Transformation of Danube Recreational Sites

The purpose of the research was to verify models of sustainable urbanization of the Danube riverside landscape in the suburban surroundings of Bratislava. The research focused on landscape-ecological forms of suburban urbanization in the contact of the river Danube, in the context of meanders of the Danube branches with the formation of recreational localities. The implementation of ecological principles was based on the concept of regional structures with a vision of the renewal of the ancient branches of the Danube for the creation of the climatic envelope of Bratislava from the southwestern side. The completion of the Petržalka, Slnečnice, Južné Mesto, and rural structures near Jarovce, Rusovce, and Čuňovo, conditioned by ecological urbanization, will acquire more landscape elements and a system of blue and green infrastructure. The hierarchical transition of the city to the suburban localities is solved by creating zones of recreation and sports on the Danube. Variant case studies of the "Danubia Park" near the village of Čuňovo are located on the southwestern bank of the Hrušov Reservoir of the Danube, with access to the Wild Water sports zone and the Danubiana Gallery complex. The research followed up on the verification of the recreational function in the landscape and focused on the level of low occupancy, the integration of sports and recreational functions, accessibility by all modes of transport, the penetration of recreation into the open landscape. For the identity of the original landscape, freely modeled connections to the riparian zone, work with water flow in the area, port, pedestrian and cycling connections to the EuroVelo route, outdoor museums of the Danube meadows, lakes and wetland communities, workouts, and multifunctional playgrounds, forms of wellness, sauna world and natural swimming. Ecological recreation concepts in the landscape of the Danube floodplains on the banks of the Danube used the modeling of banks, watercourse lines, meandering of recreational areas, green axes, play areas, elements, and zones. They used lighthouses and lookout towers for accent and orientation. The hierarchy of the release of small urban structures and loose forms of sensitive urbanization with functional flexibility and attractiveness proved the justification and location in the landscape of the Danube meadows, in the contact zones of the protected landscape and the watercourse. In this way, the importance of the suburban landscape structure is beneficial for the city not only in terms of functional attractiveness but also in terms of landscape protection and the climatic influence of the city's hinterland on its compact structures.

Climatic Envelope as an Urban Planning Tool to Configure Urban Fabric of Guwahati City to Support Daylight and Natural Ventilation

Over the last decade, as a result of rapid urban growth and increasing human population, Guwahati city is witnessing multilayered transformation owing to socio-economic, geo-political and technological issues. This constant increase of built form is resulting haphazard urban growth pattern in down town city areas sacrificing the access to daylight and solar radiation inside residential buildings. Even though the development pattern of Guwahati is controlled by established GMDA building bye-laws; these building regulations and guidelines are unable to control the organic growth of the city since there is no climate-sensitive approach available in the existing GMDA bye-laws. This paper aims to discuss the likelihood of constructing a composite climatic envelope by using daylight spacing angle and solar elevation angle techniques within the residential zone of Guwahati city. This paper also analyses how climatic envelope technique helps to establish an efficient height-to-width (H/W) ratio in spatial arrangement of residential neighbourhood and ensures a higher levels of daylight factor (DF), permits solar access to the neighboring buildings and also enables better ventilation rate inside every rooms of residential buildings. This paper analyses further to discuss about the performance of natural ventilation inside building envelope and reviews the common energy code of openable window to floor area (WFRop) ratio in urban residential buildings. During this study, an existing urban spatial arrangement of residential neighbourhood under GMDA jurisdiction is studied, discussed and analysed. Results of this study, plotting H/W ratio against average daylight factor and ventilation rate can be used as a preliminary urban design tool to configure the urban fabric especially within the residential zone of GMDA area.

