The topographic data source of digital terrain models as a key element in the accuracy of hydraulic flood modelling

The effects of the topographic data source and resolution on the hydraulic modelling of floods were analysed. Seven digital terrain models (DTMs) were generated from three different altimetric sources: a global positioning system (GPS) survey and bathymetry; high‐resolution laser altimetry data LiDAR (light detection and ranging); and vectorial cartography (1:5000). Hydraulic results were obtained, using the HEC‐RAS one‐dimensional model, for all seven DTMs. The importance of the DTM's accuracy on the hydraulic modelling results was analysed within three different hydraulic contexts: (1) the discharge and water surface elevation results from the hydraulic model; (2) the delineation of the flooded area; and (3) the relative sensitivity of the hydraulic model to changes in the Manning's n roughness coefficient. The contour‐based DTM was the least accurate with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 4·5 m in the determination of the water level and a variation of up to 50 per cent in the estimation of the inundated area of the floodplain. The GPS‐based DTM produced more realistic water surface elevation results and variations of up to 8 per cent in terms of the flooded area. The laser‐based model's RMSE for water level was 0·3 m, with the flooded area varying by less than 1 per cent. The LiDAR data also showed the greatest sensitivity to changes in the Manning's roughness coefficient. An analysis of the effect of mesh resolution indicated an influence on the delineation of the flooded area with variations of up to 7·3 per cent. In addition to determining the accuracy of the hydraulic modelling results produced from each DTM, an analysis of the time–cost ratio of each topographic data source illustrates that airborne laser scanning is a cost‐effective means of developing a DTM of sufficient accuracy, especially over large areas. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A priori models and inversion of gravity gradient data in hilly terrain

The increased popularity of airborne measurements of the gravity gradient tensor for resource studies and geological mapping has resulted in a new awareness of the importance of terrain effects. In these measurements, the terrain effect often overwhelms that of the underlying crust and it becomes important to formulate a strategy for taking it into account when presenting the data and when inverting the data into density models. Using newly acquired data from Northern Sweden, we first attempted to estimate a variable terrain density model by inverting the data using a terrain model with a laterally varying density. Using data weights related to the topography variations, we find the best estimate of the lateral variation of the terrain density. We translate this model into a full three-dimensional model such that all columns have the same vertical centre of mass as estimated from inspecting the radially averaged power spectrum of the area. This then defines a reference model for subsequent three-dimensional inversion of the gravity gradient tensor dataset. We tested this approach first on synthetic data calculated from the measured topography including two density anomalies before we applied it to the measured data. The result is a model in which the surface density variations are propagated downwards in a systematic manner now in better agreement with measured densities of rock samples in the area.     

基于实测重力异常和地形数据确定重力梯度的研究

本文利用澳大利亚北领地West Arnhem Land 地区实测重力异常数据并联合DEM(9")和SRTM3(3")地形高程数据,使用移去-恢复技术和Stokes积分方法计算了该地区两条剖面的重力梯度及其功率谱密度,使用FFT方法解算了整个地区的重力梯度值,结果证明了联合重力异常数据和高分辨率地形高程数据能有效地提高重力梯度的解算精度;功率谱密度的计算结果与国外成熟的重力梯度功率谱密度模型相吻合,表明高于0.3 Hz频率范围的功率谱密度可看做噪声,为重力梯度数据处理中噪声的辨别和剔除提供了借鉴,另外对重力梯度辅助导航基准图的构建以及重力梯度测量系统的标定提供了有益的探索.     

Regional compensation of subducted lithosphere: effects on geoid,gravity and topography from a preliminary model

It is proposed that the anomalous mass of subducted lithospheric slabs is partially compensated by two mechanisms: (a) by stresses transmitted up the slab to the surface lithosphere, causing the trench, and (b) by stresses transmitted through the mantle wedge overlying the slab, which cause a broad shallow depression. Results calculated from a preliminary two-dimensional model show that it can give a first-order account of observed topography, gravity and geoid anomalies. In particular, the model can reconcile the large mass anomaly predicted for the slab by thermal conduction theory with the smaller than expected gravity and geoid anomalies. Preliminary results indicate substantial compensation by mechanism (a), implying rather large stresses at the top of the slab: these could be important for theories of earthquake mechanisms and plate driving mechanisms. Roughly 50% of the possible compensation by mechanism (b) is indicated: the resulting depression, the order of 500 m deep and over 500 km wide, could explain anomalously deep marginal basins and some marine transgressions of continents.     

