Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International

Poverty, vulnerability as well as rural livelihoods are all complex and dynamic themes making it difficult to achieve. Households may respond differently to risk depending on factors such as the household’s socio-economic class, its lifecycle stage, its exposure to risk, its asset base and the coping strategies at their disposal. Rural households invest in a diversity of livelihood strategies and assets in order to spread potential risk and provide a buffer against vulnerability. Whilst some see this diversity as an inevitable poverty trap, households diversify as a means of coping as well as in response to changing opportunities and constraints. This paper argues that in India better management of forests and forest products like Non-Timber Forest Products can protect the rural poor - especially the forest dwellers, from the poverty trap, climatic vulnerability and insecure livelihood.

The investigation of rainfall, temperature and solar radiation variability at Birnin Kebbi metropolis, Kebbi State, Nigeria was carried out using observations of air temperature (°C) rainfall (mm) and solar radiation (W/m²) for the period of 2014 -2016 (3 years), data was obtained at Sir Ahmadu Bello international Airport, analysis of data indicate for the occurrences of abrupt change in temperature, rainfall and solar radiation values. It was observed from the distributions of monthly average wind speed for the (3) three years are fairly similar with maximum wind speed with variation in some months, having deficit values in February and April 2014, February and March 2015, January and February 2016, its revealed that, the least global solar radiation in 2014 followed by the month of January 2015 and June in 2016. The variation between maximum solar radiation and minimum is said to be great in the months of January to March where there is increase in the intensity of heat as there is strong expectation of precipitation events that become extremely in the month of August/September 2016. The slight difference between maximum and minimum in the period advocates a different seasonal period between the regime of large difference and low difference in the Relative Humidity in the year. However 2016 show the maximum temperature which in turn when compared with 2014 and 2015 as the case reverse, significant increases in precipitation indicated in 2014 compare to other years (2015, 2016). It was concluded that there is a significant downward trend in the yearly total and mean rainfalls at Birnin Kebbi showing that 2014 has highest rainfall compared with 2015 and 2016.

Urbanisation is one of the most significant development process affecting the modern world particularly the developing countries. However, often the pattern and level of urban development are highly variable both spatially and temporally. Barasat subdivision comprises the sadar subdivision of the district of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal. This district traditionally has a glorious history of urbanisation being much higher than both the state and national averages. Within the district, this subdivision has shown a slow and steady growth of urbanisation since independence. Although the percentage of urban population has remained below the district average it has been significantly higher than the state and national average. The study aims to find out the trends, levels of urbanisation and spatio-temporal pattern of urbanisation in the study area using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Mostly secondary data sources have been used. The study reveals that there are significant spatio-temporal variation in levels of urbanisation within the subdivision. The subdivision was overshadowed in the urban scenario mainly due to the overwhelming presence of neighbouring Barrackpore subdivision till 1981. The situation has significantly altered after Barasat being declared the district headquarter in 1986.

The spatial-temporal seismicity in Aliakmona river area is presented for the period 1974-2010 (NW Greece). This study area, which was classified as low seismicity, presents a particular interest due to the unexpected strong earthquake of Ms=6.6 which occurred between the cities of Kozani–Grevena, at a distance of 18 km from the southern edge of Polyphyto lake in 1995. According to [1], seismic hazard changes have been identified SE of the Polyphyto dam after the impoundment of the lakes. In this study, we examined the possible correlation between the impoundment and the water level fluctuations due to the three artificial lakes which are established in the region and the observed seismicity using data from the catalogues of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) (see details for seismological data on Mc, RMS, etc. in [2,3]). For the latter purpose, spatial and temporal distribution maps were developed as  well  as  correlation  diagrams  between  water  level  variations  in  respect  to  monthly seismicity for distances 10 Km, 20 Km, 30 Km, 40 Km and 50 Km around the artificial lakes using the ESRI ArcMap 10 software.  A remarkable change is observed in seismic activity in the vicinity of reservoirs for the period commencing 10 years prior to the first filling in comparison with the period 10 years after. This increased seismicity is correlated to the daily rate of water level fluctuations (dh/dt) for the period 1984-2010 reveals the presence of mainly shallow seismic activity with focal depths of 0-5 km in a high percentage (67%). This protracted seismicity which is mainly located in the SW area of Polyphyto lake, has characteristics of the second type of induced seismicity according to Talwani [4], and seems to be controlled by the water level fluctuations of Polyphyto reservoir due to the mechanism of pore pressure diffusion.

The land is a delineable area of the earth's surface, encompassing all attributes of the biosphere immediately above or below this surface. Physical characteristics of the land determine agricultural land use. Among them, relief and slope play an important role. Aim of this study is to establish the relationship of relief and slope with agricultural land use in Valapattanam River basin in Kannur district using GIS and Remote sensing.

The Survey of India Topographic maps in 1:50000 scale was used as a base map for delineating the basin. Contours were digitized and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was generated. Agricultural land use map was prepared using satellite digital data by the digital image processing method using ERDAS IMAGINE image processing software. Agricultural land use map was intersected with the relief and slope classes in ArcGIS software. Areas were calculated and the trend of agricultural land use patterns was studied. The study revealed that there is a strong correlation between Agricultural land use and relief and slope in the Valapattanam River basin.

Most of the area under paddy, coconut, mixed crops like banana and tapioca concentrated below 20 m height in the coastal plain and valley regions of the basin. Rubber mostly cultivated between 100 and 300 meters with slopes between 3 to 12 degrees. Agriculture is limited up to 18-degree slope and 300 m height. Areas of more than 300 m height are occupied mostly by forest.