@phdthesis{Sprafke2016, author = {Sprafke, Tobias}, title = {L{\"o}ss in Nieder{\"o}sterreich - Archiv quart{\"a}rer Klima- und Landschaftsver{\"a}nderungen}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-038-2 (print)}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-039-9}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-127787}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {272}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Diese Arbeit widmet sich detaillierten stratigraphischen und pal{\"a}opedologischen Studien an L{\"o}ss-Pal{\"a}oboden Sequenzen (LPS) im kontinentalen Nordosten {\"O}sterreichs, im Lee der B{\"o}hmischen Masse relativ zur Westwindzone. Neben methodischen Erkenntnissen ergeben sich allgemeine Schlussfolgerungen {\"u}ber die Klima- und Landschaftsentwicklung w{\"a}hrend der letzten Million Jahre. Die untersuchten Aufschl{\"u}sse liegen in der Region um Krems (Krems-Schießst{\"a}tte, Paudorf, Stiefern) und in Stillfried. Einige sind weithin bekannt als ehemalige Typuslokalit{\"a}ten der Quart{\"a}rstratigraphie, aber nach fundamentalen Revisionen in den 1970er Jahren schwand das Interesse an diesen merklich. Die LPS befinden sich in Hanglage, so sind polygenetische Einheiten und Erosionsl{\"u}cken {\"u}blich. Als Archive einer komplexen geomorphologischen Entwicklung sind sie nicht geeignet f{\"u}r die Anwendung {\"u}blicher pal{\"a}oklimatischer Proxies. Um die Entstehung der untersuchten LPS zu verstehen, wurde ein multimethodischer Ansatz entwickelt, der detaillierte Untersuchungen von der Landschafts- bis auf die Mikroebene umfasst. Innovativ ist die Verwendung quantitativer Farbmessungen in hoher Aufl{\"o}sung zum Zwecke einer standardisierten Klassifikation von Profileinheiten. Detaillierte mikromorphologische Untersuchungen sind Basis f{\"u}r die Rekonstruktion des Wechselspiels aus {\"a}olischer Sedimentation, Pedogenese und Hangprozessen. Die Korrelation der LPS basiert auf mehreren geochronologischen Ankerpunkten und ist zugleich Hinweis auf tiefgreifende morphologische Ver{\"a}nderungen in der Region Krems w{\"a}hrend des Pleistoz{\"a}ns. Im chronologischen Rahmen ergeben sich unter Anwendung des Konzepts der klimaphytomorphen B{\"o}den qualitative pal{\"a}oklimatische Schlussfolgerungen: Kr{\"a}ftig verwitterte Bodenhorizonte sind polygenetisch und nicht das Resultat feuchterer Klimabedingungen w{\"a}hrend dezidierter Entwicklungsphasen. Die Kontinentalit{\"a}t des Untersuchungsgebiets blieb w{\"a}hrenden der letzten Million Jahre weitgehend bestehen, teils mit erh{\"o}htem mediterranem Einfluss. Eine Dominanz atlantischer Feuchte beschr{\"a}nkt(e) sich auf die Regionen westlich der B{\"o}hmischen Masse. Die Pal{\"a}oklimate des Untersuchungs-gebiets waren eher vergleichbar mit jenen des Pannonischen Beckens, obgleich die untersuchten Sequenzen keinen Hinweis auf den dort vermuteten Gradienten zunehmender Aridit{\"a}t zeigen. Interessant sind ferner zahlreiche gebleichte Horizonte innerhalb der L{\"o}sssedimente, die als Reste von Tundragleyen interpretiert werden. Diese sind im L{\"o}ss des Pannonischen Becken nicht nachweisbar. Hieraus wird ein mitteleurop{\"a}ischer Charakter kaltzeitlichen Klimas innerhalb des untersuchten Zeitrahmens gefolgert.}, subject = {L{\"o}ss}, language = {de} } @article{WalzWegmannLeutneretal.2015, author = {Walz, Yvonne and Wegmann, Martin and Leutner, Benjamin and Dech, Stefan and Vounatsou, Penelope and N'Goran, Eli{\´e}zer K. and Raso, Giovanna and Utzinger, J{\"u}rg}, title = {Use of an ecologically relevant modelling approach to improve remote sensing-based schistosomiasis risk profiling}, series = {Geospatial Health}, volume = {10}, journal = {Geospatial Health}, number = {2}, doi = {10.4081/gh.2015.398}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126148}, pages = {398}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Schistosomiasis is a widespread water-based disease that puts close to 800 million people at risk of infection with more than 250 million infected, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Transmission is governed by the spatial distribution of specific freshwater snails that act as intermediate hosts and the frequency, duration and extent of human bodies exposed to infested water sources during human water contact. Remote sensing data have been utilized for spatially explicit risk profiling of schistosomiasis. Since schistosomiasis risk profiling based on remote sensing data inherits a conceptual drawback if school-based disease prevalence data are directly related to the remote sensing measurements extracted at the location of the school, because the disease transmission usually does not exactly occur at the school, we took the local environment around the schools into account by explicitly linking ecologically relevant environmental information of potential disease transmission sites to survey measurements of disease prevalence. Our models were validated at two sites with different landscapes in C{\^o}te d'Ivoire using high- and moderateresolution remote sensing data based on random forest and partial least squares regression. We found that the ecologically relevant modelling approach explained up to 70\% of the variation in Schistosoma infection prevalence and performed better compared to a purely pixelbased modelling approach. Furthermore, our study showed that model performance increased as a function of enlarging the school catchment area, confirming the hypothesis that suitable environments for schistosomiasis transmission rarely occur at the location of survey measurements.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hardaker2015, author = {Hardaker, Sina}, title = {Development and Outlook for Grocery Retailing Internationalization in China: Competition and Format Expansion within a Geographical Context}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-123076}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, pages = {287}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Purpose - The purpose of this dissertation is to reveal the status quo of development of the grocery retailers' internationalization process in China as well as to model future trends, opportunities and challenges within a very competitive market. Using several, geographically distant cities as case studies, this paper focuses on the development and outlook of different store formats, along with the development of competition in this respect by explicitly treating China not as a single market. The study thereby analyses historical and geographical diffusion in regard to store formats. The impacts of the main factors of change are discussed. Design/methodology/approach - The dissertation reviews extensively the literature of grocery retail internationalization with special focus on China. In addition, it draws on primary research in the form of a wide range of expert interviews. As China´s 'supermarket revolution' is underway, an understanding of the local and foreign competition and the development of different store formats within different regions of China as well as their prospects, will be crucial to companies expanding into this area. Findings - The study explains how grocery retailers have already entered the Chinese market with different store formats and how competition has and will further develop. In addition, the study reveals challenges and obstacles in regard to future market strategies, especially in regard to store formats and geographical regions. Research limitations/implications - The study reveals the current landscape of the Chinese grocery retailing market and emphasizes important strategic pillars, modelling future implications and challenges for food retailers operating in China. Because China is a vast country this dissertation forms only a small part of the geographical evolution process in regard to store formats and competition. Practical implications - Explores current understanding of the internationalization process in China by considering different format choices. Supplementary, the dissertation proposes an outlook of competition enlargement, prospects of format development and therewith strategic implications within different regions as well as a future research agenda. Originality / value - Contributes to the understanding of the Chinese grocery retailing market. Furthermore, it is among the first to critically explore possible future developments in regard to store formats and competition within a geographical context in China}, subject = {Lebensmitteleinzelhandel}, language = {en} } @article{WalzWegmannDechetal.2015, author = {Walz, Yvonne and Wegmann, Martin and Dech, Stefan and Vounastou, Penelope and Poda, Jean-Noel and N'Goran, Eli{\´e}zer K. and Raso, Giovanna and Utzinger, J{\"u}rg}, title = {Modeling and Validation of Environmental Suitability for Schistosomiasis Transmission Using Remote Sensing}, series = {PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases}, volume = {9}, journal = {PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pntd.0004217}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125845}, pages = {e0004217}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Background Schistosomiasis is the most widespread water-based disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Transmission is governed by the spatial distribution of specific freshwater snails that act as intermediate hosts and human water contact patterns. Remote sensing data have been utilized for spatially explicit risk profiling of schistosomiasis. We investigated the potential of remote sensing to characterize habitat conditions of parasite and intermediate host snails and discuss the relevance for public health. Methodology We employed high-resolution remote sensing data, environmental field measurements, and ecological data to model environmental suitability for schistosomiasis-related parasite and snail species. The model was developed for Burkina Faso using a habitat suitability index (HSI). The plausibility of remote sensing habitat variables was validated using field measurements. The established model was transferred to different ecological settings in C{\^o}te d'Ivoire and validated against readily available survey data from school-aged children. Principal Findings Environmental suitability for schistosomiasis transmission was spatially delineated and quantified by seven habitat variables derived from remote sensing data. The strengths and weaknesses highlighted by the plausibility analysis showed that temporal dynamic water and vegetation measures were particularly useful to model parasite and snail habitat suitability, whereas the measurement of water surface temperature and topographic variables did not perform appropriately. The transferability of the model showed significant relations between the HSI and infection prevalence in study sites of C{\^o}te d'Ivoire. Conclusions/Significance A predictive map of environmental suitability for schistosomiasis transmission can support measures to gain and sustain control. This is particularly relevant as emphasis is shifting from morbidity control to interrupting transmission. Further validation of our mechanistic model needs to be complemented by field data of parasite- and snail-related fitness. Our model provides a useful tool to monitor the development of new hotspots of potential schistosomiasis transmission based on regularly updated remote sensing data.}, language = {en} } @article{ZoungranaConradAmekudzietal.2015, author = {Zoungrana, Benewinde Jean-Bosco and Conrad, Christopher and Amekudzi, Leonard K. and Thiel, Michael and Dapola Da, Evariste and Forkuor, Gerald and L{\"o}w, Fabian}, title = {Multi-Temporal Landsat Images and Ancillary Data for Land Use/Cover Change (LULCC) Detection in the Southwest of Burkina Faso, West Africa}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {7}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {9}, doi = {10.3390/rs70912076}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125866}, pages = {12076-12102}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Accurate quantification of land use/cover change (LULCC) is important for efficient environmental management, especially in regions that are extremely affected by climate variability and continuous population growth such as West Africa. In this context, accurate LULC classification and statistically sound change area estimates are essential for a better understanding of LULCC processes. This study aimed at comparing mono-temporal and multi-temporal LULC classifications as well as their combination with ancillary data and to determine LULCC across the heterogeneous landscape of southwest Burkina Faso using accurate classification results. Landsat data (1999, 2006 and 2011) and ancillary data served as input features for the random forest classifier algorithm. Five LULC classes were identified: woodland, mixed vegetation, bare surface, water and agricultural area. A reference database was established using different sources including high-resolution images, aerial photo and field data. LULCC and LULC classification accuracies, area and area uncertainty were computed based on the method of adjusted error matrices. The results revealed that multi-temporal classification significantly outperformed those solely based on mono-temporal data in the study area. However, combining mono-temporal imagery and ancillary data for LULC classification had the same accuracy level as multi-temporal classification which is an indication that this combination is an efficient alternative to multi-temporal classification in the study region, where cloud free images are rare. The LULCC map obtained had an overall accuracy of 92\%. Natural vegetation loss was estimated to be 17.9\% ± 2.5\% between 1999 and 2011. The study area experienced an increase in agricultural area and bare surface at the expense of woodland and mixed vegetation, which attests to the ongoing deforestation. These results can serve as means of regional and global land cover products validation, as they provide a new validated data set with uncertainty estimates in heterogeneous ecosystems prone to classification errors.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sani2015, author = {Sani, Ibrahim}, title = {{\´E}volution des paysages dunaires fix{\´e}s par la v{\´e}g{\´e}tation au Niger : Modifications morphologiques actuelles dans les couches superficielles des dunes et possibilit{\´e}s de « r{\´e}g{\´e}n{\´e}ration » et de « p{\´e}dog{\´e}n{\`e}se »}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-128014}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Les s{\´e}cheresses des ann{\´e}es 1970 et 1980 ont occasionn{\´e} des changements remarquables dans les paysages et {\´e}cosyst{\`e}mes sah{\´e}liens. Au Niger, les milieux dunaires sont les plus affect{\´e}s par la d{\´e}gradation des paysages aux cons{\´e}quences parfois irr{\´e}versibles. Cette {\´e}tude tente de montrer que, malgr{\´e} les modifications climatiques et les pressions anthropiques, une r{\´e}g{\´e}n{\´e}ration des sols dunaires serait possible, dans cette dynamique complexe. Cela a {\´e}t{\´e} d{\´e}montr{\´e} {\`a} travers l'analyse micromorphologique des mat{\´e}riaux des parties superficielles des sols (0-20 cm). L'{\´e}tude des caract{\´e}ristiques particuli{\`e}res des cro{\^u}tes (organisations pelliculaires de surface des sols) offre des pistes de recherches pouvant proposer des moyens et m{\´e}thodes de fixation des dunes d{\´e}grad{\´e}es. Elle propose {\´e}galement des alternatives de lutte contre l'{\´e}rosion {\´e}olienne et hydrique dans les {\´e}cosyst{\`e}mes sah{\´e}liens. Ceci cadre parfaitement avec la situation au Niger, o{\`u} les ph{\´e}nom{\`e}nes de d{\´e}sertification et d'ensablement des cuvettes interdunaires constituent une pr{\´e}occupation majeure en mati{\`e}re de protection de l'environnement.}, subject = {Degradation}, language = {fr} } @phdthesis{Mederer2009, author = {Mederer, Joachim}, title = {Water Resources and Dynamics of the Troodos Igneous Aquifer-system, Cyprus - Balanced Groundwater Modelling -}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-37306}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {The study investigates the water resources and aquifer dynamics of the igneous fractured aquifer-system of the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus, using a coupled, finite differences water balance and groundwater modelling approach. The numerical water balance modelling forms the quantitative framework by assessing groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration, which form input parameters for the groundwater flow models. High recharge areas are identified within the heavily fractured Gabbro and Sheeted Dyke formations in the upper Troodos Mountains, while the impervious Pillow Lava promontories - with low precipitation and high evapotranspiration - show unfavourable recharge conditions. Within the water balance studies, evapotranspiration is split into actual evapotranspiration and the so called secondary evapotranspiration, representing the water demand for open waters, moist and irrigated areas. By separating the evapotranspiration of open waters and moist areas from the one of irrigated areas, groundwater abstraction needs are quantified, allowing the simulation of single well abstraction rates in the groundwater flow models. Two sets of balanced groundwater models simulate the aquifer dynamics in the presented study: First, the basic groundwater percolation system is investigated using two-dimensional vertical flow models along geological cross-sections, depicting the entire Troodos Mountains up to a depth of several thousands of metres. The deeply percolating groundwater system starts in the high recharge areas of the upper Troodos, shows quasi stratiform flow in the Gabbro and Sheeted Dyke formations, and rises to the surface in the vicinity of the impervious Pillow Lava promontories. The residence times mostly yield less than 25 years, the ones of the deepest fluxes several hundreds of years. Moreover, inter basin flow and indirect recharge of the Circum Troodos Sedimentary Succession are identified. In a second step, the upper and most productive part of the fractured igneous aquifer-system is investigated in a regional, horizontal groundwater model, including management scenarios and inter catchment flow studies. In a natural scenario without groundwater abstractions, the recovery potential of the aquifer is tested. Predicted future water demand is simulated in an increased abstraction scenario. The results show a high sensitivity to well abstraction rate changes in the Pillow Lava and Basal Group promontories. The changes in groundwater heads range from a few tens of metres up to more than one hundred metres. The sensitivity in the more productive parts of the aquifer-system is lower. Inter-catchment flow studies indicate that - besides the dominant effluent conditions in the Troodos Mountains - single reaches show influent conditions and are sub-flown by groundwater. These fluxes influence the local water balance and generate inter catchment flow. The balanced groundwater models form thus a comprehensive modelling system, supplying future detail models with information concerning boundary conditions and inter-catchment flow, and allowing the simulation of impacts of landuse or climate change scenarios on the dynamics and water resources of the Troodos aquifer-system.}, subject = {Zypern}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Archuby2009, author = {Archuby, Fernando}, title = {Taphonomy and palaeoecology of benthic macroinvertebrates from the Agua de la Mula Member of the Agrio Formation, Neuqu{\´e}n Basin (Neuqu{\´e}n province, Argentina): sequence stratigraphic significance}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-37177}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {The taphonomic and paleoecologic aspects of the Upper Hauterivian to Lower Barremian Agua de la Mula Member of the Agrio Formation (Neuqu{\´e}n Basin, Argentina) were studied in the frame of the sequence stratigraphic paradigm. The Agua de la Mula Member, a ca. 600 m thick succession of highly cyclic marine sediments was surveyed at two localities. Detailed bed-by-bed sedimentologic, stratigraphic, ichnologic, taphonomic and paleoecologic data collection allowed a precise paleoenvironmental, stratigraphic, taphonomic and synecologic interpretation, in a controlled sequence stratigraphic framework. The main architectural stratigraphic component is the Starvation-Dilution Sequence, interpreted as a the effect of a sixth-order, Milankovitch precession-driven cycle. Dilution hemisequences are siliciclastic-dominated and show evidence of depth changes. Starvation hemisequences show a diverse variation of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic facies that is linked to sequence stratigraphy. Ammonite-based biostratigraphy was revised and new knowledge proposed. The stratigraphic framework was improved by combining biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy and event stratigraphy. Nine main sequences were described, linked to other stratigraphic markers and correlated with other sequence stratigraphic charts. Several orders of cyclicity were inferred. Third- and fourth-order sequences are the major sequences, not subordinated to higher hierarchies (lower order). Precession, obliquity, and short and long eccentricity cycles of the Milankovitch band are proposed. Among the different sequence stratigraphic models the transgression-regression model fits the majority of the sequences described in this work. The depositional-sequence model could be applied only to the first third-order sequence, in which the true sequence boundary is identifiable. Starvation-dilution sequences, however, are composed by to components that are not completely explained by those models. Starvation hemisequences developed in intermediate to deep settings record the transgressive phase as well as the earLy regressive one without visible stratigraphic boundaries. 112 samples with 22,572 individuals were grouped into fifteen fossil associations and one assemblage that reflect the interaction of different factors: age, position in major, medium and starvation dilution sequences and, linked to sequence stratigraphy, depth, oxygen availability, rate of terrigenous input, water agitation, and substrate conditions. Temporary possible reduction in oxygen content is inferred based on all sources of available evidence. Organic buildups are briefly described and their development interpreted in terms of the sequence stratigraphic framework. Vertical patterns of replacement of fossil associations are described and related to sequence stratigraphy. Five types of skeletal concentrations represent the diversity of coquinas decribed in this study. Type 1, 2, 4 and 5 correspond to starvation hemisequences deposited in progressively shallower settings, from basin to inner ramp. Type 3 is embedded into dilution hemisequences and inferred to be linked to shell bed type I of Kidwell (1985). Types 1 and 2 correspond to transgression, maximum flooding and early regression without distinction. Type 4A as well as Type 5 are interpreted as onlap shell beds (Kidwell 1991a) or early TST shell beds (F{\"u}rsich and Pandey 2003). Type 4B corresponds to the MFZ shell bed (F{\"u}rsich and Pandey 2003) or mid-cycle shell bed (Abbott 1997), while Type 4C to the downlap shell bed (Kidwell 1991a). Time-averaging of shell beds was assessed with precision as the time involved in the deposition of the starvation hemisequences could be inferred. All shell beds comprise within-habitat assemblages forming within a few thousand years, with little environmental condensation. The fossilization of the marine calcareous shells is modelled as a series of steps called windows: environmental, destructional, burial and diagenetic. The "diagenetic window" is the most relevant. Connected to this it is proposed that carbonate dissolution is the primary control on the development of shell beds, as has been proposed before (F{\"u}rsich 1982; F{\"u}rsich and Pandey 2003). The interpretative power resulting from combining several lines of evidence, e.g., facies analysis, sequence stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, trace fossil analysis, paleoecology and taphonomy, and unravelling their multiple relationships, are the most relevant conclusions of this study.}, subject = {W{\"u}rzburg / Institut f{\"u}r Pal{\"a}ontologie}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Colditz2007, author = {Colditz, Rene Roland}, title = {Time Series Generation and Classification of MODIS Data for Land Cover Mapping}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-25908}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Processes of the Earth's surface occur at different scales of time and intensity. Climate in particular determines the activity and seasonal development of vegetation. These dynamics are predominantly driven by temperature in the humid mid-latitudes and by the availability of water in semi-arid regions. Human activities are a modifying parameter for many ecosystems and can become the prime force in well-developed regions with an intensively managed environment. Accounting for these dynamics, i.e. seasonal dynamics of ecosystems and short- to long-term changes in land-cover composition, requires multiple measurements in time. With respect to the characterization of the Earth surface and its transformation due to global warming and human-induced global change, there is a need for appropriate data and methods to determine the activity of vegetation and the change of land cover. Space-borne remote sensing is capable of monitoring the activity and development of vegetation as well as changes of the land surface. In many instances, satellite images are the only means to comprehensively assess the surface characteristics of large areas. A high temporal frequency of image acquisition, forming a time series of satellite data, can be employed for mapping the development of vegetation in space and time. Time series allow for detecting and assessing changes and multi-year transformation processes of high and low intensity, or even abrupt events such as fire and flooding. The operational processing of satellite data and automated information-extraction techniques are the basis for consistent and continuous long-term product generation. This provides the potential for directly using remote-sensing data and products for analyzing the land surface in relation to global warming and global change, including deforestation and land transformation. This study aims at the development of an advanced approach to time-series generation using data-quality indicators. A second goal focuses on the application of time series for automated land-cover classification and update, using fractional cover estimates to accommodate for the comparatively coarse spatial resolution. Requirements of this study are the robustness and high accuracy of the approaches as well as the full transferability to other regions and datasets. In this respect, the developments of this study form a methodological framework, which can be filled with appropriate modules for a specific sensor and application. In order to attain the first goal, time-series compilation, a stand-alone software application called TiSeG (Time Series Generator) has been developed. TiSeG evaluates the pixel-level quality indicators provided with each MODIS land product. It computes two important data-availability indicators, the number of invalid pixels and the maximum gap length. Both indices are visualized in time and space, indicating the feasibility of temporal interpolation. The level of desired data quality can be modified spatially and temporally to account for distinct environments in a larger study area and for seasonal differences. Pixels regarded as invalid are either masked or interpolated with spatial or temporal techniques.}, subject = {Zeitreihe}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bachmann2007, author = {Bachmann, Martin U. R.}, title = {Automatisierte Ableitung von Bodenbedeckungsgraden durch MESMA-Entmischung}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-26337}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Weltweit sind Trockengebiete in st{\"a}ndiger Ver{\"a}nderung, verursacht durch nat{\"u}rliche klimatische Schwankungen und oftmals durch Prozesse der Landdegradation. Auch weisen die meisten semi-ariden Naturr{\"a}ume eine große r{\"a}umliche Heterogenit{\"a}t auf, hervorgerufen durch ein kleinr{\"a}umiges Mosaik aus Gr{\"a}sern, kleineren Str{\"a}uchern und Bereichen offenliegenden Bodens. Die Dichte der Vegetation wird prim{\"a}r vom pflanzenverf{\"u}gbaren Wasser bestimmt, aber auch der Entwicklungs- und Degradationszustand der B{\"o}den sowie anthropogen bedingte Faktoren spielen hierbei eine Rolle. Zur Charakterisierung und Kartierung der Vegetation sowie zur Bewertung des Bodenerosionsrisikos und des Degradationszustands hat sich die Erhebung der Bedeckungsgrade von vitaler, photosynthetisch aktiver Vegetation (PV), von abgestorbener oder zeitweise vertrockneter und somit nicht photosynthetisch aktiver Vegetation (NPV) sowie von offenliegendem Boden als zweckm{\"a}ßig herausgestellt. Die Nutzung der Fernerkundung f{\"u}r diese Aufgabe erfolgt zumeist nur f{\"u}r kleinmaßst{\"a}bige Kartierungen und - im Falle von Multispektralsensoren - unter Vernachl{\"a}ssigung nicht-photosynthetisch aktiver Vegetation. Die r{\"a}umliche Variabilit{\"a}t der Vegetation-Boden-Mosaike liegt oftmals in der Gr{\"o}ßenordnung von wenigen Metern und somit unterhalb des r{\"a}umlichen Aufl{\"o}sungsverm{\"o}gens von Fernerkundungssystemen. Um dennoch die verschiedenen Anteile innerhalb eines Pixels identifizieren und quantifizieren zu k{\"o}nnen, sind Methoden der Subpixel-Klassifikation notwendig. In dieser Arbeit wird eine Methodik zur verbesserten und automatisierbaren Ableitung von Bodenbedeckungsgraden in semi-ariden Naturr{\"a}umen vorgestellt. Hierzu wurde ein Verfahren zur linearen spektralen Entmischung in Form einer Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) entwickelt und umgesetzt. Durch diese Methodik kann explizit die spektrale Variabilit{\"a}t von Vegetation und Boden in das Mischungsmodellmiteinbezogen werden, und quantitative Anteile f{\"u}r die funktionalen Klassen PV, NPV und Boden innerhalb eines Pixels erfasst werden. Durch die r{\"a}umliche Kartierung der verwendeten EM wird weiterhin eine thematische Klassifikation erreicht. Die hierf{\"u}r ben{\"o}tigten Informationen k{\"o}nnen - wie im Falle der Spektren reiner Materialien (EM-Spektren) - aus den Bilddaten selbst abgeleitet werden, oder k{\"o}nnen - wie ein Gel{\"a}ndemodell und die Information {\"u}ber den Scanwinkel - im Zuge der Vorprozessierung aus weiteren Datenquellen erzeugt werden. Hinsichtlich der automatisierten EM-Ableitung wird eine zweistufige Methodik eingesetzt, welche auf einer angepassten Version des Sequential Maximum Angle Convex Cone (SMACC)-Verfahrens sowie der Analyse einer ersten Entmischungsiteration basiert. Die Klassifikation der gefundenen potentiellen EM erfolgt durch ein merkmalsbasiertes Verfahren. Weiterhin weisen nicht-photosynthetisch aktive Vegetation und Boden eine hohe spektrale {\"A}hnlichkeit auf. Zur sicheren Trennung kann die Identifikation schmaler Absorptionsbanden dienen. Zu diesen z{\"a}hlen beispielsweise die Absorptionsbanden von Holozellulose und - je nach Bodentyp - Absorptionsbanden von Bodenmineralen. Auch die spektrale Variabilit{\"a}t der Klassen PV und NPV erfordert zur sicheren Unterscheidung die Verwendung biophysikalisch erkl{\"a}rbarer Merkmale im Spektrum. Hierzu z{\"a}hlen unter anderem die St{\"a}rke der Chlorophyll-Absorption, die Form und Lage der 'RedEdge' und das Auftreten von Holozellulosebanden. Da diese spektrale Information bei herk{\"o}mmlichen Entmischungsans{\"a}tzen nicht ber{\"u}cksichtigt wird, erfolgt {\"u}berwiegend eine Optimierung der Gesamtalbedo, was zu einer schlechten Trennung der Klassen f{\"u}hren kann. Aus diesem Grund wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit der MESMA-Ansatz dahingehend erweitert, dass spektrale Information in Form von identifizierten und parametrisierten Absorptionsbanden in den Entmischungsprozess mit einfließt und hierdurch das Potential hyperspektraler Datens{\"a}tze besser genutzt werden kann. Auch wird in einer zus{\"a}tzlichen Entmischungsiteration die r{\"a}umliche Nachbarschaft betrachtet, um insbesondere die Verwendung des sinnvollsten Boden-EMs zu gew{\"a}hrleisten. Ein zus{\"a}tzliches Problemfeld stellt die numerische L{\"o}sung des {\"u}berbestimmten und oftmals schlecht konditionierten linearen Mischungsmodells dar. Hierzu kann durch die Verwendung des BVLS-Algorithmus und des Ausschlusses kritischer EM-Kombinationen eine numerisch stabile L{\"o}sung gefunden werden. Um die oftmals immense Rechenzeit von MESMA-Verfahren zu verk{\"u}rzen, besteht die M{\"o}glichkeit einer iterativen EM-Auswahl und somit die Vermeidung einer L{\"o}sung des Mischungssystems durch Berechnung aller EM-Kombinationen ('Brute-Force'-Ansatz). Ein weiterer wichtiger Punkt ist die explizite pixelweise Angabe zur Zuverl{\"a}ssigkeit der Entmischungsergebnisse. Dies erfolgt auf Basis des Mischungsmodells selbst, durch den Vergleich zu empirischen Regressionsmodellen, durch die Ber{\"u}cksichtigung des lokalen Einfallswinkels sowie durch die Integration von Qualit{\"a}tsangaben der Ausgangsdaten. Um das Verfahren systematisch und unter kontrollierten Bedingungen zu verifizieren und um den Einfluss verschiedener externer Parameter sowie die typischen Genauigkeiten auf einer breiten Datenbasis zu ermitteln, wird eine Simulationskette zur Erzeugung synthetischer Mischungen erstellt. In diese Simulationen fließen Feldspektren von B{\"o}den und Pflanzen verschiedener semi-arider Gebiete mit ein, um m{\"o}glichst viele F{\"a}lle abdecken zu k{\"o}nnen. Die eigentliche Validierung erfolgt auf HyMap-Datens{\"a}tzen des Naturparks 'Cabo de Gata' in der andalusischen Provinz Almer{\´i}a sowie auf Messungen, die begleitend im Feld durchgef{\"u}hrt wurden. Hiermit konnte die Methodik auf ihre Genauigkeit unter den konkreten Anforderungen des Anwendungsbeispiels {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft werden. Die erzielbare Genauigkeit dieser automatisierten Methodik liegt mit einem mittleren Fehler um rund 10\% Abundanz absolut im selben Wertebereich oder nur geringf{\"u}gig h{\"o}her als die Ergebnisse publizierter manueller MESMA-Ans{\"a}tze. Weiterhin konnten die typischen Genauigkeiten der Verifikation im Zuge der Validierung best{\"a}tigt werden. Den limitierenden Faktor des Ansatzes stellen in der Praxis fehlerhafte oder unvollst{\"a}ndige EM-Modelle dar. Mit der vorgestellten Methodik ist somit die M{\"o}glichkeit gegeben, die Bedeckungsgrade quantitativ und automatisiert im Subpixelbereich zu erfassen.}, subject = {Optische Fernerkundung}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Baumhoer2021, author = {Baumhoer, Celia Am{\´e}lie}, title = {Glacier Front Dynamics of Antarctica - Analysing Changes in Glacier and Ice Shelf Front Position based on SAR Time Series}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-24581}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245814}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The Antarctic Ice Sheet stores ~91\% of the global ice volume which is equivalent to a sea-level rise of 58.3 meters. Recent disintegration events of ice shelves and retreating glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica indicate the current vulnerable state of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Glacier tongues and ice shelves create a safety band around Antarctica with buttressing effects on ice discharge. Current decreases in glacier and ice shelf extent reduce the effective buttressing forces and increase ice discharge of grounded ice. The consequence is a higher contribution to sea-level rise from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. So far, it is unresolved which proportion of Antarctic glacier retreat can be attributed to climate change and which part to the natural cycle of growth and decay in the lifetime of a glacier. The quantitative assessment of the magnitude, spatial extent, distribution, and dynamics of circum-Antarctic glacier and ice shelf retreat is of utmost importance to monitor Antarctica's weakening safety band. In remote areas like Antarctica, earth observation provides optimal properties for large-scale mapping and monitoring of glaciers and ice shelves. Nowadays, the variety of available satellite sensors, technical advancements regarding spatial resolution and revisit times, as well as open satellite data archives create an ideal basis for monitoring calving front change. A systematic review conducted within this thesis revealed major gaps in the availability of glacier and ice shelf front position measurements despite the improved satellite data availability. The previously limited availability of satellite imagery and the time-consuming manual delineation of calving fronts did neither allow a circum-Antarctic assessment of glacier retreat nor the assessment of intra-annual changes in glacier front position. To advance the understanding of Antarctic glacier front change, this thesis presents a novel automated approach for calving front extraction and explores drivers of glacier retreat. A comprehensive review of existing methods for glacier front extraction ascertained the lack of a fully automatic approach for large-scale monitoring of Antarctic calving fronts using radar imagery. Similar backscatter characteristics of different ice types, seasonally changing backscatter values, multi-year sea ice, and m{\´e}lange made it challenging to implement an automated approach with traditional image processing techniques. Therefore, the present abundance of satellite data is best exploited by integrating recent developments in big data and artificial intelligence (AI) research to derive circum-Antarctic calving front dynamics. In the context of this thesis, the novel AI-based framework "AntarcticLINES" (Antarctic Glacier and Ice Shelf Front Time Series) was created which provides a fully automated processing chain for calving front extraction from Sentinel-1 imagery. Open access Sentinel-1 radar imagery is an ideal data source for monitoring current and future changes in the Antarctic coastline with revisit times of less than six days and all-weather imaging capabilities. The developed processing chain includes the pre-processing of dual-polarized Sentinel-1 imagery for machine learning applications. 38 Sentinel-1 scenes were used to train the deep learning architecture U-Net for image segmentation. The trained weights of the neural network can be used to segment Sentinel-1 scenes into land ice and ocean. Additional post-processing ensures even more accurate results by including morphological filtering before extracting the final coastline. A comprehensive accuracy assessment has proven the correct extraction of the coastline. On average, the automatically extracted coastline deviates by 2-3 pixels (93 m) from a manual delineation. This accuracy is in range with deviations between manually delineated coastlines from different experts. For the first time, the fully automated framework AntarcticLINES enabled the extraction of intra-annual glacier front fluctuations to assess seasonal variations in calving front change. Thereby, for example, an increased calving frequency of Pine Island Glacier and a beginning disintegration of Glenzer Glacier were revealed. Besides, the extraction of the entire Antarctic coastline for 2018 highlighted the large-scale applicability of the developed approach. Accurate results for entire Antarctica were derived except for the Western Antarctic Peninsula where training imagery was not sufficient and should be included in future studies. Furthermore, this dissertation presents an unprecedented record of circum-Antarctic calving front change over the last two decades. The newly extracted coastline for 2018 was compared to previous coastline products from 2009 and 1997. This revealed that the Antarctic Ice Sheet shrank 29,618±1193 km2 in extent between 1997-2008 and gained an area of 7,108±1029 km2 between 2009-2018. Glacier retreat concentrated along the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica. The only East Antarctic coastal sector primarily experiencing calving front retreat was Wilkes Land in 2009-2018. Finally, potential drivers of circum-Antarctic glacier retreat were identified by combining data on glacier front change with changes in climate variables. It was found that strengthening westerlies, snowmelt, rising sea surface temperatures, and decreasing sea ice cover forced glacier retreat over the last two decades. Relative changes in mean air temperature could not be identified as a driver for glacier retreat and further investigations on extreme events in air temperature are necessary to assess the effect of atmospheric forcing on frontal retreat. The strengthening of all identified drivers was closely connected to positive phases of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). With increasing greenhouse gases and ozone depletion, positive phases of SAM will occur more often and force glacier retreat even further in the future. Within this thesis, a comprehensive review on existing Antarctic glacier and ice shelf front studies was conducted revealing major gaps in Antarctic calving front records. Therefore, a fully automated processing chain for glacier and ice shelf front extraction was implemented to track circum-Antarctic calving front fluctuations on an intra-annual basis. The large-scale applicability was certified by presenting two decades of circum-Antarctic calving front change. In combination with climate variables, drivers of recent glacier retreat were identified. In the future, the presented framework AntarcticLINES will greatly contribute to the constant monitoring of the Antarctic coastline under the pressure of a changing climate.