Living with floods: victims' perceptions in Beijiang, Guangdong, China

This study revealed the collective values of the flood victims in the Beijiang area, Guangdong, China, as a result of a hazardous flood in 1994. The victims were sceptical of large flood-prevention engineering structures. They believed that flooding was unavoidable, but by extending support networks, applying hazard-resistant designs, and developing loss-sharing adjustments the disastrous effects of a flood could be mitigated. Seemingly, victims were prepared to live with floods and adopted functional adjustments to lessen flood impact.     

Long-term changes in water quality and phytoplankton characteristics in port shelter, Hong Kong, from 1988-1998.

This study analysed monthly physico-chemical and phytoplankton data collected from 10 marine monitoring stations in Port Shelter Hong Kong, from 1988 to 1998. Cluster analysis based on all water quality parameters measured shows that the 10 monitoring stations can be grouped into three clusters: Cluster I consists of stations located in Outer Port Shelter; Cluster II consists of stations located in Inner Port Shelter and Cluster III consists of a single station in Hebe Heaven, a well-sheltered Bay in Inner Port Shelter. Factor analysis shows high positive loadings for nutrients and nutrient ratios in the first two factors of the three clusters, which indicates that the stations of the three clusters were primarily grouped according to their respective nutrient conditions. In Inner Port Shelter, and particularly Station PM5 in the sheltered Hebe Haven, the influence of surface runoff and pollution loading from the surrounding catchment area was apparent. Five stations located along a transect from Inner to Outer Port Shelter were selected for trend analysis. An increasing trend for temperature and a decreasing trend for pH are observed in all Stations except PM10 which is at the mouth of Port Shelter. The results of canonical analysis revealed that temperature and pH could also play an important role in determining the density and biovolume of the minor algal groups in Port Shelter.     

Evaluation of response and energy in actively controlled structures

A computational method of energy evaluation is derived to study the elastic responses and energy distribution of actively controlled single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) structures during earthquakes. Contrary to the common perception that applying active control force pumps energy into the structure, the applied control force can actually reduce the energy in the structure by reducing the input energy from earthquakes to the structure. In addition, applying control force can dissipate a large amount of energy in the structure when this control force is applied in the direction opposite to the displacement and velocity responses. To demonstrate this energy mechanism in active controlled structures, the two most popular control algorithms, optimal linear control (OLC) and instantaneous optimal control (IOC) algorithms, are used to calculate the control response and energy spectra. One‐step time delay is incorporated into the algorithms to take into consideration the practical aspect of active control. The effects of different earthquakes and damping ratios on control energy and response spectra are studied. These studies show that both OLC and IOC are very effective in reducing the structural displacement and velocity responses by reducing the input earthquake energy as well as dissipating a large amount of energy in the structure. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectiveness of structural control based on control energy perspectives

A computational algorithm for maximizing the control efficiency in actively controlling the elastic structural responses during earthquake is proposed. Study of optimal linear control using a single degree of freedom shows that applying active control is very effective in reducing the structural displacement and velocity responses for long‐period structures, but at the same time it has an adverse effect in increasing the absolute acceleration response. The extent of this adverse effect reduces the effectiveness of the control system, and therefore it poses a limit on the maximum control force in order to provide maximum control efficiency. In view of this shortcoming, maximum control energy dissipation is used to define the most effective optimal linear control law. Less displacement and velocity response are expected as larger control force is applied, but there is always a limit that maximum control energy can be dissipated. This study shows that this limit depends on the structural characteristics as well as the input ground motion, and a general trend is that the maximum control energy decreases as damping increases. Finally, application of the proposed algorithm on a six‐storey hospital building is presented to show the effectiveness of using optimal linear control on a multi‐degree‐of‐freedom system from the control energy perspectives. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactive Web-Based Map: Applications to Large Data Sets in the Geosciences

