Changes in the cloud properties in response to El Niño: a bivariate approach

We analyse the dependence of the cloud radiative effect (CRE) and cloud amount on mid-tropospheric pressure velocity (ω ₅₀₀) and sea surface temperature (SST) and point out the shortcomings of using these two proxies separately as means to separate cloud regimes. A bivariate approach is proposed to overcome these shortcomings and it is used to systematically investigate marine cloud properties at different spatial and time scales in the present-day (1985–2001) tropical climate. During the 1997–1998 El Niño, the greatest regional change in CRE and cloud cover coincides with the greatest local change in circulation and SST. In addition, we find that the cooling effect of the stratiform low clouds reduces at the rate of approximately 1 W/m² per percent of cloudiness reduction in the subsident cold pools of the Pacific ocean. During El Niño, the transition between different cloud regimes gives rise to opposing cloud feedbacks. The sign of the total feedback is controlled by the cloud optical thickness. More generally, we find that the largest part of the cloud response to El Niño, when averaged over the tropical Pacific, is not directly associated with ω ₅₀₀ and SST changes, so other factors must play a role as well.     

Impacts

Participatory Integrated Assessement (IA) methods complement analytical methods like IA-modeling in their explicit inclusion of stakeholders and decision-makers in the assessment. Integrated Assessment is perceived as a process of social learning involving scientists, stakeholders, policymakers and the society at large. We introduce a new approach to provide expert knowledge for participatory integrated assessments of regional climate change: `Interactive Citizen's Information Tools' (ICITs). ICITs provide citizens with expert knowledge about causes of climate change, potential impacts, and policy options to address anthropogenic climate change. In this paper we discuss the development and application of IMPACTS in IA-focus groups in Switzerland. IMPACTS is based on user-friendly hypermedia technologies and allows citizens to get informed on a broad range of potential climate change impacts – with an emphasison prevailing uncertainties. IA-focus groups are deliberative group discussions that make use of computer tools to support the discussion and assessment. The goal of IA-focus groups is to elicit how informed citizens judge the risks of anthropogenic climate change. Experiences with IMPACTS showed that the combination of focus groups with ICITs is a feasible and promising approach for a participatory IA of regional climate change, in particular, and of complex environmental issues, in general.     

An integrated procedure for management of bridge networks in seismic areas

In this work an integrated procedure for the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of bridges included in the transportation network and a rational resource allocation for retrofitting with the aim of minimizing the consequences of an earthquake is shown at a network level. Both normal service and post-earthquake emergency conditions are considered as possible scenarios. The final result consists in global delay in the network versus seismic action occurring time. An iterative procedure finally defines the priority for optimal budget allocation for retrofitting. The procedure has been tested on a wide bridge network located in the North-eastern part of Italy.     

How friends share urban space: An exploratory spatiotemporal analysis using mobile phone data

This study proposes a framework to investigate the roles of urban spaces in connecting social contacts (i.e., “friends”). The framework is applied to a Call Detail Record (CDR) dataset collected in Singapore. First, a comparative analysis is performed to understand how friends share urban space differently from random people. Then, we derive two metrics to quantify the “bonding” and “bridging” capabilities of places in the city. The two metrics reflect the potential of a place in connecting friends and random people (e.g., chance encounters), respectively. Finally, we examine the temporal signature of the places’ bonding capabilities, and associate the results with various types of Points of Interest (POIs). We find that: (1) friends are more likely to share urban space than random people, and they also share more locations; (2) a place could play different roles in connecting friends vs. random people, and the relationship (between bonding and bridging) varies depending on the time and type of a day (weekdays vs. weekends); (3) the temporal signature of bonding capability is strongly related to the semantics of a place; (4) certain POI types (e.g., shopping malls) tend to have a much higher impact on bonding capability than others (e.g., sports centers).     

Iron concentrations in selected groundwater samples from the lower Friulian Plain,northeast Italy: importance of salinity

High amounts of iron, up to 14 mg/L, were found in groundwater samples from Marano Lagoon in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Plain (northeast Italy). In order to characterize groundwater hydrochemistry in the area, an investigation has been conducted on 35 wells that were monitored since 2006. Leaching tests were performed (under anaerobic conditions with deionized and saline waters) on two core samples in the area to study the iron release from soils to groundwater. Collected data indicated the main role of salinity in metal leaching and highlighted spatial correspondence between high levels of chloride and iron. To understand the mechanism of groundwater salinization, sulphate/chloride ratio has been investigated and a statistical relation between salinity, pH and iron was found. These data do not show any relation between past activities and high iron groundwater contents. High iron concentrations are diffuse in the whole area and therefore comparable to background values. Consequently, the study states that no remediation plan should have been made for iron concentrations in this area.     

