DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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A Novel Approach to Monitoring the Cs-137 Contamination of Forest Soils in Bavaria, Germany
Get PDFRegarding the radioactive fission product Cs-137, particularly forest soils are hot spots of long-term contamination. Previous studies have indicated that monitoring should take account of the exceptional role of humus for Cs-137 mobility and bioavailability to effectively evaluate contamination patterns and to enhance future protection strategies in forests. As official programmes in Bavaria lack such considerations, a new monitoring project has been established together with the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health, focussing on humus-controlling landscape parameters (relief, vegetation etc.) as crucial core criteria. Comprising a total of 48 sites, the project provides a solid base for future research. Both the site selection process and first results are presented here
Demographic Change beyond the Urban-Rural Divide: Re-Framing Spatial Differentiation in the Context of Migration Flows and Social Networks
Get PDFSpatial differentiation can be analysed as both state of the art and as process. One important distinction in the analysis of spatial differentiation has been that between the urban and the rural. But the interrelationship of the urban-rural divide with other dimensions of spatial differentiation, such as demographic change, is increasingly unclear. Modern assumptions that urban areas are growth engines and rural areas lag behind have been replaced by the acknowledgement of much more heterogeneous development patterns. Neither extent nor direction of demographic change can be directly linked to a region’s classification as rural or urban today. The paper focuses on the question of how research on human flows and networks may contribute to such a framework and aims to draw attention to the coexistence of different kinds of flows and networks which interfere with each other, resulting in regionally specific spatial patterns and development paths. The paper suggests an extension of the analysis of cores and peripheries beyond the focus on key economic sectors, such as financial services, and taking into account individual and social networks of private households, migrants and commuters. Instead of understanding regional demographic change as the result of rational migratory decisions, due to regional push and pull factors, we aim to conceptualise it as related to the existence of social – multi-local, sometimes even transnational – networks that contextualise migration strategies of individuals or households. Consequently, we argue that such an analysis may help in obtaining a more detailed picture of demographic change as a mosaic of interrelated processes and raise awareness towards drivers of spatial differentiation beyond the urban-rural divide that may deserve more attention in the future
Shaping Relationships with Nature – Adaptation to Climate Change as a Challenge for Society
Get PDFClimate change has become a highly politicised issue over the last couple of years. In particular adaptation to climate change raises fundamental conceptual challenges concerning the interplay of societal and biophysical processes. The paper discusses some of these challenges and introduces a theoretical concept able to improve our understanding of the complex interactions between nature and society. The concept of ‘societal relationships with nature’, which originated in the so-called ‘Frankfurt School’ of critical theory, provides a dialectic approach towards these complex interactions able to deal with the societal causes of climate change as much as with the repercussions of global warming on societies, including the claim for balancing mitigation and adaptation needs. Basically, the goal of sustainable development has returned on the agenda in a new form: To what extent are societies in the ‘North’ and ‘South’ respectively able to deal with the vulnerabilities created or heightened by climate change? In this context, the spatial dimension of climate policy at and between the different spatial scales is becoming an ever more pressing problem, which is illustrated using the transformation of ecosystem services as a case study
Global Climate Change and Aspects of Regional Climate Change in the Berlin-Brandenburg Region
Get PDFTo obtain an estimate of the average temperature of the northern hemisphere during the last 1200 years, proxy data have been merged with instrumental recordings. These instrumental measurements are, with a few exceptions, only available for the recent 150 years. In the city of Berlin the temperature has been recorded since as early as 1701. However, during the first 150 years the measurements were problematic as location, measurement procedure and instruments changed frequently and without proper documentation. From 1847 onwards observations became more reliable once the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute had been established. For the last 100 years temperature and precipitation measurements have been performed in parallel at Berlin-Dahlem and Potsdam. The datasets recorded in the city of Berlin and in Berlin-Dahlem have been merged to obtain a record of more than 300 years. It indicates that the temperature of Berlin has risen by 1.04°C during the last 100 years after correcting for the urbanisation effect. In the same period, the total number of frost days has significantly decreased by almost 17 days, and the number of summer days has significantly increased by about 12 days. Annual mean precipitation has hardly changed (decrease less than 0.2 %) during the last century. However, rainfall has decreased by about 4 % in summer and increased by 3 % in winter. All precipitation changes are below the 95 % significance level. Model projections indicate that warming will continue which means that Berlin-Brandenburg will experience a temperature rise of about 3-3.5°C by the end of this century for the IPCC scenario A1B. For the same scenario precipitation is expected to increase by 10-20 % in winter and to decrease by 10-30 % in summer: The seasonal precipitation changes compensate each other resulting in an almost unchanged annual mean
Geoarchaeology of Taman Peninsula (Kerch Strait, South-West Russia) – the Example of the Ancient Greek Settlement of Golubitskaya 2