}, language = {en} } @article{ReinersAsamFreyetal.2021, author = {Reiners, Philipp and Asam, Sarah and Frey, Corinne and Holzwarth, Stefanie and Bachmann, Martin and Sobrino, Jose and G{\"o}ttsche, Frank-M. and Bendix, J{\"o}rg and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {Validation of AVHRR Land Surface Temperature with MODIS and in situ LST — a TIMELINE thematic processor}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {13}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {17}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs13173473}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246051}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important parameter for tracing the impact of changing climatic conditions on our environment. Describing the interface between long- and shortwave radiation fluxes, as well as between turbulent heat fluxes and the ground heat flux, LST plays a crucial role in the global heat balance. Satellite-derived LST is an indispensable tool for monitoring these changes consistently over large areas and for long time periods. Data from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer) sensors have been available since the early 1980s. In the TIMELINE project, LST is derived for the entire operating period of AVHRR sensors over Europe at a 1 km spatial resolution. In this study, we present the validation results for the TIMELINE AVHRR daytime LST. The validation approach consists of an assessment of the temporal consistency of the AVHRR LST time series, an inter-comparison between AVHRR LST and in situ LST, and a comparison of the AVHRR LST product with concurrent MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) LST. The results indicate the successful derivation of stable LST time series from multi-decadal AVHRR data. The validation results were investigated regarding different LST, TCWV and VA, as well as land cover classes. The comparisons between the TIMELINE LST product and the reference datasets show seasonal and land cover-related patterns. The LST level was found to be the most determinative factor of the error. On average, an absolute deviation of the AVHRR LST by 1.83 K from in situ LST, as well as a difference of 2.34 K from the MODIS product, was observed.}, language = {en} } @article{DechHolzwarthAsametal.2021, author = {Dech, Stefan and Holzwarth, Stefanie and Asam, Sarah and Andresen, Thorsten and Bachmann, Martin and Boettcher, Martin and Dietz, Andreas and Eisfelder, Christina and Frey, Corinne and Gesell, Gerhard and Gessner, Ursula and Hirner, Andreas and Hofmann, Matthias and Kirches, Grit and Klein, Doris and Klein, Igor and Kraus, Tanja and Krause, Detmar and Plank, Simon and Popp, Thomas and Reinermann, Sophie and Reiners, Philipp and Roessler, Sebastian and Ruppert, Thomas and Scherbachenko, Alexander and Vignesh, Ranjitha and Wolfmueller, Meinhard and Zwenzner, Hendrik and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {Potential and challenges of harmonizing 40 years of AVHRR data: the TIMELINE experience}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {13}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {18}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs13183618}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246134}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Earth Observation satellite data allows for the monitoring of the surface of our planet at predefined intervals covering large areas. However, there is only one medium resolution sensor family in orbit that enables an observation time span of 40 and more years at a daily repeat interval. This is the AVHRR sensor family. If we want to investigate the long-term impacts of climate change on our environment, we can only do so based on data that remains available for several decades. If we then want to investigate processes with respect to climate change, we need very high temporal resolution enabling the generation of long-term time series and the derivation of related statistical parameters such as mean, variability, anomalies, and trends. The challenges to generating a well calibrated and harmonized 40-year-long time series based on AVHRR sensor data flown on 14 different platforms are enormous. However, only extremely thorough pre-processing and harmonization ensures that trends found in the data are real trends and not sensor-related (or other) artefacts. The generation of European-wide time series as a basis for the derivation of a multitude of parameters is therefore an extremely challenging task, the details of which are presented in this paper.}, language = {en} } @article{TimmermansvanderTolTimmermansetal.2015, author = {Timmermans, Wim J. and van der Tol, Christiaan and Timmermans, Joris and Ucer, Murat and Chen, Xuelong and Alonso, Luis and Moreno, Jose and Carrara, Arnaud and Lopez, Ramon and Fernando de la Cruz, Tercero and Corcoles, Horacio L. and de Miguel, Eduardo and Sanchez, Jose A. G. and Perez, Irene and Belen, Perez and Munoz, Juan-Carlos J. and Skokovic, Drazen and Sobrino, Jose and Soria, Guillem and MacArthur, Alasdair and Vescovo, Loris and Reusen, Ils and Andreu, Ana and Burkart, Andreas and Cilia, Chiara and Contreras, Sergio and Corbari, Chiara and Calleja, Javier F. and Guzinski, Radoslaw and Hellmann, Christine and Herrmann, Ittai and Kerr, Gregoire and Lazar, Adina-Laura and Leutner, Benjamin and Mendiguren, Gorka and Nasilowska, Sylwia and Nieto, Hector and Pachego-Labrador, Javier and Pulanekar, Survana and Raj, Rahul and Schikling, Anke and Siegmann, Bastian and von Bueren, Stefanie and Su, Zhongbo (Bob)}, title = {An Overview of the Regional Experiments for Land-atmosphere Exchanges 2012 (REFLEX 2012) Campaign}, series = {Acta Geophysica}, volume = {63}, journal = {Acta Geophysica}, number = {6}, doi = {10.2478/s11600-014-0254-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-136491}, pages = {1465-1484}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The REFLEX 2012 campaign was initiated as part of a training course on the organization of an airborne campaign to support advancement of the understanding of land-atmosphere interaction processes. This article describes the campaign, its objectives and observations, remote as well as in situ. The observations took place at the experimental Las Tiesas farm in an agricultural area in the south of Spain. During the period of ten days, measurements were made to capture the main processes controlling the local and regional land-atmosphere exchanges. Apart from multi-temporal, multi-directional and multi-spatial space-borne and airborne observations, measurements of the local meteorology, energy fluxes, soil temperature profiles, soil moisture profiles, surface temperature, canopy structure as well as leaf-level measurements were carried out. Additional thermo-dynamical monitoring took place at selected sites. After presenting the different types of measurements, some examples are given to illustrate the potential of the observations made.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gradmann2016, author = {Gradmann, Rena}, title = {Analysis of Historical Islamic Glazes and the Development of a Substitution Material}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-136233}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2016}, abstract = {11 Conclusion 11.1 Glaze compositions Glazes from tiles of imposing Islamic buildings and some tableware glazes of the medieval epoch in Central Asia, the Middle East, Asia Minor, and North Africa are analysed regarding their main composition and colouring agents. Three major production recipes can be distinguished, i.e. alkali glazes, alkali lead glazes, and lead glazes. In the work of Tite (2011), Islamic glazes from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria are subdivided into four groups of composition, being partly consistent with those of this work. The alkali lime glazes with <2 wt\% PbO correspond to the alkali glazes, but with higher content of CaO. The second and third group of low lead alkali and lead alkali glazes (2-10 wt\% PbO and 10-35 wt\% PbO) can be subsumed to the alkali lead group described here. Tite´s high lead group has PbO contents >35 wt\% and is comparable to the lead glazes (>30 wt\% PbO) of this study. The lead and the alkali oxides serve as a flux for the lowering the melting point. In the interaction of ceramic body and glaze, primarily an influence from Si, Al, and K is observed in the line scans from the cross section of ceramic and glaze. However, the input of ceramic material doesn't seem to be critical for the classification of glazes according to their alkali and alkali lead compositions. In every epoch and locality, except of the Ilkhanate dynasty in Iran, lead glaze samples can be verified. This is also observed in previous investigations e.g. from medieval Iraq, Jordan and Iran (McCarthy, 1996; Al-Saad, 2002; Holakooei et al., 2014). In the Moroccan and Bulgarian glazes, lead seems to be the only important flux. In part, the lead flux is supplemented by additional alkali contents. The lack of alkali and alkali lead glazes in Bulgarian and Moroccan glazes (assuming that the Ottoman alkali lead glazes are imported tableware) seems to affect the regions with Roman-influenced history and with geographical distance to the Near East alkali flux tradition. For the alkali lead glazes and alkali glazes, the overall characteristic is sodium dominated, although the absolute soda values are in part surprisingly low. Samples from Bukhara, Takht-i-Suleiman and the Turkish localities have the highest, but still moderate Na2O values up to 15 wt\%, compared to other analyses from e.g. India (Gill \& Rehren, 2011). The source of the alkali flux is either mineral natron or plant ash. The source can be determined regarding the MgO values, limited to 1.3 wt\% in mineral natron and exceeding 2.0 wt\% in the case of plant ashes. In the samples of the present study, the K2O component is not suitable for the indication of the flux-relevant alkali source due to its broad scattering. The P2O5 contents are also enhanced in the plant ash compositions but the data set is not sufficient for statistical evaluation. An influence of the ceramic body on the glaze composition is observed only for SiO2, Al2O3, and K2O in quartz frit ceramics with slight K-feldspar content. The earliest Uzbek tableware glazes from the 10th-11th century (Seljuq period) were generally produced using a lead flux. The same applies to part of the Uzbek tile glazes which were produced between the 13th and 16th century. In Iran, glazes from the 12th century (Khwarezmid period) are lead glazes, but also alkali-fluxed glazes with mineral natron characteristics can be found. Although the production of lead-rich glazes was established from the 8th-9th century on in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt (Henshaw, 2010; Tite et al., 2011), alkali glazes are found in almost all regions except of Bulgaria and Morocco. Plant ash-fluxed alkali glazes are found in 13th century glazes from Takht-i-Suleiman. The plant ash flux technology is assumed to be continuously used in Mesopotamia, Iran, and Central Asia (Sayre \& Smith, 1974; Henderson, 2009), but it could be shown that a parallel use of mineral natron parallel existed in the alkali glaze production from the 12th-15th century from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. Mineral natron characteristics are also reported by Mason (2004) for Syrian and Iranian alkali glazes on lustre ware of the 8th-14th century. Tile glazes with partly mineral natron compositions are found in the Mughal architectural glazes from the 14th- 17th century from India (Gill et al., 2014). Alkali and alkali lead tile glazes from Samarkand from the 13th century (Mongolian period) have mineral natron flux characteristics, but samples from the 15th century (Timurid period) show plant ash signature. Alkali fluxed Uzbek glazes from Bukhara from the 16th century (Sheibanid dynasty) are also made by plant ash flux and are subdivided into two groups with high and low sodium oxide content. The Afghan alkali glazes have sodium oxide contents similar to the sodium-poor Uzbek subgroup, which points to a possible exchange of glaze makers or glaze making technology from Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in the 15th-17th century. Regarding the extensive exchange of Timurid craftsmen in Central Asia, this option seems to be even more likely (Golombek, 1996). One sample from the 15th century from Afghanistan with mineral natron reveals that this material was parallel used in these centuries. Concerning the colouring of the glazes, it has to be distinguished between pigments and colouring ions which are incorporated in the glassy matrix. The colouring agents for translucent glazes are cations of various transition metals. As ions, Co2+ (blue), Cu2+ (green in a lead rich matrix), Fe3+ (brown/black), Mn4+ (brown/black) and Mn3+ (violet) are determined by EPMA. For opaque yellow, white, and turquoise glazes, different pigments were used. The crystalline pigments are investigated by a µ XRD2 device with the result of SnO2, SiO2, and PbSiO4 as whitening agents. PbSiO4 and Pb2Sn2O6 are found in the yellow glaze, from which only the lead tin oxide causes the yellow colour. In the black glazes, different Cr-rich pigments, Cu-Cr-Mn-oxides and iron containing clinopyroxenes are found, even in samples of the same period and region. Cr-rich particles are also detected in two turquoise Afghan glazes from the 15th and 16th century. The use of the ions of Fe, Cu, Co, Cr, and Mn seems to be widely common in the Islamic glazes and corresponds to the described colouring agents in e.g. the study of Tite (2011). The use of opacifying SnO2 particles is widespread as it is reported from different Islamic glazes from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and Syria (Henshaw, 2010; O´Kane, 2011; Tite, 2011). The colouring agents are known already from former, e.g. Egyptian, Roman and pre-islamic periods, but especially SnO2 pigments became increasingly widespread in the Islamic glazing tradition. The use of yellow and black pigments instead varies already within the buildings from Bukhara from Cr crystals and clino-pyroxenes in the mosque Khoja Zainuddin to a Cu-Cr-Mn-oxide in the madrassa Mir-i Arab of the same epoch. Regarding the matrix compositions connected with the colouring, a certain assignment within the different locations and epochs can be seen. It is noticeable that e.g. the content of lead in turquoise glazes in Uzbekistan is in the range of 0.0-9.2 wt\% Pb, whereas blue glazes are mostly alkali ones with PbO contents <2.0 wt\%. The turquoise glazes show, that this restriction is not influenced by any defaults of availability and processability. The assumption of common addition of lead and tin to the glaze, which is already described for Iranian glazes of the 13th century (Allan et al., 1973) cannot be confirmed by correlations of tin and lead oxide in the compositions. 11.2 Portable XRF measurement With the p-XRF, semi-quantitative information about the major element compositions is generated. The depth of the detectable signals depends on the analysed sample setup. The p-XRF data are collected with the XL3 Hybrid device of the company Analyticon Instruments. In the comparison of p-XRF results of the "mining" program from Uzbek glazes with EPMA results, the same major composition groups can be distinguished. The Moroccan glazes, all lead rich, are measured with the "mining" as well as with the "soil" program, revealing a better performance in the "mining" measurements. The deviations are nevertheless high, because of the high lead contents, which make the calculation of matrix correction difficult. The measurement of the colouring oxides MnO2, CoO, and CuO is satisfying with the internal calibration of the device and even improved with the "mining" program measurement, if compared to the results of the "soil" program. The measurements of glaze imitations lead to better results than that of bulk glass. This can be attributed to the smoother surface texture. In spite of the accuracy limits in the measurements of particular elements in glazes, the classification of flux composition into three groups could be confirmed with the p XRF analysis. The measurement precision is therefore sufficient for the semi-quantitative analysis of the flux characteristic of glazes. Especially for the on-site measurement of large sample quantities on historical buildings, the device is a suitable tool. 11.3 Restoration material The ORMOCER® fulfils the requirements of stability, reversibility, and transparency, which are imposed to a modern restoration material. As pigments, historically coloured glass, cobalt blue, Egyptian blue, lead tin yellow, manganese violet, iron oxide, copper oxide, and cassiterite were used. The metal compounds have higher colour intensities than the pigments of coloured glass. It has to be considered that the proportion of ORMOCER® in the batch must be high enough (70 vol\%) to guarantee the ORMOCER® properties of weathering and mechanical stability. The adhesion properties of the ORMOCER® and the homogeneity of the mixture are the best in a fraction of max. 30 vol\% particles per ORMOCER®. With integrated particles, the ORMOCER® G materials show homogeneous coatings, whereas the particles in the ORMCOER® E show more agglomeration. In the sedimentation and weathering experiments, the use of an ultrasonic finger in combination with a roller mill is favourable compared to the treatment with bead grinding mill. The treatments with ultrasonic finger and roller mill result in less sedimentation and better adhesion of the dispersions. The treatment of the dispersions in the bead grinding mill does not result in sufficient adhesion, certainly due to the sedimentation behaviour and a congregation of particles on the bottom of the coating. The modification of dispersed nano-particles by 3-methacryl-oxypropyltrimethoxysilan leads to a further homogenization in the sedimentation tests. It is therefore approved for the use in coloured glaze supplements. In weathered coatings of nano-particle compounds, the surface modification shows certainly no enhancement of stability. The treatment of pigmented coatings with an additional layer of pure ORMOCER® results in a bright and transparent appearing, which is closer to the original optical appearance of the glaze. A long-time test application on a historical building will be the next step to validate the suitability of the restoration material.}, subject = {Glasur}, language = {en} } @article{ErmertFinkMorseetal.2012, author = {Ermert, Volker and Fink, Andreas H. and Morse, Andrew P. and Paeth, Heiko}, title = {The Impact of Regional Climate Change on Malaria Risk due to Greenhouse Forcing and Land-Use Changes in Tropical Africa}, series = {Environmental Health Perspectives}, volume = {120}, journal = {Environmental Health Perspectives}, number = {1}, doi = {10.1289/ehp.1103681}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-135562}, pages = {77-84}, year = {2012}, abstract = {BACKGROUND: Climate change will probably alter the spread and transmission intensity of malaria in Africa. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we assessed potential changes in the malaria transmission via an integrated weather disease model. METHODS: We simulated mosquito biting rates using the Liverpool Malaria Model (LMM). The input data for the LMM were bias-corrected temperature and precipitation data from the regional model (REMO) on a 0.5 degrees latitude longitude grid. A Plasmodium falciparum infection model expands the LMM simulations to incorporate information on the infection rate among children. Malaria projections were carried out with this integrated weather disease model for 2001 to 2050 according to two climate scenarios that include the effect of anthropogenic land-use and land-cover changes on climate. RESULTS: Model-based estimates for the present climate (1960 to 2000) are consistent with observed data for the spread of malaria in Africa. In the model domain, the regions where malaria is epidemic are located in the Sahel as well as in various highland territories. A decreased spread of malaria over most parts of tropical Africa is projected because of simulated increased surface temperatures and a significant reduction in annual rainfall. However, the likelihood of malaria epidemics is projected to increase in the southern part of the Sahel. In most of East Africa, the intensity of malaria transmission is expected to increase. Projections indicate that highland areas that were formerly unsuitable for malaria will become epidemic, whereas in the lower-altitude regions of the East African highlands, epidemic risk will decrease. CONCLUSIONS: We project that climate changes driven by greenhouse-gas and land-use changes will significantly affect the spread of malaria in tropical Africa well before 2050. The geographic distribution of areas where malaria is epidemic might have to be significantly altered in the coming decades.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jaeger2016, author = {J{\"a}ger, Daniel}, title = {Steuerungsfaktoren der Hangstabilit{\"a}t an Massenbewegungen im Fr{\"a}nkischen Schichtstufenland}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-139140}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Massenbewegungen z{\"a}hlen zu den am h{\"a}ufigsten auftretenden Naturgefahren in Deutschland. Dabei wird die von instabilen H{\"a}ngen ausgehende Gef{\"a}hrdung speziell in den Regionen der Mittelgebirge regelm{\"a}ßig untersch{\"a}tzt. In Bezug auf die Verbreitung von Massenbewegungen in Mittelgebirgen stellt das s{\"u}ddeutsche Schichtstufenland einen besonderen Schwerpunkt dar. Die Disposition der Schichtstufenh{\"a}nge beruht dabei in erster Linie auf einer Wechsellagerung wasserdurchl{\"a}ssiger und wasserstauender geologischer Schichten. Zu Hanginstabilit{\"a}ten kommt es bevorzugt in Verbindung mit synthetischem Schichtfallen, steilen H{\"a}ngen und erh{\"o}hten Niederschl{\"a}gen. Rezente Massenbewegungen treten verst{\"a}rkt in alten Rutsch- und/oder Hangschuttgebieten auf, da sich dort unkonsolidierte Rutschmassen leicht remobilisieren lassen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, ein fundiertes Verst{\"a}ndnis {\"u}ber Ursachen, Ablauf, Auspr{\"a}gung und Prozesse von charakteristischen Massenbewegungen sowie dem aktuellen Aufbau der damit verbundenen Schichtstufenh{\"a}nge in Nordbayern zu erlangen, um daraus grundlegende Einsch{\"a}tzungen zur Stabilit{\"a}t der Rutschgebiete treffen zu k{\"o}nnen. Neben den rutschungsrelevanten geologischen Schichten sind in diesem Zusammenhang insbesondere der Aufbau, die Eigenschaften und Charakteristika der Rutschmassen von besonderer Wichtigkeit, da besonders die bodenmechanischen und bodenphysikalischen Eigenschaften einen entscheidenden Faktor in Bezug auf die Hangstabilit{\"a}t darstellen. Entsprechend steht die umfassende Analyse dieser Sedimente im Fokus der Studien. Die Arbeiten betrachten dabei drei H{\"a}nge im fr{\"a}nkischen Schichtstufenland, an denen in der j{\"u}ngeren Vergangenheit Massenbewegungen auftraten. Ein weiteres zentrales Auswahlkriterium war die Lage der Gebiete in den Schichtstufen der Fr{\"a}nkischen Alb und der westlich vorgelagerten Keuperstufe, wobei hinsichtlich Typ und Verbreitung m{\"o}glichst charakteristische Massenbewegungen f{\"u}r die jeweilige Region ausgew{\"a}hlt wurden. Bei Ebermannstadt stand demnach die sog. Werkkalkstufe der Weißjura-Kalke im Fokus, nahe W{\"u}stendorf die Sandsteine des Braunjura und bei Gailnau an der Frankenh{\"o}he die Sandsteine des mittleren (Gips-) Keupers. Die Untersuchungen der Rutschungen und ihrer Sedimentcharakteristika erfolgte anhand eines speziell konzipierten Multimethodenansatzes mit zahlreichen, multiskaligen Gel{\"a}nde- und Laboranalysen. Neben klassischen, geomorphologischen Kartierungen an der Oberfl{\"a}che wurden die sedimentologisch-morphologischen Verh{\"a}ltnisse des oberfl{\"a}chennahen Untergrundes in der Vertikalen durch geophysikalische Sondierungen analysiert. Eine Einsch{\"a}tzung der hydrologischen Verh{\"a}ltnisse der Rutschmassen erfolgte auf Basis von Messdaten aus Bodenfeuchtemonitoringsystemen, die an allen Untersuchungsstandorten installiert wurden. F{\"u}r die bodenphysikalischen und -mechanischen Eigenschaften der Sedimente wurden Korngr{\"o}ßen, Konsistenzgrenzen, Plastizit{\"a}t, Gef{\"u}ge und Lagerungsdichte untersucht und durch Tonmineralanalysen erg{\"a}nzt. Die mikromorphologische Analyse von D{\"u}nnschliffen aus Rutschungssedimenten und den darin enthaltenen Deformationsstrukturen erweiterten den Gesamtansatz, erm{\"o}glichten neuartige Einblicke in die innere Architektur von Rutschmassen und erlaubten die Rekonstruktion von Bewegungsabl{\"a}ufen. Durch die Arbeiten konnten an den Standorten Ebermannstadt und Gailnau komplexe, vielschichtige Massenbewegungen nachgewiesen werden. In der Rutschung bei W{\"u}stendorf wurden nahezu ausschließlich unkonsolidierte Sedimente feinerer Korngr{\"o}ßen in einem Fließprozess verlagert. Prim{\"a}r erfolgte bei allen Rutschungen nachweislich die Remobilisierung alter Hangsedimente, wobei dar{\"u}ber hinaus auch stets bisher stabile Areale mit in die Bewegung einbezogen wurden. Der sedimentologische Aufbau der Rutschmassen ist speziell im Falle großer und komplexer Rutschungen mitunter extrem heterogen. Im Zuge der Arbeiten konnten interne Makrostrukturen der Sedimentablagerungen, wie beispielsweise Rotationsfl{\"a}chen oder die Lage von Schollen detektiert werden. Trotz geophysikalisch und visuell auff{\"a}lliger Beimischungen von Grobschutt, entfallen die gr{\"o}ßten Mengenanteile aber stets auf die ver{\"a}nderlich feste Feinmaterialfraktion. Im Rahmen der mikromorphologischen Untersuchungen der Sedimentd{\"u}nnschliffe konnten auch in diesen Sedimenten zahlreiche Deformationsstrukturen nachgewiesen werden. Die Arbeit unterstreicht insgesamt die Bedeutung dieser bindigen Bestandteile f{\"u}r die (Re)Mobilisierung von Sedimentablagerungen. Die Stabilit{\"a}t des Feinmaterials steht dabei in engem Zusammenhang mit der hydraulischen Leitf{\"a}higkeit und dem Eintrag von Wasser, welches zu wechselnden Steifigkeiten der Sedimente f{\"u}hrt. Im Falle erh{\"o}hter Bodenwassergehalte konnte eine Plastifizierung der Feinkornfraktion ermittelt werden. Kommt es zu einer starken Durchn{\"a}ssung des Untergrundes, f{\"u}hrt dies zu einer Plastifizierung der tonigen Lagen und einer entsprechenden Reduktion der Scherfestigkeit, was letztlich zum Ausl{\"o}sen von Massenbewegungen f{\"u}hrt. Neben den geologisch-sedimentologischen Voraussetzungen impliziert dies auch eine hohe Bedeutung der Niederschlagscharakteristika in Bezug auf das Ausl{\"o}sen rezenter Massenbewegungen. Die Bodenwassergehalte unterliegen im Jahresverlauf einer deutlichen saisonalen Variabilit{\"a}t. W{\"a}hrend der Sommermonate wurden einheitlich niedrige Feuchtigkeitswerte im oberfl{\"a}chennahen Untergrund verzeichnet, was in erster Linie auf den Einfluss der Vegetation zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren ist. Auch sommerliche Starkregenereignisse besitzen unter diesen Bedingungen lediglich eine reduzierte Wirkung auf die Durchfeuchtung des Bodens. Demgegen{\"u}ber erfolgt w{\"a}hrend der kalten Jahreszeit ein signifikanter Anstieg der Bodenwassergehalte. Neben den Regenf{\"a}llen kommt vor allem der Schneeschmelze eine essentielle Bedeutung zu, da sie f{\"u}r eine zus{\"a}tzliche und anhaltende Durchfeuchtung der Schichten besonders im Sp{\"a}twinter bzw. Fr{\"u}hjahr sorgt. Entsprechend besteht vor allem w{\"a}hrend der Monate Februar bis April eine erh{\"o}hte Disposition f{\"u}r Rutschungen in Nordbayern. Im Hinblick auf die Niederschlagssummen gingen den Rutschungen in den Untersuchungsgebieten zwar keine besonders extremen Ereignisse, aber durchaus deutlich {\"u}berdurchschnittliche Niederschlagssummen voraus, weshalb unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung der im Zuge des Klimawandels ansteigenden Winterniederschl{\"a}ge von einer generell verst{\"a}rkten Rutschungsaktivit{\"a}t auszugehen ist. Vergleiche mit den Daten aus zahlreichen {\"U}bersichtskartierungen von Rutschungen aus den fr{\"a}nkischen Schichtstufengebieten verdeutlichen, dass die ermittelten Ergebnisse auf eine Vielzahl der verzeichneten Rutschungen {\"u}bertragbar sind.}, subject = {Geografikum}, language = {de} } @article{TaubenboeckWurmNetzbandetal.2011, author = {Taubenb{\"o}ck, H and Wurm, M and Netzband, M and Zwenzner, H and Roth, A and Rahman, A and Dech, S}, title = {Flood risks in urbanized areas - multi-sensoral approaches using remotely sensed data for risk assessment}, series = {NATURAL HAZARDS AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES}, volume = {11}, journal = {NATURAL HAZARDS AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES}, number = {2}, doi = {10.5194/nhess-11-431-2011}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-139605}, pages = {431-444}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Estimating flood risks and managing disasters combines knowledge in climatology, meteorology, hydrology, hydraulic engineering, statistics, planning and geography - thus a complex multi-faceted problem. This study focuses on the capabilities of multi-source remote sensing data to support decision-making before, during and after a flood event. With our focus on urbanized areas, sample methods and applications show multi-scale products from the hazard and vulnerability perspective of the risk framework. From the hazard side, we present capabilities with which to assess flood-prone areas before an expected disaster. Then we map the spatial impact during or after a flood and finally, we analyze damage grades after a flood disaster. From the vulnerability side, we monitor urbanization over time on an urban footprint level, classify urban structures on an individual building level, assess building stability and quantify probably affected people. The results show a large database for sustainable development and for developing mitigation strategies, ad-hoc coordination of relief measures and organizing rehabilitation.}, language = {en} } @article{NguyenKerstenSenmaoetal.2015, author = {Nguyen, Duy Ba and Kersten, Clauss and Senmao, Cao and Vahid, Naeimi and Kuenzer, Claudia and Wagner, Wolfgang}, title = {Mapping Rice Seasonality in the Mekong Delta with Multi-Year Envisat ASAR WSM Data}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {7}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {12}, doi = {10.3390/rs71215808}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-137554}, pages = {15868-15893}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Rice is the most important food crop in Asia, and the timely mapping and monitoring of paddy rice fields subsequently emerged as an important task in the context of food security and modelling of greenhouse gas emissions. Rice growth has a distinct influence on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) backscatter images, and time-series analysis of C-band images has been successfully employed to map rice fields. The poor data availability on regional scales is a major drawback of this method. We devised an approach to classify paddy rice with the use of all available Envisat ASAR WSM (Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar Wide Swath Mode) data for our study area, the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. We used regression-based incidence angle normalization and temporal averaging to combine acquisitions from multiple tracks and years. A crop phenology-based classifier has been applied to this time series to detect single-, double- and triple-cropped rice areas (one to three harvests per year), as well as dates and lengths of growing seasons. Our classification has an overall accuracy of 85.3\% and a kappa coefficient of 0.74 compared to a reference dataset and correlates highly with official rice area statistics at the provincial level (R-2 of 0.98). SAR-based time-series analysis allows accurate mapping and monitoring of rice areas even under adverse atmospheric conditions.}, language = {en} } @article{DuerigGudmundssonKarmannetal.2015, author = {D{\"u}rig, Tobias and Gudmundsson, Magn{\´u}s Tumi and Karmann, Sven and Zimanowski, Bernd and Dellino, Pierfrancesco and Rietze, Martin and B{\"u}ttner, Ralf}, title = {Mass eruption rates in pulsating eruptions estimated from video analysis of the gas thrust-buoyancy transition-a case study of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallaj{\"o}kull, Iceland}, series = {Earth, Planets and Space}, volume = {67}, journal = {Earth, Planets and Space}, number = {180}, doi = {10.1186/s40623-015-0351-7}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-138635}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano was characterized by pulsating activity. Discrete ash bursts merged at higher altitude and formed a sustained quasi-continuous eruption column. High-resolution near-field videos were recorded on 8-10 May, during the second explosive phase of the eruption, and supplemented by contemporary aerial observations. In the observed period, pulses occurred at intervals of 0.8 to 23.4 s (average, 4.2 s). On the basis of video analysis, the pulse volume and the velocity of the reversely buoyant jets that initiated each pulse were determined. The expansion history of jets was tracked until the pulses reached the height of transition from a negatively buoyant jet to a convective buoyant plume about 100 m above the vent. Based on the assumption that the density of the gas-solid mixture making up the pulse approximates that of the surrounding air at the level of transition from the jet to the plume, a mass flux ranging between 2.2 and 3.5 . 10\(^4\) kg/s was calculated. This mass eruption rate is in good agreement with results obtained with simple models relating plume height with mass discharge at the vent. Our findings indicate that near-field measurements of eruption source parameters in a pulsating eruption may prove to be an effective monitoring tool. A comparison of the observed pulses with those generated in calibrated large-scale experiments reveals very similar characteristics and suggests that the analysis of near-field sensors could in the future help to constrain the triggering mechanism of explosive eruptions.}, language = {en} } @article{SchwindtKneisel2011, author = {Schwindt, Daniel and Kneisel, Christof}, title = {Optimisation of quasi-3D electrical resistivity imaging - application and inversion for investigating heterogeneous mountain permafrost}, series = {The Cryosphere Discuss}, volume = {5}, journal = {The Cryosphere Discuss}, doi = {10.5194/tcd-5-3383-2011}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-138017}, pages = {3383-3421}, year = {2011}, abstract = {This study aimed to optimise the application, efficiency and interpretability of quasi-3D resistivity imaging for investigating the heterogeneous permafrost distribution at mountain sites by a systematic forward modelling approach. A three dimensional geocryologic model, representative for most mountain permafrost settings, was developed. Based on this geocryologic model quasi-3D models were generated by collating synthetic orthogonal 2D arrays, demonstrating the effects of array types and electrode spacing on resolution and interpretability of the inversion results. The effects of minimising the number of 2D arrays per quasi-3D grid were tested by enlarging the spacing between adjacent lines and by reducing the number of perpendicular tie lines with regard to model resolution and loss of information value. Synthetic and measured quasi-3D models were investigated with regard to the lateral and vertical resolution, reliability of inverted resistivity values, the possibility of a quantitative interpretation of resistivities and the response of the inversion process on the validity of quasi-3D models. Results show that setups using orthogonal 2D arrays with electrode spacings of 2 m and 3 m are capable of delineating lateral heterogeneity with high accuracy and also deliver reliable data on active layer thickness. Detection of permafrost thickness, especially if the permafrost base is close to the penetration depth of the setups, and the reliability of absolute resistivity values emerged to be a weakness of the method. Quasi-3D imaging has proven to be a promising tool for investigating permafrost in mountain environments especially for delineating the often small-scale permafrost heterogeneity, and therefore provides an enhanced possibility for aligning permafrost distribution with site specific surface properties and morphological settings.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lama2016, author = {Lama, Anu Kumari}, title = {Understanding Institutional Adaptation to Climate Change: Social Resilience and Adaptive Governance Capacities of the Nature Based Tourism Institutions in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-034-4 (print)}, issn = {0510-9833 (print)}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-035-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-131351}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {208}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The global-local sustainable development and climate change adaptation policy, and the emerging political discourse on the value of local Adaptation, have positioned the local institutions and their governance space within the strategic enclaves of multilevel governance system. Such shifts have transformed the context for sustainable Nature Based Tourism (NBT) development and adaptation in Nepal in general, and its protected areas, in particular. The emerging institutional adaptation discourse suggests on the need to link tourism development, adaptation and governance within the sustainability concept, and also to recognize the justice and inclusive dimensions of local adaptation. However, sociological investigation of institutional adaptation, particularly at the interface between sustainability, justice and inclusive local adaptation is an undertheorized research topic. This exploratory study examined the sociological process of the institutional adaptation, especially the social resilience and adaptive governance capacities of the NBT institutions, in 7 Village Development Committees of the Mustang district, a popular destination in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal. Using the sphere (a dynamic social space concept) and quality of governance as the analytical framework, the integrative adaptation as the methodological approach and the case study action research method, the study investigated and generated a holistic picture on the state of the social resilience and adaptive governance capacities of the NBT institutions. The findings show institutional social resilience capacities to be contingent on socio-political construction of adaptation knowledge and power. Factors influencing such constructions among NBT institutions include: the site and institutions specific political, economic and environmental dispositions; the associated socio-political processes of knowledge constructions and volition action; and the social relationships and interaction, operating within the spheres and at multiple governance levels. The adaptive governance capacities hinge on the institutional arrangements, the procedural aspects of adaptation governance and the governmentality. These are reflective of the diverse legal frameworks, the interiority perspective of the decision making and governance practices of the NBT institutions. In conclusion, it is argued that effective local adaptation in the Mustang district is contingent on the adaptation and institutional dynamics of the NBT institutions, consisting of the cognitive, subjective, process and procedural aspects of the adaptation knowledge production and its use.}, subject = {Annapurna Conservation Area}, language = {en} } @article{SamimiFinkPaeth2012, author = {Samimi, C. and Fink, A. H. and Paeth, H.}, title = {The 2007 flood in the Sahel: causes, characteristics and its presentation in the media and FEWS NET}, series = {Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences}, volume = {12}, journal = {Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences}, number = {2}, doi = {10.5194/nhess-12-313-2012}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-131790}, pages = {313 -- 325}, year = {2012}, abstract = {During the rainy season in 2007, reports about exceptional rains and floodings in the Sahel were published in the media, especially in August and September. Institutions and organizations like the World Food Programme (WFP) and FEWS NET put the events on the agenda and released alerts and requested help. The partly controversial picture was that most of the Sahel faced a crisis caused by widespread floodings. Our study shows that the rainy season in 2007 was exceptional with regard to rainfall amount and return periods. In many areas the event had a return period between 1 and 50 yr with high spatial heterogeneity, with the exception of the Upper Volta basin, which yielded return periods of up to 1200 yr. Despite the strong rainfall, the interpretation of satellite images show that the floods were mainly confined to lakes and river beds. However, the study also proves the difficulties in assessing the meteorological processes and the demarcation of flooded areas in satellite images without ground truthing. These facts and the somewhat vague and controversial reports in the media and FEWS NET demonstrate that it is crucial to thoroughly analyze such events at a regional and local scale involving the local population.