fg

Environment

← Older articles
Newer articles →
Volume XVII |
Environment

Indicators for evaluating the role of green infrastructures in sustainable urban development in Romania

1,, 1, 1, 1, 2

Abstract: Urban green infrastructures are now considered key elements in improving residents’ quality of life and creating an appropriate framework for the development of sustainable cities. One of the most efficient method to evaluate the state and performance of urban green infrastructure is using different types of indicators. The indicators for evaluating the benefits, ecosystem services and the role of green infrastructures for the process of sustainable development represent important tools for decision and policy makers. Indicators provide information that can be easily interpreted by decision and policy makers and they facilitate the process of planning, monitoring and evaluation of green infrastructure in urban areas. The focus of our study is to establish which indicators are used for underlining the structural and functional diversity of urban green infrastructures. This paper aims to highlight the indicators and indices being used in Romanian urban areas for measuring their sustainability that include green infrastructures, in the wider understanding of the concept. Throughout the paper, different examples of indicators and indices are provided, emphasizing that by using the proper set of indicators and indices, city authorities can tag a sustainable development label for certain areas. However, an unbiased assessment using some sets of indicators and indices are not always providing unbiased or realistic outcomes.

Keywords: , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2018.106.iDates:
Received: 20-01-2018 Accepted: 15-04-2018 Printed: 30-06-2018 Online: 06-12-2018
Affiliations:
  • 1 Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania
  • 2 Simion Mehedinţi Doctoral School, Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • nitamihairazvan@yahoo.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume XVII |
Environment

Mapping spatial urban growth and land use change using geoinformatics technique in Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh, India

1,

Abstract: Urban growth is a worldwide phenomenon, but the rate of urbanization is very fast in developing countries like India. It is mainly driven by unorganized expansion, increased immigration, rapidly increasing population. In this context, land use and land cover change are considered central components in current strategies for managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. Uncontrolled momentum of urban sprawl and land use change raises many issues which might have both positive and negative effects. This sprawl can be effectively monitored using remotely sensed data from different dates by digital analysis of the imagery using change detection techniques. The present study aims to examine the change in urban sprawl, land use/land cover (LU/LC) over a time point and assesses the pattern of sprawl through GIS technique. The geographical area of Varanasi district is 1535 sq.km including 1,371.22 km² rural area and 163.78 km² urban area, its population is 3,676,841 persons in 2011. It consists of eight blocks namely Baragaon, Pindra, Cholapur, Chiraigaon, Harahua, Sevapuri, Arajiline and Kashi Vidyapeeth. The spatio-temporal study of LU/LC as well as settlement is carried out for two time points 1990 and 2016. The data source used for analysis is Landsat MSS and Landsat OLI. The analysis mainly focused the urban growth along with landuse/landcover changes using digital image processing techniques like Maximum Likelihood Classifier algorithm for Supervised Classification and NDVI vegetation index. The trend of sprawl is notably higher in the urban centers than in the revenue villages.

Keywords: , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2018.144.iDates:
Received: 07-04-2018 Accepted: 25-05-2018 Printed: 30-06-2018 Online: 06-12-2018
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Corresponding author:
  • sunbhu11@gmail.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The author is thankful to the Department of Geography, Banaras Hindu University, India, to carry out this research work.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume XV |
Environment

Volcanic Eruptions in South Europe and the Change of Carbon Dioxide Concentration – Case Study: “Moussala” Basic Environmental Observatory

1,, 1, 1, 2, 2

Abstract: The volcanic eruptions are one of the most characteristic natural sources of CO2 in the atmosphere (IPCC, 1990, 2007). In order to study the effect of volcanic eruptions on the increased levels of CO2, we have used data from the Basic Environmental Observatory (BEO) “Moussala”, Bulgaria, for the period comprised between July 2007 and March 2015. The Carbon dioxide is not a health hazard gas and there is no established limit concentration by the Bulgarian and international law. In this study, we have accepted as extremely high values the values that exceed the 95th percentile of the distribution of the daily average values for the studied period. The days with exceeding CO2 concentration were analysed in terms of volcanic activity (Etna), which could affect the investigated area with the spread of air pollutants and also CO2. The simulations developed by the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) Model are used in order to describe the trajectory and dispersion of pollutant and products from eruptions of Etna in the atmosphere. A synchrony between the occurrence of days with extreme high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in the region of BEO “Moussala” and eruptions of Etna volcano was established in most of the investigated cases.The analysis of the results from BEO “Moussala” confirms the impact of the volcanic eruptions and Etna volcano, in particular, for the increasing of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. On the other side, it was established that the activity of Etna is not the only factor which has impact on the concentration of CO2. More detailed analyses concerning not only natural, but also anthropogenic factors have to be done in the future in order to clarify the reasons for the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (IPCC, 2014).

