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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201709.0058.v1

GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Wetland Mapping and Monitoring

Qiusheng Wu

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: GIS; image classification; LiDAR; remote sensing; wetland indicator; global wetland inventory; wetland mapping

Online: 14 September 2017 (17:25:27 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202003.0366.v3

Influence of Temperature on the Global Spread of COVID-19

Indrani Roy

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; temperature; solutions

Online: 21 June 2020 (16:19:26 CEST)

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This article investigated whether the atmospheric temperature had any role in the spread and vulnerability to COVID-19 worldwide and how that knowledge can be utilized to contain the fast-spreading disease. It highlighted that temperature was an important factor in transmitting the virus, and a moderately cool environment was the most favourable state for its susceptibility. In fact, the risk from the virus is reduced significantly in high temperature environment. Warm countries and places were likely to be less vulnerable. We identified various degrees of vulnerability based on temperature and specified countries for March and April. The maximum reported case, as well as death, was noted when the temperature was in the range of around 275°K (2°C) to 290°K (17°C). Countries like the USA, UK, Italy and Spain belonged to this category. The vulnerability was moderate when the temperature was less than around 275°K (2°C) and countries in that category were Russia, parts of Canada and few Scandinavian countries. For temperature 300°K (27°C) and above, a significantly lesser degree of vulnerability was noted. Countries from SAARC, South East Asia, the African continent and Australia fell in that category. In fact, when the temperature was more than 305°K (32°C), there was a unusually low number of reported cases and deaths. For warm countries, further analyses on the degree of vulnerability were conducted for the group of countries from SAARC and South East Asia and individual countries were compared. We also showed countries can switch from one vulnerability state to another based on the variability of temperature. We provided maps of temperature to identify countries of different vulnerability states in different months of the year. That influence of temperature on the virus and previous results of clinical trials with similar viruses gave us a useful insight that regulating the level of temperature can provide remarkable results to arrest and stop the outbreak. Based on that knowledge, some urgent solutions are proposed, which are practically without side effects and very cost-effective too.

Preprint SHORT NOTE | doi:10.20944/preprints202106.0117.v1

Medical Waste Management during COVID-19 Situation: Perspective Towards Safe Environment

MANOJ KUMAR JINDAL, Dr. Santosh Kumar Sar

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: COVID-19; Medical Waste; Sustainability; Environment.

Online: 3 June 2021 (13:22:55 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0083.v1

The Joint Use of Multiple Satellite SAR Data and Geotechnical Models for the Study of the Shanghai Ocean-Reclaimed Lands

Antonio Pepe, Manuela Bonano, Qing Zhao, Tianliang Yang, Hanmei Wang

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: deformation; interferometry; geotechnical models; non‐linear problem; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); time‐series

Online: 8 August 2016 (14:50:19 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201905.0064.v1

Global Health Perspectives on Cigarette Butts and the Environment

Paula Stigler-Granados, Lawrence Fulton, Evangelina Nunez Patlan, Mischa Teryzk, Thomas E. Novotny

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: tobacco product waste; framework convention; cigarette butts; tobacco control

Online: 6 May 2019 (12:21:37 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202006.0186.v1

COVID-19 Impacts on Beaches and Coastal Water Pollution: Management Proposals Post-pandemic

Franklin Ormaza-González, Divar Castro-Rodas

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Oceanography Keywords: COVID-19; confinement; beaches; pollution; tourism

Online: 14 June 2020 (16:12:35 CEST)

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The COVID-19 pandemic has obliged Governments all around the world to take confinement and social 13 distancing measures. The reduction of leisure and production activities on beaches and ports have 14 disappeared direct and indirect contamination such as plastics, hydrocarbon spill, microbiological loads, 15 noise level, etc. leading to temporary improved environmental conditions, converting the beaches 16 similar to Marine Protected Areas. Some conditions are briefly analyzed through local surveys and in situ 17 observations in the popular beaches and ports of Salinas, Manta and Galápagos. 97-99 % of surveyed 18 people agreed that beaches have notoriously improved during confinement at least from visual 19 observation. On a scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), the beaches were rated 2.23 and 2.83 (less than 20 acceptable) before quarantine, and 4.48 and 4.33 after it for Salinas and Manta respectively. The 21 beaches have less garbage in general and plastic, even though there has been an increase in plastic and 22 face mask production around the world. In Salinas, 72%, and 23 % of surveyed people have seen small 23 pelagic fish, whilst in Manta 75%, and 41% of people saw the same, but also 17% of people have seen 24 whales (humpback and shark-whales) and dolphins practically swimming on the beach. Manta rays, 25 turtles, and other types of species were also observed. In Galapagos beaches, turtles have been 26 observed many more times than usual. The main plausible reason is the decrease in noise level. It is 27 recommended to take this unique opportunity, to construct a baseline data and information on physical, 28 chemical, biological, microbiological coastal oceanographic science, and from them to establish a proper 29 Coastal Zone Management based on beach description, water, and beach quality, human dimension, 30 and economic value indexes. This data and information construction should ideally be done before the 31 beaches are open.

Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0069.v1

Good in The Worst: COVID-19 Restrictions and Ease in Global Air Pollution

Naser A. Anjum

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; respiratory diseases; air pollution

Online: 6 April 2020 (15:48:46 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201910.0094.v1

How Plesiosaurs Swam: New Insights into Their Underwater Flight Using “Ava”, a Virtual Pliosaur

Max Hawthorne, Mark McMenamin, Paul De la Salle

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Paleontology Keywords: aquatic reptiles; plesiosaurs; pliosaurs; swim kinematics; Strouhal numbers

Online: 9 October 2019 (08:05:38 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201911.0393.v1

Sentinel-1 SLC Preprocessing Workflow for Polarimetric Applications: A Generic Practice for Generating Dual-pol Covariance Matrix Elements in SNAP S-1 Toolbox

Dipankar Mandal, Divya Sekhar Vaka, Narayana Rao Bhogapurapu, V. S. K. Vanama, Vineet Kumar, Yalamanchili S. Rao, Avik Bhattacharya

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: Sentinel-1; PolSAR; synthetic aperture radar; earth observation; SNAP

Online: 30 November 2019 (11:39:51 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0316.v1

Multi-temporal Crop Type and Field Boundary Classification with Google Earth Engine

Michael Marszalek, Maximilian Lösch, Marco Körner, Urs Schmidhalter

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Precision farming; Crop type mapping; Digital agriculture; Sentinel-2; Random Forest; SVM; Field boundaries; Canny; Simple non-iterative clustering

Online: 19 April 2020 (03:14:37 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.3390/sci2030081

Atmospheric Temperature and CO<sub>2</sub>: Hen-or-Egg Causality?

Demetris Koutsoyiannis, Zbigniew Kundzewicz

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: temperature; global warming; greenhouse gases; atmospheric CO₂ concentration

Online: 14 September 2020 (00:00:00 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0120.v1

Comparative investigation into Pre-COVID-19 and Post-COVID-19 lockdown Water Demand in selected schools in Osun State, Nigeria

Timothy O. Ogunbode

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Pre-COVID-19; Post-COVID-19; Secondary Schools; Water Demand; Groundwater; Nigeria

Online: 5 April 2021 (12:22:37 CEST)

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Preprint HYPOTHESIS | doi:10.20944/preprints202003.0364.v1

The Effects of Outdoor Air Pollution Concentrations and Lockdowns on Covid-19 Infections in Wuhan and Other Provincial Capitals in China

Yang Han, Jacqueline CK Lam, Victor OK Li, Peiyang Guo, Qi Zhang, Andong Wang, Jon Crowcroft, Shanshan Wang, Jinqi Fu, Zafar Gilani, Jocelyn Downey

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Pollution Keywords: Covid-19; infection rate; air pollution; lockdown; China

Online: 24 March 2020 (14:54:49 CET)

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Background: Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China in Dec 2019. Since then, it has been transmitted rapidly in China and the rest of the world. While Covid-19 transmission rate has been declining in China, it is increasing exponentially in Europe and America. Although there are numerous studies examining Covid-19 infection, including an archived paper looking into the meteorological effect, the role of outdoor air pollution has yet to be explored rigorously. It has been shown that air pollution will weaken the immune system, and increase the rate of respiratory virus infection. We postulate that outdoor air pollution concentrations will have a negative effect on Covid-19 infections in China, whilst lockdowns, characterized by strong social distancing and home isolation measures, will help to moderate such negative effect. Methods: We will collect the number of daily confirmed Covid-19 cases in 31 provincial capital cities in China during the period of 1 Dec 2019 to 20 Mar 2020 (from a popular Chinese online platform which aggregates all cases reported by the Chinese national/provincial health authorities). We will also collect daily air pollution and meteorology data at the city-level (from the Chinese National Environmental Monitoring Center and the US National Climatic Data Center), daily inter-city migration flows and intra-city movements (from Baidu). City-level demographics including age distribution and gender, education, and median household income can be obtained from the statistical yearbooks. City-level co-morbidity indicators including rates of chronic disease and co-infection can be obtained from related research articles. A regression model is developed to model the relationship between the infection rate of Covid-19 (number of confirmed cases/population at the city level) and outdoor air pollution at the city level, after taking into account confounding factors such as meteorology, inter- and intra-city movements, demographics, and co-morbidity and co-infection rates. In particular, we shall study how air pollution affects infection rates across different cities, including Wuhan. Our model will also study air pollution would affect infection rates in Wuhan before and after the lockdown. Expected findings: We expect there be a correlation between Covid-19 infection rate and outdoor air pollution. We also expect that reduced intra-city movement after the lockdowns in Wuhan and the rest of China will play an important role in reducing the infection rate. Interpretation: Infection rate is growing exponentially in major cities worldwide. We expect Covid-19 infection rate is related to the air pollution concentration, and is strongly dependent on inter- and intra-city movements. To reduce the infection rate, the international community may deploy effective air pollution reduction plans and social distancing policies.

Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201707.0020.v1

Thick-Skinned and Thin-Skinned Tectonics: A Global Perspective

O. Adrian Pfiffner

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: thin-skinned tectonics; thick-skinned tectonics; structural geology; structure of mountain ranges; fold-and-thrust belts; décollement; nappe stacking; continent-continent collision; subduction; basin inversion

Online: 11 July 2017 (08:12:50 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201612.0091.v2

The China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT Model (CMADS) Application in China: A Case Study in Heihe River Basin

Xian-yong Meng, Hao Wang, Si-yu Cai, Xue-song Zhang, Guo-yong Leng, Xiao-hui Lei, Chun-xiang Shi, Shi-yin Liu

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: reanalysis climate data; hydrologic modeling; comparative analysis

Online: 3 February 2017 (03:50:07 CET)

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Large-scale hydrological modeling in China is challenging given the sparse meteorological stations and large uncertainties associated with atmospheric forcing data.Here we introduce the development and use of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS) in the Heihe River Basin(HRB) for improving hydrologic modeling, by leveraging the datasets from the China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS)(including climate data from nearly 40000 area encryption stations, 2700 national automatic weather stations, FengYun (FY) 2 satellite and radar stations). CMADS uses the Space Time Multiscale Analysis System (STMAS) to fuse data based on ECWMF ambient field and ensure data accuracy. In addition, compared with CLDAS, CMADS includes relative humidity and climate data of varied resolutions to drive hydrological models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Here, we compared climate data from CMADS, Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and traditional weather station (TWS) climate forcing data and evaluatedtheir applicability for driving large scale hydrologic modeling with SWAT. In general, CMADS has higher accuracy than CFRS when evaluated against observations at TWS; CMADS also provides spatially continuous climate field to drive distributed hydrologic models, which is an important advantage over TWS climate data, particular in regions with sparse weather stations. Therefore, SWAT model simulations driven with CMADS and TWS achieved similar performances in terms of monthly and daily stream flow simulations, and both of them outperformed CFRS. For example, for the three hydrological stations (Ying Luoxia, Qilian Mountain, and ZhaMasheke) in the HRB at the monthly and daily Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency ranges of 0.75-0.95 and 0.58-0.78, respectively, which are much higher than corresponding efficiency statistics achieved with CFSR (monthly: 0.32-0.49 and daily: 0.26 – 0.45). The CMADS dataset is available free of charge and is expected to a valuable addition to the existing climate reanalysis datasets for deriving distributed hydrologic modeling in China and other countries in East Asia.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202106.0439.v1

Meycauayan, an Industrial City in Bulacan, Philippines: Heavy Metal Pollution in Soil and Surface Sediments and Their Relationship to Environmental Indicators

Reymar Diwa, Custer Deocaris, Aileen Orbecido, Arnel Beltran, Edgar Vallar, Maria Cecilia Galvez, Lawrence Belo

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: heavy metals; MMORS, Meycauayan River; soil pollution; multivariate analysis; Sediment Quality Guidelines; Single Pollution Index

Online: 16 June 2021 (10:34:20 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0327.v1

Estimation of Solid Medical Waste Production and Environmental Impact Analysis in the Context of COVID-19: A Case Study of Hubei Province in China

Yifan Song, Jinquan Ye, Yurong Liu, Yun Zhong

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: COVID-19; Medical waste; Environmental impac; China

Online: 13 April 2021 (09:09:57 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201707.0004.v1

Environmental Footprint of Domestic Dogs and Cats

Jose Herrera-Camacho, Eduardo Baltierra-Trejo, Paul Adolfo Taboada-González, Luisa Fernanda Gonzalez, Liliana Marquez-Benavides

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: life cycle analysis, dogs; cats; carbon footprint; environmental pawprint

Online: 4 July 2017 (16:00:10 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201609.0012.v2

Assessment of Impediments and Factors Affecting Waste Management: A Case of Accra Metropolis

Clifford James Fagariba, Shaoxian Song

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Waste Management And Disposal Keywords: constraints; factors; household; solid waste management

Online: 9 September 2016 (07:42:15 CEST)

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Solid waste management in Accra is a major challenge to the Metropolitan Authorities and inhabitants. The rapidly increasing population coupled with poor capacity of the municipal and private waste management companies to management waste effectively has created issues of environmental concern. Due to poor waste managements systems, most household dispose waste indiscriminately leading to floods and health issues. The study showed that about 60% of household waste is organic materials which has the potential to be converted to compost for agriculture purpose. Meanwhile plastics and rubbers which litters the environment as well as blocking major storm drains and gutters hence creating huge environmental hazard is made of 11% of the total component of most household waste generated daily. The study also revealed that among the methods of disposing waste, dumping waste in skip containers located at authorized places was the preferred means of disposing waste by household though others also dispose waste by other means such as burying and burning. Inadequate skip containers per population of household in an area coupled with irregularity of tracks picking these containers makes skip containers dumping site ugly scene, hence creating health issues. Among the constraints that impact negatively on sustainable waste management in Accra Metropolis, economic constraints was perceived as the main challenge which affect efficient waste management. Currently the country is going through serious economic challenges so government does not release money timely to fund projects which waste management is key. Most donor partners that use to support the government with funds have either reduced or redrawn their services as they have no confidence in the state of Ghana economy. Aside the constrains, the study also indicated that factors such as poor public attitude towards waste management, poor enforcement of sanitation by-laws, inadequate and untimely release of government funds were also seen as the main factors affecting waste management.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201610.0078.v1

Copernicus Sentinel-2 Calibration and Products Validation Status

Ferran Gascon, Olivier Thépaut, Mathieu Jung, Benjamin Francesconi, Jérôme Louis, Vincent Lonjou, Bruno Lafrance, Stéphane Massera, Angélique Gaudel-Vacaresse, Florie Languille, Bahjat Alhammoud, Françoise Viallefont, Jakub Bieniarz, Bringfried Pflug, Sébastien Clerc, Laëtitia Pessiot, Thierry Trémas, Enrico Cadau, Roberto De Bonis, Claudia Isola, Philippe Martimort, Valérie Fernandez

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: calibration; validation; optical; instrument; processing; imagery; spatial; operational

Online: 19 October 2016 (10:59:29 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202106.0470.v1

River Influx Drives Heavy Metal Pollution in Manila Bay, Philippines: An Insight from Multivariate Analyses

Reymar Diwa, Custer Deocaris, Lawrence Belo

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: heavy metals; surface sediment; Manila Bay; pollution; multivariate analysis; ecological risk

Online: 18 June 2021 (08:32:18 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201803.0097.v1

On the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Environmental Monitoring

Salvatore Manfreda, Matthew McCabe, Pauline Miller, Richard Lucas, Victor Pajuelo Madrigal, Giorgos Mallinis, Eyal Ben Dor, David Helman, Lyndon Estes, Giuseppe Ciraolo, Jana Müllerová, Flavia Tauro, M. Isabel De Lima, Joao L.M.P. De Lima, Felix Frances, Kelly Caylor, Marko Kohv, Antonino Maltese, Matthew Perks, Guiomar Ruiz-Pérez, Zhongbo Su, Giulia Vico, Brigitta Toth

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: UAS; remote sensing; environmental monitoring; precision agriculture; vegetation indices; soil moisture; river monitoring

Online: 14 March 2018 (02:38:42 CET)

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Environmental monitoring plays a central role in diagnosing climate and management impacts on natural and agricultural systems, enhancing the understanding hydrological processes, optimizing the allocation and distribution of water resources, and assessing, forecasting and even preventing natural disasters. Nowadays, most monitoring and data collection systems are based upon a combination of ground-based measurements, manned airborne sensors or satellite observations. These data are utilized in describing both small and large scale processes, but have spatiotemporal constraints inherent to each respective collection system. Bridging the unique spatial and temporal divides that limit current monitoring platforms is key to improving our understanding of environmental systems. In this context, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have considerable potential to radically evolve environmental monitoring. UAS-mounted sensors offer an extraordinary opportunity to bridge the existing gap between field observations and traditional air- and space-borne remote sensing, by providing not just high spatial detail over relatively large areas in a cost-effective way, but as importantly providing an entirely new capacity for enhanced temporal retrieval. As well as showcasing recent advances in the field, there is also a need to identify and understand the potential limitations of UAS technology. For these platforms to reach their monitoring potential, a wide spectrum of unresolved issues and applications specific challenges require focused community attention. Indeed, to leverage the full potential of UAS-based approaches, sensing technologies, measurement protocols, post-processing techniques, retrieval algorithms and evaluations techniques need to be harmonized. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive general overview of the existing research on studies and applications of UAS in environmental monitoring in order to suggest users and researchers on future research directions, applications, developments and challenges.

Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0236.v1

Noise Pollution and Control in Wood Mechanical Processing Wood Industries

Mayowa Jacob Owoyemi, Babajide Falemara, Ayomide Joseph Owoyemi

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: noise pollution; mechanical wood industries; equipment; control

Online: 31 August 2016 (09:03:57 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201803.0108.v1

Forest Fire Danger Index Based on Static and Dynamic Parameters Using Satellite Datasets

Suresh Babu KV, Arijit Roy, Ramachandra Prasad P

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: Forest fire danger index; MODIS; MOD11; MOD09; MOD14

Online: 14 March 2018 (15:38:35 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201908.0313.v1

Community Empowerment Model for Forest Revegetation and Preservation the Area Around the Springs: Arjuna Mount Case Study in East Java, Indonesia

Matheus Nugroho, Soemarno Soemarno, Harsuko Riniwati, Aminudin Afandhi

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: community empowerment; springs; forest revegetation; Arjuna mount; soil and geographical conditions; plants vegetation profile

Online: 29 August 2019 (17:17:32 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201808.0352.v2

AutoCloud+, a “Universal” Physical and Statistical Model-Based 2D Spatial Topology-Preserving Software Toolbox for Cloud/Cloud-Shadow Detection in Multi-Sensor Single-Date Earth Observation Multi-Spectral Imagery Eligible for Systematic ESA EO Level 2 Product Generation

Andrea Baraldi, Dirk Tiede

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: artificial intelligence; color naming; color constancy; cognitive science; computer vision; object-based image analysis (OBIA); physical and statistical data models; radiometric calibration; semantic content-based image retrieval; spatial topological and spatial non-topological information components

Online: 28 August 2018 (07:57:02 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201912.0226.v1

Long Term Homogeneity, Trend and Change-Point Analysis of Rainfall in the Arid District of Ananthapuramu, Andhra Pradesh State, India

Sandeep Kumar Patakamuri, Krishnaveni Muthiah, Venkataramana Sridhar

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Trend Analysis; Non-parametric trend tests; Mann-Kendall; Modified Mann-Kendall; Climate Change; modifiedmk; trendchange

Online: 17 December 2019 (10:04:35 CET)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0098.v1

Flood Prediction Using Machine Learning, Literature Review

Amir Mosavi, Pinar Ozturk, Chau Kwok-wing

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: flood prediction; machine learning; forecasting

Online: 5 October 2018 (11:52:28 CEST)

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Floods are among the most destructive natural disasters, which are highly complex to model. The research on the advancement of flood prediction models has been contributing to risk reduction, policy suggestion, minimizing loss of human life and reducing the property damage associated with floods. To mimic the complex mathematical expressions of physical processes of floods, during the past two decades, machine learning (ML) methods have highly contributed in the advancement of prediction systems providing better performance and cost effective solutions. Due to the vast benefits and potential of ML, its popularity has dramatically increased among hydrologists. Researchers through introducing the novel ML methods and hybridization of the existing ones have been aiming at discovering more accurate and efficient prediction models. The main contribution is to demonstrate the state of the art of ML models in flood prediction and give an insight over the most suitable models. The literature where ML models are benchmarked through a qualitative analysis of robustness, accuracy, effectiveness, and speed have been particularly investigated to provide an extensive overview on various ML algorithms usage in the field. The performance comparison of ML models presents an in-depth understanding about the different techniques within the framework of a comprehensive evaluation and discussion. As the result, the paper introduces the most promising prediction methods for both long-term and short-term floods. Furthermore, the major trends in improving the quality of the flood prediction models are investigated. Among them, hybridization, data decomposition, algorithm ensemble, and model optimization are reported the most effective strategy in improvement of the ML methods. This survey can be used as a guideline for the hydrologists as well as climate scientists to assist them choosing the proper ML method according to the prediction task conclusions.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.3390/sci1010002

Correlation between the Fluctuations in Worldwide Seismicity and Atmospheric Carbon Pollution

Alberto Carpinteri, Gianni Niccolini

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geochemistry And Petrology Keywords: atmospheric evolution; seismicity; low-energy nuclear reactions; carbon pollution; time series analysis

Online: 28 September 2018 (00:00:00 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201912.0106.v1

An Innovative Virtual Simulation Teaching Platform on Digital Mapping with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Remote Sensing Education

Xiaoxing He, Xianghong Hua, Jean-Philippe Montillet, Kegen Yu, Jingui Zou, Dong Xiang, Huiping Zhu, Di Zhang, Zhengkai Huang, Bufan Zhao

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Space And Planetary Science Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle; undergraduate education; remote sensing; surveying and mapping

Online: 8 December 2019 (17:50:04 CET)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0481.v1

Minimizing Errors in RT-PCR Detection and Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA for Wastewater Surveillance

Warish Ahmed, Stuart Simpson, Paul Bertsch, Kyle Bibby, Aaron Bivins, Linda Blackall, Silvia Bofill-Mas, Albert Bosch, Joao Brandao, Phil Choi, Mark Ciesielski, Erica Donner, Nishita D'Souza, Andreas Farnleitner, Daniel Gerrity, Raul Gonzalez, John Griffith, Pradip Gyawali, Charles Haas, Kerry Hamilton, Chanditha Hapuarachchi, Valerie Harwood, Rehnuma Haque, Greg Jackson, Stuart Khan, Wesaal Khan, Masaaki Kitajima, Asja Korajkic, Giuseppina La Rosa, Blythe Layton, Erin Lipp, Sandra McLellan, Brian McMinn, Gertjan Medema, Suzanne Metcalfe, Wim Meijer, Jochen Mueller, Heather Murphy, Colleen Naughton, Rachel Noble, Sudhi Payyappat, Susan Petterson, Tarja Pitkanen, Veronica Rajal, Brandon Reyneke, Fernando Roman, Joan Rose, Marta Rusinol, Michael Sadowsky, Laura Sala-Comorera, Yin Xiang Setoh, Samendra Sherchan, Kwanrawee Sirikanchana, Wendy Smith, Joshua Steele, Rosalie Sabburg, Erin Symonds, Phong Thai, Kevin Thomas, Josh Tynan, Simon Toze, Janelle Thompson, Andy Whiteley, Judith Wong, Daisuke Sano, Stefan Wuertz, Irene Xagoraraki, Qian Zhang, Amity Zimmer-Faust, Orin Shanks

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Waste Management And Disposal Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Wastewater; Surveillance; False-positive; False-negative; RT-PCR

Online: 19 April 2021 (13:08:13 CEST)

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Wastewater surveillance for pathogens using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is an effective, resource-efficient tool for gathering additional community-level public health information, including the incidence and/or prevalence and trends of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may provide an early-warning signal of COVID-19 infections in a community. The capacity of the world’s environmental microbiology and virology laboratories for SARS-CoV-2 RNA characterization in wastewater is rapidly increasing. However, there are no standardized protocols nor harmonized quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance. This paper is a technical review of factors that can lead to false-positive and -negative errors in the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, culminating in recommendations and strategies that can be implemented to identify and mitigate these errors. Recommendations include, stringent QA/QC measures, representative sampling approaches, effective virus concentration and efficient RNA extraction, amplification inhibition assessment, inclusion of sample processing controls, and considerations for RT-PCR assay selection and data interpretation. Clear data interpretation guidelines (e.g., determination of positive and negative samples) are critical, particularly during a low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Corrective and confirmatory actions must be in place for inconclusive and/or potentially significant results (e.g., initial onset or reemergence of COVID-19 in a community). It will also be prudent to perform inter-laboratory comparisons to ensure results are reliable and interpretable for ongoing and retrospective analyses. The strategies that are recommended in this review aim to improve SARS-CoV-2 characterization for wastewater surveillance applications. A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the efficacy of wastewater surveillance was demonstrated during this global crisis. In the future, wastewater will play an important role in the surveillance of a range of other communicable diseases.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0025.v1

The Role of Natural Factors on Major Climate Variability in Northern Winter

Indrani Roy

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: solar variability; NAO; ENSO; volcanic eruptions; multiple regression

Online: 3 August 2016 (05:54:22 CEST)

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Working Paper REVIEW

Impact of El Niño and La Niña on Agriculture in Ethiopia: Implications for El Niño and La Niña Adaptation and Food Security in Ethiopia

Abadi Berhane, Teklay Tesfay

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: El Niño; La Niña; statistical indices; climate change adaptation; Ethiopia

Online: 3 September 2020 (15:33:05 CEST)

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Preprint CONCEPT PAPER | doi:10.20944/preprints201909.0016.v1

Long Term Monitoring of Ghana’s Forest Reserves Using Google Earth Engine

Jeff Dacosta Osei, S. A. Andam-Akorful, Edward Matthew Osei jnr

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: land cover; classification Spatial and temporal Analysis; forest cover; Google Earth Engine (GEE); MODIS; Landsat; NOAA AVHRR

Online: 2 September 2019 (04:51:15 CEST)

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Farm activities continued sand winning operations and the allocation of plots of land to prospective developers in Ghana pose a serious threat to the forest covers and lifespan of the Forest and game reserves. With all the positive add ups to the country from forests, Ghana has lost more than 33.7%(equivalent to 2,500,000 hectares) of its forest, since the early 1990s between 2005 and 2010, the rate of deforestation in Ghana was estimated at 2.19% per annum; the sixth highest deforestation rate globally for that period. This shows how important forest monitoring can be to the forestry commission in Ghana. Despite the frameworks which have been developed to help Ghana to protect and restore its forest resources, inadequate monitoring systems remain a barrier to effective implementation. In this study, Google earth engine was used to map and analyze the structural changes of forest cover using JavaScript to query and compute Landsat, MODIS and NOAA AVHRR satellite imageries of the study area (Ghana) with spatial resolutions 30m, 250m and 7km respectively. A supervised classification was performed on three multi-temporal satellite imageries and a total of six major land use and land cover classes were identified and mapped. By using random Forest-classification technique, from 1985 to 2018 recorded by NOAA AVHRR, forest cover has decreased by 66% and 2000 to 2018 recorded by Landsat and MODIS 61% and 47% respectively. A decrease in the forest has been as a result of anthropogenic activities in Ghana. A change detection analysis was performed on these images and it was noted that Ghana is losing forest reserves in every 5years. Overlay of the reserved forest of the 2000 and the classified map of 2018 shows vegetation changed during 2000-2018 remarkably. Therefore, forest-related institutions like the Forestry Commission can employ and use this monitoring system on Google Earth Engine for processing satellite images particularly Landsat, MODIS and NOAA AVHRR for forest cover monitoring and analysis for fast, efficient and reliable results.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.3390/sci1010021