Aeolian dust in the Talos Dome ice core (East Antarctica,Pacific/Ross Sea sector): Victoria Land versus remote sources over the last two climate cycles

A new ice core (TALDICE) drilled at Talos Dome (East Antarctica, Ross Sea sector) preserves a ca. 250 ka long record of palaeoclimate and atmospheric history. We investigate dust variability and provenance at the site during glacial periods and the Holocene through the Sr–Nd isotopic composition of ice core dust and potential source areas (PSA). We provide new isotopic data on dust sources from Victoria Land such as regoliths, glacial drifts, aeolian sands and beach deposits. Some of these sources are located at high altitude and are known to have been ice free throughout the Pleistocene. The major features of the TALDICE dust record are very similar to those from central East Antarctica. During glacial times, South America was the dominant dust supplier for Talos Dome as well as for the entire East Antarctic plateau. Conversely, during the Holocene the principal input of mineral dust at Talos Dome probably derives from proximal sources which are the ice‐free areas of northern Victoria Land, located at similar altitude with respect to the drilling site. Atmospheric mobilisation of dust from these neighbouring areas and transport inland to Talos Dome can be ultimately associated with advection of maritime air masses from the Pacific/Ross Sea region. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Susceptibility analysis of shallow landslides source areas using physically based models

Rainfall-induced shallow landslides of the flow-type involve different soils, and they often cause huge social and economical disasters, posing threat to life and livelihood all over the world. Due to the frequent large extension of the rainfall events, these landslides can be triggered over large areas (up to tens of square kilometres), and their source areas can be analysed with the aid of distributed, physically based models. Despite the high potential, such models show some limitations related to the adopted simplifying assumptions, the quantity and quality of required data, as well as the use of a quantitative interpretation of the results. A relevant example is provided in this paper referring to catastrophic phenomena involving volcaniclastic soils that frequently occur in southern Italy. Particularly, three physically based models (SHALSTAB, TRIGRS and TRIGRS-unsaturated) are used for the analysis of the source areas of huge rainfall-induced shallow landslides occurred in May 1998 inside an area of about 60 km². The application is based on an extensive data set of topographical, geomorphological and hydrogeological features of the affected area, as well as on both stratigraphical settings and mechanical properties of the involved soils. The results obtained from the three models are compared by introducing two indexes aimed at quantifying the “success” and the “error” provided by each model in simulating observed source areas. Advantages and limitations of the adopted models are then discussed for their use in forecasting the rainfall-induced source areas of shallow landslides over large areas.     

Correction to: A novel methodological approach for land subsidence prediction through data assimilation techniques

Computational Geosciences - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-021-10079-6     

Investigating landslides with space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry

This paper is addressed to readers without advanced knowledge of remote sensing. It illustrates some current and potential uses of satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry (InSAR) for landslide assessment. Data acquired by SAR systems can provide 3D terrain models and be used to assist in regional scale investigations, e.g. aimed at evaluation of susceptibility of slopes to failure. Under favourable environmental conditions, the innovative Permanent Scatterers (PS) technique, which overcomes several limitations of conventional SAR differential interferometry (DInSAR) applications in landslide studies, is suitable for monitoring slope deformations with millimetric precision. The PS technique combines the wide-area coverage typical of satellite imagery with the capability of providing displacement data relative to individual image pixels. With the currently available radar satellites, however, only very slow ground surface displacements can be reliably detected and measured. The presented case study of a landslide from the Liechtenstein Alps indicates that the most attractive and reliable contribution provided by this remote sensing technique lies in the possibility of (i.) wide-area qualitative distinction between stable and unstable areas and (ii.) qualitative (relative) hazard zonation of large, slow landslides based on the identification of segments characterised by different movement rates. Since only the radar line of sight projection of the displacements can be detected, a quantitative exploitation of the PS data is possible only where sufficient ground truth is available. In site specific or single landslide investigations the PS data can represent a very useful complementary data source with respect to the information acquired through ground based observations and in situ surveying. However, the difficulties associated with the feasibility assessments of the applicability of SAR data to local scale problems, as well as with the interpretation of PS results, require a close collaboration between landslide experts and specialists in advanced processing of radar satellite data. The interpretation of the exact geotechnical significance of small, radar sensed ground surface deformations is challenging, especially where ground truth is lacking. Although any ground deformation is potentially of interest to an engineering geologist, detection of movements in both vertical and horizontal directions is needed in the case of landslides to evaluate slope failure mechanisms. With their high radar viewing angles, however, the current space-borne systems can detect only a fraction of the horizontal component of movement. It is expected that the upcoming SAR dedicated missions with new sensors and different acquisition geometries, combined with the rapid developments in the field of advanced radar data processing, will allow a full 3D reconstruction of deformation data and help to further reduce the current limitations of the PS and similar DInSAR approaches.     

Abiotic and Biotic Links Work Two Ways: Effects on the Deposit at the Cliff Foot Induced by Mechanical Action of Date Mussel Harvesting (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lithophaga lithophaga</Emphasis>)

The existence of linkages between ecological and geomorphological processes and the influence of human activities both on the biota and on geomorphology is well known for terrestrial environments, while it has been seldom reported for submerged ones. A survey in the Noli-Bergeggi area (NW Mediterranean Sea) has been carried out to test the hypothesis that the harvesting of Lithophaga lithophaga has an impact not only on the hammered rock, but also on the sediments at the cliff foot. Size and roundness of pebbles have been measured at different stations and statistical analyses have been used to test the differences between impact and control situations. Results show a dependence of the roundness of pebbles on the date mussel harvesting, indicating a decrease both of the roundness index and of its variability at the cliff foot in impacted sites. Conclusions stress the biogeomorphological nature of this activity, not limited to the present location.