Fertile Plains Research Articles

The Organization and the Social Procedures of a Trade Fair. The Example of Amyntaio, Florina, Greece (1956-2012)

Built-up areas are structural units developed through a specific process, which has frequently got a social character. At times, the construction of such areas is attributed to factors which are not purely social: such factors are geographical location, the geophysical morphology of the wider area, relevant administrative or political laws etc. Overall, major cities and towns are constructed under the influence of a number of factors, cultural, historical, administrative, geographical, social, etc. The considerations discussed above are ensued by a shared attitude towards space, according to the following principles: a) Spatial allotment of human activities, which reflects the organized accommodation in considerations of distance, b) Decisions concerning land planning, which are taken in order to minimize the effects of distance, c) The locations in space, which are accompanied by accessibility standards, despite the fact that access to specific places is easier, d) The tendency to accumulate economic activities in space so that economy scales can be favoured, e) Human activities, which naturally tend to be ranked. The present paper aims at discussing aspects of the trade fair in the town of Amyntaio. The first organized residential nucleus of Amyntaio was established in the mid 18th century when families from the mountainous nearby areas came to the fertile plain near the lakes. In the specific centre of trade, the Greek commercial spirit was greatly enhanced. Greek tradesmen contributed to developing the new character of the town and promoting progress and culture. The trade fair in Amyntaio is closely associated with the weekly street market organized throughout the year, of which it is the highlight event. The research was primarily based on the archives of the Municipality of Amyntaio and the material of the research is comprised of the proceedings of the Town Council and the land survey maps accompanying the decisions made. The methodological issues associated with the measures of viability and vitality involve the assessment of service quality, the basic indicators of which range from satisfying customers to the profits accumulated by the Municipality during the specific time. The investigation of indicators is focused on Amyntaio, a town - centre, on account of the fact that it is vital and has a larger population and a more vigorous trade than the neighbouring towns. In general terms, the trade fair in Amyntaio, according to the basic indicators, is an institution that has not declined, but, in contrast, has been enhanced and contributed to town vitality and viability. Nowadays, it is worth pointing out that the transfer of the fair from the traditional market centre of the town to residential areas and areas with public and transportation services has contributed to the town vitality and viability which are indicators that the institution at issue thrives. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n2p45

Minor millets in Tamil Nadu, India: local market participation, on-farm diversity and farmer welfare

AbstractAlthough farmer market participation raises income, it often also reduces on-farm varietal diversity. However, for under-utilized crops like minor millets, market participation may actually encourage growers to increase on-farm diversity through better access to new varieties exchanged at local markets and higher returns from varieties already grown. We test this hypothesis in two different agro-ecological niches, the Plains and the Hills in southern India. Empirical results based on propensity score matching indicate that, in the less fertile dryland plains, market participation improved on-farm varietal diversity of minor millets and increased net revenues – albeit with insignificant welfare effects on farm households. On the other hand, in the fertile hill ecosystems, market development had no effect on varietal diversity. Insights from such a comparison could help design suitable policy interventions for on-farm conservation of under-utilized crops in their own agro-ecosystems through active stakeholder participation.

Colonización agrícola y distribución de la riqueza inmobiliaria en la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina, 1864-1875

<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">El presente artículo busca medir la distribución de la riqueza inmobiliaria en las colonias agrícolas de la provincia de Santa Fe –Argentina– en las décadas de 1860 y 1870. A partir de registros de Contribución Directa –un impuesto provincial sobre la riqueza individual de cada contribuyente– correspondientes a los años fiscales de 1864, 1867, 1868 y 1875 (complementados con las manuscritas del Censo Nacional de Población de 1869), se busca analizar no sólo la evolución de la distribución espacial de la riqueza en las colonias primigenias –a partir de los casos de Esperanza y San Carlos–, sino también comparar esa variable con las colonias satélites que comienzan a surgir desde fines de la década de 1860, para mostrar así las particularidades y diferencias de este novedoso proceso de cambio productivo.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></p>

Large-scale spatial variability and distribution of soil organic carbon across the entire Loess Plateau, China

Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an important role in soil productivity and the global carbon cycle. However, little is known about the regional distribution of SOC across the entire Loess Plateau region of China. We investigated 382 sampling sites across the region (620 000 km2) and collected 764 soil samples from the topsoil (0–20 cm) and subsoil (20–40 cm). Standard statistics were used to identify the regional SOC content and the relationships with 11 selected environmental variables. Concentrations of SOC varied within a wide range throughout the region from 0.38 to 54.03 g kg–1, with mean values of 10.34 and 6.78 g kg–1 for the topsoil and subsoil, respectively. Coefficient of variation values showed moderate variation for SOC in both soil layers. Significant correlations were detected between SOC and these environmental variables, notably with soil total nitrogen (TN), soil pH, and clay content. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that TN, clay content, soil pH, elevation, and temperature had greatest effects on regional SOC variability among all the selected soil and site variables. Geostatistical analysis showed that the maximum autocorrelation ranges were 384 and 393 km for SOC in the topsoil and subsoil, respectively. Nugget-to-sill ratios were 0.52 and 0.50, which also indicated moderate spatial dependence. Maps of SOC distribution produced by the geostatistical method showed that the overall spatial pattern was characterised by an area of low SOC content surrounded by bands with higher values, which generally increased towards the region’s boundaries. The distribution pattern corresponded to that of the major regional landforms, which also influenced land use, whereby the sandy Ordos Plateau is surrounded by relatively fertile plains and valleys, where the human population density is highest, and the regional boundary is mountainous. The spatial data of SOC could be useful as an important initial state in regional SOC modelling and possibly be used in calibration and prediction processes in the remote sensing method to estimate SOC content for large-scale areas.

The nature of New York: an environmental history of the Empire State

Introduction: Nature Is on the Side of New York1. This Comes of Settling a Country: European Colonization and the Market's Arrival 2. This Wilderness Becomes a Fertile Plain: Engineering the Empire State 3. We Are Still in Eden: Romanticism, Tourism, and the Power of Culture 4. Tainted and Unwholesome Atmospheres: Urban Environments, Government, and Reform5. A Sound Conservation Program: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Power of Individuals 6. Tracing Man's Progress in Making the Planet Uninhabitable: Environmental Interest Groups and Postwar Threats 7. We Live in This Filth: The Urban Crisis, Environmental Justice, and Threats from Beyond Epilogue: Finding Places in History Notes Bibliographical Essay Index

An international terminology for grazing lands and grazing animals

Preface 2 Members of the committee 3 Acknowledgements 3 An International Terminology for Grazing Lands and Grazing Animals 1. Grazing land terms 4 2. Vegetation: descriptive terms 6 3. Forage growth and harvest 8 4. Forage nutritive value and intake 9 5. Management of grazing lands 12 6. Land–forage–animal relationships 15 7. Stocking methods 16 References 18 Appendix I. References and additional information for selected terms 21

Satire and the King of Aram

Abstract The text of 1 Kings 20 has presented many exegetes with a fertile plain from which to reap a multitude of historical data about the history of Israel. Various concepts have been developed in order to approach the text, almost always gleaning some historical circumstances behind the text or recounted within the text. Every facet that could lead to a historical reconstruction based on this text has been explored in the last century. But what if such a study misses the point of this text? Maybe the composer of this text sought to present different information to the audience beyond purely historical data. With this in mind, we’ll take a renewed look at the narrative of 1 Kings 20. The text of 1 Kings 20 may or may not be interested in providing the reader with historical details; it is definitely interested in satirizing the king of Aram.

Land Use and Soil Organic Carbon in China's Village Landscapes

Village landscapes, which integrate small-scale agriculture with housing, forestry, and a host of other land use practices, cover more than 2 million square kilometers across China. Village lands tend to be managed at very fine spatial scales (≤ 30 m), with managers both adapting their practices to existing variation in soils and terrain ( e.g., fertile plains vs. infertile slopes) and also altering soil fertility and even terrain by terracing, irrigation, fertilizing, and other land use practices. Relationships between fine-scale land management patterns and soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top 30 cm of village soils were studied by sampling soils within fine-scale landscape features using a regionally weighted landscape sampling design across five environmentally distinct sites in China. SOC stocks across China's village regions (5 Pg C in the top 30 cm of 2 × 10 6 km 2) represent roughly 4% of the total SOC stocks in global croplands. Although macroclimate varied from temperate to tropical in this study, SOC density did not vary significantly with climate, though it was negatively correlated with regional mean elevation. The highest SOC densities within landscapes were found in agricultural lands, especially paddy, the lowest SOC densities were found in nonproductive lands, and forest lands tended toward moderate SOC densities. Due to the high SOC densities of agricultural lands and their predominance in village landscapes, most village SOC was found in agricultural land, except in the tropical hilly region, where forestry accounted for about 45% of the SOC stocks. A surprisingly large portion of village SOC was associated with built structures and with the disturbed lands surrounding these structures, ranging from > 18% in the North China Plain to about 9% in the tropical hilly region. These results confirmed that local land use practices, combined with local and regional variation in terrain, were associated with most of the SOC variation within and across China's village landscapes and may be an important cause of regional variation in SOC.

