Utilisation du sol

L’utilisation du sol (ou l'occupation des sols) est la modification par l'homme de son environnement naturel ou sauvage au niveau du sol quand il est transformé un environnement plus ou moins anthropisé (prairies, champs, imperméabilisation, constructions et autres implantations humaines...). Les principaux effets de l'utilisation du sol sur la couverture du sol ont été ceux de l'agriculture avec le changement de flore, faune et fonge, drainage, labour, renclôture et du Moyen Âge aux années 1750 ou encore les changements postérieures. Par exemple, la déforestation des régions tempérées. Les effets négatifs récents les plus significatifs de l’utilisation du sol incluent l’étalement urbain, l’érosion, la régression et dégradation des sols, la salinisation et la désertification. Les changements dans l’utilisation du sol et l’usage des combustibles fossiles constituent les principales sources anthropogéniques de dioxyde de carbone, un des principaux gaz à effet de serre. L’utilis

A sun-tracking method to improve the pointing accuracy of weather radar

Alexis Berne, Xavier Muth, Marc Schneebeli Zeugin

Accurate positioning of data collected by a weather radar is of primary importance for their appropriate georeferencing, which in turn makes it possible to combine those with additional sources of information (topography, land cover maps, meteorological simulations from numerical weather models to list a few). This issue is especially acute for mobile radar systems, for which accurate and stable leveling might be difficult to ensure. The sun is a source of microwave radiation, which can be detected by weather radars and used for accurate positioning of radar data. This paper presents a technique based on the similarity between theodolites and radar systems as well as on the sun echoes to quantify and hence correct the instrumental errors which can affect the pointing accuracy of radar antenna. The proposed method is applied to data collected in the Swiss Alps using a mobile X-band radar system. The obtained instrumental bias values are evaluated by comparing the locations of the ground echoes predicted using these bias estimates with the observed ground echo locations. The very good agreement between the two confirms the accuracy of the proposed method.

2012

Holocene carbon emissions as a result of anthropogenic land cover change

Jed Oliver Kaplan, Kristen Marie Krumhardt

Humans have altered the Earth’s land surface since the Paleolithic mainly by clearing woody vegetation first to improve hunting and gathering opportunities, and later to provide agricultural cropland. In the Holocene, agriculture was established on nearly all continents and led to widespread modification of terrestrial ecosystems. To quantify the role that humans played in the global carbon cycle over the Holocene, we developed a new, annually resolved inventory of anthropogenic land cover change from 8000 years ago to the beginning of large-scale industrialization (ad 1850). This inventory is based on a simple relationship between population and land use observed in several European countries over preindustrial time. Using this data set, and an alternative scenario based on the HYDE 3.1 land use data base, we forced the LPJ DGVM in a series of continuous simulations to evaluate the impacts of ALCC on terrestrial carbon storage during the preindustrial Holocene. Our model setup allowed us to quantify the importance of land degradation caused by repeated episodes of land use followed by abandonment. By 3 ka BP, cumulative carbon emissions caused by anthropogenic land cover change in our new scenario ranged between 84 and 102 Pg, translating to c. 7 ppm of atmospheric CO2. By ad 1850, emissions were 325–357 Pg in the new scenario, in contrast to 137–189 Pg when driven by HYDE. Regional events that resulted in local emissions or uptake of carbon were often balanced by contrasting patterns in other parts of the world. While we cannot close the carbon budget in the current study, simulated cumulative anthropogenic emissions over the preindustrial Holocene are consistent with the ice core record of atmospheric d13CO2 and support the hypothesis that anthropogenic activities led to the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations at a level that made the world substantially warmer than it otherwise would be.

2011

Holocene carbon emissions as a result of anthropogenic land cover change

Jed Oliver Kaplan, Kristen Marie Krumhardt

2011

Predicting Land Usage from Aerial Images with Deep Learning: A Case Study in the Valaisan Alps focusing on Class Imbalance

A sun-tracking method to improve the pointing accuracy of weather radar

Holocene carbon emissions as a result of anthropogenic land cover change

Predicting Land Usage from Aerial Images with Deep Learning: A Case Study in the Valaisan Alps focusing on Class Imbalance

A sun-tracking method to improve the pointing accuracy of weather radar

Holocene carbon emissions as a result of anthropogenic land cover change