Numerical modeling of long waves in shallow water using Incremental Differential Quadrature Method

Incremental Differential Quadrature Method (IDQM) as a rapid and accurate method for numerical simulation of Nonlinear Shallow Water (NLSW) waves is employed. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first endeavor to exploit DQM in coastal hydraulics. The one-dimensional NLSW equations and related boundary conditions are discretized in space and temporal directions by DQM rules and the resulting system of equations are used to compute the state variables in the entire computational domain. It was found that the splitting of total simulation time into a number of smaller time increments, could significantly enhance the performance of the proposed method. Furthermore, results of this study show two main advantages for IDQM compared with other conventional methods, namely; unconditional stability and minimal computational effort. Indeed, using IDQM, one can use a few grid points (in spatial or time direction) without imposing any stability condition on the time step to obtain an accurate convergent solution.     

Investigation of Cycle Time Segments of Dragline Operation in Surface Coal Mine: A Statistical Approach

Dragline is highly capital intensive equipment to procure, operate and maintain in any surface mining operation. Given this, every second of operation of this capital intensive equipment is absolutely important. Improvement of even a single second in the total cycle time has a tremendous bearing on the overall performance of this equipment. In this light, the present paper is an endeavour to critically analyze the cycle time of dragline operations in a major surface coal mine in India. Rigorous statistical analysis has been performed on individual cycle time segments, of complete dragline cycle. The segmental cycle times have been found to be statistically significant and appear to be best represented by lognormal, normal and beta distributions. Furthermore, the mean time of the statistical distribution for segmental cycle time of dragline has revealed the dependence of cycle time on cut geometry and depth. Results have been illustrated in the form of figures, graphs and tables.     

Groundwater resources evaluation in calcareous limestone using geoelectrical and VLF-EM surveys (El Salloum Basin,Egypt)

Understanding and developing groundwater resources in arid regions such as El Salloum basin, along the northwestern coast of Egypt, remains a challenging issue. One-dimensional (1D) electrical sounding (ES), two-dimensional (2D) electrical resistivity imaging (ERI), and very low frequency electromagnetic (VLF-EM) measurements were used to investigate the hydrogeological framework of El Salloum basin with the aim of determining the potential for extraction of potable water. 1D resistivity sounding models were used to delineate geoelectric sections and water-bearing layers. 2D ERI highlighted decreases in resistivity with depth, attributed to clay-rich limestone combined with seawater intrusion towards the coast. A depth of investigation (DOI) index was used to constrain the information content of the images at depths up to 100 m. The VLF-EM survey identified likely faults/fractured zones across the study area. A combined analysis of the datasets of the 1D ES, 2D ERI, and VLF-EM methods identified potential zones of groundwater, the extent of seawater intrusion, and major hydrogeological structures (fracture zones) in El Salloum basin. The equivalent geologic layers suggest that the main aquifer in the basin is the fractured chalky limestone middle Miocene) south of the coastal plain of the study area. Sites likely to provide significant volumes of potable water were identified based on relatively high resistivity and thickness of laterally extensive layers. The most promising locations for drilling productive wells are in the south and southeastern parts of the region, where the potential for potable groundwater increases substantially.

     

Assessing LNRF,FR, and AHP models in landslide susceptibility mapping index: a comparative study of Nojian watershed in Lorestan province,Iran

Landslides and slope instabilities are major risks for human activities which often lead to economic losses and human fatalities all over the world. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the results of Landslide Nominal Risk Factor (LNRF), Frequency Ratio (FR), and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) models in mapping Landslide Susceptibility Index (LSI). The study case, Nojian watershed with an area of 344.91 km², is located in Lorestan province of Iran. The procedure was as follows: first, the effective factors of the landslide basin were prepared for each layer in the GIS software. Then, the layers and the landslides of the basin were also prepared using aerial photographs, satellite images, and fieldwork. Next, the effective factors of the layers were overlapped with the map of landslide distribution to specify the role of units in such distribution. Finally, nine factors including lithology, slope, aspect, altitude, distance from the fault, distance from river, fault land use, rainfall, and altitude were found to be effective elements in landslide occurrence of the basin. The final maps of LSI were prepared based on seven factors using LNRF, FR, and AHP models in GIS. The index of the quality sum (Qs) was also used to assess the accuracy of the LSI maps. The results of the three models with LNRF (40%), FR (39%), and AHP (44%) indicated that the whole study area was located in the classes of high to very high hazard. The Qs values for the three models above were also found to be 0.51, 0.70 and 0.70, respectively. In comparison, according to the amount of Qs, the results of AHP and FR models have slightly better performed than the LNRF model in determining the LSI maps in the study area. Finally, the study watershed was classified into five classes based on LSI as very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. The landslide susceptibility maps can be helpful to select sites and mitigate landslide hazards in the study area and the regions with similar conditions.     

