The urban environmental quality remains currently difficult to be assessed because of overlapping of several natural and anthropogenic factors having socio-economic and environmental outstanding impacts. The fast deve...The urban environmental quality remains currently difficult to be assessed because of overlapping of several natural and anthropogenic factors having socio-economic and environmental outstanding impacts. The fast developing and uncontrolled urbanization is behind the development of some negative side effects on the urban environment. Many studies demonstrate the ability of remote sensing and GIS （geographic information system） to monitor urban environment quality. Casablanca, Morocco＇s economical capital is facing a fast growing demographic development amplified by a massive rural depopulation and all this in an anarchic way. This growth of increased urban activity comes often with the proliferation of informal settlement and shantytown to the detriment of farming areas and green spaces. This study is made possible by using a SPOT-5 image of Casablanca city, taken March 16, 2004 merged with 2.5 m spatial resolution and census data. Indicators were defined and listed in social, economic and environmental categories. An index of environmental quality in Casablanca city for the 17 urban municipalities was calculated after the standardization and weighting of indicators used. The results may be useful to city managers and planners who are concerned with urban environment quality issues and sustainable development.展开更多
Geobiology is a new discipline on the crossing interface between earth science and life science, and aims to understand the in- teraction and co-evolution between organisms and environments. On the basis of the latest...Geobiology is a new discipline on the crossing interface between earth science and life science, and aims to understand the in- teraction and co-evolution between organisms and environments. On the basis of the latest international achievements, the new data presented in the Beijing geobiology forum sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013, and the papers in this special issue, here we present an overview of the progress and perspectives on three important frontiers, including geobiology of the critical periods in Earth history, geomicrobes and their responses and feedbacks to global environmental changes, and geobiology in extreme environments. Knowledge is greatly improved about the close relationship of some significant biotic events such as origin, radiation, extinction, and recovery of organisms with the deep Earth processes and the resultant envi- ronmental processes among oceans, land, and atmosphere in the critical periods, although the specific dynamics of the co-evolution between ancient life and paleoenvironments is still largely unknown. A variety of geomicrobial functional groups were found to respond sensitively to paleoenvironmental changes, which enable the establishment of proxies for paleoenvi- ronmental reconstruction, and to play active roles on the Earth environmental changes via elemental biogeochemical cycles and mineral bio-transforrnations, but to be deciphered are the mechanisms of these functional groups that change paleoenvi- ronmental conditions. Microbes of potential geobiology significance were found and isolated from some extreme environments with their biological properties partly understood, but little is known about their geobiological functions to change Earth envi- ronments. The biotic processes to alter or modify the environments are thus proposed to be the very issue geobiology aims to decipher in the future. Geobiology will greatly extend the temporal and spatial scope of biotic research on Earth and beyond. It has great potential of application in the domains of resource exploration and global change. To achieve these aims needs coor- dinative multidisciplinary studies concerning geomicrobiology and related themes, database and modeling of biogeochemical cycles, typical geological environments, and coupling of biological, physical, and chemical processes.展开更多
文摘The urban environmental quality remains currently difficult to be assessed because of overlapping of several natural and anthropogenic factors having socio-economic and environmental outstanding impacts. The fast developing and uncontrolled urbanization is behind the development of some negative side effects on the urban environment. Many studies demonstrate the ability of remote sensing and GIS （geographic information system） to monitor urban environment quality. Casablanca, Morocco＇s economical capital is facing a fast growing demographic development amplified by a massive rural depopulation and all this in an anarchic way. This growth of increased urban activity comes often with the proliferation of informal settlement and shantytown to the detriment of farming areas and green spaces. This study is made possible by using a SPOT-5 image of Casablanca city, taken March 16, 2004 merged with 2.5 m spatial resolution and census data. Indicators were defined and listed in social, economic and environmental categories. An index of environmental quality in Casablanca city for the 17 urban municipalities was calculated after the standardization and weighting of indicators used. The results may be useful to city managers and planners who are concerned with urban environment quality issues and sustainable development.
基金supported by the project on Strategy Development of Geobiology and Astrobiology from Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB808800)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41330103)the "111" Program from Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. B08030)
文摘Geobiology is a new discipline on the crossing interface between earth science and life science, and aims to understand the in- teraction and co-evolution between organisms and environments. On the basis of the latest international achievements, the new data presented in the Beijing geobiology forum sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013, and the papers in this special issue, here we present an overview of the progress and perspectives on three important frontiers, including geobiology of the critical periods in Earth history, geomicrobes and their responses and feedbacks to global environmental changes, and geobiology in extreme environments. Knowledge is greatly improved about the close relationship of some significant biotic events such as origin, radiation, extinction, and recovery of organisms with the deep Earth processes and the resultant envi- ronmental processes among oceans, land, and atmosphere in the critical periods, although the specific dynamics of the co-evolution between ancient life and paleoenvironments is still largely unknown. A variety of geomicrobial functional groups were found to respond sensitively to paleoenvironmental changes, which enable the establishment of proxies for paleoenvi- ronmental reconstruction, and to play active roles on the Earth environmental changes via elemental biogeochemical cycles and mineral bio-transforrnations, but to be deciphered are the mechanisms of these functional groups that change paleoenvi- ronmental conditions. Microbes of potential geobiology significance were found and isolated from some extreme environments with their biological properties partly understood, but little is known about their geobiological functions to change Earth envi- ronments. The biotic processes to alter or modify the environments are thus proposed to be the very issue geobiology aims to decipher in the future. Geobiology will greatly extend the temporal and spatial scope of biotic research on Earth and beyond. It has great potential of application in the domains of resource exploration and global change. To achieve these aims needs coor- dinative multidisciplinary studies concerning geomicrobiology and related themes, database and modeling of biogeochemical cycles, typical geological environments, and coupling of biological, physical, and chemical processes.