联合多代卫星测高和多源重力数据的局部大地水准面精化方法

本文研究了基于泊松小波径向基函数融合多代卫星测高及多源重力数据精化大地水准面模型的方法.分别以沿轨垂线偏差和大地水准面高高差作为卫星测高观测量,研究了使用不同类型测高数据对于大地水准面建模精度的影响.针对全球潮汐模型在浅水区域及部分开阔海域精度较低的问题,引入局部潮汐模型研究了不同潮汐模型对于大地水准面的影响.数值分析表明:相比于使用沿轨垂线偏差作为测高观测量,基于沿轨大地水准面高高差解算得到的大地水准面模型的精度更高,特别是在海域区域,其精度提高了2.3 cm.由于使用沿轨大地水准面高高差作为测高观测量削弱了潮汐模型长波误差的影响,采用不同潮汐模型对大地水准面解算的影响较小.总体而言,船载重力及测高观测数据在海洋重力场的确定中呈现互补性关系,联合两类重力场观测量可以提高局部重力场的建模精度.     

On calculation of the vertical deflection and the geoid undulation from gravity anomalies

Specific features of the calculation of the vertical deflection and the geoidal undulation in the Arctic from gravity anomalies are discussed. Basic requirements to the initial model of the anomalous field are described. The technique of calculating the vertical deflection with arbitrarily fine detail is proposed. The ways for improving the models of gravity anomalies for solving the stated problems are suggested.     

Landform‐oriented flow‐routing algorithm for the dual‐structure loess terrain based on digital elevation models

The loess landform in the Loess Plateau of China is with typical dual structure, namely, the upper smooth positive terrain and the lower cliffy negative terrain (P–N terrain for short). Obvious differences in their morphological feature, geomorphological mechanism, and hydrological process could be found in the both areas. Based on the differences, a flow‐routing algorithm that separately addresses the dual‐structure terrain would be necessary to encompass this spatial variation in their hydrological behaviour. This paper proposes a mixed flow‐routing algorithm to address aforementioned problems. First, the loess landform surface is divided into P–N terrains based on digital elevation models. Then, specific catchment area is calculated with the new algorithm to simulate the water flows in both positive and negative terrain areas. The mixed algorithm consists of the multiple flow‐routing algorithm (multiple‐flow direction) for positive areas and the D8 algorithm for negative areas, respectively. The approach is validated in two typical geomorphologic areas with low hills and dense gullies in the northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau. Four indices are used to examine the results, which show that the new algorithm is more suitable for loess terrain in simulating the spatial distribution of water accumulation, as well as in modeling the flow characteristics of the true surface by considering the morphological structures of the terrain. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

起伏地形下基于非结构网格模型降维的重力三维密度反演

复杂起伏地形以及剖分方式对重力反演解释具有重要影响. 目前重力密度反演研究主要基于直立长方体模型, 这显著降低了对起伏地形和复杂地质体的拟合程度, 对重力反演解释易产生较大影响.四面体非结构网格能够更加精细地模拟起伏地形及复杂地质体, 为此本文研究了起伏地形条件下基于四面体非结构网格剖分的重力三维密度反演.首先基于Delaunay方法将地下区域剖分为四面体非结构网格, 引入垂向导数和相关系数两种方法进行模型降维技术从而减小解的空间, 通过添加最小长度约束, 深度加权约束, 物性范围约束构建目标函数, 并采用预条件共轭梯度法求解.为了提高反演效率在计算过程引入OpenMP并行算法.并研究了各项约束以及两种模型降维方法在四面体非结构网格正则化反演中的效果.通过不同深度直立长方体模型以及起伏地形下组合模型试验, 基于四面体非结构网格的重力密度反演可以清晰地反映异常体位置.将本文提出的方法应用于美国密苏里州东南部的氧化铁矿床, 反演结果与已知岩体具有较好的一致性, 进一步证明该方法的正确性和有效性.

