Application of probabilistic-based frequency ratio model in groundwater potential mapping using remote sensing data and GIS

The main goal of this study is to investigate the application of the probabilistic-based frequency ratio (FR) model in groundwater potential mapping at Langat basin in Malaysia using geographical information system. So far, the approach of probabilistic frequency ratio model has not yet been used to delineate groundwater potential in Malaysia. Moreover, this study includes the analysis of the spatial relationships between groundwater yield and various hydrological conditioning factors such as elevation, slope, curvature, river, lineament, geology, soil, and land use for this region. Eight groundwater-related factors were collected and extracted from topographic data, geological data, satellite imagery, and published maps. About 68 groundwater data with high potential yield values of ≥11 m³/h were randomly selected using statistical software of SPSS. Then, the groundwater data were randomly split into a training dataset 70 % (48 borehole data) for training the model and the remaining 30 % (20 borehole data) was used for validation purpose. Finally, the frequency ratio coefficients of the hydrological factors were used to generate the groundwater potential map. The validation dataset which was not used during the FR modeling process was used to validate the groundwater potential map using the prediction rate method. The validation results showed that the area under the curve for frequency model is 84.78 %. As far as the performance of the FR approach is concerned, the results appeared to be quite satisfactory, i.e., the zones determined on the map being zones of relative groundwater potential. This information could be used by government agencies as well as private sectors as a guide for groundwater exploration and assessment in Malaysia.     

Coupling effect of ozone column and atmospheric infrared sounder data reveal evidence of earthquake precursor phenomena of Bam earthquake,Iran

Understanding the source mechanism of earthquakes may be the key to predict earthquakes. The testing of radioactive radiations and reactionary hypothesis of gases before and after quake events can help predict and monitor earthquake occurrence. In this study, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the column ozone (O₃) were applied to evaluate the December 26, 2003 earthquake of Bam city in western Iran. The results show that ozone concentration (column density) decreased about 30 DU and or 807?×?10E15/cm² molecules. Using high-resolution AIRS data for the study area, we were able to discriminate gases that formed and changed before the main shock at least a day before the occurrence of the quake in Bam.     

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 %).     

Manifestation of remote sensing data and GIS on landslide hazard analysis using spatial-based statistical models

This paper presents landslide hazard analysis at Cameron area, Malaysia, using a geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing data. Landslide locations were identified from interpretation of aerial photographs and field surveys. Topographical and geological data and satellite images were collected, processed, and constructed into a spatial database using GIS and image processing. The factors chosen that influence landslide occurrence are topographic slope, topographic aspect, topographic curvature, and distance to rivers, all from the topographic database; lithology and distance to faults were taken from the geologic database; land cover from TM satellite image; the vegetation index value was taken from Landsat images; and precipitation distribution from meteorological data. Landslide hazard area was analyzed and mapped using the landslide occurrence factors by frequency ratio and bivariate logistic regression models. The results of the analysis were verified using the landslide location data and compared with the probabilistic models. The validation results showed that the frequency ratio model (accuracy is 89.25%) is better in prediction of landslide than bivariate logistic regression (accuracy is 85.73%) model.     

Tensile Strength of Rock Under Elevated Temperatures

Rock strength affects the behaviour of rocks differently under different conditions such as temperature, time, pressure, presence of fluids, rock mass characteristics and stress history of rock in a natural environment. It is not always easy to replicate such conditions of undisturbed rock in a laboratory scale. Hence, it is imperative to study the rock behaviour with respect to every such condition which the rock experiences since its time of formation. Temperature is one of the key parameters which influence the rock throughout its history, ranging from the conditions of formation, experience of depth (loading/unloading) or deformational and metamorphic history. Also, increase in rock temperature; say due to the thermal stress changes like disposal of spent nuclear fuels affects the strength of the surrounding rock. In this work, the effects of temperature on the tensile strength of rock have been studied. The results obtained were interesting as the strength of rock is found to increase considerably up to a particular temperature after which it starts falling by as much as 70% around 250°C.     

A recent scenario of mass wasting and its impact on the transportation in Alborz Mountains, Iran using geo-information technology

Mass movements or mass wasting is being considered as one of the severe forms of natural disasters. Iran is geographically located in the Alps–Himalaya seismicity belt. It has a high potential to mass wasting. This seismic phenomenon creates landslides and rock falls in the high mountains of Alborz and Zagros. These mass movements and various types of slides can be systematically assessed and mapped through traditional mapping frameworks using geo-information technologies. The geo-information-based technology offers the earth scientist to study and map various types of mass movement and stability of slopes. In this study, we used field data coupling with the tectonic-related factors to provide a solution for slope-related hazards. Firstly, various geological and geomorphological factors such as lineaments and faults, vegetation, lithology, slope, drainage, land use/land cover, seismicity and roads network were extracted and compiled using geo-information technology. This is because the factors mentioned above play important role in the instability of the region. Then, the study area was divided into four regions based on the rate of mass wasting and its degree of vulnerability. The results of this study showed that the erosion in Karaj formation is severe. Additionally, this research also reveals that the hydrothermal solutions caused by the erosional activities have influenced the glassy element of tuffs and subsequently changed into the clays. This change has caused the tuffs to be relatively unstable. Further, it is evident that the chemical and physical weathering has had a big impact on it whilst most of the mass wasting has occurred within the unstable tuffs of Karaj formation. Finally, the paper concluded that the recent construction of the new roads in the region has increased the potential danger for generating the mass wastes and thus makes the region more unstable.     

Tilted Bianchi type I cosmological models filled with disordered radiation in general relativity revisitedD

Tilted Bianchi type I cosmological models filled with disordered radiation in presence of a bulk viscous fluid and heat flow are investigated. The coefficient of bulk viscosity is assumed to be a power function of mass density. Some physical and geometric properties of the models are also discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An effective visualization and comparison of online terrain draped with multi-sensor satellite images

The objective of this paper is to discuss the effectiveness of visualizing online 3D terrain draped with different satellite imageries. The topographic data of the study area were obtained from the contour maps of Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. The high resolution satellite imageries used in this project involving QUICKBIRD (0.6 m resolution), IKONOS (1 m resolution), and SPOT5 (5 m resolution). R2V software was used for editing the contour data, whereas Arc GIS was used for overlaying the imageries over the 3D terrain data. Then the data were exported into Virtual Reality Markup Language to compare the effectiveness of different satellite imageries based on the data file size, imageries size, number of images tile, loading time during office hours (from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and out of office hours (after 5 p.m.), frame rate per second, and visualization quality. The results revealed that IKONOS satellite imageries are better for an effective online 3D terrain visualization utilizing GIS data even though it has lower resolution compared to QUICKBIRD.