Tracing sediment redistribution across a break in slope using rare earth elements

Experimentally determined spatial patterns of soil redistribution across a break in slope derived using 10 rare earth element (REE) oxides as sediment tracers are presented. An erosion experiment was conducted using simulated rainfall within a laboratory slope model measuring 2·5 m wide by 6 m long with a gradient of 15° declining to 2°. Soil was tagged with multiple REE and placed in different locations over the slope and at the end of the experiment REE concentrations were measured in samples collected spatially. A new method was developed to quantify the erosion and deposition depths spatially, the relative source contributions to deposited sediment and the sediment transport distances. Particle‐size selectivity over an area of net deposition was also investigated, by combining downslope changes in particle‐size distributions with changes in sediment REE composition within a flow pathway. During the experiment, the surface morphology evolved through upslope propagation of rill headcuts, which gradually incised the different REE‐tagged zones and led to sediment deposition at the break in slope and the development of a fan extending over the shallow slope segment. The spatial patterns in REE concentrations, the derived erosion and deposition depths, the relative source contributions to deposition zones and the sediment transport distances, corroborate the morphological observations and demonstrate the potential of using REE for quantifying sediment transport processes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial exposure aspects contributing to vulnerability and resilience assessments of urban critical infrastructure in a flood and blackout context

Blackouts aggravate the situation during an extreme river-flood event by affecting residents and visitors of an urban area. But also rescue services, fire brigades and basic urban infrastructure such as hospitals have to operate under suboptimal conditions. This paper aims to demonstrate how affected people, critical infrastructure, such as electricity, roads and civil protection infrastructure are intertwined during a flood event, and how this can be analysed in a spatially explicit way. The city of Cologne (Germany) is used as a case study since it is river-flood prone and thousands of people had been affected in the floods in 1993 and 1995. Components of vulnerability and resilience assessments are selected with a focus of analysing exposure to floods, and five steps of analysis are demonstrated using a geographic information system. Data derived by airborne and spaceborne earth observation to capture flood extent and demographic data are combined with place-based information about location and distance of objects. The results illustrate that even fire brigade stations, hospitals and refugee shelters are within the flood scenario area. Methodologically, the paper shows how criticality of infrastructure can be analysed and how static vulnerability assessments can be improved by adding routing calculations. Fire brigades can use this information to improve planning on how to access hospitals and shelters under flooded road conditions.

     

Precise photorealistic visualization for restoration of historic buildings based on tacheometry data

This paper puts forward a 3D reconstruction methodology applied to the restoration of historic buildings taking advantage of the speed, range and accuracy of a total geodetic station. The measurements representing geo-referenced points produced an interactive and photorealistic geometric mesh of a monument named ‘Neoria.’ ‘Neoria’ is a Venetian building located by the old harbor at Chania, Crete, Greece. The integration of tacheometry acquisition and computer graphics puts forward a novel integrated software framework for the accurate 3D reconstruction of a historical building. The main technical challenge of this work was the production of a precise 3D mesh based on a sufficient number of tacheometry measurements acquired fast and at low cost, employing a combination of surface reconstruction and processing methods. A fully interactive application based on game engine technologies was developed. The user can visualize and walk through the monument and the area around it as well as photorealistically view it at different times of day and night. Advanced interactive functionalities are offered to the user in relation to identifying restoration areas and visualizing the outcome of such works. The user could visualize the coordinates of the points measured, calculate distances and navigate through the complete 3D mesh of the monument. The geographical data are stored in a database connected with the application. Features referencing and associating the database with the monument are developed. The goal was to utilize a small number of acquired data points and present a fully interactive visualization of a geo-referenced 3D model.     

A method of alternating characteristics with application to advection-dominated environmental systems

We present a numerical method for solving a class of systems of partial differential equations (PDEs) that arises in modeling environmental processes undergoing advection and biogeochemical reactions. The salient feature of these PDEs is that all partial derivatives appear in linear expressions. As a result, the system can be viewed as a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), albeit each one along a different characteristic. The method then consists of alternating between equations and integrating each one step-wise along its own characteristic, thus creating a customized grid on which solutions are computed. Since the solutions of such PDEs are generally smoother along their characteristics, the method offers the potential of using larger time steps while maintaining accuracy and reducing numerical dispersion. The advantages in efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are demonstrated in two illustrative examples that simulate depth-resolved reactive transport and soil carbon cycling.     

