Camacho inlet southern Brazil - Instability causes and user conflicts

Inlet stabilization is a common practice in Brazil, as it is worldwide. In this paper we present results of the analysis of the stabilization practices of the Camacho Inlet, located in Santa Catarina State, southern Brazil. This inlet is maintained intermittently, in accordance with a regime designed to benefit both local fishermen and rice farmers. Fishermen require this inlet to be open as a navigation channel during the fishing season; rice farmers needs it closed during the irrigation period to allow the pumping of fresh water from the Congonhas River which drains into the Camacho’s backbarrier lagoon. An additional complication arises from the tendency of this inlet to close naturally due to infilling by dune migration. Aerial images spanning a 65 year time period (1938-2003) were analyzed, demonstrating the variability in the inlet’s width between 0 (closed) and 360 m. The analysis of inlet stability and user needs indicate that an appropriate solution is the implementation of an annual inlet dredging program in the austral autumn. This would allow for the inlet to remain open from May to September and then close naturally for the rest of the year, providing for a backbarrier fresh water reservoir during the irrigation period.     

High-Order Block Support Spatial Simulation Method and Its Application at a Gold Deposit

Mathematical Geosciences - High-order sequential simulation methods have been developed as an alternative to existing frameworks to facilitate the modeling of the spatial complexity of non-Gaussian...     

Potential of legacy 2D seismic data for deep targeting and structural imaging at the Neves–Corvo massive sulphide-bearing deposit,Portugal

Seismic methods are becoming an established choice for deep mineral exploration after being extensively tested and employed for the past two decades. To investigate whether the early European mineral-exploration datasets had potential for seismic imaging that was overlooked, we recovered a low-fold legacy seismic dataset from the Neves–Corvo mine site in the Iberian Pyrite Belt in southern Portugal. This dataset comprises six 4–6 km long profiles acquired in 1996 for deep targeting. Using today's industry-scale processing algorithms, the world-class, ca. 150 Mt, Lombador massive sulphide and other smaller deposits were better imaged. Additionally, we also reveal a number of shallow but steeply dipping reflections that were absent in the original processing results. This study highlights that legacy seismic data are valuable and should be revisited regularly to take advantage of new processing algorithms and the experiences gained from processing such data in hard-rock environments elsewhere. Remembering that an initial processing job in hard rock should always aim to first obtain an overall image of the subsurface and make reflections visible, and then subsequent goals of the workflow could be set to, for example understanding relative amplitude ratios. The imaging of the known mineralization implies that this survey could likely have been among one of the pioneer studies in the world that demonstrated the capability of directly imaging massive sulphide deposits using the seismic method.     

Structure-from-motion photogrammetry analysis of historical aerial photography: Determining beach volumetric change over decadal scales

Historical aerial photographs are an invaluable tool in shoreline mapping and change detection in coastal landscapes. We evaluate the extent to which structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric methods can be applied to quantify volumetric changes along sandy beaches, using archival imagery. We demonstrate the application of SfM-derived digital surface models (DSMs) at East Beach and Lady Bay in southwest Victoria, Australia, using photographic datasets taken in 1969, 1977 and 1986, and compare them to LiDAR-derived DSMs acquired at both sites in 2007. The SfM approaches resulted in two entire and two partial suitable DSMs out of six datasets. Good-quality DSMs were spatially continuous with a good spread of ground control points (GCPs) near the beach at Lady Bay, whereas unsuitable DSMs were mostly restricted by poor distribution and number of GCPs in spatially segmented areas of East Beach, due to limited overlapping of images, possible poor quality of GCPs and also the propagation of errors in the derived point clouds. A volume of approximately 223 000 ± 72 000 m³ was deposited at Lady Bay between 1969 and 2007, despite minimal erosion observed near the breakwater. The partially suitable dataset of East Beach indicated that beach erosion of at least 39 m³ m⁻¹ occurred immediately to the east of the seawall after 1977. We also discuss the drawbacks and strengths of SfM approaches as a benchmark of historical erosion assessments along sandy beaches. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating the molecular systematic relationships amongst selected Plesionika (Decapoda: Pandalidae) from the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea

