Landscape and water in the oases of Egypt's western desert

While natural processes, mainly wind and water erosion, define desert landscapes, human manipulation and use of water play important roles in defining the landscape within desert oases. The role of water in the oases of the Western Desert of Egypt is described, and it is considered how the scarcity of water affects its use. The challenge to the protection of these archetypal landscapes presented by new forms of development is identified.     

利比亚拜尼·沃利德给水工程规划

论述了利比亚拜尼·沃利德地区供水系统的基本特征、存在的主要问题以及解决措施.针对该沙漠地区供电、供水不连续,用水时间较为集中的实际情况,选择水塔供水代替常规的泵房直供,并且采用沙漠来水及地下水多水源供水以提高供水保障率.供水区域划分充分考虑了原有水池、水塔、水井等构筑物的利用,以减少工程投资.     

Development and Damage: Water and Landscape Evolution in Victoria,Australia

This paper investigates the interconnection of changes in the institutional framework to promote water development and subsequent alterations to natural landscapes that have occurred over much of Victoria's history. Specifically, a clear correlation is demonstrated between institutional and natural landscape changes, and environmental degradation. Throughout Victoria's history, each phase of water development ushered in by changes to the institutional arrangements signalled more significant changes to natural landscapes, highlighted by the acceleration of infrastructure construction to harness water supplies and more intensive use of water. As water-supply development became more intense, the natural landscape changes that accompanied this development led to the alteration of delicate ecological systems that had evolved over thousands of years, leading to an acceleration of environmental degradation. The link between changes in institutional structures for water development and the impacts of this on natural landscapes in terms of the promotion of degradation is a much-neglected yet significant part of understanding current environmental problems. In this way, this analysis can provide knowledge regarding how institutions can have significant impacts on the state of nature.     

Development and Damage: Water and Landscape Evolution in Victoria, Australia

This paper investigates the interconnection of changes in the institutional framework to promote water development and subsequent alterations to natural landscapes that have occurred over much of Victoria's history. Specifically, a clear correlation is demonstrated between institutional and natural landscape changes, and environmental degradation. Throughout Victoria's history, each phase of water development ushered in by changes to the institutional arrangements signalled more significant changes to natural landscapes, highlighted by the acceleration of infrastructure construction to harness water supplies and more intensive use of water. As water-supply development became more intense, the natural landscape changes that accompanied this development led to the alteration of delicate ecological systems that had evolved over thousands of years, leading to an acceleration of environmental degradation. The link between changes in institutional structures for water development and the impacts of this on natural landscapes in terms of the promotion of degradation is a much-neglected yet significant part of understanding current environmental problems. In this way, this analysis can provide knowledge regarding how institutions can have significant impacts on the state of nature.     

Profile storage of organic/inorganic carbon in soil: From forest to desert

Understanding the distribution of organic/inorganic carbon storage in soil profile is crucial for assessing regional, continental and global soil C stores and predicting the consequences of global change. However, little is known about the organic/inorganic carbon storages in deep soil layers at various landscapes. This study was conducted to determine the soil organic/inorganic carbon storage in soil profile of 0-3 m at 5 sites of natural landscape from forest to desert. Landscapes are temperate forest, temperate grassland, temperate shrub-grassland, temperate shrub desert, and temperate desert. Root mass density and carbon contents at the profile were determined for each site. The results showed that considerable decrease in root biomass and soil organic carbon content at the soil profile of 0-3 m when landscape varied from forest to desert along a precipitation gradient, while soil inorganic carbon content increased significantly along the precipitation gradient. Namely, for density of soil organic carbon: forest > grassland > shrub-grassland > shrub desert > desert; for density of soil inorganic carbon: forest, grassland < shrub-grassland < shrub desert < desert (P < 0.05 in all cases). In landscapes other than forest, more than 50% soil carbon storage was found in 1-3 m depth. For grassland and shrub-grassland, the contribution from 1-3 m was mainly in the form of organic carbon, while for shrub desert and desert the contribution from this depth was mainly in the form of inorganic carbon. The comparison of soil C storage between top 0-1 m and 1-3 m showed that the using top 1 m of soil profile to estimate soil carbon storages would considerably underestimate soil carbon storage. This is especially true for organic soil carbon at grassland region, and for soil inorganic carbon at desert region.     

风积沙路基施工方法探讨

通过风积沙地区路基施工实践,介绍了西北沙漠干旱地区风积沙填筑路基干压法的施工工艺,指出利用风积沙作为路基填料解决了沙漠地区无路基填料及缺水的难题,经济效益和社会效益显著。     

Relationships between visual landscape preferences and map-based indicators of landscape structure

There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation. Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing. In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students. Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images. When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals. We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values.     

Relationships between visual landscape preferences and map-based indicators of landscape structure

There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation. Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing. In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students. Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images. When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals. We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values.     

