Groundwater modelling to quantify the effect of water harvesting structures in Wagarwadi watershed,Parbhani district,Maharashtra, India

Marathwada Agricultural University, Pharbani, has developed about 560 hectares of Wagarwadi watershed in Pharbani district since 1987. Groundwater monitoring on 16 observations wells at weekly intervals commenced in January 1992, and rainfall and pan evaporation has been measured daily at a hydrometeorological station situated in the nearby university campus. Aquifer parameters, namely, transmissivity and specific yield, have been estimated by carrying out a pumping test on a large diameter well. Groundwater recharge resulting from rainfall has been estimated using a water balance model of the soil moisture zone considering soil zone thickness and crops grown. The SCS (Soil Conservation Service) curve number method was used for surface runoff estimation. The groundwater flow model has been constructed using the nested squares, finite difference method. Nested square meshes of sizes 160 m×160 m and 80 m×80 m have been used and the steady-state condition of aquifer system was simulated in the model assuming the June 1992 water level configuration under equilibrium conditions. The model has been calibrated for transient conditions incorporating additional seepage from the water harvesting structures and their contribution to the groundwater regime has been assessed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dissecting the effect of rainfall variability on the statistical structure of peak flows

This study examines the role of rainfall variability on the spatial scaling structure of peak flows using the Whitewater River basin in Kansas as an illustration. Specifically, we investigate the effect of rainfall on the scatter, the scale break and the power law (peak flows vs. upstream areas) regression exponent. We illustrate why considering individual hydrographs at the outlet of a basin can lead to misleading interpretations of the effects of rainfall variability. We begin with the simple scenario of a basin receiving spatially uniform rainfall of varying intensities and durations and subsequently investigate the role of storm advection velocity, storm variability characterized by variance, spatial correlation and intermittency. Finally, we use a realistic space–time rainfall field obtained from a popular rainfall model that combines the aforementioned features. For each of these scenarios, we employ a recent formulation of flow velocity for a network of channels, assume idealized conditions of runoff generation and flow dynamics and calculate peak flow scaling exponents, which are then compared to the scaling exponent of the width function maxima. Our results show that the peak flow scaling exponent is always larger than the width function scaling exponent. The simulation scenarios are used to identify the smaller scale basins, whose response is dominated by the rainfall variability and the larger scale basins, which are driven by rainfall volume, river network aggregation and flow dynamics. The rainfall variability has a greater impact on peak flows at smaller scales. The effect of rainfall variability is reduced for larger scale basins as the river network aggregates and smoothes out the storm variability. The results obtained from simple scenarios are used to make rigorous interpretations of the peak flow scaling structure that is obtained from rainfall generated with the space–time rainfall model and realistic rainfall fields derived from NEXRAD radar data.     

Parameterization of the porous-material model for sand with different levels of water saturation

The experimental results for the mechanical response of sand (at different levels of saturation with water) under shock-loading conditions generated by researchers at Cavendish [Bragov AM, Lomunov AK, Sergeichev IV, Tsembelis K, Proud WG. The determination of physicomechanical properties of soft soils from medium to high strain rates, November 2005, in preparation; Chapman DJ, Tsembelis K, Proud WG. The behavior of water saturated sand under shock-loading. In: Proceedings of the 2006 SEM annual conference and exposition on experimental and applied mechanics, vol. 2, 2006.p.834–40] are used to parameterize our recently developed material model for sand [Grujicic M, Pandurangan B, Cheeseman B. The effect of degree of saturation of sand on detonation phenomena associated with shallow-buried and ground-laid mines. J Shock Vib 2006;13:41–61]. The model was incorporated into a general-purpose non-linear dynamics simulation program to carry out a number of simulation analyses pertaining to the detonation of a landmine buried in sand and to the interactions of the detonation products, mine fragments and sand ejecta with various targets. A comparison of the computed results with their experimental counterparts revealed a somewhat improved agreement with the experimental results in the case of the present model as compared to the agreement between the widely used porous-material/compaction model for sand and the experiments.     

