Environmental Geography Seminar 10/23

Dear all,

Hello!

This is an announcement of the upcoming Environmental Geography Seminar.

Please see all the details carefully below.

【Date】 23rd. October. Wed. （Time: 15:00~）

【Place】 D201

【Content】

1. Presenters
i. Sun Yujie
Title: Seasonal Migration and Livelihood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change in Nepal
Author: Yograj Gautam
Journal: Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 37, No. 4, 2017
Abstract: Migration for work remains a livelihood strategy in subsistence farming communities globally,
especially in view of unprecedented environmental change. Farmers in the high Himalaya migrate during
the winter, when farming activities are reduced. This study examined the drivers of seasonal migration in the context of
climate change and migration’s role in food security and livelihood resilience in the district of Humla, Nepal. Focus group
discussions and a household socioeconomic survey were conducted. The results suggest that rather than climate change
impacts, structural poverty is the root cause of migration, such that men from poor households with small landholdings and
high food insecurity, mainly belonging to low-caste groups, migrate for work during the winter. Focus group participants
also presented a clear perception of climate variability and change and their negative impacts on crop production. In this
context, the poorest households find cultivating their own land risky. Moreover, the traditional practice of sharecropping, which
helped them reduce food shortages, has also become less profitable. Therefore, more households are likely to participate
in seasonal migration in the context of climate change, and those already migrating are likely to do so for longer time
periods. Currently, such migrants take up low-paying unskilled wage work, mainly in towns and cities in Uttarakhand, India,
which enable them to make only modest savings, hardly enough to repay the debt their family has incurred during food
shortages. Even in the future, these farmers are likely to be limited to the same migration pattern, because they lack the
social ties, education, and financial capital needed to fulfill the administrative and monetary requirements for more
economically promising long-term overseas migration. Thus, it is unlikely that migration will make a significant contribution to
building livelihood resilience in the context of climate change in remote Himalayan farming communities.
Keywords: Seasonal migration; food security; livelihood resilience; climate change; Humla; Nepal.

ii. Mutimba
Title: Exploring Land use and Landcover change in the mining areas of Wa East District,Ghana using Satellite Imagery
Authors: Prosper Laari Basommi,Qingfeng Guan*,andDandanCheng
Abstract: Satellite imagery has been widely used to monitor the extent of environmental change in both mine and post mine areas.This study uses Remote sensing and Geographical Information System techniques for the assessment of land use/land cover dynamics of mine related areas in Wa East District of Ghana. Landsat satellite imageries of three different time periods,i.e.,1991,2000 and 2014 were used to quantify the land use/ cover changes in the area.Supervised Classification using Maximum Likelihood Technique in ERDAS was utilized. The images were categorized into five different classes: Open Savannah, Closed Savannah, Bare Areas,Settlement and Water .Image differencing method of change detection was used to investigate the changes. Normalized Differential Vegetative Index values were used to correlate the state of healthy vegetation. The image differencing showed a positive correlation to the changes in the Land use and Land cover classes. NDVI values reduced from 0.48 to 0.11. The land use change matrix also showed conversion of savannah areas into bare ground and settlement. Open and close savannah reduced from 50.80% to 36.5% and 27.80% to 22.67% respectively whiles bare land and settlement increased. Overall accuracy of classified 2014 image and kappa statistics was 83.20% and 0.761 respectively. The study revealed the declining nature of the vegetation and the significance of using satellite imagery.A higher resolution satellite Imagery is however needed to satisfactorily delineate mine areas from other bare areas in such Savannah zones.
Keywords: Landuse/Landcover; NDVI;Vegetation;Remote sensing and GIS

iii. Kinoshita
Title: Estimating large woody debris volume and Distribution floated and accumulated in reservoir using aerial photographs
Journal: River Flow2018
Authors: Waku Suzuki, Sohei Kobayashi, Sameh Kantoush, Yasuhiro Takemon,Tetsuya Sumi
Abstract: Large woody debris (LWD) could increase the risk of flooding in the event of heavy rainfall, and fast estimation of the accumulated LWD is crucial for river management.
We develop a method to automatically detect LWD floating in reservoirs using airborne images, and estimated the total volume of LWD accumulated in a reservoir during a severe flood event in northern Kyushu, Japan, early July 2017.

iv. Ding Manhui
Title： Low-Pass Filters to Suppress Inertial and Tidal Frequencies
Author： Rory O. R. Y. Thompson
Journal：Journal of Physical Oceanography
Vol. 13: Issue. 6, : Pages. 1077-1083
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1983)0132.0.CO;2
Abstract
A systematic way is given to design digital filters which allow clear separation of signals with periods of a few days from noise of higher frequency, particularly tidal and inertial. Several examples are given which pass little high-frequency power and none at the principal tidal frequencies. The Lanczos–cosine filter passes too much energy near diurnal frequencies; the Godin filter is better but not optimal. A longer filter is recommended, with flat low-frequency response, a sharp cut-off and very low noise. For current meter records containing inertial motions, it appears desirable to design a filter which specifically suppresses the local inertial frequency.

2. Note this:

Please send me detailed information about your presentation at least 5 days before your turn.

For a paper review: title and author of the paper, journal name, which volume, pages, also the link (if possible) should be provided.

If a paper written in Japanese is going to be presented, please kindly send me the information both in Japanese and English.

【Notice】

※ In case you are absent from the seminar or late for the seminar, please contact Professors or me in advance. Any absence without permission is not allowed;

※ Please be punctual (very important);

※ Please do your full preparation for the seminar;

※ Your active participation is always appreciated;

※ Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or comments.

Best Regards,

Chang Liang