}, language = {en} } @article{NaidooDuPreezStuartHilletal.2012, author = {Naidoo, Robin and Du Preez, Pierre and Stuart-Hill, Greg and Jago, Mark and Wegmann, Martin}, title = {Home on the Range: Factors Explaining Partial Migration of African Buffalo in a Tropical Environment}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {5}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0036527}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-134935}, pages = {e36527}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Partial migration (when only some individuals in a population undertake seasonal migrations) is common in many species and geographical contexts. Despite the development of modern statistical methods for analyzing partial migration, there have been no studies on what influences partial migration in tropical environments. We present research on factors affecting partial migration in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in northeastern Namibia. Our dataset is derived from 32 satellite tracking collars, spans 4 years and contains over 35,000 locations. We used remotely sensed data to quantify various factors that buffalo experience in the dry season when making decisions on whether and how far to migrate, including potential man-made and natural barriers, as well as spatial and temporal heterogeneity in environmental conditions. Using an information-theoretic, non-linear regression approach, our analyses showed that buffalo in this area can be divided into 4 migratory classes: migrants, non-migrants, dispersers, and a new class that we call "expanders". Multimodel inference from least-squares regressions of wet season movements showed that environmental conditions (rainfall, fires, woodland cover, vegetation biomass), distance to the nearest barrier (river, fence, cultivated area) and social factors (age, size of herd at capture) were all important in explaining variation in migratory behaviour. The relative contributions of these variables to partial migration have not previously been assessed for ungulates in the tropics. Understanding the factors driving migratory decisions of wildlife will lead to better-informed conservation and land-use decisions in this area.}, language = {en} } @article{KotteLoewHuberetal.2012, author = {Kotte, K. and L{\"o}w, F. and Huber, S. G. and Krause, T. and Mulder, I. and Sch{\"o}ler, H. F.}, title = {Organohalogen emissions from saline environments - spatial extrapolation using remote sensing as most promising tool}, series = {Biogeosciences}, volume = {9}, journal = {Biogeosciences}, number = {3}, doi = {10.5194/bg-9-1225-2012}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-134265}, pages = {1225-1235}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Due to their negative water budget most recent semi-/arid regions are characterized by vast evaporates (salt lakes and salty soils). We recently identified those hyper-saline environments as additional sources for a multitude of volatile halogenated organohalogens (VOX). These compounds can affect the ozone layer of the stratosphere and play a key role in the production of aerosols. A remote sensing based analysis was performed in the Southern Aral Sea basin, providing information of major soil types as well as their extent and spatial and temporal evolution. VOX production has been determined in dry and moist soil samples after 24 h. Several C1- and C2 organohalogens have been found in hyper-saline topsoil profiles, including CH3Cl, CH3Br, CHBr3 and CHCl3. The range of organohalogens also includes trans-1,2-dichloroethene (DCE), which is reported here to be produced naturally for the first time. Using MODIS time series and supervised image classification a daily production rate for DCE has been calculated for the 15 000 km\(^2\) ranging research area in the southern Aralkum. The applied laboratory setup simulates a short-term change in climatic conditions, starting from dried-out saline soil that is instantly humidified during rain events or flooding. It describes the general VOX production potential, but allows only for a rough estimation of resulting emission loads. VOX emissions are expected to increase in the future since the area of salt affected soils is expanding due to the regressing Aral Sea. Opportunities, limits and requirements of satellite based rapid change detection and salt classification are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{SpitznagelDurigZimanowski2013, author = {Spitznagel, N. and Durig, T. and Zimanowski, B.}, title = {Trigger - and heat-transfer times measured during experimental molten-fuel-interactions}, series = {AIP Advances}, volume = {3}, journal = {AIP Advances}, number = {102126}, doi = {10.1063/1.4827023}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-128625}, year = {2013}, abstract = {A modified setup featuring high speed high resolution data and video recording was developed to obtain detailed information on trigger and heat transfer times during explosive molten fuel-coolant-interaction (MFCI). MFCI occurs predominantly in configurations where water is entrapped by hot melt. The setup was modified to allow direct observation of the trigger and explosion onset. In addition the influences of experimental control and data acquisition can now be more clearly distinguished from the pure phenomena. More precise experimental studies will facilitate the description of MFCI thermodynamics.}, language = {en} } @article{ShahabfarEitzinger2013, author = {Shahabfar, Alireza and Eitzinger, Josef}, title = {Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Droughts in Semi-Arid Regions by Using Meteorological Drought Indices}, series = {Atmosphere}, volume = {4}, journal = {Atmosphere}, number = {2}, doi = {10.3390/atmos4020094}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-128644}, pages = {94-112}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Six meteorological drought indices including percent of normal (PN), standardized precipitation index (SPI), China-Z index (CZI), modified CZI (MCZI), Z-Score (Z), the aridity index of E. de Martonne (I) are compared and evaluated for assessing spatio-temporal dynamics of droughts in six climatic regions in Iran. Results indicated that by consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of the mentioned drought predictors in Iran, the Z-Score, CZI and MCZI could be used as a good meteorological drought predictor. Depending on the month, the length of drought and climatic conditions of the region, they are an alternative to the SPI that has limitations both because of only a few available long term data series in Iran and its complex structure.}, language = {en} } @article{HolstHolstHirschfelderetal.2012, author = {Holst, Alexandra Ioana and Holst, Stefan and Hirschfelder, Ursula and von Seckendorff, Volker}, title = {Retrieval analysis of different orthodontic brackets: the applicability of electron microprobe techniques for determining material heterogeneities and corrosive potential}, series = {Journal of applied oral science}, volume = {20}, journal = {Journal of applied oral science}, number = {4}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-130415}, pages = {478- 485}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the applicability of microanalytical methods with high spatial resolution to the characterization of the composition and corrosion behavior of two bracket systems. Material and methods: The surfaces of six nickel-free brackets and six nickel-containing brackets were examined for signs of corrosion and qualitative surface analysis using an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA), prior to bonding to patient's tooth surfaces and four months after clinical use. The surfaces were characterized qualitatively by secondary electron (SE) images and back scattered electron (BSE) images in both compositional and topographical mode. Qualitative and quantitative wavelength-dispersive analyses were performed for different elements, and by utilizing qualitative analysis the relative concentration of selected elements was mapped two-dimensionally. The absolute concentration of the elements was determined in specially prepared brackets by quantitative analysis using pure element standards for calibration and calculating correction-factors (ZAF). Results: Clear differences were observed between the different bracket types. The nickel-containing stainless steel brackets consist of two separate pieces joined by a brazing alloy. Compositional analysis revealed two different alloy compositions, and reaction zones on both sides of the brazing alloy. The nickel-free bracket was a single piece with only slight variation in element concentration, but had a significantly rougher surface. After clinical use, no corrosive phenomena were detectable with the methods applied. Traces of intraoral wear at the contact areas between the bracket slot and the arch wire were verified. Conclusion: Electron probe microanalysis is a valuable tool for the characterization of element distribution and quantitative analysis for corrosion studies.}, language = {en} } @article{NaeimiLeinenkugelSabeletal.2013, author = {Naeimi, Vahid and Leinenkugel, Patrick and Sabel, Daniel and Wagner, Wolfgang and Apel, Heiko and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {Evaluation of Soil Moisture Retrieval from the ERS and Metop Scatterometers in the Lower Mekong Basin}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {5}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {4}, doi = {10.3390/rs5041603}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-130480}, pages = {1603-1623}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The natural environment and livelihoods in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) are significantly affected by the annual hydrological cycle. Monitoring of soil moisture as a key variable in the hydrological cycle is of great interest in a number of Hydrological and agricultural applications. In this study we evaluated the quality and spatiotemporal variability of the soil moisture product retrieved from C-band scatterometers data across the LMB sub-catchments. The soil moisture retrieval algorithm showed reasonable performance in most areas of the LMB with the exception of a few sub-catchments in the eastern parts of Laos, where the land cover is characterized by dense vegetation. The best performance of the retrieval algorithm was obtained in agricultural regions. Comparison of the available in situ evaporation data in the LMB and the Basin Water Index (BWI), an indicator of the basin soil moisture condition, showed significant negative correlations up to R = -0.85. The inter-annual variation of the calculated BWI was also found corresponding to the reported extreme hydro-meteorological events in the Mekong region. The retrieved soil moisture data show high correlation (up to R = 0.92) with monthly anomalies of precipitation in non-irrigated regions. In general, the seasonal variability of soil moisture in the LMB was well captured by the retrieval method. The results of analysis also showed significant correlation between El Ni{\~n}o events and the monthly BWI anomaly measurements particularly for the month May with the maximum correlation of R = 0.88.}, language = {en} } @article{DubovykMenzConradetal.2012, author = {Dubovyk, Olena and Menz, Gunter and Conrad, Christopher and Kann, Elena and Machwitz, Miriam and Khamzina, Asia}, title = {Spatio-temporal analyses of cropland degradation in the irrigated lowlands of Uzbekistan using remote-sensing and logistic regression modeling}, series = {Environmental Monitoring and Assessment}, volume = {185}, journal = {Environmental Monitoring and Assessment}, number = {6}, doi = {10.1007/s10661-012-2904-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-129912}, pages = {4775-4790}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Advancing land degradation in the irrigated areas of Central Asia hinders sustainable development of this predominantly agricultural region. To support decisions on mitigating cropland degradation, this study combines linear trend analysis and spatial logistic regression modeling to expose a land degradation trend in the Khorezm region, Uzbekistan, and to analyze the causes. Time series of the 250-m MODIS NDVI, summed over the growing seasons of 2000-2010, were used to derive areas with an apparent negative vegetation trend; this was interpreted as an indicator of land degradation. About one third (161,000 ha) of the region's area experienced negative trends of different magnitude. The vegetation decline was particularly evident on the low-fertility lands bordering on the natural sandy desert, suggesting that these areas should be prioritized in mitigation planning. The results of logistic modeling indicate that the spatial pattern of the observed trend is mainly associated with the level of the groundwater table (odds = 330 \%), land-use intensity (odds = 103 \%), low soil quality (odds = 49 \%), slope (odds = 29 \%), and salinity of the groundwater (odds = 26 \%). Areas, threatened by land degradation, were mapped by fitting the estimated model parameters to available data. The elaborated approach, combining remote-sensing and GIS, can form the basis for developing a common tool for monitoring land degradation trends in irrigated croplands of Central Asia.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wehrmann2007, author = {Wehrmann, Thilo}, title = {Automatisierte Klassifikation von Landnutzung durch Objekterkennung am Beispiel von CORINE Land Cover}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-25260}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Informationen {\"u}ber die Landbedeckung und die mit der anthropogenen Komponente verbundenen Landnutzung sind elementare Bestandteile f{\"u}r viele Bereiche der Politik, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft. Darunter fallen beispielsweise die Strukurentwicklungsprogramme der EU, die Schadensregulierung im Versicherungswesen und die Modellierung von Stoffkreisl{\"a}ufen. CORINE Land Cover (CLC) wurde infolge eines erweiterten Bedarfs an einem europaweit harmonisierten Datensatz der Landoberfl{\"a}che erstellt. Das CORINE Projekt weist f{\"u}r diese Arbeit eine hohe Relevanz durch die regelm{\"a}ßigen Aktualisierungen von 10 Jahren, dem Einsatz der Daten in vielen europ{\"a}ischen und nationalen Institutionen und der guten Dokumentation der CORINE Nomenklatur auf. Die Erstellung der Daten basiert auf der computergest{\"u}tzten manuellen Interpretation, da automatische Verfahren durch die Komplexit{\"a}t der Aufgabenstellung und Thematik nicht in der Lage waren, den menschlichen Interpreten zu ersetzen. Diese Arbeit stellt eine Methodik vor, um CORINE Land Cover aus optischen Fernerkundungsdaten f{\"u}r eine kommende Aktualisierung abzuleiten. Hierzu dienen die Daten von CLC 1990 und der Fernerkundungsdatensatz Image 2000 als Grundlage, sowie die CLC 2000 Klassifikation als Referenz. Die entwickelte und in dem Softwarepaket gnosis implementierte Methodik wendet die objektorientierte Klassifikation in Kombination mit Theorien aus der menschlichen Bildwahrnehmung an. In diesen Theorien wird die Bildwahrnehmung als informationstechnischer Prozess gesehen, der den Klassifikationsprozess in die drei folgenden Subprozesse unterteilt: Bildsegmentierung, Merkmalsgenerierung und Klassenzuweisung. Die Bildsegmentierung generiert aus den untersten Bildprimitiven (Pixeln) bedeutungsvolle Bildsegmente. Diesen Bildsegmenten wird eine Anzahl von bildinvarianten Merkmalen aus den Fernerkundungsdaten f{\"u}r die Bestimmung der CLC Klasse zugewiesen. Dabei liegt die wichtigste Information in der Ableitung der Landbedeckung durch den {\"u}berwachten St{\"u}tzvektor-Klassifikator. Die Landoberfl{\"a}che wird hierzu in zehn Basisklassen untergliedert, um weiteren Merkmalen einen semantischen Unterbau zu geben. Zur Bestimmung der anthropogenen Komponente von ausgew{\"a}hlten Landnutzungsklassen, wie beispielsweise Ackerland und Gr{\"u}nland, wird der ph{\"a}nologische Verlauf der Vegetation durch die Parameter temporale Variabilit{\"a}t und temporale Intensit{\"a}t beschrieben. Neben dem jahreszeitlichen Verlauf der Vegetation k{\"o}nnen Nachbarschaftsbeziehungen untersucht werden, um weitere anthropogene Klassen und heterogen aufgebaute Sammelklassen beschreiben zu k{\"o}nnen. Der Versiegelungsgrad als Beispiel f{\"u}r eine Reihe von unscharfen Merkmalen dient der weiteren Differenzierung der verschiedenen Siedlungsklassen aus CORINE LC. Mit Hilfe dieser Merkmale werden die CLC Klassen in abstrakter Form im Klassenkatalog (a-priori Wissensbasis) als Protoklassen beschrieben. Die eigentliche Objekterkennung basiert auf der Repr{\"a}sentation der CORINE Objekte durch ihre einzelnen Bestandteile und vergleicht die gefundenen Strukturen mit der Wissensbasis. Semantisch homogen aufgebaute Klassen, wie W{\"a}lder und Siedlungen oder Protoklassen mit eindeutigen Merkmalen, beispielsweise zur Bestimmung von Gr{\"u}nland durch die Ph{\"a}nologie, k{\"o}nnen durch den bottom-up Ansatz identifiziert werden. Das {\"u}bergeordnete CLC Objekt kann direkt aus den Bestandteilen zusammengebaut und einer Klasse zugewiesen werden. Semantisch heterogene Klassen, wie zum Beispiel bestimmte Sammelklassen (Komplexe Parzellenstrukur), k{\"o}nnen durch ihre Bestandteile validiert werden, indem die Bestandteile eines existierenden CLC Objektes mit der Wissensbasis auf Konsistenz untersucht werden (top-down Ansatz). Eine a-priori Datengrundlage ist f{\"u}r die Erkennung dieser Klassen essentiell. Die Untersuchung der drei Testgebiete (Frankfurt, Berlin, Oldenburg) zeigte, dass von der CORINE LC Nomenklatur 13 Klassen identifiziert und weiteren 14 Klassen validiert werden k{\"o}nnen. Zehn Klassen k{\"o}nnen durch diese Methodik aufgrund fehlender Merkmale oder Zusatzdaten nicht klassifiziert werden. Die Gesamtgenauigkeit der automatisierten Klassifikation f{\"u}r die Testgebiete betr{\"a}gt zwischen 70\% und 80\% f{\"u}r die umgesetzten Klassen. Betrachtet man davon einzelne Klassen, wie Siedlungs-, Wald- oder Wasserklassen, wird aufgrund der verwendeten Merkmale eine Klassifikationsgenauigkeit von {\"u}ber 90\% erreicht. Ein m{\"o}glicher Einsatz der entwickelten Software gnosis liegt in der Unterst{\"u}tzung einer kommenden CORINE Aktualisierung durch die Prozessierung der identifizierbaren Klassen. Diese CLC Klassen m{\"u}ssen vom Interpreten nicht mehr {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft werden. F{\"u}r bestimmte CLC Klassen aus dem Top-down Ansatz wird der Interpret die letzte Entscheidung aus einer Auswahl von Klassen treffen m{\"u}ssen. Weiterhin k{\"o}nnen die berechneten Merkmale, wie die temporalen Eigenschaften und der Versiegelungsgrad dem Bearbeiter als Entscheidungsgrundlage zur Verf{\"u}gung gestellt werden. Der Einsatz dieser neu entwickelten Methode f{\"u}hrt zu einer Optimierung des bestehenden Aufnahmeverfahrens durch die Integration von semi-automatisierten Prozessen.}, subject = {Optische Fernerkundung}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Braun2009, author = {Braun, Thomas}, title = {On the origin of seismic signals recorded on Stromboli volcano}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-33376}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Hauptaufgabe der Vulkanseismologie ist die qualitative and quantitative Beschreibung einer oder mehrerer unbekannter seismischer Quellen, die sich in einer unbekannten Tiefe unter dem Vulkan befinden. Auch wenn viele Vulkane der Erde {\"a}hnliche Signalcharakteristiken aufweisen, war es bis heute nicht m{\"o}glich, f{\"u}r Vulkane ein seismisches Standard-Quellmodell zu finden, analog dem Double- Couple in der Erdbebenseismologie. Kontinuierlich t{\"a}tige Vulkane, wie z.B. Stromboli (Italien), stellen f{\"u}r den Vulkanseismologen ein ideales nat{\"u}rliches Feldlabor dar, diese Fragestellung zu untersuchen. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht auf Stromboli registrierte Explosionsbeben und vulkanischen Tremor in einem breiten Frequenzband und behandelt die Frage nach der Lage und dem Mechanismus der seismischen Quelle(n). Seismische und Infraschallmessungen von strombolischen Explosionsbeben zeigen, dass sich eine Hochfrequenz-Phase mit einer Geschwindigkeit von etwa 330 m/s fortbewegt. Die seismische Quelle kann durch eine Explosion am oberen Ende der Magmas{\"a}ule erkl{\"a}rt werden, die durch aufsteigende Gasblasen verursacht wird. Sowohl die seismische P-Welle, als auch die Luftwelle werden zum gleichen Zeitpunkt an ein und demselben Ort generiert. Die verschiedenen Laufwege und Geschwindigkeiten der seismischen und der Luftwelle resultieren in einem Laufzeitunterschied dt, der zur Bestimmung des Magmenstandes und der Schallgeschwindigkeit in der Eruptionss¨aule im Schlotinnern genutzt werden kann. In Kratern{\"a}he installierte Stationen zeigen, dass Infraschall- und seismische Messungen des kurzperiodischen Tremors (> 1 Hz) den gleichen Frequenzgehalt und {\"a}hnliche Fluktuationen der seismischen Energie aufweisen. Daher wird der kurzperiodische vulkanische Tremor auf Stromboli durch das kontinuierliche Aufsteigen und Platzen kleiner Gasblasen im oberen Teil der Magmas{\"a}ule verursacht. Das Spektrum des auf Stromboli registrierten langperiodischen Tremors besteht haupts{\"a}chlich aus drei Maxima bei 4.8 s, 6 s und 10 s, deren Spektralamplitude mit der jeweiligen Wettersituation variieren. Sie werden daher nicht von einer lokalen vulkanischen Quelle erzeugt, sondern durch Meeresmikroseismik (MMS). Der Durchzug eines lokalen Tiefdruckgebietes scheint die Ursache f{\"u}r Spektralenergie bei 4.8 s and 10 s, die jeweils die Doppelte bzw. die Prim{\"a}re Frequenz der MMS darstellen. Als Ursache des spektralen Maximums bei 6 s k{\"o}nnte ein Tief nahe der Britischen Inseln in Frage kommen. Seismische Daten, die von dem ersten auf Stromboli installierten Breitband- Array registriert wurden, zeigten {\"u}berraschend einfache Wellenformen, die einen anf{\"a}nglich kontraktierenden Quellmechanismus anzeigen. Die Analyse der Partikelbewegung und die Anwendung seismischer Arraytechniken erm{\"o}glichten eine Lokalisierung der seismischen Quelle in Oberfl{\"a}chenn{\"a}he. Die Anwendung verschiedener Inversionsmethoden gestattete es, Eruptionsparameter und Charakteristiken der seismischen Quelle w{\"a}hrend der Strombolieruption am 5. April 2003 abzusch{\"a}tzen. Als Ergebnis kann festgehalten werden, dass der paroxystische Ausbruch durch eine langsame {\"U}berschiebungsdislokation mit einer Momentenmagnitude von Mw = 3.0 verursacht wurde, ausgel{\"o}st durch einen vorher durch Dike-Intrusion verursachten Bruch. W{\"a}hrend des Paroxysmus konnte in den seismischen Signalen mindestens eine Blow-out Phase mit einer Momentenmagnitude von Mw = 3.7 identifiziert werden. Diese kann durch einen vertikalen linearen Vektordipol, zwei schw{\"a}chere horizontale lineare Dipole in entgegengesetzter Richtung, zuz{\"u}glich einer Vertikalkraft repr{\"a}sentiert werden. Seismische Messungen, die w{\"a}hrend kontrollierter und reproduzierbarer Blowout Experimente unter Verwendung von einem in einer Basaltschmelze eingeschlossenen Gasvolumen durchgef{\"u}hrt wurden, ergaben folgende Ergebnisse: Monochromatische Signale sind Anzeiger f{\"u}r einen Blow-out in einem duktilen Regime, wohingegen ein breitbandigerer Frequenzgehalt auf einen Spr{\"o}dbruch hinweist. Je gr{\"o}sser die L{\"a}nge des Schmelztiegels ist, desto schw{\"a}cher sind die seismischen Signale. Ein gr{\"o}sser Gasdruck bewirkt eine st{\"a}rkere Fragmentation des Magmas, aber keine h{\"o}here Austrittsgeschwindigkeit des Magmapropfens und auch keine gr{\"o}ssere seismische Amplitude. Auch wenn die langperiodischen Signale, wie beispielsweise Tilt, im Labor nicht simuliert werden konnten, sind die Blow-out Experimente {\"u}berraschend gut in der Lage, die am Vulkan Stromboli registrierten kurzperiodischen seismischen Signale zu reproduzieren.}, subject = {Stromboli}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Taheri2009, author = {Taheri, Jafar}, title = {Stratigraphy, ichnology, and sedimentary environments of the Late Bajocian-Late Bathonian Kashafrud Formation, Northeastern Iran}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-39966}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {The Upper Bajocian-Bathonian Kashafrud Formation is a thick package of siliciclastic sediments that crops out in NE Iran from the southeast, near the Afghanistan border, to north- northwestern areas around the city of Mashhad. The thickness ranges from less than 300 m in a deltaic succession (Kuh-e-Radar) to more than 2500 m in the Maiamay area, but the normal thickness in Ghal-e-Sangi, Kol-e-Malekabad, and Fraizi areas is about 1200-1300 m. It is the fill of an elongated basin, which extended for more than 200 km in NW-SE direction and a width of at least 50 km along the southern margin of the Koppeh Dagh. Prior to this study, little information existed about the sedimentary environments and other characters, especially the geometry of the basin. Exact biostratigraphic data from the top of the Kashafrud Formation were rare. Based on the macrofauna from the lower part of the overlying Chamanbid Formation the upper boundary of the Kashafrud Formation had been attributed to the Late Bathonian and/or Early Callovian, but now the upper limit of the Kashafrud Formation is defined as Late Bathonian in age, based on ammonite biostratigraphy. Except for chapter one, which deals with the introduction and related sub-titles, in the following chapters, step by step, field observations and data were surveyed according to the questions to solve. In order to reconstruct the facies architecture and the geometry of the basin, a number of sections have been logged in detail (see chapter 3, "The sections"). The exact biostratigraphic setting is discussed in chapter 4 ("Biostratigraphy"). Sedimentary environments range from non-marine alluvial fans and braided rivers in the basal part of the succession to deltas, storm-dominated shelf, slope and deep-marine basin. The latter comprises the largest part of the basin fill, consisting of monotonous mudstones, siltstones and proximal to distal turbidities. The only continuous carbonate unit (~30 m) locally formed at Tappenader. Other localities in which thin fossil-bearing carbonate strata occur are Torbat-e-Jam (benthic fauna) and, to a lesser extent, Ghal-e-Sangi. These rare shallow-water carbonates, which also contain corals, represent only short intervals (see chapter 5," Facies association and sedimentary environments"). Relative changes in sea level were reconstructed on the basis of deepening- and shallowing-upward trends. Sequence boundaries and parasequences have been distinguished and analyzed in chapter 6 ("Sequence stratigraphy"). In most areas, the basin rapidly evolved from a shallow marine, transgressive succession to a deep-marine, basinal succession. The only area where shallow conditions persisted from the Late Bajocian to the Late Bathonian, and even into the Early Callovian is the Kuh-e-Radar area which corresponds to a fan-delta setting. A trace fossil analysis has been carried out to obtain additional evidence on the bathymetry of the basin (see chapter 7, "Ichnology"). Altogether 29 ichnospecies belonging to 15 ichnogenera have been identified, as well as 10 ichnogenera, which were determined only at genus level. They can be grouped in the well-known "Seilacherian ichnofacies". Very high subsidence rates and strong lateral thickness variations suggest that the Kashafrud Formation is a rift related basin that formed as the eastern extension of the South Caspian Basin. The basin evolution is reviewed, the eastern and western continuations of the basin were checked in the field and also in the literature (see chapter 8, "Basin evolution"). In all, the present study provided new insights into the development of the Kashafrud Formation, e.g. more biostratigraphic data from the base and the top of the succession, a relatively complete picture of the trace fossil associations, a better recognition and reconstruction of the sedimentary environments in different parts of the basin. Finally this research project will be a good basis for further investigations, especially towards the west, as parts of the Kashafrud Formation are source rocks of a hydrocarbon reservoir in NE Iran.}, subject = {Chorasan}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ullmann2015, author = {Ullmann, Tobias}, title = {Characterization of Arctic Environment by Means of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) Data and Digital Elevation Models (DEM)}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115719}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The ecosystem of the high northern latitudes is affected by the recently changing environmental conditions. The Arctic has undergone a significant climatic change over the last decades. The land coverage is changing and a phenological response to the warming is apparent. Remotely sensed data can assist the monitoring and quantification of these changes. The remote sensing of the Arctic was predominantly carried out by the usage of optical sensors but these encounter problems in the Arctic environment, e.g. the frequent cloud cover or the solar geometry. In contrast, the imaging of Synthetic Aperture Radar is not affected by the cloud cover and the acquisition of radar imagery is independent of the solar illumination. The objective of this work was to explore how polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data of TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, Radarsat-2 and ALOS PALSAR and interferometric-derived digital elevation model data of the TanDEM-X Mission can contribute to collect meaningful information on the actual state of the Arctic Environment. The study was conducted for Canadian sites of the Mackenzie Delta Region and Banks Island and in situ reference data were available for the assessment. The up-to-date analysis of the PolSAR data made the application of the Non-Local Means filtering and of the decomposition of co-polarized data necessary. The Non-Local Means filter showed a high capability to preserve the image values, to keep the edges and to reduce the speckle. This supported not only the suitability for the interpretation but also for the classification. The classification accuracies of Non-Local Means filtered data were in average +10\% higher compared to unfiltered images. The correlation of the co- and quad-polarized decomposition features was high for classes with distinct surface or double bounce scattering and a usage of the co-polarized data is beneficial for regions of natural land coverage and for low vegetation formations with little volume scattering. The evaluation further revealed that the X- and C-Band were most sensitive to the generalized land cover classes. It was found that the X-Band data were sensitive to low vegetation formations with low shrub density, the C-Band data were sensitive to the shrub density and the shrub dominated tundra. In contrast, the L-Band data were less sensitive to the land cover. Among the different dual-polarized data the HH/VV-polarized data were identified to be most meaningful for the characterization and classification, followed by the HH/HV-polarized and the VV/VH-polarized data. The quad-polarized data showed highest sensitivity to the land cover but differences to the co-polarized data were small. The accuracy assessment showed that spectral information was required for accurate land cover classification. The best results were obtained when spectral and radar information was combined. The benefit of including radar data in the classification was up to +15\% accuracy and most significant for the classes wetland and sparse vegetated tundra. The best classifications were realized with quad-polarized C-Band and multispectral data and with co-polarized X-Band and multispectral data. The overall accuracy was up to 80\% for unsupervised and up to 90\% for supervised classifications. The results indicated that the shortwave co-polarized data show promise for the classification of tundra land cover since the polarimetric information is sensitive to low vegetation and the wetlands. Furthermore, co-polarized data provide a higher spatial resolution than the quad-polarized data. The analysis of the intermediate digital elevation model data of the TanDEM-X showed a high potential for the characterization of the surface morphology. The basic and relative topographic features were shown to be of high relevance for the quantification of the surface morphology and an area-wide application is feasible. In addition, these data were of value for the classification and delineation of landforms. Such classifications will assist the delineation of geomorphological units and have potential to identify locations of actual and future morphologic activity.}, subject = {Mackenzie-River-Delta}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Arnegger2014, author = {Arnegger, Julius}, title = {Protected Areas, the Tourist Bubble and Regional Economic Development - Two Case Studies from Mexico and Morocco}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, isbn = {978-3-95826-001-6}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-001-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-100928}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {248}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Nature-based tourism and ecotourism experienced a dynamic development over the past decade. While originally often described as specialized post-Fordist niche markets for ecologically aware and affluent target groups, in many regions they are nowadays characterized by a heterogeneous structure and the presence of a wide product range, from individual travels to package tours. The present dissertation analyzes the structure and economic importance of tourism in two highly frequented protected areas in middle income countries, the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve (SKBR) in Mexico and the Souss-Massa National Park (SMNP) in Morocco. Both areas are situated in close proximity to the most important package tour destinations Canc{\´u}n (Mexico) and Agadir (Morocco) and are subject to high touristic use and development pressure. So far, the planning of a more sustainable tourism development is hampered by the lack of reliable data. Based on demand-side surveys and income multipliers calculated with the help of regionalized input-output models, the visitor structure and economic impact of tourism in both protected areas are described. With regional income effects of approximately 1 million USD (SKBR) and approximately 1.9 million USD (SMNP), and resulting income equivalents of 1,348 and 5,218 persons, both the SKBR and the SMNP play an important—and often undervalued—role for the regional economies in underdeveloped rural peripheral regions of the countries. Detailed analyses of the visitor structures show marked differences with regard to criteria such as travel organization, nature/protected area affinity and expenditures. With regard to planning and marketing of nature-based tourism, protected area managers and political decision-takers are advised to focus on ecologically and economically attractive visitor groups. Based on the results of the two case studies as well as existing tourism typologies from the literature, a classification scheme is presented that may be used for a more target-oriented development and marketing of nature-based tourism products.}, subject = {{\"O}kotourismus}, language = {en} } @article{WohlfartWegmannLeimgruber2014, author = {Wohlfart, Christian and Wegmann, Martin and Leimgruber, Peter}, title = {Mapping threatened dry deciduous dipterocarp forest in South-east Asia for conservation management}, series = {Tropical Conservation Science}, volume = {7}, journal = {Tropical Conservation Science}, number = {4}, issn = {1940-0829}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117782}, pages = {597-613}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Habitat loss is the primary reason for species extinction, making habitat conservation a critical strategy for maintaining global biodiversity. Major habitat types, such as lowland tropical evergreen forests or mangrove forests, are already well represented in many conservation priorities, while others are underrepresented. This is particularly true for dry deciduous dipterocarp forests (DDF), a key forest type in Asia that extends from the tropical to the subtropical regions in South-east Asia (SE Asia), where high temperatures and pronounced seasonal precipitation patterns are predominant. DDF are a unique forest ecosystem type harboring a wide range of important and endemic species and need to be adequately represented in global biodiversity conservation strategies. One of the greatest challenges in DDF conservation is the lack of detailed and accurate maps of their distribution due to inaccurate open-canopy seasonal forest mapping methods. Conventional land cover maps therefore tend to perform inadequately with DDF. Our study accurately delineates DDF on a continental scale based on remote sensing approaches by integrating the strong, characteristic seasonality of DDF. We also determine the current conservation status of DDF throughout SE Asia. We chose SE Asia for our research because its remaining DDF are extensive in some areas but are currently degrading and under increasing pressure from significant socio-economic changes throughout the region. Phenological indices, derived from MODIS vegetation index time series, served as input variables for a Random Forest classifier and were used to predict the spatial distribution of DDF. The resulting continuous fields maps of DDF had accuracies ranging from R-2 = 0.56 to 0.78. We identified three hotspots in SE Asia with a total area of 156,000 km(2), and found Myanmar to have more remaining DDF than the countries in SE Asia. Our approach proved to be a reliable method for mapping DDF and other seasonally influenced ecosystems on continental and regional scales, and is very valuable for conservation management in this region.}, language = {en} } @article{UllmannSchmittRothetal.2014, author = {Ullmann, Tobias and Schmitt, Andreas and Roth, Achim and Duffe, Jason and Dech, Stefan and Hubberten, Hans-Wolfgang and Baumhauer, Roland}, title = {Land Cover Characterization and Classification of Arctic Tundra Environments by Means of Polarized Synthetic Aperture X- and C-Band Radar (PolSAR) and Landsat 8 Multispectral Imagery — Richards Island, Canada}, doi = {10.3390/rs6098565}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-113303}, year = {2014}, abstract = {In this work the potential of polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data of dual-polarized TerraSAR-X (HH/VV) and quad-polarized Radarsat-2 was examined in combination with multispectral Landsat 8 data for unsupervised and supervised classification of tundra land cover types of Richards Island, Canada. The classification accuracies as well as the backscatter and reflectance characteristics were analyzed using reference data collected during three field work campaigns and include in situ data and high resolution airborne photography. The optical data offered an acceptable initial accuracy for the land cover classification. The overall accuracy was increased by the combination of PolSAR and optical data and was up to 71\% for unsupervised (Landsat 8 and TerraSAR-X) and up to 87\% for supervised classification (Landsat 8 and Radarsat-2) for five tundra land cover types. The decomposition features of the dual and quad-polarized data showed a high sensitivity for the non-vegetated substrate (dominant surface scattering) and wetland vegetation (dominant double bounce and volume scattering). These classes had high potential to be automatically detected with unsupervised classification techniques.