Area-to-point Kriging in spatial hedonic pricing models

This paper proposes a geostatistical hedonic price model in which the effects of location on house values are explicitly modeled. The proposed geostatistical approach, namely area-to-point Kriging with External Drift (A2PKED), can take into account spatial dependence and spatial heteroskedasticity, if they exist. Furthermore, this approach has significant implications in situations where exhaustive area-averaged housing price data are available in addition to a subset of individual housing price data. In the case study, we demonstrate that A2PKED substantially improves the quality of predictions using apartment sale transaction records that occurred in Seoul, South Korea, during 2003. The improvement is illustrated via a comparative analysis, where predicted values obtained from different models, including two traditional regression-based hedonic models and a point-support geostatistical model, are compared to those obtained from the A2PKED model.     

Quantitative estimation of intertidal sediment characteristics using remote sensing and GIS

High spatial resolution satellite data (IKONOS) combined with in situ data was used to quantitatively estimate the spatial distribution of tidal flat characteristics for the Hwangdo tidal flat, Cheonsu Bay, Korea. The classification result was accurate in terms of a comparison with the in situ data, and the overall accuracy was 90.7%, which confirmed the validity of the classification. GIS analysis based on a probabilistic model was applied to a quantitative estimation of the relationship between each surface sediment facies and the spectral reflectance. Mud flat facies showed a high positive correlation (R² = 0.91), and sand flat facies showed a high negative correlation (R² = 1.00), which was a good reflection of the sedimentary characteristics of Hwangdo tidal flat. Relationships between each sediment facies and DEM also showed good agreement with the topographic characteristics in the study area. The study revealed that intertidal surface sediment classification using high resolution remote sensing imagery and in situ data successfully shows spectral and topographic characteristics of the study area. It was noted that spectral reflectance was affected by a combination of environmental factors, including grain size, topography, and remnant surface water. It is possible to determine the type of tidal flat through quantitative estimates of the spatial distribution of surface sediments according to their spectral reflectance.     

In Situ Correction of Porosity and Velocity of Pelagic Carbonate Sediments in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (Sites 846 and 850, ODP Leg 138)

During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 138, eleven sites were drilled. The sediments recovered are mainly composed of carbonate-rich pelagic ooze including minor diatom and radiolarian ooze. Average carbonate contents of Sites 846 and 850 are about 59% and 75%, respectively. The porosity and velocity measured in laboratory were corrected to in situ condition using empirical equation (Hamilton, 1976) and delta velocity (log value-laboratory value). The corrected laboratory porosity matches well with logging data, but it is deviating in the intervals of low carbonate content. The correlation between log porosity and the corrected porosity shows a similar trend. Depth profiles between the corrected velocity and logging data do not agree in the intervals of low carbonate content, but the intervals characterized by high carbonate content are relatively matched. This suggests that Hamilton's equation is not appropriate for diatom-rich sediments. The correlation between log velocity and the corrected velocity is also a much better fit than that of laboratory velocity. In addition, the relationship between velocity and porosity is a better fit using corrected data than uncorrected data. Thus, mechanical rebound correction needs to interpret laboratory data to in situ condition. However, the magnitude of rebound by the removal of overburden pressure should be carefully considered because the rebound depends on sediment types.     

Geology, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Carbonate Replacement-Type Lead-Zinc-Silver Deposits in Janggun Mine, Republic of Korea

INTRODUCTIONThe Janggun mine,Republic of Korea,is located in thesoutheast of the Seoul,about latitude36°5 1′N and longitude12 9°0 4′E. In this mine area is situated the Bonghwa m ineral-ized zone of the Taebaegsan mining district,Korea.The geo-logic setting of the region was described as the Samgeum riQuadrangle(Kim et al.,196 2 ) .The general and local geolo-gy near the mine area have been studied by L ee (196 7) ,Hwang and Reedman(1975 ) .This mine consists of four min-eral de…     

