Statistical Relationship Between UVB(280-320nm) and Broadband Solar Radiation(295-2800nm) at a Subtropical Location(Qena,Egypt)

The present study quantifies the relationship between ultraviolet-B(UVB) and broadband solar radiation(G) at Qena,Egypt.Data from 10-year hourly integrated totals for both UVB and G on a horizontal surface were used to determine the best fit between the two radiation types.On the basis of the correlation of determination(r2),a second-order polynomial was determined to provide the best fit.For the purpose of developing an empirical model to estimate UVB,all of the cases of UVB and G from a nine-year study from 2001 to 2009 were introduced.Monthly and seasonal empirical models,as well as a general expression,were established for UVB as a function of G.The values of r2 ranged from 0.90 to 0.97.By using a new dataset of G,the estimated and the corresponding measured values of UVB were determined to be in good agreement whereby the values of r2 between the two ranged from 0.91 to 0.98.In addition,the significance and performance of the regression forms were evaluated with the aid of several statistical analysis procedures.The values of the index of modeling(d) and coefficient of modeling efficiency(ME) were close to one.Moreover,the values of RMSE,mean bias error(MBE),and mean absolute error(MAE) were lower than the experimental errors.On the basis of this analysis,it has been determined that the suggested regression forms can be used to estimate UVB when it difficult to obtain measurements or when measurements are available only for limited periods at the studied region.     

Design and implementation of a voluntary collective earthquake insurance policy to cover low-income homeowners in a developing country

Understanding and evaluating disaster risk due to natural hazard events such as earthquakes creates powerful incentives for countries to develop planning options and tools to reduce potential damages. The use of models for earthquake risk evaluation allows obtaining outputs such as the loss exceedance curve, the expected annual loss and the probable maximum loss, which are probabilistic metrics useful for risk analyses, for designing strategies for risk reduction and mitigation, for emergency response strategies and for risk financing. This article presents, based on probabilistic risk models, the design and implementation of a risk transfer instrument to cover the private buildings of the city of Manizales, Colombia. This voluntary collective instrument provides financial protection to both, the estate tax payers and the low-income homeowners through a cross-subsidy strategy; besides, it promotes not only the insurance culture but also the solidarity of the community. The city administration and the insurance industry are promoting this program using the mechanism of the property tax payment. This collective insurance helps the government to access key resources for low-income householders recovery and improve disaster risk management at local level.     

Extreme water levels along the central Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia: processes and frequency analysis

Natural Hazards - Knowledge about extreme water levels is essential for efficient planning and design of coastal infrastructure. This study uses a high-resolution (~?60 m) coupled...     

Parametric study using FEM for the stability of the RCC Tannur dam

Parametric study was carried out in this paper using the Finite Element Method (FEM) to study the effects of variations of the two parameters, i.e., variations in batter slope and foundation properties under static and dynamic loading conditions on the distribution of the peak stresses within the dam and foundation soils. The response spectra for the operating basis earthquake (OBE) and the maximum credible earthquake (MCE) were used in the dynamic analysis. It is shown that the distribution of peak stresses across base of dam and the extent of tensile zone on the foundation soils at the foundation level vary with the variations in the batter slope. Generally, as the batter slope increases the extent of the tensile zone at the foundation level decreases but not necessarily the maximum tensile stresses. However, an optimum batter slope could be achieved based on the results of this parametric study. It should be noted that the greatest tension is developed in the rock adjacent to the toe of the batter. For the foundation mechanical properties, it has been shown that the assessment of accurate soil mechanical properties has a great effect on the computed design stresses from finite element analysis. However, the greatest effect of the foundation properties was on the stresses at the base of dam while it has a negligible effect within the dam body.     

Incipient boninitic arc crust built on denudated mantle: the Khantaishir ophiolite (western Mongolia)

The ~ 570 Ma old Khantaishir ophiolite is built by up to 4 km harzburgitic mantle with abundant pyroxenites and dunites followed by ~ 2 km of hornblende-gabbros and gabbronorites and by a ~ 2.5 km thick volcanic unit composed of a dyke + sill complex capped by pillow lavas and some volcanoclastics. The volcanics are mainly basaltic andesites and andesites (or boninites) with an average of 58.2 ± 1.0 wt% SiO₂, X _Mg = 0.61 ± 0.03 (X _Mg = molar MgO/(MgO + FeO^tot), TiO₂ = 0.4 ± 0.1 wt% and CaO = 7.5 ± 0.6 wt% (errors as 2σ). Normalized trace element patterns show positive anomalies for Pb and Sr, a negative Nb-anomaly, large ion lithophile elements (LILE) concentrations between N- and E-MORB and distinctly depleted HREE. These characteristics indicate that the Khantaishir volcanics were derived from a refractory mantle source modified by a moderate slab-component, similar to boninites erupted along the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction system and to the Troodos and Betts Cove ophiolites. Most strikingly and despite almost complete outcrops over 260 km², there is no remnant of any pre-existing MORB crust, suggesting that the magmatic suite of this ophiolite formed on completely denudated mantle, most likely upon subduction initiation. The architecture of this 4–5 km thick early arc crust resembles oceanic crust formed at mid ocean ridges, but lacks a sheeted dyke complex; volcanic edifices are not observed. Nevertheless, low melting pressures combined with moderate H₂O-contents resulted in high-Si primitive melts, in abundant hornblende-gabbros and in a fast enrichment in bulk SiO₂. Fractional crystallization modeling starting from the observed primitive melts (56.6 wt% SiO₂) suggests that 25 wt% pyroxene + plagioclase fractionation is sufficient to form the average Khantaishir volcanic crust. Most of the fractionation happened in the mantle, the observed pyroxenite lenses and layers in and at the top of the harzburgites account for the required cumulate volumes. Finally, the multiply documented occurrence of highly depleted boninites during subduction initiation suggests a causal relationship of subduction initiation and highly depleted mantle. Possibly, a discontinuity between dense fertile and buoyant depleted mantle contributes to the sinking of the future dense subducting plate, while the buoyant depleted mantle of the future overriding plate forms the infant mantle wedge.     

