Evaluation, modification, and application of the Effective Drought Index to 200-Year drought climatology of Seoul, Korea

In this paper, progressive methods for assessing drought severity from diverse points of view were conceived. To select a fundamental drought index, the performances of the Effective Drought Index (EDI) and 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, and 24-month Standardized Precipitation Indices (SPIs) were compared for drought monitoring data accumulated over 200-year period from 1807 to 2006 for Seoul, Korea. The results confirmed that the EDI was more efficient than the SPIs in assessing both short and long-term droughts.We then proposed the following methods for modifying and supplementing the EDI: (1) CEDI, a corrected EDI that considers the rapid runoff of water resources after heavy rainfall; (2) AEDI, an accumulated EDI that considers the drought severity and duration of individual drought events; and (3) YAEDI, a year-accumulated negative EDI representing annual drought severity. In addition to these indices, to more accurately measure and diagnose droughts, we proposed the utilization of (4) the Available Water Resources Index (AWRI), an existing index that expresses the actual amount of available water.Using the improved methods above, we assessed and summarized important droughts that have occurred in Seoul over the 200 years from 1807 to 2006.     

2-D Frequency-domain Waveform Inversion of Coupled Acoustic-Elastic Media with an Irregular Interface

In order to correctly interpret marine exploration data, which contain many elastic signals such as S waves, surface waves and converted waves, we have developed both a frequency-domain modeling algorithm for acoustic-elastic coupled media with an irregular interface, and the corresponding waveform inversion algorithm. By applying the continuity condition between acoustic (fluid) and elastic (solid) media, wave propagation can be properly simulated throughout the coupled domain. The arbitrary interface is represented by tessellating square and triangular finite elements. Although the resulting complex impedance matrix generated by finite element methods for the acoustic-elastic coupled wave equation is asymmetric, we can exploit the usual back-propagation algorithm used in the frequency domain through modern sparse matrix technology. By running numerical experiments on a synthetic model, we demonstrate that our inversion algorithm can successfully recover P- and S-wave velocity and density models from marine exploration data (pressure data only).     

Simulation of the 1953 storm surge in the North Sea

The 1953 North Sea floods, the Big Flood, was one of the worst natural disasters in Europe in modern times and is probably one of the most studied severe coastal floods. Several factors led to the devastating storm surge along the southern North Sea coast in combination of strong and sustained northerly winds, invert barometric effect, high spring tide, and an accumulation of the large surge in the Strait of Dover. However, the storm waves and their roles during the 1953 North Sea storm surge are not well investigated. Therefore, the effect of wave setup due to breaking waves in the storm surge processes is investigated through numerical experiments. A coupled process-based tide-wave-surge model was used to investigate and simulate the storm surge in the North Sea during January 31–February 1, 1953 and validated by comparing with historical water level records at tide gauges and wave observations at light vessels in the North Sea. Meteorological forcing inputs for the period, January 27–February 3, 1953 are reproduced from ERA-20C reanalysis data with a constant correction factor for winds. From the simulation results, it is found that, in addition to the high water due to wind setup, wave setup due to breaking waves nearshore play a role of approximately 10% of the storm surge peaks with approximately 0.2 m. The resulting modeling system can be used extensively for the preparedness of the storm surge and wave of extreme condition, and usual barotropic forecast.     

Softening effects of RC nonstructural flat walls on ductile concrete buildings

Nonstructural reinforced concrete flat walls architecturally designed as exterior/partition walls in concrete buildings were severely damaged by the 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku. This damage was observed in the monolithic nonstructural flat walls of relatively old ductile concrete buildings. Although these flat walls might affect the overall seismic performance and behavior of a building, the nonstructural wall effects have not been clarified because of the complex interactions among the structural components. To understand these effects, this paper conducts an experimental and numerical investigation of the nonstructural wall effects, focusing on a typical residential building damaged by the 2011 earthquake. A single‐story, one‐bay moment‐resisting frame model of the building with a nonstructural flat wall was tested to clarify the fundamental behavior. The results reveal that the wall significantly contributed to the seismic performance of the overall frame until it failed in shear, subsequently losing structural effectiveness. Such experimental wall behavior could be simulated by the isoparametric element model. Moreover, the structural effects of the nonstructural flat walls on the global seismic performance and behavior of the investigated building were discussed through earthquake response analyses using ground motions recorded near the building site and pushover analyses. Consequently, the building damage could be simulated in an analytical case considering the nonstructural flat walls, showing larger inter‐story drifts in the lower stories due to softening of the walls. The analytical results also indicated that the softening of the nonstructural flat walls decreased the building ductility, as defined by ultimate inter‐story drifts. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recent Primary Production and Small Phytoplankton Contribution in the Yellow Sea during the Summer in 2016