Area-to-point Kriging with inequality-type data

In practical applications of area-to-point spatial interpolation, inequality constraints, such as non-negativity or more general constraints on the maximum and/or minimum attribute value, should be taken into account. The geostatistical framework proposed in this paper deals with the spatial interpolation problem of downscaling areal data under such constraints, while: (1) explicitly accounting for support differences between sample data and unknown values, (2) guaranteeing coherent (mass-preserving) predictions, and (3) providing a measure of reliability (uncertainty) for the resulting predictions. The formal equivalence between Kriging and spline interpolation allows solving constrained area-to-point interpolation problems via quadratic programming (QP) algorithms, after accounting for the support differences between various constraints involved in the problem formulation. In addition, if inequality constraints are enforced on the entire set of points discretizing the study domain, the numerical algorithms for QP problems are applied only to selected locations where the corresponding predictions violate such constraints. The application of the proposed method of area-to-point spatial interpolation with inequality constraints in one and two dimension is demonstrated using realistically simulated data.     

Organochlorines and dioxin-like compounds in green-lipped mussels Perna viridis from Hong Kong mariculture zones

Concentrations of persistent organic pollutants including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine (OC) pesticides and dioxin-like compounds were measured in green-lipped mussels, Perna viridis, collected from seven mariculture zones in Hong Kong between September and October in 2002 in order to evaluate the status, spatial distribution and potential sources of pollution in these areas. Concentrations ranged from 300 to 4400 ng/g lipid weight for total OCs and 170–1000 ng/g lipid weight for total PCBs (based on 28 congeners). Relatively smaller DDT concentrations in mussels compared with previous studies suggest reduced discharges of DDTs from nearby regions into Hong Kong waters. Detection of a mixture of HCH isomers in the mussels indicated that Hong Kong waters were predominantly contaminated by technical HCHs rather than lindane. Mussel samples from all sampling locations elicited significant dioxin-like activity in the H4IIE-luc bioassay. The greatest magnitude of dioxin-like response (39 pg TEQ/g wet wt.) was detected in mussels from Ma Wan in the western waters of Hong Kong, which is strongly influenced by the Pearl River discharge. Human health risk assessment was undertaken to evaluate potential risks associated with the consumption of the green-lipped mussels. Risk quotient (RQ) for dioxin-like compounds was greater than unity suggesting that adverse health effects may be associated with high mussel consumption.     

Contribution of the east�Cwest thermal heating contrast to the South Asian Monsoon and consequences for its variability

The focus of this paper is to assess the relative role of the north?Csouth and east?Cwest contrasts in atmospheric heating for the maintenance of the South Asian summer monsoon climatology. The juxtaposition of the Eurasian land mass and the Indian Ocean is responsible for the north?Csouth contrast, while the greater diabatic heating above the western Pacific compared to the one over the African and the tropical South Atlantic Ocean region introduces the east?Cwest gradient. With a series of idealized atmospheric general circulation model experiments, it is found that both contrasts contribute to the maintenance of the South Asian monsoon climatology, but their impact varies at regional scales. The surface atmospheric cyclone and precipitation over northern India are mainly due to the north?Csouth contrast. On the other hand, when the Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures are close to their climatological mean values, the low-level cyclone and consequent rainfall activity in the Bay of Bengal and southern India result from the east?Cwest gradient. The physical mechanism relays on the southern part of the upper-level South Asian monsoon high being forced by the east?Cwest diabatic heating contrast via Sverdrup balance. The east?Cwest heating difference controls also the strength of the Tropical Easterly Jet. Finally, the contribution of the El Ni?o Southern Oscillation to the interannual variability of the Indian monsoon is interpreted as the result of a longitudinal shift of one of the centers of diabatic heating contributing to the east?Cwest contrast.     

