Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

A very small island within the Cayman Islands (all three islands that make up the system really are only 100 square miles put together) located in the Caribbean.

The first thing I noticed when researching this island, is that locating a topographic map of it is basically impossible. But I quickly figured out by looking at this satellite image, that the problem may occur due to the fact that the island is virtually flat.

In terms of hazards, large hurricane storms are always a threat. For instance, in this news article, though it does not discuss directly a storm the Cayman Islands have been through, it mentions storms they have been through in the past and how this makes many people on the islands empathetic when similar tropical storms occur elsewhere in the Caribbean.

One especially notable type of vegetation on the island is the mangrove forest, a beautiful host to rich biodiversity.








































Finally, here's a link to a peer reviewed article abstract, discussing both natural and man-made hazards on the island. The main hazards it identifies are those which involve storms, such as hurricanes as was discussed earlier and is pretty typical for the region.

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Peer review article here

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Gimmelwald is a beautiful little mountain town nestled 4,500 feet above sea level in the Bernese Oberland part of the Swiss Alps. The views from Gimmelwald are breath taking. This tiny town can only be reached by hiking or by gondola. Gimmelwald's population (or lack thereof) is 130 people, and not one of them owns a car. Farming is the primary occupation, and Gimmelwald is well known for its delicious cheese.

Vegetation:

The vegetation is alpine and sub-alpine, with lots of wildflowers blooming in the summer months.

Climate:
Because Gimmelwald is such a small town, there is no direct climate graph for it. However, Gimmelwald is very close to Bern, Switzerland and shares the same climate characteristics. Here is the climate table for Bern. As you can see, Gimmelwald is very cold in the winter months, getting plenty of snow that allow its nearby ski resorts to stay open from November until April. The summers are mild and the area has low humidity year-round.

Natural Disaster:

There are no real natural disasters that occur in Gimmelwald. Members of the community got the area to be falsely declared as an avalanche zone, but this was to stop the urbanization of the town, not because it actually is one. Other than the very small chance of avalanche, there are no real natural disasters in Gimmelwald.

Here is a topographic map of the area.

The article "Fluctuations of Climate and Glaciers in Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, and their Geoecological Significance," by Bruno and Paul Messerli discusses how scientists can look at the change of area and volume of ice in the Bernese Oberland and draw conclusions about the area's climate change over a long period of time.

Madagascar

Political Map of Madagascar

Topographic Map of Madagascar

More detailed Topographic Map

Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island, located off of the southeastern coast of Africa, with a population of nearly 20 million.

Natural Hazards: Madagascar is not as much of a victim of natural hazards as it is from hazards such as epidemics, or disease, which are much more common, however take much less of a toll. However, here you will see that droughts and storms account for mostly all of the natural disasters on Madagascar. Tropical storms are the most frequent visitors, because Madagascar is in the direct storm path of the Indian Ocean basin. A common tropical storm in Madagascar can be seen here. In March, 36 lives were taken and 38,000 were left homeless during Tropical Storm Hubert. Rain can also be sparse in Madagascar, which is why drought is always a major threat.

Vegetation: Sub-humid forests are extremely common on the island, and are evident on the plateau in the center of the island nation. Because of the great plains in the west, cattle grazing is optimal. On the east side of the island, a forest canopy to nearly 30 meters can be found. On the drier, west side, shrubs and grasslands are much more common.

Climate: The rainy season is from November to April, with dry and cool temperatures from May to the end of October. The east side of the island is exposed to rainfall the most, with 3.5 meters falling annually. In addition, the Indian Ocean anticyclone plays a major role in the climate of Madagascar due to the winds, which orginiate out of the Indian Ocean. Because the winds and most of the bad weather arrive from the east, the west side of the island receives much less rainfall.

















Peer Reviewed Journal:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30039782?seq=1

This discusses global climate change, and how the natural environment of Madagascar has declined. Human settlement on Madagascar has diminished most all of the forests that were once there, and now with all of the climate change, droughts, wildfires, and other natural disasters have the possibility to become more common.

The Outback

The Outback is a vast, remote and arid area of Australia. Covering most of Australia, the Outback is home to a diverse set of species, such as the Kangaroo, Emu and Dingo.


Location

The Outback of Australia encompasses portions of five out of six territories, excluding the island territory of Tasmania. Defined without official borders, the Outback encompasses the interior of the South-of-the-Equator continent.

The Outback includes the Southern region of the Northern Territory, the Central and Eastern portions of Western Australia, the Northern and Central portions of Southern Australia, the Northwest corner of New South Wales, the Southeastern portion of Queensland and the far Northwestern areas of Victoria.

Rain

Seventy percent of inland Australia maintains an arid climate. The Outback area sees very little rain and can go years without any precipitation. The central region receives the least rainfall of the entire country. The driest location in the Outback is Mulka Station on the Birdsville Track. On average they receive 120mm, or just under 5 inches, of rain per year.

Wind

Seasons dictate wind patterns in Australia. From October through March expect winds to blow from the Southeast. The strongest winds gust from October to December. The Aboriginal people of Australia refer to the last few months of the year as "the windy season." The combination of wind and areas with little vegetation makes dust storms common in the Outback. Winds fade to a gentle breeze during the cooler months of April through September.

Temperature

Since the Outback covers large portions of the continent, maximum temperatures range from 18 to 39 degrees Celsius, or roughly 64 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit. The coolest month to visit is July, the height of the winter season. Temperatures can drop below freezing. During the summer, the sand hills and rock structures get much warmer than the plains and desert areas. Temperatures can climb to 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Facts

The interior of Australia harbors no major cities due to the climate. The land can't support farming. The sparse vegetation in the region has adapted to receiving very little precipitation, according to the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. Eighty percent of Australia receives less than 600mm, or 23.6 inches of rainfall per year.