}, language = {en} } @article{DietzConradKuenzeretal.2014, author = {Dietz, Andreas J. and Conrad, Christopher and Kuenzer, Claudia and Gesell, Gerhard and Dech, Stefan}, title = {Identifying Changing Snow Cover Characteristics in Central Asia between 1986 and 2014 from Remote Sensing Data}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {6}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {12}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs61212752}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-114470}, pages = {12752-12775}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Central Asia consists of the five former Soviet States Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, therefore comprising an area of similar to 4 Mio km(2). The continental climate is characterized by hot and dry summer months and cold winter seasons with most precipitation occurring as snowfall. Accordingly, freshwater supply is strongly depending on the amount of accumulated snow as well as the moment of its release after snowmelt. The aim of the presented study is to identify possible changes in snow cover characteristics, consisting of snow cover duration, onset and offset of snow cover season within the last 28 years. Relying on remotely sensed data originating from medium resolution imagers, these snow cover characteristics are extracted on a daily basis. The resolution of 500-1000 m allows for a subsequent analysis of changes on the scale of hydrological sub-catchments. Long-term changes are identified from this unique dataset, revealing an ongoing shift towards earlier snowmelt within the Central Asian Mountains. This shift can be observed in most upstream hydro catchments within Pamir and Tian Shan Mountains and it leads to a potential change of freshwater availability in the downstream regions, exerting additional pressure on the already tensed situation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mutz2013, author = {Mutz, Sebastian}, title = {Dynamic Statistical Modelling of Climate-Related Mass Balance Changes in Norway}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-114799}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The glaciers in Norway exert a strong influence on Norwegian economy and society. Unlike many glaciers elsewhere and despite ongoing climate change and warming, many of them showed renewed advances and positive net mass changes in the 1980's and 1990's, followed by rapid retreats and mass losses since 2000. This difference in behaviour may be attributed to differences and shifts in the glaciological regime - the differences in the magnitude of impacts of climatic and non-climatic geographical factors on the glacier mass. This study investigates the influence of various atmospheric variables on mass balance changes of a selection of glaciers in Norway by means of Pearson correlation analyses and cross-validated stepwise multiple regression analyses. The analyses are carried out for three time periods (1949-2008, 1949-1988, 1989-2008) separately in order to take into consideration the possible shift in the glaciological regime in the 1980's. The atmospheric variables are constructed from ERA40 and NCEP/NCAR re-analysis datasets and include regional means of seasonal air temperature and precipitation rates and atmospheric circulation indices. The multiple regression models trained in these time periods are then applied to predictors reconstructed from the CMIP3 climate model dataset to generate an estimate for mass changes from the year 1950 to 2100. The temporal overlap of estimates and observations is used for calibration. Finally, observed atmospheric states in seasons that are characterised by a particularly positive or negative mass balance are categorised into time periods of modelled climate by the application of a Bayesian classification procedure. The strongest influence on winter mass balance is exerted by different indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Northern Annular Mode (NAM) and precipitation. The correlation coefficients and explained variances determined from the multiple regression analyses reveal an East-West gradient, suggesting a weaker influence of the NAO and NAM on glaciers underlying a more continental regime. The highest correlation coefficients and explained variances were obtained for the 1989-2008 time period, which might be due to a strong and predominantly positive phase of the NAO. Multi-model ensemble means of the estimates show a mass loss for all three eastern glaciers, while the estimates for the more maritime glaciers are ambivalent. In general, the estimates show a greater sensitivity to the training time period than to the greenhouse gas emission scenarios according to which the climates were simulated. The average net mass change by the end of 2100 is negative for all glaciers except for the northern Engabreen. For many glaciers, the Bayesian classification of observed atmospheric states into time periods of modelled climate reveals a decrease in probability of atmospheric states favouring extremes in winter, and an increase in probability of atmospheric states favouring extreme mass loss in summer for the distant future (2071-2100). This pattern of probabilities for the ablation season is most pronounced for glaciers underlying a continental and intermediate regime.}, subject = {Norwegen}, language = {en} } @article{LoewDuveiller2014, author = {L{\"o}w, Fabian and Duveiller, Gr{\´e}gory}, title = {Defining the Spatial Resolution Requirements for Crop Identification Using Optical Remote Sensing}, doi = {10.3390/rs6099034}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-113607}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The past decades have seen an increasing demand for operational monitoring of crop conditions and food production at local to global scales. To properly use satellite Earth observation for such agricultural monitoring, high temporal revisit frequency over vast geographic areas is necessary. However, this often limits the spatial resolution that can be used. The challenge of discriminating pixels that correspond to a particular crop type, a prerequisite for crop specific agricultural monitoring, remains daunting when the signal encoded in pixels stems from several land uses (mixed pixels), e.g., over heterogeneous landscapes where individual fields are often smaller than individual pixels. The question of determining the optimal pixel sizes for an application such as crop identification is therefore naturally inclined towards finding the coarsest acceptable pixel sizes, so as to potentially benefit from what instruments with coarser pixels can offer. To answer this question, this study builds upon and extends a conceptual framework to quantitatively define pixel size requirements for crop identification via image classification. This tool can be modulated using different parameterizations to explore trade-offs between pixel size and pixel purity when addressing the question of crop identification. Results over contrasting landscapes in Central Asia demonstrate that the task of finding the optimum pixel size does not have a "one-size-fits-all" solution. The resulting values for pixel size and purity that are suitable for crop identification proved to be specific to a given landscape, and for each crop they differed across different landscapes. Over the same time series, different crops were not identifiable simultaneously in the season and these requirements further changed over the years, reflecting the different agro-ecological conditions the crops are growing in. Results indicate that sensors like MODIS (250 m) could be suitable for identifying major crop classes in the study sites, whilst sensors like Landsat (30 m) should be considered for object-based classification. The proposed framework is generic and can be applied to any agricultural landscape, thereby potentially serving to guide recommendations for designing dedicated EO missions that can satisfy the requirements in terms of pixel size to identify and discriminate crop types.}, language = {en} } @article{ForkuorConradThieletal.2014, author = {Forkuor, Gerald and Conrad, Christopher and Thiel, Michael and Ullmann, Tobias and Zoungrana, Evence}, title = {Integration of Optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery for Improving Crop Mapping in Northwestern Benin, West Africa}, doi = {10.3390/rs6076472}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-113070}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Crop mapping in West Africa is challenging, due to the unavailability of adequate satellite images (as a result of excessive cloud cover), small agricultural fields and a heterogeneous landscape. To address this challenge, we integrated high spatial resolution multi-temporal optical (RapidEye) and dual polarized (VV/VH) SAR (TerraSAR-X) data to map crops and crop groups in northwestern Benin using the random forest classification algorithm. The overall goal was to ascertain the contribution of the SAR data to crop mapping in the region. A per-pixel classification result was overlaid with vector field boundaries derived from image segmentation, and a crop type was determined for each field based on the modal class within the field. A per-field accuracy assessment was conducted by comparing the final classification result with reference data derived from a field campaign. Results indicate that the integration of RapidEye and TerraSAR-X data improved classification accuracy by 10\%-15\% over the use of RapidEye only. The VV polarization was found to better discriminate crop types than the VH polarization. The research has shown that if optical and SAR data are available for the whole cropping season, classification accuracies of up to 75\% are achievable.}, language = {en} } @misc{Streckel2013, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Streckel, Christian}, title = {Migration im Kontext von Umwelteinfl{\"u}ssen und Klimawandel}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-102334}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Klimawandelbedingte bzw. potenziell klimawandelbedingte Umweltmigration ist ein sehr komplexes und breites Feld. Es existiert eine F{\"u}lle von Studien, die sich in ihrer Herangehensweise unterscheiden, weshalb hier ein Systematisierungsvorschlag aufgezeigt wird. Mittels einer an den Richtlinien der Grounded Theory orientierten Analyse wurden Studien auf zentrale gemeinsame Kategorien hin untersucht und als Modell pr{\"a}sentiert. Dieses stellt jedoch kein abgeschlossenes System dar, sondern dient durch seine Offenheit als Ger{\"u}st, das mit Ergebnissen aus weiteren Fallstudien gefestigt werden kann.}, subject = {Anthropogene Klima{\"a}nderung}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Walz2014, author = {Walz, Yvonne}, title = {Remote sensing for disease risk profiling: a spatial analysis of schistosomiasis in West Africa}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-108845}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Global environmental change leads to the emergence of new human health risks. As a consequence, transmission opportunities of environment-related diseases are transformed and human infection with new emerging pathogens increase. The main motivation for this study is the considerable demand for disease surveillance and monitoring in relation to dynamic environmental drivers. Remote sensing (RS) data belong to the key data sources for environmental modelling due to their capabilities to deliver spatially continuous information repeatedly for large areas with an ecologically adequate spatial resolution. A major research gap as identified by this study is the disregard of the spatial mismatch inherent in current modelling approaches of profiling disease risk using remote sensing data. Typically, epidemiological data are aggregated at school or village level. However, these point data do neither represent the spatial distribution of habitats, where disease-related species find their suitable environmental conditions, nor the place, where infection has occurred. As a consequence, the prevalence data and remotely sensed environmental variables, which aim to characterise the habitat of disease-related species, are spatially disjunct. The main objective of this study is to improve RS-based disease risk models by incorporating the ecological and spatial context of disease transmission. Exemplified by the analysis of the human schistosomiasis disease in West Africa, this objective includes the quantification of the impact of scales and ecological regions on model performance. In this study, the conditions that modify the transmission of schistosomiasis are reviewed in detail. A conceptual underpinning of the linkages between geographical RS measures, disease transmission ecology, and epidemiological survey data is developed. During a field-based analysis, environmental suitability for schistosomiasis transmission was assessed on the ground, which is then quantified by a habitat suitability index (HSI) and applied to RS data. This conceptual model of environmental suitability is refined by the development of a hierarchical model approach that statistically links school-based disease prevalence with the ecologically relevant measurements of RS data. The statistical models of schistosomiasis risk are derived from two different algorithms; the Random Forest and the partial least squares regression (PLSR). Scale impact is analysed based on different spatial resolutions of RS data. Furthermore, varying buffer extents are analysed around school-based measurements. Three distinctive sites of Burkina Faso and C{\^o}te d'Ivoire are specifically modelled to represent a gradient of ecozones from dry savannah to tropical rainforest including flat and mountainous regions. The model results reveal the applicability of RS data to spatially delineate and quantitatively evaluate environmental suitability for the transmission of schistosomiasis. In specific, the multi-temporal derivation of water bodies and the assessment of their riparian vegetation coverage based on high-resolution RapidEye and Landsat data proofed relevant. In contrast, elevation data and water surface temperature are constraint in their ability to characterise habitat conditions for disease-related parasites and freshwater snail species. With increasing buffer extent observed around the school location, the performance of statistical models increases, improving the prediction of transmission risk. The most important RS variables identified to model schistosomiasis risk are the measure of distance to water bodies, topographic variables, and land surface temperature (LST). However, each ecological region requires a different set of RS variables to optimise the modelling of schistosomiasis risk. A key result of the hierarchical model approach is its superior performance to explain the spatial risk of schistosomiasis. Overall, this study stresses the key importance of considering the ecological and spatial context for disease risk profiling and demonstrates the potential of RS data. The methodological approach of this study contributes substantially to provide more accurate and relevant geoinformation, which supports an efficient planning and decision-making within the public health sector.}, subject = {Westafrika}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hein2022, author = {Hein, Niklas}, title = {Gesellschaftliche Implikationen nachhaltiger Nischenakteure - auf dem Weg in eine Postwachstumsgesellschaft?}, edition = {1. Auflage}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-178-5}, issn = {0510-9833}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-179-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250737}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {VIII, 222}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Die imperiale Lebensweise westlicher Industrienationen, die sich durch ein permanentes Streben nach Wirtschaftswachstum ausdr{\"u}ckt, bringt den Planeten an die Grenzen seiner Tragf{\"a}higkeit. In den letzten Jahren wurden jedoch - best{\"a}rkt durch die Weltwirtschaftskrise 2007/08 - Alternativen zum Modell des permanenten Wachstums immer popul{\"a}rer, die sich anstatt auf {\"o}konomischen Wohlstand vermehrt auf soziale und {\"o}kologische Belange des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenlebens fokussierten. Unter dem Begriff der Postwachstumsbewegung sammelten sich Ans{\"a}tze, Ideen und Akteure, die gemeinsam f{\"u}r eine Zukunft fernab jeglicher Wachstumszw{\"a}nge und innerhalb der planetaren Grenzen k{\"a}mpfen. Vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden sozialen und {\"o}kologischen Herausforderungen wurden nun erstmals sozial-{\"o}kologische Nischenakteure aus drei unterschiedlichen Bereichen der Postwachstumsbewegung gemeinsam in einem Forschungsvorhaben - unter besonderer Ber{\"u}cksichtigung gesellschaftlicher, organisatorischer und territorialer Einbettungsprozesse - untersucht. Eingebettet ist diese Untersuchung in den theoretisch-konzeptionellen Ansatz der sozial-{\"o}kologischen Transformation, deren inkrementeller Wandel mithilfe der Multi-Level-Perspektive beschrieben werden kann. Die Kombination dieses spezifischen theoretisch-konzeptionellen Ansatzes und der empirischen Erhebung ist das Alleinstellungsmerkmal der vorliegenden Untersuchung. Es zeigte sich, dass alle untersuchten Nischenakteure eine deutlich progressive Unternehmungsphilosophie vertreten, die h{\"a}ufig in einer Unternehmungsorganisation mit flachen Hierarchien und konsensbasierten Entscheidungsfindungen m{\"u}ndet. Besonders gesellschaftliche Einbettungsprozesse bedingen den Erfolg oder Misserfolg der Nischenentwicklung. Organisatorische Einbettung kommt derweil vor allem im Aufbau weitreichender Netzwerkstrukturen zum Tragen, die die Innovationsf{\"a}higkeit und Stabilit{\"a}t der Nische unterst{\"u}tzen. Eine starke territoriale Einbettung steigert den lokal-regionalen Einfluss der Nischeninnovationen und generiert R{\"u}ckhalt in der Bev{\"o}lkerung.}, subject = {Transformation}, language = {de} } @article{KhareDeslauriersMorinetal.2021, author = {Khare, Siddhartha and Deslauriers, Annie and Morin, Hubert and Latifi, Hooman and Rossi, Sergio}, title = {Comparing time-lapse PhenoCams with satellite observations across the boreal forest of Quebec, Canada}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {14}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {1}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs14010100}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252213}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Intercomparison of satellite-derived vegetation phenology is scarce in remote locations because of the limited coverage area and low temporal resolution of field observations. By their reliable near-ground observations and high-frequency data collection, PhenoCams can be a robust tool for intercomparison of land surface phenology derived from satellites. This study aims to investigate the transition dates of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) phenology by comparing fortnightly the MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) extracted using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform with the daily PhenoCam-based green chromatic coordinate (GCC) index. Data were collected from 2016 to 2019 by PhenoCams installed in six mature stands along a latitudinal gradient of the boreal forests of Quebec, Canada. All time series were fitted by double-logistic functions, and the estimated parameters were compared between NDVI, EVI, and GCC. The onset of GCC occurred in the second week of May, whereas the ending of GCC occurred in the last week of September. We demonstrated that GCC was more correlated with EVI (R\(^2\) from 0.66 to 0.85) than NDVI (R\(^2\) from 0.52 to 0.68). In addition, the onset and ending of phenology were shown to differ by 3.5 and 5.4 days between EVI and GCC, respectively. Larger differences were detected between NDVI and GCC, 17.05 and 26.89 days for the onset and ending, respectively. EVI showed better estimations of the phenological dates than NDVI. This better performance is explained by the higher spectral sensitivity of EVI for multiple canopy leaf layers due to the presence of an additional blue band and an optimized soil factor value. Our study demonstrates that the phenological observations derived from PhenoCam are comparable with the EVI index. We conclude that EVI is more suitable than NDVI to assess phenology in evergreen species of the northern boreal region, where PhenoCam data are not available. The EVI index could be used as a reliable proxy of GCC for monitoring evergreen species phenology in areas with reduced access, or where repeated data collection from remote areas are logistically difficult due to the extreme weather.}, language = {en} } @article{KoehlerKuenzer2020, author = {Koehler, Jonas and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {Forecasting spatio-temporal dynamics on the land surface using Earth Observation data — a review}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {12}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {21}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs12213513}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-216285}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Reliable forecasts on the impacts of global change on the land surface are vital to inform the actions of policy and decision makers to mitigate consequences and secure livelihoods. Geospatial Earth Observation (EO) data from remote sensing satellites has been collected continuously for 40 years and has the potential to facilitate the spatio-temporal forecasting of land surface dynamics. In this review we compiled 143 papers on EO-based forecasting of all aspects of the land surface published in 16 high-ranking remote sensing journals within the past decade. We analyzed the literature regarding research focus, the spatial scope of the study, the forecasting method applied, as well as the temporal and technical properties of the input data. We categorized the identified forecasting methods according to their temporal forecasting mechanism and the type of input data. Time-lagged regressions which are predominantly used for crop yield forecasting and approaches based on Markov Chains for future land use and land cover simulation are the most established methods. The use of external climate projections allows the forecasting of numerical land surface parameters up to one hundred years into the future, while auto-regressive time series modeling can account for intra-annual variances. Machine learning methods have been increasingly used in all categories and multivariate modeling that integrates multiple data sources appears to be more popular than univariate auto-regressive modeling despite the availability of continuously expanding time series data. Regardless of the method, reliable EO-based forecasting requires high-level remote sensing data products and the resulting computational demand appears to be the main reason that most forecasts are conducted only on a local scale. In the upcoming years, however, we expect this to change with further advances in the field of machine learning, the publication of new global datasets, and the further establishment of cloud computing for data processing.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hoeppner2009, author = {H{\"o}ppner, Kathrin}, title = {Beobachtung des Hydroxyl (OH*)-Airglow: Untersuchung von Klimasignalen und atmosph{\"a}rischen Wellen}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-33588}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Die obere Mesosph{\"a}re ist die Atmosph{\"a}renschicht, die von etwa 80-100 km H{\"o}he reicht. Aufgrund der geringen Luftdichte - sie ist f{\"u}nf bis sechs Gr{\"o}ßenordnungen geringer als an der Erdoberfl{\"a}che - und der effektiven Abstrahlung von W{\"a}rme in den Weltraum („Strahlungsk{\"u}hlung") wird generell angenommen, dass Klimasignale in diesem H{\"o}henbereich sehr viel ausgepr{\"a}gter sein sollten als in den unteren Atmosph{\"a}renschichten. Es wird daher erwartet, dass Beobachtungen in dieser Region der Atmosph{\"a}re eine fr{\"u}hzeitige Erkennung von Klimatrends mit guter statistischer Signifikanz erlauben sollten. Daten, die von diesen Messungen bereitgestellt werden, sind wichtig f{\"u}r die Weiterentwicklung und Verbesserung numerischer Klimamodelle, die die mittlere Atmosph{\"a}re abdecken. Dieser H{\"o}henbereich der Atmosph{\"a}re ist messtechnisch jedoch nur schwer zug{\"a}nglich. Die Dichte der Messnetze ist keinesfalls vergleichbar mit denen f{\"u}r die Beobachtung etwa der Stratosph{\"a}re oder der Troposph{\"a}re; Routinemessungen gibt es kaum. Direkte Messungen werden mit raketengest{\"u}tzten Instrumenten, indirekte Messungen {\"u}ber satellitengest{\"u}tzte und bodengebundene Techniken, wie z.B. Lidar, Radar und Spektroskopie, vorgenommen. Die vorliegende Arbeit basiert auf Daten des „GRound-based Infrared P-branch Spectrometer (GRIPS)", das Infrarot-Emissionen aus der sogenannten OH*-Airglow-Schicht misst, aus denen die Temperatur in ~87 km H{\"o}he abgeleitet werden kann. Neben anthropogenen Einfl{\"u}ssen auf das Klima gibt es nat{\"u}rliche Effekte, die Temperaturschwankungen in der oberen Mesosph{\"a}re verursachen k{\"o}nnen. F{\"u}r die Interpretation experimenteller Daten ist das Verst{\"a}ndnis dieser nat{\"u}rlichen Quellen der Variabilit{\"a}t wichtig. Daher wird mithilfe einer 25-j{\"a}hrigen Zeitreihe der {\"u}ber Wuppertal (51,3°N, 7,2°O) gemessenen OH*-Temperaturen die potentielle Wechselwirkung der Dynamik der oberen Mesosph{\"a}re mit der Sonnenaktivit{\"a}t untersucht. Eine Korrelation der Aktivit{\"a}t planetarer Wellen mit dem solaren Magnetfeld (22-j{\"a}hriger solarer Hale-Zyklus) konnte festgestellt werden. Als m{\"o}glicher physikalischer Mechanismus wird vorgeschlagen, dass der Ringstrom im Erdinnern und damit das interne Magnetfeld der Erde durch das solare Magnetfeld moduliert wird, was wiederum zu Modulationen des totalen Magnetfeldes im Erdinnern {\"u}ber die Kopplung elektromagnetischer Drehmomente zwischen dem Erdkern und dem Erdmantel f{\"u}hrt. Als Folge sollte die Rotationsperiode der Erde - und damit die Aktivit{\"a}t planetarer Wellen - durch die solare Magnetfeldst{\"a}rke moduliert sein. Der Aktivit{\"a}t planetarer Wellen ist zudem eine quasi-zweij{\"a}hrige Schwingung {\"u}berlagert. Zumeist ist die Wellenaktivit{\"a}t verst{\"a}rkt, wenn sich die Windrichtung des mittleren zonalen Windes der {\"a}quatorialen Quasi-Biennalen Oszillation (QBO) von einem Westwind zu einem Ostwind umkehrt. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus konnte festgestellt werden, dass die unregelm{\"a}ßige Verteilung der Sonnenflecken auf der Sonnenscheibe aufgrund der Rotation der Sonne zu Fluktuationen der OH*-Temperatur f{\"u}hrt. H{\"a}ufig beobachtet werden ausgepr{\"a}gte spektrale Komponenten in den OH*-Temperaturfluktuationen im Periodenbereich von 27 bis 31 Tagen. Diese Signaturen werden vorl{\"a}ufig auf die differentielle Rotation der Sonne zur{\"u}ckgef{\"u}hrt. Dynamische Prozesse wie z.B. atmosph{\"a}rische Schwerewellen sind von großer Bedeutung f{\"u}r den Energiehaushalt der oberen Mesosph{\"a}re / unteren Thermosph{\"a}re (MLT-Region). Daher m{\"u}ssen sie in Klimamodellen ber{\"u}cksichtigt werden, was derzeit jedoch nur durch einfache Parametrisierungen bewerkstelligt werden kann. Um eine m{\"o}glichst realistische Modellierung der großr{\"a}umigen Zirkulationssysteme zu erm{\"o}glichen, ist die Kenntnis der Strukturfunktionen der Schwerewellen sowie ihre Quell- und Senkenst{\"a}rken in Raum und Zeit erforderlich. Messungen von Schwerewellen sind daher unabdingbar. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden im Rahmen von Fallstudien Temperatursignaturen untersucht, wie sie von Schwerewellen erzeugt werden. Verwendet werden hierf{\"u}r zeitlich hoch aufgel{\"o}ste OH*-Temperaturzeitreihen aufgenommen am Hohenpeißenberg (47,8°N, 11,0°O) und an der Zugspitze (47,5°N, 11,0°O). Durch den Alpenkamm induzierte Schwerewellen k{\"o}nnen identifiziert und Schwerewellenparameter wie beispielsweise die Ausbreitungsrichtung oder die Phasengeschwindigkeit quantifiziert werden. Messungen, aufgenommen von Bord des deutschen Forschungsschiffes „Polarstern" im Golf von Biskaya (um 48°N, 6°O), werden mit satellitenbasierten Beobachtungen kombiniert. Es wird gezeigt, dass Schwerewellen, die von einem atlantischen Zyklon erzeugt werden, die Temperatur in der Mesopausenregion beeinflussen k{\"o}nnen. Das GRIPS-System ist ferner prinzipiell zur schnellen Erkennung von Naturgefahren wie z.B. Tsunamis, Erdbeben oder Vulkanaktivit{\"a}t geeignet, da solche Ereignisse Infraschall erzeugen, der wiederum erkennbare Temperaturfluktuationen in der OH*-Airglow-Schicht verursacht. Am Beispiel des Sumatra-Tsunamis von 2004 wird diese M{\"o}glichkeit quantitativ diskutiert.}, subject = {Mesopause}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Marx2008, author = {Marx, Isabella}, title = {Metamorphose-Entwicklung des Spessart-Kristallins, mitteleurop{\"a}ische Varisziden : Phasenpetrologische, mineralchemische und geochemische Untersuchungen an Metapeliten}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-35290}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden die Druck-Temperatur-Bildungsbedingungen metapelitischer Gesteine aus verschiedenen lithostratigraphischen Formationen des Spessart-Kristallins untersucht. Geologisch stellt das Spessart-Kristallin einen Teil der Mitteldeutschen Kristallinzone dar, die sich innerhalb des Orogens der mitteleurop{\"a}ischen Varisziden am n{\"o}rdlichen Rand des Saxothuringikums erstreckt. Das wesentliche Ziel der Untersuchungen bestand darin, mittels phasenpetrologischer und geothermobarometrischer Methoden die Metamorphose-Entwicklung des Spessart-Kristallins zu rekonstruieren und in Beziehung zur geodynamischen Geschichte der Varisziden zu setzen. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeiten lag auf den Staurolith-Glimmerschiefern der M{\"o}mbris-Formation. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus wurden Gesteine der Geiselbach-, Alzenau- und Elterhof-Formation einbezogen. Als Grundlage f{\"u}r die Phasenpetrologie wurden petrographische, mineralchemische und geochemische Untersuchungen durchgef{\"u}hrt. Prograde Metamophose-Zonen k{\"o}nnen im Spessart-Kristallin nicht kartiert werden. Die Protolithe der untersuchten Metasedimente stellten vermutlich h{\"a}ufig saure bis intermedi{\"a}re Magmatite dar, f{\"u}r die Geiselbach- und Elterhof-Formation wohl auch quarzreiche Sedimente. Die geo¬chemischen Daten lassen f{\"u}r die M{\"o}mbris-, Alzenau- und Elterhof-Formation Grauwacken bis Pelite als sediment{\"a}re Edukte der Metamorphite annehmen, die Gesteine der Geiselbach-Formation k{\"o}nnten auf Arkosen zur{\"u}ckgehen. Eine Ablagerung der sediment{\"a}ren Edukte im Bereich eines Kontinen¬talen Inselbogens bis Aktiven Kontinentalrandes ist f{\"u}r die M{\"o}mbris- und Alzenau-Formation wahrscheinlich, f{\"u}r die Geiselbach- und Elterhof-Formation liegt kein eindeutiges Bild vor. Zur Absch{\"a}tzung der Metamorphosebedingungen wurden verschiedene Phasendiagramme verwendet, die auf den metapelitischen Modellsystemen KMnFMASH (K2O-MnO-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O) und KFMASH (K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O) basieren, insbesondere P-T-Pseudoschnitte und T-X-Schnitte. Weiterhin wurden konventionelle Geothermobarometer berechnet und Absch{\"a}tzungen mittels intern-konsistenter thermodynamischer Datens{\"a}tze vorgenommen. Die theoretischen Grundlagen dieses phasenpetrologischen Ansatzes werden kurz erl{\"a}utert. F{\"u}r den Metamorphose-H{\"o}hepunkt der Gesteine ergaben sich Temperaturen im Bereich von ca. 600 - 615 °C und Drucke um 6.5 - 8 kbar. Diese Daten weisen eine recht gute {\"U}bereinstimmung zu den bisher in der Literatur bekannten Werten f{\"u}r das Spessart-Kristallin auf. Im Anschluß an die amphibolitfazielle Metamorphose wurden die Gesteine mehr oder minder stark retrograd {\"u}berpr{\"a}gt. Anzeichen f{\"u}r eine polymetamorphe Entwicklung dieses Teils der Mitteldeutschen Kristallinzone liegen nicht vor. Die rekonstruierten P-T-Pfade bzw. P-T-Pfad-Segmente dokumentieren eine recht einheitliche metamorphe Entwicklung im Uhrzeigersinn („clockwise") und weisen auf eine Barrow-type Metamorphose hin. Die P-T-Pfade der meisten Proben zeigen einen charakteristischen Verlauf mit einer Phase nahezu isothermaler Dekompression. Demgegen{\"u}ber konnte f{\"u}r einige Disthen-f{\"u}hrende Proben ein etwas flacherer P-T-Pfad mit einer offenbar geringf{\"u}gig st{\"a}rker Temperatur-betonten Entwicklung differenziert werden. Das Metamorphose-Maximum ist f{\"u}r diese Gesteine durch Temperaturen von ca. 620 - 630 °C und Drucke von etwa 6 - 8 kbar gekennzeichnet. Damit wird eine leichte Zunahme des Metamorphosegrades nach S{\"u}den innerhalb der M{\"o}mbris-Formation, die verschiedentlich vermutet worden war, nachgewiesen. Die neu erarbeiteten Pfade sind aufgrund des methodischen Ansatzes, der die Zusammensetzung und Mineralparagenese der jeweiligen Probe ber{\"u}cksichtigt, im Vergleich zu fr{\"u}heren Arbeiten deutlich besser abgesichert. Sie dokumentieren erstmals in dieser Form die Druck-Temperatur-Geschichte des Spessart-Kristallins. Die P-T-Pfade lassen auf eine relativ schnelle Versenkung der Gesteine bei einem recht niedrigen geothermischen Gradienten und eine anschließende rasche Heraushebung aus einer Tiefe von etwa 25 - 28 km auf etwa 15 - 18 km bei einer eher geringen Temperaturabnahme schließen. Die damit f{\"u}r das Spessart-Kristallin dokumentierte Entwicklung f{\"u}gt sich gut in das aktuelle geotektonische Modell einer Kollision eines passiven Kontinentalrandes mit einem kontinentalen Bogen ein und steht in Analogie zur derzeit g{\"a}ngigen Vorstellung, die Mitteldeutsche Kristallinschwelle repr{\"a}sentiere einen variszischen aktiven Plattenrand.}, subject = {Metamorphose }, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Meier2008, author = {Meier, Janina C.}, title = {Regionalentwicklung durch Innovation und unternehmerische Kompetenzen}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-33554}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Warum sind manche Unternehmen und warum manche Regionen innovativer als andere? Zahlreichen wissenschaftlichen Beitr{\"a}gen zufolge ist die Antwort auf diese Frage vom vorhandenen Humankapital und dem vorhandenen und verf{\"u}gbaren Wissen abh{\"a}ngig. Innovationen werden von Menschen vorangetrieben. Warum scheinen die Mitarbeiter mancher Unternehmen innovativer zu sein, als die Mitarbeiter anderer Unternehmen? Diese Frage gewinnt angesichts zunehmender Dynamik, einem intensiveren Wettbewerb und einem rascheren Wertewandel im heutigen Unternehmensumfeld an praktischer und theoretischer Relevanz. Tats{\"a}chlich erh{\"o}ht der immer schneller werdende technologische, gesellschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Wandel die bei Innovationsvorhaben ohnehin schon stetig steigende Aufgabenkomplexit{\"a}t und Projektunsicherheit. Allerdings birgt dieser Wandel nicht nur Unsicherheit, sondern schafft in zunehmendem Maße unternehmerische Chancen, die sowohl von Unternehmern und Gr{\"u}ndern als auch von Mitarbeitern genutzt werden k{\"o}nnen. Viele innovationstheoretische Untersuchungen konzentrieren sich auf eine faktorielle Darstellung von erfolgswirksamen Rahmenbedingungen, die es herzustellen gilt, um ein ‚gesundes' Milieu zu schaffen, in dem Menschen Unternehmen gr{\"u}nden und Innovationen vorantreiben. Verhaltensorientierte Studien im Kontext der Innovations- und Gr{\"u}ndungsforschung zeigen, dass gerade Faktoren, die im Zusammenhang mit der Person stehen, einen erheblichen Einfluss auf den Innovations- und Gr{\"u}ndungserfolg haben. Um in diesem Kontext eine Ursache f{\"u}r Regionalentwicklung zu finden, verbleibt die Suche nicht bei einer rein auf Faktorausstattung reduzierten Erkl{\"a}rung. Dagegen r{\"u}ckt die Studie den Mikrofaktor Humankapital im Zusammenhang zur Innovationsentwicklung in den Mittelpunkt. Sie leistet damit einen Beitrag zum Entstehungsprozess von Innovationen, indem empirisch untersucht wird, welche unternehmerischen Kompetenzen in einem Innovationsprozess ben{\"o}tigt werden und welche daraus resultierenden Handlungsstrategien den Erfolg der Innovationsteams bedingen.}, subject = {Innovation}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Taubenboeck2008, author = {Taubenb{\"o}ck, Hannes}, title = {Vulnerabilit{\"a}tsabsch{\"a}tzung der erdbebengef{\"a}hrdeten Megacity Istanbul mit Methoden der Fernerkundung}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-28045}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Urbane R{\"a}ume z{\"a}hlen zu den dynamischsten Regionen dieser Erde. Besonders Megacities zeigen bereits heute Trends und Dimensionen der Urbanisierung, deren regionale und globale Folgen noch kaum vorhersehbar, und erst ansatzweise erforscht sind. Die enorme r{\"a}umliche Konzentration von Menschen, Werten und Infrastruktur auf engem Raum ist f{\"u}r diese urbanen R{\"a}ume die Grundlage einer hohen Verwundbarkeit (Vulnerabilit{\"a}t). Gerade im Kontext von Naturgefahren potenzieren sich die Risiken, die durch den schnellen strukturellen, sozio{\"o}konomischen und {\"o}kologischen Wandel entstehen. Das {\"u}bergeordnete Ziel dieser Dissertation ist daher die Analyse von Potentialen der Fernerkundung zur Absch{\"a}tzung von Risiko und Vulnerabilit{\"a}t am Beispiel der erdbebengef{\"a}hrdeten Megacity Istanbul. Um die Zielstellung systematisch zu verfolgen, wird ein konzeptioneller, thematischer Leitfaden entwickelt. Dieser besteht aus einer Systematisierung der abstrakten {\"U}berbegriffe ‚Risiko', ‚Vulnerabilit{\"a}t' und ‚Gef{\"a}hrdung' in einem Indikatorensystem. Konkrete, messbare Indikatoren f{\"u}r das System ‚urbaner Raum' erlauben eine quantitative Absch{\"a}tzung von Einzelaspekten, addieren sich aber auch zu einer ganzheitlichen Perspektive des Risikos. Basierend auf dieser holistischen Idee, erlaubt das Indikatorensystem Potentiale, aber auch Limitierungen der Fernerkundungsdaten und Bildverarbeitungsmethoden f{\"u}r die Absch{\"a}tzung von Risiko und Vulnerabilit{\"a}t zu identifizieren. Anhand des Leitfadens werden zielgerichtet Methoden zur automatisierten Extraktion r{\"a}umlicher Informationen aus Fernerkundungsdaten entwickelt. Ein objektorientierter, modularer Klassifikationsansatz erm{\"o}glicht eine Landbedeckungsklassifikation h{\"o}chst aufgel{\"o}ster Daten im urbanen Raum. Dieses modulare Rahmenwerk zielt auf eine einfache und schnelle {\"U}bertragbarkeit auf andere h{\"o}chst aufl{\"o}sende Sensoren bzw. andere urbane Strukturen. Zur Anpassung der Methoden werden neben IKONOS Daten der Megacity Istanbul und der erdbeben- und tsunamigef{\"a}hrdeten K{\"u}stenstadt Padang in Indonesien, Quickbird Daten f{\"u}r die zuk{\"u}nftige Megacity Hyderabad in Indien getestet. Die Resultate zeigen die detaillierte und hochgenaue Erfassung kleinr{\"a}umiger, heterogener urbaner Objekte mit Genauigkeiten von {\"u}ber 80 \%. Auch mittel aufgel{\"o}ste Landsat Daten werden mit einem objektorientierten modularen Rahmenwerk mit hohen Genauigkeiten klassifiziert, um komplement{\"a}re temporale und gesamtst{\"a}dtische Analysen hinzuzuf{\"u}gen. Damit wird eine aktuelle, fl{\"a}chendeckende und multiskalige Informationsbasis generiert, die als Ausgangsprodukt zur Analyse urbaner Vulnerabilit{\"a}t dient. Basierend auf diesen Informationsebenen werden dem konzeptionellen Leitfaden folgend Indikatoren zur Absch{\"a}tzung von Vulnerabilit{\"a}t und Risiko extrahiert. Der Fokus ist dabei die Entwicklung von Methoden zur automatisierten, interpreterunabh{\"a}ngigen Ableitung vulnerabilit{\"a}ts- und gef{\"a}hrdungsrelevanter Indikatoren. Die physische Analyse des kleinr{\"a}umigen urbanen Raums konzentriert sich dabei auf die Typisierung des Geb{\"a}udebestandes mit Parametern wie Dichte, H{\"o}he, Alter, Gr{\"o}ße, Form sowie Dachtyp. Indirekt wird zudem mittels dieser Parameter die Bev{\"o}lkerungsdichteverteilung abgeleitet. Weitere Standortfaktoren ergeben sich aus Lageparametern wie Distanzen zu Hauptverkehrsachsen, Freifl{\"a}chenanalysen oder der Gel{\"a}ndeoberfl{\"a}che. Schließlich f{\"u}hrt die Vulnerabilit{\"a}tsabsch{\"a}tzung den modellhaften, thematischen Leitfaden mit den abgeleiteten Indikatoren zusammen. Dazu erfolgt eine Normierung der unterschiedlichen abgeleiteten Indikatoren auf einen einheitlichen Vulnerabilit{\"a}tsindex. Dieser zielt auf eine r{\"a}umliche und zeitliche Vergleichbarkeit und die M{\"o}glichkeit, die vielf{\"a}ltigen Informationsebenen zu kombinieren. Damit wird das Zusammenspiel verschiedenster Indikatoren simuliert und erlaubt daraus Identifizierung und Lokalisierung von Brennpunkten im Desasterfall. {\"U}ber das fernerkundliche Potential hinaus, werden die Resultate in einer interdisziplin{\"a}ren Methode zu einem synergetischen Mehrwert erhoben. Statt einer quantitativen Absch{\"a}tzung der physischen Geb{\"a}udeparameter, erm{\"o}glicht eine Methode des Bauingenieurwesens in Kombination mit der fernerkundlichen Geb{\"a}udetypisierung eine Absch{\"a}tzung der wahrscheinlichen Schadensanf{\"a}lligkeit von Geb{\"a}uden im Falle eines Erdbebens. Exemplarisch wird das Potential der Resultate f{\"u}r Entscheidungstr{\"a}ger anhand eines Erdbebensszenarios aufgezeigt. Risiko und Vulnerabilit{\"a}t lassen sich dadurch r{\"a}umlich sowohl nach betroffenen H{\"a}usern und betroffenen Menschen als auch nach r{\"a}umlichen Standortfaktoren wie beispielsweise Zug{\"a}nglichkeit quantifizieren. Dies erm{\"o}glicht gezielt pr{\"a}ventiv zu agieren oder w{\"a}hrend und nach einem Desaster gezieltes Krisenmanagement zu betreiben. Im Hinblick auf die zentrale Fragestellung dieser Dissertation l{\"a}sst sich res{\"u}mieren, dass die Aktualit{\"a}t sowie die geometrische und thematische Qualit{\"a}t der Resultate aus Fernerkundungsdaten, den Anforderungen des komplexen, kleinr{\"a}umigen und dynamischen urbanen Raums gerecht werden. Die Resultate f{\"u}hren zu der Erkenntnis, dass das Potential der Fernerkundung zur Absch{\"a}tzung von Vulnerabilit{\"a}t und Risiko vor allem in der direkten Ableitung physischer Indikatoren sowie der indirekten Ableitung demographischer Parameter liegt.