Estimating snow distribution over a large area and its application for water resources

The spatial and temporal distribution of the snow water equivalent (SWE), snow density and snow depth were estimated by a method combining remote sensing technology and degree‐day techniques over a study area of 370 000 km². The advantages of this simulation model are its simplicity and the availability of degree‐day parameters, which can be successively evaluated by referring to snow area maps created from satellite images. This simulation worked very well for estimating SWE and helped to separate the areas of thin snow cover from heavier snowfall. However, shallow snow in warm regions led to some misjudgments in the snow area maps because of the time lag between when the satellite image was acquired and the simulation itself. Vulnerable areas, where a large variation in the amount of snow affects people's life, could be identified from the differences between heavy and light snow years. This vulnerability stems from a predicted lack of irrigation water for rice production caused by future climate change. The model developed in this study has the potential to contribute to water management activities and decision‐making processes when considering necessary adaptations to future climate change. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

National vulnerability to extreme climatic events: the cases of electricity disruption in China and Japan

Extreme climatic events are likely to adversely affect many countries throughout the world, but the degrees among countries may be different. China and Japan are the countries with high incidences of extreme weather/disaster, both facing with the urgent task of addressing climate change. This study seeks to quantitatively compare the impacts of extreme climatic events on socioeconomic systems (defined as vulnerability) of the two countries by simulating the consequences of hypothetical same degree of electricity disruption along with extreme events. To do that, two computable general equilibrium models are constructed, by using which three-stage scenarios are simulated for China and Japan, respectively. The results reveal that China and Japan have unequal socioeconomic vulnerabilities to extreme events. (1) Negative impact of the same degree of power outages is bigger on China’s socioeconomic system than on that of Japan, and this difference is more obvious in the very short-run scenario. (2) The decline of China’s GDP, total output, and employment levels is 2–3 times higher than that of Japan, while the difference of the resident welfare levels is sharper, which of China drops 3–5 times of Japan. (3) Structural factors are the main reason for vulnerability differences between China and Japan, including the differences of expenditure structure, factor input structure for production of life requirement sectors, material and energy dependence for the production of industrial sectors, and usage structure of services outputs. Based on these findings, some policy implications and recommendations for fairness issues on climate change adaptation are proposed.     

Petrology of green polished stone axes of the Jomon period from the Sannai-Maruyama site,Japan, investigating the origin of source rock

Numerous green polished stone axes have been excavated from the Sannai-Maruyama site, one of Japan's largest archeological sites in the Jomon period (5.9–4.2 cal kyr BP). The axes are composed of weakly metamorphosed fine-grained volcaniclastic rock having a peculiar texture that includes numerous acicular actinolites growing in random directions within a quartz and albite matrix. Cobbles of Aotora stone found along the Nukabira River, Biratori town, southern Hokkaido, are the most likely raw material for these stone axes. Aotora stones have alternate bands of a soft dark-green picritic layer and a hard SiO₂-rich pale-green layer. The pale-green layer has a texture similar to the stone axes. Basaltic and picritic volcanic rocks of the Sorachi-Yezo Belt occupy the area along the Shidoni River, a tributary of the Nukabira River. Volcaniclastic rocks similar in texture, mineralogy, and bulk rock compositions to the Aotora stone are exposed in the area. These rocks underwent metamorphism under the actinolite-pumpellyite facies conditions. Their protolith is submarine hyaloclastic rocks that are intercalated with laminated picrite detritus. The stone axes, pale-green layers of Aotora stone, and those of the volcaniclastic rocks of the Shidoni River area all have high SiO₂ (~ 55 wt%), Cr (~ 840 μg/g), and Ni (~ 370 μg/g). The rare earth element patterns with abundant light rare earth elements and depleted heavy rare earth elements of stone axes were also consistent with the pale-green layers of the outcrop. These pale-green layers, interleaved with dark-green layers of picritic detritus, were the likely source rock of the stone axes. The high SiO₂ content in the pale-green layer caused the crystallization of quartz and albite in the matrix, which resulted in high-quality raw material for making stone axes.     

What constitutes successful participatory disaster risk management? Insights from post-earthquake reconstruction work in rural Gujarat,India

Although for decades, public participation in disaster risk management has been strongly advocated for, in reality, it remains elusive. Planners and practitioners are still struggling to find ways to meaningfully involve the local community in disaster management programs; so far, apparently successful projects and initiatives have seldom been scaled up or replicated. The reason for this is that no comprehensive framework for participatory disaster risk management exists, and no systematic evaluation has been made to assess the necessary elements and appropriate paths for meaningful public participation in disaster management. This study attempts to examine the process and identify outcome-based factors that account for successful participatory disaster risk management. To accomplish this, we have evaluated reconstruction projects in earthquake-affected rural Gujarat, India, where the government envisioned a people-centric reconstruction project, but provided no public participation framework or guidelines. As a result, several reconstruction models pursuing different levels and types of public participation ultimately emerged. We selected three dominant reconstruction approaches and examined the extent to which various processes and outcome-based factors were successful in promoting ideal levels of public participation during these reconstruction projects. This study is considered an example of pioneering research in defining factors that account for successful participatory disaster risk management.     

