A reappraisal of the seismicity of the Maghreb countries — Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia

This paper reappraises the seismicity of Algeria and adjacent regions. It presents a general view of the geographical structure, the historical development of the seismological station network, some aspects of the effects of past destructive earthquakes, the state of knowledge of the seismicity and the seismic hazard and risk in the region under survey. Magnitude-frequency relationships for different parts of the region studied are presented as well as magnitude-intensity and intensity-attenuation relationships, semi-empirical formula. It also discusses the macroseismic information, the instrumental data and the social and economic implications of earthquakes in the Maghreb region.     

Diagnosis, seismic analysis and reinforcement of an old building in El-Maleh, Algeria

The Northern part of Algeria is considered to be the most active seismogenic area in the Western Mediterranean region. This area has a rich history of seismicity and had experienced many destructive earthquakes such as the Chlef (1954), El-Asnam (1980), Beni-Chograne (1994), An-Temouchent (1999) and recently Boumerdes (2003) earthquakes. The earthquake of An-Temouchent on December 22, 1999, was of magnitude 5.7, killed at least 28 people and made thousands of families homeless. Consequent damage was seen in all the structures located in a radius of 30 km. In the city of El-Maleh, located 12 km northeast of An-Temouchent, the "The National Bank Branch" of El-Maleh suffered moderate damage, but enough to justify questions about its safety. The project of rehabilitating this building required a broad analysis of its static and dynamic, past and present behaviors. The study reported in this paper was a necessary preliminary step toward the development of an optimal retrofit solution.     

Spatial-temporal evaluation of different reference evapotranspiration methods based on the climate forecast system reanalysis data

Evapotranspiration is a major component of the interaction between land-surface processes and the atmosphere. Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data offer a promising database for overcoming the limitations in availability and reliability of climatological data and, hence, for understanding the evapotranspiration process. Using these data on grid-by-grid daily, seasonal and yearly scales, the present study attempts to advance the spatio-temporal evaluation of two radiation-based and three temperature-based methods for estimating potential evapotranspiration (PET) against estimates of grass reference evapotranspiration (ETo) by FAO Penman–Monteith method (FAO-PM). The analysis was performed for the period 1979–2013, considering the second largest (79 000 km²) river system in Ethiopia, that is, Omo-Gibe basin, which accommodates national parks and vast hydropower, cultivation and afforestation developments and discharges its flow to Lake Turkana in Kenya. Despite the large regional variations in climate and elevation, the results in overall emphasize the outperformance of the simple temperature method, viz. Hargreaves–Samani method, in capturing both the annual and seasonal FAO-PM estimates. Calibration of the Hargreaves–Samani equation is, however, a requisite for spectacular improvement of its performance. Accordingly, new coefficients of the equation are proposed. The annual trends in the basin's ETo increased with rising temperature and decreasing relative humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation, but with decreasing (increasing) rainfall in the upper region (the middle and lower regions). It is deduced that trends in simple methods do not necessarily reflect the true trends in ETo. Annual ETo decreases with increasing elevation and annual rainfall. The present findings are discussed in the context of a worldwide literature, thereby improving the understanding of the best performing PET methods in similar data-scarce national or transboundary rivers basin in Ethiopia, the region or worldwide. The wider implications regarding water loss from reservoirs and the rain-fed food and sugar production in the basin under study are also highlighted.     

Exploring socio-hydrological determinants of crop yield in under-performing irrigation schemes: pathways for sustainable intensification

ABSTRACT

Understanding the human–water–food–climate nexus is central to achieving sustainable intensification (SI) in agriculture. This research uses a socio-hydrological approach to understand the underpinning for implementing SI in the Gezira Irrigation Scheme, Sudan, by integrating vegetation indices derived from remote sensing, ancillary, gridded soil and precipitation data, supplemented by interviews with 393 farmers. The productivity gap was estimated as the difference between the potential and actual productivities. Based upon data on farmers’ socio-economic status and field practices, a regression tree model was built to determine the factors that control the sorghum yield. The model revealed that the financial status of farmers and access to water are the most influential factors on sorghum yield. A conceptual framework that elucidates SI and its bi-directional feedback to the environment, society and the economy is proposed. Implementing SI in the scheme has implications on water and food security in Sudan and beyond its borders.