Oyster Cementation as Protective Covers for Exposed Marine Concrete

Cored concrete specimens from seawall exposed to marine environment for 22 years were evaluated by carbonation depth test,rapid chloride permeability test,absorption of water test and microstructure examination.The results show that concrete exposed to marine environment has smaller carbonation depth and carbonation depth of concrete exposed to tidal zone is less than that in splash zone.There are similar water absorption rate and chloride permeability for concrete exposed to splash zone compared with concrete exposed to splash zone removed 3mm surface layer.However,concrete exposed to tidal zone with bio-films has lower chloride permeability and water absorption rate than those of concrete exposed to tidal zone removed 3mm surface layer.In addition,Results of FE-SEM and EDAX indicate that concrete exposed to splash zone has loose structure,exposed finer aggregate and concrete exposed to tidal zone covers by dense structure of oyster cementation and shell.Microstructures analysis further verified that concrete covered with oysters and their cementation has beneficial effects to durability of concrete.

Assessment of multifunctional landscapes dynamics in the mountainous basin of the Mo River （Togo, West Africa）

In this study, historical landscape dynamics were investigated to（i） map the land use/cover types for the years 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014;（ii） determine the types and processes of landscape dynamics; and（iii） assess the landscape fragmentation and habitat loss over time. Supervised classification of multi-temporal Landsat images was used through a pixel-based approach. Post–classification methods included systematic and random change detection, trajectories analysis and landscape fragmentation assessment. The overall accuracies（and Kappa statistics） were of 68.86%（0.63）, 91.32%（0.79）, 90.66%（0.88） and 91.88%（0.89） for 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014, respectively. The spatio-temporal analyses indicated that forests, woodlands and savannahs dominated the landscapes during the four dates, though constant areal decreases were observed. The most important dynamic process was the decline of woodlands with an average annual net loss rate of –2%. Meanwhile, the most important land transformation occurred during the transition 2000–2014, due to anthropogenic pressures. Though the most important loss of vegetation greenness occurred in the unprotected areas, the overall analyses of change indicated a declining trend of land cover quality and an increasing landscape fragmentation. Sustainable conservation strategies should be promoted while focusing restoration attention on degraded lands and fragmented ecosystems in order to support rural livelihood and biodiversity conservation.