}, subject = {Fernerkundung}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Breitkreuz2008, author = {Breitkreuz, Hanne-Katarin}, title = {Solare Strahlungsprognosen f{\"u}r energiewirtschaftliche Anwendungen - Der Einfluss von Aerosolen auf das sichtbare Strahlungsangebot}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-28200}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2008}, abstract = {F{\"u}r eine dauerhaft gesicherte und umweltgerechte Energieerzeugung kommt den erneuerbaren Energien in Zukunft eine immer gr{\"o}ßere Bedeutung zu. Dies stellt eine große Herausforderung f{\"u}r die Entwicklung zuk{\"u}nftiger Energiesysteme dar, da erneuerbare Energietr{\"a}ger zeitlich und r{\"a}umlich zumeist hoch variabel zur Verf{\"u}gung stehen. Eine effiziente Integration solar erzeugter Energie in das bestehende Energieversorgungsnetz ist daher nur m{\"o}glich, wenn verl{\"a}ssliche Nahe-Echtzeit-Vorhersagen der am Erdboden verf{\"u}gbaren Einstrahlung und ein- bis dreit{\"a}gige Vorhersagen von Energieproduktion und -nachfrage zur Verf{\"u}gung stehen. Die vorliegende Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der Vorhersage der solaren Strahlung f{\"u}r die n{\"a}chsten Tage und Stunden im Hinblick auf Anwendungen in der Energiewirtschaft. Der dominante Atmosph{\"a}renparameter f{\"u}r die Abschw{\"a}chung der solaren Einstrahlung ist die Bew{\"o}lkung. Das gr{\"o}ßte wirtschaftliche Potential der Solarenergie liegt jedoch in Zeitr{\"a}umen und Regionen, in denen wenig Bew{\"o}lkung auftritt. Im wolkenlosen Fall beeinflussen vor allem Aerosole, feste und fl{\"u}ssige Partikel in der Atmosph{\"a}re, die direkte und diffuse Strahlung am Erdboden. Aerosole sind durch eine hohe zeitliche und r{\"a}umliche Variabilit{\"a}t gekennzeichnet, die die Bestimmung ihrer raumzeitlichen Verteilung und damit ihres Einflusses auf die Strahlung erschwert und einen hohen Aufwand zu ihrer Prognose erforderlich macht. Am Beispiel eines f{\"u}nfmonatigen europ{\"a}ischen Datensatzes (Juli-November 2003) werden Prognosen der aerosoloptischen Tiefe bei 550 nm (AOT550) untersucht, die aus Aerosolvorhersagen eines Chemie-Transport-Modells stammen. Es zeigt sich, dass im Vergleich mit Bodenmessungen die Aerosolprognosen mit einer mittleren Untersch{\"a}tzung von -0,11 und einem RMSE von 0,20 die geforderte Genauigkeit nicht ganz erreichen. Dabei stellen insbesondere die unregelm{\"a}ßig auftretenden Saharastaubausbr{\"u}che {\"u}ber dem zentralen Mittelmeer eine im Modell bisher nicht erfassbare Quelle großer Ungenauigkeiten in der AOT- und damit auch in der Strahlungsvorhersage dar. Entsprechend der hohen regionalen Aerosol-Variabilit{\"a}t finden sich zudem signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den Regionen, zum Beispiel eine deutliche Untersch{\"a}tzung des Aerosolaufkommens in der stark industriell belasteten Po-Ebene Norditaliens sowie gute Entsprechungen in abgelegenen Gegenden Nordeuropas. Basierend auf dieser Aerosol-Prognose und unter Einbeziehung weiterer Fernerkundungsdaten (Bodenalbedo, Ozon) und Parametern aus der numerischen Wetterprognose (Wasserdampf, Wolken) wird ein Prototyp f{\"u}r ein Vorhersagesystem der Solarstrahlung konzipiert und vorgestellt: das AFSOL-System (Aerosol-based Forecasts of Solar Irradiance for Energy Applications). An Hand der f{\"u}nfmonatigen Testepisode wird das AFSOL-System mit Vorhersagen des Europ{\"a}ischen Zentrums f{\"u}r Mittelfrist-Wettervorhersage (ECMWF), mit satellitenbasierten Beobachtungen der Solarstrahlung (Meteosat-7) und mit Bodenmessungen der Solarstrahlung verglichen. F{\"u}r den wolkenlosen Fall erzielt das AFSOL-Modellsystem eine deutliche Verbesserung der Direktstrahlungsprognosen gegen{\"u}ber den ECMWF-Vorhersagen, mit einer Reduktion des relativen Bias von -26\% auf +11\% und des relativen RMSE von 31\% auf 19\%. Dies kann auf die verbesserte Beschreibung des atmosph{\"a}rischen Aerosols zur{\"u}ckgef{\"u}hrt werden, die sich im Vergleich zu den am ECMWF genutzten AOT-Klimatologien ergibt, auch wenn insbesondere bei der Behandlung von W{\"u}stenstaubepisoden weiterhin Probleme auftreten. Auch die Globalstrahlungsprognosen erreichen im wolkenlosen Fall eine h{\"o}here Genauigkeit als die operationell verf{\"u}gbaren ECMWF-Vorhersagen, was sich in einer Verringerung des relativen Bias von -10\% zu +5\% sowie des relativen RMSE von 12\% zu 7\% zeigt. Im bew{\"o}lkten Fall jedoch k{\"o}nnen die Vorhersagen des AFSOL-Systems erhebliche Ungenauigkeiten aufweisen, die sich auf Grund von Problemen bei der Wolkenprognose des zu Grunde liegenden numerischen Wettervorhersagemodells ergeben. Abschließend wird in einer Fallstudie zur Verwendung der Vorhersagen f{\"u}r die optimale Betriebsf{\"u}hrung eines solarthermischen Kraftwerks in Spanien beispielhaft gezeigt, dass die Nutzung der AFSOL-Prognose im wolkenlosen Fall eine deutliche Gewinnsteigerung bei der Einspeisung ins {\"o}ffentliche Stromnetz durch den Handel an der spanischen Stromb{\"o}rse erm{\"o}glicht.}, subject = {Aerosol}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Kirschke2008, author = {Kirschke, Stefanie}, title = {Bilanzierung des Methanaustauschs zwischen Biosph{\"a}re und Atmosph{\"a}re in Periglazialr{\"a}umen mit Hilfe von Fernerkundung und Modellen am Beispiel des Lena Deltas}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-29024}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Verbleibende Unsicherheiten im Kohlenstoffhaushalt in {\"O}kosystemen der hohen n{\"o}rdlichen Breiten k{\"o}nnen teilweise auf die Schwierigkeiten bei der Erfassung der r{\"a}umlich und zeitlich hoch variablen Methanemissionsraten von Permafrostb{\"o}den zur{\"u}ckgef{\"u}hrt werden. Methan ist ein global abundantes atmosph{\"a}risches Spurengas, welches signifikant zur Erw{\"a}rmung der Atmosph{\"a}re beitr{\"a}gt. Aufgrund der hohen Sensibilit{\"a}t des arktischen Bodenkohlenstoffreservoirs sowie der großen von Permafrost unterlagerten Landfl{\"a}chen sind arktische Gebiete am kritischsten von einem globalen Klimawandel betroffen. Diese Dissertation adressiert den Bedarf an Modellierungsans{\"a}tzen f{\"u}r die Bestimmung der Quellst{\"a}rke nordsibirischer permafrostbeeinflusster {\"O}kosysteme der nassen polygonalen Tundra mit Hinblick auf die Methanemissionen auf regionalem Maßstab. Die Arbeit pr{\"a}sentiert eine methodische Struktur in welcher zwei prozessbasierte Modelle herangezogen werden, um die komplexen Wechselwirkungen zwischen den Kompartimenten Pedosph{\"a}re, Biosph{\"a}re und Atmosph{\"a}re, welche zu Methanemissionen aus Permafrostb{\"o}den f{\"u}hren, zu erfassen. Es wird ein Upscaling der Gesamtmethanfl{\"u}sse auf ein gr{\"o}ßeres, von Permafrost unterlagertes Untersuchungsgebiet auf Basis eines prozessbasierten Modells durchgef{\"u}hrt. Das prozessbasierte Vegetationsmodell Biosphere Energy Hydrology Transfer Model (BETHY/DLR) wird f{\"u}r die Berechnung der Nettoprim{\"a}rproduktion (NPP) arktischer Tundravegetation herangezogen. Die NPP ist ein Maß f{\"u}r die Substratverf{\"u}gbarkeit der Methanproduktion und daher ein wichtiger Eingangsparameter f{\"u}r das zweite Modell: Das prozessbasierte Methanemissionsmodell wird anschließend verwendet, um die Methanfl{\"u}sse einer gegebenen Bodens{\"a}ule explizit zu berechnen. Dabei werden die Prozesse der Methanogenese, Methanotrophie sowie drei verschiedene Transportmechanismen - molekulare Diffusion, Gasblasenbildung und pflanzengebundener Transport durch vaskul{\"a}re Pflanzen - ber{\"u}cksichtigt. Das Methanemissionsmodell ist f{\"u}r Permafrostbedingungen modifiziert, indem das t{\"a}gliche Auftauen des Permafrostbodens in der kurzen arktischen Vegetationsperiode ber{\"u}cksichtigt wird. Der Modellantrieb besteht aus meteorologischen Datens{\"a}tzen des European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Die Eingangsdatens{\"a}tze werden mit Hilfe von in situ Messdaten validiert. Zus{\"a}tzliche Eingangsdaten f{\"u}r beide Modelle werden aus Fernerkundungsdaten abgeleitet, welche mit Feldspektralmessungen validiert werden. Eine modifizierte Landklassifikation auf der Basis von Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) Daten wird f{\"u}r die Ableitung von Informationen zu Feuchtgebietsverteilung und Vegetationsbedeckung herangezogen. Zeitserien der Auftautiefe werden zur Beschreibung des Auftauens bzw. R{\"u}ckfrierens des Bodens verwendet. Diese Faktoren sind die Haupteinflussgr{\"o}ßen f{\"u}r die Modellierung von Methanemissionen aus permafrostbeeinflussten Tundra{\"o}kosystemen. Die vorgestellten Modellergebnisse werden mittels Eddy-Kovarianz-Messungen der Methanfl{\"u}sse validiert, welche w{\"a}hrend der Vegetationsperioden der Jahre 2003-2006 im s{\"u}dlichen Teil des Lena Deltas (72°N, 126°E) vom Alfred Wegener Institut f{\"u}r Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI) durchgef{\"u}hrt wurden. Das Untersuchungsgebiet Lena Delta liegt an der Laptewsee in Nordostsibirien und ist durch {\"O}kosysteme der arktischen nassen polygonalen Tundra sowie kalten kontinuierlichen Permafrost charakterisiert. Zeitlich integrierte Werte der modellierten Methanfl{\"u}sse sowie der in situ Messungen zeigen gute {\"U}bereinstimmungen und weisen auf eine leichte Modelluntersch{\"a}tzung von etwa 10\%.}, subject = {Methanemission}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Asam2014, author = {Asam, Sarah}, title = {Potential of high resolution remote sensing data for leaf area index derivation using statistical and physical models}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-108399}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Information on the state of the terrestrial vegetation cover is important for several ecological, economical, and planning issues. In this regard, vegetation properties such as the type, vitality, or density can be described by means of continuous biophysical parameters. One of these parameters is the leaf area index (LAI), which is defined as half the total leaf area per unit ground surface area. As leaves constitute the interface between the biosphere and the atmosphere, the LAI is used to model exchange processes between plants and their environment. However, to account for the variability of ecosystems, spatially and temporally explicit information on LAI is needed both for monitoring and modeling applications. Remote sensing aims at providing such information. LAI is commonly derived from remote sensing data by empirical-statistical or physical models. In the first approach, an empirical relationship between LAI measured in situ and the corresponding canopy spectral signature is established. Although this method achieves accurate LAI estimates, these relationships are only valid for the place and time at which the field data were sampled, which hampers automated LAI derivation. The physical approach uses a radiation transfer model to simulate canopy reflectance as a function of the scene's geometry and of leaf and canopy parameters, from which LAI is derived through model inversion based on remote sensing data. However, this model inversion is not stable, as it is an under-determined and ill-posed problem. Until now, LAI research focused either on the use of coarse resolution remote sensing data for global applications, or on LAI modeling over a confined area, mostly in forest and crop ecosystems, using medium to high spatial resolution data. This is why to date no study is available in which high spatial resolution data are used for LAI mapping in a heterogeneous, natural landscape such as alpine grasslands, although a growing amount of high spatial and temporal resolution remote sensing data would allow for an improved environmental monitoring. Therefore, issues related to model parameterization and inversion regularization techniques improving its stability have not yet been investigated for this ecosystem. This research gap was taken up by this thesis, in which the potential of high spatial resolution remote sensing data for grassland LAI estimation based on statistical and radiation transfer modeling is analyzed, and the achieved accuracy and robustness of the two approaches is compared. The objectives were an ecosystem-adapted radiation transfer model set-up and an optimized LAI derivation in mountainous grassland areas. Multi-temporal LAI in situ measurements as well as time series of RapidEye data from 2011 and 2012 over the catchment of the River Ammer in the Bavarian alpine upland were used. In order to obtain accurate in situ data, a comparison of the LAI derivation algorithms implemented in the LAI-2000 PCA instrument with destructively measured LAI was performed first. For optimizing the empirical-statistical approach, it was then analyzed how the selection of vegetation indices and regression models impacts LAI modeling, and how well these models can be transferred to other dates. It was shown that LAI can be derived with a mean accuracy of 80 \% using contemporaneous field data, but that the accuracy decreases to on average 51 \% when using these models on remote sensing data from other dates. The combined use of several data sets to create a regression which is used for LAI derivation at different points in time increased the LAI estimation accuracy to on average 65 \%. Thus, reduced field measurement labor comes at the cost of LAI error rates being increased by 10 - 30 \% as long as at least two campaigns are conducted. Further, it was shown that the use of RapidEye's red edge channel improves the LAI derivation by on average 5.4 \%. With regard to physical LAI modeling, special interest lay in assessing the accuracy improvements that can be achieved through model set-up and inversion regularization techniques. First, a global sensitivity analysis was applied to the radiation transfer model in order to identify the most important model parameters and most sensitive spectral features. After model parameterization, several inversion regularizations, namely the use of a multiple sample solution, the additional use of vegetation indices, and the addition of noise, were analyzed. Further, an approach to include the local scene's geometry in the retrieval process was introduced to account for the mountainous topography. LAI modeling accuracies of in average 70 \% were achieved using the best combination of regularization techniques, which is in the upper range of accuracies that were achieved in the few existing other grassland studies based on in situ or air-borne measured hyperspectral data. Finally, further physically derived vegetation parameters and inversion uncertainty measures were evaluated in detail to identify challenging modeling conditions, which was mostly neglected in other studies. An increased modeling uncertainty for extremely high and low LAI values was observed. This indicates an insufficiently wide model parameterization and a canopy deviation from model assumptions on some fields. Further, the LAI modeling accuracies varied strongly between the different scenes. From this observation it can be deduced that the radiometric quality of the remote sensing data, which might be reduced by atmospheric effects or unexpected surface reflectances, exerts a high influence on the LAI modeling accuracy. The major findings of the comparison between the empirical-statistical and physical LAI modeling approaches are the higher accuracies achieved by the empirical-statistical approach as long as contemporaneous field data are available, and the computationally efficiency of the statistical approach. However, when no or temporally unfitting in situ measurements are available, the physical approach achieves comparable or even higher accuracies. Furthermore, radiation transfer modeling enables the derivation of other leaf and canopy variables useful for ecological monitoring and modeling applications, as well as of pixel-wise uncertainty measures indicating the robustness and reliability of the model inversion and LAI derivation procedure. The established look-up tables can be used for further LAI derivation in Central European grassland also in other years. The use of high spatial resolution remote sensing data for LAI derivation enables a reliable land cover classification and thus a reduced LAI mapping error due to misclassifications. Furthermore, the RapidEye pixels being smaller than individual fields allow for a radiation transfer model inversion over homogeneous canopies in most cases, as canopy gaps or field parcels can be clearly distinguished. However, in case of unexpected local surface conditions such as blooming, litter, or canopy gaps, high spatial resolution data show corresponding strong deviations in reflectance values and hence LAI estimation, which would be reduced using coarser resolution data through the balancing effect of the surrounding surface reflectances. An optimal pixel size with regard to modeling accuracy hence depends on the canopy and landscape structure. Furthermore, a reduced spatial resolution would enable a considerable acceleration of the LAI map derivation. This illustration of the potential of RapidEye data and of the challenges associated to LAI derivation in heterogeneous grassland areas contributes to the development of robust LAI estimation procedures based on new and upcoming, spatially and temporally high resolution remote sensing imagery such as Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2.}, subject = {Optische Fernerkundung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Forkuor2014, author = {Forkuor, Gerald}, title = {Agricultural Land Use Mapping in West Africa Using Multi-sensor Satellite Imagery}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-108687}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Rapid population growth in West Africa has led to expansion in croplands due to the need to grow more food to meet the rising food demand of the burgeoning population. These expansions negatively impact the sub-region's ecosystem, with implications for water and soil quality, biodiversity and climate. In order to appropriately monitor the changes in croplands and assess its impact on the ecosystem and other environmental processes, accurate and up-to-date information on agricultural land use is required. But agricultural land use mapping (i.e. mapping the spatial distribution of crops and croplands) in West Africa has been challenging due to the unavailability of adequate satellite images (as a result of excessive cloud cover), small agricultural fields and a heterogeneous landscape. This study, therefore, investigated the possibilities of improving agricultural land use mapping by utilizing optical satellite images with higher spatial and temporal resolution as well as images from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems which are near-independent of weather conditions. The study was conducted at both watershed and regional scales. At watershed scale, classification of different crop types in three watersheds in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Benin was conducted using multi-temporal: (1) only optical images (RapidEye) and (2) optical plus dual polarimetric (VV/VH) SAR images (TerraSAR-X). In addition, inter-annual or short term (2-3 years) changes in cropland area in the past ten years were investigated using historical Landsat images. Results obtained indicate that the use of only optical images to map different crop types in West Africa can achieve moderate classification accuracies (57\% to 71\%). Overlaps between the cropping calendars of most crops types and certain inter-croppings pose a challenge to optical images in achieving an adequate separation between those crop classes. Integration of SAR images, however, can improve classification accuracies by between 8 and 15\%, depending on the number of available images and their acquisition dates. The sensitivity of SAR systems to different crop canopy architectures and land surface characteristics improved the separation between certain crop types. The VV polarization of TerraSAR-X was found to better discrimination between crop types than the VH. Images acquired between August and October were found to be very useful for crop mapping in the sub-region due to structural differences in some crop types during this period. At the regional scale, inter-annual or short term changes in cropland area in the Sudanian Savanna agro-ecological zone in West Africa were assessed by upscaling historical cropland information derived at the watershed scale (using Landsat imagery) unto a coarse spatial resolution, but geographically large, satellite imagery (MODIS) using regression based modeling. The possibility of using such regional scale cropland information to improve government-derived agricultural statistics was investigated by comparing extracted cropland area from the fractional cover maps with district-level agricultural statistics from Ghana The accuracy of the fractional cover maps (MAE between 14.2\% and 19.1\%) indicate that the heterogeneous agricultural landscape of West Africa can be suitably represented at the regional or continental scales by estimating fractional cropland cover on low resolution Analysis of the results revealed that cropland area in the Sudanian Savanna zone has experienced inter-annual or short term fluctuations in the past ten years due to a variety of factors including climate factors (e.g. floods and droughts), declining soil fertility, population increases and agricultural policies such as fertilizer subsidies. Comparison of extracted cropland area from the fractional cover maps with government's agricultural statistics (MoFA) for seventeen districts (second administrative units) in Ghana revealed high inconsistencies in the government statistics, and highlighted the potential of satellite derived cropland information at regional scales to improve national/sub-national agricultural statistics in West Africa. The results obtained in this study is promising for West Africa, considering the recent launch of optical (Landsat 8) and SAR sensors (Sentinel-1) that will provide free data for crop mapping in the sub-region. This will improve chances of obtaining adequate satellite images acquired during the cropping season for agricultural land use mapping and bolster opportunities of operationalizing agricultural land use mapping in West Africa. This can benefit a wide range of biophysical and economic models and improve decision making based on their results.}, subject = {Westafrika}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pollinger2013, author = {Pollinger, Felix}, title = {Bewertung und Auswirkungen der Simulationsg{\"u}te f{\"u}hrender Klimamoden in einem Multi-Modell Ensemble}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97982}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Der rezente und zuk{\"u}nftige Anstieg der atmosph{\"a}rischen Treibhausgaskonzentration bedeutet f{\"u}r das terrestrische Klimasystem einen grundlegenden Wandel, der f{\"u}r die globale Gesellschaft schwer zu bew{\"a}ltigende Aufgaben und Herausforderungen bereit h{\"a}lt. Eine effektive, r{\"u}hzeitige Anpassung an diesen Klimawandel profitiert dabei enorm von m{\"o}glichst genauen Absch{\"a}tzungen k{\"u}nftiger Klima{\"a}nderungen. Das geeignete Werkzeug hierf{\"u}r sind Gekoppelte Atmosph{\"a}re Ozean Modelle (AOGCMs). F{\"u}r solche Fragestellungen m{\"u}ssen allerdings weitreichende Annahmen {\"u}ber die zuk{\"u}nftigen klimarelevanten Randbedingungen getroffen werden. Individuelle Fehler dieser Klimamodelle, die aus der nicht perfekten Abbildung der realen Verh{\"a}ltnisse und Prozesse resultieren, erh{\"o}hen die Unsicherheit langfristiger Klimaprojektionen. So unterscheiden sich die Aussagen verschiedener AOGCMs im Hinblick auf den zuk{\"u}nftigen Klimawandel insbesondere bei regionaler Betrachtung, deutlich. Als Absicherung gegen Modellfehler werden {\"u}blicherweise die Ergebnisse mehrerer AOGCMs, eines Ensembles an Modellen, kombiniert. Um die Absch{\"a}tzung des Klimawandels zu pr{\"a}zisieren, wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit der Versuch unternommen, eine Bewertung der Modellperformance der 24 AOGCMs, die an der dritten Phase des Vergleichsprojekts f{\"u}r gekoppelte Modelle (CMIP3) teilgenommen haben, zu erstellen. Auf dieser Basis wird dann eine nummerische Gewichtung f{\"u}r die Kombination des Ensembles erstellt. Zun{\"a}chst werden die von den AOGCMs simulierten Klimatologien f{\"u}r einige grundlegende Klimaelemente mit den betreffenden klimatologien verschiedener Beobachtungsdatens{\"a}tze quantitativ abgeglichen. Ein wichtiger methodischer Aspekt hierbei ist, dass auch die Unsicherheit der Beobachtungen, konkret Unterschiede zwischen verschiedenen Datens{\"a}tzen, ber{\"u}cksichtigt werden. So zeigt sich, dass die Aussagen, die aus solchen Ans{\"a}tzen resultieren, von zu vielen Unsicherheiten in den Referenzdaten beeintr{\"a}chtigt werden, um generelle Aussagen zur Qualit{\"a}t von AOGCMs zu treffen. Die Nutzung der K{\"o}ppen-Geiger Klassifikation offenbart jedoch, dass die prinzipielle Verteilung der bekannten Klimatypen im kompletten CMIP3 in vergleichbar guter Qualit{\"a}t reproduziert wird. Als Bewertungskriterium wird daher hier die F{\"a}higkeit der AOGCMs die großskalige nat{\"u}rliche Klimavariabilit{\"a}t, konkret die hochkomplexe gekoppelte El Ni{\~n}o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), realistisch abzubilden herangezogen. Es kann anhand verschiedener Aspekte des ENSO-Ph{\"a}nomens gezeigt werden, dass nicht alle AOGCMs hierzu mit gleicher Realit{\"a}tsn{\"a}he in der Lage sind. Dies steht im Gegensatz zu den dominierenden Klimamoden der Außertropen, die modell{\"u}bergreifend {\"u}berzeugend repr{\"a}sentiert werden. Die wichtigsten Moden werden, in globaler Betrachtung, in verschiedenen Beobachtungsdaten {\"u}ber einen neuen Ansatz identifiziert. So k{\"o}nnen f{\"u}r einige bekannte Zirkulationsmuster neue Indexdefinitionen gewonnen werden, die sich sowohl als {\"a}quivalent zu den Standardverfahren erweisen und im Vergleich zu diesen zudem eine deutliche Reduzierung des Rechenaufwandes bedeuten. Andere bekannte Moden werden dagegen als weniger bedeutsame, regionale Zirkulationsmuster eingestuft. Die hier vorgestellte Methode zur Beurteilung der Simulation von ENSO ist in guter {\"U}bereinstimmung mit anderen Ans{\"a}tzen, ebenso die daraus folgende Bewertung der gesamten Performance der AOGCMs. Das Spektrum des Southern Oscillation-Index (SOI) stellt somit eine aussagekr{\"a}ftige Kenngr{\"o}ße der Modellqualit{\"a}t dar. Die Unterschiede in der F{\"a}higkeit, das ENSO-System abzubilden, erweisen sich als signifikante Unsicherheitsquelle im Hinblick auf die zuk{\"u}nftige Entwicklung einiger fundamentaler und bedeutsamer Klimagr{\"o}ßen, konkret der globalen Mitteltemperatur, des SOIs selbst, sowie des indischen Monsuns. Ebenso zeigen sich signifikante Unterschiede f{\"u}r regionale Klima{\"a}nderungen zwischen zwei Teilensembles des CMIP3, die auf Grundlage der entwickelten Bewertungsfunktion eingeteilt werden. Jedoch sind diese Effekte im Allgemeinen nicht mit den Auswirkungen der anthropogenen Klima{\"a}nderungssignale im Multi-Modell Ensemble vergleichbar, die f{\"u}r die meisten Klimagr{\"o}ßen in einem robusten multivariaten Ansatz detektiert und quantifiziert werden k{\"o}nnen. Entsprechend sind die effektiven Klima{\"a}nderungen, die sich bei der Kombination aller Simulationen als grundlegende Aussage des CMIP3 unter den speziellen Randbedingungen ergeben nahezu unabh{\"a}ngig davon, ob alle L{\"a}ufe mit dem gleichen Einfluss ber{\"u}cksichtigt werden, oder ob die erstellte nummerische Gewichtung verwendet wird. Als eine wesentliche Begr{\"u}ndung hierf{\"u}r kann die Spannbreite der Entwicklung des ENSO-Systems identifiziert werden. Dies bedeutet gr{\"o}ßere Schwankungen in den Ergebnissen der Modelle mit funktionierendem ENSO, was den Stellenwert der nat{\"u}rlichen Variabilit{\"a}t als Unsicherheitsquelle in Fragen des Klimawandels unterstreicht. Sowohl bei Betrachtung der Teilensembles als auch der Gewichtung wirken sich dadurch gegenl{\"a}ufige Trends im SOI ausgleichend auf die Entwicklung anderer Klimagr{\"o}ßen aus, was insbesondere bei letzterem Vorgehen signifikante mittlere Effekte des Ansatzes, verglichen mit der Verwendung des {\"u}blichen arithmetischen Multi-Modell Mittelwert, verhindert.}, subject = {Modell}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Loew2013, author = {L{\"o}w, Fabian}, title = {Agricultural crop mapping from multi-scale remote sensing data - Concepts and applications in heterogeneous Middle Asian agricultural landscapes}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-102093}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Agriculture is mankind's primary source of food production and plays the key role for cereal supply to humanity. One of the future challenges will be to feed a constantly growing population, which is expected to reach more than nine billion by 2050. The potential to expand cropland is limited, and enhancing agricultural production efficiency is one important means to meet the future food demand. Hence, there is an increasing demand for dependable, accurate and comprehensive agricultural intelligence on crop production. The value of satellite earth observation (EO) data for agricultural monitoring is well recognized. One fundamental requirement for agricultural monitoring is routinely updated information on crop acreage and the spatial distribution of crops. With the technical advancement of satellite sensor systems, imagery with higher temporal and finer spatial resolution became available. The classification of such multi-temporal data sets is an effective and accurate means to produce crop maps, but methods must be developed that can handle such large and complex data sets. Furthermore, to properly use satellite EO for agricultural production monitoring a high temporal revisit frequency over vast geographic areas is often necessary. However, this often limits the spatial resolution that can be used. The challenge of discriminating pixels that correspond to a particular crop type, a prerequisite for crop specific agricultural monitoring, remains daunting when the signal encoded in pixels stems from several land uses (mixed pixels), e.g. over heterogeneous landscapes where individual fields are often smaller than individual pixels. The main purposes of the presented study were (i) to assess the influence of input dimensionality and feature selection on classification accuracy and uncertainty in object-based crop classification, (ii) to evaluate if combining classifier algorithms can improve the quality of crop maps (e.g. classification accuracy), (iii) to assess the spatial resolution requirements for crop identification via image classification. Reporting on the map quality is traditionally done with measures that stem from the confusion matrix based on the hard classification result. Yet, these measures do not consider the spatial variation of errors in maps. Measures of classification uncertainty can be used for this purpose, but they have attained only little attention in remote sensing studies. Classifier algorithms like the support vector machine (SVM) can estimate class memberships (the so called soft output) for each classified pixel or object. Based on these estimations, measures of classification uncertainty can be calculated, but it has not been analysed in detail, yet, if these are reliable in predicting the spatial distribution of errors in maps. In this study, SVM was applied for the classification of agricultural crops in irrigated landscapes in Middle Asia at the object-level. Five different categories of features were calculated from RapidEye time series data as classification input. The reliability of classification uncertainty measures like entropy, derived from the soft output of SVM, with regard to predicting the spatial distribution of error was evaluated. Further, the impact of the type and dimensionality of the input data on classification uncertainty was analysed. The results revealed that SMVs applied to the five feature categories separately performed different in classifying different types of crops. Incorporating all five categories of features by concatenating them into one stacked vector did not lead to an increase in accuracy, and partly reduced the model performance most obviously because of the Hughes phenomena. Yet, applying the random forest (RF) algorithm to select a subset of features led to an increase of classification accuracy of the SVM. The feature group with red edge-based indices was the most important for general crop classification, and the red edge NDVI had an outstanding importance for classifying crops. Two measures of uncertainty were calculated based on the soft output from SVM: maximum a-posteriori probability and alpha quadratic entropy. Irrespective of the measure used, the results indicate a decline in classification uncertainty when a dimensionality reduction was performed. The two uncertainty measures were found to be reliable indicators to predict errors in maps. Correctly classified test cases were associated with low uncertainty, whilst incorrectly test cases tended to be associated with higher uncertainty. The issue of combining the results of different classifier algorithms in order to increase classification accuracy was addressed. First, the SVM was compared with two other non-parametric classifier algorithms: multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP) and RF. Despite their comparatively high classification performance, each of the tested classifier algorithms tended to make errors in different parts of the input space, e.g. performed different in classifying crops. Hence, a combination of the complementary outputs was envisaged. To this end, a classifier combination scheme was proposed, which is based on existing algebraic operators. It combines the outputs of different classifier algorithms at the per-case (e.g. pixel or object) basis. The per-case class membership estimations of each classifier algorithm were compared, and the reliability of each classifier algorithm with respect to classifying a specific crop class was assessed based on the confusion matrix. In doing so, less reliable classifier algorithms were excluded at the per-class basis before the final combination. Emphasis was put on evaluating the selected classification algorithms under limiting conditions by applying them to small input datasets and to reduced training sample sets, respectively. Further, the applicability to datasets from another year was demonstrated to assess temporal transferability. Although the single classifier algorithms performed well in all test sites, the classifier combination scheme provided consistently higher classification accuracies over all test sites and in different years, respectively. This makes this approach distinct from the single classifier algorithms, which performed different and showed a higher variability in class-wise accuracies. Further, the proposed classifier combination scheme performed better when using small training set sizes or when applied to small input datasets, respectively. A framework was proposed to quantitatively define pixel size requirements for crop identification via image classification. That framework is based on simulating how agricultural landscapes, and more specifically the fields covered by one crop of interest, are seen by instruments with increasingly coarser resolving power. The concept of crop specific pixel purity, defined as the degree of homogeneity of the signal encoded in a pixel with respect to the target crop type, is used to analyse how mixed the pixels can be (as they become coarser) without undermining their capacity to describe the desired surface properties (e.g. to distinguish crop classes via supervised or unsupervised image classification). This tool can be modulated using different parameterizations to explore trade-offs between pixel size and pixel purity when addressing the question of crop identification. Inputs to the experiments were eight multi-temporal images from the RapidEye sensor. Simulated pixel sizes ranged from 13 m to 747.5 m, in increments of 6.5 m. Constraining parameters for crop identification were defined by setting thresholds for classification accuracy and uncertainty. Results over irrigated agricultural landscapes in Middle Asia demonstrate that the task of finding the optimum pixel size did not have a "one-size-fits-all" solution. The resulting values for pixel size and purity that were suitable for crop identification proved to be specific to a given landscape, and for each crop they differed across different landscapes. Over the same time series, different crops were not identifiable simultaneously in the season and these requirements further changed over the years, reflecting the different agro-ecological conditions the investigated crops were growing in. Results further indicate that map quality (e.g. classification accuracy) was not homogeneously distributed in a landscape, but that it depended on the spatial structures and the pixel size, respectively. The proposed framework is generic and can be applied to any agricultural landscape, thereby potentially serving to guide recommendations for designing dedicated EO missions that can satisfy the requirements in terms of pixel size to identify and discriminate crop types. Regarding the operationalization of EO-based techniques for agricultural monitoring and its application to a broader range of agricultural landscapes, it can be noted that, despite the high performance of existing methods (e.g. classifier algorithms), transferability and stability of such methods remain one important research issue. This means that methods developed and tested in one place might not necessarily be portable to another place or over several years, respectively. Specifically in Middle Asia, which was selected as study region in this thesis, classifier combination makes sense due to its easy implementation and because it enhanced classification accuracy for classes with insufficient training samples. This observation makes it interesting for operational contexts and when field reference data availability is limited. Similar to the transferability of methods, the application of only one certain kind of EO data (e.g. with one specific pixel size) over different landscapes needs to be revisited and the synergistic use of multi-scale data, e.g. combining remote sensing imagery of both fine and coarse spatial resolution, should be fostered. The necessity to predict and control the effects of spatial and temporal scale on crop classification is recognized here as a major goal to achieve in EO-based agricultural monitoring.}, subject = {Fernerkundung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Paxian2012, author = {Paxian, Andreas}, title = {Future changes in climate means and extremes in the Mediterranean region deduced from a regional climate model}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-72155}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The Mediterranean area reveals a strong vulnerability to future climate change due to a high exposure to projected impacts and a low capacity for adaptation highlighting the need for robust regional or local climate change projections, especially for extreme events strongly affecting the Mediterranean environment. The prevailing study investigates two major topics of the Mediterranean climate variability: the analysis of dynamical downscaling of present-day and future temperature and precipitation means and extremes from global to regional scale and the comprehensive investigation of temperature and rainfall extremes including the estimation of uncertainties and the comparison of different statistical methods for precipitation extremes. For these investigations, several observational datasets of CRU, E-OBS and original stations are used as well as ensemble simulations of the regional climate model REMO driven by the coupled global general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM and applying future greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and land degradation scenarios.}, subject = {Mittelmeerraum}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fritsch2013, author = {Fritsch, Sebastian}, title = {Spatial and temporal patterns of crop yield and marginal land in the Aral Sea Basin: derivation by combining multi-scale and multi-temporal remote sensing data with alight use efficiency model}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-87939}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Irrigated agriculture in the Khorezm region in the arid inner Aral Sea Basin faces enormous challenges due to a legacy of cotton monoculture and non-sustainable water use. Regional crop growth monitoring and yield estimation continuously gain in importance, especially with regard to climate change and food security issues. Remote sensing is the ideal tool for regional-scale analysis, especially in regions where ground-truth data collection is difficult and data availability is scarce. New satellite systems promise higher spatial and temporal resolutions. So-called light use efficiency (LUE) models are based on the fraction of photosynthetic active radiation absorbed by vegetation (FPAR), a biophysical parameter that can be derived from satellite measurements. The general objective of this thesis was to use satellite data, in conjunction with an adapted LUE model, for inferring crop yield of cotton and rice at field (6.5 m) and regional (250 m) scale for multiple years (2003-2009), in order to assess crop yield variations in the study area. Intensive field measurements of FPAR were conducted in the Khorezm region during the growing season 2009. RapidEye imagery was acquired approximately bi-weekly during this time. