Riverside Sites Research Articles

The Establishment of Calcutta Botanic Garden: Plant Transfer, Science and the East India Company, 1786–1806

AbstractCalcutta Botanic Garden occupies a prime riverside site three miles downstream from the centre of Calcutta. It is most famous as the home of the world's largest tree, a vast spreading banyan. Its grand avenues, named after its founders and the fathers of Indian botany, convey something of its former glory. In the nineteenth century it was the greatest of all the colonial botanic gardens and an important scientific institution; two of its superintendents were knighted and one went on to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the very centre of the imperial botanical network. The Garden is of considerable importance as it was one of the earliest institutions in India based on western science. This survey will look at the reasons for its foundation, and how it successfully established itself in its first twenty years.

Note sur la topographie de Cularo

Notes on the topography of Cularo. The layout of Cularo, as Grenoble's earliest setdement was known, has given rise to many theories, partly due to the difficulty of understanding a riverside site. There is even some controversy as to where exacdy -on the right or left bank -it started. Our assumption is that the first setdement was located in a bend in the Isère, near todays Île-Verte district. This approach opens new perspectives, particularly regarding the route taken by the north-south road that crossed the town or the road from Cularo to Vienne. Without claiming to provide a condusive answer as to the origins of the town and its layout (which would demand input from several disciplines), the present article suggests several lines of enquiry, some of which have been unjusdy disregarded in the past.

Was There a Riverside Miracle? A Hierarchical Framework for Evaluating Programs With Grouped Data

This article discusses the evaluation of programs implemented at multiple sites. Two frequently used methods are pooling the data or using fixed effects (an extreme version of which estimates separate models for each site). The former approach ignores site effects. The latter incorporates site effects but lacks a framework for predicting the impact of subsequent implementations of the program (e.g., would a new implementation resemble Riverside?). I present a hierarchical model that lies between these two extremes. Using data from the Greater Avenues for Independence demonstration, I demonstrate that the model captures much of the site-to-site variation of the treatment effects but has less uncertainty than estimating the treatment effect separately for each site. I also show that when predictive uncertainty is ignored, the treatment impact for the Riverside sites is significant, but when predictive uncertainty is considered, the impact for these sites is insignificant. Finally, I demonstrate that the model extrapolates site effects with reasonable accuracy when the site being predicted does not differ substantially from the sites already observed. For example, the San Diego treatment effects could have been predicted based on their site characteristics, but the Riverside effects are consistently underpredicted.

Evolution of nitrogen species air pollutants along trajectories crossing the Los Angeles area.

Ambient aerosol sampling was conducted in Diamond Bar, Mira Loma, and Riverside, CA, to observe at close range the effects of ammonia emissions on air quality. These sites are located upwind,within, and downwind, respectively, of the Chino dairy area, the largest single source of ammonia emissions in the Los Angeles area. Inertial impactors and bulk filter samplers provided 4-7-h measurements of aerosol chemical composition and size distribution. Daily average fine particle mass concentrations were in the range 22.4-143.0 microg m(-3). On some days the fine particulate matter concentrations were more than two times greater than the proposed 24-h Federal standard of 65 microg m(-3). Ammonium nitrate was the largest component of fine particle mass at all three sites; 24-h average fine particulate ammonium plus nitrate concentrations ranged from 11.7 to 75.4 microg m(-3). A single air mass was studied as it passed the Diamond Bar air monitoring site in the morning and stagnated near Mira Loma in the evening of the same day. Between these two sites NO was oxidized to NO2, and the ammonia concentration increased by a factor of 5. A second air parcel trajectory, which stagnated near Mira Loma during the early morning and passed near the Riverside site approximately 24 h later, showed a decrease in ammonia concentration over time that is consistent with dilution as the air mass moved downwind from the source of ammonia in the dairy area. Particulate NH4NO3 concentration in that air parcel remained approximately constant over time, consistent with a continued excess of NH3 relative to HNO3 downwind of the dairy area.

Evaluation of an air quality model for the size and composition of source-oriented particle classes.

Air quality model predictions of the size and composition of atmospheric particle classes are evaluated by comparison with aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS) measurements of single-particle size and composition at Long Beach and Riverside, CA, during September 1996. The air quality model tracks the physical diameter, chemical composition, and atmospheric concentration of thousands of representative particles from different emissions classes as they are transported from sources to receptors while undergoing atmospheric chemical reactions. In the model, each representative particle interacts with a common gas phase but otherwise evolves separately from all other particles. The model calculations yield an aerosol population, in which particles of a given size may exhibit different chemical compositions. ATOFMS data are adjusted according to the known particle detection efficiencies of the ATOFMS instruments, and model predictions are modified to simulate the chemical sensitivities and compositional detection limits of the ATOFMS instruments. This permits a direct, semiquantitative comparison between the air quality model predictions and the single-particle ATOFMS measurements to be made. The air quality model accurately predicts the fraction of atmospheric particles containing sodium, ammonium, nitrate, carbon, and mineral dust, across all particle sizes measured by ATOFMS at the Long Beach site, and in the coarse particle size range (Da > or = 1.8 microm) atthe Riverside site. Given thatthis model evaluation is very likely the most stringent test of any aerosol air quality model to date, the model predictions show impressive agreement with the single-particle ATOFMS measurements.

