Volume 38 (2019): Edizione 3 (September 2019)

Smoke can reduce the airport’s visibility and is related to the aviation safety and efficiency. Low visibility has potential safety hazard, such GA-152 crashed in 1997, and thus there is a need to find out the visibility characteristics in airports over Sumatra and Borneo Island caused by 2015 forest fire. This research aims to analyse the spatiotemporal visibility characteristics over airports in Sumatera and Borneo Island using flight rule visibility below minima criteria and hazard probability. The analysis of smoke was characterized using visibility severity index (VSI) that is a function of visibility severity class and its probability level. Spatiotemporal analysis of severity index combined with hotspot and wind numerical weather model indicates that the worst impact visibility occurred in September and October 2015. The lowest visibility was occured over night until afternoon time period. The spread of VSI impact has a tendency to northward and northwestward. The very high VSI levels occurred at airports such: WIJJ (Jambi), WIBB (Pekanbaru), WAGG (Palangkaraya) which were impacted up to 70% of flight operations time with IFR visibility below minima; while the WIOS (Susilo-Sintang), which operates only on VFR, experienced about 92% of VFR visibility below minima at smoke climax period.

Coastal landforms are located in the interface zone between atmosphere, ocean and land surface systems formed by the geomorphic process of erosion, depositional, and subsidence. Studying the dynamics of coastal landform change is important for tracing the relationship between coastal landform changes and tidal flooding in the coastal areas of Pekalongan, Indonesia. The method of integrating remote sensing data with geographic information system (GIS) techniques has been widely used to monitor and analyze the dynamics of morphology change in coastal landform areas. The purpose of this study is to map the dynamics of landform change in the study area from 1978 to 2017 and to analyze its implications for the impact of tidal flooding. The results of the mapping and change analysis associated with coastal landforms can be classified into four landform types: beach, beach ridge, backswamp and alluvial plain. Changes in coastal morphology and landform topography affected by land subsidence and changes in land use/ land cover have contributed to the occurrence of tidal flooding in the study area. Beach ridges perform an important role as natural levees which hold back and prevent the entry of seawater at high tide in coastal areas. A limitation of this study is that, as it focuses only on the physical aspects of coastal landform characteristics for one of the factors causing tidal flooding.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) describes the northward flow of warm, salty water in the upper layers, and the southward flow of colder water in the deep Atlantic layers. AMOC strength estimates at 41°N latitude based on satellite sea surface height (SSH), and ARGO ocean temperature, salinity and velocity, and finally the difference in between the absolute mean sea levels (MSL) of the tide gauges of The Battery, New York, 40.7°N latitude, and Brest, 48.3°N latitude. Results suggest that the AMOC has been minimally reducing but with a positive acceleration since 2002, has been marginally increasing but with a negative acceleration since 1993, and has not been reducing but only oscillating with clear periodicities up 18 years, 27 years and about 60 years since 1856.

The paper presents the dynamics of daily water temperature fluctuations in Lake Kierskie (West Poland) and determines the effect of air temperatures and wind speed on the variability of the parameter (water temperature). The analysis was based on hourly water temperature values from the period from May 2012 to January 2018. The data analysis permitted the description of the thermal regime of waters in the lake in the hourly cycle in reference to each month, and designation of months characterised by the highest and lowest stability of water temperatures. More than half of the analysed days was characterised by a change in water temperature not exceeding 1°C. The course of water temperature showed strongly positive correlations with air temperature, and weak correlations with wind speed. Water temperatures in the lake were correlated the strongest with air temperatures with a 24 h time step.

The paper concerns specific features of exploration, geographical recognition, exploitation of natural resources, and economy of the archipelago. Development of the Svalbard system of nature protection areas and its impact on the environment and human activity is shown. Both the natural environment and Norwegian national interests are perfectly protected in Svalbard. Classical physico-geographical research was lost in significance to biological investigations (or to environmental science in the aspect of biotic components). Research activity in the human geography of Svalbard has mostly declined.

A widespread alarm is sweeping the world at present about the ill effects of man-made increases in carbon dioxide (CO₂) production. One aspect is that it may cause the ocean to become acid, and dissolve the carbonate skeletons of many living things including shellfish and corals. However, the oceans are not acid, never have been in geological history, and cannot become acid in the future. Changes in atmospheric CO₂ cannot produce an acid ocean. Marine life depends on CO₂, and some plants and animals fix it as limestone. Over geological time enormous amounts of CO₂ have been sequestered by living things, and today there is far more CO₂ in limestones than in the atmosphere or ocean. Carbon dioxide in seawater does not dissolve coral reefs, but is essential to their survival.

