Factors Affecting Domestic Water Consumption on the Spanish Mediterranean Coastline

During the last decades on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline there has been a great development of low-density urban areas, as well as a change in the sociodemographic structures, especially in the municipalities that have developed a residential tourism model. Likewise, urban and tourist development have stressed the balance between the availability of water resources and urban water demands, generating situations of scarcity that might be aggravated by climate change. This study identifies the determinants of water consumption on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline, focusing on the variables related to urban land uses and socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables at the municipal level using an ordinary least square (OLS) and a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The GWR model results substantially improved the results of the OLS model, explaining 88.27 percent of the variance in domestic water consumption and solving the spatial autocorrelation problem of some independent variables. The most influential variables include the percentage of second homes or the percentage of residential properties with swimming pools at the municipal level. These characteristics must be considered to develop demand management policies and an updated hydrological planning to ensure urban supply in a future with less available water resources.     

A continuous deployment-based approach for the collaborative creation,maintenance, testing and deployment of CityGML models

Georeferenced 3D models are an increasingly common choice to store and display urban data in many application areas. CityGML is an open and standardized data model, and exchange format that provides common semantics for 3D city entities and their relations and one of the most common options for this kind of information. Currently, creating and maintaining CityGML models is costly and difficult. This is in part because both the creation of the geometries and the semantic annotation can be complex processes that require at least some manual work. In fact, many publicly available CityGML models have errors. This paper proposes a method to facilitate the regular maintenance of correct city models in CityGML. This method is based on the continuous deployment strategy and tools used in software development, but adapted to the problem of creating, maintaining and deploying CityGML models, even when several people are working on them at the same time. The method requires designing and implementing CityGML deployment pipelines. These pipelines are automatic implementations of the process of building, testing and deploying CityGML models. These pipelines must be run by the maintainers of the models when they make changes that are intended to be shared with others. The pipelines execute increasingly complex automatic tests in order to detect errors as soon as possible, and can even automate the deployment step, where the CityGML models are made available to their end users. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of this method, and as an example of its application, a CityGML deployment pipeline has been developed for an example scenario where three actors maintain the same city model. This scenario is representative of the kind of problems that this method intends to solve, and it is based on real work in progress. The main benefits of this method are the automation of model testing, every change to the model is tested in a repeatable way; the automation of the model deployment, every change to the model can reach its end users as fast as possible; the systematic approach to integrating changes made by different people working together on the models, including the possibility of keeping parallel versions with a common core; an automatic record of every change made to the models (who did what and when) and the possibility of undoing some of those changes at any time.     

Nonparametric bias-corrected variogram estimation under non-constant trend

In geostatistics, the approximation of the spatial dependence structure of a process, through the estimation of the variogram or the covariogram of the variable under consideration, is an important issue. In this work, under a general spatial model, including a mean or trend function, and without assuming any parametric model for this function and for the dependence structure of the process, a general nonparametric estimator of the variogram is proposed. The new approach consists in applying an iterative algorithm, using the residuals obtained from a nonparametric local linear estimation of the trend function, jointly with a correction of the bias due to the use of these residuals. A simulation study checks the validity of the presented approaches in practice. The broad applicability of the procedures is demonstrated on a real data set.     

Nonparametric geostatistical risk mapping

In this work, a fully nonparametric geostatistical approach to estimate threshold exceeding probabilities is proposed. To estimate the large-scale variability (spatial trend) of the process, the nonparametric local linear regression estimator, with the bandwidth selected by a method that takes the spatial dependence into account, is used. A bias-corrected nonparametric estimator of the variogram, obtained from the nonparametric residuals, is proposed to estimate the small-scale variability. Finally, a bootstrap algorithm is designed to estimate the unconditional probabilities of exceeding a threshold value at any location. The behavior of this approach is evaluated through simulation and with an application to a real data set.     

A detailed paleomagnetic and rock-magnetic investigation around Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary: the Autlan (Western Mexico) volcanic sequence revisited

We present a detailed rock-magnetic and paleomagnetic survey from Autlan volcanic succession in western Mexico. The principal aim of this study is to extend paleomagnetic data from Autlan lavas in order to confirm vertical-axis rotation observed in reconnaissance study and to evaluate long-term variation of the geomagnetic field strength based on existing and global data. The mean inclination (44.7°) is in agreement with the expected inclination for 60 and 70 Ma, as derived from available reference poles for the North American craton. The declination (333.6°), however, is significantly different from those expected, which suggests a statistically significant counterclockwise tectonic rotation ranging between 10° ± 6° and 14° ± 7°. As a measure of paleosecular variation (PSV), we obtained a geomagnetic field dispersion of 9.6° (upper and lower limits: 7.2°–11.9°) in perfect agreement with the previously published PSV compilation of selected Cretaceous data from lavas. The mean virtual dipole moments available for Autlan lavas are about 65% of the present geomagnetic axial dipole but are in reasonably good agreement with other comparable quality determinations between 5 and 90 Ma. This reinforces the hypothesis that low geomagnetic field strengths persisted for the entire Jurassic extending into the Upper Cretaceous.     

