Hydrology,hydrogeology and hydrochemistry of wetlands: a case study in Izmir Bird Paradise,Turkey

Izmir Bird Paradise is one of the most valuable wetlands in Turkey, but this area is now being threatened by the drying out of marshes and water pollution. This wetland consists of two ecosystems: fresh- and saltwater. The recharge of marshes is from rainfall, the Gediz River and groundwater from Can Suyu Pond. The water type of the river is Ca-Mg-Na-HCO₃-SO₄, whereas the groundwater is a Na-Cl water type. The reasons for the drying are long-term drought (evapotranspiration at 894 mm is >> rainfall at 546 mm), and excessive pumping of groundwater and seawater intrusion into Menemen Plain. Therefore, an additional freshwater resource is necessary. This water can be supplied from the limestone levels of Neogene sedimentary rocks in and around Izmir Bird Paradise that have a Ca-HCO₃ water type. Water pollution levels were also analysed. In the freshwater ecosystem Cd, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb and Zn values, in the open channel in Izmir Bird Paradise Sb, Fe, Ni and Cd values, and in the river Fe, Pb and Sb values exceed the TSE 266 and EPA 2000 standards probably due to agricultural and industrial sources.     

Assessing factors affecting drought,earthquake, and flood risk perception: empirical evidence from Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Understanding household disaster risk perception is crucial to formulate and apply disaster risk reduction strategies. Using survey data from 300 households from three highly...     

Evaluations of heavy metal pollution in sediment and Mullus barbatus from the Izmir Bay (Eastern Aegean) during 1997-2009

Izmir Bay is one of the great natural bays of the Mediterranean. The surface sediment and fish samples were collected during 1997-2009. The sediment concentrations of inner bay showed significant enrichments during sampling periods. Outer and middle bays exhibited low levels of metal enrichments except the estuary of Gediz River. The concentrations were generally higher than the background levels from the Mediterranean and Aegean except Cd and Pb levels gradually decreased. Metal EF is used as an index to evaluate anthropogenic influences of metals in sediments. Maximum metal enrichment was found for Hg in the outer bay, while Pb indicated maximum enrichment in the middle-inner bays. Metal levels were evaluated in sediments in accordance with the numerical SQG of the USEPA. The levels of fish tissues were lower than the results reported from polluted areas of the Mediterranean. The highest BAFs were detected for Hg and Cd in fish.     

Identifying spatial heterogeneity of coal resource quality in a multilayer coal deposit by multivariate geostatistics

This study presents a new geostatistical approach to characterization of the geometry and quality of a multilayer coal deposit using the data of seam thickness as a geometric property and the contents of ash, sodium, total sulphur, and the heating value as quality properties. A coal deposit in East Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia, which has a synclinal geological structure, was chosen as the study site. Semivariogram analysis clarified the strong dependence of heating value on ash content in the top and bottom parts of each seam and the existence of a strong correlation with sodium content over the sub-seams in the same location. The correlations between the geometry and quality of the seams were generally weak. A linear coregionalization model was used to derive the spatial correlation coefficients of two variables at each scale component from the single- and cross-semivariogram matrices. Because the data were correlated spatially in the same seam or over different seams, multivariate techniques (ordinary cokriging and factorial cokriging) were mainly used and the resultant spatial estimates were compared to those derived using a univariate technique (ordinary kriging). A factorial cokriging was effective to decompose the spatial correlation structures with different scales. Another important characteristic was that the sodium content shows distinct segregation: the low zones are concentrated near the boundary of the sedimentary basin, while the high zones are concentrated in the central part. The main component of sodium originates from the abundance of saline water. Therefore, it can be inferred that seawater had stronger effects on the coal depositional process in the central basin than in the border part. The geostatistical modeling results suggest that the thicknesses of all the major seams were controlled by the syncline structure, while the coal qualities chiefly were originated from the coal depositional and diagenetic processes.     

Using time-lapse 4D seismic to monitor saturation changes in carbonate reservoirs

In the past ten years, time-lapse (4D) seismic has evolved as a standard way of monitoring reservoir performance. The method is now being used as good reservoir management practice to provide evidence of saturation changes within the reservoir at field scale. 4D provides a new piece of data describing the dynamic behavior of the reservoir fluids between the wells, often limited to small scale monitoring at the borehole scale. Thus, it provides sophisticated techniques for reservoir monitoring and management relying on the integration of geological models, static and dynamic properties of the reservoir rock, and detailed production and pressure field data.While 4D seismic data has been very successful in monitoring hydrocarbon production from clastic reservoirs, this work has focused on implementing 4D time lapse to monitor saturation changes in carbonate reservoirs and it’s capability to be used as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) tool that can help in enhancing the recovery factor for the filed and help to locate new drilling to sweep more oil out of the reservoir and locate the by-pass oil.The principal goal of this research was to detect the maximum change in seismic attributes (amplitude, acoustic impedance, travel time) that could occur as a result of oil production, water and gas injection in carbonate reservoirs by using time-lapse 4D seismic.     

