Department Of Physical Geography Research Articles

Landscape research: from paradigm through GIS technology to monitoring (on the example of the territory of the Slobozhansky National Nature Park)

For 10 years, a group of specialists from the department of physical geography and cartography has been exploring the territories of national parks consistently using information technology tools, improving their use in combination with ground test landscape surveys. This article reflects the experience of such scientific and applied development in relation to the territory of Slobozhansky National Nature Park. The purpose of this development is to improve the existing technologies of complex interpretation of geodata for the design and monitoring of the territory in their systematic combination with the methods of online mapping and in-depth meaningful interpretation for the scientific support of the organization of the territory and the administration of the national parks. This article covers currently known and possible scientific approaches and measures that rely on scientific and applied measures used by the national parks administration in management processes. The most recent issues highlighted in this article compared to the previous published works of the authors are the formulation of the trinity paradigm of the process of creating a landscape model of the territory. A set of individual tasks is defined, the consistent implementation of which ensures the achievement of the goal: selection of appropriate types, scales and optical ranges of remote sensing, taking into account the landscape conditions inherent in the location of the territory of the national park; development, on these grounds, of the technology of thematic landscape mapping, geoecological assessment and control of results on test areas of the terrain; peculiarities of drawing legends of applied landscape maps using GIS technologies; making corrections and additions to the existing defining documents of projects of the national park organization and developing recommendations for their improvement; design of the monitoring system of Slobozhansky National Nature Park. In the paradigm of applied landscape research, the national park should be designed based on the trinity of remote sensing and human intelligence: a) the technical level of providing remote sensing; b) taking into account the ambiguity of the optical image of the area depending on the purpose of geodata interpretation; c) tasks that are also solved ambiguously: the selection of certain ranges and scales of soundings, the selection of test areas and even the compilation of legends of a large-scale landscape map. The specified ambiguity is manifested in the variability of constructions and creates the subjectivity of applied landscape research. Methodological basis. The system-structural approach is manifested in the identification and identification of those spatial connections between visually significant and hidden from direct observation properties (mainly water-heat balance indicators) of the landscape, which change in an ambiguous dependence on regional background indicators, therefore must be taken into account in design and monitoring. Scientific results. In addition to theoretical generalizations, the article briefly presents the implementation of the highlighted approach in the study of landscapes of the Slobozhansky National Nature Park.

Specifics of practical training of geography students in a remote format

The purpose of the article is to highlight specifics and give recommendations for practical training of geography students in a remote format based on the teacher experience at the Department of Physical Geography and Cartography at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. The main material. Long-term and meaningful practical training is an integral part of geographers training at the Department of Physical Geography and Cartography. However, since the summer of 2020, we conducted almost all field training of the Department remotely, initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, currently – due to military operations. The article reveals the specifics of the educational natural science training of the first-year students and the professionally oriented educational training of the second-year students in this format. Remote organization of practical training involves daily synchronous activities in the format of a video conference, followed by questions for self-examination and self-monitoring. The first preparatory step for teachers was the transformation of typical training routes into the format of online lectures and online demonstrations. The second one was the implementation of new types of independent work of students, such as visual analysis of remote sensing data for the Carpathian region, development of training routes through the Carpathians, preparation of reports with presentations about significant objects of the historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine. If lectures are the component of practical training that has significantly improved with the transition to a remote format, then online demonstrations have appeared to be difficult to organize. The main inconvenience during the war is the difficulty or impossibility of finding a physical object adequate for educational purposes within the teacher’s reach and accessing the Internet connection in the area. According to our experience, only the hydrological section of the first-year students’ practical training seemed convenient in this regard. In particular, during the practical training in 2022, students 15 mastered the process of measuring physical characteristics and performing water chemical express test using educational and scientific equipment. Conclusions and further research. It is impossible to transfer the practical training of geography students only to a remote format, because many aspects such as field training, ‘live’ communication between students and teachers, the group fieldwork is lost in this way. If the tasks of the preparatory and cameral stages of the practical training are well adapted to distance learning, the direct field study of natural objects using devices is a unique educational experience that has no full analogues. Nevertheless, if the teachers have to conduct the practical training in the online mode, there are ways to improve this component of the educational process such as involving various media materials, organizing synchronous online demonstrations, using interesting tasks for independent work of students, and making all stages of the practical training interactive.

