Geoheritage values in the Cat Ba islands, Vietnam

Geological wonders have been generally known as natural wonderful products. Resulted from geological processes, geological wonders are diverse in size that have geoheritage values that should be protected from damaging of substance, form and natural development. In a large scale, geological wonders can be geoheritage areas, containing several geodiversity elements that are geologically important or in a smaller scale, they can be geosites of heritage values (or geoheritage sites). In the delimitation of areas, having geoheritage values and the establishment of geoparks, the first thing is to recognise them as geosites and geoheritage areas that indicate great geological values. Besides the Ha Long bay, the world natural heritage with its outstanding aesthetic and geological values, the Cat Ba islands are typical and grandeur karst landscapes formed in tropical condition. Based on the geodiversity elements with their own geoheritage values on aesthetics, uniqueness and grandeur in the Cat Ba islands, the authors have recognised three geoheritage areas: the south cape of the Cat Ba embayment, Tung Gau (shelter), and the Lan Ha bay. Sites where Brachiopods, Crinoids and Tetracorals are exposed on the way through the island are considered as palaeontological geosites. The folds of limestone layers in the northern part of Cat Co 3 beach, with typical turbidite structures in carbonate formations are considered as a lithological geosite. The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary near the Cat Co 3 beach is regarded as a stratigraphical geosite while Que Kem and Turtle islands, etc. are considered as geomorphological geosites.     

Strong motion observations and recordings from the great Wenchuan Earthquake

The National Strong Motion Observation Network System （NSMONS） of China is briefly introduced in this paper. The NSMONS consists of permanent free-field stations, special observation arrays, mobile observatories and a network management system. During the Wenchuan Earthquake, over 1,400 components of acceleration records were obtained from 460 permanent free-field stations and three arrays for topographical effect and structural response observation in the network system from the main shock, and over 20,000 components of acceleration records from strong aftershocks occurred before August 1, 2008 were also obtained by permanent free-field stations of the NSMONS and 59 mobile instruments quickly deployed after the main shock. The strong motion recordings from the main shock and strong aftershocks are summarized in this paper. In the ground motion recordings, there are over 560 components with peak ground acceleration （PGA） over 10 Gal, the largest being 957.7 Gal. The largest PGA recorded during the aftershock exceeds 300 Gal.     

The analysis of tandem hull vessel motion in waves

This paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the hydrodynamic behavior of a tandem hull form in a floating production platform application where high deck payload capacity and low wave induced motions of this vessel are primary design goals. A simplified hydrodynamic analysis and a more representative radiation and diffraction theory based hydrodynamic analysis are used for wave induced forces and motions. The analysis results are compared with model test results to deduce principal features of these special purpose hull configurations. The motion responses in different wave headings evaluated from the complicated diffraction analysis are compared and discussed in some detail.     

Coastal-marine nature management in Pacific Russia and Northern Vietnam: Notions,structural features,and types

Coastal-marine nature management is treated as a spatiotemporal structure consisting of two interrelated components: the coastal territorial component occurring in the coastal territory, and the coastal aquatic component occurring within the coastal aquatic area as well as the sea shores connecting them. The study revealed the components of the main and concomitant uses of natural resources which have evolved directly across the land and sea areas of mining of separate kinds of natural resources and having technogenic impacts on them. From a combination of natural resources as well as of spatial scales of the main and concomitant uses of natural resources on the coastal territory and in coastal waters, we identified the main types of coastal-marine nature management in the southern areas of Pacific Russia and in Northern Vietnam: different kinds of nature management including the utilization of the territory for industrial-residential and transportation purposes as well as for cultivation of rice and vegetable crops, extraction of building materials, other mineral resources, forest use, extraction of marine salt from the sea water, coastal fisheries, various forms of mariculture, marine recreation, etc. A fragment of the cartographic assessment of the current types of coastal-marine nature management is presented for the southern coastal areas of Pacific Russia.     

PCDD/Fs in sediments of Central Vietnam coastal lagoons: in search of TCDD

Samples from nine Central Vietnam coastal lagoons, together with three soils and sediments collected in two freshwater reservoirs of the Thua Thien-Hué province, were analysed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Total concentrations are low, from 192 to 2912 pg g⁻¹ and depth profiles in Tam Giang-Cau Hai (TG-CH) sediment cores show only minor changes over time in PCDD/F input and composition. Octachloro dibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) is the prevailing congener (approximately 90%), indicating combustion as the main PCDD/F source to these coastal systems, whereas natural formation might be partly responsible for the presence at depth. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachloro dibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), largely sprayed together with Agent Orange over the study areas during the war (1961–1971), is absent or very low. This result supports the hypothesis of strong degradation soon after spraying. Multivariate statistical analyses account for the presence of local, short-range sources as observed in the northern part of the TG-CH lagoon.     

Developing Africa’s energy mix

Africa is growing rapidly both in terms of population size and economically. It is also becoming increasingly clear that fossil fuels impose a high price on society through local environmental pollution and Africa’s particular vulnerability to climate change. At the same time, Africa has an excellent renewable energy potential and prices for renewable energy are reaching the price range of fossil fuels. Comparing results from state-of-the-art Integrated Assessment Models we find different options for achieving a sustainable energy supply in Africa. They have in common, however, that strong economic development is considered compatible with the 2°C climate target. Taking both challenges and appropriate solutions into account, some models find that a complete switch to renewable energy in electricity production is possible in the medium term. The continental analysis identifies important synergy effects, in particular the exchange of electricity between neighbouring countries. The optimal energy mix varies considerably between African countries, but there is sufficient renewable energy for each country. The intermittency and higher capital intensity of renewable energy are important challenges, but proven solutions are available for them. In addition, we analyse the political economy of a sustainable energy transition in Africa.