Geochemistry and quality of the groundwater from the karstic and coastal aquifer of Geropotamos River Basin at north-central Crete, Greece

In Geropotamos River Basin, located on the north-central part of Crete, Greece, two main factors were believed to be affecting the geochemistry of the groundwater with high salt contents: seawater intrusion and/or Miocene evaporates. To identify the origin of the high salinity in groundwater, a hydrogeochemical and isotopic study was performed. Water samples from 22 wells and 2 springs were analyzed for physico-chemical parameters, major ions analysis, as well as stable isotopes (??¹⁸O, ??D). From the present survey, in which detailed hydrogeochemical investigation was conducted, the uncertainty of the contamination sources was decreased in the northern part of Geropotamos Basin. The results complement the scenario in which seawater and the widespread human activities are the principal sources of groundwater contamination. Moreover, the results of the stable isotopes analyses (??¹⁸O and ??D) support the same hypothesis and make seawater intrusion the most probable cause for the highest salinity waters. It is indicated that saline intrusion is likely to occur along fractures in a fault zone through otherwise low-permeability phyllite?Cquartzite bedrock, which demonstrates the critical role of fracture pathways in salination problems of coastal aquifers.     

Simulating the fate of mechanically eroded masses in the Thermaikos Gulf

Benthic trawlers, through the scraping of the upper layers of the seabed sediment, are responsible for major alterations to the distribution of suspended matter in coastal areas. A major trawling site in Greece is that of the Gulf of Thermaikos, located in the NW Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean). In an attempt to assess, for the first time, the quantities of the mobilized sedimentary masses and the properties of their motion in the aquatic domain of the Gulf of Thermaikos, a mathematical model has been formulated. The modeling approach includes the determination of the mechanical erosion rate, the production of turbulence due to the flow through the mesh of the net and the physical processes that control the propagation of the generated sedimentary plume in the marine environment. In the absence of information regarding the haul paths in the gulf, their determination was made stochastically, based on the existing legislative restrictions and trawlers' fishing practices. The trawling-activated masses thereby defined for the duration of the trawling period in the gulf were very high, indeed several times greater than the related contribution from the major rivers of the area, emphasizing the significance of the activity to the sedimentary input of the local marine environment. The total annual erosion by trawls in the gulf was calculated at 3.38×10⁶ t/yr. Τhe mean mechanical erosion rate per trawled surface (parameter free from the bias raised by the stochastic simulation of the trawl trajectories) was estimated at 430 g/m², values directly comparable to ones defined for similar coastal areas. Results from a simulation of the 2001–02 trawling period were well correlated with in-situ measurements for the same period, while the investigation of the matter's suspension level and times revealed that the matter exhibits low residence times in the water column and at the same time moves in the vicinity of the bed, contributing to the formation and distribution of benthic nepheloid layers in the gulf.     

Application of integrated methods in mapping waste disposal areas

An integrated suite of environmental methods was used to characterize the hydrogeological, geological and tectonic regime of the largest waste disposal landfill of Crete Island, the Fodele municipal solid waste site (MSW), to determine the geometry of the landfill (depth and spatial extent of electrically conductive anomalies), to define the anisotropy caused by bedrock fabric fractures and to locate potential zones of electrically conductive contamination. A combination of geophysical methods and chemical analysis was implemented for the characterization and management of the landfill. Five different types of geophysical surveys were performed: (1) 2D electrical resistance tomography (ERT), (2) electromagnetic measurements using very low frequencies (VLF), (3) electromagnetic conductivity (EM31), (4) seismic refraction measurements (SR), and (5) ambient noise measurements (HVSR). The above geophysical methods were used with the aim of studying the subsurface properties of the landfill and to define the exact geometrical characteristics of the site under investigation.     

