Channel incision occurs in the “Anthropocene,” where natural river processes and climate variation increasingly interact with human activity. Causes of “Anthropocene” incision include landuses that ...change the ratio of discharge to sediment load, lower baselevels, or human activities that otherwise alter fluvial systems, such as channelization. This paper reports a field study of an alluvial channel incised into valley fill within the northern Coast Ranges of California. At this site, channel slope adjustments associated with incision, indicated by bank heights of ∼5–8m, increased transport capacity and excess shear stress by over 20%. The incision exposed Holocene valley fill in eroding channel banks. Results of field surveys enabled development of a dimensionless metric “relative incision,” ht/de, that quantifies the ratio of terrace height (ht) relative to effective flow depth (de). The ratio is predicted to be near a threshold value of 1.0 in stable alluvial channels; in incised alluvial channels the ratio is predicted to exceed 1.0. Further application and testing will provide information to aide in managing incised systems where complex feedbacks in coupled human–landscape systems may promote or dampen incision.
Since the Industrial Revolution humans have introduced hazardous compounds into the environment. Interest has grown for combining urban planning/design processes with phytoremediation as a ...systems-based approach to environmental remediation. Phytoremediation has potential to transform traditional urban infrastructure processes thereby enhancing the formative structure of the urban context. A historic view of integrating ecosystems within urban planning and design processes is provided, and an ecologically based approach to creating urban contexts through environmentally responsive community planning and design is proposed. Evidence supports incorporating phytoremediation into the community-wide urban planning and design process to establish and sustain communities, environment, human health, and prosperity. Conclusions are drawn from historic and emerging urban planning and design theories, practices, and present and past successes in creating environmentally responsive sustainable communities. Conclusions are supported by a review and analysis of case studies focused on this topic. Based on these processes this research supports a hybrid approach to phytoremediation-by-design, which borrows from past efforts and builds on current urban planning theory and ecological principles.
Adaptation to climate change is becoming a prominent issue in both landscape research and land-use planning. Current research focuses mainly on the description of potential impacts for different ...societal sectors and in general fails to provide useful information to help define climate adaptation strategies and specific policy measures or development plans. This editorial briefly explores the reasons why this may be the case and proposes a conceptual framework for more effective climate adaptation research. Furthermore, it introduces three papers that address adaptation of landscape systems to climate change as an integrated multi-level challenge. The included papers focus on the relationship between climate-induced changes in the natural system and the economics-oriented societal system and specifically address the interdependencies across scales.
This research was conducted in the framework of cultural geography — a relatively recent field of geography. This article considers the problems of geographical study of cultural landscapes of the ...North-West Russia, which includes Saint Petersburg, the Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, and Kaliningrad regions. This article sets out to develop and test the methodology for historical and cultural zoning at the mesogeographical level. The research and practical significance of the work lies in the identification of the features of formation of cultural landscapes in the North-West Russia, which can be used for the development of schemes of protection and rational management of territorial cultural and historical heritage. The authors rely on historical and cultural zoning as the basic geographical method of research on cultural landscapes. To this effect, the article offers a hierarchy of historical and cultural zones comparable to the zoning systems applied in physical, historical, and cultural geography. The major results of the research are the authors' taxonomy of historical and cultural complexes and the corresponding system of historical and cultural zoning of the North-West Russia presented on a sketch map. The article offers an exemplary description of historical and cultural provinces of the region. The contribution of the research to the Russian geography of culture is the authors' variant of taxonomy of historical and cultural complexes and the formulation of basic principles of historical and cultural zoning at different hierarchical levels. The research results can be applied, first of all, in the development of projects aimed at the protection and use of territorial cultural heritage in the framework of comprehensive schemes of territorial planning of the country's regions.
River morphology and behaviour are components of overall landscape behaviour, which responds to tectonic, volcanic, climatic and anthropogenic inputs. River morphology and behaviour adjust in ...response to these inputs to allow the available flow to transport the sediment supplied to base level at the rate at which it is supplied. To be sustainable, management of rivers to reduce flood hazards must therefore include measures to maintain the natural sediment transport capacity of the river. This is difficult in principle; there is evidence that the natural state of a river corresponds to a local maximum of bedload sediment transport capacity. Hence any moderate alteration will cause a decrease in sediment transport capacity, leading to aggradation, steepening of gradient and bank erosion. To achieve an artificial increase in sediment transport capacity therefore requires a substantial alteration of river form (usually narrowing), which in turn requires substantial structural works to maintain flood discharge and control local erosion. Experience in both Japan and Switzerland suggests that modification of rivers for flood control can be sustainable in both high and low sediment input environments if the economic base is sufficient to justify large expenditure on substantial river engineering works. However, New Zealand experience indicates that modification of active bedload-dominated rivers is much less sustainable in low-to moderately-developed land areas, where the required substantial modifications are not economically justifiable.