对城市水景住区设计的思考

当前城市水景住区也快速发展,但人们对之认识尚不全面。在此对水景在居住区中的作用、水景的设计手法等作了探讨,并以实例分析了上述原则在水景住区中的运用。     

A review of ET measurement techniques for estimating the water requirements of urban landscape vegetation

Increasing urbanisation combined with population growth places greater demands on dwindling water supplies. This is especially the case in arid and semi-arid areas like Australia, which is known as the driest inhabited continent on earth. Sustainable irrigation management necessitates better understanding of water requirements in order to decrease environmental risks and increase water use efficiency. Although the water requirements of agricultural crops are well established in field and laboratory studies, little research has been conducted to investigate the water requirements of urban green spaces. In addition, most previous research investigations have focused on the water requirements of turf grasses and not on other landscape plant species. Landscape plants can include various species of trees, shrubs and turf grasses with different planting densities and microclimates. Such complicated environments make measuring the water requirements of urban landscapes difficult.

This paper reviews previous studies and techniques for measuring the water requirements of urban landscapes and describes how optimum irrigation management strategies for urban landscape vegetation can assist in better water conservation, improved landscape quality and reduced water costs. The authors conclude that WUCOLS is a practical approach that can provide an initial estimate of urban landscape water demand but ideally this should be further refined based on the health and aesthetic condition of the urban vegetation. The authors recommend calibration of the WUCOLS estimates with an in-situ method such as a soil water balance.     

在规划中探索高尔夫项目的生态与节能

高尔夫球场项目被称为朝用体育产业但又被称为“绿色荒漠”,它在浪费土地和水资源、化肥农药污染、原生景观破坏等问题上受到质疑或批评。本文将结合实际项目从规划与生态的角度以下三个方面来分析：一、球场建设所需灌溉、景观水量要求,水量补给与供应能力保证。二、对周边农田、水系水质的影响对周边生态环境产生威胁和影响及处理。三、从规划设计中如何节水、有效利用水资源。减轻高尔夫球场的建设给环境带来的不利影响。     

Nuclear waste and landscapes of risk

Conflict over the nuclear industry now centres on the ‘nuclear oases’, places where the rear‐end activities of the nuclear cycle (reprocessing and nuclear waste disposal) are undertaken. Environmentally and socially these places are peripheral communities, insofar as they tend to be remote, economically marginal, powerless, defensive and environmentally degraded. Four examples, Hanford (USA), Sellafield (UK), La Hague (France) and Gorleben (Germany) are analysed to demonstrate the processes of push and pull that have created these landscapes of risk where industry and community are mutually dependent. In terms of outcomes, the theory of ecological modernization suggests continuing development through adaptation by the industry, whereas the Risk Society thesis takes a more pessimistic perspective indicating that the very survival of the industry is at stake. Neither theory accommodates the problem of inequality that is at the heart of conflicts over nuclear industry. It is concluded that it is in the nuclear oases, at once both vulnerable and powerful, that the future of the nuclear industry will be decided.     

Deficit irrigation of a landscape halophyte for reuse of saline waste water in a desert city

Saline waste waters from industrial and water treatment processes are an under-utilized resource in desert urban environments. Management practices to safely use these water sources are still in development. We used a deeprooted native halophyte, Atriplex lentiformis (quailbush), to absorb mildly saline effluent (1800 mg l^?1 total dissolved solids, mainly sodium sulfate) from a water treatment plant in the desert community of Twentynine Palms, California. We developed a deficit irrigation strategy to avoid discharging water past the root zone to the aquifer. The plants were irrigated at about one-third the rate of reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) calculated from meteorological data over five years and soil moisture levels were monitored to a soil depth of 4.7 m at monthly intervals with a neutron hydroprobe. The deficit irrigation schedule maintained the soil below field capacity throughout the study. Water was presented on a more or less constant schedule, so that the application rates were less than ET_o in summer and equal to or slightly greater than ET_o in winter, but the plants were able to consume water stored in the profile in winter to support summer ET. Sodium salts gradually increased in the soil profile over the study but sulfate levels remained low, due to formation of gypsum in the calcic soil. The high salt tolerance, deep roots, and drought tolerance of desert halophytes such as A. lentiformis lend these plants to use as deficit-irrigated landscape plants for disposal of effluents in urban setting when protection of the aquifer is important.     

高层建筑户外景观空间感知机制量化 研究

高层建筑群的兴起为人类景观感知带来了新问题——高层景观，主要是指城市高空的聚居者由建筑或场所之内向外部周围观看引发的景观空间感知。高层景观为人类身心健康带来了新的机遇与挑战，对于聚居者“一览众山晓”的积极作用与远离绿化、缺乏户外活动场地的负面影响并存。然而，迄今关于这种高层景观的人类身心影响研究尚未开展。作为起步性研究，尝试从揭示基本规律着手，选取上海地区相对120m高度上的高层景观，研究面对城市空间、绿地和水景的景观时，个体生理和心理的反应影响：基于阶段性视觉刺激，借助脑电图、心率变异性和皮肤电导测量了20名被试者的压力水平，并使用改进的语义差异问卷评估了其心理反应。结果显示，面对绿色空间和水景的高层景观，会引起α相对波活动增加，使副交感神经活动显著增加，相比面对城市建筑的高层景观，被试者的放松程度更高。此外，相比于面对城市建筑景观，被试者在高层观看绿色景观和水景图像时表现出了更大的舒适感和放松感。这些发现初步揭示了居聚于城市高层建筑中的人类个体关于高层景观感受的基本规律，凸显了为高层聚居个体提供自然景观视觉刺激的重要性。     

