Evaluation of the effects of uncertainty on the predictions of landslide occurrences using the Shannon entropy theory and Dempster–Shafer theory

Natural Hazards - One of the requirements for planning and decision-making to develop the infrastructures is to prepare the landslide occurrence hazard map. For this purpose, in this article, the...     

Climatology of dust days in the Central Plateau of Iran

Natural Hazards - Dust storms are a major natural hazard to human health. Severe erosive storms in parts of the Central Plateau of Iran have made the situation very difficult for the inhabitants,...     

Grain crushing in geoscience materials-Key issues on crushing response,measurement and modeling:Review and preface

Grain crushing is commonly encountered in deep foundation engineering,high rockfill dam engineering,railway engineering,mining engineering,coastal engineering,petroleum engineering,and other geoscience application.Grain crushing is affected by fundamental soil characteristics,such as their mineral strength,grain size and distribution,grain shape,density and specimen size,and also by external factors including stress magnitude and path,loading rate and duration,degree of saturation,temperature and geochemical environment.Crushable material becomes a series of different materials with the change in its grading during grain crushing,resulting in a decrease in strength and dilatancy and an increase in compressibility.Effects of grain crushing on strength,dilatancy,deformation and failure mechanisms have been extensively investigated through laboratory testing,discrete element method(DEM)modelling,Weibull statistics,and constitutive modelling within the framework of the extended crushing-dependent critical state theory or the energy-based theory.Eleven papers summarized in this review article for this special issue addressed the above issues in grain crushing through the advanced testing and modelling.     

Effects of particle size on crushing and deformation behaviors of rockfill materials

Strength and deformation behaviors of rockfill materials,key factors for determining the stability of dams,pertain strongly to the grain crushing characteristics.In this study,single-particle crushing tests were carried out on rockfill materials with nominal particle diameters of 2.5 mm,5 mm and 10 mm to investigate the particle size effect on the single-particle strength and the relationship between the characteristic stress and probability of non-failure.Test data were found to be described by the Weibull distribution with the Weibull modulus of 3.24.Assemblies with uniform nominal grains were then subjected to one-dimensional compression tests at eight levels of vertical stress with a maximum of 100 MPa.The yield stress in one-dimensional compression tests increased with decreasing the particle size,which could be estimated from the single-particle crushing tests.The void ratio-vertical stress curve could be predicted by an exponential function.The particle size distribution curve increased obviously with applied stresses less than 16 MPa and gradually reached the ultimate fractal grading.The relative breakage index became constant with stress up to 64 MPa and was obtained from the ultimate grading at the fractal dimension(a?2:7).A hyperbolical function was also found useful for describing the relationship between the relative breakage index and input work during one-dimensional compression tests.     

A 1-g shaking table investigation on response of a micropile system to earthquake excitation

Acta Geotechnica - Considering the increasing applications of micropile systems in seismically active areas, a better understanding of their seismic performance and the key controlling factors is...     

Multi-objective Freshwater Management in Coastal Aquifers Under Uncertainty in Hydraulic Parameters

Natural Resources Research - This paper proposes a novel stochastic framework for groundwater quantity and quality management in aquifers threatened by saltwater intrusion. In this methodology, a...     

Validation of AIRS-Retrieved atmospheric temperature data over the Taklimakan Desert