Spatial and temporal analysis of hillslope–channel coupling and implications for the longitudinal profile in a dryland basin

The long‐term evolution of channel longitudinal profiles within drainage basins is partly determined by the relative balance of hillslope sediment supply to channels and the evacuation of channel sediment. However, the lack of theoretical understanding of the physical processes of hillslope–channel coupling makes it challenging to determine whether hillslope sediment supply or channel sediment evacuation dominates over different timescales and how this balance affects bed elevation locally along the longitudinal profile. In this paper, we develop a framework for inferring the relative dominance of hillslope sediment supply to the channel versus channel sediment evacuation, over a range of temporal and spatial scales. The framework combines distinct local flow distributions on hillslopes and in the channel with surface grain‐size distributions. We use these to compute local hydraulic stresses at various hillslope‐channel coupling locations within the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in southeast Arizona, USA. These stresses are then assessed as a local net balance of geomorphic work between hillslopes and channel for a range of flow conditions generalizing decadal historical records. Our analysis reveals that, although the magnitude of hydraulic stress in the channel is consistently higher than that on hillslopes, the product of stress magnitude and frequency results in a close balance between hillslope supply and channel evacuation for the most frequent flows. Only at less frequent, high‐magnitude flows do channel hydraulic stresses exceed those on hillslopes, and channel evacuation dominates the net balance. This result suggests that WGEW exists mostly (~50% of the time) in an equilibrium condition of sediment balance between hillslopes and channels, which helps to explain the observed straight longitudinal profile. We illustrate how this balance can be upset by climate changes that differentially affect relative flow regimes on slopes and in channels. Such changes can push the long profile into a convex or concave condition. © 2018 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Opportunities provided by geographic information systems and volunteered geographic information for a timely emergency response during flood events in Cologne,Germany

The occurrence of disasters such as extreme flooding in urban environments has severe consequences, not only on the human population but also on critical infrastructures such as the road networks, which are of vital importance for everyday living and particularly for emergency response. In this article, our main goal is to present-conceptually and in praxis-a model that could be used from the emergency responders for timely and efficient emergency management and response in an urban complex environment. For the city of Cologne in Germany, we aim to indicate possible ways to decrease the emergency response time during an extreme flood scenario through the development of an accessibility indicator, which consists of different components. Therefore, we will investigate the opportunities that occur, in a flood risk scenario, from the use of geographic information in different forms such as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and open-source data in an ArcGIS environment, to increase urban resilience through the decreasing emergency response time. We will focus on network analysis for the fire brigades (first acting emergency responders) during a flood scenario to calculate their emergency response ranges and emergency response routes through flooded road networks, for the assistance of the possibly affected hospitals, refugee homes and fire brigades, which can be flooded. At the end of the paper, we suggest that the vulnerable community of the refugees could be taken into consideration as a new source of VGI, as an additional component that would lead to the decrease in the emergency response time. The geo-located information that could be provided by the refugee community can be very useful in emergency situations, such as those examined in this article where timely information can be forwarded to the proper authorities for a more focused and timely emergency response, increasing the resilience of the urban population and their community.     

Continental and oceanic precipitation régime in Europe

This work considers continentality from the point of view of an annual course of precipitation. It assesses continentality according to percentage of precipitation in summer and winter half year, ratio of precipitation in summer to winter half year and the period of half year precipitation in the area of WMO Region VI (Europe). Region VI can be divided into five main regions according to their annual course of precipitation. These regions are: Northwestern Europe with precipitation in all seasons, a predominance of winter precipitation and maximum precipitation in December and January; Central Europe with precipitation in all seasons, a predominance of summer precipitation and maximum precipitation in July; Eastern Europe with less precipitation over the year than in Northwestern Europe, a predominance of summer precipitation and maximum precipitation in July; the Mediterranean region with a predominance of winter precipitation, a dry season in summer and maximum precipitation in November and December; and Western Asia with a variable climate, a predominance of winter precipitation and maximum precipitation in December and January. Continentality from the point of view of precipitation rises towards the east. In comparison with thermal continentality, according to Gorczynski, it unexpectedly reaches its maximum in the centre of Europe (especially in northeast of the Czech Republic and south of Poland).