Trend Analysis of Temperature Data for Narayani River Basin, Nepal

Mohan Chand, Bikas Bhattarai, Prashant Baral, Niraj Pradhananga

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: climate change; temperature trend; Himalaya; river basin; Nepal

Online: 3 April 2019 (00:00:00 CEST)

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Study of spatiotemporal dynamics of temperature is vital to assess changes in climate, especially in the Himalayan region where livelihoods of billions of people living downstream depends on water coming from the melting of snow and glacier. To this end, temperature trend analysis is carried out in Narayani river basin, a major river basin of Nepal characterized by three climatic regions: tropical, subtropical and alpine. Temperature data from six stations located within the basin are analyzed. The elevation of these stations ranges from 460 to 3800 m asl. and the time period of available temperature data ranges from 1960–2015. Multiple regression and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methods are applied to fill in the missing data. Annual as well as seasonal trends are analyzed and Mann-Kendall test is employed for testing the statistical significance of detected trend. Results indicate significant cooling trends before 1970s, and warming trends after 1970s in the majority of the stations. The warming trends range from 0.028

^{\circ}

C per year to 0.035

^{\circ}

C per year with a mean increasing trend of 0.03

^{\circ}

C per year after 1971. Seasonal trends show highest warming trends in monsoon season followed by winter, pre-monsoon, and post-monsoon season. However, difference in warming rates between different seasons isn’t sufficiently large. An average temperature lapse rate of −0.006

^{\circ}

C per m with the steepest value (−0.0064

^{\circ}

C per m) in pre-monsoon season and least negative (−0.0052

^{\circ}

C per m) in winter season is observed for this basin. A comparative analysis of the gap-filled data with freely available global climate data sets shows reasonable correlation thus confirming the suitability of the gap filling methods.

Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0101.v1

Forest Protected Area Systems and Biodiversity Conservation in Bangladesh

Sharif Ahmed Mukul, A. Z. M. Manzoor Rashid, Niaz Ahmed Khan

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: biodiversity conservation, livelihood, co-management, stakeholder, law enforcement

Online: 18 November 2016 (15:20:07 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0237.v1

Advancing the AirMOSS P-Band Radar Root Zone Soil Moisture Retrieval Algorithm via Incorporation of Richards’ Equation

Morteza Sadeghi, Alireza Tabatabaeenejad, Markus Tuller, Mahta Moghaddam, Scott B. Jones

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: AirMOSS; radar backscatter; P-band remote sensing; root zone; soil moisture profile; Richards’ equation

Online: 31 August 2016 (08:48:11 CEST)

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Preprint OPINION | doi:10.3390/sci2030057

Global Significance of Mangrove Blue Carbon in Climate Change Mitigation (Version 1)

Daniel Alongi

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: blue carbon; carbon; carbon stock; carbon sequestration; climate change; CO₂ emissions; mangrove; mitigation

Online: 23 July 2020 (00:00:00 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0203.v2

Global Recognition of the Importance of Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Impacts

Nathalie Seddon, Elizabeth Daniels, Rowan Davis, Rian Harris, Xiaoting Hou-Jones, Saleemul Huq, Valerie Kapos, Georgina M. Mace, Ali Raza Rizvi, Hannah Reid, Dilys Roe, Sylvia Wicander

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Ecology Keywords: biodiversity; climate change adaptation; ecosystems; Paris agreement; policy; nature-based solutions

Online: 14 September 2019 (12:07:15 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0021.v1

E-waste Management in South Africa: Case Study: Cathode Ray Tubes Recycling Opportunities

Pontsho Ledwaba, Ndabenhle Sosibo

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: electrical and electronic waste; recycling; legislative frameworks; environmental management; landfilling

Online: 3 August 2016 (12:33:45 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201812.0077.v1

Why Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Must Be Grounded in Sound Biodiversity Science

Nathalie Seddon, Beth Turner, Pam Berry, Alexandre Chausson, Cécile A.J. Girardin

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Ecology Keywords: biodiversity; climate change; forests; nature-based solutions; policy; resilience

Online: 6 December 2018 (07:39:13 CET)

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Working Paper REVIEW

Bending the Curve of Global Freshwater Biodiversity Loss – An Emergency Recovery Plan

David Tickner, Jeff Opperman, Robin Abell, Mike Acreman, Angela H. Arthington, Stuart E. Bunn, Steven J. Cooke, James Dalton, Will Darwall, Gavin Edwards, Ian Harrison, Kathy Hughes, Tim Jones, David Leclère, Abigail J. Lynch, Philip Leonard, Michael E. McClain, Dean Muruven, Julian D. Olden, Steve Ormerod, Rebecca E. Tharme, Michele Thieme, Klement Tockner, Mark Wright, Lucy Young

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Ecology Keywords: River restoration; wetlands; freshwater conservation; Sustainable Development Goals; Convention on Biological Diversity

Online: 29 October 2019 (11:13:47 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201612.0100.v1

Experimental Study of Montmorillonite Structure and Transformation of its Properties under the Treatment of Inorganic Acid Solutions

Victoria V. Krupskaya, Sergey V. Zakusin, Ekaterina A. Tyupina, Olga V. Dorzhieva, Anatoliy P. Zhukhlistov, Maria N. Timofeeva, Petr E. Belousov

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: engineering barriers; bentonite clays; thermochemical treatments; montmorillonite; structure modification; adsorption properties

Online: 19 December 2016 (11:08:23 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202005.0403.v1

Environmental Impact of Corona Virus (COVID-19) and Nationwide Lockdown in India: An Alarm to Future Lockdown Strategies

Suresh Kumar, Shishir Bhardwaj, Akash Singh, Hemant K. Singh, Puneet Singh, Uzzwal K. Sharma

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: zoonotic; corona virus; COVID-19; SARS; MERS; global health emergency; India; lockdown strategies

Online: 24 May 2020 (19:34:03 CEST)

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Global emerge of zoonotic novel corona virus (COVID-19) became a pandemic and its effect to mankind is talk of the town now a days. This tiny, invisible enemy has affected every country in the world and almost every living directly or indirectly and nationwide complete lockdown has triggered a short-term environmental impact. Since 2003, corona virus came into existence in the form of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and more evolved Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012. This time, at the end of December 2019, outbreak of novel corona virus COVID-19 (also known as SARS-CoV₂, nCoV-2019) draw attention as global health emergency. World Health Organization (WHO) report says that the outbreak of this virus is so immense, it has already affected 35,57,235 people and caused death to 2,45,150 people worldwide and 46,433 Indians got affected with 1568 death as on 5^th May 2020 (2:00 am) and these numbers are increasing exponentially day by day. Virologist, micro-biologist and science community are hammering their head very hard to find out cure and vaccine against this powerful virus and to prevent mass demise of mankind. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, Janta curfew on 22.03.2020 and nationwide complete lockdown was implemented in India for 21 days (phase-I, from 25.03.2020 to 14.04.2020) to stop community transmission of third stage, for 19 days (phase-II, 15.04.2020 to 03.05.2020) and 14 days (phase-III, 04.05.2020 to 17.05.2020) complete lockdown to minimize the community transmission effect. During complete lockdown and quarantine period a drastic change in Earth’s atmosphere, including reduction in emission of greenhouse gases, air pollution (~50% fall in air quality index), noise pollution, water pollution and solid waste pollution, have been recorded by government agencies as well as private agencies. In this paper we considered data of Janta curfew, phase-I and phase-II lockdown to link between geological and environmental aspect related to environmental impact due to emerge of COVID-19 and massive reduction in pollution level during complete lockdown in India. We propose future lockdown strategies to minimize the emission of greenhouse gas by ~100 Mt to ~200Mt (3.33% to 6.66%) of GHG_total per year by 2-4 days per month nationwide lockdown or ~70 Mt to ~140 Mt (2.33% to 4.66%) of GHG_total per year by 2-4 days per month complete lockdown of energy sectors only.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201901.0302.v1

Google Earth, Google SketchUp and GIS software; An Interoperable Work Flow for Generating Elevation Data

José Gomes dos Santos, Kevin Bento, Joaquim Lourenço Txifunga

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: interoperability; digital elevation model; Google Sketchup; geographical information systems-science; free and open source software

Online: 30 January 2019 (05:28:53 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201607.0056.v1

Dynamic simulation of urban expansion based on cellular automata and logistic regression model: Case study of Hyrcanian region of Iran

Meisam Jafari, Seyed Masoud Monavari, Hamid Majedi, Ali Asghar Alesheikh, Mirmasoud Kheirkhah Zarkesh

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Land use change; urban sprawl; Logistic regression; Markov chain; Cellular automata; Gilan Province

Online: 18 July 2016 (11:53:16 CEST)