La nueva estela de guerrero de las Bodeguillas (Esparragosa de Lares, Badajoz) y el paisaje cultural del final de la Edad del Bronce en la Serena

In the first part of this paper the warrior stelae of The Bodeguilla is presented, it is a new exemplar found in Esparragosa de Lares (Badajoz), whose iconographic study not only enables the most features include the so-called “group Guadiana Valley” but also an advanced chronology, in the Late Bronze Age-Orientalizing Period. The work continues in a second part, with a valoration of what we know about the physical and cultural landscape of this horizon in the region of La Serena, offering a very open proposal on the diversity of paleoeconomical factors in protohistoric settlement. Although clearly rural, it is shown fully integrated in dynamics of interaction with other areas of apparently more dynamic, as the very fertile plain of the Guadiana.

Colonization process by macrobenthic infauna after a managed coastal realignment in the Bidasoa estuary (Bay of Biscay, NE Atlantic)

The colonization process by macrobenthic infauna after the completion of managed realignment on the fertile plain of Jaitzubia, along the Bidasoa estuary, is assessed here. The benthic invertebrate fauna was sampled annually for three years in the newly recovered intertidal areas. The results show a rapid colonization process. Six months after the completion of the restoration works, all the stations exhibited a large number of small opportunistic benthic species, as well as some large individuals of Hediste diversicolor, that dominated the biomass of the community. One year later, a new stage of development or succession towards the settlement of the Scrobicularia plana– Cerastoderma edule community was observed, showing a reduction of both abundance and species richness, and an increase in biomass, mainly due to the presence of individuals of S. plana (which were absent previously). The following year, a further reduction in the abundance and number of species was observed, as well as an increase in biomass, but on this occasion S. plana was the main contributor to community biomass. Evidence of the importance of passive or active dispersion in the adult stage of the species H. diversicolor and S. plana in the recovery process was also observed.

ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF THE TACHINIDAE (INSECTA: DIPTERA) OF CHINA

ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF THE TACHINIDAE (INSECTA: DIPTERA) OF CHINA

El final de las “villae” en “Hispania” (siglos IV–VII D.C.) (review)

Reviewed by: El final de las “villae” en “Hispania” (siglos IV–VII D.C.) Damian Fernández El final de las “villae” en “Hispania” (siglos IV–VII D.C.) Alexandra Chavarría Bibliothèque de l’Antiquité Tardive 7. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007. Pp. 313, ISBN 978–2-503–51735–3. Our understanding of late antique Iberia has changed dramatically in the last few decades. Whereas earlier interpretations concentrated on the devastating effects of the fifth-century “barbarian invasions,” more recent publications tend to argue that the “end of Roman Iberia” resulted from a combination of invisible social changes combined with the historical events from the fourth through the sixth centuries. Within this latter framework, this book by Alexandra Chavarría analyzes the demise of the ubiquitous late Roman rural aristocratic residence, the villa, in the Iberian Peninsula. Chavarría’s study begins with the complicated issues of property structure, internal economy, and the landowning class in Iberia (chapters two to four). She synthesizes secondary literature on these topics and sometimes illustrates them with Iberian evidence, including the limited number of written documents on which we have to rely. For example, the only concrete evidence we have of property structure in late antique Iberia is the sixth-century testament of Vincent of Huesca. Likewise, the identification of barbarian landowners depends on the ethnic interpretation of artifacts and burials that, as Chavarría herself acknowledges, can hardly be ascribed to a specific group, Roman or barbarian. The next three chapters are devoted to the description and evolution of villae as archaeological sites. In contrast with the previous section, these chapters show the wealth of archaeological material available for the study of late antique Iberia. Chavarría focuses on residential, leisure, and religious buildings, not because of neglect of other parts of the villa but because excavations unfortunately concentrate mostly on the “seigniorial” spaces. And yet, are these residential areas the only parts of the villa centers? How can we explain the presence, in many villa sites, of artifacts related to centralized production and storage of agricultural products? One should not dismiss the possibility that productive areas and workers’ quarters were built of perishable materials and are therefore archeologically invisible, almost invisible in surveys. [End Page 174] Yet, archaeologists have been able to find traces of wooden huts in other post-Roman sites whereas they usually have failed to find them in late Roman villae. The following three chapters constitute the core of Chavarría’s thesis, the end of the villa, and are consistent with her many previous publications on this topic. Her analysis is based on an impressive corpus of more than a hundred villae, with different levels of quality in their excavations (the reader will benefit from the detailed catalogue of sites at the end of the book). Chavarría’s arguments can be summed up as follows. The abandonment of villae as aristocratic residences must not be associated with the so-called barbarian invasions of the third and fifth centuries, but with internal evolutionary developments of Iberian society, developments that varied along regional lines. In what we can call “Mediterranean Iberia”—the province of Tarraconensis, the Levantine area, and Baetica—many villae lost their aristocratic residential character during the third and fourth centuries. Their rooms and halls were transformed for production activities. A handful of villae, however, were turned into monumental aristocratic residences, in the same way as in many other areas of the Roman west. Chavarría believes that these changes mirrored property concentration in fewer aristocratic hands, a historiographical topic that has gained considerable ascendancy in recent scholarship. In other words, changes in villa sites would indicate that those who acquired new properties would not have needed more than one residential unit. These few surviving residential villae then were slowly abandoned through the fifth, sixth, and even seventh centuries. The second region considered in Chavarría’s study includes the interior plateau and the fertile plains of Lusitania. Here, the fourth and early fifth centuries witnessed an explosion of new aristocratic villae. In contrast to the Mediterranean area, newly built residential buildings were the norm rather than the exception. The abandonment of villae as residential areas only...

