Modeling of the swelling–shrinkage behavior of expansive clays during wetting–drying cycles

Acta Geotechnica - This paper presents a constitutive model for simulating the swelling–shrinkage volume change of expansive soils during wetting–drying cycles. Based on the concept of...     

Mechanical properties of calcareous silts in a hydraulic fill island-reef

Abstract

The mechanical characteristics of calcareous silt interlayers play an important role in the stability of island-reef foundations. Direct shear and consolidation tests were performed to study the relationship between the mechanical properties and the physical parameters of calcareous silt. Based on the consolidation test results and analysis of the settling examples, different calculation methods for soil settling were compared. The results show the following. (1) The relationship between the cohesion and water content of calcareous silt can be represented by an M-shaped curve. The water contents corresponding to the two peaks of the M-type curve increase with increasing dry density. (2) When the dry density is less than 1.33?g/cm³, increasing the density significantly improves the internal friction angle of calcareous silts. When the dry density of the calcareous silt is greater than 1.33?g/cm³, the internal friction angle is affected by both the dry density and the water content. (3) The shear strength decreases when the water content exceeds the optimum level. (4) The compressive modulus of calcareous silt is larger than that of terrigenous silt. Specifically, it decreases with decreasing dry density and increasing water content. (5) The stepwise loading method should be used to estimate the soil settling before fill engineering construction.     

How soil texture,channel shape and cross-sectional area affect moisture dynamics and water loss in irrigation channels

To enhance the utilization efficiency of farmland irrigation water and reduce the leakage of water conveyance channels, the leakage process of channels was simulated dynamically. The simulated results were compared with data measured in laboratory experiments, and the performance of the model was evaluated. The results indicated that the simulated values of the model were consistent with the observation values, and the R² values varied between 0.91 and 0.99. In addition, based on the laboratory experiments, a water supply system (Mariotte bottles) and soil box were built using plexiglass. Three influencing factors, namely, the channel form, soil texture and channel cross-sectional area, were varied to observe and calculate the resulting cumulative infiltration amount, infiltration rate and wetting front migration distance. HYDRUS-3D software was used to solve the three-dimensional soil water movement equation under different initial conditions. The results demonstrated that the U-shaped channel was more effective than the trapezoidal channel in increasing the utilization efficiency of the water resources. A U-shaped channel with a small channel cross-sectional area should be adopted and the soil particle size should be prioritized in the construction of water conveyance channels for farmlands. The simulation results were in agreement with the observed results, which indicates that HYDRUS-3D is a reliable tool that can accurately simulate the soil moisture movement in water conveyance channels. The research results can provide a reference for the design and operation of farmland irrigation systems.     

Identifying primary public transit corridors using multi-source big transit data

ABSTRACT

Effective public transit planning needs to address realistic travel demands, which can be illustrated by corridors across major residential areas and activity centers. It is vital to identify public transit corridors that contain the most significant transit travel demand patterns. We propose a two-stage approach to discover primary public transit corridors at high spatio-temporal resolutions using massive real-world smart card and bus trajectory data, which manifest rich transit demand patterns over space and time. The first stage was to reconstruct chained trips for individual passengers using multi-source massive public transit data. In the second stage, a shared-flow clustering algorithm was developed to identify public transit corridors based on reconstructed individual transit trips. The proposed approach was evaluated using transit data collected in Shenzhen, China. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach is a practical tool for extracting time-varying corridors for many potential applications, such as transit planning and management.     

Quantifying the impacts of climate change and land use on hydrological processes: A comparison between mountain and lowland agricultural watersheds