Despite the high number of species and ecological diversity of pandalid shrimps, there has been no previous attempt to resolve evolutionary relationships of several genera using molecular tools. Although mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I (COI) is widely used in barcoding studies to delimit species boundaries, additional insights into phylogenetic affinities can be obtained, especially when used in combination with data from additional genes. The knowledge of molecular diversity is essential to understand phylogenetic relationships and will help systematic clarifications. Based on partial fragments of the 16S and COI genes, we have focused specifically on addressing the systematic relationships of the economically and ecologically important shrimp genus Plesionika within a framework of five genera from within the Pandalidae. Our results showed that species within Plesionika are substantially divergent when compared with other genera, exhibiting the highest average nucleotide divergence, with 0.1123 and 0.0846 in COI and 16S genes, respectively. In addition, sequence divergence was found to vary greatly within the genus Plesionika (COI/16S): 0.0247/0.0016 between Plesionika antigai and Plesionika heterocarpus and 0.1616/0.098 between Plesionika heterocarpus and Plesionika edwardsii. We did not find amino acid sequence divergence between P. heterocarpus and P. antigai compared with P. heterocarpus and P. edwardsii (8.10%, K2P distance). Three species of Plesionika (P. antigai, P. heterocarpus and Plesionika scopifera) appear well separated from other Plesionika species in both maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. The present study confirms the utility of COI over 16S as a genetic marker to resolve relationships between different species of Plesionika from the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, in addition to species delimitation. The findings highlight the need to further review paraphyly within Plesionika in an attempt to recognize a concordance in the evolutionary history of Plesionika with major ecological and geological events.     

Application of SASHA to seismic hazard assessment for Portugal mainland

In the frame of the UPStrat-MAFA “Urban Disaster Prevention Strategies Using MAcroseismic Fields and FAult Sources” project, seismic hazard has been assessed in Portugal in terms of macroseismic intensity. Assessment has been performed by using a probabilistic approach based on the statistical analysis of local seismic histories (i.e., the record of seismic effects at each locality) performed by a new version of the SASHA code (D’Amico and Albarello in Res Lett 79(5):663–671, 2008) on purpose modified to account for this specific area of study. Local seismic histories are reconstructed by considering documented effects or indirect estimates deduced from epicentral information or numerical simulations. All these pieces of evidence are combined taking into account relevant uncertainty and statistical completeness of information locally available. Distribution of expected maximum intensity (i.e., the maximum intensity characterized by a fixed exceedance probability for a exposure time of 50 years) has been obtained and compared with the one deduced from alternative approaches.     

Forest Fire Alert System: a Geo Web GIS prioritization model considering land susceptibility and hotspots – a case study in the Carajás National Forest,Brazilian Amazon

To increase the monitoring potential of forest fires, an alert classification methodology using satellite-mapped hotspots has been established to help forest managers in the prioritization of which hotspot to be verified in the field, thus potentially improving the distribution of fire-fighting resources. A computer application was developed based on web-distributed geographical information technology whose main function is to interact automatically generated satellite hotspots and risk areas indicated in fire-susceptibility maps and classify them into five alert levels. The location of the hotspots is available continuously every 4 h, and a susceptibility map is produced daily through map algebra algorithm, which uses static (topography, vegetation and land use) and dynamic (weather) variables. Every process runs through automated geoprocessing routines. The methodology was tested during the dry period of 2007 in the Carajás National Forest, in the Brazilian Amazon, within an area of 400,000 ha. It is a critical area constantly threatened by fires caused by invasions and deforestation owing to intense agribusiness advances and mining activities in its surroundings. This situation results in observations of many hotspots inside the study area for the same day and almost the same time period, in places of extreme opposites, demanding complex rapid analysis and hindering the decision of the displacement of fire-fighting teams. Further, a major mining company operates within the National Forest area, maintaining actions of protection as part of its environmental mining license. Results are presented under three aspects: (i) the credibility of the daily susceptibility map (algorithm), which showed strong correlation between areas of greatest risks and the confirmed forest fires; (ii) the reliability of hotspots (alert levels), confirming 71% of fires; (iii) accuracy in the decision of which hotspot to be checked, which revealed the same number of verifications at different alert levels, 82% confirmed alert 5 hotspots (maximum) and only 50% from alert 1 (minimum), resulting in faster fire-fighting actions, minimizing burned areas and, in some cases, allowing fire control before its spreading. Therefore, the methodology demonstrated that GIS routines are able to determine the relationship between a reality-based, interpreted susceptibility map of the area and satellite-generated hotspots, highlighting the ones of highest hazard level through the alert classification, becoming an important tool to help decisions from the fire-control center, especially for high-risk regions. The methodology may be extrapolated to other forested areas.