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated for all images. Linear regression between image-based NDVI and field-based FPAR was conducted. The analyses resulted in high correlations, and the resulting regression equations were used to generate time series of FPAR at the RapidEye level. RapidEye-based FPAR was subsequently aggregated to the MODIS scale and used to validate the existing MODIS FPAR product. This step was carried out to evaluate the applicability of MODIS FPAR for regional vegetation monitoring. The validation revealed that the MODIS product generally overestimates RapidEye FPAR by about 6 to 15 \%. Mixture of crop types was found to be a problem at the 1 km scale, but less severe at the 250 m scale. Consequently, high resolution FPAR was used to calibrate 8-day, 250 m MODIS NDVI data, this time by linear regression of RapidEye-based FPAR against MODIS-based NDVI. The established FPAR datasets, for both RapidEye and MODIS, were subsequently assimilated into a LUE model as the driving variable. This model operated at both satellite scales, and both required an estimation of further parameters like the photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) or the actual light use efficiency (LUEact). The latter is influenced by crop stress factors like temperature or water stress, which were taken account of in the model. Water stress was especially important, and calculated via the ratio of the actual (ETact) to the potential, crop-specific evapotranspiration (ETc). Results showed that water stress typically occurred between the beginning of May and mid-September and beginning of May and end of July for cotton and rice crops, respectively. The mean water stress showed only minor differences between years. Exceptions occurred in 2008 and 2009, where the mean water stress was higher and lower, respectively. In 2008, this was likely caused by generally reduced water availability in the whole region. Model estimations were evaluated using field-based harvest information (RapidEye) and statistical information at district level (MODIS). The results showed that the model at both the RapidEye and the MODIS scale can estimate regional crop yield with acceptable accuracy. The RMSE for the RapidEye scale amounted to 29.1 \% for cotton and 30.4 \% for rice, respectively. At the MODIS scale, depending on the year and evaluated at Oblast level, the RMSE ranged from 10.5 \% to 23.8 \% for cotton and from -0.4 \% to -19.4 \% for rice. Altogether, the RapidEye scale model slightly underestimated cotton (bias = 0.22) and rice yield (bias = 0.11). The MODIS-scale model, on the other hand, also underestimated official rice yield (bias from 0.01 to 0.87), but overestimated official cotton yield (bias from -0.28 to -0.6). Evaluation of the MODIS scale revealed that predictions were very accurate for some districts, but less for others. The produced crop yield maps indicated that crop yield generally decreases with distance to the river. The lowest yields can be found in the southern districts, close to the desert. From a temporal point of view, there were areas characterized by low crop yields over the span of the seven years investigated. The study at hand showed that light use efficiency-based modeling, based on remote sensing data, is a viable way for regional crop yield prediction. The found accuracies were good within the boundaries of related research. From a methodological viewpoint, the work carried out made several improvements to the existing LUE models reported in the literature, e.g. the calibration of FPAR for the study region using in situ and high resolution RapidEye imagery and the incorporation of crop-specific water stress in the calculation.}, subject = {Fernerkundung}, language = {en} } @misc{Knauer2011, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Knauer, Kim}, title = {Monitoring ecosystem health of Fynbos remnant vegetation in the City of Cape Town using remote sensing}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-92495}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Increasing urbanisation is one of the biggest pressures to vegetation in the City of Cape Town. The growth of the city dramatically reduced the area under indigenous Fynbos vegetation, which remains in isolated fragments. These are subject to a number of threats including atmospheric deposition, atypical fire cycles and invasion by exotic plant and animal species. Especially the Port Jackson willow (Acacia saligna) extensively suppresses the indigenous Fynbos vegetation with its rapid growth. The main objective of this study was to investigate indicators for a quick and early prediction of the health of the remaining Fynbos fragments in the City of Cape Town with help of remote sensing. First, the productivity of the vegetation in response to rainfall was determined. For this purpose, the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), derived from Terra MODIS data with a spatial resolution of 250m, and precipitation data of 19 rainfall stations for the period from 2000 till 2008 were used. Within the scope of a flexible regression between the EVI data and the precipitation data, different lags of the vegetation response to rainfall were analysed. Furthermore, residual trends (RESTREND) were calculated, which result from the difference between observed EVI and the one predicted by precipitation. Negative trends may suggest a degradation of the habitats. In addition, the so-called Rain-use Efficiency (RUE) was tested in this context. It is defined as the ratio between net primary production (NPP) - represented by the annual sum of EVI - and the annual rainfall sum. These indicators were analysed for their suitability to determine the health of the indigenous Fynbos vegetation. Furthermore, the degree of dispersal of invasive species especially the Acacia saligna was investigated. With the specific characteristics of the tested indicators and the spectral signature of Acacia saligna, i.e. its unique reflectance over the course of the year, the dispersal was estimated. Since the growth of invasive species dramatically reduces the biodiversity of the fragments, their presence is an important factor for the condition of ecosystem health. This work focused on 11 test sites with an average size of 200ha, distributed over the whole area of the City of Cape Town. Five of these fragments are under conservation and the others shall be protected in the near future, too, which makes them of special interest. In January 2010, fieldwork was undertaken in order to investigate the state and composition of the local vegetation. The results show promising indicators for the assessment of ecosystem health. The coefficients of determination of the EVI-rainfall regression for Fynbos are minor, because the reaction of this vegetation type to rainfall is considerably lower than the one of the invasive species. Thus, a good distinction between indigenous and alien vegetation is possible on the basis of this regression. On the other hand, the RESTREND method, for which the regression forms the basis, is only of limited use, since the significance of these trends is not given for Fynbos vegetation. Furthermore, the RUE has considerable potential for the assessment of ecosystem health in the study area. The Port Jackson willow has an explicitly higher EVI than the Fynbos vegetation and thus its RUE is more efficient for a similar amount of rainfall. However, it has to be used with caution, because local and temporal variability cannot be extinguished in the study area over the rather short MODIS time series. These results display that the interpretation of the indicators has to be conducted differently from the literature, because the element of invasive species was not considered in most of the previous papers. An increase in productivity is not necessarily equivalent with an improvement in health of the fragment, but can indicate a dispersal of Acacia saligna. This shows the general problem of the term 'degradation' which in most publications so far is only measured by productivity and other factors like invasive species are disregarded. On the basis of the EVI-rainfall regression and statistical measures of the EVI, the distribution of invasive species could be delineated. Generally, a strong invasion of the Port Jackson willow was discovered on the test sites. The results display that a reasoned and sustainable management of the fragments is essential in order to prevent the suppression of the indigenous Fynbos vegetation by Acacia saligna. For this purpose, remote sensing can give an indication which areas changed so that specific field surveys can be undertaken and subsequent management measures can be determined.}, subject = {remote sensing}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wegmann2009, author = {Wegmann, Martin}, title = {Analyse von r{\"a}umlichen Landschaftsmustern und deren Determinanten mittels Fernerkundungsdaten : am Beispiel von Regenwaldfragmenten in Westafrika}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-36532}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {In den letzten Jahrzehnten ist eine verst{\"a}rkte Ver{\"a}nderung der Landoberfl{\"a}che beobachtet worden. Diese Prozesse sind direkten und indirekten anthropogenen Einfl{\"u}ssen zuzuschreiben, wie Deforestation oder Klimawandel. Mit dieser Entwicklung geht der Verlust und die Fragmentation von naturnahen Fl{\"a}chen einher. F{\"u}r das Fortbestehen von Populationen verschiedenster Organismen in einer derartig geformten Landschaft ist entscheidend, inwieweit die Migration zwischen bestehenden Fragmenten gew{\"a}hrleistet ist. Diese wird von der Eignung der umgebenden Landschaft beeinflusst. Im Kontext einer klimatischen Ver{\"a}nderung und verst{\"a}rkter anthropogener Landnutzung ist die Analyse der r{\"a}umlichen Anordnung von Habitatfragmenten und der Qualit{\"a}t der umgebenden Landschaft besonders f{\"u}r die globale Aufrechterhaltung der Biodiversit{\"a}t wichtig. Großr{\"a}umige Muster der Landschaftsver{\"a}nderung k{\"o}nnen mit Hilfe von Satellitendaten analysiert werden, da es nur diese erm{\"o}glichen die Landbedeckung fl{\"a}chendeckend, reproduzierbar und auf einer ad{\"a}quaten r{\"a}umlichen Aufl{\"o}sung zu kartieren. Besonders zeitlich hochaufgel{\"o}ste Daten liefern wertvolle Informationen bez{\"u}glich der Dynamik der Landbedeckung. Diese Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der Analyse der Fragmentation in Westafrika und der potentiellen Bedeutung von singul{\"a}ren Fragmenten und deren potentiellen Auswirkungen auf die Biodiversit{\"a}t. Daf{\"u}r wurden zeitlich hoch- und r{\"a}umlich mittelaufgel{\"o}ste Daten des Aufnahmesystems MODIS verwendet, mit denen f{\"u}r das Untersuchungsgebiet Westafrika die Landbedeckung klassifziert wurde. F{\"u}r die darauf folgenden Analysen der r{\"a}umlichen Konfiguration der Fragmente wurde der Fokus auf Regenwaldgebiete gelegt. Die Analyse von r{\"a}umlichen Mustern der Regenwaldfragmente liefert weiterf{\"u}hrende qualitative Informationen der individuellen Teilbereiche. Die r{\"a}umliche Anordnung wurde sowohl mit etablierten Maßen als auch mittels in dieser Arbeit erstellter robuster und {\"u}bertragbarer Indizes quantifiziert. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Verwendung von aussagekr{\"a}ftigen Indizes, besonders, wenn sie alle benachbarten Fragmente und die Qualit{\"a}t der umgebenden Matrix ber{\"u}cksichtigen, die r{\"a}umliche Differenzierung von Fragmenten verbessert. Jedoch ist die Anwendung dieser Maße abh{\"a}ngig von den Anspr{\"u}chen einer Art. Daher muss die artspezifische Perzeptionen der Landschaft auf der Basis der Indizes implementiert werden, da die {\"U}bertragung der Ergebnisse einzelner Indizes auf andere r{\"a}umliche Aufl{\"o}sungen und andere Regionen nur begrenzt m{\"o}glich war. Des Weiteren wurden potentielle Einflussfaktoren auf die r{\"a}umlichen Muster mittels Neutraler Landschaftsmodelle untersucht. Hierbei ergaben sich je nach Region und Index unterschiedliche Ergebnisse, allerdings konnte der Einfluss anthropogen induzierter Ver{\"a}nderungen auf die Landbedeckung postuliert werden. Die große Bedeutung der r{\"a}umlichen Attribution von Landbedeckungsklassen konnte in dieser Arbeit aufgezeigt werden. Der alleinige Fokus auf die Kartierung von z. B. Waldfragmenten ohne deren r{\"a}umliche Anordnung zu ber{\"u}cksichtigen, kann zu falschen Schl{\"u}ssen bez{\"u}glich deren {\"o}kologischen, hydrologischen und klimatologischen Bedeutung f{\"u}hren.}, subject = {Fragmentierung}, language = {de} } @misc{Cammerer2009, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Cammerer, Holger}, title = {Minderung von Hochwassersch{\"a}den durch Fr{\"u}hwarnung und Eigenvorsorge - Eine statistische Analyse von Befragungen in Privathaushalten in Deutschland und {\"O}sterreich}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-47314}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, anhand von aktuellen Hochwasserschadensdaten aus Telefonbefragungen in Privathaushalten in Deutschland und {\"O}sterreich die Minderung von Hochwassersch{\"a}den durch Fr{\"u}hwarnung und privater Eigenvorsorge zu quantifizieren. Im ersten Schritt wurden die Datens{\"a}tze aus den vier zugrunde liegenden Befragungen zu den Hochwasserereignissen der Jahre 2002, 2005 und 2006 zusammengef{\"u}hrt und die Hochwassersch{\"a}den auf das Referenzjahr 2007 angepasst. Um das Schadensminderungspotenzial von Fr{\"u}hwarnung und diversen Vorsorge-/ Notmaßnahmen beurteilen zu k{\"o}nnen, wurde der konsistente Datensatz nach verschiedenen schadensbestimmenden Faktoren (Wasserstand, Hochwassertyp, Kontaminationsart und Hochwassererfahrung) aufgeteilt. Dabei stellte sich heraus, dass eine Hochwasserwarnung z.B. durch Beh{\"o}rden den Schaden am Geb{\"a}ude und Hausrat nur dann reduzieren kann, wenn der Fr{\"u}hwarnungsinhalt klar verst{\"a}ndlich oder das Wissen der Betroffenen ausreichend ist, wie man sich und seinen Haushalt vor dem Hochwasser sch{\"u}tzen kann (durch das Ergreifen von Notmaßnahmen). Der Nutzen einer langfristigen Vorsorge, insbesondere von baulichen Maßnahmen, wurde in dieser Studie sehr deutlich. Vor allem die geringwertige Nutzung der hochwassergef{\"a}hrdeten Stockwerke und die hochwasserangepasste Inneneinrichtung konnten die Sch{\"a}den am Geb{\"a}ude und Inventar erheblich reduzieren.}, subject = {Hochwasser}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Nagm2009, author = {Nagm, Emad Hamdy Mahmoud}, title = {Integrated stratigraphy, palaeontology and facies analysis of the Cenomanian - Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) Galala and Maghra El Hadida formations of the western Wadi Araba, Eastern Desert, Egypt}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-39881}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Four sections of the Galala and Maghra El Hadida formations on the footwalls of the slopes of the northern and southern Galala plateaus in Wadi Araba (Eastern Desert) have been measured and sampled in great detail. The Galala Formation is ranging in thickness from 55 to 95 meters. It unconformably overlies the Malha Formation which forms the base of the studied sections. The upper boundary of the Galala Formation is characterized by a major unconformity which separates it from the overlying the Maghra El Hadida Formation. The Galala Formation can be subdivided into five shallowing-upward cycles, each cycle starting with deep-lagoonal, marly-silty deposits at the base and grading into highly fossiliferous shallow-lagoonal limestones at the top. Only the basal part of the Galala Formation consists of unfossiliferous, greenish sandy siltstones intercalated with thin cross-bedded, bioturbated, fine- to medium-grained sandstones. Despite the lack of biostratigraphic markers in that lower part, its age can be assigned to the late Middle Cenomanian, since the conformably overlying strata contain the ammonite Neolobites vibrayeanus (D'ORBIGNY), the index marker of the early Upper Cenomanian which extends into the top of the formation. The measured thickness of the overlying Maghra El Hadida Formation is ranging from 59 to 118 meters. This formation starts with the Ghonima Member, introduced in this work to distinguish a brown, fine- to medium-grained calcareous sandstone unit in its lower part. The Ghonima Member is erosionally incised into the Galala Formation, explaining its strong lateral variability in thickness, ranging from 3 to 21 meters. It is mostly unfossiliferous except for irregular bioturbation in its upper part. The Ghonima Member is assigned to the middle Upper Cenomanian, based on its stratigraphic position between the lower Upper Cenomanian Neolobites vibrayeanus Zone and the overlying upper Upper Cenomanian Metoicoceras geslinianum and Vascoceras cauvini zones. This means that the lower part of the Maghra El Hadida Formation, about 20 - 30 m thick, accumulated during the latest Cenomanian and that the base of the formation does not coincide with the base of the Turonian as commonly believed. The overlying succession of the Maghra El Hadida Formation is characterized by an increase of carbonate content, represented by yellow, soft marls intercalated with fine-grained wacke- to packstones containing a highly fossiliferous ammonite assemblage of the upper Upper Cenomanian and Lower Turonian (zones of Vascoceras proprium, Choffaticeras spp., and Wrightoceras munieri). The Middle Turonian part of the Maghra El Hadida Formation consists of poorly fossiliferous, thick-bedded yellowish marls with upward-increasing silt content, showing occasional intercalations of medium- to coarse-grained sandstones with hummocky cross-stratification. The topmost part of the Maghra El Hadida Formation consists of brownish, medium-grained sandstones topped by fossiliferous marly limestones yielding the Upper Turonian zonal ammonite Coilopoceras requienianum (D'ORBIGNY). Based on sequence stratigraphic analyses, four complete 3rd order depositional sequences and the lower part of a fifth one, each bounded by major unconformities, can be recognized: depositional sequence DS WA 1 (upper Middle - lower Upper Cenomanian) includes the entire Galala Formation, while the Maghra El Hadida Formation comprises all the overlying depositional sequences: DS WA 2 (upper Upper Cenomanian - Lower Turonian) reaches from the base of the Metoicoceras geslinianum Zone to the top of Wrightoceras munieri Zone, DS WA 3 and DS WA 4 comprise the Middle Turonian, while Upper Turonian sequence DS WA 5 is not complete. The stratigraphic positions of the recognized sequence 2 boundaries SB WA 1 to SB WA 5 match well with contemporaneous sequence boundaries known from Europe and elsewhere. The stacking pattern of the basic cycles and bundles of the Galala Formation (5:1) and the Maghra El Hadida Formation (4:1) strongly suggest an orbital forcing by MILANKOVITCH periodicities. The Galala Formation is composed of five 5th-order bundles which equal to ~500 kyr, each bundle equals to ~100 kyr (short eccentricity). Every bundle has five basic (6th-order) cycles, each one representing ~20 kyr (precession). Based on this precession-short eccentricity syndrome, the accumulation rate of the Galala Formation therefore accounts for about 19 cm/kyr. The rate of sea-level fall at sequence boundary SB WA 2 (equivalent to the quasi-global mid-Late Cenomanian SB Ce V) estimated is with 35 cm/kyr which can be explained only by glacio-eustasy. The Upper Cenomanian and Lower Turonian part of the Maghra El Hadida Formation is considered to equal to ~1200 kyr, based on the existence of three 4th-order bundles with an inferred duration of ~400 kyr for each bundle (long eccentricity of the MILANKOVITCH Band). Every bundle consists of four basic cycles with a duration of ~100 kyr. This means that the upper Cenomanian part of the Maghra El Hadida Formation is equivalent to ~400 kyr, while the Lower Turonian (consisting of the two upper bundles) lasted 800 kyr. This matches well with the recently proposed 785 kyr duration of the Early Turonian (SAGEMAN et al., 2006; VOIGT et al., 2008) and contradicts the 1300 kyr according to the standard time scale of GRADSTEIN et al. (2004). According to this temporal constrains, the accumulation rate of the Maghra El Hadida Formation is about 4.25 cm/kyr. In addition, based on the cyclostratigraphic analysis, the range of the Early Turonian genus Choffaticeras (HYATT) is equivalent to ~325 kyr and morphological changes within its lineage can be quantified. The macrobenthos (bivalves, gastropods, echinoids) and cephalopods of the Galala and Maghra El Hadida formations were identified and illustrated in 24 figures. The ammonite taxonomy and palaeobiogeographic distribution is discussed in detail. Four genera and eight ammonite species are recorded from Egypt for the first time. The microfloral and -faunal assemblage identified in thin sections revealed two species of dasycladalean algae, two species of udoteacean algae, five species of benthic foraminifera, and two species of crustacean microcoprolites. The six facies types of the upper Middle - Upper Cenomanian Galala Formation document largely open-lagoonal, warm water conditions, while the depositional environment of the Upper Cenomanian - Turonian Maghra El Hadida Formation (16 facies types) is suggested to range from a deep-subtidal to intertidal.}, subject = {Oberkreide}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Baumann2009, author = {Baumann, Sabine Christine}, title = {Mapping, analysis, and interpretation of the glacier inventory data from Jotunheimen, South Norway, since the maximum of the 'Little Ice Age'}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-46320}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Glacier outlines during the 'Little Ice Age' maximum in Jotunheimen were mapped by using remote sensing techniques (vertical aerial photos and satellite imagery), glacier outlines from the 1980s and 2003, a digital terrain model (DTM), geomorphological maps of individual glaciers, and field-GPS measurements. The related inventory data (surface area, minimum and maximum altitude) and several other variables (e.g. slope, range) were calculated automatically by using a geographical information system. The length of the glacier flowline was mapped manually based on the glacier outlines at the maximum of the 'Little Ice Age' and the DTM. The glacier data during the maximum of the 'Little Ice Age' were compared with the Norwegian glacier inventory of 2003. Based on the glacier inventories during the maximum of the 'Little Ice Age', the 1980s and 2003, a simple parameterization after HAEBERLI \& HOELZLE (1995) was performed to estimate unmeasured glacier variables, as e.g. surface velocity or mean net mass balance. Input data were composed of surface glacier area, minimum and maximum elevation, and glacier length. The results of the parameterization were compared with the results of previous parameterizations in the European Alps and the Southern Alps of New Zealand (HAEBERLI \& HOELZLE 1995; HOELZLE et al. 2007). A relationship between these results of the inventories and of the parameterization and climate and climate changes was made.}, subject = {Gletscher}, language = {en} } @article{UereyenBachoferKuenzer2022, author = {Uereyen, Soner and Bachofer, Felix and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {A framework for multivariate analysis of land surface dynamics and driving variables — a case study for Indo-Gangetic river basins}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {14}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {1}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs14010197}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-255295}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The analysis of the Earth system and interactions among its spheres is increasingly important to improve the understanding of global environmental change. In this regard, Earth observation (EO) is a valuable tool for monitoring of long term changes over the land surface and its features. Although investigations commonly study environmental change by means of a single EO-based land surface variable, a joint exploitation of multivariate land surface variables covering several spheres is still rarely performed. In this regard, we present a novel methodological framework for both, the automated processing of multisource time series to generate a unified multivariate feature space, as well as the application of statistical time series analysis techniques to quantify land surface change and driving variables. In particular, we unify multivariate time series over the last two decades including vegetation greenness, surface water area, snow cover area, and climatic, as well as hydrological variables. Furthermore, the statistical time series analyses include quantification of trends, changes in seasonality, and evaluation of drivers using the recently proposed causal discovery algorithm Peter and Clark Momentary Conditional Independence (PCMCI). We demonstrate the functionality of our methodological framework using Indo-Gangetic river basins in South Asia as a case study. The time series analyses reveal increasing trends in vegetation greenness being largely dependent on water availability, decreasing trends in snow cover area being mostly negatively coupled to temperature, and trends of surface water area to be spatially heterogeneous and linked to various driving variables. Overall, the obtained results highlight the value and suitability of this methodological framework with respect to global climate change research, enabling multivariate time series preparation, derivation of detailed information on significant trends and seasonality, as well as detection of causal links with minimal user intervention. This study is the first to use multivariate time series including several EO-based variables to analyze land surface dynamics over the last two decades using the causal discovery algorithm PCMCI.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hoeser2022, author = {H{\"o}ser, Thorsten}, title = {Global Dynamics of the Offshore Wind Energy Sector Derived from Earth Observation Data - Deep Learning Based Object Detection Optimised with Synthetic Training Data for Offshore Wind Energy Infrastructure Extraction from Sentinel-1 Imagery}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-29285}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-292857}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The expansion of renewable energies is being driven by the gradual phaseout of fossil fuels in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the steadily increasing demand for energy and, more recently, by geopolitical events. The offshore wind energy sector is on the verge of a massive expansion in Europe, the United Kingdom, China, but also in the USA, South Korea and Vietnam. Accordingly, the largest marine infrastructure projects to date will be carried out in the upcoming decades, with thousands of offshore wind turbines being installed. In order to accompany this process globally and to provide a database for research, development and monitoring, this dissertation presents a deep learning-based approach for object detection that enables the derivation of spatiotemporal developments of offshore wind energy infrastructures from satellite-based radar data of the Sentinel-1 mission. For training the deep learning models for offshore wind energy infrastructure detection, an approach is presented that makes it possible to synthetically generate remote sensing data and the necessary annotation for the supervised deep learning process. In this synthetic data generation process, expert knowledge about image content and sensor acquisition techniques is made machine-readable. Finally, extensive and highly variable training data sets are generated from this knowledge representation, with which deep learning models can learn to detect objects in real-world satellite data. The method for the synthetic generation of training data based on expert knowledge offers great potential for deep learning in Earth observation. Applications of deep learning based methods can be developed and tested faster with this procedure. Furthermore, the synthetically generated and thus controllable training data offer the possibility to interpret the learning process of the optimised deep learning models. The method developed in this dissertation to create synthetic remote sensing training data was finally used to optimise deep learning models for the global detection of offshore wind energy infrastructure. For this purpose, images of the entire global coastline from ESA's Sentinel-1 radar mission were evaluated. The derived data set includes over 9,941 objects, which distinguish offshore wind turbines, transformer stations and offshore wind energy infrastructures under construction from each other. In addition to this spatial detection, a quarterly time series from July 2016 to June 2021 was derived for all objects. This time series reveals the start of construction, the construction phase and the time of completion with subsequent operation for each object. The derived offshore wind energy infrastructure data set provides the basis for an analysis of the development of the offshore wind energy sector from July 2016 to June 2021. For this analysis, further attributes of the detected offshore wind turbines were derived. The most important of these are the height and installed capacity of a turbine. The turbine height was calculated by a radargrammetric analysis of the previously detected Sentinel-1 signal and then used to statistically model the installed capacity. The results show that in June 2021, 8,885 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 40.6 GW were installed worldwide. The largest installed capacities are in the EU (15.2 GW), China (14.1 GW) and the United Kingdom (10.7 GW). From July 2016 to June 2021, China has expanded 13 GW of offshore wind energy infrastructure. The EU has installed 8 GW and the UK 5.8 GW of offshore wind energy infrastructure in the same period. This temporal analysis shows that China was the main driver of the expansion of the offshore wind energy sector in the period under investigation. The derived data set for the description of the offshore wind energy sector was made publicly available. It is thus freely accessible to all decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the development of offshore wind energy projects. Especially in the scientific context, it serves as a database that enables a wide range of investigations. Research questions regarding offshore wind turbines themselves as well as the influence of the expansion in the coming decades can be investigated. This supports the imminent and urgently needed expansion of offshore wind energy in order to promote sustainable expansion in addition to the expansion targets that have been set.}, language = {en} } @book{Brauneck2010, author = {Brauneck, Jens}, title = {Late Quaternary climate changes in the Central Sahara : new evidence from palaeoenvironmental research in NE-Niger}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235146}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, pages = {XI, 158}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Surveys by the Universities of Wuerzburg and Berlin, starting in the 1970´s have revealed the existence of palaeolakes in remote areas in Niger. Initial research has shown that the sediments found are suitable for reconstructing its late quaternary palaeoenvironment. Although a high number of investigations focused on the succession of climatological conditions in the Central Sahara, some uncertainties still exist as the results show discontinuities and mostly are of low temporal and spatial resolution. Two expeditions in 2005 and 2006 headed to the northeastern parts of Niger to investigate the known remains of palaeolakes and search some new and undetected ones. Samples were taken at several study sites in order to receive a complete picture of the Late Quaternary environmental settings and to produce high-resolution proxies for palaeoclimate modelling. The most valuable and best-investigated study site is the sebkha of Seggedim, where a core of 15 meters length could be extracted which revealed a composition of high-resolution sections. Stratigraphical, structural and geochemical investigations as well as the analysis of thin sections allow the characterization of different environmental conditions from Early to Mid Holocene. Driven by climate and hydrogeological influence, the water body developed from a water pond of several metres depth within a stable, grass and shrub vegetated landscape, to an alternating freshwater lake in a more dynamic environmental setting. Radiocarbon dates set the beginning of the stage at about 10.6 ka cal BP, with an exceptionally stable regime to 6.6 ka cal BP (at 12.6 metres' depth), when a major change in the sedimentation regime of the basin is recorded in the core. Increased erosion, likely due to decreased vegetation cover within the basin, led to the siltation/filling of the lake within a few hundred years and the subsequent development of a sebkha/salt pan due to massive evaporation. Due to the lack of dateable material in the upper core section, the termination of the lake stage and the onset of the subsequent sebkha stage cannot be determined precisely but can be narrowed to a period around 6 ka BP. The results obtained from the core are compared with those from terrestrial and lacustrine sediments from outside the depression, situated a few hundred kilometres further to the north. These supplementary study sites are required to validate the information obtained from the coring. Within the plateau landscape of Djado, Mangueni and Tchigai, two depressions and a valley containing lacustrine deposits, were investigated for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Depending on modifying local factors, these sediment archives were of shorter existence than IX the lake, but reveal additional information about the landscape dynamics from Early to Mid Holocene. A damming situation within a small tributary at Enneri Achelouma led to lacustrine sedimentation conditions at Early Holocene in the upper reaches of the valley. The remnants of the lacustrine accumulations show distinct changes in the environmental conditions within the small catchment, as the archive immediately responded to local climate-induced changes of precipitation. Radiocarbon dating of the deposited sediments revealed ages from 8780 ± 260 cal a BP to 9480 ± 80 cal a BP. The sites of Yoo Ango and Fab{\´e}rg{\´e} show a completely different sedimentation milieu as they consist of basins within the foothills of the Tchigai. The study sites show increased catchment sizes, probably extending towards the Tchigai massif and are most likely influenced by groundwater charge. The widespread occurrence of wind shaped relicts and the limited amount of lacustrine remnants indicate a generally high aeolian activity in both areas. Only in wind sheltered spots, parts of the lacustrine sequences were preserved, that show ages spanning from Early to Mid Holocene (9440 ± 140 cal a BP - 6810 ±140 cal a BP) and give additional evidence of fires from pre-LGM periods. Although intensively weathered, all profiles indicate distinct changes in the sedimentation conditions by alternating geochemical values and the mineralogical composition. The information obtained from the records investigated in this work confirms the heterogeneity of reconstructed environmental succession in the Central Sahara. The Mid Holocene rapid (within decades) and uniform development from more humid to extremely arid environmental conditions cannot be confirmed for the Central Sahara. In addition, a division of Early and Mid Holocene wet periods cannot be confirmed, either. Actually, the evidences obtained from the palaeoenvironmental reconstructions revealed major variations in the timing and extend of lacustrine and aeolian periods. Evidently, a transitional time has existed between 7 to 5 ka BP where alternating influences prevailed. This is indicated by the varying sedimentation conditions in the Seggedim depression as well as the evidence of soil properties on a fossil dune, with a time of deposition dated to 6200 ± 400 cal a BP and the removal of lacustrine Sediments at the Seeterrassental at Mid Holocene. In respect to provide a complete picture of landscape succession and to avoid misinterpretation, the investigation of several dissimilar spots within a designated study area is prerequisite for further investigations.}, subject = {Pal{\"a}oklimatologie}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-24885, title = {Innenst{\"a}dte, Einzelhandel und Corona in Deutschland}, editor = {Appel, Alexandra and Hardaker, Sina}, isbn = {978-3-95826-176-1}, issn = {2196-5811}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-177-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248851}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {238}, year = {2022}, abstract = {"Die Innenstadt braucht den Handel, der Handel aber nicht die Innenstadt", lautet eine oft formulierte These bez{\"u}glich des Verh{\"a}ltnisses von Handel und Innenstadt - nicht erst seit der Covid-19-Pandemie. Die Krise hat die Herausforderungen des Strukturwandels im Einzelhandel erneut offengelegt und teils Entwicklungen beschleunigt. Besonders hervorzuheben sind zum einen Handlungsbedarfe im Bereich der Digitalisierung sowie die dringende Notwendigkeit einer {\"u}berdachten Auseinandersetzung {\"u}ber das Verh{\"a}ltnis von Innenstadt und Einzelhandel. Neben Fragen zur zuk{\"u}nftigen Gestaltung des Einzelhandels und seiner Bedeutung f{\"u}r Innenst{\"a}dte, sind auch Fragen zur Bedeutung anderer Branchen/Einrichtungen/Angebote (z.B. Gastronomie, Handwerk, Kultureinrichtungen, Kitas, Sport- und Bildungseinrichtungen, aber auch Freir{\"a}ume, Gr{\"u}nfl{\"a}chen, verkehrsberuhigte Bereiche oder lokale Kurierdienste) f{\"u}r den Einzelhandel vermehrt aus Perspektive der geographischen Handelsforschung zu beantworten. Mit der Krise wurden Defizite und Handlungsfelder in den Blick ger{\"u}ckt, deren Bearbeitung schon lange ansteht. Die Chance liegt darin, diesen Aufmerksamkeitsschub konstruktiv zu nutzen und realistische fall- und standortspezifische Perspektiven f{\"u}r Innenst{\"a}dte und ihre Akteur*innen jetzt zu verhandeln und nicht weiter auf die lange Bank zu schieben. Der vorliegende Band vereint neun handelsgeographische Beitr{\"a}ge von Wissenschaftler*innen und Praktiker*innen, die die Auswirkungen der Covid-19-Pandemie er{\"o}rtern und damit einen wichtigen Beitrag f{\"u}r die notwendige Diskussion der Zukunft von Innenst{\"a}dten und Handel leisten.}, subject = {Einzelhandel}, language = {de} } @article{Rauch2022, author = {Rauch, Sebastian}, title = {Analysing Long Term Spatial Mobility Patterns of Individuals and Large Groups Using 3D-GIS: A Sport Geographic Approach}, series = {Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie}, volume = {113}, journal = {Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie}, number = {3}, issn = {0040-747X}, doi = {10.1111/tesg.12513}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-318551}, pages = {257 -- 272}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Individual mobility and human patterns analyses is receiving increasing attention in numerous interdisciplinary studies and publications using the concept of time-geography but is largely unknown to the subdiscipline of sports geography. Meanwhile the visualization and evaluation of large data of individual patterns are still a major challenge. While a qualitative, microscale view on spatial-temporal topics is more common in today's pattern research using mostly 24h time intervals, this work examines a quantitative approach focusing on an extended period of life. This paper presents a combination of time-geographic approaches with 3D-geoinformation systems and demonstrates their value for analysing individual mobility by implementing a path-homogeneity factor (HPA). Using the example of professional athletes, it is shown which groups display greater similarities in their career paths. While a high homogeneity suggests that groups make similar decisions through socially influenced processes, low values allow the assumption that external processes provide stronger, independent individual structures.