An Extended Approach of Particle Swarm Optimization for Shoreline Extraction from RASAT Imagery

This study presents an extended shoreline detection approach from pansharpened images of Turkish RASAT satellite which covers red, green and blue bands of the optical spectrum with 15 m ground resolution and panchromatic band with 7.5 m spatial resolution. The Lake Ercek of Turkey has been selected as the study area, which is a tectonic lake and home to a variety of water birds. The satellite images of the lake taken in 2013 and 2014 were considered for analysis. The proposed shoreline extraction system consists of a sequence of image processing steps in which simple linear clustering (SLIC) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are the main components. SLIC was used to create superpixels that form basis for object-based image analysis while PSO was employed for classifying objects into corresponding classes. The resulting images still contained unwanted artefacts; therefore, a post-processing step was performed to improve the accuracy of segmentation by applying thresholding, morphological processing, and manual editing for noise removal. The proposed framework was applied on two temporal RASAT images to test the variations of defined parameter settings. The success of the proposed system was to obtain shorelines with satisfying accuracy without using NIR band. Finally, the extracted shorelines were vectorised and compared with manually digitized shorelines from pansharpened satellite images for accuracy assessment.     

Landfill Leachate Treatment: A Case Study for Istanbul City

One of the most important problems arising from landfilling solid wastes is the leachate which contains high amount of pollution. Discharge of leachate without treatment causes negative effects on environmental and public health. In this study, parameters of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH₄‐N), and total phosphorus (TP) were examined in the samples taken from the influent and effluent of leachate treatment plant, where Odayeri landfill leachate is treated. Obtained results showed that the treatment plant, which consisted of preanoxic biological treatment system, ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) units were operating with high efficiency. Among the examined parameters during study, COD, TN, NH₄‐N, and TP were found to be treated at the rate of 99, 94.5, 99, and 93.8%, respectively. Landfilling is increasing rapidly in the world and this consequently brings the need of leachate treatment facilities. Therefore, this study is considered to be a guide for construction and operation stages of proposed new treatment plants.     

An extensional and transtensional origin of elongated magmatic domes and localised transfer faults in the northern Menderes metamorphic core complex,western Turkey

The northern Menderes metamorphic core complex has complex exhumation history and is one of the key localities to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships of extensional and compressional structures. Detachment faults and syn-extensional plutons are linked to a series of antiforms and synforms and the denudation of the northern Menderes Massif occurred in three stages. The first stage is related to the development of detachment faults under the consistent NE–SW-directed extension. The second stage is represented by a series of elongated magmatic domes that were oriented parallel, oblique and perpendicular to the regional extension direction. Emplacement of these asymmetrical magmatic domes appears to have been controlled by heterogeneous extension and post-dates the extensional Simav detachment fault. On the third stage, progressive heterogeneous extension that led to updoming of plutons has been finally accommodated by a localised and short-lived transfer zone, which was described as the Gerni shear zone for the first time in this study. The transfer zone is formed by a NE-striking, dextral ductile/brittle shear zone that accommodated the propagation of folds, conjugated strike-slip faults and normal- and oblique-slip faults. Mylonites associated with the transfer zone are related to the localisation of strain along the thermally weakened strike-slip fault systems by short-lived intrusions rather than to the development of regional-scale detachment faults. These structures are consistent with a transtensional simple shear model, which properly explains the evolution of extensional and compressional structures exposed in the northern Menderes core complex. Structural setting of the E?rigöz region is somewhat similar to that of the NE-trending gneiss domes in the northern Menderes Massif and updoming of magma during late stages of detachment faulting appears to have played an important role in the exhumation of lower and upper plate rocks.