Diagonal brace with ductile knee anchor for aseismic steel frame

A new structural system for earthquake resistant steel structures is investigated in this paper. This new framing system, called the knee-brace-frame (KBF), is a braced frame with diagonal braces connected to ductile knee members. The diagonal braces provide the lateral stiffness, whereas the knee anchors yield in flexure to dissipate energy during severe seismic excitation. To assess the inelastic characteristics of the KBF, a large scale model of a KBF was tested using the pseudodynamic test procedure. The experimental results are compared with analytical results obtained from a DRAIN-2D model. It is found that, with an appropriate design of knee anchors, the KBF can be made to be ductile to dissipate energy during severe seismic excitation.     

Belonging to the world: Cosmopolitanism in geographic contexts

The notion of cosmopolitanism is today gaining new relevance in attempts to understand how globalization in an increasingly interdependent world-society is affecting traditional identities, including that of the nation. We focus on a positive definition of cosmopolitanism as a sense of belonging to “the world as a whole”, expressed in responses to a question from the World Values Surveys (WVS) 1995-1997. In building a multilevel statistical model of the 21 national contexts of societal attitudes and values surrounding cosmopolitanism, we inject empirical analysis into what has, until now, been a largely rhetorical field of scholarship. Because the data are collected hierarchically, with individuals clustered into regions in turn grouped into countries, the model allows for the consideration of different concepts of cosmopolitanism across geographic contexts. A greater likelihood of cosmopolitan identification is found among individuals who are environmentalist, less patriotic, politically active, with higher levels of education, youthful, and a positive orientation to living among immigrants in places where relatively more immigrants reside. Respondents from countries in the former Soviet Union show a significantly higher sense of belonging to the world as a whole, a difference attributed to the lack of confidence in the post-Communist regimes of these states in the 1990s.     

Multireservoir system optimization in the Han River basin using multi‐objective genetic algorithms

In this study, NSGA‐II is applied to multireservoir system optimization. Here, a four‐dimensional multireservoir system in the Han River basin was formulated. Two objective functions and three cases having different constraint conditions are used to achieve nondominated solutions. NSGA‐II effectively determines these solutions without being subject to any user‐defined penalty function, as it is applied to a multireservoir system optimization having a number of constraints (here, 246), multi‐objectives, and infeasible initial solutions. Most research by multi‐objective genetic algorithms only reveals a trade‐off in the objective function space present, and thus the decision maker must reanalyse this trade‐off relationship in order to obtain information on the decision variable. Contrastingly, this study suggests a method for identifying the best solutions among the nondominated ones by analysing the relation between objective function values and decision variables. Our conclusions demonstrated that NSGA‐II performs well in multireservoir system optimization having multi‐objectives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A framework for a microscale flood damage assessment and visualization for a building using BIM–GIS integration

Flood damage assessment (FDA) is a key component of risk-based method for flood management. In the current FDA approaches, generally the uniqueness of the building is disregarded in the analysis. Therefore, they are unfit for detailed applications in which case-by-case analysis of building damage is an essential requirement. This limitation is compounded by the use of incomplete and often low-quality data inputs about the building and the assumptions and approximations made regarding the geometry and materials of its components. Such shortcomings may result in incomplete and uncertain outcomes. Considering the benefits and increasing use of three-dimensional (3D) urban modeling and Building Information Model in various urban management processes, in this paper, an integrated framework for utilization of detailed 3D building models for the assessment and 3D visualization of flood damage to building according to its distinct behavior against flood is presented. A proof-of-concept demonstration of the framework in a case study underlined the feasibility of implementation of the framework, which can potentially benefit a variety of users and be used as a complementary approach to the current FDA methods for improving the resilience of the community toward floods and their adverse impacts.     

Spatial Social Network Analysis of Resource Access in Rural South Africa

Communities in the rural developing world often sit at the margin of market, migration, and technology exchanges. They are arguably becoming more interconnected and networked than ever before. This article seeks to expand on an understanding of natural resource access in the rural developing world by combining social network analysis (SNA) data and geographic position data obtained via Global Positioning System (GPS) and participatory mapping in rural South Africa. This work therefore utilizes a sociospatial framework in understanding natural resource use and access in a community-level analysis. Notably, in our study we find very little association among natural resource use, access, and social position with even the most tolerant measure but enough association so as not to dismiss the relationship completely. We believe that our results can inform investigations of both resource access and social network position and conclude that a subsequent possibilist approach to human–environmental interactions would be an ideal framework for this methodology and potentially for sociospatial studies more widely.     