Environmental niche forecasts of globally threatened yellow-throated bulbul, Pycnonotus xantholaemus for conservation prospects in the Deccan peninsula, India

Yellow-throated Bulbul, Pycnonotus xantholaemus is an endemic, rare and threatened species with discontinuous distribution across Deccan peninsula. IUCN has enlisted surveys for newer populations as one of the conservation measures. We used maxent algorithm to generate environmental niche model for further surveys. We looked into climatic envelope at occurrence points and contrast it with background climatic envelope. We compared the model for current scenario and future scenario to assess change in extent of predicted niche over time. We used six variables: climatic, topographical and vegetation layers, and a final set of 102 verified presence locations to generate the model. Topographic ruggedness index and precipitation of wettest month (Bio13) were the strong predictors for Yellow-throated Bulbul niche. Model predicts highly discontinuous and small fragments totalling 7% area of peninsular India as suitable niche. Only 10 % of predicted niche falls within India’s protected area network. Loss of habitat due to granite quarrying and anthropogenic pressure will be a bigger threat than climate change.

Climatic and geometric controls on the global distribution of surge-type glaciers: implications for a unifying model of surging

Controls on the global distribution of surge-type glaciers hold the keys to a better understanding of surge mechanisms. We investigate correlations between the distribution of surge-type glaciers and climatic and glacier geometry variables, using a new global geodatabase of 2317 surge-type glaciers. The highest densities of surge-type glaciers occur within an optimal climatic envelope bounded by temperature and precipitation thresholds. Across all regions with both surge-type and normal glaciers, the former are larger, especially at the cold, dry end of the climatic spectrum. A species distribution model, Maxent, accurately predicts the major clusters of surge-type glaciers using a series of climatic and glacier geometry variables, but under-predicts clusters found outside the climatically optimal surge zone. We interpret the results in terms of a new enthalpy cycle model. Steady states require a balance between enthalpy gains generated by the balance flux and losses via heat conduction and meltwater discharge. This condition can be most easily satisfied in cold, dry environments (thin, low-flux glaciers, efficient conductive heat losses) and warm, humid environments (high meltwater discharges). Intermediate conditions correspond to the optimal surge zone, where neither heat conduction nor runoff can effectively discharge enthalpy gains, and dynamic cycling can result.

Comparative thermoregulatory physiology of two dunnarts, Sminthopsis macroura and Sminthopsis ooldea (Marsupialia : Dasyuridae)

Metabolic rate and evaporative water loss (EWL) were measured to quantify the thermoregulatory patterns of two dasyurids, the stripe-faced dunnart (Sminthopsis macroura) and the Ooldea dunnart (S. ooldea) during acute exposure to Ta between 10 and 35°C. S. macroura maintained consistent Tb across the Ta range, whereas S. ooldea was more thermolabile. The metabolic rate of both species decreased from Ta = 10°C to BMR at Ta = 30°C. Mass-adjusted BMR at Ta = 30°C was the same for the two species, but there was no common regression of metabolic rate below the thermoneutral zone (TNZ). There was no significant difference between the species in allometrically corrected EWL at Ta = 30°C. Total EWL increased significantly at Ta = 10 and 35°C compared with the TNZ for S. macroura, but was consistent across the Ta range for S. ooldea. At any Ta below the TNZ, S. macroura required more energy per gram of body mass than S. ooldea, and had a higher EWL at the lower critical Ta. By being thermolabile S. ooldea reduced its energetic requirements and water loss at low Ta. The more constant thermoregulatory strategy of S. macroura may allow it to exploit a broad climatic envelope, albeit at the cost of higher energetic and water requirements. Since S. ooldea does not expend as much energy and water on thermoregulation this may be a response to the very low productivity, ‘hyperarid’ conditions of its central Australian distribution.

Performance of climate envelope models in retrodicting recent changes in bird population size from observed climatic change

Twenty-five-year population trends of 42 bird species rare as breeders in the UK were examined in relation to changes in climatic suitability simulated using climatic envelope models. The effects of a series of potential ‘nuisance’ variables were also assessed. A statistically significant positive correlation was found across species between population trend and climate suitability trend. The demonstration that climate envelope models are able to retrodict species' population trends provides a valuable validation of their use in studies of the potential impacts of future climatic changes.