agenda 21' was agreed upon. Accordingly, countries worldwide have been undergoing reforms in their water management into Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The implementation is promoted by international actors. The main institutional aspects of IWRM are the river basin approach, clear property rights allocation, and application of economical instruments. In former centrally planned economies, the process of IWRM implementation has been coincided with transformation for the market economy. The implementation of institutional aspects of IWRM in countries under transition is connected with high transaction costs. Against this background, the comparative empirical study was initialised in order to analyse institutional change of water management towards IWRM in Vietnam and in Poland. Two models of river basin organisations were examined. Consequently, pros and cons of decentralised polycentric and hierarchical unicentric river basin organisations have been evaluated. Formal institutions were studied with the use of an in-depth review of legislation in Vietnam and in Poland. The EU Water Frame Directive (EU WFD) and other international policies were also examined. For the empirical study in Vietnam and in Poland, actors were interviewed as experts. The results of the study on both countries were discussed separately, and conclusions were drawn in a comparative manner. Water management reforms towards IWRM in Vietnam and in Poland have been generating multi-level governance processes including international, national and sub-national levels. The implementation of IWRM in Vietnam is supported by international donor agencies. In Poland, the implementation of the EU WFD is coordinated by the European Commission in a hierarchical manner. In comparison to international joint-development projects in Vietnam, the European Commission enforces international IWRM policy more effectively. Since the resumption of ODA in early 1990s, water resources management has been institutionalised in Vietnam by international support. In 1998, a Water Law was established in Vietnam. The intended separation of water resources management from water service provisions caused fragmentation between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, respectively. This ‘silo-effect’ has been intensified by the competition for international ODA. The power struggles affect even agencies within ministries. Polycentric river basin committees have been established as entities subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. However, because of weak property rights allocation and the absence of administrative powers, the river basin organisations work ineffectively. The river basin has not yet been established as a sub-national area of political action. Decisions sustained to be made at central level and are affected by the information problem due to largely centralised organisations of Vietnamese water management. The sub-national level is characterised by very low planning and management capacities. In Poland, unicentric river basin organisations were established in 1991. They are aligned with hydrological borders. Water resources planning and management are carried out according to river basins and water regions in order to implement the EU WFD. The river basin has been established as a new area of decision-making. Conflicts between local-governments have been resolved after the reforms. Nevertheless, spatial management planning, environmental protection planning, water service delivery, etc., are further carried out by local self-governments. To integrate water resources planning and management with these services, horizontal coordination is of critical importance. However, this is hampered by problems of ‘spatial fit’. Moreover, a high degree of horizontal cross-border communication increases information problems in hierarchical organisations. Thus, features of polycentric governance models become increasingly important in order to fully implement the EU WFD in Poland.
The objectives of the present work are to relate the spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna in the Baltic Sea to patterns in environmental variables describing near-bottom hydrographical conditions and sediment characteristics, analyzing the data for two various spatial extents. The first case study is devoted to an exploratory statistical description of the prevailing ecological structure within the limited area attached to the region of the Mecklenburg Bight. Key environmental descriptors of spatial distribution of macrofaunal communities were disclosed within the area of investigation: water depth, regarded as a proxy for other environmental factors, and total organic content. Distinct benthic assemblages that are discriminated by particular species (Hydrobia ulvae–Scoloplos armiger, Lagis koreni–Mysella bidentata and Capitella capitata–Halicryptus spinulosus) were defined. Each assemblage is related to different spatial subarea and is characterized by a certain variability of environmental factors. This study represented the basis for the predictive modelling of species distribution in the selected investigation area, which constituted the next part of the investigation. Species-specific models predicting the probability of occurrence relative to environmental and sedimentological characteristics were developed for 29 representative macrofaunal species using a logistic regression modelling approach. Subsequently, the technique for a predictive modelling of species distributions in response to abiotic parameters based on single-factor logistic regression models, utilizing Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and Akaike weights for multimodel inference, was used. Thus, probabilities of occurrence for selected exemplary species (Arctica islandica, Hediste diversicolor, Pygospio elegans, Tubificoides benedii and Scoloplos armiger) were modelled and mapped. Finally, the investigation proceeded on a large spatial scale. The discriminating ability of such factors as salinity, bathymetry, and sediment characteristics (considered only generally due to the lack of more detailed data) to explain the occurrence of typical macrozoobenthic species on the Baltic Sea-wide extend was tested. Full coverage macrofauna distribution maps, though being increasingly demanded, are generally lacking, with information being merely restricted to point observations. In contrast to spatial interpolation, periled by presence of short distance changes in community structure and dependence of the result on density of the samples, predictive habitat suitability modelling allows to objectively produce distribution maps at a level of detail limited only by the availability and resolution of the environmental data. Various literature sources and available databases were analyzed in respect to the information on macrozoobenthos distribution in the Baltic Sea, resulting in the compilation of an extensive list of taxa and an inventory dataset on species distribution for the whole Baltic Sea. The study demonstrates the need to analyze species’ relationships in gradient systems such as the Baltic Sea and provides a basis for a tool to predict natural and anthropogenic forced changes in species distribution.
Kurze Inhaltszusammenfassung in einer weiteren Sprache (Englisch): Muong Lay is one of the important social and economic areas in Northwestern Vietnam. Landslides occur frequently in the area and seriously affect local livelihoods and living conditions. Therefore, the problem of landslide hazard and mitigation for a sustainable development of this area is significant. The spatial analysis of landslide hazard assessment in the mountainous regions in Muong Lay is important to address this development challenge. This study focuses on the application of GIS and RS to landslide hazard assessment, especially for support of GIS modeling to landslide hazard susceptibility for Muong Lay area. By using Remote sensing with LandSat TM image and aerial photos of scale 1:50,000 and using statistical models with GIS-software’s ENVI3.4, ILWIS3.0, PCI9.0 and ARC/GIS9.1, the study tries to evaluate and estimate the landslide in relation with naturally different elements of natural conditions such as geology, geomorphology, geology-engineering, tectonics, hydrology, rainfall, etc… Especial, the study firstly aims to produce the causal factor maps by verifying digital data. These factors then will be applied in a methodology based on statistical methods such as: “bivariate statistical analysis” and “multivariate statistical analysis” approach to calculate the susceptibility level of each class of each factor to landslide. The integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Rensing (RS)for landslide hazard zonation and assessment is a valid approach. In these researches various methods for image integration and information extraction have been analysed and evaluated in detail.
Wadi Wurayah area is located in the north of Fujairah Emirates between the towns of Khor Bidiyah Fakkan and Oman on the Gulf Coast Line in Fujairah Emirates, United Arab Emirates. It lies within a priority World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) Global 200 Ecoregions ( ecoregion 127, Arabian Highland Woodlands and Shrublands ), a rich diversity of sheltering rare and endangered mountainous and freshwater habitats and species , and providing opportunities for the revival and sustenance of local livelihoods. However, as most of the United Arab Emirates and the region , the area is undergoing dramatic changes linked to economic diversification and promotion of tourism. The United Arab Emirates in 1999 approved the programmed of work from the UN convention of Biological Diversity ( CBD). This momentum must be used wants it or disappear. In a first move , the United Arab Emirates established the federal Environment Agency ( FEA) that produced the Environmental Law of 1999 with the role to encourage each to Emirates assess its land and coastal / marine resources, formulate plans for establishing protected areas , upgrade those that may already exist , and help implement the environment law. In early 2006, UAE created its first Ministry of Environment and Water ( MEW ), which was before the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Environmental issues and a greater role of the civil society are now higher on the agenda of the United Arab Emirates government , partner of the Emirates Wildlife Society ( EWS ), the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) - UAE Project Office is the only international conservation NGOs operating in the UAE that plays a pioneering role in partnering with local- governmental institutions to establish win- win solutions. The United Arab Emirates is making tremendous efforts in diversification is the development of tourism. Too often tourism mass , With all of its negative environmental consequences is privileged. However, the more traditional Emirates are seeking alternatives that would preserve their environment and respect the traditional lifestyles of the local communities. This study aims to help a sustainable biosphere reserve integrating oneself local traditional and lifestyle with the conservation of biodiversity and habitat inimitable by providing a model of economical incentives unique to the region . In order to further the implementation of the Wadi Wurayah Biosphere Reserve, this study will: • Implement a set of carefully - targeted actions in Wadi Wurayah and its hinterland and therefore Fujairah Emirates. • Work to demonstrate the feasibility and viability of combining environmental protection in a sensitive area with the preservation of traditional activities. • Support the capacity building of key national and local authorities and selected partners in the Emirates of Fujairah and the UAE So that they have the awareness and skills to fully realize the aims of the study . To set out and develop options for sustainable natural resource management in the proposed Wurayah Biosphere Reserve , one of the UAE as examples of marginal dry lands , building on environmental information system was the best choice using Geographic information systems (GIS ) as a tool. This has been classified to there steps of work: Field Survey and Analysis Lab Office work. As a first step, this study used to survey this area in the light of the work done by the EWSWWF and the Fujairah Municipality, to evaluate the potential and the feasibility of the creation of a Biosphere Reserve. The traditional field survey has been carried out in three batches between January 2007 and January , 2009 for sample collection using specially tailored database forms that suit the properties and nature of the variables measured, and the database . Design The information obtained from field survey included the Landscape and their local classification and distribution , local habitats , water catchments areas , local rangeland systems and indigenous agro -ecological zones. This information in addition to the laboratory analysis has then be transformed into GIS format, and overlaid with the base maps of the study area in order to produce a georeferenced maps. Various types of maps required according the selected works related to area of study have been used as an input data for the GIS system An integrated management methodology / approach has been proposed associated with the plan of work throughout the forthcoming years. The plan of work is designed to be as consistent as possible with that of the concept of the UNESCO 's Man and Biosphere Program.