Identifying regional landscapes for conservation planning: a case study from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The application of landscape ecology in conservation biology has rarely occurred in the context of defined landscapes. Conservation planning has focussed on representation of species diversity patterns and assumed that ecosystems, landscapes and their associated processes will be equally protected. The long-term persistence of biodiversity in the face of land transformations and global change requires the representation and retention of all elements of biodiversity. This biodiversity includes landscapes, and the landscape structure and processes that maintain patterns of biodiversity. We developed a method of classifying landscapes for the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The process entailed the use of 1 km² grid data from climate and terrain databases. Principal components analysis coupled with a cluster classification method and spatial overlay techniques were used to identify two hierarchical levels of landscapes. Validation analysis showed that landscapes are identifiable with a classification accuracy of 86.8%. The derived landscapes can be combined separately with data on vegetation and soil to describe landscape ecosystems that potentially differ in species composition, successional dynamics, and potential productivity. The surrogate use of the landscapes in conjunction with other strategic data, for the identification of priority conservation areas, is demonstrated.     

Geochemical landscape strategy in monitoring the areas contaminated by the Chernobyl radionuclides

The Chernobyl accident led to radionuclide contamination of vast areas that now need to be monitored; the development of a regional land use strategy is now needed. Landscape geochemistry enables us to structure, classify and map the environmental factors responsible for the redistribution of radionuclides (i.e. soil-forming rocks and soil properties, vegetation cover, types of ground water migration, and vertical and lateral geochemical barriers). Combined with land use information, regional geochemical landscape maps serve as the basis to map in toposequence conditions of mass migration and accumulation in natural and cultivated landscapes. Such mapping makes it easier to choose representative monitoring sites. This type of mapping is also helpful to interrelate and extrapolate the data already obtained on radionuclides' environmental migration for different groups of geochemical landscapes with similar types of contamination, migration and accumulation patterns. A geochemical landscape approach is demonstrated using the example of part of the Bryansk region (Russia), which is considerably contaminated with ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs.     

A theoretical approach to the design of sustainable dwellings in hot dry zones: A Toshka case study

The Toshka project is a mega-project undertaken by the Egyptian Government. It arose as part of a plan to increase the amount of inhabited land in Egypt from 5% to 25%. Toshka is a desert region located in the southeast of Egypt’s Western Desert and lies between the Tropic of Cancer (22.00°N and 24.00°N), and longitudes (31.00°E and 32.00°E). An extensive desert reclamation project is being implemented in this region using water from the Nile. Designing dwellings is one of the challenges that architects face in this region. Toshka is currently considered uninhabited and has a hot, dry climate. Furthermore, seismically active faults lie near Toshka. It also expected that the majority of settlers will be low income citizens. This paper proposes a theoretical approach to designing desert dwellings that accommodates the hot, dry climate and secures the dwelling against seismic waves by incorporating passive elements. The results showed that underground construction using a circular plan and the use of wind catchers, evaporation, vegetal roofing and sunken courtyards can provide an acceptable, sustainable design for housing in the Western Desert.     

Estimation of water balance over catchment areas taking into account the heterogeneity of their landscape conditions

The landscape conditions for forming the water balance and runoff from catchment areas can change considerably under the pressure of natural and anthropogenic factors. The role of hydromorphic transformation of landscapes is important for most of the Ob basin; it results in the paludification of the area. The specific parameter n is used in calculating water balance according to Mezentsev’s method of hydro-climatic calculations to take account of landscape conditions. We suggest determining this parameter’s value by geomorphological features of the landscapes using GIS tools.     

城市滨水开放空间景观的建设与保护

论述了目前福州地区6种滨水开放空间景观的现状，以及建设与保护滨水绿地空间的6种设计创意理念与空间景观效果。创建优美的滨水人居环境景观，追求园林植物群体美景观。充分利用历史人文景观，展现滨水绿地开放空间景观特色。根据亲水性设计理念，创建各种亲水景观。利用自然地理生态资源，建造滨水园林景观和湿地保护景观。根据规划的设计创意理念，创建充满寓意的滨水造型景观。     

Landscape management strategies for the control of diffuse pollution

The control of diffuse pollution is one of the major issues affecting the agricultural landscape. Policies of land use management are now being implemented as a means of improving water quality. The potential success of such policies is difficult to determine owing to the complex nature of the processes controlling the transport of diffuse pollutants such as nitrate, phosphorus and sediment. The use of buffer zones alongside water bodies in the agricultural landscape may offer a greater opportunity both for protecting the water and for increasing the habitat and amenity value of the landscape. The potential value of buffer zones in terms of water quality is dependent on landscape type and suitable design. The design of these features needs to consider the hydrology of both the buffer zone and of the landscape as a whole. In landscapes where the hydrology has been altered, additional measures may be required to establish suitable hydrological conditions. The implementation of a strategy of diffuse pollution control therefore needs to be approached on a landscape basis taking into account the nature of pollutant pathways and areas of high pollution risk.