Modelling coincidence and dependence of flood hazard phenomena in a Probabilistic Flood Hazard Assessment (PFHA) framework: case study in Le Havre

Many coastal urban areas and many coastal facilities must be protected against pluvial and marine floods, as their location near the sea is necessary. As part of the development of a Probabilistic Flood Hazard Approach (PFHA), several flood phenomena have to be modelled at the same time (or with an offset time) to estimate the contribution of each one. Modelling the combination and the dependence of several flooding sources is a key issue in the context of a PFHA. As coastal zones in France are densely populated, marine flooding represents a natural hazard threatening the coastal populations and facilities in several areas along the shore. Indeed, marine flooding is the most important source of coastal lowlands inundations. It is mainly generated by storm action that makes sea level rise above the tide. Furthermore, when combined with rainfall, coastal flooding can be more consequent. While there are several approaches to analyse and characterize marine flooding hazard with either extreme sea levels or intense rainfall, only few studies combine these two phenomena in a PFHA framework. Thus this study aims to develop a method for the analysis of a combined action of rainfall and sea level. This analysis is performed on the city of Le Havre, a French urban city on the English Channel coast, as a case study. In this work, we have used deterministic materials for rainfall and sea level modelling and proposed a new approach for estimating the probabilities of flooding.

     

Centralized semi‐active control of post‐tensioned steel frames

Centralized semi‐active control is a technique for controlling the whole structure using one main computer. Centralized control systems introduce better control for relatively short to medium high structures where the response of any story cannot be separated from the adjacent ones. In this paper, two centralized control approaches are proposed for controlling the seismic response of post‐tensioned (PT) steel frames. The first approach, the stiffness control approach, aims to alter the stiffness of the PT frame so that it avoids large dynamic amplifications due to earthquake excitations. The second approach, deformation regulation control approach, aims at redistributing the demand/strength ratio in order to provide a more uniform distribution of deformations over the height of the structure. The two control approaches were assessed through simulations of the earthquake response of semi‐actively and passively controlled six‐story post‐tensioned steel frames. The results showed that the stiffness control approach is efficient in reducing the frame deformations and internal forces. The deformation regulation control approach was found to be efficient in reducing the frame displacements and generating a more uniform distribution of the inter‐story drifts. These results indicate that centralized semi‐active control can be used to improve the seismic performance of post‐tensioned steel frames. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Protonated Hydroxylamine-Assisted Iron Catalytic Activation of Persulfate for the Rapid Removal of Persistent Organics from Wastewater

This research aims at optimizing the effects of processing conditions, salts, natural organic materials, and water matrices quality on the effectiveness of the Fe(II)/K₂S₂O₈/hydroxylamine process in the degradation of pararosaniline. Assisting the Fe(II)/KPS (potassium persulfate) treatment with protonated hydroxylamine (H₃NOH⁺) increases the degradation rate of pararosaniline by more than 100%. Radical scavenger experiments show that the SO₄^●− radical dominates pararosaniline degradation in the Fe(II)/KPS system, whereas ^●OH is the dominant reactive species in the presence of H₃NOH⁺. The disparity in pararosaniline removal effectiveness upon the Fe(II)/KPS/H₃NOH⁺ and Fe(II)/KPS systems gets more significant with increasing reactants doses (i.e., H₃NOH⁺, H₂O₂, Fe(II)) and solution pH (2–7). Interestingly, H₃NOH⁺ increased the working pH to 6 instead of pH 4 for the Fe(II)/KPS process. Moreover, mineral anions such as Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, NO₂⁻, and SO₄⁻ (up to 10 × 10⁻³ m ) do not affect the efficiency of the Fe(II)/KPS/H₃NOH⁺ process. In contrast, acid humic decreases the performance of the process by ≈20%. In natural mineral water, treated wastewater, and river water samples, the Fe(II)/KPS/H₃NOH⁺ process maintains higher degradation performance (≈95%), whereas the process efficiency is greatly amortized in seawater. The efficiency of the Fe(II)/KPS process was drastically decreased in the various water matrices.     

