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Oases is a special ecosystem formed in arid climate and hungriness environment, in which resident, water and soil are the principal factor and exchanges of materials, energy and information are the main functional characteristics. The oases regions in central Asia are not only the basilic cradle of civilization of human beings, but also the important strategic places in world growing awareness of the potential benefits. We choose Keriya River Basin oases in south of Xinjiang as a case to study critical controlling of Oases Evolution, Based on the theories and methods used for environmental geology, physical geography, land resource research, and oases ecology. This study try to indicate the essential factors driving the oases ecosystem and the interactional dynamic mechanism in different scales and levels, confirm the optimal equilibrium aggregate of harmonious development between Population, Resources, Environment and Development, and establish the critical controlling pattern of sustainable development. We advance the indicator system to research the evolution of the PRED System of oases in Keriya River valley oases, in basis of the information derived from the field investigation and local materials. According to inquisitional result based on technical support of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sense (RS), the comparisons and analyses are carried out in land use at the upper reaches, vegetation change in the middle reaches, and desertification at the lower reaches, which narrates the regulations of Keriya River Valley oases land cover dynamic change. The main land cover types represent distinct characteristics of the local place. On the basis of field survey and statistical data, we use ARCINFO software to preprocess these data and the 2 TM satellite images. Through analyzing these images resulting from post- classification compare, we sums up the concrete quantificational dynamic distributed data of 13 land types covering a span of 15 years and regulation of the local ecological environment system. It finally points out that the trend of Keriya River Valley oases desertification expansion is mainly related to two important reasons: impact of natural environment and impact of human activities.
The Barbara Petchenik Award was created by the International Cartographic Association in 1993. The aims of the competition are to promote childrens creative representation of the world, to enhance their cartographic awareness and to make them more conscious of their environment. Every two years a lot of children from all over the world take part in this competition. The national committee for organizing the competition in Germany collected and archieved all of the german entries since 1993. The evaluation of the childrens maps takes place continuous and get an insight into the cartogaphic and spatial comprehension of the children. The favourite subjects of the paintings depend on the age of children and current occurrences during the time of making the maps (map as document of the times). Designing an own map requires a good knowledge of cartographic rules. Therefor especially the creation of thematic maps shows very clear the stage of development of childrens cartographic education and spatial ideas. The connection of their selected subjects with the map design is very different. Either the most imaginative created subject in a way of a picture or the exact cartographic design comes to the fore. In some cases were noticed a very good combination between figurative and cartographic expression with a high harmony of a recognizable message and cartographic content. A development of cartographic and spatial comprehension in general can be seen, but the childrens maps waver between reality and fantasy.
Helming, K. (Hrsg.), Sustainable Development of Multifunctional Landscapes; Berlin, Springer, 2003
(2003)
Detection of different land degradation stages in semi-arid grassland areas in Souhtern Africa
(2003)
As a consequence of increasing winter rainfall totals and intensities over the second half of the 20th century, signs of increased flooding probability in many areas of the Rhine and Meuse basins have been documented. These changes affecting rainfall characteristics are most evidently due to an increase in westerly atmospheric circulation types. Land use changes, particularly urbanization, can have significant local effects in small basins (headwaters) with respect to flooding, especially during heavy local rainstorms, but no evidence exists that land use change has had significant effects on peak flows in the rivers Rhine and Meuse. For the 21st century, most global circulation models suggest higher winter rainfall totals. Most hydrological simulations of the Rhine-Meuse river basins suggest an increased flooding probability, with a progressive shift of the Rhine from a 'rain-fed/meltwater' river into a mainly 'rain-fed' river. A very limited effect of changes in land use on the discharge regime seems to exist for the main branches of the Meuse and Rhine rivers. For mesoscale basins, future changes in peak flows depend on the changes in the variability of extreme precipitations in combination with land use changes. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd
Studies of the role of disturbance in vegetation or ecosystems showed that disturbances are an essential and intrinsic element of ecosystems that contribute substantially to ecosystem health, to structural diversity of ecosystems and to nutrient cycling at the local as well as global level. Fire as a grassland, bush or forest fire is a special disturbance agent, since it is caused by biotic as well abiotic environmental factors. Fire affects biogeochemical cycles and plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry by releasing climate-sensitive trace gases and aerosols, and thus in the global carbon cycle by releasing approximately 3.9 Gt C p.a. through biomass burning. A combined model to describe effects and feedbacks between fire and vegetation became relevant as changes in fire regimes due to land use and land management were observed and the global dimension of biomass burnt as an important carbon flux to the atmosphere, its influence on atmospheric chemistry and climate as well as vegetation dynamics were emphasized. The existing modelling approaches would not allow these investigations. As a consequence, an optimal set of variables that best describes fire occurrence, fire spread and its effects in ecosystems had to be defined, which can simulate observed fire regimes and help to analyse interactions between fire and vegetation dynamics as well as to allude to the reasons behind changing fire regimes. Especially, dynamic links between vegetation, climate and fire processes are required to analyse dynamic feedbacks and effects of changes of single environmental factors. This led us to the point, where new fire models had to be developed that would allow the investigations, mentioned above, and could help to improve our understanding of the role of fire in global ecology. In conclusion of the thesis, one can state that moisture conditions, its persistence over time and fuel load are the important components that describe global fire pattern. If time series of a particular region are to be reproduced, specific ignition sources, fire-critical climate conditions and vegetation composition become additional determinants. Vegetation composition changes the level of fire occurrence and spread, but has limited impact on the inter-annual variability of fire. The importance to consider the full range of major fire processes and links to vegetation dynamics become apparent under climate change conditions. Increases in climate-dependent length of fire season does not automatically imply increases in biomass burnt, it can be buffered or accelerated by changes in vegetation productivity. Changes in vegetation composition as well as enhanced vegetation productivity can intensify changes in fire and lead to even more fire-related emissions. --- Anmerkung: Die Autorin ist Trägerin des von der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam vergebenen Michelson-Preises für die beste Promotion des Jahres 2002/2003.