GEOGRAPHY
The paper deals with mathematical modeling of a morphological pattern for a broad spectrum of cryolithozone landscapes in a state of a dynamic balance. The state of the dynamic balance means that all the elements of this morphological pattern are in continuous changing while its general parameters as a whole are stable. Two contradirectional processes at the same territory is a precondition for a state of dynamic balance.
We developed a morphological pattern model for lacustrine thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion on the base of the mathematical morphology of landscape using the random process theory. The contra-directional processes here include thermokarst lakes appearing and increasing in size from one side and drainage of the lakes by fluvial erosion, from the other. Thus, the regularities of the structure and dynamics of each landscape morphological pattern are theoretically substantiated. The results of the mathematical modeling were empirically verified at some key sites.
ENVIRONMENT
Environmental study was carried out to describe a geographical area and its biodiversity. The example here shows the features of human nutrition habits and quality of life with specific study of negative impact on the environment and Earth resources.
Tuti Island in Sudan was prone to this complex problem so it is taken as a case study. The hypothesis is that the use of RS and GIS could help in reconstruction of unused territories so it could help to solve the problem. Changes of land use and land cover were observed using classified Landsat 5 images in 1972, Landsat 7 in 1985 and Landsat 8 in 2018.
The results showed that several temporal changes occurred beside turning dense tree cover land into lands with other landuse purposes for 1972, 1985 and 2018. Agricultural zones (crops and trees) were major dominant zones in 1972, 1985 and 2018. In addition, populated residential areas increased through time but not as significantly as trees, sand and cropping landuse areas (P=0.89082) as for the classified Landsat 8 image acquired in 2018. Ecosystem planning through GIS and RS could be a good way to solve most of these issues for the future of Tuti Island landuse.
SUSTAINABILITY
Accelerated soil erosion is one of the most important detrimental factors affecting the quality of the watershed health. Due to different environmental pressures and drivers, the effort is needed for ecological health and resilience assessment in regards to erosion changeability. However, this important subject has not been adequately studied yet. Towards this, in the present research, an innovative approach was developed for conceptualizing the watershed health dynamics in viewpoint of soil erosion. A risk-based study was conducted to quantitatively characterize the spatiotemporal variability of erosion-based health in an industrialized watershed i.e., the Shazand Watershed using the conceptual reliability, resilience and vulnerability (RelResVul) framework for four node years of 1986, 1998, 2008 and 2014. To this end, the soil erosion was estimated at monthly scale in 24 sub-watersheds by applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). The RelResVul indicators were then computed according to the threshold defined for the study watershed. A geometric mean was used to combine the three risk indicators and the erosion-based watershed health index was ultimately calculated for each study sub-watershed. Additionally, the change detection analysis was conducted over the years of 1986 to 2014. According to the results of erosion-based the RelResVul indices, very healthy, healthy, moderately healthy, unhealthy and very un-healthy conditions in the Shazand Watershed were respectively distributed over some 67, 25, zero, zero and eight percent for 1986; 50, 13, eight, zero and 29 % for 1998; 71, eight, 83, zero, zero and eight percent for 2008 and finally 71, zero, 17, zero and 12 % for 2014. The results of change detection revealed an oscillating trend of erosion-based watershed health index during the whole study period (1986 -2014). So that, during periods of 1986-1998, 1986-2008 and 1986-2014, the watershed health decreased at tune of 23, 13 and six percent, respectively. Whilst, the watershed health improved during study periods of 1998-2008 (13 %), 2008-2014 (eight percent) and 1998-2014 (22 %). The results also identified ‘hot spots’ of the most important index of land degradation and ‘bright spots’ of land improvement in the Shazand Watershed.
The proposed approach would provide a sustainable framework supporting decision makers to comprehend health-related soil erosion targets according to the integrated watershed management plans.
SPECIAL ISSUE
We developed a geo-vegetation zonation in the Khaan Khentii massif, northern Mongolia. Our specific objective was to assess and classify the response of the tree vegetation to environmental factors operating at a coarse climatic level. We sampled forest ecosystem vegetation, climate, physiographic features, and soil properties. Our analysis included clustering, ordination, classification, and ANOVA techniques. Based on the complex data set, we identified three geo-vegetation zones: forest-steppe, montane and dark taiga zone. We characterized them based on the regional environmental factors; (1) climate as indicated by altitude, i.e., precipitation, (2) geomorphology by an index of the vertical distance to channel network and soils by O horizon thickness and soil types. Birch and aspen ecosystems were excluded as discrete zones due to their broad ecological amplitude.