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Although, promotion of urbanization culture in recent decades has made inevitable development of cities in the world, however, the development can be guided in a direction that leave, to the extent possible, minimum socioeconomic and environmental impacts. For this, it is required to first forecast auto-spreading orientation of cities and suburbs in rural areas over time and then avoid shapeless growth of cities. This paper is an attempt to develop a dynamic hybrid model based on logistic regression (LR), Markov chain (MC), and cellular automata (CA) for prediction of future urban sprawl in fast-growing cities. The model was developed using 12 widely-used urban development criteria, whose significant coefficient was determined by logistic regression, and validated by relative operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The validated model was run in Guilan, a tourist province in northern Iran with a very high rate of urban development. For this, changes in the area of urban land use were detected over the period of 1989 to 2013 and then, future sprawl of the province was forecasted by the years 2025 and 2037. The analysis results revealed that the area of urban land use was increased by more than 1.7 % from 36012.5 ha in 1989 to 59754.8 ha in 2013, and the area of Caspian Hyrcanian forestland was reduced by 31628 ha. The results also predicted an alarming increase in the rate of urban development in the province by the years 2025 and 2037, during which urban land use is predicted to develop 0.9 % and 1.38 %, respectively. The development pattern is expected to be uneven and scattered, without following any particular direction. The development will occur close to the existing or newly-formed urban basements as well as around major roads and commercial areas. This development, if not controlled, will lead to the loss of 13863 ha of Hyrcanian forests and if the trend continues, 21013 ha of Hyrcanian forests and 20208 ha of Barren/open lands are expected to be destroyed by the year 2037. In general, the proposed model is an efficient tool for the support of urban planning decisions and facilitates the process of sustainable development of cities by providing decision-makers with an overview on future development of cities where the growth rate is very fast.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0036.v1

High Resolution Satellite Image Classification Using Multi-Task Joint Sparse and Low-Rank Representation

Kunlun Qi, Wenxuan Liu, Chao Yang, Qingfeng Guan, Huayi Wu

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: multi-task learning; feature fusion; sparse representation; low-rank representation; scene classification

Online: 7 November 2016 (05:25:11 CET)

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Preprint ESSAY | doi:10.20944/preprints202003.0370.v1

Essential Indicators for Measuring Area-Based Conservation Effectiveness in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Jonas Geldmann, Marine Deguignet, Andrew Balmford, Neil D. Burgess, Nigel Dudley, Marc Hockings, Naomi Kingston, Helen Klimmek, Alanah Hayley Lewis, Carsten Rahbek, Sue Stolton, Claire Vincent, Sue Wells, Stephen Woodley, James E.M. Watson

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity; biodiversity outcomes; indicators; management effectiveness; other effective area-based conservation measures; post-2020; protected areas

Online: 25 March 2020 (04:31:56 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201811.0113.v1

Deforestation and Forest Degradation Due to Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: A 34-Year Perspective

Jorge Caballero Espejo, Max Messinger, Francisco Roman D., Cesar Ascorra, Luis E. Fernandez, Miles Silman

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Landsat; artisanal-scale gold mining; infrastructure; protected areas; commodity

Online: 5 November 2018 (11:58:46 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201702.0014.v1

Temperature and Precipitation Trend Analysis over the Last 30 Years in Southern Tigray Regional State, Ethiopia

Birhanu Hayelom, Yingjun Chen, Zinabu Marsie, Miseker Negash

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: temperature; precipitation; ethiopia; mann kendall; climate variability

Online: 5 February 2017 (08:56:29 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0006.v1

A New Method of Environmental Assessment and Monitoring of Heavy Metal Polluted Soil Using Fruticose Lichens

Yuri Sueoka, Masayuki Sakakibara, Sakae Sano, Yoshikazu Yamamoto

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: biomarker; environmental assessment; elemental competition; bioconcentration factor; heavy metal absorption

Online: 1 November 2016 (09:34:35 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201702.0093.v1

Valorization of Superabsorbent Polymers from Used Disposable Diapers as Soil Moisture Conditioner

Raymundo Sánchez-Orozco, Beatriz Timoteo-Cruz, Teresa Torres-Blancas, Fernando Ureña-Núñez

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: used superabsorbent polymer; disposable diapers; swelling capacity; soil conditioner

Online: 27 February 2017 (06:50:27 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201610.0134.v1

Prediction of Rice Water Requirement Using FAO-CROPWAT Model in North Iran under Future Climate Change

Javad Gilanipour, Bahram Gholizadeh

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: rice; water requirement; climate change; Penman-Monteith; CROPWAT

Online: 31 October 2016 (03:21:42 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201607.0006.v1

Governing Climate Change Risks: Subnational Climate Policies in Brazil

Fabiana Barbi, Leila Da Costa Ferreira

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: adaptation; Brazil; climate change policy; mitigation; risks

Online: 7 July 2016 (10:54:49 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0059.v1

Europe’s Green Arteries—A Continental Dataset of Riparian Zones

Christof J. Weissteiner, Martin Ickerott, Hannes Ott, Markus Probeck, Gernot Ramminger, Nicola Clerici, Hans Durfourmont, Ana Maria Ribeiro De Sousa

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: riparian zone; transitional environment; riparian forest buffer; spatial modelling; mapping; spatial ecology; ecosystem functions

Online: 6 August 2016 (06:07:11 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201904.0123.v1

“Let Me Take a Selfie”: Reviewing the Implications of Social Media for Public Perceptions of Wild Animals

Christian Lenzi, Siobhan Speiran, Chiara Grasso

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Soil Science Keywords: social media; selfies; wild animals; wildlife tourism; wildlife trade

Online: 10 April 2019 (09:35:16 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.3390/sci1010015.v1

Endocrine Disrupting Compounds Removal Methods from Wastewater in the United Kingdom: A Review

China K. Gadupudi, Louis Rice, Libin Xiao, Komali Kantamaneni

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Water Science And Technology Keywords: wastewater treatment; temperatures; systematic review; biofilms; endocrine disrupting compounds

Online: 21 March 2019 (00:00:00 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201905.0359.v1

Sustainability Indicators and Indices for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Performance Assessment: WEF Nexus in Practice – South Africa Case Study

Luxon Nhamo, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Sylvester Mpandeli, Charles Nhemachena, Aidan Senzanje, Dhesigen Naidoo, Stanley Liphadzi, Albert T. Modi

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Adaptation; climate change; composite indices; resilience; livelihoods; adaptation

Online: 29 May 2019 (16:43:50 CEST)

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The missing link between cross-sectoral resource utilisation and management, and full-scale adoption of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has been lack of analytical tools to support policy and decision-making. This paper defined WEF nexus sustainability indicators and developed a methodology to calculate composite indices to facilitate WEF nexus performance, monitoring and evaluation. WEF nexus indicators were integrated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM). Data were normalised to determine composite indices. The method established quantitative relationships among WEF nexus sectors to indicate resource utilisation and performance over time, using South Africa as a case study. A spider graph of normalised indices was used to illustrate WEF nexus indicator performance and inter-relationships, providing a synopsis of the level of interactions and inter-connectedness of WEF nexus sectors. The shape of the spider graph is determined by the level of the interdependencies and interactions among the WEF nexus sectors, whose management is viewed either as sustainable or unsustainable depending on the classification of the developed integrated index. The spider graph produced for South Africa shows an over emphasis on food self-sufficiency and water productivity at the expense of other sectors, which results from the sectoral approach in resource management. Although the calculated integrated index of 0.203 for South Africa is classified as lowly sustainable, the emphasis is on the quantitative relationships among the indicators and on how to improve them to achieve sustainability. The developed method provides evidence to decision makers, indicating priority areas for intervention. The analytical model is another niche area for the WEF nexus, as it is now capable to evaluate synergies and trade-offs in a holistic way to improve efficiency and productivity in resource use and management for sustainable development.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0006.v1

Hydrochemical Characteristics and Water Quality Assessment of Surface Water at Xiahe County in Tibetan Plateau Pastoral of China

Qian Zhang, Shengli Wang, Muhammad Yousaf, Zhongren Nan, Shuixian Wang, Jianmin Ma, Depeng Wang, Fei Zang

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Water Science And Technology Keywords: surface water; Tibetan Plateau pastoral area; Xiahe County; hydrochemical characteristics; fuzzy comprehensive method; water quality

Online: 2 August 2016 (04:20:00 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0019.v1

Uncertainty Assessments of Satellite Derived Rainfall Products

Margaret Kimani, Joost Hoedjes, Zhongbo Su

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: satellite; rainfall; estimates; rain gauge; uncertainties; topography; seasonality; East Africa

Online: 2 November 2016 (09:25:04 CET)

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Accurate and consistent rainfall observations are vital for climatological studies in support of better planning and decision making. However, estimation of accurate spatial rainfall is limited by sparse rain gauge distributions. Satellite rainfall products can thus potentially play a role in spatial rainfall estimation but their skill and uncertainties need to be under-stood across spatial-time scales. This study aimed at assessing the temporal and spatial performance of seven satellite products (TARCAT (Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite and ground-based observations (TAMSAT) African Rainfall Climatology And Time series), Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM-3B43), Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Morphing (CMORPH), the Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks- Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) and Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) using gridded (0.05o) rainfall data over East Africa for 15 years(1998-2012). The products’ error distributions were qualitatively compared with large scale horizontal winds (850 mb) and elevation patterns with respect to corresponding rain gauge data for each month during the ‘long’ (March-May) and ‘short’ (October-December) rainfall seasons. For validation only rainfall means extracted from 284 rain gauge stations were used, from which qualitative analysis using continuous statistics of Root Mean Squared Difference, Standard deviations, Correlations, coefficient of determinations (from scatter plots) were used to evaluate the products’ performance. Results revealed rainfall variability dependence on wind flows and modulated by topographic influences. The products’ errors showed seasonality and dependent on rainfall intensity and topography. Single sensor and coarse resolution products showed lowest performance on high ground areas. All the products showed low skills in retrieving rainfall during ‘short’ rainfall season when orographic processes were dominant. CHIRPS, CMORPH and TRMM performed well, with TRMM showing the best performance in both seasons. There is need to reduce products’ errors before applications.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201702.0080.v1

Analysis and Predictability of the Hydrological Response of Mountain Catchments to Heavy Rain on Snow Events: A Case Study in the Spanish Pyrenees

Javier G. Corripio, Juan Ignacio López-Moreno

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: ROS; snow; rain; flood; WRF; numerical weather forecast; energy balance; discharge estimation; early alert system

Online: 22 February 2017 (04:26:49 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0048.v1