WATER SOIL EROSION IN RIGHT-BANK UKRAINIAN FOREST-STEPPE ZONE

Problem Statement and Purpose. A water soil erosion is one of the most important ecological problems of the world because in the result of it the soil cover completely destroys and is not able to renew for a long time. In opinion of dr. Montgomery D., the loses of agricultural soils even limited the lifetime of ancient civilizations and the same problem closely touches today human being. Following to the information of scientists in 1970-s, about 430 million ha of lands were destroyed in different countries because of water soil erosion. Annual loses of product lands on our planet equal 5–7 million ha. In Ukraine at the end of first decade of 2000s following to National report (2010) the square of eroded agricultural lands equaled 15.954 million ha or 38.4 per cent of their common territory including 12.940 million ha of arable lands or 39.9 per cent. On average the soil loses about approximately 15 t/ha/year. Thereby the purpose of the study is a spatial distributed quantitative assessment of the intensity of erosion soil loses in the right-bank forest-steppe zone of Ukraine and definition of arable squares with different rates of erosion load considering present climate changes and land use peculiarities. Data &Methods. For the estimation of average soil wash off three typical slope plots (К1-р, К2-р, К3-р) were used. The plots are situated within the territory of Educational and Scientific Stationary of the Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University that is in Podilsk district of the north part of Odesa region. This territory is on south hills of Podolska upland in forest-steppe zone. The plots are the different parts of small valleys slopes which are annual plowed up and used for growing of the most profit-making crops – wheat, corn, barley and sunflower. No any scientifically based crop rotation uses there at least for the last twenty years. The spatial distributed physical and statistical model of soil wash off and accumulation was used as a working model for the estimation of average annual soil loses consideringthe peculiarities of land cultivation and anti-erosion crops properties. The model was developed in Department of Physical geography, Nature Management and Geoinformation Technology of Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University and realized in GIS‑package PCRaster (Utrecht University, Netherlands). Results. The quantitative assessment of today erosion soil loses on typical plots considering land use demonstrates very high rate of soil erosion degradation which is obviously representative for the most territories of the right-bank forest-steppe zone of Ukraine. Areas of more than 20 t/ha/year wash off equal 23–27 per cent. Areas of less than 2 t/ha/year wash off where the intensity of soil erosion equals to soil restoration are about one third of all arable lands. The average values of wash off for plots К1-р, К2-р, К3-р are 14.2; 26.3 and 14.8 t/ha/year respectively. However, these values are not above the same ones obtained earlier, but even some less. This is due to the decreasing of soil erosion because of snow melting in the spring which is connected with global warming. But simultaneously the hydrometeorological conditions of rainstorm erosion have not change. And essential decreasing of wash off has not happened because the part of snow melting erosion is only 15–20 per cent in the right-bank forest-steppe zone of Ukraine. The huge values of average wash off and significant areas with high and very high wash off (about one third of arable lands) evidence about decreasing of economic and ecological worth of lands commonly. Applying of soil protection crops rotation well influence on soil decreasing the rate of erosion. The plowing of lands with great slopes (6–7° and more) and using them for row crops without rotation leads to catastrophic wash off and increasing of areas with high erosion danger. Such lands need to be exclude of plowing up.

Spatially distributed assessment and forecast of soil erosion losses as a basis for optimization the use of erosion-hazardous agricultural lands


 
 