Tidal flats represent the transition zone between the terrestrial and marine realm. They are subject to pronounced dynamics due to distinct tidal and seasonal variations of physical, chemical, and biological parameters significantly influencing redox-sensitive element cycles. Thus, redox-sensitive trace metals may be suitable indicators for variations in bioproductivity and microbial activity. Therefore, seasonal and tidal dynamics of manganese, iron, molybdenum, uranium, and vanadium were studied in the water column and sediments of tidal systems of the German Wadden Sea (southern North Sea) in the years 2007 to 2009 involving also previously analysed data from year 2002. To demonstrate the response of the trace metal cycles on phytoplankton blooms and enhanced biological activity time series data of nutrients and phytoplankton dynamics were also involved in this study. Pronounced cycling is seen for pelagic manganese revealing distinctly higher values during low tide. Complex seasonal cycling showing maxima of dissolved manganese in spring and late summer and a depletion period in early summer is caused by benthic-pelagic coupling and reflection of exhaustion and replenishing periods in the surface sediments. Vanadium dynamics are coupled to the manganese cycling due to vanadium scavenging and release during manganese oxide formation and reduction, respectively. Molybdenum and uranium behave almost conservatively following changes in salinity and thus, being slightly enhanced during high tide. Deviations from conservative behaviour are found to occur during breakdowns of summer phytoplankton blooms. In the following, significant enrichments of manganese, molybdenum, iron, and uranium are observed in the shallow pore waters. These coherences are assumed to be caused by a tight coupling of geochemical, biological, and sedimentological processes. Intense release of organic matter during the breakdowns of algae blooms leads together with enhanced bacterial activity in summer to the formation of organic- and trace metal-rich aggregates which are deposited and incorporated into the tidal surface sediments. Microbial decomposition of the aggregates and corresponding shifts in redox-conditions effect a release of dissolved trace metals into the pore water. Subsequently, the trace metals are fixed in the sediment as sulphides, adsorbed to organic compounds or released to the overlying bottom water. Furthermore, two tidal systems, one from the East Frisian and one from the North Frisian Wadden Sea are compared. Although, both areas show different hydrodynamical, sedimentological, and ecological conditions similar manganese dynamics are observed implying that this is a common behaviour in the entire Wadden Sea. However, distinct quantitative differences appear showing a 6-fold higher level of dissolved manganese in the water column of the East Frisian area. This is explained by a higher manganese release from tidal flat sediments and a larger sediment area/water volume ratio compared to the North Frisian area. Detailed time-series data of the nutrients phosphate, silica, and nitrite+nitrate are used to verify model simulations and to calculate nutrient export budgets considering tidal and seasonal variations. The model results imply an export of nutrients from the tidal flats into the open waters of the German Bight which is in the same order of magnitude as the combined discharge of the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Ems. To investigate the importance of the Wadden Sea as a potential manganese source for the North Sea, transects were carried out into several tidal flat areas of the North Frisian Wadden Sea. The results suggest that the North Frisian Wadden Sea is a less important source for dissolved manganese compared to the East Frisian area. In contrary, the export of particulate manganese seems to be more important showing distinctly higher concentrations in the North Frisian study areas in summer. The influence of sediment permeability and bioturbation on trace metal budgets of the pore waters are investigated in natural and experimentally manipulated tidal flat sediments. Advective pore water transport in highly permeable sandy sediments and bioturbation promote exchange processes at the sediment/water interface probably leading to reduced nutrient and trace metal enrichments in the shallow pore waters. Furthermore, the penetration of oxygen into deeper sediment layers induces a release of sulphidic bound molybdenum to the pore water. During laboratory experiments with natural anoxic sediments an effective oxidative molybdenum release is determined during resuspension of the sediments in oxic seawater. Thus, pronounced sediment resuspension during storm events is suggested to cause significant release of molybdate from displaced anoxic sediment components thereby enhancing the molybdate level of the open water column. In addition to the examination of recent biogeochemical processes, the paleo-environmental influence on geochemical and microbiological processes in Holocene and Pleistocene sediments of the East Frisian study area were analysed in an interdisciplinary study. It is found that the microbial abundance and activity are higher in the Holocene than in the Pleistocene sediments. However, this is mainly caused by present environmental conditions. The impact of the paleo-environment on the microbiology is less pronounced. The lithological succession affects hydrological processes which enable the transfer of electron donors and acceptors for present early diagenetic processes into deep sediment layers. The paleo-environmental imprint is still detectable but the modern biogeochemical processes dominate in the sediment-pore water system.
This thesis aims at bridging the gap of deficient understanding of effective buffer zone management. The overall research goal of the thesis is to evaluate buffer zone effectiveness and to identify factors influencing effective buffer zone management in forest biosphere reserves. To address the multi-facetted issue of buffer zone effectiveness an integrative research design was applied. To answer the raised research questions a combination of social science (quantitative and qualitative approaches) and natural science (remote sensing) was chosen. To gain global insights into buffer zone management (research question 1) the quantitative approach of social science research was chosen. As part of a global telephone survey of BR management conducted by the research project in which the thesis was embedded, BR managers were asked to evaluate different management aspects. Between July and December 2006, managers from 225 BRs in 79 countries were interviewed, which corresponds to an overall response rate of 42 %. Answers were statistically analyzed using SPSS 17.0. To obtain detailed information of factors influencing buffer zone management (research question 2) the qualitative social science research approach was applied. A case study was conducted in the Lore Lindu Biosphere Reserve, Sulawesi, Indonesia between March and May 2008. Following the snowball sampling approach 47 semi-structured interviews and seven group discussions were carried out representing the local, sub-national, and national level associated with the BR management. These interviews and discussions provide important insights into the institutional dimensions and their interaction within the context of BR management including e.g. implementation of rules and the distribution of responsibilities for buffer zone management. Interviews were conducted in the national language Bahasa Indonesia, fully recorded, and subsequently transcribed and translated into English. Analysis was carried out with ATLAS.ti to specify categories and to formulate theorems. To evaluate buffer zone effectiveness in terms of reducing deforestation in the core area of Lore Lindu Biosphere Reserve (research question 1), satellite image analysis was performed using a GIS. A time series of LANDSAT scenes from 1972, 1983, 1999, 2002, and 2007 was used to classify homogeneous areas of forest cover to ultimately detect deforestation. Deforestation rate was computed for the periods before and after management establishment in 1998. The combination of all three research methods provided important insights into buffer zone management of BRs. Thus, based on these findings, recommendations to improve buffer zone management (research question 3) could be drawn. Overall, the evaluation of buffer zones depicts their importance for BR management effectiveness. Analysis revealed buffer zone effectiveness as important success factor, while it explicitly depends on both the implementation of the BR concept at the national level and coordination of stakeholders on the local level. As more and more PAs create buffer zones to integrate the local people, they may face similar problems. The case study from Lore Lindu exhibited important preconditions for successful buffer zone management. From a methodological perspective the thesis calls for the need of integrated research approaches across disciplines to adequately assess both buffer zone and PA effectiveness. Generally, it is recommended to pay special attention to pre-Seville BRs in the future, since most of these BRs still lack the three zone scheme. Analysis of the case study area revealed particular weaknesses in implementing central elements for effective BR management, such as the four goals of the Seville Strategy, even 15 years after inauguration. Thus, the thesis shows that not only the quantity of PAs but also the quality of its management and thus effectiveness is an important indicator for global conservation targets. Finally, it can be summarized that the idea of establishing buffer zones within BRs and PAs in general, is the right way forward to enhance PA effectiveness and to achieve global reduction of biodiversity loss. Integrating the people living within and adjacent to PAs, must be given more attention in the future. Establishment of buffer zones, where this integration and cooperation is a necessity, should be the central conservation measure, not only within BRs but also within PAs in general.
The dissertation aims at developing means to integrate conservation and development in biosphere reserves in Madagascar. Despite a multitude of concepts such as UNESCO biosphere reserves, Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and community-based natural resource management, gaps between conservation and development remain to exist. In a qualitative case study in Mananara-Nord and Sahamalaza Iles-Radama Biosphere Reserves in Madagascar data was collected on biosphere reserve management, local use of natural resources and socio-cultural aspects that influence natural resource use. Furthermore, natural values local people associate with the forest were investigated. Analysis revealed that management capacities constitute a limiting factor in biosphere reserve management. Collaboration between management, local people and international organisations fosters the achievement of both conservation and development. However, collaboration is only possible if (i) clear rules are formulated and (ii) partners have a vision in common. Based on the theory of social capital, newly introduced and locally existent rules/institutions having an influence on the use of natural resource were categorized in bonding, linking and bridging social capital. Furthermore, the perception of natural values was classified in instrumental and non-instrumental values and assigned to ecosystem services identifying the importance of nature for human well-being. With the capabilities approach Amartya Sen defined human well-being as the achievement of those capabilities a person considers valuable. This includes aspects that assure livelihoods on the one hand and aspects that are conducive to well-being on the other, thus both being relevant for development. In the dissertation capabilities are based on both instrumental and non-instrumental natural values and consequently offer an opportunity to demonstrate and characterise the relationship between nature and human well-being. Social and natural values provide orientation for a biosphere reserve management. The category bonding social capital (social values) describes local socio-cultural aspects in communities and their importance for collaborative processes. Natural values provide the management with guiding principles to foster nature conservation and to integrate locally existent capabilities. Supporting and furthering these capabilities enables the development of new capabilities of all concerned persons. The dissertation demonstrates various possibilities to build bridges between (i) nature conservation and development, (ii) natural and social sciences, (iii) formal regulations and local socio-cultural aspects and (iv) diverse actors. Implementation of a social monitoring is recommended together with local stewards and Malagasy students to collect information about the perception of natural and social values and use them as guiding principles for biosphere reserves. Collaboration with national and international scientific institutions can foster this process.
Understanding the interaction between climate variability and ice sheet behavior is critical due to scenarios of future climate warming and the consequent contribution of Greenland ice sheet melting to sea-level rise and its potential to influence thermohaline circulation. This thesis investigates the role of ocean forcing by the West Greenland Current (WGC) on the dynamics of West Greenland ice sheet behavior, with focus on Jakobshavn Isbræ, in the Disko Bugt area of central West Greenland. High-resolution sediment cores, obtained during a cruise of the RV ‘Maria S. Merian’ in 2007, provide a long-term Holocene perspective on climate variability off West Greenland. These records cover the last 8000 years with increasing resolution through to periods of historical and instrumental data series. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions, based on the calcareous and agglutinated benthic foraminiferal assemblage, reveal significant variations in the water mass properties (e.g. temperature and salinity) of the WGC. From 8 to 6 cal. ka BP, a relatively warm WGC enhances meltwater production (ice retreat) in Disko Bugt. Holocene ‘thermal optimum-like’ conditions prevailed from 5.5 to 3.5 cal. ka BP, associated with minimum ice sheet extent in eastern Disko Bugt. Long-term cooling of oceanographic conditions is recognized from c. 3.5 cal. ka BP towards the present day. Superimposed on this millennial scale cooling trend, centennial scale variability within the WGC is reconstructed: i) the 2.7 cal. ka BP ‘cooling event’; ii) the Roman Warm Period; iii) the Medieval Climate Anomaly; and iv) the Little Ice Age. Over the past 100 years, oceanographic conditions remain relatively cool and multidecadal variability in the WGC’s ocean temperatures show close correlation with the ice marg in position of Jakobshavn Isbræ and phases of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). Cold (warm) phases correlate with stabilization/re-advance (retreat) of Jakobshavn Isbræ and a negative (high) index of the AMO. It has been demonstrated that variations in ocean temperature are an important factor that influence ice sheet behavior on a range of times scales, underlining the close coupling of ice-ocean interactions during the Holocene. Warmer ocean temperatures influence the stability of marine terminating ice sheets and glaciers, causing basal melting and glacier acceleration, whereas ocean cooling supports stabilization and advance of ice margin.