Mountain and lowland watersheds are two distinct geographical units with considerably different hydrological processes. Understanding their hydrological processes in the context of future climate change and land use scenarios is important for water resource management. This study investigated hydrological processes and their driving factors and eco-hydrological impacts for these two geographical units in the Xitiaoxi watershed, East China, and quantified their differences through hydrological modelling. Hydrological processes in 24 mountain watersheds and 143 lowland watersheds were simulated based on a raster-based Xin'anjiang model and a Nitrogen Dynamic Polder (NDP) model, respectively. These two models were calibrated and validated with an acceptable performance (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficients of 0.81 and 0.50, respectively) for simulating discharge for mountain watersheds and water level for lowland watersheds. Then, an Indicators of Hydrological Alteration (IHA) model was used to help quantify the alterations to the hydrological process and their resulting eco-hydrological impacts. Based on the validated models, scenario analysis was conducted to evaluate the impacts of climate and land use changes on the hydrological processes. The simulation results revealed that (a) climate change would cause a larger increase in annual runoff than that under land use scenario in the mountain watersheds, with variations of 19.9 and 10.5% for the 2050s, respectively. (b) Land use change was more responsible for the streamflow increment than climate change in the lowland watersheds, causing an annual runoff to increase by 27.4 and 16.2% for the 2050s, respectively. (c) Land use can enhance the response of streamflow to the climatic variation. (d) The above-mentioned hydrological variations were notable in flood and dry season in the mountain watersheds, and they were significant in rice season in the lowland watersheds. (e) Their resulting degradation of ecological diversity was more susceptible to future climate change in the two watersheds. This study demonstrated that mountain and lowland watersheds showed distinct differences in hydrological processes and their responses to climate and land use changes.     

Energy flux partitioning and evapotranspiration in a sub‐alpine spruce forest ecosystem

In this study, we examined the year 2011 characteristics of energy flux partitioning and evapotranspiration of a sub‐alpine spruce forest underlain by permafrost on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QPT). Energy balance closure on a half‐hourly basis was H + λE = 0.81 × (R_n ? G ? S) + 3.48 (W m^?2) (r² = 0.83, n = 14938), where H, λE, R_n, G and S are the sensible heat, latent heat, net radiation, soil heat and air‐column heat storage fluxes, respectively. Maximum H was higher than maximum λE, and H dominated the energy budget at midday during the whole year, even in summer time. However, the rainfall events significantly affected energy flux partitioning and evapotranspiration. The mean value of evaporative fraction (Λ = λE/(λE + H)) during the growth period on zero precipitation days and non‐zero precipitation days was 0.40 and 0.61, respectively. The mean daily evapotranspiration of this sub‐alpine forest during summer time was 2.56 mm day^?1. The annual evapotranspiration and sublimation was 417 ± 8 mm year^?1, which was very similar to the annual precipitation of 428 mm. Sublimation accounted for 7.1% (30 ± 2 mm year^?1) of annual evapotranspiration and sublimation, indicating that the sublimation is not negligible in the annual water balance in sub‐alpine forests on the QPT. The low values of the Priestley–Taylor coefficient (α) and the very low value of the decoupling coefficient (Ω) during most of the growing season suggested low soil water content and conservative water loss in this sub‐alpine forest. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A method for evaluating the longitudinal functional connectivity of a river–lake–marsh system and its application in China

The longitudinal functional connectivity of a river–lake–marsh system (RLMS) refers to the actual water-mediated transport of material from upstream to downstream areas along a spatial gradient and is fundamental to understand hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. However, due to a lack of consensus on appropriate data and methods, the quantification of connectivity is still a challenge, especially at the catchment scale. We developed a new method to evaluate longitudinal functional connectivity based on fluxes of materials (water, sediment, and chemicals) along a RLMS. The calculation of fluxes is based on the longitudinal pattern of terrain gradient, which influences transport efficiency, and on contributions from hillslopes, which set the initial spatial template of material loading to the RLMS. We evaluate the contributions from hillslopes to RLMS based on a new modified version of the index of sediment connectivity (IC) proposed by Borselli et al. (2008) and revised by Chartin et al. (2017).We applied this method to the Baiyangdian Basin covering an area of 3.4 × 10⁴ km² in China and quantified longitudinal functional connectivity during normal, wet, and dry periods(April, July and December) in year 2016. We found that areas with good structural connectivity exhibited poor functional connectivity during the normal and dry periods. Modelling testing with discharge data from hydrological stations and measured chemicals from Baiyangdian Lake was satisfactory in test periods. We conclude that public data and Digital Elevation Model-derived information can be used to reliably map the longitudinal functional connectivity of RLMSs. The proposed method provides a useful tool for monitoring and restoring the longitudinal functional connectivity of RLMSs and our results indicate that efforts aimed at restoring functional connectivity in RLMSs should take into account landscape patterns that can greatly influence fluxes in the watershed.     