UAV Low Altitude Photogrammetry for Power Line Inspection

Yong Zhang, Xiuxiao Yuan, Yi Fang, Shiyu Chen

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: UAV remote sensing; power line inspection; dense matching; virtual photography; automatic detection of obstacles in power line corridor

Online: 5 August 2016 (08:07:23 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201612.0136.v1

Application of HEC-HMS Model to Assess Streamflow and Water Resources Availability in Stung Sangker Catchment of Mekong’ Tonle Sap Lake Basin in Cambodia

Kimhuy Sok, Chantha Oeurng

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: HEC-HMS model; streamflow; water availability; rainfall-runoff; Tonle Sap Basin

Online: 28 December 2016 (11:22:01 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0515.v1

Mobility Restrictions and Air Quality under COVID-19 Pandemic in São Paulo, Brazil

Edmilson D. Freitas, Sergio A. Ibarra-Espinosa, Mario E. Gavidia-Calderón, Amanda Rehbein, Sameh A. Abou Rafee, Jorge A. Martins, Leila D. Martins, Ubiratan P. Santos, Mariangeli F. Ning, Maria F. Andrade, Ricardo I. F. Trindade

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: air pollution; MASP; human health; quarantine

Online: 30 April 2020 (03:11:40 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0069.v1

Comparison of Pixel- and Object-Based Approaches in Phenology-Based Rubber Plantation Mapping in Fragmented Landscapes

Deli Zhai, Jinwei Dong, Georg Cadisch, Mingcheng Wang, Weili Kou, Jianchu Xu, Xiangming Xiao

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantation; phenology; Xishuangbanna; Landsat; object-based approach; pixel-based approach

Online: 6 August 2016 (11:54:28 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201806.0414.v1

The Development of Cartographical Studies and Praxis in Montenegro

Gojko Nikolic, Velibor Spalevic, Zoran Susic, Mehmed Batilovic, Goran Skataric, Ruzica Bozovic, Radovan Djurovic, Dragan Vuckovic

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: Montenegro; cadastre; geography; geodesy; geoinformatics; syllabus for cartography; cartographical heritage

Online: 26 June 2018 (12:07:05 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201701.0023.v1

Urban Sprawl Detection Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case of Chennai, Tamilnadu

Rajchandar Padmanaban, Pedro Cabral, Avit K. Bhowmik, Alexander Zamyatin, Oraib Almegdadi

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: Random forest classification; urban sprawl; spatial metrics; Renyi’s entropy; sustainability; land change modelling; remote sensing; urban growth model; Chennai

Online: 5 January 2017 (09:20:29 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0202.v1

Remote Sensing and Data Mining Techniques for Assessing the Urban Fabric Vulnerability to Heat Waves and UHI

Flavio Borfecchia, Vittorio Rosato, Emanuela Caiaffa, Maurizio Pollino, Luigi De Cecco, Luigi La Porta, Simone Ombuen, Lorenzo Barbieri, Federica Benelli, Flavio Camerata, Valeria Pellegrini, Andrea Filpa

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: HR satellite remote sensing; urban fabric vulnerability; UHI & heat waves; landsat & MODIS sensors; LST & urban heating; segmentation & objects classification; data mining; feature extraction & selection; stepwise regression & model calibration

Online: 24 August 2016 (10:19:40 CEST)

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Densely urbanized areas, with a low percentage of green vegetation, are highly exposed to Heat Waves (HW) which nowadays are increasing in terms of frequency and intensity also in the middle-latitude regions, due to ongoing Climate Change (CC). Their negative effects may combine with those of the UHI (Urban Heat Island), a local phenomenon where air temperatures in the compact built up cores of towns increase more than those in the surrounding rural areas, with significant impact on the quality of urban environment, on citizens health and energy consumption and transport, as it has occurred in the summer of 2003 on France and Italian central-northern areas. In this context this work aims at designing and developing a methodology based on aero-spatial remote sensing (EO) at medium-high resolution and most recent GIS techniques, for the extensive characterization of the urban fabric response to these climatic impacts related to the temperature within the general framework of supporting local and national strategies and policies of adaptation to CC. Due to its extension and variety of built-up typologies, the municipality of Rome was selected as test area for the methodology development and validation. First of all, we started by operating through photointerpretation of cartography at detailed scale (CTR 1: 5000) on a reference area consisting of a transect of about 5x20 km, extending from the downtown to the suburbs and including all the built-up classes of interest. The reference built-up vulnerability classes found inside the transect were then exploited as training areas to classify the entire territory of Rome municipality. To this end, the satellite EO HR (High Resolution) multispectral data, provided by the Landsat sensors were used within a on purpose developed "supervised" classification procedure, based on data mining and “object-classification” techniques. The classification results were then exploited for implementing a calibration method, based on a typical UHI temperature distribution, derived from MODIS satellite sensor LST (Land Surface Temperature) data of the summer 2003, to obtain an analytical expression of the vulnerability model, previously introduced on a semi-empirical basis.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201901.0173.v1

New Paradigm in Mapping: A Critique on Cartography and GIS

Bin Jiang

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geography Keywords: third definition of fractal; fractal or living geometry; wholeness; head/tail breaks (ht-index); scaling law

Online: 17 January 2019 (03:30:08 CET)

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As noted in the introductory quotation, an ideal map was long ago seen as the map of the map, the map of the map, of the map, and so on endlessly. This recursive perspective on maps, however, has received little attention in cartography. Cartography, as a scientific discipline, is essentially founded on Euclidean geometry and Gaussian statistics, which deal with respectively regular shapes, and more or less similar things. It is commonly accepted that geographic features – such as rivers, cities, streets and building – are not regular and that the Earth’s surface is full of fractal or scaling or living phenomena with far more small things than large ones at different levels of scale. This paper argues for a new paradigm in mapping, based on fractal or living geometry and Paretian statistics, and – more critically – on the new conception of space, conceived and developed by Christopher Alexander, that space is neither lifeless nor neutral, but a living structure capable of being more living or less living. The fractal geometry is not limited to Benoit Mandelbrot’s framework, but is extended towards Christopher Alexander’s living geometry and based upon the third definition of fractal: A set or pattern is fractal if the scaling of far more small things than large ones recurs multiple times. Paretian statistics deals with far more small things than large ones, so it differs fundamentally from Gaussian statistics, which deals with more or less similar things. Under the new paradigm, I make several claims about maps and mapping: (1) Topology of geometrically coherent things – in addition to that of geometric primitives – enables us to see a scaling or fractal or living structure; (2) Under the third definition, all geographic features are fractal or living, given the right perspective and scope; (3) Exactitude is not truth – to paraphrase Henri Matisse – but the living structure is; and (4) Töpfer’s law is not universal, but scaling law is. All these assertions are supported by evidence, drawn from a series of previous studies. This paper demands a monumental shift in perspective and thinking from what we are used to on the legacy of cartography and GIS.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201612.0125.v1

An Experimental Combined Objective and Subjective Investigation of Thermal Comfort Perception in a Non-Air-Conditioned Lyceum School Building

Eleni Papazoglou, Konstantinos Moustris, Konstantinos-Stefanos Nikas, Panagiotis Nastos, John Statharas

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: human thermal comfort-discomfort; Fanger’s model; PMV; PPD

Online: 25 December 2016 (08:48:27 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201701.0096.v1

Biomineralization of Calcium and Magnesium Carbonate Minerals Induced by Bacillus licheniformis and Its Application in Water Softening

Yanyang Zhao, Hui Zhao

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: biomineralization; calcium ions; magnesium ions; Bacillus lichemiformis; carbonates

Online: 22 January 2017 (04:58:39 CET)

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Reducing the hardness of hard water is of great concern nowadays due to some adverse effects on water pipes, boilers and soap consumption. Using the method of biomineralization to precipitate calcium and magnesium ions to become carbonate minerals was one of the most important innovations for reducing the hardness of hard water. The present study sought to explore the physical and chemical conditions of carbonates bio-precipitation and the potential use of Bacillus licheniformis SRB2 strain (GenBank: KM884945.1) isolated from sludge sample of Moshui River (Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China) in reducing the hardness of hard waters by the induction of carbonate minerals. In this study, B. licheniformis SRB2 strain was identified based on the morphological, biochemical and 16S rDNA gene sequence homology analysis. The carbonate minerals induced by B. licheniformis bacteria in the liquid culture medium with 3% NaCl and Mg/Ca molar ratio of 0, 6, 8, 10 and 12 were investigated. The culture medium was inoculated with the bacterial liquid seed was set as the experimental group and the other culture medium was inoculated with the same volume of distilled water was set as the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray detector, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. The bacterial concentrations and pH values of the solution were measured by a spectrophotometer and a pH meter, respectively. The urease secreted by B. licheniformis SRB2 was found to greatly increase the pH values of the liquid medium, which favored the formation of calcium carbonate.As a result, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ion concentrations decreased greatly due to the biomineralization of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals in the presence of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacterium. There were only few calcium carbonates and no nesquehonite minerals in the control groups. It was also found that the minerals of nesquehonite induced by B. licheniformis SRB2 had a phenomenon of preferred orientation. What was more, even though Mg²⁺ ions inhibited the precipitation of Ca²⁺ ions, but under the action of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacteria, the inhibition effect was significantly declined. The bio-precipitation of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals may represent a new method of pretreatment for the hardness reduction of hard water. The accomplished study is of certain interest for interpretation of the carbonates biomineralization in natural environment, and maybe also has a certain application value in the former processing of hard water

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201712.0150.v1

Probability Distribution of Philippine Daily Rainfall Data

Vanessa Althea B. Bermudez, Ariel Bettina B. Abilgos, Diane Carmeliza N. Cuaresma, Jomar F. Rabajante