 The article is devoted to the problem of sustainable use of agricultural lands in conditions of active manifestation of water soil erosion, which is typical for all natural zones of Ukraine, but to the greatest extent – for the Forest-Steppe and Steppe zone. The aim of the article is a spatially distributed quantitative assessment and forecast of soil erosion losses and the development on this basis of recommendations to optimize the use of agricultural land on the example of the Pidhayetskyi district of the Ternopil region. The area is located within the Western region of Ukraine with a fairly high intensity of water erosion, where in accordance with the long-term climate forecast a further increase in erosion hazard of land is expected. A quantitative assessment of soil erosion losses for the basic period (1961–1990) and forecast periods (2031–2050 and 2081–2100) was carried out using a spatially distributed physical-statistical GIS-model of soil erosion-sedimentation developed at the Department of Physical Geography, Nature Management and Geoinformation Technologies of Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University. Spatial realization of the model performed using the analytical capabilities of the Software for Environmental Modeling PCRaster (University of Utrecht, Netherlands). The forecast of the changes in the hydrometeorological conditions of water soil erosion was made using the forecast of monthly average air temperatures and monthly average precipitation, developed at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute. It established that most of the arable land (about 52 %) of Pidhayetskyi district is erosively dangerous. Due to the projected increase in summer rainfall in the middle and at the end of this century, further intensification of soil erosion is expected, especially in 2031–2050, when soil losses on arable land will increase to 16.9 t/ha/year, and only due to rainstorm erosion. Soil losses by meltwater will be insignificant. Based on the calculations, it was concluded that it is impossible to protect the agricultural lands of the region from erosional degradation without withdrawal from the arable land about 8.15 thousand hectares (28) of the most erosion-hazardous lands (with annual soil losses exceeding 20 tons per a hectare), changing the structure of sown areas and introduction a soil-protective adaptive-landscape farming system over a significant area.
 
 

Дидактичні засади організації туристичної краєзнавчої діяльності майбутніх географів

The organization of tourist local lore activities of future geographers is a holistic, integrative, mobile, complex system that meets modern educational and social requirements, labor market demands, individual educational needs of students, which effectiveness is provided by the methodological basis: at the philosophical level – principles of philosophy awareness of the value of achieving professional results; on general scientific – conceptual bases of future geographers training for the organization of tourist local lore activity in the conditions of the information and globalization world; the essence of information and cartographic support of tourist and local lore activity within the administrative district and its features are covered. The necessity of developing a tourist and local lore guide of the following structure is proved: introduction, general acquaintance with the territory, complex page-by-page tourist and local lore map, tourist and local lore routes, plans of the largest settlements, list of settlements of the district. Approbation was carried out on the example of Balakliia district of Kharkiv region. The main scientific provisions of the Program of regional mapping of natural and historical-cultural territories, objects and complexes of the region developed at the Department of Physical Geography and Cartography of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University are devoted to the current problems of development of a new direction of thematic mapping. Within its limits the basic theoretical questions are defined: information base, mathematical basis, structure and content of original experimental maps and atlases of natural and historical and cultural heritage; The approach to the structure and content of sports and tourism practice is appropriate to improve the level of mastery of the necessary skills, knowledge, broadening horizons and students in the 1st year to test their ability to manage the group in non-standard and emergencies

ON THE USE OF FREELY DISTRIBUTED GLOBAL DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS OF THE HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION FOR CALCULATIONS OF WATER EROSION OF SOIL

Problem Statement and Purpose. In the last two decades, when digital elevation models (DEMs) of global coverage and high spatial resolution have appeared in free access, the problem of assessing not only the planned or vertical accuracy of these DEMs but also the assessment of their applicability for mathematical modeling of hydrological or geomorphological processes has become relevant. The aim of this article is to evaluate the possibility of using freely distributed global digital elevation models of high spatial resolution for calculations of soil erosion losses, including their spatial distribution within a slope or a small catchment area.Data & Methods. The article evaluated the global DEMs SRTM with spatial resolution of 3 angular seconds and 1 angular second, ASTER GDEM (ASTER30) and AW3D30 with spatial resolution of 1 angular second. Estimation of the DEMs was performed for a test site with an area of about 340 km2, located in the north of Odessa region on the southern spurs of the Podolsk Upland. A digital elevation model based on the dig­itization of a large-scale topographic map and subsequent spatial interpolation of the results by the method of ordinary point Kriging was used as a reference. Calculations of soil erosion losses were performed using a spatially distributed GIS-implemented physical-statistical model of erosion-accumulation, developed at the Department of Physical Geography and Nature Management of ONU named after I. I. Mechnikov.Results. All evaluated digital elevation models in general well reflect the basic fea­tures of a relief of a test site. The average absolute heights of the estimated digital el­evation models differ from the average height of the local reference DEM by no more than 0.5 %. However, the minimum and maximum heights, average surface slopes, length of current lines, slope exposure and, especially, their spatial distributions ob­tained using evaluated global DEMs, to some extent differ from those obtained using a cartographic digital elevation model. In addition to the technical features of the survey, this is influenced by the presence within the test site of trees, buildings, struc­tures (ASTER30 and AW3D30), as well as the representation of heights in integers (SRTM90, SRTM30 and ASTER30). For ASTER30, it is also important the existance of post-processing errors ("artifacts") that have not been eliminated.The inadequacy of a quantitative assessment of the main factors of the erosion process, which are the slopes and exposure of slopes, as well as the lengths of water flow lines, inevitably affect the accuracy of calculating both the average values of soil erosional losses and, especially, their spatial distribution. This inadequacy manifested itself to the greatest extent in the digital elevation model ASTER GDEM. Based on the study for calcu­lations and mapping of soil erosion losses using spatially distributed mathematical models, we recommend digital elevation models AW3D30 and SRTM90, which pro­vided good compliance of the results of calculations of both average values of soil erosion losses and spatial distribution of them to the corresponding characteristics obtained using cartographical digital elevation model.

