MODIS- Flooding in Pakistan - Posted November 3, 2010

Flooding in Pakistan

Posted November 3, 2010

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More than three months after floods first struck Pakistan, flood waters lingered west of the Indus River. At the beginning of November, the high waters were receding, but only slowly.
Acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, these false-color images show a portion of the Indus River and irrigated land to the west. The images document the formation of a massive floodwater lake terminating in Manchhar (or Manchar) Lake.
All of these images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Clouds appear in varying shades of light blue-green. Vegetation is green, and bare ground is pinkish brown. Water varies in color from electric blue to navy.
The first image is from September 3, 2010, after floods have devastated much of the country. Water flow in the Indus River narrows at Sukkur, but water fills the river valley north and south of the city. Thanks to a dam failure north of Sukkur, vast amounts of water have been channeled west of the river and now sit on areas that are normally cultivated or settled land. Nevertheless, Manchhar Lake, typically an isolated water body, remains detached from flood waters to the north.
The middle image is from October 2, 2010. The Indus River’s levels have fallen back to near-normal levels, though the river valley appears mostly free of vegetation, perhaps filled with saturated mud. While water levels have fallen in the Indus, a massive floodwater lake forms a giant arc west of the river, extending from well north of Sukkur to Manchhar Lake.
The bottom image is from November 1, 2010. Compared to one month before, water levels have fallen in the floodwater lake, but only slightly. Manchhar Lake remains connected to flood waters to the north.
On October 29, CNN reported that large areas in Pakistan’s Sindh Province remained underwater and some 7 million Pakistanis still lacked adequate shelter. Despite the prolonged hardship, Oxfam stated that international aid was dwindling. On November 1, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that, although the threat of waterborne gastrointestinal disease was receding, the threat of mosquito-borne disease, such as malaria, was rising, thanks to stagnant pools of water in low-lying, poorly drained areas. Large areas of inundated cropland also increased the hazard of malnutrition.

1. References

2. CNN. (2010, October 29). Aid shortage in Pakistan leaves flood victims in limbo. Accessed November 1, 2010.
3. International Committee of the Red Cross. (2010, November 1). Pakistan: high risk of mosquito-borne diseases in the south. ReliefWeb. Accessed November 1, 2010.

Vivir de la madera sin liquidar la selva

Reportajes
Vivir de la madera sin liquidar la selva
Por Mario Osava, enviado especial

El manejo forestal permitió multiplicar por 20 el valor de los bosques nativos del amazónico estado de Acre, Brasil. Pero, ¿cómo viven quienes se dedican a la extracción sostenible de madera selvática?

RÍO BRANCO, Brasil, 18 oct (Tierramérica).- La familia Zolinger, típico ejemplo de las que emigraron del sur de Brasil a la Amazonia en busca de tierras y fortuna, tiene ahora una segunda oportunidad como extractora de madera, tras contribuir a la devastación de los bosques de Rondônia, donde se establecieron en 1979.

“Acá tenemos trabajo por lo menos para 15 años”, señaló Sergio Zolinger, de 39 años de edad, 23 de ellos dedicados a la actividad, refiriéndose al Bosque Estatal de Antimary, en el noroccidental estado de Acre, cuya explotación desde 2005 se realiza según un manejo certificado.

La madera que de él se extrae se considera sustentable.

Antes, en el vecino estado de Rondônia, los hacendados “nos daban solo un año para sacar la madera” de sus extensos predios, porque querían deforestarlos pronto y liberarlos para el ganado o la siembra, dijo a Tierramérica.

Algunos propietarios, considerando demasiado bajo el precio de la madera, “preferían quemar todo el bosque” y destruir incluso caobas y otros ejemplares de gran valor comercial, acotó. La extracción de caoba, amenazada de extinción por la tala excesiva, terminó prohibida. Otras especies también desaparecieron del mercado legal.

Ese desperdicio obligaba a buscar madera de interés comercial cada día más lejos, lamentó Zolinger. Ahora, a más de 1.300 kilómetros al oeste de su hogar en Vilhena, municipio del extremo oriental de Rondônia, él, su padre y su hermano mayor participan en una novedosa experiencia en Acre.

