This exposition of environmental informatics is an attempt to bring current thinking about uncertainty quantification to the environmental sciences. Envi-ronmental informatics is a term that I first heard being used by Bronwyn Harch

La diffusion de cette thèse se fait dans le respect des droits de son auteur, qui a signé le formulaire Autorisation de reproduire et de diffuser un travail de recherche de cycles supérieurs (SDU-522- Rév.01-2006). Cette autorisation stipule que «conformément à l'article 11 du Règlement no 8 des études de cycles supérieurs, [l'auteur] concède à l'Université du Québec à Montréal une licence non exclusive d'utilisation et de publication de la totalité ou d'une partie importante de [son] travail de recherche pour des fins pédagogiques et non commerciales. Plus précisément, [l'auteur] autorise l'Université du Québec à Montréal à reproduire, diffuser, prêter, distribuer ou vendre des copies de [son] travail de recherche à des fins non commerciales sur quelque support que ce soit, y compris l'Internet. Cette licence et cette autorisation n'entraînent pas une renonciation de [la] part [de l'auteur] à [ses] droits moraux ni à [ses] droits de propriété intellectuelle. Sauf entente contraire, [l'auteur] conserve la liberté de diffuser et de commercialiser ou non ce travail dont [il] possède un exemplaire. » 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 would like to express my gratitude to my Director, Professor Robert Hausler,

a tsunami struck the southern coast of Java, Indonesia, causing over 730 casualties. The triggering earthquake located 225 km off the coast of Pan-gandaran (9.222 ◦ S, 107.320 ◦ E), occurred at 15:19 LT (UTC +7) with a 7.7 magnitude on the Richter scale (Harward Cen-ter and CEA/DAM). In order to calibrate numerical models and understand the phenomenon, we conducted a 6-weeks field survey in July and August 2006 from Cimerak district in West Java to Gunung Kidul district in Central Java. Data collection involved measurements of wave height before its breaking, flow depth, run-up height, inundation depth, flow directions and a detailed chronology of the tsunami. Eyewitnesses accounted for three main waves. The max-imum height of the second wave ranged from 4.2 to 8.6 m before its breaking. Maximum flow depth after the wave’s breaking reached 5 m, and maximum runup heights reached 15.7 m. Our run-up values are about 1.5 higher than those obtained by the other field surveys carried out until present. They are also higher than the values computed through pre-liminary models. The 17 July 2006 tsunami has been generated by a “tsunami earthquake”, i.e. an earthquake of low or medium scale that triggers a tsunami of high magnitude. The run-up heights progressively decreased eastwards, which is consis-tent with a tsunami triggered by fault dislocation, as the one that hit the Nicaragua’s coast with similar run-up heights on the 2 September 1992. An earthquake with associated land-slides could also have generated the 17 July 2006 tsunami, as ever observed in Papua-New-Guinea in 1998.

lab webpage: tinyurl.com/PhysEcoLab birth date: 20/02/1976 citizenship: Spanish Career summary I consider myself an ecologist, and as such my interests are very broad. However, I am mostly focused on understanding how marine organisms and communities respond to environmental change

u.ac.jp With the growing popularity of Japanese learning, a large number of learning support tools or systems have been developed to help Japanese learners in various situations. We have particularly noticed the increasing necessity of systems developed as web applications, most of which are free and easily accessed, and hence regarded to be the most significant resources for Japanese learners. However, noun of the existing studies has considered the difference in language ability among Japanese learners. Learning contents and instructional method in these systems usually remain unchanged at all times without taking account of individual variations while in some cases they are supposed to vary with the real language ability of each Japanese learner. In this paper, we have developed a web application to provide appropriate suggestions and different learning materials for each Japanese learner based on their individual Japanese abilities. Specifically, we divide the language ability into several elements, propose different methods to quantify each element, and generate feedbacks or training questions for the Japanese learners. Experimental results have partially shown the effectiveness of our methods. 1

Lepidurus arcticus (Pallas, 1793) is a keystone species in High Arctic ponds, which are exposed to a wide range of environmental stressors. This thesis provides information on the ecology of this little studied species by paying particular focus on the sensitivity of L. arcticus to acidification

to address environmental and social justice, and the

for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning. Our civilization has always recognized exceptional individuals, whose performance in sports, the arts, and science is vastly superior

Polychlorinated biphenyl congeners were measured in 520 composite fish tissue samples collected from Maryland between 1999 and 2004. Thirty-six species were sampled from 190 sites. PCB concentrations in fish tissues were compared across taxa, regions and to Maryland fish consumption advisory levels. A multivariate analysis of PCB congeners in 126 white perch and 94 channel catfish from diverse locations was used to investigate patterns of PCB transport. The greatest PCB concentrations were measured in channel catfish from the Patapsco (1770 ng/g wet) and Potomac Rivers (1770 ng/g wet), the northern Chesapeake Bay (1000 ng/g wet), the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (850 ng/g wet), and in carp from Back River (1400 ng/g wet). PCB congener patterns varied spatially and reflected local PCB sources. Congener signatures were used to map the contamination associated with each PCB source region. Apparent congener transport distances correlated positively with hydrophobicity and negatively with volatility.

I, Dipitseng Maropeng Phaleng, hereby declare that the research reported herewith on the topic “Anthropogenic Impacts on the Integrity of the Blesbokspruit Catchment: A Case Study of Surface Water Pollution”, is my own work and that all the sources used or quoted in this dissertation have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete referencing.