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Geomorphology

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Volume IX |
Geomorphology

Endokarstic Relief within the Natural Reserve Area of “Repedea Hill Fossil Site”

1,

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the endokarstic relief of the reserve from Repedea Hill. Although there have been made many geological and geomorphological researches on this sector of the Moldavian Plateau, the endokarstic relief remained largely unexplored until now. The main geomorphological factor in the evolution of this type of relief is the geological substrate from which the lithological component stands out as importance. In the Repedea reserve area the thickness of the lithological association is about 10m and favourable to karstification, composed of oolitic and lumashelic limestone and sandstone. The Repedea oolitic limestone appears as a succession of layers with thicknesses of 2-40 cm separated by intercalations of fine, conchiferous sands of 0.5 – 10 cm. These resistant rock packages have conducted to the forming of a structural karst plateau called the Repedea plateau. The high position of this karst plateau from the whole relief of the studied area can be considered a determining factor for the formation of a suspended authigenic karst with vadose hydrological regime. 9 caves were mapped in the Repedea reserve area and they are located on a relatively small surface of approx. 7 ha. The total length of the mapped underground galleries is of 401 m, thus determining an average density of 5.7 km/sqkm. Unlike the Carpathian caves, in Repedea Hill, the rock type and the local hydrological characteristics do not favour the emergence of massive carbonate concretions because the caves are in a continuous process of caving. In conclusion, the endokarstic relief from “Repedea Hill fossil site” reserve is well developed, strongly differentiating from other endokarstic areas of Romania.

Keywords: , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi
Corresponding author:
  • dlesenci@yahoo.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Mrs. Silvia Schmassmann, who kindly made available the cave sketches used in this article.
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume IX |
Geomorphology

Assessment of Soil Fertility Management Practices and Their Constraints in Different Geographic Locations of Nepal

1, 2,, 1, 1

Abstract: A farmers’ field survey was conducted in 2009 to evaluate soil fertility management practices and their constraints in certain hill and valley farming systems of Nepal. Thirty households from Okharpouwa village development committee (VDC), Nuwakot and thirty households from Fulbari VDC, Chitwan districts were surveyed using semi-structured questionnaires. In addition, key informants’ interview, checklist survey, observation in the field and documentation of the individual cases were carried out during this research. The study revealed that farm yard manure (FYM) was the major source of nutrients, although the use of poultry manure, goat manure, green manure and chemical fertilizers was also common. We realized that the management of FYM and that of other types of organic manure in the manure pit and in the field was not efficient in conserving nutrients. Similarly, farmers preferred the continuous cultivation of cereal or commercial crops, without mixing the crops or rotating with legumes, the sliced terrace risers in hills, which constrained better production in hills and valleys of Nepal. The specific problems in hills included erosion and leaching of nutrients, soil acidification, while those of valley lands included the imbalanced use of fertilizers, intensive cropping, and crop failure due to improper management.

Keywords: , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Chitwan, Nepal
  • 2 University of Wyoming, Renewable Resources, Laramie, USA
Corresponding author:
  • ghimireg@gmail.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: We would like to acknowledge all survey farmers for their time and valuable information for this study, which was impossible without their support.
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume VIII |
Geomorphology

The Semiautomated Identification of the Planation Surfaces on the Basis of the Digital Terrain Model. Case Study: The Mehedinti Mountains (Southern Carpathians)