Antimary, oficializada como área de conservación y aprovechamiento sustentable en 1997, es pionera en el uso controlado de sus frutos, incluso los no madereros, como la castaña, el caucho y varias semillas, adelantándose a la Ley de Concesiones Forestales, que el Congreso legislativo aprobó en 2006 y que sólo en 2008 empezó a generar los primeros contratos de hasta 40 años.

A la empresa familiar de los Zolinger le tocó extraer madera según el plan de manejo de una selva de 47.000 hectáreas, bajo gestión de la Secretaría Estadual Forestal de Acre. Este año pueden talar árboles identificados con precisión en hasta 4.000 hectáreas.

También tenían ese límite en 2009, pero sólo cubrieron poco más de la mitad, pues cuentan con un equipo reducido de 12 trabajadores, además de los tres patrones que también trabajan duro, y las lluvias se prolongaron hasta comienzos de junio. Este año pudieron empezar la extracción en mayo.

El trabajo debe concentrarse en el “verano” amazónico, los cuatro o cinco meses en los que llueve poco. Cualquier lluvia impide el transporte de los pesados troncos por caminos de tierra resbaladiza en una superficie de cuestas y pendientes.

Un mapa detallado del bosque identifica con números los árboles de especies comerciales y tamaño adecuado. Pero no se puede tumbar aquéllos ubicados en la faja azul, un área de preservación permanente de 30 metros de ancho a orillas de los ríos y arroyos, explicó el padre, Oscar Zolinger, de 67 años, que inició a su familia en el negocio maderero.

Esa faja preservada podría reducirse a la mitad si prospera en el Congreso una propuesta de revisión del Código Forestal a la que se opone el movimiento ambientalista.

La medida aumentaría en 25 por ciento la madera extraída en Antimary, porque permitiría talar “más árboles y justo los de mejor calidad y más altos”, evaluó “Chico” Zolinger, el hijo mayor. Él estima que la productividad actual de la selva es de entre siete y ocho metros cúbicos de madera por hectárea, y llega hasta 10 metros en las mejores áreas.

La sumaúma (Ceiba pentandra), un árbol enorme de madera blanca y crecimiento rápido conocido como ceiba y palo santo en otros países, es la más aprovechada en Antimary, donde también se cortan especies antes descartadas por su “bajo valor comercial”, como el tauari (Couratari oblongifolia Ducke & R. Knuth), pero que ahora tienen mercado ante la escasez de otras “más nobles”, informó Chico Zolinger.

El manejo también obliga a preservar grandes árboles para asegurar la buena herencia genética de las especies. Pese a eso, hay expertos forestales escépticos sobre la sustentabilidad del manejo a largo plazo, debido al deterioro genético que causa la tala del mejor ejemplar de cada área.

Antimary es una “experiencia única” en Brasil, su manejo es comunitario, pues la explotación no se concede a una empresa sino a asociaciones de pobladores del bosque, “de manera no onerosa”, y las ganancias de la venta de madera se dividen entre las 56 familias residentes, explicó el secretario estadual de Florestas, Carlos Duarte, conocido por el apodo de “Resende”, nombre de su ciudad de origen.

Raimundo Tavares da Silva, de 34 años y seis viviendo en el bosque, es uno de los beneficiados, con su mujer y dos hijos pequeños, como miembros de una de las tres asociaciones. El año pasado ganó 3.200 reales (1.850 dólares) y en este ya recibió una primera parte de 2.172 reales (1.280 dólares).

Además, cada familia dispone de 100 hectáreas de bosque donde cosechan castaña, otros frutos y caucho, con el permiso de deforestar hasta 20 por ciento de la superficie, al ritmo de una hectárea al año, para cultivar y criar hasta 30 vacunos, explicó.

También cuentan con escuelas. Y, lo mejor, la extracción maderera obligó a construir una carretera de unos 30 kilómetros que --si bien de tierra convertida en fango cuando llueve-- permite llegar a la pavimentada BR-364. “Antes llevaba nueve días arribar a la ciudad más cercana” a pie, destacó Silva a Tierramérica.