The main objective of this research was to enhance the understanding of the inte¬ractions of bentonite with iron in the near field of a HLW-repository. One target was to investigate natural Fe-rich bentonites as a possible analogue. Another topic was to recognize the mineralogical interaction of bentonite with iron powder simulating the contact of bentonite with steel containers (thermodynamic approach). An additional objective was to explore the idea that bentonites have a specific dissolution potential (kinetic approach). In order to take the thermodynamic approach, compacted MX80 bentonite and Friedland clay were used as starting materials for clay/iron interaction experiments in per¬colation systems (Clay/Iron-ratio = 0.1). The natural processes were studied by examining a tropical wea¬thering profile of serpentiniz¬ed diabase from the Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam. The kinetic approach was taken by investigating a series of well characterized bentonites, 9 from API-standard series, 12 from the BGR-collection and 4 others, all of them saturated with deionized water (liquid/solid-ratio = 10/1) and NaCl 1N solution (liquid/solid-ratio = 4/1) for 30 days, followed by exposing the soft gels to mechanical agitation by overhead shaking corresponding to two energy levels (20 rpm and 60 rpm). XRD and TEM – EDX measurement were the major analytical techniques applied in this research, with FT-IR and XRF analyses as additional tools to characterizing the structure and composition of the smectites. Thermodynamic Approach MX80 bentonite and Friedland Clay clearly show that chemical and mineralogical changes have occured in the reaction products. They are exemplified by the neoformation of serpentine and chlorite in certain mixed layer phases. The smectite in the reaction products had also undergone changes especially in the constitution of the octahedral and tetrahedral sheets as well as in the interlayer space. These alterations were evident by the difference in key peak positions and ratios of XRD-patterns, and by TEM-investigations, as well as by different positions and intensities of FT-IR-bands of octahedral and tetrahedral features. The alteration was also seen in the bulk chemical composition data (XRF). MX80 bentonite and Friedland clay show various types and stages of alteration under different experimental conditions. The alteration can be described as “illitization” in open reaction systems and “smectitization” in closed reaction systems. The degree of alteration was controlled by the degree of chemical activities (ion strength, Fe- & Si-activity, con-centration). Higher reactivities give higher degrees of dissolution and release of Si from clay minerals. The oxidation of native iron (Fe0 → Fe2+) was recognized as the main driving force for dissolution, but also the oxidation of Fe2+ (Fe2+ → Fe3+) appeared to reverse an open to a closed reaction system by increased Si-pre¬cipitation. The thermodynamic modelling of C/I-experiments by Mingliang Xie (GRS mbH) verified identified mineralogical alterations in the reaction products. Generally, the contact with metallic iron caused a strong increase in dissolution potential. The reason for this is the reducing potential of oxidation of iron which raised pH to become alkaline and increase dissolution of Si from clay particles. The mineralogical transformations recognized in the experiments, such as the neoformation of serpentine and chlorite phases, were also observed in the tropical weathering profile of serpentinized diabase. The wellknown fast development of Fe-rich montmorillonite in alteration of ultramafic rocks (e.g., Schnellmann, 1964) was also identified by mineralogical investigation of the weather¬ing profile. This confirms that smectitization is linked with higher Fe-activities also in nature. Fe2+ was present in this system and during oxidation acted as driving force for alteration. The reduction potential of Fe-oxidation caused an increase of pH into alkaline conditions. Kinetic Approach The hypothesis that smectite clays have a specific dissolution potential emanated from the study. This would mean that high amounts of Fe and Mg in the octahedral sheet can accelerate alteration in agreement to what was early proposed by Cicel & Novak (1976). The larger ion diameter of Fe and Mg in comparison with Al may well be responsible for a higher sheet stress, which would facilitate dissolution of smectites. The idea proposed Kaufhold & Dohrmann (2008) concerning a mechanism that makes Ca- and Mg-cations in the interlayer space stabilize quasicrystals is also supported by the present study. The performed investigation indicate which mechanisms that serve to protect smectites from undergoing alteration and which promote alteration. Stable smectites, i.e. those with a low specific dissolution potential, were called here “Sleepers”, while fast reacting bentonites, which have a high specific dissolution potential, were termed “Sprinters”. Smectites react with different rates of reaction in laboratory experiments. As said, each smectite sample has its specific potential for dissolution and this potential is controlled by the composition of both the octahedral sheets and the interlayer space. Increasing amounts of octahedral Fe and Mg compared to octahedral Al increase the specific dissolution potential. This potential is also affected by the ion radius, implying that the larger ion radius of Fe and Mg compared to Al increases the mechanical sheet stresses in the octahedral sheet. In summary, this means that, the investigations have confirmed the initial hypothesis concerning the impact of the composition of the octahedral sheet. It results primarily from the pH during the formation of the smectite clay and therefore serves as a geological fingerprint. The Al-Fe ratio in the octahedral sheet influences the stability of the interlayer: A) Aloct > 1.4 and Feoct > 0.2 (per (OH)2 O10) favour delamination of quasicrystals. The swelling pressure increases by a co-volume process between the delaminated layers wiht higher numbers of quasicrystals for Na-dominant population of the interlayer space (Laird, 2006). The microstructural components including both small and large particles and parts of them have a very small ability to move and undergo free rotation. Such Na-montmorillonites are consider as stable phases and have only a low specific dissolution potential. They are „Sleepers“. B) Aloct > 1.4 and Feoct < 0.2 or Aloct < 1.4 and Feoct > 0.2 (per (OH)2 O10) promote demixing of monovalent and divalent interlayer cations (Laird, 2006). In the case of Ca and Mg-dominant interlayers, quasicrystal can break Na-bearing interlayers and help to maintain the quasicrystal structure. Such Ca and Mg-mont¬morillonites can be also be taken as „Sleepers“ because of their low specific dissolution potential. Depending on the octahedral composition, certain cations in the inter¬layer can stabilize bentonites against mineralogical changes. Montmorillonites stabilized by high concentration of Na-cations were classified as belonging to category A, while montmorillonites stabilized by high Ca, Mg-cations in the interlayer sheet were grouped in category B. The classification of a smec¬tite into the categories A or B defined above can be best achieved by IR analyses that yield useful chemical information concerning the composition of the octahedral sheets. Smectites with Na as stabilizing interlayer cation (group A) have shown δAlAlOH-bands with increasing wavenumbers for increasing octahedral Al in FT-IR spectra. The other reaction type of smectite, with Ca, Mg-cations in the interlayers (group B), is characterized by a decreasing octahedral Al-amount for increasing wavenumbers of δAlAlOH-bands in such spectra. Also the FT-IR δAlFeOH-bands are different in the two reaction types of smectite. Increasing octahedral Fe-amounts were mirrored by decreasing wavenumbers of δAlFeOH-bands. However, smectites of group B do contain higher Fe-amounts for the same wavenumber than smectites of group A. Expected alteration of bentonite close and far from a steel canister In the early interaction of smectite-rich clay – the “buffer” - and steel, the system behaves as being chemically closed. Within the clay barrier, Si will be dissolved from clay mineral particles in accordance with its specific dis¬solution potential. The dissolved Si can stay by contributing neoformation of mont¬morillonite layers in mixed layer phases. The interlayer charge decreases by substitution of Mg by Al, which leads to an increase in the swelling pressure. Also minor Si-precipitation may occur if not all the dissolved Si is used up by the neoformed montmorillonite layers. Such precipitation of Si will cause cementation of some quasicrystals and lead to a reduction in porosity. Enhanced temperature and additional Fe-activity, representing an increased reduction potential, increases notably the amount of dissolved Si at the interface between bentonite and steel canister, and as a consequence there will be significant precipitation of Si. The resulting cementation of quasicrystals is ac¬com¬panied also by their collapse which induces broadening of pores. This caused the channel-like migration of infiltrating solutions and switches the system into an open one. Thermodynamic predictions indicate that “illite” will be generated close to the steel canister (via “illitization”) and kaolinite or pyrophyllite to be formed farther away (via smectitization). The “illitization” process results in higher interlayer charges and lower swelling pressures. In contrast, the formation of smectite reduces interlayer charges and promotes higher swelling pressures. At the end of the thermodynamic evolution, the swelling pressure will drop also far from the canister because kaolinite and pyrophyllite are non-swelling minerals. In both cases, the applications of so-called “Sleeper”-bentonites are required to slow the reaction progress. For designers of the engineered barriers in a repository, i.e. the canister and the “buffer” clay, some basic rules are recommend on the basis of the present study. Thus, the presence of native Fe or Fe2+-cations in the clay or in accessory minerals in it, or emanating from the canisters, will speed up the reaction process and make it extensive. Likewise, use of Fe-poor “buffer” clay, representing “Sleepers”-type are suitable for slowing down the reaction. Copper as canister material, and very dense Na-rich montmorillonite of group A as “buffer” seem to be ideal rather than steel/iron and less dense Ca-saturated clay.
Tourism is booming on global level since many decades and developing countries often capture tourism as a lever to push up their economy. Many regions in Vietnam invest lots of money in this development hoping to change the traditional economic structure. Located in the North Central Vietnam, about 170 km from Ha Noi capital to the south at the coastline, Sam Son is known as an ideal location for holiday makers. Currently the number of tourist has been counted to millions. Realizing its potential, the local authorities decided to enlarge and improve tourism to become the biggest tourism center in the North Central part of Vietnam. As many mass tourism destinations, Sam Son is facing several hidden drawbacks, which are generated by a (too) fast growth. Thats why unexpected problems may occur very soon. One path to mitigate weaknesses and to strengthen the positive impacts of tourism is to develop tourism in a more sustainable manner. As the very first step Sam Son needs to delineate a proper strategy and to establish a powerful "Destination Management System". Although several studies have been conducted already, the destination lacks reliable empirical data. This research intends to fill the gap by supplying concrete information with specific focus on “making tourism more sustainable”. In the study methodological triangulation has been applied to collect data and information. Besides literature review and secondary data analysis, two surveys - statistically well secured - have been conducted: A household survey with more than one thousand questionnaires to record the situation and opinion of local people and a visitor survey with 1139 face-to-face interviews to collect structural data about current guests in Sam Son as well as to explore their behaviour. Moreover expert and stakeholder interviews were included to supplement the information basis. As the research acquired the information directly from local people and from tourists by face-to-face interviews several weaknesses could be unveiled which official statistical data cannot show. There are three facets out of balance in terms of economic benefit: Compared with the political awareness and the financial support the tourism sector does not ensure the livelihood of an adequate number of people; the economic benefits from tourism are very unequally distributed and also the spatial dimension indicates a strong imbalance - only people living directly in the core area of tourism participate in tourism sector, the positive impact of tourism does not reach till the outskirts. In addition social and environmental problems are recognized by a majority of local people as consequences of tourism in the region. Regarding the touristic demand side a very low level of satisfaction has been detected: A small variety and low quality of touristic offers are the main reasons of dissatisfaction. The most exiting finding is that tourists treasure environment in the destination, whereas this aspect is underestimated in the locals view. In addition, tourists are really willing to pay for an improvement of environmental and touristic quality! Even if the amount of voluntary payments is very low, the total sum can enable the local government to develop the destination in a very proper way. Although this is a case study the results deliver valuable information and furthermore a concrete delineated roadmap for all destinations, which are in the same situation as Sam Son today. It is an example how to analyze and evaluate the present condition and how to continue in a proper way towards a more sustainable tourism development.
Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of local people, the example of Hanoi
(2013)
Hanoi is a rapidly developing city - in terms of area, population and economy. It also has to face social and environmental problems that often accompany the fast development of a city. Increasing environmental pollution leads to a decrease in living conditions, such as clean water, housing, social services, etc., for most of the city’s inhabitants. Other well-known social problems in cities worldwide also occur in Hanoi nowadays, for example inequality, food supply, and unemployment. In addition, the society is altering; lifestyle- change is a permanent process. Today, it seems that the changing process in Asian countries is rather leap-frogging than continuously. Although many research projects concerning to urban green areas in Hanoi have been completed recently, less is known about utilization of parks&gardens in a practical and systematic way. This study aims at contributing to fulfills the gaps with up-to-date facts and figures of parks’ utilization in the inner city of Hanoi. Based on “grounded theory”, triangular methodology was applied to collect empirical data in four main parks in the inner city of Hanoi namely: Thong Nhat, Bach Thao, Hoan Kiem, and Lenin. Scientific observations, visitor countings were done in 2010-2011; including 2143 face-to-face interviews to park users covering the course of the year and a small online-poll of 113 responses. Thirteen interviews with experts have been done in several phases and taken into account for discussing and testing hypotheses. Empirical results have shown that utilization of the parks is in abundance in terms of the use - numbers as well as activities. A comparison between the courses of the day for parks in Berlin and Hanoi shown that the time of using parks in Hanoi is earlier in the day. In details, there is 25% and 1.4% of total daily visitors went to parks in Hanoi and Berlin,, respectively. However, the biggest peak in park-visiting time for both cities is in the afternoon. The findings also clarified that students and retirees are the major users even though there is some different in structures of park user among the four parks. The length of stay depends on how large and interesting a park is. In this aspect, Hanoi parks are very poor in facilities showing by a long list of missing facilities in the parks. However, as there is no alternative, parks in Hanoi still attract a high number of visitors. In general, results from this study have shown a close relationship among socio-economic and political situations in Vietnam with UGAs and its utilization. Influencing factors on parks’ utilization were also indentified, which are social changes, lifestyle changes, economic situation, conflicts in land usage, and maintaining cost for UGAs. Three given hypotheses were confirmed: i) the demand of public UGAs in inner Hanoi will grow mid-term and increase strongly long-term; ii) Hanoi’s residents will claim strongly for more parks in the future; ii) The number of conflicts inside the area of UGAs, among the visitors will occur very soon and require a specific master plan for the development and the management of UGAs. Finally, based on the weaknesses of UGAs in Hanoi recently, two groups of recommendations were also suggested to improve UGAs. Firstly, in terms of quality – quantity: • Retain each square meter of green space as UGA – do not unblock any green space for construction; • The existing UGA have to be well maintained. Secondly, in terms of management – planning: • Elaborate a UGA-masterplan for (inner) Hanoi; • Keep UGA management in the responsibility of public bodies; • Implement participation of affected population defector in the process of planning and management (as it has already been written in planning guidelines); • Be aware of potential conflicts among park user groups; • Establish an UGA monitoring system – involving regular (or even permanent) countings based on up-to-date technology; Realize horizontal partnering structures.