Get PDFIn the framework of an extensive archaeological survey and excavation programme on Taman Peninsula, geoarchaeological research was carried out in this terra incognita of the north-eastern Black Sea region. In the present study, a small area was surveyed in detail with respect to its geomorphological and archaeological situation. Geoarchaeological scenarios were generated for the last seven millennia. For the first time, the sea level rise and its effect on the landscape could be documented in time and space, showing, among others, that Taman Peninsula had evolved out of an archipelago
Olympia’s Harbour Site Pheia (Elis, Western Peloponnese, Greece) Destroyed by Tsunami Impact
Get PDFIt is well known from historic catalogues that the Greek coast has repeatedly been struck by large earthquakes and associated tsunami events during the past millennia. The seismically highly active Hellenic Arc, where the African plate is being subducted by the Aegean microplate, is considered to be the most significant tsunami source in the wider region. The study presented in this paper focuses on sedimentary and geomorphological tsunami traces encountered at Pheia, western Peloponnese (Greece), one of the harbours of the nearby cult site Olympia. Sedimentological, pedological, geoarchaeological and geochemical analyses revealed tsunami sand and gravel of mostly marine origin reaching far inland. Wave refraction and channeling effects seem to have steepened tsunami waters up to 18-20 m above present sea level and induced tsunami water passage across the narrow Katakolo Pass into adjacent coastal plains. Tsunami deposits that were accumulated onshore were partly cemented and later exposed in the form of beachrock. By radiocarbon dating and archaeological age estimation of ceramic fragments, three distinct tsunami events were found, namely for the 6th millennium BC, for the time around 4300 ± 200 cal BC and for the Byzantine to post-Byzantine period. Olympia’s harbour site Pheia was finally destroyed by tsunami landfall, most probably in the 6th century AD and accompanied by co-seismic submergence
Water Balance Changes and Responses of Ecosystems and Society in the Berlin-Brandenburg Region – a Review
Get PDFThe climate change debate has increased the need for knowledge on both long- and short-term regional environmental changes. In general, these changes may often be a product of multiple causes, which complicates the separation of single driving forces. In this review we focus on current water budget changes in Germany’s capital region, Berlin-Brandenburg, over the last 30 years. Available studies from a variety of disciplines (e.g. hydrology, water engineering, landscape ecology, nature conservation) were analysed in order to (1) identify both local and regional hydrological changes, (2) reveal their potential causes, and (3) discuss responses of ecosystems and society. These studies show that the Berlin-Brandenburg region is widely characterised by decreasing groundwater recharge, leading to decreasing groundwater and lake levels as well as decreasing fluvial discharge. These trends result both from complex, regional human impacts (e.g. long-term effects of hydro-melioration and changes in forest composition) and more general climate warming. The observed and assumed (future) changes of the regional water balance have been creating, and will continue to create, multifaceted impacts on existing ecosystems and society (e.g. wetland drying, decrease of biodiversity, decrease of productivity of grasslands and forests, increasing conflicts of interests). Several efforts to respond to the regional water deficit problem have already been undertaken, comprising for instance land-use optimisation, wetland restoration measures and the reestablishment of mixed deciduous forests. In general, however, the reviewed regional material on this topic reveals that the number and complexity of empirical studies are still poor. Thus, for both the identification and the explanation of current water balance changes and their effects, as well as for development and implementation of adaptive strategies, further multidisciplinary research efforts at different scales, including interregional comparisons, are required. Furthermore, both the observation of hydrological changes and the evaluation of adaptive and mitigative responses require at least continuous or, even better, extended monitoring efforts
The Potential of Land-Use Change to Mitigate Water Scarcity in Northeast Germany – a Review
Get PDFClimate change is expected to increase water scarcity in northeast Germany. Land-use change is one of the options of mitigation that is intensely discussed in this region. This review aims at giving a compilation of existing data and modelling studies in order to investigate the potential and the limits of the land-use change approach
Localisation Processes within Global Production Networks: Automobile Component Sourcing in Thailand
Get PDFThe political framework in Thailand regulating market access for global automobile firms aimed in particular to create and develop an industrial base in terms of component manufacturing and automobile assembly. The national regulatory framework included import substituting measures, such as a local content requirement (LCR), to force global automobile firms to use locally manufactured components for the assembly of imported completely knocked-down vehicles to benefit from much lower import tariffs as would be the case for the import of fully built-up vehicles. Therefore, with the increasing domestic demand for automobiles, this regulation also had the desired multiplier effects for Thailand’s industrialisation and national economic development. This paper aims to show how a changing political economy affects the localisation processes of automobile firms in a developing country context
Towards an Integrated Land and Water Resources Management in Brandenburg’s Oderbruch-Havelland Wetland Belt: History and Strategies for the Future
Get PDFThe article informs about historical developments and recent problems in the former wetlands of the Oderbruch, which has been cultivated for agricultural use for 300 years, and in the fen region of the Rhin-Havel-Luch. The periodically inundated floodplains of Oderbruch are characterised by rich-in-clay sedimentation soils, while Rhin-Havel-Luch is a year-round wet fen region with peat soils. In both areas land use necessarily requires an adequate regional water management, employing measures and system solutions for river training, dike construction, drainage and soil cultivation. Options for action and adaptation strategies for the next 20 to 40 years, based on many years of own analyses and case studies, are presented and discussed. The article also considers an aggravation of the problems to be expected from climate change