Mountain Locations Research Articles

Two new species of Hydraena Kugelann, 1794 from São Tomé Island-an apparent adaptive radiation (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae).

Hydraena saotometerrestris sp. nov. and H. turneri sp. nov. are described from São Tomé island in the Gulf of Guinea. Both species belong to the subgenus Hydraenopsis Janssens, 1972 and were collected from primary forest locations; H. turneri sp. nov. found living aquatically in a small seepage over rock and clay. In contrast, H. saotometerrestris sp. nov. was collected from damp forest litter, far from water, in two mountainous locations on São Tomé and is apparently terrestrial. The overall habitus and similar form of aedeagus in the new species strongly suggest they are closely related, pointing to apparent adaptive radiation following a single colonization of this oceanic island.

Optimal Prediction of Wind Energy Resources Based on WOA—A Case Study in Jordan

The average wind speed in a given area has a significant impact on the amount of energy that can be harvested by wind turbines. The regions with the most attractive possibilities are typically those that are close to the seaside and have open terrain inland. There is also good potential in several mountainous locations. Despite these geographical restrictions on where wind energy projects can be located, there is enough topography in most of the world’s regions to use wind energy projects to meet a significant amount of the local electricity needs. This paper presents a new method of energy prediction of wind resources in several wind sites in Jordan, which can be used to decide whether a specific wind site is suitable for wind farm installation purposes. Three distribution models, Weibull, Gamma and Rayleigh, were employed to characterize the provided wind data. Different estimation methods were used to assign the parameters associated with each distribution model and the optimal parameters were estimated using whale optimization algorithms which reduce the error between the estimated and the measured wind speed probability. The distribution models’ performance was investigated using three statistical indicators. These indicators were: root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2), and mean absolute error (MAE). Finally, using the superlative distribution models, the wind energy for the chosen wind sites was estimated. This estimation was based on the calculation of the wind power density (ED) and the total wind energy (ET) of the wind regime. The results show that the total wind energy ranged from slightly under 100 kWh/m2 to nearly 1250 kWh/m2. In addition, the sites recording the highest estimated wind energy had the optimum average wind speed and the most symmetrical distribution pattern.

Effects of persistent organic pollutants on environment, health and mountains: a review

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food chain and can exhibit toxicity with threatening effects to the environment, humans and animals. Due to their volatility and semi-volatility, they are found in air and they have the potential to be transported to high-altitude mountain locations as well as to high-latitude areas. The objectives of this study are; firstly, to look into the environmental and health impacts of POPs; secondly, to look into studies that covered the transport of POPs through atmospheric air, water and other POP sources such as sediments and soils; and, thirdly, to look into possible solutions that have been put forward regarding POP removal from the environment. The methodology that was used to look for references was through the Google, PubMed, Google Scholar and ResearchGate. The initial search retrieved 63 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts. The studies revealed that, POPs remain in the environment, causing health effects through their toxicity. Humans and animals take in POPs through the food chain because of the lipophilic nature of these compounds. Solutions that have been put forward by the studies are stopping the use of POPs, substituting POPs with non-toxic chemical compounds and having a wide range of non-chemical alternatives.

How decaying wood affects the accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil of temperate mountain forest

The aim of our research was to determine the role of heavily decomposed deadwood in the shaping of accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in mountain forest ecosystems. The study included heavily decomposed spruce wood located in lower and higher mountain locations (600 and 1200 m a.s.l.) and at the south (S) and north (N) exposure. The accumulation of PAHs in deadwood was compared to the accumulation of PAHs in surface soil horizons in the immediate vicinity of decaying wood and in soils unaffected by decaying wood. Basic chemical properties and enzymatic activity were determined in wood and soil samples. The conducted research indicates the importance of decaying wood for the formation of PAHs accumulation in mountain forest soils. The lowest content of PAHs was recorded in samples of heavily decomposed wood, which at the same time was characterized by the highest enzymatic activity. Significantly higher PAHs content was recorded in soils unaffected by components released from decaying wood. Our research confirmed the importance of location conditions (exposure, altitude) in shaping PAHs accumulation. The highest mountain locations (1200 m a.s.l.) to N exposure were characterized by the highest accumulation of PAHs.