}, language = {en} } @article{KumarKhamzinaKnoefeletal.2021, author = {Kumar, Navneet and Khamzina, Asia and Kn{\"o}fel, Patrick and Lamers, John P. A. and Tischbein, Bernhard}, title = {Afforestation of degraded croplands as a water-saving option in irrigated region of the Aral Sea Basin}, series = {Water}, volume = {13}, journal = {Water}, number = {10}, issn = {2073-4441}, doi = {10.3390/w13101433}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239626}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Climate change is likely to decrease surface water availability in Central Asia, thereby necessitating land use adaptations in irrigated regions. The introduction of trees to marginally productive croplands with shallow groundwater was suggested for irrigation water-saving and improving the land's productivity. Considering the possible trade-offs with water availability in large-scale afforestation, our study predicted the impacts on water balance components in the lower reaches of the Amudarya River to facilitate afforestation planning using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The land-use scenarios used for modeling analysis considered the afforestation of 62\% and 100\% of marginally productive croplands under average and low irrigation water supply identified from historical land-use maps. The results indicate a dramatic decrease in the examined water balance components in all afforestation scenarios based largely on the reduced irrigation demand of trees compared to the main crops. Specifically, replacing current crops (mostly cotton) with trees on all marginal land (approximately 663 km\(^2\)) in the study region with an average water availability would save 1037 mln m\(^3\) of gross irrigation input within the study region and lower the annual drainage discharge by 504 mln m\(^3\). These effects have a considerable potential to support irrigation water management and enhance drainage functions in adapting to future water supply limitations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Knoefel2018, author = {Kn{\"o}fel, Patrick}, title = {Energiebilanzmodellierung zur Ableitung der Evapotranspiration - Beispielregion Khorezm}, edition = {1. Auflage}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-042-9 (Print)}, issn = {0510-9833}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-043-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-135669}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {276}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Zum Verst{\"a}ndnis der komplexen Wechselwirkungen innerhalb des Klimasystems der Erde sind Kenntnisse {\"u}ber den hydrologischen Zyklus und den Energiekreislauf essentiell. Eine besondere Rolle obliegt hierbei der Evapotranspiration (ET), da sie eine wesentliche Teilkomponente beider oben erw{\"a}hnter Kreisl{\"a}ufe ist. Die exakte Quantifizierung der regionalen, tats{\"a}chlichen Evapotranspiration innerhalb der Wasser- und Energiekreisl{\"a}ufe der Erdoberfl{\"a}che auf unterschiedlichen zeitlichen und r{\"a}umlichen Skalen ist f{\"u}r hydrologische, klimatologische und agronomische Fragestellungen von großer Bedeutung. Dabei ist eine realistische Absch{\"a}tzung der regionalen tats{\"a}chlichen Evapotranspiration die wichtigste Herausforderung der hydrologischen Modellierung. Besonders die unterschiedlichen r{\"a}umlichen und zeitlichen Aufl{\"o}sungen von Satelliteninformationen machen die Fernerkundung sowohl f{\"u}r globale als auch regionale hydrologischen Fragestellungen interessant. Zus{\"a}tzlich zur Notwendigkeit des Prozessverst{\"a}ndnisses des Wasserkreislaufs auf globaler Ebene kommt dessen regionale Bedeutung f{\"u}r die Landwirtschaft, insbesondere in Bew{\"a}sserungssystemen arider Regionen. In ariden Klimazonen {\"u}bersteigt die Menge der Verdunstung oft bei weitem die Niederschlagsmengen. Aufgrund der geringen Niederschlagsmenge muss in ariden agrarischen Regionen das zum Pflanzenwachstum ben{\"o}tigte Wasser mit Hilfe k{\"u}nstlicher Bew{\"a}sserung aufgebracht werden. Der jeweilige lokale Bew{\"a}sserungsbedarf h{\"a}ngt von der Feldfrucht und deren Wachstumsphase, den Klimabedingungen, den Bodeneigenschaften und der Ausdehnung der Wurzelzone ab. Die Evapotranspiration ist als Komponente der regionalen Wasserbilanz eine wichtige Steuerungsgr{\"o}ße und Effizienzindikator f{\"u}r das lokale Bew{\"a}sserungsmanagement. Die Bew{\"a}sse-rungslandwirtschaft verbraucht weltweit etwa 70 \% der verf{\"u}gbaren S{\"u}ßwasservorkom-men. Dies wird als einer der Hauptgr{\"u}nde f{\"u}r die weltweit steigende Wasserknappheit identifiziert. Dabei liegt die Wasserentnahme des landwirtschaftlichen Sektors in den OECD Staaten im Mittel bei etwa 44 \%, in den Staaten Mittelasiens bei {\"u}ber 90 \%. Bei der Erstellung der vorliegenden Arbeit kam die Methode der residualen Bestimmung der Energiebilanz zum Einsatz. Eines der weltweit am h{\"a}ufigsten eingesetzten und vali-dierten fernerkundlichen Residualmodelle zur ET Ableitung ist das SEBAL-Modell (Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land, mit {\"u}ber 40 ver{\"o}ffentlichten Studien. SEBAL eignet sich zur Quantifizierung der Verdunstung großfl{\"a}chiger Gebiete und wurde bisher {\"u}ber-wiegend in der Bew{\"a}sserungslandwirtschaft eingesetzt. Aus diesen Gr{\"u}nden wurde es f{\"u}r die Bearbeitung der Fragestellungen in dieser Arbeit ausgew{\"a}hlt. SEBAL verwendet physikalische und empirische Beziehungen zur Berechnung der Energiebilanzkomponenten basierend auf Fernerkundungsdaten, bei gleichzeitig minimalem Einsatz bodengest{\"u}tzter Daten. Als Eingangsdaten werden u.a. Informationen {\"u}ber Strahlung, Bodenoberfl{\"a}chentemperatur, NDVI, LAI und Albedo verwendet. Zus{\"a}tzlich zu SEBAL wurden einige Komponenten der SEBAL Weiterentwicklung METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration with Internalized Calibration) verwendet, um die Modellierung der ET vorzunehmen. METRIC {\"u}berwindet einige Limitierungen des SEBAL Verfahrens und kann beispielsweise auch in st{\"a}rker reliefierten Regionen angewendet werden. Außerdem erm{\"o}glicht die Integration einer gebietsspezifischen Referenz-ET sowie einer Landnutzungsklassifikation eine bessere regionale Anpassung des Residualverfahrens. Unter der Annahme der Bedingungen zum Zeitpunkt der Fernerkundungsaufnahme ergibt sich die Energiebilanz an der Erdoberfl{\"a}che RN = LvE + H + G. Demnach teilt sich die verf{\"u}gbare Strahlungsenergie RN in die Komponenten latenter W{\"a}rme (LVE), f{\"u}hlbarer W{\"a}rme (H) und Bodenw{\"a}rme (G) auf. Durch Umstellen der Gleichung kann auf die latente W{\"a}rme geschlossen werden. Das wesentliche Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Optimierung, Erweiterung und Validierung des ausgew{\"a}hlten SEBAL Verfahrens zur regionalen Modellierung der Energiebilanzkomponenten und der daraus abgeleiteten tats{\"a}chlichen Evapotranspiration. Die validierten Modellergebnisse der Gebietsverdunstung der Jahre 2009-2011 sollen anschließend als Grundlage dienen, das Gesamtverst{\"a}ndnis der regionalen Prozesse des Wasserkreislaufs zu verbessern. Die Arbeit basiert auf der Datengrundlage von MODIS Daten mit 1 km r{\"a}umlicher Aufl{\"o}sung. W{\"a}hrend die Komponenten verf{\"u}gbare Strahlungsenergie und f{\"u}hlbarer W{\"a}rmestrom physikalisch basiert ermittelt werden, beruht die Berechnung des Bodenw{\"a}rmestroms ausschließlich auf empirischen Absch{\"a}tzungen. Ein großer Nachteil des empirischen Ansatzes ist die Vernachl{\"a}ssigung des zeitlichen Versatzes zwischen Strahlungsbilanz und Bodenw{\"a}rmestrom in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit der aktuellen Bodenfeuchtesituation. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt auf der Bewertung und Verbesserung der Modellg{\"u}te des Bodenw{\"a}rmestroms durch Verwendung eines neuen Ansatzes zur Integration von Bodenfeuchteinformationen. Daher wird in der Arbeit ein physikalischer Ansatz entwickelt der auf dem Ansatz der periodischen Temperaturver{\"a}nderung basiert. Hierbei wurde neben dem ENVISAT ASAR SSM Produkt der TU Wien das operationelle Oberfl{\"a}chenbodenfeuchteprodukt ASCAT SSM als Fernerkundungseingangsdaten ausgew{\"a}hlt. Die mit SEBAL modellierten Energiebilanzkomponenten werden durch eine intensive Validierung mit bodengest{\"u}tzten Messungen bewertet, die Messungen stammen von Bodensensoren und Daten einer Eddy-Kovarianz-Station aus den Jahren 2009 bis 2011. Die Region Khorezm gilt als charakteristisch f{\"u}r die wasserbezogene Problematik der Bew{\"a}sserungslandwirtschaft Mittelasiens und wurde als Untersuchungsgebiet f{\"u}r diese Arbeit ausgew{\"a}hlt. Die wesentlichen Probleme dieser Region entstehen durch die nach wie vor nicht nachhaltige Land- und Wassernutzung, das marode Bew{\"a}sserungsnetz mit einer Verlustrate von bis zu 40 \% und der Bodenversalzung aufgrund hoher Grundwasserspiegel. Im Untersuchungsgebiet wurden in den Jahren 2010 und 2011 umfangreiche Feldarbeiten zur Erhebung lokaler bodengest{\"u}tzter Informationen durchgef{\"u}hrt. Bei der Evaluierung der modellierten Einzelkomponenten ergab sich f{\"u}r die Strahlungsbi-lanz eine hohe Modellg{\"u}te (R² > 0,9; rRMSE < 0,2 und NSE > 0,5). Diese Komponente bildet die Grundlage bei der Bezifferung der f{\"u}r die Prozesse an der Erdoberfl{\"a}che zur Verf{\"u}gung stehenden Energie. F{\"u}r die f{\"u}hlbaren W{\"a}rmestr{\"o}me wurden ebenfalls gute Ergebnisse erzielt, mit NSE von 0,31 und rRMSE von ca. 0,21. F{\"u}r die residual bestimmte Gr{\"o}ße der latenten W{\"a}rmestr{\"o}mung konnte eine insgesamt gute Modellg{\"u}te festgestellt werden (R² > 0,6; rRMSE < 0,2 und NSE > 0,5). Dementsprechend gut wurde die t{\"a}gliche Evapotranspiration modelliert. Hier ergab sich, nach der Interpolation t{\"a}glicher Werte, eine insgesamt ausreichend gute Modellg{\"u}te (R² > 0,5; rRMSE < 0,2 und NSE > 0,4). Dies best{\"a}tigt die Ergebnisse vieler Energiebilanzstudien, die lediglich den f{\"u}r die Ableitung der Evapotranspiration maßgebenden W{\"a}rmestrom untersuchten. Die Modellergebnisse f{\"u}r den Bodenw{\"a}rmestrom konnten durch die Entwicklung und Verwendung des neu entwickelten physikalischen Ansatzes von NSE < 0 und rRMSE von ca. 0,57 auf NSE von 0,19 und rRMSE von 0,35 verbessert werden. Dies f{\"u}hrt zu einer insgesamt positiven Einsch{\"a}tzung des Verbesserungspotenzials des neu entwickelten Bodenw{\"a}rmestromansatzes bei der Berechnung der Energiebilanz mit Hilfe von Fernerkundung.}, subject = {Evapotranspiration}, language = {de} } @incollection{Hirsch2013, author = {Hirsch, Jens}, title = {Die Rolle der Kommunen - das Beispiel der Mittelst{\"a}dte}, series = {Handelsimmobilien - Theoretische Ans{\"a}tze, empirische Ergebnisse}, booktitle = {Handelsimmobilien - Theoretische Ans{\"a}tze, empirische Ergebnisse}, publisher = {Verlag MetaGIS Infosysteme}, address = {Mannheim}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-182602}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, pages = {121-140}, year = {2013}, abstract = {No abstract available.}, subject = {Einzelhandel}, language = {de} } @article{MeisterLangeAthinodorouUllmann2021, author = {Meister, Julia and Lange-Athinodorou, Eva and Ullmann, Tobias}, title = {Preface: Special Issue "Geoarchaeology of the Nile Delta"}, series = {E\&G Quarternary Science Journal}, volume = {70}, journal = {E\&G Quarternary Science Journal}, doi = {10.5194/egqsj-70-187-2021}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-261195}, pages = {187-190}, year = {2021}, abstract = {No abstract available.}, language = {en} } @article{RiyasSyedKumaretal.2021, author = {Riyas, Moidu Jameela and Syed, Tajdarul Hassan and Kumar, Hrishikesh and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {Detecting and analyzing the evolution of subsidence due to coal fires in Jharia coalfield, India using Sentinel-1 SAR data}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {13}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {8}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs13081521}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236703}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Public safety and socio-economic development of the Jharia coalfield (JCF) in India is critically dependent on precise monitoring and comprehensive understanding of coal fires, which have been burning underneath for more than a century. This study utilizes New-Small BAseline Subset (N-SBAS) technique to compute surface deformation time series for 2017-2020 to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of coal fires in JCF. The line-of-sight (LOS) surface deformation estimated from ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR data are subsequently decomposed to derive precise vertical subsidence estimates. The most prominent subsidence (~22 cm) is observed in Kusunda colliery. The subsidence regions also correspond well with the Landsat-8 based thermal anomaly map and field evidence. Subsequently, the vertical surface deformation time-series is analyzed to characterize temporal variations within the 9.5 km\(^2\) area of coal fires. Results reveal that nearly 10\% of the coal fire area is newly formed, while 73\% persisted throughout the study period. Vulnerability analyses performed in terms of the susceptibility of the population to land surface collapse demonstrate that Tisra, Chhatatanr, and Sijua are the most vulnerable towns. Our results provide critical information for developing early warning systems and remediation strategies.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mann2017, author = {Mann, Daniel}, title = {"The smell of Ujamaa is still there" - Tanzania's Path of Development between Grassroots Socialism and Central State Control in Ruvuma}, edition = {1. Auflage}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-066-5 (print)}, issn = {0510-9833}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-067-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-154079}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {332}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In the 1960s, when most African nations gained their independence after the age of colonialism, several theories and strategies emerged with the goal of "developing" these apparently "underdeveloped" territories. One of the most influential approaches for this task was represented in Julius K. Nyerere´s idea of Ujamaa, the Tanzanian version of African socialism. Even before the Arusha Declaration established Ujamaa as a national development strategy in 1967, several groups of politicized young farmers took to the empty countryside of Tanzania to implement their own version of cooperative development. From one of these attempts emerged the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA), which organized up to 18 villages in southwestern Tanzania. The RDA became the inspiration for Nyerere´s concretization of Ujamaa and its implementation on national level. Yet, the central state could not replicate the success of the peasants, which was based on voluntariness and intrinsic motivation. In 2015, this exploratory study has revisited the Region of Ruvuma. Through a case study approach, relying mostly on qualitative methods, new insights into the local history of Ujamaa and its perception have been gathered. In particular, narrative interviews with contemporary witnesses and group interviews with the present-day farmers' groups have been conducted. Furthermore, NGOs active within the region, as well as regional and local government institutions were among the key stakeholders identified to concretize the local narrative of Ujamaa development. All interviews were analyzed according to the principles of qualitative content analysis. Additionally, individual villager questionnaires were used to achieve a more holistic picture of the local perception of development, challenges and the Ujamaa era. None of the original Ujamaa groups of the times of the RDA was still operational at the time of research and no case of village-wide organization of collective agriculture could be observed. Nevertheless, in all of the three case study villages, several farmers' groups (vikundi) were active in organizing development activities for their members. Furthermore, the perception of the Ujamaa era was generally positive throughout all of the case study sites. Yet, there have been significant differences in this perception, based on the village, age, gender and field size of the recipients. Overall, the period of Ujamaa was seen as an inspiration for present-day group activities, and the idea of such activities as a remedy for the developmental challenges of these villages was common among all stakeholders. This thesis concludes that the positive perception of group activities as a vehicle for village development and the perception of Ujamaa history as a positive asset for the inception and organization of farmers' groups would be highly beneficial to further attempts to support such development activities. However, the limitations in market access and capital availability for these highly-motivated group members have to be addressed by public and private development institutions. Otherwise, "the smell of Ujamaa" will be of little use for the progress of these villages.}, subject = {Ujamaa-Sozialismus}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Strauch2011, author = {Strauch, Ulrike}, title = {Wassertemperaturbedingte Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen konventioneller thermischer Kraftwerke in Deutschland und die Entwicklung rezenter und zuk{\"u}nftiger Flusswassertemperaturen im Kontext des Klimawandels}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-231015}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, pages = {XIX, 223}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit werden konventionelle thermische Kraftwerke an deutschen Fl{\"u}ssen identifiziert, bei denen aufgrund hoher Flusswassertemperaturen im Zusammenhang mit wasserrechtlichen Grenzwerten Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen auftraten. Weiterhin wird aufgezeigt, wie sich die Wassertemperaturen der Fl{\"u}sse in der Vergangenheit (rezent) entwickelt haben und wie sie sich zuk{\"u}nftig im Kontext des Klimawandels entwickeln k{\"o}nnten. Mittels Literaturrecherche, Medienanalyse und schriftlicher Befragung wurden konventionelle thermische Kraftwerke identifiziert, welche wassertemperaturbedingte Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen verzeichneten. Die meisten dieser Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen zwischen 1976 und 2007 zeigen sich bei großen Kraftwerken mit einer elektrischen Bruttoleistung {\"u}ber 300 Megawatt, bei Steinkohle- und Kernkraftwerken, bei Kraftwerken mit Durchlaufk{\"u}hlung und bei solchen, die zwischen 1960 und 1990 in Betrieb gingen. Trendanalysen interpolierter und homogenisierter, rezenter Wassertemperaturzeitreihen deutscher Fl{\"u}sse ergeben positive Trends v. a. im Fr{\"u}hjahr und Sommer. Die Z{\"a}hlstatistik zeigt in den Jahren 1994, 2003 und 2006 die meisten Tage mit sehr hohen und extrem hohen Wassertemperaturen in den Sommermonaten. In diesen Jahren traten gleichzeitig 63 \% aller identifizierter wassertemperaturbedingter Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen bei Kraftwerken, meist zwischen Juni und August, auf. F{\"u}r die Trendanalysen und den Mittelwertvergleich simulierter zuk{\"u}nftiger Wassertemperaturzeitreihen wurden drei Szenarien - B1, A1B und A2 sowie drei Zukunftsperioden 2011-2040, 2011/2041-2070, 2011/2071-2100 betrachtet. Es ergeben sich f{\"u}r die Zukunftsperiode 2011-2040 des A1B- oder A2-Szenarios in mindestens einem der Sommermonate eine Erw{\"a}rmung und f{\"u}r das B1-Szenario negative oder keine Trends. Die mittleren Wassertemperaturen der Zukunftsperiode 2011-2040 zeigen in allen drei Szenarien gegen{\"u}ber denen der Klimanormalperiode 1961-1990 positive Unterschiede in mindestens einem der Sommermonate. F{\"u}r die beiden sp{\"a}teren Zukunftsperioden bis 2070 bzw. bis 2100 liegen in allen Wassertemperaturzeitreihen der drei Szenarien im Sommer positive Trends bzw. Differenzen gegen{\"u}ber den mittleren Wassertemperaturen der Klimanormalperiode vor. Durch die Synthese der drei Analysen ist erkennbar, dass Isar, Rhein, Neckar, Saar, Elbe und Weser die meisten Kraftwerksstandorte mit wassertemperaturbedingten Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen verzeichnen. Es zeigen sich hier positive Trends sowohl in den rezenten als auch zuk{\"u}nftigen Wassertemperaturen f{\"u}r die Zukunftsperiode 2011-2040 des A1B- und A2-Szenarios in jeweils mindestens einem der Sommermonate. Gegen{\"u}ber den mittleren Wassertemperaturen der Klimanormalperiode liegen f{\"u}r alle drei Szenarien positive Unterschiede der Wassertemperaturen vor. Bei einer Kraftwerkslaufzeit von 40-50 Jahren und einem Kernenergieausstieg 2022 bzw. 2034, werden 48-64 \% bzw. 67-91 \% der Kraftwerke mit wassertemperaturbedingten Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen bis 2022 bzw. 2034 außer Betrieb gehen. Bei einer Laufzeitverl{\"a}ngerung w{\"u}rden nach 2022 f{\"u}nf der elf betroffenen Kernkraftwerke weiter am Netz bleiben. Somit kann es wieder zu wassertemperaturbedingten Leistungseinschr{\"a}nkungen kommen. In Deutschland sind nach wie vor große Kraftwerke an Fl{\"u}ssen geplant. Deren K{\"u}hlsysteme m{\"u}ssen entsprechend ausgew{\"a}hlt und konstruiert werden, um der zu erwartenden Erh{\"o}hung der Flusstemperaturen Rechnung zu tragen.}, subject = {Deutschland}, language = {de} } @article{AlavipanahWegmannQureshietal.2015, author = {Alavipanah, Sadroddin and Wegmann, Martin and Qureshi, Salman and Weng, Qihao and Koellner, Thomas}, title = {The role of vegetation in mitigating urban land surface temperatures: a case study of Munich, Germany during the warm season}, series = {Sustainability}, volume = {7}, journal = {Sustainability}, doi = {10.3390/su7044689}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-143447}, pages = {4689-4706}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the phenomenon of altered increased temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings. UHIs grow and intensify under extreme hot periods, such as during heat waves, which can affect human health and also increase the demand for energy for cooling. This study applies remote sensing and land use/land cover (LULC) data to assess the cooling effect of varying urban vegetation cover, especially during extreme warm periods, in the city of Munich, Germany. To compute the relationship between Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Land Use Land Cover (LULC), MODIS eight-day interval LST data for the months of June, July and August from 2002 to 2012 and the Corine Land Cover (CLC) database were used. Due to similarities in the behavior of surface temperature of different CLCs, some classes were reclassified and combined to form two major, rather simplified, homogenized classes: one of built-up area and one of urban vegetation. The homogenized map was merged with the MODIS eight-day interval LST data to compute the relationship between them. The results revealed that (i) the cooling effect accrued from urban vegetation tended to be non-linear; and (ii) a remarkable and stronger cooling effect in terms of LST was identified in regions where the proportion of vegetation cover was between seventy and almost eighty percent per square kilometer. The results also demonstrated that LST within urban vegetation was affected by the temperature of the surrounding built-up and that during the well-known European 2003 heat wave, suburb areas were cooler from the core of the urbanized region. This study concluded that the optimum green space for obtaining the lowest temperature is a non-linear trend. This could support urban planning strategies to facilitate appropriate applications to mitigate heat-stress in urban area.}, language = {en} } @article{LauschBorgBumbergeretal.2018, author = {Lausch, Angela and Borg, Erik and Bumberger, Jan and Dietrich, Peter and Heurich, Marco and Huth, Andreas and Jung, Andr{\´a}s and Klenke, Reinhard and Knapp, Sonja and Mollenhauer, Hannes and Paasche, Hendrik and Paulheim, Heiko and Pause, Marion and Schweitzer, Christian and Schmulius, Christiane and Settele, Josef and Skidmore, Andrew K. and Wegmann, Martin and Zacharias, Steffen and Kirsten, Toralf and Schaepman, Michael E.}, title = {Understanding forest health with remote sensing, part III: requirements for a scalable multi-source forest health monitoring network based on data science approaches}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {10}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {7}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs10071120}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-197691}, pages = {1120}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Forest ecosystems fulfill a whole host of ecosystem functions that are essential for life on our planet. However, an unprecedented level of anthropogenic influences is reducing the resilience and stability of our forest ecosystems as well as their ecosystem functions. The relationships between drivers, stress, and ecosystem functions in forest ecosystems are complex, multi-faceted, and often non-linear, and yet forest managers, decision makers, and politicians need to be able to make rapid decisions that are data-driven and based on short and long-term monitoring information, complex modeling, and analysis approaches. A huge number of long-standing and standardized forest health inventory approaches already exist, and are increasingly integrating remote-sensing based monitoring approaches. Unfortunately, these approaches in monitoring, data storage, analysis, prognosis, and assessment still do not satisfy the future requirements of information and digital knowledge processing of the 21st century. Therefore, this paper discusses and presents in detail five sets of requirements, including their relevance, necessity, and the possible solutions that would be necessary for establishing a feasible multi-source forest health monitoring network for the 21st century. Namely, these requirements are: (1) understanding the effects of multiple stressors on forest health; (2) using remote sensing (RS) approaches to monitor forest health; (3) coupling different monitoring approaches; (4) using data science as a bridge between complex and multidimensional big forest health (FH) data; and (5) a future multi-source forest health monitoring network. It became apparent that no existing monitoring approach, technique, model, or platform is sufficient on its own to monitor, model, forecast, or assess forest health and its resilience. In order to advance the development of a multi-source forest health monitoring network, we argue that in order to gain a better understanding of forest health in our complex world, it would be conducive to implement the concepts of data science with the components: (i) digitalization; (ii) standardization with metadata management after the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) principles; (iii) Semantic Web; (iv) proof, trust, and uncertainties; (v) tools for data science analysis; and (vi) easy tools for scientists, data managers, and stakeholders for decision-making support.}, language = {en} } @article{FaOliveroRealetal.2015, author = {Fa, John E. and Olivero, Jes{\´u}s and Real, Raimundo and Farf{\´a}n, Miguel A. and M{\´a}rquez, Ana L. and Vargas, J. Mario and Ziegler, Stefan and Wegmann, Martin and Brown, David and Margetts, Barrie and Nasi, Robert}, title = {Disentangling the relative effects of bushmeat availability on human nutrition in central Africa}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {5}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {8168}, doi = {10.1038/srep08168}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-144110}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We studied links between human malnutrition and wild meat availability within the Rainforest Biotic Zone in central Africa. We distinguished two distinct hunted mammalian diversity distributions, one in the rainforest areas (Deep Rainforest Diversity, DRD) containing taxa of lower hunting sustainability, the other in the northern rainforest-savanna mosaic, with species of greater hunting potential (Marginal Rainforest Diversity, MRD). Wild meat availability, assessed by standing crop mammalian biomass, was greater in MRD than in DRD areas. Predicted bushmeat extraction was also higher in MRD areas. Despite this, stunting of children, a measure of human malnutrition, was greater in MRD areas. Structural equation modeling identified that, in MRD areas, mammal diversity fell away from urban areas, but proximity to these positively influenced higher stunting incidence. In DRD areas, remoteness and distance from dense human settlements and infrastructures explained lower stunting levels. Moreover, stunting was higher away from protected areas. Our results suggest that in MRD areas, forest wildlife rational use for better human nutrition is possible. By contrast, the relatively low human populations in DRD areas currently offer abundant opportunities for the continued protection of more vulnerable mammals and allow dietary needs of local populations to be met.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kawohl2022, author = {Kawohl, Alexander}, title = {The Petrology and Geochemistry of Igneous Dykes above the Temagami Anomaly (Ontario, Canada) and their Relationship to the 1.85 Ga Sudbury Impact}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-27961}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-279617}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The area northeast of Sudbury, Ontario, is known for one of the largest unexplained geophysical anomalies on the Canadian Shield, the 1,200 km2 Temagami Anomaly. The geological cause of this regional magnetic, conductive and gravity feature has previously been modelled to be a mafic-ultramafic body at relatively great depth (2-15 km) of unknown age and origin, which may or may not be related to the meteorite impact-generated Sudbury Igneous Complex in its immediate vicinity. However, with a profound lack of outcrops and drill holes, the geological cause of the anomaly remains elusive, a genetic link to the 1.85 Ga Sudbury impact event purely speculative. In search for any potential surface expression of the deep-seated cause of the Temagami Anomaly, this study provides a first, yet comprehensive petrological and geochemical assessment of exotic igneous dykes recently discovered in outcrops above, and drill cores into, the Temagami Anomaly. Based on cross-cutting field relations, petrographic studies, lithogeochemistry, whole-rock Nd-Sr-Pb isotope systematics, and U-Pb geochronology, it was possible to identify, and distinguish between, at least six different groups of igneous dykes: (i) Calc-alkaline quartz diorite dykes related to the 1.85 Ga Sudbury Igneous Complex (locally termed Offset Dykes); (ii) tholeiitic quartz diabase of the regional 2.22 Ga Nipissing Suite/Senneterre Dyke Swarm; (iii) calc-alkaline quartz diabase of the regional 2.17 Ga Biscotasing Dyke Swarm; (iv) alkaline ultrabasic dykes correlated with the 1.88-1.86 Ga Circum-Superior Large Igneous Province (LIP); and (v) aplitic dykes as well as (vi) a hornblende syenite, the latter two of more ambiguous age and stratigraphic position. The findings presented in this study - the discovery of three new Offset Dykes in particular - offer some unexpected insights into the geology and economic potential of one of the least explored areas of the world-class Sudbury Mining Camp as well as into the nature and distribution of both allochthonous and autochthonous impactites within one of the oldest and largest impact structures known on Earth. Not only do the geometric patterns of dyke (and breccia) distribution reaffirm previous notions of the existence of discrete ring structures in the sense of a ~200-km multi-ring basin, but they provide critical constraints as to the pre-erosional thickness and extent of the impact melt sheet, thus helping to identity new areas for Ni-Cu-PGE exploration. Furthermore, this study provides important insights into the pre-impact stratigraphy and the magmatic evolution of the region in general, which reveals to be much more complex, compositionally divers, and protracted than initially assumed. Of note is the discovery of rocks related to the 2.17 Ga Biscotasing and the 1.88-1.86 Ga Circum-Superior magmatic events, as these were not previously known to occur on the southeast margin of the Superior Craton. Shortly predating the Sudbury impact and being contemporaneous with ore-forming events at Thompson (Manitoba) and Raglan (Cape Smith), these magmatic rocks could provide the missing link between unusual mafic, pre-enriched, crustal target rocks, and the unique metal endowment of the Sudbury Impact Structure. The actual geological cause of the Temagami Anomaly remains open to debate and requires the downward extension of existing bore holes as well as more detailed geophysical investigations. The hypothesis of a genetic relationship between Sudbury impact event and Temagami Anomaly is neither borne out by any evidence nor particularly realistic, even in case of an oblique impact, and should thus be abandoned. It is instead proposed, based on circumstantial evidence, that the anomaly might be explained by an ultramafic complex of the 1.88-1.86 Ga Circum-Superior LIP.}, subject = {Impaktstruktur}, language = {en} } @book{Fuelling2022, author = {F{\"u}lling, Julia}, title = {Wonach schmeckt Herkunft? - {\"U}ber (Nicht-)Wissen beim Lebensmittelkonsum und die Bedeutung der Geographien und Biographien von frischem Obst und Gem{\"u}se}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-182-2}, issn = {2196-5811}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-183-9}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-268869}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {x, 240}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Durch die globale Organisation von Lebensmittelwarenketten steht Konsument*innen heute ein vielf{\"a}ltiges, ganzj{\"a}hrig nahezu gleichbleibendes Angebot an frischem Obst und Gem{\"u}se im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel zur Verf{\"u}gung. Damit einher geht eine erh{\"o}hte Komplexit{\"a}t beim Lebensmitteleinkauf und ein ver{\"a}ndertes Wissen von Konsument*innen, {\"u}ber die Waren: Das eigene Erfahren der Lebensmittelproduktion ist im Alltag heute nicht mehr m{\"o}glich. Statt praktischem Wissen gewinnt damit explizites und objektiviertes Wissen {\"u}ber die Waren, z.B. in Form von Siegeln an Bedeutung. Viele Produkt- und Produktionseigenschaften entziehen sich zudem der Kenntnis der Konsument*innen, w{\"a}hrend gleichzeitig das Bewusstsein f{\"u}r Fragen sozialer und {\"o}kologischer Nachhaltigkeit steigt. Die vorliegende Studie geht vor diesem Hintergrund am Beispiel des Einkaufs von frischem Obst und Gem{\"u}se der Frage nach, welche Bedeutung die Herkunftsangabe als Hinweis auf die Geographien der Waren f{\"u}r die Bewertung von frischem Obst und Gem{\"u}se hat und welches Wissen Konsument*innen {\"u}ber Waren und deren Biographien haben. Es wird zudem aufgezeigt, welche Rolle Nichtwissen beim Lebensmittelkonsum spielt. Die Studie liefert Erkenntnisse f{\"u}r die bislang im deutschsprachigen Raum noch vergleichsweise wenig repr{\"a}sentierte Konsumgeographie und macht Konzepte aus der Wissens- und Organisationssoziologie f{\"u}r die wirtschaftsgeographische Forschung fruchtbar. Aus einer Praxisperspektive bietet sie Anschlusspunkte f{\"u}r Fragen des nachhaltigen Konsums sowie des Verbraucherschutzes.}, subject = {Konsum}, language = {de} } @techreport{MuellerSchererLorenzenAmmeretal.2022, author = {M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael and Ammer, Christian and Eisenhauer, Nico and Seidel, Dominik and Schuldt, Bernhard and Biedermann, Peter and Schmitt, Thomas and K{\"u}nzer, Claudia and Wegmann, Martin and Cesarz, Simone and Peters, Marcell and Feldhaar, Heike and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and Claßen, Alice and B{\"a}ssler, Claus and von Oheimb, Goddert and Fichtner, Andreas and Thorn, Simon and Weisser, Wolfgang}, title = {BETA-FOR: Erh{\"o}hung der strukturellen Diversit{\"a}t zwischen Waldbest{\"a}nden zur Erh{\"o}hung der Multidiversit{\"a}t und Multifunktionalit{\"a}t in Produktionsw{\"a}ldern. Antragstext f{\"u}r die DFG Forschungsgruppe FOR 5375}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-29084}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-290849}, pages = {210}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Der in j{\"u}ngster Zeit beobachtete kontinuierliche Verlust der β-Diversit{\"a}t in {\"O}kosystemen deutet auf homogene Gemeinschaften auf Landschaftsebene hin, was haupts{\"a}chlich auf die steigende Landnutzungsintensit{\"a}t zur{\"u}ckgef{\"u}hrt wird. Biologische Vielfalt ist mit zahlreichen Funktionen und der Stabilit{\"a}t von {\"O}kosystemen verkn{\"u}pft. Es ist daher zu erwarten, dass eine abnehmende β-Diversit{\"a}t auch die Multifunktionalit{\"a}t verringert. Wir kombinieren hier Fachwissen aus der Forstwissenschaft, der {\"O}kologie, der Fernerkundung, der chemischen {\"O}kologie und der Statistik in einem gemeinschaftlichen und experimentellen β-Diversit{\"a}tsdesign, um einerseits die Auswirkungen der Homogenisierung zu bewerten und andererseits Konzepte zu entwickeln, um negative Auswirkungen durch Homogenisierung in W{\"a}ldern r{\"u}ckg{\"a}ngig zu machen. Konkret werden wir uns mit der Frage besch{\"a}ftigen, ob die Verbesserung der strukturellen β-Komplexit{\"a}t (ESBC) in W{\"a}ldern durch Waldbau oder nat{\"u}rliche St{\"o}rungen die Biodiversit{\"a}t und Multifunktionalit{\"a}t in ehemals homogenen Produktionsw{\"a}ldern erh{\"o}hen kann. Unser Ansatz wird m{\"o}gliche Mechanismen hinter den beobachteten Homogenisierungs-Diversit{\"a}ts-Beziehungen identifizieren und zeigen, wie sich diese auf die Multifunktionalit{\"a}t auswirken. An elf Standorten in ganz Deutschland haben wir dazu zwei Waldbest{\"a}nde als zwei kleine "Waldlandschaften" ausgew{\"a}hlt. In einem dieser beiden Best{\"a}nde haben wir ESBC (Enhancement of Structural Beta Complexity)-Behandlungen durchgef{\"u}hrt. Im zweiten, dem Kontrollbestand, werden wir die gleich Anzahl 50x50m Parzellen ohne ESBC einrichten. Auf allen Parzellen werden wir 18 taxonomische Artengruppen aller trophischer Ebenen und 21 {\"O}kosystemfunktionen, einschließlich der wichtigsten Funktionen in W{\"a}ldern der gem{\"a}ßigten Zonen, messen. Der statistische Rahmen wird eine umfassende Analyse der Biodiversit{\"a}t erm{\"o}glichen, indem verschiedenen Aspekte (taxonomische, funktionelle und phylogenetische Vielfalt) auf verschiedenen Skalenebenen (α-, β-, γ-Diversit{\"a}t) quantifiziert werden. Um die Gesamtdiversit{\"a}t zu kombinieren, werden wir das Konzept der Multidiversit{\"a}t auf die 18 Taxa anwenden. Wir werden neue Ans{\"a}tze zur Quantifizierung und Aufteilung der Multifunktionalit{\"a}t auf α- und β-Skalen verwenden und entwickeln. Durch die experimentelle Beschreibung des Zusammenhangs zwischen β-Diversit{\"a}t und Multifunktionalit{\"a}t in einer Reallandschaft wird unsere Forschung einen neuen Weg einschlagen. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus werden wir dazu beitragen, verbesserte Leitlinien f{\"u}r waldbauliche Konzepte und f{\"u}r das Management nat{\"u}rlicher St{\"o}rungen zu entwickeln, um Homogenisierungseffekte der Vergangenheit umzukehren.}, subject = {Wald{\"o}kosystem}, language = {en} } @article{BucheltSkovRasmussenetal.2022, author = {Buchelt, Sebastian and Skov, Kirstine and Rasmussen, Kerstin Kr{\o}ier and Ullmann, Tobias}, title = {Sentinel-1 time series for mapping snow cover depletion and timing of snowmelt in Arctic periglacial environments: case study from Zackenberg and Kobbefjord, Greenland}, series = {The Cryosphere}, volume = {16}, journal = {The Cryosphere}, number = {2}, doi = {10.5194/tc-16-625-2022}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-300139}, pages = {625 -- 646}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Snow cover (SC) and timing of snowmelt are key regulators of a wide range of Arctic ecosystem functions. Both are strongly influenced by the amplified Arctic warming and essential variables to understand environmental changes and their dynamics. This study evaluates the potential of Sentinel-1 (S-1) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series for monitoring SC depletion and snowmelt with high spatiotemporal resolution to capture their understudied small-scale heterogeneity. We use 97 dual-polarized S-1 SAR images acquired over northeastern Greenland and 94 over southwestern Greenland in the interferometric wide swath mode from the years 2017 and 2018. Comparison of S-1 intensity against SC fraction maps derived from orthorectified terrestrial time-lapse imagery indicates that SAR backscatter can increase before a decrease in SC fraction is observed. Hence, the increase in backscatter is related to changing snowpack properties during the runoff phase as well as decreasing SC fraction. We here present a novel empirical approach based on the temporal evolution of the SAR signal to identify start of runoff (SOR), end of snow cover (EOS) and SC extent for each S-1 observation date during melt using backscatter thresholds as well as the derivative. Comparison of SC with orthorectified time-lapse imagery indicates that HV polarization outperforms HH when using a global threshold. The derivative avoids manual selection of thresholds and adapts to different environmental settings and seasonal conditions. With a global configuration (threshold: 4 dB; polarization: HV) as well as with the derivative, the overall accuracy of SC maps was in all cases above 75 \% and in more than half of cases above 90 \%. Based on the physical principle of SAR backscatter during snowmelt, our approach is expected to work well in other low-vegetation areas and, hence, could support large-scale SC monitoring at high spatiotemporal resolution (20 m, 6 d) with high accuracy.}, language = {en} } @article{RauchArnoldStuerneretal.2022, author = {Rauch, Sebastian and Arnold, Louisa and Stuerner, Zelda and Rauh, Juergen and Rost, Michael}, title = {A true choice of place of birth? Swiss women's access to birth hospitals and birth centers}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {17}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {7}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0270834}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-300159}, year = {2022}, abstract = {While the place of birth plays a crucial role for women's birth experiences, the interest in out-of-hospital births has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Related to this, various international policies recommend enabling women to choose where to give birth. We aimed to analyze Swiss women's choice between birth hospitals and birth centers. Employing spatial accessibility analysis, we incorporated four data types: highly disaggregated population data, administrative data, street network data, addresses of birth hospitals and birth centers. 