1,720,986 research outputs found
The limits of data:application of a lumped catchment model to a small humid tropical basin
No full textIn the humid tropics, the available data is usually at best rainfall–runoff (of variable quality) and with little or no supporting process hydrology knowledge. A simple modelling approach is offered to extract the maximum information (within the limits set by the data) using data from a tropical forest basin. The model outputs are compared with previous process hydrology knowledge. Results show that the intelligent combination of simple models with even low quality data can lead to qualitatively new hydrological insights
Conclusion: Forests, water and people in the humid tropics: an emerging view
No full textIntroduction Tropical forest loss: extent, patterns and causes Land use patterns in most humid temperate countries have more or less stabilised over the past century. Changes are still taking place (e.g. urbanisation in some areas, abandonment of agricultural cropping in favour of natural regeneration in others) but they are generally rather gradual. This is not the case in most humid tropical countries where significant land use changes are still under way and often take place at an unprecedented rate. Most of these relate to changes from the original forest cover to either heavily modified (degraded) forest or non-forest land use, such as (slash and burn) agriculture, grazing or plantations of various types. The spatial extent and trends of land cover change in the tropics have been the subject of much debate, mainly because of the different definitions for various vegetation cover types used by the respective surveys. Although it has proven difficult to obtain accurate and verifiable figures, the successive Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have produced an overall picture from which a number of conclusions can be drawn. The estimated average rates of closed tropical forest loss in the developing world are about 14.6 and 14.9 million ha year-1 for the periods 1980-1990 and 1990-2000, respectively. As such, an area of almost 300 million ha of closed tropical forest has disappeared during the last two decades (roughly equivalent to two-thirds of continental Europe excluding Russia)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics:past, present and future hydrological research for integrated land and water management
No full textForests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics is a comprehensive review of the hydrological and physiological functioning of tropical rain forests, the environmental impacts of their disturbance and conversion to other land uses, and optimum strategies for managing them. The book brings together leading specialists in such diverse fields as tropical anthropology and human geography, environmental economics, climatology and meteorology, hydrology, geomorphology, plant and aquatic ecology, forestry and conservation agronomy. The editors have supplemented the individual contributions with invaluable overviews of the main sections and provide key pointers for future research. Specialists will find authenticated detail in chapters written by experts on a whole range of people-water-land use issues, managers and practitioners will learn more about the implications of ongoing and planned forest conversion, while scientists and students will appreciate a unique review of the literature
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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