Long-term forecast of changes in soil erosion losses during spring snowmelt caused by climate within the plain part of Ukraine

The paper deals with the forecast of changes in erosion soil losses during the spring snowmelt due to climate change in the regions of Ukraine in the middle of the 21st century (during 2031–2050) and at its end (during 2081–2100) compared with the values of the baseline period (1961–1990). The forecast is based on the use of the so-called “hydrometeorological factor of spring soil loss”. This factor is a part of the physical-statistical mathematical model of soil erosion lossduring spring snowmelt, developed at the Department of Physical Geography of Odesa I. I. Mechnikov State (since 2000 — National) University during the 1980s – 1990s. The long-term average value of the hydrometeorological factor is linearly related to the long-term average value of spring erosion soil loss. Therefore, the relative change in the hydrometeorological factor corresponds to the relative change in soil erosion losses. The developed methodology for assessing climate-induced changes in soil erosion losses in five regions of Ukraine (North, West, Center, East and South) takes into account the change in water equivalent of snow cover at the beginning of snow melting, the change in surface runoff and its turbidity, and changes in soil erodibility. The forecast of changes in erosion soil loss was carried out using projections of annual and monthly average air temperatures and precipitation for 2031–2050 and 2081–2100 in accordance with scenario A1B from AR4 of the IPCC. As a result of the research, it was found that both in the middle and at the end of the 21st century a decrease in the rate of soil erosion during the period of spring snowmelt is expected. During 2031–2050, the expected soil losses will be less than corresponding baseline period values within the West region by 79%, within the North and East regions by 81%, and within the Center region by 85%. In the South region, the spring soil losses will be zero due to the lack of snow cover. During 2081–2100 snow cover will be absent not only in the South region, but also in the Center and East regions. In the regions North and West snow cover will remain, but the spring soil erosion losses will decrease by dozens of times and will be so small that they can also be ignored.

Experience and prospects of environmental mapping of Kharkiv region

The purpose of this article is to acquaint a wide range of specialists in the field of ecology and nature protection with the achievements of scientists at the Department of physical geography and cartography of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in the field of environmental mapping and search for reasons to reduce the number of cartographic works on this topic. Main material. The system of regional environmental and nature protection cartographic works of Kharkiv region includes 24 units of finished cartographic products, supplemented by hundreds of primary auxiliary maps serving as the basis for creating the resulting maps. The authors reveal the history of the creation of the first regional series of environmental maps in the USSR, published with the DSP stamp, the Directions of their use-in the process of planning environmental activities in the region until 1990 and their further use as a visual educational material. The structure and content of a separate environmental map, three series of maps and four environmental atlases are described. A separate comprehensive map provides an overview of the environmental conditions and nature protection in the region and is intended as a demonstration tool for regional organizations and as a reference guide for educational institutions. The basic series of maps provides an overall assessment of the ecological state and nature protection. A series of maps of dynamic and depositing components of the natural environment characterize deteriorating quality of atmospheric air and water, their environmental condition and protection measures. The maps provide information about the eco-environmental assessment of soils, vegetation and wildlife. Environmental and nature protection atlases of the region fully disclose the features of interaction in the “nature-society” system and are intended for specialists in the field of ecology and nature protection for educational purposes, promoting environmental knowledge. The development of interactive cartographic products on environmental issues, such as nature protection maps of Kharkiv region on the GeoMixer web GIS platform, is considered as a promising direction for the development of environmental cartography in the region. Conclusions and further research. The developed cartographic works are used in fragments l, not systematically. Today, the activity of creating maps and atlases on this topic has significantly decreased mainly due to the lack of unifying objective, ideological, state-oriented structures, lack of funds and lack of interest of local authorities in obtaining visual information about the region’s environment.

