Climatology of landfalling tropical cyclones in Bangladesh 1877–2003

Bangladesh is highly susceptible to tropical cyclones. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of climatological studies on the tropical cyclones of Bangladesh. The Global Tropical Cyclone Climatic Atlas (GTCCA) lists historical storm track information for all the seven tropical cyclone ocean basins including the North Indian Ocean. Using GIS, tropical cyclones that made landfall in Bangladesh during 1877–2003 are identified and examined from the climatological perspective. For the convenience of study, the coast of Bangladesh is divided into five segments and comparisons are made among the coastal segments in terms of cyclone landfall and vulnerability. There is a large variability in the year-to-year occurrence of landfalling tropical cyclones in Bangladesh. Most of the tropical cyclones (70%) hit in the months of May–June and October–November generally show the well-known pattern of pre- and post-monsoon cyclone seasons in that region.     

Estimation of the compound hazard severity of tropical cyclones over coastal China during 1949–2011 with copula function

The site effect plays very important role for planning design of structures and estimating seismic damage of existing structures, especially in seismicity active regions. Alia?a, located in the northern region of the ?zmir City, is high seismically active region in western Turkey. We identified the dynamic properties of shallow soil for Alia?a district (western Turkey) in terms of the average shear-wave velocity for the top 30 m of soil (Vs₃₀), predominant period (T ₀) and vulnerability index (Kg). We created the microzonation map that classes the shallow soil according to National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). Shear-wave velocity (Vs) was evaluated using the 1-D multichannel analysis of surface waves at 34 sites. The microtremor measurements were taken at 58 stations with a grid spacing of 1000 m in Alia?a district. The acquired HVSR results show that the T ₀ values change from 0.1 to 1.9 s, while the amplification factor (A ₀) values change between 1.5 and 12. Soil classification results illustrate that northern part of the study area, located in alluvial unit, has lower Vs₃₀ values. These values are observed within the range of 100–300 m/s. This part was classified as the D and E types according to NEHRP. In addition, the weak zones of the study area due to the local site effects were indicated by the Kg values which vary from 5 to 55. The northern part of the study area is high vulnerability index zone (Kg > 20). Last of all, we can mention that the northern part of our study area is the weakest zone according to the results of geophysical and geological data.     

Spatial and temporal variation of precipitation during 1960–2015 in Northwestern China

Natural Hazards - Under the global climate change, research on the response characteristic of precipitation to climate change and its variation trend is of great significance. By employing the...     

Spatiotemporal distribution of flood disasters in Asia and influencing factors in 1980–2019

Natural Hazards - Floods are common natural disasters in Asia. Flood datasets from 48 countries in Asia were collected to investigate the spatiotemporal distribution and influencing factors, using...     

Spatiotemporal characteristics of TOMS-based dust aerosol optical depth in northern China during 1978–2005

Using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) earth satellites, the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) as indicated by AOD Index (AI) for the period 1978–2005 is analyzed for northern China. The spatial distribution of annual mean AI has the largest values in the desert regions of northwestern China, such as southern Xinjiang Taklimakan Basin, western Gansu and Qinghai’s Qaidam Basin. Large values are found in western Inner Mongolia, the Jogger Basin, and north of the Loess Plateau, as well as in the North China and Northeast China Plains. In Northern China, the AI of spring and summer is larger than in other seasons. The large AI values in spring register the most extensive coverage, but the AI values in regions affected by the Asian monsoon experience a significant decrease during the summer season. The lowest AI values generally occur in autumn in North and Northeast China, but they appear in winter in the northwestern arid region. Overall, the analysis results using TOMS AI data well reflect the spatiotemporal characteristics of dust aerosol as reported previously based on the dust weather observation data, with greater consistency seen in northwestern arid and semi-arid regions. It is also realized that the TOMS AI data are potentially useful for estimating atmospheric mineral aerosol deposition flux in northern China in order to better understand the formation and evolution of China loess in the Quaternary.     

Prediction of severe tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal during 2007–2010 using high-resolution mesoscale model

In this paper, the performance of a high-resolution mesoscale model for the prediction of severe tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal during 2007?C2010 (Sidr, Nargis, Aila, and Laila) is discussed. The advanced Weather Research Forecast (WRF) modeling system (ARW core) is used with a combination of Yonsei University PBL schemes, Kain-Fritsch cumulus parameterization, and Ferrier cloud microphysics schemes for the simulations. The initial and boundary conditions for the simulations are derived from global operational analysis and forecast products of the National Center for Environmental Prediction-Global Forecast System (NCEP-GFS) available at 1°lon/lat resolution. The simulation results of the extreme weather parameters such as heavy rainfall, strong wind and track of those four severe cyclones, are critically evaluated and discussed by comparing with the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimated values. The simulations of the cyclones reveal that the cyclone track, intensity, and time of landfall are reasonably well simulated by the model. The mean track error at the time of landfall of the cyclone is 98?km, in which the minimum error was found to be for the cyclone Nargis (22?km) and maximum error for the cyclone Laila (304?km). The landfall time of all the cyclones is also fairly simulated by the model. The distribution and intensity of rainfall are well simulated by the model as well and were comparable with the TRMM estimates.     

