scholarly journals Cultural Landmarks and Urban Landscapes in Three Contrasting Societies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4295
Author(s):  
Jiquan Chen ◽  
Hogeun Park ◽  
Peilei Fan ◽  
Li Tian ◽  
Zutao Ouyang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reference Points ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Global Database ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Emerging Culture ◽  
Cardinal Directions ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Negative Relationships

Cultural heritage sites and landscapes are intuitively connected in urban systems. Based on available databases of cultural landmarks, we selected three pairs of cities that are currently dominated by three contrasting religions (Catholic, Buddhist and emerging culture) to compare the long-term changes in cultural landmarks, to quantify their spatial distribution in the current landscape, and to examine the potential influences these landmarks have on landscapes. The landmark database and landscapes were constructed from archived maps, satellite imagery and the UNESCO heritage sites for Barcelona, Bari, Beijing, Vientiane, Shenzhen, and Ulaanbaatar. Roads in Asian cities are mostly constructed in alignment with the four cardinal directions, forming a checkerboard-type landscape, whereas Bari and Barcelona in Europe have examples of roads radiating from major cultural landmarks. We found clear differences in the number of landmarks and surrounding landscape in these cities, supporting our hypothesis that current urban landscapes have been influenced similarly by cultural landmarks, although substantial differences exist among cities. Negative relationships between the number of cultural landmarks and major cover types were found, except with agricultural lands. Clearly, cultural landmarks need to be treated as “natural features” and considered as reference points in urban planning. Major efforts are needed to construct a global database before an overarching conclusion can be made for global cities.

scholarly journals Building with Nature in landscape practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Maike Van Stiphout
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Novel Ecosystem ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Building With Nature ◽  
The Status ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Surrounding Landscape

In a world where increased prosperity has created a number of novel, ecosystem-related threats to people’s health and the economy, designing with nature offers a promising outlook to mute the potential negative impacts of our actions and to keep improving the quality of life worldwide. It also provides an alternative to an attitude that has been largely negligent towards our non-human fellow beings. Drawing from the experience of DS landscape architects, four actualized projects and two student master theses illustrate the challenges, opportunities and benefits that building with nature presents. These cases highlight four important lessons for designing with nature in rural and urban landscapes. First, considering the surrounding landscape as a starting point creates a deeper understanding of the situation at hand. This allows for better planning with the ecosystem and enhances the richness of its biodiversity once a project is delivered. Secondly, planning with nature creates the opportunity to let nature do some of the work. This can include water purification, drainage, and cooling. The third lesson is that designing with nature requires a long-term plan. Maintenance might be necessary, and the public may need to be patient to watch the ecosystem slowly flourish through the decades. Finally, creating a new kind of wilderness-imbued beauty to inspire public acceptance and to motivate stewardship is a promising method for establishing a successful long-term nature-inclusive design project. These and other lessons contribute to a field of design where incorporating nature is the status quo.

An Alternative Perspective on Recruitment Overfishing and Biological Reference Points

1987 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Sissenwine ◽  
J. G. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Fishing Mortality ◽  
Alternative Perspective ◽  
Conventional Models ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Yield Per Recruit ◽  
Spawning Biomass

Biological reference points are used to guide fisheries management decisions. The reference points most often used are expressed in terms of fishing mortality rate (F). Fmsy relates to the maximization of sustainable yield. In principle, it is a most useful reference point, but in practice it is difficult to estimate. Fmax and F0.1 relate to certain levels of yield per recruit and are easily estimated, but they ignore conservation of the resource. Recruitment overfishing has usually been understood to occur when a population has been fished down to a point where recruitment is substantially reduced or fails. It has not been used as a basis for a biological reference point because the definition is vague and cannot be readily related to fishing mortality. Levels of spawning biomass below which recruitment seems to be reduced have been used, but their determination from available data is usually difficult and controversial. We propose an alternative definition of recruitment overfishing in terms of the level of fishing pressure that reduces the spawning biomass of a year class over its lifetime below the spawning biomass of its parents on average. Conventional models and types of data can be used to determine this level of F, denoted as Frep, which clearly relates to the replacement of spawning biomass and thus to sustainability of a population and yield in the long term.