The Taklimakan Desert, the world's second largest desert, plays an important role in regional climate change. Previous studies on its spatial temperature features suffered from sparse conventional detection data, but the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder(AIRS) provides excellent temperature retrievals with high spatiotemporal resolution. Validation of AIRS temperature retrievals over desert regions with high land-surface emissivity, the key contributor to inversion error, is essential before using these data in regional weather/climate modeling. This paper examines the correlation coefficients, root mean square error(RMSE) and mean BIAS between AIRS-retrieved atmospheric temperature data and radiosonde observations(RAOBs) in the Taklimakan Desert hinterland and oases in the morning and at dusk. Firstly, the AIRS retrievals are consistent with RAOBs and are more consistent in the morning than at dusk. The consistency is better over a small-scale desert oasis than over a large-scale oasis in the morning and exhibits the opposite trend at dusk. The correlation coefficient over the hinterland is high in the morning but negative at dusk due to high desert-surface emissivity. Second, the RMSEs, which are all smaller than 3 K, are generally higher over desert sites than over oasis sites and slightly lower over a small-scale oasis than over a large-scale oasis in the morning. At dusk, the RMSEs are higher over desert sites than over oases and slightly higher over a small-scale oasis than over a large-scale oasis. Furthermore, the RMSEs are generally higher in the morning than at dusk over a large-scale oasis and lower in the morning than at dusk over a small-scale oasis. Third, the absolute mean BIAS values are mostly lower than 1 K. In the morning, relative to RAOB temperatures, the retrieval temperatures are higher over desert sites but lower over oasis sites. At dusk, the retrieval temperatures are lower than RAOB temperatures over both desert and oasis sites. The retrieval temperatures are higher than RAOB temperatures over desert sites in the morning but slightly lower at dusk. Most absolute mean BIAS values are higher in the morning than at dusk over both oasis and desert sites. Finally, the consistency between the AIRS and RAOB temperature data is high from 700 hPa to 100 hPa in the morning and from 700 hPa to 300 hPa at dusk. The difference between the AIRS and RAOB temperature data is generally higher in the morning than that at dusk. The RMSE differences between the AIRS and RAOB data are slightly lower in the morning than at dusk and are lower in the middle layers between 700 hPa and 150 hPa than in the layers above 150 hPa during both the morning and night. The BIAS is lower in the morning than at dusk below 300 hPa but higher in the upper layers. Moreover, the BIAS value is positive in the middle layers between 500 hPa and 150 hPa and negative at other levels at both times. Generally, the AIRS retrieval temperatures are reliable and can be used in further studies in the Taklimakan Desert.     

Integration of VNIR and SWIR spectral reflectance for mapping mineral resources; A case study,north east of Hajjah,Yemen

Laboratory reflectance spectra of 18 rock samples from the Precambrian basement of north east of Hajjah were measured and analyzed using the instrument of FieldSpec3 with spectral range 0.250–2.500 μm. The aim of this study is to use the spectral reflectance of rocks for mapping the mineral resources in the north east of Hajjah. The altered system in the study area comprises of silicification, sericitification, oxidation, clay minerals and carbonatization. Silicified alteration is not distinguishable in the regions of Visible-Near Infrared (VNIR) and Short wave Infrared (SWIR) of the electromagnetic spectrum, because of lack of diagnostic spectral absorption features in silica in this wavelength. Although the arsenopyrite and pyrite are wide spread in the whole study area their features do not appear in any range of spectra because they exhibit trans-opaque behavior and often lack distinction in VNIR and SWIR. The entire spectral reflectance curves of samples show alteration. Based on the examination of laboratory spectra all samples in the study area show promise in the field of mineral resources.     

浅谈城市空间数据在城市管理和服务中的应用

简要介绍城市空间数据的获取流程,并在积极参与城市管理和服务的应用中取得一些有益的探索.     

Surveying general prospects and challenges of GIS implementation in developing countries: a SWOT–AHP approach

We propose a combined method based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to investigate the challenges and prospects of adopting geographic information systems (GIS) in developing countries. In this context, we identify, group, and analyse SWOT indicators in relation to the main GIS components: data, people, and technology. The relative significance of each SWOT indicator and its related SWOT groups in each GIS component is quantified. The method is then applied in a situation assessment of GIS adoption in the governmental organisations and strategic planning. The SWOT–AHP approach proves to be very useful in identifying and quantifying the relative significance of the major factors affecting GIS implementation, and effectively facilitates GIS strategic planning.