Wavelet‐based simulation of spectrum‐compatible aftershock accelerograms

In damage‐based seismic design it is desirable to account for the ability of aftershocks to cause further damage to an already damaged structure due to the main shock. Availability of recorded or simulated aftershock accelerograms is a critical component in the non‐linear time‐history analyses required for this purpose, and simulation of realistic accelerograms is therefore going to be the need of the profession for a long time to come. This paper attempts wavelet‐based simulation of aftershock accelerograms for two scenarios. In the first scenario, recorded main shock and aftershock accelerograms are available along with the pseudo‐spectral acceleration (PSA) spectrum of the anticipated main shock motion, and an accelerogram has been simulated for the anticipated aftershock motion such that it incorporates temporal features of the recorded aftershock accelerogram. In the second scenario, a recorded main shock accelerogram is available along with the PSA spectrum of the anticipated main shock motion and PSA spectrum and strong motion duration of the anticipated aftershock motion. Here, the accelerogram for the anticipated aftershock motion has been simulated assuming that temporal features of the main shock accelerogram are replicated in the aftershock accelerograms at the same site. The proposed algorithms have been illustrated with the help of the main shock and aftershock accelerograms recorded for the 1999 Chi–Chi earthquake. It has been shown that the proposed algorithm for the second scenario leads to useful results even when the main shock and aftershock accelerograms do not share the same temporal features, as long as strong motion duration of the anticipated aftershock motion is properly estimated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of daily sediment discharge using a back propagation neural network training algorithm: A case study of the Narmada River,India

Most of the studies on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models remain restricted to smaller rivers and catchments. In this paper, an attempt has been made to correlate variability of sediment loads with rainfall and runoff through the application of the Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) algorithm for a large tropical river. The algorithm and simulation are done through MATLAB environment. The methodology comprised of a collection of data on rainfall, water discharge, and sediment discharge for the Narmada River at various locations (along with time variables) and application to develop a threelayer BPNN model for the prediction of sediment discharges. For training and validation purposes a set of 549 data points for the monsoon (16 June-15 November) period of three consecutive years (1996–1998) was used. For testing purposes, the BPNN model was further trained using a set of 732 data points of monsoon season of four years (2006–07 to 2009–10) at nine stations. The model was tested by predicting daily sediment load for the monsoon season of the year 2010–11. To evaluate the performance of the BPNN model, errors were calculated by comparing the actual and predicted loads. The validation and testing results obtained at all these locations are tabulated and discussed. Results obtained from the model application are robust and encouraging not only for the sub-basins but also for the entire basin. These results suggest that the proposed model is capable of predicting the daily sediment load even at downstream locations, which show nonlinearity in the transportation process. Overall, the proposed model with further training might be useful in the prediction of sediment discharges for large river basins.     

Scaling of residual displacements in terms of elastic and inelastic spectral displacements for existing SDOF systems

Structures undergoing inelastic displacements during earthquake ground motions are known to sustain some amount of residual displacements, which may make them unusable or unsafe. In this study an attempt is made to estimate residual displacements for elastic-perfectly-plastic single-degree-of-freedom oscillators with a given lateral strength ratio. It is observed in the case of a class of ground motions that there are no trends in the dependence of residual displacement on the temporal features of the ground motion, and thus any estimation of residual displacements should be carried out only in the statistical sense. Statistical estimation of residual displacement spectrum via normalization with respect to inelastic or elastic spectral displacements is considered, and it is found that normalization with respect to inelastic spectral displacements is preferable. Expressions for residual displacement spectra are proposed for both types of normalizations and for the givenlateral-strength-ratio type oscillators.     

Categories are in flux,but their computational representations are fixed: That's a problem

As research advances, our conceptual understanding also changes. Computational approaches do little to recognize the evolution that occurs at the conceptual level during the research process. This can result in misunderstanding between knowledge producers and consumers and so inhibit the reusability of outcomes. In this article, we describe how changes at the conceptual level can be represented, along with related changes to data and methods, and how appropriate connections between these various artefacts can be maintained. To demonstrate these ideas, we show how categories used in remote sensing and land cover analysis change over time and how these changes are linked to various research activities. We present a new system (called AdvoCate) that augments typical GIS and remote sensing functionality with a conceptual model of categories that can undergo change, and that also captures the cause of conceptual change and its extent. We argue that concepts and categories should be represented explicitly and richly within GIS, because without this, we have a poor idea of what our modeled entities really mean, and by implication how they should be used appropriately. We demonstrate the usefulness of this deeper representation using examples of category evolution from a land cover mapping exercise.     

Comprehensive evaluation of soil moisture retrieval models under different crop cover types using C-band synthetic aperture radar data

In the present study, random forest regression (RFR), support vector regression (SVR) and artificial neural network regression (ANNR) models were evaluated for the retrieval of soil moisture covered by winter wheat, barley and corn crops. SVR with radial basis function kernel was provided the highest adj. R² (0.95) value for soil moisture retrieval covered by the wheat crop at VV polarization. However, RFR provided the adj. R² (0.94) value for soil moisture retrieval covered by barley crop at VV polarization using Sentinel-1A satellite data. The adj. R² (0.94) values were found for the soil moisture covered by corn crop at VV polarization using RFR, SVR linear and radial basis function kernels. The least performance was reported using ANNR model for almost all the crops under investigation. The soil moisture retrieval outcomes were found better at VV polarization in comparison to VH polarization using three different models.