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Abstract: The paper presents a method for the semiautomated classification of the planation surfaces, using the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and the object-oriented analysis. The effort undergone for developing such a method has a number of motivations. The first one is that these landforms are very important for decoding the geomorphologic evolution of the relief units. The second motivation concerns the fact that their identification and mapping, by using classical means, represents a difficult demarche, which requires a lot of time. Finally, the already-known limits of the relief analysis using the DTM at pixel level impose the testing of an object-oriented analysis, in which the area under study is divided into objects of various dimensions, as homogenous as possible from the viewpoint of one or more properties. The method that we propose supposes the following steps: the realisation of the slope model and of the flow model, starting from the DTM; the division, by segmentation into objects that are as homogenous as possible from the viewpoint of the slope; the classification of the objects into landforms (planation surfaces) by using the fuzzy functions and taking into account more factors simultaneously (the average slope value, the minimum slope value, the flow coefficient and the altitude), and the selection and grouping of the identified surfaces into sculptural complexes. The first stages represent the automated part of the method, while the last one requires a detailed geomorphologic analysis of the area, as well as the validation of the results on the field. The method was firstly developed for the Godeanu Mountains, the map of the levelled surfaces (Niculescu, 1965) being used for the identification of the parameters included in the algorithm, as well as for testing the results obtained in the view of the improvement of the method. Due to the good results thus obtained, the same method was also used for mapping the levelled surfaces in the Mehedinţi Mountains, and, along with the field observations, there was realised the planation surfaces map for this relief unit.

Keywords: , , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 30-11-2009 Online: 10-12-2009
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, West University of Timișoara, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • torok@cbg.uvt.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The paper was realized in the framework of the PNCD-I2 1075/2009 Grant - "Metode de analiză geomorfologică digitală şi de clasificare automată a formelor de relief în regiunile montane pe baza modelului numeric al terenului şi prin integrarea datelor de teledetecţie".
Copyright: © 2009 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume VIII |
Geomorphology, Various

Coastal Environmental Changes Along the North Western Coast of Egypt Case Study from Alexandria to El Alamein Coast

1

Abstract: The present paper aims at highlighting the urban development, fishing activities, tourism, industrial development and agricultural activities that affect delicate and valuable coastal ecosystems. A supervised classification, post-classification, change detection techniques were applied to Land sat images acquired in 1991 and 2007, respectively, to map land cover changes along the north-western coast of Egypt, from Alexandria to El Alamein. A supervised classification was carried out on the six reflective bands for the two images individually with the aid of true ground data. The truthful ground information, collected during field trips using ancillary data, visual interpretation and experts’ knowledge of the area using GIS, further refined the classification results. Post-classification change detection technique was used to produce image through cross-tabulation. Changes among different land cover classes were assessed. During the study period, a very severe land cover change has taken place as a result of agricultural and tourist development projects. These shoreline and land cover changes led to modifications of the environmental properties.

Keywords: , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 30-11-2009 Online: 10-12-2009
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Copyright: © 2009 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume VIII |
Geomorphology

The Present-Day Erosional Processes in the Alpine Level of the Bucegi Mountains – Southern Carpathians

1,

Abstract: A relief that is strongly modelled by extensive erosion processes (sheet erosion, rills and gullies) characterizes the Alpine level of the Bucegi Mountains. All processes are favoured by the geological structure represented by conglomerates, limestone with grit stone intrusions, by strongly degraded podzolic soils with a loamy-sandy texture in the first layer and by some economic activities, such as the overgrazing and the tourism. We have identified an area with large-scale erosion forms in the sector comprised between Furnica Peak and Piatra Arsa Peak. This paper analyses the genesis and the manifestation conditions of the erosion processes, as well as the climate, making use of the temperature and the precipitation data provided by the meteorological stations in the region. Using the Péltier diagram, we framed the region to various seasons. By subsequently using the Péguy diagram, we framed the region to the morphoclimatic conditions and to the river processes. On the other hand, by using GIS, we created geology, slope, soil and vegetation Boolean maps and then the risk map to the erosion processes.

Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 30-11-2009 Online: 10-12-2009
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, West University of Timişoara, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • voicu@cbg.uvt.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: I would like to extend my thanks to A. Kotarba and L. Starkel of Department of Geomorphology and Hydrology, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland to a previous revision of this paper, to S. Voiculescu of West University of Timişoara, Department of Geography for her help in the English translation and to S. Boengiu, A. Vlăduţ, L. Popescu and M. Licurici make-up editors of the Geographical Phorum, issued by the University of Craiova, Department of Geography, for the final form of this paper.
Copyright: © 2009 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
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