     

DEM数据拼接对重力地形改正的影响及效果

数字高程模型(Digital Elevation Model,DEM)在中大比例尺重力地改中广泛应用,但对于数据处理中的多种插值算法的有效融合,并提高精度和处理速度,一直没有得到有效解决.基于 ArcGIS10、GeoIPAS3.0、Geosoft 的 DEM 拼接所用插值方法各异,插值精度各有差别,Suffer8在数...     

Estimation of regional material yield from coastal landslides based on historical digital terrain modelling

High‐resolution historical (1942) and recent (1994) digital terrain models were derived from aerial photographs along the Big Sur coastline in central California to measure the long‐term volume of material that enters the nearshore environment. During the 52‐year measurement time period, an average of 21 000 ± 3100 m³ km^?1 a^?1 of material was eroded from nine study sections distributed along the coast, with a low yield of 1000 ± 240 m³ km^?1 a^?1 and a high of 46 700 ± 7300 m³ km^?1 a^?1. The results compare well with known volumes from several deep‐seated landslides in the area and suggest that the processes by which material is delivered to the coast are episodic in nature. In addition, a number of parameters are investigated to determine what influences the substantial variation in yield along the coast. It is found that the magnitude of regional coastal landslide sediment yield is primarily related to the physical strength of the slope‐forming material. Coastal Highway 1 runs along the lower portion of the slope along this stretch of coastline, and winter storms frequently damage the highway. The California Department of Transportation is responsible for maintaining this scenic highway while minimizing the impacts to the coastal ecosystems that are part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This study provides environmental managers with critical background data on the volumes of material that historically enter the nearshore from landslides, as well as demonstrating the application of deriving historical digital terrain data to model landscape evolution. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of the anomalous gravity field in the arctic based on modern geopotential models

The results of modeling the anomalous gravity field of the Earth in the high-latitude regions, which are of interest in the context of Arctic exploration, are analyzed. The structure and accuracy characteristics of quasi-geoid heights (QGH) and gravity anomalies (GAs) in the Arctic are studied. The analysis addresses fifteen modern Russian and foreign spherical harmonic models of the gravitational potential of the Earth, including the EGM-2008 model, which provides high-order spherical harmonic representations, and the first models based on the data of satellite gradiometry.     

Recovery of marine gravity anomalies from ERS1, ERS2 and ENVISAT satellite altimetry data for geoid computations over Norway

Free-Air Anomalies (FAA) for the Norwegian marine area including some parts of the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea are computed from satellite altimetry data. A total of 84 cycles of ERS2 along-track data, 25 cycles of ENVISAT along-track data and high density ERS1 data during its geodetic mission are used. The new geopotential model from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, GGM02S (Tapely et al., 2005) is used to compute the long wavelength contributions of the geoid and the FAA. To correct data for mean dynamic topography, the available Levitus climatology model (Levitus and Boyer, 1994) is used. Corrected data are then used to compute along-track gradients in each cycle-pass to suppress the orbital and the atmospheric errors below the noise level of the altimeter. Resulted gradients are then stacked and the east-west and the north-south components of the deflection of verticals are computed where ascending and descending tracks meet each other. Finally, the inverse Vening-Meinesz formula is implemented on the gridded deflections to compute FAA. Results are then compared with available marine and airborne data. Standard deviations of ± 4.301 and ± 6.159 mGal in comparison with airborne and marine FAA were achieved. Thereafter, the derived anomalies are combined with marine and airborne FAA together with the land FAA to compute a fine resolution geoid for Norway and the surrounding marine areas. This geoid is evaluated over sea and land with the synthetic geoid (the geoid derived from the mean sea surface by subtracting the mean dynamic topography) and Global Positioning System (GPS)-levelling and the standard deviations of the differences are ± 20.9 and ± 12.8 cm respectively. ali.soltanpour@ntnu.no, hossein.nahavandchi@ntnu.no, kourosh.ghazavi@ntnu.no     

