From Bayes to Tarantola: New insights to understand uncertainty in inverse problems

Anyone working on inverse problems is aware of their ill-posed character. In the case of inverse problems, this concept (ill-posed) proposed by J. Hadamard in 1902, admits revision since it is somehow related to their ill-conditioning and the use of local optimization methods to find their solution. A more general and interesting approach regarding risk analysis and epistemological decision making would consist in analyzing the existence of families of equivalent model parameters that are compatible with the prior information and predict the observed data within the same error bounds. Otherwise said, the ill-posed character of discrete inverse problems (ill-conditioning) originates that their solution is uncertain. Traditionally nonlinear inverse problems in discrete form have been solved via local optimization methods with regularization, but linear analysis techniques failed to account for the uncertainty in the solution that it is adopted. As a result of this fact uncertainty analysis in nonlinear inverse problems has been approached in a probabilistic framework (Bayesian approach), but these methods are hindered by the curse of dimensionality and by the high computational cost needed to solve the corresponding forward problems. Global optimization techniques are very attractive, but most of the times are heuristic and have the same limitations than Monte Carlo methods. New research is needed to provide uncertainty estimates, especially in the case of high dimensional nonlinear inverse problems with very costly forward problems. After the discredit of deterministic methods and some initial years of Bayesian fever, now the pendulum seems to return back, because practitioners are aware that the uncertainty analysis in high dimensional nonlinear inverse problems cannot (and should not be) solved via random sampling methodologies. The main reason is that the uncertainty “space” of nonlinear inverse problems has a mathematical structure that is embedded in the forward physics and also in the observed data. Thus, problems with structure should be approached via linear algebra and optimization techniques. This paper provides new insights to understand uncertainty from a deterministic point of view, which is a necessary step to design more efficient methods to sample the uncertainty region(s) of equivalent solutions.     

埋地生命线管道系统智能监测的初步研究

智能材料在土木工程和防灾减灾工程中的应用是未来土木工程和减灾科学领域发展的重要方向，本文对光纤传感技术在埋地生命线管道系统抗震防灾方面的作用作了初步的研究。对光纤传感器应用于埋地生命线系统中存在的主要问题作了分析，提出了实施埋地生命线系统智能监测的方案。     

确定(似)大地水准面的方法分析及适用性研究

本文从物理大地测量研究基本原理入手,论述了确定（似）大地水准面的重力/水准法、GPS/水准法及GPS/重力法,对它们的特点、优劣以及适用性等进行分析研究,结合实际应用提出一些改进的方法与建议.     

我国城市的地震问题

就我国历史地震记载情况,讨论了我国城市地震研究中存在的若干问题,提出了若干城市需要引起重视的问题及其研究的内容.     

Death, Disease and Deformity; Using Outbreaks in Animals as Sentinels for Emerging Environmental Health Risks

In "Airs, Waters and Places, " Hippocrates taught aspiring physicians that, to understand their patient's illness, they needed to understand their patient's environment. He recognized that people's well-being was linked to their environment. Hippocrates instructed his readers to use observations of the seasons, the water and the orientation of a city to classify the major health problems of the inhabitants. While his causal framework for explaining the pathogenesis of disease may seem rudimentary and misguided in light of today's medical understanding, Hippocrates knew that many health problems arose from our interactions with the environment and he tried to do what we continue to want to do today: to predict the occurrence of disease in order to better care for his patients.     

FINE SEDIMENT OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI AND ILLINOIS RIVERS AND THE DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES

IINTRODUCTIONLanddevelopmentandlandusepatternsinthewatershedcaninduceincreasedsedimentloadsinriversandstreams.AGREATIllstudy(1982)illustratedthatsedimentyieldsfromagriculturallandcouldbeseveralfoldsmorethanothertypeoflandusesanderosionsources.ThesamestudyalsodemonstratedthatfinesedimentsweretheheaviestportionoftotalsoillossesfromeachtypeoflandusesinthetwelvehydrologicareasitinvestigatedintheUMRS.Thesamecouldbetrueforotheruplandareasalso.Howeverfinesediments,formthewashloadofthestream…     