99.8\% of Swiss women of childbearing age were included in the analysis (N = 1.896.669). We modelled car travel times from a woman's residence to the nearest birth hospital and birth center. If both birth settings were available within 30 minutes, a woman was considered to have a true choice. Only 58.2\% of women had a true choice. This proportion varied considerably across Swiss federal states. The main barrier to a true choice was limited accessibility of birth centers. Median travel time to birth hospitals was 9.8 (M = 12.5), to birth centers 23.9 minutes (M = 28.5). Swiss women are insufficiently empowered to exercise their reproductive autonomy as their choice of place of birth is significantly limited by geographical constraints. It is an ethical and medical imperative to provide women with a true choice. We provide high-resolution insights into the accessibility of birth settings and strong arguments to (re-)examine the need for further birth centers (and birth hospitals) in specific geographical areas. Policy-makers are obligated to improve the accessibility of birth centers to advance women's autonomy and enhance maternal health outcomes after childbirth. The Covid-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to shift policy.}, language = {en} } @techreport{MeyerJobLaneretal.2022, author = {Meyer, Constantin and Job, Hubert and Laner, Peter and Omizzolo, Andrea and Kollmann, Nadia and Clare, Jasmin and Vesely, Philipp and Riedler, Walter and Plassmann, Guido and Coronado, Oriana and Praper Gulič, Sergeja and Gulič, Andrej and Koblar, Simon and Teofili, Corrado and Rohringer, Verena and Schoßleitner, Richard and Ainz, Gerhard}, title = {OpenSpaceAlps Planungshandbuch: Perspektiven f{\"u}r eine konsistente Freiraumsicherung im Alpenraum}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-27307}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-273070}, pages = {114}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Im Alpenraum l{\"a}sst sich nach wie vor die kontinuierliche Inanspruchnahme von Freir{\"a}umen f{\"u}r Siedlungsfl{\"a}chen und technische Infrastrukturen und die damit verbundene Bodenversiegelung beobachten. Dies f{\"u}hrt in erster Linie zum Verlust von landwirtschaftlichen Fl{\"a}chen. Je nach Ausmaß der Bebauung kommt es auch zu einer verst{\"a}rkten Landschaftszerschneidung, die zur Isolierung nat{\"u}rlicher Lebensr{\"a}ume und zur Einschr{\"a}nkung des {\"o}kologischen Verbundes sowie zu weiteren negativen Folgewirkungen f{\"u}hrt. Das OpenSpaceAlps Projekt hat sich dieser Thematik angenommen und, basierend auf kooperativen Verfahren in mehreren Pilotregionen, Handlungsans{\"a}tze und Strategien f{\"u}r eine nachhaltige Sicherung von Freir{\"a}umen entwickelt. Dieses Handbuch stellt eine Handlungs- und Entscheidungshilfe f{\"u}r verschiedene Akteure/Akteurinnen dar, allen voran Planer*innen in {\"o}ffentlichen Planungsbeh{\"o}rden. Ausgehend von einer Analyse der Herausforderungen und Rahmenbedingungen im Alpenraum, werden in diesem Handbuch zentrale „Prinzipien" der Freiraumplanung vorgestellt und verglichen. Außerdem werden integrierte Planungsstrategien f{\"u}r verschiedene Raumkategorien diskutiert.}, subject = {Raumordnung}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Wilde2022, author = {Wilde, Martina}, title = {Landslide susceptibility assessment in the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range area, Veracruz (Mexico)}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-27608}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-276085}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In Mexico, numerous landslides occur each year and Veracruz represents the state with the third highest number of events. Especially the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range, located in the central part of Veracruz, is highly affected by landslides and no detailed information on the spatial distribution of existing landslides or future occurrences is available. This leaves the local population exposed to an unknown threat and unable to react appropriately to this hazard or to consider the potential landslide occurrence in future planning processes. Thus, the overall objective of the present study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the landslide situation in the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range area. Here, the combination of a site-specific and a regional approach enables to investigate the causes, triggers, and process types as well as to model the landslide susceptibility for the entire study area. For the site-specific approach, the focus lies on characterizing the Capul{\´i}n landslide, which represents one of the largest mass movements in the area. In this context, the task is to develop a multi-methodological concept, which concentrates on cost-effective, flexible and non-invasive methods. This approach shows that the applied methods complement each other very well and their combination allows for a detailed characterization of the landslide. The analyses revealed that the Capul{\´i}n landslide is a complex mass movement type. It comprises rotational movement in the upper parts and translational movement in the lower areas, as well as flow processes at the flank and foot area and therefore, is classified as a compound slide-flow according to Cruden and Varnes (1996). Furthermore, the investigations show that the Capul{\´i}n landslide represents a reactivation of a former process. This is an important new information, especially with regard to the other landslides identified in the study area. Both the road reconstructed after the landslide, which runs through the landslide mass, and the stream causing erosion processes at the foot of the landslide severely affect the stability of the landslide, making it highly susceptible to future reactivation processes. This is particularly important as the landslide is located only few hundred meters from the village El Capul{\´i}n and an extension of the landslide area could cause severe damage. The next step in the landslide assessment consists of integrating the data obtained in the site-specific approach into the regional analysis. Here, the focus lies on transferring the generated data to the entire study area. The developed methodological concept yields applicable results, which is supported by different validation approaches. The susceptibility modeling as well as the landslide inventory reveal that the highest probability of landslides occurrence is related to the areas with moderate slopes covered by slope deposits. These slope deposits comprise material from old mass movements and erosion processes and are highly susceptible to landslides. The results give new insights into the landslide situation in the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range area, since previously landslide occurrence was related to steep slopes of basalt and andesite. The susceptibility map is a contribution to a better assessment of the landslide situation in the study area and simultaneously proves that it is crucial to include specific characteristics of the respective area into the modeling process, otherwise it is possible that the local conditions will not be represented correctly.}, subject = {Naturgefahren}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ibebuchi2023, author = {Ibebuchi, Chibuike Chiedozie}, title = {Bias correction of climate model output for Germany}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-31264}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-312647}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Regional climate models (RCMs) are tools used to project future climate change at a regional scale. Despite their high horizontal resolution, RCMs are characterized by systematic biases relative to observations, which can result in unrealistic interpretations of future climate change signals. On the other hand, bias correction (BC) is a popular statistical post-processing technique applied to improve the usability of output from climate models. Like every other statistical technique, BC has its strengths and weaknesses. Hence, within the regional context of Germany, and for temperature and precipitation, this study is dedicated to the assessment of the impact of different BC techniques on the RCM output. The focuses are on the impact of BC on the RCM's statistical characterization, and physical consistency defined as the spatiotemporal consistency between the bias-corrected variable and the simulated physical mechanisms governing the variable, as well as the correlations between the bias-corrected variable and other (simulated) climate variables. Five BC techniques were applied in adjusting the systematic biases in temperature and precipitation RCM outputs. The BC techniques are linear scaling, empirical quantile mapping, univariate quantile delta mapping, multivariate quantile delta mapping that considers inter-site dependencies, and multivariate quantile delta mapping that considers inter-variable dependencies (MBCn). The results show that each BC technique adds value in reducing the biases in the statistics of the RCM output, though the added value depends on several factors such as the temporal resolution of the data, choice of RCM, climate variable, region, and the metric used in evaluating the BC technique. Further, the raw RCMs reproduced portions of the observed modes of atmospheric circulation in Western Europe, and the observed temperature, and precipitation meteorological patterns in Germany. After the BC, generally, the spatiotemporal configurations of the simulated meteorological patterns as well as the governing large-scale mechanisms were reproduced. However, at a more localized spatial scale for the individual meteorological patterns, the BC changed the simulated co-variability of some grids, especially for precipitation. Concerning the co-variability among the variables, a physically interpretable positive correlation was found between temperature and precipitation during boreal winter in both models and observations. For most grid boxes in the study domain and on average, the BC techniques that do not adjust inter-variable dependency did not notably change the simulated correlations between the climate variables. However, depending on the grid box, the (univariate) BC techniques tend to degrade the simulated temporal correlations between temperature and precipitation. Further, MBCn which adjusts biases in inter-variable dependency has the skill to improve the correlations between the simulated variables towards observations.}, language = {en} } @article{IbebuchiSchoenbeinAdakudluetal.2022, author = {Ibebuchi, Chibuike Chiedozie and Sch{\"o}nbein, Daniel and Adakudlu, Muralidhar and Xoplaki, Elena and Paeth, Heiko}, title = {Comparison of three techniques to adjust daily precipitation biases from regional climate models over Germany}, series = {Water}, volume = {14}, journal = {Water}, number = {4}, issn = {2073-4441}, doi = {10.3390/w14040600}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262064}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This study compares the performance of three bias correction (BC) techniques in adjusting simulated precipitation estimates over Germany. The BC techniques are the multivariate quantile delta mapping (MQDM) where the grids are used as variables to incorporate the spatial dependency structure of precipitation in the bias correction; empirical quantile mapping (EQM) and, the linear scaling (LS) approach. Several metrics that include first to fourth moments and extremes characterized by the frequency of heavy wet days and return periods during boreal summer were applied to score the performance of the BC techniques. Our results indicate a strong dependency of the relative performances of the BC techniques on the choice of the regional climate model (RCM), the region, the season, and the metrics of interest. Hence, each BC technique has relative strengths and weaknesses. The LS approach performs well in adjusting the first moment but tends to fall short for higher moments and extreme precipitation during boreal summer. Depending on the season, the region and the RCM considered, there is a trade-off between the relative performances of the EQM and the MQDM in adjusting the simulated precipitation biases. However, the MQDM performs well across all considered metrics. Overall, the MQDM outperforms the EQM in improving the higher moments and in capturing the observed return level of extreme summer precipitation, averaged over Germany.}, language = {en} } @article{NyamekyeThielSchoenbrodtStittetal.2018, author = {Nyamekye, Clement and Thiel, Michael and Sch{\"o}nbrodt-Stitt, Sarah and Zoungrana, Benewinde J.-B. and Amekudzi, Leonard K.}, title = {Soil and water conservation in Burkina Faso, West Africa}, series = {Sustainability}, volume = {10}, journal = {Sustainability}, number = {9}, issn = {2071-1050}, doi = {10.3390/su10093182}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-197653}, pages = {3182}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Inadequate land management and agricultural activities have largely resulted in land degradation in Burkina Faso. The nationwide governmental and institutional driven implementation and adoption of soil and water conservation measures (SWCM) since the early 1960s, however, is expected to successively slow down the degradation process and to increase the agricultural output. Even though relevant measures have been taken, only a few studies have been conducted to quantify their effect, for instance, on soil erosion and environmental restoration. In addition, a comprehensive summary of initiatives, implementation strategies, and eventually region-specific requirements for adopting different SWCM is missing. The present study therefore aims to review the different SWCM in Burkina Faso and implementation programs, as well as to provide information on their effects on environmental restoration and agricultural productivity. This was achieved by considering over 143 studies focusing on Burkina Faso's experience and research progress in areas of SWCM and soil erosion. SWCM in Burkina Faso have largely resulted in an increase in agricultural productivity and improvement in food security. Finally, this study aims at supporting the country's informed decision-making for extending already existing SWCM and for deriving further implementation strategies.}, language = {en} } @article{SteiningerAbelZiegleretal.2023, author = {Steininger, Michael and Abel, Daniel and Ziegler, Katrin and Krause, Anna and Paeth, Heiko and Hotho, Andreas}, title = {ConvMOS: climate model output statistics with deep learning}, series = {Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery}, volume = {37}, journal = {Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery}, number = {1}, issn = {1384-5810}, doi = {10.1007/s10618-022-00877-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324213}, pages = {136-166}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Climate models are the tool of choice for scientists researching climate change. Like all models they suffer from errors, particularly systematic and location-specific representation errors. One way to reduce these errors is model output statistics (MOS) where the model output is fitted to observational data with machine learning. In this work, we assess the use of convolutional Deep Learning climate MOS approaches and present the ConvMOS architecture which is specifically designed based on the observation that there are systematic and location-specific errors in the precipitation estimates of climate models. We apply ConvMOS models to the simulated precipitation of the regional climate model REMO, showing that a combination of per-location model parameters for reducing location-specific errors and global model parameters for reducing systematic errors is indeed beneficial for MOS performance. We find that ConvMOS models can reduce errors considerably and perform significantly better than three commonly used MOS approaches and plain ResNet and U-Net models in most cases. Our results show that non-linear MOS models underestimate the number of extreme precipitation events, which we alleviate by training models specialized towards extreme precipitation events with the imbalanced regression method DenseLoss. While we consider climate MOS, we argue that aspects of ConvMOS may also be beneficial in other domains with geospatial data, such as air pollution modeling or weather forecasts.}, subject = {Klima}, language = {en} } @article{IbebuchiSchoenbeinPaeth2022, author = {Ibebuchi, Chibuike Chiedozie and Sch{\"o}nbein, Daniel and Paeth, Heiko}, title = {On the added value of statistical post-processing of regional climate models to identify homogeneous patterns of summer rainfall anomalies in Germany}, series = {Climate Dynamics}, volume = {59}, journal = {Climate Dynamics}, number = {9-10}, issn = {0930-7575}, doi = {10.1007/s00382-022-06258-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324122}, pages = {2769-2783}, year = {2022}, abstract = {A fuzzy classification scheme that results in physically interpretable meteorological patterns associated with rainfall generation is applied to classify homogeneous regions of boreal summer rainfall anomalies in Germany. Four leading homogeneous regions are classified, representing the western, southeastern, eastern, and northern/northwestern parts of Germany with some overlap in the central parts of Germany. Variations of the sea level pressure gradient across Europe, e.g., between the continental and maritime regions, is the major phenomenon that triggers the time development of the rainfall regions by modulating wind patterns and moisture advection. Two regional climate models (REMO and CCLM4) were used to investigate the capability of climate models to reproduce the observed summer rainfall regions. Both regional climate models (RCMs) were once driven by the ERA-Interim reanalysis and once by the MPI-ESM general circulation model (GCM). Overall, the RCMs exhibit good performance in terms of the regionalization of summer rainfall in Germany; though the goodness-of-match with the rainfall regions/patterns from observational data is low in some cases and the REMO model driven by MPI-ESM fails to reproduce the western homogeneous rainfall region. Under future climate change, virtually the same leading modes of summer rainfall occur, suggesting that the basic synoptic processes associated with the regional patterns remain the same over Germany. We have also assessed the added value of bias-correcting the MPI-ESM driven RCMs using a simple linear scaling approach. The bias correction does not significantly alter the identification of homogeneous rainfall regions and, hence, does not improve their goodness-of-match compared to the observed patterns, except for the one case where the original RCM output completely fails to reproduce the observed pattern. While the linear scaling method improves the basic statistics of precipitation, it does not improve the simulated meteorological patterns represented by the precipitation regimes.}, language = {en} } @article{GeyerLandingMeieretal.2023, author = {Geyer, Gerd and Landing, Ed and Meier, Stefan and H{\"o}hn, Stefan}, title = {Oldest known West Gondwanan graptolite: Ovetograptus? sp. (lower Agdzian/lowest Wuliuan; basal Middle Cambrian) of the Franconian Forest, Germany, and review of pre-Furongian graptolithoids}, series = {Pal{\"a}ontologische Zeitschrift}, volume = {97}, journal = {Pal{\"a}ontologische Zeitschrift}, number = {4}, issn = {0031-0220}, doi = {10.1007/s12542-022-00627-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324099}, pages = {677-686}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The occurrence of a likely graptolite in lowest Wuliuan strata of the Franconian Forest almost certainly records the oldest known graptolithoid hemichordate in West Gondwana and possibly the oldest graptolite presently known. The fossil is a delicate, erect, apparently unbranched rhabdosome with narrow thecae tentatively assigned to the poorly known genus Ovetograptus of the Dithecodendridae. This report includes an overview of pre-Furongian graptolithoids with slight corrections on the stratigraphic position of earlier reported species.}, language = {en} } @article{RaiZieglerAbeletal.2022, author = {Rai, P. and Ziegler, K. and Abel, D. and Pollinger, F. and Paeth, H.}, title = {Performance of a regional climate model with interactive vegetation (REMO-iMOVE) over Central Asia}, series = {Theoretical and Applied Climatology}, volume = {150}, journal = {Theoretical and Applied Climatology}, number = {3-4}, issn = {0177-798X}, doi = {10.1007/s00704-022-04233-y}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324155}, pages = {1385-1405}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The current study evaluates the regional climate model REMO (v2015) and its new version REMO-iMOVE, including interactive vegetation and plant functional types (PFTs), over two Central Asian domains for the period of 2000-2015 at two different horizontal resolutions (0.44° and 0.11°). Various statistical metrices along with mean bias patterns for precipitation, temperature, and leaf area index have been used for the model evaluation. A better representation of the spatial pattern of precipitation is found at 0.11° resolution over most of Central Asia. Regarding the mean temperature, both model versions show a high level of agreement with the validation data, especially at the higher resolution. This also reduces the biases in maximum and minimum temperature. Generally, REMO-iMOVE shows an improvement regarding the temperature bias but produces a larger precipitation bias compared to the REMO conventional version with interannually static vegetation. Since the coupled version is capable to simulate the mean climate of Central Asia like its parent version, both can be used for impact studies and future projections. However, regarding the new vegetation scheme and its spatiotemporal representation exemplified by the leaf area index, REMO-iMOVE shows a clear advantage over REMO. This better simulation is caused by the implementation of more realistic and interactive vegetation and related atmospheric processes which consequently add value to the regional climate model.}, language = {en} } @article{Libanda2023, author = {Libanda, Brigadier}, title = {Performance assessment of CORDEX regional climate models in wind speed simulations over Zambia}, series = {Modeling Earth Systems and Environment}, volume = {9}, journal = {Modeling Earth Systems and Environment}, number = {1}, issn = {2363-6203}, doi = {10.1007/s40808-022-01504-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324147}, pages = {253-262}, year = {2023}, abstract = {There is no single solution to cutting emissions, however, renewable energy projects that are backed by rigorous ex-ante assessments play an important role in these efforts. An inspection of literature reveals critical knowledge gaps in the understanding of future wind speed variability across Zambia, thus leading to major uncertainties in the understanding of renewable wind energy potential over the country. Several model performance metrics, both statistical and graphical were used in this study to examine the performance of CORDEX Africa Regional Climate Models (RCMs) in simulating wind speed across Zambia. Results indicate that wind speed is increasing at the rate of 0.006 m s\(^{-1}\) per year. RCA4-GFDL-ESM2M, RCA4-HadGEM2-ES, RCA4-IPSL-CM5A-MR, and RCA4-CSIRO-MK3.6.0 were found to correctly simulate wind speed increase with varying magnitudes on the Sen's estimator of slope. All the models sufficiently reproduce the annual cycle of wind speed with a steady increase being observed from April reaching its peak around August/September and beginning to drop in October. Apart from RegCM4-MPI-ESM and RegCM4-HadGEM2, the performance of RCMs in simulating spatial wind speed patterns is generally good although they overestimate it by ~ 1 m s\(^{-1}\) in the western and southern provinces of the country. Model performance metrics indicate that with a correlation coefficient of 0.5, a root mean square error of 0.4 m s\(^{-1}\), an RSR value of 7.7 and a bias of 19.9\%, RCA4-GFDL-ESM2M outperforms all other models followed by RCA4-HadGEM2, and RCA4-CM5A-MR respectively. These results, therefore, suggest that studies that use an ensemble of RCA4-GFDL-ESM2M, RCA4-HadGEM2, and RCA4-CM5A-MR would yield useful results for informing future renewable wind energy potential in Zambia.}, language = {en} } @article{KanmegneTamgaLatifiUllmannetal.2023, author = {Kanmegne Tamga, Dan and Latifi, Hooman and Ullmann, Tobias and Baumhauer, Roland and Thiel, Michael and Bayala, Jules}, title = {Modelling the spatial distribution of the classification error of remote sensing data in cocoa agroforestry systems}, series = {Agroforestry Systems}, volume = {97}, journal = {Agroforestry Systems}, number = {1}, issn = {0167-4366}, doi = {10.1007/s10457-022-00791-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324139}, pages = {109-119}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Cocoa growing is one of the main activities in humid West Africa, which is mainly grown in pure stands. It is the main driver of deforestation and encroachment in protected areas. Cocoa agroforestry systems which have been promoted to mitigate deforestation, needs to be accurately delineated to support a valid monitoring system. Therefore, the aim of this research is to model the spatial distribution of uncertainties in the classification cocoa agroforestry. The study was carried out in C{\^o}te d'Ivoire, close to the Ta{\"i} National Park. The analysis followed three steps (i) image classification based on texture parameters and vegetation indices from Sentinel-1 and -2 data respectively, to train a random forest algorithm. A classified map with the associated probability maps was generated. (ii) Shannon entropy was calculated from the probability maps, to get the error maps at different thresholds (0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5). Then, (iii) the generated error maps were analysed using a Geographically Weighted Regression model to check for spatial autocorrelation. From the results, a producer accuracy (0.88) and a user's accuracy (0.91) were obtained. A small threshold value overestimates the classification error, while a larger threshold will underestimate it. The optimal value was found to be between 0.3 and 0.4. There was no evidence of spatial autocorrelation except for a smaller threshold (0.2). The approach differentiated cocoa from other landcover and detected encroachment in forest. Even though some information was lost in the process, the method is effective for mapping cocoa plantations in C{\^o}te d'Ivoire.}, language = {en} } @article{FrimmelChakravartiBasei2022, author = {Frimmel, Hartwig E. and Chakravarti, Rajarshi and Basei, Miguel A. S.}, title = {Detrital zircon ages from Archaean conglomerates in the Singhbhum Craton, eastern India: implications on economic Au-U potential}, series = {Mineralium Deposita}, volume = {57}, journal = {Mineralium Deposita}, number = {8}, issn = {0026-4598}, doi = {10.1007/s00126-022-01121-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324084}, pages = {1499-1514}, year = {2022}, abstract = {New U-Pb age and Hf isotope data obtained on detrital zircon grains from Au- and U-bearing Archaean quartz-pebble conglomerates in the Singhbhum Craton, eastern India, specifically the Upper Iron Ore Group in the Badampahar Greenstone Belt and the Phuljhari Formation below the Dhanjori Group provide insights into the zircon provenance and maximum age of sediment deposition. The most concordant, least disturbed \(^{207}\)Pb/\(^{206}\)Pb ages cover the entire range of known magmatic and higher grade metamorphic events in the craton from 3.48 to 3.06 Ga and show a broad maximum between 3.38 and 3.18 Ga. This overlap is also mimicked by Lu-Hf isotope analyses, which returned a wide range in \(_{εHf}\)(t) values from + 6 to - 5, in agreement with the range known from zircon grains in igneous and metamorphic rocks in the Singhbhum Craton. A smaller but distinct age peak centred at 3.06 Ga corresponds to the age of the last major magmatic intrusive event, the emplacement of the Mayurbhanj Granite and associated gabbro, picrite and anorthosite. Thus, these intrusive rocks must form a basement rather than being intrusive into the studied conglomerates as previously interpreted. The corresponding detrital zircon grains all have a subchondritic Hf isotopic composition. The youngest reliable zircon ages of 3.03 Ga in the case of the basal Upper Iron Ore Group in the east of the craton and 3.00 Ga for the Phuljhari Formation set an upper limit on the age of conglomerate sedimentation. Previously published detrital zircon age data from similarly Au-bearing conglomerates in the Mahagiri Quartzite in the Upper Iron Ore Group in the south of the craton gave a somewhat younger maximum age of sedimentation of 2.91 Ga. There, the lower limit on sedimentation is given by an intrusive relationship with a c. 2.8 Ga granite. The time window thus defined for conglomerate deposition on the Singhbhum Craton is almost identical to the age span established for the, in places, Au- and U-rich conglomerates in the Kaapvaal Craton of South Africa: the 2.98-2.78 Ga Dominion Group and Witwatersrand Supergroup in South Africa. Since the recognition of first major concentration of gold on Earth's surface by microbial activity having taken place at around 2.9 Ga, independent of the nature of the hinterland, the above similarity in age substantially increases the potential for discovering Witwatersrand-type gold and/or uranium deposits on the Singhbhum Craton. Further age constraints are needed there, however, to distinguish between supposedly less fertile (with respect to Au) > 2.9 Ga and more fertile < 2.9 Ga successions.}, language = {en} } @article{Ibebuchi2023, author = {Ibebuchi, Chibuike Chiedozie}, title = {Circulation patterns linked to the positive sub-tropical Indian Ocean dipole}, series = {Advances in Atmospheric Sciences}, volume = {40}, journal = {Advances in Atmospheric Sciences}, number = {1}, issn = {0256-1530}, doi = {10.1007/s00376-022-2017-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324119}, pages = {110-128}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The positive phase of the subtropical Indian Ocean dipole (SIOD) is one of the climatic modes in the subtropical southern Indian Ocean that influences the austral summer inter-annual rainfall variability in parts of southern Africa. This paper examines austral summer rain-bearing circulation types (CTs) in Africa south of the equator that are related to the positive SIOD and the dynamics through which specific rainfall regions in southern Africa can be influenced by this relationship. Four austral summer rain-bearing CTs were obtained. Among the four CTs, the CT that featured (i) enhanced cyclonic activity in the southwest Indian Ocean; (ii) positive widespread rainfall anomaly in the southwest Indian Ocean; and (iii) low-level convergence of moisture fluxes from the tropical South Atlantic Ocean, tropical Indian Ocean, and the southwest Indian Ocean, over the south-central landmass of Africa, was found to be related to the positive SIOD climatic mode. The relationship also implies that positive SIOD can be expected to increase the amplitude and frequency of occurrence of the aforementioned CT. The linkage between the CT related to the positive SIOD and austral summer homogeneous regions of rainfall anomalies in Africa south of the equator showed that it is the principal CT that is related to the inter-annual rainfall variability of the south-central regions of Africa, where the SIOD is already known to significantly influence its rainfall variability. Hence, through the large-scale patterns of atmospheric circulation associated with the CT, the SIOD can influence the spatial distribution and intensity of rainfall over the preferred landmass through enhanced moisture convergence.}, language = {en} } @article{FaethKunzKneisel2022, author = {F{\"a}th, Julian and Kunz, Julius and Kneisel, Christof}, title = {Monitoring spatiotemporal soil moisture changes in the subsurface of forest sites using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)}, series = {Journal of Forestry Research}, volume = {33}, journal = {Journal of Forestry Research}, number = {5}, issn = {1007-662X}, doi = {10.1007/s11676-022-01498-x}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324073}, pages = {1649-1662}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The effects of drought on tree mortality at forest stands are not completely understood. For assessing their water supply, knowledge of the small-scale distribution of soil moisture as well as its temporal changes is a key issue in an era of climate change. However, traditional methods like taking soil samples or installing data loggers solely collect parameters of a single point or of a small soil volume. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is a suitable method for monitoring soil moisture changes and has rarely been used in forests. This method was applied at two forest sites in Bavaria, Germany to obtain high-resolution data of temporal soil moisture variations. Geoelectrical measurements (2D and 3D) were conducted at both sites over several years (2015-2018/2020) and compared with soil moisture data (matric potential or volumetric water content) for the monitoring plots. The greatest variations in resistivity values that highly correlate with soil moisture data were found in the main rooting zone. Using the ERT data, temporal trends could be tracked in several dimensions, such as the interannual increase in the depth of influence from drought events and their duration, as well as rising resistivity values going along with decreasing soil moisture. The results reveal that resistivity changes are a good proxy for seasonal and interannual soil moisture variations. Therefore, 2D- and 3D-ERT are recommended as comparatively non-laborious methods for small-spatial scale monitoring of soil moisture changes in the main rooting zone and the underlying subsurface of forested sites. Higher spatial and temporal resolution allows a better understanding of the water supply for trees, especially in times of drought.}, language = {en} } @article{Ibebuchi2022, author = {Ibebuchi, Chibuike Chiedozie}, title = {Patterns of atmospheric circulation in Western Europe linked to heavy rainfall in Germany: preliminary analysis into the 2021 heavy rainfall episode}, series = {Theoretical and Applied Climatology}, volume = {148}, journal = {Theoretical and Applied Climatology}, number = {1-2}, issn = {0177-798X}, doi = {10.1007/s00704-022-03945-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324100}, pages = {269-283}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The July 2021 heavy rainfall episode in parts of Western Europe caused devastating floods, specifically in Germany. This study examines circulation types (CTs) linked to extreme precipitation in Germany. It was investigated if the classified CTs can highlight the anomaly in synoptic patterns that contributed to the unusual July 2021 heavy rainfall in Germany. The North Atlantic Oscillation was found to be the major climatic mode related to the seasonal and inter-annual variations of most of the classified CTs. On average, wet (dry) conditions in large parts of Germany can be linked to westerly (northerly) moisture fluxes. During spring and summer seasons, the mid-latitude cyclone when located over the North Sea disrupts onshore moisture transport from the North Atlantic Ocean by westerlies driven by the North Atlantic subtropical anticyclone. The CT found to have the highest probability of being associated with above-average rainfall in large part of Germany features (i) enhancement and northward track of the cyclonic system over the Mediterranean; (ii) northward track of the North Atlantic anticyclone, further displacing poleward, the mid-latitude cyclone over the North Sea, enabling band of westerly moisture fluxes to penetrate Germany; (iii) cyclonic system over the Baltic Sea coupled with northeast fluxes of moisture to Germany; (iv) and unstable atmospheric conditions over Germany. In 2021, a spike was detected in the amplitude and frequency of occurrence of the aforementioned wet CT suggesting that in addition to the nearly stationary cut-off low over central Europe, during the July flood episode, anomalies in the CT contributed to the heavy rainfall event.}, language = {en} } @article{PhilippDietzUllmannetal.2023, author = {Philipp, Marius and Dietz, Andreas and Ullmann, Tobias and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {A circum-Arctic monitoring framework for quantifying annual erosion rates of permafrost coasts}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {15}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {3}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs15030818}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-304447}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This study demonstrates a circum-Arctic monitoring framework for quantifying annual change of permafrost-affected coasts at a spatial resolution of 10 m. Frequent cloud coverage and challenging lighting conditions, including polar night, limit the usability of optical data in Arctic regions. For this reason, Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) data in the form of annual median and standard deviation (sd) Sentinel-1 (S1) backscatter images covering the months June-September for the years 2017-2021 were computed. Annual composites for the year 2020 were hereby utilized as input for the generation of a high-quality coastline product via a Deep Learning (DL) workflow, covering 161,600 km of the Arctic coastline. The previously computed annual S1 composites for the years 2017 and 2021 were employed as input data for the Change Vector Analysis (CVA)-based coastal change investigation. The generated DL coastline product served hereby as a reference. Maximum erosion rates of up to 67 m per year could be observed based on 400 m coastline segments. Overall highest average annual erosion can be reported for the United States (Alaska) with 0.75 m per year, followed by Russia with 0.62 m per year. Out of all seas covered in this study, the Beaufort Sea featured the overall strongest average annual coastal erosion of 1.12 m. Several quality layers are provided for both the DL coastline product and the CVA-based coastal change analysis to assess the applicability and accuracy of the output products. The predicted coastal change rates show good agreement with findings published in previous literature. The proposed methods and data may act as a valuable tool for future analysis of permafrost loss and carbon emissions in Arctic coastal environments.}, language = {en} } @article{KacicThonfeldGessneretal.2023, author = {Kacic, Patrick and Thonfeld, Frank and Gessner, Ursula and Kuenzer, Claudia}, title = {Forest structure characterization in Germany: novel products and analysis based on GEDI, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data}, series = {Remote Sensing}, volume = {15}, journal = {Remote Sensing}, number = {8}, issn = {2072-4292}, doi = {10.3390/rs15081969}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-313727}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Monitoring forest conditions is an essential task in the context of global climate change to preserve biodiversity, protect carbon sinks and foster future forest resilience. Severe impacts of heatwaves and droughts triggering cascading effects such as insect infestation are challenging the semi-natural forests in Germany. As a consequence of repeated drought years since 2018, large-scale canopy cover loss has occurred calling for an improved disturbance monitoring and assessment of forest structure conditions. The present study demonstrates the potential of complementary remote sensing sensors to generate wall-to-wall products of forest structure for Germany. The combination of high spatial and temporal resolution imagery from Sentinel-1 (Synthetic Aperture Radar, SAR) and Sentinel-2 (multispectral) with novel samples on forest structure from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI, LiDAR, Light detection and ranging) enables the analysis of forest structure dynamics. Modeling the three-dimensional structure of forests from GEDI samples in machine learning models reveals the recent changes in German forests due to disturbances (e.g., canopy cover degradation, salvage logging). This first consistent data set on forest structure for Germany from 2017 to 2022 provides information of forest canopy height, forest canopy cover and forest biomass and allows estimating recent forest conditions at 10 m spatial resolution. The wall-to-wall maps of the forest structure support a better understanding of post-disturbance forest structure and forest resilience.}, language = {en} }