For the love of risk ? When Local Inhabitants’ and Outsiders’ Imaginaries Match: The Case of the Verbier Resort in the Swiss Alps

This article focuses on a mountain region in the Swiss Alps that has built an international name for itself since the 1960s upon a specific ski resort, Verbier. From the very beginning, the locals involved in the development of the place were risk-takers, revealing an entrepreneurial spirit that lasts up until now. Over time, the mountain resort has attracted outsiders who share a taste for risk-taking, not only in the field of sport but also in the worlds of finance, art or business. Some emblematic Verbier projects chosen for this article (Xtreme, E-Bike Festival, Art Summit, Mountain Hub) perfectly embody the concordance of interests between locals and non-locals when it comes to exploiting the mountain capital of the place. While highlighting the wider socio-economic and political context in which it is embedded, the paper emphasizes how the whole process of promoting Verbier internationally as a global playground for risk taking, through various win-win corporate strategies negotiated between locals and outsiders, might provide a kind of “vernacular cosmopolitanism”, or “rooted cosmopolitanism”. Beyond the specificity of the case study, it explores how global and local forces interact and intertwin to affect mountain locations and reshape the imaginaries and values of locality.

Essential oil in Phlomis tuberosa

Phlomis tuberosa L. (Lamiaceae) is a flowering perennial plant, native to Eurasia, and sparsely distributed in Bulgaria. The species has been proved to accumulate flavonoids, iridoids, phenolic glycosides, as well as essential oil. To now, there is no information on the chemical content of Bulgarian essential oil from the plant. The aim was to study the chemical composition of essential oils, obtained from the species. Four different samples were studied – essential oils produced from leaves and herbs, collected in the fields, and from leaves and flowering parts, harvested from the mountainous location. It was found that β-copaene was the major in the essential oil from both the leaves and of the flowering parts collected from Popitza. In addition, the other major constituent in leaf essential oil from Kladnitza was tau-muurolol. The essential oil, produced from the species, harvested from the higher altitude had phytol as the main component. The sesquiterpenoid content in leaf essential oil suggests that this plant substance is appropriate for medicinal use, due to the pharmacological properties of these compounds.

KNN and Webgis Classification to Recommend Mountain Location According to Hiker Abilities

The increasing number of climbers has an impact on the need for a system that can recommend mountains for climbingaccording to the ability of climbers. This study aims to create a system that can help climbers determine the mountainaccording to their abilities. Researchers use one of the methods in data mining, namely classification, using the K =Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) algorithm.This research has produced a web-based system where this system can classify and provide recommendationsaccording to the ability of climbers. This system is equipped with a hiking trail map which is expected to help make iteasier for climbers to choose the mountain they will climb.

Skład frakcjonalny stożków gruzowych w kontekście zróżnicowanego klimatu peryglacjalnych stoków górskich (na przykładzie Spitsbergenu i środkowej Azji) = Grain-Size Composition on Talus Slopes in the context of disparate climatic conditions of periglacial mountain zones (exemplified by Spitsbergen and Central Asia)

Talus slopes origin is connected both with weathering and transport of the rock grain. The formation of these landforms is an effect of many climatological, morphological and geological factors. The grain size of the surface of the talus slope brings some information about the way of transport and deposition mechanisms. The main aim of the paper is to present different talus slope formation in two mountain locations - in arctic periglacial and semi-arid continental periglacial climate zones. Results from two study sites are presented. The first one was located on Spitsbergen Island, on its SW coast, near Polish Polar Station. The climate is arctic and periglacial, the average annual temperature is -3,2°C, annual precipitation is 494,6 mm. The slope is exposed to the west, rock face and talus slope are built with gneiss, crystalline shales with marbles intrusions. There is permafrost as well as an active layer noted on this study site. The second study site is in the Fann Mountains, part of Pamiro-Alay massive in Tajikistan. The annual temperature is about 1-2°C (meteo stations nearby: 6,6°C Iskanderkul 2204 m.a.s.l., 0,7°C Shahristan Pass 3143 m.a.s.l.), annual precipitation is about 300 mm. Slope is exposed to the south, rock material is a Devonian massive limestone. No permafrost was observed in this area. On both study sites, similar methods were used. Profiles with four measuring points were designated. On these points, 0,5 x 0,5 m square were marked and perpendicular photographs from a 1,5 m distance were made. Grain sizes were analyzed in BaseGRAIN software. In Asian periglacial high-mountain conditions lack of permafrost and low precipitation causes, that there is no factor of water. Domination of gravitational processes is sorting material when the heaviest rock fragments are transported longer and are deposited on lower positions on the slope.