En Acre no hay “concesiones forestales privadas”, observó Resende. Extender la experiencia de Antimary a los otros tres bosques públicos estaduales existentes, y a otros dos por implantar, exige capacitación previa de los pobladores y lograr que superen la inseguridad alimentaria, para evitar que deforesten.

Acre tiene 88 por ciento de sus áreas boscosas preservadas, que ampliará con la plantación de especies nativas y productivas, como la seringueira (el árbol del caucho), la castaña y el açaí, una palmera de fruto muy demandado, anunció.

El manejo forestal permitió multiplicar por 20 el valor patrimonial de los bosques nativos de Acre, que hace 12 años era de solo 35 reales (20,50 dólares) por hectárea. Y eso es importante para evitar la deforestación, concluyó Resende.

* Corresponsal de IPS

Simple tools help a drying African region cope with climate change

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06.10.2010

Simple tools help a drying African region cope with climate change

Global warming is set to make western Africa drier, threatening the region's widespread subsistence farming. But projects advocating basic water harvesting and irrigation techniques are already making a difference.
The Sahel region of western Africa is a belt of semi-arid grassland lying between the Sahara to the north and savannas to the south.
It spans about three million square kilometers (1.1 million square miles) and includes the nine countries of Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Chad, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, Niger and Sudan.
The region, home to more than 55 million people, is no stranger to natural disasters. Throughout the 20th century, droughts have brought death and famine and left millions dependant on food aid. Periods of heavy rainfall too are a problem, destroying crops and washing away villages.
In addition, the Sahel is also struggling with large-scale land degradation caused by deforestation and overgrazing.
A drier future
While climatologists are divided about the reasons for the harsh weather fluctuations, experts say one thing's clear – the pattern's set to get worse.
"For western Africa, climate researchers can say with a high degree of certainty that all kinds of extreme events – prolonged drought periods, more heavy rainfall – are very likely," Hermann Lotze-Campen, an agricultural economist at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research said.
"Extreme weather coupled with already high temperatures of above 45 degrees Celsius in Sahel countries are likely to increase water scarcity and water stress and make the region drier."
That's bad news for a region dependent on rain-fed subsistence farming of sorghum, cotton, millet and other dryland yields for its survival.
"Lower rainfall means lower crop yields. Estimates suggest crop yields in the Sahel may go down 20 to 50 percent in the next decades and this at a time when countries such as Niger have the highest population growth rate in the world," Chris Reij, a sustainable land management expert at the Centre for International Cooperation at the VU University Amsterdam said.
Simple solutions
The myriad problems have long attracted international donors and aid efforts to help the region adapt to climate change.
The village of Jataba in the Gambia, for instance, is part of a large 114-million-euro ($157 million) project financed by the European Union to provide the Sahel with solar-powered water pumps.
But some point out that vast funds aren't necessarily what's needed to make a difference.  
"What really works are simple irrigation and water storage techniques for subsistence farmers. The moment you bring in a high-tech system, then you have problems of investment as well as of know-how," Dirk Thies, who heads German technical aid group GTZ's agriculture project in Burkina Faso, said.
Experts say there are plenty of successful climate change-adaptation projects in the region ranging from water harvesting techniques to modifications on traditional farming practices.
Relying on local knowledge
Chris Reij, who's worked in the Sahel for more than 30 years, pointed to a project in Burkina Faso that's revived a local tradition of sowing crops in a grid of planting pits known as "zai."
The pits retain water for long periods of time, concentrating rainfall and nutrients onto the roots of crops, thus allowing them to survive dry spells. The method has helped reclaim land that had become semi-desert.
Another initiative started by the GTZ in the late 1980s has helped farmers in Burkina Faso build stone bunds. These are stones piled up in long narrow rows that follow the contours of the land in order to capture rainwater runoff and soil.
The projects, technically called "farmer-managed natural regeneration," are developed with the involvement and inputs of local farmers long used to coping with climatic fluctuations.
"The local farmers are very sensitive to weather changes – they've been dealing with it for thousands of years. They're very aware of the risks and never lay all their eggs in one basket. Frankly, a farmer in Burkina Faso is much better prepared for climate change than a farmer in Germany," Thies said.
Green shoots
Another little-known success story in the Sahel involves a tree-based approach to farming called agro-forestry. A Malian-British NGO called Sahel Eco and others have supported farmers in growing and nurturing native species of trees that sprout naturally amid their cropland.
The trees shade crops from intense heat, buffer the wind and help the soil retain moisture. Their leaves provide fodder for livestock and act as mulch when they drop to the ground, boosting soil fertility.
The practices have spread across swathes of Burkina Faso and neighboring Niger and Mali and are credited with recharging underground water tables in some places by as much as five meters.
"Our studies show that that in Niger and Burkina Faso, about 500,000 hectares of completely useless land have been restored to productivity in the last 20 years thanks to such measures," Reij said, adding that in Niger alone farmers have grown 200 million trees. "It's probably the biggest positive environmental transformation in the Sahel. Nobody could have imagined it."
The green shoots of recovery are also visible in satellite images analyzed by the US Geological Survey and made public in 2008.
"A win-win situation"
An important role played by aid groups involves lobbying governments to make changes to policy such as granting farmers legal ownership of their trees so that the farmers have an incentive to take care of them.
Thies said the GTZ's current focus in Burkina Faso is to break what he calls a "negative cycle of subsistence farming" by urging the government to make investments to create a market for small farmers.
While the Sahel region undoubtedly faces a range of formidable challenges, some say the success of these simple projects offers important lessons for future mitigation policies.
"These projects are a win-win situation: they help farmers adapt to climate change and at the same time help to reduce rural poverty and boost food security," Reij, said. "There are many more success stories under the African sun than is commonly believed."
Author: Sonia Phalnikar
Editor: Ranty Islam

