Association between cloudiness and rainfall over Fars province in Iran

Relationship between precipitation sum and cloud properties over Fars province in Iran was analyzed for the cases of light (4 mm), moderate (17 mm), and heavy (62 mm) precipitation. The cloud properties (temperature and pressure at the top, cloud optical thickness and cloud water path) were obtained from satellite data of spectoradiometer MODIS (MODO6). The spatial distribution of rainfall was obtained from the 3-hourly data of TRMM (3B42). The multivariate regression model was developed to predict the spatial distribution of rainfall. A strong significant positive association between the spatial distribution of cloud characteristics and heavy precipitation was found, while no clear correlation was revealed between light precipitation and cloud properties. The developed regression model comprised 64, 47, and 24% of spatial variance of heavy, moderate, and light rainfall, respectively. The influence of cloud water path on the spatial distribution of rainfall dominates.     

Intense extreme hydro-climatic events take a toll on society

Natural Hazards - In March 2019, the Iranian meteorological organization warned of the formation of several dense precipitation systems throughout the country. This was followed by a chain of storm...     

Reconstruction management policies in residential and commercial sectors after the 2003 bam earthquake in Iran

In the very early hours of 26th December 2003, a devastating and strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck Bam, one of the historical cities of Kerman province in the south of Iran. According to the official reports, more than 30,000 were killed and about 25,000 injured. More than 80% of the town’s buildings were also destroyed. After the disaster, Bam’s reconstruction management process was presented with a lot of challenges and faced many fundamental questions. The number of human losses and related social issues, extensive destruction of the historical town, and also the lack of good experience in the reconstruction of a city or town made the reconstruction project of Bam more complicated. The reconstruction of Bam was the most important post-disaster reconstruction project among recent reconstructions in Iran. Many factors, such as concern over the government and international agencies, the new managerial approaches, and the application of appropriate reconstruction methods, made it different from the other reconstruction programs. Thus, the post-earthquake reconstruction of Bam is investigated in this research with respect to the importance of this issue. The aim behind this article is to give a brief explanation of the earthquake reconstruction management policies in Bam and also the plans for the reconstruction and rebuilding of urban residential and commercial units.     

Strengthening of moment‐resisting frame structures against near‐fault ground motion effects

Near‐fault ground motions with forward directivity are characterized by a large pulse. This pulse‐like motion may cause a highly non‐uniform distribution of story ductility demands for code‐compliant frame structures, with maximum demands that may considerably exceed the level of code expectations. Strengthening techniques for multi‐story frame structures are explored with the objective of reducing maximum drift demands. One option is to modify the code‐based SRSS distribution of story shear strength over the height by strengthening of the lower stories of the frame. The modified distribution reduces the maximum story ductility demand, particularly for weak and flexible structures. However, this strengthening technique is less effective for stiff structures, and is almost ineffective in cases in which the maximum demand occurs in the upper stories, i.e. strong and flexible structures. As an alternative, the benefits of strengthening frames with elastic and inelastic walls are evaluated. The effects of adding walls that are either fixed or hinged at the base are investigated. It is demonstrated that strengthening with hinged walls is very effective in reducing drift demands for structures with a wide range of periods and at various performance levels. Wall inelastic behavior only slightly reduces the benefits of strengthening with hinged walls.Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Earthquake risk–sensitive model for urban land use planning

Natural Hazards - Analysis of the run-out of landslides is essential and vital for disaster mitigation. However, accurate run-out analysis is difficult because of the uncertainty of earthquake...     

Tracing water resources flows by complementary use of hydrological and water accounting models

Historically, there has been a dispute over water allocation between users and policymakers in Iran's Zayandeh-Roud Basin (ZRB). In this study, we used the “System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water” (SEEAW) framework in combination with the hydrologic model “Soil and Water Assessment Tool” (SWAT) to achieve the water balance in ZRB. We used SEEAW to combine a wide range of water-related statistics across stakeholders and SWAT to evaluate the unknown agricultural water use. The SWAT model is calibrated based on the stream flows and crop yields in the basin. The model assess the renewable water of the basin into two components, about 363 and 70 mm as green and blue water, respectively. Also results from the physical water supply and water use tables demonstrates that the agricultural sector uses 78% of the total renewable freshwater, followed by the residential, 16%, and the industrial sector, 6%. The flows of water from source to services in ZRB are traced based on the water supply and water use tables. The flow diagram shows that 8 MCM of industrial reused water was transferred to the agricultural sector, and 137 MCM and 18 MCM of water from the wastewater treatment plants to the agricultural and industrial sectors, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that the index of the basin dependence on groundwater resources is high (61%), the value of water stress is high (0.88) and the dependence of the basin on transboundary water resources is 30%. Therefore, this method is highly beneficial for achieving a conceptual water balance in disputed basins without enough agricultural water uses data.     