Diurnal timing of warmer air under climate change affects magnitude,timing and duration of stream temperature change

Stream temperature will be subject to changes because of atmospheric warming in the future. We investigated the effects of the diurnal timing of air temperature changes – daytime warming versus nighttime warming – on stream temperature. Using the physically based model, Heat Source, we performed a sensitivity analysis of summer stream temperatures to three diurnal air temperature distributions of +4 °C mean air temperature: i) uniform increase over the whole day, ii) warmer daytime and iii) warmer nighttime. The stream temperature model was applied to a 37‐km section of the Middle Fork John Day River in northeastern Oregon, USA. The three diurnal air temperature distributions generated 7‐day average daily maximum stream temperatures increases of approximately +1.8 °C ± 0.1 °C at the downstream end of the study section. The three air temperature distributions, with the same daily mean, generated different ranges of stream temperatures, different 7‐day average daily maximum temperatures, different durations of stream temperature changes and different average daily temperatures in most parts of the reach. The stream temperature changes were out of phase with air temperature changes, and therefore in many places, the greatest daytime increase in stream temperature was caused by nighttime warming of air temperatures. Stream temperature changes tended to be more extreme and of longer duration when driven by air temperatures concentrated in either daytime or nighttime instead of uniformly distributed across the diurnal cycle. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does salinity change determine zooplankton variability in the saline Qarun Lake(Egypt)?

Zooplankton and 14 abiotic variables were studied during August 2011 at 10 stations in Lake Qarun,Egypt.Stations with the lowest salinity and highest nutrient concentrations and turbidity were close to the discharge of waters from the El-Bats and El-Wadi drainage systems.A total of 15 holozooplankton species were identified.The salinity in Lake Qarun increased and fluctuated since 1901:12 g/L in 1901;8.5 g/L in 1905;12.0 g/L in 1922;30.0 g/L in 1985;38.7 g/L in 1994;35.3 g/L in 2006,and 33.4 g/L in 2011.The mean concentration of nutrients(nitrate,nitrite and orthophosphate) gradually increased from 35,0.16 and 0.38 ? g/L,respectively,in 1953–1955 to 113,16.4,and 30.26 ? g/L in 2011.From 1999–2003 some decrease of species diversity occurred.Average total zooplankton density was 30 000 ind./m 3 in 1974–1977;356 125 ind./m 3 in 1989;534 000 ind./m 3 in 1994–1995;from 965 000 to 1 452 000 ind./m 3 in 2006,and 595 000 ind./m 3 in 2011.A range of long-term summer salinity variability during the last decades was very similar to a range of salinity spatial variability in summer 2011.There is no significant correlation between zooplankton abundance and salinity in spatial and long-term changes.We conclude that salinity fluctuations since at least 1955 did not directly drive the changes of composition and abundance of zooplankton in the lake.A marine community had formed in the lake,and it continues to change.One of the main drivers of this change is a regular introduction and a pressure of alien species on the existent community.Eutrophication also plays an important role.The introduction of Mnemiopsis leidyi,first reported in 2014,may lead to a start of a new stage of the biotic changes in Lake Qarun,when eutrophication and the population dynamics of this ctenophore will be main drivers of the ecosystem change.     

The effect of non-uniform magnetic field on the slow mode oscillations

In this paper, the slow MHD mode oscillations of the coronal plasma are studied. The aim is to identify the effect of structuring (such as magnetic field, temperature, density, and pressure) on the frequencies of oscillations. We modelled the coronal medium as a low-β plasma with longitudinally density and pressure stratifications and a weakly inhomogeneous magnetic field varied slowly with height and radial directions. The linearized ideal MHD equations reduced to a single Klein–Gordon differential equation for square of oscillatory frequencies. The eigenfunctions and analytical dispersion relations are derived. The dispersion relations were solved numerically. In the case of uniform magnetic field, the previous studies verified. Our numerical results show that, the frequencies and their ratios are very sensitive functions of pressure scale height, and slightly varying functions of inhomogeneity parameter of magnetic field. By changing the magnetic field strength between the apex and footpoints of the loop about 50%, the frequencies ratio are changed about 5%. We concluded that, the pressure scale height and temperature gradient are first order effects and inhomogeneity of magnetic field is a second order effect on the slow mode oscillations.     

Long-term Changes in the Saline Lake Qarun(Egypt)

正1 Introduction There is now ample evidence of the impacts of the recent climate change and anthropogenic activities on different saline lake ecosystems.All over the world salt lakes are threatened by climate change,water diversions upstream for agricultural purposes,watershed changes,introduction of aliens,etc.that result in catastrophic     

A novel hybrid approach of Bayesian Logistic Regression and its ensembles for landslide susceptibility assessment

Abstract

A novel artificial intelligence approach of Bayesian Logistic Regression (BLR) and its ensembles [Random Subspace (RS), Adaboost (AB), Multiboost (MB) and Bagging] was introduced for landslide susceptibility mapping in a part of Kamyaran city in Kurdistan Province, Iran. A spatial database was generated which includes a total of 60 landslide locations and a set of conditioning factors tested by the Information Gain Ratio technique. Performance of these models was evaluated using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) and statistical index-based methods. Results showed that the hybrid ensemble models could significantly improve the performance of the base classifier of BLR (AUROC?=?0.930). However, RS model (AUROC?=?0.975) had the highest performance in comparison to other landslide ensemble models, followed by Bagging (AUROC?=?0.972), MB (AUROC?=?0.970) and AB (AUROC?=?0.957) models, respectively.