Modeling of operation regime of Aswan water management complex on the Nile River

The development and practical use of a simulation model of operation of the Aswan Water Management Complex are discussed. The environmental, hydrological, and water management conditions of the Nile River before and after the construction of the Aswan Waterworks are assessed. Recommendations concerning the operation regime of the Aswan Water Management Complex under the changing natural and economic conditions are provided.     

A multidimensional, adiabatic hydrodynamics code for studying tidal excitation

We have developed a massively parallel, simple and fast hydrodynamics code for multidimensional, self-gravitating and adiabatic flows. Our primary motivation is the study of the non-linear development of white dwarf oscillations excited via tidal resonances, typically over hundreds of stellar dynamical times. Consequently, we require long-term stability, low diffusivity and high-numerical efficiency. This is accomplished by an Eulerian finite-difference scheme on a regular Cartesian grid. This choice of coordinates provides uniform resolution throughout the flow as well as simplifying the computation of the self-gravitational potential, which is done via spectral methods. In this paper, we describe the numerical scheme and present the results of some common diagnostic problems. We also demonstrate the stability of a cold white dwarf in three dimensions over hundreds of dynamical times. Finally, we compare the results of the numerical scheme to the linear theory of adiabatic oscillations, finding numerical quality factors on the order of 6000 and excellent agreement with the oscillation frequency obtained by the linear analysis.     

Resonant excitation of white dwarf oscillations in compact object binaries – I. The no back reaction approximation

We consider the evolution of white dwarfs with compact object companions (specifically black holes with masses up to  ∼10⁶  M_⊙  , neutron stars, and other white dwarfs). We suppose that the orbits are initially quite elliptical and then shrink and circularize under the action of gravitational radiation. During this evolution, the white dwarfs will pass through resonances when harmonics of the orbital frequency match the stellar oscillation eigenfrequencies. As a star passes through these resonances, the associated modes will be excited and can be driven to amplitudes that are so large that there is a back reaction on the orbit which, in turn, limits the growth of the modes. A formalism is presented for describing this dynamical interaction for a non-rotating star in the linear approximation when the orbit can be treated as non-relativistic. A semi-analytical expression is found for computing the resonant energy transfer as a function of stellar and orbital parameters for the regime where back reaction may be neglected. This is used to calculate the results of passage through a sequence of resonances for several hypothetical systems. It is found that the amplitude of the  ℓ= m = 2  f -mode can be driven into the non-linear regime for appropriate initial conditions. We also discuss where the no back reaction approximation is expected to fail, and the qualitative effects of back reaction.     

Natural and human-induced sinkhole hazards in Saudi Arabia: distribution,investigation, causes and impacts

Approximately 60 % of the 2,150,000 km² area of Saudi Arabia is underlain by soluble sediments (carbonate and evaporite rock formations, salt diapirs, sabkha deposits). Despite its hyper-arid climate, a wide variety of recent sinkholes have been reported in numerous areas, involving significant property losses. Human activities, most notably groundwater extraction, have induced unstable conditions on pre-existing cavities. This work provides an overview of the sinkhole hazard in Saudi Arabia, a scarcely explored topic. It identifies the main karst formations and the distribution of the most problematic sinkhole areas, illustrated through several case studies covering the wide spectrum of subsidence mechanisms. Some of the main investigation methods are presented through selected examples, including remote sensing, trenching and geophysics. Based on the available data, the main causal factors are identified and further actions that should be undertaken to better assess and manage the risk are discussed.     

Assessment of Coastal Inundation due to Sea-Level Rise along the Mediterranean Coast of Egypt

If the rising sea level due to climate change proceeds in the future with the rate observed in the past four decades, it could inundate some coastal lowlands. The aim of this paper is to assess future risk of sea-level rise (SLR) on the Nile delta of Egypt located along the Mediterranean Sea. Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are verified, against ground control points, and used to identify areas susceptible to inundation due to future SLR. Analysis of DEMs maps and cross-shore profiles has identified locations that are vulnerable to SLR including coastal wetlands, agriculture areas, and urban neighborhoods. The results have revealed that about 7% of the Nile delta area is at risk of inundation due to future SLR. This information could be used by coastal zone managers in planning and protection of coastal areas.