Hurricane Irma caused widespread evacuation activity across Florida and some of its neighboring states in September of 2017. The researchers gathered estimated travel times from the Google Distance Matrix API over about a month to identify and analyze evacuation periods on roads in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina during this time. Travel time data were mathematically adjusted to show more realistic estimations. Both sets of travel times were then graphed, with the assumption that elevated travel times prior to and during hurricane landfall were indicative of evacuation activity. The study generally corroborated the well-established daytime evacuation preference. However, not all evacuation periods followed the daytime travel preference, and at least one nighttime evacuation may have been caused by flooding. In another case, later elevated travel coincided with significant power loss. Finally, the Florida data suggest that most of the evacuation traffic departed before local jurisdictions’ recommended evacuation start times.
This is the first part of a study on the seismic response of the L’Aquila city using 2D simulation and experimental data.
We have studied two velocity-depth models with the aim of outlining the behavior of a velocity reversal in the top layer,
which is associated with the stiff Brecce de L’Aquila unit (BrA). In this setting, the SMTH model is topped by a layer with
about 2:1 impedance contrast with the underlying layer while the NORV model has no velocity reversal. We have simulated the
propagation of SH and P-SV wavefields in the range 0–10 Hz for incidence 0°–90°. Earthquake spectral ratios of the horizontal
and vertical components at six sites in L’Aquila downtown are compared to corresponding synthetics spectral ratios. The vertical
component of P-SV synthetics enables us to investigate a remarkable amplification effect seen in the vertical component of
the recorded strong motion. Sites AQ04 and AQ05 are best matched by synthetics from the NORV model while FAQ5 and AQ06 have
a better match with synthetics spectral ratios from the SMTH model. All simulations show this behavior systematically, with
horizontal and near-horizontal incident waves predicting the overall pattern of matches more clearly than vertical and near-vertical
incidence. The model inferences are in agreement with new geological data reporting lateral passages in the top layer from
the stiff BrA to softer sediments. Matches are good in terms of frequency of the first amplification peak and of spectral
amplitude: the horizontal components have spectral ratio peaks predominantly at 0.5 Hz in the simulations and at 0.7 Hz in
the data, both with amplitudes of 4, while the vertical component spectral ratios reach values of 6 at frequencies of about
1 Hz in both data and simulations. The vertical component spectral ratios are very well matched using Rayleigh waves with
incidence at 90°. The NORV model without the velocity reversal predicts spectral ratio peaks for the horizontal components
at frequencies up to 6 Hz. The reversal of velocity acts as a low-pass frequency filter on the horizontal components reducing
the amplification effect of the sediment filled valley. 相似文献
One effect of climate change may be increased hurricane frequency or intensity due to changes in atmospheric and geoclimatic
factors. It has been hypothesized that wetland restoration and infrastructure hardening measures may improve infrastructure
resilience to increased hurricane frequency and intensity. This paper describes a parametric decision model used to assess
the tradeoffs between wetland restoration and infrastructure hardening for electric power networks. We employ a hybrid economic
input–output life-cycle analysis (EIO-LCA) model to capture: construction costs and life-cycle emissions for transitioning
from the current electric power network configuration to a hardened network configuration; construction costs and life-cycle
emissions associated with wetland restoration; and the intrinsic value of wetland restoration. Uncertainty is accounted for
probabilistically through a Monte Carlo hurricane simulation model and parametric sensitivity analysis for the number of hurricanes
expected to impact the project area during the project cycle and the rate of wetland storm surge attenuation. Our analysis
robustly indicates that wetland restoration and undergrounding of electric power network infrastructure is not preferred to
the “do-nothing” option of keeping all power lines overhead without wetland protection. However, we suggest a few items for
future investigation. For example, our results suggest that, for the small case study developed, synergistic benefits of simultaneously
hardening infrastructure and restoring wetlands may be limited, although research using a larger test bed while integrating
additional costs may find an enhanced value of wetland restoration for disaster loss mitigation. 相似文献
