Verification of the motion fields over Southeast Asia by the Florida State University (FSU) superensemble forecast

The Florida State University (FSU) multimodel superensemble forecast is evaluated against several other operational weather models for the Southeast Asia region. The superensemble technique has demonstrated its exceptional skills in forecasting precipitation, motion and mass fields compared to either individual global operational or ensemble mean forecasts. The motion field investigation for the season of 2001 reveals that the superensemble forecasts are closer to the observed data compared to the other global member operational models through its low systematic errors at the 850 hPa level. The FSU multimodel superensemble forecasts exhibit the lowest root mean square errors (RSMEs), the highest correlation against the best observed data and the lowest systematic errors compared to the other operational model members. These forecasts have the potential to provide better daily weather predictions over the Southeast Asia region, particularly during the early northeast monsoon that often causes heavy rainfall in the equatorial part of the Southeast Asia region.     

Transport and Housing Security in the Klang Valley, Malaysia

This paper explores links between transport and housing security issues for the urban poor using the example of the Klang Valley in Malaysia. The interface between these issues is identified as a gap in the literature, including policy debates, on both housing and transport. A number of linkages are shown to be important and likely to be relevant in many cities of the South, especially those with rapid motorisation and large numbers of "squatters". A simple framework for understanding these linkages is presented. Key examples include displacement to make way for transport infrastructure and the impact on transport problems for the poor of policies affecting the location of urban poor housing, including relocation sites and transit accommodation. The case study of the Klang Valley is used to illustrate and test the relevance of a focus on this issue and the utility of the conceptual framework. Some policy implications of the investigation and case study are suggested.     

马来西亚沙捞越邦达、什兰江控矿角砾岩筒构造对比研究及其找矿意义

马来西亚沙捞越邦达、什兰江控矿角砾岩筒构造均为典型的浅成—半浅成角砾岩筒构造，角砾岩及控矿类型具有明显的垂向分带特点。邦达控矿角砾岩筒构造发育角砾岩筒上段的塌陷角砾岩，角砾岩筒剥蚀深度较浅，控制典型的高硫化型浅成低温金铜矿床，且其深部具有较大的找矿潜力。什兰江控矿角砾岩筒构造发育角砾岩筒下段的爆发角砾岩和中段的流化角砾岩，分别控制斑岩型金矿化和低硫化型浅成低温热液型金矿化，角砾岩筒剥蚀深度较大，对矿床的保存和找矿极为不利。     

‘A place for everything’: Moral landscapes of ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town,Malaysia

This paper is based on 6 months of ethnographic, multi-sited research in Malaysia, and investigates the relatively recent phenomenon of edible birds’ nest farming in urban areas (‘swiftlet farming’). Swiftlet farms are typically converted shophouses or other buildings which have been modified for the purpose of harvesting the nests of the Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus). I use the controversy over urban swiftlet farming in the Malaysian city of George Town, Penang, to examine discourses used by key stakeholders to shape debates over the place of non-human animals in cities. By considering everyday experiences of urban swiftlet farming, I explore how this burgeoning industry is perceived amongst residents, and how it is deemed to be (in)appropriate within the political, economic and cultural landscape of George Town. Yet, I also consider how farmers have sought to contest these discourses on ideological and normative grounds. In so doing, I place the cultural animal geographies literature in conversation with emergent literature on landscape and urban political ecology. Such a framing allows for a critical evaluation of the controversies surrounding this case, and their implications for human-animal cohabitation in cities. The paper reflects on the implications of this case for how we regulate human-animal relations and live in contemporary cities, and the crucial role of animals in altering urban form, aesthetics and everyday life, particularly in non-Western contexts.     

Indian Ocean tsunamis: environmental and socio-economic impacts in Langkawi, Malaysia

We report the results of a study of the physical characteristics and socio-economic impacts of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26 December 2004 on the tourist island of Langkawi, Malaysia. In comparison with many other locations struck by the tsunami, the immediate physical and socio-economic impacts in Langkawi were relatively minor. A detailed survey of the watermark and ground elevations was undertaken in the worst affected area between Sungei Kuala Teriang and Sungei Kuala Melaka. Here, the tsunami reached a maximum elevation of 4.29 m as it crossed the coast, with a maximum flow depth of 2.0 m and a very consistent run-up elevation relative to mean sea level of 300 ± 10 cm. The tsunami inundated inshore areas for 300 m and penetrated inland along creeks for 500–1000 m. Structural damage to buildings was confined to within 50–150 m of the shoreline where about 10% of the houses were completely destroyed and 60–70% suffered significant structural damage. Damage was particularly severe in areas where there was no engineered coastal protection, but while coastal revetments did provide enhanced protection for houses at the waterfront, the coastline in the study area appeared to be more heavily impacted than elsewhere in Langkawi because wave energy was focused on the area by offshore breakwaters built to protect the Langkawi port and airport. Emergency response after the tsunami was rapid and efficient but would have been improved if the local police station had not been rendered inoperative by the first wave, and if a mechanism had been in place to ensure that informal advance warnings transmitted between Phuket (Thailand), Langkawi and Penang (Malaysia) by tourist operators could have been more widely disseminated.     