Reconstruction of the prograde PT history of high-P migmatitic paragneisses via melt-reintegration approach and thermodynamic modelling (Allochthonous Complexes,NW Iberian Massif)

The Upper Units of the allochthonous complexes of the NW Iberian Massif constitute a terrane with continental affinity. They represent the vestiges of a Cambrian magmatic arc developed in the periphery of Gondwana (West African Craton) which was involved in the Devonian Variscan collision, undergoing high-P, high-T metamorphism. This includes ultramafic rocks, high-P mafic rocks (eclogites and granulites) and high-P migmatitic paragneisses. The latter rocks show an extensive migmatization with the leucosomes oriented parallel to the regional foliation. The migmatitic paragneisses are composed of garnet, kyanite, biotite, quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar, rutile and Ti-hematite. Thermodynamic modelling using the measured bulk composition in the NCKFMASTHO system indicates metamorphic peak conditions of ~15 kbar and ~800 to 835°C, followed by a significant cooling. The prograde evolution is assessed by means of a melt-reintegration approach, using the composition of the garnet and its inclusions. An appropriate composition of liquid is added to the measured bulk composition to emulate the pre-melting bulk composition. Modelling of this melt-reintegrated composition allows to identify a colder high-P episode below ~500°C. Zircon crystals extracted from the leucosomes show overgrowths crystallized from the partial melt at c. 389 Ma (U–Pb system). The P–T–t path proposed reveals a subduction of the peri-Gondwanan arc-derived section down to mantle depths. An isobaric heating stage occurred as a result of residence at great depths and/or inception of a transient oceanic basin at c. 395 Ma. The ensuing near-isothermal exhumation occurred due to the extension related to the inception of the basin, reaching the thermal peak shortly before c. 389 Ma. Subsequent cooling is related to the underthrusting of colder oceanic and transitional crust below the HP-HT Upper Units.     

Long-term dynamic bearing capacity of shallow foundations on a contractive cohesive soil

The calculation of the long-term dynamic bearing capacity arises from the need to consider the generation of maximum pore-water pressure developed from a cyclic load. Under suitable conditions, a long-term equilibrium situation would be reached, when pore-water pressures stabilized. However, excess pore-water pressure generation can lead to cyclic softening. Consequently, it is necessary to define both the cohesion and the internal friction angle to calculate the dynamic bearing capacity of a foundation in the long term, being necessary to incorporate the influence of the self-weight of soil and therefore the width of the foundation. The present work is based on an analysis of the results of cyclic simple shear tests on soil samples from the port of El Prat in Barcelona. From these experimental data, a pore-water pressure generation formulation was obtained that was implemented in FLAC2D finite difference software. A methodology was developed for the calculation of the maximum cyclic load that a footing can resist before the occurrence of the cyclic softening. The type of soil studied is a contractive cohesive soil, which generates positive pore-water pressures. As a numerical result, design charts have been developed for long-term dynamic bearing capacity calculation and the charts were validated with the application of a real case study.

     

Moisture expansion associated to secondary porosity: an example of the Loseros Tuff of Guanajuato, Mexico

The old mining city of Guanajuato in middle Mexico preserves one of the most important historical legacies in colonial buildings, the UNESCO declared the city World Heritage Site in 1988. Practically all the colonial constructions were built with natural stones from the neighbourhood, of which stands a greenish to reddish vulcanite, called Loseros Tuff. Although the Loseros Tuff is widely used in historical buildings in the city. It shows significant deterioration and weathering effects, principally in the parts where the tuff shows a coarse grain size. The petrographic, petrophysical, mineralogical and geochemical properties of the Loseros Tuff were analysed in order to determine the causes, effects, behaviour and response to deterioration of this volcanic rock. The results of the investigations suggest that in addition to the parameters like the grain size and the porosity properties, the pore radii distribution is decisive for the effectiveness of porosity and the water transport into the rock. It is recognized that once the liquid water invades the rock the dissolution of the matrix occurs, which is accompanied by a sudden moisture expansion favoured by the newly formed secondary porosity and the high content of expandable clay minerals.     

Thermal expansion on volcanic tuff rocks used as building stones: examples from Mexico

Three cities in the center of Mexico, declared as cultural heritage, were erected mainly of volcanic tuffs as main construction element. Many of the historic buildings of these cities show significant damage and deterioration. One of the causes of these damages can be attributed to a phenomenon poorly studied in volcanic tuffs, the thermal expansion. To understand the response of volcanic tuffs to thermal expansion, as well as to know their thermal expansion coefficient, thermal expansion test was performed on 12 representative tuffs of these localities. In the same way and to know which of their petrographic, petrophysical, mineralogical, and geochemical properties influence this phenomenon, several laboratory studies were carried out to determine which of these plays an important role in the expansion. The results of our tests showed that volcanic tuffs rocks have very varied thermal expansion values, ranging from 0.7 mm/m at their maximum expansion to even contraction in the order of ??0.5 mm/m. Equally varied were the thermal expansion coefficient values ranging from 10.1 to ??7.2 10^?6/K. The most dominant behavior type is the “anisotropic no residual strain behavior”. In general, the behavior of the tuffs in practically all the tests carried out showed a very important heterogeneity in the rocks; however, in spite of the non-homogeneous behavior of the tuffs, three main factors could be identified that play an important role in the thermal expansion of the studied rocks, the chemical composition, e.g., acid volcanic tuff rocks (rhyolitic composition) had greater expansions, while the more basic rocks (basaltic composition) expanded less, the textural and fabrics homogeneity, e.g., the most homogeneous rocks texturally have higher expansion values and the degree of crystallinity, and, e.g., the tuff rocks with the largest amount of glass showed smaller thermal expansions than the tuffs composed of microcrystals.