Dry areas are especially exposed to the risk of water shortages and elevated mineralization. High water salinity, caused by low precipitation, high evaporation and human impact, usually strongly limits the use of the water for irrigation. The aim of the study was to assess the quality and irrigation purpose suitability of alluvial water in the Erfoud oasis, Morocco. The samples of water were collected from 20 wells in June 2017. We observed excessive concentrations of many parameters i.a.: NO₃, Cd, Ni, Na, NH₄, Cl, SO₄, Fe, Cr. To determine the possibility to use the water for irrigation purposes, the Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), sodium percentage (%Na), permeability index (PI), Kelly’s ratio (KR), magnesium hazards (MH) and electrical conductivity (EC) were assessed. The values of KR and MH qualified the waters as unsuitable for irrigation purposes. The observed %Na indicates that the groundwater is permissible for irrigation purposes, and permeability index, that it is of moderate quality. However, water classification using the SAR vs EC diagram confirms its high and very high alkali and salinity hazard. The mean EC value of the water was 9.5 mS cm⁻¹.

This paper critically negotiates the concept of the tourist landscape and proceeds, through a comparative cross-cultural empirical study, to test its basic conceptual premises in one upland and one seaside tourist destination, in Central Europe and in the Mediterranean. The conceptualization and employment of the term ‘tourist landscape’, in the social sciences and beyond, has been mostly intuitive and lacking a rigorous and broad-based conceptualization and empirical verification, incorporating its viewers’/users’ perceptions. On the basis of a conceptual model of the tourist landscape, the paper assesses conceptions and perceptions of the ‘tourist landscape’ and its constituent elements by tourists, locals, and tourism stakeholders in Zwierzyniec, Poland and Chios Island, Greece.

The stronghold in Grzybowo (Rabieżyce village) near Września is a remnant of medieval ring-fort. It is investigated to a considerably lower degree than similar objects from Greater Poland. The analysis of archival data shows that the stronghold is located on the edge of the flood plain of the Struga River formed by Holocene sediments, cutting into the moraine plateau. Analysis of sediments in the stronghold vicinity revealed interlayers of organic matter and sandy deposits rich in calcium carbonate with variable grain size composition, particularly west of the stronghold (i.e. in the valley floor). Moreover, radiocarbon data set showed a considerably older than Holocene age of the sediment. The analysis of the course of the contemporary river channel also allowed for stating hypotheses regarding a potentially different course of the former Struga River channel and its changes during the development of the stronghold. These assumptions were based on the analysis of the archaeological archival data, where field drawings suggest the existence of such a channel in the territory of the stronghold.

The morphological examination of the Slovak Oľšava River channel and valley parameters is based on observation of changes in the troughs’ longitudinal profile. While the relationship between valley and channel parameters has previously been researched, establishment of the diverse conditions in trough formation enables better understanding of the basin/riverbed relationship. Our research is based on field measurements of representative sections of nine segments defined by changes in the longitudinal profile. The field measurements were performed in autumn months during a low water period to ensure the best conditions for repeated measurements. Significantly, as much as 75% asymmetry of the measured flow encourages the assumption of strong tectonic influence on the riverbed formation. While the difference between the assumed continuous changes of measured parameters and the actual measured or evaluated parameters remains a matter of interpretation, the detected anomalies enable interpretation of the parameters’ relationships. The river bed and the valley morphological parameters were evaluated on the model of The Olšava River basin which drains the eastern part of the Košická kotlina Basin (the Toryská pahorkatina Upland). The location of the basin at the foot of the Slanské vrchy Mts. is an important factor in the formation of the river network asymmetries. Both the Neogene contact between the Slanské vrchy Hills neo-volcanites and the Toryská pahorkatina Upland and the neo-tectonics influenced the change in morphological parameters in the valley’s longitudinal and transverse profile and the Oľšava river bed. Our terrain works comprised length and width measurements of the bars, their positions in the river bed, the width and depth of the channel and the type of section riffle. Available maps enabled calculation of the following; ratio of valley height to width, average gradient of the section, stream gradient index, average channel segment slope, the degree of sinuosity and the highest observed correlation between slope, river segment type (0.9576) and the width and type river reach (−0.9089). High correlation coefficient values were recorded for the valley height and width ratio, the type of river section, the water area and the total river bed width and area.