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Topic Review

3D city models are digital models of urban areas that represent terrain surfaces, sites, buildings, vegetation, infrastructure and landscape elements in three-dimensional scale as well as related objects (e.g., city furniture) belonging to urban areas. Their components are described and represented by corresponding two-dimensional and three-dimensional spatial data and geo-referenced data. 3D city models support presentation, exploration, analysis, and management tasks in a large number of different application domains. In particular, 3D city models allow "for visually integrating heterogeneous geoinformation within a single framework and, therefore, create and manage complex urban information spaces."

1.1K
04 Nov 2022

Topic Review Peer Reviewed

A General Description of Karst Types

This study includes a general description of the Earth’s karst types based on literary data and field observations. An improved classification of karst types distinguishes the main group, group, and subgroup; and, a division of karst types involves a main karst type, karst type, subtype, variety, and non-individual karst type. The relation between karst type and karst area is described. The role of various characteristics of karsts in the development of primary, secondary, and tertiary karst types is analyzed. Their structure is studied, which includes a geomorphic agent, process, feature, feature assemblage, karst system and the characteristics of the bearing karst area. Dominant, tributary, and accessory features are distinguished. The conditions of the stability and the development of types are studied, transformation ways are classified, and the effect of climate on types is described.

384
26 Sep 2022

Topic Review

The term “adaptation” is currently used in the climate field. It originated from natural science in the field of population biology and evolutionary ecology. It originally referred to the general characteristics that ensure the survival and reproduction of organic individuals in living environments. The definition of “adaptation” has many attributes, including the two most important points. First is the spatial scale of adaptation, which depends on who is responsible. Second is the nature of adaptive behavior, whether it is spontaneous or conscious or it is planned or prescriptive. The former is usually short-term and tactical adaptation, which is directly related to specific climate change. The latter is more strategic, long-term, and proactive and is usually formulated by government departments and used as part of policy adaptation measures. The adaptation to climate change in the literature is sometimes divergent at the temporal and spatial scales. Short-term adaptation is more of a reaction, and higher-scale adaptation is considered an expected adaptation through policies, projects, and recent plans and actions.

2.5K
15 Nov 2021

Topic Review

Allosaurus (/ˌæləˈsɔːrəs/) is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch (Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "Allosaurus" means "different lizard" alluding to its unique (at the time of its discovery) concave vertebrae. It is derived from the Greek ἄλλος (allos) ("different, other") and σαῦρος (sauros) ("lizard / generic reptile"). The first fossil remains that could definitively be ascribed to this genus were described in 1877 by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. As one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs, it has long attracted attention outside of paleontological circles. Allosaurus was a large bipedal predator. Its skull was light, robust and equipped with dozens of sharp, serrated teeth. It averaged 8.5 meters (28 ft) in length for A. fragilis, with the largest specimens estimated as being 9.7 metres (32 ft) long. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, its three-fingered forelimbs were small, and the body was balanced by a long and heavily muscled tail. It is classified as an allosaurid, a type of carnosaurian theropod dinosaur. The genus has a complicated taxonomy, and includes at least three valid species, the best known of which is A. fragilis. The bulk of Allosaurus remains have come from North America's Morrison Formation, with material also known from Portugal. It was known for over half of the 20th century as Antrodemus, but a study of the abundant remains from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry brought the name "Allosaurus" back to prominence and established it as one of the best-known dinosaurs. As the most abundant large predator in the Morrison Formation, Allosaurus was at the top of the food chain, probably preying on contemporaneous large herbivorous dinosaurs, and perhaps other predators. Potential prey included ornithopods, stegosaurids, and sauropods. Some paleontologists interpret Allosaurus as having had cooperative social behavior, and hunting in packs, while others believe individuals may have been aggressive toward each other, and that congregations of this genus are the result of lone individuals feeding on the same carcasses.

1.9K
16 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Application of Google Earth Engine

Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a cloud computing platform that was launched by Google in 2010. Since then, GEE has demonstrated its capacity of preprocessing and mining of geographic big data. GEE enables cloud computation and is an effective tool for carrying out the analysis of global geospatial big data.

3.6K
08 Oct 2021

Topic Review Peer Reviewed

Application of Mobile Operators’ Data in Modern Geographical Research

Mobile operators’ data are one type of Big Data. These are any data about events related to the use of a mobile phone. These data include subscriber identifiers and associated time and location attributes. Big Data in general usually includes datasets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big Data can be described by the following key characteristics: volume, variety, velocity, veracity, value, variability etc. Mobile operators’ data are supplied by the Mobile Network Operators. The main distinguishing features of the operator are, firstly, the possession of a state license to use the radio frequency spectrum, and, secondly, the possession or control over the elements of the network infrastructure necessary to provide services to subscribers in the authorized radio frequency spectrum. The smallest structural territorial element for cellular communication systems is a cell; its dimensions can be different (250 by 250 m, 500 by 500 m, etc.).