Геоинформационная система Марткопского стационара: связи и перспективы

Martkopi Physical-Geographical station is more than half a century (50 years). This station was founded by the initiative of the head of the Department of Physical Geography, Tbilisi State University M.S. Saneblidze. A place (30 km North-East of Tbilisi) was chosen in 1962. In 1963, 3 buildings were built (the fourth was built in 1967), and on May 20, 1965 constant meteorological observations were started. During the first stage of research, in addition to meteorological observations, comprehensive physical and geographical studies of the surroundings of the Martkopi station (the Yalno ridge and adjacent territories) were carried out, and a detailed landscape map of this territory was compiled (on a scale of 1 : 25 000). In 1969, studies of the structure and functioning of the landscapes of the station environs were began. However, basically, these studies were carried out according to the methodology of biogeocenological and ecological stations. As the beginning of the “golden period” of researches at station considered to be May 20, 1971, when a new research program was adopted. This program allowed to take 5000–6000 readings during the day throughout the year, on the basis of which it was possible to get an idea of more than 100 parameters characterizing the daily state of the structure and functioning of natural-territorial complexes (NTC). The results of these studies were published in the bulletins “Observations and studies at the Martkopi station” (1973–1975). It is from this period that multicomponent studies begin, both of the structure and functioning, and of the states of the NTC. The Martkopi physico-geographical station and established on its basis the Research Laboratory for the Study of Environmental Conditions by Aerospace Methods at the Tbilisi State University in 1979, became the center of the study of the mountain geosystems’ conditions using the example of Caucasus. In this period, under the leadership of N.L. Beruchashvili was created the first expert geographic information system based on a computer and thus laid the foundation for the creation of the multicomponent working geographic system of the Martkopi physico-geographical station.

Розквіт Львівської школи гірського ландшафтознавства (присвячується пам’яті професора Анатолія Васильовича Мельника)

The article is dedicated to the memory of A. Melnyk – a prominent geographer-landscape scientist, researcher of landscapes of the Ukrainian Carpathians and Ukraine in general, long-term head of the Department of Physical Geography and head of the Chornogirsky geographical station of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. His scientific path and contribution to the general development of the Lviv School of Landscape Studies are analyzed.

Spatially distributed GIS-realized mathematical model of rainstorm erosion losses of soil

In connection with the wide and ever increasing spread of erosion degradation of agricultural lands in Ukraine, the task of developing mathematical models and methods for calculating water erosion of soils corresponding to the current level of erosion study and the demands of soil protection practices is becoming increasingly important. The article is devoted to the development of a spatially distributed GIS-implemented mathematical model of rainstorm soil erosion, which accounts for most of the annual soil losses (in the Steppe zone, for example, about 90 %). The development of the model is based on the most theoretically and informationally grounded model for the Steppe and Forest-Steppe of Ukraine , “the logical-mathematical model of rainstorm soil outwash” developed by H. I. Shvebs (1974, 1981), as well as the results of theoretical and field studies and mathematical modeling of the slope runoff and water erosion of soil, carried out at the Department of Physical Geography and Environmental Management of Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University in the 1990s - 2010s, and also the possibilities of modern geoinformation technologies. For the spatial implementation of the model, a raster model of spatial data and operators of the PCRaster GIS-package (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands) were used, integrated with the Basic programming language into a single system that provides an implementation of the computational algorithm. The developed physical-statistical model of soil erosion-sedimentation takes into account the peculiarities of the formation of slope runoff and soil outwash in conditions of excessive nonstationarity of heavy rainfall, as well as spatial heterogeneity of all major natural and economic factors of water erosion on a slope, including slope steepness, exposure, longitudinal and transverse forms of slopes, soil erodibility, structure of sown areas and anti-erosion measures. Checking the adequacy of the mathematical model was performed using observational data of four experimental catchments ; two runoff plots of the Moldavan water-balance station with total area of 0.08 ha, the Ploska catchment with area of 8.5 ha (Boguslav field experimental base of Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute) and the Sukha catchment with area of 63 ha (Veliko-Anadol water-balance station) with observation periods of 17-31 years. Comparison of the calculated average over the catchment area of mean annual values of rainstorm soil losses, with the corresponding values obtained from measurements on these catchments, made on the basis of Nash-Sutcliff efficiency criterion (NS), allowed us to evaluate the quality of the model as good (NS = 0.72).