Incidence of Ocular Zoonoses referred to the Inflammatory and Autoimmune Ocular Diseases Service of the University of Parma - Italy

Parma is a city located in the western part of the region Emilia Romagna (Figure ​(Figure1),1), about 100 km far from Milan. The province of Parma is approximately 3.445 km2 wide. The mountains of the Appennine range divide Parma Province from Tuscany and from Ligury, and Po river flows through its territory. The territory of Parma Province presents two types of environment: mountains with woods in the South and floody plains in the North. The Po river runs through a fertile plain where world famous food and wines are produced. Green is undoubtedly one of the dominant colours in the territory of Parma and a series of Nature Reserves in the province of Parma as well as parks, wildlife sanctuaries, state forests are all protected areas. Figure 1 Geographical location of the province of Parma (Italy). The total population is about 420.000 residents. The principal activities include the raising of farm animals and the transformation of raw products into food (cheese, meat, cured meats, etc). Indeed, the province of Parma is known also as “the food valley”. The characteristics of the environment, the presence of woods and the habit of consuming sausages and raw meat make Parma Province an endemic area for both arthropod- and food-borne zoonoses. Approximately 20% of cases of zoonotic disease in Italy are reported from the Emilia Romagna Region. In Europe there is no obligation to register Lyme cases and therefore the real incidence of Lyme disease is unknown. In Italy, Lyme disease has been subject to mandatory notification since 1990, but there is likely an underestimation of the real prevalence. There are 400-900 new cases/year in Italy and Emilia Romagna is an endemic area with 831 new cases from 1996 to 2007. The global incidence of toxoplasmosis is extremely variable: from 3% to 70% of adults are seropositive for Toxoplasma. Climate, hygienic conditions and eating habits are all responsible for this variability. The eating of raw meat, such as “carpaccio”, Parma's ham, sausages, and pork increases the incidence of toxoplasmosis. The Inflammatory and Autoimmune Ocular Diseases Service of Parma University Hospital is a reference Centre for the Parma area. Therefore, almost all cases of infectious diseases with ocular complications are referred to this Centre for diagnosis and therapy. Thus, the Centre's database represents a reliable source of epidemiological information on the incidence of zoonoses in this territory. Two hundred and seventy six new cases of ocular inflammatory disease were examined in this Service in 2007. Forty one (15%) patients had ocular inflammation with infective etiology (including herpetic keratouveitis, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc). There were 26 (63%) new cases of zoonoses, including 24 cases of toxoplasmosis, 1 case of ocular toxocariasis and 1 case of Lyme borreliosis. Of those patients with toxoplasmosis, 18 (75%) were immuno-competent adults. All of them presented a monolateral retinitis focus and good recovery was achieved in all patients with trimetropim-sulphametoxazole therapy. Five patients were HIV-positive, and all these presented with monolateral focus. One patient was a 3-month old child, born to a seropositive mother, who presented a monolateral macular scar. The case of toxocariasis regarded a 32 year-old Dominican woman, who had been living in Italy for the last 12 years. Ocular disease arose after about 6 months since her last visit to her native country. In this case the patient had a panuveitis, which recovered only after a combination of medical treatment and surgery, with a final visual acuity of 40% in the affected eye 1. The only case of Lyme disease affected a 31 year-old farmer and his ocular manifestations are described in the specific section.