Modification to the crystal structure of chlorite during early stages of its dissolution

Early stage processes of Mg-rich chlorite (clinochlore) dissolution were examined, focusing especially on the structural modification at grain edges during dissolution. Focused ion beam transmission electron microscopy sample preparation was applied to crystals dissolved in a flow-through reaction system at pH 3.0 and 25°C for 31 days. The obtained Si and Mg dissolution rates are −11.49 and −11.14 (logR, mol/(m²/s)), respectively, implying dissolution is non-stoichiometric. TEM-EDX analyses of dissolved samples reveal the development of 20–50-nm thick amorphous zone at an outermost rim with a chemical gradient of Mg, lower towards the solid surface, and Si enrichment in this amorphous zone. Crystalline material is partially interwoven with amorphous one at the interface between the amorphous and crystalline regions. These results indicate that the amorphous zone was produced by selective leaching of cations except for Si. Chlorite dissolution may proceed via the formation and thickening of leached layer as a by-product of release to solution of Si at slightly slower rate than Mg.     

Exsolved garnet-bearing pyroxene megacrysts from some South African kimberlites

Clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene megacrysts containing garnet lamellae up to 1.2 mm thick as an exsolved phase are found rarely in kimberlites from Frank Smith and Bellsbank. Chemically the clinopyroxenes are characteristically subcalcic, being within the range of 100 Ca/Ca + Mg + Fe = 27 to 36, and the orthopyroxenes are characterized by high Al₂O₃ and Cr₂O₃. Immediately after crystallization during very slow cooling, clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene exsolve wide-spaced orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene phases parallel to (100) of the host phases, respectively, then both host and exsolved phases exsolve garnet lamellae. Topotactic relations between pyroxenes and garnet are determined by X-ray for the first time. Partitioning of major and minor elements among the coexisting clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and garnet in pyroxene megacrysts is the same as that of the granular-type garnet peridotite xenoliths in Lesotho and South African kimberlies. Mineralogy and chemistry indicate that subcalcic clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene megacrysts contain respectively about 10 and 3 mole % of the garnet molecule in solid solution.     

Seismic damage estimation for low- and mid-rise buildings in japan

While much effort has been spent on analysis of individual structures, building class seismic damage estimators, of value in disaster planning, code-writing, city planning, national hazards policy formulation, etc., have been little investigated. Based largely on data from Sendai City, Japan in the 12 June, 1978 Miyagiken-oki earthquake (M_L = 7.4), estimators of seismic damage for low- and mid-rise buildings in urban Japan have been determined. For low-rise buildings, based on damage to over 60,000 buildings, damage ratios for onset of damage and collapse and for cost of damage are found to correlate best with response spectra at 0.75 s. Using published test data and average building properties, a seismic damage model explains the low-rise building behaviour and permits examination of the effect of structural changes on the estimated damage. For mid-rise buildings, damage states (0: none, 4: total) are determined as a function of maximum storey displacement, based on published natural period determinations (pre- and post-earthquake) for 189 mid-rise buildings in Sendai. The effects of structural changes on expected damage can also be estimated. With these two building class damage estimators, a large part of future seismic damage to urban Japan can be estimated, as well as the effects of various mitigation measures.     

Hysteretic response of a nine-storey reinforced concrete building

The Millikan Library on the campus of the California Institute of Technology was strongly shaken during the San Fernando earthquake of 9 February 1971. The building was not damaged structurally, but the observed E-W response of the building showed a fundamental period of about 1.0 sec, significantly longer than the 0.66 sec observed in pre-earthquake vibration tests. In this study, the response of the fundamental mode was treated as that of a single-degree-of-freedom hysteretic structure, and four simple models, two stationary and two with changing properties, were examined to see if they could describe the observed response. It was found that an equivalent linear model and a bilinear hysteretic model both could match the response, provided their properties were changed during the earthquake. (Four changes were used.) A linear model with constant properties and a stationary, bilinear hysteretic model did not give nearly as good agreement as the non-stationary models. The results indicated, in general, a degrading of the stiffness and energy dissipation capacity of the building, with the suggestion that the changes were sudden rather than gradual.     

Polyphenols in the benzene-ethanol extractives of an organic soil

A variety of phenolic compounds has been isolated from a crude peat wax. The compounds have been analyzed by thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.