Розточчя - перспективний регіон для міжнародної співпраці в галузі моніторингу довкілля

The main attention is paid to the specifics of geographical position of Roztochia natural region within Europe and the relevance of stationary monitoring here. The results of many years of stationary and semi-stationary research in Roztochia, presented at the international scientific workshop “Long-term environmental observations: experience, problems and perspectives”, are reviewed. The workshop was organized by Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geography, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in the city of Lviv and town of Bryukhovychi on 10-12 May 2019 and was dedicated to the 75th birth anniversary of Bohdan Mukha and 50th anniversary of educational and scientific activity of the Roztochia Landscape-Geophysical Station of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

Фізична географія – наука, яка вчить розуміти cвіт(до 75-річчя від дня народження Богдана Павловича Мухи (1943–2019))

The article is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Bohdan Mukha (1943–2019), physical geographer, landscape expert, head of the Department of Physical Geography (1994–2001), the founder and long term director of the Roztochia Landscape-Geophysical Station of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. The article analyzes his scientific biography and publications.

Thermal characteristics of alpine treelines in Central Europe north of the Alps

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 68:1-12 (2016) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01370 Thermal characteristics of alpine treelines in Central Europe north of the Alps Jakub Kašpar, Václav Treml* Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Albertov 6, 128 43 Czech Republic *Corresponding author: treml@natur.cuni.cz ABSTRACT: Alpine treeline ecotones north of the Alps in Central Europe occur in 11 mountain ranges, including the Harz Mountains (Germany), mountain chains of the High Sudetes (Czech Republic and Poland) and the Western Carpathians (Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia). These mountains are characterized by pronounced maritime-continental gradients, large differences in the mass elevation effect, and varying distance between the treeline and summits. We evaluated how these factors influence treeline temperatures and thus treeline elevation. We compared various treeline temperature metrics for all mountain ranges in the study region both among the mountain ranges and with treeline temperatures in the Alps. Our results show that treelines along the 50th parallel increase their elevation by approximately 94 m per 100 km towards the east, a reflection of a rise in elevation of isotherms of growing season temperatures along the maritime-continental gradient and with increasing mass elevation effect. Among the majority of evaluated mountain ranges, growing season treeline temperatures did not differ significantly, suggesting identical thermal limitation of tree growth in these ranges. However, we identified 4 regions (the Harz, Králický Sněžník, Hrubý Jeseník and Velká Fatra Mountains) where the uppermost tree stands are situated below the common treeline isotherm, an indication that trees are limited by other factors (e.g. biomass loss). Based on a comparison of various treeline temperature metrics, we suggest that to reliably describe treeline climates in regions with pronounced maritime-continental gradients, it is necessary to use metrics capturing the entire growing season. Such metrics show that treeline temperatures in the study region are similar to those in the Alps. KEY WORDS: Treeline · Sudetes · Carpathians · Harz · Alpine areas · Temperature metrics Full text in pdf format NextCite this article as: Kašpar J, Treml V (2016) Thermal characteristics of alpine treelines in Central Europe north of the Alps. Clim Res 68:1-12. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01370 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 68, No. 1. Online publication date: March 23, 2016 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2016 Inter-Research.