On regularized time varying gravity field models based on grace data and their comparison with hydrological models

Determination of spherical harmonic coefficients of the Earth’s gravity field is often an ill-posed problem and leads to solving an ill-conditioned system of equations. Inversion of such a system is critical, as small errors of data will yield large variations in the result. Regularization is a method to solve such an unstable system of equations. In this study, direct methods of Tikhonov, truncated and damped singular value decomposition and iterative methods of ν, algebraic reconstruction technique, range restricted generalized minimum residual and conjugate gradient are used to solve the normal equations constructed based on range rate data of the gravity field and climate experiment (GRACE) for specific periods. Numerical studies show that the Tikhonov regularization and damped singular value decomposition methods for which the regularization parameter is estimated using quasioptimal criterion deliver the smoothest solutions. Each regularized solution is compared to the global land data assimilation system (GLDAS) hydrological model. The Tikhonov regularization with L-curve delivers a solution with high correlation with this model and a relatively small standard deviation over oceans. Among iterative methods, conjugate gradient is the most suited one for the same reasons and it has the shortest computation time.     

Possible effects of lateral viscosity variations induced by plate-tectonic mechanism on geoid inferred from numerical models of mantle convection

In a traditional analytical method, the convective features of Earth’s mantle have been inferred from surface signatures obtained by the geodynamic model only with depth-dependent viscosity structure. The moving and subducting plates, however, bring lateral viscosity variations in the mantle. To clarify the effects of lateral viscosity variations caused by the plate-tectonic mechanism, I have first studied systematically instantaneous dynamic flow calculations using new density-viscosity models only with vertical viscosity variations in a three-dimensional spherical shell. I find that the geoid high arises over subduction zones only when the vertical viscosity contrast between the upper mantle and the lower mantle is O(10³) to O(10⁴), which seems to be much larger than the viscosity contrast suggested by other studies. I next show that this discrepancy may be removed when I consider the lateral viscosity variation caused by the plate-tectonic mechanism using two-dimensional numerical models of mantle convection with self-consistently moving and subducting plates, and suggest that the observed geoid anomaly on the Earth’s surface is significantly affected by plate-tectonic mechanism as a first-order effect.     

Spatiotemporal estimation of snow depth using point data from snow stakes,digital terrain models,and satellite data

Snow availability in Alpine catchments plays an important role in water resources management. In this paper, we propose a method for an optimal estimation of snow depth (areal extension and thickness) in Alpine systems from point data and satellite observations by using significant explanatory variables deduced from a digital terrain model. It is intended to be a parsimonious approach that may complement physical‐based methodologies. Different techniques (multiple regression, multicriteria analysis, and kriging) are integrated to address the following issues: We identify the explanatory variables that could be helpful on the basis of a critical review of the scientific literature. We study the relationship between ground observations and explanatory variables using a systematic procedure for a complete multiple regression analysis. Multiple regression models are calibrated combining all suggested model structures and explanatory variables. We also propose an evaluation of the models (using indices to analyze the goodness of fit) and select the best approaches (models and variables) on the basis of multicriteria analysis. Estimation of the snow depth is performed with the selected regression models. The residual estimation is improved by applying kriging in cases with spatial correlation. The final estimate is obtained by combining regression and kriging results, and constraining the snow domain in accordance with satellite data. The method is illustrated using the case study of the Sierra Nevada mountain range (Southern Spain). A cross‐validation experiment has confirmed the efficiency of the proposed procedure. Finally, although it is not the scope of this work, the snow depth is used to asses a first estimation of snow water equivalent resources.     

