A new methodology for measuring coastline recession using buffering and non‐linear least squares estimation

Coastline recession is one of the best indicators of coastal erosion. Three methods for computing coastline recession – the baseline approach, the dynamic segmentation approach and the area‐based approach – have been used, each of which has one or more drawbacks. To overcome these problems, a new methodology for measuring coastline recession is proposed, using buffering and non‐linear least squares estimation. The proposed method was compared with the three existing methods with respect to two simulated cases and two real coastlines. Test results confirmed that the new method is more reliable than the three other methods, all of which are susceptible to variability of recession, scale, number of line segments, length of coastlines and direction of the baseline. The proposed method, incorporating two physically meaningful values – magnitude and variability of coastline recession according to the mean and standard deviation of coastline offsets, respectively – presents itself as an effective alternative method of assessing coastline recession.     

Investigation of the dynamic behaviour of a storage tank with different foundation types focusing on the soil‐foundation‐structure interactions using centrifuge model tests

This paper proposes a dynamic centrifuge model test method for the accurate simulation of the behaviours of a liquid storage tank with different types of foundations during earthquakes. The method can be used to determine the actual stress conditions of a prototype storage‐tank structure. It was used in the present study to investigate the soil‐foundation‐structure interactions of a simplified storage tank under two different earthquake motions, which were simulated using a shaking table installed in a centrifuge basket. Three different types of foundations were considered, namely, a shallow foundation, a slab on the surface of the ground connected to piles and a slab with disconnected piles. The test results were organised to compare the ground surface and foundation motions, the slab of foundation and top of structure motions and the horizontal and vertical motions of the slab, respectively. These were used to establish the complex dynamic behaviours of tank models with different foundations. The effects of soil–foundation–structure interaction with three foundation conditions and two different earthquake motions are focused and some important factors, that should be considered for future designs are also discussed in this research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of rainfall-induced wetting on the stability of slopes in weathered soils

Shallow failures of slopes in weathered soil are caused by infiltration due to prolonged rainfall. These failures are mainly triggered by the deepening of the wetting band accompanied by a decrease in matric suction induced by the water infiltration. This paper reports trends of rainfall-induced wetting band depth in two types of weathered soils that are commonly found in Korea. Both theoretical and numerical analyses for wetting band depth are presented based on the soil–water characteristic curve obtained using filter paper as well as tensiometer tests. It is found that the magnitude of wetting front suction plays a key role in the stability of slopes in weathered soils. Theoretical analysis based on modified Green and Ampt model tends to underestimate the wetting band depth for typical Korean weathered soils. It was also deduced that for Korean weathered soils, the factor of safety drops rapidly once the wetting band depth of 1.2 m reached.     

A discontinuous Galerkin method for seismic soil–structure interaction analysis in the time domain

A technique for modeling transient wave propagation in unbounded media is extended and applied to seismic soil–structure interaction analysis in the time domain. The technique, based on the discontinuous Galerkin method, requires lower computational cost and less storage than the boundary element method, and the time‐stepping scheme resulting from Newmark's method in conjunction with the technique is unconditionally stable, allowing for efficient and robust time‐domain computations. To extend the technique to cases characterized by seismic excitation, the free‐field motion is used to compute effective forces, which are introduced on the boundary of the computational domain containing the structure and the soil in the vicinity of the structure. A numerical example on a dam–foundation system subjected to seismic excitation demonstrates the performance of the method. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multisite statistical downscaling model for daily precipitation combined by multivariate multiple linear regression and stochastic weather generator