Effect of reintroduced manual mowing on biodiversity in abandoned fen meadows

Biologia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Horak ◽  
Lenka Safarova
Keyword(s):  
Restoration Ecology ◽  
Conservation Value ◽  
High Conservation ◽  
New Type ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Insect Group

AbstractWetlands have recently become of high environmental interest. The restoration effects on habitats like fens are one of the main topics of recent restoration ecology, especially due to their interconnection with other ecosystems. We studied the manual mowing effect on abandoned fen using the response of three study taxa: diurnal butterflies, flower-visiting beetles and vascular plants. Our results showed that butterflies seems to be quickly-responding indicator taxon for evaluation and that restored management had a positive effect on both species richness and composition of this insect group. The results indicated that the manual mowing effect could be rapid. In comparison with the surrounding landscape, we found that: (i) the manually mowed site was most similar to strictly protected area, (ii) some species of high conservation value could reach higher abundance in restored than protected site, and (iii) manual mowing could bring a new type of habitat (i.e., spatial heterogeneity) compared to the other management types (abandonment, conservation and agri-environmental mowing). The main implication seems to be optimistic for practice: The manual mowing of long-term abandoned fen is leading to the creation of habitat with high conservation value in a relatively short time.

Into the Lake—Deep

Sacred Sea ◽  
2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Thomson
Keyword(s):  
High Latitude ◽  
Liquid Glass ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Baikal Water ◽  
Waves And Currents ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Algae And Bacteria ◽  
Limited Supply ◽  
Surrounding Landscape

Dress warmly, hold your breath, and take a dive . . . You pierce the surface of Baikal at a soft angle and slip like the low rays of the high-latitude sun into a prism of liquid glass. The water molecules release their bonds with each other to embrace you. Sunlight follows you, wiggles, and scatters; the photons themselves become liquid. Sound becomes a liquid, too, thick and syrupy. Gravity loses its bearings and presses at you from all around. Normal reference points fall away— up and down, left and right—your sense of where you are comes only from subtle changes in light, temperature, and pressure. This will take some getting used to. But not to worry, here in the world’s oldest lake, still in its youth at twenty-five million years, you’ve got nothing but time. And if you put on your special magnifying goggles, you’ll see that you’ve got plenty of company, as well. You’re surrounded by a haze of tiny creatures, each no longer than a millimeter and a half. They’re Epischura baicalensis, those elfin shrimp that float through the lake, sucking massive Baikal through their little digestive tracts, feeding on algae and bacteria, pulling out impurities, and helping to keep the lake clean and clear. Epischura baicalensis are members of a group of organisms known as zooplankton—tiny animals and larva that drift and swim through the water, buffeted about by waves and currents. The miniscule creatures that make up zooplankton live everywhere, in just about every body of water on earth, and like Epischura baicalensis, many of them are little shrimp, or copepods. But Epischura baicalensis live nowhere else, and apparently can’t live anywhere else. It’s said that they can’t live even in a glass of Baikal water removed from the lake. Perhaps they die of homesickness. The water surrounding you as you float in Baikal is about as close as you can get in nature to pure H2O. It’s what aquatic scientists call “oligotrophic”— there’s very little in the way of nutrients and minerals running off into it from the surrounding landscape, and so a very limited supply of some of the basic building blocks of life.

scholarly journals Reconstruction of Lost Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes: Context of Ancient Objects in Time and Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 604
Author(s):  
Lukáš Brůha ◽  
Josef Laštovička ◽  
Tomáš Palatý ◽  
Eva Štefanová ◽  
Přemysl Štych
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
3D Visualization ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Levels Of Detail ◽  
Terrain Models ◽  
3D Data ◽  
Very Large Datasets ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Changes Over Time

Diachronic studies play a key role in the research and documentation of cultural heritage and its changes, ranging from architectural fragments to landscape. Regarding the reconstructions of lost cultural heritage sites, the determination of landscape conditions in the reconstructed era goes frequently unheeded. Often, only ruins and detached archeological artefacts remain of the built heritage. Placing them correctly within the reconstructed building complex is of similar importance as placing the lost monument in the context of the landscape at that time. The proposed method harmonizes highly heterogeneous sources to provide such a context. The solution includes the fusion of referential terrain models of different levels of detail (LODs) as well as the fusion of diverse 3D data sources for the reconstruction of the built heritage. Although the combined modeling of large landscapes and small 3D objects of a high detail results in very large datasets, we present a feasible solution, whose data structure is suitable for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses of landscapes and also provides a smooth and clear 3D visualization and inspection of detailed features. The results are demonstrated in the case study of the island monastery, the vanished medieval town of Sekanka, and the surrounding landscape, which is located in Czechia and was the subject of intensive changes over time.

scholarly journals Enabling Green and Blue Infrastructure to Improve Contributions to Human Well-Being and Equity in Urban Systems

BioScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 566-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Andersson ◽  
Johannes Langemeyer ◽  
Sara Borgström ◽  
Timon McPhearson ◽  
Dagmar Haase ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Technological Factors ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Variable Distribution

AbstractThe circumstances under which different ecosystem service benefits can be realized differ. The benefits tend to be coproduced and to be enabled by multiple interacting social, ecological, and technological factors, which is particularly evident in cities. As many cities are undergoing rapid change, these factors need to be better understood and accounted for, especially for those most in need of benefits. We propose a framework of three systemic filters that affect the flow of ecosystem service benefits: the interactions among green, blue, and built infrastructures; the regulatory power and governance of institutions; and people's individual and shared perceptions and values. We argue that more fully connecting green and blue infrastructure to its urban systems context and highlighting dynamic interactions among the three filters are key to understanding how and why ecosystem services have variable distribution, continuing inequities in who benefits, and the long-term resilience of the flows of benefits.