© Deutsche Welle

Disasters | 06.10.2010 Hungarian officials fear toxic spill could reach Danube

Disasters | 06.10.2010

Hungarian officials fear toxic spill could reach Danube

 

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The radioactive sludge inundated seven villages

Hungary remains in a state of emergency in the wake of a toxic sludge spill that has left seven villages swamped. Fears have been raised that the sludge could pollute the nearby Danube, an important European waterway.

 

Hungary declared a state of emergency on Tuesday after a toxic sludge spill swamped seven villages in what officials called the worst chemical accident in the country's history.

Up to 40 square kilometers (15.5 square miles) of land have been affected, giving rise to fears that the sludge could eventually pollute the nearby Danube River, which courses through three European capitals before flowing into the Black Sea.

"The sludge could reach the [Danube] in four or five days," said the deputy chief of the water management company for western Hungary, Sandor Toth, adding that "from the point of view of water management, it's a catastrophe."

The two-meter (6.6-foot) tide of red toxic sludge killed four people and injured 120 others on Tuesday. Eight of the injured are in serious condition and six people remain missing. Officials said on Wednesday that the death toll could rise.

The European Union would be willing to help Hungarian authorities should they need assistance in cleaning up the toxic chemical spill, EU spokesman Joe Hennon said Wednesday.

Further down the Danube in Romania, the country's Environment Ministry said it was monitoring water quality round-the-clock and stressed that the level of pollutants had not crossed the acceptable limits.

'Man-made catastrophe'Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  The toxic flood killed four people and injured 120 others

The area around Ajka, in western Hungary, was inundated with the sludge after the walls of the Ajkai Aluminia Refinery's residue reservoir, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Budapest, broke on Monday. The plant produces alumina, which is used in the smelting of aluminum.

The red mud is a toxic residue left over from the plant's aluminum production. It is slightly radioactive, highly corrosive and contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium. It destroyed all vegetation other than trees and seeped into hundreds of houses in seven villages, leaving residents unsure of when they would be able to return to their homes.