309
01 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Armenian Highlands

The Armenian Highlands (Armenian: Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ, romanized: Haykakan leṙnašxarh; also known as the Armenian Upland, Armenian plateau, or Armenian tableland) is the most central and the highest of the three plateaus that together form the northern sector of Western Asia. Clockwise starting from the west, the Armenian Highlands are bounded by the Anatolian plateau, the Caucasus, the Kura-Aras lowlands, the Iranian Plateau, and Mesopotamia. The highlands are divided into western and eastern regions, defined by the Ararat Valley where Mount Ararat is located. Western Armenia is nowadays referred to as eastern Anatolia, and Eastern Armenia as the Lesser Caucasus or Caucasus Minor, and historically as the Anti-Caucasus, meaning "opposite the Caucasus". During the Iron Age, the region was known by variations of the name Ararat (Urartu, Uruatri, Urashtu). Later, the Highlands were known as Armenia Major, a central region to the history of Armenians, and one of the four geopolitical regions associated with Armenians, the other three being Armenia Minor, Sophene, and Commagene. The population of the region has been primarily Armenian for most of its known history. Prior to the appearance of nominally Armenian people in historical records, historians have hypothesized that the region must have been home to various ethnic groups who became homogenous when the Armenian language came to prominence. The population of the Armenian Highlands seem to have had a high level of regional genetic continuity for over 6,000 years. Recent studies have shown that the Armenian people are indigenous to the Armenian Highlands and form a distinct genetic isolate in the region. The region was also inhabited during Antiquity by minorities such as Assyrians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, and Iranians. During the Middle Ages, Arabs and particularly Turkmens and Kurds settled in large numbers in the Armenian Highlands. The Christian population of the western half of the region was exterminated during the Armenian genocide of 1915. Today, the eastern half is mainly inhabited by Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians, while the western half is mainly inhabited by Kurds (including Yazidis), Turks, Azerbaijanis, Armenians (included crypto-Armenians and Hemshins) and Zazas. The region was administered for most of its known history by Armenian nobility and states, whether it was as part of a fully independent Armenian state, as vassals, or as part of a foreign state. Since the 1040s, the highlands have been under the rule of various Turkic peoples and the Safavid dynasty, with pockets of Armenian autonomy in places such as Artsakh. Much of Eastern Armenia, which had been ruled by the Safavids from the 16th century, became part of the Russian Empire in 1828 and was later incorporated into the Soviet Union, while much of Western Armenia was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and later incorporated into Turkey. Today, the region is divided between Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

960
07 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Automatic Identification of Addresses

Address matching continues to play a central role at various levels, through geocoding and data integration from different sources, with a view to promote activities such as urban planning, location-based services, and the construction of databases like those used in census operations. Closely associated to address matching is the task of address parsing or address segmentation, which consists of decomposing an address into its different components, such as a street name or a postal code. However, these tasks continue to face several challenges, such as non-standard or incomplete address records or addresses written in more complex languages.

471
10 Jan 2022

Topic Review

Brown Lake (Stradbroke Island)

Brown Lake (Bummeria) is a perched lake on North Stradbroke Island, in South-East Queensland, Australia. The ecosystem is an example of a coastal non-floodplain sand lake and is characterised by acidic water, nutrient-poor and sandy soil, shrub-like vegetation and wet heathland. Brown Lake is of geographical significance, possessing ecological value. The geomorphology of the ecosystem is representative of the unique parabolic dune ridge systems that formed during the Pleistocene epoch. As a perched lake, the hydrological operations of Brown Lake are highly diverse and complex. The lake is also of cultural significance to the Aboriginal population of North Stradbroke Island, the Quandamooka people, as they possess a spiritual and physical relationship with the ecosystem. The indigenous population care for and protect the landscape, sharing traditional environmental management knowledge. Brown Lake’s cultural heritage and ecological value, along with the environmental damage associated with tourism, has led to increased conservation. The Queensland Government and the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) have proposed an improved environmental management plan, combining traditional and contemporary management practices.

839
14 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Calcareous Tufa

The term calcareous tufa, or freshwater travertine, is widely used in the scientific literature to describe carbonate deposits precipitated from cool groundwaters of meteoric origin enriched in CO2 (carbon dioxide) by percolating through organic soils.

867
11 May 2023

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