Gevninge – leddet til Lejre

Gevninge – leddet til Lejre

Beyond Brinkmanship: Geographical Constraints and North Korea's Evolving Tactics

IntroductionKorean history has seen the rise and fall of numerous kingdoms and states on the peninsula, competing against each other and battling external threats. In many ways, North Korea today faces similar challenges to the preceding kingdoms in the northern half of the peninsula, challenges shaped in large part by geography and locations. In looking at these deeper structural elements, and the way various Korean states adapted to the geographical constraints, North Korean behavior appears less erratic and less dogmatic. The recent shift in North Korean behavior at the negotiating table, then, becomes one predicated on how far along Pyongyang is in meeting its strategic imperatives.These imperatives are less choice than necessities for survival, and in the case of North Korea, or any other preceding or succeeding Korean state in the northern half of the peninsula, they can be summed up in just a few short points:1. Maintain strong internal cohesion of the population.2. Reduce or eliminate the threat to the weak southern border, where there are few defensible geographical boundaries.3. Reduce or remove the threat to the weak points of the northern border, particularly near the western border with China.4. Use larger external powers to balance each other in order to deal with the dual security threats from maritime and land-based neighbors.How North Korea or any other Korean state deals with these issues is a matter of choice, though not all choices work equally well. That North Korea must contend with its geographical and spatial vulnerabilities, however, is not a choice if the regime and state has any plan to survive.For North Korea in the modern world, the key to nearly all its core challenges is the United States. If North Korea eventually succeeds in reshaping relations with the United States, it will have significantly reduced, if not removed, the threat from the south. It will also be able to call on the United States to act as a buffer between Korea's more immediate historical threats; Japan and China. Finally, breaking free from the constraints of the current relationship with the United States could give Pyongyang greater access to international economic, development and technology resources, which, if used effectively, could both maintain internal social cohesion and strengthen the state.Geography and Place: Constraints and ChallengesThe Korean Peninsula is a narrow, mountainous appendix on Northeast Asia, stretching out from the Chinese-Russian border into the sea, aimed at Japan. In the North is a high plateau and mountains, with two rivers stretching to the east and west coasts (the Tumen and Yalu respectively) providing definition to the border. Figure 1 shows that in the east, a series of mountain ranges, most notably the Taebaek Range, stretches not far inland along the coast, providing a natural barrier to forces invading by sea. In the south, numerous islands guard the access to the weaker lowlands of the southwest. And along the west coast stretch the more fertile plains of Korea, though high tidal fluctuation have served as a hindrance to maritime invasion (though not a foolproof hindrance, as shown by the U.S. forces landing at Incheon in 1950).North Korea, like preceding northern-Korean states, faces a more immediate challenge from the south. Rather than having a clearly defined, if somewhat vulnerable, coastline as its border, North Korea's southern border sits along ill-defined geographical barriers. There is no defensible high mountain range like in the north or east, just the relatively low rolling hills and plains that stretch from the Taedong River in Pyongyang down through the Imjin River to the Han River flowing through Seoul. In the north, the primary vulnerability is near the mouth of the Yalu River, which creates a gap in the mountainous barriers to the North and opens a historically trod pathway to the peninsula from China and Manchuria. …

How I became a biochemist

How I became a biochemist

Perennial grassland dynamics on fertile plains: Is coexistence mediated by disturbance?