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: Philippines; rainfall; precipitation; Gamma distribution; probability; weather risk

Online: 21 December 2017 (04:43:17 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0038.v1

Reconstructing Historical VOC Concentrations in Drinking Water for Epidemiological Studies at a U.S. Military Base: Summary of Results

Morris L. Maslia, Mustafa M. Aral, Perri Z. Ruckart, Frank J. Bove

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: historical reconstruction; modeling; drinking water; water quality; VOC; epidemiological study; health study; Camp Lejeune

Online: 4 August 2016 (10:09:23 CEST)

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A U.S. government health agency conducted epidemiological studies to evaluate whether exposures to drinking water contaminated with volatile organic compounds at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were associated with increased health risks to children and adults. These health studies required knowledge of contaminant concentrations in drinking water—at monthly intervals—delivered to family housing, barracks, and other facilities within the study area. Because concentration data were limited or unavailable during much of the period of contamination (1950s–1985), the historical reconstruction process was used to quantify estimates of monthly mean contaminant-specific concentrations. This paper integrates many efforts, reports, and papers into a synthesis of the overall approach to, and results from, a drinking-water historical reconstruction study. Results show that at the Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant (WTP) reconstructed (simulated) tetrachloroethylene (PCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of 183 micrograms per liter (ug/L) compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 215 ug/L and exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 ug/L during the period November 1957–February 1987. At the Hadnot Point WTP, reconstructed trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of 783 ug/L compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 1,400 ug/L during the period August 1953–December 1984. The Hadnot Point WTP also provided contaminated drinking water to the Holcomb Boulevard housing area continuously prior to June 1972, when the Holcomb Boulevard WTP came on line (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 32 ug/L) and intermittently during the period June 1972–February 1985 (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 66 ug/L). Applying the historical reconstruction process to quantify contaminant-specific monthly drinking-water concentrations is advantageous for epidemiological studies when compared to using the classical exposed versus unexposed approach.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201612.0059.v1

Geographic Distribution of Registered Packaged Water Production in Ghana: Implications for Groundwater Management and Environmental Impacts

Mawuli Dzodzomenyo, Winfred Dotse-Gborgbortsi, Dan Lapworth, Nicola Wardrop, Jim Wright

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: water footprint; bottled water; groundwater; Africa; water resource management; urban

Online: 10 December 2016 (08:41:51 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201807.0244.v1

Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Data Fusion for Mapping and Monitoring Wetlands

Gordana Kaplan, Ugur Avdan

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: Image Fusion, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Wetlands, Object-Based Classification, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Online: 13 July 2018 (17:11:07 CEST)

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Wetlands benefits can be summarized but are not limited to their ability to store floodwaters and improve water quality, providing habitats for wildlife and supporting biodiversity, as well as aesthetic values. Over the past few decades, remote sensing and geographical information technologies has proven to be a useful and frequent applications in monitoring and mapping wetlands. Combining both optical and microwave satellite data can give significant information about the biophysical characteristics of wetlands and wetlands` vegetation. Also, fusing data from different sensors, such as radar and optical remote sensing data, can increase the wetland classification accuracy. In this paper we investigate the ability of fusion two fine spatial resolution satellite data, Sentinel-2 and the Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite, Sentinel-1, for mapping wetlands. As a study area in this paper, Balikdami wetland located in the Anatolian part of Turkey has been selected. Both Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images require pre-processing before their use. After the pre-processing, several vegetation indices calculated from the Sentinel-2 bands were included in the data set. Furthermore, an object-based classification was performed. For the accuracy assessment of the obtained results, number of random points were added over the study area. In addition, the results were compared with data from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle collected on the same data of the overpass of the Sentinel-2, and three days before the overpass of Sentinel-1 satellite. The accuracy assessment showed that the results significant and satisfying in the wetland classification using both multispectral and microwave data. The statistical results of the fusion of the optical and radar data showed high wetland mapping accuracy, with an overall classification accuracy of approximately 90% in the object-based classification. Compared with the high resolution UAV data, the classification results give promising results for mapping and monitoring not just wetlands, but also the sub-classes of the study area. For future research, multi-temporal image use and terrain data collection are recommended.

Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202001.0212.v1

Safeguarding Freshwater Life Beyond 2020: Recommendations for the New Global Biodiversity Framework from the European Experience

Charles B. van Rees, Kerry A. Waylen, Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber, Stephen J. Thackeray, Gregor Kalinkat, Koen Martens, Sami Domisch, Ana I. Lillebø, Virgilio Hermoso, Hans-Peter Grossart, Rafaela Schinegger, Kris Decleer, Tim Adriaens, Luc Denys, Ivan Jarić, Jan H. Janse, Michael T. Monaghan, Aaike De Wever, Ilse Geijzendorffer, Mihai C. Adamescu, Sonja C. Jähnig

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Ecology Keywords: climate change; sustainable development goals; wildlife; wetlands; water resources; ecosystem services

Online: 19 January 2020 (05:05:23 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201701.0129.v1

Urban Thermal Environment and Heat Island in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from Remote Sensing Data

Van Tran Thi, Bao Ha Duong Xuan, Mai Nguyen Thi Tuyet

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: emissivity; land cover; land surface temperature; surface urban heat island; thermal environment; mitigation

Online: 29 January 2017 (10:38:44 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.3390/sci2010005

XRF Quick-Scan Mapping for Heavy Metal Pollutants in SuDS: A Methodological Approach

Guri Venvik, Floris Boogaard

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Water Science And Technology Keywords: portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF); heavy metals; lead (Pb); zinc (Zn); copper (Cu); topsoil; sustainable urban drainage systems; SuDS; LID; BMPs; WSUD; GI; SCMs

Online: 30 January 2020 (00:00:00 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201805.0470.v1

Open-Sourced Remote Sensing Data Management with the Irish Earth Observation (IEO) Python Module

Guy Serbin, Stuart Green

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: remote sensing; python; data management; landsat; open-source

Online: 31 May 2018 (11:12:27 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201610.0023.v1

Hydrological Implications of Climate Change on River Basin Water Cycle: Case Studies of the Yangtze River and Yellow River Basins, China

Liu Liu, Zongxue Xu, Rong Li, Youzhi Wang

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: climate change; water cycle; downscaling; hydrological model; Yangtze River; Yellow River; Tibetan Plateau

Online: 8 October 2016 (11:29:05 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0024.v1

Development of SWAT-PADDY for Simulating Lowland Paddy Fields

Ryota Tsuchiya, Tasuku Kato, Jaehak Jeong

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: SWAT; model development; paddy fields; irrigation; return flow

Online: 3 November 2016 (09:42:16 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201901.0227.v1

Raman Tweezers as a Tool for Small Microplastics and Nanoplastics Identification in Sea Water

Raymond Gillibert, Gireeshkumar Balakrishnan, Quentin Deshoules, Morgan Tardivel, Alessandro Magazzù, Maria G. Donato, Onofrio M. Marago, Marc Lamy de La Chapelle, Florent Colas, Fabienne Lagarde, Pietro G. Gucciardi

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: Microplastics, Nanoplastics, Optical Tweezers, Raman Spectroscopy

Online: 22 January 2019 (18:00:37 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.3390/sci1030057

Perception to Adaptation of Climate Change in Nepal: An Empirical Analysis Using Multivariate Probit Model

Arun GC, Jun-Ho Yeo

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: adaptation; perception; climate change; Nepal; multivariate probit

Online: 20 September 2019 (00:00:00 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0095.v1

Remote Sensing for Crop Water Management: from Experiments to User-Driven Services

Alfonso Calera, Isidro Campos, Anna Osann, Guido D´Urso, Massimo Menenti

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: : Crop Water Requirements; Irrigation Requirements; crop coefficient; web-GIS; Earth Observation; evapotranspiration

Online: 17 November 2016 (15:41:52 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201802.0103.v1

Small Satellite Cloud Detection Based On Deep Learning and Image Compression

Zhang Zhaoxiang, Akira Iwasaki, Xu Guodong, Song Jianing

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Space And Planetary Science Keywords: Cloud detection; Deep learning; Image Compression.

Online: 15 February 2018 (16:49:55 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201609.0038.v2

An Inter-Comparison of Techniques for Determining Velocities of Maritime Arctic Glaciers, Svalbard, Using Radarsat-2 Wide Fine Mode Data

Thomas Schellenberger, Wesley Van Wychen, Luke Copland, Andreas Kääb, Laurence Gray

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: SAR offset and speckle tracking; glacier velocity; Radarsat-2 Wide Fine; Svalbard

Online: 10 September 2016 (05:03:14 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201609.0028.v2

Intra-Urban Mobility in the Estimation of Risk Scenarios by BTEX Emissions

Marco Antonio Garcia-Zarate, María Evarista Arellano-García, Mariana Villada Canela, Patricia Aceves-Calderon, Ana Erika Ruiz-Arellano, Christine Alysse Von- Glascoe, M. C. Arredondo Garcia

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: VOC; technological risk; exposure to risks; DRI; risk mapping; SIG; BTEX

Online: 13 September 2016 (03:42:52 CEST)

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Preprint COMMUNICATION | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0167.v1

Sars-Cov-2 Wastewater Surveillance for Public Health Action: Connecting Perspectives From Wastewater Researchers and Public Health Officials During a Global Pandemic

Jill McClary-Gutierrez, Mia Mattioli, Perrine Marcenac, Andrea Silverman, Alexandria Boehm, Kyle Bibby, Michael Balliet, Francis de los Reyes III, Daniel Gerrity, John Griffith, Patricia Holden, Dimitrios Katehis, Greg Kester, Nathan LaCross, Erin Lipp, Jonathan Meiman, Rachel Noble, Dominique Brossard, Sandra McLellan