DESIGN OF A PRECISE FSO NETWORK INCLUDING IMPROVED MODIFIED REFRACTIVE INDEX STRUCTURE PROFILING FOR SHIMLA CITY, INDIA

The most commonly used altitude-dependent Hufnagel-Valley (HV) model for Refractive-Index Structure Parameter (C<sub>n</sub><sup>2</sup>) calculation has limited accuracy due to the reason of not considering various meteorological parameters for mountainous locations which have negative influence on optical signals. Although altitude and turbulent winds (due to temperature and pressure variations) are significant parameters giving rise to atmospheric turbulences intensity but the presence of water droplets and snowflakes in humid climate of mountainous locations play major role in reducing optical visibility, so should not be ignored. We have included the effect of snowfall in existing HV model while calculating path loss due to atmospheric turbulences to estimate these effects in Shimla city. The computed results show considerable decrement in Q-factor due to the additional losses imposed by snowflakes to the laser beam. Enlargement in effects of absorption and scattering is also observed in bit error rate (BER) results. So, the proposed modified model presents more accurate estimation of the refractive index profile as it takes more parameters into consideration responsible for atmospheric turbulence.

An improved Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach model for estimating ecological carbon sequestration in mountain vegetation

The vegetation in mountainous areas is abundant, and its ecological carbon sequestration ability is of great significance to maintain the sustainable and healthy development of the ecological environment. However, when estimating the carbon sequestration of mountain vegetation, the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model assigns a uniform value to the maximum light energy utilization (εmax = 0.389 gC/MJ), ignoring the influence of vegetation types and topographic factors on εmax, resulting in the low accuracy of the CASA model in estimating the carbon sequestration of mountain vegetation. In this paper, the improved CASA model was combined with Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) remote sensing image data to improve the estimation accuracy of carbon sequestration of mountain vegetation. The first was the establishment of a linear link between the terrain characteristics (slope and aspect), vegetation types, and εmax in mountainous locations. The second was the improvement of the CASA model’s calculation method for key parameters. The different distributions of the estimation results from the two techniques in 2015 and 2016 are then compared using Landsat 8 data as the data source, and the impact of the terrain factors in the improved CASA model on the estimation results is confirmed. Finally, the improved CASA model and the CASA model are used to estimate the Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of the study area from 2000 to 2020, and the estimated results of the two models are compared with the computation results of the MODIS data NPP product. The findings indicate that the improved CASA model’s estimation results have a higher degree of fit and a better correlation. The improved CASA model aids in precisely understanding the ecological carbon sequestration potential of mountain areas and increases the estimation accuracy of vegetation carbon sequestration in mountainous areas.

The application of biochar mitigated the negative effects of freeze-thaw on soil and nutrient loss in the restored soil of the alpine mining area