This thesis aims at improving the current representation of adaptation in economic frameworks of climate change by a) accounting for the time-dependent evolution of the adaptive capacities of countries and b) quantifying unwelcome feedbacks of the adaptation process. In this context, it is proposed that economic assessments of climate change incorporate adaptation as a cyclic and phase-dependent process while devising their cost methodologies. A phase-dependent process acknowledges the existence of adaptation barriers while a cyclic process accounts for potential unwanted feedbacks of adaptation. By analyzing economic assessments against this framework, it is shown that dependencies between phases of adaptation and phases altogether are often disregarded. Furthermore, potential negative consequences associated with adaptation are rarely considered and adaptation is generally assumed to be unconstrained. The assumption of unconstrained adaptation is only acceptable in the context of high adaptive capacity. This concept was further investigated through a review of vulnerability assessments regarding their operation of the adaptive capacity component. It was found that adaptive capacity is mostly equated to proxies that reflect the knowledge, financial and livelihood capacities of the system under analysis. With this theoretical considerations in mind, a dynamic representation of adaptive capacity was elaborated at a country-level. The Human Development Index (HDI) was used as a proxy of the adaptive capacity of countries and its evolution in time extrapolated. The time required for countries to achieve developed world standards of human development was then estimated. The results indicate that between 2005 and 2020, half of the world population will live in countries with low adaptive capacity. This percentage is then progressively reduced to 15% in the year 2050, with marked regional differences. The time required for a country to achieve an appropriate level of development sets a clear constraint on when, and to what extent, the country can engage on climate change adaptation. This does not imply that adaptation will not take place before development occurs. Rather, it calls for adaptation options to be tailored in order to t the current and future adaptive capacities of countries. Obtaining higher levels of adaptive capacity is likely to be associated with negative consequences for the climatic system. The statistical relation between HDI and per-capita emissions of countries was established and future projections made. Between 2010 and 2050 approx. 300 Gt of CO2 are estimated to be associated with the increase of adaptive capacities of current developing countries. This value represents about 30% of the allowed CO2-budgets to restrict global temperatures to an increase of 2 degrees by 2100 compared to pre-industrial times - conditional to a 25% risk of failing to meet the target. For the case of sea-level rise, the modelling framework DIVA (Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment) was used in order to illustrate the drawbacks of a simplistic representation of adaptation. The results show that adaptation via the construction of protective infrastructure might be economically feasible for particular countries. For others, modeled results fail to provide a clear choice between adaptation or inaction. The assumption of unconstrained adaptation resulted in the valuation of costly protection options whose financial and knowledge requirements can be at odds with the capacities of some coastal countries - namely developing countries. Further, infrastructural protection as adaptive measure to prevent coastal damages can have the counter-productive effect of raising the amount and value of assets at risk. This is a direct result of DIVA disregarding the potential unwelcome feedbacks of adaptation itself. In conclusion, the full potential of economic assessments of climate adaptation is likely to remain unlocked as long as adaptation continues to be misrepresented. The methodologies discussed in this work provide a way forward to alleviate this deficiency in forthcoming assessments. For the case of sea-level rise, the modeling framework DIVA (Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment) was used in order to illustrate the drawbacks of a simplistic representation of adaptation. The results show that adaptation via the construction of protective infrastructure might be economically feasible for particular countries. For others, modeled results fail to provide a clear choice between adaptation or inaction. The assumption of unconstrained adaptation resulted in the valuation of costly protection options whose financial and knowledge requirements can be at odds with the capacities of some coastal countries - namely developing countries. Further, infrastructural protection as adaptive measure to prevent coastal damages can have the counter-productive effect of raising the amount and value of assets at risk. This is a direct result of DIVA disregarding the potential unwelcome feedbacks of adaptation itself. In conclusion, the full potential of economic assessments of climate adaptation is likely to remain unlocked as long as adaptation continues to be misrepresented. The methodologies discussed in this work provide a way forward to alleviate this deficiency in forthcoming assessments.
Governance and Management of Tourism in two Biosphere Reserves in Ecuador: Galapagos and Sumaco
(2014)
Tourism is multi-faceted phenomenon and various stakeholders, levels of government, and sectors are closely interlinked. Governmental and non-governmental institutions, local communities, diverse professionals, and different sectors and tourists do show various perspectives about the management of tourism. In this dissertation, a comprehensive analysis on the current situation of tourism in two biosphere reserves (Galapagos and Sumaco) in Ecuador is presented. Tourism is considered as one of the key strategies to promote environmental conservation and socio-economic development of local communities living in these places. UNESCO biosphere reserves are protected areas of extraordinary natural and cultural value, conceived as places for reconciliation between conservation and development. The concept of sustainable tourism can be seen as an umbrella that unites various forms of tourism in these protected areas (e.g. ecotourism, community-based tourism). The primary objective was to evaluate the main factors of success and failure in the management of tourism and its contribution to biodiversity conservation. Thus, a detailed review of the legal, political, and institutional framework of the country and a description of the two biosphere reserves (physical, biogeographic, demographic, socio-economic, institutional and legal elements) was given. Data collection for the case studies (Galapagos and Sumaco) was performed by the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. As for qualitative tools, in-depth semi-structured interviews with the main stakeholders in both biosphere reserves were applied. Experts and specialists in the management of protected areas, as well as representatives of different sectors directly and indirectly associated with tourism were interviewed. Moreover, surveys were applied to two different target groups. Tourists were surveyed in order to establish their socio-demographic profile, travel preferences, and degree of knowledge about sustainable tourism, as well as their perception of the sustainability of tourism in the destinations visited. Furthermore, residents in both reserves were surveyed in order to find out about their socio-demographic characteristics, their main economic activities for supporting themselves and their attitude towards tourism, their level of knowledge about biosphere reserves, and their perception about advantages or disadvantages of living in a biosphere reserve. In general, although tourism is a concept that could be developed in accordance with the environment in these natural areas, in the case of Galapagos it is one of the main risk factors for the conservation of biodiversity in the archipelago due to the increasing number of tourists. In contrast, in Sumaco tourism could be an important sustainable alternative to mining, oil extraction and hydroelectric projects, which are the current threats to the conservation of the area. From the environmental point of view, there are serious problems in both reserves, mainly linked to the contamination of water resources. Such pollution imposes risks to the health to both, residents and tourists. The lack of freshwater is particularly critical in Galapagos, given its insular habitat. The invasion of exotic species in Galapagos is one of the most serious threats to the conservation, while deforestation in combination with illegal logging and mining activities is the greatest danger in Sumaco. In terms of sociocultural factors, migration processes undoubtedly shape the attitudes and values of the current population in both reserves. In Galapagos most residents are immigrants, whereas in Sumaco a significant portion are Kichwa people who belong to the area’s native population. In general, the inhabitants in both areas have not yet developed a true environmental awareness. The distribution of human population groups is also associated with the different types of tourism. In both reserves, tourist services offered by local communities have low quality standards and are targeted on a market segment consisting of tourists with a low budget. Thus, the community revenues obtained from tourism are generally only a small percentage of the total tourism market. This situation is much more noticeable in Galapagos where large companies that operate luxury cruises and hotels gain most of their revenues from tourism. Many of them have their headquarters in the main cities of Ecuador and abroad, which means that they pay their taxes in those cities and not in the places where they operate. Inequality in the distribution of the economic benefits of tourism leads to a situation of frustration and discontentment among the residents of the regions involved. Despite this situation, tourism is still a profitable business and residents try to make the most of it, no matter the cost impacts. Temporary and illegal tourism activities is often the normal state of the things: unregistered houses that offer rooms for tourists, taxi drivers who offer tours without being in possession of permits, tourist boat owners, tour guides and even large tourist companies that operate without legal licenses. This situation inevitably leads to a decrease of the quality of services, an uncontrolled increase of business, a consequent dumping of prices and the overall decline of the destination. Ultimately, this means fewer tourists, more environmental degradation and less economic benefits for residents. In this context, there is a serious conflict between the local community and large foreign companies. Governance and management of tourism are essential elements to ensure its development in a sustainable way. The country has a large number of laws, rules, regulations, and plans that regulate the development of sustainable tourism legally and institutionally, especially in protected areas. However, monitoring and law enforcement are major constraints for achieving proper management of tourism. This problem is particularly noticeable in small communities such as Galapagos and Sumaco where interpersonal relationships of kinship and friendship are close, which complicates control and regulation. There are some serious limitations regarding the technical and logistical capacity of the institutions responsible for controlling and managing the tourist activity; they consist mainly in the lack of staff and funding. Galapagos, given its special status, has increased the number of funding managers and staff members for controlling and management, but in many cases, these people are not fully qualified for their positions. Sumaco has only few tourism experts who can help to develop the tourism. The coordination and planning among all stakeholders involved in tourism is still a work in progress to ensure proper management of the tourist destinations. In any case, local communities are developing important initiatives in both biosphere reserves. After all, sometimes planning, coordination and local activities do not necessarily coincide with the national agenda. In general, in both biosphere reserves it is necessary to ensure higher standards of education, both formal and informal. Also it is urgent that the government as a regulating entity ensures the equitable participation of local communities in tourism benefits, control, monitoring, and law enforcement. Moreover, there is the need to encourage and ensure integrated planning of tourism in the different levels of government: local, regional, and national. Sustainable tourism means that the protection of cultural heritage and natural resources is granted at least the same level of importance as the involved economic interests. The unique nature that currently attracts tourists to Galapagos and Sumaco should be preserved not only for ensuring the continuity of the tourism activity itself, but also in order to safeguard biodiversity and natural resources for the coming generations. Responsible tourism practices which care about their social and environmental impacts are not necessarily opposed to economic interests. On the contrary, they need each other for a long-term development.
