Evaluating actual evapotranspiration and impacts of groundwater storage change in the North China Plain

As a critical water discharge term in basin‐scale water balance, accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is therefore important for sustainable water resources management. The understanding of the relationship between ET and groundwater storage change can improve our knowledge on the hydrological cycle in such regions with intensive agricultural land usage. Since the 1960s, the North China Plain (NCP) has experienced groundwater depletion because of overexploitation of groundwater for agriculture and urban development. Using meteorological data from 23 stations, the complementary relationship areal evapotranspiration model is evaluated against estimates of ET derived from regional water balance in the NCP during the period 1993–2008. The discrepancies between calculated ET and that derived by basin water balance indicate seasonal and interannual variations in model parameters. The monthly actual ET variations during the period from 1960 to 2008 are investigated by the calibrated model and then are used to derive groundwater storage change. The estimated actual ET is positively correlated with precipitation, and the general higher ET than precipitation indicates the contributions of groundwater irrigation to the total water supply. The long term decreasing trend in the actual ET can be explained by declining in precipitation, sunshine duration and wind speed. Over the past ~50 years, the calculated average annual water storage change, represented by the difference between actual ET and precipitation, was approximately 36 mm, or 4.8 km³; and the cumulative groundwater storage depletion was approximately 1700 mm, or 220 km³ in the NCP. The significantly groundwater storage depletion conversely affects the seasonal and interannual variations of ET. Irrigation especially during spring cause a marked increase in seasonal ET, whereas the rapid increasing of agricultural coverage over the NCP reduces the annual ET and is the primary control factor of the strong linear relationship between actual and potential ET. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of watershed land use on sources and nutritional value of particulate organic matter in temperate headwater streams

Suspended particulate organic matter (POM) in headwater streams is an important source of food and energy to stream food webs. In order to determine the effects of watershed land use on the sources and characteristics of POM, we compared the lipid composition of POM (fatty acid, aliphatic alcohol and sterol) from streams influenced by different types of watershed land use. Eight first-order streams discharging to the York River Estuary (Virginia, USA) were sampled during baseflow conditions bi-monthly from February to November 2009, including streams draining forest-dominated, pasture-dominated, cropland-dominated, and urban land-dominated watersheds. Allochthonous vs. autochthonous lipids showed that POM in most of these streams was dominated by allochthonous sources (59.5 ± 14.2 vs. 39.6 ± 14.5 % for aliphatic alcohols and 52.9 ± 11.5 vs. 34.1 ± 10.3 % for sterols). The relative abundance of allochthonous vs. autochthonous lipid inputs to POM varied as a function of land use type. POM in streams draining forest-dominated watersheds contained a higher proportion of allochthonous lipids and a lower proportion of autochthonous lipids than the streams influenced by human land use. The contribution of bacterial fatty acids differed significantly among sampling times (P = 0.003), but not among land use types (P = 0.547). Stepwise linear regression model selected nitrate and temperature as the best predictors of variation in bacterial inputs to POM. Proxies used to assess the nutritional value of POM potentially available to stream consumers included C:N ratios, and the concentrations of total long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid, arachidonic acid, and cholesterol. None of these nutritional proxies differed among sampling months (P ≥ 0.171), but the proxies showed that the nutritional value of POM in forest streams was lower than in urban streams. Collectively, these findings suggest that human land use in upstream watersheds alters the source composition and nutritional value of stream POM, which not only impacts food quality for stream biota, but also potentially changes the characteristics of OM reaching downstream ecosystems.     

The value of multiple earthquake missions: the EEFIT L’Aquila Earthquake experience

In November 2012 EEFIT launched its first ever return mission to an earthquake affected site. The L’Aquila Earthquake site was chosen as this is a recent European event of interest to the UK and European earthquake engineering community. The main aims of this return mission were to document the earthquake recovery process and this paper presents an overview of the post-disaster emergency phase and transition to reconstruction in the Aquila area after the earthquake. It takes an earthquake engineering perspective, highlighting areas mainly of interest to the fields of structural/seismic engineering and reconstruction management. Within the paper, reference is made to published literature, but also to data collected in the field during the return mission that would not otherwise have been available. The paper presents some specific observations and lessons learned from the L’Aquila return mission. However, in light of current international efforts in conducting return missions, the paper ends with some reflections on the value that return missions can provide to the field of earthquake engineering in general, based on the EEFIT L’Aquila experience.     