Was There a Riverside Miracle? An Hierarchical Framework for Evaluating Programs with Grouped Data

This paper uses data from the Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) demonstration to discuss the evaluation of programs that are implemented at multiple sites. Two frequently used methods are pooling the data or using fixed effects (an extreme version of which estimates separate models for each site). The former approach, however, ignores site effects. Though the latter incorporates site effects, it lacks a framework for predicting the impact of subsequent implementations of the program (e.g., will a new implementation resemble Riverside or Alameda?). I present an hierarchical model that lies between these two extremes. For the GAIN data, I demonstrate that the model captures much of the site-to-site variation of treatment effects, but has less uncertainty than a model which estimates treatment effects separately for each site. I also show that uncertainty in predicting site effects is important: when the predictive uncertainty is ignored, the treatment impact for the Riverside sites is significant, but when we consider predictive uncertainty, the impact for the Riverside sites is insignificant. Finally, I demonstrate that the model is able to extrapolate site effects with reasonable accuracy, when the site for which the prediction is being made does not differ substantially from the sites already observed. For example, the San Diego treatment effects could have been predicted based on observable site characteristics, but the Riverside effects are consistently underestimated.

Public perceptions of river corridors and attitudes towards river works

The Environment Agency has accepted the need for public participation in decisions concerning river management in keeping with Agenda 21 concerns for environmental policies that command a good measure of public support. In the past, public participation has often relied upon consultations involving formal meetings with interest groups and local politicians. Methods of public consultation are changing. In tapping public opinion the Environment Agency now relies less on public meetings and increasingly more on a direct approach and involvement of the public. Research at Middlesex University is part of the attempt to provide opportunities for the representation of views of the lay public to be considered within the management of rivers and river corridors. The research has used surveys of representative samples of members of the public, often at riverside sites. This paper reports on some of the research projects that have developed on these themes, and analyses the implications of their results for river management and the protection of nature conservation values.

Streambed Sediment as a Barrier to Groundwater Pollution: Insights from Fieldwork and Modelling in the River Thames Basin

AbstractIntegrated fieldwork and modelling has been undertaken to assess the vulnerability of riverside wells to pollution when river water is contaminated. Results highlight the importance of streambed sediments as a barrier to groundwater pollution by river water. The bed of the River Thames is lined with brown and grey organic‐rich silts of low hydraulic conductivity (about 0.002 m/d). A 3‐D model for solute transport in stream‐aquifer systems was developed and applied to two riverside sites in the middle Thames valley. Model results indicate that well‐water quality would only breach EC limits if the river was heavily polluted for a week or even a month (clearly an unlikely scenario). Sensitivity analyses showed the models to be far more sensitive to streambed parameters than to aquifer parameters. Thus it would be more sensible to focus fieldwork on the measurement of streambed properties than on the more usually measured aquifer parameters.

The transmission of onchocerciasis at a forest village in Sierra Leone. I.Simulium damnosums.l. biting densities and infection withOnchocerca volvulusat five representative sites

Previous studies in the forest area of Sierra Leone have shown that transmission of Onchocerca volvulus takes place many kilometers away from large breeding rivers and sometimes in open farmland. To determine where and when people in a forest village were most likely to be infected, catches of Simulium damnosum s.l. were carried out every week for 12 months, at five sites in and near a village where onchocerciasis was mesoendemic. The number of flies caught per man a day at open farm sites was significantly higher than the number caught at riverside sites. Infective flies were caught only in farmland and only during the early rainy season. The combined Annual Transmission Potential for the five sites was 129 larvae per man per year. Isoenzyme electrophoresis and morphology of biting flies identified the S. sanctipauli/soubrense subcomplex as the most common vector species. Simulium yahense and S. squamosum were sometimes present. It was concluded that the classical riverside monitoring sites do not represent high risk areas for the transmission of onchocerciasis in a forest village sited well away from the main S. damnosum s.l. breeding sites. The highest risk areas are in open farmland.

The transmission of onchocerciasis at a forest village in Sierra Leone. II. Man—fly contact, human activity and exposure to transmission

In the first of these papers we reported on the biting-densities of Simulium damnosum s.l., vector of onchocerciasis, at sites in and near to a village in the forest area of Sierra Leone that was well separated from any large Simulium breeding river. It was found that biting-densities and transmission levels were higher in open farmland than at riverside sites. In this paper we examine the relative time spent by the villagers at the same five sites in and near to the village of Baoma Lungibu, and compare the time spent and activity, with known Simulium biting-densities and transmission indices. It is concluded that, in this situation, the highest risk of infection with onchocerciasis was to persons of either sex in the 20-39 age group who were engaged in farming, or travelling through open farmland, during the months of June to August at the beginning of the wet season. Activities in and close to the village, even by the riverside, where shade cover was heavy, presented little risk of infection.

Priscilla Metcalf, The Halls of the Fishmongers' Company: an architectural history of a riverside site. London and Chichester: Phillimore, 1978. xii + 214 pp. Illus. £12.

Priscilla Metcalf, The Halls of the Fishmongers' Company: an architectural history of a riverside site. London and Chichester: Phillimore, 1978. xii + 214 pp. Illus. £12.

Variation in acetylene content of different ecotypes of Artemisia capillaris

The phenylacetylenes, capillen and capillin, are the main components in both the roots and leaves of Artemisia capillaris growing at riverside sites, but are not present in leaves from plants growing near the sea, although found in the roots. The relationship between acetylene content and ecotype of the plant is discussed.