The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme has been active in South Africa for almost 20 years. The country currently has six designated biosphere reserves with a few sites in various stages of the nomination process. Within the South African context, agencies are using a series of seemingly different instruments to practice landscape-scale management. The UNESCO biosphere reserve concept sometimes finds it difficult to obtain prominence amongst these different landscape initiatives. Biosphere reserves are special sites wherein sustainable development is promoted. For this reason, the biosphere reserve concept has much to offer towards long-term sustainable socialecological land management. In our modern age of population growth, dwindling natural resources and a general disconnectedness of humans from nature due to large scale urbanization, there is an urgent need for innovative ways in which to showcase sustainable living practices. South Africa has limited natural, economic and social resources and therefore needs to prioritize where these resources could best be allocated. This dissertation comprises the history of the MAB Programme in South Africa, as well as a multicase study on five existing biosphere reserves. Results from this study indicated that not all biosphere reserves are equally effective in their implementation of the three functions of biosphere reserves and that all biosphere reserves in South Africa face an uncertain future due to pressing challenges. Collective results of the multicase study as well as literature reviews were used to inform options for the future effective implementation of the MAB Programme in South Africa. Options that could contribute towards effective biosphere reserves include more sustainable funding support, and community-based demonstration projects. In addition a new suite of criteria to inform the selection of future biosphere reserves was developed. Biosphere reserves need to be optimally located in order to secure long-term efficiency and effectiveness. These sites need to be representative of biodiversity, efficiently managed and persistent in the long run. Presently in South Africa, new sites for biosphere reserves are nominated in an ad hoc manner. Should their locations be selected discerningly, they offer many benefits to the South African social and environmental landscape that should be recognized and utilized. The final suite of selection criteria are structured according to four subsections, namely a general section that addresses national matters of general concern to the MAB Programme, and three sections covering the three biosphere reserve functions of conservation, sustainable development and logistic support. This suite of biosphere reserve selection criteria for South Africa is being put forward for deliberation and discussion at local, provincial and national level. It has the potential to be of valuable assistance in selection processes for future effective and efficient biosphere reserves that will proudly earn their place in the South African landscape as “special places for people and nature”.
All-embracing human activities have transformed one-third to one-half of the Earth’s land surface. There is a strong correlation of human well-being with ecosystem function, including poverty alleviation programs as well as enhancements of the health sector. To assess and evaluate the progress and outcome of initiatives stringent periodic observation is necessary. The presented approach combines the strengths of remote sensing and GIS analysis with social research applications. The Bach Ma National Park as an area under investigation was designated as protected area in 1991 and extended in 2008. The national park is uninhabited, but in the surrounding buffer zones approximately 62000 to 79000 people live in rural areas and in mostly impoverished conditions. The comprehensive nature conservation efforts of the Vietnamese Government during the last two decades has led to growing forest coverage of both plantation and natural forests. Nevertheless, the decreasing biodiversity and ongoing illegal logging and hunting activities in the national park are seen as major threats to conservation initiatives in the future. The remote sensing component consists of an analysis of a time series of Landsat images with seven steps ranging from 1973 to 2010. The resulting land cover analysis had 13 different classes. The accuracy assessment revealed an overall accuracy ranging from 84 to 90%. The basis for the second monitoring component was the Landsat images. A total of 25 different landscape metrics on the landscape, class, and patch level were calculated by FRAGSTATS. The third monitoring component is itself divided into two parts. This part consists of a qualitative social research study with 26 expert interviews. The second part consists of 61 standardized questionnaires and an evaluation by SPSS. The assessment reveals a more or less stable forest cover, but with a considerable degradation process during the last four decades. Urban areas outside of the national park have increased in size considerably. For dense and medium forest patches an increasing fragmentation and isolation of patches was observed. Patches of natural forests and habitats of thousands of species have declined dramatically, a trend that is related to a decreasing core area characterised by its undisturbed conditions. The Landsat images and landscape metrics reveal the major differences between the national park and surrounding areas. Despite extensive alterations near the border, remaining forest patches in the national park are still bigger and less fragmented. Nevertheless, the third monitoring component revealed undiscovered changes in the forest beyond the possibilities of used images and metrics. It includes illegal logging and hunting activities. Non-timber forest products are similar to faunistic species collected for both the subsistence of the local residents and associated markets as important sources of income. Based on this bisection, local residents as well as certain strangers are responsible for the activities in the forest. The plan of national park management is to intensify existing monitoring and patrolling in the forest to limit the exploitation and impact in relevant zones. Furthermore, the importance of a network of protected areas has attracted increasing attention. The assessment of the questionnaires reveals that deforestation and also reforestation were the key aspects of historical land cover change. Additionally, for the local residents the conversion of forests into arable land as income alternative is of major importance. Capacity development is not only one priority of the Bach Ma management but also of the international community for all of Vietnam. The tourism industry, one of the most promising opportunities of recent years, stands to support both national park management as well as the local residents. For local residents the extraction of non-timber forest products is an essential portion of the income. The current pilot policy 126/QD-TTg in the extension zone of the national park and research on an appropriate sharing mechanism is of the utmost importance. The established and presented monitoring components are cost-effective and can be used to regularly assess the land cover change of a protected area. They can be implemented together or individually into existing monitoring schemes. A smart combination of pre-existing datasets is necessary to overcome the inconsequential amount of money for monitoring procedures. Supplemented by socio-economic monitoring and the demands as well as impacts of human activity need to be integrated. These extensive requirements for prospective monitoring are only feasible with comprehensive and reliable collaborations.
Geopolymers (GPs) are inorganic binders created by adding alkaline solution (e.g. KOH) to silicates such as furnace slag, fly ash or clay to dissolve Si and Al that polymerises and precipitates to form an inorganic binder material while hardening. GP properties are similar to ordinary Portland cement regarding their high compressive strength or low shrinkage but they are particularly notable for a high resistance to acid and fire. However, the most significant advantage of GP cements is their low CO2 footprint. The most common clay used as GP raw material is kaolin. The aim of this study is to investigate the suitability of illitic clays as a cheaper alternative to kaolin and determine the necessary preparation steps required to produce effective GP binder materials. Three clays dominated by dioctahedral 2:1 layer silicates, in particular interstratifications of mica and smectite were investigated: (1) Illitic clay from Friedland, Northern Germany, containing an irregularly stacked illite-smectite interstratification (R0 I-S), (2) rectorite from Arkansas, USA, as a regular interstratification of mica and smectite, and (3) clay stated as “sárospatakite” from Füzérradvány clay deposit, Northern Hungary, containing a long range ordered I-S (R3). The three types of I-S interstratification-rich clays were extensively characterised and the Friedland clay, as the most probable raw material for GP production, was studied in more detail including several size fraction analyses. These results are used to investigate and determine the parameters necessary to produce suitable precursors for GP binders. Different approaches of clay activation to yield a highly reactive material by milling and heating were examined. Milling was found to be suitable as a preparation step after heating breaking up sintering aggregates to create pathways for the alkaline solution, but not as a substitute for heating. Important parameters for the precursor design such as temperature, time, and heating rate are determined and discussed. Geopolymerisation is considered to be a multi-parameter system and is influenced strongly by the degree of dehydroxylation, Si:Al ratio, or amount of 5-fold coordinated Al. However, in contrast to kaolin-based systems, none of these parameters explain why the illitic Friedland clay heated to 875 °C was found to be most suitable for GP binders. Based on leaching experiments and specific surface area (AS) measurements of the heated Friedland clay, a conceptual model is presented to explain the observed relationship between the heating temperature and the subsequent compressive strength of the GP cement. An optimum between the counteracting reactions of decreasing AS (fewer particles must be covered with GP phase) and decreasing Si+Al dissolved (less GP phase created) is necessary, which exists at 875 °C for the Friedland clay. In this state enough GP phase is created to bind all remaining sintering aggregates to form a cement with high compressive strength. This relationship can be expressed as (Si+Al) / AS (sum of dissolved Si and Al divided by the surface area of grains that must be covered with GP phase), and can be used as a predictive tool for determining the optimal heating temperature. The results presented in this thesis indicate that illitic clays are suitable raw materials as GP binders if the necessary preparation steps of dehydroxylation, sintering and grinding are made. Proxies used to evaluate the optimal conditions for making GP binders are determined including the (Si+Al) / AS ratio as a key relationship that controls the cementation process and determines its ultimate hardness.
Using geopolymers can reduce significant amounts of CO2-emissions during the production compared to Portland cement. Although illite/smectite clays are very abundant on earths crust and rich in SiO2 and Al2O3, studies of their geopolymerization potential are rare. Thus, the illite/smectite clay of Friedland (NE Germany) was calcined (850 °C) and ground to form a reactive metaclay and then mixed with synthetic gibbsite (to test the effect of Al-concentration) and 6 molar NaOH or KOH, in order to study their geopolymerization at 25, 50 and 75 °C within 28 days. The raw clay, the precursors, and the geopolymers were characterized by XRF, XRD, SEM-EDX, Flame-AAS, nitrogen adsorption and compressive strength test. 25 °C was too low to initiate the geopolymerization of illite/smectite. Increasing the curing temperature increased the reactivity of meta-illite/smecite. Si and Al dissolution was confined to the first 24 h, followed by the hardening of the geopolymers within 28 days. At 50°C, KOH-activation formed amorphous and mesoporous aluminosilicates, which significantly cemented the particles and agglomerates of the metaclay. Consequently, geopolymers with high compression strength (~38 N/mm2) were formed. Adding 10 wt% Gibbsite (precursor Si/Al = 2.1) to the metaclay strengthened the formation of amorphous aluminosilicates and increased the compression strength of the geopolymer by 20 % from 38 - 45 N/mm2. At 75 °C, the reactivity of the metaclay in NaOH was higher than in KOH. NaOHactivation at that temperature formed geopolymers with high compression strength (~30 N/mm2) due to the cementation by microporous phillipsite (K-, Na-zeolite) crystals. Thus, alkali-activation of the calcined and ground meta-illite/smectite from Friedland form high strength geopolymers under hydrothermal conditions.
Although the Pleistocene deposits exposed in the steep coastal cliffs of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have been studied for more than a century, the depositional conditions of many lithostratigraphic units remain unclear. There is, in particular, a question whether the individual tills (locally more than 9 successive till units) are mainly subglacial deposits or resedimented (mass flows) in origin (at least in part). The Pleistocene deposits preserve information concerning the former glacial depositional processes. Detailed micromorphological analysis of these deposits can provide key information regarding these processes and thereby aid in the reconstruction of former glacial environments. The island of Rügen is located on the southwestern Baltic Sea coast and was situated in the marginal zone of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet during the last glacial period (Weichselian). Therefore, the region is considered as an ideal area for reconstructing the complex fluctuations in the position of the margin of this ice sheet as it expanded across the Baltic Sea and into northern Germany. Successive glacial advances and retreats of the ice sheet can be reconstructed by specific glacial sedimentation processes and flow-direction criteria derived from a variety of glacial deposits. The investigation area is located near Sassnitz on Rügen, where an imbricated and folded Weichselian succession disconformably overlies Maastrichtian chalk bedrock. The individual till units were sampled for micromorphological analyses to identify the former depositional conditions. Detailed description of the sedimentology and variation in facies, the description of macroscale deformation structures provides the context for the detailed micromorphology study. The three dimensional analysis of the microfabrics is based on the microstructural mapping methodology which enables the identification and interpretation of polyphase deformation within subglacial sediments.