Adaptive state estimation of groundwater contaminant boundary input flux in a 2-dimensional aquifer

In many circumstances involving heat and mass transfer issues,it is considered impractical to measure the input flux and the resulting state distribution in the domain.Therefore,the need to develop techniques to provide solutions for such problems and estimate the inverse mass flux becomes imperative.Adaptive state estimator(ASE)is increasingly becoming a popular inverse estimation technique which resolves inverse problems by incorporating the semi-Markovian concept into a Bayesian estimation technique,thereby developing an inverse input and state estimator consisting of a bank of parallel adaptively weighted Kalman filters.The ASE is particularly designed for a system that encompasses independent unknowns and/or random switching of input and measurement biases.The present study describes the scheme to estimate the groundwater input contaminant flux and its transient distribution in a conjectural two-dimensional aquifer by means of ASE,which in particular is because of its unique ability to efficiently handle the process noise giving an estimation of keeping the relative error range within 10%in 2-dimensional problems.Numerical simulation results show that the proposed estimator presents decent estimation performance for both smoothly and abruptly varying input flux scenarios.Results also show that ASE enjoys a better estimation performance than its competitor,Recursive Least Square Estimator(RLSE)due to its larger error tolerance in greater process noise regimes.ASE's inherent deficiency of being slower than the RLSE,resulting from the complexity of algorithm,was also noticed.The chosen input scenarios are tested to calculate the effect of input area and both estimators show improved results with an increase in input flux area especially as sensors are moved closer to the assumed input location.     

Volcanic gaps due to oblique consumption of aseismic ridges

The present-day consumption of oceanic ridges and other buoyant rises and fragments at circum-Pacific subduction zones, and presumably elsewhere, are closely related to existing gaps in volcanism. Examples are the gaps associated with the Nazca, Juan Fernandez, Cocos, Marcus-Necker and Louisville ridges. The buoyancy of these ridges breaks the continuity of the subducted plate, which may lead to reduced water supply required for melting of magma, and therefore create temporary volcanic gaps. The oblique consumption of these ridges causes the gap to migrate with time. This mechanism may be useful in interpreting time-space patterns of past volcanic chains associated with subduction in terms of the consumption of the disruptive oceanic plateaus and ridges.     

Stabilization of tropical kaolin soil with phosphoric acid and lime

Studies on the chemically stabilized soils have shown that the effectiveness of treatment is largely dependent on soil’s natural environment. In tropical kaolin soils, phosphoric acid may be used as an alternative to traditional alkaline stabilizers for improving soil properties. This research was carried out in an effort to identify the time-dependent soil-stabilizer reactions. Data for the study of characterization of treated samples were obtained from X-ray diffractometry, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and leaching analysis. Based on the collected data, the kaolinite mineral with pH-dependent structural properties showed slightly different behavior both in basic and in acidic mediums. Also, it was found that the chemical stabilizers preferentially attacked the alumina surface of the clay particles. Therefore, it was rational to suggest that with respect to lime and phosphoric acid treatment, aluminate hydrate compounds are more likely to be formed.     

Temperature variability caused by internal tides in the coastal waters of east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

The effects of tidal currents (i.e., barotropic and internal tides) are important in the biogeochemistry of a coastal shelf sea. The high-frequency of currents and near-bottom temperatures collected in three consecutive southwest monsoon seasons (May, June, July and August of 2013 until 2015) is presented to reveal the role of the tidal currents to the temperature variability in the coastal shelf sea of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (ECPM), south of the South China Sea (SCS). The results of a spectral density and harmonic analysis demonstrate that the near-bottom temperature variability and the tidal currents are influenced by diurnal (O₁ and K₁) and semidiurnal (M₂) tidal currents. The spectral density of residual currents (detided data) at 5, 10 and 16 m depth also shows significant peaks at the diurnal tidal frequency (K₁) and small peaks at the semidiurnal tidal frequency (M₂) indicating the existence of internal tides. The result of the horizontal kinetic energy (HKE) shows a strong intermittent energy of internal tides in the ECPM with the strongest energy is found at 16 m depth during a sporadic cooling event in June and July. A high horizontal cross-shore heat flux (16 m) also indicates strong intrusions of cooler water into the ECPM in June and July. During the short duration of cold pulse water observed in June and July, a cross-wavelet analysis also reveals the strong relationship between the near-bottom temperatures and the internal tidal currents at the diurnal tidal frequency. The intrusion of this cooler water is probably related to the monsoon-induced upwelling in June. It is loosely interpreted that the interaction between the strong barotropic tides and the steep slope in the central basin of the SCS under the stratified condition in southwest monsoon has generated these internal tides. The dissipation of internal tides from the slope area probably has driven the cold-upwelled water into the ECPM coastal shelf sea when the upwelling intensity is the highest in June and July.