Scour Downstream of Grade Control Structures under the Influence of Upward Seepage

The installation of free falling jet grade control structures has become a popular choice for river bed stabilization. However, the formation and development of scour downstream of the structure may lead to failure of the structure itself. The current approaches to scour depth prediction are generally based on studies conducted with the absence of upward seepage. In the present study, the effects of upward seepage on the scour depth were investigated. A total of 78 tests without and with the application of upward seepage were carried out using three different sediment sizes, three different tailwater depths, four different flow discharges, and four different upward seepage flow discharge rates. In some tests, the three-dimensional components of the flow velocity within the scour hole were measured for both the cases with and without upward seepage. The scour depth measured for the no-seepage results compared well with the most accurate relationship found in the literature. It was found that generally the upward seepage reduced the downward velocity components near the bed, which led to a decrease in the maximum scour depth. A maximum scour depth reduction of 49% was found for a minimum tailwater depth, small sediment size, and high flow discharge. A decay of the downward velocity vector within the jet impingement was found due to the upward seepage flow velocity. The well known equation of D’Agostino and Ferro was modified to account for the effect of upward seepage, which satisfactorily predicted the experimental scour depth, with a reasonable average error of 10.7%.     

A Periglacial Palaeoenvionment in the Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian Tobra Formation of the Salt Range, Pakistan

The Upper Carboniferous—Lower Permian(Upper Pennsylvanian-Asselian) Tobra Formation is exposed in the Salt and Trans Indus ranges of Pakistan.The formation exhibits an alluvial plain(alluvial fan-piedmont alluvial plain) facies association in the Salt Range and Khisor Range.In addition,a stream flow facies association is restricted to the eastern Salt Range.The alluvial plain facies association is comprised of clast-supported massive conglomerate(Gmc),diamictite(Dm)facies,and massive sandstone(Sm) Hthofacies whereas the stream flow-dominated alluvial plain facies association includes fine-grained sandstone and siltstone(Fss),fining upwards pebbly sandstone(Sf),and massive mudstone(Fm) Hthofacies.The lack of glacial signatures(particularly glacial grooves and striatums) in the deposits in the Tobra Formation,which are,in contrast,present in their timeequivalent and palaeogeographically nearby strata of the Arabian peninsula,e.g.the AI Khlata Formation of Oman and Unayzah B member of the Saudi Arabia,suggests a pro-to periglacial,i.e.glaciofluvial depositional setting for the Tobra Formation.The sedimentology of the Tobra Formation attests that the Salt Range,Pakistan,occupied a palaeogeographic position just beyond the maximum glacial extent during Upper Pennsylvanian-Asselian time.     

Thermal Climate Variations and Potential Modification of the Cropping Pattern in Bangladesh

Summary Changes in the thermal climate due to inter-annual climatic variability can potentially modify existing cropping pattern by forcing farmers to rearrange transplanting and harvesting dates. In the present study, a crop climate model, the YIELD, has been applied to 12 meteorological stations located in major rice growing regions in Bangladesh to estimate the effect of thermal climate variations on the transplanting and harvesting dates of boro rice and the resultant potential changes in cropping pattern and spatial shift. The abnormal thermal climate scenarios have been created by synthetically perturbing mean air temperatures (T_air) up to −5 °C to +5 °C with an interval of 1 °C for each of these stations. Historical meteorological records of air temperature in Bangladesh have been used to prepare these scenarios. The study finds that under abnormally cool conditions transplanting dates will be pushed well into February to avoid plant injury and harvesting dates will be moved into the monsoon. The growing seasons will be longer under cooler than normal thermal conditions. Under abnormally warm conditions harvesting dates will be established well into March and will cause reduction of yield due to a shorter growing season. These conditions will also cause spatial shift in crop potential and changes in the cropping pattern. Due to a longer boro rice growing season farmers will lose a significant amount of cropping land which is usually used for low and deep water rice cultivation. New crops will need to be introduced during the beginning of a year to overcome the loss of production under abnormally cool conditions. Wheat and potato can be good options for the farmers for such conditions. New aus rice variety needs to be introduced after the boro harvesting under warmer than the normal conditions to overcome the loss of yield due to a shorter growing season. Received September 16, 1996 Revised September 8, 1997     

Evaluating Weather Research and Forecasting Model Sensitivity to Land and Soil Conditions Representative of Karst Landscapes