Extraction of soil moisture from RADARSAT-1 and its role in the formation of the 6 December 2008 landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa,Kuala Lumpur

Active microwave has a huge potential in the estimation of soil moisture especially over large areas where the meteorological observations are seldom. The large contrast in dielectric constant between different types of soil is considered as the main factor for measuring the moisture content. This study is aimed at the extraction of soil moisture over the areas of Bukit Antarabangsa, Malaysia using active microwave remote sensing technique in order to examine the impact of moisture content dynamically on landslides occurrence, which have been a basic challenge that threaten Bukit Antarabangsa area, particularly in falling of monsoon seasons. This study addressed a specific event that took place in 6 December 2008 due to a very high level of precipitation that resulted in a raise in ground water table causing the occurrence of landslide. One Radarsat-1 image acquired in July 2008 before the landslide was used for generating the moisture content map. The resultant moisture content map showed a reasonable distribution of the moisture concentrated over the forest areas which has previous records landslides. Moreover, it was found that the previous landslide events were within the high moisture zone indicating the presence of high moisture content. Subsequently, three moisture maps were extracted from Landsat-7 ETM+, which were then used for validation process. A statistically based validation technique was used by calculating area under the curve that correlates the high moisture values of three images. In order to validate the Landsat-7 ETM+ moisture content, monthly rainfall data was plotted against the high moisture values derived from three Landsat-7 images. The validation result indicated an acceptable compatibility. The spatial relation between high moisture areas in Landsat-7 ETM+ images along the year resulted in a good fitting in the high–low moisture distribution areas with sensitivity ranged of 60–70 %. Finally, the moisture content map generated by Radarsat-1 was validated using a landslide inventory map. The resultant validation produced an area under curve of 0.704 (70 %).     

Forming Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in few million years by core accretion

Giant planet formation process is still not completely understood. The current most accepted paradigm, the core instability model, explains several observed properties of the Solar System’s giant planets but, to date, has faced difficulties to account for a formation time shorter than the observational estimates of protoplanetary disks’ lifetimes, especially for the cases of Uranus and Neptune. In the context of this model, and considering a recently proposed primordial Solar System orbital structure, we performed numerical calculations of giant planet formation. Our results show that if accreted planetesimals follow a size distribution in which most of the mass lies in 30-100 m sized bodies, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may have formed according to the nucleated instability scenario. The formation of each planet occurs within the time constraints and they end up with core masses in good agreement with present estimations.     

Features of soil redistribution and major element migration in a karst hillslope of Southwest China

In this study, we investigated the spatial characteristics of the rate of soil distribution and the mechanism of major element migration in a typical karst hillslope in Guangxi Province, Southwestern China. Soil redistribution was examined using ¹³⁷Cs technique under different hillslope components. With the combination of geochemical methods, the migration characteristics of major elements in soils of three hillslope components in both the horizontal and vertical directions were determined. Thirty-seven soil samples were collected and analyzed for ¹³⁷Cs and the major elements were determined. By using the profile distribution model the mean soil redistribution rates were found to be -17.01, 0.40 and -23.30 t ha^-1 yr^-1 in the summit (BYSD), shoulder (BYSY) and toeslope (BYSJ) components of the studied hillslope, respectively. In comparison to BYSD, the sesquioxides of Fe₂O₃ and TiO₂ tend to be enriched, whereas the alkalis (CaO, MgO, Na₂O and K₂O) tend to be depleted, both in the shoulder and toeslope components. Due to human and animal activities, the contents of CaO, MgO, K2O and Na₂O have somewhat increased within the topsoil. The results indicated that ¹³⁷Cs activities are significantly correlated with clay particles and organic matter, and are affected by the pedogenic process and vegatation. Overall, it maybe necessary to use techniques such as ¹³⁷Cs to investigate soil erosion with the combination of geochemical methods.