The high nutrient concentration associated with the mixing dynamics of two warm and cold water masses supports high primary production in the Yellow Sea. Although various environmental changes have been reported, no recent information on small phytoplankton contribution to the total primary production as an important indicator for marine ecosystem changes is currently available in the Yellow Sea. The major objective of this study is to determine the small (< 2 μm) phytoplankton contribution to the total primary production in the Yellow Sea during August, 2016. In this study, we found relatively lower chlorophyll a concentrations in the water column than those previously reported in the central waters of the Yellow Sea. Moreover, the overall contribution of small phytoplankton (53.1%) to the total chlorophyll a concentration was considerably higher in this study than that (10.7%) observed previously. Based on the N/P ratio (67.6 ± 36.6) observed in this study, which is significantly higher than the Redfield ratio (16), we believe that phytoplankton experienced P-limiting conditions during the study period. The average daily carbon uptake rate of total phytoplankton in this study was 291.1 mg C m^-2 d^-1 (± 165.0 mg C m^-2 d^-1) and the rate of small phytoplankton was 205.7 mg C m^-2 d^-1 (± 116.0 mg C m^-2 d^-1) which is 71.9% (± 8.8%) of the total daily carbon uptake rate. This contribution of small phytoplankton observed in this study appears to be higher than that reported previously. Our recent measured primary production is approximately 50% lower than the previous values decades ago. The higher contributions of small phytoplankton to the total chlorophyll a concentration and primary production might be caused by P-limited conditions and this resulted in lower chlorophyll a concentration and total primary production in this study compared to previous studies.     

Effects of Temperature and Salinity on the Egg Development and Larval Settlement of Ciona robusta (Ascidiacea,Phlebobranchia, Cionidae)

Ocean Science Journal - Ascidians are marine benthic organisms, which attach to the surfaces of both natural and artificial substrates from shallow to deep waters around the world. Invasive...     

Isolation,Morphological Characteristics and Proteomic Profile Analysis of Thermo-tolerant Pyropia yezoensis Mutant in Response to High-temperature Stress

Ocean Science Journal - Elevated temperature is considered an important abiotic stressor affecting the growth and survival of intertidal organisms, such as red algae. In this study, a mutation for...     

Geology, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Carbonate Replacement-Type Lead-Zinc-Silver Deposits in Janggun Mine, Republic of Korea

INTRODUCTIONThe Janggun mine,Republic of Korea,is located in thesoutheast of the Seoul,about latitude36°5 1′N and longitude12 9°0 4′E. In this mine area is situated the Bonghwa m ineral-ized zone of the Taebaegsan mining district,Korea.The geo-logic setting of the region was described as the Samgeum riQuadrangle(Kim et al.,196 2 ) .The general and local geolo-gy near the mine area have been studied by L ee (196 7) ,Hwang and Reedman(1975 ) .This mine consists of four min-eral de…     

Fatigue strength assessment of MARK-III type LNG cargo containment system

The aim of this paper is to investigate the fatigue strength of the GTT Mark-III type LNG insulation system. The LNG insulation system consists of several composite layers with various connections; plywood, triplex, reinforced polyurethane foam and mastic. Consequently, the LNG insulation system may include mechanical failures such as cracks as well as delaminations within the layers due to sloshing impact loads and fatigue loadings. In addition, these failures may cause a significant decrease of structural integrity. In this study, a series of fatigue tests have been carried out for Mark-III type LNGC insulation systems at room temperature considering the effect of sloshing impact. The load levels have been determined based on the ultimate strength of reinforced polyurethane foam. The aim of the study is to investigate the typical failure characteristics of the MARK-III LNG insulation system and to obtain the S–N data under fatigue loading. A consolidated single S–N curve is obtained based on a systematic finite element procedure. Future use of the S–N data in fatigue analysis requires that the response analysis is carried out using a finite element model with the same mesh density and material properties. This study can be used as a fundamental study for the fatigue assessment of the LNGC insulation system as well as a design guideline.