Reducing hazard vulnerability through local government engagement and action

The concept of a natural hazard is a human construct. It is the interaction with human communities and settlements that defines a natural phenomenon as a natural hazard. Thus the end point of hazard mitigation and hazard vulnerability assessment must involve an attempt to reduce, or mitigate, the impact of the natural hazard on human communities. The responsibility to mitigate hazard impact falls primarily upon governments and closely connected non-government and private institutional agencies. In particular, it is most often local government that takes the responsibility for safeguarding its own communities, infrastructure and people. Hazard vulnerability of specific local communities is best assessed by the local government or council, which then faces the responsibility to translate that assessment into community education and infrastructural safeguards for hazard mitigation. This paper illustrates the process of local government engagement in hazard mitigation in Australia, through the Natural Disaster Risk Management Studies, as a first step towards natural disaster reduction.     

Flexural isostatic response of the Alps to increased Quaternary erosion recorded by foreland basin remnants,SE France

We test the hypothesis that flexural isostatic compensation of the mass removed by enhanced Quaternary erosion is responsible for uplift of the Western European Alps and their forelands. We use two well‐preserved and well‐dated (1.8 Ma) abandonment surfaces of foreland basin remnants in SE France (the Chambaran and Valensole plateaux) as passive benchmarks for tilting of the foreland. Estimating their initial slope from morphometric scaling relationships, we determine bulk post‐depositional tilting of 0.5–0.8% for these surfaces. The calculated isostatic response of the Alpine lithosphere to erosional unloading, using the method recently proposed by Champagnac et al. [Geology 35 (2007) 195–198] , yields a predicted tilting of 0.3–0.4% in the considered areas, explaining approximately half of the determined post‐depositional tilting. Such long‐term deformation being insensitive to cyclic loading/unloading because of glaciations, we suspect the other half to be related to as yet undetermined long‐wavelength and long‐lived tectonic process(es).     

Field Measurement of Suction, Water Content, and Water Permeability

This paper presents a review of techniques for field measurement of suction, water content, and water hydraulic conductivity (permeability). Main problems in the use of field tensiometers are addressed and hints on how to improve tensiometer performance are given. Advantages and limitations of instruments for indirect measurement of suction including electrical conductivity sensors, thermal conductivity sensors, dielectric permittivity sensors, filter paper, and psychrometer are discussed. Techniques for water content measurement based on dielectric methods are then presented. These include time and amplitude domain reflectometry and capacitance. Finally, a brief overview of methods for measurement of water permeability in the field is presented.     

A calculation of the large scale three dimensional distribution of diabatic heating in the atmosphere

Summary The large scale three-dimensional diabatic heating in the atmosphere is computed at 12 isentropic surfaces for a particular twelve hour time period. Using a method due toErtel, the continuity equation is combined with the equations of motion to give an explicit relation between diabatic heating and changes in potential vorticity and stability along isentropic surface trajectories. The results are barely of useful accuracy and reliability and this only under favorable conditions. The distribution of diabatic heating is qualitatively reasonable in the regions near the tropopause, close to the ground, above a cloud or moist layer, and within an area of general condensation. Errors and approximations make the computed values completely unreliable in areas of large anticyclonic vorticity or large baroclinity. Comparison of magnitudes with those computed from rainfall observations and with those measured directly at the earth's surface shows agreement in sign and within a factor of three in the areas of best data. The results emphasize that there are regions and periods where diabatic heating in the free atmosphere may be important in controlling atmospheric behavior. Sample calculations in one of these regions using values of diabatic heating computed by this study illustrate that this process is of comparable importance with the adiabatic process in determining vertical velocity.

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Zusammenfassung Die großräumige nichtadiabatische Erwärmung der Atmosphäre in 12 isentropen Flächen während eines 12stündigen Zeitabschnittes wird berechnet. Unter Verwendung einer Methode vonErtel liefert eine Kombination der Kontinuitätsgleichung mit den Bewegungsgleichungen eine explizite Beziehung zwischen der nichtadiabatischen Erwärmung, der potentiellen Vorticity und der Stabilität entlang der isentropen Trajektorien. Das Resultat ist von beschränkter Genauigkeit — und auch dies nur unter günstigen Bedingungen. Qualitativ brauchbare Verteilungen der nichtadiabatischen Erwärmung erhält man nahe der Tropopause, in Bodennähe, über einer Schicht von Wolken oder feuchter Luft und innerhalb der Zonen mit verbreiteter Kondensation. In Gebieten mit großer antizyklonaler Vorticity oder großer Baroklinität werden die berechneten Werte infolge von Meß- und Approximationsfehlern völlig ungenau. In den Gebieten mit optimalen Voraussetzungen stimmen die berechneten Werte mit den aus Niederschlagsmessungen abgeleiteten oder am Boden direkt beobachteten im Vorzeichen und innerhalb eines Faktors von 3 überein. Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Untersuchung weisen erneut darauf hin, daß in manchen Gebieten bzw. Zeitabschnitten das Verhalten der freien Atmosphäre durch nichtadiabatische Erwärmung wesentlich beeinflußt sein kann. Stichprobenweise Berechnungen für eines dieser Gebiete zeigen, daß die theoretisch ermittelte nichtadiabatische Erwärmung für die resultierende Vertikalgeschwindigkeit der Luft quantitativ von ähnlicher Bedeutung ist wie der adiabatische Prozeß.