Engineering Geology of Limestone in Malaysia

This paper provides an overview of the engineering geology of limestone. Limestone is of rather wide occurrence in Malaysia. It is interesting in view of the unique landforms and karstic features that are encountered in limestone terrains, e.g. steep, subvertical limestone cliffs rising abruptly and majestically above the ground surface and highly variable and pinnacled subterranean limestone bedrock. The karstic features and associated engineering geological problems of both the limestone hills and the bedrock are discussed in the paper. Rockfalls, sinkholes, cavities, etc. are some of the common engineering geological problems associated with limestone terrains. Some local case studies are provided as illustrations. Finally the rock mechanical properties of limestone is discussed at the end of the paper.     

利用光学遥感数据、GIS及人工神经网络模型分析区域滑坡灾害(英文)

用光学遥感数据和地理信息系统(GIS)分析了马来西亚Selangor地区的滑坡灾害。通过遥感图像解译和野外调查,在研究区内确定出滑坡发生区。通过GIS和图像处理,建立了一个集地形、地质和遥感图像等多种信息的空间数据库。滑坡发生的因素主要为:地形坡度、地形方位、地形曲率及与排水设备距离;岩性及与线性构造距离;TM图像解译得到的植被覆盖情况;Landsat图像解译得到的植被指数;降水量。通过建立人工神经网络模型对这些因素进行分析后得到滑坡灾害图:由反向传播训练方法确定每个因素的权重值,然后用该权重值计算出滑坡灾害指数,最后用GIS工具生成滑坡灾害图。用遥感解译和野外观测确定出的滑坡位置资料验证了滑坡灾害图,准确率为82.92%。结果表明推测的滑坡灾害图与滑坡实际发生区域足够吻合。     

Bungalows, mansions and shophouses: Encounters in architourism

In architourism, tourists are attracted to places because of iconic buildings. Increasingly, non-iconic buildings of vernacular architectural styles are also appreciated by visitors as a way to authentically experience a place. This paper explores architourism in Malaysia and Singapore through the lens of historic boutique hotels. Geographical discourses in and methodologies of architectural geography are used to interrogate what these hotels mean for guests and hoteliers, and the effects on them too. Empirical findings deepen understanding of architourism through examining how ‘producers’ create culturally authentic environments in boutique hotels, and how ‘consumers’ utilise hotels to experience local cultures. The dual focus on production and consumption is in-line with critical architectural geography’s insistence on exploring the rhetoric of building design as well as the realities of their everyday uses and users.     

Reproductive biology and seasonality of the Indo-Australasian mysid Mesopodopsis orientalis (Crustacea: Mysida) in a tropical mangrove estuary,Malaysia

A year-round survey of the tropical shallow-water mysid Mesopodopsis orientalis (Tattersall, 1908) (Crustacea, Mysidacea) was conducted in the Merbok mangrove estuary, northwestern Peninsular Malaysia. The mysid formed dense aggregations at the river's edge close to the mangrove forest during the daytime, but very few were captured elsewhere in the estuary system. The sampled population was found in a wide range of salinities from 16 to 32, demonstrating broad euryhalinity, and the number of the catch at the littoral zone ranged from 11.8 to 2273 ind m⁻². The overall annual mean was 709.2 ind m⁻². Females predominated over males in the entire population, and brooding females were present at every monthly sample, indicating that reproduction is continuous year round. The clutch size positively correlated with female body length. The diameter of eggs (Stage I embryos) was unaffected by the seasonality and independent of the maternal size within an observed size range. The life history pattern of the estuarine population of M. orientalis showed close similarity to that of the coastal counterpart. However, the former was found to produce fewer but larger eggs, and the specimens in this population were larger than those in the coastal population at the embryo, juvenile, and adult stages. This evidence indicates that the life history features of the estuarine population would differ to some degree from those of the coastal counterpart.     

Converting tropical rain forest to forest plantation in sabah,malaysia. Part I. Dynamics and net losses of nutrients in control catchment streams

Streamwatcr chemistry was monitored for five years in six streams in a paired catchment experiment in Mendolong, Sabah, Malaysia, including controls in rain forest and secondary vegetation after the [Borneo fire] of 1982–3 and comparing the effects of different ways of establishing forest plantations with Acacia mangium. Three catchments were covered with selectively logged lowland hill dipterocarp forest (W4-W6) and three (W1-W3) with secondary vegetation after forest fires. The control catchments, W3 and W6 reported in this paper, had no treatments applied. Reference monitoring at all streams was for 25 months and the total period of study reported here is 64 months. The soils in the catchments were mainly Orthic Acrisol in W3 and Gleyic Podsol in W6 and a mix of both soil types in the other catchments. Element baseflow concentrations were generally low and not significantly different from stormflow concentrations for all streams during the reference period. Concentrations were also generally consistently low for the two control streams during the whole period of measurement. Chemical inputs as wet deposition were low as a result of a high input from local convection. The rain forest on the Podsol had a tight nutrient circulation indicated by small net losses of macronutrients. The Podsol was found to have poorer conditions for soil mineralization and more surficial runoff, resulting in higher loads of S, C and N in the organic phases, with higher organic C/N ratio, in the discharge. Nitrogen was found to accumulate in both catchments. An almost double accumulation of N in W3 was attributed to a larger biomass accumulation continuing after the forest fire 3–8 years earlier. On the other hand, the Acrisol in W3 had much larger net losses of S, Si, K, Ca, Mg and Na. Most of differences could be attributed to differences in weathering between the soils and local mineralogical differences.