TO THE QUESTION OF VERIFICATION OF SPACE-DISTRIBUTED SOIL EROSION MODELS

Purpose. Water soil erosion is one of the most dangerous process which eventually leads to a loss of soil fertility and landscape degradation. The solution to this problem lies in the creation of mathematical models of adequate soil flushing. The current level of geographic information technologies make it possible to perform spatial modeling of soil erosion for different scale areas. To estimate adequacy of spatial model of soil washing off is possible on the basis of comparison of calculation information with the separate factors of erosion of soil measured in the field terms. Methodic. The estimation of adequacy of spatial model of soil washing off was executed on the slope of beam of north-eastern display, within the south part of Podol’ska hills. The soil washing off was estimated using spatial GIS-realized model of water erosion loses and accumulation of soil, developed on the department of physical geography and nature use of the National Mechnikov’s University of Odessa, physgeo_onu@ukr.netFinding. Comparison of the calculated values of annual rate of soil erosion, taken from digital maps of normalized relative to the average for the two periods of research in the area of mechanical cohation soil values generally show good correspondence of. And comparison of calculated annual soil erosion standards of humus horizon showed also close enough to reverse connection between these two sizes.Results. Checking of the adequacy of spatially distributed GIS model of soil flush-accumulation using data from field measurements of some factors of soil erosion showed sufficiently high adequacy of this model.

INTEGRATED PHYSIOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FACULTY

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Integrated Landscape Research, conducted at the Department of Physical Geography and Nature. Object is a landscape of southern Ukraine and Odessa region. We used techniques such as comparative geographical, historical and geographical, analysis method. We consider the development of complex physical-geographical studies from the late 19-th to the early 21 century, the basic four stages of research. The first stage was first identified geographical area of the Russian Plain; reveals the genesis and dynamics of boundaries steppe landscapes, forest geokomplexes. The second phase covers the 50-60s of the 21 century: the deepening knowledge of the physico-geographical regionalization; study the structure and dynamics of coastal landscapes and azonal. The third period started in the 70’s: principles and allocation unit paragenetical valley landscapes; concept of social ecology; natural-economic and territorial systems based on them – agrolandscape systems; isolated position-Dynamic Landscape Structure; conducted agrolandscape mapping and zoning. In the late 90’s to early 21 century. with the development of GIS begins the fourth period of the comprehensive studies. Conducts research to study the landscape of the nature reserve fund Black Sea; studied features of degradation and desertification landscape Black Sea; studied the theoretical aspects and metryzatsiya steppe landscape diversity, especially the formation of regional econet; formation of databases to create landscape and agrolandscape card design and styling models of complex maps with GIS technologies; environmental monitoring.

THE PROBLEMS OF QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATION OF EROSIVE SOIL LOSSES

Purpose. Today, there are several dozen models that allow us to calculate and predict water erosion soil loss. A considerable part of them is quite weighty comprehensive study, the implementation of media-art software packages and used in different regions of the world with a practical purpose. If spatial changeability of all factors of water erosion of soil is even taken into account, there are some problems of the practical use of such models. In particular, it is the verification of models, and the spatial generalization of the got results. A question appears here, which a size of elementary area of space – raster cell – must be, from what it depends and on what it influences. Methodology. To study the impact of the raster cell size of the final result of modeling and forecasting used the GIS-realized spatial model implemented flush-accumulation of soil that was developed at the Department of Physical Geography and Nature Use of Odessa Mechnikov National University. Spatial GIS-realized a model is approved on a few test areas of steppe and forest-steppe areas of Ukraine and Russian Federation. Finding. As a result of quantitative experiments it appeared that on the electronic maps with cell size 5 and 10 meters at the calculations of a coefficient of form of hillside catchments are expressly traced the structure of hillside rill network. Use of digital model of relief with the cell size more than 10 meters for calculations the coefficient of form of hillside catchments results in a volume, that a concentration or dispersion of temporal rills is not almost traced. It is got, that the spatial differentiation of soil washing off is identified at the cell size to 25 meters, at the increase of cell size the spatial distributing is smoothed out, and the variation of values of washing off for areas diminishes considerably. The nearest to the actual soil washing off from of experimental area Ploska (0.271 t/ha/year) is a average value at the cell size 10 meters – 0.233 t/ha/year (a difference makes -13.6 %). Results. The research of influence of raster cell size on the results of calculations of norm of the thundershower soil washing off with the use of spatial GIS-realized models showed that raster cell, at the first, had a considerable influence on end-point – distributing and size of soil washing off, at the second, in dependence there is authentication of structure of the hillside flowing down on the cell size, at the third, for small hillside area with the purpose of optimization of the land use expediently to use the cell size not more than 10 meters.