Spatial and temporal distributions of mercury species and controlling factors in Hongfeng Reservoir, Guizhou, China

The Hongfeng Reservoir was built in 1960 and is an alkaline, hyper-eutrophic and seasonal anoxic reservoir due to the contamination from domestic and industrial wastewaters. The water samples at deferent depths from two sampling sites were collected from November 2003 to September 2004 using metal clean protocols. Total Hg （THg）, reactive Hg （RHg）, dissolved total Hg （DHg）, dissolved gaseous mercury （DGM） were measured by gold trap pre-concentration and CVAFS detection. Methyl mercury was measured by distillation followed by aqueous phase ethylation, precollection on a Tenax, isothermal gas chromatography and cold vapor atomic fluorescence detection. There was no discernible seasonal trend （about 8 ng/L） in THg concentration based on the average information developed during the four cruises except for high concentrations at bottom and water-sediment interface in May and September 2004. On the other hand, particulate mercury （PHg） and methyl mercury have discernible seasonal variability. Proportion of PHg increased from 29% in February 2004 to 50% in May 2004. In November 2003, February and May 2004 methyl mercury concentrations were relative low and increased with depth （from 0.13 to 0.40 ng/L）. In September 2004, methyl mercury concentrations increased from 0.14 ng/L in the epilimnion to 0.99 ng/L in the hypolimnion. DGM concentrations varied from 0.024 to 0.11 ng/L and decreased with depth.     

Meteorological disaster frequency at prefecture-level city scale and induced losses in mainland China during 2011–2019

Natural Hazards - Meteorological disasters (MDs), including drought, flood, hail, low temperature and frost (LTF), are causing severe damage to human life and economic development in China. Mapping...     

Characteristics of the changes in tropical cyclones influencing the South Korean region over the recent 10 years (2001–2010)

Through the investigation of tropical cyclone (TC) characteristics related to climate change, this study found that the frequency of TCs occurring over the Western North Pacific has recently decreased slightly, while their average intensity has increased. The number of overall TCs that passed within the vicinity of South Korea has also been reduced, but the number of strong typhoons in the area, those with maximum wind speeds of more than 44 m/s, has significantly increased. These changes are closely related to the following phenomena. (1) The average genesis region of TCs that influence South Korea has moved eastward. Accordingly, the TCs tend to strengthen as they move westward for long distances along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) trade easterlies and the southern boundary of the North Pacific Subtropical High (NPSH). (2) The NPSH and Asia Monsoon trough, which are known to affect TC tracks, have extended to the northwest and southeast. This has caused TCs that travel to higher latitudes and curve back toward the Korean Peninsula to become more frequent. (3) TCs have approached the Korean Peninsula without hitting land. In addition, the sea surface temperature became higher than it was before. These factors have caused TCs to maintain their strength or become stronger than before.     

The spatial-Temporal distributions and migrations of mesozoic magmaism in South China and subduction process of the paleo-pacific plate北大核心CSCD

The spatial-Temporal distributions and migrations of Mesozoic magmatism suggest that Mesozoic igneous rocks in South China can be divided into "two regions and four belts" , which are thought to be the products of convergence of multiple blocks as well as multi-stages and multi-directional compressional-extensional orogeny. However, it is impossible that the single subduction of the paleo-Pacific plate to form multi-direction and wide( > I (KK) km) tectonic deformation and mag- matic rock belt. In this paper. We evaluated the model of the paleo-Pacific Plate subduction, which widely circulated on late Mesozoic magmatism in Cathaysian Block at present, to address the its main contribution and shortage. We put forward that approximately middle-Jurassic( 175±5 Ma) , the South China entered the paleo-Pacific tectonic system, roughly from south to north oblique subduction of the paleo-Pacific Plate. After 120 Ma, the subduction direction of paleo-Pacific Plate has changed to westward forward subduction dramatically. At the end of Mesozoic, the South China continent has become a passive margin so that there are the different tectonic setting roughly contemporary in southeastern China coast and east- em Taiwan. The former is the within-continent tectonic environment of the extensional-break up setting, where as and the latter is the arc tectonic environment with collision-compresive stress.     