The effects of groundwater level and vegetation on creep of the Mam Tor landslip

The creeping Mam Tor landslide (North Derbyshire, UK) is sliding slowly downhill at up to 0.5 m per year. Annual measurements using conventional surveying techniques have shown that creep is exacerbated by periods of heavy rainfall, but to establish a detailed correlation between creep and groundwater levels requires spatially and temporally higher resolution monitoring. We have acquired three years of such data from wire creep meters, borehole piezometers and rainfall monitoring. These measurements showed that creep is strongly focused into the winter months and that it correlates well with groundwater levels. Summer grass and fern growth exerts a strong influence on rainfall infiltration, recycling much of the summer rainfall back to the atmosphere, and explaining the seasonal variability of creep motion.     

Tracing solute infiltration using a combined method of dye tracer test and electrical resistivity tomography in an undisturbed forest soil profile

An accurate prediction of solute infiltration in a soil profile is important in the area of environmental science, groundwater and civil engineering. We examined the infiltration pattern and monitored the infiltration process using a combined method of dye tracer test and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in an undisturbed field soil (1 m × 1 m). A homogeneous matrix flow was observed in the surface soil (A horizon), but a preferential flow along macropores and residual rock structure was the dominant infiltration pattern in the subsurface soil. Saturated interflow along the slopping boundaries of A and C1 horizons and of an upper sandy layer and a lower thin clay layer in the C horizon was also observed. The result of ERT showed that matrix flow started first in A horizon and then the infiltration was followed by the preferential flows along the sloping interfaces and macropores. The ERT did not show as much detail as the dye‐stained image for the preferential flow. However, the area with the higher staining density where preferential flow was dominant showed a relatively lower electrical resistivity. The result of this study indicates that ERT can be applied for the monitoring of solute transportation in the vadose zone. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Abyssal hills of the eastern central North Atlantic

Abyssal hills were delineated in a 185 × 185-km area by an 18.5 × 18.5-km grid of narrow-beam bathymetric and geophysical profiles in oceanic crust of Cretaceous age near 23°N latitude, 31°W longitude. The abyssal hills are similar to features located along flow lines of sea-floor spreading near the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This similarity indicates a primary origin for these abyssal hills related to axial processes at a mid-oceanic ridge involving construction (igneous) and tectonics (faulting), and secondary modification by volcanic activity.     

Systematically variable geometry and architecture of incised-valley fills controlled by orbital forcing: A conceptual model from the Pennsylvanian Breathitt Group (Kentucky,USA)

Incised-valley fills preserved within ancient coastal to shallow-marine successions represent important archives of environmental and sea-level change. Most current knowledge about the origin of incised valleys stems from Quaternary case studies; however, research on pre-Quaternary examples can shed light on valley formation and evolution across longer timespans. This article describes different types of incised-valley fills from Lower to Middle Pennsylvanian fluvio-deltaic successions of the Breathitt Group (eastern Kentucky), accumulated in the Central Appalachian Foreland under prevalent glacioeustatic forcing driven by Gondwanan glaciations. Based on well-established criteria for their recognition, numerous incised-valley fills were identified from outcrop and subsurface data through more than 300 m of clastic successions consisting of fourth-order stratigraphic sequences stacked into third-order composite sequences. Incised-valley fills were categorized into three archetypes based on lateral extent and aspect ratio (relatively wide versus narrow valley fills), nature of infill (fully continental versus mixed marine and continental facies associations) and relationships to underlying coal zones (truncating versus non-truncating). The systematic occurrence of each incised-valley fill type at specific stratigraphic positions within every third-order sequence suggests control by a periodic allogenic factor. Valley-fill archetypes are interpreted in terms of variable accommodation-supply ratios driven by variable duration of formative base-level cycles. For example, relatively wide incised-valley fills with alluvial infill evolved during long-lived cycles whose prolonged base-level drawdown maintained low accommodation/supply ratios. Deeper valleys with low aspect ratios and mixed marine-continental infills were generated by short-lived base-level drawdown that forced higher accommodation/supply ratios. Available chronological data for the studied successions consent to estimate base-level cycles spanning 10^4–5 years that were likely modulated by interference patterns of orbital parameters (obliquity and eccentricity) via global climate and glacioeustatic fluctuations. This conceptual model, relating incised-valley fill morphometry and internal architecture to orbital forcing patterns, provides a possible approach to predicting and interpreting incised-valley fill variability through successions accumulated during icehouse conditions.