Solving land-use suitability analysis and planning problem by a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm

The aim of Land-use Suitability Analysis and Planning Problem (LSAPP) is to identify the most suitable parcels of land for future land-uses considering several conflicting criteria. LSAPP can be modeled using a variant of a well-known combinatorial optimization problem called Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). In this paper, a multi-objective mathematical model is developed for LSAPP based on QAP modeling. The large-size instances of the proposed multi-objective mathematical model are difficult to solve in a reasonable CPU time using exact algorithms. So, an efficient three-phase hybrid solution procedure is proposed. In the first phase, the compensatory objectives are integrated using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory. Then, based on the aforementioned suitability objective function and other spatial objectives and constraints, a multi-objective LSAPP is constructed. Finally, a hybrid multiple objective meta-heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the LSAPP. The core of the proposed algorithm is based on Scatter Search while Tabu Search and Variable Neighborhood Search are also utilized. The proposed algorithm is equipped with the concepts of Pareto optimality and Veto Threshold, which improve its efficacy. The proposed algorithm is applied on a real LSAPP case study, in ‘Persian Gulf Knowledge Village’, wherein its performance is compared with a well-known evolutionary computation algorithm called Vector Evaluated Genetic Algorithm (VEGA) using comprehensive statistical analysis. A survey on time complexity of the proposed algorithm is also accomplished. The results show that MOSVNS is significantly superior to VEGA both in single and in multi-objective modes. Furthermore, analysis of time complexity of the proposed algorithm shows that it is of polynomial time and can be applied to significantly larger problems with multiple compensatory and non-compensatory objectives.     

Effect of anti-slosh baffles on free liquid oscillations in partially filled horizontal circular tanks

An exact two dimensional hydrodynamic analysis based on the linear potential theory is introduced to study the free liquid sloshing characteristics of transverse oscillation modes in a non-deformable horizontal circular cylindrical baffled container which is filled to an arbitrary depth with an inviscid incompressible liquid. Three common baffle configurations are considered: a pair of internal rigid horizontal side baffles of arbitrary extension installed at the free liquid surface, and a surface-piercing or a bottom-mounted vertical rigid baffle of arbitrary extension positioned along the tank vertical axis of symmetry. The problem solution is obtained by the method of successive conformal coordinate transformations, leading to standard truncated matrix eigenvalue problems on simple (rectangular) regions which are then solved numerically for the resonance eigen-frequencies. The effects of liquid fill level, baffle arrangement and length upon the three lowest antisymmetric and symmetric sloshing frequencies and the associated hydrodynamic pressure mode shapes are examined. Also, convergence of the adopted approach with respect to the fill condition, and baffle type/extension is discussed. Limiting cases are considered and the validity of results is established in comparison with the data in the existing literature.     

Characteristic of ion acoustic shock waves in a dissipative quantum pair plasma with dust particulates

The behavior of quantum dust ion-acoustic (QDIA) shocks in a plasma including inertialess quantum electrons and positrons, classical cold ions and stationary negative dust grains are studied, using a quantum hydrodynamic model (QHD). The effect of dissipation due to the viscosity of ions is taken into account. The propagation of small but finite amplitude QDIA shocks is governed by the Kortoweg-de Vries-Burgers (KdVB) equation. The existence regions of oscillatory and monotonic shocks will depend on the quantum diffraction parameter (H) and dust density (d) as well as dissipation parameter (η ₀). The effect of plasma parameters (d,H,η ₀), on these structures is investigated. Results indicate that the thickness and height of monotonic shocks; oscillation amplitude of the oscillatory shock wave and it’s wavelength effectively are affected by these parameters. Additionally, the possibility of propagation of both compressive and rarefactive shocks is investigated. It is found that depending on some critical value of dust density (d _c ), which is a function of H, compressive and rarefactive shock waves can’t propagate in model plasma. The present theory is applicable to analyze the formation of nonlinear structures at quantum scales in dense astrophysical objects.