Mining operations accelerate ecological damage in alpine mountain locations by contributing to soil erosion and nutrient loss in the freeze-thaw (FT) climate. However, limited studies have been conducted to reduce the soil erosion and nutrient loss in FT climate. This study’s goal was to determine how biochar effected soil erosion in the restored soil of the alpine mining region under FT circumstances. Rainfall simulation and FT cycles (FTCs; three and 5) were used to investigate the effects of 500 and 1,000 kg hm−2 biochar application rates (BARs) on runoff, soil loss, and runoff loss of ammonia nitrogen (AN), nitrate nitrogen (NN), total phosphorus (TP), and dissolved phosphorus (DP). Soil residual AN, NN, and DP concentrations after FTCs were also evaluated. Biochar application significantly reduced the runoff, soil loss rate, AN and NN loss rates, but increased the runoff NN concentration and decreased the total AN and NN loss under FTCs condition. Reductions in AN (37.2%–52.2%) and NN (14.3%–27.1%) runoff loss can be differentially attributed to the adsorption effect of biochar and decrease in total runoff. The runoff P concentrations, rates, and magnitudes for soils subjected to FTCs significantly decreased with biochar addition, owing to the particulate P loss decrease in soil and increased adsorption effect of soil DP. Biochar addition increased soil residual AN, NN, and DP concentrations. However, the increase in FTCs weakened the inhibitory effects of biochar on soil erosion. This study suggested the important role of biochar application for the recovery of low-nutrient eroded soils in alpine mining areas.

Projekt Pumpspeicherkraftwerk Limberg III – besondere Herausforderungen an die Logistik sowie die Vortriebssysteme einer Großbaustelle im Hochgebirge

AbstractConstruction of the Verbund project Limberg III pumped storage power station is currently underway in the area of the Kaprun/Salzach power station group. Preliminary work started on 6 April 2021, the main construction work started on 7 January 2022 and the overall facility is scheduled to be commissioned the end of 2025. Kaprun has a long history in the construction of power stations. The Kaprun storage power stations in the 1950s were an outstanding engineering feat and is symbolic of the reconstruction efforts that took place in Austria in the wake of World War II. The power station facilities at the main and upper stage have been in existence since the 1950s and have since been continuously expanded. From 2006 to 2011 the all‐year‐round reservoirs Mooserboden and Wasserfallboden were extended to include the Limberg II pumped storage station. The group is currently expanding the Kaprun/Salzach power station group by building the Limberg III pumped storage station, for which the same design as Limberg II has been adopted for implementation purposes. In addition to the significant logistical challenges posed by the high mountain location of the construction site, this report also covers the tunnelling systems.

The Differences in Understanding of Students in the Mountains and the Coast in Recognizing the Types of Insects

This study aims to provide a description of how elementary school students in grade 2 recognize the types of insects through their existence in the nature around us. The method used in this research is semi-experimental research, the characteristics of experimental research in this study include manipulation and observation. Samples were taken from two populations, namely: elementary school students in mountainous areas and elementary school students in coastal areas. The research question is whether there are differences in understanding related to the material for elementary school students in mountainous and coastal areas? Based on the comparison between the D value in the table and the calculated D value, the D value is 0.216667. This value is smaller than the D value in the table of 0.582317. Thus the null hypothesis is declared rejected, while the alternative hypothesis is declared accepted. In this condition, it can be concluded that the level of understanding of material related to insects through their existence around us, there is a difference in understanding between elementary school students who are in mountainous locations or areas and elementary school students who are in coastal locations or areas.

Hazards from lakes and reservoirs: new interpretation of the Vaiont disaster

Hazards in reservoirs and lakes arising from subaerial landslides causing impact waves (or ‘lake tsunamis’) are now well known, with several recent examples having been investigated in detail. The potential scale of such hazards was not widely known at the time of the Vaiont dam project in the 1950s and early 1960s, although a small wave triggered by a landslide at another new reservoir nearby in the Dolomites (northern Italy) drew the possible hazard to the attention of the Vaiont project’s managers. The Vaiont disaster in 1963 arose from a combination of disparate and seemingly unrelated factors and circumstances that led to an occurrence that could not have been imagined at that time. The ultimate cause was a very large landslide moving very rapidly into a reservoir and displacing the water. The resulting wave overtopped the dam to a height of around 175 m and around 2000 people were killed. This paper identifies and examines all of the issues surrounding the Vaiont dam and landslide in order to identify causal factors, contributory factors (including aggravating factors) and underlying factors. In doing so, it demonstrates that the disaster arose from the Vaiont dam project and cannot be attributed simply to the landslide. Underlying geological factors gave rise to the high speed of the landslide, which would have occurred anyway at some time. However, without the contributory factors that account for the presence of the reservoir, i.e. the choice of location for the project and management of the project with respect to a possible landslide hazard, there would have been no disaster. Indeed, the disaster could have been avoided if the reservoir could have been emptied pending further ground investigations. Understanding of this case provides many lessons for future dam projects in mountainous locations but also highlights an ongoing and perhaps under-appreciated risk from similar events involving other water bodies including geologically recent lakes formed behind natural landslide dams.