Key policy insights

• An almost complete shift towards renewable energy (RE) is considered feasible and affordable in Africa.

• By 2050, electricity generation could be sourced largely from solar, wind and hydro power.

• Prices for RE in Africa are now within the price range of fossil fuels, partly due to the excellent RE potential.

• The optimal energy mix varies strongly between countries, but RE is sufficiently available everywhere.

• Addressing intermittency is possible, but requires investments and cooperation on the grid.

     

Using salt intrusion measurements to determine the freshwater discharge distribution over the branches of a multi-channel estuary: The Mekong Delta case

The fresh water discharge is an important parameter for modelling salt intrusion in an estuary. In alluvial converging estuaries during periods of low flow, when salinity is highest, the river discharge is generally small compared to the tidal flow. This makes the determination of the fresh water discharge a challenging task. Even if discharge observations are available during a full tidal cycle, the fresh water discharge is seldom much larger than the measurement error in the tidal discharge. Observations further upstream, outside the tidal region, do not always reflect the actual flow in the saline area due to withdrawals or additional drainage. Discharge computation is even more difficult in a complex system such as the Mekong Delta, which is a multi-channel estuary consisting of many branches, over which the freshwater discharge distribution cannot be measured directly. This paper presents a new approach to determine the freshwater discharge distribution over the branches of the Mekong Delta by means of an analytical salt intrusion model, based on measurements made during the dry season of 2005 and 2006. It appears that the analytical model agrees well with observations and with a hydraulic model. This paper demonstrates that with relatively simple and appropriate salinity measurements and making use of the analytical salt intrusion model, it is possible to obtain an accurate discharge distribution over the branches of a complex estuary system. This makes the analytical model a powerful tool to analyze the water resources in tidal regions.     

High-resolution simulations for Vietnam - methodology and evaluation of current climate

To assist the government of Vietnam in its efforts to better understand the impacts of climate change and prioritise its adaptation measures, dynamically downscaled climate change projections were produced across Vietnam. Two Regional Climate Models (RCMs) were used: CSIRO’s variable-resolution Conformal-Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) and the limited-area model Regional Climate Model system version 4.2 (RegCM4.2). First, global CCAM simulations were completed using bias- and variance-corrected sea surface temperatures as well as sea ice concentrations from six Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) global climate models. This approach is different from other downscaling approaches as it does not use any atmospheric fields from the GCMs. The global CCAM simulations were then further downscaled to 10 km using CCAM and to 20 km using RegCM4.2. Evaluations of temperature and precipitation for the current climate (1980-2000) were completed using station data as well as various gridded observational datasets. The RCMs were able to reproduce reasonably well most of the important characteristics of observed spatial patterns and annual cycles of temperature. Average and minimum temperatures were well simulated (biases generally less than 1oC), while maximum temperatures had biases of around 1oC. For precipitation, although the RCMs captured the annual cycle, RegCM4.2 was too dry in Oct.-Nov. (-60% bias), while CCAM was too wet in Dec.- Mar. (130% bias). Both models were too dry in summer and too wet in winter (especially in northern Vietnam). The ability of the ensemble simulations to capture current climate increases confidence in the simulations of future climate.     

A polarization-intensity anticorrelation diagram for the solar coronal green line

We analyze the complex pattern of anticorrelation between the degree of polarization p in the green λ530.3-nm line and its intensity I _λ, which was revealed by coronal observations during the total solar eclipse of July 11, 1991. For coronal points located at approximately the same distance from the disk center, the anticorrelation diagram breaks up into two branches with a zone of avoidance between them. High-latitude streamers form the upper branch, while the lower branch belongs to active equatorial regions. The arrangement of large-scale coronal structures in the p-logI _λ diagram is considered for a distance of 1.2R _⊙. The change in anticorrelation diagram with distance is analyzed in detail for the giant high-latitude coronal streamers observed on July 11, 1991. Our results contain important information about the scattering of photospheric radiation at line frequencies in the presence of a coronal magnetic field.     

Theoretical connections between optimization algorithms based on an approximate gradient

Performing a line search method in the direction given by the simplex gradient is a well-known method in the mathematical optimization community. For reservoir engineering optimization problems, both a modification of the simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) and ensemble-based optimization (EnOpt) have recently been applied for estimating optimal well controls in the production optimization step of closed-loop reservoir management. The modified SPSA algorithm has also been applied to assisted history-matching problems. A recent comparison of the performance of EnOpt and a SPSA-type algorithm (G-SPSA) for a set of production optimization test problems showed that the two algorithms resulted in similar estimates of the optimal net-present-value and required roughly the same amount of computational time to achieve these estimates. Here, we show that, theoretically, this result is not surprising. In fact, we show that both the simplex, preconditioned simplex, and EnOpt algorithms can be derived directly from a modified SPSA-type algorithm where the preconditioned simplex algorithm is presented for the first time in this paper. We also show that the expectation of all these preconditioned stochastic gradients is a first-order approximation of the preconditioning covariance matrix times the true gradient or a covariance matrix squared times the true gradient.