The geo-vegetation zonation outlined in this paper is the first attempt at quantifying vegetation along with the environment at a macroclimatic level in Mongolia. This coarsescale zonation provides a framework for building a comprehensive ecological classification, a background for sustainable forest management, which is currently unavailable in Mongolia and many central Asian countries. Additionally, it offers a roadmap for a comprehensive ecosystem survey and may act as an information platform and reference for current environmental issues such as forest degradation across Mongolian landscapes.
The natural conditions, climate change and socio-economic challenges related to the transformation from a socialistic society towards a market-driven system make the implementation of sustainable land management practices in Mongolia especially complicated. Forests play an important role in land management. In addition to providing resources and ecosystem functions, Mongolian forests protect against land degradation.
We conducted a literature review of the status of forest management in Mongolia and lessons learned, with special consideration to halting deforestation and degradation. We grouped our review into seven challenges relevant to developing regionally adapted forest management systems that both safeguard forest health and consider socio-economic needs. In our review, we found that current forest management in Mongolia is not always sustainable, and that some practices lack scientific grounding. An overwhelming number of sources noticed a decrease in forest area and quality during the last decades, although afforestation initiatives are reported to have increased. We found that they have had, with few exceptions, only limited success. During our review, however, we found a number of case studies that presented or proposed promising approaches to (re-)establishing and managing forests. These studies are further supported by a body of literature that examines how forest administration, and local participation can be modified to better support sustainable forestry. Based on our review, we conclude that it is necessary to integrate capacity development and forest research into holistic initiatives. A special focus should be given to the linkages between vegetation cover and the hydrological regime.
Mongolia’s first Multipurpose National Forest Inventory, 2014-2017, was implemented by the Forest Research and Development Centre, in collaboration with international expertise and the country’s main forestry institutions, universities and research organisations.
The long-term objective of the multipurpose NFI is to promote sustainable management of forestry resources in Mongolia, to enhance their social, economic and environmental functions.
The NFI findings show that there are 11.3 million hectares of Boreal Forest in Mongolia. 9.5 million hectares are Stocked Boreal Forest Area, of which 69 percent is located outside of protected areas, 4 percent are designated for green-wood utilisation through forest enterprise concessions, and another 16 percent designated for fallen dead-wood collection through forest user group concessions. The non-protected stocked forests (i.e. production forest) have an average growing stock volume of 115 m3 per hectare, compared with an optimal growing stock volume of 237 m3 per hectare, and there is an additional 46.5 m3 of dead wood per hectare. The growing stock age distribution shows that 24 m3 per hectare are over 200 years (i.e. economically over-aged). The main tree species in stocked forest are Larix sibirica (81%), Pinus sibirica (7%), Betula platyphylla (6%) and Pinus sylvestris (5%), of which all, except for P. sibirica, are classified as legally harvestable tree species. Wild fire is the current main environmental factor decreasing the forest tree biomass.
The NFI helped identifying priority areas for the forestry sector, and to guide the implementation of sustainable forest management at the local level. The main forest management challenges of Mongolia’s boreal forest will be to address that they are a) under-stocked (less than 50% of production potential), b) over-aged (31% of growing stock volume in stocked production forest is above optimal production age), and c) under-utilised (4% of forest area designated to green-wood utilisation).
All over the world the transport sector contributes to local air pollution as well as CO2 -emissions and transportation related problems such as congestion especially in urban agglomerations. In Ulaanbaatar traffic is currently not the most important source of air pollution but it will gain importance due to a growing demand for transport and related effects. A transformation towards sustainable mobility is therefore needed which is pursued by reduction of the number of trips, influencing the modal split towards more sustainable modes and more efficient handling of mobility.
This paper discusses different characteristics of air pollution, traffic congestion and CO2 - emissions and respective suitability of policy instruments. It is argued that conducting mobility more efficient will be not enough to address all relevant effects of growing demand. In doing so special attention is given to the interaction of built environment, land use and transport as well as related planning approaches which is particularly important in a situation when urban growth has to be managed.
A transfer towards sustainable mobility needs a two-step approach: a more short-term improvement related to a more environmentally friendly transport system and a longterm approach to organise urban mobility in a sustainable way by adopting an integrated urban and transport planning and influencing transport behaviour.
ISSN 2542-1565 (Online)