Structural modal parameter identification and damage diagnosis based on Hilbert-Huang transform

Traditional modal parameter identifi cation methods have many disadvantages,especially when used for processing nonlinear and non-stationary signals.In addition,they are usually not able to accurately identify the damping ratio and damage.In this study,methods based on the Hilbert-Huang transform(HHT) are investigated for structural modal parameter identifi cation and damage diagnosis.First,mirror extension and prediction via a radial basis function(RBF) neural network are used to restrain the troublesome end-effect issue in empirical mode decomposition(EMD),which is a crucial part of HHT.Then,the approaches based on HHT combined with other techniques,such as the random decrement technique(RDT),natural excitation technique(NExT) and stochastic subspace identifi cation(SSI),are proposed to identify modal parameters of structures.Furthermore,a damage diagnosis method based on the HHT is also proposed.Time-varying instantaneous frequency and instantaneous energy are used to identify the damage evolution of the structure.The relative amplitude of the Hilbert marginal spectrum is used to identify the damage location of the structure.Finally,acceleration records at gauge points from shaking table testing of a 12-story reinforced concrete frame model are taken to validate the proposed approaches.The results show that the proposed approaches based on HHT for modal parameter identifi cation and damage diagnosis are reliable and practical.     

The April 24, 2013 Changning M s4.8 earthquake: a felt earthquake that occurred in Paleozoic sediment

The dense broadband seismic network provides more high-quality waveform that is helpful to improve constraint focal depth of shallow earthquake. Many shallow earthquakes occurring in sediment were regarded as induced events. In Sichuan basin, gas industry and salt mining are dependent on fluid injection technique that triggers microseismicity. We adopted waveform inversion method with regional records to obtain focal mechanism of an M _s4.8 earthquake at Changning. The result suggested that the Changning earthquake occurred at a ESE thrust fault, and its focal depth was about 3 km. The depth phases including teleseismic pP phase and regional sPL phase shows that the focal depth is about 2 km. The strong, short-period surface wave suggests that this event is a very shallow earthquake. The amplitude ratio between Rayleigh wave and direct S wave was also used to estimate the source depth of the mainshock. The focal depth (2–4 km) is far less than the depth of the sedimentary layer thickness (6–8 km) in epicentral region. It is close to the depth of fluid injection of salt mining, which may imply that this event was triggered by the industrial activity.     

空间归一化边界识别方法用于判断地质体的水平位置及深度(英文)

边界识别是重磁数据解释中的常用方法之一,依据其结果可划分出地质体的水平范围。边界识别结果受地质体埋深及导数计算误差的影响所识别边界与真实边界之间存在一定的差距,且边界识别法无法直观地给出地质体的深度信息。为了获得异常体的水平位置和深度信息,本文提出空间归一化边界识别方法,其对不同深度的边界识别函数进行归一化计算,空间归一化边界识别法的最大值对应于异常体的水平位置和深度。常规边界识别结果的误差随理深的减小而减小,而空间归一化边界识别法是通过最大值来判断地质体的位置,最大值是在地质体处获得,因此归一化边界识别方法所获得的结果是准确的。通过理论模型试验证明归一化边界识别方法能有效地完成异常体的水平位置和深度的计算,所获得的水平位置和深度信息与理论值相一致,为下一步的勘探计划提供了更加可靠的依据。将其应用于实际航磁数据的解释,获得了断裂的具体分布形式。     

灾害链灾情累积放大研究方法进展

近年来全球范围内频发的重大自然灾害事件,表明一种灾害引发一系列次生灾害的灾害链现象使得灾情通过累积放大效应而大大超过单一灾种灾情,深入研究灾害链灾情累积放大过程是有效防范巨灾风险的前提.首先,本文梳理了国内外研究中不同视角下对灾害链现象的理解,认为灾害链一般性概念中应当包含孕灾环境、致灾因子链、承灾体以及它们在时间和空间上复杂相互作用关系,只有从地理学的综合性角度出发,才能正确而完整的理解灾害链过程灾情累积放大机制.其次,按研究思路的差异,综述了当前研究灾害链灾情累积放大过程的5 类方法,包括经验地学统计方法、概率模型、复杂网络模型、灾害模拟以及多学科理论方法.从描述灾害链要素在时间和空间上复合作用的角度出发,分别讨论了它们在刻画灾害链灾情放大过程中的优势与不足.选取了影响较大、灾害引发关系典型的地震灾害链与台风灾害链,从灾种维度综述上述几种方法在实际应用中的概况及进展.最后,提出综合多种方法发展与完善灾害链灾情累积放大效应过程的动态模拟是灾害链的研究趋势,其中关键在于模拟灾害链系统各要素的时间与空间上的耦合,研究思路从“静态—描述—解释”向“动态—过程—模拟”的转变是理解灾害链、灾害系统复杂性的重要途径.