Keywords: , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2067-4635.2015.241.dDates:
Received: 01-12-2016 Accepted: 15-01-2017 Printed: 30-12-2016 Online: 23-04-2017
Affiliations:
  • 1 Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 2 Faculty of Geology and Geography, University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria
Corresponding author:
  • nikol@inrne.bas.bg
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: This study is supported by ACTRIS -2 IA project in H2020 (2015-2019) “European Research Infrastructure for the Observation of Aerosol, Clouds and Trace gases”.
Copyright: © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume XV |
Environment

The Assessment of Artificial Water Surfaces Regeneration in Stachinez Swamps Protected Area by Using Remote Sensing and In–situ Data

1,, 2

Abstract: The Satchinez Swamps, a remnant of the swamps once specific for Banat Plain, is an ornithological reserve since 1942 and the habitat of many protected bird species. Draining works conducted in the seventies affected the reserve by decreasing the water surface area. Thirty-five years later, hydro-technical works aiming to restore the former aquatic surfaces within the buffer zone were conducted. Thus, in 2005 a water delivery canal from the discharge canal of Satchinez reservoir towards Balta Mare was built. The objective of this study is to assess the efficiency of the hydrological works carried out in 2005 by using temporal analysis of some normalized difference indexes derived from satellite images, in relation to precipitation data (recorded at Timisoara meteorological station) as an indicator for wetland restoration. We used geospatial data from different time periods: historical maps (1953, 1962 and 1984), orthophotos (1963, 1970, 2005 and 2012), oblique airphotos (2004) and 38 Landsat satellite scenes (1984-2015), two images per year, for the dry season respectively for the rainy season. We noticed a slight increase of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in Balta Mare and on the relict watercourse of Sicsău stream, which shows the expansion of reed and suggests an increase in soil moisture. During the dry season, for the period before the restoration works (1984 – 2004) there is a strong, very significant correlation between Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and precipitations (r =0.7008, p = 0.0011). After 2005, this correlation no longer occurs (r = -0.1083, p <0.05), which demonstrates that precipitations are not the main water supply for Balta Mare anymore. For the 1984 – 2015 period, during rainy months the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) indicate the presence of water in Balta Mare, but during the dry months, it demonstrates the lack of water which underlines the temporary character of this pond and confirms the field observations. We conclude that the restoration did not succeed in the rebuilding of the former water surfaces of Balta Mare, but has an effect in increasing the underground water level in this area followed by reed extension.

Keywords: , , , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2067-4635.2016.058.dDates:
Received: 10-09-2016 Accepted: 25-12-2016 Printed: 30-12-2016 Online: 23-04-2017
Affiliations:
  • 1 Faculty of Chemistry, Biology and Geography, Department of Geography, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania
  • 2 Faculty of Chemistry, Biology and Geography, Department of Biology and Chemistry, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • marcel.torok@e-uvt.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Copyright: © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume XV |
Environment

Modelling of Ecosystem Indicators in Geographic Information System Environment (A Case Study of the Sweet Chestnut Forest, Belasitsa Mountain, Bulgaria)

1, 2,, 1

Abstract: The aim of the present research is to show the possibilities of applying computer technology in ecosystem investigations. The object of the research is the chestnut forests located on the Northern slopes of Belasitsa mountain (Southwest Bulgaria). Three study areas are determined for detailed investigation of structural and functional parameters (indicators) of chestnut ecosystems. These areas are located in forests with different ages (45-120 years old), different forestry management and different state. Ecosystem indicators are modeled on the base of field investigation and available published data, and the assessment of the forest state is done by spatial interpolation (inverse distance weighted) in geographic information system (GIS) environment (ArcGIS). Resulting model values are verified and validated by field investigations. An output layer showing the state of the chestnut forest in the investigated region is generated on the base of the raster surfaces, result of the interpolation and application of map algebra. Also, weight coefficients to the assessment values of the different indicators are used which makes the spatial analysis more correct. Created mapping model shows significant matching areas of forests in poor condition and forests in good conditions compared to the relevant determined on the base of forest management plan. The research confirms the advantages of GIS technology in processing large and varied data for assessing the impact of many factors on forest vegetation.

Keywords: , , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2016.089.iDates:
Received: 07-04-2016 Accepted: 10-05-2016 Printed: 30-06-2016 Online: 16-11-2016
Affiliations:
  • 1 Faculty of Forestry, Department of Dendrology, University of Forestry, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 2 Faculty of Geoexploration, Department of Geoinformatics University of Mining and Geology, Sofia, Bulgaria
Corresponding author:
  • v.nikolova@mgu.bg
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The study was realised with the financial support of the project: Assessment of the dynamic of structural and functional parameters of chestnut coenosis (CastaneasativaeMill.) – Belasitsa in the condition of global climate change (CAST Bul), 2003-2004, NFA.
Copyright: © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
← Older articles
Newer articles →

Meta

© 2009- 2026 Forum geografic

Designed by Alin Clincea.