European Geographical Studies

3-9

Authors: Nana M. Berdzenishvili

The wind regime of one of the regions of Georgia-Imereti, located in its central part, on the southern winding slope of the Greater Caucasus, is systematized. The repeatability of the prevailing wind directions is established. According to the monthly average data, the repeatability of the winds of the eastern regions reaches 53 %, and the repeatability of the winds of the western regions is 43 %. At night, the frequency of easterly winds increases to 69−70 %, and the frequency of westerly winds is greatest in the afternoon, amounting to 40−50 %. The highest average annual wind speed is observed in Mta-Sabueti and is 9.2 m/s where the wind speed throughout the year is quite high, amounting to 7.9-10.6 m/s. Increased wind speeds in Kutaisi up to 5 m/s are due to the phenic effect, in other places the average annual wind speed mainly does not exceed 3 m/s. The range of changes in the average annual number of days with strong winds ranges from 12 (Korbouli) to 162 days (Mta-Sabueti). The maximum number of days with a strong wind was recorded in Mta-Sabueti-222, in Kutaisi the maximum number of days with a strong wind is 124, and in other places it ranges from 40−80 days.

21-38

Authors: Sudipa Halder, Malabika Biswas Roy, Pankaj Kumar Roy

Climate change is an important consequence of the land degradation. There is an urgent need to manage the rapidly changing dynamicity of the earth surface in a sustainable way. Garbeta block of West Medinipore has been chosen for the study to identify the sources of landform vulnerability which is severely affected by rill and gully erosion. Land use and land cover analysis of three distinct years has been computed which clearly shows the increase of dry fallow land over the region from 1989 to 2018 making it more assailable to sheet and rill erosion during the monsoonal period and encourage poor ground water recharge. An association map between land use/land cover and elevation has been prepared using GIS software and Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) to find out the dominancy and similarity of a particular physical and human activities over the region according to the relief. The environmental indices like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) has been prepared to analyse the ecological stability of the region. Therefore land use and land cover analysis is an important tool for the policy makers and stakeholders to implement conservation schemes in the light of sustainability.

50-60

Authors: E.Sh. Elizbarashvili, M.E. Elizbarashvili, Sh.E. Elizbarashvili, M.G.Pipia, N.Z. Chelidze

Based on observations from more than 20 meteorological stations, we investigated the number of days with precipitation of 50 mm and more, the maximum daily and maximum five-day precipitation, periods of precipitation, probability and intensity on the territory of Georgia. A classification of intense precipitation has been carried out and a map of the maximum intensity of precipitation has been developed. The trends of the long-term change in the climatic characteristics of extreme precipitation are estimated, some statistical differences in mean values of characteristics for different averaging periods are revealed. The obtained results expand our understanding of the geography, structure and dynamics of the characteristics of catastrophic precipitation in the territory of Georgia.