Selenite and selenate in clouds at a high-altitude mountain location in central Japan

The atmosphere is a temporal reservoir of selenium (Se). Understanding the chemical reactions and speciation of Se in primary emissions is crucial because atmospheric deposition is an important source of both Se contamination and micronutrients for terrestrial (agricultural) systems. In this study, the concentrations of selenite and selenate in acid cloud water (pH 4.3 average), including non-precipitating and precipitating clouds, were analyzed at a site near the summit of Mt. Norikura (2770 m a.s.l.), central Japan. The soluble Se in cloud water has a positive correlation with that of non-sea-salt sulfate, implying that the Se was incorporated in ammonium sulfate. The ammonium sulfate was generated from fossil fuel combustions in industrial and urban areas of southwest Japan and China. The concentrations of selenite and selenate in cloud water gradually decreased with a rise in acidity (pH) in approximately the same proportion. The coexistence of selenite and selenate perhaps indicates an oxidation-reduction equilibrium for the HSeO3−–SeO42− couple. For the precipitating cloud water, the selenite was the dominant species in all cloud events. This may be attributed to scavenging of local coal-combustion aerosols from southwest Japan by the rain droplets (washout). The selenite/selenate ratios of clouds as well as precipitating clouds were not correlated with gaseous O3 concentrations and remained stable throughout both day and night. In addition, laboratory experiments with Se–hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) solutions mimicking the cloud water conditions indicated that selenious acids (HSeO3−) cannot be oxidized with H2O2. The observational and experimental results suggest that the Se oxidation states in acid clouds are not caused by oxidation by the possible oxidants for SO2 such as H2O2 and O3.

Climate data for field trials: onsite micro stations versus ClimateNA

Ecological studies in diverse environmental fields require accurate climate data for point locations that are often distant from reliable public weather stations. “Onsite” micro weather stations can be established directly at research locations, but purchase, establishment, and maintenance costs and data gaps can limit their feasibility. Alternatively, climate data for point locations can be predicted from ClimateNA, a publicly available software package, but the prediction accuracy in remote and mountainous locations is uncertain. We compared ClimateNA predictions with observations from onsite weather stations located at 11 interior spruce provenance trials in British Columbia, Canada. We found that ClimateNA predictions were highly accurate for temperature variables but moderate for precipitation variables when compared with onsite weather data. Growth response functions developed with the two data sources showed similar shapes for temperature variables. Our results suggest that (1) temperature variables can be accurately predicted at remote and mountainous locations using ClimateNA; (2) precipitation variables are more accurately predicted with ClimateNA than with onsite weather stations, which are considerably affected by random factors; and (3) response functions provide an effective, independent tool to assess alternative sources of climate data. Our results recommend the use of ClimateNA over onsite weather stations, except where highly accurate precipitation data are required, in which case, high-quality onsite weather stations must be established and carefully maintained.

CFD-based framework for fire risk assessment of contiguous wood-frame villages in the western Hunan region

Fire hazards are a serious danger to human life and property safety. Fire accidents occur frequently in wood-frame villages in western Hunan due to their remote mountainous location, low fire-resistance rating of dwellings, and weak fire awareness of residents, resulting in numerous casualties and huge economic losses. This study investigated the fire risk of these villages in terms of village layout, street layout, residential materials, structural forms, energy patterns, and fire habits. A risk assessment framework was proposed to evaluate the fire risk of wood-frame contiguous villages in western Hunan. The fire dynamic simulator and SketchUp modelling software were used to visualise and analyse the fire combustion in single residences and residential clusters to propose fire-risk mitigation strategies. The simulation results can be used to optimise the protection of wood-frame continuous village dwellings. The proposed framework can contribute to the fire safety retrofitting of traditional wood-frame dwellings and fire performance enhancement of new dwellings to minimise human casualties and property damage.