Statistics of gravity waves in the lower stratosphere over Beijing based on high vertical resolution radiosonde

Atmospheric gravity waves, with small to medium scales, prevail in the atmosphere and have global ef- fects. Many researches show that gravity waves are the main source that causes the variation of wind and temperature field in the stratosphere, and that the break-up of upward propagating gravity waves is the dominant sources of small scale turbulent and mixing processes in the middle atmosphere. Theories and ob- servations indicate that the redistribution of momen- tum, caused by the generati…     

Comparison of the qualities of recent global and local gravimetric geoid models in Iran

A number of regional gravimetric geoid models have recently been determined for the Iran area, and a common problem is to select the best model, e.g. for engineering applications. A related problem is that in order to improve the local geoid models, the selection of the best Global Geopotential Model (GGM) model for the region is essential, to be used in a combined solution from GGM and local gravimetric data. We discuss these problems by taking advantage of 260 GPS/levelling points as an external tool for validation of different global and local geoid models in the absolute and relative senses. By using relative comparisons of the height differences between precise levelling and GPS/geoid models we avoid possible unknown systematic effects between the different types of observables.The study shows that the combination of the newly released GRACE model (GGM02C) with EGM96 geoid model fits the GPS/levelling data in Iran with the best absolute and relative accuracy among the GGMs. Among the local geoid models, the newly gravimetric geoid model IRG04 agrees considerably better with GPS/levelling than any of the other recent local geoid models. Its rms fit with GPS/levelling is 55 cm. Hence, we strongly recommend the use of this new model in any surveying engineering or GPS/levelling projects in the area.     

Assessing the effects of forest biomass reductions on forest health and streamflow

Forest biomass reductions in overgrown forests have the potential to provide hydrologic benefits in the form of improved forest health and increased streamflow production in water-limited systems. Biomass reductions may also alter evaporation. These changes are generated when water that previously would have been transpired or evaporated from the canopy of the removed vegetation is transferred to transpiration of the remaining vegetation, streamflow, and/or non-canopy evaporation. In this study, we combined a new vegetation-change water-balance approach with lumped hydrologic modelling outputs to examine the effects of forest biomass reductions on transpiration of the remaining vegetation and streamflow in California's Sierra Nevada. We found that on average, 102 mm and 263 mm (8.0% and 20.6% of mean annual precipitation [MAP]) of water were made available following 20% and 50% forest biomass-reduction scenarios, respectively. This water was then partitioned to both streamflow and transpiration of the remaining forest, but to varying degrees depending on post-biomass-reduction precipitation levels and forest biomass-reduction intensity. During dry periods, most of the water (approximately 200 mm [15.7% on MAP] for the 50% biomass-reduction scenario) was partitioned to transpiration of the remaining trees, while less than 50 mm (3.9% on MAP) was partitioned to streamflow. This increase in transpiration during dry periods would likely help trees maintain forest productivity and resistance to drought. During wet periods, the hydrologic benefits of forest biomass reductions shifted to streamflow (200 mm [15.7% on MAP]) and away from transpiration (less than 150 mm [11.8% on MAP]) as the remaining trees became less water stressed. We also found that streamflow benefits per unit of forest biomass reduction increased with biomass-reduction intensity, whereas transpiration benefits decreased. By accounting for changes in vegetation, the vegetation-change water balance developed in this study provided an improved assessment of watershed-scale forest health benefits associated with forest biomass reductions.     

Experimental study of the ground motion on a large scale topographic hill at Kitherion (Greece)

We present the results of an experiment about the effects on the seismic ground motion of a hill of large dimensions (6km long, 3km large and 700m high) near Corinth (Greece). We installed 7 seismometers across the hill, and analyzed the ground motion with different methods: the classical spectral ratios (CSR) and the horizontal to vertical spectral ratios calculated both on noise (HVNR) and earthquake data (RF). The amplification at the resonant frequency (around 0.7Hz) is low, as expected, but one of the two stations installed at the top exhibits large amplification (up to a factor of 10) at 3Hz. The comparison between the H/V results and the CSR ones suggests that the former method is able to point out the fundamental frequencies of a hill. Amplifications and spatial localization predicted by numerical 3D modeling are consistent with the experimental data only at frequencies lower than 1Hz.