Gas Flow Characteristics and Optimization of Gas Drainage Borehole Layout in Protective Coal Seam Mining: A Case Study from the Shaqu Coal Mine,Shanxi Province,China

With increasing demands for coal resources, coal has been gradually mined in deep coal seams. Due to high gas content, pressure and in situ stress, deep coal seams show great risks of coal and gas outburst. Protective coal seam mining, as a safe and effective method for gas control, has been widely used in major coal-producing countries in the world. However, at present, the relevant problems, such as gas seepage characteristics and optimization of gas drainage borehole layout in protective coal seam mining have been rarely studied. Firstly, by combining with formulas for measuring and testing permeability of coal and rock mass in different stress regimes and failure modes in the laboratory, this study investigated stress–seepage coupling laws by using built-in language Fish of numerical simulation software FLAC^3D. In addition, this research analyzed distribution characteristics of permeability in a protected coal seam in the process of protective coal seam mining. Secondly, the protected coal seam was divided into a zone with initial permeability, a zone with decreasing permeability, and permeability increasing zones 1 and 2 according to the changes of permeability. In these zones, permeability rises the most in the permeability increasing zone 2. Moreover, by taking Shaqu Coal Mine, Shanxi Province, China as an example, layout of gas drainage boreholes in the protected coal seam was optimized based on the above permeability-based zoning. Finally, numerical simulation and field application showed that gas drainage volume and concentration rise significantly after optimizing borehole layout. Therefore, when gas is drained through boreholes crossing coal seams during the protective coal seam mining in other coal mines, optimization of borehole layout in Shaqu Coal Mine has certain reference values.

     

Sentinel-2影像红边谱段对不同生长期区域优势树种识别的影响

以中国东北赤峰市美林地区5种典型优势树种为研究对象,采用与当地森林植被生长期相对应的5景Senti-nel-2影像,借助支持向量机模型(SVM)与递归特征消除算法(RFE),根据可见光-近红外波段(VNIR)与不同红边谱段(RE)及红边指数(REVI)组合条件下的森林优势树种可分性测度及结果精度差异,探讨Sentinel-2影像不同红边谱段及其指数特征对区域优势树种遥感识别的影响.结果表明:Sentinel-2影像红边谱段的不同组合方式对不同生长期优势树种识别影响存在显著差异(P<0.05),其中VNIR+B5+B6为生长盛期的最佳组合方式,能够在VNIR基础上将生长盛期的识别精度均值提升约7.71％;叶全变色期是进行优势树种识别的最佳时期(P<0.05),该时期基于VNIR波段的识别精度均值达71.28％,在叠加红边波段B5+B6后提升至75.41％.此外,采用SVM-RFE算法构建适用于不同生长期的最佳REVI组合,其平均识别精度能够在全年5个生长期达到72.00％～84.31％,相比同时期基于RE+VNIR组合的最优识别结果平均提升了10.77％;在此基础上,构建适用于全生长期的优选植被指数PSRI+mSAVI+CIred-edge时间序列,可实现89.03％的平均识别精度,比单时相最佳REVI组合提升了4.72％～17.03％.研究证明Sentinel-2影像红边谱段及其衍生指数特征在区域森林优势树种识别中具有较高的应用价值,可为快速、准确地提取不同生长期森林植被信息提供技术方法参考.     

莫高窟PM10浓度与气象要素的关系

采用2018年敦煌莫高窟第16窟窟内与窟区PM₁₀浓度及气象数据,分析PM₁₀时空分布特征及其影响因素。结果表明：（1）两处监测点PM₁₀浓度主要分布在50 μg·m^-3以下,受重污染天气影响较小;春、冬、秋、夏季依次降低,窟区PM₁₀浓度在春、冬季高于窟内,夏、秋季反之。（2）PM₁₀浓度3月最高,9月最低,5—9月窟内月均值高于窟区。PM₁₀污染日数窟内5月最多,而窟区3、5月较多。（3）PM₁₀浓度日变化曲线在春季和秋季呈“双峰”型,夏季和冬季呈“单峰”型。（4）在半封闭环境的洞窟内,沙尘暴发生前后,PM₁₀浓度达到极值及恢复至原来水平的时间均滞后于窟区。（5）在不同季节PM₁₀浓度与气温、风速和降水呈负相关。除秋季外,PM₁₀浓度与相对湿度、气压呈正相关。（6）窟区全年主风向为ESE,在冬春两季,此风向PM₁₀浓度最高,PM₁₀主要来自三危山前的戈壁滩、干涸的大泉河河道以及窟前裸露的地表积尘。