Site selection for managed aquifer recharge using fuzzy rules: integrating geographical information system (GIS) tools and multi-criteria decision making

One of the most important water-resources management strategies for arid lands is managed aquifer recharge (MAR). In establishing a MAR scheme, site selection is the prime prerequisite that can be assisted by geographic information system (GIS) tools. One of the most important uncertainties in the site-selection process using GIS is finite ranges or intervals resulting from data classification. In order to reduce these uncertainties, a novel method has been developed involving the integration of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), GIS, and a fuzzy inference system (FIS). The Shemil-Ashkara plain in the Hormozgan Province of Iran was selected as the case study; slope, geology, groundwater depth, potential for runoff, land use, and groundwater electrical conductivity have been considered as site-selection factors. By defining fuzzy membership functions for the input layers and the output layer, and by constructing fuzzy rules, a FIS has been developed. Comparison of the results produced by the proposed method and the traditional simple additive weighted (SAW) method shows that the proposed method yields more precise results. In conclusion, fuzzy-set theory can be an effective method to overcome associated uncertainties in classification of geographic information data.     

Catastrophic movement of rocks and proposed solutions to avoid its risks in the Abu El-Reesh area, northeast Aswan City, Egypt

Catastrophic mass movement of rocks and torrents affected the Abu El-Reesh area, northeast of Aswan City. The present article aims to evaluate the potential catastrophic movement of rocks, delineate the risk zones, and suggest suitable solutions to avoid the potential risks in this area. The sedimentary succession of Abu El-Reesh area is mainly represented by the Nubian sandstone sequence of Upper Cretaceous (up to 60?m thick) forming a huge scarp at the eastern border of the study area. This sequence comprises two vertically successive rock formations: Timsah Shale Formation and Umm Barmil Sandstone Formation. The Timsah Shale Formation forms the lower part of the sedimentary succession with a thickness of 6?C40?m. It is composed of shale beds with intercalations of sandstones, siltstones, and mudstones. This formation is overlain by the Umm Barmil Sandstone Formation, representing the cap rock of the succession, with a thickness of 4?C20?m. The western scarp face has an irregular concave slope, with slope angles ranging from 22° to 46° in the lower part of scarp and become steep (60°?C86°) at its upper part. The drainage patterns are mainly coarse dendritic and discharge into the Nile River, passing through densely populated zones. These zones are exposed to the torrents during rare rainfall events. Three sets of vertical joints (trending NNW, NNE, and WNW) dissect the cap rocks and intersect with the horizontal bedding planes to form separated cubes and polygonal blocks. Potential catastrophic movement of rocks in Abu El-Reesh area is related to several reasons, including: existence of competent sandstones underlain by incompetent shales, dissection of the coherent cap rock due to intersection of vertical joint sets and bedding planes, presence of exposures with steep slopes, rainfall, and human activities (mining works, sewage water, and irrigation). Based on the dominance of either one or more of these reasons, three subareas (El-Khalasab, El-Shadeeda and El-Aqaba) represent the main risk zones, subjected to rock movements and torrents in the study area. Several solutions have been suggested for avoiding the risks related to the potential catastrophic movement of the rocks and torrents in the study area. The fractured rock masses at the top of scarp should be released either mechanically or manually. All buildings that were built on the slope surface of the scarp should be removed. Also, buildings which were constructed in the inlets of wadis and through the rain spillways should be removed. An unsafe boundary separating safe building borders from unsafe zone (with average width 50?m from the base of scarp) is delineated. As a result, resettlement for people living in this unsafe zone should be transferred to another safe area.     

Development of Rock Engineering Systems-Based Models for Flyrock Risk Analysis and Prediction of Flyrock Distance in Surface Blasting

The environmental effects of blasting must be controlled in order to comply with regulatory limits. Because of safety concerns and risk of damage to infrastructures, equipment, and property, and also having a good fragmentation, flyrock control is crucial in blasting operations. If measures to decrease flyrock are taken, then the flyrock distance would be limited, and, in return, the risk of damage can be reduced or eliminated. This paper deals with modeling the level of risk associated with flyrock and, also, flyrock distance prediction based on the rock engineering systems (RES) methodology. In the proposed models, 13 effective parameters on flyrock due to blasting are considered as inputs, and the flyrock distance and associated level of risks as outputs. In selecting input data, the simplicity of measuring input data was taken into account as well. The data for 47 blasts, carried out at the Sungun copper mine, western Iran, were used to predict the level of risk and flyrock distance corresponding to each blast. The obtained results showed that, for the 47 blasts carried out at the Sungun copper mine, the level of estimated risks are mostly in accordance with the measured flyrock distances. Furthermore, a comparison was made between the results of the flyrock distance predictive RES-based model, the multivariate regression analysis model (MVRM), and, also, the dimensional analysis model. For the RES-based model, R ² and root mean square error (RMSE) are equal to 0.86 and 10.01, respectively, whereas for the MVRM and dimensional analysis, R ² and RMSE are equal to (0.84 and 12.20) and (0.76 and 13.75), respectively. These achievements confirm the better performance of the RES-based model over the other proposed models.     