Liu–II coal pit is a typical example of China’s deep coal mines which is seriously threatened by groundwater inrush from the underlying carboniferous Taiyuan limestone formation. An exhaustive data set of this confined aquifer exists. The aquifer lies 45 m∼ 60 m below the major coal seam. A traditional artesian aquifer test has been performed in order to assess the hydraulic properties, e.g. transmissivity (T) and storage coefficient (S). This artesian aquifer test is conducted with four simultaneously operating production wells while the discharge of each production well varied with time. The results of this test suggest that the aquifer is heterogeneous. Therefore, the according problems are: (1) how to analyze the artesian aquifer test with linearly declining discharge; (2) how to deal with multiple production wells in an aquifer test; (3) how to adequately consider aquifer heterogeneity. Thus, the objective of this thesis is to solve these problems. 1) As opposed to classical above-ground pumping tests, it is difficult to control the discharge rate of the production well in a deep mine artesian aquifer test since the hydraulic pressure is extraordinary high. Moreover the discharge rate won’t descend rapidly to zero, thus the analytical solution of Jacob and Lohman (1952) type curve for the artesian aquifer test will not be applicable. It is more reasonable to analyze the test as a pumping test with variable discharge. It is considered to rebuild a hydrogeological conceptual model which is similar with Theis (1935) model but with the variable discharge. A general equation for any discharge variability is given. Its application for the linearly declining discharge is presented subsequently, and a type curve of this equation with linearly declining discharge is given as well. After that, a simple numerical model is built by FEFLOW to simulate an artificial pumping test with the linearly declining discharge by assigning different parameter sets for transmissivity and storage coefficient. The type curve method is applied to evaluate transmissivity and storage coefficient for the linearly declining discharge well. The deviation between the given values of transmissivity and storage coefficient in FEFLOW and the values of those calculated by matching point are sufficiently small. Thus, when the discharge of production well declines linearly, a type curve method as an empirical method is reasonable and gives satisfactory values of these hydrogeological parameters. 2) In some cases, it is necessary to conduct a pumping test (or an artesian aquifer test) with several pumping wells (or production wells) which work simultaneously in order to discharge maximum quantity of groundwater. Normally, the superposition method or numerical simulation is applied to analyze the test result. However, a new approach called “Well Generalization Method” is defined and analyzed in this thesis. It is an easy–to–use approach for hydrogeologist to estimate the aquifer parameters while conducting an aquifer test. Since the key point of this approach is using a generalization well to substitute the pumping (or production) wells, it is obvious that this approach will generate the estimated error of parameters. Accordingly, several scenarios are analyzed and discussed based on the artificial type aquifer designed in FEFLOW. A homogeneous aquifer and a heterogeneous aquifer which is generated by geostatistical stochastic simulation technique (see 3)) are discussed separately. As a result, this approach is feasible and applicable under some conditions when the calculated observation well is arranged more than about 2.5 times the scale of the multi–pumping–wells field away from the center of the multi–pumping–wells field, furthermore, the maximum deviation of drawdown resulting from these observation wells will be less than 0.5 m, and the estimated value of transmissivity will be 0.44% smaller than real value. 3) Finally aquifer heterogeneity is addressed, in order to check the introduced method for applicability under realistic conditions. It has been described that aquifer heterogeneity plays a major role in hydrodynamic processes (e.g. de Marsily et al., 1998). Geostatistics which is considered as a useful tool for characterizing the spatial variability of transmissivity is applied to solve this problem. Based on the results of the artesian aquifer test conducted in Liu–II coal pit, a model of spatial variability of transmissivity is developed. Sequentially, the variogram model is applied in ordinary kriging to interpolate the transmissivity distribution, and in sequential Gaussian simulation to simulate a random field of transmissivity data in order to reflect its small scale variability. A comparison of the results of estimation and simulation of transmissivity indicates that the simulated values better reflect the spatial variability, reversely, the estimated values are much smoother.
The research aims at assessing the impacts of the Benefit Sharing Mechanism (BSM) pilot policy on the socioeconomic factors and natural-resource management in the co-management area between the Bach Ma National Park and the Thuong Nhat community. This is a new approach in Special-Use Forests (SUFs) management in Vietnam, which is needed to assess the scaling up of a national policy on co-management of SUFs in the future. A case study was undertaken in the Bach Ma National Park, which was one of the two national parks chosen to pilot the BSM policy under the Prime Minister’s Decision No 126 (Government-126 2012). In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was collected on BSM implementation schemes; their impacts on local natural-resource use; local awareness of rights, benefits, and responsibilities when participating in the BSM; and local perspectives on the BSM’s achievements, failures, and future potential. Analysis revealed that the local community strongly supported the BSM implementation in the Bach Ma NP, displaying a high level of demand for the measures and significant involvement. Furthermore, thanks to the local people’s participation in the BSM implementation, their household incomes increased and their awareness and practices of NTFP sustainable use and forest protection in the co-management area improved”. The BSM implementation also exposed three main areas of weakness. These included poor compliance with the sustainable-harvest regulations, the apparent over-complexity of the the harvest-application procedures, and the users’ low contributions to the village fund after the NTFP harvest. The current research revealed that, although the local awareness and compliance with the BSM procedures increased annually after BSM implementation, the level of self-management and compliance was still quite low and needed to be improved. Furthermore, some conflicts have arisen between NTFPs users from village to village in Thuong Nhat and between local traders and NTFP collectors. Besides, the research identified two major negative practices: overexploitation of NTFPs and taking advantage of the NTFPs harvest to cut trees or trap animals. This dissertation presents various possibilities for improvement of the BSM implementation through (i) raising local people’s awareness; (ii) simplifying BSM procedures; (iii) clarifying incentives and tasks of BSM actors to enhance co-patrolling and monitoring activities; and (iv) creating good incentives either based on the livelihood program for those who actively comply with the BSM regulations or direct payments to those who join forest-protection activities. Finally, the research scrutinized certain challenges to future duplication of the BSM in other SUFs in Vietnam. To expand the BSM approach to other SUFs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development needs to develop a guideline for BSM implementation to encourage the relevant stakeholders’ involvement. The guideline for national BSM implementation should take account of the differences between local contexts, as well as create the necessary, flexible regulations to be applicable in practice. Therefore, based on the guideline, additional steps are necessary for the development of appropriate specific measures in the course of the BSM implementation at the provincial and local levels.
Destination Image, Tourist Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty: A Case Study of Hue, Vietnam
(2016)
Several studies have confirmed the interrelationship among destination image, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, in which destination image and tourist satisfaction are believed to have great influences on the destination loyalty of tourists. Located in the central region of Vietnam, Hue holds great potential for tourism development and this destination has also obtained numerous significant tourism achievements over recent years.Nevertheless, there are still a lot of issues needed to be addressed by the destination managers in order to make Hue gain a better position and higher level of destination loyalty in the tourism market, in which successfully communicating an attractive destination image to the tourists and improving their satisfaction are the most important tasks. In fact, there exist very few researches concerning destination image, tourist satisfaction or even destination loyalty which have been done in Hue. Moreover, most of these studies are in very small scale and they only examine either the destination image or the tourist satisfaction or the destination loyalty independently. This paper, therefore, aims to deliver the first and comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis of destination image, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty as well as the causal relationship among them in the context of Hue. In this study, a destination loyalty research model was proposed and hypotheses were derived. The empirical data base on two tourist surveys with a total number of 2042 questionnaires collected in Hue in 2013 and 2014. In addition, ten experts were interviewed in different periods during the study. The results find that the tourists’ perceptions on the destination image of Hue are quite positive and the positive level is higher for those who completely have no earlier experience in Hue. It is also discovered that the destination is offering tourists with a pretty satisfactory experience, not as high as their initial expectations, but acceptable with positive ratings received from the tourists. However, if the destination is able to better communicate a positive image to tourists and improves the quality of its offers and services, the tourists’ satisfaction will be increased and thus the destination loyalty will also be enhanced. This finding supports the proposed destination loyalty model: (1) destination image directly influences attribute-satisfaction; (2) destination image and attribute-satisfaction are both direct influences of overall-satisfaction; and (3) overall-satisfaction in turn has a direct and positive impact on destination loyalty. The findings also confirm that attribute-satisfaction and destination image are also the direct influences of destination loyalty. Furthermore, the results add to the proposed loyalty model a new relationship: Destination image is influenced strongly by tourist overall-satisfaction and attribute-satisfaction. The outcomes of this research are expected to be used as a valuable reference for the local policy-makers, governmental agencies, tourism companies and other relevant stakeholders. Also, important theoretical and managerial implications are drawn based on the study findings and the recommendations for future researchers are made from the limitations and scopes of the study.
The focus of this study is on the geochronological and paleo-climatic characterization of late Pleistocene glaciations in Turgen and the Khangai Mountains located in central and western Mongolia. These two mountain ranges form a 700 km long NW-SE transect through Mongolia and allow assumptions of the temporal and causal dynamics of the regional late Quaternary glaciations and their correlation to other mountain glacier records from Central and High Asia. In order to evaluate extent and timing of the Pleistocene glaciations in Mongolia, geomorphological mapping and cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) surface exposure dating (10Be) were carried out in four valley systems located in the Khangai and Turgen Mountains. Additionally, a coupled 2-D surface energy balance and ice flow model was used to determine steady-state conditions for glaciers under various climatic scenarios. With this model it is possible to test combinations of temperature and precipitation settings, which would produce glacier configurations that fit the field-mapped ice extent. In total, 47 glacial boulders and roche moutonnées were sampled, prepared and AMS measured to determine the absolute timing of moraine formation and ice retreat based on 10Be surface exposure dating. Of these, 27 samples were obtained from the Khangai Mountains (three separate moraine sequences) and 20 samples were taken from the Turgen Mountains (two moraine sequences). The dating results (presented as minimum ages) give evidence for a late Pleistocene maximum ice expansion during late MIS 5 (81−78 ka) and major ice advances during MIS 2 (26−20 ka) in both mountain ranges. Only in the Khangai Mountains (central Mongolia) very significant glacier advances also occurred during mid-MIS 3 (49−35 ka), which exceeded the ice limits set during the MIS 2 glaciation. A final ice position, constructed shortly before the onset of full ice retreat was formed between 19-16 ka, and is likely to represent a recessional ice stillstand, or alternatively a final ice readvance during the early part of the last-glacial-interglacial-transition (LGIT) in both mountain ranges. Energy/mass balance and ice flow modeling results suggest that climatic conditions during the MIS 5 and MIS 3 maximum advances in the Khangai Mountains were depressed between a ∆T of -6.0 to -5.2 °C with a precipitation factor of 1.25-1.75 (P = 125-175 %, compared to modern conditions), and a ∆T of -5.3 to -4.4 °C (P = 75-125 %), respectively. For the MIS 2 ice advances modeling results from the Turgen and Khangai Mountains suggest a temperature depression ∆T of -5.7 to -4.6 °C (at 22 ka; P = 25-50 %) in the East-Turgen, and a ∆T of -7.5 to -6.6 °C (at 20 ka; P = 25-50 %) in the Chulut area (Khangai Mountains). These results document a 1.8 - 2 °C difference of the modeled temperatures required to expand the studied paleo-glaciers in the Turgen and Khangai mountains to their field-mapped MIS 2 ice limits, highlighting a spatially differentiated pattern of paleo-temperature lowering across the studied 700 km NW-SE transect. Taken together, the presented record indicates that the largest ice advance in both investigated mountain ranges occurred during the MIS 5 / MIS 4 transition, despite earlier suggestions by previous studies that the local glacial maximum would be associated with the coldest periods of the last glacial cycle (i.e. MIS 4 or MIS 2). Glacier systems in the Khangai Mountains also increased substantially during MIS 3 (local LGM) in response to cool but comparable wet conditions, probably with a greater-than-today input from winter precipitation and an additional input of recycled moisture from expanded paleo-lakes in the Valley of the Great Lakes. The lack of a severe cooling during the MIS 3 ice advances, and probably also during the late MIS 5 ice expansion, suggests that variations in atmospheric circulation patterns, with its significance for controlling the regional precipitation/moisture supply, was a key driver for these late Pleistocene ice advances in Mongolia. This notwithstanding, there is also clear evidence for the development of an extensive glaciation during MIS 2, coinciding with a period of severe cooling and hyperarid conditions. This highlights that glacier systems in Mongolia responded sensitively, both, to variations in moisture supply and its seasonal distribution, and to the marked insolation minima during the last glacial cycle.
Coastal and marginal seas – like the Baltic Sea – serve as natural reaction sites for the turnover and accumulation of land-derived inputs. The main location for the modification and deposition of the introduced material is, in most cases, not the water mass, but the sediment. Its key function as central reactor in the interaction between land and sea has so far been insufficiently studied and assessed. This study was part of the interdisciplinary SECOS project that aimed to identify and evaluate the service functions of sediments in German coastal seas in the context of human use with a focus on the Baltic Sea. One of its goals was to assess sediment functions related to the intermediate storage or final sink of imported material like nutrients and contaminants, and quantify their inventory as well as their mass accumulation rates on multi-decadal to multi-centennial time scales. For that, a detailed examination of the natural and anthropogenic processes that interfere with sediment accumulation in the south-western Baltic Sea basins is essential.
