Sea breezes

Last day in Malaga - and another couple of hours on the beach. Time once more to ponder. Well that's what beaches are for.

As the afternoon wears on, there is a strong sea breeze. This has happened every day, but is not something which happens here in the middle of summer. Why is that?

Here again I need more Geographic information than I have. But I suspect that the explanation is something like this. The temperature in Malaga is now 21C. This is much higher than it has been recently and crucially is much higher than the temperature of the water. I did in fact go for a (very short) swim today and can personally vouch for the fact that the water is still very cold!

So I guess the temperature of the air above the land is higher than the temperature of the air above the sea. Warm air rises. Therefore I suspect that as the warm air rises above the land, the space below that warm air sucks in the colder air from the sea. This effect is more pronounced in the middle of the afternoon when the temperature on land is at its highest. And thus we have quite a strong sea breeze.

In the summer, the water is much warmer than now in February (I certainly hope it will be) and the air temperature differential between land and sea is less significant. Thus the sea breezes which would be so welcome in July, unfortunately do not happen.

I am not sure if this is a correct explanation, but is seems logical to me.

I return to London tomorrow, so will leave with a picture of the Malaguata beach this afternoon looking northwards from Malaga towards El Palo. Back I understand to a London which is wet and windy.

Pebbles on the sand

I often stare at waves. Usually though I am staring beyond them in a spiritual way and pondering the eternity of waves compared with the transience of my existence. Or something like that.

Today I was sitting on the Malagueta beach watching the waves. And looking at them rather than beyond them. The waves were not hitting the shore straight on but at an angle of about 10 degrees. I watched a pebble just within reach of the waves. When a wave retreated the pebble was washed a couple of feet away from the shore. And when a wave broke, it was washed a couple of feet back toward the shore. But because of the angle of the wave, it was a few inches further along the beach. I believe that retreating waves are always at right angles to the shore - it is only the breaking waves that may not be straight at the shore. Anyway with the coming and going of each wave, this pebble moved inexorably a few inches further along the beach.

So where would it end up? Will it eventually get to Sitges? Might the Spanish pebble eventually become a French pebble? And from where will the pebble come which presumably will take its place?

Too many questions and no answers. But this must be another example of longshore drift, which I am reading about in school Geography blogs. And this is the phenomenon which gives rise to erosion and to spits.

But that´s enough for today. The sun is getting low and the local chiringuita is serving excellent Rioja. The waves will be here tomorrow. Hopefully, so will I.

Malaga Playa

I am currently in Malaga. On the morning I left after my last visit, 24th January, it was windy. All planes were slightly delayed as the wind forced times between departures at Malaga airport to be lengthened. What I did not know, was that the wind strengthened during the day of 24th January and finally ended up as the strongest gale along the Costa Del Sol coast for many years. Some trees were uprooted and buildings were damaged. And in particular the beaches were affected with sand being washed away in some places and many stones being deposited on beaches in other places.

I guess this is an example of longshore drift where strong waves at an angle to the shore sweep away stones from one part of the beach and deposit them on another part.

Today in Malaga it was warm and sunny. So I went to the Malagueta beach, the local town beach. This was always a beach which has a line of stones just below the waterline. But now there is a new line of stones about 6 feet up the beach from the edge of the water. Presumably these were deposited by the large waves on 24th January. And apparently the local authorities are to import tonnes of sand to deposit on the beach in time for the main tourist season.

In the meantime, the stones were not a major problem. Especially for me - the water was freezing and I had no intention of going down for a swim. But the evidence of my eyes for theoretical Geography having a practical consequence was interesting.

School Geography

I got an O-level in Geography in Inverness and a Higher in Geography after we had moved to Keith. But that was almost 40 years ago, so my memory of exactly what I did in School Geography is dim. I cannot even remember the name of my Geography teacher in Inverness, though I do remember Eric Barton, my teacher in Keith, whose daughter Erica was in my class. A few years later he taught my father word processing at an evening class I believe.

But quite what we did in the Geography class is not something I can particularly recall. Indeed I remember rather better the Geography projects we did at primary school. For example I did a project on Sydney, Australia, and as part of the project sent off to the Australian Tourist Board for some leaflets. A huge pile of wonderful glossy brochures on all parts of Australia arrived at our door in Inverness, and I still remember the excitement of looking through those at a world which seemed impossibly far away. I wonder what I would have said had I known that I would spend a year in Australia some 20 years later. And I remember also doing a project on the Irrawaddy River which seemed so much more exotic than the mundane River Ness.

But now I find that some Geography classes at schools have their own blogs and are doing exciting projects on map techniques, population, settlement, water resources etc. One such blog is from Paul Williams, a Gegraphy teacher (perhaps the Geography teacher) at the Shrewsbury School in Bankok, Thailand. Not only does this site have interesting information of its own, it has a myriad of links to other educational Geography blogs.

And that would seem to be a reasource that I can use in this quest to make sense of Geography. I can go back to school without ever having to enter a classroom. So I will do exactly that, and I will report again on how I get on.