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Water Science And Technology Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; wastewater surveillance

Online: 6 April 2021 (10:15:25 CEST)

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Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 has garnered extensive public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a proposed complement to existing disease surveillance systems. Over the past year, environmental microbiology and engineering researchers have advanced methods for detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in untreated sewage and demonstrated that the trends in wastewater are correlated with trends in cases reported days to weeks later depending on the location. At the start of the pandemic, the virus was also detected in wastewater in locations prior to known cases. Despite the promise of wastewater surveillance, for these measurements to translate into useful public health tools, it is necessary to bridge the barriers between researchers and the public health responders who will ultimately use the data. Here we describe the key uses, barriers, and applicability of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance for supporting public health decisions and actions. This perspective was formed from a multidisciplinary group of environmental microbiology, engineering, wastewater, and public health experts, as well as from opinions shared during three focus group discussions with officials from ten state and local public health agencies. The key barriers to use of wastewater surveillance data identified were: (1) As a new data source, most public health agencies are not yet comfortable interpreting wastewater data; (2) Public health agencies want to see SARS-CoV-2 wastewater data in their own communities to gain confidence in its utility; (3) New institutional knowledge and increased capacity is likely needed to sustain wastewater surveillance systems; and (4) The ethics of wastewater surveillance data collection, sharing, and use are not yet established. Overall, while wastewater surveillance to assess community infections is not a new idea, by addressing these barriers, the COVID-19 pandemic may be the initiating event that turns this emerging public health tool into a sustainable nationwide surveillance system.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201708.0078.v1

Rainforest to Reef: A Landscape-scale Approach to Coastal Ecotourism in Malaysia

Lincoln Garland, Mike Wells, Keith French, John Dawkins

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geography Keywords: Malaysia; Endau Rompin; landscape-scale management; ecotourism; rainforest to reef; Tiger

Online: 23 August 2017 (09:14:40 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201610.0011.v1

Progress in the Infrared Remote Sensing of Volcanic Activity

Matthew Blackett

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: infrared remote sensing; volcanoes; earth observation, satellites

Online: 5 October 2016 (11:54:54 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201609.0081.v1

Remote Sensing for Detection and Monitoring of Vegetation Affected by Oil Spills

Bashir Adamu, Booker Ogutu, Kevin Tansey

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: spectral reflectance; vegetation indices; vegetation; remote sensing; oil spill; mangrove forest; oil pollution; Landsat 8

Online: 23 September 2016 (06:19:49 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201607.0066.v1

MERIDIONAL AND ZONAL WAVENUMBER DEPENDENCE IN POTENTIAL VORTICITY FLUX IN ROSSBY WAVES

Sanjeeva Balasuriya

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: maximum flux; midlatitude cyclones; oceanic jets; chaotic transport

Online: 22 July 2016 (05:17:29 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.3390/sci1020049

Trend Analysis of Temperature Data for Narayani River Basin, Nepal

Mohan Bahadur Chand, Bikas Chandra Bhattarai, Niraj Shankar Pradhananga, Prashant Baral

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: climate change; temperature trend; Himalaya; river basin; Nepal

Online: 14 August 2019 (00:00:00 CEST)

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Study of spatiotemporal dynamics of temperature is vital to assess changes in climate, especially in the Himalayan region where livelihoods of billions of people living downstream depends on water coming from the melting of snow and glacier ice. To this end, temperature trend analysis is carried out in Narayani river basin, a major river basin of Nepal characterized by three climatic regions: tropical, subtropical and alpine. Temperature data from six stations located within the basin were analyzed. The elevation of these stations ranges from 460 to 3800 m a.s.l. and the time period of available temperature data ranges from 1960–2015. Multiple regression and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methods were applied to fill in missing data and to detect trends. Annual as well as seasonal trends were analyzed and a Mann-Kendall test was employed to test the statistical significance of detected trends. Results indicate significant cooling trends before 1970s, and warming trends after 1970s in the majority of the stations. The warming trends range from 0.028

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C year

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to 0.035

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C year

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with a mean increasing trend of 0.03

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C year

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after 1971. Seasonal trends show highest warming trends in the monsoon season followed by winter, pre-monsoon, and the post-monsoon season. However, difference in warming rates between different seasons was not significant. An average temperature lapse rate of −0.006

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C m

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with the steepest value (−0.0064

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) in pre-monsoon season and least negative (−0.0052

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) in winter season was observed for this basin. A comparative analysis of the gap-filled data with freely available global climate datasets show reasonable correlation thus confirming the suitability of the gap filling methods.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0010.v1

Attenuation Correction for Ka-band Cloud Radar Using X-band Weather Radar Data

Peng Zhang, Yunjie Chen

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: millimeter-wavelength cloud radar; attenuation correction; dual-radar; data fusion

Online: 1 November 2016 (10:05:18 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0089.v1

Regional Lithological Mapping Using ASTER-TIR Data: Preliminary Case Study for the Tibetan Plateau and the Surrounding Area

Yoshiki Ninomiya, Bihong Fu

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Geophysics And Geology Keywords: ASTER; TIR; geology; mineralogy; suture zone; quartz; feldspars; silicates; carbonates; sulfates; granitic rocks; felsic; ultramafic; mapping

Online: 9 August 2016 (10:10:41 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202105.0151.v2

Commercial Forest Carbon Protocol Over-credit Bias Delimited by Zero-threshold Carbon Accounting

Bruno D.V. Marino, Nahuel Bautista

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: American Carbon Registry; California Action Reserve; California Air Resources Board; VERRA; Clean Development Mechanism; net ecosystem exchange

Online: 7 July 2021 (11:54:59 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201609.0046.v1

Assessment of Carbon Flux and Soil Moisture in Wetlands Applying Sentinel-1 Data

Katarzyna Dabrowska–Zielinska, Maria Budzynska, Monika Tomaszewska, Alicja Malinska, Martyna Gatkowska, Maciej Bartold, Iwona Malek

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: NEE; backscattering coefficient; LAI; soil moisture

Online: 13 September 2016 (10:12:12 CEST)

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Working Paper ARTICLE

A Simple Method to Estimate Entropy and Free Energy of Atmospheric Gases from Their Action

Ivan Kennedy, Harold Geering, Michael Rose, Angus Crossan

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: statistical mechanics, partition functions, translational entropy, rotational entropy, vibrational entropy, Gibbs and Helmholtz energies,

Online: 25 March 2019 (11:42:11 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0098.v1

Remote Sensing Based Estimation of Evapo-Transpiration Using Selected Algorithms: The Case of Wonji Shoa Sugar Cane Estate, Ethiopia

Mulugeta Genanu, Tena Alamirew, Gabriel Senay, Mekonnen Gebremichael

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science And Meteorology Keywords: ET; CWR; landsat ETM+; remote sensing; SEBAL; SSEB; SSEBop

Online: 9 August 2016 (12:27:09 CEST)

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Remote sensing datasets are increasingly being used to provide spatially explicit large scale evapotranspiration (ET) estimates. The focus of this study was to estimate and thematically map pixel-by-pixel basis, and compare the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) of the Wonji Shoa Sugarcane Estate using Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEB) and Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) algorithms on Landsat7 ETM+ images acquired on four days in 2002. The algorithms were based on image processing which uses spatially distributed spectral satellite data and ground meteorological data to derive the surface energy balance components. The results obtained revealed that the ranges of the daily ETa estimated on January 25, February 26, September 06 and October 08, 2002 using SEBAL were 0.0–6.85, 0.0–9.36, 0.0–3.61, 0.0–6.83 mm/day; using SSEB 0.0–6.78, 0.0–7.81, 0.0–3.65, 0.0–6.46 mm/day, and SSEBop were 0.05–8.25, 0.0–8.82, 0.2–4.0, 0.0–7.40 mm/day, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values between SSEB and SEBAL, SSEBop and SEBAL, and SSEB and SSEBop were 0.548, 0.548, and 0.99 for January 25, 2002; 0.739, 0.753, and 0.994 for February 26, 2002;0.847, 0.846, and 0.999 for September 06, 2002; 0.573, 0.573, and 1.00 for October 08, 2002, respectively. The standard deviation of ETa over the sugarcane estate showed high spatio-temporal variability perhaps due to soil moisture variability and surface cover. The three algorithm results showed that well watered sugarcane fields in the mid-season growing stage of the crop and water storage areas had higher ETa values compared with the other dry agricultural fields confirming that they consumptively use more water. Generally during the dry season ETa is limited to water surplus areas only and in wet season, ETa was high throughout the entire sugarcane estate. The evaporation fraction (ETrF) results also followed the same pattern as the daily ETa over the sugarcane estate. The total crop and irrigation water requirement and effective rainfall estimated using the Cropwat model were 2468.8, 2061.6 and 423.8 mm/yr for January 2001 planted and 2281.9, 1851.0 and 437.8 mm/yr for March 2001 planted sugarcanes, respectively. The mean annual ETa estimated for the whole estate were 107 Mm³, 140 Mm³, and 178 Mm³ using SEBAL, SSEB, and SSEBop, respectively. Even though the algorithms should be validated through field observation, they have potential to be used for effective estimation of ET in the sugarcane estate.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201608.0137.v1

Contamination Characteristics and Assessment of Manganese, Zinc, Chrome, Lead, Copper and Nickel in Bus Station Dusts of Xifeng, Northwest China

Yongfu Wu, Xinwei Lu, Sukai Zhuang, Xiufeng Han, Yan Zhou

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Environmental Science Keywords: heavy metal; contamination assessment; X-ray fluorescence; bus station dusts

Online: 13 August 2016 (09:41:18 CEST)

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Environmental and Earth Sciences