我国环境问题与环境地球物理学

从环境和环境问题出发，简述了环境地球物理学的形成过程，并定义环境地球物理学为：应用地球物理学的理论和方法，研究解决环境保护、改善和治理方面问题的一门地球物理分支学科．文章叙述了全球和我国当前的主要环境问题，论述了环境地球物理学在解决这些问题中所起的重要作用；介绍了我国环境地球物理学在研究解决某些环境问题中的应用事例；并在分析我国对环境地球物理的需求以及满足这种需求的能力之后指出，我国环境地球物理工作者必将为我国和世界环境问题的解决及学科的发展做出应有的贡献．     

On different numerical inverse Laplace methods for solute transport problems

Numerical inversion is required when Laplace transform cannot be inverted analytically by manipulating tabled formulas of special cases. However, the numerical inverse Laplace transform is generally an ill-posed problem, and there is no universal method which works well for all problems. In this study, we selected seven commonly used numerical inverse Laplace transform methods to evaluate their performance for dealing with solute transport in the subsurface under uniform or radial flow condition. Such seven methods included the Stehfest, the de Hoog, the Honig–Hirdes, the Talbot, the Weeks, the Simon and the Zakian methods. We specifically investigated the optimal free parameters of each method, including the number of terms used in the summation and the numerical tolerance. This study revealed that some commonly recommended values of the free parameters in previous studies did not work very well, especially for the advection-dominated problems. Instead, we recommended new values of the free parameters for some methods after testing their robustness. For the radial dispersion, the de Hoog, the Talbot, and the Simon methods worked very well, regardless of the dispersion-dominated or advection-dominated situations. The Weeks method can be used to solve the dispersion-dominated problems, but not the advection-dominated problems. The Stehfest, the Honig–Hirdes, and the Zakian methods were recommended for the dispersion-dominated problems. The Zakian method was efficient, while the de Hoog method was time-consuming under radial flow condition. Under the uniform flow condition, all the methods could present somewhat similar results when the free parameters were given proper values for dispersion-dominated problems; while only the Simon method, the Weeks method, and the de Hoog method worked well for advection-dominated problems.     

A review of basic computations with spherical harmonics in geomagnetism

Summary A number of problems arising in geomagnetism may be successfully solved by using various recurrence relations for spherical harmonic functions. This paper combines these recurrence relations into one simple computational algorithm, and illustrates the flexibility of the algorithm by applying it to the prototype problems of evaluating spherical harmonics and their derivatives, and transforming them under changes of reference frame.     

Application of Biot's poroelasticity to some soil dynamics problems in civil engineering

This review type of paper shows how the poroelastodynamic theory of Biot can be applied to some soil dynamics problems encountered in transportation engineering, which have been solved by the present authors. These problems involve rigid walls retaining poroelastic soil and subjected to harmonic seismic waves and moving loads on poroelastic soil. Both classes of problems involve a soil layer over bedrock, are of the plane strain type and are solved analytically by two methods: a direct (almost exact and exact for the above two classes of problems) method and an approximate method. The effects of shear modulus, porosity, permeability and hysteretic damping of the soil medium as well as the seismic frequency for retaining walls and velocity for moving loads on the dynamic response are numerically evaluated in order to assess their relative importance on that response.     

Definition and interests of reciprocity and reciprocity gap principles for groundwater flow problems

We introduce the reciprocity and reciprocity gap principles for flow problems in hydrogeology and illustrate their interest in addressing identification problems. The reciprocity principle is derived from mechanics and establishes for flow problems a relationship between different sets of forcing terms, including sources, sinks and boundary conditions, and the resulting head fields. The reciprocity gap principle compares different head fields resulting from the same forcing terms applied to different structures. We give general 2D expressions of the reciprocity and reciprocity gap principles for transient flow problems and give two examples of applications for the identification of transmissivity values and interfaces between different transmissivities. Identification capacities of the reciprocity and reciprocity gap principles yielding direct inversion methods could be used as initial guesses for more advanced inverse problem methodologies.     