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Résumé L'auteur a calculé le réchauffement non adiabatique, à grande échelle, de l'atmosphère à 12 niveaux isentropes pendant un intervalle de 12 heures. Une méthode établie parErtel combine l'équation de continuité et les équations de mouvement et aboutit à une relation explicite entre le réchauffement non adiabatique, la vorticity potentielle et la stabilité le long de trajectoires isentropes. Le résultat n'a qu'une exactitude approchée, et cela dans des conditions favorables seulement. On obtient une répartition utilisable du réchauffement non adiabatique au voisinage de la tropopause, du sol, au-dessus d'une couche de nuages ou d'air humide, ainsi qu'à l'intérieur des zones à forte condensation. Dans les régions à grande vorticity anticyclonique et à grande baroclinité, les valeurs calculées deviennent tout à fait inexactes par suite d'une approximation insuffisante et d'erreurs de mesure. Dans les régions à conditions favorables par contre, les valeurs calculées correspondent à celles que l'on peut tirer de la mesure des précipitations ou de celles que l'on mesure au sol, cela au signe et à un facteur 3 près. Le résultat de cette étude montre à nouveau que dans certaines régions ou certains laps de temps l'état de l'atmosphère peut être notablement conditionné par un réchauffement non adiabatique. Des épreuves faites pour l'une de ces régions montrent que le réchauffement non adiabatique obtenu par calcul est quantitativement aussi important pour la vitesse verticale résultante de l'air que le processus adiabatique.

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With 7 Figures     

Modification of an acoustic pinger to transmit temperature data

An acoustic pinger can be modified to transmit two pings per second with the delay time between pings controlled by the temperature of an external thermistor. The precision of the temperature measurements is on the order of 0.1°C. This modification does not interfere with the normal depth indicating function of the pinger and is an inexpensive means of obtaining water temperature data.     

Comparison of oscillatory and stationary flow through porous media

Experiments were conducted in an oscillatory water tunnel to investigate what effects temporal inertia has on the resistance of a granular medium. The flow law governing stationary porous media flow is reasonably well accepted and understood but the effects of unsteady flow have commonly been neglected. The present research was designed to assess the magnitude of the acceleration effects on media of uniformly packed spheres of equal diameter and on one sample of randomly placed stone.Oscillatory flow tests were made in a large oscillatory flume tunnel with periods varying from 3 to 12 seconds. The influence of properties of the medium (grain size and porosity) were tested by using spheres with two different diameters and packing each size sphere in different geometric arrangements. Tests made on a stone sample provided a qualitative assessment of the effects of more random material properties.For the experiments described in this paper, the Forchheimer unsteady-stationary flow law described the oscillatory measurements well when velocities and energy losses were maximum. Empirical coefficients determined from steady-stationary flow were generally found to apply to the unsteady flow, however some evidence of dependency on the period of oscillation was noted.     

North Atlantic fisheries: Trends, status and management issues

Despite the fact that the North Atlantic remains one of the most productive of oceanic regions, its importance has declined both relatively and absolutely. A key factor has been the steady erosion of stocks of some of the major food fish species, including the ubiquitous cod. The paper traces the main trends in catches since 1973 and outlines the development of fisheries management in the region from the formation of ICES in 1902, through the creation of coastal state management in the 1970s to the UN Agreement on high-seas fishing in 1995. Finally, the key issues for fisheries management are identified, and the invited papers are contextualised.     

Benthic mineralization rates at two locations in the southern North Sea

Benthic oxygen uptake, sulphate reduction and benthic bacterial production were measured at two contrasting locations in the southern North Sea: the shallow and turbulent Broad Fourteens area in the Southern Bight, and the deeper Oyster Grounds, a deposition area, where thermohaline stratification occurs during summer. Oxygen uptake and sulphate reduction showed a clear seasonal pattern in the Broad Fourteens area, indicating a supply of carbon to the benthic system that is closely related to the standing stock of carbon in the water column. This close benthic-pelagic coupling is probably due to the influence of the tide in this part of the North Sea, which keeps the water column permanently mixed. At the Oyster Grounds, no seasonal pattern was observed. Peaks in oxygen uptake and sulphate reduction were found in winter. Irregularly occurring events, such as storms and fishery-related activities, are likely to affect the benthic mineralization patterns in this area. Annual benthic carbon mineralization rates estimated from oxygen uptake rates were 44 gC·m⁻² at the Broad Fourteens, and 131 gC·m⁻² at the Oyster Grounds, of which 26 and 28%, respectively, could be attributed to sulphate reduction (assuming an annual sulphide reoxidation rate of 100%). Although sulphate reduction rates in the southern North Sea are higher than previously suggested, aerobic respiration is the most important pathway for benthic carbon mineralization at the stations visited. Production rates of benthic bacterial carbon measured with labelled leucine were much higher than carbon mineralization rates based on oxygen uptake or sulphate reduction. This may either imply a very high bacterial carbon conversion efficiency, or point to shortcomings in the accuracy of the techniques. A critical evaluation of the techniques is recommended.