Due to their particular physiographic, geomorphic, soil cover, and complex surface-subsurface hydrologic conditions, karst regions produce distinct land–atmosphere interactions. It has been found that floods and droughts over karst regions can be more pronounced than those in non-karst regions following a given rainfall event. Five convective weather events are simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting model to explore the potential impacts of land-surface conditions on weather simulations over karst regions. Since no existing weather or climate model has the ability to represent karst landscapes, simulation experiments in this exploratory study consist of a control (default land-cover/soil types) and three land-surface conditions, including barren ground, forest, and sandy soils over the karst areas, which mimic certain karst characteristics. Results from sensitivity experiments are compared with the control simulation, as well as with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction multi-sensor precipitation analysis Stage-IV data, and near-surface atmospheric observations. Mesoscale features of surface energy partition, surface water and energy exchange, the resulting surface-air temperature and humidity, and low-level instability and convective energy are analyzed to investigate the potential land-surface impact on weather over karst regions. We conclude that: (1) barren ground used over karst regions has a pronounced effect on the overall simulation of precipitation. Barren ground provides the overall lowest root-mean-square errors and bias scores in precipitation over the peak-rain periods. Contingency table-based equitable threat and frequency bias scores suggest that the barren and forest experiments are more successful in simulating light to moderate rainfall. Variables dependent on local surface conditions show stronger contrasts between karst and non-karst regions than variables dominated by large-scale synoptic systems; (2) significant sensitivity responses are found over the karst regions, including pronounced warming and cooling effects on the near-surface atmosphere from barren and forested land cover, respectively; (3) the barren ground in the karst regions provides conditions favourable for convective development under certain conditions. Therefore, it is suggested that karst and non-karst landscapes should be distinguished, and their physical processes should be considered for future model development.     

Velocity and Structural Modeling of Mesozoic Chiltan Limestone and Goru Formation for Hydrocarbon Evaluation in the Bitrisim Area, Lower Indus Basin, Pakistan

The present study focuses on building a workflow for structural interpretation and velocity modeling and implementing to Jurassic-Cretaceous succession (Chiltan Limestone and Massive sand of the Lower Goru Formation). 2D-Migrated seismic sections of the area are used as data set and in order to confirm the presence of hydrocarbons in the study area, P and S-wave seismic velocities are estimated from single-component seismic data. Some specific issues in the use of seismic data for modeling and hydrocarbon evaluation need to deal with including distinguishing the reservoir and cap rocks, and the effects of faults, folds and presence of hydrocarbons on these rocks. This study has carried out the structural interpretation and modeling of the seismic data for the identification of traps. The results demonstrate existence of appropriate structural traps in the form of horst and grabens in the area. 2D and 3D velocity modeling of the horizons indicates the presence of high velocity zones in the eastern half of the study while relatively low velocity zones are encountered in the western half of the area. Two wells were drilled in the study area (i.e. Fateh-01 and Ichhri-01) and both are dry. Immature hydrocarbons migration is considered as a failure reason for Fateh-01 and Ichhri-01 well.     

Quality control and homogenization of daily meteorological data in the trans-boundary region of the Jhelum River basin

Many studies such as climate variability, climate change, trend analysis, hydrological designs, agriculture decision-making etc. require long-term homogeneous datasets. Since homogeneous climate data is not available for climate analysis in Pakistan and India, the present study emphases on an extensive quality control and homogenization of daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation data in the Jhelum River basin, Pakistan and India. A combination of different quality control methods and relative homogeneity tests were applied to achieve the objective of the study. To check the improvement after homogenization, correlation coefficients between the test and reference series calculated before and after the homogenization process were compared with each other. It was found that about 0.59%, 0.78% and 0.023% of the total data values are detected as outliers in maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation data, respectively. About 32% of maximum temperature, 50% of minimum temperature and 7% of precipitation time series were inhomogeneous, in the Jhelum River basin. After the quality control and homogenization, 1% to 11% improvement was observed in the infected climate variables. This study concludes that precipitation daily time series are fairly homogeneous, except two stations (Naran and Gulmarg), and of a good quality. However, maximum and minimum temperature datasets require an extensive quality control and homogeneity check before using them into climate analysis in the Jhelum River basin.     

Spatial and temporal variations of aridity indices in Iraq

In this paper, a nonhydrostatic Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been used to simulate the extreme precipitation event of 25 November 2009, over Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The model is integrated in three nested (27, 9, and 3 km) domains with the initial and boundary forcing derived from the NCEP reanalysis datasets. As a control experiment, the model integrated for 48 h initiated at 0000 UTC on 24 November 2009. The simulated rainfall in the control experiment depicts in well agreement with Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission rainfall estimates in terms of intensity as well as spatio-temporal distribution. Results indicate that a strong low-level (850 hPa) wind over Jeddah and surrounding regions enhanced the moisture and temperature gradient and created a conditionally unstable atmosphere that favored the development of the mesoscale system. The influences of topography and heat exchange process in the atmosphere were investigated on the development of extreme precipitation event; two sensitivity experiments are carried out: one without topography and another without exchange of surface heating to the atmosphere. The results depict that both surface heating and topography played crucial role in determining the spatial distribution and intensity of the extreme rainfall over Jeddah. The topography favored enhanced uplift motion that further strengthened the low-level jet and hence the rainfall over Jeddah and adjacent areas. On the other hand, the absence of surface heating considerably reduced the simulated rainfall by 30% as compared to the observations.