我国隧道地质超前预报技术述评

隧道地质超前预报在隧道施工开挖中起着关键性作用,同时也是工程地球物理界所面临的一大技术难题.本文回顾了我国主要隧道地质超前预报技术（隧道地震预报系统、水平声波剖面法、陆地声纳法、地质雷达法、红外探水法、超前钻探法和超前平导法）的历史,介绍了它们近年来的研究进展;分析了其现状及在几何结构成像、物性结构反演成像和复杂地质体结构探测中存在的不足;指出了当前亟待解决的基础理论研究、正反演研究、多参数综合利用、建立三维可视化的预测预警系统等问题并提出了解决这些问题的基本设想.     

Definition of peak acceleration, or soil vibration manifested at soil surface depending upon the volume of the released energy, focal distance and elastic properties of medium material

The reason for detailed investigation of problems related to earthquake phenomena, their prediction and undertaking of necessary protection measures, results from their disastrous consequences. Besides material damage, the loss of human lives is far too priceless.One of the main problems related to investigation of earthquake occurrence phenomenon is the problem of definition of earthquake released energy.Accelerations are also recognized as a very significant parameter used for solution of many problems.Such a problem is the definition of the released energy through the material expressed in a form of acceleration; the largest source being the energy released from earthquake origins.Definition of seismicity on the soil surface due to the effects of the released energy during an earthquake is carried out by using accelerations, velocities and displacements.In this respect, the author of this paper makes an attempt to point out the shortcomings in the existing analytical expressions for definition of ground accelerations. A new solution is also proposed by introducing a new concept in dissipation of the released energy through a material and by introducing a new factor which includes the main parameters and characteristics of the entire frequency content of the considered material.     

On the problems concerned in“The subter－ranean electrical conductivity structure at the ChineseGreatWalStationonAntarctic（CG┐WSA）”byXiaopingZeng，YunfangLinandYuechenZhao

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山东区域地震前兆台网日常运行管理及常见问题分析

介绍了山东区域地震前兆台网的总体运行、管理和维护情况,详细阐述了近年来前兆台网日常运行中出现的常见问题及解决办法.     

A method for constructing high-order differential boundary conditions for solving external boundary value problems in geoelectromagnetism

A general approach to the construction of differential boundary conditions for vector fields satisfying the Helmholtz equation is proposed on the basis of the field expansion in multipole series and the application of annihilating operators to them. The resulting differential constraints can be used as boundary conditions in solving external boundary value problems. Examples of their application to the solution of forward geoelectric problems in three-dimensionally inhomogeneous media are examined. Their use at a finite distance from the source of an anomaly is shown to yield more accurate results than those obtained under the assumption that the anomalous field at this distance vanishes. Another effect of their application is a substantial decrease in the dimensions of the modeling domain and therefore in the time required to solve the forward problem. The “safe” distance for using the Dirichlet-type boundary conditions is estimated.     

Analysis of Numerical Procedures for Solving Mass Transport Problems at a Regional Scale

The principal mass transport models and the ways of their implementation are considered. Some problems associated with the application of numerical methods for mass transport modeling in problems of dissolved chemicals migration at a regional scale are discussed. A new method proposed in this study allows the determination of the space structure of a groundwater flow and the simulation of steady-state convective mass transport.     

Exergetic and Sustainability Aspects of Green Energy Systems

This paper discusses current environmental problems caused by energy utilization, energy-use patterns, and the role of green (renewable) energy systems as one of the potential solutions to challenging environmental problems, particularly global warming. It also presents some key aspects of green energy systems in terms of energy, exergy, environmental impact, and sustainable development and their linkages. The results show that assessments of green energy processes and systems though exergy analysis are essential to increase efficiency and decrease environmental impact, and hence contribute to sustainable development.     

Modelling rainfall/watertable relations using linear response functions

Linear system theory can be used to model and predict watertable responses to precipitation inputs in an artificially drained field. The response function is mathematically equivalent to the Unit Hydrograph concept familiar to hydrologists. This paper shows that it is possible to derive such response functions, and comments on the problems encountered in their derivation. Response functions for two contrasted sites are presented, and the possibilities for their use discussed.