Stochastic multi-site generation of daily rainfall occurrence in south Florida

This paper presents a stochastic model to generate daily rainfall occurrences at multiple gauging stations in south Florida. The model developed in this study is a space–time model that takes into account the spatial as well as temporal dependences of daily rainfall occurrence based on a chain-dependent process. In the model, a Markovian method was used to represent the temporal dependence of daily rainfall occurrence and a direct acyclic graph (DAG) method was introduced to encode the spatial dependence of daily rainfall occurrences among gauging stations. The DAG method provides an optimal sequence of generation by maximizing the spatial dependence index of daily rainfall occurrences over the region. The proposed space–time model shows more promising performance in generating rainfall occurrences in time and space than the conventional Markov type model. The space–time model well represents the temporal as well as the spatial dependence of daily rainfall occurrences, which can reduce the complexity in the generation of daily rainfall amounts.     

Two‐dimensional lower bound analysis of offshore pile foundation systems

The objective of this paper is to present a simplified method to determine the pile foundation system capacity based on the lower bound theorem of plasticity. The motivations for determining the lower bound capacity are the following: (1) to evaluate the accuracy of solutions based on the upper bound method; (2) to provide a conservative and efficient solution to the system capacity; and (3) to provide information about load distribution among individual piles at the verge of failure for the pile system. The failure mechanisms for a single pile and for the pile system are assumed to be two‐dimensional. For a typical long offshore pile, the upper and lower bound analyses produce identical lateral capacities. A simplified failure surface for loads at the single pile head is proposed and verified through analysis of 16 case study piles. With this proposed failure surface for a single pile, the lower bound failure load of the pile foundation system is obtained using the elastic compensation method enhanced with the linear matching method. Comparing with the existing upper bound and finite element solutions, the proposed lower bound method is capable of accurately and efficiently predicting the ultimate capacity of a pile foundation system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of hillslope soils: The geomorphic theater and the geochemical play

How and how fast do hillslope soils form as the landscape’s morphology changes over time? Here results are shown from an ongoing study that simultaneously examines the morphologic and geochemical evolution of soil mantled hillslopes that have been exposed to distinctively different denudation history. In Northern Sierra Nevada, California, the authors are investigating a tributary basin to the Middle Fork Feather River. A major incision signal from the river is well marked in a knickpoint within the tributary basin which stretches from its mouth to the Feather River at an elevation of ～700 m to the plateau at an elevation of ～1500 m. Hillslopes are significantly steeper below the knickpoint. The area’s total denudation rates are currently being constrained using cosmogenic radio nuclides, but a previous study suggested an order of magnitude difference in total denudation rates below and above the knickpoint. When compared with topographic attributes calculated from LIDAR data, physical erosion rates can be modeled as a linear function of ridge top curvature. Surprisingly, over the wide range of total denudation rates, soil thicknesses do not vary significantly until a threshold point where soil mantled landscapes abruptly shift to bedrock dominated landscapes. Bioturbation by tree falls appear to buffer soil thickness over the wide range of physical soil erosion rates. From three hillslopes with different physical erosion rates, the concentrations of Zr, which were considered conserved during dissolution and leaching, were determined and used as a proxy for the degree of mass losses via chemical denudation. There is a general trend that colluvial soils along the hillslopes with lower physical erosion rates are enriched in fine size fractions, Zr, and pedogenic crystalline Fe oxides. Likewise, the saprolites show greater degrees of chemical denudation at the sites above the knickpoint, presumably because of the saprolites’ longer turnover time in the slowly eroding landscapes. In the two steep hillslopes below the knickpoint, no significant or systematic topgraphic trends were found for soil geochemistry. However, soils show increasing Zr enrichment in the downslope direction in the hillslope above the knickpoint, which suggests a critical denudation rate beyond which soils’ turnover time is too short to develop a geochemical catena. As detailed CRN-based soil production rates and catchment scale denudation rates are acquired, the data will be combined with a mass balance model to calculate the rates of chemical denudation and weathering in soils and saprolites along the denudation gradient.