Volume,gravitational potential energy reduction,and regional centroid position change in the wake of landslides triggered by the 14 April 2010 Yushu earthquake of China

In recent years, earthquake-triggered landslides have attracted much attention in the scientific community as a main form of seismic ground response. However, little work has been performed concerning the volume and gravitational potential energy reduction of earthquake-triggered landslides and their severe effect on landscape change. This paper presents a quantitative study on the volume, gravitational potential energy reduction, and change in landscape related to landslides triggered by the 14 April 2010 Yushu earthquake. At least 2,036 landslides were triggered by the earthquake. A total landslide scar area of 1.194 km² was delineated from the visual interpretation of aerial photographs and satellite images and was supported by selected field checking. In this paper, we focus on possible answers to the following five questions: (1) What is the total volume of the 2,036 landslides triggered by the earthquake, and what is the average landslide erosion thickness in the earthquake-stricken area? (2) What are the elevations of all landslide materials in relation to pre- and post-landsliding? (3) How much was the gravitational potential energy reduced due to the sliding of these landslide materials? (4) What is the average elevation change caused by these landslides in the study area? (5) What is the vertical change of the regional centroid position above sea level, as induced by these landslides? It is concluded that the total volume of the 2,036 landslides is 2.9399?×?10⁶ m³. The landslide erosion thickness throughout the study area is 2.02 mm. The materials of these landslides moved from an elevation of 4,145.243 to 4,104.697 m, resulting in a decreased distance of 40.546 m. The gravitational potential energy reduction related to the landslides triggered by the earthquake was 2.9213?×?10¹² J. The average regional elevation of the study area is 4,427.160 m, a value consistent with the assumption that the accumulated materials were remained in situ. This value changes from 4,427.160 to 4,427.158 m with all landslide materials moved out of the study area, resulting in a reduction in elevation of 2 mm. Based on the assumption that all landslide materials moved out of the study area, the elevations of the centroid of the study area’s crust changed from 2,222.45967 to 2,222.45867 m, which means the centroid value decreased by 1 mm. This value is 0.001 mm when assuming that the materials were remained in situ, which is almost negligible, compared with the situation of “all landslide materials moved out of the study area.”     

Geometrical and physical elements of four β Lyrae type eclipsing variables

The aim of the present paper is to present the analysis of light changes of four Lyrae eclipsing systems (DO Cas, KR Cyg, V388 Cyg, and SV Cen) using the automated Fourier techniques in the frequency-domain.The applicability of the above method to the Lyrae system discussed. New physical and geometrical elements of these systems are derived. Their positions in the H-R diagram and mass-luminosity diagram are indicated.     

Some aspects of entropic gravity in the presence of a noncommutative Schwarzschild-deSitter black hole

We study some features of entropic force approach in the presence of a noncommutative Schwarzschild-deSitter black hole. In this setup, there exists a similarity between the small and large scales. There are two finite cut-off in very short and long distances wherein the force and energy graph stop abruptly at those scales. We find that the existence of a deSitter core around the origin, induced by noncommutativity, in addition to a standard deSitter background at large scale may lead to a violation of the equivalence principle. Finally in order to directly observe the finite cut-off at short-scale gravity, caused by noncommutativity quantum fluctuations, we derive an effective gravitational constant.     

Effect of sulphates and curing period on stress–strain curves and failure modes of soil–lime–natural pozzolana mixtures

Abstract

An experimental investigation was undertaken in order to assess the effect of sodium (Na₂SO₄) and calcium (CaSO₄·2H₂O) sulphates and curing period on stress–strain curves and failure modes of grey (GS) and red (RS) clayey soils stabilised by lime (L), natural pozzolana (NP) and their combinations (L–NP). Several soil–L–NP mixtures were studied to be used as subgrade soils for road pavements. Stress–strain curves were obtained from unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test made on several soil–L–NP specimens after curing for 7 and 120 days. Tests results showed that the use of L or L–NP without sulphates produced a significant increase in peaks stress of both clayey soils and then modified their stress–strain curves from nonlinear to linear behaviour almost up to 70% of peak stress after a longer curing period. However, the presence of 2% Na₂SO₄ or any CaSO₄·2H₂O content provided beneficial effects on peaks stress and stress–strain curves of both stabilised clayey soils and then improved their linearity almost up to 95% of peak stress after curing for 120 days. In contrast, the presence of 6% Na₂SO₄ caused undesirable effects. In addition, both sulphates greatly affected the failure modes of soil–L–NP specimens, particularly at a later stage.     

Ion acoustic shock waves in weakly relativistic and dissipative plasmas with nonthermal electrons and thermal positrons

Propagation of ion acoustic waves in plasmas containing electrons, positrons and high relativistic ions is investigated. It is shown that the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation describes the nonlinear waves in this media. The amplitude and energy of the KdV solitary waves are derived and the effects of relativistic ions on these quantities are discussed.