Effects of a decade of selenium emission reductions on mercury accumulation in aquatic biota in the Sudbury region of Ontario

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 848-856
Author(s):  
Mija Aždajić ◽  
Nelson Belzile ◽  
John M. Gunn ◽  
Jules M. Blais ◽  
Alexandre J. Poulain
Keyword(s):  
Total Mercury ◽  
Aquatic Environments ◽  
Emission Reductions ◽  
Remediation Strategies ◽  
Total Hg ◽  
Young Of The Year ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Smelter Emissions ◽  
Hg Accumulation

Control of smelting emissions in the Sudbury (Ontario, Canada) area has dramatically decreased the amount of selenium (Se) deposited onto the surrounding landscape. Historically, Se emissions in Sudbury correlated with lower total mercury (Hg) and methylmercury levels (MeHg) in tissues of zooplankton, amphipods (Hyalella azteca), mayflies (Stenonema femoratum), and young-of-the-year perch (Perca flavescens). In 2017, ten years following emission reductions, we evaluated whether changes in Se deposition affected total Hg and MeHg burden in lake biota. We show that total Se concentrations in the water of the majority of lakes have increased despite decreases in Se depositions, most likely due to the long residence time of Se in the watershed and the water column. As a result, Se in water continues to correlate with lower total Hg and MeHg accumulation in tissues of zooplankton, amphipods, mayflies, and perch. These results suggest that Se continues to exhibit a protective effect on Hg accumulation in biota, even years after emissions have greatly decreased. We expect this work to inform efforts aiming at long-term recovery of aquatic environments affected by smelter emissions and aid in designing remediation strategies involving Se additions.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Muscular Forces That Can be Applied to Flight Controls

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-145
Author(s):  
Dennis B. Beringer ◽  
Robert E. Joslin
Keyword(s):  
Flight Control ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Aircraft Accidents ◽  
Flight Controls ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
Control Forces ◽  
Rotary Wing

Excessive pilot flight-control forces have been identified as a causal factor in aircraft accidents, incidents, and anomalous events. However, the regulatory design requirements for fixed-wing and rotary-wing air-craft that are contained in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) have not been validated or updated in decades, and data for some specific situations were never included in the specifications. Results are presented for a recent study of over 300 participants categorized by gender, pilot/nonpilot status, and age group (10-year brackets from 18 through 69). Controls examined included sticks (left, center, right), yoke, rudder pedals (left, right), and helicopter collective. Results indicated that, on average, more than half of the sample could not achieve the short-term tabled forces used as reference points. However, more than half (60 to 87%) were able to sustain the prescribed long-term forces for 4 minutes or more in some control axes. It is recommended that reference tables both internal to the CFR and referenced by the CFR be modified to accommodate a larger percentage of the current user population.

scholarly journals Distributions of Invasive Arthropods across Heterogeneous Urban Landscapes in Southern California: Aridity as a Key Component of Ecological Resistance

Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weston Staubus ◽  
Savanah Bird ◽  
Savannah Meadors ◽  
Wallace Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Propagule Pressure ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Resource Subsidies ◽  
Ecological Resistance ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Sage Scrub ◽  
Grassland Habitats

Urban systems often support large numbers of non-native species, but due to the heterogeneity of urban landscapes, species are not evenly distributed. Understanding the drivers of ecological resistance in urban landscapes may help to identify habitats that are most resistant to invasion, and inform efforts to model and conserve native biodiversity. We used pitfall traps to survey non-native ground-dwelling arthropods in three adjacent, low-elevation habitat types in southern California: California sage scrub, non-native grassland, and suburban development. We found that non-native species were fewer and less widely distributed in the sage scrub and grassland habitats. Due to the proximity of our sites, differences in propagule pressure is an unlikely explanation. Instead, we suggest that the absence of water subsidies in the sage scrub and grassland habitats increases those habitats’ resistance to arthropod invasions. Comparisons to studies conducted at fragments closer to the coast provide further support for the relationship between aridity and invasibility in southern California. Our findings highlight that inland fragments are important for conserving native arthropod diversity, that models of non-native species distributions in arid and semi-arid urban systems should include aridity measures, and that reducing resource subsidies across the region is critical to mitigating spread of non-natives.

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