Recently, landscape improvement has been attracting attention in cities. More than 400 municipalities has established landscape ordinances in Japan, which include combined system of autonomous ...ordinances and legal systems as a case study of Cities of Kanazawa and Kyoto. These two cities are both leading municipalities in landscape improvement. This study aims to clarify the structure and characteristics of combined landscape improvement systems. The findings are (1) Kanazawa has a cross-zoning system with overlapping regulation zones, (2) Kyoto has a gradual zoning system with zones of different regulation levels.
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•Geomorphic responses were studied in the Santa Gertrudes Ceramic Polo (SGCP).•The SGCP is the second-largest global producer of ceramic tiles.•Topographic changes and hydrologic ...alteration were associated to SGCP.•The erosive and depositional processes changed, increasing the alluvial plains.•The sedimentation rates increased after the expansion of SGCP.
Land use/land cover changes (LULCC) have modified the Earth’s surface. In especial, mining activities have been responsible for landscape changes over a range of temporal and spatial scales. The production of mineral commodities in Brazil represents almost 2 % of the country’s gross domestic product with non-metallic mining activities spread throughout the territory. The Santa Gertrudes Ceramic Polo (SGCP), located in the State of São Paulo, is the second-largest global producer of ceramic tiles and it is responsible for 70 % of the production of non-metallic mineral resources in Brazil. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess geomorphic responses in the SGCP, using land use changes and geomorphological mapping in two study areas, in different scenarios (1962, 1988, 2010). The sedimentation rates were measured to estimate changes in the depositional dynamic due to expansion of the SGCP. The expansion of SGCP generated several geomorphic responses, such as topographic changes, hydrologic alteration, construction of landfill with roads, and erosive/depositional processes adjustments. The expansion of open pit mining areas occurred in Riparian Forestry and pasture areas, creating slope breaks with a groundwater withdrawal and decreasing the length of the river channels. The landfill with roads increased the surface runoff and, consequently, the linear erosive processes and the mass wasting in the slopes. The land displacement within the open pit mining areas, and in the quarry dumps, promoted an increase in the alluvial plains from 1962 to 2010, changing the average sedimentation rates from 26.5 mm yr−1 to 33.0 mm yr−1. The geomorphic responses allowed to comprehend the influence of human-landscape system in the SGCP. Finally, this study highlights the importance of studies involving geomorphic responses in areas with non-metallic mining activities, which could be used in different areas in Brazil or elsewhere.
Improving the urban water allocation system has depended on different technical and managerial components. One of the main solutions for increasing the available capacity is the predetermined plan ...for constructing a water circulation system to restore the existing water resources. For this objective, a combination model was conducted based on a stormwater management technique and environment landscape system (ELS) under drought conditions. A hydrological framework was established using the long-term meteorological information in central China to estimate the extreme values of surface water in each stress period. A data analysis system was generated at three meteorological points of the study area and the developed model was incorporated to simulate the behavior of the subsurface flow. Consequently, a growth simulation model was designed according to the soil structure and vegetation canopy cover to formulate a real-time plan for the restoration of ELS. Results showed that the proposed model could improve the water productivity in urban and environment consumptions. Furthermore, technical analysis confirmed the suitability and applicability of the developed plan in cities with water shortages.
Conventional centralized drainage systems are not only expensive, but their mono-function to discharge surface runoff also imposes a negative effect on the local environment while compounding ...regional watershed dysfunction. Sponge city initiative promoted by the Chinese government is a broader sustainable stormwater management concept that aims to use more nature-based solutions, reduce urban flooding and runoff pollution, and increase rainwater resource usage. As part of decentralized and cost-effective solutions, green infrastructure (GI) is considered in the Sponge City development across China. Although GI has been successfully implemented through a range of small-scale projects, the GI approach has not been adopted widely, which is because the GI approach is micro-scale techniques and the local government is skeptical about the efficiency of GI to mitigate stormwater on a large scale. Although some researchers have explored the effectiveness of GI to reduce stormwater in small catchments, only a limited number of studies have examined the efficacy of GI at the watershed scale. Moreover, there is lack of a system and cross-scale approach in sponge city practices. To understand the effect of GI on the watershed scale, this paper proposed a comprehensive approach using ArcGIS and SWMM platforms to study the spatial configuration and implementation of multi-scale stormwater management. The approach is to apply a three-step sequence of catchments, sub-catchments, and micro-catchments for the urban watershed through designing interconnected network of landscape infrastructure (LI) systems. The design scenarios and performance of LI system-based approach with different combinations and sizes of the sponge facilities were analyzed based on the Old Town district of Hefei City, China. This study demonstrated that the inherent capacity of the landscape can act as the conduit for multifunctional, flexible, localized, and synergistic infrastructural systems, in which cross watershed holds promise to decrease both runoff volumes and peak flows while providing ecosystem services, such as enhancing neighborhood aesthetics and cultural/health benefits through shared public green spaces. Thus, Sponge City Development here as green concepts and techniques for nature-based solutions enhances the function and value of green infrastructure with benefits of ecological, economic and social significances, which presents a new approach for sustainable city making.
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