Certain basal Teleostei from the Early Jurassic of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany) and the Late Jurassic of the Franconian Alb (Bavaria, Germany), the Swabian Alb (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) and the western Jura-Mountains (Ain, France) are described. The present doctoral dissertation includes four studies, dealing with representatives of “Pholidophoriformes”, Leptolepidae and Orthogonikleithridae. These studies include anatomical descriptions of new taxa and reviews of poorly known fishes. Furthermore, the stratigraphic and palaeobiogeographical distributions of the examined taxa are discussed.
Quang Xuong is considered as one of the most developed districts in Thanh Hoa Province in terms of agricultural. The major purpose of this research is to find good places to suggest for annual crops production in the case study. Therefore, the assessment of land potential productivity, land suitability, and land cover/land use change in different periods is essential for making strategies of sustainable agricultural development as this will help land-users and land managers to discover the potential and limitations of the current existing land conditions to make appropriate policies and plans for future land use. Its results will provide basic information to make reasonable decisions for investments and rational reclamations of cultivated land before and after each crop season in order to meet the objectives of sustainable development in terms of economic efficiency, social acceptability, and environmental protection. The research site is located at latitudes 19 degree 34 minute N - 19 degree 47 minuteN and at longitudes 105 degree 46 minute E - 105 degree 53 minute E. The total area is about 227km2; in which 128km2 is in use for agricultural activities. Based on soil classification methods by FAO-UNESCO (1988), the agricultural land is classified into six main soil groups, including Arenosols, Salic Fluvisols, Fluvisols, Gleysols, Acrisols, and Leptosols, 12 soil units and 18 sub-units. The largest area belongs to the Fluvisols group with 9358.29ha and the smallest area is identified as the Leptosol group with 219.33ha. Most of the soil in this district has low to moderate nutrition, but in general, they are still suitable for agricultural production. There are 42 land units defined in the land mapping, which can be different from each other by one or more land characteristics. The land mapping unit is created from the overlay of all thematic maps of soil chemicals, soil physical characteristics, and relative topography together by application of GIS techniques. It presents land characteristics and properties in this case study and will be used in comparasion with a particular crop requirement for growth in land suitability evaluation process. A certain land unit may be suitable for one or more types of different land use. It is also classified as highly suitable for a specific land utilization type, but less suitable or unsuitable for other crops. For example, in this study, land unit 26 is determined as highly suitable (S1) for growing paddy rice and maize, but it falls into moderately suitability (S2) for groundnut crop by using parametric (square root) method used in this thesis. Depending on the kind of crops need to be evaluated and its requirement for development compared with each land unit characteristics, land-users will determine the best suitable place for crop production. Identification of land use change in different periods of time has become a central key to monitoring of land resources. It is relatively important for effective land management to protect the land resources, especially the land used for agricultural production from overuse and environmental changes. The sprawl of inhabitant areas, development of rural infrastructures, and industrialization are responsible for serious losses of agricultural land. In this study, remote sensing techniques were applied to studying the trends of land cover change in the abovementioned district in a period of about 24 years from 1989 to 2013. ArcGIS software was adopted to develop the land cover and the change of land use maps from 1989 to 2013. Two satellite images with moderate resolution were collected from USGS Earth Explorer website, Landsat5 TM for 1989 and Landsat8 OLI & TIRS for 2013. After image geo-processing, the images were classified into six land cover categories by applying supervised classification method (Maximum Likelihood). The six main obtained land cover types were built-up areas, agricultural land, forest land, water surface area, salty land, and unused land. The overall accuracies of land cover maps for 1989 and 2013 were 94.08% and 92.91%, respectively. The results of change detection analysis indicate that the cultivated, water surface and unused lands decreased by 22%, 17%, and 91%, respectively. In other side, the built-up and salty land increased by 78%, 58%, respectively and forest land increased from 52.69ha in 1989 to 395.76ha in 2013. The assessment of land potential productivity for agricultural production and land suitability for selected annual crops was based on FAO guidelines for land evaluation (FAO, 1976, 1985, and 1993) which were adopted and slightly modified for compatibility with Vietnamese conditions. All related data were stored, analyzed, mapped and presented in ArcGIS software. Weighted Linear Combination Method developed by Hopkins (1977) and GIS techniques were used to analyze and determine the land potential for agricultural use in the study area. The results show that 5.26%, 83.10%, 10.06%, and 1.57% of the investigated areas were assessed as high potential, moderate potential, low potential and very low potential for growing crops. Regarding land suitability evaluation, the simple limitation, parametric (square root), and AHP methods were used to evaluate the suitability levels for selected crops, including paddy rice, sweet potato, groundnut, maize, potato, sesame, soybean, and green pepper. The obtained results indicate that each applied method provides different results of land suitability level for a specific crop in certain land units compared to the other two methods, and OM, soil pH, soil texture, and relative topography were found out as the main limitation factors which affected land suitability level. The study also suggests that three different methods as abovementioned can be expanded and applied in other places with the appropriate factors used for land suitability evaluation according to particular area conditions.
A large portion of the earth's surface is covered with various vegetation classes (i.e. grassland, wetland and agricultural area, forest) of many diverse species and canopy configurations. The ability to assess and to monitor canopy parameters, such as biomass, leaf area index, and vegetation water content, is of vital importance to the study of different agronomic processes. Remote sensing techniques provide a unique capability towards probing different vegetation types and canopy by operating at different bands, observation angle etc. Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in remote sensing techniques of land processes specially vegetation characteristics through development of advanced ground-based, airborne and space-borne microwave sensors, methods and approaches such as theoretical, semi-empirical and empirical models, needed for analyzing the data. These activities have sharply increased in recent years since the launch of different active and passive satellites and sensors. Remote Sensing (RS) science and techniques combined with ground truth data can provide new tools for advanced agricultural crop applications. It has been demonstrated that RS has the ability to estimate biophysical parameters of agricultural crops over time at local, regional, and global scales. In this study, RS images in visible/near infrared (VIS/NIR) domain as well as microwave domain combined with ground truth data were used to assess biophysical parameters of agricultural crop during their whole growing season at Durable Environmental Multidisciplinary Monitoring Information Network (DEMMIN) test site in North East Germany. Ground truth studies were carried out for 31 weeks during 17th April – 13th November 2013 over three crop lands including winter wheat, barley and canola. Landsat 8 OLI, Landsat 7 ETM+ were used for the VIS/NIR studies and TerraSAR-X synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images were used to study biophysical parameters of agricultural crops in microwave part of electromagnetic spectrum. The analysis was conducted by calculating different vegetation indices (VIs) to estimate the biomass (fresh and dry), LAI, and vegetation water content (VWC) of three crops using Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 7 ETM+ combined with ground truth data. A new concept of Soil Line retrieval from Landsat 8 image was also developed to estimate plant biophysical parameters using soil line related vegetation indices in optical domain of electromagnetic spectrum. Different approaches including univariate, multivariate stepwise regression and semi-empirical water cloud model was also used to estimate the biophysical parameters of agricultural crop using TerraSAR-X data in microwave domain of electromagnetic spectrum. Perhaps the most important conclusion of this study is that the RS approach can provide useful information about estimating agricultural crop parameters over time and local scale, which can therefore provide valuable information to aid the agronomy community.
This thesis aims to develop a palaeogeographic and chronostratigraphic model of the southwestern Baltic Sea area, to improve our understanding of the depositional history of the Late Pleistocene on both a local and a transregional scale. New sedimentological, palaeontological and numerical age data will be presented from three reference sites located at the coast of NE Germany. So far, the chronostratigraphic assignment of Saalian and Weichselian sediments of NE Germany has been based mainly on lithostratigraphic methods and on sparse numerical age data, resulting in a fragmentary age database. Modern sedimentological approaches, such as facies analyses, have been applied only at a few isolated profiles. Thus, a reliable reconstruction of the depositional environments and their stratigraphic positions is still missing for the study area, which makes the correlation between Pleistocene successions from NE Germany and other circum-Baltic regions problematic. To address these lithostratigraphic and geochronologic issues, three crucial profiles were re-investigated using a multiproxy approach, including sedimentological, geochronological, and palaeontological techniques. The Glowe and Kluckow sites are located on the peninsula of Jasmund (Rügen Island), whereas the Klein Klütz Höved (KKH) section is situated between Wismar and Travemünde at the coast of the Mecklenburg Bay. The age-constraining of critical horizons was conducted by luminescence dating of feldspar and quartz grain minerals. Together, these successions represent the Late Saalian to Late Weichselian period and give rise to the following picture. The Glowe and Kluckow sections reveal that ice-free conditions dominated the study site between 47 and 42 ka. Deposition occurred in a steppe-like environment with moderate summers and cool winters. Meandering and braided river systems inhabited by various freshwater species, such as Anodonta cygnea, Pisidium amnicum and Perca fluviatilis, shaped the landscape. A subsequent cooling phase resulted in the establishment of a periglacial landscape and the formation of ice-wedges. This phase is shown in this thesis to be connected to the Klintholm advance documented at 34±4 ka in Denmark. Furthermore, the data indicate the formation of a lacustrine basin during the transition of MIS 3 to MIS 2 under sub-arctic climate conditions. A potential link to the Kattegat ice advance (29 – 26 ka) will be proposed. At 23±2 ka, the study area was characterised by proglacial and ice-contact lakes related to the Last Glacial Maximum ice advance of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS). This is the first documented SIS advance of Weichselian age, which reached Jasmund at 22±2 ka. The KKH sedimentary succession comprises deposits of Late Saalian to Late Weichselian age: after a period of deglaciation between ~139-134 ka (Termination II; MIS 6), which is preserved in a glaciofluvial sequence deposited in a braided river system, a lacustrine environment was established in an arctic to subarctic climate. During this time, the landscape was vegetated by typical Late Saalian flora communities. The Eemian interglacial is represented by lacustrine to brackish deposits covering the reference pollen zones 1 to 3. During this initial part of the Eemian, thermophile forest elements spread (Quercus, Ulmus), indicating a deciduous forest. The presence of brackish ostracods represents the influence of a marine transgression between 300 and 750 years after the beginning of the Eemian period. A hiatus of more than 90,000 years separates the Eemian from the overlying Late Weichselian sediments. During the Late Weichselian period, the deposition at KKH was dominated by glaciolacustrine and subglacial facies, where the first Weichselian ice advance occurred at 20±2 ka. The sedimentological and geochronological findings in this thesis provide valuable information for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental history from the Late Saalian to Late Weichselian period. The Late Saalian palaeoenvironmental setting is reconstructed, including Termination II and the initial phase of the Eemian interglacial. Furthermore, the Eemian marine transgression is shown to have occurred 300 to 750 years after the beginning of this interglacial. The first proven Weichselian advance of the SIS approached NE Germany between ~23 and ~20 ka. In contrast, there is no evidence to support a pre-LGM advance of Weichselian age to the study area, as proposed by several authors, neither at Glowe and Kluckow, nor at the KKH site. Based on the presented results, and contra what was previously assumed, the MIS 3 Ristinge and Klintholm advance of the SIS, documented in Denmark, did not reach NE Germany.