But currently I am in Malaga and such educational issues will have to wait. I am off to explore the varying Riojas of the region.

Per Ardua Ad Cadastre

Last year I was getting to grips with the term 'mashup' which seemed to appear in every GI article I read.

Now I am finding many references to 'cadastres'. At the AGI council meeting last week, one speaker mentioned land parcel cadastres. An email received yesterday on potential subjects for our Chorley Day mentioned land values as a key component of cadastres.

But I don't know what a cadastre is. So off I go to try to find out.

Firstly I find that in Roman times a Cadastre is a land information system particularly minor roads, ditches and boundaries. The establishment of a cadastre was preceded by surveying (limitatio) and the establishment of survey markets (terminatio). One legacy of the Romans in Britain was the centuriation of land, basically an information system for land parcels based on grid structures.

Nowadays, cadastral maps define legal repositories of land ownership, value and location. The plotting of the edges of land parcels can be incorporated into a digital cadastral database. These can incorporate an interest in, and ownership of, the land parcel. This can be done for fiscal purposes, legal purposes or land management purposes.

And this is not just a historical process, but very much an integrated contemporary process which can map environments for 3D geomarketing which can use the visualisation of strategic information relying on geographic supports for decision making.

But I am falling into the trap of reason being submerged by jargon. So lets stop there for the moment and return later to learning more specific uses for cadastres.

Geography goes west

History is history as far as many pupils in British education are concerned. A recent survey has shown an alarming reduction in pupils studying history at GCSE level. I really do think that this is serious as it means that in the future many British citizens will not have a historical perspective in which to judge current events.

But this is not a history blog. I am more directly concerned with geography. Surely geography might be benefiting from this phenomenon. Well, no actually. In fact the number of pupils studying geography is showing an event steeper decline and now represents only 3.7% of pupils.

All of this is because these are no longer compulsory subjects for the over 14s. The number of pupils studying subjects such as media studies have increased by 32%.

So in the future citizens might get more insight into watching Big Brother but will know nothing about the facts on climate change.

Isn't it about time those involved in geography took this issue seriously and did what they can to reverse this decline? The future of geography is at stake.

Tracking the snow leopard

Apparently Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are helping to track the whereabouts of some elusive snow leopards in Central Asia. The GPS devices are attached to a small collar around the neck of the leopards and their movements can then be tracked. And how do they get the collar onto the leopards? Not, apparently, by going 'here kitty kitty' and then slipping the collar on. But through capturing the leopards through non invasive leg traps, which sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.

But this is certainly an innovative use of GPS technology.

Reaching the heights

Highest Mountain in the World (and Asia)Everest, Nepal-China: 29,035 feet / 8850 meters

Highest Mountain in AfricaKilimanjaro, Tanzania: 19,340 feet / 5895 meters

Highest Mountain in AntarcticaVinson Massif: 16,066 feet / 4897 meters

Highest Mountain in AustraliaKosciusko: 7310 feet / 2228 meters

Highest Mountain in EuropeElbrus, Russia (Caucasus): 18,510 feet / 5642 meters

Highest Mountain in Western EuropeMont Blanc, France-Italy: 15,771 feet / 4807 meters

Highest Mountain in OceaniaPuncak Jaya, New Guinea: 16,535 feet / 5040 meters

Highest Mountain in North AmericaMcKinley (Denali), Alaska: 20,320 feet / 6194 meters

Highest Mountain in the 48 Contiguous United StatesWhitney, California: 14,494 feet / 4418 meters

Highest Mountain in South AmericaAconcagua, Argentina: 22,834 feet / 6960 meters

Nearly all higher than I have been. I've been to Cusco and Quito, but since I got to both by plane they hardly count as having reached a high altitude. In Scotland, climbing to the top of Cairngorm is the highest I have reached. And worldwide, I guess some climbing near the top of Mount Damavand in the mountains above Teheran would represent the highest I have been above sea level, probably at around 16000 feet.

How low can you go?

About this low in fact -

Lowest Point in the World (and Asia)Dead Sea shore, Israel-Jordan: 1369 feet / 417.5 meters below sea level

Lowest Point in AfricaLake Assal, Djibouti: 512 feet / 156 meters below sea level

Lowest Point in AustraliaLake Eyre: 52 feet / 12 meters below sea level

Lowest Point in EuropeCaspian Sea shore, Russia-Iran-Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan: 92 feet / 28 meters below sea level

Lowest Point in Western EuropeTie: Lemmefjord, Denmark and Prins Alexander Polder, Netherlands: 23 feet / 7 meters below sea level

Lowest Point in North AmericaDeath Valley, California: 282 feet / 86 meters below sea level

Lowest Point in South AmericaBahia Blanca, Argentina: 138 feet / 42 meters below sea level

I confess that although I knew that the Dead Sea was the lowest point on earth, I had not realised that it was quite so far below sea level.

I once payed golf in Death Valley, California. The club pro watched me hit a few balls, came
over and rather conescendingly said 'Never mind - it will be the high air pressure which prevents you from hitting the ball very far.'