Peer Reviewed article here
Title: "No Mallee Bull, the Outback is Out There"

Fernando de Noronha

Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands, the main island is the focus of my project. the main island, also called Fernando do Noronha is the only inhabited island and it is 350 km from the coast of Brazil.

Some notable features on the maps of Fernando de Noronha are the one small airport runway in the middle of the island, "Dolphin Bay" where the worlds largest Spinner Dolphin colony inhabits, Morro do Pico "Peaks Hill" a huge rock that can be seen anyhere on the island, the main town nearer to the top of the island, Fortaleza de Nossa Senhora dos Remedios, "The Fort of our Lady of Remedios Fernando de Noronha" an abondoned fort used to shelter world war 2 soldiers.



Fernando de Noronha is free of hurricanes and no big tsunamis or earthquakes. Fernando de Noronha does get severe tropical storms with high winds, heavy rain, and thunder. An example of the consequences of these severe storms is what happened to a flight from France that hit a severe storm and crashed into the ocean not to far from the island.



The natural vegetation of the island is mostly vines and bushes and grasses with a few different species of trees particularly Nyctaginaceae, Bignoniaceae, Anacardiaceae, and Rubiaceae. There are a lot of bushes and shrubs that are not native to the island. The two bushes that are most noted on the island are Capparis Cynophallophora and Burra Leiteira Sapium Scleratum which are bushes that cause a sap that is known to cause burns on humans and animals. A few of the herbs include the harmful climbing vines are Jiteranas, Ipomea, and Merremia. there are also fruit trees that have been introduced to the island including papaya, cashew, and bananna.

Fernando de Noronha has very consistant tempertures and precipitation levels. Temperatures in Fernando de Noronha remain constant year-roundwith an average of 26 degrees celcius and 80% humidity. The island has two well-defined tropical seasons, the rainy season,January to August, and the dry season, September to December. The months with the most rain are March and April where rains can reach 20cm per day.

One interesting peer-reviewed article I found was one entitled Interdisciplinary Paleovegetation study in the Fernando de Noronha Island (Pernambuco State), Northeastern Brazil.
The article discusses determine vegetation changes on the island since the begining of the geologic time, called the holocene. What interested me most about the article was the conclusions which stated that the climate changes that occured did not affect the vegetation. the article discussed many of the important trees, herbs, and bushes disccused in the vegetation section of this post.

Some fun facts about the island is that the island is home to the worlds largest spinner dolphin population.

Vacationing on the island is exensive. There is a draconian tax system which is meant to discourage people from staying to long on the island. Guests are taxed everyday they are on the island, us11$ a day for the first 20 days, after that it rises to 372$ a day, and after 30 days it rising again to 910$ a day.

Also upon arrival local authorites hand out litter bags and register every visitor into a computer base so authorities will no how many visitors are on the island at one time, where they are from, and where they are staying. This is to preserve the environment on the island. Another example of the intense care dedicated to the island is Atalaia beach, which is a beach great for snorkeling. The number of visitors allowed on the beach at a time is restricted to six groups of 18 visitors all who are prohibited from touches the sea floor, they are forced to remain in a floating position at all times.

The island has 17 beaches, one airport, one highway, and 2800 Brazilians who are lucky enough to live in paradise!

Athens Greece

Athens, Greece is located in the southern part of Europe and juts out into the Mediterranean Sea between the southern end of Italy and the western end of Turkey. The city has a unique landscape of hills and mountains which fall to the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the most famous landmarks of Athens are the ancient Acropolis and the Parthenon. Athens is the capital of Greece. Between 1981 when Greece joined the European Union, and 2004 when Athens hosted the summer Olympic games, Athens grew to become a modern cosmopolitan metropolis, a center of economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life.

Athens, Greece has a Mediterranean climate. The summers are hot and dry, with clear, cloudless skies. The average annual temperature in Athens is about 63° F. The extremes range from a normal low of 31° F in January to a normal high off 99° F in July and at times even higher in August. The average rainfall of 1.25 inches. In June through September Athens only gets less than 1/2 inch of rain.

Athens has a Mediterranean climate and

its vegetation reflects a sclerophyll biom

e adapted to survival through regular long summer droughts. The shrubs and trees in such a biome have low branches, thick bark and leaves that resist water loss through transpiration. Outside the city the landscape may appear brown and dry much of the year, however the fertile soil provides for a rich diversity of wildflower from anemones and heliotropes to cacti and olive trees. Of course, Athens is a city with a metropolitan population of around 3.7 million. Much of the city is covered with concrete and many of the older areas either have no natural vegetation or may have vegetation that is cultivated and may not be natural. Athenians love flowers however, and everywhere in the summer the visitor will see bougainvillea, oleander and a myri

ad of other exotic colorful flowers. In recent years the city has been making an effort to add green space.

On August 24,2009 a massive

forest fire

began bu

rning just outside the northern border of Athens. According to the European Commission's European Forest Fire Information System 51,890 acres of pine forest, olive grove, brush and farmland, were destroyed. Greek officials say 150 homes were also damaged. Officials have not said what started the fires. Each year alone hundreds of forest fires blaze over Greece.

The meltemi is an annual midsummer wind that blows across the Aegean Sea southwest out of Turkey. Usually they blow strongest in the afternoon and die down at night but they can blow for days without a break. Since the winds blow from north to south they can make sailing problematic as it's easy to sail in southerly directions but beating back north against often 30-50 knot winds and strong seas is at best tedious and can be dangerous. Athenians and people who live in the Aegean islands welcome the dry cool breeze but north-facing beaches can be unpleasant if sand is blowing in the strong winds. Two summers ago I was sailing in the northern Cyclades and had personal experience with the meltemi.