Tourism is a multifaceted economy and based on existing nature, as well as on culture in a geographical space to become a successful destination for tourism. The topic of this survey is how tourism in the transitioning country of Vietnam influences culture and nature or vice versa. A special focus will be on the transitioning aspect. This study gives insights about how in the transitioning country of Vietnam, tourism can act as an additional driver of change in terms of nature and culture or if tourism is only adapting to these changes. Therefore in the beginning the subject of ‘social-ecological transformation’ is described and furthermore the situation in Vietnam will be introduced. The key aspects here will be within the range of geography and sociology. It becomes evident, that scientific views on this topic are rather diverse, but nevertheless many theoretical aspects can be observed also in the investigation area Vietnam. Within the country several aspects of economic transition already became reality, while others, like social, ecological or political reforms, are still at the beginning. The empirical part of this study deals with existing thoughts, according to the topic of transition, in relation to tourism development and respectively to environmental understanding, by analyzing and comparing positions of 21 international and Vietnamese experts, 569 international tourists and 710 Vietnamese students. By doing so, similarities within opinions about tourism development and the environmental situation in the country became observable. While tourism is rated as a mostly positive development, the current environmental situation has mostly been criticized by all survey participants. Apart from that, connections between both aspects (tourism economy and nature) are often of no importance or the relationship is identified to be just a rudimentary one. In case of these opinions, involvement within one social group and personal experience is of larger importance than cultural conditioning (European or Asian), e.g. own travels, own jobs and own education. This fact becomes visible by very similar ratings of environmental problems on the one hand and the beauty of natural landscapes on the other hand, done by both survey groups; namely international tourists and Vietnamese students.
The present doctoral dissertation comprises new studies on the fossil vertebrate assemblage recovered from the late Early Jurassic marine “Green Series” clay deposits of Grimmen and Dobbertin in north-eastern Germany that contribute to fill the gap of knowledge regarding its faunal composition and its relevance for understanding Early Jurassic vertebrate life. The investigations led to the recognition of wide range of vertebrate taxa, including basal gravisaurian sauropods, secondarily marine reptiles, a diverse fauna of leptolepid fishes, and a new genus and species of pycnodontiform fishes. In addition, a taxonomic revision of the Early Jurassic saurichthyid fish Saurorhynchus was performed, leading to the identification of two new, previously unnamed species. The results provide new insights into the taxonomic, systematic, and ecological diversity of Early Jurassic vertebrates, and hence add significant new data to our knowledge on Lower Jurassic vertebrate palaeobiodiversity patterns.
The establishment and management of protected areas has become a universally accepted way to conserve biodiversity and the wide range of goods and services they offer. Sustainable management of forest resources requires good decision-making from a range of different stakeholders. This dissertation develops a model based on spatial data and expert judgments to assess the vulnerability of the most threatened species of fauna and flora in a selected protected area. Based on the study objectives, the availability of data and technology, the study concludes vulnerability as composed of multidimensional losses, which can be measured as a function of the three components: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. In order to measure vulnerability, the research applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a well-known multi-criteria decision making approach, using the open access Super Decisions software in a spatial database context with the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Monitoring of Calcite Precipitation in Hardwater Lakes with Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Archives
(2017)
Glacitectonic deformation in the Quaternary caused the tectonic framework of large-scale folds and displaced thrust sheets of Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) chalk and Pleistocene glacial deposits in the southwestern Baltic Sea area.
A wide spectrum of methods has been compiled to unravel the structural evolution of the Jasmund Glacitectonic Complex. The analyses of digital elevation models (DEM) suggest a division into two structural sub-complexes – a northern part with morphological ridges striking NW–SE and a southern part with SW–NE trending ridges. Geological cross sections from the eastern coast (southern sub-complex) were constructed and restored using the software Move™ and the complementary module 2D Kinematic Modelling™.
The final geometric model of the southern sub-complex shows a small-scale fold-and-thrust belt. It includes three different orders of architectural surfaces (see PEDERSEN, 2014): erosional surfaces and the décollement (1st order), thrust faults (2nd order), and beds outlining hanging-wall anticlines as well as footwall synclines (3rd order). Thrust faults of the southern structural sub-complex are mainly inclined towards south, which indicates a local glacier push from the S/SE.
The glacitectonic structures have a surface expression in form of sub-parallel ridges and elongated valleys in between. Geomorphological mapping and detailed landform analyses together with the structural investigations provide an insight into the chronology of sub-complexes formation. The northern part of the glacitectonic complex is suggested to have been formed before the southern one, considering the partly truncated northerly ridges and their superimposition by the southern sub-complex.
Although there is a high number of scientific publications on the glacitectonic evolution of Jasmund, these presented models often lack a consistent theory for the development integrating all parts of the 100 km2 large complex. Therefore, the combination of all results leads to a more self-consistent genetic model for the entire Jasmund Glacitectonic Complex.
Growth corridors have been an instrument of
economic development for decades but have gained new
attention in regional economic development policies in recent years, e.g., in Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia.
They are seen by policy makers and private businesses as
catalysts of regional economic integration, pushing traditional businesses into increasingly complex international
value chains. However, the outcomes of such development
initiatives are still barely understood. Critics argue that development policies are based on simplified models that are
unable to sufficiently address the complexity of regional
development. Policies on value-chain development, for
example, can lead to conflicts, external dependencies,
land rush, and a polarization of wealth. Growth corridors
often go hand-in-hand with socio-economic transformations and land-use conflicts. This paper first discusses the
theoretically possible desired and undesired regional socio-economic effects of modern corridors. Second, we illustrate the potential and challenges to realize integrative
(or inclusive) development by contrasting three growth
corridors: the SAGCOT growth corridor in Tanzania, the
Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Corridor
(WBNLDC) in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the
growth corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)
Multiproxy investigations of lacustrine sediments from Laguna Azul (52 °S) document multi-millennial Holocene influences of Southern Hemispheric Westerlies (SHW) on the hydroclimatic variability of south-eastern Patagonia. During the last 4000 years, this hydroclimatic variability is overprinted by centennial warm/dry periods. A cool/wet period from 11,600 to 10,100 cal. BP is succeeded by an early Holocene dry period (10,100–8300 cal. BP) with a shallow lake, strong anoxia, methanogenesis and high salinity. Between 8300 and 4000 cal. BP the influence of SHW weakened, resulting in a freshwater lake considered to be related to less arid conditions. Since 4000 cal. BP, regional temperature decreased accompanied by re-intensification of SHW reaching full strength since 3000 cal. BP. Centred around 2200, 1000 cal. BP and in the 20th century, Laguna Azul experienced century-long warm/dry spells. Between these dry periods, two pronounced moist periods are suggested to be contemporaneous to the ‘Dark Age Cold Period’ and the ‘Little Ice Age’. Different from millennial SHW variations, centennial fluctuations appear to be synchronous for South America and the Northern Hemisphere. Changes in solar activity, large volcanic eruptions and/or modulations of ocean circulation are potential triggers for this synchronicity.
The southern Baltic Sea embodies an incomparable geological archive of the tectonic evolution of the 450 Ma old Trans‐European Suture Zone (TESZ). This WNW to NW trending suture formed during the collision of Baltica and Avalonia and has accommodated the repeatedly changing stress regimes since then, as evidenced by numerous fault zones and systems. The German offshore part in the vicinity of Rügen Island is strongly block‐faulted, with each block showing a specific geological pattern, enabling the reconstruction of the structural evolution of the area.
The work of this thesis is part of the USO working group of the University of Greifswald and the Geological Survey of Mecklenburg‐Western Pomerania, which aims to build a unified three‐dimensional tectonic model of the southern Baltic Sea area. This thesis presents the results of new structural investigations of the Arkona, Wolin and Gryfice blocks north and east of Rügen. Especially, conflicting structural analyses in the previous work are united into a consistent model.
The integrated interpretation of 144 reprocessed seismic vintage lines (original Petrobaltic data) and 23 high resolution academic seismic sections (from the Universities of Hamburg and Bremen), with additional consideration of on‐ and offshore wells, revealed 19 seismostratigraphic horizons that subdivide the succession between the Proterozoic basement and the Upper Cretaceous. Up to 100 faults of superior fault zones and systems control the tectonic situation. Besides NW trending deep faults formed during the Palaeozoic, for instance the Wiek and Nord Jasmund faults, and NNW trending Mesozoic faults and flexures that belong to the Western Pomeranian Fault System, other major faults such as the Adler‐Kamień Fault Zone document the polyphase evolution of this area.
The restoration of selected seismic sections support the evaluation of separately generated faults and their reactivation, leading to a subdivision of the tectonic evolution of the area into six stages:
(1) The Caledonian Orogeny (Ordovician/Silurian) was accompanied by a NE‐SW compression, resulting in the formation of the TESZ and an accretionary wedge within the upper crust. (2) The following S to SW trending extension of the Variscan Foreland (Devonian/Carboniferous) triggered the
evolution of the Middle Devonian Old Red Rügen Basin south of the Wiek Fault. Further WNW to NW trending faults (e.g. Nord Jasmund Fault) subdivided the basin. (3) The advancing Variscan Orogeny (Late Carboniferous) caused an increasing NE‐SW orientated compression and subsequently reactivated faults and tilted blocks (e.g. Lohme Sub‐block). (4) The North German Basin and Mid Polish Trough formed by thermic subsidence in the S to SE of the research area during the Permo‐Carboniferous. Simultaneously, the evolution of the Gryfice Graben as part of the Teisseyre‐Tornquist Zone commenced. (5) Due to the Arctic‐North Atlantic Rifting an E‐W trending extension increased. Consequently, grabens such as the Gryfice Graben continued their subsidence. As the stress system rotated counter‐clockwise, the shear strength increased along the NE trending faults. The Western Pomeranian Fault System developed due to intense transtension during the Keuper and Jurassic, and is characterised by pull‐apart structures. (6) In the Upper Cretaceous, a NE‐SW compression, forced by the Africa‐Iberia‐Europe convergence, triggered the reactivation of faults and flexures as reverse ones, the inversion of grabens (e.g. Gryfice Graben), and the formation of anticlines, for instance at the Wolin Block.
This thesis combines the calculation of gridded time structure maps and a detailed fault pattern analysis, and represents the base for a velocity‐ and subsequently depth‐based 3D modelling.
The importance of investments by emerging country multinationals to industrialised economies has risen continuously as illustrated by the growing number of Chinese merger and acquisitions (M&A) of German Mittelstand firms. This dissertation aims to analyse the effects of institutional distances on the M&A process. To this end, William Scott’s concept of institutions is newly operationalized to investigate institutional distances on the intra-firm, regional and international level. Through interviews with involved firms, intermediaries and key persons with dual backgrounds, the effects on different dimensions of the subsidiaries’ embeddedness as well as various mechanisms of institutional work during and after the M&A are evaluated.
The site at the southern shore of Krakower See shows the Quaternary geology of the surrounding
area. The local Quaternary sequence comprises a thickness of 50–100m of Quaternary deposits while
the surface morphology is dominated by the ice marginal position of the Pomeranian moraine, which
passes through the area. The bathymetry of the lake basin of Krakower See indicates a predominant
genesis by glaciofluvial erosion in combination with glacial exaration. Past research in this area has focussed
on the reconstruction of Pleniglacial to Holocene environmental changes, including lake-level
fluctuations, aeolian dynamics, and pedological processes and their modification by anthropogenic
land use.
The Müritzeum is a nature discovery centre and a museum in the heart of the Mecklenburg Lake District. It is the first natural history museum in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with natural history collections that are over 150 years old, and are still growing today. The collections contain about 290 000 specimens from the fields of botany, zoology and geology. An extensive library and an archive are also
part of the museum. Collecting, preserving and researching natural history are our main spheres of activity. The exhibition in the Müritzeum offers the visitor a comprehensive insight into the development of the nature and landscape of northeastern Germany and of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Lake Müritz region in particular. The largest aquarium for indigenous freshwater species in Germany enables visitors to imagine themselves in the underwater world of the Mecklenburg Lake District.