Current advances in computer hardware, information technology and data collection techniques have produced very large data sets in a wide variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. We must harness this opportunity to visualize and extract useful information from geophysical and geological data. We have taken the task of data mining by implementing a map-like approach over a web server for interrogating the data, using a client-server paradigm. The spatial-data is mapped onto a two-dimensional grid from which the user (client) can quiz the data with the map-interface as a user extension. The data is stored on the server, while the computational gateway separating the client and the server can be the front-end of an electronic publication, electronic classroom, a survey, or an e-business. We have used a combination of Java, Java3D, and Perl for processing the data and communicating between the client and the server. The user can interrogate the geospatial data over any particular region with arbitrary dimensions and then receive back relevant statistical analysis, such as the histogram plots and local statistics. We have applied this method for the following data sets: (1.) distribution of prime numbers (2.) two-dimensional mantle convection (3.) three-dimensional mantle convection (4.) high-resolution satellite reflectance data over multiple wavelengths (5.) molecular dynamics describing the flow of blood in narrow vessels. Using the map-interface, one can actually interrogate this data over the Internet.     

Active control of the seismic response of structures by combined use of base isolation and absorbing boundaries

The relative advantages of several control strategies to reduce the seismic response of multi-storey structures are studied. The strategies involve the separate or combined use of passive base isolation mechanisms and active control forces. The base isolation mechanism is modelled as an equivalent linear soft storey with high damping. The active control forces are selected so that an absorbing boundary is obtained at the top of the structure and non-reflecting or reflecting boundaries are obtained at the base of the building. It is found that the best results are obtained when a passive base isolation system is combined with an active absorbing boundary placed at the top of the building. However, the incremental gains resulting from adding a base isolation system to a structure already controlled by a roof-top active absorbing boundary are significant only for relatively soft base isolation systems. Also, the incremental gains appear to decrease as the number of storeys of the structure increases.     

The Reliability of Using the Iterative Proportional Fitting Procedure*

This paper demonstrates the utility of the iterative proportional fitting procedure (IPF) in generating disaggregated spatial data from aggregated data and evaluates the performance of the procedure. Estimates of individual level data created by IPF using data of equal-interval categories are reliable, but the performance of the estimation can be improved by increasing sample size. The improvement usually is enough to offset the increase in error created by other factors. If the two variables defining the cross-classification have a significant interaction effect and the number of categories in each variable is larger than two, then IPF is preferred over an independent model.     

Controls on Quaternary coastal evolution of the east-northeastern coast of Brazil: roles of sea-level history, trade winds and climate

East-northeastern Brazil has a wave-dominated, micro- to meso-tidal coast, lying entirely within the southern Atlantic trade wind belt. Integration of geologic mapping, radiocarbon dating and vibracoring data shows that the Quaternary coastal evolution of this area was controlled by three major factors: (1) sea-level history; (2) trade winds; and (3) climate change.

Sea-level history. Along the east-northeastern coast of Brazil, relative sea level has fallen approximately 5 m during the last 5000 y. Correlation of this sea-level history with the evolution of beach-ridge, lagoonal and coastal plain deposits shows that: (1) sea-level rise favours the formation of barrier island—lagoonal systems and the construction of intralagoonal deltas; (2) sea-level lowering is not conductive to barrier island formation. Rather, lagoons and bays become emergent and beach-ridge plains rapidly prograde.

Trade winds. Sediment dispersal systems along the coastal zone of east-northeastern Brazil have been highly persistent since Pleistocene time, as deduced from beach-ridge orientation. This persistence results from the fact that sediment dispersal in wave-dominated settings is ultimately controlled by atmospheric circulation which, for the east-northeastern coast of Brazil is associated with the South Atlantic high-pressure cell. The remarkable stability of this cell through time, has allowed the accumulation of extensive beach-ridge plains at the longshore drift sinks located along the coast.

Climate change. Effects of Quaternary climate changes on coastal sedimentation are twofold. Climate changes may affect rainfall patterns, thus exerting an important control on coastal dune development. Along the coast of northeastern Brazil, active coastal dunes are only present in those areas in which at least four consecutive dry months occur during the year. Mapping of these areas has shown that dune development during the Holocene has been episodic, these episodes being probably controlled by variations in rainfall patterns associated with climate changes. Secondly, despite its overall stability, the position of the high-pressure cell has experienced small shifts in position during the Holocene in response to climate changes. Changes in wind direction associated with these shifts have induced modifications in the coastal dispersion system, which are recorded in the strandplains as small truncations in the beach-ridge alignments.

These results have important implications in understanding accumulation of ancient sandstone shoreline sequences.