Dense understory thickets of the native evergreen shrub Rhododendron maximum expanded initially following elimination of American chestnut by the chestnut blight, and later in response to loss of the eastern hemlock due to hemlock woolly adelgid invasion. Rhododendron thickets often blanket streams and their riparian zones, creating cool, low-light microclimates. To determine the effect of such understory thickets on summer stream temperatures, we removed riparian rhododendron understory on 300 m reaches of two southern Appalachian Mountain headwater streams, while leaving two 300 m reference reaches undisturbed. Overhead canopy was left intact in all four streams, but all streams were selected to have a significant component of dead or dying eastern hemlock in the overstory, creating time-varying canopy gaps throughout the reach. We continuously monitored temperatures upstream, within and downstream of treatment and reference reaches. Temperatures were monitored in all four streams in the summer before treatments were imposed (2014), and for two summers following treatment (2015, 2016). Temperatures varied significantly across and within streams prior to treatment and across years for the reference streams. After rhododendron removal, increases in summer stream temperatures were observed at some locations within the treatment reaches, but these increases did not persist downstream and varied by watershed, sensor, and year. Significant increases in daily maxima in treatment reaches ranged from 0.9 to 2.6°C. Overhead canopy provided enough shade to prevent rhododendron removal from increasing summer temperatures to levels deleterious to native cold-water fauna (average summer temperatures remained below 16°C), and local temperature effects were not persistent. 相似文献
Characterising youthful strike-slip fault systems within transtensional regimes is often complicated by the presence of tectonic geomorphic features produced by normal faulting associated with oblique extension. The Petersen Mountain fault in the northern Walker Lane tectonic province exhibits evidence of both normal and strike-slip faulting. We present the results of geologic and geomorphic mapping, and palaeoseismic trenching that characterise the fault's style and sense of deformation. The fault consists of two major traces. The western trace displaces colluvial, landslide, and middle to late Pleistocene alluvial fans and is associated with aligned range front saddles, linear drainages, and oversteepened range front slopes. The eastern trace is associated with a low linear bedrock ridge, a narrow graben, right deflected stream channels, and scarps in late Pleistocene alluvial fan deposits. A trench on the eastern trace of the fault exposed a clear juxtaposition of disintegrated granodiorite bedrock against sand and boulder alluvial fan deposits across a steeply east-dipping fault. The stratigraphic evidence supports the occurrence of at least one late Pleistocene earthquake with a component of lateral displacement. As such, the Petersen Mountain fault accommodates part of the ~7 mm/yr of dextral shear distributed across the northern Walker Lane. 相似文献
Stream water temperature plays a significant role in aquatic ecosystems where it controls many important biological and physical processes. Reliable estimates of water temperature at the daily time step are critical in managing water resources. We developed a parsimonious piecewise Bayesian model for estimating daily stream water temperatures that account for temporal autocorrelation and both linear and nonlinear relationships with air temperature and discharge. The model was tested at 8 climatically different basins of the USA and at 34 sites within the mountainous Boise River Basin (Idaho, USA). The results show that the proposed model is robust with an average root mean square error of 1.25 °C and Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.92 over a 2‐year period. Our approach can be used to predict historic daily stream water temperatures in any location using observed daily stream temperature and regional air temperature data. 相似文献
The Matt Wilson structure is a circular 5.5 km-diameter structure in Early Mesoproterozoic or Neoproterozoic rocks of the Victoria Basin, Northern Territory. It lies in regionally horizontal to gently dipping Wondoan Hill and Stubb Formations (Tijunna Group) and Jasper Gorge Sandstone (Auvergne Group). An outer circumferential syncline with dips of 5?–?40° in the limbs surrounds an intermediate zone with faulted sandstone displaying horizontal to low dips, and a central steeply dipping zone about 1.5 km across. Several thrust faults in the outer syncline appear to indicate outward-directed forces. The central zone, marked by steeply dipping to overturned Tijunna Group and possibly Bullita Group sandstone and mudstone, indicates uplift of at least 300 m. The rocks are intensely fractured with some brecciation, and contain numerous planar to subtly undulating surfaces displaying striae which resemble shatter cleavage. Thin-sections of sandstone from the central area show zones of intense microbrecciation and irregular and planar fractures in quartz, but no melt-rocks have been identified. The planar fractures occur in multiple intersecting parallel sets typical of relatively low-level (5?–?10 GPa) shock-pressure effects. Alternative mechanisms, i.e. igneous intrusion, carbonate collapse, diapirism and regional deformation processes, have been discounted. The circular nature, central uplift, faulting, shatter features and planar fractures are all consistent with an impact origin. The Matt Wilson structure is most likely a deeply eroded impact structure in which the more highly shocked rocks of the original crater floor have been removed by erosion. Estimates of the age of the Auvergne and Tijunna Groups range from Early Mesoproterozoic (which we favour) to Late Neoproterozoic. Early Cambrian Antrim Plateau Volcanics near the impact structure show no signs of impact effects, allowing the age of impact to be constrained between Early Mesoproterozoic and Early Cambrian. The presence of widespread soft-sediment deformation features, apparently confined to a single horizon in the Saddle Creek Formation some 700?–?1000 m stratigraphically higher in the Auvergne Group than the rocks at the impact site, and apparently increasing in thickness towards the Matt Wilson structure, lead us to speculate that this probable event horizon is related to the impact event: if correct the impact occurred during deposition of the Saddle Creek Formation. 相似文献