Thirty years(1984–2014) of groundwater science teaching and research in China: A dissertation-based bibliometric survey

In order to track the footprint of groundwater science teaching and research in China during the past years, a bibliometric analysis was conducted based on the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), which covered the time span from 1984 to present and included more than 2.6 million master and doctoral dissertations from hundreds of institutions of Mainland China. The bibliometric analysis summarized output, geographical, and institutional patterns, as well as research directions and hotspots in groundwater studies in China in the period of 1984-2014. A total of 1 396 groundwater-related dissertations including 1 161 master dissertations and 235 doctoral dissertations, contributed by 128 institutions distributed in 53 cities nationwide, were searched out in the database. It can be seen obviously that, the groundwater science teaching and research in China has experienced a notable growth in the past three decades especially during 2000-2014. Groundwater modeling, resource, and exploitation were the top three major subject categories; China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Jilin University and Chang’an University were the top three productive institutions together accounting for more than one third of the total dissertations and 50% of the doctoral dissertations, which further prompted the cities (Beijing, Changchun, and Xi’an) to become the top three productive cities. The dissertations generally covered all the international research topics, which indicated that hydrogeologists in China have tracked the international frontier closely during the past decades. The keywords analysis revealed that, (1) numerical modeling was still the hottest topic and PHREEQC, MODFLOW, GMS, and FEFLOW were the four most used softwares; (2) the topics related with groundwater pollution and quality developed steadily and rapidly; (3) environmental isotopes and GIS were frequently used tools for hydrogeological condition analysis, and spatial data processing respectively; and (4) the unsaturated zone as an integral part of aquifers attracted more and more attentions from hydrogeologists focus on saturated zone.     

Probabilistic assessment of tropical cyclones’ extreme wind speed in the Bay of Bengal: implications for future cyclonic hazard

Natural Hazards - Tropical cyclones (TCs) of the Bay of Bengal (BoB) cause catastrophic loss over the coasts at the time of landfall in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. To strengthen...     

Assessment of microscale economic flood losses in urban and agricultural areas: case study of the Santa Bárbara River,Ecuador

Natural Hazards - To reduce and prevent significant economic flood losses, reliable tools are required to estimate potential river inundation effects. This paper focuses on the estimation of direct...     

Division of tectonic–strata superregions in China

The continent of China is grouped into Pan–Cathaysian blocks, Laurasia and Gondwana Continental margins and relics of three oceans-Paleoasian, Tethys, and Pacific as a whole. In detail, the continent of China grew up by coalescence of three blocks or platforms (North China, Tarim and Yangtze) and eight orogenic belts (Altay–Inner Mongolia–Daxinganling, Tianshan–Junggar–Beishan, Qinling–Qilian– Kunlun, Qiangtang–Sanjiang, Gangdisê, Himalaya, Cathaysia, Eastern Taiwan) during the processes of oceanic crust disappearance and acceretionary-collision of continental crusts. In the orogenic belts, six convergent crustal consumption zones (Ertix–Xar Moron, South Tianshan, Kuanping–Foziling, Bangong co–Shuanghu–Nujiang–Changning–Menglian, Yarlung–Tsangpo, Jiangshao–Chenzhou–Qinfang) have been distinguished. Correspondingly, the strata of the continent of China are subdivided into 17 tectonic-strata superregions, which tectonically belong to three blocks or platforms, six convergent crustal consumption zones and eight orogenic series, respectively. This division is based mainly on differences of tectonic environment and tectonic evolution among blocks, zones and belts, including the timing of when the oceanic crusts transferred into continental crusts, the paleobiogeographic features, and the types of strata.     

Geochemical characteristics of selected elements in iron–manganese cutans and matrices of Alfisols in central China

The elemental geochemistry of major, minor and trace elements in iron–manganese cutans and the corresponding matrix soils, collected from three Alfisols in central China, are studied using their chemical compositions as well as correlation and factor analyses. Fe–Mn cutans accumulate high concentrations of MnO₂ and Fe₂O₃. Mean values of these two elements in cutans are about 13.7 and 1.4 times higher than those in the matrix soils. pH, clay contents, extractable X-ray noncrystalline Fe (Feo) and the ratio of Feo to free Fe-oxide (Fed) in cutans are notably higher than those in the corresponding matrices. Cutans are also enriched in some bases and heavy metals. Averages of K, Na, Co and Pb concentrations are about 2.0, 1.4, 15.4 and 6.0 times higher than those in the matrices. Statistical analysis indicates that Co, Ni, Li, Cu and Zn are abundant in Mn minerals of cutans, while Pb exists mainly in iron minerals. Fe–Mn cutans constitute an active microzone of solid–solution–plant–air interaction, element movement and exchange in soils, which cause the contents of Fe- and Mn-oxides, elemental concentrations, and geochemical behavior of cutan to show marked differences in matrix soils.     

Supply-Demand Situation and Exploration of Mineral Resources in China during 2016–2017

正During 2016-2017,both the supply and demand of China's main mineral resources continued to grow.The import of major energy resources and metal ore resources,such as iron ores,crude oil,natural gas,coal and bauxite,except for copper,has shown a substantial increase(Table1).In order to guarantee economic development needs,the