This study provides a multi-site hybrid statistical downscaling procedure combining regression-based and stochastic weather generation approaches for multisite simulation of daily precipitation. In the hybrid model, the multivariate multiple linear regression (MMLR) is employed for simultaneous downscaling of deterministic series of daily precipitation occurrence and amount using large-scale reanalysis predictors over nine different observed stations in southern Québec (Canada). The multivariate normal distribution, the first-order Markov chain model, and the probability distribution mapping technique are employed for reproducing temporal variability and spatial dependency on the multisite observations of precipitation series. The regression-based MMLR model explained 16?%?~?22?% of total variance in daily precipitation occurrence series and 13?%?~?25?% of total variance in daily precipitation amount series of the nine observation sites. Moreover, it constantly over-represented the spatial dependency of daily precipitation occurrence and amount. In generating daily precipitation, the hybrid model showed good temporal reproduction ability for number of wet days, cross-site correlation, and probabilities of consecutive wet days, and maximum 3-days precipitation total amount for all observation sites. However, the reproducing ability of the hybrid model for spatio-temporal variations can be improved, i.e. to further increase the explained variance of the observed precipitation series, as for example by using regional-scale predictors in the MMLR model. However, in all downscaling precipitation results, the hybrid model benefits from the stochastic weather generator procedure with respect to the single use of deterministic component in the MMLR model.     

Impact of the spatial variability of daily precipitation on hydrological projections: A comparison of GCM‐ and RCM‐driven cases in the Han River basin,Korea

In this study, we investigate the impact of the spatial variability of daily precipitation on hydrological projections based on a comparative assessment of streamflow simulations driven by a global climate model (GCM) and two regional climate models (RCMs). A total of 12 different climate input datasets, that is, the raw and bias‐corrected GCM and raw and bias‐corrected two RCMs for the reference and future periods, are fed to a semidistributed hydrological model to assess whether the bias correction using quantile mapping and dynamical downscaling using RCMs can improve streamflow simulation in the Han River basin, Korea. A statistical analysis of the daily precipitation demonstrates that the precipitation simulated by the GCM fails to capture the large variability of the observed daily precipitation, in which the spatial autocorrelation decreases sharply within a relatively short distance. However, the spatial variability of precipitation simulated by the two RCMs shows better agreement with the observations. After applying bias correction to the raw GCM and raw RCMs outputs, only a slight change is observed in the spatial variability, whereas an improvement is observed in the precipitation intensity. Intensified precipitation but with the same spatial variability of the raw output from the bias‐corrected GCM does not improve the heterogeneous runoff distributions, which in turn regulate unrealistically high peak downstream streamflow. GCM‐simulated precipitation with a large bias correction that is necessary to compensate for the poor performance in present climate simulation appears to distort streamflow patterns in the future projection, which leads to misleading projections of climate change impacts on hydrological extremes.     

The comparison of two severe Hwangsa (Asian dust) cases of spring and winter in Seoul, Korea

This study investigated meteorological, physical, and chemical characteristics of 2 severe Hwangsa (Asian dust, maximum average of PM₁₀ above 1000 μg m^?3) observed in Seoul, the capital city of Korea, during 30～31^st May, 2008 (DSS2008) and 25～26^th December, 2009 (DSS2009). DSS2008 and DSS2009 had a same source region and route. However, they have different meteorological conditions. DSS2009 had a shorter travel time from the source region to Korea and shorter duration time in Korea than DSS2008 due to a strong winter Siberian anticyclone. One of DSS2008 sample was affected by not only Asian dust but also a long-range transported haze due to consecutive influx after low pressure passed while DSS2009 sample collected only dust aerosol. For both cases, the mass concentration of coarse particles (PM_10-1) increased by 3～14 times compared to that during non Asian dust period, however, that of fine particles (PM₁) increased only in DSS2008. For DSS2008 water-soluble ion balance between anions and cations in fine mode was close to 1:1 while cations were higher than anions in coarse mode. NH₄ ⁺ and Ca²⁺ were found to be the main contributing factors for the neutralization. Cl^? loss was observed about 60% indicating an active interaction of Na⁺ with pollutants. Reconstruction of chemical compositions showed relatively high concentrations of secondary pollutants (NH₄NO₃ and (NH₄)₂SO₄), CaCO₃, and Ca(NO₃)₂ compared to that during non Asian dust period. DSS2009 exhibited the typical characteristics of Asian dust having a high concentration of Ca²⁺ with higher equivalent concentration of cations than anions in all size bins. Cl^? loss was hardly observed. The secondary pollutants were lower than that of non Asian dust cases. The result of reconstruction of ionic components indicated the CaCO₃ derived from soil particle, CaSO₄, and Ca (NO₃)₂ were dominant in DSS2009.