Abstract The response of grasslands to disturbance varies with the nature of the disturbance and the productivity of the landscape. In highly productive grasslands, competitive exclusion often results in decreased species richness and grazing may allow more species to coexist. Once widespread, grasslands dominated by Dichanthium sericeum (Queensland bluegrass) and Astrebla spp. (Mitchell grass) occur on fertile plains but have been reduced in extent by cultivation. We tested the effects of exclusion of livestock grazing on these grasslands by comparing the floristic composition of sites in a nature reserve with an adjacent stock reserve. In addition, sites that had been cultivated within the nature reserve were compared with those where grazing but no cultivation had occurred. To partition the effects of temporal variation from spatial variation we sampled sites in three different years (1998, 2002 and 2004). Some 194 taxa were recorded at the nature reserve and surrounding stock routes. Sampling time, the occurrence of past cultivation and livestock grazing all influenced species composition. Species richness varied greatly between sampling periods relating to highly variable rainfall and water availability on heavy clay soils. Native species richness was significantly lower at previously cultivated sites (13–22 years after cultivation), but was not significantly influenced by grazing exclusion. After 8 years it appears that reintroducing disturbance in the form of livestock grazing is not necessary to maintain plant species richness in the reserve. The highly variable climate (e.g. droughts) probably plays an important role in the coexistence of species by negating competitive exclusion and allowing interstitial species to persist.

Hydrochemical appraisal of groundwater and its suitability in the intensive agricultural area of Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India

Muzaffarnagar is an economically rich district situated in the most fertile plains of two great rivers Ganga and Yamuna in the Indo-gangetic plains, with agricultural land irrigated by both surface water as well as groundwater. An investigation has been carried out to understand the hydrochemistry of the groundwater and its suitability for irrigation uses. Groundwater in the study area is neutral to moderately alkaline in nature. Chemistry of groundwater suggests that alkaline earths (Ca+Mg) significantly exceed the alkalis (Na+K) and weak acids exceed the strong acids (Cl+SO4), suggesting the dominance of carbonate weathering followed by silicate weathering. Majority of the groundwater samples (62%) posses Ca–Mg–HCO3 type of hydrochemical species, followed by Ca–Na–Mg–HCO3, Na–Ca–Mg–HCO3, Ca–Mg–Na–HCO3–Cl and Na–Ca–HCO3–SO4 types. A positive high correlation (r2=0.928) between Na and Cl suggests that the salinity of groundwater is due to intermixing of two or more groundwater bodies with different hydrochemical compositions. Barring a few locations, most of the groundwater samples are suitable for irrigation uses. Chemical fertilizers, sugar factories and anthropogenic activities are contributing to the sulphate and chloride concentrations in the groundwater of the study area. Overexploitation of aquifers induced multi componential mixing of groundwater with agricultural return flow waters is responsible for generating groundwater of various compositions in its lateral extent.

El estudio de los riesgos con origen hidrológico en el su-reste de la Península Ibérica. Enfoque geográfico y plani-ficación territorial

This paper shows the current studies on hydrological risks in the outh-east Spain, a region specially producing hazard situations. This area is one of the most arid regions of Europe, characterized by extraordinary rains of high hourly intensity causing bulky discharges and overflows, but also by the installation of dense urban nucleus in coastal areas and fertile plains. The scanty one, or in occasions unfortunate, dialog between environment and man has done of this one an area of notable interest for numerous researchers on the risk processes associated with hydrological extreme events. The ephemeral flow regime and the hydraulic effects of the linear infrastructures and drainage works complicate the estimation of the flood discharges, increasing the above mentioned degree of complexity. There are several models, programs and projects focused on these questions, but a major knowledge is still absent on this type of risk processes, particularly in relation with the generation of flood areas. For it is necessary a cartographic information base of more detail and the incorporation of factors till now very little considered as those hydro-morphological or the indicators of vulnerability.

Determination of sulfophenyl carboxylic acids in agricultural groundwater samples by CE with ultraviolet absorption detection

An analytical method for the determination of six sulfophenyl carboxylic acids, namely (p-sulfophenyl)acetic, 2-(p-sulfophenyl)propionic, 2-(p-sulfophenyl)butyric, 3-(p-sulfophenyl)butyric, 4-(p-sulfophenyl)butyric, and 5-(p-sulfophenyl)valerianic acid, in agricultural irrigation water samples was developed. It involves an SPE procedure, an on-line preconcentration normal stacking mode and subsequent separation and determination using CE with UV detection (CE-UV). p-Sulfobenzoic acid was used as internal standard. The compounds were separated with an uncoated capillary and a 25 mM ammonium acetate/acetic acid buffer solution (pH 5.5) with 2-propanol (30% v/v) and 0.75 mM CTAB. Analyses were run at -25 kV, 25 degrees C, and 100 s of hydrodynamic injection with UV detection at 225 nm. Quantification limits found ranged between 4 and 6 ng/mL. The proposed method was validated using a recovery assay. It was satisfactorily used for the determination of these compounds in groundwater samples to track down the biodegradation of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates in an agricultural soil from the fertile plain of Granada (Spain).