Influence of the river floodplain on the regime of the upper Lužnice River

The aim of this study is an evaluation of the hydrological regime of the upper part of the Lužnice River basin with respect to anthropogenic modifications. The Lužnice River is located in the south of Czechia. A larger part of the river exhibits a low intensity of modification - meandering stream with many pools and oxbow lakes in the floodplain where a safe retention of water during the flood event remains possible. The main part of the study concentrates on the hydrological regime. The methodology is based on statistical evaluation of a long-time data series from the Pilař water gauging station. Flood events and dry periods were analysed during the past 46 years. Discharge measurements (conducted by the Faculty of Science, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology) are used for recent flood evaluations.

Bank pull or bar push: What drives scroll-bar formation in meandering rivers?

Research Article| April 01, 2014 Bank pull or bar push: What drives scroll-bar formation in meandering rivers? Wietse I. van de Lageweg; Wietse I. van de Lageweg Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Wout M. van Dijk; Wout M. van Dijk Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands *Current address: Department of Geography, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Anne W. Baar; Anne W. Baar Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Jantien Rutten; Jantien Rutten Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Maarten G. Kleinhans Maarten G. Kleinhans † Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands †E-mail: M.G.Kleinhans@uu.nl. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (2014) 42 (4): 319–322. https://doi.org/10.1130/G35192.1 Article history received: 09 Oct 2013 rev-recd: 12 Jan 2014 accepted: 15 Jan 2014 first online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Wietse I. van de Lageweg, Wout M. van Dijk, Anne W. Baar, Jantien Rutten, Maarten G. Kleinhans; Bank pull or bar push: What drives scroll-bar formation in meandering rivers?. Geology 2014;; 42 (4): 319–322. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G35192.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract One of the most striking features of meandering rivers are quasi-regular ridges of the point bar, evidence of a pulsed lateral migration of meander bends. Scroll bars formed on the inner bend are preserved on the point-bar surface as a series of ridges as meanders migrate, and in the subsurface of the point bar as inclined heterolithic stratification with lateral accretion surfaces. It is necessary to understand the formation and sedimentary architecture of these point bars, which are fundamental geomorphic building blocks of meandering rivers and potential reservoirs for water, oil, and gas. However, it remains unresolved whether the scroll-bar pattern forms in response to outer bend bank erosion during floods (i.e., bank pull), or is forced by bank progradation (i.e., bar push). Here we use experimentally formed meandering rivers with a set of static and migrating bends to isolate the effects of sediment supply to the point bar, bank protection, and forced bank retreat. We find that channel widening caused by bank retreat near the bend apex causes deposition of new scroll ridges along the inner bend point bar, whereas scroll bars cannot be forced by sediment pulses. Thus channel width variations along meander bends cause bank pull, which is necessary for scroll-bar formation. Furthermore, we find that each newly attached scroll bar overlies a nonpermeable layer of finer grained sediment caused by the temporary flow expansion, which explains the fining-upward tendency of point bars. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Основні напрями наукових досліджень кафедри фізичної географії Львівського національного університету імені Івана Франка у 1961–2011 роках

The research at the Department, which is one of the oldest at the Geography Faculty of Lviv University (founded in 1944) has been mainly connected during the last half-century with integrated physical-geographical studies of Western Ukraine, development of theoretical, methodical, and applied issues of landscape science. As a result, the Lviv school of landscape studies of Prof. K.I. Herenchuk was formed, as well as the school of mountain landscape studies of Prof. H.P. Miller. The research activities of the Department staff are based not only on the expeditionary field data, but also on the data collected at the field stations – the Roztocha Landscape-Geophysical Station (functions since 1968) and the Chornohora Geographical Station (functions since 1978). Key words: Department of Physical Geography, research activities, stationary observations, landscape science.