"This is an unprecedented incident that affects deeply the ecosystem, wetlands and surface water bodies of the region as well as pointing out the fragility of our drinking water reserves," Gabor Figeczky, the deputy country officer of the environmental group WWF Hungary, said in a statement.

Environment State Secretary Illes said there was suspicion that Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company (MAL), which owns the Ajka reservoir, had stored more red sludge in the reservoir than was allowed, and that its walls had displayed stress fractures prior to the spill.

MAL chief Zoltan Bakonyi insisted, however, that the company had done nothing wrong, saying the company would suspend all production for the time being.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a message to the Hungarian people on Tuesday, sent condolences to the victims' families and promised a thorough investigation to determine "who is responsible for this man-made catastrophe."

Author: Gabriel Borrud (Reuters/AFP/dpa)

Editor: Sean Sinico

Drought and Air Quality in August 2010

Drought and Air Quality in August 2010

Posted September 18, 2010

download large image (4 MB, PNG) acquired August 1 - 31, 2010

download large image (4 MB, PNG) acquired August 1 - 31, 2009

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Air quality varies from day to day and year to year, influenced by both local and large-scale weather patterns. In August 2010, the skies in many parts of the world were marked by yellow-brown light filtering down through acrid, smoky air, or by gray-white haze blurring the horizon. Some of the large-scale weather patterns that dominated in August are reflected in the top map, which shows aerosols as measured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
Aerosols are tiny solid and liquid particles in the atmosphere, and MODIS measures them by gauging how they reflect and absorb light, a quantity called aerosol optical depth. When aerosols are dense, they block light from the surface and the aerosol optical depth is high (shown in brown). When there are few aerosols in the atmosphere, light reaches the ground easily, so aerosol optical depth is low (shown in yellow). MODIS does not measure aerosols over very bright surfaces like deserts, ice, or clouds. These areas are gray.
Aerosols enter the atmosphere in a variety of ways, many of which are influenced by weather. Fires send up sooty smoke; wind kicks up dust and sand; and high temperatures cook the chemical soup emitted from tailpipes and industrial processes into a thick haze. High winds, drought, and heat waves can intensify fires, dust storms, and the formation of chemical aerosols.
Some of the highest aerosol concentrations in August 2010 occurred over Russia and South America. In Russia, drought and high temperatures baked plants and soils, making them prone to fire. When widespread fires broke out, they swathed the country in thick smoke. Drought also settled over the Amazon basin in South America, such that fires set to clear trees and brush quickly raged out of control. (See Fires in South America.) The smoke moved north along the Andes Mountains and covered much of South America.
The third area affected by drought was western Canada. While a number of wildfires burned in the drought-dried boreal forest, the smoke aerosols were not as dense as in South America or Russia.
Central Africa is also covered with thick aerosols. The lower image, from August 2009, shows that aerosols routinely gather over central Africa during August, when farmers use fire to clear land for crops and pasture.
The high concentrations of aerosols over northern Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and southwest Asia come from dust. Aerosols in China, Europe, and the United States are haze, largely from industry and automobiles.
Just as aerosol concentrations are influenced by the weather, they in turn can affect weather patterns. Depending on their shape and size, aerosols can either help clouds form or prevent them from forming. Aerosols also reflect or filter light, reducing the intensity of sunlight in a region and making temperatures cooler. They can also block light, absorb energy, and heat the atmosphere.

1. References

2. National Climate Data Center. (2010, September 15). State of the climate, global analysis August 2010. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed September 17, 2010.
3. National Climate Data Center. (2009, September 1). State of the climate, global analysis August 2009. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed September 17, 2010.
4. National Climate Data Center. (2010, September 15). State of the climate, global hazards August 2010. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed September 17, 2010.
5. National Climate Data Center. (2009, September 1). State of the climate, global hazards August 2009. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed September 17, 2010.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Kevin Ward, based on data provided by the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) Project. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Instrument: 

Terra - MODIS

Información Interés: Ambiental - Agropecuario

Bajo esta etiqueta postear toda la

Información Interés: Ambiental - Agropecuario

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