High Precision Location Estimation in Mountainous Areas Using GPS.

Outdoor recreation has become popular in recent years, against the backdrop of the new coronavirus epidemic that started in 2020. Mountaineering, in particular, has become a popular pastime for many people as an easy way to experience nature. However, the number of mountaineering accidents is increasing, owing to the inadequate knowledge and equipment for beginners. In particular, the lack of map-reading skills and experience often leads to the selection of wrong trails. The smartphones used for precise location information obtain correction information from radio waves from a base station, and the accuracy of using only the GPS in mountainous areas without radio waves is questionable. In general, the GPS position correction methods in the literature for such situations include complex processing of the GPS radio waves. Some of these methods have been proposed with complex hardware and are difficult to implement with portable hardware. In this study, we develop and demonstrate a method for obtaining accurate location information using GPS without the error correction of radio waves, even in mountainous areas. The multipath is the reason for most of the GPS errors in the mountains. In the mountains, depending on the locations, the correct GPS location can also be received. In the proposed method, the correct GPS data are used to detect the incorrect GPS locations. We present an experimental method for estimating the interrelationship between the GPS longitude and latitude data. Additionally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by showing that the experimental mountain location data presented in this paper are more accurate than the GPS data alone.

On the role of aerosols in the production of orographically-induced extreme rainfall in near-maritime environments

The present study aims at disentangling the role of marine aerosols in extreme precipitation events of orographic nature over near-maritime locations. Being the hazardous character of these events mainly associated to runoffs and river floodings, their destructive potential makes them subjects of special interest. In pursuit of a deep understanding on the development mechanisms of such events, this study reproduces the conditions and development of an event ranging from 20 to 27 of December 2009 that took place in Southern Spain. During this event, a series of Atlantic fronts swept the southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula which, along with water vapor entrainment in the form of an atmospheric river, produced rainfall accumulations up to 900 mm in some specific mountainous locations. With this purpose, a number of simulations are conducted to study the microphysical processes and aerosol-cloud interactions governing the rain production. The WRF model is utilized with two different configurations of the Morrison double-moment microphysics scheme: (1) with prescribed type and concentrations of aerosols (PA); and (2) a setup in which a chemistry module is coupled to the meteorological core (Interactive Aerosols, IA), allowing for the consideration of prognostic aerosol concentrations and other relevant aspects such as the hygroscopicity and dry size of the different chemical species. According to the validation performed with a database constructed from measurements of rain gauges, results show that using prognostic aerosols concentrations for natural aerosols, namely sea salt and dust, improves the model's skill for reproducing extreme rainfall with respect to the setup using the default aerosols distribution prescribed in the WRF-alone simulations. Additionally, IA simulations increase windward precipitation and reduce leeward rainfall, thus largely amplifying the spatial variability of precipitation along the direction of the moisture flux. Besides, it is observed that this effect is independent of the model resolution. Consequently, it is concluded that a realistic aerosols concentration, along with a detailed treatment of both the size and hygroscopic properties of aerosols, have a crucial impact on the microphysical processes involved in this type of orographically-induced extreme precipitation events. Specifically, under a regime of low concentration of cloud condensation nuclei originating from natural aerosols, the formed cloud droplets are more prone to grow to precipitating size, thus enhancing the auto-conversion rate.

Metaorganikus építészet

A fundamental question that all architects are faced with poses the need to create a relationship with the surrounding landscape. Are there different sets of rules for urban or rural buildings, lowland, or mountainous landscapes, if there are how do we apply these rules? Or is it simply a case of connecting to the landscape itself. Here a timber building constructed from strictly local materials and dynamic forms reflects its mountainous location.